God will give me your attention
and speak to your heart this day. Let's read together John
chapter 4 verses 39 through 42. Here we have the climax to one
of the most delightful stories in all the Bible. The story of
the conversion of the Samaritan woman. The Lord Jesus had come
to Samaria seeking this lost sinner, and now he has revealed
himself to her. And she's gone back to the city
and told the men of the city, come see a man who told me all
things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And many
believed. Now let's read verse 39. And
many of the Samaritans of that city, the city of Sychar, believed
on him for the saying of the woman. The woman which testified, he
told me all that ever I did. So the Samaritans, when the Samaritans
were coming to him, they besought him, they begged him, they pleaded
with him, that he would tarry with them. And he abode there
two days. And many more believed because
of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe not
because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and
know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
As the Lord enables me, I want to talk to you for a little bit
this morning about faith. Faith as it came to and was displayed
in these Samaritans who were here born again by the power
of God's grace. Wherever faith comes, wherever
faith is found. It is the gift of God Almighty,
the operation of his grace, the work of his Spirit. Faith does
not grow in the soil of man's heart by nature. Faith does not
arise from something within man. Faith is not something which
is laying latent or dormant in a man's heart. It must somehow
just be kind of stirred until it is rustled up and musters
its own self within a man and arises to believe God. No, no. Faith is fallen to humanity. Faith is foreign to fallen, depraved
human nature. Faith is foreign to the heart
of man. No man can believe God except
God put faith in him. Faith is the gift of God. It
doesn't matter whether that faith is found in one who was raised
under the sound of the gospel, like many of you. one who is
raised unto the sound of the gospel and has lived a very morally
upright life, who is raised by loving parents with discipline
and care, or if that faith is found in one who is raised by
an infidel, raised to be an educated barbarian like many in our society,
without restraint, without any regard for God or any regard
for righteousness. But if faith is found in either,
If faith is found in anyone, it is God's work, not man's work. It does not depend upon outward
circumstances nor inward abilities, but rather it is the gift of
God the Holy Spirit. Now, I stress that because I
take great encouragement from this fact. If faith is, and it
certainly is, in all cases God's gift, then we should never be
selective in the work of the ministry. We should never be
selective in preaching the gospel. Our Lord gave no example for
selectivity in evangelism. The world's way, the way religion
does things, the way denominations do, all of them, all denominations. You find somebody who's going
to build a church, they're going to start a church. First thing
they do is they send an advanced team in. And they do a survey,
just like you would if you were going to build a business. Marketing
survey. Find out what's wanted. Find
out where the upwardly mobile, rich, well-to-do folks are going
to be moving, because we don't want to put a church up in a
poor section of town. Find out what folks expect from
a church. And find out what the likelihood
of success is, and there we'll start pouring our money and our
labors in. Not God's people. Not God's preachers. not God's churches. No, sir.
Our Lord gave us no example of that kind. He told us plainly
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Had our Savior carefully studied
a map of Palestine, he probably could not have found a more unlikely
place in the entire country from which he might expect to find
men and women who would follow him, who would believe him, who
would be his disciples. Samaria was the most unlikely
place in which we might expect to see men and women turn to
be followers of God and of his Christ. When our Lord Jesus first
came there, he found a great evil of racial prejudice and
hatred. The Samaritans despised and would
never have any dealings with the Jews. Oh, I know, it's true,
the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, but the Samaritans
were happy to reciprocate. They had no dealings with the
Jews, they despised one another. They had no regard for one another
except just contempt. Yet, it was from among the Samaritans,
a race of mongrels. a race of men and women who were
of mixed breed. They had been shipped into this
area by a pagan king, and they had for years incorporated the
worship of idols with the worship of Jehovah. And so while they
claimed to be worshipers of God, they were really idolaters. They
had a mongrel breed and a mongrel faith. Yet among these mongrels,
The Lord Jesus came and gathered larger numbers of sinners than
were gathered from any other single place during the whole
of his earthly ministry. Many in Samaria believed on him. Many of these despised, mongrel
idolaters believed on him. We ought always to go the opposite
way of the world. Go to places where people are
least likely to be converted, where people are least likely
to receive us, where people are least likely to believe the message
we preach. You see, God's thoughts are not
our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways. But his thoughts
are always right, and his ways are always best. You remember
when Paul wanted to go to Bithynia and preach the gospel. He assumed
surely this is where God had him to go. God wouldn't let him
go there. How come? Because he had something better
for him. Prison at Philippi. Something better for him, yes
sir, because through his going down to Philippi and there being
imprisoned, God raised up a gospel church flourishing to spread
the gospel to multitudes around the world. If ever we truly learn,
if ever we truly learn that faith is the gift of God, the operation
of God, a supernatural faith, it'll have a profound effect.
It'll alter everything we do. It'll alter our attitude about
everything. I'm speaking now to you who believe God. I'm speaking
to myself as a preacher and to you others who preach and teach
in this assembly. If ever we really get hold of
this fact that faith is the work of God alone, we'll stop trying
to figure out how to make the gospel effectual and just preach
it. Just preach it. Oh, how I delight
to hear men with a message from God. Just stand up and tell it. Just preach it. Don't worry about
it. Don't pay any attention to it.
Don't even think about how you can make it effectual. How can
I get this fellow to believe it? How can I get you to believe
it? Just preach it! If God's pleased
and blessed, He'll give faith where He will. If ever we see
that faith truly is the work of God, we'll quit trying to
determine where God is likely to do his work, and we'll serve
him where he is, or where we are as he is. We'll worship him
and serve him in the place where he's put us. If ever we see that
faith is God's work, we'll cease trying to determine who's likely
to get saved, as they say, and just preach the gospel to everybody.
Just preach the gospel to everybody. Rich and poor, male and female,
black and white, Jew and Gentile, North and South, East and West,
it doesn't matter. Just preach the gospel to everybody. And
we'll quit trying to make the gospel politically correct, socially
palatable, culturally relative. Those are all good evangelical
terms, they think, these days. You know, we want to make the
gospel appeal to our culture. I had a letter Recently, some
lady was trying to help a lady who had a child of mixed race
and said, you know, I want her to be raised in a church where
she's comfortable in her culture. Your culture's sin, just like
ours is. That's all. That's all. And the
gospel does not appeal to physical culture, and you can't make it
appeal to physical culture or physical condition. You make
the gospel appeal to men only by declaring the glory of God
in Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter what your
culture or condition or background is, if God makes you to see your
seed, he'll make Christ precious to you. The seed sown doesn't
really depend, after all, on the hand sowing it. The life
is not in the sower, but in the seed. In fact, in spiritual things,
even the soil doesn't have anything to do with the fruitfulness of
the seed. God makes the soil fertile. God sends the rain of
his grace, and God brings forth life and fruit according to his
will. What I'm saying is this. You and I can and should, we
may and we must go, feeble as we are, useless as we are, and
sow the precious seed, believing God and waiting for God to give
the increase. The Lord God can make his word
to spring up like a root out of dry ground. There was a day when he brought
water out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, and he
can in this day of barrenness take such things as we are, and
bring forth fruit for his glory. Let us then serve him faithfully."
All right, let's look at this passage of scripture, and let
me show you four or five things here that are just very, very
important, very, very practical. Nothing deep or profound, just
plain and practical, and you can see them just plain as a
nose on your face. Number one, look at verse 39.
Here we're specifically told that God used an old harlot to
carry the gospel to chosen sinners in Samaria. Many of the Samaritans believed
on him for the saying of the woman. Oh, how I love that. How I rejoice in God's great
condescending grace and goodness. I got to looking this over in
the last week or so. I can't find any place in the
scriptures where any human being was used of God to do good for
more people at one time, except perhaps on the day of Pentecost
when Peter preached, than this Samaritan woman, this old harlot. But she couldn't be a preacher.
No, but she preached. She couldn't be a prophet. No,
but she told the truth about God. She couldn't be a teacher
in the kingdom. No, but she could proclaim what
God had done for her. And she did. And God used it. The objects of God's grace were
Samaritans. The most despised sinners that
could have ever been found. as far as the Jews were concerned.
The only thing the Jews despised more than a dog or a woman or
a republican was a Samaritan. They despised the Samaritans.
And so the Lord sends his grace to the Samaritans. You see, God
almost always saves the folks that we least expect him to save
and uses the folks we consider Useless. Almost always. The Lord sent Samuel down to
the house of Jesse to find the king in Israel. And Jesse paraded
all of his sons out before him. And Samuel said, is this all
you got? Jesse said, no, we got one more,
but you wouldn't want him. He's just a little old rag-tag
fella, just a squirt. We got him uptended in the sheep.
He can't do anything. Samuel said, go get him. And when David
walked in, the Lord God said, this is he, arise and anoint
him. That's God's chosen. That's almost every time. You
see your calling, brethren? Having not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble hath God called. But
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty and base things. What can you find
more base than an old harlot? Somebody's been shacking up at
first one man, then another all her life, and everybody in town
knew it. The base, base things. Only thing on this earth you
can find more base is the one talking to you. Things which are despised have
God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught the things that are. that no flesh should
glory in his presence. God might just speak through
us, Rod. He just might do it. Because I can't think of anything
more unlikely. He just might do it. How come? He might just show
you mercy. He might just look down on you.
He might just call you by his grace. Because I can't think
of anything more useless than you and me. How come? that no flesh should glory in
his presence. The message of grace was carried
to Samaria by a harlot. The word spoken by this woman
was the instrument God used to bring his elect to life and faith
in Christ. You see, God Almighty can make
the weakest of instruments mighty to pull down the strongholds
of Satan if he so wills. The message this old harlot delivered
was very simple. It was just as simple as it could
be. It was the testimony of what the Lord had done for her. You
know, reading through the book, I find it interesting, I find
it interesting that you never see, you never one time, not
one time, Do you see one of God's servants? Neither preacher, apostle,
prophet, nobody. You never one time see him sitting
down with people and arguing with them and fussing with them
about this thing or that. Not one time. No point. There's just no point. What do
you do with folks? You tell them what God's done
for you. If they're interested, they'll come listen. Tell them
what God's done for you. If they're interested, they'll
want to know more. This woman said, come see a man.
He's a man. He's a man who dealt plainly
with my sin. He told me everything I ever did. Reckon he's the Christ. I said, let's go see. Let's go
see. And many believed because of
her word. Many were converted by the work of God here in which
he shows forth his great sovereignty. The scripture says many were
converted, but not all. Well, which ones were converted?
Which ones? Many were converted, but not
all. Some of you. Some of you. I'm just confident
some of you are going to hear this message, and God's going
to save you by His grace, and convert you by His power. Well,
who? Not all, but some. As many as
were ordained to eternal life believed. That's who. That's
who. Many are called, as I preach,
but few are chosen. God shows forth his sovereignty
in that he not only called many of the Samaritans, he called
the idolatrous Samaritans, though he had left the enlightened Jews
in their darkness. They were converted by the mere
word of his grace. No miracles performed in Samaria.
No miracles, no supernatural works performed at all in Samaria.
They had nothing to go by except the bare word of God. And I want to tell you something.
If you believe God, you believe him because of his bare revelation
and nothing else. All right, secondly, look at
verse 14. And we see this fact demonstrated. Needy sinners hang
on to Christ. So when the Samaritans would
come to him, they besought him that he would tarry with them,
and he abode there two days. I will make no effort at trying
to expound the depth of instruction in that sentence. But understand
this, the desire of the Samaritans and our Lord's compliance with
it, shows the willingness of Christ to meet the needs of everybody
who wants Skip Gladfelter, the son of God
is willing to meet your needs. If you want him, he's willing. Don Fortner, the son of God is
willing to meet your needs. If you want him, he's willing. We read in Matthew chapter 8
of the Gergesenes, who prayed that the Lord would depart from
them. And he did. They said, leave
us alone. You got what you want. I'll leave
you alone. Oh, what a sobering fact. These Samaritans begged him to
stay, and he did. I do this every day, all the
time, for myself personally. and for us as a congregation. Next week will complete 20 years
we've been together. Blessed, blessed, blessed 20
years. And I keep begging, Lord God,
leave us not to ourselves. If thy presence go not with us,
carry us not up yet. Stay with us. Stay with us. As long as we need him and hang
on to him, he'll stay right here. I have no question at all. What blessings those disciples
would have missed. You remember in Luke 24, as they
were walking the road to Emmaus, the Lord made as if he would
go another way, and they said, no, no, abide with us. And while
he abode with them, he opened the scriptures and opened their
understanding and made them to see all things in the scriptures
pertaining to himself. If we do not have Christ abiding
with us, it's because we don't ask him. That's all. Because
we're willing to do without him. Just that simple. Sometimes folks ask me, why wasn't
so-and-so at church? Didn't want to be. Just that
simple. Didn't want to be. Had something
more important. Something more important. You
give yourselves to everything in this world. Neglect the worship
of God. Say, well, you know, I'm tired. Need to play golf yesterday,
so I'm tired today. Wanted to go see the Cats play
ball last night, so I'm tired now. I'll stay at home today.
Have what you want. I promise you, you'll have what
you want. You will have what you want.
I promise you. If you want him, he'll stay with
you. If you want him, if you need
him, he'll abide with you. If you hang on to him, he'll
hang on to you. All right? Thirdly, we don't all experience grace
the same way. The needs are the same in all. Grace is the same in all. Salvation
is the same in all. But the experience of God's grace
and salvation differs greatly with individual believers. Look
at verse 41. And many more believed because
of his own word. Some of the Samaritans were converted
by the woman's Others were converted by the preaching of Christ. Some
appear to have been converted immediately when they first heard
the message. Others seem to have been converted
gradually over a period of a couple of days while the Lord preached
to them. Now you can be sure of this. You're not going to put God in
a box. That's what I'm saying, this. He just won't fit in our
little boxes. no matter how big we think they
are, no matter how tightly we think we make them. God saves
his people as he sees fit. And he always does it in such
a way that no man can say, now there, there, I am responsible
for the grace he enjoys or she enjoys. I'm responsible for this
good thing or that. While preachers in churches choose
up and take sides, fussing and fighting about how a person must
come to Christ, Sinners are going to hell. What madness. What utter madness. I'm so sick of it. I'm so weary
of the foolishness, the foolishness of men and religion. I don't care how you come to
Christ. Just come. If you get to Him any way you
get to Him, be alright. I don't care when you came to
Him. I didn't want to have you come
to Him. Do you come to Him? I don't care where you were when
it happened. Come to Him, that's all." Now, having said that,
do not misunderstand my meaning. I don't mean to imply or suggest
in any way that it does not matter who you trust or what you believe. Oh, no. Look at verse 42. And
understand that every believer's faith is the same. That's right. All who are born of God believe
the same thing. Religions confuse, but not believers. All who are born of God have
the same faith. Churches have different creeds,
but not Christians. In all matters of faith once
delivered to the saints, all believers and all preachers see
eye to eye who are truly born of God. Every same sinner has
the same faith. Every same preacher has the same
message. Now let's see if we can make good on that. Look at
verse 42. The Lord of these Samaritans said to the woman, Now we believe,
not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the
world. Now look what it said. Now. Now
we believe. This is what they confessed,
David. These folks were Samaritans. They believed the Bible, just
like the Jews. They took the first five books
of the Old Testament, the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch,
and they walked in the light of those things. They believed
the Bible. They were moral. They were religious. They worshipped
Jehovah, all those things. But they didn't know God. They
didn't believe, just exactly like Bobby Estes was. He met
me at the door one day as I was baptizing that church over there
because I didn't know God, didn't know this gospel. This is what it said, now we
believe. In other words, before we didn't. Before our religion
was just idolatry and dead works, now we repent of it. Now we believe
not because of thy saying, that is to say faith. True faith is
not based upon and does not arise from the words and arguments
of mere mortals. Our faith rather stands in the
Word of God. Look what it said, Now we believe
not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves. Faith in Christ is the result
of divine revelation. It's a matter of personal experience.
If God saves you, he's going to speak to you through a preacher.
But it's going to be God speaking. So that your faith stands not
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul said the
gospel I preach is not after man. He said I didn't receive
it from a man, I received it from God. John said that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which our hands
have handled, the word of life. He said that's what we declare
to you. what we have personally, personally
tasted and felt and seen and experienced. And we know that
this is indeed the Christ. Now that sentence could be translated
better. It could be translated properly.
We know that this is truly the Christ. Or even more properly,
this is the true Christ. You see, the Jews looked for
a Messiah. They looked for a Christ. A political
ruler. Somebody who would take care
of things for their carnal need and gratification. The Samaritans
looked for a Christ too. Same thing. A political ruler.
Somebody who would set things straight and avenge their cause.
They both looked for a Messiah, a Christ who would be a reformer,
a teacher, a teacher of morality, one who would guide folks into
good earthly ease and freedom. The same kind of Christ most
everybody looks for. But these came and said, we believe,
not because of your word, but because we've heard his word
ourselves, that this is the Christ. There ain't but one. Who is it? He's the Savior of the world. Not the one who offers salvation
to the world. That's no Christ. Not the one
who provides salvation for the world. That's no Christ. That's
an idol. Not the one who wants to save the world. That's no
Christ. That's no Christ. That's just an idol. That's just
a figment of man's imagination. But He who is the Christ, He
is the Savior of the world. Of the world. Now, somebody jumps
on that and says, How are you going to reconcile election with
that? I'm not. I'm going to let goats just butt
at it. Go on. It's talking about God's elect
around the world, Jew and Gentile, male and female. It doesn't matter
whether they're Samaritan mongrels or purebred Jews. It doesn't
matter whether they're learned white fellows or learned black
fellows or unlearned white fellows or unlearned black fellows. It
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether they're in central Kentucky
or in the heart of Africa or New Guinea. God has his elect
not among the Jews, not among one class or another, but through
all the world. And he saves his elect in all
the world by Jesus Christ his Son. Now like that harlot of
Samaria, I want to persuade you who hear this, you who hear this
sinner's voice, to come to Christ. Believe on the Son of God. This is the true Christ. He is
the Savior of the world. He has saved me by His grace. And He can save you. I know He
can. Look here. Look here! Look here! He saved me. With Him, nothing's
impossible. And He's more willing to save
than sinners are to be saved. He's as willing as he is able,
and he's as able as he is willing, to save all who come to God by
him. For he's the Christ. He's the
Christ. He's the Christ. Oh, may God
bring you now to him, right now, for the glory of his Son. Amen. Mind you, listen to him, please.