Morning again. Take your Bibles
and turn with me again to Revelation. Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22. The title of the message is The River
of Life. The River of Life. In verse 1, John says, and he
showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Every time I study
from this book, it is incumbent upon me, it seemed to be embedded
in me every time, to cause us to remember. the object of this
book, to be reminded that this book of revelation is a revelation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not a book of revelations,
plural. This is, if you will notice at
the very top of your page, it says it plainly, the title of
the book is Revelation 1. There is one revelation. There
is one gospel. And this gospel concerns one
person. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
object of this book. In the very beginning of this
book, in chapter 1, it states plainly the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This book of revelation is a
book concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel. It is just
like every other book. It is just like every other epistle. The language here is prophetical
language. But yet this book of Revelation,
it does contain some things that are not yet revealed unto us. some things concerning our salvation
that are yet to come. This book does reveal some wonderful
things that are reserved for us, even as Peter tells us that
our salvation is ready to be revealed at the last time. We
have now the down payment, the Spirit of God. We are sealed
by the Spirit of God, ready to be opened. Completely visible,
all that God has done for us. Now, we see in part. We know
in part. Because we still have this old
flesh. But one day, this flesh will
be removed. And that which is corruptible
will be changed to incorruptible. This body will be changed. And
we'll have a perfect mind, a perfect understanding of those things.
And this book of Revelation reveals that there are some things yet
to come that we have not fully experienced, although they are
ours. They're ours. This book does contain some things
that have not yet come to pass, but that is not the whole purpose
of this book. People come to this book and
automatically start looking for future things. Like this is some
kind of, you know, when I was a kid, you had an eight ball,
right? And it just had this thing to shake, and then it would tell
you what was coming up. That's what they do with this
book. They go to this book, and they shake it up, and they move
it around, and they say, OK, what's next? Oh, look at that.
There's going to come this leader, and he's going to... No! No,
this is the gospel! It is a revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. So as we approach
this book today, I want us to see that this is the gospel.
This is the gospel message. The message of Jesus Christ.
And so then, as we view our text, let us see and be taught by the
Holy Spirit the same gospel message that we have been taught from
every other passage of Scripture. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the first thing we see. He
said, He showed me a pure river of water. The very, the largest
thing here that we see first is a river. A river. Since this is prophetical language,
what is this river that he speaks of? This river John reveals to
us in our text, he calls it the water of life. Now, this is not
said to be a pool. It's not said to be a pond. I
don't know if you ever fished in a pond. If you fished one
day in a pond, it'd be full. Next thing you know, it's all
dried up. Or it stinks. You know, you don't have any
flow to it. It's just stagnant water. He said, this isn't a
pool. This isn't a stagnant pond of water. He said, this is a
river of water. This water is a river of water. And this speaks to us of power
and abundance. When you think of a river, you
think of a mighty, rushing water. And that's what this is that
flows from the throne of God. It is a river. And behold, the
river is the water of life. That is the gospel of God as
it is carried about by the power and abundance, sovereign, free
grace of the Holy Spirit. That's the river. The river is
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes forth from
the throne of God and it flows with such power and abundance. The Holy Spirit. And He carries
the gospel, the gospel of life wherever He goes. In this world have needs. There
is no doubt we are a needy people. I imagine as you go home, you'll
think of 30 things you need or you think you need. I need this. Cheryl will call me and she'll
say, Oh, I need this. And then I hang up the phone.
Next thing I get a text. Oh, and this and this and this
and this and this. We're always needing something. But the greatest
need is not food or shelter. Those things are necessary. The
Lord knows we have need of these things. Man's greatest need is
not education, although education is good in its place. It's good
to have education. The greatest need is not reformation. I'll tell you what, if some men
would just turn around and start acting good, that would be a
good thing for us. We'd like to see that. We'd like to see
this whole country turn around and start acting decent. Call
good, good, and call evil, evil. We'd like to see that. But that's
not man's greatest need. Man's greatest need is not religion. It's not government. The Lord
told those Pharisees in their day. He said to those self-righteous
men who trusted in their own works and obedience, He said,
you are nothing more than painted tombs. Painted tombs. Beautiful on the outside. but
inside full of dead men's bones, full of death. The most moral
man, the most religious man by nature is beautiful on the outside. But if he has not had a taste,
if he has not drank from this river, of the water of life that
proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb. He is white
and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside He is dead. Dead. Spiritually and utterly
dead. Man's greatest need, then, is
to have life. To have life. That's man's greatest
need. The greatest need for my children
is that they have life. The greatest need for you and
the greatest need for me is that we have life. Life. And I'm not talking about this
fleshly breathing, this body, this apparatus, this thing here,
this natural life that we have. Many have a natural life, but
they have no true meaning. They have no true purpose. They
have no true life. Man's greatest need is spiritual
life. Jesus made this statement very
plainly. You, personal, singular, ye must
be born again. This is not an option. You must
be born from above. This is not an option. If you
are to see the kingdom of heaven, if you are to enter into the
kingdom of heaven, you must be born again. And this is not obtained by any
physical, carnal, or academic means. The new birth is a gift. It is a precious gift. It is a gift of free and sovereign
grace. It is a gift of mercy to men. It is not a gift merited by man,
earned by man. It is a gift of God, and it comes
only by the river of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The pure river of the water of
life comes by the Holy Spirit. Jesus likened the Spirit not
to a river, but like to the wind. He said, the wind bloweth where
it listeneth. In other words, the wind blows
where it wants to. You can hear it. You can feel it. But you
can't tell where it's coming and where it's going. Wasn't
that true Wednesday? Huh? Wasn't that true Wednesday we
come out of that big storm coming, right? JD's the one that reminded
me. So... It was a big storm coming. And
we thought, oh, we better hunker down. And sure enough, what happened?
The wind blew where it listed and it went south and it didn't
even touch us. You don't know where it's going. You don't know
where it's coming from. But you can see the effects of
it. When that tornado came through, did you not see the effects?
Huh? People in Henryville saw the
effects of that tornado came through. They saw it. Went right
where it wanted to go. Did anybody have any choice as
to where it went? Did you have any power as to
lift it to where you would put it, where you wanted it to go?
No. The Spirit of God moves where He will. And He gives life to
whomsoever He will. And if He has given you life,
you should be on your knees giving thanks unto God and praising
Him every single day of your life for this greatest gift. For He has fulfilled the greatest
need that any one of us has ever had. He has given us life. And
life, not just stagnant life. He has given us abundant life.
He has given us a powerful life. He has given us the life of God. He has given us the life of Himself. The Spirit of God dwells in us
who believe on Christ. The Spirit of God is pictured
as a wind that gives life withersoever He will. But here in this, in
the same similitude, it is pictured as the river of life. And wherever
this river goes, life comes. Let me show you this. Go to Ezekiel
chapter 47. Ezekiel chapter 47. This is a wonderful passage of
Scripture. We're going to begin our reading
in verse 6, but verses 1 through 5 Let's give you the sum up of
it. Ezekiel, the prophet, is brought
before the temple, on the outside of the temple, and the Lord is
giving him a vision. And in this vision, he sees a
trickle of water coming out from the Holy of Holies. He wasn't
allowed inside this place. Only the priests were allowed
inside of here. But he sees from this place a
trickle of water as it comes down outside and it begins to
flow. And as this water comes, there
was a man with Ezekiel, and he was measuring, and he said every
thousand... What was his line of measurement?
Hold on. He said he measured... In verse 3 he said, when the
man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he
measured a thousand cubits. And when he had brought me through
the water, the waters were to the ankles. And again, he measured
a thousand. a thousand, and brought me through
the waters, and the waters were to the knees. And he measured
again a thousand, and he brought me through, and the waters were
to the loins. And afterward he measured a thousand
in the river. It was a river that I could not
pass over. For the waters were risen, waters
to swim in, a river that could not be passed. And he said unto
me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and
caused me to return to the brink of the river. And when I had
returned, behold, at the bank of the river were many trees
on one side and on the other. And he said unto me, these waters
issued out toward the east country and go down into the desert,
go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the
waters shall be healed and it shall come to pass that everything
that live it, which move it, whithersoever the river shall
come, shall live. And there shall be a very great
multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither. For
they shall be healed, and everything shall live whither the river
cometh." Wherever this river goes. The river of the water of life
began with God. the river of salvation that the
Spirit of God carries to us, it began with God in eternity. It began in a place where we
could not go, that we could not see. We were not there. And eternity passed when God
had prepared this great salvation, this great river that flowed
from His throne. It was God the Father who purposed
to give us life. And to all He chose in love from
eternity. Believers, see in this river
the love of God. God says, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. How long is an everlasting love? How long has God loved you? He has always. loved you. You who are believers in Christ,
there was never a time that God did not love you. And there was
never a time that God loved you little or God loved you great.
God loved you with infinite, perfect love from the beginning. And His love as His person does
not change. The love of God is infinite and
unchangeable, and His love that chose us is as long as God has
had being, He's had love for you. And all this love for us was
always through the Son. Remember that we were predestinated
in love. He predestinated us under the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ. We were made accepted
in Christ before the world began. So then at the beginning, this
water, if you remember when our father Adam sinned, this water
began to trickle. It was said that the seed of
the woman shall crush the head of the serpent, and he shall
bruise his heel. What a trickle. What a start. The very first message concerning
Christ was a trickle. And as we go through Scripture,
when you measure it out a little further and a little further,
the picture gets brighter and brighter and fuller and fuller. And now then, Christ has come. He's come. The river is flowing. The Spirit of God has poured
out to all flesh. The Spirit of God is poured out
to all flesh, because Christ, who is spoken
by the Holy Spirit, who has taught us concerning Christ, is poured
out to all men, all types of men, and wherever it flows. Now, I don't know where the Spirit
of God is going to flow. But I know this, wherever He
flows, there is going to be life. There's going to be life. This
is not a maybe, an if. There will be life. There will
be life. He gives life to whomsoever he
will. Men are born dead, but where
the spirit of God comes to one of God's chosen saints, the water
of life flows in his heart. through the preaching of the
gospel. Today, the river of life is carried
about by the Spirit of God, and He cries out to the churches
at the end of this chapter in Revelation 22. He says this in
verse 17, "...and the Spirit and the bride say, Come." Here's what the river of life
says. When it flows through, it says, Come! And who says it with him? The
bride. The church. Says, come. And he that heareth. Have you
heard? Have you heard? Scripture says
that the time is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Have you heard? Are you alive? Then what do you say? You say
the same thing the Spirit and the Bride say. Come! And who do we say it to? And let him that is a thirst
come. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Do you thirst after righteousness? Do you thirst after the salvation
of God? Do you thirst to have peace with
God? Do you thirst to have your sins
forgiven? Do you thirst to have the love
of Christ? The salvation of Christ? Do you
thirst for that? Do you long for that? Then come! Come if you're thirsty! There's
a river here! Come, you that are thirsty, and
drink of the water of life. In John chapter 4, the Lord told
that woman at the well. He said, if you drink this water,
you'll thirst again. But if you drink of the water
that I shall give thee, you shall never thirst. You shall never
thirst. And this water of life that I
give, it will be like a well of water springing up. in your soul. What is that well of water? It
is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit He gives us.
And that well of water gushes up inside of us at all times. And we drink this water constantly. Drinking this water of life. But whosoever drinketh the water
of this world, he will thirst again. Do you have something
you want? Kids want. They've got 20 things
that they want to do. And they think of them constantly. And they remind me constantly
of the things that they have that they want. That they want. But friends, whosoever drinketh
of this water in this world wants more. Because it never satisfies. We went and saw a movie the other
day, my son and I, and he said he just couldn't wait to see
this movie. Couldn't, oh, he wanted to, oh boy, boy, he's
got to see it, got to see it. And then he said, I just can't
wait. When he got done, I said, I can't
wait for the next one. I can't wait for the next one
to come out. Oh boy. See, he's going to thirst again.
He's going to want something else. This world never satisfies,
but the water that God gives, it satisfies. It's enough. God was satisfied with it. And everyone who drinks of the
water of the Spirit of God will be satisfied. Forever satisfied. Stop everyone that is thirsty. Come to the waters. Yea, come
ye, buy wine and milk without money and without price. If you
want this water, you can't buy it. This water comes freely. This water comes without a price.
Come with nothing and drink freely. And what is the message of this
water? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. This second part, I'll read it
to you, but I'm going to save it for another message. In the
midst of the street of the water, and on either side of the river
there was a tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits,
and yielded a fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees were
for the healing of the nation. That tree that is in the middle
of the river is Jesus Christ. That's all that the Spirit of
God teaches. The Spirit of God has said He won't speak of Himself,
but He'll speak of Me, Christ said. He'll tell you things concerning
Me. What is the center of the message
of the river of God the Holy Spirit? It is the tree of life
which is Jesus Christ. He's the center of the message.
And to partake of this river is to partake of Christ. It is
to believe on Him. Jesus is the Christ. And listen,
He has obtained righteousness. He's done it. He has obtained
redemption by His blood. He has obtained it. Forgiveness,
pardon of sin has all been accomplished by this man, Jesus Christ. And
all who believe in Him have all that He has already obtained. No more labor. Don't tell me
you're trying to be a Christian. There's no such thing. You either
are or you ain't. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? And behold, this same Jesus is
now risen from the dead and ascended to the throne of God. We have
such a good hope. We have such good confidence
because the tomb of my Savior is empty. The tomb of every other
God is full of their dead, rotten corpse. But my Savior saw no
corruption and He has ascended into heaven and is there right
now ruling all things after the counsel of His will. And from
His throne flows the Spirit of God. And He directs it wherever
He will. And wherever it goes, it gives
life, gives faith. And all who believe on Jesus
Christ alone, you have been given to drink of this water. How did
you obtain this water? How is it that you have it? Why
did the Spirit flow by you and give it to you and not the person
next to you? You obtain this without merit. Then testify to everyone that
this river is without merit. This river is a pure river, and
the minute you put your hand into the river to do something
to make the water better, you've ruined it. This water is pure. This water
is clear. Salvation is pure because it
originates from God. All true religion finds its source
alone in the immutable decree of a sovereign and holy God. Every good and perfect gift cometh
from the Father of lights, in whom there is no bearableness
nor shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us.
with the Word of Truth that we would be a kind of first fruits
of His creatures. Believer, our salvation is pure
because God did it all. Are you not thankful for that?
Man, we should be so ready to offer the sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving. We should just be ready at every
moment to offer up thanks And praise to God because of what
He's given us. He's given you the greatest thing. He's given you the best thing.
He's given you His Son. He's washed away your sins. And
you are pure before the eyes of God. Believer, because our salvation
has none of our work, none of our merits, it is pure and undefiled
and free from all contamination. I am justly forgiven. And God
is able to say without exception, without without any. You ever
said something like a tongue in cheek, you know, kind of boy,
that hat really looks good on you. You didn't really mean it. God doesn't say that. He says,
you're my son, and he says it with all purity of heart. He
means it. I am truly a son of God. I have a right to that. Is that
not amazing? God is able to justly declare
me his son and forgiven from all my sins. Even though we still
live in this sinful body, I know that I am pure and just before
God, because God has made my salvation. He's made it. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, yet faith is a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now, this river,
lastly, is clear. The gospel is never meant to
be tainted with confusion. People are confused. Very plainly,
you're a sinner. Very plainly, you cannot save
yourself. Very plainly, your works are
unacceptable before God. Is that not plain? All your righteousnesses
are as menstrual cloths. Salvation is of God. Very plain. God chose you. If you are saved,
God chose you. Christ redeemed you and the Spirit
called you and keeps you. Is that not plain? Salvation
is of the Lord. It's not a complicated matter. Salvation is a divine, sovereign
purpose of God. Salvation is of the election.
The atonement of the election of the father, the atonement
of the son and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and election
salvation in its complete form is all for the glory of God.
You not know that everything that is done in earth is for
the glory of God. Everything. Everything is done
for the glory of God. And wherever this pure message
is preached and believed, this is due to
the pure river water that flows from the throne of God. Let us
then rejoice. You have that river. You know
what that river is. Have you experienced the river
of life flowing inside? Well, you know, you have the
river if you have faith. Hope, love, joy, peace, meekness,
temperance. All these things are evidences
of this river. Because wherever this river flows,
it has fruit. It has fruit. There'll be evidence.
There'll be evidence. This river changes things. And wherever this river flows,
It changes things. What once was a desert is now
a garden. What once was a cesspool is now
a paradise. What once was sin is now righteousness. What once was at war with God
is now at peace with God. See, the river changes everything.
What once loved sin now hates sin. Everything changed. Have
you experienced a change? I pray that God. Give you this
river. It's life. And it's abundant
life. And I tell you today. Believe
on Christ. Believe on Christ. I keep saying this to myself,
if I have never believed before, I believe now. I believe now. And count all
my works as done, that I might win Christ, that I might be founded
in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
of the law, but having His righteousness. That's my prayer. I know I got
this river. I know I have this. And it refreshes
me daily. It's fresh. Is this not fresh? Is this message stale? This message is old! This message
is ancient! It's from eternity! And yet,
it's just as fresh right now as it was from eternity. Praise God for the river of the
Spirit. I pray that He would give it
to us. A stand will be dismissed in
prayer.