Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1054
“Waters to swim in.” EzekieI47:5.
THE whole vision, though bearing other meanings, may be applied to the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It began at Jerusalem as a tiny rivulet. By our Savior’s preaching, a few disciples, some of whom became Apostles, were converted. These were the means of the conversion of a still larger number. But at first the stream was very shallow, for the whole Church could meet in one upper room. Even after the Pentecostal increase it was but as a small brook. Herod thought that he could leap across it, or could dam it up, but his persecutions swelled the stream. Very shortly after, the watercourse grew broader and deeper till it attracted the attention of the Roman Emperors and excited their alarm.
They thought that it was time to drain the river lest it should become a torrent so great as to sweep them away. Their attempts to stay its course only added to its floods. Its current became stronger and wider than before, and on it went from age to age till at last it had become a mighty river, watering the whole earth and greatly blessing the nations. It is destined to grow until it shall be like the main ocean itself, for “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” We bless God that the day of small things which dawned at Bethlehem has already grown to a day of great things—and our faith fully expects to see greater things than these!
The vision might equally well be applied to the growth of Christian experience. When we first know the Lord the Gospel is a very precious thing to us. We rejoice in its pardon and the consequent salvation which we expect to receive through it. But, compared with what we shall know of it by-and-by, our knowledge of the Gospel at first is like a tiny rivulet. As we advance in Grace it becomes a river flowing up to the ankles. As we are further instructed, so that our faith is confirmed and our Graces are developed, it deepens into a river up to the knees—and by-and-by up to the loins. And farther on (with some it has already happened—I trust it may happen to us all) it becomes “waters to swim in.” I shall speak of the text as illustrating the Christian’s experience when he arrives at that stage.
Perhaps we have not yet come to know the height, and depth, and length and breadth of the love of Christ—neither have we yet discovered how exceedingly broad the Gospel is—but what we now don’t know we shall know hereafter. Contracted notions we shall leave behind as the bird casts off the shell in which it was imprisoned! Dim ideas will vanish as the trees walking were seen no more when the blind man’s eyes were fully opened. Childish knowledge makes us dream of comprehending the Gospel in the hollow of our hand, but when we become men and put away childish things we shall find in it “waters to swim in.”
I see in the metaphor before us three ideas. The first is abundance. The second is space. And the third is trust, for there are not only great waters, but “waters to swim in.”
I. The first thought of the text concerning the Gospel is this—the idea of ABUNDANCE. Beloved, God has provided for His people, in the Gospel of His dear Son, no stinted store. He has not killed a sheep and invited one or two to His supper—His oxen and His fatlings are killed and, “All things are ready.” The provisions of God are on a royal scale—on an infinite scale. There is so much provided at the Gospel feast that none need keep back from fear that there is
not enough! Neither shall the greatest eater at that feast ever say, “I have exhausted what was provided for me.” The wine ran short at the marriage feast at Cana until the Lord came in and then there was enough and to spare.
As a king gives to a king so has God given to the poor ones of the earth—to His afflicted—to sin-stricken souls who seek His face. Honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock He gives His people. Moses spoke concerning Israel, “Butter of cattle and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the fat of kidneys; with wheat; and you did drink the pure blood of the grape.” But the food of the spiritual Israel is richer by far. The child of God, as he advances in the Divine life rejoices in the abundance of Covenant provisions. Let me mention some which strike me as exceedingly abundant.
The first is the abundant provision for the removal of sin and for making us accepted in the Beloved. To put away my sin there needed an infinite Atonement. I do not marvel, therefore, that it should have needed the Son of God to die for exceedingly great sin—but sometimes, as my soul has stood at the foot of the Cross and considered who He was that shed His blood for me, I have felt as if the price were too much. When I have seen my sin I thought it impossible for it to be removed. But when I have seen my Savior, I have thought it equally impossible that there could be any conceivable sin which Jesus’ blood could not wash away. An infinite degree of merit must reside in the sufferings of our blessed Lord! Such sufferings as they were, of body, of mind, and of spirit—the suffering of being forsaken of man and of God, too— and being left alone in utter desertion to die when He became obedient even unto death.