But anyway, let's go before the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we bless Your name again. We thank You for this wonderful gospel. We thank You for the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the work of Christ on the cross, the finished work of Christ that has given us this wonderful eternal hope and salvation. Lord give us understanding again as we go back to the Testament of John, that we may know the things that Christ accomplished for his people. We thank you Lord for this hour. May you bless us, give us grace to hear. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. John 19, 28-30. Last Sunday we did 25-30. John records and says, After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hisop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. And that is the word of the Lord. We have one title. It is finished. It is finished. And we have a very long teaching. I don't think I can ever do a short teaching. The Lord has not designed me to do a short teaching. I can maybe talk about those verses in 10 minutes and be done and we can go home. But the problem is we're going to miss out a lot of wonderful things. So we have to labor and connect a lot of things. Old Testament, New Testament. Everything was drawing to this very particular moment. So it is important that we bring the same testimony of the gospel as the Lord Jesus Christ has given. The gospel is not about the opinion of men. This is God's gospel and we have to believe God's gospel not what men want it to be because that's what you're going to find in the church. people who try to redefine the gospel so that it fits to our sensibilities. A gospel that has no offense is not the gospel of God. The offense of the gospel, we always hear Apostle Paul talking about the offense of the cross. The offense of the gospel is that Christ alone is the righteousness. Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him. That is very offensive because that is saying there's nothing that you yourselves can do that matters with respect to eternal issues. Grace alone through faith alone is the only way of peace with God. that's offensive people don't like that but all that seems distant to many people why because they want the gospel of do not touch do not taste do not handle so people think they look to themselves and say well i did not touch i did not taste i did not handle so I am in, it is war with me because I did not do A, B, C, D, E. And that is work salvation and that's what a lot of people are going into eternity believing. But God comes and says, that's Colossians 2, 21 and 23. These all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of man. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom. It appears to be wise. Do not touch, do not handle. has an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. The wisdom of men appears to be wise, Self-imposed religion. See, the Holy Spirit says it is self-imposed religion. Eastern mysticism, Kabbalah, you name it. It is self-imposed religion because it does not have its origin from God. It has not been imposed on us by God, but by man by the doctrines of men and the commandments of men. And so the effect of that is that it produces false humility. Because true humility, there's a distinction, true humility says Christ alone is true religion. Christ alone accomplished my salvation and he alone is my righteousness. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. That's the essence of true religion. The Holy Spirit says, even worse, those who do not touch, do not taste, and do not handle, those commandments have no value whatsoever. They do not help the flesh at all. The flesh can't be helped by a list of rules, do's and don'ts. It can't be helped. There's only one way to help the flesh. Don't put confidence in it. That's what Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 3. We do not put confidence in the flesh. So here now, the essence of true religion, we are going to be working on the testimony of the Lord Jesus, I am thirsty and it is finished. Those are the two testimonies that are the subject of our teaching and understanding of true religion. The Lord Jesus Christ came and said, I am thirsty. And that was a significant gospel testimony at many levels. Yes, the Lord was thirsty because He had not rested, had been beaten, had not eaten anything. He was fatigued, bleeding, carrying the cross. But that testimony goes beyond that. He did not say that statement for people to bring Him some refrigerated water. That's not what He was asking for. The Lord was thirsty because in the language of John the Apostle, water signified more than just tap water or borehole water or well water. water in the mind and teaching of john even the teaching of the lord jesus signified the holy spirit because you're going to find this testimony in the other gospels but the teaching of john In John 3 verse 5, the Lord said Nicodemus could not see the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. And that water was not water baptism. That was saying being born of water, even the Spirit. So the Spirit identifies, defines the water. The flesh profits nothing, the Lord said. And if that is true, how then can water profit something in salvation? The Lord Jesus said the flesh profits nothing, zero. Water belongs to the realm of the flesh. External washings cannot accomplish salvation. They profit nothing. And we already know that from the testament of the law. The law was all about rituals and washings. And the Lord was always getting in trouble for not washing hands and his disciples. And so moving forward with the testament of water from John 3 into John chapter 4, the Lord Jesus encountered Sister Samaritan. The last time we talked about her, we had given her a name. She is Sister Sarah Samaritan. Sister Samaritan had a water problem, an understanding problem, and a husband problem. When she heard the Lord speak to her about water, the water that was up in her, she was like, this is the kind of plumber that I need. Just would come and make my household chores easy Jesus would you also have a free dishwasher and a washer together with that and I'll be set that's how she's thinking she was just thinking of the practical matters of her life she wanted pipe water in a house that's exactly what she was thinking But the Lord had come to give her a water that functioned at a different and higher level than the water from her water pot, water from Jacob's well. The woman had some issues. She had some sin issues. She had some husband issues. She was changing men like she changed shoes, even flip-flops. She was on number six. She had had five husbands, and now she was with a live-in, and she did not mind adding more to her collection. That's how things are going here. And this is how his sin manifested itself. With Nicodemus, the other contrast, his sin manifested itself with religiosity. He was a Pharisee. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Sister Samaritan was on the other end of the spectrum. She was kicking it. She was having fun. And the solution for Nicodemus and the solution for Sister Samaritan is Christ Jesus. Do you understand what's going on? And the Lord Jesus comes and identifies two problems for her and says, you have a water problem and a husband problem. her water was inadequate to quench her thirst, her real thirst, which was sin. And as long as she was working by herself to quench her own sin, she would continue to thirst and she would die. And the man that she had was not her husband. And he too could not help her because anyone who is not married to Christ This spiritual marriage is not married to the true husband. And consequently they also have a water problem. Christ is the true and real husband who gives the true satisfaction, the everlasting satisfaction to your problem of sin. That's what is being talked about here. This is not about fetching water. But the woman reasons at the fleshly level as Nicodemus before. Nicodemus is thinking, how can I go back into my mother's belly? She is 85 years old this year. and I have a pot belly. I can't go in. I'm a fat chub. Too late. Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus is saying because he's reasoning at the fleshly level. Sister Samaritan misunderstands what Jesus is saying. She is reasoning at the fleshly level. And so she says in John 4 11, Sir, that is referring to Jesus, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? She looks at the hands of Jesus and she does not see any instrument with which to fetch water. But since the Samaritan living water cannot be put in a container, Jesus is not past the crease of Christ's embassy and the other charlatans, false teachers, who throw the Holy Spirit at people like they are throwing candy at little children. The living water, the Holy Spirit, cannot be put in containers. The Holy Spirit cannot be bottled. He can't be put on prayer shawls and oils. You can't put God in some spring water container. That's false teaching. So Sister Samaritan wants to know where all Jesus is going to fetch this water from. Where then do you get that living water, she said. And she begins to weigh Jesus against Jacob. She wants to make an evaluation of Jesus, which Nicodemus had tried to do earlier and gotten in trouble. And she says, are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this world? You see the superiority of Christ here. That's one of the reasons why we have this story and why the Holy Spirit had this woman to ask this question. We are being told of the superiority of Christ over the Old Testament and everyone in the Old Testament. And so, this is how the Holy Spirit presented the superiority of Christ. He presented it in terms of the kind of water that Jesus is able to give. The Old Testament, as represented by Jacob's well, could only give a sinner just regular water. Water that does not quench thirst forever. And anyone who drinks This water of Jacob will die. But Jesus gives living water. No more water buckets with Jesus. Jesus definitely is superior to Jacob. And the water that he gives also is superior to that of the Old Testament. The water from Jacob's well was dead water. It was in the well. It wasn't flowing. It was stagnated. in contrast to the water that Jesus gives, that's living water. That's very purposeful. It's living water. It has life in it. It is springing. When the water is springing, there's movement. Mosquitoes don't grow in water that is moving, only in stagnant water. So the kind of water that Jesus brings is fresh as a spring. It is always welling up. eternal life. So John is working the testimony of the superiority of Christ even in the manner in which he gives the blessings but the Holy Spirit is what is in view here but the Holy Spirit does not come apart from Christ Jesus and that superiority of Jesus was also in keeping with the testimony of John the Baptist earlier. This is what John the Baptist said in John 1, 33-34. John says, I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me. You see, people deny the Trinity. It's right there. John the Baptist was sent by God the Father. He was given testimony to say, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Right there you have the testimony of the Trinity, the Father, the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus. This is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. The baptism of water, John's baptism, was inferior to the baptism of Christ. The law is inferior to grace in terms of salvation. The law gives the sinner nothing. The law gives you nothing zero. But grace, Christ gives everything. The baptism of and by Christ is by the Holy Spirit and it is the baptism that gives living water. the baptism of Christ is Spirit Baptism. It is another function in that it testifies That Christ is the Son of God. Do you see the connection? The fact that Christ alone baptizes with, by the Holy Spirit is testimony of who He is, testimony of His identity as the Son of God. And that means Christ Jesus is better, He is higher, He is superior. Christ Jesus is alone the spirit baptizer. It is His prerogative, His right, and function alone to give the Holy Spirit, not the law, not the apostle, not anyone who claims to be anything, even anointed. The giving of the Holy Spirit is the sole function of the Messiah, Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given by one who is the Son of God. And these things were being said that we may understand the superiority of Christ and his work in salvation. And so John records and continues with similar testimony about the superiority of Christ over the law and says, let's go to John 6, 30 to 33. So they said to him, what then do you do for a sign? Those are the Jews. So that we may see and believe you, what work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Our fathers ate cheeseburgers and hamburgers and fries in the wilderness. Jesus, what do you have? Do you have some chicken wings? Give us! Verse 32, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world. Now hear this contrast from the Lord Jesus still in John 6 verses 48 to 50. The Lord says, I am the bread of life. So He defines what that bread is that comes from heaven. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they lived. No. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. Jesus is making a contrast between himself and the law. You are in the wilderness. If you are in this world, you are a wilderness dweller. You will have to eat a particular kind of food to live. Christ Jesus is that bread. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. Manna was eaten in the wilderness of sin. It was also called the wilderness of sin. And those who ate the manna did not live nor eternal life for them. They died. That's the testament of the law for those who love to go back and do the law. But Jesus is superior to the law and the provisions of the law in that he is the true bread from heaven, the bread of life, and one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood, we are not talking about the cross, shall not die unlike the manner that the law provided and that is to say Christ Jesus is superior over the law. It's not Christ plus law equals salvation. It's Christ alone or law alone. Grace stands all by itself or it's not grace at all. So Jesus baptizes in a superior way with a better medium of cleansing. and feeds with the better food and gives the better drink. Do you see that? Jesus baptizes in a better medium. The law will dip you in water but that is only for external washings that do not give an everlasting cleanliness. The true baptism happens by the person of Christ, and he uses a better and superior medium of the Holy Spirit. And so when he came to meet with Sister Samaritan, he introduced the subject of water to her, started with the familiar so as to raise her to the spiritual, to the unfamiliar and significant. The sister had a water problem. She had a sin satisfaction problem. She was fetching the wrong kind of water. inferior water to satisfy a problem that needed the Holy Spirit. So it doesn't matter. People get religious and they're very busy. They're just having water buckets every Sunday. Just running around with their little water buckets, trying to fetch some more water for the week. Lord help us. So the Lord said to her, that is sister Samaritan, John 4.14, But we have a drink of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. So definitely this water is different than what the sister had ever known or heard of. This water becomes a well that does not run out, a well of water springing up to eternal life. And one does not need to get their bucket into Jacob's well that was very deep. It is actually understood in my reading that Jacob's wall was one of the deepest in Palestine. And so one needed to have a string to tie to their bucket to reach it. And then you had to roll it up. You had to work to get the water. And Jesus comes and says, no, you don't have to be working like that. And so this sister thinks this is some really good conversation here. John four, 15 to 18, the woman said to him, say give me this water so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw he's thinking two three miles with the water bucket this is sounding so good give me that water so that I don't have to come here in the heat of the day after all my reputation I am on husband number six and all the women in the village I'm not really happy about that. So that would save me some embarrassment if I would just have water in my house. And he said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. Jesus stopped getting into people's business. Jesus is going into her personal business and she does not like that. So she tried to change the conversation and said, Oh, you Jews, you say Jerusalem is the place of worship, but our fathers used to worship in Mount Gerizim right here. That was an attempt to say, stop talking about my business. Settle for me these other religious issues. These are more important. tell me more about the law don't talk about me Jesus identifies for her the problem the real problem a husband problem she had had five and was now hitched to number six and if Jesus is promising She does not mind making him husband number seven. She doesn't mind. And that is exactly what happened. She went back to her village and told them and said, I have met a man who told me everything about me, everything that I've done. This has to be the Messiah. This is a very good husband. Do you mind if I bring him here? Exactly. And Jesus came. And the people in the village were probably saying to her, not again, not another man, but she was right. She had found another man, the Messiah, the real man, the real husband. Jesus was number seven husband, number seven, the complete and perfect husband who had come for his gentle bride, sister Samaritan, belonged to Christ. This is the husband that alone could satisfy her sin problem. This is the husband that could marry her forever. And thus she did not need any other beyond Christ. The one that you have is not your husband. Jesus saying, because I am your true husband. This book is amazing. I just have to tell you that. This way of God preaching his gospel is just insane to me. It's just brilliant. So from Sister Samaritan, John continues with this testimony of water and sands. You see, the Holy Spirit is building testimony as we go through the book of John. So John takes us to John 7, 37-39 and this is at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. John 7.37-39 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But this is pork of the Spirit. So that living water is now being defined for us by John. But this is pork of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given. Why? Because Jesus was not yet glorified. And that is to say Jesus had not yet been crucified. So the great day of the feast was the Feast of the Tabernacles and like all the Old Testament feasts, there were certain rituals that were performed and one of them was a procession that happened from the temple as it was being led by the priests to the spring called Gihon Gihon, G-I-H-O-N. This was, actually I want to check this one. It says it was in the Kidron Valley. Yes, in the Kidron Valley. That's John 18. It was in the Kidron Valley and it was the main source of water for the pool of Silom. in the city of David, the original site of Jerusalem. You can see everything just so interconnected. So what happened was that the priest would fill a gold pitcher with water and the procession behind him would be singing Isaiah 12 2-3 which says, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And then they returned to the water and poured out the water. And that's Isaiah 12 2-3. So Jesus says come and get that water now. I am the one who gives that water. So it is this living water now we are working our way towards the cross. It is this living water, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus later on in John 14, 16 and 17 would say to His disciples, I will ask the Father, John 14, 16 to 17, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper. that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. And the Lord continues in John 16, 7 and says, But I tell you the truth, It is to your advantage that I go away by the way of the cross. Go away to the Father, go back to the Father by way of the cross. It is to your advantage that Christ be crucified. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." So the Holy Spirit was to be given after the Lord had been crucified, and had resurrected, and had gone back to the Father to say, I finished the work that you sent me to do. Now it is time to give the Spirit of promise, hence we had Pentecost. And what happened? The pouring of the Holy Spirit as evidence that Christ had also finished His work. The promise of the Father had been given. Christ had purchased the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is He who was signified by the water in the theological understanding of John and that of the Lord Jesus. But it did not end there. The Lord Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit in His life. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was possessed of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of Him in power in Christ Jesus. The fullness of deity in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God. So the Lord Jesus lived his life in the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. When the Lord said, I thirst, or I am thirsty, he was speaking at a higher level beyond the physical thirst that he had. Physically, yes, he was thirsty. But so was he spiritually. Christ Jesus is the blessed man who hungered and thirsted for righteousness and needed to be satisfied. When the Holy Spirit left the body of Christ for him to die, he felt weaker and very thirsty because it was he who was giving him strength. And so to say I am thirsty was to say the Holy Spirit has left my person that I may die. And I would even tell him, from my own experience at this level, I can come here very weak, thirsty, my throat, everything is not working. But then I just go. Only afterwards. that I come back to normal, I began to feel the thirst. I began to feel very hungry and very tired. But as long as I am being helped by Him, I saw my strength. But with that testimony, with regard to Jesus, it was speaking to His accomplishing of His work. I am thirsty was a concluding remark of a finished salvation. See the placement of that remark. He could have said that with Pilate. And Pilate being in some way favorably disposed to Jesus would have said, if it's just a cup of water, I'll give it to you. But it did not happen there. So the placement is very important. The Lord had been working all this time to accomplish our redemption. And if you have been working as the Lord was, you are going to get thirsting. For the Lord was fighting. He was thirsting for righteousness. Thirsting for the cause of our righteousness. And so He was the blessed man that He talked about in Matthew 5. I am thirsty was a bracketing of the work that he had started. He opened the brackets in his incarnation and now he was closing the brackets to say it is finished. And when he finished, he was satisfied. Matthew 5,4-6 The Lord said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. That is Christ Jesus. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That is the mourning of Christ. And it is He who was to be comforted as Isaac was comforted with Rebekah after Sarah had died. Christ was comforted. Christ was comforted because He accomplished salvation for His bride, the church. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inhale the earth. Who are the gentle? Matthew 11, 28, 29. I know for sure I am not the gender, because if someone cuts me in traffic, I have to lay aside my testimony of Christ for a minute. Exactly right. this is the gentle one come to me all who are weary and heavy laden you see where you belong Matthew 11 20 29 come to me all who are weary and heavy laden that's where you belong the weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you find rest for your souls. Christ is the gentle one. He is the humble and lowly in heart. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. The Lord Jesus comes and says, I am thirsty. And Isaiah says, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. Satisfaction of the thirsting of Christ. Christ was thirsting for you to be righteous. It's a deep longing for thirst. It's a deep longing for water. Christ had a deep longing for you to be righteous, for righteousness to be accomplished for you. That was His thirst. And this was in keeping with the testament of Samson who had slain a thousand Philistine men in Judges 15 by a fresh donkey-jobbon on the hill of the Jobbon, Ramathlehi. As we are told in Judges 15, 15 to 19, we're just going to take this section. We won't labor much of the story as we did last time. Judges 15, 15 to 19. Samson is not happy. The father-in-law has taken his wife and given it to his best man. And Samson says, oh, I'm going to kill some people. And I'm going to be blameless as I do it. So he has been delivered into the hands of the Philistines by his own people of Judah. His hands have been tied and Samson found a fresh jawbone of a donkey. So let's pick up Judges 15 verse 15 to 19. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey. So he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, hips upon hips, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have killed a thousand men. When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand, and he named that place Ramathlehi, which means the hill of the jawbone. Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant. And now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength returned, and he revived. Therefore he named it Enakor, which is in Lehi to this day. Samson the Nazarite. Don't forget that. Samson the Nazarite, the Israelite, became very thirsty after he had accomplished the work of salvation, the slaying of 1000 Philistine men on account of his Philistine wife. his bride who had been given to his best man by his father-in-law and then later was killed. And the best man was the law that killed the bride of Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ the Nazarene and the Nazarite also came to slew the Philistines sin and death that were over his bride The church, with a donkey-jawbone, a fresh one, an undefiled one, holy and separate from sinners on account of her bride, As Samson's wife died, so was the bride of Christ. See the parallels. The church was found dead in trespasses and sins, so the Lord came to redeem it. The church belonged to Christ before He showed up. It was given to Him by election. But He found it dead because of the law. And so it had to be redeemed by a fight. And this the Lord Jesus Christ, and in this the Lord Jesus Christ was fresh, had not been contaminated with any sin. It is His freshness, His sinlessness that guaranteed His victory over sin and death. But the donkey jawbone was a weak instrument. It was an instrument of weakness of a lowly and despised animal. It was a despised instrument of war. Donkeys were not war animals. Horses were. And this was not the jawbone of a hippo. and big teeth but of a donkey because the donkey represented in this context the foolishness and weakness of the cross the foolishness of the message of the cross of a Christ who is the giver of the living water but who gets thirsty himself Does it make sense? You're giving water, you have 500 trillion gallons of refrigerated water at your disposal and yet you are the one who is saying I am thirsty and yet you say come and I'll give you my water. That does not make sense. In the parable of the good Samaritan, The man who had been beaten and robbed and left for dead was carried in a BMW Cadillac, a limo, on a horse. He was killed on a donkey. And that was the despised Lord Jesus who was both the Samaritan. Jesus was the good Samaritan in that context. He was the Samaritan because Samaritans were despised by Jews. A despised people and a donkey, a despised animal, is the one that carried the man to safety, Christ Jesus bearing our infirmities as he took us to the inn of the new covenant. You understand that? So that's God's way of working things. A Christ who is hung should not be able to serve anyone. We have to agree with that. That is weakness. But it was His very death on the acacia tree that was His weapon to defeat all His enemies and all your enemies. 1 Corinthians 1 21-25 Paul says, For since in the wisdom of God the word through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to serve those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the code, but to those who are the code, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man. And this foolishness and this weakness God had preached also through David when he was escaping from King Saul. 1st Samuel 21 10-15 1st Samuel 21 10-15 Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Archish king of Gath. But the servants of Archish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, So has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? David took these words to heart, and greatly feared Archish king of Gath. So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands. and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. Then Arches said to his servants, Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I like madmen that you have brought this one to egg the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house? David, the future king of Israel, pretended to be insane to the Philistines, to the Gentiles, so that he would not be identified. Here again, verse 18 of Psalm 121. So he disguised his sanity before them. and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. That is the foolishness of the gospel preached to the Gentiles. Philistines were Gentiles. The gospel comes disguised as insanity before man. acting insanely in the hands of men, even scribbling doors of the gates graffiti and letting his saliva drip, run down his beard. That is the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel that has slubber. Remember David was a type of Christ. David was a type of Christ. And the gospel of Christ always has slobber. A gospel that has no slobber men would not despise. People want a cleaned up gospel. A gospel that uses strong and clean instruments and platforms powerful men and women. Bring me Beyonce and the whole church will fill up tonight. We have three services and we won't even know where to put men and women. Men love the cross only when it is hanging on their necklaces, but not when it says it is finished. The cross on the necklaces will never have slobber. They will clean it up real quick. They do not like the cross when Christ comes and says He is the Good Shepherd who lays His life down only for His sheep. People do not like the cross when it brings the testimony that salvation is not of works, but is of grace alone. Because grace alone means no one adds anything to it. It is all in God's hands to give to whomever He wants. And that to the fallen and unregenerate is slobber. It is. If people see slobber on the gospel, they rush to get some paper towels to try and clean it up. Remove the offense. The slobber is the offense. That's the point. The reason why the Philistines could not properly identify David was because of the slobber. They could tell this is David, but it just was the slobber. Just the slobber. So the slobber was the offense and the foolishness and the disguise. And so people will not touch someone's slobber. So when they hear Christ finish salvation, all they see is slobber in that message. They only see a saliva smeared message and it offends them. So what do they do? They call for their own methods of self-salvation And say, what about my choice? My free will, my... Oh, God loves everyone. Oh, by the way, we keep the law. And this way they stumble on Christ, the rock of offense. God actually gave Christ the title, the rock of offense. Manship over Christ. They stumble and they fall over him. But that's not God's way of salvation. God's way of salvation is always dripping in saliva, dripping in weakness. That's the point. A fresh donkey jawbone in the hands of Samson. And that is the jawbone that had been thrown away as something useless. The meat had been eaten by whomever, man or wild animals. a sling and a stone for David. That was his instrument. So much that Goliath said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And what did Goliath do? He began to curse David with his gods. And then ultimately the cross of Christ Jesus That is the foolishness, the wisdom and power of God. So Samson became thirsty because he had finished his work of salvation. That's the larger point. That is a very important gospel testimony because the Lord Jesus had that in mind also on the cross when he said, I am thirst. And we build this testimony with David. Israel was always having running battles with the Philistines. And David had been besieged by the Philistines and he had taken refuge. He had escaped the cave of Adullam, the cave of refuge. And whilst he was in there, guess what happened? He became thirsty. 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel 23 13-17 Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, while the troop of the Philistines were camping in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. David had a craving and said, or that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it but poured it out to the Lord. David gets very thirsty whilst in the stronghold Know what are there in the stronghold. And he says, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Is that not the Lord saying, I am thirsty? Is that not the Lord saying to the Samaritan woman, give me water to drink? But he never drank it. Is this not the Lord saying to his disciples in John chapter four, God gets something to eat, but when they came back, he would not eat the bread that he sent them to get. John 4 31-32 The disciples had been sent away to buy some food so that Jesus would have a one-to-one, have His date with Sister Samaritan. They come back, and that's where we are, John 4, 31-32. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. Verse 33 and 34, So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work. The Lord did not eat the food that His disciples brought to Him. And He did not drink the water from the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman is she who had to drink the water from Jesus, not the other way around. Jesus was the giver of the water, not the Samaritan woman. On the cross, the son of David is about to die. And so what happened? 2 Samuel 12 15-17 2 Samuel 12 15-17. We'll go back to the care of Abdullam. You know the story of David in Bathsheba? God has sent Nathan the prophet to David to say, you are in so much trouble. You have taken another man's wife and you have killed him. So we pick up from verse 15, Then Nathan went to his house, after having told David that he shall not die, but the son that has been born to you shall surely die. And so we are told, And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. The child that Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, bore to David is who? It is Christ Jesus. Check the genealogies. Jesus Christ, the son of David and Bathsheba. It is he who was smitten and afflicted of God. It is he who had to die for David and Bathsheba to live. You shall not die but your son shall surely die. So it is the death of Christ that paid for the sin of David and Bathsheba. So this is He who has become sick because of our sins. Christ Jesus has become sick because of our sins that have been imputed to Him. Verse 16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. David could not eat as long as his son was being smitten of God. and dying the elders were trying to raise him from the ground to say get up get up david before the son had died and that did not work why because the resurrection does not happen unless and until the son has died the christ has to die first before david can get up So David refused to be raised up until his son had died. Remember David was a type of Christ and the son who died at that time was also a type of Christ. David is playing one aspect of Christ and the son who is dying is also playing another aspect of Christ. The son who died, born to him with Bathsheba, had to die first and then David had to come out of the ground and that was the type of the resurrection of Christ. So all those testimonies, over time you're going to get used to this because it's a very prevalent way of presenting the gospel. You find that in the book of Esther also. On the cross, Matthew records and says, hear this, Matthew 27, 33-34. Remember David refused to eat or drink when he heard that his son was sick and dying. Matthew 27, 33-34, Matthew says, And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, and that's like bile, bitterness. But when he tested it, he would not drink it. The Lord refused to drink the wine that had been mixed with gall. Why? Because, like his father David, before, he was saying, I am not dead yet. I'm not dead yet. I have to die and then resurrect. But there's more. There's more. We have to understand why wine was given to those who were being crucified. Proverbs 31 Proverbs 31,4-7 Solomon writes and says, It is not for kings or Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Christ could not go on the cross drunk, lest he perfect the rights of all the afflicted. And thus you and I give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress. Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Strong drink was given to condemned criminals to help them enjoy the pain of crucifixion. This is what was offered the Lord, but He refused it. To say He was going to drink the wrath of God in its fullness, empty the cup of God's judgment to its dregs, without cheating. The Lord was in bitter distress and in great poverty and misery, but for your sake. He refused to minimize in any way the pain of his affliction, the pain of our judgment. He refused. And that is some really serious stuff. So Solomon continues in Proverbs 31 89 and says, open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. That is Christ Jesus. That is the work of Christ on the cross when he said, I am thirsty and it is finished. He was opening his mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute because of sin and saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing. You and I lacked righteousness. We had no right to open our mouth before God. Do you see that? We had no right to open our mouth before God. Christ Jesus, the mediator and advocate had to open his mouth on your behalf to defend you. Forgive them father. They are ignorant. They don't know what they're doing. That was the defending of the rights of the poor and needy. We're going to tie up all this. Let's go back to 2 Samuel 23. 13 to 17. And we pick it up on verse 15. So David gets thirsty in the cave of Adullam and says, Oh, that someone will give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. The three mighty men of David. These were elite men from David's army. These were the special forces. These are the Marines equivalent. They went and broke through the camp of the Philistines to draw water from Bethlehem, the seat of David. And David had some good water there, good wells. And when the three men brought the water to David, David did not say, Oh, well, thank you very much. Just put some Christ's eyes with that too. No, he did not say that. He said, be it far from me. Verse 17. Oh Lord, that I should do this. So I drink the blood of the man who went in jeopardy of their lives. Therefore he would not drink it. David refused to drink the water. I mean, David, come on. You're the one who asked for the water to drink. These men have risked their lives to get you water to drink. No. He didn't even give it to the man. He did not even give it. When he was in the cave, he was not alone. If David was thirsty, there had to be other people who were thirsty there. He did not do that. So that tells you that there's more about this water than just David getting water and being arrogant and throwing it away. So Christ Jesus, at the well with the Samaritan woman, asks for the water. He doesn't drink it. He asks his disciples to go get bread. The disciples come back. He did not eat the bread. Why? As I said, he was the giver of the living water and also he was the true bread come from heaven. His life was not and could not be sustained by things that were perishing, physical food and water that perishes as he called it in John 6. So this is what David did. David connected the water that had been fetched for him Not just to the effort of the three men, no, He connected it to the sacrifice, to their death, to their blood even. And says, this is your blood and I'm not having it. I'm not having your sacrifice to sustain my own life. If I have to die, I'm going to die, but I'm not going to live by your own sacrifice for me. So David says, shall I drink the blood of the man who went in jeopardy of their lives? No. David is saying he does not owe his life to the water that comes from the well. Especially if that water is coming as a sacrifice, the death, the blood of some other man. and that is not the testament of David that is the testament of Christ to say I am thirsty and yet refusing to drink what was given him because it was he who had come and was dying to give them the real water of life you see the connection the living water It was his death, his sacrifice, his blood that was to give life to man and not man giving life to Christ. It was Christ who was giving his life as a ransom for many. It was Christ who had come to serve and not be served. Remember, David was also a valiant warrior. If he wanted to get water in Bethlehem, he would have gone there by himself. Christ is He who had come to dig the well that produced the real water, the Holy Spirit. And that is why on the cross, John says in John 19.34, we're actually going to go to John 19.34 a little bit earlier than I wanted. but it's important testimony. John 19.34, John says, But one of the soldiers pierced this side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. The blood and the water had come out, and that was to give us understanding of the work of Christ. How did they come up with this idea? If it wasn't God's idea, it had to be God's idea. What is happening? The blood of the new covenant is being poured out. This is the covenant in my blood. The covenant of grace being ratified, being established. The blood that is the remission of sins, the cancellation of sin, peace, reconciliation, our justification are all tied to the blood of Christ. And the water signifying the Holy Spirit who had come out on account of the rock that has been smitten. The rock has now been smitten Christ has died. And so when Christ dies, when the rock has been smitten, what happens? Water comes out of the rock and the people drink. The Holy Spirit could not come without the death of Christ. The Holy Spirit had to be purchased by the death of Christ. The death of Christ was a purchase. It was a payment. It was a ransom for our salvation. The gifts that come to us freely were not bought at a flea market or dollar store or thrift store. They came by way of a very expensive payment at the cost of the blood of Christ. But here what John had also said earlier in John 1, 12-13, we are actually almost getting done. In John 1, 12-13, this is what John said. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. And all the free will has stopped there. Verse 13 does not exist in the Bible. But John continues and says, who were born not of blood, that is not of the union of father and mother, nor of the will of the flesh. Nobody's deciding anything. Nor of the will of man, but of God. You see the distinction? Those who receive Christ only do so not because of their will. It's clear teachings there. Not because it was handed them from grandparents as a trust. That's not how salvation works. There's no piggy bank for salvation. John says they were born of God. These who believe were born of God, not by the actions of man. And where you have birth, there has to be fluids of birth. Water and blood are the fluids of birth. So the Lord Jesus also had water and blood as He gave birth to the church on the cross. You need to understand this. We did not come up with water and blood during childbirth. That's Jesus' idea. He's preaching something bigger. The cross was the birthing room for the church. One who is born from above As the Lord said to Nicodemus, is born from this lifted Christ. This is part of what Jesus was saying when He said to Nicodemus, you must be born from above by the water and blood of the lifted Christ. Jesus was not lying in some ward at St Anne's hospital somewhere on some bed. No, he was lifted above. To be born on the cross is to be born from above. This is where you got your spiritual birth. It was on account of the blood and the water that came from Christ. Christ Jesus became, is your spiritual mother, to be honest. There's no one who gets lifted up on a cross ever as to cause a bath. Only Christ Jesus did that. So this one who was thirsty is the very one who had water and blood coming out. You see the, as soon as he's talking about being thirsty and yet he is letting water out. This is the rock that is being smitten that the water may come out, the living water may come out, the Holy Spirit. This is the rock that is being smitten by God for thirsty Samson to drink after he had slain the 1,000 Philistines. So that spilled blood and water is what satisfied the thirst of Jesus. Isaiah 53 says, and he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. Labor is childbirth. It's exactly childbirth. And what do you see in childbirth? You have the blood, you have the water and you have the baby. Those are the three things that come out of the womb. The blood, water and the baby. Christ Jesus saw the fluids of His deliverance and was satisfied. Why? His death was not in vain. His labor produced a healthy baby. No stillborn with Jesus. No miscarriage with Jesus. No abortion with Jesus. That's the only way that a mother is going to be satisfied. When they hold the baby. Christ Jesus held his baby. He held his church. The baby, that is you, the elect, the believer, was successfully delivered. No c-section. This was not a c-section. Hear this from John 16.21. The Lord Jesus said, When a woman is giving birth, She has sorrow because the hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So who is that woman? That is Jesus. Jesus is looking to the cross. And he thought that this was one of the best ways to express what was about to happen. to say the picture of childbirth is a picture of Christ. It's not just happening because for all you know you could be laying eggs like chickens. right? laying eggs taking turns to keep them warm so that they can hatch no but it pleased the Lord that the human baby nine months in the mother's belly and to be delivered through suffering labor pains the hour has come to deliver the baby but when she has delivered the baby She holds the baby in her hands. She is satisfied. She remembers not the anguish for the joy that a human being has been born into the world. That's a universal testament of everyone we have been given birth. So Christ Jesus was joyful to see His church born by His anguish, by His labor. Jesus did not have an epidural. That is why he refused to drink the wine that was mixed with gout to dull the nerves. The wine mixed with gout was an epidural and the Lord said, no, thank you. I am going to do it the natural way. So he despised the shame of the cross and looked to the joy that was set before him, the rite of Hebrews say. The joy of being exalted, the joy of seeing his church redeemed. And so David did not drink the water, David is Christ, even though he was thirsty and asked for it. Christ Jesus did not drink the wine, even though he was thirsty. And so the Lord came and said, it is finished and will end there. What does that mean? That is our last testimony. Those were the last words of the Lord Jesus on the cross. It is finished is the Greek word tetelestai t-e-t-e l-e-s-t-a-i t-e-t-e L-E-S-T-A-I. It means it's finished. What was finished? The labor pains were finished. The birthing process finished. Baby safely delivered and in the mother's hands. Baby has no jaundice. As soon as the baby is born, what happens? What happens when the baby is born? We text people. We call people to say, it is finished. The baby made it okay, but the mother and the baby are well. If everything goes well, that is the universal message anywhere across the world. And the Lord Jesus was sending out the message, sending out the same message to say salvation accomplished. payment has been made paid in full and what was paid in full our sin debt your sin debt was paid in full the Lord did not pay for some of your sins but for all of your sins past present and future he wrote one big check for them all for all time The Lord Jesus did not bounce the check. It cleared. A Jesus who bounces checks is not a Jesus to talk about. A Jesus who loses any of his sheep because they decide to do something crazy is not the Jesus of the Bible. That is a conman Jesus. Remember, you're a sinner. That's the issue. And if you sin and if you're a sinner like you and I, we get into sin debt. We owe God an amount that we can't pay beyond our ability and resources to pay. There's nothing that you and I can give God to pay for our sin debt. That's the issue of the cross. So when Christ came, we were in debt that we could not pay. We have to understand that we owed a debt that we could not pay. And that was the purpose of the law to teach. The law was not telling you that you can pay, it was telling you that you can't! Because the law teaches perfection. The law does not teach that one can use a credit card to balance their books for eternity. The law does not teach that. God does not accept credit cards in salvation. Your own obedience, your own feigned obedience to God's law is not different than buying everything on a credit card. And yet you do not have any money to pay it back? It will all be lost. It will be repossessed. So the law was given to give us the knowledge of sin and what God requires for salvation. And that is why in Matthew 16, 26 the Lord Jesus said, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? See where Jesus takes the conversation. or what shall a man give in return for his soul? What shall you give in exchange is what the law is asking every sinner. That is the gospel issue. That is what Christ has appeared to do. That is why Christ has been put on the cross. The law knows that it needs to be satisfied. The law knows that a sinner owes debt they can't pay. but the sinner does not know that. People don't know that because they have a low view of the law, a low view of what God requires, and a very high opinion of themselves. The law of God knows what it needs for salvation. Exactly it knows. The law knows that it needs the righteousness of Christ, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, the obedience of Christ alone to be satisfied. The law knows that. Very clearly, the professing church world is ignorant of that. But the Lord comes and says, It is finished folks. It is done to say the transaction has been completed and has been accepted. Salvation is a done deal. That is why it is very good news. The work of salvation is done. You have to think about that. Sometimes we forget about it. We forget about how beautiful this is because what it means is that if you die today, tomorrow, next week, next year, 10 years from now, it's done. You are ready for glory. That's good news. That's good news for you. Look for 17 to 19. We're just building a little bit more testimony on what it means to say is finished. Luke says, And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, that is, it was given to Christ. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Yes, send me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." The Lord Jesus summarized the cross for us here in those words. He was anointed to proclaim good news to the poor. That poverty means a lack of righteousness. It's not saying people who have no money in their checking account. It's a lack of righteousness. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. And Tetelestai is saying exactly that. It is saying to the captives, your liberty from sin, from death and condemnation has been accomplished. Your liberty from your oppressors has been accomplished. You were a prisoner. You were a captive. You were oppressed by sin. You were oppressed by death, condemnation of the law. But now you are free as a bird on the tree. The law has no more claim on you. It has been satisfied. So as far as the law is concerned, you are as righteous as they come. And that's the scandal of the gospel. And so the word tetelestai was not just restricted to what the Lord said here, but it was also used when a prisoner had been in jail and they had done their time. And on the day of their being set free, the prison officer had a stamp that said tetelestai. So they stamped Tetelestai on their certificate of release to say they had paid their dues and if they were found walking, exercising their freedom, they had their certificate to say, see, Tetelestai, it is done. I am free. And the Lord reached for that to say, it is finished. I have paid in full for all my captives. for all my prisoners to sin and death and they are now free to walk to the smell of freedom. The law has no more claim on their life, on their liberty. The justice of God has been satisfied for them. The law has been fully propitiated Sin has no more claim on you. Death has no more claim, no power over you. The devil has no claim over you. Condemnation, no claim over you. Grace alone was left with a claim on you. Do you understand that? And the cross of Christ is our stamp. And the blood of Christ is the ink that Christ used to stamp on our certificate of release. Do you understand that? And also, lastly, and will be done, Tetelestai was used in commerce, where goods were being sold and bought. When full payment had been made, the goods exchanged ownership. And the same stamp was used, Tetelestai, to say full payment has been made and ownership has changed hands. Christ Jesus now has the full rights to his purchase, the church, and that is you. The church did not change hands to Christ because of water baptism, but because of the blood of Christ alone. That's what effected the transaction. So the Lord comes and says, I thirst because there was such testimony that was layered around that statement. He was thirsty because he was tired. But he was thirsty because he was also about to die and the Holy Spirit was about to depart and soon afterwards to be made available to his church. So to say I am thirsty and it is finished are actually connected. It's finished is a commentary of I am thirsty. So I thirst was drawing us to the Holy Spirit and the accomplishing of Christ's work. And it is finished was to say it is finished. There's nothing to add or improve. Because you and I cannot add or improve on that which is perfect. Christ is complete all by himself and we are complete in him. Christ alone sister Becca is he who said it's finished. There's no one ever born of Adam we shall ever be able to say that. Christ Jesus alone finished. We are here. We shall always have bills to pay, laundry to do, clean the house, pull the weeds that are always coming back. But Christ Jesus buys one offering. He is perfected forever. By His one offering, He perfected forever, for all time, those who are sanctified. And that the testimony of it is finished. And it's a wonderful testimony. And I'm done. And amen. And let us pray. Dearly Father, Lord, we bless you again. We just honour you for the testament of Christ and all the many wonderful things. A lot of weaving, but at the end of the day, Lord, we are just thankful that it's done. It's done and we have the payment. We have the stamp. We have the water. The water has come out. The water that gives life. Thank You that Your Son became thirsty for righteousness, that we may have His righteousness. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord, for this Gospel testimony. May You continue to draw us and to teach us and show us all these wonderful things of salvation. We pray that You bless all those who are here and give them understanding also. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.