The River of God

Q: What does the Bible say about the significance of the cross?

The cross is central to God's glory and our redemption, representing the purging of our transgressions. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ lies at the heart of our faith, as it exemplifies God's mercy and grace toward sinners. Through the crucifixion, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness and took upon Himself the sins of His people, allowing us to stand justified before God. This act of sacrificial love is not only about personal salvation but is also meant to glorify God, as His glory shines brightest in His mercy. As evidenced in Psalm 130:4, the forgiveness we receive through His sacrifice demonstrates the awe-inspiring nature of God's love, leading us to praise and worship Him.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient for us?

God's grace is evident in His acts of mercy, particularly through the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. We can be assured of God's grace by reflecting on the perfect work of Christ. The sufficiency of His grace is rooted in the belief that His sacrifice was not just a one-time act, but an eternal provision for the sins of His people. As it is stated in 1 Peter 1:10-12, the prophets diligently inquired into the grace that would come through Jesus Christ, pointing to the significance of His suffering and glory. Additionally, 2 Corinthians 12:9 reminds us that God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness, encouraging us to rely fully on Him for our needs in every aspect of our lives.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand God's righteousness?

Understanding God's righteousness helps us appreciate the depths of His grace and our need for salvation. God's righteousness is a fundamental aspect of His character that underscores our need for salvation. In a world where sin prevails, we recognize that no one can stand before God without being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. As highlighted in Psalm 130:3-4, if the Lord were to mark our iniquities, none could stand; however, there is forgiveness with Him, allowing us to experience His mercy. This understanding instills a deep reverence for God and leads us to appreciate the tremendous cost at which our salvation was secured, namely the life and death of His Son. By understanding His righteousness, we can live in a manner that honors Him, bringing forth fruit in our lives that glorifies God.

Q: What does the Bible teach about the river of God?

The river of God represents His abundant provision for both our physical and spiritual needs. The river of God, flowing from His throne, symbolizes the abundant grace and life that He provides to His children. As mentioned in Psalm 65:9, God waters the earth and enriches it, signifying His providence over creation and His people. Furthermore, this river is spiritually significant, as it represents Christ, the source of living water, who nourishes and sustains our souls. Revelation 22:1 describes a pure river of water of life, illustrating how everything good and necessary for our spiritual wellbeing comes from Him. By drawing from this river, we find fulfillment, satisfaction, and the strength to persevere in our faith.

about terrible things and righteousness? Wilt thou answer us? Now, in the first four verses that we looked at last time, central and just the entire theme of the beginning of this song is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. the purging of our transgressions in verse three. Everything in verses one through four revolve around that, and then in the rest of the chapter, it gives a beautiful, detailed, graphic description of the abundance of that redemption, the abundance of God's provision for us, seen in earthly things, but enjoyed in the heart and in the soul. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful psalm. But think about the first four verses. Let's just spend a little bit of time reviewing. We saw the effects of Christ crucified to Godward.

Praise waiteth for thee. He does everything for his glory. Now is the son of man glorified as he went to the cross when he prayed his high priestly prayer. The Father of the hour has come, glorify and I'll glorify. That was the point of it. And our salvation from our sin was integral, of course, to that. But that's God's glory is in his mercy towards sinners like us. So to him, praise and service.

We're going to we're going to vow and we're going to do it, we're going to perform it, we're going to desire to do something for God, we're gonna desire to return praise for his great blessing upon us. And he, of course, gives us the grace to perform those vows. We don't have anything. We'll quit and serve ourselves for the rest of our lives if he doesn't uphold us, but he does uphold us. And the reason we vow is because he's so worthy of everything that we have, and the reason we perform it is because of God's grace and strength to do that.

It's more blessed to give than receive. And the Lord blesses us by us giving Him praise, by us giving Him honor and glory. And of course, He's worthy of every bit of it. Prayer, thou that hearest prayer, His people come to Him. The Lord is glorified in that.

That's not just me saying, I need this, this, this, and this with my laundry list of things that are, that are bothering me. That's the, that's the God on his throne with his subjects coming to his feet and relying upon him and glorifying him and holding up our hands to him and saying, Lord, we are nothing. We have nothing. We can do nothing. We're looking to you. You're our only rock. You're our only hope. You're our only source of any provision, spiritual or physical, and that's honoring unto Him. Somehow we've got to get into the mind frame that all of this is for His glory and start acting like that. That's just the Lord's, I believe He, as He grows us in grace, that's what it becomes more and more.

And so we see that we come to him in prayer. All flesh will come unto thee. That's the cross God word. We come because he saved us. We praise his name because he included us, because he chose us, because he redeemed us with his precious blood. And then worship. We come and worship, we'll be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even that holy temple.

And faith, he gives us faith. that also returns unto him. What was his word? Believe, believe and you'll be saved. Believe and rest, believe and you'll never thirst again. Believe and the weary have a hiding place. And then the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and its effects manward. Blessing. Blessed. Blessed are we. Blessed is the man. Verse 4. Electing love. The Lord chose us. How? Where? In Christ. In Christ crucified. In Christ as our Redeemer. In Christ in His redemptive glory.

He chose us in His Son. Christ crucified who he is and what he did are integral to one another they're inseparable He loved us and That's what the definition of love is that he gave himself for us So he loves us and that's but why because he is love. That's who he is and what he did is what it is because of who he is and And so chosen, elected, precious unto Him. And then irresistible grace, the cross to usward is Him causing us to approach unto Him.

Where are we coming to? Christ crucified. We're coming to Him because what I couldn't do, He did do. We're coming to Him because everything I have done, He paid for it. on Calvary, we're coming to him because we're lost and undone. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus I come, into thy freedom, gladness and light.

So you see how he causes us to approach unto him and how that the cross, that's the effect of the cross to usward. And we get to live with him forever. We'll be satisfied. with His goodness, we're gonna dwell in His courts, and we're not gonna be looking for anything more. We're gonna be completely satisfied. So you see, Godward and manward, the cross, Christ crucified is all. Everything hinges around our sins being purged.

God did the worst to his own son that we might have all of his best and inherit all of his glory. And we're gonna be singing about it, it says. We're gonna sing about it like David is singing about it in this song. Now in verse five, David describes all of this more generally and in a beautiful This glorious song that he sings, which glorifies God in every phase of it, but it begins with redemption, doesn't it?

It begins with purging of sins. And notice it says, God does terrible things in righteousness. Now think about that, because the word terrible here, we think of that as a bad thing. Oh, you did something terrible. Well, I probably did, but that's not what this word is. It means causing astonishment and awe. He does things that cause astonishment and awe, and it seems that even God's perfect angels in glory are astonished and in awe in the matter of the things that he's done with regard to righteousness. He does terrible things in righteousness.

How's God's righteousness going to be satisfied? God's going to create a race of people, and they're all gonna hate him and spit in his face and do everything they can to spite him and break his law, but he sent his son to honor his law in every thought, word, and deed. And in that son, in that perfect man, in the man Christ Jesus, the God-man, God is glorified in him, and all of us are righteous before God in him. the righteousness of Christ. That's what God did with regard to righteousness. He sent his son to fulfill all righteousness. And in him, all of his people whom he loved from eternity are righteous.

And God did some awe-inspiring, terrible, astonishing things in that regard. He put his son on the cross. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 and verse 10. And keep in mind the thought that we have here in our text, the terrible things God has done, awe-inspiring things that he's done in righteousness.

1 Peter 1.10, of which salvation, the salvation that Christ wrought on the cross, The prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. They prophesied of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of God in Him that's coming to us, all of His people. He's coming down here to redeem us on the cross.

And the prophets inquired diligently, they searched diligently, they heard from God. They got their message from God, just like we do from His holy word. And they searched diligently into this because nothing else really matters. This is everything. Because the astonishing things that God did with regard to righteousness, the prophets were diligent about this. Searching what?

Or what, verse 11, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. What were the prophets thinking about? What was in their hearts? The suffering of Christ, because the Spirit of Christ dwelt in them. God's never saved sinners but one way, and that's by Christ in you, the hope of glory. The Spirit of Christ was in those prophets, in Moses, in Elijah, in all of the prophets. In David, when he wrote the Psalms that we're studying right now, this one Psalm, The Spirit of Christ was in them, and it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ.

Of course, that's why He came, to suffer and die in our place, and the glory that should follow. God has done awe-inspiring, astonishing things with regard to righteousness. He died on Calvary to wash all of our sins away so that we might stand in righteousness before Him. His Son fulfilled all righteousness with His death, with all of His life up to and including His death on the cross.

But listen to verse 12, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you." The same things that were in their heart, that were in their spirit, that they did testify beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, now we're preaching them to you by them that have preached the gospel unto you. with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The Spirit is the one who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us so that we can dwell on Him and what He did, so that we can see, so that we can understand what He wrote in His book concerning that and tell it forth and hear it and rejoice in worshiping the Spirit. Which things, now the prophets diligently sought into these things, and by the Spirit of Christ dwelt on the sufferings of Christ and spoke of the sufferings of Christ beforehand. Now look, not only the prophets, but the angels desire to look into these things. Verse 12, which things even the angels desire, even the angels of glory are astonished. at the sufferings of Christ, at the terrible, the awe-inspiring and astonishing things that God did with regard to His righteousness. He poured out His wrath on His Son in righteousness. And Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree because of God's inflexible, holy righteousness. And now we stand accepted in the beloved righteous because he did.

That's what we're talking about in this song. That's what David's singing about.

The means by which God has bestowed his mercy on sinners is all inspiring. You think about what God's done here. The suffering and death of Christ, the fact that God forgives sins and all is terrible, isn't it? It's astonishing. to think that the Holy God would love and choose and redeem with the blood of His Son a wretched worm like me.

Now listen to this, Psalm 130 verse 3. If you're close, you're probably close to there, turn over there. I want us to look at that. Psalm 130 verse 3, please, if you would. what God did, what the Son of God covenanted to do and performed for us on the cross. Listen to Psalm 130 in verse three. There's a reason why I want you to particularly look at this couple of verses of scripture.

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? If God counts our sins, if our sins are not imputed, In the righteousness that we're talking about, the terrible things that he's done in righteousness, if the righteousness that Christ wrought in life and death is not imputed unto us, who can stand in God's sight? Who can stand in his sight? Only those with clean hands and a pure heart can stand in his holy hill, and we don't have either one, and not even close.

But, verse four, there is forgiveness with thee. that thou mayest be, same word in our text, translated terrible, feared, that thou mayest be terrible. You see what that word is now? God forgives sin. You might think, would say there's judgment with thee, that thou mayest be terrible. Because that would be terrible, wouldn't it? That would be awe-inspiring and astonishing if God poured out His wrath, but He poured it out on His Son instead of me. And that's the reason that He's regarded as terrible, because He had mercy. He forgave my sins by laying them on His Son. And it's the forgiveness that's really awe-inspiring, that's really astonishing. You see that? Wow. The Son of God, you think about how astonishing it is.

Everywhere the Lord went, He did nothing but good. Not what we think is good, but what is good. He had mercy on sinners, on people that needed His mercy. When that Lord, when those friends lowered that man through the roof, they broke up this man's roof and lowered their friend down so that the Lord, so that he'd be at the feet of the Savior.

And when the Lord spoke and he said, thy sins be forgiven thee, that was astonishing, wasn't it? Those people there, that's not what they expected to hear. The Pharisees, the religious Jews didn't expect that. They expected what he normally did was say, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And he did say that later, but first he said, your sins be forgiven you.

Does it astonish you that the Son of God has power on this earth to just say, your sins are gone, and they are? Is that incredible to you? Is that amazing to you? Do we pray to that God for our children and for our grandchildren? We pray with confidence, not that God owes us anything, but we pray in the confidence that He delights to show mercy, and that if He will, He can.

Does that cause you to reverence the Son of God? The fact that He can just say the word and your sins are gone? Or the sins of those that you love are gone? And it says in our verse 2 that Christ is the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and that's why. Because He is that terrible, awe-inspiring, astonishing God who is to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. And so He's our confidence.

It's such a destructive and cancerous thing when religion speaks of the Lord as trying and wanting to and he's wooing people and he's wanting this and he's wanting that no don't pray to that one pray to the one who you can have true confidence he's the confidence of those that see him as he is that believe on him as he's revealed in the scripture you can't have confidence in somebody that tries and can't get it done So there's more to that than just, it's not only just horribly dishonoring to the character of God himself, but it destroys the hope of every sinner walking this earth. You can't have confidence in that little Jesus of this horrible religious world. He can't do anything. He's not the one who said, I will speak it, and I'll do it.

I'll do it. There are those in all of the earth. He's the confidence of those even across the sea, because he makes his name known through all this earth. They know that he can make sinners whole. They know that his precious blood is sufficient, that when he purges your sins, your sins are purged. He's not waiting on you. They know of His perfect righteousness, wherein a sinner can stand holy before God, guiltless, justified. They know that God can be just and justify them because of the one who purged their sins, Christ, in His perfect soul-redeeming life and sacrifice. I'm confident in him because he is the almighty. Verse six in our text, which by his strength setteth fast the mountains being girded with power.

You see how the Lord, we can't, you know, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. But you can't just look at the mountains and say, oh, you know, I'm gonna, I believe in the cross of Christ. It's mountains, okay? But once you know who he is, you can look at the mountains and say, my God did that.

And if he can do that, if he holds this earth in space in a perfect way so that life can go on on this earth, if he flung the stars into space and he holds them there with the power of his own hand. You can look at the things that he made and you can be inspired by them. Once you know who he is, you can look at what he's done and say, what a mighty God we have.

What a mighty God. Religion is always talking about how bad God wants to do good things for you. The scriptures tell us what great things he's done. And we see that even in the creation. Look what he's done. Religion talks about a love that wants to, but God's book tells of the powerful, almighty God that loved and did so. He loved and gave himself. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You see why it says everybody everywhere that knows him has confidence in him. one that set the mountains in place." And what is it that religion denies? The power. They have a form of godliness, Paul said, and I believe it's Romans 10, but they deny the power thereof.

We're going to have to see something of the almighty power of Christ if we're going to have confidence in Him. You can get all warm and fuzzy about the Jesus of religion, but you can't have any confidence in him. You have to see the son of God, the captain of our salvation, the invincible captain of our salvation. He's my confidence. He says, come here now and let us reason together.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. He didn't ask me anything. My part in consulting with God is him speaking and me listening, and him giving me the heart to believe what he said. Here's what I do, here's what I do. I make sins, it's white as snow. And you know what, when I look to Him, I have no doubt that my sins are gone. How about you? I have confidence. If I look at myself, then I start to worry about it. But you look to the Savior, and you'll never doubt, you'll have confidence in Him.

Now verse seven, which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. Boy, there's a lot of places you could take this. He calmed the seas when the disciples thought they were dead. They thought they were dead and they deserve to be dead. The wages of our sin is death. But he calmed the seas. He calmed the seas. He stilleth the noise, listen, he stilleth the noise of his people. He quiets the soul of his people.

And you know what he's quieting us from? From crying out to him. Lord, save me, save me. Save me. He quiets us by comforting us. He says, peace be still to the soul, like he did to the sea. In the nations of this world, who know that it's up to God and not them. They know that he knows how to do it, and he has the power to do it. And they just say, Lord, if you will, quiet my soul, quiet my conscience, my evil conscience that accuses me.

Verses nine and 10, let's look at Look at verse eight, we'll read it. But I want to get to verse nine and 10 tonight before we run out of time. But look at verse eight. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens. They'll make us the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Just, again, beautiful language describing the power of God. He gives us tokens of his grace, doesn't he? Every day. And I think we miss most of them. I think we miss them. I believe that He, every day, shows us how much He loves us. We tend to miss it. We tend to miss it.

Thou visitest the earth and waterest it, thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided for it." Think about this in spiritual terms. We see these things happen. He's given us abundance of corn, hasn't he? Hasn't he increased our produce in this world, our prosperity in this world? I know sometimes we think we're poor and miserable and we start getting off feeling sorry for ourselves and this and that. We're rich. We're so rich. We're so fulfilled, we're so comforted, we're so at ease in this world in comparison to what we deserve, in comparison to others, in comparison to where we would be without the Lord Jesus. And just flat out just are.

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly. You know, he talks about his word, that let me just read it to you again because it's so beautiful in and of itself Isaiah 55 10 for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater not only do we have wonderful streams of water that we can or take of and quench our thirst, you know, you say, well, water comes out of the faucet. Well, if it doesn't rain for a while, there ain't no water coming out of the faucet.

God sprinkles it down on us. Did you see that? He makes it soft with showers. Isn't that beautiful? If God took the rain from a decent size thunderstorm and dumped it all on us at once, we'd all die. But he sprinkles it down on us a little bit at a time. And we just sit there and say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the rain. And that rain waters my tomatoes. And it makes the grass grow. So if I had some sheep or something like that, they'd have something to eat.

Everything comes from the hand of God. And if we could especially dwell on that and rejoice in that in spiritual terms, The flowers that grow in our dark soul are watered by the hand of God, and they're watered in righteousness and holiness. They're watered from that river of God that's mentioned in our text here that flows by the throne of God. That's Christ, the abundance of life that flows from him. The river of water of life is God's son. and all of the abundance of the earth and of this wretched sinner's heart flows from our Savior.

And that's how we, that's why we praise Him. Every chance we get, I wish we would, just praise Him every chance we get. It watereth the earth, it maketh it bring forth and bud, it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. We're a bunch of eaters, aren't we? We gotta have, these are necessities It's not just pretty when it happens, it's life. And it shall not return unto me void, God said, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Thank God for that.

You know, that'll keep a worthless, resourceless, untalented failure of a preacher, it'll keep him preaching right there. Because God's word and his son revealed in his word is everything we need. We don't need a fancy preacher. We don't need a smart one. We just need to hear from him. We need we need to hear from him.

The sweet savor of Christ. Is the provision of this earth. And the provision of our soul. God's river flows through this world. Aren't you grateful for that? This is a desert place, but there is a river. I love those words. There is a river. And it's Christ himself, Psalm 46, for there is a river. The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. That's the church, his people were made glad by it, aren't we? The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her. And that rather early.

The river of God that flows from his throne. We know who sits on that throne, don't we? And who that river is. All of God's blessings flow to sinners and spring up within sinners. by Christ and through Christ the river of God. You know, we're described as trees planted by this river. What a beautiful way to describe our wretched souls. We're trees planted by a river. A tree gets all of the nutrients it needs through the water, and we get all we need through Christ. Righteousness, peace, wisdom, forgiveness that we read about, sanctification, redemption, love. We need love, don't we? You gonna look to this world for that? I don't recommend it. I don't recommend it. God's love is in Christ and he gives love in this world. But don't look to this world for it. Faith. You know what faith's prayer is? Increase my faith.

Psalm 1-3, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. And herein is my father glorified, the Lord said, that we bring forth much fruit. He arranges that. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. It doesn't depend on the economy. It depends on Christ. And it doesn't depend on your works. It depends on what He did and who He is. Christ.

And don't forget that the water comes from His throne. The river of God comes from his throne. Listen, Revelation 22 one, 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. It doesn't just pass by the throne. It's coming out of the throne, the throne that the lamb is sitting on.

And so if God has loved me with an everlasting love, If he gave himself for me, and everything good flows from him, that's why David penned the words, beautiful for situation. And we are, we are, those who are in Christ certainly are. May we go from here tonight praising his name, because we are indeed beautiful for situation. That river flows from the throne of God's Lamb unto our very souls. Amen.

The River of God

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of the cross?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for us?

Why is it important for Christians to understand God's righteousness?

What does the Bible teach about the river of God?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

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The River of God

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of the cross?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient for us?

Why is it important for Christians to understand God's righteousness?

What does the Bible teach about the river of God?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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