Maybe I need this message as
much as anybody. Well, I know I do. Ironically, and studying this,
I've never felt so dry and so dead in my entire life. The subject is found in verses
one and two. Read these with me. panted after the water brooks.
So panted my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for
God, the living God. When shall I come and appear
before my God? I think only a true child of
God may be able to enter into this, most of what I will say
tonight. Maybe what is said tonight will cause someone to see their need
and maybe become interested as a result of what is said. And
I've said this before about various messages that deal with our sad mistakes that we get into. The life of a believer is so
up and down. Last night we were on the mountain, weren't we?
And it was bound to come down. I was bound to come down from
that mountain. No place to come but down. And I have been today. And if you don't need this message
now, perhaps you will at another time. So mark this well. Mark it well. And maybe at some
time, you will need this at some point. Every believer will. A
man named William Cowper, many of you may be familiar with. That man was tried with such
a deep state of melancholy and depression and so down and out
almost all of his life. He's the one, I believe, that
wrote how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer
I see. Sweet buds and sweet prospects,
sweet flowers, all lost their sweetness to me. And him after
him, that man wrote along those lines. He spent a great deal
of his time in an insane asylum. But the man knew Christ. I'm
not too sure that the people knew really what his problem
was and they put him in that asylum. It could be the man was
just wrestling with what the average believer wrestles with
and they thought he was crazy, like the world thinks you are.
Can you enter into a poem like this? The Savior hides His face, and
my spirit thirsts to prove renewed supplies of pardoning grace and
never-fading love. The favored souls who know what
glories shine in Him, they pant for His presence as the deer,
they pant for the living stream. Oh, what trifles! tease me now. They swarm like summer flies. They cleave to everything I do
and swim before my eyes. How dull the Sabbath day without
the Sabbath's Lord. How toilsome then to sing and
pray and wait upon the Word. Of all the truths I hear, how
few delight my taste. I glean a berry here and there,
but mourn the vintage past." In other words, he's talking
about finding no delight in the preached word. And I believe
every believer can enter into that at some point in time. And
if not yet, you will. Listen to this. And ironically,
this was written by a man named Hart, H-A-R-T, Joseph Hart. Listen to this. When Jesus, with
his mighty love, visits my troubled breasts, my doubts subside, my
fears remove, and I am completely blessed. I love the Lord with
mind and heart, his people and his ways. In me in pride and
lust depart, and all his works I praise. Nothing but Jesus I
esteem. My soul is then sincere, and
everything that is dear to him to me is also dear, but ah! When these short visits end,
Though not quite left alone, I miss the presence of my friend,
like one whose comfort's gone. And I to my own sad place return,
my wretched state to feel. I tire and faint and mope and
mourn, and am but barren still. Ah, more frequent let thy visits
be, or let them longer last. I can do nothing without thee.
Make haste, O God, make haste. What about this one? Listen to
this. You can just turn anywhere in this Gatsby hymnal. Will my
doubting never be over? Will the Lord return no more?
When shall I the Savior see and be sure he died for me? How I
waver to and fro, rising high and sinking low. Now to heaven
I aspire, now shades of death retire. When a glimpse of hope
appears, soon tis lost in doubt and fear. Oh, I fear it is all
a cheat. Keep me, Lord, from self-deceit.
Lord, thy light, thy love display. All my darkness chase away. Everlasting
peace restore. Bid me disbelieve no more. Put
thy spirit in my heart. Bid my doubts and fears depart.
When thy face shall shine on me, shine, I shall know and feel
thee mine. Listen to this one. I could just
go on and on reading this and you'd be blessed. There's another
one by William Cowper. The Lord will happiness divine
on contrite hearts bestow, and tell me, gracious God, is mine
a contrite heart or no? I hear, but seem to hear in vain,
insensible as steel. If anything is felt is only pain
to find I cannot feel it. I sometimes think myself inclined
to love thee if I could, but often find another mind that's
averse to all that's good. For my best desires are faint
and few, I fain would strive for more. But when I cry, my
strength renewed, seem weaker than ever before. Thy saints
are comforted, I know, and love thy house of prayer. I sometimes
go where the others go, but I find no comfort there. Oh, make this heart rejoice or
ache. Decide this doubt for me, and if it be not broken, break
and heal it, if it be. Can you enter into that? If you
haven't, and you're a believer, you will at some point. You'll
be right there with those men and women. And as I say it, only
I believe, only a true child of God can feel the loss of the
presence of God. Only a true child of God can
feel His presence. And then when He's gone, only
a true child of God can feel His absence. It reveals the love of God shed
abroad in the heart when you feel His absence. When you feel
His absence, we grieve over it. The average man or woman doesn't
thirst after God Almighty. On the contrary, the average
man or woman would like very much to believe that there is
no God. That way they can feel free, conscience free, to pursue
this world with all the gusto they can. But yet conscience
is still there and the law of God is still somewhat written
on the heart. But they don't thirst after God. Not at all. They thirst and love everything
but God. And all their hunger and thirst and desires for this
world, to satisfy themselves in this world. But like a troubled
child, Anyone who knows the heaven father,
like a troubled child when taken from his mother, that troubled
child will never be quite comforted until they see that mother again. All of you mothers have experienced
that with your own children. And those children at first,
when they're first taken, the mothers taken from them, they
will never be comforted until their mother comes around. Well,
let me give you four quick points, and I promise to make this brief.
I promise to try to make this brief. Four quick points, easy
to remember, concerning the presence of God and this thirsting after
God and what causes us to thirst and how we can get rid of this thirst, quench
this thirst. The first point is this. As David said, my soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? God's presence at times is missed
because of our sin and our rebellion against him. Our sin and our
rebellion against him. You see, God Almighty only had
God Almighty has only had one truly faithful and loving son. Only one. The Lord Jesus Christ,
from a child, he was always about his father's business. It was
his meat and drinks due to the will of his God. He loved and
enjoyed unbroken communion with his Heavenly Father. Only one. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
only truly loving and faithful son that God Almighty ever had.
The rest of us are prodigals. The rest of God's children are
all wayward children, black sheep. He only had one wife, spotless
lamb. The rest of them are black sheep.
That's me. That's me. All we like sheep
have gone astray. All of us, everyone turned to
our own way, Scripture said, our own way. We're, every one
of us, prodigals. Every one of them. God richly blesses us and
pours out abundant blessings upon us all of our lives. And
what do we do? We take it and just wallow in
it and forget God at times. Run off after other things and
don't give God much thought until we get down and out, and then
we start crying after God. Come back to the Father, and
because His mercy endures forever, He takes us right back. You know, God, you fathers. God is the heavenly father and
you fathers become at times very displeased with your children,
aren't you? Very displeased with your children. And you hide your face from them,
sometimes to show your displeasure. Have you ever, have you ever,
have your children ever done something to grieve you and and
called out your name or sought you out and what you did, you
didn't answer. You ever done that? I've done that. Daddy,
and I was mad at her. Daddy, and rather than lash out at her
in anger or deal with it, I just, and I wanted to make her a little
bit smart for what to think about what she's doing, and I didn't
answer her. I refused her first calls. Heavenly Father does the same
thing with his children, whom he becomes displeased with for
their sin and their rebellion. You know, he never leaves us.
The problem is not, when we feel the absence of God, the problem
is not that he left. He never leaves us. He said,
I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. Never. He said, a mother
may forsake her sucking child, but I'll never leave you. Never. uh, right here on my heart, uh,
engraved on the palm of my hand. I'll never leave you, no forsaken.
I'm with you always, Christ said. The problem is, we're the ones
that go astray. And every time, it's not that
we come back to him either. The picture of the prodigal is
not, uh, that's a picture of the father's love, but in reality,
the father went seeking the prodigal son when it went astray. It's
not the prodigal just of his own free will turned and came
back to the father. No, the father went seeking him
and made him see, you're far away from that. You've got to
come back. Turn with me to Psalm 84. Psalm 84. So our sin and our rebellion
will make us feel the absence of God Almighty. My second point
is this. Another cause for feeling absence
of God, We miss the presence of God Almighty through trials
and trouble. I know that afterward, was it
Peter, James, I forget who said these trials, though for a season
they're not pleasant but grievous, yet they've worked for us a far
more exceeding weight of eternal glory. But at the time, they're
very grievous, and at the time you feel like, at times you're
God's forsaken you, don't you? Well, that's not so. God sent
it for a purpose, and He sent it afterward to draw you even
closer to Him than ever before. But trials and troubles do make
us feel like God has forsaken us for some reason, and He's
punishing us. But no, trials are a sin. Psalm
84. David here, when he wrote this,
was in exile. David was in exile a great deal
of his life. He was chased, not only by his enemies, but by his
family. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
what a trial that must have been? I'm not sure any of us have been
through trials that David has, but he was in exile. He was fleeing
from Absalom, his son, and he desperately needed, he desperately
missed being able to be in the house of God and worship with
God's people. And that's when he wrote this psalm, Psalm 84.
Look at it, verse one through four. Oh, how lovely are thy
tapernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even faintest
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. Yea, a sparrow, a little bird
that flies in the house of God and finds a house, a nest, a
swallow, a nest for herself. Oh, envy the little bird that's
flying in, getting in on things. She may lay her young, even thine
altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they
that dwell in thy house. They will be still praising thee. I can just see David sitting
in a cave somewhere, you know. Oh, here I am running and in
trouble and tried, and God's people are in there just worshiping
and having a... I'd love to be back there. What
you told me on the phone the other night. Oh, I miss it. I
miss it so bad. That's a man after God's own
heart who can't stay away from the house of God very long until
he is missing it desperately, desperately. Look at verse 10.
A day in your courts are better than a thousand anywhere else
that is. I'd rather be a doorkeeper. Just
let me be an usher. I don't have to freak. I don't
have to be a deacon, anybody special. Just let me be an usher. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God than to dwell out there in the tents of wickedness. As one man told me, I'd rather
be poor and eat beans than be without God Almighty and be very
rich. Solomon said that, didn't he?
And for various reasons, the child of God finds him or herself
on the outside looking in during worship services. During. You
may be here at times. But for whatever reason, God
only knows, you find yourself on the outside looking in as
if everybody else is enjoying what's going on, and you're not.
You ever been there? Look back at the text in Psalm
42. He says in verse 4, When I remember these things, I pour
out my soul in me. I pour out my soul in me. I've gone with the multitude.
I've been there before. I went with them to the house
of God voice of joy and praise for the multitude that kept holy
days. I had such a good time, but I'm not now for some reason. What's wrong? And because of temptations, because of sin, besetting sin,
because of trials, because of trouble, because of persecution,
a child of God loses their feeling of spirituality. How often have
you felt this way? I'm going to be the only reprobate
in this bunch, or apostate. I'm going to be the only one
in here. Everybody, I felt that way. I'm a preacher. I look out
and I'm preaching, and I think, you know, wouldn't it be something
if in preaching to others, I myself become a castaway? Like Paul
said that, didn't he? And do you ever feel at times,
you look around yourself, oh, this man, that woman, oh, they
seem to be so sincere. I'm such a hypocrite. I'm going
to be the only one that's going to fall away. And everybody's
going to say, I thought he was a Christian. You lose your feeling of spirituality,
the word read is closed book to you. Preaching doesn't have
any effect upon you, doesn't move you a bit. You fall asleep
during it maybe. Prayer is a burden. You try as
hard as you may and you can't pray. Maybe even neglect it totally. Fellowship with others isn't
sweet. You feel like a stranger. I don't belong here. Anybody here been that way? And you lose a sense of God's
presence, a sense of God's presence. But thank God, thanks be unto
God, God's Holy Spirit, He'll never let you lose this thirst
for that again. If you're a child of God, you'll
long for it. You'll thirst after it. You'll never lose that thirst.
You'll dry up, yes. But it just makes you thirsty
again. The time to worry is when you
don't have this thirst anymore. That's the time to get worried.
When you don't feel this thirst at all, you feel no sense of
God's lost presence. And I've seen it in the face
and the eyes of some people, and I get really worried then,
when they don't appear to be troubled at all by their sad
condition. I've seen it in me. I've looked in the mirror. And I need to ask you this, and
I want you to ask yourself sincerely. Do I thirst for God Almighty? Do I thirst for God Almighty? If you do, let me tell you some
reasons why. Reasons for thirst. Here's my
third point. Reasons why we thirst after God. It says here in verse
1, the heart, as the heart panteth, after the water brooks, so panteth
my soul after thee, O God." Now a deer, this is talking about
a deer. A lot of deer hunters in here,
you know a little bit about deer. Deer require frequent water. They require it. They have an
inward insatiable desire for water. That's a characteristic
of a deer. They have to have water, frequent
drinks of white sheep the same way. Do you know that? Nearly
every clean animal is that way. There's this inward desire placed
within them for water, and they have to have frequent droughts
of water. And the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Spirit creates this thirst within every one of God's children,
this insatiable thirst. for God, for Christ, the water
of life. A natural man doesn't have this.
Like I said before, the natural man doesn't feel a thirst for
God. Not now, not in the slightest bit interested. Before God began
to move upon me, I didn't have the slightest bit of interest
in God. I didn't even think about it. Did you? I didn't even think
about God. I mean, I'd go, I went for years
without even giving God a thought. Really. Seemed to be a reprobate. The Holy Spirit, when he regenerates
a child of God, old things pass away. Thirst after the water
of this life pass away and then thirst after God are created.
Only the Holy Spirit gives it. And it's within every clean,
every regenerated, every clean animal, every regenerated child
of God. Turn with me to Psalm 87. Psalm 87. You know, a camel,
a camel is considered an unclean animal. A camel. Camels don't need frequent waterings,
do they? They can go for long spells.
How long? 21 days or something like that.
They can go without water. You know, they drink a big, I
don't know how many gallons at first, and then they go on the
strength of that, on that supply of water. But a deer can't. A deer's got to have a drink
every day. Every day. A deer has no inward
supply. A deer, when a deer is hunted
on a hot day, it has nothing. If it could, it'd draw from within,
but it can't. It has to find water somewhere.
A deer has to find water. It feels need for water. And
you and I don't carry fresh supplies of grace around. It's like the
manna. Remember when the manna fell?
And the Lord said, don't gather any for tomorrow. You just gather
what you need for every day. It'll spoil. It won't last. You
need it every morning. You need fresh supplies of manna
every morning. And we need to keep going back
to the fountain every day. His mercies are new every morning.
And we need to keep going back. We can't find anything within
to draw from, can you? Like I said last night, I was
on the mountain and I thought, man, I'll go in the strength
of that for a week. I'll rejoice in that for a week. It wasn't
7 or 6 a.m. when I woke up and I thought,
is His mercies clean gone? You know, beset with every vile
and wicked imagination you can think of and think, I'm lost. We don't carry a store of grace
within. We've got to keep coming back
to the fountain for all of our blessings. Psalm 87, I read a
sermon by Charles Spurgeon on this, one of the sweetest I've
ever read about anybody. The last verse, the last part of
verse seven says this. All my springs are in thee. All my springs are in thee. It made me an illusion there
to spring water coming out of the rock. You know, all fresh
spring water comes out of the rock. And all blessings flow
to us through Christ Jesus our Lord, the rock of Asia. All spirituality,
we can't drum it up. I've tried my best. I mean, you
can wake up early, go to bed early, wake up early. You can
pray as hard as you want to. You can't drum up spirituality. The Holy Spirit has to give it.
We're totally dependent upon Him for every bit of our spirituality,
aren't we? We're not spiritual creatures.
That which is flesh is what? Just flesh. It'll never be anything
but flesh. David said, Who's going to deliver
me from this body of death? I dragged this dead man around
with me. All of our fruit, there's none that do us good, no, not
one. All of our fruit comes from the
root, the vine. All of our ability, all of our
strength is in Christ, the fountain of life. He's that well-watered
vine. He's that blessed man that's
spoken of in Psalm 1, that planted that tree, planted by the rivers
of water, that brings forth His fruit in His season. His leaf
shall never wither. I wither just as soon as I feel
like abstract, as soon as I feel His presence gone. But I can
do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. Severed
from Him, we dry up and we become like branches and feel like we're
just pit for the fire. Lord, get me out of this bunch.
Don't let me bring reproach upon the gospel. Ah, boy, so thirst, thirst only
comes This is point A under my third point, where thirst comes
from. It comes from the Holy Spirit. It comes from the Holy
Spirit. We don't come up with this on
our own. We don't have this on our own. Drum it up, try to make
ourselves thirst after God all we will, we can't do it. It has
to come from the Holy Spirit. It's put there within. Secondly,
thirst comes from outward things. Outward things. cause us to thirst
after God. Deer. You know, I brought a deer rifle
home with me this year. I thought I was going to go deer
hunting until I prepared this message. I'm feeling sorry for
deer. Me and I, you know, go ahead
and go. And if you get one, bring me back a couple of steaks, would
you? But I just don't feel led to do so at this time. Deer are
often hunted by dogs. They ought to outlaw that, I
can say that much. It's bad enough a man with a
higher-powered rifle, you know, a poor animal doesn't stand a
chance. But deer are often hunted by
dogs and men in the heat of day, and they run for long distances
until they're... Have you ever seen a deer...
Have you ever seen a picture of a deer that's been hunted
all day long? It's a sad sight. I mean, he's
steaming all over. He's panting. His tongue's hanging
out. His eyes look wild. Everything moves. He's scared
to death. And that's the picture here.
There's a heart. Everything, everything is after
me. Everybody and anything is after
me. A believer in the heat of day,
on the job, wherever, in the heat of day, beset by temptations
within, trials without, feel like a deer, you feel like a
deer being chased by dogs. It says in Psalm 22 verse 16,
dogs have encompassed me about. That's what Christ, that must
be a perfect picture, Christ hanging on the cross, or Christ
in the garden, panting, sweating blood, you know, dogs are after
me, dogs. It says in another verse there
in Psalm 22, deliver my soul from the dog, my darling from
the dogs. These dogs are chasing this meek
and mild and harmless deer. But you deserve that. Persecuted
by the enemy. Look at verse 9 and 10 in our
text. Verse 9 and 10. I'll say unto my God, my Rock,
why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy, as with a sword in my bones?
My enemies reproach me. Have you ever had somebody say
something to you that just cut you to the heart? Cut you to
the bone? Huh? Well, they say daily unto
me, and they mock my religion, and they mock me. Where's your
God? Huh? You ever been there? Now, those only make you thirst
more for God, don't they? Spurgeon said this. He said,
sometimes our worst enemies are our best friends. They drive
us to God. Sometimes our worst enemy or
our best friends, if they drive us to God. All right? Persecutions, afflictions, trials,
troubles, problems at home or abroad only make us thirst after
God. So outward things do this too.
Think about that. Thirdly, remembering things in
the past. Remembrance of things gone by
make us thirst after God. You know, the deer, the deer
wouldn't thirst after water if he'd never had a drink of it.
But deer, like I said, deer drink it daily. And a deer has a memory
of what that cool mountain spring water tasted like. And when he
goes without it any time at all, he begins to miss it. That's
right. You remember Brother Marvin's
message on David wanting to drink out of that well of Bethlehem?
He described that well, he said, that must have been There's one cool draft of that
water. Oh, I know he was thinking about
being there and having it, but that must have been good water.
If you've ever tasted the water of life, Christ, and ever go
without it, I tell you, you'll never be satisfied until you
have another. So you have another. Verse 6 here says, Oh my God,
my soul is cast down. I'll remember thee from the land
of Jordan, wherever I go, and Hermonites, and the hill I remember
the you want to turn real fast to Psalm 143. This is beautiful. I started to read this with a
scripture reading Psalm 143. He says, verses four through
six, my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me
is desolate. I remember the days of old. Dave was going through a dry
time, dry spiritually. He said, I remember. Days of
old, I meditate on all thy works. I remember your blessings to
me in the gospel and fellowship and so forth. I stretch forth
my hands unto thee. Where else am I going to go?
My soul thirsteth after thee as in a thirsty land. Selah. You think about it. I remember, David seems to be
saying, when I used to enjoy the things of God, when the gospel
was real sweet to me, but it's lost its sweetness. Why is that? I remember when I couldn't drink
it all in. I remember when I couldn't get
enough of it. I do want you to turn to Job 29. Job 29. I remember as a young believer,
and many of you may remember as well, when I was a young believer,
I read somebody, I bought a set of the New Park Street pulpit,
three big heavy volumes, that thick, you know, and I just,
I started on page one, and I got me a pen, and I began to underline
things that moved me, things that blessed me. And I had the
whole book underlined, every line. I just couldn't get enough. And if you'll forgive me for
talking about it, I watered the pages with my tears. It seemed
like everything I read just touched me, just what I needed, just
what I needed. watered the pages with my tears,
and now there's times when I look at the Word, look at these things,
and my eyes are not filled with water, but they're heavy with
sleep. How about you? I couldn't get
enough at times gone by, but now I can't hardly get anything
at times. I start to read, and it causes
sleep. You remember that? You remember
those days gone by? Job says here in Job twenty-nine,
verses two through four, he said, Oh, had I were as in months past,
as in the days when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon
my head, his light was clear to me, when in his light I walked
through darkness as I was in the days of my youth, when the
secret of God was upon my tabernacle, everything touched me. Verse
nine, 19, verse 19, my root was spread out by the water, everything
took root. Everything I read, everything
I heard took root. Touched me, moved me, I felt
it, I took it to heart, everything. Verse 19 again, he says, and
the dew lay all night upon my branch, everything I wept so
easily. Every gospel message I ever heard
a man preach, I thought, that's the best message I ever heard. You remember that? Each succeeding
message was the best one you ever heard. You know, the gospel
is the same. What happened? Verse 20, My glory
was fresh in me. Everything seemed to be so glorious.
I want to go tell everybody about it. Look at this and this. I'd
call people up on the phone. Listen to this. Listen to this. Everything
was fresh to me. My bow, verse 20, my bow was
renewed. That's my zeal. If I was zealous,
I'd get on a soapbox and beat people over the head
with the gospel. That's maybe not the right way to do it, but
at least you're zealous for the truth, you know. What happened?
And remembering those times makes you thirsty for them again. In Habakkuk it says, Oh,
Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the middle-aged
years. You know, going through a middle-aged
crisis. middle-aged crisis. And not only
the things of the past make us thirsty, but looking to the future
as well will make you thirsty. That deer being chased, that
deer being chased by the hunters and the dogs and so forth, the
more it thinks about that water, the thirstier it gets. And I'll
just be honest with you, the more I think about that water
that proceeds out of the throne of the Lamb of God and the Lamb,
the thirstier I'll get. And the less this water... I
was telling Terry last night on the way home, we were driving
down through the road there, down through this road, 220,
I said, Terry, wouldn't this be great if a truck hit us head-on? And you imagine, only a child
of God can feel that way. Wouldn't this be great if a truck
hit us head-on? We went to heaven on the buddy
system. Don't you wish you had a buddy to go in with you, David? I'm in a straight betwixt the
two, Apostle Paul said. I have a desire to part with
you far better than anything I've found in my life. And lastly,
I ask you, do you thirst for God? And let me tell you some
ways how you can quench this thirst, principally one way.
Turn to John 7. John 7. And then I'll have you
turn to Revelation 22, and we'll close. John 7. I want you to
picture this scene with me. I preach from this and other
men have too. I know everyone would like to
be able to convey this scene like it really was. On the last
day, they had so many feasts and so many religious ceremonies and things going on
back in these days that you're just one right after another,
you know. And after a while, they all ran together, and they
became meaningless. And, you know, they'd get up
and read papers, maybe, or read from the old books and the scrolls
and dead and dry Pharisees and read from these papers. And on
the great day, the last day of the feast, verse 37, in that
last day, that great day of the feast, they were having another
feast, another big day. And great religious crowds, had
gone to this feast and it was hot, it was a typical eastern
sun, hot, dry, dusty, you know, camels and horses and mules and
everything, dusty and dry, and the people were all leaving this
place. Now picture this. I thought about this sitting
there. As everybody, all these vast crowds of people were leaving,
packing up, going home, and they come for religion. Maybe the
Ethiopian eunuch was here at this one. He didn't meet Philip
on the way home from this one, but he may have been going and
going and finally. But anyway, everybody was going
home dry. And I've been to a lot of church
services like that. Haven't you? And it says, in the last day
of the feast, Jesus Christ, this one, stood stood and cried. Can you picture
this now, in the midst of this scene of confusion and noise
and tumult and all that? And Jesus Christ stood up and
He said, If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. Anybody, he that believeth on Me, As the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Anybody thirsty? Can you imagine that? And people stopped. I know everybody
stopped. And it goes on down through there.
It says, verse forty-three, there is a division among them. He's
got a canteen. What's this water? What's he
talking about? Who is this? Who is that? It's a prophet.
Well, he spoke to another person. over in John 4, this woman that
came to the well, you know? She was pretty dried up, too.
You know, she was feeling pretty bad about her sin, her guilt,
and she tried all the religions she could and never found a thing,
never found anything to meet her need. And one day she was
coming to the well in the heat of the day, you know, and there
was somebody sitting on the well. The well was sitting on the well.
The well was sitting on the well. woman at the well, and he said
unto her, Woman, if you knew who this was that was talking
to you, you would ask him. He'd give you water that you
could drink of and never thirst again. Never thirst again. Revelation 22, and I'll quit.
Revelation 22. Only Jesus Christ. What I'm trying
to say, what the Scripture says, is only that Jesus Christ can
meet our real thirst. Only Christ can meet the thirst
of one whose guilt leaves them thirsting for mercy. Have you
ever felt so wretched and wickedly depraved and guilty before God
that nothing and nobody is going to meet your need for mercy? Except Christ to tell you personally. Only Jesus Christ can meet the
thirst of somebody whose sin has left you thirsty for righteousness.
Like that woman at the well, she hated herself. She was ashamed of herself. Have
you ever thirsted for righteousness? I want to be holy. I want to
be righteous. What's wrong with me? Why am
I thus? I want to be righteous. Only Jesus Christ. meet that
need. Only Jesus Christ will meet the
thirst of somebody whose religion has left them dry and left a
bad taste in their mouth. Sovereign grace churches are
made up of disgruntled members. You know, every one of them.
They don't attend where their daddy attended, where their daddy's
daddy attended and all that. No, they're disgruntled, dry,
thirsty, hungry members that have gone elsewhere and not found
this water that they're looking for. And they come here and they
find it. Boy, that sure tasted good. And they keep coming back
and they think, I'll just never go anywhere now. I found it.
All my life long I had panted for a draft of some clear spring.
That's what the song said. In Revelation 22, here's the
story of that river. Verse 1, out of he showed me
a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and out of the land. That's Christ. Christ is that river. He's that
river. Look down at verse 15. Without
our dogs, that is temptations, trials, troubles, enemies, chasing
the heart of the deer, dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers,
idolaters. whosoever loveth and maketh it
live. Nobody can satisfy you but Christ. Nobody. And like I said, I believe
only a true child of God knows what I'm talking about. Not your
wife, not your husband, not your children, nobody but Christ. Dogs, there's trouble everywhere,
all around you. Dogs chasing the poor heart,
the poor deer. Do I have time? I told you about
that. I told the illustration, but
for those who weren't here. I heard an illustration one time
about. Over in the Middle East, Christ is called the lily of
the valley. And over in the Middle East, hunters would use dogs
to chase rabbits and their prey and dogs would be chasing these
rabbit and these rabbits. Over there in the Middle East,
in various places, they have these beautiful valleys full
of lilies. And from what they tell me, they're
the most fragrant flower on the face of the earth. The lily of
the valley over there. The fragrance, it says, permeates,
the wind wafts that fragrance all through those cities and
towns. And when these rabbits and these
deer and all get to be chased by Dogs, they run to those lilies. They run into those lilies. They
know that if they get in the lilies, the dogs lose their sense
and can't find them anymore. Christ is the lily of the valley.
Even the law can find nothing in me if I run to Christ. Even
the law. Say, sin has no more dominion
over me. I'm in the lilies. Who is he
that condemneth? Christ died. And it says down
here in verse sixteen, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches. I am the root, the
offspring of David, the bright and morning star. You know, deer
being hunted too. Rick, you know something about
this hunting at night time. A deer needs a good full moon to see
by. A good full moon, and so do I. Thy word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. I need the word to see where
water is. I need the Word to tell me how
much I need the Word. The Word is the water of life.
In verse seventeen, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Come. Old Barnard used to say,
I'll give anybody five hundred dollars and show me in the Scripture
where it says, Whosoever will, let him come. He used to say
that. Five hundred dollars. He'd say
that in meetings. If you can find in the Bible
where it says, Whosoever will, let him come. There's some qualifications here.
There's some outward influences here. There's some causes of
that coming, right? How? Well, here it is. The Spirit,
the Holy Spirit says, Come. When the Holy Spirit uses His
irresistible grace, you're coming, right? It's like a wild dog's
not keeping you away. Come! And let Him hear the gospel. When you hear the gospel, it
says, Come. And you want to come. Jesus, I come. And let Him that
is a thirst. The Holy Spirit creates His thirst.
Nobody's going to come to the water that's not thirsty. Sure,
people want a fire escape named Jesus and want some sugar daddy,
you know, but nobody's going to come to the water of life
for mercy and grace and salvation but thirsty people. And only
the Holy Spirit makes people thirsty. And whosoever will,
rich, poor, young, old, black, white, Jew, Gentile, male, female,
whosoever will, was made willing in a day of His power. and come.
Mountains flowing freely, still open. It's coming a day when
God's going to shut the fountain off. The fountain of mercy will
be turned off. No more. Do you thirst for God? I hope so. You know, and I meant
to say this, I had this written down, but one of the ways to
quench thirst is to drink. Peter said, To whom coming? Once
you've ever drank water. I had a drink a while ago and
it didn't do. It just wasn't enough. And tomorrow morning, the first
thing, as soon as I wake up, what am I going to need? What
do you do generally? Maybe the first or second thing when you
wake up. But anyway, you need water, don't you? You need water. You've got to have it. You're
dry. You're thirsty. You keep coming back. You don't depend
on yesterday. You keep coming back. And the
Word here, you need this. This is the water of God's Word. You need it. And if it doesn't
meet your thirst the first time, keep drinking it. Keep trying
it. Keep reading it. I have to do that. I come in
some days and I read in a closed book. What am I going to do?
Call you all up and say, service is cancelled. I can't get it
back. That's what you all do. I'm going to stay home. I don't
feel like it. I can't do that. I can't read. I can't get anything
out. Like I told you coming in tonight, I didn't get a thing
out of this study. What am I supposed to do? Keep studying. Keep crying. Keep reading. Keep reading. Keep drinking. Keep coming back
to the fountain. There's no other fountain to be had but this one.
All right. Stand with me now. Our Heavenly Father, we beg your
forgiveness for the times when we, like lost sheep, black sheep,
go astray, go our own way. Lord, forgive us. Like the faithful,
kind, and loving Heavenly Fathers you are, you can bring us back
again. And you send your Holy Spirit to cause a thirst within
us, thirst after the living God. And we cry out, when will I come
before God? You call your people to long
for their God, to wait and watch for the coming of their Savior.
And Lord, we pray that you might ever increase this within each
of us. Lord, may we be alarmed if we
don't feel this thirst after our God. Alarm us. Don't let us sleep the sleep
of death. Awaken us. water in our faces that we come
to Christ, ever keep coming to Christ. And we met together in
His name and ask you for His sake and for His honor and glory.
Amen.