The Midnight Cry

Living Water

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: TMC

Program Code: TMC000018A


00:14 Tonight, our subject is entitled
00:17 "Living Water."
00:20 The Bible says that when you and I come to Christ,
00:25 that we become streams
00:28 of living water,
00:30 then out of us flows
00:33 a river of living water.
00:35 And tonight,
00:36 Michael Harris is going to sing for us
00:38 that beautiful song, I heard,
00:43 "There is a river."
00:58 There
01:02 Is a river
01:08 And it flows
01:11 From deep within
01:19 There
01:22 Is a fountain
01:29 That frees the soul
01:34 From sin
01:39 Come
01:42 To this water
01:49 There is a vast supply
02:00 There
02:03 Is a river
02:10 That never shall run dry
02:20 One day
02:23 A thirsty woman
02:30 She was drawing
02:34 From the well
02:40 You see her life was ruined
02:46 And wasted
02:51 And her soul
02:54 Was bound for hell
03:01 Oh, but then
03:04 She met the master
03:11 And He told her
03:15 Of her sin
03:22 He said if you drink
03:26 Of this water
03:32 You'll never
03:35 Thirst Again
03:43 There
03:45 Is a river
03:52 And it flows
03:55 From deep Within
04:03 There is a fountain
04:13 That frees the soul from sin
04:24 Come
04:26 To this water
04:33 There is a vast supply
04:44 There
04:47 Is a river
04:54 That never shall
04:59 Run dry
05:22 Gracious Father, tonight,
05:26 we're thankful
05:29 that the water of life is given to us
05:33 as a river that never will run dry.
05:37 Lord, help us this evening
05:40 to drink
05:42 and to drink deeply
05:45 of the water of life.
05:48 Give us ears to hear,
05:51 hearts that are open,
05:54 minds that are clear
05:57 that we may accept Your Word,
06:00 for this we pray in Christ's name, amen.
06:10 Once, a year,
06:12 the Jewish people made their way
06:14 from all over Israel.
06:17 They're coming up to Jerusalem,
06:20 and they're coming to Jerusalem for the Feast
06:23 of the Tabernacles.
06:25 It's also referred to in scripture
06:27 as the Feast of Booze.
06:29 And so from every little village and hamlet,
06:32 all across Israel,
06:33 little groups are making their way
06:35 towards Jerusalem.
06:36 This is a very festive time,
06:38 because the climate at this time of the year
06:41 is just about ideal.
06:43 And they're gonna come to Jerusalem.
06:45 Everybody, everybody is gonna move out of their house,
06:50 and they're gonna in the backyard
06:52 or out in the vacant field,
06:54 maybe even up on top of the house,
06:56 they're gonna build a little tabernacle
06:58 or a little booth.
07:00 And they're gonna move into this tabernacle,
07:03 and they're gonna live in it for a week.
07:06 It's to remind them of the 40 years
07:08 that their forefathers spend in the wilderness.
07:10 This is a very, very special time
07:12 because they can visit with relatives and friends,
07:15 and just have a good time visiting.
07:17 But every morning,
07:20 they make their way up the mountain side
07:22 to the temple.
07:24 And there in the courtyard of the temple,
07:26 they worship God and they sing songs,
07:28 and they spend time,
07:30 they're praising the Lord
07:32 and reading the scripture together,
07:33 and then during the day
07:34 they visit with friends and family.
07:37 But when they come down to the last day of this feast
07:41 early that morning,
07:43 they all gather there in the courtyard of the temple.
07:47 And a couple priests
07:50 take two large jugs and set them on their shoulder.
07:53 And then those priests begin to march
07:56 around the courtyard.
07:58 And other priests begin to following behind them,
08:01 and then the people begin to march with them.
08:03 And they march around the courtyard
08:05 as they sing songs
08:06 and as they play musical instruments,
08:08 and they march around the courtyard.
08:10 And then outside the temple gate,
08:12 down through the streets of Jerusalem,
08:15 outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem,
08:17 and down the hillside
08:19 till they come to a brook
08:21 called Kidron.
08:23 And there those two priests
08:24 now take those two large jugs,
08:27 and they dip them into the brook
08:28 and fill them with water,
08:30 place them on their shoulder,
08:32 and they begin to make their way
08:33 back up the hillside,
08:34 singing songs
08:36 and repeating scripture together
08:38 until they've arrived in the courtyard again.
08:42 Now one of those priest
08:44 takes one of those jugs of water
08:46 and other priests takes a jug of wine
08:50 and they make their way up the stairway
08:52 of the altar of sacrifice.
08:55 And they walk right out to the very front of it
08:57 and there in the front of it is a large funnel
09:01 and they begin to pour water and wine into that funnel.
09:05 Just at that moment,
09:08 while they're pouring the water and the wine into that funnel,
09:11 someone out in the crowd of people begin to shout.
09:15 And you find his words recorded in the Book of John.
09:18 John 7:37,
09:21 and it says, "On the last day,
09:24 that great day of the feast,
09:26 Jesus stood and cried out,
09:28 saying, 'If anyone thirst,
09:30 let him come to me and drink.'"
09:33 You can just imagine,
09:35 here that whole courtyard is just crowded with people.
09:37 And Jesus is shouting out across that whole crowd,
09:40 if anybody's thirsty,
09:43 let him come unto me and drink.
09:47 Marvelous promise that He gives to you and me.
09:50 "He who believes in Me,
09:52 as the scripture has said,
09:54 out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
09:59 So it says that out of you and me
10:03 will flow rivers of living water,
10:07 marvelous promise that God gives to each one of us.
10:11 Jesus and His disciples,
10:14 they have left Israel.
10:17 They've gone over into Samaria.
10:20 They're approaching a city by the name of Sychar.
10:24 Jesus has sent the disciples into town
10:26 to buy something to eat.
10:29 And He has gone over
10:30 and had a seat beside Jacob's well.
10:34 A woman of Samaria from the city of Sychar
10:37 has come to the well to draw water.
10:41 As she approaches the well, she sees Jesus sitting there,
10:45 but she doesn't pay any attention to Him.
10:47 You see, Jesus is a Jew, and she's a Samaritan.
10:52 And the scripture puts it very politely,
10:54 it says that they had no dealings.
10:56 That's what the scripture says.
10:58 You want me to tell you how it was.
11:01 Well, if you were a Jew,
11:04 and you were eating,
11:06 and a Samaritan walk by,
11:08 and his shadow fell on your food,
11:10 you turn the plate upside down.
11:12 So she didn't expect Jesus to speak to her.
11:17 But Jesus knew that in the Middle East,
11:19 there's a request that you cannot refuse
11:22 doesn't make any difference
11:23 how much you dislike the person,
11:25 how much they might be your enemy.
11:27 You cannot refuse request for a drink of water.
11:32 And so Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
11:36 And she couldn't understand that.
11:37 She said, "How is it that you being a Jew
11:40 would ask me a Samaritan for a drink of water?"
11:45 And Jesus said, "If you knew who was asking,
11:48 you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you."
11:52 Listen.
11:57 "And Jesus answered and said to her,
11:59 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you,
12:04 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked of Him,
12:06 and He would have given you living water.'"
12:10 Oh, He said, if you just knew that
12:12 you would have asked of Him,
12:14 and He would have given you living water.
12:17 It's a promise.
12:19 Over and over in this book,
12:20 God gives you and I an invitation to come
12:24 and drink and drink of the water of life.
12:28 And it says that out of us will flow
12:30 rivers of living water,
12:32 Isaiah, Isaiah 55:1.
12:36 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,
12:40 you who have no money, come buy and eat.
12:45 Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money
12:48 and without price."
12:50 So it says come, come to the waters.
12:53 What is that going to do for you?
12:55 Revelation 22:17,
12:57 "And the Spirit and the bride say,
13:00 'Come!'
13:01 And let him who hears say, 'Come!'
13:03 And let him who thirsts come.
13:06 Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely."
13:12 Totally free, dear friends,
13:15 there's no other way tonight that you can get it.
13:21 It's free.
13:23 You understand what I mean?
13:24 It's free.
13:27 You see, money can't buy it.
13:32 Wisdom can't impart it.
13:36 Impossible.
13:37 Merit will not procure it.
13:41 The only way you can receive it
13:45 is by what?
13:49 Do you know?
13:51 The only way you can get it is by accepting it.
13:55 You can't buy, you can't work for it.
13:58 It is given to you totally and completely free.
14:03 It's given on the basis of grace.
14:06 And God offers to you and says,
14:08 "Come, come to me and I will give you
14:12 the water of life."
14:15 And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
14:19 This woman, she couldn't understand this.
14:22 She couldn't understand it.
14:24 She said, "You don't have a rope.
14:27 You don't have anything to draw with."
14:29 What do you mean?
14:31 You would give me water of life.
14:35 Jesus answered and said to her,
14:37 "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again."
14:42 "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again."
14:48 Oh, I find so many people today
14:51 that are trying to drink the water of this life
14:54 and find satisfaction.
14:57 Flying on the plane the other day,
15:00 picked up a magazine
15:01 and was thumbing through the magazine.
15:04 And here was a full page ad in the magazine.
15:07 And it said, find happiness, lay linoleum.
15:16 Is that the way you find happiness?
15:18 Lay linoleum?
15:20 We get the idea
15:23 that satisfaction in life can be found in these things.
15:28 I have people say, Oh, Brother Cox,
15:30 if I just had a better job, I'd be happy.
15:34 No, you wouldn't.
15:37 That didn't what produces happiness.
15:39 I have people say,
15:41 "Well, well, if I just made more money,
15:43 I'd be happy."
15:45 No, you wouldn't.
15:46 That isn't what produces happiness.
15:49 An individual say, "Well, if my spouse just loved me,
15:53 I'd be happy."
15:54 No, you won't.
15:56 That isn't what makes happiness.
15:58 He that drinks of this water shall thirst again.
16:04 You see, that's what happens.
16:05 The waters of this life, dear friends,
16:07 only take place when the showers come.
16:11 When the shower comes, the pond overflows.
16:16 But you let the heat of hard times come
16:21 and that water goes dry.
16:24 It's only the well.
16:26 Only the well that has water in winter and summer.
16:31 You see, he that drinks of the water
16:34 that I shall give him shall never thirst.
16:37 Listen.
16:40 Jesus promises and says,
16:42 "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him
16:45 shall never thirst.
16:46 But the water that I shall give him
16:49 will become in him a fountain of water
16:52 springing up into everlasting life."
16:57 Oh, He just says, if you come to me,
16:59 the water that I will give you will come in you.
17:02 And, dear friends, please understand,
17:05 it doesn't say it will be from you.
17:09 It doesn't say it will be around you.
17:11 It doesn't say it will be about you.
17:14 It says it will be in you
17:18 springing up unto everlasting life.
17:21 You see, when you and I drink water,
17:25 it goes into our system, it goes into our blood,
17:28 it becomes part of our blood.
17:29 It infuses every cell of our body.
17:34 So when I come to Christ,
17:36 and I drink of the water of life,
17:38 it becomes part of me.
17:40 It infuses every part of our body.
17:45 You see, folks,
17:50 I don't hear music.
17:53 I don't feel music.
17:57 And that's just not part of my being,
17:59 it's just not there.
18:02 You could give me music lessons for 10 years,
18:05 and I still wouldn't ever feel it or anything.
18:09 It just not part of me.
18:11 When I was in school,
18:13 I had to take a class called conducting.
18:15 I was in college.
18:16 And I will never forget,
18:18 the teacher had a girl sat down at the piano,
18:22 and she had her play a piece and she said,
18:24 when she got through, she said,
18:25 "Tell me, what time was that played in?"
18:27 I said, "You've got to be crazy.
18:29 What are you talking about?
18:30 I don't know what time that was played in.
18:32 It just not in my being."
18:36 But let me tell you something.
18:38 These people like Donna Klein,
18:41 Myrna Haynes, Adrian Westney,
18:45 Michael Harris, it's part of them.
18:49 They feel it.
18:51 It's in their inmost being.
18:53 That's what I'm talking about.
18:55 This is what Christ is talking about
18:57 when you drink the water of life,
18:59 it becomes part of you.
19:01 It's in your inmost being.
19:04 And, dear friends, if it is not, if it is not,
19:09 then it is totally external religion.
19:14 You see, music, I'm sorry,
19:17 will always be external with me
19:21 'cause it's just not in me.
19:23 God didn't give that to me.
19:25 But, dear friend, He did give me the water of life
19:28 and He gives to each one of you the water of life.
19:31 And tonight, if it is not that to you tonight,
19:35 then your religion is external.
19:38 And you're missing the joy that's there,
19:40 you're missing what it's all about.
19:43 When I grew up as a boy, we had a phrase that we said,
19:48 we talked about people
19:49 putting on their Sunday go to meeting hats.
19:53 You know what I'm talking about?
19:55 Put on their Sunday go to meeting hats
19:57 and they go to church, see,
20:00 but it's all external.
20:02 'Cause when Sunday was passed,
20:03 well then they put on their work hat.
20:06 There was no difference.
20:07 You see, they changed.
20:10 They didn't, it wasn't internal,
20:12 it wasn't part of their being.
20:14 That's what I'm talking about tonight.
20:16 This is what Christ is talking about
20:19 in the Book of Jeremiah.
20:22 He talks about this very thing.
20:25 Says here in Jeremiah 2:13,
20:28 "For my people have committed," what?
20:31 "Two evils."
20:33 Let's see what those two evils are.
20:34 "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water,
20:40 hewn themselves cisterns,
20:41 broken cisterns that can hold no water."
20:44 So He said one thing, "They have forsaken Me,
20:48 the fountain of living water."
20:50 You see, I talked to people who go to church,
20:54 who keep people who claim to be Christians,
20:57 and they say to me,
20:58 "Oh, Brother Cox, I'm so busy.
21:01 I'm so busy. I don't have time to pray."
21:07 Let me tell you something.
21:09 If you're so busy, you don't have time to pray,
21:12 you're too busy.
21:16 Okay?
21:17 If you don't have time to pray, you're too busy.
21:22 I don't care what you do.
21:24 I don't care what your work is.
21:26 I don't care if you're a preacher.
21:29 I don't care if you're an elder or a deacon in the church.
21:33 If you don't have time to pray,
21:35 you're too busy.
21:39 It's absolutely necessary if you are going to understand
21:43 what Jesus Christ will do in your life.
21:46 You must take time to pray.
21:49 I have people say, "Well, Brother Cox,
21:52 I don't have time to read God's Word."
21:57 You have time to eat, don't you?
22:00 I don't see any of you starving to death out there.
22:05 If you have time to eat, then dear friends,
22:07 you need to take time to eat spiritually.
22:11 You put it in your schedule.
22:13 You see, I'm one of these individuals
22:15 that I cannot do something on a haphazard basis.
22:21 I've got to know exactly what I'm gonna do
22:24 when it comes to God's Word.
22:26 I've got to know what I'm gonna do tomorrow.
22:28 I got to know what I'm gonna do the next day.
22:30 I've got to know
22:32 what my devotional life is the end of the year.
22:34 So before next year starts,
22:36 I will plan that whole thing out
22:38 and I will know exactly what I'm gonna read.
22:41 I will know exactly because I am going to eat,
22:45 I'm gonna feast on God's Word every day.
22:50 And if you want your spiritual experience to grow,
22:53 you got to spend some time in the Word of God.
22:57 If you are not praying,
22:59 if you are not spending time in the Word of God,
23:03 then dear friend, your religion is external.
23:08 You understand me?
23:09 That is external religion.
23:12 And that's what he's talking about here.
23:14 They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water.
23:20 But he goes on talks about it.
23:22 Jesus makes some comparisons to it
23:24 here in Matthew 13:22.
23:27 "Now he who received seed among the thorns
23:31 is He who hears the word..."
23:34 Okay, you person hears the word,
23:37 "And the cares of this world..."
23:40 What is that?
23:43 What's the cares of this world?
23:45 Well, the cares of this world are clothing and food.
23:50 That's what cares of this world are.
23:52 Okay, shelter.
23:54 Those are all cares of this world.
23:56 "The cares of this world
23:58 and the deceitfulness of riches choke the..."
24:04 What chokes the word?
24:07 Huh? What chokes the word?
24:09 Cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches.
24:13 That's what chokes the Word of God.
24:18 And, dear friends, I hope tonight,
24:20 that you're not letting those things keep you
24:23 from spending time in the Word of God.
24:27 I can assure you,
24:29 I can tell you right now,
24:31 you're much better off
24:34 if you spend time with the Lord.
24:37 Much better off
24:39 and he becomes what?
24:42 Unfruitful.
24:43 So dear friends, take time.
24:46 The Bible speaks about these people
24:47 whose their religion is totally external.
24:51 And it makes some comparison of them like in Jude here.
24:54 Jude 1:12, it says,
24:56 "They are clouds without water,
25:01 carried about by every winds,
25:03 late autumn trees without fruit,
25:05 twice dead, pulled out by the roots."
25:09 I don't know here in Chicago,
25:10 do you have clouds without water?
25:14 You ever have that?
25:15 California we have clouds without water.
25:18 You know,
25:19 get up in the morning here some great big beautiful clouds
25:21 and sun comes out
25:23 and they just all kind of dry up
25:24 and disappear.
25:26 Clouds without water
25:28 says that's the way you and I are.
25:30 If you're not spending time in God's Word,
25:32 if you're not spending time in prayer.
25:34 It says, "For you shall be as the terebinth tree,"
25:38 that's a tree,
25:40 "whose leaf fades,
25:41 and as a garden that has no water."
25:46 You know, what a gardens like without water.
25:50 Boy, Oklahoma.
25:52 What was it?
25:53 The last of March,
25:54 first of April
25:56 that we planted the garden,
25:58 plowed the ground, planted the garden.
26:01 April rains came,
26:04 garden begin to come up.
26:06 It's vibrant.
26:08 It's green.
26:09 It's growing.
26:10 And usually by...
26:12 Oh, in May sometime
26:14 we're eating some things from the garden.
26:16 It still is the rains and it's nice and green
26:20 and we're eating from it.
26:23 End of May,
26:26 June the garden is really bearing now,
26:29 all of it.
26:31 But we hit July
26:33 and you can begin to see around the edges of the garden
26:36 a little bit of brown.
26:40 August comes, there is no rain.
26:45 No rain in August
26:47 and the old garden just dries up.
26:50 Is that way your Christian experience is?
26:56 Like a garden without water dry.
27:00 Dry as the hills of Gilboa.
27:05 That's the way he's talking about,
27:06 that's external religion.
27:09 That's what I'm talking about.
27:11 It's when I don't spend time with the Lord.
27:14 He says that these people,
27:17 "They hewn themselves cisterns,
27:20 broken cisterns that can hold no water."
27:24 Broken cisterns that hold no water.
27:27 Jesus talked about these type of people in His day.
27:31 Listen,
27:32 "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, and hypocrites!
27:35 For you are like whitewashed tombs
27:39 which indeed appear beautiful outwardly."
27:44 You ever been to Jerusalem, you'll understand what I mean?
27:48 Whitewashed tombs, they have tombs there,
27:50 they whitewashed them all.
27:51 Whitewashed tombs,
27:53 "but inside are full of
27:56 dead men's bones and all and cleanliness."
28:00 You see,
28:02 if you're going to church,
28:06 but you don't have any joy in your heart.
28:10 If you're going to church out of habit.
28:15 If you're going to church just because
28:20 its tradition
28:22 and your relationship with Jesus Christ
28:26 is totally lacking,
28:29 then dear friend, you're like a whitewashed tomb
28:34 full of dead man's bones.
28:37 "Even so you also outwardly appear
28:42 righteous to man
28:45 but inside you are full of hypocrisy
28:48 and lawlessness."
28:51 This is what Jesus talking about.
28:52 You see, this is why He said that they are cisterns,
28:56 broken cisterns that can hold no water
28:59 'cause they don't take any time
29:01 to spend with the Lord Jesus Christ.
29:05 Talked about one of the Pharisees,
29:06 he told the story about this Pharisee,
29:10 who went down the temple to pray.
29:13 "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself,
29:17 God, I thank you
29:18 that I am not like other men,
29:24 extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
29:27 or even as this,"
29:29 say over on the side
29:31 there was a poor, "tax collector."
29:35 He may not have been poor,
29:36 he may have been rich tax collector, I don't know.
29:39 But he was over there and this Pharisee said,
29:42 "Sure glad I'm not like him."
29:48 "I fast twice every week.
29:52 I give tithes of all that I possess."
29:58 If any of you here tonight,
30:00 think for one moment
30:05 what you give makes you righteous,
30:09 then dear friend, your religion is external.
30:12 Sorry.
30:18 Said I'm not glad I'm not like this tax collector.
30:22 But that tax collector says just beat on his chest
30:26 and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
30:32 And it says
30:33 that he went down to his home justified.
30:38 You see, I'll never forget,
30:39 I was speaking to a room full of fifth graders.
30:43 And I was trying to explain to them
30:46 the grace of Jesus Christ
30:48 and what the Lord Jesus Christ does for them.
30:51 And how that it was a gift that Jesus gave
30:53 and how all they had to do is just reach out
30:56 and accept Jesus into their heart
30:58 and all that he would do for them
31:00 and this little fifth grade boy raised his hand.
31:04 He said, "Are you trying to tell me that
31:06 all this stuff my parents have been telling me
31:08 I've got to do is not true."
31:10 You talk about a loaded question.
31:14 And I said, "Well, I don't know
31:15 what your parents have been telling you.
31:18 But I'm telling you that
31:19 the only people that are gonna be saved
31:22 is those that qualify."
31:25 And he got a downcast look on his face.
31:28 And he said to me, "Okay,
31:30 what do I have to do to qualify?"
31:33 And I said, "The only people that qualify are sinners."
31:37 He smiled and he said, "I qualify."
31:41 That's what I'm trying to tell you tonight,
31:43 dear friend.
31:45 You see, it's the grace of God
31:47 that must come in and fill your heart.
31:50 It's the grace of God that must work in your life
31:52 and only as it takes place that way,
31:55 will anything happen.
31:56 The children of Israel couldn't understand this.
31:58 It was external watch.
32:00 Romans 9:31
32:02 "But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness,
32:05 has not attained to the law of righteousness."
32:08 What were they pursuing?
32:11 They were pursuing the law of righteousness.
32:14 And as a result what?
32:16 They weren't finding it.
32:19 "Why?
32:21 Because they did not seek it by faith,
32:24 but as it were, by the works of the law."
32:27 They said, "Oh, if I do this, this and this,
32:30 I'm gonna make it."
32:32 No, you're not. No, you're not.
32:36 Let me tell you right now, dear friend,
32:38 if you don't know Jesus Christ, you've missed it.
32:43 You can pursue the works of the law all day long.
32:47 But if you don't know Jesus,
32:51 you're not gonna make it into the kingdom of heaven.
32:54 It's what it takes.
32:57 For they stumble at the stumbling stone,
33:01 who was the stumbling stone?
33:04 Jesus Christ.
33:07 Now let me talk to you just a little bit about
33:09 internal religion.
33:11 We've talked about external, let's talk about internal.
33:15 What takes place, what happens?
33:19 "And being found in Him,
33:22 not having my own righteousness,"
33:27 I don't have many folks.
33:29 I don't have any.
33:32 Bible makes that very clear,
33:33 my righteousness is as filthy rags,
33:37 don't have any.
33:40 "Not having my own righteousness,
33:41 which is from the law,
33:45 but that which is through faith," what?
33:50 "Faith in Christ."
33:52 Yes, that's the way it comes faith in Christ,
33:55 "the righteousness which is from God by faith."
34:00 You see, I reached out
34:02 and I claim Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
34:08 Then something begins to happen,
34:10 begins to take place.
34:12 Eternal, internal religion takes place by faith.
34:17 That's the way you get it, folks, is by faith.
34:20 Let me tell you something.
34:22 Quit. Quit.
34:24 Living lives that inefficient.
34:29 Quit living weak lives.
34:33 What do I mean?
34:35 Faith.
34:36 Faith requires that you have something in your hand
34:38 that's bigger than you can accomplish.
34:41 Move out in faith and do something for God.
34:45 Take Him in His Word.
34:47 If His Word says, "This is what I want you to do.
34:50 Then step out in faith and say, "Okay, Lord,
34:53 I can do that not of my strength,
34:55 not what I can do,
34:56 but what you can do in my life."
35:00 That's faith.
35:04 If you don't do it that way,
35:05 you're like a garden without water.
35:08 But if you do it by faith,
35:10 this is what internal religion will do for you.
35:17 Instead of being a garden without water,
35:20 it says, "The Lord will guide you continually,
35:23 and satisfy your soul in drought,"
35:28 you see the well of water has water during drought,
35:32 okay?
35:33 "Satisfy your soul in drought, strengthen your bones,
35:38 you shall be like a watered garden,
35:41 and like a spring of water,
35:43 whose waters do not fail."
35:47 Never fail.
35:48 Never will
35:50 'cause that's what the Lord does for you and for me.
35:54 Internal religion must be a work of the heart.
36:00 It's where it has to be.
36:02 It is not external, has to be work of the heart.
36:08 "For he is not a Jew
36:10 who is one outwardly,
36:13 nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
36:18 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly,
36:22 and circumcision is that of the heart."
36:27 Okay, that's internal.
36:30 So tonight,
36:32 and guess what I'm trying to tell you.
36:35 If you've been going to church all these years,
36:39 and it's been boring to you,
36:42 and you go to church
36:43 and you kind of have to make yourself go,
36:46 well, then, dear friend, the problem is,
36:49 you don't know Jesus.
36:51 Sorry.
36:53 You don't know Jesus.
36:55 Because if you know Jesus, He changes that.
37:00 Jesus Christ is the one that puts joy in your heart.
37:03 He puts a spring in your step.
37:06 He makes the sky bluer, makes the birds sing sweeter.
37:11 And then if you don't know him,
37:13 then your religion will never be joyous,
37:17 will never be happy.
37:18 You go and you come back home
37:21 and it hasn't done anything for you.
37:25 That's all external
37:29 has to be a work of the heart.
37:31 "In the spirit,
37:33 not in the letter,
37:35 whose praise is not from men but from God?"
37:40 That's what it is.
37:41 When I do that,
37:43 all things begin to change, my life begins to change,
37:47 I begin,
37:49 define a life that I've never known before.
37:54 And so to you tonight, I just say,
37:59 take time.
38:01 Take time to get acquainted with Jesus Christ.
38:06 Don't get so busy,
38:09 that you can't spend time with Him.
38:13 "That the righteous requirements of the law
38:16 might be fulfilled in us
38:21 who do not walk according to the flesh
38:23 but according to the Spirit."
38:26 You see, if you're keeping God's law
38:29 because you think you have to.
38:31 That's drudgery.
38:34 Yeah, that's total drudgery
38:35 if you're keeping the law of God
38:37 because you think I have to.
38:39 I talked to people they say, "Well, I keep the commandments.
38:44 I keep the Ten Commandments."
38:47 Oh, bless your heart, you may
38:49 but you may be miserable.
38:54 I don't keep the commandments of God.
38:58 I do not keep the commandments of God
39:00 to be saved.
39:04 I keep them because I am saved.
39:09 Okay, keep them because I am saved.
39:14 That's a total different situation.
39:18 You see, God says to each one of you here tonight,
39:20 "Come to me and I will make you,
39:25 I will make you priest.
39:28 I will make you kings."
39:31 He promises that He will do that for you.
39:33 That is His work.
39:36 If you come to Him,
39:37 He says He will take His law
39:39 and He will write it on your heart.
39:43 If He writes it on the heart, then dear friend,
39:47 that's an internal experience.
39:49 And I'm gladly keep His law.
39:52 Gladly keep it.
39:55 "Then I will give them one heart,
39:58 and I will put a new spirit within them."
40:03 Gonna do what?
40:05 Put a new spirit within you.
40:06 I'm talking about the water of life.
40:08 He puts that new spirit in you
40:11 "and take the stony heart out of their flesh,
40:13 and I'll give them a heart of flesh."
40:17 Dear friend, when Jesus comes into your life and does that,
40:22 what a difference, what a difference.
40:25 It changes you, makes you totally different.
40:30 "And they may walk in My statutes
40:33 and keep my judgments and do them."
40:37 Why?
40:39 Why are they gonna walk in His statutes
40:41 and keep His commandments,
40:42 His judgments, and do them?
40:43 Why? Why are they gonna do this?
40:48 'Cause He wrote it on their hearts,
40:51 He came in and He wrote it down in their heart.
40:54 And because it's in your heart, you're gonna do it.
40:56 That's what the scripture is simply telling you.
40:59 "And they shall be My people,
41:02 and I will be their God."
41:06 You better believe, they're His people.
41:09 "Keeping the law of God is the fruit,
41:13 it's the fruit of an inward experience."
41:17 Are you with me?
41:19 It's the fruit of it.
41:21 "For this is the covenant
41:22 that I will make with the house of Israel
41:24 after those days, says the Lord.
41:26 I will put My law in their mind and write them on their hearts.
41:31 I will be their God,
41:33 they shall be My people."
41:37 And so to many of you here
41:40 who have been watching by television,
41:43 or you've been coming here to the meeting,
41:46 and maybe you've been struggling
41:47 over some of the things you've been hearing.
41:50 Dear friend, let me tell you,
41:52 the answer to that comes
41:55 in surrendering your heart to Jesus Christ.
41:58 That's where the answer comes.
42:01 You see, if you try to face it on your own.
42:06 And if you try to reason out
42:09 all the reasons why it won't work,
42:11 it won't work.
42:13 But if you come in faith,
42:16 and surrender your heart to Jesus Christ,
42:19 marvelous will be the results of what He'll do in your life.
42:24 For He says,
42:28 "I delight in thy law of God
42:31 according to the inward man."
42:34 Says I delight to do.
42:36 I delight to keep the law of God.
42:40 You see, when I first became a Christian,
42:42 I had trouble with that.
42:44 Because I'd pick up my Bible and read it.
42:49 You know something strange about the Bible.
42:51 It says the same thing every time you read it.
42:54 You ever noticed that?
42:56 I'd read this text and, man, it just hit me hard.
43:00 I mean, just hit me right between the eyes.
43:02 And so I go read some other place,
43:04 and then read there.
43:06 And then later, I'd be reading again and there it was,
43:08 again, it said the same thing again,
43:11 you know, and I said, "Listen, Lord,
43:14 listen, I love you.
43:17 But I don't like some of these things that it says."
43:21 You know,
43:22 but it wasn't until I understood
43:26 that it wasn't what I had to do.
43:29 It was what Jesus did.
43:32 That all of a sudden,
43:33 it begin to do something for me.
43:35 All of a sudden, I begin to understand
43:37 that He was saying,
43:39 "Listen, open up your heart,
43:40 accept Me by faith,
43:42 surrender your life to Me,
43:44 and I'll change you and make you different."
43:47 And the law of God was no longer offensive to me.
43:51 I could say, "Lord, write it on my heart."
43:55 Go ahead, put it there.
43:57 And when I did that, changed the whole thing.
44:01 You see, if the law of God is to you this way,
44:06 we'll take a look at what is external
44:08 and what's internal.
44:12 If it's written on stone,
44:15 like with me,
44:17 it was written here on these pages.
44:19 And I read it and I said, I don't like it, you see.
44:22 That was totally external.
44:25 It graded, it went against what I want to do.
44:30 But when I surrendered my heart,
44:34 gave my life to the Lord and surrendered my heart.
44:37 And He wrote it on my heart, it was no longer offensive.
44:41 That's internal.
44:43 You with me?
44:46 You see,
44:48 if circumcision
44:51 is strictly external, that's all it is.
44:56 That's all it is with you.
44:58 But if it's circumcision of the heart,
45:00 that's internal.
45:03 If your religion is legalism,
45:08 you understand what I mean by legalism?
45:11 And I understand, I run on to people
45:13 who don't understand legalism.
45:16 Legalism is when I want to do my own thing.
45:22 I want to act like I want to,
45:24 I want to do what it might be a good,
45:26 I might go to church, do all that
45:28 but if it's what I wanna do, that's legalism, okay?
45:35 Righteousness by faith
45:38 is when I simply say here, Lord.
45:42 I don't have one thing in this world,
45:46 to recommend myself to You.
45:49 Accept my great need.
45:53 Come into my heart.
45:55 Take possession of my life.
45:57 I'm yours.
45:58 That's internal religion.
46:03 Our Bible says the letter kills.
46:07 Spirit gives life.
46:10 See, I can keep folks, listen to me.
46:14 I can keep
46:16 the Ten Commandments by willpower.
46:22 I can do that.
46:24 I can just, you know,
46:25 say I'm not gonna do this and have strong willpower.
46:29 I run on to some of these people,
46:31 man they have willpowers like you
46:33 I have never seen in my life.
46:35 Just nobody can live with them.
46:36 You know, they're just,
46:39 but I can keep the Ten Commandments
46:41 by willpower, okay?
46:44 But let me tell you something, you cannot,
46:47 you cannot keep the spirit of the law
46:51 by willpower.
46:54 You can't do that.
46:56 You can keep the letter of the law by willpower,
47:00 but you can't keep the spirit of the law
47:01 by willpower.
47:03 But if you keep the spirit of the law,
47:05 you keep the letter of the law.
47:09 Come and go together.
47:11 Old covenant
47:14 works.
47:16 That's the old covenant, new covenant,
47:19 faith.
47:21 Internal, external.
47:24 Works of man, works of grace.
47:29 That's the difference.
47:31 You see,
47:33 give me a man
47:37 or woman
47:40 who does not base their experience
47:46 upon the preacher.
47:50 Give me a man or woman
47:54 who do not gather inspiration
47:57 from a warm-hearted friend,
48:00 or from a large meeting.
48:03 Like give me a man or a woman
48:07 who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
48:12 and know Him personally.
48:15 And that man and woman will stand
48:17 if every preacher dies.
48:20 You see, that's what God is looking for.
48:24 He's looking for somebody
48:25 that's willing to come to know Him
48:28 in a close experience.
48:31 And if you do that, dear friend,
48:32 then you're talking about religion,
48:35 then you're talking about the water of life,
48:37 then you're talking about
48:38 what Jesus Christ will do in your life.
48:45 What will it do to you?
48:47 Let me explain what it do to you?
48:48 This is out of the Ezekiel the 47th Chapter,
48:51 you may have read it, never known
48:52 what it was talking about.
48:54 Watch what it says.
48:56 "And he brought me back to the door of the temple,
48:59 and there was water,
49:00 flowing from under the threshold
49:02 of the temple towards the east,
49:05 for the front of the temple faced east,
49:07 and water was flowing
49:08 from under the right side of the temple,
49:09 south of the altar."
49:11 Now this text just simply saying
49:12 that Ezekiel got there
49:14 to the front door of the church.
49:16 And here water was seeping out under the threshold.
49:20 That's what it says.
49:21 The angel takes Ezekiel for a walk
49:26 around the church, okay.
49:29 "He brought me out by the way of the north gate,
49:33 and led me around on the outside
49:37 to the outer gate that faces east,
49:39 and there was water, running out on the right side.
49:43 And when the man went out to the east
49:45 with a line in his hand,
49:47 he measured one thousand cubits."
49:49 So it just simply says,
49:50 he took him for a walk around the church,
49:52 one thousand cubits,
49:55 "and he brought me through the waters,
49:57 and the waters came up to my ankles."
50:01 Now they've gotten back to the front of the church
50:04 and here water was ankle deep, like tonight.
50:09 If we would have come here and water was seeping out
50:12 under the front door out there
50:13 we would say that's catastrophe,
50:15 you see.
50:16 Well, here it is. Now it's flowing out.
50:18 Now it's ankle deep.
50:20 They take another walk around the church.
50:24 "Again, he measured one thousand
50:26 and brought me through the waters,
50:27 and the waters came to my knees."
50:30 You see the water's rising.
50:33 "Again he measured one thousand
50:35 and brought me through the waters
50:37 they came up to my waist."
50:41 It's getting deep.
50:43 "Again, he measured one thousand
50:45 and it was a river I could not cross,
50:51 for the water was too deep,
50:52 water in which one must swim,
50:55 a river that could not be crossed."
50:58 What's he talking about?
51:01 He's talking about you, and he's talking about me.
51:05 You see, when you come to Jesus Christ,
51:09 and you open up your heart,
51:12 and you invite Him into your heart,
51:15 the Bible says, "You become a spring
51:17 of living water."
51:19 When Jesus comes in your heart, and by the way, dear friends,
51:23 when you drink,
51:26 you drink, okay.
51:29 You got to drink.
51:31 Let me tell you a secret tonight.
51:33 If your cup is only half full,
51:38 you don't have anything to share with anybody.
51:42 But when you drink and you drink
51:44 until your cup runs over,
51:46 then you can't help yourself.
51:48 That's what this text is talking about.
51:50 You come to Jesus Christ and you drink the water,
51:54 swim in, lots of water, it's a river flowing.
51:57 And out of you will flow streams of living water,
52:01 and when that religion is internal,
52:05 and it flows out of you,
52:07 then you're gonna say something to that neighbor next door.
52:12 And you're gonna say something to that loved one.
52:15 And you're gonna say something to that person
52:17 about what Jesus means to you,
52:19 and the wonderful experience that you have in Christ Jesus,
52:23 and all the joy and the happiness
52:25 that He brings to your heart.
52:26 And as you witness to them,
52:28 you're gonna find other people gonna say,
52:31 man, I'd love to have what that person's got.
52:35 I'd love to have that.
52:36 And you're gonna find men and women
52:38 reaching out to accept Jesus Christ.
52:41 And when they accept Jesus Christ,
52:42 do you know what just happened?
52:46 The stream just rose, see.
52:49 And then the two of them,
52:51 they bring people to Christ and the stream rises again,
52:54 until it's ankle deep, and then it's knee deep,
52:57 and then it's waist deep, and then it's a river.
53:00 That's what God has called
53:02 every one of you here tonight to do.
53:05 That's what He's asked us to do.
53:07 Become rivers of life.
53:08 "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'
53:12 Let him who hears say, 'Come!'
53:14 Let him who thirsts come.
53:16 Whoever desires,
53:18 let him take the water of life
53:21 freely."
53:22 You see tonight.
53:25 God's inviting you to take the water of life.
53:28 Oh dear friend.
53:31 I hope it won't be an external experience with you.
53:36 I hope tonight you'll open up your heart,
53:39 let Jesus in,
53:42 that you will accept Him
53:44 like the woman
53:46 at the well reach out
53:50 accept the water of life.
53:54 Like the woman at the well
53:58 I was seeking
54:02 For things
54:05 That could not satisfy
54:11 And then
54:15 I heard the Savior speaking
54:21 Draw from the well
54:26 That never
54:28 Shall run dry
54:35 Let's bow our heads for word of prayer.
54:37 Father, we thank You
54:39 for Your love,
54:41 for the hope that we have in Christ.
54:44 Tonight, Lord,
54:46 we ask that You would give to us
54:48 the living water,
54:50 that it might spring up,
54:53 become a fountain of life in each one of us,
54:58 and that we might be joyful,
55:01 and the wonderful grace that we find
55:04 in Jesus Christ our Lord.
55:06 For this we ask in His name,
55:08 amen.
55:10 Although they're small and seemingly insignificant,
55:14 soybean pods filled the farm fields of the United States.
55:18 What a treasure they are for the farmer at harvest time.
55:22 Nearly all soybeans in this country
55:24 are processed for their oil,
55:27 which is then refined for cooking
55:29 or sold for biodiesel production,
55:31 as well as for many other industrial uses.
55:34 Because of the high demand for soybeans,
55:37 a farmer must be able to harvest large quantities
55:41 in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.
55:44 One of the best ways to do this is to use a combine harvester.
55:49 These massive machines
55:51 give the farmer the ability to quickly harvest
55:54 and haul the beans at an incredible rate.
55:57 Have you ever considered what one farmer can do today
56:01 with the help of modern tools?
56:03 The farmer if the past could hardly imagine it.
56:06 Within hours,
56:07 one man and machine can harvest and deliver
56:10 untold bushels of soybeans to the market.
56:13 His goal is to obtain the largest yield possible
56:17 at harvest time.
56:19 Like the farmer today, we must do the same.
56:22 In Luke 10:2, Jesus said, "The harvest truly is great,
56:27 but the laborers are few."
56:29 And in John 4:35,
56:31 "He looked over the wheat fields
56:33 and said to His disciples,
56:35 'Lift up your eyes and look at the fields,
56:37 for they are ready quite for harvest."
56:41 In both passages,
56:42 Jesus referred to men and women of this world
56:45 as He proclaim that the harvest is here,
56:48 and the work must be done.
56:50 When I was a boy,
56:52 the corn harvest was all done by hand.
56:55 We literally had a horse-drawn wagon,
56:58 and we would walk along beside it
57:00 and pull the corn off the stock and throw it onto the wagon.
57:03 But folks, the time is short.
57:06 So the Lord has provided the most marvelous technology
57:10 to enable us to harvest more souls
57:13 through television, radio, and other media.
57:16 Today we can take the message
57:17 to the multitudes around the world
57:20 at the speed of light.
57:22 Such ability was far beyond the imagination
57:25 of the evangelist of the past.
57:29 The harvest is here
57:32 but we can't do it without you.
57:34 Won't you help us?
57:35 Please consider what you can do for those
57:37 who still don't know about Jesus.
57:39 As the Holy Spirit impresses,
57:41 please send your tax-deductible gifts
57:43 to Kenneth Cox Ministries,
57:45 PO Box 1027, Loma Linda, California 92354,
57:50 or call us toll free at 888-747-1844.
57:56 Thank you for helping us spread the light of God's Word
57:58 through television and radio.
58:00 Your gifts help bring the blessed hope of salvation
58:02 to millions around the world.


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Revised 2019-05-16