RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
[p. 235] RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
I desire to point out that chapters 5, 6 and 7 of this gospel go together. You often find chapters connected in this way in Scripture, and especially in John’s gospel. We have in chapter 7 the climax of what comes out in chapters 5 and 6. The point in chapter 5 is the revelation of the Father — the Father made known in the works of the Son. The Father had always been working since sin came into the world, but there was no interpreter; so Christ came into the world to that end, and the works that He did were the revelation of the Father. The Father’s works are the fruit of the counsels of love. Each divine Person is presented distinctively, and the Father is made known to us in that way. These works go on now, and I have no doubt will, in a way, be completed in the world to come. It is going on in a moral way at the present time — the raising up and quickening of men. We know the Father as connected with the counsels of love, and as giving effect to these counsels of love in regard to man.
In chapter 6 we have Christ presented as living bread come down from heaven; the great thought in this is, that man might be fed with the goodness of heaven. In the figure at the beginning of the chapter Christ feeds the multitude, but the point of the chapter is that He is the living bread, He came down from heaven to make men acquainted with the goodness of heaven. Nothing but goodness was found in Christ, and if men had appropriated Christ they would have been satisfied with the goodness of heaven. People are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness, or else they would be satisfied; men may be gratified with the things of this world, but they are not satisfied. It is all made available to men in the fact of the Son of God becoming Man.
[p. 236] He is the mercy-seat and the Mediator, and in that way He has put Himself in relation to men, and He gives living water to every one who receives Him, as we get in chapter 4. And for what is the living water given, but that man may appreciate the goodness of God? We are married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we might appreciate the goodness of God and bring forth fruit unto Him. You may depend upon it, that until man’s heart is satisfied there is not much likelihood of his bringing forth fruit unto God.
It is in the knowledge of the Father and of Jesus Christ His sent One, as presented in this gospel, that eternal life consists, and what is extremely interesting is that in chapters 5 and 6 the Father and the Son are presented in relation to men on earth. The life of the world is wholly dependent on the position Christ has taken as Man. In redemption He has given His flesh for the life of the world, and we ought to appreciate the goodness which is expressed in the Father’s works and in the position Christ has taken in regard of men.
Now we come to a further point: “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. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. You see we have to do with the things that are living; living bread is instinct with life. I think we get the experience of life in having to do with the things of life. All the things of this world are the things of death, and they cannot give the sense of life. We have to do with the living Father, and with Christ as living bread by the Spirit of the living God. If I have to say to the living Father and to Him who is the living bread, I have that which will never pass away. It is the fact of having to do with that which is living which brings one into the consciousness of life. The outward man may perish, but the inward man is renewed day by day. If we were continually occupied with that which is living and [p. 237] eternal we should be dying daily, like the apostle Paul.
I cannot conceive of any greater privilege than that our souls should be brought into contact with that which is living; into the appreciation of the Father in His love, and of the Son in His grace as having set Himself in relation to men down here. It is as we are brought into contact with that which is living that we get the sense of life; the water that Christ gives springs up to everlasting life, leading our souls into the appreciation of the Father in His love, and the Son in grace accomplishing redemption. He has given His flesh for the life of the world, and has taken up the position of last Adam in regard of men down here; as such He gives living water, so that we may appreciate the Father and the Son. He completes His work as last Adam in raising us up at the last day. Christ is the Head of every man, and invites all to come to Him, but man is dying by means of the influence of the world, so that he cannot come except the Father draw him. But the Son says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day”. You will forgive me for going over that ground again.
We now come to the last day of the feast in chapter 7 where we get the Spirit, so that our instruction is complete.
There is an allusion to what will be brought to pass in the power of the Spirit in the world to come. The living water refers, I have no doubt, to the world to come. Jerusalem will be a source of living waters that will flow out in every direction, that is, that all wholesome and beneficial influences will be centred in Jerusalem. There are plenty of poisonous streams in the world at the present time, all flowing westward, and threatening to deluge christendom; theosophy, spiritualism,
[p. 238] and such like; but when God sees fit to display the world to come, Jerusalem will be the source of wholesome and healthful influences. We get it brought out in the prophets: Jerusalem will be the joy of the whole earth, and the source and spring of all delightful and wholesome influences. The father of a family ought to be the source of all good influences in his household; he should not be always discontented and complaining, but the source of wholesome and cheering influence affecting the whole family, so that the children should be held in check by the influence that pervades the household. I think this is what every believer ought to be.
The feast of tabernacles is set aside for the time being. It will be a great day for the world when heaven and earth will be brought into communion. The feast of the passover and the feast of weeks have both been fulfilled, but the feast of tabernacles will take place when heaven and earth are brought into contact with Christ the living Head. “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”. His brethren wanted Him to go up to the feast, because they did not believe on Him; they said, “If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world”; but the Lord replied, “My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready ... I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come”. Afterwards He goes up secretly to teach, carrying out His testimony in unwearied patience, and He says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”. The same thing is brought out in the last chapter of Revelation, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. Christ is available for the thirst of every man. Then follows, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. And the apostle by the Spirit, explains, “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit [p. 239] was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. This refers to the day in which we live; we have come to the time when Jesus has been glorified.
I desire to press the extreme importance of apprehending Christ as Head, the source of living water. On the day of Pentecost they who had believed in Christ received the Spirit. We read in Colossians, “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God”. Every hope of the christian is centred in heaven. We look for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven as Saviour; hence it is right that the heart of the christian should be set upon heaven. But remember, on the other hand, that the Spirit of God is here upon earth to make available to men all the goodness that is in heaven. That is a point of the very last moment. If there is one thing more than another that has been overlooked in christendom, it is the presence of the Spirit of God. We used to pray for the influence of the Spirit, but were very dull indeed as to the reality of the Spirit of God being down here on earth. And if the Spirit is here the house of God is here. The Lord prepared the material for the house of God when He was here upon earth, as David did, then on the day of Pentecost they received the Spirit.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit, we have not to go to heaven for that. In Colossians we get a wonderful expression, “Christ in you the hope of glory”. Then the goodness of heaven is really brought down to the house of God by the Spirit. If the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts you have the goodness of heaven, for you have by the Spirit the love and the holiness of God.
There are two things found in connection with the christian: he is running a race from earth to heaven with his eye on the goal, but at the same time the Spirit of God is dwelling down here in the house of God, in order to instruct our hearts and to make known to us all the goodness of God. There is nothing more important to [p. 240] hold to than that God dwells here by His Spirit, because it becomes the ground of our practice. We are to walk in lowliness and meekness, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If that is really fulfilled in us, then out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water. Our hearts need to be under the influence of the love of God. There is another thing connected with the love of God, and that is mercy. It is a great thing for the heart of the believer to be subdued by the sense of mercy, and to have his heart pervaded by the love of God; and this is the result of the Spirit of God being here. But there is more: we are “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. We get grace in the relation in which Christ is pleased to be with His people. The husband seeks to conform his wife to himself, and that is the way in which things work in christianity — we come under the influence of Christ in order that we may partake in that which is expressed in Christ, that we might be conformed to Him. Love, joy and peace are heavenly graces, heaven is a scene of holy love, and joy, and peace. These graces did not come from a scene of confusion such as this, but from where love, joy, and holiness prevail, and these beautiful graces of heaven are to come out as fruit in the believer. I refer to these things to show that the love of God and the grace of Christ are by the Spirit made available to us in the house of God down here.
Our hearts ought to be filled with joy in the knowledge of the goodness of God, for we are brought into contact with all that which savours of life, the effect is that we might be filled with joy. I do not see much of it amongst christians. There is joy in heaven in all the activities of God’s work down here, and if we are made acquainted with all the goodness of God we ought to be marked by love, and joy, and peace. If you want living water to flow out you must participate in heavenly joy.
The Spirit is the source of all healthy influences [p. 241] affecting all we come in contact with down here. I do not think that living water is connected with gift; it is for every christian, and it gives an extraordinary status to the believer. Think what the world would have been without believers. It would have been sunk in the darkness of heathenism. The Spirit is the source of all refreshment, yet the living waters really flow from the belly of the believer. The christian down here upon earth is the channel by the Spirit of all that is morally wholesome for man. What can science do? I do not think that science is any good to man morally. A scientific man may be a very bad man. So with philosophers. My great sorrow is when I see people turning from christianity; they want to pursue after some worldly advantage, some mess of pottage, instead of wholesome, sound, and beneficent influences. These flow from the believer by the Spirit, and that is the reason we are left here upon earth, not to corrupt one another. You will not get those rivers flowing out from the believer unless the flesh is judged, and his soul is in all the goodness of God which the Spirit has brought down to us here in this world. It is a very great point for the soul to be acquainted with goodness, and there is no way in which you can get any real idea of goodness except as you see it in Christ, the living bread come down from heaven — it is seen in righteousness, holiness, fidelity, love, grace, and mercy. You must learn it in the living bread come down from heaven, and if you appreciate the goodness of God, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.
May God grant that we might be each more familiar with the goodness of God.