The Apostle Paul, understanding
something of the significance, the weight of responsibility,
the great burden of the Word of the Lord, in ministering to
eternity-bound men and women, said, who is sufficient for these
things? The more I try to preach, the
more experience I have in this thing, of trying to preach the
gospel, the more convinced I am of my total inadequacy and insufficiency
to do so. What wisdom, what wisdom is required
if I would minister to your souls? Jeremiah gave us God's word to
his people. He said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and with understanding. Knowledge and understanding only
God can give. Knowledge to meet your needs,
understanding to meet your needs from his word, from all your
varied backgrounds. The Lord commands by his prophets,
speak ye comfortably to my people, that is speak to the heart of
my people. Now I can speak to your head
and I can speak to your emotions, but I can't speak to your heart.
Only God can do that. We've come here today with different
needs, different desires, with different things on our minds,
different backgrounds, different experiences and different circumstances. And yet, spiritually, we all
essentially need the same thing. Every one of us needs grace.
Oh God, deal with us in grace, in grace. Not according to our
merit, but according to the multitude of your tender mercies. We need
forgiveness. I got a letter this week from
a young theology student. He was taking me to task for
suggesting that Believers who are already forgiven continue
to call upon God for forgiveness. Well, I'm not talking about theological
jargon. I'm talking about a man, a woman,
with a sense of his corruption and sin and depravity before
God. We need for God to speak a fresh
word of forgiveness to us day by day. If we confess our sin,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We need righteousness that will
give us standing before God Almighty in perfection. Not just a stab at righteousness,
not just a sincere attempt at righteousness, absolute righteousness. In a word, we need God's salvation. Now, with that in mind, I want
us to turn to John chapter 3, and I want to show you two people,
two people who could not have been more different, two people
who could not have been more dissimilar, but two people who
were saved by the marvelous free grace of God in Christ. If you're
taking notes, the title of my message is Two Great Sinners
and the Great Savior. These two great sinners and our
Lord Jesus Christ, our great Savior, are set before us in
John chapters 3 and 4. First, look at chapter 3. There
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. Everybody in town
knew who he was. A ruler of the Jews. The same
came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
came bragging about what he knew, and the master said, you don't
know a frazzling thing. He came telling him, we know
you're a teacher come from God, and our Lord was about to tell
him, I'm God come to teach. And Nicodemus said, we know,
we know, and our Lord said, you can't see a thing unless you're
born again. Now look in John chapter four,
verse four. And he must needs go through
Samaria, Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar,
near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour, just about noon. And there cometh the woman of
Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. Here's a woman nobody knows who
she is. Her name's insignificant because
her name was associated with evil and wickedness. Nobody even
calls her name. But the Lord Jesus comes to this
woman sitting with weariness on Jacob's well and says, will
you give me some water? Because he intended to give her
some water. That's always a mistake to interpret
any portion of scripture standing alone without considering its
context. In fact, it is impossible to
properly interpret and to properly understand any statement, any
verse, any chapter in this book unless it's understood in its
context. Scripture in honesty must be
interpreted contextually. Not only did God the Holy Spirit
inspire the words of Holy Scripture, He inspired the order in which
those words are given to us in this sacred volume. When we talk
about the inspiration of the Bible, don't ever get the idea
that this book contains God's Word. We have to search and find
out what it is. When you open the book, you've opened God's
Word. And it is inspired in its entirety by the Spirit of God. So that holy men of old spoke,
they wrote the words of God as they were moved, carried along
by God the Holy Spirit. Now the two stories we have before
us of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, And the Lord's dealings
with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman are given to us in the
same context, one following the other, because the Spirit of
God would have us to learn specific things about the way the Lord
deals with his people. Together, Nicodemus and the Samaritan
woman show us that none, no matter how good he appears to be, No
matter how righteous he appears to be, no matter how high he
appears to rise in society and in religion, none is too good
to be saved. And none, no matter how low she
stoops. no matter how vile she may become,
no matter how she may abase herself, no matter how degenerate, no
matter how perverse, no matter how low in society she may become,
is beyond the reach of God's almighty grace. It takes the
same grace the same blood atonement, the same divine power, the same
righteousness, the same savior to save the sinner who walks
in the high road of religious apostasy as it does to save the
sinner who walks in the low road of degeneracy and profligate
immorality. Now then, look in chapter 4 verse
42. These two stories are concluded
with this great declaration. This is indeed the Christ, the
Savior of the world. This one who comes and teaches
Nicodemus about the new birth. who teaches Nicodemus about the
necessity of faith in himself, who teaches Nicodemus about the
necessity of his incarnation, his virgin birth, his death upon
the cursed tree, his resurrection and his exaltation, all contained
in the opening verses of John chapter 3. who teaches Nicodemus
of the necessity of God the Holy Spirit in sovereign mercy coming
to give life to the dead or the dead must forever perish and
remain in their spiritual darkness and unbelief. This one who comes
to the Samaritan woman is that one who is indeed the savior
of the world. The one who saves Jew and Gentile
alike. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is
himself the only Savior there is. Now this is what I want you
to understand. Jesus Christ is that one in whom
alone you can find God's salvation. He alone is God's salvation. He alone is the Savior of the
world. Turn to Acts chapter 4. I want
you to see this. Acts the 4th chapter verse 12. God did not save the Jews one
way in the Old Testament, Gentiles another way in the New Testament,
and then a day coming when he's going to save folks still another
way in some imaginary tribulation period. Jesus Christ alone is
the Savior of the world, Jew and Gentile. He says in Acts
chapter 4 verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none of the name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now, his name is himself. Now, David, whenever you read
the name of God in scripture, whenever you read about worshiping
his name, calling on his name, it's talking about all that's
revealed in God's holy name. It's talking about his attributes,
his power, his glory. There is no name. It's not just
saying Jesus, I believe. Now, Jesus is Savior. The way
men use the name of Jesus these days is utter blasphemy when
they talk about the most religious things. But rather the name Jesus
Christ is the person of the God-man, our Savior. And there is none
other in whom we must be saved. You must be saved believing Him,
trusting Him, worshiping Him, or you shall never be saved.
All who are saved are saved in the same way. We are saved by
grace. By grace which reigns through
righteousness. You remember what the Apostle
Paul says? Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. God does not just freely throw
out his grace without any basis. He does not freely forgive sin
without a basis for forgiving sin. If God is gracious, and
he is, he must be gracious on the grounds of righteousness
established and satisfied. So the Lord Jesus Christ came
here as our substitute and obeyed God's law in our room instead.
He satisfied the justice of God by his sacrifice at Calvary.
By blood atonement he has put away sin. And God exercises his
grace constantly in his good providence. Providence too is
employed by God in the saving of his people. Providence calls
Nicodemus to come to Jesus by night. And providence brought
the Lord Jesus to come through Samaria to Jacob's well. Every
act of God in providence is God moving step by step to chosen
sinners to call them by his grace. And God saves his people by the
revelation of Jesus Christ in them. How can I make this clear? Nobody, nobody, nobody will ever
be saved until Christ is revealed in you. Nobody. Nobody. You can walk down all
the aisles, there are to walk down. You can say all the sinner's
prayers fools have invented. You can go through all the religious
rituals men talk about. You can be baptized in every
pond till every pond in the world where the tadpoles know you by
your first name. You can go through all the religious ceremonies
that men invent, but you will never ever trust Christ until
he's revealed in you. You can't trust him whom you
do not know. Christ must be revealed in you
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. That's the language
of scripture. And yet we all experience this
grace in a personal, distinct way. No two sinners experience
grace exactly the same way. This is the problem when you
start talking about and writing articles and writing books folks
do about the experiences we have of God's grace because we're
just so terribly inclined to try to find something we can
imitate. That's just our nature. We like to imitate things. And
if you get Thomas Boston's book, Human Nature and its Fourfold
Estate, now it's a good book. Has some great things to say.
Has some great theology in it. But if you start trying to match
up your experience with his, you flat messed up. You just
messed up. And we must not, we must not
attempt to imitate someone else. Our Lord deals with individual
sinners in individual grace in his good providence for his own
good purposes. Nicodemus did not experience
grace the same way this woman did. This woman did not experience
grace the same way Nicodemus did. But rather they both experienced
God's grace in the personal experience of it in his saving efficacy
and power. Now this is clearly set before
us in these two people. Let's look at the way our Lord
dealt with Nicodemus and with the Samaritan woman and see what
we can learn from their experiences of God's grace. There are three
things that are obvious here. First, we see that there is a
great separation dividing Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. After
all, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a ruler of
the Jews. She was a Samaritan. Both were
chosen of God. Both were saved by God's grace. We see this fact with regard
to the Samaritan woman in the immediate context. Once the Lord
revealed himself to her, she immediately left her water pots,
went back to the city of Sychar and said, come see a man who
told me all things ever I did. This man is the Lord's Christ. But with Nicodemus, with Nicodemus
things were different. This man was instructed in greater
detail than the woman was. He was given far greater doctrinal
instruction than the woman was given. But Nicodemus was not
immediately converted. He was converted, that's obvious
in John chapter 19. He was one of those who came
at great hazard to himself and begged the body of the Lord Jesus
that he might bury it honorably with respect. But this man Nicodemus
was apparently converted some length of time after the conversation
that's recorded between him and Christ in John chapter 3. Now
these two sinners, chosen, redeemed, and called by grace, we certainly
see. But it would be impossible to
imagine two people more distinct, more separate, more unalike than
these two people are. I mean, these two fellows were
just, this man and this woman were just totally opposites.
We don't see this much in a rural congregation like this, but in
some of the larger cities, particularly in other countries. I recall
several years ago preaching at Smithfield Baptist Church in
Sydney, Australia. There were, I think, 23 different
nationalities sitting in that one auditorium, and it wasn't
much bigger than this. There were 23 different nationalities,
folks from all over the world. Just totally different backgrounds.
Most of us here, we have the same complexion. Unless you've
been out in the sun a little longer than somebody else has.
Our eyes are all pretty much the same shape. But these two
folks were diametric opposites. They came from totally different
backgrounds. Nicodemus was a recognized, important,
sophisticated ruler of the Jews. A man of name, rank, and reputation. He was somebody. He was somebody
and he knew it. He was one of those fellas that
everybody around, he walked down the street, that's Nicodemus.
You know what he does? You know where he lives? That's
Nicodemus. This woman had no name that we're aware of. She
was insignificant. She was a nobody. Nobody. Nobody spoke of her except in
scorn. Nobody cared for her. Nobody
wanted to be around her. She was nobody. Nicodemus was
a proud Jew. This woman was a despised Samaritan. Now, if you think race relations
in this country were bad, prior to 1950. Let's go back a little
way. You just think they were bad
here? Nothing compared to this. Nothing. The Jews hated the Samaritans. They flat hated them. The Jews
had no regard for Gentiles, but they despised the Samaritans
who were just sort of half-breeds. These Samaritans who pretended
to worship God, but mixed with the worship of God, the worship
of their idols in every high hill. These Samaritans, the Jews
despised them even more than the Gentiles. The common statement
of the Jew in his prayer is, Lord, I thank you that I'm not
a Gentile, a dog, or a woman. Well, this American qualifies
for all of them. They had no regard for them at
all. Nicodemus was a wealthy, well-educated scholar. This woman
was poor, uneducated, probably illiterate. Nicodemus was a man
known and respected for his great morality. The only thing we know
about this old gal is that she was an adulteress. She wasn't
even a prostitute. She was just one of those gals
that goes from one man to the next and stays with him a while.
Nicodemus came to the Savior by night to protect his reputation. He sneaks away at night. He wants
to know more about the Savior. He's inquisitive. He wants to
understand something about his doctrine. He's stirred up to
seek to know something about him. But you know, he's got a
reputation to protect. He's got a name. And if folks
see him by day, Going over to speak to this Nazirite carpenter. Why they'd he'd have something
to answer for He'd have a price to pay. I know something where
I speak. That's the way it is in the religious
world You come around this fella this one Jesus of Nazareth that
everybody's turned thumbs down on if you go talk to him you're
gonna have to answer for it you're gonna have to pay a price and
Nicodemus comes by night to protect his reputation and But this woman
came to Jacob's well at noon, probably because she had no reputation
and she wanted to avoid contact with anybody else. She comes
at noon, the least likely time, especially for her to meet with
any of the women of the city, the respectable public. Nicodemus
sought the Lord Jesus, but the Lord Jesus sought this woman
of Samaria. She comes to him because first
he came to her. She comes to him because he says,
I am found of them that sought me not, and those that seek not
after me have come to me. The Samaritan woman was converted
immediately upon hearing the gospel of God's grace. Nicodemus,
a good while afterward. Again, I remind you, it would
be impossible to find two people more diverse, more unalike, more
distinct and separate from one another socially. And yet these
two people today are seated around the throne of God, worshiping
the Lamb in perfect harmony in heaven's glory. How can that
be? Only grace can do this. Only in Christ are social dividers
demolished. And in Christ they are demolished. I want you to turn to Colossians
chapter 3 and hold your hands there and turn to Ephesians chapter
2. I want you to look at both. Colossians chapter 3. I often refer you to the last
statement of Colossians 3, but in doing so we miss a very great
lesson. because the last statement of
Colossians chapter three is understood properly only in the context
of the verse that it's given in. I'm sorry, Colossians chapter
three, verse 11. In Christ, in Christ, the word
it says, verse 11, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, barbarian-Scythian bond nor free. Another place
says in Christ there's neither male nor female. Now folks, jerk
those passages out of context and center there. Since there's
no male nor female in Christ, there's neither bond nor free,
none of those things, then it's all right to ordain women to
be deacons, ordain women to be preachers, ordain women to be
missionaries, all that nonsense. The text is not talking about
that at all. The text is talking about believers in Christ stand
on the same footing. We stand before God in Him. Look
at this. But Christ is all, and in all. That means, Carl, Lord, Christ
is all you had before God, and is all I had before God, and
we both got him. That's what it means. We stand
on the same footing before God, equal footing before God, in
Christ, we're one. Now then, look at Ephesians 2,
verse 12. that at that time you were without
Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having
no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus,
you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For He, verse 14, is our peace. who hath made both
one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between
us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of two, Jew
and Gentile, one new man, so making peace. and that he might
reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which
were far off, and to them that were nigh, for through him, through
him alone, we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself. Now that's
what the foundation of the apostles and prophets is. Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. in whom ye also are built in. Not you've built yourselves,
but you're built in by God the Holy Spirit together for inhabitation
of God through the Spirit. In other words, this is what
I'm saying, grace. Grace reconciles sinners to God. And grace reconciles
sinners to one another. Believers are men and women who
are one in Christ. Believers are many women who
are united in Christ. Believers are many women to whom
social, economic, racial, educational barriers are utterly insignificant,
but only in Christ, only in Christ. I'm getting more than a little
weary, more than a little weary of the horrible, horrible, continued
promotion of class structure among folks who claim to believe
God. Race structure among folks who
claim to believe God. In here, we're all just nobodies. That's all. It doesn't matter
whether you're a doctor, whether you got a PhD in nuclear physics,
or whether you can't spell your first name. We're all nobodies. Christ is everything. He said,
well, shouldn't we respect men's achievements? Absolutely. Shouldn't
we respect men for what they do? Absolutely. Absolutely. Give honor to whom honor is due.
But in the kingdom of God, they don't matter. They just don't
matter. They just don't matter. All right,
now here's the second thing. Though much separated Nicodemus
and the Samaritan woman, There was a great sameness about them. Really, they were exactly the
same. And you who are yet without Christ, I'm gonna tell you something.
You're exactly like one another. Exactly alike. I don't care how
religious you are or how immoral you are. I don't care whether
you're found every Saturday night in a Bible study group or whether
you're found every Saturday night in a pool hall. I don't care
whether you find yourself associated most commonly with preachers
or you find yourself most commonly associated with pimps, pushers,
and prostitutes. Exactly the same. You see, they were both
terribly self-righteous. Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman
both presumed they were right before God. And they held on
to it. One of the strangest pictures
here. It's strange if you don't understand
human nature. Here's this American, I not understand
Nicodemus. He's a religious fellow. He's
supposed to be self-righteous. You just expect it from him.
He's fighting for his religion and his position and his knowledge
and his experience. But here's this woman. Shacked up with five different
men. This woman. arguing theology with the Son
of God. He starts to stick his finger
in her heart. She said, now wait a minute,
I know who I am, I know who God is, just as well as you do. You
see, self-righteousness flourishes in the cesspool of the human
heart, religious or non-religious. Not only were they both self-righteous,
they were both spiritually blind. They thought they knew everything,
and they didn't know anything. And they were both rebels. Our
Lord talked to Nicodemus about the new birth, and Nicodemus
responded, he said, well, how's the man gonna be born when he's
old? He gonna crawl back into his brother's womb and be born?
Now this smart fella was just a smart aleck. Just a smart aleck. He was just ridiculing, that's
all. That's one of Satan's constant tools. When men can't understand
divine truth, things they can neither understand nor refuse,
they just poke fun at them, try to ridicule them. And the woman
did the same thing, exactly the same thing. The Lord said, if
you'd have known who I am, and who asked you to drink, you'd
have said, give me some water. She said, how are you going to
draw water? Are you older than our father Jacob? Are you greater
than Jacob, who gave us this well? And they were both empty. Empty. Empty. Oh, they had lots of things with
which they tried to convince themselves they were full, but
they were just empty. They fed on the husk of this
world, but the husk left them empty. One of the old writers
said, God, you made us for yourself. and our hearts are restless until
they find their rest in you. And that's exactly the way it
is. All my life long I had panted for a draft from some clear spring
that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt
within. Now then, here's our great Savior. Look what Christ did for Nicodemus
and this woman. First, he destroyed their refuge
of lies. His, as the ruler of the Jews,
a Pharisee. Hers, as a Samaritan who mixed
the worship of Baal with the worship of God. He exposed their
rebellion, their unbelief, and their sin. Stripped off the fig leaves.
He made himself known to them. And he confronted them. He confronted
them. At their point of rebellion,
he confronted them. And I'm gonna tell you something.
That's where he always confronts sinners. God always deals with sinners. Listen to me now. God always
deals with sinners at their point of rebellion. At their point
of rebellion. You're going to bow to Christ
where you most oppose him or you're going to hell. That's
all there is to it. That's all there is to it. I
love the story Rock Barton used to tell about the old slave. His master used to come down
and talk to him. The man was Believer and his
master got to having trouble. Conscience bothered him. And
he said to Sam, he said, Sam, you're a Christian, aren't you?
He said, oh, yes, sir. He said, what do I have to do to be saved? I don't want to go to hell. And
he looked at him, he said, you serious, master? He said, I'm
as serious as I can be. And he looked at the fellow over
with his white suit on and his hat and his shiny boots and his
cane. He said, you gots to get in that
hall pen. Got to what? Don't make fun of
me, Sam. He ain't making fun. You gots
to get in that hall pen. He walked off in a huff. Day
or two later, came back, same story. Day or two later, came
back, same story. Finally, that master started
walking over there, got one leg up on the fence and started over.
And Sam said to him, he says, you ain't gots to get in, you
just gots to be willing. And I'm telling you, you've got
to willingly bow to Christ or you'll perish in your sins. God
help you now to bow to him. Amen. Lindsey, you come listen
to him.