Let's go to John chapter 4, back
to the book of John chapter 4. We've been looking at this most
familiar story of this dear Samaritan woman who is a vessel of mercy
prepared in the glory Our Lord has met her. He has revealed
himself to her. I'd like to visit this once again
this evening, and then we'll move on next Wednesday night. But as we revisit this passage
of scripture, I want us to notice several things that need to be
remembered. as we consider the subject, The
Remarkable God-Man. The Remarkable God-Man. The first is this, our Lord's
mercy is remarkable. Here is the very Son of God. He is the Holy One. The demons on one occasion, what
have we to do with thee, thou holy one? He is the one to whom
the angels have, ever since they've been created, been singing, holy,
holy, holy. And yet he comes into this world,
and he does so in order to save sinners. Here's a sinner before
him. There's no question about her
guilt. He has even brought to the surface
the fact that she's been married five times. She was, at this
stage of her life, living with another man in adultery. She is a vile sinner, but aren't
we all? You see, we may not have given
vent to our lusts or to the desires of the flesh as others have, but within, everyone's a sinner. Everyone's guilty before God.
The disciples, they seem to forget the fact that our Lord came to
save sinners. You'll notice in verse 27, when
his disciples, when they came back, they marveled that he talked
with the woman. They're quite amazed. Here's
the very holy son of God. And he's spending lots of time
speaking with this woman who is known to be a notorious sinner. A marvel that he talked with
the woman. Perhaps they were thinking of
the old rabbinical laws. One of the laws said specifically,
do not have discourse with a woman. They say not even with your wife,
much less your neighbor's wife. Therefore they said, any man
who carries on a discourse with a woman, he is the cause of evil
to himself. He ceases from the words of God's
law, and at last he shall go down to hell. And they walk up, and no doubt
remembering these traditions of the fathers, and he hears
the Savior speaking with the a woman of Samaria. But isn't
this the reason the Savior came into the world? To save sinners?
And in order to save sinners, in order to deal with this specific
sinner in this passage of Scripture, he must speak with her. There
must be an exchange of words. He's going to have to confine
his attention at this moment to this woman, and he's not ashamed
to do that. He's not ashamed to speak with
sinners. It was for sinners that he came
into the world. And our Lord called Matthew the
tax collector. In Matthew chapter 9 he came
to Matthew and he said to Matthew, follow me. And the Lord immediately
gained a new disciple because that was an effectual call of
grace. And Matthew wanted his friends
to see and learn of the majesty and the graciousness of Jesus
of Nazareth. And so Matthew invited his friends
to a meal where the Son of God would sit and eat with sinners. That bothered the Pharisees.
That one who professed to be the Messiah would sit and eat
with those whom they considered to be awful sinners. And they
even said to the Lord's disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners?" But when the Savior heard that, He said unto them,
The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. He said, You go and learn what
that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. This is the reason He came into
the world, to save sinners. The Apostle said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The Apostle wrote
again to the Romans, And he said in chapter 5, for when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He says, for scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth, or commendeth,
He gave full evidence of, He manifested, He gave a full display
of His love, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our Lord's mercy is remarkable. He eats with sinners. He fellowships
with sinners. And listen, He still fellowships
with sinners. This is not something that only
happened during His earthly sojourn. Even today, even tonight, He
communes with us. He meets with us by His Spirit. This One who is not ashamed to
call us brethren, whenever He gathers us together, two or three
or more are gathered together in His name, He is among us.
And who is He among? He is among sinners. The Savior
is not ashamed to be associated with sinners. That's the reason
He came into the world. His name is Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. So this is remarkable mercy. Remarkable mercy. And then I
see this, his wisdom is remarkable. As he deals with this woman,
every step of the way in dealing with this sinful soul, he does
so in great wisdom. We read in Proverbs chapter 11
and verse 30, the fruit of the righteous is as a tree of life,
and he that winneth souls is wise. And the winner of souls
is the Lord Jesus Himself, because He is the righteous one. He is
the Lord our righteousness. It is His righteousness that
He established by His substitutionary death that has been imputed to
His people. He is the tree of life. And the
fruit that grows upon the tree of life are all of the blessings
of the covenant of grace. For we're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus before the world
began. The fruit of grace and peace
and forgiveness of sins and everlasting life and righteousness, they're
ours. And we feed on the Lord Jesus
Christ because all of these things come forth from Him. And then
Solomon says, He that winneth souls is wise. He's wise. And we're talking about our Lord's
wisdom is remarkable. When it says, he that winneth
souls is wise. I love that word winneth. It
means to lay hold of, to seize, to fetch. He fetches sinners. He seizes upon sinners by His
almighty free grace. He goes into Samaria. The Scripture
says He must needs go through Samaria. Why is that? Because this is the hour of love. This is the time appointed from
old eternity when He will lay hold of this sinner. This sinner,
this daughter of Adam who has fallen into sin through Adam's
transgression and by personal guilt. But this is the hour when
He will show her His love and He will reveal Himself to her. He deals with her in wisdom.
He fetches her. You remember when David After
King Saul and Jonathan had died, David said, is there anybody
left of the house of Jonathan that I could show them mercy?
And Ziba says, yeah, there is one. His name is Mephibosheth,
Jonathan's son. He's lame on both feet, been
lame since he's five years old, because when he heard the news
that his daddy and his granddaddy had been killed in battle, When
the nurse heard the news that they'd been killed in battle,
she was running away. She dropped him and broke his
legs. He's been lame on both feet. And David said, where is
he? They said he's in... Ziba said
he's in Lodebar. And David said, fetch him unto
me. Fetch him unto me. They brought
Mephibosheth. They didn't say, Mephibosheth,
would you pretty please come? The king wants to see you. No,
they went and laid hold of Mephibosheth because he couldn't come on his
own. He couldn't come on his own. And besides that, he would
probably have been fearful for his life. Because the new king
had every reason to slay him, thinking that he would be an
enemy of the king. Brought Mephibosheth in, Mephibosheth
said something like this, I'm just an old dog. What, you call
me to your table? And David said, you'll sit at
my table the rest of the days of your life. Fetching grace.
Fetching grace. And that's what the Lord does
for this Samaritan woman. And that's what He did for you.
He came after you according to His covenant purpose. And He laid hold on you. He seized
you. He took hold of you by almighty
free and sovereign grace. And He brings you unto Himself.
He gives you a new heart of faith to believe Him and rest in Him. And He says, you'll sit at My
table the rest of the days of your life. Yes, you'll sit at
My table throughout eternity. Oh, what wisdom! This One who
wins souls is wise. And in wisdom, He deals with
this woman. He's not rushing. He is going
to show her the kindness of God. You know, when I behold the creation
of the world, I say, wow, what wisdom. When I see God bringing the universe
out of nothing, I say, oh, how wise must He be to create all
of this by the Word of His power. When I behold the creation of
the believer, the salvation of a sinner, that's when I say,
here is infinite wisdom. Infinite wisdom. Our Lord purposed
to save this woman from before the foundation of the world.
And He devised the means whereby He would recover her, and yet
His justice and His law would remain untarnished. He would
save her by His own substitutionary sacrificial death. And He would
draw her unto Himself in effectual love and grace. And this is the
hour. Oh, what wisdom. What wisdom. Our Lord has come to this woman
as a mighty conqueror, comes into a castle, and He takes over. You see, Satan sat in the palace
of this woman, in the woman's heart, which is her palace. And
Satan reigned there, but our Lord, this is His time of victory. And he comes in and he throws
Satan out. He says, you're out of here.
And he establishes his reign in the heart of this woman. And
that's what he does for every sinner that he saves by his grace. In this story we see him in wisdom
arranging the meeting. We see him by his omnipotence. bringing this woman unto Himself,
and before that He sends His disciples away into the city?
Oh, what wisdom! Everything is done with great
precision, you see. Every detail is attended to by
this One who is remarkably wise. He's infinitely wise. He's the
wisdom of God and He's the power of God. He dealt with her with remarkable
wisdom. And then notice also our Lord's
great patience is remarkable. He doesn't grow impatient with
her. He bore with her ignorance. And He very gently and tenderly
and lovingly leads her to a knowledge of Himself. And as you read the story, It's
obvious that the Lord has purposed this meeting and He has purposed
to bring this woman to a saving knowledge of Himself. And He
takes her, I started to say He takes her by the hand and leads
her, but really He takes her by the heart. And He just leads
her unto Himself. He leads her unto the truth.
Isn't that what He did for you? Isn't that what He did for you?
Oh, what patience! What patience! This is the time
ordained for her to meet the Savior. He's long suffering toward
her, not willing that she should perish, but that she should come
to repentance. And then our Lord's great omnipotence
or power is remarkable. This is a glorious victory for
the Savior. You see, every conversion is
a victory for the Savior. Every conversion. It's a victory
over death. It's a victory over sin. It's
a victory over Satan. Our Lord is the great conqueror.
He comes to her. Behold His great power. He gives
her an interest in spiritual matters where there was no interest
in spiritual matters. He creates a thirst where there
wasn't a thirst. He gives faith where there was
no faith. He gives knowledge to one who
is wrapped up in ignorance. Behold His power to expose her
sinfulness and to reveal Himself as her only hope of salvation. Behold His power to raise this
woman from a spiritual grave and lift her up, make her alive
in Himself. He pulled her out of the miry
clay, as He did you, and He put her feet on a rock. Solid rock. Even himself. He's her foundation. He holds her up. He held her
up then. He held her up before the foundation
of the world. And guess what? He's still holding
her up even today. And he will forevermore. He's
her strong foundation. Now, I want you to keep this
in mind. The reason that The Apostle John
wrote this book, and we've emphasized this before. He says, these are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, that believing you might have life through His name.
So as we go through this narrative, we know that John's reason in
writing is to set forth our Lord's deity. And indeed we see that
in this story. But first of all we see His authority
over all the events. Look at the Lord's control over
everything in this story. And this shows that He's divine.
He draws her to the well just as He's going to be there. He
arranged this meeting. He arranged this meeting. She
didn't know there was going to be a meeting. She's going to
get water at noon, and not just a little small amount of water,
but a pitcher of water. And she goes at noon. Nobody
hardly ever drew water at noon. Early in the morning, the coolness
of the day. But she goes at noon. She goes
at noon because the Savior arranged for her to go at noon. And He
drew her to the well. Everything is happening right
on schedule. And after He reveals Himself
to her as the Great I Am, it is only then that the disciples
come back from buying the groceries that He had arranged that they
would be gone, of course, so He could speak with this woman.
Again, look at verse 27. And upon this came His disciples. Upon this. If any of you happen
to have the New King James Version, it says, at this point. Or if
you have a Revised Standard Version, which is kind of iffy in many
places, but it says, just then. Or if you have the Amplified,
it says, just then the disciples came. In other words, they left
when He appointed for them to leave. The woman shows up when
He appoints for her to arrive. And then the disciples, they
come back just at the moment that He ordained for them to
come back. All things happen according to
His will. You see, these disciples, they
didn't come back earlier than this. And of course, we know
the reason they didn't come back earlier than this, because they
would have interrupted Him dealing with this woman. And our Lord
is not going to be interrupted. And the disciples, they don't
come back any later because He has purpose that they see Him
dealing in mercy with this woman. And there is every indication.
So I'm told by Greek authority that when He says in verses 25
and 26, and we're in verse 26, I that speak unto thee, am He
or I am? There's every indication that
the disciples had arrived to hear that. They also heard this
great confession of our Lord that I am He, I am the Messiah. What I'm saying is, our Lord
has the authority over all events. In fact, I would say this, He
writes history and then He brings it to pass. He ordained history
and then He brings it to pass. We have some historians in here. I know Brother Traban is a retired
history teacher. Maybe some of the rest of you
taught history or you are teaching history or you're just kind of
like dabbling in historical things. We know this about history. History
is only as accurate as the man who writes it. So if you don't
have an able and honest historian, you're not going to get an accurate
record of what happened in history or if you read a biography. You
can read a biography about a particular person, say Abraham Lincoln,
read a biography about one man who writes about him, read a
biography about Abraham Lincoln about another man, he may have
a different viewpoint. In other words, everybody doesn't
record history the same way. But our Lord, our Lord, He ordained
everything that's going to happen, and then He sees to it that all
things happen just exactly the way He ordained it. Or to put
it in the words of Isaiah, in Isaiah 46 and verse 10, declaring
from the beginning or declaring the end from the beginning in
the ancient times the things that are not yet done saying,
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. You see,
all things happen according to his timetable. Our Lord's death
is so often referred to as The hour. The hour. Sometimes he
said, my hour has not yet come. His brethren in the flesh in
John chapter 7 said, why don't you go up to Jerusalem and reveal
yourself to the people. And he said, my time has not
yet come. It's not time yet. He was teaching
in the temple. And his enemies were in an uproar,
but it says in John chapter 8 and verse 20, but no man laid hands
on him, for his hour was not yet come. But then he said in
John chapter 12, the hour is come, that the Son of Man should
be glorified. And in John chapter 17, he said,
Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may
glorify Thee. He has authority over all events. He was born exactly according
to His purpose. Exactly when He was determined
to be born. And He died right on schedule. And He was raised again right
on schedule. Everything happens according
to His sovereign will and purpose. Here is the second thing where
I see His deity. Not only in His authority over
all the events here, but I see that He is divine in what the
woman says of Him. You notice in verse 28, the woman
then left her water pot. It doesn't say she forgot her
water pot. She left her water pot. Maybe
she was so overwhelmed and overcome by the Savior and His grace that
she gave no more thought to the water pot. That's a possibility.
Or maybe... Maybe, remembering that the Savior
was thirsty and said, give me a drink of water, maybe she left
the water pot there filled with water so that the Savior and
His disciples could drink. But whatever the reason, she
leaves her water pot and she goes into the city and she says
to the men, what we've already learned. Women don't speak to
men out in public. This just wasn't done. But listen,
it's like she's beside herself. She's overcome. She's overcome
by the grace and the mercy of the Savior. She's just got to
say something to somebody. And she comes upon the men of
the city and she just blurts this out. Here, look what she
says in verse 29. Come see a man which told me
all things that ever I did. You've got to come see him. You've
got to come see him. But the rabbinical laws forbid
you from speaking to men. Fooey with the rabbinical laws.
I've got to tell somebody about this One who did such a wonderful
thing for me. He saved me by His grace. He
forgave me of my sins. He's my Redeemer. He's my Lord. He's my Savior. He's the Great
I Am. He's the Messiah. You've got
to come and see Him. You've got to come and see Him. She is now a new creation in
Christ Jesus. She's been born again by the
mighty Son of God. The Scripture says, the Son quickeneth
whom He will. And listen, He willed to quicken
her. And she just has to tell somebody. She just has to tell somebody. She said, I want you to come
and see a man who told me all things that ever I did. This
is the most unusual man in the world. He knows everything I've
done. And yet, and yet, he associated himself with me. He even spoke to me. He's been
merciful to me. And she's been made to realize,
and we're convinced that this woman is saved by the grace of
God. She's been made to realize that all of her horrible past
is all under the blood. And all of the sins of the future
are under the blood. And she has great confidence.
She has great boldness. The mighty Savior did this for
her. And then here's the third thing
I want us to see in verses 31 to 34. Here's the Master's work. While the disciples were in the
city buying groceries, our Lord was having a feast of His own.
A spiritual feast. The satisfaction of His soul.
The satisfaction of His heart. The satisfaction of doing the
work He was sent to do. Listen, He had quickened her
by His divine power. He had driven the evil one out
of her palace, her heart. This was for the mighty Savior
a time of exaltation. He is just rejoicing. This was
His food and this was His drink. I was thinking about this today
as I prepared this message for you. He's not a professional
Savior, and I hope this is the way to say this. He's not a professional
Savior who goes about saving sinners without thought or without
feeling or without compassion. He's a compassionate Savior. This isn't merely His duty that
He's doing. He loves this work. The Scripture
says, He plenteous in mercy to all who call upon Him. He delights
to save. He delights to pour grace into
empty vessels. He said, this is my food. This
is my drink. This is what thrills my soul. The salvation of sinners. He's not, and I thought, here's
another word I thought I would use with you tonight. He's not
a mechanical Savior. He's not like a robotic Savior. He saves lovingly. He saves kinderly. The Scripture
says He's a sympathetic High Priest. He saved this woman and He saves
all of His people with great feeling and great joy. The parable of lost things. The
shepherd finds his sheep that was lost. He calls his friends
and neighbors and what does he say? Rejoice with me. Rejoice with me. I found the
lost sheep. The woman finds the lost coin.
She calls to her neighbors and her friends and she says, Oh,
rejoice with me. I've lost the coin. I found the
coin that was lost. The father The father, when the
prodigal son comes home, the father says, let's eat and be
merry. This is not a mechanical savior. This is not a robotic Savior
who goes about His work without feeling, without showing pity,
without compassion. Not at all. He's a loving Savior. He's full of mercy. He's full
of tenderness and kindness to sinners like us. Like us. It was this work of laying down
His life for the sheep. The work of seeking and finding
the lost sheep. The work of restoring sinners
back to God. The work of redemption. The work
of the salvation of His elect. This work was always upon the
Savior's mind and upon His heart. And then here's the fourth thing.
He foresees the harvest. And this is verses 35 to 38.
Our Lord sees a harvest coming. He says in verse 35, say ye not
they are yet four months and then come at harvest? They planted
in November, this would have been in December. So the fields
are not white on the harvest, that is the literal fields, they
would have been green. Harvest wouldn't have come for
three more months. He says, behold I say unto you,
lift up your eyes and look on the fields, a different kind
of field. They're white already to harvest. One writer said this, and I suppose
he's right. He said, you know, the fields
of grain would have been green as the green grain waved in the
breeze. And then here comes all these
Samaritans, and you know what their garb was? You know how
they dressed? White robes. And here they come
across the field. And we know that. We know that
they're coming because it says in verse 39, many of the Samaritans
of that city believed on Him for the saying, the woman which
testified, He told me all that ever I did, so that when the
Samaritans were coming to Him, here they come to Him. And He sees a harvest. He sees
a harvest coming. He knows there's a harvest coming.
because He Himself is going to harvest them. He is going to
gather them into the garner of His salvation. And He speaks
here in this passage about those that sow and those who reap.
Notice verse 36, Well, let me go back and read
verse 35. Say ye not there 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 already
to harvest. Here come these Samaritans. You
see them coming? I'm going to harvest them. I'm
going to bring them into my garner, into my barn, into the fold of
salvation. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Now indeed
the woman, she sowed seed, right? She sowed seed, but also the
Old Testament prophets sowed seed. The writers of the Old
Testament Scriptures, they sowed the seed. And the Lord Himself
by His Spirit sows the seed. And now is going to be reaping
time. And I believe that these disciples who are with Him, they
are going to be used to speak to these people about the things
of God, about Christ Jesus the Lord. And so he says in verse
37, herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth.
He said, I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor,
other men labored, and ye have entered into their labors. We
sow the seed. That's what we're doing now.
We sow the seed. And you who've been here for
many, many years, think about all the seed that's been sown
here. Indeed, you've seen a harvest. There's been some reaping. But
I suspect and I fully believe If it's the will of God, seed
that has been sown and there's been no reaping of the seed from
that person in whom it was sown, it'll be reaped later. Others
will reap where we've sown. This is the way it works. But
ultimately, it's the Lord who gives the harvest. That's what
you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. That's what Paul says. He said, I planted. Apollos,
he watered. God gave the increase. God gathers
them in. Nobody else can fetch sinners
in. Nobody else can lay hold of the
lost and bring them into the fold of salvation, but the sovereign
Savior, and He does it. He does it by the preaching of
the Word, by the power of His Spirit. And this is what's happening
here. And these Samaritans, they're
brought in. And you notice what it says,
look at verse 42. He says to the woman, now these
men who believe, more believe, verse 41, it said to the woman,
now we believe not because of thy saying, for we've heard Him
ourselves and know that indeed this is indeed the Christ, the
Savior of the world. He's the one who brings about
the harvest. And you know, Our Lord stayed with them. He
stayed with them. Notice in verse 40. So when the
Samaritans were coming to Him, they besought Him that He would
tarry with them. And He abode there two days.
He stayed in Samaria two days, preaching and teaching. You see,
this woman, she wasn't the only elect vessel there. But he used
her in a mighty way. Who would have thought that a
woman at a well, who's an adulterous woman, that she would be the
one God uses to really bring about a great revival in Samaria. It starts with this woman. And
I tell you, our Lord lit a fire within her. And she just had
to tell somebody about the Savior. She goes running into town, come
see a man, come see a man. Anybody who had listened to her,
come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Is this
not the Christ? You got to come and see Him.
And some of them said, well, we'll come with you. And they
come into town and the Savior preaches to them. Tell you what,
you never know how God might use you Or me in inviting somebody
to come? Come to Christ Jesus. Come hear
the gospel. This is the mighty Savior. He
saves people by His free grace. And we bless Him for it, don't
we? Well, let's sing amazing grace. 2.36. 2.36. Amazing grace. And as Brother Newton said, how
sweet the sound. Saved a wretch like me. Number
236. If you need a song book, you
probably don't need it. Stand with me. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace