Oh great, how great a debtor,
daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like no better,
Glide my wandering heart to Thee. Thrown to wander, Lord, I feel
it, Thrown to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, Seal it for Thy courts above. Thank you. Gary, I'd like to
get up and sing in that off-the-toys hymn. That's good. It shows that well. And that's, Come Thou Fount.
I never grow tired of singing that, do you? Go with me to the
gospel of John, chapter 7. John's gospel, chapter 7. Which is a fulfillment of what
we read in Isaiah fifty-five. John chapter seven. If any of you heard the radio broadcast,
it was taken from this also, and
some of these Will be repeated but. As in verse two of John
seven now the Jews the. Tabernacle. Was at hand. And his brethren. That is his
earthly. Brethren Mary had other children. And these. Are who they are talking
about his brethren therefore said unto him. Depart hence,
leave here, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see
the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth
anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. So
if thou do these things, show thyself to the world." But he
would have no part in that. He did not come for a show. It did not come to try to make
people believe him try to get people to believe in verse eight
he said to them you go go ye up unto this feast I go not up
yet. Unto this feast for my time is
not yet full. He would have no part in their. Traditions that they were going
to go through nor did he do anything for show. He said, My time is
not yet come. Speaking of his crucifixion,
where he was lifted up, he said, If I be lifted up, I'll draw
all men unto me. And also speaking of his glorification,
he said, Your time is always ready. Your time. But I want you to
notice something. It said in verse 2, the Jews'
Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Go back to Leviticus 23, where
this is found. Leviticus 23 is where the Lord
instituted the Feast of Tabernacles, all right? This Feast of Tabernacles
was to commemorate the Jews who traveled through the wilderness. In their travels through and
sojourning through the wilderness, they lived in tents. They didn't
have any permanent dwelling places, but they lived in these temporary
tabernacles or tents. And the Lord said that they were
to do this feast in commemoration of their travels through the
wilderness. It was supposed to be a time
of worship. It was an eight-day-long feast. It was a time of worship to remember
how the Lord brought them out of Egypt, had mercy upon them,
chose them, called them, brought them out of Egypt, led them through
the wilderness, provided for them, redeemed them, gave them
the lamb, the sacrifice. It was supposed to be a time
of great thanksgiving, and it ended on the eighth day with
a great day of celebration unto the Lord. It was all supposed
to be unto the Lord. Look at it, Leviticus 23, verse
34. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth
day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for
seven days unto the Lord. It's unto the Lord. All of their
feasting was to be unto the Lord in every verse. You go down through
here. We'll not do it for the sake of time. But every single
verse says, unto the Lord or before the Lord. Look at the
last verse, verse 44. And Moses declared unto the children
of Israel the feasts of the Lord. This feast was the Lord's speech. The Lord's table. It was unto
the Lord. He's the one that said it for
it was by him, and it was supposed to be for him to him through
him of him all about him. But did you notice back in our
text? What does it say? And John said. The Jews feast. What had, what was supposed to
be under the Lord had degenerated into a Jewish ritual. Just a
bunch of formalities. that the people were going through
these things, not thinking of God's sovereign mercy and grace
and God's lamb. And, you know, I began to, I
started to call some of my brethren on this, but there's no mention
of them sacrificing any animal. They were supposed to be doing
that all every day. I don't see it in here anyway.
I may be wrong, but as a matter of fact, I don't recall them
sacrificing any mention of any animals being sacrificed at this
time. Do you? Maybe I'm wrong about
this. I don't say. They had their Passover feast,
but I don't recall it saying anything about them killing a
lamb. Well, that would be significant, wouldn't it? Here's the wood,
here's the fire, where's the lamb? Well, they were going through
their ritual. They were going through these
ceremonies and all that without thinking of God. They weren't
worshiping God. And look here in our text. It
says in verse 10, back in John 7, when his brethren were gone
up, he told them, you go on. I'm not going with you. I'm not
going to go take any part in this. Verse ten, when his brethren
were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly,
but as it were in secret. Though God, though Christ, is
not in all of this mess that's called religion today, though
he's not in it, he's not a part of it, he's observing it. The
eyes of the Lord run to and fro in the earth. His eyes behold
His eyelids try, don't they? He sees. How often do you cry
with David, Lord? Don't you see? Lord, they've
made void your law. Won't you come down? Are you
watching what they're doing, how they're blaspheming you?
He's observing. He's observing. The Lord is always,
everywhere. Yet he's not in all of this. It's degenerating. But where
is he? Where is he? Well, look at verse
14. About the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple. and taught. Where is he? He's
among his people. You'll find him among his people
who are called the temple of the living God. You'll find him
there where two or three are gathered in his name for his
glory, his worship, worshiping in spirit, rejoicing in Christ
Jesus, no confidence in the flesh. That's where you'll find the
Lord Jesus Christ. Always, at all times, teaching.
They'll all be taught of God. Well, on the last day On the
last day, look at verse 37, in the last day, that great day
of the feast, called the great day of the feast because it was
the last day. It was the culmination of all
that they had done for seven days. It was the eighth day.
And if you'll read back there for yourself in Leviticus 23,
that last day was called a holy convocation. in which they would burn the
sacrifice. The burnt offering was made unto
the Lord, and the Lord would accept it. And it's also called,
that last day, that great day, the eighth day, is also called
the Sabbath to the people. Rest. After all that's over with,
the people could rest because the Lord had accepted the burnt
offering. It was supposed to be a great
day. They were just to have joy and rejoicing and feasting and
just rest after it was all done. How significant! On the last
day, Christ stood, the burnt offering, the Lamb of God, stood
on that last day, on the eighth day. Christ, the believer, And
here's what he cried, verse 37, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth
on me, read it with me now, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This he spake
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive. The Holy Ghost was not yet given
because Jesus was not yet glorified. Any man, and again I remind you,
whenever the Scripture says man, it means women, it means children,
it means any person, any man first. He stood before these
people having gone through eight days, seven days of ceremony
and ritual He stood before them. If anyone has gone through all
of this and it hasn't given you any satisfaction, you've gone through all of this
and you've got nothing from it, but it's left you thirsting for
what you don't know. Come unto me. I'll give you it. Come unto me. I'll give you drink."
Any man thirst, any person, anything, everything has left you parched
and dry and thirsty. Come unto me. And he said, I'll
give you living water. Living water. Have you ever been
thirsty? Really thirsty? I'm sure nearly everyone in here
has. The psalmist David said, My strength is dried up, my tongue
cleaves to my jaws. You ever been there? He said,
My moisture is turned into drought of summer. You ever been there? Now, he's speaking of spiritual
drought, spiritual thirst, no moisture. When I thought about
this thing of thirst, what causes us to be thirsty? What causes
us to be thirsty? And several things came to mind.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Several things. Any man thirst. Several things cause us to be
thirsty. Hard work. Have you ever worked
and worked and worked until you were so thirsty? You were so
thirsty. Have you? Sure you have. Worked
so hard until you're completely parched and dry and thirsty. And there's only one thing, you
know, there's only one thing that will really get rid of thirst. There's only one thing that will
assuage or quench your thirst, isn't it? Just one thing. Water. I mean, just water. Water. Well, this is talking about spiritual
labeling. Spiritual labeling. And many people, you know, it never, it never
fails, never fails. You think about certain persons
when you prepare a message. You think
you can't help it. You're human. You can't help
but think about certain persons that need this or that. And you're preparing a message
and you think, oh, I hope they'll be there. I hope they'll hear
that. I hope they sure need this. And if they just hear this, they'll
It'll be a blessing to them. And there was somebody I was
thinking about in reference, and they're not here. That happens without exception.
Every time. But this is for somebody. I don't
know who it is. But for somebody, you know, many
people work hard in religion and strive and labor to serve
God, to be moral, or to be good, be accepted by God, and never
find any real peace or joy. Never rest. And that working
in religion, dry religion, that's what religion is without Christ.
It's just dead and dry. Well, look here at Matthew 11.
Christ says to those laboring, In verse 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. I'll give you rest. Not I'll
try if you'll, I will give you rest. Come unto me. Don't come to this place or that
or don't try to do this. Come to me. I'm the one who gives
rest. I'm the Sabbath for the believer,
as He is the water. He said, look at verse 29 and
30, "...take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your soul." My
yoke is easy, my burden is light. Oh, Christ is a pleasant master. If the Lord is your shepherd,
it's a pleasant service, not a drudgery, a joy and a privilege
and satisfying. The religion that is Christ is
satisfying. It's not dry, and it won't leave
you dry and thirsty, but it'll Fill you up. Fill you to the
brim. Joy and rejoicing. Not a drudgery. You'll find the
religion that is Christ, the worship of Christ, not to be
a drudgery, but a pleasure. Not to be a duty, but a choice. You'll find yourself saying,
not, I have to go to church. I want to go worship the Lord. This is the day the Lord has
made. I rejoice in it. I was glad when they said unto
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. Go over to John chapter
4 with me. John chapter 4. Hard work will leave you thirsty,
won't it? Well, the heat of the day will leave you thirsty. Hot
day, dry day, dusty day will leave you thirsty. We were down
in Mexico several years ago, Mindy and I, and was Hannah with
us? We were visiting the Groovers
in Mexico, and we went to some of the Mayan ruins, and it was
in the summertime, wasn't it? I think it was in the summertime.
But we went to the Mayan ruins and walked up one of those pyramids
and were walking all over. And we all started getting pretty
hot. And we forgot to take any water
with us. And down there in the summertime,
it'll get up 105 degrees or more. And we all were pretty far away
from the car by this time. And we started heading back.
And I've never seen Betty Gruber in almost panic. She was. We were all getting
overcome with the heat. Her children, myself, all of
us, we were dry. This dry, dusty, hot day. We would have died at first had
we not made it back. And we made it back to the water,
came to the water, and that just soothed us and regenerated us.
Well, here is John chapter 4, and I'm talking about spiritual
thirst, spiritual thirst. By nature, we're far from God.
away from him. And you know, many people, like
this woman here, John chapter 4, this woman, it's 12 o'clock
noon in this story, and this woman, most of you know this
story, this woman has come to this same well that she has been
coming to all her life. She keeps coming to this well
to draw water from this well, but she has to keep coming because
she's, it never has completely quenched her thirst. She keeps
coming to this well, Jacob's well, to draw water. She's a miserable woman. She's an outcast woman. The reason
she came at twelve o'clock noon is because she didn't think she
would see anybody at that time. People go to the well in the
morning when it's cool. She came in the heat of the day,
came to this well, and day after day she would come to this well
for water to try and quench her thirst and to try to wash her
dirty body. She would go away day after day
thirsty. He's a sinful man, living with
a man outside of marriage that has five husbands. She has no
peace. She has no rest. She's thirsty
and doesn't even know it. She doesn't even know it. She
doesn't know what she needs. But she's religious. She's religious. And she says here down in verse
20 of chapter 4, look at this. He said, Our father worshipped
in this mountain, and you say in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. She was religious. She said,
Our father, well, I was raised a Baptist, or I was raised a
Catholic, or I was raised this and that and the other. And you
say that you want to discuss a little religion. Look back up at verse 10. Our
Lord said unto her, See, Jacob's well was there. She just didn't know that Jacob's
well was there now. The God of Jacob. The place where
Jacob found water was there. She came to the well, but really
the well came to her. The wellspring of water. Christ,
the living water, came to her. And verse 10 says, Christ said
unto her, Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest,
if you knew the gift of God, not something like he said back
there, he's laboring, labor for, it's a gift. Salvation is by
grace, not by working. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is, the gift of God is not of what?
It's a home. It's a person. The water of life
is not a thing to be taken. It's a person. If you knew the
gift of God and 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. You remember this, Sherrod? I
know you do. If you knew, you would ask, and
he would give. If you knew, you would ask, and
he would give you. If you knew, you would ask, and
he would give you. Would to God. He'd make
somebody ask. She did. Buddy, she did. He said, Sir, give me the drink. Did he? What did he say? Down to verse 26. He gave her
the drink. In this story, she didn't sip
one ounce of water. But Christ said, in verse 26,
I that speak unto thee am what? Living water. And she did. Right there, she laid hold of
him. She embraced him. She drank.
This thirsty woman, her thirst was assuaged. So, the heat of the day, in the
midst of the year, revive thy work, Scripture says, in the
midst of the year, in the middle of religion. Somebody, Lord,
find somebody in the middle of religion. Make them thirsty. relief come to them, cause them
to come to them. Look over at Mark chapter five.
Mark chapter five. You know, sickness will make
you thirsty, won't it? You ever been sick or ill and had surgery
or, and this leaves you thirsty. Medication? Ever taken a lot
of medication? Leave you thirsty? Well, sure
you have. Everybody in here has. Well,
here's a story of a woman that tried everything there was. She was sick. She was ill. And
she tried everything there was, and it only left her thirsty.
It only left her worse. Worse. Look at chapter 5, verse
25. A certain woman had an issue
of blood. This issue, this problem in her
was in her blood. It wasn't outside of her. It
wasn't things and people and places. It was her. It was in
her. And that's the issue with us. That's the problem with us.
It's within. It's called sin. It's an issue.
It's in our blood, this sin. Something's got to be done about
this sin. Man doesn't know it. That's the reason man will never
have any peace or joy. if his sins aren't taken away
by Christ. And he doesn't know it. He doesn't
know what the issue is until Christ comes and reveals the
issue and takes it away. Well, this woman tried every
position. She tried every position she
could, and it says she was only worth until finally somebody told her. Who told her? The Holy Spirit
told her. Somebody told her, the Holy Spirit
told her, if you'll come to Christ, your issue will be taken care
of. If you can just get to Christ. She said in verse 28, If I may
touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. What a picture that is of Christ's
righteousness. And she did. She came and straightway
the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her
body that she was healed of the plague. And Christ looked on the woman,
and he said to her in verse 34, Go, thy daughter, go thy way,
go in peace. Behold, thou playest. Come to
Christ. Come unto me. And back in our
text, go back to the text, John chapter 7, this feast, this feast
of religion, that's all it was. You know, religion leaves a foul
taste in my mouth. This is what will make you thirsty.
If you take something, eat something or drink something, foul tasting.
You ever done that? I'll tell you, one time Charles
Ross back there gave me some ginger beer. He thought I would
like it. It was true ginger beer. Well,
I don't know where you got that, Brother Charles, but I remember
a long time ago, you got me a bottle of ginger beer, made out of ginger
and nothing else. There wasn't any sugar or any
of that stuff in it. And I thought, boy, I love ginger
ale. It was awesome. It was awesome. I'd like to have never got that
out of my mouth. What did I do? I had to find
me some water. You may like that, but I don't. It's a foul taste in my mouth.
And many people like what's going on in religion today. They actually
like that stuff. As old Brother Scott would say,
he eats to his own poison. But it leaves a foul taste in
my mouth. Nearly everything I see and everything
I hear, doesn't it nauseate you? It leaves a bitter—you stay bitter.
Every sign I read in front of every so-called church leaves a bitter taste in my mouth,
and there's only one thing that'll take it away. I come back and hear the gospel
one more time—the gospel in my mouth. I wish the Lord would
make more people fed up with modern religion. I wish it would
leave them with a foul taste in their mouth. so that they
would come and hear of this living water and go away, tasting that the Lord is gracious
indeed. But the gospel is only for the
guilty, you know that? The gospel is only for the guilty,
and there aren't many to be found. But I, buddy, if there's any
guilty, they'll go away justified. If there are any sinners, they're
getting harder and harder to find, aren't they? If there are
any sinners, I tell you, if there's anybody really like the woman
with the issue, got an issue, and it's called sin, and they
need to get rid of it, buddy, if they'll hear the gospel, if
they'll come by God's graces in spirit to hear the gospel,
they'll go away forgiven, pardoned. If there's any really helpless
people, and not many people are helpless, most people They'll come and hear this song.
By God's grace, come and hear this song. They'll rest. It'll be a holy convocation. They'll rest in Christ their
Sabbath. And they'll be satisfied. That's
what that song says, Lord. All my life long I had panted
for a draft from some church. All these tests left me thirsty.
He said, but hallelujah, I have found that to my soul so long
has prayed the Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied my longing. And through His blood I am now
satisfied. Only water. He says living water.
Water, as I said, water is the only thing that will really get
rid of your thirst. It really is. It's water. What
kind of water? Stagnant water? Old water? Polluted water? Iron-filled water? Sulfur water? No. Spring water. Pure water. What spring water? Living water. living water. It comes out of
a spring, something that's ever-flowing, gushing forth. That's a spring
for you, not a cistern. That's what our Lord said about
many people, didn't He? Heed that cistern for yourself.
Don't do that. Come to the fountain. The fountain
is something that's always flowing. Living water, pure water, only
Christ, and Christ alone will assuage soul's hurt. Only Christ,
nothing else. Just Christ. And not Christ plus
anything. He said, come unto me, living
water, that's fresh water, daily water. And what did He promise? Look at verse 38. He said in
our text, He that believeth on me, As the scripture has said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water gushing out.
Out of his inmost being, from the depths of his being, will
gush out this water." What's he talking about? What
it said there in verse 39, he's talking about the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of God. What is the fruit of the Spirit?
When God Almighty, when Christ comes up and dwells in you, The
fruit, the Holy Spirit, dwells in you. What's the fruit of the
Spirit? Love. What'll come gushing out of the
person who comes to Christ and truly trusts Christ and believes
Christ and receives this gospel and lays hold of Christ's love?
What'll come gushing out? Love for God. Love the tribe. Love for the gospel. Love for
his people. Joy! What's the next phrase? Joy!
That'll come gushing out. Joy! Now does it come weeping? Go forth. Doubtless go forth
with rejoicing. Joy and rejoicing. That's the
next thing. Peace. Gushing out. Peace. My peace I'm giving you. Peace I leave with you, and my
peace I'm giving you. And nobody's going to take it
from you. Why? It's got to be inside. Gushing out. Woman at the well had it gushing
out, didn't she? After Christ came to her, and
she came to Christ, she went away, left her water pot, her
most prized possession, and went running and said, come see a
man. Come see a man. Gushing out of
him. Out of that abundance of the
heart, what, a mouthful, gushes out. David said, I was like a
bottle ready to burn. Had to tell somebody. He went
and told everybody, come see a man. It missed the prize. Oh,
this is something. That woman with the issue of
blood. Oh, gee, her fountain's dried
up, but did it? Well, the issue did, and now
she's full of this water. And perhaps someone at this speech,
I believe, I don't believe the Lord cries out. He says, He shall
not cry or lift up His voice in the street, but He did here,
but I guarantee you somebody came. It doesn't say they did,
but when the Lord Jesus Christ called, He said, My word will
not return void. Didn't it? It'll accomplish what
I send it to do. Well, the Word was made flesh
and stood up this day and said, Come unto me, any man first,
come. I guarantee you, somebody, if you can have this man on him,
came to him, and went away from him. And probably didn't go back
to that priest again. Didn't need it. We made it. That's right. That's right. That's right. I've
said so many times that Jesus Christ is all the religion that
we made. And like Isaiah, what did the
Lord promise? And like Isaiah said, you come,
you drink, you buy without money, without price, wine, milk. You
come, and when you leave, the hills and the mountains are going
to be singing. You're going to go out with joy,
and it's going to be like everything is singing. To you, what thing
is what? Unto him, the trees will be clapping
their hands. You never heard the trees clap
their hands on a camera, did you? Until the Lord showed you
the tree of life. Right. And now you go out, and
all is changing except your voice. Come unto me. Amen. And as Brother Scott would say,
come to Christ. He said, don't move a muscle. Don't move a muscle. Come down here, didn't say come
to the front, didn't say come to the shoulder, didn't say come
to the feet, he said, come under me. I said, come to me. In the privacy and the depth
of your heart, Prayers are told, go out to Him, come unto Him.
Lord, I'm faithful. I'm faithful. There's nothing that can recognize
me. I've been thirsty for what I
don't know, but now I know. You meet my thirst. That's it. You, you got it. Okay. Love you, David. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to go ahead and get
started. All right.