What will it take to bring you
to Christ? Some of you sitting here have
heard the gospel regularly for many years and you've never heard
it. You have been and are the subjects
of much earnest prayer. your parents, your friends, perhaps
your sons and daughters, your pastor, this congregation, yet
you believe not the gospel. And I often ask myself this question
as I sit here and look in your faces, we sing, listen to others
sing, and I'm preparing all the time to preach to you. hoping and praying that God will
enable me to speak to your hearts. What will it take to bring you
to Christ? Today I want to answer that question
for you, and I want to answer it for you plainly from the scriptures. I'll do so by showing you how
our Lord Jesus brought the Samaritan woman to life. giving her faith
by his omnipotent mercy in himself. I understand, I hope you do,
that the conversion of a sinner is the work of God alone. And I pray that God the Holy
Spirit may be pleased to do for you what he alone can do. Oh, Spirit of God, visit us and give dead sinners life. Hold your Bibles open, if you
will, at John chapter 4. Here are five things that must
take place in your life if you come to Christ. Five things without
which you will not believe on the Son of God. Five things,
if you do not experience them, you will certainly go to hell. These five things are those things
by which the Son of God brings sinners to himself. First, I
want you to see that you will never come to Christ until He
comes to you. It just won't happen. You will
not come to Christ until the Lord Jesus Christ Himself crosses
your path. Look at verse 1. When therefore
the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and
baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus Himself baptized
not but His disciples, He left Judea and departed again into
Galilee. He left Judea. What a solemn
statement. The Lord Jesus came into Judea,
and in the midst of the Pharisees, he preached in the streets of
Judea. He who is God's salvation walked
the streets where the Pharisees walked and preached the gospel
among them throughout those days of the early part of his ministry. But the Pharisees despised him. They despised the gospel he preached. They would not receive the word
of God. They preferred religion to righteousness
and therefore the Lord left them. He left them in the darkness
of their imaginary light. He left those Pharisees to go
to hell in the delusion of their self-righteousness. He left them
to perish in the delusion that they know God. He left them to themselves. that statement and be warned.
The Son of God left Judea. Turn to Proverbs chapter 1. I want to wait until you get there
because I want you to see it. Proverbs chapter one, if you trifle with the gospel, if you trifle with the gospel,
you court eternal damnation. To play games with God is to
court his wrath. to trifle with the gospel of
God's grace is to court eternal hell. Proverbs chapter 1, verse
23. Turn you at my reproof. God speaks. If you go to hell,
you'll have no one to blame but yourself. It will be your work,
your doing, and your fault. God says, Turn you at my reproof. I will pour out my Spirit unto
you. I will make known my words unto
you. Well, Brother Don, you've preached
all your life that you can't turn unless God turns you. You're
exactly right. You tell us all the time you
can't come except He comes to you. You're exactly right. But
God declares plainly, Turn, I will pour out my Spirit unto you.
It's impossible for a sinner earnestly to seek the Lord and
not find Him. It won't happen. Turn you at
my reproof. I will pour out my Spirit unto
you. I will make known my words unto you, because I have called
and ye refused. I stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded. But ye have said it not, all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. And you hear the
gospel, and you say, oh, OK. And walk off. Said it not, all
my counsel. You spurn my reproof. Verse 26,
I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. Because I've called and you refused.
Because I've stretched out my hand and you would not regard
it. Because I have called to you
and you said it not my counsel and would not my reproof. I will
laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes.
When your fear cometh as a desolation and it will. And your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind and it will. When distress and anguish
cometh upon you, Then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of
my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore, when you go to hell,
you shall eat the fruit of your own way. and be filled with your
own devices. My soul. How solemn. I recall hearing Ralph Barnard
tell a story. He was preaching in Detroit many,
many years ago. Had a citywide campaign among
lots of the conservative churches in Detroit. And there was a lady
who came, a young lady who came a couple of nights, and Barnard
watched her as she listened to the gospel. And the third or
fourth night she was there, as he walked by the singer closing
hymn, Barnard just felt compelled to speak to her. And he stopped
and spoke to her. Just as he spoke to her, he said,
she screamed, just screamed. My God, preacher, for Christ's
sake, leave me alone. And he said, you could hear her
all over that auditorium and suddenly there was deathly silence. And I looked at her and I said,
honey, for Christ's sake, I will leave you alone. And we left
the building. A few minutes later, as she jumped
in her car and headed home, she was killed in an automobile accident
and went to hell. If you trifle with God, you court
reprobation, and hell shall be your portion forever. But don't
be so foolish as to imagine that your unbelief will alter or in
any way affect the purpose of God. Paul asked the question,
what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith or the faithfulness of God without effect? God forbid. Don't imagine such a thing. God's
purpose doesn't depend on the consent of your will. God's purpose
doesn't depend on you, me, or any other man. You may not trust
Christ. You may never come to Christ,
but there are some people who will come to Him. There is an
elect remnant who must and shall be saved, and they will come
to the Redeemer. Christ our Lord will cause those
who are His at the appointed time of love to come to Him. Those chosen by God in eternity
and ransomed by Christ at Calvary shall come to Him in the time
of love. Look at verse 4. And he must
needs go through Samaria. At the appointed time of love,
the shepherd comes seeking his lost sheep. And he must needs
go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria
which is called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. We may look at this again later,
but what a picture this is of our Savior's real humanity. He
was wearied with his journey. How real is his manhood? So real that walking away he
got tired just like you do. And he sat down on Jacob's well
just to rest because he was weary. He who is our Savior is God Almighty
and he is a man just like us in all things like we are, sin
alone excepted. It looks like this Just a chance
meeting of our Lord Jesus and this woman. He's he's walking
through Samaria He's going to Galilee and the way to Galilee
is through Samaria and he he just he gets tired and he he
sets down by the well and our sits down on the edge of the
well and he he says disciples y'all y'all go into town get
us some food and I'll sit here and wait on you and He's sitting
there alone It looks like there's just a chance meeting because
it's at noon, and this woman comes out of Samaria, out of
Sycra, this Samaritan woman, to draw water at the well at
noontime. Nobody draws water at noon, either
early in the morning or late in the evening. Nobody at noon.
But this woman comes out at noontime when the Lord Jesus is sitting
at the well in the midst of the day because He's tired. But this
well sits on a parcel of ground that Jacob bought for his son
Joseph. And Jacob dug because Jacob wanted
some water there. But that well was dug and that
parcel of ground was bought years and years and years, centuries,
centuries, millenniums before this event took place. Because
before the world began, God Almighty set a time when he would call
Sychar's sinner. to himself by omnipotent mercy
when he would cross her path and meet her in his grace and
calls her to come to his son. He says, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. How often it is sinners find themselves seeking
the Master who never dreamed they would seek Him. Calling on Him who never dreamed
they would call on Him. Begging for mercy who never dreamed
they would beg for mercy. Because God Almighty comes in
saving grace and causes them to seek Him. and causes them
to call for him and causes them to beg for his mercy. Divine
providence arranged for this needy sinner and the mighty Savior
to be at the well at the same time. Why did she come out at
noon? Why did she come out at noon?
being raised as we are where folks don't have to go draw water
anymore. We don't live in that kind of area. We have running water in our
houses and we have all the modern conveniences. It's hard to grasp
this, but when folks used to have to draw water, particularly
when all the water they got was drawn day by day, as I said a
moment ago, they'd go out in the mornings and draw water.
take it with them wherever they went through the day, working,
whatever, in the evenings, and come back and draw water. Nobody
went out to draw water at noon. But this woman did. Because this
woman had a name. She had a reputation. She was
scorned by everybody in town. And she just preferred not to
be seen by anybody else. She preferred not to have to
deal with other people. This woman, you see, was a woman
of ill repute. And this woman came here at noon
because this was the time of love appointed for her from eternity
and providence arranged for her come out at noon when the master
is sitting on the edge of the well. Notice this too. The Lord, our Savior, in His
great wisdom and grace, arranged to be alone with the object of
His mercy. In verse 8, He sent His disciples
away to buy, to buy bread. I could spend a little while
here. He didn't send them away to go beg for some bread. He sent his disciples away to
buy some bread. And I'm going to spend just a
little bit of time, listen to me, listen to me. I know we live
in this religious age when you are confronted every day with
religious hucksters on television and radio and people promote
them and they think the whole The whole world's going after
them, and they are going after them just rapidly as they can.
And you think, well, I dare not consider that this man may not
be God's servant. I promise you something. I promise
you something. Any man who goes begging is not
God's servant. God's servants don't go begging.
They just don't. I hear fellows say, God's called
me to, well, to give you an example, Brother Dan Parks, he'll be going
next week, the Lord willing, to get everything in order to
the islands. God's called me to go down to
St. Croix and be a missionary, establish a preacher school down
there. But I can't go now unless you
give me some money. Stay home. Stay home. That's exactly right.
Well, Brother Don, don't you know we've got to have some money?
Yeah. And we'll give it to him, all we can. But not if he goes
begging for it. Now, if you go begging for it,
the Lord's told me to do this, but I can't do it without you.
If God told me to do it, I can do it. If He sent me to do it,
I can do it. And He'll make a way for me to
do it. And He'll make a way for me to do it without having to
beg and grovel before men. God's servants don't go begging. Well, it looks like we're going
to... If something doesn't happen, we're going to have to shut down
the building. Shut down this place. Shut it down. That's exactly
right. We don't dishonor our God by
going begging. He sent them into the town to
buy bread. Now, you men and women, when
you go to get things for the church, don't go and ask for
this. Do this for the church. You know,
we're getting this for the church. Y'all give a special price. We're
doing this for church. You don't want to make money
on church, do you? Don't you dare! Lower the standard of our
God's name to beg unbelieving people to assist us in the work
of our God. The King of Glory doesn't need
folks to go begging for Him. God's cause, God's work, God's
people in this world, God's servants in this world are supported and
maintained in their work by the free generosity of God's people. And that's all that's needed.
Read on. The Lord Jesus sent his disciples
away because he said, therefore, behold, I will allure her and
bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. Look at verse 7. There cometh
a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. For his disciples were going
away into the city to buy meat. Then saith 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." Now don't fail to observe that it is the
Lord Jesus who takes the initiative here. Everything in grace begins
with the Lord. We love Him because He first
loved us, and this woman is now Snared by the Lord Jesus because
he takes the initiative and begins to speak to her. She'd never
have come to him had you not first crossed her path. And you
won't unless he crosses your path second. Once he crossed
her path, the Lord created an interest in her in himself. He asked her for a drink. Give
me some water," because he was thirsty. But his thirst was more
than physical. His thirst was for her. His request was designed to get
her attention, to stir an interest in her. And the woman answered
his request with a rude retort. She said, I'll paraphrase it,
but this is what she said, She said, you're a Jew. You wouldn't
have anything to do with me if you didn't need something from
me. What are you doing asking me, a Samaritan, for a drink
of water? You Jews have nothing to do with
us. But our Lord Jesus is long suffering
toward his elect. And he's not willing that any
of his elect should perish. So he ignores her insult and
pursues her heart. Verse 10. And Jesus answered
and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who? You might ought to underscore
that two or three times. Who? If thou knewest the gift
of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. Now there's much here, and I'm going to leave off a
lot, but let me show you that those things are obvious. First,
salvation is God's gift. The gift of God is eternal life.
Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And that gift of salvation
is Christ Jesus. Lord, mine eyes have seen thy
salvation, Simeon said. Christ Jesus is eternal life. This is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. Second, you'll never be saved. You'll never come to Christ until
you're made to know the gift of God. Now notice this. Our Lord deals with this woman
not on the basis of what she must know, but who. She must know. It's not doctrine, any doctrine,
any more than doing, any doing that saves a sinner. I wish I
could stamp that boldly on your mind. Doctrine never saved anybody. People want to argue doctrine
with folks. People want to fuss about doctrine with folks. Now,
it's regrettable I have to say this, not for your benefit, but
for the benefit of other folks who hear this. I'm not bashful
about doctrine. You know that, don't you? I'm not bashful about telling
you the truth. I'm not bashful about declaring doctrine dogmatically. Somebody asked me, what do you
think about folks who don't believe what you do? As far as I'm concerned,
every relationship I have, it's either tulip or termination.
Every relationship. Either you believe the gospel
of God's absolute free grace or there's no room for you in
my life. There's no time for you in my
life. There's no relationship for you
in my life. It's either the gospel or nothing. But doctrine won't save anybody.
You can believe total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, and
have every I dotted and every T crossed and go to hell with
the rest of the Arminian world. It's not doctrine, but Christ
that saves sinners. It's not what you know, but who
you know. Our Lord Jesus said, if you knew
the gift of God and who's standing here talking to you, If you knew
who I am, you'd ask me, and I'd give you eternal life. Here's
the third thing. Salvation is to be had for the
asking. Oh, Brother Don, oh, how I wish
I'd be saved. Have you asked the Lord to save
you? How I wish I could have this. Have you asked the Lord?
He said, if you just ask. I'd give you living water. How
close at hand salvation is. The word is nigh thee even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. What word? That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Turn to chapter 7 of John's Gospel. Christ is willing to pour out
this living water of grace, salvation and eternal life to sinners. Willing to pour out this salvation
in superabundant, overflowing mercy. He says, ask and you shall
receive. John 7, 37. In the last day,
the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any
man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But the fourth thing that's obvious
here, all men by nature are totally ignorant of all things spiritual
until they're taught of God, taught by God the Holy Spirit.
Look at verses 11 and 12. This poor woman did what all
unregenerate people do when they talk or try to talk about spiritual
things. Did you ever hear a child talk
about politics? Our silly news media, you know,
they will have questions about war and they'll go to kindergarten
class and ask them what they think about going to war as if
their opinion really mattered. What do you think about this?
Oh, did you hear what these children had to say? And there's been
an hour discussion of what the children said. And I sit back
and I think, maybe we ought to send you to kindergarten every
day. That's nuts. That's nuts. We had the children
all day Friday while we went over to pick stuff up for the
conference. We took them with us to Sam's and they got to talking
about politics. My seven-year-old grandson and
ten-year-old granddaughter And my granddaughter began to make
a little sense. She said, we're just kids. We don't know. We
don't know. But Will knew. Will knew. I won't
tell you the persuasion. I was proud of him. But he knew. He knew just as dogmatically
as any man sitting here. And doesn't have a clue what's
going on. Doesn't have a clue what's going on. And you listen
to him talking, just kind of smiles. They don't know any better. They'll learn. Listen to this
woman. She saith unto him, Sir, thou
hast nothing to draw with. We're talking about living water.
And the well is deep, for whence then hast thou that living water?
Kind of like Nicodemus. How's a man born when he's old?
Crawled back up in his mother's belly? Art thou greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle? And then in verse
13, the Lord Jesus declares to her the vanity of all earthly
things, including that well. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. These words are written by the
finger of God over all the wells of this world. Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again. Oh, if I could just get that
new car. You smell the leather. Oh, man, that's what I've always
wanted. I've got that Corvette I've been wanting all my life. Oh, man, doesn't that smell good? Smells wonderful. Then the wife
hauls the baby in your new Corvette He spills milk in the floorboard
and doesn't tell you about it next week you get in the car. And your Corvette's not much
pretty anymore. Oh, if I could just get that.
Man, if I could get that house up yonder. That's all I ever
wanted. And you get it. You know, we
need more room. Whosoever drinketh of this water,
I don't care what it is. Fame, fortune, power, money,
reputation, property, doesn't matter. Go ahead and drink all
you want to. No matter how much you drink,
you still walk away thirsty. Eat your thirst again. 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 bubbling up with
everlasting life. That person who's born of God
who receives the water of life who has the grace of God, the
spirit of God, the Christ of God, and the light and life of
God in his soul, never thirst again. Never thirst. He has that which satisfies. That which satisfies and perpetually
satisfies. continually satisfies. Oh brother
Don, don't you ever get discontented? God forgive me, I often am. I often act like a spoiled child
with my God and I think I want this, I want that. And I'm not
content with this, not content with that. But so far, So far, I keep taking a drink of that
well, that living water, Christ Jesus
the Lord. And I, oh no, I don't need anything
else. Just Him. Just Him. And I'm not being facetious,
Bill. That's all I need. Just Him.
Having Him, I have all things. He continually quenches the thirst
of my soul. Here's the third thing. You will not come to Christ until
He does for you what He did for this woman. Until He takes the hand of His
grace and rips open your heart and exposes your sin. You won't come to him until he
does. You won't come to him until he causes you to know yourself
because he intended to be gracious to her. The Lord stripped her
utterly naked before him. There she stands. just utterly
naked from the inside out. The woman saith unto him, verse
15, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw. She still doesn't have a clue
what she's talking about. Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband,
and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. 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
saidst truly. He laid bare what she thought
she could keep hidden. He just, he took what she thought
nobody would know about who was a stranger to her especially.
and exposed it, making her know it's known to somebody, but should
have been known to God. You see, the fact is, this always
makes sinners uncomfortable. Sinners prefer darkness to light,
and they will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved.
And when the light falls on you, you immediately take refuge and
try to turn the light away from yourself. That's exactly what
this gal did. Look at verse 19. The woman saith
unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Stop and consider this. Remember
who's talking, Merle. This gal got less respectability
than a prostitute. She'd been shacked up with five
different men, and now she's working on the sixth one. Wasn't
married to any of them. She had less respectability than
a prostitute. And she now turns and starts
to talk about religion. She's going to start talking
to the Son of God about religion. I perceive that you're a prophet.
Well, I'm impressed that you perceive that I'm a prophet.
Read up. I perceive thou art a prophet.
Our fathers, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. She
immediately changed the tone in the subject. She now begins
to speak respectfully to the Savior and starts talking religion
to Him. She wanted to get away from the
subject of her base, sinful, profligate, lascivious, perverse
behavior. Her conscience was pricked and
she tried to soothe her conscience by talking religion. She starts to argue with the
Lord. with no compunction defending
her father's religion. She starts talking about historic
doctrine. This is what our fathers have
always believed. She starts talking about family religion. My daddy
raised me that. I had a preacher in my family
one time. My great-granddaddy was a Baptist preacher. Did I
tell you that? I can't tell you how many times I hear that nonsense.
Just as soon as somebody finds out, oh, he's a preacher. I've
had folks to tell me, I once knew a preacher, as if that does
some good. I knew a preacher one time. She
starts talking to him about future things, prophecy. Oh, people
love to talk about prophecy. Do you know why it's so popular?
Because it doesn't deal with anything present. And you can
talk about it, it doesn't make any difference what you believe
or what you say. And it'll change tomorrow. And
then she starts to argue about denominations. And now you Jews
worship over here, us Samaritans, we worship down here. But the
Lord Jesus wouldn't be led into her trap. He was concerned for
her soul. He wasn't interested in proving
a point. So he did what only he can do. I keep trying, but I can't do
it. He destroyed her refuge of lies. And that, too, must be
done. That's the fourth thing. You
will not come to Christ. You will not find refuge in him
until he destroys your false refuge. In preaching the gospel, I make
it my business to do everything I can to absolutely knock every
prop you can find out from under your soul. to destroy every refuge
you can find to hide in from God. Because I know, I know that
you have built a refuge for yourself. Every one of you have. You built
a refuge in which you will hide from God, just as Adam and Eve
were hiding in the garden, you're trying to hide from God. A refuge
by which you try to shelter yourself from any piercing of the heart,
by which you would shield off the Word of God and shield off
the darts of God shot at your soul. Turn to Isaiah 28, I'll
show you. The Lord Jesus in verses 21 through
24 here in John 4, Told this woman, said, the hour's coming
when true worshipers are sought of God, you'll worship God in
spirit and in truth because God's spirit. Back in Isaiah chapter
28, verse 14, wherefore hear the
word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people. Verse 15, Because you have said,
we have made a covenant with death. With hell, we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. Oh no, I went
down to church house last week. I got saved. I'm all right. Don't
you remember when Billy Graham came to town in Louisville a
few years ago? I was down there at that meeting.
I got saved. Everything's all right. I remember
when I was a boy, I got saved. I went forward to church and
got saved. Everything's all right. I've got a covenant with death.
I have an agreement with hell. And when the scourge comes, everything's
gonna be all right. I'm just as sure of heaven as
if I was already there. I have a no soul salvation. A
man told me once, several years ago, he was down in Nashville
and they were out at services late at night, he and a preacher,
at a restaurant late at night, well after midnight, and Jerry
Clower was there, the preacher turned comedian. And this preacher
introduced Henry to Mr. Clower and told him he was a
visiting evangelist. That was a mistake. And Mr. Clower, he just made all his
jokes and carried on loud enough everybody in the restaurant could
hear him. Henry getting embarrassed and A fella, he said to him,
said, some folks have a hope, so said the Lord took the hope
out and gave us a no, didn't he, but man, I have a no soul
salvation. I doubt it. I doubt it. No, look at this. For we have made lies our refuge. And under falsehood have we hid
ourselves. Not only is your refuge a refuge
of lies, when you think about hell, you dead sure know it. Didn't you? You think about meeting God in
judgment, you dead sure know it. We've made lies our refuge. God says, I lay a foundation
stone. Believe on him, and you'll not be put to shame. You'll not
make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness
to the plummet. And the hail of God's judgment
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place. Verse 18, and your covenant with
death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall
not stand. I pray God Almighty has done
that for you today. Lay righteousness to the line,
judgment to the plummet, and swept away your refuge. Brother
Don, that leaves me trembling, trembling before God, naked before
God, helpless before God, and you will never trust Christ. until he does that for you. It
won't happen. As long as you can find hope
somewhere else, you will find no hope in him. As long as you
can take refuge somewhere else, you will not flee to him for
refuge. One more thing, back in our text,
verse 25. You will not come to Christ until
the Lord Jesus graciously makes himself known to you. The woman said to him, I know
that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When he is
come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I am. I that speak unto thee am he. Oh, Lord Jesus, make yourself
known to chosen sinners in omnipotent mercy this day. And the sinner
to whom Christ reveals himself will take refuge in Him. Amen.