Why do we want God? That is a legitimate question. Do we simply want Him because we want to get to heaven and have Him take care of our needs while we’re still on earth? That is an important question for us and for our day because of John 2:23-25:
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. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man.
He would not entrust Himself to any man. He was not giving Himself to them. We need to think that through. What happens when God does not give Himself to you? You remain you! There is no transformation and no transfiguration, just you. Christ was not entrusting Himself; He was not giving Himself to them. This passage could be about signs and wonders, but that is not really what it is about. It is about our self-centered lifestyle and wanting God to do stuff for us, wanting God to take care of us, wanting Him to do this and that for us. It is a self-centeredness in us that keeps God from giving Himself fully to us, and He will not entrust Himself to us in that state.
He did not commit Himself because He knew what was in the heart of all men. He will deal with us according to what is in our hearts, and if our heart attitude is just “give me, give me, give me,” He will give to you, but with no expectation of eternal plan for you because you are not on eternal ground. People do not like this because they do not like being responsible for their actions. They do not want to face consequences. They do not like to repent. They do not like conviction, and without conviction you cannot repent. Lest the Spirit draws you, you cannot come. We are in a mess and it is time for the truth and not our watered-down mixed up American version of it.
Our lifestyles are killing us because they are keeping us from the only life that is: Christ. Our love for self and the things that fill it has this nation on the verge of devastation. John wants us to understand something: God sees our hearts and sees where it is really given over to Him or not. He sees what we are holding back and will not give over to Him, which is our self, our all. We say in our hearts, “I want Jesus this much, but the rest, I want me.“ I warn us about what is going on the church of Jesus Christ. The church is becoming about “them” and “us”. It must become about Jesus! Your decision and my decision is to be with a people who are going after Jesus, and if that is not what you are a part of, get out. We are just a bunch of losers going after Jesus and He makes us winners, but it is by His doing and not ours. I hear that all the time and I want to say, “forget about comparisons.”
The question of all of God’s people should be, “Are you a part of a people who are going after Jesus”? Is He even on the agenda anymore? Is He being preached? Is He being taught? Is He being sought? Is He sufficient for us? Is Jesus Christ all we need like God the Father said He is? Or do we need other elements added in? Do we need Jewish elements in our faith? We think we need this element or that element added in, all the time staining the eternal reality of the eternal council, that Christ alone would be the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Get on heavenly ground where there was no Jewish cultural and religious nonsense. That is exactly what it is, nonsense. There was no Gentile nonsense either. In the eternal purpose of God established before time, they did not exist. There was no humanity, there was no division. Adam had not been created yet. There is eternal thought behind this, and it brings all our little pet-peeve doctrines and stomps on them and crushes them under the greatness of the Life and the power of the eternal Son of God, the eternal Father, and the eternal Spirit.
That should be what is going on, and that is why we want to go to heavenly ground in our walk. We are going to see something on heavenly ground, and it is going to lift us out of the earthly nonsense and confusion that the church is in. If Jesus is not your sole sufficiency, you are not even born again and are deluded and deceived. You cannot be born again without Him being all in all, without Him being Life. The entirety of the purpose of God, not just the salvific, but the entirety of the purpose of God is in Jesus Christ.
This message is meant to be a butt kicking to the church that believes in something other than Jesus and put its confidence in something other than Jesus. It is chasing after this element and that element and all kinds of elements, and once you go down that path you hear things like, “Well, my element is just as important as yours!” No, there is only the supremacy of Christ. He is the eternal thought. He is the eternal Word. He is the eternal Voice. He is the Creator Himself.
We can talk about all the incredible things of God, but if they do not take us to the greatness of Christ, we are missing the point. Christ is lost in His church, and we have a Christ-less Christianity. I am sorry to be so intense about it, but we cannot leave it on this ground. This confusion is giving way to every type of doctrine. Doctrines of demons have been so readily introduced into the house of God, and we have believed them because they placate us. They give us something to do for God.
Christ in the eternal council of God is established as the eternal Way. He is the Word. He is the voice of God; He is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1). All of this is established before time even began. God is going to perform His great will through His Son, and the great will is going to revolve around the Son, and the great will of God is going to be that Son filling all things.