Psalm 63, I want to begin this
by asking you a question. How spiritual have you felt today? How spiritual? Got up this morning,
ate breakfast, brushed our teeth, got dressed, went to work, Got
kids to school, everything we did. How spiritual have you felt
today? Has the thought of Christ been
flooding your soul with joy all day long? Just thinking about
Christ all day long. Have you spent the majority of
today just over and over thanking God for all His goodness to you
in Christ? Is that how you spend all day
today? Just thanking God for all of His goodness to you in
Christ. Genesis 5 says Enoch walked with
God. He walked with God. Genesis 6
says, Noah walked with God. Is that you? Or do you say right here with
David? Look at verse 1. Verse 1 is the text we're going
to have tonight. Oh God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is." No water. I'm in a dry and thirsty
land. Where is that dry and thirsty
land? It is in this heart right here.
Yes, Kingsport is a dry and thirsty land. And America is a dry and
thirsty land. And this world is a dry and thirsty
land. But nowhere is any drier than
this heart right here. My soul, the soul that God gave
me, the soul that God put in this body says, Lord, I am looking
for you. I need you. I need you. But I am dying of thirst. There's
no water here. There's no water here. Have you
ever been truly thirsty? I mean really, really thirsty. A few weeks ago, Rebecca Coffee
told me after the service, that she was so thirsty. And every
time I took a sip of this water, she thought, oh, if I could just
have some of that water. Would you like some now? I'd
be glad to share it. So thirsty. I need water. I need, you know that feeling
right there? When your brain tells every fiber
of your being, I need water. I need water. Well, I have some honey right
here you could drink. No. But this is sweet. No. I need water. Well, I either have a really
sugary Kool-Aid or I have some soy sauce. You could drink those.
I need water. I need water. It has to be water. It has to be pure. It has to
be clean. I need something that will get
to the bottom of my thirst and satisfy me. That's what I need.
I need it badly. There are times that I physically
feel dehydrated. I have been feeling that for
about the last week. I keep thinking, I've got to
drink more water. All of me knows. I feel dehydrated. Not just thirsty, dehydrated. Really dehydrated. And my whole
body from my head to my toe is craving water. It's craving water. Everything in me is saying, I
need water. I need water. He said right here
in verse 1, My flesh longeth for thee. It's craving thee. In a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. He said no water. None. That's what this is right
here. This is absolute dehydration.
It is spiritual dehydration. Go with me over to Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37 verse 1 says, The hand of the
Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord,
and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full
of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about, and behold,
There were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very
dry. I mean, they were very dry. No
water. No moisture. No life. Dead, dry bones. Is that you? Is that you? I spend so much of my time not
feeling spiritual. And I know that feelings come
and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. But everybody in here knows what
I'm talking about. Dead, dry, thirsty in dry land. Psalm 107 says, ìThey wandered
in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them.î They were so thirsty, so hungry and so thirsty,
their soul fainted in them. Is that you? Is that me? Is your soul dry? Is your soul dry, thirsting for
God, thirsting for the living God? If it is, if it is, some people
they go through this life and they're not thirsty. They're
not thirsty. I've got plenty of things to
quench my thirst. But if all of this stuff out
here is vanity and vexation of spirit, if everything out here
turns out to not satisfy and dry you out and cause you to
faint for thirst, where is thee? Where is my God? If this is you,
then I want you to turn with me to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25 verse 25 says, As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country. Do you know what we call good
news? You know what that's called? The gospel. It means good news. As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country. Now, I have not been preaching
very long. By God's grace, he will allow
me to continue to preach as the oracles of God. But I feel like
every illustration I have has already been worn out. But this
one I love. I thank God He allowed this to
happen because it has blessed my soul every time I've told
it. It's called, and I named it after I got it, it's called
The Gospel According to Lucy Jean Simpson. And I know everybody
in here has heard it. We were at, Hannah and I, we
didn't have kids yet, we were at Adam and Carrie's. and their
daughter Lucy Simpson, Bob and Rebecca's granddaughter. We were getting ready to eat
dinner and Carrie and Hannah were putting things on the table
and calling everybody to the table and so I sat down in the
spot they told me to sit in and Lucy comes and starts crawling
up and trying to get scooted and situated into the chair next
to me, big hair. She was five years old, just
a little older than Sophie. And she's scooting up into her
chair and she has this picture that she colored in Bible class
in church. And I said, I said, that's a
beautiful picture. You did such a good job with
it. And she said, do you want me to tell you about it? And
I said, I sure do. She held it up and there was
a guy there and she said, well, this is Moses and all these people
behind him, that's the children of Israel. And the children of Israel, they
were complaining. They were just whining and complaining. And they said, Moses, we're so
thirsty. were just so thirsty, Moses,
and they just kept whining and they just kept complaining, saying,
Moses, we're so thirsty. She said, so do you know what
Moses did? And I said, what? She said, he
struck the rock. And she said, do you know what
came out of that rock? And I said, what? She said, living
water. And the Israelites drank, and
they drank, and they were so satisfied. And she said, do you
know who that rock was? And I said, who? She said, Jesus
Christ. And she said, do you know what
that rock did? And I didn't. I had forgotten.
I said, what? She said it followed the Israelites
wherever they went. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel to a thirsty soul. That's the gospel. I want to show you that in Exodus
17. Turn with me over to Exodus 17. Exodus 17 verse 1 says, And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, after
their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and
pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the
people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide
with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And
Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you
tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock. And there shall come water out
of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel." There is a rock that has been smitten. There is a rock that has been
smitten for the thirsty. If anybody is thirsty, If anybody
is dehydrated, I mean very dry, very dry, there is a rock. His name is Jesus Christ. He
is the living water. He said, whosoever drinks of
the water that I shall give him will never thirst again. Never again. He said, in the
last 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 has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. He said, everyone Every one that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters. Turn with me over to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 verse 1 says, Ho, every
one that thirsteth, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, come to Christ. And he that hath no money, no,
no, no money, not very little. Zero money. Bankrupt. Absolutely bankrupt. This call
is for the dehydrated and the bankrupt. That's who this is
to. Totally dehydrated. No water. No money. Good news for the dehydrated
and the bankrupt. Everyone that thirsteth and hath
no money He says in verse 1, come ye. I don't have anything. I don't have any moisture. I
don't have any money. Come ye. Buy and eat, yea, come buy wine
and milk without money and without price. At the end of verse 2
he said, let your soul delight itself in fatness. Why do we
get this fatness? Why have we, did we deserve this? Did we deserve this? Why have
we received this refreshing? The reason is because our rock
went to that cross and he was smitten. That's exactly why. While he hung there on that cross,
do you know what he said? Do you know what one of his glorious
seven sayings were? I thirst. Wait a minute, I was the thirsty
one. I know. He said on my behalf that the
scriptures should be fulfilled. I thirst. You think he just wanted a glass
of water at that moment? It was deeper than that. It was
much drier than that. It was much deader than that. It was the feeling of our infirmities. That's what it was. The feeling
of our dryness. The feeling of our lack. It felt
so empty and so dry and so barren. He said, I thirst. But our Lord received no relief
for it. Never. He never received a quenching. And look at what he said in Psalm
69. Turn over to Psalm 69. David writing, this is David
penning, but this is our Lord speaking. This is God Himself
speaking. Psalm 69 verse 20 says, Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take
pity. The margin says to lament with
me. But there was none. And for comforters, but I found
none. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." That's
what they gave me. There was nothing to quench that
bitterness, nothing. And after he was smitten, that
soldier took a spear and he pierced it into his side and do you know
what came out? I feel like Lucy James Simpson,
and do you know what came out? Blood and water. God was satisfied and all of
his people were satisfied. God needed that blood to be satisfied. He said, when I see that blood,
He needed that blood to be satisfied. And all of His people needed
that water. The cleansing wave. Living, living water. A couple
of pages back in our text, Psalm 63, verse 1. Says, Oh God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul
thirsteth for Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Then come to the
water, David. Come to the water. There is a
river. A pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. That's Revelation 22.1. Come
to the water. Come to Christ. Don't move a
muscle, but come to Christ. Reach out and touch the Lord.
I'm telling you, reach out, but don't move a muscle. Come with the heart. Come with
the soul. Come to the water. Look at Isaiah
41. This is precious. Isaiah 41. Now we quoted this last Sunday,
this is the glorious verse in verse 13 where he said, For I,
the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee,
Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. But here's what I
want you to see. Look at verse 17. When the poor
and needy seek water. and there is none, and their
tongue faileth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and the fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."
I will open rivers. I'll open rivers. David said,
my cup runneth over. Then get another cup, David.
The river is never going to run dry. Never. That river is Jesus
Christ. The smitten rock. That river
is His Word. Come to the waters. The water
of the Word. That river is His Spirit. Call
on Him. That river is life. That river
is hope. It's never going to run dry.
I was going to give up hope. I was going to faint and give
up hope. Come to the water. Sit down. Refresh yourself. Cool off. Dive in. Take a drink. Here's the promise to all that
God draws to the water. You know if any man comes it's
only because the Father drew him, right? So here's the promise
to all that God draws to the water. Go with me to Revelation
7. Revelation 7 verse 13 says, And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which
are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Every
soul who comes to the rock that was smitten, the Lamb of God. Because that rock, the Lamb,
was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Because that river
of blood was shed, verse 15 says, therefore. That's why. They are 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. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more. Neither shall the sun light on
them nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
Are you spiritually dehydrated and bankrupt? Man, it's a good place to be. If you are, come to the waters.
Come to Christ and buy, buy without money, without price. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Our Lord closed this book by
saying, whosoever is a thirst, let him, and that means or her,
take the water of life freely. It does not cost a dime. It doesn't
cost a dime. It costs everything, but it's
already been paid. It doesn't cost me and you a
dime. And that's good news to the bankrupt.
I don't have a dime. Come to the walk. If you're thirsty,
come to the walk. Come to Christ and tell Him,
I'm thirsty. I promise your cup will run over.
Come to Christ and say, I don't have anything. I promise you
won't be able to carry it all away. You'll have to make trips.
This is for the dehydrated and the bankrupt. Come to Christ. Okay, let's stand together.