Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13, God willing, will be expounding verse 14 tonight.
All right, Proverbs 13:14.
The title of the message tonight is A Legal Fountain, A Legal Fountain.
And so our text tonight starts off with these two words, the law, the law.
The law here is the law of God because the Bible's not writing about any other law, right?
So we know it's the law of God.
In the law of God includes not only the Ten Commandments and all the commandments that God gave, but it includes I believe the totality of God's Word, because everything in God's Word is binding upon us to obey.
So the law here is the law of God which He has given to us in His Word.
And the fact that it is called the law means that it is legally binding upon us to follow God's commandments.
God doesn't merely give us suggestions.
He doesn't give us philosophical ponderings for us to think on.
But God gives us statutes to obey.
The Hebrew word that's translated law here comes from a root word that means to flow as water.
The flow is water.
And when the Israelites were in the wilderness and it was dry and they were thirsty. and their cattle were thirsty in that desert.
God told Moses to smite the rock and that water would come out of it.
And I'm sure those thirsty Israelites were awful glad.
To see that water flowing from the rock.
And that water flowing from the rock is the same idea that this word law is based from: flowing water.
Flowing water.
Now picture that water coming out of that rock being the law of God.
And picture God's people out there thirsty.
And God giving them something to drink to quench their thirst, something they can live by, like they did physically with that water.
In the Bible, God compares His word to water.
In many instances throughout Scripture, Jesus, the Word of God, as the Apostle John referred to him as in the first chapter, Jesus, who was the Word, Said he was the water of life.
Listen to how God describes the effect of his word upon his creation.
God describing the effect of His Word upon His creation.
Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 and 11.
God said, for as the rain cometh down, that's the same thing, it's flowing water.
As the rain cometh down, and the snow, what is snow?
It's flowing water.
As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither.
In other words, when it rains, you always see it go down.
You never watch it go, and the snow go back up, and the rain goes back up, and the clouds come back together.
He says, As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither.
But watereth the earth.
That's the key.
That's water.
But where did it come down from?
Listen to what God said in Isaiah 55, 10, 11 again.
As the rain cometh down and the snow from where?
From heaven.
So this is water coming down from heaven that waters the earth.
Heavenly water watering the earth.
That's the concept God's giving us here, and maketh it bring forth and bud.
So you have heavenly water.
Coming down from heaven, watering the earth, and then life comes from that water and springs forth from the ground.
So he says, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
So, or even so, shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me, void.
In other words, I'm going to speak my word.
My word's going to drop down like the rain upon my people.
And it's not going to come back up.
It's going to go down and it's going to, as the water, the water waters the earth and it brings forth life.
My word's going to come down and it's going to bring forth life as well.
He says, It shall not return unto me a void, but it shall accomplish.
That which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.
The law is God's reign.
Sent down from heaven to God's people.
It's sent down from His mouth, and it flows as water, spiritually speaking, down to us, that we, the people of God, Will bring forth and bud, as he said in Isaiah, but bring forth and bud spiritually that will bear fruit.
The law is every bit as good and necessary to the people of God as the rain is to the field.
I'm going to back back up.
The law is every bit as good and necessary to the people on earth as the rain is to the field.
A couple of weeks ago, Brother Doug, in his nursing home message, he said that nothing can live without any moisture at all.
And that's so true.
Nothing can live with any moisture at all.
A field can't have life without water.
That's why God sends down the rain.
But even so, people can't have life without His Word.
That's why He sends down the Word.
Has a field drink send the rain?
Because it does.
If that rain comes down on concrete, you won't send any life there.
It's got to be drunk in, right?
And so the earth must drink it in.
That's its way of swallowing when it gets absorbed into the earth and gets down to the roots.
Or to the seeds that's in its soil.
And so, as a field drinks in the rain so that life may spring out of it, so a wise man drinks in the word of God.
So that spiritual life may spring out of him.
This is why Solomon calls it the law, look back in your text, of the wise.
The law of the wise, because a wise man will drink the word of God, and any man who drinks the word is wise.
Now, God's law is spiritual water.
It's not physical water.
This is physical water.
And I drank it physically.
But God's word is spiritual water, so it must be drank spiritually.
Spiritually.
You have to have a spiritual drink.
Get it into you spiritually.
Now, water comes into me.
Through my mouth, and that water goes into my belly.
That's how God designed physical water to work.
Spiritual water doesn't go in through the mouth.
It goes in through the ear, in through the eye.
Through the ear when we hear it, through the eye when we read it, which is a form of hearing.
And so when we allow God's word to enter into our ears and reach not our belly, But reach our heart or our intellect, however you want to put it, it's all the same thing.
To reach into our mind, our inner man.
And then reside there as truth.
In other words, believe it.
That's us drinking God's law.
Then when we obey God's law, what are we doing?
We're feeding on it, we're living off of God's law.
Just like I've got to drink it to get it to my belly, but it doesn't stop there.
My belly's then got to take it and it's got to send it out through my blood and get it circulating throughout my body.
And so we take in God's Word by faith.
That's us drinking it in.
And then we act it out by obedience.
And that's God's word getting disseminated throughout our body, so to speak.
It gets used at that time instead of just In here or just in my belly, it now gets utilized in my life.
Have you ever tried to feed a little child, and that child you had something you knew was good for that child, on a spoon or a fork?
I know Abigail has, and but most of you girls have with those little brothers of yours.
And you try to give them something, and they tighten their lips up, and they go, and they just Shove it like that, or they spit it out.
That's the way it is with God's Word for a lot of people.
God gives it to them.
But they tighten their spiritual lips.
They won't hear.
They stop up their ears.
They close their eyes to it.
They won't allow it into their hearts.
And that's them saying, No, God.
You can put that food or water in that child's mouth, but you can't make them drink it.
And I believe that's the way God must feel sometimes when he deals with us.
God tries to give us His law, and we not having a taste for what's good for us, because our flesh doesn't want what's good for us, we push our lips together and we turn our head and we say no.
But a wise person will drink the word of God, for he knows God's law, look back in your text, is a fountain.
Now, a fountain is meant to be drank out of.
I was watching a construction worker this week, and he was working on one part of this particular floor.
Re modeling it, and he got thirsty.
And when he got thirsty, he didn't go look in the cabinet, he didn't go to the bathroom.
When he got thirsty, he went and he found a water fountain.
He took his thermos in there and He stands over there, he hits that button, he fills that up, and once he got his thermos filled up, he turned around.
I watched take a big old swig out of there and go back to work.
That's what a fountain's for.
How did he know to go to that fountain?
Because he knew that a fountain was made to give drinking water.
And for nothing else.
It's not made to wash your hands in, right?
Not made to take a bath in.
It is a drinking fountain.
And so God gave us His law, and His law is a fountain.
It's created and given to us to drink from.
And there's a difference between a pond and a fountain.
A pond is non-moving water.
It's a body of non-moving water.
It's like dead, just sitting there, kind of water.
You don't want to go just drink out of a pond.
But a fountain is moving water, which is an illustration of living water.
And there's another thing about a fountain.
When that man went over to that water fountain, Look let's say that you were to go to a water fountain.
And you were to be going to get you a glass of water out of that water fountain.
You had your thermos.
And you go over there and you mash the button, nothing comes out.
But there's a pool of water sitting in that Water fountain.
Would you take your cup and go dip in there and drink it?
No.
But if it comes up and bubbles up out of there nice and fresh, you're going to get it.
It's moving, it's fresh, and you know what?
It took energy and intent.
To pump that water from the source to the person.
Someone had to plumb that whole building.
Someone had to plumb underground.
Someone had to.
Take a pipe and a pump from Lake Tyler or wherever they're getting their water from, and then push it up through that fountain to get it to the end user.
And the Bible says that God's law is a fountain.
It's given from heaven.
Down to man, and it is a moving source of water.
And the fact that it's moving and it's a fountain means God is actively sending His word and His law each and every day down to His people out of His love.
The Bible is a fountain, God's law.
Is a fountain.
It's spiritual water on the move, sent down to us from God.
And every fountain has a place to drink from.
That man didn't go to that water fountain and go stick his mouth down there at the bottom or on the side or on the chrome.
There's a little spout up there.
And he stuck that glass in front of that spout where that water comes from.
And every fountain has a place to drink from.
And whenever we take the Bible and we open up God's Word, there's just water bubbling out of it.
You can take the Bible, open up God's Word.
Man, I love to get in front of my computer.
And I'll pull my Bible up there on my computer, and I'll pull Microsoft Word up there on my computer, and I'll put that scripture in there, and I'll start reading it.
And I'll start meditating on it.
You know what happens when I get that scripture up there?
It's just like that water just comes out just like a fountain.
Get over and you drink all you want to.
It's so good.
I've never opened the Bible and found it dry.
Never found it dry.
The law is a fountain.
Now, fountains, water.
The law is not a well.
Notice the Bible didn't say the law is a well.
You know what the difference is between a well and a fountain?
What's the difference?
Huh?
What?
I wouldn say the fountains are the source.
The fountain's the source?
Yeah, well, that's true.
But how about this?
A well can run dry.
A fountain can't.
Because if it is, it's not a fountain.
The law is always a fountain.
Joseph got thrown down into a dry well.
But you can't open the Bible and find a dry well.
You're going to open it up, and it is a fountain every time ready for you to take your.
Your mouth, your spiritual mouth, which is your eyes and your ears, and drink down deep into God's word.
Solomon is speaking specifically tonight about the law.
And when we think of the law, we don't always look at the law with a positive outlook.
And I believe that's because we've really been taught to despise the law.
And to cherish grace.
You think about it.
We've kind of been trained to do that.
Oh, that's the law.
We're all about grace.
You should never despise God's law.
Never despise the law of God.
Why?
The law is a fountain.
It's a fountain of life.
The Apostle Paul said the law was ordained for life.
He said, I found it to be unto death.
But you know what?
In the end, it ended up giving him life.
The law is.
Life.
But we tend to despise the law and cherish grace.
But God's law teaches us about God's grace.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
Here's a kingdom truth.
Nobody meets God's grace without being properly introduced by God's law.
Nobody meets God's grace without properly being introduced by God's law.
There's not a person in here.
Who's ever believed the gospel of Jesus Christ without first believing the law?
It is the law of God.
The Bible says that God gave His law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
And what happens to a guilty person?
He seeks a pardon.
He seeks a pardon.
That's all a guilty person can get.
God gave us his law so we could just put our hand over our mouth.
No more excuses.
Every mouth may be stopped.
No more excuses.
No more trying to justify our sin, and that all the world could become guilty before God.
And then, having become guilty before God, we're all in the same situation. guilty in our sin, we then are be through the work of the law find out about God's Son.
Who came and died for our sin.
And that's the grace of God.
That's we're introduced to by the law of God.
When you Follow God's law, you will find God's grace.
It is impossible to follow and obey the law of God without finding the grace of God.
God gave those Ten Commandments in Mount Sinai.
And you know what else God gave those Ten Commandments?
He gave the commandments to build a tabernacle where sacrifice could be made.
And guess what was in that tabernacle?
In the most holy place of all, guess what was in that tabernacle?
The law.
The law.
It is impossible to follow God's law without finding God's grace.
If you follow God's law from Mount Sinai, where God wrote it, To that Ark of the Covenant where God put it If you follow that law, you're going to get right to the mercy seat.
And before you get to the mercy seat, you've got to go through the tabernacle, you've got to go past the altar.
The brazen altar, you got to go past the brazen labor.
You got to go past the bread of life.
You got to go past the curtain, which is Jesus.
To get to the law.
And when you look down at the law, you're going to see the blood that was shed for sinners on that mercy seat.
And there's that law under it.
Nobody gets introduced to the grace of God without the law of God.
The Old Testament law demanded a proper sacrifice for all who transgressed it.
And that's why the Israelites had a tabernacle in the priesthood.
Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11.
Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11.
For the life of the flesh is in the And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
That's in the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus is part of the Pentateuch.
The Pentateuch is defined as the law.
The law was given by Moses.
In the book of Leviticus, here is considered part of Moses' work, it's the law.
And the law introduces us to the blood of Jesus Christ.
The law of the wise, therefore, is a fountain.
What kind of fountain?
Look back in your text.
It's a fountain of life.
Again, as the Apostle Paul said, it was ordained to life.
The law introduces us to Christ.
Who, being the true atonement for our sins, is the fulfillment of the law.
The Apostle Paul said, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe.
Galatians chapter 3, verse 24.
Galatians chapter 3, verse 24.
Can't get any clearer than this.
The Apostle Paul said, Wherefore the law was our school teacher, our schoolmaster.
The law was our school teacher to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.
What was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ?
Where did we sit down?
To learn at the teacher's feet.
We all sat down in grade school to learn how to read and write.
Whether it's at home or at the public education or wherever it was, or in a church house, like some of the older people used to go to school in the church house.
But where did we do it?
We sat right down there and we got taught how to read and write by somebody.
But we all sat down to the same teacher.
To be brought to Jesus Christ.
And it's the law of God.
That's why it's a fountain of life.
Again, you can't follow the law without finding the grace of God.
Jesus is our fountain of life.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 7, verses 37 through 38.
Jesus said, I'm sorry, John said, 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.
Now, how can you drink from Jesus if you're thirsty?
Because he's a fountain.
What kind of fountain is Jesus?
He's a fountain of life.
Why?
Because he is the law of God.
And the law of God does what?
It introduces you to the grace of God.
Jesus came down, He fulfilled the law.
By obeying it, then he fulfilled the law by enduring its punishment on our behalf.
That's why he's the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe.
So he could say, You come unto me and drink.
Why?
If you drink from the law, it's a fountain of life.
And all the law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Every bit of it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
He said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, what are you doing when you believe on Jesus?
You're believing, you're drinking the word of God in.
Believing it through the eyes, through the ears.
Whatever gate you're using, that God's word, like rain, drops down.
God's word comes down from heaven.
Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
That came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.
Here comes Jesus, He's the water of life.
He comes down.
The book of Hebrews describes the gospel as water coming down from heaven upon the earth.
He says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow.
Flow rivers of living water to flow like water.
Man, you believe on Jesus Christ out of your belly will flow rivers.
Of living water.
Not into your belly.
Did you notice that?
Out of your belly.
Why?
Because now you'll have that source on the inside.
It's not something that needs to get in you.
It's just going to start coming out of you.
Rivers of living water.
Man, I tell you what, you know what happened when Moses struck that rock?
In the Old Testament, water flowed out of that old, dead rock.
Flowed right out of it.
And you know what happens?
Man, by the grace of Jesus Christ, because I believe on him, when I preach the gospel, water just flows, living water just flowing right out of this old, dried-up, dead rock.
Man, I'm just as incapable as that rock was.
But God's water can come from any source.
As the law introduced the Old Testament saints to the sacrifices, so the law introduces us to the sacrifices.
Jesus made.
The law, therefore, is a fountain of life that God has given us.
Look back in your text, to depart from the snares of death.
To depart from the snares of death.
And I hope when we leave here today, we're going to have a whole wonderful new love for God's law.
The word translated depart here.
You either watch those cowboy films, or maybe you watched Cowboy, and you got all, you got a stampede.
Brother Shepard has a lot in those that happens a lot in the cowboy movies, the stampedes.
Boy, those cows will be going this direction.
And those cowboys be running up there.
We've got a big lawsuit at the courthouse right now with the cowboys and some other folks.
We've got a bunch of cowboys in there suing over something.
But anyway.
These cowboys go up there, and the cattle are going this way right here, and the cowboys come up and they just head them off in another direction.
That's what that word in Hebrew, depart, has the idea: cutting something off.
Cutting something off and calling it back to where it came from.
Cutting something off at the past and calling it back to where it came from.
Man, when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, the whole human race, just like those pigs, Those pigs that got full of the devil and they started running out into that sea and they got choked and they died.
The whole human race started running toward their death, just like those old dirty pigs.
And God's law graciously chased us down as we were headed toward our death.
Man, I was living fine.
I had no care in the world for a while.
And neither did you.
Until God's law comes around.
God's law comes around, suddenly you got to deal with your sin.
Suddenly, you've got to deal with the idea, with the concept.
That one day you're going to stand before a holy and righteous God and be judged for your sin.
And the law tells you you're going to be condemned for your sin.
And suddenly you look at life a whole different way.
Do you know what that is?
That's God's law hunting you down.
As you're running out like that old wild hog, hunting you down, coming up on you, convicting you of your sin, saying, Man, you're going the wrong direction.
You're going to fall off in that sea and die.
And it turns us about.
And that law, by the grace of God, that law just calls us back.
Calls us back to where we came from, calls us back to our Creator.
And that law does that work of calling us back.
And when it brings us back here, the law takes us up to the cross of Jesus Christ.
The law says, okay, I've done my job.
Now, cross, now the grace of God, you take over from here.
And there we were, running.
The law takes us, the law brings us back, the law convicts us.
We're scared of dying and going to hell.
Then we look up there at the cross.
And we hear the gospel of what Jesus did for us, and we believe on him as our Savior, and we see that he was judged, and he was condemned by that law.
The law points us to that, and we believe and we're saved, and introduces us to grace.
Thank God for the law.
It is a fountain of life for the express purpose here to depart from the snares of death.
The law does such a wonderful work for us that it convicts us of our sins, it warns us of our error.
It points us in the right direction.
Even today, it points believers still back in the right direction.
It enables us to depart from the snares of death that awaits sinners like us.
And if we will take heed to its statutes, The law will do two things for us.
Number one, it'll keep us from being condemned to die by the law of this world.
And if we will take heed to its sacrifice that it points us to, it will keep us from being condemned by the law of our God for all eternity.
So we thank God for his law, and may we drink from that wonderful, bubbly fountain continually.
Lord, we thank you for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, for the ministry of the law.
The law, Father, is not dead.
The law is not lifeless.
The law is not bad.
The law, Father, is the pursuer of the offender.
Not for the purpose of hunting him down, that it may destroy the offender, but hunting him down that it may cut him off and call him back.
Thank you for giving us your law.
Thank you for Mount Sinai.
Thank you for the totality of your word.
Thank you for making all of your word binding upon us.
Because we know that if we're told to do something, then we may do it.
And the law tells us, Father, to make a tabernacle.
The law tells us, Father, to do it according to the pattern you've shown.
The law tells us, Father, that we need a priest.
The law tells us without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
And then the law, Father, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, came out and pronounced him innocent.
That he may ultimately bear our sin and we be found innocent in him.
Thank you for your precious law.
In Jesus' name, amen.
