Is your religion a well of living
water, or is your religion a stagnant cistern? Do you drink from your
own cistern, or do you draw water from the well of salvation that's
in Jesus Christ? Listen to God's complaint concerning
Israel. For my people have committed
two evils, They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and here them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water. So I ask again, is your religion
a well of living water, or is your religion a stagnant, empty,
broken cistern? Do you drink from your own cistern,
or do you draw water from the well of salvation that's in Christ? It's my prayer that God the Holy
Spirit will this day cause you to know the gift of God, cause
you to know who Jesus Christ is, and graciously cause you
to ask of him. And I promise you, if he does,
If he calls you to ask of him, the Lord Jesus will give you
to drink of living water. Oh, may God be pleased to make
you drink today, for Christ's sake. To that end, I want to
take you back to John chapter 4 again. The scene is in the city of Sychar
in Samaria, where Jacob's well was found. The Lord Jesus is
sitting by the well, on purpose he came to this place to speak
to a specific sinful woman, a woman of Samaria who was an adulteress. We'll pick up the conversation
in verse 11. Now here is spiritual ignorance. Spiritual ignorance
plainly made manifest. The woman saith to him, Thou
hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
then hast thou that living water?" What blindness, what ignorance
holds sinners in the bondage of darkness, unbelief, and sin. If you're an unbeliever, I know
the problem. The root of the problem is your
ignorance. utter spiritual ignorance. You see, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. No natural man. No natural
man. You can teach them, you can catechize
them, you can get them to memorize them, you can get them to memorize
the Bible from cover to cover and recite it verse for verse
and never miss a comma. But the natural man still does
not understand the things of the Spirit of God. You can argue
with him, reason with him, prove all you want to, he still is
ignorant. They're foolishness to him. How
come? Because these things are spiritually
discerned. This woman had lots of religious
knowledge. It didn't affect her life any,
but she had lots of religious knowledge. But she had no spiritual
knowledge. And that ignorance in which she
lived held her in the bondage of darkness, unbelief, superstition,
and idolatry. And that's manifest everywhere. That's manifest everywhere. It
holds men and women in the bondage of religious superstition. darkness
and idolatry, so that men live in religion and yet live in utter
ignorance of God. Let me give you an example. I
haven't had a chance in the last several months to even read the
newspaper or watch the news briefly on television, but the other
day I saw on CNN where Kirk Douglas is 83 and he went through Bar
Mitzvah again. Wasn't that wonderful? Wasn't
that wonderful? So nice. And this is what he
said. He said, though he got away from
his Jewish roots during his Hollywood career, and I'm telling you what
he said. He said, I always fasted on the holy days. Always did. And he said, now this is his
religion. This is his religion. He said,
I never, never lost this reverence of God. And I always fasted on
the holy days. And he said, believe me, it's
hard to make love day for God while you're fasting. But religiouses all get out.
Foul mouth, immoral wretch. But religiouses all get out. You see, ignorance. Now men applaud
this stuff. Men think this is wonderful.
But men by nature are ignorant. The Lord Jesus had spoken metaphorically
in verse 10, comparing his mercy, grace, redemption, and salvation
to living water. He often did this with regard
to things. He spoke of the new birth. He
spoke of life and grace as being the new birth. He often spoke
concerning things using physical images to teach spiritual lessons.
He speaks of our relationship to him as the relationship of
branches to the vine, as the relationship of a body to the
head. But this woman, blind to his
glory, blind to who he is, occupied with only material things, and
ignorant of spiritual matters, replied sort of like Nicodemus
did when the Lord spoke to him. The Lord said, you must be born
again, and Nicodemus, being an ignorant, religious, well-educated
theologian, he said, well, how can that be? How can an old man
be born? Can he crawl back into his mother's
belly and be born again? It doesn't take a brilliant fellow
to ask a stupid question, does it? Oh no, Nicodemus answered
out of his stupidity, his spiritual stupidity. You see, all natural
men, until they are enlightened by the Spirit of God, are ignorant. And being ignorant, they are
all insolent toward God. Look at the next verse. Art thou greater than our father
Jacob? which gave us this well, and
drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle." Now,
this gal was just like Nicodemus. She was being an insolent, smart-mouthed,
smart-aleck. That's all. That's all. Like
Nicodemus, when confronted with spiritual things about which
she had no knowledge, like most of the people you will talk with,
family, friend, workmates, When you confront them with the claims
of Christ in the gospel, when you confront them with spiritual
truth so plainly revealed in Holy Scripture that you can't
miss it, but they don't understand it, rather than bowing to it,
rather than acknowledging their ignorance, rather than acknowledging,
I just don't understand that. There it is. It's written in
the book. I don't understand it, but there it is. Rather than
doing that, They will become carping, smart-mouthed rebels,
and they'll try to make you look stupid by asking stupid questions. This woman didn't understand
what was going on, and so she asked a smart-mouthed question.
You see, a carping, smart-mouthed, bitter, rebellious ignorance
shows itself in the way it responds to the things of God. Ignorance
is ever the mother of rudeness, insolence, and obstinate behavior. Added to her spiritual ignorance
was the fact that she was completely overwhelmed with material things. She didn't know it. No one does.
No one ever does. No one ever knows how the world
holds their hearts. No one. No one. warned us over and over again,
beware of covetousness and of the deceitfulness of riches.
Beware of the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
When the Lord Jesus spoke to this woman about grace, salvation,
and eternal life, All she could hear. Have you ever tried to
witness folks this happen to you? You talk to them about grace
and forgiveness and eternal life. All they could hear were things
concerning sensual, personal gratification. That's all she
heard. He's talking to her about living water. And she's standing
there looking at, well, looking at her water pot and remembering
all trips she's made out there. She said, I sure would like to
make this trip again. All she was wrapped up in material things.
Her eye was focused on the eye. She said, sir, give me this water,
verse 15, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
She had no regard for the glory of God, no regard for the benefit
of anyone besides herself. She could think and see only
as far as her own lust, no more. Be warned, my friends, and be
wise. The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
are Satan's most effective tools to keep you from Christ. I've seen far more people ruined
by success than I have by sex, bad as that may be. I've seen
far more people ruined by riches than by rioting. I see far more
people ruined by family care than by utter foolishness. This poor woman in her spiritual
blindness and carnality had another problem. She presumed to limit
the Son of God to a certain method of working. I'm getting close to home now.
Oh yeah. Do you remember how the folks
in Mark chapter 8, I believe it is, brought a blind man to
the Lord Jesus? And they had seen him many times
lay his hands on somebody and heal them. Lay his hands on them,
they'd be healed. They brought this blind man to
the master and said, Master, lay your hands on him and heal
him. And the Lord Jesus refused to do so. Oh, he healed him,
but not the way they told him to. God will never be dictated
to by man. You understand that? God will
never be dictated to by you and I. And he is in no way limited
as we are. This woman just presumed that
since she couldn't possibly get water out of this well without
a bucket and a rope, then this man standing in front of her
couldn't possibly get water out of that well without a bucket
and a rope. She didn't know who he was. She thought he was just
a man. She thought he was just insignificant,
and little, and weak, like we are. And most people, Merle,
presume that God is. Will you hear me? God is not
a man. He's not little. He's not insignificant. He's not weak. He's not limited. Though Jacob's well was deep,
The well of God's free grace is infinitely deeper, and that's
the well our Master's talking about. The well he was talking
about, the well of grace and salvation in himself, is as deep
as eternity, as deep as God's infinite everlasting love, as
deep as the pit of hell, the wrath of God he endured to the
full satisfaction of justice to save us, as deep as the pit
of hell into which we plunged ourselves, as deep as the very
glory of God himself. This woman was an insolent rebel.
But oh, how I admire our Lord's long-suffering." What did he
do with the questions? He did what I would recommend
you to do. I'm learning to. I haven't learned it yet, but
I'm learning. When folks ask stupid questions, ignore them.
Don't try to answer them. You can't answer a question without
foundation. Don't try to answer it. Somebody
ask a question that is apparently, apparently just utterly foolish. Don't even bother answering.
But don't be mean. Our Lord Jesus is ever long-suffering
toward his elect. He didn't turn away from this
woman in disgust. He didn't leave her to suffer
the just consequence of her obstinance. Instead he bore with her stupidity. By his great long-suffering and
patience he wore down her opposition. By irresistible willing of his
omnipotent grace he at last won her to himself. Before he was
done, before he left the spot, this old gal was perfectly willing
in the day of his power to ask of him and drink of his water. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, and callsest to approach unto thee. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Now look at verse 13, 14. Let
me show you two things. First, in verse 13, I want you
to see that the religion of this world is a stagnant, broken,
empty cistern. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. I have before my mind's eye all
the wells of this world from which men drink. I've tried yesterday and Friday
preparing this message to just set back some and take a long
look at the whales from which you and I drink in this world. And this is the sign I would
put over all of them. Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again. I've proved it. Haven't you? You see there is a thirst deep
within the soul of a man, far too deep for the waters of the
earth to quench. The thirst of your soul is a
spiritual thirst. It's a thirst which cannot be
satisfied with the things of this world. Drink all the material
wealth you can get, and you'll want more. Young people, of course
these days young people are still considered to be anything under
50, you know. Maybe one of those 45 or 50 is expected to grow
up and become a man, Young people get the idea that some have physical
strength and beauty. Boy, now I got it. Brother Bob and I were riding
down the road the other day. You don't mind me telling this,
do you, Bob? Too late now. We were riding
down the road the other day, coming back from Chicago, and
he said he'd gone out to Lowe's to pick up some salt. And he
reached over to get one of those 80-pound bags of salt. And he
said, darn, I couldn't get it up in the buggy. He said, I've got 40 pound bags
instead. And he made a statement. He said, when a man begins to
realize that his physical strength is gone, it's just as painful
as it is for a woman when she realizes that her physical beauty
is fading. No satisfaction in the wells
of this world. Power, position, influence. Oh,
that'll get it. Ask anybody who's got it. Learn,
all you can learn, get a good education and you'll never lack
for anything. Oh, there's no satisfaction there.
Oh, now family and friends, that's where you find satisfaction. No, just broken sisters. All of them. You see, there is
in the soul of man an emptiness. An aching void the world can
never fill. All these things the wise man
Solomon tells us not out of frustration but out of faith. He tells us
not because he was just totally totally frustrated but because
he learned to believe God. Vanity of vanity all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. That's all there is in this world. It's all there is. I love the
The way Brother Scott Richardson put it, preaching here one time,
Scott can say things like nobody else I know. He's such a wise
fellow and says things so plain. He said life in this world ain't
much. He said it begins with a slap on the bottom and ends
with a shovel full of dirt in your face and nothing in between
but bumps and boses. And that's just about what it
is, vanity, vexation. All these things can never satisfy. And yet our text is talking about
something else. It's not talking about things
of the world in general. This text is dealing with religion.
Our Lord is here telling this deluded Samaritan woman that
the religion of this world is a stagnant cistern. And all who
drink of the water found in this cistern of their own making drink
water that can never satisfy the cravings of their soul. Now
I don't suggest, and our text doesn't suggest, that the religion
of this world gives a man no relief. It does. Otherwise it
wouldn't be so popular. I don't suggest that it's incapable
of giving temporary satisfaction. It certainly does. Satisfaction
lasts a few weeks and then you have to get all revived up and
pumped up again. The reason churches are so full
of activity, I recall when Skip and Sandy first started coming
after a few months, Skip said to me, he said, this is just
bachelor language, he said, y'all do less around here than any
church I ever saw as far as activities are concerned. How come? Because
we don't try to pump folks up and make them think they know
God when they don't. I'm not here to pump you up. I'm not
here to try to get you to make a profession and now I'm going
to get you to act like you know something. No, no. No, the religion of this
world does that. I don't suggest that the religion
of the world doesn't offer temporary satisfaction. Religious rituals
and ceremonies and incantations and services and entertainments
and sacrifices and disciplines gratify the flesh, but they at
best provide only a temporary satisfaction and relief. Several
months ago I was flying back home from a meeting, flying into
Lexington, and It was on a Monday, I was getting ready to preach
on Tuesday night, so I did something I seldom do. I pulled my Bible
out and was studying. I spent most of the flight preparing
the message for Tuesday night. And I normally don't do that
because I don't want to be ostentatious. I don't want to be showy with
religion. My soul, I despise that. But I had to get some work
done. And after I closed my Bible in
a briefcase and just started to sit back, the fellow said,
I noticed you were studying that book. You weren't just reading
it. And I told him what I was doing, apologized if I appeared
ostentatious. He said, oh, I want to talk to
you. He said, I'm a man of reasonable success. He said, I have a little
money. He said, I've got a great family. I've got a great family. He said,
I've never cheated on my wife. She loves me and I love her.
He said, wife and I get along real well. He said, we go to
church every Sunday. Every Sunday. He said, I'm generous. I give a lot of money away. And
with tears in his eyes, he said, something's missing. He said,
I'm still empty. I said, well, we got just a few
minutes. I can tell you what's missing
if you listen to me. Will you listen to me? I can
tell you what's missing. Water. The water of life springing
up in your soul. the principle of grace only God
can give in Christ Jesus. You see, if your religion requires
your water pot or your rope, if it requires the pull of your
hand, the digging of your well, if your religion requires something
from you, the cistern from which you drink is your cistern. It's broken, and whatever water
is in there is stagnant water. It'll never quench the thirst
of your soul. Here's the second thing. God's
salvation, true religion, the religion of Christ, the religion
of the gospel, is a well of living water springing up into everlasting
life. Verse 14. But 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 springing up into everlasting
life. The person who receives the Spirit
of God and the grace of God in Christ and the light and life
of Christ shall never want any good thing. Anything that's necessary
and everything that's necessary to peace rest, comfort, and everlasting
glory is his in Christ. Look at what our Lord tells us
here about God's salvation and grace. This is what true religion
is. If this doesn't describe your
religion, you ain't got it yet, no matter what you've got. True
religion is the gift of God. It's a gift of God. Our master
calls it the water that I shall give. There's not a word here
about toiling, working, digging, pulling, learning, nothing. Salvation's
all about giving, and not even about you giving. It's about
God's giving, Bobby. It's the water I shall give. This gift
comes to sinners only from him who sets yonder on the throne,
Jesus Christ the Lord. If your religion, if your salvation
is not a religion of blood, a religion which you have received from
the nail-pierced hands of the Son of God, your religion's faults,
and its damning to your soul." That's exactly right. Yet our
Lord tells us plainly that this is a gift which you must personally
receive. How? Watch this. Watch now. Now this is deep. This is deep.
Watch. I was thirsty. The water's there. And I took
it. I took it. So you can't do that. You don't know whether you were
predestined to it or not. I took it, didn't I? You can't do that. You don't know whether Christ
redeemed you or not. I drank it, didn't I? You can't do that. You don't know whether you were
elected or not. I drank it. How do you know that God called
you to do that? Because I drank it. Because I
drank it. But you're going to have to drink.
Nobody's going to force feed you. You've got to drink it for
yourself. These kids here, teach them,
educate them, train them, pray for them. But you've got to drink
for yourself. You've got to drink for yourself. That's what faith is. Faith is
a thirsty sinner drinking of the blood and righteousness of
Christ, and it's yours. The grace of God in Christ, the
salvation that is here described compared to water, living water,
satisfies the cravings of a man's soul. Turn to Romans chapter
5 for a moment. The Apostle Paul has been discussing
justification. He began in chapter 3 in verse
19 telling us about justification. How we're justified freely by
the grace of God through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ
our Lord. Justified by the satisfaction
of justice, by the establishing of righteousness through the
substitute Jesus Christ our Redeemer. And it tells us that our Lord
Jesus, when he finished his work, was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Now, look at verse 1 of chapter
5. Here's the conclusion. Therefore, being justified. Now, the translators have put
the comma in the wrong place. Therefore, being justified, comma. By faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith didn't justify us,
buddy, but it sure fetched us peace. That's what faith does. Faith is the drinking of Christ. Faith, believing on Christ, is
drinking the water of life. And as soon as you drink, you're
satisfied. Satisfied. Drink from him and
you have immediate satisfaction. John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress
describes himself in Pilgrim with that load of sin and guilt
on his back, and he says, I went here and I went there, I went
to this person and that, I went to Sinai, I went here and there.
Finally, I went up to Mount Calvary and I saw Him, the God-man crucified
between two thieves, and when I looked on Him who was lifted
up for sinners as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
he said, as soon as I looked, the burden fell off my back and
rolled into the abyss. of God's forgetfulness. Soon as you drink, you find satisfaction,
peace, pardon, forgiveness, reconciliation with God. Not only is it immediate
satisfaction, but it's continual satisfaction. You see, one draft
from this fountain of living waters creates within an artesian
well, springing up constantly from within into everlasting
life. The God of grace puts on us the
robe of Christ's righteousness, but the grace of God is not a
robe that we wear outwardly. It's a life God puts in. Faith
in Christ is not a badge you put on your lapel so folks can
look at you and brag on you being so good. It's a fountain of life
in our souls, an inexhaustible supply of living water from Jesus
Christ, called God the Holy Spirit. It's true. The believer in this
world is like David, he pants. Like the heart pants after the
water brook, he pants after God. If you're born of God, I have
no question this is so. You long and desire in your heart
spiritual growth, or to be like Christ. Because there is within a continually
springing well. I'm no poet. I try to write lyrics
for us to sing, but I'm no poet. A poet's a fella who doesn't
have to work at it. John Milton was a poet. A poet's
a fella, it's in him. All he's gotta do is just put
it down on paper. He's just poppin' out. An artist. An artist is
one who's got the art in him. He just put it on canvas. Other
fellas just learn the mechanics. A musician. You can train anybody
to play a piano, but you can't train anybody to be a musician.
Musicians got it in him. It's got it in him. And you can
train folks to be religious, but you can't train somebody
to be a Christian. Christianity's inside you. It's
in you. It's born in you. It bubbles
up in you. It lives in you. We long to be
like Christ, and yet, in Christ, We have everything our souls
desire. He is my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, and my redemption, and I glory in him. And this
well of living water gives everlasting satisfaction. It'll never, never cease. As
a matter of fact, we read at the end of the book that even
in heaven's glory, John saw a river, a river of living water flowing
from the throne of God. And from that river, Christ Jesus,
we ever drink and are refreshed to the satisfaction of our souls.
Amen. All right, you listen to him,
please.