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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/the-wells-of-salvation/
Let's turn to the book of Isaiah please, chapter 12. Isaiah chapter 12, and again a warm welcome to all who have come out tonight. Isaiah 12, and we'll read at verse 2. 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 ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. That's what I want to talk to you tonight in the remaining minutes of the meeting, the wells of salvation.
It was back in the 1800s a man by the name of John Nelson Darby wrote a hymn, and there was a verse of that hymn that went like this, this world is a wilderness wide, I have nothing to seek nor to choose, I have no thought in this waste to abide, I have not to regret nor to lose.
A wilderness, a wilderness wide. Now when I think of a wilderness, I can't help it, but my mind goes back to our little visit to Israel a number of years ago, and I think of the Negev desert area. Negev means the south in Hebrew, apparently, and that whole area is so dry, just adjacent to the Dead Sea there, and you can look out on that landscape, there's not a cactus to be seen, there's not a tumbleweed to be tumbled, there's nothing to be seen anywhere but dry sand and hard, hot rock.
It's a wilderness, a wilderness. You can imagine then, in that kind of scenario, how important it would be to have this lovely, cool well, right? And how important that would be to like the Benuean people who would come and they would water their flocks and it would give life and refreshment to both man and beast.
The importance of the well. Now the picture that we've got here in our verse is using the idea of the well, not in a natural way like in the Negev, but it's in a spiritual sense. Talking about that which satisfies the soul, that gives refreshment to the soul and gives life.
Now we've been hearing about the source of which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are many wells in the world. Talking about wells makes me thirsty. But there are many wells in the world. The devil has many wells.
In this wilderness, souls without Christ, though they may not know it, they are parched. They are dry. Every one of the devil's wells will promise joy and happiness. They will satisfy the soul. It might be love of money.
It might be political power. It might be going after sport or drama, the movie scene, the music scene, popularity, fame, noise, excitement. There are many wells out there in the world. Now the sad thing is they're fake wells because they don't deliver on what they promise.
Yes, you can go in for these things. You can draw from them. But they ultimately will draw you in and take you down. And when you hit bottom, you will find that their promise of satisfaction and refreshment was but an illusion, the devil's wells.
They will leave your soul barren and dry, unfulfilled and empty, and ultimately you will lose your soul forever because of the problem of human sin. There's a man that we read about in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke chapter 16.
He lived in a gated community in a very desirable area. An exclusive address, you might say, but that man, though he lived so well in this world, he died. And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment.
He was parched. He was dry. He was crying for a drop of water when the Lord Jesus was here on earth and told the story. And he's still parched and dry tonight. Now that's a sad reality. That is the consequence ultimately of drinking from the wells of this world.
Don't be deceived by the wells of this world. That brings me to the verse that we've read and I want to think with you now of the divine wells and it's described here as wells of salvation. You see God has got wells and reverently speaking he dug them and they were designed and they were planned from the antiquity of eternity.
Conceived in the mind and heart of God they are tried, they are true, and they really do satisfy the soul. They bring delight to the heart. And he invites you tonight to come and to joyfully draw out of them.
Draw out from the wells of salvation. I go back in my mind to the Old Testament and I recall how Israel, when they were delivered out of Egypt, they drank from his well. And when they were on the safe side now of the Red Sea, they saw the bodies of the Egyptian army washing up on the sea and they began to sing and they sang.
Verse 2 that we read from in Isaiah chapter 12. You'll find it again back there in Exodus chapter 15. They sang for the Lord, Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become my salvation. That well of salvation was deliverance from the Egyptian army.
It brought them, it brought them the gift of life. They wouldn't be killed by the Egyptians. And freedom. They were delivered now from the power and the domination of the land of Egypt. And you see when God gives a soul a drink from the wells of salvation, they will receive in that moment of trusting Christ as their Savior, everlasting life and they will receive everlasting freedom, deliverance from the penalty and the power of their sin.
The salvation of God. We're here tonight to tell you that it really satisfies the soul. It delivers the soul from hell. It brings us onto God and you will never need anything else for eternity once you get a drift, a draft rather of the wells of God's salvation.
And the soul that is on Jesus has leaned for repose. He'll never, no never forsake to its foes. That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake, he'll never, no never, no never forsake. God's salvation is the only way that you can get from here to God's heaven.
It's the only connection that will take you there. It's God's salvation. It's a drink from the wells of salvation. I want to come and think now with you about the digging of these wells. The digging of the wells and their depth.
I remember it was back in January of 2001. That's before some of the meeting tonight were even born. Our brother Roy Weber, late brother Roy Weber from Parkersburg, he took me on a trip. We went south.
Oh we went to Albuquerque. We went on down to Phoenix. We went down to San Diego and back up through California and so on. But one of the places that we stopped at along the way was on that diagonal from Wichita, Kansas down to Tootenkerry down there in Texas or on the border of New Mexico.
Anyway, along that road there was a little town called Greensburg, Kansas. And what we found in that town was a museum and this place that was called and known as the Big Well. Maybe some of you have visited Greensburg, Kansas.
The Big Well. And sure enough it was a big thing. It was built back in 1887 by crews of men using picks and shovels and tackling and barrels and they hauled the dirt up out of there and so on. They sunk that shaft down 109 feet.
It was 32 feet wide cross diameter and it was built at a cost of $45 ,000 back then in 1887. You can go there today and take the stairway down into the well and they have a museum and so on there for visitors.
Now the purpose of that well was to supply water for the steam locomotives, the railroads that were coming through that area. And so they dug the Big Well. The Big Well. Now God has dug some big wells too.
Some big wells. And a tremendous cost. It cost the Lord Jesus his life upon the cross at Calvary to provide those wells of salvation. It cost him his death upon the cross. And on that cross as he bore the full weight of our sins in his own body on the tree, he plumbed the depths of the wrath of God against sin.
It was our sins that he carried. It was God's wrath against our sins that bore him down. In all its unmitigated fury it came upon him. He could say through the psalmist, I sink in deep mire where there is no standing.
I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. And changing the metaphor a little to fire, he says, far from above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevails against them. But down, down, down he sank.
And we may not know and we cannot tell what pains he had to bear. But we believe it was for us that he hung and suffered there. What was he doing? He was digging the wells of salvation. And he has provided as a result an infinite supply of salvation to every single person that has ever trusted the Savior.
They have come into the goodness and the greatness of God's salvation. And there's not one has ever been lost. Not one. And that supply tonight is available to the whosoever will. The whole wide world is invited to come and to find satisfaction and to find joy in the person of Christ who died for sinners upon the cross to put away their many sins and to bring them back to God.
He's the Savior that we present again tonight in the gospel. But some of you who have known the gospel for many years, you are like me before I was saved. I used to wrestle and wonder with this difficulty.
Yes, I do know the facts of the gospel. In fact, I used to preach to the boys in school. I wasn't saved myself, but I could tell them how to be saved. You see, it wasn't a good life and it wasn't your baptism.
It wasn't confirmation. It wasn't joining a church or anything. You needed Christ. I would preach at them, but I wasn't saved myself. And my problem was this. How can I make it my own? How can I receive salvation?
How do I actually become saved? That was my problem. I heard a story one time that may be of help to some tonight. There was a traveler many years ago on the prairies in Canada and traveling across the prairies.
He was waiting for a train, waiting for that steam train to arrive. It was a hot day. It was midsummer and standing on the platform of the train station, he spied a fountain of water at the far end of the station.
And so he made his way along and he stopped there and he looked, but there was no flowing water. He couldn't see any flowing water, but there was a sign on the wall that just said, stoop and drink, stoop and drink.
So he stood there and he scratched his head, but where's the water? Where's the water? I'm thirsty. I just need a drink of water. So no sign of water. He turned away, walked about halfway down the platform and said, but there must be some water there, stoop and drink.
So he turned and went back up again and still no water, but there's the sign, stoop and drink. What was he to do? So he turned away again until he thought to himself, well, I'll just go and stoop. So he went back to the place where the faucet was and he looked around to see if anybody was watching, nobody around.
And he took a little step forward and stooped down. I don't know how it happened in those days. There wouldn't have been a light sensor or anything like that, but maybe a pressure plate that activated the faucet and suddenly there was the water.
And that thirsty man took a long drink of that cold water that satisfied his soul, his body on that occasion. Now, here is the thought, not of stooping, but you'll notice it's drawing. Drawing out of the well.
With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. This teaches me something now. Listen carefully. You have to do the drawing. If you're going to have this salvation, if you're going to have a drink from this well of salvation, you are going to have to draw it yourself.
You'll have to take your little pitcher and dip it down into the well and get that living water, God's salvation from Christ. It will never be yours by you standing looking at it like a deer in the headlights, dazzled and immobilized and just sitting.
You'll never have God's salvation. You're going to have to come and you're going to have to receive for yourself the Savior. Draw it to yourself, drink it in for yourself to get the benefit of it. Now, our brother, very interestingly, has mentioned John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Did you know, and this is not original with myself, did you know that in John 3, 16, you have a reservoir and you have a river and you have a pitcher? You have a pitcher. You say, I never thought of that before.
What's the reservoir? Well, listen to it. For God so loved the world. That's a big love. That's a reservoir. What did he do? That he gave his only begotten son. He did something about it. There's the flow of that love.
There's the river. He said, but where's the pitcher? Listen again, when the Savior died on the cross and God gave his son to the death of the cross on behalf of sinners, God was bringing that right to you like the river has come to you.
Well, you need to take the picture now and whosoever believeth in him, that is, you take him for yourself. He's my Savior. What does the word say? Should not perish, but have everlasting life. You'll have everlasting life.
You'll never perish. And I'll tell you what you'll do. Your heart will respond with joy to that. Yeah. And for the first moment ever in your life, you'll be drawing with joy from the wells of God's salvation.
It's a wonderful thing to be saved and to know it. That brings me to the delight of the wells. The delight of the wells. You know, the devil's lie is that if you were to have your sins forgiven and you were to be saved and you were to start out in the Christian life, that you'd be absolutely miserable.
And if you trust the Savior to remove your sins forever from before God's face, how unsatisfying that would be. That's a lie from the pit. That's the devil's lie. You know, I reflect on the night that God saved me way back then.
I was 13 years. So, you know, that was a long time ago. And I'd heard the gospel all my life. As I've mentioned already, I knew the facts. But that night after a gospel meeting, really wanting to be saved, I knew that my sins, if I got what I deserved, they would take me to hell.
I knew that. And then I thought about the Lord Jesus on the cross. Something else I knew was that he died for sinners there on the cross. I knew that. And then it came to me why that's exactly who I am.
That means he died for me. And I thought, well, that's all I need. God is satisfied with that. And I'm satisfied with that, too. And, you know, the next thought that came to me was this. And this is a well.
I was drinking from this well. Well, I'll never be in hell. How about that? I'll never be in hell. That was a good drink to get. I'll never be in hell. And then the next thing, that means my sins are all forgiven.
That was a wonderful well to drink from. And God now is my father. I remember the next morning going to school and we changed buses. And at this bus stop, I'm looking around. I could see the green grass.
I could see the green in the trees and the orange. It was starting in at fall and up in the sky, the blue sky and the white clouds. And I thought my father made those things. And it brought joy to my heart.
I now had a relationship with God. I was drinking from this well. God is my father. There was no more enmity between us. You could call that the well of reconciliation, harmony with God. And then another well that brought me delight was this.
I'm going to be ready when the Lord comes. He's coming again. And I'm going to be ready. I'm going to meet him. And then later on, I suppose I was drinking from the fellowship that I could enjoy now with other Christians.
That was a sweet well to drink from. And God has many wells. You could go on and on. Many wells, many wells that come from salvation. And with joy, you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation. That's what we've been doing here today, brothers and sisters, isn't it?
We've been drawing from the wells, haven't we? We've been drawing it in with joy in our souls. We commend God's salvation to you tonight. Let me close with this, the duration of the wells. You know, if you were to go down to Greensburg in Kansas there tonight, you'll find that that well is no longer used as municipal supply in the area.
And even the building that I visited with Brother Roy, that was destroyed in a tornado in 2007. But they built a new one if you still want to go. But they don't use it anymore. That's just a reminder to us, you see, that the wells of earth will one day run dry.
This world as a whole even is not permanent. But you see, when it comes to the wells of salvation, listen to what the Lord Jesus said to that woman in John chapter 4. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. This is not a cistern that's going to run out. This is a well that's springing up. And you'll never need anything else for God's heaven and for satisfaction of your soul.
It's a well that springs up within your soul. Sometimes we sing as believers, the streams of earth, on earth I've tasted, but more deep I'll drink above. And you see, when we get home to heaven, listen, there's a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.
And we're going to drink our fill from that. And it'll never run dry. It'll last forever. And in those ages to come, God will show unto us the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
And forever and forever, we're going with joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation. Would you not come with us tonight? In the words of another, we will do thee good. We invite you to come to Christ.
He's the Savior. He's the one who can satisfy your soul and fit you for God's heaven and for home. Trust the Lord will bless his word. Let's take a moment in prayer.