All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Revelation. Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. Text will
be found in verse 6 and 7. And it's a long title. But in
the title, you have all my points. So if you want to write the title
down, you'll have all the poise. So you can go back and look at
them. I've entitled this, The Accomplishment, Application,
Abundance, and Admonition of Grace. You can say the four A's
of grace if you want to. The accomplishment of grace. The application of grace. The
abundance of grace and the admonition of grace. And all of these things
are contained in these two verses. All of them are right here. Right
here for you. Let's read this together. Revelation
chapter 21 and verse... Let's go to verse 5. Verse 5
through 7. Scripture says, And he that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things knew. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto
him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."
Now, Lord Jesus Christ, in the order of the text here, after
he had made a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness and peace, after the church of God, the new Jerusalem,
had descended from heaven God had then removed all sin, all
pain, all sorrow and death. Jesus makes this declaration. After this was done, He said
this, Behold, I make all things new. It's a declaration of the
sovereign Christ, of the victorious Christ. And surely this is true. At the last day, He will stand
and He will say these words, Behold, I make all things new. And they are, they will be brand
new. All the former things, He said
the former things in verse 4 are passed away. The former things
are passed away. What are the former things? Sin.
In this day, sin will be gone. No more sin. No more evil, sickness,
sorrow, death. Satan will be done away with,
affliction, troubles, trials, earthly governments and kingdoms,
all these things that trouble us. Name it. It's in this category. All of these things will be passed
away. They won't ever come back again.
He shall declare this forever and ever, I make all things new. But I want you to see that this
is also, this announcement does not begin at the end. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said this to John 2,000 years ago. He said, Behold,
I make all things new. This is happening even as we
speak. Right now in time is this declaration
taking place. We're not going to stay here,
but if you want to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and see if these words
are not exactly what the Apostle Paul says. In 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 17. He says this of all who believe,
all who trust in Christ. He's talking about you. You and
me who are believers in Christ. He said this. Therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is what? He is a new creation. Christ said, behold, I make all
things what? New. He is a new creation. In Revelation, it said, the former
things have passed away. Now what he said, he said, all
things are passed away. And behold, there it is. Here's
the proclamation. All things are become new. That
sound familiar? Is that not exactly what our
Lord declared he would do? Behold, I make all things new. Therefore, we who believe on
Jesus Christ, we have experienced this declaration. When He has
saved us, He has made all things new. He gave us a new nature. A new nature in which nature,
all the former things are passed away. There's no sin in this
new nature. There's no curse in this new
nature. Yes, in the old nature it still remains. Therefore,
the struggle. Therefore, the difficulties.
Therefore, the troubles. But in the new nature, behold,
He said, I make all things new. We are new creations. And this
we know. If you are a new creature, we
know this is a result of the promise of God. You are a new
creation on purpose. God purposed that you should
be a new creation in Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36, if you want to
look at that, you can. This is the covenant. This is
the covenant that God promised. He says in verse 24 of Ezekiel
36, He said, For I will take you from among the heathen. Isn't
that where He found you, believer? Did He not find you among the
heathen? Among the unbelievers? He did. He said, I'll not only
take you, I'll gather you. Those two words are wonderful,
aren't they? Because He did. He did have to snatch us. He
did have to drag us. He did have to take us. And then
He not only took us, He gave us a new nature, and then He
what? He gathered us. He took us by giving us a new
heart, and then He gathered us by calling us. And what could
the new heart do but come? The new heart could do nothing
else. He said, I'll gather you out of all the countries and
I'll bring you into your own land. And what I'm going to do
is I'm going to sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall
be clean from all your filthiness, from all your idols. Will I cleanse
you? What is that but the blood of
Christ? It is the blood of Christ that
cleanses us from all our sin. This is a promise of God. This promise, I think it was
some 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came in the world.
This is a promise of God. He said, I'm going to take you
from among the heathen. I'm going to cleanse you from
all your sin. And look what he said, a new heart also will I
give you. Behold, I make all things new. I'm going to give you a new heart.
He promised to give us a new heart and a new spirit will I
put in within you. This is a promise of a new nature
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now to a sinner, to a sinner
whose heart is only evil continually, to a sinner who's only corrupt
and vile by nature, This announcement of grace is one of hope. If you
are a sinner and all you are is sin, this is a message of
hope that God has promised to give a new heart to cleanse from
sin. And notice, now go back to your
text, now this is His promise. I make all things new. This is
His promise before He came into the world. I am going to make
you a new heart. I am going to make you a new
creation. That is the promise and purpose of God. How do we know this promise is
sure? Because of the One who said it.
Because of the One who said it. Well, I know this, we have people
that we just don't trust. We just do. We have people in
our lives that just have proven themselves over and over again
that you cannot trust them. So when they say something, maybe
it'll come... You just take it for a grain
of salt because of who they are. You know, and if you're wise,
you'd do that. And if it comes true, wonderful.
If they can earn your trust again, wonderful. For the time being,
you can't really trust Him. Listen. Listen to the One who
said, I will make all things new. This is the assurance of
the promise. Look back at your text now. Now
you know the promise. The promise is a new heart. The
promise is cleansing. The promise is a new creation. And you can bank on it because
of the One who said it. Look at that in verse 5. He that
sat upon the throne said. You got that? The One in charge
said it. And notice what He said. Write. I make all things new. Write
it down. So centuries from now, when people
read this, they will know it is true. He said, write it because
the words are true and faithful. Now listen, we all try to be
true. Most of the time we just, we're
incapable of it. We don't know the future. We
don't know what lies ahead. We can promise things and we
can have it all planned out. And yet it all falls to pieces. Why? We're not sitting on the
throne. But this one, he is sitting on
the throne of God and he said all things. Behold, I make all
things new. And if he has made us new creations,
now listen to this, if he has made you a new creation, a partaker
of the divine nature, we should rejoice because he said it's
faithful and true. How many times do you look in
the mirror and you don't see a new creation? This morning I looked and I didn't
see a new creature. We see the old man said, but
my hope is not in what I see. My hope is in what he said. I've made you a new creation,
new creature, made you a partaker of the divine nature. And listen,
his word cannot be broken. Men have tried to break his word
for centuries, haven't they? They have tried to disprove it,
they have tried, and they've only looked like fools in doing
it. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. In other words, you that have
a new nature, it's not going away. I've made it, He said. It's faithful
and true. I've made it. His Word cannot
be broken. And so then now it leads me to
this. I want us to see those four things
now about this grace, this purposed grace of a new creation. Christ
said He's going to do it. We that have experienced it,
all of these four things, we're going to understand because we
ourselves are partakers of this new nature. And so when I say
these things, they're not going to be something new to you. You're
just going to say, yeah, that's it. That's what happened to me. First of all, I want you to see
something about this purpose. It's accomplished. He who sat
on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. He promised to
give us a new heart. And listen. He says this. Look
back at your text. And He said unto me. Now this
is faithful and true. Now you pay attention. He said
this. It is done. Now if you want the
gospel in a nutshell, there it is. It is done. It's done. All those things that God purposed
are done. Christ said it is done. He who promised and declared
to make all things new, to give us new hearts says it is done.
It was God's eternal purpose to make all of His elect new
creations. To make us holy and without blame
before Him. Ephesians chapter 1 says that. Before the world began He chose
us in Christ. for this purpose that we should
be holy. It was the will of the Father then that Christ the Son
should be the only mediator, high priest, and redeemer of
the elect. That He should be the only surety,
the only representative of those He purposed to save. Therefore, when Jesus came into
the world, He came to do the will of God. All He did in this
world was the will of God. Lo, I come. In the volume of
the book, it is written of Me to do Thy will, O God. And what was the result of His
obedience to the will of God? By the which will, Paul says
in Hebrews 10, by the which will we are sanctified. new creatures, made holy, made
holy. And so Christ came to do the
will of God, and this encompassed two things, the will of God.
To accomplish the righteousness of the law by obedience. Christ
came into the world to obey the law in every measure, in thought,
in word, in deed, and in action. And he did. He came and fulfilled
righteousness. Righteousness. And the second thing was redemption.
He came to redeem, to buy, to purchase, to reconcile. His elect to God, and this was
only possible through His death. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Religion has been trying to have
remission by works ever since false religion came in. Ever
since Adam sowed the first fig leaves. He's been trying to remit
his sin by the works of his hands. You can't. There is nothing you
can do to remove sin. Nothing. Therefore Christ for
His people came to pay their redemption, to satisfy the justice
of God. And what was His verdict after
He had satisfied God? As He hung upon Calvary's tree,
as He bled As he fulfilled the prophecies
of God, when it was done, what did he say? It is finished. Same thing he says in our text.
It is done. Righteousness fulfilled. Redemption
accomplished. I was preaching last week about
the Lord's supper, the king that had made the supper, and the
proclamation was simply this, all is ready. All is ready. If you read that parable in Matthew
22, I believe, and the end, when they all gathered together, there
was one guy there who had his own robe, who had his own righteousness. That's what it is. And so it is, if any man try
to add anything to the... At the end of this book in Revelation,
it says, if any man add anything to this book, or any man take
away anything from this book, they shall take away his name
from the book of life. You know what that means? You
add anything to Christ. You add anything to Christ. That's
what this book is about, Christ. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ.
You add anything to Him, God will take you out. If you take
anything from Him, You say, well, His righteousness is 99.9%. You've
taken something from Him. God will take your name out of
that book, what He says. But all things are ready. What
does that mean? It's accomplished. This is the message of the Gospel.
Is salvation finished? Salvation accomplished. This is the whole of the Gospel. It is done. And seen in the glory
and majesty of our salvation is that it was purposed of the
Father and then it was accomplished by the Son. Even before we were
aware of it, even before we experienced it, I want you to see this. This
is vitally important for your comfort as you walk through this
world. Everything the Father purposed,
Christ has accomplished before we ever experienced it. Go to 2 Timothy. Go to 2 Timothy. And look at verse 9. You can
begin in verse 8. He says, Be not therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. But be
thou partakers of the affliction of the gospel according to the
power of God. How were you saved? By your power
or by the power of God? We know who are saved, we know
it's the power of God. The power of God. Listen. Who
hath saved us and called us? Which is first? Which is first? Were you called first or were
you saved first? Very simple. You were saved and
then you were called. Now, why in the world would He
do that? Not according to our words, but according to His own
purpose and grace. Now, we're talking about His
purpose, right? We're talking about what God purposed. We're
talking about what Christ accomplished. This purpose and grace was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. When did you have
the grace of God? Now, I know when you experienced
the grace of God, it's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking
about when you actually had the grace of God. When was it? Paul says before the world began,
you had the grace of God. Therefore, He saved you. Then what did He do? He called
you. He called you. But now, but now is made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death. Isn't that what He does? When
He died, He said it's finished. Death, is death abolished? Is it? Jesus said that. He said, I'm the resurrection
and life. Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.
Believeth thou this? Do you believe that? Now it's made manifest by His
appearing, but not on this. He has brought life and immortality
to light through the Gospel. That's the calling part. He brought
it to life. He brought life and light of
this. I had the grace of God from eternity.
I was saved before I was born. But now, by the grace and power
of God, I've experienced it. You see, my salvation was already
accomplished. It was already done. Before it
got to me, it was already done. I like that in Romans 8. You know,
He predestinated us. To be adopted? To be children
of God? To be in the image of Christ?
And He says that we were called, justified, and glorified. Do
you feel glorified? Again, you look in that mirror
this morning, do you see a glorified person? No, but you were. You were already glorified. You
were already called. You were already justified before
you ever experienced it. In the mind and purpose of God,
as you were in Christ. Therefore, so all our salvation
then redounds to the glory of Christ. Look at what he says
back in your text now. Look at this. He says it's done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He says what is done, I'm the
beginning of it and I'm the end of it. I am the beginning of
your salvation and I'm the end of it. And I'm everything in
between. Christ has accomplished our salvation
for all that the Father gave to Him. Now the second thing. Application. Application. We want to see this in our text. Go back there and look at this.
I need to move a little faster. I know I'm trying to. He says
this, I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain and
the water of life freely. The salvation he has accomplished,
what is he saying here? I will apply it. What I have
done, I will give freely to those that are athirst. Now this salvation
of all the elect purposed of God in eternity, Christ has accomplished
it in time. But the work of a Holy Spirit
in our salvation is the application of grace. It is the actual creation. It is the actual creation of
a new nature inside all of those He saved. I know you all have heard Jesus
say, Behold, I make all things new. I will give him a new heart. I will cleanse you from your
sin. I will be your God. You shall be My people. But I
need to ask you this. You can know that here. Have
you experienced it? What good is it if you know these
things, but you yourselves are not made partakers of these things? How many of your children have
heard this same message all of their life and they won't even
go to an Armenian church because they just can't stomach it? They
just know. Even when they're sitting there,
they just know it's wrong. Yeah, but all up here. But they
themselves have not been made partakers of the divine nature. They've not experienced it. Have
you experienced it? Have you been born again? This
is the necessity. All those that got purpose, all
of those that Christ accomplished salvation, of necessity, they
themselves must receive it. They must have it. Jesus said,
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. And why is this? Because that
which is born of flesh is flesh. That old man, that old nature
which is born of flesh, we all have, it ain't changing. I know
religion tells you you can change it. No, you can suppress it. But you ain't changing it. And
if you suppress it too hard, it's gonna spring up on you.
It's vile, it's corrupt. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. That's why it has to go to the earth. That's why it has
to die. Because it's flesh. But that which is born of Spirit
is Spirit. Therefore I said to you, you
must be born again. You must. This new creation of
the Holy Spirit, it always awakens the sinner to his need. If God has ever quickened you,
you understand something about your need. You know something
of your need. of life. You know your need of mercy,
of peace and righteousness before God. In this declaration of Jesus
Christ, we see that the fountain of the water of life, look what
he says, he says, I will give unto him that is a thirst of
the fountain of the water of life freely. What is He saying
here? Who is this water of life? It
is Christ Himself. He is the source and sum of this
water of life. He alone is the fountain of life. From Him issues all the waters
of eternal life and cleansing from sin. You remember that rock
in the wilderness? That rock? Nobody ever thought
that water would come from a rock. Do you? When you look for water,
is that where you'd wanna look for it? You know, you'd go dig
a hole, you'd try to find a well, you'd try to find water under
the earth. He said, no, it's in the rock. Christ, to the sinner, is the
most unlikely source of life. But we, who have experienced
the grace of God, we know this, He is the source of eternal life. Remember that woman at the well,
Jesus said this to her. He said, if thou knewest the
gift of God. He's talking about himself. He
said, if you knew the gift of God. And who it is that said,
and they give me the drink. Thou wouldest ask of him and
he would have given thee living water. Jesus is the living water. He alone can give life to sinners. He alone can satisfy the soul,
cleanse them from their sin and make them acceptable with God. He is the fountain of the water
of life. And so what He promises to give,
what He promises to apply to the sinner is Himself. He is
the water of life. In Zechariah 13, God makes this
promise. He says, in that day there shall
be a fountain open. A fountain open to the house
of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Listen, I like
that. This fountain is open for a very
specific people. It's not open for the world.
It's open for the house of David. It's open for Jerusalem. That
means in spiritual terms, it's open for the elect. That's the
people it's open for. Now, what is this fountain open
for? For sin and uncleanness. You see who Jerusalem and the
house of David is? They're sinners. They're sinners. And this fountain has been opened.
Who is this fountain but Christ? Consider His hands and His feet
were opened. His side was opened. His flesh
was opened. His flesh was torn, not for Himself, It was torn by the justice of
God. As he was made to bear the sins
of his people, God in justice opened him up and outpoured his
blood as payment for his sin. He paid for our sin. Awake, O
sword, and smite the shepherd, the man that is my fellow. Smite
the shepherd! That's what happened in Calvary.
God smote the shepherd. And the sheep were scattered.
And then what? God says this. Then I will turn to the little
ones. Then I will come and gather them. Only after He had accomplished
our salvation, God promises to turn His hands to the little
ones. To gather those that are scattered. See how God declares Him then
to be successful. That His death His redemption
was perfect for those He died for. This fountain was open to
cleanse sin and run righteousness. In Hebrews it tells us this,
that He didn't enter the presence of God with the blood of others,
but He entered once and He obtained eternal redemption. It is done. It is done. Eternal redemption. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, sat down. He sat down. Having finished
the work by his one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And now, then see, the fountain
is opened. Sin is atoned by the one offering
of Christ. And now, what does Christ say?
I freely give what I've provided. The blood that I have shed, I
freely give. I freely give of this fountain
of the water of life. What's the qualification? Look at your text. Tell me the
qualification for this. He says, I freely give it, but
there's only one class of people he'll give it to. Who is it? I will give unto him that is,
what? A thirst. A thirst. I will give him the fountain
of water of life freely. This is the experience of grace
that opens the eyes of the sinner to know his need and feel the
burden of his sin. It is the work of the Spirit
of God to make a man a thirst. To make a man thirsty for righteousness. If any man has ever received
this gift, the Spirit must give him life. And that life will
always result in a need. A need. He will see his guilt and his
just reward of the judgment of God. Only then will that man
ever search for or long for a remedy. If you're not thirsty, do you
imagine you'd search for water? Why? You're not thirsty. Only
a man thirsty will search for water. And he won't quit until
he finds it. Why? He's thirsty. And God, when He exposes a man,
He strips him of his self-righteousness, and that man has need. Remember
that woman that was with the issue of blood? Scripture says
in Mark chapter 5 and verse 25, that woman, she suffered many
things of many physicians. She had 12 years of this sickness,
and 12 years she sought a remedy. She had a need. But it really
wasn't that great at the first because she thought she could
supply it herself. She had some money. She had plenty
of money. There were plenty of doctors.
Surely her money and those doctors could fulfill her need. But the
scripture said she had suffered many things of many physicians.
And then she spent all she had. And listen, her condition didn't
get better. It grew none the better, but
only worse. Then she heard... You suppose that was a coincidence.
Then she heard of Jesus. And she came in the press behind
and touched the hem of His garment. And she said in herself, if I
could just touch... If I could just touch the hem of this... I know this man can make me whole. This man can make me whole. And
immediately when she touched that garment, her issue was taken
care of. Her issue was gone. This woman. This is a picture
of sinners. A sinner is made aware of his
condition will seek anything and everything to find a cure. Is this what we did when we were
made aware? We didn't first come to Christ
when we were made aware. We were made aware. We searched
for anything and everything we had within our own power. Our
own grasp. We searched in religion. Jack Shakespeare made a list
of doctors one time in a message. I can't find that message, but
it's really good. He made a list of doctors this
woman saw. One of them was Dr. Feelgood. Well, all you need
to do is Just think positive. Just feel good about your situation.
Feel good about yourself and who you are. Dr. Legality. Well, you just need
to start trying to live better. You need to start trying to obey
the law. Dr. Duncombe. All you need to do
is get baptized. And then you're cured. Dr. Goodworks or Dr. Freewill. All
you need to do is make a decision. You just got to determine. You
got to add to Christ. Christ did everything and you
got to make it the rest. You know what happens to a really,
truly convicted sinner when he goes to these doctors? He grows
none better, but only worse. These are doctors of no value. And it's sad. It's sad that we have to spend
everything before we would come to Christ. Isn't it? Why wouldn't
we just come at the beginning? No. You have to spend everything. You have to really lay yourself
at His feet and you must say like her, if I could just have
a thread of His mercy. If he would just like give the
dog the crumbs from the master's table. It's only when we run out of
options that we overcome to Christ. In Jeremiah chapter 2, God says,
they have forsaken Me, the fountain of life, for broken cisterns. This is what we did. We tried
to store up our own righteousness. We dug up, we worked, we slaved
to try to make ourselves acceptable with God only to find that our
righteousness didn't hold water. And He said, why would you want
a cistern when there's a fountain? A cistern is nothing but a stagnant
pond pool of water. Why would you want that when
I'm the fountain of life? It is this fountain, Jesus Christ,
that springs forth before the eyes of such a sinner in need.
And then we say this, I must have Him. Have you ever said
that? Have you ever felt that? Is Christ an option to you? Well, you know, I'll accept Him
later. Well, you're not thirsty. You're not thirsty. When you're
thirsty, you'll say this, I must have Him. I must have Him. I forsake all
the doctors of my religion. I forsake the broken cisterns
of my self-righteousness. I flee to Christ, and if I could
have but a hymn of His mercy, I'll have life. Why? Because
He who sat on the throne said, it's done. He who sat on the
throne said, if you're thirsty, I'll give you the water of life. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? Then He says this, I'll give
you the water of life. What do I have to do? It's done.
What do you mean, what do you have to do? It's finished. You
have to do nothing. Drink. Drink. If you need the fountain of the
water of life, Christ says, I give it to you freely. How do we then
receive it? Simply by faith. Simply by faith. If I'm thirsty, and I take the
water and I drink it, am I going to thank my hand for
taking it? Am I going to praise my hand?
Would I be thankful for the water? Would I be thankful for the ability
to receive it? Yeah. I'm thankful for the water. I'm thankful for the life. I'm
thankful to the One who gave it to me. Freely. Freely. I like that hymn. What does it say? If you tarry
till you're better, you'll never come at all. Is that not right? If you wait, why wait? Why wait for some miraculous
thing? Why wait? Take! Spirit of the
bride say come, let him that is a thirst come and drink of
the water of life freely. Freely. It's done, the fountain's
open. Are you thirsty? This water,
I want you to know this, it can't be bought. It can't be bought. It can't be earned. It can only
be received. Freely. Freely. Now then, this abundance. The
abundance of this grace. I know I'm not going to get through
the last... Let's just be honest. I'm not going to get through
the last of these. But I want you to know this. The abundance
of this grace. Notice that this fountain, this is a fountain.
It's not a puddle of water. It's not a cup of water. It's
called a fountain for a reason. Even as a fountain is a perpetual
gushing forth of water. That's what a fountain... In
Texas, we live near this place called Humboldt, Texas. And there
was this artesian well. And this thing, every time you'd
drive by, that water just gushing. It just wouldn't stop. I imagine
you'd go by there today. I hadn't been back there in 15
years. But you go back there, that water
will still be coming out. It's been gushing there for a
very, very long time before I was born. It's a fountain of water. That's what Christ is expressing
here. Not only have I accomplished this, not only have I opened
this supply, not only do I apply this water to you, I want you
to know that this is a fountain of never-ceasing, never-ending
grace. It is an abundant supply. That's good, because I am an
abundant sinner, and I need abundant forgiveness. I need perpetual,
constant, ever-cleansing forgiveness. I need His grace every moment
of every day. I need His strength. I need His
wisdom. I need His love. And Christ says,
I give you not a pool of living water. I give you a fountain
of never-ceasing abundant life. I give this freely. Over in Ezekiel,
you see that later if you want to go back over in Ezekiel 47. Oh, Ezekiel, he goes up to the
tabernacle. He notices coming out the right
side of the altar there is just kind of a trickle of water. And
he starts following this water. And as he goes, the water gets
bigger and bigger and bigger. And all of a sudden, it's a massive
river that flows out into the ocean. And he steps into this
water and it goes up to his ankles, and pretty soon the water's up
to his hip. And the next thing you know,
it's overflowing. He needs some help getting back
to the shore. This is a picture of that fountain
of water of life that's open. It starts to trickle simply because
it starts out in pictures and types. In the Old Testament,
But what's the source of this water? It's coming from where
the Ark of the Covenant is. It's coming from where God sits.
The source of this water is God Himself. And this water comes
out in a trickle. If you go and look in Genesis,
it says, "...the seed of the woman shall crush the head of
the serpent." Man, that's a little trickle, isn't it? Then you see the sacrifice of
Abel, and the water gets a little deeper, doesn't it? You go over
to Exodus, you see the Passover lamb, the water gets a little
deeper. You go on out and you read the prophecies of Isaiah,
you know, it says of Christ, He shall be as a root out of
dry ground. He says He's going to be numbered
among the transgressors. What is this? The water's getting
deeper, isn't it? And then Christ comes and it's
a flood. Everything in the Old Testament
now makes sense. And one thing about this river
in Ezekiel, it says everywhere it went, there was life. Everywhere this fountain goes,
there's life. I'm so thankful it came to this
dead, barren wilderness right here. It flowed over me. It gave me life. You that have new creations,
new creatures, you understand this because you've experienced.
And you continue to experience the abundance of this river of
water of life. How many times do you feel unworthy? It don't matter. It don't matter
how you feel. He said, I give you this water.
I don't deserve it. Of course you don't. I give it
freely. I give it abundantly. And it never ends. It will never run dry. This is the assurance that Christ
gives to everyone that thirsts. Come ye to the waters, come buy
wine and milk without money, without price. Wherefore do you
spend your money for bread which satisfieth not? Hearken unto
me and live, incline your soul and eat freely, abundantly. Believer in Christ, do not faint
because of your trials. Do not faint because of your
sin or because of your flesh. For unto us who are the least
deserving was this grace given, even the unsearchable riches
of Christ. And that to us this mystery of
God that was hid is now made known unto us. That God purposed
to save us, that Christ has finished our salvation, and now by the
power of the Spirit has it been applied, and it will never cease. Never cease. Do you think God
loves you less? You that have sinned greatly.
You that are new creations in Christ. Do you suppose God loves
you less? Now I'll tell you this, He will chase in you. You'll
feel like He loves you less. But He doesn't. He doesn't. It's never ceasing, His love,
His mercy, and His grace. Therefore, last thing, and I'm
going to give it to you without much comment. Look at that in
verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Here's the
admonition of grace. To overcome. Overcome. He that overcometh. shall inherit." I want you to
understand this. That does not mean that your
salvation is dependent upon you overcoming your sin or these
obstacles of life. No. It simply means this, the
endurance of faith. The endurance of faith. To overcome. How do we overcome? by looking
to Him who has already overcome. Scripture says that you are more
than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved you. So then what does it mean to
overcome? Simply to continue in faith. This is the admonition
of grace. Since the salvation that was
purposed is accomplished, since that which is accomplished is
applied, since it is abundant and never ending, never cease
to avail yourself to it by faith. Trusting always. He shall inherit. You that believe, I know this,
you will believe to the end. Why? Because His grace is abundant.
It's never ending. And He says this, I will be your
God. I will be your God. How far do you have to condescend
to do that? I will be your God. You shall
be my son. Son. Sons of God. Heirs of Christ. Oh, that God would let us get
a hold of it. Please. Please let us get a hold of this. Accomplished grace. applied grace,
abundant grace, admonishing grace, all the grace of God. I pray
that God give this to you in Christ. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.