Rain from heaven (i) (Quality: very good)

[0:00] With the Lord's help and blessing, I will speak from a word in the 14th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the 17th verse.

[0:13] Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, fitting our hearts with food and gladness.

[0:43] The 14th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the 17th verse. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

[1:13] This word, as you will notice, the occasion of it, arose from the miracle that Paul wrought at Lystra on the poor man who was impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.

[1:35] The same heard Paul speak, who, steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet.

[1:50] And he leaped and walked. Well then, the people, seeing what was very evidently the operation of a supernatural power, drew the conclusion that Paul and Barnabas were supernatural people.

[2:11] And, being idolaters and worshippers of these gods, Jupiter and Mercurius, supposed that they were indeed their heathen gods appearing amongst them in the likeness of men, and proceeded accordingly to offer a sacrifice to them.

[2:36] The priest of Jupiter brought oxen and gardens unto the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people. And this, of course, aroused the strong opposition of Barnabas and Paul.

[2:55] For when they heard of it, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, Sirs, why do ye these things?

[3:07] For they were men of like passions themselves with them. And he said, We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein.

[3:29] In other words, they directly called upon them to repent. For what is it to repent? It is exactly that.

[3:40] It is a turn from foolish vanities and sinful ways and practices and sinful thoughts and feelings to the living God.

[3:57] That is exactly what repentance is. It is a turning to the living God. But then, the question might arise, Well, what is the proof and evidence that there really is a living God to turn to?

[4:21] For men cannot be expected or called upon to turn to the living God without some proof and evidence of his being and his nature.

[4:32] And so the apostle proceeds to show that the living God had never left men without evidence and proof of his being.

[4:45] He left not himself without witness. For God never hath left himself without witness in this world. If men do not perceive that there is a God, it is because they blind their eyes to the evidences of his being.

[5:06] For instance, creation itself is the evidence and proof of a creator. The creator is invisible.

[5:17] The creation is visible. As Paul says in his opening of the epistle to the Romans, The invisible things of him from the foundation of the world are clearly seen by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

[5:41] It is true, of course, that such evidence is not sufficient to discover to men the nature of the gospel and of salvation through Jesus Christ.

[5:59] That is reserved to the manifestation of the truth in Jesus Christ. That the things that are made are sufficient evidence of the being of the creator to leave men without excuse for their unbelief, their neglect, and their disregard of what is due to him as the living and true God.

[6:27] If that proof and evidence is not sufficient for men's salvation, it is sufficient to leave them without excuse for their unbelief and idolatry.

[6:40] God's providence is an evidence and proof and witness that he is a provider. And in the scripture it is observable how everything in nature and providence is ascribed to God.

[6:59] Does the sun shine? He maketh his sun to shine. Does the rain fall? He watereth the hills from his chambers.

[7:10] Is food brought forth? He bringeth forth food from the earth. The universal and continual providence of God is a standing witness that he is a provider.

[7:25] But the deepest and most pulled witness to the living God is the person of Jesus Christ appearing in our nature, his divine teaching, and the manifestation of the truth in the gospel as we have it now in the scripture is indeed the supreme witness to the living God.

[7:59] But at this time, I felt this word, if the Lord would help me to speak upon, it would be suitable for the occasion today, for our thanksgiving services.

[8:13] For we have much cause to be thankful that the Lord has given again rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, that the seasons of the year have been unusually fruitful.

[8:29] This is to be acknowledged as of God's goodness to us. For were there no rain from heaven, the earth would become sterile.

[8:45] Notwithstanding the fruitful qualities of the soil, unless rain fell from heaven, they would quite fail to nourish anything that was sown or planted in it.

[9:01] How foolish it is of people to complain about the rain. Not very long ago, I happened to be transacting some business in a local shop on a wet day, and a person was complaining about the weather.

[9:20] What a shocking day. And I couldn't refrain that I said, why, if there was no rain, the land would be a desert. It would be like the Sahara.

[9:30] We should starve if there was no rain. He giveth rain from heaven. If there are fruitful seasons, it is owing to that, to the Lord's goodness.

[9:44] Well, no, not to dwell too long on this. He hath not left himself without a witness in that he did good. That is, he is good.

[9:55] And the witness to that is that he does good. As you read in the 119th Psalm, thou art good and doest good.

[10:07] That God does good is a witness that he is good. For he invariably acts according to his nature, and never contrary to it.

[10:19] Never. Well now, this word as I have pondered over it, seems to me to offer much profitable meditation, if having considered it briefly, in its natural setting and purport, we regard it in the nature of a similitude.

[10:46] And I'm on good ground in treating this scripture in that way, for the scripture itself abounds with similitudes.

[11:01] God said of old, concerning the ministry of the prophets, I have used similitudes. And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ used similitudes in his ministry very extensively for the parables, really in the nature of similitudes.

[11:24] It was much his way to take the ordinary occasions of life to set forth the deeper truths of the gospel.

[11:39] Do you take that scripture, for instance, in the Old Testament. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord is going forth, is prepared of old as the morning, and he will come unto us as the early and latter reign upon the earth.

[12:02] Now what a beautiful similitude that is. His going forth is like the morning, a gradual enlightening dawn upon the soul, so that things which were otherwise hidden in the dark to the mind become discerned, and their nature becomes more and more clear as the light dawns more and more upon the mind.

[12:32] The knowledge of the Lord, then shall we know, is like the dawning of the morning upon the mind spiritually. early, and he shall come unto us as the early and latter reign upon the earth, which shows that not only is the gradual revealing of truth in the heart and mind like the dawning of the morning, but it acts upon the heart like the rain, with a softening effect and influence.

[13:07] Well now, I mustn't depart from one text to another, but that just occurred to my mind as an illustration of a beautiful similitude to set forth spiritual things.

[13:21] Now, as the Lord may help me then, I'm speaking of this word as a similitude of spiritual things, and we may take it along these lines.

[13:36] first of all, here is the source of all fruitfulness spiritually, rain from heaven.

[13:49] Rain from heaven. There's no fruitfulness without rain from heaven. Our hearts would be as barren as a desert if it were not for rain from heaven, and our ministry would be as dry as could be if there were no rain from heaven, and our hearing of the word would be wearisome and empty to us if there were no rain from heaven.

[14:20] Rain from heaven, my friends, that is the great thing we need. Then secondly, you have the effect of rain from heaven, and that is fruitful seasons.

[14:35] Where there's rain from heaven, there's sure to be fruitful seasons spiritually. And then thirdly, you have the blessing that comes through fruitful seasons, and that is food and gladness.

[14:53] Wherever there's a fruitful season, there's spiritual food, and wherever there's spiritual food, there's gladness, a spiritual, holy gladness, fitting our hearts with food and gladness.

[15:11] And then lastly, there is the witness that there is in all this for God. He hath not left himself without a witness in all this.

[15:24] Wherever the rain falls from heaven, wherever there's a fruitful season under it, wherever hearts are filled with food and gladness, there is a witness for God.

[15:37] He hath not left himself without witness. these things then may the Lord help me to set before you profitably and instructively, and may it abound to the Lord's honour and praise in our hearts today and often rain from heaven.

[16:07] And what are we to understand by that? Well, taking the scriptures as our guide, three things we may understand in this tumultude of rain from heaven.

[16:22] And first of all, the heavenly doctrine of the gospel. You go right back to Deuteronomy, you get a note about it.

[16:35] My doctrine shall drop as the rain and my speech shall distill as the dew, as the tender rain upon the herd, the young herd.

[16:50] And what doctrine could that be but the doctrine of the gospel, prophetically. Moses there speaks, prophetically, of the doctrine of the gospel.

[17:01] And if you come to Isaiah, you get the same metaphor. as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and causeth the seed that is sown in it to spring forth and bud, so shall my word be, that goeth forth out of my mouth.

[17:29] Heavenly doctrine, then, my friends, that is the rain from heaven, and it is most suitably expressed in that way. For where does the doctrine come from?

[17:42] From heaven. And how from heaven? From the God of heaven. And how from the God of heaven? But as it proceeds out of his mouth, out of his mouth, all holy doctrine, flows to us, falls upon our hearts from a holy God.

[18:09] And that makes it to have the impression, the holy, powerful, solemn, heavenly impression upon our hearts that it has.

[18:24] Brethren, this is what we need, heavenly doctrine today, heavenly doctrine, for what is of man, what is that word?

[18:35] That is no rain from heaven. That has no refreshing effect upon the spirit. That creates no fruitful seasons. In fact, there is a great deal of barrenness in the professing church today because instead of rain from heaven, we get the doctrines and ideas of men.

[18:58] rain. Well, that is one consideration. I must come more fully into it again. But there is something else that enters into this metaphor, rain from heaven.

[19:17] And what is that? Well, I get my direction with regard to that from the Selm, the 71st Selm.

[19:28] He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass and as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish.

[19:42] He shall come down. Now, there is no question at all as to whom that Selm refers. It is eminently prophetical of Jesus Christ.

[19:55] He shall come down like showers. Now, how are we to understand this? How does the Lord Jesus, having ascended into heaven and being enthroned at the right hand of the majesty on high, how does he come down like showers upon the mown grass?

[20:23] Well, I will tell you, he comes down and by the doctrine that I've been speaking of. There emanates from Jesus Christ, even now that he is in heaven, there emanates from Jesus Christ a holy influence of life and love and grace and mercy and compassion and tenderness and truth and love, there emanates from Jesus Christ in heaven all those blessed features of grace and they come down to us in the doctrine.

[21:09] they fall like the doctrine. Now, you that are spiritual, think for a moment, what would the doctrine be if there were nothing emanating from the fullness of Jesus Christ into it?

[21:27] I tell you what it would be, it would be just dry barren theology. There would be no sweetness, nothing would soften your spirit, nothing would humble your heart, nothing would permeate into your soul, nothing would revive your spirit spiritually in it, if there were not in the doctrine the sweet influences of Jesus Christ.

[21:53] And, I can say this, and you who experience these things can understand it so well, that when the doctrine drops as the rain, it brings a sense of the preciousness, of Jesus Christ down from heaven into your soul, now doesn't it?

[22:15] It does just that. It brings a sense of the preciousness of Jesus Christ down into your soul. And how very dry, and how very barren you feel that is very long withheld from you.

[22:38] He shall come down like showers. So first you have the doctrine of the gospel, in all that that means, and contains, and expresses, oh how much it does, by the way.

[22:57] Take the doctrine of forgiveness. That's one blessed doctrine. Pardon. Pardon to sinners. Through Jesus Christ.

[23:09] Pardon coming from God, who is the sin-pardoning God. And from Jesus Christ, who is a sin-atoning saviour, coming down upon your heart.

[23:23] It might be through a word like this, Son, thy sins which are many, are all forgiven things. Know if that drops on your heart, with a sweet pardoning effect, how it softens into thankfulness and gratitude and praise your otherwise sin-burdened, sin-distressed soul.

[23:53] all he comes down in the doctrine of forgiveness to men. As much as ever when he was here upon earth, he forgave men their sins and sent them away rejoicing, so from heaven the doctrine brings down pardoning mercy.

[24:15] And so of the love of Jesus Christ. Why, if the doctrine, if the doctrine comes down like rain from heaven, it comes from a God of love, and from a Christ of love, and it's a doctrine of love, love to sinners, poor and miserable as they feel to be sometimes, and more unworthy than words can express of such a blessing as God's love.

[24:53] But what if this word should drop upon your soul, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee, it would act upon you just like the rain.

[25:09] every branch of gospel, truth, and doctrine comes down from heaven with sweet influences of Jesus Christ in it.

[25:28] And there is still something else. Spiritually, rain from heaven has in it the Holy Spirit's unction.

[25:43] You take this scripture, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and my spirit upon all flesh, my spirit.

[25:57] Now, it is when the Holy Spirit is graciously poured out like that, that the rain falls from heaven upon our souls.

[26:12] How all these things flow together, don't they? How essential each is to the other. Without the doctrine, what could we know of Jesus Christ at all?

[26:25] Without the influences of Jesus Christ, how dry the doctrine would be. Without the unction, an application creation of the Holy Spirit, how it would lack effect upon our souls.

[26:42] But you have the three together, brethren, the doctrine, Jesus Christ in the doctrine, and the Holy Spirit making it effectual in the soul, then you'll know what rain from heaven is, spiritually, and the Lord grant we might know more of it.

[27:05] Now, upon this similitude, before I leave this first point, what a suitable similitude this is.

[27:17] And when you consider it well, there are several points that are very striking. first of all, there is the purity of the rain.

[27:30] Now, I suppose, that rain itself is the purest element that we know in that character.

[27:46] We know that whatever springs up from the earth is not pure in that sense. but rain is very pure as it comes from heaven.

[27:57] I know that as it falls upon the earth through the atmosphere, it may indeed gather into it some impurities from the atmosphere itself, but that's something distinct from the rain.

[28:13] The rain is pure. Well, now, it's just like that with what for convenience sake I will call gospel rain.

[28:24] It is like that with gospel rain. It is very pure. Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.

[28:37] And if the word was not very pure, it could not purify us. It could not fulfill that which Jesus prayed for.

[28:49] Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is true. Gospel rain is the purest influence we can know in our souls.

[29:04] I know that, as we will say, it comes perhaps through the ministry. Alas, I'm afraid we must acknowledge it.

[29:15] There may be something of our own spirit sometimes get into the doctrine we preach and the way we preach it. And with some men who are in general true and evangelical preachers of the word, there may still be something to get into their preaching that is not 100% pure, but it's just like the rain that gathers something into it from the atmosphere.

[29:42] In its nature it's pure, and the gospel rain in its nature is essentially pure. There's something very sweet in the experience of it.

[29:57] I mean the sense of the holy purity of gospel truth. It is from heaven and it is heavenly and there is nothing in this world, there is nothing like it.

[30:15] No human teaching is like it. It is superior in its nature and you can sense the superior nature of these heavenly influences.

[30:28] When they fall on your heart, they seem to you like something altogether above and different from everything in this world. earth.

[30:38] And of course that must be so. It's rain from heaven. And another thing, just as the rain falls freely upon the earth, the earth doing nothing to cause it to fall, so gospel rain falls so freely upon our souls.

[31:06] So freely. For if we had to do something to cause it to fall, what could we do? Mind, I must be careful. I'm not ignoring the exercise of prayer.

[31:22] But what I particularly mean is what can we do to deserve it to fall? We can do nothing to deserve it to fall. And that being so, our undeservedness does not prevent it falling.

[31:38] What do I read in the scripture about the rain? Because is it to rain in the wilderness where no man is? Well, what is there to cause the rain to fall?

[31:52] You may feel sometimes as though you are too dry. too barren, too hard to be blessed. Oh no, my friends.

[32:04] You know sometimes after a long drought how the earth dries up and how cracks appear in the soil.

[32:15] And it seems almost as though that very hardness and dryness and parched condition in the soil is a silent voice crying for the rain.

[32:28] And although you may not realise it perhaps, but sometimes your very feeling being so dry, so lacking in gracious liveliness and feeling in itself is almost like a silent voice saying, Oh Lord, I do need the rain.

[32:52] My hard heart needs it. My barren spirit needs it. And the rain comes. It falls so freely.

[33:05] For what comes from heaven comes without money and without price. You never know when you are going to be blessed, brethren. You never know when the rain will fall again upon your soul.

[33:19] When another heavenly shower will soften your spirit once more at the dear Saviour's feet in thankfulness and love and praise.

[33:31] It just comes. And the Lord has promised that it should be so.

[33:44] And he is faithful in his promise. If you seem to go for a while with every refreshing shower, you should not think that the rain won't fall again.

[33:57] You know it will, for he is faithful. Look to him as best you are able. He will come again. If he has blessed you at all, he will bless you again.

[34:10] If he has visited your soul once, he will leave this word behind, I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice. If your spirit has ever drunk in like the thirsty earth, the falling rain, your spirit will drink in again the love and the grace and the mercy of God.

[34:35] The rain falls so freely. And another thing, the similitude holds good in this particular that the rain falls sovereignly.

[34:52] We read that God will cause it to rain upon one city and not to rain upon another city. Well, that's with him. Everything that God does in some way manifests his sovereignty.

[35:11] If you look at anything that God does with understanding, you can see God's sovereignty in it. The ways he deals with men whom he will deal with, all manifests his sovereignty.

[35:29] Ah, my friends, the Lord causes the rain to fall when and where he will, and he gives no account of it. It is a sovereign blessing.

[35:44] But sovereignty should never, never produce fatalism in us. Whether we can make everything fit within the limits of our very limited understanding or not, prayer has its place and the sovereignty of God has its place.

[36:08] Both. Prayer is enjoined upon us, but God works sovereignly in the way he answers it. And here's another thing in which the similitude holds so good and true, and that is, when the rain comes from heaven, especially after a period of drought, when, as I have said, the clods flee fast together in the valley, what a softening effect the rain has.

[36:44] And nothing can soften but rain. If you take a hard, a hard clod of the soil, you can break it to pieces with a hammer, but you can't soften it.

[36:58] It's still hard. But when the rain falls, the soil softens under it so easily, there's no violence in it.

[37:13] It's the effect of the element of the rain upon the constitution of the earth. I wonder if anyone has got to that stage of feeling it seems almost as though their heart is still hard to be softened at all.

[37:29] Oh, brethren, it could be softened in a minute. It could be softened in a minute. If the gospel rain fell upon your heart, then you wouldn't have to soften your heart and get yourself into a right frame and produce tenderness in your spirit or contrition in your soul, the rain would produce it.

[37:55] When he comes down like showers, our hearts softened under his sweet influences. I don't preach a religion of experiences, but I don't preach a religion without them.

[38:11] Really, I can't conceive of spiritual religion without spiritual experiences, and I can't conceive that it's all the same to a child of God, whether his heart is in a hard, sterile case, or whether he's under the benign influences of heavenly grace and love.

[38:34] It isn't all the same to you, is it? Well, now, rain from heaven, all that softens the hardest spirit.

[38:45] And without the least effort, whatever, there is no effort. Our heart just softens under the rain. It's as sweet as ever.

[38:58] How I remember, if I may be permitted, without obtruding my own experiences and these matters, how I remember, three more years ago, when I was called upon to undergo an operation, and it pleased the Lord there to really water my soul, really water my soul.

[39:23] And I laid in my bed in a single room in the hospital, hospital, and I was bound to be alone, because if I was in the general ward, I should have been misunderstood.

[39:35] And that beautiful hymn, thy mercy is more than a match for my heart, that marvels to feel its own hardness depart.

[39:46] Dissolved by thy goodness, I fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy I found. I haven't had a shower like that since, to that same extent.

[40:02] Now, just time to make one more observation this afternoon. The similitude holds good in this further particular, that the rain, in some way, makes available the fertile qualities in the soil, to the growth of the seeds and the plants.

[40:32] Now, the rain of itself would not make soil that was absolutely infertile grow anything, but God has imparted by his first primeval blessing upon the earth, fertile qualities and virtues to the soil.

[40:53] soil. But the soil needs rain to, so to speak, make them available, soluble, so that the roots of the seeds and plants can drink in the qualities of the soil that cause the growth.

[41:12] the similitude holds good exactly about that. Now, when the child of God is born again, there is brought forth in his soul a new spiritual life.

[41:32] And that new spiritual life has all spiritual qualities in it. faith, hope, love, thankfulness, praise, obedience, submission, everything is in that spiritual life.

[41:51] Just like all fertile qualities are in the soil. But it is no rain from heaven. Those spiritual things seem locked up in us.

[42:05] there is no fruitfulness. In other words, there seems very little real believing if we have faith. Very little real loving if we have love.

[42:21] Very little praise if we have the principle to praise. Very little thankfulness although there is a spirit of thankfulness where there spiritual life.

[42:37] And that is how it is sometimes we get and I'm sorry we do but there it is. It is a point I long to know. Do I love the Lord or no? If I do love him, why this frame, this barren state of mind?

[42:56] Hardly sure could they be worse who have never known his name. Whoever may be content to scorn that hymn and what it means, I've sometimes been thankful for it.

[43:11] Well now my friends, how is it? It's just this. Spiritual virtues and faculties are in your soul if you're a child of God, but you want rain.

[43:24] You want rain. Now when the rain falls spiritually, it seems to act upon those spiritual faculties in the soul and they spring up into fresh liveliness again, like you see a growth after a plentiful shower.

[43:46] Though O Lord did send a plentiful rain to refresh thine inheritance when it was weary. I don't feel and I don't teach that because anyone has faith they can always believe in the exercise of it.

[44:06] That because they have love they can always love in the warmth of it. And because they have a principle of humility they can always humble themselves feelingly and tenually before the Lord.

[44:21] I feel the spiritual faculties of the soul are locked up in a sort of hardness that comes over us like the qualities in the soil but the rain liberates them.

[44:41] The rain liberates them. Now I must close. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness.

[45:06] And the Lord if it please him give us a little food today and a little gladness in the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.