Psalm 87, I think all our reading will be from in the book of the Psalms today, except maybe there's one in Isaiah. In the last verse of the 87th Psalm, And the last phrase in that sentence, all my springs are fountain or well are in thee. So I want you to think with me. Today on that, our springs, if I am a Christian, all my springs are in the one true and living God. Would you bow as we seek his blessed face. Our Father, one thing that all of us, I say all of us, I think most of us, would acknowledge is that without Thee, we can do nothing. And if there is a blessing that comes our way, it comes from Thee. If we enter glory, it is because by thy power we are kept. Because thy grace was bestowed upon us. If we persevere to the end, fighting that good fight set before us, It is due to thee. Thy strength imparted, thy wisdom given, as thee sang, as our days are, so shall our strength be this day, not tomorrow, today. The only strength that I can have that is of benefit to my soul comes from thee. Father, I pray you might be gracious to us and give us hearing ears. And that you might, Lord, have a word for us from that far distant land. Yet some of us are drawing nigh. A word from thee. is as water to a thirsty soul. So Father, provide for these, the speaker. Do not leave him to himself, Lord, but give wisdom. Holy unction, the spirit to guide, direct. And Father, help us. And as we leave, may it be that we can truthfully say, my God was honored in our gathering today, and my God had a kind word for me. Glorify your Son through whom all blessings flow. Exalt Him and we'll bow to give thee thanks. In his name we pray, amen. Verse one, God's foundation is in the holy mountains. It's always, always exalted. You get to God, you get above this old world. You leave it behind you. sometimes in prayer and it might be a shortly of time, but he is foundation. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. We put all our dwellings together and God loves the gates of Zion more than he does our dwellings. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God, Selah. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia, and this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her, and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there, Selah. As well the singers, As the player's own instrument shall be there, all my springs are in thee. In the Lord's conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, in verse 12, she asked him, aren't thou greater than our father Jacob that gave us this well? drank thereof and his children and his cattle. That amazes me that that history was that accurate for that many years. But our Lord in replying to that said, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst again." Never. But it will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. All believers, that's all I can speak to this day, hoping that that might be the majority of you, but all believers have within that spring, that well of water flowing up. A Christian, unlike any other being upon the earth, has that within him that he will never lose. He or she have within that which they can draw from making them the richest people under heaven. Now very few are they that can come close to what Job said after devastation upon devastation hit him and it lost everything. And yet within, he looked upward and he said, the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. I don't know how long that I would have to see it, having lost everything, before I could honestly give my father the due praise and thanks. Blessed be the name of the Lord. One thing he had, he had lost all herds. He had lost all of his children and all of his servants, save one that Satan spared to bring the news back to him. Lost everything. Even his wife. Why don't you curse God? Just die, get it over with. I look at you and you're a pitiful sight. And your God did that. And for one thing in our day that you've got to be extra careful about, is instead of springs that should be only from the Lord, false prophets and false preachers with gods like Dagon of the Philistine. And like in Abraham's day, when his servants would dig a well, and Abraham would move on, then the Philistines would come and they would fill up that well, this book says, with earth. So there's always gonna be someone coming behind. You make a profession, it is true, it is real. and you have that within you, then you will face that coming up from different sides that will challenge your faith and what you hold to. Same thing over and over again. And in the Reformation, And following a couple of centuries, our fathers dug again the wells of these fathers, ancient fathers of faith. But then false prophets began to come along in the 1800s and increased tenfold more, hundredfold more in the 1900s. just filling up the wells that the fathers of our faith had dug again, those that Abraham did, that the Philistines filled up. Now Job's got three friends that come. And after seven days of assessing the situation, they all come to this conclusion. Job has sinned greatly against God. And that's our first thinking. When something happens that is bad for a man or woman, we immediately think first Sin brought that. Might be. But being a child of God, it not always will be. It's just the furnace that God put you in to refine that within so that you have pure gold flowing from the heart. So Job came up and said to all of them, ye are all physicians of no value. You didn't help. You made matters worse. And what you said and your remedy didn't align with the God that I know and the God that gave but took away. Now see, folk, these three, They had nothing within to draw from. They knew nothing of practical experiential Christianity. And probably the worst event that had ever happened to them would just be them falling and scraping a knee. They're sitting before Job, all ribs broken, arms and legs in traction, vital signs showing he's closer to death than to life. And these experts that were able to put a little bandaid on their problem, are telling him. Job said to him, you should say of me, why are we persecuting him seeing the root of the matter is found in him. Job had that within that kept him looking to God. knowing that this happened was from God. Job had that eternal life, giving life, sustaining well, from which he sat down and drank when God had destroyed everything in his life, as do all Christians. If open God and our Christ is to be, then you have nothing within to draw from, nothing. But seeing God is able to save to the uttermost all that come to Him, seeing He ever liveth, all that come to Him by Christ, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7.25. Our Christ, will always be on the throne. Our news can broadcast whatever they want. And they can come after, which they're going to do in greater force in the coming days and months and years. They can come after you. They can create great havoc in your life. Even sometimes men cast some of you into prison, but they cannot take what God planted within your soul when you first came to Jesus to drink from that well that ever floweth, and it's within you. A man of the world, if I'm speaking to some of you and you're not Christians, a man of the world has hope only in life here. So he's got to keep close watch on the stock markets. He's got to stay up to date with the news and all that's going on. and the affairs of life and everything around him, for therein lies his life. If loss has come, he can only hope to get a helping hand, maybe from his friends. Cannot count on the world, but perhaps his government. might come to his aid and provide a little relief. But a child of God can lose all his wealth, he can lose all his health, he can lose all his friends, and yet have treasure. where moths cannot eat, corrupt it, rust can't destroy it, or thieves break in. In heaven, every saint of God has that flowing from our God to our hearts. Let them take what they want. We've got treasure they can never reach. And all that I must do is remain faithful to my God up to my parting moment. And there I begin to reap the treasure laid up in Christ Jesus. all your friends could turn their back on you. Yet from the spring within, he knows he has in heaven a friend that will stick closer than a brother. He knows this man is up there. If a child of God within is knowledge, has that knowledge, that my God did not spare his only begotten son, but offered him up, then how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? For that well's deep and that well's wide. Ever bubbling up is that old fountain, all my springs. planted within the Spirit of God, Doug, and the Spirit of God planted. But I'm just beginning to taste what all my Father has for me and enjoy. So if God gave Christ and you are true convert of his, everything pertaining to life here that you might ever have a need, God will be close behind that need to meet it for you. The fount above, flowing from God through Christ, it's just called the heart of God. Man of the world could lose all his friends. He could be taken with a deadly disease lying on a bed languishing without a place to draw to to turn that he might find comfort. The best thing to hope for is in his great pain is that it's time for him to receive morphine or whatever else they might give. That's all he's got. Nothing else. No place to draw comfort. Or he might, if he has an hour of ease and pain, He might, by television or entertainment, he might find just a drop of joy. But one without God has no spring within. He lives just a bankrupt sinner. and to supply that which God gave him an eternal soul. That man or that woman, they'll always continue to look for things below. For an hour of great joy, peace. Let's go yonder this summer. Well, we haven't been out to the West Coast and seen that. That's all they got. And folks say, why don't you get out more? Get out and do something and see things. But they don't know I've got riches sitting behind those four walls. they know nothing about. But take one born from above and has the life of God in his soul. Now, because of that, he has access to the throne of grace. He can ask and it'll be given. He can knock and it'll be opened. He can seek and he'll find all flowing, all. And how do you talk about the vastness of the heart of God? For Abraham, the friend of God, could say to Lot, you choose the best of your land, it doesn't matter to me. I'll take what you don't choose. I have the living God above and meeting with me from time to time as my friend. And although his herds did not have the plush grass of the lowlands, he had got. I kind of suspect his cattle were in the best shape, his sheep, his herds, at the end of the fall. But above all that, one time sitting in his tent door, three visitors, and he bowed to which meant that that one was not an angel. The other two were angels. He bowed to one. Had that one been just an angel, he would have made him get up because they will not take worship. They know where worship goes and to whom it belongs. Plus in that chapter, he said, the Lord Jehovah said to him, Now the best that that man that had chosen to live life here, at best all he had was two angels and they didn't come with a good message. The Lord stayed behind conversing with Abraham. But the two angels to Lot said, you better get everybody out of here. They belong to your family. And Abraham's friend stayed behind, conversing. And folk, here's one thing that is absolutely necessary to keep this spring flowing. Be careful of your dealings or like thereof with the Holy Spirit. No matter what this book has said that belongs to you, or what God has promised, no matter. That this fount within, it's God to flow from that above. But everything that God has for you would be unknown, and it would forever be locked up in the secret counsels of the Lord, if not for the Holy Spirit conveying. Your child, this is what your father has for you. So be very careful. with your dealings with the Spirit of God. Don't offend Him or don't grieve Him. And if you let all this work go, not finding from God in your secret hour with Him, not finding that word from above, not finding His Word and promises fulfilled. You don't hear from Him anymore, you don't see Him anymore. Think back, how have you treated the Spirit? If you let the fountain Get stopped up, feel the earth. You're just Lot. And none of us would have ever known that Lot was in heaven had not the Spirit of God inspired his rider. None of us. But see, you can't take that chance because you've got more than Lot ever had. You've got the completed scriptures. You've got a savior given whose heart for you was so great that he would die to take your sin. Don't let this spring become filled up. Now to you that might be very sensitive, and I know that I have some out there, because you do not hear from the Lord tomorrow, or Tuesday, or all the week, Do not begin to panic. Of course, it's not like this with us, but you read of those old prophets and the word of the Lord came to him in the third year and the sixth month and the fifth day. And he might not get another word from God till the fourth or fifth year, but you've got the completed scriptures. You got a God that will walk away from you at times, just to prove to you the strength that you have in your legs now to move. And let me set before you, I would say in closing, but don't get excited, some general thoughts on our springs in thee. all flowing from God, who's the fountainhead of every blessing you'll ever receive, of every good thing you'll ever receive. So if you would, turn back with me to the 62nd Psalm. Psalm 62 and verse number 11. God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Man has discovered Great power, atomic power, nuclear power. He's built powerful machinery that can move the earth, cut a mountain, down to flat ground in a short distance. Engines, powerful. But ultimately, All power, all power belongeth unto God. And our Lord Jesus in departing said unto me, he has given all power now as the son of man, given back that that he had as God. So when I run into difficult events, great obstacles, there is a spring within flowing from He who is all. Our God, by the power of just His spoken word, spoke this world, all other worlds, into existence. And from the very beginning of us, of time, all things will go back, even the fall of Lucifer, and a third of the angels. Everything has been under his control, be it the least of living matter to the non-living, dust, smoke, sun rising, setting, all of that to the rulers from the beginning of time, from Pharaoh, all rulers, every kingdom nation is under almighty God. I want something done. He said word to Ahab that he's going to die because of his sin, rebellion, lying, cheating. He's going to go out to battle except he's going to have on another king's garments. until they finally just give up and they start heading home. And a certain man drew a bold adventure. How many men did that arrow fly over? How many obstacles, trees, or rocks did it miss? So that eventually, he just, by chance, I got one left, might as well use it. Just see how far I can shoot it. And that arrow smote Ahab, the king of Israel. This God, while Israel is in drought, three years of drought, because of rebellion. This God can send his servant down, not far away, but very nearby, get hidden by that little brook, Kirith. And by vultures flying over, dropping the very food that is for them. God could have sent it by dogs, but it's easy to track a dog. God could have sent it by many other things. He could have sent it by an angel. I mean, later on, Elijah would be fed by an angel. Then when the brook dries up, God sent him down to that Gentile widow that dipped in the barrel the last of the meal. And from the container of oil, she poured out all the oil that she had. And he said, bring me a cake. That seems very selfish, but if you can read behind it all, it wasn't. You just do what I tell you to do, and I'll tell you only that which God said. You make a little cake for me first. And then she did, and lo and behold, when she went back to the barrel, it had plenty of meal in it. And the vessel of oil, it had plenty of oil. When God got ready after 400 years to move his people out of the land of Egypt. He sent hordes of flies and locusts and frogs and hail and fire all over Egypt except for Goshen. Then they come out and he divided that mighty sea and then Jordan River that overflowed its banks at this time of year. Israel The people of God walked over and they and all men and all women by the power of God controls the movement of oil, sets up kings, presidents, governors. Well, we voted. Doesn't take a thing away from me. I know why he's up there. There were two Gentiles, Queen of Sheba. If I'm not mistaken, it was Hiram that said to Solomon, Solomon, the reason that you are king is because God loves Israel. And when Israel cast lots as they often did in the Old Testament, that lot fell exactly as the Lord would have it. This God of all power could protect the lineage of a little Jewish maid and of her espoused husband down through time that they might be born when they were. And then the monarch, when they are up in age, the monarch calls for taxing of the land. And God moves them down to Bethlehem because that's where he said his son would be born, Micah 5.2. So dear one, dear child of God, you can pillow your head and you can lay quietly and securely knowing my God doesn't slumber or sleep. And everything he does is for my good. And if I belong to him, I am as eternally secure throughout time. and safe as an angel is until my race and work here is finished. And he that is of infinite power has the same today as when he first said, let there be. It's been all this power moving kings and turning king's hearts, whether so ever he would. Now, you still with me in Psalm 62, we read 11. Verse 12, we just want to start with the power. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Mercy. His mercy is as infinite as his power. All of us as his children, we've sinned enough to exhaust. No telling how much mercy. But we couldn't. Oh, I don't sin purposely to see if I can find mercy of God and forgive it. Nibs, forgive me this. But flowing from that spring within you is the eternal mercy of our Savior and our Lord. Always had you on his mind. slain, crucified from the foundation of the world. I have to look no farther than my God that gave His only begotten Son and to my Savior, the Lord Jesus. Prior to birth, the mercy of God and the power of God so fit that I would become a human being one day. And from birth throughout years spent not knowing him, mercy was there. And that mercy and grace was manifested at that particular moment in time. where the gospel had a sovereign effect upon my soul. So the decrees of God, His power and mercy doesn't begin with you at birth, or all the provisions that He's made for you, and everything that He's done for you guarding throughout your life. you'll never meet an unforeseen accident or disease or your life be cut short by one hour. Just live upon the vastness of this God that flows to your soul. One last, Psalm 40. And I'll, no I won't. But the next one's close by. Psalm 40, 11, verse 11. Withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Well, we might want to add another one since it's added in this verse. Let thy loving kindness. Well, let's put the third one. And thy truth. The tender mercies, the eternal mercies of God. The loving kindness. and his truth all spring up flowing from that well within when I met the blessed Lord Jesus. Thy truth continually preserves me. His loving kindness is that spring within flowing from the fountainhead As the psalmist also said, there is a river. A river flows from the throne of God. The streams thereof make glad the city of God, but I'll reduce it down from the city of God to the individual child of God. Psalm 138, to I will praise thy name for thy loving kindness. For thou has magnified thy word. above thy name. Everything in its trustworthy child it'll do to live by and it'll do to die by. And how can I close without naming this? Though I've mentioned it throughout. From everything that you get, the continual mercy daily, grace, mercy, the loving kindness, everything you continue to get, it all flows from God's faithfulness. And always made evident, especially in times of inner stress, inner turmoil, Are you in a warfare? Infinite power, infinite mercy, infinite grace, infinite love, infinite faithfulness, everything that I can mention to you about God, it's infinite. And he that cannot lie has given us his word, worrying he tells us these things. Solomon said confidence in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth. or it's like a foot out of joint, but I don't have an unfaithful man in glory. I got the man, Christ Jesus, flowing from the fount of God, that living water to this spring within. All my springs are within thee. Everything that comes your way, Children, sometimes there'll be things that'll devastate you. It'll knock life out of you. But that's under God's control. And he has but one purpose. Your good, your growth, your conformity to his image. There'll be times you have to get through these heavy trials that you look back and see the benefits that you have reaped because of them. And sometimes there may be one like Paul's thorn, never to that degree, that God never did rid him of, but oh, the richness of Paul's heaven. and of his savior. So if you have to bear a cross, bear it. If you bear it daily throughout life, bear it. I can't tell you the grace and the mercy that you'll gain in heaven. Not counting that ye gain here. So the vastness of the heart of God never can be reached, but these mighty springs will forever flow. The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, the land of brooks and the waters of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hill. That's God to Israel. Then Israel sang, spring up, oh well. If this God is your God forever, you will have a spring, you will have a spring within. Flowing. Children, we've just tasted of the goodness and mercy and grace of God, just tasted. I'll read one last and I'm closing. I hope. Isaiah 58, 11, and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones. Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. That's Isaiah 58 verse 11. If you wanna look at it and meditate on it a little bit. Oh, my springs. Oh, blessed be the Lord Jesus that bought me. And with the price he paid, he bought everything that he is to be given me.