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Introduction
One of the defining characteristics of unbelieving men and women, besides the denial of God’s existence or the failure to acknowledge God as the Creator, is the refusal to recognize their need of God. But whatever the human conception, the truth can never change: the existence and persistence of all things, both in heaven and on earth, utterly depends on God, and that of mankind is no exception. Men can do nothing apart from God (cf. John 15:5). Not only does God uphold us physically – “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), but He is also our souls’ sustenance.
In the beginning when God made men, He kept them in His presence. They enjoyed God’s overflowing blessings, because they lived under God's authority and rules. God was men’s sole object of worship and joy. Their souls delighted in God, the Fountain of Living Waters, they thirsted for God alone. Every day, every moment, they drank of the Fountain of Living Waters, that is, they devoted themselves entirely and exclusively to God and were satisfied. And because they drank only of this Fountain, men were spiritually alive. They experienced no spiritual drought or paralysis, for their souls were well watered. Like the garden of Paradise, the garden of God, their souls were continually drenched by the Fountain of Living Waters. They were like a watered garden, bearing holy fruit to God; they were undefiled and beautiful vessels consecrated to honorable use in the household of God. For they perfectly fulfilled their responsibility as God’s deputy regent on earth. God’s glory shone in them, and they enjoyed fellowship with the LORD, living in His glorious presence. But this divine-human fellowship was broken, when men in their pride turned in rebellion against God. As a result, they were severed from God, the Fountain of Living Waters.
Man’s severance from the Fountain of Living Waters
Unity with the Lord is of infinite value in the life of every single individual. No one in the universe can live apart from the Creator God, because separation from God means death for man; it is a severance that nothing in the world can remedy. When a child is weaned, he is given other nourishment as a substitute for breast milk. But when a person is severed from God, the Fountain of Living Waters, there is no substitute nourishment. Death is therefore inevitable due to lack of sustenance. No one, nothing in the entire universe can replace God in the life of a man. In the beginning, when men delighted in God alone and were submissive to Him, it was well with their souls. Moreover, they experienced no physical hardship but blessedness in the presence of the Lord. But in their quest for autonomy, men weaned themselves from God; for they thought they would get by without Him. Rather, they have become a parched land, a desolate wilderness where no life is found; for they have severed themselves from the Fountain of Living Waters. Both their bodies and their souls have since been subjected to decay, corruption and death. From the very moment men severed themselves from God, they fell – body and soul – under the grip of death. They lost their beauty and worthiness, and devoted themselves to empty and worthless idols.
There is nothing in the universe that men need more than the presence of God and unity with Him. Separation from God means eternal ruin for men. Since the Fall of man and his expulsion from the Paradise of God, he is no longer the well-watered garden of Paradise, he is no longer the golden and undefiled vessel that once perfectly reflected the glory of the holy God. Rather, man is like a parched land, with a reprobate mind and a sensual heart. He is no longer pure but a filthy vessel that needs cleansing. For his soul is no longer watered by the Fountain of Living Waters – man no longer drinks the pure, sweet water of God. Instead, he drinks poison from the river of darkness, a river soiled with iniquities, pride and immorality, to the peril of his soul.
Man was not designed to live independently of the Creator God. Although God appointed him deputy regent and vested him with the authority to rule over the earth, man can do nothing apart from God. He totally depends on God who gives him life and breath and everything (cf. Acts 17:25). Therefore when man rejects God, he loses the foundation, the rock upon which to stand, and sinks into hopelessness and worthlessness. For he is nothing and can do nothing without God.
It is essential to value our unity with God, to treasure our dependence on Him, and to trust in His goodness. Blinded by pride, Adam and Eve failed to understand the preeminence of being united to God. Instead of valuing their dependence on God and trusting in God’s goodness, they desired to be sovereign, to live outside God’s rules and authority. But the autonomy they expected to acquire turned out to be nothing but misery. They gave up blessedness, life, peace, joy, and perfect freedom – in the garden of Paradise – for curse, death, hostility, sorrow, and slavery in a sin-filled world. Throughout human history, the same pride has ruled in the hearts of their posterity and blinded their eyes, and they too have raised themselves against God. Men have forsaken God, the Fountain of Living Waters, and made themselves slaves to cisterns without bottom. “They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water”, declares the LORD in Jeremiah 2:13.
As already mentioned, there is no adequate substitute for God. When men wean themselves from God, they sever themselves from their only sustenance. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, they were cut off from God, the Fountain of Living Waters, and with them the entire human race. Men’s spiritual separation from God (cf. Isaiah 55:8-9) brought about their physical alienation from Him (cf. Genesis 3:23-24). They were expelled from the presence of the holy God because of their moral depravity. For without holiness, no one can see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
Severance from God is the most devastating thing to man’s physical and spiritual well-being. It has deprived man from life and peace with God and created in him a vacuum that he cannot fill. Since men’s disobedience led to their spiritual death, they no longer love God but hate Him. Therefore, they do not pursue reconciliation with God. Though their souls still yearn for an object of worship – for they are by nature worshippers – “There is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:11b). They zealously and readily incline their hearts towards anyone or anything they consider divine, whatever they believe can ensure them protection, support, prosperity and comfort, and this becomes their object of worship. They are devoid of discernment because of their spiritual deadness. Hence they kneel before everything, except before the One True and Living God, for by nature they hate Him with all their faculties. Men do not seek after the LORD God but run after the gods of their own making. They have “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). But these can never fill the vacuum left by their separation from God; they cannot bring them back to life, nor can they wash away their filths; they cannot restore their hearts to beauty, nor can they endow them with usefulness. For they are but broken cisterns.
The uniqueness of the Fountain of Living Waters
“I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God”, declares the LORD in Isaiah 45:5a. There is none like the LORD God, none who can be for man what the LORD is: his Creator, his Sustainer, and his Redeemer. The so-called gods of the nations are but broken cisterns which cannot hold water; they are profitable for nothing. Therefore, those who run after them remain parched, empty and dead; there is no life in them. Only the LORD God, the Fountain of Living Waters, can drench the dry and dead souls of the sons of men. No one can revive the souls of men except God. He is the Fountain who not only purifies the heart from all defilement, but also brings it from death to life. None of the so-called gods of the world can impart life to souls held captive by death, for they too are dead: “They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalms 115:5-8).
There is none like the LORD God; there is no other God besides Him. The LORD is the well of salvation, the wellspring of living water, the river of the water of life that brings healing to the soul. Anyone He sprinkles with clean water thirsts no more and stops chasing after broken cisterns, for the water He gives them is living; it satisfies their soul. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”, declares the Lord Jesus in John 4:14. The water of life is an everlasting water that continually flows from God’s throne to His people. Unlike the broken cisterns which can hold no water, the river of the water of life knows no decline; it never dries nor decreases in flow, but springs up to eternal life. It everlastingly waters the souls of men and fills them with life in abundance, from the moment they taste it and to the day of eternity. “Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”, declares the Lord in John 7:38.
The popular citation “Water is life” is used to communicate the importance of mere water. For God, in His providence, has made it essential for every plant, animal and human being. Therefore our physical survival is threatened whenever God sends a severe drought. In the like manner, the survival of our souls depends entirely and always on God, the Fountain of Living Waters. We all need the water of life that flows from God’s throne. However, as sinners, we have no right to the water of life. Rather, we all deserve the cup of God’s wrath – to drink it to the last drop; for we all have sinned against Him. Yet it pleased our God, according to the riches of His grace, to drench our souls with the water of life instead – and this, at no cost. Despite our unworthiness and our hatred toward Him, the Lord calls us to Himself: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). For in the fullness of His grace, the Lord has purposed to sprinkle the souls in drought with the water of life, that they may be like a well-watered garden, bearing good fruit to God and consecrated to holy service in His household.
Restored access to the Fountain of Living Waters
In the beginning, when God made men, they were upright and alive. Then they sought out evil schemes and died. They willfully severed themselves from God, the Fountain of Living Waters, and death, the due penalty for their rebellion against God, has since held them captive. They have lost access to the Fountain of Living Waters and all they deserve is the cup of God's wrath. Yet, instead of pouring out His wrath in full strength upon us, God has made available “wine and milk without money and without price” to everyone who thirsts. How can it be? What has become of the cup of His wrath? Did God sweep our sins under the rug? By no means! God is holy and righteous. Therefore He must punish sin.
The price for the wine and the milk that the Lord has made available without money to sinful men has been paid in full by Himself. For “God put forward [His Son] as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). Sinners can have access to God's wine and milk for free because it cost Him the life of His only Son. God sent His only Son into the world to drink the cup of His wrath in order to restore sinners’ access to the river of the water of life. Christ's body was torn open upon Calvary’s cross in the stead of ruined sinners. “By the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20), He made access to the river of the water of life free. Every soul in the grip of drought who turns to Him in faith and cries out for mercy receives the living water; he passes from deadness to life.
Not with money, not with good works can one access the living water; it is by faith alone. Sinners must put their trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He drank the cup of God’s wrath so that whoever believes in His substitutionary death may have access to the river of the water of life. God made a transaction at Calvary: He laid the sins of men upon His sinless Son and the Son drank the wrath of God in their stead. By the Son’s substitutionary death, the wrath of God was satisfied and the cup of God’s grace made ready and set at the foot of the cross for every repentant sinner – as it is written, “the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). All sinners need to do is acknowledge that it was for their sins that the Son of God was crucified; they must turn from their evil ways, recognize their inability to satisfy God's demands for justice, and put their trust in Christ alone, and the cup of God's grace will be poured out to them. They must believe in the substitutionary death of Christ. Then the Lord will take from their hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of His wrath, that they may drink it no more. Anyone who rejects Christ’s substitutionary death “will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10). “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs” (Psalms 75:8).
There is no access to the living water, there is no life apart from Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Whoever does not turn to Him in repentance and faith shall drink the cup of God’s wrath. Whoever does not rely on the person and work of Christ alone shall be damned. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you”, declares the Lord God in John 6:53. That is to say, unless we believe that the body of God’s Son was broken and His blood shed for our sins, unless we cling to Him alone, we will not have life but face the wrath of God. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Which means that a person can never be reconciled with God unless all their sins are atoned for by a blood sacrifice. However, the adequate blood is not that of an animal but the blood of a righteous man (a man without sin) – “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Therefore no man is able to give God the ransom price for their soul. God alone can pay the price. Glory be to the Lord our God! For in the fullness of His grace, God Himself provided the blood to atone for the sins of men; He offered His own Son as a sacrifice for us.
Whoever puts his trust in Christ, whoever immerses himself under the blood of Calvary's Lamb, the perfect Lamb of God, is purified from all defilement and needs no further cleansing. William Cowper rightly wrote, ‘There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.’ The blood of Christ washes away sin, and sinners are restored into union with God and their souls forever watered by the water of life. The Apostle John gives us a glimpse of future realities regarding those whose sins have been washed by the blood of the Lamb of God, when he writes in Revelation 7:14-17, “They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and He who sits on the throne will dwell over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Only the precious and unstained blood of God’s Son can satisfy the wrath of God. Therefore the record of debts of unrepentant sinners remains and their end is destruction. Unless we turn to Christ the Fountain of Living Waters and believe that He died for our sins, we can never be delivered from the wrath of God. Unless we acknowledge our need of Christ as Savior and submit to His lordship, we can never taste the living water. Christ is the Fountain of Living Waters, the One who gives “to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” (Revelation 21:6), so that they may live and never see the pit. Anyone who turns to the Son of God in repentance and faith drinks of the river of the water of life and thirsts no more.
Man’s only hope is Christ, the Fountain of Living Waters. All those who do not turn to Him remain unclean and dead. They shall be gathered like dead branches and thrown into the hell of fire. For the day is coming, when the Lord will return and rid the earth of all that is unclean, detestable or false. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment”, declares the Lord in Revelation 21:6. But all those who cling to their evil ways and refuse to plunge beneath the fountain that flowed from Immanuel’s veins shall not drink of the water of life. They will be cut off; their portion shall be in the lake of fire. Jeremiah 17:13 reads, “O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be put to shame; those who turn away from You shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the Fountain of Living Water.”
To anyone who has not yet put their trust in Christ, I say: tarry no more! For the day of the wrath of God the Almighty is near. Run to Him now without delay. For today is the day of salvation. The arm of the LORD is stretched out, holding the cup of His grace, and His sweet voice is crying out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). This offer is to everyone who thirsts, that is, anyone who recognizes their sinfulness and unworthiness, and totally relies on the merit of the Savior Christ. He graciously waters the souls of those who turn to Him; He gives them access to the water of life.
Will you deny your soul such a precious drink? Why do you condemn your soul to drought while there is a free gift of wine and milk prepared for you? Do not harden your heart any longer, for the King Himself, Lord of heaven and earth, is calling you today, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). Run to Him, and He will purify you from all your impurities and idols and give you the water of life. Do not delay! Run to Him now and receive healing for your soul. God has prepared the cup of His wrath for anyone who rejects the water of life. Those who reject the living water will drink the cup of gall and stagger. They shall be cast into the bottomless pit; there they will gnash their teeth in agony, for deep and endless their torment shall be. Come now to the Fountain of Living Waters, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and He will give you the water of life without payment. He will revive your soul and “make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail” (Isaiah 58:11). Turn to Him now and you shall thirst no more.