I'm delighted to be with you
once again. I was sitting there thinking
that it has been such a wonderful, such a blessed meeting thus far. The Lord has blessed the message
tremendously to my part, and I think to yours too. And while
I was thinking that, I was also thinking, boy, I sure hope I'm
not the one to mess it up. I pray that, you know I've been
at this a while, but it never gets any easier. And I'm sure
some of these brethren who preach feel the same way. But in situations
like this, I pray that the Lord would deliver me from the desire
to preach a great sermon. And enable me to preach a great
Savior. That's what I want to do this
evening. My text is going to be from Job chapter 4. Job chapter 4, and I believe
this is a familiar text to probably everyone here. The account of
our Lord meeting the woman of Samaria, the woman at the well,
and dealing with her. And while I'm going to use just
a few verses for my text, I want to kind of set the stage, if
you will, by recalling some things that are taught in this portion
of Scripture. And one of the first things that
we have taught is the divine purpose which brought our Lord
to Samaria. He said in verse 4, He must needs
go through Samaria. He must. There's not a whole
lot of things in scripture that the Lord must do, but he must
go through Samaria. And we know why he must. Because
he has some sheep there. You know, we talk a lot about
the woman, the woman he met at the well, but there were many,
many in Samaria that believed on him as a result of that, of
his going there. So we see his purpose, the divine
purpose set forth. We also see divine providence
which brought the woman to the well. The first part of verse
7 says, There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. And
folks might say, well, boy, isn't that lucky. No, that's God's
overruling providence. He brought her there. That's
why our Lord went. One of the reasons He went was
to meet her. The purpose of God brought Him,
the providence of God brought her. And our Lord, we see something
of our Lord's great condescension here. God in human flesh, tired, hungry,
thirsty, sat on the well. And she came out, and then he
condescended even further, and asked this Gentile woman, asking of a creature, a sinful
creature, for something. Isn't that not condescending? And then he speaks to her about
divine grace. Divine grace, I might add, of
which she was ignorant. Divine grace, I might also of
which we were ignorant until he spoke to us of it. In verse 10, our Lord answered
her and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God,
if you knew, The gift. And if you knew who
it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, the gift of God
and truth, you would have asked. If you knew what and if you knew
who, you would have asked. Not you might have asked. Not that you might have asked,
but you would have asked. You'd ask of Him, and He would
have given. You see that? Absolutely no uncertainty is
there. If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that said to you, give me the grace, you would
have asked, and He would have given you living water. Now, think about that. Think
about that. That tells us, first of all,
we don't know. We don't know the gift of God,
and we don't know who it is that speaks, because if we did, every
person who is found right now in unbelief is to sell, Brother
Paul. They don't know what, and they
don't know who. If they did, they'd ask, and
he'd give. But that should also be an encouragement,
shouldn't it? Find out what and find out who. You know, back home, we kind
of had a scheduling conflict. Brother Donnie asked me to come
down here sometime back, but we had our Vacation Bible School
scheduled for last week. It ended the same day this meeting
started. And I thought I could reschedule
it, but it ran into problems there and I couldn't. And then
I called Brother Donnie and said, well, just let me cancel out
and you get someone else. He was insistent. But I was teaching the children
last week, and I was teaching them in the mornings, talking
about Christ in relation to time. with the intent of teaching them
who He is and what He did. And that's important because
we have to know who and why before we can believe, don't we? Christ
in relation to time. Well, what is Christ's relation
to time? Well, in the beginning was the
Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. That's the
beginning. That's the Eternity of Facts.
That's before time began. And He's the Creator. By Him,
we're all slaves to the Creator. Christ in the beginning. And
then Christ in time. When God created the world, he
set time and motion. He did that for his creatures.
He doesn't need time. What's time to the eternal? Set time and motion for his creatures,
but it also tells us that in the fullness of the time, God
set forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. Christ from eternity is God.
In the fullness of the time, he became what he was not. He
became a man. God was manifested in the flesh.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's who Christ is. What'd he do? But now, at the
end of the age, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That's what he did. Who he did,
and what? If you knew the gift, if you
knew who, you'd answer. And I'd give it, you see. There's coming a time, we read
in Revelation, when time shall be no more. All the people of the Lord will
be with him forever, back to eternity again. From eternity
to time to eternity. From the beginning and the first
and the last. Well, I've already gotten off
track. Our Lord spoke to her of divine
grace, and she was ignorant of it. She was ignorant of living
water, of salvation and eternal life. She was ignorant of the
gift of God. You know, eternal life is a gift. It's a gift. Maybe we should
just go around saying, life is a gift of God. Eternal life is
the gift of God. It's the gift of God. It's a gift of God's grace. It's
a gift that's freely bestowed on all who believe. It's a gift
that's bestowed on all who know and ask. Those two things absolutely go
together. And I guarantee you, my friend,
if you ever find out who, you'll like this. You'll like this. I did. I did. And you did. And our Lord spoke
to himself, to this woman, spoke of himself as the giver, the
giver. He's the giver. This eternal
life, which is the gift of God, is in, by, and through our Lord
Jesus Christ. There is no separating eternal
life and Christ. If you have Him, you have life.
If you don't have Him, you don't. have life and not have Christ.
If you can't have Christ and not have life, they go together. And our Lord sovereignly, sovereignly
moves to bring His sheep to Himself. We see in this portion of Scripture
a pattern emerge. He crosses her path. He creates
an interest in her by speaking of eternal life, by the grace
of God through Himself. No miracle is performed. It's
Christ alone. It's His Word alone. It's grace
alone. And it's faith alone. You see
that? Verse 29, this woman, after our
Lord had dealt with her, she said, Come see a man which told
me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? It didn't take a miracle. And bless God, others came. Verse
41 says, And many more believed because of his own word, and
they came and heard Christ for themselves. And they said unto
the woman, Now we believe not because of thy saying, but we
have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the
Christ, the Savior of the world. Well, having captured this woman's
interest, with the gifts of living water. This woman now makes a response,
and this is where my text actually begins. Verse 11. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. For whence
then hast thou that living water?" Now, obviously, she's still thinking
in natural terms, didn't understand what he was talking about. She
didn't know. But isn't that the way it is
in our day when the gospel is preached? Men and women can understand
the concept of salvation by works and by doing. That's natural to the flesh.
Someone said we're all legalists and free-wheelers by nature.
That seems logical to us. We just accept that. But spiritual
things. Eternal life is a gift of God's
grace. Salvation by grace. God having
mercy on the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ. These things are
not known, and they're not understood by natural wisdom and echoing. These things have got to be revealed
unto us. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, they're what? Foolishness unto
him. neither can he know them, they
are spiritually discerned." And quite often, quite often,
when people first hear the gospel of grace, their response is,
well, I don't understand. I don't understand. I was talking to a religious person Claimed to be religious, about
the gospel, and thought I had some liberty of the Lord to tell
him about Christ and the gospel. After about 15, 20 minutes, you
know what he said to me? You're confusing me. And I'm sure that I was. He didn't
understand a thing I was saying. And my friends, the gospel is
either foolishness or a stumbling block. And those who seek to
understand it by natural wisdom, it's just foolishness. To the
religious person, it's a stumbling block. They can't reconcile it
with what they believe, the traditions of their fathers. Our Lord has
to give us an understanding. He must give us an understanding. We know the Son of God has come
and given us what? An understanding that we may
know Him that's true, that we are in Him that's true. This
is the true God and this is eternal life. We don't get there by natural
wisdom. And this woman's reply, now we
read it in verse 11 here a minute ago, but this woman's reply reveals
At least four objections to the gospel of grace by the natural
person. Pastor Donnie asked me a few
minutes ago what the title of the message was, and I had to
shorten it. I was going to put, Objections
to the Sovereign Free Grace of Christ, but that's too long.
So I said, Objections to Grace. He said, I don't have any. I
don't either. But natural man does. Natural
man does. Now, here's—listen to this. And I'm confident this—you'll
see this just a minute. Our Lord spoke to her about the
gift and the person. If you knew, you'd ask, and I'd
have given. And she said, the woman saith
unto him, Sir, you don't have anything at all. I give you a living what, you
don't have anything at all. How many times have I heard that?
I'll tell you. You see, the gospel, the gospel
of God concerning His Son does not appeal to nature. You tell
men and women that they're totally depraved, and that offends their
dignity. You tell them that God's unconditional
election of a people unto salvation in Christ, and that offends His
pride. You tell them about Christ's particular effectual redemption,
and that offends their sense of entitlement. You tell them
about the necessity of revelation and the invincible call of the
Spirit of God. That offends His wisdom. You
mean to tell me I can't read the Bible and understand it?
You have just a host of people say that. Talk about redemption by the
blood. Justification by the righteousness of another. That offends man's
self-worth. My dear friends, salvation. Salvation
by Christ alone. Salvation who of God is made
unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Salvation by Christ alone gives all glory and all preeminence
to Him. to Him. And the natural man sees nothing
in Christ and the gospel, the gospel of His grace, to draw
them, to draw them. No altar. No altar. No altar call. No invitation. Several years ago, Pastor Henry
was preaching for us, and as a young man came to the service,
he was trying to start a church around there, and he claimed
to be a preacher, and he just sat there and listened, and he
amened this, and he amened that, and he amened something else,
and then after the service was over, he was just so mad he could
bite nails. And he said, I don't see how
you people can get anybody saved if you don't give an invitation. You don't have anything to draw with. Don't have a choir
singing. Upteen verses of Just As I Am. Don't have any soul winners trying
to get the people to move. Nothing to draw with. Sir, you
have nothing to draw with. That's what they say about grace,
about the gospel of God's grace. Nothing to draw with? Are you
kidding? Nothing to draw with? Oh, my friend, how about the
omnipotent power of God the Father? Go ahead, turn over to John chapter
6. Just briefly here, John chapter
6, no man, verse 44, no man can come to me, our Lord said, except
the Father which hath sent me do what? Draw. Nothing to draw with? Nothing to draw with? You say,
would I have nothing to draw with? It's written in the prophets.
They'll all be taught of God. And every man, therefore, that
has heard and has learned of the Father, he comes to me. Nothing to draw with? Oh, yes. Yes, we don't draw people. Oh,
no, no, no, no. We don't try to get people up
out of their seats and moving. Sit still! Be still and know
that I am God. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. I'll do the drawing. And I guarantee you, when He
draws, when He teaches, I guarantee you, men and women will come
to Christ. Don't make that objection to
our gospel. Nothing to draw with? How about
the invisible power of the Spirit of God? Except you be born of
the water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom. The wind blows where it lifts.
If you hear the sound thereof, you can't tell where it's coming
from, where it's going. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit
of God. The Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God comes upon a person and he doesn't ask them, would you
like to be born again? He births them. Nothing to draw with. That's
what, we don't have to use enticing words of man's wisdom to try
to get people saved. Get them to believe. We preach
this gospel, this gospel of our crucified, risen Lord, and leave the drawing to God. We leave the drawing to the Father
and to the Spirit. Nothing to draw with? You have
nothing to draw with? How about the power of God's
Christ? The power of God's Christ. John
chapter 5, verse 21. This just, you know, we could
multiply Scripture upon Scripture upon Scripture. Maybe this will
suffice. John 5, 21. As the Father raises up the dead
and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth who He will. The Father raises the dead and
gives them life. Even so, the Son gives life to
dead sinners. To whom He will. To whom He will. The power of Christ. How about
the sufficiency of His work? Turn over to John chapter 12.
I want you to see this. I may not get through this. John chapter 12 and verse 32,
our Lord said this, He said, And I, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all. Now notice that men is in
italics, that's added. He said, I'll draw all unto me. All what? All the election of
grace. All the Father gave all the children,
all the sons and daughters of God. Every one of them. Every
one He redeemed. Every one for whom He died. After
all, am I, if I be lifted up from the earth? Lifted up from the earth. He
was lifted up, you know. He was lifted up and hung on
a cross and declared, it's finished. He was lifted up from the grave. and left the grave closed, folded
in the tomb. And he was lifted up from the
earth and seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.
When he had by himself heard Narcissus, he sat down at the
right hand of the majesty on high. He was lifted up. And I,
if I be lifted up, I'll draw them all to me." You don't have
anything to draw with. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
that the person, the power, and the work of our Redeemer, our
Lord, our Savior, His Spirit, and our Father. He was lifted up those ways that
we just said, but I'll tell you something else. He's lifted up
another way. He's lifted up in the preaching
of His gospel. That's what we're about. We don't assemble here, and you
didn't come here to hear us tell you how good you are. I know
you're good folks. I love you, love to be around
you. I'm not here to tell you how
good you are. No, no, no, no. I'm not here
to puff you up. Not here to lift you up, so to
speak. Here to lift him up. Him. Him. Brother John was talking about
the difficulty of actually the impossibility of preaching. Preaching
by natural talent and ability. But I'm absolutely certain that
we will never be able to preach effectually until we come to
the place of John the Baptist. He must increase. He must increase. And in doing so, I must increase. We lift him up in the preaching
of the gospel. Don't despise the gospel. I know you don't,
but I'm speaking to any who might not know the Lord, who might
take offense at the means. You mentioned that in your prayer,
Brother Bob. The means God has appointed of calling His people. Paul told the Romans, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I tell you, I'm ashamed of a
lot of stuff that's called gospel here. But I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. Why? It's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believes. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein, in that gospel of
Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. I don't need to hear the gospel
to be saved. Oh, you won't be saved. There
ain't no other way of learning about that righteousness, is
there? That's the way it's revealed. It pleased God. That's why it
pleased God. Not a whole lot of stuff pleases God, but it
pleased God! By the foolishness of preaching
such weak instruments of sinful means to declare this glorious
gospel of the blessed God. But that's all right, because
then we know who gets the glory of God. And who better to tell sinners
about a Savior than another sinner? Brother Tom Harding, he's always
had been fond of this saying, preaching is just one beggar
telling another where he found bread. And that's not right,
is it? Ah, the preaching of the gospel.
Foolishness to some, a stumbling block to others, but to those
who are being saved. He's the power, the wisdom of
God. And you know, we're always bound
to give thanks unto God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. Let's lift him up. Let's lift
him up. Paul said, we've preached Christ
and crucified him. And we're absolutely determined
not to know anything else about him. Nothing. Nothing to draw with. Nothing
to draw with. Point water, my time's gone.
Almost. Here's the second one, and I'm
not going to get through these. The well is deep. You see that
in her text? Sir, you don't have anything
to draw with. The well is deep. I'll tell you
one thing. I don't know if she knew it or
not, but she was right. That's a deep well. That is a
deep, deep well. God's eternal purpose of grace
and glory. The eternal counsel of peace. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior, a surety. The incarnation and birth of
the Son of God. God became a man. A representative head and a substitute? Vicarious suffering? God made
him sin for us and punished him as a sinner? new birth. We don't know anything about
our first birth, much less the second. Deep, deep, deep, deep. The indwelling of the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of God dwelling in His people, that's deep. Christ
formed in you, that's deep. through faith, without works,
deep, deep. Eternal life and glory with Christ
for sinners, deep. The well's deep. My friends, the well is deep.
It is deep. And you hear people say that.
You confront them with eternal truth, and they'll say, well,
that's deep. Yeah, it is. It is. But it's truth. It's truth. I don't know why we get so intent
on beating people up because they can't... blind people up
because they can't see. when we were just exactly like them.
Isn't that awful? There was a time when we couldn't
see and God gave us sight, and now we beat up on others because
they can't see. I know they don't understand.
I know they can't see. But I know who can make them
understand, and I know who can make them see. And I know a little
bit about the means that he uses to do it, because he's taught
me from the Word. Isn't he? Right? Well, indeed. It's a divine mystery, the mystery.
How many times in Scripture is the Gospel called a mystery?
And that's when men can't know it, they can't understand it,
but God has revealed it unto us by Spirit. And even as believers,
even beloved You and I, as children of God, crying out, Abba, Father,
believing in our Lord Jesus Christ, even being partakers of the divine
nature, we still know in part. We see in part. We're looking
through glass, smoky glass. We just see dimly. And we marvel. We marvel. at the death of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the death. I want you to
read it. You know it. I can quote it,
but read it. Romans 11. Romans 11, verse 33. That's deep. It sure is. It takes the wisdom of God for
understanding in this thing. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, Romans 11, verse 3. How
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his
counselor? Or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him and through
Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. It's deep. Here's the third one. From whence then hast thou that
living You knew, you had, and I forgive
you, living water. You don't have anything to draw
with? What else do you need? Where'd
you get that living water? Where'd you get it? How is it
that Christ has eternal life for you? Well, it's by virtue of His person
as God. His person as God. We need never forget that Jesus
Christ is God. Always have been, ever will be. He has this living water by,
you know, John, you don't have to turn
to it, let me just look at it. John chapter 1 and verse 4. Him,
and Christ was life, and the life was the life of man. In Him was life. He is life.
He is life. By virtue of His person as God.
He is life. He has this living water by the
decree of the Father to the Son. John chapter 5, verse 25. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."
It's by decree of the Father. It's by the satisfaction of justice.
The satisfaction of justice. He suffered once, the just for
the unjust. He satisfied justice. Why'd he
do that? That he might bring us to God. Being put to death
in the flesh for quitting, that's good. He was delivered for our
offenses, but raised again for our justification, just as satisfied. Has no claim against us. By divine
power and mediator. Father, glorify Thy Son, that
Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as Thou hast
given Him." There's one mediator. There's
one way, one truth, one life. It's in Him. And our Lord Jesus
is called Savior because He actually is. It's not an empty title. He shall save his people from
their sin. No ifs, ands, or buts, or maybes. He's anointed and appointed as
such by the Father, and as the God-man, he's vested with power
and authority to give life. From where to you? Where do you
have this water, this living water? My friends, he gives it. It's
his to give. He bought it. He bought it. he's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. His person, his office, his sacrifice. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? Number four. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? This wealth, she said, was given
to us by Father Jacob. It was good enough for him and
his children and his cattle. Are you greater than him? Listen, my friends. In the Scriptures, and especially
in the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus is revealed as
superseding all that ever went before, and any that shall come
after. Are you greater than our father
Abraham? Why, before he was, I am. Well,
are you greater than Moses, which gave us the law, the bread, and
so forth? Well, he wrote of me. You know, they came from everywhere
to see the glory of Solomon, and are greater than Solomon
is standing right here before you. Are you greater than Father Jacob? My friends, the gospel declares
that Christ is better than all. Angels, Moses, Abraham, Levi,
and Aaron. Greater than all. Greater than
all. Religion, listen, here's the
point now. Are you greater than Father Jacob? Religion derived from Father
Jacob fades into insignificance compared to the greatness of
our God and Savior. Paul said, I had a whole lot
of good things growing for me, but when I met Christ, I counted
them lost and done. It just faded into insignificance. Moses anymore. And I'll tell you something else,
and you mark it down, you search it out to see if it's not true,
but every false religion looks back to some great man. Come on now. Name one that doesn't. The gospel. looks to our God
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you greater than our Father
Jacob? Oh, yeah. Those are objections. Objections. I'm going to quit here. But those
are objections to the gospel of God's sovereign, free grace
in Christ. You don't have anything to draw with. The well's deep. The well's deep. Oh, my. Where'd you get this living water? Are you braver than I thought
you'd be? Well, I'm sorry for keeping you
so long, but I pray, Lord, you bless that to your hearts.