Nick Roark's Blog, page 22

“Jesus said, ‘I thirst'” by Charles Spurgeon

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished,
said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’” –John 19:28

“Our Lord is the Maker of the ocean and the waters that are above the firmament: it is His hand that stays or opens the bottles of heaven, and sendeth rain upon the evil and upon the good.

“The sea is His, and He made it,” (Ps. 95:5) and all fountains and springs are of His digging. 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.

One would have said, ‘If He were thirsty He would not tell us, for all the clouds and rains would be glad to refresh His brow, and the brooks and streams would joyously flow at His feet.‘

And yet, though He was Lord of all He had so fully taken upon Himself the form of a servant and was so perfectly made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He cried with fainting voice, “I thirst.”

How truly man He is; He is, indeed, “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,” for He bears our infirmities.

How great the love which led Him to such a condescension as this! Do not let us forget the infinite distance between the Lord of glory on His throne and the Crucified dried up with thirst.

A river of the water of life, pure as crystal, proceedeth today out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and yet once He condescended to say, “I thirst.”

He is Lord of fountains and all deeps, but not a cup of cold water was placed to His lips. Oh, if He had at any time said, “I thirst,” before His angelic guards, they would surely have emulated the courage of the men of David when they cut their way to the well of Bethlehem that was within the gate, and drew water in jeopardy of their lives.

Who among us would not willingly pour out His soul unto death if He might but give refreshment to the Lord?

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.

Glorious stoop of our exalted Head! O Lord Jesus, we love Thee and we worship Thee! We would fain lift Thy name on high in grateful remembrance of the depths to which Thou didst descend!

While thus we admire His condescension let our thoughts also turn with delight to His sure sympathy: for if Jesus said, “I thirst,” then He knows all our frailties and woes.

The next time we are in pain or are suffering depression of spirit we will remember that our Lord understands it all, for He has had practical, personal experience of it.

Neither in torture of body nor in sadness of heart are we deserted by our Lord; His line is parallel with ours. The arrow which has lately pierced thee, my brother, was first stained with His blood.

The cup of which thou art made to drink, though it be very bitter, bears the mark of His lips about its brim.

He hath traversed the mournful way before thee, and every footprint thou leavest in the sodden soil is stamped side by side with His footmarks.

Let the sympathy of Christ, then, be fully believed in and deeply appreciated, since He said, “I thirst.”

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.

Now Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of His enduring the result of sin.

More solemn still is the reflection that according to our Lord’s own teaching, thirst will also be the eternal result of sin.

For he says concerning the rich glutton, “In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment,” and his prayer, which was denied him, was, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.”

Now recollect, if Jesus had not thirsted, every one of us would have thirsted forever afar off from God, with an impassable gulf between us and heaven.

Our sinful tongues, blistered by the fever of passion, must have burned forever had not His tongue been tormented with thirst in our stead.

I suppose that the “I thirst” was uttered softly, so that perhaps only one and another who stood near the cross heard it at all, in contrast with the louder cry of “Lama sabachthani” and the triumphant shout of “It is finished.”

But that soft, expiring sigh, “I thirst,” has ended for us the thirst which else, insatiably fierce, would have preyed upon us throughout eternity.

Oh, wondrous substitution of the just for the unjust, of God for man, of the perfect Christ for us guilty, hell-deserving rebels.

Let us magnify and bless our Redeemer’s name.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, ‘“‘Lama Sabachtani?’’ in Majesty in Misery, Volume 3: Calvary’s Mournful Mountain (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2005), 188-189, 191. (See also, C. H. Spurgeon, “The Shortest of the Seven Cries,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 24 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1878), 24: 219, 220-221, 222-223.

“Christ Himself is the gospel” by Sinclair Ferguson

“The warrant for faith in Christ is neither knowledge of election nor a conviction of universal redemption. Nor is it a sense of our sinfulness.

It is that Jesus Christ is able to save all those who come to God through Him, since His is the only name given under heaven whereby we may be saved.

Christ Himself is the gospel.

Pastorally it is always helpful to go back to Jesus and His teaching to ask: How did Jesus Himself preach His own gospel?

Here, in the context of a prayer reflecting His belief in distinguishing election, is an example of how He engaged in evangelistic preaching:

Prayer: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

That is, surely, unconditional election. But then Jesus says:

Preaching: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Here, to “labor” and to be “heavy laden” are not qualifications for coming to Christ.

They are reassurances that none is disqualified from coming to Him by weakness and unworthiness.

Yes, even the “disqualified” who are weak and helpless are invited to come to Him!

The Gospels make clear that it was to the “disqualified” that He delighted to offer Himself.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 51-53.

“The greatest work of wonder that God ever did” by Thomas Goodwin

“What was the greatest work of wonder that God ever did in the world?

It was the incarnation of the Son of God.”

–Thomas Goodwin, “The Work of the Holy Ghost in Our Salvation,” The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Volume 6 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1862/2021), 6: 418.

“Paternal counsel to the pastor of a small congregation” by John Brown of Haddington

“The Rev. John Brown of Haddington, clarum et venerabile nomen (‘a famous and venerable name’), in a letter of paternal counsels and cautions to one of his pupils newly ordained over a small congregation, wrote thus:

‘I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small, in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ, at His judgment-seat, you will think you have had enough.’“

–John Brown of Haddington, cited by Alexander Grossart in “The Soul’s Conflict With Itself,” in The Works of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1979), 1: 294.

“God and man in one Person” by Wilhelmus à Brakel

“The Lord Jesus is very God, very man, a holy man, and God and man in one Person.

It is necessary to pause for a moment to consider this Mediator whose Name is Wonderful from every perspective, in order that we might properly be motivated to godliness.

This wondrous work shall neither be comprehended nor fathomed by angels or men to all eternity, but will always remain an unfathomable source of adoration.

Nevertheless, being yet upon earth, we can and must attempt to gain insight into this work of redemption.

No one could be Surety and bring man to God but He who was God and man in one Person.

The Son of God first had to be personally united to the human nature before sinful man could be restored into friendship and union with God.

Behold, how great a work it is to save a sinner!

What manifold wisdom was required to conceive such a remedy!

All the holy angels together could not have conceived such a remedy as God has conceived and revealed.

They are desirous to look into this, but they shall never be able to comprehend it.

What a blessing it is that none but He was able to do this, that He has sent His own Son for this purpose and caused Him to unite personally with the human nature!

What omnipotence is required to execute such a design!”

–Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Volume 1 (God, Man, and Christ), Ed. Joel Beeke, Trans. Bartel Elshout (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1700/1992), 1: 510-511.

“Your ears will delight themselves in hearing the heavenly hallelujahs” by Wilhelmus à Brakel

“Believers, be it known, however, that your bodies, in which you must now suffer so much, will one day be delivered from all sorrows.

The Lord will then wipe all tears from your eyes and will change this vile body so that it may be conformed to the glorious body of Christ.

Then your body will shine forth as the stars, and as the brightness of the firmament.

Your eyes will rejoice in beholding your beloved Jesus and all those glorious things which are to be seen in heaven.

Your ears will delight themselves in hearing the heavenly hallelujahs, and you will join them in singing the heavenly doxologies.

All that God has prepared to the delight of your body, the Lord will cause you to enjoy forever.”

–Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Volume 4 , Ed. Joel Beeke, Trans. Bartel Elshout (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1700/1994), 4: 336-337.

“Give a world of worry to the One who has overcome the world” by Jonathan Landry Cruse

“There is no getting around it. We will have turmoil in this world. Jesus acknowledges as much Himself.

Integral to the Christian faith is opening our hearts to the gift of peace that Christ has given us, so that we would rise above the tribulation in divinely-marked tranquillity.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33; cf. Col. 3:15).

What a Saviour! And what a picture of this Saviour we are given in Mark 4!

See Him resting amidst the racket, and nestle yourself right there with Him.

Give Him all your cares, worries, and fears.

Give your trouble to Him and you will discover Christ to be your calm in the storm.

Give a world of worry to the One who has overcome the world.”

–Jonathan Landry Cruse, The Character of Christ: The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of Our Saviour (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2023), 55.

“His curse is our blessing” by Alex Duke

“At the end of Genesis 3:15, the Lord makes a prediction that will reverberate throughout the rest of Scripture. It would be simplistic to say that all of Scripture is about this. And yet it would be shortsighted to ignore how vital this promise is to its main storyline.

You might be thinking, “Um, isn’t the Bible ultimately about Jesus?” Yes, of course. And it’s here that he first shows up. Look again at the final line of God’s verdict: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Who’s the “he”?

Well, in Moses’ mind, it’s probably a bit foggy. He’s recording this prophetic curse because it had been passed down through generations. He knows the Lord said it. More than that, Moses believes that one day a particular seed of the woman will crush the Enemy’s head, even if in the process his heel is bruised.

Who could have imagined that God was talking about himself here? Who could have imagined God would deal death its deathblow through the death and resurrection of his Son? As we read through Scripture, we find our fair share of head crushers: Moses, Jael, David, and more.

But all of these temporary heroes eventually get swallowed up by death. Though they strike the serpent’s head, the curse of sin still crushes them.

Until Jesus shows up. He’s temporarily swallowed up by death before he swallows death up in victory—and then spits it out when he walks out of the grave.

The first spark of the gospel shows up in Genesis 3:15. The bad news for the serpent is good news for us.

His curse is our blessing.”

–Alex Duke, From Eden to Egypt: A Guided Tour of Genesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2025), 32-33.

“This is good news, good beyond hope” by C.S. Lewis

“This book is like lightning from a clear sky; as sharply different, as unpredictable in our age as Songs of Innocence were in theirs. To say that in it heroic romance, gorgeous, eloquent, and unashamed, has suddenly returned at a period almost pathological in its anti-romanticism is inadequate.

To us, who live in that odd period, the return—and the sheer relief of it—is doubtless the important thing. But in the history of Romance itself—a history which stretches back to the Odyssey and beyond—it makes not a return but an advance or revolution: the conquest of new territory.

Nothing quite like it was ever done before. ‘One takes it’, says Naomi Mitchison, ‘as seriously as Malory.’ But then the ineluctable sense of reality which we feel in the Morte d’Arthur comes largely from the great weight of other men’s work built up century by century, which has gone into it. The utterly new achievement of Professor Tolkien is that he carries a comparable sense of reality unaided.

Probably no book yet written in the world is quite such a radical instance of what its author has elsewhere called ‘sub-creation.’ The direct debt (there are of course subtler kinds of debt) which every author must owe to the actual universe is here deliberately reduced to the minimum.

Not content to create his own story, he creates, with an almost insolent prodigality, the whole world in which it is to move, with its own theology, myths, geography, history, paleography, languages, and orders of beings—a world ‘full of strange creatures beyond count.’

The names alone are a feast, whether redolent of quiet countryside (Michel Delving, South Farthing), tall and kingly (Boromir, Faramir, Elendil), loathsome like Smeagol, who is also Gollum, or frowning in the evil strength of Barad Dur or Gorgoroth, yet best of all (Lothlorien, Gilthoniel, Galadriel) when they embody this piercing, high elvish beauty of which no other prose writer has captured so much.

Such a book has of course its predestined readers, even now more numerous and more critical than is always realised. To them a reviewer need say little, except that here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart.

They will know that this is good news, good beyond hope.”

–C.S. Lewis, “Review of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien,” in Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, Ed. Lesley Walmsley (London: HarperCollins, 2000), 519-520.

“There He has proved beyond any doubt that He will provide” by Sinclair Ferguson

“When I think about the big themes in the Bible, there seems to be no end to them. This week, we’ve been like theological gemologists holding up a precious stone to the light and admiring some of its facets.

In this case, we’ve been mining in Exodus 3, examining the precious jewel buried deep in that chapter: the great name Yahweh, the Lord, I Am, what used to be translated as “Jehovah.”

If your first Bible was a King James Version, you remember that in Genesis there is one place where this name is expanded. It’s expanded into “Jehovah-jireh” in Genesis 22:14:

“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh [the LORD will provide]”

This took place on Mount Moriah, where Abraham went to offer his son Isaac, the son of the promise, as a sacrifice to God.

The angel of the Lord intervened, and as Abraham turned around, there was a ram caught in the bushes, a divinely provided substitute for his son.

And so he called the place “The LORD will provide.” He must have hardly been able to believe that his own words had been fulfilled.

As they had climbed the mountain, Isaac had said to Abraham, “Father, we have everything we need here for the sacrifice except the sacrifice.”

Abraham had responded, “God Himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice.” Haunting words.

But if Abraham reflected on this dramatic experience of the angel of the Lord, I wonder if he ever thought, “I told Isaac that the Lord would Himself provide a lamb for the sacrifice, but it was a ram, not a lamb, that He provided.”

Is there something significant in this detail?

Later on, hidden away in 2 Chronicles 3:1, we discover that Mount Moriah was the area where Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

It was therefore the area where Jesus spent the last week of His ministry.

It’s where He went through His agony in Gethsemane.

It’s where He was arrested, condemned, crucified, buried, and then wonderfully raised from the dead. Truly, on the mountain of the Lord it came to pass: God did provide for Himself the Lamb.

There on Mount Moriah, on the edge of King David’s city, took place the event that all history had awaited since Abraham had spoken to his son as they climbed the barren wastes of that elevated ground.

There, the words of the greatest of the prophets of the old covenant era, John the Baptist, were fulfilled: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jehovah-jireh, the Lord, will provide the Lamb for the sacrifice.

We began this week by asking what God is like, and we should end it by saying that this is what He is like: He is the God we can trust to provide us with everything we need, because, as Paul says:

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32).

May these two words be fixed into our hearts: Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide.

And if we want to be sure that He will, we must look nowhere else than to the cross of Jesus Christ, for there He has proved beyond any doubt that He will provide.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2024), 87-88.