LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Revelation by the Word
The place of the Holy Scriptures in the revelation of the heavenly vision and in God's purpose.
Alejandro Pacheco
Readings: Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 1:9-13.
I would like us to look into God's Word to see how the Lord shows that He is a God of order. The Lord is not improvising. God, from before the foundation of the world, had His will, His plan. The Bible is a library that principally speaks to us about God. Here in the Scriptures, which by His Spirit he bequeathed us, the Lord speaks of Himself, showing us who He is, what He is like. His will is revealed to us and shows us what He Himself is, what the Son and the Father are in the eternity before the creation, what the Holy Spirit is before the creation; what God is in Himself, in his Unique essence. He himself speaks about His persons, about the Person of the Father, about the Person of the Son, about the Person of the Holy Spirit, about His unity.
Some brothers only look at this aspect of the Trinity from the development of the Divine Economy, or, from the creation, but in the same Word the Lord has revealed much more to us; the Lord speaks of Himself before creation.
So, I would like us to read something about the revelation of God - but do not misunderstand me-, we are going to look at the only thing that God does not know. Let's turn to Isaiah 44:6-8, something that He knows, but that from his own mouth says that he does not know: "Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the Old people? and the things that are coming, and that shall come to pass, let them declare. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have I not declared unto thee of old, and showed it? and ye are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no Rock; I know not any.". This is the only thing that God does not know: another God. Hallelujah! He knows that there is no other God, that's why He knows no other, because undoubtedly, only He is God.
In the measure that He is revealed in the Scriptures, we see everything that the Father says about the Son and about the Spirit, everything that the Son says about the Father and about the Spirit, and everything that the Holy Spirit says about the Father and about the Son by means of the prophets and apostles, both in the Old and the New Testament, from before the creation and of course after it.
We have to give all our heart, all our being, to this Almighty being, who is triune in person, but who is One in essence, because this is how He reveals Himself to us before the creation, before His economy and its development, as well as by the direct intervention of His persons in the different stages of the fulfillment of the Kairos; which only He has in His hand. He is Omnipresent, Almighty, Omniscient. Nothing surprises Him, and from before the creation, in God's eternal counsel, in His own heart, was this will of creating. God from His heart, by His will, by His approval, wanted to create; this is not a coincidence of life, but God's perfect plan over his creatures.
Because God is God, He reveals Himself to us and gives Himself to us. The Father was fully revealed through the Son, and the Father and the Son were given to us through the Holy Spirit, and He has put His Spirit in us, so we can now rest. The Lord does not improvise, the Lord is going to finish His plan; in spite of all the opposition, He continues fulfilling His will, since His plan is with His Son, and with the Church. Do you remember this parable of the Gospel: "a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son..."? In this phrase, in this verse, there is a summary of God's Eternal Will, because it is through the Head, who is His Son, that all things will be under His feet, and the Church is His Body.
General revelation and special revelation
So, let's look at this aspect of God's eternal nature in the first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Who had a beginning here? The heavens and the earth: right? God created; this means to say that God is eternal. From the first verse of the Bible it speaks about the eternity of the triune God who has no beginning, and of course, will never have an end. He gave beginning to heaven and to the earth, but He is eternal.
There is no other book on earth that reveals God in this way. Why? Because the real God was revealed in the Bible; that's why the Bible is in the whole world, and although the Koran is in the world, and the Vedas are in the world, and the books about Krishna and Buddha and the New Age, which is the same as the old, all these books do not speak to us about God as he speaks to us the Bible.
God first wanted to reveal Himself to men through His creation; this is what is usually called God's General Revelation in Theology. Romans 1:20: "For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse"; God was revealed to the heart of all men, from Adam even to the last born before Christ's glorious return, He was revealed through His creation. The bible is not needed in order that the heart of man might know that there is a God; this was what God wanted to teach men, and we see it in the Bible. Paul finishes the verse by saying: "… so that they may be without excuse". Although the men of old did not have the Bible, none will be able to excuse themselves before God on the day of the judgment when faced with the great white throne, because the Almighty one was revealed to them through His creation.
Our God inspires the author of Hebrews, and in chapter 1:1 says: "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds"; so if men have no excuse before God, because of the General Revelation, now when God, by means of Special Revelation has been revealed through Jesus Christ, how much less will they be able to excuse themselves before Him on that day of judgment?
Revelation by the written Word
So we, dear brothers, are very blessed, because the eternal and powerful God wanted to reveal Himself to us and His glory was manifest to us through the Son and He gave us his Spirit. We are not alone. So the heavenly vision begins with God, with God's heart, which wanted to reveal his Word by leaving it written, so that by it we are able to judge everything. The Holy Spirit, who inspired all of it, is never going to contradict it. With the Holy Spirit and His written Word, we can judge absolutely all things.
What would be of the Church, what would be of humanity, without God's written Word? I think that we then believe that Buddha is a God, and that Allah is a God, that Zoroastro is a God and that Krishna is a God, or that whichever is a God, or that many gods existed, or that we are a God, or that nature, the creation, is a God. But this is not so brothers, the only and true God gave us the Scriptures, the Bible so that that wouldn't happen.
The first warning that the Lord Jesus gave to us, when the apostles asked him about the things that would come in the last times, before His second coming, was: "See that nobody deceives you", because many false Christs would come, false teachers, many false prophets, many false doctrines. The Trinity has been revealed to us by means of the written revelation. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have been revealed to us, and the security that He has given to us is in His written Word; He was careful in closing the Canon with the apostle John.
What would happen if an eye witness had not closed the Bible? If someone who was not a direct witness had closed the Bible, I believe that the Lord would have left a gap so that future, or even contemporary "revelations" could be annexed. But He used John, one of his direct witnesses, to close the Canon. Not that Paul, or Luke or James, or Mark wrote incorrectly, no, but the Lord wanted John to close having read what the others had already written. And so he wrote Revelation, his gospel and his letters.
Each of John's writings is related to the whole ministry that God gave. Remember that when the Lord appeared to him in Patmos, He had in His hand seven stars; when John fell down as though dead, the Lord bent down and put His right hand on him. That was where He had put the seven stars, the complete revelation of God. Not that were no sent ones of God to seven churches, not that there are no apostles; it is clear that there are. I refer to the fact that in this revelation we also see the Lord entrusting that to John, to completely close His Special Revelation, the Bible. We are sure: God is, God is revealed, God gives, but He left us the Scriptures in order to know Him by means of His Spirit, because there are deceitful spirits, and everything must be judged according to the Scriptures.
Brothers a few years ago, the famous Discovery Channel came to Colombia, and when I watched it, I said: "This channel is going to be used to steal the faith from many". You've seen it, and there are wonderful programs: right? Nature, science, technology and many other things. But then they introduced something subtle. And what have they now shown? Movies like " Mary Magdalene's Gospel " and others contrary to the Faith. Brothers, they do not show them once; they show them all the time. What is it that they are doing? Mining the faith of many seudo Christians, who claim to be Christians; because they do not know the Scriptures; the Bible is not read very much. The Lord wants us to know the Bible; because God is revealed to us through it just as He is; that's not in the books about technology, but rather in His Bible.
And so, in God's order: where has Theology come from? From the Bible, because the Bible speaks about God. And where does God's Eternal Will come from? From the Bible; the Teleology, the telos of God, God's objective. God has spoken of Himself, He has a will, and He creates, so that this objective may be carried out. And the creation, before the fall, with all things, is in the Bible. Words like: cosmology, angelology, anthropology, hamartiology, are nothing other than an account of creation, about the angels, man, the origin of sin; brothers, all that is in the Bible, and when reading God's Word, you are going to find them.
The Lord does not want his people to die due to lack of knowledge, but that we may fall in love with Him and know Him by the reading of His Word. It is very necessary, because everything that I am saying here, you are judging; it is not to digest all at once. I may be wrong, but you are under the obligation to correct me and have the duty of helping to draw me out of my error. But how will you know if I am wrong, if the Scriptures haven't been studied? Thanks to the Lord, He put the workers, the apostles, and the elders in the Church who do know, who have received light from the Word and have been obedient and go out before us. We must not forget the ministry of the Word that throughout the centuries and even up to today has worked and continues working. I admit that I have been and I will continue being very enriched and edified by the Holy Spirit, by means of the knowledge that my elder brothers have of the Word. Almost the totality of what I speak and can now write was received from them. But the Lord wants us ALL to be working.
So in the Bible, everything begins with God; He is the Eternal One. He does not need creation; it is the creation that needs Him. He is transcendent to it; but if He does not sustain it, there would be no creation; it cannot sustain itself; so we also see God's immanence. It is necessary to meet the God of the Bible, not pantheism which calls everything god; the trees, the waters, the birds, the stars, and even oneself is called god. No, brothers, we might get confused, many are being confused because they do not know the Scriptures. The Lord said that in the end times false prophets would come, who would deceive even the elect if possible. And why would that happen? By not knowing the Scriptures. He was saying that some who have been present at worship meetings and masses would end up asking: "Is it true that Jesus died as an old man and had children with Maria Magdalene?" Why do they say this? Because they do not know the Scriptures. May that not happen to us.
The Lord wants us to learn the Scriptures, including the part of the ministry of the Word. Among all that the Bible teaches us, because of sin, comes the Christology, which speaks of what is legitimate of Christ; and later there comes the Pneumatology, the life of the Holy Spirit, who is the only one who can apply salvation, Soteriology, Christ's life in us. Only and exclusively the Holy Spirit. It is said that chapters 14 to 17 in John are Jesus' testament. This is where the Lord spoke most about the Holy Spirit, which made the Church live; then comes Eclesiology. What is written in the whole New Testament is so that you and I may also live by it.
But: how are we going to live by it if we do not know it? How are we going to see God's work, God's movements and the working of the Holy Spirit to transform the Church according to the image of the Son, if we do not know about this? "he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches". We have to know the Scriptures, to know them by the Holy Spirit: why was the Word incarnated? Why did he die on the cross? Why did he resurrect? Why did he give us His Spirit? Why? To save us, because we were lost, and to build us as a Body to the image of His Son.
The need to consecrate oneself
Do you remember that parable when the rich man says: "… I will pull down my barns, and build greater, I bestow all my grain and my goods … But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be? ...". I do not know if my brothers saw the movie "Schindler's list". Do you remember the end? This end upsets me; the death of the Jews also upset me; but brothers, this desperate man was saying: "I could have saved some more with my car, and others with my ring, and with this clock ...". So then they say to him: "Calm down; you did well"; and he answered: "No, no; I could have done more". He had given everything, almost until he had nothing left; but he still knew he might have saved a few more.
What will each of us say before the judgment seat of Christ? This is what upsets me about this movie; that many will have to say: but what did I do with this farm? What did I do with this company? What did I do with my bank account? What did I do with my things? I didn't do anything; I did not put them to the Lord's service, I did not give them to him. And then: now what? There's nothing that can be done there. Nobody can take their possessions with them.
I imagine many women had a jar of alabaster full of perfume, just like Mary, who anointed the Lord; and many people were thinking: "No, the fact is that he's not worth it; unless perhaps just a droplet. This is worth a great deal, and it would be better to sell it and carry on with business, and later bring it to him". But Mary didn't think twice: she took the jar, broke it, and anointed the Lord! Nobody can do that today, there in heaven: can anybody do that? Nobody! What we don't do for the Lord in this life now, we won't ever be able to do again. Let's give to the Lord, because time is running out and there are already few opportunities remaining. But we are still alive, we are still here. Let's at least sustain the rope, even if we're not going down the well ourselves.
What did the Lord say to his apostles? "You me will be my witnesses ... to the ends of the earth". Brothers, the churches of Chile are being used by the Lord to take His Word to the ends of the earth; it is an honor that not all the nations have. Glory to the Lord! Let's break the jar with joy, and let's spill the perfume to the Lord! Because the gospel cannot even enter into other nations: and from here it is being exported! I hope that we all appreciate what the Lord wants to do; I hope we are able to value these moments of life, which the Lord is allowing us to live. I hope we have heavenly vision. I hope we are able to see more than just a movement that drags the crowds along, but rather to see the God of glory, the Lord of Lords. I hope we are able to perceive the greatness of our God who is given freely to us, and who is working in our hearts. Let's not harden our heart. Let us give ourselves wholly to the Lord.
Everything is in the Bible
I remember an anecdote: a brother was praying: "Lord, send to me Japan, the United States, Australia, all over". The Lord says to him: "Who are the neighbors of this house?" They were Japanese, American and Australian. This is what we are like. First Jerusalem, because God is a God of order, later Judea, later Samaria and later even to the ends of the earth. The shepherds do not give birth to sheep, the sheep are to those that give birth to sheep; the shepherds support them. Our God is Holy, and so is all that is in the Bible: do you want to learn about marriage? There it is in the Bible: do you want to learn how children should grow up? There it is in the Bible: how to give oneself to the Lord with all your goods? There it is in the Bible. Everything is in the Bible; everything is to be judged by the Bible: do you want to know the events of the end times? Or Escatology, there they are in the Bible.
That's why we need to get stuck into the Word more, to offer ourselves for the work that the Holy Spirit is doing, and which is revealed in this verse: "For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). You are not here so that you may be like Alejandro, nor Nee nor Luther, nor John, nor Paul, nor Peter. You are here on earth so that you may be made in accordance with the image of Jesus Christ. He is our model; we must be transformed to be like Him, and only the Holy Spirit is going to fulfill that. Let us offer ourselves, let's get to know the Word, and let's allow the Spirit to do His work. That's why God created us, and that's why He called us. Blessed is His Holy Name!