Drawing Water from the Wells of Salvation

This is the manuscript of the Christmas Day sermon as we celebrate the birth of Immanuel...God with us.

Isaiah 12:3 NIV With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

The challenge of our text is very personal in application. You must do your own rejoicing in the Lord, and all of us must draw our own water from the wells of salvation. To not draw from the wells of salvation is not wise. 

We draw water from the well of forgiveness ourselves.  With the living water of salvation, we also draw from the well of our new relationship with God. We draw water from the well of the indwelling Spirit.  We draw water from the well of assurance that you have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens 

So let the Christ of Christmas come into your heart and bring you the living water of life so that you draw water from the wells of salvation forever.   

Scripture Reading: 

Isaiah 12:1‭-‬6 NIV In that day you will say: “I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

Introduction

Text 

Isaiah 12:3 NIV With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

If the scripture Jean read earlier sounds familiar it should. It was the same one that we read two weeks ago when I said that through Jesus God became our salvation.  

When I ended that sermon, I said that Isaiah could say, “God has become my salvation” because he had come to a point of faith and commitment when God’s salvation became real to him.

Some say, “Education is my salvation.” Some say, “Marriage is my salvation.” Some say, “My family is my salvation.” Some say, “My money is my salvation.” Some say, “My government is my salvation.” With God in your life through His Son Jesus Christ, He offers salvation from the past, the present, and the future.

Christmas is a time for rejoicing, the time of the year when we are reminded over and over that our God is great and that He offers salvation to all people everywhere through faith in Jesus Christ.

 Salvation produces Joy.

During this Christmas season we can say along with the psalmist who wrote in the 105th Psalm:

Psalms 100:1‭-‬5 NIV Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

When Christ was born, his birth was announced by an angel and followed by an angelic choir. 

Luke 2:8‭-‬14 NIV And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Jesus came to produce joy in the hearts of those who would trust and obey him. 

It was Jesus who said;

John 15:9‭-‬11 NIV “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Last week I talked a little about John chapter 17 which is known as Jesus' great High Priestly Prayer. In it He prays for Himself, He prays for the apostles, and He prays for all of us who will come to Him by faith. 

In a part of the prayer which I didn’t read last week Jesus talked to the father about the joy that he desired for his disciples:

John 17:13 NIV “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they (His disciples) may have the full measure of my joy within them.

You’ve heard me say this before, Joy is defined as "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation." 

With this definition, we could say that "happiness" and "joy" are interchangeable. But that’s not biblical joy. 

Happiness is usually dependent on circumstances. If everything goes well, I'm happy. If things don't go well, I'm not happy.  

Our joy, the joy of salvation that we get through Jesus, should rise above circumstances. This joy is not produced by something external that makes me feel happy. It is the supernatural result of a life filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God. 

Galatians 5:22-26 (HCSB)22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25 Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.26 We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. 

Jesus’ birth was then and still is an occasion for joy. The kind of joy expressed in the familiar Christmas carol Joy to the World.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing

But joy is just one of the wonderful things that God provides through Jesus Christ. The exceptional volume or quantity of the things that God provides can be compared to wells of living water in a hot, dry country where water is scarce. 

To identify with the metaphor of living water, let's go to the Old Testament. 

When the Israelites left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, God provided the people with fresh water as they traveled through the desert.  

Exodus 15:22‭-‬27 NIV Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

There are other examples of God providing the people with fresh water in Exodus Chapter 17 and in Numbers Chapter 20.  

In the New Testament Jesus described the gift of the Holy Spirit in terms of a fountain of living water that would be within the heart of the believer.

John 7:37‭-‬39 NIV On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Now God is not a cistern 

His supply is not limited. He provides all the living water we will ever need.

A cistern is a tank used for the collection and storage of rainwater. They are used in many homes in Hawaii. We have a friend who lives in the Virgin Islands, and she told us that they use cisterns to collect rainwater for bathing and cleaning. In some instances, a cistern is a bottle-shaped tank chiseled out of solid rock. In other instances, it is dug out of the ground, and then the walls are coated with a type of rock or cement. 

Here’s the difference between a cistern and God.

Cisterns are constructed by human effort. God has always existed. He is the creator. We know the creation story as written in Genesis 1 & 2.

Cisterns are limited in both quantity and capacity. God is unlimited in both quantity and capacity.

Cisterns are subject to leakage and destruction. God’s grace and mercy has no measure and is eternal. His grace and mercy can’t be destroyed.

So you see that the living water that God provides is eternal and without measure.   

Take a look at what Jesus said to the woman at the well 

John 4:10‭-‬14 NIV Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Look at John 7:37 and 38 again.  

John 7:37‭-‬38 NIV On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Jesus made this statement during the Feast of Booths/ Tabernacles which was one of the annual feasts that God required the Jews to attend in Jerusalem.

This feast marked the end of the agricultural year, during the harvesting of grapes and other summer crops. The feast provided an opportunity to express thanksgiving for God's bountiful provision of the material needs of his people.

 It was during this feast that Israel remembered God's miraculous intervention during their time in the wilderness. As part of the celebration, priests would carry water to the altar in the temple, recalling God's provision of water from the rock which is found in Exodus 17. On the last, and most important day of the festival, priests would circle the altar seven times with a container of water. This is the moment Jesus makes this claim, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 

These words continue a theme Jesus has used before, including with the Samaritan woman at the well and one other time to a crowd of people near the shores of Galilee. If you remember it was part of the “I Am” series that I did not long ago.

John 6:35 NIV Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

I also want to draw your attention to another scripture, this time one from Revelation.

Revelation 22:1‭-‬2 NIV Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

This internal spring, or stream, is indicative of the Holy Spirit, which comes to live inside all who come to faith in Christ. 

Salvation is what brings this water of life, and it is

• always fresh.
• always in abundant supply.
• is always free.

Here is a crucial point that I want to make sure that we understand, “We all must draw the living water of salvation for ourselves.”

When it comes to the matter of salvation, each of us must draw our own water. 

We must recognize and respond to the resources God makes available.

We must not seek our joy or security in the wrong way or in the wrong place. Love, joy, peace, and hope are to be found only as we draw water from the wells of salvation. To neglect the wells of salvation is to rob ourselves of joy, peace, and hope, and the privilege of helping others.

We draw water from the well of forgiveness ourselves.

What I said last week is worth repeating

Ephesians 1:7‭-‬10 NIV In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Colossians 3:13 NIV Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

As I said last week, God, offers the gift of forgiveness. Our part is to repent and turn from a life of evil and self-destructiveness.

We only receive forgiveness when we acknowledge our sin, repent, and put our faith and trust in Jesus.

With the living water of salvation, we also draw from the well of our new relationship with God.

In Jesus Christ we can all rejoice in the privilege of being a part of the family of God. Like I also said last week. With salvation we receive the gift of adoption into the family of God

John 1:12‭-‬13 NIV Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

There is a poem written by Harriet E. Buell which says.

My Father is rich in houses and lands,

He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands! Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,

His coffers are full, He has riches untold. I’m a child of the King, a child of the King:

With Jesus my Saviour, I’m a child of the King.

Yes, God is our loving Father and we are His children.

We draw water from the well of the indwelling Spirit. 

We read earlier in John 7:37-39 that Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit as being a river of living water that wells up from within the heart of the believer.

The Holy Spirit has come to be our Companion, our Helper, our Teacher, our Guide, our source of spiritual energy. 

John 14:15‭-‬17 NIV “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

We draw water from the well of assurance that you have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens 

John 14:2‭-‬4 NIV My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

2 Corinthians 5:1‭-‬5 NIV For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Conclusion

We are to draw living waters from the wells of salvation with joy. The words of our text should bring us great personal encouragement. 

Isaiah 12:3 NIV With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

The challenge of our text is very personal in application. You must do your own rejoicing in the Lord, and all of us must draw our own water from the wells of salvation. To not draw from th wells of salvation is not wise. 

So let the Christ of Christmas come into your heart and bring you the living water of life so that you draw water from the wells of salvation forever.   

I usually end my sermons with a prayer but today I want to end with lyrics from a song. The song is I've Got Joy. It was written by Kyle Wayne Lee / Philip David Wickhan and Recorded by Cece Winans 

I've got joy in the struggle
I've got peace in the storm
I've got strength in the battle
I don't fear anymore
I'm a child of heaven
And my hope is secure
I've got joy 'cause I've got Jesus


He gave me beauty for ashes, turned my life around
He broke my chains and now I dance on solid ground
For all He's done to save me, I will raise my voice
I've got Jesus, so I've got joy

He bore all of my burdens
Yeah, my debt has been paid
Then He said to my dry bones
Rise up out of that grave
He has all of my worship
All the honor and praise
I've got joy 'cause I've got Jesus

He gave me beauty for ashes, turned my life around
He broke my chains and now I dance on solid ground
For all He's done to save me, I will raise my voice
I've got Jesus, so I've got
Joy like a river running through my soul
Joy all around me everywhere I go
Even in the desert still it overflows
Oh, I've got joy
Yeah, I've got
Joy never-ending 'cause He called my name
Every breath I breathe, a testament of amazing grace
Oh, hallelujah everything has changed
Oh, I've got joy
Yeah, I've got joy

He gave me beauty for ashes (ooh, yeah) turned my life around
He broke my chains and now I dance on solid ground
For all He's done to save me, I will raise my voice
I've got Jesus, so I've got joy
Joy like I'm river running through my sou
Joy all around me everywhere I go
Even in the desert still it overflows
I've got Jesus
So glad I have Him
I've got Jesus
So I've got joy

In Jesus name I pray

Sermon Audio