João 7

G. Campbell Morgan · Citado em PreceptAustin

João 7

Morgan has a slightly different interpretation - My teaching is not Mine; it is His that sent Me. I am the Mouth-piece of God, and if you want to prove it, there is one way, said Jesus. "He that willeth to do God's will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be from God, or whether I speak from Myself." This is a passage of which we have often made wrong use. It is said to mean that if we will to do God's will we shall know what God's will is. But that is not the statement. (ED: WHILE I AGREE, I THINK THE APPLICATION NOTED BY MANY WRITERS IS NOT INAPPROPRIATE) It is rather that if we will to do God's will, we shall know whether His teaching is God's or not. The attitude of soul for the detection of final authority, is that of willing to do God's will. When men are wholly, completely consecrated to the will of God, and want to do that above everything else, then they find out that Christ's teaching is Divine, that it is the teaching of God. J

João 7

Morgan - Crossing the Rubicon (Source: Borrow From this Verse page 266) Trula Cronk, veteran missionary to India, tells of growing up homeless in the Appalachian mountains. She was eventually taken in by an orphanage (now the Trula Cronk Home for Children in Greeneville, Tennessee), and there she learned about the Lord Jesus—and about “foreign missions,” an idea that initially bothered her. One day the pastor’s wife, a former missionary, spoke to my Sunday school class about India. She showed us artifacts and let us try on Indian costumes. Afterward she talked about the Great Commission. When she finished, my Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Dobson, turned to me and said, “Trula, wouldn’t you like to be a missionary?” “Never,” was my quick reply. “You couldn’t pay me to be a missionary.” The awful thing was that from that day I kept hearing that question in my mind. As the years passed, that question haunted Trula relentlessly. She tried so hard to evade it she became physically ill. Finally, sitting in my room feeling sorry for myself, I decided I would read the Bible for some light on this subject. I began reading in the New Testament. I got as far as St. John. When I reached the seventh chapter, I was struck by these words, “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God. …” I read the verse several times. I gathered from it that I would never understand about God until I became willing to do His will. Trula’s struggle accelerated. One night, unable to sleep, she knelt by her bed and the tears began falling as she prayed. Suddenly, I surprised myself by saying something like, “God, if you can make me willing to be a missionary, I will obey you.” As soon as I had said amen, I knew I had crossed the Rubicon. Trula’s attitude changed, and she soon found herself singing effortlessly, “I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, over mountain or plain or sea. …” And she did go—all the way to India. * A W Tozer - LOSING THE MYSTERY John 7:17 We may be sure we are gaining spiritually when we discover there is a sense of divine mystery running throughout all of the kingdom of God! I am aware that there are teachers in various Christian circles who pretend to know everything about God. They will quickly answer any question you may have about God, His creation, His judgments. They end up taking the mystery out of life and the mystery out of worship. When they have done that, they have taken God out as well! Their cleverness and glibness may well betray a lack of the divine awe within the human spirit—awe and adoration, silent and wonderful, that breathes a whisper, “Oh Lord God, Thou knowest!” In Isaiah we see clearly what happens to a person in the mystery of the Presence. Overpowered within His own being, Isaiah can only confess, “I am a man of unclean lips!” (6:5). A person who has sensed what Isaiah sensed will never be able to joke again about “The Someone up there who likes me.” THE MAN WHO DOES - S S Lappin “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.” John 7:17. “If any man willeth to do …” I. The man who does as Christ taught makes the best of the present life. II. The man who does as Christ taught—it follows—makes sure of whatever may lie beyond. III. The man who does, the text asserts, takes the sure road to knowing the truth about such things. Related Resources: How can I know God’s will for my life? What does the Bible say about knowing God’s will? | GotQuestions.org A H STRONG - OBEDIENCE BEFORE KNOWLEDGE (Source: Miscellanies - Volume 2) If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17.) THERE are many perplexed and doubting persons to-day who require this same prescription for their difficulties that Jesus gave to the Jews. Obedience before knowledge, that is the divine order. Do the mysteries of religion confound your reason? Submit yourself to God and follow his precepts; you shall learn all that you need to know. Is the path of duty hard to find? Let your will be set to do the will of God and the path of duty shall be made plain to you. Only an obedient spirit—that is the teaching of Christ—only an obedient spirit can ever become possessed of spiritual truth. Obey and you shall know. Now, this is not a demand of unreasoning obedience; this is not a swallowing down of things incomprehensible; this is not a taking for granted of the questions in dispute; it is only saying in other words that none but a heart humble, reverent, submissive, loving toward God can ever understand God or the ways of God. Two or three simple considerations will make this plain. First, the obedient spirit is the only spirit that is willing to learn. There is a certain knowledge of God’s existence which we possess by nature. But the most of our knowledge about God’s attributes and dealings is an acquired knowledge. And in the acquisition of that knowledge nothing hinders us so much as the assumption that we know already. In coming to know of God there is nothing we need so much as a humble confession of our ignorance and a willingness to put ourselves in the place of learners. We never can know, so long as we assume that we know already, and refuse to put ourselves under a teacher. He who would know anything of God’s truth, then, must cease from being a teacher and be content to learn. He must humble his pride of opinion and put away his prejudices. He must confess God to be his Master and not fancy that he is God’s master. He must acknowledge himself to be a child for ignorance and weakness, and so must take many things at first at his Father’s word, in hope that by and by he may come to understand them for himself. There is an alphabet in every science which must be learned first; there are things at the beginning which must be taken on faith; somewhere we must believe before we can know; the trustworthiness of our faculties, the truthfulness of parents and teachers, these we must take for granted at the start. And it is not different in religion. If we would know anything of religion we must put ourselves under the direction of God. The very alphabet of religion is obedience to God, as he is revealed in conscience, in providence, in his word. Obey God’s plain directions, those which you know already—and you will be led on to higher and wider knowledge. Refuse to obey, and no higher and wider knowledge will ever dawn upon your soul. Consider, secondly, that the obedient spirit is the only medium of insight into religious truth. We need to remember that all true knowledge of spiritual things is a practical heart knowledge, as distinguished from the knowledge of the intellect, and this is utterly impossible except to the heart that loves God and obeys God. There are certain sorts of knowledge that depend upon a state of the sensibilities, the affections, the tastes. It is absurd for a man to say that he can know and describe an orange simply by using his sense of sight. To know the orange he must taste it as well. It is absurd for a man to say that he can know the beauty of a sunset by mere logical process. Unless he has an æsthetic sense he can never see beauty or know beauty, for seeing beauty depends on a love for the beautiful. You cannot really appreciate a noble character without having a love for goodness. The power of seeing the morally right depends on having a love for the morally right. Sapientia, wisdom, is derived from sapere, to taste. “Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good!” Without having a taste for truth you cannot know the truth. And so you cannot know God without loving God. “The pure in heart,” they, and they only, “shall see God.” Pascal said truly that human things need only to be known in order to be loved, but divine things must first be loved in order to be known. Therefore, you can place no dependence whatever on the religious opinions of an ungodly man. The absence of love to God will vitiate all his conclusions with respect to God. A few years ago a piece of plastering fell from the wall of the refectory in an Italian convent, and revealed the existence of a fresco painting which successive coats of whitewash had hidden for centuries. With infinite pains the whitewash was scaled off and a magnificent picture of one of the old masters stood in full view. The picture showed marvelous resemblance to the style of Raphael, and all Italy was excited by the dispute as to whether he or some other was the painter. Now, there were two classes of evidence: First, the external: the records of the convent, the life of Raphael, the painter’s marks upon the picture; of these every one could judge. But there was, secondly, another kind of evidence—the internal—the tone and spirit of the painting, the style and expression of the whole—of this only those could judge who knew and loved the works of Raphael. There were hundreds and thousands utterly destitute of the fine artistic sense which alone could qualify them for judges; there were other hundreds and thousands who with all necessary natural susceptibility had never imbued themselves with Raphael’s spirit enough to recognize his work when they saw it. The best judges and the only competent judges were found to be those who for years had sat before Raphael’s pictures, striving lovingly to copy them. Every trait of the great painter’s style had reproduced itself in their minds, and they could recognize his pictures at the first glance of the eye. Now, the truth of God can be recognized only in the same way. There is a heart knowledge which only a copying of the truth in our lives can ever give. This demand that we obey in order that we may know, is nothing more nor less than the declaration of a universal law of the human mind. The correctness of our judgment with regard to the nature and will of God depends on the diligence with which we have endeavored to imitate and obey him. Let us make sure that we get the full meaning of the text. It does not say that a course of merely outward and formal obedience will enable us to understand God and his plans, still less does it say that without perfection of obedience there can be no knowledge of God. Our translation is perhaps responsible for some of these misapprehensions. In the original the word “will” is much stronger than it appears in our version. It really reads, “If any man wills to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” In other words, not only an outward obedience is needful; there must also be a right attitude of heart and will, in order to any correct knowledge of God and his truth. Do you suppose that Judas understood Christ? Could that covetous and grasping soul have any conception of that wondrous life of self-sacrifice that was unfolding before him? No; selfishness cannot comprehend unselfishness, falsehood cannot comprehend truth, impurity cannot comprehend purity. Nay, it denies the very existence of that which is its opposite, and declares that its own baseness must be in every other soul. Christianity is a mystery to the world. How many worldly people, in their secret hearts, doubt whether there is any reality underneath all this profession. As Cicero said once, “The eye sees only that which it brings with it the power of seeing.” The Scripture says, “As a man thinketh, so is he.” It is just as true that as a man is, so he thinketh. Before seeing must come being. A man cannot know God except by being like God and having his will set to do the will of God. Suppose a father has two sons: One is dutiful and obedient, the other perverse and ungrateful; one loves and confides in his father, the other longs to escape from his eye and control; one is watchful for every opportunity of humble and unnoticed service, the other proudly declares himself to be his own master. The father is a man of broad views and liberal heart, forming plans of enlarged benevolence, and using his wealth with wise foresight of others’ needs. Tell me which of these sons will understand that father and comprehend his plans, the son whose whole spirit is that of narrow selfishness and disobedience, or the son whose soul is knit to the paternal heart by long-continued sympathy and service? Who does not see that the spirit of childlike obedience can alone enable us to enter into the mind and will of God? And, on the other hand, how common it is to see men whose practical disobedience so warps the judgment as to neutralize all evidence brought to enlighten them, and lead them in spite of it to most perverse and reckless conclusions. Aristotle, heathen as he was, could say that the power of attaining moral truth is dependent on our acting rightly. It is just as true that acting wrongly blinds the soul to truth. Refusing to use the light given to us, we find that less and less light is given; like a neglected lamp, conscience burns dimmer and dimmer every day. What else can explain the monstrous blunders of Napoleon? Any man conversant with European history could have told him that to fuse heterogeneous nationalities into one and repeat in the eighteenth century the empires of Assyria or Rome was as foolish an attempt as to escape the attraction of the earth and leap to the planet Jupiter. Yet Napoleon’s mighty intellect did not preserve him from dashing his head against that stone wall of nature’s laws, and shattering it in the concussion. What else can explain the enormous folly of the naturalism of our day, finding in the animalculæ of every drop of stagnant water agencies for the consumption and removal of its decaying and unhealthful elements, agencies which exhibit proofs of design as marvelous as those displayed in the compensating balance of the great celestial mechanism above us, yet declaring in the next breath that blind force is the only ruler of the universe and that there is no God besides? Mere intellect will not keep men from stupendous error. An unsubmissive heart can blind the reason to a whole world of evidence. A wicked man may become most credulous of falsehood, until at last he can believe all the despicable slanders of Tom Paine or all the senseless mummeries of Rome, or all the vagaries of theosophy, while at the same time he treads under his feet as beneath contempt, the simple gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have seen that only the obedient spirit is willing to learn the truth and that only the obedient spirit furnishes the proper medium of insight into truth. Consider now, in the third place, that only the obedient spirit is capable of recognizing the truth in its essential nature as personal. For truth is not an abstraction, but a person. God is truth and truth is God. Why do two and two make four? Why are all the radii of a circle equal to each other? Why is virtue praiseworthy and vice condemnable? Simply because all these statements reflect and represent eternal facts in the being of God, and are themselves revelations of God. What we call separate truths are only partial manifestations of the God whose nature is truth and are no more to be comprehended in their isolation than a section of telegraph wire is to be comprehended aside from its relation to the circuit of which it forms a part and the pulsating electric force which makes it throb with life and intelligence. A piece of coal is a mere dead and insignificant thing until you regard it as a relic of carboniferous forests and as having a relation to the prehistoric sun that made those forests grow. And so any given truth in mathematics or in mind is falsely seen, until it is seen as related to God from whom it sprang. The scattered rays are comprehensible only when they are regarded as parts of one whole and as proceeding from one original and eternal sun of truth and righteousness. And here we see the relation of truth to Christ. Christ is the truth in manifestation, even as God is the truth manifested. He is the way and the truth, as well as the life. He is the truth and the only truth, because he is the only revealer of God. In him and through him the whole physical and mental and spiritual universe consists, or holds together, even as he is the creative power through whom it was fashioned, and the end for which it was made. He is the light that lighteth every man, Jew or Gentile, heathen or Christian. Every ray that ever illuminated the world’s darkness even before he came in the flesh proceeded from him, even though the light shined in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. And so to stand for Christ and obey Christ is to stand for the truth and obey the truth, and to deny Christ is to deny the truth. Truth, then, is personal, and we cannot attain the truth without coming into proper relations to God who is the truth and to Christ in whom alone that truth is revealed. And what are these proper relations? They are the relations of the creature to the Creator; of the sinner to the Lawgiver whose law he has violated; of the believer to the Saviour who has died to redeem him. But here is required confession of weakness and sin; here are required humility and submission and faith. You cannot apprehend the personal truth from the proper point of view, you cannot rightly apprehend it at all, unless you come to it with the obedient spirit. To come to it in the spirit of arrogant and haughty self-sufficiency, as if you needed nothing and could work out all knowledge from within, is to render it impossible to attain the truth. You can know the truth only by becoming its servant; you can understand Christ only by following him; you can apprehend God only by submitting to God in his appointed way. Remember that truth is not an abstraction but a person; that you can know the truth only by knowing God, and that you can know God only by accepting and obeying the revelation of himself in Christ. The disciples said to Christ: “Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.” They longed for some demonstration of God’s power; in their folly they thought that God was mainly power; while God is not power, but holiness and love. That holiness and love had been before their eyes for months and years. How sad and pitiful are Christ’s words: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Even so it is. Christ is the truth of God, the holiness of God, the love of God, made known to men, brought down to our human comprehension and engaged in the work of our salvation, and only the obedient spirit can bring us into relations to this revealed truth of God such that we shall have the proper point of view for recognizing it in its essential nature. “I am the light of the world,” says Christ. “He that followeth after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” Only the obedient spirit is willing to learn the truth; furnishes the proper medium of insight into the truth; can recognize the truth in its essential nature as a person. Notice now, finally, that only the obedient spirit can secure for us as persons the teaching of this person who is the truth. Only the personal Spirit of Christ, entering into the inmost depths of our personal spirits can give us the knowledge of the truth which we need. Truth is life and personality outside of us; it needs to become life and personality within us. Only the Holy Spirit can give us this inward teaching of the truth, and only the obedient spirit in us can secure the indwelling and illumination of the Holy Spirit of God. And this for two reasons: First, because there is much of the Spirit’s teaching which in the nature of things cannot be given except to a receptive and submissive heart. Mineralogists tell us that there is a crystal called tourmaline that has the peculiar power of polarizing or twisting the rays of light that pass through it. Let a second crystal of tourmaline be added to the first in a transverse direction, and though each taken singly is transparent, every ray of light is stopped in the passage through the two, so that, in the words of a noted chemist, “the rays of the meridian sun cannot pass through a pair of crossed tourmalines”; the two crystals shut out the rays as perfectly as the closed slats of your window-blind shut out the sun. Turn the tourmalines in the same direction, and they are transparent to the light; cross them, and not a ray can pass through them. Now, the Spirit of God will shine into human souls as freely and bounteously as the sunlight, provided only we be open to receive him. “If our eye be single, our whole body shall be full of light.” But conscience and will in us are like those tourmalines,—if both point in the same direction, God’s light passes through and enters the soul, but let the will be set in a direction contrary to the pointing of conscience, and in a moment the light of God’s Spirit is shut out. A heart opposed to the will of God and fully set in it to do evil is like those double and crossed tourmalines, no ray of gracious heavenly light penetrates it or diminishes in the least its natural darkness. Unless the direction of that will be changed there can be no revelation to it of God’s love. Hardened as it is against love, it can see nothing in God but law and terror, and it needs no work of the Spirit to see that. There is a large proportion of God’s truth which cannot in the very nature of things be revealed, except to the humble and obedient heart. But more than this: not merely the nature of things prevents the disobedient from being taught by the Holy Spirit, but there is a judicial forsaking of those that will not obey the truth. The Spirit, whose persevering and long-continued efforts to enlighten and save have only been despised and rejected, leaves the soul at last to its own devices. And this is what is meant when the apostle says that “for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” God in his righteous anger forsakes the soul that will not do his will, and thenceforth there is nothing before it but delusion and damnation. Thus “the secret of the Lord is with them only who fear him, and he will show them his covenant.” “Be not, therefore, conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, in order that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Be sure, my friends, that no man ever yet put himself under the direction of the Spirit of God, without being led into all truth and duty, as the star led those wise men of old to the cradle of the Saviour and the humble worship of the Son of God. A single illustration: Years ago there lived in an Eastern city a physician of eminence, whose practice among the sick and friendless had taught him much with regard to the misery of the world. He was constitutionally a doubter, and his doubts centered upon the person and divinity of Jesus Christ. He saw no other religion worthy of confidence than Christ’s, but Christ’s he could not accept. He could see the blessing of Christ’s friendship and undertaking of one’s burdens, but the possibility of it all he could not see. So he wandered on in the dark, without prayer and without peace, the spiritual opportunities and responsibilities of his profession burdening his conscience more and more, but his speculative difficulties growing thicker every moment. One day he met a minister of the gospel, in whom he had confidence, and with the first word began to pour forth his own heart. “I had the most painful struggle of my life this morning.” “Ah, how so?” “I was attending upon a poor woman who has but a few hours to live, but her soul seemed in worse case than her body. It seemed to me that such a Saviour and friend as you believe Christ to be was just the Saviour and friend she needed; if I had only believed as you do, it would have been an unspeakable blessing to have knelt by her bedside and commended her to his mercy.” “My friend,” said the clergyman, “go at once and obey that impulse; whatever Christ may be, he is certainly as compassionate as he was when on earth and as able to help now as he was to heal the sick and hear the beggar’s cry.” The resolve was formed; the physician made his way once more to the sick-room; he knelt for the first time in prayer for another. He prayed Christ to teach her soul the way to God; but as he prayed Christ taught his soul the way to God also, and the peace of God that passeth all understanding streamed down into his heart. The one act of obedience had opened the way for Christ to enter, and with an inward experience of his power to forgive sins and renew the heart, he could doubt no longer as to his divinity, but bowed at his feet like Thomas, crying: “My Lord and my God!” We all need a heavenly teacher, for we are all children groping in the dark. We must follow something. Shall it be our own reason or the opinions of men, or shall it be the lead of Jesus? I fancy that if he were here in visible form, the calm wisdom of heaven shining in his brow and the sympathy and compassion of a God beaming in his eye, not one of us would hesitate to put our hand in his and say, “O Saviour, be my teacher and my guide in these matters that so puzzle my reason and try my faith.” But Christ is just as really here as if we could see him, and he is willing to accept the charge of our souls. He is the Light of the world. If we follow him we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Our wisdom is to obey him implicitly, expecting that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. The herdsman in the Alps, removing his family to the pastures above the glaciers, must sometimes, as he crosses the treacherous banks of snow, separate his children from him and forbid them to approach too near, lest their combined weight prove too great for the thin crust to sustain, and they be precipitated into fathomless abysses below. The little children wonder that father will not let them come near him. Most of all they wonder when he protects them from the fierce cold of a night upon the glacier by piling snow upon them and leaving them only the smallest aperture to breathe. Strange treatment; yet a father’s love prompts it and it is the only way to save them. Is it not folly and madness for the children to refuse obedience because they cannot understand the reasons for the father’s conduct? And is it anything but weakness and foolishness in us to withhold our obedience from God’s plain commands, because forsooth we cannot understand the reason for them? Obey God, and we shall sooner or later know; disobey him, and we shall add to the misery of our ignorance the greater misery of self-destruction. Some of you, my hearers, plead in extenuation of your disobedience the fact that there are things you cannot understand. But disobedience is not the effect of ignorance, but the cause. The law of nature is heart first, intellect afterward; submission first, knowledge afterward. You have made no progress in the solution of the mysteries by delaying to obey, and you never will make progress in knowledge of God’s truth until you obey the truth. How will you ever get more light without using the light you have already? Ah, it is not knowledge you need, but those neglected duties of secret and family prayer, of public confession of the name of Christ, of inward consecration to the service of God—these are the things you need to perform. Not knowledge, but a heart set to do the will of God, is what is lacking. Oh, that God would give you such a heart to-day—a heart humble, reverent, loving, obedient to God! With such a heart within you, you would learn in a single hour more of God’s holiness, of your own sin, of Christ’s mercy, of the Spirit’s power, than you ever learned in all your life before. Obedience to God, that is the key and the only key to the mysteries of Christian doctrine and of Christian duty. Take that key, I pray you, and enter into true knowledge and eternal life! OSWALD CHAMBERS - Direction of the Will John 7:17 (cf. John 5:19, 30) (Source: Borrow The moral foundations of life; a series of talks on the ethical principles of the Christian life - page 18) The Will to Do If any man willeth to do His will … (rv) In John 7:17, our Lord is not so much laying down the principle that obedience is the gateway to knowledge, as specifically stating that the only way to know whether or not His teaching is of God is conditioned by obedience. The only way to know is to will to do His will. (a) Think The only way to progress in spiritual matters is to think voluntarily. A great amount of stuff we call thinking is not thinking, but merely reverie or meditation. Thinking is a voluntary effort, and in the initial stages it is never easy; voluntary effort must be made to keep the mind on some particular line. The teaching of some of the Higher Christian Life* movements is apt to put thinking out of it altogether. According to that teaching we have to be semi-swooning invalids in the power of God, letting the Spirit of God take us as so much driftwood, and all our impulses and dreams are taken to be the will of God. When we become spiritual we have to exercise the power of thinking to a greater degree than ever before. We starve our mind as Christians by not thinking. If we are going to succeed in the natural world we must think voluntarily about things, and it is the same in the spiritual world. In order to think we must stop wool-gathering, check our impulses and set the mind on one line. (b) Think Habitually Habit is a mechanical process of which we have ceased to become conscious. The basis of habit is always physical. A habit forms a pathway in the material stuff of the brain, and as we persist in thinking along a certain line we hand over a tremendous amount to the machine and do things without thinking. Habit becomes second nature. “Habit a second nature! Habit is ten times nature!” (Duke of Wellington). For instance, when you begin to use a muscle in a particular way, it hurts badly, but if you keep on using that muscle judiciously it will get beyond hurting until you are able to use it with mechanical precision. The same thing is true in regard to thinking. It is a difficult matter to begin with. If thinking gives you a headache, it is a sign that you have brains. The brain is not ethereal or mystical, it is purely a machine. The thing that is not mechanical is the power of personality which we call thought. At first we find our brains do not work well, they go in jerks, we are bothered with associated ideas; but as we persist in thinking along a particular line our brain becomes the ally of our personality. Not only is our body capable of becoming our best friend, but the places where the body has become used to thinking become a strong assistance also. We infect the places we live in by our ruling habit. If we have made our body the ally of our personality, everything works together to aid our body wherever it is placed. People complain about their circumstances because they have not begun to make their body an ally. (c) Think Habitually to Do Our Lord says, in effect, that if any man will habitually think, he will come to know where His teaching comes from. The only way to prove spiritual truth is by experiment. Are we willing to set our mind determinedly to work out habitually what we think is God’s will? We talk about justice and right and wrong, are we prepared to act according to what we think? Are we prepared to act according to the justice and the right which we believe to be the character of God? If we are, we shall have no difficulty in deciding whether or not the teaching of Jesus Christ comes from God. The first moment of thinking alters our life. If for one moment we have discerned the truth, we can never be the same again; we may ignore it, or forget it, but it will not forget us. Truth once discerned goes down into the subconscious mind, but it will jump up in a most awkward way when we least expect it. In the matter of intercession, when we pray for another the Spirit of God works in the unconscious domain of that one’s being about which we know nothing, and about which the one we pray for knows nothing, and after a while the conscious life of the one prayed for begins to show signs of softening and unrest, of enquiry and a desire to know something. It seems stupid to think that if we pray all that will happen, but remember to Whom we pray; we pray to a Being Who understands the unconscious depths of a man’s personality, and He has told us to pray. The great Master of the human spirit said “Greater works than these shall he do.… And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” This is true also in preaching the word. We may see no result in our congregation, but if we have presented the truth and anyone has seen it for one second, he can never be the same again, a new element has come into his life. It is essential to remember this and not to estimate the success of preaching by immediate results. Our Lord was always stern with disbelief, i.e., scepticism, because there is always a moral twist about scepticism. Never place an agnostic in the same category as a sceptic. An agnostic is one who says, “There is more than I know, but I have not found anyone who can tell me about it.” Jesus is never stern with that attitude; but He is stern with the man who objects to a certain way of getting at the truth because he does not like that way. If a man refuses to try the way Jesus Christ puts before him, he ceases from that second to be an honest doubter; he must try it and put Jesus Christ’s teaching to the proof. A man cannot say he is an honest intellectual doubter if he refuses one way of getting at the truth; that is mental immorality. The Way to Know he shall know of the teaching … (rv) If I find it hard to be a Christian it is a sign that I need the awakening of new birth. Only a spiritually ignorant person tries to be a Christian. Study the life of Jesus Christ and see what Christianity means, and you will find you cannot be a Christian by trying; you must be born into the life before you can live it. There are a great many people trying to be Christians; they pray and long and fast and consecrate, but it is nothing but imitation, it has no life in it. Immediately we have life imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, we realise that it is the very life that was in Jesus that is born into us; we are loosened from the old bondage and find that we can fulfil all the expectations of the life which has been imparted to us. It is a strenuous life of obedience to God, and God has given us bodies through which to work out the life, and circumstances to react against in order to prove its reality. (a) Intention Beware of praying about an intention—act. To pray about what we know we should do is to piously push the whole thing overboard and think no more about it. Every intention must be acted out now, not presently, otherwise it will be stamped out. When the intention of an honest soul is grasped by the Spirit of God he will know whether the teaching Jesus gives is of God or not. Am I going to think, and think habitually, and act on what I think, so that the will of God may be performed in me until I know Who Jesus is, and that His teaching is the teaching of God? To know that the teaching of Jesus is of God means that it must be obeyed. It may be difficult to begin with, but the difficulty will become a joy. (b) Intention and Insight Intentions are born of listening to others. Whenever we obey an intention, insight into either good or bad is sure to follow. If our intention is in agreement with God and we act on it, we get insight into Who God is. The discernment of right and wrong intentions depends on how we think. There is a spasmodic type of life which comes from never really thinking about things, it is at the mercy of every stray intention. Someone makes an appeal for the Hindoo or the Chinese, and they say, “Oh yes, I will go and preach the gospel there,” and they do it in intention. Then someone else says the best thing is to work in the slums, instantly their intention is to work there. Then another person says the best thing is to study in a Bible school, and they do that in intention. They are creatures of impulse, there is no real thinking along God’s line, no acting on their intention. If you are sufficiently strong-minded you can generate any number of intentions in people and make them think anything you like; if they are not in the habit of thinking for themselves you can always sway them. The power of an evangelist over men and women who do not think is a dangerous thing. That is why it is so perilous to tell people to yield. Don’t yield! Keep as stiff a neck as ever you had, and yield to nothing and to no one, unless you know it is the Lord Jesus Christ to Whom you are yielding. Once you go on the yielding line, on the surrendering line and you do not know that it is the Lord Jesus Who is calling for the yielding, you will be caught up by super natural powers that will wield you whether you like it or not. Woe be to you, if, when Jesus has asked us to yield to Him, you refuse; but be sure it is Jesus Christ to Whom you yield, and His demands are tremendous. The insight that relates us to God arises from purity of heart, not from clearness of intellect. All the education under heaven will never give a man insight into Jesus Christ’s teaching, only one thing will, and that is a pure heart, i.e., intentions that go along the right line. Education and scholarship may enable a man to put things well, but they will never give him insight. Insight only comes from a pure-heartedness in working out the will of God. That is why the subject of Divine guidance is so mysterious. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,”† says Paul, (that is what makes the thinker right), “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” You cannot teach another what is the will of God. A knowledge of the will of God comes only by insight into God through acting on the right intention. (c) Intention and Insight into Instruction Studying our Lord’s teaching will not profit us unless we intend to obey what we know is the immediate present duty. As we listen to certain interpretations of Jesus Christ’s statements we do not feel warm to them, though we do not know what is wrong. Whenever the Spirit of God works in our conscious life it is like an intuition—I don’t know how I know, but I know. The Holy Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, not to our reason. Jesus said “My sheep hear My voice,” not because it is argued to them, but because they have His Spirit. There are statements of Jesus which mean nothing to us just now because we have not been brought into the place where we need to understand them. When we are brought there, the Holy Spirit will bring back a particular word, and as we intend to obey He gives us the insight into it. The Spirit of God never allows us to face spiritual subjects by spiritual curiosity first. We cannot say, “I am going to study the subject of Sanctification or of the Second Coming,” we shall make about as much headway as a steamer in a fog. Insight into the instruction of Jesus depends upon our intention to obey what we know to be the will of God. If we have some doctrine or some end of our own to serve, we shall always find difficulty. The Weighing of Doctrine … whether it be of God, or whether I speak from Myself. (rv) (a) Discernment The reason the Incarnation and the Atonement are not credible to some people is that their disposition is unregenerated. A man may adopt the dogma of the Incarnation and the Atonement upon a basis of authority while his heart is unchanged, with the result that sooner or later the accumulated pride of unregenerate years will rise in revolt and secretly protest that it is incredible. That was the case with the men to whom Jesus is speaking here, and it is the case of hundreds who accept creeds but refuse to act on their belief; the consequence is they fling their creeds overboard and ignore the central test of Christianity, viz., Who is Jesus Christ to me? The Atonement of our Lord never contradicts human reason, it contradicts the logic of human intellect that has never partaken of regeneration. The understanding of the Atonement depends not on Bible study, not on praying, but on spiritual growth. As we “grow up into Him in all things” we get moral understanding of the mystery of Redemption and understand why Jesus said “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” The Spirit of God brings a man to the place where he begins to discern with his heart, not with his head. Jesus says we shall know, i.e., discern, whether His teaching is of God or not when we do what we know to be His will. We discern according to our disposition. There are moments in life when the little thing matters more than anything else, times when a critical situation depends upon our attitude of mind to another person. If a man is hesitating between obeying and not obeying God, the tiniest thing contrary to obedience is quite sufficient to swing the pendulum right away from the discernment of Jesus Christ and of God. “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee … first be reconciled.… Distempers of mind make all the difference in the discernment of Jesus Christ’s teaching. Have I a distempered view about any man or woman on earth? If I have, there is a great deal of Jesus Christ’s teaching I do not want to listen to, then I shall never discern His teaching. Once let me obey God and I shall discern that I have no right to an attitude of mind to anyone other than His attitude. If I am determined to know the teaching of Jesus Christ at all costs, I must act on the intention that is stirred in me to do God’s will, however humiliating it may be; and if I do, I shall discern. (b) Discernment of Inspiration Our Lord’s teaching is God-breathed. What makes the difference between the attitude of a spiritual Christian to the teaching of Jesus and that of an unspiritual person? An unspiritual person takes the statements of Jesus to pieces as he would a man’s statements, he “annulleth Jesus” (1 John 4:3 rv mg), dissolves Him by analysis; a spiritual Christian confesses “that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” The basis of membership in the early Church was discernment of Who Jesus is by the revelation of God (see Matthew 16:17–18). All through the test is, Do I know Who Jesus Christ is; do I know that His teaching is of God? The mystery of the Bible is that its inspiration was direct from God (2 Peter 1:21). To believe our Lord’s consciousness about Himself commits me to accept Him as God’s last endless Word. That does not mean that God is not still speaking, but it does mean that God is saying nothing different from the Final Word, Jesus Christ; all God says expounds that Word. (c) Discernment of Inspiration of Christ’s Teaching Is Jesus Christ’s teaching God-breathed to me? There is an intention that seeks God’s blessings without obeying Jesus Christ’s teaching. We are apt to say with sanctimonious piety, “Yes, Jesus Christ’s teaching is of God”; but how do we measure up to it? Do we intend to think about it and act on it? Beware of tampering with the springs of your life when it comes to the teaching of Jesus. Purity of heart, not subtlety of intellect, is the place of understanding. The Spirit of God alone understands the things of God, let Him indwell, and slowly and surely the great revelation facts of the Atonement begin to be comprehended. The Mind of God as revealed in the Incarnation becomes slowly and surely the mind of the spiritual Christian. John 7:18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. BGT John 7:18 ὁ ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ· ὁ δὲ ζητῶν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πέμψαντος αὐτὸν οὗτος ἀληθής ἐστιν καὶ ἀδικία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν. KJV John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. NET John 7:18 The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him. CSB John 7:18 The one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. But He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. ESV John 7:18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. NIV John 7:18 He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. NLT John 7:18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies. NRS John 7:18 Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him. NJB John 7:18 When someone speaks on his own account, he is seeking honour for himself; but when he is seeking the honour of the person who sent him, then he is true and altogether without dishonesty. NAB John 7:18 Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no wrong in him. YLT John 7:18 'He who is speaking from himself his own glory doth seek, but he who is seeking the glory of him who sent him, this one is true, and unrighteousness is not in him; GWN John 7:18 Those who speak their own thoughts are looking for their own glory. But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent him is a true teacher and doesn't have dishonest motives. BBE John 7:18 The man whose words come from himself is looking for glory for himself, but he who is looking for the glory of him who sent him -- that man is true and there is no evil in him. RSV John 7:18 He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. NKJ John 7:18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. ASV John 7:18 He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. MIT John 7:18 He who speaks on his own authority is concerned with personal glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who commissioned him is authentic, and no unrighteousness inheres in him. speaks: John 5:41 8:49,50 1Co 10:31-33 Ga 6:12-14 Php 2:3-5 1Th 2:6 1Pe 4:11 seeking the glory: John 3:26-30 11:4 12:28 13:31,32 17:4,5 Ex 32:10-13 Nu 11:29 Pr 25:27 Mt 6:9 John 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Matthew 23:5-7 “But they (SCRIBES AND PHARISEES) do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? TWO WAYS TO SEEK GLORY Jesus continues to address the astonishment and criticism of the Jews in Jn 7:15, specifically their question of "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" They were criticising Him for speaking on His own authority. J C

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Morgan - “We should ever bear in mind that that ‘appearance’ may be deceitful, and therefore with the love that hopeth all things, we should be ready to give men the benefit of any doubt or any uncertainty that is in our minds.” Charles Swindoll - The “appearance” to which Jesus referred was the symbolic show of righteousness that was undoubtedly impressive in the temple. Jesus called for Jews to ignore fancy robes and big hats in order to discern who was telling the truth by comparing his or her deeds to the commands of Scripture. The deeds of Jesus reflected the grace of God and did not violate the Sabbath. The religious officials condemned this act of mercy because it violated their man-made rules, which they themselves violated each time they circumcised a newborn on the Sabbath. (See Insights on John scroll up/down for more text) John

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Morgan explains that "It was being taught by the rabbis that the Christ would suddenly appear, and no one would know whence He came....That was their conviction, and so they said, We know all about Him; we know whence He came; and the fact that we know whence He came proves He cannot be Messiah. So that cannot be the reason for the inactivity of the rulers, for they must know, as we citizens do, whence He is from. So their own suggestion had to be dismissed. John 7:28 Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, "You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. BGT John 7:28 ἔκραξεν οὖν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ διδάσκων ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ λέγων· κἀμὲ οἴδατε καὶ οἴδατε πόθεν εἰμί· καὶ ἀπ᾽ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐκ ἐλήλυθα, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστιν ἀληθινὸς ὁ πέμψας με, ὃν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε· KJV John 7:28 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. NET John 7:28 Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "You both know me and know where I come from! And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. You do not know him, CSB John 7:28 As He was teaching in the temple complex, Jesus cried out, "You know Me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on My own, but the One who sent Me is true. You don't know Him; ESV John 7:28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. NIV John 7:28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, NLT John 7:28 While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I'm not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don't know him. NRS John 7:28 Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. NJB John 7:28 Then, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he cried out: You know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of my own accord: but he who sent me is true; You do not know him, NAB John 7:28 So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. YLT John 7:28 Jesus cried, therefore, in the temple, teaching and saying, 'Ye have both known me, and ye have known whence I am; and I have not come of myself, but He who sent me is true, whom ye have not known; GWN John 7:28 Then, while Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard, he said loudly, "You know me, and you know where I come from. I didn't decide to come on my own. The one who sent me is true. He's the one you don't know. BBE John 7:28 Then, when he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus said with a loud voice, You have knowledge of me and you have knowledge of where I come from; and I have not come of myself; but there is One who has sent me; he is true, but you have no knowledge of him. RSV John 7:28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. NKJ John 7:28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. ASV John 7:28 Jesus therefore cried in the temple, teaching and saying, Ye both know me, and know whence I am; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. MIT John 7:28 Jesus exclaimed in the temple as he was teaching: "You know me—do you?—and you know my origin? I did not come on my own accord. But the one who is true is responsible for my being here, one whom you do not know. You both know Me: John 1:46 8:14 Mt 2:23 Lu 2:4,11,39,51 and I have not come: John 3:2 5:43 8:16,42 10:36 12:49 14:10,31 He who sent Me is true: John 3:33 5:32 8:26 Ro 3:4 2Co 1:18 Tit 1:2 Heb 6:18 1Jn 5:10 Whom: John 8:19,54,55 16:3 17:3,25 1Sa 2:12 Ps 9:10 Pr 2:3-5 Jer 9:6 Jer 31:34 Ho 4:1 5:4 6:3-6 Mt 11:27 Lu 10:22 Ac 17:23 Ro 1:28 2Co 4:6 1Jn 2:3,4 John 7 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JESUS SERIOUS ACCUSATION THEY DID NOT KNOW GOD! Then (oun) - Therefore (term of conclusion). Jesus responds to their statement that they know Him, but He reaches a different conclusion crying out an ironic statement. The scene has not changed from Jn 7:14 for Jesus was still in the temple courts engaged in teaching. Jesus cried out (krazo) in the temple (hieros) - So Jesus in the Temple, the heart and soul of the Jewish national religious life, yelled out at the top of His voice (also Jn 7:37). "Jesus is giving the greatest publicity to this piece of teaching." (L. Morris) One writer says John uses krazoto introduce solemn pronouncements There is another Greek word that signifies even a stronger cry and it is anaboao, the verb Jesus used when He cried out from the Cross "Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?" (Mt 27:46) John used the verb krazo again in John 12:44 where "Jesus cried out (krazo) and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me." He clearly wanted His audience to hear what He was going to say! J C Ryle on cried out - This is a remarkable expression. We find our Lord departing from His usual practice, when we read that He “cried,” or raised His voice to a high pitch. Generally speaking, the words in St. Matthew apply strictly, quoted from Isa. 47:1,—“He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the street.” (Matt. 12:19) Yet we see there were occasions when He did see it right to cry aloud and lift up His voice, and this is one. The perverse ignorance of the Jews, their persistence in blindness to all evidence, and the great opportunity afforded by the crowds around Him in the temple courts, were probably reasons why He “cried.” Our Lord is only said to have “cried” or lifted up His voice in four other passages in the Gospels,—viz., Matt. 27:50; Mark 15:39; John 7:37, and 12:44. (John 7 Commentary) R C H

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Morgan - Rivers of Living Water (Source: From this Verse page 266) In his book, The Life That Wins, journalist Charles Trumbull tells how he discovered the “Victorious Christian Life.” Though a Christian for many years, Trumbull was troubled by great fluctuations in his spiritual experience. One day he would be excited and triumphant; the next, discouraged and defeated by some temptation. He sought to win others to Christ, but saw little success. As the years passed, he became more vexed, especially after hearing a message at the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910 on “The Resources of the Christian Life.” (Page 8) The message had a clear and simple thrust: “The resources of the Christian life, my friends, are just—Jesus Christ.” (ED: I MUST ADD AND THE "GIFT" JESUS CHRIST SENT TO EACH BELIEVER - THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST - Php 1:19! See The Holy Spirit-Walking Like Jesus Walked!) Shortly afterward, Trumbull found himself the speaker at a summer missionary conference—a week of daily work for which I was miserably, hopelessly unfit. But on the first night of the conference, Trumbull’s fellow-speaker rose to preach from John 7:37–39, saying that the Christian’s life should flow continuously, not intermittently. The next morning, Sunday, alone in my room, I prayed it out with God. And God, in His forgiveness and love, gave me what I asked for. It is hard to put into words, and yet it is, oh, so new, and real, and wonderful. At last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me; and even more than that: that He had constituted Himself my very life, taking me into union with Himself—my body, mind, and spirit. There has been an utterly new kind of victory, victory-by-freedom over certain besetting sins—the old ones that used to throttle and wreck me. Jesus Christ does not want to be our Helper (ED: A NAME JESUS ASCRIBED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT - BUT ANOTHER NAME FOR THE SPIRIT IS "ENABLER" BECAUSE WE DON'T JUST NEED A TOUCH OF HELP BUT WE NEED 100% OF HIS ENABLING SUPERNATURAL POWER!); He wants to be our Life. (Col 3:4) He does not want us to work for Him. He wants us to let Him do His work through us (Jn 15:5), using us as we use a pencil to write with—better still, using us as one of the fingers of His hand. Franklin Kirksey - Quenching the Thirst of the Soul Introduction - Quenching the thirst of the soul is the primary focus of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 7:37-39. Oh, the lengths people will go to quench the thirst of the soul! Solomon confesses in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” 1 Kings 11:4 reads, “For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.” Jeremiah 2:11-13 reads, “‘Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,’ says the Lord. ‘For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.’” In the words of James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side. . .” We have the answer to quench the thirst of the soul, and His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. As I prepared this message a line came from the chorus of a well-known song came to mind, “Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.” Rev. Richard Eugene Blanchard, Sr. (1925-2004), wrote the lyrics to “Fill My Cup, Lord,” in just a few minutes as he waited for a couple late for an appointment.[1] Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe shares the following about “Borrowing Boreham”: “[Rev. Frank W.] Boreham [1871-1959] pastored Baptist churches in Hobart, Tasmania, and Melbourne, Australia; and then left the pastoral ministry to devote himself to itinerant preaching and writing. He traveled widely and preached to large and appreciative congregations. He was once introduced as ‘the man whose name is on all our lips, whose books are on all our shelves, and whose illustrations are in all our sermons.’ One pastor confessed that he would be ashamed to meet Boreham personally, having ‘borrowed’ so much of his material for his own sermons.”[2] In A Casket of Cameos, F. W. Boreham shares the following on “David Brainerd’s Life Text”: “One of Brainerd’s biographers has said of him that ‘he belonged to a class of men who seem to be chosen of heaven to illustrate the sublime possibilities of Christian attainment; men of seraphic fervor of devotion; men whose one overmastering passion is to win souls for Christ and to become wholly like Him themselves.’”[3] Dr. Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, affirms, “Brainerd’s centuries-spanning influence for revival is positive proof God can and will use any vessel no matter how fragile and frail, if he or she is only radically devoted to the Savior!”[4] “[His] affection for the Saviour’s stupendous proclamation at the Feast of Tabernacles”[5] recorded in John 7:37, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” Interestingly, in his brief life, David Brainerd related to this verse of Scripture in three distinct ways. First, F. W. Boreham states, “There was a time when the text irritated him.”[6] Although Brainerd began to have a conviction of sin at age seven or eight, he remained in this dark period of distress until he was twenty-one years of age. Then, as he confessed, “It seemed to me that I was totally lost.” At this time, he received a copy of Mr. [Solomon] Stoddard’s Guide to Christ[7] and it only irritated him. He was angry with the author primarily because this book clearly stated his condition without clearly explaining to him the remedy. Brainerd recounts, “Mr. Stoddard's book told me to come to Christ, but did not tell me anything that I could do that would bring me to Him.”[8] Second, Boreham explains, “The text captivated him. . . . It was a Sunday evening — the evening of July 12, 1739. He was walking in the same solitary place. 'At this time,' he says, 'the way of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitableness and excellency that I wondered that I should ever have desired any other way of salvation. I was amazed that I had not dropped my own contrivances and complied with this lovely, blessed and excellent way before. If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I had formerly conceived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation.'” Following the pattern of the text, “Brainerd thirsted: Brainerd came; Brainerd drank!”[9] Brainerd recorded in his diary, “Unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing. It was a new view of God such as I had never had before. I stood still, wondered and admired. I had never before seen anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty; it was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had had of God or things divine. I felt myself in a new world, and everything about me appeared with a different aspect from what it was wont to do. My soul was captivated and delighted. I rejoiced with joy unspeakable.” Third, Boreham writes, “The words that first irritated and then captivated him, at length animated his whole being. . . . As soon as the burning thirst of his own soul had been divinely slaked, it occurred to him that such thirst was no monopoly of his. The text as good as said so. . . . Brainerd seemed to be looking out upon a thirsty world. His lot was cast in an age that knew nothing of missionary enterprise. Our great societies were yet unborn.”[10] Dr. J. M. (John Milton) Sherwood (1822-1872) says, “No eulogy can exalt such a man. The simple story of his life proves him to be one of the most illustrious characters of modern times, as well as the foremost missionary whom God has raised up in the American Church—one whose example of zeal, self-denial, and Christian heroism has probably done more to develop and mould the spirit of modern missions, and to fire the heart of the Church in these latter days, than that of any other man since the apostolic age. One such personage, one such character, is a greater power in human history than a finite mind can calculate.”[11] Boreham concludes, “He died on October 9, 1747. He was not yet thirty, but he had no regrets. 'Now that I am dying,' he exclaimed, 'I declare that I would not for all the world have spent my life otherwise!' Near the end, Miss Edwards, to whom he was betrothed, and who followed him into the unseen about four months later, entered the sickroom with a Bible in her hand. 'Oh, that dear book!' he cried, 'that lovely book! I shall soon see it opened! The mysteries in it, and the mysteries of God's providence, will all be unfolded!' Thus he clung to the promise of the text to the last. He was radiantly confident that the thirst of the soul — the thirst for knowledge and illumination — the thirst that had been only partially quenched in this world — would be abundantly satisfied in the realms of everlasting light.”[12] In his diary dated, Lord’s day, July 26, 1747, missionary, David Brainerd (1718-1747), confessed, “I saw clearly that I should never be happy; yea, that God Himself could not make me so, unless I could be in a capacity to ‘please and glorify Him forever.’ Take away this, and admit me into all the fine heavens that can be conceived of by men or angels, and I should still be miserable for ever.”[13] David Brainerd pursued happiness to the fullest extent, not just the frivolous expression of many in our day. Reading his journal inspired William Carey (1761-1834), Henry Martyn (1781-1812), Jim Elliot (1927-1956) and a host of others to go into missions. I. Note the glorious self-identification of Jesus Christ. Dr. Paul Lee Tan shares, “This was what happens, in ancient Israel, during the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. There was a great procession, from the Temple through the streets of Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam. It was led by the temple band, with the white-robed priests marching in front. It passed through Jerusalem, out at the Water Gate, and down the hill of Zion to the pool of Siloam, where each of the priests filled his golden vessel with water. When the procession returned to the Temple, the priests gathered around the altar of sacrifice, where each one emptied his vessel of water on the side of the altar. As they did so, the Levitic choir chanted the words of Isaiah 12:3: ‘With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’ Seven-and-a-half centuries after Isaiah wrote those words, Jesus stood near the Temple watching the procession, and listened to the music of the trumpets and the chanting of the Levites on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Lifting up his voice, he cried out, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.’ (John 7:37).”[14] Dr. John Phillips (1927-2010) explains, “During the week of the Feast of Tabernacles, the gladdest of all of Israel's annual feasts, the one feast that was intended to prefigure the coming millennial age, water was poured forth as part of the ritual. The feast itself always lasted a full week, but an eighth day was added for a new beginning. That added day, by law, was always observed as a special Sabbath. The symbolism that grew up around the feast was interesting, and Jesus used it to draw national attention to Himself and to His claims. The other side of the promise will be fulfilled at His second coming; then the desert will blossom as the rose and Israel will become a source of blessing to mankind. Israel, as Balaam put it, will ‘pour the water out of his buckets,’ [Numbers 24:7] not symbolically as in the Feast of Tabernacles but in actuality. The prophecy will be fulfilled both physically and spiritually.”[15] Rev. J. R. (John Roberts) Dummelow (1860-?) explains, “On the eighth day, when the water was not poured out, Jesus came forward declaring Himself the giver of the true water which that water typified, viz. the Holy Spirit.”[16] (Borrow Exploring the Gospels. John) Rev. W. H. (William Harvey) Jellie (?-1916) shares in The Preacher’s Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, “Christ chose ‘the great day of the feast,’ of this very Feast of Tabernacles [John 7:2], to identify Himself with one of its incidents. While the waters of Siloam were being, on that eighth day, poured on the altar steps, ‘Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink’ (Jno 7:37-39). . . . Yet His tabernacle life was not permanent. Booths are for pilgrims, not residents. And Jesus was here but for a season. ‘Yet a little while I am with you.’”[17] The Jews looked back to “the glory days.” Jesus identifies with the glory days and promises more glory for the future. The One who emptied Himself (Philippians 2:5-11) did not deny His identity. John records that Jesus “stood and cried out” (John 7:37) for everyone to hear. Remember the “I am” statements of Jesus: Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life” (John 6: 35, 48); “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12, 9:5); “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8: 58); “I am the door” (John 10:9); “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11); “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6); and “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). Jesus leaves no doubt about His identity. His “I am” statements go back to Exodus 3:14 reads, “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” The study of symbols and types of Jesus Christ is a fascinating thing. Jesus Christ is the smitten Rock according to 1 Corinthians 10:4, “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” Paul refers to the events recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. Isaiah 53:4-10 reads, “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” John 19:34 reads, “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” The water flowed from our Lord Jesus Christ, the smitten Rock! II. Note the gracious saving invitation of Jesus Christ. The extent of the invitation of Jesus Christ. Dr. Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) writes, “‘Whosoever will.’ A wish is enough, but a wish is indispensable. How strange, and yet how common it is, that the thirsty man is not the willing man! . . . Further, what is offered? ‘The water of life.’ . . . What is that? Not a thing, but a person. The water of life, in its deepest interpretation, is Christ Himself; even as He said: ‘If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink.’ . . . And what are the conditions?’ ‘Let Him take the water of life for nothing;’ as the word might have been rendered, ‘For nothing.’ He says to us, ‘I will not sell it to you, I will give it to you.’ And too many of us say to Him, ‘We had rather buy it, or at any rate pay something towards it.’ No effort, no righteousness, no sacrifice, no anything is wanted. ‘Without money and without price.’ You have only got to give up yourselves.”[18] Isaiah 55:1-2 reads, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.” The explanation of the invitation of Jesus Christ. Dr.

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Morgan adds "He was able to satisfy thirst, and, moreover, that those who received such satisfaction from Him should become channels through whom the overflowing rivers should pass.” THOUGHT - Which word, rivers or rivulets, describes your Christian life today, beloved? Jesus' desire is for abundant life found in rivers! If you are disobeying, you will quench the Spirit and the flow of rivers of living water. LET THE RIVER FLOW Let the poor man say I am rich in Him Let the lost man say I am found in Him Let the river flow Let the blind man say I can see again Let the dead man say I am born again Let the river flow Let the river flow Let the river flow Let the river flow Holy Spirit come, move in power Let the river flow Play other songs Let it Flow Like a River Glorious Innermost being (belly, womb) (2836) koilia from koilos = hollow) refers literally to a hollow space or cavity (although not used with this sense in Scripture) and then to (1) the belly (stomach), (2) the womb (uterus) and (3) (figuratively) the inner man or innermost being, which is almost synonymous with way the NT usually uses heart (kardia). In Php 3:19+ and Ro 16:18+ koilia is refers to the appetite, which speaks metaphorically of the strong inner desires emanating from our fallen flesh, which is ever craving for immediate gratification, something found only in Jesus! Moulton-Milligan record a literal use in an ancient Greek document which speaks of "filling in the koilia (hollow place) before the king arrives." Marvin

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