Turn to John chapter 4. I've been preaching a long time. I've been trying to preach a
long time. Let me put it that way. And I'm trying to learn
how to preach. I'm not content nor satisfied
with most preaching that I do or hear. To me, most preaching
is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring. and not instructive. I'm convinced
of that. And I want very much to take
a title this morning, The Redeemer Revealed. The Redeemer. The. Definite article. Singular. One. One Redeemer. One God. One mediator
between God and men. One way of salvation. The. Redeemer. Who redeems. Who redeems. I don't preach a salvation that
can't save. No, a Redeemer who doesn't redeem.
I preach The Redeemer. But he must be revealed. He's
got to be revealed. I jotted something down here
in my Bible a long while ago. It says we've listened to the
preacher. I hope you do. Truth by him has now been shown. I hope that's true. But we need
a greater teacher from the everlasting throne. Application is the work
of God alone. Application is the work of God
alone. When the Lord is pleased to save a sinner, you say, what
do you preach when you go away? This is a message I preached
to St. Kitts. I had a little liberty with it
there. I revised it a bit. I'm going to preach it to you
this morning. This is what I preached to those black people on the
island. When the Lord is pleased by his grace to save a sinner
and salvations of the Lord, he doesn't deal with all men the
same way. No, sir. He does not deal with
everybody the same way. Somebody told me one time that
when denominations were started was when the fella that the Lord
healed, the blind fella, and he just spoke to him and said,
you know, I will receive your sight. And the other fella, he
spit on the ground, put mud in his eye. And those two fellas
met. And one of them said, I hear
you were blind. He said, yes, I was. How did the Lord heal
you? He put mud in my eye. Well, he said, I don't believe
you were healed. He said, he didn't put mud in my eye. And
so they said there's the first two denominations, the mud-eyers
and the feelers, you know. Well, the Lord doesn't deal in
the same way with everybody. In Acts 16, you can look at this
some time, he saved three people. the possessed girl, demon-possessed,
and the Philippian jailer. Lydia was what you call a respectable
woman, a moral woman. She was a religious woman. And
in her town there was no synagogue. You had to have a certain number
of people in a town to have a synagogue, and they didn't have enough people,
Jews, there. So she went down by the river
where prayer was wont to be made. She heard some people were assembling.
in the open air by the river to pray. So she went down to
pray with them. So she was a religious woman,
a woman who was seeking God, but did not know Him, and a woman
with religious heritage, a Jewish background. And when Paul came
down there, he preached, and God opened her heart. Quietly,
silently, effectively, God opened her heart. She gave attention
to what Paul said, and God saved her. No hullabaloo, no excitement,
nothing like that. She was listening, Paul preached
the gospel, and she said, that's it. God opened her heart. But
a few verses later, Paul was walking down the street, and
there was a girl following him who brought her master as much
gain. She was a soothsayer or a fortune teller, possessed of
familiar spirits. And she got to ridiculing Paul. and silence, got to talking about
them. She said, these are the fellows that show us the way
to God. So I don't know how she said it, but Paul got tired of
it, and he turned and commanded the demons to come out of her.
And she fell on the ground and watered on the ground. And when she came to herself,
she quietly got up and followed Paul and the apostles, and God
saved her. When Lydia and this girl were
both saved, and both saved by the power of God and the grace
of God through the blood of Christ, but they didn't have the same
experience. And in the same chapter there was a Philippian jailer.
And a lot of preachers have this fellow under conviction, but
he wasn't under conviction, he was asleep. When Paul and Silas
were in the jail singing hymns and praying, he wasn't out there
gnashing his teeth and wringing his hands wondering how he could
get to God, he was out there asleep. He'd beaten these fellows.
and left them in jail, and he was responsible for them, and
God sent an earthquake and shook that prison and tore the doors
off the hinges. And that fellow awoken out of
his sleep, and he saw that the doors were gone from the cells,
and he thought, those fellows are gone, and they'll hold me
responsible, and they're going to kill me, so I'll just kill
myself. And he pulled out his sword and was going to run himself
through with a sword, go kill himself. And Paul looked down
and said, don't do that. Do thyself no harm. We're still
here." And he was so amazed to see those prisoners still there.
He said, well, the doors opened and I was asleep. And God sent
this earthquake and all these things. I'm going to ask these
fellows about this thing they've got. He went in there and he
fell on his knees. He said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And Paul taught him the Word of God, taught him
the way of salvation. So there you have three people,
different personalities, different circumstances, different environment,
different background, but all of them came to the knowledge
of Christ. Same thing is true in our Lord witnessing to people,
Nicodemus. was a Pharisee with a whole lot
of outward show and a dead heart. A whole lot of outward morality
and a rotten heart and no relationship with God, and Christ talked to
him about being born again. The rich young ruler was a selfish
man, a greedy man, and the Lord Jesus talked to him about his
possessions. The crowd in Luke chapter 4 were
all sectarian, presumptuous people who felt they had a corner on
God because they were Jews, and the Lord talked about the Gentiles
that God purposed to save, just to shut them up, you see. And
that righteous crowd in Luke 18, He spoke to those who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous. He said two men went
up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, one a publican, and
he told them that story. So our Lord dealt with different
people different ways. But in John 4, now this is what
I find in John 4, in the conversion of the Samaritan woman, I see
a pattern. I see a pattern. I see a pattern
of how the Lord is pleased to deal with everybody whom He saves. There are some things that are
true of every person whom God saves. There's a pattern, a certain
pattern. You might call it a pattern of
grace. You might call it that. You might call it a method of
grace. But I see six things here. If God's pleased to save me,
if He's pleased to save you, then these six things will be
true. Without question, undoubtedly,
these six things will be true. Six obvious truths in John 4
that relate to everybody whom God saves. You can put this down. It cannot be denied. The first
one is this. I'll give it to you briefly and
clearly, I hope, so that you can understand it. Number one,
God fully intended to save this woman. Now the Lord Jesus fully
into him, she came to the well for water, he came to meet her.
I don't have any doubt about that. He set this thing up. The Lord Jesus' purpose to save
this woman. You see, salvation is no accident. God's not up there in heaven
wondering who's going to accept him today. He said, my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. The Pharisees said, well,
if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you
you didn't believe me because you're not of my sheep. He said,
all that my Father giveth me will come to me. He knows who's
going to be saved. He chose them. He purposed to
save them. Look at John 4, verse 3. The Lord left Judea and departed
again into Galilee. Now, Judea is down here. You've
got a map in the back of your Bible. No trouble to look at
it sometimes. Judea is down here and Samaria
is up here. And Galilee is up here. So to
get to Galilee, he's got to go through Samaria. But it says
in verse 4, he must need to go through Samaria. That's a different
thing. He must. Not because that's the only way,
but because that's the only way for him. There's one of his sheep
there. There's one of his sheep in Samaria.
You see, if you turn to Romans chapter 9 with me, turn to Romans
9, 9 verse 15, Romans 9, 15. He said to Moses, he said this
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it's
not of him that will it, nor of him that run it, it's of God
that showeth mercy. Mercy is of God. salvations of
the Lord. And I care not to argue the point
at all. I'm not arguing the point. I'm
simply stating the point. That the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. And the Lord Jesus Christ must
needs go through Samaria because He, according to His eternal
purpose, was pleased to save this woman. He went to meet one
of His sheep. And I'm saying this is no accident. I'm preaching the gospel. I'm
not preaching the Baptist church. I rarely ever mention it. I'm
not preaching prophecy. I know very little about it.
I'm not preaching law. There's nobody here who can keep
it. I'm preaching the grace of God in Christ. I'm preaching
the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. I'm preaching the gospel on television.
I'm preaching the gospel when I go to other places. I'm preaching
Christ. And I'm saying that my heroes are not there accidentally. My heroes are there by God's
will and God's purpose. And God Almighty, if He's going
to save anybody, He purposes to save her. That's exactly right. And the second thing is this.
He crossed her path. Now, he purposed to save her.
Jesus Christ is going to save that Samaritan woman. Jesus Christ
is going to save Zacchaeus. Jesus Christ is going to save
Saul of Tarsus. Jesus Christ is going to save
the thief on the cross. Why wasn't he crucified the Monday
before? Christ wasn't there. Why wasn't
he crucified a week later? Why didn't they put somebody?
That thief was on that cross at the appointed time, the appointed
hour, to meet God's appointed Savior. God's purpose to save
him. No accident with God. No accident. Everything he does, he does according
to the good pleasure of his own will. I'm confident of that.
A fellow wrote last week, wondering if I believe in predestination.
I wrote him back and quoted four verses of Scripture. I said,
to believe the Bible, I have to believe in it. have to believe
in predestination, not something to sneer at or turn up your nose
at or curl your lip or grit your teeth. It's in the Word of God.
He predestinated us to the adoption of children. That's what God
says. He did it. O man, who art thou that replyest
against God? I'm saying this. If Almighty
God didn't purpose to save somebody, nobody would be saved. Well,
that's just so. So the second thing, he crossed
her path. You know what Paul said about
his conversion? It pleased God to reveal himself
in me. His son in me. Now he crossed
her path. Let's look down here. Verse 5. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near to 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 down on the
well. It was about high noon. Now I've often wondered this. Here is Jacob's well. This is
a prominent gathering place. This is one of the only watering
places. Down in St. Kitts Island they
have public baths and public watering places. A lot of people
don't have water in their homes. There's just a world of homes
that have no water in them. And so they have a public place
where people, and in the morning there's just scads of women around
there with buckets waiting their turn to get water. In the evening,
there are people around there waiting. At noon, I notice those
watering places, there's nobody there. Women don't go to the
well at noon, they go to the well in the morning. You see,
they've got to have water to wash with and water to cook with. And they don't get it in the
middle of the day when the sun is at its height and in its full
power. They go in the morning. They
were always around there in the morning. Here was Jacob's Well,
one of the only watering places, a public watering place with
good water. where the people came to get
water, and they certainly didn't have water in those homes out
there around the desert places. And here it is noon, and nobody's
there. Nobody's there. Christ is there
by himself. And here comes a woman. And I'll
tell you why I think she came at noon. If there was a woman
living in this community right here who had had five husbands,
I'm talking about men married five times, that's a whole lot
of times they married. and had divorced the fifth one and some
fella moved in the house with her, I expect she'd be pretty
well known. I expect that she'd be the subject of conversation
of most women and a lot of men. Don't you imagine? And I just
imagine she wouldn't appear too often where crowds of people
were. I imagine if she were going to get water at the well, I tell
you when she'd go, she wouldn't go in the morning when all those
women were there You know, snub her, or point at her, or talk
about her. I believe she'd go when she expected
to meet nobody. I really did. And I think that's
why she came at that time. But little did she know she'd
meet who's everybody, huh? Our Lord. Well, He came to meet
her, and He sat down, and He sent His disciples into town.
He didn't want them around to mouth around about it. She was
a Samaritan, a Gentile. She wasn't a Jew. She was a notorious,
sinful, Gentile woman. well known in the town, he sent
them to town and he sat down and he waited. And it says in
verse 7, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. And
our Lord spoke to her. I'm telling you this, tonight
I'm going to speak more fully on this Romans 10. How shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall it preach except
they be sent? Say what you will. If a man is ever truly converted,
he's going to have to be confronted with the true gospel. I really
believe that. I'm believing that more and more
all the time. The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
God hath chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. I do not, I cannot, I just cannot believe that a
man is truly saved by meeting another I just don't believe
it. This woman met Christ. She met
Christ. Christ purposed to save her,
and he, according to his will, deliberately, on purpose, confronted
her with himself. That's who she met. She met the
Christ. I believe that's true of anybody whom God saved. Number
one, he purposed to save them. Number two, sometimes Maybe like
solitaire says, maybe a person will get religious, turn over
a new leaf, join a church and all that, and then one day meet
the gospel. That happened to some of you,
didn't it? One day meet the Christ. Back
here we met religion, we met tradition, we met custom, we
met morality, we met an outward false holiness and righteousness. Most of us were brought up in
religion, like that island out in St. Kitts. They're all religious.
But they don't know Christ. Just don't know. Never met Him.
Never heard the gospel of God's greatness and holiness and majesty
and righteousness and justice. The gospel that puts man in the
dust of inability and shuts him up to the mercy of God. The gospel
of a person and work of Christ. Did you ever understand in your
religion how God can be just and justifier? Did you ever understand
that? Did you ever understand in your inherited religion how
that God can be righteous and yet merciful, how He can be just
and yet love, how God can put your sins away, how that Christ
is an effectual sin offering and substitute. He is our righteousness. He is our acceptance. He is our
Redeemer. He is our high priest. He is
our hope and confidence. Did you ever understand? Well,
no, I really didn't. Then you didn't meet the Christ of the
Bible. You were trusting your decision. He said, meet Mother
in Heaven. Everybody cried a little bit.
And you saw you got drunk. And you came down the aisle and
shook the preacher's hand and said, I'm going to meet Mother
in Heaven. I'm going to be a good boy. I'm going to turn over the leaf. I'm going
to join the church. I'm going to give them a tithe. I'm going to serve God, you know.
I'm going to do this, that, and the other. Preach a little of
the book of Revelations for us. Keep our interest. Give us a
Sunday school class to teach so we won't quit church. Give
us something to do, you know, so you can hold our interest.
It's all a social club religion. And then one day, at the well,
you met Christ. That's the difference. One day
you met Christ. All right, the third thing he
did, he turned her interest to spiritual things. And she came
there to get water. Water is a necessity. It's something she needed. She
came to get water. She had dishes to wash, she had
food to prepare, she had clothes to wash, her body needed to be
washed, she had to drink water. She came there for the things
that were necessary. She came there for that refreshing,
cool water. But our Lord Jesus turned her
attention, and we usually say, well, God's trying to do this.
God's not trying to do anything. He does what he sets out to do.
Our Lord Jesus Christ turned her attention away from this
well to living water. And that's the third thing he
does when he's going to save a sinner. He purposes to save,
he crosses their path, and then he settles their attention on
spiritual matters, on an inward matter, not on the things of
the earth. Now, that's the difference in
today's preaching and what I'm trying to preach. Today's preaching
says, God wants you to be healthy. God wants you to be wealthy.
God wants you to have a fine home. God wants you to have a
nice car. God wants you to have a mansion in heaven you send
the material up there to build it with. God wants you to have
happiness. God wants your family to be happy.
This is the water of the well of Jacob. That's what that woman
came to the well for. She came to get some water. I'm
saying these things appeal to the flesh. I tell you, have you
ever been really thirsty? I really haven't been really
thirsty. But I've been thirsty enough to appreciate a good cold
drink of fresh water out of Jacob's well. You know, David one time,
he'd been roaming out there in the wilderness and the hills,
and he said one time he had some mighty men that loved him so
much, they were dedicated to David, they believed in David,
and he said, I'd give anything for a drink of water from a well
in Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem was under control
of Saul and all the enemies of David. And you know what those
three men did? They got their swords and their shields and
buckled them on and they went to Bethlehem and fought their
way through Saul's army and got David a drink of water from Bethlehem's
well and brought it back to him. And they were cut up and beat
up. They'd been through fights. They
were bruised. They'd fought their way through
the army and got him a drink of water out of Bethlehem's well
and brought it to him. And they handed it to him and
they said, You want a drink out of Bethlehem's well, there it
is. We love you that much." He took it and poured it on the
ground. He said, it cost you too much for me to drink it.
But I appreciate it. That's what water meant to those
people there. And this woman came to get water.
But our Lord, He said, give me a drink. Now watch this dialogue.
He said, give me a drink. She said, you're a Jew, I'm a
Samaritan, why do you ask me for a drink? The Jews had no
dealings with the Samaritans. He said, woman, if you knew the
gift of God, And who it is that's speaking to you, you'd ask of
me and I'd give you living water. Now, you can drink of this well
and you'll thirst again. And God can give you a new home
and you'll want a bigger one and a better one. And you'll
want to work on that. And God will give you fine clothes,
you'll wear those out and get you some more. And God will give
you, you feel good today and you want to feel better tomorrow.
But you're always thirsty. You're never satisfied. I tell
you, there's no way to fully, completely satisfy this flesh.
It's got the want-tos, and the more it has, the more it wants.
And you know that's so. There's no satisfaction, there's
no peace, there's no rest, there's no joy in anything materially,
physically, in this world. Any relationship has flaws. There's no perfect peace. And
the Lord said, I'm not talking about this water. Anybody that
drinks of this water will thirst again and again and again and
again and finally just wear out with thirst. But I'm talking
about an inward water, a living water springing up within you
that if you drink of it, you'll never thirst again. Now that's
what he was getting her interested in. And she said, well, give
me this water. I sure do want it. I surely do
want this water. What is it you want? What is
it you want? Well, you can find a religion,
and I'm saying that's what these men are doing. I watch the Bakers
and the Roberts and all these fellas,
and I know what they're doing. You send your tithe to me and
God will bless you with money, money, money, money. Well, money
won't do you any good. Not a bit of good in the world.
God, if you do this, God will give you good health. Well, I've
got to die in 10 or 15 years anyway. No matter how good I
feel now, I'm going to die. I'm going back to the dust once
I came, and so are you. You'll thirst again. But brethren,
I'm not offering you that. It may be that you'll be called
on of God to suffer. Some of God's chief saints have
suffered greatly. It may be you'll be poor as a
church mouse. I wonder why church mouses are
poorer than anybody else's mouse. I don't know. They've got nothing
to eat around here. Most churches have got nothing to eat. Nothing
on the table. But I tell you this, if you know
Christ, you're rich. You're rich, rich in grace, rich
in love, rich in friends, rich in faith, rich in inheritance.
You'll have eternal life. That's what he's talking about.
And that's the interest. And this is what I'm saying.
When a man's preaching the true gospel, The interest, and I'll
tell you around here, it doesn't matter whether you're rich or
poor, whether you're learned or ignorant, whether you're male
or female, there is no such classes in Christ. We're one. Because
we meet on the basis of his mercy and his grace. We're all sinners
in Christ. I tell you the great leveler,
somebody says the grave is the great leveler. No, grace is the
leveler. It lifts the lowly, it brings
down the high and mighty, and puts them all one in Christ.
And that's what we have, oneness in Christ. And we have a joy,
a peace. I don't care how you fail or
fall or falter or what. You're forgiven and cleansed
and have grace in Christ. We have an advocate with a father.
You want that? You see, I want that. That's
what that woman said, I want it. Well, the fourth thing, the
Lord presented a problem. Look at verse 16. He said, Go
call your husband. Go call your husband and come
here. The woman said, I don't have
a husband. You've told the truth. You have no husband. You've had
five. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, and that
you said truly. What's our Lord presenting to
her? He's presenting to her the source of our whole problem.
This is why we don't have peace. This is why we're separated from
God. This is why our souls have no rest. This is why we have
a sense of guilt and failure. is sin, S-I-N, sin. It dwells in us, it lives in
us, it's a part of us. By one man's sin entered this
world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. We've all
got the problem with sin. Sin of words, Sin of thought,
sin of deeds, sin of action, sin of attitude, sin of motive,
and this has brought the judgment of God upon us, and we'll never
have any peace, you, me, or anybody else, until something is done
about our sins. Now that's where it is. You see what the Lord's
doing? He purposed to save this woman.
He set out to save her. That's His full intention. He's
going to do it. And then He crosses her path. He confronts her with
truth. You shall know the truth, and
the truth will make you free. And then there has got to be
an interest. Our Lord has no unwilling disciples. He has no
unloving wife. Those who cleave to him, cleave
to him because they want him. So he creates an interest in
her, an interest in life, in spiritual matters, in things
of value, not things of the earth, not even things at all, but life,
living water. peace, rest, a relationship with
God. And she wants it. But he says
there's a problem. There's a problem that's got
to be dealt with, and that's your sins. And we're no different
from this woman. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Let
me show you something. We're no different. You may sit
there and say, well, I've been true to one husband all my life.
Well, what about some other areas? You know, we've all sinned and
come short of the glory of God, and to be To offend in one point
of the law is the whole guilt of the whole law. But look here
at Romans chapter 3, verse 22. The last line, verse 23, 22. There's no difference. There's
no difference. We like to think there is, but
there's no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's no difference. I wish
we could get to see that and understand it in our hearts.
There's no difference. Old David said, my sins are ever
before me. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. We're all sinners. Oh, what sinners we are in God's
sight. What contemptible, corruptible,
defiled sinners we are in the sight of a holy God. I tell you,
we're embarrassing ourselves sometimes when we think on things
we thought and did and said. Think how rotten we are in God's
sight. If you, being evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall you follow
this? So if you, being evil, are disturbed by your sins, think
of how holiness is disturbed by your sins. Well, here's the
next thing. Now watch this carefully. He's going through all that,
isn't he? He created an interest, and then
he posed a problem. And you know what she did? She
did the very same thing that some of you are doing right now.
And it may and always do. She reverted to her religion.
That's exactly right. When our Lord created an interest,
talked to her about spiritual matters, spiritual life, and
then he presented this problem of sin, what about sin? Then she reverted back to her
religion. But I perceive you're a preacher,
she said. Look at verse 19. I perceive
you're a prophet. Well, our fathers worshipped
in this mountain. She kept talking about her church
life. I made a decision. I've been
in church all my life. So often, I was in a store. Let me tell you something. I
was in a store last week down St. Kitts Island, and these two
ladies were waiting on me. trying to get something for Doris
and Vindy and Becky, bring back from the island, you know, something.
And I went in this store, and this lady was, two ladies were
waiting on me, and I was getting something there, and I said,
I'm Henry Mahan, I'm down here preaching. She said, yeah, you're
the television preacher. I was a celebrity down there.
She said, you're the television preacher. I said, yes, ma'am.
Why don't you come out tonight and hear me?" Oh, she said, I'm
seven-day Adventist. That's the end of it. You see,
it doesn't matter who you are or what you're preaching or whether
it's the truth or not, I'm seven-day Adventist. And that's what this
woman said to Christ. Oh, I'm a Samaritan. I worship in the
mount. He spoke to her about a need
and about living water and about her sins. And you know what she
did? She fell back on her religion.
And that's the same thing men do today. I made a profession
when I was 12 years old. Oh, I was saved when I was 12
years old. I was baptized. I believed in
God. I did all this. They'll do it
every time. When you lay a man bare, he'll
start reaching for his religious rogues to hide in. When you expose
his guilt, he'll start reaching for his rogues of righteousness.
We all do it. Now watch what our Lord said
to a woman. Let me tell you something. Verse 21, let me tell you something.
The hour cometh when you'll neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship God. You worship, but you don't know
what you worship. You're just going through the
motions. You've got an empty, idle profession. You don't even
know what you're worshiping. Verse 24, God is a spirit, and
they that worship Him worship Him in spirit and truth. You
know what true religion is? Turn to Philippians chapter 3,
and I'll show you what it is. Philippians chapter 3. Here it
is summed up in one verse of Scripture. Philippians chapter
3, verse 3. Philippians 3, 3. And I'll tell
you, this is a fatal mistake. It's a fatal mistake to fall
back on what I am or what I did. That's what this woman did. She
said, Oh, our fathers, we're Samaritans, we worship in the
mountain. He said, You don't know what you are. You're just
going through the motions. When are you going to lay down
that old family religion like Saul had to do and everybody
else has to do? When are you going to lay down
all that tradition and custom and we do it this way in our
circles and all that Tommy Rot that's never given you any peace?
Never has, has it? You've been pointing back at
that little experience you had 40 years ago and trying to get
some comfort from it and I guarantee you it will rise up against you
in the judgment. It sure will. You better forget
it, you better drop it, because it won't hold water. It's a leaking
system. Look here at Philippians 3, 3.
We are the circumcision, number one, who worship God in the Spirit,
not in a place, not in a place, not in a form, not as a Baptist. We worship God in the Spirit.
Not with visual aids and candles and formations and uniform. Secondly,
we rejoice in Jesus Christ. We don't rejoice in anything
but Christ. Not in our works or our deeds or our denomination
or our forefathers or the old reformers. We rejoice in Christ.
And thirdly, we have no confidence in our flesh or anybody else's.
None whatsoever. Stripped of all confidence in
the flesh. Now that's it right there. And that's what he's telling
this woman. God is a spirit, and they that worship him, worship
him in spirit and truth. I tell you, that old refuge,
that old refuge, please don't lean on it. And I'm not trying
to create a commotion and just disturb people for the sake of
disturbing them. What I'm trying to get folks
to do is quit building their hope for eternity on shifting
sand and establish it on the rock, Christ Jesus. That's exactly
what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to give you a real
hope. Just having a hope is no good. It's a living hope. All right, what's the next thing?
Number six. She said she was troubled then.
He exposed her sin and exposed her religion. There was nothing
to her religion. It was a matter of form. She
said, verse 25, well, I know this, the Messiah is coming. Boy, there's a whole lot in that,
the Messiah's coming. I tell you this, the whole Old
Testament says one thing, someone's coming. Someone's coming. That's
what it's all about. Someone's coming in promise and
prophecy and picture, someone's coming. The four Gospels say
He has come. That someone has come. And the
Epistles say, look for Him, He's coming back, He has rewards with
Him. But this woman said the Messiah's coming who is called
the Christ. He'll tell us. When He does come,
He'll tell us all things. Let me tell you something. All
that God has, His purpose, promise, prophesied and given, is in that
Christ. All that God Almighty has for
this world, this universe, is in that Christ. God has vested
everything in Him. Now, that's what that woman said,
when he's come, he'll tell us everything. He'll be that prophet
which will reveal God. He'll save us as that priest.
He'll reign over us as that king. Verse 26, he says, I am he. I am he. The Redeemer revealed
himself. I am he. And you notice the he
there is in italics. Verse 26, you see, I that speak
to thee am. Every time our Lord says, In
the New Testament here, when you read in the King James Bible,
I am he, that he's in italics. He's not saying he's saying I
am. When Moses came to that bush that was burning and was not
consumed, curiosity brought him closer and God said, put off
your shoes, you're on holy ground. And then he asked God, he says,
when I tell Israel that God sent me, whom shall I say sent me?
He said, I am. I am. Never I was, I am. the everlasting I am, and our
Lord Jesus Christ, Mary's son, incarnate God, stood face to
face with that woman, and she said, well, I'm all confused
and mixed up and in sin and need that living water and my religion's
false, but when he's come, he said, I'm healed. I'm healed. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ. That's what Paul put on the board last week. That's
what I'm preaching. I'm preaching the Messiah. And
I'm preaching that all things are not only in him but found
in him. And that's the reason when old
Simeon stood in the temple, that old white-haired man to whom
God said, you'll never die until you see the Christ, when they
laid that child Jesus in his arms, he said, now, Lord, let
your servant depart in peace. I've seen thy salvation. That's
all I need to say. That's the sum and substance
of my whole message to you. I'm saying this, it's all in
Christ. And you can say, well, I made
a profession, I was baptized, I've always tried to live right,
tried to do my best. You're just as lost as a blind
horse in a snowstorm until you come to know Christ. I don't
care how many times you've preached or taught or witnessed or given
or what you've done or said or believed or professed or anything
else, a man is saved when he meets Christ. When he meets Christ. And that's six things that happens
to everybody whom God ultimately, effectually, eternally saves.
He'll purpose to save them. He'll cross your path with the
true gospel. He'll create an interest in that
gospel. Not in things. Not in things. You lose your taste. That all-consuming
taste for the things of this world, and you'll pant more after
holiness than anything else. And then he'll present a problem.
That problem of sin has got to be dealt with by sacrifice. The
soul of sin has got to die, and you know it. And the only comfort
I can have this morning, being a sinner, is that Christ died
for me. He paid my debt. He satisfied God's justice. And
I'm not going to fall back on that profession I made when I
was ten years old. going to school and studying
to be a preacher and all these things. One day, in 1950, I met
Christ. Right over at Pollard Baptist
Church, when the gospel of God's grace was preached in that pulpit,
I met Christ, the Christ of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ,
about 24 years old. And I heard the gospel. And for
me to sit around and say, well, I saved when I was worshiping
with the Samaritans in the mountains. Oh, no. Oh, no. I saved when
I was worshiping with the Jews down with their forum and ceremony.
Boy, I'm sure glad God didn't take me away from here at that
time until I met Christ, the living Christ. And he said, I'm
he. I'm he. I'm he. And I have no
rivals. I'm he. I have no rivals in any
shape, form, or fashion. I'm he. I'm he. And until he
has no rival in your heart, you've never met, I am. Never have. I am.