Waterless Springs
The ongoing election cycle reminds us that promising the world and promoting freedom to do whatever you want is the way to draw a crowd. Do so loudly and fill it with boasting, and there is a good chance you will win a prominent position. This is an ugly thing in the realm of politics—how much more when it is found in the Church. Like a man lost in the desert, millions of people with thirsty souls run to the preachers of empty promises. With such sweet sounding promises under the banner of "freedom," who wouldn't come? There is a special place in Hell for such preachers. And sadly people do come to them, but water is not to be found. Perhaps there is a sip, but it only serves to mock the depths of thirst in their souls. There is only one way to never be thirsty again. Jesus, and not a charlatan, must invite you. And Jesus' invitation does not draw people from discontentment to a spiritual version of sexual freedom, but from sexual depravity to worship and becoming a temple for the Holy One. Here, and only here, will a person find the Spring that will never leave him thirsty again.
notes
Main point summary
False teachers are empty in their promises of sexual freedom. This is no small thing—Hell has a spot prepared for them.
Discourse
editing
NT
2 Peter 2:17-22
esv
u These are waterless springs
and mists driven by a storm.
series
v For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
actionresult
For, w speaking loud boasts of folly,
they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely x escaping from those who live in error.
actionmanner
They promise them y freedom,
z but they themselves are slaves 1 of corruption.
For whatever overcomes a person,
to that he is enslaved.
conditional
ground
concessive
ideaexplanation
For if, a after they have escaped the defilements of the world b through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled in them
and overcome,
progression
temporal
c the last state has become worse for them than the first.
For d it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness
than after knowing it
to turn back from e the holy commandment delivered to them.
comparison
What the true proverb says has happened to them:
“The f dog returns to its own vomit,
and the sow, after washing herself,
returns to wallow in the mire.”
discourse
Look-up
OT
Proverbs 25:14
14 Like c clouds and wind without rain is a man who d boasts of a gift he does not give.
lookup
Look-up
John 4:1-26
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria 4 1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and b baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed c again for Galilee. 4 d And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field e that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, f wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 1 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, f “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” ( g For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you h living water .” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 i Are you greater than our father Jacob? j He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but k whoever drinks of the water that I will give him l will never be thirsty again . 1 The water that I will give him will become m in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life .” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, n give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, o call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands , and the one you now have is not your husband . What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that p you are q a prophet. 20 r Our fathers worshiped on s this mountain, but you say that t in Jerusalem is u the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, v “Woman, believe me, w the hour is coming when x neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 y You worship what you do not know; z we worship what we know, for z salvation is a from the Jews. 23 But b the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father c in spirit and d truth, for the Father e is seeking such people to worship him . 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that f Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, g he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, h “I who speak to you am he.”
John 7:37-39
Rivers of Living Water 37 y On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, z “ If anyone thirsts, let him a come to me and drink . 38 Whoever believes in me, b as 1 the Scripture has said, c ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of d living water .’” 39 Now e this he said about the Spirit , f whom those who believed in him were to receive, g for as yet the Spirit had not been h given, i because Jesus was not yet glorified.