Let's turn to John chapter 4
and read this remarkable story. It's one of my favourite stories
in all the scriptures and all one can do in these particular
situations is just pray the Lord does the speaking because It's
too wonderful a story, but it's a story that's personal, and
a story that speaks wonders of the glory of our God, and wonders
of the wonder of how He saves sinners. Every sinner that's
saved, we'll call Him precious. Every sinner that's saved by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll see His blood as precious.
And what a glorious meeting this is between this woman. Let's
just read the story. We might begin, In verse 5, then
cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near
to the parcel of 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, it was about midday. There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. 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. newest the gift of God, and who
it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The
woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. From whence hast thou that living
water? Aren't thou greater than our
father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself,
and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. And the woman saith unto him,
Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither
to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call
thy husband, and come hither.' The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst
thou truly. The woman said unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. You worship what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers
shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh
such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth the woman say unto him
I know that Messiah cometh which is called He will tell us all
things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am He. And upon this came his disciples,
and marvelled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said,
What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then
left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith
to the men, Come, see a man who told me all things that ever
I did. Is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city
and came unto him. Meanwhile his disciples prayed
him, saying, Master, eat. And he said unto them, but I
have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said his disciples
one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus
saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent
me and to finish his work. Say ye not there are yet four
months, then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white or
ready to harvest. 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 here is
that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you
to reap, whereon you bestowed no labour. Other men laboured,
and you entered into their labours. And many of the Samaritans of
that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which
testified, He told me all that ever I did. So that when the
Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him, that he would
tarry with them. And he abode there two days,
and many more believed because of his word. And said unto the
woman, we now believe, now we believe, not because of thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed. Christ, the Saviour of the world. What a glorious story, what a
glorious picture of salvation. It's very hard for us to comprehend
how much the Jews despised the Samaritans. They despised them
because of their interbreeding, they despised them because they
worshipped on the mountain up there in East Sumeria. They despised
them because they were compromising people. They compromised with
whoever would suit them best. When it suited them best to be
friends with the Jews, they'd be friends with the Jews. When
it suited them best to be friends with the enemies of the Jews,
they were suited with the enemies of the Jews. They were a half-bred
mongrel race. in the estimation of the Jews,
and they'd been enemies of Israel. You might recall that the beginning
of the Samaritan race and the beginning of Samaritan worship
was in the days of Jeroboam after Solomon erected that temple up
there to mimic the Temple of Jerusalem. It was all about false
worship. And when those northern tribes
were taken away and the lions and other things came, they sent
priests back from Babylon and Syria and they mixed with the
population that was there, and so the Samaritans were considered
a half-bred Jewish population, but they can still consider them
Jews. You saw here that our father Jacob, they still believed in
Jacob. But as far as the Jews were concerned,
they were the dirtiest and filthiest people you could possibly imagine,
which is why the story of the Good Samaritan is so unbelievably
shocking to them. They wouldn't have seen anything
good in any Samaritan at all. They were despised. And yet this story begins, of
course, and our chapter divisions were there placed by men. The chapter division should be
ignored, and then we can see the story of what happened, this
amazing picture of what happened. John the Baptist had given his
last testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he finished and says
in verse 35 of the previous chapter, the Father loveth the Son, and
has given all things into his hands. The Son has all things,
all things in creation, all things in providence, all things in
salvation, everything is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he says in verse 36, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. It is the possession of all those
that believe on the Son. And he that believeth not, he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, him. Now for a Jew there was
no question about where the wrath of God abided. The wrath of God
abided on the Samaritans, for at least the wrath of God was
there. And then in the beginning of
chapter 4 we have this contention, wherefore when the Lord knew
It's spoken of earlier in chapter three, when the Lord knew how
the Pharisees had heard that Jesus had made and baptized more
disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his
disciples, he left Judea and departed. He left the Jews. He left them
to their religion. He left them in the darkness
of their Judaism and their self-righteousness. He left them. They judged him,
and they judged John the Baptist, and they judged an unworthy.
They had seen the miracles. They'd seen all those things.
And they came to judge and they came to divide. And the Lord
left them. He left them. He left them and
departed. It's a sobering thing to contemplate,
isn't it, in John chapter 12 after another two years of the
Lord's ministry before them where he did things that no one else
has ever done. He did things that only Messiah had ever done.
He taught as one that taught the very words of God because
he spoke the very words of God in their midst. It says in John
chapter 12, he hid himself from God to hide himself. I don't
want the Lord Jesus Christ to hide himself from me. I don't
want the Lord Jesus Christ to leave and depart. To leave and depart. And so in
that context, he left and departed. He left them. He left them to
their left them to their self-righteousness and he departed and he went to
the lowest of the low. He went to the very lowest of
the low you could possibly imagine. You might recall that later on
the Pharisees would accuse him of being a Samaritan. And this
probably is the story which was the basis of that. To actually
to be in the presence of a Samaritan for a Jew was to be defiled.
To actually take a water cup from a Samaritan and drink from
a Samaritan's water cup was for you to be ritually defiled as
far as the Jews were concerned. To actually go into their houses
and live with them for two days was a sign, as far as the Jews
were concerned, that you didn't have a clue about who God was.
You didn't have a clue about righteousness whatsoever. And
so this story is the genesis of so much of the opposition,
and they would justify themselves from it. They'd go to passages
in Leviticus about purity. and they would prove to themselves
that this man cannot possibly be the Messiah. He defiles the
Sabbath and here he is actually living for two days in a Samaritan
village. He abode with the Samaritans
for two days. Oh may he come and abide with
us. It's a glorious picture of God's
salvation. See he left them particular time and he came to
this one particular woman at this one particular time in these
one particular circumstances that he might reveal himself
to her. That he might reveal her to herself
and he might show her how God saves sinners. lost, not even with a thought
of seeking God, to being saved in this story. It's a glorious
story. And if it's not your story, I
pray that today it might become your story. And if it was your
story some time ago, it'll be your story again today. So this
is a story that continues to resonate with the children of
God. It's a glorious picture of how the Lord Jesus Christ
comes to sinners in their defilement and how he joins himself with
them, takes their sins and gives them his righteousness. So it's
a perfectly fit thing for the savior of the world to dwell
in the presence of Samaritans. It's a glorious picture. We're
all Samaritans. We're all like this woman. Okay,
we're gonna sing again, number 33. Thank you. of mercy never-ceasing Oh Oh One of the things that's lovely
about these stories is actually sort of picturing what it's like
things about being in India is that lots of India was just like
Palestine or Israel was 2,000 years ago. The farming that I
saw in India, they wouldn't have changed a thing. They ploughed
with oxen and they had wooden ploughs. But one of the other
things they had was wells and it's a dry part of the land and
certainly they have a long extended period of dry weather around
that Mediterranean and across lots of the rest of the world.
So wells are a very big deal. and they were in the villages. Nadia comes from Pakistan, she
goes back to Pakistan again, she'll see wells in the villages.
They were a meeting place in the villages and they were dug.
This Jacob's well is reputed to be about 30 metres deep and
three metres wide. So they dug them down and what
they did is they were digging down, not to make a receptacle
for water like the well at the back of our house, but they're
actually digging down through the rock until they found the
water that bubbled out of the bottom, because the water that
bubbled out and was kept in the ground was the water that sustained
them and kept their lives alive. Kept them alive all that time.
through those dry times. So this well was a precious well
and around the well, the well was a meeting place and around
the well there were stones that protected you from falling in
and protected animals and other things from falling in and defiling
it. It was precious, this water was precious. And so these wells
were remarkable. I want us to contemplate this
well and the beginning of this well because in this story we
have have a beautiful picture of the Lord going back into Galilee
and you might recall in John chapter 1 the Lord Jesus comes
to Nathanael and he comes to Galilee and he meets up with
Nathanael and you might recall the story told Nathanael he said
He said, I saw you under the fig tree. I saw you under the
fig tree when you were praying under the fig tree, and I saw
you before you even knew I was there. And he makes a remarkable
statement about Nathanael. He says, Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom there is no guile. There is no deceit in the true
Israelite of God. All of those who have been cleansed
by the Lord Jesus Christ have no guile. And he says, in his
first visit into Galilee after his baptism, at the beginning
of his public ministry, he goes into Galilee, and the first time
he goes into Galilee, Nathanael says, you're the king
of Israel. You're the son of God, you're
the king of Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto
him at the end of John chapter one, because I said unto thee
that I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou, thou shalt
see greater things than this. And he said unto him, verily,
verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see
heaven opened. This is not salvation, this is
heaven opened. The picture, of course, is the
picture of Jacob when he had left. Jacob's name means deceiver,
supplanter. And Jacob had deceived his father. He'd stolen his brother's birthright. He and his mother had concocted
the deceit of Isaac so that Jacob would have the birthright. Isaac
and Esau had sold a course for a bowl of beans, which is what
all of humanity does. But nonetheless, Jacob was not,
there's nothing in Jacob's life that causes you to think this
is a guy who is esteemed to God. The remarkable thing in the scriptures,
isn't it? Romans 9 says that God loved Jacob and he hated
Esau. The most remarkable part of that
verse is how on earth did he ever love Jacob? There's very,
very little that's very lovable about Jacob. He was a deceiver
and he ends up after this event. So at the first time the Lord
goes into Galilee after his baptism, he actually tells his story of
Jacob on his journey out. And here in John chapter 4, we
have him going back in. to Galilee. When Jacob found himself on that
particular plot of land, and for whatever reason, whether
they used the fork sticks and other things, whatever reason
they found the place, if you're going to dig a deep well, you
want to make sure you're digging it in a good place. But Jacob
dug this well 2,000 years ago and one of the reasons Jacob
dug this well 2,000 years ago is that we could hear this story
4,000 years later and that we could hear and we could see the
story in this picture and so the well is incredibly significant. You might remember the story
Jacob left in fear because his brother Esau had promised to
destroy him. And Jacob comes back in his journey
and he's absolutely terrified about what he's going to meet
when he meets Esau. And then he hears that Esau was
coming to meet him with a troop of 400 men. And what on earth
do you normally think when that happens? Jacob thought, this
is the end of my days. This is the end of my days. So
he gathered together this huge herd of animals, 580 animals, He arranges cattle and goats
and camels, you can read all about it. He has all those ready and he
sends a message to Esau. He sends him a message in chapter
32. He sends his messengers with a message
and you know the story. Jacob ends up on his own and
it's turned to verse And Jacob prayed, and Jacob said,
Jacob's in fear of his life, he's in fear of losing absolutely
everything. He says, O God, my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, the Lord which sent us unto me, return unto
thy country and to thy kindred, and I will dig, I'll deal well
with thee. I'm not worthy of the least of
all the mercies and all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy
servant. For with my staff I passed over
this Jordan, and now I've become two bands. Deliver me, I pray
thee, from the hand of my brother and from the hand of Esau. I
fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with
the children. And thou says, God said, Jacob
is reminding God what God says. It's a good thing to remind God
what God has said, isn't it? I will surely do thee good and
make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered
for a multitude. And he organises this present
for Esau. I want us to look at a couple
of things. He has this meeting in verse 24, and following the
meeting, well, the Lord Jesus Christ met with Jacob, and the
Lord Jesus Christ wrestled with Jacob all day long and all night
long. And in verse 26, he says, let
me go, for the day breaketh, and he says, Jacob says, I will
not let you go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what
is thy name? The Lord asked Jacob his name.
What's your name? My name is Deceiver. My name
is Supplanter. My name is Corrupter. And God says, thy name shall
be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, thou
hast power with God and with men and hath prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,
tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. What's
the name of God? He's the prince with God, isn't
he? Anyway, he passed over. I want
us to go to have a look at the meeting, and they met. And he meets in chapter 33. And he says in
verse eight, Esau says, what do you mean? What meanest thou
by all this drove with these 580 cattle I met? And he said,
these are to find grace in thy sight, my Lord. And Esau said,
verse nine, I have enough, I have enough, my brother. Keep that
that thou hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee,
if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present
at my hand, for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had
seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. Take, I
pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God
hath dealt graciously with me, because I have enough.' And he
urged him, and he took it. I want us to take note of one
thing in those two words. Esau says, I have enough. Esau
says, I have much. And Esau's got 500 men to go
with him, and you imagine the rest of the troop and the cattle
and the other things that were behind. Esau says, I have much. I have enough. I have got an
exceeding amount. The person like Jacob that God
has dealt graciously with says in verse 11, God has dealt graciously
with me if God has dealt graciously with you. You have enough. When Jacob says,
I have enough, it's a completely different word in the original
language. Jacob says, I have everything. I have all things. The point, of course, isn't it,
is it doesn't matter how many cattle you have. It doesn't matter
how many soldiers you have. It doesn't matter what you have
in this world. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you have absolutely
everything. You have everything. We are the
inheritors of a universe. We co-heirs with the Lord Jesus
Christ. The trinkets and the trifles
of this world are meaningless, aren't they, to the child of
God. The streets up there are paved with gold. I have enough. I have enough. I want us to go down to the beginning
of this world, in verse 17. Jacob journeyed to Secuth and
built him a house and made booths for his cattle. Therefore, the
name of the place is called Secuth. And Jacob came to Shalem, a city
of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. And when he came from
Panamaran and pitched his tent before the city, and he bought
a parcel of a field. Remember, Abraham just had a
place to bury his wife and his family. Jacob bought this field. He bought this parcel of the
field. He ended up giving it to Joseph, if you read in Genesis
49. And he bought it at the hand
of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces
of money. picture, isn't it? It's a picture
of the grace of God to a sinner like Jacob. No wonder that the
Lord Jesus Christ uses this story and this place to meet this other
sinner. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it? And he erected there an altar. He erected there an altar. An
altar is the place of sacrifice, because all of these people,
all of these old patriarchs, if you read all of their stories,
you'll find that everywhere they settled, every place they settled,
they built an altar to God. They built an altar to acknowledge
the fact that this is the only way sinners can be in the very
presence of God, is through an altar. He erected there an altar
and he called it L-L-O-V-E, Israel. I wish I could speak Hebrew,
but I can't. I'm not even going to try. But
it means God, the God of Israel. He erected this altar, the God,
the God of Israel. And throughout the rest of the
Old Testament, there is an altar, isn't there? Throughout the rest
of the Old Testament, there's an altar, and like the fire that
fell on the burning bush, the altar was lit. In Leviticus chapter
nine, and later when Solomon dedicates the temple, the altar,
the fire on the altar is lit by God. Men kept it alive, but
God lit the fire. It's a fire from heaven. And
it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. The altar is the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a picture. He's the sacrifice on the altar.
He is the altar. He's the altar on which the sacrifice
is sacrificed. And the altar is the place of
forgiveness. The altar is the place of acceptance
with God. The altar, that place of sacrifice,
is the place where sinners can meet God and have their sins
taken away. You know the story of Isaiah
is one of many pictures in the Old Testament, isn't it? He meets
the Lord Jesus His glory. And when you see the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're humbled in your presence and
you actually know what you are. And that's exactly what happened
to this sinner at Jacob's well. At this place where Jacob had
set up an order, Isaiah says, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts, And one of these seraphim, and the seraphim
have a song, don't they? The seraphim have a simple, simple
song. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. One of these seraphims flew to me, this sinner that's
undone, having a live coal in his hand. Where did he take it
from? which he had in his hand, which
he had taken with tongs off the altar. And he laid it upon my
mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin is purged, thy sins are completely washed clean. There is an altar, brothers and
sisters. Christ Jesus is the altar. I'll finish this part of our
service by just going to Hebrews chapter 10. It says we have an
altar. an altar and we know what happens
from that altar don't we? All of the fire of God's wrath
falls on that sacrifice and if the fire of God's wrath falls
on the Lord Jesus Christ and we are hidden in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the fire of God's wrath and the fire of God's judgment
can never That's why the angel, the seraphim,
could say to Isaiah, your sin is taken away. That's what the
altar is about. That's what the sacrifice is
about. That's what the blood is about. That's what Jacob set
up the altar about. It was all about the fact that
he had met with God and survived. He had wrestled with God and
prevailed. We have an altar, says the writer
to the Hebrews, whereof they have no right to eat which serves
a tabernacle. We have an altar, we have an
altar. The Lord Jesus Christ walked
away from those Jews. and revealed himself as the altar
to that woman in Samaria. They can serve the tabernacle
all day long. You can serve in earthly ways
with earthly things all day long. And you can do it in ways that
men esteem and you can do it in such ways that you would look
upon their religion and you would be astounded at how moral they
are and how devout they are and how religious they are. and you'd
feel dirty in their presence because they are so holy. God
says they can't eat at our altar. Brothers and sisters, they can't
eat at our altar. So this altar is a feast for
the children of God, isn't it? It is a well of water, as the
Lord said to that lady. It's a well of water springing
up unto eternal life. God saves faithful saying the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners. May we be allowed by their presence
and the grace of God upon the body and the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This lady did. What an extraordinary
journey she must have had over those next three years. She and
that little group of believers in that village in Samaria saw
the Lord Jesus Christ rejected and rejected and rejected and
scorned by men and eventually by those Jews, those religious
Jews that the Lord walked away from. He gave himself into their
hands and they put him to death. How must you have felt as they
saw all that? And it's no wonder that in Acts
chapter seven, in Samaria, Philip has a great ministry, a great
ministry. How they must have rejoiced at
the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. And he went up to that mountain
nearby them. What a glorious, glorious picture of the Lord
Jesus, saving his people, preserving his people. coming to them in
the wilderness, coming to them in their depravity and in their
sin, and making them perfectly holy to be in His presence. May the Lord bless this world.
Let's have a break.