May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning. Let us turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah, and chapter 12, and we'll read verses two and three. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
12, and reading verses two and three. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall he draw
water out of the wells of salvation. This is a very short chapter. And I thought perhaps we just
read it. It's only six verses, because verses two and three
are obviously in the middle. So the chapter starts by, And
in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee. Though thou
wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall we draw
water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day, shall he say,
praise the Lord, call upon his name, Declare his doings among
the people. Make mention that his name is
exalted. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath
done excellent things. This is known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy
One of Israel in the midst of thee. Surely this is a wonderful statement
and surely it shows us how, by the grace of God, God's people
should react to his favours and to his blessings. And so the
Prophet tells us, and in that day thou shalt say, what a blessing
it is if you and I in our lives have a day, perhaps days, perhaps
many days, when we can remember the time when the Lord came and
showed to us his salvation. And the reaction was this, oh
Lord, I will praise thee. How good it is when you and I
can say that. You know often we fail We fail
to praise God, and yet we have much to praise God for. And here,
the prophet tells us, he says, he will praise the Lord. He says,
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortest me. Well, my friends, if we are walking
contrary to God, if we are turning our back upon God, if we are
ignoring his word, then surely, The Lord is angry with us. And
that's a very solemn thought, isn't it? To think that almighty
God is angry with us. But then you see, it didn't stop
there. And he tells us, thine anger
is turned away and thou comfortest me. And how important that is
that you and I know the blessing of the comfort from Almighty
God when the Lord comes and comforts us. And here we have the words
that will comfort our souls in this second and third verse where
he says, Behold, and it's good isn't it, when we can behold
what God is doing to us, behold what God has done for us. and be able to say with a humble
confidence, God is my salvation. That means God has saved my soul. That means God has delivered
my soul from going down into the pit. God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. You know, when God's anger is
upon us, we should be afraid. We should be afraid of the righteous
judgments of God. We should tremble before the
power and majesty of the King of Kings. And yet you see, when
the Lord comes and comforts us, what a change there is. And we're
able to say, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah
is my strength and my song. He also is become my salvation. Again, we have the obvious conclusion
that there's something to sing about, there's something to praise
God for. And all of us need to know this,
to have the evidence of it in our souls. Remember the little
truth, Jesus is the one thing needful. I, without him, perish
must. But if the Holy Spirit has come
and made us spiritually alive, what reason there is to praise
God and to say, yes, the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song. He also has become my salvation.
And then he says, therefore, with this wonderful evidence,
with this wonderful favour, therefore, with joy, shall ye draw water
out of the wells of salvation, and the result will be, and in
that day shall you say, praise the Lord, call upon his name,
declare his doings among the people, make mention that his
name is exalted, sing unto the Lord for if done excellent things
this is known in all the earth cry out and shout thou inhabitant
of zion for great is the holy one of israel in the midst of
thee well it's a wonderful mercy and a wonderful favor if we know
something of this or if we desire to know something of this and
if we do know it to be able to come and therefore cry out and
shout. Those who are of the Church of
God, the inhabitants of Zion, means the Church of God, and
to say, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee. And that is true. It must be
so. And in this dark day in which
we live, what a blessing when the Holy Spirit comes and works
powerfully in our hearts so that we truly rejoice in what the
Lord has done. Now then, these two verses, two
and three, they direct us very clearly to our salvation. It starts off, behold God is
my salvation. And it carries on to say that
we shall draw water out of the wells of salvation. Naturally speaking, you and I
cannot live without water. We need water to drink. Without it, we shall die. And we have here then this picture
before us of drawing water out of the wells of salvation. We read together that wonderful
chapter in the fourth of John where we saw that Jesus must
needs go through Samaria. It's wonderful to think that
the Lord Jesus Christ had to go through Samaria to meet with
that woman. and to meet with that woman when
he sat upon the well. Because by sitting on that well,
he was going to speak about the water of life and indeed the
wells of salvation. And it will be a tremendous blessing
for you and me if the Lord has come to us where we are. The
Lord knew that that woman was going to come out to that very
place. My friends, God knows where you
and I are going. He knows where we are. He knows
we're here this morning. And he knows, therefore, what
a blessing if he's come and called us here to come and to meet with
us and to show to us the wonderful blessing of the water of life. Now, the illustration we have
is here where the Lord says, With joy should he draw water
out of the wells of salvation and sometimes These wells can
be very deep And sometimes not easy to obtain water If you read
through the Old Testament You will find that there were many
occasions when they had to dig for water and had to dig and
form a well And it wasn't easy And sometimes those wells were
deep, and the well which Miss Woman of St Mary came to, she
tells the Lord, the well is deep. And you've got nothing to draw
with. But you see, the Lord knew the point that he was going to
make to her. And that was, she needed to receive
the water of life. She knew very clearly what natural
water was and how needful it was, but she didn't realise she
needed that spiritual blessing of the water of life. Because
that was the way and is the way the Lord directs us to the glory
of our salvation. It is as we receive this water
of life as we receive this water out of the wells of salvation. Now clearly, that woman of Samaria,
she couldn't just, as it were, come to the well and expect the
water to suddenly rise up. She had to let down a bucket
into the well and to draw it up quite laboriously, no doubt. It wasn't easy. It never was
to draw water for the cattle and for themselves to drink.
It needed laborious work. And so as we see these things
today, we can rejoice indeed in the great salvation that God
brings to us. But as He brings that salvation
to us, which is of course the revelation that we need a Saviour,
the revelation that we are lost and we're ruined and there's
no hope for us and we shall perish in our sins unless the Lord comes
and speaks to us like he did to that woman of Samaria. We
need him to speak to our souls and to say unto us, I am thy
salvation. Nothing less than this will satisfy
us. Nothing less than that will give
us the water of life. We need to know the Lord Jesus
Christ is our salvation. And when the Lord comes, blesses
us when the Lord came and blessed that woman of Samaria and revealed
to her that he was the Christ and he revealed it really by
telling her what she was and that she got five husbands and
she was with a six at the present time who wasn't her husband and
she suddenly realized here was a man that told her things that
that she knew and that she was amazed. Here is a man. And she came and told her friends
and told me, all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ? The glory was that she couldn't
hold her peace. She had to tell. It was so powerful
in her heart. When she left her water pot,
She went back to the town and told the people there, come see
a man who has told me all things that ever I did. Oh, did it have
an effect? Yes, it did. Out went the men
of the city to find Jesus and to hear what he would say and
what he had done. It's a good thing, isn't it,
when the work of the Spirit of God The great work of the Holy
Spirit reveals to us His salvation, reveals to us our need as we
realise we have met the Lord God. Yes, the Lord speaks to
our hearts. The Lord spoke to that woman's
heart and it had an eternal blessing with it. My friends, when the
Lord speaks to our hearts, it has an eternal blessing with
it. And it's not something that you
and I can resist, it's not something that you and I can turn away
from, but it has a gracious and blessed effect. And so, it is
then that this woman was moved, and it was good news, it was
joy to her, wasn't it? And here we have Isaiah telling
us, therefore with joy should he draw water out of the wells
of salvation. What is it? It's the good news
of the gospel and it's joy to our souls to hear the words of
the Saviour being directed to us and telling us the great good
news that he gives the water of life. And the water of life
is, of course, the grace of God. That water which will never cease. It will be as a well of water
springing up within us. The wells of salvation. Well, this morning we've read
this beautiful little chapter We've also read of course the
chapter in the fourth of John and how direct they are and how
significant they are and how important they are and how necessary
it is that you and I know that God is our salvation. And it's not something that you
and I just learn in our heads just a theory. We may learn it
in our heads, it may be a theory, but the time comes if we are
the children of God when the word of the Lord is applied to
our hearts with divine power and we know that Jesus has spoken. We have the evidence that he
has looked upon us. He hasn't passed us by. He didn't
pass that woman by, did he? No, he knew where she was coming
to and he went and sat himself on that well. My friends, what
a blessing when God knows where we are. And therefore, as it
were, he puts himself in the way so that we do come and we
do meet with him. Now the truth is, the important
truth is that all of us need to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. All of us. No exception. What a mercy then, if we have
the evidence that we have met with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if so, you and I will be able to join with Isaiah and say,
behold, God is my salvation. And you see, blessed with this
wonderful evidence, and it is the work of his grace in our
hearts, blessed with it, then you see we're favoured to have
this confidence in God and to say then, I will trust and not be afraid. See, we may have been afraid
before of God, afraid of His judgments. We may have been afraid that
we would be cut off as something which was worthless. But to realize here we have the
evidence now that God has come and called us and showed to us
He is our salvation. is something which is beyond
our natural understanding, beyond our natural comprehension. Because
the effect is this, when the Lord speaks, there is power. And it's power which is outside
the things of this world. It's a power which has an eternal
effect upon our eternal soul. And it is an eternal blessing. And what reason we have then
to praise God. And we understand what the Prophet
says, And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Do we say that? Do we say that? Because God has caused us to
know that He is our salvation. Outside of the Lord there's no
salvation, no salvation, no hope of eternal life. It's only to
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His great and glorious
finished work. But we should of course not confine
it to the Lord Jesus. We should realise it is all the
three people in the Trinity are concerned and involved in our
salvation, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. What a tremendous
thought that is and how wonderful to think that is applied to you
and me. The love of God the Father toward
us, the gracious and wonderful favour of the Lord Jesus Christ
in redeeming our soul and the blessed work of the Holy Spirit
in calling us out of nature into the glorious light of the everlasting
gospel. Behold, God is my salvation. And with that evidence, can we
not say, yes, I will trust? I will trust. The devil won't
want you to, but my friends, when the Holy Spirit moves us
and we have the work of it in our hearts, yes, there's that
humble faith that God gives us to come and say, yes, I will
trust. And I won't be afraid, for the
Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my
salvation. There was a time, you see, when
the Lord was not our salvation, when we did not understand the
truth of the glorious gospel. We were enemies. of God. Oh, how sad. My friend, are we
today an enemy of God? Oh, how sad it is if we are. But oh, what a blessing when
we have come to realise that He, the Lord God, Jehovah, is
become my salvation. He has revealed to us that He
is the one who has redeemed us from all our sin. There we were,
standing guilty before a holy God, trembling before a holy
God, fearful of what would become of us. And then to think that the Lord's
anger has been turned away. And instead of trembling, we
receive that comfort from on high. The wonderful words of
course in the 40th chapter of Isaiah tell us, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. And we are only really comforted
when we have the evidence of the salvation of the Lord being
applied to our hearts. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. You see, the
battle's been fought by the glorious Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's conquered on our behalf,
conquered our sin, death, head on the grave. And he says, therefore,
speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, For she hath received
the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The Lord pardons, my
friends, fully. There's not one sin left. There
is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared. And it's wonderful
to know the glory of that forgiveness. So, as Isaiah says in the first
chapter, Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white
as snow, and red like crimson, they shall be as wool. However
terrible they may seem, and they will, and they should, salvation
is by our God. And our strength is then in what
the Lord has done. We have to give up our own strength. We may have been relying upon
it. We may have thought Our prayers are pretty good. And we may have
been satisfied with our religion. But there will come a time when
God shows us that all that we do, in the words of Zachariah,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're of no value. What does it make us do? Cry unto God. Seek unto Him. And to realize then that He is become our salvation. He is become my song. It's very wonderful and it's
very true. When the Lord God works in our
hearts, we have something to say and we shall want to say
it. We want to say it because it
will bring honour and glory to God that one who has brought
about our salvation. We won't want to keep silent. We want to declare what God the
Lord has done for us. Come all ye that fear God, and
I will declare what he has done for my soul. Yes, I will trust
and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song. He also is become my salvation. And now with that great wonderful
favour, He goes on, therefore, therefore. Now, of course, follows
the words before. It's referencing the words before.
Therefore, with joy, shall you draw water out of the wells of
salvation. And what is this? Well, it's
really as the Lord gives us this spiritual water, His grace, by
His Spirit, as He reveals to us more and more the great and
glorious work of salvation and shows to us the cost it was to
redeem our soul. As the Holy Spirit gives us a
spiritual understanding there is joy in our heart. That's true isn't it? I hope
you know as the Holy Spirit has brought you to draw water out
of the wells. It may have been a deep well,
you may have struggled to draw up the bucket as it were, but
as it's come up from this deep well it's been the pure water
of life. And it's directed you to the
preciousness of Christ in all his great and glorious work. Oh and the Lord has blessed you
in it. And then as that has been a satisfying
for a short time and then you've had to let down the bucket again
to draw the water up and the Holy Spirit has given more grace
to reveal more of Christ and what has happened. Joy! Amazing! The Lord should have
revealed and given you a spiritual understanding some of the truths
concerned with the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, there's
a great depth in this. There's a depth that you and
I will never fathom. The well is deep, it's so deep
we'll never get to the bottom of it. The water will never cease
and it's pure. There's nothing ill with it,
nothing bad with it. It's the pure water of life and
that which we are able to draw up reveals to us the Lord Jesus
Christ and the glorious salvation. You see, draw water out of the
wells of salvation. And to be able to meditate as
you and I receive this water of life as to what the Lord Jesus
Christ did and to think back about it in eternity past, the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit ordained that you and me, what a blessing
if you and I are numbered amongst those whom the Lord has determined
to save. And we know that those whom God
has determined to save from eternity past, they are saved, they are
redeemed, and to think then as that plan unfolds through the
Word of God. To think of it in the days of
Adam and Eve, in the days of Abraham, in the days of Isaac
and Jacob, in the days of Moses, in the days of the prophets,
in the days of what we term the minor prophets, and then revealed
in the glorious time when Christ was revealed when he came as
taken on our form, our human nature, and all that he did while
upon this earth, all the things that he did and all the things
that proved his great love to such an unworthy sinner. Oh, doesn't it give us cause
to be filled with joy that the Lord God Almighty has revealed
these things and is revealing them to us. We should never tire. We should never be satisfied. We should always want to let
down the bucket into this well to draw up greater revelations
of himself and to know that Christ has died and shed his most precious
blood because of his amazing love to such unworthy souls. And you and I will have to come
and stand and say, why me? Oh, blessed God, why such a wretch
as me, who must forever lie in hell, were not salvation free? Oh, blessed be God, for the great
work of the Saviour, and therefore with joy. And it is joy, it's
a holy joy, and it's a humble joy, and it's a wonderful time
in the life of our soul. And that, praise God, will never
fully cease then. We should always be amazed and
desire to praise God for what He's done. And what a favour
then, when perhaps we come to that condition and are able to
join with the Prophet when he says, cry out and shout, thou
inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in
the midst of thee. Surely He is, is He not? The
Lord Jesus Christ? Is He in the midst? I believe
He is. Do we know it? we know that the
Lord is with us, moving us, touching our hearts, working amongst us.
We want to be joined together, we want to unite together, we
want to be able to exalt his name together for all that he
has done in redeeming our souls and to recognise and to praise
him. But he, the great glorious God,
the glorious God-man, was so willing to come and to suffer
so greatly in order to pay the price to redeem us from all our
sins. Yes, you know we shall then understand
a little of the enormity of our sin. We shall then also understand
a little more of the greatness of this salvation. And we shall
indeed desire truly to come and to Praise God for what he's done,
all my friends this morning and then. As we have these words
in this chapter, and of course there are many words in the Word
of God regarding water, regarding wells, many times, many occasions
to be reminded of this great work so that we're never tired
of hearing this truth, this wonderful blessing of drawing water out
of the wells of salvation and to recognise the wonderful favour
it is if we have been able so to do as the Lord Jesus has come
and revealed himself unto us indeed for the Lord Jehovah then
is my strength and we do gain his strength, my strength and
my song. Well, perhaps there's not much
singing today, and by that I mean spiritual singing. But do we
pray for it, and do we long for it, and do we desire it? Because
what does it do? It brings honour and glory to
our God. My friends, I hope we are all
concerned about the honour and glory of God. We're not happy
to just drag on in our little life on this earth. But may we
be concerned that his name is honoured and glorified, to realise
what he's done in granting us this great and glorious and blessed
gift of salvation. But we haven't been passed by. Haven't been passed by, you know,
remember that blind man Bartimaeus. He didn't want to be passed by,
did he? And he cried out. And he cried
out the more. Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy
upon me. What a good thing if you and
I have cried out. And perhaps the devil said, well, be quiet. You won't ever gain success. What a mercy when the Holy Spirit
moves us to cry out all the more. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. Oh, how wonderful it is when
God gives us a cry for mercy, a cry to know his salvation,
and then to be able to praise him for it. When he's heard and
answered our cry, and what a comfort it is to realize that we are
part of the family of God, and that by his grace one day we
shall be around the throne of God in heaven singing his praises
eternally. This does put things, does it
not, in a right and good perspective, the things of time and the things
of eternity. Here we have in this little chapter,
this twelfth chapter, the things of eternity. Here we have in
the fourth of John the things of eternity set before that woman
of Samaria so very clearly. The Lord God omnipotent reigns
today. The Lord God today is the same. Don't forget that. You might
think that was a wonderful occasion when the Lord came to that Samaritan
woman. My friend, it's no less a wonderful occasion today when
the Lord comes and meets with you meets with me, none less
because we receive the water of life. May we be blessed with
it and may we rejoice truly before God and may these words this
morning have a gracious and most blessed effect upon us. so that
we are able to say, and this was, it's written here in a very
personal way, in a very individual way, and may we be able to say
it in a very personal way, just as Isaiah was able to say, behold
God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also is become
my salvation. There was a time when he wasn't,
but now he has. Bless God for that. Therefore,
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Amen.