"But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water." In Matt. 3 the ax is mentioned. John the Baptist said, "The ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down." He doesn't hew the tree down first, he simply lays the ax there-the keen edge of the Word of God. It is the law and what it has to say to the flesh. It should produce repentance, that is, fruit. If it does, then the tree will be spared, but if there is no fruit produced the tree will be cut down-God's final judgment on the first man.
God said in Gen. 6, "The end of all flesh is come before Me." The I of the man who does not have Christ is simply the old man in the flesh. But to the one who has Christ, the new I is that new man in Christ Jesus. "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." So there is an entirely new I that is no longer identified with the flesh. If there is the flesh acting, it isn't in keeping with that new position where there won't be any flesh. As soon as Christ comes it will be gone forever.
The ax head is the instrument that this son of the prophets is going to use for his deliverance. He is going to apply the law. Have you ever tried it? You couldn't be saved by the law in the first place, and yet you try to get deliverance that way. That is the basis on which most of Christendom is founded today. They are resting on the ax head. You talk to a man and he will say, "Well, just keep the golden rule." That is the ax head. While religious flesh boasts in the golden rule, it cannot keep it.
The ax head fell into the water. Why doesn't it say it fell into the Jordan? Wasn't that true? Yes, it was true, but the point is that deliverance comes through the Word of God. The water is typical of the Word, and so the ax head has to fall into the water. "He sent His word... and delivered them." Psa. 107:20. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." There is no deliverance outside the Word of God. It has to come by way of faith. It has to come by way of hearing, and once it's heard, then it reaches down into the conscience and from there it proceeds to the heart.