I don't think there's any greater
thought than that of one day we will actually understand His
love for us and the sacrifice that He made for His sheep. Good
morning. I bring good tidings from many
people, specifically in the last 18 hours or so. My father said to tell his friends
and everyone hello. My pastor said that. And then
I talked to my grandmother, Doris, yesterday, and she said the same
thing. It always brings a smile to my face when I talk to her,
and I know just the thought of her would make you guys smile
as well. If you would, open your Bibles to Psalm 88. Psalm 88. This morning I have a very simple
message. Very simple. I will have just
two particular questions that I hope when this message is over
that you will be able to answer them. It would be wonderful if
you would be able to remember the two questions. But I don't
have faith in anyone because I, even to this day, have trouble
remembering anything that is preached to me. My wife, just
a couple weeks ago, had nursery. She taught Sunday school for
the Bible study and had nursery for the service. And when service
was over, she said, how was the service? I said, it was wonderful.
We had an amazing morning. And she said, what were the messages
about? And I had that moment where I was like, And I had to
think really hard to come up with anything for an answer.
I said how wonderful it was, and I couldn't even remember.
Let's read a couple of verses and I'll tell you my title and
those two questions. Psalm 88, look at verse 3. For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draweth nigh unto the grave, or near to the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit. I am as a
man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the slain
that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they
are cut off from thy hand." That verse 4, it says, I am counted
with them that go down into the pit. The title of my message
this morning is, Stuck in a Pit. Stuck in a Pit. And my two questions
this morning are, how did I get in the pit? And secondly, how
do I get out of the pit? How did I get in the pit and
how do I get out of the pit? We will spend a few minutes this
morning going through a bunch of verses that can help us understand
these two questions and hopefully answer them. So first off, what
is a pit? In the scripture, a pit is used
as a reference, an illustration, a parable of our situation as
sinners. A pit is a deep hole, a bottomless
abyss. It is described as a well sometimes,
a thin hole that's just really deep. A place that is almost
impossible to get out. It is also translated sometimes
as words such as a snare or corruption, destruction. All of them negative
and things that cause us a problem. Stuck in a pit. So let's look
right at this first question. How did I get in the pit? How did I get in to my sin? Where did my sin come from? Well,
first, I can say that my parents were sinners. My parents' parents
were sinners. And you can follow it all the
way back to Adam. The Lord created man after his
image, and he was perfect in every way. But Adam sinned. I am in this pit because of what
my father Adam did. Now, that can be a difficult
thing to reconcile. How's it fair? Come on now. I
didn't do anything wrong. He did it. Thousands of years
later, how am I the one paying the price for this? Why am I
in the pit because of what he did? Well, another reason that
I'm in this pit is because I myself am a sinner. I've never had a
time in my life that I could genuinely argue that I am not
a sinner. Now I've argued it. I remember
plenty of times arguing that I didn't do this, I didn't do
that, I'm not that bad, all those types of things. But I'm a sinner.
I'm a sinner by my father. I'm a sinner by practice. I'm
a sinner just because that's who I am. So often people want
to argue with that term. But if you've ever sinned, you're
a sinner. If we want to go really simple,
and if you want to call someone a thief, people would take offense
to that. If you walked up to a stranger
and I said, you're a thief, they would look at you and be like,
whoa, whoa, whoa. Now hold on a second. I was with my children
at the grocery store the other day, and we were walking through
the parking lot, and one of my children saw a shiny object on
the ground. It was a quarter and they picked
it up and they thought it was their lucky day. Well, I didn't
say anything at the time. I understand. I've been there.
I would have done the same thing if I had seen it first. But that
wasn't their quarter. That was someone else's. They
picked it up and put it in their pocket and took it. They're a
thief. If someone commits murder, Do
you think if they do a lot of really good things after that,
they can ever say, I'm not a murderer? If we sin once, we're a sinner. And if the Lord shows us who
we are, we realize really quickly, that's all we are. We're just
sinners. That's all we are. Now, let me
ask this question. Whose pit is this? Whose sin
is this? It's mine. I have no excuse. I don't have, I can't blame anybody
for it. It's mine. I did it. And when
did I fall in this pit? When did I fall into sin? Well,
in the beginning I fell into sin. It's my nature. But a better
way to say this is when am I not falling into my pit? When am
I not digging myself a deeper hole? When we think of being
in a pit, stuck in a pit that we can't get out of, We often
don't think about what we're actually doing as our whole life
is we're just digging ourselves deeper in the pit. All our time
is just stuck in this pit. Now, it's difficult to reconcile,
you know, we don't even realize we're in a pit. And when we're
young, we can't even see that there is a pit. And really, if
we talk about how Adam fell into sin, this whole world is a pit. You know, just because the walls
aren't obvious to us, and just because we can walk where we
think we can go, because I'm going to get in a car after this
and drive a long way straight away and nothing's blocking me,
doesn't mean we're not in a pit. We are trapped by our sin. We
are trapped by our nature. Have you ever just tried, just
for a couple moments, not to have a bad thought? If I honestly
try to not have a bad thought, you know what I do? Man, I have
a bad thought. I mean, like the moment I tell
myself, don't think about anything bad. Don't. Like, I think of
either a new bad thought or one I just had again. We can't not
do that. It is my sin. It is my pit. Now, how did the pit get there? Turn with me to Psalm 9. Turn
with me to Psalm chapter 9. We'll turn quite a few times,
and I think most of them will be in the Psalms, just so it's
easier for us, but this word pit and the other words that
are translated are all over the scripture. They're everywhere.
Psalm chapter 9, look at verse 15. The heathen are sunk down
in the pit that they made. We made our own pits. Look over
at Psalm 7 here, back of page, verse 14. Behold, he travaileth
with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood. That says that we work with iniquity,
with sin. We have conceived, we have created
mischief and brought forth falsehood. We lie. Verse 15, he made a pit
and digged it and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon
his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon
his page. It says it so simply, He made
a pit and digged it and has fallen into the ditch which we made.
We've done it. We created. We got there because
we dug the pit ourselves. When we talk about our sin, we
have to understand it's our sin. We've done it. And to be honest
with you, we're okay in our pit. This world, You know, I'm too
often happy with my pit. I'm too often desiring more things
of this world. This pit and my sin, I'm just
wholeheartedly going after it. I want more. I want more things
of this world. The pit is there because of us.
Now how about this question? Is the pit dangerous? Is the
pit dangerous? Turn to Psalm chapter 69. Is the pit dangerous? Before I read this, there's a
chance that someone in here is thinking to themselves, I'm not
sure I'm in the same pit you all are in. I'm not quite sure
I'm in a pit. I mean, maybe I've got a small
hole. Maybe it's a little ditch. I
can see out the top of it. That's okay because I spent much
of my life trying to explain or try to convince myself that
I'm not in trouble. I'm not in danger. But a pit
is a pit. Whether we think we can get out
or not, we're stuck in this pit. Our sin is something that we'll
get to this next question, how do I get out of the pit? Something
that we cannot overcome. In Psalm 69 in verse 15 it says,
Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow
me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Psalm 89 it
says this, don't turn to it. What man is he that liveth and
shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from
the hand of the pit or the grave? Our sin is going to kill us. The wages of sin is death. That's
just the truth. It says that throughout the scriptures.
That's why no one who has ever sinned can survive. This flesh
must die. This flesh is sin. We must die.
And it says here very simply, who, what man is he that liveth
and shall not see death? We will die in this pit. This
pit will kill us. It says there in verse 15 of
Psalm 69, let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Don't let
me be swallowed up by the pit. How did I get into the pit? I
have sinned. I have dug my own pit and fallen
into my own trap. It is me. I'm the one who's done
it. And it's you. I don't need to
call you out. Hopefully you're sitting there
thinking it's me. We are the reason for the pit.
We have dug it. We have jumped in it. Now, it
says we fell into the pit, but let's be honest here. We jump
into it. We just dive right into our sin. We are the reason that
we are dying in our sin. So let's move past that. Let's
get to the second question. We can say all this we want about
how do we get in the pit, but what's the important part? How
do I get out of the pit? How do I get out of this pit?
How do I get out of my sin? How do I find a way for death,
for this pit not to swallow me up? I don't want to die in my
sin. I don't want that. I don't want my transgressions
to be the end of me. Okay, so how do I get out? Can
I get myself out? Can I get out of the pit? It's
a simple answer. No. Some of us think we're strong
and we could somehow flex our way out of the pit. Some of us
think we're smart. We can figure a way out of this
pit. Some of us think we're tricky and sneaky and we'll find a way
that no one has ever found before out of the pit. Some of us think
that we're not even in a pit. But let me tell you, you cannot
get yourself out of the pit. The Bible is full of people who
think they can get themselves out of their sin. We can't. All
we are is sin. How can I possibly get out of
something that that's all I am? If I say that every single thing
I do is sin, how can I then do something to get out of sin? Okay, let's make this a little
easier. Can someone else help me get
out? So I can think of a few ways
to get out, but I can't really get out on my own. I just need
a little help. Well, someone could throw a rope
in, but we would just look at the rope and say, I don't want
out of my pit. Someone could give us an idea, and we would
say, no, no, I'm too smart for your idea. I'm going to figure
my own way out of the pit. I'll use the illustration of
one of my children desperately wants to know how to tie their
shoes. and they're too young for it, and they don't really
have the dexterity to do it and everything. So oftentimes when we're in a
hurry, I am like, here, let me tie your shoe for you real quick.
And they're like, I want to tie the shoe. Well, they know they
can't tie the shoe. So what they resort to is, will you help me
tie my shoe? Do you understand how difficult
it is to tie a shoe with someone who doesn't know how to tie a
shoe? They want to hold one of the laces and me hold the other
lace and somehow we're going to figure this out. And I'll
say, no, no, no, lay that one there and I'll put this over
top of it. Well, then they try to put theirs over top of mine.
I say, okay, then you've done yours. So I'll go around this
way. And then they say, no, no, I'll go around this way. And
all we end up is we just end up in a knot. And I get frustrated
and I'm like, let me just tie your shoe. If we try to do it
ourselves, we can't. Someone else trying to help us
do it just ties us all in knots. Another sinner helping a sinner
not sin is just comical. We cannot save ourselves and
someone else can't help us. And false religion has spent
so many centuries trying to find a way, well actually I take that
back. They can't find a way. And honestly, I think they know
they don't have a way to help us save ourselves. But it's still
a lot better message for someone who doesn't think they're a sinner
to hear that they can get themselves out of their sin. So if I can't
save myself, someone can't help me save myself. What about another
man saving me? How about that? So I'm a sinner. And if someone tries to help
me save myself, I'm going to mess it up. So what if they do
it all for me? Well, what man can possibly do
it? All men are sinners. If a man
is involved, or I'll say if a sinner is involved, we will not be saved
from sin. I know that sounds silly, but
that's like trying to find an anecdote from something that
everything has the same poison in it. We can't do it. Turn with me, well actually don't
turn with me. Let me express this. I tell my children all
the time, don't use the word hate. We don't need that word. It's too harsh. You can say you
don't like something or you really don't like something. Just don't
use the word hate. But I'm going to use the word
hate. I hate it when a sinner tries
to tell another sinner that they can save themselves. It just,
it angers me so much because the Bible tells us over and over
again, the wages of sin is death. And what we're going to get to
here in a second tells us we can't save ourselves. Listen
to this. And Luke, this is such a great
illustration of what false religion tells themselves, but they don't
get it. And the Lord spake a parable
unto them and said, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not
both just fall into the ditch, into the pit? That's all we are. It's just the blind leading the
blind. If we didn't know any better, I would be in the exact
same place spouting something off about how you need to do
this or I need to do that. But thankfully, we move on to
the next part that says, if I can't save myself, if no man can help
save me, and if no man can save me, what hope do I have to get
out of the pit? Turn to Psalm chapter 40. Psalm
40. It seems that we are stuck in
a pit in this planet, in this earth, in this world. We're stuck
in a pit. The pit is of this world. The
whole world is the pit. So what hope do I have to get
out of the pit? Psalm chapter 40 verse 1 says,
I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings." If you realize that you're stuck
in a pit, And you read a verse that says, the Lord brought me
up also out of a horrible pit and set me upon a rock and established
my goings. If this man wrote this, if a
man said the Lord brought me out of a horrible pit, that gives
me hope. If someone can save this man
from a pit, they can save me from a pit. In Psalm 103 it says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life, from
destruction. And that word is translated,
the pit. Who redeemeth thy life from the
pit. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. There is someone who can save
you from the pit. There is someone who can save
you from your sins. It is this one, this Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one. How can He save me from a pit? Isn't He a man written of in
the scripture? Didn't you just say that no man can help me?
This Lord, He is the God-man. He did not commit sin. He is perfect. Now what do we
do when we realize that we're in a pit and we can't get out? I have imagined this quite a
few times in preparing this message. What in the world would I do
the moment I realized that I was in a pit? and I exhausted all
of my options to get out. Because the first thing I would
do, let's just say I was in the middle of the woods somewhere
and I fell in a deep hole. Well, the first thing I'm going
to do is try to get myself out. That's just who I am. I'm not
going to resort to someone else until I'm convinced I can't get
out. Can I climb out? Is there something in here to
help me? But the first thing I do once I realize I can't save
myself, I realize I'm in a pit and I can't get out, I'm going
to cry out. I'm going to yell. And in that
moment, that's a different cry than we really almost ever have
to express. Lord willing, we won't have to
go through that type of earthly trial to where we're in a situation
of life and death. and we're completely dependent
upon someone else. But, in that circumstance, because
the Lord has shown us that we're in a pit, He's shown us our sin,
and because He's shown us we can't get ourselves out, He's
shown us that no other man, no other earthly thing can get us
out. Once He shows us that, and we won't see it otherwise, once
He shows us that, He makes us to cry out. He makes us to cry
out. Now, if you think to yourself,
if I fell in that pit, I'm going to cry out. That's the natural
thing to do. It's only natural because He has shown us that
we're in the pit. He has made us to understand
we can't get out of the pit and that we need Him. He makes us
know that. We cry out. Turn with me to Psalm
31. Before I read that, listen to
this verse from Psalm 143. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Hear me, Lord,
and hear me quickly. Don't make me wonder. Don't make
me sit here and cry out over and over again. Hear me, Lord,
quickly. hide not thy face from thee, lest I be like unto them
that go down into the pit. So this verse here in Psalm 31,
look at verse 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
Let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.
Let the wicked be ashamed and let them be silent in the grave."
That word grave can be changed to pit. He says, Lord, let me
not be ashamed to call out thy name. It's embarrassing that
we need to ask the Lord, I'm stuck, I'm in trouble, and you're
the only one who can save me. Yet, I'm a little apprehensive,
I'm a little ashamed, I'm nervous about calling out your name.
There are times in this world where our fear, our shame, overcomes
us from proclaiming the truth of salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It just does. The fear gets ahold of us, and
the things of this world grab us. But it says, make thy face
to shine upon thy servant. Let me not be ashamed, for I
have called upon thee. It says, let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the pit.
He's saying here, let others be silent. Let them be quiet. Let them be ashamed. Lord, don't
let me be scared to call upon thee. We have to call upon Him. We need Him. We're desperate
for Him. So what about this? If the Lord is able to take us
out, if we need Him, we're desperate for Him, how do we know if He
will take us out? How do we know that the Lord
Jesus Christ will save me? If He makes you to cry out, He
has already saved you. And by our nature, who we are,
I've said it over and over again, I keep repetitively saying this,
that we're sinners, we're in this pit, it's our own doing,
it's our fault, it's us. The only way we will ever get
to the place where we will cry out to Him is because He made
us to cry out to Him. And I know that sounds so simple
in a way, yet it's so opaque, it's so difficult to understand.
Now hold on a second. Are you telling me that if I
do something, he gets the credit for it? That's exactly what I'm
telling you. Now, there are a lot of people
who cry out to be saved. But there's a difference in someone
who's asking the Lord to help them save themselves, asking
them so that others hear them say it, and there's a difference
in someone who realizes, I am going to die if you don't answer
my cry. If you don't save me, I will
not be saved. That's the cry that gives the
sinner understanding the Lord has given thee faith that he
will save thee. So what about if I know that
He can save me, and if I cry out that He has or will save
me, what about this question? Because if we're crying out,
we don't really realize in the moment that He's already saved
us. When will He take me out of the pit? When will He save
me from my sin? Well, a couple easy answers to
that are one, He saved us before the foundation of the world.
He chose a people and saved them before they were ever born. He
knew who I was before I was. He chose a people. He saved them. Then we can go to the second
part of this is when He became a man and lived perfectly. He
had to pay the price for my sin. He had to put away my pit. He was made sin. My sin was pressed
upon Him and He died for me. He died for my sin. He did all
those kind of things. In 1 Peter it says this, For
as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, you weren't redeemed, you weren't
saved by anything of your own hands, anything of your own doing,
anything of this world, but you were saved with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. He
did it. who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, it was predetermined before the
world began that He would save His people." Well, then why does
it feel like I'm still in this pit? I'm still stuck in this
sin? Because the end of verse 20 says, "...but was manifest
in these last times for you." We just didn't know it. We just
didn't see it. We can't see it. And this flesh,
one day, will die. It will. This sin is flesh. And
everything I'm talking about here, I should have said this
at the beginning, but this is all a representation of our spiritual
life. This flesh is sin and we will
die. This flesh, it's decaying, as
you just said, it is day by day, moment by moment, it is just
fleeting, it is just falling apart. The rate at which it falls
is different for everyone, but there's an appointed time that
all flesh will die. But spiritually speaking, the
Lord Jesus Christ will save His children from their sin, from
the pit. So, we have one more Well, we
have a couple more things to finish off. How do I get out
of the pit? Will I fall back into the pit? I mean, if someone
saves me, if I fell into a pit and someone came, as the Lord
does, reached down and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck,
yanked me out of that pit and set me on a rock and put me there,
do you know what my first earthly thought would be? Where's the
pit? I don't want to fall in the pit again. I'm worried about
that pit. I was just trapped in that pit.
I don't want to be back in that pit. Well, turn with me to Psalm
chapter 30. Just across the page, actually.
Psalm 30, look at verse 1. I will extol Thee, O Lord, for
Thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me. It just says here, I will praise
Thee, Lord, because You lifted me up. Verse 2, O Lord my God,
I cried unto Thee and Thou hast healed me. O Lord, Thou hast
brought up my soul from the grave, or the pit. You brought me up
from the pit. Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go
down to the pit. Once He brings us out of the
pit, the pit is no more. It's not that we don't have to
worry about falling back into the pit. It's that He paid the
price for our sin and it's no more. Once He gets us out of
the pit and sets us on the rock, which He's the rock, once He
sets us there, the pit is no more. Our sin is gone. Like if
we looked around to try to find it, how much would that, is there
anything better? If you fell into a hole in the
forest and someone grabbed you out and laid you on the side
on the ground right there, is there a better feeling than looking
around and realizing the pit is gone? Your trouble, the thing
that had caused you all those problems, the thing that was
going to be the end of you. You had no choice. You had no
chance to get out of this pit. To realize that not only did
someone save you from the pit, but they eliminated the pit.
They took care of it. It's no longer there. We don't
have to worry about the pit anymore. And finally, who gets the glory
for getting us out of the pit? Turn to Psalm chapter 6. Psalm chapter 6. Who gets the
glory? Verse 1 of Psalm 6. O Lord, rebuke
me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for
my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed, but
thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy's sake,
for in death there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave who shall
give thee thanks? The one who does the saving,
the one who conquered over the grave, the one who conquered
over death, that is the one who gets all the glory. In this illustration
I keep using, if I'm in the pit and someone grabs me up and takes
me out of the pit, solves the pit, it'll never be a problem
for me ever again, that is the person who gets all the glory.
They did everything. And despite us trying so hard
to get a little glory ourselves, the Lord Jesus Christ did it
all in salvation. He did it all in paying the debt
for our sins. He did everything. Let me read this verse. I will
ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them
from death. O death, I will be thy plagues.
O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes. The Lord says, I am the one who
conquered death. I am the one who conquered the
grave. I am the one who took the power away from sin. I am
the one who gets all the glory. Now turn with me to John 4 and
we'll close. John Chapter 4 The article in the bulletin,
there were a couple of them that were appropriate, but the able
to keep you from falling. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling, present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Unto Him that's able to
keep us from falling and present us faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Now let me just take a couple
minutes and read a couple verses from a story that we all know.
And I want us to think as we go through this, because I had
said this earlier and described it, a pit sometimes is described
as a well. And a well was something that
was unbelievably valuable, what even is now for some people,
but centuries and centuries ago and early in the word, A well
was life. A well saved people's life. They
had to have water. So read this and let's look at
this as a way of this woman and this well. Chapter 4 of John,
verse 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the
well, and it was about the sixth hour. It says here the Lord was
wearied with his journey, showing us he is a man. Yet he stayed
there for a specific reason. In verse 8 it says, For his disciples
were gone away unto the city to buy meat. So he was by himself
at Jacob's well. Verse 7, There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said unto her, Give
me to drink. Verse 9, Then saith the woman
of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest
drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans." The Lord came to the well. Now, it specifically says a woman
came to draw water. This woman came to Him. Just
because we think that we came to Him, He went to her well. He knew where she was going.
He was waiting on her and his disciples went away and he was
by himself. She came to him and then she realized very quickly,
her first thought was, why are you even talking to me? I'm not
worthy of you. People like you don't talk to
me. She immediately realized the difference in the two. She
understood this man is different. Then in verse 10 it says, Jesus
answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The Lord says to her, You came
here to this pit for your life, for your sustenance. This woman
came to this well because she was thirsty. She needed the water
from this well to survive. We think we need the things of
this world. We think we need this stuff in
order to survive. We constantly go back. That phrase,
you go back to the well, we keep going back to the well, that's
who we are. We keep going back to our sin, we keep going back to
our pit. He says to her, if you knew who I was, you would have
asked me for water. Verse 11, the woman saith unto
him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
From whence then hast thou that living water? She says, I've
been to this pit a lot. She goes, if you don't have a
bucket, you can't get anything out of this. What water are you
talking about? She understands, she recognizes
here that this well that she has been going back to over and
over again does not have anything that will keep her alive forever.
What this well has for her is something that just prolongs
her time. It just keeps her moving forward. But what is this he
talks about? Living water? Verse 12, she says
to him, art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave
us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and
his cattle? Is this not us? She said to him,
you're talking about this living water. Are you saying you're
better than the person who dug this pit? What makes you better
than him? He dug this pit for us. He gave
us this sin. Our fathers, our forefathers,
we have this sin because of Him. What is this that you talk about?
You think you're better than Him? How could you be any different
than any other man? Jesus answered, verse 13, and
said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. He says to her, If you go back
to this well, if you keep dipping your bucket down into this pit,
You're going to be dependent on it forever. You're never going
to get any sustenance from it. He says, but what I have, what
I can give you, instead of this pit here, I will give you a well
of water springing up into everlasting life. I will give you eternal
life. This pit gives you nothing, but
me, the well I have, that's everlasting life. Verse 15, the woman saith
unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw. She said to him, I want that
water. This is her crying out to him.
She's saying, I want what you have. I don't want this well
anymore. I don't want this water I've
had my whole life. I want something different, something better.
I want what you have. And if we go on down, the Lord asked
her questions and it became very obvious to her, but it's for
our good, that she was a sinner. She was just like us. No matter
what it described there, she's a sinner. She's awful. She has
no right to anything. And he's saying all this so that
she can realize and she can say in her own mind, as the Lord
teaches us, I don't have any right. I don't have any claim.
I don't deserve this everlasting water that you're giving me.
I don't have it. Verse 23 says, But the hour cometh, he saying,
and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know
that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When He is
come, He will tell us all things. She believes that the Savior
has come, but until He shows her in just a second, she doesn't
realize it. Look at verse 26. Jesus said
unto her, I that speak unto thee am He. I am the one who has this
everlasting water. I am the one. This woman, she
just didn't understand it until he finally told her, I am the
one that seetheth. And later on, she went back into
town and said, you're not going to believe what I just found.
Once the Lord shows us who He is, we'll cry out for Him. He
shows us what position we're in. How did I get in the pit?
I'm in the pit because my father sinned, Adam sinned, and because
I sinned. I'm in the pit of sin because
it's me. It's my fault. I'm the one who did it. That's
the truth. How do I get out of the pit?
I must understand that I can't get out of the pit on my own.
I can't get out of the pit of anything in this world. I am
completely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to get me out
of the pit. My only hope for salvation is
that He saves me on His own, by His will, because of His proclamation
and His choice before time ever began, because of His sacrifice,
because of His death and His blood, I can be saved. That is my only hope. And He
is the one who is going to do the whole work. He is the one
who is going to get all the glory. He is the one who is going to
eliminate this pit from even existing. He will pay the price
for my sins. He gets all the glory. And thankfully,
the Lord makes us to cry out, If you even, it comes in your
mind, just do it. Just cry out. We must understand
that we are completely dependent upon Him. And that's our hope.
Our hope is that He makes us to cry to Him. Don't be ashamed
of it. Say like the Apostle said, Lord,
others may be ashamed, but Lord, don't let me be ashamed to proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ is my only hope, my Savior for salvation.