May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the fourth
chapter in the Gospel of John and read the 14th verse. The Gospel of John, chapter four,
and reading verse 14. But whosoever drinketh of 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. The Lord contrasts here to this
woman of Samaria the difference between natural water and spiritual
water. And the great difference is,
as the Lord said, natural water, if we have that, if we're living
on the earth, we shall thirst again. But if we possess and
are given the water of life, it will be a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. And surely we can appreciate,
therefore, the vast difference. And we know, of course, that
it's so necessary for us naturally to have water to live. We cannot live very long without
drinking water. And in essence, of course, how
true that is in our spiritual life, we need to be blessed. with this spiritual water as
we journey on through this life. Otherwise we become very weak
and very sickly and how we need the Lord to come and to give
us a supply of this heavenly water, this water of life which
the Lord does graciously and lovingly dispense to his church. And the great need for us is
to know that you and I are possessors of this great blessing, that
we have received this water of life from the Saviour himself. Because he says, whoso drinketh
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. It's given
by God. It's not something we can just
suddenly come across, as it were, a well and think, oh, that's
good enough. It's that which the Lord gives specifically and
individually. And we have, of course, this
account, an amazing and lovely account of this individual, this
woman of Samaria, singled out to receive this blessing. And
it's good for us to read that the Lord, he speaks and says
that he must need to go through Samaria. He had to go that way
to meet this woman. If he'd not gone through Samaria,
he would not have met this woman. So he knew he had to go through
this place to meet this woman. And how good it will be if we
are blessed with that similar situation. The Lord comes to
us and meets with us on our journey through life. Now this woman
was going about her daily duties. The Lord knew where she was.
And the Lord meets with his people as they're sometimes going about
their daily duties. It's right, of course, to come
and worship together because it is the ordained way of blessing.
But nevertheless, the Lord does bless in the workplace perhaps
in schools or universities. The Lord's not confined to any
place and he knows where you and I are going to be. And it's
wonderful therefore if he comes to that place where we are and
as it was waiting for us and we come along to that place,
the appointed place by Almighty God, there he then speaks to
us. He spoke to this woman. This
woman had got up in the morning no doubt with no care really
about her spiritual state and there she was in an adulterous
situation and appeared to be content with it and didn't really
want to declare it. But yet the Lord knew all about
her. The Lord knows all about you
and he knows all about me. There's nothing that we can hide
from him because his all-seeing eye penetrates right into our
heart and discovers every secret there. There's no secret in our
hearts that the Lord does not know about. And therefore we
might conclude that those secrets are known by two people, you
and God. And yet to realise that the Lord
looks upon us, he looked upon this woman and he came through
this came to this place of Sychar, sat on the well, and then spoke
to this woman. And he said unto her, give me
to drink. Now, we should realise that such
a statement is important for us to consider. The Lord didn't
let this woman pass by. We know, of course, that he was
Almighty God and we know it was the appointed time to call this
woman. But nevertheless, we do have
an example here of the Lord speaking. The woman didn't speak first,
he spoke first to this woman. And he spoke in that way which
was to produce the opportunity to speak to her about this water
of life. And it would be good sometimes,
I believe, if we are concerned to speak to those people that
we come across and we meet. You know, there's many people
you and I meet in a day, don't we? Jesus was sat here on the
well. We might be sat somewhere, perhaps
on a seat, perhaps on a train, perhaps in a bus, wherever it
might be, perhaps in the office, perhaps at school, and someone
comes along to us and we see this person. Wouldn't it be good
if The Lord gives us right words to speak and as we think of it
and we can see the course that it might follow if there is that
answer. And this woman therefore responded
to the Lord Jesus. She came and she said, the city of Samaria, this woman,
and now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being worried,
sat on the well, And this woman came and he said, give me to
drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that
thou being a Jew askest me which I am a woman of Samaria? So not
only was she a woman that Jesus was speaking to, but she was
also a woman of Samaria and she was not a Jew. And as she said,
the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And yet the Lord
ordained that this should be the way. So we should be encouraged
by the account we have here, which gives us the evidence and
the reasons why we should always be concerned to have an opportunity
to speak to the people that we meet with. And we should not
just pass them by or just forget about things, but we should be
concerned and pray that there might be opportunities to speak. I always remember, I've said
it before I think, that the late John Broome told me when he was
a school teacher of course and he said when he was a school
teacher and he used to pray and when he prayed sometimes the
opportunity might be given to speak of the things of God to
one or another and he said that always came to pass. He was always
given the opportunity to speak. Well that's a good prayer isn't
it? You know we live in a dark day don't we? the Word of God
describes the Church of God as lights in that dark day. And we're also told that we are
not to hide that light, but that light is to shine forth. And
we see here in this account then the glory of that light shining
forth. And of course we know the light
was the Lord Jesus Christ. But again looking at ourselves
as we know the Lord Jesus Christ, and bless God if we do, may that
light shine through us, the light of the Saviour. Not our light,
but the light of the Lord within us, that it might shine forth
and be evident that we are a true believer and a true follower
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So this conversation
developed, this woman was surprised, Jesus answered her and he didn't
respond to the statement that she made and it's good again
for us to realize how the Lord operated and what he said. He
wasn't sidetracked by the statement of the woman and we can easily
be sidetracked by the statement of the woman. He went on very
kindly and he said to her, if thou knewest the gift of God,
And who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink? Thou wouldst
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."
Well, that was a surprise to this woman. She couldn't understand
it. And again, we should recognize that sometimes people may not
understand the things that we say, because they are spiritually
discerned. And again it's necessary that
we have a right attitude in the way we speak, not in a high and
mighty way, but a very humble way. And so the Lord spoke to
her and she responded, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof? and his children
and his cattle? And again, you see, the Lord
doesn't answer that question either. He just moves on, moves
on very positively and says to her, whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of 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." Well, that was a glorious statement,
wasn't it? A wonderful truth. The Lord spoke
to her. He commenced the conversation
and he continued the conversation and he'd come to this great and
glorious word that he was able to speak to this woman. Now,
this, you see, was attractive. The woman didn't really understand.
what Jesus was saying. And she just fancied this as
some natural water. And therefore she responded,
Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither
to draw. And so then, the Lord then speaks
to her and gives her to realise the great power and knowledge
that he had. Now, of course, we won't be able
to come into a situation like this, because this was the all-seeing
eye of Almighty God, which he knew all about this woman. And
he said to her, go call thy husband. And she responded, 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 sense
thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. We can perhaps leave the account
as speaking to this woman and realize that here the Lord comes
in and addresses us individually. And here he addresses woman and
penetrates into her heart so that she had the knowledge that
this was not an ordinary person. This was a divine person. This was almighty God. And it
was the almighty God, therefore, that has spoken to her these
words. Whosoever drinketh of 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." The Lord, you see then, is directing her
in this personal way to show her the real need that there
was of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus spoke
to her and he said, Believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father, ye worship ye know not what." Well, how true that is
today. In the day and age in which we
live, how many people there are who worship they know not what. They're just following a mere
tradition. And there are many people who
profess to be Christians who are just following a mere tradition. They do not know the work of
the Holy Spirit in their heart. They do not know the blessing
of God's grace upon them. And they are just like this.
They are not numbered amongst those who are the true worshippers,
because the Lord goes on and says, you worship me, you know
not what. We know. What we worship for salvation
is of the Jews, but the hour cometh and now is when the true
worshippers 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. This is a spiritual worship. It's not something which is tangible
to our natural understanding. And people today, they like something
which they can work out in a tangible sense, something they can grasp
with their mental capacity. But here we see the necessity
of living faith which God gives, which believes the truth of God
and believes that there is a God in heaven, and they are a needy
sinner, and they do need to be given this water of life. The woman you see comes to this
condition and says, I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called
Christ, when he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus
said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. Now that was an amazing
revelation. And that was a wonderful statement.
But it had an effect upon this woman. And this is the reality
of true religion. It has an effect upon our hearts. And it produces a change within
us. This woman was a changed character. And what did she do? She left her water pot. She forgot
about it, what she was doing. And she went back into the city
and she went and said, come see a man that told me all that ever
I did is not this, the Christ. She'd had a blessed movement
of the Holy Spirit within her. Now how wonderful it would be
for us if we can look back in our lives to that time when,
as it were, we met the Lord Jesus Christ. This woman, we know physically
met the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, the Church of God
do meet the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the real evidence of
that personal knowledge of the Saiga. It's not something which
is just a head knowledge, because a head knowledge will never get
us to heaven. It's the blessed work of the
Spirit within our heart which shows to us that we are a partaker
of this wonderful blessing of drinking of the water, that water
of life that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to all his people. There are no exceptions. Everyone
is a partaker of this blessed water of life, this spiritual
blessing, this grace of God, which is evidenced by the Spirit. And when the Spirit works in
our hearts, it is not left. The Almighty God is not going
to leave us. We've been quickened, we've been
made alive, spiritually alive. And we are partaking of this
water, this blessed spiritual water. And how important that
we have in our lives the evidence that this has been so. Let us
not just be satisfied, as it were, with a knowledge of spiritual
things without knowing them in our hearts. We don't want to
just have a knowledge which remains in our head. We want to have
a knowledge that is in our heart, which is the gift of God. Because here we have this statement
that he says, that whosoever, and that is of course comprehensive,
whosoever, doesn't matter how bad we are, perhaps how far off
we are, how bad we've been, and how dull we seem, whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him. You see, it's that which
God gives. Now I wonder if we're on the
stretch after that, or have been on the stretch after it, that
we pray unto God, We cry unto God that we might receive this
great and glorious gift of the water of life, because it's not
something which then fades away. The Lord tells us here, if we
receive that we'll never thirst, but this water will spring up
within. This is blessed grace of the
Spirit of God springs up within us. It's like a well of water,
springing up into everlasting life. It's not something which
fades away, which evaporates. It's something which continually
springs up because it emanates from Almighty God. It's that
which He gives. What a blessing it is then to
realise that we have such a God and how important it is that
we are possessors of this grace, this blessing, this personal
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah, in his prophecy, in many
places, refers to this water of life. We won't go through
them all tonight, but just to bring one or two to your attention. In the 49th chapter, the Lord
says this through his prophet Isaiah in 10th verse, they shall
not hunger nor thirst. Neither shall the heat nor sun
smite them, for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them
even by the springs of water, and he shall guide them." The
Lord shall bless them and shall lead them by springs of water. Those springs of water is his
grace and his love and his mercy through his blessed spirit. And
he goes on, make all my mountains away, and my highways shall be
exhorted. Behold, these shall come from
far and low, these from the north and from the west, and these
from the land of Sinim. And so he just moves on, sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing,
mountains for the Lord hath comforted his people and will have mercy
upon his afflicted." Well it is a wonderful comfort if you
and I have been blessed with a spiritual thirst and the Lord
comes to us and gives us this water of life, gives us of his
grace by his Spirit. It is of course the unmerited
favor of God that he comes and leads us into all truth as it
is in Jesus. And I believe this water of life
must direct us to none less than the Saviour Himself. And as we're
directed to the Saviour Himself, perhaps we understand again what
the Prophet said in the 50th chapter of this same prophecy. Ho everyone that thirsteth, a
gracious invitation, come ye to the waters. It is only to
those who are thirsty, not those who are satisfied with natural
water, natural things, those who are thirsting after spiritual
blessings, thirsting after the Lord Jesus Christ, that may come
to that place, which is a good place, like this, give me Christ
or else I die, thirsting for the water of life. What a blessing
it is. If you and I have come now where
we've prayed earnestly to the Lord, oh give me Christ or else
I die. Give me that personal evidence
in my heart that Lord Jesus Christ has died for me. He suffered
upon that cross to atone for all my sins. He shed his most
precious blood that I might be redeemed. This is the vital knowledge,
isn't it? This is what will do our souls
good. Anything less than this, my friends,
is really peripheral. And you and I will need the blessing
of this water of life. And so the Prophet says, everyone
that thirsteth, come into the waters, and he that hath no money,
well, we haven't got any currency that would pay to atone for our
sins. We haven't got any money. We
haven't got any spiritual money, as it were. No, we can't come
and say, I'll purchase my salvation. No way can we do that. We'll
never be acceptable. We will never have enough money
to bring. Come ye buy and eat, yea, come
wine and milk without money and without price. The Prophet goes
on, Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently
unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight
itself in fact that incline your ear and come unto me here and
your soul shall live and i will make an everlasting covenant
with you even the sure mercies of david it's a gracious invitation
isaiah sets before us here these verses, but remember it is addressed
to those who are thirsty and those who have no money. They
have nothing, nothing in their hands they bring, nothing at
all. Simply to the cross they cling. My friends, where's our hope
tonight? Is it in a crucified Saviour? Is it in what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done? Do we realise the need that we
have of such a blessing in our souls? But, says the Lord to this woman,
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst, never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water, stringing up into everlasting life. You
see, this water of life really can think in terms of as the
new birth. It's that which God gives to
us, that which we cannot obtain ourselves. No, we cannot obtain
ourselves. God graciously gives it and therefore
we are dependent upon his gift. And it is good that we are dependent
upon his gift because if we could produce the blessing ourselves,
if we were to give ourselves this water of life, what would
it do? It would detract from the glory
of God. And it would make us proud in
that which we have done. What it means is we come with
nothing. This woman came, didn't she?
What did she have? She was just there. She'd come
to this well, and with her water pot, it was empty. She had nothing
there at all. And there she was, and the Lord
came and addressed her. Now it's good if we come to the
Lord with nothing. Empty, but thirsty. Thirsting after the things of
God. Thirsting after the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirsting to know that he died
for me. Thirsting to know that our names
were written on his heart, to know that our names were engraved
on his hands, to know that we have a personal interest in the
life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a personal thing,
my friends. It's not something which is just
a general case. This case we have here was direct
to this woman. There were many people in Samaria,
many people. The Lord came and met with this
one lady. We know of course that after
that Some of the people came from Sychar and spoke and said,
in reference to what the Lord had spoken, now we have believed,
not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and
know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
But nonetheless, the Lord Jesus has come and singled out this
person. Well, I wonder if in our lives
we can look into our hearts and see the time when God, as it
were, singled us out, and it was as though we were before
God, and God was speaking to us, and encouraging us, and as
it were, inviting us to come to Him. We didn't go. This woman didn't go. The Lord
came to her. And the Lord came to her. He
was sat there. She came along and he spoke to
her, and then entered into that conversation, which had this
good end. Now you see, when the Lord begins
to work, my friends, when the Lord speaks to our hearts, it's
the beginning. And the work goes on. And the
work brings us, I believe, to that assurance. This woman you see, was blessed
with that, she said, come see a man which told me all things
that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? We see
there surely she had that faith believing that this was the Christ.
The words that the Lord had spoken to her, the conversation that
he'd had now in our spiritual life, it may not of course be
quite as direct as this. It may be perhaps over days,
perhaps even over weeks or months or perhaps years. But nonetheless,
as the Lord begins that work, that work goes on, that work
goes on. This woman, you see, she wasn't
allowed to walk away, to wander away. The Lord spoke to her and
continued, as it were, this conversation. Sometimes, in our hearts, we
may perhaps, as it were, wander away in a physical way, but there
in our mind, in our soul, there is still The resounding voice
of the Lord addressing us, perhaps, and speaking to us of the need
we have of the Saviour. And the Spirit of God then works
to direct us more and more to show us that we do need the Saviour. We do need that personal evidence.
We do need that personal knowledge that Lord Jesus Christ has come
to give to us this water. this well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Now the blessing is that God
never leaves his children. Sometimes we might feel to be
far off, sometimes we might fear to be very low, and sometimes
we might even doubt the work of God in our hearts. But sometimes
when we're perhaps in that position, to come aside and to be given
that grace to examine ourselves and to go back and to realise
the Lord it was who first spoke to us and caused us to seek unto
him, caused us to ask him that we might receive this blessing
of this water of life, This woman desired it. She desired this
water of life. And it's good, my friends, if
you and I desire the spiritual blessing, which means really
to be led into the knowledge of Christ by the Spirit of God. We can learn it as schoolboys
learn their tasks, but this is not the blessed work of the Spirit
of God. The work of the Spirit of God
moves our heart, it has an effect upon us, it produces a change
in our lives. We are a different person because
that Spirit has made us think differently, it's made us view
ourselves differently, it's brought us down in our own estimation,
and it's showed to us the necessity of being saved an everlasting
salvation and that there's no help in ourself. Our only hope
is in what Christ has done. Now this is when we receive this
blessed water of life which comes into our hearts and it's that
beginning of that work of his grace within and to think that
these words are so true that once it has been given to us
that we shall never truly thirsty again. We are of course thirsty,
and we do long, don't we, for greater blessings from the Saviour.
But there will be that springing up, and that springing up really
is, God gives us that prayer to pray, that blessed gift of
prayer, and it emanates from God. It's because this well,
this life within, is springing up within us. It may sometimes
seem to be very feeble. But my friends, it will never
disappear. The well of water will always
be there. As the Lord says, I shall give him, never thirst, but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him. It's the life of God
in the soul, and it's in us, and it's springing up to everlasting
life. And how important it is for us,
isn't it? to have that which is that gift of God which gives
us everlasting life, not that natural water like this woman
thought was what the Lord was alluding to, just natural water,
but no, of course, the Lord was directing her to a far, far deeper
position, and that was the need she had of life in her soul. So he uses this illustration
to make this point to her and to direct her to himself. That's what happened, wasn't
it? As the conversation continued, personally to her, he showed
her something of herself, something of her sins. There it was, the
Lord pointed it out to her, having told her of this water of life,
he then directed her to her position. So she knew, she knew that it
was God. She knew that it was, well, at
any event, she knew that it was somebody who was Very important,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. A prophet, and of course, this
prophet was none less than the Messiah, who she spoke of. And then the Lord said, I that
speak unto thee, am he. The woman left her water pot
and went her way into the city. And saith, come, see a man which
told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? the Lord reveals to us those
things that we've done in our life. It brings back to our remembrance
things perhaps which we thought had been forgotten and disappeared. And the Lord sometimes brings
these things back to our remembrance to make us cry unto him again
and again that we might receive this blessed gift of the water
of life, that we may know that it is springing up within us.
Yes, and although our sins, deserving hell, yes, will not despair,
for who can tell? Oh, there's that hope, God-given
hope. What is it? It's a well of water,
welling up within. That good hope, that doesn't
fade away. Yes, we're sometimes tempted
to despair because of the evil of our heart, but a blessing
is to know there's that springing up, that gift of God which he
has given us, which will never cease, and we shall never therefore
thirst. We might feel thirsty, but in
fact we shall never perish for a lack of this spiritual water. because God has given it and
he's promised those who he gives it to will therefore never thirst
but it will spring up unto everlasting life. What a blessing that it
is to think of this, to have this illustration before us here
in this account and direct us as it did this woman to none
other than the Messiah. None other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. The real reason for our times
of worship is to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so that we are partakers
of this water of life. It's not so that we are left
alone, left aside, but it's so that we might know and have the
evidence that we are amongst those who are thirsting after
this water of life, and who have received this great and glorious
gift by the evidence that it's had within ourselves. What has
it done? It stirred up our spirit, our
innermost feelings, that change has been produced within, and
we know that the Lord has come, and the Lord has blessed us,
and the Lord has given us, and we're able then to say, like
this woman, yes, come see a man who's told me all things, this
blessed Saviour, I now know this man, I've met with this man,
I've met with the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do need, my friends,
this personal evidence, this personal knowledge. Well, tonight,
are we thirsting for this water of life? Are we thirsting? And do we long to hear such a
word as this? as the Lord spoke and said, and
that I shall, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up
into everlasting life. We must notice that this is the
water that God gives. This is the spiritual life of
his spirit, that He gives us within. It is His gift. It's not something that we have
worked up ourselves. It's that which He's given. And
that will be the evidence in our hearts that God has given
to us that which we could not give ourselves, could not reach
ourselves, but God gives it to us. What a favour it is to know
that we are a possessor of it by the life of God in our souls. Tonight it's good if you and
I can look back in our lives to find a time, a period perhaps,
when the Lord gave us this blessing of this water of life and it's
been springing up ever since, sometimes more powerfully than
others, but nevertheless it's always there and it will never
cease. because it's everlasting. You
see, whom once he loves, he always loves. My friends, we'll never
be left out, we'll never be forgotten, and to think that he's loved
us from eternity past, and he's loved us so much, and he's come
into this world to die in our place, and to atone for our sins,
and to bless us with that personal knowledge that we are redeemed
in the precious blood of Christ. Oh may you and I be joyful in
the wonder of these great and blessed truths, and thank God
that we have a simple account like this, a very precious account,
that we can understand in a natural way and to apply that spiritual
blessing and to have the evidence that as Christ spoke to this
woman, so he's spoken to us with that great and blessed promise.
He gives us this water that shall be in us and shall be a well
of water springing up into everlasting life. Amen.