Apply Within

Bob Davis: If anyone is thirsty, let that one come to me. Do you hear that? Who is the invitation to? Only the special chosen? Only those who are predestined to go to heaven? The language is so clear, you have to cheat to make it say anything else. People do, but it is so clear your children can read it and understand it.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse-by-verse through the Bible. Jesus promises living water as our study of John continues in chapter 7, verse 37. Here is Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: The last day, verse 37, John chapter 7. In the last day, the great day of the feast. In other words, the biggest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any individual thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me—he or she, he is not meaning only males; he is talking about any individual, guy or girl—if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

John puts some commentary to help you and me understand: but this he spoke of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which those that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus has not been glorified. He has not died and risen again. The Holy Spirit will be given as part of the new covenant in his blood.

On the last day, the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles—remember, that is the feast they are at—each and every day during the feast, the priests would carry water from the pool of Siloam usually to the altar there at the tabernacle area of burnt offerings. They would pour that water into a beautiful silver bowl dish, and they would sing while they were walking, while they carried the water. The people would walk along, and the roads would be lined with people, and the people would sing along with them as they walked as they were taking the water from the pool over to the temple area to pour it into that basin by the altar of burnt offering. The people would sing Isaiah chapter 12, verse 3.

"Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation." That is so cool. It is amazing to me how so many pastors and teachers will say there is really not much in the Old Testament for the true Christian. They say we are really just New Testament kind of people. You miss so much if you do not spend time in the entire word of God. You just miss it because what a song to be able to sing. It is symbolic of being cleansed. It is symbolic of being washed, and the water is poured out right there at the altar of burnt offering where the sacrifice was to be made.

It was a daily ritual for the seven days. Remember, the seven-day Feast of Booths or Tabernacles was to help them to remember the 40 years in the wilderness where they actually lived in little tents or makeshift booths, and then they would pack up and move on. 40 years they lived that way, and God took care of them. If you will recall, there was a rock that Moses struck the first time. From then on he would speak, and out of the rock would come water, fresh living water. That is what they are singing. It is all symbolic to show you what Jesus Christ is going to do, to show you that you are washed and you are cleansed.

The daily ritual of Israel reminded them not just of the 40 years, but especially the water from that rock that never failed. God said to Moses strictly, "You strike the rock the first time, once. From then on, you speak to the rock and water will come out." The rock, we know, is Jesus Christ. We know it because we have the New Testament; we have 1 Corinthians. Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 10:4.

Talking about all of them going through the wilderness and all of the children of Israel did drink the same spiritual drink. They were drinking real water, but it is the spiritual context. Paul says they drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Messiah. Why did God say only strike that rock once and from then on for the rest of the 40 years speak to the rock? Because God promised that His Son, the Messiah, would only be struck one time. He would only suffer one time for all eternity, one time for all sin. From then on, the water flows.

Why could Moses not enter into the promised land? He lost his temper. Praise God you and I have never done that, but Moses did. He was sick and tired of being sick and tired of the people. They kept saying, "We are going to die, we are going to die. Look, we have had water every day. Why are you worried now because it is a little hotter that you are not going to have water?" He said, "You guys make me mad." So he struck the rock again. God said to strike it once; from then on, speak to the rock.

God says, "Moses, you misrepresented me in front of the people." What do you mean I misrepresented you? You were mad at the people; I was not. You were frustrated with the people; I am not. You misrepresented me. Because you misrepresented me, you will not enter into the promised land. He had to go on home. He got called in before it was time to quit playing. We are talking about this because the daily ritual during the seven days right here that you are reading about in verse 37, on the last day of the feast. It was done every day, but this day, the feast is now just about finished. Jesus speaks up.

If anyone thirsts. Do you hear that? Let me say it in American: If anyone, anyone at all of the millions that are here, if anyone is thirsty, let that one come to me. Do you hear that? Who is the invitation to? Only the special chosen? Only those who are predestined to go to heaven? The language is so clear, you have to cheat to make it say anything else. People do, but it is so clear your children can read it and understand it. If anyone is thirsty, any man, any woman, anybody thirsty, let that one come to me.

Jesus is not speaking about needing a drink of cold water. He is speaking spiritually. That is how he does this. He is speaking spiritually. Paul says, "And they did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was the Messiah, Jesus Christ." Jesus is saying, "Come to me now. If anyone is thirsty, you come to me." He is not speaking about a drink of water; he is speaking about spiritual life, speaking about our hearts, the real us. Not just these bodies. You drink regular old water—and it does not get hot in Idaho—but in some states it will get hot and you actually get thirsty again. He is promising here that will not happen if you drink the spiritual water. You have to go to him and get it.

Notice when Jesus says these words clearly, he puts a condition to it. There is a condition to it. If anyone is thirsty, let them come. Spiritually thirsty. What does that mean? Let's put it in our common language: If anyone is spiritually in need. Here is the deal: If I do not know that I am a sinner, then I am not in need. I am not in any kind of need, certainly not desperate need. If anyone out there is spiritually dry, you come to me; I will give you a drink, drink of that living water. If I do not realize I am lost, I will not worry about somebody coming to find me. Jesus will save you immediately if you recognize your need for Him. You will say, "I am thirsty. I am a sinner. I need help. Lord, save me, help me."

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, that is when you look to Jesus. He says, "I am right here. Come on. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." If you look at the language and you translate it literally into American: "Out of his belly shall gush torrents of living water." Once the Holy Spirit is in your life, it flows. The Holy Spirit and that water flows to others. Everybody gets shook up in this life. You get bumped around and knocked, and we are full of something, every one of us is. When someone hits you or bumps you because you are tossed around in this life, something from you spills onto them. What is it? Bitterness, jealousy, hatred, anger, ugly? Or is it Holy Spirit? When you bump us around, the Holy Spirit should be pouring out.

Deep inside, even when you are not comfortable with what is happening around you, there is a peace in there that you know God has given you eternal life. You cannot feel it always, but you know it by faith. It is there. That is not going anywhere. No matter how shaky your life gets, that is not going anywhere. The Spirit satisfies our soul and satisfies our need for God and provides regeneration, new life. That means a new spiritual life. He gives guidance, he gives us the power to trust and obey, and he gives us the power to serve. That is what the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, "Of a truth, this is the prophet. This has got to be the Messiah that Moses was talking about. Got to be." Others said, "This is the Messiah himself specifically." But some said, "Shall Messiah, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said the Christ comes of the seed of David out of the town of Bethlehem where David was?" So there was a division, an argument. They separated among the people because of Jesus. They are fighting about it. We do that as Christians even. We start to argue over Scripture, and we are not understanding what the Scripture says. We cannot be ignorant of this. We cannot just begin to try and argue with each other about the word of God. We can discuss it; we can talk about it. We are not going to fight about it because there is always more to learn.

Jesus had just given an amazing invitation to everyone. No one was excluded, and no one was left out. Anyone with the will to humble themselves and admit their need can come to Jesus and freely be given eternal life. That is what he just said. That is what they heard. What are they talking about? The people are still confused about God's word. They discuss it among themselves. Have you been to a Bible study ever where they sit down in a circle and they will read a verse and they will say, "Bill, what do you think of that? What does that mean to you?" Bill will pipe up and say, "I think it means God hates all turkeys." Then they will discuss it. That is not a Bible study. That is sharing our ignorance. It is sharing our opinion.

Is your opinion important? Well, to you. My opinion is important to me, but that is about it; it goes no further than that. When you are in a Bible study like that, God bless you, but I am telling you right now you are in trouble. You are going to learn some things there that have nothing to do with what the word of God says, but that is what the people think it means because they like that and someone else told them that or they read it in a book. We do not want to get into a study where everyone puts in their two cents. I do not need to share my ignorance with you. If I have not studied it and I do not know, I will say, "I am not sure; I will go check." It is better.

I have told you about this little Baptist church. It is not all Baptist churches, but the one that we went to. I wanted to see what it was like, and they have adult Sunday school. You go to church, you have to go to adult Sunday school. Usually adult Sunday school first and then church. We are in the adult Sunday school class and demons come running at Jesus, and he cast those demons out and they go into a herd of swine. 2,000 swine go off a cliff and they die. The leader of the Bible study says, "Now let's discuss this." He said, "Here is the question: Does God hate pigs?" I thought it was a joke. So I pipe right up. I said, "Oh yeah, God hates all pigs. Except the part with bacon, and then he likes that, even though it is unclean."

They look at me like... and then the elders, the ones you could tell that always answer, they pipe up. "Well, they are unclean, and because they are unclean, clearly God does not like them, and yes, He hates pigs." We spent nearly 40 minutes talking about whether God hated pigs. They missed everything that was in there about the grace and the mercy and the power of God. I am telling you, that is not the only Bible study like that going on in America today. The people are confused. They discuss it among themselves. They are not rightly dividing the word clearly; they do not know what the Bible says. All they have got is the Old Testament, and they do not know what the Old Testament says. They pull out a part and the Old Testament does mention something, and they bring that up, but they do not know how to work it. They have never studied it.

It is just obviously someone told them about Bethlehem. That is where David comes from, so Christ has to come out of Bethlehem, so he cannot be the Messiah because he comes from Nazareth. There was a division. There always is. When you get into a Bible study where people start to discuss their own ideas, you are guaranteed to have one or two that have some pretty positive ideas they know they are right, and you are going to argue with them. You are not studying the Bible anymore; you are trying to defend this or trying to get into that. Be careful, just be careful. There is nothing wrong with discussing it, but you need to discuss it with understanding.

They are confused. They do not know what this all means. They said, "He cannot be the Messiah. He is coming out of the seed of David. He has to come from Bethlehem." Well, they do not know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, do they? No, they do not know that. They just know he lives up there in Nazareth somewhere. Many people believed that Jesus was that prophet that Moses had talked about. You go back there and you will see that prophecy. God promises that prophet, the one that the Lord would send, the Messiah. Others are quoting scriptures and basically they say, "This guy is a Nazarene. He is from Nazareth, and scriptures say Messiah has to come from Bethlehem, so Jesus cannot be Messiah." Every one of us knows it is possible for him to be the Messiah because we have got the scriptures. They are only picking and choosing.

Keep this in mind: The soldiers had been sent to arrest him. They never touched him yet. They are going to be headed back to the chief priests soon, but they have not touched Jesus yet. There is this division. Look at verse 44: "Some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him." Remember the soldiers are there; they are supposed to arrest him, but nobody yet has put a finger on him. Then the soldiers came, verse 45, returned to the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they said to them, "Why have you not brought him? We sent you to arrest him. Where is he?" The officer said something that I love: "Never man spoke like this man." In American: We never heard anybody talk like this before.

The officers then answered the Pharisees, "Are you also fooled? Are you so dumb as to believe like the people believe he is the Messiah? Are you crazy? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?" Look what they use to prove that Jesus isn't Messiah. "Well, look at us. Look at the smart people. Look at the guys who know their Bible. Do any of us believe in it? No. Well then, duh." See what a pitiful argument that is? I hear that quite often too. It is all meant to intimidate those soldiers into just being quiet and get out of the way.

The Pharisees, Jesus already said it: "You don't believe because you won't believe. You refuse to believe no matter what you see. You refuse." But the soldiers are thinking, "I don't know. It was kind of interesting. I might like to go back and listen some." They just intimidate them and make them feel not very smart. Christian, sometimes you have not studied your Bible much, and you get around a non-believer or two, or some other Christian trying to teach you a false doctrine, and they are so good at what they do. You know you are not very smart, so they win. They intimidate you, and you be quiet. You know what you need to do? Give them the word of God. Don't fight, don't argue. Say, "Thus saith the Lord." That is up to you to find out. You are going to have to do your study. You are going to have to get into the word just like I have to do. You have to study it so that you can give an answer to every man that asks you.

Look at verse 50. This amazes me. Nicodemus, remember he came to Jesus at night in chapter 3, and he wanted to know how to get to heaven and Jesus said you must be born again. He did not understand it at all. Nicodemus said to them—he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, he's part of the Sanhedrin, Pharisees and Sadducees—he says, "Does our law judge any man before it listens to him, before we hear him and know what he does?" They answered and said to him, "Are you also of Galilee?" That is a slap in the face. Jesus comes from Galilee, and nothing good can come from up there. They ask if he is one of those Galilean losers too. That is designed to shut him up right there in the council room. "Search and look, out of Galilee arises no prophet." Every man went home. They were done, and they broke up the meeting and went home. Nobody arrested Jesus, though. These are the Bible scholars. They just mocked the soldiers because soldiers don't know the word. They say, "We know what we are talking about. If he were Messiah, we'd believe in him. He is not Messiah because nothing is right." Why are you also afraid of this guy? Why won't you sit and listen? The Sanhedrin would have done really much better had they known the word of God and studied it and really understood it.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That is northcountrychapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again: 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse-by-verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel. God bless you.