take your Bibles and turn back
with me to John chapter 4. The message, the title of the
message this morning is, The Necessity of Jesus. The Necessity of Jesus. And I take my text from verse
4, when it says and he must needs go through Samaria now I hope
that you will pray for me as I preach this message because
when you tell somebody that God must do something you better
be very careful you better be very careful you better know
what you're talking about. So I pray that God this morning
would give me liberty to speak to you concerning this matter
of Jesus necessity that was laid upon him to go through Samaria. If we go back to verse 1, it
tells us that when Jesus therefore knew how the Pharisees had heard
that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, verse
3, he left Judea and departed into Galilee. Now, in this verse,
we see the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ in knowing
the motive and the thoughts of the Pharisees. Jesus knew their hatred for him. He knew their jealousy. Now,
the Pharisees endured with John because John at least was the
son of a priest. His dad was at least of the Levitical
line, a Levite. But this man, Jesus, they had
no love for him at all because they assumed that he was of no
noble birth, They assumed that He was born in Nazareth, which
no prophet came from. Neither one of those were true.
But they assumed that, so they believed that, and they hated
Him. Now, knowing these things, Jesus left and departed from
them. Now, on His way to Galilee, there
were two distinct routes in which you may go from Judea to Galilee. Jesus departed and went through
Samaria. But there was another route that
was further than the one Christ took. Now Jesus' route was the
most direct route to Galilee. But it was the least traveled
route. There was a longer one, a one
traveled by the Jews, by the religious rulers. They traveled
around Samaria to go to Galilee. They did not go through Samaria. And there was a reason, because
they hated the Samaritans. Now, we talk of race in this
country. We have no idea what racism is
compared to what the Jews were at this time. They thought every
Gentile was a dog. In other words, you and I would
be considered less than a human being to them. They would have
considered us dogs. Now, we may have been a house
dog. I like my dogs. I got three. I like dogs. You
know, and I pet them, I feed them, but they're not like my
children. I don't hold them up in high regard as I hold my children.
That's how the Jews looked at everybody else. But they looked
at the Samaritans as not just dogs, but mangy dogs. They looked at them as wild dogs. Good for nothing but to be killed. That's all they were worth to
the Jews. So they would travel all the
way around the long way in order to avoid those people. They hated
them. Yet Jesus didn't go the way of
the religious rulers. He went the more direct route
through Samaria. And in verse 4, the Holy Spirit
reveals to us the reason. the reason he went the direct
route. Notice this, and he must of necessity, he must needs go through Samaria. Jesus was determined to go this
way. Because this was the decree of
God that he go this way. That's why he must have went
this way. Because it was of the sovereign
decree of God. Now, when I say God is sovereign,
what do I mean? What does that mean when it says
God is sovereign? This means that God rules over
all things. Circle it, underline that word
all. God rules over all things. This is the most inclusive all
that I can possibly say. He rules over everything without
exception. He rules. There is not anything
that ever happened or ever will happen that was not determined
and decreed by the Almighty God from all eternity past. Everything is under the sovereign,
direct control of God Almighty. Understand this, that there is
no middle ground here. Either God is sovereign or there
is no God. That's it. Either God is sovereign or there
is no God. All things were in eternity decreed
and appointed by God. Go to Acts chapter 4. We'll read a couple passages
together. Acts chapter 4, verse 24. After Peter and John had come
back reporting to the church, they began to pray. Acts chapter
4, verse 24. And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord,
Thou art God. which has made the heaven, and
the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them is, who by the
mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why doth the heathen rage,
and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and
against his Christ, were of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast appointed, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate and
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do what? For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. This was not by accident they
crucified the Lord of glory. They did exactly what they wanted
to do. They were responsible for their
sin, yet God was ruling over all things. He determined that
this is the way it should be. He determined it. In Isaiah chapter 46, in verse
9, this is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. He says,
Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there
is none else. I am God, and there is none like
Me." Listen to this, declaring the end at the beginning. Declaring
the end from the beginning. From the beginning, God declared
the end. And everything in between. I'm God, and there's no one else.
Everything that has been done and is being done is according
to the will of God Known unto God are all his works when from
the beginning from the beginning Are you taken by surprise? Because
I am all the time When I go when I think everything's going left,
it's going right whenever think everything's going right is going
left It just always that way God is never surprised because
He determined to do all things that are done. All things that
are done. This was the knowledge given
to Nebuchadnezzar when he was set out there for seven years
as a beast, and God opened his understanding, and he said that
the Lord is God, that His dominion is forever, from generation to
generation. You know, God was ruling over
this world before we got here, and He'll rule over this world
long after we're gone. God rules all things. God is
sovereign over all things from generation to generation. The
inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing. I like this illustration. It's
good. You and I are zero. What happens if you add zeros
to that? You add a million zeros to zero,
you still get what? Zero. The only thing makes zero of
any value if you put a one in front of it. God's the one. Christ is the one. We have no
value in and of ourselves. We are counted as nothing. And
He doth according to His will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or
say unto Him, What doest Thou? That's what I mean by God is
sovereign. God is sovereign, does whatsoever
He pleases. And we who know God know that
He is sovereign, that He rules over all things, all people,
all events, according to His eternal decrees, and nothing
can prevent Him from doing His will. We know with God all things
are possible. Is that not right? All things
are possible. Now, God being almighty, being
all powerful, does that mean God will do all that He can? Can God alleviate hunger in this
world? Can He do that? Yes. We know He can. But we know this
also that He will not alleviate hunger in this world. How do
we know? Because He hasn't done it. If
He willed to do it, it would be done. God has not willed it
so. A lot of people think that God's
will is something that's changeable, something that's mutable. No. God's will is immutable, it's
unchangeable, and if God determined to do something, He will do it. The reason we have life and breath
this morning is because God willed it so. That's it. If we have food, it's because
God decreed it. Does this mean that men ought
to be lazy? How do we know that men ought
not to be lazy? God has given us his revealed
will. His revealed will. Paul said, if they don't work,
they don't eat. Is that not plain enough? You don't work, you don't
eat. It doesn't give us any excuse
for laziness, But we recognize that all the strength of our
labor and all the profit or failure of our labor is in the hands
of God, is it not? You work hard, you do the best
you can, but we know this, the outcome of that is God's business,
whether it makes it profit or makes it fail. It's in God's
hand. Now, we can never know the secret
will of God. This belongs only to God, but
we have His revealed will. The Word of God is the revelation
of God's will, and it will not contradict His secret will. I
don't know what's going to happen today. Do you? I don't. I don't know if He'll come back
today or not. I don't know what he'll do as
far as his secret will is concerned. What I do know is what he has
revealed by his word, and that belongs to us. That belongs to
us. Therefore, this history that
we have here when the Lord Jesus Christ said, when the gospel
of the Holy Spirit said that Jesus must, needs, go through
Samaria. How do I know He needed to go
there? Because the Spirit of God sent Him there. Because He
revealed it to us by His Word. This is the sovereign will of
God. Why is this here? Well, this is to reveal to us
the necessity of God to save His people from their sins. This
reveals to us the necessity of God to save His people. First of all, Jesus needs to
go through Samaria because God decreed Him to go there. The Lord Jesus Christ was decreed
of God to be the Savior of His people. God was willing. God was willing
to show the heirs of promise, the unchangeableness of His counsel. He was willing to show not everyone. Now some of you don't have any
idea what this is about because God has not revealed it to you.
But we who know this, God was willing to show this to us. And He was willing from eternity
to show this to us. That His eternal decrees, He
confirmed it with an oath. He swore to His elect on the
grounds of His own name. that He would save His people
by a Mediator, by His Son Jesus Christ. This is the will of God. This is the sovereign will of
God, that Jesus Christ should come to save His people from
their sins. This is the will of God that
cannot be moved. It cannot be changed. It is the
sovereign will of God, and it is revealed. Therefore, God did
of His own sovereign volition bind His own self to save you. God, who was obligated to none,
obligated Himself to save you. Bound His own self. Swore by
His own name. that He would save His people. I tell you, Jesus needed to go
through Samaria. There were people there that
He must save. Therefore, God in His own sovereign
will bound Himself to send His Son to be the representative
of His people. This is why Jesus must have come
into the world. There was no other way. There
was no other way. Why? God purposed it to be no
other way. There was no other way for God
to get all the glory but this way. And God said, I will have
all the glory and this is the way that I'll save sinners. There's
no other way. Isn't that amazing that in all
the world there's no other way? Everybody always is saying, well
there must be another way. Nope. No other way. Don't men
hate that? Well, you can't have everything.
You can't have all the truth there. He's the only way. God said He's the only way. God
determined it. Second, He must needs go through
there according to the immutable will of God because He must be
made a man. This was God's will, that the
Son of God not only come into the world, but that He should
be made flesh. Look what happened when the Lord
journeyed, verse 6. Now as he went that way, he must
needs go through that way by the will of God. Now Jacob's
well was there, Jesus therefore, look at this, being wearied. You mean Jesus was tired? You
bet. He was a man. He was a man. He was God, yes. God who sustained all things.
Jesus Christ even claimed, He said, the Son of Man came down
from heaven, which is in heaven. He was in heaven even while He
was here. He was God! But yet He was man. He was wearied. He became weary. The elect of
God must need a man to represent us. You had a man represent you. You and I had a man represent
us. His name was Adam. He was your father and he was
my father. And he failed. He was the best that man could
offer. He was the best of us and yet
he failed. And we died in him. We were born
dead in sin because of our Father Adam that represented all of
us. Therefore, we need a man to represent
us to bring righteousness. We had a man represent us that
brought sin. We need a man to represent us
to bring righteousness because we can't bring it. You can't
provide it. We need someone to represent
us. Jesus. necessarily needed to be our
representative. Because God, in his own sovereign
will, chose that Christ be our representative. He must needs
give us righteousness, restore righteousness. He must reconcile
us to God. We could not reconcile ourselves
to God. You could plead with God, you
can cry a river of tears, and that would never reconcile you
with God. You can repent and repent and
repent, and your repentance would get you nowhere. You needed a
representative. Jesus Christ came into this world
to be our representative so that He should taste death for every
one of us who believe. He should taste death for every
man and make our salvation perfect through His suffering. He must
have done it. There was no way around it. This
must have happened. Behold God The God-man, Jesus
Christ, is the only mediator between you and God. This is
the gospel, that Jesus must, needs, accomplish our salvation. He must finish the work. He must
do it. He must provide righteousness
by His obedience and faith, and He must satisfy the justice of
God in our stead by dying for our sins. There was no other
way. Do you suppose if there was another
way that God would have done it? God sent His only Son, who was
more precious than any one of us. so that He might redeem us, that
He might satisfy the justice of God in our stead. And just
as God had determined from eternity, even so Jesus Christ did come
and accomplish all our salvation. All of it! Is that not amazing? He must do it, because God determined
to do it, and He did it. Who shall stay His hand, or say
unto Him what doeth? Was there any possibility that
Jesus would have failed? Nope. Nope. He must do it, and
He did it. He must do it, and He did it.
He was decreed to be the Savior of the elect. He saved the elect,
and He will lose none of the elect. He is a victorious Savior. Three, Jesus must meet all the
elect. He must needs go through Samaria.
He must needs be weary. He must needs stop at this well
because he had one of his people to meet. He had to meet one of
his elect. Verse 7 in your text. There cometh
a woman of Samaria to draw water. This is why Jesus must needs
of necessity go through Samaria, one of His chosen He must meet
there, one of His redeemed to give life and faith. Behold the
surety of this truth. The rock solid confidence we
have of this that Jesus Christ will meet with His people. He
will come. He will preach the gospel to
them. He will save them. There is no
way for Him to miss it because He needs to do it. He must do
it because it is the sovereign will of God that He do it. Just like this woman We were lost. You who believe, you can identify
with this. We were ignorant of God's salvation. We were religious, superstitious,
and bound to our sin and lust. This woman came out to get water.
Now she didn't have any other reason to go. She didn't go out
that day saying, yep, today's the day. Today's the day. I'm going to be saved today.
Yes, today. No, she had no idea what was
going to happen. She just went out for water.
She thought she'd go out and get some water. She thought she'd
come back. She thought she'd continue living in her sin. She
didn't have any idea what was going to happen. Jesus knew because
He must meet her. He must meet her. She never would
have sought Him had He not necessary, of necessity sought her. We would have never sought Him
had He not sought us first. This was her time of love. And
it could not be missed. Could not be missed. Next, Jesus
needs to preach the gospel. Look at this. In verse 7, he
starts out by preaching something very simple. He says, give me
a drink of water. Is that not simple? He was thirsty,
he needed some water. And she said, how in the world
is it that you ask anything of me? Oh, don't you think of us
as dogs. You're a Jew. How in the world
could you even ask me to draw water for you? Wouldn't that
contaminate it? She was being sarcastic. I imagine she hated
them just as much as they hated her. But notice the kindness of the
Lord. He said, if thou knewest the
gift of God. She didn't have any idea what the gift of God
was. He said, If thou knewest the
gift of God, and you knew who it was that's asking you for
this water, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water. You think she understood any
of that? She didn't understand a word He said. He said, Where's
your bucket? If you're going to give me this
living water, where's your bucket? And who are you to talk about
you being better? Are you better than Jacob that
gave us this well? She had no idea who he was. Of
course he was better than Jacob. He was Jacob's God. He wasn't talking about physical
water. He was talking about something
much sweeter and she had no idea. How many times did you hear the
gospel and have no idea what that preacher was talking about?
To the believer, that sounds good. Could I not just stop there
and preach that? Could I not just stop there and
preach that? Yes. And it would be sweet to
you, because you know Him. You know who He is. You know
something about that living water. You have it. But if you don't
have any idea who He is, you're not going to understand, just
like she didn't. She didn't understand. And so Jesus continues preaching
to her, and He shows her the vanity of natural things. Look at that. Jesus said in verse 13, He said, Whoso 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 unto everlasting life. The gospel teaches us the vanity
of life, doesn't it? The vanity of this world. Have
you found satisfaction in this world? Have you found the lust
and all the things that you desire? Have you found a pleasing? I
find them empty, hollow, nothing. I find no comfort in them. I
find, I love my family, but I tell you this, they disappoint me
and I disappoint them. I'm not gonna find any joy there.
Is there any lasting joy? I need something greater than
anything in this world's got to offer. All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Say it to the preacher. There
is nothing here that is lasting, nothing that can satisfy. Jesus
is telling her that the only thing that can satisfy you is
that thing that I can give you. Life. Salvation. Forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins. the glory of God. That's what
I can give you." Well, did she understand that?
No. She said, give me that water!
Where's that water? I want that water! Jesus wasn't
talking about a physical water. She still was holding on to some
idea of physical things. This woman needed to be exposed. And that's what the Lord does
next. He said, go call thy husband, I'll give you this water. She
said, I have no husband. He said, that's right, you've
got five. I tell you what, that's got to
be a bad wife, to go through five husbands. Maybe she had five bad husbands,
I don't know, but she went through them. And the one she's got now
wasn't even her husband. She didn't want to get married
again. This woman was a whorish woman.
This woman. That's why she had to go out
there at noon because she was ashamed. She couldn't go out
there. She wasn't allowed to go out
in the morning with the women to get water. She had to go out at noon. And notice what she does. when
she's exposed. She does what all people do when
they're exposed to their sin. Well, I perceive thou to profit.
Now let me talk to you about some spiritual things that I
know. They run to religion. When a man is exposed to sin,
he runs to what he thinks he knows. Well, I'm not as bad as
this person, so, you know, I'm not perfect, but yet No, you're
not perfect. Matter of fact, you have no perfection
whatsoever. You're unrighteous. You're unholy.
You are a sinner. People run to the fig leaf of
their religion and their knowledge, but Jesus removes this as well. He says, you don't know what
in the world you worship. He just tells you the truth. You
don't have any idea what you worship. Now the salvation is
of the Jews, but there's coming a day, and now is, when that's
going away. May the worshiped God much worship
Him in spirit and in truth. In other words, He shut her mouth
to what she knew. Jesus must shut our mouths. If He is ever going to save any
one of us, He of necessity must shut us up to see our need. If you're not a sinner, you don't
need a Savior. You must be a sinner to need
a Savior. And I'm not talking a partial
sinner. You must be a complete sinner in order to have a complete Savior.
Jesus must open our eyes to our ignorance, to our depravity. And lastly, Jesus must reveal
himself. This woman, she comes and she
gets to the end of what Jesus said, still having no idea, still
blind, still ignorant, And she says, well, when Messiah comes,
you know, then, then all this will be explained. And you know,
uh, if what you said is true, that'll be right. And if what
I say is true, that'll be right. When Messiah comes, Jesus said,
I'm the Messiah. Oh, Oh, you're him. He must reveal Himself. Do you understand how helpless
we are? That if He does not reveal Himself,
we will never know salvation? He must reveal Himself to you. This takes a great burden off
of me because I cannot reveal Him to you. I can tell you the
gospel I just did. He is the gospel. He is everything. Believe Him. Trust Him. And He'll
give you the living water. He'll give you life. He'll give
you faith. He'll give you His salvation.
Trust Him. But you won't trust Him until
He reveals Himself to you. And when you trust Him, When
you trust Him, it's because He revealed Himself to you. Jesus must reveal Himself. He
must show Himself to His people. And when He reveals Himself,
He will and must rejoice. Could Jesus Christ rejoice if
one of His sheep were lost? No. When His disciples come back,
they wonder what's going on, and gee, they ask Him to eat
some meat. In verse 32, He said, I have meat to eat that you know
not of. In other words, He was hungry,
physically. But in spirit, Jesus Christ was
rejoicing, because He had brought home His child. God must be glorified. Therefore, all of God's elect
must come to Christ. And He must rejoice over them. One of my favorite passages is,
The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee. He will He will save. He will rejoice. Now I can see myself having a
need to rejoice in Him. But I tell you, it boggles my
mind to realize that He must rejoice in saving me. God decreed it. Christ accomplished
it. The Spirit will call and His
people will come. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. And I ask you, if you have not
come, why? If you don't come to Christ because
you love your sin, more than Him. The only hope for you is that
He reveal Himself and you'll leave your water pot too. She
left that water pot, she left everything there and she ran
away from it. And I'll tell you what, when
Christ reveals Himself to you, you'll drop everything in this
world and you'll run to Him. You won't need me to tell you.
You won't need me to counsel you. You'll run to Him and He
will save you. That's what I found. Have you
not found that? Yeah. May God bless this to your
heart. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.