Rain and Grace–a Parallel

Rain and Grace–a Parallel

(No. 2583)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 14, 1898.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
5, 1883.

"Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the
thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on the earth, where there is no one;
on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and
waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?"
Job 38:25-27.

JOB was an admirable man, but the Lord meant to make him still better.
The best of men are but men at the best and though Job was, in a
certain sense, perfect, yet he was not perfectly perfect–there was a
further stage beyond that which he had reached, otherwise he would not
have been tried as he was. But because the Lord knew that there was
something better for Job than he had already attained, he had to be
subjected to extraordinary trial. He was such a valuable diamond that
there had to be more cutting for him than for a common stone. He was
made of such good metal that he paid for being put into the
furnace–there would come out something still more pleasing to the
great Refiner if He cast that which was so precious into the most
fervent heat. Hence it was that Job was so greatly tried. Yet, after
all his trials, it seemed as if he would miss their blessed result, for
his three friends–the miserable comforters–appeared to be the
meddlers in the whole design. By their cruel, cutting, sarcastic
observations, they irritated Job so that it looked as if he would be
harder instead of softer because of the fires.

Sometimes, when a man knows that he is being unjustly and unfairly
treated, he stiffens his back, hardens himself and influences which, by
themselves, might have worked great tenderness of spirit, are spoiled
because something else is thrown in. Job was in this condition and he,
therefore, seemed to rise in his own estimation rather than to sink, as
was desired, until, at last, the Lord ended the dispute by manifesting
Himself. Out of the whirlwind He spoke to Job and bade him gird up his
loins and meet his Maker if he dared. Then it was that Job was brought
to his right position and, at the end, he said, "I have heard of You by
the hearing of the ear: but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor
myself and repent in dust and ashes." Then Job realized the benefit of
his affliction–but not till then. When the Lord revealed to Job His
supremacy, His eternal Glory, and in that light compelled him to see
his own imperfection and nothingness–then the Patriarch's trials
became sanctified to him.

Our text is a part of God's challenge to Job. The Lord seemed to say,
"If Job is, indeed, half as great as he thinks he is, let him see
whether he can do what his Creator does." He is challenged about so
slight a matter, apparently, as the sending of the rain. Does Job know
how it is done? Can he explain all the phenomena? Our modern scientists
tell us how rain is produced and I suppose their explanation is the
correct one, but they cannot tell us how it is that power is given to
carry out what they call, "the laws of Nature." Neither can they make
the rain, themselves, nor, if a drought were to continue till the
nation was on the verge of famine, would they be able to cover the
skies with blackness, or even to water a single acre of land! No, with
all our explanations, it is still a great mystery–and it remains a
secret with God how it is that He waters the earth with rain.

I am not going into that matter at this time. I intend to use the rain
as an emblem of the Grace of God, as it usually is in Scripture–a
figure of that blessed overflowing of the river of God's Love which
comes down to quench our thirst of sin, to refresh us, to enliven us,
to feed us, to soften us and to cleanse us. This matchless water of
life has all sorts of uses and God sends it, when He pleases, in
abundant showers upon His own people according to that ancient Word of
God, "You, O God, did send a plentiful rain whereby You did confirm
Your inheritance, when it was weary." The Hebrew means, "You did pour
out blessings," as from a cornucopia, and so, "You did confirm Your
inheritance, when it was weary." There are many here who are
weary–they need to be refreshed and they are praying to God to send a
gracious shower, a copious distilling of His matchless Grace upon their
hearts and lives. I am going to preach upon this passage with the
desire that while I am speaking, such a blessing may come upon us, or
that, at any rate, we may begin to pray for it.

I. My first point is that, AS GOD ALONE GIVES RAIN, SO GOD ALONE GIVES
GRACE.

Jehovah asks of Job the question, "Who has divided a channel for the
overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt, to cause it to rain
on the earth?" It is God, and God only, who creates rain. We cannot
make it, but He can and He does give it. And it is absolutely so with
His Grace–The Lord must give it, or there will be none. If it had not
been for His eternal plan whereby He purposed to give Grace to the
guilty, the whole race of mankind would have been left, like the fallen
angels, without hope and without mercy! The angels that kept not their
first estate, but rebelled against God, were given over to punishment
without any intimation whatever of redemption for them–or of any
possibility of their restoration. God, who does as He wills with His
Grace which is most sovereign and free, passed over the fallen angels
and made His Grace to light on insignificant and guilty men. And it has
been after the same fashion in all history–if God has withheld the
blessings of His Grace from any of the nations, they have not been able
to procure them for themselves.

One lone light burned in Israel for hundreds of years while the rest of
the inhabitants of the earth were left in darkness. And the world, with
all its wisdom, could not and did not find God. Men, in their
ignorance, set up idols almost as numerous as their worshippers–and in
their blindness they went this way and that way, but always away from
God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes
down from he Father of Lights"–as certainly as the rain comes down
from Heaven! There is but one source of supply for Grace and that
source is God Himself. He gives Grace and, "He gives more Grace."
otherwise there would be none whatever among the sons of men!

And, moreover, it is God who finds the way by which His Grace can come
to men. I will not enter into any elaborate explanations of my text. It
indicates that God finds a way by which the rain comes down from the
upper regions to water the thirsty fields. "Who has divided a channel
for the overflowing water?" Only God Himself has made a channel for the
rain–we could not have made it. So is it with His Grace, otherwise how
could Grace have come to man? How was it possible for the thrice-holy
God to deal leniently with sinners who had provoked Him to anger? How
could it be that the Judge of all the earth, who must be just, should,
nevertheless, pass by transgression, iniquity and sin? This is a
problem which would have perplexed a Sanhedrim of seraphim! If all the
mightiest intelligences that God has ever made had sat together in
solemn conclave for a thousand years, they would not have been able to
solve this problem–How can God be just and yet the Justifier of the
ungodly? Infinite Wisdom devised that matchless way of substitution by
which, through the death of the Son of God, men might be saved! There
is the stamp of Divinity about that verse, "the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."

It is God who gives Grace and God who, in a Divinely gracious way, has
given His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to be the channel through
which Grace can come down to guilty men! Blessed be God for this and
let His name be adored forever! Having thus resolved upon giving Grace
to men and having made a channel in which His Grace might flow to men,
let it never be forgotten that God now directs the pathway of all the
Grace that comes into the world. Our parallel, in the natural world, is
that, according to the original of our text, there is a sort of canal,
or path, made for every drop of water as it descends from the heavens
to the earth. There is not the most minute particle of rain that is
left to fall according to its own fancy or will–each single drop of
water that is blown aslant by the March wind, is as surely steered by
God as are yonder glorious stars revolving in their orbits! There is a
purpose of God concerning every solitary flake of snow and every single
portion of hail that comes down from Heaven–all these are ordered
according to His eternal counsel and will. God alone can arrange all
this.

It always seems to me to be a very wonderful way in which the world is
watered. If all the rain were to pour upon us at once in a deluge, we
should all be drowned–but it comes down gently, drop by drop, and thus
it effects God's purpose much more surely than if it burst in one
tremendous waterspout destroying everything. God, by the mysterious
laws by which He governs inanimate matter, has so planned it that the
rain shall come in drops exactly the right size, such drops as shall
hang upon a tiny blade of grass and scarcely shall bend it. See how the
bright drops, like so many diamonds, hang in myriads on the hedgerows
just the right size to hang there–neither too large nor too little. So
is it with the Grace of God–it is given sovereignly and wisely.

I daresay some Christian people think that they would like to have, in
their first five minutes after believing in Christ, all the Grace they
will ever have–but it cannot be. I have often admired that expression
of the Apostle Paul, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace; wherein He
has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence." God teaches us His
will, but He does not teach us too much at a time. Have you ever seen
children who have been in school, so hardly driven by their masters
that they have been mentally crippled and have never made the advance
they ought to have made because they were driven too hard at the first?
I have met with this sort of thing, spiritually. In several cases I
have known, men and women have learned so much of the things of God in
a short time that their reason has been most seriously jeopardized. I
often have to look at young converts and almost to pray that they might
not learn too much at once, for the deep things of God are so amazing
to a man who is just plucked out of the world that if the cases of
insanity through religion were much more frequent than they are, I
should not at all be astonished! I wonder how any of us can bear what
God has taught us already. If you could give eyesight to a man born
blind and then, in a moment, were to place him in the full blaze of the
sun, it would be a serious danger to him. If he has been long in the
darkness, he must see the light by degrees. In like manner, we ought to
thank God that He does not deluge us all at once with all the Grace we
shall ever have, but He gives it to us gently, as soft vernal showers
which, in Infinite Wisdom, distil upon the thirsty earth.

So we have seen that God gives Grace and God finds a way of giving
Grace. And then God directs the way of His Grace and the measure and
the manner of it. And He does it all in wisdom and prudence.

See, then, my dear Friends–I hope you all do–our absolute dependence
upon God for all spiritual blessings. A farmer may do all he likes with
his ground, but he will never have a harvest if God withholds the rain.
He may be the most skillful agriculturist who ever lived, but he can do
nothing if the heavens above him are as brass. If he were to call in
the most learned astronomer of the day, there is not one who, with his
wand, could move the stars, or cause the clouds to open and pour down
rain upon the earth. If there were sore trouble in the land because
farming was failing for lack of rain, if both Houses of Parliament were
to be called together and the Queen were to sit upon her throne of
state–and they were unanimously to pass an act ordering the rain to
fall–He that sits in the heavens would laugh! The Lord would have them
in derision, for the key of the rain is in no hand but that of Jehovah.
It is exactly so with the Grace of God. You and I cannot command it.
The presence of the most holy men in our midst would not, of itself,
bring it. The most earnest preaching, the most Scriptural doctrine, the
most faithful obedience to ordinances would not make it necessary that
we should receive Grace. God must give it–He is an absolute Sovereign
and we are entirely dependent upon Him.

To what does this fact drive us? It drives us to prayer. When we have
done all that we can–and surely we can scarcely pray if we have
neglected anything that we can do–when we have done all that lies
within our power as earnest-hearted Christian workers, then we must
come to the Lord, Himself, for strength, and unto the God of our
salvation for all power. This has been said so many times that when I
say it, again, someone may reply, "That is a mere platitude." Just
so–and the mischief is that the Church is beginning to think it is
only a platitude–but if we all felt that the most important thing for
the Church of Christ to do, after she has borne her testimony to the
world, is to pray, what a different state of things there would soon
be! But now you know what they are doing in far too many places–they
push the Prayer Meeting up into a corner and if there is anything to be
put off, they give up the Prayer Meeting! In some of our places of
worship, we might search a long time for the Prayer Meeting. It is
somewhere in the back settlements, down in some small room which is too
big for it even then! People plead that they cannot get out to the
Prayer Meeting–they will go out to a lecture or to spend the evening
for pleasure–but they do not care to go out when it is "only a Prayer
Meeting."

Just so and as long as that is the estimation in which professing
Christians hold it, so long must we cease to expect showers of blessing
from on high! The main thing is for the Church to pray! She knows that
she is dependent upon her God–let her show it by crying day and night
to Him that He would send a blessing. There is a big mill with all its
spindles and all its workers. I think I see it as we speed along in the
train through one of our Northern counties. It is all lit up, tonight,
and many busy hands are at work. But where is the power that makes
those spindles move? In that little shed outside, where there is a man
with black hands, stirring the fire, and keeping up the pressure of
steam. That is where the power is! And that is a picture of the Prayer
Meeting. It is the source of the Church's energy and if public prayer
is neglected, or if private prayer is slackened, or if family prayer is
held back in any degree, we lose the power which brings the
blessing–this will be acknowledged when we come to truly know that all
the power is of God and that as we cannot command a drop of rain, but
must leave it in the hands of God, so we cannot command an ounce of
Grace–if Grace is to be so measured–it must come from God, and from
God alone.

II. Now, secondly, dear Friends, notice in my text that, AS GOD GIVES
RAIN, SO RAIN FALLS IRRESPECTIVE OF MEN. "Who has divided a channel for
the overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt; to cause it to
rain on the earth, where there is no one; on the wilderness, wherein
there is no man?"

I daresay you have often thought it strange that it should rain out at
sea where it cannot water a single furrow, or apparently benefit any
human being. Is it not still more strange that the water should fall so
abundantly on vast tracts of sand and on plains that as yet have never
been trod by the foot of man, and on those lofty peaks, those virgin
hills where a human being has never yet been found? Men have a notion
that nothing is good for anything if it is not good for them, but they
are very foolish for thinking so. If what God does in Providence is
good for nothing but for a rat, it is not unwise for Him to do it! He
has other creatures to think of beside men and He thinks of them. The
little fish in the sea and the birds of the air–and even the worms in
the earth are remembered by the Most High and, sometimes, that weather
which we say is so bad is only bad because it is bad for us–rebels
against God. It may have been given especially for the birds and,
perhaps, sometimes, God thinks that it is better to have weather that
is good for birds than good for men, for He has to provide for us all
and they, at least, have not sinned. And if He thinks of them, there is
as much of mercy in the thought as when He thinks of us rebellious
creatures. He makes it "to rain on the earth, where there is no one."

Now the parallel in Grace is this–that God's Grace will come without
any human observation. If the Grace of God comes to some of us,
thousands will see it, for they will mark the working of His Grace in
our life and conversation. But there sits a dear friend, over yonder,
so obscure that possibly only two or three will ever know anything that
she does. Perhaps, my Brother, only half-a-dozen are affected by your
influence. Do you not rejoice that God, who makes the rain to fall
where there is no one, will make His Grace to come to you, though
nobody, or, at most, only two or three, may see it? I have delighted
sometimes to wander into the middle of a forest and get far away from
all sound of the voices of fallen men–and then to spy out some little
flower growing right among the big trees. The sun gets at it, somehow,
for a few hours in the day, and in its golden beams that little flower
rejoices. And as I have looked at it and seen its beauty, I have
remembered the words of the poet–

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen," but I have not at all
agreed with him when he added–

"And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

It is God's flower! God made it grow that He might look at it, Himself,
and, therefore, its sweetness was not wasted, for God was there to
appreciate and accept it! The most beautiful places in the world are,
doubtless, places where men have never been. The most lovely gardens
are those that God, Himself, keeps, where no Adam has been placed to
till the soil. His trees, untouched by the axe, and unpruned by the
knife, grow gloriously–"The trees of the Lord are full of sap. The
cedars of Lebanon which He has planted." My heart has rejoiced as I
have thought of God walking among the great trees of the far-off
West–those mighty monarchs of the forest that seem to touch the
stars–walking among them when nobody was there but Himself, looking at
the works of His own hands and admiring what He had made. Well, now, if
you happen to be a solitary person, quite alone, one who will never
make a noise in the world for all that God does for you, never mind
about that–He causes it to rain on the earth where there is no
one–and your obscurity shall not keep back the blessing!

So, you see, rain comes without human observation. And it also comes
without human co-operation, for it often rains "where there is no one."
Therefore, no man helps God to send the rain. As to Grace, it, also,
often comes where there is no man to bring it. When a person has not
heard a sermon, when he has been on the sea, far away from all means of
Grace, yet God has caused it to rain upon him. There is here, tonight,
I think, a Brother who left this country unimpressed by the Gospel,
who, nevertheless, when near the shores of Australia, sat down and read
a sermon which his wife had put into his box–and God met with him
there! The Lord has many ways of proving that His Grace descends upon
men without any help from them–and that He can send it where He
pleases by ways of His own. If the ordinary means should seem to fail,
He can cause it to rain "where there is no one."

Perhaps there is somebody here who is going right away from the usual
means of Grace. Possibly, dear Friend, you are fretting to yourself as
you think, "I shall never come to this place of worship again. Perhaps
I may never hear the Gospel to my soul's comfort again." Suppose you
are right away in the bush of Australia? God can send His Grace to you,
there, just as easily as He can send it here! If you are going to the
backwoods of America or Canada, do not be afraid–the Lord is at home
there. If you have to settle down in a log hut and are miles from any
meeting of Christian people–do not be dispirited or cast down, but, in
your loneliness, sit and sing and let this be a part of your song, "He
makes a way for the overflowing water, to cause it to rain on the
earth, where there is no one; on the wilderness, wherein there is no
man." Therefore be encouraged by this second thought.

III. I had many other things to say to you upon this point, but time
fails, so I must notice, thirdly, that BOTH RAIN AND GRACE FALL WHERE
WE MIGHT LEAST HAVE EXPECTED THEM. "To satisfy the desolate and waste
ground."

Grace comes where there was no Grace before. Where all was desert and
waste, there comes the rain. And where all was graceless and godless,
there comes the Grace of God. Grace comes where there is the greatest
need of it Here was a dreadful place–it was waste–it was a wilderness
yet the rain came there. And where there are men who feel themselves to
be just as dead and barren as a desert, Grace will come even there! The
rain comes to wildernesses and Grace can come to you, poor guilty
Sinners! If you have nothing with which to entertain the Grace, Grace
will bring its own company with it. It will come into your empty heart
and make you one of the "people prepared for the Lord." Grace waits not
for men, neither tarries for the sins of men. We call it Prevenient
Grace because it comes before it is sought–and God bestows it on a
people who are utterly undeserving of it.

Grace comes where, apparently, there is nothing to repay it for coming.
When the rain falls on the wilderness, it seems as if no result could
follow from its fall. What a mercy it is that when we have nothing to
pay, God lavishes His mercy on us and, in due time, we repay Him in the
way He expects. I do not suppose that many of you have ever seen the
great steppes of Russia. I have been told that for thousands of miles
they are like our London streets, without a single blade of anything
green–a horrible desolation! Yet after the snow has gone and
springtime comes in and summer, with its wonderful heat, that plain is
covered with grass and with abundant flowers of the field. And the
grass continues until it is cut for use–and then the land returns to
that same barren appearance which it wore before. It is amazing, is it
not, that showers of rain and the warmth of the sun should produce
vegetation where, apparently, there seemed to be none whatever?

Just so does the Grace of God come to a sinner's heart! It is all hard,
dead, black, hopeless. But when the Grace comes, it brings life with it
and suddenly there spring up in the man all manner of good works, holy
words, gracious thoughts and everything that is sweet and pleasing in
the sight of God! And what is best of all, it continues to produce a
harvest that never dries up and the soil never returns to its former
barrenness again! Therefore, Beloved, let us take heart concerning the
Grace of God. If the rain comes where there seems to be no argument in
favor of its coming, so may the Grace of God come to you who have no
right to it–no expectation of it–no hope of it–no, are even filled
with despair concerning it! While you are sitting here, the Lord can
meet with you and save you! Be of good comfort–to you is the Gospel
sent, saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved." Trust your guilty soul with Him and you, even you, shall
receive the showers of love that come from God's right hand! There is
nothing in the Covenant of Grace that shall be held back from you–even
though you are the very worst and vilest one in this place–if you only
trust the Savior. Though you may write yourself down as most surely
lost and given up to barrenness, like the heath that is near unto
burning, yet it shall not be so with you–God shall bless you and that
right early.

"Oh, if He does!" says one, "I will bless His name." Then that is one
reason why He will do it, that you may bless His name. I have often
told you of one who said, "If God saves me, He shall never hear the
last of it." Well, that is the sort of people He likes to save–people
who, with glad heart and voice, will proclaim and proclaim again, and
proclaim to all eternity that the Lord saved them–even them! Remember
the text of last Sunday night, for it is just in the same key as the
text of tonight–"He has filled the hungry with good things; and the
rich He has sent away empty." [See Sermon #2582, Volume 44–Alto and
Bass] He has caused it

"to rain on the earth where there is no one; on the wilderness, wherein
there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground," for it is
to these waste grounds, these desolate places, that God specially looks
with favor. If you are great in your own esteem, He will make you
little. But if you are little, He will make you great. If you live by
your own power, you shall be slain. But if you are slain and dead
beyond hope of recovery in yourself, you shall be made alive! You empty
ones shall be filled and you filled ones shall be emptied. You that are
up shall be down–and you that are down shall be lifted up, for God
turns things upside down. And when He comes to work, He effects
marvelous changes in the condition of the hearts of men.

IV. Now I close by noticing, in the fourth place, that RAIN, WHEN IT
COMES, IS MOST VALUED BY LIFE, for we read in our text, that it comes
"to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth."

You may water a dead post as long as you like, yet nothing will come of
it. But the most tender, tiniest little herb that has a bud fast shut,
knows when the rain comes and begins to develop its hidden power–and
opens its bud to the rain and to the sun! That is why the Grace of God
comes, "to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth." I hope
that there is a good deal of budding life here. The Lord has looked
upon you and has made you feel uneasy–that is a bud. Oh, that the
uneasiness might open into full repentance! The Lord has looked upon
you and He has given you desires. Oh, that the Grace of God may
increase those desires till they shall open into resolution and
determination! The Lord has sent the dew from on high upon your soul,
dear Friend, and you are beginning to hope that there is salvation
somewhere and, perhaps, for you. Oh, that the hope may open, like a bud
that has been shut up–open into faith in Jesus Christ, so that you
shall say, "I will trust in Him." All the buds everywhere are just now
trying to get out into the sunshine. They seem bound up in gummy
envelopes, but they are beginning to open in the sunshine. I like to
sit under the fir trees and hear the crack of the opening caused by the
heat of the sun. You can almost see the trees rejoicing that summertime
is coming! So may you see young converts open when the Grace of God is
displayed abundantly–they grow before your very eyes till, sometimes,
you are astonished at what the Grace of God does, with wise prudence,
but yet with a sweet readiness, upon the hearts of the sons of men!

How far have your buds developed? Have you begun to pray a little? Oh,
that your prayer might be more intense! I hope that little bud of
private prayer will grow till it comes to family prayer so that you can
pray with your wife and children. You have been reading your Bible
lately, have you? Oh, thank God for that! Now I hope that bud of Bible
reading will open into the daily habit of feeding upon the Word of God.
Go right through the Bible if you can. Pray to God to give you a solid
knowledge of its contents that you may be rooted and grounded in what
His Spirit teaches you there. Some of you have another sort of bud–you
have been thinking of what you can do for Christ. You thought you were
converted, but you have never done much for Christ. I do not use any
whips, but sometimes I am tempted to take a good long one to some of
those lazy folk who do nothing and yet hope to go to Heaven. One says,
"I think, my dear Pastor, that I must try to do something for Christ."
Well, that is a bud–may the Grace of God be so abundant that you will
leave off trying and get actually to doing!

"How am I to serve God?" said one to me the other day. I answered, "My
dear Brother, get at it. 'Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with
all your might.' Don't come and ask me, for where there is so much to
be done, the man is idle who asks, 'What am I to do?' Do the first
thing that comes to hand!" If a soldier in battle saw that the enemy
was winning the day, he would not be hesitating and asking, "Captain,
what can I do?" He would kill the first fellow that came near–and so
must you, in a spiritual sense. Do something for Christ. Oh, that this
Church might begin to open all its buds! May every little one become a
thousand, and every small one a great multitude, to the praise of the
glory of the Grace of God! O you little ones, you hidden ones, you
timid ones, you trembling ones–the Grace of God is abundant! Open to
receive it! See how the crocus, after having been long hidden beneath
the soil, knows when the new year begins and, as soon as the sun smiles
on the earth, it gently lifts up its golden cup–and is there anything
more beautiful in all the world than the crocus cup when God fills that
chalice with the light of Heaven? What a depth of wonderful brightness
of color there is within it! All the crocus can do is to open
itself–and that is all you can do–just stand and drink in God's
light! Open yourself to the sweet influences of the Grace of God.

The fair lilies of the garden toil not, neither do they spin; but yet
they glorify God. How they seem to stand still and just show what God
can do with them! They just drink in the light and heat and then pour
it all out again in silent, quiet beauty. Now you do the same! Let the
purity of your life, like the purity of the lily, glorify the God who
created it in you. So may His blessing rest upon you all, dear Friends,
for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Isaiah 4:8-20.

Verse 8. But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham, My friend. Let us, for the time being, forget the
people to whom this message was addressed, and see whether it might not
be spoken to ourselves. Come, my Friend, are you truly God's servant?
Do you delight to do His will and to walk in His ways? If so, then you
are God's chosen, for, wherever there is the true spirit of obedience
to the Lord, it is the result of His Grace, and Grace never comes
except from the wellhead of electing love! If you are God's servant,
you are God's chosen. Then see to it that you walk and live as one of
the seed of Abraham, whom God calls, "My friend."

It was very touching, the other day, to notice how the Queen spoke of
one who was her servant, but who had gained the friendship of his royal
mistress. So the Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "Henceforth I
call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his Lord does:
but I have called you friends." May we so faithfully serve Him that it
will be fitting for the Lord to speak of us in all three of these
terms–"You, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed
of Abraham My friend."

9. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you
from the chief men thereof, and said unto you, You are My servant; I
have chosen you, and not cast you away. May the Lord now say that to
each one of you who are His servants! Especially may He say the latter
part of it, "I have not cast you away"! Many times He might have done
so if He had dealt with us according to our deeds. "Dismiss me not from
Your service, Lord," is a prayer we ought often to put up, for, in that
service, we are far from perfect. I think I speak for all sane
Christians–I do not undertake to speak for certain insane ones that
abound at this time–but I believe that all sane servants of the Lord
confess that they are such poor servants that their wonder is that they
have not been dismissed from His service. Yet it is sweet to hear Him
say, "I have chosen you, and not cast you away."

10. Fear you not, for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your
God. Oh, the riches of that word, "I am your God"! That is more than,
"Your Friend, your Helper." "I am your God."

10. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you. First, "I will give
you strength, and then I will use My own strength on your behalf: 'I
will strengthen you; yes, I will help you.'"

10. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness. The
poor child of God seems to cry, "Lord, You say, 'I will help you,' but
I can hardly stand! I am such a babe, I have not yet learned to stand
alone." "Well, then," says God, "I will uphold you with the right hand
of My righteousness." Are any of you afraid that you will slip right
off your feet? Are you put in very perplexing positions, so that you
hardly know which way to turn? Then rest on this sweet promise, "Yes, I
will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness."

11. Behold, all they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed
and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with you
shall perish. The Lord Jesus Christ will put to rout all the enemies of
His people! Their sins and their sorrows, their foes and their woes,
shall alike be scattered to the wind!

12. You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even them that
contended with you: they that war against you shall be as nothing, and
as a thing of nothing. You know how it happened to Pharaoh and all his
hosts–the Israelites could not find them after the Lord had overthrown
them in the Red Sea. The Psalmist sang, long afterwards, concerning the
Egyptians who were drowned, "There was not one of them left." So shall
it be with all those whom you now fear and dread–God shall appear and
work such a deliverance for you that you shall wonder where your
trouble is! It shall be drowned, utterly washed away, like the
Egyptians whom the children of Israel saw no more.

13. 14. For I the LORDyour God will hold your right hand, saying unto
you, Fear not; I willhelp you. Fear not, you worm Jacob, and you men of
Israel; I willhelp you, says the LORD, and your Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel You must not miss those charming words, dear Friends! Let me
read them again. Some of you will want them, so do not miss them. There
is some medicine here that you will need, maybe, before long–"Fear
not, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the
Lord, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel."

15. Behold, I will make you as a new sharp threshing instrument having
teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall
make the hills as chaff You know the corn drag was made rough at the
bottom, as though it had sharp teeth, and when it was drawn over the
wheat after it was spread out on the threshing floor, the grain was
separated from the chaff. So God tells His people, if they trust Him,
that He will make them into a threshing instrument having teeth–and
they shall thresh not ordinary harvests–but shall thresh the
mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff! No task is
too hard for God's people to accomplish when God is with them!
Difficulties vanish and their fears are driven before the wind when God
strengthens them.

16. You shall fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the
whirlwind shall scatter them: and you shall rejoice in the LORD, and
shall glory in the Holy One of Israel Come, you that are drooping in
spirit–here is God's promise to you that you shall overcome all your
difficulties and then shall rejoice in God. "Oh," you say, "I could
rejoice in God if He enabled me to do that!" Put the, "if," away, and
believe that He is about to help you, and anticipate the victory He is
going to give you by singing the song of faith!

17. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their
tongue fails for thirst. They have come to such a state that they
cannot even tell their needs– they do not know how to speak to others
about their grief, or even to describe it to themselves. "Their tongue
fails for thirst." What then?

17. I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake
them. ' 'But, Lord, they could not speak! Did You not say, 'Their
tongue fails'? Yet You say, 'I the Lord will hear them.'" It shows,
dear Friends, that a groan is a prayer, a sigh is a prayer, and that
even if we cannot get as far as to sigh or groan, our very hunger and
thirst make up a prayer before God! "I the Lord will hear them, I the
God of Israel will not forsake them."

18. I will open rivers in high places. That is an unusual place to find
rivers, but God does strange things when He shows mercy to the poor and
needy "I will open rivers in high places."

18. And fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. There
shall be enough and to spare! There shall be an abundance of the water
of which before they could not find a single drop! When God is gracious
to a soul, He is gracious. When His mercy is made to enter a man's
heart, then He pours floods upon him. No little Grace will God bestow,
but endless Grace, and boundless Grace, "and crown that Grace with
glory, too."

19, 20. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the cypress tree, and
the myrtle, and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree,
and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know,
and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has
done this, and the Holy One ofIsraelhas createdit. May these gracious
promises be fulfilled in you and me, that we may praise our faithful
Covenant-keeping God forever and ever! Amen.