George Whitefield, a tremendous, tremendous preacher
of the 1700s, came to these shores and faithfully preached the gospel
of God's grace in open air in fields all over the South and
in the Northeast. And he tried to minister personally
to the needs of people he came in contact with. There were several
places where he would go and visit and he would stay in someone's
home for a pretty good period of time while he was preaching
in a given area. And like most of us, there were
certain people he enjoyed staying with and stayed frequently with
them. One family kept him in southeastern
Pennsylvania very often. He was there preaching one time
and a servant girl came to him and spoke to him about her soul,
just as he was about to leave to go somewhere else to preach.
And he said to that young lady, he said, ask God to show you
yourself. And he left. and was gone for
several weeks and came back through there and stopped again. And
he missed the girl. He asked the people in the house
where she was, what had happened to her. And they said, oh, shortly
after you were here just a few weeks ago, she just became horribly
distraught, terribly cast down, and she hasn't been back. I hear
she's not any better. And Whitfield found out where
she lived and he went and looked her up. And the Lord had shown
her herself. And it nearly drove her insane.
And he said, ask the Lord to show you himself. And he did. If ever God saves you by His
grace. He's going to show you yourself. And you will never see Him except you see yourself. You will never know God's saving
grace until God makes you to know these two things. who you
really are and who He really is. You will never know His mercy
until you know your misery. You will never be found until
you're lost. Most people I know in religious
circles, and you know the circles I travel in, these right here,
Most people I know in most churches have never been lost. And it's
no wonder to me that they take the things of God flippantly.
They take the worship of God casually. They take the house
of God to be just, you know, something that's a convenience
for them. The preaching of the gospel, they can have it or do
without it. They can live with it or live
without it. It doesn't really matter. because they've never
been lost. This is not something that I'm
guessing about. We just read in Isaiah how that
the Lord showed himself to Isaiah. If you read the first five chapters
of Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah writes to us and he writes like
this, woe is you, woe is you. Woe is you! Woe is you! Then he saw the Lord. Woe is me. That's the difference. That's
the difference. When the Lord God showed himself
to Job, Job said, Once have I heard you, but now mine eye hath seen
thee. Wherefore I abhor myself. Surely a man couldn't say that
honestly. No. No, you'll never honestly
say that. You'll never honestly say that.
You might pretend and say it. You might put on a show for the
preacher and say it. You might put on a show for one
another and say it. But you'll never abhor yourself until you
see Him. And if ever you see him, you'll
never cease to abhor yourself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes,
Job said. Moses, out on the backside of
the desert, the Lord revealed himself to him in the burning
bush. And he said, he said, I better
take my shoes off. This is holy ground. And he trembled
before the Lord. The Lord showed himself to David,
and David said against thee, thee only have I sinned and done
this great evil in thy sight. When Peter saw the Lord made
manifest clearly to him, he said, O Lord, depart from me, for I'm
a sinful man. Saul of Tarsus wound up flat
on his back, unhorsed by the revelation of Jesus Christ, crying,
Lord, what will you have me to do? You will never be saved until
you see God as He is and see yourself as you are. Until you're
compelled by God's sovereign grace to bow in the dust before
the throne of the Almighty, confessing yourself a justly condemned sinner,
you will never find salvation in Christ. The only place you
will ever see God in His glory as He is. It's in His crucified
Son. You won't see Him anywhere else.
You see glimpses in creation. You see glimpses in the events
of providence. You see glimpses of God's hand
here and there, but you won't see God in His true character
anywhere except in the face of Christ, the crucified Lamb, seated
on His throne. Jesus Christ crucified is he
who was put to death because God found sin in his son and
God must punish sin. It is he who was put to death
because he died as our substitute, bearing our sin in his body on
the tree. And now by his death, justice
is satisfied by his obedience. Righteousness is brought in and
yonder he sits accepted of God and sinners accepted in him. because God is just and the justifier
of all who believe on his son. And if ever you see God in Christ,
you will confess and acknowledge your sin. You will confess and acknowledge
your sin. I don't mean you'll confess that
you stole a watermelon when you was a little boy. I don't mean
you'll confess that you robbed a bank. I don't mean you'll confess
that you committed adultery or that you're a fornicator. That's
not what I'm talking about. All those things are the outward
acts of sin. They're the outward acts of sin.
You've got a bigger problem. Horrible as those are, you've
got a bigger problem. You are sin. To confess your
sin, is to rip open your heart before God. And Merle Hart, you can't do
that. And you won't do that. Me neither. It doesn't lie within
the realm of possibility. No preacher can convince you
to. A preacher can convince you to walk an aisle, jump in the
baptismal pool, join the church, Give your life to be a missionary
or give your life to be burned. A preacher can convince you to
do that. But he can't convince you to open your heart. It ain't
going to happen unless God opens your heart. Lord, this is what I am. And if we confess our sin, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. This is called Holy Spirit conviction. Turn to John chapter 16 for a
minute. I'll get to my text in just a
minute. John chapter 16. That publican in the temple,
convinced of his sin, cried, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And quite literally, he cried,
God, be propitious to me. Look on the sacrifice of your
son and be merciful to me through his atoning sacrifice. To me,
the sinner. He identifies himself as that
which he has not seen anywhere in the universe except in himself,
the sinner. God be merciful to me, the sinner,
because God had convinced him. That's what he is. John 16, verse
8, our Lord Jesus says, when he is come, the Spirit of truth,
he will reprove. The word is convince or convict. He will convince the world, his
people everywhere in the world of sin. Now, people in the religious
world talk about Holy Spirit conviction, and they talk nonsense. They say, the Holy Spirit convicted
me I ought not to, if it's a woman, I ought not to wear pants. The
Holy Spirit convicted me, if it's a man, I ought not to wear
my hair below my ears. When I was in college, they had
passed a rule that you couldn't, the boys couldn't wear the sideburns
down below their ears. Because it was a matter of conviction
with them. The fellow who initiated the rule, about 10 years after
I got out of school, he had sideburns down here, cut off right there. His Holy Spirit conviction had
changed. The Holy Spirit convicted me of this, that, ain't so. Ain't
so. Religious tomfoolery convinced
you a lot of stuff. If God, the Holy Spirit, convinces
you of something, it'll be these three things. These three things. Sin. Not sins, sin. It's not any difficult to convict
you of sins. That's no difficulty at all.
Just do it, whatever it is, and you're convinced of it. Sins. You may pretend it's not so.
That harlot swipes her map and she says, I haven't sinned. I
haven't done anything wrong. But she knows better. The Holy Spirit
comes to convince you of sin. Only that's what you are. That's
what you are. Sin. That obnoxious, hideous,
vile, loathsome, God-hating, hated-of-God thing. Sin. Blackness. Corruption. Evil. How come? Because They believe
not on me. That's the proof. You hate God. You hate God. Because they believe not on me.
The heart is enmity against God. Of righteousness. Not that God
is righteous. You were born knowing that. Romans
chapter one says so. And your conscience says so.
Not that he will convince you that you ought to do righteous
things. You know that. Not that he will
convince you to start living righteously. You know you ought
to. What you talking about? He will convince you of righteousness
established and brought in. How come? Because I go to my
Father. He'll convince you I did what
I came here to do. I did everything written in the
prophets of the Christ. I have fulfilled all righteousness,
broad and everlasting righteousness by my obedience unto my Father
as the representative of my people. And He'll convince you of one
more thing. Oh, if He will convince you of your sin, if He will convince
you of Christ's righteousness, He will convince you of judgment.
Not judgment to come, Again, you were born with that. That's
what terrifies men when they think about death. That's what
causes folks to be scared to death to die. They know they've
got to meet God in judgment. Everybody does. I know some folks
say they don't. They know. They know. Every one
of you, you know you will soon meet God in judgment. Oh, but
when the Spirit of God comes and reveals Christ in you, He
will convince you of seeing what you are. righteousness brought
in by the obedience of Christ and judgment forever finished. Because the prince of this world
is judged, the Son of God has finished judgment for his people.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now, let's turn to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. We're going to pick up the story of
the Samaritan woman here in John 4 verse 15. The Lord Jesus came to where
she was and he sat on the well waiting for her to come out and
draw water at the appointed hour. And now he initiates a conversation
with this woman. He's been talking to her. He's
been stirring around a little bit. And the woman saith unto
him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go call
thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus saith 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. You just shacked
up with him. In that thou sits truly. The
title of my message this morning is, Go Call Your Husband or Sin
Exposed. I'm here today, O Spirit of God,
will you speak through this worthless, empty vessel to the hearts of
these immortal souls, I'm here to convince you of your sin. I want to expose your sin. I want you to see your sin, not
your neighbor's, not your husbands, not your wife, not your daughters,
not your son, not your mother and daddy, your sin. I want to
show you three things in this text. First, understand that
conversion is usually a process, not a climactic event. Second,
the conviction of sin is a forerunner conversion. And third, if the
Lord Jesus shows you your sin, He does so to save you by His
grace. All right? Number one. In verse
15, we learn clearly that conversion is not always climactic. Now
understand what I'm saying. Redemption, climactic. Jesus Christ redeemed us with
His blood at Calvary. When he cried, it is finished,
the work was done. Regeneration is climactic. God puts life in the center. He puts life in the center. And
no human eye can tell when. It can't be. Is that right, Darvin?
You don't see the spirit move. You don't see it move. He comes
by the power of his word and puts life in the center. Regeneration,
like that. But you don't see the life immediately. A woman conceives in her womb,
and at conception, life begins. But you don't see it. You don't
know it until things start to happen. And things start to change,
and suddenly you get a suspicion that maybe there's some life
in her womb. And you go to the doctor and
run the test, and sure enough, There's evidence that you have
conceived a child and then a few months later you bear the child
and you nurse the child and you hold that living child in your
arms because now life is manifest. Conversion is the manifestation
of life. You got that? Conversion is the
manifestation of that life that God gives in the new birth. It
is sometimes climactic. Immediately with Saul of Tarsus,
when the Lord called him, he turned to him and was immediately
converted by his grace, immediately taught by his spirit. Others,
not so. This woman is a classic example. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."
I can almost get the picture before me. The Lord Jesus had
been talking to this old gal, and a salty gal she was. He'd
been talking to her about eternal life, about grace, about salvation,
and she didn't understand a thing he said. Now, she was religious,
but she didn't understand anything he was talking about. She thought
that she was just engaged in another religious batter with
some religious fool. And she was a little cocky, a
little sassy, a little arrogant, and she spoke with her arrogance
to him. She could care less what the
master was telling her. She, I can just see her, she
drops her little water pot into the well and she holds the rope
with one hand and wipes her brow with the other one and she says,
I'll tell you what, You give me that water, you won't see
me doing this anymore. She's just, she's not interested in
what's going on. Not at all. And yet, we shouldn't be too
hard with her. Or others like her. You see,
the carnal mind is always occupied with carnal things. Why expect it to be occupied
with things it can't see? Why expect the carnal mind to
be occupied with spiritual things. It won't happen. The carnal mind
only sees the carnal. The carnal mind is only affected
by the carnal. The carnal mind cannot, cannot,
cannot apprehend the things of God. The carnal person, the natural
man, lives in the cramped, confined quarters of flesh. That's all
he knows. So all he can see, all he can
sense, All it can judge is limited to flesh. That's the only thing
he's got to go by. Look at this poor woman. The
savior of the world is standing in front of her, but she didn't
know him. The light of the world is right
before her, but she's still in darkness. The sun of righteousness
is shining in her face, but she's not in the least warmed. She
was just full of questions, like most people. The Savior asked
her for a drink of water, and she said, how come you're asking
me? He told her to ask him for water. And she said, that's even
more foolish. How are you going to get in it?
He spoke to her about living water. And she replied, well,
I'd like to have some of that. Give me some of that water, and
I'll be all right. All the while, the Lord was preparing her for
grace. Some of you, he's been preparing
for grace for a long time. You see, for his elect, everything
in life is but preparation for grace. Everything. No matter what course the life
takes. No matter what bend the road
takes. Every step of that one made righteous by Christ the
Lamb, slain from eternity, is ordered of the Lord, making way
for grace. The time of grace had come, therefore,
our Lord Jesus must needs go through Samaria. He's preparing
this woman for this, the day of His power. Now, there are
some lessons for us here. God doesn't deal with all His
people exactly alike. They all experience the same
grace. But David Peterson and Don Fortner don't experience
grace the same way. Look at those folks he was raised
by. Raised in a totally different atmosphere. Raised where there
was at least mom and dad pointing him in the right direction of
things. Not so here. And we took different
paths. Paths of rebellion, God-hating
rebellion. Paths that in the eyes of men,
for one, is a path of honor. For another, a path of shame. What's God doing? It's called
prevenient grace. He's preparing his own for the
operations of his grace. We must never presume that because
a person's experience differs from ours, that person must not
really be saved. And we must never presume that
a person will never be converted because he's not immediately
converted when witnessing the people. Bear that in mind. Don't be distracted by things
that you see. Just tell folks the truth. Well,
I preach to them, preach to them, preach to them. I just give up.
Oh, don't do that. Don't do that. If they're gods,
you call them by his grace. Suddenly then, the master did
something unexpected. He's been kind of touching here
and there. How about giving me some water?
This Jew says to that Samaritan, and the Jews don't normally speak
to Samaritans. What are you doing talking to
me? Honey, if you knew who it was talking to you and knew me,
you would ask me and I'd give you water, water that would fix
it so you'd never thirst again. She's where you're going to get
it. And he pokes a little more. He prods a little more. And then
finally, he sticks his finger right in her heart. I'll tell
you what, you go call your husband, I'll show you. You go call your
husband, come back here, I'll show you. And now, he's touched
something she'd rather not deal with. He's touched something that she
thought was well hidden. Something she had no idea he
had a clue about. Go call your husband. I don't
have a husband. She knew she was living with
a fella, and she knew other folks might call it marriage, but she
knew she didn't have a husband. I don't have a husband. Yeah,
I know you don't, but you've been in this situation five times
before, and you ain't never had a husband. You've never had a
husband. Who on earth is this? Who is
it that's talking to me? And then she goes on to argue
with him. She starts to fuss with him some more. She argues
with him about the Samaritans and the Jews. And she argues
with him about the historicity of her religion. And she tells
him, I know about the Messiah. When the Messiah comes, he's
going to tell us all things that ever we did. Who am I talking to? When the
Messiah shows up, I've learned all my life. He's going to tell
us all things that ever We did. At precisely the right moment,
the Lord Jesus sticks his finger in the hearts of chosen sinners. And when he does, he's got you. The master had her on his hook
and would not let her go. This one, the great fisher of
men, now is about to bring one of the fish into his gospel net.
Second, our text shows us plainly that this conviction, conviction
of sin is the forerunner of mercy. It's the forerunner of conversion.
Many have the idea that preachers ought not do like our master
did here. Most people have the notion that preaching ought to
be easier. You ought never make
people uncomfortable. Just don't make folks feel uncomfortable.
That's just not good. These days, Joyce was telling
me the other day, Maurice as well, used to go to the funeral. They'd
do everything they could to jerk tears and have you scream and
fall out on the floor so they could break ammonia, everything's
all right. And funeral directions go another
way now. It's bad to make folks feel bad. Oh, don't anybody,
don't anybody think about dying. Oh, don't think about dying.
That's a horrible thing. I wish you couldn't get over
thinking about it every day, all day long. You're gonna die
soon. Think about it. Think about it
when you close your eyes tonight. And now, well, we're gonna have
a celebration of life. Going to the funeral home to
have a celebration of life. Going to the funeral home to pretend
it ain't so. To pretend this didn't happen. To pretend he's
not dead. I have a friend here in town,
his boy died a while back, his, Ed Clark, some of you know him,
he won't mind me telling you this. His boy died several years ago
and I went to see him. I feel sorry for him and his
family. They tell me somebody's talking
about He passed. He passed. I said, he's dead. Wow. Whoever heard tell us such
a thing. That's exactly right. Dead. Dead. But preaching likes for folks
to be comfortable. And the preaching of the day
is a little evasive. If evil is dealt with, it's dealt
with in such general terms, with such ambiguity that no one could
possibly think Well, Brother Don's talking about me today.
I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about your son. I'm talking about your grandson.
You got me? I'm talking to you. To you, sinner. To you, vile wretch. To you, God-hating rebel. To you, who will not believe
God. The Lord seems to just slap this
woman in the face. He said, wake up! I'm talking
to you. And you've got to hear what I've
got to say. He said, go call your husband and come. Come hither. She didn't really know what was
going on. But suddenly, all her thoughts and actions, it's like
She's been walking behind the veil. Got everything covered
up. You been there, Larry? Oh, I
don't want you to know anything. We spend our lives walking behind
the veil. Oh, I don't want anybody to know
what's going on in here. I don't want anybody to see what
I am. And suddenly, the Lord just rips the veil open, and
there you stand, buck naked, and you're shot. What am I going
to do? What am I going to do? Just shocked. He knows everything. This man
who must be the Messiah, who must be God in the flesh, He knows everything. He knows
everything. All things are naked and open
to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The Lord God, you see, in great
mercy and grace brings every chosen sinner like that prodigal
to a turning point. And I'll tell you what that turning
point is. The scripture says of the prodigal, and he came
to himself. You're going to have to come
to yourself or you'll never come to Christ. What's that? God looked down from heaven and
saw that men in all the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts
were only evil continually. Doug and I were talking last
night about various charitable things, charitable organizations.
I read something from Robert Hawker. sometime this week, early
one morning this week, I forgot which morning it was. He said,
just imagine that suddenly men were convinced that all almsgiving,
all philanthropy, all of it is totally without merit before
God. There's nothing good in it. God
doesn't smile because you write a check for $5 or $5,000 or $500,000
to the Red Cross. Oh, you know that's good. But rather, the almsgiving is
exposed for what it really is. You see what I'm doing? I'm helping. And it'll make you
feel good. So while you're eating your steak
tomorrow night at supper after a long day's work and you've
got your whole family sitting there, somebody come on television
screen and shows some pot-bellied starving children somewhere in
Ethiopia or somewhere in New Guinea or somewhere else and
they'll ask you to please feed the children. It'll make you
feel good. And you nearly choke on your food trying to write
a check. Got to do something, something to feel good. Now,
giving cause you want to is another story. Doing something because
you care is another story. But that which men do is motivated
by the evil they are, and everybody knows it. Nobody acknowledges
it. Nobody acknowledges it until the Lord comes. Here you are,
naked. What is there here? Just trash. Trash that you wouldn't touch. Trash you wouldn't come near.
Trash that you would throw away. Trash you wouldn't let your son
or daughter sit beside. Trash! Just trash! Worthless trash! That's humanity! You and me! And you will never, ever, ever
plunge into the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's
veins to wash and be clean until God gives you a good smell of
yourself. Have you heard me? Do you hear
me? Oh, God make you to know yourself. Brother Don, you're just mistaken.
I'm not like other people. These folks are self-centered
hedonists who live for themselves, live for their pleasure. That's
one group. Others are philosophical ethicists. They're moralists. They're folks
like Benjamin Franklin. have principles they live by.
That's true. That's true. Others are religionists. Religion makes them behave good.
That's true. That's true. And others are rapists
and murderers and drug dealers and pimps and pushers and prostitutes. That's true. That's true. And
they're all exactly the same. Exactly the same. For all live
exactly as they will in rebellion to God. And their hearts are
nothing but evil. Doesn't matter which rule book
you decide to live by. Doesn't matter what your code
is. Say, this is how I'm going to live. I'm going to live by those rules
of morality that Mr. Franklin wrote out so many years
ago. You know, I've actually heard preachers recommend that
you do. I've actually heard preachers
recommend, you need to read Franklin's rules of morality often. I live
by the golden rule. How many times have you heard
that? Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Shoot. You do, do you? Let me get you
aside for just a few minutes, we'll find out. I live by the
golden rule. I live by the Ten Commandments.
Doesn't matter which rule book you choose, You don't live by
it. You just hold it up as a hiding
place, a refuge of lies, to keep God's Word from coming near you.
That's all. No man obeys anything like what he himself
considers righteousness. And yet, no man can convince
another man of his utter sinfulness. I can't convince you. All right? I suspect, Rex, I've preached
it about the plane. Has anybody you ever heard preach it? But
I can't convince you. I can't convince you what you
are. I can no more convince you what you are than I can change
what you are. But God can do both. Oh, this Samaritan woman must be
convinced of her sin. Here's the third thing. If the Lord Jesus comes to convince you of your
sin, if He is pleased to expose your sin, If he sticks your nose in the trash
pile here. If he takes away the curtain
behind which you're hiding. If he strips you. If he empties you. brings you down to the dust. If He abases you, if He makes
you nothing, nothing, nothing. I am somebody. Yeah, you are.
You're nothing. Nothing. I don't care who you
are. I don't care whose son you are.
You're nothing. Nothing. Not before God. Why on earth Would He do that
to anybody? He does it to save you by His
grace. That's why. He destroys that He may heal. He empties that He may fill. He strips that He may clothe. He kills that He may make alive. He embases that He may exalt. Otherwise, he'll just leave you
alone and let you go to hell. Oh, I pray he won't leave you
alone. One more thing. He says, go call thy husband. That's not what he said. He said,
go call thy husband and come hither. Go call your husband. Go get
all your sin, all your corruption, all your guilt, all your filth,
all your abominable wretchedness, and come here. Come unto me,
all you that labor, and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Him that cometh to me, Him that cometh to me, no matter who you are, no matter
where you are, no matter what you've done, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Amen.