Let's open up tonight's service
in the softback handle number 128. 128, Behold the Sun. If you could please stand. our souls were given. When God, our Father, ye agreed
to bring us safely home to Him. Behold the Lamb of God, dying Jesus bought us with his blood
His ransom won He will protect Behold the Son of God reigning
as King upon the throne above, all things given into His hands
to save the people of Israel. upon the throne, who rules in
heaven, earth, and hell. That man is Christ, our Savior
God, his throne should all our fears dispel. Behold our His own with sin, nor let us
from His love depart. Look, look to Christ, to Christ
alone. Trust not the works that you
have done. His blood and righteousness alone
is secular. Be seated, please. When you turn with me in your
Bibles to Acts chapter 1 for our scripture reading, I want
to welcome our brethren in Sarasota. It's so good to have them joining
in with us. While you find that passage,
I'll let you know that Dennis Fitzton is preaching in California
this weekend for the group in San Jose. And I talked to Digna
today, and she's hoping to be back with us this Sunday. So she sounded really, really
good. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Acts chapter 1. We'll begin reading in verse
6. When they therefore were come
together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom of Israel? Oh, the disciples,
just like us, aren't they? Slow of heart. No, just, they
still thought it was an earthly kingdom. And he said unto them,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father hath put in his own power. But you shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses
unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and
unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when he had spoken
these things while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud
received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel. which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you in heaven, shall so come in like manner as you
have seen him go into heaven. Let's pray together. Merciful Heavenly Father, Like
those early disciples are so slow to believe, we ask that
you would send your Holy Spirit even as you did for them, that
you would open the eyes of our understanding, that you would
enable us to see the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, having succeeded in all that he came
to do, and waiting for that day when you shall send him back
to bring your people to thyself. Lord, like those disciples we've
gathered now in this room, we pray that you would encourage
our hearts with the anticipation of the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We ask, Father, that you would
enable us to understand the testimony of faith and that you would give
us opportunities to testify to thy grace. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Let us now sing the hymn, our
hardback hymnal number 186. You can remain seated. Number
186, The Church's One Foundation. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy nor of the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesseth, partakes
one holy She waits the consummation of
peace forevermore. Till with the vision, Lord, use
her longing eyes again. Yes, she in one, and mystic sweet communion
with those whose breath is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we I don't know if I turned that
off or not, but it causes some interference when it's on. Can
you check and make sure the music box is on? I pressed the button, but it
didn't go off. I'm sorry. There. Thank you. We had some work done on our
equipment yesterday, actually. And hopefully, the transmission
is going to be better. But I think the music box is
still causing a problem. And I don't know how to fix that.
All right. If you have your Bibles, would
you turn with me to John chapter 4? John chapter 4. We were there Sunday. And since
then I've become so impressed with what this woman said when
she went back down into Sychar in verse 29. Come see a man which
told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? I'd like to look at this passage
of scripture as this woman being a faithful witness. And before we consider her witness
and her testimony, I'd like to make clear what I don't want
you to hear from this message tonight. I spent entirely too
many years of my life making men feel guilty for not being
a witness, and making men feel proud if they were a witness. And that is the last thing in
the world that I want to communicate to you tonight. Truth be known,
the objective behind that sort of preaching was nothing more
than to stab my own conscience and to give me some assurance
of my own salvation and thinking that, well, if you're a witness
for Christ, then that makes it for sure that you're a child
of God. That is the very last thing that
I want to communicate in this message tonight. I'm reminded
of what the Lord said in Matthew chapter 23 when he spoke to the
scribes and the Pharisees, and that's what I was. He said, Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you can pass
sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than you are thyself. And that's all we did, that's
all I did. And we look at this woman as a witness for Christ. The last thing in the world I
want to do is give any believers reason to take pride in their
witnessing or give any child of God reason to feel bad that
they have not witnessed as they ought. And begin by asking the
question, does God need you and I to be a witness in order for
him to be able to save his elect? And the answer to that question
is obviously no. Truth is, for every one time
that you and I have been faithful to take advantage of an opportunity
to tell someone, come and see a man, which told me everything
I ever did, there's a hundred that we missed. And someone shared with me just
in the last couple of days, and I had an opportunity to talk
to a co-worker about Christ, but I don't think I was very
clear, and I just hope that, you know, that how many times
we have tried to speak and we haven't been clear. Worse than
that, How many times our conversation, our speech, and our life have
actually contradicted our testimony and our witness? Does that mean
that somehow we're going to bear the responsibility of someone's
soul being lost? I've heard people take Ezekiel
chapter 3 where the Lord speaks to the prophet of God and he
says, son of man, I'm going to make you a watchman. And then
he goes on to say that if you fail to alert the people of the
danger that's coming, then their blood will be on your hand. And
if you do warn them and they fail to prepare themselves, then
the blood will be on their own head. And I've heard men talk
about that passage of scripture as if, you know, believer, you're
gonna have the blood of people's souls on your hands if you're
not faithful to witness. That's not what that passage
at all means. The Lord was talking to a gospel
preacher, and he was warning him of those false prophets who
say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And every gospel
preacher understands that if I pervert the gospel, if I change
the gospel, if I lead people to believe that by my preaching
that somehow that they're okay and everything's fine and God
loves everybody and Christ died for everybody and God wants everybody
to be saved and you just do your part and everything will be okay.
Then men's blood would be on my head if I preached such a
message. That's all that passage in Ezekiel
chapter three is talking about. The Lord's going to save his
elect. He's going to do it. And not one of his sheep are
going to be lost. But what a wonderful example
of a faithful witness we have with this woman at the well.
Now, the second question I'd like to ask is, does God use
the witness of his people in order to communicate the gospel
to his lost sheep? And the answer to that question
is, yes. inside of them. The Lord goes
on in this passage, look what he says in verse 31. And in the meanwhile, his disciples
prayed him, saying, Master, eat. And he said unto them, I have
meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said his disciples
one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? And
Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that
sent me and to finish his work. 4 Say not ye, There are yet four
months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift
up your eyes, and look on the field. For they are white already
in the harvest. 5 And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I send you
to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor. Other men labored and
you are entered into their labors. If the Lord is pleased to use
your witness or my witness to bring one of his lost sheep to
Christ, it will be in spite of us. It will be. I was thinking about this. We built this building, what,
15 years ago? And many of you were a part of
that. And we have a lot of modern tools
in being able to do construction today. Power tools, and saws,
and drills, and equipment that's just... And, you know, if you've
got the right tools, it's really not that big of a job, is it?
What if one man had built this building with a rusty pocketknife? You know, we don't take any credit
for having built this building because we had all the tools
necessary to do it, and it just kind of came together, didn't
it? It took us a while, but it came together. But what if there
was one man? What if he had was sitting there
tonight, and he had built this building all by himself, using
nothing more than a rusty pocket knife. We said, well, that's
a plan there, isn't it? That's somebody to glory in there,
isn't it? You know, that's exactly what
the Lord does. Yes, he uses his people, but that just gives him
more glory, that he would save one of his elect through the
testimony and the witness of his people. Now, that's especially
true when it comes to preaching. If God does anything of any eternal
value for you, I know that it will be not because of me, but
in spite of me. In spite of me. My greatest fear
is that I would put my hands on something in this work. If
the Lord doesn't build the house, the labor labors in vain. If there's any profit of eternal
value done in your life or in my life or through us, it will
be in spite of us. That's true in parenting. You know? I mean, my grandparents
messed my parents up, and my parents mess me up, and I mess
my children up, and they mess their children up, and their
children are messing their children up. You know, that's just the
way it is, isn't it? We just keep passing down the sin of
Adam from generation to generation. If anything of any value happens,
it will be done in spite of us, not because of us. So yes, does
God use his people? He does, but he does it in order
to get more glory to himself. That he would take a frail sinner
like me and enable me to stand and speak to you about Christ,
that he would take you and enable you to talk to someone about
Christ? That just gives him more glory. Yes, this is the means
that he's pleased to use But he uses these vessels in spite
of them. That's a great definition of
grace as a whole, isn't it? In spite of. In spite of. Oh, don't forget that. Whatever
is not of faith is sin. Whatever you do, whether you
eat or whether you drink or whatever, do it all to the glory of God.
What does that mean? It means to acknowledge your dependence
upon Him for everything you do. Paul said, I planted a pot of
water, God gave the increase. You know, you labor and you reap
and you bestow on something that you produce no labor on. Someone
else labored before you. Did she witness? How did she witness? This matter
of witnessing doesn't prove your salvation. And when we fail to
witness as we ought, it's not going to damn some person's soul
to hell that would have otherwise made it into heaven. This matter
of witnessing is not something that God needs in order to accomplish
the salvation of His elect. It's what He uses It's a rusty
pocket knife that he uses in order to get more glory to himself
for having built the church with vessels like you and I. That being said, How did this woman testify of
Christ? How did she testify of Christ?
And the first thing I see in her testimony is a sense of urgency. Look at verse 28. The woman then
left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to
the men, come and see. You're talking to him. And she
believed what she heard. And she, the disciples now are
coming back up the hill to the well and she realizes that they're
about to leave. And if she doesn't want to tote
that water pot back to town, she has such an urgency for others
to know about who this is that she leaves her water pot and
she runs back down into Sycar. Come see man, hurry, he's about
to leave town, hurry! You know the urgency that you
and I have for the souls of other men will be in direct proportion
to the urgency that we have for our own. That's just the truth. There's
a direct and immediate correlation between the urgency that we have
for our own salvation and that that we have for the salvation
of others. Isn't that true? When we become indifferent, we
become cold. then we lose our sense of zeal
and urgency for our own salvation. When we presume upon the Lord
and think, well, you know, we've got another day, then that attitude
communicates in everything in our lives, doesn't it? This thing
is a matter of urgency. Barnaby the blind Bartimaeus
saw it as a matter of urgency didn't he? But the son of David's
passing by this is the only opportunity I today is the day of salvation
this thing of of urging men to come to Christ in preaching We
don't say to people, you know, go home and think about it We
don't say to people, you know, you just need to you just need
to reflect on this and maybe you need to maybe you need to
learn a little bit more and No. We say to men, lay aside the
weight, lay aside every weight and the sin that thus so easily
beset us. Set that water pot down. This is an urgent matter of the
soul and nothing compares to it. Nothing in your life No temple
matters. Whether you're a student in school,
or whether you're married, or whether you're working, or whether
you're not, nothing else is as urgent as this matter of knowing
Christ. Who is He? Come see a man who
told me everything I ever did. How did she witness? She witnessed
with urgency. And she witnessed as a sinner
to sinners. Now, I listen to a lot of preaching. I read a lot of preaching. And
unfortunately, I have to endure what you endure, my own preaching.
And I'm here to tell you that I think the number one thing
lacking in preaching today is the preacher preaching as a sinner
to sinners. That's what we are. And that's
what you are. When you share your faith with
someone else, when you tell someone else, come see a man. And the
focus of this message is not so much on witnessing as it is
on her testimony. I want you to see what her testimony
is. What is it that she witnessed to as far as her own personal
testimony is concerned? Preaching is not something that's
to be done academically. We're not here to make people
Calvinist. We're not here to straighten
out people's theology. We're not here to try to educate
men with biblical doctrine. We're here to urge them to come
to Christ. Your need is not for more knowledge.
Your need is to be saved. Your need is the same need that
I have. It's to be forgiven for your
sin. It's to be made right with God. And that's only going to be done
if Christ is lifted up. We're here to preach Christ.
We're not here to educate men. We're here to preach as a sinner
to other sinners. That's really what it is. And
when you have an opportunity and the Lord gives you words
to say, don't ever forget that. But for the grace of God, you're
just as... Who did she point men to? Come see a man. is not this the
Christ? That's who she came to point,
that's who she pointed them to. She didn't go down there and
say, let me tell you what Jesus of Nazareth said about the difference
between worshiping here on Mount Gerizim and worshiping in Jerusalem. And the theological instructions
that he gave me on that. And what he said about salvation
being of the Jews, and she didn't go down there to try to straighten
them out on their mode of worship, or their method of worship, or
their place of worship. She went down there to tell them
about this man, who she believed was who he claimed to be, the
Christ. I that speaketh unto thee am
he. Let me tell you about him. I fear that there are people
that listen to us, and because we've had some experience in
the scriptures, because we have some understanding of the stories
of the Bible and how they relate to the gospel and particularly
preachers are able to communicate those with some freedom and with
some liberty that sometimes a man or a woman might hear us speak
and they say, well, I just don't know enough. I need to learn
more I need to sit and listen and and and get myself to the
place where Turn me to Joshua chapter 2 Joshua chapter 2 and Hebrews
chapter 11 and is commended by the Holy Spirit
for being a woman of faith. I mean, the Holy Spirit gives
us about 15 names in Hebrews chapter 11 of Old Testament saints,
and they have one thing in common. And what she has in common with
Abraham, what she has in common with Moses, is that she believed
God. And that's what faith does. Faith
just believes everything that God has said. Did Rahab have
the knowledge of Moses? Did Rahab have the knowledge
of Abraham? No! Listen to what Rahab says
in Joshua chapter two, verse nine. And she said unto the men, I don't know much, but I know
that the Lord has given you the land. You know, that's enough
right there, isn't it? I know that the Lord has given,
that the Father has given to Christ. the people, the land,
look what she says, and that your terror is fallen upon us,
and that all the inhabitants of the land faked because of
you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites
that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye
utterly destroyed. She'd heard some stories. And
she believed them. She believed them. And as soon
as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither
did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For
the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth
beneath. Now there's what she knew. That's
all she knew. We know that your God is the
God of heaven, and he's the God of earth, and he hath done whatsoever
he wills, and everything is determined by him, and by his mercy, he's
gonna get the glory. He's the omnipotent God. This woman, that's all she knew. He told me everything I ever
did. It's not this, the Christ. What about the thief on the cross? You think about that thief on
the cross. He knew three things. He knew, number one, that he
was guilty. He knew he was deserving of what
he was getting. Do you know that? Do you know
that you're a hell-deserving sinner? That you're a guilty
sinner before God? He knew that the Lord Jesus Christ
was innocent. He said, this man's innocent.
He doesn't deserve this. He's the sinless one. He's burying
somebody else's punishment on this cross because he didn't
do anything himself. And he knew that the Lord was
going to be successful in what he was doing. Because he said,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He knew something
there that the disciples didn't know in Acts chapter 1, didn't
he? Lord, is it time now for you
to set up your kingdom and reestablish Israel for your kingdom? He knew. Do you know your sinner? Do you know that the Lord Jesus
is the Christ, the successful Savior of sinners? Can you trust what He did on
Calvary's cross for the judgment of God against your sin? She pointed men to Christ. She
didn't point him to doctrine. She didn't point him to theology.
She didn't point him to a denomination. She didn't point him to the law. She didn't tell him, hey, you
guys need to go back to Egypt and start over. You need to go
back to Sinai. She didn't do that. That's a
lot of preaching today is just taking men back to the law, isn't
it? She didn't take them to an experience.
She didn't say, boy, you need to have the same feeling I had
when I was up there talking to the Lord. You need to have the
same experience I had. She didn't say that. She said
what John the Baptist said. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. Come see a man that told me all
things. And that was her testimony. And
if you want to get anything else out of this message, this is
what I want you to get out of this message. Because her testimony
is every believer's testimony. We're able to say, come see a
man which told me everything ever I did. Now, if the Lord has saved you,
he's told you that everything that you have ever done falls
short of the glory of God. Everything. Everything you've
ever put your hand to, you've defiled. Everything you've ever
touched, you've left your grimy, dirty fingerprints on. Everything. That's what she's saying. She's
not saying, how long did she say, how long did she speak to
the Lord? You know, it doesn't seem like
it was a very long conversation. But she was able to say, he told
me, he told me all things that ever I did. Has he revealed to
you that everything you've ever done is sin? Has he revealed to you that in
you, that is in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing? as he made you to be a sinner. That was his testimony. And that's
our testimony, and that's our witness. And when we preach or
when we share, we declare as a sinner to sinners, he told
me everything I ever did. Everything I ever did was nothing
but a transgression of the law. And you might read this story
and think, well, the thing that she was most ashamed of was that
the Lord exposed her of having five husbands and the man she
lived with was not her husband. That wasn't her greatest shame.
Matter of fact, the Lord, the Holy Spirit put this in His Word
in order to illustrate how that lifestyle that she had is the
same lifestyle that you had and I had and that you have and I
have right now. It's called the sin of idolatry. When we replace the Lord Jesus
Christ with something else, when we look outside of Christ
for our comfort, for our encouragement, for our hope, for our happiness,
for our contentment, for our peace. How much of a spirit of adultery
is in your heart when it comes to replacing the Lord Jesus Christ
with another man? I told another preacher this
week, that I don't believe that a preacher ever ought to identify
a particular sin from the pulpit that he's not currently guilty
of. Because as soon as you do, then you're pointing your finger
somewhere else, aren't you? What did God say at the top of
the Ten Commandments? Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Now that word before doesn't
mean in order of preference. It doesn't mean in order of priority,
I mean. It means in order of, it means
before my face. Thou shalt have no other gods
before my face. Truth is, if you're a child of
God, you are a recovering idolater. And if there's one sin you can't
quit doing, it's the sin of idolatry. You just can't stop it, can you?
I mean, you can't, you can't rest completely in Christ, but
for just a few, and then, you're distracted, aren't you? Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven images. Now, you know what that word
graven means? It means carved. It means an
image that's been fashioned with your hands. How often do you
do that? Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them and serve them. That's our sin, isn't it? This
woman's greatest shame is that she was a Samaritan. She was
an idolater. She was mixing the worship of
Jehovah with pagan worship, and that's exactly what we do. We say we're trusting Christ,
and we are. And yet, Lord, help thou mine
unbelief. The sin that doth so easily beset
me is the sin of unbelief. I can't trust Christ with all
my heart, all my mind, and all my soul. I just can't do it. And He's
told me everything that I've ever done. And everything that
I've ever done because of that, I'm a sinner. Everything that I've ever done.
Is that your testimony? You know what the other side of that
coin is? You know what the other side of that coin is? Everything
you've ever done is perfect righteousness. That's right. That's our testimony. Everything that I've ever done
is sin, and everything that ever I did is perfect obedience to
the law of God. In the person of my substitute,
in Christ, as He is, so am I, right now in this world. He told
me everything I ever done. That's my hope. My hope is that
everything that I've ever done is everything that he did. If I'm in the body of Christ
and everything the head did, the body did, so that when the
Lord Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born miraculously,
so was I. That's how I was born. That which
is of the flesh is flesh. Yes, I was born of the flesh
by my mother and my father 60 years ago, but now, a miracle
of the new birth. I've been born of the Holy Spirit.
Without the hands of man, just as Christ was born. And everything
that he performed in this world, Everything he performed. He told
me everything I ever did. You see, this matter of being
a sinner and a saint, sinners and saints are the same people. If you're not a sinner, you're
not a saint, and if you're not a saint, you're not a sinner.
Only sinners are saints, only saints are sinners. They're the
same people. He told me everything I ever
did. Everything I ever did was righteousness. Perfect holiness. I kept the law. I kept the law. Yes. Yes, I did. He told me everything I ever
did. I've been found in Christ, not in my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. He's the end of the law for righteousness,
so I kept the law. I suffered the wrath of God on
Calvary's cross. What did Paul say? I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.
He told me everything I ever did. I died back there on Calvary's
cross. I was put into the grave. I was
raised from the dead, fellowshiped with Christ in His resurrection,
ascended back into glory, so that all of my blessings are
in the heavenlies right now in Christ, as I'm in Him. He told me everything I ever
did. Is that your testimony? Is that
your testimony? Can you say to the men of this
world, can you say to your friends, can you say to your brethren, He told me everything ever I did. Apart from Christ, I've never
done anything but sin. That's why the Lord said, anything
that is not of faith is sin. If the Lord's going to use you
and me, he will do it in spite of us. And the only thing he's
pleased with is faith. What is faith? It's trusting
Christ. It's looking to Christ. It's
relying upon Christ. It's rejoicing in Christ. It's
depending upon Christ for all my hope and all my righteousness. He told me everything. Everything I did was sin. That's everything I've ever done.
And that's everything you've ever done. And if God's given you faith
to look to Christ, then before God, everything you've ever done
is everything He did. Is that your testimony? Look at verse 42. The man, well, I can't read this
without, you know, she went down and she, the scripture says she
told the man. You know, you just wonder how many of those men
thought, boy, we better go see this guy, because, you know,
if he told her everything, we'd, you know, I mean, this is a woman,
maybe they thought we had some things on them as well. Verse 42, and they said unto
the woman, now we believe. Not because of my saying. Nobody's
gonna be believing in Christ because of what you say, or because
of what I say. I'm not going to convince anybody.
You're not going to convince anybody. We're not going to be
such great preachers and such great witnesses that men are
going to be compelled by the strength of our testimony to
come. Now we believe, not because of
thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this
is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. If God uses my preaching, it'll
be in spite of me. But I know he's going to have
to do the speaking. He's going to have to do the, he's going
to have to give the increase. And the same thing's true of
your witness. Might the Lord give us such urgency
for our own salvation that it would spill over. in the opportunities
that He gives us to tell other men, He told me everything I
ever did. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would continue to minister
grace to our souls by reminding us of everything we've ever done
in ourselves, sin, in Christ, righteousness. For it's in His
name we ask it. Amen. Number 12, 20. Number 20 in the
soft back teminal. In Christ, in Christ alone My
soul has found sweet rest By grace He takes me for His own
Thus for me was left Christ is all in all Christ is all to me
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is bonus all to me. On Christ I cast my care, and
trust His providence. His sovereign throne forbids
my fear. His presence gives me He is all in all. Christ, He is all to me. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is all, yes, all to me. While living in this world. All things now seen within this
world soon, soon must pass away. Christ is all in all. Christ is all to all. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is all, yes, all to me. There is an aching place. I long to see the blessed face
of Christ, my gracious Lord. Christ is all in all. Christ is all to me. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There's all to me In life a Lord
to Christ In death I'll wait His call Christ is all in all. Christ is all to me. Jesus Christ, the Son of God
is all. I'm sorry about that.