There's surprises in the weather here in Canada,
aren't there?
And one of them has come this evening.
I'd be very warmly welcome those of you
who have braved the way into the center
of the city and we are able to
meet and worship the Lord in this way.
It's rather wonderful that the weather doesn't keep
him away from us.
And that is the precious thing that in
the sunshine and in the storm, in the
winter and in the summer, our God keeps
truth, keeps his promise and rendezvous with his
people.
This is a very, very precious truth to
be reminded.
When we can't come to him, he can
nevertheless and does come to us.
And if needs be, just as our Lord
of old, he can walk the turbulent seas
in order to come alongside our tossing boat.
Well, praise his name that we are able
to be in his house tonight and that
he is here with us.
Now our subject, we began looking at it
a few Sunday evenings ago.
We based our theme on the fifth verse
in 2 Timothy chapter 3.
2 Timothy chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul
writing to the young stripling Timothy, tells him
of some of the things that are going
to happen in the last days.
And among them, he says, there will be
a rash of people who having a form
of godliness will nevertheless deny the power of
it.
Having a form of godliness will nevertheless deny
and even resist the power of it.
Now, we first of all thought of the
division of religion as we have it there
into a twofold entity.
There is the external shell or form and
there is the inside spirit or soul of
true religion especially.
The power of it, the dimminess of it.
Religion is not all form, there is force.
And then we came to consider what is
this power?
What is this force?
How does it function?
And we come to the third tonight and
the last in this short series.
First of all, we considered the power of
true religion over us.
One thing that characterizes men and women who
worship the true God as he has demanded
to be worshipped is this, that we acknowledge
his sovereign rule over us.
And as Jesus taught us to pray, increasingly
our concern comes to be for his name,
for his glory, for his kingdom.
God rules over us and insofar as we
have entered into the spirit of biblical religion,
this surely is one characteristic of our lives.
God has power over us and we accede
to that.
Indeed, we delight in that.
We rejoice, as we heard in our conference
last weekend, to be the bond slaves of
Jesus Christ.
But it isn't only there that we discover
this power of true religion.
Not only is it power over us, the
power of the potter over the clay, molding
it according to his own perfect will, fashioning
something that he has in his own mind
and for his own purposes, but it is
a power within us.
It is doing something to the mind.
It engages the conscience and the will and
the heart and the whole being of a
man on the inside.
This, of course, manifests itself in the fruit
of the spirit and in the gifts of
the spirit.
But the work is all on the inside.
And we saw something of that, though by
no means everything that the New Testament has
to tell us about that very, very precious
aspect of our subject.
Now tonight we come to a third and
we must add this.
Power through us.
The power of the gospel is not only
power over us and power within us, but
if it is over us and insofar as
it is functioning within us, sooner or later
it is a mighty current that will flow
through us.
And the power working within us will be
touching other lives.
And in true religion it is always so.
It is always thus.
If what I claim to be the true
religion, if what I confess to be the
Christian faith, is simply a matter of doctrinal
belief, of holding certain tenets, crossing the T's
and dotting the I's, and judging other people
from my stance and standpoint.
If it's simply that, if it's simply doctrinaire,
then we need to question ourselves.
If the power of God is at work
in us, God will always be seeking to
touch others through us.
This is a principle written into the warp
and woof of holy scripture and of biblical
religion in the old and the New Testament
as I understand it.
Now let's start then with this general principle.
Let's repeat it.
Whom God subdues by his power and indwells
by his spirit, he uses in order to
extend his sway, to manifest his purpose, and
to bring others within the orbit of his
saving grace.
You see, Christian experience is not God giving
us a little bit of luxury.
Something to enjoy.
Oh there is enjoyment in it and there
is a song at the heart of it.
There's no question about that.
But true religion is not God giving us
a little bit of extra jam on our
bread.
God is fulfilling a purpose, and all his
enrichment of us is with a view to
his fulfilling his purpose in us and then
through us.
Now we are so selfish and self-centered
that we so often forget that.
And we're only concerned about the little bit
that affects number one.
Oh I want a bigger experience.
I want a greater experience.
I want more joy.
I want more peace.
I want more power.
I want more of this and I want
more of that.
Well perhaps we need all of these things.
But if we are seeking them only for
our own spiritual luxury, we are out of
alignment with New Testament spirit and New Testament
thought.
In the mind and in the purposes of
God what he has to give us is
with a view ultimately to doing something through
us.
Now it's very difficult to present this in
its balance, in its equipoise.
When God is dealing with us as sinners,
he gives us full attention.
You should never think of God as talking
to you and then looking at somebody else.
You know there are people like that.
I've caught myself doing that so I'm not
thinking of other people.
Sometimes in the vestibule there on a Sunday
morning or a Sunday evening somebody's saying something
and then somebody else comes out and they're
whispering something from the other end.
It's a very difficult situation.
You're listening to what this person is saying
and then you you see that person over
there has got something to say as well
and the man is at sixes and sevens.
God is never like that.
When you come to him in penitence and
in prayer he gives you his attention.
He listens to every sigh and every sob.
He hears you.
He sees you.
And yet my friends at the same time
our God is looking beyond you.
He sees beyond.
He sees your family.
He sees your neighborhood.
He sees your nation.
He sees generations yet unborn.
And as he's touching you he relates you
to things that will happen to the end
of time that you cannot see.
For our God is an omniscient, all seeing,
all knowing God and all the links in
the chain of history are ever present to
him and when he blesses you he thinks
of others beyond you.
To go back to last weekend as he
gave Ruth the Moabitess favor with Boaz.
God was looking down the passage of time
to the very emergence of King David from
that line and God was planning not only
the emergence of King David from that line
but of David's greater son.
Nobody else could see that you see.
But when he gave Boaz an affection in
his heart for this young woman this Moabitess
and brought them together as men and wife.
God was looking down the ages.
He was looking beyond the present as we
can't do.
Now this principle was enunciated early in the
Old Testament.
It started, I suppose, one of the first
illustrations, perhaps the first time it is illustrated
and outlined anyway, is with regards to Abraham.
You remember these words in Genesis.
God says to Abraham I will make you
into a great nation and I will bless
you.
I will make your name great and you
will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and
whoever curses you I will curse and all
people's honor will be blessed through you.
Have you got it?
It's exceedingly wonderful.
God says look Abraham there's no knowing what
I'm going to do for you.
You have no idea Abraham.
I can't stop telling you about it.
But I want you to know he says
that you're not going to be a reservoir
that's going to contain all this blessing of
mine all for yourself just to sing and
talk and write about it.
Abraham I want you to know he says
that there's going to be a floodgate opening
one day and the blessing I give to
you will reach all the ends of the
earth and all nations will be blessed in
you.
What a mighty God we have.
What a gracious God.
The principle was that same principle was personally
exemplified in others of course beside Abraham.
I can't go after them tonight.
Let me just refer to Joseph and perhaps
Moses just to illustrate the point.
Having at last arrived at a height of
eminence and authority second only to the reigning
Egyptian pharaoh and having by that time recognized
God's gracious purpose for the dark threads in
his life Joseph refused to be angry with
his brothers for selling him in the first
place and acting so treacherously.
You remember the story?
All they'd sold him.
Oh they were cruel.
I'm not going into that story.
You remember it well enough.
Those of you who come out on a
Sunday night will read your Bibles.
You remember the story.
There's no question about that.
And now here they are before Joseph and
Joseph has got the power in his own
hand to do anything he likes with them.
What do you think?
What on earth does the man tell them?
He says look he says don't be angry
with yourselves because you sold me and you
sent me down here.
Don't don't get too cross with yourselves.
I'm not cross with you he says.
Do not be distressed and do not be
angry with yourselves for selling me here.
Oh Joseph what's gone wrong with your man?
Are you losing your common sense?
Well perhaps.
But here's the explanation.
Because it was to save lives that God
sent me ahead of you.
And again later on but God sent me
ahead of you to preserve for you a
remnant on earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance.
You see Joseph recognized that in the sweet
and bitter elements of his providence God was
not only working out what was best for
Joseph himself but he saw that God was
working out blessing for others also and it
pleased him as a man of God.
Had he been a selfish unregenerate man I
guess Joseph might have got angry and I'm
sure most of us would have.
But because the spirit of God has got
into his soul he's lost that anger.
He can see that God had a purpose
and not only did God have a purpose
it brought blessing and eminence to him but
it brought blessing to others too you see.
And so he says don't be angry with
yourselves.
It's only the grace of God can talk
like that.
When a man's heart and a man's thoughts
and a man's goals and motives of all
come to synchronize with the divine.
Take Moses.
God did not simply appear to Moses in
the burning bush in order to reveal himself
to Moses alone and thus simply to enlarge
and enrich Moses personal knowledge of him.
No that was necessary that was part of
it.
God did reveal himself to Moses as the
great I am.
But God's purpose went way beyond the individual
that he had condescended to bless at the
time.
And so we read in the ensuing story
words like this.
The Lord said that is to Moses I
have indeed seen the misery of my people
in Egypt.
Now imagine it here is dear old Moses
wrapped up in the vision it's wonderful it's
marvelous God is speaking to me from the
bush I've taken off my shoes I hear
the voice of God and he's all enraptured
with all this and God says forget it
Moses I'm thinking of my people in Egypt
and I've come to you because I've heard
their cries and I've heard the lashes of
their taskmasters and I've come to you because
I want you to go to them.
That humbles our pride doesn't it.
My friend God has come to some of
you today perhaps because he's not first and
foremost bringing blessing to you individually though he
does that.
But there's somebody somewhere he wants you to
touch he wants to reach through you.
Have you thought of that?
Don't get too wrapped up with a vision
whatever it may be take all that is
in it but then ask yourself why God
this privilege for me is it only for
me?
Now the same principle applied personally to those
whom Jesus called to be his apostles.
I must bring this in because you see
we're jumping from the old testament into the
new and it's good to see that the
same principle operates in the new.
Mark records the way in which Jesus called
the twelve to him.
Chapter 3 verses 13 to 15 this is
how it reads.
Jesus went up into the hills and he
called to him those whom he wanted and
they came to him.
He appointed twelve designating them apostles.
Doesn't end there though.
This is how it ends.
Designating them apostles that they might be with
him and doesn't end there even and that
he might send them out to preach and
to have authority to drive out demons.
You see it?
He called whom he willed whom he wanted
and they came and he appointed twelve to
be apostles and he said I've chosen you
to be with me.
Marvelous, marvelous we say.
Yes very marvelous indeed but that was not
the end of it.
He called them to be with himself in
order that having been with him in the
flesh he could send them out and send
them forth to carry the message the good
tidings the glad tidings to other people that
others might share in the grace of the
incarnate Lord and in the saving purposes of
the eternal God.
It's a principle indebted in scripture.
He appointed twelve that they might be with
him and that he might send them forth.
Neither has the principle changed when we come
to the rest of the new testament.
It's the same with the apostle Paul.
You remember how God told Ananias had a
little bit of difficulty in persuading Ananias to
go and speak to this Saul of Tarsus
that had been spoken to by the Lord
on the way to Damascus.
But God gave him the message and this
is Acts 9 15 16.
Go man he says the Lord said to
Ananias go.
This man is my chosen instrument to carry
my name before the Gentiles and their kings
and before the people of Israel.
I will show him how much he must
suffer for my name's sake.
What a marvelous vision that was on the
road to Damascus.
We can't go into that tonight but let's
simply note this it was something extraordinary.
Not every Christian not any other Christian seems
to have had this.
A revelation of the of the enthroned Lord
Jesus Christ.
So that he saw him in the midst
of the throne and he never got over
the spectacle.
That Jesus was Jehovah and Jehovah was Jesus.
But it wasn't just for Paul to luxuriate
him and talk about and dream about and
think about no no no.
Says Ananias he's got to bear my name
I've chosen him before the Gentiles even their
kings and the people of Israel.
And I'm going to show him how great
things he must suffer in order to do
that.
He's got to take something of the marvel
of it and the wonder of it and
the grace of it elsewhere.
I want to reach others.
Brothers and sisters if we don't get anything
else tonight I suggest to you this is
important for us to get.
Why are you and I the recipients of
God's grace?
Oh God loved us as individuals.
Don't let me minimize that.
Don't let me cast a shadow upon that.
The great apostle wouldn't.
Who loved me himself.
Me he said concerning himself.
He loved me me me.
Oh yes there is this personal intimate aspect
to it all right.
And gave himself for me of course.
But God had something beyond me and he
has something beyond all of us tonight.
Or that we might say with the apostle
I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ himself took hold of me.
Or in the way of the old King
James to apprehend that for which I also
was apprehended of Christ Jesus.
He took hold of me for a purpose.
Oh he says I'm pressing on to lay
hold of that purpose of his that he
had when he laid hold upon me.
Now that's the first principle I wanted to
establish.
I trust that as brief as we have
been on it and as certainly not exhaustive
that the point is clear.
But now let's come nearer the heart of
our text.
The gospel that is given to us.
The gospel that is committed to us.
The gospel that has brought us the knowledge
of God and of his grace.
Is a gospel which has in it an
inherent capacity to win.
To gain victory.
The gospel itself has an inbuilt capacity to
succeed.
Really I'm preaching to myself now I guess
more than to you.
You forgive me for that but you listen
in for a little while will you.
But I find that I have to tell
myself this very very often.
I know how feeble my efforts are to
expound and preach the gospel.
But this is something that comes home to
me.
Ultimately it doesn't matter on how you preach.
If you're proclaiming the truth of the gospel
it has this inbuilt capacity.
It will bless.
It will reach.
It will touch.
It will save.
Amen.
And brothers and sisters we need to see
this.
We're on the side you see of divine
power here.
Now there is a thread of biblical truth
here that we need to explore.
And I can only I can only refer
to it.
Listen to the great words of Isaiah.
You're familiar with them.
But now let's see them in this context
tonight.
As the rain and the snow come down
from heaven and do not return to it
without watering the earth.
That's why they were sent you see.
Why is the rain sent?
Why is the snow sent?
Well they're sent on an errand and they
don't return back to heaven until they've accomplished
their errand says the prophet.
I think he's got a sense of humor
there.
Without watering the earth and making it bud
and flourish.
So that it yields seed to the sower
and bread for the eater.
Now from that analogy the prophet applies a
principle.
So is my word says the Lord.
So is my word that goes out from
my mouth.
It will not return to me empty.
But will accomplish what I desire and achieve
the purpose for which I sent it.
What are you saying Isaiah?
What Isaiah is saying is this.
That when God sends forth his word from
his own mouth.
It will accomplish the purpose that God had
for it.
He cannot fail.
Now there may be mysteries about that that
I can't go into tonight.
We may come back to some of those
another time.
But we can't go into the mysteries tonight.
I want us to get beyond the mysteries
to the things that are clear.
One Old Testament passage that most graphically and
helpfully expounds this theme of the gospel's inherent
power to succeed.
In its divinely appointed mission.
I believe is found in the passage we
read tonight.
Ezekiel chapter 47 verses 1 to 12.
That's why I read it.
Now I believe that that river that Ezekiel
saw is a glorious picture of the gospel
of God and of his son Jesus Christ.
What is the gospel after all?
Isn't it God coming forth from his temple?
Isn't it God coming out from his sanctuary?
God coming down to planet earth.
God becoming enfleshed in Jesus from the virgin's
womb.
God becoming man and coming down and moving
among us like a mighty river.
And that's what the gospel is.
It's God in his goings forth.
It's God on an errand of salvation.
God doing his sovereign saving will and purpose.
Have you looked at this picture?
Now please I'm only throwing out a few
suggestions.
Just read it before you go to bed
tonight.
You'll have a good sleep after it.
You may not sleep for a half an
hour or so.
But when you do you'll be blessed.
The symbolism of this passage finds parallels elsewhere
by the way.
Let me remind you of them.
There's one parallel passage in Genesis, you know,
in the early paradise here on earth where
the garden of Eden was beautifully watered by
four rivers.
And it was very fruitful.
And it was fruitful, it was fruitful because
it was well watered and it was a
place where God ruled and reigned.
The first Edenic garden.
In the book of the Revelation it is
a picture of heaven.
You remember the river flowing.
The river flowing in Revelation chapter 22 verses
1 and 5.
I can't go into that.
That's in the heavenly Eden.
Paradise regained.
This river in Ezekiel 47 represents God then
in his outgoing influence.
And that of course is precisely what the
gospel is.
Now the gospel like the river in the
passage takes its origin as we have indicated
from under the threshold of the temple.
You got the picture?
The spring of this river, the source of
this river is in God's temple.
And there it begins to trickle.
And it flows out, it flows out and
it moves in its own particular way past
the altar of sacrifice.
And once it goes past the altar of
sacrifice it just gushes out through the southern
door and it moves in a certain direction.
So does the gospel of God.
Where did the gospel begin?
Brothers and sisters I don't need to remind
you.
It wasn't a council of men and women
that called forth the gospel of God.
It wasn't a group of the intelligentsia of
Greece or ancient Rome or anybody else or
any other people that called forth the gospel
of God.
Do you know where it started?
It originated in the heart of God himself
and in his mind and in his grace.
And then it passed the altar of sacrifice.
It came via Calvary.
And when once it came off this side
of Calvary it couldn't stop it.
The river gains momentum.
It's a river in spate.
It's moving mightily along.
Nothing can stop it.
And you know the remarkable thing about this
river is this.
There are no tributaries to it.
In every other river a river is enriched
by its tributaries.
Not so the gospel of God.
The gospel of God comes in its own
momentum.
Your philosophy, your bit of theology and mine
don't add anything to the gospel.
We don't make it go faster.
It's all in itself.
It's self-contained.
And the thing that sends the gospel forth,
sends it out, gives it momentum, it's not
the preacher.
It's not the people.
It's God.
And you measure it a hundred cubits and
you're in water ankle deep.
And you do another.
Did I say a hundred or a thousand?
It's a thousand.
Go another thousand cubits and it's up to
your knees.
And go another thousand and it's up to
your thighs.
And go another thousand and it's water to
swim in.
You can't cross.
You can't cross this river.
What's happened?
And it's happened all at once.
No tributaries.
And it started as a little trickle.
It should have got less and less as
it moves over the dry arid land.
It should have become less and less.
Instead of becoming less and less it's becoming
more and more and greater and greater.
You see the power of God is in
it.
The power of God is in it.
Now if when we've gone to the end
of the river, which we haven't of course
and never will, but if we go to
the other end of the river, turn back
with me now, come back towards the city
of God and you'll see that on either
side of the river, man alive.
There are trees.
There were no trees there before.
And they're bearing fruit every season of the
year, every month of the year.
And the fruit is marvelous and the very
leaves are for the healing of the nations.
There's something extraordinary about this and it all
stems from the nature and the quality of
the water of the river.
God is in it.
And then to me the most wonderful thing
of all is this.
That when it gets to the salt sea,
maybe the dead seas going down towards the
Arabah, or maybe the sea, the Mediterranean even,
never mind, which sea, the saline properties of
the sea are negated by this water and
the water of the sea becomes fresh and
fish begin to live where fish could not
live.
Hallelujah.
And it all started as a little trickle
under the threshold of the temple.
What am I saying men and women, brothers
and sisters, what I'm saying is this.
That in the gospel of God there is
an inherent power.
There is a power that makes for goodness
and for grace and for victory.
It has an inbuilt capacity to transform the
whole of life.
Is that the gospel that you have believed
and received and experienced and are pledged to
proclaim?
Then I tell you you're on the way
to victory.
But that's not all.
And much as I would like to close
now, I have to add one other thing.
Because you see the New Testament brings in
at least, oh not only one, but one
other picture which added to this makes the
whole thing really something that makes us worship
God.
The gospel is not something in the head
that we talk about.
Though we do talk about it and there
are tenets and it is represented in the
New Testament as the truth of God.
We have received the truth in receiving Christ
and the gospel.
It is that.
But oh it's much much more than that.
As it is experienced in the soul, it
is something so infinitely wonderful that really it
baffles human imagination rightly to talk about it.
You remember our Lord Jesus Christ on the
last great day of the feast in John
chapter 7 and verse 37.
I can't go into the background of that
now.
Most of you will be familiar with it
but I must just refer to it.
On the last great day of the feast
of tabernacles, we read, Jesus stood and said
in a loud voice, if any man is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has
said, streams or rivers is the old translation.
Rivers of living water will flow from within
him.
Now brothers and sisters, if that doesn't take
your breath away, you'd take some breathtaking.
Jesus said, if any man really thirsts for
the things of the Spirit and the things
of God, let him keep on coming to
me.
Now that's what the tenses here say.
They stress that.
He is speaking not just of a coming
once in a lifetime, however much may have
happened on that one occasion when you came
to the Lord Jesus.
He is not talking about that.
He is talking, he is saying, if any
man thirsts, let him come and come and
come and keep on coming to me, so
that the first coming leads to a communion
with him.
If any man keeps on coming to me,
keeps on thirsting, let him keep on coming
to me and let him keep on drinking.
And whoever keeps on believing in me, not
just believing once for all forever, whoever keeps
on believing in me, as the scripture has
said, what?
Rivers of living water shall flow from within
him.
Have you got the picture?
I asked the question, I cannot say dogmatically.
I asked the question, was Jesus here thinking
of Ezekiel 47?
You know, I have a feeling he must
have been.
The river that makes glad the city of
God, the river of gospel grace.
Now we all know too well that there
is a kind of formal association with Christ
and his gospel.
There is no dynamic effect at all.
It doesn't change a plot in the garden.
It doesn't change a foot square of territory.
It doesn't transform anything.
And here is something that transforms the desert.
Now despite the fact that there are some
difficult grammatical issues here, the point is quite
clear.
Jesus says, Jesus says that paradise can be
regained in some measure in our experience here
and now.
And our souls can be so satiated by
the blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit that
out of our inner man there can flow
rivers of living water.
My word, this is a great theme, isn't
it?
I remember preaching with Dr. T.B. Duncan,
who was in St. George's Tron in Glasgow
before Rev. Eric Alexander.
He was preaching in Keswick one year.
We were together in the same service.
And he was preaching on the Holy Spirit.
I don't remember more about it but this
illustration.
He said that he'd just come back from
India and he'd been traveling up by train
to Missouri and Landau to minister in conventions
there.
He was traveling in the train and it
was still time of the year when the
rivers were still, there were still water in
the riverbeds.
And he said the thing that completely amazed
him was this, was how the main riverbed
was evident and then there were tributaries moving
in different directions and then sub-tributaries and
then sub-tributaries of the sub-tributaries and
they divided themselves out into so many little
tributaries in the end that miles and miles
on either side of the river you saw
a little bit of vegetation.
It's your life like that.
Do you bring life where you go?
Do you bring grace where you go?
Is the grass greener?
Are the heavens bluer?
Is God nearer?
Is Jesus clearer?
Is the Word of God more powerful where
you and I go?
Is the grass greener?
Is the wilderness transformed?
Or are we just dead ducks?
I don't want to be funny but somebody
did say that rather than be like riving
waters many of us are more like dripping
tubs.
And you know what that means don't you?
We drip a little bit of blessing every
now and again.
And somebody gets a little drop, a little
bit of a blessing through us.
But brothers and sisters what do we know
of the rivers of God?
This is the promise.
Now either this is true or it isn't
and if it isn't the sooner the better
we we expose it.
I believe it's true.
Oh it condemns my own life if
any man keeps on thirsting and keeps on
coming and keeps on drinking.
I conclude with this.
I can't remember the exact details.
I know it was in New York and
I know the background generally.
I'll give it to you as I remember
it.
Came to me as I was sitting in
my vestry tonight.
I heard an American refer to this of
an incident where a family of children had
been in great trouble, suffered cruelty and malnutrition
and all the effects of poverty and drunkenness
and much else.
And the children were unable to get into
this one, sorry one of the children had
to get into a hospital not into a
home.
And this little black girl of about seven
years of age was in the hospital and
the nurse brought her a tumbler of lovely
cold milk from the fridge and the nurse
put this cold tumbler of milk in her
hand and said my dear she said drink
this up it'll do you good.
And emasculated as she was emaciated she looked
up at her and she says nurse how
far down can I drink?
You see in her home they never had
a whole tumbler of milk.
She was allowed to drink down so far
and then probably a brother or a sister
down a little further and somebody else down
to the bottom or something like that.
And the nurse grasped it and she saw
what was the background of the little girl.
My last she says take it she says
and drink it drink all of it drink
it to the bottom she says.
And when you've drunk it if you need
more there are gallons more to fill it
up again.
And the little girl drank.
Perhaps the metaphor isn't suitable God forgive me
for us Holy Spirit is a person and
not a thing.
But I hear I sense I hear the
voice of God telling some of us dry
and parched and pinched and dead and fruitless
tonight.
Oh Sonny oh my daughter drink will you
drink to the bottom of it and when
you drunk to the bottom I'll fill it
again.
And out of you it is possible for
rivers to flow.
Is it?
Do you believe it?
Do you really believe God's word?
Then brothers and sisters we are in honor
bound we are in honor bound to seek
more and more of this.
Oh for a divinely given thirst that will
bring us back and back and back again
believing and believing and believing and receiving and
receiving and receiving until the floods begin to
flow.
Channels only blessed master but with all thy
wondrous power flowing through us thou canst use
us every day and every hour.
Let us pray.
Our God we worship you.
We can sometimes express that worship better in
just awesome silence than with words for in
the midst of our response to your word
there is of necessity an acknowledgement of sin
and unworthiness an acknowledgement that the best we
are is so infinitely short of the least
you desire and deserve but our father we
do worship and bless your name that you
have given us such a glorious gospel with
its inherent capacity to success to ultimate victory
and it cannot fail.
We hear the sound of our savior's words
so close to the death he knew was
coming don't be afraid i have overcome the
world and we hear him sending his disciples
to make disciples of all the nations without
apology saying lord i am with you always
to the end of the edge.
Oh lord take hold of us lay hold
of us and make us into the people
you desire us to be make us a
force wherever we are not a carnal self
-motivated carnal people but a people that are
indwelt and infilled and enabled and constrained and
even restrained too by the the indwelling holy
spirit whom you have given to your own.
Father hear us and help us more and
more to apply your word to our lives
for jesus sake amen