Bibles in terms of the Gospel
according to John, John chapter 4. John chapter 4. And I'd like to look at verses
11 to 14. And let's ask our Lord's blessing
upon His Word. It's so good to call upon you
and to know that we can, by our blessed great High Priest, we
can enter in to the very throne of God and speak to you as your
children, as your people. And we can ask, Lord, would you
bless the services today? Lord, would you bless this Word?
You've promised that your Word was going to not return to you
void. It was going to accomplish the
purpose for which it was sent. Would you bless it to our understanding?
Help us to worship. Help us to hear. We ask these
things for Christ's sake. Amen. In the last study that we had
in the book of John, going through this blessed book, we started
seeing a discourse that was happening between our Lord and a certain
Samaritan woman. And in that observation of what
we saw, eternal purpose of God. The Lord Jesus Christ left Judea. He was going to go to Galilee. And on the way to Galilee, He
had to go through Samaria. He must needs go through this
region that was, generally speaking, rejected by the Jews. They didn't
want to have anything to do with the Samaritans. But there was
some of God's elect in that place. Some that the Lord had everlastingly
loved. Some that had been given Him
electing grace. God has a people. He's got a
chosen people. And we beheld the power of God's
providence to bring this woman to the place where He was. He did not go to that well and
sit down on that well and say, oh, man, I hope somebody comes
by. I hope somebody shows up today.
Boy, that sure would be lucky. if
somebody would come by. And then if they do come by,
my, I hope they'll exercise their free will to let me show mercy
to them. You know, only the message of
God's sovereign saving grace has any heart to it. Everything
else is just airy, empty, just kind of left up to somebody hoping
somebody will do something for him. No, this woman was drawn
by the power of Almighty God. I know. I've got God's Word on
that. No man can come unto Me except
it be. given unto Him of my Father,
drawn by God's power and purpose and grace." Well, she showed
up. And today we are going to see
the long-suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. Long-suffering
as He deals with this woman in her ignorance and prejudice when we come together every Sunday
and every Wednesday, we know we've got God's Word, the Gospel. And as I've said before, the
Gospel is the declaration. It's the declaration of what
the Lord God has set forth in the Scriptures concerning how
God saves His people. The Gospel. It's the good news
of God's mercy and grace. It's a declaration. And in the
declaration, when the Lord's pleased, He's going to call His
people out under the preaching of the declaration of God's purpose
and God's honor and God's grace and God's mercy. Salvation is
of the Lord. And you watch it. You watch and
see. When the Lord is pleased to save
somebody, He'll call them out under this message. But oh, how
patient He is with His people. Patient. Patient. I think about
when my kids were growing up. Oh, the things that they'd do.
But you know, those are my kids. Patient with them. patient, long-suffering. Why? Because I love them. I love
them. I'm not going to do anything
to hurt them. I may have to chase them, you know, but I'm going
to chase them because I love them. Now, I want you to listen. Concerning the long-suffering
of God. This is what Peter said. 2 Peter
3.9. Let me just quote this. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise that some men count slackness. But Peter says, but
is long-suffering to us-ward. He's distinguishing who God Almighty
is long-suffering toward. He's long-suffering to us-ward. Go back and read when Peter wrote
his first and second account in these Scriptures right there.
Who was he talking to? He was talking to God's elect.
He was talking to God's people. His longsuffering to us were
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Our Lord had told this woman
back in verse 10, John 4, if thou knewest the gift of God,
if you knew the gift of God's grace manifested to the world
in the appearing of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
if you knew the gift, the gift of God. Paul the Apostle said
in Romans 5.15, but not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. Let me tell you what he just
said in that, and I'll read the rest of it. The free gift is
not like the deviation. All right, the free gift. Christ
Himself, the giving of the free gift is not like the deviation. Listen to this Scripture. For
if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace
of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ,
hath abounded unto many. Literally, this is what He said.
Adam's offense was to condemnation. Christ's obedience. Christ Himself,
the gift of God, is unto salvation. So when He said, but not as the
offense, so also is the free gift, the free gift was not like
the deviation. Big difference. One unto condemnation,
the other salvation. Almighty God is longsuffering
to His people if thou knewest the gift of God. He said, you
would have asked of Him and He would have given thee living
water. I'll make a comment or two on
that living water in just a second. Everything that's needful for
pardon and peace and mercy, justification, sanctification before Almighty
God is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now, here's
where we start this morning. Verse 11, "...the woman saith
unto him..." He had just said to her, if you knew the gift
of God, you would have asked of Him. He would have given thee
living water. Now here's her response. And
listen to the longsuffering of God. "...the woman saith unto
him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep."
From whence then hast thou that living water? The natural conclusion of the
unregenerate heart is always to understand spiritual things
ignorantly. That's always the natural way
that man sees things. The Lord told Nicodemus. Nicodemus
was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, a teacher. And the Lord
told Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you must be born again. And Nicodemus
thought he was talking about physical birth. How can a man
enter again into his mother's womb when he's old? What do you
mean, born again? The disciples, when the Lord
told them that He had meat to eat that they knew not of. They
said, did somebody else go get Him something to eat that we're
not aware of? I mean, this was His disciples. The Jews, when He told them that
He was the bread of heaven, they said, how can this man give us
His flesh to eat? All men, naturally speaking,
they are ignorant of spiritual things until they are enlightened
by the Holy Spirit. Man by nature is ignorant. Be patient. Be patient with them. I told you what Brother Scott
told me that time we were going over to get something to eat
Somebody had said something to him. He was a preacher. No, no,
no. He didn't say anything to me.
I just heard that he said it. And I thought, I wish I wouldn't
have heard that. That wasn't a good statement.
You know, like I'd never made a stupid statement. Here I am. I should have just shut up. And
after Scott told me what he told me, I knew I should have shut
up. But I said, boy, that kind of bothered me, Brother Scott.
What do you think? He said, the Lord will teach him. And I thought,
I knew that. Why didn't I just act on it?
Just ignorance. Long-suffering, gentle, kind,
covering another's faults. is just ignorant and my ignorance
just pops up. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. The woman
said to him, you don't have anything to draw with. How can you give
me this living water you're talking about? The well is deep. Look at verse 12. Art thou greater
than our father Jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof
himself and his children and his cattle? Natural ignorance always questions
God's Word. You would think it would be enough
to where you read in the Word of God That Almighty God, and
these words, this is inspiration of God. These are God's words. These are not man's words. Pinned
my men, yes. Scripture says, holy men of God
wrote as they were moved upon by the Spirit of God, by the
Holy Ghost. I understand that men wrote these words down. I
do understand that. But these men did not come up
with those words. inspired of God. But man naturally is going to
doubt what God has to say. Our father, Jacob, found this well, she said, to
be abundant and sufficient for him. Do you think you can improve
on that? This is, you know, taken up with
her relationship to Jacob back down the line and knew nothing
of Jacob's God. She was speaking, you know, humanistically. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? Now think who she's talking to. But consider the mercy the Lord
Jesus Christ toward his elect. Jesus answered verse 13 and said
unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Our Lord does not deal with her
on that woman's level of questioning. For how thankful I am that God
Almighty wouldn't deal with me on my level of ignorance. Long-suffering. She did not have our Lord rebuke
her. Now, I can show you in Scripture
where the Pharisees in their ignorance and their animosity
and rebellion They would question Him. He knew their hearts and
He rebuked them. And here's a woman that's asking
Him questions that obviously are just absolutely ignorant.
And look how patient He is with her. He does one thing. It's bound
up in two truths. He's going to tell her her true
need. And he's going to expose to her that he is the only provision. He's the only hope. Here's her
true need. Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again. Now, she was looking at a well,
an actual physical well. Look down in that thing. If you
could see the bottom, you could see the water down there. You
drink of that water, and you're going to thirst again. Now, you
can understand that. I mean, you get a drink of water
and it's not going to be very long. You're going to have to
have some more water. Humanly speaking, you're going to have
to keep yourself pumped up. You're going to have to maintain
yourself. And you can look at that in false
religion and it's the same thing. If you've produced it, if it's
something that you've done, then you're going to have to keep
it up. Whosoever drinketh of this water, trying to satisfy
that natural thirst, but if you're trying to satisfy
your thirst for wealth or health or fame, luxury, you're going
to thirst again. Let me ask you this. What have
you ever gotten in this world that's ever really, truly satisfied
you? I used to think about when I
was a kid, we'd be going on vacation. Man, I don't know what it is
about going on a vacation. It didn't matter where we were
going. Man, I was so excited. Man, we're
going to have a ball. This is going to be great. I
can't wait to leave. And then after I got there, it just wasn't as great as I thought
it was going to be. And after I got home, I thought
that was it. And then after I grew up and
take vacations, I just got to thinking about how much money
I spent. And nothing satisfied me. There wasn't whosoever drinketh
of this water. you are going to thirst again.
But 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." What is that water? Turn to John
7.37. John 7.37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the
Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." Living water. That water that is by the grace
of Almighty God, by His Spirit, it is that wonderful, marvelous
satisfaction taught by God's Spirit what Almighty
God for Christ's sake and by Christ has done for me. That satisfies. That left to
myself that I can and will not and would not ever do anything
for myself but to realize, to stop and to think that all of
my peace before God Almighty has been established by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness that He earned
as a man, that He walked this earth as my representative, as
my federal head, that He walked before God Almighty and God Almighty
watched Him and scrutinized Him and gave this evidence, this
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, if I have
the assurance of knowing and I believe God's Word that God
has chosen a people and put me in Him and has given me a heart
not to have any confidence whatsoever in myself. And that I can realize by God's
grace, by faith, to believe that when He walked, His walk, His
obedience, His work, His faithfulness, that His righteousness established
before God Almighty is imputed to me and God looks upon me robed
in Christ and He sees Christ. Now that water, that water, that
living water, a man that God has taught of the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that man will never thirst again.
for any other water, where else are you going to go? Is there
another water that you can drink that will satisfy? No. The water
that I give will cause you, you'll never thirst after any other
satisfaction. Are you going to go back? Could
you go back? No. You wouldn't give that up for
anything. The water that I give, a man will never thirst again. He'll never desire again. You'll
never lack any good thing. Boy, when I'm hot, I need a good
cold. drink of water. Just a big old
tumbler. Just so thirsty. I can't wait
to get that water in that glass and drink it. A man that God has taught something
of his need. That's why He says, you tell
Me one more time. Let Me drink one more time. Let
Me drink of that living water one more time. Tell me about
him. Tell me about the one that Paul
spoke of in Colossians 2, 9 and 10. For in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him,
which is the head of all principality and power. Tell me again how
that when I stand before God in that great day, Tell me how
Almighty God is going to look at Him and me in Him, and that
in Him there's life, and that in Christ alone it will be said
of all God's elect, in Christ alone, well done. Well done. Carl, wouldn't you hate to know
that he looked at you and your own self? I don't want him to look on me
apart from a substitute. To stand before God Almighty
and remember this, if you were to look to your own works,
your own decision, your own obedience, your own anything, whatever. Remember, if you ever deviated
before or after or during, if there's ever been one deviation
in your obedience in a thought, even a thought, well, I made
my decision. I made my decision for Jesus.
Let me tell you something. You better realize this. When
you stand before God Almighty and you claim you're standing
before Him based on something that you've done, if there's
one deviation in it, and you might as well be honest, you
know there has, He will say unto you, Depart from Me, you worker
of iniquity. I never knew you. There's one
hope, the living water. Christ Himself. No deviation. No sin. No guilt. God is well
pleased with Him. Oh, that I might be found in
Him for the glory of Almighty God and for the good of this
sinner.