Prayer Meeting Address in Glendale on 11th September, 1952.
By REV. JOHN COLQUHOUN.
“Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah xii. 3).
ON a recent prayer meeting night I endeavoured to draw your attention to the song which is put in the mouth of the Church on the day of deliverance, as that is brought before us in the first two verses of this chapter. We have, in the verse before us, the effect on the Lord’s people of being put in a position to sing this song. They are to draw water with joy from the wells of salvation. This is something which belongs specially to them and is not the portion of any who are strangers to grace. The fact that the word is in the plural shows that there are many wells.
(1) The whole Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, is a well of salvation
for it is a wonderful unfolding of that salvation which Christ has worked out for sinners. It is a revelation of that salvation from the point of view of the promises contained in the Old Testament of a coming Messiah, and believers under the Old Testament dispensation saw them to be full of Christ, who is the salvation of His people. The ceremonial worship of the Old Testament economy with its sacrifices, offerings, priesthood, washings and ordinances, was but the shadow of good things to come, for these good things which were prefigured were the humiliation, sufferings, and death of the Son of God when He came as the salvation of His people. The New Testament reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the glorious antitype of all the types and shadows which went before, revealing God as a just God and a Saviour, for “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” In short it is that Word which reveals man’s lost and ruined condition by the Fall, Redemption by Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit in applying that redemption to sinners. “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
(2) The preaching the Word is a well of salvation.
Much goes under the name of preaching in our day which is not preaching the gospel, and which can never be a well of salvation. There is, however rarely, a preaching which is a well of salvation to immortal souls. It is the preaching which Paul had when he said, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” He refused to substitute anything else for this preaching and scorned to embellish it with “excellency of speech or of wisdom,” determining “not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This was the subject in which he gloried as something that was above everything in which men glory, for he says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Paul was not alone in this for it is the theme that is nearest the heart of every true minister of Christ as the godly James Durham, Glasgow, put it: “(1) Christ is the text of preaching; (2) The foundation and groundwork of preaching; (3) The great end of preaching; (4) The power and life of preaching.” In other words, it is ALL CHRIST.
(3) The family altar is a well of salvation.
In olden times the head of the family was the priest of his family to offer up sacrifices to God, and every man, as he set up house for himself, was duty bound to offer up sacrifices for himself and all his household. This ensured that the worship of God was kept up in the families which were within the pale of the visible church. In connection with these sacrifices the duty of the priest or head of the family was to instruct those under his charge as to the meaning of the sacrifices, and show that they were the shadow of good things to come. This was the case down through the ages until the advent of the Aaronic priesthood, and therefore is an example to us under the New Testament dispensation for holding of family worship. Many a one who is to-day on Mount Zion above got their first drink out of the wells of salvation at family worship, and this ought to be an incentive to heads of families to set up the family altar for it might be the means of saving, at least, some members of the family. Happy is the head of a family of whom God says, as He said of Abraham of old, “For I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
(4) Secret worship is a well of salvation.
Under this comes the secret reading and searching of God’s Word, secret prayer and self-examination. The searching of God’s Word was recommended by the Saviour when He was on earth. “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” Many treat the Bible as if it were a lottery book. When in perplexity they open it and the first passage upon which their eye falls is taken as something from which comfort, or light, or assurance is given to them in a particular case. While not saying that the Lord does not, in this way, at times, give light and guidance under peculiar circumstances, it ought never to be a substitute for the diligent searching of God’s Word. Through careful and patient study of God’s Word in secret our souls ought to be steeped in it in such a way that when the Holy Spirit is pleased to move over the darkness which at times envelopes the souls of the Lord’s people the Word received into the heart will respond to that motion. This searching, in order to be of real value to the soul, must be accompanied by secret prayer, which is the spring of true spiritual worship. While engaged in these secret duties many a one of the Lord’s people had to say, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
(5) The Sacraments are a well of salvation.
There is no efficacy in the Sacraments of themselves, but when faith is exercised on its object, the Sacraments become a means for conveying blessings to the renewed soul, and giving that soul a taste of the joy of God’s salvation. Without mentioning anything at the moment of the Sacrament of Baptism, we have in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the sufferings and death of Christ set before us by symbols, and the Lord’s people, in the exercise of faith, feeding upon Christ to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. The circumstances under which they remember His dying love are in themselves instructive. This duty they perform in the wilderness of this world in the presence of angels, men and devils, and when faith is in living exercise they get the graces of the Spirit in their souls strengthened so that they are enabled to glorify Him who has opened this well of salvation, saying: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
(6) The fellowship of the Lord’s people is a well of salvation.
“They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.” When they meet they can speak of their troubles and trials and find that, though there are differences in many details, there are many points of similarity. The devil, the world, and the flesh in themselves, are never at a loss to devise devices calculated to overwhelm each child of God at his most vulnerable points, and therefore there may be many differences as to their experiences in this connection, but they are all agreed in this, that there is only one resort in all their trials, and that is, the Lord Himself. They can speak of His deliverances, and derive fresh encouragement from speaking of them or hearing of them from the lips of others. They are thus encouraged to believe that it is the Lord’s dealings which they have experienced, and are strengthened to say with the Psalmist, “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” In this sweet fellowship, which is one of the evidences and also one of the fruits of the liberty of the gospel, believers have been encouraged to go on their way rejoicing, for in the company of His people they have tasted of the joy of the Lord’s salvation.
They draw out of these wells of salvation. While the woman of Samaria, in her ignorance, said to the Saviour, “Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep,” yet it is true that these wells of salvation require something by which we are to draw from them. This brings before us the necessity of faith. The wells which have been mentioned will profit none without faith, and, faith being a gift of God, implies the necessity of the Holy Spirit to plant it in the soul. Christ is the object of faith, and being in the wells of salvation, He acts as the magnetic pole does to the magnetised needle, He draws the believer to Him, and thus comfort and strength and joy are ministered to the believer. Thus their mourning is turned to dancing, their sackcloth is put off, and they are girded with gladness, and are enabled to say with David, “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.”
They draw water from the wells of salvation. This may indicate the copiousness of the supply from these wells. The Lord is represented in Scripture as a liberal Giver. All the fullness of grace and truth are laid up in Him, and His poor and needy ones shall never lack, for He says, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” Thus we see that He gives enough to satisfy “the desire of every living thing.” Water also is that which cleanses, and thus represents the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son which cleanses from all sin.
It is with joy that they are to draw water from the wells of salvation. Religion is represented by the world as something gloomy and unsuited for people who want to have joy. It is true that the Lord, in His goodness, created us in such a way that we are capable of experiencing joy, but the evil bent which our nature received in the Fall causes us to seek joy where no lasting joy can be found. There is no real joy to be experienced in this world but the joy that is connected with drawing from the wells of salvation. In these wells the soul attains to fellowship with Christ, and is enabled to say, in spite of what the world says of religion, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” This is real joy in contrast with anything which the world has to give. However, it is not merely as it is a contrast to that of the world that this joy is to be viewed. In this world the Lord’s people rejoice but in a measure, and the largest measure of it which they are capable of experiencing here is but small in comparison to what is to be experienced in heaven for the Psalmist says, “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
May it be given us of the Lord to seek no joy in this world but the joy that comes from drawing out of the wells of salvation, and then our joy in eternity would be a joy that is “unspeakable and full of glory.”