innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” You will note that although He is speaking of the Holy Spirit, it is He Himself Who is the center of the picture. “ If any man thirst, let him come unto ME . . . he that be lieveth on ME . . . This spake HE of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that JESUS was not yet glorified.” He stands among us now. He has not departed. Still His invitation holds; He makes it a matter of thirsting, coming, drinking, believing, overflowing. Are you a dried-up Christian? Does it take all the grace you can get hold of to keep you going so that there is no blessing for others? You have only to come to Him and to drink, but He conditions it all on an “ I f ’ . . . “ IF ANY MAN THIRST.” How many times He said, “ IF ANY MAN . . .” ! I suppose that a minister could preach for a year on the “ IF ANY MAN ’S” in the Gospels. You must thirst. You must want to be Spirit-filled as the hart panteth after the water-brooks. Thirsting is not just casually wanting a drink of water. When you really thirst, no one will have to beg you to drink when water can be had. And when you thirst for the fulness of the Spirit, no preacher will have to stand at the front of a church pleading with you to come and drink. Come confessing and forsaking your sins. Come acknowledging that you have not been glorifying Jesus Christ in your life, in your ministry, in your church. Come resolved by Divine grace, from here on out, to magnify Him whether by life or by death, whatever it means, whatever it costs. Then drink, receive, believe, and leave the wilderness of “ NOT YET” for the Promised Land of the life over flowing.
a living, or are you out to glorify your Lord? Paul wrote, “We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” The preacher is not a church flunky. He is the servant of the people FOR JESUS’ SAKE, not primarily for the people’s sake but for Christ’s sake. I have read somewhere of a church where a large pic ture of Christ hung in the back of the pulpit. One Sunday morning the minister was late entering the pulpit. A little girl asked her mother, “Where is the man who stands so you can’t see Jesus?” Alas, in a way far more serious than she intended, a preacher can do just that. But ministers are not the only ones who do just that. All of us do that when we do not glorify our Lord in the power of the Spirit. Our text speaks of Pentecost: “The Holy Ghost was not yet given . . .” Dr. Graham Scroggie says, “ The trouble and tragedy is that the church has been content to live between Easter and Pente cost, on the right side of justification and the wrong side of sanctification, on the right side of pardon and the wrong side of power.” Let me ask every Christian, “ Are you Spirit-filled?” I do not ask, “Are you perfect? Are you all that you want to be?” I am not talking of some queer emotional experience. I am asking, “ Are you living in the blessing of that which is the duty and privilege of every Christian but which is the actual experience of a comparatively few?” What is your honest answer? Must you say, “ Not yet . . .” ? Our text is part of that glorious passage in which our Lord stands on the great day of the feast and cries, “ If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from his
American Sunday School Union Back to the Bible Bible Fellowship Hour Bible Institute Hour Bible Study Hour Challenge of the Orient Christ Crusaders Cup of Cold Water Ministry
First Baptist Church of Downey First Baptist Church of Van Nuys First Baptist Church of West Los Angeles
Glad Tidings Grace Notes Haven of Rest
Hour of Decision Hour of Destiny Message of Israel Messianic Hour Morning Chapel Hour Old Fashioned Revival Hour People's Gospel Hour Radio Evangelistic Crusades The Sower
For Further Information Tear Out and Mail to K B B I 558 South Hope Street, Los Angeles 17, Calif. NAME .................................................................................................... ADD RESS .................................................................................................................................. C ITY .......................................................... State ................................. □ Send Free Booklet, "What is F.M." □ Send Complete KBBI Program Log □ Send Descriptive Brochure of FM Sets Available through Biola Bookroom
Verse by Verse Voice of Calvary Voice of Revival Word of Life
REACH ING A L L OF SOUTHERN CA ILFORN IA W ITH THE BEST IN F.M. LISTENING . . . .
26
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Annual report