John chapter 7, look at verse
37. 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. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me." It's the last day of this feast. What feast? Go back
to Leviticus 23 with me. This is the feast that they were
observing, and this is significant. Thousands came to Israel to attend
various feasts, almost all of the The observances the Lord
gave were feasts. It was food. What was the food? Well, they were to offer sacrifice. They were to offer lambs, bullocks,
burnt offerings. It was all supposed to be to
the Lord. It was all about worship of the
Lord. And it's all a picture of Jesus
Christ. Do you understand that? Every
single thing God told him to do was to be as unto the Lord,
as a picture of Christ. Faith in Christ. Are you with
me? But you know, you read with me
in John 7 where it says, the feast of the Jews was at hand. It had so degenerated to where
people were not meeting, they didn't come to worship the Lord. And there's no mention, you read
with me in chapter 7, you don't hear one thing about a lamb being
sacrificed. You don't, do you? You don't
hear one sacrifice being made. Not one. But they're having a
big feast. This is significant. And things
have changed for many religious observances today, many religious
people. And many, if not most, come for
the fun and come for the food and even come to feel good and
for the fellowship. But our Lord said, The Father
seeketh those to worship Him in spirit and truth. And He said, Isaiah said, this people draw
near with their lips, and their heart is far from them. In Leviticus
23, as I said, every feast was to be full of sacrifices, as
types, as pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 34, speak
unto the children of Israel, saying in the fifteenth day of
this month, seventh month, shall be a feast of tabernacles. Tabernacles,
they pitched little tents. They all came like a big Bible
comfort. And they brought their tents.
They set them up. They didn't bring them. They
made them. Look at verse 35. On the first day shall be a holy,
this is holy, a holy convocation devoted unto the Lord. These
are the feasts of the Lord you proclaim, holy convocation, to
offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, to remember that
our gods are consuming fire. We needed an offering. We needed
a sin offering. You see that? That's what it
was all about. The cane, fear of the Lord, offering
this burnt offering. That's right. Verse 37, a burnt
offering, a meat offering, a sacrifice. on this day. Verse 40, go on down. Take the first day
boughs of goodly tree, branches of palm tree, thick boughs of
thick tree, willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before
the Lord God your day. Now, he said earlier it's a solemn
assembly. Verse 36, it's an offering made
by fire unto the Lord, a solemn assembly. It's solemn. It's serious. It's serious. Now here he says,
but rejoice. Well, which is it? It's both. It's both. He first says it's
a solemn assembly. It's serious. This is worship
of the Lord. This is not feel-good, fun time,
you know, a feast and let's just have, I don't know, this has
got to be done as unto the Lord in the way the Lord said do it.
in remembrance of His holiness and righteousness and mercy and
grace through a burnt offering through Christ in Him crucified.
Every time. Every time. Every time. Are you
with me? Solemn. It's serious. Not plain
game. It's not fun time. It's serious. We said, rejoice in that. Rejoice. Why? You've got a burnt offering.
You've got a burnt sacrifice. God will accept. God is merciful. Rejoice, I said. And again, I
would say, rejoice in the Lord. Some of you know what this means. Psalm 2, the Lord said, serve
the Lord. Listen. Psalm 2. You know that Psalm? Why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? And on and on it
goes. He said, I've sat there against
the Lord and His anointing. He said, I've set my king. Then
on down there he says, serve the Lord with fear. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Do you know what that made, don't
you? All of God's people do. All that fear the Lord know that.
They serve the Lord with fear. That's the beginning of wisdom.
And they rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ with trembling.
They hear the Word of God with rejoicing. They hear the Gospel
of Christ with rejoicing. They rejoice that there's forgiveness
with Thee. You know that Psalm notes you,
Brother John. There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be
feared. You understand that? And it's
not something you can really explain. All of God's people
know. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not concerned. Oh, He's so compassionate. He's
so merciful. Why? He poured out His wrath on Jesus
Christ. So that's why David said, Lord,
keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin, secret sin. Oh, Lord, unite
my heart to fear thy name, he said. If there's no fear, no
reverence, no respect, no worship, no appreciation of what Christ
is, none. Fear. So they came to this piece, this
piece of the tabernacle, okay? And I meant to go on and read
to you the rest of that. Read it for yourself, the end
of that. But it says they put up these little tents out of
these trees and all to remind them, to remind them all that
the Lord brought them out of Egypt. And they're just passing
through. They're just passing through.
They're strangers. They're pilgrims. They have here
no continuing city. They all lived there or somewhere
and had permanent home. But he said, No, this is not.
Remember, this is not your home. You're not of this world. You're
passing through. This is not your place. You're
a stranger. You're a pilgrim. You're a sojourner
just like Abraham. Remember that. And God brought
you out of this place. And you look for a city whose
builder and maker is God. You're like Moses. You refuse
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and you suffer reproach
with the people. Remember that, he said. Every
time you have this speech, this is what it's about. And us, too. Every time we come here, I'm
to remind you, this is not our home. This is not our portion. Right? All right, so that's what
that feast was all about. And so our Lord came to this
feast. He came to this feast, and the
last day, the very last day, He stood up, and all this stuff
was going on. And He was watching it. He was
observing it. He is the eyes of the Lord that
run to and fro with the earth. sees all, knows all. He observes
everything, every religious gathering, everybody that meets. He sees
it all. He's omniscient, omnipresent, all right? He's standing up watching
all this, watching all this. And he stood and cried, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me. Verse 38, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Is anyone thirsty? Now, he's
not asking for information. He's not inviting, as it were,
everyone. No, he's not. He's just declaring.
If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. As Scripture
said, he that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. Thirst. Thirst is a sign of life. He said, if any man thirsts,
Thirst is a sign of life. Have you ever been really thirsty?
Everyone in here has. If you're alive, you have been
thirsty at one time or another. Thirst is need, isn't it? Need. Need. How many times does David
write, I'm poor and needy? What do you need, David? I don't have anything. I'm poor.
But David, you've got it all. I have nothing at all in myself. You understand? Need, thirst is an intense desire. If you've ever really been thirsty,
I'm telling you, you thought, I'm going to die if I don't get
something to drink. Haven't you? It's an intense desire. You can't
be thirsty and say, well, if I get a drink, fine, if I don't,
so be it. No. Really thirsty means, if
I don't get something to drink, I'm going to die. You following me? Christ said, he's talking about himself. He's
talking about hunger and a thirst for Him. Thirst is an inward
craving. Oh, didn't our Lord say, blessed
are they which hunger and thirst. After what? Righteousness. Righteousness. What's that? Not what? The Lord are righteous. This
is for a sinner. He knows they're unrighteous.
They don't have a righteous. One whom God has made to see
their utter worthlessness and sinfulness and their guilt before
God, and they must be righteous, holy, perfect to be accepted.
Lord, I don't have. I'm no good. I'm not righteous. Christ said, come unto me. Come unto me. If I quit right
now, I've just told you the gospel. I've just told you the whole
counsel of God. And those who are thirsty, understand. Oh, blessed are they that thirst,
needy, and inward craving. David, you read it with me, he
said, as the heart panteth after the water broke. He's talking
about a deer that's thirsty, that's been out and perhaps being
chased by dogs, or by a hunter, someone that's wanting to devour
him. Anybody know? Anybody know what
that feels like? All of God's people know it all
the time. They're adversaries after them.
He's out there. He's in here. Oh Lord, as a heart
that panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after
Thee, oh God. You're the one. You're my only
hope. You're my only help. He said, I stretch forth my hands
unto thee, my soul thirsteth, my soul thirsteth after thee,
as a dry and thirsty land. Israel, Jerusalem, Israel was
an arid, hot and dry place. The last day of the feast, I
read this, the last day of the feast, the eighth day, is a day
where they would pour water out. They would bring a lot of water
for people to refresh themselves. Isn't that amazing? That's what
they'd do. On the very last day, they'd
bring out water for everyone to refresh themselves for the
journey home. And there he stood, the water. I think of old, that Ethiopian
eunuch. See, he'd been to Jerusalem.
He'd been to Jerusalem where he heard all that, and it just
left him dry, just left him thirsty. He didn't hear anybody preach
Christ. And he's riding home in his chariot, thirsty, thirsty. And the Lord sent him a preacher,
Philip, out into that desert. He's passing down the desert
and old Eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 of all places. And I just
don't, there wasn't anybody there that could tell me what this
meant. They read it, but I don't know who or what this is talking
about. He was thirsty. Who made him thirsty? God did. And God sent him a preacher and
the preacher stopped at his chariot, stopped the chariot and said,
do you understand what you're reading? And the eunuch said,
how can I? I said, some man show me. Can
you show me? He said, come on up here. He's thirsty. I don't find too many people
like that. I find people that know all they need to know. I
just feel just fine. They're okay. I like my church.
Our neighbor. We've been talking to our neighbor
for a long time. Three out of four of them have
come. But this one, she just will not come. We like her. We
like her. Had her in our home. We've been
in her home. And we keep talking to her, don't we? Come, she says.
I like my church just fine. And I know where she goes. There
ain't no liquor gospel there. She likes it just fine. She's
not thirsty. She's just fine. Everything's
fine. Now that Ethiopian eunuch, he was thirsty. He said, please
tell me, please tell me. And Philip got up there and preached
Christ and Him crucified. And that eunuch, you know, they're
riding along, and Peter told him, you know, If you believe
in your heart and confess Christ with your mouth and be baptized,
confessing Him before men, you'll be saved from your sins. And
they came and there's a body of water. And the eunuch said,
Stop, Karen, stop! Look! Can you baptize me? Philip
didn't ask him, plead with him. Now you need to be baptized.
No, no. The eunuch said, I believe with all my heart that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God, the Most High God. That's all
I need. I see, I see, I see. And that guy out of that chariot? Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. John
4. Go back there. You know, some
of you were hoping we'd go back there. John 4. This is you. is every one of you who the Lord
gave a thirst to. I hope there's another woman
in here like this woman. This woman in John 4 came to
the same well for years, habitually. She'd been married five times
and was living with a felon. And she was religious. She's
still religious. So I'm good at dinner, huh? She kept coming to this
well day in and day out. Poor, ignorant. You've got to
feel sorry for her. Poor, ignorant, habitual sinner. She's not yet thirsty, but she doesn't know. So she came
to the well this night. But hold on, this day, the whale came to her. You know
that rock, that story of the rock that followed them around?
That rock was crying. Well, that whale, Jacob's whale,
came to her. She came to this whale and, you
know, she came to get water for the day, hot, arid, dusty climate,
came to get water. You know, she never drew a drop.
When she left this place, she wasn't interested in that water
anymore. She had something in her she hadn't had before. Christ. And He came, verse 10,
and our Lord said to her, He said, Woman, if thou knewest
the gift of God, and who it is, You see, Christ is the gift of
God, the grace of God, the salvation. If thou knewest the gift of God,
what you really need, who it is that saith that they give
me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have
given thee living water. Living water. Living water. You come for this water. You
keep coming for this water. You keep coming. You keep coming.
You keep coming. And you've got to keep coming.
It won't satisfy you. That's what he said in verse
13. The Lord said unto her, Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. The waters of this world. You
know, there are millions and millions of Hindus that go to
bathe. I just looked at this. I knew this, but I looked it
up. You know, with the internet and all, you can see a lot of
pictures. It's sad. It's so sad. There
are millions, I mean hundreds of millions, if not billions,
that go, every year, go to bathe in the Ganges River in India. Now, the Ganges River is considered
by the Hindus a holy river, holy water. But I'm here to tell you,
look at the pictures of it. There's not a more vile and filthy
and wretched. They spish out of that water
daily, weekly or monthly, I forget when, over a hundred dead bodies. of people, not to mention all
the animals. And they have no sewage laws,
no laws in that heathen country, and they dump everything into
that water. It's the most filthy. If you
drink it, you will die. It's filthy, foul. There's death
in that water. Yet people come by the hundreds
of millions to bathe in that holy water. When the fact is, it's filthy
water. Millions more. Listen, you say,
those poor heathen. Well, millions of Christians. Millions of Christians. Hundreds
of millions go to Jerusalem every year to visit the Jordan River. And that many people at least
get in that old muddy water to be baptized. Thank Him. These
poor, ignorant people. Thank Him that if I can be baptized
in the Jordan River just like Jesus was, just like the people
were, it's holy water. No, it's not. No, it's not. You know, the Lord has given
us all things richly to enjoy, but the waters of this world
will leave you thirsty. The waters of this world are
polluted. The things of this world. Our
Lord said in John 7, look at this, He said, If any man thirsts,
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." Christ is the living water. If any man thirsts, let
him come unto me. Living water, meaning full of
life. Living water. full of life. I start thinking about this planet,
you know, they call it the blue planet. Why do they call it that?
Because there's water on it. Is there any other planet with
life on it? No. Why? Because there's no other planet
with water on it. And that's by design. Whose design? God's design. Well, they keep
looking. Don't they? They keep looking. Why? God's not in their thoughts.
Day in and day out of his speech, the whole creation, heaven shows
his work, the firmament shows his handiwork. Day in and day
out. Water and sun. Poor man. No, not poor man. He's
a rebel against God. How long did you go without giving
God a thought? He daily watered you and fed
you. He said, I've girded you, though
you haven't known me. You're going to know, he said.
Not even going to know. Because God's merciful. Because God's
gracious. Because he comes to his own and he reveals himself
to them. He makes them thirsty. He makes them see that, hey,
in me you live and move and have your being. This whole planet
is water, full of life, full of life. And now the dumb animals
die. The fish are swimming in water. The birds, you know, when the
water come to rain, have you ever heard the birds quit singing?
Oh, they sing louder than they've ever sung when it starts raining. Have you ever, when it started
raining, have you ever gone outside in the summertime? Have you ever
done that? Gone out there and just turned your face toward the sky,
opened your mouth? Oh, if you've been hot and thirsty,
I've been many a time. I've been out working, having
my shirt off or whatever, and standing there and it started
raining, a warm rain. You know what I'm talking about.
Oh, what are you doing? Thank you, Lord. You know what
the Scripture says? He shall come down like rain
on the mowing grass. He says, my doctrine shall drop
as rain. Christ's. You ever done that
before the Lord in private? Thank you, Lord, for coming. Bathing this weary soul. Abundant
life. Living water for thirsty, for
the needy. Water for – go with me to Revelation
22. Revelation 22, this is water
for the thirsty. Christ is water for the thirsty. Christ now, not religion, Christ. Christ, Christ. He said, if any
man thirsts, let him come unto me. And if any man thirsts, you
know why you thirst? Because the Spirit came to you
and made you thirsty, just like that woman. That woman at the
well, she said, Lord, give me this water that I never thirst
again. She said, Lord, give me this
water that I never thirst again. Christ said, the water that I
give you, if you drink it, you'll never thirst again. There'll
be a well springing up. She said, give me this water.
What did He say? What did He say? I am. I am. The Lord made her thirsty. Oh,
so many quote this. We don't know what it means.
Revelation 22, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. You will
not come unless the Spirit of God says, Come. You know why
you came here today? God brought you here. I don't
know if you're thirsty, but He must make you thirsty. The Spirit,
didn't our Lord say, no man cometh unto me except the Father which
hath sent me draw him. The woman came to draw water
at that well. Well, the well came to draw her and give her this water. He said,
give me to drink. She couldn't. He could. He said,
I'm going to give you to drink. He didn't know it, did he? You're
thirsty. Spirit and the Bride. No one
will thirst, except they hear the Gospel. This is the Bride. This is the Church, okay? The
Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, in the midst of
His Church, the man stands up like I'm doing this morning,
preaching Christ and Him crucified, saying, Come! Let him that is
thirst come. and let him that heareth." All right, I'm standing up saying
it, and you go and you talk to people. You heard it. You heard
it. You heard his voice like the
woman at the well one day, and you went home to your family
and you told them, hey, I've heard. I've heard. Come see a man. This is the Christ,
Jesus. You went home and told. Let him
that heareth say, come. That's who's going to thirst.
That's who's going to come. And let him that is a thirst,
you see? Let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, verse
17, let him take the water of life freely. Old Brother Barnard
loved that man. The Lord used him greatly. You
remember, Bob, him saying this. He said, I'll give somebody $500
if they can show me in Scripture where it says, whosoever will,
may come. He'd go to these places, these
big Southern Baptist places, big meetings, thousands of people
that didn't know God. And he said, I'll give anybody
in here $500 if they can show me where it says in the Scripture,
whosoever will, let him come. Right here, preacher. No, it
doesn't say that. It says the Spirit said it. It says the bride
said it. It says he that heareth said
it. And whoever is thirsty, and whosoever will, it doesn't say
come, it says take the water. Take the water. Now here's good
news. Would you listen to me just a
second, a little bit more? He doesn't say here, whosoever
cleans himself up, take the water. See, this is for dirty people. This is a blessed promise that
the Lord said. I didn't come to call righteous,
but sinners. You a sinner? Oh, I can't believe this. I'm too sinful. Are you kidding? That's who this is for. I tell
you why you won't come is because you're too clean. That's why
you won't come. Heard this all my life. Men say
this, my pastor said it, other men keep saying it's not your
sins that really keep you from Christ, it's your righteousness.
This message, this gospel is for sinners. I mean dirty sinners,
filthy sinners, lepers. The leper came down from that
mountain. What did he do? The first thing
that leper did, came down from that mountain. The Lord had thousands
around him. They weren't worshipping him.
But this leper came down from that mountain and said, fell
down on his feet and worshipped him. And the Lord said, what
do you need? What should I do? And he said, clean. I want to
be clean. Water. I'm thirsty. Strange. He didn't say, this
is for those who clean up their lives. No, this is for those
who can't. Can you hear me? He didn't say, this is for those
that are good people. He said, whosoever is good, take
this water. No, whosoever is no good, take. Eat. Drink. Christ died for the
ungodly. It's a faithful saying. He came into this world to save
sinners. That's you. Oh, my. And He said, He that
believeth on Me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Living water. A peace you've
never known, a comfort you've never known, a
fulfillment you've never known, that religion can't fill. When the Spirit of God comes
to a person, they'll come to Christ. They'll come where He's
preached. And God will make them thirsty.
And you'll ask, like this woman, to the Lord. You'll ask. You'll
say, Lord, give me a drink. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. That's to the thirsty, thirsty
soul. And the Lord will give you faith
to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And like that woman,
you'll drop your water bottle. You'll drop your old religion. Every single person who hears
the truth, the gospel, that was in religion, drops it. And they
say, I was just religious, I didn't know God. They drop their religion.
You'll drop your own profession of faith. You'll drop your own
profession of faith. You say, I confessed to Jesus
who wasn't Jesus. I believed in a God who wasn't
God. And you'll drop your old profession of faith. You'll drop
your old habits. You'll drop your old friends. You'll drop
your old watering hole. You'll drop your old watering
hole. Like this woman, I went there
day in and day out. This is where my fathers went,
my mothers went. I went there and I didn't get a thing. And you'll find a new watering
hole with the people of God. Where do you reckon this woman
went after this? I know where she went. She followed Jesus
Christ wherever He went. He's her water. He's her life. He's everything to her. Like
He said to that man one time, go your way. That blind man. He healed him. He said, go your
way. And the Lord turned and started walking off. And he looked
back and that fellow was following him. That's the way. You're my life
now. I'm not part of it. You are my
life. Christ said, I am the water of life. And by this spake he
of the Spirit, which they that believe on him shall receive.
The Holy Ghost was not yet given. Christ was not yet glorified.
What is that name, preacher? Well, it means exactly what it
says. Christ was here teaching. He
was here. He is God. He said in John 14,
he said it's expedient that I go away. I must go away. I've done my work. I've finished
the work of redemption as a man. I'm going to go and sit down
at the right hand of the majesty on high, reigning and ruling,
but I'm going to send someone. He's the Spirit of truth, going
to lead you and guide you into all truth. He's the Holy Spirit.
He's the Comforter. He is my messenger. He is his
Father's messenger, the Father's witness. And what he's going
to do, the Holy Spirit is going to come to every single one I've
died for, every single one that God chose and gave to me to come
down and die for. He's going to come to them through
the preaching of the gospel, and he's the Spirit of truth.
John 14, John 16. And he's going to take the things
of mine and show them unto you. Every one of mine, He's going
to show them me. And in John 16, He says He's
going to convince them first thing, first thing, first thing,
first thing, first thing of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And all about Christ. And they're
all going to come to me. He's going to make them thirsty.
He's going to give them repentance. He's going to give them a need
for Christ. And they're all going to come.
And they're all going to hear Christ proclaim. And they're
all going to have their thirst assuaged, their thirst met. And I'm going to fill them with
my joy and my rejoy. I'm going to fill them with myself. Christ in them is going to be
their hope of glory. And out of their belly, out of
their innermost being, out of their heart, out of their soul
is going to be peace they've never had before. Have the blood
of Jesus Christ crossed. Assurance of what? Not of themselves,
but of Jesus Christ. Hope that they've never had before.
And it's a sure hope. It's a certain hope. It's only
hope because they're not there yet, but they know that really
they are there. How? Because they know Christ
is there. Christ in them is their hope.
And you ask them, and they open up their mouth, and out of their
bellies is going to come what? What's going to come out of their
mouth if it's in them? Living water. That's what that means. Out of their mouth is going to
come their hope and other people's hope. Christ. They're going to
hear about Him. Has this happened to you? Blessed are you. The Lord made
you thirsty. And he says, keep coming. How
often can I come to you, preacher? Well, it's a river. It's a river. That means it's
always fresh, always new. You can keep coming. He will
not run it dry. He will not run it dry. Mercy,
a river of love and mercy and grace. Who's it for? Thirsty.
Oh, man. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst. All right, Brother John, let's say in closing, that's... What was it? Four... I forget. I forget the number. Oh, well. Well, sit down. Okay. 466. Yeah,
466. Let's all stand. I just thought he just started. Morning star.