Well, we experience and we see
and we have this living word that tells us of what it is to
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His grace, isn't it, to
make His people thirsty, and it's His grace. that causes them
to come and it's his grace that causes them to be believing and
then drinking, drinking to your satisfaction. And in this passage
of scripture before us today, we not only have this personally
revealed in us, but then this water flows out, this living
water flows out, to our brethren and those around us. It's all
the work of God, the Holy Spirit. It's the work of God to reveal
the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him so appealing and attractive
that we have turned from everything in our own activities and we
just look to Him. It's the work of the Spirit of
God. And there's a promise made here,
isn't there? There is. A promise in verse 38, he that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly, out
of the inmost being of this man, out of his heart, out of his
womb, shall flow rivers of living water. Rivers of living water. There's a promise, mate, isn't
there? This is a promise of the spirit being given. The spirit
is received by those in the next verse. And it's given, he is
given a promise, a promise. I want us to begin by doing something for our own
soul's benefit, and if it's for our own soul's benefit, it's
for the benefit of others. It's ask, ask, ask. The Lord said it to the woman
at the well in Samaria, if you knew the gift and the giver,
you would ask him and he would give. If you knew the gift pray that the Lord causes you
to ask. Listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ said in Luke chapter 11 verse 13. He says, if you then
being evil, is that an apt and accurate description of you?
That's his description of us, isn't it? If you then being evil,
he's talking to the apostles. If you then being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him? Ask. Ask. Ask. And it's throughout the
scriptures in Isaiah chapter 62 it says, I have set watchmen
upon thy walls over Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace day or night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silent. Don't be silent about him. And
give him no rest. Give him no rest till he establish,
till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The same in that
remarkable chapter in Ezekiel 36, which speaks of the new birth,
the passage of scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ took Nicodemus
to and showed Nicodemus he didn't have a clue about anything that
the Old Testament scriptures had said He makes these remarkable promises,
isn't it, about a new heart and about cleansing you and all the
I wills. You can go back and read that
chapter at your leisure. But at the end of it, he says
in verse 37, thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel. to be coming and to be continually
coming. I'll do it for them, says God,
but I'll be inquired of, I'll be pleaded with for these things. I will increase them with men
like a flock, and the end result of it in Ezekiel 36 is that,
and they shall know, they shall know, having sought me, that
I am the Lord. they come from and their source
and how they come to us and obviously they're a description of the
Holy Spirit and John adds a note to the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ there and this is scripture as much as all the rest of scripture.
In verse 39 it says but this spake he of the Spirit which
they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given. I just wanted to clear that up.
If you think that the Holy Ghost was not yet given in the Old
Testament dispensation for whatever term you want to describe it,
the Holy Spirit is God Almighty. As much God Almighty as God the
Father and God the Son, all of God's believing children are
Trinitarian believers. And if they're not Trinitarian
believers, they're not believers. The Holy Spirit existed before
the Lord Jesus Christ was glorified. He is the eternal member of the
Triune God. And also we need to remember
that the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit are equally involved in the in exactly the same way, by the
electing grace of God the Father, by the redeeming love and blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the quickening of the blessed
Holy Spirit. So Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Enoch walked with God and had
sweet fellowship with God and spoke by the spirit of prophecy.
Abraham believed God. And what happened to David when
David had sinned and he had seen what had happened to Saul? He's
pleased, he says, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. So in what sense is the Holy
Spirit not given? Well, it's in the same sense
in which the Lord Jesus Christ was in the beginning the Word
and was with God and always with God. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came at various times in the Old Testament and met and had
meals and had discussions with Abraham and Manoah and many others. They met God and they met the
Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
to come in a particular way and at a particular time. He had
to be born of a woman, born of a virgin. He had to live under
the law. He had to do all of the things
of the Incarnation, all of what we're reading about in John chapter
7. But He always was. He was. That's why He can come
from the Father, because He always was. But He came in a particularly
and special way. But the Holy Spirit comes in reference to John 7.39. The
Holy Spirit comes in this extraordinary manifest way, doesn't He? And
He declares redemption accomplished. He declares the Lord Jesus Christ
enthroned. He declares salvation finished. He declares the acceptance of
is fulfilled, it is the blessed work of the Holy Spirit. to take
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ in his finished work, in his incarnation, and
to take and reveal them to us. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is exalted and where the Holy Spirit is speaking and where
the Holy Spirit is at work in a church or in believers, there
is one person they're talking about all the time. They're talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. It's exactly
what was promised, isn't it? In Psalm 68 is that Ascension
Psalm of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's go back to our text
and I want us to look at this living water. And we know from
the text that the living water is a reference to the Holy Spirit
to be poured out. But I love looking back in the
Old Testament and seeing how the Lord Jesus, how the Holy
Spirit described these living waters throughout the Bible. But firstly, I want us to go
back to something I said earlier, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
and honours the written word. He is the word and he speaks
the very words of God. But I love what he says, as the
scripture has said, as the scripture in verse 13, he that believeth
only as the scripture Our love for the Lord Jesus Christ
is mirrored in our love for his word and our reverence for his
word. God has spoken and the issue
is always settled. God's believing children do,
as Paul said in Acts 24 14, he said that we believe in all things
that were and not to honour His word is vanity and dangerous and it
is ultimately, as we read in Revelation 21, it's making a
lie. The first reference to these
living waters gives us a great picture of what they are. Isaac's
servants in Genesis 26 digged in the valley And there found a well of springing
water. And that word springing is the
Old Testament word for living. Living water is springing water. Living water is something that
flows and bubbles out of the ground. And that's exactly what
the Lord Jesus Christ was talking to the woman in the well. Whosoever
drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life." It is a great description
of our God, isn't it? In Jeremiah 17, 1713, the hope
of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. They that depart
from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken waters. And that day, before
that destruction of Jerusalem and Jeremiah's day, he says,
my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters, they've forsaken God, and have
hewed out cisterns of bottles in the ground, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. The living water is a great description
of our glorious God and how do you get to these waters? Well the Lord Jesus has told
them isn't it, if any man thirsts come unto me." In Revelation
7, there's a glorious description as John is looking at the redeemed
of the Lord. He says, where do they come from?
He said, Sir, thou knowest. Revelation 7, and he said, unto
me, these are they which came out of the great tribulation
and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Therefore, Are they before the
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple?
And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them, and they
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. Because, because the lamb
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall
lead them. unto living fountains of water,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." It's a great
promise from our God, isn't it? He's going to lead us, He's going
to feed us, and He'll lead us to the place of waters, and at
that place of the waters, these living waters, all the tears
will be wiped from our eyes. There will be joy in His presence. So how do you receive these living
waters? John 7 tells us to believe on
him and John 4 says, Whosoever drinketh the water that I shall
give him. It's a great gift of God to bring
these waters to us and to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ as these
waters. We read Revelation 21 earlier, he said, I am, he said
unto me, it is done, it is finished. I am Alpha and Omega. It's the
beginning and the end. And he's everything in between,
brothers and sisters. He's everything in between. I'm
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. It can only come freely. You'll be led to it by Him. You'll be led to Him. The Holy
Spirit takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and He makes
us alive and He causes us to see Him as revealed in His Word
with an extraordinary glory and it's free. It's free. That means there is no cause. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my Son."
He will be my Son. So what are the qualifications
for receiving this gift? The first one is to be thirsty,
isn't it? The second one is to be led by Him, to see Him. In
Isaiah 55, he says, These are the Scriptures the Lord Jesus
Christ is referring to. He's not referring to one particular
Scripture. He's referring to all of these
various references in the Old Testament that speak of this
living water, the blessed Holy Spirit that comes and flows. Everyone that thirsteth, Isaiah
55.1, Come ye to the waters, he that hath no money, Come ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Don't you dare go bargaining
to God as if you have something to offer Him. Isaiah 49 verse
10, They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat
nor sun smite them. For he that has mercy on them
shall lead them. And even by the springs of water
shall he guide them. He guides his people. He guides
his people and he encloses to himself and with his people. I don't have time to read all
of the remarkable description in Solomon chapter 4 and 5, but
let me read a couple of verses. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse. A garden enclosed. You think
of those walled gardens that they have in Europe. where the
world can't see in and there's a new environment and a different
environment inside. And there is both protection
and warmth in that garden. And in garden enclosed, a spring
shut up, a fountain sealed, a fountain of gardens, a well of living
waters and streams from Lebanon. And the cry of the church is
that the blessed Holy Spirit awake, O north wind, and come
thou south, and blow upon my garden, says our Saviour, that
the spices thereof And they flow out, and the bride says, let
my beloved come into his garden. He's enclosed his church in the
garden. He's separated his church from
the world, and inside that enclosure he waters them and feeds them
and protects them. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. It's the place where he eats. A fountain shall come forth of
the house of the LORD. Joel 3. And Zechariah speaks of it, And
it shall be in that day that living water shall go out from
Jerusalem, half of them towards the former sea, and half of them
towards the higher sea. In summer and in winter shall
it be. And the Lord shall be king over
all the earth. In that day shall there be one
Lord and his name one. We read earlier that this proceeds
from the throne of God and the Lamb. The living waters the Lord
Jesus Christ speaks of flow from that throne. Who's seated on
that throne? Jesus Christ is seated on that
throne. Our living waters come from the
Lamb of God. The Old Testament finished with
Malachi, and the book prior to Malachi is Zechariah, and it
speaks And that fountain is nothing
other than the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which cleanses
us from all sin. In that day, there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. A fountain opened. It's exactly
what the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ did, isn't it? It's a
fountain where wash, we wash our robes in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Blessed Holy Spirit takes
these words, the water of these words, and He washes our souls
clean and reminds us again and again of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. We're going to have a break and
I'll come back and we want to look at the promise of the fact
that He that believeth on me, how can I know that these living
waters are in me? How can I know that this fountain
is a fountain that has washed me clean? How can I know? Well,
the answer is really simple, isn't it? In John 7, 38, he that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. faith, isn't it? It's all about
being led to Him, to be made thirsty, to be made to come,
to be made to drink. To be made satisfied is what
drinking is, isn't it? To be completely satisfied in
who He is, to be completely satisfied in what He's done, to be completely
satisfied in His promises and all that He is. It's to have
nowhere else to go. There's only one who quenches
this thirst. To have no one else to go. To
have nothing to bring. Just Him. Come freely. Amen. Let's have a break.