Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the Gospel according to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. Let's read verses 1 to 6 and
then we'll ask the Lord's blessing. When therefore the Lord knew
how The Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his
disciples. He left Judea and departed again
into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh
he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's
well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey
set thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Our Father, we ask for Your blessing
upon this Word. Lord, we know that it has pleased
you through the preaching of the gospel to save, to call out,
to comfort your people. Lord, you said that you will
be asked, you will be inquired of for these things, and we are
asking you. Would you bless this word to
our heart? Lord, would you cause us to see
and to rejoice these things we pray in Christ's name? Amen. The Scripture begins this morning. And says when therefore. The Lord knew. You know, the thing that just
stopped me when I read that was this. No mention. of how he knew. It just says he knew. But we know how he knew. He's
the Lord. Therefore, the Lord knew. He who is omniscient, knowing that right now He knows. He knows our thoughts. Or that ought to just stop a
man and cause him to ask for forgiveness. Couldn't it? Lord, I'm sorry. Peter told the Lord when the
Lord asked him, he said, Peter, lovest thou me? more than these? You know, it never does say what
the these were. Was He talking about the fishing? Was He talking about the other
disciples? Whatever He was talking about,
this was Peter's answer. Lord, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee. You know, I think about nothing
is hidden from Him. It causes me to get real in my
heart, real apologetic. The Lord, the Scripture says,
knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John. The Pharisees heard, the Lord
knew. That's what it says. Therefore
the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard. What had they heard? What was it that came to their
understanding? Well, they heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than
John. That's what they heard. I want you to notice what took
place before they were baptized. It says that the Lord made. Produced by mysterious creation,
He made disciples. You know, regeneration
is a mysterious thing. It is a production. That's what
the word means, produced. The Lord made them disciples. I had somebody call me the other
day and wanted to sell me a program
on the book of Acts. I said, basically what this is
is a program to show you how to go into the
community and make, produce disciples, make disciples. I just told him,
I said, I don't need it. I don't need the program. Well,
but you let me just send it to you. No obligation. You can keep
the CD if you want to. And basically what I did after
trying to be nice and stuff. I told him, I said, let me, uh,
what's the guy's name? Who is it? He told me. And, uh,
what was going through my mind was really the, the integrity
of this assembly. You know, I thought, I don't
want to be mean. I really don't. I don't, I don't want to be,
I don't want to be mean. I don't want to be insensitive.
People You know, in their minds, they mean well. I know that.
What's his name? He told me. I said, call me back
tomorrow. And I said, just give me the
guy's name and I'll, let me just look up and find out. You know,
I looked it up and it took about 12 seconds for me to, you know,
I read his statement of faith. And the guy called me back the
next day and he said, What do you think?" I said, I don't want
it. Why? I said, because I just don't
believe. I said, this guy doesn't believe
what I believe. I said, doctrinally I can't go along with him. He
said, well, what do you mean? And I told him, I said, we here,
I said, we believe in sovereign grace, sovereign saving grace. And I said, I said, I don't believe
this guy is Armenian. This guy on the other end of
the phone was just, I'm sure thinking, what in the world? I told him, I said, listen, we
believe that God Almighty saves people by grace, power, and I
just don't need the program. And he went along with it. I said, fine. Almighty God makes disciples,
mysteriously, powerfully. How does He do it? He does it by grace. He does
it by His Spirit. But here's what He's commanded
us to do. You preach the Gospel. You preach
Christ. You set forth what Almighty God
has said. concerning His Son. And Almighty
God, if He's pleased, He'll bless it. And if He's not, He won't. What He's called us to do is
preach the gospel. And I'm telling you, if there
is methods and trying to just get men to do what man can cause
them to do, That's not God honoring. The disciples that are made by
the Lord Jesus Christ are His disciples. The Pharisees heard
that Jesus made and baptized. He made them, then they were
baptized. Baptism is a confession of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ who has made them what they are,
disciples. I am, Paul said, what I am by
the grace of God. Water doesn't make disciples.
God makes disciples. Baptism has nothing to do with
producing salvation. Water does not make men alive
in Christ. God makes men alive in Christ.
God Almighty. Now, I would never minimize the
ordinance of baptism. Our Lord commanded it. I'll tell
you this, if Almighty God has called you out of darkness, revealed
His Son to you, in you, then be baptized. Confess it openly. Don't be ashamed of it. Our Lord
commanded that. But we have no scriptural basis
to attribute salvation to baptism. That would make salvation to
be in the hands and the ability of a man, even if it's you. You're the man. Or someone's
baptizing you. Salvation's of the Lord. Our
Lord said in verse 2 where the scripture says, Our Lord Himself
didn't baptize, but His disciples. I told you this last week or
the week before. Why? As I was reading that, it
really impressed me as I thought on that. Why? Well, he didn't
for reasons that the Scripture is not pleased to set forth,
but possibly, I would say, it's because of the pride in men. Men would say, well, I tell you
what, my baptism is more This is more factual. The Lord Himself
baptized me. The Lord Jesus Himself. Now,
I know this. John the Baptist said that the
Lord would baptize with His Spirit and all of God's people regenerated
by the grace of God. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
baptizes them by His Spirit, but the Lord personally did not
baptize any. His disciples did. Paul the Apostle
said in 2 Corinthians 5.20, now we therefore are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God.
There's men that stand in pulpits that preach the gospel. Paul
says, as ambassadors of Christ and in Christ's stead, the message
that we preach. This is his message. These are
the words that he said. We set forth exactly what he
said. Now, I do know this. Men by nature
despise the words that he said. But the Lord told them, He said,
they hated Me before they hated you. Man, you stand in a pulpit. There are pulpits in this world. I can tell you this for a fact.
I mean, I actually experienced this. I actually had somebody
push me out of a pulpit for preaching sovereign grace. And then told the people. I can
see that some men just can't take instructions on what to
preach, what to say. You take a Scripture. John 6.37,
All that the Father giveth me, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. You set forth distinguishing,
electing grace. And men despise that. But who
said that? Who said that? We're ambassadors
for Christ. We preach in Christ's stead. Be reconciled to God. Well, verse
3 says that the Lord, He left Judea and departed again into
Galilee. Now there's something that's
real interesting about that word, about a word, and he left Judea. Very sobering, revealing. I looked it up, and the word
he left, it doesn't mean that he just exited the place. It means to leave to itself. He left it. To leave it alone. There was a lot of resentment
against our Lord by the Jews, many of the Jews. They were angry
because of His teaching. It conflicted with theirs. The
people had heard that the Lord was baptizing and really baptized
more than John. Remember when we were going through
that? John's disciples came to John
and said, and John did the right thing. He did the honorable thing.
He did the wise thing. He exalted the Lord. I'm just
a voice. I'm the forerunner. He's the
bridegroom. We're the bride. He must increase. I must decrease. Who are we? Who are we? We're dust, frail creatures. Our Lord was not received. And our Lord did just exactly
what He instructed His disciples to do. Luke 9, 5, Whosoever will
not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the
very dust of your feet. for a testimony against them. I think about in the day of God's
judgment when the very dust will rise up in judgment against those
that would not hear the gospel. They will not hear it. I will
not have that man to rule over me. If Christ leaves a place
to itself, That place has no hope. Justice awaits. I've told you this before. How situations where the gospel
was once preached and the Lord removed, He removed the candlestick. Actually, He moved it is what
He said. When He says remove it, the word is moved. He moved
the candlestick. God's always got a witness. God's
going to raise up the gospel where God's pleased to raise
up the gospel. And it never, it never leaves my mind about
the honor that has been bestowed upon this little church. That
the gospel is still here. That the gospel is still allowed
to be preached here. That's amazing. That's not, historically speaking,
I'm not saying anything concerning God's will, God's purpose. I
know that the Lord is going to do what He's pleased to do, but
that the Lord has allowed the gospel to still be here, freely
preached, consistently. I've seen places where the Lord
moved a faithful pastor. It's not there anymore. Ichabod
written. I'm not saying they don't need
anymore. I'm just saying the glory has departed. And someone
might say, well, I'll tell you what they do. Why don't they
just do this? Why don't they remove him and
get him another? Just get a faithful pastor. And my question would
be this. Don't you think God could have
put a faithful pastor there the first time? What are you going
to do? You've got to remove a man. Well,
we're going to get a faithful pastor here. Really? And then boast in it. And then
pat yourself on the back of how the Lord left Judea, left it
to Himself, left it justly, and departed again into Galilee,
a place that He wouldn't leave to itself in darkness. But as
he went toward Galilee, there was another place that demanded
his presence. And I use that word demanded
with a scriptural basis. He must needs go through Samaria. I must be about my father's business. He must needs go through Samaria. There was a province that generally
was shunned by the Jews. The Samaritans were outcast. But our Lord's work, our Lord's
calling demanded that he go there. There was some of his sheep there. We'll look at it, Lord willing,
in the next few weeks. But he must needs go and needs
find them. He must bring them to Himself.
From all eternity, Samaria was a place that He had to go. His destination was determined
according to God's electing grace. Pre-destination. The destination
of all of God's sheep is ordered by the Lord. We believe that. The steps of a good man ordered
by God. Why do men do what they do? They
say, well, you know, well, this came up, and well, the reason
I did that is because this came up. No, the reason you did it
is because that's how God ordered it. That's what the Lord ordained
would happen. We think about things that come
up, things that happen, whatever it is, attitudes that people
have toward you. Now I tell you the reason, I
tell you what, they were upset with me and the reason I did
it, He had just, even the wrath of man is going to praise Him. Almighty God will take all things
and work all things after the counsel of His own will. He's
the Lord. You must needs go through Samaria.
There was a Samaritan woman that was going to be at a certain
place. You know. You've heard this.
You know this. But there was a woman that was going to be
at a place. He was going to have to be there.
She was going to have to be there. And she didn't even know He was
coming. She didn't even know Him. But she was going to be
there. Almighty God, here's a woman
And as of this moment right here, dead, trespasses and sins. God Almighty is going to order
her steps and put her just exactly. Unregenerate? Yeah. All of us were there. The Lord put you under the Gospel.
How did He get you there? He got you there by grace. God's counsel is going to stand,
and this woman, like all God's elect, will in time be irresistibly
drawn to the Savior. He's going to convict her, made
willing in the day of His power. Then cometh He, verse 5, to a
city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to a parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and
Jesus therefore being wearied, with his journey set thus on
the well. It was about the sixth hour. Now here he comes. He comes to
that very place that his father had purposefully... wearied with
his journey. He was a man, son of man. He was weary. He got
tired. There's one of those Scriptures right there that shows the humanity
of Christ. We never... I know how... Man by nature will take and try
to use that and say, well, he was just a man. No, he wasn't
just a man. No, no, no, no, no. Not just a man. Son of man, yes. Son of God, yes. This man was
without sin. Human nature. Divine nature. Lamb of God. made like unto his brethren."
That's what Hebrews 2.14. He also himself likewise took
part of the saying that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death. That is the devil. The mystery
of his incarnation. Grave is the mystery of godliness. God manifested in the flesh. We talk about it and we set forth
His humanity and His deity and it's right, it's true. But oh, the wonder of that. He aged. We age. We age because of the sin that's
in us. He aged and knew no sin. We get thirsty. He got thirsty. He hungered. He got tired. That's what it said. And he knew
no sin. Grey is the mystery of godliness. God manifested in the flesh. The effects of sin upon us. We understand that. I understand
why I'm getting older. I understand why I don't have
hair anymore. I understand why it's grey. I understand why I'm
wrinkled. I understand why I'm tired. He
was made like unto His brethren, yet without sin. Made just like we are. Tempted
in all points like we are. Yet without sin. To Him, sin is the reason that
we're subject to death. He had no sin. He laid down His
life. No, he wasn't just a man. No. Scripture says he came to this
city called Sychar. Purchased. That's what that word
means. Purchased. Came to Sychar near a parcel
of ground Jacob gave to his son. Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied,
he sat on that well. It was about the sixth hour.
Jacob's well was there. He is Jacob's well. He is Jacob's
fountain. He is the water of life. Jacob's
well was there. I could just stop and just say
this. Marvin's well is here. Marvin's
water of life is here. You know, that makes it so tender
and so personal Isn't it wonderful to speak of
Him with such respect? And when you speak of Him, speak
of Him in ways that set forth His glory. When Christ, Paul said, Who is
our life? 2 Samuel 23. Listen to this. David speaking. David longed
and said, that one would give me to drink of the water of the
well of Bethlehem which is by the gate. Oh, that I might be
able to drink of Him. Is there any way that we can
see too much of Him in Scriptures? Someone told Brother Henry Mahan
one time, he said, you know, I think you've made an idol out
of Jesus Christ. That's probably about the kindest
thing anybody's ever said to me. Oh, the refreshment of that living
water that Christ gives of Himself. He's going to say this to this
woman. He said, if you knew who you were talking to, you'd ask
of me. I'd give you living water. He'd give her of Himself. That's
what He's talking about. But here He's come. Jacob's well
was there. It was a physical well. I know
that. But oh, I tell you, we love to
see Him. We love to speak of Him. And there He was, sitting there, waiting on that woman. You know why He was there? It
says, He that cometh to me. And this woman is going to come.
He's going to be just exactly where she said, well, I'm just
going to get some water. I'm just going to go draw some
water. No. Jacob's Well, I'm going to get
ahead of myself in just a second. I can tell that already. Jacob's
Well was there. It was about sixth hour. Concerning, they say that the
Jews, the sixth hour would have been noon, and that's good. The significance of it is that
it was the time for her to be there. Noon, yes. Time when it
was the hottest, yes. Time when this woman thought
that no one else would be there, yes. I understand that. This woman is an adulterous woman. We'll see that. Very possibly
in her mind, it was a time that She thought, I'm not going to
have to face anybody else. I'll just slip in there and get
me a bucket of water. But you see, it was a time of
love. And the Lord was there. And she was going to be there. And her need was going to be
supplied. She was going to meet the Master.
Lord willing, we'll look next time at the conversation that
took place between this woman and our Lord, and it's just exactly
the way that Almighty God meets all of His people on time, providentially,
in power, in grace, in mercy, for His honor and for the good
of His elect, for Christ's sake.