John 4, 4-26, 28-29. And he, speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ, must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh
to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the
well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of
Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her, Give me to
drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore
said unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, Askest drink
of me, who am a Samaritan woman, for the Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, then 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. The woman saith
unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep Whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater
than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said
unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. For the water that I shall give
him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal
life. The woman said unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come all the way
hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call
thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said unto
him, I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou set'st
well, I have no husband. But thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This hast thou
said truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
Believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor
in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which
ye know not, we worship that which we know, for salvation
is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for such doth the Father seek to be his worshipers. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The woman
saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, he that is called Christ. When he is come, he will declare
unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. So the woman left her waterpot
and went away into the city and said to the people, Come, see
a man who told me all things that ever I did. Can this be
the Christ? So they went out of the city
and were coming to him. From this story, which is one
of the most familiar when anyone begins to get some acquaintance
with the gospel history, the record of the life and ministry
of our Lord Jesus, I wish to speak to you tonight on this
very basic subject, one that is very much a part of every
one of us, namely, how soul thirst is satisfied. The heart of our
study will be the words of our Lord Jesus in verses 13 and 14. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. but whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that
I shall give him shall become in him a well of water, springing
up to eternal life." Here, in these words, our Lord gives one
of the most sweeping, one of the most comprehensive statements
concerning the great issue of how soul thirst is truly satisfied. And these words come to us in
a setting in which our Lord has encountered a woman with great
unmet soul thirst. This woman is not just alone. She is a picture of every man,
every woman, every fellow, every girl who has not drunk of the
water of life. thirsting, coming to a fountain
that can never quench that thirst, but coming again and again. And
in that situation, the Lord Jesus speaks and tells her how her
deepest soul thirst can be fully and eternally met. The Scriptures
make very clear that every single human being, by nature, is possessed
of this unmet soul For we were made for the living God. We were
made to know Him. We were made to have fellowship
with Him. And though sin has caused us,
as it were, to cause God to vacate His place of rightful dwelling,
there is that sense of unfulfillment that gnaws like a terrible cancer
at the hearts of men. Men do not by nature hunger after
God. That concept is explicitly denied
in Scripture. There is none that seeketh after
God. But they do hunger to have that
emptiness filled. The problem is they seek to fill
it with everything, but the only thing that can fill it. Hence
the famous words of St. Augustine, Thou hast made us
for Thyself, and our souls are restless till they rest in Thee. This is why the prophet Isaiah
said, there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. There
can be no peace. There is that unmet soul thirst,
and it will be unmet until that person comes into living contact
with the only one who can impart living water. And so, as we look
at the passage, we are not interested only in discovering how the Lord
Jesus meets the soul thirst of this woman. but we are seeking
to discover how he met her need in order that we may see the
basic pattern by which he always meets the deepest soul thirst
of all who come unto God by him. Now as we think our way through,
particularly verses 13 and 14, and then we'll be ranging back
and forward in the general context, consider in the first place Our
Lord's statement concerning the water which cannot satisfy, verse
13, Jesus answered and said unto her, Everyone that drinketh of
this water shall thirst again. In that immediate context, he
was pointing, of course, to Jacob's well. He was pointing to a literal
supply of literal water, water that no doubt was probably a
lot purer than this, but nonetheless essentially H2O. And when he
said, whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again, he
was referring, of course, to that particular well and the
water it contained. But he was not in any way limiting
the meaning of his words to that. For remember, he's dealing with
water here in a double meaning continually. And he's speaking
of water as the supply which meets the deepest thirst, not
of the mouth and of the tongue, but the deepest thirst of the
soul. And just as that literal well
of Jacob had no ability to bring permanent satisfaction, but this
woman had to come day by day to fill her water pots, so that
wearying task of coming to a well to take water that could never
fully satisfy is a very graphic picture of every single well
at which men seek to satisfy the deepest thirst of the soul,
and Jesus Christ this night stands by every single well at which
you, here tonight, seek to satisfy soul thirst, and He says to you,
Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. That's the sign that Jesus Christ
is painted with His own hand and placed over every single
well at which men seek to gratify this sense of gnawing emptiness
and thirst that has been left by a vacated God. For that's
the root of man's restlessness. That's the root of man's unfulfillment. It's the gnawing ache of a vacated
God. And Jesus says, of everything
to which men come, drink of this well, and you will thirst again. Now let's break that down in
a few areas. What are some of the wells to
which men and women come in our day? to which men and women came
in this day, to which men and women will continue to come until
Christ returns, but water which can never satisfy. Well, in the
case of this woman, she was trying to satisfy soul thirst by coming
to the well of immorality and sensual pleasure. Thou hast said,
well, Jesus said that you have no husband. You've had five husbands,
and the man you now have is not your legitimate husband. Here
was a woman, and I say it, I trust with discretion. But as it were,
being driven from one marriage bed and one illicit relationship
bed to another, thinking that somehow my soul thirst will be
satisfied in some earthly, carnal, sensual relationship. But Jesus
said to this woman, whoever drinks of this well shall thirst again. And she had been coming to that
well of immorality and sensual pleasure for years only to have
her soul thirst unmet. What was true then is true in
our own day. We have prophets who are telling
us, the well of life is the well of the titillation of your sensual
appetites and pleasures. Come to this well and you'll
never thirst again. Jesus Christ has beat them to
that well, and He stands saying above their hollow voices, Whosoever
drinks of this water shall thirst again. This woman was an eloquent
testimony that sensual delights and pleasures can never satisfy
deepest soul thirst. Sure there is pleasure in sin
for a season, But she had to go back again and again, trying
various wells of sensual pleasure, only to have her need unmet. And I say particularly to the
young people amongst us tonight, hear the words of Christ. Hear
them couched in the context of this woman. She tried that well,
and she found it left her thirsty. And some of you now, with everything
in you, are longing to find that well. If only you could break
off the traces of the restraints of mom and dad and society, and
you have secret scheming plans, what you're going to do could
drink deeply of the well of sensual pleasure. I'm talking to some
of you young men and women that can't wait until you can abandon
yourselves to the lust of the flesh. Oh, my dear young friend,
listen to the words of Christ. Whoever drinks of this well shall
thirst again. In our own generation, some of
us have lived to witness those who have made no apology, that
at this well they have, as it were, pitched their tent, and
at this well they have drunk day and night, only to hang their
lives in misery as the sex symbol of the fifties, Marilyn Monroe,
at age thirty-eight, taking that overdose of sleeping pills, saying,
look, I drank of this well! And it left me empty. And she
ends it all. And some of you in the folly
of your sin, in the lies of the devil, who could never have one
thousandth the measure that a woman like that knew of drinking at
that well, that you'll be satisfied, whosoever drinks of this water
shall thirst again." And in the second place there is the well
of what I'm calling diversion and aesthetic delights. People
say, well, soul first can be filled if we can have all the
recreation that we need, all of the involvement in sports
and music and art, the beautiful thing. We have a mood in our
own generation that says, if only we can get back to the earth.
If we can move out of the city and the smoke and the din of
subways and buses and all of this mad craze of suburban life
and inner city life, and go back to the earth, get our fingers
in the dirt, and get the dirt under our fingernails, and so
you have people moving out in communes to live off the earth,
the simple life. Why? They say, here's where soul
thirst will be met. Others say soul thirst will be
met by a retreat into the abiding things, music and the arts, the
things that transcend each generation and abide. Soul thirst will be
met here. But Jesus Christ stands by the
well of diversion and aesthetic delights, innocent in themselves,
and he says, whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. And I may be speaking to some
tonight, It's not your particular bent to move to the well of sensual
pleasure. You say, no, fulfillment will
come for me in these other areas, the things that are not evil
in themselves. Maybe I'm speaking to some young
people that feel if I can only make my mark in sports, I'll
feel that sense of satisfaction. Listen, it's the emptiest, hollowest
thing in all the world. You think, oh, if I can know
something of a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand
pairs of eyes looking upon me, performing, and then looking
upon me as someone who's attained, then there'll be fulfillment.
No, there isn't. There isn't. Jesus Christ is
written over that well, whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst
again. Well, then there's the well of
material possession. The scripture says, God has given
us all things richly to enjoy, but those things were never given
to meet soul thirst. What would you think if you were
driving down the road one of these days and you passed the
park where these people play tennis, prostituting the Lord's
day, but on another day when it's all right to play tennis.
And you saw a man there with his lips parched, as you see
mine are sometimes when I preach, and no saliva and he's dry. You
see the man going around distracted, saying, I'm so thirsty, I'm so
thirsty, I've got to satisfy my thirst. And he turns around
and starts chewing on his tennis racket. You say, sir, what are you doing?
He says, I'm going to quench my thirst. By doing what? By chewing on my tennis racket.
You'd say the man was either trying to be funny, or he'd gotten
so thirsty he'd lost his head. You'd say that's ridiculous.
Chewing on your tennis racket to quench your thirst? Impossible!
Ah, listen, listen. It's just as impossible to fill
the thirst of the soul with things as it is to quench physical thirst
by chewing on a tennis racket. God never made us so that His
gifts could fill the place reserved for Himself the Giver. God never
made us that soul thirst could be satisfied with things. Things were given to us And in
the pursuit of the will of God, they were to be our servants,
as God had His rightful place in the heart and in the spirit.
But God has been vacated, and there's the empty, gnawing realization
of unmet soul thirst, and people try to fill it with things, but
it simply cannot be done. And so there is the craze for
things in our day. If I can have this thing and
that thing, then the restlessness will cease and the soul thirst
will be satisfied. No, no, Jesus says, whoever drinks
of this water shall thirst again. Now, why let your life be wrecked
and ruined simply to prove the truth of Christ's words when
he's already said it? Why be a monument to this generation
and to a succeeding generation that soul thirst cannot be filled
at that well? Well, then there are others.
Perhaps the well to which they come is not the well of sensual
pleasure, diversions, and aesthetic things. Perhaps it isn't the
well of material possessions, but it's the well of intellectual
attainment. They say the reason there's this sense of soul thirst
is because we haven't exercised our minds. And if we can understand
our world better, and understand ourselves better, if we can penetrate
within with psychology, and examine and penetrate without with astronomy
and nuclear physics and all the rest, and we can master our world
and all the rest, Then soul thirst will be met. No, no. Whoever comes to the well of
intellectual attainment shall thirst again. Listen to the statement
of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, After that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. The
world, by its wisdom, knew not God. Again, the needs of the
soul cannot be satisfied by cramming the head with knowledge any more
than stuffing a bread box with rocks fills your stomach. Again,
you'd say, that'd be stupid if I see a man who says he's hungry
and I see him putting rocks in a bread box. I say, what in the
world are you doing? He says, I'm satisfying my hunger. You say, that's not
the way. You've got to put bread in your stomach, not rocks in
a bread box. Oh, we're so smart when it comes
to filling our stomachs with bread. But such fools when it
comes to filling our souls with the only thing that can fill
them. Whoso drinks of this water, this well of intellectual attainment,
shall thirst again. Here we are, so-called most educated
generation we've ever known, and yet the most frustrated,
confused, blind, staggering generation. Why? Whoever drinks of this water
shall thirst again. Let our universities intensify
their courses. Let them double their demands.
Let them augment their programs. Turn out PhDs like General Motors
turns out Chevrolets. In Jesus' words will stand, whoever
drinks of this water shall thirst again. Soul thirst cannot be
met by intellectual attainment. Oh, but someone goes a little
high and says, well, soul thirst has got to be met with religion.
You've got to have religion. And so we have a great wave of
religiosity. We've got the religion of drugs,
and it's a religion. Fulfillment comes when you retreat
from this world of sense by virtue of your great savior, LSD, or
some other form of drug. And it's a form of religion.
You've got what I read in Sunday school this morning. You've got
the importation of the religions of the East, telling us to look
within. There must be the meaning in
the non-material world. We find God within, in the mind,
in the spirit. There must be this religious
element. Ah, listen. Whosoever drinks of that water
shall thirst again. God never made religion to meet
soul thirst. And no matter what the well is,
over it Christ has written, whoever drinks of this water shall thirst
again. So much then for the water which
cannot satisfy. That's the negative. But now
let's consider in verse 14, the water which fully satisfies. For Christ, beginning with the
negative, then moves into the positive, having said, everyone
that drinks of this water shall thirst again. But, here's the
contrast, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall
become in him a well of water, springing up into eternal life. Here's the water which fully
satisfies The water that is guaranteed to have permanence shall never
thirst, never languish, never thirst for anything new. There will be thirst for more
and more of the living God, but never thirsty in the sense that
I've got to find a different well. Look at the aspects of
this water that satisfies. First of all, what is its source? Where does this water come from?
And Jesus is careful to direct us, as He did this woman, to
Himself and Himself alone as the source. Look at His words. But whosoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. The water that I shall give him."
What is the source of the water that satisfies soul thirst? It is Jesus Christ Himself. Look back to verse 10. Jesus
answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that said, Give me to drink, you would have asked
of Him, and He would have given you living water. Oh, how can
words be more clear, and how can I state it more simply? Listen
to me tonight. Children, young people, adults,
visitors, friends, members of this assembly, the water that
satisfies has as its exclusive source the person of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Anything that God gives of Himself
in a way of satisfying soul thirst, He gives exclusively in and through
Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. He doesn't give it
through a ritual. He doesn't give it through a
form, He doesn't give it through a church, He doesn't give it
even through doctrine detached from Him, but He gives it to
us in a living, glorified, omnipotent, gracious Christ. The Scripture
says in Ephesians chapter 1, God hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
God has made Christ to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Jesus himself was conscious of
this, for he said in this very same gospel record, chapter 14
and verse 6, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. But it's not the Christ that
men think Him to be, it's the Christ that He is. that Christ
described in the first chapter of this very Gospel. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that hath been made. Verse 14, the Word became
flesh. Who is this source of living
water? Is He just a nice, exalted, augmented, elevated religious
figure? No. He is the eternal Word. He
is God Himself. He is God-made flesh. He is,
as John describes Him in verse 29 of the first chapter, behold
the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world. He
is the Christ who is God in the flesh, the Christ who died, who
rose, who went back to the right hand of the Father. It is the
Christ of Christian theology who is the source of living water. The one who said in John 11,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And I say to every one
of you here, as simply as I know how, if you do not have first-hand,
genuine dealings with Jesus Christ Himself, you'll never have your
soul thirst satisfied. And you can be so close to Him
and miss Him. You can be in the midst of His people, in the midst
of His Church, in the hearing of His Word, and miss Him. There is no saving virtue in
anything other than direct living contact with the living Christ.
He is the source of that living water. Now, in the second place,
as we analyze the water that satisfies, how is that water
given? Having seen its source, Jesus
Christ in His person and work, How is it given? Well, verse
10 and verse 14 tell us, Jesus answered and said unto her, If
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said unto
thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked, and he would
have given, verse 14, whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give
him, four times in these two verses, That water is described
as a gift. Now see how people have perverted
this? Here's how certain religions
would write it. If thou knewest the reward, you would have taken
the sacraments, done penance, gone to confession, and had the
last rites, and you might have, after a thousand years of purgatory,
made eternal life. What a perversion of the words
of Jesus! If that's the truth of how you
get to heaven, why didn't Jesus tell her? He said, if you knew
the gift, free, gracious gift, no works, no merit, no penance,
no sacrament, gift to be given. There are others who would say,
if you knew the reward of being baptized, keeping the Ten Commandments,
particularly the fourth, or particularly some other commandment. And if
you do this and that and that, then, then God might graciously
convert eternal life upon you. That isn't what Jesus said. His
words are so simple, only a person determined to pervert them can
do so. If thou knewest the gift you
would have asked, he would have given. How does this water of
life come to us? That which alone can satisfy
soul thirst, it comes as pure, gracious gift from God. No other way. For the wages of
sin is death. That's what you get by merit,
death, hell, judgment. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For by grace are you saved
through faith in that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God. Now why is it so hard for men
to come to the recognition that this which satisfies soul first
can only come as pure gift? I'll tell you why. Because the
crowning sin of the human heart is pride. And to be brought to
the place where we confess, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to
thy cross I cling, if I am saved by pure gift, then all the credit
for my salvation must be laid at the feet of another. I'll
have to confess that if I got what I deserved, I'd be in hell
with the worst of men, and if I ever have eternal life and
find favor with God, it is purely because of factors external to
me. And that's what old Adam doesn't
want to acknowledge. Hence, every form of unbiblical
religion, even though it may quote the Bible, has this at
its heart in common. You have got to do something
to commend yourself to God. I don't care all the way from
Romanism to the cults, when you lay it bare, though it may use
the terms grace, forgiveness, gift, and all the rest, it has
this in common, you contribute to something that coerces God
to open up that fountain of life for you. And the genius of the
religion of the Bible is that it is grace from beginning to
the end. Pure grace! pure gift, if thou
knewest the gift of God. And I think one of the most telling
questions to ask any person, and ask in this order, is this,
do you believe that you're an heir of eternal life? Yes. Do you believe your soul thirst
is met? Yes. Then ask the second question,
on what basis is it met? And if they start talking about,
well, I this and I that, then you know they've missed it. But
if they immediately begin, and I say it reverently, as an old
friend of mine used to say, if they begin to brag on Jesus,
if they begin to brag on Him, if they begin to talk about what
He is and what He's done and is doing, then you know they're
in the right track. What is the source of this water
that satisfies Christ Himself? He says, you would have asked
of Me, I would have given. How is it given as pure gift? Now, in the third place, let's
ask the question, to whom is it given? And this question is
answered right here in the passage. It is given in the first place
to those to whom God reveals His Son by spiritual illumination. Look, verse 10. If thou knewest
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to
drink, you would have asked, You see what he's saying? He
said, if when you looked upon me, woman, you saw something
more than just a tired, travel-weary Jew. That's what you've seen,
woman. You've seen a tired, travel-weary male Jew. That's all you've seen. And because you've seen that,
you've said, huh, you asking me for water? How come you a
Jew? Ask me a Samaritan. You're not supposed to have dealings
with us. Jesus said, woman, you've seen a tired, travel-weary Jew. But there's much more before
your eyes than a tired, travel-weary Jew. The Son of God is before
your eyes, and you don't see Him. If you knew who was talking
to you, instead of you questioning me about why I'm asking you for
water, you'd be at my feet in worship and penitence, pleading
with me for the gift of life. If you knew, you would have asked. And then the Lord wonderfully
leads her on until, notice in verses 25 and 26, the woman says,
I know that Messiah is cometh. I have a hope that Messiah is
coming. And when He's come, He'll declare unto us all things. Jesus
said unto her, I that speak unto thee, am He. And the next time
we find the woman, where is she? Running back into the village
saying, I found Him. I found Him. I've seen Him! spiritual
illumination. Who receives this water of life? To whom is it given as pure gift? It is given only to those to
whom God reveals His Son by a work of spiritual illumination. The
Scripture tells us no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy
Ghost. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4
that God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. But
God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, that shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When I say spiritual illumination,
what am I talking about? Visions? No. If you've been saved
by a vision, or think you are, you better get on different grounds,
my friend. God doesn't save by visions. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. We are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. Of his own will
begat he us by the word of truth, not visions. So when I speak
of spiritual illumination, I'm not talking of visions. I'm not
talking of revelations and lights and bells and the flutter of
angels' wings. I'm talking about God taking
away the scales from the eyes of your heart. so that the Christ
you've heard about, whose name has perhaps been on your lips
as a very curse word, you are given spiritual eyes to see that
the Christ of Scripture is indeed God, the only Savior of sinners,
infinitely worthy of your trust and your homage, your love and
your obedience, and you give yourself over to Him. A Christian is someone who's
seen Christ and has never been the same since. That's a Christian. He's seen Christ, and he's never
been the same since. To whom is this water given in
the first place? To those to whom God reveals
His Son by spiritual illumination. But secondly, it is given to
those who are ready to be honest about their sin. Woman, call
your husband. You want this water? Call your
husband. And as we saw this morning, There's
no meeting of soul thirst without facing head-on the ugly realities
of our sin. Woman, if you want your soul
thirst met, you've got to face the ugly realities of your sin.
And I'm not talking about sin in general, woman. I'm talking
about your sin in particular. Call your husband. Whatever cloaks you've thrown
over your lucky past, turn them off! They're naked before my
eyes, and I want you to own up to the reality of your sin. Let
me say, by way of application, the water of life will not be
given to you as pure gift, except it's given to you in a way in
which, by the same Spirit who reveals Christ to your heart,
you're brought face to face to own up to your sin. You'll never know the water of
life until you're ready to be honest about the sin of your
life, of your relationships, of your attitudes, the sin in
your deeds, the sin in your heart. And I'd be a liar to say that
you can have the water of life without facing the reality of
your sin. Let me say by way of a little aside, because we do
have a number of you in Bible school and seminaries, Don't
you ever preach a gospel that tells men they can have the gift
of the water of life without facing the reality of their sin
in deep and thorough repentance. You'll tell them a lie and send
them to hell, clinging to the promises when they were never prepared
to receive them. And so this water is given to those to whom
God reveals His Son. Secondly, those who are ready
to face their sin. And thirdly, to those who take
hold of it, who appropriate it, to use the words of Jesus, to
those who drink it. Look at verse 14. Whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. God doesn't
drink for you, you've got to drink. Whosoever drinketh, what
is drinking? Drinking is an appropriating
act. And it's quite appropriate that
I should illustrate it right now because I'm thirsty and I
need a drink. What is drinking for me right
now? It is the appropriating act by which the water that is
sufficient for my need, but is presently found within the confines
of that pretty glass, is taken out of the glass into my system, and the water
becomes me. The water becomes a part of me.
It's an appropriating activity, and it's many times used as a
description of faith. Faith is coming to Christ. Faith
is trusting in Christ. Faith is casting ourselves upon
Christ. Faith is following. Faith is
drinking. Faith is eating. All of these
various descriptions of the activities of faith. And so this water comes
not only to those who are brought to see who Christ is, Son of
God, Son of Man, Savior of the world, who are not only brought
to own up to their sins, but who actually appropriate Him
to themselves as He is offered in the Gospel? Have you drunk
of Christ? Have you not only looked upon
Him as He is, and I say it reverently, encased in the Gospel, as Christ
is contained in the Gospel, as this water is contained in the
glass, It's not enough to look at him in the gospel and say,
I believe he is sufficient. I believe he is adequate for
my soul thirst. You must drink of him. And what
is preaching? It's putting Christ to your lips
and saying, drink, drink, drink. You must drink. God wants you
to drink as he sets him before you in the gospel. Well then,
in the last place, what are the results when men drink of this
water of life? Having looked at its source,
the Lord Jesus, having looked at how it comes to us, pure gift,
having considered to whom it is given in the last place, what
are the results when this water is drunk? Look at verse 14. Whosoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well
of water springing up into everlasting or eternal life. Look at the
results. They are threefold. Number one, present satisfaction. Here it is. Whoever drinks of
this water shall never thirst. From the moment he begins drinking
of Christ, there is soul satisfaction. And though there is a paradox,
he is ever satisfied, but yet ever dissatisfied. The dissatisfaction
is not with the source, but with the measure to which he is drinking
of the source. He doesn't look for another source.
He's following the one source, and his only dissatisfaction
is that he doesn't drink more deeply of Christ. Isn't that
true of you, Christian? Having drunk of Him, you're not
in the well hunting business anymore. Some of you wore out
your shoe leather well hunting. You tried this well. You tried
that well. Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. But
God broke this well into your life. And having drunk of Him,
you're not well hunting anymore. Your only pain is you don't take
more out of the well that you've found. And that's the part that
Christ is emphasizing here. Whoever drinks of this water
shall never thirst again. That is, will never have that
deep, gnawing, unmet thirst. He'll have the wholesome thirst
after righteousness, which alone is the mark of a true believer.
The second thing, it's not only presence, satisfaction, never
thirst. But its inward satisfaction,
the well of water, the water that I shall give him shall be
what? In him a well springing up. What a marvelous thing! And I say it reverently that
the source of satisfaction takes up his residence in your own
bosom. What know ye not that your body
is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye
are not your own? And where the Holy Ghost is,
Christ is. Hence the scripture says, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. So it's not only present satisfaction,
it is inward satisfaction. As the psalmist says, all my
springs are in thee. But thank God there is a third
facet of it. The third result is eternal satisfaction. He now has a well of water springing
up from within. unto what? Eternal life. Once we drink of that water,
it's as though there's a transplanted well that will bubble up into
eternity. One of the most beautiful descriptions
of the biblical doctrine of the preservation of the saints to
be found anywhere in Scripture. Once we've drunk, the issue of
that drinking is eternal life. Well of water springing up, no
disappointment causing me to try another source, no frustration
that somehow this will all peter out and come to naught. All that
I know now, the scripture says, is but an earnest, a little down
payment, a little foretaste of what I shall know in the world
to come. How is soul thirst met? Jesus
tells us in this passage. Negatively, soul thirst is never
met by going to the world's wells. And again I plead with you children
and young people, will you not take Christ at His word? And
as the devil sets before you a whole, as it were, shopping
center full of wells, And He adorns them with neon signs and
attractive posters and says, come to this well and it will
satisfy the well of pleasure, the well of education, the well
of aesthetic beauty, the well of the arts, the well of this
and that. All that God will bring to remembrance
what you heard tonight, that Jesus stands above those wells
and one sign is over all of them, whoever drinks of any of these
wells shall thirst again. they cannot satisfy. Thank God
there is soul satisfaction to be found where not in religion,
not in church, not in form, not in ritual, it is to be found
in Christ. Whoever drinks of the water that
I shall give, and how is it given? As a gift, if you knew the gift
of God. To whom is it given? To those
who see Christ for what He is, as He is revealed in the Those
who are willing to be honest about their sin, to those who
drink of Him. Take Him to Himself. You save
it all. What a messed up life I've had.
I've got to get... Who was Jesus talking to? Huh? Was He talking to some sweet
little girl who'd come out of the sheltered environment? He
was talking to a woman with a pretty messed up life? And He says,
Woman, you can drink. You can drink. I don't care what
your life is. I don't care to know the murky
details of it. Because the God who knows it
in its entirety says, if you knew the gift you would ask,
He would give even to you. Even to you! For this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Ah, but you know, I don't care
to know! God knows the worst about you, and He tells you to
drink! Shouldn't that be the end of
the controversy? If you talked to me for the next
10 hours and told me all the details of your rotten past,
you'd only be telling me one part of what God knows about
it. And the God who knows the whole business says, whoever
drinks of this water shall never thirst again. Oh, may you drink. May you drink. May you have direct
dealings with Christ and with Christ in His living power through
the grace of the Holy Spirit. How is soul thirst satisfied? This is how and no other way. May God grant that the Holy Ghost
will make this word effectual to cause some of us to drink
for the first time of the water that is found in Christ and in
Christ alone. Let us pray.