up in Lexington preaching at
Todd's Road Grace Church, but we're thankful for men that can
preach in his absence. So thank you, Michael, for preaching
the first hour, and Hugo will be preaching in the second. Let's
start by singing the hymn on the back of the bulletin. This is only found in God my
Savior. For His righteousness I hunger
and thirst. Jesus, the Christ, is true bread
from heaven. We may need Him more, to Him
be vain. The Lord satisfies the soul completely. His word is the bread we may
eat daily. We may eat of His bread every
meeting. Where the gospel is preached
in truth, O'er his people, where'er they
go, They feast on his Son, who taste he is good. One day in heaven his bride is invited, to sit at supper where they will
be fed. They will feast forever on the
iron. This is the merry supper of the
Lamb. Good morning, brothers and sisters.
If you would, for our call to worship this morning, turn with
me to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected
in us. Hereby know that we dwell in
him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we
have seen and do testify the father sent the son to be the
savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believe
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Hearing is our love
made perfect, and we may have boldness in the day of judgment,
because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath poor
men. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. We love him because he first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother,
whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment we have
from him, that he who loved God loved his brother also. Our most heavenly Father, we
thank you again for bringing us to this time and this place,
for keeping the candlestick lit here. Lord, we'd be so bold as
to plead that you keep the candlestick lit here for many, many more
years to come. Thank you for your words that
the brother brought forth this morning. We'd ask that they go
forth in power. and allow us to see through a
glass darkly. We pray for our brother as he brings the second
message that it also goes forth in power, Lord, and edifies you. Be with us, our master. We know
that all your promises are yea and amen. You've said where two
or three are gathered in your name, you're here amongst us,
and we're glad. Cause us always, Lord, to remember
you also promised, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake
you. Lord, we're so quick to forget these words, cause them,
burn them into our hearts. Allow us to see through a glass
darkly as only you can. Be with our pastor as he travels,
Lord, give him traveling grace, bring him back safe to us. Be
with all folks here that have infirmities, Lord, that we all
suffer mightily, struggle mightily every day, Lord, give us a grace
we so desperately need and have no right to ask for. We thank
you for all these things, the most holy and perfect name. Amen. If you would go to the spiral
bound hymnal and we'll sing hymn number 37. Think I got the wrong one there.
Sorry about that Approach my soul with love, from
ev'ry place, in ev'ry time of need. There's mercy for the needy,
one whom Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Morning. You're going to be looking
at John chapter 4 this morning. I'm going to start with a word
of prayer that the Lord might be pleased and glorified through
expounding on His Word and His Gospel. Father God, we come before
you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ alone. We are
grateful for your mercy. We are graceful for your grace
that you have bestowed upon us, Father. We pray for the preaching
of the gospel, wherever it might be, in all the gospel churches
this morning, as well as the conference in Lexington, Father,
bless those messages. Be with our pastor in Danville,
Kentucky as well, preaching this morning. and also be with us,
Father. We pray for your spirit to teach
us about Christ, that we may learn of his glory, his majesty,
that we might have a better view of Christ and a lesser view of
us, Father. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let us go to the Gospel of John
we're going to be looking at. Chapter four, it's a familiar
passage. I'm sure that we have seen, preached
from it and many times read it. And it's a beautiful picture
here, I believe of the gospel, a beautiful picture of the church
and Christ and his bride. And in John chapter four, the
first three verses are kind of like a introduction where it
says, when therefore Lord knew how the Pharisees have heard
that Jesus had made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized
not, but his disciples did. So here we see that the Lord
Jesus Christ ministry was growing beyond that of John's. We, in chapter 3 of John, verse
26, we notice that this was the plan. Then when they came to
John and said, Rabbi, he that was with you beyond the Jordan
to whom you bear witness, behold, the same baptizes, and all men
come to him. John answered and said, a man
can receive nothing. unless it is given him from heaven. You yourself bear me witness
that I said, I am not the Messiah, but I am sent before him. He is the bride. He that has the bride is the
bridegroom. Okay? He that has the bride is
the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom,"
referring to John, which stands and hears him, rejoices greatly
because the bridegroom's voice, this is my joy, therefore, is
fulfilled. He must increase, I must decrease. He that comes from above is above
all, and he that is of the earth is earthly. So this is natural. This was the plan, was that John
was to diminish and Christ's ministry should grow. And John
was glad because he was the best man. He was not the groom. And
the church is his bride. And we noticed there that Jesus
did not baptize himself, right? He sent his disciples too. And
that makes us wonder, why didn't he baptize, right? And we know,
as man is full of himself, we think that this might cause problems
later on, right? Would they cause a group of Christians
that were baptized by Jesus create their own denomination? I could
see that happening, right? Oh, I was baptized by Jesus,
you know? I'm better than the ones that were baptized by Paul
or Peter. We're number one, right? So this
is likely to happen. This happens even today when
people go to Jerusalem or they go to the River Jordan, even
though they have been baptized already, they re-baptize in the
River Jordan thinking that it's a special place. And they feel
special because they got baptized in the River Jordan. God in his wisdom, Jesus Christ
did not baptize himself. I think he knew in the hearts
of men that we would take it, take pride in that, and Christians
would take pride in that. So that may be a possibility
that why Jesus Christ did not baptize himself, but he left
Judea and he departed into Galilee. He left Judea and departed into
Galilee. His ministry perhaps was better. He was not being as received
in Judea. So he left and he never came
back. He came back, but he never had a lot of belief in Judea. In verse four, we find this special
statement here regarding that he must go to Samaria. He must
go to Samaria. And normally Jews and Samaritans
did not get along. There's a background there regarding
Samaria. Samaria was a mixture of Gentiles
and Jews. The Jews did not consider the
Samaritans, did not see them as Jews. As a matter of fact,
they saw them in contempt. And they had an animosity between
them, both Samaria and the Jews. And the Jews actually went around,
all around Samaria when they had to go down to Galilee. They
went all around. They'd rather walk around Samaria
than go through Samaria. But Jesus Christ, of course,
had to go, must, he says he must indeed go through Samaria, right?
had to go there. He had to go there because he
had a good part of his bride was there. Before Jesus Christ created the earth,
he did have a covenant of grace, as Michael pointed out. Before time began, he Christ
became surety of his people. God the Father gave him the people
and he became surety. He said, I will die for them.
I will pay for their sins. I will secure their salvation. And there were some of that church,
some of that bride was there in Samaria. So that's why he
must go through there because he made a promise. He made a
covenant to save them. And that's why he must go through
Samaria. He had lost sheep in Samaria.
In John 10, 16, we see one of these musts here, another must. In John 10, 16, it says, and
all the sheep I have, which is not of this fold, them also I
must bring. You see, that's another of Lord
Jesus Christ's must. He must bring. Not try to bring,
but must bring. Okay? When he said he must bring,
if he doesn't bring them, we're saying that Jesus Christ was
a failure, that he was not able to, but he must bring. And whatever
he must, he does. He gets it done. And they shall
hear my voice. And that's how they should come,
right? Hearing God's voice, hearing the Lord Jesus Christ's voice,
hearing the effectual call. and they shall hear my voice,
and they shall be of one fold among shepherds." Meaning the
Gentiles and the Jewish should be one fold. But this is all
a must for the Lord Jesus Christ, because he became surety for
the believers. He became a surety for his bride
that the Father had chosen for him. You see, the Father chose
a bride for Christ, and that is his church. So he did not
say, I'm going to offer them, but he said he shall bring them.
to faith, and he must. Another must is maybe John 12,
34. John 12, 34. We read the following. The people answer him, we have
heard out of the law that the Messiah stays forever. How you
say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? They were asking him, right?
And how is it that you say that the son of man must be lifted
up? He must be lifted up because
in order for the Lord Jesus Christ to gather his bride, he had to
be lifted up. He had to deal with their sin.
He had to deal with God's justice. He had to pay for their sins.
He could not do it any other way. He could not bring his sheep,
he could not bring his bride without dying for them, without
dealing for them. Otherwise, God the Father would
have answered the Lord Jesus Christ's prayer in the Garden
of Gethsemane, right? He asked three times, Father,
can you pass this cup from me? And the Father said, no, there
is no other way. you must, he must be lifted up. And that's
how he is able to give life to the elect, by dying for them,
by being their surety, by paying for their sins, and not ignoring,
not, God cannot deny himself the father, and he is totally
just. Every sin must be punished. Every sin has to be judged. Every sin. from believers, unbelievers,
from any human being that was ever born, every sin must be
and will be judged. The believer's sin was judged
at the cross. That's why he must be lifted
up. That was another must, right? And we're going to go back to
our text in John 4 in verse 5. It says, came to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near the parcel of the ground that
Jacob gave his son Joseph." Right? He came to this, and we see that
in, I think in Joshua, I'm just gonna read it to you, you don't
have to look for it, but in Joshua, was where that took place. In Joshua 24, 32. Joshua 24,
32. towards the end of Joshua, and
the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up
out of Egypt, bury them in Shechem, in the pastoral ground which
Jacob brought of his sons of Heber. the father of Shechem
for a hundred pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance
of the children of Joseph. So there we find that that's
that small piece of land where this well is going to be at. And this was the ground of Jacob
gave to Joseph. And Joseph passed it on to his
children. In verse six, we find what's
in that property. verse 6 we find now Jacob's well
was there and we're gonna talk about some
similarities that I saw between Jacob and Jesus Jacob is a type
of Jesus I believe Jacob had 12 sons which eventually they became
the 12 tribes of Israel, right? And the Lord Jesus Christ also
had 12 apostles, 12 disciples which became apostles, which
became the basis of the church, which is spiritual Israel. Jacob
left his father's home to travel for a far country to search for
his wife or his bride. Jesus did the same. He left heaven,
he went to a far country in search for his bride, and that will
be us, the believers. Jacob received the dream of a
ladder or a staircase that connected heaven above to earth below. The Lord Jesus Christ identifies
himself as that latter. We find that in John 1, 51. John 1, 51. And he said to him,
truly, truly I say, hereafter you shall see heaven open and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
The Lord Jesus Christ is that ladder between the heaven and
the earth. He is the way to the Father, is the Lord Jesus Christ. So that ladder was a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jacob later anoints a stone in
Genesis 28, 12 through 18. I'm not going to read it. But
he knows that the stone after this took place, after this dream,
and Jesus does anoint Simon as a stone, right? As Peter, as
a little pebble after he makes that declaration that Jesus Christ
is the son of the living God. He's the Messiah. And he appoints
Simon and he becomes Peter. And also, it's true, this is
true, about Isaac and Moses also. You see, Jacob, Isaac, and Moses,
they all, all three of them, they travel away from home. They
come to a well where there's water, right? They find a woman,
all three of them. They start a conversation with
that woman. They get taken back to the town
of the woman. and they get invited to stay.
And we're gonna see that that happens here in this chapter
as well. With all of those, with Isaac, with Moses, with Jacob,
and here we're gonna find the same. We're gonna find the same.
We're gonna see the Lord Jesus Christ looking for his bride,
and that's why he must go to Samaria. In verse six, verse six says, now Jacob's well
was there, Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey,
this we see a little glimpse of his humanity, right? We often
speak about his divinity, but he was human. was as human as
adam was human right he was with no sin but he was human uh and
uh only adam and himself were adam temporarily of course was
human without sin but he he became tired he was human he was like
us he had to become a He had to be a human because he was
our representative, and man had to follow the law completely,
and a man had to die in the cross. And that's why he was a man as
well. And we see that here, he was being wearied from his journey.
He sat thus on a well, and it was about a six hour. By the
way, that was about the same time also that Jacob went to
the well to make his bride. It was about 12 noon as well. And it was in the middle of the
day. Much has been already said about why the woman at the well
went midday to avoid other women, but we're not going to talk about
that today. But he met Jacob, like I said, Jacob met
Rachel about that time as well, in the well. He met there, verse
seven, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus
said to her, give me to drink. Give me to drink. For his disciples
were gone away to the city to buy food. They have sent, the
Lord Jesus Christ has sent his disciples to buy food. That city,
by the way, was Samaria, okay? Was Samaria. In verse nine, we
see some things I want to say about the Samaritans as well.
They only believe in the Torah. They only believe in the Pentateuch,
the first five books of the Bible. They replaced, in the five books
of the Bible, they replaced the reference to Jerusalem with Mount
Moriah. because they worship in Mount
Moriah. They weren't a lot, not Mount
Moriah, this is another mount, but they were rejected by the
Jews to rebuild the temple. They wanted to help out and the
Jews said, no, no, no, we don't need your help, no thanks. And
they weren't able to worship in the temple with the Jews. They were totally rejected. And
they found another place, where in Mount Gerizim. I think I'm
mispronouncing that. I ask for your forgiveness. But
they worship in a different place. And that's why they replaced
those words, references to Jerusalem from the five books of Moses. The Mount was Gerizim, Gerizim. So in verse nine, we see that,
then the woman, of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being
a Jew, ask drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria, for the
Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. So she found it strange,
probably the first time that she was asked by a Jew to give
him water, right? So she's wondering, she's surprised,
she's perplexed, right? Dealings with the Samaritans
didn't mean dealings like we do dealings today, because obviously
the apostles, the disciples went to buy, purchase food from Samaria
for them. For them, in the rabbinic teachings
at the time, they prohibited owning anything to the Samaritans,
meaning the Jews were not supposed to accept favors from Samaritans. They could exchange business
dealings, but they could not be in debt with Samaritans. Samaritans
felt the same way with the Jews. They did not want to receive
anything from them, nothing for free, nothing for free. That
was against their, their custom. And also, they didn't eat from
the same place. They didn't share utensils or
anything like that. So, she was also surprised because
of that. First of all, he was asking for something for free
from a Samaritan. He was talking to a woman, right? The Jews did not speak publicly
outside to women. So, and they did not share utensils
either. So, she was perplexed. She was
surprised. And she could see somehow that
he was a Jew. So there were, for many reasons,
that surprised her. So she asked him, how come you,
being a Jew, is asking me for a drink? You asked me for a favor.
That's against our custom. We don't do that. Jews don't
do that, right? And much less, you're going to drink out of
the same thing where I pour water from? And you're going to owe
me a favor? That's not regular. And that brings me to remembrance
when we were in religion, right? The fact that man never wants
to own anything, right? He wants to earn everything he
has, right? If you're going to a party, you
want to bring something along, right? If somebody does you a
favor, you want to give that favor back, right? And they use
that in sales, you know, they give you gifts and so forth so
you feel indebted to them. Because human nature is like
that. You don't want to own anything, right? And that transfers over
to religion, right? You receive salvation, you want
to pay it back. You want to work for it. You don't want anything
for free. You feel indebted. And that's
against my pride to own something. So that reminds me of that. But in verse 10, the Lord Jesus
Christ answered and said to her, if you knew If you knew the gift
of God, and who is it that says to you, give me to drink, you
will have acts of him, and he will have given you living water. Oh, only if we knew, right? And this is important because
some of us do not know the gift of God, right? Some of us do
not know yet Jesus Christ. and that's why we don't go for
him for living water. And living water here, what is
this living water he's talking about? Well, in John 7, scripture,
interpret scripture, in John 7, the Lord Jesus Christ defines,
well, the gospel of John defines, 737, in John 7, 37 says, in the
last day, that great day of the feast, And this is not necessarily in
the future, you will see this. Jesus stood and cried saying,
if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes
on me, as scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. This is that same living water
that he talked about to the Samaritan woman. And verse 39 clarifies
this and defines what that is. But this he spoke of the Spirit,
this is the Spirit of God, which they that believe on him should
receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus
was not yet glorified. So here defines that living water.
That living water is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit means
regeneration. The regeneration that a child
goes through on that day that the Lord has in mind and that
day that the Lord has appointed. And that's what he's talking
about. So when he's saying that you will have asked of him a
drink of me, you would give me to drink. If you knew, first
of all, the gift of God as salvation, Salvation, if you knew that the
gift of God was salvation, if you knew who was it, you see,
if you know about salvation and you know my identity, if you
knew who was it that was talking to you, not a prophet, not a
prophet, but himself, the one that gives this living water. Not everyone has this opportunity,
right, to have the Lord Jesus Christ before him. And so he
says, if he knew salvation, if he knew my identity, who was
it that was asking me for drink, you would have asked him for
living water. You would have asked him for
salvation. You would have asked for that regenerating Holy Spirit. If only we knew. Now in verse
11, we see that the Samaritan woman
says to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. Where then have you that living
water? Where are you going to get it
from? She's still thinking of physical water. She's still thinking
about physical water. Notice how she went from you
a Jew, now it's sir. There's a transition happening
here in her from calling him Jew, which was not necessarily
something good when a Samaritan calls you a Jew. Now it's sir. Now there's some respect here.
But she's still thinking about physical water because that's
what he was asking for, physical water. But he's not talking about
physical water. Well, by the way, it was probably
about 100 feet deep, and you're going to need a very long rope
to get to it. So Jesus had nothing to get it
with, right? Where's this water coming from that you're offering
me? You don't have the means to offer me this. In verse 12, But of course she knows that
it's not even though it's physical water It must be some magical
water because told me that it that you're not gonna thirst
again, right? So she's thinking this water is a special type
of water and that's why she's asking Him in verse 12. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? which gave us this world and drank their of himself and
his children and his cattle, meaning this is a special place
for her, right? This is a special well that Jacob had left for
them. And Jacob himself had drank from it. And she's wondering,
are you greater than Jacob? Now let me say this and I'll
say it later on, these questions were not the type of questions
that the Pharisee questioned Jesus with. The type of questions
that the Pharisee asked the Lord Jesus Christ was full of unbelief,
full of defiance, and they lacked faith. She was not acting like
the Pharisees. She was truly curious. She was
truly asking. These questions were genuine
questions because she was later become a believer. She was an
elect believer and she was going through this and she was, these
were not mixed with unbelief. So she's asking these questions.
Are you greater than our father Jacob? And so these questions
were asked very differently from the Pharisees when they say,
you say that, you know, Abraham, you're not that old. And he said,
Abraham, before Abraham was, I am, right? And the Pharisees,
every time he confronted them, never believed, they never asked
these type of questions. Not never, some did of course,
Nicodemus did ask that type of questions and that's just the
chapter four and we notice how the difference between Nicodemus
and the Samaritan woman are huge differences, aren't they? The
Samaritan woman was mixed. She was not a Jew. She was not
out of Israel. Nicodemus was the teacher of
Israel, you know. The woman was, Samaria, was a
female. He was a male, right? He was highly educated. She was
perhaps not nearly as educated as Nicodemus. Nicodemus came
at night, and Nicodemus came seeking Jesus. Jesus came seeking
her, right? The woman of Samaria, which is
a part of his bride. He came seeking his wife, seeking
his bride. And let's go back to our verse
13. We find here that Jesus answered
to her. He said to her, whoever drinks
of this water shall never thirst again. This is, of course, again, this
water is everlasting. This water is the Holy Spirit.
This water represents life, life eternal, the new spirit, the
new man. In Jeremiah 17, we learn more
about this water. In Jeremiah 17, verses seven
and eight, We read the following, blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted
by the waters. Waters is a symbol of life, isn't
it? We cannot live without water.
We could live many days without food. I think we can't live two
or three days without water. We don't survive. But he says,
it shall be planted. Who? The man who trusts in the
Lord, right? He should be planted like a tree
by the waters that spread out her roots by the river. Why? Because the river brings the
water, brings life. And shall not see when the heat
comes. The heat doesn't affect it. This
reminds me of judgment, doesn't it? Reminds me of judgment. Shall
not see the heat when it comes. The believers will not see judgment. But her leaf shall be green and
shall not be afraid of the year of drought. We're not afraid
of anything. We have life. The believer does
not, be afraid of anything because it's giving faith to trusting
the Lord, trusting Christ. Neither shall it cease from yielding
fruit. This reminds me of the fruit
of the spirit. That is the fruit, that spirit
bears fruit in the believer. So you see the water represents
life and life, eternal life. So he's telling them, if you
drink of this water, you're not going to thirst again. And verse, we are in verse 13,
right? Jesus answered, whoever drinks
of this water shall not thirst again. But whoever drinks of
that water that I shall give him, notice that he's the one
giving the water. This is not water you earn. This
is not water that you purchase from the Lord. He gives it to
you. He gives it to you. Shall never thirst, but the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of springing water
into everlasting life. Again, the water represents the
Holy Spirit. The water represents the new
life that we receive at regeneration when the Lord regenerates us.
The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not,
neither I come here to draw, still thinking about, of course,
physical water. She's still thinking about physical
water. In verse 16, the Lord Jesus said to her, go, call your
husband and come here. He's pointing out what? He's
pointing out sin. There's a problem, sin. There's
a sin problem, right? That's a sin problem, and that's
why the Christ must be lifted up. He must be lifted up. And he was lifted up for every
single believer. And that's why that sin problem
is no more for the believer, because he was lifted up. And
it says that, the woman answered and said to him, I have no husband.
Jesus said to her, You have said, well, you well said, I have no
husband, for you have five husbands, and whom you now have is not
your husband. In that, you said truly. And
this reminds me that honest people don't go to hell, do they? She
was honest. She said she admitted her sin.
And again, this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ seeking
for his bride. This is a picture of us. She
is a picture of us, right? before coming to Christ, we have
many gods, we have many husbands, we have many beliefs, all the
beliefs before, and none of them will satisfy us. Not a religion,
not a belief. And she says, I have no husband. I don't have a husband. And she
was honest. And she was aware of her condition. Unlike when the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke with the Pharisees, right? Whenever he pointed out to her,
they will fight right back and they will grind their teeth and
they'll say, not always sons of Abraham, always fighting,
but not her. Said yes, you're right. I have
no husband And the Lord Jesus Christ you have spoken the truth,
right? She's without a Redeemer. Basically. It's what she is. She has no
husband. She has no King kingship Redeemer And in verse 18, we
read, we says, you had five husbands. And so that's six. Now she's coming to her true
husband, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, which will be her seventh
one, which is the number of completeness. So she is in great need of mercy
and grace, isn't she? She just admitted that, and we
noticed that, and she's just like me, isn't she? in great
need of mercy, great need of grace. And are we in that position
like her? We're in great need of a savior. We need Christ. And aren't you glad that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners like us? Like the woman
of Samaria. He came to save sinners. He did
not come to save those that are not sinful, but those who are
sinners. Now that the Lord Jesus Christ
revealed that to her, the woman says in verse 19, the woman said
to her, now, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Right?
You told me all this, you must be a prophet, right? Remember,
first he called her a Jew, then sir, now a prophet. It's changing
here, right? So, now that you're a prophet, but you know, still, at this
point, she doesn't need a prophet. She needs a savior, doesn't she?
She needs a savior, not a prophet. A prophet cannot fix all that
past of hers. Prophet is not able to do that.
And a prophet cannot secure her eternal future either. All a prophet could do is point
to the Savior, to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all a prophet
does. And that's what a preacher of the gospel does, points. There's
nothing good in the prophet. There's no saving in the prophet.
The prophet points to someone else. The prophet points. So
she comes up with a theological question. That's what she comes
with now. In verse 20, this either she was thinking about this,
she was always wondering, now this is a prophet, and I need
to get this answer, this sorted out, or she was trying to divert,
change the subject, now that we're talking about our sin. But I think more maybe she was
truly wondering about this. Now that I have a prophet before
me, let me get this question out. This was a theological question. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain. And you say, meaning you say
you Jews, right? Say that it's supposed to be
in Jerusalem is the place where men are to worship. So she's pointed that question
out to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to her, woman, and
I like the way he answered this. He answered what's important,
address her question and then went back to what was important,
right? Kind of like when Nicodemus came
to the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus went straight to the points,
what's needed, you need to be born again, right away. Well, the Lord Jesus said, women,
believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain,
nor at Jerusalem, worship the Father, neither your place or
the jewish place you shall worship the father you shall you you
worship now the first thing he told her is what she needed to
hear that it's a time that the place is not important it's what
he's telling her you worship you know not meaning you don't
know what you're worshiping it's what he's telling her we know
what we worship for salvations of the jews So he told her what
she needed to hear. The second thing he's telling
her regarding your question, no, you're wrong. The Jews have
it right, right? Jews have this theological question
right. They're correct. And then he
goes back to what's important. But the hour comes and now is
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in two things. in spirit and in truth in spirit
this is talking about the holy spirit he's talking about regeneration
of the spirit and in truth he's talking about the word of god
he's talking about truth of the jesus christ is talking about
the gospel both of them are important You cannot have one without the
other. Both of them are important, and they come together as a package
in salvation, don't they? The Holy Spirit comes, it regenerates
the heart, and then you can believe the truth. Then you believe and
deposit your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. But without the
Spirit, truth doesn't help you, right? Truth does not help you.
The doctrines of grace does not help you if your heart is not
regenerated. It doesn't help you. Actually,
it may even hurt you if you haven't been regenerated because now
you think that you know it all. Now you think you're better than
all the Christians because you have this truth that you found
out. But without the Spirit, without that regeneration, there
is no salvation. So the Father is seeking Worshippers, meaning the sheep,
meaning his bride, worshipers with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
regeneration, that's not in your hands, that's in God's hands,
and truth, truth of the gospel, truth of the Holy Spirit. The
truth comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit writes the Scriptures
and reveals the Scriptures to you, and they all point to Christ.
They all point to Christ. So much so that the Samaritans
only believed the five first books of the law, right? And
we're going to see that she was looking for a Messiah. And they
only believed the first five books. And that was enough for
them to see Christ, to be looking for Christ, right? The salvation comes with truth
and spirit, and Michael brought this out to us in one of the
verses that he went through this morning regarding belief of the
spirit and in truth. For the father seeks such to
worship him. If the father doesn't seek, there
won't be anybody that worships him. The father must seek. The Holy Spirit comes and regenerates
and calls, and that's how he finds worshipers that are in
spirit and truth. He must seek us, because we do
not seek him. We never have seeked him the
past and the time that we seek him it was because the spirit
came and we saw the real god now we seek a lot of different
gods don't we man does seek god but not the god of the scriptures
god of their imagination how they figured he should be but
not the god of the scriptures the god of the scriptures no
one seeks after god no not one So God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Again, the
importance of being regenerated by the truth. But the spirit
must be in you in order for you to believe the truth. You could
sit here, hear the gospel, hear the gospel preaching in the church
a long time. and the Lord doesn't show you
Christ, if the Lord doesn't regenerate your heart, you won't believe
Christ. It just won't happen. The truth
by itself is not enough. And that's why it was Ezekiel,
he was told to preach to the bones, to the dead bones, and
then also the wind, speak to the wind, meaning the Holy Spirit,
pray to the wind. Because if he doesn't pray to
the winning, he only speaks to the bones. He's only speaking
like Michael said this morning, talking to a dead corpse in a
funeral home. The Holy Spirit has to work.
That's why in religion they say scriptures, the scriptures, the
sufficiency of scriptures. Well, yes. is sufficient in God's
revelation, but it's not sufficient for salvation. The Holy Spirit
must be there to teach. The Holy Spirit must regenerate
first in order for us to believe. So, in verse 25, the woman said
to him, I know that the Messiah comes, which is called the Christ,
when He has come. He will tell us all things. Now,
why did she say this? Well, one of the two things.
Either she didn't like that she was told that the Samaritans
were wrong, right? And she's saying, well, when
the Messiah comes, we'll verify that answer, right? Either that's
what's taking place. Either she wants to confirm what
this prophet is telling them with the Messiah. or she's being
prompted already by the Spirit of God that this just may be
the Messiah who's talking to you. I'm leaning to the latter
because the way this is going, the Lord is speaking to her,
right? And verse 26, one of the most
direct and clear full disclosures of the Lord Jesus Christ to any
sinner we find in scripture. Jesus said to her, I that speak
to you, I'm he. I am he. I am the Messiah. Being
clear, direct, there's no room here to misunderstand what he's saying
you say you say you're waiting for the messiah i am he this
is a wonderful wonderful self-disclosure that the lord jesus christ is
giving her and again i want to point out that the jewels He
did not say this to Nicodemus directly, did he? And he was
a Jew, the teacher of the Jews, supposed to know all about the
Messiah, having all the scriptures, all the books of the Old Testament,
all 39 of them. And he was the teacher of it,
Nicodemus. And he couldn't tell right away.
Of course, later on, he did. We have evidence that he was
a believer. But at that time, he couldn't see the Messiah.
And she only has five books. the old testament and a woman
as a sinful woman and the lord shows himself right she she knows
enough that she's seeking a messiah he tells her i am he and then
in verse 27 and upon this came the disciples and they marveled
that he talked with a woman yet not no man said what seek you
or why talked with her. And this is the one time they
kept quiet. This is good, isn't it? This
is the one time where they didn't say what they were not supposed
to say. They were smart enough or wise
enough here to not to answer that out of respect, I suppose.
The woman then left her water pot. She just left it right there.
and went back way to the city and said to the man, come and
see a man which told me all things that I have ever did. Is not
this is Messiah? She went back to her town to
tell her, come, listen to him. This is possibly the Messiah,
right? She didn't try to preach. She
didn't try to talk. She just heard about the Messiah.
Now she's pointing them to the Messiah. She told him all that
I've done. And this is what happens to every
one of us, isn't it? When we come to Christ, when
God regenerates us, he shows us our sin like this. We don't see all of it, of course,
because we can't handle all our sin at once, but he shows us
enough to show us that we be brave. He shows us enough for
us to run to Christ, to seek Christ, to seek mercy. from him,
to seek salvation from Christ. So then they went out of the
city, they came to him. In the meanwhile, the disciples
begged him, saying, master, eat. But he said to them, I have food
to eat that you know not of. Therefore, the disciples said
to one another, has any man brought him something to eat? Jesus said
to them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and
to finish His work. That was important to the Lord
Jesus Christ, to do God's work, to do God's will. That was the
most important thing to do. That was priority. Meat, food,
physical food was not important to Him. Doing the will of God
was important to Him. and we rest that He fulfilled
that law for us, don't we? Because we're not like that,
right? We're not like Him. To do God's will, sometimes it's
not as important for us to eat, but it was to Him. Say not you,
that they are four months, yet four months, and then comes harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up
your eyes." Perhaps all these people were coming from Samaria,
right? The men that she was talking
to and told them, come to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, come to
hear the Messiah. Lift up your eyes and look on
the fields for their white array for harvest. Perhaps it's telling
them as they're coming, this is the harvest, right? He tells
him, he teaches something about that. He says, he that reaps
receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal that both he
that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. And here, and
herein is saying true, one sows and alone reaps, I send you to
reap that which you bestowed, no labor, okay? reap, meaning
these people were coming into Christ, and you could do the
reaping. Some of these sawing may have
been John the Baptist as well, right? Other man's labor, and
you enter into the labors, meaning this is all, we're all part of
God's labor in the gospel. We don't do it all at once, but
we have small parts in it. And one saw, and, oh, don't worry,
she said. And many, verse 39, many of the
Samaritans in that city believed him, on him. They believed on
him, on the Lord Jesus Christ. For they were saying of the woman
which testified, he told me all that I ever did. So when the
Samaritans had come unto him, they sought him. that he would
remain with them. Kind of like, again, like Isaac,
like Jacob, and like Moses when they found the bride, the bride
took him back to the home, and they asked him to remain with
them. He stayed there two days, and many more believe because
of his own word. And this is why he must go through
Samaria, looking for his bride, looking for those who he pledged
before the foundations of the earth, he pledged their salvation,
he became their surety. This is why he had to come and
save them and give them life. And when they believed, they
believed in the spirit. The spirit allowed them to believe
the truth. They were regenerated. And that's how they came to Christ.
That's how we all come to Christ. Father God, we've come before
you in the name of Christ. And we thank you, Father, because
you suck us out. You went out to seek us. We will never ever seek you out
of ourselves, but you look for us, you called us, you regenerated
us in the spirit, and we were able to believe the truth. Thank
you, Father. May this take place here today. May you be gracious to us and
show us Christ and him crucified. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's close with a hymn from
the Spiral Hymnal. We'll do hymn number 30.