Is there anyone here who is weary? I mean weary. Oh, I'd love to find a weary
sinner. Our Lord says, come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy late. He bids the weary to come
unto him and rest. Are you weary? with the trials
and temptations that vex your heart day by day? Weary with
that warfare raging in your soul between flesh and spirit? Is
anyone here weary with toil and labor in this world of sin and
sorrow? Weary with the heavy burden God
in his providence has put upon you? weary with this world. Do I have anyone here who's weary?
I mean tired, worn out, beaten down, exhausted. Is there a weary soul here? If
so, I've got a message just for you. You'll find it in John chapter
4 verse 6. The Lord Jesus had come to Samaria,
and he takes his place on Jacob's well. We read here, now Jacob's
well was there, just outside the city of Sycott. Jesus, therefore,
being wearied with his journey. What a description of the Son
of God. Jesus, therefore being wearied with his journey, sat
thus on the well, and it was about the six hour, just about
12 o'clock noon. What a picture we have before
us. Here is our great Savior, the Lord of glory, God the Son,
that one who came to seek and to save that which was lost,
that one who lived to do his father's will and live for no
other purpose, wearied with his journey. Let all who are weary
and heavy laden then look to him. The Lord Jesus Christ was
as a man, as our savior, as our substitute, wearied with his
journey as he sat down just exhausted on Jacob's well. Now what does
this mean? Why is this fact recorded for
us by the pen of inspiration? What does God the Holy Spirit
intend for us to learn from the fact that our Savior was tired,
weary, beaten down, exhausted from the toil and burden of his
journey? Obviously, the text is not written
in order that we might behold or spot some weakness in our
Savior's character. But this event in the life of
our Redeemer was and is intended by God the Holy Spirit to make
us aware of our dear Savior's reality as a man. He was and is a real man, just
exactly like you and me, sin alone excepted. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is a man, even now a man, touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. He knows better than any of us
ever can know what it is to be weary. Weary. Weary. Now I want to show you
four things about our Savior in this message. May God the
Holy Spirit be our teacher as we look at these four facts revealed
in the passage before us. First, how truly human the Lord
Jesus Christ is. John, above all other writers
in the New Testament, above all the gospel writers particularly,
labors to display the real divinity, the real Godhead of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is John, above all others,
who tells us plainly that Jesus Christ the man is himself God,
the second person of the Holy Trinity. And yet, This one who
labors to display the divinity of Christ is that one who seems
to go out of his way all the time to show us the real humanity
of Christ. Many today deny our Lord's divinity. Most lay great stress upon his
humanity, though the stress is heretical, because they speak
of him as being merely a man, and they speak of him as a weak
man often, often even as a sinful man. But in John's day, there
were many who claimed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who
denied his real humanity. They had this philosophical Gnostic
notion that the Lord Jesus was just a phantom, that he didn't
really exist in human flesh. And so John labors to show us
that God indeed, the Son of God, came in human flesh as a real
man. Our Lord is revealed in the Gospel
of John as that one who says, come here, Thomas, stick your
finger right here. Put your hand right here. Understand
that a spirit doesn't just have flesh and bones like I have.
A spirit is not one who you can reach out and touch. I'm a real
man, though I am indeed your Lord and your God. As I've shown
you many times, there's a reason for this. He who is our Redeemer
must be, he must be both God and man in one glorious person. He must be a man, a sinless perfect
man. Therefore he must be a man born
not of Adam's seed, but as the gospel promise was made in Genesis
3.15, as one born the seed of woman. And this man must himself
be God Almighty. It was man who sinned and man
must die. It was man who sinned and man
must be punished. It was man who sinned and man
must establish righteousness. But if righteousness would be
established by a man, which would be of infinite value, If justice
would be satisfied by a man, which would be of infinite value
for other men, then that man who lives and dies for us must
be himself both God and man. And so it is written, God was
manifest in the flesh. Bless God our Savior is himself
God and man, fully God and fully man, as much God as though he
were not man, as much man as though he were not God. Yet I'm
sure none of us had begun to grasp the fullness of our Savior's
manhood. Believers, it seems to me, have
much more difficulty grasping the real humanity of Christ than
we do in grasping his divinity. When I read in the scriptures
that Jesus Christ is that one who is the creator, sustainer,
and governor of the universe, I say, amen, that's my God. I
don't have any trouble with that. But when I read in the scriptures,
and I confess it to my shame, that our savior was tempted of
the devil that he was troubled in his soul
really troubled in his soul really tempted of the devil exceedingly
sorrowful even unto death to use his language When I read
that our Savior, this one who is God, the creator, sustainer,
and governor of the universe, this one who is God, was also
and is also a man who was weary, weary, weary, beat down, exhausted,
worn out, just worn out. My first inclination, my first
inclination is to try to explain away the reality of those things.
That's my first inclination. And in doing so, I greatly dishonor
him who most deserves to be honored and who most I long to honor.
You see, the humanity of Christ is every bit as necessary to
our salvation as his deity. And it ought to be every bit
as comforting. The fact that our Savior sat
upon Jacob's well as a man, wearied with his journey, is intended
to minister comfort to us, his people, and is intended to encourage
sinners to come to him who is indeed a man who was weary, yea,
when he was made to be sin for us, was even weary with sin itself,
for he was made to be sin. Our Savior's divinity did not
in any way or to any degree diminish his capacity for suffering as
a man. Now you might ask, why is it? Why is it that he who raised
the dead, he who multiplied loaves and fishes to feed thousands,
I mean just a few loaves and small fish, he multiplied them
to feed thousands like that. Why is it that he who turned
water into wine for the benefit of a multitude who apparently
knew nothing about him or his grace? Why is it that he, that
one who caused his disciples who had toiled all night to cast
their net on the other side and take in so many fish, their boats
began to sink? Why is it that this one did not
perform a miracle for himself so that he might be refreshed
with water? So that when he was tempted of
Satan to turn the stones into bread, why didn't he just turn
them into bread? He could make Abraham's sons
out of stones if he wanted to. That's what it said. That would
have been no trouble. Pick up a rock and bite it off
like a chunk of fresh soft white bread. That would have been no
trouble too. Well, why didn't he do it? Surely
the waters in Jacob's well would gladly have been honored to gush
out to refresh the Son of God, their maker, if he had simply
willed it. Why didn't he? Because he came
not to be ministered unto, even by the world he had made, but
to minister in this world, and to give his life a ransom for
many. If he would be our Savior, if he would stand to his own
bond as our surety, if he would put away our sin as our substitute,
it was absolutely necessary that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ as a man, endure all the consequences of sin. Therefore,
we are told by the Holy Spirit that our Savior, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well. This weariness was
a real weariness. The word wearied here, as I have
been emphasizing, doesn't just tell us that our Savior was tired.
That's another word. But wearied is a stronger, stronger,
stronger word. This word means tired and sick. Worn out, exhausted, just beaten
down. Burdened, heavy, heavy, heavily
burdened. Our Savior was wearied. He had
walked a long ways. And He was tired. He was tired. Just like you would
be if you'd walked a long ways. Our Lord Jesus was weary with
His care for the souls of men. weary with the burden of his
heart, the burden he carried throughout the days of his flesh.
The fact that he must soon be made to be sin so that he might
put away our sin was a burden that pressed on him constantly.
He was apparently far more weary than his disciples. We're told
in this chapter that the disciples had gone away into the city to
buy bread while the master sat on the well because he was weary.
You see, he had more care than they. They had walked the same
distance that he had walked, but he had a weariness of mind
and of soul. As that one who was God's messenger
to them, as that one who cared for their souls, he was pressed
down not only with his daily journey, with his long walk,
but pressed down with the burden and care of the souls of men
and ministering to them. This weariness was real. But
there's more than that. It was a voluntary weariness.
Turn to Hebrews 2. Ron brought a message from this
chapter several weeks ago. This weariness was part of the
curse our Lord had come to remove. The consequences of Adam's fall,
the consequences of sin seized upon him as a man from the moment
he came forth from his mother's womb saying, lo, I come to do
thy will, oh my God. Here in Hebrews 2 verse 10, for
it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things.
That is, it behooved God. It was necessary for God in bringing
many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect. How? Through sufferings. Now, our Lord's moral character
was not improved by his sufferings. He's the holy God. But he is
made to be our perfect savior, a complete captain of our salvation
by his sufferings. Look at verse 17. Wherefore in
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. If he would save us, he must
be made just like us. He must be made one of us, that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor, he's able to help, he's able to lift up them that are
tempted. Our Lord Jesus spoke by the spirit
of prophecy in Psalm 22, knowing full well that he must be brought
to this condition. And he said, my strength is dried
up like a pot shirt. My tongue cleaneth to my jaws,
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. This weariness
was just part of the dust of death, which he voluntarily took
upon himself as our surety and substitute. Matthew tells us,
as he quotes from Isaiah's prophecy, and he quotes it this way, saying
that the Lord Jesus Christ himself took our infirmities, our weaknesses,
and bear our sicknesses. Well, how could Matthew interpret
Isaiah's words that way when Isaiah talks about sin and transgression
and iniquity? Because all fleshly infirmity
and all physical sickness, mental sickness, emotional sickness,
all disease, all pain, all sorrow, all trouble is the result of
sin. Always the result of sin. Blessed be God we have not an
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He is a high priest now who can
have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for he himself also was compassed with infirmity. I stress
this because I know some of you are weary. And our weariness comes from
many sources. And I say to you, my brother, my sister, when weariness
seems to overwhelm you, look up to Christ. What an example
he set before us. Though wearied more than any
man, his weariness did not prevent him from continuing in his journey. His weariness did not keep him
from pushing forward in his work to do his father's will. His
weariness did not keep him from doing what God had sent him to
do and what he had come to do. And his weariness did not in
any way hinder him from seizing the opportunity to serve the
needs of a poor, eternity-bound sinner. So when weariness seems to overwhelm
you and you seem to think I'll just quit, I'll give it up, look
to him who was wearied with his journey. When the journey seems
long and the way hard and you think I just can't go on, look
to him who was more wearied than any man ever imagined being.
And yet, I have no doubt that this text is written by the finger
of God to teach us more than just the weariness of our Savior
as a man. So secondly, I want you to see
that our Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior wearied by man's sin
and unbelief. You hear me now, my friends,
and hear me well. Listen to me. If you're not in
too big a hurry to go to hell, listen to me. You may think your
sin and your unbelief are trivial, insignificant, indifferent things. But I'm here to tell you that
God Almighty doesn't consider it so. Our text shows us a picture
of the Son of God wearied with his journey. his journey through
this world as the savior of the world. Now I'm going to leave
it to imaginary theologians to wrangle and twist about how this
might appear to be in conflict with the doctrines of God's absolute
sovereignty and God's absolute predestination. You know I'm
not in the least bashful about preaching those glorious gospel
truths, but I'm not here to tickle the ears of imaginary theologians.
I'm here to preach the gospel of Christ to you, who hang over the brink of hell
and persuade you by the word of God now to come to Christ. That which I'm telling you is
not my opinion of things. It's not what I have deduced,
not what I have concocted by my logic, but it is that which
is plainly stated in Holy Scripture, and I want you to see it. Turn
first to Isaiah 43. The Son of God is wearied with your
sin. Wearied, beaten down, pressed,
tired, worn out with your sin. Verse 24. Thou hast brought me
no sweet cane with money. Neither hast thou filled me with
the fat of thy sacrifices. You haven't worshipped me. Oh,
you said you did, but you haven't. You pretend to, but you haven't.
You come and bring your little offerings and throw your little
tip toward God and tip your hat toward him and say, I've worshipped
God, I've sacrificed, I've done this, I've done that. God said
you hadn't done any such thing. This is what you've done. Thou
hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with
thine iniquities. You weary the God of heaven with
your crimes against him. Weary him. I watch these tobacco farmers
when they load up their tobacco in the fall of the year and put
it on those wagons And they keep stacking it up, packing it down,
stacking it up, packing it down. Those wagons go down the road,
it looks like the wagons are just about to break beneath the
load. Looks like the axles are just
about to bend. This is what God says about your
sin. Behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that's
full of sheaves. I'm just, I'm ready to break. not break in weakness, but break
out in wrath and in judgment. That's what he says in Amos chapter
two. The Lord God, the Lord of glory is thoroughly wearied with
your religion, with your pretense, with your hypocrisy. Turn to
Isaiah chapter one. This is what he says. Religious formality. Ceremonialism
and ritualism. Are you listening to me? Religious
formality, ceremonialism and ritualism is as nauseating to
God Almighty as homosexuality, adultery, and fornication. As
a matter of fact, that's exactly how he describes it. Let's see
if that's not so. Isaiah chapter one, verse two.
Men and women set in their churches in their smug self-righteousness
And some of you, I don't have any questions, some of you sit
here week after week in the house of God and you come and you go
through your little religious ceremony and you think, man,
now I'm something else, I ain't like everybody else. Listen to
what God says, listen to it. Verse 10, hear the word of the
Lord. Not Don's word, doesn't matter
what Don says, hear the word of the Lord. You rulers of Sodom,
give ear unto the law of your God, you people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith
the Lord? I'm sick of them. I'm full of
your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beast. I delight
not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of eagles. You
think I need something from you? When you come to appear before
me, who's required this at your hand to tread in my courts? Oh,
but God requires us, not like you're doing it. Oh no, oh no. God requires worship in faith,
not worship in ceremony. Verse 13, bring no more vain
oblations, empty, meaningless oblations. Incense, your incense
is an abomination to me. the new moons and sabbaths, the
calling of assemblies, all your legality and all your ritualism,
I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn
meeting. You call your holy convocations,
you gather your assemblies, you call it worshiping God, you have
your ceremonies, your ceremony and your most solemn assembly
is iniquity. Verse 14, your new moons and
your appointed feast, my soul hateth. They are a trouble to
me, I am weary to bear them. When you spread forth your hands,
I'll hide my eyes from you. And when you make many prayers,
you say your prayers three times a day, I will not hear. Your
hands are full of blood, the blood of my own son. For you
despise the blood of Christ in attempt to approach God on your
own merit and your own worth. The Lord God is wearied with
your broken promises too. Turn to Psalm 76, 78 rather. Some of you are sitting here
I guarantee you, I'm addressing your own heart. You've been in
tough times. You've been in trouble. You've
been in danger. Read about that fella in the
newspaper Friday, was it? Was stuck in the mud up to his
chin for three hours. He said, I made my peace with
God, not bad to die. Wonder where he is today. They
pulled him out of the mud, you know. He might last a month or two,
but I'll guarantee you, if that's all the peace he's made with
God, he hasn't made any yet. I promise you, that's so. I promise,
judgment never yet turned a man to God, just to religion. Never. Never. Takes more than judgment. It's not the wrath of God that
brings men to repentance, but the goodness of God. You've been
in that shape. Been in danger. You thought,
surely this is it, I'm fixing to meet God. And you said, Lord,
if you'll just spare me, I'll serve you. You may have sat by
the bed of your wife or your husband, your son or your daughter,
one dear to you in your heart. I'll serve you. And this is what
God says, you lied to me. And I don't take it lightly.
Psalm 78, verse 36. They did flatter him with their
mouth. They lied to him with their tongues. He says in Isaiah 57, thou hast
lied and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart.
You who persist in your rebellion and unbelief, you who, as it
were, stop your ears against the gospel and shut your eyes
against the light and would shout, go out of your way, as you run
headlong toward hell, weary him by resisting the Holy Ghost.
I'm fully aware that the grace of God is irresistible. How I
thank God for that fact. Were it not for irresistible
grace, none of us would ever come to him. None of us would
ever be saved. And yet the word of God holds
you and me accountable. God holds you responsible for
resisting his spirit. He says that to the men and women
of Noah's generation, he had preached to them, he had sent
his word to them, he prophesied to them, and they would not hear,
and he said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. Give
me 120 years and you're dead. Stephen said to the religious
folks who picked up rocks and killed him, just like I'm talking
to you, and I know folks here that say, oh, how dares that
man talk to me like that? I wish you would take it just
that personally, just that personally. How dare you expose my heart
for what it is. Stephen said you stiff necked
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy
Ghost just like your mama and daddy did, just like them. Perhaps
you're thinking, well, if grace is irresistible, if all God's
elect are sure to be saved, if man's will, man's decision, man's
choice has nothing to do with salvation, how can you tell us
that men resist the Holy Ghost? I'm glad you asked. Your will,
your decision, your choice has got nothing to do with your salvation,
but it's got everything to do with your damnation. Everything. This is what God says. He that
being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy. He says you shall eat the fruit
of your own way and be filled with your own devices. Thirdly,
this wearied Savior came to this place to save a weary sinner
and he did it. Oh how I have been praying that
he may have come with us to this place today to save a weary sinner
by his almighty grace. No sooner did this woman from
Sychar Come out to meet the Savior. She didn't know it, but he did.
She was not spiritually weary, but she was weary. I promise
you she was weary. I've been there. Nobody could
live as she lived and not soon grow weary with her sin and her
corruption and her evil ways and be unable to control anything
about it. She was weary. And as she walked up, The Savior
initiates a conversation. He begins to seem to kind of
brace himself up. He seems to be refreshed. He
seems to be enlivened. He's all in it! For he had come
to save her. One time I was out with some
fellas fishing. Brother Mahan, myself, some others down in Mexico
with Brother Walter Guford. We'd been out on the ocean a
good while. And I'm not much of a fisherman. I get a little
impatient. I was sitting out on that boat about half sick.
And I was tired. I didn't want to be there. I
was trying to be nice, but I didn't want to be there. I'd rather
be inside doing something else. And suddenly, a barracuda took
my line and off he went. And man, you talk about coming
to life. That's what I was there for, to catch a fish. Our Savior
had come to save a sinner, and when the sinner comes where the
Savior is in God's providence, he's all in it, giving himself
wholly to it. And when he got done, she left
her water pots and went away and said, come see a man. Told
me all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? I'll
show you one more thing. That which refreshed and revived
our wearied Savior that day in Samaria, And that which now satisfies
the travail of his soul is the salvation of sinners. Oh my soul. When the disciples
came back, the Savior whom they had met sitting weary at Jacob's
well, they looked at him and they said, who gave him anything
to eat? Well, the woman didn't give him
anything to eat. She didn't drop her bucket down into the well.
She left her water pots on the well. But the Savior is strengthened. He's revived. He's refreshed.
And when the disciples didn't understand what was going on,
this is what he said. I have meat to eat you know not
of. This is the food of my soul.
This is what refreshes me. This is what enlivens me. This
is what revives me. This is what satisfies me. The salvation of a sinner. Isn't
this what the prophet said? He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Imagine that. James Jordan, the
son of God, is satisfied because he saved us by his grace. Oh, hallelujah. or the Savior. Amen.