Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1151
“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel” Isaiah 44:3-6.
IN the Christian Church at this moment there is a very general desire for a revival of religion. You may go where you may among Christian people and you will find that they are mourning over the present state of things and saying, one to the other, “When will a greater blessing come? How can we obtain it? When shall we make some impression upon the masses of the ungodly? When shall our houses of prayer be filled with attentive hearers? When will the Lord’s kingdom come and His right arm be made bare in the eyes of all the people?”
I am delighted to hear the inquiry My soul magnifies the Lord as I discern tokens of growing anxiety about the cause and kingdom of Jesus and the perishing sons of men. This is an omen of better times. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Searchings of heart, anguish, groans which cannot be uttered and abounding intercession are the heralds of blessing! They are the sound in the tops of the mulberry trees which calls Believers to bestir themselves in hope of victory! May the movement among the saints continue and deepen till it brings forth a movement among sinners far and wide.
Now, there is among earnest Christians a general feeling that what has been done for Edinburgh is greatly needed for London and must be done for London if prayer and earnest effort can obtain it. Our prayers must go up incessantly that God will be pleased to send forth His saving health among the people of this great city of four million souls and turn many to righteousness, to the praise of the glory of His Divine Grace. Our growing anxiety for Christ’s Glory and our faith in the energy of His Spirit will be two hopeful signs of a coming blessing. As a Church we have always felt a delight in any work which has to be done for God of this kind and we have enjoyed, for many years, a continuous visitation of the Holy Spirit.
That which would be a revival anywhere else has been our ordinary condition—for which we are thankful. By the space of these 20 years, almost without rise or fall, God has continued to increase our numbers with souls saved by the preaching of His Truth. Unto Him be all the praise! But now we are anxious to take a part in a yet further advance—we want a greater blessing! What we have had has not decreased, but rather stimulated our appetite. Oh, for more conversions! More hearts for Jesus! Would God that the dews of Heaven would fall in sevenfold abundance upon us and our fellow Christians—and the past be put to the blush by the future! That this desire may be fanned to a flame in all our hearts is my earnest prayer.
I have taken this text as one which is full of encouragement, that we may be all moved with hope and excited with expectation. I shall handle it in this way. First, we have before us the great Covenant blessing of the Church. Secondly, we
have the glorious result of that blessing described. And when we have spoken thus, we shall spend the rest of our time in speaking of the conduct which is consistent with the desire, that this blessing and its results may come to us.
I. In our text we have THE GREAT COVENANT BLESSING OF THE CHURCH. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Whatever metaphor is used, this is the meaning of it. He is the refreshing, life-giving, fertilizing water—the living water of which Jesus spoke. The first promise of the text, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground,” is explained by the second, “I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring.” While speaking upon this, it is well for us to remember, first, that this blessing has been already given. We must never underrate the importance of the ascension of our Lord and the gift of the Spirit which followed.
God forbid that we should think lightly of Pentecost—the Holy Spirit then descended and we have no record that the Spirit has since ascended and departed from the Church. He is the Church’s perpetual heritage and abides with us always. I like to sing—
“The Holy Spirit is here,
Where saints in prayer agree, As Jesus ‘parting gift He’s near Each pleading company. Not far away is He,
To be by prayer brought near, But here in present majesty, As in His courts on high.”
He is permanently resident in the midst of the Church. But when are have received that Truth of God, we may still go on to use the language which is very frequent among us and pray for the outpouring of the Spirit. If the language is not exactly accurate, the meaning is most excellent. So far as any one assembly or person is concerned, we may request the Holy Spirit to be poured forth upon us in His gracious operations. We desire to see the Spirit of God working more mightily in the Church—we long, each one of us, to be more completely subject to His influences and more filled with His power—so that we may be full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.