Rivers of Living Water by Fred Tomlinson

well fred tomlinson here and uh it's a pleasure to be able to share and speak to you today i want to read a few verses from the gospel according to john they're actually verses that i've turned to so many times over the years and i'll do it again today i'm in john chapter 7 and i'm reading from verse 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 he that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spakey 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 you know as we read through the scriptures we we know how that right at the beginning of the story uh scripture tells us it tells us how the the human story began how it began in a place called paradise eden and adam and eve uh were at that time god's latest creation and had been designed to become the center of the lord's attention another life form the master of deception he engaged with the garden dwellers and he distorted god's word you'll remember his opening words has god said you know in my my personal incredibly loose paraphrase of what he would go on to say i think it would sound something like this it sounds something like this in my mind anyway ignore what god said there's more that you can enjoy than what he has made available to you they took the bait they rejected god and immediately they lost their fellowship with god and forever man's self became his god the consequences continue to be catastrophic but you know deep in man's heart there is a longing for something that nothing can satisfy man exists on a kind of a treadmill of perpetual dissatisfaction he's driven to slake that inward thirst within man's self which as we read on in the scriptures and we're reading in the epistles of the apostle paul we we would we alter the word self and we use the word flesh as paul did it's interesting that if you uh if you spell the word self backwards and add an h f l e s h um there you have the connection at least that works in the english language i know it doesn't occur in other languages but driven to slake this inward thirsting of man's inward self or man's inward flesh he is constantly pursuing ever bigger and better material or bigger and better emotional fixes of one sort or another this is the story it's the story of our culture we know that today this very inward thirst is is driving the advertising industry and much much of modern industry across the spectrum the appealing continually to those thirsting souls who who would driven to have better clothes to have a better job a better automobile a better home a better marriage a better appearance better abilities and so on and you know modern christianity is not immune from this seductive drive i think to be fair without realizing what it is doing it's created a huge marketplace providing substitutes for the knowledge of god included in this provision these words i think we would find mind satisfying teaching and emotion pleasing music when we could go on we could talk about it for a long time and formulate a whole list um but the fact is that the human heart is fundamentally thirsting for god without realizing it it was it was augustine one of the ancient church fathers who addressed this in what has been said to be the greatest sentence that has ever been written he wrote because you have made us for yourself our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee amen that thirst at the core of man's being is a thirst for god and for the most part he is completely ignorant of that and continues to pursue that pursue the the treadmill experience of looking for fulfillment and satisfaction in a hundred different places you know but let's be very clear about something as we carry on here and it's this we've been hearing a wonderful song song just a few minutes ago about the the matchless grace of god in sending jesus to this world to pay the price of our redemption but let me let me say this jesus did not come simply to deal with man's restlessness as an end in itself in his own words that is in the words of jesus he came to bring life i am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly in actual fact he came to this world and gave up his life on the cross sacrificially so that we could actually become partakers of his life even while we continue in this world in these verses that i've just read to you we have jesus talking and he's talking to a very sincere and genuine uh group of of of of worshipers of god they were existing under the old testament not one of the people that he was addressing not one of the people that could hear him was a christian as we would understand what a christian is not one of them knew anything about the saving grace of christ at this point they're just listening to this interesting rabbi i put the word interesting in quotations so far as they're concerned um but uh he he's been following the group through the various stages of the feast of tabernacles which we could talk about in particular with and find some interest there certainly but they've arrived at the last day of the eighth day and on this occasion as the group are gathered together he jesus he's chosen the moment let me just pause there as i say those last words he chose the moment he may be choosing this very moment for you who is listening to me today i i can't tell but i do know this that god has a a plan for for the lives of men and women and he has a time table as well and his his plan is not always man's plan and his timetable is frequently not man's timetable but i believe this that god uh as he as he works with us as he seeks to draw us well we're completely dead to him and ignorant of what he's doing he's arranging circumstances he's preparing our lives and he's preparing us for the moment which as i said i think in the meeting last week using that phrase in the fullness of time there comes a fullness of timing a divinely appointed moment when you a person is ready and god is prepared to speak that life imparting faith communicating word of truth and that could be happening today even through this poor broken vessel that he's speaking through perhaps to your heart today he's continually organizing everything until everything is ready amen so he's chosen this moment in time recorded in this text and he he in the last day that great day of the feast jesus stood and cried with a loud voice and he said if any man thirst come unto me and drink you will have noticed and perhaps you've observed this many times over earlier years of reading that the last verse i read to you of that little group of three was the 39th verse which is in a parenthesis in other words john the gospel writer included this verse to help the readers understand it's here i believe the holy spirit himself put it there so that we today could understand more clearly what jesus was talking about when he said come to me and drink let me re-read john's words he said but this but he's just what jesus has just said this he jesus spake 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 amen the substance of what jesus was talking about was the person of the holy spirit of god he he would he would later in the unfolding of the pages and the truth uh he would refer to this receiving as the as receiving power from on high amen you know the question that comes up time and again i've been asked this question many times over the years but how do you do this okay we understand what jesus is saying we think we believe we understand what he's talking about and we certainly are increasingly aware of our own need for something from outside of us to bring about this transformation that's so vital but how does it happen and what is particularly interesting about this moment is is is the way jesus frames this timeless and all-important statement that he's making here the intent of his message he frames it in such a simple context he says if if anyone's thirsty then come to me and drink now there's a profundity behind these words but there's a sense in which this is so simple he's talking about drinking you know it was charles spurgeon who made a comment on this very text a long time ago and he said this he said any fool knows how to drink and how true you know to drink something you don't have to work it's not like eating even a dear sister wrote a comment just a day or so ago to one of my messages with just one word or two words she said i'm hungry well we understand because the scriptures present the gospel and the provision of god in in many different ways to highlight and and and help us understand his his meaning and and our response that's required on this occasion jesus is not talking about eating he just says if you're thirsty if you've got this aching thirst inside of your devoutly religious hearts in this case he says come to me and drink any fool knows how to drink we we don't have to work to eat all you have to do is open your mouth and receive what is being made available isn't that something you know drinking really is is something that i don't understand what i'm saying here but i believe it to be true it's something that's written into our dna because i'm told uh that even when the embryo is forming in in the mother's womb something's taking place there's a particular stage where that little life puts its little thumb into its mouth and it's it's teaching itself how to drink how to drink from its mother's breast it's there it's it's within us so in other words what jesus is talking about here is profound in the extreme and yet with the question how do we receive it it's as though he is at a loss as it were if i may say that concerning him to reduce this to to any more simple terms he says all you have to do is just drink just as it were just open your mouth just open your heart as god is seeking to minister to you and receive you don't have to work at it you don't have to become anything it's wonderful and the fact of the matter is jesus is saying basically that that thirst within you will then be slated you'll be satisfied more deeply than you ever could have realized when you when you or when any person begins to drink in the person of the holy spirit isn't that a profound statement to even make um that there's such such it i i don't know a better word it's so profound and yet it has the potential to satisfy man's man's deepest longings the actual the actual satisfying of our lives and making us satisfied so that we're not constantly treading the treadmill is i think i could suggest it it's it's a it's a byproduct it's what happens but jesus didn't die just to keep us all happy and keep us all satisfied he comes to meet the deepest needs of the human heart that we scarcely even begin to know exist yet we know that something's wrong that something is is it seems to be as it were like a carrot hanging in front of us we're constantly trying to reach it to find human fulfillment emotional satisfaction and yet it constantly evades us jesus is saying if you are experiencing that kind of thirst even if it's within the context of your christian community and you're doing all the right things and the appropriate things and and we're not here to judge or condemn anything we're just simply saying we can do so much and engage in so much and listen to so much and enjoy listening to so much possibly but if it's not bringing you to that place where you're discovering the miracle of drinking in the holy spirit into your life you're missing something and i i'm suggesting that that something is the most important thing in the world and jesus knows it isn't it interesting when he stands up to speak to this huge crowd which will immediately become his audience think of all the things he's not talking about i mean that that they're engaged for example in activities uh which relate to their national history he's also relating to something which is prophetic these these people these gatherers they're all to put it into common you know the common buzzword today that they're engaged in end-time issues because they're they're looking for the messiah to come that's what they're engaged in and jesus is saying essentially he said you know i'm here listen to me and it's wonderful the the primary effect of engaging in this simple act of responding to the word of god and drinking what he is offering will be the enthronement of christ within your inward being and and the immediate and net result of that enthronement of christ within your heart will be the dethronement of self the flesh that we've referred to we won't have to work at doing this we don't have to work in anything this is his grace we receive what he is offering to us we embrace it we drink it into our inner man and lo and behold it changes everything for us in the most profound sense our whole lives are turned around our whole value system is turned around everything's turned around everything's become new old things have passed away all things have become new if any man it becomes a new creature in christ i'm talking quote in the verse backwards but it's true but you know there is without a question there's there's a viv visible evidence of this indwelling life of which i'm speaking to you and i think jesus again in choosing his words and speaking here uh we want to be very careful that we we we pick out of or draw from his words everything that he's saying here not only is this an offer of god it's not only something that was so simply received um but he's saying there will be a consequence there'll be a result that will be visible uh he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said and that's an interesting phrase that last phrase we don't know which scripture is being referred to there so i think we can draw on other scriptures which seem to apply one one thing we know that god consistently promised in the old testament that he was going to do something when the time was fully calm it would be like it would be like pouring water on dry ground on desert ground and so on or opening a fountain in jerusalem and so on and so on um but the the thrilling thing is he says he that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly or out of his innermost being or another translation wants to say out of you out of your heart out of your inner man something will flow and that something will be rivers of living water think of it now jesus in choosing his words he's making it plain to his hearers that he's not talking about some kind of trickle some minute sort of alteration some minute change in some particular area of our lives no you know he's not even he's not even saying as the result of drinking his life into you there'll be something like a river flowing out of you he doesn't say that it's in the plural he said out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water what a wonderful thing and if you drink and keep drinking this is the tense that is being used there by the way if you drink and keep drinking what he is making available to you as a natural consequence there will be life flowing and will keep flowing out of your inward being amen you know this i believe this outflow this this this above everything else is the evidence uh of what is going on what's coming into your life what comes out is what has come in in in that sense and uh you know there's a there's a sense in which these rivers of living water however we are to understand their significance and their meaning uh they will become the proof positive that here is a man or here is a woman who is responding to this gracious gift of god being spoken by jesus on this occasion it's it's it's the proof it's it becomes can i suggest it this way it becomes a kind of benchmark um a point of reference for everything else um you know the benchmark or the point of reference it's that point from which everything else must be measured i i don't know very much about this but i know a little bit about building and i know and i've sons who've worked in the building trade for many years um but i i do know this when they they've that on a piece of ground which has been allocated and they're about to make a start the house has to be situated in a certain way on the piece of land and of course it's all got to sort of i don't know it's all got to be sort of properly set up but they start with it with a with a point of reference a pointer a position is marked and every other measurement for that house and the positioning of it and the construction of it are in relation to that point of reference what then is the point of reference in a man or a woman's life who is calling themselves christian what is the benchmark what is that that that certain something that that enables us to understand and perhaps even listen to whatever else is being said by that person and i believe jesus is referring to he see the issue the point of reference is not going to be how much you know that that that's that's inappropriate benchmark uh because we know a lot of things but whether we truly know them is something else the benchmark is not how clever i am or how clever i am at preaching or teaching that's not the issue at all men are in many cases very clever and very well read and they're filled with lots of information and it's all so good in its place i'm not questioning that but we're saying you know jesus put it in different words altogether on occasion do you remember he said by this shall all men know that you are my disciples then it's reasonable and appropriate that we should assess what someone is claiming and someone is teaching or someone is preaching on the basis not of what they're saying which may in itself be very important but it's who is it speaking to me uh does this person understand are they you know we can talk about drinking in the holy spirit but is what is the evidence that this individual is actually drinking in this precious holy spirit of god you know that the huge problem and i think it is a huge problem today is is that so many people within the christian framework or context they really don't know what normal is that's the problem they know what the average christian life looks like you know in their set in their group or whatever and so on uh but but few really know what normal looks like few really know what fresh tastes like you know someone may pull the milk out of the refrigerator and you know pour it in the glass and begin to drink it and you might you might perhaps hear the words this milk is off well how do you know it's off you see you you can't tell what is fresh until you've tasted it um and the same is true in this area you know we can let me put it this way when you've when you've been exposed to fresh when you've tasted fresh you'll know it yes uh there's just something about the again changing this into a different setting again but still with jesus words he says my sheep hear my voice they know me that's just something i can't explain it and how it works but there's something within the inner parts of a man and a woman and who has been targeted by god and prepared by his spirit when they hear the truth or when they see the life there's just an amen there's like a yes that rises inside we've been exposed to the the real deal as they say today amen you know this life this this these rivers that jesus speaks about again we could catalogue a whole variety of different scriptures that we can find that will throw some light on this um but i can i can say one or two things here i can say that this this presence of the indwelling holy spirit as it flows out from a man or flows out from a woman it will always carry the fragrance of jesus it will always carry it uh and and and once you've been exposed to it and your heart is positioned appropriately to receive it you'll recognize immediately this is genuine this is not just a a very kind or generous a loving person there's there's a fragrance that's unique about this as i'm speaking you know i'm conscious that there's one man who was listening to me and he stood in on a platform in a train station in manchester many many years ago and billy graham had got off that train with his friends and was walking along the platform and walked very close to my my dear friend and he said as this man walked past him you were just conscious of his presence of the lord's presence amen this this is what we're talking about the these rivers there's a flowing of of the love of god love that never fails amen it flows from those who are drinking it there's a peace that passes understanding that flows from this person there's a there's a grace that knows no limit that flows there's a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory says the apostle peter there are these riches of christ that are that are implanted enough by the holy spirit and they're flowing through that man of god or through that woman of god and they're no longer merely ordinary they are extraordinary i remember speaking a long time ago from a old testament scripture and without digressing to tell the story a woman said to her husband on one occasion she said i perceive that this is a man of god that walks past us continually i remember that scripture for a number of reasons but i remember it not least because in my my brief time as a police officer i was invited to speak at a police christian police association gathering and i preached on that text and i was basically saying this is how god wants to move in your life and so even though you're wearing a uniform the uniform for police officers you walk around the neighborhood that the same response may be that i perceive that this is a man of god that passes by us continually i perceive that this is a man of god who is selling these automobiles so that is working in this office or this woman is a woman of god in this grocery store who is serving me amen jesus said on another occasion that if we drink of the water that he is offering you will never thirst again we used to sing a song around those words in sunday school when i was a boy and the boys would would sing what never thirst again and the girls would say no never thirst again and so it was repeated through and so on but the whole object of that exercise was to somehow um underline and highlight this great truth that jesus enunciated when he said he that drinks of the water that i will give him shall never thirst again isn't that wonderful think of the old treadmill treadmill and all of that endless reaching for something bigger and better and jesus comes by his holy spirit and changes everything and we drink of him we learn to drink of him not just as a once in a moment experience 20 years ago but where it becomes the very pattern of our lives continually he that drinks and keeps drinking out of him shall flow and keep flowing rivers of living water you know before i close there's something i think that many may miss and this is important that this statement which jesus was making to the crowd around him was by any assessment outrageous it was an outrageous thing these people were devoutly religious they were focused on prophecy and prophecy being fulfilled and the messiah coming and here's this man standing in their midst and he says i am he that's the essence of what he says and he says if you're thirsty come to me he might as well have been putting it in the words i've just mentioned went and said well i am the fulfillment because indeed he was he was amen in the same way i think each of us must be aware uh that this this one who is speaking and the holy spirit he was speaking about is the lord god almighty and when you drink his water is the point when you drink his water you launch into a life of total obedience to him to drink his water you give yourself to that act to that experience to that grace you drink his water you surrender your life to him and if you're continually drinking that water your life is being lived surrendered to him continually you know i think i don't know a better way to say this uh but you know when he is enthroned in your heart he insists on calling all the shots that's about the way we say it today that's total obedience anything less than that is no total obedience this is how jesus lived he said i do always those things that please the father amen this is what this is the normal this is not the average this is the normal christian experience it's drinking in it's being filled with his life it's having rivers flow out each and every one of the rivers speak of jesus in one way or another and you're satisfied so you're not looking to other fountains anymore amen and he speaks to you and he leads you and he directs you and we listen and we we rejoice in obe obeying his bidding and seeking to do his will amen you know i'm going to close now but i don't know a better way to close off what i've been sharing with you then to go back to a story which one or two of you listening to me will have heard me tell before because you you tend to retell the best stories that have really sunk in deeply but you know this this story is of a plymouth brethren couple man and his wife their missionaries they've got three sons and they're in central africa and they're traveling together as a little family unit to reach a new tribe that they've never been to before this is a true story and there's no road uh there's no real trail they've got a compass and they're following that and as they're pursuing their journey to this tribe they they know that they're moving further and further away from the water supply that they had known and they reached a stage where the water that they brought with them was exhausted completely and they were becoming incredibly thirsty and you know they sent out there were a few carriers that were with them and helping them they sent them out in different directions to just see if they could perhaps find some possibility of some water and one day went by and two days went by and three days went by and things were desperate they were actually reaching they believed that they were looking at death in the face now this lovely christian couple and their three boys and you know they they they made a decision the father said let's just let's just kneel down and let's pray and as they knelt down the sun was blazing there was not a solitary cloud in the sky to be seen and the father lifted up his voice and prayed and this was his prayer he said father in heaven in the name of your son we're ready for the ultimate sacrifice but you are sovereign and i cry to you lord send us rain and that man is recorded in his journal and he said as god is my witness clouds began to appear he said there was thunder and lightning and a deluge of rain he said everything was water they filled everything they had with water but he said this and this is this is the this is the important point he said we drank and we drank and we drank are you thirsty like that my dear friend what else has captivated your heart and your attention or are you thirsty to truly know god if you are thirsty like that give yourself to god and drink and drink deeply my dear friend and keep drinking never stop drinking not ever let me just pray and i close father we commit this word and the truth lord from scripture that we've sought to gather together here and to hear the voice of your holy spirit speaking to the hearts of each and every one of us afresh lord have your way if this is the appointed time for one or another or perhaps for many lord i pray that you will find those hearts leaping in response to you lord and in that simple and yet profound way to open the innermost heart to you and receive and drink in your holy spirit your life transforming spirit your spirit reveals jesus in and through our lives we pray in jesus name amen if you're watching on our youtube channel and turn to the scriptures with fred tomlinson can i encourage you to click on the subscribe thing you know what that does doesn't commit you to anything really but it it it purely assures us that there are those out there who are identifying with us and who are praying for us may god bless you all amen

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Fred Tomlinson

Id: 1yF5MJ5OHjM

Length: 43min 36sec (2616 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021