Chapter 4, verse 10. Our Lord Jesus is at the well
in Sychar called Jacob's well, and he is there on purpose to
minister to a woman who was a sinner. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, And who it is that saith
unto thee, Give me to drink? Thou wouldst have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. And the woman saith
unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? What a blessed
gift is here described. Living water. Water springing
up into everlasting life in a man's soul. What a wondrous giver,
Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God, the God-man, our mediator. What delightful terms. Ask. Ask. If you'd ask, I'll give
it to you. Oh, if you just knew the gift,
if you just knew who it is that speaks to you, you'd ask, and
I would give you that living water. The text you had before
you then was inspired and written here in the book of God specifically
to teach us that the Lord Jesus Christ has all grace, salvation,
and eternal life in himself. that he has it for sinners to
give away freely. And he gives it to every sinner
who asks. Every sinner who asks. Just ask.
And it shows, ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall
find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. Now this is the doctrine of the
gospel, the message of the Bible. Oh may God cause you this day
to come to Christ, to ask him to give you living water. If
you I promise you, you will leave here today with God's grace and
God's Spirit in you, a well of living water springing up in
you unto everlasting life. When our Lord Jesus spoke to
eternity-bound sinners, he had no interest in impressing his
hearers with his theological acumen or his oratorical skills. His object was to get men and
women convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Therefore, he
spoke with the utter simplicity, the utter simplicity of ordinary,
everyday language, so that folks he was talking to understood
every word he spoke. In fact, they said, never a man
spoke like this man. The preachers we've all heard,
they were they were polished and refined. He thought that
we understand them. Preachers we've all heard, they impressed
us with their learning. He impressed us with his knowledge.
There's a difference. There's a difference. I fear
far too much preaching is designed to impress men, not to convert
them. May God save me from doing it
and save you from hearing it. I want by the wisdom, grace,
and power of God the Holy Spirit, wisdom, grace, and power that
only he can give, to speak to your hearts for the glory of
God and your soul's everlasting good. Oh my soul, I want to speak
to your heart for the glory of God and your soul's everlasting
good. And God is my witness, that's
all I want as a preacher, just to speak to you by the power
of God. Now may God give me your attention,
as I never answer one question this morning, the question which
this poor sinful woman put to the Son of God. Whence hast thou
that living water? The Lord Jesus told this woman
plainly that if she had known the gift of God and who he was
that was speaking to her, she would ask of him and he would
give her living water. Now I fully realize that she
did not know the full implication of what the Lord was saying,
but she knew something. She knew something. She knew
he was not talking about the stagnant water, the runoff water
that was gathered below the ground in this thing called Jacob's
well. That stale, stagnant, empty water that had to be constantly
replenished with more rain coming down from heaven and running
off and being reserved down there in that thing called Jacob's
well. Oh no, she knew he wasn't talking about that. She knew
he was talking about bubbly water. gushing up water from a spring,
from an artesian well, bubbling up unto life. And so she asked
him a very reasonable question. She said, Sir, how is it you've
got this water? You don't have a rope? You don't
have a water pot? How are you going to get this
water to me? How is it that you have this refreshing, this invigorating,
this satisfying, this water that you call living water? Well,
our Lord Jesus here uses the words living water to describe
God's grace, his salvation, eternal life, which is given to sinners
by him, by the Holy Spirit of God. Now, the fact is that God's
way of salvation, or God's salvation, is often described in exactly
this way in the scriptures. Turn over to John chapter 7.
Our Lord Jesus has been up with Jews to the Feast of Tabernacles.
He had been up to a Bible conference at Jerusalem, and folks had been
reading their theological papers and reciting their theological
junk and gibberish, and they had been going through their
religious ritualism. And the Lord looked at them and
he said, Looks to me like you're coming away the same way you
came down here. Looks to me like you came in empty and you're
going out empty. Looks to me like you came here
thirsty and you're going away thirsty. And in the last day,
the great day of the feast, you see it, verse 37, Jesus stood
and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and
drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. You remember in Isaiah where
the prophet says, therefore with joy shall you draw water out
of the wells of salvation. The word of God frequently describes
God's salvation with the words water or living water. I realize
that in this text and in many places in the scripture, the
word may properly be referred to as referring to the word.
The word of God is often referred to as being water, water to cleanse
and refresh. It is in John chapter 7 verse
38 plainly said to be referring to God the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is often spoken to in the scriptures as being water
by which we are cleansed and refreshed. But the word that's
used here in John 4, and the word as it's used many places
in scripture, probably predominantly in scripture, with reference
to salvation, is talking about the whole thing, the whole gift
of God's grace, the whole operation of grace, the whole gift of eternal
life, which comes by God's Holy Spirit, but comes only from Jesus
Christ the Lord. It's described as being water
for several reasons. First, water is a gift of God.
Nobody ever created any water. Water is God's gift. Water is
something that God alone can give to men. And so it is that
eternal life, salvation, is the gift of God alone. It's not something
you can conjure up. It's not something men can produce.
It's the gift of God. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Secondly, water is vital. You can't get along without it.
You've got to have it. You've just got to have it. You
can get along without a lot of things, but you can't get along
without water. No one can survive without it. Without it, you'll
soon die. And God's salvation is vital. Remember how our Lord spoke to
Martha concerning her sister Mary? She had chosen that one
thing needful, and it'll not be taken away from her. Oh, I
would to God you would hear me. There is only one thing needful. Only one thing. Only one thing. Christ. That's all that's needful. You don't have to have anything
but Him. Oh, but you've got to have Him.
You've got to have Him. You've got to have God's grace.
You've got to have God's righteousness. You've got to have God's mercy. You've got to have God open your
heart for in his life of his grace. You've got to have him.
Water is compared to God's salvation and grace because it meets a
universal need. Water is not the requirement of some men,
but of all men. All the sons and daughters of
Adam stand upon equal footing here. It doesn't matter how rich
you are or how poor. It doesn't matter how learned
you are or how illiterate. It doesn't matter whether you're
black or white, red, yellow, or otherwise. It doesn't matter
whether you're male or female. All of us have got to have water,
and we've all got to have grass. It doesn't matter whether you're
vile, immoral, profligate sinner, or whether you're an upright,
respected, high, mighty, well-to-do citizen of the land. It doesn't
matter whether you go to church three times a week or you've
never been in church. It doesn't matter whether everybody thinks
you're real good or everybody thinks you're real bad. You've
got to have grace. You've got to have salvation.
You've got to have mercy. You've got to have the righteousness
of another, because that which men esteem to be goodness and
that which you esteem to be goodness, God calls filthy rags. just filthy
rags. Water comes down from heaven. It's not of the earth. No, it
originally comes down from heaven. You find it in the earth, but
it comes down from heaven, and it's found in the earth, and
it gathers up and goes back up in heaven. That's God's grace.
it comes down from heaven. You find it here in the earth.
God pours it out upon needy souls, and it goes back to him for the
praise of his name. God's salvation is well described
by the word water, because water like salvation is a gift with
multiple benefits. It's water. Bathe yourself, wash
away the filth, just feels good to be clean. The water You take
it in your hand and put a little on a fevered brow or you dip
a sponge or a washcloth in it and you wipe that fevered brow
of a sick one and you see some relief ensue and you take water
and drink and it quenches your thirst. When you're weary, nothing
so refreshing as water, nothing so satisfies your soul as water. So it is with God's grace. It
cleanses, and it soothes this fevered brow, and it gives refreshment
to this weary center, and it quenches my thirst, and it satisfies
me in my soul. It gives me life. Water is something
of which we never tire. Now, when I wrote that down,
I thought, there's going to be some question about that. Because
my wife doesn't like water. Well, she does. She just doesn't
like the kind you get out of the spigot. And she doesn't much
like the stuff you buy. You know, that yucky stuff that
came out of the California folks making a million dollars on,
it's still stale and stagnant. But I defy anybody there to walk
through the mountains of West Virginia or North Carolina on
a hot July day and see a spring of water gushing out of a rock
and not take a drink. I don't care who you are, you
don't get tired of that kind of water. And I'm telling you,
if ever, ever you taste this living water that's in Jesus
Christ alone, you'll never tire of it. You'll never tire of it
because chosen sinners never get tired of electing love. Redeemed
sinners never get tired of redeeming blood. Those who are pardoned
never get tired of pardon. Men and women who've been captive
never get tired of being free. You never tire of this water.
Water is that which is sovereignly distributed. We saw a little
taste of that this summer, didn't we? This part of the country,
we might always have rainfall year round. Just falls real regularly. But God can turn the tap water
off. He can shut it off real easy. He sends water in abundance
one place and rarely in another. He sends the flood and he sends
the drought. Sometimes he causes the rain
to fall gently and constantly upon a place that is blessed
with abundant rain. And he dries up the riverbeds
and other places. So it is with his grace. God
gives it to whom he will. He gives it to whom he will.
Some places he sends the dew of heaven. Moses said, my doctrine
felleth the dew from heaven. Oh, what a blessed description
of gospel truth. It just, it falls down from heaven,
sweet, refreshing, like the morning dew. But sometimes he doesn't
send it anywhere. Doesn't send it at all. There's
some lands where there's no light. For God has shut them up in darkness.
Oh, it is true, the gospel has been sent into all the world,
but men and women who have despised it now have it taken from them,
and the light that was in them is turned into darkness. And
God sends the gospel where he will, even here, right now. Some of you today will walk out
of here refreshed in Christ, washed in his blood, robed in
his righteousness, rejoicing in his goodness, drinking from
the fountain filled with blood, drinking from his rich, rich,
rich, overflowing abundance. And some of you here will walk
away dry and empty and thirsty. God sends his grace where he
will. All right, here's another thing. This water, this living,
living water, comes to sinners only from Christ. How can I stress this as I would? If you would have this water,
you've got to get it from Him. You've got to get it from Him.
And you've got to get it yourself, Gary. You've got to get it yourself. I talked to folks, talked to
a fellow just recently. I asked him, I said, how long
have you been a believer? He was raising one of those churches
skip like you were where they slosh a little water on your
face and folks presume they've been saved all their life. He
said, I've always been a believer. My response is that's too long.
That's too long. No, you've not always been a
believer. No, you may have always been religious, but you're not
always been a Christian. You may have always been religious,
but you've not always been saved. You may have always been religious,
but you've not always believed God. Salvation, eternal life,
grace is in Jesus Christ alone. only in Christ, and in Christ
in infinite abundance. This water, this living water,
doesn't come from the church. It's not in these waters. No,
this is just, this is just water. The waters of baptism won't cleanse
anything except your body, and only then if you use a little
The waters of baptism do nothing for you, do nothing for you,
except give you occasion by which to confess your faith in Christ.
This water doesn't come by walking down to some imaginary altar
in a Baptist church or a Catholic church either. It doesn't come
by repeating a little prayer that somebody tells you to say.
Oh no, this water is in Christ. It doesn't come by learning catechism.
It doesn't come by being confirmed in the church. It doesn't come
by religious ritualism. It doesn't come by moral affirmation. It doesn't come by decision and
experience or feelings. This water is in Christ alone. If you'd have it, you've got
to do business with him. You've got to do business with
him. You're a preacher. What do I
do? Believe him. Believe him. Drink from the water. Drink from the fountain. Believe
on the Son of God. That's the only way there is
to get it. And you do that sitting right where you are. Don't move
them out. Don't move muscle. Don't even
move your lips. Just sit right where you are. Oh, you've got
to give the sinner something to do. That's the problem with
this age. Preachers have been giving sinners something to do.
And you do something and think you've got life back. No, no.
Believe on the Son of God. And only He can give you faith
to believe. God is fullness, and we receive grace for grace. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He had pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell. In him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead, fatherly. A form of godliness will do you
no good. You've got to have Christ. A
religious experience will do you no good. You've got to have
Christ. Apart from Christ, a form of
godliness, a religious experience, is damning, not saving. This salvation is the gift of
God. I know I've already said that,
but I will gladly run the risk of appearing redundant, and I
will repeat myself deliberately if I can persuade you to look
to him for it. It can't be bought. It can't
be earned, not by you. It can't be given by someone
else. It can't be inherited from your family. It's the gift of
God. Oh, God, give water to sinners. Well, how is it that Christ alone
has this gift? Which then hast thou that living
water? It's true. Salvation is the work
of the triune God. The Father chose us, the Son
redeemed us, the Spirit converts us. But God the Father will not
and cannot give us this living water without Christ. God the
Spirit cannot and will not give us this living water without
Christ, the God-man, our mediator. Which hast thou, that living
water? Well, several reasons and several
ways. Number one, Because he's the
only fit person who could have it. He's the only one who could.
God could never come down to man. It can't happen. God can't come to you. God can't
visit you. God can't speak to you. And you
can't come up to God. You can't speak to God. You can't
visit God. God's Spirit, your flesh. God's Holy, your sin. How are you going to get to Him?
How are you going to approach Him? That's impossible. As a
matter of fact, the scripture describes him as that one who
dwells in light, who no man has seen nor can see, who no man
can approach. No man can touch God. Well, how
on earth is it that we have life eternal with him? How are we
accepted with him? Through a mediator who is God
and man in one glorious person. Jesus Christ is that one who
is described as the one God and the one mediator between God
and men, or God and men to man, Christ Jesus. Did you ever notice
how careful the New Testament writers are in referring to the
Lord Jesus Christ to use the most reverent, adoring terms
to speak of him? Occasionally he's referred to
by his name Jesus, not often, but occasionally. He is sometimes
referred to by his title, Christ. Sometimes, frequently, he is
called the Lord. But most often, whenever the
writers of the New Testament write concerning him, they speak
of him as the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle writes again and
says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
damned. The Lord's coming. Why is it
that he's described in such a way? Well, because he's the Lord.
He's the Lord. Salvation, eternal life, this
water of life is in him because he's the Lord and it's his. It's his to give to whom he will. Is it not right for me to do
with my own what I will? He says so. Salvation is of the
Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. In fact, the scripture says salvation
is the Lord's. It's in his hands. It belongs
to him. You don't have a right to it.
You don't have a claim on it. You don't have any merit of it.
It's God's, and he gives it to whom he will. He's called the
Lord Jesus. Jesus. Oh, how I love that name
given to him. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
Hecker. For he shall, he shall save his
people from their sins. He has a people given to him
before he ever came into the world. And he came here to save
them, and save them he will. He is called the Christ. The
word Christ means anointed one. He is the anointed one sent from
God to be our Savior. On the day of his immersion by
John the Baptist in the River Jordan, You remember the Holy
Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and lit
on him and abode on him, declaring that God had poured out his Spirit
without measure upon him. He is anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows. This is exactly what our Lord
said when he sat down in the temple and began his public ministry.
Turn back to Luke chapter 4. He's beginning his public ministry,
he's in the temple. And as was his custom, he went
into the synagogue. I'm sorry, not the temple, but
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And
they gave him one of the books of the law, gave him the book
of the prophet Isaiah. And in verse 18, he turned to
a place. He just opened it up. Now, can
you imagine this? They didn't have Bibles like
we got with chapter, verses, and division. They had scrolls
of paper scribbled on every which way. And they didn't have the
center column reference in it, but he was familiar with the
book. And he turned to the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61 and
verse 1, and he read, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to the set at liberty,
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'
And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and
sat down. Everybody stood there looking at him. And he began,
verse 21, to say to them, is the scripture fulfilled in your
ears." He said, boys, I'm the one he's talking about. I am
that one anointed of God. He has this living water of salvation
and grace and eternal life to give to sinners because he is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has it also by divine purpose. In Romans chapter 3, the apostle
Paul tells us that he is set forth God has set forth his Son
to be a propitiation for sin. The Apostle Peter tells us that
he is the Lamb of God who verily was ordained before the foundation
of the world. The Lord Jesus is authorized
of God himself to be our Savior. He came here by divine appointment.
He came here by divine anointing, and that which God has provided,
God will accept. What do you offer God? What God
provided, his own Son. That's it. That's the only thing
I bring to him, is his son. Christ has this living water
in himself to give to sinners because he obtained it with his
blood. He yearned it by his obedience to his father's will. As our
mediator or representative, surety and substitute, and he bought
it with his blood. He obtained eternal redemption
for us with his precious blood. And this is the reward of his
father, that he promised to him as the result of his obedience
and accomplishments as our mediator. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. The Lord God says
now, Since he has accomplished redemption, he shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Oh, look yonder
on the throne of glory, on the throne of God, and see yonder
that man who died at Calvary two thousand years ago, and he
has in his hands salvation and life and grace, the water of
life to give to sinners. He has it. The Lord Jesus Christ
has grace, salvation, and eternal life, living water for poor and
needy sinners because of his intercession and advocacy in
heaven at God's right hand. Because he is an abiding, ever-living
high priest, the scripture says, he's able to save to the uttermost
all them that come to God by him. Now I want you to hear one
more thing. Oh, God help you to hear me.
God helped you to believe. This living water, are you listening? Are you listening? This living
water is yours for the asking. Ask and you shall receive. Is that not what our master told
this American woman? Said, if you knew what this gift
is. If you knew who I am, you'd say,
give me the drink, and I'd give it to you. I'd give it to you. He doesn't have this grace, this
salvation, this living water, eternal life and peace. He doesn't
have these things for himself. He doesn't need them. He has
them to give away. To give away. And he has them
in infinite fullness. Christ has living water, the
living water of salvation and grace for thirsty sinners. He
has this living water in inexhaustible, infinite fullness. It'd be kind of foolish for me,
should Skip Bradfelter write me out a check, or better yet
go to the bank and get me a cashier's check drawn on the bank for fifty
dollars. And I go down there and I take it to the teller and
I say, now, now, honey, you know, I don't want to be a trouble
to y'all, but I've got this check for $50 from Skip Bradford after
cashier's check y'all wrote out. And if you don't think you'd
break your bank up, I'd like you to cash that. Well, she'd
look at me and kindly laugh. You fool, you think this bank's
only worth $50? Oh, let me tell you something. There is an infinite
supply of grace in the Son of God. And when all of God's elect
drink from it all the days of our lives on this earth, there'll
be nonetheless in the Son of God. There's an infinite supply
of pardon in him. And when he's given his pardon
to all his people, there's no less pardon in him still. There's
an infinite supply of merit in Jesus Christ. Come, drink from
the water.