Let me read you a passage of
scripture which is found in the 7th chapter of the book of John,
verse 37 through 39. It says, In the last day, in
the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." Our subject this morning is Christ, the fountain of life. Now, my friends, the study of
scriptures, the study of the Word of God is a course which
a man never completes in this life. I think we've misnamed
some degrees in Bible college and seminary, graduate of theology,
A man never graduates in theology. Master of divinity? A man never
masters divinity or the Scripture. A doctor of theology? My friends,
no man has ever mastered one verse of Scripture, let alone
all the Bible or all the Word of God or all the doctrines of
God. We could live the rest of our
lives looking at one verse of Scripture, and every day would
be a day of new discovery. of the glory of God, of the beauty
of Christ. You see, the Bible is as infinite
as its author, and it must be revealed. So the study of scriptures... I saw a little book one time
that had about 95 pages, and it was a fail on a book stand,
and this was the title, All About the Bible. Now, isn't that amazing,
All About the Bible? And then I'll tell you something
else, the perfect knowledge of the living God. And Jesus Christ,
whom he has sent, is a desire that is not fully realized until
we stand in his presence. Because as much as we know about
God, and about redemption, and about life, and about eternity,
we only know in part. Isn't that what Paul said in
1 Corinthians 13, I know in part, I prophesy or preach in part,
I see through a glass dimly, or darkly? I barely see these
things while we're just standing in the vestibule of the great
palace hall of eternity. We're just standing around looking
at one snowflake. There's a whole blizzard out
yonder or one drop of water. There's a whole flood of mercies
out there. There's no way that a man's going
to know all about God in this life. I'll tell you something
else, that the thirst for true holiness and the thirst for true
godliness The hunger and thirst for righteousness will never
be fully satisfied until we stand in his likeness. David, man after
God's own heart, conqueror, victorious king and leader, a man who walked
with God and wrote the Psalms, he said, I'll be satisfied when
I awake with his likeness. There was a man who was not satisfied.
Whatever he saw or God revealed to him or participated in, he
was never satisfied. And I'll tell you this, a true
believer is never satisfied with himself, and he's never satisfied
with his knowledge, and he's never satisfied with his understanding,
and he's never satisfied with his growth. He'll be satisfied
when he awakes in the likeness of Jesus Christ. In Philippians
chapter 3, Paul said, I count everything but rubbish that I
may win Christ and be found in him, or that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection. I count not myself to have arrived,
I'm not already perfect. Here was a man who was the first
missionary who founded churches, who ordained elders city to city,
who wrote 13 or 14 books in the New Testament. Here was a man
who died and was taken up to the third heaven and sent back
to earth. Here was a man God mightily and greatly used, and
yet he said, I have not arrived. I'm not already perfect. I've
not apprehended or laid hold upon that for which I've been
laid hold of by Christ. forgetting those things which
are behind, I press forward towards the mark for the prize of the
high calling of Christ Jesus, my Lord." We go on studying the
Word. We go on seeking after God. We
go on hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We go on pressing
forward towards the mark for the prize of the high calling
of Christ our Lord. But I'll tell you, the years
of teaching and being taught, and the years of searching and
being searched, And that's what it's all about. And the years
of judging and being judged do give us a place to stand. We
have a place to stand. We do have a foundation for our
house. We do have a hope of eternal
life in Christ Jesus. We do have a refuge. We do know
some things. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Whatever else I do not know, I do know Him, Jesus
Christ. I know whom I have believed.
John said, We know that we've passed from death unto life.
I know in part, and I prophesy in part, but I do know that I've
passed from death unto life. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. There are a lot of things I don't
know, even how a man can be just and how God can be just and justifier. He was asking questions about
that, but he said, I do know my Redeemer liveth. So there's
some things we know, and that's where we have to start. I know
that the Lord our God is one Lord. One God. In 1 John chapter
5 it says there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. The
Lord our God is one God. One God in person, one God in
purpose, one God in His eternal plan, one God in redemption. He never saved men but one way.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the revelation
of that God is in the person of Jesus Christ. He that has
seen me, Christ said, has seen my Father. So I know the Lord
our God is one Lord, one God. And we know that the Lord created
all things by the word of His power. The scripture says, for
Him and by Him and through Him and for His glory they were created. I don't know why in the world
that men today put a question mark on the creation by the power
of God. Creation by the hand and wisdom
and power of God is a whole lot easier to believe in what they
say happened. God created all things. In the beginning, God.
created the heaven and the earth. In his wisdom and greatness and
majesty and power, he reigns and he rules in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and giveth it to
whomsoever he will. That in all things he might have
the preeminence. I know our God made all things. And I'll tell you something else.
I know that we are sinful creatures. I don't have any doubt about
that. Sin is upon us. Sin is in us. Sin is about us. Scripture says, the Lord God
looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did seek
God, any that do good. He found they all together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And Paul picked it up in Romans
3 and begins describing how our eyes become instruments of sin,
and our tongues are set on fire with hail, and our throats are
open sepulchres, and our whole head is sick, and our whole heart
is faint, and our mind is enmity. against God, and our hands are
swift to shed blood, and our feet walk in paths of ungodliness
and darkness, and how that every imagination of man's heart is
evil continually. I know the mess we're in. I know
it and you know it, if we just admit it. And then I know something
else. I know that God is pleased to
show mercy. I'm glad that I don't have to
preach depravity without preaching mercy. I'm glad I don't have
to preach man's sin without proclaiming God's salvation. I'm glad that
I have good news for the guilty. I have glad tidings for the sinful.
I have good news for the captives. God delights to show mercy. God
is plenteous in mercy. God was pleased to send his Son
into the world on an errand of mercy. He came to save the lost,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were born under the law. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this
world for the purpose of saving sinners. That's why he came.
Isaiah 7, 14 says, Behold, the Lord himself will give you a
sign. A virgin shall conceive and be
with child, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel. Immanuel. What does Immanuel mean? God
with us. God with us. And if God be with
us and God be for us, who can be against us? If God be with
us and God be for us, who can be against us? And God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And I know this. I have a foundation. That foundation
is Christ. I know that if I would be accepted
of God, I must be accepted in the Beloved. That's what it says. He saved men to the praise of
His glory, wherein He made us accepted in the Beloved. I know
that if I would be forgiven of my sins, forgiveness is only
in Christ, in whom we have forgiveness, in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sin through His blood. That's where it is. I
don't know why men keep coming to laws and rules and all manner
of plans and recipes set forth by men for our cleansing and
forgiveness when the Scripture plainly says that forgiveness
is in Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sin through his blood. Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And Christ stood before
those people and he said in John 5, 40, you will not come to me
that you might have life. If a man's thirsty, he goes to
the fountain. If a man's hungry, he goes to
the bread. If a man's a sinner, he goes everywhere but where
his need can be met. Why is that? Difficult to figure
out, isn't it? We know that if we ever build
a spiritual house that shall stand against the winds of judgment
and the storms of judgment and the floods of judgment, we're
going to have to build on the rock Christ Jesus. He said, I
am the rock. I am the foundation. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. Well,
that's as clear as words can make it. We know that if we would
enter the holy of holies, we've got to come the way God said
we're to come in Hebrews chapter 10, 19, 20, and 21. Having boldness,
brethren, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Come on
in, God said. Come on in to God's righteous,
awesome, holy, immaculate, infinite presence. But come through the
blood of Jesus Christ. Come through the veil that he
opened with his own sacrifice, with his own life, with his own
death. Come the way that he prepared for us. Come through the shedding
of the blood upon the mercy seekers. I do know this. I know if we
would approach God, it's going to have to be through a mediator.
God says there's one God and one Mediator between God and
men. One. One God, one Mediator. In that 1 Timothy 2, 5, the man
Christ Jesus. That's the only Mediator. Why
would you go to all the trouble of engaging another Mediator
or setting up another Mediator such as a dead saint or the mother
of Jesus or someone like that when God said there's one Mediator.
What's a Mediator? An advocate, one who pleads our
cause, one who Intercedes for us one who makes us accepted
and God says it war Jesus Christ the man Christ Jesus I know that
if I would have a righteousness With which God would be pleased
and one that he would accept it must be Christ Christ He said
is the end of the lawful righteousness to everyone that believe it What
the law says it says to them who are under the law and that's
me and you that all that every mouth may be Stopped and all
the world become guilty before God Therefore, by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified. But there is a righteousness
manifested without the law, and that righteousness is the obedience
and righteousness of God's own Son, whom God has sent forth
to be the propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood.
Christ did what I can't do. He obeyed the law. He did what
I can't do. He pleased God. He did what I
can't do. He satisfied justice. And I know
if I ever have a righteousness or a holiness, it is in Christ,
not in my deeds or works or good charitable offerings. It's in
Christ. My hope, the author said, is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, I wholly lean on Jesus' name. And, my friend, all religions
and all traditions and all forms and all laws and all doctrines
and all ceremonies are to no avail except as they lead us
to Christ. They are worthless and useless
playparties unless they lead us to Christ, because Christ
is the only one who can help us. I must get to Christ. The woman said, if I can touch
but the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. She wouldn't stop
before she got to Christ. Everything must lead to him now
in our text that I read to you a moment ago in the last day
that great day of the feast Jesus stood in a prominent place and
he cried if any man thirst let him come to me if any man thirst
let him come to me And out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water this he spake of the Holy Spirit which they that
believe on him should receive Now the place let's look at this
place where he said that it was Jerusalem Jerusalem is the great
stronghold of religion it was then. Jerusalem was the home
of the priests and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Bible
scholars. Jerusalem was the site of the
ceremonies, the site of the temple. The holy days were kept there.
The sacrifices were offered. The scripture was read and taught.
That's the place where these words were spoken. Religion was
needy. They were up to their eyebrows
in religion. Religion was everywhere. Everything had a religious slant
in Jerusalem. All right, something else, the
occasion. What was the occasion when Christ spake these words?
The occasion was the Feast of the Tabernacles. This was one
of the great feasts. This was one of the great annual
feasts which every Jew observed, if he possibly could. He left
his home and came to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of the Tabernacles.
In the great last day, the great day of the feast. All right,
the time that Christ spoke these words, it was the last day of
the feast. All of the ceremonies were over. All of the lambs and
turtledoves and heifers and goats and all had been slain. All of
the blood had been shed. All of the mumbo-jumbo and all
of the rituals, all of the words had been said. Everything was
over. The ceremonies were all over. The feast was over. The
water had been poured on the altar. It was all over. All that
remained for the people to do was to go home. And most of them
were going home frustrated, disappointed, full of despair, defeated. At
that moment, that last day of the feast, that great day, when
it was all over, and all of the ceremonies had been completed,
and all of the rituals had been practiced, and all of the things
had been done that were required, all that remained was for the
people to leave. And they were leaving, and Christ stood there
in a prominent place, and He knew their hearts. He knew the
emptiness of their hearts. He knew that their teachers had
taught them nothing. He knew they had watched these
ceremonies and learned nothing. He knew they knew no more about
God then than when they came. And have you felt that way after
going to many church services and going through all of the
ceremonies and motions and lighting the candles and bowing and scraping
and wearing the uniforms and hearing the choir chant and the
sevenfold amens and the holy, holy, holies and the dipping
and the praying and the bowing and the marching and the processional
and you go out just as empty and disappointed and full of
despair as when you came in. And that's the way these people
were. They'd gone through all of these motions and Christ knew
the emptiness of their heart. He saw they'd gotten nothing
from the ceremonies and the teachers and the rituals or anything else.
He saw they'd received nothing from all the teachings that they'd
received. And he cried If any man's thirsty,
if any man's thirsty. Now, what kind of thirst is he
talking about? Well, I know this. He's not talking about physical
thirst. Our Lord told the woman at the well, He said, you drink
this water, you'll thirst again. That's dreadful enough. Physical
thirst. I've never known what it meant
to be physically terribly thirsty. Like those boys in the World
War II or other wars that have been marooned on islands or or
life rafts and suffered from thirst. But he's talking here
about a spiritual thirst that David's talking about in Psalm
42 when he said, as the thirsty deer running through the wilderness
panteth for the water brooks, my soul panteth for the living
God, my soul thirsteth for the living God. This is what Christ
is talking about. This is the thirst that Moses felt when he cried,
God, show me your glory. I've seen the glory of Egypt,
and I've seen the glory of education. I've seen the glory of gold.
I want to see your glory. I'm thirsty to see the glory
of God. This is the thirst that the publican
felt when he smote on his breast and would not so much as lift
his eyes to heaven, but cried, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. This is the thirst that the thief
on the cross felt when he knew he was dying justly for his sins,
an outcast that the outcast had cast out. And he cried, oh, God,
Lord, remember me when you come into the kingdom. This is the
thirst the Philippian jailer felt when he saw the power of
God. And it's a thirst which the law can't satisfy, and it's
a thirst which ceremonies can't satisfy, and it's a thirst which
doctrine and tradition can't satisfy. It is a thirst and a
hunger for righteousness. That's what it is. It's a thirst
for righteousness. It's a thirst for a knowledge of God. that
has to be revealed by the Holy Spirit. It's a thirst for forgiveness
of sin. To know that your sins are forgiven. To hear, blessed is the man to
whom God will not charge sin. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not impute sin. Happy, that's what that word
blessed means, happy is the man. That's a thirst for forgiveness,
a thirst for acceptance, a thirst for fellowship with God. If any
man thirsts, now everybody does it. Some people thirst for gold,
Some people thirst for fame, and some people thirst for riches,
and some people thirst for entertainment, and some people thirst for fleshly
satisfaction, but the wise man thirsteth for God. Thirsteth
for God. And he said, now if you do, what's
the next line? Let him come to me. Let him come
to me. I'd like to camp right there
for a long time. Let him come to me. This sentence
is so simple. Let him come to me. Five one-syllable
words. If any man's thirsty, let him
come to me. It's so simple that everybody
listening to me knows what he's saying. He's not saying, let
him come back to the feast. He's saying, let him come to
me. The feast didn't help you, did it? Because they made an
end instead of a means out of that feast. He didn't say, let
him come to the law. He didn't say, let him come to
the altar. He didn't say, let him come to the front. He didn't
say, let him come to the preacher. Or to the soul winner, he said,
any of you thirsty? Come to me. Come to me. And out of your belly shall flow
rivers of living water if you'll come to me. He's the fountain
of life. He's the fountain of life. Put
this statement beside the six golden sayings of our Lord. You
know what the six golden sayings of our Lord are? He said, I am
the bread of life. He that believeth on me, he that
cometh to me shall never hunger. I am the bread. He said, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me will never
walk in darkness. He said, I am the door. By me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved. He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father,
but by me. He said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me shall never die." Now,
you put this statement inside those six. What's the sum and
substance of these seven statements? Why, he's saying Christ is the
fountain of life. Christ is the source of life.
Christ is the giver of life. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of Godhead, of the Godhead bodily. Any man thirsty, let him come
to me. Don't stop at one of the servants'
place. Don't stop with one of the messengers. Don't stop out yonder with the
things of Christ. Come to Christ Himself. As many
as receive Him, not His law, not His church, and not His friend,
but as many as receive Him. You might congregate with his
friends and they may know him, but that wouldn't let you know
him. He has to reveal himself to you. You may even read his
laws and read his life story and all of these other things,
but you've got to know him. You've got to do business with
him. Don't stop short of Christ. You say, well, how does a man
get to Christ? Have you ever sought the Lord just between
you and him? Or when you get concerned about your soul, do
you always sin for a preacher or sin for a soul winner or sin
for somebody to do that God's talking for him? Let God speak
for himself. Take down your Bible and get alone between you and
the Lord and say, Lord, there's salvation to be found in this
book. I want to know what it is and who it is and where it
is. I want Christ. I want to do business with you.
I want you to reveal yourself to my heart. I want salvation.
I want to be forgiven of my sin. Have you ever done that? Well,
no, I never have. Well, how do you expect to come to Christ?
You're dealing with everybody but him. If any man thirsts,
let him come to me. That's simple, isn't it? That's
what he said, let him come to me. And what he says was the
benefit, the promise held out. He that believeth on me, he that
cometh to me and believes out of his innermost being, shall
flow rivers of living water. This says four things to me and
I'll close. It says, first of all, that salvation
is an inward work, out of his belly, out of his innermost being. Salvation is not just an outward
walk, although a godly walk will be manifested by an inward work.
And although you can't separate faith and conduct, belief and
obedience, but salvation is an inward work. Christ said, if
he comes to me, something's going to happen inside. out of his
innermost being, out of his heart, out of his very soul. You see that? It's an inward
work. They were pricked in their hearts. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Secondly, the work of salvation
is a continual work. Out of his belly shall flow,
shall flow, shall continue to flow, shall continue to flow. You see that on and on and on.
We have been saved, we're being saved, we shall be saved. God
never begins a work and cuts it off at a certain point. He
says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Never perish. And not only is it a continual
work, but it's a sufficient work. He said, if any man come to me,
out of his innermost being shall flow continually rivers. Not
little drops of water, or even little streams of water, but
great rivers. Great rivers of water, an abundance.
They used to build the cities on rivers. They didn't build
cities on creeks and streams that dry up in the summertime
drought. They built cities on rivers because
they're deep and wide and full and they ever flow. And that's
where you better build your hope, on the river of living. Out of
it shall flow a sufficient supply of grace and mercy and love and
truth. And then salvation is a divine
work. It's rivers of living water.
Christ is the life. If you'd ask of me, Christ said
to that young woman, I'd give you living water and you'd never
thirst again. A man thirsty, let him come to
me.