LIVING WATER FOR SOUL THIRST
LIVING WATER FOR SOUL THIRST
The Lord Jesus Christ, in speaking to an unsatisfied sinner, said, “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.” This brought forth the reply, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” This was a confession of soul thirst such as you would make if you were honest with yourself, and have never yet found Christ as your Saviour and Lord.
I would like to ask you, dear friend, Are you satisfied? Have you anything that really satisfies your heart? Many beginning their business history think to find satisfaction by diligent and earnest pursuit of that objective. Many pursue other objects, but only to learn, time after time, the impossibility of finding lasting satisfaction here in this world. Disappointment and death touch all, and remove all, and then, alas! many are turned to a life of lawless abandonment, hoping to get from the corrupt stream of sin something for their hearts. Why not admit before Him with whom we have to do, that your heart is empty?
Well, in the scripture from Isaiah 55, a message comes from God as an appeal: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” He speaks in an appealing way. It is an invitation sent out to every thirsty heart among men, “Come ye to the waters.” Come where the waters are, thirsty heart! Where are they? They are to be found in Jesus, the Rock of which Scripture speaks. It says, “They all drank of that spiritual rock, that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” The source of the waters that alone can satisfy human hearts, is Jesus. Have you ever in your emptiness and thirstiness turned to Jesus? Maybe you have turned to novels, or to business, pleasures, or sport, but have you ever turned to Jesus? Have you ever asked of Him? The Lord Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God... thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee, living water.”
The prophet goes on to say, “Come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Wine is a figure, as we all know, of joy: come, buy joy — not only water, but joy. Where will you find true joy? Scripture speaks of “everlasting joy.” Have you ever tasted it? Have you ever known happiness which never ceases? You will find it in Jesus. Milk, the true food, which will sustain your soul, is obtainable from Jesus alone.
Then the prophet says, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?” Why do this, says the prophet, and then he speaks of the “sure mercies of David,” which refer to Christ.
I want to speak to you of Christ, through whom the living water, through whom the eternal joy, through whom the milk — that pure mental milk of God’s word, reaches your soul. God says, “I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.” God has given that One in these three ways to men, as Witness, Leader, and Commander. I commend Him to you, and if you receive Him, you will find Him to be the source of the waters, the One who gives wine and milk, without money and without price. There are thousands upon thousands who could tell you they have found these things in Jesus, and they would not exchange them for any other thing. They have that which satisfies them, and though they desire more and more of it, they want nothing else for their souls than what Jesus gives.
Have you ever thought of Jesus as God’s Witness? The reference is to Christ, the true David. This scripture tells us, “Behold I have given him for a witness.” You understand what a witness is? The value of a witness depends on his witness being true. God hates false witnesses. One of the abominations in God’s sight is a false witness, one who speaks lies, but God loves a faithful witness, and Jesus is “the faithful and true witness,” the One who has come to earth to be God’s Witness to men. Are you going to believe Him? Are you prepared to pass out of time into eternity, rejecting the witness of God’s Christ? God always has witnesses; He has never left Himself without them. The two great witnesses from God to all men today are Creation and Christ. What a witness creation is! God left not Himself without a witness, we read in Acts 14, “in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” What a witness creation is to God! The man who shuts his eyes to that witness is inexcusable. The man who ignores God, his Creator, is without excuse. God has put in the physical universe, in the sun and the moon and the stars, and in the cold and the heat, the rivers and the sea, and in all life which He has created, a witness to Himself. The man who lives his life in disregard of God, has turned his back on the divine witness, and is inexcusable. He can never say, I did not know there was a God, I did not understand; for while the sun shines, and the stars go on in their courses, and the rain falls, and the plants and the trees grow, God has kept before the eyes of every intelligent person a witness to Himself.
Then again, Jesus has come into this world as a Witness from God; declaring, not the power of the Omnipotent Creator, but disclosing the heart of God towards men. Are you going to turn away from this Witness? Will you not open your heart to this testimony? What does this Witness say? Come to Bethlehem’s manger and see the Babe. Heaven speaks of Him thus “ye shall find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger,” Luke 2: 12.
That lowly Babe is a Witness, bearing testimony that God desires to draw near to men in such a way as to win their hearts. Is anything more calculated to break down fear, and dispel distance, than a babe? Who could fail to be disarmed of fear in the presence of a babe? Jesus came as a Babe; will you not listen to this faithful and true Witness? Listen to the witness as the leper draws nigh to Him! Jesus puts forth His hand and touches the leper, and says, “I will, be thou clean.” The Witness is declaring, and His witness is always true, that God, in grace, would touch the vilest sinner and cleanse him. Listen as this Witness calls the blind man to Him; see Him lay His hand on his eyes! What does it mean? He is telling men that God would dispel the darkness that sin has brought into their minds,
darkness that the god of this world has brought in, so that they believe not. God has declared His desire that men should be brought out of darkness into His marvellous light. See the Witness at the grave of Lazarus; hear His voice, saying, “Take ye away the stone,” and then “He cried with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth!” The Witness is declaring that God has power to break the power of death and corruption; death cannot stand in His way.
The Witness from God discloses that God is the God of the living, and death is to be abolished. Come to Calvary, and what words you will hear there from the Witness. I want you to think of Jesus there as God’s Witness and to hear His testimony. Forgiveness is witnessed from the lips of Jesus. In the presence of unparalleled wickedness and malice, there fell from the lips of this divine, accredited Witness, these words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” My friend, will you not listen to God’s witness? I appeal to you, turn from the witness of men, turn from their thoughts, for they will perish. Listen to the accredited Witness of God, first, in creation, an unfailing witness to the greatness of God and the littleness of men; and then, to the witness of Jesus disclosing in perfect testimony, the heart of God to men. God says by this prophet, Isaiah, “I have given him for a witness to the people.” If you reject Christ, you reject God’s witness, and virtually say that His witness is not true. To deny the testimony of an accredited witness in a human court is a serious matter, it is equivalent to saying that that witness is uttering perjury, but to deny the testimony of God’s witness to Himself, is a terrible position to be in. I appeal to you to listen. You will find the source of the waters, and the wine, and the milk, as you listen to Jesus, God’s witness, and open your heart to His testimony.
Well, the prophet says, “I have given him for... a leader.” Are you following His lead? The world must have leadership. The basic idea of democracy, to bring all to one level, is both false and unworkable. This was never God’s thought. He intends you to have leadership, and He has given one blessed Man to be the Leader, not indeed, in the present world, and its affairs as ordered by men, but He has exalted Christ to His own right hand in heaven, as a Prince and a Saviour, “a leader to the people.” He is the leader of our salvation; He will lead your soul into blessing. Everyone who accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, is to follow Him. As souls listened to what Jesus had to say, when He was here on earth, they followed Him. That is the idea of leadership — you follow your Leader. The Lord said to Peter, “Follow me; and I will make you fishers of men.” Blind Bartimaeus followed Him in the way, glorifying God. Mary of Magdala followed Him right from Galilee to the cross. You must be led by someone; you are not capable of leading yourself; the human heart is too small; it must be led, either by Jesus, God’s blessed Leader in the paths of righteousness, or else by Satan, the prince of this world. Christ is the Prince according to God; He is the “Prince of peace,” the Leader in the paths of peace is Jesus. Let me ask you, Are you under His leadership? “He suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
Then it says He is a “commander to the people.” Some may be prepared to accept in measure the Witness, and even the Leader, but are we all prepared to accept Him as a Commander? A Commander is one who has complete control; absolute control of those he commands. It is a military term. The reason why Christians sometimes do not find the water and the wine and the milk in such abundance as they would desire, is because they are not prepared to let Him command them. As soon as He commands the heart, the waters appear, the wine is available, and the milk also. Indeed, you reach a land which flows with milk and honey.
I would beg everyone to face this matter of command. Are we prepared for Christ as Commander? First, as Witness; then as Leader; and now as having complete control? Many learnt Him thus when He was here. Take the man who had the legion of demons; what leadership he was under! But the Lord took control; He commanded the unclean spirit to come out of him, and the man was set free. Then he desired to follow the Lord, he accepted the Lord’s leadership, and the Lord says, Go to thy home, and show how great things God hath done for thee. And he went home, he did not dispute the Lord’s authority; he accepted the Lord as Commander. That is where many lack. They are perhaps ready for the Witness, but not for a Commander. The complete control of your life by Jesus will open the door to the fullest blessing from God. You cannot have a dual control. You will not get the water while you are under another control, while another is commanding your affections. Perhaps that is where you have come short, my friend? You are not prepared to come out into the open with Christ. Who is it who controls your heart? The Lord wants to know; He wants to be your Commander, and He asks you to tell it all out to Him, and to confess just what is keeping you away from the joy of knowing God. Christ is the One who alone has the right to your heart; every other object is false and is deceiving you. The Lord would bring this into the light. If you have not Christ as Object, another is holding your heart from Him. I am not speaking of natural affections, but of the spring of your being, of your soul. Christ has been given by God to control you, to command you, and as you receive Him, you will learn what that water is which springs up to everlasting life; you will find the water and the milk and the wine in abundance. The prophet goes on to warn the people. He says, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.” I want that to re-echo in your heart. That is the time to seek Him — this great Witness from God, before the anti-Christ appears, the false witness who speaks lies, who leads men to perdition. Christ, the great Leader from God, is set for your blessing; He comes to you in God’s name; but another leader is about to appear, he comes in his own name, he comes to lead you to perdition. There is coming into Christendom another witness, another leader, another commander, but he will lead men to destruction. So the word goes out, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” This is the time to call upon the Lord, for He may be found; He is not far away, He is near.
Then apart from the fact that the Lord is soon coming, there is the fact of the imminence of death. We know how near death is? After death, there is the judgment, and then there is a great gulf fixed, so that there is no intercourse between the two realms, the realm of light and blessedness, and the realm of darkness and destruction. The Lord Jesus, the faithful and true witness, tells us this. So “let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.” You see, dear friend, you could not have access to this realm of blessedness, and take the living water which Christ gives, and go on with your own evil way. That is where the enemy would blind you; but the thing is morally impossible. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” That means repentance; you cannot reach this blessed One whom God has given to men as a Witness and a Leader and a Commander, and go on with your lawlessness. The word is “Let the wicked forsake his way.” Who would like their past laid out in the light? What are you going to do with your past? The only thing to do is what the dying robber did — he turned to Jesus. He looked back on his past; oh, what a history! And the only thing he could do was to turn to God’s Witness and Leader and Commander, and he did this, for he said to Jesus,
“Lord”! He put himself in His hands; he judged his past, and God abundantly pardoned. Finally, we have this word from the prophet, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.” If you follow the line I have indicated, what will appear in your life is that instead of briars and thorns, there will be the evidence of freshness and beauty according to God. The fir tree and the myrtle tree set forth what is green and beautiful to the eye: the briars and thorns are what came in through sin. In coming to Jesus, God’s Witness, God’s Leader, God’s Commander there comes up the blessed evidence of life according to God, the fir tree, and the myrtle tree, and it is for a name, an everlasting name. God gets a glorious name by His work in the souls of men, and it is going to stand for ever.
I commend these three features of Christ to you, for as you accept Him, as God’s Witness and Leader and Commander, you will find the great volume of living waters, and the sweetness of the wine, and the pure mental milk of the word available to you, but as I say again, the necessity of repentance stands, “Let the wicked forsake his way.” In the path of wickedness and unrighteousness there is no satisfaction, the heart is never satisfied; but the living waters are at the disposal of Christ, and if you ask Him, He will give you the living water. God speaks of the greatness of His thoughts, they are higher than the heavens above the earth; they are far beyond any thought ever conceived by the heart of man.
May the Lord encourage us all to come to Him increasingly, and may those who know Him not, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; and call upon him while he is near.”