for the men of those who have
requested prayer. Any word on that, Ms. Trapper?
She's in hospice at home. At home, okay. Yeah, she's in
hospice. Is her kidney still going? Oh, she's in hospice. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can't remember
her prayers. A Standing Deer man died yesterday. Oh, really? Standing Deer, you
know who? Robert. That's his name. Robert Standing Deer. Cindy's
brother? Yes, Cindy's brother. Okay. I
don't know if I've met him. I may have, but I don't know. He grew up with Ray Kinsman. He grew up with Ray Kinsman. Oh, okay. You know, worship shift's
given him 514, a marching desire. Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known. Joined in a song, we'll beat
a chord. we're marching Let those we used to sing who
never knew our God Put children on the heavenly king may speak
their joys abroad. May speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion heals a thousand
sacred streets Before we reach the heavenly fields Before we
reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets Or walk
the golden streets We're marching to Zion! Beautiful, beautiful
Zion! We're marching onward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. In a day, an hour, the songs
are bound, and every tear we've cried. We're marching through
Emmanuel's bound. We're marching through Emmanuel's
path to fairer worlds of night and fairer worlds of night. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. Beyond the beautiful sea of God. Hymn number 242, Jesus I Come. Out of my pond is the sorrow at night. Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come! Into Thy freedom, landless and
blind, Jesus, I come to Thee! Out of my sickness, into Thy
help, there into thy well. Out of my sin, there into thy
cell, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come! Into Thy glorious
manger I cross! Jesus, I come to Thee! Jesus, I come to Thee I come. Out of myself, you dwell in my
love Out of despair, into raptures I'll go Up from your high, I'll
weep like a dove Jesus, I come to thee Out of the fear and dread of
the tomb Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into the joy and light
of Thy home Jesus, I come to Thee Out of the depths of rubato,
into the peace of the sheltering home. Ever the glorious place to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Deborah Myers turned with me
to John chapter 4, one of these verses 35 through 39. The God of our message is sowing
and reaping. Our Lord speaking to his disciples,
say not ye, there are yet four months, when men come up to harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already
to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth food till thy eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that same truth, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you
to reap, that whereon ye bestowed no labor. Other men labored,
and ye have entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans
of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman which
testified, He told me all that I ever did. Let us pray. Now,
Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord,
who, when He had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high, never living to intercede for His people. that he came to this world to
save sinners, to die in their room instead, substitute for
them before you, to put away their sin by the
sacrifice of himself, to perfect forever them that are sanctified,
so much so that you will remember their sins no more, And where
sins are remitted, there is no more need of another sacrifice. We thank you, Lord, that in your
good, sovereign promise and promise and purpose, you gave your children
faith to believe the record of what is death accomplished. We are thankful and full of wonder,
for our flesh still rebels against that truth, ever looking to make
some sense of ourselves and give ourselves merit and righteousness,
and we have none of it. And we thank you that faith lays
hold of this truth and rejoices in it, simply and plainly believing
what the Lord has said. Father, we pray for those who
are sick and going through trials, those who've lost loved ones.
Remember Chris Trapper, she's been brought into hospice. Remember
the Panther family who lost their own. Remember the Standing Deer
family, the others who requested prayer. Lord, we ask your help
for them. God knows every case. We know that according to your
good pleasure, You will do what is right, for the judge of all
the earth shall always do right. You know our desires, the desires
of our heart according to our understanding. And our desires
is for our kindred according to the flesh to be healed, and
brought back to a good measure of life. We know that life and
death, the keys to these belong to the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
He who is the author of salvation is the author of time. We know
that a man's days are numbered as much as with thee, and he
cannot pass. We ask, Lord, your help for those
who are suffering. We ask for your help tonight
as we look at your word to give us a sense of the things our
Lord is speaking to his disciples. And take it to heart. Help us,
Lord, now to worship you, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. Now this passage we're gonna
read to you tonight is a conclusion or a continuation of the mild
rebuke that the disciples that the Lord gave his disciples concerning
the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find that in verse
34, he said, Thus Jesus said unto them, My meat, or my sustenance,
or the reason I am here, is to do the will of God that sent
me, and to finish his work. Now while the disciples were
thinking of the Master's physical needs, for they knew that he
was probably hungry from the long trip to Samaria, and concerning
food for his body, he asserts that his food is to do the will
of God. The will of God. The meaning
of his words is borne out in scripture. His mission is the
salvation of the elect for the glory of God in this thing called
time that God has set somewhere in the midst of eternity. Our
Lord said in His high priestly prayer, when He prayed to the
Father, He said, I have glorified Thee. In John 17 and verse 4,
I have glorified Thee. I have finished the work that
Thou gavest Me to do. And we know the work that He
was given to do was to die in the womb instead of His people.
and to gather all the elect, all the sheep, all the church,
all his body into one flock. That's what he said over and
over again in scripture. Now he now addresses his disciples
and confronts them with the fact that as his disciples, their
mission is the same. Their mission is the same. It
is not that they would save men, but they would do as this woman
has done. tell others about what Christ
has done for her. As I thought about this woman
and her enthusiasm as she went in the streets crying, come see
a man who told me all the things I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Something miraculous has happened
to this woman. Something wondrous has happened
to this woman. She has gained that necessary
thing that has brought about a great understanding on her
behalf. She knows that Jesus is the Christ. This man who sat at the well
was probably in a plain old robe and he was not good looking as
pictures paint him today. There was no comeliness in him
that men should desire. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Yet she said this man, and she
was excited about it, She ran through the streets crying, this
man is the Christ. That means she understood the
promise of Psalm 2 when the Lord said, behold, I will set my anointed,
my king, on Zion's holy hill. And I will give him all heathen
for his inheritance. And he will rule them with a
rod of iron. So the best thing you can do
is come and kiss the son lest he be angry, and you be put away
when his anger is come upon a little. She understood this is the Christ,
the Messiah that Isaiah wrote up in Isaiah 53, the life that
Moses wrote of in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 3. This is the Christ. This is a wondrous thing. Think
about this. Just moments before, she was a woman who had five
husbands, and she was living with number six, who wasn't her
husband. She came out to the well at noon because she was
a pariah in society. They didn't want anything to
do with her, and she didn't want anybody to see her. So she'd
come out at noon instead of morning or evening and gather water at
Jacob's well. And here this man told her, and
talked to her, he said, you knew who he was talking to. You had
asked, and it gave you the water of life, and you'd never thirst
again. Well, she's got it. She said,
this man is the Christ. This man is the Christ. She knows.
She knows. that Jesus is the Christ. This
spiritual understanding only comes one way. You can't get
it through studying this book. You can't get it by trickery,
you can't get it by religious chicanery, you can't get it by
seeing it written in the clouds. I saw on Facebook today they
had some cloud formation that had the sun behind it and it
looked, I guess you would say, for people, like the idea of
an angel. I'm sure people just went totally nuts about it when
I was talking about it. I can remember people used to
travel down to Conyers, Georgia all the time because on the water
tower down there, or no, it was on the screen door of this lady
of this woman's church, supposedly a picture of Jesus would appear,
and people traveled for miles and miles and miles. They wouldn't
go 10 yards to go to the local church to hear the gospel, but
they'll travel 50 to 100 miles to see Jesus in a screen door. It's Christ, says this woman,
and she didn't say that. But for one reason. You turn
back to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, beginning of
verse 3, the Lord is talking to Nicodemus, and he says to
him, Nicodemus said, we know that you're a man come from God,
because no man can do these things except the Lord send him. And
I was ordered to answer to him in verse 3 of John 3. Verily
I say unto you, except a man be born again. or born from above,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Now, he was talking about
himself. The Kingdom of God is God's sovereign rule, and it's
the Lord who rules sovereignly in this world. Nicodemus didn't
get it. He said, shall I go back to my mother's womb? And our
Lord said to him, in verse 5, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said to you, You must be born again. The wind blows
where it will. Now hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst
tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that
is born of the Spirit. He said this must happen. Did
it happen in Nicodemus? I believe it did later on in
Nicodemus' life. Because he did defend Christ
before the Sanhedrin. He did ask for the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ to be buried. So I believe he was a believer.
It says he believed, but he was afraid to confess him because
of fear of the Jews. And I can understand that. It's
not always easy to hold up the banner of Christ in the midst
of the enemies. It's just not that easy. You might think it
is, and somebody might say, well, you don't really believe. I'm
a believer. I've been believing for a long time. But you give
me a bunch of preachers and a bunch of lying on the gut preachers,
and they start hollering and carrying on. I don't say anything. I don't want to get in a fistfight
about those things. But this woman, some things happened. What's happened? What our Lord
was talking about to Nicodemus has happened to this woman. She
knows that she is known because of the Spirit of God is now within
her. It is the glory of continuing
progressive relationship here in this chapter. You see, all
she had And all she knew about, even as a Samaritan, all she
had was what the Jews had at that temple, and that is the
Word of God, what the scribes had copied. It was Genesis through
Malachi. She didn't have a New Testament.
This gospel was not pitted. John's gospel was not pitted
until AD 100. That's a long time. That's 70
years after our Lord went to the Lord. She didn't have this
gospel. What she had was the Old Testament,
the Old Testament. And what you have in this book,
especially in the book of John, also in the other Gospels, you
have the beginning of the revelation, a progressive understanding,
if you will, changing things, showing change that nobody can
fully understand. We couldn't know if we didn't
have the epistles there. When the Lord was talking to
John in John chapter 3, he was talking about the old and new
covenant. And here he is again. Our Lord
has given an inspired language in subtle terms. Our Lord has
begun to reveal a new thing. A whole new thing. Nobody talked like that in the
Old Testament. None of the prophets said, come unto me and I'll give
you eternal life if you drink my water. Nobody said that. He said, this is something new. And yet, you think about it.
I marvel at faith. The older I get, and the longer
I've been here, it's the one thing that I marvel at is why
in the world would anybody believe this? Why? And there ain't but one reason. God gave them faith to do it.
And that's why they believe. And it's a wonder to me. It's
a wonder to me. In inspiring language, in subtle
terms, our Lord has begun to reveal a new thing. The old covenant
ruler, Nicodemus, he was still under the old covenant, did not
understand what our Lord was saying. Our Lord said, you don't
understand it, you don't believe it, you don't receive it. There
in the third chapter of John. You don't believe it and you
don't receive it. But this new covenant girl, who has no affiliation
except by being near or in proximity to the Jewish people in that
area because the Jews and Samaritans were now mixing pretty heavily.
This woman knew that he was the Christ. Nicodemus didn't know
he was the Christ. All the Pharisees that he dealt
with, reading Matthew chapter 23, they didn't know he was the
Christ. They even said in John 10, if you be the Christ, tell
us plainly. He'd already told them over and over again. He
told them in John 10 that he was the one that laid down his
life for the sheep. He wasn't the Christ. They didn't believe
him. But this woman does. She does, and she does it with
enthusiasm. There's no doubt about it. This
new covenant safe center understands, understands. It's the marked
difference between traditional salvation. What is traditional
salvation? Traditional salvation is the salvation that you inherit
when you're born. If you're a Catholic, they christen
you. That's traditional salvation.
They say, oh, that's not salvation. You've got to get confirmed when
you're 12. It's salvation. And all the churches and the
reformed churches that came out of Rome, they do the same thing.
They christen them babies. That's traditional salvation.
But if you're born a Muslim, that's traditional salvation.
You're born a Muslim. If you're a Jew, you're born
a Jew. Unless you proselytize that you're born a Jew, you're
a Jew. That's your religion. That's your salvation. That's
a traditional salvation. What a person's born into, national
or natural election for the Jews. But spiritual salvation, It's
something else altogether. Something that never was even
discussed fully. It was pointed to in the Old
Testament, but never discussed fully. Spiritual salvation comes
from above. Being born from above. And that
has to do with the election of grace and the hearing of the
Master's word through the preaching of the Gospel. She's an example
that our Lord uses to rebuke His disciples. The contrast is
what she did when she talked to Christ and what they did not
do having been with Christ and had the benefit of his teaching
for some time now. They didn't do anything in that
city. She did. The difference was she heard
the Master's voice. Our Lord used a metaphor to express
what the Samaritan woman has done as opposed to the action
of the disciples. In verse 35, He said, say not
there four months, and then come at the harvest. Behold, I say
to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they
are white and all ready to harvest. It was actually four months of
the harvest when he said that. He said, don't say that. Don't
say that. Our Lord is not speaking of the
harvest of corn or wheat or barley. He spoke of the harvest of men,
the harvest of souls. And that crop, he says, is ripe
for the reaping. You look at verses 36 and 37,
and he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth food unto
eternal life, that he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice
together. And here it is saying true, one
soweth and another reapeth. The actual fields were not ready
for harvest, but our Lord is speaking about men's souls. This
is metaphorical illumination of the Savior and the disciples'
function in the scheme of salvation. There's a sower and there's a
reaper. This is me saying that he's the
sower and they're the reapers. That's what he's saying. The
Savior does the work of saving and the disciples do the work
of reporting what the Savior's done, and that's the reaping.
In this sense, the Savior is the sower and the disciple is
the reaper. Of course, we know that it is the Spirit who actually
is the reaper, but he employs called men to speak the words
that he causes to find purpose in the hearts of the elect. All
that we can do is tell it. It's a great thing to understand,
when you finally learn what the gospel is, that it is a report
of something that has already taken place. So, if it's already
taken place, it is historical. You cannot change it, you cannot
add to it, you cannot take from it, it's already done. That's
what the gospel is, and when we preach the gospel, and God's
elect hear it, they do not hear of something they must add. or
something they must do, or some decision they must make, they
don't hear that. The gospel, the elect don't. Now, if it's
a false gospel, they will, because they talk about the free will,
and they talk about coming down on all, they talk about doing
something. You do it, God's done what he can do, now you must
do something. That's the kind of language.
That's not the gospel. The gospel is good news. What's
really good news? It's done, the great transaction's
done, I am the Lord's and he is mine. That's what the elect
hears. When you preach the good news of what Jesus Christ did
on Calvary's tree and how he satisfied God's law and justice,
the elect say, that's for me. That's good news. Boy, is that
good news. You mean there's nothing for me to do? Nothing. Nothing. And the wonder of it is that
God talks to his children through the gospel. The Holy Spirit takes
that gospel and plants it in their heart. And the wondrous
thing is, that they can look at this event that happened 2,000
years ago in a lonely hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, when
the whole world, it seemed, was gathered against this one man.
And they spat upon him, and they pummeled him, and they cut him,
and they put a thorn of grounds on his head. They nailed him
to a cross. They mocked him. They stuck out their tongues.
They wagged their tongues at him. They said, if thou be the
Christ, save yourself. He saved others. He saved himself.
He said, those can't even save himself. Well, that's the truth,
that's substitution. His enemies were speaking the
truth. And here's the thing, 2,000 years ago, folks, not yesterday,
not 30 minutes ago, not last year, 220 centuries ago, this
took place. And if you're a believer tonight,
you're resting in that, that again, in the personal accomplishment. You tell me faith ain't a wonder?
This woman said, this is the Christ. This is the Christ. And the metaphor applies to the
situation at hand. It does have some general application.
I've used it. I've heard it most of the time
of the year. This passage of scripture about
the harvest. It's some evangelist trying to make people feel guilty
about not going out and witnessing the people. I've heard it many
times in revival meetings. But our Lord has said, this is
the situation. Disciples, you went out of town by meeting.
You didn't say a word to anybody. Nobody came following you out
of town. This woman, when she heard the
truth, she came running through the streets saying, this is the
Christ, come and see, come and see, come and see. That's the
difference, that's the difference that he's setting forth here.
And he said, what causes his people to hear, And what is the
application? Verse 38, our Lord tells His
disciples that they're about to reap on another person's labor.
That's what He says in verse 38, I sent you to reap that were
on you bestowed no labor. You bestowed no labor. Other
men labored. We use the word men here. In
the general sense, mankind, a woman, did it. And you entered into
her labor. Other men labored. And you entered
in. You're going to get something. You're going to benefit. You're
going to be able to rejoice in something you didn't have anything
to do with. That's the distinction he's making.
The harvest is about to be reaped. It is about to be reaped. because
of the labor of this American woman. While they were in town telling
no one of Christ's this societal pariah cannot be silent, she
goes through the streets heralding the good news that the kingdom
of God has come, that Christ the Messiah is among them, and
he knows all things that she ever did. He told me everything
I ever did. Her enthusiastic words are resulting
in a stir. Verse 29 and 30 says, Come see
a man, she said, who has told me all things I ever did. And
they went out of the city and came to him. A lot of people
came out of the city. Many, it is said, where God makes
that fact of a clear distinction concerning the reaping of the
harvest in verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of
that city believed on him, or the saying of the woman. which testified, he told me all
that I ever did. Why'd they believe? Why'd they
come here? Why'd they believe on him? Because of what she told
me about Jesus Christ. This is also a sweet reminder
of what it is to tell out the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't
have to be theological geniuses. We don't. We don't have to tell
people about pre-millennialism and post-millennialism and all-millennialism
and all the other millennialisms. We don't have to tell them about
the Doctrine of the Last Days. We don't have to tell them about
the beast with ten horns and nine tails. We don't have to
tell them that. What do we have to tell them?
What Christ has done for us. That's what she did. And it worked. She told them what Christ had
done for her, and they'd come out of the houses to come see
this man. It is not this, but Christ. Over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, We know, according to the word
of God, that Paul said the gospel was obeyed for our glory. That
is the wisdom of God, according to verse 7. But in verse 12,
he says, now we have not received the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God. Why? That we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. That's why we have the spirit. So we'll know what God's done
for us. And that's what the sweetest and simplest thing about the
gospel is. Find those men whom Christ healed.
He says, go tell the demoniac, Demonicadara, me healed. He says,
go and tell people what compassion I've had on you. Go tell them. Go tell them. We say, come and dine. Come and
dine on a feast already prepared, a feast of fat leaves and wine
on the leaves well refined. This dear sinner saved by grace,
this woman, this Samaritan woman, is mentioned one more time in
scripture, that she will stand for eternity. of the heart result
of the voice language of the recipient of God's grace. O to
grace, how great a debtor. Look over at Job chapter 32,
and I'll close with a couple of verses. Job chapter 32, verse
17. This is what's in that small. This is why she runs through
the street crying what she's crying. Verse 17 of chapter 32 says,
and I said, I will answer my heart. I will also show my opinion,
for I am full of the matter. The spirit within me constraineth
me. Behold, my belly is as a wine
which hath no vent. It is ready to burst like new
bottles. I will speak that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.
That's what she did. Her belly was full of the matter. And what's the message she had?
Look over at Psalms, chapter 126. And this phrase is repeated
so many times in the psalm. Verse three. The Lord hath done
great things for us. Wherefore, we are glad. We are glad. Father, bless us
to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.