John 4, verses 1-10. You'll be
familiar with this once I start reading. John 4, starting in verse 1,
when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus
Himself baptized not, but His disciples. He left Judea and
departed again into Galilee. And He must needs go through
Samaria. Then cometh He to a city of Samaria
which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 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. And there cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me
to drink. For the disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto Christ, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask to drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. 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, you would have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith
unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. From whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater
than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
Himself and to His children and His cattle. And Jesus answered
and said unto her, Whosoever drinks 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." We're just going to stop there. I want
to look at two verses. the initial contact that they
make and the first answer or the question that's spoken between
these two. What we have is this familiar
story of the Samaritan woman at the well. She meets Christ
face to face. And He confronts her with statements
that I think we all would do well to take heed to, to imitate,
and to learn. and to learn. Verse 9, look at
her question. When she first meets him, he
asks her for some water, and she says, why are you talking
to me? Why are you talking to me? You're
a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan, and you guys don't have any dealings
with us. I think it's very interesting.
He didn't answer that. He just bypassed that. He just
bypassed that thought. Her question showed truly that
she did not know who it was that spoke to her. Our Lord's humility and condescension
made her wonder greatly. This doesn't make any sense.
You guys don't have any dealings with me. She just saw Him as
nothing more than a Jew. Well, Isaiah 53 says, Who hath
believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For he, that is Christ, as the text is speaking of Christ, shall
grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry
ground. He hath no form, nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He is despised and we esteemed
Him not." That's what's going on. She didn't know who He was. He was just another Jew. But
this Jew, Christ, this Lord Omnipotent Ruler over all, He would lead
her to conviction, conversion, and faith. And we need to learn,
take heed how He speaks to her, and imitate Him, and learn of
Him. Salvation, He shows her salvation. And He shows her the glory of
God. Verse 10, let's look at what Christ's answer is. I said,
first thing, He didn't even answer this trivial question. He gets
right to the real issue and matter at hand. Now, we would do well,
and I know humanity, I know human nature. When we meet people,
we talk about secondary issues, we talk about the weather, we
talk about anything. And we may get to Christ. We
may get to Christ. But what is the person to whom
we're talking? They're just like you and I.
What's their greatest need? Their greatest need is to not
make a lot of money. Their greatest need is not to
know what sports team is in first, second, or third. Their greatest
need is Christ. Is Christ. There's no small talk. There's no small talk involved
here in this passage. And whether there was more said
or not, I don't know. What is needful for us is what's
written. Our Savior speaks the truth and
this sinner needs to hear the truth. And He speaks the truth
in love. First thing he says, which this
whole thing arrested me, and I looked up every commentator
I could get my hands on. He said, if you knew the gift
of God, there's the problem. There's the real issue. If you
knew me, And the beautiful thing is, I'd
never seen this, but this is another name for Christ. The
gift of God. Half the commentators said, yeah,
when he says the gift of God, he's speaking about himself.
And then others said it could be this or that or whatever,
but either way, it's not of man. It's not originating from man.
If you knew the gift of God, if you knew Who is speaking to
you? If you knew your need of truth,
grace, righteousness and peace, then and only then you would
ask Me regarding drink. If you knew who was talking to
thee, you would say, give me the drink. In this religious
world, if people knew themselves If people knew the God of Scriptures,
not the God of the media, not the God of their own imaginations,
not the God of denominational religion, if they knew the God
of Scripture, then and only then would they ask to drink, we must
have this living water. Herein is our most root, essential,
must-have issue. We don't know we're sinners.
If you knew, your need. We don't. We just go on as though
everything is fine until we get old. We start getting old and
people start getting religious. Usually by then it's whatever
sounds good, whatever their ears are itching to hear. We don't
know the Redeemer of souls. We don't know who God is or how
He can be just and justify the ungodly. We're just going to
get to verse 10. If you knew, if you knew the
gift of God, she doesn't know. She doesn't know who's standing
in front of them. She doesn't know that He is the creator of
the universe. He's sovereign Lord. He's majestic
King. And religion today, it's just
some old man upstairs. He's my buddy upstairs. No. Blasphemy. Secondly, Christ is
here called the gift of God. He's God's gift to poor, helpless
sinners. He's God's gift of free pardon
and peace that passes all understanding. In the Old Testament, He was
spoken of as the prophet. In the Old Testament, as the
priest and king of lord of lords. This whole book is a record of
God's gift, the Lord Jesus Christ, the substitute from before the
foundation of the world. If you knew, if you knew the
gift of God, That's why we have one message. The Church has one
message. The Church's one foundation, the hymn says, is Jesus Christ
her Lord. Before we can ask, we must know
in most certain terms God is holy and He will not accept any
person on the basis of man-centered works or our supposed good works,
but only in and through the work and worth and person of Jesus
Christ. One writer said, I don't know
who it was, knowing must precede asking. And all of a sudden the
Lord makes you aware of what you are and what He is. Lord, show me mercy. Now I need mercy. Lord, show
me mercy. And I know you're the only one
that can give it. If you knew, she didn't know. But He was going
to lead her. Go get your husband. Oh, yeah, well, you've been married
now. That's the, you don't have, look,
okay. So he confronts her sin later
on. And she's, she's, then she asked him another question. He
just, he just goes right to the heart of the issue. Our greatest
need, whether we think we think we, it is the greatest need is
to hear what Christ has to say. Well, Until God reveals, and
it's only by revelation of grace, what we are, that's conviction.
We will not come unto Him for life, or living water, or anything. Thirdly, notice, Christ deals
with her on the basis, this is so beautiful, He said, If you
knew the gift of God and who it is that says to thee, give
me to drink, He dealt with her on the basis of who, not what. Now I know there's as many churches
as there is thoughts. And even amongst great churches,
sadly to say, there's divisions that are needless. I wish we
had more of the attitude of Spurgeon in some of these older believers. on some of these things. He deals
with her on who it is that says to you, give me to drink. Who? Doctrine is important. Faith is important. Church membership
or attendance is important. But it does not and cannot save.
Christ, Jesus Himself, bled, suffered and died on Calvary.
He's our Redeemer. Our doing does not say, it is
Christ doing that perfectly intercedes on our behalf. If you knew the
gift of God and who, who, not what. Now once you know who,
you're going to realize if you're taught properly, He's sovereign.
He can save who He wants to and damn who He wants to. He shows
mercy on whom He shows mercy and whom He will. You understand
these things. And as Peter said about Paul,
there are some things he said that's hard to be understood.
And we don't have to figure it all out. We just leave it be.
And by faith, ask God to reveal it to us. Perhaps, as some other writers
said, the gift could be the Holy Spirit, it could be the grace
of God, it could be salvation or faith in Christ. All I know
is that the Holy Spirit, the grace of God, salvation and faith,
they're all freely dispensed by God to whomsoever He pleases.
So whatever you want to, if you say that whatever this gift is,
it doesn't change the context of the message or the thought. So it's God's gift, it is safe
to say, is nothing that we earn or merit, or can produce on our
own, if he knew the gift of God, salvation is all of grace." Jonah,
Jonah learned that. Where? In the belly of the fish,
once after he was convicted. He's got to bring us low before
he fills us. That's just the method of God's
grace. And lastly, I like this, this
thought, and I got this from Henry, We read verse 10, And
Jesus answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, you
would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. He would have given thee living
water. Then this living water is God's salvation. It's Christ. Remember when Zacchaeus held
up the baby and he's looking at Christ, again a who, not a
what, and he said, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
I've seen your salvation. So why is water, why is it depicted
Christ using water for a picture of salvation? Well, water is
the gift of God. Man can't create it. Oh, I know
he can seed the clouds and do all, but he can't create it. We're absolutely dependent. We're
absolutely dependent on water. Secondly, water is indispensable. It is not a luxury. It is a necessity. We cannot live without it. And
people try to live without Christ, for whom they were created to
glorify God and then they're miserable. There's all sorts
of people. I spoke with one yesterday looking
for an answer in everything but Christ. Thirdly, water is the
need of everyone, Jew, Gentile, Greek, Scythian, young or old. We need Christ. Fourthly, water
descends from heaven. It is not a product of the earth,
but it comes from above. So, salvation, it is God's sovereign
prerogative, and it is in His all-powerful hands, and He gives
it to whomsoever He will. I don't know if this is why He
used water, but water is a good picture. If you knew, if you
knew, and all men don't know, So, it's our responsibility,
those who know Christ, either tell them or invite them here. Because hopefully, in the course
of a Sunday or Wednesday, they're going to hear the Gospel about
the Christ saving the sinner. If you knew, if you knew who
it was, That said, give me drink. And I got to thinking, we're
driving here to church this morning, this is such good news, you would
think people would be flocking, but no. No. Human nature is such that we,
like Bruce said this morning so amply, we, the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness.
They're foolishness. Conviction the woman answered
verse 17. I have no husband Jesus said you've answered well The
woman said unto him I perceive you're a prophet our fathers
and then she sees and this is what people do when they get
nervous they start rambling and mumbling and then verse 21 Jesus
goes straight to believe me the hour comes When ye neither shall
worship in this mountain or Jerusalem worship the father you worship,
you know, not what? depravity We know what we worship
for salvation of the Jews. God is Spirit. He keeps speaking
to her. And then He finally says to her,
verse 26, I that speak unto thee am He. She went, she left her water
pot, which was very important back in those days, and went
her way in the city. And I preached a message on this
years ago. Verse 29, Come see a man which
told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
Did he tell her everything she'd ever done? No. He told her that
which she needed to hear. That she did not know. She didn't
know herself, she didn't know Christ, and she didn't know salvation. Whatever this world tells you,
they won't tell you that, but those three things for our children,
and our children's children, and our friends and our neighbors.
This is the greatest need. I close. Do you, do I, do we
know Christ? Do we know our need? Ask of Him
for this living water and may He have mercy upon each and every
one of us for His honor and His glory. If we knew Thou wouldst
have asked Him, and He would have given thee living water." Ask, and you shall receive. That
asking, He puts that heart in us to ask. That heart of faith,
that heart of grace, He puts it in there, and we can't help. You know, little chicks, you
know, they run to their mom all the time. That's what we do.
We go to the source of faith, grace, righteousness, peace.
We don't try to produce it on our own. It's been revealed to
us. We've got none. We just keep going back. Keep
going back to living water. May God help us to do so. Bruce,
would you close this? I want to hear my father, if
I could, reveal these things unto us.