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 An Evil and Adulterous Generation

John 2:23-24 (KJV)
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Why would Jesus not commit Himself to these particualr followers? Were they not "believers," and had they not seen miracles? What was it about these people that Jesus knew? Listen to what Mathew Henry says about these believers.........

"They were tumultuous, and wanted discretion and management. These in Jerusalem perhaps had their expectations of the temporal reign of the Messiah more raised than others, and, in that expectation, would be ready to give some bold strokes at the government if Christ would have committed himself to them and put himself at the head of them; but he would not, for his kingdom is not of this world. We should be shy of turbulent unquiet people, as our Master here was, though they profess to believe in Christ, as these did.

IV. That the reason why he did not commit himself to them was because he knew them , knew the wickedness of some and the weakness of others. The evangelist takes this occasion to assert Christ's omniscience. 1. He knew all men, not only their names and faces, as it is possible for us to know many, but their nature, dispositions, affections, designs, as we do not know any man, scarcely ourselves. He knows all men, for his powerful hand made them all, his piercing eye sees them all, sees into them. He knows his subtle enemies, and all their secret projects; his false friends, and their true characters; what they really are, whatever they pretend to be. He knows them that are truly his."


Matthew 12:39 (KJV)
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

The Lord will not commit to those who are not committed to Him. This present generation of loud and "tumultuous," believers are seeking to establish the Lords kingdom here on earth. The sign the Lord gave them is not good enough for them. What sign did the Lord give them? He gave them the sign of the Prophet Jonah. When all aboard the ship knew that they were lost, Jonah was sacrificed to save them. He then spent 3 days in the belly of the whale.

All of mankind was and is caught up in a great storm of darkness and tumult. The sacrifice of Jesus is the great sign. It is to Calvary that one must look. In the quiet of faith, the Lord will respond to His own, He always has and He always will, but He will not respond to a crass church which seeks to gratify their own corrupt lusts.

So all of the church's that cry out for miracles, the Lord knows the motivations of your heart. Signs and wonders would follow. Follow what? The preaching of Calvary. The proclamation of the Truth. The bold witness for Christ. The unashamed stance of the one truly committed. The genuine love of the lost, expressed in practical terms. So, those who place the cart before the horse do so for a reason. And in doing so, they expose the fragile nature of the faith that they claim to have.

The Lord will not commit to those who have built their houses on sinking sand. This is why we see the "house," of "believers," come tumbling down when faced with "unanswered prayers." For they are not established on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary. "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." Does your faith depend upon you seeing a miracle? Or does your faith stand upon the finished work of the cross of Calvary?

So, who are today's "John 2," believers? Who is it today that the Lord will not commit too? Who today run after signs and wonders? How many churches today, have as their main focus, signs and wonders? Show me a church whose main focus is on signs and wonders, and I will show you a church that neglects the central tenant of Christianity, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Show me a church whose main focus is on signs and wonders and I will show you are church where the majority reject "dying to self."

Show me a church whose main focus is on signs and wonders and I will show you a church with pseudo fellowship. The sinking sand of the modern Pentecostal church is their inordinate love of external signs. This love of extraordinary manifestations, is a compensation for a lack of a true faith which would lead to the death of self. The end results of those who follow this path is a life of self-indulgence, an inability to adhere to sound doctrine, no change in their lives, and no fruit of the Holy Spirit. And so the few converts that they may see are converts after their own likeness, after there own shallowness. Tozer says that anemic Christians produce anemic converts.

Bloodless Christians producing bloodless converts. Only by returning to the foot of the cross can the church find its way back to God. This evil and adulterous generation, that is without Lordship, needs to come to the cross of Christ and commit themselves to death. Only by adhering to this sign, the sign of Jonah, can the Church of Christ hope to see a reformation of its powerless state. The Church today is caught in a great storm, and it is sinking. There is much noise as the Church thrashes in the heavy seas. As the Church began to sink, tossed from a boat carrying them in the wrong direction, they suddenly have found themselves enveloped in a great darkness that is devoid of light.


Here is the answer to the current crisis that the Church is in. When we realize that "I am cast of from your eyes," we will finally ," look towards your Holy Temple."

If we as a Church will follow these words, we will live again in His presence.........

Jonah 2:1-10 (KJV)
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.





 2008/9/28 2:57









 Re: An Evil and Adulterous Generation

Here is the Greek for Adulterer, interesting that it is a derivitive of the word Apostate...

μοιχός
moichos
moy-khos'
Perhaps a primary word; a (male) paramour; figuratively apostate: - adulterer.

 2008/9/28 15:40
JoanM
Member



Joined: 2008/4/7
Posts: 797


 Re:


I appreciate both your points and your application of Henry’s. Of course, the many that believed in His name in John 2 were not the Pharisees of Mathew 12.

If only the problem was only among the tumultuous charisma tics. In Henry’s terms they may be the “weak” ones, while the “Evangelicals” (pursuing seeker-sensitive/emergent social gospel/Shacks of all sorts) strike me as having set aside Divine wisdom and knowingly chosen human wisdom and imagination (Henry’s “wicked”).

Unlike Jesus, leaders in both camps point to/seek/cry out for, human affirmation. (Attendance, flocking flesh, book sales).

The heart of it, for Jonah, the Jews both then and now, and those who would be Christian in these days is that “Salvation is of the Lord,” He will build His church. That seems to follow the insight that “ They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”

I do have one bit of encouragement for our hearts: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [u][even] to them that believe on his name[/u]: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. AND Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast [day], [u]many believed in his name[/u], when they saw the miracles which he did.” I know it is only a little thing, but it is a place to begin in prayer. This site is a testimony to the power of God over all kinds of sidetracking and His Grace and willingness.

Knowing Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death: [u]may we not miss any one of these three[/u].

PS: Surely some language scholar has written about how perfectly it fits to have the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New nearly all in Greek.


 2008/9/28 20:26Profile









 Re:

Hi Joan...I totally agree with you about the fact that it is not just the charsmatics. In fact I thought about expanding the post to include the Evangelicals. Since I have been around the Pentecostal circles for most of the 18 years of my Christianity, i thought I would write about what I know first hand. I did attend a Baptist Seminary though and I also attended a Southern Baptist church for just over a year, so I do have a little knowledge of what is going on in that world as well, but your point is well taken.

I would perhaps disagree with your intial assertion though. I see no difference between the "believers,of John 2 and the people that Jesus addresses in Matt 12. A scribe or a Pharisee may have asked the question, but Jesus addresses the whole generation in His reply. When you combine this with John six and then again in John 8 where we see "believers," turn on Jesus and actually pick up stones to stone Him, we see a harmony of thought. ...brother Frank

 2008/9/28 20:43
JoanM
Member



Joined: 2008/4/7
Posts: 797


 Re:

You are so gentle Frank. Probably is a stretch (or at least superficial) to think of the two as like our two groups.

As a Scottish warrior, do you have an address for a church in Greenock supporting the conference, maybe a bit charismatic. (see thread, Strange thoughts upon hearing the Featured Sermon: Can we have Revival?) I ask because I have noticed how threads weave together on SI. (maybe a pm)

 2008/9/28 21:34Profile









 Re:

Hi Joan...my gentle sister in Christ :) I have responded privately to your question about the Church'e in Greenock that are supporting the conference...........brother Frank

 2008/9/28 23:40
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re: An Evil and Adulterous Generation

Dear Frank,

Interesting, was reading this earlier today as well, this very section in John.

Quote:
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.



That is a remarkable statement that I do not think I have ever really hovered over.

As something of an aside, was also reading through some of John MacArthur's "Charismatic Chaos" that fit's well into all of this.

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=category&cid=92]John MacArthur [/url]

It produces some anger and much grief - But it is the echos of my own thoughts, how far astray this whole construct has gone - Perhaps just an excerpt, though it is not speaking specifically, directly, to signs and wonders here it does get at the source;

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edward Gross in his book, "Miracles, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare," sees the deadliness of this trend in the Church. He writes,


The age of models has come. A model takes the place of a law. Models are human perceptions of truth, they are tentative and thus subject to change as new data becomes available. These models are open and constantly tested. No scientist dares claim any longer that one model is the way to explain all known phenomena for fear that some newly discovered data will prove that scientist to be a precipitant old fool. The world of science has progressed from the old approach, Closed Systems to a new approach, Open Systems. And there are all kinds of new models. If the Bible is a Closed System of truth, with no new revelation being given through inspired Prophets or Apostles, then the model approach is an erroneous and dangerous tool in hermeneutics. There should be no confusion in this area, the orthodox teaching of Christianity has always affirmed that God's special saving revelation to mankind is restricted to the teaching of Scriptures. That is the issue. If the Bible is complete, then it represents a Closed System of truth. If it entails a fixed and absolute standard of truth, then the teaching of Scripture must be ascertained and dogmatically asserted. If God is still granting new revelation, then the truth of God is still being progressively revealed; and if this were the case, our duty would to be to faithfully listen to today's Prophets as they unraveled God's truth and new and clearer representations than we find in Scripture.

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=2178]Charismatic Chaos: "Does God still give revelation today?"[/url]


_________________
Mike Balog

 2008/9/28 23:45Profile









 Re:

Hi Brother Mike

Its a good word from MacArthur(perhaps it is because he has a Scottish name? :)

As for theJon 2:8 There is so much truth, in fact the whole chapter could produce dozens of parrallels with what is going on in the Christian world. To have faith in lying vanities(idols) certainly means that one would have to deprat from dependence upon the living God. The modern day idols of materialism, money, men(politicians or preachers) will all promise and security but will come up short for those who put their faith in them. Only by staying close to the living God and coming before his throne(temple) can one find mercy and grace. Jonah cared nothing for Ninevah, he would rather see them suffer in judgment. In many ways Ninevah represents the "world," for it was a very corrupted and worldy city, yet, God loved them and it was His choice to show them mercy. Jonah, in his own wisdom decided that he wanted none of it, yet in running aways from the word of God to Him, He was running away from His presence and ended up in a great storm and in great darkness. Brokeness and repentence allowed him to be "spewed from the whale." Perhaps if the Church is fortunate, we too will discover that we were called to love the world, not judge it. We were called to bring the good news to a dying people who dwell in darkness. Brokeness and repentence is what we also need and then we will return to the original instructions of the Lord in His word, to go to the world "that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have love Me.".........with much love...Brother Frank

 2008/9/29 0:12





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