He poureth out the streams that run among the hills, the torrents which rush adown the mountains, and the flowing rivers which enrich the plains. Conservative, but not too much depth. I think that Roman soldier meant well, at least well for a rough warrior with his little light and knowledge. Hail, everlasting King in heaven, thou dost admit to thy paradise whomsoever thou wilt! "The sea is his, and he made it," and all fountains and springs are of his digging. Of the many benefits we have in learning from Paul, a few stand out:1. His great love makes him thirst to have us much nearer than we are; he will never be satisfied till all his redeemed are beyond gunshot of thee enemy. We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of what the Church is to do throughout all generations. I am glad the world expects much from us, and watches us narrowly. The excitement of a great struggle makes men forget thirst and faintness; it is only when all is over that they come back to themselves and note the spending of their strength. . That thirst was caused, perhaps, in part by the loss of blood, and by the fever created by the irritation caused by his four grievous wounds. "His way was much rougher and darker than mine; Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?". He thirsts to bless you and to receive your grateful love in return; he thirsts to see you looking with believing eye to his fulness, and holding out your emptiness that he may supply it. He had no sooner said "I thirst," and sipped the vinegar, than he shouted, "It is finished"; and all was over: the battle was fought and the victory won for ever, and our great Deliverer's thirst was the sign of his having smitten the last foe. This is man's treatment of his Saviour. As you look at the cross upon his shoulders does it represent your sin? Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in that point our Lord was put to pain. He thirsted for water doubtless, but his soul was thirsty in a higher sense; indeed, he seems only to have spoken that the Scriptures might be fulfilled as to the offering him vinegar. You have blessed company; your path is marked with footprints of your Lord. I have shown you, believer, your position; let me now show you your service. Our Lord Jesus came forth, willing to be exposed to their scorn. I cannot give you more than a mere taste of this rich subject, but I have been most struck with two ways of regarding our Lord's last words. Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. We care, however, far more for the fact that he went forth carrying his cross upon his shoulders. Our Lord says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," that thirst being the result of sin in every ungodly man at this moment. Brother, thirst I pray you to have your workpeople saved. Let us magnify and bless our Redeemer's name. Our sinful tongues, blistered by the fever of passion, must have burned for ever had not his tongue been tormented with thirst in our stead. The great Surety says, "I thirst," because he is placed in the sinner's stead, and he must therefore undergo the penalty of sin for the ungodly. April 14th, 1878 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892). The utterance of "I thirst" brought out A TYPE OF MAN'S TREATMENT OF HIS LORD. The most Scriptural way to describe the sufferings of Christ is not by laboring to excite sympathy through highly-coloured descriptions of his blood and wounds. Jesus is therefore hunted out of the city, beyond the gate, with the will and force of his oven nation, but he journeys not against his own will; even as the lamb goeth as willingly to the shambles as to the meadow, so doth Christ cheerfully take up his cross and go without the camp. Shake off the thought, any of you who suppose that God will have pity on you because you have endured affliction. But ye ask me where is the spouse, the king's daughter fair and beautiful? Come, bring him your warm heart, and let him drink from that purified chalice as much as he wills. Either Christ must die for me, or else I must die for myself the second death; if he did not carry the curse for me, then on me must it rest for ever and ever. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Shall carnal appetites be indulged and bodies pampered when Jesus cried :I thirst"? For the thousands of eyes which shall gaze upon the youthful Prince, I offer the gaze of men and angels. Though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honor. How truly man he is; he is, indeed, "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," for he bears our infirmities. That little rising ground, which perhaps was called Golgotha, the place of a skull, from its somewhat resembling the crown of a man's skull, was the common place of execution. Well might the Master say, "Weep not for me, but for yourselves." Read Joo 15:7 bible commentary from Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible by Charles Haddon Spurgeon FREE on BiblePortal.com When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you; then remember, it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus? As not a bone of him shall be broken, so not a word shall be lost. Shall it ever be a hardship to be denied the satisfying draught when he said, "I thirst." He is indeed "Immanuel, God with us" everywhere. You have seen Jesus led away by his enemies; so shall you be dragged away by fiends to the place appointed for you. Every word, therefore, you see teaches us some grand fundamental doctrine of our blessed faith. Alas, man is the slave and the dupe of Satan, and a black-hearted traitor to his God. Oh I raise the question, and be not satisfied unless you can answer it most positively in the affirmative. It was pain that dried his mouth and made it like an oven, till he declared, in the language of the twenty-second psalm, "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws." Home; Origin; Birth; John; Acts; About; JOHN 19 COMMENTARY . I have heard sermons, and studied works by Romish writers upon the passion and agony, which have moved me to copious tears, but I am not clear that all the emotion was profitable. We are in the world, but we must never be of it; we are not to be secluded like monks in the cloister, but we are to be separated like Jews among Gentiles; men, but not of men; helping, aiding, befriending, teaching, comforting, instructing, but not sinning either to escape a frown or to win a smile. Even if I may not come at him, yet shall I be full of consolation, for it is heaven to thirst after him, and surely he will never deny a poor soul liberty to admire him, and adore him, and thirst after him." I differ from them greatly, but I will say this, that next to the actual enjoyment of my Lord's presence I love to hunger and to thirst after him. Are you so frozen at heart that not a cup of cold water can be melted for Jesus? He derived spiritual refreshment from the winning of that women's heart to himself. Do not let the picture vanish till you have satisfied yourselves once for all that Christ was here the substitute for you. 29. And said, Hail, King of the Jews!_ O my hearers, beware of praising Jesus and denying his atoning sacrifice. Did I not describe last Sabbath the knotted scourges which fell upon the Saviours back? Always was he in harmony with himself, and his own body was always expressive of his soul's cravings as well as of its own longings. You and I have nothing else to preach. It was a confirmation of the Scripture testimony with regard to man's natural enmity to God. They are these Weep not because the Savior bled, but because your sins made him bleed. Mark you, the ransom of men was all paid by Christ; that was redemption by price. There is a fulness of meaning in each utterance which no man shall be able fully to bring forth, and when combined they make up a vast deep of thought, which no human line can fathom. He cried, ere he bowed the head which he had held erect amid all his conflict, as one who never yielded, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." What knocks he for? We do not thirst after the old manner wherein we were bitterly afflicted, for he hath said, "He that drinketh of this water shall never thirst:" but now we covet a new thirst. Neither in torture of body nor in sadness of heart are we deserted by our Lord; his line is parallel with ours. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible. I have already told you that such was our Lord's mystical desire; let it be ours also. You have, then, no true sympathy for Christ if you have not an earnest sympathy with those who would win souls for Christ. And yet he placed himself for our sakes into a position of shame and suffering where none would wait upon him, but when he cried, "I thirst," they gave him vinegar to drink. Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands. Weep not for him, but for these. "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" this is the Lord Jesus in kingly power, opening with the key of David a door which none can shut, admitting into the gates of heaven the poor soul who had confessed him on the tree. These solemn sentences have shone like the seven golden candlesticks or the seven stars of the Apocalypse, and have lighted multitudes of men to him who spake them. II. A few times the sun will go up and down the hill; a few more moons will wax and wane, and then we shall receive the glory. "And they took Jesus, and led him away." Let each of us say "Tis all my business here below To cry, Behold the Lamb!" John 1:30-31. Will your Prince be decorated with honors? Nor is this all. The voice of sympathy prevailed over the voice of scorn. So he was thirsting then. The arrow which has lately pierced thee, my brother, was first stained with his blood. He pitied the sufferer, but he thought so little of him that he joined in the voice of scorn. That man is a fool and deserves no pity, who purposely excites the disgust of other people. It was most fitting that every word of our Lord upon the cross should be gathered up and preserved. A strong emphasis in Spurgeon's preaching was God's grace and sovereignty over man's helpless state. Rutherford says, "Whenever Christ gives us a cross, he cries, 'Halves, my love.'" "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." But what shall be your cry when you shall say, "Good God! It is said that a German regiment was at that time stationed in Judea, and I should not wonder if they were the lineal ancestors of those German theologians of modern times who have mocked the Savior, tampered with revelation, and cast the vile spittle of their philosophy into the face of truth. Even as the hart panteth after the water brooks, our souls would thirst after thee, O God. 19:1-18 Little did Pilate think with what holy regard these sufferings of Christ would, in after-ages, be thought upon and spoken of by the best and greatest of men. "Weep for yourselves," says Christ, "rather than for me." This was the act too of man at his best, when he is moved to pity; for it seems clear that he who lifted up the wet sponge to the Redeemer's lips, did it in compassion. Christ did but transfer to Simon the outward frame, the mere tree; but the curse of the tree, which was our sin and its punishment, rested on Jesus' shoulders still. Secondly, we shall regard these words, "I thirst," as THE TOKEN OF HIS SUFFERING SUBSTITUTION. Bearing upon his back the sin of all his people, the offering goes without the camp. "'Twere you my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were; Each of my grimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear. God forbid! Dear friends, we must remember that, although no one died on the cross with Christ, for atonement must be executed by a solitary Savior, yet another person did carry the cross for Christ; for this world, while redeemed by price by Christ, and by Christ alone, is to be redeemed by divine power manifested in the sufferings and labors of the saints as well as those of Christ. "I thirst, but not as once I did, The vain delights of earth to share; Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there. I invite you to meditate upon the true humanity of our Lord very reverently, and very lovingly. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was born in Essex, England. Commentators like Thomas Manton and John Calvin are represented in this series. He would have sacrificed himself to save his countrymen, so heartily did he desire their eternal welfare. Beware of rendering him homage and dishonouring his name at the same time. Oh! Let this mind be in you also. John 19:16 . Justice must fly the field lest it be severe to so deserving a being; as for punishment, it must not be whispered to his ears polite. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. With "I thirst" the evil is destroyed and receives its expiation. There were two other cross-bearers in the throng; they were malefactors; their crosses were just as heavy as the Lord's, and yet, at least, one of them had no sympathy with him, and his bearing the cross only led to his death, and not to his salvation. We thought sometimes that we loved him as we heard the story of his death, but we did not change our lives for his sake, nor put our trust in him, and so we gave him vinegar to drink. You may think that this remark is not needed; but I have met with one or two cases where it was required; and I have often said I would preach a sermon for even one person, and, therefore, I make this remark, even though it should rebuke but one. 1. I saw the other day the emblem of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and if I carry it a little beyond the artist's intention the symbol may set forth appetite swallowing up itself. The more manifestly there shall be a great gulf between the Church and the world, the better shall it be for both; the better for the world, for it shall be thereby warned; the better for the Church, for it shall be thereby preserved. O thou blessed Master, if we are indeed nailed up to the tree with thee, give us a thirst after thee with a thirst which only the cup of "the new covenant in thy blood" can ever satisfy. Some of those whom we loved very dearly we have seen quite unable to help themselves; the death sweat has been upon them, and this has been one of the marks of their approaching dissolution, that they have been parched with thirst, and could only mutter between their half-closed lips, "Give me to drink." wherein we see the Son of man in the gentleness of a son caring for his bereaved mother. "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." The sinful find our conversation distasteful; in our pursuits the carnal have no interest; things dear to us are dross to worldlings, while things precious to them are contemptible to us. What was he looking for from his vineyard and its winepress? II. sinner, if God hides his face from Christ, how much less will he spare you! It is almost done, thou Christ of God; thou hast almost saved thy people; there remaineth but one thing more, that thou shouldst actually die, and hence thy strong desire to come to the end and complete thy labour. Perhaps, dear sister, you carry about with you a gnawing disease which eats at your heart, but Jesus took our sicknesses, and his cup was more bitter than yours. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and resting live. The words, "I thirst," are a common voice in death chambers. The power to suffer for another, the capacity to be self-denying even to an extreme to accomplish some great work for God this is a thing to be sought after, and must be gained before our work is done, and in this Jesus is before us our example and our strength. 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