I'd like us to turn back to John
chapter 7 and I'm amazed by the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ knitting bodies together and this verse speaks
of that well of water that's out in verse 38 of John chapter
7. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Now this is a glorious promise
from our God. It's a shell, there'll be a flowing
shell and it comes out of his belly, out of his inmost being. It's unseen by the world. It's
protected from the world and untouched by the world, and it
can't be put there by man, and mercifully it cannot be removed
from man. It is a glorious picture of what
it is to be a child of God and what it is for God to dwell within
you. And the notion that God dwells
within you and it can't come out is a notion which is what he plants in his people
and what he does amongst his people flows out to his people. And that's why again and again
and again we have in the Scriptures this picture of the fact that
we are a body that is knitted together. God the Father has
determined that in the gathered assembly of his people he will
get glory for his dear and precious son. This is a precious, precious
gathering. We're built, as Ephesians says,
we're no more, Ephesians 2.19, now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. remarkable description God gives
of his people, the household of God. Listen to what he goes
on to say, "...and are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom all the building fitly framed together." Who does the
fitting and who does the framing? It's God's work, isn't it? fitly
framed together, grows, groweth, grows and keeps on growing unto
a holy temple in the Lord. The place of meeting between
man and God, the place of sacrifice, the place where the high priest
springs the blood of the lamb into the holy of holies and God
is propitiated and God is pleased. And then this is what he goes
on to say, in whom, You also are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit. The longer and the more you read
the Word of God, the more amazed you are by the things that it
says. It is just remarkable. Listen to what he says, isn't
it? It's a fitly framed together building. Is there anything lacking
when God does the building? Will it serve the purpose that
God has ordained it in this world? It's the place where he has promised
to get glory to his Son. It's a fellowship of this mystery. I'm talking about these living
waters that flow out of the They flow out to knit us to Him
and to remind us of who He is and what He's done, but then
they flow out to our brothers and sisters. They flow out. These
living waters flow out. It is the fruit and the glory
of God within us. Listen to how John goes on to
describe this work of the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 14 he
says, And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
comforter. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
a comforter to these people for three and a half years, hasn't
he? Never once did they stand before their enemies and he not
be there to defend them. Never once were they asked to
defend themselves. Here's the great shepherd, and
he watches over his sheep, and they lacked in all of that time,
but another comfort, that he may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But you shall know him,
for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave
I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world seeth me
no more, but you see me because, and I love this phrase of our
saviors, because I live, you shall live also. And that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Don't you love it when we come
to scriptures as they all are? Where God doesn't say, I want
you to understand this. He simply says, believe, doesn't
he? Just believe. I just believe
that. I believe it with all of my heart.
And I don't have to say it for it to be true. He speaks and
reality comes into existence. He says light be and light was. He says a universe be and a universe
was. He speaks and reality is created. In that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him and will manifest myself to him. The Lord Jesus Christ
won't be hidden from his people at all. Out of his belly shall
flow rivers, of living waters. Where do you
build a city? Where did you always build cities? You built them
by rivers, didn't you? You didn't build them by streams
that came and went. You built them by rivers. Rivers. And what does this say? Some
very simple things that speaks that out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Firstly, as I said earlier, salvation
is an inward work. It's an inward work with an outward Jesus Christ. And it's a work
that God alone can do, isn't it? In Acts chapter 2 when the
Holy Spirit came in manifest power and those tongues of fire
were divided on them and they went out and they preached the
wonderful works of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of those 15 languages.
And Peter gets up in all of that and he preaches that glorious
message. And what happened after he preached
the Lord Jesus Christ being crucified? He preached a reigning sovereign
God, didn't he? That this was done by God's foreordination. There was absolutely nothing
about all of this that was by accident. Neither was there on
the day of Pentecost. And what happened to those men
who had the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on their hands?
And we all do, brothers and sisters. We all do. And what happened? They were pricked in their heart. They were wounded in their hearts. It's an inward work. And it was
a glorious thing that 3,000 on that day were convicted and were
baptised and joined the church and professed the Lord Jesus
Christ 3,000 out of a crowd of a million,
possibly in Jerusalem. God is always saving a remnant,
and we rejoice in the numbers that are saved, and we long for
more to be saved. But God has a particular people,
and these people were pricked in the heart. With the heart,
man believes unto righteousness. God commands his servants to
speak to the heart. But I know someone who can. I
know someone who can. And I know that he does. And
I know that in his words he brings life. And out of that life flow
these living words. The word of God It is quick and powerful, sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God sees your hearts,
brothers and sisters. This man flows living water.
So salvation, firstly, is an inward work, isn't it? It's a
work, and it's a private, personal work. It's a work between God
and you. And man will never understand it.
Man will never be able to control it. Man will never be able to
manipulate it in any way. Where it really happens, it happens
by a sovereign work of God. Billy Graham wrote a book, didn't
he? A famous book, How to be Born Again. How on earth you
could ever even put that title on a book and publish it to millions
of people is horrifying, isn't it? How to? Christian bookshops
are full of how-to books. There's only one how-to, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ must do it. He must do it all. He's
the Alpha and the Omega. So salvation is an inward work,
and salvation is a continual work. Out of his belly shall
flow continually. We have been saved. We are being
saved. We shall be saved. It's the work,
isn't it? Philippians 1.6 says that the
work that God has begun is the work that God will continue. If God has begun that work, God
has started it, God will finish what he's done. That's that building
that's fitly framed together. He will do it. You are a dwelling
place of God by the Spirit. That's the confidence that Paul
had, isn't it? Being confident of this very thing. He rested,
didn't he? I can rest. You can rest. We can rest our souls in the
fact that, and we can have a confidence of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good until the day of Jesus Christ. He will take it, what has begun
goes from here, here into eternity, here into heaven's glory. We
cannot die, we are immediately in the presence of God. It's
a continual work. And it's a sufficient work, isn't
it? I do love what Ezekiel, and I
don't have much time to look at it, but in Ezekiel chapter
47 when the Spirit takes him out and he goes out from the
temple and behold the water is issued out from the threshold
of the house. to the forefront of the house
and they issued towards the east and the waters came down from
under the right side of the house and on the south side of the
altar. This is the waters that we were talking about earlier,
these living waters that flow from the throne of God, from
the throne where the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is exalted. And Ezekiel is taken out and he walks out a thousand
cubits, a thousand thousand cubits and the waters are up to his
ankles and he keeps walking further and the waters are up to his
knees and he keeps walking further and the waters are up to his
loins and he keeps walking further and afterwards he measured a
thousand and it was a river that I could not pass over for the
waters were risen. Waters to swim in. You can swim
in the grace of God, can't you? You have so much water, not just
to drink. It's talking about the river
of mercy and grace that flows from the throne of God to nourish
and to water his people. It's a sufficient work. And of
course, it's a divine work. These living waters flow from
the Lord Jesus Christ who is life. He is life. He's the source
of all life. His true life from God, true
life in this world, true eternal life comes from God and is sustained
by God. It's all of Him. And all of our
blessings, brothers and sisters, are blood-bought, basic blessings.
That's just on the throne, isn't it? What's on that throne right
now is the Lamb who has been slain. The Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. and gifts. And peace flows like a river. Thy peace has been as a river
and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. I do love the Song of Solomon
and the Lord blessed my time in it and I believe it The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
here as rejoicing in his graces which are evident in his bride.
Don't you love what Romans 11.36 says? but it's actually the practical
section, and the outworking of it comes later on, but it says,
for from him, for of him, and through him, and to him are all
things, to whom be glory forever. He creates the fruit. He creates the fruit of lips
that sing praises to his name. He creates the fruit of lips.
Listen to how Hosea describes it. I have heard him and observed
him. The scriptures say, I have heard
him and observed him. I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found."
And how's that fruit exhibited in the lives of God's people? Isaiah 57, 19. He says, I create
the fruit of lips. God rejoices in his creation,
brothers and sisters. He watches over his bride with
delight, with absolute delight. I create the fruit of lips. Peace, peace to him that is afar
off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. The Lord Jesus Christ comes into
his garden, he comes into that church, and he sees his gifts,
his gifts of faithfulness, his gifts of just looking to him, and he rejoices. a fountain of
gardens, and a well of living waters, and streams shall level
on a waco north wind, and come thou south. He's calling on the
Spirit of God, isn't he? To come, to blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved, the church
says, let my beloved come into his garden, the garden of his
planting, the garden of his nurturing, the garden of his enclosing,
the garden of him separating his people from this world, and eat His pleasant fruits. We rejoice in His work, and He
rejoices in His work in the lives of His people. The Lord Jesus
Christ rejoices in His graces, in His creation, in His graces, And so the grace that gives life
becomes grace to enrich the lives of others. And that's what church
is about. That's what the gathering of
the assembled people, that's what the gathering of God is
about, isn't it? He gathers his people together that we might
rejoice in who the Lord Jesus Christ is. We might tell each
other again and again and again that the work is finished. The
works are done from the foundation of the world. You come and eat
and drink. and rejoice your soul in a perfect
and finished work. It is done. We need to remind
each other again and again and again. Those apostles at the
Last Supper, they came there and what did the Lord Jesus Christ
have to do? He said, you're all clean. And what did he do? He
washed are the parts of your body that
touch this cursed earth, aren't they? And he washed their feet. He washed their feet. And then
he said to them, I've done this to you. You go and do likewise. We don't have to go and physically
wash other people's feet. We have to tell them, don't we,
that he's overcome the world, brothers and sisters, and it's
all done. It's all done. It's finished. It's the glory
of the grace of God. I don't know about you but the
longer I go on the more I find myself rejoicing in the fellowship
of believers and I long for people to come and I feel deeply personally
responsible when they don't come and I accept the fact that for
a lot of the time it's all my fault and maybe it's not, maybe
it is, I don't know. But I want people and I long
for people to rejoice for the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you've come thirsty and been nourished. We're feasting together,
aren't we? That's a great marriage supper
of the Lamb, isn't it? We rejoice, we eat the same things,
we say the same things to each other. It's done. It's done. I know your walk in this world
is going to be a troubled one. And I know more in this last
few months what it is to be weary than I ever have. And I know
what it is in this last few months to be frail and to know that
this life is just a vapor. It is just, we are here just
for a season. And what a merciful and gracious
God we have who draws us to himself and then draws us to each other.
I do quote Ephesians chapter two, regularly because I just
love it so much. I think it's such a glorious
picture of what goes on amongst God's people. He says, but now
in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, how separated were
from each other. I didn't know a single one of
you. What binds us together? What
brings us together? The one thing that brings us
together now, you sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ. By the blood of Christ, we are
made nigh to God. And if we are drawn close to
God, then we are drawn close to each other. And that's what
the fellowship of church is about. That's what the gathering of
God's people is about. We remind each other. By our
presence, we remind each other by our agonies. We remind each
other by our shared experiences. that our God reigns. And we can
say again and again to the people of this world and to each other,
it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my
soul. And so what flows out is what
God puts in. And what's the Blessed Holy Spirit
going to do? The Holy Spirit is going to do
exactly as He's promised to do. And what a glorious work it is. The Holy Spirit is going to take
the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do quote this so often,
but I just love the promise of you. He says, it's expedient for you,
John 16, 7, that I go away. The Comforter will not come to
you, but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he
has come, he will convince, he will reprove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. He'll convict the world, his
elect, of sin, the sin of unbelief, sin, because they believe of
righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me no
more." What righteousness? It's a conviction
of His righteousness. He can go to the Father as perfectly
righteous. He can go to the Father having
borne all of the sins of all of his people there as the high
priest did, with no sin, of righteousness, his righteousness, and of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. Not judgment coming. He's talking about judgment accomplished,
brothers and sisters. John, the very same apostle, We have confidence in the Day
of Judgment. Not one inspired writer of scripture
feared the Day of Judgment. Legalistic preachers all want
to put people under a burden about that day, but God's people
are looking forward to that day. It's a day of vindication. It's
a day of glory. to be nourished and to be nurtured. See, John rejoiced greatly, 1
John 2 and 4, 2 John 4, I rejoiced greatly that I found your children
walking in the truth as we have received commandment from God. The Apostle Paul looked around
the churches, and there was much that distressed him in so many
of them, but he had cause to be rejoicing, didn't he? He rejoiced
greatly. In 2 Thessalonians 1, he says,
we are bound to thank God always to you, brethren, as is right,
as is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the
charity, the love, every one of you, every one of you all
toward each other abounds, abounds. This is not the wishy-washy love
of this world. This is a love for people's souls,
isn't it? A love that allows you to tell
the truth to them. A love that allows you to remind
them again and again of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. A love
that is prepared to say truthful things. We are bound, he says
in 2 Thessalonians 2, we are bound, bound, he's bound to give
thanks. Always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to what? What's the end result of the
gospel according to God? I'm just reading what he says. Whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, if you know what
that means, hallelujah. All I can do is say I believe
it and I rejoice in it. I just believe what he says. I just believe what he says.
Paul is continually thanking brethren. And what's he thanking
them for always? is always thanking them for the
evidences he sees of God's work in their lives. And that causes
him to rejoice, and it causes him to undergo all of the trials
that he went through. And if you recall in Acts chapter
13 and 14, he went, and he was beaten up, and he was beaten
up, and he was beaten up, and he finally gets to the end of that
journey and he goes back to the very places he was beaten up
in to see the brethren and to encourage them and to remind
them again, our God, You have been rescued out of the idolatry
of this world and the depravity of this world, and you have been
translated and transferred into a kingdom of the light of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you are perfectly, perfectly secure. See, Paul loved to bear the names
of his people before God in heaven. You read the last chapter of
Romans. It's remarkable he'd never been to Rome. brings their names. It's wonderful
to be able to bring the names of our brethren to the throne
of grace in heaven with a smile of confidence because of what
God has done in the lives of his people. And there was one
church and only one that he couldn't do that to and he was troubled
about them and they were the most orthodox In terms of beliefs,
they were the most moral in terms of their activities. And what
they wanted to do was add to the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. As if somehow the work of the
Lord could be polished and enhanced somewhere so that you have more
jewels in your crown, you have a closer seat to the throne, seats are exactly the same distance
from the throne and they're exactly the same. Rahab the harlot and
Abraham the patriarch are sitting next to each other and they're
both robed in exactly the same righteousness and they're there
exactly because of the same reason, the electing love of God, the
redeeming love of the Son of God washed in his blood and the
quickening and glorious work of the Holy Spirit. They come
bargaining with God, don't they? In which Isaiah says, you come
freely, you come and drink freely. It's pictured in Israel, isn't
it? There are two seas in Israel. One is full of life. Full of life. Water flows into
the Sea of Galilee and water flows out of the Sea of Galilee
and it has an abundance of life. And the other one you know well,
isn't it? The water flows in and none flows out. and it's
called the Dead Sea for a very good reason. You see, these Jews
in Jerusalem were celebrating at this festival. They were celebrating
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they didn't know it. They
had turned the worship of God into a bunch of ceremonies and
rules. Just man's religion. What sustains from heaven every morning except
on the Sabbath. And that rock, that smitten rock,
they were nourished and watered by that water flowing out of
that smitten rock. The smitten rock nourishes the
Israel of God. And there they were having a
religious ceremony and missing God. They wanted him gone, didn't
they? If we go back to where we started
this morning, they wanted him gone. They wanted his voice to
be silenced and his presence to be removed from them. And
he says, I will go and you cannot come to where I am. Out flows
from the children of God the same things that flow from the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's good news for the guilty,
it's mercy for the miserable, it's balm for the wounded, it's
streams of mercy never ceasing flowing from that mountain, that
fountain. Listen to how the Lord, who had
this Spirit, rested upon him and he had the spear without
measure. He says in Nazareth, the spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. You've got nothing to bargain
with when you come to him. You preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. That doesn't
mean that your heart is a little bit a heart that doesn't work. It
speaks of a heart that was pricked in Acts chapter 2, to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovery
of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord
is the year of jubilee when you have lost everything and sold
yourself into slavery. That jubilee trumpet was to be
sounded and everything that you lost was restored to you. Your
house was restored to you. Your farm was restored to you.
It was all restored. It's all a picture of what the
Lord Jesus Christ does. He says, Come. If you're hungry, you come to
him for bread. If you're thirsty, you come to
the waters. If you're dead, you come to him for life. If you're
blind, you come to him for light. If you have no faith, you come
to him who is the giver of faith. He's the object of faith and
he's the giver of faith. Men will go to all sorts of religion
and miss the rock. Miss the rock. He says to his
children, in one of my favourite passages
of scripture, he says to those who are believing, how
do you come? You come as needy. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. He said to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, Said
I not unto thee? These are his words, aren't they? the glory of God. Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest
me always. You go to Him, don't you? You
go to Him, and He goes to the Father. We go to Him always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face
was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, loose
him and let him go. That's what the gospel says,
doesn't it? Let him go freely. I am the resurrection and the
life. These are these living waters
that flow. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. I'm so pleased he doesn't say,
do you understand this? He just says, believest thou
this? Believest thou this? He that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the command of your dear and precious Son,
for the thirsty ones to come and to drink, and to drink of
the living waters that He alone can give. And I pray, Heavenly
Father, that we would be caused again and again to be ones that
come. We would be caused again and
again to be ones that ask. We'd come, come with our prayers,
we'd come with our pleadings, we'd come persistently, we'd
come consistently. And we'd come, Heavenly Father,
expectantly. But He, who is the source of
all the living waters, would quench our thirst yet again.
that we might gaze upon your dear and precious son and find
his blood cleansing, find his life to be our life, to find
his nourishment and his nurturing of us, the love and care of a
beloved husband. O our Father, we pray that we
might just simply come, rest our eternal souls in His arms,
and find ourselves carried, as He has promised, into Your presence
to live with Him and Your people in His glory forever and ever.
Amen. Bless Your words to our hearts,
Heavenly Father. May we drink and eat in remembrance
of him. May you grant us, Heavenly Father,
a simple childlike faith that looks and loves and rests and
trusts in your dear and precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We
pray in his name and for his glory. Amen.