#61 Good News · My Sermon Notes

It is only on hot summer days that we can appreciate the illustration, here employed; for we dwell in a well-watered country where thirst is readily assuaged. Yet we can imagine ourselves in the condition of Hagar, Ishmael, and Samson; or of a caravan in the desert; or of poor sailors in a boat upon the salt sea dying for a draught of water.

When separated from friends by their journeying, or by our own, or when we have a trading interest in foreign ports, or a holy concern in missions, good news from a far country is eminently refreshing.

We shall use the text in three ways.

I. GOOD NEWS FOR SINNERS FROM GOD.

Sin put men into a far country, but here is the good news,—

God remembers you with pity
He has made a way for your return.
He has sent a messenger to invite you home.
Many have already returned, and are now rejoicing.
He has provided all means for bringing you home.
You may return at once. “All things are ready.”
- If this good news be received it will be exceedingly refreshing to thirsty souls. To others it will be commonplace.

II. GOOD NEWS FOR SAINTS FROM HEAVEN.

News does come from Heaven. By the Spirit’s application of the Word, and by the sweet whispers of Jesus’ love.
To keep up this fellowship is most refreshing, and it is very possible; for Jesus delights to commune with us, the Father himself loves us, and the Holy Spirit abides with us forever.
If for a while suspended, the renewal is sweeter than ever, even as cold water is doubly refreshing to a specially thirsty soul.
The news itself may thus be summarized:—
- The Father on the throne of Providence works all things for your good.
- The Lord Jesus is interceding, preparing a place for you, and representing you before God.
- He will shortly come in his glory.
- Many like yourself are with him in the Father’s house above.
- You are wanted there: they cannot be a perfect family until you are brought home.
- Receive this, and feel the attractions of Heaven drawing you above the distractions of earth.

III. GOOD NEWS FOR HEAVEN FROM EARTH.

It gives joy to the home circle to hear that—

Sinners are repenting.
Saints are running their race with holy diligence.
Churches are being built up and the Gospel is spreading.
More saints are ripening and going home.

Let us accept the message of love and be happy in the Lord.

Let us tell the glad tidings to all around.

Scraps Of News

The Hawaiian notions of a future state, where any existed, were peculiarly vague and dismal, and Mr. Ellis says that the greater part of the people seemed to regard the tidings of ora loa is Jesus (endless life by Jesus) as the most joyful news they had ever heard, “breaking upon them,” to use their own phrase, “like light in the morning.” “Will my spirit never die? and can this poor weak body live again?” an old chieftain exclaimed, and this delighted surprise seemed the general feeling of the natives.—From “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands,” by Miss Bird.

Thirst is a blessed thing, if cold water be at hand; cold water is a blessed thing to those who thirst Needy sinners get, a gracious Savior gives. When thirst drinks in cold water, when cold water quenches thirst, the giver and the receiver rejoice together. While the redeemed obtain a great refreshment in the act, the Redeemer obtains a greater; for himself was accustomed to say, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”—W. Arnot.

The words remind us of the scanty fellowship in the old world between wanderers and the home they had left. The craving for tidings in such a case must be as a consuming thirst, the news that quenched it as a refreshing fountain.—Speaker’s Commentary.

Dr. Field, in his “Journey through the Desert,” speaks of being upon Mount Sinai, and writes,—“Here in a pass between rocks under a huge granite boulder is a spring of water, which the Arabs say never fails It was very grateful in the heat of the day, especially as we found snow in a cleft of the rocks, which, added to the natural coldness of the spring, gave us ice-water on Mount Sinai.”