God says "I will, I will." part 2.

I will open rivers in high places

and fountains in th midst of the valleys;

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry lands springs of water"Issaiah c41v18

I was noticing that there are in our text four words relating to water. Everything had been dry before and there was no water for the thirsty to drink. Now here you have rivers, fountains, a pool and springs of water. There is a difference in the four words. The first is "rivers." God says "I will open rivers in high places." There shall come directly from God a rush of mighty grace, like the streams of flowing rivers. Your poor, dead, dry heart will suddenly feel that the waters of life have come directly from the throne of God to you. There shall be waters to swim in. You shall have an abundance where before you had nothing.

Next you have "fountains" which may be rendered "wells." Now wells are places that people regularly go to for water. They represent the means of grace. "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Well now, perhaps you have been to the means of grace, and yet obtained no comfort. You have not blamed the preacher, but you have blamed yourself very much. But on a sudden, God appears, and opens wells in he midst of the valley. Now the service is full of refreshment. Now you are glad, and you no more go home saying "I thirsted, but I went to the house of The Lord in vain, for I recieved no comfort." See what God can do, He can make rivers of grace flow direct from His throne, and He can open wells in the customary use of the means of grace.

But then there is a third word, "I will make the wilderness a pool of water." Here you have the idea of overflowing abundance. God can give you so much joy that you will not know how to hold it all, you will have to let it be like a pool that overflows it's banks. God can give you so much earnestness that you can hardly employ it all in the work that you have to do. He can give you so much nearness to Himself that your heart shall scarcely be able to contain your delight. God promises to make the wilderness "a pool of water." He does not give us just a drop of grace now and then, but He fills up the dry places till they become standing pools.

The fourth word is "springs." It seems to indicate a perpetual freshness. Where there was a long-continued drought, there shall come perpetual freshness, always something new-new thoughts of Christ, new delights in holy service, new prospects of the world to come, new fellowship with God. He can make the dry land "springs of water." He has promised to do so, trust His gracious word, and it shall be fulfilled in your experience even now.

What would We Have Been?

I mean of course without The Holy Ghost. You that are believers have the most forcible reasons to hold Him in the highst esteem, for what are you now without Him? What were you, and what would you have still been if it had not been for His gracious work upon you? He quickened you, else you had not been in the living family of the Living God today. He gave you understanding that you might know the truth, else you would be just as ignorant of the things of God as the carnal world is at this hour. It was He that awakened your conscience convincing you of sin, it was He that gave you an abhorrance of it and the earnest desire to be rid of it, it was He who taught thee to believe and to see the altogether lovely One who is to be believed in, even Jesus the Son of God. The Spirit has wrought in you your faith and love and hope and every other grace, there is not a jewel that adorns the neck of your soul which He with great love has not placed there.
Notwithstanding all that The Spirit of God has already done in us it is very possible that we have missed a large part of the blessing which He is willing to give, for "He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think." We have already come to Jesus and we have drunk of the life-giving sream, our thirst was quenched and we are made to live in Him. Is this all? now that we are living in Him and rejoicing to do so have we come to the end of the matter? Assuredly not. We have only reached as far as the first exhortation of The Master "if any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink" but do you think the generality of the church has advanced to the next? "he that believeth in Me, as the scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow streams of living waters" I think not, I think I am not going beyond the grievious truth if I say that only here and there will you find men and women who have believed up to that point.
Their thirst is quenched and they live, and because Jesus lives they shall live also, but health and vigour they have not, they have life but they have not life more abundantly. They have little life with which to act upon others, they have no energy welling up and overflowing to go streaming out of them like rivers to the needy world around them. Perhaps they have not thought it possible, or thinking it possible they have not imagined it possible to themselves, or believing it possible to themselves they have not aspired to it. They have stopped short of the fullest blessing. May God The Holy Ghost create in each heart the earnest desire to attain to it.