I'll stay where my heart will
stay. I'll stay where my heart will stay. I'll stay where my heart will stay. This morning I was undecided
what I was going to preach on today. Every morning I go over to the
house. I let Molly out. and clean out their stalls, and
then come on back, usually, unless I work on the house on that particular
day. But Wednesdays I come back over
here and begin to work on the message. Well, this morning I
was cleaning the stalls, and I was rinsing out their water
buckets and cleaning out their big water trough. And I kept going to the well,
turning it on, using that water, and do something else, and go
back to the well, and go back, and kept using water. And this
portion of Scripture started coming to me, this John 4. And
it just kept going over and over in my mind, this whole story
here. I had my message. I had my message. Living water from John 4. John chapter 4. Let's look at
it. John chapter 4. It says in verse 3, beginning
there, He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through
Samaria. Now that was not the shortest
route to Galilee or where he was headed, but he must needs
go to Samaria or through Samaria because there was one of his
sheep there. That's why. One of his sheep
whom he foreknew before the world began. And he came to earth to
seek and to save that one sheep. That was one of them. And he
waited several years while she languished in sin, lived a loose
life. This woman was at least in her
forties by now. He waited several years on her
while she lived the life of loose life and a godless life. And now, now he's waited all
these years, now he's going to be waiting on her. He's going
to be sitting on the well, waiting for her to come to him. It's
her time. Today is the day of her salvation. It's time. In the fullness of
time, God sent forth his Son to each individual sheep. This
was her time. Her time had come to meet the
Savior. Verses 5 and 6. Now, he cometh
to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel
of ground that Jacob gave his son Joseph. Ring a bell? Now, Jacob's well
was there, and Jacob's God was there. Jacob's well was there. God was sitting on it. Jesus,
therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. Jesus, weary with his journey. We have not a high priest who
is not touched with the feeling of our infirmity. But he was
tempted, tried, wearied in all points like as we are. He knows
what it is to be weary. He wearied himself. There is
a passage over in John 11 where the story of him raising Lazarus
from the tomb. In verse 33 it says that he groaned
in spirit and was troubled. The margin says he troubled himself. He troubled himself. He wearied
himself. He troubled himself. He went
to a great deal of trouble. He went through a great deal
of trouble. He subjected himself to a great deal of weariness.
He didn't have to. All that he did, he did voluntarily
and wearily. He never met his own needs. He
never did anything to relieve his own suffering, his own weariness. He didn't have to walk to Samaria. He didn't have to walk to Samaria. Would you walk ten, twenty miles
somewhere if you didn't have to? He did. Why? He knows that
we're going to have to. We have to. We are limited. by
the flesh. We were a little lower than the
angel, so he was too. So he made himself thus too.
He wearied himself, and he troubled himself, and he wearied and troubled
himself with the weary and the troubled. Verse 7, There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus saith unto her, Give
me to drink, That struck me. Give me to drink.
He didn't ask her, would you please give me a drink? Pardon
me, ma'am, I hate to impose upon you, but would you mind drawing
a draught of water for me to drink? He didn't do that. Kings don't ask subjects to serve
stuff, do they? Give me to drink. He doesn't
ask anything of you. Give me to drink. Give me. You know, and this whole story,
and this prompted me to think this way. When the Lord comes
to a sinner, when the Lord comes to a sinner, he's about to deal
with the sinner, he doesn't ask them anything. Right? We remember that in the story
of Joseph. And his brethren, when they came to him, Joseph
didn't ask them anything but, what's your occupation? Remember that? He didn't ask
them to do anything except him or anything like that. Kings
don't do that. And remember, Joseph spoke roughly
to them. And I don't know how he said
this to this woman. I don't imagine it was rude,
but he just said, give me a drink. And when the Lord comes to a
sinner, first of all, he speaks roughly to them, makes some demands
of them, the law. He exposes their sin, which he's
going to do to this woman. He creates a need. They see their
sin, they see a need. He creates a need, and then he
fills the need. Verse 8. Now, his disciples were
going away into the city to buy meat. The Lord was dealing with
this woman individually, and that's how he deals with sinners.
That's how he deals with sinners, individually, alone. Not through a mediator, because
he is the mediator. He deals with people individually,
alone. Verses 9 and 10. Then saith the
woman of Samaria unto How is it that thou, being a
Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria?" The Jews
had no dealings with the Samaritan. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest, if thou knewest the gift of God and who
it is, if thou knewest 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." The woman saith
unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, 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?" You see, all
of Jacob's children, all the sons of Jacob, drank from this
well, and they meet the one sitting on it. Are thou greater than
Jacob? Why, if she knew, if only she
knew who this was. This is Jacob's
ladder. Not only the whale, he's the
whale. He's Jacob's ladder. He's Jacob's redeemer, redeeming
angel. This is Jacob's God. Jacob didn't
provide the whale. He didn't dig this whale, did
he? No, he didn't dig this whale. Our Lord provided this well. Jesus answered and said unto
her, verse 13, Now whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst. The water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting
life. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."
The Lord said, This water leaves you thirsty. The water I give
you will never thirst. And she asked him to give it
to her. Then he exposes her sin to her. Verse 16 and following,
Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said,
I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom
thou now hast is not thy husband." She was living with this man.
In that thou saidst thou truly. He exposed her sin to her now,
and now she was humiliated before him, somewhat. He had revealed
her And she said, verse 19, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. So what does she do? And this
is what everybody does. It doesn't matter what they've
done, how they have lived, it doesn't matter how wicked, They're religious, and they plead
their religion. Well, I may have done that, but
I haven't done some other thing. She begins to plead her religion,
her righteousness. Verse 20, Our Father is worshiped
in the mountain, and we're good Baptists, and you're Methodists. And you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship. And then our Lord
reveals to her true religion. and true worship. And he reveals
himself to them. Read on. Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, believe me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. You worship you know not what.
We know what we worship. Salvation is of the Jews. What
he is saying there is that God elects a people. Salvation is
sovereign. But the hour cometh, verse 23,
and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
He seeketh such tonight. God is the Spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman
saith unto him, I know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ,
and when he is come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee, am. I am. He reveals himself to this
woman. We've looked at the whole story
and we've looked at this woman before. We've looked at this
passage before and dealt with it as the Lord with this woman. But I want to just deal with
one thing tonight. The subject is living water.
What is this living water? Back up in verse 11, he says,
or verse 10, he said, If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith to thee, Give me a drink, thou wouldst
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Two types of water. Number one,
look at verse 13, Our Lord said, Whosoever drinketh of this water,
right here, he's talking about material water, shall thirst again. I just drank
it just a few minutes ago, and I already need another drink. That's principally what he's
saying. This water, I just need a drink and I'll need another
one. Whosoever drinketh of this water,
he said, shall thirst again. The water of this world, this
water. But spiritually speaking, he's
talking about everything concerning this world. These things, like
he said to Peter and James and John, Lovest thou me more than
these things?" Then he went on to name some things. Father,
my people. There's a thirst for pleasure. That's the water of this world,
isn't it? Isn't that what the world is trying to satisfy themselves
with? Pleasure, whatever that may be. That takes many forms. That's what kids are doing drugs
for, trying to get some pleasure that they can't get out of just
living, some extra sensorial pleasure. There's a thirst for
pleasure. That may be food. People try to satisfy. That won't satisfy them. That's
the reason we keep eating. Clothing. People take great pleasure
in clothing, possessions, whatever they may be. They take many different
forms. That's the water of this world. Lands, companionship. People, young people especially,
are looking for that Mr. Right or Miss Right. And they think they're going
to be satisfied and just get that husband. Ladies, tell them. My wife, tell them. Even if you do find Mr. Wright,
it'll go wrong. He'll go wrong. He'll treat you
wrong. Right? Every one of these women
and I agree with that. That's right. Marriage is not
all it's cracked up to be. It ain't half of what it's cracked
up to be. It's a wonderful thing if Mr. Wright, if the Lord provides
Mr. Wright. Otherwise, Paul said,
you'll have much trouble in the flesh. You know what Paul said?
And I'm going to get into that. But there's people, there's young
people who think, if I can just find Mr. Wright, or Miss Wright,
if I can just get married, I'll be so happy. No, you won't. Your
troubles are just starting. Then the pressures really start
mounting. Children, women think, oh, if I can just have a child,
that baby is going to suffice. What are you laughing at, Rebecca? Your mother snickered at that. Babies grow up, don't they,
Beck? Those little sweet babies grow up into big, mean babies. Troublesome babies. And women, after a while, they
begin to think, why did I want this? Right? You know what I'm saying. Especially during labor, they
say that. Why does that want this? They think that'll suffice. It won't. It won't. It won't. I tell you, if you raise up a
child and he rebels against you, or he or she rebels against you,
you've never experienced trouble like that. You'll never experience
heartache like that. That might be the greatest heartache
a parent would undergo. That won't suffice, will it?
That water won't suffice. It'll leave you thirsty. Never
satisfied. Never enough. The water of this
world is never enough. That's the reason people that
are filthy rich want to get filthier. It's not enough. It's not enough. Bigger, better, more of it. The
water of this world will leave you thirsty. And so let me ask
you and myself, what well are we continually going to? A good question, right? Where are
we seeking satisfaction? And then there's real water. Our Lord says, living water. If you would have I will give
you living water. Whoever drinks of this water,
verse 14, and I give him shall never thirst. Really thirst,
that is thirst for those other things. You'll thirst for that
water. Once you get a taste of that
water, it's sufficient. But you want more of it. That water, it tastes pretty
good, but it doesn't suffice. That's the only reason I want
more of it, Henry, because it does not meet my thirst. Well, this water does, but the
thing about it, the unique thing about it is, living water. It
satisfies your thirst, but you want more of it. Why? Because
you like the taste. You like the taste of it. It
satisfies your thirst. What is this living water? John
7. What is this living water, our
Lord says, if you drink of it, you'll never thirst again. John 7, verse 37. In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirsts, any woman first, any young person first.
Let him come unto me," he said. Christ is that
water. Jesus Christ is the water of
life. He is the living water, and I'm
going to develop that a little more. He is the living water. He's He's life-living. What? He's the water of life,
he's called the water of life, he's called living water. Life-giving
and life-living water. He's the water of life. Back
to John 3. John 3. Our Lord speaks of water
here to Nicodemus. John 3. Turn back there. Got
it? John 3. Look at verse 5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water, and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Water and
of spirit. There's another scripture that
says, when Christ was crucified, and after he was hanging, while
he was hanging on the cross, A soldier came by and pierced
his side," and you remember what it said? It said, "...out of
his side came forth blood and water." Water. Water. Water and blood. Water of his blood. His blood
is this water. Number one, his blood is this
water, this living water, which washes us from our sin. It cleanses
us. Scripture says the life of the
flesh is in the blood, doesn't it? The life of the flesh, what
sustains this mortal body is blood coursing through its veins.
What gives spiritual life is the blood of Christ coursing
through our soul. The life of the flesh is in the
blood where the life of the Spirit is in Christ's blood. You see,
when the gospel of Christ, it's like a transfusion given to a
dead sinner. He's without blood. A dead sinner,
he's dead. That means the blood of Christ
is not in him. Not in his mind, not in his thoughts, not in his
heart. He doesn't have faith in the blood. He's not justified
by faith in the blood. But when the gospel of Christ
is preached through the great physician, the Holy Spirit, he
takes the blood and applies it. In other words, transfuses us
with it. Transfuses us with the blood. Fills us with the blood. Christ's
blood. And that dead sinner begins to
live. And that blood begins coursing through their souls and their
minds and their hearts, and their eyes begin to open, their ears,
and man, they've got life now. They're alive unto God now. Spiritual
life, all because of the blood. Transfusion of the blood. And
in the water is the water of his word. The water of his word. We're born of the water and the
Spirit, and Peter said, He said, we're begotten, born again, by
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. We're born
by the word of God, the water of the Spirit, and the water
is God's word. And the gospel, like I said,
the gospel is preached and God Almighty regenerates and he begets
a new creature through this. This is the water of his word.
Our Lord said, my spirit, or my words are spirit, and they
are what? You know that, don't you, Deborah? My words are spirit and life. Life. My word is life. Scripture says the word of God
is quick. What does quick mean? Alive. It's alive. Quicken means to
make alive. Quick means alive. The word of God is alive, and
you've heard it That's what I pray for every time we come in here,
that we'll hear it, that it'll be alive to us. Otherwise, it's
just dead words. Bouncing off our hard skulls
like dead birds. Might as well have heard a little
something at the road club, if the Lord, the Holy Spirit doesn't
take it and make it alive. Right? He said, my word is, the
word of God is quick. And I pray quick, Lord, quicken
me according to thy word, which is quick, speak to me." That's
where we ought to pray every time we come in here. Lord, speak
to me. Speak. Not just a sermon, not just preach.
You ought to hear some good preaching. Good preaching. Speak to me. Shake me up. Warm my heart. Fill my soul. Instruct me. Waken me up lest
I sleep the sleep of death. Arouse me. Peter said they must
stir up your heart. Stir me up. Speak. The Word of God is quick. And I'm going to get into this.
How do you draw from this quick water? It's water, it's alive. How do you get it? You draw off
it. You draw it. We're going to get into that
in a minute, all right? It's the water of his word. The water
of his word. Now, and it says, he said, my
water is life. Living water. When I was over
there cleaning that big hundred gallon tub out, there's a lot
of algae in our water. And that tub was just green.
You know what algae is, don't you? Algae is microorganisms
of life. But that, I hadn't cleaned it
out in a while, and that thing was just green as it could be. I
wonder what my insides are beginning to look like. But anyway, that
water, you see, is full of life. It's full of life. To all who
drink it, they're full of that. It's full of those microorganisms.
Whether they be good or bad, I don't know. The water down
in Mexico, it'll kill you. It's full of those, it'll kill
you. But not this water. Christ. The Word of God. What are we talking about? The
Word of God, it brings forth life. And our Lord speaks of
this throughout John, and particularly John 14, 15. He says, if my words
abide in you, Remember that? And then he said,
we already said here, he said, look at verse 14. The water, if I give you this
water, the water I give you shall be in you a well of water springing
up, bubbling like a spring. You have
spring water. We have springs on our property
there. Spring is a supernatural. It
just comes forth. It's miraculously given water.
You don't have to drill it. You don't have to dig for it.
It's there. That's Christ, isn't it? But this water that he gives,
he says, spring, and that water keeps coming, keeps coming. You
don't have to have a pump. Spring, you don't have to pump
it, unless you've got a long way to go with it. But to get
a drink from a spring, you don't have to draw it. It just comes.
Well, our Lord said, when this water is in you, it will spring
forth. Somebody said, scientists say our bodies are
made up of, I don't know how much, what is that? Eighty-seven
percent. What? Sixty. It's more than that. Anyway, a great deal of water,
our bodies are made up of. The greatest portion of our bodies
are made up of water. Well, the scripture says, Christ
in you, the word of God in you. He says, my words abide in you,
at least the spirit of them. You don't have to be able to
quote. There's nobody in here, the preacher included, can quote
five percent of this book. Can you recall one hundred percent
of this book? Quote me five verses of Scripture. You'd struggle doing it, wouldn't
you? If everybody's honest, especially
if I put you under pressure, you wouldn't quote one accurately. But you see what I'm saying?
It doesn't necessarily have to be the letter of it. There's
all the more reason to be under the sound of it, where it's fed
to you. You get fed and watered here.
You don't have to do what it says drawn for you. Cup it, cup it, cup it. Nevertheless,
when you're under it and you're drinking from it, He said, my word doesn't turn
void. It doesn't go out in the draft. This water doesn't go
out in the draft. That's strange, isn't it? But
it's so, I've experienced this. I've been somewhere, and something
has happened, and a word of the Scripture that I really did not
know that well. I mean, I'd heard it before,
but it came to mind. Not accurately, not perfectly, but the spirit
of it. You know what I'm saying, don't
you? It's a wellspring, and when you need it, you need that drink,
you need that sustenance, you need that health. My words abide
in you, and experts say you need three to four, how many quarts
of water to drink, Shannon? Three or four quarts a day, a
gallon of water a day to drink. How many, anybody do that? Do
you? I'm proud of you. I just explode. I drink a lot
in the summertime, though. Rick and I were working. We went
through two or three coolers of water a day. But dieticians, they say you
need it. You ought to. So you ought to
drink. Do we take a thimble full a day? Huh? Well, our Lord says, if
my words be in you and abide in you, there'll be a well of
water. I need that admonition, don't you? I sure do. Take a
good cold drink. First thing I do in the morning
when I get up, I got to have something to drink, don't you?
I got to have something to drink. And the first thing we need,
really need in the morning, is a good cold drink of this. Good
cold drink of that. Just a drop of water on my parched
tongue, O Lord. Now, here's some uses for water,
and I'll quit. Water will quench your thirst. Our Lord said in
Matthew 6, he said, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. Christ is that righteousness
if you thirst for it. If you thirst for that righteousness
which only he can provide, he said, I'll fill you full of it.
I'll make you righteous. I'll make you righteous. It quenches
your thirst. Water is to wash with, isn't
it? Ephesians 5, what verse is that, Rick? Ephesians 5, water
to wash with. 26, good. That one's in him. In Ephesians 5, verse 26, it
says, "...the Holy Spirit washes us with the water of his Word."
We need cleansing, sanctification through the Spirit. Cleanse from
dead works. We need that. Cleanse us from
vain thoughts. What? I love that psalm, Temptations. I sing it all the time to myself.
Temptations lose their power when thou art nigh. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Temptations
come along. What will wash it away? Only one thing. Only one thing. Impure actions and attitude,
only one thing will clean up your act. Only one thing will
clean up your act. It's the Word of God and through
the power of God's Holy Spirit. It'll take an old vile wretch
who's literally laid in a gutter. I mean literally laid in a gutter. and clean him up, put him, clothe
him in his right mind, and have him stand up and tell the wonderful
works of God. Take a vile, wretched sinner
who did nothing but use the name of God to curse with and make
him blessed. Only one thing will do that. It's this. It's quick.
It's powerful. And then, water is for growth. It's for growth. You need water
to grow by. Then, waters for health. You
know, you're going to think I'm crazy, but there have been many
times when I felt something coming on, like a cold or just some
malady coming on or something, and I just have loaded myself
down with water. Just drink, just keep drinking,
drink. I'm serious now, and I'm not one of these nuts. Health, food, it's just water. And it flushed me out. Right. It flushed me out. Barbara says
that all the time. She comes in here. I got cleaned
out when I came in here. Came in here feeling some filth
and it just cleaned me out. Cleaned me out. Ward's off cold. Ward off a cold. This water. It wore off disease. He said,
many of you are weak and sickly, didn't he? There's one remedy. All right, how do you draw this
water? Drawing this water, how do you draw it? What did our
Lord say? He said, I give you living water. How do you get it? How do you tell this woman to
get it? Huh? Don't you remember anybody? He
said, if thou would have what? Say it. Ask me. That's it. He said, you have
not because. We were driving, I was driving,
hanging at home from school today. And she said, you know, and it
was warm today. And she said, it was hot in our
classroom today. She said, and you know, I didn't
take my water bottle with me. I usually take it. And she said,
I got so thirsty. I said, you did? And she said, you know,
McDonald's gives free water, too. I said, they do. I said, honey, if you want water,
I'm thirsty. The McDonald's is free. Just ask me. Daddy will stop
and get you water. That's what our Lord said. Ask
me. We have not. We're thirsty, dry, thirsty,
temptation, this sort of thing. I'm afraid sometimes temptations
come along we kind of like it and don't want out of it. But
he said, if you just ask, he said, I'm in a very present helping
time of trouble, and I'll spring this water up in you. It's there,
if Christ is in you. Ask, seek, that's what it is
to draw this water. Ask, seek, knock, search. Drawing from a well requires
your hand, doesn't it? Well, all these things do, too.
Ask, seek, knock. Stan was over at our house the
other night, and he was telling me something. And he was describing
something. And I said, Stan, put your hands
in your pocket and tell me that. He said, I can't. I'm saying,
wait a minute, animate your hands. You know, ask. That's what it
means to lift up holy hands. That's what that means. But that's
not the actual. You don't have to actually. Seek. Seek. What do you do when you
seek? You can't open this book without
these hands. Knock! How are you going to knock? See, knock. To whom coming. We used that, didn't we? Somebody
didn't hear that message, what it means to come to Christ. You
go to Terry and you get it. I mean to tell you, you get that
message. And over in Revelation 21, I want you to turn here. Revelation 21. There's a passage
of scripture here that just concludes this thing. Revelation
21, verse 5 through 7. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, For
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son."
And chapter 22, verse 17, turn over there. Verse 17, chapter
22. He says, A spirit and a bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Christ is that water of life. Come, everyone who is thirsty
for water Those who are seeking for refuge sublime Come and be
filled with His tender compassion Lord Jesus, Savior Won't you come to the water Come
to the river of life Come to the mountains of the south The Lord Jesus, the Savior divine. Though you have nothing to spread
below His table, though years of labor in kindness and mercy. He's the
Lord, the Savior divine. Won't you come to the water? Come to that river of life. Come to the mouth of the fountain, Lord Jesus, Savior, mine. Come, everyone, to the heart
of repentance. Seek after Him while yet may
be found. Though you have wandered in sin, He will friend you, Lord
Jesus Savior. Won't you come to the border? Come to that river of life. Come to the mouth of the fountain. Lord Jesus, Savior, You just
take it.