Rain and Grace — A Parallel
April 5th 1883
by
(1834-1892)
“Who hath divided
a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of
thunder; to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness,
wherein there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause
the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? “ — Job 38:25–27.
Job was an admirable man, but the
Lord meant to make him still better. The best of men are but men at the best;
and though Job was in a certain sense perfect, yet he was not perfectly
perfect, there was a further stage beyond that which he had reached, else would
he not have been tried as he was. But, because the Lord knew that there was
something better for Job than he had already attained, he had to be subjected
to extraordinary trial. He was such a valuable diamond that there had to be
more cutting for him than for a common stone. He was made of such good metal
that he paid for being put into the furnace; there would come out something
still more pleasing to the great Refiner if he cast that which was so precious
into the most fervent heat. Hence it was that Job was so greatly tried; yet,
after all his trials, it seemed as if he would miss their blessed result; or
his three friends — the miserable comforters — appeared to be the marplots of
the whole design. By their cruel, cutting, sarcastic observations, they
irritated Job, so that it looked as if he would be harder instead of softer
because of the fires. Sometimes, when a man knows that he is being unjustly and
unfairly treated, he stiffens his back, and hardens himself, and influences
which, by themselves, might have wrought great tenderness of spirit, are
spoiled because something else is thrown in. Job was in this condition, and he
therefore seemed to rise in his own estimation rather than to sink, as was
desired, until at last the Lord ended the dispute by manifesting himself. Out
of the whirlwind he spoke to Job, and bade him gird up his loins, and meet his
Maker if he dared; then it was that Job was brought to his right position, and
at the end he said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now
mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Then Job realized the benefit of his affliction; but not till then. When the
Lord revealed to Job his supremacy, his eternal glory, and in that light
compelled him to see his own imperfection and nothingness, then the patriarch’s
trials became sanctified to him.
Our text is a part of God’s
challenge to Job. The Lord seemed to say, “If Job is indeed as great as he half
thinks he is, let him see whether he can do what his Creator does.” He is
challenged about so slight a matter, apparently, as the sending of the rain.
Does Job know how it is done? Can he explain all the phenomena? Our modern
scientists tell us how rain is produced, and I suppose their explanation is the
correct one; but they cannot tell us how it is that power is given to carry out
what they call “the laws of nature,” neither can they make the rain themselves;
nor, if a drought were to continue till the nation was on the verge of famine,
would they be able to cover the skies with blackness, or even to water a single
acre of land. No; with all our explanations, it is still a great mystery, and
it remains a secret with God how it is that he waters the earth with rain.
I am not going into that matter at
this time; I intend to use the rain as an emblem of the grace of God, as it
usually is in Scripture, — a figure of that blessed overflowing of the river of
God’s love which comes down to quench our thirst of sin, to refresh us, to
enliven us, to fertilize us, to soften us, and to cleanse us. This matchless
water of life has all sorts of uses, and God sends it, when he pleases, in
abundant showers upon his own people according to that ancient word, “Thou, O
God, didst send a plentiful rain whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance,
when it was weary.” The Hebrew means, “Thou didst pour out blessings,” as from
a cornucopia, and so “Thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.”
There are many here who are weary, they want to be refreshed, and they are
praying to God to send a gracious shower, a copious distilling of his matchless
grace upon their hearts and lives. I am going to preach upon this passage with
the desire that, while I am speaking, such a blessing may come upon us, or
that, at any rate, we may begin to pray for it.
I. My first point is that, As God Alone Giveth Rain, So God Alone
Giveth Grace.
Jehovah asks of Job the question,
“Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the
lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the earth?” It is God, and God
only, who creates rain. We cannot make it, but he can and he does give it; and
it is absolutely so with his grace, The
Lord must give it, or there will be none. If it had not been for his
eternal plan, whereby he purposed to give grace to the guilty, the whole race
of mankind would have been left, like the fallen angels, without hope and
without mercy. The angels that kept not their, first estate, but rebelled
against God, were given over to punishment, without any intimation whatever of
redemption for them, or of any possibility of their restoration. God, who does
as he wills with his grace which is most sovereign and free, passed over the
fallen angels, and made his grace to light on insignificant and guilty men. And
it has been after the same fashion in all history; if God has withholden the
blessings of his grace from any of the nations, they have not been able to
procure them for themselves. One lone light Burned in Israel for hundreds of
years, while the rest of the inhabitants of the earth were left in darkness;
and the world, with all its wisdom, could not and did not find out God. Men, in
their ignorance, set up idols almost as numerous as their worshippers, and in
their blindness they went way and that way, but always astray from God. “Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from Father of
lights,” as certainly as the rain comes down from heaven. There is but one
source of supply for grace, and that source is God himself. He giveth grace,
and “he giveth more grace;” else there would be none whatever amongst the sons
of men.
And, moreover, it is God who finds the way by which his grace can come to men. I
will not enter into any elaborate explanations of my text; it signifies that
God finds a way by which the ram comes down from the upper regions to water the
thirsty fields. “Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters?”
Only God himself has made a channel for the rain; we could not have made it. So
is it with his grace; otherwise, how could grace have come to man? How was it
possible for the thrice-holy God to deal leniently with sinners who had
provoked him to anger? How could it be that the Judge of all the earth, who
must be just, should, nevertheless, pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin?
This is a problem which would have perplexed a Sanhedrim of seraphim. If all
the mightiest intelligences that God has ever made had sat together in solemn
conclave for a thousand years, yet they would not have been able to solve this
problem, — How can God be just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly? Infinite
wisdom devised that matchless way of substitution, by which, through the death
of the Son of God, men might be saved. There is the stamp of Divinity about
that verse, “the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes
we are healed.”
It is God who gives grace, and God
who, in a divinely-gracious way, has given his only-begotten and well-beloved
Son to be the channel through which grace can come down to guilty men. Blessed
be God for this; and let his name be adored for ever.
Having thus resolved upon giving
grace to men, and having made a channel in which his grace might flow to men,
let it never be forgotten that God now
directs the pathway of all the grace that comes into the world. Our
parallel, in the natural world, is that, according to the original of our text,
there is a sort of canal, or trackway, made for every drop of water as it
descends from the heavens to the earth. There is not the most minute particle
of rain that is left to fall according to its own fancy or will; each single
drop of water, that is blown aslant by the March wind, is as surely steered by
God as are yonder glorious stars revolving in their orbits. There is a purpose
of God concerning every solitary flake of snow and every single portion of hail
that comes clown from heaven; all these are ordered according to his eternal
counsel and will. God alone can arrange all this. It always seems to me to be a
very wonderful way in which the world is watered. If all the rain were to pour
upon us at once in a deluge, we should all he drowned; but it comes down
gently, drop by drop, and thus it effects God’s purpose much more surely than
if it burst in one tremendous waterspout destroying everything. God, by the
mysterious laws by which he governs inanimate matter, has so planned it that
the rain shall come in drops exactly of the right size, such drops as shall
hang upon a tiny blade of grass, and scarcely shall bend it. See how the bright
drops, like so many diamonds, hang in myriads on the hedgerows, just the right
size to hang there, — neither too large nor too little; so is it with the grace
of God, it is given sovereignly and wisely.
I daresay some Christian people
think that they would like to have, in their first five minutes after believing
in Christ, all the grace they ever will have; but it cannot be so. I have often
admired that expression of the apostle Paul, “In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” God
teaches us his will, but he does not teach us too much at a time. Have you
never seen children, who have been put to school, so hardly driven by their
masters, that they have been crippled mentally, and have never made the advance
they ought to have made because they were overdriven at the first? I have met
with this sort of thing spiritually; in several cases I have known, men and
women have learned so much of the things of God in a short time that their
reason has been most seriously jeopardized. I have often had to look at young
converts, and almost to pray that they might not learn too much at once, for
the deep things of God are so wonderful to a man who is just plucked out of the
world that, if the cases of insanity through religion were much more frequent than
they are, I should not be at all astonished. I wonder how any of us can bear
what God has taught us already. If you could give eyesight to a man born blind,
and then, in a moment, were to place him in the full blaze of the sun, it would
be a serious danger to him; if he has been long in the darkness, he must see
the light by degrees. In like manner, we ought to thank God that he does not
deluge us at once with all the grace we ever shall have; but he gives it to us
gently, as soft vernal showers which, in infinite wisdom, distil upon the
thirsty earth.
So we have seen that God giveth
grace, God finds a way of giving grace, and then God directs the way of his
grace, and the measure and the manner of it; and he does it all in wisdom and
prudence.
See, then, my dear friends, — I hope
you all do, — our absolute dependence
upon God for all spiritual blessings. A farmer may do all he likes with his
ground, but he will never have a harvest if God withholds the rain. He may be
the most skillful agriculturist who ever lived, but he can do nothing if the
heavens above him are as brass. If he were to call in the most learned
astronomer of the day, there is not one who, with his wand, could move the
stars, or cause the clouds to open, and pour down rain upon the earth. If there
were sore trouble in the land Because farming was failing lot lack of ram, if
both Houses of Parliament were to be called together, and the Queen were to sit
upon her throne of state, and they were unanimously to pass an act ordering the
rain to fall, he that sitteth in the heavens would laugh, the Lord would have
them in derision, tot the key of the rain is in no hand but that of Jehovah. It
is exactly so with the grace of God. You and I cannot command it. The presence
of the most holy men in our midst would not of itself bring it. The most
earnest preaching, the most Scriptural doctrine, the most faithful obedience to
ordinances, would not make it necessary that we should receive grace. God must
give it; he is an absolute Sovereign, and we are entirely dependent upon him.
To what does this fact drive us? It
drives us to prayer. When we have done all that we can, — and surely we can
scarcely pray if we have neglected anything that we can do, — but when we have
done all that lies within our power as earnest-hearted Christian workers, then
we must come to the Lord himself for strength, and unto the God of our
salvation for all power. This has been said so many times that, when I say it
again, someone may reply, “That is a mere platitude.” Just so, and the mischief
is that the Church is beginning to think it is only a platitude; but if we all
felt that the most important thing for the Church of Christ to do, after she
has borne her testimony to the world, is to pray, what a different state of things
there would soon be! But now you know what they are doing in far too many
places; they push the prayer-meeting up into a corner, and if there is anything
to be put off, they give up the prayer-meeting. In some of our places of
worship, we might search a long time for the prayer-meeting. It is somewhere in
the back settlements, down in some small room which is too big for it even
then. People plead that they cannot get out to the prayer-meeting; they will go
out to a lecture, or to spend the evening for pleasure; but they do not care to
go out when it is “only a prayer-meeting.” Just so; and as long as that is the
estimation in which professing Christians hold it, so long must we cease to
expect showers of blessing from on high. The main thing is for the Church to
pray. She knows that she is dependent upon her God; let her show it by crying
day and night to him that he would send a blessing.
There is a big mill, with all its
spindles and all its workers; I think I see it now as we speed along in the
train through one of our Northern counties. It is all lit up to-night, and many
busy hands are at work; but where is the power that makes those spindles move?
In that little shed outside, where there is a man, with black hands, stirring
the fire, and keeping up the pressure of steam. That is where the power is; and
that is a picture of the prayer-meeting. It is the source of the Church’s
energy; and if public prayer be neglected, or if private prayer be slackened,
or if family prayer be held back in any degree, we lose the power which brings
the blessing; and this will be acknowledged when we come truly to know that all
the power is of God, and that, as we cannot command a drop of rain, but must
leave it in the hands of God, so we cannot command an ounce of grace, — if
grace is to he so measured, — it must come from God, and from God alone.
II. Now, secondly, dear friends, notice in my text that, As God Gives
Rain, So Rain Falls Of Men: “Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing
of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the
earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man?”
I daresay you have often thought it
strange that it should rain on! at sea, where it cannot water a single furrow,
or apparently benefit any human being. Is it not still more strange that the
water should fall so abundantly on vast tracts of sand, and on plains that as
yet have never been trodden by the foot of man, and on those lofty peaks, those
virgin hills, where a human being has never yet been found? Men have a notion
that nothing is good for anything if it is not good for them; but they are very
foolish for thinking so. If what God does in providence is good for nothing but
for a rat, it is not unwise for him to do it. He has other creatures to think
of beside men, and he does think of them. The little fish in the sea, and the
birds of the air, and even the worms in the earth, are remembered by the Most
High; and, sometimes, that weather which we say is so bad is only bad because it
is bad for us, — the rebels against God. It may have been given specially for
the birds; and perhaps, sometimes, God thinks that it is better to have weather
that is good for birds than good for men, for he has to provide for us all, and
they at least have not sinned; and if he thinks of them, there is as much of
mercy in the thought as when he thinks of us rebellious creatures. He makes it
“to rain on the earth, where no man is.”
Now the parallel in grace is this, —
that God’s grace will come without any
human observation. If the grace of God comes to some of us, thousands will
see it, for they will mark the working of his grace in our life and
conversation. But there sits a dear friend, over yonder, so obscure that
possibly only two or three will ever know anything that she does. Perhaps, my
brother, only half-a-dozen are affected by your influence. Do you not rejoice
that God, who makes the rain to fall where no man is, will make his grace to
come to you, though nobody, or, at most, only two or three, may see it? I have
delighted sometimes to wander into the middle of a wood, and get far away from
all sound of the voices of fallen men, and then to spy out some little flower
growing right amongst the big trees. The sun gets at it, somehow, for a few hours
in the day, and in his golden beams that little flower rejoices; and as I have
looked at it, and seen its beauty, I have remembered the words of the poet, —
and I have not at all agreed with
him when he added, —
“And waste
its sweetness on the desert air.”
It is God’s flower; God made it grow
that he might look at it himself, and, therefore, its sweetness was not wasted,
for God was there to appreciate and accept it. The most beautiful places in the
world are, doubtless, places where men have never been. The most lovely gardens
are those that God himself keeps, where no Adam has been placed to till the
soil. His trees, untouched by the axe, and unpruned by the knife, grow
gloriously: “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon,
which he hath planted.” My heart has rejoiced as I have thought of God walking
among the great trees of the far-off West, — those mighty monarchs of the
forest that seem to touch the stars, — walking among them when nobody was there
but himself, looking at the works of his own hands, and admiring what he had
made. Well, now, if you happen to be a solitary person, quite alone, one who
will never make a noise in the world for all that God does for you; never mind
about that. He causes it to rain on the earth, where no man is; and your
obscurity shall not keep back the blessing.
So, you see, rain comes without
human observation. And it also comes without
human co-operation, for it often rains “where no man is.” Therefore, no man
helps God to send the rain. As to grace, it also often comes where there is no
man to bring it. When a person has not heard a sermon, when he has been on the
sea, far away from all means of grace, yet God has caused it to rain upon him.
There is here to-night, I think, a brother, who left this country unimpressed
by the gospel, who, nevertheless, when near the shores of Australia, sat down,
and read a sermon which his wife had put into his box, and God met with him
there. The Lord has many ways of proving that his grace descends upon men
without any help from them, and that he can send it where he pleases by ways of
his own. If the ordinary means should seem to fail, he can cause it to rain
“where no man is.”
Perhaps there is somebody here who
is going right away from the usual means of grace. Possibly, dear friend, you
are fretting to yourself as you think, “I shall never come to this place of
worship again; perhaps I may never hear the gospel to my soul’s comfort again.”
Suppose you are right away in the bush of Australia, God can send his grace to
you there just as easily as he can send it here. If you are going to the
backwoods of America or Canada, do not be afraid; the Lord is at home there. If
you have to settle down in a log-hut, and are miles from any meeting of
Christian people, be not dispirited or cast down; but, in your loneliness, sit
and sing, and let this be a part of your song, “He maketh a way for the
overflowing of waters, to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the
wilderness, wherein there is no man.” Wherefore be encouraged by this second
thought.
III. I had many other things to say to you upon this point, but time
fails, so I must notice, thirdly, that Both Rain And Grace Fall Where We Might
Least Have Expected Them: “To satisfy the desolate and waste ground.”
Grace comes where there was no grace before. Where all was desert and waste, there comes the rain; and where
all was graceless and godless, there comes the grace of God.
Grace comes where there is the greatest need of it. Here was a dreadful place; it was waste; it was a wilderness; yet
the rain came there; and where there are men who feel themselves to be just as
dead and barren as a desert, grace will come even there. The rain comes to
wildernesses, and grace can come to you, poor guilty sinners. If you have
nothing with which to entertain the grace, grace will bring its own company
with it. It will come into your empty heart, and make you one of the “people
prepared for the Lord.” Grace waits not for men, neither tarries for the sins
of men. We call it prevenient grace, because it comes before it is sought, and
God bestows it on a people who are utterly undeserving of it.
Grace comes where, apparently, there is nothing to repay it for
coming. When the rain falls on the
wilderness, it does seem as if no result could follow from its fall. What a
mercy it is that, when we have nothing to pay, God lavishes his mercy upon us,
and in due time we do repay him in the way he expects. I do not suppose that many
of you have ever seen the great steppes of Russia; but I have been told that,
for thousands of miles, they are like our London streets, without a single
blade of anything green, — a horrible desolation; yet after the snow has gone,
and spring time comes in, and summer with its wonderful heat, that plain is
covered with grass and with abundant flowers of the field; and the grass
continues until it is cut for use, and then the land returns to just that same
barren appearance which it wore before. It is singular, is it not, that showers
of rain and the warmth of the sun should produce vegetation where, apparently,
there seemed to be none whatever?
Just so does the grace of God come
to a sinner’s heart, It is all hard, dead, black, hopeless; but when the grace
comes, it brings life with it, and suddenly there spring up in the man all
manner of good works, and holy words, and gracious thoughts, and everything
that is sweet and pleasing in the sight of God. And what is best of all, it
continues to produce a harvest that never dries up, and never does the soil
return to its former barrenness again. Wherefore, beloved, let us take heart
concerning the grace of God. If the rain comes where there seems to be no
argument in favor of its coming, so may the grace of God come to you who have
no right to it, — no expectation of it, — no hope of it, — nay, are even filled
with despair concerning it. While you are sitting here, the Lord can meet with
you, and save you. Be of good comfort; to you is the gospel sent, saying,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Trust thy guilty
soul with him, and thou, even thou, shalt receive the showers of love that come
from God’s right hand. There is nothing in the covenant of grace that shall be
held back from you, even though you are the very worst and vilest one in this
place, if you only trust the Savior. Though you may write yourself down as most
surely lost, and given up to barrenness, like the heath that is nigh unto
burning, yet it shall not be so with you, God shall bless you, and that right
early.
“Oh, if he does!” says one, “I will
bless his name.” Theft that is one reason why he will do it, that you may bless
his name. I have often told you of one who said, “If God saves me, he shall
never hear the last of it.” Well, that is the sort of people he likes to save,
— people who, with glad heart and voice, will tell out, and tell out again, and
tell out to all eternity that the Lord saved them, — even them. Remember the
text of last Sabbath night, for it is just in the same key as the text of
tonight: “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent
empty away.” He has caused it “to rain on the earth where no man is; on the
wilderness, wherein there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground;”
for it is to these waste grounds, these desolate places, that God specially
looks with favor. If you are great in your own esteem, he will make you little;
but if you are little, he will make you great. If you live by your own power,
you shall be slain; but if you are slain, and dead beyond hope of recovery in
yourself, you shall be made alive. You empty ones shall be filled; and you
filled ones shall be emptied. You that are up shall be down; and you that are
down shall be lifted up, for God turns things upside down; and when he comes to
work, he effects marvellous changes in the condition of the hearts of men.
IV. Now I close by noticing, in the fourth place, that Rain, When It
Comes;, Is Most Valued By Life, for we read in our text, that it comes “to
cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.”
You may water a dead post as long as
you like, yet nothing will come of it; but the tenderest, tiniest little herb,
that has a bud fast shut, knows when the rain comes, and begins to develop its
hidden power, and open its bud to the rain and to the sun. That is why the
grace of God comes, “to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.” I
hope that there is here a good deal of budding life. The Lord has looked upon
you, and has made you feel uneasy; that is a bud. Oh, that the uneasiness might open into full
repentance! The Lord has looked upon you, and he has given you desires. Oh,
that the grace of God may increase those desires till they shall open into
resolution and determination! The Lord has sent the dew from on high upon your
soul, dear friend, and you are beginning to hope that there is salvation
somewhere, and perhaps for you. Oh, that the hope may open, like a bud that has
been shut up, — -open into faith in Jesus Christ, so that you shall say, “I
will trust in him.” All the buds everywhere just now are trying to get out into
the sunshine; they seem bound up in gummy envelopes, but they are beginning to
open in the sunshine. I like to sit under the fir trees, and hear the crack of
the opening caused by the heat of the sun. You can almost see the trees
rejoicing that summer-time is coming. So may you see young converts open when
the grace of God is displayed abundantly; they grow before your very eyes till,
sometimes, you are astonished at what the grace of God does, with wise
prudence, but yet with a sweet readiness, upon the hearts of the sons of men.
How far have your buds developed?
Have you begun to pray a little? Oh, that your prayer might be more intense! I
hope that little bud of private prayer will grow till it comes to family
prayer,-so that you can pray with your wife and children. You have been reading
your Bible lately, have you? Oh, thank God for that! Now I hope that bud of
Bible-reading will open into the daily habit of feeding upon the Word of God.
Go right through the Bible if you can. Pray to God to give you a solid
knowledge of its contents, that you may be rooted and grounded in what his
Spirit teaches you there. Some of you have another sort of bud; you have been
thinking of what you can do for Christ. You thought you were converted, but you
have never done much for Christ. I do not use any whips, but sometimes I am
tempted to take a good long one to some of those lazy folk who do nothing, and
yet hope to go to heaven. One says, “I think, my dear Pastor, that I must try
to do something for Christ.” Well, that is a bud; may the grace of God be so
abundant that you will leave off trying, and get actually to doing! “How am I
to serve God?” said one to me, the other day. I answered, “My dear brother, get
at it. ’Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.’ Don’t come
and ask me, for where there is so much to be done, the man is idle who asks,
’What am I to do?’ Do the first thing that comes to hand” If a soldier in
battle saw that the enemy was winning the day, he would not be hesitating, and
asking, “Captain, what can I do?” He would kill the first fellow that came
near, and so must you, in a spiritual sense. Do something for Christ. Oh, that
this church might begin to open all its buds! May every little one become a
thousand, and every small one a great multitude, to the praise of the glory of
the grace of God! O you little ones, you hidden ones, you timid ones, you
trembling ones, the grace of God is abundant! Open to receive it. See how the
crocus, after having been long hidden beneath the soil, knows when the new year
begins, and as soon as the sun smiles on the earth, it gently lifts up its
golden cup; and is there anything more beautiful in all the world than the
crocus cup when God fills that chalice with the light of heaven? What a depth
of wonderful brightness of color there is within it! All the crocus can do is
to open itself; and that is all you can do, — just stand and drink in God’s
light. Open yourself to the sweet influences of the grace of God. The fair
lilies of the garden left not, neither do they spin; but yet they glorify God.
How they seem to stand still and just show what God can do with them! They just
drink in the light and heat, and then pour it all out again in silent, quiet
beauty. Now you do just the same; let the purity of your life, like the purity
of the lily, glorify the God who created it in you. So may his blessing rest
upon you all, clear friends, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Spurgeon Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986