At the name of Jesus. Every knee
shall bow. Well. I'm going to go home and brag
on you. And all I can brag is going as. As that Queen of the South that
visited with Solomon says, the half has not been told. Join me, if you would, in the
book of Numbers. We've looked a little, one message
there in the book of Genesis, one in Exodus, one in Leviticus. This morning we'd like to look
at the last two books of the Pentateuch, or a message out
of that. There's so many messages in these
books. But in the book of Numbers, and
in a little while we'll look at a message from the book of
Deuteronomy. I am reminded what the Lord Jesus Christ told some
Pharisees. Moses wrote of me. So we'd like to find out some
more about that here in the book of Deuteronomy. Excuse me, Numbers.
So if you'd turn with me to the book of Numbers chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21. And I'm just going to read Verse
16. In this chapter, we have the
emblem of Christ earlier, and that is the serpent of brass.
If Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And he said in another
place, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all to me. Well, here in
verse 16, we have another outstanding verse of scripture that shares
with us the wonderful promises of God. Two times prior to this,
we find that the children of Israel got really angry with
God, with Moses, and with Aaron, because they didn't have water.
In this verse of scripture, we read these words. And from thence
they went to Beer, That is the well whereof the Lord spake unto
Moses. This is what the Lord told Moses,
gather the people together and I will give them water. Gather the people together and
I will give them water. I am impressed with what you
can find on the internet. Some of it's good. I looked up
water, you know, our Earth is so different than all the other
planets because we have that one compound, H2O, water. And I found out that there is
71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water. You go from the East Coast to
Europe. You go through miles and miles
and miles and miles and miles of nothing but water. Nancy and
I flew to Hawaii one time and then off into the South Pacific.
And you know, you see these, you knew they were big boats,
but they were about that big from 33,000 feet. And you just
knew that you wanted to get to land because that was not going
to be very inhabitable. Well, of all of that water, 3% is drinkable water. 3% is fresh water. 97% is undrinkable. And if you drink
it, you will die. Sailors have tried, and it's
been a terrible experience upon their system. And so we find
here in this passage of scripture, God said through Moses, I will
give them water. What a wonderful, what a comfortable
promise given to the church by God. I realize in my life that there
was this, the fulfillment of this verse of scripture, verse
of song, excuse me, that we sing once in a while, all my life
long, I had panted for a draught of some cool spring. And you know, all that was offered
was water that was contaminated. There's always a substitute for
the substitute. People are adding things to the
substitute, and he alone, he stands alone. The only water
we could ever find outside of Christ was pathetic and caustic. No taste to it was good. We just walk away after a few
years at least and say, I've got to trade. I've got to go
somewhere else. I've got to do something else. This is not satisfying. And we go on and we'd never find
what we read over in the book of Revelation. Would you turn
there with me to the book of Revelation chapter 22? Over in
the book of Revelation chapter 22, again, is a beautiful illustration
of what the Lord gives his people. Over there in the book of Numbers,
it says, and I will give them water. Can you imagine what kind
of water that was? How pure it was, how cool it
was, how satisfying it was for those people who had wandered
around in the wilderness. They'd come to this place, they
were hot, they were tired, and God said, I will give them water,
and they stooped and cupped that water, and how refreshing it
was. Well, we read about the same thing over here in the book
of Revelation chapter 22. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal. My goodness, as he uses metaphors
to describe the rich blessings of grace, the rich blessings
of salvation that we have in Christ. He showed me a pure river
of water of life. No, Nancy and I spent a week
in Europe in the first part of July, and we were on a Viking
River cruise. I just love that. I just love
going and seeing those things. In the past, when we've been
on those Viking River cruises, they give us a plastic container
about three times that size of water as we left, so we'd have
water to drink while we're wandering around in towns. Well, someone
had the bright idea that they were going to give us water that
had some minerals in it. And we got that water, and I
opened it up, and I was dry and thirsty, and I needed some drink.
And I took a sip of that, and that was the worst water I had
ever drank in my life. It was undrinkable. And everybody
else was complaining about it. They were substituting this rotten
stuff for good, clear, clean water that was drinkable and
satisfactory. And we came back with a bad report. This water is terrible. Well,
the cruise director brought it up and says, you know that water
is terrible. Why in the world would they give us that terrible
water? Well, they said, those minerals help you with your health.
Well, if you can't drink it, it is not helpful for your health.
It's terrible stuff. Well, anyway, we find here about
this water that the religionists made all kinds of improvements,
and they try to make it more palatable. You know, the water
of Mara. Over in the book of Exodus, turn
back there with me, God used water so often to illustrate
a point. He said, I'll give them water.
I'll give them water. He gave him water from a rock
once, gave him water from a rock again. We find how precious the
Lord was to his people to provide all of their physical needs there
in the wilderness, and yet we find he does that for us spiritually.
He provides us the living water, the Lord Jesus Christ, our living
water. So sweet. So satisfying, so cool,
so refreshing. Every bit of what we get from
the physical is multiplied by a million when we come to the
satisfaction that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over here
in the book of Exodus, we read about a place where the children
of Israel came upon some water, and it was like that water we
got on that Viking River cruise. It was impalatable, couldn't
drink it, it was bitter. Well, notice here in Exodus,
Let me get back to Exodus. Exodus chapter 15, and there
in verse 23. In Exodus 15 and verse 23, it
says, and when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters
of Marah, for it was bitter. You know, there was a lady in
the book of Ruth, after all the experiences she had in God's
providence, she says, don't call me Naomi, call me Marah. I've had all the sweetness squeezed
out of me. And then her daughter-in-law married a man. She was given a grandchild through
that. And she said, oh, I'm happy. Well, look here. They came to
Mara. It was bitter. Therefore, the
name of it was called Mara. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree. mm-hmm showed him a tree which
when it had cast into the waters the waters were made sweet what
a beautiful illustration it is the cross that makes it sweet. It is the cross that enters in. It's the Christ of the cross
that is satisfactory. It is the Christ of the cross
that changes our taste. It's the Christ of the cross
that is so satisfactory. He is the living waters. And
there is another time over in 2 Kings, if you'd look with me
there, 2 Kings chapter 2, we have this experience that there
was a time when there was some water again that was undrinkable. It needed help. And we find here
Book of Second Kings and chapter 2 verse 19. And the men of the
city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of
the city is pleasant as my Lord seeth, but the waters are not. You know, there's places in the
United States that have just taken the aquifer down to the
point they're having to limit growth. Here, the city's beautiful. Look around here, look at this.
Can you imagine those people? The apostles even said, Lord,
look at this building. Isn't this a beautiful building?
Oh, it's so grand. It's so glorious. And he said,
Don't worry about that. There's not gonna be one stone
left on another. That's not the glory of it. The
glory of it is me. I'm the glory. Well, here it
tells us, and he said unto them, bring me a new cruz and put salt
therein. And they brought it to him and
he went forth into the springs of water and cast the salt there.
What does salt mean in the Old Testament? What does salt mean
in the New Testament? Salt has to do with a covenant.
There's a covenant of salt mentioned, and we find out that the blessings
of the water is the covenant of grace. We are given the covenant
of grace made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
before the foundation of the world. He did not let you and
I enter into that covenant. You know the covenant that he
made with the children of Israel, they could not keep it. And therefore,
he said, I regarded them not. It's not up to this physical
works-oriented covenant. He said the covenant is dependent
upon a relationship brought out by the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and what they would do to redeem his people from
their sins. And we're kept out of the equation.
We are only recipients of it. We're not participants. And after
we're saved, we say, thank you, Lord. I'd have messed it up.
just like Israel did. So here we have some bad water. What's the cure? The tree, the
cross of Christ. Here's some bad water. What's
the cure? The satisfactory covenant of grace that God enters in,
in the covenant of grace and salvation on the behalf of his
people. We can trace our line clear back before the foundation
of the world and say, God had an interest in me and he promised
to interfere in my life. You know, most of us by just
walking around, we don't want to be interfered with. But after
we're saved, we're thankful that God interfered in our life, stopped
us dead in our tracks. I love the illustration of Saul
of Tarsus. That friend that I've been talking
to about the gospel for two and a half years now, I said, you
just go tell Saul of Tarsus he had a free will. God stopped
him directly there, he knocked him to the ground, he overhauled
him, and he converted him, gave him the new birth, and then he
was able to say, Lord! And then we find his interest
was to serve God. The next thing he's doing is
preaching Christ. The very next thing. Jesus said,
if any man thirst, Jesus said, blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Now, if you are used to drinking
rotten water all your life, Nancy and I went over to visit a friend
in Idaho one time, and the water smelled like rotten eggs. There was sulfur in that water.
And you know, can you imagine the first people that came to
that place and drilled a well there and drank that water and
said, boy, this is bad, but it's all there is. We're going to,
we're going to thirst to death if we don't drink this. And they
got used to that nonsense. And someone came along with a
canteen of waters to take a taste of this. You know, someone came
along in my life and said, here is the living water. His name
is Christ, and I know He's gonna make you mad. He's gonna upset
your life. He's gonna change your directions.
He's gonna interfere with you, but this is the life-giving water,
and when God permitted me and caused me to drink of that water,
it was a clear, crystal clear, pure river of life, and His name
is Jesus. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Turn
with me, if you would, to the book of John. Just remember our
passage over there in the book of Numbers. He will give them
water. God will give them water. God is in the business of supplying
water. And that water comes, it's clear
as crystal. and flows from the throne of
God, that water is the living word, that water is the living
Christ, that water is the water that satisfies us like nothing
else could ever do. We're not looking for other water
now. There's none of the name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He is the only
satisfactory water that God has ever given. And we find out it
is the satisfactory water. We don't look for another. We're
not turning aside in religion. You know, everything came along.
I was turned like a weather vane. I don't know about you, but every
new doctrine that came along, I was swinging and swinging and
swinging and swinging and never settled down. And then when God
gave me that clear, crystal clear, delicious water of Christ, I
pressed towards the mark of the high calling, which is in Christ
Jesus. He settles us. He is the lodestone. He's the one that directs our
path. Once in a while, we find out what he has to say over there.
I believe it's in the book of Ezekiel. He puts a hook in our
jaw. Thank God. Where would we be? If we didn't
have his restraining power, what would we do if we did not have
his restraining power? If he did not have his control
over his people, what would we be doing? You know, as we follow
the saints in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament,
there is not one thing a saint can't do that anybody else can
do. And yet, because of God, you know, there isn't that much
difference. between what Judas did and what
Peter did. Not that much difference. You
know what the difference is? One was under the blood, one
was not. One was retrieved, I prayed for
you. That's the only difference. All
right, here in the book of John chapter four, we find a wonderful
incident in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that is so
reflective of all of us. In the book of John chapter four,
we find here, excuse me, Luke and John are not the same words. John chapter four, verse four,
we find out one of those passages of scripture that could be put
at the heading of every time the Lord is out doing something. He must needs. He must needs
go through Samaria. In your day and in your time,
he must go through the town that you were living in. It was required. It was necessary. It was set down in stone in the
covenant of grace. that he take his word wherever
his lost sheep are so that they can hear the glorious gospel
of God's free grace in Christ Jesus. He must do that. It is imperative that he do that.
And he is responsible for carrying that out. And that's why he pushes
his ministers and pastors to places so that they will be in
the right place at the right time to preach the gospel, to
have his lost sheep hear it, and they can come to Christ as
he draws them. Well, here he must need to go
through Samaria. Now, if you know anything about
Samaria, that's like Detroit. Downtown, or downtown Portland,
or downtown the Dalles, or downtown Almonte. Boy, there's places
you don't want to be. And this is a place that a Jew
did not want to be because this is a place where there are half-breeds. They're part Jewish and part
Gentile. When Nebuchadnezzar moved all
of those very important people out of of Jerusalem and Judah
and carried him off into Babylonian captivity, he sent a whole bunch
of people back over there to be with those he didn't take.
And those people, you know what happens, they got married, they
had children, and before you know it, these are not true Jews,
and true Jews cannot be around you. And yet, the capital Jew,
Jesus Christ, It was imperative for him to go to Samaria this
day because he had a divine appointment. There's going to be a woman there
that is of poor character. You know, the Pharisees would
look at Jesus when he's visiting with a woman and said, Oh, he
can't be the Messiah. If he knew who he was visiting
with, he would know that he can't visit with her. Aren't you glad
that the one who loves sinners visited with us in our sin, in
our desperate condition? He called us to his side. He
loves sinners. He came to die for sinners. He
came to die for that woman who had an ill report all over town.
And he came to die for this woman who was a Samaritan that came
down to get water when there was nobody else there because
she got tired of having her fingers wagged at her. You poor woman,
you are desperate. And then they go home and say,
we did Jesus' work today. A meeting, verse seven, there
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto
her, give me drink. Now his disciples are off in
town buying some food. And verse nine, the woman of
Samaria said unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans. She knew the rules. I'm coming down here to get some
water when nobody else is down here. I know it's the heat of
the day and it's the worst time of day, but I don't have to meet anybody
while I'm down here. I'm going to do this semi in
secret. And you know what? The master is there. He had a
divine appointment to be at that Jacob's well that very day to
talk to this woman. And you know what he does to
her? He gives her salvation. She's not seeking salvation,
no more seeking salvation than Saul of Tarsus. He wasn't going
to no prayer meeting. Neither is she. She's trying
to avoid everybody. And here we have Jesus. If thou
knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give
me the drink that would have asked of him and he would have
given thee water. Now, if you knew this, you know
what? She didn't know it. Just like
we don't know it. It's not common knowledge. Common
knowledge leads us to religion. Common knowledge leads us to
that desperate water. Common knowledge leads us to
that puking water. Common knowledge gets us involved
in a church. Common knowledge gets us involved
in some religious activity. Common knowledge even will take
us to some far place to be a missionary that we don't even have any interest
in. I remember a man said he was called to preach. He was
going to Africa. And his pastor said, oh, meet me over here on
Saturday. He said, OK, I'll be over there.
He said, got in the car and they're driving in a part of Oklahoma
City, and this is the college section of town, and he says,
what are we doing here? And he says, what do you think you're going
to preach to in Africa? People never think about that. They're just going to have a
romantic experience as a missionary. People do all that sort of stuff
and never know the first thing about the gospel. Here's a man,
and the woman said, in verse 11, the woman saith unto him,
sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. You
know, she is acting just like Nicodemus. She's just looking
at everything from a physical standpoint, because that's the
only way we can look by nature. Nicodemus, when he said, you
must be born again, he said, Do I have to get back in my mother's
womb? He's looking at it from a logical, humanistic standpoint,
and she is saying, you don't have anything to draw with. What
do you mean you're going to get water? Art thou greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof
himself and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and
said, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. You
know what? I had a drink of water this morning.
Wayne got me one right here to drink if I need it. I'm going
to have some more water today. I'll have some water before I
go to bed tonight. We just are in desperate need of water all
the time. It's the number one essential for our physical life. I could go for days without eating. but I couldn't go very long without
a drink of water. And she is saying this, and then he said, whosoever drinketh
this water 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. And the woman saith unto him,
sir, give me this water. Why? So I don't have to come
down here and work anymore. Talking about that physical water
again. All I can see is how it's gonna
benefit me. You know, that's religion, how
it's gonna benefit me. Jesus, the woman, Jesus said,
go get your husband. Oh boy, does he hit a sore spot. 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 hast is not thy husband, and thou saidest thou truly. The woman said, sir, I perceive
you're a prophet. Hmm, you got some religion. You're able to read my mind.
You must be one of those telepathic guys that can tell, well, Our
fathers, now she's gonna get off onto some religion. Don't
we, didn't we do that? Oh boy, our fathers told us to
worship in this mountain, and you say go down to Jerusalem
to worship. And our fathers are smarter than your fathers, so
we'll stay right here and worship this bull, this golden bull,
and you can go down there and worship at your temple. Jesus
said unto her, woman, believe us me, the hour cometh when ye
shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the
Father. Ye worship you know not what. What a statement he says
to us in our natural state. You don't know what you worship.
You're worshiping yourself, your free will, your own. And then
he goes on, we know that we worship for salvation is of the Jews. The hour cometh and now is when
the true worshiper shall worship the father in spirit and in truth,
for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit
and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. It's an impossibility in our
natural state to do just what he said to do. We cannot worship
in spirit and in truth because we're not there. Our spirit is
dead in trespasses and sin. We have no ability whatsoever.
And the woman said unto him, now she had some knowledge about
a Messiah coming. Notice this. Oh, I know something
about Jesus. I know. The woman said unto him,
I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When
he is come, he will tell us all things. And Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee am. Now the he's been added. I am Messiah. You know what? The woman left
her water pots, went into town, and said, you got to come listen
to this guy. He let her know he was, is, and
forever shall be the living water. She was satisfied. Her quench
was satisfied. The cross of Christ satisfied. The covenant of grace satisfied. And God said, I will give them
water. Brother Wayne.