The tune did not fit the message,
that may be it. I was sitting there thinking,
what words, those are tremendous words. Boundless as the universe
around me. This love beyond our human comprehending,
this wonderful love. I don't know that that might
not the better son of the tomb of holy, holy, holy, or something. I don't know. Might be a good
reason to do it without instruments. But it was written. I hope you
feel that way. It's wonderful to me. It's wonderful. It's solemn. It's joyful. But it's wonderful. Christ loved his people. Well, I asked you to turn over
to those three little books, but first of all, I want you
to put a marker there where those Hosea and Joel and Amos are,
and turn to the book of Deuteronomy, first of all. Deuteronomy, that
last book of Moses, Deuteronomy, the fifth book. I hope the Lord will bless this
message. and the presentation of it as he did the study of
it. Rain coming down. How we need
the rain so desperately. Look here, I want to read a few
verses from here in Deuteronomy 11. Begin with verse 13. Deuteronomy 11, verse 13. And it shall come to pass, the
Lord speaking, Moses writing, it shall come to pass, Deuteronomy
11, 13, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments,
which I command you this day, primarily to love the Lord your
God and to serve him, worship him with all your heart, and
with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season,
the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather
in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil, and I will send grass
in thy fields for thy cattle." Notice how everything depends
on that rain. Grass for thy cattle that thou
mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves that
your heart be not deceived and you turn aside and serve other
gods and worship them. This is the only condition for
the rain. If you do, then the Lord's wrath
will be kindled against you, and he'll shut up heaven, that
there'll be no more rain. And let the land yield not her
fruit, unless you perish quickly from off the good land which
the Lord giveth you." Now, God said in Malachi 3.6, He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. I am the Lord. I change not.
And the same Lord God who gave or withheld the rain from his
people in days of old, this rain that is so vital for sustaining
life on this earth, the same God who gave it or withheld it
back then is the same God who doesn't give it right now. And I believe, I'm certain, I'm
certain, that the reasons and the purposes are much the same
why he withholds it now. You see, the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Do you remember just a couple
of months ago when the rain was so abundant? It was raining so
abundantly and trees and the grass and the flowers and our
gardens were growing so well. Things were so beautifully green
and healthy. Do you remember that? I wonder how many people were thanking
God for that rain then. How many people? On the contrary, I believe, many
people were probably complaining about too much rain. Right? Complaining. And it's still true,
as it was back then, against those murmuring Jews, that the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
because that which may be known of God is manifest to them."
Surely anybody should be able to tell now that it is God and
God alone that can give rain, that the rain which sustains
our very beings must come from God himself. Surely only a fool
will acknowledge now that God must give the rain.
Only a fool would not acknowledge that. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest, it's clear from the rain, something as clear
to see as the rain. God showed it unto them, God
gives it unto us, but the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made. But when they knew God, when they knew God,
they did not glorify him as God. When the rain was raining, nobody
was a thinking. and appraise him. So God says,
all right, no more rain. That's what he did then, and
I'm just certainly doing the same thing now, the same thing. You say, does God judge men now
like he did then? Oh, yes, I just read, just quoted
to you, he's the same God. And men sure haven't changed
a lick, have they? Look at Jeremiah chapter 5, turn over there. Look
at Jeremiah chapter 5. Of course he does. Of course
God judges sin. He still hates sin. He's still
angry with the wicked every day. He hasn't changed a bit. He still
hates sin. And droughts and famines and
earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes and pestilence and
diseases like AIDS are the judgment of God against this wicked and
untoward generation. No doubt about it. Only a fool
would not see this. Only a fool would say, no, God.
Or somebody who doesn't read the Bible. And now God withholds
His life-giving reign and our men calling upon Him? I don't
even think we are asking Him for it. A general rebuke to us. Elijah, the Scripture says, Elijah
was a man of like passion. And he prayed that the rain would
stop, and then he prayed that it stopped. And the Lord started
it. Maybe we ought to be praying for some rain. I know we should. But this is not the rain I'm
going to speak of this morning and dwell on. But look here at
Jeremiah chapter 5. Look at verse 21. He says, Here
now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which
have eyes and see not, and have ears and hear not. That's exactly
what Paul was saying there in Romans 1 about people not You've
got eyes and ears and don't see and understand or hear the voice
of God in creation. Ignorant. Verse 23, he says,
this people has a revolting and rebellious heart. They revolted. They are revolted and gone. They've
all gone astray, gone their own way. Look at verse 24. Look at this. Neither say they
in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth
rain. both the former and the latter,
spring rain and summer rain, in his season, he reserveth unto
us the appointed weeks of harvest, the Lord of harvest, that's his
name in a joke. Verse 25, your iniquities have
turned away these things, and your sins have withholden
good things from you. Man is responsible to praise
and acknowledge this God, else God cuts off these things, right? Oh, yes, same God, same God. And now God withholds this life-giving
rain from us. And you see why, Rick, I was
saying I hope it doesn't rain until after this message. Turn
over now to Amos, the book of Amos, chapter 4. It's the same now as it was in
the beginning. God is the creator. And we are
the creature, and the creator demands and deserves and expects
all honor, glory and service from the creature. He expects
the creature to serve him, to acknowledge him in everything. Still the same, the creator expects
this, demands it from the creature, right? Yet, the creature still
rebels against this God. And the same God who judged the
earth with rain in the flood, sent rain, an abundance of rain,
to wipe them out, is the same God now that withholds the rain
in judgment. And you know, some days the scriptures
talk about the earth being burned with a fervent heat. We call
it the greenhouse effect. I'm not so sure. I'm not a man
of prophecy, but I'm just not so sure that he ain't burning
this thing up right now. I'm not so sure. Nobody can prove
that wrong, can they? I mean, call it the greenhouse
effect. What caused it? Our iniquitous
ways. Well, look at this. What about God's people in the
midst of all this? Look at Amos 4. Look at verse 6. He said, I've
given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want
of bread in all your places, yet you haven't returned unto
me, saith the Lord. And also I've withheld the rain
from you. Three months to the harvest.
What's your corn look like? Got a good three months left,
doesn't it? Or two? Three months to the harvest,
I caused it not to rain, but I caused it to rain one city.
Old Henry got some rain the other day, nobody else got a lick. Caused it to rain this city and
that city, and this is a picture of the gospel. The gospel is
just in a few places. One piece it rained, two or three
cities, verse 8, wandered unto one city to drink water, but
they weren't satisfied, yet you have not returned unto me. I've
smitten you. Pestilence, verse 10, and so
forth. I ask this question, what about
God's people in the midst of all this? What about God's people?
Well, the children of Israel were God's people, weren't they?
They were typical of God's people. Though chosen, set apart, miraculously
preserved and sustained by God, yet they continued to sin and
rebel against this kind hand of God, didn't they? And we ain't
one speck different than they are. That's what one of us was
saying, I think it was Roberta, was saying this morning. We do
more complaining than we do praising. We expect our gardens to dry
up, too. Do we deserve it? We don't deserve
it any more than anybody else does. No, we don't. We're no
different today. There's still none good, no,
no, no. None that doeth good, no, no.
None righteous. We're all gone astray. We still
go our own way for the most part. We're still unprofitable servants. We're still prodigal sons who
wander far from the Father and do not acknowledge him. And though never forsaken as
his children, and never forsaken, and David said, I've never seen
them begging bread. None of us now are going to go
hungry in here. We're going to suffer like everybody else. Yeah, we
are. But we're every day under the rod of affliction and chastening. Now listen. Here's the difference.
between the child of God and the child of the wicked one.
The Canaanites, that's the Canaan, the children of Cain, the children
of this world, they say, this is more than I can bear, and
raise up their fist in God's face. What do you mean doing
this to me? I don't deserve this, like Cain
said. My punishment is more than I
can bear. Why is God doing this, the children of Israel say. Get
what I said, right? For a lesson, for a lesson. If anything, maybe just to point
us, to turn us back, like we just read, to turn us back, to
call upon Him. Like I said, how many of us have
even asked for rain? Well, you see, God is still merciful,
though, and gracious to us in spite of the fact that our sins
have separated us. from our God. Now look over here
at our text in Hosea, the book of Hosea, chapter 6. Just two
books back from Amos there. Hosea, chapter 6. This is our
text. God is still merciful to his
people and gracious to us, still. And though our sins have separated
us from him and hidden his face from us, and he commands the
chastening rod, yet he'll never leave us. and never leave us
completely. We'll never dry up completely,
although we do go through those droughts. You see, the only hope
of anybody, wicked God's people or anybody, the only hope of
anybody is that God in mercy and grace will condescend to
pour out the blessings of heaven upon us. Will condescend to rain
righteousness To reign mercy, have mercy upon us, right? It's
got to come down from above. It's got to. God only, he's the
only one who has it, and we desperately need it to give us eternal life. Mercy, grace, righteousness,
every good and perfect gift comes from where? Above. He's got it,
and everybody is at his at his mercy for these gifts. Everybody.
And our only hope lies in the mercy and grace of God. And the
only hope that anybody has is if we turn from our sin and ourselves
to the living God, that God will come to us in our misery and
pour out the blessings, give us showers of blessings. Now
look here at Hosea chapter 6, Hosea 6 verse 1. And let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn." It's God that
breaks the heart. It's God that gives repentance,
the goodness of God. He'll heal you. If he gives,
he'll accept what he gives. It's God that will heal us and
has smitten us. He'll bind us up. And after two
days, after two days, he'll revive us again. He says, come, let
us return. You know, the message is still
the same. We had this message last Sunday
morning. It's the same, man. It always will be the same. Repent.
Right? And we still need repentance.
We need to repent of the fact we don't repent. We need to repent
of our self-righteousness. Not only our sin, but our self-righteousness.
How many this morning have begged that God Almighty have mercy
upon your soul? It's still the same. Joe, every
day, his mercies are new every morning. We need his mercy every
morning. We need to be calling upon it. That's the rain that
we're speaking of here. The message is still the same.
After all these years, it was the same from the first prophet
until now. Repent! The kingdom of God is
at hand. Repent and come to Christ. Repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going
to see Him in a minute as the rain that comes down, Christ
Himself as the rain. Listen to this, just a couple
of books over. Well, you've got to turn over here. Keep your
place there in Hosea. Turn over to Joel, just a few
pages over. Joel, chapter 2. Joel, chapter
2, verse 12. He says, Thus saith the Lord,
Turn ye even to me with all your heart, with fasting and with
weeping, with mourning rend your hearts. God requires a heart
to seek after him. A broken heart, not a head. A
heart. A heart. Rend your heart, not
your garments. Give me a heart, my son. Give
me a heart, not your head, not your body in the pew. Give me
a heart. Rend your hearts. Turn unto the
Lord your God. He's gracious and merciful. Look
at it. Slow to anger and of great kindness. and repenteth him of evil." Who
knows if he'll return and repent and leave a blessing? Who knows? And I ask you, and surely everybody
in here, I ask you, do you hunger and
thirst after Christ? Do you hunger and thirst after
Him who is righteousness? He said you hunger and thirst
after righteousness. Do you? Are you in a dry and
parched land, or is this water of this life satisfying to you?
Some people are, real satisfied here. God's people are pilgrims. This is a dry and thirsty land
to them. It's a wilderness area, this
land. Let me read this to you over
Deuteronomy 11. I didn't read this to you, but
he said to He said, the land you go in to possess, it's not
like Egypt. You remember when he said about
Moses, he said, Moses came out of Egypt. He esteemed the reproaches
of Christ greater treasure, greater than all the treasures of Egypt.
Remember that? Moses had, he was going to be made royalty.
Moses had all the treasures of Egypt at his disposal. Egypt
in all its glory. This is Egypt. This world is
Egypt. And God said to Moses and the people, He said, the
land you go in to possess, it's not like Egypt. Egypt, He says they watered it
with their foot. In other words, they irrigated
it. They could just dig down a little bit and it'd be watered,
irrigated and so forth. He said, but the land you go
in to possess is the lands of hills and valleys, ups and downs. rugged, not the well-watered
plains of Jordan. You live up in the mountains,
the scraggly, up one day and down the next, hills and valleys.
And he says, listen to this, it's a land that must drink the
water of heaven for its sustenance. And a land which the Lord God
God cares for, though he's the one that tends it. His eyes are always upon it from
the beginning of the year to the end. That's the life of a believer.
But this is a wilderness we live in here, a wilderness area, mountainous,
rugged terrain, tough place to live. I ask you, do you hunger
and thirst after Christ and His righteousness? Are you in a wilderness
here? Do you consider this a place
of tribulation? Can you say with David, can you
say this? God, you're my God. You're my
God. Early will I seek thee, because
my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and thirsty land." I thirst
for you. My flesh longs for thee in a
dry and thirsty land where no water is. Or do you find water
here? The promises are to the thirsty.
Revelation 21-17 is to the thirsty. Come and drink. That's to the
thirsty. Water doesn't have any interest
to people who aren't thirsty. I'm thirsty right now. Boy, it's good. You may not be
thirsty. You may not care to have a drink.
I needed it. It's satisfying. The water of
this world doesn't satisfy. Only Christ and His righteousness
satisfy. Are you thirsty for it? At least
I don't know if you are. But not all. Not all. Can you say with David, as the
heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God? Can you say that? If you can't,
you haven't seen God. You haven't seen yourself in
your own condition drying up. Are you crying unto God now for
Christ, the water of life, to come down upon you? Are you? You see, Jesus Christ
is the water of life. He's the rain that must come
down from heaven. Look at this. He's the rain.
Isaiah 45 verse 8 says this. Let me just read this to you.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour forth
righteousness. That's Christ. Let them pour
forth righteousness. Let the earth open up. Let our
hearts open up in receiving and bring salvation and let righteousness
spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
And God sent Christ. He said in another place there
in Isaiah chapter 50, if I can find it, Isaiah 50, he says,
oh, he says, oh, I'm over here in the wrong place. Isaiah 50,
can I find it? He said he sends rain down. The
Lord God sends rain down upon his people. I can't find it.
But he says, Christ is that rain that comes down from heaven.
If anybody's thirsty, he rains upon them. He rains upon them. And look here at Hosea chapter
6 with me. He says, after two days, and I think this alludes
to our Lord, his death and his resurrection. Look at this. This
will be a blessing to you now if you look at it. Hosea chapter
6, verse 2. He says, after two days, He'll
revive us. How long have we lived in this?
What is our day right now? About two thousand years after
Christ. Second day. Day is a thousand years. Two
days! God in his mercy and grace has revived the people through
the preaching of this gospel. In the third day, when Christ arose, he'll raise
us up. In the third day he'll raise
us up and we'll live in his sight. In another day? In another day,
we don't know what a day will bring for them. One more day,
saying, about all we got. One more day, we'll live, I mean
live, in His sight with Him. Why? Well, you'll know. Verse 3, look at it. You'll know.
You'll know. If you want to know. If you follow
on to know. If you ask and seek and knock
and look. and wait for him, for he's coming,
like Brother Jim Preece. You'll know. You'll know his
going forth has been prepared as the morning. Look at this. And he'll come unto us as rain. Rain from heaven. Rain. And he did. If you know
him, you know that he came to you, didn't he? You'll know. You didn't come to him. You didn't
seek after him, did you? You didn't call upon him, he
called upon you. He chose you. You'll know if
he came to you, you'll know where he came from, from above. Your
salvation, you'll know that he was prepared from the foundation
of the world, that lamb slain, that sacrifice, that eternal
justification we so desperately need. That sacrifice that only
God, that God must accept. And one we must have, his righteousness.
You know that he was the one prepared for us, and he must
come to us in the form of the gospel. It rained. You ever had
these showers of blessings on you, on your head? It's raining
this morning. He called it the former rain.
Look at it. As the latter and the former rain, Christ is the
first and the last. The former reigns. He's the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world, and then in time,
He came to actually be slain. He's eternal salvation, and He's
present salvation. He'll be future salvation. The
former and the latter reign. He's the reign. He's salvation
then, He's salvation now, He'll be salvation in the end. He'll
sustain us when we first believe, He'll sustain us to the end.
Spring reigns, summer reigns, fall reigns. He'll reign upon
us. He reigns and rules. The sun
shines and God reigns. In closing, let me turn over
here to 1 Kings. Look over here at 1 Kings. You
know the story of how Elijah prayed because of the wickedness
of the people, King Ahab in particular, because Ahab did more wickedly
than anybody else? any other king before in the
scripture said. And Elijah, faithful man of God, prayed. He prayed to God that God would
stop the rain because of the iniquity of the people. So why
did he do that? Well, God had an event that was
about to take place here in 1 Kings 18. You remember when the prophets
of Baal and the prophets of the grove, and this one prophet of
God stood upon that Mount Carmel, and they offered their sacrifices
respectively? Why did all this take place?
Elijah said, now they want to know who God is. Do you remember
how I started this message out? Why does God do anything? That
men everywhere will see who He is and fall down before Him and
worship Him, right? That's the reason He does everything.
He does everything for His glory. He saved you for His namesake. Now glorify it. And here in 1
Kings 18, Jesus Christ is right now seated
in mercy and grace and forgiveness. He's right now pouring out showers
of saving blessings. Right now, this morning, He's
pouring out showers of blessings. And to some people, Right now,
blessings and they're free, he said. Why? People that are drying on the
stock. I'm looking in the face of, there's
a few, some dried up ears that are just dying. I've used this
illustration before. People that go on extending hunger
fast. They fast to go without food
for a long time. After a while, they get to thinking they don't
need it. That's when they're about to
die. You listen to what I'm saying now. That's when death is about to
set in. When they think they're alright. And they're emaciated
and sick and everybody can see it but them. Okay. You know what I'm talking about?
You've seen it. People on TV. It's true. You go without food
so long, you'll finally don't think you need it. Isn't that
true? Any of these nurses that know
anything about these hunger strikes? And I see some people that are
flat, just brown, dried up stalks, ready to die. And it's raining
right now. The gospel is coming forth here
right now. Oh, my soul. That rich man in hell
one day, he lifted up his eyes and he said, just a drop! Didn't
he? Say, it's old-fashioned. What
you're preaching is more of begging people. There ain't gonna come a time, buddy,
when I drop. Let me hear that gospel one more
time, just once. I'll believe it. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we try to persuade men that God must do it. I can't
do it, no matter what tears, anger, whatever. God's got to
do it. We'll look here at 1 Kings 18,
verse 41 with me. You know how that God destroyed
all those prophets of the grove and prophets of Baal and so forth?
And oh, Ahab, evidently Ahab got a little religion. Ahab was the most wicked fellow
around, so he did worse than anybody before him. Any Ahabs
in here? As me. As me. Yet God showed mercy. But look
at what the prophet comes to. Oh, Ahab. You know, it didn't rain because
of his wickedness. Now God sends a prophet to him, in spite of
himself, and says, I'm going to rain, I'm going to... One
more time! One more time! You going to hear
it? Look at it. Verse 41. Elijah said, I may have... Get
up! Eat! Believe Christ. Eat! Get up! Come to Christ! Believe, and
your soul shall live. Eat! Get up! It's the sound of
abundance of rain! You hear it? You hear it? So Ahab went up to eat. Verse
42, and Elijah came up, Elijah went up, Elijah went up to the
top of Carmel, and what did he do? He went up and fell down
and started praying. Cast himself down upon the earth,
put his face between his knees. That's good advice right there.
Get a home in your closet before God and ask him to rain. Ask
him to send a rain. I'm not talking about now, I'm
not talking about water. Ask him to make it rain upon
you, your soul, your parched, dry soul." So Ahab went up. That could be you or me coming
to hear the gospel. He went up. He came and heard
it. He came up. He went up to hear. And old Elijah
went down on his knees in prayer. And you know, look at this. The
message didn't... Ahab came, but the message wasn't
to him. It was to his servant. Perhaps
I got somebody in mind right now that the message isn't for
them, it's for somebody else. Hey, and Elijah said to his servant,
verse 43, go up there and look toward the sea. And that's what
we're preaching every time we stand there. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. Look toward the sea. Remember
Bob preaching about Christ as the sea? Look toward the sea.
That vast body of water, that fountain, that all water comes
from. They say all water comes from the sea, really. It evaporates
up and comes down. Christ to see? Looked up to see. And he went up and looked and
said, I don't see anything. Didn't he? I don't see anything. We had a good message this morning.
I didn't hear anything. Well, go seven times. Go like
the Knights. Seven times. And it came too
fast. Finally, he said, verse 44, I
see a little cloud. I see a little cloud. I believe it ain't much. A little cloud, and it looks like
a man's hand. Oh, I see. I don't know much,
preacher. I've come to this much, though. I see my need of him. I see that
I'm in his hands. That's about all I know right
now. All right, boy. He said, Go up, then. Prepare
your chariot. It's really going to rain. Get
down and get in your house. Go home and rest. Rains are coming. See that little cloud? Ah boy, it'll break with blessings
upon your head. Verse 45, So it came to pass
in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind,
and there was a great rain. Ah boy, there's some people in
here, some young people in particular. That if God would save their
souls, it's so obvious right now, they don't know Him. If
God would save their soul, it would be a great thing. Oh, it would be a great reign. I'm
going to take a great reign. Same great reign, let's say,
some young prodigal in here, like it did this one. Same great
reign. Oh, God, let's pray for them. Let's pray for rain. We need
rain. No, I mean, we need some rain.
It says, Elijah was a man of light passions, and he prayed
in the rain. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. So let's pray chiefly for God's
blessings upon us, his mercy and his grace and his salvation
fall upon us and our children. And then let's pray for it to
rain on our crops. I'd like to have some maters.
Some maters. Joe, let's sing that song. Let's
see. It's hymn number 349, Showers
of Blessing. Mercy drops round us a-falling. Oh, for the showers we plead. Joe, you come up here and lead
us in this. 349 is the number. reporting on a stand-in for him
uh... uh... uh... uh... Our founding towers of blessing,
this is a promise of love. Our founding season progressing,
in from the Saviour above. Showers of blessing, showers
of blessing we need. Merging all cloudless, our calling,
But for the showers we weep, But thou shalt be shower of blessing,
O when through day they might fall, Now as we cry, You bless
me, Still as on days as we fall, Shower of blessing, Showered
by blessing rain Birds here are proud and star-calling But for
the showers they bring