RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
[p. 164] RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
I have in view to speak of the believer, as seen in this gospel; what he is as following the teaching of the chapters preceding this — this being a sort of culmination of that teaching; the culmination being what the believer is as in this world — what he is to it on the part of God. He is regarded as having received the Spirit from heaven; hence he is to correspond with Christ in certain moral features that the Lord indicates in Himself in this chapter. The believer, as formed in the teaching of the earlier chapters and having the Spirit, comports himself here in such wise as to create in the religious world uncertainty as to whence he is, and how it is that he can be what he is. His features are unknown to the ordinary religionist; the Lord was an enigma to them, and I wish to dwell on the things that come to light in this chapter in Him as indicative of what the believer in Him should be.
You will observe that the Lord is said to be ‘walking’. He walked, it says, “in Galilee”. “And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him” (verse 1). This gospel presents the Lord Jesus as serving at Jerusalem and in Judea more than any of the others; being intended for the last days, it prepares us for a sterile soil in which we have to sow — the hard religious soil. The Lord sowed in it; the results were not as they are seen in the synoptical gospels, in which He is seen as labouring more at Galilee. Galilee was a more fruitful field; being despised and under reproach, the ear for His ministry was keener. The first three gospels mention abundance of miracles. John gives but a few isolated ones,
[p. 165] and he gives them in order that nominal believers should become genuine believers. You can see, therefore, beloved brethren, the analogy between John’s and our own times. We are living in times when there are multitudes of nominal believers in Christ who are not trustworthy — who have proved, times without number, to be faithless in crises. So that John tells us that many believed on the Lord because of His miracles at Jerusalem; but He did not commit Himself to them, for He knew all men; He knew what was in man; chapter 2:24. As to the sign at the marriage, in chapter 2, there is not a word said as to the effect of it on the guests as such in a spiritual way. All that is said is that His disciples believed on Him. There is nothing said about the bridegroom or the bride believing on Him. It was an occasion, indeed, in which He plainly intimated that He was not there on merely natural lines, for, as His mother said, “They have no wine”. He said to her in answer, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” John 2:3 - 4 He was introducing the spiritual where the natural, as I may say, was at its high-water mark — at a marriage festival. He was there on His Father’s business, as ever, and so the sign — the turning of water into wine — is said to have been the “beginning of signs”, John 2:11 and it was not fruitless — His disciples believed on Him.
In this chapter, as I said, the Lord is walking, and, as we follow the teaching of the previous chapters, we come out in a certain moral way, not governed or trammelled by any of the old things, religious or otherwise. It is an entirely new way, incurring the severest hostility, rising to murder. His brethren say, “Shew thyself to the world”. In their view, He should make capital out of His works to make a show in the world. How this exposes the natural heart of man! We see it exemplified in Simon Magus (Acts 8:20), who offered to buy with money the power to give the Spirit. “Thy money go with thee to destruction”, says Peter, adding, “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter”. Acts 8:21 And so, as I said, the Lord’s brethren would have Him show Himself at the feast: ‘Why, these miracles are capital for you to make a name for yourself’. How that manifests what our natural hearts are as governing us in the Lord’s service! If the Lord has endowed one with ability, the flesh in him would take advantage of this to make a show.
“Jesus therefore says to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready”. “Your time is always ready”. The Lord says in effect that the natural man is just an opportunist. Naturally every one of us is an opportunist — we try to make the most of any situation that comes up. This has to be owned and refused constantly. The Lord says, “My time is not yet come”. Nevertheless, He went up “as in secret”; it was for testimony, not to show Himself. What is recorded here is for our learning; we should note the deliberate refusal to capitalise what is of God to make a name in this world. The Lord goes up into the temple and teaches; there is moral qualification to teach, as we refuse religious fame. The Lord had no thought at all of His own glory. God will use us and help us in our service if we are not thinking of our own glory, but of His who sent us. But, they say, How knows this man letters having never learned? As people say today, ‘He is not a college man; he has no degrees’. Where did He get all this? Need I enlarge on the corresponding features of the present time? It is God showing how entirely independent He is of man’s apparatus for turning out religious workers. God will not have it; He despises it! Does He need man’s devices? Is not He God! If He sends His ministers, can He not supply them with all they need? That is the point here. The Lord says, “My doctrine is not mine, but that of him that has sent me”. And, moreover, He says,
[p. 167] I will tell you how to get the doctrine: if you practise His will. And that is the secret of so much ignorance of spiritual things — it is the want of practising the will of God. “If anyone desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself”. If you are practising the will of God things will not be puzzling to you — the things of God will become intelligible to you, as it says in the book of Hosea: “Then shall we know”; and it adds, “if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”, Hosea 6:3. That is how knowledge comes.
Well, now, all this leads up to that cry of the Lord in verse 37. He calls attention to what a believer on Him is to be in the very midst of one of the greatest religious convocations of that day — the feast of tabernacles. It was the last feast of the year, and much entered into it; it was the last day of the feast, too — the “great day of the feast”. As it were, things had been reserved to make it a success, and the Lord cries. It is most interesting to note the many times in Scripture in which the Lord is said to have cried. I suppose what is meant is that the thing was urgent. He would have it heard; it was most important that it should be heard. “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. Think of that! This passage has been read for nearly two thousand years, and it is perfectly simple to us. But what was it then? Think of the novelty of it! It was entirely different from current teaching. It was altogether a new feature. The Lord says, “as the scripture has said”. Could the Jews have found the scripture? Not one of them! One can fancy those rabbis, doctors of the law, and scribes turning to the Bible to see where the scripture was. Could they find it? The truth is this, beloved [p. 168] brethren, that the appeal is to ourselves, as to whether we know our Bibles. If the Lord Jesus says, “the scripture has said”, it is for us to find out where the saying is. The truth is, as I understand it, the scripture has said it in effect. It is not a question of a formal verse; it is what the scripture says in effect. We must know all Scripture to correspond fully to the idea of believing in John. After the Lord was risen the disciples believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said; John 2: 22. We must understand “the voice of the prophets” to understand the prophets; we must understand all Scripture to know what it may say directly or in effect. You find the idea of rivers from the garden of Eden onwards; God indicated that there should be here a great spiritual influence flowing out. You get it in the garden of Eden, in Ezekiel, in the Psalms, and in Isaiah. What did it all mean? Surely not merely rivers of water. It meant the Spirit of God come down from heaven, who is “As rivers of water in a dry place”. Isaiah 32:2 And so here — “This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”. The Holy Spirit is here now from a glorified Christ, and in the believer, from the seat of his affections (that is alluded to), flow out rivers of living water.
Thus you see what a genuine believer in Christ is — what a benefactor he is under God as believing in Christ. The Holy Spirit being in him, he is a power for good here. Whether in his house, in his office, in the workshop, on the streets, or among the brethren, the rivers of water flow out. It is here in the desert, as it were, that the living water is a present existing thing; and thus we see the importance of saints, as representative of God in this world, making full room for the Holy Spirit come down from heaven so that He may influence others through them.