Okay, let's turn back to John
chapter 4. John chapter 4 up to verse 30
is the story of the woman at the well. And I love that story. And the Lord was by Himself with
this woman because the disciples were gone to buy food. And when they came back, verse 27
says, they marveled that He talked with this woman because she was
a Samaritan. And we looked at the fact that
the Samaritans were the enemy. the enemy of the Jews. They would
not go through Samaria. They went the long way around.
Nothing to do. When the Lord called His apostles,
He said, you go everywhere, but don't go into Samaria. The enemy. They had built a rival temple
with Jerusalem. And this woman was an adulteress. And they marveled that he talked
with this woman, but nobody asked him any questions about it. Nobody
questioned what he was doing. And then they watched him reveal
himself to her. They're just standing there watching
him, not saying a word like wise men should. And they saw conversion take place. And then they watched her run
away to tell people about Christ and what He'd done for her. Now
while she was gone, before the people of Samaria came to Him,
this conversation from verse 31 to verse 38 takes place between
the Lord and His disciples. Verse 31 says, In the meanwhile
His disciples prayed Him, saying, Master, eat. They knew He was weary and hungry
when they left Him at this well a few hours ago. Look at verse
6, John chapter 4 verse 6. It says, 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. Verse 8
says, For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy
meat. And they had food now. They had
come back, and they had food now. Verse 31 says, In the meanwhile
his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But He said unto them, I have
meat to eat that you know not of. He said, I have food to eat
that you don't know about. He had been feeding on this food
the whole time they were gone. Now I thought about this. I know
that we are mortal and He was immortal. But turn over to Matthew
chapter 6 with me. This is what our Lord told us
in Matthew 6, look at verse 31. Therefore, take no thought saying,
what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you. When I am weak, The first thing I need to do
is call on my Lord. That's the first thing I need
to do. When I'm hungry, the first thing
I need to do is call on my Lord. Everything comes from His hand. Every single thing comes from
His hand. My strength comes from Him. My fullness comes from Him. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every
time I got a hunger pain, my mind would tell my heart, we
need to feed on Christ. Just a reminder, we need to feed
on Christ. Spiritual food. Well, our text
back in John chapter 4 verse 32, he said unto them, I have
meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples
one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? They only understood what he
said literally. He made a statement there. And
they only understood what he said literally. And until the Lord revealed it,
they tried, but they could not see. They just could not see
what he was talking about. Spiritually. Look at verse 24. It says, God is a spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth, spiritually and physically, literally. So verse 33 says, Therefore said
the 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. Now you would think they would
know this by now, wouldn't you? You'd think they'd know this
by now. But our Lord is so sweet to them, He didn't rebuke them
for their ignorance. He never did. He was patient
with them and He explained it to them. And as I see that, I
pray the Lord would teach me to be more like Him. You know what I mean? Turn with
me over to Psalm 103. Psalm 103 verse 13 says, Man,
isn't that comforting? As we sit here, you know, it's
nighttime. I don't care what we've been
doing. We're tired, right? We're weak. We're hungry, but
we're weak. The flesh is weak. And there's
so many things that we've heard over and over, and you'd think
we'd know them by now. He remembers our friend. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, for he knoweth our frame, and he remembereth that
we're dust." Just dust. Well, back in our text, in John
4, verse 34, our Lord said, my meat, what
is filling me? What is satisfying to me is to
do the will of Him that sent me. That's my meat. To do the
will of Him that sent me. Look at chapter 5 verse 30. He said, I can of mine own self
do nothing. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment
is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me." Look at chapter 6, verse 38. He said, "...for I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that
sent me." That's the whole reason I came. That's my joy and it's
my delight. And my desire is that the Lord
would make that the same for me. That's my desire. It really is. That my joy and
my delight would be to do His will. That would be my me. That
would be what satisfies me, what fills me. Well back to John 4
verse 34, Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of
him that sent me and to finish his work. I will not be satisfied
until I finish his work. And that work is the whole reason
we meet. It's the whole reason we meet. May my ears never grow
dull of hearing about his work. Never, never. He said he delights to do this
work. He did it for the joy set before
him. Look at chapter 17, John chapter 17, verse four. Our Lord told His Father, I have
glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest me to do. I finished that work. Satisfied. Satisfied. Well, it says in John 4 verse
35, Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then comest
harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already
to harvest. Now, I have always wondered why
there are certain places in the Word when the Lord gives a parable,
why He puts a story right in the middle of a story. Sometimes
I look at it, and whenever we were looking at the woman at
the well last Sunday, we went from verse 1 to verse
30, and then we skipped verses 31 through 38, and we picked
it back up at verse 39, and we went to verse 42, because that's
the end of the story. And I've always wondered, why
did the Lord put us break in the story. He didn't. He didn't. We have this preacher's
class and Brother Todd said one time that preaching is standing
up and telling men what you've just learned. The Lord just showed
me something. He didn't. There's no break in
the story. This is my favorite part, okay?
All right, now we've already said this all took place after
the woman at the well ran back into the city, right? Look at
verse 28. The woman then left her water
pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, Come
see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this
the Christ? Our Lord tells His disciples in verse 35, lift up your eyes. Now they're standing in Samaria,
enemy territory. Okay? And the Lord is telling
them, y'all lift up your eyes over there on that field right
over there. And you know what's happening at that moment in time?
Here come the Samaritans. That woman had run into the city
going, come see a man. He's at the well right now. He's
sitting there right now. If you wait, you're going to
miss him. He'll leave. He's there right now. He told
me everything about myself. Is not this the Christ? And he says, Say not ye, there
are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say
unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields. They
are white already to harvest. Look right over there. Verse
30 says, After she said, Is not this the Christ? Then they went
out of the city and came unto him. This woman told everybody
she could about the Christ, and here they came. Verse 39, 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. This man knows everything about
me. So 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 own word, and
said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for
we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world. He's telling them, the ones you
thought were your enemies, you hated them. Not only are they not your enemies,
they're your brothers and sisters. Just look right over there. You remember what it was like
when you first started getting a hold of the truth, don't you? It's an emotional thing. It really
is. It's an emotional thing. I pictured
all these Samaritans running out to the well. He's going to
leave. Hurry! Running out to the well, their
hearts crying, Life! Life! Eternal Life! He's going to have us. He's a
Jew! You mean He's going to have me? We don't want to miss him. We
don't want him to leave. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9, look at verse
37. Then saith he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous. That was so encouraging to me.
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. The
harvest is plenteous. Our God is a merciful God. You
know, people ask you, how many people you have over there? Plenty.
Plenty. Our God is a merciful God and
the harvest is plenteous. The text, John chapter 4, verse
35, Say not ye, there are yet four
months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white, all
ready to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. In the Lord's
kingdom, sowers and reapers are all the same. They're all one. Sowers are reapers and reapers
are sowers. Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5
says, Who then is Paul? And who is
Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor, for we are laborers together
with God. You are God's husbandry. You
are God's building. The Lord uses men to do His bidding,
but the work is still the Lord's." It's still the Lord's. It's all
of the Lord. Back in John chapter 4 verse
36, He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto
life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may
rejoice together. And herein is that saying true,
one soweth and another reapeth. That saying was an old saying. It was an old proverb back then. And it was to slander people
who were lazy. You know, one reaps, another
sows. That was just a saying. But our Lord's Kingdom does not
have that attitude. Period. It doesn't exist. Let me illustrate that for you.
Here is the best illustration I know of on planet Earth of
this right here. Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church. If somebody from Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church wanted to confess the Lord in baptism, and they said, you know, Brother
Tom came here all those years, every Sunday, faithful, two hours
here, two hours home. every Sunday. And I first heard
the gospel through Brother Tom. And I'd like for Brother Tom
to baptize me. Don't think for one second that
I would say, now wait a minute, I'm the pastor here. No way. No way. Now the flip side is if a person
says, I want to be baptized and I want Gabe to baptize me. Do
you think Brother Tom is going to say, now wait a minute, I
drove down there for five years every single Sunday. No way. If God converts a sinner in Kingsport,
Tennessee, and they confess their master, their Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, what Brother Tom and I are going to do is we're
going to hug. We're going to hug each other
and we're going to thank our God for great mercy. In our text, our Lord says people
say that around here all the time. But he says in verse 37,
herein is that saying true. One soweth, and another reapeth. I can just tell you, Brother
Tom sowed, and Brother Tom sowed, and Brother Tom sowed the seed,
didn't he? And he sowed the seed. And then old Gabe Stoniker walks
in, and look at this, the building and all this, and the people
are... Who is Gabe Stoniker? It's God
that gives the increase. Well he said, herein is that
saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that
whereon you bestowed no labor. Other men labored and you are
entered into their. I thought it would have said
reward, but you know what it says? Labors. Ye are entered into their labors. Here comes the harvest from the
work I did through other men. The Lord went everywhere with
His disciples having them baptized people, didn't He? And here they
come, believe Him, and they were baptized. I know they were. And
He says, now I'm commanding you to go labor. Start, throw, and see. Just start,
throw, and see. Turn with me over to Acts chapter
8, one of my favorite chapters in one of my 66 favorite books. Acts chapter 8. Now remember, all that happened
in Samaria, right? The enemy, Samaria. Acts chapter 8, this is in the
book of Acts after the Lord has already ascended. All that's
over, long gone. Verse 5 says, then Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto it. And
the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For
unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were
possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that
were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that
city." Great joy. Philip reaped what the apostles
sowed. Then the Lord told Philip, it's
time for you to go to work. Start throwing seed. Look at
verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. and he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
and had come to Jerusalem for the worship, was returning and
sitting in his chariot, and he read Isaiah the prophet. Then
the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this
chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture
which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me
to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the
chariot to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord called away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus,
and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came
to Caesarea." He reaped, then he sowed. And he reaped and then he sowed. Back to our text in John chapter
4 verse 39, verse 38, I sent you to reap that whereon you
bestowed no labor, other men labored and you are entered into
their labors. 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 when the Samaritans
were coming to him, they besought him that he would tarry with
them, and he abode there two days. And many more believed
because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe,
not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves,
and know that this is indeed Christ. The Savior of the world. You know what it sounds like
to me? They were persuaded. There's a progression of faith
here. The disciples said, Lord, increase
our faith. They believed the testimony because
they came to see the Lord. They believed what she said and
they came. But after they came to Him and heard His own words
for themselves." Most people come because somebody
told them about Christ. And so they come to where Christ
said He would be, and one day they hear Christ. There's a difference. After they came to Him and heard
His own words for themselves, they believed more fully, more
strongly, they were more settled. And they said, we've heard Him
ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Christ. Faith grows, it really does. The object of faith is Christ. The foundation of our faith is
His Word. That's why we keep coming. That's
why we keep coming. That's why we keep turning. The more of the Word, the stronger
the faith. The more of the Word, the stronger
the faith. Well, He said, lift up your eyes
and look on the fields, they are white already to harvest. Pray the Lord would bring in
the harvest. I really do. All right, let's
stand together.