Did you notice there in John
7? Where this is not what I'm going to preach on. I'm going
to preach on another part of John 7, but it just struck me
so strongly as we read that passage. This is a valuable lesson. We
read in verse 16, Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will. If you're really wanting to know
God is what he's saying. If you really want to know God,
know who he is, do his will. He shall know of the doctrine
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. God's not
going to let you be fooled if you don't want to know him. He
won't do it. Now look at this, verse 18. He
that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. But he that seeketh
his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness
is in him. Now here is a built-in error
detector. You hear a preacher, if that
preacher is seeking the glory of God, God sent him. If he's glorifying the flesh,
you know there's nothing to it. Precisely what our Lord is saying.
Now in our text, in John 7, I'd like to begin reading in verse
37. Let's read these three verses,
the last three verses that were read together. In the last day, that great day
of the feast. Jesus stood and cried. He lifted up his voice, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake ye of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Just the fact that that passage
says Jesus stood and cried grabs my attention. It's very seldom
that the Lord raised his voice. Very seldom. As a matter of fact,
if you look through the New Testament, you can count on one hand the
times that the Lord raised his voice. We read of a couple of
times in this passage when he raised his voice in pride. He
looked at these people who were going through this feast that
was prescribed in the Old Testament, that was very scriptural, that
was very important, that every Israelite was commanded to be
there in Jerusalem to observe this feast, the Feast of Tabernacles.
And our Lord knew that this feast did nothing more than typify
himself. And he looked at these people
who had no idea why they were observing this feast. They were
doing it. They should have been doing it, but they didn't know
why. And he looked at these people and said, if anybody's thirsty,
if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Now think of this word, thirst. Our Lord raised up His voice
and said, If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Now, you know the Lord is not
talking about a physical thirst here. He's talking about a spiritual
thirst. If any man thirsts, let him come
to Me and drink. Now, this thirst, this spiritual
thirst that He's talking about arises from the absence of something. If you're thirsty, it's because
you've got a lack of something. You've got a lack of water. You
know it's not in you. You know you can't produce it,
and it's going to have to come from outside yourself. You're
thirsting. This is a longing in the soul. It's an anxiety. It's a hunger
and a thirst after righteousness. That's what our Lord talked about
there in Matthew chapter 5, verse 6, where He said, Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. They hunger and
thirst after a right standing with God. They hunger and thirst
after a righteousness that they know they can't produce that
will make them accepted before God. They thirst for righteousness
both imputed and righteousness imparted. They thirst for a righteousness
that will make them accepted before God's holy law, and they
thirst to be righteous. They thirst to be holy. They
don't want to be left the way they are. They hunger and thirst
after this. There's a longing in the soul,
a thirst for forgiveness, a thirst for peace. You know, there's
nothing that this world affords or my works afford to give me
any peace. It's a thirst for peace that
they know they can't work up, a thirst for acceptance with
God, a thirst to know God. There's even a thirst to thirst. You thirst to thirst. You're
bothered that you don't thirst enough. You know you ought to,
and you thirst to thirst. If any man thirsts, it's an uneasiness
and a dissatisfaction. More than anything else, it's
a thirst for God. That's what David said in Psalm 42, 1 and
2. He said, As the heart panteth
after the water, Brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is a thirst for God,
for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before my God?" Now, this is the work of God
the Holy Spirit in a man. You see, the natural man doesn't
thirst for God. He doesn't desire God. People
present, preachers present, man, every man has this thirst and
this hunger after God's righteousness and so on. The natural man doesn't
have that hunger or thirst. He's satisfied with things the
way they are, insofar as his relationship with God is concerned. But when God the Holy Spirit
works in a man, he creates a thirst. See, dead people don't thirst,
do they? But people that are alive thirst. This is the work
of God in a man, and it's actually a blessed state to be in. Our Lord said, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst. after righteousness. Now, when
you quit getting hungry and when you quit getting thirsty, what's
that a sign of? Sickness. Sickness. Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now, are you thirsty? Am I thirsty? I'm not asking you to answer
me, but I'm asking you to consider this. Are you thirsty? Do you
thirst after God? Do you thirst to know Him, ever
in you, that you know He can Do you thirst to have your sins
forgiven? My soul, I do. Do you thirst
to be accepted by God? Do you thirst to be loved by
God? Do you thirst to know Him? Do
you thirst to thirst? Do you have a need that you know
only can be satisfied by something outside of yourself? Now, if
you're ever thirsty, I'm thirsty right now, talking about this. If you're ever thirsty, you've
got to have that thirst quenched. You can't be indifferent about
it. You can't shove it under the
carpet. If you're thirsty, you must have that thirst quenched. And notice how our Lord said,
if any man thirst. If any man thirst. It's as if
the Savior said, many of you are satisfied. going through
the form and the ceremony. Kind of like the way a lot of
people are satisfied with their devotions. You ever hear people
talk about their devotions? I was in my devotions. And they're not... And what it
is, they're satisfied with the fact that they read the Bible.
And they spent so much time in prayer. Now, I'm not saying you
ought to read the Bible. You ought to spend time in prayer,
much time in prayer. I'm not saying anything against
that, but if anybody's talking about that, well, I was in my
devotion. They're satisfied from going
through the act. And our Lord was looking at these
people, and He saw many people who were satisfied by going through
the form of the ceremony without knowing what it means. But He
said, if there's anybody who's thirsty, Not everybody is. And if you're not thirsty, the
Lord's not talking to you. But He is talking to thirsty
folks. Somebody says, how thirsty? I'm glad it doesn't say. Aren't
you? What if He said you have to be
so thirsty? Well, I'd be afraid I wouldn't fit the bill, but
He just says thirsty. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me. and drink." Now, who's he talking
to? Well, folks, it's thirst. And look at the wideness of this
description. He says, if any man thirsts,
no matter who you are, no matter what your condition is, no matter
how much knowledge you've got, no matter how much experience
you've got, it doesn't make any difference. He just says, if
any man thirsts. Now, I don't have any question
that he didn't say that God didn't come or Christ didn't come to
save everybody. Did He? He said, I pray not for
the world, but for him that you've given me. He didn't come for
everybody. But bless God, He did come for
anybody. Not everybody, but anybody. Anybody who thirsts. Anybody who wants to know Him.
Anybody who wants to be saved by His grace. I mean, that doesn't
exclude anybody, does it? Holy truth of election and predestination
and particular redemption and on and on. Those glorious truths
exclude no one from the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be
saved by His grace, He'll save you. He says if any man thirsts,
no matter who it is, whosoever will, let him come and take the
water of life freely. If any man thirsts, Let him come
to me and drink." Now, let me say at the outset, when our Lord
says, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink, this
ain't advice. This is not an invitation. As
a matter of fact, it's spoken of in the imperative mood, which
means a command. He is giving a command, if any
man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. I can't emphasize
this enough. I'm so thankful the gospel's
a command. That's what gives me a right to come. When my dad
would tell me, come here and do this, I didn't try to figure
out whether or not I had a right to. I just did it because I knew
I'd be in trouble if I didn't. And Christ says to every thirsting
soul, even if you're thirsty just a little bit, if you're
thirsty, He commands you. Come to me and drink. I'm so thankful that's a command.
That's where our right to come comes from. If it's just an invitation,
you might not be invited. That's why I'm glad it says,
whosoever will, let him come. I'm glad it says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If it says, if
Todd Norbert calls on the name of the Lord, he'll be saved.
He might be talking about a different Todd Norbert. I mean, I'm sure
there's probably another one somewhere. But this whosoever,
I can get any man that thirsts, I can fit myself into that group.
Can you? Are you thirsty? If any man thirsts,
let him come to me and drink." Now notice the simplicity of
the command. He says, come to me. Come to
me and drink. I'm thirsty. Here's a glass of
water. I'll pick it up. I drink it. I don't wait for
the water to come to me. You know, people say, well, God's
going to save me. He's going to save me. Well,
you can have that attitude and you'll end up going to hell if
you keep that attitude. You'll come to Christ. It's true if
you come to Him. It's because He came to you and
gave you grace. There's no doubt about it. But if you're thirsty,
you're going to come. You're going to come to the water.
I mean, if you're going to crawl, you might roll. You might just
drag yourself with your fingers. But if you're thirsty, you're
going to come. He said, if you're thirsty, come to Me and drink. There's grave significance in
that. Salvation, the quenching of spiritual thirst, is only
found in coming to Christ. You know, as far as our experience
goes, salvation is coming to Christ, isn't it? It's all of that. Our Lord said
in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me, there he's talking
about election, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me, I
will know why I'm cast out. Now that's our experience of
salvation, and it ain't a one-time thing. Peter said, in 1 Peter
2, verse 4, he says, "...to whom coming as unto a living stone."
And I find that I've got to come to Christ now the same way I
came to Him the first time I came. And I never graduated above that.
It's a continual coming to Christ. Now, insofar as our experience
goes, what we experience ourselves, salvation is coming to Christ.
That covers everything. That covers the whole ball of
wax. It's coming to Christ. He said, If any man thirst, let
him come to me and drink. He is the only one who will satisfy
you if you're thirsty. Look back a couple of pages.
John chapter 4, verse 13. Our Lord is dealing
with the woman at the well here. And he says, verse 13, John chapter
4, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this
water, shall thirst again." Boy, there's a lot in that statement,
isn't there? Any water of this world, you can drink it, but
you're going to thirst again. It's not really going to quench
your thirst. But, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The Lord says, come to me and
drink, and you will never thirst. Come to me. Now notice salvation.
Salvation's not coming to thirst. It's not coming to doctrine. And we're not saying anything
negatively against doctrine when I say that. You can't know Christ
apart from his doctrine. But you can know a doctrine and
not know Him. So that's why I'm saying salvation
is not coming through, it's not getting your doctrine straightened
out, it's not getting your life straightened out. Somebody says,
my life has been straightened out. I was a disaster in every
aspect of my life and now it's really turned around. That's
not salvation. You can do that without knowing
the Lord. That's not salvation. It's not coming to get your life
straightened out. It's not participating in all
kinds of Bible studies and religious activity. You can be right on
everything and split hell wide open. Salvation is coming to
Christ. Now somebody says, how do I come? Well, that's a good
question, isn't it? How do I come to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, like somebody once said, don't move a muscle. You
come in your heart. Now notice what our Lord says.
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. Now, to come to Christ is to
believe on Christ. It's the exact same thing. To
come to Christ is to believe on Christ. And notice, he says,
he that believeth on me. He didn't say, he that believeth
in me. There is an infinite difference between believing in Christ and
believing on Christ. I believe in that chair. I believe it'll hold me up. I
believe in that chair. I believe it's there. I believe
it's real. You know, philosophers will say,
well, how do you know it's really there, you know? Well, I just
say it. I mean, it's there. I believe in that chair. But
I don't believe on that chair until I walk over to that chair,
and I sit on it, and I trust this chair to support my faith
in a good way. Now I'm believing on it. There's
a big difference. Now, I believed in it when I
saw it, but I didn't believe in it on it. You believe on it
when you trust the chair to support your way, and you sit on it.
To believe on Christ is to trust Him to support the weight of
your soul and make you accepted before God. You lean all the
weight of your soul on Him, not 90% of it. You lift your legs
up and trust Him to bring you into glory. It's as simple as
that. Somebody says, is it really that
simple? Yes. It's just trusting Him to save
me. That's all it is. I let go of all hope but who
He is and what He did. My grand of acceptance before
God has absolutely nothing with anything that has anything to
do with me. I let go of all that and just rest in Him. I'm going
to be brought into glory on the coattails of the King Jesus.
It just works that way. That just... He brings me in. Now, that's what it is to come
to Christ. You believe on Christ. You don't
believe... Of course you believe in Him, but the devils do. Satan
believes in Christ. He doesn't believe on Him, though.
He doesn't trust Him to save him. Believing on Christ is coming
to Him. And my soul, I come to Him every
day that way. Is He any... Some of you have
been walking with Christ for many years now. Is He any less
your hope now than when you first came to Him? As a matter of fact,
you understand your need of Him more now than you ever did, don't
you? That's what it is to come to Him, is to believe on Him. Oh, I'm so thankful for
the simplicity of that command, Him that cometh to me. Let Him
come to me and drink. Sit down. Come to me and drink."
Now, what are you thirsting for? What are you thirsting for? Well,
whatever it is you're thirsting for, you come to Christ for that.
You just come to me and drink it. Are you thirsting for righteousness?
You come to Christ for righteousness. Are you thirsting for forgiveness?
You come to Christ for that. Are you thirsting for acceptance? You come to Christ for a change. Are you thirsting to have a new
heart? Do you go like David and say, oh, free energy, it's written
hard on God. You are mighty filthy. You come
to Christ with a new heart. Do you thirst to be able to persevere?
I want you to be with Christ. You come to Christ and want to
give Him the grace to persevere. You come to Him to thirst. Lord,
I need to thirst. My thirst, my... I'm not thirsting
enough. You come to Him for the thirst. Lord, give me the thirst. In other words, you come to Christ
for everything. If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. I'm so thankful for the simplicity
of the commands of the Gospel. What goes up more complicated
than that? And what you're taught, and what
I'm taught, if God teaches us, can be summed up by these two
statements. I need Christ, and He's all I
need. That's the sum and substance
of all divine truth, isn't it? I need Christ, and I need—oh,
like the songwriter said, I need Thee every hour. I need Thee,
precious Jesus, for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty,
my heart is dead within. I need the cleansing fountain
where I can always the blood of Christ most precious, the
sinner's perfect plea. I need Him, and He is all I need. You know, the bottom line with most
folks is they really are not thirsty. Isn't it so? Most folks really just aren't
thirsty. Now, if you're dying to thirst,
you're going to get to Now look what the Lord says. Let's
go on reading. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me and drink. He that believeth on me, that's
what it is to come to Christ. He that believeth on me, as the
Scripture has said, even our Lord appeals to the Scripture.
You know, the Word of God, the written Word of God, is what
reveals the living Word. Even the Lord Jesus appealed
to the Scripture. He's the writer of the Scripture. The Scripture
speaks at the end. So look at the prominence he gives to the
Scripture. He says, "...as the Scripture has said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water." Not creeks, not a river,
but rivers of living water. Now, he explains what that means
in verse 39, and God explains what that means. He says, the
work of God the Holy Spirit in a man, these rivers of living
water, this spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because the Jesus was not yet glorified." Now, we know
that this is the work of God the Holy Spirit in a man when
he talks about these rivers of living water that continually
flow. Now, we know from this same book,
the book of John, that the work of God, the Holy Spirit, is always
connected with Christ. Turn to John 16, verse 8. It's talking about the work of
the Holy Spirit. It says, when He has come, talking
about the Spirit of God, John 16, verse 8, our Lord says, when
He has come, He will reprove, He will convince, He will convict
the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. He'll convince
them of sin because they believe not on me. Now, here's what true
conviction of sin is. Somebody says, I'm really convicted
about that. Well, I'm glad you are. That's good. But here's
what true conviction is. You find out that your great
sin was not trusting Christ. That was the ungodly, wicked
thing that was going to send you to hell. You've not trusted
the Son of God. He said, I convince the world of sin because they
believe not on me. Didn't he say about Capernaum and this
over there, Matthew 11, he talked about Capernaum. He said Sodom
and Gomorrah, that bunch of homosexuals and sex perverts are going to
have it better on judgment than you because you didn't believe
on me. That's what he said of sin because
they believe not on me. Look what he says in verse 10.
of righteousness because I go to my Father. And you're convinced
that His righteousness is the only righteousness that God has
sent. And you see me no more of judgment because the Prince
of this world is judged. He took care of all judgment.
I have yet many things to say to you, but you can't bear them
now. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide
you into all truth. Isn't that a blessing that you're
not depending on any man to guide you into truth, in the I know
God uses the men, but it's God the Holy Spirit who teaches us.
He guides us into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear. That shall he speak, he'll show
you of things to come, he shall glorify me. For he shall receive
of mine, and show it unto you. Now that's the work of God the
Holy Spirit. He'll glorify me. You hear preachers talk about
the Holy Spirit, they don't have the Holy Spirit. You hear a preacher
exalt Christ, he has the Holy Spirit. That's it. He says, he
shall glorify me, and that's exactly what he's talking about.
So the work of God the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ, and these rivers of water are the work of God the Holy
Spirit in us. Now, what does he mean when he
talks about, he that believeth on me as the scripture, and said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water? Well, it means
that the man who drinks of Christ will be eternally satisfied. He will be eternally satisfied
with Christ. Now, let me say this. I am not satisfied with myself. I'm like David. David said in
Psalm 1715, he said, I'll be satisfied when I awake and I
like this. And not before then. I'm not satisfied with myself.
I'm not satisfied with one thing about myself. But I am satisfied
with Him. I'm satisfied with His salvation.
I'm satisfied with the way He saves. I'm not looking for anything
else. Kind of like being happily married.
You quit looking for dates when you're happily married. You're
satisfied with what you've got, and in reality, that's not even
a good illustration, because there ain't one of us that's
totally satisfied like that. There are things that we do to
change, and we do it. Concerning the Lord, I wouldn't
change a thing about it. I'm satisfied with Him. I'm satisfied
with how He saves. I'm content to be saved by His
grace. I'm content to be saved by His
righteousness. My soul is quenched in simply
beholding Him and the prospects of worshiping Him for eternity.
satisfies me. Paul said in Colossians 2.10,
2.19, he said, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
in a body, and you are complete. Are you satisfied with that? What more could you want? Complete in Him. I'm satisfied
with that. My gospel is incapable of improvement. It can't get any better. I like
how one preacher said, he said, they're my people that preach
better than me, but there ain't nobody that preaches a better gospel.
And that's, that's the point. We're satisfied to be saved totally
by Christ. Now you know whenever you master
something, you lose interest in it. Well, we'll never master
the Lord Jesus Christ in any way. After ten trillion years,
we still won't even have a thimble out of the ocean. totally satisfied. That person
who has trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit is in him, and because
the Spirit of God is in him, he's like rivers of living water. It's true our thirst is quenched,
but we're always thirsting after him, and we can't get enough.
And even with this thirst, we continually have rivers of living
water, always having our thirst quenched, yet always thirsting.
Same thing. The true child of God has satisfaction
from Christ. Now, our satisfaction doesn't
come from the world. It comes from within. We don't
get satisfied by reaching our goals, or by our jobs, or by
our family, or because everything's going well. You know, a lot of
men go through what they call a baby boom. You all heard of midlife crisis?
as where men become dissatisfied with their life, and maybe they
wish things had gone differently, and they just become, you know,
generally dissatisfied, and wish they'd done more things, or wish
they'd done this, or wish they'd done that. Well, I'll be honest
with you, I can understand being dissatisfied, but I'm not going
to have any good life. In fact, we've got people to
go out and talk to, but they're not that happy to be taught.
I mean, I'm nothing anyway. I mean, nobody says, well, I'm
just disappointed in myself. Well, I'm disappointed in you,
too, and I'm disappointed in myself, too. But my satisfaction
doesn't come from me. I'm nothing. Christ is everything. Now, if He's all I want, then
what are you? If He's all and you're nothing,
but you're satisfied for Him to be all, aren't you? Don't
take yourself too seriously. I mean, in the way we are, but,
you know, whoever said you'd... He's all! And that's where our
satisfaction comes from, isn't it? That's where our contentment
comes from. Christ is all. And I'm satisfied with that.
So is every other child of God. The Holy Spirit shows us that
Christ is our satisfaction. of living water. Now, I want you to think about
how dependent you are on water. You'd die without it, wouldn't
you? And do you ever, do you ever say, well, I had water yesterday,
I don't think I want any today. Has that ever happened? No. You drink water all the time.
Every day. Tons of it. Boy, I've drunk tons
of it last week. We've been up there in that hot
house working and getting so hot and, boy, we just guzzle
the dam continually. We'll die without water. Now,
what God the Holy Spirit does is He teaches us that Christ
is the water. Just like you drink water every day, you come to
Christ every day. You're thirsty, you've got to
have water, you've got to have Christ. You need water, you need
Christ. Water reflects you, Christ reflects
you. God the Holy Spirit teaches us
how Christ is the water of life. And you know, everything we drink
has water in it. What's coffee without water?
Coffee grounds. Tried to drink coffee grounds?
Bitter! Boy, they taste awful, don't they? Don't you hate to
have them in the bottom of your cup? You drink a bunch of coffee, you're
like, ugh! Well, pride is the water. I mean, you take the water out,
and it ain't very good, is it? Christ is in it. He's our water
in the city. He's what makes it taste good.
Doctrine is glorious. It tastes good. It's refreshing
with Christ in it. You take Christ out of it, it's
like drinking coffee grounds, isn't it? It's not very good.
What's orange juice without water? What's Coke without water? I
mean, everything we like to drink, you take the water out of it,
it's not any good. You can't drink it. You can only drink
it with water in it. Christ is the water of life. We drink water for refreshment
and how refreshing it is to come to Christ and drink. We're dependent
on water for growth. There's no water, the crops won't
grow. There won't be any growth with
us either. We'll just die. We're dependent
on water for growth. We're dependent on Christ for
growth. Just looking to Him is what causes us to grow. We take
a bath in water. We wash ourselves in water. We
wash ourselves in Christ. He's the water of life. 1 John
1, 7 says, "...the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth
us from all sin." He is the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Water is a softener. It's a softener. It moistens and gives back life
to something that's hard, dry, cracked, and barren. And how
many times has your heart dropped in like that? hard, and dry,
and trash, and barren, just like a desert, and what a wonderful
new song we have. Somebody says, well,
you're in a horrible condition. I know, but they don't change
it. But God gives you the grace to look across and see where
it is. And they're always hard, hard. And that's how it is. It just takes it away. What is it? It's looking to crash.
That's the only thing that'll do it. I know that from experience.
You can tell me you're in bad shape, and I know it, but it
don't change it. But God gives me the grace to look to Christ.
It softens the heart. Water is used for protection.
A moat. They have a castle and they dig
a moat around it. So water would be around that
moat. And notice, he'd be all the way
around it. They would leave one spot where
you wouldn't have water, but that's where you'd leave him
to get in. He's all protected. Totally surrounded all the way
by his rock. Covered completely in him. He's
protection. Water is used to heat. They've
got steam heat. Christ is our warmth. He's the
one who warms our heart. Water's water's used to cool
us down. You ever been on a real hot day
and jump in the pool? You know, the only thing that'll
cool down your raging, wicked, rough, and evil desires is your
fire. You know, it's amazing how somebody
can point out how bad you are and so on, and you know it's
true, and you know it's wrong, but it doesn't change it, does
it? But somehow, by the graces of God, when you look to Him,
things that seem so right, they don't seem so right. I mean,
they just, they just sit right there after you die, don't they?
And that's the only thing that doesn't change it. He's the water
of life, and it seems that He's the only one who cools us down
in that sense. Water is used for recreation.
We love to go swimming. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
believer's recreation. It's fun to know him, isn't it?
And I say that reverently. It's fun to be found in him.
It's enjoyable to have communion with him. It's a lot more enjoyable
than anything this world has to offer. He is our recreation. of living water, not a piddly
little stream or even a single river, but rivers of living water. Christ is rivers of living water. Now, what would you think if
you saw a fellow up beside a river, a big old river flowing, and
he's right beside it, maybe 80, 50 yards away, and he had a shovel,
digging a hole. Digging, digging, digging. You come up, what are you doing?
Say, I'm digging a well. What for? There's a river right
beside you. What for? That'd be stupid, wouldn't
it? Be blind and dumb. It wouldn't make any sense at
all. Christ is the rivers of living water. Don't try digging
a well. He is the rivers of living water. Our Lord says, if any man thirsts, Let him come to me and drink."
May God give us all the grace to drink of him. Thank you. Amen. Let's sing hymn number 242. Hymn
number 242. Let's stand as we sing. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and
life, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I go, into Thy freedom, gladness, and
life. Jesus, I come to Thee Out of
my sickness into Thy health Out of my woe and into Thy worth
Out of my sin We'll sing the second as the
last. Will Todd go back to the back
door? Out of my shameful failure and all, Jesus, I come, Jesus,
I come into the glorious Jesus, I come to Thee.