The LORD is the fountain—The prophet Jeremiah wrote that the idol-worshippers were “altogether brutish and foolish…But the LORD is the true God, HE IS THE LIVING GOD, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation” (Jeremiah 10:7-10). The LORD said through his prophet Ezekiel: “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken ME THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:12-13; 17:13).
THE LIVING FOUNTAIN
God and our Saviour—When Jesus appeared to the apostles the second time after his glorious resurrection from the dead, he told Thomas to behold him and touch him, “and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, MY LORD AND MY GOD” (John 20:27-29). If the Lord Jesus Christ is not LORD and GOD, then Thomas spoke blasphemy (Matthew 26:64-65; Mark 3:29; John 10:36), in which case the Lord Jesus would have certainly rebuked him. But Thomas was absolutely correct because he believed the plain declarations of the word of God. Jesus Christ “was God” (John 1:1) “manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Therefore, “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:27-29).
Praise the Lord! I am one of the millions of people who have not seen the Lord, but when I believed in him with all my heart, he gave me that living water! Now I am excited and full of joy as I am “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST!” (Titus 2:13; Isaiah 45:20-23; 1 John 5:7).
BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION
Jesus offered living water—When they met at Jacob’s well, the Lord Jesus answered the woman of Samaria, and said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN THEE LIVING WATER” (John 4:7-10). Jesus told the woman that whosoever drinks of the water in Jacob’s well “shall thirst again: BUT WHOSOEVER DRINKETH OF THE WATER THAT I SHALL GIVE HIM SHALL NEVER THIRST; BUT THE WATER THAT I SHALL GIVE HIM SHALL BE IN HIM A WELL OF WATER SPRINGING UP INTO EVERLASTING LIFE” (John 4:8-14).
The promise of the Holy Ghost—”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 hath said, OUT OF HIS BELLY SHALL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER. (BUT THIS SPAKE HE OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH THEY THAT BELIEVE ON HIM SHOULD RECEIVE: FOR THE HOLY GHOST WAS NOT YET GIVEN; BECAUSE THAT JESUS WAS NOT YET GLORIFIED)” (John 7:37-39). The Holy Ghost was not given until Jesus was glorified at his resurrection from the dead. The word of God also calls the Holy Ghost “the Spirit of God [and] the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9-10; 1Corinthians 3:16).
The promise of rest—When God was made flesh (John 1:1, 14; 1Timothy 3:16), Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Jesus promised his apostles the indwelling Spirit—On the night before the day of his crucifixion, after Judas Iscariot left the room to betray him, Jesus told the eleven apostles: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:7-17).
AFTER THE RESURRECTION
Promise fulfilled—Jesus appeared to his disciples on the first day of the week, the very day he arose from the dead. After showing them his hands and his side, he said unto them, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, RECEIVE YE THE HOLY GHOST” (John 20:19-23). By giving them the Holy Ghost, the Lord opened “their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45). “Now we [all born again believers] have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
This is called the anointing, of which the apostle John wrote: “But the ANOINTING which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as THE SAME ANOINTING TEACHETH YOU OF ALL THINGS, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). Thank the Lord for the permanent indwelling of “the Spirit of God…the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9)!
Jesus is the springing well within (John 4:14)—Christ is in born-again believers by his Spirit: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:9-10). In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle reveals the mystery, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27).
The apostle Paul declared: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Speaking to born- again believers about the unbelieving antichrist spirits in this present evil world, the apostle John declared: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:1-4; Revelation 3:20; John 17:22-26). Amen!
OLD TESTAMENT ALLEGORY
Christ and his church—Both the Old and New Testament typify the Lord “as a bridegroom” (Isaiah 61:10; Matthew 9:15; John 3:29). A bridegroom is a man espoused [engaged] to be married. The apostle Paul wrote to “the church of God” (2 Corinthians 1:2): “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you [the church] to one husband [Christ], that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2).
The following brief excerpt from the Song of Solomon is an allegory about the church and Christ. An allegory is: ‘A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances.’
First, the bridegroom speaks: “A GARDEN INCLOSED IS MY SISTER, MY SPOUSE; a spring shut up, A FOUNTAIN SEALED. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, A WELL OF LIVING WATERS, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out” (Song 4:12-16). The spouse answers the bridegroom: “Let my beloved come into HIS GARDEN, and eat HIS PLEASANT FRUITS” (Song 4:16).
The “fruit of the Spirit [which] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9), “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Every Spirit-filled, born-again believer who abides in Christ will be like a wonderful garden which bears “much fruit” (John 15:1-8).
OLD TESTAMENT SIMILITUDE
Water from the ROCK—When the children of Israel needed water at the rock in Horeb, the LORD told Moses to take his rod, “and thou shalt SMITE THE ROCK, and there shall come WATER OUT OF IT, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:5-6; Deuteronomy 8:15; Nehemiah 9:15; Psalm 114:8; 105:41; Isaiah 32:2).
This physical event was a “similitude” (Hosea 12:10). The rock typified God, the Rock of salvation (Deuteronomy 32:4, 15). The crucifixion of Jesus Christ—God manifest in flesh (1 Timothy 3:16), was typified when Moses smote the rock with the rod. And the giving of the Holy Ghost—after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, was typified when the waters gushed out of the rock and “ran in the dry places LIKE A RIVER” (Psalm 105:41; 78:20; Isaiah 48:21). With reference to this same event, the apostle wrote that the children of Israel “did all drink the same spiritual drink: for THEY DRANK OF THAT SPIRITUAL ROCK THAT FOLLOWED THEM: AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
FREE LIVING WATER FOR ALL THIRSTY MEN
Warning—”Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. THE LAW OF THE WISE IS A FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, to depart from the snares of death” (Proverbs 13:13-14). The LORD announced by his prophet Isaiah: “Ho, EVERY ONE THAT THIRSTETH, COME YE TO THE WATERS…without money and without price…Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:1-3).
The tribulation saints—When the Lord translated the apostle John to heaven, and showed him “things which must be hereafter” (Revelation 4:1), John saw a great multitude standing around the throne of the Lamb praising and worshipping God (Revelation 7:1-12). When John knew not who these were, one of the elders said unto him: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:13-17).
The water of life is FREE!—John also reported: “And he that sat upon the throne [the Lord Jesus Christ] said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I WILL GIVE UNTO HIM THAT IS ATHIRST OF THE FOUNTAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY” (Revelation 21:5-6). In the very last chapter of the Holy Bible, John records the Lord’s final invitation to men: “And he shewed me A PURE RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL, PROCEEDING OUT OF THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB…And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. AND WHOSOEVER WILL, LET HIM TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY” (Revelation 22:1, 17).
THE GREAT TREASURE OF FEAR
The fear of the LORD is his treasure (Isaiah 33:6)!—The Lord Jesus commanded his apostles: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather FEAR HIM WHICH IS ABLE TO DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN HELL” (Matthew 10:28). According to the scriptures, the fear of the LORD is: “clean, enduring for ever” (Psalm 19:9); “the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10); “wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28); “the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7); “to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13). And finally, the scripture says: “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS A FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, to depart from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:26-27).
CONCLUSION
Where will you be eternally? Every human being that has ever been born will either enjoy the eternal pleasures of the LORD because they received the gift of eternal life by faith, or they will suffer eternal damnation because they rejected and refused to receive God’s gift by faith! David—the redeemed and inspired psalmist, exclaimed: “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:7-9).
Come to the fountain of living waters today—God’s glorious saving gospel is “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). God promises you, and every lost sinner: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
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