The Water of Life
A sermon
(No. 770)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"The woman said unto Him, Sir, give me this water." John 4:15.
You will remember that our Savior had been speaking to the woman of
Samaria concerning living water. He had endeavored to catch her
attention by using a metaphor to her work and her position. Water was
uppermost in her thoughts and Jesus sanctified the element to His own
gracious end. Sitting at the well's mouth, I think I can see His
earnest face and note the woman's wondering eyes while He talked to her
as she had never been spoken to before concerning water which caused a
man never to thirst again.
At first the woman raised questions: the skeptical part of her nature
took its turn and quibbled, and carped, and argued. "Sir, You have
nothing to draw with, and the well is deep," and so on. Do you not see
all the elements of the infidel in her? But she is in good hands, and
soon she has passed from the period of questioning into that of
petitioning, and she cries this time, "Sir, give me this water." She
was still, I am afraid, very ignorant. She did not even understand her
own petition. That is clear from the words which follow the text, "That
I thirst not, neither come here to draw."
She was giving a material meaning to a spiritual utterance. She was
thinking of the water that could moisten her lips, when Christ was
speaking of that Living Water, His own Grace and love which touches the
heart, and the heart only. Her eyes were dark but her face was turned
the right way. And, best of all, Jesus was there, who can lead the
blind in a way which they know not. It will be all well with her–you
may leave her alone and think of yourselves.
I hope I am now conversing with some here who have gotten clear of this
woman's ignorance and have passed away also, as she did, from the
period of questions. You know best who you are and where you are, but I
hope you are desirous to partake of the Divine Grace which saves. You
have got away from raising difficulties. You have had enough of that
unprofitable hair-splitting and cobweb-making. You feel that you get no
good by constantly insinuating doubts as to the possibility of your
salvation and questioning whether Christ is a Savior or not.
And so you are about to leave the skeptical business, and try another
route. You are now arrived at the point of desiring, not, I hope, the
terminus of the route, but only the first or second station. I am glad
that you have come so far. If there is Grace to be had, you are saying,
"O that I might have it!" If there is pardon, peace, eternal life–you
believe all that Jesus Christ says of it and you want to possess it.
You are stretching out your hands like the drowning man who is ready to
catch at the plank.
Your desires are awake. Your better thoughts are no longer slumbering.
You have broken away from indifference and obstinacy–you are now
anxious and desirous to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ. It is to you
that I wish to speak this evening, and I shall first take the text and
try to use it to excite your desire still further by a description of
the water spoken of in the text. Secondly, I shall try to assure your
hearts by some remarks upon the likelihood of your obtaining this
water. And then we shall close by urging you not to leave this House of
Prayer until the prayer has been registered in Heaven, "Lord, give me
this water; give me this water tonight!"
I. To begin, then, I am TO TRY TO EXCITE YOUR DESIRE BY A DESCRIPTION
OF THE WATER SPOKEN OF IN THE TEXT. Water is an essential element in
the natural world. There is a spiritual world, in which describing we
are obliged to use analogies taken from the natural world. And the
Grace of God in the mental and the spiritual world is just what water
is in the natural world. You need water as a man. You must have it–on
certain occasions it becomes an imperative necessity–you must drink or
die.
You need Divine Grace as a man–not for your body–but for your soul,
and it is imperative that you should have it or else your soul will
first be in pain here, and then at death the pangs of remorse will
seize it, and afterwards an everlasting thirst–an unsatisfied need
will be the second death to you. The Grace of God is like water in no
less than eight
senses. But let me not alarm you. I will not weary you, be sure of
that, for I long to win you and weariness will not serve my purpose. I
shall only mention the eight parallels with a few remarks, and pass
rapidly on from each one.
1. Water, first, is thirst-removing, and so is the Grace of God. The
man who drinks water thirsts not. His bodily need is removed. The man
who receives the Grace of God in his heart gets that which his nature
is lacking, and his painful longings are over. Man by nature is so
foolish that he does not know what his nature needs, but he feels that
it needs something. Awakened men talk to themselves in this fashion, "I
need–I do not know what I need–but I know I need something which the
world cannot give me, which I cannot find within myself, which my
fellow men cannot bestow upon me. I need something: O my God, what is
it? Tell me what it is!"
Friend, if you are in this condition, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ is just the thing for you, for in it the Lord not only tells you
what you need, but He presents it to you! He tells you that you need
His love, that if His Grace is shed abroad in your heart, and your sin
is pardoned, and you are made to be His child and accepted through
Christ Jesus, then will your soul say, "Now I have what I needed. Now I
need no more–I can sit still and say, Blessed be God that my desires
are full. The aching void which the world could never fill is now
filled to overflowing, and my soul has what it was always needing
though it did not know what it really needed. I can sit down now
perfectly content!"
It is a grand thing for a man to be able to say, "I am satisfied," but
the genuine Believer in Christ can say that. "You have satisfied my
mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed as the eagle's."
Believers in Jesus carry the pearl of content in their bosoms. Jesus
takes away the restless spirit and gives us rest. Jesus is the door
that fits the heart, and when He is near to us He shuts out the world's
cold and heat and gives us sweet content.
O ambitious Man, you that run after something and you cannot tell what
it is that can gratify your immortal spirit, turn to the Cross! At the
foot of it there springs a sacred fountain of soul-satisfying delight,
and if you will but stoop and drink, your ambition shall be over and
you shall want no more. There is satisfaction for the deepest longings
of heart, and head, and conscience in the fountain which springs from
the wounds of Jesus! Faith is the silver cup. Dip it into the
overflowing stream and drink! O Holy Spirit, put the cup to my poor
thirsty Brother's lips!
2. Secondly, water is also life-preserving. In the wilderness, where
there is no water, the lips becomes chapped. The skin is dried–the
tongue is like a firebrand, and the mouth is like an oven–and the
weary traveler must drink or die. O for a draught of water there! A bag
of diamonds could not buy a flagon there! Priceless is the life
draught. And far out on the salt, salt sea, with–
"Water, water everywhere, But not a drop to drink,"
the mariner, though he may seek to satisfy himself with the brine
around him, feels that it will be death sooner or later to him unless
he can get some pure, clear, refreshing drops of water to drink.
Drop, you heavens in pity, or let some friendly boat see the castaways.
Such is the Grace of God to the soul of man. The whole world over there
is nothing that can save a soul apart from the Grace of God. Your good
works can no more save you than the salt sea can give the sailor drink.
Ceremonies can no more fill your heart with peace, and give it life,
than the hot sand of the wilderness can quench the thirst of the weary
traveler. God must lead you to the river of Eternal Life flowing out of
the Rock that was struck!
You must get Grace through Jesus Christ, or hope shall never dawn upon
you–despair's midnight shall be your everlasting portion where lost
spirits wail out their undying lives in one endless death. O Soul, if
you get God's Grace, you shall never die! Do you believe this? If that
Grace of God shall come flowing into your soul, you shall possess
eternal life, an immortal principle which shall bid defiance to the
grave and make you sing in the very jaws of death! He that drinks of
this water shall live in Christ forever.
"He that lives and believes in Me shall never die." "He that believes
in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." This Grace of God,
then, is life-preserving, as well as thirst-quenching! Have you found
it so? Friend, I cannot afford to let you hear me, and yet escape a
squeeze or two. If you forget this sermon, it shall not be because I
did not press you to remember it.
3. Water, in the third place, is filth-purging. Man seeks no more than
to get to the stream to wash when he is defiled. Many and many a time
in passing through a country, the poor traveler comes to a brook so
clear that he can see his face reflected in it, and he stoops down and
washes his brow again and again, and takes his bath and goes his way
all bright
and shining as though he had exchanged sorrow for gladness, and
received the oil of joy for mourning! Now, the guilty sinner, and such
are we all by nature, however foul he may be, has but to stoop down at
the river of Eternal Grace and wash and he shall be clean!
This stream can take out spots which nothing else can remove. Our sin
is of such a crimson dye, naturally, that it might incarnate the
Atlantic before it should be washed away. But this Water of Life can do
it–it takes away the stain of blasphemy and lust. It removes the
pollution of theft and murder. All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto
that man who comes to the Cross and trusts in Jesus. Whoever believes
in the world's great Redeemer shall find full and complete pardon for
every offense that he has committed.
try it, you blackest of the black, if you are here! You who have gone
to the greatest extent of sin, cast your guilty soul into this fountain
and see if you do not rise from it with your flesh like unto that of a
little child, clean and pure, and not a spot remaining on you! This
filth-removing is the Grace of God streaming from the Cross where Jesus
suffered in our place the wrath which was due to us for our
transgressions–
"Calvary's wonders let us trace, Justice magnified in Grace. Mark the
purple streams and say, Thus my sins were washed away." Friend, can you
do this by faith, trusting for pardon in the blood of God's dear Son?
4. Water, again, is well known, very frequently, to be softening. There
are some things which, when laid in water, soon lose their hardness and
become soft and pliable. This water of the Grace of God, which it is my
longing desire to commend to you, has a marvelous softening power.
Adamant millstone–yes, the nether millstone, northern iron and
steel–have been melted when laid to soak in this fountain. The hardest
heart yields before the power of the love of God revealed in Christ
Jesus.
1 think I hear one of you exclaim, "That is good news for me! I know
that Christ can pardon me, but I cannot feel my sin as I ought. I am
such a stiff-necked sinner, so hardened, so perverse, I cannot feel my
need as I would wish to." Soul, if the Grace of God shall flow upon
your heart it shall turn the stone, by a wondrous transformation, into
flesh at once! There is no stubbornness which the Grace of God cannot
overcome. What a blessed thing it is for the preacher that he has not
to give his hearers soft hearts, nor even to find tender hearts in them
to begin with! How delightful it is for him to remember that he
preaches a Gospel which works wonders–wonders even greater than the
rod of Moses–for when with the Gospel we smite even a rock,
penitential streams gush forth, and yet more–the rocky soul is itself
dissolved under a sense of sin.
O that some Saul of Tarsus might be washed by this stream tonight! He
would no longer be the enemy of God's Church, but would seek out some
poor disciple to ask him what he must do to be saved. It is a
heart-softening water. May the Lord give it to every one of us who have
hard hearts remaining! Gladly would I bathe in it anew, that I might
the more tenderly feel for you. Friend, will you never feel for
yourself?
5. In the fifth place, this water has the property, like earthly water,
of being fire-quenching. There is nothing like water, after all, with
all your new inventions, for putting out fire. We run for the engines
and turn on the main–what can we do better? But there are fires that
burn within the human heart! Deep volcanic fires fed from the depths of
Hell! Furious flames which roar within the inner man and soon roll over
in torrents of sin–lava in his daily life! These are fires which never
will be put out except by heavenly water.
Oh, that fire of lust! How many a man has been consumed by it! It has
devoured him as the fire devours the stubble. But when the Grace of God
comes, how soon that fire is dampened and even quenched forever! And
there are other fires which burn in the soul–the fire of envy and of
malice, the flames of anger and of unholy desire–how these will rage
and glow until the Grace of God comes! I know it puzzles many a man to
know how he could live without such-and-such sins. "Oh," he says, "I
could not live without them! I have fallen into the habit of them, and
I must have them." Ah, but you shall be made a new man, such a new man
that if you were to meet your old self, you would avoid the wretch or
struggle with him in deadly hand-to-hand combat!
Let me tell you, you will never be on good terms with your old self so
long as you live. You will hate that old self of yours and it will be
your daily desire to kill him. You will try to drive the nails through
his hands and feet, and crucify him upon the Cross of Jesus! And you
will not be content unless you can kill him daily, mortifying him with
his affections
and his lusts. Oh, mighty Grace of God that can put out the flames of
sin! O Sinner, the very flames of Hell are put out by this Grace of
God! I mean so far as the saved soul is concerned–for the soul that is
washed in this fountain–there is no Hell in which God can punish it.
How can He punish a pardoned sinner? How can he that is in Christ Jesus
be cast into the flames?–
"No condemnation now I dread,
For justice smote my Surety's head." "Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect?" He that has Christ to be his Substitute is
beyond all fear of Hell. He can look down into that dread abyss and
feel that there is not a burning coal there for him, and that whoever
may perish, yet he, being in Christ Jesus, can never die. Friend, have
the fires in your soul met with this glorious Antagonist? Are the
engines of Grace casting their floods upon your soul? Let conscience
give its reply, and let it have your ear.
6. A sixth property is one that is not found in ordinary water, and
that is that it is a spring-creating water. Wherever the Water of Life
falls it makes a new spring which begins to bubble up directly. By this
I mean that if the Grace of God enters into a man's heart it is an
immortal principle, and, as the Savior says, "Out of the midst of him
shall flow rivers of living water." "The water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
What a great difference there is between a pool and a running spring!
Frequently in crossing the Alps, when one has been very faint and
thirsty, it has been a sweet rest to sit down by a running spring and
wash one's face and feet, or bathe one's self in it. You may have
walked till you are very footsore–you sit down to bathe your feet, and
if you have found a mere pool, you will stir the bottom of it, and it
will soon be very filthy–but when it is a running spring, you can sit
and wash, and wash, and wash again, and if you do stir the sand at the
bottom, the earth is all gone in a moment, because the water still
comes bubbling up clear and fresh, and therefore it is always clean.
So it is with the Grace of God in a Christian: it never gets flat, and
dull, and dead–and the daily pollutions and washing of our feet do not
stain it–because it is a living spring and arises from those "fresh
springs" which David sings about which he rejoiced to find in the Lord
his God. It is very hard work to play the part of a Christian if you
have not a spring within you. For a man to have to keep up, year after
year, a profession without life, why, it must be slavish work! Do you
think that I would come and take a seat in this place, or in any other
place of worship, and occupy it merely because it was respectable to do
so if I had no care for it? I would as soon be a slave!
Base is the man who even in his religion is the serf of tyrant fashion!
To come up to the House of God because you love to be there, and to
sing because you cannot help singing, and to unite with God's people
because "birds of a feathers"' must "flock together" and you love to be
among them–why there is something in that, something which tastes of
reality and sincerity! He who has no great deeps of godliness in his
soul makes a bondage of religion. He lives the life of a dog and does
not even get the crumbs from under the table as his portion. Mark you,
Brethren, it is harder to preach without this spring than it is to hear
without it, because if you have not a spring in you, you may go
foraging this dead man's books, and that other dead man's stores to
find a subject, but you will soon run dry.
But if God the Holy Spirit is a spring within you, you may remain full
of the precious Truth of God, and pour it out so long as God shall give
you utterance–and you shall not run dry! What a blessing it is when
the Living Water makes a spring within the Christian! What a curse to
be one of the stagnant ponds of formality exhaling the putridity of
hypocrisy! Friend, where are you? I must have my hand on you again!
What are you in this matter as in the sight of God?
7. Seventh, it is fruit-producing water. What fruit would there be upon
the trees, what pasture in the meadows, what harvest in the field if it
were not for the rain? Everything would be barren without water and
even where there is fruit, if there is not, also, a fair share of
water, what poor stuff it is! When I was in the country in June, and
there were some heavy showers, I could not help thinking what good they
were doing. There was the wheat just needing plumping out, and the rain
came to fill it and to make the ears full. It might have been wheat, of
course, without it, but the ear is likely to be more full of grain when
the drought is gone.
So, Brothers and Sisters, we may produce some little fruit when we have
but little Grace, but if we had more Grace, how that fruit would plump
out! How would our fruit be more rich, and fat, and mellow! How would
our service to God be improved and perfected if we had more of this
fruit-producing water! You cannot serve God without His Grace. You
cannot give Him true praise, nor true prayer, nor true service, nor
anything that is acceptable unless He first shall give
you of the rain of His Grace–Grace for Grace. "By their fruits shall
you know them." Friend, what fruit have you? O that Grace may turn the
barren fig tree into a good fruit-bearing tree!
8. And lastly upon this point, it is Heaven-ascending water. You know
there is a rule of this sort in hydrostatics, that water will rise to
its own level. Not long ago I thought such things were gone out. I was
riding along where the road was in a little cutting, and a spout was
actually taken over the road to carry water from one field to the
other, it was dripping fast upon the passengers and making an ugly
place in the road.
Now they might easily have taken the little stream under the road and
up again in a pipe, but I suppose when the spout was made it was not
known to those who made it that water will rise as high as its source.
Now, the Grace of God will rise as high as its source. If you and I
have grace that began with us, it will never get higher than we are. If
you have grace that the priest gave you when you were christened, it
will never get higher than the priest. But if you get the true Grace of
God which descends from Heaven, it will take you as high as the New
Jerusalem from which it came!
High up in the Throne of God are the everlasting springs of Divine
Mercy. At the foot of Divine Sovereignty it wells up a spring, clear as
crystal, pure without a stain, and it flows down to earth, leaping down
by the way of the Cross. And it will ascend as high as its Source. It
will go up to the Throne again–that is where it came from–and it will
rise to its own level and it will float you up there with it. If, by
the Grace of God, you have been taken up by the stream of Jesus' dying
love, it will take you up to its own Source, and where God is there you
shall be.
Because you have been made to taste, to feel, and to be saturated with
the Grace that came from God, from a Divine Source, you shall also have
a Divine portion forever. The rivers go to the sea because they
originally came from the sea. Did not the sun kiss the sea and make it
ascend to him in clouds, that it might descend in rain? And so all the
rivers of Grace in us shall flow into the sea from where they came–the
bottomless, shoreless sea of everlasting love–because that is the
eternal Source and Fountain of them all! Clouds of suffering went up
from the heart of Jesus to return to earth in showers of mercy for poor
sinners. Friend, do you know anything about this in your very soul?
Now, I have thus spoken of the Grace of God which is revealed in Jesus
Christ. I only hope that someone here may say, "I wish I were washed in
it! I wish my thirst were satisfied with it! I wish that my soul were
made to overflow with it! I wish that I might be lifted up to Heaven
though its energy!" Oh, then, Soul, I am glad you have the desire! Turn
it into a prayer and let the prayer be the text, "Give me this water!"
II. And now, with great brevity, indeed, we shall take the second
point, that is, TO CHEER YOUR HEARTS WITH
SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE LIKELIHOOD OF YOUR GETTING THIS LIVING WATER.
I am supposing,
now, that you really want it. If you say, "Sir, give me this water,"
you will have it. And I will tell you why I think you will have
it–because, in the first place, I do not think that an ordinary man
would deny another water. If I stood by a well, and you approached me,
and said, "Sir, give me this water," I should say, "As much as you like
of it"
Who would not give water? It is the most common of gifts. Even in the
East, with all the value that is attached to water there, the Savior
mentions that as one of the most ordinary acts of benevolence. "Whoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water
only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, He shall in no
wise lose his reward." Who will deny another a glass of water?
Then note that according to our text, the giving of Saving Grace is to
the great Redeemer no more than the giving of water to you! Grace is a
priceless gift for you to receive, but to Jesus it is a delight to give
it. If you give water, you have a little less water left–but if Christ
gives Grace, He has not any Grace the less. He still has as much Grace
in the inexhaustible fullness which dwells in His adorable Person. As
the sun is just as bright for all its shining, and the ocean still
full, notwithstanding all the clouds exhaled from it, so Jesus is as
abundant as ever in pardoning mercy and saving power! I tell you that
for Jesus Christ to be gracious is as much according to His Nature as
it is for you and for me to be generous enough to give away water.
The blessing of poor needy souls is no labor with Jesus, no loss to
Him, no tax upon Him. All the pain and cost He has borne long ago, and
now to save the guilty is His reward in which He sees the recompense of
His travail. Now, if in this place the Grace of God had been compared
to gold, that metaphor would have suited well to express its value. But
you would have said, "Who gives gold away?" But here it is compared
with water–water which man freely gives–and which our Lord Jesus
never denies to those who seek it of Him. I do not believe, then, if an
ordinary man will give away water–and Christ compares His Grace with
water–that He will let you say, "Sir, give me this water," and then
send
you away without it! Friend, be not so unbelieving as to think that the
Lord Jesus is ungenerous and unkind, but ask for the Living Water and
it shall be given you.
Again, even if you would refuse water to some persons, I am very sure
that you would not refuse it to a thirsty person. If you saw him
panting and the hot sweat starting to his brow, and if he could
scarcely speak, but had only strength enough to gasp out, "Sir, if you
would but give me a cup of water, I would bless you for it with all my
heart," why, you would run and bring out the sparkling crystal and feel
a great pleasure in seeing him drink. Would you not? I am sure you
would!
Now, if you are a thirsty soul I am quite sure Christ will give you the
Water of Life. He will give it to any that ask, for He refuses
none–and to you He will give it so quickly that He will seem to give
it twice over. He will not let you thirst in vain, for has He not
promised, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and
their tongue fails for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of
Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and
fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a
pool of water and the dry land springs of water." "Oh," says one, "how
I desire to be saved! How I long to have Christ!"
You may have Him, then, for Jesus Christ never did deny a thirsty
sinner, never did refuse to give of His substance to the poor, His
clothes to the naked, or His medicine to the sick. He came on purpose
to bless such. I say that in all likelihood you shall have the blessing
if you will but pray earnestly, "Lord, give me this water." No, more,
there is a certainty of it! Another reason gives me comfort for you,
and that is there certainly is plenty of it, for the Apostle John says
he saw "a river of the Water of Life." Now, nobody is afraid, when
there is a deep, broad flowing river to draw from! Who fears to exhaust
the Thames or drain the Danube by his thirst? Moreover, as John Bunyan
reminds us, a river is free to everybody to drink.
The source of it is private. Many rivers rise in a park or private
grounds, but the river itself is public. As soon as it becomes a
considerable stream it becomes a public highway, and a universal water
supply. It is free, it flows the way it wills. Rivers possess a sort of
sovereignty–you cannot bid them flow in a straight course, or order
them by rules of geometry. They will have their own sweet will. If the
river chooses to go by one town and not by another, it will have its
way! Who may try to stop it? But while it is sovereign in its course
and direction, yet it is free for public use. The cattle come to drink
and even a poor dog is not refused when he gets to the river's brink.
If he wants to lap and cool his feverish tongue in the dog days, who
shall say no to him?
And you, poor Sinner, you shall find the Grace of God free to you, for
there is enough of it–it is up to the banks– no, it overflows the
banks, there is a flood of it! Such a flood that there never can by any
possibility be any lack, though all men should come. Though 10,000
times 10,000 should come, there would still be found sufficient Grace
in Jesus to meet the needs of all–for whom the Lord brings, the Lord
can provide for in Christ Jesus. The Grace of God is sovereign in its
choice and discriminating in its course, but still it is free to all
thirsty ones who long to partake of its everlasting fullness.
I am comforted, also, by another thought, namely, that this river is on
purpose for the thirsty. I am sure I do not know what there is mercy in
the world for unless it is for those who need it because of their sin
and misery. What could Christ have made an Atonement for except for
sinners? It is not possible that the beloved Physician came all the way
from Heaven to heal those who were well and needed no medicine! It is
not likely that He opens His great granaries to feed the nations who
have a harvest of their own! It must be that our Joseph has stored up
the wheat for hungry perishing ones!
O you that need, come and welcome, for the Fountain is opened
especially for you! It flows that such as you may come and drink.
Friend, shall our invitations have no power with you? O Holy Spirit,
make men willing in this the day of Your power! I feel sure, too, that
you who seek the Lord will find His Grace because there never has been
one refused yet. A dear Brother, who I believe is now present, told me
that he owed his conversion in early life to hearing a sentence or two
of a sermon from a man whose name he never knew but whom he heard
preach standing on a log of wood on a village green.
He had never gone to listen to the Gospel anywhere, but happened to be
straying through the village and he heard the man say that there never
was a soul that sincerely sought God through Jesus Christ, but what
ultimately, sooner or later, it was brought into a state of peace. And
let me say to you all–it may sink into some heart and one day yield it
comfort–it shall not be said by you in eternity that you sought the
Lord and He would not hear you! I remember what
comfort this gave to me when I heard my mother say that she had heard
many wicked things in the world, but she never heard a man wicked
enough to say that he had sincerely sought God through Jesus Christ and
yet had been refused.
When I heard that, I thought I could say it, for I was confident that I
had sought the Lord, but I had had no comfortable answer. But I have
never said it. I have never had cause to say it, for before I could be
driven to that state of despair I looked unto Him and was lightened,
and so I am persuaded it shall be with you! There never was one refused
who said, "Give me this water," and you shall not be the first!
To close this point, it is to Jesus Christ's glory to give of His
saving mercy, and therefore be certain that He will not withhold it. It
cannot make Christ more glorious to deny a poor sinner His mercy. It
cannot be to His profit to shut His door in a seeking sinner's face. It
is impossible that the bleeding Lamb should cease to be pitiful to poor
bleeding hearts. By everything that can make the name of the great
Physician glorious. By every pang of His soul on account of sinners I
am persuaded that He will not deny you! Why, the more a physician
cures, the greater is his fame! The more the Savior saves, the higher
is His honor! The more Jesus Christ can bless, the more lofty will be
the praise and the more exalted that mighty shout of " Hallelujah,"
that shall go up from 10,000 times 10,000 of sinners who have been
washed in His blood!
Come, then, seeking Sinner! Come now, and by humble faith trust in the
Mediator's sacrifice. Wipe those eyes of yours. Be of good cheer! Be
bold in heart! He calls you! There is room at His table! The door is
open! There is room in His heart! He died for those who rest in Him! If
you wish for Christ, He wishes for you! If you long to go to the feast,
He wants guests as much as you want the feast! Only trust Him! God help
you to trust Him by His Spirit and you shall live.
III. The last thing was to be to urge you tonight, before you leave
this house–but my urging will be of no service unless God the Holy
Spirit owns it–TO URGE YOU TO PRAY THE PRAYER OF THE TEXT. A desire is
like seed in the bag, but prayer sows it in the furrow. A desire is
like water in the bottle, but prayer drinks it. Now I commend to you
the prayer of my text–"Sir, give me this water." Begin then, your
prayer by honoring Christ. Do not call Him, "Sir," but call Him,
"Lord." She gave Him the highest title that her respect could accord.
She did not know Him in any other capacity, so she called Him, "Sir."
Now call Jesus, "Lord," for you will get no mercy if you dishonor
Christ. Think of Him as God's only Son suffering for sinners. Call him,
"Lord." Can you do that? If you reject His Divinity, you shut yourself
out of His kingdom! He must be owned as Lord and God as well as Savior.
"Oh," you say, "I have long ago called Him Lord. I know Him to be
Divine. I rejoice in the thought of His eternal power and Godhead. I
would honor Him with all that I have." Well, then, you have well begun,
but may Divine Grace make you go further!
Now in the next place, if you would pray this prayer aright, notice it,
and confess your undeservingness. It is not, "Sir, sell me this water,"
but, "Sir, give me this water." Confess that it is a gift. You shall
never have it otherwise. Away with your merit-mongering. Away with your
trusting in your prayers, and your tears, and your sense of need! Mercy
must be given or else you shall never have it. "Sir, give me, give me,
give me this water. O Lord, give me Grace, or else I die! Give it to me
of Your free mercy because You have promised to save the chief of
sinners. Give it to me, Lord. I have done with boasting. I have done
with the Pharisee's thanking You that I am not as other men are. I come
with empty hands. I come naked, poor, and miserable! Give it to me! I
have nothing to buy it with. Oh, give it to me without money and
without price! Give me Your salvation!"
Friend, does your pride kick at this? Be wise, I pray you, and bow your
neck to the yoke of Divine Grace. Take care, too, that you make it a
personal prayer–"Lord, give it to me." Never mind your neighbors just
now. Care for them after you are saved. Look after their salvation when
your own is secure–but just now you have first to do with yourself.
Your children? Yes, pray for them. Your relatives? Yes, consider them.
But meanwhile, now it is yourself–your own proper self that is
concerned. Do not think of the whole congregation. Think now personally
of your own soul, and say, "Lord, give me this water."
I mean you, Mary. And you, Thomas. And you, John–let the prayer come
from your own lips as distinctly being from yourself. As you sit or
stand now in this House of Prayer, silently breathe the
petition–"Lord, give Your Grace to me, even me."–
"Pass me not, O gracious Father, Sinful though my heart may be.
You might curse me, but the rather Let Your mercy light on me,
Even me. Pass me not,
tender Savior!
Let me lo ve and cling to You!
1 am longing for Your favor When You come, call for me, Even me."
Once more, I want you to offer this prayer in the present tense–not,
"Give me this water tomorrow''"–but, "Tonight give it to me, Lord,
save my soul now!"
The worst of most of men is this–they want to be saved, but it must be
when they die. You would serve the devil all your life and then cheat
him of your soul at the last? Mean, miserable thought! If God is God,
serve Him, serve Him now! And may the Lord have us in life as we hope
He may have us in our death. "Give me this water." But you are going
out next Wednesday–that will be awkward! "Yes," said some young woman
at a revival meeting, who was in much concern, "but I am going to a
ball tomorrow." And so everything good was put off for that! But she
dropped down dead at the
ball!
God grant there may be no such cases of postponing here, lest we
postpone ourselves into eternity where there are no acts of pardon
past. May we have Christ now! We may not live to see tomorrow's sun.
Albeit that the sun is well-near gone down, yet the light of this
evening may not have gone before our life may be ended. How near to
death we stand, and yet we scarcely think of it! Right on the edge of
our graves sometimes we are, and yet we sport and laugh as though we
had a lease on life! You forget death, most of you. The cemetery is so
far out of town but still you should not quite forget, for the hearse
goes to and fro with awful regularity, and the Church bell that tolls
is not rusty! And those words, "Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to
ashes," are still familiar to the ears of some of us.
It will soon be your turn to die. You, too, must gather up your feet in
the bed and meet your father's God. God grant that you may then be
found right with Him. Little do I know for whom these sentences may
have a special bearing, but they may have a bearing, dear Friend, upon
you! I see some of you dressed in black–you have had to go to the
grave mourning because of others. That black will be worn by others
soon for you, and the place that now knows you shall know you no more
forever.
Oh, by the frailty of life, by the near approach of the Master, or by
the certainty of death, I pray you see to it that you breathe the
prayer, "Lord give me of Your Grace." The Lord help you to pray it.
Amen.
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Seeing Jesus
A sermon