Wonder why God's preserved your
life this long. I can look back upon my own days of rebellion and point to two or three specific
occasions when I should have died. two or three specific times that
I can look at and remember, that's remarkable that I survived that.
It's remarkable. Almost unexplainable. Any of
you remember such times? Particularly you who were yet
without faith, who were yet without Christ. Maybe your mom or dad
told you about a remarkable when you were preserved, maybe you
experienced it. If so, would you please take
the bulletin out and look at the lines we sang just a few
moments ago? Maybe, maybe, just maybe God preserved you
to this hour that he may be gracious to you this hour, maybe. He may have preserved you in wrath, but that seems unlikely. Maybe, maybe he preserved you
that he might be gracious. Look at the last lines of this
great hymn by John Kent. Jesus, our shepherd, God and
King, thy guardian care and love we sing. And hail that grace,
both rich and free, that brings thy wandering sheep to thee. Glory to God till this takes
place. Bulwarks of fire and walls of
grace keep all his blood-bought flock secure till calling proves
election sure. There is a day appointed by God
for the salvation of his elect, a specific day fixed from eternity
when grace will come to the chosen set. An hour determined before
the world began when the good shepherd will seek out and find
his sheep and bring them to himself. There is a time fixed before
time began called in Ezekiel chapter 16, the time of love. That time when the predestined
child, the elect sinner, the redeemed blood bought soul, must
be saved by Christ at that hour, precisely at that time when God
and the marvelous arrangement of his providence has arranged
everything in your life to prepare your heart at that specific time
when you would not at any other time. But at that specific time,
he's prepared you to hear his word. and he causes you by his
grace to hear it effectually, giving you life and faith in
Christ Jesus. It is my prayer that this is
the hour for some of you. I've been praying for you to
that end. God be pleased to perform the thing you put in my heart
and grant you life today and faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. I fully expect it. I fully expect
it. This day shall be in the kingdom
of our God, a day of in gathering around the world. I'm confident. May God be pleased today to gather
some in this place. Some of you, I'm sure, are in
such a state of mind that you already asked yourself, perhaps
you've been asking for some time. If God is pleased to save me,
if he's pleased to grant me life and faith in Christ, how will
I know? How will I know? How will I know
when the Lord saved me? How will I know that God performed
his work of grace in me? Tell me preacher, how will I
know? Well, let me give you a word of caution before I give you
my message from John chapter four. While there is clearly
a pattern of conversion in the New Testament. A pattern of grace
revealed in Holy Scripture. You remember Paul told Agrippa
that he was a pattern to them that would afterward believe.
And those who experienced God's grace all experienced the same
grace. Every saved sinner experiences
the call of grace, experiences conviction by the Spirit, experiences
the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, believing the gospel of God's
free grace. But do not imagine, do not imagine
that the experience of grace is always precisely the same.
In fact, it varies greatly. It varies greatly. For some,
the initial experience of grace, that grace by which we are converted,
granted life and faith in Christ, is a climactic, sudden, revolutionary,
turn of life and a change that you can, you can almost look
at it and say, that's the difference between day and night. It's just
profound experience, sudden experience. For others, conversion is a gradual
thing. Faith in Christ comes by degrees. They experience the same conviction,
but not the same dramatic change suddenly. They're born again
at once, but often God's people come gradually to find themselves
believing on the Son of God. I talked to a preacher some years
ago. He'd been preaching for some time, teaching in Bible
college, preaching, editing religious magazines. And then God saved
him. God saved him. He raised in a
family of preachers. All of them preachers. But God
saved him. Suddenly, he said, I just found
myself believing the gospel. I can't really put my finger
on this, that or the other, but I found myself believing the
gospel. I think more often than not,
that's the case, especially with folks who have been raised up
under the sound of the gospel. who have been raised in a moral,
conservative, religious background, they just find themselves believing
that, which they've heard all their lives, but now I find myself
believing. And they have difficulty because
they hear someone like me come along who was just kind of jerked
up by the hair of the head, never had any fear of God, any reverence
for God, and have a climactic experience of God's grace that
just revolutionizes everything in their lives. And well, boy,
I didn't go through what you went through. Thank God you didn't.
You had to come down the same path I came down. Don't measure
your experience of grace by mine. And don't measure someone else's
experience of grace by yours. Don't do it. Don't do it. I wrote
a letter again this morning. A dear friend of mine wrote to
me about this very issue. I said the matter of importance
is just one thing. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? All other issues are really irrelevant. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Another thing. to be warned,
cautioned about. It's a mistake to make the order
in which we experience grace a matter of great concern. Our
perception of things in the experience of grace often differs tremendously
from the reality of things. For example, there's no question
at all No question at all. I know the question among religious
fools. There's no question amongst us who believe. There's no question
at all. The new birth precedes faith
in Christ. In other words, it's not possible
for you to believe without being born again. That makes sense,
doesn't it? Anybody here that's ever seen a baby breathe before
it was born? Please raise your hand. Anybody. No, you didn't see a baby breathe
before it was born. No. No. No. The breathing is proof
of the birth. Understand me? Faith. is the
first thing you see. The first thing you experience.
But faith is not the first thing. Faith is the result of the first
thing. Faith is the result of being
born again. It's the result of being born
of God. But we first experience faith. And we experience other things
that go hand in hand with faith. Conviction. Conviction of sin. of righteousness, of judgment,
conviction that leads to repentance, conviction that causes us to
turn to God. But those things go hand in hand
with faith. And oftentimes folks start to
question whether or not they really have faith because, you
know, well, did I really have enough conviction of sin back
then? Did I really understand clearly what ought to have understood
back then? One issue, please hear me, one
issue. Dost thou believe on the son
of God? That's the issue. Do you believe
Jesus Christ the Lord? Brother Dodd, I find myself believing
him. He that believeth on the son
of God hath everlasting life. Now don't ask me to tell you
whether or not you believe. I don't know. And I won't pretend
to know. Don't ask me to tell you whether
or not your faith is real. I would not presume to tell you
such a thing. I would not presume to make such
a judgment. But if you believe on the son
of God, I'll tell you this. You're born of God and your faith
in him. is the fruit of His work of grace
in you. When the Lord Jesus comes to
save a sinner by the power of His grace, He does exactly for
that sinner what He did for this woman in John chapter 4. I want
you to turn there and hold your Bibles open. I don't know whether you'll ever
have God's salvation or not. I don't know whether the Lord
will save you or not. But I do know this. If ever God
saves you, you will be saved by God's work of free grace and
not by something you do. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Now, Brother Don, you ought not tell people there's nothing for
them to do. Yeah, I need to tell you there's nothing for you to
do because you're going to do something if you can. And you will, by your doing,
take yourself to hell. You will, by your doing, damn
your soul. It is not, the scripture says,
of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. And if God Almighty saves you
by His grace, He will do the same thing for you that He did
for this Samaritan woman. Let me give them to you in very
clear, very plain statements. Five things God does when he
saves a sinner. Number one. Look in verse three. The Lord Jesus 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, I'm sorry,
Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. Here's the first thing. God saves you by his grace. He's
going to cross your path. He's going to cross your path.
He's going to put himself in your way. He's going to plant
himself between you and hell. Oh, wonder of wonders. The son
of God came to Samaria to seek out a fallen woman of Sychar.
This woman could not and would not and did not come to Christ. Our Lord Jesus said, ye have
not chosen me. I hear people all the time trying
to figure out some way to make that read. Well, actually you
did choose me. Our Lord said, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. You didn't choose me, you wouldn't
choose me, you couldn't choose me. You do not come to Christ
until Christ comes to you. You don't, you won't, you can't. It doesn't lie within the realm
of possibility. No sir, God's people are called
sought out. Hold your hands here John 4 and
turn to Isaiah 62. The Lord Jesus came to this woman
and crossed her path. Isaiah chapter 62 verses 11 and
12, the Lord speaks, behold, the Lord had proclaimed unto
the end of the world. Say ye to the daughter of Zion,
behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. Now listen to this. And they
shall call them. They shall call them who? Those
whom the Lord saves. This is what they'll call them.
The holy people. Wow. The holy, those are the
holy people. Not the strange people. Not the
weird people. Man, religion brings nuts and
fruitcakes out of the woodwork. Even sovereign grace religion.
Man, religious folks can be the nuttiest people in the world.
Believe me, I've run across a few. I hide from them. They pop out
everywhere. No, no. They should be called
the holy people. How? By whom? Called by God the holy people. Not by your measure and stick
by God's. The holy people. Holy because God made them holy.
Holy because righteousness has been imputed to them through
the blood of Christ Jesus the Lord. His death securing and
accomplishing their justification. And righteousness is imparted
to them. God giving them the very nature of Christ in the
new birth. Christ formed in them. They shall
be called the redeemed of the Lord. Well, I thought he redeemed
everybody. Well, you thought wrong. These
people are called the redeemed of the Lord. These are the people
He has delivered by His blood. And thou shalt be called sought
out. Sought out. Not only sought out,
but a city not forsaken. Oh, thanks be unto God for this
wondrous work of His grace. He comes to seek and to save
that which was lost. I recall years ago hearing a
pastor friend of mine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when I was just
a young man, just shortly after God saved me, telling about a
boy in his congregation. He was pulling his wagon along,
carrying papers one day, and had a load of papers in his red
wagon, pulling them across the neighborhood. And some fella
stopped him, this teenage boy, and said, son, have you found
the Lord? And the boy looked up, said,
no, sir. I didn't know he was lost. But I was, and he found
me. Did you hear me? No, salvation's
not you finding the Lord. Salvation is the Lord finding
you. Salvation is not you seeking the Lord, though seek Him you
must. Salvation is Him seeking you. Salvation is not you laying
hold of Him, though lay hold of Him you must. It's Him laying
hold of you. Salvation is not you coming to
Christ, though come to Christ you must. It is Christ coming
to you. Number two, I don't know whether
the Lord will ever save you. I don't know whether you'll ever
have any interest in spiritual things or not. I don't know whether
you'll ever be concerned about sin and righteousness, grace
and eternal life, salvation and the things of God, the glory
of God, the will of God. I don't know. But I know this. You will never have an interest
in these things until the Lord creates the interest in you.
You'll have an interest in going to church and being religious
and having a good name, but not in the things of God. That's
what our Lord did for this Samaritan woman. She had no interest in
him. She had no interest in things
he can't talk to her about. None at all. Now, she was religious.
She was a religious whore, but she was religious. She was a
Samaritan. She had her five husbands, her
five gods out of Samaria, but she didn't know God and had no
interest in knowing God. She talked religion, but she
had no interest in the things of God. This Samaritan woman,
She was interested in staying out of hell. I'm sure of that.
I never did meet anybody who wasn't interested in staying
out of hell. The salvage is not a fire escape from hell. Christ is not a fire escape from
hell. This woman was confronted by
her master in a very simple way. and yet profound. He started
talking to her about water. In verses 7 through 15, the Lord
Jesus just kept probing around, just kept staring, just kept
staring. He got her interested with this well. And she at first
was interested in the water for just purely carnal reasons, no
question about that. Yet, there was such spiritual
truth in the Master's words. Such spiritual truth that somehow
related to things in the Old Testament Scriptures where God
talked about water. Water that was living. Water
that would spring up into life everlasting. And this Samaritan
woman knew that somehow or another those words about living water
in the Old Testament didn't refer to the kind of water you pour
in a glass and drink. This is something else. And the
Lord kept talking to her about this water until at last She
just couldn't put it out of her mind. I can almost hear her thinking,
who is this man? What is this living water? What's
he talking about? I've heard folks talk about things
like this before, but what's he talking about? Where does
he have this water? How can I get it? How can he
give me this water? I don't really know anything
about what he's talking about, but oh, I sure would like to
have it. I can remember thinking just
that. Here's somebody talking about grace and peace with God. Righteousness. And I frankly
didn't have a clue what he's talking about. Didn't have a
clue. But I knew what it was not to have it. I knew what it was to have no
peace with God. I knew what it was to be terrified of God. I
knew what it was to have no righteousness. I knew what it was to have no
cleanness, only insight. And I'd hear him talk and I'd
think, I sure wish I knew something about that. I wish I knew something
about what he's talking about. Still, something else has got
to be done. If ever God saves you, he's going to do something real
painful. He's going to expose your sin to you. And that's painful business. That's painful business. Our
Lord Jesus said to this woman, go call thy husband. And she
said, I don't have a husband. And the master said, that's exactly
right. And the fellow you're shacked up with now is not your
husband. Uh-oh. How does he know that? What's he talking about? Brother Harry Graham, I often heard him make this statement,
usually talking to me. I was just a young preacher,
sit on his hearth and try to learn a little something from
that old man. He said, Don, if you see God deal with the
man, See, God deal with him. You'll think to yourself, I wouldn't
treat a mad dog like that. I wouldn't treat a mad dog like
that. Oh no. Cause God's going to expose your
sin. He going to shut you up in hell
before he ever delivers you by his grace. He's going to do it. And there's no way for that to
happen with pleasantness. Can't be. This woman looked at
the Lord Jesus and she said, sir, I perceive thou art a prophet. I perceive somehow or another,
you're speaking for God, painful as it is, and it is painful. You've got to face your sin. You've got to deal with your
sin. Not before me. Not before the church. We don't
need to hear about it. No. And that's the easy part. It's a little embarrassing to
stand up here and tell somebody what you've done. But that's
easy. Embarrassment's easy compared
to this. You've got to deal with it before God. If we confess
our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin. and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh God, rip open my heart and make me
to know what I am. Dare you ask him? Dare you ask
him? God, rip open my heart and make
me to know what I am. He kills, but he never kills
except to make a life. He wounds, but he never wounds
except to heal. He strips, but he never strips
except to clothe. He abases, but he never lays
the sinner low except to lift him up by his grace. Oh, God,
rip open my heart. Make me to know what I am. If
he causes you to thirst, he'll quench the thirst. If he takes
away your righteousness, he'll give you righteousness. If he
makes you hungry, he'll feed your soul. Number four. I don't know whether you'll ever
flee to Christ for refuge or not. But if you flee to him for refuge,
it will be when he has destroyed your refuge of lies. Turn back
to Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah 28. I don't know what refuge you've
made for yourself, but you've got one. You've got one. Whenever
trouble comes, you've got something you depend on. Whenever a doctor
comes with news you've got to Serious disease. Your heart's
in bad shape. You got cancer. Looks like you're
going to die. You got a refuge. You got something
you cling to. Something you, oh, this is my
peace. I remember I made a profession
of faith when I was a boy. I joined the church when I was
a young girl. I had a religious experience
that just, oh, it thrilled folks today to hear me tell it. You
got a refuge, a refuge of lies, and you will never give it up
until God destroys it. Won't do it. Isaiah 28, 14. Wherefore,
hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people,
which is in Jerusalem, because ye have said, we have made a
covenant with death. Oh, I'm ready to die preacher.
And with hell we're in agreement. I'm not afraid of going to hell.
No, I'm not. That's not gonna happen to me. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone. a tridestone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. He who believes on this foundation,
Christ Jesus the Lord, he'll sure enough have a refuge. Judgment
also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet. I'm going to lay my level on
here. Judgment, justice. And I want
to drop the plumb ball. Righteousness. Now, what did
you say your refuge was? What was that refuge? What did
it have to do with justice? What did it have to do with righteousness?
Because there is no refuge, no refuge from hell, no refuge from
death, no refuge from judgment, except righteousness and justice
be manifest and fully satisfied. And your covenant with death,
verse 18, shall be disannulled. I'm sorry, verse 17. The hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by
it. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you. For morning by morning shall
it pass over. by day and by night, and it shall
be a vexation only to understand the report. I've been standing in this place
for 29 years, trying my best to expose every false refuge
in which you might seek to hide from God. I keep trying to expose any lack
of justice satisfied, any lack of righteousness fully established. And if your refuge does not involve
the complete satisfaction of justice, the complete, complete,
perfect righteousness that God must and shall accept, your refuge
is a refuge of lies. I know that you try your best
to make us uncomfortable. I do my best. I don't want you
to go to hell and be comfortable listening to me. I don't want
that to happen. Look what the prophet says, verse
20. You go home tonight, stretch yourself on your bed. Now I'm
not talking about the bed you bought at the furniture store.
I'm talking about this bed in which you rest your soul. Go
ahead and stretch yourself out on it. Stretch it out. Take the covering and wrap yourself
in it. I am a little larger than most
fellas. I'm shrinking in height, but
not in girth. But I've got to have a pretty good size bed to
rest. Sometimes I go places and folks
put me on a twin bed. Can you see me trying to rest
on one? I generally throw it in the floor
so I can at least lean over on the floor. Because I can't rest
on a twin bed. It's not long enough and it's
not wide enough. I can't stretch out on it. And somehow before I go to sleep,
I just got to stretch out. I just got to stretch out. And
the covers, it takes a lot of cover for me to wrap up. And
I like to sleep in a cold room and wrap myself in covers. And
if I pull it over on one side and it pulls up on the other
side, I feel the cold draft. I took it out here, I pull up,
feel the cold draft on the other side because I can't get comfortable. If you can get comfortable before
God with your religion, go ahead. Go ahead. I'll tell you where
you can get comfortable. God demands satisfaction. for every sin, such satisfaction
that divine justice says that's enough. And God demands perfect
righteousness, such righteousness that God himself can smell it. Oh, it smells like honey to me.
so that God himself can taste it. And it says, honey in the
honeycomb, so that God himself can look on it and say, that's
my pleasure, my delight, my rejoicing. Now you find that refuge, you
find that bed, you find that covering, and you can stretch
yourself on it, you can wrap yourself in it, and you can rest. And that's Christ Jesus crucified. There is none other. Before the
Lord saved the Samaritan harlot, He destroyed her refuge of lies,
her religious refuge. He showed her, she said, we're
Samaritans, we say you ought to worship at this mountain.
You Jews say you ought to worship over here at this mountain. And
we're both looking for the Messiah. And the Lord Jesus said, God
is spirit. If you're going to worship God,
don't worship Him in any mountain. Not only is there, they worship
Him in Mount Zion. You don't go to any holy hill here. You
go to His holy hill of heaven and there worship Him. And the
Lord destroyed her false refuge and caused her then to look away
from those things to Himself. Look at verse 25. The woman saith
unto Him, I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ,
When He has come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee am He. Do you remember what our
Lord said back in Isaiah chapter 52 when we read it? Isaiah 52
verse 6. He said, He said, they shall
know that I am He. He says to this woman, I, that
speak unto thee, am he. And upon this came his disciples
and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what
seekest thou? Or why talkest thou with her?
Then the woman, as soon as the master said, I am he, then the
woman. left her water pot and went her
way into the city and saith to the men, come see a man which
told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? When the master said, I am he,
this woman understood This is the Christ. I, that speak to
thee, am he. Literally, the words in this
26th verse would be better translated, Jesus saith unto her, I am. I am, that speaketh unto thee,
he. And the woman, the disciples
And here she is, these disciples all standing around. This crowded
me is standing around. She pays no more attention to
them than if they weren't even there. The Lord Jesus said, I
am he that speaketh to thee. I am
he. And immediately, she knew who
he was. And she left her water pot, and
she went back to tell. and told the men of the city,
come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Is not
this the Christ? Told me all things that ever
I did? Ron, all I see, he said to her,
is this fellow you're living with not your husband? That's
all he said to her. She said he told me all things
ever I did. Well, what did he say to her? He just opened her
heart and forced her to see herself. Her religion wasn't one bit better
for her than her adulterous husbands. Her being a Samaritan was no
more benefit to her than if she were an absolute heathen. Acts of worship were of no more
benefit to her than deeds of iniquity. He said, I am. And 14 times in the gospel of
John, he takes that name for God, the name by which God revealed
himself to Moses, Jehovah. I am the self-existent God. 14 times in this gospel, our
Lord Jesus is quoted using those words in reference to himself.
And the Jews came along and said, if you're the Christ, tell us
plainly. He told them every day, I am. I'm the bread of life. I am the light of the world.
I am the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life over and over again. I am the resurrection. He's spoken
over and over again. But they couldn't hear him. But
he spoke. Not to this woman's ears, but
to her heart. And she left a water pot. Knowing
this is the Christ. Knowing this is He of whom the
scriptures speak in all the types and emblems and pictures. This
is God in human flesh. This is the Messiah, the Savior
of the world. And what I came out here to get
is no longer of any significance to me. This water, I can have that anytime. I can have that anytime. Him, I've got forever. Is not this the Christ? Oh, may
the Lord Jesus make himself now known to you as only he can. Our father. Bless your word. To these hearts. Thank you. Thank you, son of
God. for seeking us out. Thank you
for revealing yourself to us and in us by your grace. Thank
you for redemption full and free, salvation sure and everlasting,
grace unfailing. Amen.