Several months ago, back in the
early part of the summer, three local infidels, all pastors and
churches, made the newspaper a pretty good-sized write-up
about him in the paper. They had taken part in some ecumenical
council, and they had made some agreements, marvelous agreements
they had made. Number one on the list, as it
was given in the paper, was We agree that the Bible contains
the Word of God. Now that may sound respectable
to you, it may sound pious to you, it may sound reverence to
you, it ought to sound like blasphemy to you. This book does not contain
the Word of God. It is the Word of God. So what
difference does it make, heaven and hell, life and death? faith and infidelity. Christianity
and paganism, that's the difference. Either this book is the word
of God, or it is of no more value to you and me spiritually, of
no more value to our souls than this morning's paper. It doesn't
just contain the word of God, it is the word of God. It is
the inspired, inerrant, infallible book of God. What do you mean
by that, Pastor? I mean that every word in this
book is given by divine inspiration under the infallible direction
of God the Holy Spirit, so that those men who penned the pages
of Scripture were moved, were carried along in the language
of Peter by the Holy Spirit as they wrote the words of Scripture. So the book of God is inspired. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and since it's given by inspiration of God, then it's
profitable for doctrine, for instruction, for correction,
for reproof, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly
furnished unto every good work. Not only is this God's book,
God's inspired book, It is a book given with a specific, definite,
universal design and purpose from beginning to end. The purpose
of Holy Scripture, please hear me, the purpose of Holy Scripture
is not just to give us moral guidelines, historical information,
or religious dogma. The purpose of Holy Scripture
is to reveal to us the person of God's dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything in this book is written
by God's design to teach us something about the person and work of
his dear son. Christ alone is the message of
the book. That seems so simple. And it's
so plainly written in scripture. Christ, not the church. Christ,
not prophecy. Christ, not the ordinances. Christ,
not Calvinism. Christ is the message of Holy
Scripture. Turn with me, if you will, to
Luke chapter 24. Let's look at a couple of familiar
texts. All the laws given to Moses and
by Moses to Israel. All the prophecies, all the events
in all the history of Israel recorded in the Old Testament,
everything in the inspired volume by the design of infallible inspiration
points us to Christ. Now having said that, it is of
immense importance, it is of immense importance that as you
read the scriptures, never read the scriptures merely for entertainment,
are merely to fulfill your religious disciplines for the day in which
you're reading. Never read the scriptures casually
or indifferently, but rather read the scriptures seeking the
spiritual message contained in the passage you're reading. Seeking
to understand God's message for your soul in the text you're
reading. I don't mean that we should invent
spiritual messages to read into the text. but rather that we
should always seek the spiritual gospel message contained in the
text. Seeking to understand that every
message or every text contains a message concerning the person
and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's see if that's what
this book teaches. Luke chapter 24 and verse 27. Our Lord Jesus,
risen from the dead, is walking along the Emmaus road with two
of his disciples. And beginning at Moses, you know
where Moses begins, don't you? In the beginning, God. That's
where Moses begins. And in all the prophets, you
know what that includes, don't you? All the way from Genesis
1-1 to the last verse of Malachi, chapter 4. He expanded unto them
in all the scriptures. Now, Lindsay, at that time, the
only thing written was all the Old Testament. So in all the
scriptures, in all the Old Testament, but I thought the Old Testament
was about the Jews. No, you thought wrong. But I
thought the Old Testament was about legality. No, you thought
wrong. But I thought the Old Testament
was a book of mysterious prophecies. No, you thought wrong. In all
the scriptures, he expounded to them the things concerning
himself. Look down in verse 44. He said to them, These are the
words which I spoken to you while I was yet with you, that all
things must be fulfilled which are written." Now the Jews had
three divisions in the Old Testament, three common divisions by which
they referred to all the Old Testament scriptures. The law
of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. And he says, which are
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms. Now look at this. concerning
me. Everything written in the Law
of Moses, everything written in the Prophets, everything written
in the Psalms, concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, now when God
shows you this, then opened he their understanding, that they
might understand the scriptures And said unto them, Thus is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. No wonder our Lord said, Search
the scriptures. He said to the religious crowd,
folks who carried Bibles with them everywhere, folks who went
to the synagogue every Saturday morning and heard the Scriptures
read, folks who recited Scripture, folks who had Scripture passages
sewn into the hem of their garments and made signs and put Scripture
text all over the place. They posted them on envelopes
and they hung them on walls and they painted them in parts. They
had Scripture everywhere. He said, search it! such the
Scriptures. You think that by your knowledge
of Scripture you have eternal life. You don't. For the Scriptures,
they are they which testify of me. They are they which testify
of me. Look in Acts chapter 13, or Acts
chapter 10, rather. Acts chapter 10, verse 43. To him, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
give all the prophets That takes in all of them, doesn't it? To
him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. There
is a profound significance then to everything written in the
scriptures, even to those things which appear to us at first glance
to be unimportant. With those things in mind, let's
turn to our text, John chapter 4 and verse 6. I want to call
your attention today to the place where the Lord Jesus met the
adulterous Samaritan woman, the place at which grace was bestowed
upon her, the place from which she found that living water which
was in her a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John
chapter 4 and verse 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus
therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus on the well. All that transpired between Christ
and this poor sinner, transpired at a place called the well, Jacob's
well. Now, if we would understand the
scriptures, If we would understand the message given in any portion
of scripture, it is often needful for us to understand the meaning
of the place where that event took place. Particularly, that's
true in the text we have before us. Let me see if I can illustrate
what I'm saying. You say, well, Preacher, do you
mean a fellow's got to know all about the historical place? No,
but you do have to know something about the meaning of the place
as it's given in scripture. We read and interpret scripture
contextually in the spiritual context in which it's given.
The children of Israel, for instance, were in Egypt when the Lord God
delivered them by blood and by power. By the sacrifice of a
paschal lamb and by the power of his stretched out arm, he
brought them out of Egypt. Egypt, in that case, symbolizes
the world of darkness, bondage in which you and I lived all
the days of our lifetime as we worked in rebellion to God. It
symbolizes that darkness and bondage which we lived in under
the tyranny of Satan, under the terror of God's law, until he
saved us by his grace. John the Baptist came preaching
the gospel in the wilderness of Judea. And the wilderness
in which he preached aptly portrays the emptiness, barrenness, and
desolation of religion without Christ. That's what Judaism was. Religion, yes, just like most
everybody's God. But empty, barren, desolate,
wilderness religion. Religion without Christ is worthless
religion. When our Savior began his public
ministry, we're told that he went up into the mountain and
began to teach his people a place of elevation to give the Sermon
on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That mountain displayed
the elevation of his throne and the heavenly nature and source
of his doctrine. It displayed the superiority
of the gospel over the law, the superiority of the new covenant
over the old, and shows us the heavenly nature of his kingdom.
When our Lord Jesus gave out his parables to his disciples,
parables concerning his kingdom, do you remember where it went?
He went down by the seaside. And throughout the scriptures,
the sea symbolizes the Gentile world, all through the scriptures,
in Isaiah all the way through to the book of Revelation. The
sea symbolizes the Gentile world, telling us that his kingdom,
his church, is made up by God's design of a people gathered out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It never was God's
purpose to have a kingdom made up of Jews only, but rather to
gather his elect out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue
scattered to the four corners of the earth. In the parable
of the Good Samaritan, our Savior portrays the poor sinners whom
he came to seek and to save as a certain man. A certain man
because we're all just alike. We're all in the same boat. We're
all in the same condition. a certain man who went down.
He was in Jerusalem and he made his journey down from Jerusalem,
the place of blessedness and peace, to the place called Jericho. Cursed, cursed, cursed. That's always the nature of man.
That's always the history of man. Man's history is not the
history of the evolutionary visionist idolatrous idea. Not at all. It is not a progressive, gradual
incline upward toward God. So the man, through his history,
starts off as something less than a dog, and just gradually
gets better and better and better until finally he's up to almost
being God. No, no, no, no. He started off
in the image of God, and now he's something less than a dog. Man's history has not improved
in any sense whatsoever as far as moral uprightness is concerned.
But man's history displays a continually increasing depravity and corruption. Old civilization, we call it.
Refined intellectual enlightenment, we call it. But you read your
paper today and understand that man's nature is depravity and
corruption, and rottenness never ceases to be rottenness, but
only becomes greater rottenness. Our Lord taught us the same thing
in the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son left his
father's house, ran away to a far country, and brought himself
into abject poverty and utter ruin by his self-indulgence,
by his riotous living. I could give many, many other
examples, but these will suffice to show you what I mean. If we
would understand the spiritual message of any passage, we must
understand the place the meaning of the place in which that particular
event or that particular thing took place. Here in John chapter
4, we see the Lord Jesus Christ as he came to Jacob's well. He
chose that spot, Jacob's well, to be the place where he would
make himself known to the adulterous woman of Samaria. And he did
so because he is himself. the well. He is himself the well. Now preacher, how can you show
us that? Turn to Isaiah chapter 12, I'll show you. Isaiah chapter
12. As you go through the book of
Genesis in your Bible class studies with Lindsay, carefully observe
that in those ancient times, almost all actions, almost all
transfers of communication or of important information took
place around the well. That's not accidental. You say,
well, but that's the way things were in that time. That's because
God arranged it in that time. Look here in Isaiah chapter 12
and verse 3. Therefore, with joy, shall you
draw water out of the well. That's a legitimate translation,
but quite literally, the Hebrew text would read like this, Therefore
with joy shall you draw water out of the well of salvation. Actually, there's just one. There's
just one. And that well is Christ Jesus
the Lord. In the Old Testament scriptures,
the wells around which so many, many important events took place
were typical of our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that's
in him. Now today, I want us to look
at just a few of them. But remember, these physical,
historic wells are significant, and they are meaningful to us
only because we understand them as being types and pictures,
pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise, I read about
a well where Jacob was, or a well where Abraham was, a well where
Hagar drew water, a well where Moses found refuge, and I think,
well, it's just a well. It's just a well. But remember,
these things aren't written by accident. They're not written
just by a stroke of chance. They're not written because it
was a lucky thing they were written. These things were written by
divine inspiration to show us something about Christ and our
salvation in him. So let's begin in Genesis chapter
16. where the first well is mentioned in the Bible. It is a well of
meeting. Genesis chapter 16. Sarah told
Abraham, God promised him a son, and Sarah said, Honey, I'm kind
of old, and you are, too. And if this thing's going to
come to pass, you're going to have to find some way to make it happen. She said,
Why don't you take my mistress, Hagar? And the thing sounded
appealing to Abraham, and he did. And no sooner did it happen
Then Sarah was a bit upset. She was a bit ticked off, and
she was mad at Hagar. She planned it. She did it, but
she wasn't mad at Hagar. In verse 6, we read, Abram said
to Sarah, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it
pleaseth thee. And when Sarah dealt hardly with
her, she fled from her face. And the angel of the Lord found
her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. A fountain of
water in the wilderness, by a fountain in the way to Shur, looked at
in verse 13. And she called the name of the
Lord that spoke unto her, Thou God seest me. For she said, Have
I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the
well, that fountain which was by the way in the wilderness,
that fountain she here calls the well, the well was called
Beelahairoi, that is the well of him that lives and sees me. Behold it is between Kadesh and
Bered. This is the first mention of
a well in the scriptures. It is a mention of a well with
great significance. You see, Hagar was the poor outcast
woman, despised, poor and outcast and helpless in the wilderness.
She's found at the well, at a well where there was no other refuge,
no other hope, no other help for her. God saw Hagar there
in the wilderness and met her and supplied her with all she
needed at that well. thou God, the living God, you
see me. Oh, now I'm telling you, all
is well for your soul, if he who is the living God has pitched
his eye upon you from eternity, and in your most desperate circumstances,
he sees you. The father, we read about the
prodigal, says when he was yet a great way off, his father what?
He saw him. he saw him. Not just he spotted
him, he saw him. He saw him for his eye had never
been taken from him. He saw him for his eye was ever
upon him. The eye of the Lord is upon his
people. The only place where God can
ever meet a sinner is represented in this well, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only place at which God will
ever look upon sinners in favor is represented in this well,
in this wilderness, the Lord Jesus Christ. A well of living
water, that river flowing from the throne of God. The only source
from which the needs of our souls can be supplied is Jesus Christ
the well. All that God has for sinners,
all that God gives to sinners, All your soul needs for eternity
is in Jesus Christ, O well of living water. All right, look
at Genesis 21. Here is a well of revelation.
Here again we see Hagar. This time sometime has passed.
Ishmael is twelve years old or so. And this Hagar, the bondwoman
and the child of bondage, had been cast out of Abraham's house
because the heir of the bondwoman cannot be heir with the free
woman, because law and grace cannot mix, works and your works
and God's work cannot mix. And so Ishmael and Hagar are
now cast out again at Sarah's command, but now at God's command
as well. Look at verse 14. And Abraham
rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of
water. and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and
the child kissed on the cheek and sent her off. Tough, tough trial. Abraham loved
that boy. He was the first produce of his
flesh. He loved it. Just like you love
your works and you love your righteousness. But God said,
if you're going to walk with me, you're going to have to kiss
Ishmael goodbye. and you're going to have to kiss your self-righteousness
goodbye. You're going to have to cast
it off. She departed and wandered in
the wilderness of Beersheba and the water was spent in the And
she cast the child under one of the shrubs, and she went and
sat down over against him a good way off, as it were, a bow shot,
for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she
sat over against him and lift up her voice and wept. Verse
17, And God heard the voice of the Lamb. And the angel of the
Lord called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What aileth
thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and
hold him in thine hand, for I will make of him a great nation.'
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water." Can
you imagine? Here she is. She's sitting down
under a bush in the wilderness. She's waiting to die, hoping
she dies before her boy does. In desperation, she's not even
praying, she's just weeping, just groaning, just broken, broken,
helpless, frustrated, despairing. And God opened her eyes and she
saw a well of water. Oh, may God open your eyes. and
make you to see Jesus Christ, the well of living water. There
are many, many things worthy of much attention here that I
can't deal with this morning. I can only skim across the surface,
but the thing I want you to see is this. This well was the place
of revelation to Hagar. Here this poor outcast sinner,
perishing, desolate and alone in the wilderness, helplessly
weeping before God. God opened her eyes and she saw
the well. Let me tell you something, the only way you will ever see
Christ, the only way you'll ever drink from the fountain of living
water is if God reveals him to you, if God opens your eyes. I preach to you Lindsay teaches
the class every Sunday morning. These other men preach to you.
You hear the gospel faithfully proclaimed. You're taught by
mom and dad faithfully the things of God. But nobody on this earth
can make you see Christ. Facts, yeah, but not him. History,
yeah, but not the glory of God in the face of Christ. This is
what the wise man says. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye the Lord hath made them both." We know that God the Son has
come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true, and we are in him that's true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now then look at Genesis 21.
Here in the same chapter, verse 27,
here's a well of a covenant. Abraham took sheep and oxen and
gave them unto Abimelech, and both of them made a covenant.
And Abraham set seven new lambs of the flock by themselves. And
Abimelech said to Abraham, What mean these seven new lambs which
thou hast set by themselves? And Abraham said, For these seven
new lambs shalt thou take of mine hand, that they may be a
witness unto me that I have did this well. Wherefore he called
the place Beersheba, the well of the oak, because there they
swear both of them." Here's a covenant, a covenant made between two people,
a covenant sealed by an oak. Remind you of anything? Hebrews
chapter 7, listen. Inasmuch as not without an oak,
Christ was made a priest for those priests of the Old Testament
were made without an oath. But this priest, Christ, is made
with an oath by him that said to him, the Lord swear and will
not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek by so much that is by the oath and
covenant of God Almighty. Jesus Christ has made the surety
of a better covenant. Look in Genesis 24. Here's a
well of prayer. Abraham's servant Eliezer has
been sent by Abraham to seek a bride for his son Isaac. He
goes about his master's business, and he's stopped by a well. He's
stopped by a well seeking God's direction, seeking God's will,
seeking God's mercy. Verse 10, Genesis 24. And the
servant Eliezer took ten camels of the camels of his master.
and departed for all the goods of his master were in his hand.
And he rose and went to Mesopotamia under the city of Nahor, and
he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of
water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out
to draw water. And he said, O Lord God of my
master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day.
Show kindness unto my master Abraham. Christ The well of salvation
is that one in whom and through whom and by whom we have access
to God. Christ Jesus is for us a well
of prayer, a place of prayer. We come boldly to the throne
of grace in his name. We have access with the Father
by his name through the blood of his cross. Now look at Genesis
29. Here's old Jacob. we come full
circle down back to Jacob. He's fleeing from his brother,
going down to his uncle Laban's house, and he finds a well of
rest. Then Jacob went on his journey
and came into the land of the people of the east, and he looked,
and behold, a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks
of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the
flocks. And a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And thither
all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the
well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone upon
the well's mouth again. This well isn't found in the
wilderness, but in the field, in the green pastures of God's
free grace. Here the flocks lie down and
rest at the feet of Jesus Christ, our Master, and his shepherds
give them water from the well. Christ is our rest. He's our
Sabbath place. He's our Sabbath day. He is that
one in whom we rest, from whom at which we cease from our own
works, from whom we find the water of living waters, life
everlasting. He's our well of satisfaction.
Like David when he was in a time of great conflict, look back
to the wells of Bethlehem. And he said, Oh, that one would
give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem. Oh,
let me drink from the well of living water. Let me drink from
Christ the well, and my soul is satisfied. Now look at one
more thing. Turn back to our text. John chapter
4, verse 6. I'll wrap this up by showing
you that this well, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Jacob's well. Now Jacob's well was that. Jesus, therefore, being weary
with his journey, sat thus on the well. If you read the chapter
carefully, you'll notice that all the water that was fetched
for both this adulterous woman and for the Lord Jesus was not
fetched from the physical well. Read it. It was fetched from
him who sat on the well, who is indeed the well of living
waters. The Lord Jesus Christ is Jacob's
well. For who is Jacob? Jacob's that
man who, when he is conquered by grace, God says, Tell me your
name. He says, My name's sinner. My
name's Jacob. Jacob is that man divinely chosen
by God who said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Jacob
is that one of whom the Lord God says, I have redeemed thee. Oh, Jacob. Jacob. Is that one of whom God says,
I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine? Jacob? Who's Jacob? Jacob? Oh, Jacob is the sinner
who drinks from this well. God give you grace now to drink
from this well and you'll never thirst again. Let's sing number 446, Lindsay,
satisfied. All my life long I had panted
for a draft from some clear spray.