And I want to speak a few minutes
on this thought, the success of Christ. The success of Christ,
John, chapter four. Before we look into this chapter,
I want to make some assertions concerning. This doctrine, this thought of
the success. Of Jesus Christ. And these things
I'm about to tell you have brought me much rejection from religious
folks through the years. But I want to say once and for
all, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not for sale. It's not to
be belittled, compromised, or made to suit sinful flesh. I heard the statement a while
back. that we ought not to be offensive in preaching the gospel. That wasn't exactly the way they
said it. But that's true. We ought not be offensive in
preaching the gospel. But if the gospel itself is offensive,
that's your problem. See? And I like the way one fellow
said it one time. If the way I preach the gospel
offends you, I'll apologize. But if the gospel I preach offends
you, I won't apologize for that. So before we look into this chapter,
we'll make four assertions. A lot of people say it doesn't
matter exactly what you believe, just so you're sincere. A lot of good people say that.
Supposedly intelligent people say that. But the truth is, if what we
believe leaves God and his son defeated, not able to accomplish what he
had hoped to accomplish in this world and in the hearts of men. That's an awful belief. And to
give the devil credit for defeating Christ to any degree is heresy. So it is important that we believe
the truth of God's word. John chapter six says of the
Lord's children that they shall be all taught of God. I believe that not just taught
by some preacher or some human teacher, but taught of God. And because of this teaching
of God, the Spirit, they are the only ones who will not believe
a lie and be damned. The only ones. I don't know everything,
but I would not trade what I do know. I would not trade this
message for anyone's millions or anyone's matchings. No way. No way. All right, assertion
number one, the salvation of a sinner is all of God and all
of grace. We know by nature, sinful nature,
man is depraved without any willingness to come to God. I mean, just
look around today. People in this world are not
flocking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Depraved without a willingness
to come to him. No use talking about ability.
They're not even willing to come if they could. So unless God himself takes the
initiative, it's not going to happen. John 6, 44, Jesus said,
no man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me drawing." Unless God takes the initiative, John 5,
40, you will not come to me. Even if you could, you won't.
You will not come to me. But you might have life. Brother Jonah was trapped. You
all remember Jonah? He was trapped in a fish's belly
deep, deep down in the sea. No need to talk to him about
having a free will. No need to sing him an invitation
hymn. No need to plead with him. Jonah,
would you please come forward and make a decision? No, he can't
come anywhere. He's trapped. He's locked in. So is sinful man by nature. I'll
tell you what the old boy did do when God nailed him down.
He finally coughed up the truth. And here's what he said. Salvation
is of the Lord. Not just from the Lord, but of
the Lord. He's saying, Oh God, if I survive
this, if I ever get out of this, it'll be your doing and not mine. If there's any saving me from
this, it'll be all of you and nothing of me, or my making,
or my doing. Jonah. Well, you remember Moses
and the Israelites come out of Egypt. They're standing beside
the Red Sea. They're facing a Red Sea, and
Pharaoh and his army are hot in pursuit. They're between a
rock and a hard place. They're caught. They're on the
verge of being history. They can't walk on water and
they sure couldn't fight Pharaoh and his army. They weren't fighters. So they're history until Moses
gets a word from the Lord and says, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. and the mighty Red Sea partied. This is how God does it. He don't
need any assistance. He didn't need anybody's religious
expertise. He didn't need anybody's talent.
Salvation is of the Lord. And I want to say this morning,
we don't have the biggest crowd in this county, but I think we
got the best one. But I want to tell you something, and I'm
going to keep on saying this. All the entertainment, all the
showmanship, so-called gospel music, which most of it is nothing
but country or rock with religious words, all of that garbage, all
the lollipops and all the popsicles and all the puppets, has never
brought one soul into the kingdom of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Ephesians 2.1, by nature, men
are spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and in sins. All the pleading and all the
performing and all the politicking you can do will never bring a
dead man to kick the lid off that casket and say, well, I
believe I will get up. Uh-uh. He's dead. He's dead. Salvation is of the Lord. It
is the quickening of a dead spirit. Assertion number two, Satan will
not destroy a single soul that the Father gave to the Son in
eternity past. and that the Son went to the
cross for and shed His blood for. All whom He purchased with His
blood, He will effectually call by His grace. And when He calls
effectually, they will come and follow Him. Absolutely. They will. They will. I want
to read you a little something I read this week. This fellow
said, the most blasphemous, God-dishonoring, Christ-denying doctrine ever
proclaimed by men who claim to believe the Bible is the doctrine
of universal atonement. The doctrine that Jesus Christ
died for but failed to redeem and save the multitudes of the
damned in hell. I agree with him. That's the
most God-dishonoring, Christ-denying, blasphemous thinking. That the Lord Jesus Christ died
for all humanity, and God's doing His best to save all humanity,
and He's losing the war. That's wrong. That's wrong. See,
that's the title of the message, The Success of Christ. the success
of Christ. He's saving all he ever died
to save and damning the rest justly,
justly. All right. Christ knows how. He knows where
they are. He made his way on a certain
road to get to a blind man named Bartimaeus. He knew about Bartimaeus. He
knew he was there. Went by there right on purpose.
Caused him to cry out to him and heard him cry to him. He made his way by the pool of
Bethesda just to meet up with a man that had lain there for
38 years. Everybody'd give up on the old
feller. Actually, he'd give up on himself. But in God's time, the Lord Jesus
came by. He made His way through Jericho. And by His sovereign authority
and power, He had the very fellow that He came there for up in
a tree when He got there. What about that? And He came
to where He was, the Bible says, and stopped. He knew he was up
the tree without him looking up. He knew he was there. And he said, Zacchaeus, come
on down, boy. Let's go to your house. You see,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the person of the Holy Spirit.
Is still marching through this incursed world today. And it
don't look like a lot of folks is doing a lot of good. A lot
of religion's doing a lot, but don't look like the Lord's doing
much good. But I want to say he's still marching through.
He's still calling, affectionately calling out his elect. John 10, 27, he said, My sheep,
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. They follow
me. Now this religious world, and
I know you've all been affected by it. I've been affected by
it and I despise it, but I'm still affected by it. And when
I say the religious world, I don't mean a thousand miles away either.
I mean, Henderson County, Transylvania County, Buncombe County, Greenville
County. This whole outfit has got the
Lord Jesus Christ so defeated. and so desperate for followers. He's pleading. He's wringing
his hands. He's leaning over the balconies
of heaven pleading. He'll do anything to change people's
mind. That's hogwash. That's hogwash. The devil will not wind up with
a single soul God gave his son for. The devil will not wind
up with a single soul Christ shed his blood for. He affectionately
calls. That word affectionately means
he gets it done. It works. It works. He affectionately calls
his sheep. Assertion three, all whom he
affectionately calls, he convinces of sin. Not in other people. If you won't talk to me about
somebody else, You won't have any problem getting me to agree
with you how bad they are. But you see whom he calls, he
convinces of sin in her own heart, in her own heart. I never forget
the time as a young man when he convinced me that I was as
wretched a sinner as any person who's ever lived. Not that I'd done a lot of bad
things that others have. I'd done some, but I can always
find somebody worse. But I had this same rotten nature,
this same pride, this same rebellion against God that made me as wretched a sinner
as any person who ever lived. And you've got it too. And he convinced me that he required
a righteousness I did not possess. Religion had taught me to keep
doing better and keep getting better. And after a while, I'd
arrive. And I was around a bunch of religious
people that I thought had arrived. Boy, I'd be glad if I could ever
be as spiritual as they are. They're full of hell, too, just
like me. and you. But he convinced me that he required
a righteousness I did not possess. He convinced me that I deserve
the judgment of Almighty God to be damned forever. And I want to say this morning,
until you're brought, and unless you're brought, to understand
and are fully convinced there's no hope for you in you, you're
in trouble. If you never learned that, you're
in trouble. That's not what the religious world's telling you.
They're telling you there's hope for you in you. Just kindle that
good. Just turn over that new leaf. Just make those New Year's resolutions
and boy, you'll make it. You'll make it. No. God's standard
is not our very best. I've heard people say, the Lord
expects you to do your very best. That ain't good enough. God's
standard is perfection. That's His best. And He provided
it in His Son. So the only hope for the likes
of you and I is outside of ourselves, outside of ourselves. You can
make your resolutions. That's good. I hope you can stick
to them. I never could. But don't think about turning
over a new leaf because you don't have a new leaf to turn over. And unless you're brought to
confess from the heart that you deserve to go to hell, you're
still going. Unless you're brought to confess
before God, that's where I belong. That's where you'll be. Hello? So the Lord claims His own. He
affectionately calls His own. He convinces His own. that without
him we perish. And then the fourth assertion,
over a period of years, not overnight, but over a period of years, and
those of you that have been around a while know this, over time he'll crush every ounce of false
religion and vain hope. we thought we had in ourselves. Through circumstances in life,
through trouble, through hardships and heartaches, He shuts us up
to grace alone, Christ alone, the Scriptures alone, faith alone. It's none of our work It's none
of our success in religion. It's all of grace. It's Christ's
success for us. I'm talking about. Romans 4,
2, For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the
glory, but not before God. So you may have plenty to glory
of before men, but not before God. You're not going to stand in
God's presence, ever, and claim He owes you anything but hell. And if He saves you rather than
damns you, you'll not hoot about free will then. You'll sing with
the rest of us, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace My fear is relieved because without this grace, without
his grace, where would you be? You'd be part of that crowd out
there today that has no fear of God before their eyes. Doomed
and damned. All right, John chapter four.
Let me hurry just a few moments. The Lord Jesus Christ, you're
familiar with this chapter. He deals with a woman of Samaria.
And it's a beautiful story of grace. Beautiful, beautiful story. And in verse 4, we read, And
he, the Lord Jesus, must needs go through Samaria. Why? Why? Because one of his
sheep was there. And he's going to cross paths
with her. He's going to meet up with her.
She's been his from eternity. She don't know it. Boy, he did. He knew very well she'd be coming
to the well that day. And he knew what time she'd come. And when she got there, he was
there waiting for her. It's fixed. It was on his agenda. I want
to tell you, you can have all the accidental interpretation. You can have all the coincidental
interpretation. I don't want it. I believe that
everywhere Jesus went, every step he took, every move he made,
every word he spake was foreordained from eternity. He was on schedule
in time and on time. with everything. So here he is
at Jacob's well to claim this sinner woman as one of his own,
one of those the Father had given him before the world was created. John 17, 2, he said, that's why
I'm here. I've come to give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. Not one more, not one less. So he's claimed this sinner woman,
a woman that the other women have rejected, won't even walk
to the well with her. But he meets her there. It was an appointment set from
eternity. Both he and she must show up.
And both he and she did show up. And then his call, His effectual
call, the way he dealt with this woman, it involved creating a
thirst in her heart, a spiritual thirst. We'll not
look at all these verses. We'll just comment on a few of
them here. He told her in verse 13, whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again. Well, she knew that. She knew
that. When I was a little boy, my daddy
had a relative, cousin or something, I don't even remember, who lived
up above Marietta down here in South Carolina. And I remember
we'd go up there occasionally, humble little dwelling, up a
holler. And in the backyard, We kids
would play and there was a rock wall and there was the well.
This old man, my daddy's cousin, I believe he was, got a sign
up on his well. You know what it said? Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. I didn't know what
that meant. I knew it was in the Bible. That's
what he had on his well. Can I say this morning? That
ought to be posted on every well in this world. Not just water wells, but the
wells of religion, the wells of entertainment, the wells of
pleasure, the wells of money, the wells of sex, the wells of
sin. It ought to be posted on every
well. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. That's what the Lord told her.
But then He went on to say in verse 14, 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. She said, that's what I want.
Let me have it. I'm very interested in that. Not to have to come
here every day and draw water. Sir, give me this water. And now comes the convicting
and the convincing. The Lord Jesus in great wisdom
is dealing with this woman. He's going to get to her heart.
He knows how. And he says to her, go call your
husband. Uh-oh. He knew she didn't have one at
the time, but he knew she'd had five. You're saying, now why do you
have to be so hard on that subject? Well, you're missing the point.
He's getting down to the nitty gritty. of who this woman is
and where she lives. It's not just that point. If she had been married but once
and been a perfect wife all her years, he'd simply have chosen
another area of her life. And by the way, there's a thousand
areas Christ can explore in any heart, yours and mine. She thought he didn't know. So
she said, Oh, I have no husband. He said, yeah, I know you don't
right now, but you've had five. And the one you're with now is
not your husband. Well, she gets serious now. And she says, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. You weren't supposed to know
all that. She was right. He was a prophet,
but he's much more than a prophet. And she's about to find out who
he is. But now in this line of talk,
verse 20, notice how she changes the subject. As if to say enough about me,
let's talk about worship. He's a Jew. She's a Samaritan. And she appeals to her religion
now. Everybody does that to avoid
the issue. Somebody say something to you. About your heart, about your
doing, about your ways, about your filthiness. You know what
you want to do? I go to church every Sunday.
I belong to the church. I'm a good person. I don't do
this. I don't do that. I'll do that. Appeal to religion. Everybody
does that to avoid the issue. Everybody brings up their religion
to change the subject. That's what she's doing. Let's
not talk about me and my sin. Let's engage in a religious debate. So she starts it in verse 20,
our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. It's what
the Jews said. But she said our fathers worshipped
this mountain. She's not going to get to go
there. Because the Lord Jesus comes right back in verse 21.
And He says, Woman, believe Me. That's not the issue. That's not the issue. And he
says to her in verse 24, God is a spirit. And he was talking
about this mountain or Jerusalem. God is a spirit. And they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know
that Messiah is cometh, which is called Christ. When he's come,
he will tell us all things. Oh yeah, I know there's a time
on out yonder, in the sweet by and by that we are. I know that when Messiah come
in, Jesus says to her in verse 26, you're talking to him. I that speak unto thee, am he. Well, in verse 27, the disciples
come back. He'd sent them away to town to
buy groceries. He knew he couldn't deal with
no sinner with that religious bunch around. Most people I know don't want
nothing to do with a Jesus that'll reach the people lower down than
you are. Well, they come back, broke up
the meeting, but the work was done in her heart. The meeting
was over. The work was done. And notice what happened now.
He never asked her, would you like to come forward while we
sing and accept me? No, the work was done. The work
was done in her heart. Verse 28, the woman then left
her water pot, went her way into the city and said to the men,
come see a man which told me all things that ever I did, is
not this the Christ?" Now look at what she ran into
town and told the men. Come, see a man. Now what's it worth for a woman
of her reputation to say, come see a man? She'd seen plenty
of them. Everybody knew it. But you see,
the difference was they sensed a change in her. She wasn't just playing religion.
They knew it. She was a believer. And they came. Many came. She could have said to those
townspeople, you don't really know all about me. Matter of
fact, I don't even remember all about me. But come see a man who told me
all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? It surely
is. It surely is. This dear woman,
she was long past any hope in the eyes of people. I'll guarantee
you she wasn't on the visitation list over at the church. She's from across the tracks.
In her own town, she would have been voted most likely to go
to hell. The popular vote. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
to where she was because he had claimed her, called
her, convinced her, and crushed her in her religious thinking
and changed her heart. And because that happened, she
left her bucket and ran off with the well. That's what he told
her. The water that I give you will
be a well of water springing up out of your heart into everlasting
life. She didn't need the bucket. She
had the well. She had the well. And I want to say this morning,
if the blessed Holy Spirit of God never comes to where you
are in your sin and in your shame and convicts you and changes
your heart, here's exactly what will happen. You'll go through
this life playing religion and perish in your sins. Oh, that
His mercy would prove abundant to some heart here this morning and bring you to leave your foolish
thinking about religion. bring you to leave this vanity
of comparing yourself with somebody you think is worse than you are.
There is nobody worse than you are. We all have the same rotten family,
Adam. And oh, that the Lord would bring
you to leave it all and cry with the dear old songwriter Fannie
Crosby, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others
thou art calling, please, Lord, do not pass me by. I'm talking
to you about the success of Jesus Christ. Will you stand with me? you