May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 44 and we'll read verse
three. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter
44 and reading verse three. For I will pour water upon him
that is thirsty. floods upon the dry ground I
Will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine
offspring Isaiah the prophecy of Isaiah
is a blessed book and and if we realize that it was written
of course when Israel were walking far off from God and the time
was coming when they would very soon go down into captivity and
remain there for some 70 years and what a blessing it must have
been to them to have been able to have read or have read to
them or been reminded of the truth that Isaiah was able to
set before them those years previously. And so not only then would it
have been a blessing, remember they were in captivity and there
was no Jerusalem and there was no temple and they were in a
strange land and it was a time of difficulty and hardship and
barrenness really and yet you see there was the promise of
blessing and no doubt those people look forward with gracious anticipation
to a time of blessing and to a time of favour. the Word of God remains true
today. And although of course we haven't
got that physical situation which existed then, nonetheless there
has been and there still will be the spiritual situation to
which the whole Church of God are found walking in. And we should therefore be thankful
we have such statements in the Word of God to strengthen us,
to encourage us, and to warn us. Because this chapter, this
44th chapter of Isaiah, is a very encouraging chapter, especially
in the first eight verses or so. And then there are warnings,
severe warnings, not to turn away from God. And then exhortations
to come and to Praise God. Well, perhaps that is something
that all of us need to be aware of and to be conscious of in
the day and age in which we live. The format of how the Lord operated
and the format in how God operates today. And so we commence this
chapter where the Prophet tells us, and of course God tells us,
yet, now, here. How often perhaps we've heard,
but we haven't really heard with our heart. It's just gone in
one ear and out the other. How many sermons perhaps we've
heard of little or no profit. I think I may have told you before,
remember years and years ago, Leonard Broome preaching at Bethel
chapter Luton. I think it was on an Easter Monday
And he said this he said there's tons of grain goes over the pulpit
cushion But he said how much falls into good ground When it's
worth thinking about isn't it and how much perhaps good grain
goes over the pulpit cushion and a little falls into good
ground. And how necessary it is that
you and I are found good ground hearers. There's three types
of other hearers. 75% of other hearers. And what a blessing if you and
I are the 25% of good hearers. And it would be a pretty sad
thing, wouldn't it, if we went round the congregation here today
and there were only 25% of good hearers. One in four. The other
three were not good hearers. So what a blessing for us today
of the Holy Spirit. And it is indeed the Holy Spirit's
work, as we have so clearly set before us here, the work which
comes and affects us, and it touches our heart, and doesn't
leave us unmoved. It's a very sad thing, you know,
when you and I sit under the Gospel and are not touched, and
are not moved, and we go out of the doors of this building,
exactly the same as we came in, and by that I mean the preaching,
the hymns, the reading, the prayers had no effect upon us. Well,
it's a very sad and it's a very terrible thought, really, because
what it means is this, that you and I, in which situation, have
wasted precious time. Wasted it, you know. The Word
of God gives us a clue. We're told to redeem the time. There may have been many times
in our life when we wasted our time. And if so, if the Holy
Spirit touches us, may we be concerned to be found redeeming
it. And so here are these words at
the beginning of this chapter, yet now, here, now, today. And he speaks and says, O Jacob,
my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. And it's wonderful to
think that the Lord has and does call a people. A people whom
he will redeem, who he has redeemed, whom he will redeem. A people
who are not cast off, but these are chosen of God. As we read
in the 15th of John, the Lord says, ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and redeemed you, that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. That's the words
of the Lord Jesus. Let us not forget them, let us
not cast them aside. And so the prophet says, thus
saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb,
which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and thou, Jeshurim. Jeshurim is another word for
Israel. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou, Israel, whom
I have chosen. the Prophet confirms this word
of being chosen. And you may say, well I don't
think that's very fair. Well you'll be very grateful
if you have the understanding that you are chosen. That God
has chosen you. Because naturally you would never
choose God. You see we would live in this
world and we would not want God. You would not want God because
you'll find sometimes that the things of God are restricting,
are constricting. But the truth is, it's a good
restriction, it's a good constriction, because it turns us to the things
of God. It keeps us near the things of
God and doesn't allow us then to wander into that broad way
and the things of this vain world, which as Solomon said are vanity
of vanity, all is vanity. Let us not forget such a truth
by that wise man who had everything in his possession to try and
satisfy himself with the things of time and he found it was all
of vanity. This is the introduction here
to this 44th chapter of Isaiah. And then, these words are spoken. 4. I will. Again, I often refer
to that. There are many I wills in the
Word of God. And we know that the Word of
God is truth. Again, I often tell you that.
And never forget it. The Lord Jesus tells us in the
17th of John, thy word is truth, and it is. There are no lies
in the word of God. And you and I can rely upon it,
and because it's true, we can plead the scriptures before our
God in prayer, seeking that he will answer them, that he will
bless us. in our souls. And so he tells
us here, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and
floods upon the dry ground. Now the water, generally speaking,
and is so here, means the blessed Spirit of God. And he says here,
I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the
dry ground. Well, it's an illustration that
we can understand. We can understand being thirsty,
and we can understand what the dry ground is. And spiritually,
what a blessing it is to realize that the Lord tells us here in
this way. He says, I will pour water. And it's not just, as it were,
just a drop here, just a drop there. He says He is going to
pour water upon him. And that's a very wonderful statement,
isn't it? To think that He will pour of
His Spirit into our hearts. Yes, that He will bless us greatly. We tend to limit God, don't we?
We tend to think, well, these blessings, of course, won't be
for me. Well, why do you say that? Because
the evil heart of unbelief locks in, and we therefore ignore what
God has said. And surely we should desire that
we are favoured and blessed with the wonderful pouring forth of
his Holy Spirit into our hearts, into our very hearts, if we are
thirsty. Now, God gives us spiritual thirst. God gives us spiritual thirst.
We don't suddenly wake up one morning and think, well, I think
I'm thirsty today. God gives us thirst. God creates a thirst. And that thirst is for spiritual
blessings. And therefore the Lord graciously
tells us, he says, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. Well this morning we stand before
God. Are we thirsty for the things
of God? Have we woken up this morning
thirsty for the things of God? have we earnestly sought, the
Lord will look upon us and bless us. Lord come and be gracious
to us because of our spiritual need. What a good thing it is,
you know, when the Holy Spirit gives us a thirst. David tells
us in the 63rd Psalm, very beautiful words, Oh God, Thou art my God,
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,
to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the
sanctuary, because thy lovingkindness is better than life." The words
of David. I wonder whether they are our
words, whether it is our prayer, the Lord indeed will look upon
us and that we can humbly believe, he says, O God, thou art my God. Now the people of God, in their
spiritual life, we go through many scenes and the Lord brings
us into many different scenes to prepare us for our eternal
home. And the Lord therefore instructs
us, he teaches us, and he brings us into these times of spiritual
need. If we were always perhaps living
as it were on the mountaintop, well, we wouldn't pray. We think
this is easy, I don't need to pray, everything's wonderful,
it's beautiful. Oh, says the Lord, I will be inquired of by
the house of Israel. You and I will have to pray.
And we will love to pray. And it won't be something that
we will not want to do. You know, when you and I are
pretty high hearted and barren, then you see prayer's not very
imminent with us, is it? It's far off. We don't find any
desire to pray. And the result is we don't pray.
We may mutter a few words. That's not praying. And so here,
David is able to instruct us. And he tells us this. Early when
I seek thee. Early. First thing you and I
do when we get up in the morning. Is it? Seeking God. Early. Not the last thing. The
first thing. To begin the day. To begin it
with God. 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. And you see, and it's important
to understand what David said here. His concern was to see
the power of God and the glory of God. There was an objective in his
concern. And it's good when there's a
good object in our concern. To see the power and glory of
God. Oh my friends, nothing greater
than that is there really in our life. Because it encompasses
all the things of salvation. The power and the glory of God. You only have to think of it,
don't you? To think what we are able to read in the New Testament
of the Saviour. the Lord Jesus Christ and the
gracious and glorious power and glory which attended his ministry,
which attended his life, and which draws us to him today. And he says, because thy lovingkindness
is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. David's desire
was for the honour and glory of God. His desire was to praise
his God. Now that will surely be our concern
and our desire. If the Lord comes and graciously
pours water upon us, if we're thirsty for the things of God,
if we're thirsty to know the Lord Jesus Christ, if He is that
which we must have, you know, you and I must have water to
live, mustn't we? If we don't have any water, we'll
die of thirst, no doubt about that. My friends, spiritually,
unless the Spirit of God reveals Christ to us, we'll die. Spiritually, we'll be lost. It won't matter what else we
might possess, how knowledgeable we might be of the things of
God. We might be able to talk about the Bible all day. We may
be able to quote many texts every day. We may be able to argue. the Word of God every day. But my friends, the great thing
is to thirst after Christ and then to know that as we prayed
earnestly for such blessings, that this promise has been fulfilled.
I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the
dry ground. Well, we have the thirsty situation
which we can understand in our own lives, in our own feelings. Also, we have this picture of
the dry ground. And when ground is dry, when
there's been a prolonged spell of no rain, the ground becomes
very dry and it's unfruitful and eventually nothing seems
to grow. Everything seems to die, to wither. No sign of life. But if the rain
comes, if the floods come, you know very quickly the ground
is rejuvenated. And what do we see? We see there
the seed which was hidden in the ground, appeared to have
no life. It suddenly springs up and grows. Well, it's the same in our spiritual
life. If the Lord sends forth, and
it's spoken of here in this wonderful way, and I will pour floods upon
the dry ground. Again, it's not just a little
drop here, a little drop there. The Lord is very gracious, my
friends. Never underestimate the power of God. what he can do. Let's never underestimate
what he will do. As he says here, I will pour
water, I will pour floods upon the dry ground. What a blessing
that is. The Lord comes and takes of his
Holy Spirit to us, unworthy, dry ground, dry ground, hard,
hard heart, rebellious, No softness. Walking contrary to God. Perhaps
far off from God. He comes. He takes us in hand. He deals with us. Why? For his honour and glory. Not for your sake do I these
things, but for my holy name's sake. Let us not be under any
misapprehension. Our little lives is for the honour
and glory of God. Be very clear about that. And
never think, therefore, that your life can just carry on in
some negative way. No, the life of the children
of God is for the honour and glory of God. And so, so important
it is. and floods upon the dry ground
and well let me just move on for a bit I'll come back to the
rest of this verse in a moment but let's move on where we have
the illustration of what happens when this flood comes upon the
dry ground and they shall spring up as among the grass as willows
by the water courses and the grass springs up there was barrenness
and suddenly there's greenery all around. What does it indicate? Life. My friends, that's the work of
the Holy Spirit. What does it do? It shows and
it brings forth life. Not death, not barrenness, not
hardness, but the blessed work of the Holy Spirit. And says,
and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the
watercourses. I dare say we've always seen
willow trees by the sides of rivers, and how they grow, and
they grow well. You know, it's interesting, the
weeping willow as an example, it is a tree that usually loses
its leaves the last in the autumn, and it's the first tree to show
forth a beautiful green in the spring. these willows by the
watercourses. What does that really mean? It
means then the Church of God are blessed by the Holy Spirit
of God that they are healthy and they show forth the work
of God. And here's the illustration which
it gives to us here. And they shall spring up as among
the grass as willows by the watercourses. Now, you know, the effect of
this rain, the effect of this The effect of this work of the
Holy Spirit is not something which just stays dormant. It
has this effect, and this is the effect. One shall say, I
am the Lord's. Is that what you wanted to say?
Is that what you've been desiring? To be able to say, well, if the
Lord sends of his Spirit into your heart, Then you'll be able
to say, to the praise of God, I am the Lord's. I am the Lord's. And another shall call himself
by the name of Jacob. And another shall subscribe his
hand under the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel. The blessed work of the Holy
Spirit in the heart reveals to us that we are a child of God. We don't want to just sail through
life without any evidence of God's work. The Apostle Paul
tells us very clearly, I know whom I have believed. How did
he know? By the blessed work of the Spirit
in his heart. And that's how we know. by the
blessed work of the Holy Spirit in our heart, to know indeed
the Lord has come, that he has poured forth of his Spirit upon
us and floods into our parched and dry heart. Yes, the Lord
does indeed do great things. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Ephesians in the first chapter, he gives us a very clear
picture of this work. It's just worth pondering a few
verses here. In the first chapter of Paul's
epistle to the Ephesians, in verse 3 we read, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Isn't that
a very succinct statement, which demonstrates to us the power
of God and the blessing of God. And therefore, the Apostle is
able to say, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Here is the confirmation and
the affirmation of the work of God when the Lord has poured
forth his Spirit into our hearts. He goes on here again referring
to what we spoke of in the first and second verses. According
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ, accepted in him, accepted
in Christ, in whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence." You see, the Apostle
really is confirming that which Isaiah spoke so many years ago
about this wonderful blessing of the Holy Spirit being poured
upon us, and who are thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Think of this wonderful blessing
according to the riches of his grace, to have known this redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. Oh my friends, how rich is the
grace of God, how free it is, how wonderful it is to those
who are called, to those who are chosen. We never deserved
it, no, but God granted it for his honour and for his glory,
for his prize. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in him
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh the Holy Spirit's
work, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will, that we should be. Note this, that we should be
to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in the
last verse, verse 13, in whom ye also trusted after that ye
heard the word of truth, The gospel of your salvation, in
whom also, after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise." The work of God. The blessed work of God. The eternal work of God. And
how glorious it is, and how wonderful it is, if you and I have experienced
it. a spiritual experience, and it
is a necessary experience, and it is a God-glorifying experience,
to know that you and I have received the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit into our thirsty soul. Well, bless God today, if we've
been thirsty for the things of God, we thirst. David tells in the psalm, as
the heart panteth after the water brook. So panteth my soul after
thee, O God." Yes, we thirst after God. It's good, isn't it,
when that is so? And of course we have the wonderful
illustration of that with the Lord Jesus himself when he met
the woman of Samaria. It's recorded, of course, the
detail In the fourth chapter of John, where wonderful it was,
the Lord must needs go through Samaria, my friends, the Lord
must needs come to his people, those who he's chosen, where
they are, he'll come to you, he'll find you, he'll call you,
he'll bless you. And so, in this fourth chapter
of John, Jesus is speaking to this woman, and he says, if thou
knewest the gift of God, Again, you see, it's nothing you and
I merit, the gift of God, or praise God for that. And who
it is that saith to thee, give me to drink? Thou wouldst have
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The
woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that
living water? Are they greater than our father Jacob, which
gave us the world and drank thereof himself and his children and
his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Now, you children, when you were
in Sunday school, I think it was last week, what was the subject
that you heard? Was it about water? Was it about living water? Was
it about the woman of Samaria? And did you realise the importance
it was? Not to just drink natural water,
but to be blessed with the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. That's really what it comes down
to. You may say, well, it's difficult
for me to understand. Well, it is difficult to understand.
But you know, it's wonderful when God gives you a prayer that
he will come and reveal himself to you, which he does to children. He did to Samuel when he was
a little boy. The Lord hasn't changed. He still comes and speaks to
children, so don't think he won't speak to you, but may you be
praying to God for his blessing. And if it is so, that will mean
that you are thirsty. And it will mean you'll be like
this in the last part of this verse where, this third verse
in the 44th chapter, I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my
blessing upon thine offspring. And the blessing of God is to
receive this blessed work of the Holy Spirit in your thirsty
soul, and you will then understand what this 14th verse means in
this fourth chapter of John, where the Lord says, But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water, springing up into everlasting life. That means the work of
the Holy Spirit The life of God in your soul bubbles up, it springs
up, and it will never cease because it is the work of the Holy Spirit. And if you and I possess that
evidence, then we are one of his children. We are a child
of God. And the blessing is then that
when we die, we will go to heaven and be in eternal happiness with
the Saviour, the great glorious God, who has told us in these
words, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods
upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed and my blessing upon the offspring. So may we be found
amongst those who have received the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit revealing Christ to our souls. If it is so, we have nothing
to fear and we shall realise if God before us Who can be against
us? And we can be thankful to believe
in answer to that great question, is it well with our soul? By God's grace, you will be able
to say it is well. Amen.