a little feedback on Sunday. Maybe I'll put it there. It won't be so loud. Do you feel
like a tunnel sound in it? Yeah. I don't know what that
was. Cynthia missed me. Better? Better? Turn down just a hair. She turned
it down. Hello. Hello. That's better. I can't think of any announcements. I can remember those who requested
prayer. Seek the Lord's help for them. First hymn tonight is hymn number
255, Blessed Assurance of Jesus is Mine. 255. ? Blessed assurance of Jesus
is mine ? What a foretaste of glory divine! Hail the salvation and virtue
of God! All of His Spirit washed in His
blood. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Saviour all the day long! This is my story, this is my
song! Praising my Saviour all the day
long! Perfect commission, perfect delight! These words are a rapture that
burst from my sight Angels descending, rain from above Echoes of mercy,
this verse of love This is my story, this is my song Praising
my Saviour all day long. This was my story, this was my
song. Praising my Saviour all day long. Perfect commission on the Lord's
day praise. I am my Saviour and happy and
blest Watching and praying, keeping looking above In all His goodness,
watching and love This is my story, this is my song Praising
my Saviour all the day long This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all day long. What a friend we have in Jesus! Our sins and griefs He'll bear! What a privilege to carry Him! I think of God in prayer! Oh, what mystery of a forefather! In this room we bear, all the
longing we are carrying. I think of God in prayer, and
He trials my temptation. He's there troubling you where, Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a place for faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Take me to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take you surely,
there you'll find the smallest man. The Bible started with John
chapter 4. Begin reading from verse 7 and read through verse 8. Samaria to draw water. Jesus
saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city by mean. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, hast this drink
of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said, And who it is that saith unto
thee, Give me to drink? Thou wouldst have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. 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. Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said, whosoever
drinketh of this water shall 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. And a woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water, that I may thirst not, neither come hither
to draw. Jesus said, Go, call thy husband,
and come hither. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. And Jesus said unto her, thou
hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that thou
saidst thou truly. We are thankful that the language
is plain and clear. We do not have to wonder or seek
some theological answer. It is right before us, plain
and true, and in a beautiful and glorious way it is written. We are thankful that in days
of old you inspired men of old to write the scripture. We know
that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. is profitable
for doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction that
the man of God might be truly furnished unto all good works.
We are thankful, Lord, for your salvation that's full and free
and forever. We are thankful that Jesus Christ,
our Lord, the blessed Lamb of God, came to this world and died to their redemption, finish the
work of salvation, to let it be applied by the Holy Spirit
to the preaching of the word. We bless you, Father, and thank
you for your goodness, and your grace, and your mercy toward
folks like us. We pray for those who are sick,
going through trials and troubles, sorrows of heart, tribulations. unto the Word of God, that you
might be pleased to give us understanding and appreciation, and to be thankful,
ever thankful, that you did not leave yourself without a witness,
but you left this glorious book for us, and we can see our Savior
from page to page. Now this woman coming to Jacob's
well to draw water was the true reason why our Lord said he must
needs go to Samaria. Unbeknownst to her, she is one
who would be found of him who sought him not. She's one of
the elect, the lost sheep, who's gone terribly astray. And the
shepherd, according to John chapter 10, must bring her into the fold. He must bring her into the fold. will soon encounter will go to
the cross and die. The death that she was due put
away her sin and make her to be righteousness of God. And
she comes to this well out of thirst, but it's a thirst that
built Dane from the foundation of the world, not knowing that
she was to meet the fountain open for cleansing. She came
at midday because she would probably be alone in the heat of the day
and would avoid the prying eyes. because of her sordid reputation.
She was a woman of Samaria, the city of Sychar. When she came
to the well, there was a Jewish man sitting there, and he asked
her to draw some water for him to drink. That's found in verse
7. It seems that ordinarily, from
the words of verse 8, that the disciples would draw water for
him, but they were in town buying some food for the journey. There
was no one there, That's all we have at this well.
And she was taken aback by the fact that he spoke to her. She
said in verse eight, or verse nine, Then saith the woman of
Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink
of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. The Samaritans were considered
infidels. They were part of the pagan nations
of Canaan. They were considered to be even
called dogs. You remember the Syrophoenician
woman, who was also a pagan, who came to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Lord said, it's not fit to give children's food to dogs. And she said, I'm your dog. You
can scrape some stuff off the table for me. So that's what
they were called, dogs. They were despised. with references to the Messiah
concerning the Gentiles, but she spoke with some knowledge
of Scripture, for she knew that in Deuteronomy the Jews were
forbidden to integrate with the inhabitants of Canaan. But the prophets said otherwise,
even though the Lord had forbade it in Deuteronomy, that by the
time the prophets came along, they had already integrated,
they had already started marrying among themselves, the Jews marrying
the pagans, the pagans marrying the Jews, children being born
in that situation. But the prophets spoke with the
Messiah and saying often in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Amos and Isaiah,
that the Gentiles would be brought into the fold by the Messiah.
So the prophets didn't call them dogs, they called them part of
the elect according to grace. Over in Isaiah chapter 11, it
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ calling him the Ensign. In verse
10 of chapter 11 of Isaiah it says, In that day there shall
be a Ruth of Jesse, and we know the Ruth of Jesse is David, which
shall stand for an ensign for a people, that is, a gathering
place. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious."
His rest shall be glorious. But legal religion is not a fountain
of refreshing. It never is. It's a line of separation
drawn in the sand. But here, in this context, the
line is drawn as wiped away. Our Lord answers her statement
with an amazing declaration. He said, if you knew, or if thou
knewest, and this indicates at this point in her life, she doesn't
know, though soon she will know, and will even bear testimony
for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he uses two references to
himself. He says back in our text, in
verse 10, Jesus answered me to drink, thou wouldst have
asked him, and he would have given thee living water." He
refers himself in two ways here. First, she doesn't know the gift
of God. He said, if thou knewest the
gift of God. What is the gift of God? There
are many gifts of God, but they all come in one gift of God,
and that is the unspeakable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
freely given him up for us all, it says in Romans chapter 8. that relate to spirituality,
that relate to eternal life are found in one person, and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. These gifts, the gift of faith,
the gift of grace, the gifts of mercy, the gift of understanding
and knowledge, the gift of hope, all these things rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the gift of God, and she
doesn't know that. He said, if thou knewest the
gift of God, Then he identifies himself and says, she didn't
know him. So the living, he says, I'll
give you, if you knew who it is that saith unto thee, give
me drink, you'd ask of him, and he'd give you living water to
drink. So she didn't, not only didn't
know the gift of God, which was him, she didn't know him. She
just knew he was a Jewish man. So the living water, which is
anonymous with her eternal life, was foreign to her also. If she
knew Him, she would have eternal life. That's what this is saying.
If she knew Him. And that's what the Word of God
said. The Word of God said, Our Lord said, and prayed, and prayed,
and prayed, and prayed His high priesthood prayer. In John 17,
in verse 3, it said, This is eternal life. This is eternal
life. That you know the true and living
God, even Jesus Christ, whom ye have sinned. In 1 John 5 and
verse 20 it says, And we know that the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is true God. and eternal
life. This is what He says you know.
You know Him, you know you are in Him, and this is true God.
The Son of God is true God, and this is eternal life, to know
Him. So she didn't have eternal life.
She had life, but it was natural life. For her, this was a common,
though strange, conversation between two people. Her answer
to the Lord in verses 11 and 12 sounds a little bit sarcastic.
And I thought about a common These things are way up here,
some high holy ethereal thing. This was a conversation between
two people. And when he said, I'll give you
living water, if you knew who he was talking to, he'd give
you living water. She didn't handle that very well.
She said in verse 11, a woman said to him, sir, that You're going to give me water? You don't got no bucket. The
well is deep, and from whence hast thou this living water?"
Where are you going to get this living water? Are you greater
than Jacob? Our father Jacob, which gave
us the well, and drank himself thereof, and his children, and
his cattle? Now in modern vernacular, she
would have said, how are you going to give me this living
water when you don't even have a bucket? Don't even have a bucket. Then she makes a statement dismissing
Christ. But it's an interesting statement.
She was a Samaritan and yet she calls Jacob her father. Our father
Jacob. The Jews were removed from Samaria
by the king of Assyria back in 2nd Kings chapter 7. Now all
the Jews were moved from Samaria. Look over there in 2nd Kings. Verse 24, the Lord says, And the king of Assyria
brought men from Babylon, and from Judah, and from Ava, and
from Hamath, and from Sephiroth, and placed them in the city of
Samaria instead of the children of Israel. The children of Israel
were pulled out of there, and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt
in the cities thereof. So at one time, all the Jews
were removed from Samaria. But now, evidently, the Jews
have had an influence on Samaria because this woman talks about
Jacob being her father. It seems that over time, Jews
have returned and intermarried with the pagans. This ultimately
resulted in the Samaritans claiming Jacob to be their father, because and this had carried over from
Malachi all the way to the days of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember,
this is the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. 430 years has passed since Malachi
was finished, and now three years of ministry begins with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nothing has changed from Malachi.
The Lord has not spoken to a prophet in 400 years. The people have
no words except what the Pharisees have kept. During the war of
the Maccabees, they kept the scriptures, and that's all they
have. But they don't have anything, but the last book they have is
Malachi, which slams everything the Jews are doing, but that
has not changed. So paganism and the mixture with what would
be called true worship is prevalent everywhere. So when she said
Jacob is our father, she's probably just saying what everybody's
saying, the Samaritans are saying at this time. She said, aren't you greater
than our father, Jacob? Are you greater? It's ultimately
resulted in them calling Jacob their father. She did not know
the gift of God. She did not know the gift of
God or who was talking to her. So some notion of living water
meant nothing to her. It was foolishness to her. Living
water, think about it, man, you think about it. a person of ill
repute and you came out to draw water as well at midday because
so nobody would see you and you meet this one fellow and he talks
about living water and you're trying to get real water because
you're thirsty. Do you think you'd buy it? This is foolishness
to her and that's why her remarks are what they are. The Lord said
to her that the water she was she was here to draw would only
stake her thirst for a little while. She would get thirsty
again and have to return to this well. Verse 13, he says, Jesus
said to her, who's whoever drinketh of this water, that is the water
from Jacob's well, you will not thirst again. You thirst for
return. But the living water that he
would give her will well up in a veritable ocean of everlasting
life, and she would never thirst again. Again, strange language. Think about it. What's she hearing?
What is this woman hearing? Verse 14, our Lord said that
whosoever drinketh of the water that I have given him shall never
thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be as well water
springing up to everlasting life. The Lord spoke the same kind
of language over John chapter 7 in the last day of the feast.
In verse 37, 38 it says, in the last day of the feast, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, Let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, that's
what it is to drink of him, to drink the living water. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Now is Jesus Christ God? He just quoted himself. Out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He's quoting himself,
what he said to this woman back at the well. You can imagine
how outlandish this sounded to an unbeliever, drinking this
living water. It's not the water in this well,
it's other water that I can't see. I don't know what he's talking
about. How in the world can I understand
that? What did our Lord say to Nicodemus?
In John chapter three, verse three. Except you be born again,
you cannot perceive the kingdom of God. You can't see. In John
3, 36, John the Baptist says, everything's in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he that believeth on the Son hath life, hath everlasting
life. He that believeth in us shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And we know from the word of
the scripture and from our own experience from the time we heard
the gospel before the Lord brought us to life in Jesus Christ. This is a wonder. That's why
Paul said in one place we preach as to dead men. We don't know
who can hear and who can't. We know the elect don't have
a yellow stripe down their back so we can find out who they are.
We preach as if a person can't hear me. But we know the word
has an effect. And what's this woman hearing?
From the gospel himself, she's hearing the word of life. From
the gospel himself, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to her.
But her response again has the ring of sarcasm. In verse 15,
the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water. Sir, give me this
water that I thirst not, neither come I here to draw. But you
see, she's still in the flesh. She says, neither come I here
to draw. She's talking about natural water
again. Natural water. And she's about to find out that
this strange Jew, though she doesn't know Him, that He knows
her. And this is the wonder of Christ.
You don't know Him, but you'll hear that He knows you. He knows
you. And He's going to teach you something
about yourself, going to remind you something about yourself.
To hear Christ is to be confronted with your sins. confronted with your sin. It's
good news to who? To sinners, to no one else. So
the first thing you're going to find out about when you hear
the gospel is that you're a sinner. You're going to find out that
you can't believe. You're going to find out that you're unable.
You're going to find out that you're unclean. And this is what
our Lord approaches with her. The Lord tells her to go get
her husband and bring him to the well. And our Lord says, go call thy
husband and come hither. Come hither. She said, I don't
have a husband. I'm not married. And he said,
man, did you speak the truth? Verse 17. The woman answered and said, I have
no husband. Jesus said, thou hast well said, I have no husband. She knows why, or he knows why
she came to draw water at noon in order to avoid polite society.
He knows her. He knows her. He tells her to
get her a husband, and then tells her he knows her sin. He knows
her sin. He knows why she draws water
at noon, and she has an epiphany. When he says this to her, now
he's told her some wondrous things. If you knew who I was, if you
knew the gift of God, if you knew who it is that saith unto
you, give me drink, he would give you living water. And if
you partake of that living water, you will never thirst again.
And that water will well up into you into everlasting life. Great
and wondrous words for believers. We love that. And we would say,
not in sarcasm, but we'd say, evermore, Lord, give us this
water. One fellow said, when I hear
the gospel preachers, it's like someone's been reading my mail.
It's like somebody's been reading her mail. She said, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. And a prophet, God knows things,
you see. Nicodemus sort of thought that
about Christ. He said, we know thou art a man
come from God, because no man can do these things unless God
has sent him. We know that you're a man from
God. She says, I understand. I'll grasp this fact. that thou
art a prophet, that thou art a prophet. Well, he is the prophet. He's the prophet, the priest,
and the king. Several times in the New Testament,
people would hear him preach and hear him talk, or he would
read in people's minds or raise the dead and do miracles. And
when he did that, they would say, is he that prophet? What
prophet is that? There was a prophet promised
way back in Deuteronomy, verse chapter 18. Verse 18 of chapter 18 says,
I will raise up to them a prophet among the people like unto me,
and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto
them all that I have commanded him. And it shall come to pass
that whosoever will not harken unto my words which he shall
speak in my name, I will require of him. I will require of him. This is what Peter quoted in
Acts chapter 2, Pentecost. That prophet promised in Deuteronomy,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And she said, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. But she didn't know him yet.
His words had not been fully found purchase in her heart.
But one thing she was ready for when she heard that word, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. She said that word. And what
she was ready for? She is ready for a religious
debate. This is so human, so realistic. You tell somebody you're a believer
or a Christian, they'll give you some contradiction in scripture
to talk about. You can't count on that. Verse
20, she said, oh well, our father's worshiped in this mountain. And
he say that in Jerusalem is the place where we've been ought
to worship. She's trying him. She's testing
him. I remember a story that Bill
Howard told. I think he might have been on a golf course one
day playing golf with a fella. And it was one of those times
when this fella was added to the force and he didn't come
with them if they needed a fourth. And the fella was sitting in
a golf cart and said, what do you do for a living? Bill said,
I'm not going to tell you. I've said something along the
same line to many people over the years. It'll ruin your day
to tell you what I do. Because the minute you tell some
folks that you're a preacher or that you're a believer, they're
ready to question. And those questions are generally
what they consider to be contradictions in the Bible. Well, you know,
our people say we worship in this mountain. And you Jews say
you worship in Jerusalem. That's quite a response, isn't
it? But you see where she's at. See where she's at? This lady's
no different. When she perceived that the Jew
was a prophet because he knew all about her, she did not confess
her sin, but sought to catch him in opinion. And his answer
was, slake her thirst and make her an evangelist. She will have
a story to tell. If you look at this passage next
week, she will have a story to tell. She'll run, fast as she
can into the city. Is not this the Messiah? We'll see that next week. God
bless you.