Alright, good evening brethren.
Let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 4. Many of you might have already
known about Brother Jeff, but he fell today and hurt his ankle
and cracked his fibula below his knee. So he's going to have
to have some surgery I think. Be in prayer for him as the Lord
enables you. Alright, John chapter 4. Now,
Lord Jesus, we ended last time. He began speaking with this Samaritan
woman at the well. He's come to give her spiritual
life. He's going to quicken her and
bring her to believe upon him. But right now, as he's speaking
to her, she's focused only on temporal things. on carnal things. He says in verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, who it is that saith
to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water. And the woman said to
him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep,
From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater
than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and
said unto her, Whosoever 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 be in him, a well of water, springing up into everlasting
life. Our subject is spiritual life,
spiritual life. This living water that our Lord
speaks of here is Christ himself. He's the fountain of living waters,
and the living water is spiritual life. He's the life. When He
regenerates us and brings us to believe upon Him, that's what
He means by drinking the water, believing upon Him. Let me show
you that. John chapter 7. He said, He stood there the last
day and He said, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
What's He mean by that? He that believeth on Me. As the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. And so he tells this woman here,
the water I give, you'll drink and you'll never thirst again.
And that water is Christ. He's the life. And he gives spiritual
life. He brings us to drink. He brings
us to believe on him. And we're united with him. And
he gives you grace. all the blessings that he has
to give for his people, and he unites us with him, everlastingly
united with him. Now, there's no spiritual life
in us by nature. There's no spiritual life in
anything in this world at all. The woman heard this and she
was focused just on temporal things, just like we were before
the Lord quickened you. You heard the gospel and all
you thought about was physical, carnal, earthy things, and that's
all she was focused on. But the Lord said to her in verse
13, he said, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
She's focused on that well, focused on physical thirst, physical
drinking. He said, you drink this water, you're gonna thirst
again. And that's true of all things in this life. We're born
the first time spiritually dead in sins and there's no water,
there's no life. And we can't produce it. We can't
produce life. We can't do anything to give
ourselves spiritual life. And whosoever drinks of this
water shall thirst again. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. And everything in this sin-cursed
world will leave us thirsting again. You go sometime and read Ecclesiastes
2 and look at all the things Solomon tried. I mean everything
that could be named. And it all left him thirsty.
And he said, I've seen all the works that are done under the
sun. All the works that are done under the sun. He tried everything. And he said, behold, all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. The well of earthly carnal knowledge. It's good to get an earthly education,
but some people devote their lives to trying to learn more
and learn more and learn more. Scripture says, of making many
books, there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. It just leaves you thirsty. The
well of ambition. People start out and they go
after a career and they move up the ladder and with each rung,
thirsting for the next rung and keep going till you get all that
you can get and get as high as you can get and you're still
left thirsty. No spiritual life, no spiritual
benefit. Every earthly pleasure is a well
that's dry. May give you some temporary pleasure
but it won't be very long and you'll be thirsty again. There'll
be no lasting benefit from it. The well of riches, that's an
enticing well that everybody wants to drink from, the well
of riches. Scripture says, will thou set thine eyes upon that
which is not? That's how God refers to riches.
Set your eyes upon that which is not, for riches certainly
make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
the well of man-made religion and form and ceremony. Folks who make a profession of
faith and it's outward, it's just in the form and it doesn't
satisfy. and try and try to do works and
have to do more works and keep doing works because you're never
satisfied. You never, conscience is never
clear. You have to keep doing more and
more and more. Some people make a profession
of faith even in true religion, and it's in the form. They're
trying to drink from the outward means, and the things that we
do whereby God feeds us, but this is not the life. quench
the thirst. If that's all we have, that won't
quench the man's thirst. And sooner or later, they're
off to something else. Even the well of health, we try
to take care of our bodies and try to eat well and be strong. Willie Boy and I have been working
out the past few nights, and I'm so sore I can't even lift
my arms above my head. Try to keep our health. That's
a dry well. It won't satisfy. Eventually,
we're going to wither. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof fadeth away. So no earthly well gives any
spiritual life. It gives no satisfaction whatsoever. He said, Whosoever drinketh this
water shall thirst again. The psalmist said, verily, every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Well, from whence comes
this living water? Where do you get this living
water? Well, our Lord said, it's a gift. It's a gift that he gives. He said there in verse 14, whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
The water that I shall give him. Spiritual life is the free gift
of God. It's the free gift of God. And
it's Christ who has been given the glory to give it to his people. Life is of God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And he's given Christ the glory
of giving this life to his people in this day. We don't possess
it as we come into this world. We can't obtain it by our wisdom.
You can't study yourself into this spiritual life. We can't
obtain it by our will. You can't do A, B, and C and
have spiritual life. None of our works can cause us
to obtain it. And it's not for sale. Spiritual
life's not for sale. We can't merit it, we can't earn
it. You remember, look over at Isaiah 55. The Lord said, In verse 1, ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, come ye buy and eat. See, this is a paradox to
a natural man. Come without money and buy means
it's free. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me. Eat
ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. What's he mean by all that? Incline
your ear. and come unto me. Here and your
soul shall live, and I'll make an everlasting covenant with
you, even the sure mercies of David." It's the free gift given
by God. She said, where's your rope?
Where's your bucket? This well's deep. He didn't need
her rope. He didn't need her bucket. He don't need our rope
and our bucket either. Christ is the well of salvation.
He's the well of salvation. He gives eternal life, the living
water, and He gives it freely, and He gives it to whomsoever
He will. God gives life to whomsoever He will. Christ says, it's water
that I shall give. Now, think about this. God doesn't
owe us anything. He doesn't owe you and me anything.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. He wasn't
obligated to give us anything, to give us life. But thank God
he freely chose a people by his grace. That means there was nothing
foreseen in us that made Him choose us. It would have been
merit if that would have been the case. It was a free gift.
He chose His people freely by grace. He would have a people
to serve Him and honor Him and worship Him and give Him all
the glory. And so how does this salvation
have to begin? It has to begin with God choosing whomsoever
He will and doing it by His free and sovereign grace. and He chose
a people in Christ. And that's why His people, those
that have drank of this water of life and who have this spiritual
life, you don't hear them taking glory for this. You don't hear
them saying it was by our rope and our bucket that we got this
water. You hear His people giving Him all the glory because He
chose us. If He hadn't chosen His people,
we wouldn't have chosen Him. This is all of Him, and He gets
the glory, and His people give Him that glory. And you think
about the price that had to be paid for this water of life to
be free to us. I had a teacher that used to
always say, nothing in life's free. If you get it free, somebody
paid for it. And that's so. And if you get
this water free, it's because somebody else paid a price for
it. And our Lord Jesus paid the price. Our Lord Jesus, the Son
of God, came down and took flesh to live the life His people couldn't
live. He came down and made Himself
to be one with our flesh without sin, to be made under the law
He gave, and to live under that law, that very law He gave, and
go to the cross to pay His own justice and satisfy His own justice,
what we owed Him. That's grace. to come and pay
the debt we owed. He himself, that we owed, came
and paid the debt we owed to him to satisfy his own justice
for us, to bring in and provide the righteousness he requires,
he provided it for us. And He did this for all those
the Father gave to Him. And so having fulfilled that
law, having brought in His everlasting righteousness, He did it for
His particular people. So He's got the glory from His
throne right now to send life to us, to each of His own. He came to this lady. She didn't
come to Him, He came to her. And He came to give her life.
And right now, she's sitting there just thinking of physical,
temporal, carnal life. That's all she's thinking about.
And He come to give her life. Just think about that, brethren.
At some point, the Lord crossed your path with the gospel, and
you didn't realize, that first hour you turned on a sermon,
or you went, sat under the gospel, or however He brought the gospel
to you, and that first hour, you never knew that Christ had
come to give you life. Just like He came to this woman
right here. And He came and gave you life before you ever really
knew He gave you life. You just knew you started being
thirsty. And that's what He came to do. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ has this living water
And He is this living water because He's God. He's God of every God. His accomplished redemption is
eternal. The life He gives is everlasting,
eternal life, because He is eternal life. And He's qualified to do
this because He is Jesus Christ. That means the Savior anointed
by God the Father. That's His office, He's the Savior,
and His qualification is He was anointed. He's the Christ, anointed
by God the Father to come and do this work for His people,
so God gets all the glory. The Lord said, as thou, He's
praying to the Father in John 17, and He said, as thou hast
given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him. So He has the glory. And since he finished this work,
he's got all things that we need are him and in him to give as
a free gift to each one for whom he purchased it. The psalmist
said in Psalm 68, 18, thou has ascended on high. Thou has led
captivity captive. Thou has received gifts for men. Yea, for the rebellious also,
that the Lord God might dwell among them. But we see, when
you hear this, and you that know him and have been given this
spiritual water, you've been given this life, you rejoice
in it, you're delighted in it, and it's how you're not thirsting.
He's made you to drink and he's quenching your thirst right now
with it. But here's the deadness of our flesh. Folks hear this,
we see the depravity of man in that when folks hear this message,
they get angry that God gives life to whosoever he will rather
than giving it to everybody. That's our spiritual depravity,
to hate the message of a free gift of life simply because God
doesn't give it to everybody. He said, is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine I an evil because
I'm good? What goodness for God to give
life to some. He didn't have to give life to
any. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. He said
to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And on whom
I will I'll harden. I'll leave them to themselves.
So it's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth,
it's of God that shows mercy. That's nothing to argue about. We don't want to call God unrighteous
for giving life. That's a blessing. Now look at
this next thing here. This water Christ gives makes
us never thirst because it's life. It's life within us, personally. continually springing up its
everlasting life. Look at verse 14. But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water, springing up into everlasting life. True spiritual life, true
spiritual life that's given by Christ is within us. The true spiritual life is within
us. This is where true life is. It's
within. He said, the water that I shall
give him shall be in him. The Holy Spirit enters and Christ
is formed in us. And when He's formed in us, the
life is within us in spirit. His living word that lives and
abides forever is in His child. It's in His child. Don't you
like the simplicity with which Christ declares this? There's nothing deep to grasp
at here. He's simply declaring in simplest
terms how he gives life and comparing it to water, something we can
understand, to thirst, something we can understand. Think what
a good illustration drinking water is to believe in Christ.
You don't do anything to drink water, you just receive it. And
that's what He's saying, He that receives me, He has the Spirit
in Him. He has life within Him and it'll
be in Him. He never takes it from us. He
gives you life and He never takes it. He gives you the Spirit,
He never takes it. The water that I shall give Him
shall be in Him. He said in Isaiah 41, 18, I will
open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the
valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land
springs of water. He said, he that believes on
me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. It gives
you life within. And this life of Christ within
us, when he's formed in you, this is why Paul over there was
saying to the Galatians, I'm travailing, I'm travailing to
Christ be formed in you. It's because it's Christ formed
in us, and when he's formed within us, it's as a well of water springing
up. There's a spring near my home
back in Arkansas, and it's just a little small hole in the ground,
Generation after generation after generation have drank from that
spring. That spring has been bubbling
up since I was a little child, and it's still bubbling up. And
that's the metaphor here. This life he gives is a never-ending
spring, a never-ending fountain springing up because it's from
Christ's fullness. Of his fullness have we all received. It's of his fullness. We're inseparably
united with Christ. When we've been born of him,
and get this now, believer, you're inseparably united with him.
Nothing's gonna sever this union, nothing. We're inseparably united
with Christ. He said in John 17, 23, I in
them, and thou, Father, in me, that they may be made perfect
in one. One in His righteousness, one
in His holiness, made perfect in one by this union with Christ,
perfect in one, one in Christ, perfect in Christ. That's the
life we're talking about, an inseparable union. And so this
living water never runs dry. This life never ceases to be
life. We never cease to have life.
It's continually a spring ever flowing out of His fullness.
He said, the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty
land springs of water. And He gives you this fountain
of life. When He abounds towards us with grace, it comes from
His fullness, and His fullness is never diminished. He has all
fullness in Him to give to us, to keep giving to us, and keep
giving to us, and sustain in us, and He's not diminished in
the least bit. The cold of a trial can't freeze
up this spring. It can't freeze it up. It's ever
springing up. The burning heat of the reproach
of this world and other things you suffer, it can't dry it up.
His life is ever in his people. He gives grace upon grace. He gives more grace. and He gives
grace for grace. He continually, it's a springing
up of everlasting life. And when He does this, this is
when we truly, from this new spirit, truly cast all our care
on Him. Really cast all our care on Him.
It's when we truly pray. It's when we truly come to Him
and confess our sins to Him and confess what we are. It's when
we truly, truly worship Him in spirit and
in truth, and walk after Him from a heart that wants to please
Him. This is when we have true life,
is when He's done this work. And this water that He gives
us, brethren, that He's speaking here of as water, this light,
is everlasting life. He said there, It's a well of
water springing up into everlasting life. He said, whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe that? Whosoever liveth,
he gives you life. And he said, whosoever believeth
on me, he makes you to drink, believe on him. Whosoever liveth
by him, by his Spirit, and believeth shall never die. That tells us
something about who the real man is in a believer. It's not
the flesh. The flesh is going to go back
to the dust. It must go back to the dust. It is dust. But
you won't ever die, believer. The life that he created in us
in regeneration, the spirit he gave you in regeneration, is
the same life you're going to have for eternity. You have it
right now. The only difference is you're
going to drop this body of death and He's going to raise you with
a new glorified body without sin so you can worship Him without
the hindrance of carrying around this dead body. But you have
the life, the life in you, Christ formed in you is the everlasting
spirit, the everlasting life. Nothing will have to be done
to it, nothing will have to be amended, nothing will have to
be altered. It is that holiness without which no man will see
the Lord. You have it right now, and when you die, when you drop
this body at death, you haven't died. It's everlasting life,
and you enter into glory with Him. Isn't that good news? When you get sick and He dries
up this well of our flesh, that's what gives you peace, knowing
I'm not about to die. I'm not about to die. You know,
Brother Don used to talk about we ought to live our lives on
the tiptoe of faith. And I talked to him two days
before he left this body. And he was like a ballerina. I've never heard anybody so eager
to depart. I mean, it's knowing all I'm
doing is changing clothes. I'm just taking off this outer
garments. have the everlasting life. And
this is life eternal. This is it. This is life eternal. That they might know thee the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now let's
apply this. If there's anybody here that's
like this woman and he's revealed himself to you, he's taught you
something of who he is, something of what you are, and he's made
you thirsty for this living water. He told us, if you knew who it
is that's talking to you, do you know him, have you heard
him speak, has he revealed himself to you? He said if you knew him,
you'd ask him. He's going to have us ask him.
And he would give you this everlasting water, freely give it to you. If He's made you know Him, to
know that He's life and that you're only sin, you're just
a dry well and He's the living waters. If He's made you know
He's life, made you thirsty, you're thirsty for mercy. You're
not wanting to merit anything anymore. You're not wanting to
earn anything anymore. You've got nothing in your hand.
You just need mercy. Mercy is for the undeserved.
Those that don't deserve it are asking mercy. If you're hungry
and thirsty for His righteousness to be your righteousness, for
His works to be your works and to make you righteous and accepted
with God, He says, come and ask. Freely
ask. Just come without any price,
without anything in your hand and ask Him. And He's never,
every true sinner that comes to Him seeking mercy from Him,
He gives them mercy. He said, I freely give it to
you. Freely give it to you. I pray that will be the case.
I pray somebody here He'd make you hear Him for the first time
and know Him and come to Him, call on Him. You don't have to
move a finger, you don't have to move a toe. He said, hear
me, incline your ear to me, believe on me in your heart, call out
to me in spirit and in truth. And He said, He'll give you life.
If you can do that, He's already done it. And for us who he's
given this water of life, Christ said, he that believeth on me
shall never thirst. God's gonna keep us knowing that
Christ alone is our life. He gonna keep us knowing that.
We have a sin nature, and so we get to being a little too
fond of these earthly, carnal, temporal, dry wells. And there's
a lot of them. There's a lot of them. We live
in a land full of them. And we get to being a little
too fond of these earthly whales. And so what does he do? Our sovereign
God just drives them up. He just drives them up. And what
happens? We get shaken. We get shaken
by it. And you know what that teaches
us? That teaches us just how much we were putting confidence
in the outward, in the form, in something earthy. But when
He does that, by His Spirit, He springs up within you in spirit
and makes you know He Himself is your life. One of the best
words I heard all year was at a time when I really, really
needed it. Somebody sent me a message and said, Christ is your life. Christ is your life. Nothing
else, Christ is your life. And that came like a, it came
like this fountain, like this springing up into everlasting
life is how the Lord blessed it. And I needed it. And that's
what he's doing in all of these different circumstances he puts
you in, he's showing you, don't put confidence in the dry wells.
You'll thirst again. But he makes you remember, he's
your life. He is your life. His Word is
the Living Word that abides forever within His people. His Spirit
is within you and will never be taken from you. And when He
does that, He says, Therefore with joy shall you draw water
out of the wells of salvation. And you do. You start drawing
water out of the wells of salvation. The Word opens up to you again. It's all together new, all over
again. And he continually renews you
inwardly so that you say from a true heart, whom have I in
heaven but thee? And there's none upon earth I
desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God's the strength of my heart. He's my portion forever. That's where he gonna keep his
people. They have to be kept there. And when He works this
for us, as painful as it is when you're going through it, after
you've gone through it, you say, Thou hast satisfied my mouth
with good things, so that my youth is renewed as the eagle's.
And this He'll keep doing, because this life is everlasting. He
never, ever takes it from us. I pray He'll bless that to you,
brethren. Our Father, we thank You for this Word. Father, we
thank you that you are the life, the everlasting life. Lord, make
us to have this living water springing
up within us. Make Christ to be our all, our
only life. Lord, we pray that you would
bless this to the heart of one of your lost sheep and help them
to behold you and come to you and drink freely of this water. Lord, we thank you that you keep
us. We thank you that you continually nourish us and continually keep
us looking to Christ alone, walking after him. or be with our brethren
that are in trial and are having difficulties and renew them with
a right spirit and help to look beyond these dry wells and look
above to Christ where our life is. Lord, renew in us the life
and make us to truly, truly worship you. Bless the afflictions to
us and sanctify them and sanctify Yourself in our hearts and make
us look up to You and know that You alone are life. Lord, forgive us of looking to earthly things and
trying to quench our thirst with these earthly things and help
us, Lord, to always look to You. Thank You, Father, for not forsaking
us. Thank You that for Christ's sake You forgive us continually,
that You keep us tender-hearted and keep us thirsting for You
and keep quenching that thirst for us. We ask it now in Christ's
name, our living water. Thank You for all things we have
in Him. Amen. All right, Brother Greg.