Living Water: The Source of True Joy

The Christian is not just a good man or a moral man he is not he should be there but he's much more than that he's a man who has received this fullness this final satisfaction for that is what our Lord is claiming he claims that he in contradistinction to everybody and everything else can give us a final and a full satisfaction to all our needs. [00:01:49]

The modern world is in great confusion over this emotional aspect of men's life and being there are two obvious extremes to which people tend to go at the present time some make too much of the emotions and others make too little of the emotions and there is a conflict between the two and people oscillate sometimes between the two the result is the confusion that we see in the modern world. [00:04:40]

There is nothing more marvelous about this teaching than its Hess its completeness its Valance it has something for the mind but also for the heart and also for the will it deals with the complete and with the entire man and it is interested not in emotionalism or any other Reon but in a true deep emotion. [00:07:31]

The joy of the early Christians, even in the face of persecution, serves as a powerful testimony to the truth of the Gospel. This joy is not confined to the past; it is available to all believers today, transcending time and circumstance. [00:09:00]

The Apostle John has precisely the same teaching you remember how in his first epistle he puts it like this quite plainly he's he's he he starts off with this great testimony that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our head have handled of the word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested unto us. [00:12:13]

The spirit is Lord and he chooses to give exceptional manifestations at times but we must never say that it all ended with the apostles otherwise we'll be persuading ourselves that while the first Christians were meant to be filled with this joy that we are not meant to be filled with it we go tring along that was only for the first generation of Christians what a travesty of the Scriptures it is to to speak like that entirely contrary to the teaching of the scriptures themselves. [00:14:16]

The sheer Joy of these people that nothing could overwhelm that had such an impact upon governments Pagan and all others in those early centuries and this of course has continued to be true throughout the centuries now we've got to look at these things historically and it is the simple truth to say that unfortunately the Christian Church herself began to depart from this very teaching and as she did so she departed increasingly from the Christian church in her life in her in her experience. [00:15:52]

The note of assurance was the great characteristic of the Protestant Reformation now it's equally true over men like John Kelvin temperamentally so different from from Martin Luther but this is how Kelvin puts it now we shall have a complete definition of faith if we say that it is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence toward us which being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ is both revealed to our minds and confirmed to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. [00:19:09]

The Christian faith unlike the Cults never produces a uniform type it gives a uniform Universal experience but it doesn't produce a standard pattern type now the Cults do psychological movements always do that they look the same they speak the same they repeat the same cles the same phrases and they do it all in the same way that's not true of Christianity because here is something that deals with the whole person Christianity doesn't crucify one's temperament the temperament remains. [00:34:47]

The Christian can govern his temperament the unregenerate man is a slave to his temperament the Christian should never be a slave to his temperament he becomes aware of his temperament and of its dangers and therefore he applies the gospel to it he Masters it he controls it but as he does so it becomes a very wonderful thing now take the familiar obvious illustration to look at nature look what what God does in nature certain species certain types there is this thing in common to them but no two flowers are identical. [00:35:30]

The nature of the truth itself insists upon this being true of everybody my argument is that the truth is so great It's So Glorious it's so marvelous it's so Transcendent that it can move almost a stone it doesn't move a stone because the teaching of the scripture is that God will take away the Stony heart and give us a heart of Flesh and that's the final answer to the psychologist it doesn't matter of what you are by Nature he takes away the Stony heart and gives us instead of it a heart of Flesh. [00:31:24]

The truth the greatness of the truth the glory of the truth insists upon its universality amongst Believers and as I've been showing you the examples of History demonstrate this Beyond any doubt whatsoever I've given you some great contrasts already you can't imagine two more different men than Martin Luther and John Kellin essentially different Luther a kind of volcano bursting forth constantly the systematic order discipline celvin yet both of them testify to the same thing and both of them experienced the same thing likewise George Whitfield and John Wesley. [00:32:17]