Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching in the book
of John, chapter 4. beginning around verse 10 and
11. And the title of the message is Christ, the Water of Life. And this is part two. Last week,
I preached on Christ, the Water of Life, part one, the first
part of John 4, where we see the Lord Jesus Christ going through
Samaria, and he meets a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman,
an adulterous woman. And he speaks to her of the living
water. If you'll look in verse 10, she
was coming to the well, Jacob's well, to get water. And he asked
her, he said, give me to drink. And well, let's go back up to
verse nine, because just get the context of this. It says,
then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou
being a Jew, Ask us drink of me which am a woman of Samaria
for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans now that
was a long Continuing hatred between the Samaritans and the
Jews and I won't go into all that I mentioned some of it last
week But she was surprised that Jesus who was who was in his
humanity a Jew Would ask a Samaritan for a drink of water And I love
this passage here, it says in verse 10, Jesus answered and
said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is
that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked
of him and he would have given thee living water. Now this living
water is salvation. that comes by virtue of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. And I love the way
that the Lord put this to the woman, if you knew the gift of
God. And I wanna emphasize this point,
I dealt with this last week in the message, the problem with
us by nature. And again, I always wanna emphasize
this, that when I say by nature, I'm talking about as we are naturally
born, And what is our state as we are naturally born? We're
born fallen in Adam. We all fell in Adam into a state
of spiritual death, sin, and depravity. And that's the way
we are. And what comes along with that? Well, deception, self-righteousness,
darkness of unbelief, ignorance. And he says, if you knew the
gift of God by nature, that's our problem. We don't know the
gift of God. And we don't know who it is that
saith, giveth me to drink. We don't know Christ. He has
to be revealed. And this gift of God is the gift
of salvation, full salvation. Whereas the hymn says salvation,
full and free by his grace, that is totally wrapped up and based
upon the glorious person and finished work of Christ. Who
is Christ? God manifest in the flesh. He
said, if you knew who it is that saith, give me to drink. If you
knew who I was. Well, he's the Messiah. He's
God manifest in the flesh. He's God man. Fully God and fully
man. Fully God in every attribute
of deity. Fully man in every attribute
of humanity without sin now. Now, in his humanity, he suffered
the weaknesses or the infirmities of the flesh, but he was never
a sinner. He was never made to be a sinner.
He was never corrupted with our sins, but he was God-man. And it's through the God-man,
the Word made flesh dwelling among us, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
God with us. It's in the person and work of
the God-man that all of salvation comes as a free gift, unearned
and undeserved by any of its recipients. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. And then listen to me, there's
not one blessing of salvation, any facet of salvation that I
can say I earned this and I deserve it. It's all of grace. For by grace, even the faith
to believe is not natural to us. Faith is a gift of God. It's not natural. Salvation does
not come by us making a choice. Now, in salvation, by the power
and grace of God, we do make a choice. And we choose Christ. We receive Him. We believe in
Him. But that didn't come naturally. That doesn't come out of some
spark of goodness or free will that we have. That came from
God. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of
works lest any man should boast. So he's confronting her and he
says, if you knew all these things, you would have asked of him,
you'd ask Christ and he would give you the living water. The
living water is salvation. The living water is the work
of the Spirit in the new birth to give life. I read over in
Matthew chapter five, I believe it's verse six, where he talks
about blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. That's what it is. To want salvation
is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, because righteousness
is what God requires. for salvation. You know, somebody
says, well, God requires faith. Well, God gives faith and He
does require, but the issue of salvation is righteousness. That's
why we talk about how salvation, in salvation, the gospel of salvation. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth, the Jew first, the
Greek also, or the Gentile, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. and that righteousness of God
is the entire merit, value, worthiness of Christ's obedience unto death
as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of His people.
So that I'm justified before God, which means that I'm forgiven
of all my sins, and I'm declared righteous by God in His sight,
based upon what Christ accomplished as God-man in my stead, as my
substitute, as my surety, as my redeemer on the cross. My
righteousness before God is nothing that I've done. It's not my faith,
it's not my repentance, it's not my works. My righteousness
before God is Christ. The merit of His work charged
to me, imputed to me. And that's how salvation comes
to me. And then in the process of time,
God, out of that righteousness, gives me life from the dead.
That's the new birth. Romans 8 10 says this body is
dead because of sin. That's physical body. But the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is life because of righteousness. Well,
look at verse 11 now in John 10, or John 4, rather. He says, 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? And I made this
point, and I said, this woman, here's an adulterous woman, a
Samaritan, despised among the Jews. And her problem is, is
her spiritual death and depravity and sin. And she cannot think
anything spiritually. I quote all the time, 1 Corinthians
2, 14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned,
they're spiritually judged and valued and understood. And so
by nature, we can't think above what we are. The whole chapter
of 1 Corinthians 2 speaks of that. What can a man know but
the Spirit of man which is in him? So if you're gonna know
anything about God, it's gonna have to be by the Spirit of God
through the Word of God. Well, this woman, when she heard
him talk about living water, she was thinking of earthly things.
She said, well, you don't have anything to draw from this. Well,
he's not talking about physical water. But do you remember back
in John 3, a man named Nicodemus, who was so far apart from this
Samaritan adulteress in the eyes of men, he was a religionist,
he was a Pharisee, probably a member of the High Court, the Sanhedrin,
and he was a sincere, moral person. And yet he too had no ability,
natural ability, to understand and grasp spiritual things. So
when Christ spoke to him of the new birth, you must be born again. He said, well, how can a man
be born again? Can he enter into his mother's womb and come out
again? See, he was thinking, in ignorance, and just like this
woman. So basically what I'm telling
you is this adulterous woman who had many husbands and was
living with the man here, as Christ brings out later on, and
Nicodemus, they both had the same problem. And that's the
problem with all of us by nature. The Bible says in Romans 3.10,
there are none righteous, no, not one. That includes the highest
moral person in religion and the lowest immoral person in
adultery or whatever sin. There's none of us who have a
righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice. And no matter how hard we try,
if this adulterous woman would decide to change her lifestyle,
and repent of her sins, her adultery, clean herself up and become a
moral citizen, she would still be no closer to the perfection
of righteousness that God requires because that can only be found
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10, four says that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
So you understand, If this woman, if she's going to be saved, it
has to be by grace. But the same holds true for Nicodemus. Now we naturally think, well,
she needs more grace than Nicodemus. No. In fact, if you want to get
technical, and I think I brought this out last week too, how when
a person becomes religious in false religion, self-righteous
works religion, they're worse off than they ever were. Because
I'll tell you what, that's one of the greatest obstacles to
sinners coming to Christ. For example, think about yourself. Do you have a hope of assurance
of salvation? What is that based on? And if
it's based upon anything but the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ, it's a bad hope. It's false assurance,
it's presumption. And most people, if the Spirit
of God doesn't intervene and change their hearts, they'll
get angry. Man hates the light. We talked
about that in John chapter three. So she says this, well, look
at verse 12. She says, aren't thou greater
than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof
himself and his children and his cattle? Well, the answer
to that is yes, he's much greater than Jacob. In fact, he was Jacob's
savior. Jacob was a sinner saved by grace.
But in verse 13, it says, Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Now that's a given. You get thirsty, you might work
hard out in the yard or something like that, you get hot, you get
a drink of water, won't be long, you'll be thirsty again. And
that's what he's saying. Physical water's not the issue
here. And look at verse 14. Look at this. He says, but whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. He says, but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness. If you really hunger and thirst
after righteousness, truly, biblically, honestly, it's the Spirit of
God who made you thirsty. And if the Spirit of God is the
one who made you hungry and thirsty for righteousness, You will not
find peace, satisfaction, that hunger will not be filled, that
thirst will not be quenched until He brings you to Christ for salvation,
for righteousness, for forgiveness. He will, and listen, if you go
to a decision you made when you were young, or your baptism,
or your works, or your Sunday school attendance, or whatever,
My friend, if the Spirit made you thirsty and hungry, that
will not fill that hunger or that thirst. But those who are
made thirsty and hungry by the Spirit, they shall be filled. And that's what he's saying right
here in verse 14. Those who drink this water. And
what is this water? It's salvation. And drinking
it is believing the gospel by God-given faith, laying hold
of Christ. drinking of the water of life,
feeding off the bread of life. And you'll never thirst, because
Christ will always be there. Righteousness will always be
there, even in your darkest moments. You see, I'm a sinner saved by
grace. I am not righteous within myself. And many times I fail, so many
times. I try not to, and sometimes I
don't even try as hard as I should, and that's to my shame. But I never thirst because I
always stand before God in the righteousness of His beloved
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my eternal standing before
God, and it'll never change. Now, that does not give me an
excuse to sin, because there is no excuse for sin. But it
does give me the assurance of God's grace that motivates me
to fight sin and to be obedient to God. And so this is like a
well within you springing up unto everlasting life. You see,
everlasting life is not conditioned on me or you. It's all conditioned
on Christ, and He is that well of water springing up within
us, within our hearts, our minds, our affections, our will, as
the Spirit abides within us and leads us continually to His word
so that we can find a good, we can rest in the good hope that
we found in Christ. So it's the gospel. It's righteousness
everlasting. It's forgiveness of sins, the
redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ, and it never fails. There's not gonna be one sinner
who perishes in eternal damnation for whom Christ died, because
he is the water of life. He's the bread of life. His blood
is the blood of the lamb that takes away the sins of his people
all over this world, Jew and Gentile, God's chosen people.
They're his sheep. And so he says in verse 15, it
goes on, the woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water
that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Now she still
has her mind on physical things because she says, give me this
water and then I won't have to come back here to this well to
draw physical water, but she would. I have to get a drink
of water all the time. I have within me by the spirit
of God, the presence of Christ, the living water, the well of
water springing up unto it, but I still get physically thirsty.
I still have to have a drink of water physically, but whenever
I get thirsty spiritually, that well of water springs up within
me, driving me to Christ and I drink freely and I never thirst
again. But she says, well, I won't have
to come back here. Well, in verse 16, Jesus saith unto her, go
call thy husband and come hither. Now here's what he's going to
do here now. He's not switching the subject. He, in his infinite,
sovereign, perfect wisdom, he's going to turn her mind towards
her sin. to show her what kind of thirst
she needs to have and how this thirst is quenched. So he says,
go call thy husband and come hither, come here. Well, the
woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said unto
her, thou hast well said, I have no husband. Verse 18, for thou
hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband, in that saidst thou truly. Well, Christ here
is showing his deity. It's not that this woman had
a bad reputation, even though she did. And I'm sure she was
an infamous woman. A lot of people say, well, she
came at the well at a time when most people did not come to the
well because she knew that they would ridicule her and reject
her. So she wanted to come by herself because she was a woman
of ill repute. But Christ, Jesus Christ said,
I know your situation. I know you're a sinner. You've
had five husbands and the man you're living with now is not
even your husband. And so this astounds her. And she says in
verse 19, the woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou
art a prophet. You're a prophet. You know things
that you couldn't know otherwise. And she says in verse 20, now
listen to how it goes here. Even in her infamy, She turns
to religion. She says in verse 20, our fathers
worshiped in this mountain. Now the mountain she's talking
about is in Samaria, the Samaritans. Back when they had the split
in the Jewish nation in Israel, the Northern kingdom and the
Southern kingdom, the capital of the Northern kingdom became
Samaria and they built a temple there. And that's what she's
referring to. She says, our fathers worshiped
in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship. Well, you know Jerusalem
and the temple of Solomon. And of course, now this was the
second temple that King Herod had added on to. And so in verse
21, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when
you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship
the Father. These physical temples are going
to be gone, he's saying. Worshiping the Father, you know,
and I won't go into all this because there's so many people
who are talking about, well, we need to rebuild the temple
in Jerusalem. That's not biblical. The temple in Jerusalem is gone.
And we don't come to the temple that's made with hands, we come
to the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly temple, which is Christ.
Mount Zion, Hebrews 12 speaks of it. And so our temple is Christ
and his temple is the church, the true church made up of people.
But he tells her, he says, the hour's coming when you won't
worship there or here. But he says in verse 22, you
worship you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. Now that's a very telling statement. She says, he says, you worship
you know not what. Do you know that's a very, very
widespread problem in so-called churches today. People don't
even know what they're worshiping. Worship today has been relegated
to entertainment, to feeling good, to emotions, but there's
not much knowledge. There's not much preaching of
the doctrine of Christ and the true knowledge of God. Who is
God? What is He like? Who are we? What are we and why do we need
salvation by grace? Who is Jesus Christ and what
is salvation? Most people have no idea. They
just go to church because it's a tradition. It's popular. It makes them feel good. but
they don't know the doctrine of Christ, the gospel, and so
it could be said they don't know what they're worshiping. But
now Christ is talking about the Samaritans. You know not what
you worship. In the Northern Kingdom, there
was absolutely no true worship of God established in Samaria,
and all the kings of the Northern Kingdom were evil kings who did
not that which is right in the eyes of God. But he says, we
know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now, what does
he mean? Yeah, now most of the Jews were lost too, but God had
established the true worship of God in the tabernacle of old,
which became the temple. And that's where you had the
Jewish high priest, the sacrifice of the animals, the lambs, the
he goats and the bullocks and all of those. That's where you
had the feast days and the day of atonement. That was all meant
to establish the true worship of the living God. And it was
all types and pictures. There was no salvation in those
elements. The blood of bulls and goats
could never put away sin, but they typified Christ. Christ
is the great high priest of his people. Christ is our altar. At our church, the altar is not
some bench in front of the pulpit. Christ is our altar. And then
Christ is our sacrifice. And so he says, we know what
we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now, what does it mean
salvation is of the Jews? Does that mean that I have to
look to the Jews for salvation? No. As I said, most of the Jews,
even in Christ's day, were lost in their sins. The vast majority
of them perished in unbelief, Hebrews chapter three tells us,
in the wilderness. And the Bible says in John 1
11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. The
people were being led astray by the Pharisees. And so it doesn't
mean we're to turn to the Jews for salvation. The Jews cannot
save you. The Jews need salvation, just
like the Gentiles. Again, for by grace are you saved. Quote Romans 1, where Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
in time it came to the Jews first, and to the Greek or the Gentile
also. But salvation was of the Jews
because that's where God established the true worship if they would
bow to it, but they wouldn't. But that's where it was, salvation.
And what did that temple in Jerusalem, that high priesthood, that altar,
that sacrifice, it all pointed to Christ for salvation. It all
pointed to him. And God used the Jews to bring
that message of the gospel into the world. And that's what he
means when he says salvation is of the Jews. It came through
them, even though the majority of them were lost. There was
always an elect remnant among the Jews, but being a Jew did
not make one saved. We'll pick up there next week.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.