Friday, March 20,
2015, 3:27 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Living Water.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read John 5:30-47 (ESV).
The Testimony
“I
can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because
I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness
about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness
about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You
sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony
that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He
was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in
his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the
works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am
doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who
sent me has himself borne witness about me.”
We love and serve a triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit
– the Only true God. In the first chapter of John we read at least twice where
John declared Jesus to be God. He is the Word who was from the beginning, who was
with God, and was God. He is our creator. “No one has ever seen God, but God
the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Jesus
Christ is “God the One and Only” who is at God the Father’s side, and he is the
one referred to here as the one who was making the Father known to the people.
One of the main reasons the Jews hated Jesus and wanted him dead is because he
claimed to be equal with God, i.e. he claimed to be their God and Messiah. This
incensed them greatly.
Jesus Christ, although God himself, always remained subject
to the Father. I believe he modeled for us what our own relationship with God
should look like, although we are not gods, but are mere humans. He did not
operate on his own accord nor did he bear witness of himself alone, but he
submitted himself to the will of the Father, and the Father bore witness about
him. The Father did so through the writings of the prophets, including those of
Moses. He also did so through the works of Jesus, which the Father had given to
him to accomplish, and he did so audibly at Jesus’ baptism (See Matt. 3:17). As
well, in Hebrews 1:8 we read concerning what God said about his Son: “But about
the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and
righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.’” In verse 9 he says about
Jesus, “…therefore God, your God…,” which then established that not only is
Jesus God but he is subject to the Father who is his God.
John the Baptist (not the writer of the book of John) also
bore witness to Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah who had come into the
world. He was sent by God to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to prepare the
way for his ministry on the earth, i.e. to prepare the hearts of people to
receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Messiah. John’s ministry entailed
baptizing people and calling them to repentance “for the kingdom of heaven is
near.”
The Jews did send to John the Baptist to learn who he was,
i.e. I believe they were looking to see if he was the Christ who was to come. When
he replied by saying he was not the Christ, he was not Elijah, and he was not the
Prophet, they asked, “Who are you?” He told them that he was the one Isaiah the
prophet had written concerning when he said, “I am the voice of one calling in
the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” The next day John, when he
saw Jesus coming near him, declared openly “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world!” He then bore testimony that Jesus is the Son of
God.
Yet You Refuse
“His
voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have
his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You
search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and
it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you
may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not
have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do
not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can
you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory
that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the
Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you
do not believe his writings, how will
you believe my words?”
So, the Jews had the testimony of Moses, of the prophets, of
John the Baptist, of Christ himself, of the works the Father had given Jesus to
do, and of the Father (God) in heaven concerning Jesus Christ and who he was,
and yet they still refused to believe in Jesus and to accept him as their
promised Messiah who was to come. They did not hear God’s voice speaking to
them, they did not recognize that Jesus was God in human flesh, and the Word and
love of God was not abiding (living and active) in their hearts and lives
because they would not believe in the one whom the Father had sent to them. Yet,
this was not for lack of knowledge. They were students and teachers of the
scriptures, so they should have known. They held the scriptures with high
regard, or so they thought, and they believed that in them they would find
eternal life, yet the scriptures bore witness to Jesus Christ over and over
again, and still they blinded their minds and hearts to the truth.
Yet, they would easily believe those who came in their own
name and bore their own witness to themselves as to who they were and yet had
no witness from God as to their true identity in relationship to God; to Christ.
I believe Jesus was referring here to false prophets, false teachers and/or
false christs. They easily followed after human flesh but were not willing to
follow after the Spirit of God.
What About Us?
So, does this have any application to our lives today? I
believe it does. The Jews of old were God’s chosen people. They were a physical
nation. They were under the Old Covenant relationship between God and man. God
promised them a Savior, a redeemer to come, whom he had his prophets write
about many times over. The seed of Abraham from whom many nations would be blessed
was and is Jesus Christ (See Gal. 3), our Messiah. They were taught concerning
the Christ who was to come, and they knew to look for him. Although Jesus had
not yet come, and he had not yet died for their sins, still they were saved by
faith as we are. The scriptures are quite clear that Abraham believed God and
it was counted to him as righteousness. No amount of good works saved him, yet
his actions (his obedience) was the evidence in his life that revealed that true
faith in God actually existed (See: Heb. 11). Yet, not all of them believed.
Many didn’t, in fact.
Now God’s chosen people are his church, which is a living
organism made up of true followers of Jesus Christ. We are his people, whether
Jew or Gentile by birth. The church is not a physical building or a physical
nation or an organization of human-origin and the will of man. Jesus Christ is
the head of his true church, and we are his body, the sheep of his pasture. So,
although there are many organizations and buildings in the world called “church,”
they, in and of themselves, are not the church, though the true church may
exist within these organizations and may meet together in these buildings
called “church.” So, when we enter one of these buildings and/or their
sanctuaries (worship centers), we are not entering “the house of the Lord” nor
are we entering into God’s holy presence, for we, the people of God, are God’s
house and his presence dwells within us. In other words, we don’t have to go to
something called “church” in order to meet with God’s church. We can meet
anywhere and at any time with other believers for the teaching of the Word,
fellowship in the Spirit, for prayer, and for the breaking of bread
(communion).
Yet, many of God’s people today, although they may be in
Christ by God’s grace, through faith, have turned away from their Lord to
follow after false teachers and their teaching, and are refusing to believe and
to trust in, or are ignoring the teachings of Christ and those of his apostles.
They prefer the testimony of humans over the testimony of Christ and of his
true servants and witnesses, because it is more pleasing to their ears. And, I
am speaking of many pastors and elders within the church, too. Although they
know the scriptures, and many have been taught them from birth, they have gone
the way of the world, instead, and have adopted the ways of the world and its
sinful practices in place of the ways of God and of his holy Word. Although
they listened to the voice of God at one time, now they are listening to the
voice of humans with greater intensity and interest. The Word of God is no
longer alive and active in their lives. Instead their minds are filled with
human culture, philosophy, traditions, morals, and human values via TV, movies,
the Internet, et al.
And, so, they have allowed the true church of Jesus Christ
to be overtaken by human businesses and human philosophy and marketing schemes
so that they can build their businesses, which they call “church,” according to
human design but not by God’s design. Instead of the church meetings being a
safe place for believers to come together to encourage and to strengthen one
another in the faith so that they can go out into the world with the gospel of
Jesus Christ, they are now inviting the world into their meetings and are thus
conforming their meetings to the pattern of the world in order to attract and to
keep the world among them, while stressing the importance of not saying
anything that might offend the people of the world, but only what will make
them comfortable so they will want to come back. Yet, this is not God’s way!
This is man’s way, and it is wrong!
So, God is calling out to his people, he is confronting them
with their sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and he is calling them to
repentance and to return to their “first love.” He is calling them to forsake
their idols, and to turn their hearts back to him, to listen to him speaking
his words to their hearts, and to obey them. He is also calling out to all
those who have never given their hearts to Jesus Christ, perhaps because they
have believed in a false gospel, and he is asking them to truly put their faith
in him for the first time ever. Won’t you listen to him? And, do what he says?
Living
Water / An Original Work / November 21, 2013
Based
off Various Scriptures
My people have forsaken Me,
Their Savior, who died on a tree;
Made idols, and they worshipped them;
So empty, they will ne’er fulfill.
Lord, You are the hope of Your chosen ones.
Those who turn away from You will be shamed;
The Spring of Living Water left behind.
Living Water satisfies.
The thirsty, let them come and drink;
Believe in Jesus as their King;
The gift of Jesus given them,
So they will never thirst again.
Indeed, the Living Water flows within.
It springs up like a fountain cleansing sin.
Eternal life in heaven promised them.
Living Water glorifies.
Oh people, won’t you come to Him?
Obey Him and repent of sin.
Let Jesus come and live within.
Surrender all your life to Him.
My people, won’t you turn your hearts to Me?
Forsake your idols and then you’ll be free.
Won’t you come now to Me on bended knee?
Living Water sanctifies.
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