I guess this message, Psalm 78. And we looked at this last week,
and starting in verse 12, marvelous things did God in the sight of
their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused
them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as a
heap. In the daytime also He led them
with a cloud, and in the night by the light of fire He claimed
the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink out of the great
depths. He brought streams also out of
the rock, That was that rock he smote was Christ. We talked
about that at length last Sunday's message. And the streams also
out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. That
was the passage that rested my attention and then that song,
like a river glorious. And look at it in verse 20. Behold,
Moses smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams
overflowed. The streams overflow. I want
to talk to you tonight about this morning about rivers of
waters, rivers of water as describing God's grace to us. His way of
salvation for us and the joy and peace that it affords. I want us to look at several
passages this morning and noticed how wide how deep and sufficient
God's grace in Christ truly is. It is compared to in the scriptures
in numerous places, and we'll look at just a couple, but it's
very obvious who he's talking about. Compares these things that God
has done for us, and everything he does for us is through the
Lord Jesus Christ by Holy Spirit injunction. They're like rivers
of water. Rivers of water. And if you don't have an appreciation
for rivers of water, then bear with me as I try to paint a beautiful
picture of the rivers of water. The Lord Jesus Christ as He is
to His church, to His elect. The grace of God and the joy
that affords. Turn first of all to Isaiah 32.
Isaiah 32. We're going to look at verses
1 through 4, Isaiah 32, verses 1 through 4. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And princes shall rule in judgment.
A man, who's that? The man shall be as a hiding
place. It's that song that we sing,
Christ our hiding place. from the wind, and a covert from
the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow
of a great rock in a weary land." That's a description of the Lord
Jesus Christ to his church. He's described as a man, he's
described as a hiding place. We know that in him we're hid
from our own sin, we're hid from the wrath of man and we're hid
from the wrath of God mainly. He's also described as a covert
from the tempest and rivers of water in a dry place. In verse
3, the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears
of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall
understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak plainly. Now this basically, there's a
little outline right here. Verses 1 and 2 speak of Christ. Verses 3 is a description of
the church or the elect, and verses 4 describes salvation
in Christ. It's plain. Look at it with me.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in judgment. The Lord God is the sovereign
king of all He surveys. He's sovereign over the heathen.
He's sovereign over believers. He's sovereign over princes.
He's sovereign over kings. As He turns their hearts, you
know, whithersoever He pleases, But it speaks of Jesus Christ
and all these and what he has done for poor sinners and ruined
by the fall. A man shall be as a hiding place,
rivers of water in a dry place. These are all descriptions of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This, this earth is dry. It's
a dry place. You can't, you can't just go
anywhere and hear the gospel. at all. That's obvious to anybody
who has understanding. You can't just go to this church
or go to that church and find the gospel. This is a dry place. This is like Sodom and Gomorrah.
But every now and again, there's these little oasis, there's these
little places where the gospel is preached. We gather around
Him and we're just trying to honor and glorify Him. This is
a river in a dry place. This is a river of water in a
dry place. Look at verse three. And the
eyes of them that see shall not be dim. This is the description
of the elect, the salvation, that is our description of the
church. They have eyes and ears of the
heart. They're made aware of who we are and who He is. He's
our like. We see that light and we understand
that grace to the guilty, the balm for the sick, life for those
who are dead in trespasses and sins. And he says, the eyes of
them that see shall not be dim. Our eyes were dim, our eyes were
closed. And the ears of them that hear
shall hearken. This is what the church, we see
him now, we hear him. It's like in the Old Testament.
when the Lord would call somebody and even say, here am I. Do with
me as you would. That's the reaction of the church.
Whether it's suffering persecution, whether it comes that way. Persecution
comes with obedience. But we see Him. We didn't see
Him before. We see Him. And we hear Him. And we go to Him. And in the
fourth point in this short passage, the heart also of the rash. the rash, hasty, shall understand
knowledge." We didn't understand knowledge, but now we understand
that the knowledge of God is in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Salvation in Christ is scribe. He says, "...the heart,
also the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of
the stammerer shall be ready to speak." What does it say in
Romans? With the heart, Man believes,
and with the mouth he confesses that the Lord is sovereign, the
Lord of glory. He's the King of kings. He's
the Lord of lords. Look at what it says here. I think this is
interesting. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge.
The beginning of wisdom is the knowledge of the whole, is what
the scripture says. But he says the tongue of the stammerers
shall be ready to speak Lamely. And that word in the margin is
eloquently. Now, before you knew Christ,
and somebody would come to you and they'd ask you for a reason
of the hope that you have? I don't know about you, but,
well, I was baptized. I was baptized when I was a little
kid, so that was salvation. Now, wait a second. I began to
read the scriptures, And then, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait. Jerry Falwell came into town
and I made a decision. No, no, no, no, no, that's not
right either. Well, don't you know what you
believe? Don't you know who you believe? No. Stammering tongue. I was raised in religion all
my life. If somebody pinpointed me, I sounded like What's that
guy, Mel Tillis? You can relate. That's who I
sounded like. But now, the tongue of the stammerers
shall be ready. We are ready to give an answer
to those who ask us. And we speak the truth in love,
but if it steps on your toes or my toes, if it offends mama,
if it offends daddy, if it offends the kids, so be it. I'm not going to stammer and
lie to you while you go to hell. I need to be clear. And that's
what's going on here. Verses 1 and 2, picture the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's described as a river of
water. The description, the narrative
here of our blessed Lord is one of river of water. And water, the rivers of water,
how sweetly He sweeps away the sin. When Moon and I were doing
our lunch yesterday, we brought our lunch and we found a spot
right by the river and it was a, somebody had, going down the
street, dead end street, they had enlarged the section. We
pulled over there, we put our little blanket over, there was
a rock wall thick, we sat down, and we were looking right down
at the Missouri River. And the Missouri River, like the Mississippi
River, it's just moving. It's moving. And it's moving. And it's moving. These rivers,
this river, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's like that river, washed
that sin away. Just took it away. by the sacrifice
of Himself. We're washed, the Scripture says,
we're whiter than snow. That river, how it's refreshed
daily, what's here like a stagnant pond, it's not like a stagnant
pond. You've got something going on here, something decomposing,
an animal is rotting away, not in the river. This river is constantly
refreshing itself. How He refreshes us daily with
the sweet tokens of His long-suffering and gentleness. David says, Your
gentleness, which I don't fully understand. I love the verse,
but I don't fully understand it. Your gentleness has made me great.
I want to look at that one of these days. We'll look at that
together. Maybe we can see Christ in it. Thy gentleness has made
me great. This river, it never stops flowing. It will never
run dry. It really can't be measured.
The depth is unknown to poor believing sinners like us. We
don't know the depth of the riches. Like the river, glorious is God's
perfect peace. I know we got solar and all that
kind of stuff, but this river, it's vast and wide, refreshing,
purifying. It's vast, it's powerful, it's
unchanging and it's free. And one thing, now I know the
Corps of Engineers may disagree with this statement, but one
thing about the River Christ, it can't be controlled. Now I
know they've tried to put dams here and there. Now there's rivers
in Africa that there's no way they're going to alter those
things. And when Melinda and I went to the Niagara Falls on
the Canadian side, we walked down and there's right below
the falls, it's the Niagara River. And there's five categories for
kayaking, one through five. This was a category six. Everybody
that tried to swim across it, professional swimmers that had
a roll list, professional, professional, this, that, they all died. Couldn't
make it. And when we were lookouts, we were standing, it looked like
it was one of those rivers in Africa. It hit these rocks and
just, 10 or 12 foot just shoot up and it was flowing, it was
massive. Now that is never going to be
altered unless somebody turns off the falls. Because it comes
right down there and it flows. And this river, the River Christ,
is not going to be controlled. Not by puny, weak, vile, corrupt
men. Free will or no. Let's turn to
Isaiah 33, look at this, Isaiah 33, and we'll start in verse
20 for our next passage. Look upon Zion, that's the church,
the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.
Not one of the stakes thereof ever be removed. Neither shall
any of the cords thereof be broken. Why? but there the glorious Lord will
be unto us." The description of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
there, where in the church, the glorious Lord will be unto us,
a broad river and streams. wherein shall go no galley with
oars, neither shall a gauntlet's ship pass thereby. For the Lord
is our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will
save us." The wonder of the grace of God. It's described, the narrative
in this passage, unto us, That's the elect. Ain't nobody else
included in this, of broad rivers and streams. Totally undeserved, totally unasked
for, totally unsought after. No, we were playing the fool
and the harlot against our Lord. And then he says, he says that this broad rivers
and streams, He will save us. He will save us. I like it. It says, well, that's, what did
I do, skip? Okay, I skipped a whole, I flipped
over and flipped over two pages. So I'm like, wait a second, this
isn't right. But there, this is where the church, which is
in Christ. Look at what he says. It's kind
of like that passage in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Christ is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Because look
at what it says. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us. Be unto
us a place of broad rivers and streams. He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. This is the name
whereby the church in Jeremiah chapter 33 in verse 16, it says,
this is the name whereby the church, she shall be called the
Lord, our righteousness. And in Jeremiah chapter 23 in
verse six, there's only one word difference. This is the name
whereby he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. One
passage in Jeremiah 23 is talking about the Lord. And in Jeremiah
33, 16, it's talking about the church, whereby she shall be
called. One word difference. He's made
unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. We must have His
righteousness. The illustration again before
us in the text, broad rivers and streams. And to me this says,
This is worded this way because it shows that He meets every
need that the sinner has. He is a suitable Savior, perfectly
matched up to our vile and corrupt needs, substituting His righteousness
for our unrighteousness, and thus giving us His own righteousness. The river of living waters, the
river of waters, like a river glorious, this river meets all
our need. It is broad, And it is plentiful. Basically, it's going to save
everybody for whom it was provided. It's broad. I know a lot of times
we like to think, and the way is narrow and straight, and the
road of destruction is broad, but the Scripture says there'll
be a number nobody can number. There's a sand of the sea. And
that's true. All in the divine purpose of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in case you missed it, these
are all excellent. These are just all wonderful
passages. But this last one is absolutely
incredible. Isaiah 41. The description in
the narrative is the Lord as being a river of waters. Isaiah 41. And I can just read
this. I mean, what more can you say?
Isaiah 41, verse 17 through 20. Look at this. Wonderful. Oh,
the matchless grace of Jesus greater than all our need. When the poor and needy, guess
who that is? That's us. Seek water and there
is none. and their tongue faileth for
thirst, the Lord's gonna bring us to where we are sensible of
our sins, we're vile and corrupt, as Job says, we hate and abhor
ourselves, He's gonna bring us there, because it's only there
that we're gonna look to Him, that we're gonna look for a substitute,
we're gonna look for a Savior, a Redeemer. Their tongues faileth
for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I, the God of Israel, will
not forsake them." And look at what he's going to do. I will
open rivers. I will open rivers. There it
is again. In high places, fountains in
the midst of the valley, I will make the wilderness a pool of
water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the
wilderness the cedar, the shittum tree, and the myrtle, and the
oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and
the box tree together, that they may see, and know, and consider,
and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done
this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. We're not, there's
no more, I saw, we were driving yesterday, I can't remember where
I saw the sign, I won a bumper sticker, it's actually pretty
good, I'll say this, it was pretty good. It had, in the beginning
God, and then it had over in the corner, you know the Dr.
Leakey thing, where the amoeba crawls out and you got the chip,
and then you got the series of evolution, it had it circled
and crossed out, you know, big ol' cross. In the beginning God
created, and then it had that picture. It's like, no, we realize
we're not the master of our own destiny. We realize we didn't
come from animals. We realize that He hath done
it. Done what? Our greatest need.
Salvation. To produce the greatest result.
Glorifying our Creator, Master, and Savior. Totally undeserved. This is totally unasked for.
They're thirsty. Their tongue's hanging out. I
will open up rivers. But look at how it's said. Well,
one guy told me that the grace of God... He didn't say it this
way, but this is how he said it. The grace of God was only
for white-collar people. And I said, oh my word, that's
going to exclude me. Where are you getting this? He
says, if I had my way, I would teach church history in Greek
and Hebrew. Then you got a bunch of orthodox
idiots. That's all you got. No. No. Look at... What did David say? If I go here, you're there. If
I go there, if I make my bed in hell, you're there. Wherever
the believer is, even the lost sheep, the grace of God is going
to go find him And that river of water is going to flow. And he's going to be refreshed.
Whether he's high, whether it's in a valley, whether it's in
a wilderness, or whether it's a dry place. There's no restrictions. It's like I said, that Niagara
of the Mississippi. Well, the Mississippi used to go, but it's
still flowing. At the earthquake of, what, 1812,
they said it went backwards a little bit. It still flowed. Totally unasked for, totally
unsought after, we were out here playing the fool, playing the
harlot, high, low, dry places or parched places, wherever the
elect sheep is, he will pardon, he will save, he will be honored
among us. What can be said more? Anywhere,
everywhere, the church has a need, He is able and willing to supply
that need. Like the narrative says, open
rivers. Open rivers. And I will say this, if you and
I go to hell, it will be charged against us. We will be the blame.
We heard, but we didn't believe. We had the gospel preached, but
we refused. Kind of like the blame must be
upon us. Like in Luke 13. When Christ
said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you
as a hen gathers the chicks. But you would not. You would
not. But in closing, John chapter
7. John chapter 7. It's just this theme of waters
gushed out like a river. And that's why I text you and
text Nate and said, let's sing that song, Like a River, Glorious.
Old Frances Havergale, she had a handle on it. You know, Spurgeon
said, there's a book that he's got that I've got. It's the Teachings
of Grace in the Kingdom of Nature. And old Tommy Robbins used to
say, if there's anybody that can enjoy the creation, it's
the believer. You can walk to a river and see
Christ. You can walk to the ocean and
think about how vast and unchangeable is His mercy. I mean, just go
on. You sit down and lay on your
back, we used to do with the kids, you know, and look at the
clouds and the clouds would make little things. and you see the
handiwork of God, you can look at the stoplight, the light,
you turn the light on and off, the picture of salvation, grace,
everything, the scripture says to the pure all things are pure
to the believer. He has, it's not just glasses, he sees clear,
but he's got eyes. Now he's got eyes to see the
grace of God and the gospel in everyday life, everyday life. Well, look at John chapter In
verse 37, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. He that believeth on me, not
about me, on me. As the scripture has said, there's
our warrant to believe, not what Newton said, I love Newton. Not
what Thomas Brooks said, I love Thomas Brooks. I love all these
old writers. They're fellow believers. But what the scripture says. Out of his belly, well looky
there, shall flow rivers. There it is again. Rivers of
living water. Lord, give us this living, lasting,
gracious water. I want to be found in Him, not
in my own righteousness, but in the righteousness satisfied, secured, procured
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, may God add a blessing
to the reading of His Word. Nathan, do you have a last hymn
for us and then close us in prayer?