John chapter 4. Now this is kind of a long chapter,
John chapter 4. So let's shoot for verse 39,
and we may not make that for our first reading, but we just about have to get
to verse 26 anyway. It's kind of hard to stop before
you get there. Now in the previous chapter of
John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus concerning
his soul. And in John chapter 4, he is
speaking to the Samaritan woman about her soul. And there's a tremendous contrast
between the way he dealt with Nicodemus as opposed to the way
that he dealt with the woman at the well. The bottom line for Nicodemus
was, Nicodemus, you must be born again. There's no such thing
as life in Christ apart from being born again, spiritually
born from the dead, raised from the dead to life in Christ. Now let's see how our Lord meets
and talks with this woman who He has come on purpose to this
part of the world to encounter. She may have been surprised,
but He certainly was not. Verse 1, When therefore the Lord
knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John the Baptist, Though Jesus Himself
baptized not but His disciples, He left Judea and departed again
to go into Galilee. He's not in Galilee in John chapter
4, He's on His way. And He goes a direction that
most persons of His, most Jews of His day would not go. He must
needs go through Samaria. He has an eternal purpose for
going through Samaria. He's going to find one of his
sheep and raise her from spiritual death to spiritual life. And
what an interesting, interesting account we have of it. Then comes
he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. I mean this
is a historical place if there ever was one. 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. The human nature of our Lord
Jesus Christ was a very, very real human nature. He experienced
everything that we experience in our nature except for one
thing. You know what that is? Sin. Sin. Wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well about the sixth hour. Then comes a woman
of Samaria to draw water. We never learn her name. To draw
water. Jesus said unto her, and you've
got to picture this. Here's the God man. This is God
and man in one person. Asking a strange foreigner to
give him a drink of water. Jesus said to her, give me to
drink. For his disciples were gone away
unto the city to buy meat. And if you'd please remember
from your knowledge of the four Gospels, the Lord Jesus never
performed miracles to satisfy his own needs. Never. Never. And he sent his disciples
not to beg food, but to buy it. That's a commentary on what takes
place in our day. You can't get in Walmart without
some church trying to get you to buy something. I want to say,
what's wrong with your God? Is He broke? So you need everybody and His
brother to help you? Maybe they're God-haters. Then said the woman of Samaria
unto Him, How is it that you being a Jew ask, drink of me,
which I'm a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans." I tell you, she understood the status
quo pretty good. She knew that Jews would have
nothing to do with Samaritans. Oh, they hated each other with
a purple passion. I'm going to try to take verse
10 as my text, so I'm going to do my best now to just I probably
can't, but try to just read it. Jesus answered and said unto
her, If you knew the gift of God,
that's the first thing, and who it is that says to you,
give me to drink, you would have asked of Him. And He would have given you living
water. So I'm going to bypass that for
now. But I'm telling you that is one of the most glorious statements
in the whole Bible, from cover to cover. If we knew the gift of God and
who it is that says to us, give us to drink, We would have asked
of Him and He would have given us living water. The woman said unto Him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with
and the well is deep. The natural mind can't get any
further than nature. We don't know anything about
spiritual water. From where, from whence, or where
then have you that living water? It didn't come out of Jacob's
well. Where did it come from? And here's one of the most amusing
statements about almost to be found anywhere. She said to him,
Are you greater than our father Jacob? Are you greater than Jacob? Now this woman is smart, but
at the same time, we are dummies. We know a lot of things, but
we don't know Him. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? That's hilarious. Who gave us
this well and drank thereof Himself and His children and His cattle?
Jesus answered and said to her, whosoever drinks of this water
shall thirst again. But whosoever drinks 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. And from a purely, entirely,
and only selfish motive, She said to him, Sir, give me this
water that I thirst not, neither come here to draw. Just look
at the time and effort it would save me every day. Well, there's a little matter
called sin. Jesus said unto her, Go call
your husband and come here. She said, I have no husband.
He said, you're right to say I have no husband for you've
had five and the one you now have is not your husband. In
that said you truly. Now she gets a bit uncomfortable.
This man knows more than she thought. Do you know 2,000 years after
this was first put in writing. People still think that God is
blind and He can't see. So we keep right on putting on
airs, don't we? The woman said to him, Sir, I
perceive that you're a prophet. At least her estimate of Christ
is growing. It could be going the other direction. I perceive that you're a prophet."
So now she turns to a religious discussion. Anything to take
the spotlight off ourselves. People want to know where Cain
got his wife. They want to know this, that,
and the other. Don't even know who God is or
who we are. Our fathers, verse 20, worshiped
in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe
me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship. You, the Samaritans, worship. You know not what. We, the Jews, know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews. My soul, the Lord Jesus is a
Jew. And He is salvation. Watch these two verses coming
up. 23 and 24. But the hour comes, now is, the
hour now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit,
with a little s, in spirit and in truth. That is, God, who is
a spirit, must be worshiped with a spiritual worship, and the
only people capable of this are people who have been made alive
spiritually, in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such
to worship Him. Verse 24, God is a spirit. The only sight of God that you
and I shall ever have is in the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. And in glory, the Lord Jesus
is wearing a body of flesh. If we don't see God in Christ,
we won't ever see him. God is a spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Oh, we could stay there all day.
We better move on. The woman said unto Him, I know,
here's some things she knew, I know that Messiah comes. I believe the Messiah is coming,
which is called Christ." She knew one of His names. And more
than that, she said, and when He has come, He will tell us
all things. He's all-knowing. He'll tell
us all things. If I'm not terribly mistaken,
you cannot find words like her in verse 26 anywhere else in
your Bibles. The Lord Jesus said with utter
simplicity unto her, I that speak unto you am he. I am the Messiah. How about we beg for the Lord
to help us? Lord, this book of yours is indeed
amazing. We can read it for 50 years and
not understand what it's saying. Then by the help of your Spirit, your precious grace in Christ,
opening our eyes, giving us spiritual sight, we read wonderful things
we never knew before. This is an amazing book. Of course,
centered by your grace, is even able to see himself, but what
he sees most of all is his glorious Redeemer and Savior, the Lord
Jesus. Lord, make us like this poor
sinner, this Samaritan woman. Open our eyes, spiritually speaking,
in our ears. that we might both see and hear. Here this religious woman was not only a sinner in her
physical life, but Lord, we're far worse sinners in our religious
life. Here she is with knowledge of
Your Word She knows there's a Messiah.
She knows He's coming. She knows when He comes, He'll
tell us all things. But standing toe-to-toe and face-to-face, we don't know you. Lord, please
open our eyes and make us see. If you could see fit, It is your
precious, blessed purpose to do so. Pour out your blessings upon
this place this morning for Christ's sake. Picking up at verse 25 again,
the woman said unto the Lord Jesus, I know that Messiah comes
which is called Christ. When He has come, He will tell
us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto you am He. And what a wonderful time for
the disciples to come back. You do remember who's in charge,
don't you? And upon this came His disciples
and marveled that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what
seek you or why talk you with her? The woman then left her water
pot, totally forgot her mission and purpose for going to the
well. She left her water pot and 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? Then they went out of the city
and came unto him. In the meanwhile, his disciples
begged him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have
meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples
one to another, Has somebody brought him some food to eat? Now don't forget, I'm just as
dense as they are, and so are you. Jesus said unto them, My meat,
my food, is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish
His work. Say not you there are four months,
and then comes harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift
up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already
to harvest. And he that reaps receives wages
and gathers fruit unto life eternal. that both he that sows and he
that reaps may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true,
one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that whereon
you bestowed no labor, other men labored and you're entered
into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of
that city believed on him For the saying of the woman which
testified, he told me all that ever I did." And the passage
goes on to say that those same persons in that city declared
that they have heard his own words themselves and they believe
on him for that reason. Alright, we go back to verse
10. Now that you've been reminded
of the whole story, maybe this will help us just a bit in regard
to verse 10. She wants to talk about the hatred
between the Jews and the Samaritans. She wants to know why the Lord Jesus
had the audacity as a Jewish man to ask her to give him anything
to drink. Our Lord answered and said, she has implied by the previous
statements in verses 7 through 9, she has implied that he must
be ignorant of some things. People like him and her don't
talk to each other. You don't ask one for a favor. She implies that she knows more
about the circumstances and the situation than he does. And verse
10 is going to turn that completely around. And it is plain as day that the
Lord Jesus is referring this statement in the first place
to what she's just said. Because it begins by saying,
Jesus answered and said unto her. His statement in verse 10
is an answer to what is already transpired. Jesus answered and
said unto her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you,
give me to drink, you would have asked of Him. And He would have given you living
water. One of the inescapable conclusions of that simple statement in verse
10, simple and yet profound, is that if I don't have the living
water, I'm to blame. If I truly desired it and wanted
it, I would ask God for it. All right, let's take the statement
apart now in verse 10. The first statement is this. It has to do with what she did
not know. Therefore, it's what you and
I don't know. Some things can't be learned
in school. Some things can't be learned
in a book. Some things can't even be learned by experience. But here is what we do not know. We do not know the nature of
God's salvation. We don't know what it is. And
we certainly do not know by nature, naturally speaking, the natural
man does not know that salvation is to be found in a person. It's not a thing. It's not an
it. Salvation is a person. That person is none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not know the nature of
God's salvation. We're strangers to it. Even when
we hear it, we don't believe it. Until God takes up His own
cause within our souls, we remain unbelievers and we'll leave this
world in that state to all eternity. Second thing we don't know, we
don't know the freeness of God's salvation. He said if you'd asked
Him, He would have given it to you. It's free. Completely, perfectly, totally
free. I mean, as far as we're concerned,
it's not free as far as God's concerned. He gave the very life
of His Son to purchase that salvation. Salvation is free. There's a
special word used in this statement. It's the word gift. If you knew
the gift Now by nature, we don't want
free salvation. We want deserved and merited
salvation. And of course, there is no salvation
for that person or for that thought or that idea that we must earn
it or merit it in some way. If you knew the gift of God,
the gift of God, that God's salvation is not only a person, it is the
person of the very man who speaks to her. the Son of God Himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that speaks to you. Now you can trace in the Gospels countless times in all of the
four Gospels You can trace encounters that our Savior had with people
of various kinds and descriptions, and they don't know Him. He must
make Himself known to us. God's salvation must be revealed. It's not only a gift. We won't
take the gift. Something about taking a gift,
we like to maintain our self-respect. We say, as you've heard the popular
phrase, I don't want any charity. Well, you don't want anything
to do with God if you don't want charity, because it has to be
free. The honor and the glory is all His and not our own. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Alright, two things. Knowing
the gift of God, That God's mercy, God's grace, God's salvation
is a gift. And secondly, knowing the person
that that gift is. And that person is the Son of
God Himself. He said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it is that says to you, give me to drink, you
would have asked of Him and He would have given you. living
water. So there is, by the grace of
God, a conduct which follows the saving knowledge of God in
Christ. We give up what we have long,
long cherished. The first conduct which follows
saving knowledge is this. We give up the idea of giving
Christ anything. That's where this woman is precisely. She's got to give that notion
up. And she doesn't give it up easily. It takes us till we get
all the way to verse 26. Now, if it is not apparent in
this chapter of Scripture as it is in many, many other places,
if it's not apparent that she's not looking for God, but God's
looking for her. And that's how it is. That's
how it is with me. That's how it is with you. We
don't initiate this business. And if it's true what people
say, God's done all He can do and now it's up to you, we've
had it. There is no hope whatsoever for any of us. You know that
and I know it. We give up any idea of giving
Christ anything. We can't think of anything except
to beg Him to give us. Beg it is. We are beggars. Then we receive. What a beautiful
picture that gave us over in verse 25 and 26 that we looked at carefully. Our Lord said, if you knew these
things, you would have asked, and I would have given you the
water of life. The water of life. Now, when
this woman's ignorance was taken away, she did what the Lord Jesus
said she would do. He said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it is that says to you, give me to
drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living
water. She did, over in verse 25 and
26, she did exactly what He said she would do. I'll tell you,
there's not a hair's breadth of difference. She did exactly
what He said. He said, I know that the Messiah
comes. And I know when He comes, He'll
tell us all things. Maybe the light started coming
on in her head because our Lord had just laid out a certain area
of her life right in front of her. He told her all of her marital
and non-marital history. He's laid it out. A perfect stranger,
yet He's known her from all eternity. He's a stranger to her, but she's
no stranger to him. And after all of that, we still can't figure out who
he is and who we are and what he must do for sinners. God has
to be so blunt, so plain, so outright truthful with us The
Lord Jesus has to say to her, I that speak unto you, I am the
Messiah. And at the time he made the announcement,
he performed the miracle of grace in her soul and the work is done. And in come the bumbling disciples,
intruding on such a holy moment. They have no clue what's taking
place. None. I'm telling you, these are the
apostles, mind you. What about us? You know, way down the line
here, 20 centuries later. Look at verse 40, if you're still
in John 4. So when the Samaritans were come
unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and
he abode or remain there two days. And many more believed
because of his own word. And they said to the woman, the
other Samaritans said to the Samaritan woman, Now we believe
not because of your saying, for we have heard him ourselves. And have you and I heard him
for ourselves? I tell you, second-hand ain't
no good. Second-hand clothes are fine.
Sometimes second-hand shoes work pretty good, but not second-hand
religion. We've heard Him ourselves, and
we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. After two days, the Lord departed
from there and went into Galilee. Now, it does us no good to read passages like this if we don't look at ourselves
and honestly ask ourselves, The wonderful revelation that
God made to this woman as He made this to me is Christ, precious to our souls.