If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to John, chapter four. John chapter 4, and we'll begin
our reading in verse 3. The Scripture says, And he, Jesus,
left Judah and departed again unto Galilee, and he must needs
go through Samaria. Then came he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near a parcel of ground that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey. Thus sat thus
on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. It was about
noon. And there cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water, and Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. The title of the message this
morning is The Necessity of Divine Providence. the necessity of
divine providence. Here we read, Jesus must needs
of necessity go through Samaria. Now, it was not said that he
must needs go to Galilee, although that was the providence of God,
although that was the providence of God that he should leave Jerusalem
at this particular time and head toward Galilee, but he must needs
go through Samaria for a specific providential reason, and that
is the salvation of one of his people. Not only one of his people,
many of his people. But specifically at this particular
time, at this particular place, he was going for one woman. He must needs go through Samaria. This was because of the eternal
providence and decree of God that was purposed to save his
elect at the appointed time. and everything God purposes,
everything God has planned, everything God has decreed from His throne
from eternity must, needs, come to pass. It must, needs, come
to pass. If there is one thing, and I
mean one thing to the minutest little speck of dust, that moves
outside of the decree of Almighty God, then God ceases to be God. God is absolutely sovereign and
absolutely controls all things by the word of His power. We
saw that this morning in the first message, that He overruled
the desires of men. He overrules all things for His
own purpose, for His own glory. And in providence, He brings
to pass what He has purposed. And He had purposed to save this
woman at the well, this Samaritan woman. And by providence, by
the preaching of the gospel, And by the power of the Holy
Spirit, Christ saved this woman, and He shall save everyone that
God has chosen, everyone that He has redeemed by the blood
on the cross. He will come at the appointed
time. The providence of God will bring
Them together will bring the preacher of the gospel that is
sent, and he will bring the sinner that is in need, and he will
bring them together, and they shall hear the word of God and
believe it." Why? Because God determined before
what should be done. God determined that this was
the way. Believer in Christ, recognize
the surety of this, because this brings peace. This brings peace. You can't look at your circumstances
and find peace. You won't. You will find peace
only in this, that our God does whatsoever He pleases. There's
where you find the peace. Now, that is not peaceful for
this world, but for us who believe it is peaceful. It should be
peaceful. That our God has taken into account
our best interests. And it's doing for us what is
best for us, even though we cannot see it. And wherever we are going,
wherever we are now, we must need to be there. Or we wouldn't. It's of necessity. Providence is necessary. God
who decrees all things. God would be no better than we
are. How many things do we decree a day? How many things do we
decree? I decreed to clean the house
the other day, and that just fell off. I mean, that didn't
even come close. Not my God. When my God decrees
something, it is of necessity that He bring it to pass. This was the will of God that
He needs go through Samaria. And there was this woman that
God the Father purposed to save by His grace. She was one of
Jesus that belonged to Jesus Christ that He was come to redeem.
And now was the appointed time of love for her. Now was the
time that the preacher and the sinner meet. And the preacher in this instance
happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Wow. Wow. Do you suppose that she
woke up this morning, that morning going to get that water and thought
anything would change? She had no idea what God's will
was for her. She had no idea who God was,
and she had no idea that Christ had come. Until now. Until this appointed time. It was time for her birth. It was time that the Spirit should
quicken her, and the divine providence of God is the fulfillment. of
all His sovereign decrees. So when you hear the word providence,
it is nothing more than fulfillment of God's eternal decrees. That's
what providence is. That's what providence is. The
fulfillment of God's decrees. It was decreed that Christ's
needs come into the world. That was the decree from eternity.
That He must needs become a man. so that he might be our representative,
so that he might be our mediator. He must needs become a man. If
salvation come by the law, then why would God send his son to
die? If there was another way, why
would God send his son? He wouldn't. There was no other
way. There is no other way because
God decreed no other way. This was the best way. This was
the perfect way. that his son should become a
man. Why should he condescend to such
a low estate? Here we read of our Lord Jesus
Christ being weary. He was truly a man. Do you not think this was meant
for our comfort? Are you weary? Do you get weary? He's wearisome. This life is weary. Our Savior
understands what it is to be weary. And he was weary, but he came
to this well not for a drink of water, but that he should
give living water, that he should give salvation to his people. He said, Lo, I come, in the volume
of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. And down in verse 10 of that
Hebrews 10, it says, By the witch will, by the will of God, we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. for all. How often are we sanctified? Huh? Who does the sanctifying? God has sanctified us once for
all. He has set aside his people once
for all. Vessels of mercy once for all. by the blood of Christ. Christ
must needs obey the law. He must needs magnify the law
of God as a man. He must needs die on the cross
as a substitute for sinners. He must needs bear the curse
and sin of his people. He must needs die under the wrath
of God. He must needs be buried for three
days in the tomb. He must needs rise again and
sit upon the throne of God as a man. He must needs rule all
things as a man. And he must needs find his lost
sheep. Because this is the will of God. This is the will, the sovereign,
immutable will of God. In John chapter 10, you remember
the verse where Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. And he said,
I know my sheep and my sheep know me. They hear my voice and
they follow me. But he says this in verse 16,
he says, but there are other sheep which are not of this fold.
Them also I might bring if they would just do..." No, that's
not what He said. He said, "...them I also must
bring." Of necessity! He must not lose one, not one,
of His sheep. He must. I'll tell you what,
if you tell God He must do something, that's the only thing you can
say, because God had willed to do it. He willed it. Therefore,
He must. Only God can obligate Himself
to do anything. I can't obligate God to do anything.
The only thing I have is God's Word. And the only thing I have
– oh, better get that – the only thing I have for any comfort,
for any peace, is that God said He would. Therefore, I know He
must, because He is God, and nothing, He says, will ever fail,
will never fail. This woman was one of His lost
sheep, and there was nothing in heaven or in earth Or the
demons of hell and all the rage of Satan could not have stopped
this God-man from going to Samaria to meet this woman. There was
nothing that would have stopped this woman from coming to that
well to meet Him at noon. Matter of fact, He orchestrated
all things so that she would be there at noon. God even used her sin so that
He would meet her there. You see, noon is not the time
that women usually would draw the water. That would be in the
morning. She drew in the evening because
she was an outcast. She drew in the noontime because
she was a woman of ill repute. She was a sinner. And God even used this by divine
providence to meet her at the appointed time. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Listen to me very carefully,
sinners. It is a faithful saying and worthy of your acceptance,
worthy of your faith, worthy to believe that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. Isn't that great? It is if you're a sinner. It's
great. Now, if you're one of the people
who draw early, I don't know. But I know this, he came for
this woman, and he even used her sin to meet her. He was faithful
to meet her there. He came into the world to save
sinners, and he must needs have preached the gospel to her. Now,
when Jesus asked her for a drink, he did it for one purpose, not
to satisfy his body's craving for water, although he was thirsty.
There was no doubt he was weary. There was no doubt he was suffering
physically and needing a drink of water from this woman. But he did not ask this for that
purpose. He asked this for the purpose
of doing the will of God, to preach the gospel. He used this to preach the gospel. The Son of God. was truly humbled
to be of man and had need of this water. There was no doubt.
But rather, he did it to preach the gospel. Look at verse 9,
And the woman of Samaria said, How is it that thou, being a
Jew, askest a drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria? For
the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. And Jesus said
unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith unto me, Give me to drink, you would have asked of him.
And He would have given thee living water." The depravity of man is so great. There was the Son of God sitting
on a well, asking for a drink of water. The reason she didn't dip that
bucket as fast as she possibly could, bowed down to his feet
and offered him a drink of water, is because she had no idea who
he was. She had no idea what he was. The gift of Almighty God to sinners. Have you ever received such a
gift? For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He is
the gift of God. He is the only hope. How many of you hear this message
and still not know who Christ is? How many of you lay dead in your
sins are content to still drink the filthy sewer of your unrighteousness? Make no mistake, if you go out
of here without faith this morning, you, it's because you are content
to live in your sins. Because all you desire is the
water of this world. Jesus said, any man drink of
this water, he'll thirst again. Who does not thirst for the things
of this world? Who by nature does not thirst
after these things of the world? And when we get it, what do we
do? We thirst for more. We thirst for more. Because none
of these things satisfy. And Jesus said, I have come to
give living water. And he that gets this water will
never thirst. Never thirst. The only hope is
to know Jesus Christ, the gift of God. Sinners, you must know
Jesus Christ, who alone can give you living water. Right now, I'm thirsty. So, I'll
drink this. But I'll tell you what, in just
a few minutes, I'm going to need some more. That's not going to satisfy.
Listen to me, what satisfies? Christ satisfies my soul. Because Christ has satisfied
God's justice for me. And He has sent a Spirit
His Spirit inside of me as a well of water. See, I don't have to
go to a physical place. This woman, she thought that
it was all physical for her. All of her answers are carnal.
She says, where are you going to get this water? You don't
even have a bucket. How are you going to give this water? Jesus wasn't talking about physical
water. He was talking about spiritual
water. Friends, in order for Christ
to give us this living water, He must needs of necessity expose
our sin. You see, I drank just a second
ago because I was thirsty. If I wasn't thirsty, I wouldn't
have drank. If you're not thirsty, you're
not going to drink. Now, I can present Christ to
you all day. I can prove Christ to you through
the Scriptures. I can read the Scriptures to
you. I can declare the Word of God unto you. I can tell you
what God says, but I cannot make you drink of the water. I cannot
give it to you. And Christ will not give it to
anyone unless they are thirsty. And so what does He do? He begins
to open the thirst of this woman. Look what he says. He says, give
me this water. She said, give me this water
so I don't have to come over here and draw again. And he said,
go get that husband. Tell him, come here. Well, she
said, I don't have a husband. He said, yeah, you're right,
you don't have a husband. You had five. And the one you're sleeping
with now, the one you are with now is not your husband, you
adulterous woman. He exposed her for what she was,
a whore, an adulterous woman, a sinner. He exposed her to where there
was no hiding place. And if Christ ever gives you
this water to drink, He'll expose you first. This woman was an adulterous
woman, and yet she is no different than any one of us here by nature. Does anyone esteem themselves
higher than this woman? If you do, you have a false sense
of your own unrighteousness. May God this morning even convince
everyone of their sin. Believer, do we not still need
to know the depth of our depravity? Because I haven't found an end
to how wicked I can be. So wicked are we that every thought
is continually evil. It was best put to me this way,
I cannot not sin. Everything I do, sin is mixed. So that I cannot do what I want. I want to obey my God. I want to be righteous. But I know this, sin is mixed
with all I do. And I'll tell you what, I am
so grateful for the refreshing well water. that springs up in
my soul. For His mercies to me are new
every morning. And where do I have to go to
get that? Nowhere. It's in me! It's a well springing. He must give you a thirst for
righteousness. And to have a thirst for righteousness,
you've got to see that you don't have any. Have you seen that? Do you know that? Verse 19, And the woman said
to him, I perceive thou art a prophet. Oh, much more than you perceive. Much more than a prophet. He's
that prophet. He's that prophet. Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain, you say in Jerusalem. But this
is a place, we say in the mountain and you say in Jerusalem, men
ought to worship. Isn't this always the case when you have
someone that God is convicting of their sin, then they start
trying to get religious on you. They start trying to throw Religion
in the mix. Why? They want to ease their
conscience in some way. They've got to quell this conscience.
They've got to somehow hide in the obscurity of religion. Religion is very obscure, isn't
it? It's vague. There's no real, definite truth
in religion. It's kind of gray. It's like mud. You know, when
you step in mud, you see how it just kind of swooshes away? There's no firm foundation in
mud, is there? And so, when a sinner is convicted
of his sin, he begins to move around and try to find some wiggle
room. And she's trying to do that.
She's trying to obscure her sin. She says, well, you guys say
in Jerusalem, we say in this mountain. Oh, but our Lord, He's so patient,
isn't He? Jesus said in Her, Believe Me. Believe Me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the
Father. And He said, Of a truth you don't know what you worship.
And the Jews, they do know. Now, I'll tell you this. People
who have been raised under the Gospel, you know who I worship. You know who we worship. Mentally,
you can assent to it. In other words, I've heard that
some of your children and some of the people that you know,
they have heard this message all their life. And then when
they go to someplace else, they at least know that that's not
it. They at least know there's a difference. The Jews knew there
was a difference between them and the Samaritans because they
knew salvation was to come of the Jews. Christ was to come
of the Jews. Jesus tells them that. But the
hour cometh and now is when true worshipers, and you can have
all the head knowledge you want, but 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. How many people do you
see worshiping in a spirit? Oh my goodness, they're falling
all over the place. They're so emotional. They're
so passionate. They're so real. They just weep
at the drop of a hat at everything. And then they're just so spiritual. They look so spiritual, don't
they? But what are they missing? Truth. Truth. And then you see people
worshipping with truth. But no spirit. No affection. It's just a dry doctrine. It's
just words on a page. They assent in their mind to
believe. Yes, I believe Calvinism. And then they sit there sternly
with no affection, no emotion, and in no love for Christ. Just
an assent. They go to church like they go
to the dentist. Because they have to. Because that's the truth. I go
to this church because that's the truth. I don't go here because
I love it. I go here because it's just the
truth. And I can't deny it. That worship just is about as
worthless as the other. They that worship God must worship
Him with affection and truth. I truly love Him. Because I truly know Him. You can't love Him if you don't
know Him. And friends, you can't worship
Him if He does not reveal Himself to you. You won't have any love
for this message unless He reveals Himself. And the woman said in verse 25,
I know when Messiah has come, which is called Christ, He shall
tell us all things. And what does Christ do? He says,
Here I am. I am. How many times have men whose
sins have been exposed tried to hide? And to tell you the
truth, if your sins are exposed and you can hide, your sins have
not been exposed by the Spirit of God. It's only by the Spirit
of God we cannot hide. We cannot hide. It's only then that we find our
opinion don't matter one hill of beans. Nothing. It amounts to nothing. My opinion
about this really don't count. You know that? It's only what
God says. It only matters if you know Christ. Jesus told this woman the truth
concerning Himself. He said, I am the Christ. Worship must come from the heart.
And the only way it comes from the heart is if God gives you
a new one. Because your old one just ain't any good. It's not going to do it. You can be as emotional as you
want to be. And sometimes I am emotional
about things that I care about. You should be emotional about
things you care about. There's nothing wrong with emotion.
There's nothing wrong with affection. But it must be affection with
truth. Otherwise, God will not be worshipped. And in order to
know truth, you must know who Christ is. He must reveal Himself.
Has He revealed Himself to you? The God of heaven revealed Himself
to you. Has He revealed your need? In Revelation it says, He showed
me a pure river of living water, the water of life, clear as crystal
proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in verse
17 it says, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let
him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. Anybody thirsty. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled with what? Food? No. Water? No. Righteousness? That's what
we hunger after. That's what we thirst for. To
be found in His righteousness. Which is eternal life. I'm so thankful for that well
that cleanses my conscience daily. Do you have need of cleansing
of your conscience? Is it defiled? Well, that Word
of Life springs up in us constantly and cleanses us. And lastly,
see the result then of this saving providence of God. The necessary
result of this. Because this happens to everyone
who Christ exposes. Christ comes to and preaches
the gospel and they hear it. And they're exposed. And then
they know Him to be the Christ. And this is what we all do. We
leave our water pots. She didn't care anymore about
what she came to that well for. She had no more interest in that
water. Why? She had living water. She believed that He that spoke
to her was the Christ. And she left all. And what did
she do? She witnessed. This is the result of true saving
faith. That well of water that springs
up in us cannot help but flow out of us. I've told you the
story many times, but it's still wonderful and applicable. The
woman that was saved under the preaching of Ralph Barnard, She went up to him after the
service and she said, Brother Ralph, the Lord saved me. What
do I do? And he said, Don't worry about
it, sweetheart, it'll get out on you. It'll get out on you. Don't worry
about it. It'll get if God truly saved you, it will. You won't
have to worry about that. It flows from God's people. Why? Because it's all our life. It's our affection. It's what
we live for. It's what we're waiting to die
for. This woman left all and she went
and witnessed. Why? Because she must need to
witness. Because she was not the only
one that He would save. There were others. I like what Jesus told His disciples.
He said, you say four months of harvest is coming. He said,
lift up your eyes and see that the harvest is white already.
White in the harvest! Ready to be harvested! May God give us grace just to
lift up our eyes and look around us. How many people around us need
salvation? This woman realized that when
she went back to her home, that these people had need of salvation. And she witnessed. What did she
witness? Come and sing. Isn't that what
the disciples said? Was it Nathanael and Philip? He said, I don't know. Come and see. Can anything good
come out of Jerusalem? I don't know. Come and see! Come and
see for yourselves. Stop. May God, by His grace,
give us the compassion to stop worrying about our own concerns
and look around. Has not Christ taken care of
all of our concerns? Then we should care about the
other. Because they have no hope. She didn't keep the message back.
And friends, God blessed the message. Didn't He? He blessed
her message. Now, I'm speaking to you this
morning and you hear me. But I'll tell you this, when you
believe on Christ, you won't hear me. You won't believe because
you heard me. Linda, you all talk about Brother
Scott. I've heard Brother Scott preach
just a handful of times in my life when I was about Andrew's
age, when I heard him preach. I'll tell you this, you were
not saved because you heard Scott. You were saved because you heard
Christ. If you're going to be saved today,
it's not because you hear me. You're not going to give any
glory to me. You'll give glory to Christ. You'll hear His voice
and He'll save you. Is that not great? Do you need that? I do. I do. He gives it to me. He'll give it
to you. Come to hear His voice. Say,
well, I haven't heard his voice. Don't stop coming till you do. Come as you really are. Don't
come pretending to be someone because you're just as worthless
as I am. You put a whole bunch of zeros
together, what do you got? Zero. We got a whole bunch of
zeros here. But you put a one in front of
a bunch of zeros and you got something. And Christ is the
one. Christ is the one. He's the only
one that counts. Come as you are and believe and
He will save you. Yes, even you. Even you, John. Even you. Even me. In all my... Great is the providence of God. Is that your experience? That's still my experience. Every day, the providence of
God leads me to good things. Standing here this morning, I
feel pretty good this morning. Providence of God. That's good
for me. My brother Rick is lying in the
hospital. You know what? That's good for him. And tomorrow, I lie in the morgue. That's good for me. And it'll be good for you who
believe. Do I understand that? Absolutely
not. I believe and love it. Do you believe and love it? Then
we've just worshipped God. We've just worshipped God. And
God accepted it. Isn't that great that God accepts
our worship? How weak and frail it is? How
full of sin it is? And yet He still says it's perfect
because of My Son. Come, worship Me. I made you
perfect. I'll bring you home. He said it. Will He not do it? He must needs do it. Praise God. May God bless this
to your heart this morning. The stand will be dismissed in
prayer.