Digging Again the Wells of Living Waters

Click hither to watch or listen to this sermon.

Today, much of our h2o comes from reservoirs, only many communities however depend upon wells. Many rural homes still get their water from wells dug on their properties. Back in erstwhile times, wells were fifty-fifty more vital to customs life and physical life itself. Our text for today'due south lesson comes from the book of Genesis.

Genesis 26:17-xviii "And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt at that place. And Isaac digged over again the wells of h2o, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his male parent; for the Philistines had stopped them later the decease of Abraham: and he called their names after the names past which his father had called them."

At that place is a very timely lesson in those words for us today. This result happened in the valley of Gerar in the land of Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. Isaac's father, Abraham, had in one case been at that place, but years later when Isaac came to this same land, he didn't find it in the condition that his father had left it. Abraham'south servants had once dug wells in that location, simply the Philistines came along afterwards Abraham died and stopped those wells, filling them with globe. Since Isaac and his cattle needed water, the Bible says that he dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham.

We all know that h2o is essential to life. Without it, we volition die. One fourth dimension, Jesus compared His doctrine to h2o. He stopped at Jacob's well at about apex time. The Lord was tired and thirsty. Forth came a Samaritan woman, and He asked for her to draw h2o from the well for Him to drink. She establish it strange that a Jew would ask a Samaritan for a drink. She certainly didn't recognize Him as being the Christ, so Jesus used His request to teach a great lesson there, not only near who He was, merely about the salvation that He came to globe to bring.

John 4:13-14 "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; only the h2o that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

On some other occasion, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drinkable (John seven:37). This living, spiritual h2o that Jesus spoke of is only as essential to spiritual life as physical water is to physical life; without information technology, there can be no spiritual life. But, sometimes wells of physical h2o become filled with dirt and debris. Their walls may cave, they may become stopped with globe or clogged with rubbish. They may become filled in. In the same way, the well of living water, of salvation, of pure Bible truth tin become obstructed and polluted. When that happens, they take to be cleaned out or dug again. What are some of the wells that need to be re-dug today?

It didn't take long later the gospel was first preached by the apostles—in fact, while the sacred scriptures were existence originally written down by the apostles and prophets of the outset century, already the word of truth was being obstructed. The water was being polluted by men who soon went astray from the gospel that was first preached to them.

Galatians one:half-dozen-seven "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that chosen you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; just in that location exist some that trouble you, and would debauchee the gospel of Christ."

The word pervert here means to transform a matter into something else; to decadent something. How is water corrupted? How can we pervert h2o? It's corrupted when something is added to it. Thus, tainting it or changing information technology. If y'all driblet tea leaves into a cup of pure water, information technology ceases being pure water and becomes tea. It might take water in it, merely now it is changed to something else. Equally adept equally that tea may taste, the fact is it is no longer pure water. It has been transformed.

Through the ages, there have been many, many things added to the well of truth that have transformed the living water of Christ into a strange concoction of divine truth mixed with human tradition and practise. The problem is, when you do that, y'all no longer take divine truth. You have transformed information technology into something else.

Equally Paul penned this letter to the Galatian church, he was already seeing the corruption of the gospel, or the stopping of the Lord's well every bit it were, with the doctrines of the Judaizing teachers. In other words, there were fake teachers who had not learned the difference between the sometime law and the gospel. In that location are multitudes of people in the same condition today. These men of whom Paul was alarm the church were corrupting the gospel past telling new believers that they had to go dorsum and proceed the Mosaic law in addition to obedience of the gospel in order to be saved. This is one of the things that made their doctrine so deceptive. They weren't telling people that they shouldn't believe in Jesus. They weren't telling people that it wasn't necessary to obey the gospel. Only what they were doing was seeking to get back and bind the police of Moses upon Christian believers in add-on to the gospel.

In other words, it was not enough that they had placed their faith in Christ and been baptized into Christ (Galatians three:26-27) and that they were now living for Him. They also had to get dorsum and live for Moses and carefully proceed the commandments of Moses—especially circumcision, every bit God had long required of the Jews since He made the first covenant with them. The result was that Christians who were now supposed to be free from the entanglements of that sometime law that resulted in sin and condemnation, were at present existence brought dorsum into chains to it.

This was a not bad crisis in the early church, especially in the church building of Galatia to whom Paul is now writing. Therefore, Paul pointedly dealt with their error and was working to unstop the well that had go clogged past their false doctrine.

Galatians ii:xvi "Knowing that a man is non justified by the works of the police (talking about the law of Moses), just by the faith of Jesus Christ, even nosotros accept believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the police force (speaking again of the law of Moses) shall no flesh exist justified."

He continues in verse 21.

Galatians two:21 "I practise not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the police force (the constabulary of Moses), then Christ is dead in vain."

Jesus would non have needed to die if we could've been justified and saved by keeping the Mosaic Police force.

Galatians four:ix-11 "Merely at present, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye once more to the weak and beggarly elements (of the Mosaic economic system), whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I accept bestowed upon y'all labour in vain."

They were beingness told to proceed the old feasts and ceremonies, and detect the Sabbaths and other days and times that were considered holy by the Jews living under the constabulary. Paul conspicuously says that the gospel frees men from their obligation to the old constabulary, and to go back to those things was to brand the preaching of the gospel vain and meaningless.

There are still many today who look to the Erstwhile Testament law for their worship, for their dominion of living. In fact, many things that nosotros see in supposed Christianity today are directly borrowed from the Sometime Testament system. At that place is Sabbath keeping, for instance. Even though Paul said:

Colossians two:14 "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took information technology out of the mode, nailing it to his cross;"

Colossians two:sixteen-17 "Permit no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come up; but the body is of Christ."

What he is referring to when he mentions meat and drink and these various holy days, the Sabbath days so along, are the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament police force. He'south talking about the days that were sacred to the Jewish people. He says those things were temporary, they were a shadow of things that were later to come, non the existent matter. The torso, he says—the reality that cast the shadow—is Christ. And then, Paul tells them not to let men come along and judge them in all of these diverse things that pertain to that former organisation that was a shadow of that which they now enjoyed in Jesus Christ. The campaigner Paul continually had to dig out and unstop the wells that were beingness clogged by the false doctrines of these Judaizers.

I think Paul would have to do the same thing if he were even so with the states today. There are many things in organized religion today that are borrowed from the Old Testament organisation; for example, the concept of a split and singled-out priesthood in the church, apart from the priesthood of every believer. Some also make a distinction between clergy and laity. That is taken straight from the Old Testament model of a special priesthood distinct from all other people.

Now, preaching is a servant's piece of work within the church. A man who preaches the gospel does a particular piece of work that he possesses the ability to do and that he has been appointed past the church building to do. He certainly does not stand between y'all and God. He is not a go-betwixt or an intercessor for you. He does non serve as a priest on your behalf. ALL Christians, ALL baptized believers in this economic system become priests unto God. The idea that a man can absolve your sins, that he has that kind of authority when yous confess your sins to him, or that he stands between yous and God, hearkens to a organisation that is now obsolete and done away with in the church.

Revelation 1:6 "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him exist glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

i Corinthians 1:2 "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:"

There is no classification or spiritual bureaucracy of men among the church of Christ.

Then, there is the worship of the Old Testament that is and then often borrowed and employed by the supposed New Testament churches of today such as instrumental music. Mechanical instruments were unknown to the early church for nearly 600 years after Jesus established the church. For nearly six centuries, those who claimed to follow Jesus Christ did not use them in corporate worship. They are not commanded, nor are they spoken of in reference to Christian worship anywhere in the New Testament. If ane wants to find scriptural precedent for them, he would have to go all the way dorsum to the temple worship of the Old Testament. You run into, the well has become chock-full with the practices of Judaism and it needs to be re-dug by but using the church that was established past Christ in the first century as our paradigm, as our merely model and guide.

But that wasn't the just well that became clogged with human doctrine and tradition. The apostles as well had to clean out and re-dig the wells that were filled with paganism. This was particularly the case with the church located in the evil, profligate urban center of Corinth. These Christians had been converted out of idolatry and heathenism, and the outcome was that many of them, existence immature in their faith, were belongings on to some of their idolatrous ways. Information technology was very difficult to eradicate this church building in Corinth of the influences of the Gentile, heathen order that surrounded them. Sexual immorality was a problem in the church at Corinth, merely like it was in the city of Corinth. In fact, we tin read in 1 Corinthians 5 where a human had become guilty of a sexual sin that was non even mutual amongst the Gentile people, Paul says.

But Paul had to bargain with this sin that had reared its ugly head in the Corinthian church considering it was such a prominent function of the culture in the city of Corinth. Those who lived in Corinth thought zilch of sexual immorality. Paul told them not only to withdraw from the man who was living in sin with his stepmother (chapter 5), just he too warned the other believers in this fashion:

one Corinthians six:ix-11 "Know ye non that the unrighteous shall non inherit the kingdom of God? Exist not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: merely ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and past the Spirit of our God."

And such were some of you: just…Christians were cleansed of such unrighteousness when they obeyed the gospel. Now, beingness sanctified, they were to live clean and consecrated lives. But in the same way the evil of the time affected the church building at Corinth, the immorality and paganism that has saturated our civilisation today finds its fashion into the church from time to time. And you know what? We have to clean out and re-dig the ancient well of truth.

The mod church is facing a moral and a spiritual crisis today of worldliness and worldly conformity. The influences of a lewd and infidel culture take had a devastating outcome on the American church today, including those who profess to follow Jesus Christ, in many ways that nigh of us don't even realize. Many of the religious practices, ceremonies, even the holidays that we become defenseless upwards in are directly taken from idolatrous practices.

When Paul wrote to this same church a 2nd fourth dimension, he said this:

ii Corinthians six:16-18 "And what understanding hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I volition dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from amongst them, and be ye dissever, saith the Lord, and affect non the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall exist my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Omnipotent."

Y'all meet, the wells of truth need to be re-dug. The church needs to come out from the world and be dissever and holy. Only you hear very little today about truthful sanctification and holiness in the American pulpit. We've even seen an effort to assimilate the church building to the culture to the betoken today where the message of Christianity has get totally compromised, watered down and ineffectual in the lives of multitudes of people.

Listen: it is fourth dimension that those who seek to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and be true-blue to Him come out from the world and exist separate, similar the apostle Paul says. To lead holy lives and showtime shining as a light in this sin-darkened earth instead of being its reflection!

It wasn't but the paganism and lasciviousness that was prevalent in Corinth. Information technology was that manner in the entire Roman empire. As Christianity spread throughout Asia Pocket-sized and Europe, it encountered the people of this heathen empire, and over fourth dimension, the influence of Rome began to mingle with the truth of Jerusalem until a complete apostasy took place. Over hundreds of years, a false religion emerged that continues, consequently, to cover the earth and spread its influence today.

2 Thessalonians 2:7 "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: simply he who now letteth volition allow, until he be taken out of the way."

He said the mystery of iniquity was already at work. When he visited the church in Ephesus for the final time, they had a tearful meeting and goodbye with Paul, every bit he left them with this ominous warning:

Acts twenty:28-32 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath fabricated y'all overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that afterwards my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Besides of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples afterward them. Therefore scout, and call back, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and solar day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the discussion of his grace, which is able to build you upwards, and to give you lot an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."

This is, indeed, what happened. Whatever Paul was immediately referring to in this speech, we know that it was merely a brusk time until some elders and leaders in the church building did, in fact, begin to exalt themselves over others, and an unscriptural hierarchy emerged that completely led the church away from the truth and from its original design.

Lord willing, we will continue our study side by side week and talk about the wells today that need to be re-dug.

©2016 BibleWay Media. All rights reserved. BibleWay Media grants permission to copy this cloth for personal employ. Permission is too granted to distribute this transcript as long as information technology is reproduced in its entirety, used solely for its original purpose of spreading the gospel, and attribution is given to the author and Permit the Bible Speak.

greenhathouty.blogspot.com

Source: https://letthebiblespeak.tv/re-digging-old-wells-part-1-the-text/

Share this post