Bubbling With New Life

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright today? [chuckle] Bless your heart, I hope everything’s alright at your house. Glad to be back with you. This is your good friend, Bob Cook, and we’re going to try to put a handle on the Word of God as we look into the Gospel of John, Chapter 10.

We’ve come now to the 10th verse, the verse I learned as a little boy. My father encouraged me to learn verses from the Gospel of John and offered me a prize, a gold watch, would you believe it? Of course it never ran very well, but it was gold, and it was a watch, and it was a prize, and I was very proud of it. Before I was seven years old, with the encouragement of my sister, Mildred, who was a sort of a surrogate mother, and big sister, and homemaker, and everything after the death of my mother. And with the encouragement of these dear ones, I learned these verses, 50 of them from the Gospel of John. This was one of them, John 10, Verse 10, “The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. ‘I am come,’ Jesus said, ‘that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.'”

What do you make of all this? First of all, that there are imitations, the thief. The thief. There are people whose avowed purpose is to avoid dealing honestly with God and with His people. There are imitations, the cults that you find on every hand, the false religions that abound in our world, and particularly those who adopt a Christian guise, while changing the semantics, so that they are using the right words, but with altogether different meanings.

I asked a minister some years ago, with whom I was having a conversation, I said, “Well now, look, you are what people call a liberal. You don’t really believe, do you? That Christ rose from the dead?” “Why, of course I do.” He said, “I believe in the resurrection of Christ.” And so I bored in a little, I said, “Do you mean the bodily resurrection? Did He come out of the grave in the same body that He went in?” “Oh,” he says, “The Christ’s spirit lives throughout the world. The resurrection means that the Spirit of Christ arose.” And then he went on trying to explain it. “Yes, I believe in the resurrection.” [chuckle] Not the same way. “This same Jesus” said the angels, they ought to know oughtn’t they? “This same Jesus, which has gone up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go away into heaven.” “Handle me and see,” he said, “For a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.” And He asked for something to eat, and they gave Him a piece of fish and a honeycomb, and He ate before them.” He is a real living Savior. Hallelujah.

But there are imitations. Now, John the Apostle, in one of his letters says that you can try the spirits, and one of the tests is that there is a confession of the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah, God’s Son, God’s Christ, God’s salvation has come in the flesh. Spirit that confesses that Jesus is come of the flesh is of God. That’s one of the tests. Another is your own spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know,” that means discern, “all things.” Paul said in Corinthians, “He that is spiritual discerneth all things. The presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God will guide you.” Have you ever been in the presence of someone who spoke the right words, but concerning whom you were uneasy? Of course you have. Anyone who’s lived a while and who is a Christian has had that experience. What is it? That’s the Spirit of God whispering to you, “Watch out, this isn’t the real thing.”

You can trust the promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He will never prompt you in a direction different from God’s written Word. He will always agree with the truth, which you know and understand from the Word of God, but He will faithfully witness to you and speak to you. Let the peace of God be the referee. We read in Colossians 3:16, “Let the peace of God rule in your heart.” That’s our phrase, be the referee.

If you don’t have peace about a thing, that means the Spirit of God is whispering to you, “Don’t do it, don’t touch it.” So, the thief, there are imitations, and you can know them. What are they? They don’t agree with the Word of God, they don’t exalt the Son of God, and they are prompted. You, I should say better, you are prompted against them by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” The ultimate result of error is forfeiture of things that are precious, steal. The destruction of that which is alive, kill. And the ultimate wiping out of values. Now that’s pretty rough language, isn’t it? But look around you, and see people who have espoused ideas that are contrary to the revealed will and Word of God. What’s happened? They’ve forfeited a great deal that is precious in their life. Something has died spiritually within them. And finally, ultimately, after it’s all over, the values are wiped out.

Steal, kill, destroy. That’s the devil’s business. Stay close to the Word of God, the inerrant, infallible, inspired Word of God. Exalt the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and listen to the voice of the indwelling Holy Spirit as He guides you. God says, “I will guide thee with mine eye.” God keeps His eye on you if you’ll keep your eye on Him. Now He says, “I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” This is a great verse. Life, of course, refers to that eternal life that God gives those who trust in Him. “I am come, that they might have life,” zoe, “and that they might have it more abundantly.” That “more abundantly” word is an interesting word. It is a word that has so many special meanings. I can’t begin to remember them all, so I have them listed here. Now we’re talking about the John 3:16 kind of life. The word that’s used in John 10:10 is the same that’s used in John 3:16, where he speaks of everlasting life. Eternal life is not a duration only, eternal means forever, but eternal life is God’s kind of life, it’s a quality as well, and He gives that to you by faith.

Let me look now at a book I have here that tells the different meanings of that Greek word, “perisson,” which means more abundantly; can I share that with you? Hang on a minute til I get to the right page, and then I’ll share with you, “perisson.” “More,” just plain “more.” That’s used twice that way. “More abundantly,” that’s here in John 10:10. “The idea of an advantage and then, in comparison, far more, or greater, or more abundant, or much more. Or over much,” that’s a good one, “this spills over” [chuckle] “beyond the measure, exceeding abundantly above,” that’s Ephesians 3:20, “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” “Exceedingly or very highly.” Hey, that’s a mouthful isn’t it? He says, “I want you to have more life, I want you to have it more abundantly, I want you to have life that spills over, I want you to have life that gives you an advantage, I want you to have life that’s greater than anything else the world can offer, I want you to have much more, not just a little more.” Huh? Isn’t that great? Praise the Lord.

Now, Jesus said, “I came that they might have life.” This is in distinction, this is in contrast to the “steal, and kill, and destroy” triad that we had there a moment ago. Life, more life, more abundant life. That’s the contrast. Life, in contrast to death. More life in contrast to the diminishing of values and virtues and advantages. Abundant, more abundant life, spilling over, the overflow of divine blessing out of your life. Do you know anything about that? Jesus said that to the lady whom He spoke with at Jacob’s Well, just outside the town of Sychar. Remember the story in John 4? How well He knew what her situation was. He looked at her with kind eyes, kind eyes, but He knew the score with her, and did as though He were saying, tenderly, “You had many lovers, but I’m the only one who really will show you what love is. Whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water,” that’s our idea of an artesian well, a spring.

A well, an artesian well of water springing up into everlasting life. Keeps on flowing, keeps on flowing. When we first moved here to the Poconos, we were looking around for some place to get an ice cream cone on a hot night, and we found an ice cream cone place along route 611, and I noticed that alongside of it, there was a pipe sticking up out of the ground, and water was flowing from it. And I saw that people would come and bring their containers and fill it up with water, it was evidently a very fine quality water, flowing from underground sources. That was more than three years ago, and I happened to go by the place again the other day, and I found that the water was still flowing. Some thoughtful person had enclosed the pipe and made it point down toward a little runway, bordered with flowers and all of that. But the water was still flowing. Flowing, flowing, flowing. Never quit flowing. “Oh, the water that I shall give him”, Jesus said, “shall be in him a well of water,” an artesian well, a spring of water, springing up into everlasting life. Life more abundant. Life that overflows. Life that spills over, the blessed presence of God.

Dynamizing. I made that word up. It’s a good one, isn’t it? [chuckle] Making dynamic, powerful, all of your life. God can glorify even routine. This lady said she didn’t mind housework, but it was so daily. [chuckle] Routine can get to you after a while. God can glorify routine so that it is touched with His presence. God can glorify the greatest and most difficult challenges so they become opportunities for God to work, life more abundantly. We’ll talk about that a little more when we get back together.

Father, today, may we have the overflowing kind of life that just spills out to the blessing of others. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!