Isaiah 55, verse one. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. I've entitled my message this
evening, Is Anyone Thirsty? Is Anyone Thirsty? And I would
like for us to consider this text of scripture tonight by
asking these three questions. The first question is, is anyone
thirsty? Is anyone thirsty? Ho, everyone
that thirsteth. Now the text does not tell us
for what men may be thirsty, but we know that it has to do
with spiritual matters. We know this because of what
is to be obtained, that is wine and milk. Should a person say,
well, I'm thirsty for the riches of this world, then this whole
is not to you. Should another person say, well,
I'm thirsty for the fame that this world is able to give, then
this whole is not speaking to you. It's not addressing you. Suppose someone say, well, I'm
desiring after the things of this world, after the things
of life, the riches, the wealth, the health, the things that the
flesh desires. Well, this whole is not addressing
you tonight. This is for those who are thirsty. I can understand this text like
the words of David the psalmist in Psalm 130 in verse one. When he said, out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Out of the depths. Now he doesn't
say what kind of depths he was in. And there's a reason for
that. There's a good reason for that,
we know, because that way, no matter what depths a person may
find himself in, this verse of scripture applies to you. It may be the depths of the need
to be reconciled unto God. Out of the depths I have cried
unto thee. It may be the need of to have
sins forgiven. Out of the depths of sin, I have
cried unto thee. And it may be out of the depths
of recognizing that you have offended the Lord God Almighty,
either as a sinner or as a saint. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. So our text goes, anyone thirsty,
ho, everyone that thirsteth, anyone thirsty tonight, to have
his sins, her sins forgiven? Anyone thirsty tonight to have
fellowship with the Lord God restored? Anyone thirsty tonight
to be made more like Christ as we've just finished singing?
What a beautiful hymn, what a beautiful prayer. Is anyone thirsty tonight
to be made more like Christ? Oh, everyone that thirsteth.
Anyone thirsty to have more love for Christ? Is there anyone thirsty? That's the question, isn't it?
Do you ever read of the histories of saints and days gone by and
the love that they expressed for the Lord Jesus Christ and
wonder, do I know anything about that? Do I know anything about
the kind of love that they expressed for the Savior. Oh, everyone
that thirsted, out of the depths have I cried unto thee. The hymn
writer wrote more about Jesus in his word, holding communion
with my Lord, hearing his voice in every line, making each faithful
saying mine. Anyone thirsty to be able to
read the word of God, and experience the fellowship with the Lord
God, hearing his word, reading his word, hearing his voice in
his word. So that's the first question.
Is anyone thirsty? I trust that there are thirsty
souls here tonight. I trust that I have a thirst.
And it may be, if I don't have a thirst, that I might thirst
for a thirst. that I might thirst to be thirsty,
recognizing how needy it is to always be thirsty for the Lord,
for His presence, for His anointing, for His fellowship. Well, the second question is,
where should those who thirst come? Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Well, where should we go? Where
should we come if we have a thirst? Well, the text tells us here,
come ye to the waters. Come ye to the waters. Well,
he certainly is not inviting people to come to the waters
of baptism. We usually identify water with
baptism, but that's not to the place we are to come. In the
book of Acts, we are told about a man who professed to believe. He professed to know Christ as
his Lord and Savior, and he asked to be baptized. But then after
he was baptized, the apostle Peter told him one day these
awful words, thy money, thy money perish with thee. Obviously,
he was going to perish in that condition, though he had professed
faith, though he had been baptized, and yet Peter says, thy body
perish with thee. And that verse of scripture,
I call our attention to it because Peter goes on in that verse of
scripture after telling Simon Magnus, thy money perish with
thee because thou thoughtest that the gift of God could be
purchased with money. And this verse of scripture is
speaking about buying. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters and buy. But it is buying without money.
Buying without money. Well then what is meant by the
waters? Now I know the Lord Jesus Christ
in the New Testament, he used water to represent that spiritual
life. He told the woman at the well
of Samaria that the water that I shall give unto thee shall
be in thee. A well of water springing up
unto everlasting life. The book closes almost. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. In Revelation chapter 22. I'm
not quoting that right, let me read it. The book almost ends
with this, these words. Revelation chapter 22. And the Spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. And let him that is a thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. So the Lord Jesus Christ used
water to picture the water of life. There must be water in
order for life. That's one reason these scientists
NASA and those people that have the telescopes and the ships
that go to these planets, they're always interested in finding
water. If they could just find water,
that would indicate unto them life. But they've never found
water. They've never found water on
any other planet. As far as we know, This is the
planet on which God has created life, and it's called the blue
planet because of the water on this planet. A friend of mine
told me one time he was preaching in Arizona, and he was staying
with a man, a farmer there that owned a large farm, and he got
on the phone one day and ordered up so many acres of water. The field looked dead, really,
looked dead, because there was no water. Sun beating down, baking
the ground, and he got on the phone, this farmer did, and ordered
so many acres of water, and it wasn't long before the water
started coming down the canals and flooded his fields. Of course,
he had to pay for that water, but that's, the purpose was life,
life. And then we know that in John's
gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ stood up that day at the end
of the feast and said, if any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. And then John, the writer of
the gospel, explains in the next verse that he was speaking of
God, the Holy Spirit. So in the New Testament, water
is used for the water of life. It's also used as an emblem for
the Holy Spirit. Except a man be born of water,
even of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
But in this particular place, in this particular place, is
that what is meant by waters? Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. It appears From what I've been
able to study and learn, it appears that the allusion is to a ship. At this time, when this was written,
a ship coming alongside, a boat coming alongside the lakeside
and dropping anchor, and there would be a crier who would cry
out, there's a ship! There's a ship being unladed! And come and buy! And as I was
reading that, I remembered back many, many years ago in Mexico,
sometimes we would spend a week at a port, a progreso, Yucatan. And the fishermen, they would
go out in these small boats. I mean, they were small boats.
And they would stay out all day. And about 3 o'clock, the wind
would change. It's amazing how that wind would
change. And they would come back in in their little what I would
call rowboats, and people would meet them and buy fish. They'd
buy fish off the boat. Come. And so that's the illusion. That's a picture of a ship being
unloaded and a crier going out and crying to people, announcing
the fact that there's a ship here with goods, with supplies. Come and buy. buy without money
and without price. What then is the spiritual meaning? That's the illusion, but what
is the spiritual meaning here? The waters here refer to the
ordinances of the gospel. Now, when we think of the ordinances
of the gospel of the church, we're thinking about there's
several things that the Lord has given His church. We know
there's two church ordinances, the Lord's Supper and water baptism. But also we think about the preaching
of the gospel, the singing of hymns, and the fellowship of
saints. These are all things that the
Lord has given us. Now, if anyone thirsts, anyone
thirsts, come ye to the waters. In other words, come and look
in verse three. Incline your ear, incline your
ear and come unto me. Hear, hear the preaching of the
word of God. Hear the gospel being proclaimed. Hear and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. It is in the
preaching of the gospel, especially here. that is meant by the waters. Come ye to the waters. Come to
the preaching of the word of God, the hearing of the gospel
being proclaimed. It is as this gospel message
is being proclaimed that the covenant, the everlasting covenant
is opened up unto us. As that verse declares unto us,
I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Listen, the covenant
was made in eternity. The covenant was made with us
in Christ, our head in eternity. But come ye to the waters and
hear and learn and these blessings of the covenant will be opened
up and revealed unto you. It is hearing the gospel that
these promises of this everlasting covenant are brought home to
us by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Then how, how then do
we buy without money? We buy without money as we are
hearing the proclamation of the word of God, the gospel. We are buying without money as
these things are opened up to us by God the Holy Spirit, and
they're conveyed to us. And by faith, they become ours. They're assimilated. We assimilate
them into our very souls as we hear the preaching of the Word
of God. Now listen, there's a reason. There's a reason why the scripture
says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. That's
what the word of God says. That's what the word of God says
to believers. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Hebrews chapter,
there's a reason why God put that in the Bible. There's a
reason why God the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle to write
that word. God's people need to assemble,
need the preaching of the word of God, to hear the word of God. And I believe, I believe that
you and I, that all of us should be very concerned at this time
when the civil authorities are at present restricting men from
obeying God's command. I believe we should be concerned
in our day, in our country at this particular time, when the
civil authorities are restricting God's people from coming together
to obey what God has commanded. not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. Two weeks ago we read, I'm sure
you read this or heard this on the news, of the burning of a
Bible in a so-called demonstration in our country. And I could not
help but think about in church history when Bibles were being
burned, when the religious authorities in cahoots with the civil authorities
were burning all the Bibles that they could to keep men and women,
just like you and I, from having the scriptures. We don't recognize,
and many of us, I don't think we appreciate what men who have
gone before us have suffered. that you and I might have the
Bible in our hands and read the Word of God. Bibles were being
burned when the English translation of the scripture was being printed
in Europe and shipped back to England. The bishop, here's a
bishop in the church, along with the king, the authority, buying
all the Bibles that they possibly could. Why? To burn them, to
burn them. We hear, who's behind this? Who is ultimately behind the
burning of Bibles? You know who it is. It's Satan. Who is behind men and women not
assembling together, not being able to assemble together? It's
Satan. That's always his purpose, to
defeat Christ, to defeat his church, but we know that's a
useless, useless battle on his part because he's already received
a death blow at the cross. He's already been crushed. at the cross by the Lord Jesus
Christ. His armory, what did Satan have
in his armory? He had sin, he had death, he
had hell, he had the grave, all of these things that kept men
and women in bondage. Caused men and women to live
in fear. Why? Because they knew that These
things were before them, and the Lord Jesus Christ defeated,
conquered, and stripped Satan, the strong man, bound him first
of all. So come ye to the waters. If
you're thirsty, come to the waters. You neglect the waters, neglect
the preaching of the gospel, then you're going to suffer in
your life and your spiritual life. Well, here's the third
question. What is meant by wine and milk? Come ye, ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat ye, come buy wine and milk without money and without
price. Well, let's consider two things
in the word of God that wine and milk represent. First of
all, wine represents the love of Christ. I want you to turn
back to the Song of Solomon with me. The Song of Solomon, chapter
one, and verse two. What I said just a few minutes
ago about being concerned. We should be concerned about
our country, my friends, like maybe never before. And be in
prayer. Be in prayer that we will continue
to have the privilege of living where we have the Bibles and
where we have freedom to come and worship the Lord. Let him,
verse 2 of chapter 1, the Song of Solomon, let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Come ye. The first thing we are
told to buy without money and without price is wine. Now the
love of Christ is represented by wine in this verse of scripture. The bride of Christ is here speaking
concerning the bridegroom. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Let me mention three comparisons
between wine and the love of Christ. A, old wine is the best. That's what we're told, right?
Old wine is the best wine. Wine that has been bottled up for years and years
and years, sometimes centuries. It's supposed to be the best
wine. When we think of wine as a comparison
or a emblem of the love of Christ, there's nothing older than his
love. There's nothing older than his
love. Every once in a while, we've read over the years of
bringing up a ship in the Mediterranean Sea there, and they'll find some
bottles of wine. They've been there on the bottom
of the sea for hundreds of years. And they'll auction those off,
and sometimes they go for great amounts of money. Why? Because
they're old, the old wine. But there's nothing older than
the love of Christ for his people. Thy love is better than wine.
He didn't begin to love us yesterday, but from old eternity He has
loved His people with an everlasting love. Think about His love. Before
time began. And yes, time had a beginning,
didn't it? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Time began. But God's love for
His people, His church, goes back before that. It goes way
back. It's everlasting love. And listen,
when the angels shall stand and say, time shall be no more. God's love is going to continue. His love is from eternity. Thy love is better than wine.
The second thing about wine, refined wine is the best. Now look with me in Isaiah 25. Refined wine is the best wine. Here in this verse of scripture,
it is spoken of as wine upon the leaves. In verse six of chapter
25, we read, and in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
leaves. Now, what this means, from what
I have read, what this means is it is wine that has been drawn
off from all of the impurities. The impurities that are in wine
have been drawn off so it's the best wine. But when we think
about the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no impurity in
His love because there's no impurity in Him. He is the holy Lord God,
and His love is holy. And wine, in the days when the
scriptures were written, wine we know was a medicinal, it was
used for medicinal purposes. Remember in our Lord's parable
of the good Samaritan who found He went to that man who had been
left half dead in the ditch. The good Samaritan came along
and he bound up his wounds. He poured in wine, wine to purify,
wine to cleanse the wounds. The love of Christ is better
than wine because the love of Christ brings healing to the
soul that is wounded. from the sin through His sacrifice. His love brings healing to the
sin-wounded conscience through His sacrifice. We love Him, the scripture says,
because He loved us. Your love for Christ is the effect,
not the cause, is the effect of His love to you. His love
to you is the cause of your love for Him. Your love for Him is
the effect. We love Him because He first
loved us. And rare wine is the most expensive
wine. Rare wine, the most expensive
wine. It is a matter, of course, of
supply and demand. If you had tunnels full of wine,
that was good wine, but if it wasn't rare, it would be inexpensive. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His love is better than wine for its plenteousness. Its plenteousness,
His love is, and yet it is free. Come, buy wine without money. Come, hear the preaching of the
gospel and learn. of his love. And the second thing
that we are told to buy is milk. Milk, we know, represents the
word of God, the written word of God. In 1 Peter chapter 2
and verse 2, the apostle says, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Now milk, is high
in calcium, isn't it? And calcium is needed for bones,
for bones, for growth, for healthy bones. How could I stand here
tonight before you without my bones coming by milk for healthy
bones that you might be able to stand? Not physical bones,
but spiritual bones that you may be able to stand. I think
of the need to know the Word of God and for us to stand upon
it. How many times in the New Testament
do we read such verses of scripture as these? Watch ye. Stand fast
in the, stand. You need healthy bones to stand. Come and buy milk. The Word of
God. Hear the Word of God. Receive
the Word of God. Grow thereby. Watch ye, stand
fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, be strong. Another verse, wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Come and buy wine,
hear of the love of God, learn of the love of God, and buy milk. that you may be healthy and able
to stand." Whatever truth of God is under
attack in our day, and you study in church history, you will find
over the years that different truths from the Word of God have
especially been the target of Satan. But whatever is his special
target in our day, That's where we must stand. That's where we
must be healthy from the word of God and be able to stand. Is it the doctrine, the teaching
of the Trinity? This truth has been under attack
all down through the ages and still is. And you see these cults
that deny the Trinity, and some of these men, they call themselves
Christians. I could name some of them that
have large television ministries, and they deny the Trinity. They're Jesus-only people. They're oneness people, as they
are called. They deny the truth. But hear
the word of God. Receive the milk of the word
of God. And see for yourself how that, yes, there's one God,
but He exists in a trinity of persons. And anyone who denies
that, that is an antichrist. It's against God. Not only that
doctrine, but I think about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that He is both God
and man. Stand. Receive the truth that
you may be able to stand. Come and buy wine and milk. The
sovereignty of God has always been under attack, hasn't it?
It has always been under attack, that God is sovereign. Man wants
to believe that somehow man is sovereign. And in this matter
of salvation, it all depends upon man. And yet the Bible is
very clear, no, it depends upon God. It's not of him that runneth
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. Sovereignty
of God in salvation, God's eternal love, God's special love, God's
sovereign love, men are being told. Many things that are not
true. And untrue statements about God. Do you ever hear a statement
like this? God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. Ever heard that statement? That
seems pretty common, doesn't it? God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. I would just like to ask this
question. Do you ever, ever, ever read in the word of God
where God plans. Do you? Of course not. That word is more in accordance
with human beings. We make our plans. And many times
our plans go wrong. God doesn't plan, God purposes. And what He purposes comes to
pass. Why? because he purposes it,
that's why. Who's going to keep it from coming
to pass? Remember this scripture here
in Isaiah chapter 14, verse 26 and 27. I tell you, people are being
lied to in the name of God. The lies are so frequent, when
people hear the truth, they think they're hearing a lie. Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 26,
this is a purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. And this
is a hand that is stretched out upon all the nations where the
Lord of hosts hath purposed. And who shall disacknowledge?
Who? Who's going to disacknowledge
God's purpose? Puny man? Not hardly. Who shall disacknowledge? and
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? The scriptures reveal unto us
that God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Come, if you're thirsty, and I think about this verse, let's
turn, in closing, let's turn to Revelation chapter three. Is anyone thirsty? Anyone thirsty? Revelation chapter 3 and verse
20, and I know men have used this in reference to lost people,
but remember this, these messages, all these seven messages here
in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 were to the churches, the churches. Behold, look there in verse 20,
behold, I stand at the door and knock. Anyone thirsty? Anyone
thirsty? Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. This word was to a church that was lukewarm. They were
neither hot nor cold. And because of that, God said
he would spew them out of his mouth. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If any man hear my voice, and
open the door. Anyone thirsty? Oh, everyone
that thirsty, come ye to the waters. Buy. Buy without money
and without price. Buy wine and milk. If any man
hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will
sup with him and he with me. Oh, to have that fellowship with
him, that continual fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his promise. I stand at
the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, do
we hear his voice tonight in the word of God? If we do, he's
promised that he will come in and sup with us. That thirst
may be assaged, it may be slacked, that thirst tonight for anyone
who truly thirsts after the living God. We're going to sing a hymn,
number 291, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.