So if we would, before we get
started, turn back to Genesis 32. And I want to read verses
24 through 30. In the 10 o'clock service, we've
been going through Genesis and looking at John 4 and what John,
our preacher, has said. This is one of the things I wanted
to read again. But in verse 24, and this was
when Jacob was preparing to meet Esau. And Jacob was left alone,
and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the
day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his thigh. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh
was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me
go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is
thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
thou shalt be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?
And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of
the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my
life is preserved." In John Chapman, In the bulletin, he wrote not
long ago that in Genesis, Jacob was left
alone with God and never is a sinner in better company than when he
or she is alone with God. But I doubt that Jacob at the
time knew that, but it's still true. And it's never more true
than in salvation of a sinner. even though we don't know it,
even though it's not pleasant to us or good to us in our natural
terms. And John 4, I know he said last
week, don't go read commentary and that's exactly what I did.
And there's a lot of it. And it could fill volumes and
you could preach hundreds of sermons on what John 4 says. But here in John 4 with this
woman, just like every sinner we see is left alone, is alone
with God. And this is the same whether
you look at Paul, who was knocked off his horse and taken to the
third heaven and told things that is unlawful for men to say.
It's the same with Jonah, who was swallowed by the fish for
three days. I mean, you couldn't be more alone than that. And there's example after example. Joe, I mean, for years. But there's another person in
particular that illustrates this as well. If you would turn to
Daniel 4. And this is King Nebuchadnezzar. And being left alone with God,
just like the woman here, this Samaritan woman. Here's the king. This is not
a Samaritan woman, this is a king. And in verse 30, what he does
is he says, I have built all things myself. for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of
my majesty." And if you look down in verse 33, the same hour
was this thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven
from men, he was completely separated. And he did eat grass as oxen,
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs
were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.
And he was separated by Christ. And I don't know if you would
ask Nebuchadnezzar if he thought this was good, but it was good
for him. And this is how every sinner
that sees Christ comes to Christ. And every time we see, there's
always a but with Christ, there's always a nevertheless with Christ,
there's always patience and long-suffering with His people when it comes
to salvation. In Lamentations, He says, but
though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according
to the multitude of His mercies. And if you look in verse 34, And at the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned
unto me. And I bless the Most High, and
I praise and honor Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an
everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to
generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and He doeth according to His
will. in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand. Or say to him, what doest
thou?" And in that same bulletin, Henry
Mahan, I think John quoted Henry Mahan who quoted somebody else,
I don't know who it came from, but he said, I'm never less alone
than when I'm alone. For then I can enjoy the presence
of the Lord mostly, fully and sweetly without interruption."
And we see that with Nebuchadnezzar. And so it is with this woman
in John chapter 4. And if you turn back to John
chapter 4, starting in verse 4, and it says
he must need to go through Samaria. Samaria was a country that Christ
himself had told his disciples, do not go to. He told his disciples, he commanded
them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles, because
that's what Samaria was at the time, and into any city of the
Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. But Christ must needs go through
Samaria. This is what He told His disciples.
But He went to finish the work of Him that sent Him. And to
this woman, that effectual calling where He was coming to see her
was taking place right now. And Him going through Samaria
that day had from all eternity been appointed to Christ calling
that woman to Himself. And all these things are arranged
by His wisdom and the infinite purposes of Him and Christ's
people according to His will. And with Christ, as we see here,
nothing ever happens by chance or coincidence. It's not luck.
It's not, oh, you just happen to be there at the right time.
And nothing, especially the sinners, especially His people, ever takes
Him by surprise. You know, in verse 4 it says,
He must needs go through Samaria. I mean, that means Christ needs
something. And God, as our covenant Head,
needs absolutely nothing at all. He has reconciled everything
to Himself in Christ. Everything. But Christ, who came into this
world to save sinners, and He must needs go through Samaria.
And it's like, I think John said a couple weeks ago, and I'd really
never heard this, but he said that predestination puts salvation
in the right hands. I mean, I think if you look at
Nebuchadnezzar and told him that salvation was living in seven
years with hair growing like feathers and his nails growing
like eagle's claw, I think he would have said, you can have
it. He would have said, I want nothing to do with it. But all things that are appointed
by Christ, especially in the salvation of His people, He does
exactly what He wants to, according to the counsel of His own will. And even in Matthew, we've read
recently the things that Christ needs. You know, in chapter 16,
that from the time forth began to show Jesus showing his disciples
how he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and
raised again the third day. And if you remember, that's when
Peter said, man, that's not going to happen. I'm not going to let
it. And probably the strongest rebuke that was ever said, if
you remember, he said, get thee behind me, Satan. He said that
to Peter. And that's a very strong rebuke.
Christ said the same thing to Satan himself when he was being
tempted in the wilderness. He said, get thee behind me,
Satan. And he said, because it is written, thou shalt serve
and worship the Lord alone, and that is it. And even this rebuke
in Peter, I mean, that's a mercy. I pray that if that is ever me,
that Christ rebuke me the same way. And in verse 5, he comes to a
city in Samaria which is called Sychar, near the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to Joseph. And Sychar is this just nowhere
place. I mean, if y'all ever wonder
why is there a church in Spring Lake? Why is there a church in
Cottageville, West Virginia? Why is there a church in Ashland? Because he has said that's so. In Samaria, these are Gentiles.
If you know anything about the Samaritans, they didn't like
anything about the Jews, and it was pretty much a mutual thing.
The Jews didn't like them, they didn't like the Jews. And even
Christ told His disciples not to go there and preach. But He
is our High Priest, and He will go wherever He needs to. And
for this woman, He must need to go through Samaria. And in verse 6, it says, now
Jacob's well was there. And if you notice, there's a
lot of wells that were named, and here's Jacob's well. And
we've gone through and seen who Jacob is. Jacob is a conniver,
a liar, a supplanter, a deceiver. Honestly, somebody I probably
can relate to more than anybody in the Bible. It's not the well
of Joseph. It's the well of a sinner. But
here Christ is that well. He says Jacob's well was there. And I remember one preacher saying
that, he said, hallelujah, amen, yes he was. And every time there
is a sinner that meets Christ, Jacob's well is there. And he
being the well of Jacob, to all sinners will be there in that
time of need. So in verse seven it says, Not
by luck or chance, not by coincidence, but there comes a woman from
Samaria to draw water. And if you notice here, Jesus
begins this conversation. He says unto her, give me to
drink. She wasn't looking for him, but he was. And I don't
know if y'all remember, and when I was thinking about this, I
don't know if y'all remember, in Forrest Gump. When Lieutenant
Dan says to Forrest Gump, he says, have you found Jesus yet,
Gump? And Forrest Gump says, you know,
I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir. And
that's like every one of us, like every sinner. If you're
not lost, you don't need to be found. If you're not dead, you
don't need to be made alive. So why would we look for something
that we don't need? And it's just the same as this
woman here. And he begins the conversation, he says, give me
to drink. I mean, he was the God man. He was all God and all
man, so he was thirsty. But he knew exactly where this
woman was, exactly what she was thinking. And he begins the conversation
and he knows exactly which direction this conversation is going to
go. He had a physical thirst being
a man, but also as the God-man who must need to go through Samaria,
he had a thirst to save his people. And left to ourselves, apart
from Christ, we would have walked away from this well and left,
not being stopped. And in verse 8, if you look at
verse 8, there's actually parentheses around it. For his disciples
were gone away into the city to buy meat." And I think the
parentheses mean that you can read the verse before and after
without missing anything. Or it reads and makes sense.
But his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. This
was not by accident either. This was on purpose. Because
when they were gone away to buy meat, there was nobody at this
well but Christ and this woman. And every time a sinner meets
Christ, it's going to be exactly the same way. So, Christ alone convinces the
sinner, and just like with Jacob, there's one outcome. And he talks
about the disciples who have gone away to buy meat. And if
you look in John 4 and verse 34, We didn't read it, but Jesus
saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent
Me, and to finish His work. Not natural meat. Christ came
to save sinners and to finish the work of His Father who had
reconciled all the sinners in Him. So why does Christ meet sinners
alone? A preacher once said that when
nobody else is around, There won't be any need to go get another
opinion or another estimate of whether you can believe this
man or not, of whether you can trust this man or not, of whether
Christ is all to you or not. Christ alone convinces us of
this. You can go ask your mom, your dad, your brother, a preacher.
They can't help you. They can't no more save you than
they can save themselves. Christ alone does this. And he
does this because, for the simple reason, he works all things after
the counsel of his own will, so that no flesh should glory
in his presence, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And so the woman says unto him,
How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest a drink of me, which am
a woman of Samaria? Because this just didn't happen.
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And she's
condescending here. I mean, she's wrestling just
like Jacob did. When she speaks, she is mocking
him. She's condescending and scoffing.
She has no idea who she's talking to, just like none of us do.
She has an argument. She has a comeback. She has no
desire of him at all. And she recognizes the fact that
he's a Jew, yet she stands before the only Jew that could help
her at all. And even here, Christ Himself is talking to her. And
that happened a lot. He spoke and preached to a lot
of people, but there were some he just walked by and not everybody
was saved. Most of them weren't. But he
must need to go through Samaria and his sheep hear his voice.
And even if she did know who she was talking to, apart from
Christ, it would not matter. Because in Romans 8, it says
the carnal mind is enmity against God. I mean, we're the exact
opposite of what he is. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be. And there's no hope in
us at all. But in Jeremiah it says, we will walk after our
own devices, and we will, every one, do the imagination of his
evil heart. And every imagination of the
thoughts of our heart are only evil continually. That is who
we are. And apart from Christ, that is who will stay. And so
every sinner by nature, we hate Christ. We hate God's people. We hate the Gospel and primarily
His sovereignty. And we will stand there just
like this woman and argue with the God-man Himself. We have
no problem as the clay or the thing formed saying to the one
that formed us, why hast thou made me thus? And we would, in
our blindness, in our enmity, we would deny and disavow the
only thing the only requirement for salvation which is sin. We
would deny that. The only thing that we have that
is the grounds upon salvation is based, and that's to be a
sinner. And we would sit there and argue with the maker, with
the potter, that why has thou made me thus? But he answered and said to her,
If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said to thee,
Give me to drink, thou would have asked him, and he would
have given thee living water. But she has no idea who He is. She's
naturally ignorant. She's carnally minded, just like
we all are. And He tells her exactly that.
He knows her heart, just like He knows the heart of every sinner
that He deals with. But she has no need, no desire. But He is the gift of God to
her, like He says right here, even though she doesn't recognize
what He's saying. She said unto him, Sir, and she
continues in this conversation, if you'll call it that. She said,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From
whence hast thou the living water? I mean, this is very condescending
and arrogant. And she says this with contempt,
just as we would. I mean, here's Christ, and she
says, How are you going to get it out of the well? The well
is deep. She has no idea that he's talking about a spiritual
well, spiritual water. So how are you going to, where
are you going to get this living water out? And she's not asking in a nice,
you know, just curious way. She says, or she compares him
to Jacob. She says, are thou greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us this well and drank thereof
himself? She compares him to Jacob. But he is, infinitely greater
than Jacob and provides all things. And he is very long-suffering
here. In verse 13, he answered her
back and said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst
again. And he answers her with patience and long-suffering because
this is his elect right here. This is the sheep that he came
to find. He knows the thoughts and intents
of our heart. And with patience and long-suffering,
like in Psalms 40, David says, let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. And he shows her both. Right
here, just like every sinner. And we speak of things that are
natural to us, our imagination. We have no idea, without Christ,
what the spiritual water is. I remember Mike Walker saying,
and this was a long time ago, he would talk about things, natural
things that we look at. And he talked about how it was
like bed sheets that were always too short. And you probably know
the kind. If you pull them up, your feet
are uncovered. If you pull them down to cover your feet, your
head are uncovered. And that's what he compared it to. It's
never enough. This natural water is never enough. we will always
have to return to get more. In verse 14 he said, but whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst again,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in the well of water
springing up into everlasting life. And this is a never-ending
supply. I mean, he is Jacob's well, not
this natural well of Jacob, but the spiritual well of Jacob.
And while we may be in distress and need, our cup flows over. The cup that he took from God,
the one that he prayed would pass from him, he drank the whole
thing. But his mercy and grace, ours, flows over. He is the incorruptible
seed. We are the corruptible seed.
He's the incorruptible seed that liveth and abideth forever like
a well inside of a center. He's unchanging, unwavering. His mercy endures forever. And
just like in Malachi, he says, for I'm the Lord. I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." And once again,
he references Jacob here, a sinner, a liar, a deceiver. But that's
who he says. And she, in verse 15, she comes
back and says, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither
can hither to draw. She's still completely ignorant
of who Christ is and what He's talking about. She still wants
the natural water, just like we all do. We still look to ourselves
without Christ for salvation. We would look to ourselves for
self-trust until He calls us to see otherwise. She desires
this living water to quench her natural thirst, basically just
so she doesn't have to come back to the well, so she doesn't have
to be troubled to come back. but we must be convicted before,
you must have a need before you need a Savior. And in these next
verses, that's exactly what he does. Beginning in verse 16,
he says to her, completely out of the blue, really
has nothing to do with what they were previously talking about.
He says, go call thy husband and come hither. And she answered
and said, I have no husband. And he said, Thou hast well said.
He already knew, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that thou
saidest truly. And she said unto him, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. Not Christ, not my Savior, but
a prophet. And here he begins this work
of conviction in her. And these words to her maybe
seem out of line with modern religion. They're like, well,
this was kind of mean. This seemed kind of mean. It
might be offensive. Or this might take somebody's
self-esteem and reduce it a little bit. But it is the Lord. Let Him do what seemed to Him
good. And I don't know who I heard this from. I will say Scott Richardson
because he's the only one I know that he was the old preacher
when I was, you know, a while back. But God, he said, God does
not do things because they are just and right and good. They
are just and right and good because He does them. And just like with
Nebuchadnezzar, if we were saved according to what we thought,
we would still be out there. He does what seemeth Him good
to the benefit of our soul eternally. And with His words, He reveals
His omniscience. He reveals He knows her. And
she recognizes that. He knows our heart. He knows
our minds. He knows our imaginations. And
He reveals it with His words. He does. And in Hebrews, we've
seen this before. It says, for the Word of God
is quick and powerful. and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even through the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart." And He knows us. And while she doesn't know her
condition, He does. And He knows us, and to a sinner,
to a sinner, that's a nightmarish thought. When we recognize the
fact that Christ knows us, that's a nightmarish thought. I don't
know any other way to say that. He reveals His need to us and
His sovereignty, and that causes a reverent fear in us. And that's
a reverent fear not to be scared of God, but a reverent fear to
fear His sovereignty. But He says the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And wisdom is made to us in Christ. We are made wisdom in Him. And
no sinner is made alive before they are killed. None. We have to be killed before we
can be made alive. And if you look in Deuteronomy
32-39, he says, See now that I, even I am he, and there is
no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand. He is the author
and finisher of both. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He does both. He kills and makes alive. And
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do." And here, He reveals her true condition,
her sinful nature, and when it comes in power by God, it will
kill a sinner. Turn over to Romans 7 real quick,
and this is exactly what happens. in Romans 7 and verse 7. It says, What shall we say then?
Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known
sin but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law
had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for
without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And only by His commandment do
we see our true nature. And that's exactly what happened
to this woman here. The commandment came forth to her, and she died,
and He killed her. And that was His mercy. That
was a work of mercy. This is a death that to us is
a work of mercy. And this is the kind of revelation
that we would stand there and call Paul a liar when he said,
I'm the chiefest of sinners. Because we would say, before
we knew, when we see ourselves, well, Paul couldn't have been
the chief of the sinners, number one, because I wasn't born yet. And
we had the same mindset that, well, I found a person that is
too much of a sinner for God to save. Too big a sinner. But what Christ reveals in us
is our mindset that if He can save me, He can save anybody.
And if left to us, if He left us here without doing anything
else, we would pick up our pot, we'd get our water, we'd walk
back to our house, we would walk back to our lives with our evil
imagination and we would die in our sin. We would take our
ball and go home. Because there is sin, but there
is salvation from sin. And apart from Him, we would
absolutely deserve it and desire it. But He must need to go through
Samaria. He is the one with whom we have
to do. I think it was in Matthew when He said, you shall call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin.
And this wounding, this killing, is the object of the same result
of infinite mercy and grace as it is when He reveals Himself
to us. He says to this woman in verse
21, Believe me, the hour comes and now is, when ye shall neither
in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father. When he said,
believe me, this wasn't a commandment. I mean, this was not a question
or a statement to make her curious or request. This was a commandment.
He says, you worship, you know not what. But we know what we
worship. He continues to reveal her need,
which seems offensive. I mean, go down the road and
tell the church that they worship, they know not what. and see what
happens. You know, Christ alone convinces
us of this. You know, you tell them they
worship another God, they believe another gospel. This is offensive
work. And these words to her cut her
to the quick. They do not build our self-esteem
and they are very offensive. And in verse 23 and 24, He says,
But the hour comes and now is, when true worshippers shall worship
the Father and Spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him." And what she doesn't recognize is that's exactly what's
happening right here to her. For her, the hour now is for
her to worship the Father and Spirit in truth. The God-man
who is standing in front of her seeks her. So who are these such
to worship Him? And they're Gentiles, sinners.
She's an adulterer, a fornicator. But more than that, she's a spiritual
adulterer and fornicator, murderer, everything we are in sin. She
says unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh, which is called
Christ. When he is come, he will tell
us all things, which he just has done this. And she begins
by revelation to understand. But here in verse 26, See, we've had the death. You've
got to be killed before you can be alive. He wounds and He heals. But in verse 27, He says unto
her, I that speak unto thee am He. And He makes Himself known
to her and there was never a plainer or simpler manner recorded that
I know of. Salvation is of the Lord. And
He makes Himself known. And this just wasn't to her ears,
but it was written in her heart. His name was graven on the palms
of His hands. It was beat into her mind. He
became all things. You know, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. The way, the truth, and the life.
I mean, advocate, redeemer, belief, hope. He is our belief. He becomes all things. This is
no different than with Paul or Job. or blind Bartimaeus who
stood there on the side of the road and screamed and begged. And if you notice here in verse
27 or 28, excuse me, 27, and only then did the disciples return.
And upon this, when Christ was finished with His work, His disciples
come back. That wasn't a coincidence either. They were kept out by Providence
where Christ was alone with this woman, just like it is with every
sinner. Just like it was with Paul who
he knocked off his horse. Just like with Nebuchadnezzar
who he left in the wilderness for seven years. And the thing is, even then,
in verse 27, It says, and upon this his disciples
and marveled that he taught with this woman. The disciples who
marveled that Christ dealt with a Samaritan. And I did find one
thing that Spurgeon said that I thought was good. He said,
yeah, these guys marveled, the same men who had been picked
off the same dunghill that she was marveled. But you know what? They didn't say anything. It
says, you know, it says, They said nothing. Yet no man said,
What seekest thou? Why do you talk with her? And in verse 28, she left this
waterpot and went her way into the city and said to the men,
Come see a man which told me all things ever I did. Is not
this the Christ? Well, there's a question mark
after that, but it wasn't a question to her. And this wasn't any man,
this was the God-man who told me all things. We would call
that a rhetorical question, I guess. Paul says about this man, "...of
such and one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but
in my infirmities." And we come here with the absolute worst
of ourselves and leave with the absolute best which is in Christ.
So with Paul, we would say that, I thank God. And this is after
he said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And what Paul says is, I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with the mind, the new
man, I myself serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the
law of sin. And salvation is against our
will with our full consent. I know we've heard that many
times. And he arrests us. I know John uses that phrase
a lot. Paul speaks about being apprehended by Christ. And this
is a detention, a seizure, completely against our will. I've arrested
a lot of people in my work. I've never arrested somebody
that wasn't against their will. And you take them to court, and
they're sentenced. But here, this arrest against
our will with our full consent from someone that we are at enmity
against, And He tells us all things that ever we did, kills
us to our own strength, kills us to our own hope, and reveals
Himself to us. And what does He reveal? Instead
of bringing them before a judge, we face God Almighty. And this
is what He reveals when He said, I am He. We find out the debt is paid. He told Job, I have found a ransom. He has paid the debt already.
And not only did he pay the debt, he paid the debt himself by offering
God the Son as our substitute. And not only that, but the ransomed
son was sacrificed to pay the debt to satisfy the wrath that
he demanded. The debt he paid by providing
the sacrifice for the debt he required was his inflexible justice. And to see that, I mean, you
can probably see what John Newton meant when he said, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound. For people that hated him, that
were in enmity against him. And he brings us to say with
Job, Behold, I am vile. I bore myself in repentant dust
and ashes with Isaiah. Isaiah says, Woe is me, for I
am undone. Because I'm a man of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the king. And with Paul, like
I said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" And just like with this woman, he says,
to a sinner, I am he. And the best part is these two
things are always together. You cannot separate. This death
and this life are always together so that the self-loathing and
Christ glorified are always together. In the same moment that God allows
us to see our sin, which to us is an eternity. I mean, it is
an eternity. The same moment that He allows
us to see our sin, our true condition and our need, He opens our eyes
to the infinite mercy, grace and love of Christ. And at that
point, we can't help but say, like in Micah, he says, Who is
a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delights in mercy to his people, to his sinners.
And we would do just like this woman. We would throw down our
pot and come to Christ with our full consent. and none can deliver
from His hand." And the best part of this, Paul said, the
hope, the perseverance we have in Christ, we are persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And
He alone does this, nobody else. Alone with the sinner, no interruptions,
so no flesh and glory in His presence. And He does this according
to the counsel of His own will. You see, this woman in John 4
came to get water from Jacob's well, Christ must need to go
through Samaria because He is Jacob's will. And Jacob's will
will always be there, everywhere Christ meets the sinner, at exactly
the right time. And whether we know it or not,
or feel it, there's not a more eternally secure place, just
like the quote that Henry Mahan said. And we have to no more
look to Christ, and it is written to know this because He has said
it. So in closing, I will read a quote or a passage that Rupert
put in a bulletin probably 30 years ago, and he says this way
better than I could. He says, Oh, to know the full
meaning of the words, salvation is of the Lord. Christ alone
can beat this truth in a man's mind. A man will lie broken at
the foot of a steep cliff, every bone dislocated by his fall,
and yet hope to save himself. Piles of sin will fall upon him
and bury him, and yet his self-trust will live. Mountains of actual
transgressions will overwhelm him and floodwaters of guilt
will surround him, but he will still entertain thoughts of self-deliverance. Though crushed to atoms, every
particle of our nature reeks with conceit. Though ground to
powder, our very dust is pungent with pride. Only Christ can render
the sinner totally helpless and make him receive the humbling
truth that salvation is of the Lord." And I pray that he does
exactly that. Not just 20 years ago, but today
and tomorrow and until we aren't in this world anymore. Because
today is a day of salvation.