I was preaching up in Ashland
at a conference several years ago. The pastor got up to introduce me
and he just went on and on and on about different things that
I'd preached and on and he said, now come and preach for us. I
said, after that I'll do the best I can. If you will, turn with me to
Psalm 65. My subject tonight, and I pray
that it's God's message to you for this hour, is the river of
God. I was preaching on something
at our church, and Psalm 65 was a reference I went to, and I
was talking about what I preached here Sunday morning. That was
the verse that I was using as a reference, and it kind of jumped
out at me, but then after I started reading it, I ran on to this,
which I'd never preached on, and never really seen the depth
of it like I see now. where he's talking about the
river of God. Psalm 65 is a psalm about God's
infinite power. Our God is almighty God. He's sovereign, he's eternal. None can stay his hand or even
question what he does. And this is a song about God's
infinite power and God's love and goodness toward his elect. This almighty, all-powerful,
loving, kind God is our Savior. He's our Savior. And I pointed out to you Sunday,
he says at the beginning of this psalm that he is God in sign. He's God in sign as he's revealed
himself to them. You can go to any church in the
land and hear the word God. They'll talk about God. They'll
talk about who he is. They'll talk about what he's
doing. But nobody else in this world has an understanding of
God except God's people. Now that's what that verse is
saying. He is God inside. We worship God, the true and
living, that's eternal life, to know the true and living God,
not a God. But be God, and he's God inside. We met here this evening and
we read several passages of scripture already and prayed to our God. And each time I've noted that
they mentioned the fact that he's God. We know God. My soul, what a, what a blessing. There was a
time when I didn't know God. I didn't know anything about
God. Thought I did. I was raised in religion. Thought
I knew God. I didn't know anything about
God. He's God inside. And He's God inside as He reveals
Himself to chosen sinners and they know Him as no other knows
Him in this world. And if I consider ancient Israel
as a typical people, I see God in Israel and the whole world
dwelling in idolatry. They were forbidden to marry
into those heathen nations. They didn't know God. They were
idolaters. And these are figures of the
church. We know God. He's our God. He's our Savior.
And we love Him. In 1 John 5, verse 19, John makes
an amazing statement. Somebody said to me the other
day, he said, well, he didn't say it to me, he said it to one
of the folks there in the church, he said, you all think you're
the only ones in the whole state that know anything at all about
God. Listen to this statement. 1 John 5, verse 19. John writes this as he's moved
by the Holy Ghost. He said, and we know that we
are of God. Now watch this. Not the state. The whole world lies in wickedness. You wanna talk about a privilege?
When you closed your eyes to pray a while ago, you knew who
you were calling on. What a privilege to know God.
I'm not just beating the air, Paul said. I know what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about God. And he said here, the whole world
lies in wickedness, not just in the sense of immorality, but
Paul describes it in Ephesians as spiritual wickedness in high
places. We do battle with principalities
and powers and things not seen and spiritual wickedness in high
places. He's God in sign or in his church,
having given to them eternal life, which is to know him. His church are not the only people
that worship or read their Bibles and pray. But they're the only
ones that worship Him in spirit and in truth. We know God. That's what salvation is, to
know God. They alone worship Him in spirit
and truth. They rejoice in Christ Jesus
and they have no confidence in the flesh. So this psalm is a
psalm sung from the heart about God's infinite power. He's singing
about the God he knows. He knows him intimately. He knows
God and he's singing about God's infinite power and love and goodness
and mercy toward his people. They are people that he's chosen
and enabled, made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of enlightened saints, or saints in life. They've been drawn of
God and caused to come to his Son, and now they dwell in his
courts. Oh, we're in his courts tonight. If we're gathered in his name,
he's in our midst and we're standing in his courts. We dwell in his courts, we worship
in his temple, we're fully satisfied with the goodness of his house.
And then the psalmist goes on to point out the visible tokens
of his power that cause the inhabitants of the earth to tremble. They
see these tokens and tremble. Hurricanes. Tornadoes, earthquakes,
floods, volcanoes, natural disasters. And in another sense, just the
order of creation ought to make us tremble. There's no way that you can consider
the order of creation and not think that there's a God who
controls it. There's perfect order in His
creation. And then in His preservation
of it, it says, He stilleth the noise of the sea. I can't imagine. That ship was about to go under
and it was dark. And it was one of the worst thunderstorms
the disciples had ever been in. And they were in this boat, and
they were mariners. They were raised mariners. They
knew what to do to save the ship, but they couldn't save it. And
then they looked out, and in a flash of lightning, they saw
him walking on those waves. In the middle of a storm, in
the middle of the night, they looked out there, a flash of
lightning, and they saw him. When he came into the ship, he
said, peace, be still. Can you imagine the noise of
the sea when it's raging like that? Peace, be still. And it was calm as that glass
of water. And you might well apply some
of these natural things to natural blessings of God's kindness and
mercy. His rain falls on the just and
the unjust. In a physical sense, his rivers
feed the forest, and so forth. Egypt reaped the benefits of
the corn which God provided for his elect. But I want us to look
past the temple tonight and see what only believers can see,
the spiritual. The spiritual. In Psalm 65 9,
David sang, thou visitest the earth. This God of glory, this
almighty God, this sovereign God, this holy God, visited the
earth and watered it. Thou greatly enriched it with
the river of God. That's my text, that's my subject,
and I pray God's message for you tonight, the river of God. We're expressly told in Isaiah
to remember the former things of old. We're not told to forget
them. We're not told to ignore them. We're told to remember
them. Remember these things, these
former things of old. For I am God. That's why we're
to remember, because he's God. And he said, there's none else. I'm alone, God. I'm God, now watch this, and
there's none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning. Wow, that shed some light on
that song. He's declaring the end from the
beginning. From ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. And that's exactly what I want
us to do tonight. I want us to see God's redemptive
purpose from the very beginning. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
two. First thing I want us to see
here is what this river of God is. What is David talking about? God enriches the whole earth
with his river, with the river of God. And I suppose you could
say that all rivers in the world are rivers of God. Solomon said,
the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers
of water. He turneth them withersoever
he will. They're his rivers. But that's
not what he's talking about here. Here he's talking about the river
of God. And it's a single river. In Genesis
2a, he tells us that God planted a garden eastward of Eden. What
is Eden? When you're reading the Bible,
stop and think about these terms. Look them up. Give them some
study. Find out what they're talking about. Eden is where
God dwells. That's Eden. Eden is defined
as the place of pleasure. Place of pleasure, not pleasure
like eating a good meal or lying down when you're tired and going
to sleep, but pleasure as it is considered in the deity. Pleasure, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself. My counsel shall stand, I've
just quoted that to you, and I will do all my pleasure. In Psalm 36, eight, he says,
they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house,
and thou shalt make them drink of the river of my pleasure. Eden is the place of pleasure. God planted a garden eastward
in Eden, and our Lord said, my father, he said, I'm the true
vine, and my father is the husband man. Was he talking about something
right then and right there? Well, kind of, but he's also
talking about back yonder. He's talking about this garden.
God's the husband man. He planted a garden. What'd he
plant in there? He planted a vine. A vine. And everything God's gonna save
gonna have to be connected to that vine. He put there a man and his bride. He put there a tree of knowledge
of good and evil. He put there a tree of life.
And he manifested in this garden the fall of man, the reconciliation
of his elect. He demonstrated the blood atonement
of Christ and his righteous covering to hide their nakedness. Everything
God intended to do, he demonstrated in that garden where he planted
that vine. He began with the vine. Where's it at? In his garden.
Who planted it? He did. He did. All right, now watch this. Genesis
2, verse 10. And a river went out of Eden
to water the garden. The river, the river of everything
God was pleased to do. flowed out of him to water his
garden. What is this river? Well, it's
the river of God, David said. It is the river of God's eternal
purpose of grace. But it's more than that. It is
the river of God. Who's gonna water this garden? God is. God is. It's the everlasting counsel
of God to save a people in Christ for the glory of his name. And
nothing in this garden will grow without being fed by this river. You ever try to grow a garden
and then don't water it? It got shriveled up. Nothing's
gonna grow in God's garden apart from this river. This river is
a river of purpose. It didn't just go out and start
meandering around as nature would give it opportunity. This river
went straight into God's garden. This river is why this garden
could exist. This river. He said, we have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. God planted that garden and then
he watered it. He put his river into that garden. And the purpose of it going forth
or going out is to water his garden. There can be no understanding
of anything that takes place there without this river. Without
this river. You can explain it away well
as luck would have it, you know, whatever else religion uses when
they talk about the garden. No, everything happened in that
garden happened on purpose. Happened on purpose. All right, now here's the second
thing I want you to think about. What does this river have to
do with me? That was a long time ago. That's
back in the beginning. God planted a garden, a river
flowed into the garden. What's that garden got to do
with me? What's that river have to do with me? Genesis 2.10,
second half of the verse. And from thence, the same river,
this river of God, it flows first into the garden. God's purpose
flows into the garden. And from thence it was parted
and become into four heads, one river, four directions. The name of the first, he said,
is Tyson. And he said, it compasseth the
whole land of Havilah where there's gold. It feeds the land of treasure. And the gold in that land, he
said, is good. There's delium and onyx stone. Now passion means to disperse. That's what the name means. There's
this birth head going on. It means to freely give, to give
to make access to, to have access to. Nobody can drink from the river
if the river stays in Eden Garden. That river has to go out to wherever
God's directed it. And that's what this first head
is. It means to disperse, to freely
give, to make access to. And where does it go? To the
land of gold. Having stated our quickening
together with Christ and our resurrection with him and our
being seated with him in glory, he tells us the reason for it
in Ephesians 2.7. that in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. He's gonna reveal in us, in these
old clay pots, he's gonna put his treasure. He's gonna reveal
himself to us. The name of the second river
is Gihon. The same is it that compasseth
the whole of Ethiopia." Now, Gaion means river of grace. It's
that river that King David stood next to when he was anointed
to be king. And it was also that river that
fed the pool. that ancient Israel had built
conduits and this pool, I'm not sure if it was the Pool of Bethesda.
I'm going by memory now. My memory ain't very good. I
don't know if it was the Sheep Pool or the Pool of Bethesda,
but wherever it was, God worked his miracles in both places.
It was fed by this river. This is a river of grace. It's
a river of grace. And what would Ethiopia be without
his grace? I think about, as soon as I saw
that, I thought about the Ethiopian eunuch. The whole country come
passed about by this river. Why would he make a river go
through Ethiopia? Because one of his elect is there.
The name of the third river is Hittikal. The hiddekel means
revelation of God. This is where Daniel received
that revelation of Christ. It's east of Assyria, he says. And where would the Assyrians
be without the revelation of God? Where would we be without
the revelation of God? what's real in contrast to what
ain't. That's the revelation. I hath
not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him,
but God hath revealed them unto us. And then the fourth river is
the Euphrates. And Euphrates means to break
forth. It means unstoppable, mighty. Mighty flow, mighty stream, irresistible,
mighty. And the river flows out of God's
presence into the gospel garden. It waters his vine. It waters
everything that took place in that garden, everything that
God planted. It waters the tree of life. It
even waters the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God's purpose
is shown in both. This is the river of God, the
river of His everlasting purpose of grace. Paul said, God has
saved us. and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace. Where was he giving us? In Christ
Jesus before the world began. The river flowed into the garden,
but it was never intended to stay in the garden, and so having
watered God's garden, it divides up and goes forth into all the
world. And everything that is in this
world is made to drink from that river. What you think about that? Everything in this world that
belongs to God and nothing here that don't is made to drink from
that, or the most vile sinner is made to drink from the river
of God's purpose. Even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, he told Pharaoh. Show my power in thee. He's Lord of the dead and the
living. He never intended to stay in
the garden. He intended to go forth into
all the world. to reveal, to make known the
mystery of his will, to be an irresistible force bringing forth
the good pleasure of God. And everything in God's creation
is made to drink from the river. He said the earnest expectation
of creation. What's it doing? What's expected
from creation? Maybe you never even thought
about it. Creation has a purpose. What's its purpose? The earnest
expectation of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. This river goes forth spiritually
by the word of God and the preaching of the gospel. How do I know
that? Because it comes to us from that
place of pleasure. It pleased God, and take what
it says, through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. He hath from the beginning chosen
us for salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. How shall you
hear without a preacher? And how they're gonna preach
if I don't send them? Our election finds its beginning in this river.
It pleased God to make us his people. Faith finds its source
in this river. Enoch left this testimony. He just disappeared one day.
They couldn't find him, but he left his testimony. He pleased
God. He pleased God. But without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Even your faith finds its place
in this river. God's purpose. Think of the kings and kingdoms
that have set their faces like flint and did everything in their
power to stop this river of God. But it says, he that's in the
heaven shall laugh. You have them in the region. And in the end, what did they
do? These ones who so adamantly despised him and rejected him
and turned thumbs down on him, they did what God's hand and
God's counsel determined before to be done. Well, what does this
river of God do? Our text says God visits the
earth and waters it. What's he water it with? His eternal purpose of grace. My soul, there wouldn't be a
believer on the top side of God's earth apart from that. God's
purpose to save sinners through the preaching of the gospel.
There's nothing out there in this world, though there is a
building on every corner, except Antichrist religion. That's all
that's out there. But in spite of governments and
religion, God finds his people and he gives them the water of
life and they drink. How many times does our Lord
say, he that is a thirst, let him come. Let him come. Christ said, if any man thirst,
John 7, 37, let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. What in the world is he talking
about? He's talking about the Spirit that they were to receive,
that they hadn't received as yet. All in God's purpose. The Spirit of God attends the
flow of this gospel river and he makes it irresistible. There
was a day as the Apostle John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos
that he was caught up in the Spirit and he was allowed to
see God's purpose of grace in Christ Jesus. And he tells us
in the very last chapter of Revelations, in his closing words, he said,
he showed me a pure river, clear as crystal, clear as crystal. The river of the water of life,
it's clear as crystal. Where does it come from? It proceedeth
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. You see what David's
talking about back in his psalm? He ain't talking about rivers
feeding your peach orchard. He's talking about rivers feeding
your soul. He's talking about rivers of
God's purpose, irresistible flow that goes out and saves sinners. He don't try to save sinners,
he saves them. He don't try to redeem, he redeems. And here's the thing about these
rivers I told you the other night. Go down to the Mississippi River.
And take your little bucket and go out there and stick the bucket.
Take a big bucket, stick it in there, get it out. You see the
water go down, Annie? My soul. I've been preaching this
gospel for a long, long time. Water hadn't went down to Annie
at all. Annie at all. That river is full. He said it's
full of water. Thou greatly enriches it with
the river of God. Now watch this, which is full
of water, this Psalm 65. This river brings forth food
for the hungry where God so provides it. And even the high places
he waters, he makes the hard ground of man's heart soft with
his showers. And all who receive the benefits
of God's river, he closes out the psalm and says, they shout
with joy and sing. What do they sing? Well, here's
what one hymn writer wrote. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. A wonderful Savior is He. He
hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure
I see. May the Lord be pleased tonight
to let everybody in this place see and understand what he's
saying in Psalm 65. This was a man after God's own
heart. And he began to think on those
things He knew what it was to sit out
under the stars and see the rivers and the streams and the pastures.
And David sang about it, but he didn't sing about that natural
river. He sang about the river of God.
The river of God. May the Lord add his blessing
to the preaching of the gospel. Thank you.