John 7

Well, it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So let's open our Bibles here this morning. We were planning on having a guest speaker today.

And that guest speaker was coming from the, I think it's called, is it I-58? I-58 Ministry. That is the ministry that is dealing with refugees on an island just off the coast of Greece. Ben, correct me if I say anything wrong here.

And there is an island where refugees are and there's been a ministry there for a number of years. I've known people who've gone there. I think your daughter went there for a while.

And ministering to refugees and Lord willing, I don't know if you all are aware of this, but Lord willing, I think Ben will share a little bit later on, but Lord willing, Brother Cleek and Rachel and the children are going to be spending three months in Greece, starting probably the first of November, somewhere around there. And they're going to be working there in Greece, volunteering. And so Brother Cleek wasn't feeling well this morning, but I think Ben is going to share a little bit with us about that ministry.

But the interview is going to come canceled. And so I'm going to share with us here this morning. So we're looking at John chapter number seven, and we're following the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

Let's keep in mind that Jesus is still at the Feast of Tabernacles. And I'm going to start reading in verse number 32. And we're going to go down through verse number 39.

There's been a lot of information here. We've been talking about how the Jews missed the light of the world, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because of heretical concepts that were in their hearts. These heretical concepts came because they came to the Bible with a self-will to try to impose their wants and desires upon the Scriptures.

And so they embraced certain aspects of the Scriptures and didn't embrace others. So they had a warped view of the Messiah. And the Messiah, Jesus, when he came, didn't fit into their warped view, and therefore they rejected him.

And so we've been dealing with that here in John 7. Verse number 32, it says, Whither will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, You shall seek me and shall not find me. And where I am, thither you cannot come. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried.

It's kind of a desperation here. I'll share that with you in a minute. In the last day, the great day of the feast, the tabernacle, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

And then next time, I think we'll try to finish the chapter. Let's pray, and then we'll look at these verses. Heavenly Father, we again want to submit ourselves unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and hearing your word, the authority of it, and to say amen, even as we read it and discuss it.

Lord, may you minister grace to us as the word of God is taught. I know it's taught here that you're teaching individuals in different places here, congregations. So we want to give you that liberty.

We want to open our hearts to be taught of you. We pray your blessing upon us now. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right. I want to start off with this desperation that I sense as I read this. Jesus mentions here in verse 33, yet a little while I am with you.

Time is beginning to run out on the Jewish people. We're at the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacles. And as I shared with you before, there are three major feasts in each year.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the feast in the fall. The Feast of Pentecost was in the summer, early summer. And the Feast of the Passover was in the spring.

This is in the fall. This is the Feast of Tabernacles. There is only going to be one more feast for all the Jewish males to come to before the crucifixion of Christ.

And that will be in the spring. Six months later, the Jews will again make their pilgrimage down to Jerusalem. And, Jesus, this is the last feast before the final feast, the Passover feast.

And this next feast, this Passover feast that's coming in six months, the Passover is the first part of that feast. In other words, Jesus is going to be offered up at the very beginning of that feast. Because it's the Passover night and then seven days of unleavened bread.

And so if you're thinking in Jesus' terms that this is the last day where there's going to be all the Jewish males, all the families here from all over Judah and even strange parts of the country have come down to the Feast of Tabernacles. And this is it. I mean, the next feast, the next gathering, the next reunion, I'm going to be taken on the first day of the feast, the Passover night.

And I'm going to be taken and crucified. And so we're getting down to the end. Yes, the Lord is going to go back into Galilee.

He's going to go back and preach and teach. But as far as Jerusalem, Jerusalem is a place where Jesus has not spent a lot of time there because he is being hunted there. They're trying to kill him.

Even here, they're wanting to take him. So he comes to the feast and then he leaves. And so the next time he's going to come back into this area, he's going to come back for the Feast of the Passover.

Actually, there's another feast, a small feast. Look over at John chapter 12 here just real quick. I want to throw this in.

I was trying to set a timetable here in John chapter 10, verse 22. It says this in John 10, verse 22. And it was at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter.

Now, Jesus comes back for one more, maybe I should say insignificant feast, but it's a smaller feast. The Jews are not required, the males are not required to be at this one. And it's wintertime.

It's probably December. Maybe it's January that Jesus is here at the Feast of Dedication. And I couldn't find the Feast of Dedication.

It's something in the Bible that God commanded. But it was actually a feast that the Jews had made up. It was a feast commemorating the deliverance or the rebuilding of the temple or the, no, not the rebuilding of the temple, the sanctifying of the temple after Antiochus, Antiochus, Antiochus of Typhus.

You all know that man. You've heard that name before. He was, I believe, a Grecian ruler, and he defiled the temple back in, oh, I don't know, I don't know my dates very well, 300 or 400 years B.C. And so they had a special feast that they made up themselves to celebrate this event.

So it was called the Feast of Dedication. So here is Jesus. It's fall, and he's at this last feast, the Feast of Tabernacle, and he stands up and he cries out.

He cries out the burden that is upon his heart for the Jewish people. He is going to be taken at the Passover, this next feast. And so basically, if you think of it this way, this is his last day in a sense to speak to the nation in Jerusalem at the temple, to lift up his voice and to cry out to the people because he's going to, again, leave and go off because he is being hunted.

So there's an urgency. And Jesus is standing here and crying out. Now, I'm going to just share a little bit about this generation, this generation of Jews.

There is no generation that I find in the Bible that is held to a higher accountability than this generation, this generation that sees the Son of God in person, that actually witnesses the light of the world, that witnesses God in a human body walking amongst men, this generation that hears God speak to them through the Lord Jesus Christ, this generation that sees his miracles, this generation that's going to see him raised from the dead. This generation is a generation that biblically is held to great accountability. The Bible says, of whom much is given shall much be required.

And this generation has been given much. And so here in a period of three years, the Messiah has walked amongst them. These men and women and young people have seen the miracles.

They've heard the teaching. They've seen God walking in a human body. And they, in mass, reject him.

They turn from the light. And they are going to be held accountable for it. If you go over to John chapter 12, let's look here at what Jesus says to this generation who has had this wonderful opportunity and has rejected it.

In John chapter 12, this is getting close to the Feast of the Passover. In verse number 35, In verse 36, In all the Bible, What an amazing statement that Jesus hid himself from these people. And here's why.

Verse 37, What a tragic situation here that the Jews had this great opportunity. And he is exhorting them to believe in the light. While you have light.

Because if you don't believe in the light, then you're going to plunge into the darkness. So this generation has such an opportunity to see light and to believe in the light. And yet this generation rejected the light.

And there's a number of passages in the Bible that speak very directly to this generation. Jesus said it this way. He said it's going to be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for this generation.

That's an amazing statement there, isn't it? Sodom and Gomorrah. The immorality that went on in Sodom and Gomorrah. In the day of judgment, the judgment will be more lenient on those in Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be on those Jews who saw Jesus Christ walking, saw his miracles, and yet did not believe on him.

And so in the Bible, there's a very real idea of accountability. What you've been given is someday going to be required of you. And you think of also the unforgivable sin.

Jesus mentioned the unforgivable sin. And you know what the unforgivable sin is? Here is a Jewish people, and they've seen all of these miracles. This amazing light is shown right before their eyes.

And then they claim that this light is the blackness of darkness by accusing Jesus of being Beelzebub of all things. The darkest of the dark in spite of the fact that he is the light of all light. And so for a generation to consider Jesus that way was unforgivable.

And Jesus said because of that, you're in danger. You're in danger of eternal damnation. I was with a family this weekend.

I was sharing a little bit out of the book of Romans. And I just want to share something with you about the book of Romans. It talks about in Romans chapter 1, verse 17, Paul writes these words.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, the just live this way. They live from faith to faith to faith.

They are living in an upward course. God, by his spirit and through his light, is bringing his children higher and higher. They see the truth.

They believe the truth. They move up a step. They see another truth.

They believe that truth. They move up another step. From light to light.

From glory to glory. From faith to faith. By the way, that's the way we ought to be living.

Amen? Moving upward. From faith to faith. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

But then the next verse says the wrath of God is also revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. And it goes on to talk about the opposite effect, that those who see the truth and disobey it head this way. And they see the light and disobey it, and they head this way.

And they see the light and disobey it. And there are two groups of people in the world. One is the child of God.

He is going from faith to faith, being conformed in the image of God's son. And the others are going further and further and further and further into darkness. Am I going to turn the microphone on? I'm sorry.

It took 15 minutes to get my attention there. Judson, you should have done what Jason. You should have been crying.

And so humanity is going either from faith to faith and being conformed in the image of his son, or they are going from darkness to deeper darkness to deeper darkness. Either way, you can look at your own life, see what direction you're heading. Amen? Are you heading this way, or are you heading this way? One, God is working in them to conform him into the image of his son.

And the other one, God is giving them over. Romans 1 says God gives them over and gives them over and gives them over. And they go deeper and deeper and deeper, and they plunge into further and further darkness.

And so how do you respond to light? I think it's in Isaiah where the Lord said, what more could I have done for this people, this nation? I made a vineyard. I put a tower in it. I hedged it about.

I dung it. And I did everything I could. What more could I have done? So God came to the Jewish people in a human body.

He spoke to them with great wisdom. He did amazing miracles in their presence. And yet, they rejected him and crucified him.

And in the day of judgment, I'll let you know ahead of time that that nation or that generation is going to be held accountable for all the light that came to them. And yet, they did nothing about it. And I've shared this here before, but I think it should be brought up again.

You know, you've been sitting here. Many of us, we've been hearing God's word. We're amongst God's people.

We get light. We get truth. What are we doing with it? Are we accepting it? And are we going from faith to faith? Or are we rejecting in our hearts and finding our lives moving into darkness further and further? And so there is some accountability that we have.

And so you have the Lord Jesus. He is standing up. He is lifting up his voice.

Look at John chapter 7, verse number 34. You shall seek me and you shall not find me. I'm going to hide myself from you.

And where I am, thither you cannot come. Now, I think this is a personification of Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 says this. This is what Jesus is doing.

How long will you love just to be ignorant? How long will you let the Bible just go over your heart and not fasten to it? How long do you think that just because you're ignorant, you're going to get by, right? How long, you simple ones? Will you love simplicity? And how long, you scorners, will you delight in your scorning and you fools hate knowledge? How long? It's been going on for a long time. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you.

I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and you refused. You can just see Jesus saying these words at the feast.

He cries out, I have been crying out to you. How long? When are you going to hear me? And then he says, because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. But you have said it not all my counsel and with none of my reproof.

I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then, here's our verse, then shall you call upon me, but I will not answer.

You'll seek me early, but you will not find me. You know, there is coming a day when you seek God and you won't be able to find him. There will come a day when you'll cry out to God and he won't hear you.

Amen? And so, how long? How long will you hear and not hearken to the voice of the Lord? And so the Jewish people, they had wonderful opportunity, but they did not hearken. They did not hear. And so the Lord hid himself from them.

So let's go back to John here. I'm looking at John chapter 7 and verse number 33. Jesus said unto them, yet a little while, am I with you? And then I go unto him that sent me.

And so he's talking here about returning back to his father, talking about the ascension here, and he's going to leave. Do you remember Jesus gave the parable of the fig tree? And for three years he came seeking fruit on that fig tree and found none but leaves only. And that was a picture of the Jewish nation.

The Lord seeking fruit, fruit from the heart, fruit of true worship coming out of the inner man, not simply an outward form of religion, the leaves, but fruit. He came seeking fruit and he found none. And he said to cut the tree down.

And so the nation of Israel was cut off. We read about that in the book of Romans. Well, Jesus is going to return back to his father, his father who sent him.

We have this ascension in Acts chapter 1. Jesus returns back to his father. And in that ascension, the disciples are there on the Mount of Olives, and there's two angels that are standing over beside them. They watch Jesus ascend up.

The Bible says he goes up into the clouds. He goes out of their sight. And these people are just standing there looking up.

And these two angels say, hey, guys, why are you standing there just looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, here's some good words, this same Jesus which you have seen taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. You know what that tells me? That tells me that Jesus is going to come back the same way he left. He was standing on the Mount of Olives.

He ascended up to the clouds. And then he returned back and he sat down at the right hand of God. And when he comes again, he's going to stand up from the right hand of God.

He's going to descend into the clouds. And the Bible says that you and I will meet him in the clouds. And then he's going to continue.

He's going to put his foot down on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah chapter 14 says in that day the Mount of Olives is going to split. And you read about it and how that Jerusalem will be, or Judea will be divided into three, or Jerusalem into three parts.

There will be a great earthquake such as never was an earthquake on the face of the earth to this time. And so the Lord will return the exact same way that he left. He will come again the same way.

Well, Jesus says in verse 33, yet a little while I am with you. And then I go unto him that sent me. And I want to talk about that just a minute.

The Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent his Son into this world. Why did God send his Son into this world? John 3.17 says for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

God sent. Jesus said, I'm going to return to the one who sent me. Why did God send his Son? He sent his Son to save the world.

He sent his Son. Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. I'm going to stick here with the book of John.

But in John chapter 20, in verse number 19, you can turn there if you'd like. But John chapter 20, verse 19. This is the first words that the disciples hear after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

He is about ready to ascend back to his Father. And you think of first words, important words, last words are important words. But the first words the disciples hear after the resurrection is in John 20, verse 19.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. They were fearful. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.

Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Now here's these words. Can you imagine being there? You've gone through this crucifixion.

You've heard he's resurrected. You're in fear because the Jews are trying to find you. And you're holed up in a little house here.

All of a sudden, the Lord appears. And you're frightened. You think he might be a spirit.

Now notice what Jesus says in verse 21. Then said Jesus to them, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

I love those verses there. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. You know, he could have said many different things there after his resurrection when he first came to his disciples.

But he says, fellas, be at peace. And I want you to know, as my Father sent me, even so send I you. Our mission as a church, our mission as a congregation, is the same mission that Jesus had.

His mission was to come into this wicked world and save the world and to offer his life up to redeem humanity. And as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. You want to find purpose, true purpose in life? Just live like Jesus.

Give your life for this world to save this world from destruction, to save souls from eternity without the Lord. Well, the Lord gave his life. He offered his life as a sacrifice on the cross.

And he says to his disciples now, as the same way my Father sent me, even so send I you. And just stop and think about this for a minute. Jesus was living in a very comfortable place.

He was with his Father in heaven. It was a perfect environment. Everything was wonderful, and God sent him into a nasty place.

He sent him down into a sinful world, not just a sinful world, but a world that had animosity toward him, a world that persecuted him, a world that chased him as we're reading, a world that finally crucified him. God sent him into that mess. And he went and he laid his life down for that ungodly, evil world.

And then he was resurrected and said, now, fellows, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And that's a good mission for your life is to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, that's a sinful world out there.

Well, Jesus knew that too, didn't he? I mean, if I go down to that world, Father, I'm going to end up getting killed. I'm sure they're going to hate me. They're going to murder me.

Yes, that's going to happen. But, you know, as I sent you, my son, I want you to send your disciples into that same world. And so we have that statement, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

So the Lord is leaving. He's going back to the one who sent him. And these Jews are going to seek him, verse 34, and they're not going to find him because he's going back to his Father.

So let's go down here to verse 35. Then said the Jews among themselves, whither will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, you shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am thither you cannot come. And one of the things that Jews struggled with was, you find this throughout the whole Bible, and you'll see it in just a minute here, that Jesus would always talk to them on a spiritual plane.

And they were always thinking on a natural plane. And so when the Lord says, I'm going to go back to my Father, you won't see me anymore, they just don't grasp at all what he's trying to say. So their reasoning is, what's that mean? We're not going to find him.

Does that mean he's going to go out and teach the Gentile people? That's their natural thinking. And so throughout the whole Bible you see how the Lord tries to communicate to them on a spiritual level, and their thinking on a natural level. And that's one of the problems we face as God's people.

We tend to look at life from a natural level. We tend to look at things from a worldly level, and not by looking at things from a spiritual level. God sends us temptations.

God sends us trials. God sends us difficulties. And we tend to look at them on a natural level, not on a spiritual level.

And I'll just give you a few examples that we've seen here in John chapter 4. You know the disciples, they go off in John 4 to get Jesus some food and some meat. And they come back and they say, hey, we got some food for you. And Jesus said, I have meat to eat that you know not of.

And what do they reason? Did somebody go get him some bread? Did somebody go buy him some food? He says, no, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about something spiritual. And then he says to these men, lift up your eyes.

And that's what we need to do. Lift up our eyes and look on the fields. They are white already unto harvest.

This idea of not having your heart and mind down here in this present world, but lifting up your vision a bit and looking at things from a spiritual perspective, a spiritual plane. So Nicodemus is told, you must be born again. How does Nicodemus reason with that one? Can I enter a second time into my mother's womb? Again, that's a natural way of reasoning.

So we understand that Jesus was speaking a spiritual truth. So the Bible says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So the Jews were on a natural level, and Jesus was on a spiritual level. And their conversation always went like this. And they could never understand what he was trying to say, except for sometimes those disciples would say, hey, Lord, can you teach us? What are you trying to say with regards to this parable or that parable? And then, of course, the Lord would give them understanding.

But that's the same problem we face today. We tend to think of things on a natural level and not on a spiritual level. We look at life in the natural.

I want to read what Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 4, in verse 17. He says, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment. The only way you can think that life here is a moment is if you look at it from a spiritual level, from an eternal level.

In comparison to eternity, life is but a moment. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And here's the way God wants us to look at life, and not look at the things which are seen. For example, if you look around here, everything that your eye can see, everything that is visible is going to be gone in a hundred years. Everything that's visible.

I believe this building will probably be gone in a hundred years. It certainly will be gone in a thousand. Everything that you can touch, everything that you can taste, everything that you can feel is something that is temporal.

It is something that's going to be gone in a hundred years, in a thousand years. But everything that you cannot see is going to be forever. Everything that you cannot see.

You take the spiritual world, angels, demonic spirits, your soul, your spirit, all these things that are invisible to the naked eye, that you cannot touch, you cannot taste, you cannot feel, all these things are those things that are going to be eternal. Everything that you can see and touch and feel and taste is temporal. Now if that be the case, what should we focus our attention on? Well, we ought to focus our attention on those things that we cannot see.

And so Paul here encourages us not to look at the things which can be seen, but at the things which cannot be seen. So we don't set our hearts and minds on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. I remember when I was in the Baptist church, this quote would go around.

It kind of made light of spiritually minded people, but I think this is not a good quote. They used to say this, you're so spiritually minded you're of no heavenly good. Or no, you're so spiritually minded you're of no earthly good.

You're so spiritually minded you're of no earthly good. We don't have that problem in the church today. I mean all over the place.

The truth of the matter is we're so earthly minded we're hardly ever spiritually good because our minds are so preoccupied with what can be seen, touched, and tasted. And so we're encouraged to set our affections on things above. We're encouraged to be spiritually minded.

Spiritually minded is life and peace. Let's keep reading here. I want to get down to verse number 37 here in John chapter 7. So these Jews, they don't understand what Jesus is saying because they're naturally minded.

The natural man receives not the things of the spirit, their food is unto him. Now look at verse number 37. Here's the cry that the Lord gives.

I want to spend the rest of our time here at this river of water, this fountain of water. So the Lord stands up. 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 has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And so here's the Lord.

He knows that he's going to be crucified soon. He knows he's going to be buried. He knows he's going to be raised from the dead.

He knows he's going to be exalted to the right hand of God. He knows that he's going to shed forth the Holy Spirit into the hearts of every child of God who believes in him, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he is appealing to people.

If any of you thirst, come unto me. Believe on me. In six months, and literally in six months, more than that, the Pentecostal feast will be in about nine months, in nine months I'm going to pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

And living waters are going to start coming out of your innermost being, those who believe on the Son of God. And again, this is not an invitation for natural water to drink if you're thirsty, but it's an invitation for spiritual water. And again, look at yourself.

You look at yourself in the mirror. Your body gets thirsty and you like to drink water. But there's some thirsty souls here too.

There's some thirsty souls. And by the way, there's a lot of thirsty souls out there. There are people who inwardly are thirsty.

And there are many things that cause thirst on the inside. Purposeless life, thirst. What is life about? I mean, I'm just thirsty for purpose.

I appreciate the testimony here that Uriah gave, that life has purpose. As a young man, I just kind of bounced around through life. What is the purpose of life? And it leaves an emptiness.

It leaves a thirst in the spirit. There's guilt. Guilt produces thirst.

Your spirit, your soul is dry because of guilt. Frustration, the lack of motivation inside your inner man. These are what produce a gnawing thirst in the heart of many.

And there are people probably here this morning, they're thirsty. Thirsty for something to drink. And so the Lord is appealing to each one of us.

He says, if any man thirst, if any man thirst, let him come unto me. By the way, it doesn't say come to church. It doesn't say come to a ritual.

It doesn't say come to a culture or tradition. It says come unto me. Thirst is only quenched by having fellowship with a person.

And that fellowship is with the person of Jesus Christ. Thirst is never quenched. We hear kids on the campus say this.

I tried that Christianity and it didn't work. Well, what they did, they tried to come to a church. They tried to get a drink from a church.

They tried to get a drink from a culture. They tried to get a drink from a ritual. And it didn't satisfy them.

And Jesus says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me. Come to me. You can have a relationship with me.

And that will quench your thirst. That's the only thing that will quench your thirst, by the way. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, all your church going, all your religion is not going to quench the thirst.

The thirst is only quenched by having communion with God. Communion with God. And how do you have communion? If Brother David and I want to have communion together, it's not grape juice and bread.

It's I come over and I talk with him and he talks with me. And we share hearts one with another. We have communion.

And so if I'm going to have communion with the Lord Jesus, I first need to be in a relationship with him. And I need to talk to him. That's what prayer is.

We pray. And I need him to talk to me. And that's what this is right here, the word of God.

And that's why young people especially, and some of us older ones, that's why getting up in the morning and spending time talking to God in prayer and having him talk to you from his word with a sincere desire to seek him out is vital for you to have fellowship with God. You've got to have communion, communication. And so when your devotional life begins to wane, then you begin to have thirst and your soul begins to hunger because the only way to quench that thirst is communion with God, that living water.

And so the Lord is inviting anyone that's thirsty to come unto him and drink. Verse 38, He that believes on me as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit.

Now I'd like to draw a picture here about the unconverted soul. This is a converted soul here we're going to make. This is the three-part man.

You've got the body out here, the soul, and the spirit. And for the unconverted, this inward part here is dead. The Bible calls the unconverted dead in trespasses and sins.

He is dead. He is spiritually dead. That's where that thirst comes from.

There's no communion in the Spirit. God's Spirit does not dwell in their heart, in their inner man. The Bible calls it the belly.

Out of the belly shall come rivers of living water. And so if you're dead here this morning and you try to do good works, the only thing that's going to come out of it is what the Bible calls dead works because you're spiritually dead and there's no life in you. And so this is a purposeless, thirsty, vain life.

The inner man, the belly is empty. It's dead in trespass. And you can put all kinds of religion on this thing, and the Jews did a real good job of that, but they were dead, spiritually dead.

And then you come to Christ and you get a blessing. And that blessing is this, that in your spirit you get a fountain, and that fountain is called the Holy Spirit of God. Amen? And Jesus said it in verse 39, He said, But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

And so when a man comes to the Lord Jesus and he believes on Jesus Christ, then this, the Holy Spirit, takes up occupancy in the belly. When I say the belly, I mean the inner man, the deep recesses of a human being in his spirit. The Holy Spirit of God takes up recess.

And here's a beautiful verse. It says in Philippians that it is God which worketh in you both to will, that's your soul, I am willing to do right and to do of his good pleasure. And so this fountain is pushing out.

It is pushing upon the soul to be willing, and it is pushing upon the body to get it done. So this is the beauty of salvation, when God gives you his spirit, that his spirit begins to push outwardly like a fountain bursting out, and it affects the soul and it affects the body. And we become willing and we become able outwardly to do his good pleasure.

Now, something that I'd like to bring out here in verse 38, it says, he that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Verse 39, but this spake he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive. How many of you know what causes the Holy Spirit to come in here? One word there, believe, believe.

Believe, that's what Abraham did. He believed God, he believed the gospel. So when a person who is dead and trespasses and sins, believes the gospel, then the Holy Spirit comes into their spirit.

And you see this throughout the scriptures. Men who simply believe the gospel as it's being preached, and the Holy Spirit comes into their spirit, and all of a sudden the fountain just bursts out and they begin to praise God, or they begin to speak in tongues, or they do amazing things because the spirit of God has taken up residence in them. Because they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

No works, no works will ever get the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in you. Bible says that God does not give his spirit to us based on works, but we receive the spirit by the hearing of faith. Galatians chapter 3 verse 2. And so I can show you many verses that talk about how the spirit of God comes to man because man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so salvation is by faith, not by works. No works can get you the fountain. No works can get you the well.

No works can get you living water. The living water comes by faith. But, and here's how works come out of this.

When the Holy Spirit comes in by faith, what happens then? All of a sudden we become willing and we begin to do God's good pleasure. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So by faith I receive the Holy Spirit by believing on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once the Holy Spirit is in me, then I begin to do his good pleasure. And so the works come out of the fountain. The works come out of the well.

So they are called the fruits of the what? Spirit. They're not called the fruits of my works. They're called the fruits of the spirit.

They are a byproduct of me having received the Holy Ghost. And so you see faith gives you the spirit. And then once you have the spirit, then works come out of it.

Works do not get you the Holy Spirit, but they show the evidence that you have the Holy Spirit. Amen? Can we all agree with that? So in Ephesians 2, 8-10 it says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

God gives gifts, and the Holy Spirit is his gift, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then the next verse says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And so the good works flow out of a life that has a fountain.

And so throughout the Bible when you see a professing believer who doesn't show forth good works, you know what the Bible asks you to do? To check out the fountain. Remember there in 2 Corinthians when the Corinthian church didn't seem to show good works, and there was issues, immorality, and all kinds of things happening? Paul didn't say, well, you better get busy and get some of these good works, start doing some of those things. No, he said, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith.

Prove your own self. Is Jesus Christ in you? In other words, it's always looking back to whether or not you have true salvation or true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this river or this well is something that's coming up out of the belly.

It's coming up from the inner man. So Jesus is inviting people, if any of you are thirsty, come unto me and drink. And out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.

And so today if you're right with God and you're walking in the Spirit, then you ought to have a fountain. By the way, it doesn't say a trickle. It doesn't say, you know, a squirt every once in a while.

It actually uses this idea of a river. Out of your belly will flow. That's the will of God for rivers to come out of your belly, that the Spirit of God is desiring for a river to flow from you.

And so it is a wonderful thing. If all of us come here on Sunday and we all have a river flowing out of our being and it just pours out over everybody and this place gets filled with water up to our necks, you know, and we're all just thoroughly refreshed and we're swimming in the water and that water is the Holy Spirit that's coming out of each member. And of course that's the will of God for us.

And so if you're right with God, the things that come from the belly are going to be good things. And if you're not right with God, the things that come out of the belly will not be good things. And so throughout the Bible you see a list of the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit.

I'd like to look at those. I know you're familiar with them, but go back to Galatians chapter 5. Some of the works of the flesh and some of the fruits of the Spirit. How do we know that the Spirit of God is in us? Or how do we know that we're walking in the flesh? In Galatians chapter 5 verse 20.

Now let's start in verse 19. Paul writes, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

If you're over here, you don't have the Spirit of God, these kinds of things are going to come out of you. And you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God because you're not a child of God. Verse 22 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy.

Do you find these coming out of your heart, your inner man? Love, like a river. Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.

You know on those works of the flesh, there are laws against them. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not commit fornication.

Thou shalt not commit idolatry. There is restraint on the works of the flesh. Always restraint.

You know that sign, speed limit, limit 55? Speed limit 65, it's limiting you. It's restraining you. Here in the fruits of the Spirit, there is no law against such things.

In other words, you can go as much as you want in the fruits of the Spirit. It's like out in Montana, there's no speed limits. You go 100 mile an hour if you want to.

There's no law. And so you can have as much love as you want, as much joy, as much peace, as much long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Listen, you can go as much as you want.

The fruits of the Spirit. And there are many places in the Bible, we won't go and look at them, but there are many places in the Bible where these lists are given. The works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit are the fruits of the Spirit.

So as you look at your own heart, where are you at here? Now I realize it says here in Galatians 5, verse 24, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, in other words, if we're over here, let us also walk in the Spirit. Now there's a potential to live over here and yet still allow your flesh to control your life.

Verse 26 says, let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another and envying one another. So what's coming up out of the fountain? You know how I evaluate people? I evaluate people on the basis of whether or not these things are coming out of the fountain. You know how? That's how you judge people.

Judge not according to appearance. Jesus said in the chapter before, but judge righteous judgment. Are these fruits coming out of our life like a river? Well, I want to go back to John 7 and finish up here in verse number 39.

Verse 39 of John 7, But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. I didn't realize it when I was 19 years old. I was driving my car home from work.

I had just seen the gospel for the first time. And I was praying and crying out to God for mercy, putting my faith in Jesus Christ and the gospel. And somewhere along that drive home, God gave me his Holy Spirit.

I didn't see anything come down into the car. The Bible says being born of the Spirit is like the wind blowing. You can't see it, but you can see the effects on a life.

And that's what happened to me. I received the Spirit of God. Well, but this spake he, verse 39, of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, Jesus could not give the Holy Spirit until he was glorified. In other words, he had to die, be buried, and raised again.

And he had to be seated at the right hand of God in his glory, glorified. And from that position, then, he could send forth the Holy Spirit. Now, there's a reason why he had to wait to give us the Spirit for his crucifixion.

And one of the primary reasons was this. I was a sinner, and I had no way to cleanse myself. And those lambs and those goats in the Old Testament couldn't cleanse you in reality.

And so I needed to have the blood of Jesus to be truly cleansed. God's Spirit does not dwell in a dirty house, in a dirty temple. And so I needed the blood of Jesus to cleanse my temple so that he could dwell in it.

And so when I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus came into me and just... I did a spring cleaning. Amen? Every corner, every crevice, he just washed all sin out of me. And I'm driving home in my car, and I am now perfectly clean.

And then, when I'm perfectly clean, right behind the blood of Jesus comes the Holy Spirit of God. And now the Holy Spirit lives in me because the blood of Jesus Christ continues to cleanse me from all sin. And so that's why the Holy Spirit couldn't be given until Jesus was glorified.

Well, the Lord is ascended up, and he's seated at the right hand of God, and that's the prophecy of David's kingdom that would be established forever. And so the kingdom of God has begun when Jesus sits at the right hand of God. And what does he do? He sends his Spirit into our hearts.

And the Romans, I think it's chapter 14, says, The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so you and I have the privilege of living in the kingdom of God. Living in the kingdom of God.

Underneath the authority of our King. Living in the Holy Spirit. Walking in the Spirit.

Living in the kingdom. So I believe that the Bible teaches we're living in the kingdom of God now. We can live in the kingdom of God right now.

And righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so the Lord Jesus has offered us a wonderful, wonderful salvation. Cleansing us from sin and dwelling in us by his Spirit.

And a church will thrive. When we talk about revival, a church will thrive, and there will be revival. When this well, this river is flowing out.

Amen? And you get a bunch of people together and this well and river is flowing out of them. Then there is revival. There is stirring.

There is good things that happen. But just like it was in the Old Testament, the devil comes along and tries to stop up the wells. You know when the Israelites would build wells, the enemy would come and try to stop them.

They'd always try to stop them. And that's what's happening today. Many people, their well has been stopped up.

And the devil has brought things into their life where the fountain is there, but there's nothing coming out. There's many things that stop wells, but one of the things that stops wells, maybe more than anything else, is unforgiveness and bitterness. When you want to stop up your well, you try unforgiveness and bitterness.

That's a big stone, and you drop that down in that well, and there won't be any water coming up. The world, playing around and loving and having affections for the world, also is something that stops up the well. So let's make sure that the water is flowing, that when we live in the Spirit, we also walk in the Spirit.

And maybe you need to get your heart right with God in some of these areas so that you can have a refreshing from the presence of the Lord. And so the Lord is good to us in giving us His Spirit. Those that believe on Him shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

All right, we're going to close this morning with a word of prayer, and then we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share.