God is called “the Spring of Living Water.” A spring is always fresh, always new, and it brings water, which is required for life. God is our real Life Source, and also the source of all pure refreshment and satisfaction.
When we turn away from the Lord, we turn from our real source of life. There is no other source of life, refreshment, and satisfaction like Jesus. Anything else we turn to is a “broken cistern.” It’s not a spring of living water, where the water is always fresh and new, it’s a cistern that is broken, so it can’t hold water.
And it’s not just a broken cistern; it’s an empty cistern. All of Satan’s promises are empty. We could write over the top of pornography, sexual impurity, and lust, the words “Broken Cisterns!” They don’t hold water. They can’t provide life or real refreshment or satisfaction, no matter how they are marketed by the evil one.
Adam and Eve discovered that the forbidden fruit that held the promise of “making one wise” actually made them foolish. Satan said that the forbidden fruit would make them like God, but it actually made them like Satan-full of pride and cast down. They viewed that forbidden fruit as a thrill, as containing life, but the reality is it brought death, not only to themselves but to the whole world. It was a broken cistern as are all of Satan’s lies.
Today we’re looking at the need to abide in Christ daily, even moment by moment, and we’re going to be studying John chapter 15. For if we remain in Christ, our Source of life, we experience fullness and satisfaction, and our thirst is quenched continually. “The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted” (Psalm 104:16).
This chapter is all about remaining in Jesus, learning to abide in Him, to dwell in Him. Jesus removed your sins through His death on the cross that you might live in Him and He in you. If you ever are to overcome sexual impurity, it will be through abiding in Jesus. So for the next few lessons, we are going to study this vital truth. “Lord, help us to learn how to abide in You!”
John 15:1, 4-5 NIV “I am the true Vine, and my Father is the gardener. (4) Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the Vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (5) “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Question 4. Jesus is speaking in John 15. What does He call Himself?