John chapter 4, look at verse
27. And upon this came His disciples. Now this, of course, is the scene
in which Christ was conversing with and revealing Himself to
this woman at the well. They came upon this as He sat
there and talked with that woman. They marveled because it was
considered indecent in that time and in that culture. for a man
to speak with a strange woman like this, especially alone,
there's not a whole lot considered indecent in our day and age,
is there? I thought about that as I studied this. But this was
not considered to be proper. They marveled that he talked
with the woman, especially because she was a Samaritan. As we saw
before, the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, and she
confessed that herself in verse 9. So they were amazed. They marveled. Now we're not
to learn from this that all decency should be abandoned and our zeal
for the work of the gospel. That's not the lesson here, but
we should learn this from it. The business that the Lord was
engaged in and that his people are engaged in in the ministry
of the gospel is life and death. It's necessary that someone marvel
now and then or be shocked. or their sensibilities perhaps
be offended in some way. It's necessary. So be it. Because the work is vital. And
certainly with regard to the fact of her being a Samaritan
in the work of the gospel, all prejudices must be laid aside.
All personal feelings. This thing is bigger than us.
How many times have I said that to you? And I pray that I don't
just say that to you and not understand that myself. It's
bigger than all of us put together. If we all go away, this gospel
will still be preached and heard and believed on and God glorified
in it. All things being equal, we should
avoid the appearance of any evil or anything like this. But all things here, we're not
equal. There's a lost sheep that the shepherd must find and save.
And if he needs to speak to her alone, that's what he'll do.
And if people marvel at that and are shocked by that, then
let him be shocked. He came to do his father's business
and he did it. He's done whatsoever was necessary
to save her and all those that the father gave him. Now this
same idea is found in Matthew 12 in verse 10. Let me read it
to you. Behold, there was a man which
had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days that they might accuse him? And he said unto them, What man
shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if
it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on
it and lift it out? And no doubt some of them had
done that very thing, if not all of them. How much then is
a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do
well on the Sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch
forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth, and
it was restored whole, like as the other." Oh, you ought not
to... You can't heal on the Sabbath. He ought not to be talking to
that woman. He ought not to be eating with publicans and sinners.
You see, objections to... Here's another one. He's got
to give everybody a chance to be saved, or it's not fair. The
same thing. It's the same thing. You may
not like the way the Lord does things, but He came to save His
people from their sins, and that's exactly what He'll do. And if
your sense of right and wrong is offended by the way He does
things, then you'll just have to be offended, and I will too.
I will too. It won't change His purpose or
His work. The disciples came to him one day after the Lord
had spoken and said to him in Matthew 15, 12, don't you know
that the Pharisees were offended after they heard what you said?
The word there for offended is scandalizo. It was scandalous
what you said. He answered and said, every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not planted will be rooted up.
Don't waste your time worrying about those that are going to
be rooted up. Am I taking that too far? Leave them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. I say, however the Lord does
things, let's just bow to it. Don't marvel that he's talking
with that woman. Don't be scandalized by that. Just say it is the Lord. Let
him do what seemeth him good. And that's what they did. They
marveled. But they were different than
the Pharisees. Why? Because Christ had made a difference
in them. Notice, instead of finding fault
and expressing their disapproval, as some might have done, as the
Pharisees no doubt, what are you doing talking to this woman
by yourself? Oh, that's not right. You know what they did? They
shut up. They possessed that wonderful, unappreciated, completely
underrated gift of shutting up. May the Lord increase my ability
to shut up when I need to shut up. Why did they shut up? The
very questions they wanted to ask are provided here by the
Holy Spirit. We know what was in their heart,
don't we? Because it said, neither did any man ask these questions. Why do you think those questions
are there? Because that's what they wanted to ask. They wanted
to ask that woman, what are you seeking here? And they wanted
to ask him, what do you have to do with her? But they didn't. Why? Because of the one that
was doing it. Because they knew that he does
as he pleases. They knew enough about him already
not to question what he did, didn't they? Do you know enough?
Do I know him well enough not to question what he does? Oh,
but we see his providence and it doesn't go the way we think
it ought to. Why in the world did it happen that way? It's
the Lord. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seemeth Him good. It might seem strange or surprising
to us. We might marvel. It's the Lord. Verse 28, Then the woman left
her waterpot, 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? While
the disciples are thinking to themselves, I can't believe He's
out here talking With a Samaritan woman, the woman herself is dropping
her water buckets and running into town. She forgot about the
reason that she had come to the well to begin with, didn't she?
The buckets didn't seem that important anymore. And you may
have come here this morning for any number of reasons. You might be here because you
didn't have any choice. Maybe mom and daddy didn't ask
you if you wanted to come or not. I imagine there's a few
here because of that. Maybe you're here because your
friends are here and it's just a social occasion for you. Or maybe you're here to score
a few points with God. You think anybody's ever gone
to church for that reason before? Oh, score a few points with God
for coming to church. I went to church today. Some
seem to think that the blessing of God is somehow inherent in
the act, the outward act of coming to church. I won't read it to
you again. I've read to you before in Isaiah
chapter 1 what the Lord thinks about that. He said, in effect,
and you read it and tell me if I went too far by saying this.
He said, your church going makes me sick at my stomach. You read
it. But maybe one day that pitiful
reason that you came to the worship service might be completely forgotten
because just maybe the Son of God will meet with you and speak
to you. And if He does, the reason why
you came won't matter much at that point, Willard. It won't
matter. You'll leave your water buckets and you'll go praise
Him. Now this woman's language here
has led some to say that she didn't, after all, know the Lord
yet. Because it sounds like that what
she said to these men, she still has the outward miracle in mind,
doesn't she? She's still taken up with the
supernatural. like those who believed in john
chapter uh... to the end of chapter two they
believe because of the miracles and that this woman's fascination
is with his ability to know her secrets rather than knowledge
of himself and i'll grant you this i'll grant you this when
the lord first saves us we don't know a whole lot we just don't
and we still don't know anything as we ought to know paul said
but you remember when nathaniel jesus answered nathaniel When
he said, I saw you, Nathaniel said, how did you know me? He
said, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Before you ever
found me, I found you. And Nathaniel was amazed by that.
He said, you're the son of God. You're the son of God. And the
Lord Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said unto
thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? You'll
see greater things than these. And this woman was going to find
out a whole lot greater things about the Lord Jesus Christ than
that he knew her past. I guarantee you that. But she
knew the Lord. You can write it down. This woman
was a saint. Just write it down right there
in your Bible. You know how I know that? Two things are clear about
that. In the context of this verse,
is verses 31 through 35, where the Lord said, you know how you
say in four months it'll be time for harvest? He said, open your
eyes. The harvest is already ripe.
the fields are already ready to be harvested." And he's talking
about the work of the Father. He said, I must do the work of
the Father. He must needs go to Samaria.
And can you read that and tell me that the Lord included in
His Word an account of Him going out of His way to speak at length
with this woman at the well, and He never had any intention
of saving her? And He's sitting there talking about in the same
context the fields being ripe unto harvest. I don't think so. And secondly, in case there's
a little bit of doubt left in your mind, verse 21. He said
to her, as I said before, we don't normally take words out
of the scripture. That's really not what we're
doing now. But let the middle part of that verse be silent
for a little while. And what he said to her is this.
Ye shall worship the Father. In between there is neither in
this mountain nor at Jerusalem. but in effect here's what he
said to her you shall worship the father that's his grace right
there apart from his grace you had never done that yet and you're
not a gonna not unless he has mercy on you so she was one of
his sheep but let that be established the lesson here is that none
of us know a whole lot when the Lord saves us the disciples after
walking some time with the Lord still didn't know much did they
They rejoiced in the same things that she did, the outward, the
supernatural, the miracles. In Luke 10, 17, it says, the
70 returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name. Oh, that's spectacular, isn't
it? We said, depart, you foul demon, and he did, he obeyed
us. Oh, that's wonderful, isn't it? The Lord said, don't rejoice
over that. That's no big deal. Listen to it. And he said unto
them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give
unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
You do have by my grace," he said, I give you this power.
Don't forget that. Don't be saying the devils are
subject unto our word, unto us. They did say through thy name.
They gave him honorable mention, didn't they? But they said the
devils are subject to us. He said in verse 20, notwithstanding,
I have given you some miraculous power, notwithstanding in this,
rejoice not. Don't get so excited about the
spectacle, the outward miracles that the spirits are subject
unto you, but rather rejoice for this reason, because your
names are written in heaven. I'll tell you something worth
rejoicing about. The sovereign, eternal grace of God in Christ
that wrote your name in his everlasting book of grace." Now that, you
can lift up, jump up and click your heels over that right there,
and that would be all right, wouldn't it? David did, didn't
he? The Ark of Christ, when it was
brought back, he got in front of that thing and danced before
the Lord. Why? Because that represented Christ.
God said at that mercy seat, that's where I'll meet with you
and commune with you. That's worth rejoicing over,
isn't it? God will have mercy on sinners in Christ. And because
I'm in Him, my name is written in His book. That's something worth getting
excited about right there. Well, but she was excited about
the outward, and they're not much to us, is there? Verse 30,
then they went out of the city and came unto Him, The Lord used
her testimony such as it was to bring others to Himself. She
did say this is the Christ. Is not this the Christ? God's
anointed, God's chosen, God's Savior? Think of all the influences
in your life that brought you to where you heard of the Master. Everything that the Lord used
to bring you to the place where you heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. He used this woman at the well.
He didn't know a whole lot. The Lord had just revealed Himself
to her just a little while before that. But she wanted everybody
to know who He was. He who rules all things, determines
purposes and brings to pass all things, does so for the salvation
of His elect. Everything. Everything that's
happened in your life. It wasn't It wasn't so you could
meet the person that you married, although that's a blessing, isn't
it? That's not it. That's part of it. That's included. But even that serves the purpose
of God in having mercy on your soul in Christ. He made this
universe for that reason, and He made you for that reason.
And everything that happens in your life is to bring you to
that time of love where He'll spread abroad His skirt over
you. cover you, clothe you, covenant with you, and make you beautiful
through His comeliness. In verse 31, in the meanwhile,
His disciples prayed Him saying, Master, eat. But He said unto
them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. They were worried
about Him, weren't they? Well, you haven't eaten in a
long time. How are you going to have any
strength? He said, I've already eaten.
He had mercy on a sinner. Therefore said the disciples,
one to another, Hath any brought him anything to eat? Jesus saith
unto them, You don't understand. My meat is what I just got through
doing. The will of him that sent me.
He sent me to seek and to save that which was lost. And I've
just done that. That's my meat. That's my refreshment. It's not that he didn't have
to partake of food. As a man, absolutely. His body,
just like yours and mine are, was nourished by earthly food.
He asked them on that beach that night, do you have anything to
eat? Why? Because he was hungry. Just like you and I hunger. But
when they got worried about him, he said, I'm all right. I've
been refreshed and revived and restored by doing what the Father
sent me to do. I wish we were more like that,
don't you? In contemplating this verse here, I thought of some
of the examples in Scripture where our Lord was speaking of
spiritual things But those to whom he spoke misunderstood,
because their mind was on physical, earthly things." That's what
happened here. He said, I have meat to eat that
you don't know about. And they said, when did somebody
bring you any food? We didn't see that. He's not
talking about that kind of food, is he? How many times did that
happen in the Scripture? Nicodemus? It hadn't been that
long ago we looked at that in John 3. You must be born again. How can I enter into my mother's
womb and be born? Oh, Nicodemus, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. But I'm talking about being born
from above, being born of the Spirit. So that's an example
of that. The woman at the well, we just
looked at the passage just before this one. He said, if you'd have
known the gift of God, if you'd have known who it was that was
speaking with you, God's gift from heaven, that bread, that
Messiah that you know some facts about. If you'd have known that
he was standing here looking at you and speaking with you,
you'd have asked me, and I'd have given you living water.
Well, how are you going to do that? You didn't bring anything
to draw with. We're so earthbound, aren't we,
in our thinking. He said that you'll thirst again
if you drink out of that well. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about living water, the water of life that flows from
the very throne of God by His grace, the Lord Jesus Christ. The gift of God, the water of
life. And then remember in Matthew
chapter 16, the Lord said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
And it says the disciples thought He was talking about bread. What
are you talking about, yeast? What is that, you know? He's
telling us how to make bread? In 1611 of Matthew it says, the
Lord said to them, how is it that you do not understand that
I speak it not to you concerning bread that you should beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Hypocrisy. Beware. Beware. So he spoke to
them of spiritual things and they, as we are, we're so earthly
in our thinking. Now here in our text, they thought
he spoke about earthly food, but he spoke of food that he
said, you know not of, you know not of. How do folks in our day
make the same mistake? They take spiritual truth and
turn it into an earthly temporal thing. We cut out of the same
cloth as these in the scripture, aren't we? Cut out of the same
lump. I'll give you some examples of
my generation. Many mistake the Bible to be
an instruction book from God on how to act right. They turn
it into a physical, earthly, outward thing, aren't they? Oh,
he gave us the Bible to teach us how to live, how to act right. No, he gave the Bible to show
those who never have acted right, aren't acting right, and aren't
going to act right how they can be saved anyway. Is that why
he gave it? It's a spiritual book. Not to
show you what to do, but to show you that you haven't done it
and that Christ did and paid for your sin. Oh, so isn't that
right though? Outward. Oh, here's how we're
supposed to do things. I'll tell you what the work of
God is that you believe on his son. That's what you better be
about doing. Not trying to learn how to live
right. Everything in God's word has
spiritual meaning. Everything. Everything. And I'll
give you another example. Folks read the law in the Bible,
thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit
adultery, and they think, oh, this is a wonderful guidebook
on how to live. So they put a copy up on their
wall, they see God's law specifically in the Word, and they see that
as guides for outward life, outward living. So they put a copy up
there, and when they outwardly conformed to these moral laws,
they feel good about themselves and they put a check mark, you
know, in their mind by their name. And if they do happen to
break one of them, you know, maybe I stole something from
work or something like that, nine out of ten is not that bad,
you know. Do people really think like that?
Oh, yeah. You know how I know that? Yeah, you do, don't you? Yeah, you know. Nine out of ten
ain't that bad. Doing pretty good. My good outweighs
my bad. Have you ever heard that one?
If you had any, it might. But you don't have any, and I
don't either. You see, there are a couple of problems with
that. First of all, you and I and everybody in this world has broken
every law of God in our hearts and do so every day. Read Matthew 5. I won't take
the time to do that this morning. If you even think in your heart
you've already committed adultery, if you're angry with your brother,
without a good reason? Have you ever been? No other
reason than the fact that they didn't act like you wanted them
to act? They didn't let you be God that day? You're a murderer. Well, there's another problem
with it. Secondly, the law is not revealed for the purpose
of showing us how to live. We've taken a spiritual thing
and turned it into something of the flesh, haven't we? Just
like these that misunderstood what our Lord was saying, It's
not revealed to show us how to live, but to show us that we
do not measure up to God's standard. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. How do you know? Because He gave
His law. And I see that I have come short. Have you seen that? He didn't
give the law to make us good, but to reveal our evil. Not to
recommend us to God, but to show us our need of Christ. The law
was our schoolmaster, Paul said. I quote that to you often. Our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. What does a schoolmaster do?
He teaches you some things. What does the law teach us? That
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, to put
it in a nutshell. That's what it teaches us. That's
what the law is. It's our schoolmaster. When you
find out that you can't be justified in God's sight by your deeds,
you'll flee to Christ. Until then, you'll go about to
establish your own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness
of God in Christ. But when He reveals to you what
you are and who Christ is, then you will. You'll submit. I will
too. Well, thirdly, I'll give you
another example of how the spiritual truth of God is turned into a
physical. It's misunderstood. to be an
earthly, physical, outward thing when spiritual truth is taught.
Christ in the scripture says this, come unto me. And religion has turned that
into a physical act, haven't they? They've misunderstood the
spiritual nature of that now, I'm telling you. They say come
down this aisle and do this outward thing and do that outward thing
and God will save you. You find that for me in here.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not down here. Christ said, come
unto me and I'll give you rest. You don't do that with your legs.
You do it with your heart, with your heart. You see how the spiritual
is turned into the outward, the physical, because we don't know
anything else by nature. Turned it into walking down an
aisle and equate that with coming to Christ. Let's get somebody
saved. He said, you've drawn nigh unto
me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. That's how you
come to him, in your heart. Well, and as I said earlier,
here's another example. Many mistake the physical act
of going to church to have some kind of merit before God. But
that's worship. I worshiped this morning. What
do you mean? Well, I went to church. That's not worship. That's
where to worship, isn't it? Where he is. He said where two
or three are gathered in my name. That's where I am. That's where
I want to be, too. Don't you? That's not worship. Just coming
here is not worship. You see, you're taking something spiritual,
you're making it a physical thing. Worship is an act of the heart.
It's a spiritual act. He just told this woman this
now. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit, not in
Jerusalem or in this mountain. That has nothing to do with it.
Worship Him in spirit and in truth. That's how God is worshipped. But we take the spiritual and
turn it into something that we can do, don't we? Oh, why? Because we're fools. And we think
that by doing something, we can gain the favor of God. No, it's
going to take an act of His grace to make me alive, to open my
heart as He did Lydia's, so that I'm able to worship Him. If He
ever does that, you'll worship Him like the Lord Jesus Christ
said, neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. It don't matter
where you are, you'll worship Him. The hour is coming, now
is. when folks are doing that. And
God seeks such to worship Him. Now, look at verse 34 again. We'll be through in a minute.
John 4, 34. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work. Now, let's talk about
that for about... I'm not going to say how long
because you all will hold me to it. And you all know my track
record on that. Finish His work. Now, this work
that he speaks of here is one in which you and I have no part.
Is that right? I came to finish his work, and
he doesn't need your help to do it. He came to do it. The
Father gave it to him to do. He came to do it, and he did
it. We've already failed. That's why you put in a substitute,
because the one that's in there ain't getting the job done. He's
too tired or he just ain't having a good day or something. Well,
guess what? We ain't had a good day yet. And we are without strength. We can't get it done. We haven't
gotten it done. We've broken His law, defied
Him in His law and in His grace. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to do what we cannot do, what the law could not do for us,
in that it was weak through our flesh, in that we couldn't keep
the law. God sent His own Son to do it, to do it. Now it's
his business to do what we could not, to keep, to honor, to glorify
God's law. And he doesn't need our help,
nor would we be any help if he did need it. I'm glad he doesn't
need me. The Father sent him to do it.
He came to do it, and he did it. I finished it. I finished
the work you gave me to do, John 17. And right now he's doing
it now. He said, I came to do, to finish
his work, to do the will of him that sent me, and that's what
That's what blesses my heart and revives me and restores me
and refreshes me. We got no part in that, but here's
what you do have a part in. Like our Master, we have been
given a work to do as believers, not the work of salvation. No
part in that. Not that work of which we read
in our text here, the work of the Father. Our work is to tell
folks about that work. Where'd you get that from, Chris?
where I got everything else that's worth saying from God's Word. Think about this now. It is this
simple. Our work is to tell folks about
that work, the work that the Father sent Him to do. I want
you to notice two words in these next texts. I'm just going to
read you some scripture and we're going to be done. Jonah 3.2,
God said to Jonah, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city,
and preach. unto it the preaching that I
bid thee." Now what has he told us to preach? We're going to
read that in a minute. Matthew 10 7, and as you go preach,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mark 1 38, and he
said unto them, let us go into the next towns that I may preach. there also, for therefore came
I forth to preach." All right, Mark 16, 15, and he said unto
them, this is what folks call the Great Commission. You can
call it whatever you want to call it. He gives us two instructions. He said unto them, Go ye into
all the world and preach. What? The gospel. Your work is
to go tell people about that work, His work, what He came
to do and why and who it is that came and what He accomplished
by coming when He came and doing what He did. That's our business. Go and preach. Preach what? The gospel? What is the gospel? That the Lord Jesus Christ came
down here to do the Father's business. What is the father's
business? What is this work that the father
gave him to do? John 6 37 and all that the father
giveth me shall Come to me and him that cometh to me. I will
in no wise cast out Why not Lord because I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me and
This is the father's will which hath sent me that of all which
he hath given me should lose nothing but should raise it up
again at the last day and This is the will of him that sent
me. Why did Christ come? What did
he do down here? This is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
May have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day They're all coming and when they come They'll see me believe
on me and I'll give unto them everlasting life." That's what
he came down here for. And our work is to tell them.
Tell everybody about that. About him and what he did for
sinners. Go and preach. I'm glad to be
in on it, aren't you? It's by his condescending grace
that we're in on it. He doesn't need us. He could
do it a whole lot better without us. But by his grace he's let
us in on it. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, thank
You for mercy. Thank You for the glorious gospel
of Your grace that we have, that we can tell sinners that we know
and believe on and trust a victorious Savior who came down here to
perform a work, not to offer something, not to take a shot
to do His best, but to perform a work which He undertook at
the instruction of the Father and on behalf of the sinner.
A work which he has proclaimed is finished. A work that has
accomplished exactly what he performed it in order to accomplish.
What a privilege to tell folks about him and the work that he
did. Give us grace to do it, Lord.
Give us heart to do it. Don't just leave us to intellectually
spout truths, but give us a heart on fire of the gospel of Christ
to tell forth who he is and what he did and why, and to do so
with joy, with thanksgiving, and with boldness, with your
authority. Bless us, Lord, as a church.
Bless each one of us as we seek you. Cause us to seek you. Make
us what we're not. Do for us what we can't do. Bless
us, though we're utterly unworthy of it. We pray for your mercy.
In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.