Turn, if you will, to John's
Gospel, Chapter 7. John, Chapter 7. We'll read our text in just a
moment, but let me begin by sharing a story with you told by a preacher
that lived in the 1800s in Scotland, Horatius Bonar. He tells the
story of an awakened soul. someone to whom God got lost. And in the bitterness of his
spirit, this man set himself to work and pray in order to
get peace. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. He doubled, Bonar
said, he doubled the amount of his devotion, saying to himself,
surely God will give me peace. But peace didn't come. Then he set up family worship,
saying, surely God will give me peace. But peace didn't come. At last, he thought of having
a prayer meeting in his house as a certain remedy. So he fixed
the night and called his neighbors and prepared himself for conducting
the meeting by writing a prayer and learning it by heart. He
memorized it. And as he finished the operation
of learning, learning the prayer just before the meeting, he threw
it down on the table and said, surely now God will give me peace. Surely this will do. In that
moment, a still small voice seemed to speak in his ears saying,
no, that will not do. That will not do. But Christ
will do. And straightway the scales fell
from his eyes, and the burden from his shoulders rolled away,
and peace poured in like a river. Christ will do was after that,
the rest of his life, his watchword. Christ will do. When I read that
story, I'd read it years ago and forgot about it. I saw it
in a recent bulletin of somebody's. But when I read it again, I thought
to myself, that rings a bell. I don't mean rings a bell that
I heard the story, but it sounded familiar. Been there, as they
say, and done that. Even when God begins to deal
with the man, it's not uncommon. It's probably common to begin
to think, as this man did, I must do something. I must do something
to appease God. To think that we can work our
way to heaven or do something to merit God's mercy, to earn
His grace, it's a natural tendency of the natural man, of every
unsaved man, and even at first of awakened man. It's the response
of every soul, not born from above, that they think they can
produce things from below to satisfy God. To answer the question,
how can a man be just with God? That's a question, isn't it?
With only one answer. Remember, that was the first
thing that Adam did after he failed. He began to work. He
began to think he could get back into God's good graces. He'd
fallen. He had disobeyed God. He had
sinned. Chapter 3, verse 6, we read this. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now that's a picture
of man's own works. Remember what happened? Of course
you do. They thought it looked pretty good. They thought it
covered their shame. But God didn't. God didn't. God wouldn't accept it, would
he? We find in that same chapter of Genesis 3 at verse 21, "...Unto
Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make." Now Adam
made the fig leaves. But God wouldn't accept them.
The Lord made coats of skins, and he clothed them with that,
with those. That was God's response to man's
effort to appease him by their own works. When God clothed Adam
with the skins of the sacrifice of a slain animal that God himself
had provided, the fig leaves they had made for themselves
had to go. They had to go. You couldn't wear both. You can't
have both. You can't have your own righteousness
and the righteousness of God Almighty in His Son. You can't
have both. One's got to go. One's got to
go. And here's what God thinks about
our righteousness, our fig leaves. Isaiah 64, but we're always an
unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses,
plural, are as filthy rags. And we do fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away." That's serious
stuff, isn't it? Oh, but here's the righteousness
that those coats that God provided picture. Paul speaks of it in
Philippians 3, "...and be found in him." Jesus Christ, not having
my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. That's the righteousness that
God provided. God strips us of our own self-righteousness,
our fig leaves, before he clothes us in the righteousness of his
dear Son. God, in his mercy, by the convicting
power the power of His Holy Spirit, the withering work of God's Spirit,
He strips us away with those fig leaves. Oh, that's painful.
Oh, that's painful. That's tough. But it's necessary. And then, then He closes us in
the righteousness of His own Son. Grace, as you know, is for
poor sinners. Grace is the desperate need of
every sinner. Sinners who must have the mercy
of God. I don't mean sinners that want
a little religion. Sinners that can be satisfied
by just a little outward act of religious tradition. But oh
no, I mean thirsty sinners. Sinners whose heart's cry is,
I must have salvation. I must have grace. I must have
Christ. Nothing else will do. Joseph
Hart wrote about them. Leperous souls unsound and filthy,
come to Jesus as you are. Tis the sick man not the healthy,
needs the great physician's care. Oh, beware of trust ill-grounded.
Despite fancied faith at most, to be cured and not be wounded
is to be found before you're lost. That's dangerous, isn't
it? Isaiah chapter 61, we read this
in verse 10. The prophet said, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me. He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of his righteousness,
and as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with jewels." Doesn't that sound familiar?
Doesn't that sound like what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1
and 30? But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus? Who of God? God. made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Just as God provided
the coats that covered the nakedness and shame of our daddy Adam,
God provides and covers all his redeemed in the perfect righteousness
of his dear son, and he looks down and says, mmm, satisfied. Satisfied. Oh, child of God,
isn't that a comforting thought? That the God of heaven, the just
and holy, high and lifted up, God looks down at you in the
righteousness of his Son and says, mmm, satisfied. That's
enough. That's enough. That according
as it is written, he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord. As
we sing in that good old hymn, The Solid Rock, when he shall
come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless, faultless to
stand before the throne. When God provided the coats from
a slain animal to Adam and Eve, he was also saying this. It pictured
this. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. Nothing else will. Remember what
Abraham's answer was to his son as they went up to Mount Moriah
at God's command to sacrifice Isaac? Isaac said to Abraham,
his father, my father, behold, the fire and the wood, but something's
missed. I mean, I know better than this. You've instructed me better than
this. Where is the lamb? Father, You're bringing the wood. I'm carrying the wood. You have
the fire. But where's the lamb for the burnt offering? You remember
what Abraham said to his son? My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. Oh, yes. Praise his name. God will provide himself a lamb. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, God will provide the land,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. I like
how that reads. It doesn't say, as so many teach
today, that Christ came to provide a redemption. that depends on
something from us to make it successful, to make it work?
My soul, no wonder people that believe that are miserable, if
they would stop and think about it. If they weren't wearing religious
blinders. No, Christ didn't just simply
provide redemption, attempt redemption, He redeemed. He redeemed. Jesus Christ was sent by God. That's why God sent Him into
this world. God will provide Himself a Lamb. God sent His
Son into this world to actually and completely and entirely and
successfully redeem His people. But now once, Hebrews 9, But
now once in the end of the world hath He appeared, that is Christ,
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Now I read that,
and it's clear what the mission of the Son of Man was. The question
is, either He did or He didn't. That's it. There's no other alternative. There's nothing else. He either
did what he came to do or he didn't. Child of God, now hear
this. Is that what the newspapers boys
used to stand on the corner selling their papers? Extra, extra. Read all about it. Now hear this.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood,
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." Obtained. Jesus Christ redeemed. Past tense. It's done. All of His people
from all of their sins. He did not fail. He did not fail. Hebrews 1 and 3, who being the
brightness of God's glory and the expressed image of His person
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high. That's why we're told in the
verses following that, in Hebrews 1, that He, God, gave His Son
a name above every name. That's why He's obtained a more
excellent name than any angel. And oh my soul, how many hundreds
and hundreds and millions of angels are there doing God's
bidding? But it was not of Gabriel or
any of the multitude of angels that this was spoken. Only of
one was this spoken. given this name and for this
reason. Call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. Again, thank God when He by His
reigning grace strips us of our righteousness and then clothes
us in the righteousness of His own Son. I read the other day
again, I've heard this story before, But that Augustus' top
lady was traveling one day, either walking or on horseback, and
got caught in a sudden, fierce storm and sent him scurrying
for shelter. And he found it in a nearby cleft
of a great rock. It was while he was there, the
story goes, that he wrote his famous hymn. not as originally
written, not the labors of my hands can fulfill the law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know?
Could my tears forever flow that all foreseeing could not atone?
Thou must save, and thou alone, rock of ages." Rock of ages, Clef, for me. Aren't you thankful that God
taught you that? Aren't you glad that God taught
you that? Everyone that's learned of my
Father, Christ says, comes to me. Because if not made to know
that, we would have never done this. We would have never done
it. Would never seen a need to do it. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to your cross I cling.
Naked, come to you for dress. Helpless, look to you for grace.
Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. How sweet, how blessed to know
by the experience of God's work of grace in us the truth. I'm coming to my text, I've not
forgotten. In John 7, oh, but how comforting
when God writes on our hearts the truth of what we read in
Romans 4, 4 and 5. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, but to him that
worketh not. How about that? The very opposite
of all these religious workmongers, what they tell you that you must
do to have eternal life. Work, work, work. Pray, pray,
pray. Go, go, go. Give up, give up. Hang on, let go. But the promises
to those that work not, then what do they do? Believe. Believe
on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. Now look here with me in John
7. The message is this, that living
water, living water for thirsty souls. Living water for thirsty
souls. Our text will be verses 37 and
38. Before we read those though,
listen to this. Listen, Isaiah 55, these sound
so much like our text. Verse 1, Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
God says, listen, listen up, listen. Everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that have no money, come
ye. Any bankrupt sinners? He that
hath no money, come, buy it, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine
and money, or without money, rather, and without price. Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor
for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness." It's to those that our Lord speaks. It's to those
that the promise is given. To those who are thirsty, I remember
hearing Brother Scott Richardson say more than once, before anybody
can lay claim to any promise in God's word, they must have
the character described to the one to whom the promise is given.
The promise here of living water is not just thrown out as some
cheap gift that somebody might shuffle along and pick it up.
Oh, no. It's addressed to the thirsty.
Look at our text. In the last day, verse 37 of
John 7, In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. He that believeth on me cometh
believing. Same thing. As the scriptures
hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Oh my, anybody thirsty? I mean like the psalmist was
when he said, as the heart paneth after the water brook, so paneth
my soul after thee, oh God. I want to know God. My soul thirsteth,
David wrote, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? The such as those, Christ promises
this, blessed. Oh, you've been blessed. You've
been blessed. There's not too many people know
that. There's not too many people thirsty like that. Most folks
are satisfied just by some religion, like these folks our Lord addressed
at this feast. Oh, but these The really blessed
are these. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, Christ said in his Sermon on
the Mount. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. Child of God, aren't you glad? Aren't you thankful that God
made you thirsty? Aren't you thankful that God
didn't leave you alone, just let you go on perhaps playing
in religion, sitting in a pew somewhere just as lost as Don
used to say, as a goose in a hailstorm. Never been lost. Then one day, what in the world
happened? What's wrong with me, I remember
thinking. Man, I've been drinking at the
wells of this world, Trying to quench that thirst and couldn't
do it. Man, I'm thirsty. What's this all about? Thank
God he made me thirsty. In verse 2, here in John 7, we
read, Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. What
we read in our text was the conclusion eight days later of that. And then in verse 14, We read,
now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple
and taught the midst of the feast, about the fourth day of the eight
days that it lasted. The Feast of Tabernacles was
a time when Israel was reminded that they dwelt in booths in
the wilderness. Remember those 40 years of wandering?
And God dwelt with them in the clouded, and fiery pillar, but
it spoke of more than that. It foreshadowed, that time foreshadowed
the time when God came here in human flesh and tabernacled amongst
us. That time that God would bring
God and man together in eternal glory and perfect fellowship
with sin and every evil consequence of sin forever put away and purged
and gone and forgotten forever." Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles
was at hand. It's not called God's Feast of
Tabernacles. That's important. The Jews' Feast
of Tabernacles. That's meaningful. Those words
condemn what they were now doing. That divinely ordained feast
of Tabernacles is here referred to by the Spirit of God as the
Jews' Feast. This blessed ordinance of divine
worship has so degenerated that it was now no longer observed
as an ordinance of divine worship at all, but just a religious
custom among the Jews. That's all that it had deteriorated
to. As our Lord told the Pharisees,
the religious leaders, the teachers, you make void the commandment
of God so that you can keep your tradition. On the eighth day
of the feast, the day from which our text is taken, the last day
they considered, as we read, the great day of the feast. You
know what they did? They read the last section of
the law. And then they had added this,
this show. these fig leaves. As the climatic
act of the feast, last act, they observed a very solemn ceremony. God didn't command this. A ceremony
of their own invention. They thought, they probably thought
it was appealing to God, but in a solemn procession they would
march the river with buckets and fill the buckets with water.
and bring them back to the temple and give them to the priest.
And he would mix them with wine and pour them upon the altar. And as they did that, the people
would sing from Isaiah 12, with joy shall we draw water out of
the wells of salvation that didn't have a cliff. That's exactly
where they're at. That's exactly what's taking
place when our Lord spoke these words in her text. Their religion
they had without God, without grace, without salvation. God,
our Lord Jesus Christ, watched all this. He had observed all
this. And now they were leaving the
temple. They'd done their duty. They
felt good. They were getting ready to go
home. And they were going home as empty as they came in. Nothing better. Worse, if anything. And as they were leaving the
temple, can you picture this? The Lord Jesus Christ stepped
up on a high place where he could be seen and heard by all, and
he cried with a loud voice, he says, anybody thirsty? Anybody
thirsty? And that last day he cried, if
anybody is still thirsty, Is there anybody there to which
this has not been satisfied with? Is there anybody there yet thirsty? I've watched what you've all
done. I've watched very closely your religious procession, your
tradition. But is anybody thirsty to know
the living God? Is there anybody there in this
vast multitude of religious Jews that really want to know God,
that wants grace, that wants salvation, that wants mercy? Anybody thirsty? He shouts. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
isn't it sad? To anybody that has eyes to see,
and perhaps you thought of this as I was preaching and read the
text, that we see multitudes today doing the exact same thing
that the Jews did. They cling to a form of godliness
and deny the power of their eyes. They cling to outward ceremonies
and despise spiritual worship. Public worship is meaningless
unless it involves the heart. It's meaningless. It means nothing.
Baptisms is an empty, meaningless thing unless we've been baptized
into Christ. We've had an incident where folks
were baptized and we haven't hardly seen them since. Meaningless. The Lord's supper is worthless
ceremony unless Christ is held in the membrane of the heart.
Christ in you is the hope of glory. What the Lord said to
that poor woman in Samaria, words much like those in our text,
concerning natural water is true of every religion, every profession,
everything except the living union with the Son of God. Everything
outside of that, everything. Our Lord says, whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. I know he was referring to the
water in that well that that poor woman came to get, but he
meant more than that. Everybody that simply drinks
of anything that this world can give, especially in this religious
world, will thirst again. Isn't that true? Isn't that true?
But thank God he didn't stop there, did he? He went on and
told this woman, but. Oh, hallelujah. But. Oh, my mind, my memory keeps
going back to that time, about 22 or 23 years old. I became so thirsty. Oh, John,
I became so thirsty. I was lost. I'd never been lost
in my life before. You know what I mean? I didn't
know it. God brought me down, and I went
to everybody I knew and asked them, what must I do? I want mercy. I want grace. I want to know God. I want my
sins forgiven. I want to lay down tonight and
know and have peace with God. And I don't know how to find
it. I don't know how to do it. Nobody, at that time, nobody
told me what the scripture said. Nobody. Get a haircut. Quit being a hippie. Quit doing
them drugs. Clean up your act. Clean up your act. Went to a
church, come to the altar, come to the altar. Every time they
gave their altar call, I went running up there. And I laid
down at night, and God would speak in my ear, Life Thunder,
you're lost, you're lost, you're lost. And then, but, but, God who made
me thirsty wouldn't leave me there. As he told that poor woman
at the well, whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst. Will never thirst for anything
else. I thirst for more of him, but I'm never thirsty for anything
besides him. The water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. In verse 37, there's three words.
with special emphasis, thirst and come and drink. The first word, thirst, that's
a recognized thirst. Like hunger, it's something we're
aware of. It's a felt need. If you're thirsty,
you don't need anybody to tell you you're thirsty. You know
you're thirsty. And when God makes you thirsty,
you won't have to ask the preacher. You'll know you're thirsty. you'll
seek the living water. It's a craving for that which
we don't have. As our Lord said, whoever drinks
of this water shall thirst again, but not if he comes to me. Our
text is referring to a thirst for something infinitely better
than what they had done, what they had experienced. It's a
thirst for Jesus Christ himself. That's what it is, isn't it?
That's what salvation is. It's knowing Jesus Christ. It's
the drink of His grace and His mercy of Himself. The Lord says, if any man thirst,
the thirst he speaks of is a spiritual thirst, a thirst in the soul,
a thirst in the heart, a felt thing. It's a concern of the
soul arising from conviction of sin. A desire of pardon arising
from a sense of guilt. A longing after peace of conscience
arising from a fear of God's judgment. As I said earlier,
painful but necessary. It is necessary. I know that
puts me plum out of step with the most preaching today that
makes salvation no more than an easy decision that does nothing. and changes nothing in a man.
Their very first step toward heaven is to be thoroughly convinced
that we deserve to go to hell. A sense of sin, our desperate
case, oh, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. My son, my eldest son, I don't
know how many times when I'm preaching down below or where
He usually comes. He doesn't know God. And at the
door, when he shakes my hand, he'll say, thanks, Dad. I enjoyed
that. And I want to say, son, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure
sorry to hear that. You just heard that anybody outside
of Christ is lost. You've just heard that without
Christ, there's no hope. You've just heard without Christ,
Eternal damnation awaits, and you enjoyed that? You didn't
hear, didn't hear, didn't hear. All that God would give them
ears to hear. A true thirst created in the
soul by the work of God's grace makes me feel my guilt, my sins,
and to want forgiveness and help and relief more than anything
in this world. More than anything in this world.
Preachers try to drive people up, pump a decision and pray
for them and repeat after me, do it all. Let me tell you something. God Almighty creates a thirst
in your heart. You'll seek His mercy. You'll
seek His grace. And you'll seek it until you
find it. Until you find it. You won't
be satisfied with anything else. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second
word here is come. Are you thirsty? He says, come
unto me. That's one of the simplest words in our language, is come,
come. It signifies our approach to
an object or a person. To come to Christ means that
you do with your heart and will come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not something done with the feet. We just sang the tune,
used the tune. of the hymn that Charlotte Elliott
wrote, Just As I Am. And that hymn, I know you've
seen it on TV in these great campaigns and things, is the
hymn that is used just about 9 out of 10 times to get people
to walk forward with their feet. Do you know at the time that
that lady wrote that hymn, she could hardly walk? I don't know
that, I don't believe that's what she meant when she wrote
I Come. By the time she died, she was
completely paralyzed, well on the way when she wrote that hymn.
So it's not moving your feet that brings you to Christ. She
wrote, just as I am, that wilt receive, will pardon, welcome,
cleanse, relieve, because I promise, I believe, O Lamb of God, I'm
coming. I'm coming. Come with your heart. your heart. Christ says, come unto me, come
unto me. To come is to believe, and to
believe is to come. He is our peace. Come to me. Peter said, if so be ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming. Salvation is
not in what, it's not in what, it's in whom. And that one says,
come unto me. The last word in drink, drink,
as we wrap this up. Is anybody thirsty? Let him come
unto me and drink. A river flowing through a country
where people are dying of thirst won't do them any good if they
don't drink it, will it? Christ saves none who don't receive
him by faith. Drinking is a figure. of faith,
an expression that signifies making Christ your Lord. An act
of faith from the heart. Drink. That is, take the water
of life freely. Take His grace freely. Salvation
by Christ is a free grace. Justification is freely by His
grace. Come and drink. Come and drink. All the fitness He requires.
Old Joseph Hart wrote, is to fill your need of him. The fountain
of life flows abundantly and freely. All sinners need do is
drink. When they come to Christ by faith,
they find in him more than they expect. Is that true? Isn't that true? Didn't you find
in him more than you expected? I sure did. Oh, I sure did. My soul. It was almost too good to be
true when He spoke peace to my heart. Oh, I couldn't get over
that. God helped me to never get over
it. He saved me. I told everybody,
He saved me. Can you believe it? He saved
me. And then I found He not only
saved me, He adopted me into His family. I'm a son. I'm a
son. He not only saved me, He's going
to keep me all the days of my life. I'll never be lost again. I'll never be lost again. He's
given me His grace and He'll never take it away. I'm in the
hand of the Great Shepherd and nobody can pluck me out. Nobody. And not only that, my soul He
was better than I expected, did more than I expected, because
I read that he wants me with him where he is. My soul, drink. I tell you, in
ourselves and in our own hearts, we're often disappointed, aren't
we? No exceptions to that. We're
often disappointed, but I'll tell you what. I've never been
disappointed in Jesus Christ. I've never been disappointed
in Christ. He always does more than I expect. What a glorious message our Lord
preached. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye by and eat. come by wine and milk without
money and without price. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. Whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
unto everlasting life. Christ gives living water to
thirsty souls. Ho ye thirsty, come and welcome. God's free bounty glorify. True
belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh. Without
money, without money, come to Jesus Christ and buy. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and mangled by the fall, if you tarry till you're better, you
will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. As we read earlier in Revelation
7, Saints and angels join in concert, sing the praises of
the Lamb, while the blissful seats of heaven sweetly echo
with His name. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Sinners
here may sing the same. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. What to say? God bless you.