In this sermon, the speaker discusses the significance of water in the Bible and its connection to the Holy Spirit. He starts by describing the practice of pouring water from a golden vessel into a silver vessel during the Feast of Tabernacles as a symbol of God's provision for the Israelites during their time in the wilderness. The speaker then focuses on Jesus' statement during this feast, where he declares that anyone who thirsts should come to him and drink, and out of their heart will flow rivers of living water. The speaker explains that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, who had not yet been given at that time. The sermon emphasizes the joy and faithfulness of God in our lives and encourages believers to rejoice in their relationship with Him.

Sunday night we study through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and tonight we find ourselves in John chapter 7, chapter 7 verse 1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea, Galilee being the northern section of Israel, Judea being the southern portion of Israel, and the headquarters of kind of the whole spiritual religious system of those days, Jerusalem being the center of that. And he didn't want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. The plot, they have been upset now for a very long time over Jesus' healing of the man who was lame at the pools of Bethesda from chapter 5. And they're upset not only that he healed this man on the Sabbath day in violation, not of God's will, but in violation of their traditions and their interpretations, but that he then ordered him to carry his mat on the Sabbath day and get out of here. You're not about this place anymore. This is the testimony of a changed life. And so in telling him to take up his bed or his mat and to leave this place, he was calling him to carry a burden on the Sabbath day, which also violated their particular interpretation of things. And so they're still really steamed at him over all of this, and they want to kill him. And it's not a very well-kept secret that they desire to kill Jesus. In fact, Jesus is quite aware of it, even up in the Galilee. Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand. Now we know from chapter 6, verse 4, that the events of chapter 6 surrounded the feast of Passover. The feast of Passover takes place each year in about what is our April. And this feast of tabernacles takes place in what is typically our late September, early October. So you have between chapter 6 and chapter 7, you have a period of several months that have gone by, four, five, six months have gone by that we really don't have a record of what he did during that period. John isn't that concerned in giving us a complete record of everything that Jesus did, but the record that the Holy Spirit gave him to record was one that would cause a person upon reading it to become a believer in the Lord Jesus. And so there is this period of time. And from chapter 7 on, this is occurring in about October, the October prior to Jesus's crucifixion on the next day of Pentecost, which is again about April. So from John chapter 7, all the way through to chapter 21, it covers a period of about six months. And in fact, the over the majority or a huge portion of the book is going to deal with the final 24 hours of Jesus's life. So that gives us a little bit of a feel for when all of these things are happening. Now the feast of tabernacles was one of the three great feasts of the Jewish religious calendar. And God had called for all male Jews to attend the feast of Pentecost, of Passover, and of tabernacles in Jerusalem. Was required by the law. Well, as the Jewish people dispersed out throughout the world, as you might recognize, if you live very, very far away, you would spend all of your traveling time traveling to and from these feasts as a Jewish man, if you didn't live right within the region. And so they developed this kind of unwritten law that if you lived within 20 miles of Jerusalem, you were required to keep each of the three feasts each year as a Jewish man. If you live beyond 20 miles from Jerusalem, then you were to keep the feast as often as you were able to do that. Now the feast of tabernacles is an interesting one because there are interesting practices that went on and it was a seven day feast. And what they would do is even if you own a beautiful home in Jerusalem for the one week of that feast, you and your family would vacate your home and they would build this little kind of a lean to out of sticks, out of branches that they would find. And they would put this little walls up and they'd put this little roof on this lean to, and they would always be careful not to make it so tight in terms of the roof that you couldn't see the stars and to see the moon. And they would go in and they would lie down underneath and they would look up with their children up through those sticks and they would see the stars. And when the children and God was always concerned that the miracles that he had done in the lives of the fathers would be passed on to the children. And so when they would sit and say, daddy, why are we leaving this beautiful house that we own to go live in a little lean to of sticks? They'd lay and they look out at those stars and the father would then tell them that this is the way that our forefathers lived for 40 years in the wandering in the wilderness. And that God was faithful to our people, graciously faithful to them for all 40 years. He provided for their food. The soles of their sandals never wore out in the 40 years. And it was a time to educate the children in the tremendous spiritual heritage that was theirs. And so it was a time to celebrate God's faithfulness. That was the spiritual meaning of it. But because the feast landed at in October, it was a time in which it was also known as the feast of ingathering. It was known as the feast of suck off. It was known as the feast of booths. The booths were what they, they slept in, but it was called the feast of ingathering because it was a time where all of the crops would be brought in. And so there would be that celebration of God's faithfulness for supplying our family, supplying our nation once again with food. And so the feast of tabernacles was one of tremendous celebration. God's faithful provision for 40 years. Do we have any one here tonight? Don't jump or do anything. You could have, if I had a microphone, I could work the aisles. Have any of you walked with the Lord for 40 years or more? Show of hands. That's great. What's your testimony? There we go. All right. Listen, it wasn't that great of a question. Just kidding. How self-centered I can be. I can think that was for me. But what's your testimony? Your testimony is how faithful God has been all of that time. There was a time just to rejoice in the faithfulness of the Lord. And it's so easy, I think, to lose the joy in our life as Christians, the joy of our salvation. And it's good to just stop and to consider, no matter what else is happening in my life, I have a relationship with God that he is committed to in all of this life and the life to come. I can talk to him any time, day or night. His Holy Spirit indwells me. His promises are yea and amen toward me. They'll never fail, not in one of our lives. And so tonight, a time to just stop. It's in the privacy of our own heart to have a little 10-second party, little confetti, just to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness in our life. I'll tell you, my testimony is he's been faithful every step of the way. Every moment I have spent worrying has been a waste of time. And so the Feast of Tabernacles, and so it was at hand and Jesus, his brothers, therefore said to him in verse 3, depart from here and go into Judea. Go from the Galilee region that your disciples also may see the works that you're doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. And so the brothers, and it's interesting to notice that Jesus did have brothers. They were half brothers. Mary was not a perpetual virgin following the virgin birth of Jesus. There was a sexual relationship between her and Joseph, and there were children that came out of that union. And so Jesus was related to them on Mary's side, but not on Joseph's side. So he had brethren. He had half brothers. And in Jesus's ministry, at least at this particular point, none of them were told in verse 5, believed in him as the Messiah. Now it's interesting that by the time we get to the book of Acts, chapter 1, following Jesus's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, when those 120 believers go into that upper room in the city of Jerusalem, there Luke describes and names many of them in that chapter. And then as you get toward the end of the listing of who was there, you have also, he mentions that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, and his brethren. They're scorning Jesus now. They don't believe in him. They believe in his miracles. They've seen his miracles. But they're saying, listen, you're wasting your time up here doing these miracles in the Galilee. Everybody knows the real spiritual place to do this kind of stuff is down in Judea, down in in Jerusalem. You're never going to be acknowledged for who you say that you are until you do these same things there. So they call on them to to tell Jesus to do this, and very free with their counsel. I don't know if you've ever counseled God before. I'm laughing because I have. It worked out about as well as this does here. And Jesus said to them, why didn't I think of that? You guys, I have underestimated you all of these years. No, that's not what he said. He said to them, my time has not yet come. It wasn't his time to go down into Jerusalem. He wasn't going to go down under their timing. He said to them, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me. And that's a strong phrase. Why does it hate him? Because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Now it's Jesus's response here that makes me believe that he was responding to scorn on their part. Now this phrase, my time has not yet come in verse six. That's a phrase that's repeated over and over in the gospel of John. His time was not yet come. My time was not yet come. Time was not yet come repeated over and over again. And what it's communicating is that Jesus's death upon the cross, the things that he was doing, that these things were under a divine timetable. God was in charge of what was happening. Not man. So Jesus was resting in that. And so he says to them, your time is always ready. You don't have a personal relationship with God. You don't have a concern for his will in your life. You just do whatever you want when you want it. And it's always time to do your will. The world can't hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it, that its works are evil. The world was not a dangerous place to Jesus's brothers because they were part of the world. What is the world? The world is that portion of what is on this planet that is under the government of man. That is man's self will and under the government of the devil where those things rule. That's the government of this world. And the only exception to being a part of the world is to be a part of the kingdom of God, to voluntarily become a part of his kingdom, a citizen of his kingdom. And now I'm a part of a different kingdom than the kingdom of this world. So they don't have that relationship with the Lord, though they're very religious and they're going to engage in religious activity. And since they would not resist evil, they'd never be bothered by those that were practicing evil is what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying you'll fit in even if it means accommodating, being silent in the face of evil. You'll do that in order to fit in this world. He says that's something that I won't do and thus I won't fit in. He's telling them that the reason they fit in is because their life didn't produce any conviction of evil. Jesus's life did. Not only did Jesus stand against evil, and by the way there is something called evil in this world, sin. But Jesus testified to the evil of the world and testified against it. If you want to be hated by this world, all you have to do is stand up and call evil, evil. And they'll aim both barrels at you. It seems that the only evil thing in the world, by the current definitions, is to call something evil. Not even God is allowed to call anything evil today. Or he's intolerant, or whatever the phraseology is this week for the whole thing. But there's a thing called evil. Sin is evil in this world. And Jesus stood against it, and because he stood against it, even as it existed in the lives of religious leaders, he incurred their wrath. They hated him because of it. Because he would not be silent in defining what is evil. So Jesus not only used the term evil in his vocabulary, he went so far as to actually apply it as it relates to society. And he was hated because of it. There's this idea that if Jesus showed up today, that we would be much more understanding of him than they were two thousand years ago. And as Gale Irwin says, yes we would. We'd kill him in the gas chamber instead of on the cross. Make no mistake about it, if he were to come to the earth, and he is on the earth through the lives of his people, but if he were to come to the earth and speak the same things again, and stand against them, it would produce the same reaction. We are no more civilized than they were two thousand years ago. And he said, you go up to this feast, and I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. So he said, you go on ahead. It was obviously not the father's plan that Jesus would go to the feast, accompanying them, or at the same time that they were coming to the feast. Jesus would come to the feast a little bit later. And when he had said these things to them, he remained in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. The Jews sought him at the feast, and when John uses the term the Jews, it's not referring to the Jewish people, he's referring typically to Jewish religious leaders. And so when the Jews sought him at the feast, they probably were looking at him to come in with his brothers. So they're looking for him to show up on this feast, because it was evidently a characteristic of his life. So they're searching for him to come. They sought him, and they said, where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him, and some said, he's good. And others said, no, on the contrary, he deceives the people. So there's this divided opinion concerning Jesus. However, no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews, the Jewish religious leaders. Nobody could speak openly of believing in him as the Christ, not because of the fear of, you know, the atheists or some kind of thing like that, but a fear of religious leaders. So all of this was going on very, very quietly. Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and he taught. Then there was a section of the temple area where a teacher could go into that particular area of the temple, and he could begin to teach at that area of the temple, and a crowd would typically gather around him and listen to what it is that he had to say. So Jesus comes now in the middle of the feast, and he begins to teach in the area of the temple, and you notice what the response was, and the Jews marveled the Jewish religious leaders saying, how does this man know letters having never studied? They admired what he had to say, his teaching, his handling of the Old Testament scriptures, what he had to say about God and the things of God, and how they applied to the human life. He was saying things that nobody else was saying. Earlier in one of the other Gospels, Jesus in his ministry, when he taught, the people were astonished at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority. The typical way of teaching by the rabbis in those days is no one would make much of a stand on anything. They'd say, Rabbi Shimei says this about this passage, and Hillel says this about this passage, and all, and they give you all the things, and nobody would make a stand on the thing. It might hurt the offerings. So Jesus comes in, and he just says, listen, this is what's being said here. This is what God means here, and this is what it means for our lives, and the people were craving that kind of clarity and faithfulness to the scriptures. And so here they are, these religious leaders, even they are forced to marvel at what it is that he's saying, and the question that it provokes within them, verse 15, is how does this man know letters having never studied? They're astonished that he could know what he knew without having attended one of their religious schools. It is estimated that in Jesus' day there were 30 different rabbinical schools in Jerusalem. Different rabbis with different interpretations and different slants and different philosophies, and you could enroll yourself or enroll your children in one of those schools so that they could be influenced by a particular rabbi. And they listened to what Jesus was saying, and they realized this guy is not a product of any one of those schools. What he's saying is entirely different from what's being taught in those schools. This knowledge hasn't come from man. And so you could attend one of these schools, they recognized that he hadn't, and they marveled that he could know so much without having a degree, a religious degree, without having a religious education. And Jesus declared in verse 16, he answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. He said, I have the greatest education that a person could ever have. I know the author personally. There's nothing wrong with a good seminary, good bible teaching, good bible college, they're getting harder to find. But they're not necessary. If God calls you to serve him apart from an equipping that comes there, because a carpenter's workshop where the father is and where the father is communed with is better than any seminary or any schooling that they're talking about where God is not present. And he is not communed with. Jesus never had a degree. None of the apostles had a theological degree. Some of the greatest preachers in the history of the church did not have a degree. Spurgeon had no degree. Campbell Morgan had no degree. Not putting down degrees, God calls you to attend bible college, to these kinds of things. But there are other ways, places where people find to commune with God and to learn about God. God produces within their life what's necessary for his call upon their life. When I was working for the phone company, I got saved. And when I got saved, I was a lineman, I believe, at that time. Then I transferred and became a cable splicer. And much of the time as a cable splicer, you'd be either up above on a pole or you'd be down in one of these holes with one of these massive cables. It would take you all day to splice up the cables. It would be 2400 pair, 1800 pair, whatever it might be. I'd go down in that thing and begin to case the thing up and to splice the thing. And I would turn on my tape recorder and I would listen to bible study tapes. And I could listen to seven Chuck Smith tapes a day in those manholes. And in the course of just a very short period of time, I went through the bible from Genesis to Revelation in the 5000 series with Chuck Smith three and a half times. And I was able to get a bible college education from a manhole while I was paid by Pac Bell to do it. I did my job well at the same time. And I developed a systematic theology before I even knew what a systematic theology was. I still don't know what it is, but I'm working on it. So the Lord calls, and he calls people into serving him in a lot of different ways, no matter what it, whatever the call might be. Then Jesus said in verse 17, if anyone wills to do his will, that is the father's will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. Now this is interesting. It's one of my favorite verses in all the bible. Of course, they're all my favorite, so this depends on where I'm teaching in a given night. But I do love this verse. Here's the dilemma. They are marveling at him, and they are posing this question in the hearing of the men and women who have come to listen to him teach. And they're casting doubt upon his authority to teach because of his lack of a degree. And you've got some people believing in Jesus as the messiah. You have others that say no, he's a deceiver. And those are the same things that are happening today on planet earth. You have people that say yes, of course he's the messiah. And you have others who say no, he's a deceiver. So how do you find out for yourself which one of the two he is? And that's what Jesus is answering here in John chapter 7, verse 17. And he says, don't make your decision about me based upon the conclusion that someone else has come to, whether right or wrong. Come to your own conclusion based upon your own facts. And what's the best thing a person can do? He said, if anyone wills to do his, that is the father's will, he shall know concerning the doctrine whether it's from God or whether I speak with my own authority. So do you want to know whether this is the truth? You want to know whether this is a message come from God? He said, start to obey the commandments that I have given for the father. And when you obey those commandments, it will produce such a quality of life that you will recognize that no one could know you this well except the maker. And the beautiful thing as he speaks here, if anyone wills to do it, and the idea here of wills to do it isn't like, okay, I'm open to that. It has the idea of wills to do. I mean, really seizes it. I'm going to live this. I'm going to live this to the nth degree. I'm going to put it to the test of my life and see if it holds up through the highs and the lows of life. It's a real commitment to it. And Jesus said, if anyone wills to do his will, the father's will, he shall know. And the word know is Gnosko in the original language. It means a knowledge that comes by experience. He said, if you live this life, obey these commandments, the best place to begin is with salvation. He said, you'll have your own testimony, your own experience that is greater than anything that someone can just say to you, yes, this is right or this is wrong. When I first became a Christian, one of the things that I marveled at, as it relates to the word of God, is I was astonished at prophecy. It was such a strong testimony to me, and still is, of the fact that this word is God breathed. I am so in awe of the prophetic scriptures, Isaiah 52 and 53, Ezekiel, Daniel chapter 9, and on and on and on it goes. And early on, the great testimony to me of the fact that this was God's word was the prophetic element, fulfilled prophecy. But the longer that I've walked with the Lord, there has been a second thing that has come from the scriptures that testifies to me very, very strongly of the fact that this is God breathed, and that is the kind of life that it produces. Only God, the creator, could know the creation this well. This teaching flies in the face of virtually every kind of shenanigan that this world comes up with in an experiment upon human beings for what is the purpose of life, and what produces a fulfilling life, and a quality life, and all. And he comes in and says, no, it's found in the exact opposite way. And sure enough, you take him up on it, and you begin to live that life, and you realize he's the only one that knows what he's talking about in this world. And it's a tremendous testimony. And I like that fact of anyone, it's open to anyone, to test anyone can put God to. And then what is the promise? He said, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it's from God, or whether I speak on my own authority. God says, I'll make sure that you understand, and come to the right conclusion concerning me. And he who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. And so Jesus is, declares that he's free of self-seeking. Most of the time when there was a teacher, and that day, or in this day, the teacher would try and differentiate himself from other teachers, for what reason? In order that he might be noticed, in order that it might bring glory to him. And Jesus is saying here, listen, everything I'm doing, I'm pointing people to the Father. In my message, and in my motives, I'm completely pure. Then Jesus said, did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? So he confronts the religious leaders with their hypocrisy. They've opened up a dialogue with him now, that place of teaching at the temple. And he said, you have the law of Moses, and you parade yourself around as the great experts on the law of Moses, and the great keepers of the law of Moses. But you violate the law of Moses. In what way? Because you seek to murder me, contrary to the teaching of the law of Moses. I personally think that they're flabbergasted that he has exposes them. And so they say, the people answered in verse 20, and said, you have a demon, who's seeking to kill you? You ever kind of catch a liar in a lie? And it's amazing how they can be flustered for a nanosecond. I mean, if you blink, you doesn't notice the fluster. And they'll turn the whole thing around on you, and then they'll be, they'll have chutzpah, like you can't believe, nerve, and then they'll turn the whole thing around, and then charge you with something. You know, it's a, they feign like they don't know what he's talking about. We're going to see in a moment, everyone in Jerusalem knows they're trying to kill Jesus. And Jesus answered and said, I did one work. Do you all marvel the healing of that layman by the pool there in John 5. He said, Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. Because circumcision predated the law of Moses, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath. Now, God established the ordinance of circumcision, and he also established the law of Sabbath. Saturday, there was not to be any work done on the Sabbath day. But though there was not to be any work done on the Sabbath day, on the Saturday, under the law of Moses, God allowed for circumcision to be performed on the Sabbath day. Every male Jewish child that was born into the world, he would be circumcised on the eighth day. And if he was born on a Sabbath day, then it required that he would be circumcised on the Sabbath day. And so you have this, what would appear to be a violation of the Sabbath in keeping the circumcision. And yet God commanded for the, the, the command of circumcision to supersede the laws that related to Sabbath when they fell upon one another. Why did God get to do that? Because he's God. He can do what he wants, and that's the point that Jesus is making. You have your interpretations of the Sabbath day, but when God wants to heal someone on the Sabbath day, he gets to do it. As Jesus said, he said that he himself is the son of man was not under the Sabbath. The Sabbath was for man. It wasn't for God. And so he said, when I come along and I heal a man on the Sabbath day, I am not setting a precedence here. God himself set a precedence for this long ago in the law of Moses, when he allowed for the right of circumcision on the Sabbath day. And their minds were working hard on that because they understood what he was saying to them. Then he said, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. And Jesus is in effect saying to them, listen, the reason that you will not accept what it is that I'm saying is because you don't like me. If you would have liked me and my appearance and how I handled myself and what I taught, then you would have recognized me as the Messiah long ago. They didn't come to the right conclusion concerning him because they didn't want to. They were unwilling to do it in the face of all of the evidence. Now some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? So here it is. It's widespread knowledge is Jesus speaking openly there in Jerusalem. It's the guy that's on the hit list of those very religious men. But look, he speaks boldly and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? And so Jesus's boldness made them wonder if the rulers had changed their mind concerning him. Then they said, however, we know where this man is from. But when the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from. Now the prevailing opinion concerning the Messiah was that when he came, no one would know where he came from. He would just appear on the scene out of out of nowhere. And it appears that this is kind of a misguided interpretation of Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Messiah and Isaiah 53 and who will declare his generation. In other words, we won't know where he's come from, his lineage. He's just going to show up on the scene. And so they are rejecting Jesus, not on the basis of the scriptures, but on the basis of their man-made ideas concerning the Messiah. They should have known from the Old Testament that when the Messiah came, he would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 52. God had said where he would be born. But these kind of theories were floating around. And then Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple saying, you both know me and you know where I am from. And he's speaking now of heaven. And I have not come of myself. And he who sent me, speaking of the father is true, whom you do not know. But I know him for I am from him and he sent me. Now this is one of the things that got Jesus into trouble with the religious leaders as he kept telling them that he came from heaven and that the father was his father. And they didn't like that. But instead of backing off from it, Jesus says it to them every way you can say it to them. And he says it all over again to them in verse 28 and verse 29. He says concerning the father whom you do not know. And they would have, there would have been a slap to them because they thought they were the experts on God. And Jesus said, I'm the one that knows him. I'm from him and he sent me. And therefore they sought to take him. They wanted to arrest him right on the spot, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. They weren't in control of the situation. God was in control of what was going on. And many of the people believed in him and said when the Christ comes, will he do more signs than this man has done all of these miracles that Jesus was doing? What are we waiting for? We remember that between the time of the Old Testament prophets and the history of the Old Testament and the coming on the scene of John the Baptist with a message from heaven, there was a 400 year period of silence. To say nothing of no miracles going on. And so here is this silence now that's broken not only by word, but by this, you know, this gigantic amount of, of miracles that were done. And they've said, what are we holding out for? This guy's got to be the Messiah. It's not like somebody this has been done all through our history. And the Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus. Now the Roman government allowed the Jewish religious leaders, a Jewish kind of police force. They allowed that under their, their supervision. And so they send their kind of, you know, their, you know, their bouncers to go arrest Jesus. They don't want to have, make a scene and have them look bad, you know, arresting Jesus. So they're going to send these other guys to do that. And Jesus said to them, before they made their getaway, I shall be with you a little while longer, about six more months before the cross. And then I go to him who sent me. He's talking about his return to heaven to be with the father. And he said, you will seek me and not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. Jesus is saying, I'm going to heaven and you're not. And there's a day coming in your future when you will give your right arm to seek me and to hear my truth and believe in it. But it will be too late. One of the heaviest verses in the Bible. Then the Jews said among themselves, what does he intend to do to go? Where does he intend to go? That we shall not find him. Does he intend to go to the dispersion and among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? Is he going to leave Israel and go among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles these things? What is this thing that he said? You shall seek me and not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. One of the interesting things they're confused by what Jesus is saying. They don't understand it, but they don't want to know what he's saying. Because they don't ask him what he means. And the reason they didn't ask him what he meant is because they didn't want to know what he meant. They've made their mind up. They didn't want to be confused with the facts. And on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in me, as the scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke, concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. John writes his gospel some 50 years after these events. And so he declares what it is that Jesus was talking about when he talked about these rivers of living water that he was speaking of the Holy Spirit. Now, the posture of a teacher in those days was that when a teacher would teach, he would sit and the students would stand. And so here we have a situation where on this day, Jesus stands up on the last day of the feast. And what he is doing now is he's taking the posture of a prophet. A prophet would stand and declare the truth of God. Now, one of the things that was interesting about the Feast of Tabernacles is that every day and remember during the feast, those three great feasts, Jerusalem, according to Josephus, had between one and three million Jews in it. The place is just absolutely jammed with pilgrims. And they're talking about the area of the temple here where Jesus is up in the area of Herod's temple. And all of these pilgrims are there in the region of the temple. And every day for the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the priest would take a golden vessel and they would go down the southern steps of the Temple Mount area down to the pool of Siloam. They would fill that golden vessel with water and then singing psalms. They would come back up the steps, re-enter into this huge mob of pilgrims there on the Temple Mount area. And they would take that golden pitcher full of water over to a silver vessel that was there. And at the bottom of that silver vessel, there was a hole and they would pour the water from that golden vessel into the silver vessel. And a million people would watch the water go into that God supplied for their thirst during their 40 years of wandering through water from a rock. And so for seven days, all of this has gone on. And here is Jesus. He is standing there in the midst of all of these people. And he knows what Paul is later going to write about when he writes to the Corinthians that Jesus is that rock. And just as in the Old Testament, when Moses was commanded to hit the rock initially to satisfy and supply for the thirst of the people, he took his rod and he smoked the rock. The first time in water came forth a second time occurred in their wanderings where once again, they were thirsty. God wanted, they were whining and complaining, which can get on anybody's nerves, but God wanted to supply for their needs. He knew they needed water and he loved them whiners that they were. And so he said to Moses, go to the rock and speak to the rock and water will come out. Moses has just about had enough of these people and he takes his rod again. And he says, you know, shall I bring water from this rock again, you rebellious people and smite the rock. And he takes the thing and he smites the rock with his staff a second time. And because God is gracious, water came out of that rock and satisfied the thirst of the people. But God is not happy with Moses. And he says to Moses, Moses, could I have a word with you? I don't know if you've ever had one of those conversations with God. He said, Moses, I told you to speak to the rock, not to smite the rock. And because you smote the rock a second time instead of speaking to it and doing it in your anger, you're not going to go into the promised land and lead my people into there. You think, what's the big deal? You know, speak, smite, come on, we got water. These are tough people to deal with God. I mean, you know, the reason it was so serious is it spoiled the imagery because it was all a picture of Jesus where he was to be smitten on that cross, but smitten once, never to be smitten again. Now, when we come to the rock, when we come to Jesus, we can speak to him and what is needed for us spiritually will flow forth. To our lives, the final day of the feast, the eighth day, the great day of the feast, they wouldn't do any of this. There's no pouring water. There was none of this kind of stuff going on. And the reason that they didn't pour the water on the eighth day was an acknowledgement of the Jewish people. That the Messiah was coming, that just as the father had supplied for their physical needs in, by miraculous means, in the wilderness, so too he was going to send his Messiah and satisfy their spiritual thirst. And so the eighth day was an acknowledgement that this was a type of something that in their mind had not been fulfilled yet or wasn't even close to being fulfilled. And it is in that setting that Jesus then stands up and declares himself to be the one that all of that is about. And he said, if any man thirsts, and for eight days he has watched a million people watch a religious ceremony go on, and he knows they are dying of spiritual thirst. And he in essence is saying, you're thirsty and I know it. You're spiritually thirsty in the same way that our forefathers were physically thirsty in that wilderness. And what's the solution to it? He said, if you thirst, let him come to me. Come to Jesus himself and drink. And how does one drink? And to drink is again to assimilate something for to become a part of my life. How does one do that? By believing in him. And when a person believes in him, then what happens is that this torrent of living water, a flow of living water comes out of their life. And Jesus taught about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter one. He spoke of it being the provision by God of power to be a witness to Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. That's close to home, Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the earth, the two hardest places to consistently be a witness for the Lord is at home. And when you're on the other side of the world and you don't know anyone, but he promised the power to be a witness in any setting we would find ourselves in, no matter how wicked or how powerful it may be in the world, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I've always appreciated this 38, 37 and 38, because you get into the books and they talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Does everything happen at the time of conversion? Can there be a subsequent experience with the Holy Spirit after conversion? And then is being baptized with the Holy Spirit the same thing as being filled with the Holy Spirit? Is it the same thing as, um, as, um, there is another term too, that was there a second ago and has escaped me, but they get all hung up on the terminology. And the beautiful thing about it is we can come back and trust Jesus to make it simple. And he comes along and says, listen, this is to be the experience of my disciples, not only the Holy Spirit in my life, but overflowing my life in such a way that it's like a torrent of living water coming out of my life. In other words, we become human drinking fountains. We are people who have not only refreshment ourselves from God, but we bring spiritual refreshment to a dry and thirsty world. And so the question tonight for us is not, is it the baptism of the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit and all of the terminology and all of that? The question is, is that the experience that I have with the Holy Spirit? Does the Holy Spirit come out of my life as a torrent of living water? And if he does not, then there is a greater relationship available to me with the person of the Holy Spirit. You ever have a torrent of you come out of your life? Neither have I, but I hear it's very common in other churches right here in this town. Just kidding. Of course, we all experienced that. Aren't people refreshed when there's just a torrent of you that comes out? That's great. That's wonderful. You're going to bottle that for us now? And when there's a torrent of me and my flesh coming out of my life, then all I need to do is just stop and say, Lord, freshly fill me with your Holy Spirit so that the sweetness of you flows out of my life. And Jesus said, if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? It's there for the asking. So I love this. He's speaking of the spirit and he's the source of this kind of life. And therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said truly, this is the prophet. They became convinced this is the Messiah. And others said this other said this is the Christ. But some said, well, the Christ come out of Galilee has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was. And so this part of the crowd seems to understand that Jesus is going to come out of Bethlehem, according to Micah's prophecy. But they assumed that because he was raised in Nazareth, that he was born in Nazareth. But all they had to do was just ask him, listen, where were you born? And he would have been glad to inform them of that. But they're coming again to conclusions about him based upon, you know, wrong information. And so there was a division among the people because of him. And now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. And when the officers came this, the bouncers, they came to the chief priests and the Pharisees who had sent them to arrest Jesus. They said to the bouncers, why haven't you brought him? The officers said, no man ever spoke like this man. I like that. These guys had listened to religious blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they had listened to these guys, blah, blah, blah, blah. So when they come back and say, listen, we've heard a lot of religious talk in our days. No man ever spoke like this man. So they went to arrest them and they ended up arrested, didn't they? And the Pharisees answered them and said, are you also deceived? And so they accuse him of being deceived. Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? So they begin to scorn the idea of believing in him. Have any of the religious leaders followed him, you know, and as if that's a basis upon which to, to, to base something. And he said, then they said, but this crowd, this rabble that believes in him, that does not know the law is a curse. They said, look at who follows him, the common kind of people that uneducated and all of this. And they look at who's following him. And so you don't see any brilliant people like us following him. And so they really use this, this ridicule. And it's a powerful, powerful thing against people believing in the Lord. They ridicule their faith here. And Nicodemus, the one who came to Jesus by night being one of them. That is one of the Sanhedrin, one of the Pharisees, he said to them, does our Lord judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's saying. Now, remember Nicodemus in John chapter three is described as being the teacher in Israel by Jesus. Now this tells us why he was considered a great teacher, because he goes back to the scriptures for the basis of their practice. And he informs the other Pharisees that, listen, I don't care what title we have. The law says you don't judge a man until you've heard his side of things. And so he goes back to the scriptures as a basis for their doing. And they answered and they said to him, are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. And they're very wrong. And that Jonah came out of Galilee and everyone went to his own house.