Reopening the Wells of Salvation

Romans 9, we'll begin reading in verse 30, and read through chapter 10 in verse 13. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith.

But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works.

They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. And the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God, and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law. The man who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that is by faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?

That is to bring Christ down. Or, Who will descend into the deep? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, And believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, You will be saved.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, And it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the scripture says, Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all, And richly blesses all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Would you open your Bible with me to Romans chapter 1. We go back 4,000 years ago, And we're walking through the valley of Gerar, In the land of Palestine.

And we come upon an interesting scene. There's a well there, And men are digging in it. They're pulling out rocks and rubbish, And tons of dirt.

The kinds of things that we don't usually expect to find In a well of water. And only after much digging do they finally get down to the water table, And a shout for joy goes up, And everyone gets a refreshing drink of clean water.

And then they move on to another well in the valley, And find it to be in the same condition. And we watch again as they tediously dig down To the water, Clearing out the well.

And then they go on to another well, And still another, And another. And we begin to understand, This is a big project. And so we ask, What's going on here?

What's the big deal? And the man introduces himself as Isaac. And these are his servants.

And he tells us, Long ago, My father Abraham and his servants Dug all these wells For his family and for his herds. But after my father died, The Philistines stopped up these wells, Filling them with earth, So that no one could draw water from them.

And now we're just coming along, Many years later, Reopening those wells, That were dug many years ago, In the time of my father. You can read about it in Genesis chapter 26.

Now we fast forward some 3,500 years To the 16th century, About 500 years ago. And we see a Roman Catholic, Augustinian monk, Nailing 95 theses to the door Of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Challenging a debate. And then we watch him writing tracks and books That quickly multiplied Through Gutenberg's newly invented printing press.

And we see him drug before emperors And cardinals and bishops for hearings In which he was ordered to recant All of his writings. And we hear him refusing to do so, Saying, Here I stand.

I can do no other. So help me God. And for that we see him excommunicated. By the Roman Catholic Church. Viewed as a heretic.

His life threatened. But still he writes. And still he preaches. And still he translates. And a growing number of people, Not only in Germany, But all across Europe, Leave the Roman Catholic Church.

And join the protest movement That we now know as the Protestant Reformation. And we're watching this.

And we ask, What's going on here? And the man introduces himself to us. He's Martin Luther. And we say, What's the big deal, Martin? What can account for all that we're seeing here?

And he says in two words. The gospel. The gospel. It's all about the way that condemned sinners Are made right with a holy God.

Because I've come to see That it is by the works and righteousness Of Jesus Christ Received by faith alone.

And not as Rome teaches. That salvation is by Our works of righteousness. Now it's important for us to realize That Martin Luther, Like Isaac before him, Was not digging new wells.

He was simply reopening The old wells of salvation That had been dug by the Lord Jesus And his apostles. He was not inventing new truths.

He was discovering old ones. Indeed, The old time religion, The old, old story Of salvation through Christ alone.

So this was the way of salvation Taught by Christ and his apostles. But after Christ's ascension into heaven, It was not long before the Roman church Began to throw all sorts of things Into the well of salvation.

In went the merits of Mary and the saints To accumulate in heaven This great treasury of merit That you poor sinners can tap into By going on pilgrimages.

By visiting sites, Holy sites, Where there are the relics Of the saints. A locket of hair From the Virgin Mary. A piece of the robe Of the apostle Peter.

The head of John the Baptist. Indeed, At one point, There were three churches All having the head Of John the Baptist. And to visit and to give your money Was to earn so many years' escape From purgatory.

Into the wells Were dumped Infant baptism To wash away original sin To make you pure Before God.

Into the wells of salvation Were dumped The sacrifice of the Mass In which it was taught That when the priest Said the hocus pocus Over the elements That the bread Actually turned into The physical body of Christ And we partake, We eat Of Christ's physical body And the wine Turns into his Actual physical blood As he is being sacrificed Over and over and over again In the Mass.

Say, You better have a part In that sacrifice If you want your sins Forgiven. And into the wells Went the confessional And penance.

If you wanted your sins Forgiven, You must confess them To a priest Who would then Assign you So much to do And so much to suffer To make up For your sins.

There was the monastic life Vows of celibacy And poverty. And all of this Was done To secure One's own salvation. And it's in this way That the wells of salvation Were stopped up.

The very gospel Of Jesus Christ Had been lost To the greater population. Buried beneath tons Of false teaching And practices Of the Roman church.

And though the church Was amassing power And prestige And wealth And new cathedrals. Poor sinners Were not being directed To Christ To drink from him The waters of life.

No one was being told To rest in Christ's works Alone for eternal life. They were rather being told To earn eternal life Through the various Sacraments And rituals Through the church.

Now it's important That we see That Martin Luther Was not born An enemy To the Roman church. In fact He was one of her Most faithful sons Doing all That the church Prescribed In their idea Of how to be right With God.

His guilt For his sin Before God Was driving him crazy. He entered the monastery And he tells us He entered to save His soul And there was never A more sincere And zealous monk In all the world Than Martin Luther.

He threw himself At all these rituals And good works With all he had in them Had in him These rituals Were like a ladder To heaven And Luther Was climbing With all his heart.

He went to Rome Because they had The most relics there. He visited all the sites And drew in All the promises Of forgiveness From them.

He climbed the steps At St. Peter's Cathedral On his knees And kissed every step. He faithfully attended mass. He kept frequent vigils All through the night.

Fasting. Doing penance. And he confessed Often. Sometimes Up to six hours At one time. So much so That he about wore out His father confessor Who had to listen To all this.

As he would leave No stone unturned. You see He's working For his eternal salvation. This is important To Luther. But he found That the harder he climbed The more elusive The goal.

And what he thought Was a ladder To heaven Was more like A treadmill Going nowhere. Simply round and round.

Incapable of cleansing him From his sins And making him Right with God. No matter how many Religious rituals And good deeds he did He never got over The nagging question Have I done enough?

Is it enough? Is it enough To balance the scales To tip them in my favor So that God will accept me At last? You see When God's requirement For heaven Is perfect righteousness We can never achieve that No matter how hard we try.

And that is what God requires. Perfect righteousness. Now maybe someone here says You know I'm not much Of a history buff John And all this is rather Boring to me.

I just need to tell you That the Bible says That Martin's problem Is your problem. And Martin's problem Is my problem. It's the problem Of all men All women All boys and girls That we all need A perfect righteousness To be accepted by God To be received into heaven But we all have come short We all have come short We've not measured up To the glory of God That perfect standard Of righteousness That He requires of us We don't measure up To His commandments Do we?

Have you loved The Lord your God With all your heart? All your soul All your mind All your strength?

Have you shown that love For God By keeping all of His commandments All the time? And have you loved Your neighbor As much as you love yourself?

You see if you're honest With yourself You know that it's the truth That you have sinned Against God You do not measure up To perfect righteousness And because of this We stand condemned Under God's wrath And if we die in our sins We'll go to an eternal punishment In hell You see Whether or not you like history Martin's problem Is your problem So how do you get rid of your sin?

How do you get This righteousness That God requires? That's the million dollar question Of all times Of all times And Rome answered it With their prescribed Sacraments And rituals This is the way And Martin ran in that way With all of his heart Never did a man Try harder To gain righteousness In the way prescribed By Rome He did all that They told him to do And then some But it was all To no avail Try as he could He could not achieve Righteousness Before God So at the end of the day He was no better off He had no peace with God He was still alienated From God Separated from Christ Under his wrath And so his father advisor said Maybe I've got something

That could help you And following his advice He became a professor of theology At the University of Wittenberg And he was assigned to study In the monastery tower Where he spent hours Digging into the scriptures Now that was new That was something new for Luther Digging into the scriptures And then lecturing On what he found Four years of digging First the book of Psalms Then Galatians Then Romans And every new insight Into the gospel Was another shovel of dirt That was thrown out Of the stopped up wells Of salvation And he kept digging And he dug faster And he dug harder He's digging for his life For eternal life And then it happened The last shovel That brought the water Was Romans 1 verse 17

Look at it together with me For in the gospel A righteousness from God Is revealed A righteousness that is by faith From first to last Just as it is written The righteous will live By faith And for the first time In his life Martin saw That the righteousness That he needed To be right with God Was provided for him In Jesus Christ To all who believe Notice in this verse That the gospel Is about righteousness Do you think of it As such When you think about The gospel When you talk about This gospel Do you think and talk About righteousness You must Because in the gospel A righteousness Is revealed It's made known The cover is pulled off Here's righteousness

This is the good news In the gospel A righteousness is revealed And notice two things About this righteousness Revealed in the gospel It's a righteousness From God And it's a righteousness By faith From God By faith First of all It's from God It doesn't have any It doesn't have Its source in you At all It's not your striving Your obedience Your efforts Your rituals Your penance No It's not in you at all It's a righteousness Of God Luther spoke of it As an alien righteousness You see It's something Outside of yourself It doesn't come From you at all From anything That you do At all It is entirely Outside of you It's from God God himself Provides this righteousness

In his son Jesus Christ Who by the way Is God Christ's righteousness Is God's righteousness And that's what The gospel Is about The righteousness Of Christ His perfect life Is atoning death The gospel Is about The son of God Who became a man And was born Under the law That he might Obey that law Perfectly And therefore Have a righteousness To give To every Believing sinner That's what The gospel Is about About righteousness God's own righteousness In his son Jesus Who perfectly Obeyed Every commandment Throughout his Thirty-three plus years And then he went To the cross As a substitute For sinners Who had not Kept the law Perfectly And he suffered All the punishment And wrath That we deserved In our place That he might Take away our sins And give us His righteousness And all his life

Luther had thought That righteousness Was something That he must Come up with By himself And now he sees For the first time In his life That this righteousness In the gospel Is from God And also secondly That it is By faith It's a righteousness That is by faith From first to last Just as it is written The righteous Will live by faith The righteousness Of the gospel It doesn't come It doesn't become Mine by works But it becomes Mine by faith It becomes mine Not By trying But by trusting Not by my works But by trusting His works And so Luther Saw that the righteousness That he so desperately Sought after And that was Forever out Of his reach That he could never Attain

This righteousness By his own performance He saw For the first time It must be received From Christ By faith By faith And faith Faith in his Righteousness Faith in what He has done His perfect life His atoning death His obedience And blood And when he saw It Oh how his Parched soul Did drink in The sweet water Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ And he drank And he drank And he drank And he tells us I felt myself To be reborn And to have gone Through open doors Into paradise This passage Of Paul Became to me Became to me A gateway To heaven Isn't that precious That's it That's the answer To the million dollar Question How to get rid of sin And how to attain Righteousness It's in the gospel

That this righteousness Is revealed A righteousness From God By faith In Jesus Christ Thy works Not mine Oh Christ Speak gladness To this heart They tell me All is done They bid my fear Depart Thy pains Not mine Oh Christ Upon the shameful tree They have paid The law's full price And purchased peace For me Thy righteousness Oh Christ Alone Can cover sin Can cover me No righteousness Avails Save that Which is of thee To whom Save thee Who canst alone For sin atone Lord shall I flee And Martin Flew to Christ And trusted in him And upon trusting In Jesus All the merit All the worth All the righteousness Of Jesus Was put to his account

He was right with God There was peace with God No longer alienation There's reconciliation God is not his enemy He's his friend He's not under wrath He's under the eternal love And favor of God And from that point on Jehovah Sidkenu Became the watchword Of the reformation The Lord Our righteousness All the righteousness You need to be right With God Is in Jesus Christ His son Trust in him If you have Christ You have all the righteousness That you'll need In the day of judgment As you stand before God It's all in Christ It's all that he did It doesn't have anything To do with what you did It's all his work It's interesting to see How helpful Martin Luther Found the writings Of the Apostle Paul As this verse Came from the Apostle Paul

So many others Were helpful to Martin Luther Because Paul himself Had been one of these Spiritual Philistines Stopping up the wells Of salvation Hadn't he? He was one of those Jews Of the strictest sort Of their religion The Pharisees Of whom Jesus says In Matthew 23, 13 Woe to you Teachers of the law And Pharisees You hypocrites You shut the kingdom Of heaven In men's faces You yourselves Do not enter Nor will you let Those enter Who are trying to You slam the door In their face You pour dirt Down in the wells Of salvation So no one Can drink them You refuse to drink And you won't Let others drink Paul had done All he could To bury the gospel Of Jesus Christ He persecuted And killed His witnesses He thought That he was Living a moral life And that all He was doing In religion Was enough To make him Right with God He actually thought That he was

Serving God By doing all this He thought Jesus was a heretic And God Was rewarding him With brownie points Because he persecuted Those who followed Jesus He was a religious Man like Luther Who was more Zealous than Any of the other Young Jews Of his day So many parallels With Luther He pursued righteousness Before God By his own Religious works And obedience And he was working Harder than all The rest But when he met The risen Holy Lord Jesus On the road To Damascus He saw that All of his own Righteousness Was but filthy rags As the law of God Came home to him He says I died I died His self-righteousness Withered And died He repudiated Any righteousness Of his own And he trusts Completely In the work of Christ For sinners

And God justified him God declared him Righteous And forgave All of his sins And then he put A Bible shovel In his hands And said Now Paul Get busy And reopen The wells Of salvation That you worked So hard To stop up He went everywhere Preaching the gospel Of Jesus Christ That in the gospel A righteousness Has been revealed And it's a righteousness From God Not you Poor sinner And it's a righteousness That you receive By faith Not by works And when trusting Jesus All Jesus righteousness Becomes yours And you're accepted In the beloved And so Paul spends His life Telling the old Old story And clearing the wells Of salvation Of all the rubbish And false doctrine And teaching

That had covered The gospel For so many years It's also clear In this letter To the Romans Pastor Aaron Read other portions Of it He says There's just There's just Two ways That men have Sought Righteousness Before God There's just Two ways They're seeking Righteousness Before God By faith In Jesus Or they're seeking Righteousness By God By works By the law By your own Obedience We see it in Romans chapter 9 He talks about The Gentiles And the Jews Well Israel They pursued A law of righteousness And did not attain it Why didn't they Attain righteousness Because they sought it Not by faith But as if it were By works And those who Ever seek righteousness Before God By works Will never

Attain it It's a righteousness That comes from God And to seek it By yourself Is a do-it-yourself Salvation The other Looks outside of self To what Jesus Has done One is grace The other Is works One receives life As a gift The other receives As a merited Earned Wage How are you Pursuing righteousness Remember we said This problem of Martin Is the problem We all have We need a perfect Right How are you Seeking that How are you Seeking to have Your sins Taken away In a perfect Righteousness Before God Are you seeking Are you pursuing Righteousness By trusting only In the works Of Christ If not my friend You know what You're left with You're left with What Israel Was left with To establish Your own righteousness Before God

That's what he says In chapter 10 And verse 3 Since they did not Know the righteousness That comes from God And sought to Establish their own They did not submit To God's Righteousness As long as you Think that you Can work A righteousness Of your own You'll not submit To God's way Of righteousness Which is Jesus Christ Who is the end He is the very Finish He's the finish Line The end It's over with As far as trying To find righteousness With God Through the law Christ is the end Of that my friend But you won't Come to Christ For righteousness As long as you Think that you Can establish A righteousness Of your own And I must tell you If you're trying To establish A righteousness On your own That you must know It must be Perfect righteousness There's no gradient On the curve In heaven There's not I'm better than her

I'm better than him No Are you as Righteous As me God's the standard And that's why We're all under Curse Galatians 3 10 All who rely On observing The law If you're trying To get righteousness By observing The law All who do so Are under a curse For it's written Cursed is everyone Who does not Continue to do Everything Written In the book Of the law If you're going To go the works Route You must know This That you must Keep all of God's commandments All the time To reach perfect Righteousness And that's why The next verse Galatians 3 11 says Clearly no one Is justified Before God By the law That's what Paul found That's what Luther found That's what Many of us Have found That you cannot Attain A righteousness By your own Deeds

And where's The good news In that gospel Anyway All the law Does is Condemn You That's not The gospel You must Do this And this And this And this So well That you Have finally Reached the Level of Perfect righteousness There's no Gospel in that There's no Good news In that There's just Condemnation That's the law Oh but in the gospel We have true Good news And the good News is this That the very Righteousness That God Requires of us Is provided By God For us Is that good News Did you hear That the Very righteousness Without which You'll go to Hell forever God himself Has provided For you In his son Go son Go and Obey my Commandments And he Did it Without fault Tempted in Every way As we are Yet without Sin The father Is able to Say oh My beloved Son in Whom I'm Well Pleased I'm obeying You father

Okay Obey me Unto the Death of the Cross Now Obey me You go to The cross And take The sins Of my People Upon yourself And receive The condemnation In their Place Will he Obey Still Paul writes In Philippians 2 He was Obedient Unto death Even the Death of the Cross Obeying His father That he Might have A perfect Righteousness Now to Give to Every Believing Sinner That's the Good news It's really That good He provides The righteousness That he Requires And faith Doesn't earn It It's by Faith because All faith Does is Receives The righteousness Of christ Faith says I don't have This righteousness I can't keep It I can't Get it I can't Earn it But I Believe jesus Has it And we

Hold out Our open Hands That's what Faith is And we Receive The righteousness Of jesus All of it Put to our Account So that God in heaven When he Seizes Seizes Robed in The righteousness Of christ Clothed in The garments Of salvation Paul tasted The gospel Of free Grace And he Lived To preach It To others It Cost Him Dearly He Lost Many Things And he Says about That I Consider them Rubbish That I May gain Christ And be Found in Him Not having A righteousness Of my Own That comes From the Law But that Which is Through Faith In christ The righteousness That comes From god And is By faith If you Learn anything Today You must Learn that The gospel Reveals a Righteousness From god By faith Have Have That righteousness You're Good To go You're Good For Eternal Life Without It Don't

Care How Religious You Are Don't Care How Many Good Deeds You've Done You Are Cursed By A Broken Law You Must Get Into Christ This Is The Pure Water Of The Gospel And As Sweet As It Is These Wells Of Salvation Have Often Been Stopped Up Why Would Anybody Take A Do It Yourself Salvation Trying To Earn And Establish Their Own Righteousness Over One That's Absolutely Completely Provided For Us In Christ There's Just One Answer And That's The Pride The Self Righteous Pride Of The Human Heart You See This Problem That Would Rest On Our Own Self Righteousness Is Not A Roman Catholic Thing Folks It's Not A Pharisaical Thing It's Not Even A New Testament Thing This Was Found In Isaiah Day This Is A Protestant Thing This Is A Human Heart Thing This Is A The Pride

Of Man's Heart That Would Like To Think That There's Something That We Contributed To God For Our Own Salvation And That Refuses To Receive Salvation Completely Beginning To End As A Gift From God Through Christ Oh The Default Position Of Every Sinner's Heart Is To Establish Their Own Righteousness!

To Do Something To Tip The Scales In Our Favor With God And As Long As A Man Thinks That He'll Not Submit To God's Way Of Righteousness In Christ I Can Do It Myself Parents You Have Any Kids Like That I Can Do It Myself That's What's In The Heart Of Man When It Comes To His Own!

Salvation I Can Do It Myself And So He Claims To Imaginary! Righteousness Even Though The Bible Insists The Last Thing To Be Surrendered In Coming To Christ Is One's Own High View Of Ourselves And We Must We Must No Man Ever Yet Savingly Trusted In Christ's Righteousness Who Did Not Repudiate His Own Righteousness If You Think That You Have Anything At All That You Are Have Done To Contribute To God Having!

Alone On The Righteousness Of Another So You Must Repudiate Any Goodness In Yourself And Receive All Righteousness From Jesus You Must Come With Nothing Good To Say For Yourself But As A Beggar Bankrupt Of Any Righteousness But Oh How Our Hearts Would Scrape For Every Penny Of Righteousness Of Our Own Before We Would Give It Up And Say I'm Bankrupt How We Would Pull To Ourselves Any Fig Leaves Of Righteousness We Could Before We Could Say Lord I'm Naked And I Come To Thee For Dress Dress Me In Christ Righteousness And We Still Think We're Clean Or We Can Get Clean By Our Own Actions Until We Come And Say Foul I To The Fountain Fly Wash Me Savior Or I Die You See As Long As A Man Is On The Works Plan

He Never Knows If He's Done Enough Have I Done Enough Now To Make Up For All My Sins I Mean That's Folly But He Thinks That He Might Be Getting Closer But He Never Knows When He's He's Made It Enough But I'll Tell You What Will Put A Heaven In A Man's Heart When He He Finished Lord Jesus The Work Of Salvation That I Came To Accomplish It's Finished I Have Suffered Enough I Have Obeyed Enough I Have Bled Enough I Have Paid Enough It Is Finished The Work Is Over And When A Man Hears Those Words And By Faith Embraces The Promise Of The Gospel They Throw Their Own Deadly Doing Down And They Come And They Rest On The Doing Of Christ His Life His Righteousness

To Save Them And We Cry Oh God I've Sinned And I Deserve To Go To Hell I Could Never Do Enough To Make Up For Even One Of My Sins But Jesus Your Perfect Son Has Done All Look On Him And Pardon Me Save Me For Jesus Sake Have You Done That My Friend You Ever Just Got To The End Of Yourself To Be Bankrupt Of Any Righteousness Of Your Own And Just Pleaded For The Righteousness Of Jesus That Saving Faith And It's The Only Fitting Response!

To Such Good News As The Gospel A Righteousness From God By Faith So What Are We Doing This Reformation Sunday Well We're Remembering The Works Of The Lord In History What He Has Done We're Thanking God That 2000 Years Ago A Sweet Well Of Salvation Was Opened Up Through The Wounds And Merits Of Jesus And The Preaching Of The Gospel Through Christ And His Apostles And We're Seeing So That No One Can Drink Those Sweet Waters And We've Seen That Whole Nations And Generations Of People Have Been Born Have Lived Their Lives And Have Died Without Hearing Or Understanding The Gospel Of Christ The Salvation Provides A Righteousness From God By Faith In Jesus Christ Alone And People Live Out Their Lives In

Churches Thinking That It's Their Church Going Membership Their Baptism Their Offerings Their Bible Reading Their Praying That Makes Them Right With God I Wonder How Many People This Morning Are In Church Thinking That There Is Something That They Do That Contributes To Their Salvation Their Justification Before God What Do You Think You Think That Half The People In Church Today Realize That They're Standing Before God Has Nothing Zilch To Do With Their Own Works Has Everything To Do With Whether Or Not They Have Received The Righteousness Of Jesus Do you Think Ten percent Know that Rejoicing In человека человека!

that was so influenced by the Protestant Reformation so that we have gospel waters flowing freely to us.

Young people, do you realize how rare that is? Do you realize how rare that is in the world today, in all of history, how rare it is to know the saving gospel of Jesus Christ?

You're living so near an open well of salvation. You're in a country. You're in a church. You're in a family. And it's such a time where Jesus Christ is clearly set before you.

That's rare. But I want to remind you this morning that you can die of thirst with a well at your feet. Because unless you drink, you won't live.

It can be splashing on your feet. But if you don't drink, you will not live. Christ is present in the preaching of his word and he offers himself to you with all his righteousness.

He's here. You must just take him. But still you don't. How sad will be that eternity of regrets to remember how close the waters of life flowed by me and yet I would not drink and live.

Don't spend an eternity in regrets. Come right now to Jesus. Right now. Wherever you are, you come to him with a prayer. You call on him to save you.

What's holding you back? Jesus said it to that Samaritan woman. So sinful woman. So thirsty in heart. So unsatisfied with the waters of this world.

What did he say to her? Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water of life that I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Don't spend another day lest you be found in eternity remembering Jesus' words. If you would have asked, I would have given you the waters of everlasting life.

You can't live with that, my friend. You can't live with that for a week, let alone a million, million years. Come to Christ. What holds you back?

Have you answered honestly to yourself, young person? Why are you still not partaking of Christ? What is there in that broken cistern that you're seeking satisfaction?

It can't hold water. It can't satisfy. There's nothing that can satisfy your greatest need, which is to have the heart right with your maker.

Only Jesus can do that. Only his righteousness. Drink. Drink. Drink of him and live. Drink right now.

You may have come into these doors lost. You can go out them saved. You came in under God's wrath. You can go out under God's unending favor. You came in guilty.

You can go out forgiven. That's just how good the good news is that upon the moment of receiving Christ, all of our sins, past, present, future, are taken away.

And all of the righteousness of Jesus is put to our account. Come. Drink. And live. Martin Luther died with a slip of paper in his pocket.

And after he died, they found that piece of paper. And they opened it up and they read it. And it said, We are beggars. It is true. Now, here's a man about to stand in that awesome scene, man before maker in judgment.

He's just minutes away, perhaps days. What's he thinking of? What's he resting on? What's he trusting in? Where's his confidence? Oh, I'm sure glad that I've been such a servant of Christ and served the church and been used to transform Europe with the gospel.

No, you don't hear a word of that. We are beggars. It is true. He says, I'm going into eternity hanging on to a promise.

I have nothing good of my own. I'm a beggar. But oh, there's a righteousness in Jesus. Look on him and pardon me. You gave him the wrath I deserved.

Give me mercy. Give me mercy. He had said earlier in his life, we have nothing to offer to God but our sins.

And he takes them and makes them his own in exchange for his righteousness. That's what Jesus does. Come to him. Give him your sins.

He'll give you his righteousness. Well, let's pray. If you need to do that right now, just do that right where you sit.

Tell the Lord Jesus, you're done trying to establish a righteousness of your own. And ask him to give you the righteousness that he's worked out. Let's pray silently.

Oh, Lord, sometimes the good news is so good we can hardly believe it. And I fear that there are some here today that still have not believed it.

Thank you for that promise that you will, with gladness, draw water from the wells of salvation. Bring sinners today to drink of Christ and live. And if they don't, Lord, chase them down as you did Luther and show them that nothing they do can make themselves right with you.

And bring them to rest upon the work of Christ alone. Lord, thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for tracking us down, not letting us rest in a life of morality and commandment keeping, but showing us our sin and leading us to the Savior.

Thank you for a perfect righteousness this morning. Receive our thanks then and fill our mouths with this message as we move among men to tell them about this righteousness revealed in the good news, who is Christ.

We pray in his name. Amen.