The words to this hymn were reportedly
found in the pocket of a soldier, slain on a field of battle in
the War of American Independence, 1776. This poem appeared for
the first time in the Gospel Magazine, published in England
that same year. The writer would not put his
name to the poem, but simply the pen name, Sylvesterus. We later learned that Sylvesterus
is Chihuahua de Brewer, who was an Anglican preacher, and to
the best of our knowledge, the only hymn he ever wrote. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail, matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules the
sky, I fought with hands uplifted high. despised the mention of his grace,
too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in thick Egyptian night,
and fond of darkness more than light, ? Madly I ran that sinful race
? Secure without a hiding place ? But thus the eternal counsel
ran ? Almighty love harassed that man ? And he did ? I felt
the arrows of distress ? And found I had no hiding place ? Indignant justice stood anew
? To Sinai's fiery mount I flew But justice cried with frowning
face, Your works are not a hiding place. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And mercy's angel form appeared, And led me on with gentle pace. ? To Jesus Christ, what a hiding
place ? On him all mighty vengeance fell
? That must have sunk the world to hell He bore it for his chosen
race And thus became their hiding place Should storms of thundering
vengeance roll And shake this earth from pole to pole ? No thundering bolt shall dunk
my face ? Christ Jesus is my hiding place ? A few more rolling
suns at the most ? Will land me safe on Canaan's coast ? There
I shall sing of sovereign grace to Jesus Christ my hiding place. Good evening. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to John chapter 4. My text is found in verse number
42. They in Samaria said unto the
woman, now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard
him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior
of the world. Tonight, God willing, I'd like
to preach on that subject. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
world. But before doing so, I'd like
to read, and I think it would be good for us, a somewhat extended
passage of scripture in order to lead us up to this text that
we have before us tonight. So I want you to locate the third
chapter in the gospel according to John, John chapter three. And I want you to consider what
we find in this third and this fourth chapter regarding Jesus
Christ, the savior of the world. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, 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
saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and
testify that we have seen. and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that cometh down from heaven, even the son of
man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his
son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. Now go to the fourth chapter. When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his
disciples. He left Judea and departed again
into Galilee. And he must needs go through
Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sakaar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the
sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, how is it that thou, Being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which I'm a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith
to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and
he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From
which then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and
said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up unto everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said unto her, Go, call
thy husband, and come hither.' The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that saidst
thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship what ye
know not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know
that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come,
he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples
and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what
seekest thou? or why talkest thou with her?
The woman then left her waterpot and went away into the city and
saith to the men, come, see a man which told me all things that
ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And they
went out of the city and came to him. Now, if you will, drop down to
verse number 39. And many of the Samaritans of
that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which
testified, he told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans
were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with
them and he abode there two days. And many believed, many more
believed because of his own word and said unto the woman, now
we believe. Not because of thy saying, for
we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the
Christ, the Savior of the world. Now I want you to look at that
42nd verse, the last phrase, the Savior of the world. Yes, we have read somewhat an
extended passage of scripture this night, But in these two
chapters, I want you to see that we have Jesus Christ set forth
unto us as the Savior of the world. We find this set forth
unto us in the salvation of this man called Nicodemus and also
in this woman of Samaria and in the many other people that
were there in Samaria. Jesus Christ is set forth here
as the Savior of the world. I want you to observe these two
people of whom we read, Nicodemus and this woman of Samaria. They
are as different from each other as they could be. But they both were converted
and they were converted the same way. Now we know of the conversion
of this woman. It's recorded. She believed.
The conversion of Nicodemus is not recorded in John 3, but later
on he comes to the defense of Jesus and he lovingly prepared
the body of our Savior for his burial and showed his faith. Two different people, as different
as they could be, saved the same way by this one who is truly
the Savior of the world. I want you to see that the Savior
of the world saves all sorts of people in the world. He saves
people, first of all, regardless of their gender. Here is a man
of the Pharisees and here is a woman. Now, some religions
will elevate men over women and some religions will elevate women
over men. But I want you to see that in
Christ, it's all the same. Men and women come to Christ,
exalt Christ alike, and are exalted by him alike because he's the
savior of the world. I want you to see that Jesus
Christ saves people regardless of their name. This man had a
name, his name is Nicodemus, and it means conqueror. He evidently was an important
man. This woman, she had a name, but observe carefully, it's never
given. She's here anonymous unto us. A man who has a high and lofty
name and a woman who has an anonymous name, a name that is not known
unto us. I want you to see this, that
in the case of Nicodemus, your good name will not commend you
to God. You may have a very good name.
My name is Daniel. I was depraved, as depraved as
anybody you've ever seen, and still have that nature about
me. So your good name, like Nicodemus, will not commend you to God,
and your bad name will not bar you from God. And this woman
had a bad name because she had sullied whatever name she had
by the sin that she was doing. Her name is not given, but observe
this also, that your anonymity will not prevent you from God,
will not bar you from God. Jesus Christ is the Savior of
the world, and He saves people regardless of their names, whether
they have a high and lofty name, or a solid name, or a name that
no one knows. He knows He's the Savior of the
world. Jesus Christ saves people regardless
of their ethnicity. Here is a man who is a Jew, Nicodemus. The Lord saved him. Here is a
woman and she's a Samaritan and the Lord saved her. And in saving
a woman who is a Samaritan, he has saved a woman who is both
Jew and Gentile of mixed stock. I want you to see that Jesus
Christ is a savior of people regardless of their ethnicity. You'll find people who hate each
other because of skin color. You'll find people who hate each
other because of what country they're from. You'll find people
in Kentucky who hate each other because they come from one part
of the state and not from another. You see, people find all kinds
of things they can in order to set themselves against one another.
But in Christ, regardless of your ethnicity, regardless of
whom you are, where you came from, your stock, your lineage,
it matters not. He's the savior of the world.
He tells his preachers to go into all the world, and he says
that you shall be witnesses to me in Judea, the land of the
Jews, in Samaria, the land of the half-breeds, if we may call
them such, for that's what they were. And then he says, go to
the end of the earth. Go to all the Gentiles, go even
to Lexington, Kentucky. Why? He's the savior of the world. Jesus Christ saves people regardless
of their deeds. This man, Nicodemus, he's a Pharisee. And what do we know of the Pharisees?
They all had good deeds. How do we know? They told us. They told us every time they
did a good deed, they ascertained that we know. In fact, before
they do a good day, they blow the trumpet so that we can all
look at them. They want our attention. They
do good deeds. They're proud of their good deeds.
Why Jesus spoke of one of them and he said he went up to the
temple to pray and Jesus said he prayed thus with himself. Listen carefully. He prayed thus
with himself. And he said, God, notice he's
praying with himself and called himself, God, I thank thee that
I'm not like other men. And he boasted of what he had
done loudly so that others could say he's a Pharisee. He was known
for his good deeds because he published them everywhere that
he went. This woman, she was an adulteress. For when Jesus said, bring your
husband, she said, I have none. He said, that's right, because
you've had five. And the man you're now living
with, he's not your husband. She's an adulteress, which is
why she's coming to the well at the middle of the day, when
respectable women would already be back home. Respectable women
came to the well as the sun arose before the heat of the day, or
they came to the well after the sun had gone down. But here's
a woman, she's been busy all night long. She slept until late
in the morning, and now she comes to the well when no one else
is there. An adulteress, a sinful woman. She's known by the bad things
that she has done. But notice this, that your good
deeds will not commend you to God. Jesus said of that Pharisee,
he did not go down to his house justified, but a poor public
and tax collector center did. But no Pharisee is going to get
into the kingdom of God. Their good works keep them from
God's kingdom. But notice this, that here's
a woman and everything she's done is bad. Boy, notice this
also. Your bad deeds will not keep
you out of God's kingdom. Your good deeds will not commend
you to God, but your bad deeds will not bar you. Our Lord is
the savior of the world. He saves people who are proud
of their good deeds. He saves people who are ashamed
of their bad deeds. but he shows them all that their
deeds are worthless. For it is not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he called us. Salvation
is by grace through faith, and that not yourselves, and it's
not of works, lest you should boast. Jesus saves people regardless
of their deeds. So therefore, your good deeds
will not commend you to God, your bad deeds will not prevent
you from coming to God, And notice also that the chief of sinners
said, he saved me. The chief of sinners. If he saved
the chief, I think he can save you. I really do. Why? He's the savior of the world.
And then notice that Jesus Christ saves people regardless of their
religion. This woman said, we worship on
this mountain and you Jews worship on another mountain. And you
could tell the religion of the people by which mountain they
exalted in that day and age. Nicodemus was of the Jewish religion. They had been highly favored
of God. They were Israelites to whom pertained the adoption,
the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service
of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers, and from whom,
according to the flesh, Christ came, who is overall the eternally
blessed God. Amen. Romans 9, verse 4 and 5. Notice, the Jews had been highly
favored by God, and yet they're lost. They're lost, every one
of them. going up to Jerusalem to worship
and they're everyone lost. And here is a woman, she's of
Samaria, and on her mountain they worship a counterfeit religion
invented by a king called Jeroboam who did not want his people to
go to Jerusalem and down to the holy mountain in that place.
And so therefore, he invented his own counterfeit religion,
a counterfeit temple, counterfeit shrines, counterfeit gods, counterfeit
priesthood, everything counterfeit. Doesn't matter, my friends, whether
you worship in Jerusalem, or in Gerizim. In Samaria, it matters
not. Jesus Christ saves people regardless
of their religion. Furthermore, he saves the most
religious of people who oftentimes are atheists and agnostics worshiping
themselves. He's the savior of the world. Notice furthermore that Jesus
Christ saves people regardless of their social status. Nicodemus
was a ruler of the Jews. He was of the elect chosen people,
he would say, and a ruler over the Jews was a council of 70
elders called the Sanhedrin. And even the Romans permitted
the Sanhedrin to rule the affairs of the Jews. And this Nicodemus
was a ruler among them, one of the 70 most important men in
Israel. a ruler of the Jews. Jesus called
him a teacher of the Jews. Not only was he the Pharisee,
he probably was a scribe as well. He knew this law of God in the
Old Testament. He knew what Moses had written.
He knew the things of God. He was an authority on the things
of God, yet completely ignorant of the scriptures with regard
to regeneration. Art thou the teacher of Israel?
And know not these things, Jesus asked him. This man was very
high in his people. This woman, she was of the lowest
people you could imagine, Samaritans. And she's a woman which was among
the lowest of those people in a male-dominated society. And
furthermore, She was a sinful, adulterous woman. She was as
low as one could be. Nicodemus was as high as one
could be. And notice that Jesus Christ
saves them both. Why? He's the Savior of the world. Notice that in Christ there is
neither Jew, nor Gentile, nor Samaritan, neither teacher, nor
student, neither circumcised, nor uncircumcised, neither barbarian,
nor silver-tongued, neither Scythian, nor uncultured, neither slave,
nor free, neither male, nor female. For all these in Christ are one
in Christ and acknowledge that Christ is all and in all because
he saves people regardless of their social status. Jesus Christ
saves people regardless of their time of meeting him. Nicodemus
came at night under cover of darkness, perhaps because he's
timid because the Jews, and particularly among the Sanhedrin, even by
this time had become opposed to Jesus. It was not safe for
a Pharisee, a teacher of the Jews, a ruler of the Jews, to
come to Jesus and be seen publicly coming to the place where he
was staying. So under cover of darkness, and perhaps with great
discretion, Nicodemus comes to Jesus. And then notice that Jesus
went to this woman at about the sixth hour, the sun was at its
zenith. Here are two people as completely
different as they can be, and even the time of being with Christ
is as different as it can be. One comes in the middle of the
night, and one is found with Christ in the middle of the day.
It matters not, my friend. The time of coming to Christ
is of No consequence. What is important is this. Come
to Christ while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit
says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts. For he, Christ, the Savior of
the world, says, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in
the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Whatever time it is, Jesus Christ
saves at that hour because he is the Savior of the world. But
bear this in mind. that many who have said I will
come to him at the midnight hour have died in the 11th. Today's
the day and now is the time for the savior of the world. All
right. Now, we've observed how different
these people are. They are as different as they
can be from each other. But notice this, that the Savior
of the world saved these two different people and every other
sinner in the same way. The circumstances may be different.
You've seen that. But he saves in the same way. First of all, consider that both
these people came to Jesus because Jesus came to them. Yes, they came to him, but because
he first came to them, you say, well, preacher, you said that
Nicodemus came to Jesus. That's right. When did Jesus
come to Nicodemus? In the chapter before. In chapter
2, verse 13, we read that Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Why? That's where Nicodemus was. He
had to go where Nicodemus was so that Nicodemus could come
to him. And afterward, he has to save
a woman of Samaria. And did you notice that the text
said, he must needs go through Samaria. He had to go through
Samaria. Wow. That was the way that Jews
did not travel when they went from Judea back into Galilee. Wow. They would be in Jerusalem
and they would travel due East. Cross the Jordan river. Go up
the East Bank to the Sea of Galilee, come back across to the West
into Galilee. Why? I mean, there was a perfectly
good straight road straight from Jerusalem up to Galilee. No,
we Jews don't go there. That's where Samaritans live.
We do not go there. But we read expressly, he must
needs go through Samaria. Why? One of his sheep is up there. She must come to him. But before
she can come to him, he must go to her. Jesus saves sinners
in the same way. You see, he comes to them so
that they may come to him. And he must do so. It is absolutely
necessary. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save centers. And therefore many centers came
and sat down with him. This man received centers. He
himself declared that the son of man has come to seek and to
save that which was lost. He said, I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Notice he said, that's
why I came. And then he says, all that the
father gives me will come to me. I came to them. Now they will come to me. I came
for them and now they will come to me. He comes to sinners so
that sinners may come to him. Furthermore, observe that both
these people recognize Jesus for whom and what he is. Nicodemus
said, Rabbi, which is master. Rabbi, we know that you are a
teacher come from God for no one can do these miracles, these
wonders, these signs that you do unless God is with him. He's
speaking even for the Sanhedrin, not only for the countrymen,
but especially the Sanhedrin says, we know. We know this,
you are an uncommon man. We know this. Now we're not really
sure of too much about you. You heard tonight in the reading
before the message, they came to John and said, where'd you
get this authority? Who sent you? They knew there
was something different about John and they knew there was
something different about Jesus. We're not really sure who you
are, but we know you're not a common man. And we know God is with
you, for no one can do what you do except God is with him. Therefore,
Nicodemus knew there was something uncommon about Jesus, and so
did this woman. Why? She said, sir, I perceive
that you are a prophet. I perceive you are no common
man. When Jesus Christ reveals himself
unto you, He will show to you that He's no common man. He's
no common man. And He'll do that with every
sinner whom He saves. They recognized Him for whom
and what He is. Furthermore, all who are saved
by Jesus Christ know Him to be the same thing, and they all
will confess We now believe, and he's the savior of the world.
The savior of the world. Now just look around tonight
at us, and we've, our forefathers have come from all kinds of places,
have they not? Why, even in this flesh before
you tonight, there are Scotsmen and Englishmen and Germans and
Dutch. through my family, descended
from them. Why, they hate each other. They don't get along with
each other. And yet, in Christ, they've assembled together. Tonight,
what do we have? Bunch of foreigners. I don't
think you folks came from Lexington 200 or 300 years ago, did you?
No, you came from somewhere else. Your forefathers came from somewhere
else. And we know this. We're just all as different as
we can be, some of us, have good names, and some of us have sullied
our names. Some of us had moral reputations,
and some of us were just as immoral as we could be. Some of us were
like Nicodemus, and some of us were like this woman of Samaria.
But we both, like Nicodemus and this woman, have come to see
he's the savior of the world. He's the savior of the world. We know this. He's the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. Think about it. He
took the sin of the entire world that God loved and bore it away. It's gone. It's gone. He cannot
be the Savior of the world unless he's saved. He is the Savior
of the world. We do read that, do you not?
How did He save the world? The sin of the world was put
upon Him, and He bore it away. He's the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. He is the propitiation for the
sins, the guilt-removing sacrifice for the world. God loved the
world, and Christ took their sins and bore them away. And
furthermore, it was a sacrifice that removed the guilt. And now
the world whose guilt is removed is justified before God, the
propitiation for the sins of the world. We in the world who
are saved by Christ, we who believe in this gospel, we will confess
that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world,
1 John 4, 14. We confess to you that He did
not come to condemn us, but He came to save the world, and He
succeeded. He succeeded. God loved the world
and sent His Son to save it, and Christ succeeded because
He's the Savior of the world. God was in Christ. Reconciling
the world to himself. Reconciled every one of them.
Everyone whom Christ reconciles to God will be reconciled to
God. A whole world of sinners. He
is the bread of life who comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world. Think about it. Nicodemus, God
loved the world. Loved the world. sent his son
to save the world and the son succeeded. And everyone in this world saved
by Christ will believe this gospel. Now we believe. Now we believe. Not simply because of what the
woman told us. We heard him ourselves and now
we know he is the Savior of the world. What a Savior. What a Savior. However, note this well. Whoever believes not in him shall
perish. Now be not of that world that
will perish. Be not of that world that will
reject him. Be not of that world that refuses
him, but come to Christ. Have you already come? Come again
and keep on coming. I do. Every moment of my life. And I take great delight in telling
you about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Pastor.