Pen of Iron

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The word “faith” here stands for 3 things in the Bible.

1) Jesus is the author and finisher of the scriptures.

2) Jesus is the author and finisher of the hope.

3) Jesus is the author and finisher of the Christian race.

1. Jesus is the author and finisher of the scriptures

As a born-again Bible-believer, there is nothing for you to believe outside what the Lord Jesus Christ delivered in the scriptures. Christians have a common faith because they have common scriptures which were

1) authored,
2) finished,
3) delivered,
4) revealed,
5) taught,
6) preserved,
7) and magnified

by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is Jesus’ articles of faith.
Our common faith is the Bible itself; not the catechism, not Vatican 1 or 2 or 3, or the council of Trent, or the canons of Dort or the Synod of Emden, or the Westminister confession of faith or any other defiled product of the human spirit.

I once offered a gospel tract to an older gentleman. He refused by saying "No thank you, I'm a Catholic".
I said "Sir, those are just Bible verses".
He then gave me as honest a confession as I've ever heard:
"It's ok, we a have a little more than that".


He not only authored the scriptures, he finished them. When Christians deny the fact that the Lord preserves his word down through the years and translations, they deny the fact that he is the finisher of our faith.
How could he be the finisher of our faith if he didn’t preserve it?


The Lord Jesus Christ spoke and some 40 Hebrew secretaries wrote. Sometimes he wrote himself.
Once he etched two tables of stone with his finger in the backside of a desert.
Another time he scribbled on the plaister of the wall of a king’s palace.
If you’re born-again, it’s because he’s written upon the table of your heart.

The Lord Jesus Christ wrote the prologue and the epilogue of the Bible and everything in between.
He’s there in the first verse of the Book:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

He’s there in the last verse of the Book:

Revelation 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

He’s there in the middle verse of the Book:

Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Beware of getting carried away with the Red Letter editions of the Bible. All the words of the Bible are inspired by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, not just the red stuff.

The Lord Jesus Christ wrote the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels and the Epistles.

He is the only author to have written anything before his birth and after his death.

He is the best-selling, best-loved authored of all time.
He is the most-read, most-translated, most-quoted, most-plagiarized, most-immitated, most-criticized, most-praised author of all time.

In the Pentateuch, he’s a greater anthropolgist than Levi-strauss.
In Joshua, he’s a greater military strategist than Thucydides and Clausewitz.
In Judges he’s a greater tragedist than Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus.
In Ruth he’s a greater short-story writer than Hemingway.
In 1 Samuel to Esther, he’s a greater historian than Herodotus.
In Job he’s a greater dramatist than Shakespear.
In the Psalms he’s a greater song-writer than Homer.
In Proverbs he’s a greater writer of wisdom than Confucius.
In Ecclesiastes he’s a greater philosopher than Plato.
In Song of songs he’s a greater poet than Wordsworth and Neruda.
In Isaiah to Malachi he’s a greater prophet than Nostradamus.
In the gospels he’s a greater autobiographist than Augustine.
In the epistles he’s a greater letter-writer than Horace.
In Hebrews he’s a greater theologian than Ruckman and Larkin and Scofield.
In Revelation he’s a greater horror-writer than Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King.

Did you know that Stephen King is mentioned in the Bible?

Job 18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

That’s in the middle of a context dealing with the antichrist, who is to be brought to the king of terrors. Stephen King is dealing with a very dangerous spirit.

You look unto Jesus in prayer and also in reading the scriptures “looking unto Jesus the author”. How in the world can you do that unless you’re looking at what he authored?

The Holy Ghost in the verse writes “looking” and in the same breath mentions “faith”.

2Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
How can you know the Word of God if you don’t read the word of God?
How can you consider yourself a Christian if you’ve never read the whole Bible? If you’ve never finished the scriptures, how can you know the one who finished them? How are you as a spiritual Christian, looking unto Jesus, if you’re not constantly in the book?


At the end of the day, you either believe the author of this book, or another author. You either have the faith of Jesus Christ, or the faith of another man.
At the end of the day it’s “thus saith the Lord” versus “Thus saith so and so”.
It’s author against author; book against book.


2. Jesus is the author and finisher of the hope.

More than once the Bible will speak about “the faith of the Son of God” or “the faith of Christ”. The faith you have is the faith of God. That doesn’t mean that the Lord has faith; it means he gives faith: the faith that is of God, that comes of God.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The antecedent of “it” is faith. The faith that you have in Jesus Christ was not produced by you. It was given to you of God. How was the ability to believe in Jesus Christ given you? By the preaching of the word of God.

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

According to the last half of the verse, you hadn’t heard anything until you heard the word of God. Hearing comes by the word of God. So until the word of God had come to you, you had been spiritually deaf. You hadn’t heard a spiritual sound in your life until you heard a verse being quoted. There are physical sounds detected by your flesh and there are spiritual sounds detected by your spirit. Your spirit had never heard anything until it heard the words of God because they are spirit (John 6:63) and spiritual sounds are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14)
When you heard the word of God, at the moment God also gave you the ability to believe it. But you can stop your ears. You can shut down the sound. And then like the Pharisees, you will not understand the speech of the Lord Jesus Christ because you cannot hear it. Just like a radio station, when you don’t receive something you can’t hear it. If the word of God doesn’t speak to you it’s because you’ve hit the “mute” button.

I stand here today to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. I love and worship him. I have never seen him. I have never heard him. I have never touched him.

1Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

Not only do born-again Christians believe in Jesus Christ. They love him. Many people believe in Muhammad. Nobody loves him. Many people believe in Buddha. Nobody loves him. Christians are not a special breed of people who are able to produce dillusional faith. We exercise no effort in believing in the face of reality. Our God gave us the faith. We simply have it and we obtained that wonderful gift by receiving his words when we heard them. We simply didn’t turn off the radio station. Obtaining faith is as easy as hearing.
Saving faith is a gift. Do you want to become a believer? Then just listen. The Lord Jesus Christ will make a believer out of you. It is his gift.
It had to be that way because Hebrews 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please him”
Well faith is a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, not of man.
There are no great believers; just great hearers.
If you want to grow in faith, then simply do what you first did to obtain faith: hear the word of God. Spend time in the Bible and God will increase your faith.

Hebrews 12:2 has more to say.

This is a generation of quitters. They quit school, then they quit work. They quit the wife then they quit the children. They quit the ministry, then they quit the church.

Jesus Christ never quit a thing in his life.

He didn’t quit carpentry, he didn’t quit his ministry, he didn’t quit his own.
Though all quit on you, he won’t.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Do you know why charity is greater than hope and faith in 1 Corinthians 13? It is because whereas “charity never faileth”, hope and faith do. Heaven is a hopeless, faithless place. Exactly what every atheist dreams of, and he can only get there by faith. Evidenly our God also has a taste for irony.

Jesus Christ walked up Golgotha, got on the cross and did not come down till he had cried “it is finished”. (John 19:30)
He is the author and finisher of our faith and when his blessed hand scribbles “the end” with its own blood, woe to that man that would presume to add a P.S.
If your faith does begin as well as end with Jesus, then your faith is not in Jesus. It’s not Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It’s Jesus, Jesus and Jesus.


3) Jesus is the author and finisher of the Christian race.

When Paul says in 2Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”
“ the faith” as Paul speaks of it, includes worshipping Jesus Christ as God, believing the scriptures, the resurrection, the rapture, separated living, the renewing of the mind, the two natures of the believer, a heavenly conversation, a right attitude, an honest testimony, a bold witness, an assurance of eternal life and the will of God.
The author and finisher of all these things is Jesus.


The reason we look unto Jesus is precisely because he is the author and finisher of our faith. The Spirit of Jesus Christ never bore witness unto Mary, or the Pope, or any “saint”.
All Christians recognize that. But sometimes, though Christians realize that their faith was authored by Jesus, they think it is finished by Ruckman, or Billy Sunday or the pastor or the deacon or some missionary. That’s why they get offended and quit. They weren’t looking unto Jesus. You didn’t leave because Jesus offended you. You left because someone else offended you. That proves you weren’t looking unto or coming for Jesus and no amount of arguing will ever change that.

In v.1 he said I’m compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.
Have you read the list of witnesses in chapter 11. Those are men I would live and die to emulate; good men, just men, men who had the respect of God himself.
And though I am compassed about with so great a cloud, yet am I commanded to look unto Jesus. If you’re running the race looking unto the witnesses you’re liable to run into a cloud.
You can run in the right direction while looking at the people around you and you can run in the right direction while looking at yourself.

In swimming, you're taught a stop-jump. There's a technique whereby when you jump into the water you can avoid sinking your head below the water level so you can maintain visual contact with victim. Otherwise when your head comes back out of the water, you might lose the drowing victim in the horizon or the crowd.

That's how a Christian should run the race, never for a moment losing sight of Jesus.
Of course, he is the saviour but if he wouldn't lose sight of you, you shouldn't lose sight of him.

Jesus creates Adam, then he comes as the last Adam.
He writes the scriptures, then he says “it is written”.
He births you by water and he births you by the Spirit.
You’re crucified with Jesus you’re risen with Jesus.
You sleep in Jesus, you’re brought back with Jesus.
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
You’re present in the body you’re absent from the Lord, you’re absent from the body you’re present with the Lord.
Jesus goes outside the camp and Jesus bids you come along with him.
Jesus reconciles your alienated mind and gives you the mind of Christ.
He is your Saviour and he is your Judge.
The church began with his first coming, the church ends with his second coming.
We are his rib, he is our Head.

He is the cornerstone and the headstone.
He is the foundation and he is the crown.
He is Alpha and Omega.
He is the beginning and the ending.
He is the first and he is the last.
He is the root of David and the offspring of David.
He is the Son of God and he is the Son of Man.

He is the author and finisher of your faith.

Do you know why we do anything? It’s so we can give more pleasure to Jesus. We obey him so we can love him. We worship him so we can please him. We witness, not merely for the sake of saving a sinner’s soul from hell, but that Jesus might have one more person to love and worship him. You pray and read the Bible and listen to preaching so you can grow; not merely so you can get more blessings but that Jesus might get more glory out of you. We seek wisdom so we can serve him better.
We seek knowledge so we can know him better. The be all end all of anything a Christian strives for, is precisely so he can get into a position where he can better worship Jesus Christ.
That’s why prayer is so central to our faith. When you are praying, you are at the height of the Christian faith: the worship God in intimacy, which is greater than worshipping God in service. You’re up there spiritually beholding the face of the Father.

You look unto Jesus in prayer and you look unto him in reading the Bible. How else can you look at the author of your faith in this age?
When you’re reading and praying, you are at the height of the Christian faith. (Forsight insight) That’s why you can boil down 50% of all sermons preached to “read your Bible and pray everyday”.

Now how will he finish our faith?

2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This is how he authors your faith.

1Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

This is how he finishes your faith: sight.
We were the joy that was set before him.
He is the joy that is set before us.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 3:16 AM | 43 comments    

Labels: sermons

1Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.


2Corinthians 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

The weakness of God is stronger than men; one of the first and last things Paul ever tells the Corinthians.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

I`m preaching the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I say “the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ” I’m not referring to the fact that he was crucified by men. I’m referring to the fact that the whole operation belonged to him and was under his control. It was HIS crucifixion.

Verses 14 and 15 of Colossians 2 burst with the glorious power of the crucified Son of God. There’s so much going in these few words it hurts to think about it. I do not claim to fully understand everything that’s going on here but I’d like to give you a sketch of the spiritual context before showing you a couple things that the Lord showed me in those verses.

Colossians chapter 2 attacks with the intent to destroy 2 things : philosophy and religion. Paul presents philosophy as primarily the sphere of men and religion as primarily the sphere of angelic beings. If you understood the implications of that it would send a shiver or two up your spine. The central part of Colossians 2 hinges on the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Philosophy and Religion are both destroyed in the cross.

But tonight I want to preach on neither; both those things have gotten undeserved recognition. Look again at verses 14-15 and go back with me 2000 years in time. Or as far as God is concerned, 2 days ago.
I want to show you a couple of reasons why the Lamb is worthy of your worship.


Let me ask you a question.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

According to Paul, who’s doing the nailing?

He is. He was giving the Roman soldiers the breath to live and the strength to pound the nails. “…in him we live and move and have our being” right? He was controlling their blood pressure, their breathing, their articulations… He was a carpenter. He had pounded nails all his life. “Friend, that nail is loose. Make it fast; more deft in the motion. Don’t forget my feet now, men sin with their feet too…”
Now if you think four rusty Roman nails could keep the Lord of glory stuck on a piece of wood you’re gravely mistaken. You say ‘nobody believes that’. Well every crucifix testifies to that belief in people. It occurred to me that some people may be so bent on having a cross with Jesus on it because they wish he never got off.
You don’t know who Jesus Christ is if you think Roman nails could pin down the one who pinned up the earth in the void of space.
He was doing the nailing. And he was nailing the coffin on our sin. Those nails were meant to keep our sin up against the cross, under the sun, then covered by darkness, lest it should crawl off the tree for shame. He bare our sins in his own body then he drove the nails of judgment through his own flesh. That’s the reason why you can have the promise of the redemption of your body, and not only of your soul: body for body, soul for soul.

The Lord Jesus Christ is to be praised because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

He made it his own cross.
He didn’t nail the handwriting of ordinances to a cross, he nailed it to his cross. He made that piece of wood his own. He took ownership of it. And why shouldn’t he? He had given that tree life. It wasn’t a cross that the Romans imposed upon him and it wasn’t a cross that the Jews imposed upon him. It was a cross that he nourished, it was a cross that he chose and it was a cross that he carried up Calvary’s mountain.
Going up Golgotha was not any more imposed upon Jesus Christ than going up in the way to Bethel was imposed upon Elisha by the little children when they mocked him, saying : Go up, thou bald head.
Have you ever encountered such people? You’re on your way out of the door and they say `go out the door` and feel proud that they commanded and you obeyed. That’s how it was with Jesus Christ. He was doing the will of his Father, having his face set like a flint. All the counsels and all the devices of all the hosts of heaven and earth, whether principalities or powers or thrones or dominions, or kings or princes or nobles or rulers or priests, were as immaterial to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ as the commandment of the little children was to Elisha’s going up the way that he had set his face to go up.
If the Roman soldiers had refused to lift up that cross that morning, the Lord of glory would have lifted himself up by his bootstraps and planted that piece of wood into the cursed ground.
It was his operation, his crucifixion, his arena. By virtue of the word of his power the soil was his, the tree was his, Jerusalem was his, the soldiers were his, the priests were his, the hammer and nails were his, the spear was his, the crown of thorns was his and the atonement was ours! He set up the whole thing.

He was completely, totally and utterly in control of the situation. That’s why he could afford so calmly to tell the daughters of Jerusalem to weep over themselves instead of him. Movies like “the Passion of the Christ” have the wrong emphasis. I’m waiting for the crucifixion movie that emphasizes the wretched sinfulness of man and the power of God to redeem.

The Lord Jesus Christ won the heart of the battle a few hours before the cross. It was over the moment he got up off his knees in the garden of Gethsemane.
It’s because he got on his knees that he could bare his feet crucified. It’s because his elbows bore into the sod that he could bare his hands crucified. It’s because he bowed his head that he could bear it crowned with thorns. It’s because he sweat great drops of blood that he could bare having it all shed from his side.
The moment the Lord Jesus Christ got off those powerful knees of his in the garden, it was game over for Satan. Sports analysts always look for the turning point of a game. The Lord walks over to the disciples and says « Rise, let us be going ». There’s your turning point.

Now when he said « I’m going to the cross » it wasn’t with any more trepidation than when he said « I’m going to my Father ».

The Lord Jesus Christ is to be praised because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And one day, the Lord will tell us the same thing with the same voice of assurance « Rise, let us be going ». Meanwhile, as you’re waiting for him like the disciples did, you just find life so unbearable because you don’t bare serious prayer.


Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Those principalities and powers are very much interested in keeping men under the bondage of religion. The Son of God delivered us from the fear of death and from the devil who had the power of death. Now Colossians 2:15 is a snapshot of a brutal spiritual battle that I don’t quite understand. It is a broad verse.

Boxers will sometimes offer to fight their opponent with one hand tied behind their back. The Son of God tied both his hands and feet and still made a publick spectacle of Satan’s heroes.

Everything I am about to list is attested by a verse of scripture:

They accused him of breaking the sabbath, he perfected atonement in the end of an high sabbath.
They conspired to cut off his name, he prayed to blot out theirs.
They said “this people who knoweth not the law are cursed”, he redeemed us from the curse of the law.
They judged him in the morning, he will judge them in the kingdom morning.
They asked “art thou the Son of the Blessed,” he said “he is my Father”.
They asked “what is truth?”, he said “I am the truth”.
They asked “art thou the king of the Jews?”, he said I am the King of Kings.
One asked “who is the LORD?”, he answered “what is man?”
They took him from prison, he preached delivrance to the captives.
They cried “Away with him”, he took out of the way the handwriting of ordinances.
They said his blood be upon us, he’ll rain blood upon them.
They gave him vinegar to drink, he’ll give them wormwood to drink.
They stripped him publickly, he made a shew of them openly.
They clothed him with a scarlet robe, he’ll clothe them with shame and dip his vesture in blood.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns, that same crown will flourish.
They handed him a reed, his rod will bud.
They beat him with the reed, he’ll break them in pieces with a rod of iron.
They bound him, he bound the strong man.
They led him away captive, he led captivity captive.
They made him bare the cross, he bore our sorrows and carried our griefs on top of it.
They hung him between two thieves, he will sit between Moses and Elijah.
They lift him up from the earth, he was taken up to heaven.
They tempted him to come down from the cross, he’s going to come down from heaven.
They nailed him, he nailed our sins.
They tore his flesh, he rent the veil.
They said we see, he covered the land with darkness.
They destroyed his temple, he rebuilt it in 3 days.
They spoiled him, he spoiled principalities and powers.
They gnashed upon him with their teeth and cast scorning in his, he’ll break the teeth of the ungodly and make his own white with milk.
They sealed his tomb, he sealed his saints.
They buried him, he resurrected.
They inclosed him in hell, he walked out with the keys.

Because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 8:17 PM | 2 comments    

Labels: sermons

Open
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, 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.

The Lord Jesus Christ is no pusher. He doesn’t push eternal life on anybody.
Jesus Christ is a puller.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Hosea 11:3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
:4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

If you only knew who is that God that has kept you alive by his grace so far. If only your eyes were opened to know him. I want your eyes to be opened by God.

Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

He hasn’t kept you alive that you might go on sinning. He told the woman taken in adultery “go and sin no more”.
He hasn’t healed you that you might sin the better, he told the old man by the pool “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. “

He hasn’t kept you alive because you’re such an intelligent swell guy. He’s kept you alive hoping that finally you’d wake up and realize who he is and what you are; that you might look upon thy maker, thy redeemer, and give him your heart; that he may obtain the reward of his suffering, even your soul, your love, your loyalty, your obedience, your praise.

A man may ask ``well about the hard times I’ve suffered``, where was God’s goodness there? Assuming you weren’t reaping what you sowed I’ll tell you this: you’ve all heard the expression

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

In days gone by, our forefathers knew that if a horse had been sick and is weak and in danger of going down, you could put a little salt in his oats and that salt would draw it to the watering trough and make it drink.

That’s how the Lord God deals with many people because they’re too drugged up to feel their thirst and that they`re are about to die of dehydration! So he’ll do anything he can to draw you to the water of life without denying the free will he gave you.

:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

The more you drink alcohol the more you thirst. It’s a cruel master. The more you serve it the less it feeds you.
The more you smoke the less you breathe.
The more you consume the less you’re filled.

Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

That’s not some psychologist’s opinion. That’s a statement of fact uttered by the Creator of heaven and earth.

He’s saying, buddy if you ain’t got me, you’ll go back to it, every time, just as sure as a man goes for water when he’s thirsty.

Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

Don’t get fooled now, it won’t be “just this once”, it won’t be “one last time”, it won’t be “one more binge then I’ll quit”.

Why? Because: Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

That’s literal. Spiritual doesn’t mean not-literal.

Open

John 7:37 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.
:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
:39 (But 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.)

Here you have the Lord God of heaven and earth standing in the midst of a monstrous religious ceremony and as he looks around he perceives that his creation is dying of spiritual thirst! Smack dab in the middle of a national religious festival.
Everything in him wants to bring this madness to a screeching halt. STOP THAT STOP IT, ENOUGH.
Aghast at the madness of men, he rushes up, stands in a visible place and shouts with all the strength in his lungs:

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.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified. He has been received up into glory after his resurrection and is right now seated on the right hand of the Father in the third heaven.

And the offer is more valid today, it is more urgent today than ever it was. And that offer is not eternal.

Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

For you it is free, but for the Lord it wasn’t. Your salvation from hell cost him his blood. He payed for your soul with his own lifeblood.
Christians sing an hymn which says “great price of my pardon his own precious Son”. I love that line.
Now you can simply walk up and buy those waters. The currency is the blood of the Lamb of God. It buys full and eternal forgiveness of sins. It never gets depreciated, just underappreciated.

That’s some expensive water, and unlike Evian, it’s worth it. You’ll never thirst again.

Jeremiah 2:12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

God doesn’t invoke the witness of the earth. The world, as usual, doesn’t care.

John 1 [10] He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

That woman had the glory of everlasting life staring her in the eyeballs through the eyes of a man, never suspecting that salvation could be as easy as meeting a man, who happened to be God.

[11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Some knew who he was and rejected him. Do you know why men don’t like the idea of God becoming man. Because it brings God so near that his holiness is too close for comfort. It reveals God as a personal God, interested in your thoughts and actions. That’s too close for comfort for those who love darkness. So they reject the light of the world. They love filthiness, so they reject the water of life.

The Lord set up things so that all life depends on water that comes from above. If your land is thirsty then you’re scanning the heaven for clouds of hope. He made it that way to teach mankind a spiritual lesson: life depends on heaven for water. (Just like it does for light)

Remember the verse

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

He was lifted up from the earth by a tree: the cross.

John 19 :34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

The water which came from his side came from above.

The word of God calls Jesus Christ "the dayspring from on high" Luke 1:78

You know where some of you are stuck? You’re stuck at the well, like that woman. You’re looking down to quench your thirst, just like that woman.
Pick up that cigarette butt out of the garbage, pick up that coin on the street, pick up that needle on the ground…You shall thirst again.

You can’t make a horse drink and you can’t make a pig look up. Did you know that? Their skeletal structure is designed to look down and move sideways. They can only lift their heads to see 70 degrees from the ground.

What about you?

Jeremiah 2:13 they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,

He was offering the living waters for free, yet they chose rather to work for them, breaking their backs to hew cisterns that could hold no water.

He said ``two evils``: ingratitude and folly.

Empty cisterns were used as prisons. So Joseph was cast into a "pit" (Genesis 37:22); Jeremiah into one miry at the bottom, and so deep that he was let down by cords (Jeremiah 38:6)

Cisterns yield only a limited supply of water, not an overflowing spring. The stonework of tanks often becomes broken, and the water leaks into the earth; and, at best, the water is not fresh long.
The cistern would hold you captive but let the water escape.
Joseph and Jeremiah cried their hearts out to be delivered.

What moldy, stagnant water are you drinking: Alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling?

What cistern are you building around you? Often the wells are more outwardly beautiful on the outside than drugs and alcohol but just as filthy on the inside. What’s your golden sewer?
Religion? Philosophy? Education? Science? Politics? Morality?
Congratulations, you’re choosing and building your own private prison.

The Lord’s heart is breaking. Crucified, his side poured out blood then water.

You don’t get to taste the water of life until you’ve been washed in the blood of its author.
Yet the Lord Jesus Christ is ignored, rejected, lightly esteemed, by men who are dying of thirst; men who would rather toil and drink their own sweat than confess their wretchedness.
What’s wrong with a man admitting the truth? “Lord, I’ve tried it all, and it’s a cruel mess that I’ve made of my life. I’m thirstier today then ever I was. I’m tired of trying to find satisfaction my way. Here am I, a sinful, rebellious fool. That book says you can satisfy my deep thirst and forgive all my sins. Lord Jesus, please give me of that water of yours, save me from the flames of hell and from my own wretchedness!”

What’s wrong with that?

But there are many who would rather drink sewage water than pray such a prayer from the heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well to you I say; don’t be surprised if the Lord treats you as a sewage rat on the day of the judgment.
Remember the rich man in hell, who begged to have Lazarus dip his finger in water and cross over to touch his tongue. If your tongue won’t ask for the living water that the Lord Jesus Christ offers you so freely today, rest assured that you will spend eternity panting for water.

You know what that woman ended up doing after meeting Jesus Christ in person? Look at verse

[28] The woman then left her waterpot,

She left her water pot. Some of you just can’t let go of that "pot". She just didn’t need it anymore; she wasn’t dependent on it anymore. She had drunk of the fountain of living waters.
Some of you here just can’t seem to let go of your sin, of your addiction.
You’re never going to lose your addiction; you’re going to have to leave it.

But you know what your problem is? You’ve never met Jesus Christ in person yet. You’ve never had a head-on collision with him. You still think he’s a great Jewish man who showed up 2000 years ago in dusty Israel. You still don’t get who he is and you still don’t know the gift of God.

So many folks say they ask for salvation everynight. Have you ever called on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you?

"Oh sure, everynight I do".

Buddy, YOU SHALL THIRST AGAIN.

Salvation is one-time deal. It is a single drink. Jesus Christ said that you "shall never thirst".
If you ask to be forgiven and saved from hell every night it's because you're still drinking the wrong water. You're still stuck at the well, having to go back and forth to draw out dead water.
Only once did water come out of the Lord's side. Only once do you need to drink. I had that drink back in the Spring of 1989. Praise God I'm still satisfied.
Your problem is that you're still depending on your self, on your ability to go out to the well and return, day in day out. You had better bring the fountain of living waters to you and get it in you because one day your body will give out and collapse. Receive Jesus Christ by faith into your heart; you'll never have to go to that well again.

Now to the believers here I’d like to say that Jesus Christ only ever asked for 2 things in his life. Both times it was for a drink of water. He never got either.
He never got it from that woman, and he never got it on the cross when he said "I thirst". Too many of you are concerned with what Jesus Christ can do for you and you never think of what you could do for him.

To the rest I’d like to say this:

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, 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.


Salvation is as easy as drinking a glass of water. Some of you philosophical types die of thirst while debating whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. The water won’t do you any good in the glass. You could even bathe in a fountain and still die of thirst. The water’s got to get in you.

(Drink)

You can stick 60 000 things in your mouth but you can’t drink a cup of the water of life?!

Romans10: 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Some of you can smell a good deal a mile off. But the natural man is so spiritually deficient he can’t spot eternal life and satisfaction for free when it’s staring him in the eyeballs.

One hell-bound sinner, after having licked-up the barrel’s bottom, sat down in his misery and wrote:
“I can’t get no satisfaction”. And just to prove it to you he repeats the chorus a dozen times. Of course the devil does everything with style. He gives the guy a nice tune to go with the words and watches as millions of miserable pitiful wretches sing themselves to death.

What a loser. I got my satisfaction; my Lord Jesus.

Born-again Christians sing a hymn called "Satisfied".

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 1:10 PM | 3 comments    

Labels: sermons