Water of Life

Well, good evening. I was filling in for Norm a while back and this, the impetus for this message kind of came out of our earlier study on From the Psalms, let us magnify the Lord and exalt his name. And we were looking at all the things that magnified God. And I had way too many things to talk about, so I just kind of penciled in some notes and said, I'll just develop those later. And this is kind of an offshoot of one of those.

And it was about water. And I was thinking about God and how He created things. a water molecule made up of, you're all familiar with H2O, two atoms of hydrogen linked together with one atom of oxygen, all because of the divine purpose of God and how he connected those up and they became water. And water is an essential part of life for us and it just was, It was just a symbol of God. I was looking at that diagram of that molecule and how those valence electrons are coupled together on those separate elements. And everything's connected, and that's what we find in the Bible, that everything is connected. In fact, before we launch into the water, maybe we'll just read a couple of verses from Ecclesiastes chapter 1.

The guy, Solomon, that wrote this, he knew a lot. In Ecclesiastes 1, verse 9, he said, The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new? It hath already of old time, it hath already been of old time which was before us.

As we study the Bible, we just find that that's just so true. So tonight, as we study water, maybe we'll see how some of those things come together and that there's no new thing and that everything that has been will be. So as we look at water, you know, one of the goals of my lesson here was that we don't look at things just on the surface. In the Bible, there's, as Jesus said to the Old Testaments, they are the things that testify of me. And several other verses similar to that, that maybe in the ordinary sense, they don't on the surface appear. to do that, but as we look into them and we study them, we find out that they certainly do. So we want to kind of get in the habit, I think, of looking at ordinary things in an extraordinary way, and appreciating God and how He operates. What He tells us in the Bible, it's not just a bunch of random stories linked together and categorized.

It's all things that are linked together. And you know, water, it's absolutely necessary for life in this world. And water is mentioned over 500 times in the scripture. So it's an important topic. And it serves a lot of God's purposes. And nothing is by accident or the least bit random.

You know, all the universe and everything within it, just like these atoms of hydrogen and oxygen are working in perfect accordance with the perfect will and purpose of God, who works all things after the counsel of his own will. And you know, water, we look at water, it's a marvel of God. And when we look at it, it's kind of a unique thing because it can be a solid or a liquid or a gas. And when we look at it in the physical sense, it transforms the bleakest, deadest, barrenest places into places of life. And that's no accident. And it turns them into places of abundance and bearing fruit. And without water, there's no life.

And when we search the universe for, I always read the science things in my newspaper. We're looking for signs and we found signs of ice on this planet or that planet. Planet Mercury, for example, here last week or a couple weeks ago, they were examining Mercury and they said, well, we saw some ice, water ice in the shadow areas.

Well, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. And because it's so close to the sun, the gravitational pull of the sun makes it spin really slowly on its axis. One rotation takes the equivalent of 176 of our days, but it only takes 88 days to go around the sun because it's so close to it.

The interesting thing is that it's 800 degrees Fahrenheit on this side, this facing the sun. That's hot enough to burn your cookie batch. And it's minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit on the shady side. Such extreme. Nothing can live there. It's just too close to the sun. It's too hot. And Mars, which is on the other, we're the third rock out, they say. So Mars is close to us.

It only has 38% of Earth's gravity. And the average temperature of it is minus 86. It's 86 degrees below zero all the time, average. And the water, it has, they've discovered that there's some elements of water on them, but it's toxic. And the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, so it's not breathable. And all the water that's there is contained in polar ice caps, So I say that to say that the earth is in the exact perfect place by divine purpose and plan and will. It's in the exact place where it's not too hot, not too cold. We have water, we have ice, we have gas, we have air. It's a pretty nice place overall.

And so He created the heavens and the earth. And we find that in Genesis chapter 1. We'll read that, just a couple of verses from Genesis chapter 1. Because it says in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, What a... What a statement to start off the scripture with.

And I think that that certainly has a metaphorical purpose in presenting a picture of sin and the fall in an eternal context. And we find that Jeremiah quotes that almost word for word in Jeremiah chapter four, verse 23, when he's talking, you remember he was during the captivity period and the Israelites were doing the usual stuff that Norm's always recording for us, and judges, and he said, the things that were fruitful aren't going to be anymore. And he says, and the earth was without form and void, that tohu, that bohu that it talks about there. So anyway, more of a context of that which has been, will be.

And as we look at that scripture there in Genesis, it's interesting to me that when we read that, water is just mentioned as part of the whole world creation at the very beginning. It doesn't, it's not like in the second day he created light and this third day he created the firmament and he lists all these other things that he created but it says in the beginning God created the the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So before anything else was created, this water seems to be a piece of the puzzle there, and not a recorded separate incident. And I just think maybe it prefigures a relationship of man and God prior to and after the fall.

In this world, When we're born, we're 50 to 60% water. And water is life. And so it is as well in the spiritual realm. So I'd like to turn over to John chapter 4. And we're going to be hopping back and forth between the Old and the New Testament. But this is just such a wonderful example. And you're all familiar with this. the woman at the well. But we want to look at the circumstances here.

Not just primarily about her, but certainly God in Jesus was there for the purpose of meeting with her because He said He must needs go through Samaria. So that verse is found in John 4, 4, after he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And all this time, he's kind of meandering toward Jerusalem because it's the time for the feasts, the three feasts that were mandatory for you to go to in Jerusalem every year, every meal. And so he's kind of going to, there, but it kind of an indirect path. And verse four says, he must needs go through Samaria. He must.

In verse five, and he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore being worried with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. And there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

And so we know how the rest of that story goes. She said, why are you here talking to a Gentile woman? You know, the Jews don't have any dealings with the Samaritans. So as we look at that, and again, we say there's no random accidents. There's no happen chance.

And we look at this town that he came to. It's called Sychar here, but in the Old Testament it's called Shechem. And we go back to Genesis again in chapter 12. If you turn in your Bibles back there to Genesis chapter 12. And this is before Abraham had that ha part in the middle of his name. He was Abram. And he was a resident of Chaldea. Ur of the Chaldees. And that would be what you might consider like Babylon nowadays.

So, he was from not a good place. And in Genesis 12, verse 1, Now the LORD had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And the land that he showed him was Sychar, Shechem. That was the place where he was sent. And it turns out it was a covenant place. Down in verse 6, of Genesis.

It says, And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Morah. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, unto Jesus, unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him. And later on in Genesis chapter 15, it's kind of reiterated where in 15-7, the Lord says, I called you out of Ur of the Chaldees and brought you into this land and I promise to give it to you and your seed for an inheritance.

Well, you know, Abram, he was neither a Jew nor a Gentile at that time. And it's always kind of pre-Jew, pre-Gentile. That kind of plays into the whole scheme of things. And it's recorded for us that Jesus must needs go through Samaria to the city of Sychar, a covenant site, a nation and a city of Gentiles, the site of the ancient well of Jacob, The purpose, the place, even the exact time has been foreordained from before the foundation of the world that he would be there.

So if we connect the dots here, we see that the Lord appeared into Abram at this same place. And now he's appearing to this Samaritan woman at this same place. what has been will be. Now Jacob as well was there, and Jesus therefore being wearied, it tells us in verse 6, wearied with his journey. What a picture of him on his way to Jerusalem. to pay the price for the redemption of His people and all the things that would come into play for that. And it says, He was weary with His journey and sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Boy, when the Lord records a time for us, it's not accidental time. It's a time that He wants us to think about.

You know, in John chapter 19, verse 14, it says it was the preparation for the Passover at about the sixth hour, and He was in front of Pilate there. And Pilate said, behold your king. And then a couple of verses later in verse 18, they crucified him and there was darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. Behold your king. And it just reminded me of what he told that woman. I that speak to thee am he. Behold your king. What a metaphor for depicting the true living water.

And as we look at that back to the subject of water, and he's talking to this woman on the well, and he says, give me to drink, give me to drink. And she says, why are you asking me for a drink? And she says, you don't even have a pot, the well's deep. And I think she said that, and she didn't really understand how deep that well was. It kind of reminded me of our lesson from Luke, where he told the disciples to cast out into the deep and to get ready for a haul. And he said, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

And then, you know, a few verses later, she abandons her physical water pot. She goes off and says, this is the Messiah. This is the King. And so we're going to kind of circle back to this point here in a few minutes, but we're going to look at a couple other things real quick here about, you know, different uses that God puts to water. Sometimes uses it as judgment.

In Genesis 6, Verse 17, Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die. And that's recorded for us again in 2 Peter 2.5. It says, And he spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. And up to that time, it hadn't even rained. You know, the earth had a vapor canopy that just kind of kept everything, this kind of terrarium-like. Everything grew well and didn't require anything.

And then he used it for judgment. It's pictured as a divider in baptism. Romans 6 says, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. I was thinking, well, you can't bury somebody by sprinkling them. If you bury somebody, you're putting them under. And so we're buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. You know, coming up out of the water pictures the resurrection.

Matthew 3.16 says, And Jesus, when He was baptized, went straight away out of the water.

And, lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. All this water that He had created from this linking of the atoms and molecules all for a purpose. It wasn't just, oh, well, we'll just use this since it's handy.

Water is a metaphor for the cleansing of the word of the gospel. In Ephesians 5, 26, it says that he might cleanse it, he's talking about the church, that he might cleanse it, sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word. And now we're going to circle back to do some Old Testament stuff and back to the New Testament again, as Jesus is making this trip to Jerusalem for this series of feasts. And the feast that we're talking about in particular is the Feast of Tabernacles, which celebrated the children of Israel being taken out of Egypt and led through the wilderness and delivered from the bondage that they were in. In Exodus 17, in verse one, and it said, and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord.

And they pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And so, they're in this situation. They just don't have any trust in God. They don't have any trust in Moses. They've forgotten what they just witnessed, all the miracles that God did. They've forgotten all that stuff. It's just out of sight, out of mind. So they're getting after Moses. And so Moses cries out to God and he says, they want to kill me. They want to stone me. What do I do?

And here we are provided with a prototypical model of the essence of the gospel wherein Moses stands in the place of the law and righteousness. And then we have a picture of the rock of Christ. In verse six of Exodus chapter 17, the Lord, the Lord, the Messiah is standing there talking to Moses and he says, behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. Horeb, that's where they made that golden calf thing. And thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders. of Israel. And he had this rod, you know, and before that, when they were in Egypt and they were trying to get out, God said, I want you to take that rod and smite the waters of Egypt and they will turn to blood. You know, when we find Jesus is on this road, to Jerusalem, and he's going to Galilee through Samaria. The first place he comes into Galilee is Cana, where he turned the water into wine.

What a picture. No accident. And that's what the Lord told him in Exodus 17, too. He says, take that same rod that you smote the water with in Egypt and smite the rock. And, you know, we find that recorded for us again in Isaiah 53, 4. What a perfect pre-picture of the day of the cross. I'll stand on the rock, the rock of Christ and you smite it.

The law of Moses smiting that rock and out flows water. And when we see that happening in John chapter 19, verse 34, when he's hanging there on the cross and one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water. The shedding of blood brought the pouring out of the water of life. And that's what he said in Psalm 22. He said, I'm poured out like water. Absolutely poured out in behalf of my people. Poured out. All of my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted in the midst of my bowels. And so we find Jesus going through Galilee and he comes to Jerusalem and he's made a presentation of the water of life to this woman in Sychar and Sikkim there at the well. And then John chapter seven, we find him coming into Jerusalem in verse 14.

Back in verse 10, it says, when his brothers were gone up, then he went also up to the feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret. And they were kind of looking for him. And it says, now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, how know this man letters, having never learned? He was being, he'd already been everywhere. He created everything. been there already once, left a sign of His coming, and now He's there to fulfill it. And so, let's move down to verse 37, I believe it is.

In that last day, the Feast of Tabernacles, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. You know, when he was talking to that woman, he said, give me to drink. Well, in Israel, when they were in chastising Moses, they said, give us water to drink. And then Jesus said, give me to drink. And now he's saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

This he spake of the Spirit. So he makes this special reference to this miracle provision of water. And he's referencing back to in the wilderness. And we find the ordinances about that recorded for us in Leviticus chapter 23. And remember, we're at the Feast of Tabernacle. And in Jerusalem, they called it the Feast of Booths by the people. It was supposed to be a call back to remembrance.

So they're traveling, they come out of Egypt and they're living in whatever they can put together to camp in. And they make these little huts out of sticks and whatever they can find. And they camp that way while they were traveling through the wilderness.

And Jesus, the Lord instituted this feast called the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. And all these people in Jesus' day, they would make them. whatever they could go out in the country and gather, and they would make these little booths in their courtyards and on their roofs. And for the time of the feast, the eight days of the feast, they would live in these little stick huts to remember their deliverance out of Egypt.

So let's turn back to Leviticus 23. And we're going to start reading in verse 39. A couple of verses back before that mentions the drink offerings or the feast. But in Leviticus 23, 39, it says, Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, Ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days, and on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, and branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and the willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days, and you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year, and it shall be a statute forever in your generations, and you shall celebrate it in the seventh month, and you shall dwell in booths made out of those sticks and branches. Seven days, all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." So he gave them this back in the Law of Moses in Leviticus 23, and every year they were to do that.

Now, every day of the feast, except the last day, they would take a golden pitcher, the priest would go to the pool of Siloam, where earlier in chapter 5, where there was the guy that was waiting for the water to be troubled, and he could never get anybody to put him in the water there. Well, they would go to that pool with the golden pitcher, And they would dip water out of that pool, and they would carry it out to the temple, and they'd pour it out at the altar as a reminder that Moses smote that rock, and out of that came living water. and as a reminder of their traverse through the wilderness. On the eighth day, they didn't pour any water out. They poured it out seven days in a row, but on the eighth day, they didn't pour the water out.

So now we look at the significance of Jesus' word that we were reading earlier. He's at the temple. Back in John again, chapter seven. in verse 37, in the last day, that great day of the feast, and it was a Sabbath day, and we know what all that implies as far as entering into the rest of Jesus as it's recorded for us in Hebrews chapter 4. On the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried 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. Isn't that interesting how that all came about and how he puts it all together?

You know, the pouring out of water, he's not poured out like water, it symbolizes a great sacrifice. And many times in the Scripture we find that crossing of water is symbolic of a great deliverance. The people crossed the dry shod and over the Red Sea there.

Exodus 14, 13, Moses said, and the people fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. So it's a deliverance for the people of God in a judgment on those that are not. And then in Joshua chapter 1, going over Jordan, there's probably several hymns that talk about, it's a reference to someone dying and going over Jordan into the promised land that's a metaphor for dying and going into heaven. Joshua, it comes from Joshua one, two, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people into the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. And they went over and they set up a memorial there, a bunch of 12 stones.

First Samuel, the verse that Norman was referencing, 1 Samuel 7, 5, and Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah. And that Mizpah means a watchtower. It was a location. And I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together at Mizpah. and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah."

And it's just a picture of them. It was symbolic of them pouring out their their lamentation over there. It's kind of like Ezekiel. He says, after I give you a new heart, then you'll look at yourself and loathe yourself. And they just sort of poured themselves out before the Lord and fasted. He said, we have sinned against the Lord and Samuel judged the children of Israel and Mizpah.

Lamentations 2.19 says, Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches, Same kind of word as that mizpah. Pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Pour out your heart like water.

You know, another good example of crossing over some water was in Luke chapter 8. Another, I must need to go somewhere. And verse 22 says, it came to pass on a certain day that he, Jesus, went into a ship with his disciples and he said unto them, let us go over onto the other side of the lake, onto the other side of the water. There's somebody over there that I need to meet with. In verse 35, they went out to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind, and they were afraid. You know, the New Testament tells us that they saw Jesus walking on the water. control over everything. Deep waters sometimes symbolizes the travails we encounter in this world because of sin.

I think we have hymns that relate that to us as well, but that comes from Isaiah 43.1.

It says, But now saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, And He that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine." Boy, when you talk about it, Mike was bringing some things on comfort. When David said, this is what comforts me, this is what comforted him. Because he knew that I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. And when thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

And I guess it's important for us to recognize and to think that Once we're redeemed, it doesn't give us a free pass through this world. There's still plenty of deep water to go through. There's still plenty of rivers to cross. There's still plenty of things to vex us and cause us to have issues.

But when we walk through the fire, we'll not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. The river shall not overflow thee. It doesn't say you won't have any problems, But He's going to be with us, and ultimately, even though we might be physically injured or killed or something by those very things, in the long scheme of things, in the eternal scheme of things, Thou art with mine. I've called Thee by Your name. Psalm 84, verse 1 and 2 gives us a description. You don't have to turn there. I'll just kind of give you a quick notes of it.

It's a description of a traveler, a pilgrim traveling to God, and he passes through the valley of Baca. And some say that that's a dry or an arid place, but it was turned into a well of refreshment. In Psalm 42, verse 1 through 11, it talks about thirsting for God instead of the world. The heart panteth after the waterbrook, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. And you know, there must be The power of the Spirit in the water of the Word, in the spiritual water, it's called spiritual water for a reason. If the Spirit is not in it, it's just water, which it is.

It's just water in the ordinary sense. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14, You're all familiar with this story where they came out of Egypt and they all drank from that rock that Moses hit. They smoked with the rod. They all drank from that. But for many of them, for most of them, it was just water. For some, it was spiritual water, the water of life.

First Corinthians 10 forces and they did all drink the same spiritual drink. where they drank of that spiritual rock, capital R, that followed them. That's interesting there that it says it wasn't just a one place rock, that rock followed them, that rock of Christ.

And it's a capital R rock there in that verse, so we know that that rock that was stood upon there in Exodus was, that rock was Christ, is what it tells us in 1 Corinthians 10.4. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But many perished only drinking the physical water, and that's what it tells us in Hebrews chapter 4, it says that not being mixed with faith did not profit them. They didn't die of dehydration. but they died of spiritual death.

First Peter 3.20 says, talking about back at the flood there, which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing. wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. And that, this, I was talking to Norman about this several weeks ago, but this, this is one of those words that sometimes it's, the English translators always translate it the same, but the Greek word or the Hebrew word is not always the same.

And in the Greek here in 1 Peter, it says they were saved by water. Well, of course, that works out really well for people that are preaching baptismal salvation. They were saved by water, so that we should dunk you. That will save you. But that term by is the Greek word dia, and it means through. They were saved through the water of judgment, not by it.

And we compare that to Ephesians that we read a minute ago in Ephesians 5, 26 about the washing of water by the word, that word by is in, in the Greek word in and equals causality. So there's a two different utilizations of that word by entirely different contexts. But if you're trying to make a point and trying to prove some religiosity, then it's easy to make that say what you want it to say, but that's not what it was referencing in the original translation. Useful to promote salvation by baptism, but you know in Peter, when he wrote the next verse, verse 21, he said, the like figure. wherein to baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Christ.

There's the key to it, by the resurrection of Christ. So it's a like figure. Water was not the effectual agent in salvation. It was a like figure. And so we made it all the way through my notes. I didn't know that we would, but may we all drink with joy from the wells of the water of Christ and be refreshed. So be free, my friends.

Water of Life

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