If I know anything at all about
the Gospel, we've just heard it preached. Larry, that was a blessing. I'm
so grateful for that message. Todd Nybert sitting next to me
said, it kind of takes pressure off when you get up after the
Gospel has been preached, doesn't it? It's a blessing for me to be
here with you today. I've been so thankful for your
pastor, for Don. It's a blessing to be around
other Gospel preachers. I'm thankful. If you'll open
your Bibles with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 4. John, chapter
4. I've thought every message I
preach could be entitled, Look to Christ. Look to Christ. That really is the summary of
every gospel message. It's to call men and women to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of their salvation. All their righteousness, all
their acceptance before God is found in the accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of Scripture is written
in order to declare that message. And so wherever we go in the
Word of God, we come back to the same truth. The person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who He is and what He's accomplished
to save sinners. And that's what this passage
is about. We'll begin reading in verse 3 of John chapter four,
he left Judea and departed again unto Galilee. Verse four, and
he must needs go through Samaria. There was some lost sheep in
Samaria, a woman in particular, and then some other men and women
who came from the city that had been chosen by God and the covenant
of grace before the foundations of the world. Their names had
been etched indelibly in the Lamb's Book of Life. And the
Lord must needs go to them and make Himself known to them. He
still does the same thing today. He'll not lose one of His sheep.
He knows where every one of them is. And He'll bring the Gospel
to them wherever they are. He must needs go through Samaria.
Then cometh He to the 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 of his journey, sat thus on the
well, and it was about the sixth hour. This well represents the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jacob's well is mentioned three
times in the Old Testament. The first time it's mentioned
is when Jacob purchased the well. for what the Scripture says,
a hundred pieces of money. Here we have a picture of the
river of life that flows clear as crystal from the throne of
God and from the Lamb. That inexhaustible source of
water, the water of life, pictured in this well, bought for us through
His own shed blood, purchased. by the sacrifice of himself.
The second time this well is mentioned in the Old Testament
is when the Amorites took the well by force, and Jacob had
to gather an army, and the scripture says, by sword and by bow, he
fought the battle and took it back. And here's a picture of
what happened to us in our father Adam, is it not? And how the
Lord Jesus Christ came with the sword of his word, and he declared
the truth as it was accomplished in himself, and bought back that
eternal life for his people. The third time Jacob's wells
mentioned is when Jacob gave that well by inheritance to Joseph. A picture of Christ and his church
and how we've received this everlasting life as a free gift through inheritance
by the accomplished work of Christ. Hear the Lord purposes, he must
need to go through Samaria, go to Jacob's well, sit there on
the well, representing himself in order to meet this poor, adulterous
Samaritan woman who goes unnamed in the Word of God, and yet she
represents every one of God's people. And I hope and pray that
each one of us can see ourselves in her. There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water And Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. Then said 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. And Jesus answered and said,
Verse 10 is my text for this morning, 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. And the woman said unto him,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Oh, and how deep this well is! But she mistook, and not knowing
that the Lord himself did have something to draw with, his own
divine purpose and the power of his own word. He was going
to draw the water from that well and satisfy her thirst once and
for all. Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and
his children and his cattle? If she only knew. And she will.
She will. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I, Jesus answered 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. That's what this is about. How
can a man be right with God? How can I have assurance of salvation? How can I have my sins put away?
How can I know that I have acceptance before God? This is what all
men thirst for. The problem is they go about
trying to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant
of the righteousness of God. That righteousness that can only
be found in the person of Christ. Here we have a promise. A promise from our Savior. that
he himself will provide everlasting life, for he is that life. Look
what he says. The woman then said unto him,
verse 15, Sir, give me this water. Oh, she like Nicodemus is still
thinking about fleshly things, isn't she? She's still thinking
about worldly things. She hasn't made the connection.
The Lord hasn't revealed himself yet. Neither come hither to draw.
And Jesus said unto her, go call thy husband and come hither. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. And Jesus said unto her, Thou
hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that thou
sayest truly. The Lord had already begun to
work grace in her heart, enabling her to speak the truth. The woman said unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet, Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship? And Jesus said unto her, Woman,
believe me, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship
you know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is
that the true worshipper shall worship the father in the power
of the spirit and from the heart. That's what in the spirit means.
And in truth, according to the truth of the gospel revealed
in the word of God, God is spirit and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him,
I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. And when he
is come, he will tell us all things. She had some understanding
of the Messiah. She knew that when he came, that
he would settle all the controversies and that whatever he spoke would
be the end of the end of the story. She knew that he would
come with full divine authority. She believed that. Look at verse
26. Jesus said unto her, I that speak
unto thee am... You see the little pronoun he
is in italics in your Bibles? A better translation of verse
26 is, I, the one that speaketh unto you, I am. Or I am speaketh unto thee. In other words, the Lord reveals
His covenant name to this woman. And she leaves and goes back
down into Sychar. And she says, come and meet a
man who told me everything I ever did. Is this not the Christ? This thing of preaching is a
mysterious thing. I'm very encouraged by the words
of the Apostle Paul. who said who is sufficient for
these things. I know I'm not. And yet if I've
learned anything at all about preaching the gospel, I've learned
this, and I am learning this, you cannot preach the gospel
of God's grace free enough. You cannot preach it free enough.
No strings attached. Bring nothing in your hand, no
good intentions, no dedication. It is not by him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that's where we begin in
our text. Look at verse 10. If thou knewest the gift of God,
John said a man can receive nothing except it be given to him from
heaven. A man can receive nothing. Who
maketh he to differ? What do you have that you have
not received? This is a gift. It's free. If
thou knewest the gift of God. You can't buy it. You can't barter
for it. You can't purchase it. You can't
bring anything. Freely it is given. Paul said
in Romans chapter 3, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He's the one who paid
the price. He's the one who redeemed His
people with His precious blood. And the only thing that God's
pleased with You know, the Bible never ever says, do your best
and I'll be satisfied. God's satisfied with the Lord
Jesus Christ and God demands the shed blood of the Lamb of
God. He said, when I see the blood, when I see the blood,
then I'll pass by you. And it's the only thing that
God's pleased with. This is my beloved son. In him,
I am well pleased. Nothing you and I can bring God.
that's going to earn us favor or acceptance with Him. He's
pleased with Christ. And Christ gives the gift of
life freely. Hosea said, I will heal their
backsliding and I will love them freely for my anger is turned
away. The wrath of God is turned away. The Lord Jesus Christ has become
the propitiation for His people, satisfying the demands of divine
justice once and for all. And God's pleased. And He gives
that gift freely to His people. If you knew, if you knew the
gift of God, some say, well, Yes, salvation is by grace, and
it's a free gift, and we can't earn it, we can't merit it. And
yet, what they'll do after you profess faith in Christ, is take
you back to the law. And they'll use the law as a
means of trying to motivate you to Christian life. Or they use the law as a means
of trying to measure your success. Or they use the law in order
to somehow compare you to someone else. Oh, stand firm in the liberty
with wherewith Christ has made you, what? Free. Free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Don't use the law to measure
yourself, to monitor one another. No, this gospel is free. It's
the only way the gospel can be comforting is to know that our
warfare is accomplished. Now what the Lord told the prophet
Isaiah said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably
unto them. Tell them the warfare is accomplished. Tell them. Their iniquity is
cleansed, purged, taken away. And they've received of the Lord's
hand double for their sins. They've received the imputation
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they've received
the taking away of their guilt, all in what the Lord Jesus did
on Calvary's cross. Tell them that. Tell them they've
received of God's inelection, elections free. We don't have
anything to do with that. Before the foundations of the
world, God chose a people in Christ unto himself, according
to his own good pleasure and his own will. In redemption,
we didn't have anything to do with that. We're bought with
the price of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
regeneration, regeneration is free. We just heard about the
conversion of the Apostle Paul, who was arrested by God. against
his will, you might say, knocked off his high horse. And so God
makes his people willing in the day of his power. It's a pattern
of salvation for every one of God's people. It's free, free. You cannot preach it free enough
in sanctification. In this believer's life, we are
kept by the power of God. Freely kept. If He didn't keep
us, we would not remain. In glorification, all presented
before the throne of God, spotless. Free. Every part of salvation
is of the Lord. Every part of it. Turn with me,
if you will, to Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 15. But not as
the offense. So also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. and not as it was as by the one
that sinned. So is the gift for the judgment
was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
unto justification for it by one man's offense, death reigned
by one much more. They which receive abundance
of grace and that the gift of righteousness shall reign in
life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, By the offense of
one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Born into this
world, dead in our trespasses and sins, children of our father
Adam, even by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. Isaiah put it like this
in Isaiah 55 whole, Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. He that hath no money, come ye
buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. That word price means to barter. So don't bring anything in your
hand to try to purchase from God salvation and don't come
to God making deals. Or if you'll save me, I'll do
that. No, no. If you knew the gift of God,
it's a gift. It's a gift. Wherefore do you
spend money for that which is not bread, and labor for that
which satisfieth not? All ye that labor and are heavy
burdened, come unto me. Learn of me, I'll give you rest.
My burden is light, my yoke is easy. cannot preach the grace of God
free enough. We have to keep preaching the
freedom of it because man by nature. Man by nature wants to
bring something. Oh, Lord, what the what the fair
what can we do to work the works of God? And what was the Lord's
answer to that question? This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. Now, that doesn't mean
that your believing is the work of God. That means that the work
of God in you is that you'll believe. This is the work of
God. That God will work a work of
grace in your heart and cause you to believe. You see, the
truth is that faith is not the cause of our salvation. Let me
say that again. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation. It's the result of it. Men make faith a work. Oh, they'll
make a work out of anything. They'll make a work out of a
prayer. They'll make a work out of their good intentions. It's
just the way we are, isn't it? Just the way we are. If you knew
the gift of God, the Lord said, I'll not share my glory with
another. He's not going to allow us to
bring anything to the throne of grace, for that's what it
is, a throne of grace. The second thing we learn in
our verse, if thou knewest the gift of God, verse 10 of John
4, and who it is that saith unto
thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked. Knowing precedes asking. Knowing is not the reward for
asking. Asking is the result of knowing. That's why it's absolutely essential
that Christ be preached. Because He makes Himself known
through the preaching of the Gospel. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. How am I going to know if I don't
ask? If you knew. She's going to know. She's going to know. She knew
that Messiah was coming and she knew that Messiah was going to
be successful when he came. And once the Lord made himself
known to her, I am speaketh unto thee. That's when she knew who
he was. That's when she drank from the
river of life. Knowing is not the reward of
asking. Paul said in Romans chapter 10, did he not? How can they
ask or call upon Him in whom they've not believed? And how
can they believe in Him whom they've not heard? And how can
they hear without a preacher? We don't ask in order to believe
and then believe in order to hear. You see, it begins. It
begins with a sovereign work of God's grace in the heart.
opening the eyes of our understanding, taking out the heart of stone
and put in a heart of flesh, causing us to come unto Him. And then we ask, Oh, Lord, save
me. And we keep asking the same thing.
John chapter six, you have your Bibles open there to John four.
If you look over just one verse, one page to John chapter six,
look at verse. Look at verse forty five. It
is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God. And every man, therefore, that
hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me. And
he that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast him out. See,
we have to hear. We have to learn. We have to know something or
someone. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask.
Asking is the evidence of knowing. Knowing is not the reward for
asking. It's an important distinction. Isaiah, in the year the king
Uzziah died, went to the temple. And the scripture says he saw
the Lord high and lifted up. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
made himself known to the prophet Isaiah. And then he started asking,
Oh, Lord, what was made for? I'm undone. Lord, have mercy
upon me. Knowing precedes asking if I
be lifted up, then I will draw all men unto me. Did not the Lord say to Nicodemus
in John chapter three, Nicodemus, you must be born again, born
from above, born of the spirit of God in order for you to be
able to see the kingdom of God. Jeremiah put it like this, turn
me and I shall be turned. And after I was turned, I repented. The message of the gospel is
this, come to Christ, but you can't. We have to depend upon the grace
of God in order to be able to come. The Lord has to do a work of
grace. He's got to give us ears to hear.
He's got to give us eyes to see. He's got to turn us if we'll
be turned. If you knew, if you knew the gift of God, how are
we going to know the Lord is going to have to make himself
known? If you knew the gift of God and who it is that saith
unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask and I would give
you living water. Why don't we ask? Well, we have
too high a view of ourselves, don't we? how often times we're
like that two-year-old who's determined, stubbornly determined
that he's going to dress himself. And the wise parent allows that
two-year-old to get so tangled up in that little shirt until
it's like a straitjacket before the two-year-old gives up and
asks for help. Isn't that the way we are? We
don't ask. Because we depend... Why don't
we pray as we... I can handle this. I got this. And the Lord just allows us to
get all tangled up in our own mess, doesn't He? Until we realize, Lord, I can't.
I've had way too high a view of myself and too low a view
of Christ. What did the woman say when she
went back into Sychar? Come, see a man that told me
all things that ever I did. What did she come to see? What
did she come to believe? What did the Lord convince her
of? Two things. He convinced her that everything
that she had ever done in all her life was sinful before God. And he convinced her that everything
that the Lord Jesus Christ had done on her behalf, she did in
Him. All her righteousness was in
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In myself, I'm nothing but sin,
but in the person of my substitute, in the person of my substitute,
I'm perfectly holy and righteous before God. Come, see a man who
told me everything ever I did. That's where we are, isn't it?
When the Lord is pleased to make Himself known to us, we see that
everything we did outside of Him was sinful, and everything
He did for us, we did in Him. So great is the depravity of
man, that though there is nothing he needs more than the gospel,
there is nothing that he desires less. Man in his fallen state
will not come. You will not come to me that
you might have life. But I know my sheep. And they'll
hear my voice. And they'll come. All men forge
for themselves in the in the factory of their own, their own
idol factory, in their own imagination, little idols of little Jesuses,
don't they? And they make pictures of Him
and put Him on their walls, and they hang Him around their neck,
and they put Him on the dashboard of their car, and they think
they know who He is. That Jesus is no more able to
save than the idols that Demetrius made in Ephesus along with the
other silversmiths. It's just an idol forged in the
figment of men's imagination, a God who does not exist at all. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto thee, if you knew me, oh Lord, make
yourself known to me. Show me, didn't Paul say in Philippians,
He said, I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me.
But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
I press towards the prize for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
That I might what? Know Him. The power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering. Paul wasn't talking about, I
want to have resurrected power in my walk of life. I want to know that when the
Lord Jesus Christ rose from that grave, I was in Him and that
what He accomplished, He accomplished for me. That's the power of His
resurrection. I want to know that when the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on Calvary's cross, that I was in Him, that He bore all
my sins and put them away once and for all through the sacrifice
of Himself. That's the power of his, that's
the fellowship of his suffering. That's the power of his resurrection.
That's my only hope of salvation. You might ask, what is the gift
of God? And a better way to ask that question was who is the
gift of God? The Lord told Abraham, I am thine exceeding great reward. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
reward. He is that river of life. He's the well. He's everlasting
life himself. He's the living water. And what
the Lord is saying to you and me and what he said to this poor
Samaritan woman is, if you knew the abundance of my wealth and
the riches of my grace, if you knew what I accomplished for
you, If you knew what I bore in my body, when all the sins
of all of God's people of every generation were charged to my
account, and I put them away once and for all, satisfying
divine and holy justice and establishing righteousness for you, if you
knew that, you would ask, you would ask, and I would give.
If you knew that I had put away your sin by the sacrifice of
myself, You'd ask. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. The
Lord told Moses to fashion a brazen serpent and to put it on a pole
and to raise it up. The Lord had sent viper snakes
into the camp of Israel. And many of the Israelites were
bitten by them and they were dying. And the Lord said, fashion
a serpent, put him on a pole. That serpent is a picture of
our sin bearer, the Lord Jesus Christ, hanging on Calvary's
cross. You say, well, you don't know
how bad my sin is. It's a lot worse than you think
it is. It's a lot worse than you think
it is. And the only thing you need to know about your sin,
the only thing you need to know about it, is what it took God
to put it away. Look to Christ. Look to the serpent
on the pole. And the Lord said, if you look,
you live. Now, some of the children of
Israel didn't look. You know, I got to thinking about that.
Why didn't they look? Let me illustrate the answer
to that question with an example, an experience I had just a couple
of weeks ago. I was out in Montana preaching
for a church out there. I was with a brother, Mitch O'Pime. We were walking along a river
in northern Montana in grass up to our waist, I mean up to
our chest. And I told Mitch, I said, man, I said, we would
never do this in Florida. He said, why not? I said, in
Florida, there's snakes in the grass. And worse than that, there's
alligators in the grass. You just don't do that. You have
to watch where you're stepping. You've got to take notice of
every step. You've got to keep your eyes
down. Why were some of the children
of Israel not willing to look at the serpent on the pole? Because
they were so concentrated on the snakes on the ground. And it's a fearful thing, granted,
to have snakes around your feet. But the Lord didn't say build
a wall around your tent to keep the snakes out. He didn't say
beat away the snakes. He didn't say fight the snakes
on the ground or kill the snakes on the ground. He didn't say
tend to the wounds that the snakes have caused. He didn't say any
of that, did He? What did he say? He said, look to the serpent
on the pole. Isn't that what we do though?
You know, in our struggle with sin, do we not create rules and
regulations in order to try to protect ourselves from the sinful
world and from the sinful habits? And then we spend all of our
time trying to tend to the wounds that sin has caused in our flesh
and in our families? instead of just looking at Christ. Everything we need to know about
our sin is seen in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. That which is of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is of the spirit is spirit. Now, every
time I try to fight fire with fire, the fire gets bigger. Every time I try to fight sin,
You're going to lose. And when have you ever defeated
sin? When have you ever fought sin and won? The only power over
sin is looking to Christ. It's the only power we have.
Am I suggesting that we play with the handle snakes? I guess
there's some folks up in this part of the country that do that.
No, no. The snakes are only going to
go away when you look to Christ. I said, well what? Look to Christ. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask
and I would give it. I would give it. Turn with me
to James chapter four. From whence comes wars and fightings
among you? Come they not hence even of your
lost that war in your members? You lost and have not. What does the believer lost after?
What does he lost? He lost as he lost after perfect
right. He lost after sinless perfection.
He longs for that day when He has shed the body of this death
and see Christ as He is and be made like Him. He longs for that
day. And yet we war in our flesh against
our sin. You lust and you have not. You
kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet
you have not. Why? Because you ask not. You're not looking to Christ.
You're not looking to Christ. Look to Christ. The only power over sin is found
in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross.
Look to the serpent on the pole and you shall live. You ask and receive not because
you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own lust. How many
times we've asked for God to give us power over sin. so that
we can take pride in the fact that we defeated that. You ask
and receive not because you ask amiss that you might consume
it upon your own lust. But you're not asking for Christ.
You're not looking to Christ. You're looking for some tool
or some formula that's going to make you successful in conquering
a particular sin. Just look to Christ. Quit fighting
the snakes on the ground. You can't beat them. If you knew the gift of God,
that's the gift of God. Christ is our gift. He's our
sacrifice. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Turn
with me there. Look at verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. That which is of the flesh is
flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. Don't try to conquer
sin in the power of your flesh. And don't try to conquer salvation
in the power of your flesh, of your will. Look to Christ. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask.
And he would give it to you. We do not war after the flesh,
is there a warfare in the in the believer's life? Yes. Does
the spirit war against the flesh and the flesh against spirits
so that we can? Yes. Do we have two natures? Yes.
The question is, what is the weapon of our warfare? What's
the weapon of our warfare is the weapon, our determination
is the weapon of our will. the weapon our efforts? For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, they are not fleshly, but are mighty through
God to the pulling down of these strongholds, casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought You see it, don't you? To the obedience of Christ. Not your obedience in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
the father. You know, we often say that the Lord bowed His head
and cried, it is finished. And oh, it was finished. It was
finished. And He did say that. But you
know, that's not the last words He said. The very last words
He said was, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. To
the very last breath of His life, demonstrating His faith in the
Father. His obedience to the Father.
It is the obedience of Christ that is the weapon of our warfare.
It is the obedience of Christ that pulls down these strongholds,
that casts down the imaginations that exalt themselves against
God. It's the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, lifted up
on that pole, that will defeat the snakes on the ground. We keep trying to beat up the
snakes, don't we? Scripture says it like this in
Hebrews chapter 4. Labor, yes. Labor to do what? To enter into His rest. He didn't say fight the snakes.
He didn't say labor to live the Christian life. He said labor
to rest. Labor to believe. Labor to give
all the burden to the Lord Jesus Christ. To trust Him alone for
all your salvation. Every bit of it. If you knew
the gift of God, And who it is that saith unto thee, give me
drink? You would ask. And he would give you living
water, living water, water that would satisfy the thirst of your
soul. Why do we do all these things?
Why? We're trying to find satisfaction, aren't we? Where does the believer
find satisfaction? Where does he find the living
water? only in that which God Almighty
is satisfied with, and the Father is only satisfied with Christ.
What the Lord is saying is, be satisfied with what I've done. Be satisfied in me. Be satisfied
in my righteousness. Have all your hope in Christ. Oh, if you knew how much I loved
you, Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
children of God? Oh, infinite love. And hearing
His love, not that we love God, we don't measure love by our
love for God, how weak and feeble and inconsistent that is. Hearing His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and gave Hisself, His Son, as
a propitiation for our sins. Just like everything we need
to know about our sin is seen in the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, everything we need to know about
the love of God is seen in what the Lord Jesus Christ did in
laying down His life for His friends. For greater love hath
no man than this. Oh, if you knew, if you knew
how much I loved you, if you knew what I accomplished for
you, If you knew how I set that love on you and eternity
passed, if you knew how delighted I am
in showing mercy to sinners, you would not hesitate to come. James says it like this, if you
lack wisdom, and the Lord Jesus Christ is our wisdom, God has
made Him to be for us wisdom. He's that personification of
wisdom that we hear about in the book of Proverbs, isn't He?
Christ is the wisdom of God. And that little preposition,
if, in that verse in James chapter 1, can and should be translated
since. Since you lack wisdom, ask it
of God. Ask it of God. And He will give
you liberally. For He what? Upbraideth it not. How many times you've been reluctant
to ask somebody for forgiveness? Because you had asked them for
that forgiveness before. How many times we say we just
roll our eyes at folks. Not you again. That's what upbraiding
is. That's what upbraiding is. Since
you lack the fullness of the knowledge of Christ, take what
you do know and ask for more. Ask for more. And He'll give
it liberally. And He never upbraideth His grace. He delights in showing grace.
He delights in showing mercy. He loves His children. He's that
servant spoken of that served out his duty to the Master. And
the Master gave to him a wife and children while he was in
servitude. And he was free to go out on
his own when he finished his servants. But what did he say?
I love my wife and I love my children. And the Master took
him to the door of the household and bore his ear through with
an awe, didn't He? And marked him as a bondservant. Why? Because he loved his wife
and he loved his children. He delights in showing mercy. If you knew how much I loved
you, if you knew how much I delight in showing mercy, if you knew
all that I've accomplished for you, you wouldn't be fighting this
battle on your own. You wouldn't be trying to come
to God in the power of your flesh. You would ask. of me, and I would
give you living water.