Part 6: The Drought Of Water
Imagine a rainstorm that soaks an entire parking lot except for one dry patch under an awning.
Everything else got wet. The dust washed away, but that one spot stayed dry and dusty, because something was blocking it from ever reaching the ground.
That is a picture of a heart that refuses the Gospel.
The river of God flows outward. It reaches, heals and develops into fruitful Christians. But not every place gets the river. Some places stay dry by choice.
In Part 1 we saw what the water is. In Part 2 we saw where the water is aimed. In Part 3 we saw how deep the water goes. In Part 4 we saw what the water delivers. In Part 5 we saw what the water develops. In this final part, we have to name the sober truth. Some places refuse the river.
What Ezekiel Saw
Ezekiel 47:11 “But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.”
The whole chapter is about healing:
• The Dead Sea becomes alive.
• The trees grow.
• The fruit feeds.
• The leaves heal.
• Everything the river touches gets better.
Except the marshes and the miry places. Those stay salty.
1. The Miry Places Refuse The River
Miry means swampy, muddy, stuck ground. It is the kind of dirt that cannot receive anything because it is already full of muck.
The point is not that the river skipped these places. The river came and it refused to receive.
A miry-place person is someone the Gospel has gone to, and they keep rejecting.
They have heard the Gospel their whole life. They know the verses. And nothing has changed.
2. The Marshes Look Like They Have Water But Are Still Dead
Marshes are worse than dry ground. Marshes have water, they are wet, but it is stagnant water. And stagnant water does not bring life.
A marsh looks alive from a distance. But up close it is mosquitoes, rot and disease.
This is the sober picture of the lost church member.
2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
A person who has church, programs and religion but no life in Christ is a marsh. Wet on the outside and dry on the inside. Full of the appearance of God without any of the power.
3. They Shall Be Given To Salt
Ezekiel 47:11 “they shall be given to salt.”
God turned Sodom into a salt sea. That is the same Dead Sea the river was aimed at in Part 4.
Deuteronomy 29:23 “And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath.”
Refusing the river does not produce neutrality. You become the very thing God judges.
The people who refuse the Gospel water do not stay in the middle. They end up barren, under the wrath of God, and monuments to what happens when the river came and was refused.
The Miry Heart
What makes a heart miry? What blocks the rain from ever reaching the ground?
• Familiarity: you have heard the Gospel so much it no longer moves you
• Pride: you think you already know enough
• Love of sin: you like what the water would wash away
• Delay: you think there is always more time
Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Delay hardens the ground. Every day you refuse the river, your ground gets harder to soak.
The Warning For The Church
Some of the miry places are inside the church.
They come every Sunday, know every song and can read every verse. They sit in the same pew for twenty years.
That is the sober truth of Ezekiel 47:11. The river is flowing right past them. The trees are growing on both sides. The fruit is feeding. The leaves are healing. And there are still marshes right next to the river, refusing to be healed.
You can sit next to the river your whole life and stay salt.
The invitation is still open. But not forever.
The river of God is real, the healing is real and the deliverance is real. But so is the dead salt. Every heart is either drinking from the river or hardening against it. There is no middle ground and no dry marshes that stay comfortable forever.
Come to the water. Do not be given to salt.
