If Anyone Thirsts

Well, it's hard to believe, and I think this is a cliché at the feast, it's hard to believe that we're here on the seventh day already. It seems literally just like last night that we greeted everyone who was here for opening night and we began the feast. The time flies by and it's a joy to be with all of you. It's a joy, I hope, for all of us to be with each other during these feast days and to enjoy God's Holy Spirit and just being immersed among people who believe in Him and who live His way of life. So, this is the seventh day of the feast. Tomorrow is the eighth day, as Mr. Hopper mentioned. We'll have services in both the in the morning and the afternoon tomorrow.

But as we come into this last day of the feast of tabernacles, when we picture this in the time setting of the millennium, we've come to the end of the millennium. And by this time, mankind has been living under Christ's rule for a thousand years and the world has seen and experienced a way of life, peace, joy, rejuvenation, restoration for all those years. So, when we come to the end of the millennium, we find a time or we should find a time when all mankind has really come to love and appreciate God's way of life. Let me ask you a question here as we begin this morning.

What does the pool of Siloam have to do with the Feast of Tabernacles?

Let's go back to John 9 and look at the account that you're all very familiar with, with the pool of Siloam. John 9 and verse 1. After Christ has had a confrontation with the Pharisees, it says in verse 1, as he passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth, and the disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, Christ says, I am the light of the world.

When he said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated, sent. Jesus Christ sent the man to the pool of Siloam to complete the healing that he began, just like Jesus Christ was sent to us, so that the healing and the reconciliation of the world might occur. So he sent him to the pool of Siloam. The man went and washed and came back seeing. And from that, many people wanted to doubt what happened to him, but he was resolute in his belief that it was Jesus Christ who had healed him. On the seventh day of the feast, there was a ceremony that occurred in ancient Jerusalem when they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Actually, it occurred all seven days of the feast. They would take an urn and they would go to the pool of Siloam. And they would fill that urn with water. And then they would march back from that pool to the temple. And then they would pour that urn on the temple. They did that each of the first six days of the feast. And as they did that, they recited Isaiah 12 verses 1 through 6. You don't need to turn there, but I'll read that to you. They would have the urn. They would march back through the city. They would go to the temple and they would pour that water. And as they did that, they would recite these verses. In that day you will say, O Lord, I will praise you. Though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away and you comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For Yah, the eternal, is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. Verse 3 says, Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

And in that day you will say, it goes on, verse 4, Praise the Lord, call upon His name. Declare His deeds among the peoples. Make mention that His name is exalted. Sing to Him, for He has done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst.

So picture yourself there on each day of the feast in Jerusalem. When Christ was there, alive with them, and they went through the city and they did this. One time for each of the six days, and then on the seventh day they would march around the altar seven times before they would pour the water on the temple. Seven, of course, is the number of completion. It's fitting that on the seventh day of the feast, as the millennium was being pictured to be completed in that phase of God's plan for earth and mankind was completed, they would do that and then they would pour the water out on the temple. Over in John 7, John 7, as Christ was in Jerusalem observing the Feast of Tabernacles, John 7 verse 37, as he watched the ceremony. And as they went through this process, it says in John 7, 37, on the last day, that great day of the feast, the day here at the seventh day that we're on, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of living water. Can you imagine the impact that it had on the people when they saw that ceremony seven days in a row? And as it was completed that seventh day, Jesus Christ stood up and said those words. For many of them, it resonated. They understood what he was saying. He was the river, or he was the source of the water that would bring life. He was the source of the water that brings all those elements that we know that the physical water brings in our life, so much more importantly, the spiritual water that we receive. And it's interesting as you read through the ensuing verses, some believed. Some of them received those words immediately, and they knew this is indeed the Messiah that has been sent to us. But others who heard the same thing, who had and knew what he was saying, wanted to find out. They wanted to say, well, he didn't come from exactly where we thought he would come. Sometimes people receive, and they receive, and they believe, and they live by it. Other times, some just want to doubt and look for reasons not to believe.

Back a few chapters in John 4, Christ, when he was encountering a woman from Samaria, addressed these waters again that he stood and talked about on the seventh day of the feast. In John 4, you know the story. He comes to the well, and he addresses the woman that's there. She's surprised that he would even talk to him because the Jews didn't speak to the Samaritans in those days. But in verse 10, he references her to the spiritual waters in comparison to the physical waters that she was there to draw. John 4.10, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from him himself as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. It will satisfy just temporarily.

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

She didn't know exactly what he meant, but she said, Sir, give me that water.

Give me that water that satisfies forever, that water that completes.

The physical water is necessary for physical life. We have to have it, and if we go several days without it, we die. But the spiritual water that Christ brings brings eternal life. And on that last day of the feast, he said, If anyone thirsts, come to me. Let him receive of the water that Christ has to give. Water is throughout the Bible. You can find so many examples of water. Let's go back to one that has always been encouraging to me and kind of exciting as you read the verses. Let's go back to Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel 47 describes the chapters leading up to it, described the millennial temple that will be built in the millennium. In chapter 47, we have the encouraging words about one of the elements of that temple. In chapter 47, verse 1, it says, Then he brought me back, he brought me back to the door of the temple, and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple.

Faced east, the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the south side to the outer gateway that faces east, and there was water running out on the right side. And when the man went out on the east with the line in the sand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters. The water came up to my ankles. Again he measured a thousand.

And brought me through the waters. This time water came up to my knees. Again he measured a thousand cubits, and brought me through the water, and it came up to my waist.

And again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.

In verse 6, he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? And he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned there, along the bank of the river, there were many trees on one side and the other. And he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When its reaches the sea, its waters are healed.

Now remember before the millennium, when the trumpets sound, when the bull plagues are poured out, seas turn to blood, waters become bitter, fish die in the sea, sea life ceases. And so in the millennium, when this water comes out from the temple where God will dwell among men then, He dwells among us today in the temple that He's building in you and in His church, those waters heal. They bring back life. In those waters is life. In those waters, eternity resides. Verse 9, it'll be that every living thing that moves, wherever the river goes, will live. There will be a great multitude of fish, because these waters go there. They will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. Verse 12, along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will go all kinds of trees used for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their food, their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine. Those waters, those river, that river of flowing water, will bring life back to an earth that has seen the devastation and the result of man's way of life in the 6,000 years leading up to it.

Now, we know the properties of water and the importance of it in our physical lives. Let's do a, sometimes I call it, kind of a shotgun approach here, and go through a number of scriptures that pertain to water to give us a kind of a feel for that as we proceed. Let's turn back to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, many prophecies of the millennium in Isaiah. We find that to be the case in Isaiah 55 verse 1. Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance, incline your ear, and come to me, here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Christ says, come, come to those waters. When He shows you those waters, come to Him. Over in Isaiah 58 in verse 11, the chapter that talks about what our fasts should be like when we fast, how we would keep the Sabbath day in verse 13, but in the middle of chapter 58 in verse 11, it says this, The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought. He will strengthen your bones.

You will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Even in times of trouble, you're going to be strong. You won't be suffering with that drought because you have the waters of eternal life that God has given to you. And those waters bring about restoration, bring about building, bring about fertility, bring about growth. Verse 12, Those from among you will rebuild the old waste places. You'll raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. Those waters build, those waters grow and produce growth. Those waters are fertile.

Back in Isaiah 35, Isaiah 35, a picture of what the earth will be like in the millennium. Isaiah 35, verse 1, The wilderness of the wasteland will be glad for them.

The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It will blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy in singing. Verse 3, Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. We see the healing of the earth, and we see the healing of people. Say to those who are fearful hearted and who are troubled with that weakness, say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong. Don't fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. The eyes of the blind will be opened. The ears of the deaf will be unstopped. The lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. Healing waters, physical healing, spiritual healing, come from the waters that Christ has to offer. In Isaiah 66, 25, you don't need to turn there. It says, nothing will hurt or destroy in my holy kingdom, in my holy mountain. Safety, peace. And over in Psalm 46, we read that the city of God, which defines the city of God in Isaiah 60, verse 14, as us, those who believe in Him. But Isaiah 46 in verse 4 says, there's a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God. These waters bring about everything and every good attribute that mankind has ever wanted. And they're available to you and available to me, and will be made available to everyone who has ever lived. Christ says, come to those waters. Ephesians 5, verse 26, tells us that those waters sanctify us, cleanse us, they get us ready. They eliminate the pollutants that are in our lives and in our minds that keep us from Christ, that keep us from everything that mankind wants, but that only Christ through the waters that He gives and the waters of His Holy Spirit can bring.

When Christ returns and He subdues the kings of the earth, when His government rules, when people go to the mountain of the house of the Lord, as we sang in one of the hymns here this morning, and His ways are taught and His paths are followed, rivers of living water will flow.

In Joel 2, 28, Christ says that in that day He will pour out His Spirit in all flesh. He'll pour it out just like we would pour water into a glass. Everyone will have it. And Isaiah 11, verse 9, says, in those days the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

It will be everywhere. A land that is absolutely beyond our even our comprehension to understand, live in. A land of peace, joy, and all those fruits of the Spirit that you read about back in Galatians 5, 22. Those will all be there. That will be that land. People that live at that time should be excited. They should know God. They should be rejoicing daily, just as we do, if we really are letting God's mind be in us. If we really are living by His Holy Spirit. And we feel the joy, even in a world that doesn't know what that means today, because we live in a world that's full of polluted waters. But in those days the waters will be clean. Just as the water that flows and washes and cleanses us, removes the pollutants from our mind. But at the end of that millennium, we find something that's kind of shocking. Let's go back to Revelation 20. Out of an idyllic setting, an idyllic world that hasn't known war, hasn't known upset but has known nothing but peace, love, joy, patience, building, restoration, and all the good things that come from the Spirit, we find something in Revelation 20 that should shock us. Verse 7, when a thousand years have expired, when a thousand years are done, Satan will be released from his prison. And he will go out to deceive the nations, where it's in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. After a thousand years of love, joy, peace, God will let Satan loose. And he will go out to do what Satan does, deceive. Out of a veritable garden of Eden that people have lived in, where they don't know the things that we see every single day as we watch the news. He'll go out and he'll begin to deceive people. His Spirit will be allowed to go out to these people again to see, do they really choose God, or will they be received? Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden. You wouldn't think they would be able to be deceived. They were. And the people at the end time, at the end of the millennium, are as well.

Notice it says, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

Several people, many people, not just a couple here and there, but a good portion, are deceived by Satan even after a thousand years. And it says in verse 9, they went up on the breath of the earth, they surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

War. The thought of war at the end of the millennium. How could people, how could people who have experienced a thousand years of God's way of life be deceived? How could they let this happen to them? And if it could happen to them, could it happen to us?

We'll come back to that question in a moment. But let me draw, let's go back to Ezekiel 38, and we'll see a similar battle that occurs at the beginning of the millennium. This one is at the end of the millennium, we know. But Ezekiel 38, at the beginning, we find there's war that's being waged even after Christ returns and conquers the nations.

Ezekiel 38 and verse 1 says, The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Now, if you look in the Bible commentary that's online at ucgwww.ucg.org, you find the likely place there are all these nations that are listed here in Ezekiel 38 are. And you find it's not just a few people, it's the peoples of China, it's the peoples of India and Pakistan, Russia, and all those areas that are up north, as it says here in this chapter, a great group of people who still have thoughts in their minds that haven't been cleansed, haven't been purified with the water that is available to them.

Just like you and I aren't instantaneously made perfect when we receive the Holy Spirit of baptism, we spend the rest of our lives allowing God to cleanse us and purify us, and making the choices as he shows us those sins to repent of them and remove them from our lives. These people, these people decide, they do what the people of the world do. They decide they're going to go to war against Jerusalem, an unwalled city.

That's there because there should be a time of peace. But let's look at a few of the things here just to see that this is at the beginning of the kingdom. In verse 4, it says, I will turn you around, you peoples, who are going to war against me.

I'll put hooks into your jaws. I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. All of them handling swords. Yet, Isaiah 2 verse 4 tells us that in the millennium they're going to take those swords and beat them into plowshares.

That does occur, but it hasn't occurred yet. Here at the beginning of the millennium, those tools and those instruments of war are still available. And this group of nations still has thoughts in their minds, as we read the other day in verse 8.

They allow those thoughts to develop, and then they devise an evil, evil plan. They'll go against the city of God. They want what the people of the world want today. James 2 tells us, where do wars come from? They come from our own lust because we want what others have, our own desires that haven't been washed out yet by the Holy Spirit, and at this time have not yet occurred.

But certainly by the end of a thousand years, you would think that the people alive on the earth would have these desires eliminated and see the difference between right and wrong. Over in verse 14 of the same chapter, says, Therefore, Son of Man, prophesy, say to God, Thus says the Lord God, On that day when my people Israel dwells safely, will you not know it? Oh, they'll know it, and they'll look at it humanly and take their easy prey. We can go in and we can take what they have. Verse 15, Then you will come from your place out of the far north.

In Revelation 20, we find that these people come from four corners of the earth, not just out of the far north. You will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against my people Israel like a cloud to cover the land.

It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against my land so that the nations may know me.

God will allow it to happen because they're going to have to learn again. Sometimes we can be thick-headed, and it takes God two, three, four or more times to get a message true to us what you're doing is not right. And here's the nations of the world who have been subdued, decimated by Christ and in the day of the Lord. And here, early in the millennium, they have a thought and they go to war again. We can be pretty hard-headed, pretty stubborn at times. God says He'll allow them to do that, but when He's done, the nations will know Him. Again, He will show His strength, and He will show that He is God. And so we find at the beginning of the millennium, and at the end of the millennium, there's war. War. War. How does that happen? Why do people do that? How is it possible the people who have been enlightened, who have received the water of the Spirit, could go to war and do the opposite of what God's will is, even after they've had a thousand years of peace?

Can that happen to us? Sadly, we all know people that that's happened to. We all know people who have tasted the good way of life, who have tasted the fruits of God's Spirit, and somewhere along the line, they let it go. There's any number of reasons that they had. Maybe times just were too long. They wondered and they began to doubt, like the people who heard Christ say on that last day of the feast. Is He really returning? Did He really mean what He said? Some allowed the cares of the world to overcome them, and those things became more important to them than God. And thereby, they disregarded the first commandment that says, there is no other God besides the God we worship.

He's the priority. And while He allows us and wants us to live in a world and prosper and do well, nothing more important than Him, nothing more important in our minds than His work, just like for Jesus Christ when He was on earth. Let's go back to John 7.

John 7, verse 37.

And look again at the words that Jesus Christ said on that last day of the feast. Verse 37, He said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. That's where the waters flow from.

It's from Jesus Christ that we have even the hope of eternal life. In Him, all things consist.

In verse 38, He says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water. He who believes in Me.

You know, believe is a word that we kick around in the English language, and it has any number of meanings that can be from a very deep meaning to a very shallow meaning when we just say, I believe you in something nominal.

But when you read the Bible and you look back into some of the words that have been translated, and this is one of them, the word believe, we get a deeper meaning of what it means when it says, believe. When Christ says, believe in Me, He just doesn't mean for you to say, on a surface level, yes, I believe you existed. Yes, I believe you are the Son of Man. There's many, many in the world around us, in the religions, to say, all you have to do is believe. Just admit Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Well, that's very easy to do. If you're just a logical person and you look at the prophecies of the Old Testament, you see the way He lived, you can say, I believe. Is that what Jesus Christ meant? Did He mean, all you have to do is believe and say that I exist? Or did He mean something much deeper? Because He says, He who believes in Me out of His heart will flow rivers of living water, the same rivers of living water that flow from Him. But when you look at a number of people in society that say, I believe in Christ, and we hear what flows from them and what they believe, it's far different than what Jesus Christ said. Far different from the way He lived His life. They say one thing, but they do another.

The Greek word that's translated, believes, here in verse 38, and in a lot of the places in the New Testament, we'll see another one a little later as well, is the Greek word pistoio. P-I-S-T-E-U-O.

And it has a three-pronged meaning. When you look through some of the lexicons and the dictionaries, it's not just believe as in, I believe you're going to get here when you say you're going to get here, if someone tells you that this afternoon. Let me read what Vines has to say about what pistoio or pistoio means. The first part says, when Jesus Christ said, He who believes in me, He was talking about a firm conviction producing a full acknowledgement of God's revelation of truth.

A full acknowledgement of His revelation of truth. You remember what truth is, right?

John 17 verse 17, your word is truth. Every word that's written in there is what we live by. Every word there is truth, the only source of unaltered and pure truth in the world today.

So when we believe Christ, it's not just a matter of just saying, I believe that you are the Messiah that was sent. Of course we believe that. But what He's talking about here is, if you believe me, if you acknowledge that I, Christ would say, am the source of truth, that I'm the source of waters that heal, I'm the source of waters that bring life, I'm the source of waters that will restore, I'm the source of the waters that bring everlasting life, and not just the physical that the physical waters do. When we say we believe, we believe in what He said and the truth that He brought to this world. That's one thing the fine says, but that's only the first part.

If we know that, if we acknowledge that this is truth, that this is the Word of God, then believe means, in addition, we personally surrender to Him.

You heard Mr. Cowan talk about personally surrendering to God when we understand the love that He is. If we believe, if we really believe His Word is truth, then we really have no choice but to surrender to Him, because the only way to eternal life, the only way to what He promised is through Him. Not through another way, only this way. Let's go back to John 1. John 1 and verse 12.

As John opens his gospel, he talks about Jesus Christ and establishes that He was God made flesh.

And verse 12 says, As many as received Him, as many as who received what He had to say, didn't reject Him, but received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.

Come to the waters, he says, receive Me. And to those that receive Him, He gave the right to be the children of God, to those who believe, Greek word, pistoio, in His name, to those who believe in His name, to those who receive Him and believe and accept everything that He said is truth, and that allow those waters to permeate their minds, those waters to permeate their souls, those waters to permeate their hearts.

As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. He gave them life. He gives them life.

So, when we believe, we fully acknowledge in heart, mind, and soul, this is the truth of God.

There is no other truth. Everything that is in this word that you have in your lap is truth.

And when we believe that, we surrender to Him. No longer our will, no longer our ideas, His way, His will, His ideas, His way of life, not ours. And we spend the rest of our life in that surrender process, learning and letting His water flowing through our minds change us, build us, grow us, develop us into who He wants us to become. And when we do that, then there is a conduct, a behavior that we have that is inspired by that surrender. The way that we live is different than the way it lived before we came to believe.

The way we live is evident that there has been a change to all our friends around us.

Peter talks about that. Your friends will say, what happened to you? You wanted to go to all these things before. You wanted to go out and revel like the rest of us. But now, as the Holy Spirit leads us, guides us, cleanses us, changes us, directs us in the way of all truth, we no longer want what the world wants, but we want what God wants. And we want to please Him. So if we truly believe, if we truly believe, as Jesus Christ said in John 7, verse 37, and so many other places, there's a whole difference in our lives that come about. It's not just a surface belief. It's not just doing a few things and thinking that that's all it takes. It's not just coming to Sabbath services each week and saying, that's enough. It's not just tithing and saying, that's enough. It's not just coming to the Holy Days and saying, that's enough. It's a whole change of life. So that if you, the way you work, the way you interact with your neighbors, the way you interact with the people that you do business with, it's different than the way you were before. If you truly believe, and it's only those who truly believe, who really understand this Word as truth, who really surrender to God, who really allow those waters to come in and permeate our heart, mind, and soul. Not just one of those, but all three of them.

It's those who will be called the children of God. It will be those who Christ receives and who He gives eternal life to. So we ask the question of the people who lived for a thousand years, and that's a thousand years expire, and Satan is released. And he goes about deceiving. The thing that he does best, he deceives the whole world. He leads the armies to fight against Jesus Christ Himself as He returns to earth. What did they learn during that thousand years? Did they live the way of life surface because they saw that, yes, when we obey, God provides. Did they really allow that way of life to permeate? And that belief to permeate them, so that when the times of deception came, they were able to say, absolutely not. Who I am and what God has made me to be is to reject those ways. Only His ways will I follow. You know, if Christ said in the very first thing in the Olivet prophecy, take heed that no one deceive you. Take heed that no one deceive you.

There's only one way we're not going to be deceived when the time of the end of this world occurs.

The people at the end of the millennium, somewhere along the line, didn't believe the way that Jesus Christ asked us to believe, that we would totally surrender to His will, totally surrender, and allow those waters that bring life to permeate every aspect of us. And on that last day of the feast, when He poured out those waters, or when that water pouring ceremony was going on, there were people there who realized He is the Son of God. He is the Messiah we've been waiting for.

He brought the answers to what people needed. Let's go back to 2 Thessalonians and look at another thing that perhaps the people at the end of the millennium didn't have as part of their character. We need to certainly believe, and in the sense of the word, that Christ instructs us to believe. But in 2 Thessalonians 2, we find the coming of the lawless one, the man who will lead people astray. Let's pick it up in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8. It says, then, the lawless one. The one who says, you know, there's no law that governs what you have to do. Whatever you want to do, just follow your conscience. Do whatever is right to you. Disregard the law of God. In fact, that one will blaspheme God.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. As you read in Revelation 19, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying lenders. He'll use whatever it takes to get people's attention.

He'll use power, dramatic signs, to lead people astray, or he will just hone in on a little aspect of your personality or a weakness that you have. Anything it takes to get you to divert from God's way just a little bit. You don't have to full out reject God. Just do things a little differently than He wants you to do. Forgetting that in Deuteronomy 12, verse 32, it says, you don't turn to the right, you don't turn to the left, you don't add to, and you don't take away, you do exactly what God says. He is the supreme authority. He is the one through whom eternal life comes, and there is no way other than through Jesus Christ. Anyway, Satan will come with power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish.

Certainly those at the end of the millennium who come against God perish. He consumes them with fire. But why did they perish? Because they didn't receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.

They didn't receive the love of the truth, and for this reason, verse 11, God will send them strong delusion that they'll believe the lie, that they may all be condemned who didn't believe, Greek word pistoio, who didn't believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

They didn't love the truth. Now, it doesn't say they didn't know the truth. They did know the truth. They did know the truth.

At the end of the millennium, the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. They know the truth. They've been taught it. They can recite it, and they can repeat back what the law of God is, just like I hope every one of us can and are growing to understand and can repeat back, yes, this is the way of life that God has and wants us to live.

And yet, God says they perish. They give up along the way. They fall prey to Satan's deception. They fall prey to their own desires. At the end of the millennium, they war when Satan appeals to their own lusts, and they look at what is going on in Jerusalem, and they say, you know what? We can go down and we can take that city and everything that's there can be ours after a thousand years of knowing God's truth, over a thousand years of being taught it, and there are whole lifetimes for those who are there at the end of the millennium. We've all been in God's church. We're all here because He's opened our minds, given us the knowledge, and we grow in that knowledge day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade. Knowing isn't enough.

Hearing isn't enough. Christ says they believe the lie. They believe Satan. When He is let loose, they're going to believe Him because they didn't love the truth.

The question for us is, do we love the truth? Not do we know the truth. Certainly, that's a question. We better know the truth, but do we love the truth?

When we believe, God wants us to believe with all our heart, mind, and soul.

And He wants us to love with all our heart. Love it. And all that that word, love, means.

And here in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, the Greek word for love in verse 10, is the word we're all familiar with. It's the word agape.

You know there are several words for love in the Greek language. There's philia, the brotherly love that we have for one another. Agape is a different type of love than philia.

It's a love that we exhibit to each other, whether we know each other or not.

It was read earlier in the week on Matthew 25, when Christ said, I know you because I see love in your heart. We read it, we sang it into Him this morning. I see that you have that love for your fellow man, just as Jesus Christ has love for all of mankind. He didn't come down to die just for a few. He came down to die for all mankind, that every single person might have the opportunity at eternal life, and that's what His will is. But He won't make us do His will. If we let Him develop His mind in us, He'll do it. He'll continue to pour in the Holy Spirit into our minds and into our hearts. If we let Him do that and show Him that's what we desire and choose by the way we live our lives, let me read you the meaning of the word agape. Agape is defined, and this comes from Vines as well, as an intelligent, purposeful attitude of esteem and devotion. An intelligent, purposeful attitude of esteem and devotion.

Notice that word attitude, how we conduct ourselves. We choose our attitudes.

God will lead our attitudes. The Holy Spirit will put the right attitude in us, but we can choose to be unhappy when He gives us every reason to be unhappy.

We can choose to take His blessings and turn them into curses if we want.

We can choose to ignore His working in our lives and satisfy ourselves or fool ourselves by thinking, ah, just because we do a few things along His way of life that we're living His way of life. He's not looking for surface. He's looking for heart, mind, and soul.

In secular Greek, it says, agape represents a love in which the mind analyzes and the will chooses the object to be loved.

Chooses to love. Chooses to love all mankind, even though many will hurt us. Many will betray us. Many will want to see us harmed just because of what we believe in the future. But chooses to love them no matter what, just as Jesus Christ chose to love every single man, woman, and child, even those that were there that day He was nailed to the stake.

And in love, He said, forgive them. They don't know what they do. Agape chooses the object to be loved. It's a deliberate, free act that is the decision of the subject. Your choice, my choice, I can choose not to love certain people.

I can choose to reject God's Spirit and what it wants to build in me. You can choose to reject portions of the truth that you simply don't want to or listen to. You can read through the Bible and say, not for me, but I'll do everything else and maybe fool yourself or let Satan deceive you into thinking. As long as you're doing most of it, God's okay with it. Not so. Heart, mind, and soul, all of you loving the truth, choosing to love it. A deliberate decision that what God says is going to be put into my life and then asking Him, make it part of me, make it part of my mind, make it part of my soul, make it part of my heart. And that's the prayer you'll ask every day of your life if you really want and if you really believe the gospel, if you really believe that Jesus Christ has invited you to come and receive the living waters that He has to offer. Choosing to love Him, to love Him. Choosing to love the truth and believing every word and allowing that belief to change the way you think, change the way you act, change the way you live your life.

The people at the end of the millennium, somewhere along the line, didn't fully believe or they simply didn't fully love the truth.

Those of you who may know people who used to sit here among us, somewhere along the line, they didn't come to love the truth. They knew the truth. They had the opportunity.

But somewhere along the line, they didn't love it. It wasn't a priority in their lives. They allowed cares of the world, cares of family, cares of just giving into their own nature. And maybe the attitudes they're very comfortable with, to take them away from the truth.

What is it? What is it that you love? Do you love the truth? Because we will need to love the truth if we're going to become children of God.

How might we know whether we love the truth?

Well, we can go back to John 7 and verse 37 and see what Christ said that day. John 7 and verse 37, on that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me and all that that means, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

He pours his spirit down into us, and if we're really receiving it, if we're really allowing it to permeate our hearts, minds, and souls, it will flow out of us.

He doesn't give us the water just so that we have it for ourselves and no one else. It'll be evident in what we think about and the way we act.

And what we choose to do with our lives, and as other people see us, they'll see something different. Just like the people that were alive back at the time of Jesus Christ saw something different about him. They knew he wasn't the typical Jew. But they chose to ignore it and make excuses.

If we're allowing and receiving God's Spirit, it'll flow out of us. It'll be the things that we think about, the things that we talk about. You know, Christ said that out of the heart comes the words of the mouth.

You'll know and others will know, what do you think about? Where is your priority? What is it that you that motivates you?

Let's go back to Proverbs 18.

Proverbs 18, verse 4.

The words of a man's mouth are deep waters.

The words of a man's mouth are deep waters.

The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.

Oh, we know where wisdom comes from begins with the fear of God.

We know that wisdom comes from learning but applying and making the choice in our lives to live those words.

And to love that truth as we see it develop in our lives. And then, understand when all the world lives by that way, what should be, and understanding that that's the only way that leads to an ideal life that we read about and we talk about in the Kingdom. Rivers of living water.

Christ talked about those on the last day of the feast. And at the end of the millennium, somehow the message hasn't still gotten through to some people alive at that time.

We have to let the message get through to us.

Every one of us wants every one of us in this room.

And the other people who God has called today to be part of that Kingdom. Every one of us, pray, that every single one of us will endure to the end.

Increasing in belief.

Increasing in the love of the truth. So when tough times come, we stand.

We stand because we absolutely believe in Jesus Christ. We absolutely believe that despite however horrific things look around us in the world, He is returning.

Because if we don't believe in Him, we will fall.

If we don't love the truth with all our heart, mind, and soul, we will fall.

Jesus Christ will give you that living water that He's already given you.

You need to allow Him to continue to develop that in you. Let's go to Revelation 22.

Revelation 22, verse 1.

He showed me, John writes, as revealed to him, He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits. Each tree, yielding its fruit every month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there will be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

They will have His name written because they have allowed Him to develop them that He can call them the children of God. As He leads them through life, and as they yield to Him, and surrender to Him totally.

Verse 17, The Spirit and the Bride of Christ say, Come, and let Him, let Him who hears say, Come, and let Him who thirsts, Come, whoever desires, let Him take the water of the life freely.

I pray that each one of you and all of us will always take the water of life that Christ gives us, and I let it permeate our hearts, minds, and souls.