Sunday Morning Podcast May 30 2021. Bro. Dave Goble.
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“We Need A Savior – II” ” The Market Maker”
Jesus met a woman at the well, in Samaria. In verse 10 of Mark 4, Jesus said to her; “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” “Living water in Jesus’s time,” is another way to say it, “was a spring.” A spring of water was synonymous with living water. There is more than one meaning or usage of living water, but the way Jesus was using it was He was giving a spring, that never dries up, of ever flowing waters over rocks. Jesus is our Rock, and He offers us living water, a stream in the desert, that never dries up! It’s always sweet and never bitter, for this water won’t make you bitter! You can count on it! But you have to find it! It’s in certain places, but not every place! But it’s there for anyone that will come and be saved! That is the promise, that He will help you find that living water, if that is really what you want. For as humans we’re going to get what ‘we’ want, for the most part, if it’s available. Specifically that refers to attitudes and opinions that we hold. If you want to believe something, you’re going to believe, and get it. There’s very few of us that will believe something that we don’t want to believe. So it is God’s good will to provide us something that’s good for us. Living water! We’re going to talk about a subject, “We Need A Savior!” He is many things to many people; in Isaiah 9: 6 “..and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. In other places God is called and known as “The great I AM” ..But first and foremost, Jesus is a Savior!
TEXT: GENESIS 29:16-19
16 And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and then name of the younger was Rachel.
17 Leah was tender eyed; but Rachael was beautiful and well favoured.
18 And Jacob loved Rachael; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter.
19 And Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.
Last week we talked about Jacob, and his elder brother Esau. Jacob worked in the field as a farmer, and his brother Esau was a hunter. Their father Isaac, preferred Esau. He loved Esau, his venison, and everything that was about Esau. But Isaac’s wife Rebecca, loved more her son Jacob. Jacob found himself one day in the field and Esau came up, faint and ready to die, needed and begged for some of Jacob’s food. Jacob was the supplanter, which means he deceived and took the place of another stealing what was not his. So we read here about how Jacob sold Esau a bowl of soup, (or pottage) for Esau’s birthright. Esau was faint, and thought he was ready to die. Esau gave up something of great value, for something of less value. Even if Esau had really been ready to die, he should have held on to the birthright, it was that important! But he gave it up. The birthright is a symbol of our Salvation. And we’re not meant to give up that promise for anything that the world offers! So the promise here, is found in Jacob and not Esau. We have to know where the promise is found, don’t we? We have to follow the line of the promise and not get off on our own opinion! God help us to be a seeker of truth and desire that more than anything! In our world there are so many of voices of opinions that ask us to follow them, all declaring themselves to be right. But if your soul’s primary desire is to find truth, ..God will help you find it! So if you came wanting truth this morning, you will get it. And if not, then you won’t. So let’s want truth! In every moment, the hearts desire must be to want truth. Even if it’s something you have never heard before. For we are never at the age we have learned or know everything. Three reasons we need a Savior; 1) our life needs to be lived so there’s a purpose, and not lived in vain. 2) to save us from the vanity of life, and 3) because we are unable to save ourselves. Jacob, here, is going to reveal this to us. Jacob was a supplanter, because he stole by trickery, deceit and defrauded his brother of his birthright and blessing. And then he goes looking for a wife, through being sent by Isaac and Rebecca to her side of the family. And that’s where we are going to find him here. Laban was Rebecca’s father’s brother. As Jacob works for him, Laban invites Jacob to tell him what his wage should be. Jacob had found Rachael and requested her, (Laban’s daughter), at the well where she then took him to meet her father Laban, and this is the encounter, (verses 16-19). It was customary for cousins to marry one another, to contain the wealth within the clan/families, to survive. And the same is true today; God has a plan where He wants the wealth of His kingdom, to be contained within it. For the scriptures tell us that God is jealous over a peculiar people, that He knows, calls, and qualifies. And He places them in His kingdom! And like any other kingdom in this respect, ..this kingdom has boundaries, laws, power, protections, a sovereign with it’s subjects. God is a jealous god that won’t permit any other god! And today God also makes a way for us to be in His kingdom, with His protections and laws to for the sake of reverencing His gift of Salvation.
So here Laban agrees that Jacob can serve him for Rachal for 7 years, for the price for Rachal to be Jacob’s wife. But when the 7 years has been completed, the deceiver is deceived! For instead of Laban sending Rachal to Jacob’s tent that night, Laban sends Leah in the dark of the night to Jacob’s tent. And in the morning, he wakes up and sees Leah, and he knows then he’s been deceived. He goes to Laban asking him why he deceived him Laban replies that it is not our custom to give the younger in marriage first. This was after the 7 years! Laban could have informed Jacob of this before the 7 years and prevented all of this. So the deceiver was deceived! This is why we need a Savior! Life has a tendency to be deceptive. We strive for certain certainties and promises! Only to find “7” years later that we didn’t get it, and it lets us down! And at the risk today of sounding like a downer, “Oh Christianity is just a message of salvation from hopelessness.” Well that is true! But in life there are ups and downs, right? So it says that Jacob served 7 years for Rachal, yet it seemed like nothing for the love he had for her! Jacob had enjoyed those 7 years working for Laban, because he was anticipating the promise of getting Rachal! But when the 7 years were up, Laban tricked him! And this is how life is sometimes. You go along in life, and there is extreme disappointment in “this” moment, and in others like it. We need a Savior! Because there are moments in life when the human spirit simply cannot overcome the opposition against us. Some people think that serving God and this message is a copout, that’s fake, that somehow you’re just not facing your problems! So you’re looking for a savior to pull you out of something that otherwise you’re intended to solve yourself. So they say that Christianity is not honest, but disingenuous. But I know this for a fact, that when people get to their hardest place in life, the places of most concern, ..we need a Savior!
There are things in life, that the human simply cannot overcome! But we are meant to overcome, and to seek help from The Overcomer! That overcomer is Jesus! We still need a Savior! Jacob needed a Savior. He served Laban for 7 years, and he was deceived! We need a Savior because life sometimes is deceptive! This is ultimately the spirit of the world. But we’re reading here about Jacob, which is also the spirit of the world which is founded on self interest. Which is founded upon the assumption when the interest of the self is satisfied, only then can the interest of the many be satisfied. Today this is the spirit of the world which is focused on self interest ..ultimately. Under the assumption that if “I” am satisfied, if I’m happy, it will follow that others will be happy. But no, it won’t, and is not happening. Opposite of the biblical design that I just described, but that is what the “drumbeat” is. This is why we need a Savior! 2nd Corinthians chapter 12:10. The apostle said, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” I take pleasure in infirmities, (not in self), in infirmities, necessities, in persecutions, in distresses. Instead this is empty me of self, so that I can be ‘filled’ with the Savior! Because where self is filled with self, it’s very difficult for the Savior to do anything with that self. That’s when a person seeks truth, seeking truth in the form of Jesus, what invariably happens is you find an altar, a place of prayer because you’ve come this far in life, and like Jacob you’ve been deceived! And you finally realize, “I’ve been seeking after vanity and what I really want is something real! I’m sick of fake! The world is not offering me real! The world is a supplanter, a deceiver! The world is Jacob! I want what’s real! So we seek help, and God tells us He will help us with that, but we have to be willing to empty yourself of self! I need a Savior!
We Need A Savior!