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. And he that believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. Now, in the verses we have before
us today, I have four characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ that
I want to briefly show you. I don't expect to go much more
than 30 minutes, so I'd ask you to give me your complete attention
for that period of time. The first characteristic that
I think here is clearly seen is that of the great Redeemer. Christ is the great Redeemer. He's the only one who can redeem.
And that's very evident, I believe, in these verses to whom all God
gives us to see. What does verse 37 say? It says,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. First notice, where does our
Savior tell us to come? He says, come unto Me. Me. Verse 38, He said, He that believeth
on Me shall be saved. Not might, not could be, not
if everything goes according to the moons and the stars and
all, but thou shalt. shall be saved that believeth
on me. And I say this all the time and
I'm not going to stop now because it's absolutely vital. It's life
and death importance to know this. Salvation is in a person. Salvation is not in scripture
memory. It's not in church attendance. It's in Christ and Christ alone. Why, who did Paul meet on that
road to Damascus? Did he suddenly have a free will
change of heart concerning the persecution of Christians and
make a decision to change his mind? Riding on the horse, he's
got the papers all signed from the Jewish leaders and he's ready
to go and throw them in jail, all those that he finds worshiping
Christ. And he says, hmm, I think I've
just changed my mind. No, that's not how it happened
at all, is it? The Lord Jesus Christ knocked
him off his high horse, knocked him to the ground and changed
forever the way that he saw things. Paul never saw the same again.
Saul at that time, he never saw the same way again. And that is why he, now the Apostle
Paul, says in his letter to Timothy, he said, For the witch calls,
I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed. He said, For
I know whom, I know whom I have believed.
It's in a person. I believed in Christ. And I'm
persuaded what? That he is able. he's able to keep that which
I've committed what? unto him against that day if
you'll keep your place here in John and turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 1 this was this was a divine revelation to the Apostle Paul
he proclaimed boldly that salvation was in a person look at verse
7 of chapter 1 or verse 7 in whom there it is again we have
redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace look down at verse 11 in whom Also, we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him, that being
God, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Look down at verse 13. "...in whom ye also trusted after
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise." All this is in a person. Look at chapter 2, verse 21. "...in whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord."
Verse 22, "...in whom ye are also built together for a habitation
of God through the Spirit." He's the head and we're the body,
but it's in a person. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
the head. Look over at, well, let's see,
yeah, chapter 3, verse 12. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. And He didn't stop
there. I could turn you to Colossians
chapter 1 verse 14, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sin. Your sins are forgiven, dear
sinner, in a person. And that person is Christ. In whom, Colossians 2, 3, also
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God reveals
all His wisdom and knowledge through Christ, the Son of God. In Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, and God makes it known unto us by
the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Now, back in our text, in John
chapter 7, Christ says, as the scripture has said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now many of the scriptures
that speak of grace uses the metaphors of water. I want to
just read you a few. Isaiah 41 verse 17, when the
poor and needy seek water, And there is none, and their tongue
felleth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them,
and I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." In Isaiah
41, 18, I will open up rivers in high places, and fountains
in the midst of the valleys, and I will make the wilderness
a pool of water, and dry land springs of water. Isaiah 43 verse
20 the beast of the field shall honor me the dragons and the
owls because I give waters in the wilderness and Rivers in
the desert to give drink to my people my chosen. Oh The grace
of God and the metaphors here of water Isaiah 44 verse 3 for
I'll pour water upon him that is thirsty. I Floods upon the
dry ground and I'll pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing
upon thine offspring and as Isaiah 58 11 this is in the Lord shall
guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul and draw and make fat
thy bones and I shall be a watered garden Those of you that have
gardens Nothing prettier than a well-kept garden. But that
garden won't be pretty for long if it's not watered, will it?
Christ says, thou shalt be like a watered garden. You know why? The waters of life everlasting
have poured upon us. And like a spring of water, who
waters fail not. Now, in our text here that we
just read, I want to ask you how broad and how inclusive these
words are. It says, if any man thirsts,
the gospel of Christ is for any man. It doesn't matter who you are.
It doesn't matter what you've done. The Lord Jesus says, if
any man thirsts, let him come. If you're thirsty, truly thirsty
for the things of God, these words are for you. No other qualification
is required. The question is, are you thirsty? That's the question. Are you
thirsty? Do you feel the weight of your
sins pressing you down to hell? Do you thirst for peace, pardon,
forgiveness, righteousness, acceptance with God? If so, this is a word
from God to you. I can say honestly, without any
conflict in Scripture, that this question is not for only any
man, but for every man that is thirsty. Some may say, well, Brother David,
I thought you didn't believe that Christ died for everybody
in the world. I don't. I don't believe that for one
minute. But He died for any and every
man that is thirsty. You see, dear friends, if you're
thirsty, then God is the one who made you so. That's just
a fact. If you're thirsty, Thirsty for
Christ is God that made you so. Do you have any desire for Christ? Are you thirsty? Notice the little word if. That's
the key to this verse. If any man thirsts. The majority of people in this
world, unfortunately, do not thirst for Christ. and His pardon,
peace, forgiveness, and righteousness that he's not thirsty for. But if you thirst, come and drink. We was talking in the men's meeting
Those are precious times over there when we read the scriptures
and fellowship around God's Word. And we got to talking about the
invitation. Men have taken this thing called
an invitation and they've made a gospel out of it. Men are saved
by walking in an aisle. Men are saved by joining the
church. The most prominent thing on the
front of the church is the board that shows how many people came
to Sunday school and how many more they had than the week before.
Friends, that's not the issue. The issue is, are you thirsty
for Christ? If you're thirsty, if any man
thirsts, he says, let him come unto me and drink. Oh, no, we're not examining people
at the back door. Let me look you over, brother,
and see if you're an elect of God. We don't know who God's
elect, but if you thirst, that's a good sign. That's a good thing
if you're thirsty for the Lord Jesus Christ and His pardon and
forgiveness of sins. Oh, when Christ says, come unto
me and drink, you know what He's saying? He's saying, I'm the
fountain of life. He's saying, I'm the one who
forgives and cleanses. He's saying, I'm that smitten
rock from which gushes forth rivers of living waters. I am
the well of salvation. That's what he's saying. Come
unto me and drink. Oh, you can come to Christ and
never move a muscle. Why men and religion have made
it an issue of moving from one place to another, I don't understand
that. It's not in the Bible anywhere.
When we come unto Christ, we come unto Him in our hearts.
It's a heart issue. And what we're saying is, Lord,
I'm thirsty and You're the fountain. Lord, I'm thirsty. You're the
well of salvation. And we see him stretching forth
his hands to poor, needy sinners calling thirsty souls, come to
me and drink. Come to me and drink. These words, let him come unto
me, that's very simple and easy to understand, isn't it? If I
said, Tyler, come here to me, do you think he wouldn't understand
that? This means come here, come unto
me. But when Christ says it, it settles
the whole matter. When Christ says come unto me
and drink, the issue of how a sinful, wretched, depraved man can have
redemption is answered. It tells us how a man can have
peace with God. It tells us that that peace is
to be had in Christ and by trusting in Him as our mediator and our
substitute. That simply means that I trust
Him to do for me all that God required. And I trust and believe
that He did that for me. You see, to come to Christ is
to believe on Him. And to believe on Him is to come
to Him. There's no other way to obtain
peace. Salvation is to be had by coming to Christ and drinking. If you're thirsty. Are you thirsty? You see, to come to Christ is
God revealing to you firstly that you can't come. Isn't that
right? Coming to Christ is realizing
first and foremost that you cannot come except the Father which
sent Him draw you. Coming to Christ is God revealing
to you that you cannot come except it were given unto you the sinner
of God to come. That's the first step in coming.
Knowing you can't. You don't have the ability. You
cannot come that you might have life and you will not come. That you might have come into
Christ as a knowledge given by God and God alone to show you
that you will not come. Not only can you not come, you
will not come that you might have life. Look back at John
chapter 5 verse 39. And this is the Father's will.
No, I'm sorry. I'm in chapter 6. 539. Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. Friends, the Scriptures testify
of Christ. Many think that they have eternal
life by reading and studying the Scriptures. I've told you
this story before. I knew a man who was my father's
age that had memorized the whole New Testament. But he wasn't thirsty. And he
never came to Christ and drank. And one day he put a gun to his
head and he ended it all. That's not, searching the scriptures
causes many to think that they have life. But Christ said, they
are they which testify of me. If you memorize a whole new testament
and never see the beauty of Christ, it did you no good whatsoever.
That's right. If you fail to see that in the
Scriptures that they testify of Him and Him alone, you're
yet without life. Many people can quote the Scriptures
and believe that they understand them, but let me tell you, they
will not come to Christ. They will not come. But if any
man thirsts, He'll come and drink at the fountain
field with the waters of life. You won't have to beg Him. You
won't have to entice Him. You won't have to have all kinds
of social functions to get Him to come to church. He'll come.
He wants to hear the story again about the Lord Jesus Christ and
how He saves sinners. Second characteristic we see
here We see Christ the great divider and yet the great uniter. Look at verse 39. But this spake
he, Christ of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should
receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified." Christ had not yet died and gone to
the Father and received His glorified body. Remember, He promised the
Holy Spirit, and He said, it's expedient to you that I go away,
that I might send unto you the Holy Spirit, and He'll teach
you all things. What? It's earning me. But that
time had not yet come. Therefore, in verse 40, many
of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said
of a truth, that this is the prophet. This is the prophet.
Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of Galilee? Have not the scripture said that
Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of
Bethlehem where David was? And notice verse 43. So there
was a division among the people. And notice those last three words.
Because of him. He's a divider. Now allow me
to read a few verses to you in Matthew 10 without you turning
there. Christ himself said, For I am come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. He that loveth father and mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me." And here in our
text in verse 40, it says that many claimed that Christ was
a prophet. In verse 41 it says that others
said, this is the Christ. And others just questioned the
whole thing and said, well, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Isn't
Christ supposed to come from Bethlehem? And by the way, He
did. He did. But friends, the issue
of life and death is not the earthly place Christ came from,
but rather, will you come to Him? Are you thirsty? If you are, come and drink. Well, you just said I didn't
have the ability to come. If any man thirsts, if you're
thirsty, God gives the ability to come. Verse 43 tells us that there
was division among the people. And do you know why? Those last
three words, because of him. It wasn't the miracles he did.
Oh, they liked those. Matter of fact, many followed
him just to see the miracles he would do. No, their problem wasn't with
the miracles. Their problem was with whom he
said he was. For that, they hated him. They
despised him. But let me also tell you, friends,
when faith comes, unity is produced. Is there any division among believers
because of Christ? Is there a division among the
people, the people of the Lord, because of Him? No. No. That's why a handful of men can
go over there and sit around that table and rejoice together.
They believe and love the same God. They believe and trust in
the same Savior. He's a just God and Savior. Oh, there's unity. Now, we may
not agree on baseball, basketball, or who our favorite team is,
or who's going to win the Super Bowl, but I'm going to tell you
what believers do agree upon. They agree upon God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. They serve the same one. And
about the only thing they'll argue about is who's the biggest
sinner among them. The closest argument I've ever
seen, who's the greatest sinner. Yet while our Lord Jesus Christ
is the great cause of division, it's also true, dear friends,
that He's the great means of unity. There's nothing that welds
or fuses men together as the love of Christ does for sinners. Well, we can sit across the table
and every one of us look at each other and say, I can't believe
that Christ loves me. Really? I can't believe that
He loves me. It's the most powerful force in the universe for gathering
together those that are scattered abroad. and making them truly
one. And wherever Christ comes, dear
friends, there are no foreigners, is there? Paul wrote to the Ephesians
and he said, now therefore you are no more strangers, no more
foreigners, but what fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God. You look at that early church
after Pentecost, it said, all that believe were together and
had all things common. They loved each other so much
that if one was poor, the rich brothers helped him. That's right. What unity there will be in heaven
where Christ will be the center of the redeemed, where all shall
sing of Him. And we're all shall equally behold
him. Oh, what a day that'll be when
my Savior I shall see. Now friends, all of us that believe
in Christ will be there where he is and we shall behold his
glory. And the glory is the glory which
the Father gave him. Third characteristic I want you
to see. I'm about done. Verse 44. And some of them would have taken
him, but no man laid hands on him. How many times do we see
that in the Scriptures? That shows something of the providence
and sovereignty of God. His time had not yet come. Many
times it says He just walked through the mist of them. Picked up stones to hurl at Him. They did right before in the
reading that we had before us. Then came the officers to the
chief priests and the Pharisees. Now these chief priests and Pharisees
had sent these officers out to bring him back. Man, they were
ready to crucify him. And they said unto them, why
have you not brought him? They looked and there they were.
Christ wasn't with them. And the officers answered. This
was their answer. Never man. Spake like this man. This is the great God-man. That's
the third characteristic. Christ is the great God-man. Never man. Spake like this man. He was a man. He had to be a
man to redeem fallen man. But he wasn't an ordinary man.
Don't ever think for a minute. He was the God-man. He was 100%
God and 100% man. Psalm of Solomon chapter 5 verse
13 says, His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies, dropping
sweet smelling myrrh. Never may I speak like this man.
One old writer wrote, this man, Christ Jesus, proclaimed the
mysteries of God. He brought to light the treasures
of darkness of ages past, which prophets and kings desired to
see. Mr. Spurgeon once said that there
is in his teaching a depth so vast that the greatest human
intellect cannot fathom it, but all the while he speaks so that
a child can understand. Our Lord spake in short sentences
with plain words and parables with wondrous illustrations of
the most simple kind. That's why Paul said, don't be
deceived from the simplicity that's in Christ. Another writer
said he talked about eggs and fish and candles and bushels
and sweeping houses and losing pieces of money and finding sheep
so that the common folk could understand him. Never a man spoke
like this man. He's the God man. The common
people with their common sense gladly heard him. And even if
they couldn't always grasp the fullness of the meaning of what
he was saying, his plain speech spoke volumes of the godliness
of God and worthy of being treasured by all that heard it. They may
not have understood the full depth of the meaning of it, but
I guarantee they walked away with something worth having. Because never man spake like
this man. And he spoke with unusual authority. He didn't use phrases like, now
there's a good possibility. He didn't use phrases like, oh,
it could be so, or it may be so, or something good could happen.
No, he didn't. The way he spoke, he dogmatically
proclaimed, and he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, All the
authority that this man had. Never man spoke like this man.
He was a God man. Now these chief priests had sent
officers out to arrest him. And when they returned empty
handed, I could just, can you see their expression? Can you
see how angry they were? And they yelled, where is he? And I could just see those officers
just shrug their shoulders, maybe kind of shake their head a little
with a damn. And they said, never man spake
like this man. Oh dear child of God, may our
minds never be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. No man has ever spake like this
man. No man's ever preached like this
man. God in the flesh. The fourth and the last thing
is the great mediator. Verse 47, Then answered them
the Pharisees, Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the
Pharisees believed on him? That's how it is with many religionists
today, isn't it? They say, it can't be so. My
pastor doesn't believe that way. Well, that can't be the truth. My grandmother never believed
that and she was a godly, saintly woman. And that's what these
Pharisees, they say, do you see any of us, the wise, the smart,
the intelligent, the learned, the school, do you see any of
us believe on Him? But what's wrong with you? Oh, there's a lot of sincere
people in this world, but they're sincerely wrong when it comes
to the things of God. And in verse 49, but this people
who knoweth not the law, they're cursed. Speaking of the common
people, they say they're ignorant. They're just ignorant. They don't
know. They're not learned and schooled
like we are. They're cursed. They're not students
of the law. And Nicodemus said unto them,
He that came to Jesus by night, verse 50, being one of them,
Doth our law judge any man before it heareth, and know what he
doeth? They answered and said unto him,
Art thou also Galilee? One of their own. Oh, they turned
their back on him in a heartbeat. Art thou also a Galilee? Search
and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And you know
what? All along they were the ignorant
ones, weren't they? God providentially caused the
tax in the day of Christ was born. And Joseph, being of the
house of David, went to Bethlehem and paid that tax. This is providential. And Mary was great with child. And went to Bethlehem, that's
where they had to go to pay the taxes. Now he was raised and
spent his days in Galilee. And all these learned men, well
he's from Galilee and little did they know that God providentially
sent his mother and father to Bethlehem and that's where the
Lord Jesus Christ was born. And I tell you what, Say it how
you want to, but providentially condemn. This was one of the
main issues that these men argued about whether or not he was the
Christ made from Galilee. They were the ignorant ones.
And in verse 53 it says, And every man went into his own house. Now, I said in the beginning,
Christ is our great mediator. Look at chapter 8, verse 1. But Jesus went into the Mount
of Olives. Read the two together, verse
53. And every man went into his own house. Jesus went into the
Mount of Olives. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He went
as our great mediator. You see, there were some here
that day that believed who he was, and some who didn't. There
were some who leaned toward believing, but they weren't sure. But I'll
tell you one thing for sure. Every man went into his own house,
but not Christ. He had no place to lay his head.
He went to the Mount of Olives and prayed for his people. That's right. He's the great
mediator, the great intercessor. Lord, we believe, but help thou
unbelief. May we consider and contemplate
these things as we leave here today. Christ, Jesus Christ,
is the great redeemer. Jesus Christ is the great divider
and at the same time the great uniter. Jesus Christ is the great
God-man. all God and all man. And Jesus
Christ is the great mediator between God and man. May the
Lord cause us to see it and see it more clearly.