Thank you so much. Let's open our Bibles again this
evening to the book of Revelation. And I'm going to read a verse
that I read to you this morning out of chapter 21. First of all, in verse 6, and
then we'll go to the last chapter in just a little bit. This morning we tried to deal
with the subject of water of life. And I hope that God enabled
you to drink again and be refreshed. The gospel of God's grace is,
well, it is really marvelous to say the least. It meets all of our needs, doesn't
it? If we're in the depths of despair,
a drink of this water lifts our spirits. If we have arrogance, a drink
of this water brings us back down. What I'm saying is this
message of God's grace to the undeserving, it's just so refreshing to us. I have been in services, and
perhaps you have, where the minister got up and he fussed at people
and told them, how unfaithful they were, and you ought to be
doing this, and you ought to be doing that. Never really helped me. I tell you what's always helped
me though, what's always refreshed me, is listening to the message
of God's everlasting love for His covenant people. And that
as a result of that love and the greatest manifestation of
that love is that He gave His Son, who is our propitiation,
the propitiation for our sins. God has satisfied His justice
in the death of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And there's something
about hearing that message. It just does the soul good, doesn't
it? It meets all of our needs. This
gospel of God's grace, it magnifies God. That's the first reason
for doing anything, right? Magnify God, glorify God. The gospel does that. It glorifies
God and the three persons of the Trinity. And this gospel,
that's the message God uses to save sinners, to bring them to
the end of themselves and bring them to cast their lot with Christ
Jesus, to find in Him all hopes of salvation. And this is the bread of the
Lord's people. It's wonderful of God That every
occasion when the people of the Lord meet together to hear this
old, old story of the grace of God through Christ Jesus to us. God uses this message and he
makes it to be to us as if it's new. It's fresh. It's like that manna that God
gave to Israel. Every morning, six days a week. The sixth day they gathered twice
as much. But every morning it was fresh.
It was new. Baked in the ovens of heaven.
Angel's food. That's what it's called in the
book of Psalms. And I'll tell you, God graciously
gives us this soul-strengthening manna and this water of life,
and He gives it freely. And so we read in chapter 21
and verse 6, And He said unto me, our Lord
Jesus, it is done. Everything's done. Done as God
would have it to be done. Our blessed Redeemer, though
equal with God the Father, made Himself of no reputation. He became the servant of Jehovah. and everything necessary for
our salvation, He fulfilled. He left nothing undone. Isn't that wonderful? He left nothing undone. And all things that God has purposed,
He brings to fulfillment. Remember, he is the one who is
opening the book that is sealed with seven seals, written within
and without and on the back side. He's executing the will of God. We saw that in the very beginning
of Revelation chapter 6, he began to loose the seals. And that
just means that the Lord Jesus, by virtue of His successful work
of redemption, He has been given this great responsibility, this
awesome, awesome work of bringing to fulfillment everything God
ordained to happen. And so He's doing that, and He's
been doing that through all of these chapters we've studied.
And now he comes down to chapter 21 and he says in verse 6, it
is done. It is done. Who did the work? Well, he says,
I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And then he says,
I will give. Who will give? Christ Jesus will
give. He will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely. Let me tell you something about
this water of life. God alone determines where it
will flow. It doesn't flow everywhere. But thank God it does flow. It
flows from the very throne of God. And everywhere it flows,
everywhere it goes, now it doesn't go everywhere, but everywhere
it does go, it produces a miraculous thing called life. It's the water of life. Hold
your place here and look back in Ezekiel chapter 47. I made reference to this, just
kind of passing reference to this, this morning. And I want
to read it this evening. Ezekiel chapter 47. Now look at verse 6. Now remember,
we're talking about the things of God. We're talking, as the
Scripture is here, in figurative language, allegorical language. And this river, it's not like
the river that is one mile away from here, the Ohio River. It's
not like that. This is the river of God. The
river of God. It flows from the throne of the
Lord. It comes forth from His sovereignty. And it's His everlasting covenant
love for His people. And it goes forth in great streams
that make glad, make happy the people of God. This great salvation
that issues forth from this love, this redemption, this reconciliation,
these make us glad, make the soul happy. So it says here in
Ezekiel, Chapter 47 in verse six, 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. Now when I had returned,
behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one
side and on the other. Then said he unto me, these waters
issue out toward these country and go down into the desert.
and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the
water shall be healed. This water that comes forth from
the very, the fount of God, from his sovereign grace, it has healing
virtues to it. Look at verse nine. And it shall
come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, 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, it
results in life. Now, to be sure, it doesn't go
everywhere and it will only go where God determines. I think
a really good illustration of this is in the book of Acts,
chapter 16, when Paul and Silas, they're out preaching the gospel.
And they want to go into Asia. They had a burden for the Asians.
They wanted the water of life to go into Asia. And I'm going
to show you in a little bit that God uses His servants. He uses His people to send forth
this water of life. And this is their great desire.
We want to go into Asia and preach the gospel. We want the river
of life. The river of life. You see, there's
only one message that God uses for the rescue of His people. It's the message of His sovereign
grace to sinners through the doing and the dying of the glorious
person of Christ Jesus. It's the only message God uses.
God only uses the truth, right? He only uses the truth. And it's
got to go forth. Paul and Silas, they had this
desire. We want to go into Asia and preach
the Gospel. And you know what the Spirit
of God said? No! The river won't flow there. Now listen folks, if the river
of life, if the river of life doesn't flow somewhere, there
won't be any life. But you see, this is God's business.
He's the sovereign God. Remember, this all comes forth
from the throne of God. And so then when they received
word from the Spirit of God by some means, a vision or whatever
it was, then they said, well, we'll go another direction. And
so they, the script says, they assayed, they greatly desired
to go another direction and preach the gospel. Well, the river of
life will go this way. And the spirit of God said, no,
not that way either. Well, what do we do? And then Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia.
That man said, come over and help us. We need the river of
life. We need to hear the truth. We
need to hear the gospel. Over in Philippi. In Philippi. And as these two preachers went
forth, God the Spirit sending them, And God using the gospel
of His grace, that river of life, first of all, goes to a woman
who was by a river. She was by a river, but that
river couldn't give her any life, because nothing in this world
can give you life, but the river of God's Word, the river of life
that comes forth from the very throne of God, it does give life. And they, Paul and Silas, sat
down and came upon these women who were having a prayer meeting.
And he began to take the scriptures and speak to them about Christ
Jesus. And the river of life, we're
not told that it went to anybody else there, but it was directed
by the Spirit of God to one heart. One heart. And that heart was
opened by God himself. And life flowed into that woman. The life of God in the soul. Oh, the miracle of grace. Listen,
this river, it brings life wherever it goes. But it will go wherever
God directs it. Because He's Sovereign. He's
Sovereign. After all, it's the Lord's water.
It's the Lord's water. He gives. He gives this water. Because by nature we have no
thirst for it. You see, He sends forth the water
and He's the one who creates the thirst. And then we drink. to the satisfaction of our souls. In Revelation, you know, we've
read about the new Jerusalem. That's the people of God. That's
the city of God. Not the old liberal city of Jerusalem. It's talking about the New Jerusalem,
the true people of God, the city of peace, the redeemed of God. Now look at this reference with
me. Zechariah chapter 14. I'll give you a few seconds to
get there. The next to the last book of
the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14 and verse
8. We're talking about this living
water. Zechariah chapter 14 and verse
8. Now remember, the New Jerusalem
that the scriptures speak about, and indeed this speaks about
Jerusalem, they're in Revelation chapter 21. It is the people
of God. It is the city of God. It's not
a literal city like Ashland, Kentucky. But it is a real city. And it has walls, the walls of
salvation. And it's God's city. It's God's
city. Now notice in verse eight, let's
go quickly here. Chapter 14, verse eight. And
it shall be in that day that living waters, living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem. Now remember, Jerusalem's the
city of God. Jerusalem's the people of God. Indeed, the water of life, it
comes forth from the very throne of God. And it's given to His
people, and then as He gives this river of life to His people,
it goes out from Jerusalem. In other words, it goes out from
here. It goes out from where you preached. It goes out of
where you preach. The living water goes out from
Jerusalem. Wherever you find Jerusalem,
wherever you find the people of God, wherever you find a collection
of those redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus and convinced
Convinced that he's the Savior by the Spirit of God. People
are quickened by the Spirit of God. Those people, they always
send forth the living water. That's what we're called to do.
We're the pillar and the ground of the truth. We preach the gospel. What is our reason for existing? is to set forth Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And so we send forth Jerusalem. Jerusalem sends forth the living
waters. There's half of them toward the
former sea, half of them toward the hinder sea. And I'll tell
you, we keep sending forth this living water, whether it's summertime
or wintertime. Whether it's summertime or wintertime. And the coldness of winter, when
the hearts of men seem to be unmoved. So cold, and so calloused,
and so indifferent. Do we change our message? No.
We keep preaching the living waters. And we do it in the wintertime,
we do it even in the summertime. In the summertime when men are
parched, and they say, oh, I need the water of life, we're glad
to give it to you. It doesn't matter whether it's
summer or winter. Listen, nothing can hinder this living water. And it's our responsibility,
and this is our duty, and it's a glorious duty. It's a wonderful
work that we have. to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glory, in His omnipotence, and in His finished work of redemption
and reconciliation, we preach Christ crucified. That's the
living water. And it gushes forth even from
this congregation. And wherever men and women meet
throughout the world, People who love this gospel, this message
of glad tidings, this message of good news, of finished redemption. The living waters go forth. They
go forth. And nothing can stop the flow
of it. Because you see, this gushes
forth from the throne of God. That's why nothing can stop the
river of life. It's God's sending. It originated
with God. It is sent forth by God and empowered
by God. And it's an open fountain. It's
not secretive. It's revealed in the Scriptures. You see, God has promised to
send forth his word, and where his word goes forth in great
power, something happens. It brings forth life. Let me
give you another reference. The book of Joel. Find the book
of Joel, if you would. You'll find Daniel and then Hosea
and Joel. So you go back to the last of
the major prophets, Daniel, then you'll find Hosea and then Joel.
And Joel chapter 3. Okay? Joel chapter 3. And I wrote down the wrong reference. Wouldn't you know it? Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Verse
18. Joel 3, 18. And it shall come
to pass in that day, that the, what day? The gospel day. The
day of grace. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills
shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow
with waters, and a fountain, a fountain shall come forth of
the house of the Lord." We're the house of the Lord. We're
the house of the Lord. We're the temple of God. We're
the new Jerusalem. Water shall come forth out of
the house of the Lord, and shall water even the valley of Shittim. That was an interesting, interesting
location on the other side of the Jordan River, where they
called acacia trees grew. But it was pretty much a wilderness
area. It was a dried up area, other
than acacia trees. Nothing else much grew there.
But the Lord says, I'm going to send forth water. It's going
to come forth from the temple. In other words, it's going to
come forth from Jerusalem. And it's going to flow to a specific
destination. To a wilderness. To an area where
nothing grows but briars and thorns. It's an area that's dry. And God says, I'm going to send
water there. Now, if you bother to look at
a map, you'll find that if a river comes forth out of the temple
of God, it's got to cross the Jordan River. Two rivers don't
intersect, and then both of them just keep going in the directions
that they were going when they intersect. Roads do that, but
not rivers. No, this is a different kind
of river. This is the river that originated at the throne of God. It's a river of life. And He
gives us water of life. He gives this message to us. The temple of God. The house
of God. The Jerusalem of God. And the
river flows as we preach the gospel. And it goes over and
extends to an area that's dry and barren and wilderness. Like you were in your natural
condition. And He directs it to a specific
location. You see, this isn't general grace. This is specific grace. This
is grace directed by the hand of God. This is grace that originates
from His sovereign throne of mercy. And flows to sinners by
His decree. Through the preaching of the
gospel. Boy, you know about that. Through
what we're doing right now. And it flows to hearts that are
like Shittim, dry, parched, lifeless. It comes to us. Turn to another passage, you
look at Isaiah 55. And I've got to move quickly
because I want to get back to chapter 22, but this just, it
blessed me as I just ran these references this afternoon. Isaiah
chapter 55. Look at verse 10. Isaiah 55,
10, for as the rain cometh down, that's the water. As the water
of the rain cometh down in the snow from heaven and returneth
not thither, but watereth the earth and makes it bring forth,
and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the
eater. God says, so shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper
in the thing whereto I sent it. That's what I'm talking about.
It originated with God, and God sends it to definite locations. He has centers in mind, centers
on His heart, that He's loved with an everlasting love, and
He directs the Word of God to each of these centers in His
time. Therefore, He says in verse 12,
for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you in the
scene. And all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands, and instead of the thorn shall come up the
fir tree." That's you! That's you! And instead of the
briar shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the
Lord for a name. And who's going to get the glory
for this? The Lord does. For an everlasting sign that
shall not be cut off. Let me give you two more references. Go back to Isaiah chapter 41.
Isaiah chapter 41, look at verse 17. Isaiah 41 and 17. Here's what the prophet says,
Isaiah 41 and 17. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up
rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
Who does this? God does. He says, I will make
the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land He said, I'll
make it springs of water. In other words, I'll make it
to be like an oasis. He says, I will plant in the
wilderness the cedar, the shita tree, and the myrtle and the
oil tree. I will set in the desert the
fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together that they may see
and know and consider and understand together. Who did this? The hand of the Lord hath done
this. The Holy One of Israel hath created
it. It's what God does. One more reference here in Isaiah
and then we'll go back. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. Look at verse 19. Isaiah 43, 19. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall
you not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field
shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters
in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to
my people. Who are they? My chosen. This people have I formed for
myself. and they shall show forth My
praise." They're in the wilderness. Their hearts are a wilderness. God said, they're My people.
They're My people. They're My chosen. He's going
to send the water of life to them. Just like He sent it to you.
When you were in your barrenness, you were in the desert, the wilderness,
you were dry, you were dead, there was no spiritual life in
you. You weren't looking for anything
from God. But the Lord, little did you
know, the Lord before He made the world, He ordained you unto
everlasting life. Why, His heart was set on you.
He loved you. He sent His Son to redeem you. You didn't even know anything
about all that God had done for you. You didn't know salvation
had already been accomplished. You'd already been redeemed.
All your sins had already been paid for. But you didn't have
any awareness of that. You were just dry and barren,
desert. And then, And this is true of
the good many of us here this evening. God brought us to here. He brought us to this place to
hear the gospel. Or somewhere to hear the gospel. And that river of life, that
was the appointed time when it flowed to you. Oh, it's always been there. It's
always been with God. But you didn't know. You didn't
have any interest. You's dead. And then he calls
the river to flow to you. And all of a sudden, that which
was once thorns and briars, nothing good, nothing profitable, all
of a sudden, life miraculously appears. God quickened you by
his grace. and enabled you to drink. He gave you a thirst. There wasn't but one thing that
would satisfy that thirst, and that's his water of life. You
drank from other wells. It didn't satisfy, but I'll tell
you When God came to you with joy, you drew water from the
wells of salvation. And you've been drawing ever
since. You've been drinking ever since. And every chance you get,
you come and hear the gospel and say, oh, that's such good water. It does me so much good. It just
feeds my soul. It quenches my thirst. My soul
thirsteth for Thee, O God, like a heart thirsteth for the water
brook. That's how I thirst for Thee,
O God. And God says, I'm going to send you a river of life.
I'm going to send you the water of life. And He does it every
time we gather together. Now go back to chapter 22 of
Revelation. Back to Revelation chapter 22.
Now here's the question. Here's this water of life. Who
may drink of it? Who may drink of this water of
life? It flows. It's not stagnant water. It's moving water. It's life-giving
water. Who may drink? Anybody who wants
to. Anybody who wants to. Now, look
at the Scripture. Revelation 22, 17. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that hear it say,
come. And let him that is a thirst,
come. And whosoever will, that just means whosoever is
thirsty, let him take of the water of
life freely. This water of life, it's God's. You make no contribution to it.
Let him take of the water of life. Take. Man wants to make. God says take. We want to make. We want to make some kind of
contribution. No, you don't make a contribution. You just take
of the water of life freely. The gospel flows like a mighty
river. And it's pure water. It's life-giving water. This
water is mysteriously miraculous. If you drink of the wells of
this earth, you thirst again. But our Lord said to that woman
at the well, you drink of the water that I will give you. Boy,
you'll find out this is a different kind of water altogether. And
the Savior said in John chapter 7, He said, If any man thirst,
let him come to Me and drink. Why, He's the very fountain of
water. He is the water of life Himself,
and the water of life flows from Him. For whoever is thirsty,
are you thirsty? Come and drink. Come and drink. Let me make just a few statements
here before I go any further. God has purpose salvation, hasn't
He? No question about it. He's saved
by grace alone. without qualification, without
condition. If God saves on purpose, that means salvation to the Lord.
You don't make any contribution to it, you don't help Him out
or anything like that. God has His people made special
by grace. He has His people. Secondly,
the Lord Jesus has fully met and satisfied every requirement
of God for the salvation of these people. No contribution to make, nothing
to do, nothing for you to do, nothing for me to do, Christ
Jesus has done it all. All who are saved are saved on
the basis of the person and merits and work and worth of Christ
Jesus the Lord. Do you believe that? I believe
that with all my heart. That's the only hope I got. I
don't have any hope in anything I've ever done. Well, yeah, but
you're a believer. My faith's not even worth talking
about. You want to talk about yours?
You want to brag about your faith? You want to talk about how strong
your faith is? How mighty your faith is? How immovable your
faith is? No, you don't. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I'll tell you this, God the
Spirit will effectually regenerate and call every elect, redeemed
sinner to faith in Christ Jesus. Blessed is the man, God's David
said, blessed is the man that thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. You have to be caused to approach
to him. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. What does that mean? Well, it means this. This water
of life flows, and anybody who's thirsty, if you're thirsty tonight, drink. Drink. I'll tell you this. Everybody
ought to drink. Everybody ought to believe Christ.
He's a worthy Savior. Yes, indeed. In fact, God commands
us to believe Him. This is His commandment, that
we believe on Him whom He has sent and that we love one another. Everybody ought to believe Him.
But you know what? Nobody will believe Him by nature. The Savior said, ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. He said in that passage
Bill read to us in John 6, ye cannot, you can't come to me. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me drawing. There's got to be some
drawing in here somewhere. Because we've already established
this. We're dry and parched desert
ground. There's no life in us. There's
got to be life that's got to come to us. The Lord's got to
do something for us before we'll ever drink the water of life
freely. You see, this is all dependent
upon Him. This is one of the big guns, you know. Our many folks are free willers,
they aim this big gun. Well, you guys don't believe
that whosoever will may believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
that's not true. I believe in whosoever will and
I also believe in whosoever won't. Don't you? Our Lord said you won't believe. Now you may say a man, he can
believe and he will believe. But I'm going to take the Savior's
word over your word. Because He said you will not
and you cannot. You can say anything you want
to say. I'm going to take His word. Well you say, well then, I'm
confused. You know, sometimes it's good
to get confused. Maybe God'll show you the truth. Here's the truth. The Lord has
to do a work within us. And we're made willing in the
day of His power. Willing to believe. to dip our empty cup down in
that river of life and drink. Willing to be saved God's way. Are you willing to be saved by
grace alone? Are you willing to be saved by
the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone? Are you willing to be saved By
God's might alone? Or do you want to get in on the
work somehow or another? And if you feel like that, which
I hope none of you do, but if you do feel like that, you're
one of those who, instead of taking, you want to be a maker. You want to make something. I'll
tell you what, if you add anything to this water of life, Anything
that you've got to do to it, it isn't pure as crystal anymore.
No. No. This gospel, the moment you
add anything to it that is conditioned upon the sinner, you've ruined it. You've ruined
it. I say, without apology, to all
of you, to everybody who's watching on the internet, if you're thirsty,
come and drink. And I know who gave you the thirst. The same one who chose you unto
salvation. The same one who died in your
room instead. and sends His Spirit to convince
you that you're lost, you're no good. You're barren, you're
dry, you're dead. And the one you need is Christ
Jesus, the Savior. And I'll tell you, when the Spirit
of God convinces you of that, you'll say, Lord, I'm thirsty. And He'll say, mm-hmm, I made
you that way, and I'm sending you the water of life, and you
can drink freely. The salvation's all of God. And I'll give you
this. Those of us who preach the gospel,
we urge you to drink. I compel you to drink. I read in the scriptures, the
Lord used Paul to write to Timothy. He said, do the work of an evangelist.
I want to do the work of an evangelist and I want to urge people to
come to Christ. I compel people to come to Christ. Christ in
His parable of the king and the marriage supper. Some of them
made light of the invitations and He said, He said, well, go
out there in the highways and hedges and as many as you can
find, bid them to come to the marriage supper. I bid you to
come. I bid you to come. I urge you
to come. Be ye reconciled to God. And I'll tell you, the Lord,
He has a general call that goes out. I do believe that. In fact,
He even says in the book of Proverbs chapter 1, I called, but you
refused. So here's what I'm asking God
to do. Send us something besides a general
call. I need that effectual call. I
need that river. Oh God, I need that river. That
water of life that flows from Your sovereign throne. I need
that river, that water of life to flow all the way into me. That's what I need. That's what
I want. God give me grace to drink and
drink and drink again, till I see Him who is the water of life
and the tree of life. Yeah, whosoever will, let him
drink. Let him drink. The law of God
may say, no! He's a lawbreaker, but you know
what Christ says? Let him drink. Satan says he's
such a vile sinner, and Christ says, I say, let him drink. Let him drink. Let him drink
freely. The Pharisees in their self-righteousness
may say, but he's such an ungodly man. The Son of God says, I said,
let him drink. Let him take the water of life
freely. And I'll tell you, if he says
we can take it, Brother, sister, we can take it. We can take it. So just put it up to the lips
of your soul and drink to your heart's content. Because he gave
the word, the Son of God, who is Alpha and Omega. He gave his
sovereign word. He said, I say, for him that
is a thirst, let him drink. And if the Savior said, let him
drink, I reckon it's OK to drink in and out. It's OK to drink. Well, let's sing a closing song.
And it's number 75, Abide With Me. Now, again, I remind you,
no service Wednesday night.