That's great, because he's great. John 4, let's turn back to John
4. My friends, I'm absolutely certain,
beyond a shadow of a doubt, that six things are true in this all-important
matter of salvation and eternal life. You can write this in concrete. These six things are always true.
This is the divine method of grace. Here they are. Number one, redemption, salvation,
eternal life, by whatever name you wish to refer to it. It's
all of grace and all of God. That's just so. Salvations of
the Lord. For by grace are you saved through
faith. You're not saved by faith. You're
saved by grace, through faith. And even that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God. Dependence and faith are the
gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
be inclined to boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. That's so. No doubt about it. When the Lord God, our Redeemer,
is pleased to redeem a sinner, it's because he purposed to redeem
that sinner before the world began. When the Lord God sets
out to call a sinner to repentance and faith, to reveal Christ to
his heart, it's because God purposed to do that and willed to do it
before the world began. 2nd Timothy 1.8 says, he saved
us and called us, he saved us and he called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, our decision, our profession,
confession, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace which was given to us before the world
began. Isn't that what it says? Write
that in concrete now, that's not going to change. He saved
us, that's what I said, it's all of grace. He caused, but
not according to our works, not according to a decision you make
this morning, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ. Which was planned, purposed,
and given to us in Christ before the world began. I'm bound to
give thanks always to God, beloved for you, beloved of the Lord,
because God chose you unto salvation from the beginning. Thirdly,
when the Lord redeems a sinner, the Lord God himself will personally
confront that man or woman. The Lord himself will cross your
path. Salvation is of the Lord. he
sanctifies, he quickens, he saves, he speaks comfort to the heart. So he's going to have to cross
your path, and he will if he purposes to save you. Christ
said other sheep I have, he was looking at his disciples, he
said other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. I don't bring them. Somebody
says you're still saving souls, I never did save them. I don't
lead men to Christ, the Holy Spirit leads. Christ comes after
them. He goes out and finds his sheep,
puts it on his shoulder, and he brings it on. Other sheep
I have which are not of this fold, them I must bring, and
they'll hear my voice. How are they going to hear his
voice? He said to his disciples and preachers, when they hear
you, they hear me. When they hear you, they hear,
you're ambassador for Christ as though God did beseech you
by us. God did beseech you by us. Be you reconciled to God. It's
God who speaks through his word, through his servant. We're ambassadors
of God. He personally crosses your path.
He personally calls you. He personally you're taught of
God. No man can come to me except
my Father personally draw him." That's so righted and concrete. Fourthly, when the Lord God redeems
a sinner, whomever that sinner may be, he'll convince him of
sin. He'll convince him of sin. He'll
convince him of righteousness and of judgment. He'll convince
him of sin because he believes not on Christ. The granddaddy
of all sin is unbelief. God's going to convince every
person personally, Lord Jesus Christ, that he's an unbeliever,
a sinner. You're not going to be clothed
until you're stripped, and he'll strip you. You're not going to
be quickened until you're dead. You're not going to be saved
until you're lost, and he'll find you. And he'll convince
you of sin, he'll convince you of righteousness. He'll convince
you that your righteousness is sin. Your best righteousness
is filthy righteousness. And in your flesh, well, it's
no good thing. He'll convince you of judgment. The judgment
of God, the curse of God's law is on you. You'll be convinced
of sin, of unbelief, of your righteousness is filthy rags,
and of judgment to come. It's a part of the man who wants
to die, and after that, he'll stand before God, and He'll judge
him righteously. And you don't want to be judged
righteously. You want to stay in the courts
of this land, boy, you can move them by hook or crook, mostly
by crook. And you can find a loophole, but there are no loopholes at
God's judgment. Fifthly, when he redeems a sinner,
he will destroy every false religious claim, every false religious
tradition, and every false refuge in which that person has been
hiding all these years. He'll destroy that little profession
of faith you've been hiding in, or others have, not you but others.
He'll destroy that church membership. He'll destroy everything you
ever thought commended you to God. Everything you ever thought
gave you some leverage with God. He'll absolutely sweep it away,
wipe it away. He'll take out from under you
every prop, every prop you've been propped up with. People
are there propped up by all these things, and they're going to
fall. It's going to just crumble. I like to watch them when they
dynamite those big 20-story buildings, you know. And they're all standing
there in their grandeur and beauty and power and majesty, and the
guy down here pushes a button. I like to watch that. And that's
the way God's going to do us. All of our religious traditions
and things we've built up through the years, He's going to dynamite
it. The gospel is the dynamite of God unto salvation. He'll
sweep it away. In the sixth place, he'll reveal
himself. He'll reveal himself. God, who made the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to reveal the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to be
And when that sinner walks away from a work of grace, a divine
operation of grace, he walks away glorified in Christ. It's
Christ this, and Christ that, and Christ the other, and Christ
is all in all. Praise in his name. See if I
make good on those six things. Now I know they're so. And this
story here is the best one I can find to verify everything that
I've just said to you. Let's look at it. Verse 4 of
John chapter 4. Our Lord God is going to save
a sinner, and he crosses her path. Personally he confronts
that sinner. It says in verse 4, and he must
needs go through Samaria. You can think of a lot of reasons,
physically, why he should go through Samaria. It's the shortest
route. But the old Jews used to go around
it because they hated the Samaritans. go through Samaria. And there's
one answer to that. He has some sheep there. That's
why God said to Paul, stay in Corinth and preach. I've got
much people there. So the Lord has some sheep in
Samaria. And then cometh he to a city
of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and
Jesus therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus on
the well. It was about noon. He sat down
on the well. Here is the Lord of glory. He's
come here for a shoot. And as a result of his preaching
to her and them, many people in Samaria, there's a revival
book out in Samaria. But here the gospel is here.
There's not a center there, but the gospel is. The gospel came
before the center. He's that ordained, anointed,
son of God. He's that. There cometh a woman. A woman of Samaria and such an
unlikely subject. Here she comes. She has no idea
in this world that God Almighty is going to speak peace to her
heart. Not one idea in this world. She's coming to the world to
draw water. She's coming to do what she's done all these years.
Routine. Habit. Draw water. Here she comes. to draw water, and she's such
an unlikely candidate for salvation. You know that? You heard me read
about her a while ago. You know, if a person would designate
a likely candidate for redemption, it would be the fellow in the
previous chapter, Nicodemus, wouldn't it? Well, let's look
at him. He was a man of influence, Nicodemus. This is a woman of no reputation,
unknown, unnamed. We call her the woman at the
well. That's the only name she has through all these centuries.
Just the woman at the well. No name. No distinction. Nicodemus
was a man of wealth. High rank. This is a woman who
has no rank and no wealth. She draws her own water. Her
husband, a boy she's living with, he won't even draw. She comes
and draws the water. Nicodemus was a favored Jew.
This is a hated Samaritan. Nicodemus was a man of strict
morals. This woman, no reputation, no
morals. Nicodemus was a man who was seeking
Christ the teacher. He came by night to inquire of
Christ. He was interested. This woman's
coming to draw water. She's not interested and she
doesn't even know who he is. She's never laid eyes on this
man. She's coming to draw water. Nicodemus was seeking some answers. She's not seeking any answers.
Nicodemus to Nicodemus the Lord gave an impossible command. When
he talked to Nicodemus, he said to him, you've got to be born
again. Impossible. He didn't say that to the woman.
He said, if you ask me, I'd give you living water. Ask and you shall receive. Knock
and it'll be open. Seek and you'll find. Isn't this
unusual? By his own will, by his own purpose,
our great God has come here face-to-face with a personal encounter with
a wretched, needy, ungodly sinner. Let's see what happens next.
He creates an interest, this personal confrontation of our
Lord. He crossed a path and then he
created an interest. He took a basic need. He said
to the woman, verse 7, Give me a drink. Our Lord met people
where they were. He preached in a relative manner. He met them where they were.
This woman came to draw water, and he starts back, Give me a
drink. His disciples had gone away into
the city to buy meat. Then said the woman of Samaria
to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, Now, this woman had no
morals, but she was religious. She was a Samaritan, and she
worshiped like her fathers, according to their tradition, in those
mountains. But she said, How is it that you, being a Jew,
ask that drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews
have no dealings with the Samaritans? These folks back then were just
like folks now. We've got God, religion, Salvation,
life, all divided up. Protestants, Catholics, Jews,
Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Church of Christ, all these different
things. And if you're a Baptist, you
have no dealings with the Methodists. If you're a Methodist, you have
no dealings with the Nazarenes. If you're a Nazarene, you have
no dealings with the Catholics. If you're a Catholic, you have no
dealings with the Jews. We won't even take a drink of water. from
the hand of somebody of another denomination. That's what she's
saying. She says, how is it? You're a Jew. I'm a woman of
Samaria. How is it that you're asking
from my hand a drink of water? The Jews have no dealings with
the Samaritans. Wouldn't even take water from
the hand of a Samaritan. And our Lord's answer, listen,
verse 10. If you knew the gift of God, Oh, if they just knew the gift
of God. If all the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Nazarenes,
Camelites, Catholics, Jews and Protestants, if they just knew
the gift of God. What is the gift of God? It's
eternal life. Eternal life. God has given to
us life eternal. This life is not in Judaism and
Catholicism and Protestantism. It's in Christ. It's in his Son. That's why if you just knew the
gift of God, if you just knew who's speaking, who's speaking
here? It's not a Baptist Bible, it's God's word. It's not a Baptist
gospel, it's God's word. God's gospel. If you knew who
was speaking, well, who is speaking? Well, God spoke to our fathers
by the prophets. He happened these last days spoken
by his son. the Son of God, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the worlds, who
is the exact image of his glory, who by himself purged thy sins,
who sat down at the right hand of God." That's who is speaking. You take preachers and missionaries
and evangelists and put them in a mold, a denominational mold. Christ said, if you knew the
gift of God, If you knew who actually is speaking, if you
knew what blessings he has in store, righteousness, wisdom,
sanctification, redemption, if you knew your condition in the
light of his word, in the light of eternity, he said, if you
knew, you'd be asking me! Rather than me asking you, you
would ask me, and I'd give you living water. Ask, and it shall be given you.
Seek, and you will find." She still didn't understand. Listen
to it. The woman said, Sir, you don't have anything to draw with
in the well's deep. From whence hast thou this living
water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his
children and his cattle? And our Lord said, Now, woman,
whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." No matter
if it's Jacob's well, that was really a sacred place for her
and for all the Jews and the Arabs and Jacob's well. You can write over Jacob's well,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Write it
over Caesar's well. Write it over Calvin's well.
Whosoever drinks of this water are first again." Write it over
the Baptist well. Write it over the Catholic well.
Write it over the wells of social reform. Write it on all the wells
dug by men. Whosoever drinks this water are
first again and again and again and again and again. But whosoever
drinks of the water I shall give him. This is verse 14. But whoso drinketh of the water
that I shall give him. See, this water is not the product
of man. This water is the gift of God.
No man in and into this has the straight gift of God, from God
through Christ to you. Come unto me and drink, and out
of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Nobody is in
between. There's no counselor and there's
no mediator and there's no advocate in between me and Christ. The
Father ordained the way of Christ. And I drink directly from him.
If you drink of the water I give you, that water in Jacob's well
washes the flesh, cleanses the flesh, refreshes the flesh. This
water cleanses the soul, refreshes the spirit. That water in Jacob's
well is a water in a place. The Catholic well, the Baptist
well, the Protestant well, you've got to go to a place and get
it. That's right. You go to church
Sunday, go to church and get saved. Is that holiness? He said, Whosoever drinketh of
the water I shall give him shall never thirst, but that water
I shall give him shall be in him. In him! Not in the church. Not in the
religion. It's not a place you go to draw
water and get refreshing. It's in you. This water shall
be within you. Listen, a well is springing up
all the time, and it'll never run dry. Jacob's well is kaput,
it's dry. And all the rest of the wells
are drying up fast. Our religious day is gone. They used to say it's a gone
gosling, and it's gone. Whatever a gosling is, it's gone.
But his will is everlasting, everlasting. How does she respond to that?
All right. So verse 15, the woman says she still doesn't understand.
The woman says, Sir, give me this water, I've got two things
in mind. Give me this water that I thirst
not and that I need to come here to withdraw. This is present-day
preaching, health and wealth. health and wealth. Give me this
water that I thirst not. Give me something now that will
keep me from thirsting, keep me from hurting. I thirst not,
hurt not, suffer not, cry not and die not, and I'll be happy.
Just give me this water that I thirst not, cry not, suffer
not, cry not and die not. And that
I don't have to come back here and draw water anymore. I want
health and wealth. I want health and happiness,
and I want no more struggle, no more work, no more drawing
water. Just give me riches and comfort,
and God wants you to be wealthy and healthy and just fixed up
here so that you never have an ill wind blowing in your direction.
That's what you want. Give it to me. I'll take it. And that's where they have religion.
Oh, they preach the water, they preach Christ, they preach these
things, but they preach a materialistic, physical, fleshly
Christ that fixes things up here. So we flesh not and work not. Well, the Lord presented a problem. He presented a problem. I told
you, I said, if he's going to save a person, he'll cross his
path and he'll create an interest. and he'll deal with sin, he'll
present a problem. Sin, righteousness and justice. He knows this woman. Listen to
the verse down here, verse 16. The Lord Jesus said, Go call
your husband and come hither. He knows us. He knows when the
Lord comes to deal with us in grace and mercy, he knows He
knew this woman. She's one of his own. He knew
her life. He knew her every breath, movement, thought, and life.
My thoughts are an open book to my God. And he knew her life. He knew all her efforts to find
peace. She's been all her life hunting
peace and happiness and comfort and security. See, that's how
come she's had five marriages. She's been looking for something.
She's been looking for security and peace and happiness and joy
and a good life. And now she's in a sorry situation.
She's getting older and she's trying to solve this problem
by living with somebody who wasn't her husband. And he's getting
to the heart of it. He knew and she knew that her
real problem was not drinking water. And these things, it was
a heartache. Her real ache was a heartache. Her real problem was in here.
Her real problem was saving. They could have installed in
her little shack running water at home. They could have bought
her new furniture, new clothes, and all those things. She'd still
be a miserable person. Miserable, miserable, miserable.
That's what she was. That's what she'd been. Hunting
something, hunting. That's what causes all this stuff. Fighting
and wars and You are in fight and you have not because you
don't ask him. And all this mess, and if a man or woman knows his
nature, his correction of heart, his life before God, he's a miserable person, miserable. Her problem is sin. And she's
not going to find any peace in prosperity, or any peace in religion,
or any peace in anything else. So he says to her, Go call your
husband. We're going to get down to the
real problem here now. So she says, verse 17, I don't
have a husband. I don't have a husband. And Jesus said, Thou hast well
said, I have no husband. You have five. Now listen to
me. The Savior is dealing with this
woman where she is. He'll deal with you and me where
we are. And he's forcing her to face the fact she's a sinner.
And to face the fact she can never find peace through her
efforts. And she's under a curse and a
judgment. And she has a whole lifetime
of failure. That prevents any reconciliation
with God. She's a miserable sinner. God
must be reconciled. And the problem is not her five
husbands. She would still have been miserable
if she'd had one. But he picks this point. If she
hadn't been married five times, he would have found another area
to reveal her misery. And that's where he convinces
us. The Lord convinces us of sin. And you may be sitting out
there and saying, well, I've just been married one time. Without
Christ, you're still miserable. A man may say, I've just had
one wife, but without Christ you're still miserable. He's
telling her, he's showing her where her problem is. The problem's
not the five husbands. The problem's not you stole a
watermelon. The problem is why you stole it. A person is not
a sinner because he sins. He sins because he's a sinner.
A man's not a thief because he steals. He steals because he's
a thief. The problem is in this. And peace comes at a high price.
It is not bought by human works and human will and human acts
and human deeds. How does peace come, peace with
God? Reconciliation, happiness, joy of heart. How? Well, turn
to Colossians 1. Peace comes at a high price. In Colossians 1, verse 19, Colossians
1, 19. You see what I'm saying? The
woman, it's not failed marriages that's the chief sin of human
beings. That's not it. The woman made
five times or four times or three times or two or one time. It's
sin. He's met her where she understands
what he's saying. Her chief problem, where her
misery and unhappiness is. and he meets us where we are.
It's a sin problem. Here is the peace, Colossians
1.19. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,
and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Christ
by him to reconcile all things to himself. By him, I say, whether
it be things in earth or things in heaven, you that were alienated,
enemies in your mind by wicked works, now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death, to present you wholly unblameable
in his sight." That's how peace comes, by Christ. has been shut up to her real
problem. And I don't want to talk about
water anymore. I don't want to talk about drawing
water. She's got a problem. And so what does she do? She
has one more refuge to claim. So verse 20, she says, our fathers,
my father and Samaritan's father, we worship
in this mountain. We worship God. You say, you
Jews, say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Let's argue about religion. Which church is the first church?
Which church is the right church? Which church is the oldest church?
Let's argue about the church, she said. I'm telling you about
my tradition, my refuge. Jesus said, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain that
your Jerusalem worshiped the Father you worship, you know
not what. We know what we worship. The
Jews know what they worship. The salvation of the Jews, God
gave them the articles. But the hour has come for them
now as true worshipers. Worship God in spirit, in the
heart, in the heart. It's not a form, it's a life. Worship God in heart, in spirit,
and in truth, in Christ the truth. Father, seek to worship him.
God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him.
in spirit and truth. This woman took him back to her
religion that I worship. A lot of times we do the same
thing when we come under the gospel and we're confronted with
no peace with God, no rest, no assurance, no confidence. Our
hearts are like the troubled sea. Our sins are so real to
us and so all engulfing us. And what we do, we run back to
when we made a profession. I was ten years old when I made
a profession, but that didn't help. We run back to the fact
we joined the church and we taught Sunday school, but that didn't
help. And we run back to the fact that
My children probably say, well, my dad's a preacher, and I've
been in church all my life. I run back to the fact, well,
I've been taught the doctrines of grace. I never have learned
anything but Calvinism. This is what this woman did.
She's stripped. She's miserable. She's wretched. She's got no peace. So she talks
about going to church in the mountains. We had that wonderful
old church in the mountains where I'd go and preachers held forth
every Sunday. The Lord was among us. He said,
you don't know what you worship. You don't know anything. God
is a spirit. People who worship God worship
him in the heart. It's not a profession. It's not
an experience. It's not a work. It's not where
you are, the mountains and the pretty scenes and the buildings
and the old-time preachers and the old singing. I just hear
the old singing. All of this that Paul said, do it. I count
all these things, but do it! that I may win Christ and be
found in him." He's got to disarm us, hasn't
he? He's got to blow that old building
down. He's got to dynamite it. It's got to come down. Not a
prop left, and that's where he brings us. Then she said, verse
25, finally she appeals to the word of God. She says, that Messiah
cometh, which is called the Christ. When he comes, he'll tell us
all things about the will of God, the way of God, the work
of God, the kingdom of God. He'll tell us. How did she know
about this Messiah? See, the Samaritans only took
the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Moses' writings. They did believe those. How did
she find out about the Messiah, just from those five books that
the Samaritans believed? Well, the seed of woman, Christ
the Messiah. The seed of Abraham, Abraham's
seed, they claimed he was their father too. Shallow, when Jacob
said, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, the shallow comes.
That's who she's talking about. The prophet, like unto Moses,
Deuteronomy 18, God will raise up a prophet. She said, he's
coming. He's coming. He's coming. Salvation is not
a what, it's a he. Not a place, it's a he. A person. Now, she's a hearer. She's a hearer. She's become
a learner. Her mouth is stopped, and she's
a hearer. I know when Messiah comes, he'll tell us, and I listen
to him. I listen to him. She's disarmed, she's a sinner,
she's broken her traditions and her pops are gone. She's set
up to one thing, the Word of God. He's coming, and when he
comes, you tell me. Notice the next verse. And the
Lord Jesus said, And she listened, and he taught
her. Oh my, I'd love to have heard,
wouldn't you love to have heard? Well, I've heard it. He taught
me. I finally quit being a Baptist,
or a Catholic, or a Protestant, or anything else, and became
a sinner. A needy, helpless, ignorant sinner. Shut my mouth, and he opened
his. talking about what my fathers
did and what I did and what all the rest of them did and what
they suffered, and just shut my mouth. She finally shut her
mouth, and she said, I'm a listener now. He'll come and I'll listen
to him. I said, I'm listening. I'm listening. I'm the door,
by me if any man enter in he shall be saved. I'm the bread,
I'm the first, I'm the last, I'm Alpha and Omega, I'm the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me, I am he. And if you believe not that I
am he, you die in your sin." I want to read one thing and
I'll quit. Romans 2, verse 19. This is the place that
he brought her and the place he brings us. Romans 3, verse
19. Now we know that the things wheresoever
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, that all the world become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, but by the law
is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. It's the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's unto all, and upon all them
that believe, there is no difference. All have sinned and come short
in the glory of God, but being justified through it, by his
grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Amen. I pray that it will be
a blessing to you and to all who hear.