THE REVELATION OF THE RAIN

PSALMS 72:7

A. "HE SHALL COME DOWN LIKE RAIN UPON THE MOWEN GRASS; AS SHOWERS THAT WATER THE EARTH"
  1. The Bible is specially beautiful and suggestive in its similes:
    1. It finds the earth full of figures, symbols illustrations, analogies, by means of which it seeks to set forth the glory and the wonder of spiritual things
    2. What an eye had Christ for such thought-provoking illustrations
  2. Our text uses the rain and its effect upon the grass and other vegetations:
    1. How it revives life
    2. And how it gladdens the hearts of men and beast
B. "HE SHALL COME DOWN LIKE RAIN" - HOW DOES RAIN COME DOWN
  1. It comes freely:
    1. We cannot summon it at will; by no incantation and by no scientific experiment
    2. It comes spontaneously, by a law of its own it comes to bless the parched ground and bring it to fertility and beauty
  2. In this we see a parable of God's dealing with us:
    1. The richest and most vital disclosures of God is a free gift
    2. We cannot command it; we have not earned it; it comes to us out of the fullness of God's nature, an expression of His eternal tenderness
    3. "He first loved us" - I John 4:19
    4. "For God so loved the world, that He gave" - John 3:16
    5. Even our love is not self-originated, it is the gift of God through the operation of the Holy Ghost - Rom. 5:5
  3. The rain comes gently:
    1. Watch rain descending after a long drought; see how the parched earth drinks it thirstily; how every tree and every plant and the flowers absorb it
    2. Is it not how God comes to a lost world; "I will be like the dew unto Israel" - Hosea 14:5
  4. It comes revivingly:
    1. "As the rain cometh down from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth" - Is. 55:10
    2. "So He comes down like rain upon the mowen grass; as showers that water the earth"
    3. Yea, there is no situation so desperate but God can touch and influence it
C. A MIGHTY MESSAGE OF THE RAIN AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE EARTH AND ALL THAT IS ON IT
  1. It indicates the gentleness of God:
    1. "Thou hast also given me the shield of the salvation; and Thy gentleness hath made me great" - 2 Sam. 22:36; Ps. 18:35
    2. He revealed this gentleness to the woman of Samaria; He knew her life, yet He never dealt with her in a rude way - John 4:1-28
    3. "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench" - Is. 42:3
  2. It shows, also, that there can be no failure with the Lord - "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" - Is. 55:10-11
    1. Success is a part of the gospel commission "Go, teach, and baptize" - Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16
    2. "I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" - John 15:16
    3. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foreasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain" - I Cor. 15:58
  3. Let us pray, therefore, for both the early and the latter rain to fall upon us:
    1. We have His promise
    2. "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field" - Zech. 10:1
    3. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out in those days of My Spirit upon all flesh" - Acts 2:17
    4. Truly, we are living in the last days and we must seek the Lord for the refreshing of the early and the latter rains


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