May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us
turn to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 41 and reading verse
17. the prophecy of Isaiah chapter
41 and reading verse 17. When the poor and the needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faithful thirst,
I the Lord will hear them. I the God of Israel will not
forsake them. It's interesting to realise that
this statement, poor and needy, which we may perhaps think it
is an isolated situation. In actual fact, I haven't counted
them all, but I shall think there's somewhere about 30 times in the
Word of God that these words are spoken. Poor and needy. So therefore it cannot be and
isolated occurrence. It must indeed be that which
is common to the true Church of God. And it must really be
an indication that we are the children of God if we can recognise
the relevance of such a statement in our own spiritual lives. Well, it's a question, isn't
it, for all of us, as to whether we do feel, before God, from
time to time, perhaps very often, to be poor and needy. Well, here is this great statement. When the poor and the needy seek
water, Well, the illustration given here is interesting and
it's easy for us to understand. It means that those who are thirsty,
what do they need to quench their thirst? They need water, don't
they? Because without water, the thirst
will never be quenched. And it's wonderful to think that
David when he wrote the 42nd Psalm and he gives us the illustration
of a heart which of course is a deer and he tells us as the
heart panteth after the water brooks that means when a deer's
been on a long run and it's panting for water it longs to find a
brook of water a stream Well then the analogy is, so panteth
my soul after thee, O God. Well surely we ought to ask the
question, have we tonight, have we any time in our life panted
after God? Have we indeed been poor and
needy and seek for spiritual water? You see, I can look at you, you
can look at me, we can look at each other. We don't actually
know how our heart stands before God. God and God alone knows
whether you and I are spiritually needy and spiritually poor and
that we need the Lord to look upon us And we need the Lord's
to hear and answer our prayer. This verse is a very comprehensive
statement, really, because it says, when the poor and the needy
seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for
thirst, then I, the Lord, will hear them. That means, does it
not, that such a thirsty person has been crying, has been praying
to God that their spiritual thirst might be relieved. That means
that they need the Lord to come and to speak to them and to confirm
to them that they are a believer and that they are a child of
God. Well, here's a grand statement,
isn't it? I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. These are glorious promises to
a needy soul. They're glorious promises to
one who is panting after God, like David was. Well I believe
that all true believers come to that situation that they do
pant after God. They long for God to speak to
their souls. They want the evidence that they
are a child of God and they won't be satisfied with all their chapel
going and they won't be satisfied by doing this and doing that.
They will want to know from God's own lips that they are a true
believer. Well, it'll be a good thing tonight
if, as you and I sit and think upon these things, think about
our own soul, ponder the condition of our soul, and to have the
evidence that, yes, by the grace of God, and it is by the grace
of God, the unmerited favor of God, that we've been brought
to seek water, speak, seek spiritual life. And if that is so, it is
because the Holy Spirit has come to us. Now that's a very wonderful
thing. It's a very humbling thing. You
look around, you see thousands, there are millions, there are
billions of people in the world who know nothing of feeling poor
and needy, who have no thirst for the things of God. They only
have thirst for the things of time. They only have thirst for
their own ability to do well, to stack up money in the bank,
to enjoy themselves with all the sporting activities which
abound in the day and age in which we live. to follow their
own inclinations. But what a glorious blessing
it is if God, and it's only God, and his work has brought us to
this condition so that we understand what Isaiah is saying when he
says, when the poor and the needy seek water, to come to that condition
where you and I have been before God, poor and needy. Well, God knows. He looks at
our heart. He knows whether we do come under
that position. And we can confirm that I have
been there and that God has been gracious to me. And the Lord
has indeed been mindful of me well then may we be one who thirsts after
the things of God you know there's a number of occasions even in
Isaiah which speak about thirsting we only have to go to the 50th
chapter which is a well-known chapter and this is what it tells
us ho that means listen ho everyone that thirsteth. You and I either
thirst or we don't thirst. This is to those who thirst.
Come ye to the waters, the water of life, neither hath no money. Come ye buy and eat, ye come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Glorious thing
is that the Gospel is free. We don't have to pay for it. And in any event we're bankrupt.
We haven't got any currency to pay for it. And therefore such
an invitation should be music to our ears. We should rejoice to it and say,
that's me! I'm thirsting. And here's the
invitation. Come ye to the waters. There are many invitations in
the Word of God. They're always qualified. And this one's qualified,
you see. Come ye to the waters. And it's
qualified by this statement. Everyone that thirsteth. Well, how good it is. For us
tonight, if we are among those who are truly thirsty for the
things of God. Thirsting to have the evidence
that the Lord has looked upon us. Thirsty for the evidence
that God has had mercy upon us. Thirsty for the evidence that
God has loved us with an everlasting love. See, all these are necessary
and vital gifts and blessings but they emanate from God they
don't emanate from our own ability we cannot produce them but God
can give them oh what a mercy that is to realise that we have
such a God such a God to think that that Lord guides us and
directs us as we journey on you may think well I don't know if
God's guiding me well if he's brought you into this condition
poor and needy and thirsty it's because God is guiding you it's
an evidence of the life of God in the soul and in the 58th chapter
of Isaiah the 11th verse we read this and the Lord shall Guide
thee continually. What a mercy, what a blessing. And satisfy thy soul in drought. We do pass through times of drought,
but to realise in those times of drought this great truth,
God is on our side. And in those times of drought,
We are being taught the Lord is showing us that he causes
us to cry unto him, to pray unto him, that he will look upon us
and have mercy upon us and satisfy thy soul. in drought and he goes
on in this um 11th verse and he says and make fat thy bones
and thou shalt be like a water garden and like a spring of water
whose waters fail not sometimes it may seem that the fountain
has dried up but you know it never will because it's an everlasting
fountain It may seem sometimes it's got down to a trickle. My
friend, it never dries up because it's eternal. What a mercy then
to be blessed with this heavenly thirst and to be a partaker of
this spring, this glorious spring of water. You know, naturally
for our life, water is essential, isn't it? You and I can't live
without water. We can live without food for
a long time, but we can't live without water. It is so, so needful. And spiritual water, the grace
of God, our spiritual life, faith and the love of God is so needful. Without it, we shall perish. My friends, it may appear to
be very little, but as I often say, don't despise the day of
small things. Remember, a little that a righteous
man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked, because the treasures
of time things will perish with the using, we'll have to leave
them all behind when we leave this earth. May we be blessed
with spiritual blessings, living realities, the gift of God. What a mercy! And what a mercy
to think of these favours and these blessings toward us. We
sung, didn't we, in that second hymn about this living water. And this is what it says, really. It says, well, the second verse,
from the second verse, last three verses, come then. Again, you
see these wonderful words, come then with all your wants and
wounds here as poor and needy. These people are welcome to the
throne of grace, not those who are self-righteous, Not those
who think they have a good religion, not those who think they are
doing that which is better than others, but those who are poor
and needy. And my friends, let us be very
clear about this. If you've never felt poor and
needy, you've never really understood the basic doctrine in the Word
of God of your spiritual need. But bless God if you have, and
therefore such a word as this will be music in your ears, good
news from a far country. Come then with all your wants
and wants. your every burden bring. Isn't that good? So you can come
to the Lord with everything, all your burdens. No one else
may know about it, but God knows. You can come and pour out your
heart to God. In private prayer, in secret
prayer, Come, then, with all your wants and wounds, your every
burden bring, here love, eternal love abounds, a deep celestial
spring. The water of life, my friends,
is a deep celestial spring. And so the hymn writer Samuel
Medley goes on to say, this spring, with living water flows and living
joy imparts. And that's a great statement.
And to think of this, that when the Lord condescends to hear
our prayer, the prayer of someone who is poor and needy, then there
is joy in our heart as we realise God knows our case. God has heard our prayer. God has heard our cry. And he's
answered it. And he's come to us. He's drawn
near to us. We're strengthened and blessed. What a blessing it is. And so,
that medley goes on. Come, thirsty souls. Your wants disclose and drink
with thankful hearts. you might be too embarrassed
to tell people about your wants, about your needs about your poor
and needy condition but you can tell the Lord because he's produced
the want he's produced the need and that for a very special reason
to cause you to cry unto him so here we have Calm thirsty
souls, your wants disclose and drink with thankful hearts. You see there's joy and there's
thankfulness to believe that the great almighty God has come
right down to little you and me. Unworthy sinners in this
vast world, why should the Lord come to you and me? Do you know
why? Because He's loved us with an
everlasting love. That's why. The last verse is
this. To sinners poor, poor and needy,
to sinners poor like me and you, He says He'll freely give come
thirsty souls and prove it true drink and forever live well it's
worth pondering those verses in hymn 297 you can go home and
you can read it again there's three times you see in that hymn
come a gospel invitation don't despise the good news of the
gospel Don't turn away from it. Recognise that it is a gracious,
godly invitation. As I've said, cums are always
qualified in the Word of God, but it's wonderful if therefore
you and I are in this condition of poor and needy, and we're
seeking this spiritual water. And we're not finding it initially.
No, you see, the Lord will be inquired of by the House of Israel. to do these things for them.
My friends, why is that? Because the blessings of the
gospel are precious. And if they're precious, that
means they're rare. And that means they're valuable.
And they don't just appear, they come in God's time and way so
that his name is honoured and glorified. And our souls are
blessed and our souls are eternally blessed because this is the water
of life. It's not natural water, it's
the water of life. Bless God for it. When the poor
and the needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue
fainth for thirst. You may be desperate, you may
be desperate, It's good, isn't it, when we're desperate for
the blessing of God. It's not something that we can
just pass over as irrelevant. When the Lord brings us into
this state of being poor and needy, our situation is very
real. It's very desperate. Indeed,
we must have God. We must have an answer. to our
prayers it's not just an irrelevant thing it's not something which
just passes off sometimes religion is like that but it's not real
it passes off my friends, when God gives this thirst it's God
given my friends, you need that thirst to be satisfied and therefore
to realize this great comfort. I, the Lord, will hear them. These promises are in the word
of God so that you and I can plead them to God. We can come
to our God and we can say, Lord, thou hast said I will hear them. Lord, I plead
that promise. Do hear me. Do send me water
of life that I may drink and live and that my soul may rejoice
and be joyful. And praise God. Well, what a
mercy it is. And I've said, David, a number
of times, if you read the Psalms, quotes this, in the 63rd Psalm,
we can read David says, oh God, no one else, no one else, is
there? You and I in desperate need,
there's no one else. Oh God, says David, thou art
my God, personal. Early when I seek thee, My soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is. Well, it'd be good tonight if
you can examine yourself and realise you are longing after
God. Longing that he will reveal himself
unto you as your Saviour. revealed himself to you as that
one who has died upon that cross at Calvary to take away all your
sins. Your case is desperate. Your
case is needy. You're desperately poor. You
need God to come. You need him to pour out the
blessing. You know like water is poured
out, isn't it? You need the blessing to be poured
out into and onto your soul. And then you can truly rejoice
for the Lord's mercy. And you can then acknowledge,
yes, God has heard me. And you are then able to agree
with what David says. Oh, God, thou art my God. the wonderful evidence that you
are a child of God because God has heard and answered your prayers. And my friends, you know, you
and I need what I term positive evidences in the things of God. We need positive evidences. You know, negative things are
good, but negative things will never get us to heaven. We need
the positive evidence that God is my God, in a personal way. And that's gloriously shown to
us when God hears and answers our prayers, our cries, and all
we come and enable us to drink of the water of life. And that
water of life must be centred in what the Lord Jesus Christ
did when he lived that perfect life and died that sin-atoning
death you see, the reality of thirsting brings us to the Saviour
brings us to Calvary so that we are able to look to the Saviour
those glorious words in the 22nd of this same book look unto me
and be saved for the ends of the earth. For I am God and there's
none else. What a mercy if you and I are
thirsting tonight for that. We're poor and needy. What are
we doing? We're sitting doing nothing.
No. The thirsty soul seeks after
water. The thirsty soul cries unto God. Like David pants after thee. What a mercy it is then that
we are like that. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the Lord, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. The Lord
will not forsake his people. It may sometimes seem so. My
friends, the reason it may seem so is that the Lord will grant
the blessing when we're really poor and needy. When we're really
seeking after God's mercy and God's blessing, that's when the
Lord comes. He comes sometimes at evening
late, but he always comes. He always comes. He will hear
the cry of the destitute and not despise their cry. My friends, the Lord knows about
us. Isn't it wonderful? He knows
us better than ourselves. He understands us better than
ourselves, because He knows what He will do. And to think that
He will bring us safely through for His honour and for His glory. You know, when Israel were passing
through the wilderness, Moses, that man of God, often spoke
such glorious truths to the Israelites. And you can read in the Book
of Numbers in the 21st chapter, these words, verse 17, then Israel
sang this song, spring up, O well, sing ye unto it. Do you and I
require, do you and I desire, do you and I pray for this spring,
this well will spring up in our spiritual life. so that the water
may flow out as it were. What a wonderful blessing, what
a wonderful favour that is to know the blessing of God. The Psalmist David tells us in
23rd Psalm, my cup runneth over, overflows with the love and mercy
and goodness of God. You see, David wrote the Psalms,
many of them, and he speaks many times about being poor and needy. But he wasn't always there, because
God sometimes came and greatly blessed him. He was able, therefore,
to testify. My cup runneth over. What with? Goodness and mercy. What did
he realize? God hadn't dealt with him as
he sins deserve. And that's what breaks us down,
my friends. That's what removes the hardness
from our heart to think that God, in love to our soul, is
dealing with us, causing us to walk this path. You see, it's
a path known by the children of God. This is a path which
you and I should indeed rejoice in right towards the end of the
Word of God. 21st chapter of Revelation, we
find this again speaking about this thirsting. And we read in
the 21st chapter and the 6th verse, And He said unto me, It
is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. And you know, the reality is,
when you and I come in our prayers to God, seeking for His blessing,
in essence, it's done. But the revelation may not be
at that time. The Lord hears. He doesn't cast
away the prayer of the destitute. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Good news, isn't it? Right to
the end of the word of God. Good news to the thirsty sinner. Good news to believe that Lord
is hearing us. Good news to believe the Lord
will not forsake us. He won't forsake us, and my friends,
if you feel forsaken tonight, and I don't know, you may feel
the Lord's passed you by, the Lord's forsaken you, plead the
promises of God. Come to Him, come to Him. Come to Him. Don't stay away. Plead His promises. You can come
and say, Lord, I am poor and needy, but Lord, I need Thee. I need Thee to grant I may drink
of the water of life. And coming back to that which
I was speaking about, the water of life centres in what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done when he completed that work of redemption
upon the cross at Calvary. And my friends, you will drink
if the Lord leads you to Calvary. And you see there, the blessed
Saviour dying upon that cross at Calvary in order to Redeem
your soul to satisfy the law of God on your behalf as your
great and glorious substitute to realise the Lord has stood
in your place and he's born for punishment instead. What a wonderful, glorious saviour. Such a view. will have a glorious
effect in your heart. You'll be moved to praise God
that he hasn't cast you off, that he hasn't forsaken you,
but he has heard your prayers. Plead with God to go to Calvary. My friends, the child of God
never tires of going to Calvary because there we see the blessed
work of God, the blessed work that the Son of God had to complete was completed at Calvary. He finished the work that his
Father gave him to do. And he finished the work on your
and my behalf. There is our hope of our salvation,
the water of life. Oh, my friends, may we drink
of that water of life, that Calvary, and bless God for it. Well, says
the prophet, when the poor and the needy seek water. I hope
tonight that we are amongst those. It does say when. I hope we can
trace in our life there has been a when. If there hasn't, may
it come very soon. that we are poor and needy and
we're seeking water and there is none, we can't actually see
it. And their tongue thirsteth for,
their tongue faileth for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. What a blessing, what a mercy. Can we not say tonight with all
humbleness, To God be the glory. Amen.