There aren't many words to this
song, but if you'd like to follow along, the words are in Psalm
51, verse 10. ? Creating me a clean heart, oh
God ? And renew a right spirit within
me. Create in me a clean heart, oh
God. And renew a right spirit within
me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
O Lord. And take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. and renew a right spirit within
me. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
O Lord, Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me, Restore unto me the
joy of Thy salvation, And renew a right spirit within me. Thank you, Adam. My favorite passages of scripture,
reminded of it often. We've been, the last couple of
Sunday mornings, looking at 2 Samuel chapter 11, David and Bathsheba,
and at the beginning of Psalm 51, the Lord tells us that it
was It was David's sin with Bathsheba that inspired him, that brought
about that plea for forgiveness and grace. Open your Bibles with me to John
chapter four, Gospel of John chapter four. I've titled this message, If
You Knew, And oh, how hopeful I am that we will be able to
leave here, by God's grace, knowing who he is, who he is and what
he's done. Because the Lord told this woman
at the well, if thou knewest who it is that saith unto thee,
give me to drink, You would have asked Him and He would give to
you living water. You see, the result of knowing
who He is as the gift of God and what He's done to put away
the sins of His people causes us to come before Him and say,
oh Lord, give me that gift, give me that grace, give me that water. John chapter 4, the end of this story of the
woman at the well is her leaving her water pot at the well and
running back down into Sychar and saying to the people that
were in that little village, come, meet a man. who told me everything whatsoever
I did. Come. And then she says this,
is not this the Christ? She ended up knowing. The question
that the Lord posed to her, he answered and she left that place
knowing who he was. Now how hopeful I am that we
will leave this place with that same confession. Is
not this the Christ? John tells us at the end of his
gospel account, these things have been written unto you that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. So God has given us his word,
faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the word of God, that
God the Holy Spirit would take this simple story and speak truth
to our hearts and cause us to make that confession. Yes, this
is the Christ. This is the anointed one. This
is the son of God. This is the one who came in the
full power of the spirit of God to accomplish my salvation. The first thing that strikes
me about this story is the stark contrast that it is to the story
of Nicodemus in the previous chapter. The Bible tells us in chapter
three of the gospel of John that Nicodemus was a ruler of the
Jews. He was obviously a lifelong student
of the word of God. He was very careful to live,
at least in his outward behavior, in accordance with the law of
God. He was a highly respected member
of the community. He was outwardly moral. He was
a religious leader. He was a man of principle and
character. And now the Holy Spirit And John
had to get this story either directly from the Lord or from
the woman, because there's no one else there besides the Lord
Jesus and the woman at the well. And the Holy Spirit now is inspiring
John to write on the heels of this story of this so, such noble
man to record this story of a woman who had been married five times,
a woman who was now living in fornication, an embarrassment
to her family, an outcast from decent society, obviously living
in shame, no regard for the word of God or the law of God. At the well, in the middle of
the day so that she did not have to contend with all the other
women of Sychar. No telling how many of them she
had broken up their homes and how she had been the subject
of ridicule and conversation among the women at the well in
the early hours of the morning. No, she waited till noon. in
the middle of the day when she knew no one would be there. Could there be any more of an
extreme contrast between two individuals as there is between
Nicodemus and the woman at the well? And though their lives,
the way they were living, would have had a profound effect on
them and on their families and on the people around them. The Holy Spirit is saying to
me and you that both of these individuals,
in spite of how much difference there was in their lives, were
in the same boat. They didn't know God. They didn't have a clue what
the Lord was talking about. The Lord said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again. And Nicodemus, with all of his
education, thought that the Lord was talking about going back
into his mother's womb. The woman at the well, when the
Lord was speaking of living water, she thought he was talking about
physical water. He said, give me this water so
I don't have to come back to this well anymore. You see, they were
both clueless. They were both lost. Neither of them knew God. Though
one was respected and sought after and admired and the other
one despised and shunned and ashamed, they were both equally
spiritually blind. What does this tell you and me? God's not a respecter of persons. In Acts chapter 10, Peter is
sent to Cornelius' house and we have recorded in Acts chapter
10, the conversion of the first Gentile. Peter thought what every
Jew would have thought, and what had been true for 2,000 years,
that the gospel was for the descendants of Abraham. It was for the Jewish
people. God had never spoken to anyone
else. He never revealed himself to anyone else. And you remember
the vision that Peter has at Joppa? when the Lord lowers down
the sheep from heaven and there's unclean animals and the Lord
says to Peter, take and eat, and Peter said, oh no, no, I've
never eaten anything unclean. And what'd the Lord say to Peter?
Call not that unclean, which I have called clean, which I
have made clean, take and eat. And then Peter goes to Cornelius'
house and preaches the gospel and the spirit of God manifests
himself by showing his presence to these
Gentiles. And Peter says, of a truth I
perceive that God is not a respecter of persons. And I want to say to you, it
doesn't matter where you've come from or what you've done or what
you haven't done. or what good things people think
about you or what bad things people think about you, it doesn't
matter. The Lord is telling us right here that we're all in
the same boat. We're all in the same boat. We have all sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. There is none Oh, and in case
you think there might be an exception to that, no, not one. Oh, what a blessing. What a blessing
that the Lord doesn't, doesn't regard the hope of my salvation based on
something I've done or haven't done. The clearest, simplest truth
or scripture for that truth is found in Romans 9, verse 11,
when the Lord says, for the children, talking about Esau and Jacob
who were in the womb of Rebekah, for the children, having not
yet been born, neither having done anything good or evil that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, the
older shall serve the younger. Jacob, I have loved. Esau, I
have hated. The clearest evidence that God's
not a respecter of persons is seen as all the evidences of
scripture and all the truths that we hold so precious are
seen most clearly at the cross. When God Almighty saw sin on
his own darling son, his beloved son, The son in whom he was well
pleased, the son in whom he had had perfect love and fellowship
with for all of eternity. The eyes of God were too pure
to look upon sin and his justice, his holy justice demanded punishment. It demanded the full wrath of
his fury be poured out on the Lord Jesus to satisfy the justice
of God. If there's no more clearer picture
that God is not a respecter of persons, there it is. The Lord can by no means clear
the guilty. And the Lord can by no means
charge the innocent. There's the distinguishing difference
that God uses. Guilt or innocence. Outward appearances would tell
us that Nicodemus was innocent and the woman at the well was
guilty. But God is saying to me and you, oh no. Oh no, they
were both equally, equally lost. They were both equally in need
of a savior. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was
as dependent upon the grace of God as was Mary Magdalene whom
the Lord cast out seven demons out of that wild woman. just as needful, just as dependent. And everyone that's here, each
one of us, all of us. One thing that, another thing
that is, that is so wonderful about these two stories as we
compare them together is not only that they were both lost,
but the kindness and the gentleness and the love of Christ in dealing
with them both. The Lord was not harsh to either
one of them. And he never is to his children.
He never raises his voice. He never intimidates. Now the
Pharisees, the self-righteous, he called them snakes. He called
them whitewashed tombs. He called them children of the
devil. But the harlots and the publicans,
the blind and the deaf, the Nicodemuses, the poor and the needy never
felt threatened by the Lord Jesus. They only felt an attraction
to him. He never pushed them away. He
never treated them harshly. And it's so wonderful to see
how the Lord is dealing with these two individuals. He takes his children where they
are and he gently leads them to where they need to be. And
oftentimes he will probe them with questions, not because he
doesn't know the answer to those questions, but because they need
to be confronted with their condition. And he did that with Nicodemus
and he did that with this woman at the well. You have your Bibles
open to John chapter four, when therefore the Lord knew how the
Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples
than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples,
he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. He's been in Jerusalem
and he's going back to Galilee. You know the map, you can see
it. Well, between Judah in the south and Galilee in the north
was this large section called Samaria. The Jews hated the Samaritans. You can read about it in 2 Kings
where, when the Jews came back from the Babylonian captivity,
they found these Jewish people that had intermarried and they
refused to let go of their spouses and they degraded the Jewish
religion and they became the outcast of all of Israel. They
were called Samaritan. At one point, when the Lord was
teaching, the Pharisees accused him of being a Samaritan. They
said, he's a Samaritan. He's possessed with the devil.
And that's what they thought about all Samaritans, that they
were just devil possessed, godless people who had nothing in common
with the good Jews. And typically, if you were gonna
go from Jerusalem to Galilee, you would go around Samaria. There was a lawyer one time that
tried to test the Lord. You read about that several times
in the New Testament and it's so foolish that a man in his
pride would think that he can that he can question God and
catch him in the trap. And so he asked the Lord, what
are the two greatest commandments? Love the Lord with all your heart,
all your mind, all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Well, who's my neighbor, he said? Who's my neighbor? Like, I'm
gonna catch the Lord now. That's when the Lord gave the
story of the good Samaritan. And at the end of the story,
He looked at that self-righteous Pharisee and said, go and do
likewise. And that Pharisee hung his head
and walked away and I'm sure he's thinking in his heart, ain't
no way I'm going to do that. Nothing in common between me
and a Samaritan. Now that's the attitude that
the Jews had toward the Samaritans. And yet we see in verse four, he must needs go
through Samaria. Oh, these despised people, these
pagan people, The Lord is going to show her
such kindness, such gentleness, such love. The harmless Savior
is gonna treat her with such tenderness and compassion. I need to go through some area,
man. The disciples would have set off, okay, we're going to
Galilee, well, let's go the normal way. Let's go around Samaria. No, no, the Lord said I must
needs go through Samaria. Now why would the Lord Jesus
Christ said there's something I have to do? He's sovereign. The definition of sovereignty
is that he can do what he wants, when he wants, with whomever
he wants, however he wants. He always does it right. The
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth are
subject unto him. He doesn't have to, he doesn't
have to do anything that he doesn't. But here he says, I must needs
go through Samaria. Well, the answer to that question
can be found in the in the first words that are recorded in the
New Testament that the Lord Jesus speaks at the age of 12. When
he's left in Jerusalem and his parents spend three days looking
for him, they finally find him. And he said, did you not know
that I must be about my father's business? That's why he must
needs go through Samaria, because the father had business in Samaria. There was some lost sheep in
Samaria that God purposed to save. And everything the Lord
Jesus did was in perfect submission to his heavenly father. And so
though he's the second person of the triune Godhead and absolutely
sovereign in and of himself, he subjected himself to the will
of his father in everything he did. The father had chosen. some of those Samaritans, this
particular woman and the ones that she laid her witness to,
who at the end of this chapter are gonna come, we believe now,
not because of your testimony, but because we've heard him ourselves.
So there was more saved than just this one woman. In John 9, verse 4, the Lord
Jesus said, I must work the works of him that sent me. And in John 10, verse 16, the
Lord Jesus said, other sheep I have that are not of this fold,
speaking of the Jewish nation, them I must bring. So when he says I must needs
go through Samaria, I must fulfill the will of my father. I must
accomplish his purpose. There's no way that I can fail.
There's no way that I can disobey. I don't want to. He must finish the work. He must succeed in the redemption
of his bride. He must, all the way to Calvary's
cross, to his dying breath, be able to say, it's finished. The work that the Father sent
me to do, I completed it. into thy hands, I commend my
spirit." That's the last thing he said. Fully satisfied that
he had done everything the Father sent him to do. When we look
to Christ in faith, we are looking to him as the one who accomplished
everything that God requires of us. Everything. The Father's looking to the Son. We're looking to the Son. Verse 5. Then cometh he to the
city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of
ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now, Joseph's well
was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Now,
in the New Testament, Jewish reckoning of time begins at sunrise,
6 a.m., so the sixth hour would have been high noon. No one was
at the well in the heat of the day. The Lord knew she was going
to be there. She had a divine appointment.
I must needs go through some area. I'm going to be waiting
on someone there at exactly 12 o'clock. And I'm going to get
there before she does. Disciples were clueless. They
had gone down into Sychar and bought food and came back and
didn't bring a single. They had the Lord Jesus. They
knew who he was. And there's an indication of
the prejudice that the Jews had towards the Samaritans. They
never mentioned to anybody in town that they had the Son of
God, the Savior of sinners up on the hill. Come, meet a man
who told me everything I ever did. They didn't do that. They
didn't bring back anybody. When they got back, the scripture
says they were amazed to see the Lord Jesus speaking to a
Samaritan. One of the things we see in verse
six, we know that the Lord Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He's the second person of the
triune God. All the attributes, characteristics
of God are bound up completely in Him. He's not less than the
Father. He's not more than the Spirit.
He's God. All the things that we say about,
He's immutable. He cannot change. The same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's eternal in and of his own
nature. He never had a beginning, he's
never going to have an end. He's the uncreated creator and
sustainer of all things. He's holy. He's all-powerful. And yet, he was made of woman. made under the law. Just as he is fully God, he's
fully man. This is to our encouragement.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Look at verse 17. Hebrews chapter two, verse 17.
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor or help them that are tempted. Now look over in chapter four
at verse 15 of Hebrews. For we have a high priest. I'm sorry, we have not a high
priest, which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find
grace and help in our time of need." Oh, brethren, we've got
a Savior. He was exhausted. He was tired. He was worn out. Hey, that's what he tells us.
Hey, go back with me to our text. Being wearied with his journey. We get weary, don't we? We get
tired. So many responsibilities, so
many things. Sometimes we just have to Turn
it off. And we get wearied with our sin,
don't we? He understands that too. Oh,
all the shame and sorrow and suffering and separation that
sin causes, he knows it to its fullest extent. He bore it in
his body upon that tree. We have not a high priest who
cannot sympathize. with our infirmities, with our
weaknesses. He became a man that he might
bear our sins in his body upon that tree and put them away.
And the Lord has given us just a glimpse here of though he is
fully God, the word became flesh and he hungered and he tired
and he got weary And he prayed. In verse seven, there cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. The Lord always speaks first.
No man seeketh after God at any time. She wasn't looking for
God. She didn't have a clue this was gonna happen to her today.
When the Lord said, I must need to go through Samaria, he knew
she was gonna be there. She didn't know what was going
on. And he initiated the conversation. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful that he initiates the conversation with us? Even as believers, when we take
our eyes off of Christ, aren't you thankful for the Holy Spirit
to say to you, as he said to the prophet Elijah, you remember
when Elijah was running from Jezebel and Elijah went back
to Mount Horeb, which was the Mount of the Law? And the Lord
met Elijah there and he said, Elijah, three times, you read
that text, three times the Lord said, Elijah, what are you doing
here? Why have you come back here? And Elijah was looking
for a voice from God. Oh, and the rocks rent and the
wind blew and the rain fell and God wasn't in it. And then a
still small voice and God spoke. Oh, the Lord always initiates
conversations with his children and with his people. Come here, sit down. He's called
each one of us here today and oh how hopeful I am that the
Holy Spirit is taking his word and speaking comfort and peace
and forgiveness and grace and gentleness to our hearts even
as he dealt with Nicodemus and this woman at the well. Oftentimes, especially when the
Lord first speaks to our hearts, we first heard the gospel. Whether
you came out of some formal religion or not, your mind, before you ever heard
the gospel, because you had fashioned in your darkened imagination
a God that was altogether such a one as yourself, In your mind,
your God loved everybody, wanted everybody to be saved, died for
everybody. Even if you sat under the gospel,
you had a perverted view of God. And when you first heard the
gospel, your response would have been very similar to what this
woman's. She'd never talked to a Jew in
her life. The Jews didn't have anything
to do with Samaritans. And she was blown away. What, what are you, a Jew talking
to me, a Samaritan? The Jews don't have anything
to do with Samaritans. First year of the gospel boys
say, wait a minute, did I hear the preacher say God doesn't
love everybody? Did I hear the preacher say that God elected
a people, particularly a select number of people according to
his own will and purpose before the world ever began. I thought
we were the one who made the decision. Wait, wait, wait. Did I hear the preacher say that
Christ only died for a particular people, that he didn't make an
offering of salvation to the whole world for us to accept
or reject? Is that what I heard? Isn't that
the way it is? I've heard it many times. When
I first heard the gospel, that was my thoughts. Wait a minute,
this can't be. Verse eight, for his disciples
were gone away into the city to buy meat. And then say at
the woman of Samaritan, how is it that thou being a Jew ask
a drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria for the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans. This doesn't make sense to me.
If you're here in the gospel for
the first time, or you're still trying to figure out it's okay. It's okay, if you're hearing
something, I mean, don't raise your fist in rebellion and don't
say, no, God, that can't be so. But it's okay to say, Lord, is
this what I'm hearing? Or is this true? And search the
scriptures and see if what we're not saying is true. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, the free gift of God,
if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto
thee, give me to drink? You see, I ask you that question
for a reason, because I'm moving you to ask me for the drink. And if you knew and asked, he would give it to you.
And if you knew, you would ask. Oh, he is the gift. It's called grace. It's free. I heard a preacher, I listened
to a message in the last day or so and preacher said what
I've always heard and what I've always said, unmerited favor,
but it's so much more than that. If on my way home, I roll down
my window and give that guy that's always on the intersection of
441 and Maitland Boulevard, if I reach out and hand him a dollar
bill, that's unmerited favor. Gospel's so much more than that.
If on the other hand, that man had killed my son and I invited
him to come into my car and took him home and cleaned him up and
adopted him as my child and put him on my bank account and gave
him full access to everything that I own, that is demerited
favor and that's what grace is. Grace is not just unmerited. Grace is demerited. We took into our hands and slew
the Son of God. And here we are, begging for
mercy. And he takes us and all the riches
and wealth of God. He adopts us into his family.
He cleans us of all of our sins, washes us by the blood of Christ
and makes us his children. Oh, it's a gift. and there's no strings attached
to it. There's nothing we can do to earn it. There's nothing
we do to deserve it. Everything we've done is to say that we don't deserve. It's the last thing we deserve.
We deserve hell. We deserve judgment. We deserve
wrath. If you knew the gift The gift, I'm not looking to
you for anything. I've done it all. You know, we give gifts to one
another and sometimes those gifts have strings attached to them,
don't they? And we always feel somewhat obligated
if somebody gives us a gift to reciprocate. Oh, the gift of God, His eternal
life through Jesus Christ. And you say, well, what is my
service to him, my reciprocation? No, we're not reciprocating because
my service to him after he saves me is a gift too from him. You see what I'm saying? If as
a believer, I serve him willingly, it's because he gifted me with
the desire and the willingness and the gifts to do it. So even
that is a gift. I'm not reciprocating. You would
do everything that we do and we're just unprofitable servants.
We can't look at anything. Well, I paid him back. No, we
didn't. Whatever we did was as much a
gift as our original salvation was a gift. If you knew the gift
of God and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink,
you would ask of him and he would give you living water. Lord, give me this water that
I need not come to this well anymore. She still didn't know
what he was talking about. She still didn't know. Go get
your husband. I'm gonna shorten this story
for the sake of time. Most of us know it. Go get your, I don't
have a husband. You know, when God's dealing
with you, and the Lord commended her, he said, you have spoken
the truth that you don't have a husband. For you've had five
husbands, and the man that you're living with now is not your husband. One of the evidences that the
Lord is dealing with you and speaking to you is that when you respond, you
speak back the truth. You know what? You're not playing
games with God. When God speaks, you're not playing
games with him. You say, well, you know, it might
be. Truth, Lord, you're right. I
perceive that you're a prophet. Your fathers say we should worship
in Jerusalem. Our fathers say here on this
Mount Gerizim. What do you say? Oh. Where you worship doesn't matter,
it's how you worship. You gotta worship in the power
of the Spirit and according to the truth of God. Salvations
of the Jews, you don't know what you believe. God's given his
gospel to the Jewish nation. Well, I know this about it and
the Samaritans did have the first five books of Moses, that's all
they had. And that's the books of the law,
and they were under the law. And I know this, when Messiah
comes, he's gonna lead us into all truth. He'll answer all these
questions. And move forward to me, with
me, to verse 26. And Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. And the literal translation is,
I am speaketh unto thee. The Lord Jesus took the very
name of God and said, Jehovah's talking to you. And she ran back to town. Come,
meet a man. who told me everything, whatever
I've done. And when the Lord speaks, he
makes two things clear to you. Everything that you've done is
sin. And everything that he's done
is righteousness. And by virtue of your union with
him, through faith in him, all of his righteousness becomes
yours. so that His life is your life, His death is your death,
His resurrection is your resurrection, His ascension into glory is your
ascension, and you are perfectly righteous and holy in the sight
of God, and He has told you everything whatsoever you've done. Is not this the Christ? Is not
this the Son of God? He's the only one that can tell
you that. all if you knew. Might the Lord do for us what
he did for this sinful woman. What he did for Nicodemus who
was just as bound by his sin and unbelief as was this woman.
We have a compassionate loving Savior who takes sinners and
leads them to himself. If you knew she knew she knew. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for the revelation
that you've given us of thy dear son. Thank you for speaking effectually
to our hearts. Lord, might we confess, even
as we celebrate this table, that the unleavened bread, the body
of Christ, The life of Christ is our life. That this wine,
the blood of Christ, is our death, and that all of our righteousness
and all of our justification is in him. Lord, be glorified. Bless us. to thy glory and to
our comfort and hope. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 168 168 and a hardback 10. Now
let's stand. We'll sing two hymns. We'll sing
this hymn acapella and then the hymn on the back of your bulletin
for the Lord's table. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering full and
free. Showers the thirsty land refreshing. Let some drops now fall on me,
even me. even me, let Thy blessing fall
on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, While
thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Please be seated. The hymn on
the back of your bulletin.