587, Like a River Glorious. Let's stand together and sing
this, Like a River Glorious. victorious is God's perfect peace. Over all victorious, in His pride increase. Perfect and victorious,
? Every day ? ? Perfect yet it progressed ? ? Deeper all the
way ? ? Stayed up on the mola ? ? Hearts are fully fled ? perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed
hand, never fortune followed, Ever trader's man. God, oh, sir, don't worry. Not a shade of care. Not a blast of fury. ? Touch the spirit land ? ? Straight
up the hill over ? ? Hearts are fully blessed ? ? Finding as he promised ? ? Perfect peace
and love ? Your triumph, all life from above. Praised upon her God, you find
the Son of God. Oh I may be seated go to him 400 400 Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sun by flame he comes upon. Raise the mountain fixed upon
it, Mount of God's unchanging love. Here I raise my heaven-knees,
Earth, in her by-thy help I come. And I hope I find good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the goal of God. He to rescue me from danger interposed
his precious love. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace now, my competitor,
find my wandering heart to be. home to me here's my take and
see see they for my It's good to see you here this
morning. I'm a little discombobulated. My song leader's not here. So that throws me back to where
I started many years ago having to do that. And I'd much rather just sit there
and enjoy singing than have to try to lead anything with that.
But may God be praised. That's the idea, not that we
should admire our own voices, but that God should be praised,
Christ should be honored, that we should stay upon Jehovah.
I like that phrase that we just sang, fixed upon the mount of
God's unchanging love, fixed, immovable, immovable. So thankful God has fixed us
on Christ. set us on Christ, put us in Christ,
all kinds of language he uses to show you how you are in Christ,
in union with Christ. I'm so thankful for his grace
to put us into union with him, and it's immutable, it's unchangeable.
It doesn't vary with how we feel or what we think. That's a salvation I need, something
God does for me, not something I contribute. It's something
God does wholly for me. We'll go to Him in prayer and
ask for His mercies on us this morning. I ask for your prayers
concerning the message this morning. I've desired to preach this, longed to preach it the way I
received it. I had a blessing from it. And
I do pray that God would convey that to you this morning. So, God would fix us on His Word
and the privileges we have. You don't realize the privileges
you have. It started from Ezekiel. When
Ezekiel got this message, he had a vision. It's a beautiful
vision, but the fullness of that vision was not yet complete to
him. He didn't fully understand the
whole of that vision. We can. We live on this side
where the vision is clear to us, it's plain to us, and we
don't have to guess or speculate as to what this means. It's glorious. And we should be thankful that
God has revealed his word to us, opened it, made it clear. I pray we'll this morning. Remember
those that are sick. pray for him. God's grace on
him. Uh, hemo. There's a bone marrow. My cousin pray for him. Received
a letter Joanne did from her friend Joan. And she's in an
assisted living place. It's Washington, isn't it? Near Seattle? Is that where it's
at? Oregon. Oregon. Same difference. Anyway, Oregon. I think it's
senior living. Senior living. OK. Because she's
very vital. She's a very capable lady. But
pray for her. She's in a place where she's
alone. No one wants to hear the gospel. No one wants to hear. And those that are living around
her are dying around her. And it's painful for her to watch. That's happening to us, but we
don't see it like she does every day. I hope this message will be comforting
concerning that this morning. That wherever the Spirit goes,
there's life. Wherever He plants life, there's
life. And wherever He don't go, there's
nothing but death. That's just the way it is. God
determined it for His glory to be this way. I pray God would
open this to our hearts this morning. Pray for her. Pray for
my cousin. Pray for his salvation and the
salvation of his wife. They would hear the gospel. Wherever God goes, that's where
there's life. And I have no idea where he's going. Do you? I have
no idea. I have no idea. That's not my
business. My business is to tell you that
he is going. That's good news. that he is moving and so pray
for God's grace on these. I should be, I guess, in Danville
Tuesday. I don't, I find this out usually
on the Sunday before I go on Tuesday because I don't remember.
So I just give up on trying to remember that I got to be there
and eventually Rex will call me or Tia will tell me I need
to be there. And so pray about that. Pray
for those congregations without pastors. Pray that God send them
and give them the heart to receive the man that God sent. Let's go to him in prayer. Father, we come this morning
bowing ourselves before your throne. seeking mercy and help in time of need. Father, I do not know a time
that I am not needy. There is not a time that I do
not need. Your strength, your wisdom, your
love, your mercy, your forgiveness, the blood and righteousness of
Christ, I'm in constant need. And I am thankful that you have
a constant supply of everything I need. We desire this morning that you
would fill our hearts with your spirit By the Spirit, the Word would
come in power. Testify of yourself. Manifest
your Word. Open the hearts of your people
to be refreshed, strengthened, so tossed about by every slight
wind of circumstance. every small difficulty, we are
so troubled. How soon we forget that all things
are in your hands, life and death. And Father, I do pray this day
that you would send forth the Spirit by the word that Christ
would be honored, magnified, seeing he is the sum and substance
of all your word. For those that are dead, those who have no life, I pray that your spirit would
even come to them this day, this hour, and quicken them to life and
faith set their hearts looking only
to Christ. Give us our sins. Help those
that are sick. Those we have mentioned, we know
you are capable, very capable of healing them at your own pleasure. We pray
that you will. Father, we pray these things
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for his sake.
Amen. All right, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel chapter 47. I'll take the time to open the
scripture to you at the beginning because I want to read this passage
from verses 1 to 12. That's going to be where we get
our message from here. It says, And afterward he brought
me again to the door of the house. And behold, the waters issued
out from under the threshold of the house eastward, Well,
the forefront of the house was toward the east, and the waters
came down from under the right side of the house at the south
side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the
way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without
unto the other gate by the way which looketh eastward. And behold,
there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had
the lion in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand
cubits and brought me to the waters, and the waters were at
to the ankles. He measured again a thousand
and brought me through, and the waters were to my knees. And he measured again a thousand
and brought me through, and the waters were to my loins. Afterward,
he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not
pass over. The waters were risen, the waters
to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said
to me, son of man, hast thou seen this? Brought me, caused me to return
to the brink of the river. When I returned, behold, at the
bank of the river there were many trees, one on one side and
on the other. And he said unto me, these waters
issued out toward east country and go down to the desert and
go down to the sea and brought forth into the sea, the waters
shall be healed. It came to pass that everything
that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall
live. There shall be a very great multitude
of fish because of the waters that come thither, for they shall
be healed. Everything shall live whither
the river cometh. It came to pass that the fishers
which stand on it, from Engedi even to Eniglium, they shall
be a place to spread forth nets. Their fish shall be according
to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea exceeding many.
But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not
be healed. They shall be given to salt. And by the river upon
the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow
all trees for meat, whose leaves shall not fade, neither shall
the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit
according to its months, because their water is issued out of
the sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be
for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. Hast thou seen
this? I'm going to give you an overview
of what I just read, Prophet Ezekiel. He's standing in the
house, which is the sanctuary. He's actually standing in the
holy place, the place where the table of showbread and the laver
and the altar of incense and the candlestick were. The priest
would go into this part of the temple, the tabernacle, every
day and do work. And he's in this holy place.
And you know what's in the next room is the most holy place.
The place where the Ark of the Covenant was. Where the veil
had separated them. And the prophet is given to see
waters issuing out from under the curtain, under the veil.
And it starts out as a little trickle of water. That's what
he means in the water issued out. It means a trickle. tiny
small amount, he sees it coming out. He sees it going down by
the altar. I like the way Ezekiel writes
because he just, it's a dead gum specific. He says it's on
the right side, it's looking eastward, and that's where it's
going. And you read Ezekiel and he's always kind of, he gets
bogged down because of the details he's making. Sure, you understand
exactly what he's saying. and it goes past the altar. That's
on the outside. Now it goes past the outer gate
and he's following this water and there's a man, he had seen
this man before, he had a measuring stick in his hand and he measured
out a third of a mile. That's a thousand cubits, a third
of a mile. And he noticed that the waters came up to his ankles.
Another third of the mile, and the waters came up to his knees.
Another third, and it's up to his waist. And one more third,
and that water is an exceeding great river that you swim in.
He can't find a bottom. He's swimming out in the middle
of this big river. And while he's out there, the
man says, you see this? Yeah, I see it, but I really
don't know what it means. I see it. And he brings me to the bank,
he said. And he said, all of a sudden
there are trees on both sides of this river. And not only this,
the river went down. It went down from there and it
went to the desert. And he said, wherever it went,
there was life. Wherever the river turned, there
was life. Wherever it went. And then it went down to the
sea, and we're going to see this. The sea, which is called in Getty,
that's the Dead Sea, where there is no life. There's no life in
the Dead Sea. And he said, when this river
comes down to the Dead Sea, there's going to be so many fish, so
full of life, and it's going to be so much fish that fishermen
is going to spread their nets out there and catch all sorts
of manner of fish. And then he says, he goes back
to the trees and shows you the trees again. He said, the trees,
when I noticed them, he said that their fruit didn't rot,
their leaves didn't wither. Matter of fact, they were for
food and medicine, and they kept coming. The fruit, the fruit,
every month in its season, it just kept coming. And these trees didn't die because
of their situation. He said because, in verse 12,
he said because the water's issued out of the sanctuary. This is
the origin. This is why all this happened,
because it comes from the sanctuary. Now, like all other visions,
this is spiritual. It's a spiritual vision. We should
treat it as such and use it as the spirit intended for a spiritual
application. It was a vision. Anybody else
saw this river? You can go over there today.
The Dead Sea's still dead. So it's not talking about a literal
river. What could this mean? Well, there
are three prominent ideas as to what the river is. Some say
it's the love of God. Yes, I believe it is. Others
say it is the spirit of God. Yes, I believe it is. And the
others think it is the Word of God. And I say, yes, it is. All three of those are vitally
true. But I think it's better pictured the Word of God because
the love of God and the Spirit of God come by what? The Word of God. The love of
God is conveyed only by the Word of God. What does the Spirit
use in saving sinners? It's the Word of God. It's the
Word of God. I want to see three things about
this water, this river. I may throw in a couple more,
but I've got three. There's several more that I want
to say about this, but I think these three will suffice. First
of all, where does it come from? Where does this river originate? So what I'm asking is, where
does the word of God originate? Where does it come from? Second
of all, the outpouring of this water. I want to show you this
water. It's pouring out. It comes out of the sanctuary. It comes out from the presence
of God. And I want you to see how this water comes out, how
this word of God comes to man. That's what I want you to see.
How this Word of God comes to man and the substance of this
Word. What is the sum and substance of this Word? And thirdly, I
want you to see the operation of it. I want you to see what
happens when the Word of God comes, when it pours out to man,
the operation of God by His Word. First of all, the origin. The
origin. Scripture says here, "...afterward
he brought me again to the door of the house, and behold, the
waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward." In verse 12, it tells us that
the waters come from the sanctuary. The sanctuary. This is exactly what John says
in Revelation 22. In verse 1, he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal. Listen to this. Proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Where does the word
of God originate? I tell you, it comes from God. The word that you have in your
hand is the word of God. Is the word of God. And it originated with God. When? When did this word originate? In eternity! In eternity! And this is what it means when
he said it originated from the sanctuary. Now, this signifies
that it comes from God. Now, the ark of the place where
he was at, that holy of holies, that was the only place where
God manifest his presence at that day. It was within the sanctuary.
Nobody was allowed in there except the high priest and only on the
day of atonement and only with blood. But they knew that that's
where the presence of God was. And so what is he saying? This
water proceeded from the presence of God. The presence of God. And this signifies this, that
the gospel and its origin is from eternity. It was hidden in God before anything
was made. God doesn't think of anything
new. That's strange to us, because when we think of something, we
say, wow, that's new. No, God never thought of anything new.
Whatever God determined to do in time was already purposed
in eternity. That's what he tells you. He
said, I'm God. There's no God beside me declaring the end. When? From the beginning. Now when is the beginning? God
had no beginning. He just uses language that we
can try to grasp. The end from the beginning from
ancient times of things that were not yet done saying what?
My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Word of God
originated. Now another word, another term
we use for the Word of God is covenant. Covenant. Use it every time you open your
Bible to the New Testament or the Old Testament. What are you
saying? The covenant. Testament is a covenant. So we
say the Word of God is what? It's a covenant. It's a covenant. Look at this in Jeremiah 32.
Jeremiah 32. Look at verse 40. I want you
to see how old this covenant is. How old is the covenant of
God? Listen, He said, I will make
an everlasting covenant with them. Now what's His covenant? That I will not turn away from
them and do them good. Now that's His covenant. Now how long old
is that covenant? It's an everlasting covenant. What does that mean?
It's an eternal covenant. It's an eternal covenant. An
everlasting covenant. When does an everlasting covenant
begin? It begins in eternity. This is what Paul says. He says
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he said that we preach the wisdom
of God in a mystery. Listen to this. Even the hidden
wisdom of God which He ordained before the world began. There was a time when the covenant
of God was known only to God. How do I know it? Nothing else
was made. God alone knew this covenant, therefore it is an
eternal, everlasting covenant. It's a covenant, what we call
the gospel. The gospel. God before all things
had planned and purposed all things concerning the gospel
and agreed within himself to accomplish all that he had purposed. And I want you to see this, that
this covenant that God purposed in Himself was one of grace.
Was one of grace. He said, I will. What moved God
to say that? Do you suppose anything you've ever
done moved God to say, I will? Does God's will contingent upon
yours? Did God look down the portal
of time, see what you would do, and then say, okay, well I'm
going to change, I'm going to make my will contingent upon
His will. That's foolishness. When God
says, I will, He does it solely for one purpose. The glory of
His grace. That's it. glory of His grace,
and in the covenant of grace, He said, I will. This is what
God said in eternity. Before the water ever was manifest,
before the water of the gospel ever came out to man, it was
there in the sanctuary with God, and God said, I will make a covenant. And notice, He said, I will make
a covenant with them. This covenant's not with everyone,
it's with them. Do you suppose he meant the Amorites,
the Hittites, the Jevites? At this time, when he said that,
he meant Israel, which was a type of what? The elect. Israel's
always a picture of the elect. I will make a covenant with them. To do what? To do them good.
See, his covenant that he had within himself was a covenant
of goodness, of grace, of mercy. And it is given only for the
elect. I read it because I think it's
so plain and people get tired of me reading it. I know the
people that are opposed to it, they get tired of me. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heaven, who hath blessed us.
Now Paul's talking to church, he's talking to believers, right?
You that believe. He's talking to church. He's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. How? According, and I'm going to tell
you how. according as He had chosen us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. To what end? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him. What was His motivation? In love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. How
is He going to do this? By Jesus Christ. Now why is He
going to do this? According to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. When were you made accepted
in the Beloved? The same, if I can say it, same
time you were chosen. The same time you were chosen,
you were made accepted. And this covenant is for our
good. You that believe, listen to me,
this eternal covenant that was hidden in God's heart before
the world began, intended, intended only your good. Has anybody ever thought that
much about you? To do you good? I wish y'all
did. I wish I wanted my good, but
I know that's not right because we all want our own good. I don't
think about myself as much as God thought about me. God intended
for the good of his people. And what's the foundation then
of this word that God had, this covenant that God had? What's
the foundation of this gospel? Remember, in that room where
the water came from, what was the center of the room? What
was in the center of the Holy of Holies? It was the Ark of
the Covenant. That wooden box. That incorruptible
wood overlaid with gold. Well, who in the world is that
talking about? That's Jesus Christ. The incorruptible wood speaking
of His humanity. The gold speaking of His divinity. What was on the inside of this
box? The unbroken law of God. Speaking of what? The righteousness
of Christ. The obedience of Christ. Then
you had the manna. Did not Christ say, I am the
bread that came down from heaven? Then you had Aaron's rod. You know what a rod is? It's
a stick. It's dead. You know what happened to that
rod? It budded. It came to life. And almonds and fruit came off
of it. You know what Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and
the what? The life. Life comes from Christ. And that
lid was solid gold. And it showed that that was the
mercy seat between which God and man can meet together. And
the blood was sprinkled on that mercy seat, and that's how atonement
was made. It all pictures Christ, doesn't it? Every bit of the
tabernacle pictures Christ. All of the sacrifices picture
Christ. Why? He is the center of this
covenant. Everything in this covenant is
totally dependent upon Jesus Christ. Everything. The salvation of the elect is
dependent upon who? Jesus Christ. The calling of
the elect is dependent upon who? Jesus Christ. He's the center of this covenant. He is the mercy seat. Christ was from all eternity
the mercy seat. Why? Because the scripture says
he was as a lamb slain when? Before the foundation of the
world. You see God had purposed the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ even before the world began.
This was God's determination as to how he would save his elect
by Jesus Christ. And in this everlasting covenant,
our Lord Jesus Christ agreed to represent all that the Father
gave Him. He agreed to be their righteousness,
their sanctification, their redemption, their wisdom, their mediator,
their redeemer. He agreed to provide all that
was necessary to save us. How do you know that? Well, the
Lord Jesus tells us this. He said, All that the Father
giveth me, listen to these words, shall come to me. And when they come, I will in
no wise cast them out. Why? Because I came to do the
will of my Father which is in heaven. And this is the will
of Him that sent me. That of all He hath given me,
of all He hath given me, I will lose nothing. I mean, it's a simple question.
How many will He lose? How many will Christ lose? Religion tells
you He loses multitudes of millions. Christ said, I will lose nothing,
because this was the determinate counsel of God before the world
began. This is the Word of God. And notice the movement of the
water. The water only moves at the impulse of the Spirit. The
work of the Holy Spirit is also determined. The work of the Holy
Spirit is also determined. Just as the Father chose a people,
the Son agreed to represent them, the Holy Spirit agreed to sanctify
them by the preaching of the Word. Paul said, We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God, because God had from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Do you realize that I can preach
the Gospel from the very first pages of Genesis? Anybody can
preach the Gospel from the first pages of Genesis. Can't you see
that? Before man sinned, before anything,
the Lord gave us the gospel, the very few verses in the beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and what? The earth was without form
and void, and darkness covered the face deep. He's telling you
how man's going to come. He's telling you what man's going
to become. He's going to become dead. He's going to become lifeless,
without form, and void, and darkness will cover his heart. And the
Spirit moved on the face of the waters. How does man give life?
How does the Gospel come? It'll come by the Spirit. And
the Spirit will say, let there be light. Look to Christ. Didn't He say, I am the light
of the world? That's exactly what the Spirit does. He points
you to Christ. And when He says, let there be light, was there
any question? Was He asking? Believe me, when He came to you,
was He asking you? Was He pleading with you? Or did He command? When God commands, let there
be light, what was there? Light. The Spirit of God was
the instrument by which this salvation would come to man. And by what means will the Spirit
use? What means did God determine
before the foundation of the world to use? The preaching of what? This was always God's means.
To reveal Christ to His people, this was always the means. And now then, so I want you to
see the origin. You see where this word comes
from? It comes from God. God's purpose to save and elect.
Christ's purpose to save them. And the Spirit's purpose to call
them. Now that was before anything was done. before the first ray
of light ever shone in the universe. God had already determined that. But Ezekiel didn't know anything
about this water until it came out. We didn't know anything
about this. Until when? Until the Word of
God is manifest to us. Outpouring. Look at verse 1.
It says, "...and the waters issued Out. Issued out. It means a trickle. He's just
standing there and all of a sudden he knows a little trickle coming
out from there. He's kind of curious, so he just
follows the trickle. And as you go, you go outside
and it gets what? It gets deeper and deeper and deeper. What is
this? The Word of God, when it came into the world to manifest
to man, it was just a trickle, wasn't it? Here it was to Adam
and Eve. Listen to the Gospel. The seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. That's all
they had. There's a little trickle. That's all they had. The seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. They didn't
know much. Why? All they had was just little.
But they believed what they had. Go down a little further and
you see that this sacrifice is going to come by blood. Remember
Abel's sacrifice, how it was accepted and a bloodless sacrifice
was rejected? See what happens? Water gets
a little bitter, a little bigger, a little deeper. You come to
the time of Moses and you see the Passover. You see that He's
coming to kill the firstborn of Egypt. And He said, take a
lamb without spot and without blemish and kill him in the midst
of the congregation. And then I want you to take his
blood and put it on the door post and let him. I want you
to get inside, put your shoes on your feet, guard your loins,
eat that lamb roasted and get ready to go. See how the water's
getting a little deeper? Christ is the Passover Lamb.
He's spotless. He's without sin. He's got to
be applied. The blood's going to be applied
by the Spirit of God to the heart of the believer. And what do
we do? We should gut up our loins with the truth and get ready
to go. Eating what? Eating the Lamb. Christ. His Word. See how the water gets a little
deeper? Great Day of Atonement gets a little deeper. The high
priest stands, confesses the sins on the scapegoat. The strong
man carries him away. What a picture of Christ carrying
away our sins. Another goat is killed, picturing
how He took away our sins. By the death of Jesus Christ,
He took away our sins. The blood sprinkled on the altar.
Christ carried His own blood in before the presence of God.
And when that high priest came out, there was joy because the
atonement was made. When Christ came out of the tomb,
the joy was, the atonement was made. You see how it gets a little
deeper? And then you got prophecy after
prophecy and prophecy and the water gets deeper and deeper
and deeper. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Thou shalt call
his name Immanuel, God with us. He shall bear the iniquity of
his people. And God said my soul shall be
satisfied. See how it gets deeper and deeper
and deeper until when? until Christ came and the dam
broke. You see, they had small trickles
as they went along. Now they weren't saved any differently.
They were looking forward to Christ coming. They believed
He was coming. They didn't understand all what
that word was telling them, but they did know it was Christ.
And I'll tell you what, can you exhaust this word now? No, this
word, you can swim in it. It's things over your head and
you never reach the bottom of it, do you? Isn't that what Paul
says? The unsearchable riches of Christ. Now listen, if they're unsearchable,
you think you can find them all? Oh, this river's deep and wide. Deep and wide. Scripture says, and the waters
ran out, Look at verses three through five. It says, and when
the man drew that line, it went up and on and on until it passed
over his head. That shows the progress of the
gospel increasing. You see how now that it's overflowing. Again, they didn't have this. I want you to know what privilege
you have with this. I don't think we fully grasp
the privilege that we have that we have this in our own hands.
This is what was hidden in God from eternity. This right here.
This is what was hidden in God. Sixty-six individual books over
three different continents written by forty different men at different
times over four thousand years. And they all speak of the same
thing. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I just gave you one message, one illustration of that from
the beginning. You see, this river is deep and wide, and wherever
you go in this book, find Christ. Man, I know you're tempted to
find you. We are, we're tempted. Man, look at David, that reminds
me of me. Look for Christ. Isn't that what
the Lord taught His disciples on the road to Emmaus? He said,
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expanded unto them
in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Don't you
realize the whole of time and eternity is not about you? It's
about Christ. When we gather together, who
will we worship? Who will we sing of? Who will
we rejoice in? The Lamb. The Lamb. Forever. Christ. It's all about Christ.
Now notice the outpouring in verse 8. It said, The waters
issued toward the east country down to the desert, and going
to the sea, which brought forth into the sea the waters shall
be healed. This river flowed down to the
desert lands. Desert lands. Now there are two
Two things that this is saying. It's saying both of these things
are true. This is talking about the conversion
of the Gentiles. God had prophesied that the Gentiles
would be brought in. And they were, to the Jews, they
were nothing but a barren, worthless people. And so God promises that He's
going to send this river, this word, down to the desert lands
of the Gentiles. And He did, didn't He? That's
why you and I are here. He sent the word down there,
but this is, I think speaking better, picturing our hearts. What is man's heart when he's
born into this world? It's a desert. It's a barren
wilderness in which there is no life at all. Wherefore is
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed. When you're talking about a desert,
you're talking about death. That's all that's there, is death. There's no life. There's no water. There's no fruit. There's nothing.
When God comes to a sinner's heart, that's how He finds him.
He finds him dead. If God is ever going to save
you, He's got to raise you from the dead. He's got to give you
life. And so when the gospel comes
to a thirsty sinner, it says this, hold everyone that's
thirsty. What? Come to the waters. Buy wine and milk without money.
He's talking to thirsty, broke people. That's who he's talking
to. Somebody that ain't got no water
and ain't got no money. Well, I got a little water. Well,
he's not talking to you. I got something. Well, he ain't
talking to you. He's talking to somebody that
ain't got nothing. Come to the waters and buy wine and milk
without money and without price. This is free. This is absolutely
free. Do you need forgiveness? Does
anyone need forgiveness of sins? Not from each other, He spends
so much time talking about forgiveness of everybody else. You know,
you've got to forgive this person over here. And you should. There's
nothing wrong with that. Man, that person really upset
me. You should forgive them. You should! But so what? What if everybody
forgave you and you forgave everybody? Does that help you? See, I need God's forgiveness.
I love yours. But I need God's. Is there a void? When God came
to me, there was a void, a black hole in my heart that tried to
suck in everything to fill it. And I couldn't fill it with any
of this world. It was a void. It was empty. Do you need life? You know, only
the dead need life. Notice what happens. This water
goes, it gives life. Wherever this water goes, it
gives life. But notice this, look at verse
11. There are some places that this water is not going to heal. There are some places this water
is not going to go. He said, But the miry places
thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed, they shall
be given to salt. You know what's wrong with religion?
It's only a little water. That's what a marsh is, isn't
it? A marsh is just, it has a little water. You ever been through a marsh? You put your foot down and it
sinks down. You have to pull your foot up
with mud all over it and it sinks down. There's no life there.
That's religion. It only gives you a little water.
A little bit. Well, Christ did this and you've
got to do your part. That's a marsh, friends. That's not refreshing. That's
not satisfying. Religion's full of half-truths.
What do you put water and dirt together, what do you get? Mud. Boy, I'm telling you, religion
is exactly like mud. You can't nail mud to a wall.
It's always moving and shifting. You just try to take a plow of
mud and put it up there and try to nail it. It'll just melt around. That's what religion does. I
show them the word of God and they just kind of melt around
it. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to believe it.
God says this, I'll never heal those places. You know, our business
as believers is not to go into the false churches and try to
convert them. Don't do it. Oh, when I was young and stupid,
I did. I thought I'd get in there and
debate them out of that false religion. That was the dumbest
thing I ever did. Why? God said, I ain't gonna
heal them. Do you realize that all the false religions in this
world, God ain't gonna heal it? Why? The water doesn't go there. The Word of God isn't there.
And if the Word of God isn't there, it's a marshland, and
God says, I'm going to give it to death. And that's it. That's
all false religion's good for. Death. It's not going to be healed. Stop trying to heal it. Preach
the Word. Declare the Word. And wherever
that Word goes, there'll be life. I'm not trying to reform the
reformed churches. I'm not going to try to do that.
I'm not going to try to reform the Baptist church. I'm not going to do it. What
do I do? I'm just going to preach the word. And wherever the spirit
takes that word, what happens? Scripture says, wherever their
word went, it was life. Look at this in verse 9. It says
it came to pass. came to pass that everything
that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live."
There's a great multitude of fish because these waters shall
come thither and they shall be healed and everything shall live. Listen, whither the river cometh. It is what our Lord Jesus said
to Nicodemus. He said, the wind bloweth where it listeth, where
it wants to. You can hear the sound thereof,
but you can't tell where it's coming from and you can't tell
where it's going. Even so. Just like that. Even so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God. Wherever God takes this
Word. Now listen, I declare this Word
and it goes out into your ears. I don't think we have any hearing
impaired people here, but It's in your ears. It may rattle around
in your mind. You may try to academically understand
what I'm saying and you might even do that. But one thing you
can't do and I can't do is put it in your heart. I can't put
it into your heart. I can't make it powerful to you. The Spirit of God, that's His
work. Now I want it to be powerful to you. I want everyone to hear
and live. This river don't move at my will.
It moves at His. So if God does not save my children, what am I to say? I don't have
any power over that. It's not my river. God will move
that river wherever He will, and He will save whomsoever He
will. But this is my confidence, that
wherever it goes, there's life. Wherever it goes, there is life. And notice this, it goes down
to this sea. I better move faster now. It
says in verse 10, it said, It came to pass that the fishermen
shall stand upon the from in Gedi even to Iglium, in Iglium,
they shall be a place to spread forth nets, their fish shall
be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea
exceeding many." Isn't this exactly what our Lord
said about His preachers? He said, you shall be fishers
of man. Fishers of men. Wherever this
river is, there are preachers. Wherever the river goes. I'm
just following along the river. I'm fishing along the river.
I don't want to be stupid to be fishing along in the forest.
No, I'm throwing the net in the river. I don't know how many
fish is going to come out of that. I remember fishing my grandfather,
Cheryl's grandfather, and he got a Long time ago, I got a
fish finder. I mean, it was the most exciting
thing back then for us. That was just a great breakthrough
of technology. See a little dot on the screen,
a digital screen, and say, oh, there's some fish down there.
And we would go wherever there's fish. I mean, we didn't want
to go to a place where there wasn't no fish. That's what we
were doing before the fish finder, go to places where there wasn't
no fish. The encouraging thing for the
preacher is there's always fish. Wherever you throw the net, there's
fish. You don't see them. You don't know what's happening.
You don't know what God's doing. But you know this, whatever God's
doing, He's successful. Whatever God does, He's successful. And so what do we do? We cast
it at a venture, knowing God has a people. Man, if I didn't
believe in the election of grace, I'd quit. It'd be the most foolish
thing for me to wait on you to do something for yourselves.
That's just foolish. There's no reason. You can't
do anything for yourselves. The glorious thing about preaching
is God does. And notice this, the trees. He
said in verse 12, And by the river upon the bank thereof,
on this side shall grow all trees for meat. I think that's astounding because
in the Garden of Eden that's how it was. Every tree had fruit. Imagine going to a pine tree
and getting some fruit. Every tree had fruit until the
curse. And he says, but these trees,
they're all going to have fruit. Who are the trees? Everyone that is planted of God. Psalm 92 and verse 13, it says
this. 92, 13, there it is. Those that be planted,
in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
God. I'm not a believer by accident. I was planted. I was planted. You that believe, you were planted. You were fixed. And where were
you fixed? You were fixed right by the river.
In other words, everything that comes from this tree draws its
supply from what? The river. Where do you draw
your supplies for strength? Nourishment. Comfort. Forgiveness. Pardon. Mercy. Peace. Where do you draw
that from? River. Where do you cleanse from? I
like that word that John says, he cleanseth You know, one thing about a river,
it's never stagnant. Not a stagnant pond. This is
constant refreshment. I put an article in the bulletin
about being hungry. You know, only people that are
hungry will eat pretty much anything. And if you're not eating, then
usually because you're not hungry. May God help us to hunger and
thirst for this Word, because this is the supply of nourishment
and strength. And this fruit, we can see that
clearly, isn't that the fruit of the Spirit that never fails,
it never gets old, it's always beneficial. The fruit of the
Spirit is always beneficial. If you imagine that you just
walk outside and all the trees had fruit on it, wouldn't that
be beneficial? It wouldn't have need for supermarkets
or anything like that. Just pop the trees everywhere.
Dropping fruit and that fruit never rots. So you don't have
to worry about it. It never rots. It never gets
old. I still need to understand that
God chose me. That Christ redeemed me. The
Spirit calls me. Because I'm like a tree though.
You know those trees? When the wind blows the top,
it moves like this, doesn't it? And I'm moved about, I'm tossed
about, but what's my anchor? The roots! I'm rooted in Christ,
I'm fixed in Christ. And the leaves thereof are medicine.
Oh, do you ever get sick? Are you ever sick of self? I am so sick of self. Sin? I despise my sin. What's the medicine? Isn't it Christ? Isn't He the
medicine? Heals the broken hearted. Heals
the sick, the lame, the blind, And so, as we see, this gospel
river has been here from eternity. It's God's Word. It flowed from
God, comes out to us by the power of the Spirit. Wherever it goes,
it gives life. Wherever it goes, it gives life
and fruit. You see that clearly? Have you
seen this? Does that make sense to you? Is that not clear? Can
you swim around in that a little while? I imagine you can go back
and read that again. You'll find something else. You'll
find plenty of things that I didn't say. I still think about three
or four more things now. I've got to go. I can't keep
going, but I'm telling you, this river goes over your head, doesn't
it? You can swim around in this. This was prophesied hundreds
of years before Christ ever came and the dam broke. I'm so thankful for the Word
of God, aren't you? I'm thankful for the power of the Spirit that
makes it effectual to the hearts of men. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your own mercies. Oh, pour on us the Word of truth, Pray for the souls that are living
in the marsh and deadness and desert, that you give them life. That you'd refresh your trees
that you have planted, your church. Strengthen us in the inner man. Comfort our hearts, knowing Christ
has accomplished our salvation. This is the sum and substance
of your word. Thank you for it. In his name
we pray. Amen.