John chapter 7. John chapter 7. The title of the message is Water
for the Thirsty. Water for the Thirsty. John chapter 7 and verse 37. The Scripture says, In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. In the last day, the scripture
says here, John includes this, in the last day of the feast,
he calls it the great day of the feast, Jesus pronounced,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And this is
what I want us to see first, that this last day of the feast
was that great day. of the feast. This feast that
they were celebrating here in John chapter 7 was the Feast
of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles, or
the Feast of Booths. This feast was one that was required
of every male of Israel to attend. There were three feasts, and
this is one that required everyone to attend. It was a rather large
gathering. It was all of Israel attended
this feast. And it was to remind them of
the 40 years in the wilderness. The 40 years that their fathers
dwelt in tents, in booths, and had no houses or lands of their
own, but yet they continued with the promise that God would care
for them. God provided. It was a reminder
that God provided for them, cared for them and all their provisions.
If you remember, that those 40 years in the wilderness, their
shoes and their clothes didn't rot. God provided for that. What a wonderful provision. Every
day, God provided manna from heaven, bread from heaven for
them. They didn't have to grow crops.
They didn't have to till the land. God provided for them that
40 years in the wilderness, manna from heaven. And so, all Israel,
all Israel during this feast were to dwell in tents and offer
many burnt offerings. But truly, all of this feast,
all that this thing pictured, all this feast pictured was Jesus
Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, the Creator of all
things, was to come and tabernacle among us. This was the feast
of tabernacles. This pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ would come and tabernacle among us." Think of this. He
who was God, who spread out the heavens as a curtain. That's something. How easy it
is for us to spread open a curtain. I tell you, that's how easily
God made the heavens. He spread them out as a curtain. He who made the stars and called
them all by name. He who sits upon the circle of
the earth and all men are as grasshoppers before Him. The God who measured out all
the oceans of the earth in His hand. The God who weighed the mountains
in the balance and all the nations are as dust in the scale. When a man puts something on
a scale, you don't clean the dust off, do you? Why? It doesn't
add anything to the weight. It doesn't add anything to the
weight. That's how big God is. That's how wonderful and powerful
God is. And yet God When I'm talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, I am talking about God condescending
to become a man. God was made flesh, John said,
and dwelt among us, tabernacled among us. Was this not the greatest
day of this feast? Was this not the greatest day
of this Feast? That Jesus, who is the true meaning
of the Feast, the true reason that God made this Feast, now
reveals Himself as the Savior of sinners. All those years they
did this Feast, and now God tells them why. Now God reveals the
whole, why this Feast was theirs. This was His reason for being
made flesh, that He should tabernacle or dwell among us, so that He
should be our representative man. We in Adam fell. Every man, every person, when
Adam lived, he represented you and me. He represented us. He was our representative man.
And when He fell into ruin, so did all of His posterity. Adam fell not partially, but
Adam fell completely. He fell absolute and completely. It was the perfect and complete
ruin of all the human race. So that not one, of us ever have
or ever will escape the Adamic nature. None of us escaped it. You and I both know this by our
experience of sin. We have sinned against God. We have broken God's law. There's
your proof. All have sinned. In Adam, the
scripture says, all die. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins, blind, deaf, lame, in every spiritual sense. We
were born dead in sins so that we could not come to God. And
if it were that we were able to come to God, we were so wicked
that we would not come to God. Jesus said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. Man's not able and man's not
willing by nature to come to God. Now sure, men desire to
come to a God, a God of their own making. How many years have
we, before God called us, came to our own God? We came to a
God of our own making. Man will come to a God of his
own making, in his own way, which is by works or merit or free
will. But no man can and will come
to God by nature for the carnal mind is at war with God. The carnal mind is hatred against
God. For it, the carnal mind, is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Why? Because it's spiritually discerned,
judged, condemned, sentenced to death. Death. Therefore, behold
now, Jesus Christ who is the God-man mediator has come to
offer himself a sacrifice for sin as a whole burnt offering. During this feast, during this
last day of the feast, it was to be a solemn occasion. They
were offering all sacrifices during the middle of this feast.
But the first day and the last day, there was no work to be
done because everything was to be finished and they were to
offer one whole burnt offering to God. Is this not a picture
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did? He offered all Himself to
God. Go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. It says in verse 1, "...for the
law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things." See, this feast was an image. It was a picture
of good things to come. But not the very thing. "...can
never by those sacrifices which were offered year by year continually
make the comers thereunto perfect." For then they would have ceased
to be offered, because the worshipers once purged should have no more
conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sin every year. For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls or of goats should take away
sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not. But a body hast thou prepared
me. in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not. Neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law,
Then he said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ
once for all. What is this saying? Saying that
these burnt offerings, all these sin offerings did was remind
them that their sin remained. They did all these offerings
and it only just reminded them that they had to do it again
next year. And the next year. And the next year. Because it
never took away sin. But Jesus said, Abide, thou hast
prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. because none of these sacrifices
could satisfy God's justice. So then Jesus said, I come to
do thy will, O God, by the witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified,
made holy, made righteous, made free from sin. How? Through the
offering of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now at this
last great feast of tabernacles, the day of the feast, the last
day, Jesus finally shows us the full meaning of the feast. If
you ever look at any of these Old Testament sacrifices or laws,
look to them and find Christ. It's all pointing to Him. And
now then, He gives us the message of this last great day. Look
at this. He said, If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink. Now I tell you, this morning
I'm thirsty. I had some coke and man, that
just doesn't help. That just makes me more thirsty.
And so that's why I get water and I drink this water here. I'm thirsty. But I tell you what,
I've never been dying of thirst. Have you? We live in a very wonderful
time. We can cut on the faucet and
just get water. We can get water. But this time
that Jesus was in, there was no faucets. You couldn't just
go to the nearest hydrant and drink. I remember when we were
kids, we'd run over and get the neighbor's house and we'd just
turn on the hydrant. We'd just open that water and it'd just
come down and we'd just drink whenever we were thirsty. But
that's not how it was. Water, these people knew the
value of water. Water was life. Water was life. If you didn't have water in the
desert, you were a dead man. You were a dead man. Water knew
it was life. Jesus knew this when he said
this. They knew something about the value of water. And in this
picture, Jesus paints before our eyes a man dying of thirst. I read some things about dying
of thirst. It is the most painful and excruciating
death. Imagine, if you will, a man whose
lips are dried and cracked, his skin is so crusty and scaly,
shrunken, his eyes are shrunken in his head, his nose begins
to bleed because the sinuses are dried up. There's no moisture
in them. And because of lack of water,
the brain begins to shrink. Confusion sets in. Hallucinations
begin. And then there's great pain associated
with it. And what does a man in such a
condition cry for? Does he cry for riches? Do you
suppose a man dying of thirst cries for riches, or money, or
fame, or pleasures? If you gave a dying, thirsty
man all the things of the world and withheld water from him,
it would do him no good. A thirsty man only desires one
thing, water. So spiritually, Jesus calls out. This is not just something physical. This is a spiritual cry, a spiritual
thirst. Jesus says, if any man spiritually
thirsts, let him come to Me. Thirst for what? What do we spiritually
thirst for? Righteousness. Do you spiritually
thirst for righteousness? Do you long, as a dying man longs
for water, would you? Do you long for acceptance with
God? Do you need life? Do you need
eternal life? Do you need to be raised from
the dead? Do you need, in the darkness,
do you not need the light of life? Now there are some who
say, well, I guess I'll take it. That man is not thirsty. That man is not thirsty. They say, well, I want to go
to heaven, I guess so. I guess I'll choose Jesus. As though
he has many choices, but then he chooses Jesus along with all
the other. They choose him as a last resort.
They choose him as the only thing left or out of convenience. I remember when we were kids,
we used to play football. I wasn't the greatest player,
that's to say the least. But I'll tell you what, I didn't
want to be the greatest player, I just didn't want to be the
last kid picked. Isn't that right? You don't want to be the last
one picked. I mean, you know, you get out there and they start
picking and the girls go before you. Now that's bad. That's bad. But that's how men choose Christ. They take everything and then
if He's left, then I'll just take Him too. No, you won't. No. Jesus doesn't call someone
who has something, who has their own water. He said a man that's
thirsty. Christ is not calling those to
choose him as though they have other alternatives. He is calling
to those who have nothing. He is calling to those who are
dying of thirst. Come to me and drink. Are you thirsty? Are you like
those dry, dead bones that Ezekiel saw in the desert that had no
water whatsoever, no goodness in yourself, no righteousness
in yourself, no hope of acceptance with God, no hope of saving yourself? These Christ calls. And where
does He call them to get this spiritual water? Come unto Me. Me. And drink. He calls us to
Himself. If any man thirsts, let him come
unto Me and drink. Sinner, come freely to Christ. If any man thirsts, if you're
thirsty for these things, righteousness, salvation, mercy, forgiveness,
He says, let him come. Let him come unto Me and drink. Whosoever will, let him come
and drink of the water of life. How? Freely. Freely. People often tell us, you Calvinists,
you just You say Jesus died just for the elect, so you restrict
men from coming to Christ. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. If there were no election and
there were no redemption of the elect, then there would be no
salvation. But because there is election,
because there is redemption, we say whosoever will come. You
see, I believe Jesus Christ died for whosoever will. I just don't
believe He died for whosoever won't. Are you thirsty? Christ said,
let Him come unto Me. You thirsty for righteousness?
Come unto Me. If you thirst for pardon and
peace with God, let Him come unto Me. Here's the catch. You cannot come to Christ by
merit. You must come by thirst. You
must come empty. You cannot come to Him plus your
good works. Notice God's restriction on this
great day of the feast that they should do no servile work. That was required in this law.
In the law of the Feast of the Tabernacles, they were not to
do any work in this day. And I tell you, anyone who comes
to Christ, you cannot come by merit. You cannot come by works.
Christ will profit you nothing. The Apostle tells us that if
salvation is by grace, it is no more of work. Otherwise, work
is no more work. And if it's of works, then it's
not of grace. It can't be a mixture. Come as
thirsty men with no life and hope, and what will you find?
You'll find plenty of water to drink. You'll find life. You'll find life. The water of
life. Jesus is the water of life. Drink of Him. How? How do you
drink this water? It's spiritual. It's not something
carnal. It's not something you do. You
don't have to do anything to drink this water. Believe. That's how. He said, He that
believeth on Me. That's what it is to drink. It
is to believe on Christ. He that believeth on me out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John explains this
to us in the verse 39 of our text. He said, But this he spake
of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Because Christ was crucified,
and He is now glorified, God has sent His Spirit to quicken
dead sinners to life. And all who are born again of
the Spirit of God, of the will of God, by the Holy Spirit, and
that Spirit dwells in every believer. In every believer. Tell me, If you were ever dying of thirst
and were given water, what would be more comforting
than to have a fountain of water follow you wherever you go? Wouldn't
that be comforting? To never have to worry about
where you're going to get water again. Believer in Christ, you
never have to worry about where you're going to get water again.
Why? Because the fountain follows
you wherever you go. Wherever you go. Is this not
true of us, believer? That the Spirit of God who daily
refreshes us is like the rock that followed the nation of Israel
in the wilderness. A story was conveyed to me. A
pastor was eating dinner at one of his members' house, and the
young child came and sat down at dinner right next to the pastor.
And she said, Would you like to see the picture that I drew
in Sunday school? We colored. And he, being polite,
says, Oh yeah, that'd be great. And she showed him the picture
and she said, See here? This is a... You know what this
is? This is a rock. They said, these people back
here in the back, they're the nation of Israel. And they were
grumpy. They didn't have any water. And
you see here this man Moses, he was told to hit that rock.
And you know what happened? He said, well no, tell me. And
she said, he hit that rock and water came out. And he said,
oh wow. And she said, you know who that
rock is? That rock is Jesus. And he said, well that's great.
And he said, you know what else? That rock followed them wherever they
went. And sure enough, you go over
to 1 Corinthians and you find that out. That the rock followed
them wherever they went. You thirsty sinner, come to Christ
and drink. And you that have drank, We have
this river that follows us wherever we go. It is the Spirit of God
who testifies to our spirit that we are the sons of God. Is that
not refreshing? Do we not need that? Do we not need that comfort every
single day of our lives? Drink. Believe on Christ. And when you believed on Christ,
believe Him again. This is the water that God has
given us. He's given it to us and it follows
us wherever we go. Come to Christ and drink. I pray
that God, by His grace, would give us such mercies to drink
by faith.