Title: Fountain of Life
Contents
[Min Byeong-seok's Proverbs Commentary] 34 Fountain of Life
(Text: Proverbs 14:26 - 27)
Today's exposition of Proverbs will receive grace under the title of the fountain of life with the theme of verse 27. A spring is a source of water. And the fountain of life means the source of life. Our life needs this water of life. Life is thirsty for water. Thirst means no satisfaction. When we humans were first created, everything was satisfactory.
When God saw all the creation he had made, he said, “It was very good in God’s sight.” But after Adam's disobedience, all of God's goodness was defiled with sin and placed under a curse. To be under a curse means to be judged for it at some time.
1. Life's Thirst (Three)
There are three things that make you thirsty in life.
(1) One reason is the curse given to life. After God created Adam, He blessed Adam and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This is a wonderful blessing given only to humans. But this blessing came in Genesis 3:16 and turned into pain caused by conception, suffering for the rest of my life, and sweating on my forehead. Because of this, our lives have to live a tiring life without rest or peace.
(2) Another reason for the thirst in life is because of the existence of sin, which always sticks to the body like leeches. Sin is, on the one hand, very attractive. With that charm, it seduces and seduces our fleshly lusts, covetousness, lust for honor, and sexual immorality. Sin gives us temporary satisfaction and pleasure. So it attracts our body and our mind. Sin is like Potiphar's wife. It's about having fun together. sleeping together. We are worried about the fact that it is very difficult to defeat it, which is constantly approaching us with a very sweet charm.
Paul confessed his weakness in being unable to overcome this kind of iniquity. ‘I delight in the law of God in my inner man, but I see in my members another law, fighting the transgression of my heart, and bringing it into captivity under the law of sin that is in my members. Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Sin feels sweet and approachable until it is committed like this, but once it is committed, it becomes terrifying like a tiger. It stabs me through my conscience. It takes away my peace of mind and brings fear into my life. Why does sin threaten us and instill fear after it has done it? Because sin always comes with punishment. Jeremiah 14:10 says that God will remember the sins of man and punish them. As long as our sins don't go away from our bodies, the thirst in life can never be solved.
(3) Another reason for the thirst for the next life is the death of life. Death is the end of all things. God said to Adam, “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” In life, everyone dies. Why? The price of human sin is death, and there is no one living on this earth who does not have to pay the price for their sins.
Therefore, as long as these three problems in life, the curse of God pronounced upon our lives, remain, or the existence of sin that pierces our conscience, or death, which inevitably comes as a price for our sins, does not disappear from us, life is thirsty. is no way to solve it.
(Jesus went through the city of Sychar in Samaria with his disciples one day. Jesus and his company came to the well of Jacob. The disciples went to the city to buy food. Then a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water = Conversation with the woman = Jesus said to this woman, 'If you had known who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked her for living water.' Jesus told the woman that if she eats this water that she has brought and needs, he will immediately thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Jesus revealed that he was the one who could give this woman the living water of life. Then, did this woman drink and how did she drink it? My heart was pierced by the words, 'Bring your husband.' He repented and drank by faith knowing that the true fountain of life came from Jesus.)
We can find another thirsty man. He was a rich young man with a lot of money and a lot of inheritance from his parents. What he desperately needed was the salvation of his life. This young man was thinking deeply about how to solve the thirst of death. One day he came to Jesus to ask for an answer to this question. His question was simple yet earnest. ‘Teacher, what must I do to be saved?’ This is a question that any intelligent person should ponder at least once, and it is a question that we want someone to hear the right answer to. To this question, Jesus said, “You must keep the commandments.” The young man replied, 'I have kept the commandments since I was a child.' Then Jesus said to the young man, "Then you will give all that you have to the poor, and then follow me." But this young man could not follow the Lord's words. He could not drink the living water overflowing from the fountain of life in front of him, and he was still walking along the road of thirst.
2. Fountain of Life
From time immemorial, people have been struggling to find this fountain of life. All the miscellaneous religions that exist in the world today were created for this purpose. But there is only one fountain of true life. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And in the words of Proverbs, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.” Then, here we are going to look at what the fear of God is manifested.
(1) The fear of God is shown by believing in the promises of God's grace. In Isaiah 55:1-3, God's covenant is revealed as an everlasting covenant, and it is stated as a covenant that was granted to David. God gave us this covenant through Jesus Christ. If we believe in Jesus Christ, we become members of this covenant and drink living water from this fountain of life.
If we are to become covenant bearers of grace, it is through faith in Jesus. Without Jesus, we cannot say that we fear God. Because God has established a new law for people to fear God by believing in Jesus. John 12:44 says, “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but believes in him who sent me, and he who sees me sees him who sent me.” In John 5:23 it says, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son honors the Father who sent me. It is not a landscape,' he said. In verse 40, he says, “My Father’s will is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Ladies and gentlemen, the fountain of life flows like a river only in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah !
(2) Next, those who fear God will receive the Holy Spirit. In John 7:37, on the great day at the end of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." He was speaking of the Holy Spirit.'
No one can drink living water from the fountain of life without receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes people drink this living water so that everyone who drinks this water is born again. Jesus said to Nicodemus, who came to him at night, “Unless a person is forgiven and is born again of the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Therefore, God has promised to give the Holy Spirit as a gift to those who fear God.
(3) Then, the God-fearing life is manifested through the life of abiding in Christ. Regarding this principle, Jesus said in John 15 that those who bear fruit are those who fear God. Faith without works is said to be dead faith. Jesus lives forever and the Holy Spirit comes upon us with power to bear fruit.
If he claims to be a Christian and bears no fruit, he is not a living Christian, but a dead Christian. They must come back to life. The way for them to come back to life is to receive the Word of God and have their hearts revive again. The Word of God is meant to bear fruit as long as it falls into the field of our hearts. With this fruit, our hearts are revived and the work of the Holy Spirit is strongly manifested and we grow in faith.
When the Word of God properly falls into our hearts, it first appears that the Word pierces the sins of our hearts. It breaks my heart and makes me repent. It is said that the word of God is alive and has the power to pierce and split the marrow of a person's heart. On the day of Pentecost, when that large crowd of Jews heard the gospel preached by Peter, the words pierced their hearts and beat their breasts, and they came to repentance, saying, 'What shall we do, brothers?'
The fact that the Word of God fell into the field of our hearts can be seen as a new change in our hearts. God's word gives me the power of new life. That power gives us new strength so that we can also turn away from sin and false paths and head towards the path of new life.
Conclusion: Did you drink living water from this fountain of life? The Samaritan woman, who had lived a long life with five husbands, also gained eternal life by drinking the living water from the fountain of life and lived in a new hope. Mary Magdalene, who was possessed by seven demons, also started a new life by drinking this living water. The unhappy woman caught in adultery also drinks this water to quench her thirst in life. Anyone who is thirsty should come. He told me to come and drink without cost. Do you have Jesus in your heart, who is the fountain of this living water? Are you being filled with the Holy Spirit and enjoying the fullness of life in a river of living water that flows like a river? I bless you in the name of the Lord that you can become a provider of living water by allowing this fountain of life to flow into your homes, to your neighbors, and to flow in the hearts of my people. *