[0:00] Let's turn for a wee while to the chapter 12 in Isaiah, chapter 12 and verse 3.
[0:12] Isaiah 12 verse 3, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. As we know, this tiny chapter here is a chapter that's just really bursting with thanksgiving and recognizing God's deliverance.
[0:34] It's a gospel song and it's very obviously tied into chapter 11. That is giving that great prophecy regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the Davidic line.
[0:47] There we have it, from the root of Jesse and from the, as it says, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. And in verse 10, in that day, the root of Jesse, of course, that was David's father.
[0:59] And this is speaking of the Davidic line through which Jesus was going to come. The human nature that Jesus was to take was, of course, through the Davidic line.
[1:11] And it's a song that is really a gospel song. It is tied into not only the coming of Jesus and the life of Jesus and the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus, the salvation that Jesus brings, but is even moving on into the glory that will be hereafter.
[1:31] It's a prophecy that spans the whole period. It's a really wonderful piece. It's a psalm of praise to God.
[1:43] And as we said that, it's a psalm that is praising God. As God has turned away from his anger and is now comforting his people. And you can't read the psalm without realizing that the prophet was recognizing just the almost euphoric sense that deliverance brings, the tremendous sense of euphoria and joy in the heart when a person is delivered, when a person has been maybe at death's door, delivered from some incredibly difficult experience.
[2:22] And there's just this tremendous sense of thanksgiving and joy. And that becomes quite clear in this particular… We could call it the psalm of the prophet here.
[2:35] And I would say that that's something that every believer can identify with. That it's like, as it says in Psalm 40, He took me from a fearful pit and from the miry clay, and on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way.
[2:50] He put a new song in my mouth. Our God to magnify. That's what this song does. And when the Lord does that, when the Lord gives you his peace after a time of difficulty, of pain, of sorrow, where you're brought to rest in him, where there is this sense of identity, a sense of belonging, you know that your Lord and you are one.
[3:25] And there's nothing in the world that can equal that, that knowledge that you belong to him. Can I say to anybody in here today who maybe doesn't have that, you don't realize just what you're missing, how empty it is not to have that.
[3:46] You may have many things, and you might have a lot that's giving you security and peace, and these are great things. But let me tell you, to know, to know that the living and true God is your God, that you're able to say, like Thomas said, my Lord and my God, is really as wonderful a thing as we can know in this world, to have that assurance in our heart, that peace.
[4:13] And as we're coming to look at this in a moment, today you are by the wells of salvation, and you are in the place where you can have this peace, and have this Savior who alone can bring this peace.
[4:32] Now, of course, as we see here, I keep calling it a psalm because it is a song. You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away that you might comfort me.
[4:47] And we can say that whatever we know of God's anger, it is only a time. If you today have ever experienced in your soul personally something of God's displeasure because of sin, however difficult and painful that was, He has only given you, as it were, a little glimpse of it, ready to reveal what it really is, His displeasure and His wrath.
[5:20] We couldn't take it. Our humanity would collapse under it. We cannot, we couldn't bear to be under the fullness of God's wrath and displeasure.
[5:33] But though the Lord was angry, yet that anger has been turned away, and there's this great sense of now, of the Lord comforting the prophet here.
[5:45] Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. This really is a tremendous declaration of faith.
[5:57] Verse 2. Are you able to say that today? Before we come to look at verse 3, which is what we're going to look at, can you say that today? Can you appropriate these words and make that declaration yourself and say, you know, this is, this, I can say that today.
[6:12] God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.
[6:23] To possess God is salvation. But then we see in verse 3, and this is what we're looking at this morning, the prophet is saying then, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
[6:39] And as we said, this is an incredibly powerful gospel message. This could be in any of the New Testament chapters. It is so clear, so powerful.
[6:52] And there are few pictures that are set out before us more in Scripture than the idea of water as resembling the gospel.
[7:06] For instance, Isaiah himself says, O every one that thirsteth, come you to the waters. Revelation, it says, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
[7:20] Remember Jesus speaking to the woman at the well of Samaria, whoever drinks from the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
[7:34] Jesus himself cried out, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. These are just a few of the references in the Scripture to this idea of the gospel as water.
[7:48] So how is the gospel like water? Well, one of the things that the water does, as we all know, is it refreshes and it fertilizes. Now, the likes of today, where we've had torrential rain, we don't need, this is where everything has been deluged and soaked.
[8:05] But if you had a really, really dry summer, and you would soon see if there was no water at all, shrubs and plants and all these things, they would begin to look, they would begin to look sad and almost beginning to wither.
[8:22] And it's amazing how things change once they get hose. Well, you put a hose on plants or things that are beginning to wither and they look almost dead and you put some water on it, it's amazing how it brings back life.
[8:40] And you see, this is what it needs. And so it is with God's grace in the soul. This is, God's grace is like the water as it comes into our life.
[8:53] God's grace affects people. And this is what happens to people. And it's amazing how God, through His grace, transforms people's lives. And that is how you can sometimes see people, they can be naturally angry people, they can even be violent people, they can be bullies in life, they can be, people would say, sometimes you use that, or you hear it said to people, it's a nasty piece of work.
[9:25] God's grace can come into a person's life. And when God's grace does come into a person's life, God's grace transforms. And it does, we often see it, that people have been so radically transformed and changed.
[9:41] so that instead of this anger, there is a warmth of character, instead of almost a brutal nature, it's loving. And it's not a human change, it would be impossible, humanly speaking, to change in this way.
[9:59] Some of the most extraordinary, radical changes have taken place in people's lives, and it is because, and by God's grace. This is what it is, it's a transforming grace.
[10:12] But you see, this is what we need ourselves all the time. We need, we need this water. That's why we're here today. And that's why we've got to make use of the means of grace, because this is, this is part of this watering.
[10:27] And that is why we come to worship God. Yes, we come to acknowledge Him. We come to give praise and thanks to His name. We want, we want in coming this morning to acknowledge His goodness, His mercy, His grace, His salvation, in sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into this world, in giving us this, all what we have.
[10:51] But we also, as we come to worship, we're coming to seek Him, because we want Him, we need Him. And we want our souls to be refreshed and renewed.
[11:06] And it's got to be, there's got to be an interaction between us and Him. We are saying, Lord, come into my heart. The Lord's never going to turn away from the soul that is pleading in this way.
[11:19] See, there's no need, there's, it's, we lose a lot of the effect of coming to church if we just sit there and kind of just come out of a sort of duty and say, well, you can tick a box and say, well, that's me, I've come and go away.
[11:34] No, we've come in order to derive, in order to benefit. And that's why we need to be saying to the Lord, Lord, touch me, touch me in my soul. May your word today go right into my heart.
[11:47] If I'm dry and barren, refresh me. So that's, that's one of the things that the water does. Again, another thing that we know that water does is water, washes clean.
[12:01] Some people, by the nature of their work, they get incredibly dirty. For instance, say a coal man, particularly at this time of the year, because sometimes you, you can't see anything but the white of their eyes because there's so much, they're just covered in coal dust.
[12:19] Some people just, it's the nature of their work. If you saw people that were out, supposing playing rugby just now, if you went for a game of rugby, in conditions like this, when you would walk off the field, you'd be unrecognizable.
[12:33] And just in the water and mud, you'd be clarted. It's amazing how a good wash, just, you wash up well and that's it, it's gone. That's why we wash our hands before we eat because there are, although there's obvious dirt, there are many things that we can't see.
[12:52] For instance, the germs, can't see them with the naked eye but they're there. Wash our hands so that everything will be clean before we eat. That's what the gospel is.
[13:03] The gospel is this water that washes us, washes us clean. And like the germs, there's so much of sin we're not recognizing. We don't see it.
[13:14] We're not aware of it. But this is what the blood of Jesus Christ does. It cleanses us from all sin. Remember when the leper came to Jesus, Jesus said to him, well, what do you want me to do?
[13:27] Oh, he said, that I might be clean. Have you ever come to the Lord and asked that? Lord, please, make me clean because of my sin.
[13:42] I need my sin dealt with. And the Lord alone is the one who is able to make you clean. He will cleanse us.
[13:52] He will remove, He will even remove the guilt of sin. I've said it often enough before. Guilt is an awful burden. And sin brings guilt.
[14:03] And an awful lot of people today who are wandering about have no idea what's wrong. Many of the people who are so down in their mind and there's weights and burdens upon them and they feel it's because of the guilt of sin.
[14:19] And they're not aware that they're sinners before a holy God and they're not aware that part of that problem is guilt. They're not aware of it. But it's there.
[14:29] But when God begins to reveal something of ourselves to ourselves, we see it. And that's what the Lord does. He cleanses us from our sin and even removes the guilt of our sin.
[14:40] Removes the punishment. Removes the condemnation. Removes all these things. Again, water is something that satisfies. If you are absolutely parched, it's the one thing you begin to think of.
[14:54] If you are, if your tongue is sticking to the roof of your mouth, it's not food you're thinking of. It's not sitting down to watch your favorite program.
[15:06] It's not picking up your favorite book. It's not longing just to get to bed or whatever. All you're thinking about is, I need to get water. It consumes your thinking.
[15:17] And when you get it, it's so satisfying. And that's how it is also with the Lord. That's what He gives us. There is a satisfaction in Jesus Christ.
[15:30] My friend, Jesus satisfies. You see, we have a soul. Our soul has to be satisfied. If we don't deal with God and accept God's provision, then we're missing in life.
[15:48] We're body, mind, and soul. We deal with our body's needs. We deal with our mind's needs. But we must deal with our spiritual needs. And that's who Jesus is.
[15:59] And that's what Jesus has come to give us. That's why He said, He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth in me shall never thirst. And again, water is universally necessary for everybody in life.
[16:17] It's not just certain people, but everybody. And that's the same with the gospel. It's as important for the Persian living in Buckingham Palace as it is for the Persian who's lying out in the open in the embankment by the Thames.
[16:31] It doesn't matter a Persian's background or culture or language or color or privileges or lack of privilege. It doesn't matter any of these things. The gospel is suitable for everybody.
[16:44] from the north to the south, from the east to the west. It doesn't matter who the person is. This gospel in Jesus Christ is universally suitable for one and all.
[16:59] And that's the wonderful thing. Now here it talks about a well, the wells of salvation. You draw water from the wells of salvation.
[17:10] And of course, what we know about this well is that there is a fountain at the source. And this is our living fountain and this is Jesus and this is our non... As we say, it's a living fountain that will never, ever, ever run dry and it's supplying to this well.
[17:29] And that is why we must... And why we will never tire of drawing water from the wells of salvation. As we said, that's what we do today.
[17:41] That's why the scripture is always new to us. You may say to yourself, I know this chapter. I know this chapter quite well. You might say to yourself, I think I've heard somebody preach from this text before.
[17:56] That doesn't matter. This is today. It's a different day. And this is the beauty about the word of God. That it's for today.
[18:08] It's the same thing. There's no point in you in the morning when you get up and you say, I turned on the tap and I had a drink yesterday. I'll have to go to some other... I'll have to...
[18:19] No point going back to that tap. I need a new tap. I need to get the water from somewhere else. And if you went to your neighbor's house and said, excuse me, could I have a drink of water?
[18:30] And they'd say, why? Is your water off? No, but I drank from my own tap yesterday. I want to try some other tap today. That's kind of bonkers. The thing is that every day we have thirst.
[18:44] Every day we go to the tap and we get a drink. And it does you for that particular moment. And the word of God is exactly the same. It never grows old.
[18:55] It never goes out of date. It's always fresh. And every time we come under it, we have the opportunity of hearing it anew to deal with us where we are today.
[19:07] because where we are today is not exactly where we were yesterday. Our circumstances change. Our experiences change. Our situations change. And so the word becomes relevant to where we are.
[19:20] Even the same word. And we can get new areas, new angles, new images, new insights into it. And that's the beauty of it.
[19:30] And that is why this is a fountain that fills a well that is always fresh and is always satisfying.
[19:42] So let us draw water from the wells of salvation. But you'll notice here that I don't know with regard, as I mentioned before, with regard to thirst, thirst, that when you get a, if you've been incredibly thirsty, and I would say as I look back over my life, there's probably only been three or four times and I can remember of knowing, well, as far as my experience was concerned, was real thirst.
[20:12] It wasn't real thirst in the sense of going days without water. But, and I'll never forget just how it just occupies your whole, your whole thinking.
[20:25] I've heard it said, I don't know if it's true that, I might have said this before, I remember reading it somewhere, that the most pleasurable experience in life for a moment is when a person has had excruciating pain.
[20:39] Maybe a doctor will be able to enlighten me on that. Where a person has had the most excruciating pain and is almost going crazy with the pain and it stops instantly.
[20:53] That that moment of relief is so extraordinary that it transcends anything. That it goes even beyond being able to get water.
[21:05] And you know, when I think about that, I believe that's almost like a wee bit of what heaven will be like when we leave this world with all its pains and its traumas and its trials and its tears and all these things that have brought you down to be instantly brought into this new environment, it's going to be so extraordinary.
[21:33] And so, this is all part that is tied up within these, the wells of salvation. But you'll notice what it says, with joy, you will draw. Now, notice our responsibility.
[21:47] You and I, we have to draw. We must come to the waters. That's what I say, I said in chapter 55, whoever he won that thirsteth, come you to the waters.
[22:02] It's not, it's not the idea that somehow just the waters will sort of flow into you. You have to come to them and you have to drink from them. And that gives us our own responsibility in these things.
[22:17] And that is why we must keep coming again and again and again. And as we said, that's why we're here today. We have come to the waters. And when we, can I say, first of all, if you're here today and you have to confess within your own heart that you are not a believer, we kind of hinted at that earlier on, you ask the Lord, Lord, come into my heart.
[22:46] May I know the water of life flowing into my heart. May I know Jesus coming into my heart, into my life. Lord, come in, please.
[22:58] Will you ask him? That is drawing water from the wells of salvation. That's your responsibility. If you're here today without Jesus Christ, I urge you, please, ask the Lord to come into your heart.
[23:15] And as he said to the woman of Samaria, that that water will spring up. It will be a water, a nonstop flowing stream, as it were, of life eternal within your heart.
[23:27] But if you are here as a believer and today you're struggling, and sometimes we do struggle, and maybe you're here as an older believer who remembers days and you say to yourself, ah, you know, today's not the way it used to be.
[23:44] I remember the good, it's funny, we always talk of the good old days. The days long ago were always the good old days. They might not always have been. But we tend to, and I think it's, I think it's one of the good things about our memories that so often we tend to remember the better things, the good things.
[24:01] Well, you look back and you say, ah, you know, there was a day my heart used to burn. But you know, these days are gone. And you know, it's possible for the believer to begin to settle down into that kind of mood and say, ah, it's not the same as it used to be.
[24:21] Well, if you think like that, it won't be. And if that's your attitude, then you're not doing what is said here. You're not drawing from the wells of salvation. Because the wells haven't changed.
[24:34] You may have changed. The day may have changed. But the Lord hasn't. And you respond, there's no point in mourning and moping and saying, ah, that's, they're gone.
[24:47] And not doing. You're kind of saying, well, I don't know. You're kind of looking for some magical thing to happen. No, you are to draw. You're to go and to draw.
[24:59] And maybe some of the older people here will remember. I hear some of the, I remember my father was from Carly. I remember, I remember myself. There was a wee in Boristown.
[25:09] There was a wee, when I was a wee boy, I still remember the well that was up there. There was a well that people used to use. And that's, so you go with a pail to draw the water. But for some of the, maybe the older people you remember, that was part of your, your responsibility and duty in the day.
[25:25] You had to go to the well to get the water. And when you think of putting on a tap today, you had to carry that bucket back and pull, take the water out and so on.
[25:38] It involved a bit of effort, a bit of work. And so it is for us. It involves, remember what the Lord says, that he will fill our mouth.
[25:48] Does he, does the Lord say, just sit there with your mouth closed and I'll fill you. No. He says, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. It's your responsibility.
[26:00] We have to open our mouth and if the Lord says, you open your mouth wide and I will fill it. So if we are empty and we're saying, ah, I'm getting nothing today.
[26:13] The question has to be asked, well, are you opening your mouth wide? Are you drawing water? Are you going to the well? And are you trying to draw water from the well?
[26:24] Because you'll notice how the water has been drawn, we're told. And with this, we conclude with joy. That's it. Drawing water with joy. With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
[26:38] And you know, that's what the Lord does. He gives us his joy within our heart. And when, when we have the water of life flowing through us, there is a joy in our heart.
[26:54] That's why the psalmist said in Psalm 122, I joyed when to the house of God go up, they said to me. Didn't go up trudging. He didn't go up sort of saying, oh, here we go again.
[27:05] Didn't go up saying, well, that's me, I've done another one. He went up with joy, with anticipation, with longing, and say, I want to draw water from the wells of salvation.
[27:16] And if we are doing that, then we will know something of the joy of the Lord within our heart. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God, we ask that we may indeed know something of this joy.
[27:35] May we come to the waters and may we drink. May we open our mouth wide so that the Lord will fill it. We ask to do us good this day and that we may hear what God the Lord will speak.
[27:47] Fill our hearts, Lord, with yourself and take us all to our home safely. May the peace and the grace and the mercy of God be upon us all. Shine, eye face upon us and keep us safe.
[27:59] Bless a cup of tea that will be had in the hall afterwards and take away our sin in Jesus' name. Amen.