Good evening, everybody. Thank
you all for having us back. And it's a pleasure to be here
with you. If you will turn to John chapter
seven. John chapter seven. We're looking at something our
Lord said here at this feast. He was talking about being thirsty,
and that's something we have concern with whenever we're first
born, that's the first thing Children lose a drink. That's
how they get their nourishment. And that's the last thing, it
seems, we try to get people to do. If they're in a home and
about to die, just get some ice cubes, if you can. You try to
get them to drink something. And all throughout our lives,
we're drinking. We have to have something to
drink. Just like those sheep Rex read about. The Lord brings us,
and he gives us good water to drink. And all we do is just
drink it and mess it up. And he keeps providing water
for us. But the Lord's here at this feast.
I want you to see here in chapter 7, verse 2, what this feast was. This is the feast of the tabernacles.
It says in John 7, verse 2, now the Jews' feast of the tabernacles
was at hand. That's one sentence, and that's
very telling. What's the context? What's going on when the Lord's
going to speak to us we're going to look at here in a minute?
Is it His feast of the tabernacles? It's the Jews' feast of the tabernacles. They used to observe the Lord's
Passover, because he gave the Passover as a token, as a picture. And with them children, whenever
you're eating, and they say, Daddy, why come we're having this feast
of the Passover? Well, you can tell them, son,
the Lord brought us out. This is how Christ is going to
save sinners. He's going to be that good shepherd
that willingly lays down his life for the sheep, and he's
going to shed his blood, and he's going to give his soul an
offering for sin, and the Father's going to cast all judgment upon
him. And when he sees his blood, he's
going to pass over us. Years later, it's recorded that
they were observing the Jews' Passover. What did that consist
of? I'm afraid to ask. I don't care
to know. I'd rather know what the Lord's
Passover was. But here they're observing the
Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles. And it says in verse 37, page
over, John 7 verse 37, In the last
day, that great day of the feast, this is the eighth day of the
Feast of Tabernacles, 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. But he spake, But this he spake
of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive,
for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was
not yet glorified." It says there in verse 37, in the last day,
this is the last day of that feast. And there was so many
people came, so many people came and set up camp to stay there.
That's when the Lord cleared out that temple. We had Calvary
books when I was a child, and there was about four people there,
you know, selling doves, whatever, and he come through and whipped
them out of there. That is wrong. That was a conservative estimate
of 35, 40,000 people there. It was a miracle that one man
ran them all out. It wasn't some small feat. But
there was a lot of people here, and they came, and they set up
tents, and they camped, and they were there. What mankind would
call to worship, to feel something, to have something, to do something
different than what daily life was, and they weren't blessed.
They weren't. They came to this Jews' feast
and they weren't blessed. They came expecting to be filled
with the Spirit and they didn't get one. And now all that would
seem the right characters were in place. There was masters of
divinity there. You think of the nerve of that.
I have mastered God and His ways. Oh, buddy. There was doctors
of theology. Someone asked me one time, they
said, are you a theologian? I said, well, what that word
means, I know Theos, I know God. I want to know more of him, I
can tell you that. All these people were there and
they got up and they stood and they spoke, but nothing was different
at the end of this feast as it was when they started. Everybody's
still sick, everybody's still sad, and it was just as empty
as they was when they got there. I assume many felt very let down.
It worked real hard for a long time, maybe a couple months,
and they saved up their money, and they caught off work. Whatever
it took, it's hard. And they spent that money. And
they did all this hard traveling for this trip to get there. And
now it's the end of it. And they might have got a warm,
fuzzy feeling. The kids might have played some fun games or
colored some good pictures. But we're all at the end of this
feast, and my soul's still at need. We're in these last days right
now. This ain't just a story of something that took place
once 2,000 years ago. You and I are in these last days
right now. It says there in Hebrews 1, God who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets
hath in these last days. That's now. Spoken unto us by
his son. God gave his word through his
son to us. That's magnificent. We have the
word of the Lord Jesus Christ right here. People say, well,
it ain't complicated, and it's normally short. Say thank you. Isn't that good? I don't have
too much to chew on. He deals with one topic at a
time, and it's simple. It's not a multifaceted approach
to a monotheistic theology. He says, I'm the door. It's not
big, hard words. He speaks simply. You thirsty?
Drink. I know what, you know what, have
you ever been thirsty? I have been. He speaks to us playing
something we can enter into. And we have what he says right
here. And that's what his preachers declare. Unfortunately, it's
been a long time. I know it's out there. And since
I've heard a false preacher try to preach, and I had to encounter
that this week. And you just want to help them
stop, don't you? Let me knock something over so
they can be distracted and this can end. They don't know what
they're talking about. They're talking about a place
they ain't never been. You can't do that. They're talking about
a person they've never met and they're just shooting blanks
in the dark. They ain't gonna hit nothing.
God's preachers come and they declare what God said. All flesh
is grass. Behold your God. What God we
gonna behold? Christ. Godhead in a body who
came who he is and he did something. What he did, who he is and what
he did. I'll just tell you what the Lord
said. There's an amplified version when it's talking about the watchman
on the walls of Jerusalem. And it's the amplified version
calls it the Lord's Remembrance-ers. I don't think that's a real word,
but I hope it is. I love it. I technically have the easiest
job, in theory. I have the easiest job on earth.
I just say, remember? Remember? Remember what the Lord
said? Well, remember this? Well, remember that? Well, what
opinion do I have on it? I don't have an opinion. Let me go look
it up, see what God says about it, and then I'll tell you what
He says about it. I don't have to make nothing up. I don't have
to remember nothing. I just look it up, say, do you remember?
Remember? It's that easy, isn't it? But we're warned of these last
days that we're in right now. There will be those that do not
tell what God said. They tell what they say. They
tell what they think. They tell what makes them go
along and get along. Whatever it takes to smooth the
wheels and keep everybody happy. There ain't no sense in being
sad. We ought to be happy. When those angels covered their
faces, they didn't cry, love, love, love, did they? God is
love. And if we want to learn anything
about love, it's his love we want to learn about. That's true
love. But that comes from holy, holy, holy. Old God of host is
holy. He's holy, not to be trifled
with. But in these last days, people make light of that. Peter
warned us that plainly. He said, knowing this first,
there shall come in these last days scoffers walking after their
own lusts. What can I get it out for me?
The Lord's, and you know this, the Lord's gave you life. What
else do you need? What do we do? Tell other people
where we're found in life? Where life's to be found? Who
is life? Scott Richard said, we're just
one poor beggar telling another beggar where we found bread.
I'm full. My belly's full today. This is
who you go to. Go to him. Drink of him. Be thirsty
of him. How is that manifested in what
we see in our day that's scoffing and walking after their own lust? It's blaringly obvious. And it's
the things of God concerning Christ are blasphemed. That's
all it is. People say, well, come down to
an altar. And that was years ago and kind of starting to make
a revival now, or get spun up again now. People say, walk down
an aisle to an altar. Christ is our altar. That's what
the scriptures say. Or shake a preacher's hand. Lay hold of
Christ's feet like Ruth did Boaz. Lay hold of his feet like Mary
did. That good part that won't be
taken away from us. Put my empty hands on somebody's empty head
ain't gonna do them a bit of good. Lay hold of him. That's what we need. Got a funeral
home, asked me one time, asked me, he said, how many people
have you baptized? Everybody wants numbers, don't they? Say
you go to church, how many people go down there? They want to qualify
and quantify everything. He said, how many people have
you baptized? And I knew it ain't been many. I thought, I mean,
I'd have to think about it, but I said, you know, Christ, spoke
through Paul, the Lord moved Paul to say, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach. Any old thing he wanted, whatever
the topic was of the day, whatever was in the newspaper. No, he
said, he didn't send me to baptize folks, but to preach the gospel.
And that guy kind of had a funny look on his face. And I wasn't
as bold then, and time, we're in the last days, maybe I ought
to be more bold. I'm like, do you even know the gospel? Have
you ever heard it? And could you preach it? Nothing
else. I already got a tax man. I already
know what brand of vehicle I like. I know what kind of food I like
to eat. I don't need advice on none of that stuff. I made it
pushing 50 years. I need the gospel. Do you have
that? My children are almost grown. I don't need a parenting
book. I need the gospel. That's what I need. We're in
the last days, and this is a serious thing. Our brother read there
in the back, Paul wrote to Timothy. These are the last days, perilous
times. Perilous times. ought to not
scare us, it ought to wake us up. And let's see who sent them. How'd it get so perilous? Lord's
working. I get excited. This might be
it. I don't know what it's going
to look like when those clouds roll back as a scroll, but one
time the wind kicked up over the mountains where we live and
the clouds got real weird. I've never seen clouds like that.
And I was, oh, baby, this is it. I have a job to do now. I'm here
now. The Lord gave me something to
do. I'm going to do that. But just like being at work, I'm
going to work hard, but I'm looking for quitting time. I want to
get out of there. And just like this life, I'm
going to work hard. I'm looking to Him who I will be with. I
hope He's coming. If Kimmerer surprised me at work,
I'd be real happy about that. Imagine the Lord. He's going
to come in the blink of an eye like a thief in the night, won't He?
It says here, all right, I was on the last day. Let's look at
the next part. I'll go quicker. Verse 37, in the last day, that's
where we are now, that great day of the feast, that great
day of the feast. I'll save you time in Leviticus
23. This was the eighth day. And it said, this must be a holy
convocation. This is the holy day. All the
work's done, but today's a holy day. And just like that first
day, this is told to be a solemn assembly. Not clapping and doing
cartwheels and showing off so everybody can come look at me.
Solemn. Solemn. The Lord said don't give
the sacrifice of fools when you come into his house. That means
keep your mouth shut. Don't say something dumb. And listen. And
hear. That's how faith comes. Sit down
and listen. The Lord gave us two ears and
one mouth on purpose. He did. But this is supposed
to be a solemn day. At this feast here in our text, I wonder how
many cried out in solemnness for the Lord. Lord, your day
come. Today's a day, and you've wrote
about this day, and it's an important day, but that final day. Lord,
your will be done, and your kingdom come. Come now, we want to see
you. Or how many at this feast have
cried out in this solemn day of the Lord's presence to be
with them? God be with them. These men prayed, and I don't
mean this in any, this ain't just something you say. I'm thankful
when people pray for me before I preach. I preach without people
praying for me to preach, and I preach with people praying
the Lord be with me when I preach. There's a difference. I'm praying
too the whole time. How many people say, Lord be
with us? What'd he say? Lo, I'm with you always. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And you
know what we do? He's with us now, where he is.
What we do? We inquire of him. Lord, be with
me. Be with me. Karen would be in the same house
as me. Well, I'd say, where you at? Come sit with me. Well, she's
in the same room. Yeah, I know, but I want her
with me. I want to see what she's doing and look at her. Why? Because
I love her. Why do we want the Lord to be with us? We love him.
Love does that. What we're going to do on that
solemn day, in our day of mourning, we're going to cry to the Lord,
aren't we? He said in Luke 19, this day is salvation come to
this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. For
the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. That was in Luke 19. That's exactly
what Rick's read earlier. He's on the trail of his sheep,
and he ain't going to lose one. And that one ain't going to get
away. ain't going to be for God. He shall save his people. Paul
summarized all that of Isaiah 49 and Isaiah 61 there in 2 Corinthians
6 and he says, for he saith, he's saying what the Lord said.
He said, well, you know, I've been thinking about this for
about five years. Now, here's what God said. I have heard thee
in the time accepted in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. He says, behold, He doesn't say
today is the day of salvation. Today's a long time. He says
now is the day of salvation. That's right now. In this last
day, when's salvation? Right now. If I had salvation
at 9.42 a.m., guess what I need at 7.33 p.m.? Now. Right now. I need no condemnation. What
else did Paul say? There is therefore now no condemnation. Right now. Right now. That's
good. I don't know how many had truly
on that solemn day cried out. I don't know how many, but I
know who did for sure. Look at verse 37. In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. The Lord stood up and with the
voice of a man, hollered out. He cried out. My brother Gil
wrote on this. He said, now he stood up Whereas
in other times he would sit. That was the custom. Everybody
stood up and the preacher sat down. There's been some times
my back's hurting. I thought we ought to go back
to that. Keep people awake and give me a chance to rest. But
that was the custom of the time. But this time the Lord stood
and he stood and he cried with a loud voice. Why? One, to show
his fervor. That's what Gilruth. He's hollering
out, this is important. And it's earnest. And he did
it so that all may hear. I want to speak loudly enough
that everyone can hear. I want to speak in a way everybody
can understand. I want to use words that everybody
can understand. That's what the Lord did. Hear
what? What did he cry? It says there,
if any man, that's mankind, man or woman, if any man, that's
good news. A guy told this one time, said,
Armenians, Arminianism is all door and no house. Everybody into something they
ain't got nothing of anyway. And then hyper-Calvinism is all
house and no door. There ain't no way to get in
it. Thanks be to God, we're not saved by denomination. We're
saved by a person. And that person said, if any
man. Well, you couldn't preach to
those folks. Why not? it don't matter what they are.
Think of whatever crime that you hate the most and the people
you think the least of, that's probably who we ought to be preaching
to. The Lord came and saved harlots and mafiosos and publicans and
tax collectors and crooks and cheats and murderers and anybody. He also saved some kings
too, didn't he? Some real good kings. Saved them,
anywhere in between. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
And he told anybody that would listen about the wrath of God
against the sin of man. He didn't say it, flowers are
going to fall out of the sky. It never rained. And he said,
water is going to fall out of the sky. He said, it's going
to rain. They said, what's that? Judgment's coming because ain't
nothing but sin on this earth. Lord making me build ark because
he told me to and everybody that's in the ark is going to live.
Outside the ark, death. In the ark, life. What's gonna
keep them people inside the ark alive? The ark is that God prepared. It says in Genesis 7, the Lord
said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark. For
thee I have seen righteous before me in this generation. Why was
Noah seen as righteous? Because he'd found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. I can't find that cup if that cup ain't there.
Oh, I found a cup because it was there. How did Noah find
grace? God was gracious to Noah. That's how he found it. He tells
him what will be brought in that ark, the clean and unclean beast
and the fowls and all those things. And in Genesis 7, he says, for
yet seven days. He says, you're in the last days,
Noah. I'm going to hold off for seven more days. I will cause
it to rain upon the earth. 40 days and 40 nights. Here in
seven days, this is what's coming. And every living substance that
I've made, I'll destroy from the face of the earth. And for
those seven days, that ark was open. God just said it was coming.
He said, what he's going to do in seven days, imperfection,
because this is perfect. And for those last seven days,
every two by two went on the ark and Noah preached righteousness.
The ark's open, come in the ark. I preached through Genesis, and
I went on that ark, and I think it was the sixth time in a row
I preached on the ark. I told Kim, I said, this is the
last time. She said, there's a whole lot there. She said,
it probably ought to be. That's a lot, at least for this
realm. There's a whole lot there. It's pitched within. It's pitched
without. Boy, we're in it. And God sealed the door up. But
this door was open, and Noah was preaching to him. And he
said, get inside the ark. Everything outside the ark's
going to die. We know something about Joe. We're okay. You know,
I'm busy. I'm giving in marriage and taking
in marriage and have cattle I bought I've never seen and land I bought
I never looked at. That's crazy. I said, I have
every excuse underneath the sun. Something's more important. It
wasn't thirsty. That's what it was. We're busy. Got some friends coming to town.
Most likely, they said, it ain't gonna rain. It ain't never rained.
You're crazy. You're talking about something
that ain't never happened. It ain't never rained. It probably never will rain,
Moses. Or Noah. What's going on in our day right
now? God said the earth's going to be consumed with a fervent
heat and all the elements are going to melt away. He's going
to burn it all up. And you're going to stand before a holy
God that we've offended in judgment. And mankind says, well, I'm young. I probably ain't going to ask.
You just go sleep. Or some scientist told me. God
told us. God's told us. Offended a fellow, tried my best
to preach the gospel to him. He said, do you believe in global
warming? I said, you bet I do. It's going
to get real hot. I don't know how fast or when.
God said he's going to burn everything. I ain't worried about the crops
and the rainstorms. I'm worried about God on his
throne, a sovereign, holy, just God that willed him by no means
clear of the guilty. We're going to be in that ark.
That ain't a good Bible story. It's something put on wallpaper
on a kid's room. That's Christ. That's who we need. He said in Genesis 7, 16, and
they went in, they that went in, went in male and female and
all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut them in. God commanded those that were
his, get on that ark. And they did. They did. And then God shut them in, sealed
them in, sealed them in. Can't get out. Even if I wanted
to get out, I couldn't get out. That's good. We thank God for
that, don't we? Is it the doctrine of election
in the Bible? You bet, brother. So how could Christ cry out,
if any man? Well, it didn't stop there, did
it? It said, if any man thirst, every thirsty one, he said, come
to me. Every needy one, you in trouble
with drowning? Get an ark. You hungry? Eat. You thirsty? Drink. There's a requirement there of
need, isn't there? If anybody is thirsty. I can
find bodies. My dad never could say body.
He'd say body. He'd say, I hurt my body. I can
find bodies. I can't find thirsty folks. I
can find theologians. I can't find sinners. But the
Lord said, if any man, any man is thirsty. In another part,
he says, all you that labor and are heavy laden, Many are not
tired of working yet. Many don't thirst yet. But we
call them to regardless, don't we? And that general call, hearing,
believe on him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come to him. Have rest. Thirst. What is it to thirst? Physically,
our Lord relates this. I don't know if I've said it
here in Lexington today. The Lord's the best storyteller
there was. It is. He knows how to talk to his people,
don't he? He just lays it so comfortably and gently right
to us. Everybody can relate to being thirsty. Everybody can. You ever been really, really,
really thirsty? What do you want to drink? I mean, real thirsty. A big old cold Mountain Dew.
No, I don't want that. Real, real sweet tea. Or vinegar. Or lemonade. No, I want water.
I don't like drinking water. But if I get real thirsty, if
I'm out cutting grass, whatever, give me water. I want clear,
plain water. And I want a bunch of it. We
know what that is. Only water will do. I don't want
a lot of beer. I don't want wine. I don't want nothing. Soda. Nothing
added to it. Nothing that coats the tongue.
I just want water. I do. And it's needful. And it's
necessary. And we know it. Because we crave
it, don't we? If we didn't have physical thirst,
if we didn't have those instincts, that switch, it kicked on. Fred
can probably talk more about this. We didn't have that. You
would still need water. Did you know that? If we never
had a desire to drink water, the need of water would still
be there. But we do have that instinct. We do have that motivation. That's physical. The Lord gave
us that. He's hardwired us that way. What is it to thirst spiritually? We need Christ. And I don't want
nothing added to it. I don't want nothing sugaring
it up pretty sweet. Only Him, nothing added, will
do. Just Him. He's necessary. And this isn't something, God's
made us know that. He's gave us a thirst for Him.
We're not something that's broken and we can't, we need Him and
don't know it. He's made us know it. I need Him. I need Him. And He's, that's a God-given
thirst. God gave life and that life's thirsty and He's gave
every bit of it. He's made Him necessary. He is. And you know, thirst is a proof
of life. Physically, spiritual thirst, dead people ain't thirsty.
They ain't. Spiritually dead people don't
need Christ either. A person that's alive thirsts for Christ.
They do. That is a blessed man or woman
that has a thirst for Christ, a thirst for forgiveness in him,
a thirst for his righteousness. That means a thirst for unity
with the Redeemer, a desire to be with him. In Matthew 5, it
says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Not clean living and morality,
Christ, he's our righteousness. For they shall be filled. We ain't just thirsty and don't
get nothing out of it. We ain't just needy and just moping around.
I'm a poor needy thing. Oh, look how bad I am. No, if
it's true, he fulfills it. He fulfills it. They have said,
I'm young. I'm old. I've been young. I've never seen
the Lord's people begging bread. Now, the Lord has some poor people
on this earth. There's people that may not be able to afford
to buy bread. He's talking about Christ the bread. I've never
seen a sinner that said, I need Christ and Him crucified, and
I need to hear Him preach to me on a regular basis, that the
door hadn't been opened and that God just provided abundantly
for them to hear it. I heard a lot of people talk
about being hungry. I heard a lot of people talk about being thirsty.
If there's a thirst, a true need, God will provide it. He will.
He said He would. I believe Him. I believe Him. If, big if, isn't it? If any man thirsts, sadly most
do not. But here's the question, not
who thirsts and who doesn't thirst. Is that one thirsty? Is that
one thirsty? Do those people over there thirst? What about
that group of people over here? Are they thirsty? This is one-on-one. The gospel
is as true on a deserted island with me, myself, and I as it
is with anybody else, anything else. The question ain't, does
somebody else thirst? Does those Pharisees thirst?
I don't know. Do I thirst? And me preaching, me, I'm talking
to me. Am I thirsty? Am I thirsty? And that's last day, the solemn
day, do I have a need for the simplicity of Christ, that sincere
milk of the world? Or am I like, well, I could drink
something. I could eat. But I ate a little
bit ago, and Mark just fed me on the way over here. I mean,
if you had a donut, maybe I'd have that. But if not, OK. Just
take it or leave it. Am I that way? Am I that way? If I do not crave that word,
if I do not crave Christ, grace has not been given to me. And
I would prefer somebody be worried about me and pray that God be
merciful to me than be like, ah, Kevin's fine. I think I saw
him drinking something the other day. He'll be all right. You pray for me, I pray for you.
God, keep us thirsty. Keep us alive and thirsty. And
not just take it or leave it. Peter says, newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if
so be that ye've tasted that the Lord is gracious. For us
to have that desire, God had to be gracious to us. It's his
grace. In Mark 15, it says, There's
a believer, a child of God that thirsted after Christ, and he's
thirsted after forgiveness, he's thirsted after righteousness,
and he's been filled, but yet, he's still thirst, and he still
craves, and he desires to be near Christ. It says in Mark
15, now, when the evening was come, because it was the preparation,
that is, the day before the Sabbath, that's getting ready, Joseph
of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which had also waited for the
kingdom of God, he was waiting for Christ to come, came, and
he went, in boldly unto Pilate. Joseph went in there, walked
into the boss man, the governor, right? And he craved the body
of Jesus. That's the only place in scripture
that that word is used in that translation. I try to pronounce
it, but I'm going to do a bad job. It means to beg, to call
for, to desire, and as a demand to require. Pilate, take your
head off. Well, he'll just have to take
my head off. I crave the body of Christ. I have to have him. Death don't matter. Embarrassment
don't matter. Shame don't matter. I have to
have him. I have to. There in our text is verse 37.
It says, In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst. In that solemn day,
the Lord stood up and cried, If any man thirst. Is there anybody
thirsty here tonight? Does anybody require him? You crave him. The forgiveness
of Christ, the redemption that's found in him. Do we crave his
righteousness? That the father looks on us and
sees nothing of me. Just like Jacob. He wore that
coat to feel like his brother Esau. They put that hair on him
to fake that. And he smelled like him, didn't
he? Do you want to smell like Christ?
Says we're going to smell like him. So you say with David, my
soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is. Nothing else is going to do but
him. If any thirst, what do we do? What do we do? Do we have to wash and work and
walk and talk and proselytize and some other words I can't
hardly pronounce? Let him come unto me and drink. Isn't that
an easy word? I'm thirsty. Come here, drink. Easy things. If we have a thirst
for Christ, come in. What is that to come to Him and
drink? To consume Him. To have Him as your lifeblood.
He's everything. He's everything. What is it to
thirst, to need, to crave, to require? What is it to come?
Well, that involves leaving something else, don't it? If I came to
Danville, am I still in Sellersburg, Indiana? No, Kevin, you're crazy. What's wrong with you? Well,
it's that simple, isn't it? To come to Christ is to leave
something. Well, what are we leaving? Everything. Name it. Whatever ain't Him. That's it. He said, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. What's coming to Christ to have
that? It's leaving laboring and it's to leave carrying heavy
loads. If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. That
means to stop looking for water everywhere else. Well, I think
there's a good well over there, and I remember there used to
be a well back here. He's the well. If there was a way I could
take a funnel and stick it down somebody's throat and pour the
living water down, I'd do it. People say, well, I believe in
infant baptism. No, you don't. You're lying.
If you did, if you think throwing water on somebody saves them,
if you were serious, you'd buy a fire truck and drive up and
down the road and spray everybody. You put your money where your mouth
is, if that's what you believed, you would, wouldn't it? I care for people's souls. We
all have, by nature, we have those broken cisterns the Lord
talked about. And we're trying to put water
in it, and it's going out just as fast as it goes in, and it ain't
holding no water. Because we're not looking to Christ, we're
looking to our cisterns, aren't we? He said, let him come unto
me. What does that result of coming
to Christ? He said in Isaiah 55, incline your ear and come
unto me. Hearing is how we're going to
hear about this. We ain't going to read it and come to it on
our own. We ain't going to have a revelation
in our basement one time by ourselves. A sinner's going to stand up
and preach out loud and through ears, somebody's going to hear
in their heart because God gave a new heart. He said, come unto
me here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. This ain't some new
fly-by-night thing. This is that covenant of old.
Everlasting covenant. We do not have, by nature, the
desire to be thirsty. He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. Says that in John 5. By nature,
we don't have the ability to make ourselves thirsty. We can't
study up on thirst and see if we can manufacture that. He said,
no man can come to me. I thought that was good news.
Oh, it is. He said, except the Father which has sent me draw
him. I can't come. You're telling me I'm unable.
Are you calling me a sinner? Yeah. It's going to take God
to convince you of it. And then the Father's drawn him.
And I'll raise him up to the last day. And he said in John
6, 37, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You will be with him forever.
Why in the world somebody had to fight election? Bill Barnes
said predestination, every time that's listed in the Bible, it's
concerning being conformed to the image of Christ. Why would
somebody want to fight predestination? Don't you want to be made like
Christ? You got something against that? I want to be made like
him. I want to be with him. I do. Our text says in verse
37, John 7, 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst,
let him. If you're not given a thirst
by God, you'll be killed on sight. But if you've been given a thirst
for life, for Christ, don't get in his way. God said, part the
sea. Come on, let him. Don't touch
him. Don't let a dog wag its tongue at him. Come on, come
to him. 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. The second we drank that, we're
going to keep wanting to drink. I love my wife, and I want to
keep loving my wife. I know my wife. I want to know
her more after. That grows, doesn't it? If we have a thirst for Christ,
we're going to want to keep hearing about Him and having His presence. But what's going to come out
of our belly? Well, I tell you, I found Him. I remember when
I came to Christ and what went in. If Christ is what goes in,
Christ is what's going to come out. I don't know people's hearts.
The Lord looks on the heart. But I know what comes out of
somebody's mouth over a long enough period of time. And if it's Him and
the sovereign, God's sovereignty and His holiness, and how we
ain't nothing but wretches, and by just grace because He wanted
to out of love's sake, because He's so magnificent, He made
a whole bunch of people just like His Son. And it's holy because
His Son bought them and laid down His life for them. And justice
has been satisfied, and we're going to be made just like Him.
If that's what comes out, that's what went in. That's it. That's what Brother Clay wrote
an article one time. If you want groceries for the
rest of your life, and Walmart or whoever delivered breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, you got groceries on your porch, and you never
tell you the day you died how to worry about groceries ever
again. You went to sleep tonight. When
you wake up tomorrow morning, right in this area here, what's
going on? I'm hungry. But you have free groceries for
life. Yeah, I'm going to eat them, too. I ain't just going
to sit and look at this. I ain't going to sit and just
say, well, that's awful nice. People come to that city of refuge and
stood outside of it and said, let me tell you how many hinges
are on the door. I could tell you how many bricks are on the
side of the building. They tell you all about that city of refuge, and
they ain't went in. How could we look at all that
food and not eat it? Only if you ain't hungry. How could I
look at all this good water and not drink it? Well, I must not
be thirsty. Or said, if any man thirst. He's given that thirst.
Let them come. Get out of their way. Then come
to me. Then come to me. And out of them bellies is going
to flow rivers of living water. Let me tell you about all the
water the Lord gave me. I didn't have enough sense to be thirsty.
He made me alive. And now I'm thirst. Verse 38,
he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, this is
according to the word of God. And God's saying it to us here,
reminding us. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
If we drink that blood of Christ, We have eternal life. What comes
out of us? Living water. Christ the living water comes
out. Not Kool-Aid, not Coca-Cola. Him, who he is and what he's
done. Verse 39, but this he spake,
but this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet
given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. What's that spirit gonna do?
We had booked into a guy one time He'd come to church with
us for a little while, and I kind of picked up pretty quick on
what he wanted. I met more than 14 people in my life. I've been
around the block a little bit, and I knew what he was getting
at, and he wouldn't come to church with us no more. He lived across
the street from us, and he saw Cameron. He said, hey, will you
give me a ride into town on Sunday morning? She said, yeah, you
want to go to church? He said, no, I ain't going to church no more. He said,
the Spirit ain't there. The Holy Spirit ain't there.
Now, I'm the pastor, and she's my wife. That ain't good business
sense, now is it? What your husband's doing wrong,
but can you give me a ride into town to another church?" And
she said, the spirit ain't there. He said, no, hun, never felt
good. She said, it ain't got nothing to do with feeling. Getting
healed physically or something like that ain't got nothing.
What'd God say? Remember? I'm going to be remembered. He
said, when he comes, when the Comforter comes, the Holy Spirit
comes, he ain't going to talk to himself. He's going to talk
of me. He's going to talk of me. Why
hadn't that Spirit been there? Christ had not yet been glorified.
One, He was physically there with them. The triune God is
standing right there with them. But when He ascends, He goes,
when I go to my Father, I'll send the Comforter. And He's
going to speak of me. He's going to speak. If there's
a Spirit out there that's doing anything else other than talking
about Christ, I don't want nothing of it. But when He's glorified,
that's when we have the Spirit with us. He sent the Spirit with
us. How do we know if the Holy Spirit meets with us right now?
Is Christ glorified or is man? Henry told me that from the time
I was a little bitty. Who gets the glory? That ain't a hard
question either. People don't want to answer it.
But who gets the glory? Are you thirsty? Go to Christ. Drink. He won't let nothing get
in your way. And you'll be filled. And then you're going to talk
to him. I pray it's a blessing. I pray you're thirsty. You'll
be filled. I pray I'm thirsty. I'll be filled
too. So thank you for having us and
we'll be with you and I pray for you and pray for me as you
can and my family. So thank you.