Many, many years ago, there was
a great multitude that left Egypt and ventured out into a wilderness,
led by God Himself. These people were redeemed, redeemed
by price of Passover lamb. And they were also redeemed by
God's power. God led them out and into the
wilderness. And they got thirsty. You must
understand that hundreds of thousands of people And they were thirsty. And they began to murmur and
fuss. And Moses was the one that they
took out their frustrations on. And God told Moses, He said,
there's a rock. I want you to hit that rock.
with a rod. And he did. And miraculously, water came
out. Gushing out. Abundant water. For all of the Israelites. For
all of their animals. Water to drink. Water with which
to cook. Water to bathe. Water that was
abundant. Water from a rock. We read in the book of 1 Corinthians
that rock was Christ. And God indeed smote the rock. Our Lord Jesus died upon the
cross of Calvary, and He was smitten by men, no question about
it. But He was smitten of God and
afflicted. He's the Rock, Christ Jesus. He was wounded for our transgressions. The Scripture says He was bruised
for our iniquities. And all of the chastisement of
our peace, that was on Him. He died for the iniquity of all
of His people. God took the rod of justice,
of vengeance, of all of His anger against our iniquities. He smoked
the Savior. In other words, Christ Jesus
died for us. He died at the hand of God. And
therefore, there comes forth to us abundantly, miraculously,
and wonderfully water of life. That which I ask God to do for
all of us is to give us a thirst for this water. Lord, make us
thirsty. You see, we're naturally thirsty
for the things of the world, things that provide comfort for
our bodies. We have a natural thirst for
them. We have a desire. But if there is to be a thirst
for God, if like David we're ever brought
to where he was, he said, as a deer panteth after the water
brook, he said, that's how my soul pants after thee, O God.
If we're ever to be thirsty for God, thirsty for Christ Jesus,
thirsty for this Water of life. God has to create a thirst. I don't have it naturally. I thirst for all kinds of things
by nature. But I don't thirst for God. I
don't thirst for the things of God. I don't thirst for Christ
Jesus. I don't thirst for God's salvation. I don't thirst for God's righteousness. I don't thirst for God's forgiveness. I say I don't thirst for those
things by nature, but I do thirst for them now. And I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation,
if you would. And I want to give you a couple
or three verses here toward the end of the book of Revelation.
And may God's Spirit enable me to speak to you on this subject
of the water of life. And I asked that God would give
you a thirst. I can't give it to you. I can't give it to you. And I'll
tell you something else, you can't give it to yourself either. But God can make you thirsty. And I'm thankful to know that
if God makes us thirsty, He'll satisfy the thirst. If He brings
us to the water of life, then He will enable us to drink. and drink abundantly. And you
know, as the people of God, we drink every time we read and
hear the Gospel of Christ Jesus. The Gospel is so refreshing to
us. It is so satisfying. It is so
delightful. The world is such a wilderness. Out there, our souls are parched. But we get in the Scriptures
and the Lord, day by day, brings us again to Christ. We drink
again of the things of God. We drink of the water of life. And our soul's thirst, it is
quenched. I tell you, I've tried the things
of the world to satisfy the thirst of the nature of the natural
man, but that thirst just is never satisfied. And maybe I'm
speaking to someone today, you know, you've tried possessions,
you've tried all the things that the world has to offer, but there's
still, there's no satisfaction in those things. Here's what
I ask God for, for you. Lord, give to these people, give
to you, to each of you, to those of you who are watching by the
internet, to give you a thirst for Christ Jesus. He's the only
one whom to know is life everlasting. This salvation is in Him. We
talk about being right with God. Righteousness. Acceptance. It's only in Christ Jesus and
His substitutionary death. Oh, may God give you a thirst
for this. There are multitudes today who
are gathering together and being religious, but they don't thirst
for Christ. They don't thirst for the Gospel.
The message of full redemption. The message that this salvation
has been finished by the Savior, and He finished it 2,000 years
ago. The angels said, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. May God give us a thirst for
that Savior. That Savior. Not one who tried
to do something or other. Not one who made an effort. But
that one who, not only did He come to save, but He saved His
people. He reconciled His people unto
God by His precious blood. He justified us. We're a justified
people. Now, when the Spirit of God deals
with us, He brings us to an understanding and a realization of the fact
we're justified before God. I'm right before God. I'm right
with God. But my faith didn't make me right
with God. My faith received the wonderful
truth of it. But it's the Lord Jesus who made
me right with God. Therefore, He is my righteousness
and this is my desire for you that God would give to you a
thirst for this gospel, for this Savior. He's the only one who
can help us. This water of life, it flows
so freely and abundantly. But I'll tell you this, only
those who are made thirsty will ever drink of this water of life. Let me show you these verses.
Revelation 21 and verse 6. Revelation 21 and verse 6. And he said unto me, this messenger,
who is the Lord himself, it is done. It's the messenger of the
covenant. And he identifies himself, so
we're not in the darkest of who's speaking. He says, I'm Alpha
and Omega. What does that mean, the beginning
and the end? He's the beginning of all things
and he's the end of all things. And then he says this, I will
give. I will give unto him that is
a thirst. of the fountain of the water
of life. Freely. Freely. I will give. He's going to give it to somebody.
That's for certain. I will give. Who will He give
it to? Those that are a thirst. What will He give of the fountain
of the water of life? What is it going to cost you?
Nothing. It's freely. It's just given
freely. And then look at another reference,
and that is in the last chapter, chapter 22, and look at verse
17. In fact, I'll show you verse
1 of 22 first. Chapter 22, verse 1. And he showed
me a pure river, a river of water of life. Clear as crystal. Where does
it come from? Out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. Now look at the last chapter.
Chapter 22 and verse 17. The spirit and the bride say,
come. And let him that hear it say,
come. And let him that is a thirst,
let him come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely, freely. All of us perk up when we hear
something's free. That has a way of getting our
attention. However, those of us who are,
you know, we've been around a while, we're a little skeptical when
somebody says, this won't cost you anything. It's free. It's
free, because we know that most of the time, those so-called
things that are free, they come with strings attached, all kind
of strings attached. Or as we used to say, there is
no free lunch. It's going to cost you. But I
want to speak to you about something this morning that is absolutely,
totally, unconditionally free. No strings attached. It is the salvation of God. Now, is it expensive? Yes. Is it costly? Absolutely. It did cost our Savior His very
life. God ordained His salvation before
He ever made the world. And He gave a people to Christ
in everlasting covenant mercy. And so our Lord Jesus has always
stood for His people. He's always been our representative.
He came into this world for us. He came to save us. He came to
redeem us. He came to reconcile us. Which
is exactly what He did when He died upon the cross of Calvary.
When the rod of God's justice dealt that fatal blow to Him. And wrath, wrath, poured into
His soul. And He bore all of that judgment
of God for His people. He died under the curse of God's
law. When He did that, He brought in for us what the
Scriptures call everlasting righteousness. And he opened up a fountain.
A fountain for cleansing. A fountain for those who are
unclean. And a fountain for those who
are thirsty. And we drink of this. We drink
of it freely. Oh, it cost him something awful. But it doesn't cost us. You can't buy it. You can't purchase
it. What is meant by this water of
life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb? Well,
I believe this, if you want to go to the headwaters of this
river of life, here's this water of life. You want to go to the
headwaters? It's God's everlasting love for
His people. God loved us from old eternity. All of the blessings of grace,
all of the blessings of salvation, and in short, this river of life,
it comes forth from the everlasting covenant love of God for His
people. Actually, every blessing that
we enjoy, you know where it's to be traced back to? Back to
the love of God for us. Look back with me in Ephesians
chapter 1. Let me show you this. Look at
Ephesians chapter 1. Look at love. This is what I
want to show you. Love is behind it all. Love is
behind it all. Ephesians chapter 1. You know
this passage so well. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Somebody says
to you, God bless you. You can say, He already has.
He's blessed me with every blessing He can give to any sinner. He
blessed me with all of them. All of them. And He did it in
heavenly places, and He did it before I even existed, except
in His own mind and heart. And He did it in Christ Jesus.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him." And I think other translations are a little bit more correct
on this. Those next two words, in love, actually go with the
next verse. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. In other words, love is behind
it all. You want to talk about redemption?
Trace redemption back to God's everlasting love for His people. Talk about any of the blessings
that God sends to us, regeneration or the new birth, justification,
name what you will. They're all to be traced back
to the fact that God loved us. Here's the headwaters of all
of the mercies of God. God loved us with an everlasting
love. Now this love of God, how old
is it? It's as old as God Himself. The love of God is from everlasting
to everlasting because that's how God is. God is without beginning
and God is without end and that's how His love is. Those whom He
loves now, He's always loved and He will always love. It's
an everlasting love. The Lord said to Jeremiah, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you. It's because I loved you. Now the love of Christ Jesus,
the love of God for His people, it's not like the religious love
of God that people talk about today. That's a fickle love. That's a feeble love. They present a God who loves,
but He can't really do anything for the objects of His love.
That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible, those whom
He loves, He saves. Those whom He loves, He's redeemed. Those whom He loves, He reconciles. Those whom He loves, He's justified. Those whom He loves, He draws
them. Those whom He loves, He quickens
them. Those whom He loves, He glorifies
them. God's love is like Himself from
everlasting to everlasting. He said, I'm God. That's how
long He's loved us. And love is behind it all. This
great salvation. God loved us. He loved a people
in Christ Jesus. And this everlasting love of
God comes forth, you'll notice, go back here to Revelation 22.1,
this water of life, it comes forth from the throne of God.
What do you think of when you think of the throne of God? Well,
you should think of sovereignty. You should think of authority.
This is God's sovereign love for His people. He does not in
any way have a universal love for all men. That just isn't
true. And somebody says, well, there
is a sense that He loves everybody. No, there is no sense in which
God loves everybody. You see, those whom He loves,
He loves, if I could put it this way, with all of His heart. And He puts behind that love
His omnipotence to bring every object of His love unto Himself. And He cannot fail. And these who are the objects
of God's everlasting love, they will be made to drink. of the
water of life that gushes forth from the throne of God. He will
give to these people a thirst. And if you're thirsty for the
Gospel, if you thirst for Christ Jesus, if you're drinking, even
now if you're drinking, and I hope you are, I hope you're drinking
now, you've picked up the glass of the Gospel once again, you've
picked up the glass of salvation as I'm preaching, and as it were,
you're drinking to satisfy your soul. If you are a thirst and
you're drinking of the water of life, I know who gave you
that thirst. The one who loved you. The one who loved you, the one
who loves you. The one who will go on loving
you. And isn't it wonderful to know, those of you who believe
this gospel, that the love of God for you will never ever change. And it will never be diminished.
And you can do nothing to kill that love. Because if we could
do that through our own sinfulness, we would have killed it a long
time ago. But it can't be done. Years ago, I had a lady come
to me and talk to me about her husband, how he was treating
her. And it was awful. And she said, I have loved him
I've loved Him. He's beat me. Done all of these
things to me. And she said, He just absolutely
killed all of the love that I've had for Him. That's an awful
thing. He killed that love. Isn't it wonderful to know that
I can't do anything to kill the love of God? I will never be
outside of His love. And I wouldn't excuse my sin
for nothing. Oh, how I hate my own wretchedness. I say with the Apostle Paul,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? I thank God through Christ Jesus,
my Lord. I agonize over my sin, and I
look again and again to my Savior, and I say, oh, bless your name,
dear Lord Jesus Christ. You paid my sin debts. You put
it away. And though in myself I'm filthy
and wretched and ungodly, in you, oh, my Savior, I made the
very righteousness of God in you. Oh, thank you, thank you. I am indeed a sinner saved by
grace. A sinner saved by grace. And
I trace that grace back. Where did it come from? Oh, it
came from the throne of God. His sovereign grace. We love the truth of God's absolute
sovereign mercy and grace to his people. If he hadn't loved
us, we wouldn't love him. If he hadn't called us, we wouldn't
have called on him. No, we wouldn't have. God who
has loved us forever in Christ Jesus, he sent us the gospel
and he drew us unto himself. It's like it had a magnetic pull
on us. I'm going to be preaching tonight
from this verse in Revelation 22, 17, where it says, whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely. And I do believe that. I'll tell you this. The Lord
has to take hold of us and bring us unto Himself. Draw us. Draw me, O my Lord, and then
I will come to you. And all of this, trace it back. This water of life that flows
so freely, that satisfies our hearts. And so many of us here
this morning, and many of you who are watching, we just rejoice
in this grace of God given to us in Christ Jesus. This salvation
that's not dependent upon us, but fully dependent upon the
Savior who has satisfied all the demands of God. We rejoice
so much in the fact that salvation is indeed of the Lord. That it's
of Him from beginning all the way to the end. And never in
this great machinery of salvation, if I could put it this way, in
all of this wonderful thing called salvation, at no point or place anywhere along
the way can a sinner say, now, I did that part. No. Your part
was the sinning part. His part's the saving part. And
we drink this in. Look back with me in Psalm 46.
You see this fountain of life originating with the love of
God Therefore, it's got to be the
river of life. That which flows out of the heart
of God has got to be a river of life. And wherever it, you
can read about this in the book of Ezekiel, wherever this river
flows, it brings life. You see, God cannot love and
then there never result in life. That can't be. Those whom God
loves, those who are the objects of God's everlasting affection,
they must be made alive. And they will be made to drink
of the water of life. Look at this passage in Psalm
46. Look at verse 4. There is a river. There is a river. It's the river
we're talking about. The water of life. The river
you trace back the headwaters to the fountain. It's the very
heart of God. It's the love of God. There is
a river. The streams. The streams of that
river. They shall make glad the city
of God. The city of God, so that's a
location? No, that's not a location, that's
a people. We've been studying this in Revelation
chapter 21. The city of God is a bunch of
people. A people of every nation, kindred,
tribe and tongue. A people saved by the grace of
God. This is the New Jerusalem. John,
he saw this city in Revelation chapter 21 coming down from heaven
as a bride adorned for her husband. He said, it's the Lamb's wife.
This city, this city has walls. It's the walls of salvation.
This is the city of God. And he says of this river that makes
glad the city of God, this river has streams. Oh, the streams
that gush forth from this mighty river of life, the stream of
God's election unto salvation. That makes me glad. It makes
glad the city of God. You tell me that God chose me
before the foundation of the world unto salvation in Christ
Jesus without any consideration of me, what I would do, either
good or bad. Fact of the matter is, I'd only
do bad. You tell me salvation at this election is unconditional
election? that it's all due to God? I'll
tell you what the doctrine of divine election does for me,
it makes me glad. It makes me happy. And the doctrine,
here's another stream, the stream of redemption, the full payment
of my indebtedness to God by Christ Jesus, Oh, what a stream
of grace that is! What a stream of mercy! That
makes me glad! I am not in debt to God! Now you think about that. I am
not in debt to God. Notwithstanding all my guilt,
all my transgressions, all of my sins, they were all put to
the account of Christ Jesus. And He died in my room, in my
place, and in my stead. And God Himself is satisfied. He cannot charge me for debts
that have already been paid. That makes me glad. That makes me real glad. God
will never look to me for satisfaction to His justice. Well, who did He look to? His Son, my Savior, my surety. He looked to Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. who fully satisfied all the demands
of a broken law. That's a stream that makes me
glad. What about effectual calling?
Regeneration? The new birth? The Savior said,
you must be born again. He said, except a man be born
again, he can't see the kingdom of God. Well, I'm glad to know
this. This river, this river that flows
from the throne of God, it's a river of life. Of life! Every river in this world is
a river of death! There's death everywhere. Physical
death, spiritual death, eternal death. That's all we see as a
result of the rivers of this world. But the river of God is
the river of life. And when the river of life flows
to me in the gospel, there's something about the majesty of
the gospel of Christ Jesus. that when the Spirit of God takes
that Word and He puts it in the heart, suddenly, miraculously,
mysteriously, all of a sudden, that which was dead is made alive. And there's no way to explain
it. There isn't any way to explain it. It's like when the Lord Jesus
stood at the tomb of Lazarus, and He said, Lazarus, come forth. That man in that tomb had no
ability to come forth. He had been dead four days. In
fact, when the Savior said, roll the stone away, Martha said,
don't think you want to do that. Because by this time, he stinks.
He's been dead four days. He had been dead long enough
for everybody to know that guy wasn't in a coma. He didn't just
pass out and they had difficulty finding his pulse. He was actually
dead. And the guarantee, if you needed
a guarantee, was this. He had the smell of death. No
possibility. Nobody there could help. They
could roll the rock away. But they couldn't give him life.
The only one who could give him life is that one who is life. And he spoke life. Lazarus, come
forth. And you know what is generally
said is, Here's a bunch of dead people in these tombs. If he
hadn't said Lazarus come forth, if he'd just said come forth,
people would say, well, I suppose everybody in the whole, throughout
all the graveyard would have come out. They called him by
name because he calls his sheep by name. And he comes to us in
irresistible, arresting, life-giving grace, and he says, come forth. Live. In His time of love, He
comes to us and He says, live. What a stream of grace. Live. I'm a dead dog sinner. I've got
nothing to contribute to God. I can't help Him. I can't enhance
His glory in any way. There's nothing I can do to make
God greater than He already is. and there's nothing God needs
from me. I can make no contribution to
Him. I'm a bankrupt sinner. I have
nothing with which to pay. I look in my spiritual pockets
and I don't find one thin spiritual dime. I'm broke. I can't do anything
for God. Lord, what do you want with me? I can't do anything for you.
He says, well, you're not going to do anything for me. I'm going
to do something for you. And God, in doing something for
the sinner, He does something for Himself. He brings Himself
glory. That's what He does. He magnifies
Himself. We need to understand something.
This salvation, indeed it is wonderful. But this is not about
you, it's about Him. It's about His glory, it's about
His praise, it's about His honor, it's about His worship. And He
is exalted as He causes the river to flow toward you and toward
me. And He is exalted as He gives
us a thirst to drink. to drink. Oh, this makes us glad. The streams
make us glad. And we could go on and on about
these streams. Think of glorification. Think
of glorification. Someday He's going to take these
vile bodies, He's going to change them and fashion them like into
His glorious body. That makes me glad. I'm a dying
man. I'm not going to be here much
longer. You're not going to be here much longer. None of us
will be. We're heading to glory where we'll see Him face to face.
It makes me glad to think of the day when I shall see my Savior
and join with all of the saints of God from all of the ages past. They're gathered there now and
I'll just step in and I'll sing the song of redemption there
because I learned it on earth by His grace. I'll learn to sing,
worthiest the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us unto God
by His blood. I learned that song down here.
I'm loving to sing that song down here, and I'll love to sing
it into heaven's glory forever and ever. Glorification, when
we shall awaken His likeness. All these strings make glad the
people of God. Thank God He gives us a thirst. Go back to our text in Revelation. Let me give you one last thing
here. Again, I'll stress this part. What contribution must the thirsty
make to obtain this water of life? And the answer is nothing. that says, I will give unto him
that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. And listen to me, it's not a
purchase. It's a gift. That's right, isn't
it? It's not a purchase. It's a gift. It's a gift. God says to His
people, In Hosea 14 verse 4, I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely. That's what he says. Romans 3
verse 24, he says, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 verse 32, He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12,
now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. And let me give you one last
reference, and I want you to go with me to Isaiah 55. Isaiah
chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55. Verse 1. Isaiah
55 verse 1. Do you know what that means?
Hey, you! Hey, you! Well, which you are you talking
about? You that's thirsty. They would say, oh, everyone
that thirsteth. You have an awareness of your
need. Listen up. Ho! Come ye to the waters. But I don't have anything that
I can buy with. He says, he that hath no money. Well, he says, come ye, buy and
eat. Yea, yea, come, buy wine and
milk without money, without price. I said before you the blessed
Savior, glorious beyond description. And He's the Savior for all who
are made to want Him. For all who are thirsty for Him,
I say, come and drink. Come and drink. Freely. No strings attached. No promises. No conditions to be met. Come, buy and eat. Come, buy
and drink. What glorious Savior, who has
such a wonderful salvation, And it all comes forth from His sovereign
throne. People who say, well, I don't
like the doctrine of election, they don't know what the doctrine
of election is. They don't see this as the origin. This is where it all started. It started in the heart, in the
bosom, in the mind, in the eternal purpose of our God. Who in the
world, who in their right mind would ever have a problem with
salvation is of the Lord? I tell you who would have a problem
with it. That person who wants some of His glory. They'll have
a problem with it. But not those who are made thirsty.
Because those who are made thirsty, they realize this river of life,
This water of life, it came forth from the throne of God. And oh
my soul, it came to me. And we never get over it, do
we? We'll praise Him forever for
giving us that water of life. Well, let's sing a song.