“Lord,
may we submit to Your Word. Really
believe Your Word. Act upon Your
Word. And preach Your Word to people,
and to do whatever you would tell us.
Amen.”
NASB: "Whatever He
says to you, do it." (John 2:5).
NIV: "Do whatever he
tells you." (John 2:5).
KJV: “Whatsoever
he saith unto you, do it.” (John 2:5).
NKJV: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5).
ESV: "Do whatever he
tells you." (John 2:5).
These are the renderings of the verse in the Gospel of John. This is the statement of the mother of Jesus,
the Virgin Mary. She does not point to
herself but she points solely to her
Son. This excludes coming to her to get
to Christ. Christ is the only way to God
the Father. To use this story as a basis
for Romish doctrine is contrary to the sacred text of Scripture. She said to do whatever He tells you. We
are told in the New Testament that older woman ought to teach what is
good. Mary is an example of teaching what is good. What she taught which is clearly seen in
this little verse is profound, divine and explicit. What did John the Baptist do in his
ministry? He pointed to Christ. John 1:36 says, “and he
looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of
God!" (NASB).
Sound teachers of the pure sacred faith point to Christ as the only way
to God. John and Mary taught this and all
of Scripture speaks to it. What was the
declaration by God the Father? Was it to
go to Mary, or was it directed to His Son?
Mark 9:7 says, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!" John and Mary pointed to Christ as was the
design of God the Father. God the Father
declared “LISTEN TO HIM!” Have you
listened to Christ as God commands? Do
you do what He commands, and have you believed the gospel, and walked in
obedience? How many of us have failed to
listen to Christ? How many of us have
sinned in
His face and linger in our sin?
The
Scripture says do whatever He tells
you. She says do. This word refers to
acting upon what the Lord Jesus Christ said.
We must act upon what He said.
Matthew 7:23-25 says, “Then
I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it
did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” A person is considered a wise man who built
his house on the rock. Storms came and
it beat against the house, and it did not fall, because it has been built upon
the rock. Who is the Rock? The Rock is none other then Jesus Christ our
great Incarnate King and Master. Mary
says what is consistent with the teaching of Christ. She was an example of believing what Christ
taught. Christ pointed people to
Himself. Christ did not say, “Go first
to my mother.” No, He says “Come to Me”
and “Continue in My Word.” How many
people do not what He says? How many
people tell others to act on what Jesus says, and do not act on what He
says? They preach what they do not do. We must be consistent in our theology and we
must be consistent with how we live our lives.
Do you a life of consistent holiness and godliness? Are you a person who is blameless in doing
what He commands? I do not mean sinless
but like a person like Job. Would God
say of you, “This man or woman is blameless.
No one is like him or her in all the earth.” Are you a Job who is a godly man and who was
a devote family man? Or are you a
hypocrite of hypocrites? Do you put
aside His commands? Can you say as Mary
said do whatever He says and say it
with a good and clear conscience?
Act on the Word of Christ
Do what He has set forth
Accomplish His will
At whatever the cost
His ways of telling us to act are righteous, good and holy. Paul says not to go beyond what is
written. Mary said to do whatever He
tells you. His Word is matchless and
true. His Word is an eternal treasure
and it is alive and active. When Mary
says this it covers all of the divine Word.
We are to do what He says. To
reject and not to do what Christ says is rebellion against Him. Sinners tend to listen to worldly
things. We love what man thinks
regarding the things of God. We think
man speaks the truth about the things of God but we are wholly wrong. Man goes to his priest for forgiveness;
Eastern religious folk do meditation and yoga; Mormons do works of
righteousness to attain to eternal life; Catholics do penance; Jehovah’s
Witnesses go door-to-door; Homosexuals seek to justify for their sin that is
unnatural--a life of lawlessness and tolerance; Literal Protestants reject the
gospel; Freemasons do good works and serve Baal; all of which, if left till
death, end in eternal death, the second death.
Mary said do whatever He tells
you. The Word of Christ is not
merely the Words of Christ only. Some
people think that the words of Christ in red in some Bible are only
inspired. Some theologians do not like
to use Bibles that have the words of Christ in red because they fear it gives
the wrong impression. We recognize that all
of His Word is precious, but so also is the Words of His apostles, and the Old
Testament prophets. In the New Testament
alone there are one thousand and fifty commands. How do you match up with His commands? Do you do
whatever He commands? The Word of
Christ, that is, the Holy Word in both Old and New Testaments, are pure, holy,
undefiled, precious, eternal, stored in the heavens; forever written in heaven;
life-changing, life-enabling; life-convicting; life-alternating;
life-penetrating, without which no man would be born from above; no sinner
convicted; no change kindled with divine fire; no word of the Lord; no hope for
the hopeless; no salvation for the spiritual poor; no secure foundation for the
hope of heaven: With the Word of the
divine Lord Jesus Christ there is sure hope; true faith; lasting confidence;
eternal treasures revealed, that await His people who live by faith. The Holy Word of Christ says, “The just shall
live by faith.” Man changes this and
perverts it. Man says, “We must fulfill
my desire of satisfying my lustful desires.”
He says, “No, its faith and works.”
He loves to change the truth and engage in foolish ways of the spiritually
destructive children that reside in hell.
Do you think it is a small thing regarding this doctrine of faith
alone? Do you think if you abandon it
you will go through the pearly gates?
All hope out side of the all-sufficient, divine, eternally exalted Christ,
is foolishly hopeless; depraved speculations; hell-bound conjecture and
spiritually harmful to its hearers. Do
you love to do God’s Word? Are you a person
who loves the words of the world: empty philosophy; secular humanism; worldly
theologies and higher criticism? Have
you embraced the cow of rebellion? Do
you serve the god made with human hands?
Do you practice your lawless deeds of sin, and reject His truth? What do you secretly think? If Christ saw your mind, what would He
say? Would you say, “Surely this one
does not do what I say”? Would He say,
“This one tries to get out of what I say”?
Or would He say, “Surely this one does whatever I say!”? What are you a picture of? Are you a picture of lawlessness, a devil or
a saint who seeks to be holy? If you
have bad thoughts and corrupt thinking, use the Word to counter those thoughts,
and to change your thoughts. How you think determines how you live. Are you thinking God-exalting and
God-pleasing ways to seek to honor Him?
Again, are you a Christian that can say to the other because you
yourself practice it, do whatever He tells
you? Have you failed, and do you
linger in your self-piety? Stand strong,
and arise sinner, and fight the good fight for Jesus. Do not give up. Do
whatever He says. Go to His Word and
then, my friend, seek to practice His Word, for, are you the man who built His
house on the rock? Do not build your
house on sinking sand. Sinking sand is
embracing a substitute besides Christ but turn to the Rock Who is Christ the
Eternal Logos. Therefore do whatever He says!
Now we shall turn to the word whatever. This word encompasses anything Christ
would say and anything Christ would command.
Has He commanded you and have you accomplished what He commanded? Have you truly believed the Lord and have you
truly repented? Have you loved your
neighbor and have you obeyed His Ten Commandments? All of us have fallen short; we must
fervently and faithfully repent.
In Matthew 5:19 it says, “Anyone who
breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of
heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (NIV).
Do what Christ says; practice and
teach His commands, for they will be great in the kingdom of heaven! Mark 7:9 said about the leaders, “And he said
to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in
order to observe your own traditions!”
How many have put aside God’s commands and observe their own man-made
traditions? John 14:15: "If you love me, you will obey
what I command.” If you love Christ you
will do what He says. Again we are faced
with doing with what Christ said. John
14:21 says, “Whoever
has my commands and obeys them,
he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I
too will love him and show myself to him."
Christ’s people will be loved by the Father and by the Son, and Christ
will show Himself to them. The love of
the Father and the Son cannot be divided or parted. It is perfect love. John 15:10 says, “If you
obey my commands, you will
remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”
John 15:12-15 says, "This is My
commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. "Greater love has no one than this, that
one lay down his life for his friends." You are My friends if you do what I command
you. "No longer do I call you
slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known
to you.”
Whatever is Thy command, Oh Lord
Direct me to Thy ways
And cause me to do whatever Your Word is
So I may remain in Thy love
Let me do whatever Your command is
Let me continue in Your Word and show I
love You
Have you turned to the right, or to the left? Should you not turn to Christ, and reach forward
unto Him? What is the testimony of God
the Father about His Son? Go to God the
Father and see the wonders He says about His only Beloved Son. The Father declares of His Son something that
is unlike sinners or sinful leaders of men.
He declares that His Beloved Son is wholly and altogether pleasing to
Him. Therefore His Son must be believed,
trusted, embraced and, then, poor sinner, do not just hear His Word, but act by
faith, and do His precious ways for it is the way of life. Turn, then, to God the Father, the only Holy
Father that is, that was, and that ever shall be. Jesus said “Keep through Thine own
Name.” God the Father is the only person
in existence that should be called Holy
Father. If God the Father is Holy,
how much more should you listen to what He says, then depraved men? Do you turn to those who claim to be
“Fathers” in Rome, or do you turn
to the only Holy Father? Paul was the
spiritual father of Timothy but he is not a priest in the Roman sense. Paul did not hear the confession of Timothy;
Paul did not absolve sin; no, Paul was a man of faith but not the faith of Rome but of the
Christian faith. All earthly fathers are
imperfect, but God the Father is perfect.
Earthly fathers will err and sin but the Father in heaven is a sinless
and true God the Father. Turn, then, to
Him to understand what you should do concerning His Son. God the Father bears testimony to His precious
altogether perfect Son in Matt. 17:5.
Turn now to the word He. Turn to Him and act upon what He has said.
Matthew 17:5 speaks of what God the Father declared, "This is
My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" God the Father says He is wholly pleased with
His Son. He is all-pleased with
Him. Christ is altogether trustworthy. Man-made Jesus’ end in dust—in man’s depraved
imaginations Jesus is the brother of Lucifer (Mormonism); a highly exalted
angel (Jehovah’s Witnesses); insufficient to pay for the sins of His people
(Romanism). God the Father says Listen
to Him. He points to His only, true
Son. Jesus is not the brother of
Lucifer; He is one of kind; He is the agent of creation. Jesus is not a highly exalted angel; He is
God Incarnate. Jesus is all-sufficient;
you do not need purgatory with this Jesus.
The Father says listen to Him for He speaks of the gospel for He is the
Author of it, and He is the only Way to the streets of gold. Do you listen to the eternal Son of God, and
do you love to listen to Him as commanded by the Father? Again we see in Luke 9:35 says of what God the Father said: "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen
to Him!" Jesus is the Chosen
One not Mary. Therefore hearken to Him
and heed His Words. Mary says what God
the Father has declared. She teaches
what are in conformity to the sacred pages of Scripture. You do not hear Mary saying, “You must go
through me to get to my Son. I am the
dispenser of all graces.” No, Mary says,
do whatever He says. What does Christ
say? He commands people at every time
and everywhere to repent and believe on Him for eternal life. Jesus says of Himself that He alone is the
Way to the Father. Jesus says “I am the
sole Mediator between God and men and there are no other mediators.” The Word does not support other mediators and
any other Redeemer in any other sense. Jesus
says love one another. He says to love
God with all our minds, strength and heart.
He points people to Himself and to none other. Someone in the time of Jesus believed that it
was proper to exalt Mary by calling her blessed, but Christ said blessed are
they that hear the Word and keep it. Have
you done what He has said? Do you hear
or comprehend the Word, and do you keep His Word? If you do whatever He says, you will
comprehend the Word and keep the Word.
He commands us to understand for we see in Mark 7:14 speaks of Christ’s testimony of listening to
Him: “After He called the crowd to Him
again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and
understand…” Jesus tells the crowd to
listen to Him. He speaks to all of the
people, and He commands their understanding.
Jesus knows He is the one to listen to.
He points people not to His mother to get to Him but to Himself for He
is the Incarnate Way, and He is wholly
matchless. If Jesus has commanded you to
listen to Him, why do you not heed His command?
Who is the One who hears the Word perfectly, and who is the One who
keeps the Word perfectly? It is Christ
alone; we cannot turn to Mary and say this of her. She prayed and declared she needed a
Savior. Flee not to a sinner in need of
a Savior but flee to the Perfect One who is nothing less then the Incarnate
King. If you flee to Mary in prayer,
your prayers will be wholly displeasing to God.
He despises prayer to saints and Jesus Himself hates prayers to His
prayer. People say, “Blessed are those
who pray to your mother and say it.”
Jesus says, “Rather, blessed are those who pray to Me, my Father and
Spirit and do that alone.” When the
Father commands His people to listen to His Son, and when Jesus commands people
to hearken to Him and hear, He is not saying, “I am merely the Way to the
Father but to get to Me you must go through my Mother.” No, it means, rather, go directly to Christ to get to the Father. Heed the words of none other as you would
Christ the Eternal King.
In Mark 12:37 speaks of a
“…large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.” The crowd enjoyed listening to Him. His people enjoy listening to Him. Those called according to His purpose, and
the elect, love to hear Him. His people
will not hear other Ways, but the Matchless Son of God. He was a great preacher, and this preacher
was the only Way. Mary is not the way to
Him; Jesus is the Way to the Father. We
may approach Christ without going through Mary.
We can go directly to Him. This
Mary of Rome and this Jesus of
Rome is not the Mary and Jesus neither of Scripture nor of biblical
Christianity. Do you enjoy listening to
the Father’s only Beloved Son? Have you
hearkened to the Words of Christ? If you
do not enjoy listening to the Word of Christ, examine yourself, and do not be
deceived by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hearken toward repentance and bearing fruits of repentance in your life. How many crowds merely hear the Words of
Christ and say, “What a nice teaching” but do not manifest it in their
lives. How many people call Him rich;
and do not ask Him to be more like Him.
How many people call Him a prophet, but do not need His words about His
own testimony of Himself (that He is God Incarnate). How many people call Him genuine and true,
but do not obey His teachings. How many
people call Him a great teacher and yet do not do what He says. Mary says do
whatever He says! Have you listened
to Him to do whatever He says? Hear and
do. Listen and act. Comprehend and practice. Submit and surrender to Him. Do as He says and walk the road toward
heaven. Do what He says and do not turn
to the right or to the left. Do what He
says and live the Word. What a wonder it
is when a true servant-friend of Christ hears the Word, enjoys the Word, is
touched by the Word, and does what the Word says. Do not be like Herod who liked to listen to
John the Baptist but did not heed what He said.
What a great judgment awaited Herod who liked the words of John, and did
not act on it. God’s great wrath is now
actively on Herod in hell. What Herod
heard, he is responsible for but he rejected the teaching of John. Enemies of Christ in John 10:20 were His
enemies who did not say “we must listen to Him to live” but questioned why they
should listen to Him at all: “Many of
them were saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen
to Him?" Do you question why
you should listen to Him? Do you say “He
speaks kind words” but secretly say, “Why listen to Him?” Jesus warned His followers of the yeast of
the Pharisees and Herod. But the Word
and Teaching of Christ is pure and cannot be compared to Christ’s Word. In Luke 19:48 it says, “Yet
they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” (NIV). In order for you to do whatever He says, do
you hang on His every Word? Have you
elevated a teacher to this level of spiritual credibility? Repent!
But I am not saying that we should not trust reliable teachers of the
Word. We should hear them and search the
Scriptures to see if those things are so like was done to Paul. If the Bereans tested Paul, how much more
should we test teachers of our day? Test
them and turn to the Word. After turning
to the Word, if true, then believe. Do
you hang on every Word of Christ? Where
have you fallen short, and where do you need grace to restrain you from sin,
and where do you need grace to act on His commands? Hang, then, on His every Word. Trust His Word; depend on His Word; put your
confidence on His Word; have you mind set upon it; be desperately abandoned to
His Word, wholly set apart!
Luke 16:14 says of His
enemies that when they listened to Him it did not end in belief but in
scoffing, “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening
to all these things and were scoffing at Him.”
John 10:20 speaks of His
enemies who did not say “we must listen to Him” but questioned why they should
listen to Him at all: “Many of them were
saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?"
Luke 2:46 speaks of Christ
listening to teachers and learning from them.
What a picture this is, and it shows us what we ought to do: listen
to God’s teachers that He has appointed in our lives. “Then, after three days they found Him
in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them
and asking them questions.” Do you
listen to God’s appointed teachers in your life? Are you in a biblical, Christ-centered church
that exalts Christ and preachers the gospel?
Have you become distracted when you listen to teachers that God has put
in your life? Do you ask your teachers
sincere questions to gain knowledge? Do
you value your learning? The people
listened to Christ as Christ listened to the teachers in the temple. He is an example of how to learn, and He is
the example of learning from Him. We
learn abundantly from Christ, and we must submit to Him, and love what comes
out of His mouth that is in His Word. Luke
5:1 speaks of a crowd listening to Christ.
How many crowds do not hear Him yet listen? “Now it happened that while the crowd was
pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was
standing by the lake of Gennesaret…” When Jesus speaks it is the Word of God. The Word of God is something that we must
heed to. We must heed to the Word of
God. Why have you not heeded Christ, and
why have you not done what He said? He
spoke the Word to you and you have hardened your hearts. Hearken to the gospel command and embrace His
Word; hid in your heart and mediate on it, and practice it forthwith in your
life! As went to the teachers, now,
people go to Him. In Luke 21:38 says, “And all the people would get up early in the
morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.”
Luke 15:1 speaks of sinners listening to Him: “Now all the tax
collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.” Are you coming near Christ and are you
listening to Him? There is a song that
says, “Drawer me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the precious bleeding side…” Are you near to God? Do you go to Him on a regular basis and seek
to get away from sin? Doesn’t sin become
less when you draw nigh unto God? Luke
16: 31: "But
he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not
be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" Jesus said if they believed Me they would
believe the Prophets but the fact was, they rejected the Prophets and rejected
the words of Christ. Peter in Acts 2:22
speaks of listening to His words, he said “Men of Israel, listen to these
words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and
wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you
yourselves know-- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and
foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put
Him to death.” Listen to what? Its Peter’s message of Christ and the
gospel. It’s the message of the cross
which takes away the sin of His people.
It was propitiated and expiated. Listening
to the Word of Peter is hearing the Word of Christ.
Continue in the gospel, my friends in Christ, and remain in His
love. Do whatever He tells you. Turn now to the words tells you. Christ tells all-the-
world to repent and believe. He tells
you what to believe and how to live. Hearken
then to His matchless message of truth and grace. Why do so many hearken to the
words of false teachers, and not unto Christ?
“Lord, may we do what Mary has said; that is, to do whatever He
tells you. Let us not do what the Mary
of this world has said which is none other then Satan. May we turn to Christ and go to Christ. There is no Mediator so great and so mighty
as Jesus Christ. Amen.”
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