Starting in chapter 43, verse 18. Isaiah 43, starting at verse 18. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people I have formed for myself. They shall declare my praise. But you have not called upon me, O Jacob, and you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me the sheep of your burnt offerings, nor have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense. You have brought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us contend together. State your case that you may be acquitted. Your first father sinned, and your mediators have transgressed against me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary. I will give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. Yet hear now, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on him who's thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. One will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand, the Lord's. and name himself by the name of Israel, thus far God's holy word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. You may be seated. Dear congregation, every age needs hope. And our own day is no exception. And when earthly hopes fail, we need a higher hope. We need a heavenly hope. The prophets of the Old Testament were men who had been given a message of hope from the Lord. It was a heavenly hope that they brought to the people in their sin and in the effects of their sin, like watchers On the walls, they saw the things far in the future, and they spoke of them. And already in the present, it gave hope to the believing people of God. And may, by God's spirit, the same happen today as well, as we hear from one of these watchmen on the walls, Isaiah the prophet. May we hear this message of hope about water on the dry ground. That's our theme looking to the Lord this morning is pour water upon the thirsty. We'll have six short points this morning as we go through our passage. I'll give them to you here up front so those of you taking notes can write them down and then we'll deal with them as we go along. Pour water upon the thirsty. Well, first of all, see the glorious source of this promise. Secondly, we'll see the wide reach of this promise. We'll see, thirdly, the wonderful person at the center of this promise. Fourthly, the blessed effects in this promise. Fifthly, the rich experience of this promise. And lastly, the absolute certainty of this promise. Pour water upon the thirsty. Glorious source, wide reach, wonderful person, blessed effects, rich experience, and absolute certainty. I will pour water. Who's speaking here? Who is this I? When we go back to chapter 44, verse two, it says, thus says the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb who will help you. So this promise comes from none other than the sovereign God who says, I will help you. We love the I wills of the Bible because they are utterances of God, of the Lord God, the one who is powerful in might, who is glorious in holiness, and who is also merciful. I read the context of this chapter because it speaks of Jacob's sin or Israel's iniquity. Despite all God had done for them, they had fallen short of the glory of God. Just like we as well have come short of God's glory and over against all our failed I-wills, God comes with his glorious I-will pour water. Church, we need to look to this God, this sovereign God. Robert Murray McChain, who was a preacher in Scotland in a previous century, he said this, we need to learn to look away from authorities and even from ministers to God alone. As long as you look to ministers, God cannot pour. For you would say it came from man. Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. One would think we would be humbled in the dust by this time. In how many parishes of Scotland has God raised up faithful men who cease not day and night to warn everyone with tears and yet still the heavens are like brass and the earth like iron. Why? because our eye is on man and not on God. Oh, look away from man. Look to God, for he will pour, and his shall be all the glory. So this word speaks, first of all, about the glorious source of this promise, none less than God himself. God will pour, the sovereign, the merciful, the omnipotent God. But notice, secondly, the wide reach of this promise. Notice that he says here, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring. It speaks here about thirsty ones. What does he mean by this? Well, he means people who have learned by experience that this world cannot ultimately satisfy them at the deepest level. That's what we think by nature. That's what the world around us thinks. That's what many church people think. They look for this earth to fill up the hole in our souls that has come because of sin. And we grow thirsty. People all around us, if you took stock of how it really is in their souls, beyond the veneer, because we can all put up a veneer, but the way it is truly in our souls, people are thirsty. Jeremiah says, you have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewn out cisterns that can hold no water. Can you relate to this thirst? Do you know that apart from the quenching water of God's grace in your life, you are thirsty? Your souls are parched because of your sin and because of the misery that comes because of sin. The Lord Jesus, when he was on the earth, he said to the people, he said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me. and drink. You see, apart from Jesus Christ, we are thirsty. And whatever we try to slack that thirst with, it cannot, apart from Jesus Christ. So there's a promise here for the thirsty, anyone who's thirsty. Isaiah 55 says, Ho, everyone that is thirsty, come to the waters. If you have the slightest thirst in your soul for something deeper, something greater, something beyond yourself, something beyond this world, listen. The Lord is speaking to you. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. There's a promise here in God and in his grace for thirsty souls. But notice that the reach of the promise goes further than those who are thirsty. And this is the astounding thing of our text. For I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. What is this picturing? Well, this is picturing the parched soil. of our world. If you've ever been to Israel or the Middle East, I was just in Egypt a few months ago and I saw just what happens when there's no water. Apart from the Nile, the River Nile, you go a few miles from the Nile, it's Sahara Desert. It's just sand for as far as the eye can see. And that's what you have to have in mind here. We're thankful for the green grass and The herbs and the fields here that are so watered by. But back there in the Middle East, they need either a river or they need showers. This is a picture of the human heart and of our human world apart from God. Dry ground. Dry ground. I don't know about you, but when I look out over our world, also our own nation, our city, the whole world is spiritually dry. It's barren. True, we shouldn't despise the Lord's work, even when it appears in its smallness. Companies like this that meet to worship God, we can be so thankful for that. God has poured water upon many of your souls, I trust. You were thirsty in sin, and God gave you his truth, his grace, and it refreshed you. It slackened your thirst. But there are so many in our world, and there are so many in churches all over the place, who don't know this refreshing water of grace. Do you notice how God's promise also speaks to that? Water upon the dry ground. The dry ground isn't asking for water, the dry ground isn't petitioning for water. A thirsty person can cry for water, but the dry earth simply is there, dry, parched, dead. But that's no obstacle with the Lord. In fact, he includes this in his promise. He has a word for that which is barren. He has a word for that which is dry. He has a word for that which is cursed. Another Scottish preacher, Lachlan Mackenzie, said this, a single shower will not do if you've had long drought. And that's why the Lord says, I will pour. Pouring is different than sprinkle. If it hasn't rained for a long time, children, it's wonderful to have a sprinkle. You stand out there and you love it. But the earth needs more than just a sprinkle. It needs a shower. It needs the pouring down of rain. This is exactly what the Lord has in view. You see, his promise of grace has a wide reach. It doesn't even just reach to those who are thirsty, who beg for water, who feel they need it. But God's promise encompasses also that region where there's simply drought, simply dryness. And notice thirdly, in terms of the reach here, it says, I will pour my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring. In other words, the next generation and the generations to come. God has an eye for them. His grace reaches not just throughout our world now, at the present time, but he has an eye for those who are coming up in our world, who when we older ones are not here anymore. If the Lord tarries, they'll be here. And the next generation, and the next generation, the offspring, God sees them, God knows them, and he has a word for them. I will pour out my spirit upon your descendants and on your offspring. We don't think like that so often. Our world certainly doesn't think like that. It doesn't think down into the distance. Future generations, it's selling the present generation for nothing. The church should always keep that rising generation and beyond in view. We ought to live with them in our purview, in our scope, because God has a promise for succeeding generations. He will pour out his spirit. Isn't that a great comfort? We long to see the work of God now. And we pray for it. And what a blessing it would be if God would pour out his spirit today, this week, this year. But God has a long arm, and his eye sees far, and future generations are within his scope, and he has a promise for them. Children, God sees you. God knows you. And God has a promise for you, also today. And it's the promise of his spirit, which brings us to our third point, the person, the person who is in view here. Because look at our text once again. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants. This is none else than the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God, my spirit, God says. This is the third person of the Holy Trinity who is spoken of from the very first page of the scriptures. When God created the heavens and the earth, we read about the spirit who moved over the waters at the beginning. bringing order and beauty to the original world. We meet that spirit in the days of Noah when it says there, my spirit will not always strive with men. But clearly the spirit was striving with men. And as you turn the pages of the Old Testament, you read about this spirit again and again until we hear of him coming down upon the Lord Jesus in his baptism, like a dove. And the Lord Jesus went in the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel, to do healings as signs of his coming and as pictures of his work. And then, 50 days after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he poured forth his Holy Spirit. where his person comes into view in the most magnificent and marvelous way. When we take all the scriptures together, we read that this spirit is a refreshing spirit. He refreshes that which is dull and dry, weary, forlorn. He's a cleansing spirit. He washes with the washing of regeneration and the word of God. And he takes away the spots so that the bride of Christ one day will appear without spot and without wrinkle through the work of the spirit. He's a spirit who causes fruit to abound. He's a fruit bearing spirit. You all know about the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. He gives fruit in our lives. He's a powerful Holy Spirit. He is none else than God himself. third person of the Trinity, equal in glory and beauty, majesty to the Father and the Son. He's an enlightening Holy Spirit. He shows the truth of God. Ephesians 1 calls him the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. He can illumine our eyes. He's an access giving Holy Spirit. He gives access to the Father for through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father, Ephesians 2 verse 18. The Holy Spirit also works within believers. He intercedes within believers in prayer. When we know not how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit intercedes within believers with groanings that can't be uttered. The Holy Spirit guides into all truth. He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. And he will lead believers into all truth as it is in Jesus. He's a sanctifying Holy Spirit. He's a renewing Holy Spirit. He's a guiding Holy Spirit. What a blessed Holy Spirit. My spirit is the spirit of the father, he's the spirit of the son. Nothing else will do save the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son. Sometimes people have said that the Holy Spirit is the neglected person of the Holy Trinity. I fear it's true in many churches and in many quarters. May it not be true here with any of us. We need the Holy Spirit. That Spirit of the Father and of the Son who is glorious, who is to be worshipped, who is to be revered, who is to be depended on in all things. He is pictured here as water. that falls upon the thirsty tongue and upon the dry soil, I will pour my spirit upon all flesh. Young people, you need the Holy Spirit. You should love the Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son. You should pray for the Holy Spirit. Christ loves to give his Holy Spirit. The Father loves to give the Holy Spirit. If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall not your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Pray, church, for the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, everything's in vain. And the Lord has promised that spirit also to you as a gathering, to you as an assembly. Pray for your pastor when he preaches, when he labors, when he does his pastoring, but especially when he preaches that he would be full of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Lord would raise up elders and deacons from among you that would be full of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Holy Spirit would come with his blessings upon you under the preaching of God's word. I pray that the Holy Spirit would fall upon people who know not Christ, that he would lead them into all truth. Pray much for the Holy Spirit. And when we have the Holy Spirit, we will see effects as we see here next. Verse four, they will spring up among the grass like willows by the willow courses. One will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his name, with his hand, the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. Wherever the Holy Spirit is at work, there will come, first of all, abundant conversions. They will spring up among the grass, or it could also be translated, they shall spring up like grass. In other words, Whenever the Holy Spirit works, there will be new life. I had the privilege of spending one year, many years ago, nine months in Israel. And I was based in Jerusalem. And every Wednesday, we would take a tour to visit an archeological site throughout Israel. And I remember one day in February, We took the bus, we left Jerusalem, we went into the Judean desert towards the Dead Sea. And I'd gone that way many times. And it was always as soon as you leave the hill there of the Mount of Olives and you go over down towards the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth that you can stand, it was just sandy, rocky hills as far as the eye could see. A couple of Bedouin here or there with their goats. looking for food, dry, dusty, hardly anything growing there. One February Wednesday morning, we drove over the Mount of Olives and we went there into the desert. And I was sitting there at the side window of the bus and I looked out and I couldn't believe it. I thought I was seeing something. There was this green hue over all what was otherwise dry, dusty, rocky ground. And not only was there grass, but there were flowers, flowers that grew up there in that place. Of course, what had happened was all the seeds were there lying dormant. in this wilderness. The rain had fallen. The February rains had fallen. And they had had quite an outpour. And as a result, all these things had sprouted. And there was like a carpet of green over this dry and dusty wilderness. And that's what's being pictured here. When the spirit works, there's new life. There's evidence of new life, of his power. What formerly was dead is made alive. You who are dead in sins and trespasses have been made alive together with Christ. That's the first effect. The second effect of the Spirit's work is spiritual growth. Notice beyond the grass, it says, like willows by the watercourses. The willow tree is a tree. You can get them also in shrub form. They can grow very fast, especially where there is water. A few years ago, we had a summer with a lot of rain, and my whole backyard was just a huge puddle, basically. And we were trying to work on drainage and how to get it away from the house and all that. And someone recommended we buy some willow shrubs. Well, we got these shrubs. They weren't that expensive. We put them down. They have grown so fast. We have to trim them all the time. Even if you trim them basically down to the ground, they'll shoot back up in no time. They just drink up this water and they grow. And that's what the work of the spirit does in the life of someone who is touched by the Holy Spirit of God. They can't get enough of the water of the word. And they grow and grow and grow and grow. And that's what we long to see. And I connect this once again with the young people because it says here, just prior to this, it says, my blessing on your offspring, they will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. What a wonderful thing it is, young people, when you take in the word of God and you grow by it in faith, in love, and in hope. There's so much power in this Holy Spirit. Don't despise these days when you're young, but drink in truth and live by truth and walk by truth and grow like one of these willows that just is soaking in the water of the Word and growing as a result. There will be conversions. There will be spiritual growth. there will be consecration to the Lord. One will say, I am the Lord's. When the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, we don't live for ourselves. Someone who's living for themselves does not have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit works in our lives when he comes to indwell us, that we live for God, that we're devoted to God, that we offer ourselves up as living sacrifices to God. Do you know that? Jonathan Edwards wrote, I've been this day before God, and I've given myself all that I am and have to God. so that I am in no respect my own. I can challenge no right in myself, in this understanding, this will, these affections of mine. Neither have I right to this body or any of its members, no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears. I have given myself clean away. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. We devote ourselves to God. We dedicate ourselves entirely to God. Well, these are the blessed effects, and this will result in a rich experience. Where do we see that? One will say, I am the Lord's, another will call himself by the name of Jacob, another will write himself, will write with his hand the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. In other words, In this process of dedicating ourselves to the Lord, there's someone here that says, you know, I'm part of the people of God. I'm Jacob. Of course, the name Jacob means deceiver. And yet God was the God of Jacob. God made himself known and calls himself often as the God of Jacob. And one person will do that. He will count himself among the people of God even though he feels himself to be but a Jacob. Another will write with his hand the Lord's. In other words, another one will say, and he'll be so serious about it that he'll write it down. He'll write with a hand. You'll put his name behind it. I am the Lord's. I'm no longer my own like we just heard from Edwards. I belong to the Lord's. I'm not my own. I don't belong to this world. I don't belong to other people in that ultimate sense of the word. I am the Lord's. And another. So name himself by the name of Israel. In other words, you have this diversity. but there is a unity nonetheless. You see, this grace, when it comes into our lives, is truly experienced. It's real. And it'll look a little different for you than it will look for you and for you and for you. But you will all come to the place where you begin to speak. Because notice how it says, one will say, another will call, another will write, another will name themselves. It has this about it. That it goes through you. You're touched by it. And your identity is affected by it. Notice Jacob, Israel, the Lords. People nowadays, they talk about identity. There's a crisis in identity. People don't know their identity, and so they're fluid in their identity. They're going over here, there, and all the rest of that. And it's a sign of the fact that we are so barren, so parched, and what we need is the Holy Spirit who gives us identity from out of Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's Christian identity, worked by the Holy Spirit in our lives. And that may have diversity about it. There's unity in diversity in the Christian church, but there's real experience. Do you know this experience? Do you live like this? Do you live from out of the Holy Spirit of God? You know, there are churches, I trust this is not one of them, but there are churches in which everything is just so quiet, so dull. so dry, people ascribe and subscribe to doctrines, but it's not real in their lives. It doesn't make a difference. When you follow them Monday through Saturday, it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with Sunday, with the Lord's Day. But when the Holy Spirit is in our lives and when he is in the church of the living God, it will issue out and our lives will show it. And there will be that real experience of the Holy Spirit of God. It cannot be otherwise. We'll know what it is to be a Jacob. We'll know what it is to belong to the people of God and be called Israel. We'll know what it is to be the Lord's. I am not my own. but belong unto my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. As we close this morning, I want us to see just one more time the absolute certainty of this promise, especially in verse six. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. In other words, this promise is from God, and there is no other God. This God alone is God. And when he says, I will, he will. Because no Satan, no world, No amount of effort can stop this God. It's absolutely certain. Do we pray to this God for the fulfillment of what is so sure, so secure, so solid in himself. May the Lord grant you as a church and all of us individually to plead with God to pour forth his spirit upon the thirsty, upon the dry, upon our descendants in order that all the fruit would be to him. May we afresh devote ourselves to the Lord.