So far. Last year I was preaching in
Lexington for Todd, and I was the last preacher, and he said,
well, we've had a good meeting so far. Greg don't mess it up. And I
don't hear too well, and I didn't hear what he said. And so I turned
to my wife, I said, what did he say? She said, he didn't say
anything. Get up there and preach. I am so humbled to stand in this
pulpit. I esteem your pastor highly.
He's just been such a dear, dear brother and dear friend. And
we've grown so much more this weekend to love you all. And
we've just been made to feel so at home here, and we're thankful
for it. We, as I said in the previous
hour, we look forward to sharing with glowing reports our experience
here with you all, with the brethren back in Orlando. Thank you for
allowing us to come. If you'd like to turn in your
Bibles with me to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. I'd like to
try to bring a message entitled, From Shame to the Savior. From Shame to the Savior. It's
about a very familiar story that we have called often times the
woman at the well. And if you're familiar with this
story, you understand that this woman had to go to the well in
the middle of the day at noon. When none of the other women
would go there, not in the heat of the day, they would go first
thing in the morning. The well was a gathering place,
a gossip center for the women. They had all come and and enjoy
each other's company early in the morning. This particular
woman had such a shameful lifestyle, even among the Samaritans, that
she wasn't welcome to meet with the other women that were there. And so she had to go in the middle
of the day. The Lord knew she'd be there.
He told the disciples, I must need to go through Samaria. I've
got a lost sheep there. I've got several lost sheep there.
And I've got to save them. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
traveling from Judea up to Galilee, goes through Samaria. And the encounter that he has
with this woman, I hope will be symbolic to you and to me. as far as the encounter that
you and I need for the Lord Jesus Christ to have with us. Because
the truth is, our life is no less shameful than was hers before
God. And we are no less in need of
a Savior than was she. The first thing that strikes
me about this story is the extreme contrast that the Lord has given
us in His Word between John chapter 3 and John chapter 4. If you
remember in John chapter 3, the Lord met a man who was a ruler
of the Jews. The Scripture says that his name,
you see that in verse 1 of John chapter 3, his name was Nicodemus. Now, in contrast to this woman
of Samaria who was so ashamed of her life that she couldn't
even go to the well during the time when the other women went,
Nicodemus was just the opposite. He was a man of high esteem in
Jerusalem. He was a leader of the Jews.
He wore his phylacteries and his robes proudly through the
streets of Jerusalem. He knew the law of God and outwardly
he obeyed the law of God. And he was highly esteemed by
the men and women of Israel. And yet, their condition before
Christ and what the Lord Jesus Christ said to these two extreme
opposites was in fact the same. They needed to have eternal life. The Lord told Nicodemus, unless
you're born from above, unless you're born by the Spirit of
God, Nicodemus, all of your legalism, and all of your pride, and all
of your self-righteousness will do you no good before God. This
woman knew she had no self-righteousness, she had no pride, and yet she
was in the same boat as was Nicodemus. You see, it doesn't really matter.
It doesn't really matter if you're a highly respected, outwardly
moral, religious person, or if you are like this woman in our
text, adulterous, outcast, Your need before God is exactly the
same. Their experiences, their life,
their knowledge, and their reputation could not have been more different.
And yet, their need was exactly the same. And so it is with you
and I. It doesn't matter where you're
coming from. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't
matter what you haven't done. It doesn't matter what you've
been or what you haven't been. Your need before God is to be
saved, is for the Lord to have mercy on your soul. Men put differences
between themselves, and they esteem one man over another,
but the truth is that it doesn't matter. If you are as well educated
as was Saul of Tarsus, or if you are an uneducated fisherman
like poor Peter, you still have the same need. It doesn't matter
if you're a wealthy tax collector like Zacchaeus, or if you're
a poor blind beggar like Bartimaeus, your need is still the same.
It doesn't matter if you're a highly esteemed king, as was David,
or if you are a notorious death row criminal like Barabbas, your
need is the same. And the solution to your problem
and my problem is exactly the same. The gospel of God's free
grace in the accomplished work of the glorious person of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to all our problems. He is all,
and He is in all. And so we preach the same message
to all men. In God's churches, we don't have
ministries for single adults, and ministries for senior adults,
and ministries for young people. Why? Because we're all in the
same boat. We're all a bunch of fellas in
the same ship, aren't we? And if we're to fellowship in
Christ, we've all got to believe the same exact thing. What a
contrast between these two individuals. But in truth, in truth, though
men like to set themselves up over other men, we're all a bunch
of worms on the same dung pile, aren't we? That's just what we
are. And not one worm can say to another,
well, I've got a higher position than you. All you are is closer
to the next load than the guy below you. You know, we really
are, aren't we? That's where we are before God.
Put aside whatever men might say sets you apart and realize
that before God the ground at the foot of the cross is perfectly
level And we're all in same need, the same Christ, the same gospel. There's one prescription, one
prescription for your problem and for my problem. And He is
the Christ of glory. He's the Son of God. He's the
sinner's substitute. Look what happens with this woman
here. Verse 3, He left Judea and departed
again to Galilee, and He must needs go through Samaria. If the Lord's going to save you,
if He's going to save me, then He must needs come to where we
are. Because left ourselves, we'll
never seek Him out. We just saw that in Isaiah chapter
53. There's nothing in Him that we
would esteem. There's nothing in Him that we
consider comely, that we consider attractive or beautiful. We are
enemies of God, and if He doesn't come to where we are, we'll never
go to where He is. He must, needs go through Samaria. Why? Because He had some lost
sheep there. Some lost sheep that God had
etched in the Lamb's Book of Life. With the pen dipped in
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, those names were written in that
Lamb's book before the world ever began. God chose a particular
people in Christ, in the covenant of grace, and He's going to see
that the gospel gets to them. Doesn't matter where they are,
doesn't matter what their circumstances are, He must needs get to them. Don't you love the story of Ruth?
Huh. Coming back from Moab with Naomi, and Naomi sends her out
to glean in the field, and she just haps upon Boaz's field. Her kinsman-redeemer, the one
who's going to deliver her, she just happened upon his field.
That wasn't by happenstance. There are no circumstances in
God's providence. God works everything out for
the salvation of His people and for His own glory. Don't you love the story of the
Ethiopian eunuch? He's already been to Jerusalem.
He sat under the teachers there. This was a man of much wealth
and much power. He had an entourage with him,
riding in his chariot, going back to Ethiopia with a scroll. Now books then weren't like books
today. You could just pick them up at the bookstore. Books were
handwritten, extremely valuable, very difficult to own, and this
fella had one. And he just happened to have
a copy of Isaiah chapter 53 that he was reading. And Philip is
in Antioch, preaching the Gospel, and God sends a revival in Antioch. How many people were converted,
and the Lord takes Philip and sends him down to the backside
of the desert, in a place called Gaza. Why? Because he must needs
go there. Why? Because this eunuch was
one of God's elect. And the Gospel was going to get
to him, and he couldn't figure it out on his own. He was reading
the Word of God, and Philip came alongside the chariot and said,
Understandest thou what thou readest, and what the Ethiopians
say? How can I, unless a man should
guide me? And here's a Bedouin walking
through the desert, and here's a man in all of his high esteem. And he's humbled enough by the
Spirit of God to ask Philip to explain the Scriptures to him.
Philip gets in the chariot and the Ethiopian says, does he speak
of himself or is he speaking of another? The Ethiopian didn't
know if Isaiah chapter 53 was about the prophet himself or
he was speaking prophetically about another. And he said, oh
no. This is none other than the sinner's substitute. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one that was just
crucified on Calvary's cross in Jerusalem. Let me tell you
about him. And he preached unto him Jesus.
And what did the Ethiopians say? What doth hinder me to be baptized?
If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." And he was
baptized. Why? Because he believed with
all of his heart that the Jesus that Philip had just preached
to him was the Christ of Scripture and was the only hope of his
salvation. God knew where he was. And he got the preacher
to him, didn't he? He's going to get his elect to
where the gospel is being preached, or he's going to get one of his
preachers to where his elect are. He knows where every one
of his sheep are. You know, that's one of the glorious
comforts that we have as gospel preachers, and that's one that
you have as a believer. To know that none of his sheep
are going to be lost. No, it's not my responsibility
to convince a man. It's my responsibility to declare
the truth. And I am confident, absolutely
confident, that the Spirit of God is going to make it effectual
to the hearts of God's people. Don't you love the story of Philemon? Paul's in prison in Rome, and
he encounters Onesimus in prison. Now, who was Onesimus? Onesimus
was Philemon's servant. There was a church that met in
Philemon's house, and Paul had preached there in that church.
And don't you know that Philemon was probably standing at the
doorway having to endure the preaching of the Apostle Paul,
much like our young people sometimes feel when we make them come and
sit and have to listen to the gospel. Philemon got a chance
to run, and he did. And he left Asia, and he thought,
I'm going to the big city. I'm going to spread my wings. I'm going to have my freedom. And Onesimus went to Rome. And
in the providence of God, he ends up in the same jail cell
as the Apostle Paul that he had heard preached how long before.
And now Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon with a letter saying,
receive him, he's no longer your servant, now he's your brother. The Lord's going to get the gospel
to his people. If there's any encouragement,
I must needs go through Samaria. You have a young person, you
have a child that's away from the Lord and away from the gospel,
pray for them, ask God to have mercy on them. Know that He knows
where they are. He knows where they are. They may end up in jail. They belong to the Lord. The
Lord is going to get the gospel to them. Lydia. Lydia is found in Philippi. But before that, the Apostle
Paul was in Asia. And he had, you remember that
Macedonian call where the Spirit of God spoke to the Apostle Paul
in a vision. And a man from Macedonia called
him and said, come preach the gospel to Macedonia. And Paul
turned from Asia and went to Macedonia. And the first city
he gets to in Macedonia is the city of Philippi. And he goes
down to the river and he finds some women that are down there
praying and having a Bible study. And he preaches the gospel to
them. And the scripture says, God opened Lydia's heart. who was a seller of purple from
where? Thyatira, where is that? It's
in Asia. It's in Asia. She was a citizen
of the very place where the Apostle Paul was when God told him, get
out of here and go to Philippi. Why? Because I've got one of
my sheep. No, she lives here, but she's
down there right now and I'm gonna need to get the gospel
to her. I must needs go through Samaria. He's going to leave the ninety
and nine and go after the one. He's not going to lose one of
His sheep. I'm so glad for that. I'm so
comforted in that. I'm so hopeful that as long as
there's life, there's hope. The Lord knows where His sheep
are and He's going to get the gospel to them. Verse 5. Then cometh he to the city of
Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and
Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on
the well, and it was about the sixth hour." Now the Jewish reckoning
of time begins as the sun comes up in the morning. So assuming
that's about six o'clock, you're at high noon. At high noon, the
Lord sits there on the well, and the disciples go down into
Sychar to buy some food. And there cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away
to the city to buy meat. I want you to notice who initiated
this conversation. Just as the Lord said, I'm going
to go where she's at, I'm going to engage her in a conversation
about the salvation of her soul. And if the Lord doesn't initiate
that conversation, we'll never have it with Him. We'll never
have ears to hear if He doesn't speak to us. And He says to her,
give me to drink. For the disciples were going
down into the city to buy meat. And then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest of me which
hath a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Now the most shameful thing about
this woman's life was not that she had had five husbands and
that the man she was living with was not her husband. That wasn't
the most shameful thing about her life. The most shameful thing
about her life is that she was a Samaritan. Now the Samaritans
Remember when Ezra and Nehemiah came back with the children of
Israel from the Babylonian captivity and there were some men that
were trying to get them to stop the building of the wall and
to come down off of their work and to engage in a compromise
with them. And those were those who had
been left behind. When the children of Israel were
taken into captivity, the Babylonians left behind in Israel some of
the weak and some of the sick and some of the old. And over
time, over those 70 years, those people intermarried with other
pagan cultures and now you've got a nation of people that the
Israelites come back to who have mixed the worship of God with
the worship of pagans. And Nehemiah said, we can't come
down. God's given us a work here. We're
committed to the gospel. Matter of fact, one of them says
to Nehemiah, come down to the Valley of Ono. And the word ono
means common. Let's find some common ground.
Let's find something we can agree upon. Come on, I know we've perverted
the gospel, we've changed the message of salvation from the
truth that God has given to Israel, and we've mixed it with all these
other pagan nations, but surely we can find something in common. Let's just agree to disagree
about the things that we differ on. And Nehemiah said, no, I
can't even do that. And they sent him seven letters,
seven times, and Nehemiah gave them the same answer every time.
Nope, not coming down. We've got nothing in common,
and I can't even agree to disagree with you. Why? Because you've
perverted the gospel of God's grace, and you've changed it,
and you've added works to grace. So it is with us. That's how
we come into this world. We come into this world as idolaters,
and we fashioned in the imagination of our own darkened minds a God
that doesn't exist. And we mix the things that we
hear about the Jesus of Nazareth with our pagan practices. And
we're idolaters. That's what she was. That was
her most shameful sin. She was a Samaritan. She said
to the Lord, she said, you Jews worship in Jerusalem, but we
worship here on this mountain of Gerizim. And the Lord said,
you worship what you know not. You've perverted the truth. That
was her problem. And that's your problem. Our
greatest sin is not the things that we're outwardly ashamed
for other people to know about. Our greatest sin is the sin of
idolatry. And even as believers, even as
regenerated believers, it still haunts us, doesn't it? Every
time we look away from Christ, every time we try to find our
hope and our happiness and our satisfaction in anything other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, we are reverting back to our idolatrous
ways. We're recovering idolaters as
believers. And that's our greatest shame.
And that's why we need Christ. That was her problem. And she said, what would you
have to do with me? You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan.
We don't have anything to do with one another. For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Now, the disciples were down in Samaria. buying food from the Samaritans. The disciples were Jews. So what
did she mean when she said the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans? This word dealings means to receive
of the same. In other words, what she was
saying to the Lord was, how is it that you're going to put your
lips on the same vessel that I drink out of." The Jews had
dealings with the Samaritans as far as doing business with
them, but no Jew would ever drink from the same vessel that a Samaritan
drank from. That would be the height of defilement
for them to do that. So what this woman is saying
to the Lord Jesus Christ, you're asking me for a drink? You're
asking me to give you my drinking vessel, and you're going to put
your lips to what I've put my lips to? Yep. That's what I'm
going to do. And that's exactly what you and
I need for the Lord Jesus Christ to do for us. What did Isaiah
say when he saw the Lord high and lifted up in Isaiah chapter
6? He said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple. And the seraphim hovered over
His throne, and they cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with His glory. And what did
Isaiah say, the first thing out of his mouth? Woe is me, for
I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. Now here we have the Son of God,
in whose mouth there was no guile. All men are liars. Our lips expose
us for what we are. Out of the mouth flows the issues
of life. You want to know what you are? Just listen to yourself
talk. How many foolish things we say.
Nothing ever came out of His mouth that wasn't nothing less
than the perfect Word of God. And here He is putting His lips
to the lips that the Samaritan woman put hers to. She defiled
the cup. You've defiled the cup. What
did the seraphim do in Isaiah chapter 6? Took a coal from off
the altar. That's the altar of sacrifice.
That's where the Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvary's cross and suffered
the fire of God's wrath. Just like when Elijah, you remember,
built that altar on Mount Carmel? And what was his purpose? It
was to destroy the prophets of Baal. And that's what the Lord's
going to do for the Samaritan. And that's what He does for us.
He destroys the prophets of Baal. And the fire of God fell from
heaven. And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, The God that
answereth by fire, He is the God. What did that fire do? The fire did two things. The
fire that fell from heaven on Mount Carmel, it consumed the
sacrifice. But also, the sacrifice quenched
the fire. It put the fire out. So when
Isaiah takes the coal from off the altar and touches the lips
of the prophet, he says, don't say anymore that your lips are
unclean. I've put my lips to that which you put your lips
to. I've had dealings with your own sin. I've borne in my body
your shame and your guilt, and I've suffered the fiery wrath
of God's judgment, and I've quenched that fire. So now, there's no
more shame. There's no more guilt before
God. That's the conversation that our Lord's having with this
woman when she says, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. The Jews don't drink from the
same vessels that the Samaritans live from. Never has it been
done! Yes, it has. Can you identify
with this Samaritan? who was an adulterer, who lived
in fornication. That's what we are. You say,
well, I've never done that. You've done it spiritually. You've
done it spiritually. You've looked at another husband
in replacement of him. You fornicated the gospel. by
replacing Christ in your heart with something else? Is that
what we are? This is a spiritual message.
This is a gospel of salvation. This is for sinners. This is
for Samaritans, who have mixed the message of grace with their
own natural works, pharisaical ways, who need a substitute to
stand in their stead before God and make them acceptable. And
that's exactly what he does. Look at verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, And who it is that saith unto
thee, Give me to drink? Thou wouldst have asked him,
and he would have given thee living water. Now please, take
notice of the order. The Lord doesn't say to this
woman, if you would ask, then you would know. He says, if you knew the gift
of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink?
You would ask. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation. Men make it that way. God's done
His part. He's made the offer. Now I've
got to exercise my faith. And my faith will make the work
that Jesus did on Calvary's cross effectual, if I'll do my part. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. If
you knew He would ask, in other words, if you're asking to be
saved, it's because He's already revealed Himself to you. That's true. If you knew the gift of God,
if you knew that God had established a covenant of grace before time
ever began, before you had anything to do with it. He had already
chosen a people. That's a gift. He had written
their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He placed them in Christ
before time ever began. I mentioned this the other day. We get so caught up in seeing
things in the physical. The scientists have no idea how
close they are to the truth when they talk about parallel universes.
They have no idea how close they are. You know, they're looking
for the God particle. And quantum physics is discovering
certain things. And they say, well, you know,
there's other universes that are parallel to our universe.
There's one universe that's parallel to our universe. And everything
that happens in this universe that you and I live in, this
bubble of time that we live in, that's all it is. And everything
outside of that is the other universe, it's the eternal. And
everything that's happening in the temporal is confirming what
God has already purposed in the eternal. We're living out the
providence of God. It's all working together in
His purpose for His glory. Oh, that the Lord would enable
us to look beyond this temporal world in which we live. It's
a vapor. It's a vapor. It's a flower. It comes up for a season and
then it fades away. It's the eternal that I'm all
of religion. Religion, you listen to preaching
today, and all they're concerned about is helping you to live
a better life for tomorrow. That's all they're concerned
about. It's all the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence
is not God's Word. When Thomas Jefferson said that
we find these truths to be self-evident, that we've all been created in
the image of God, and that we've been endowed with certain inalienable
rights, among which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
Thomas Jefferson was an Epicurean. He was an Epicurean. He believed that happiness was
derived from possessing things. You and I live in an Epicurean
society. I'm thankful for the freedom
that we have in this country, but the pursuit of happiness
doesn't come from things. I can guarantee you one thing,
if you're pursuing happiness, you're never going to find it.
Happiness is the result of knowing Christ. Happiness comes as the
by-product of being right with God. Happiness is the result
of having your sins put away. Happiness is having eternal life.
That's where happiness is. This woman was looking for happiness
in all the wrong places, wasn't she? And the Lord said, if you
knew, if you knew what I've done in eternity, If you knew the
gift of God, if you knew that I was born of a woman under the
law to redeem those who are under the law, if you knew who I am,
if you knew that I'm the eternal, I am the Son of God, who came
to accomplish the redemption of God's people. If you knew
that I was all of your righteousness before... This is why we preach
Christ. We don't preach men to pray a
prayer. We don't preach men to do something
as if God's going to reward them with salvation as a result of
something they do. You know what the hardest thing
is to do? Nothing. Hebrews chapter 4 says, labor
to enter into His rest. Why? Because the works were done
from the foundation of the world. Before the world ever started,
God already accomplished the work. Rest. That's the hardest thing
for man to do. I've got to do something. You
put your hand to it and you're going to defile it. You remember
Uzzah? The ark was teetering on the
cart, and Uzzah just reached his hand up to settle the ark.
And God killed him right there on the spot. Don't put your hand
to the ark. That ark is Christ. He's the
one who's accomplished salvation. So what do we do? We preach Christ
crucified. We say this is who He is, and
this is what He's done. This is the gift of God. It's
not based on a prayer you pray or a work you perform. It's what
He's done. And if you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, then
you would ask, and I would give it to you. Truth is, He's already given
it to you if you've asked for it. That's true. He's already given it to you
if you've asked for it. Receiving grace is not the result
of you asking. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation, it's the result of it. It's the result of it. You can't even offer your faith
to God. You can't even offer your prayer
to God. You can't offer anything to God. Well, you see how hard it is
to do nothing? That's why God has made hearing the means by
which He gives faith. You say, what can I do? Hear
the Word of God. Hear. Ask God to give you ears
to hear. Because faith comes by hearing,
and hearing comes by the Word of God. I remember back in religion,
we used to have Bible studies. You know, we'd all get together
and we'd pool our ignorance and massage one another's egos about
what we knew about the Bible. And that's all it was. But we
don't do that anymore. Why? Because if God's going to
save a man, He's going to sit him down, He's going to shut
him up, and He's not going to give him anything to say. And
He's going to make him have to hear the truth from another man
just like him. Just like him. Another sinner. who just is in need of grace
as he is in more need of grace. Well, all God's people consider
themselves to be the chief of all sinners, but that's especially
true for those men who've got to stand up and preach the gospel.
Anybody knows their need for grace more than anybody else.
It's the man that's got to tell other people about it. What a
humbling experience. It's humbling for those in the
pew. It's humbling for those in the
pulpit. And it gives to Christ all the
glory. Faith comes by hearing. It's not by talking. It's not
by contributing. It's not by doing. It's by hearing. If you knew, how am I going to
know? God's going to have to speak
to you. He's going to have to teach you. And if He teaches
you, He's going to teach you like He taught that Ethiopian
eunuch, how can I unless a man should lead me? And someone's
going to have to preach Christ to you. And if He preaches Christ
to you and God gives you ears to hear, You're going to come,
you're going to ask, and your asking is going to be the evidence
that He's already done a work of grace in your heart. What hope there is in that? And the woman said unto him,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. I understand that Jacob's well
was a hundred feet deep. Still there today. And she said,
you've got nothing to draw with in the wells deep. Oh, he had
plenty to draw with. And a hundred feet is nothing
to him. He's got the ability to draw all the way back into
eternity and pour into our very souls the waters of everlasting
life. She didn't understand his ability,
did she? From whence then hast thou this
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Oh, she still didn't know who
she was talking to, did she? No, the Lord's going to draw
her out, though. She's going to discover who it is. But she
had some things to learn. She had to ask some questions
first. How can this be? When men first hear the gospel,
they say, well, how can that be? Don't men have a free will?
Doesn't my good work count for something? And they ask those
kind of questions. And then if they belong to the
Lord, they say with this woman, I met a man. who told me all
things that ever I did, is not this the Christ? He made me to
be a sinner. He showed me the perversion of
my religion. He showed me the sins of my heart. Look what he says, Jesus answered
and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again. I'm not talking about physical water. We're not
talking about you just getting on a better tomorrow. We're talking
about spiritual things here. We're not talking about cleaning
up the outside of the cup. We're not talking about making
you look like a whitewashed tomb that's still full of dead men's
bones. We're talking about God doing a work of grace on the
inside. Man looks at the outward appearance.
You want to impress men, just become religious. Men will be
impressed with you. You want to be saved. God's going
to have to do a work of grace on the inside. God looks at the
heart. I'm not talking about physical
water. I'm not talking about a 100-foot well. I'm not talking
about drinking out of a dipper that you put your lips to. We're
talking about something spiritual here. We're talking about water
that if you drink of this, you'll never thirst again. Lord, give
me that water that I'd thirst not anymore, nor have to come
back to this well, is what she said. She's still thinking physical
water. What did the Lord mean when He said, if you drink of
this water, you'll never thirst again? You'll never have to go anywhere
else to satisfy your thirst and to fulfill your righteousness
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never go anywhere else.
You'll never have to look away from Christ And those times when
you're tempted to do so, you'll learn very quickly that there's
no hope there. There's no comfort there. There's
no quenching of your thirst there. There's no satisfying of your
hunger there. If I give you living water, you'll
know that that's the only water of life that exists. And you'll
drink of that water. The Spirit of God will comfort
your heart with the assurance of your salvation. That's what
He'll do. He'll enable you to say, Abba,
Father. He'll enable you to rest in Christ. He'll enable you to believe. Well, she wasn't... The Lord's going to have to make
her a sinner. He'll have to make her a sinner. Well, if He makes
you a sinner, then you're going to know that everything about
you is sinful. This is a faithful saying. This
is worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy to be accepted in
its entirety, and it's worthy to be accepted by all men. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What is a sinner? You go out into the world, ask
men, are you a sinner? Well, yeah, I've done some bad
things. I've done some bad things. You go to death row. You go to
death row. And you find the most heartless,
hardened, profane criminal that you can find. The God-damning
criminal that has no shame whatsoever. And you talk to him long enough,
and I promise you, you will discover that he's got a righteousness.
He's got a righteousness. There's either something that
He hasn't done, or there's something that someone else has done that's
worse than Him. He's got a righteousness, which
means that He's not a sinner. A sinner is one who has no righteousness. A sinner is one who says with
the Apostle Paul, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. A sinner is the one who says
with Isaiah, woe is me, I'm undone. There's nothing good about me.
From the top of my head to the bottom of my foot, I am covered
with putrefying sores. I'm a leper. I can't find a clean
square inch of flesh anywhere on my body. And you go to Leviticus
chapter 13, And the leper, who went before the priest, who didn't
have any clean skin on him, the priest inspected him from head
to toe, and found that there was no clean flesh on him, and
the priest said, you're clean. You're clean. Can you figure
that out? If God's made you a sinner, you've
figured it out. The leper that came to the priest who had patches
of leprosy and patches of clean skin, the priest said, unclean,
unclean. God's made you a sinner. There's
not a clean square inch of flesh on your body. Everything about
you is sinful before God. You know you've never been able
to keep one of God's laws one time. And when this poor woman
went back down into Sychar and she said, come, meet a man who
told me all things that ever I did, that's what she was saying. Everything I ever did was sin. Everything I ever did was sin.
Now here's the hope of the gospel. I don't want to leave you as
a sinner. Don't confuse the gospel with
the gospel of Billy Joel. Billy Joel is the one who sang
that song. I'd rather laugh with the sinners
than cry with the saints, for sinners have much more fun. And
the world thinks that sinners and saints are two different
people. Truth is, only sinners are saints. And only saints are sinners.
And sinners and saints, according to God, are the same people.
They're the same people. If God hadn't made you a saint,
you're not a sinner. And if you're not a sinner, you
can't be a saint. Sinners and saints are the same
people. So when we, like this woman, say in our testimony,
I had somebody tell me recently, say, well, I love testimonies.
Tell me more about your testimony. Well, here's my testimony. Come
meet a man who told me everything that ever I did. That's my testimony. Everything I ever did outside
of Christ was nothing but sin and Everything that I ever did
in the person of my substitute is nothing but perfect righteousness,
and that's my life I've got two natures I've got my flesh and
one day it's gonna die one day God's gonna kill this flesh and
put it back in the ground and And He's going to give me a new
body. And this mortal is going to be made immortal. And this
corruptible is going to be made incorruptible. I'm going to see
Him as He is in that day, and I'm going to be made like Him.
Right now, in the person of Christ, through the eyes of faith, By
the promise of God, I am in Christ. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ as He is, so am I right
now in this world. I'm perfect in Christ. Come meet
a man who told me all things that ever I did. You know the children of God
are birthed into the family of God the same way the Lord Jesus
Christ was born? That's right. The new birth is a miracle accomplished
by the Holy Spirit. So when He was born made of a
woman under the law to redeem those who are cursed by the law,
I was born. I was born by the Spirit of God
in the same way He was born. When He lived out a perfect life
of righteousness, pleasing the Father in everything He did,
all those who were in Him from before time began were presented
before God in the person of their substitute, perfect. Come meet
a man who told me all things that ever I did. When He hung
on Calvary's cross and suffered the full penalty of God's wrath
for my sin, I was on that cross. Paul said, I was crucified with
Christ. I was crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. Yet it's not I, but it's Christ
that liveth in me, so that the life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave
Himself for me. When He died, I died. Come meet
a man who told me all things that ever I did. When He was
put into the tomb, I was buried. I died in Christ. When God raised
Him from the dead, He was the firstborn among many brethren.
Paul said, Oh, that I might know Him, the power of His resurrection,
the fellowship of His suffering, made conformable unto His death.
That's what I want to know. I want to know that before God
in Christ, I'm perfect. Where would you tell me all things
that ever I did? And don't just leave me with
being a sinner. Make me to be a saint. Give me
both." When He ascended into glory,
He took with Him the names of those for whom He lived and died,
and presented them before the Father. The Scripture says that
the Word of God accomplishes that for which it is sent, and
will not return unto God void. Is that not what it says? And
we take great hope in that when we preach the Gospel, believing
that God is going to make it effectual, But the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is the Word of God. The Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father. He's the one that's full of grace.
He's the one that's full of truth. And when the Word of God ascended
back into glory, He did not return to God void. He took with Him
the names of those for whom He lived and died. He bore our names
on His shoulder before God. as our high priest. He told me
everything that ever I did. Why? Because all that ever I
did, I did in Christ. That's the gospel. From shame to the Savior. Can you see yourself in this
woman? Pasture.