Now I want to turn with you this morning to the prophecy of Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah on chapter 12. Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 12, and we want to read from the first verse. It's probably one of the smallest chapters in the prophecy of Isaiah, and beginning at verse 1. It says, 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 thy comfort is made. 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 ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye 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, thy inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. We know that God will bless the reading of his holy word. Now this chapter, as you will notice, It begins with the phrase, and in this day. And in this day, which means that it's a continuation from what has been said in chapter 11. Because in chapter 11 begins with the prophet speaking about the Messiah. If you turn back a page, at the beginning there, the first two verses, it reads, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. And this is about the Messiah and about the millennial. It's about Christ's millennial reign upon the earth when he shall reign for a thousand glorious years. And we read about the things that will happen in that period, or some of them anyway, in chapter 11. I haven't time to go through them all this morning, but it tells us some of the things that will happen when Christ comes to reign. Again, remember that the Bible speaks of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. His first coming was to a cradle. He came as a babe to Bethlehem. That was His first advent. And then as we read through the Scriptures, and particularly in the New Testament, We find that Paul teaches us that he's coming to the air. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and he's coming to the earth for his people, the redeemed, the church of Jesus Christ. But as we find, as we read through the scriptures, in the prophetic scriptures, there is the second coming or the second advent, and that's his coming to the earth. Because we read in these prophets, and all in the New Testament, that the Lord is coming to set up his kingdom on this earth. And he shall reign on the earth for a thousand glorious years, called the millennial reign of Christ. I know that there's some people who believe that we're already in the millennial. I cannot understand how they come to that conclusion. Because if you go through your Bible and find all the scriptures related to the millennial reign, it tells us that Christ, His glory shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. It tells us in Isaiah chapter 2 that the nations shall war no more. They shall turn their spears into pruning hooks. And that's certainly not what the world is like today. And so we find here that this chapter is about the people of God who will praise the Lord when He comes to reign upon the earth. It's a song of praise for the people of God. And as we read these verses, you read them this afternoon, and you'll see how many things they praise the Lord for. But you know, friends, we want to apply this to ourselves this morning. We want to apply it to ourselves. Because the Lord wants to reign in our heart. If you know Christ as your Savior, if you're walking with Him, He wants to reign in your heart and in mine. And He wants you and me to crown Him Lord of all. There's many of us here this morning, probably in the great majority, and we have received Christ into our heart to be our Savior. I'm sure you can look back to that day or that night when you called out for mercy and put your faith in the finished work of Christ. And, my, you can remember that. Well, I want to tell you this morning that He not only wants to be your Savior, but He wants to be, my, your King. He wants to reign in your life, not only save your soul, but reign in your life. And as we read through this chapter, this small but great chapter of Isaiah, we see that this chapter is a song for the people of God to sing. It's a song of praise for those who have let Christ set up his throne in their heart so that he might reign in their life every day. And I want to ask myself this morning, and I want to ask you this morning, is Jesus Christ reigning in your life? Is Jesus Christ reigning on the throne of your life? He's your savior. But does he reign in your heart every day? Do you bow to his rule every day? My those who let Christ reign, my will get the best out of salvation. Tell me this this morning. Maybe you're here and you're not long saved. Or maybe you're here this morning and you're over 20 years saved, and maybe you're even more than that. It's Christ reigning in your heart. Has He set up His throne? Have you allowed Him to set up His throne in your life? And, you know, friends, the text that I want to leave with you is found in verse 3 of this chapter. It says here, therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And I want to think this morning about the wells of salvation. You know, we are living in a very sophisticated age, but many years ago in my grandparents' days, many of them depended on their water for the wells. And people used to come, and they were employed to, maybe twice a day, to bring two buckets full of water from the wells, because in those wells, there were water. And of course, water is the source of life. You and I cannot do without it. And of course, it brings refreshment to us at times. If you watch the marathon runners running the marathon, that along the route of over 26 miles, there's people there giving them water. But I'm looking at it this morning, not as literal water, I'm looking at it as spiritual water. And we read here in verse three, therefore with joy shall we draw water from the wells of salvation. You see, we can get blessing from the wells of salvation. And to get them, you need to draw from the wells of salvation. The people who brought the water to the people many years ago, they had to go and draw the water. And I want to talk this morning about some of the things that we can draw, some of the blessings and truths that we can draw from the wells of salvation every day. And my, from those wells and from those things, there's blessing and help and strength for our heart. So let's look at some of these wells this morning. The first well I want to talk about is the well of truth, the well of truth. You know, you can begin to draw out some great truths that bring joy and help and encouragement to our hearts. And the first truth I want to talk to you about this morning is the truth of justification. The truth of justification. You might know that you're justified, but you know the truth of it, and that's the thing. You see, justification is one of the great doctrinal truths of the Christian faith. It's a blessing that every believer has. Every child of God in this morning service is justified. Every child of God. My, we have justification. The moment you received Christ, God not only pardoned you from your sin, but He justified you. He justified you. And we want to look at the meaning of this word, the meaning of justification. Justification is a divine act whereby an infinitely holy God judicially declares a believing sinner to be righteous and acceptable before him because Christ has borne the sinner's sin on the cross and has been made unto him righteousness. You see, it's God that justifies. It's God that saved you, and it's God that justifies you. You know, friends this morning, man cannot justify himself, nor can he justify anyone else. My only God can justify the sinner, and the believing sinner is made righteous in Christ, and now God sees you no longer in the rags of sin. He sees you clothed in the righteousness of Christ through him. He sees you this morning just as if you'd never sinned at all. That's an easy way to remember what justification means. It means God sees us this morning, not what we once were. We were once, my, filthy with sin, deep in sin, but God seizes because Christ died for us at Calvary. He seizes this morning just as if we'd never sinned. That's the meaning of justification. And then there's the means of it. Two important scriptures, if you would turn over in your Bible just for a minute or two, into the book of Romans. Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, and the first verse says this, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So here's Paul, and he says here we're justified by faith. Now, when you go down the chapter to verse 9, he says this, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. So here's Paul, and he says we're justified by faith, and he's going on a little bit down the chapter, and he says we're justified by blood. And you might wonder, is Paul contradicting himself? He says, first of all, it's faith, and then he says, it's blood. You see, the blood of Christ is the basis on which God justifies the sinner. God needed a righteous basis on which he could declare the believing sinner to be righteous. And that basis was the blood of a son when he made an atonement for sin at Calvary. And on that basis, on that basis, God can rightly and judicially justify The man or the woman or the boy or girl who believes on him. So that's the basis. But then he says we're justified by faith. Faith is the means. Faith is the means of justification. Faith in Christ. This was the great truth that dawned upon Martin Luther. when the light of the gospel shone into his soul. And that Roman Catholic priest, my, he saw the truth of it, that he didn't need to do penance. He didn't need to pay. He didn't need to do anything. All he needed to do was believe. And my, when Luther came to Christ, my, the Roman Catholicism trembled. My dear friends, we see this morning that this great truth, the meaning of justification, it means being made righteous in Christ, the means of justification, and of course, the message of justification. Yeah, the message of justification is the message of the glorious gospel that we preach, that Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again to be our Savior. And those that believe on Him are justified from all things. Justified from all things. Without the law, God not only pardons us, but God justifies us at the same time. Heard a story about a little girl who was going to a party, a birthday party. And as she was going to this party, her mother had her dressed in a lovely dress. And she was ready before her lift came. And so she went out to play outside. And her dress was clean, and she was clean. There wasn't a spot on her. And then whatever happened outside, there'd been a lot of rain. And she tripped and fell. And there was a big splash. And then there was a big cry. And my, she cried out. And she was full of mud from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. And her mommy goes and brings her in. And now she takes off the filthy dress. It was a new dress, but it was a filthy dress now. She takes that off. And then she washes her. And then she washes her from top to bottom. And then she gets another dress, another dress, and she puts this new dress on her. And my, just then the lift came for the party. And as the little girl went down the pad to get into the car, my, it was as if she'd never been in the poodle at all. My, she had no more filth about her, and that's what justification is. God sees us in Christ His Son, just as if we'd never sinned. What a great truth. It's from the well of truth. And then, you know, there's not only the well of truth, but there's the well of substitution. Do you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac? God spoke to Abraham, told him to take a son up Mount Moriah and offer him on the altar for a burnt offering, and my God, Abraham obeyed God's call, and he takes his son, and he puts him on the altar. And as he takes the knife and was about to plunge it down into the breast of Isaac, God spoke to Abraham. And God said, Abraham, look behind you. And behind him, there was a ram caught in the thicket by the horns. And he says, take this sacrifice. And and put it on the altar and slay it in the stead of your son, or in the place of your son." That's substitution. The ram died in the place of Isaac. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in the place of me. He suffered on the altar of Calvary for my sins. He took my place. He bore my punishment. And bless God, we read here that Peter says, he his own self, bear my sins, and he bore them away in his own body on the tree. They'll never be found again, friends. He's bore them away. Peter says, Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. He was the just one. We were the unjust, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Yes, the wells of salvation, the wells of truth, the truth of justification, the truth of substitution, the truth of redemption. Now we read in Colossians that we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. You see, redeem, it means to purchase by the payment of a price. I was born just at the end of the Second World War, so that gives away my age. But you know, in the Second World War, at that particular period, there wasn't a big lot of money about. And sometimes, people had to maybe take something that was valuable to them, maybe a vase or maybe a piece of jewelry. And to pay their bills, they had to take it down to the pawn shop. And there, the man in the pawn shop would agree with them a price for that vase or for that piece of jewelry. And so the pawn shop owner would write them out a receipt, and the agreement would be that if they were able to come back, say, in a month or two months' time and repay the money that the pawn shop owner gave them, And he would add a little deposit to make profit on it. If they were able to come back, they were able to buy that jewelry or that vase, they were able to buy it out of the pawn shop. And that's really the thought of redemption. Christ died at Calvary and shed His blood to pay redemption's price. The price is paid. You don't have to go back to bed again. Man, this is the great truth of redemption. We have redemption this morning. We've been bought out not for five months or five years, but He redeemed our souls for all eternity. And I could go on this morning. There's only, this is also the great truth of regeneration. And we not only have justification and substitution and redemption, but regeneration as we've got new life. We've got new life. We've got eternal life. And my dear friends, there's reconciliation. We've been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This is one of the wells of salvation. And when you meditate upon these truths, They bring refreshment and joy and blessing to your soul. Yes. There's not only the truth of the wells of truth, there's not only this truth, but there's the truth of assurance, the truth of assurance. You know, if you want to get the best out of salvation, We need to draw water from the wells, and one of them is truth, and the other one is assurance. You see, sometimes people lose their assurance. Maybe they've been saved quite a number of years, and doubts begin to get in. Sometimes younger people, doubts began to come, and they wonder if they're really saved at all. And if God has forgiven them, they wonder if God has forgiven them for all their sins. And you know, friends, when you lose your assurance, when you lose your assurance, you have no peace. And you have no contentment. And you have no joy. You have no joy. Yes. How do we regain our assurance. How do we get that peace back? How do we get that contentment back? You regain your assurance by taking God at His word, by taking God at His word. Doesn't the Lord say, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? And I just take God at His word. Remember what it says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I just take God at his word. Didn't the Lord say, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee? Fear not, for I am with thee. And I just take God at His word. Because God doesn't lie. He doesn't make mistakes. The wells of salvation, the wells of truth, brings blessing and refreshment to our hearts. The wells of assurance, the wells of joy. You can draw joy from the wells of salvation. You see, truth and assurance brings joy. And when we draw from the wells of salvation, we find joy. And that joy will break through into your life, and people will see the joy of the Lord in you. And the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within us. We're a new creature, and the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit's dwelling in us continually, the fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness, and goodness, and faith, and meekness, and temperance, and every one of those things are found in the life of Christ. When the fruit of the Spirit is seen in you, people see Christ. People see Christ. And I could go on with these wells this morning, friends. The time is up. There's the wells of truth. There's the wells of assurance. There's the wells of joy. There's the wells of grace. God, by His grace, we need grace to help us. We need the grace of God each day for the root of life. The letter to the Hebrew says this in chapter 4 and verse 16. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You know, I remember a wee man years and years ago before I came into the ministry, but I used to go and I used to say, you know, there's tons and tons and tons of grace. When he prayed, he used to pray, Lord, there's tons, there's tons of grace. And you know, friends, my, there's plenty of grace. We need to come to the well of salvation and draw from that grace the throne of grace. There's grace to help you stand in this dark day in which we live. There's grace to help us shine for Jesus. There's grace to help us suffer. There's grace to help us serve the Lord. There's grace to help us to surrender. There's plenty of grace, but we need to draw from the throne of grace. We need to go to the throne of grace. Tell me this, do you go to the throne of grace? Because you need to go to the throne and draw from the throne of grace if you want grace. Now, I'll have to cut this down, but I just want to leave one little thought with you, and it's over in Genesis chapter... It's over here in Genesis chapter 26, and it's about Isaac, and it's about Wales that his father left him. It's Genesis chapter 26, and it says here in verse... Number 12, then Isaac sowed. Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year a hundredfold. And then it says this, and the Lord blessed him. That's a great phrase, isn't it? He received a hundredfold from Abraham and God blessed him. And the man waxed great and went forward and grew. until he became very great. You see, he grew until he became very great, for he had the possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and great store of servants. And you see, his greatness, he had everything. And then it says this, the Philistines envied him. You see, the enemy was there. They were jealous. They envied him. He was, the Lord blessed him. And he was very great, but the Philistines, the enemy, was against him. And then it says, for all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham, his father and Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth. So here's the enemy, and they're filling in the wells. that he needed for his flocks. And they tried to stop the blessing. They tried to get him to the place where he hadn't the same flocks as he used to. The enemy stopped the wells. Matt says, and the wells of his father digged in the days of Abraham filled them with earthen. And the Bimelech said to Isaac, go from us. for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Jerah, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. Brethren and sisters, this morning, you know the enemy. He wants to fill in the wells. He wants to take away the blessing. He wants to stop you from going forward. He wants to stop you from growing in the Lord. But, oh, that we might dig again the wells. that our fathers digged. And may we rejoice and praise God and enter into the fullness of salvation. Oh, that we might draw water from the wells of salvation. And may God bless us. And may God help us to go forward. And may we be true to the truths of the book and call them the things of God by the names that they used to call them. May you find comfort and strength and blessing as you draw from the wells of salvation.