Our 81st Glorious Year Of Evangelistic Outreach Ministry! "As My Father Hath Sent Me Even So I Send You!" "Go Into The Highways And Hedges And Compel Them To Come In!"
Celebrating Our 15th Great Year On The Web! "Now is the time to get your feet on the move for Christ and join in the Great Harvest with this very special Jesus ministry and the pioneering leaders in outreach missions and evangelism for over eight glorious decades!" ~ Dr. Davy
This admonition which Jesus used to direct the Jews unto the truth about Himself is certainly a most important reproof to His whole Church throughout all ages. These Jews were offended because Jesus told them the truth, and because they could not understand Jesus' authority to tell the man whom He had made whole at the pool of Bethesda to "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," on the sabbath day.
In today's religious world, there are probably more professing Christians than at any other time in church history. If Jesus were on earth at this time, unto how many of us would He say, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." It is such a common statement in today's circles to hear the expression, "I believe," this or "I believe" that; but God's Word tells us, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," Ho 4:6.
We must learn to distinguish between belief and knowledge. We can be brought up from our youth to hold to a belief which we were taught and believe it most sincerely and hold it as sacred, while in fact it is a lie. This was the case with the Jews in the chapter we have before us.
They most sincerely believed they were justified in trying to kill Jesus, because He, "not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God," v:18.
What a searching reproof it was that Jesus gave them in verse 38. "And ye have not His Word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not." Oh, beloved, how we should take warning from these words of our Saviour! What a blessing it would be if we would not so much hear said, "I believe" this or that but if we would hear more, "Thus saith the Lord," quoting the Word of God.
This is what Jesus was teaching us in Lu 6:47-48, where He speaks of building upon the rock which is Christ, "and his name is called The Word of God," Re 19:13. Jesus said, "Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them . . . is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock." We are not to build upon any other foundation than the Word of God. When we learn to understand what it is to dig deep into the Word of God, then we begin to realize that our foundations of tradition and the doctrines of men are foundations of sand.
Our Heavenly Father was so glorified by that perfect obedience of our Saviour in paying that horrible debt of sin as an act of obedience. He has, "given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," Ph'p 2:9-10. However God has magnified His Word even above the blessed name of Jesus Christ, "for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name," Ps 138:2.
God becomes so jealous when we build our hope of salvation on any other foundation besides His Holy Word! This is why Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." It is so important that we build the hope of our salvation on the knowledge and wisdom that can only be gained when we read and believe God's word just as it is written and rely not on our own understanding or the understanding of others! "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," Joh 17:3. May God grant us "the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord," Isa 11:2b.
God bless those who will without fail TRUST God's Word just as it is written in HIS HOLY BIBLE and then TEACH IT and PREACH IT
with apologies to NO MAN!~Dr. Davy
A Bondservant Of Jesus
What Is Holiness?
