THIRST AND SUPPLY
[p. 271] THIRST AND SUPPLY
Psalm 42; Revelation 21: 6; 1 John 5: 18 - 20
I desire to dwell for a moment on the contrast between the Old Testament and the New. The one, to a large extent, may be called a book of demand, and the other a book of supply. That is, what is constantly looked for and panted after in the Old Testament, is found in the New. In the Old Testament we see the desire for Christ and salvation, but in the New Testament the desire has come. The word of God is not a compilation of moral sentiments. The prophecies in the Old Testament look on to the Kingdom, and in the New the Kingdom has come. I am quite alive to the fact that Christ has not yet come in a public way in the glory of the kingdom, but there remains the great fact on which christianity is based, that is, Christ is come. I take this from the passage I have read, that is, “the Son of God has come”. Not in glory yet, but He has come and has given us an understanding. In a world of darkness and of dearth, everything must have been in the nature of desire till Christ came; now, that Christ has come, everyone that is of God ought to be marked by satisfaction, no longer by thirst and desire, and we cannot give any greater proof of the reality of our christianity than in the fact that our satisfaction is evident and apparent. This is not always the case. Often, to our shame, we find ourselves craving after one thing and another.
I take up now two or three thoughts suggested by the scriptures before us. I dare say most of you are acquainted with the fact that the Psalms are divided into five books, and each book has its own particular line. This psalm is the introduction to the second book. The second book has this character. It looks at Israel as scattered, and away from their own land, and to a large extent under pressure, but at the same time there are genuine desires [p. 272] after God. The same thing may be true now in any one in whom God has been pleased to work by His Spirit. The effect of a person being born again is not exactly that that person is brought into life, but that right desires are awakened in that person. That person’s eyes are opened to a true apprehension of the character of things around, and that there is nothing in them which can satisfy the heart of man, and hence desires are awakened after God. So the same kind of experience which is depicted in the early part of the Psalms may occur in a person at the present day. A great many people go to the Psalms because they find in the Psalms that expression which they want. We are all much attached to the Psalms. There is hardly one of us but is in the habit of referring to them. We find a great deal in them which meets our state of mind, and for a great many christians in the world at the present time, what comes out in the early part of the Psalms is more or less true. They thirst after God. If we thirst after God it is proof that we have not found God. Evidently thirst is not satisfaction. They are in contrast. In this Psalm we get thirst and in the New Testament we get thirst recognised, but the point there is that there is a perfect answer to thirst, “And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”.
There is another point in the Psalms. That is what I dare say people are often exposed to in the present time, the taunt of the enemy. “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” I should suppose that is an experience to which a great many have been subjected. They thirst after God and could not say they have found God, and in that way they become exposed to the taunt of the enemy, “Where is thy God?” People say, ‘What are you better off for all your thirsting after God?’ “Where is thy God?” ‘Show me something, some proof of it’. I can understand a wanton infidel mind saying to people, “Where is thy God?” ‘You cannot show me anything at all of your [p. 273] God? You are not better off apparently than others, because you have not got satisfaction, and yet you cannot take your part in the interests and pleasures of the world’. That is a poor condition to be in, yet it describes the condition of not a few in christendom; the Spirit of God has begun to work in them, they are born again, and desires after God are awakened, and yet they have not come to the point of satisfaction.
There is another point, “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day”. Now that verse to my mind shows a disposition to refer to the past. I have known people who lived on remembrances and I doubt if remembrances are very much to live upon. In natural things people do not live on remembrances, but on the present, and in the circumstances which are. People who live on remembrances are not generally marked by much brightness. They think of the times which have been, that they were much better than the times which are, and that is not much food for the soul. All these psalms have been written in view of the future, and the experiences through which the people of God, that is Israel, will pass in time to come; I take them up because so much that is presented in the Psalms expresses what is not uncommon among people in the present day. If there were not a work of God I do not think any part of this psalm would apply, because no soul naturally pants after God. There may be an uneasy conscience sometimes, but if there be a thirst after God it is the proof that the Spirit of God has awakened desires which are according to God, and which nothing whatever but the knowledge of God can satisfy. I say one word more in regard to Israel, God will appear for them, and they will be blessed with temporal blessings in earthly places, but that will not satisfy them. Nothing will content them but the knowledge of God. Hence it says in connection with the new covenant, “for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”. The first and chief of all the blessings which the Deliverer will bring to Israel will be the knowledge of God in the sovereignty of mercy. God will crown the year with fatness for them, and they will be abundantly blessed with peace, but chief and first of all their blessings will be the knowledge of God in Christ, that is, in the sovereignty of mercy.
Now I want to present the contrast to those things which christianity brings to us. I read Revelation 21: 6, “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely”. Again Revelation 22: 16, 17, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And 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”. I want to enlarge on the thought which I put out a few moments ago, that the New Testament furnishes the supply. The spirit of the New Testament is Christ. The Son of God has come, and in the coming of the Son of God one of the first things spoken of is the satisfaction of man’s heart by the knowledge of God. That is what the Lord Jesus proposed in John 4 to the woman at the well of Sychar. He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. That is, the Lord Jesus proposed to give to one who was athirst living water. Now we cannot attach too much importance to the truth that Christ has come in as the Head and centre of the moral universe. When you talk to people about a moral universe they scarcely understand what you mean. They know [p. 275] what a physical universe means, but God has before Him a moral universe according to His pleasure, of which Christ is the centre and the Sun, and which in due time God will set forth in a public way. When God, as it were, breaks through the heavens, and appears in glory, He will set forth a moral universe in perfect blessing, I cannot conceive any consideration more important for us to take into account. Now what will, to a large extent, bring that moral universe to pass, is that Christ is the giver of living water. He is able to minister to the thirst of man so that man should find satisfaction in the knowledge of God. That is the capability of Christ, and I will tell you how it comes to pass. Now to begin with, Christ must be of necessity both God and Man, for it must be clear to any one of the least judgment that if He were not divine He could not communicate living water. The five wise virgins could not communicate oil to the foolish virgins. They had to say to them, “go ... to them that sell, and buy for yourselves”.
Supposing a man have living water for himself, he cannot communicate living water to another. If he could do that he would be as great as God, and the One who could speak of giving living water must of necessity Himself be divine, the Son of God. But in order that He should communicate living water He must of necessity be also Man, because only on one ground could living water be communicated to man, and that is of redemption. All of us, Israel, and we too, were under liabilities which had come upon us as the effect of sin. We were all under curse and death, and if they lay upon man, they must of necessity be discharged in a man, and therefore the Son of God became Man that He might take up these liabilities and discharge them, in other words, accomplish redemption, so that He might impart living water to those who are athirst.
I have attempted to bring before you what I should suppose are first principles in connection with Christ. Of necessity He must be God to impart the Spirit, and of [p. 276] necessity Man to accomplish redemption. It would be impossible for God to impart His Spirit to men under liabilities to Himself. But the liabilities have been taken up, redemption has been accomplished, Christ has been raised in the blood of the everlasting covenant. He has been exalted to the right hand of God to fill all things, and has communicated the gift of the Spirit, that is, living water. It is a good thing to contemplate Christ as ascended up far above all heavens to fill all things. God has made known to us the mystery of His will to head up in one all things in Christ. Christ is the centre and Sun. Redemption has been accomplished, Christ is exalted, the Spirit has been given, and the Lord Jesus speaks in this way, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely”. The only condition for people to receive the water of life freely is thirst. I have attempted to point out how it is there is thirst. I do not believe any man ever thirsted after God except by the work of the Spirit of God. Jesus says, “I am the root and the offspring”, not only the Offspring, but the Root of David. In that sense He is Head of all.
Now I come to the consequence of that. If you have living water you do not thirst, and how do you think that is? You can understand how natural water quenches thirst. How is it living water quenches thirst? Living water in the believer is the witness to God. It is really God in the believer, and the work of the Spirit is to shed abroad in the heart the love of God, and if you have the love of God shed abroad in your heart you could very well say, I do not thirst. What have you to thirst for? What can you have more than the love of God? You could not turn to God and say, ‘I thirst’, for God would rebuke you and say, ‘I have given you of My Spirit, and the knowledge of My love, and if you are not content with that there is no more that I can give you’. God begins with the greatest gift, and if you are not content with the greatest gift you will not be content with any gift short of that. There is nothing that God could give to compare with [p. 277] what God has given. I do not know if you remember a line in the hymn we sang,
Lord, ’tis enough, we ask no more.
God can communicate nothing more than that which Christ has communicated to the one that is athirst, and it is a reproach to any one of us if we say we thirst. I do not think we can take up the language of the Psalms, “My soul thirsteth for the living God”, for the reason we have found the living God; He has given to us His Spirit that He might be known to us and that, instead of thirsting, our hearts might be filled with constant and unfailing satisfaction. I have no doubt we hinder the Spirit a good bit, but as to the principle of things I should hope that it is true that we have received the Spirit of God. So we have nothing to ask for. We refer to God in the detail of life because we see the virtue of piety and of bringing God into all our concerns, but in going before God we have very little to ask for, for He has given us all that He could give. God gave His Son for us, and He has given His Spirit to be in us, so that we might have all that which love has purposed.
Now I come again to the taunt of the enemy, and will show how that is answered. If you will read 1 John 5: 18 - 20, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life”.
We get these three remarkable verses which refer to what one may call the consciousness of the christian, and they furnish an answer to every possible taunt that can be levelled against the believer. The first two bring before us three important points, that, properly speaking, you are clear of sin, you are free from the wicked one, and at the same time that you have judged the world. The first [p. 278] statement is what I may call abstract; that is, the one begotten of God does not sin. And he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not. Now, it says at the beginning of the verse, ‘We are conscious’. I can look abstractly at the one begotten of God and can say in regard to him that he does not sin. And I will tell you why, because he has been brought into attachment to Christ. He abides in Christ, which is a proof of his being begotten of God, and he that abides in Him sinneth not. He recognises what I have been speaking of, that is, the moral universe, and Christ as the centre and abiding in Christ he does God’s will, and in doing God’s will he does not practise sin. It does not say but what he may fail, that is contemplated in the early part of the epistle, but as to the practice that is habitual, he that is begotten of God does not sin; and there is another point, and that is this, “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not”. It is a wonderful thing that there are those in the world who are no longer dominated by the wicked one. That is what is contemplated in these verses. Take Mary of Bethany; she was born of God, undoubtedly. Do you think she practised sin? I am sure she abode in Christ. Do you think the wicked one touched such an one as that? She kept herself. I can understand that, as occurred in the early part of the Acts of the Apostles, the wicked one might stir people up against the saints, and the saints might be persecuted, and, like Stephen, be put to death, but the wicked one did not touch them. Stephen was not touched morally by the wicked one. Men might stone him, but the wicked one did not touch him. He was born of God and he did not sin. Sin was not his practice, and the wicked one did not touch him. If the wicked one touches us the effect of his touch is to turn us in the direction of apostasy. You get the touch of the wicked one in the case of Simon Magus. But the one that is begotten of God keeps himself; he does not practise sin, for it is by the practice of sin we expose ourselves to the wicked one. It is a great [p. 279] thing to be free from the power of sin, and from the touch of the wicked one.
But now we come to another statement, and that is not exactly abstract. It says, “We know (conscious) that we are of God”. It is not simply that the one born of God does not sin, and keeps himself and the wicked one touches him not, but we are conscious that our origin is of God. Supposing that you love God and you know that God loves you, what must be your origin? Do you think you ever loved God naturally? I think very much to the contrary.
So far as I know in regard to myself it was far more natural to hate God and one another. If you love God and you know that God loves you, it is the proof and evidence that you are of God.
I just call your attention to Romans 8: 28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. What made me refer to it is that the moment the Spirit of God comes to the point “to them that love God”, immediately He adds “to them who are the called according to his purpose”. Hence the fact that we love God is the proof that we are of God. Now we are conscious that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one, so that we are delivered from the domination of evil. If that be the case how can the taunts of the ungodly move you? You are conscious that you are of God. We are not thirsting after God, that has been met by the love of God, the living water, and now we are conscious that we are of God. God is the source, so to speak, of our moral being, and, on the other hand, the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Every consideration is taken up, sin and the wicked one and the world. The world is judged, the whole world lieth in the wicked one, but the wicked one does not touch the one begotten of God.
Now we come to a point still further, that is, ‘We are conscious that the Son of God is come’. I have spoken already in regard to that. It is the introduction of light.
[p. 280] Light has come in. He has come to reveal God to us. The Son of God came forth to that end. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. But more, He “hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true”. No one can know God naturally. A man has to get into a certain condition of understanding and habit of mind in order to understand philosophy. The same is true of science. You may not have the training of mind to enter into them. Well, now, what we have, and I am sure we have it only in one way, and that is by the Spirit of God, is the understanding to know Him that is true. I am confident that the understanding of man, accustomed as it is to this world and the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, can never take in God. It cannot estimate nor appreciate God, but the Son of God is come. He has revealed God to us and has given us an understanding that we may know God. The revelation of God would be of very little account to us if we had not understanding, but He has given us the understanding that we may know Him that is true. We have been furnished. God is true. In Him is no darkness, and now we have an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Hint that is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. It appears to me that this is the crowning point. It is greater than the previous ones. It is no small matter to be set free from the domination of sin, to be able to keep ourselves so that the wicked one does not touch us, and to have formed a judgment in regard to the world and ourselves. But the crown is that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding.
Now the effect of that is to give us confidence of heart in God, the heart can confide in God for God is true, and we have an understanding to know Him. You no longer thirst after God, you do not feel the taunt of the enemy and you do not live on remembrances. The point is to live in the present and in the conditions which God has appointed. God has been pleased to appoint conditions [p. 281] in which you can live, so that we can be in the present without thirsting, with unbounded satisfaction in the knowledge of the One spoken of in the Psalms as the living God. The living God is a blessed reality to us, known to us, confided in. In Him we are content and satisfied, and more than satisfied.
One word more. It is a great point to take advantage of our privilege, to use it abundantly in the way of intercourse with God. God does not reject your advances, because they are by the Spirit of God, and your wisdom is to take advantage of what the Son of God has given to us, and to cultivate diligently the one thing that is of vital moment, and that by which we are formed practically; not to thirst or to pant after God, but knowing Him that is true and that we are in Him that is true, to use our liberty of access.
I have found, going through life, that it is wisdom to cultivate the acquaintance of those who are better than yourself. Where you find a man keeping company with those inferior morally or socially to himself, that man gets degraded. He drops down. That is the case in the world. It is a great thing to cultivate intercourse with fellow-christians. I do not mean social intercourse, but christian intercourse. It is much more important to cultivate intercourse with the living God Himself.
May God give us grace that we may not be lacking in diligence in that direction.