Or if you take your Bible, then
turn back with me to Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel chapter 47. Entitled this message, The River
of the Gospel. The River of the Gospel. The scripture says in verse one,
and he brought me again into the door of the house and behold,
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. I appreciate
Ezekiel's exactness about this. It's kind of difficult to read
because he's being very precise. as to the details of this. Why? Because it's vitally important. The Word of God is not written
to take up space, is it? It's important. And so I want
to begin now with an overview of this vision. I'm going to
give you an overview of what Ezekiel saw here. He being a
prophet of God, he was brought to the inner part of the tabernacle,
the part where the priests would do their daily ministering, where
the table of showbread and the laver and the candlestick were. He was in the outer part of the
holy place. But you remember that there was
another room inside of there called the Holy of Holies. It was a place where only the
high priest went, only once a year and only with the blood offering.
It was where the presence of God was. So He was not in there. But as He was standing at the
veil, He began to see water coming out on the east side of this
veil. This was a vision. And He saw water coming from
under the right side of the veil. flowing out of the temple, and
then he comes out of this, he follows the water outside of
the tabernacle, and there's a man standing there with a measuring
rod. And the man begins to measure
a thousand cubits, which is about three-fourths of a mile. And
all of a sudden the water is no longer a trickle, it's no
longer trickling out, it's grown. It's gone up to his ankles. And
the man measured another thousand cubits, which is another third
of a mile. And it was to his knees, another
third of a mile. And then it was to his lungs,
another third, and the water was overflowing him. So that
he had to swim back to the bank. Now he gets to the bank. And
what does he see now? He sees this river flowing. And
wherever this river flows, there were life. There were all sorts
of manner of fish. And this water flowed to a sea. Now that sea we're going to see
is the Dead Sea. It went through a desert place
and it flowed into the Dead Sea. You know what's in the Dead Sea?
Nothing. It's dead. There's no life there. But when
this water flowed into the Dead Sea, it was healed. And all of
a sudden, there was all sorts of manner of fish. And then you
had fishermen, this place called Ngedi. That's where the Dead
Sea was. Now, it's a ghost town. There's no purpose for it at
this time, because there's no life there. But he said there's
going to be life, and there are going to be fishermen. They're
going to be casting their nets. They're going to be drawing in all kinds of
fish. Then he saw wherever this river went, there were trees
on all sides of the bank. And these trees had produced
fruit. And their fruit was incorruptible.
It never rotted. It was astounding to him. It never rotted. And he said
every time it just kept producing more and more fruit. It never
faded. It never had a winter. That's
what it was. The leaves never faded. They
were always green. So this is the vision that he
speaks of, but I want you to know this was not something that
really happened physically. This was a vision, a spiritual
message, a spiritual, that's how we have to look at this.
So we look at the water, we look at the fish, we look at the trees,
we look at where it flowed into the desert and the Dead Sea.
All of this are spiritual things. It has a spiritual application.
Now, the main theme throughout this vision is what? What's the
center focus of the whole? It's the water, isn't it? It's
the water that trickled out from the inside. It was the water
that went to his ankles, his knees, his loins and over his
head. It was the water. Where would the water float?
The water is the central theme of this vision. And so we want
to know what is the water? What does that mean? Well, simply
put, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the water. And we can see this in many places.
In Zechariah, chapter 14, verse 8, jump turn there, it says,
In that day, it shall be in that day that living water shall go
out from Jerusalem. He's just talking about the day
of Christ, the day that He would come into the world. Then the
gospel should flow out of His church. In Ephesians chapter 5, when
he said that Christ is the husband that gave himself for his bride,
he said that he might sanctify and cleanse it, how? With the
washing of water by the word, the gospel, the gospel. And so as we see this river this
morning, I want to bring our attention to three aspects of
this river. First, I wanted to see the origin
of this river. Where did it come from? Secondly,
I want to see the outpouring of this water. Where did it go? And thirdly, I want to see the
operation of this water. What did it do? Where did it
come from? Where does it go? And what does
it do? First of all, the operation of
the water. The origin of the water, sorry.
The origin of the water. Where did it come from? Our text
said that it come outside of the holy of holies. Now, the origin of this water
was from behind the veil. In other words, it came from
God. That's where God dwelled. God dwelt in the holy of holies. This gospel is the gospel of
God. It is God's gospel. This is also seen in Revelation.
This is not just the only place it's seen as a river. But in
Revelation 22, John said, He showed me a pure river of water
of life, clear as crystal. Where'd it come from? proceeding
out of the throne of God. It's the same river. John saw
is the same river Ezekiel was looking at in this vision. It
is the gospel. Let us remember that at the time
of the prophet, the only place where God manifest himself was
in that tabernacle. That was the only And so this water came from behind
the veil signifies that the gospel's origin came from God. It originated with God in eternity
and was hidden in God before the foundation of the world. Now I want us to associate the
gospel with another word, covenant. Covenant. That's what the gospel
is. It is a covenant. Go to Jeremiah
chapter 23. Look over a few pages. Jeremiah chapter 23, I mean chapter
32. You have to forgive me, my mind's
not working on all cylinders this morning. Jeremiah 32 and look at verse
40. God here declares something. He says, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them. that I will not turn away from
them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts and they shall not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice
over them to do them good. And I will plant them in the
land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
So first of all, I want you to know is this water originated
with God, this covenant, this gospel? I want you to know it's
an eternal gospel. It originated with God and it
is an eternal gospel. God here likens His covenant
to an everlasting covenant. Tell me when an everlasting covenant
began. It had no beginning. This shows
that God in eternity past made an everlasting covenant which
we call the gospel of grace in Christ. Before all things, before all
things, God had planned and purposed all things concerning the gospel
and agreed within himself to accomplish and apply all that
was necessary to fulfill it. Whatever this covenant is, whatever
God determined to do within himself, God purposed that he alone should
do it. He alone should fulfill it. And this covenant that proceeded
from God was not only an everlasting covenant, it was one of grace. He said, I will make with them. In another place he talks about
this covenant and he says, I do this not for your sakes, but
for my own namesake do I this. So this covenant that God will
make, he said this, I will make. It is a sovereign Decree, it
is one of grace. It is a gospel of grace. In other words, there was nothing
but the love of God that moved him to make a covenant to save
man. Nothing. God didn't look down
the portals of time and see how good you'd be, see how wonderful
you'd be and say, oh, you know, I need to make a covenant for
him. He's going to be real good. If you think that, you're awful
self-righteous. You think too highly of yourself.
This covenant was made by God, by grace, and it was the love
of God that motivated him, that moved him to do this. He saw
nothing in the objects of his covenant, but yet he chose to
do it according to his own grace. And so this covenant is not only
eternal, it's not only one of grace, But it is one for the
elect of God. He said, I will make, listen,
with them. Whoever them are, that's the
one he makes the covenant with. I will make a covenant with them,
an everlasting covenant. This gospel, this river of God's
grace, this covenant of grace was intended of God for a very
specific people. They are called the elect. I
know this is a nasty word to the religious world, but it is
a beautiful word to the elect, to you who are chosen of God.
It is a beautiful word. Listen to what God says of this
eternal covenant to the Apostle in Ephesians 1. He said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I like these past tense words,
he hath blessed us. With what? All spiritual blessing.
Where are they? They were in Christ. According
as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. This is the eternal covenant.
to do them good. Isn't that right? What he said,
I will make an everlasting covenant to do them good. What is the
good that he's going to do them? That they should be holy and
without blame before him. That was his purpose. You that
believe on Christ, this is to you. And this river is gorgeous
to me. This is God's eternal covenant.
That he purposed that we should be holy without blame before
him in love having predestinated us under the adoption of children. How? How could he make us holy? How could he make us children
being sinners? By Jesus Christ. One way. One means. To himself. Isn't that something,
you know, I love to bring my children to myself. I'm pretty
selfish about my children. I love that when they're near
me, when I draw them to myself. Why? Because I love them, it's
precious to me. That's what God does for His
children. He's bringing us to Himself according,
listen, to the good pleasure of His will. I will make with
them an everlasting covenant. The reason that anyone is saved
is because God chose them to be saved. God purposed them to
be saved by Jesus Christ so that He should bring them to Himself.
And what are they going to do? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Who's going to get the glory
when God brings His elect to Himself? God Himself will get
the glory. According as He hath made us
accepted. Where have you been accepted?
You that are accepted, where have you been accepted? In the
Beloved. You were accepted in the Beloved. So then, now then we see that
it's a covenant of eternal proportions, it's a covenant of grace, it's
a covenant for the elect, but the center of this covenant is
not the elect. They're the objects of love,
but they're not the center. They're not the objects of praise.
There is a center to this covenant and it is Jesus Christ. He is
the center of this covenant. In that Holy of Holies, in that
center room where this water trickled out, you know what was
in there? What was in that room? A box,
big box. It was a wooden box overlaid
with gold and on top of it was a golden lid that was beaten
They didn't shave it. They beat it and made those two
seraphims touching their angel wings, their wings touching each
other. That's the mercy seat. And you
remember inside of the ark, there was the rod of Aaron that budded
and the law was in there. The Ten Commandments were in
there. And then you had the manna was in there. Man, if you can't
see that all of that picture of Jesus Christ, the wooden box
is humanity, overlaid with gold as bead. You see inside that
he is the keeper of the law. Inside the box, the box was the
keeper of the law. Christ was the keeper of the
law. In that box was life, dead rod that budded. Christ is the
giver of life and fruit. There was almonds on that branch. And then there was the manna.
Christ is the bread of life. And you know that lid that overlaid
that ark, it made a solid gold, beaten. Isn't this what Christ
did for us? And then the blood was sprinkled
on top of that? What a picture of Christ's offering
and sacrifice. How then was Israel accepted
and redeemed? How were their sins atoned? Only
by the blood sprinkled upon that altar. That all pictured Christ. As that ark was the center of
their worship, so is Jesus Christ the center and hub of this covenant. It all depends on Him. The salvation
and the covenant of God totally depends upon the success of Jesus
Christ. God says, I will make an everlasting
covenant to do them good. You know, the only way God could
do them good is by the work and success of Jesus' offering and
righteousness. That's the only way God could
do us good. He's the center of this covenant. He is the mercy seat. He is the
ark of the covenant. It is his offering. So then he
from all eternity has been the center of this covenant. He was
the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And this is the
hope of every believer that we were chosen in him. According as he had chosen us
in him. My only hope of salvation is
in him. This everlasting covenant, therefore
Jesus in this everlasting covenant agreed to represent all those
that the Father gave Him. He agreed to be all their salvation. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
30, But of God are you in Christ Jesus. When were you put in Christ
Jesus? Well the scripture just told
you when, before the foundation of the world. The elect were
put in Christ Jesus into union with Him. God hitched our wagon
to Him. All the success of His covenant
was dependent upon Christ. And He agreed to be their Savior. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So then the success of this covenant
was totally dependent upon His success. Now we have hundreds of thousands
of Christians so-called in this
nation. So thousands and thousands of churches. All different sorts
of denominations. You know what separates them
all? The success of Christ. The person and success of Christ. He is God manifest in the flesh. He came to save His people from
their sins. Isn't that what the angel told
us? He shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people
from their sins. Isaiah chapter 42, He shall not
fail nor be discouraged. In Psalm 45 and verse 4 He says,
ride prosperously, successfully. And so then herein lies the main
difference. Was Christ successful? Did He make salvation possible
or did He actually save? The whole of God's covenant was
dependent upon His success. And what did He say when He did
it? It is finished. Covenant ratified. Success. And we know this because
God raised him from the dead. And so we see this as a covenant.
Now then, I want us to see the movement of this water is by
the Spirit of God. You see, all of that water was
behind the veil until when? Until God made it known to Ezekiel. The covenant was always there
in eternity with God. This was the eternal purpose
of God. But yet, now God has willed to
show it to us. Who is the one that shows it
to us? It is the Spirit of God that moves this water. It is
the Spirit of God that causes the revelation of this covenant. I think in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, The Apostle says it like this, he says, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom of God, ordained
before the world unto our glory. You see that? That's a covenant
hidden in the veil before it was made known. It was a hidden
mystery. Which none of the princes of
the world knew, for had they known it, they wouldn't have
crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, I have not
seen nor heard, neither entered into the heart of man. the things
that God has prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
it unto us by his spirit. So who moves this water? Who
reveals this water? Who reveals this covenant? Who
reveals this gospel? It is the spirit of God. Are
you getting the sense that this is all of God yet? Are you getting
the picture that all this is of God? Now you may be one of the elect. Great, that's wonderful. You're
a receiver of this. But what did you do to contribute?
You didn't have anything to do with this water. God just showed it to you. God
just revealed it to you. So the revealer of this gospel
is the Spirit. Remember that's what he told
the Nicodemus, didn't he? Yeah, in John chapter 3, he said,
the Spirit, he said, the wind bloweth where it listeth. You
can hear the sound thereof, but can't tell whether it's coming
or whether it's going. So is everyone that is born of the
Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that
moves this river, this water. Now then, we see the origin then
is of God. God purposed it. Christ was to
accomplish it, the Spirit was to apply it. Now then, the outpouring
of this water, go back to your text, see it issued from out
under the threshold of the house eastward on the right side of
the house and the south side of the altar. This is none other
than the Holy Spirit issuing the Word of God, the eternal
counsel of God to man. How can we know the eternal dealings
of God except God revealed them to us? Religion makes a guess. That's
all religion does. They guess what God is. They
guess who He is. They guess what He wants. They're
just trying to figure it out. I'm not trying to figure it out.
I know it. Why? The Spirit of God revealed it
to me. The Spirit of God. And I want you to see as this
water poured out, listen to this. It says, there ran out waters. Now, that little phrase signifies
trickle. In other words, he looked over
there at the veil and he saw a little trickle of water. Curious,
so he pulled it out and he sees a man. Oh, well, let's measure
this out. And you see the measure, it begins
at his ankles and he goes a little further and it's to his loins
and a little further, it's over his head. In this I want you
to see the progression of Revelation. When the gospel came to Adam
and Eve, it was a trickle. Right? The seed of the woman
shall crush the head of the serpent. And then God killed an animal
and covered their nakedness. Now that was the only gospel
they had. That was it. Christ is going to come, and
by the bruising of His heel, He's going to destroy Satan and
sin. And then He showed them a picture
by killing those animals and covering their nakedness. That's
a gospel message. I can preach from there. But
they had a little bit. Then you go a little bit further
in the Bible and you find out that there's a Passover lamb.
Blood sprinkled on the lower post and on the lintel and only
those who are inside there with the blood sprinkled will live.
What a picture of Christ. It's getting a little bit brighter,
a little bit deeper. You go down to, man you go to
Isaiah, Isaiah's full of it. Conceive the woman. And then
He says, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Gets a little
brighter. Oh, He's going to be born in Bethlehem. Scripture
tells where He's going to be born. A little brighter. It's
going to tell us that He's going to be David's son and David's
Lord. A little brighter. It's going
to tell us that He pierced His hands and His feet. Somehow,
He's going to save us by His pierced hands and His pierced
feet. A little bit brighter. Until when? Until Christ came
and the dead gum thing bust open. The river is now over my head.
I can go any place in this book and I can find that river. I
can find Christ. I can find Christ because this
is all about Christ. It's all about Him. The dam burst
and I see everything clearly now. I see that He's the seed
of the woman that crushed the head of the serpent. He's the
offering that covered their nakedness. He's the Passover lamb. He's
the high priest. He's the atonement. He's the
scapegoat. He's the strong man that bears
off the scapegoat. He's everything. He's the tabernacle.
He's the ark of the covenant. He's the table of surety. He's
the bread. He's the lamp. He's the labor. Everything in that Old Testament
pictured Him. And now this river is busted
open and I can see Christ clearly in every place. So we see this outpouring and
notice then the path of this outpouring. Where is this river
going? Look at this in verse 8. After
he had measured it and went out and he said to me, ìThese waters
issue out toward the east country They go down into the desert
and go into the sea. Which being brought forth into
the sea, the waters shall be healed. And the waters flowing
down into the desert, and I don't want to spend much time on this,
but it is true, it's very significant that this was talking about the
Gentiles. The Gentiles that were outside
of the blessings of Israel. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians
2. He said, In time past you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in
Christ Jesus you were sometimes far off or made not. The barren
land of the Gentiles was now to be flooded with the gospel.
Isn't that what happened? It's exactly what happened. When
they had rejected Christ, when the Jews had rejected Him, He
went where? To the Gentiles with the gospel.
But this was always his purpose, to go into that desert land,
into that dead sea of the Gentiles and give life. But much more
than this, I think it's much more a picture as when the gospel
comes to the desert wastelands of a man's heart. This is the
path of the gospel. When God's people come to this
world, they are as a desert. You think of a desert, I know
when you think of it, all you think of is sand. Big picture
of sand from one extreme to the other. No life whatsoever. That's what our hearts are when
we come into this world. Dead. We are very much like the
Dead Sea. Now remember where the Dead Sea
came from, don't you? It was Lot's wife. Lot's wife became
a pillar of salt, and in that place, that's where the Dead
Sea originated. was there. And that sea has had
no life in it whatsoever ever since then. This is true of us by nature.
We come into this world dead, dry. Have you found this world
to be dry? Better yet, have you found your
heart to be a desert? No life. No ability to please God. Have
you been there? Listen, if you still got some
ability to please God, you still got something you think God wants.
It's not talking about you. The river don't flow into those
places. The river flows only into deserts. Only into the lifeless. To those who have no hope. If
this is you, listen to what the word of God says. Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come you to the waters. He that
hath no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk with what? What are you gonna buy it with?
Without money and without price. You see, this water's free. This
water's free. The only reason that you should
be rejected of this water is if you bring something to pay
for it. What are you going to bring to pay for it? This money is without water,
this river is without money, without price. If anyone needs
forgiveness of sins, I knew this, When the Lord brought
me to see the barrenness of my heart, there was a hole in there
that I tried to fill with everything I could. I tried to fill it with every
pleasure I could possibly get. And you know what I found? It only made it bigger. The void
only grew. I was like that woman with the
issue of blood. She grew none better, only worse. If you have a hole in your heart,
if you see that your work's religion cannot save you, this is where the river flows.
This is where the gospel comes. But notice this in verse 11 of
your text. He said, But the miry places thereof and the marshes
thereof shall not be healed. They shall be given to salt.
What are these miry places? This is false religion. They
got a little water, but it's only a puddle. It's not a river.
It's a puddle. What do you get when you put
water in sand? You get mud. Well, there's no
life in a muddy puddle. Well, that's what it is with
false religion. Religion's just a puddle. and full of half-truths. Therefore, their gospel is not
clear, but muddy. They muddy it up because that's
what works religion does. When is enough enough? When have
you made enough signs of the cross? When? When is it enough?
Oh, it's never enough. They got to always keep adding
numbers to that. Why? It's muddy. There's never a clear
understanding of how a man can be right with God. But the gospel
is very clear. This river that I'm talking about
is very clear. Only by Jesus Christ. Without any works from you. Is
that clear enough? Salvation is only by Jesus Christ. It's not a mixture of a cooperative
effort between you and Christ. You know what I contribute to
this salvation? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But preacher,
didn't you have to believe? You bet I did. Where'd that come
from? Where'd my faith come from? Did
I generate it of my own free will? Did I generate it of my
own power? No. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God and not of
works. Why? Lest any man have room to
boast. I don't have any room to boast.
I don't have any room to brag. I am saved because God purposed
me to be saved. I am saved because Christ accomplished
my salvation. I am saved because the river
moved the gospel to my dead. heart and gave me life, gave
me faith. So this river, it comes to desert,
but those but those in false religion, he said, I'm not going
to heal those people. And so you come to God by your works,
by your will. He said, I'm just going to make
that a salty puddle of mud. That's all you are. You're a
salty puddle of mud. You got a little little water
and you think that's life. That's not life. It's death. I pray that God would even now
make this river to flow to the barren hearts of sinners. I think Paul said this, be it
known to you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Through this man, this
man, this man, Christ. And so now we see where the water
goes. It goes to those who are dead in sins. Now then the last
thing, what is the operation of this water? We see its origin,
what is it? Its origins in God. God covenanted it, Christ accomplished
it, the Spirit is going to apply it. It flows out by the Holy
Spirit and it goes to the dead sinner. Now what does it do when
it comes to the sinner? Look at chapter 47 again, your
text. He said, These waters issue out
toward the east country, go down the desert to the sea, and brought
forth to the sea, the waters are healed. And it shall come
to pass that everything that liveth and moveth, whithersoever
the water shall come, shall live. What is the operation of the
river? It is always, always, always to give life. To give spiritual life. Whithersoever it comes, it shall
live. And life shall spring up. In
verse 10 it says this shall come to pass that fisher shall stand
upon it from Engedi, even from Igneum. Now the Engedi is the
dead sea, an obnoxious, useless sea. So it is when the gospel comes
in power to the dead sinner. Matthew Henry says this intimates
the wonderful and blessed change that the gospel would make. wheresoever
it comes in power, as great a change as in respect to character and
condition as the turning of a dead sea into fountain of gardens."
When God comes to the dead center, there is a change. There's a
change. God changes our thoughts concerning
ourself and concerning God. I once thought I was able to
merit God's favor. But when this river came to me,
it surely did in great power change my thoughts on this. That
God is holy and I can by no means make myself acceptable to God.
I was convinced I was a sinner. I was thoroughly convinced that
there was nothing, nothing I could do to make myself acceptable
to God? Nothing. I was totally in the
sovereign hands of a living God. I was barren and dead. I was
convinced of that. I was convinced that my religion
was nothing more than a false refuge of lies. I remember that tsunami in India
a long time ago. You remember that? You ever seen
a man standing in front of that? Somebody took a picture of that.
I don't know how they got the picture. Maybe it was transposed. I don't
know. He's standing there looking up. Wave about to crush him. What could he do? That's how
I felt. in the presence of God. And I
tell you what, just as that wave swept through that village and
destroyed everything, God destroyed all my hopes, all my dreams,
and all my schemes. But in the same moment, this
river was destroying my hopes and dreams, it was also giving
me life. See, a dead man can't see he's
dead. He knows nothing. Only a living man can see he's
dead and need a life. And you know what? That river
of the gospel came to me and said, Christ is old. Come unto me, all you who are
weary, was I weary, and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And I came to him, I remember
one time, the best explanation of faith was this woman came
and she said, you know, I heard a message of the gospel and I
was, at the very beginning of that message, I knew this, I
did not believe. I would not believe. She was
listening because she felt like she was forced to. Somebody made
her, felt like she, boyfriend or something, I can't remember
who it was, gave her the tape, but she listened. And she said
to me as I was listening, I could not help but believe. That says it all to me. When
that river flows, river of life flowed into my heart, I could
do nothing else but believe on Christ. I saw all my hope in that one
man. I saw His blood is the only thing
that can cleanse me of my sin. I was naked before God and only
His righteousness can clothe me. I found everything I needed
in Him. And notice this, He not only
gives life, He gives fishermen. He said, I saw a fisherman out
there in this dead sea fishing. Fishing in a dead sea. What do you think I'm doing today? I'm fishing. I'm casting net. That's what he said, I will make
you fishers of men. That's what we do. We take the gospel and we cast
our nets at adventure and we know this, there are fish out
there. Cheryl's grandfather. I used
to go fishing with him back in the early 90s. We'd go out and fish. He found,
he got this new thing, new fangle back then, fish finder. We put that thing on the boat
and boy, we'd run out to fish and we'd just look at these little
blips and say, oh, there's some fish. We'd stop there. We'd throw
our, why would we stop there? There were fish there. We knew
there were fish there. We wouldn't have stopped if there
weren't no fish. Why do I keep preaching the gospel
year after year and see little increase? Why do I do that? Terrence,
if you saw no increase in your business, you'd probably have
to wrap it up and quit. That's not for us. You know I know there's
fish out there. I don't know where they are.
I don't know who they are. So I cast the net at adventure.
You know what I know this, wherever that river goes, there'll be
life. And wherever there's life, God
will draw His people to Himself. I found this interesting. I want
you to understand. Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 16. You can look it
up later. It's talking about these evil men worshiping their
nets. And as they drag, now that's
words in the text there, that they drag their nets. That's
what false religion does. They just throw their nets and
they're dragging. They're trying to angle. You know, in my grandfather's
vision, We're angling, right? We're trying to lure the fish. That's not what we do. That's
false religion, trying to lure fish. I don't lure fish. I throw
out the net. God brings them in the net. That's
it. We don't drag the bottom trying
to get people to come. We know this. When that river
hits you, if you're dead and that river hits you, you'll live.
And notice it brings trees. Trees are a picture of the saints.
In other words, these trees, who plants them? You that are
believers in Christ, who planted you? Who brings forth the fruit
in you? We know this, that we are planted
of God and the fruit is of God. The fruit The reason these trees
produce so much fruit is that they were by the water. So as we preach the gospel to
you, we know and are sure of this, that God will not only
draw His people, but He will give them the fruit of the Spirit,
so that they should live by faith constantly. This is how the believer
lives, isn't it? by faith, just like that tree
must live by the water, even so we must live by faith in Christ
constantly. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, that
just shall live by faith. And these leaves on the trees,
in verse 12, he says, and the leaves thereof shall be for medicine. Oftentimes God's people are battered
and bruised. Often God's people need constant
healing, constant perpetual forgiveness of sins. Here's the leave that every troubled
believer needs. Isaiah 40 and verse 1, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to
Jerusalem and cry unto her. Listen, her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, for
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Listen, that river that cleansed
me is constantly, perpetually cleansing me. Why? My warfare is done. Christ, by
Christ I have received double for all my sins. So in closing, I ask this, are
there any in need of comfort? What's going to comfort you?
It's the same thing that God purposed to save you. It's the
river. It's Christ. It's the gospel. This gospel was purposed of God.
God said, I'm going to make an everlasting covenant with them.
I chose a people, and I'm going to save them. And I'm going to
do it one way, by Jesus Christ, the center of this covenant.
then by His success I'm going to send my spirit out and that
water is going to flow with or so ever I want it to. This morning,
listen to me, I never feel successful in preaching, ever. That doesn't
have anything to do with the success of this. Wherever this
river goes is where God intended it to go this morning. This word
is His and He'll do with it as He pleases. He may harden you,
He may save you. He may comfort you or He may
distress you. I don't know. It's His river. I pray that it goes to save and
comfort the elect, and I know it will. It is the gospel of
grace. It comes by the Spirit and it
gives life. I pray God will bless you.