Let's turn in our Bible, Sir
John, chapter four. Let's begin in verse three. He left Judea and departed again
into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh
he to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the
path to the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's
well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For
his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then
saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being
a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the
Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and
said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest ask of him,
and he would have given thee living water. He speaks of this water as water
that brings with it everlasting life. So I just wanted to look
at that verse in particular this morning and we looked last week
at the context of it all. And in all of these things, I
do pray that the Lord is our teacher. He promises in the Old
Testament, doesn't he? He says, I'll teach my people
and great shall be the peace of my people. We see something
of the wonder of redeeming love and sovereign mercy in this story. We might know. If he might be
our teacher, we would know those two things. There are two essential
things, aren't there? You have to know who he is, and
you have to know the gift. The gift. The context, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ on his way to Galilee. The first time
he goes from this part of the world into Galilee, he gathers
his disciples and leaves the Jews behind and takes them to
a wedding. This time he leaves the Jews
behind. and he goes and abides in a Samaritan
village on his way to Samaria. The love of God for his people
is always astounding and always surprising, and we should be
looking over the horizons of this world with confident expectation
that our God will do wonderful and remarkable things. He cometh,
it says. He cometh. He came to this place. He came to this particular place
at this particular time in these particular circumstances. And
if we knew what it was for the Lord to leave and depart, we
would be amazed at the He left and departed those Jews. He left them to their empty religion
in Jerusalem. He left them to their Bible colleges
and their mission organisations. He left them to all their righteousness. He left them having borne witness
of himself in Jerusalem and he left them. He left Judea and
he went to this place. We think lightly of the Lord's
comings and goings unless we actually see how remarkable it
is for him to come. When he comes to his own, he
comes with mercy and grace and he comes with promises, but he
comes to his own, as John 1.12.11 says, and his own received him
not. But as many as received him,
he gave the right to become the sons of God. They're not born
of the will of man or the will of the flesh. They're not born
of blood, but they're born of God. We have to be reminded again
and again and again of the character of our God. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter one. I want us to see that the wise
man wrote these remarkable words at the beginning of the book
of Proverbs and no doubt to many they present a picture of God
which is very different to the picture that we see all the time.
But I want us to see these verses and read these verses in light
of him coming, in him leaving. He says in verse 23 of Proverbs
chapter 1, Turn you at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you, and will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and you
refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But you have set at nought all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. Verse 26, I also will laugh at
your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then they shall call upon me, but
I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me, for They hated knowledge and did not choose
the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel,
they despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning of the way of the simple shall slay them and
the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whosoever Hearkeneth
unto me, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from all fear
of evil. Where the Lord abides, he brings
his peace. That's a different view of the
character of God compared to what we are presented with so,
so much in this religious world, isn't it? The Lord says in Genesis,
my spirit shall not always strive with man. Our Lord is on a journey
and where he comes, where he comes in mercy and grace, he
also at the very same time comes in judgment. The same light that
shines on the children of God is darkness to the reprobate. I want us to contemplate those
things because I want us to treasure the coming of the Lord. I want
to treasure the fact that he has promised to come where he
gathers his people together. He's promised to be in the presence
of where his gospel is preached. And my prayer is that he will
come and he will be our teacher. And a bit like these people here
in Proverbs 1, great shall be the peace of his people that
he comes and reveals himself and teaches. So he comes. He comes. He comes with a purpose. He loved his own that were in
the world and he loved them to the end. He either comes or he leaves
and departs. I want us to see and feel something
of the weightiness of it. But he comes to this place of
Jacob's world, he comes to this place where Jacob dwelt, where
Jacob found living water. Living water is the water that
springs out of a rock. And if you know the history of
Israel in those wilderness wanderings for 40 years, 1 Corinthians 10
says there was a rock. The water came out of a rock
and the rock followed them through the desert. What a remarkable
picture of the grace of God in providing for his people. There are two things that this
verse in verse 10 reminds us of, don't they? The Lord reminds
us, if you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it is that
saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst ask of him, and
he would have given you living water. What's the gift of God? Let's
just look briefly at the gift of God. I want us to look at
the gift of God. I want us to look again at who
is the giver of the gift. I want us to look at what it
is to ask, and I want us to look briefly at the fruit of our asking. The gift of God, of course, is
His Son. The gift of God is to know His
Son. The gift of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5 says,
walk in love as Christ has also loved us and has given himself
for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gift of the Father but he gives himself. In Galatians 1 verse
4, he gave himself for our sins. And Paul would cry out with that
remarkable declaration, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live,
and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me. So it's three times the Lord
speaks of him being the one given, and I want us to remember that
that little word for, that little word for means To stand over
and to shield from harm. To stand over and shield for
one's safety and benefit. The picture, of course, is like
a mother hen hovering over her little ones. That's what the
word for means. The Lord gave himself for us,
for our sins. And it becomes personal, doesn't
it? He gave himself for me. He gave himself for me. See,
the gift is salvation. Ephesians 2, you know the verse
well, doesn't it? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that is not of yourselves. The grace is not of yourselves.
The faith is not of yourselves. It's all the gift of God. It's
the gift of God. Salvation is the gift of God.
The gift of God is the revelation of His Son. That's what this
woman was going to experience, wasn't it? She was as ignorant
as you could possibly be. She was as ignorant as Nicodemus
was of who God is and how God saves sinners. She was as ignorant
of God's Christ as Nicodemus was. So the gift of God is the
revelation of himself, if thou knewest. How do you come to know? How do you come to know? You
come to know You can only know through his revelation of himself. You come to know by his activity
of the new birth. That's Nicodemus' problem, wasn't
it? Nicodemus' problem wasn't that he didn't have enough religious
knowledge, he had no knowledge of him. I love what Peter says,
being born again. Being born again, 1 Peter 1.23,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. That's how you're born
again, by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the
flower of the grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And how do you hear this enduring
forever word? And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Take note of what God And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Now the gospel is a person. The gospel is the declaration.
It's Golub's declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Nicodemus didn't know the gospel.
Nicodemus could recite the Old Testament scriptures and he didn't
have a clue what they were saying. And so it is with anyone who
hasn't heard the Gospel. The Gospel is a declaration of
the character of God. The Gospel is a declaration of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's a declaration of who He
is and what He does. It's a declaration of He who
is the gift and the giver. If you knew, if you knew, There's
only one way to know, isn't it? It's for Him to come, for Him
to reveal Himself, as He always came, and as He always revealed
Himself. The gift of God is knowing Him,
and we only know Him by revelation. He only is known by Him revealing
Himself to people. So the gift of God is the God,
the Son, coming to you personally. This is eternal life, says the
Lord in his high priestly prayer in John 17. This is eternal life. This is eternal life. This is
that well of water that springs up to eternal life. This is life
eternal, that they might know thee. The only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. The gift of God is Him. The gift
of God is Him revealing Himself. The gift of God is Him coming
personally to His people. The gift of God is Him drawing
you to Himself. by invisible cords of love and
grace and providence. It's all the outworking and the
unfolding, little by little as time goes on, the eternal covenant
purposes of God. He draws his people to himself.
He reveals himself to his people. So the gift of God is eternal
life, and that life is in his Son. The gift of God is living
water. the living water that springs
from a rock. Don't you love what John the
Baptist said? A man can receive nothing, except it be given him
from above. Wherever in the scriptures there's
a gift, there's always a giver. There is in the scriptures always,
when there's a gift of God, there is always a reception of that
gift in the heart of His people. God is God, He's absolutely sovereign. He is the gift and He creates
the circumstances for the gift to be revealed and He gives the
gift and He makes sure the giver gets the gift. The gift of God
is the new birth, it's the new creation. The gift of God is
this knowing, isn't it, that Nicodemus needed so he could
see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a person. It's the king on his throne.
The gift of God is entering this kingdom. And I love what he says, how
can I know? How can I know? What is the evidence
that I know that I have received this gift? Don't you love what
he says in verse 21 of John chapter four? He says, woman, believe
me. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is the evidence. Faith looks to him. Faith looks
away from self. I love what Philippians 1.29
says, For unto you it is given, it is given in behalf of Christ
not only to believe on him, it's a gift, faith is the gift of
God, not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake. Tom read earlier in Romans chapter
5 and if you just turn over there briefly you'll want us to see
that the gift is free. Often in the scriptures it says
the gift is free and it's implied in the word gift. Let's just
look at verse 15 that speaks of this free gift. But not as
the offence but so also is the free gift. For if through the
offence one may be dead, much more but the
grace of God, and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus
Christ, has abounded to many. See, it's a gift, it's a free
gift, in verse 15, it's the gift by grace, it's the gift by one
man, Jesus Christ, and it's the gift that abounds to many. The gift, at the end of verse
16, is the free gift, is of many offences unto justification. It's unto justification by this
one. It's not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For judgment was by one to condemnation,
but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence,
verse 17, death reign by one, much more they which receive
abundance of grace. And the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one. It's one man, it's by one. The
gift is by one under justification. The gift shall reign in life
by one. Therefore, as by the offence
of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. Justification. To be justified
is to be someone who has never sinned. is to be justified. To be righteous is to be perfectly
right before the law of God and to be perfectly just. To be justified
is to have no sin. Why are God's children justified? Where did their sins go? Their
sins were all put on the Lord Jesus Christ, every single last
one of them. To be justified is to be a person
who has no sin before God. No sin in the courts of God. The Lord Jesus Christ declared
them all to be his and the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree
bore all of the wrath and the punishment and they are gone.
They are gone, brothers and sisters. It's the justification of life.
And I read earlier Romans 5.19, but I just love it so much. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners. When were you made sinners? You
were made a sinner when you sinned representatively in your father
Adam in the garden. And you were made righteous.
So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Verse 21 is lovely, isn't it? that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. So the gift, the gift is a free
gift, the gift is righteousness, the gift is eternal life, the
gift of God is the person, the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The wages of sin is death, says Romans 6, but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The gift is
free to us and the gift is infinitely costly to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a price he paid. We think of the sins And we think
of sins so lightly because we think so lightly of what he did
on Calvary's tree. What a remarkable weight. I love
what Mr. Hart says. He bore all that infinite
God could bear with strength to bear and none to spare. The weight of all our sins are
upon him. The gift When the gift is given, the gift
is known. is him. There's lots of giving
in the scriptures and I want us to go back to the very beginning.
We have to go to the beginning. The scriptures take us back to
the beginning all the time. In John chapter 17 we are reminded
in the Lord Jesus last night before his crucifixion of what
he was doing and why he came. He says in revelation of himself
and in his prayer to his father, he says in verse six of John
17, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. How did they keep his word? Did Peter keep his word that
night? must keep his word for the next week. How do they keep
the word of God? We keep the word of God in the
one who kept it, and the one who keeps his people. In verse 18, he says, I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them. Wherever there's a giving in the scriptures, there's a
receiving. I pray for them, verse 19. I pray not for the world, but
for them that thou hast given me, for they are thine. The Lord Jesus Christ was given a
people by his Father before the world began. This first gift
that's spoken of in the scriptures is the gift of a people to the
Son. He was given them, he gave them
into the hands of the Son, and the scriptures speak of it over
and over again, as the foundation, this eternal covenant is the
foundation of all that ever happens in the rest of the scriptures.
The Father gave them to the Son. Let's contemplate that for a
minute, brothers and sisters in Christ. The Father gave a
people to his Son. They were his to give. if he
gave them. And if he gave them to the Son,
they were received by the Son. If they were given by the Father
to the Son, what were they like when they were given? They came
from God. They came from the hand of God
into the hand of God the Son. What were they like? Were they
precious in the sight of God the Father if they were given
to His Son? Were they precious in the sight of God the Son to
be given to His Father? You see, they were, and they
must have been, wholly. in his sight. They must have
been as righteous as he is righteous, to have come from him before
the fall of our father Adam. They must have been as just as
he is just. They must have been as holy as
he is holy, to have been given from the father to the son. It
can't be anything other than that, can it? His holiness must
consume and devour everything that's not holy and just. So
how precious must they have been to the father to have been given
to the son? They were a suitable gift to
the son. How precious to the son must
they have been to have been an acceptable gift to the son of
his love? All the giving that goes on in
the rest of the Scriptures is bound by that first giving. That's why he must needs go to
Samaria. Why must he go? Why must this
woman be drawn to him at that particular time? Because the
Father gave her into the hands of the Son before the foundation
of the world. Why were they given? It's just
one simple answer in all of the scriptures, isn't it? They were
given to the praise of the glory of His grace. They were given. All of this giving is to exalt
the character of God. If you knew the giver, you would
know this gift. This gift is beautifully pictured
in the Garden of Eden, isn't it? When Adam was given a wife
by the Lord. She was brought out of him. She was brought to him. She was
brought to him. She was made out of him while
he slept. In another garden, the Lord Jesus
Christ took upon himself all the sins of his own, and he took
that cup that the Father gave him. What was in the cup? There's
no doubt in all of the scriptures what was in the cup. In that
cup were all of the sins of all of those people that God the
Father gave to him. All of the sins, the sins that
God's children are committing now, the sins that I am committing
now, the sins that you are committing now. God, they're all in that
cup. And the cup, the contents of
the cup became one with him. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that in him we might be made the righteousness
of God. That was what was in the cup.
God the Father gave him the cup. And because of his union with
the bride, all of her sins were counted in the very courts of
God as his sins, and that's how he earned them as his. She was all to him, and he was
all to her. So in union with her, He drank
this cup and he suffered under the infinite wrath of God until
God declares, it's finished, it's finished, they're gone.
All of the punishment for all of those sins before the justice
of God is gone. And after he had given up the
ghost, He died, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was buried in
a tomb, wasn't he? He was buried in that tomb. And
as Adam slept in the garden, and out of his sleeping, a woman
was brought to him. Out of the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he rose from that tomb, he rose victorious with all of
his people. This is the gift that Romans
5 is talking about. He arose with his bride, and
he took her into heaven with himself. And he seated her, according
to Ephesians 2, he seated her with him in heavenly places.
And there's coming a time when there'll be a new garden with
ready access to the tree of life that'll be on either side of
that stream, that stream of grace and mercy that comes from the
very throne of God. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ will be a beautiful bride, adorned for her husband, presented
to the father, a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle. She'll be holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. and he'll present her back to
his father. Gloriously complete, all of the
Church of God. When God is the giver and the
son is the gift, I love what Romans 11.29 says,
it says, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. They are without repentance. When God gives, he gives forever. When God gives, the recipient
receives the gift and it's freely given to us. It's freely, don't
we love 2 Timothy 1.9, he saved us and he called us. with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Please
don't forget the order. This woman's been called. What's
the order in 2 Timothy 1.9? He saved us and he called us. And it was all given. No wonder
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Human words run out, don't they?
Human words aren't enough to speak of this gift. Human words are so poor at conveying
the wonders of this gift. Who is the giver? God is the
giver. Who's the gift? God is the gift. Who are the recipients? All of
those who receive this gift. He that spared not his own son,
you know it well in Romans 8.32, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Godliness is given. It's given. He gives of himself. You can
read more of this giving as you read on in Romans 8 and in John
chapter 6 and throughout the scriptures. He gives and he gives
and he gives to his own. If you read, I don't have time,
but in Revelation you will see that every time the church is
declared to be an overcomer there's a gift and every one of the gifts
is just another declaration of something of the character of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the overcomers, how did they overcome?
Revelation 12, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb
and the word of their testimony. If you knew him and you knew
the gift, you would ask, you would ask, The gift comes with
the asking. The gift is made of the one who
asks. Grace makes us mercy beggars. Grace makes us Askers. Grace makes us pleaders. That's
what prayer is, isn't it? So often prayer is just pleading
with God. You've got to do something. You've
got to do something. You have to do according to your
word and according to your will. So the gift can't be purchased. The gift can't be earned by our
merit. The gift is free, and the Father
knows all the things that you need before you ask Him. So why
not ask Him? Because He knows. Ask, Matthew
7, 7. Ask, and it shall be given to
you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. Ask. Have you asked? Lord save
me, says Peter. Ask. Lord help me. Lord save me. I like looking
up what these words mean. The word ask means to beg. Are you a beggar? The word ask means to call for. The word ask means to crave. It means to desire. It means
to require of him. They craved the body of Jesus,
Joseph of Arimathea. He craved the body of David. The people required that he might
be crucified. In Acts chapter 16, when the
Philippian jailer realized what was happening and was about to
kill himself, he called for a light. It's the same word. It's to beg. It's to beg. They begged the
body of Jesus. Asking Him is the evidence of
Him coming. Asking Him is the evidence of
Him drawing you to Himself. Isn't it lovely that He attaches
promises to asking? If you asked, He would give. If you asked, He would give. And he would have given thee
living water. Living water, as I said earlier,
living water is water that flows from a rock. The living water
is eternal life. is that water that poured from
the side of the Lord Jesus Christ that John witnessed when that
spear was plunged into the Lord Jesus Christ and out flowed blood
and water. Water is what is a great symbol
and picture of the grace of God coming. It comes from heaven
and it doesn't come by your efforts, it comes by His perfect provision. God says he would have given,
he would have given thee living water. Did she ask? Verse 15 says she did. She says,
sir, give me this water. She had no idea what she was
asking for, but she still asked. And she asked the right person.
And she asked in the right circumstances. What an encouragement to keep
asking. Ask in our ignorance, but keep asking. Keep asking
the right person. And she is a vessel fitted to
receive the living water. What was she? Nothing much better
than a Samaritan harlot. Nothing much better. She was
someone that had ruined her life by her own activities. She was
a sinner by birth. She was a sinner by practice.
She was a sinner by nature. See, what are the vessels for
the reception of this living water? I'm looking at them, aren't
I? The gospel. The new wine of the
Gospel of the Grace of God is not going to be poured into old
wineskins of our works and our activities, isn't it? The new
wine is not poured into the vessel of man's creating and polishing,
no matter how good it looks to the eye of man. This new water
is going to be given to a Samaritan woman and others in their village,
and that living water is not going to be given to those Jews
except in his time of love. See, the whole have no need of
a physician. If you ask, you have a need.
May the Lord make us fit vessels. May he come. May we hear the
shepherd. Oh, we know he's coming. May
we know him. May we find in him the only one
that can satisfy the thirst of this world. The wells of this
world are all dry and empty and never satisfy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might bless your word to the hearts of your people and
cause us to know who the giver is and to know the wonders of
the grace in giving and cause us to be askers. Make us ask,
Heavenly Father, and continually come to this fountain of living
water. We pray in Jesus' name and for
his glory. Amen.