If You Knew -- You Would Ask

I'm reading from the book of
John, the fourth chapter, the tenth verse. And 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 wouldst have asked
of him, and he would have given thee living water. Now the Lord
Jesus Christ and his disciples had left Judea to go to Galilee. and the scripture said he must
need go through Samaria. At about 12 noon, the Lord Jesus
and the disciples came to Jacob's well, and the Bible says that
the Lord, being weary with the journey, sat down on the well
and his disciples went into the city to buy food. And while they
were gone to buy food and the Lord was sitting alone on the
well, a woman of Samaria came to draw water. When she came
to the well, the Lord Jesus said to her, Woman, give me to drink. And the woman replied, Why do
you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan? The Samaritans and
the Jews have no dealings with one another. And the Lord Jesus
said, Woman, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that
saith unto thee, Give me to drink, you would have asked of me, and
I would have given you living water. Now my subject today is,
if you knew, you would ask. If you knew, you would ask. Now there's several things about
this woman I want to point out to you, and while I'm pointing
out these things that are characteristic of this Samaritan woman, you
see if you don't see our day. and our generation in her, the
characteristics of our day in this same Samaritan woman. First
of all, she was a very religious person. She was no stranger to
the Bible. She was no stranger to Abraham
and Jacob and Isaac. In verse 12 she said, Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, who drank
of the water with his children and with his family? She talked
about worshiping God. She talked about her father Jacob.
She knew Bible character. She knew Bible history. She knew
Bible language. She was a very religious woman.
And then another thing about this woman, she was not only
religious, but she upheld her denominational tradition. She
said, why do you ask me for a drink? Don't you know the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans? And then in verse 20, she said
to the Lord, you Jews say that the place to worship is down
in Jerusalem. We Samaritans worship in the
mountains. Our fathers have always worshiped
in the mountains, and their fathers worshiped in the mountains, and
their fathers before them. We worship, and we worship in
this mountain, and we don't have any dealings with you Jews who
worship in Jerusalem. She was a Samaritan. She was
a devout Samaritan. and she let the Lord know this.
She was a very religious woman, and she was a woman who held
to the tradition of her father's. She held strongly to her denominational
customs. Then another thing about this
woman, she was looking for the coming of the Lord. That's right
down here in verse 25. Listen to what she said to Christ.
I know that Messiah is coming, and when the Messiah comes, he's
going to tell us all things. She fully expected to be included
in the kingdom of the Lord. She fully expected to meet God
in glory. She fully expected that all would
be well with her. She was looking for the coming
of the Messiah. Now the fourth thing about this
woman, now follow each one of these things, they're true. She
was a religious woman. You say, but this woman was a
great sinner. She'd been married five times
and was living in adultery with a man who was not her husband,
I know that, but she was a religious woman. She knew something about
Bible characters and Bible language, and she knew something about
Bible history, and she talked about worshiping God. And she
upheld her denominational traditions, she held to the customs of her
father, the religious customs. She practiced what they practiced.
And then another thing, she was looking for the coming of the
Messiah. She says that here, the Messiah is coming. I know
that he's coming. I know it. And when he comes,
everything will be all right. He's going to tell us all that
we want to know. But now here's the fourth and
tragic thing about this woman. She did not know the Lord. Our
Master said to her, down here in verse 22, you worship, that's
true, you worship in this mountain. And the Jews worship in Jerusalem.
But you don't know what you worship. You don't know God. You're worshipping
an unknown God. You're going through the form
of worship and the motion of worship, but you don't know God.
And then listen to him in our text. If you knew the gift of
God. Now Christ is the gift of God.
He is God's unspeakable gift. The gift of God's eternal life
through Christ the Lord. God gave his son. Christ is the
gift. If you knew the gift of God. If you knew who it is that's
talking to you. You'd ask of me and I'd give
you living water. Do you see our day in this woman?
Let me show you. First of all, men today, like
this woman, are very religious. Everybody's religious today.
We have more religion today per square inch than we've ever had
in the history of mankind. We're not strangers to God. Everybody
knows about God. Everybody in some form or other
uses the word God, either as a curse word or some way they
use the name God. We believe the Bible. We know
something about Bible history. We know about the creation and
the ark and the flood and the blood on the doorpost in Egypt
and the law given at Sinai. We know Bible history. We know
about David and the sling and Goliath and giants and Saul and
all these other Bible stories. We know about the birth of Christ,
his crucifixion, his resurrection. We observe Easter. We observe
Lent. We observe Christmas, all these
holy days we observe today. We know Bible events. We know
Bible characters. We talk about death and judgment,
heaven and hell. We talk about Abraham, David,
Paul, Peter, James and John. This is a religious day. Practically
everybody's got some religious background. And then another
thing, like this woman, men today uphold their traditions. They
uphold their religious customs, their family customs, their denominational
traditions. We have all manner of names.
The Jews, she said, have no dealings with the Samaritans. Well, today
the Baptists have no dealings with the Presbyterians, and the
Presbyterians have no dealings with the Methodists, and the
Methodists have no dealings with the Catholics, and the Catholics
have no dealings with somebody else. We all have our denominational
traditions, our customs that we uphold and defend and fight
for and claim to believe. We worship, somebody said, in
this mountain, you worship in Jerusalem. We worship on Saturday,
you worship on Sunday. We have our priest, you have
your pastors. We have a book of prayer, you
pray extemporaneously. We sing psalms, you sing hymns. We use no instruments, you use
an organ. We kneel, you stand, we sprinkle,
you immerse. We wear robes and you don't.
Our tradition is the tradition of our fathers. We do what we
were taught to do, and then we hand it down to our children,
they hand it down to their children, and it goes on down the line.
We're from a long line of a certain kind of denomination. That's
what this woman was. She stood there face to face
with the Lord of Glory and argued about her religious traditions.
She was a religious woman. And she was practicing and upholding
and defending her religious traditions that she'd gotten from somebody
else. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. You worship
in Jerusalem. You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan.
You don't have any dealings with me and I don't have any dealings
with you. Then another thing about this woman that is true
of men today. Men today, like this woman, are
looking for the coming of the Lord. All religions, all denominations
have a Messiah who either has come or will come. Now stop and
think with me a minute. No matter what the tradition,
no matter what the custom, no matter what the denomination,
they all have a Jesus, they have a spirit, and they have a gospel.
All have a Jesus, a spirit, and a gospel. Now Paul said in 2
Corinthians 11, it may be another Jesus whom we have not preached. It may be another spirit. And
brethren, there's spirits everywhere. We're living, we're surrounded
by a spiritual world. Satan is even called a spirit.
evil spirits. John said, try the spirits, whether
they be of God. There are many antichrists and
false spirits who have gone out into this world. We are surrounded
by them. Even Satan transforms himself
into an angel of light, a minister of righteousness. Oh yes, there
are spirits out there, demon spirits and all kinds of spirits,
and Holy Spirit, and Paul said it might be another gospel. But
it's a Jesus, and it's a spirit, and it's a gospel, for which
men are contending, like this woman. She said the Messiah's
coming. Oh, he's coming, and when he comes, everything's going
to be all right. When he comes, he's going to straighten everything
out. When he comes, we're going to have peace and joy. She didn't
know him, but she said when he comes, everything's going to
be all right. He's going to tell us everything we need to know.
She was fully looking for the Messiah. She was religious, and
so are we. She upheld the tradition of her
fathers, not knowing what they meant, but she upheld them, and
she was looking for the coming of a Messiah. But the fourth
thing, in which we are very much like her and which we have in
common with her, she didn't know the Lord. And I fear that's true
of most men today. They do not know the living God.
David said, as the heart panteth for the water brooks, my soul
panteth for thee, the living God. I don't want to just have
a God, do you? I want to know the living God.
I don't want to just worship I know not what. I don't want
to worship just any idol of my imagination. I want to know the
living God. Christ said this is eternal life,
that they might know thee, the true and living God, and Jesus
Christ. whom thou hast sent. If you knew,
Christ looked at this woman in all of her religion, steeped
in religion, bound by tradition, following the customs and patterns
that had been handed down to her, looking for a Messiah, but
standing face to face with him and not knowing him, not recognizing
him. He said, Oh, if you just knew,
if you just knew the gift of God and who it is, who is speaking
to you, you would ask me, and I'd give you living water. Step
into the fashionable cathedral or church on this Sunday morning,
where men and women are going through the mere formality of
worship, and there's so much of that. You know what I'm talking
about. Oh, the ritualism. Oh, the formalism. Oh, the ceremonialism. where men and women are going
through the mere formality of a Sunday morning religion, praying
prayers they do not mean, confessing sins they do not feel, singing
hymns they do not believe, professing a profession that they do not
have. Look into the face of those formalistic,
legalistic, ritualistic people and say, if you knew, if you
knew, if you knew the gift of God. You would lay aside this
formalism, and fall at his feet in genuine repentance, and cry
for mercy, and ask of him, and he'd give you living water, if
you knew. If you knew you were in the presence
of the Son of God, if you knew you were in the presence of the
living Lord, you wouldn't go through the motions of playing
church. while you'd come unto him in all deep sincerity of
heart and genuine repentance of sin and crying out of a heart
of faith, Lord give me the water of life. Step into that ritualistic
place where men dress themselves in gaudy robes of religion and
flaunt themselves like peacocks in the presence of God, all dressed
out in the robes of religion and the finery of religion and
say to them, if you knew the gift of God, you'd take off those
gaudy robes of religion and clothe yourself in sackcloth and ashes
and come before God with a broken spirit and a broken heart and
sue for peace and cry for mercy and ask for grace, if you knew.
If you knew the living God, if you knew yourself, if you knew
his holiness and knew your sin, If you knew his grace and knew
your need, you'd quit flaunting around like a peacock in the
presence of God and fall on your face in his presence in submission,
if you knew. Or step into the average pulpit,
where the preacher is delivering his eloquent sermon of words
that nobody understands, cliches that nobody believes, and intellectualism
into which no one can enter. and saying to him, Oh, if you
knew the gift of God, you'd lay aside all of these flowery orations
and eloquent speeches and intellectualism, and you'd feed these men and
women, these poor thirsty souls with the water of life. You'd
feed these hungry sinners with the bread of life. You'd talk
language they could understand. You'd deal with subjects in which
they're involved. You'd answer questions that are
upon their hearts. Instead of trying to please men,
you try to please God if you knew the gift of God and who
it is that reigns and rules unto whom this world has been given
by an act of the Father. Step into the sick room where
a sinner full of doubt and full of fear faces a crashless eternity. walk up beside that sickbed where
that man or that woman is dying, the world has been his portion,
and now he leaves it. The world's been all that he's
ever had. He's had a religion without life,
and now he leaves it. Now he faces death and judgment
and eternity, and he has no hope. Say to him, my sinner friend,
if you knew the gift of God, if you knew the gift of God,
you'd ask of him. and he give you living water.
He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Let me
ask two questions. The first one is this. Who and
what is this gift of God? Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
this woman, this religious woman, this traditional woman, this
woman who worshiped, she knew not what. This woman who didn't
know God. He said, if you knew the gift
of You'd ask if you knew the gift of God. You would ask, what
is this gift of God? Who is this? Well, first of all,
now listen to this, let me give you six things that are mentioned
in the word of God as being the gift of God. This will help you
if you listen. First of all, Jesus Christ is
the gift of God. No doubt about that. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Christ
is the gift of God. In 2 Corinthians 9.15 Paul said,
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. The Father gave the Son
to be our representative, to be our substitute. The Son gave
his life on the cross to be our Redeemer. He was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, but the Lord hath laid on Christ the iniquity of us
all. Christ is our substitute. God
gave him. God gave him to be our substitute,
to be our Savior. If you knew this gift of God,
you'd ask him to be your Savior. The law is not the Savior. The
Church is not the Savior. The sacraments and communion
and ordinances, they're not the Savior. The preacher is not the
Savior. The priest is not the Savior.
Christ is the Savior. God gave his Son to be our Savior. He gave his Son to be our Redeemer. Christ obeyed the law for us,
that we might have a perfect righteousness and a perfect standing
in the presence of God Almighty. He went to the cross as our substitute
and there he bore our sins in his body and died that we might
live. The sinless became sinful that
the sinful might be sinless. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Salvation is not something you do for God. Salvation is something
God does for you. Something God does for you legally,
something God does for you inwardly. God justifies you by the death
of his son, reconciles you by the death of his son, imparts
unto you a holy nature. Christ is the gift of God. If
you knew that, you'd ask him to do something for you, if you
knew that. He has the water of life. He is the source, the fountain
of life. Do you know that? Have you ever asked him to save
you, to do something for you? Secondly, eternal life is the
gift of God. What do we mean when we talk
about eternal life? Well, we're not just talking about the length
of it. Everybody will live forever. People in hell will live forever.
Eternal life is not talking about the length of it nearly so much
as the quality of it. It's spiritual life. It's the
life which Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. It's the divine life,
it's the life of God, it's the image and nature of God. When
Adam was in the garden, he walked with God. When he ate the forbidden
fruit, he died, and death passed upon all men, and he was separated
from God. He lost the nature of God, he
lost the life of God. He retained fleshly life, that
which is born of flesh is flesh. He retained natural life, but
the natural mind is enmity against God. The natural man received
it, not the things of God. There is a natural life and there
is a spiritual life. And this spiritual life is the
gift of God. Now listen to the scripture.
Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You who are
dead, hath he quickened? I never have been a dead preacher,
not physically, you were dead spiritually. I was dead spiritually. And God gave me a new life, a
holy nature, a divine nature, the life of God, which Adam lost
in the garden. You who were dead hath he made
alive. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And that's the gift of
God. That's what it says, eternal life is the gift of God. Thirdly,
now listen carefully. If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that's speaking to you, you'd ask him, he'd give
you this gift of God, and this gift of God's Christ and its
eternal life. Thirdly, repentance is the gift
of God. That's right, repentance is the
gift of God. Listen, no man's going to be
saved except he repents, and no man's going to repent unless
God gives him repentance, unless God leads him to repentance.
Listen to the Bible, listen to God's word, Romans 2.4, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Who leads
a man to repentance? The goodness of God. God leads
a man to repentance. Listen to Acts 11.18. Listen,
God hath also granted repentance to the Gentiles. Who gave them
repentance? God did. Now listen to this scripture,
2 Timothy 2.24. The servant of God must not strive,
he must not argue. You don't accomplish anything
by arguing. You don't accomplish anything by beating people with
a whip of the law. The heart has to be opened by
the Spirit of God. God has to awaken. He has to
draw his people. The Spirit of God, the servant
of God, must not strive. He must be gentle unto all men,
apt to teach, patient, patient. Sometimes God deals a long time
with some people. In meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, they're their worst enemy. They're going
to hell if they can. They're going to keep fighting
God, just like Saul of Tarsus did, until God meets them and
breaks them and arrests them, humbles them, brings them down,
draws them to himself. Listen now. Instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. What's Paul saying
here in 2 Timothy 2, 24 and 25? He's saying, you preachers, get
out there and preach the gospel. You preach, another man comes
along and preaches, and be patient and gentle, long-suffering. It may be that God Almighty will
give repentance to those people who are listening to you preach.
It may be. It's the gift of God. Lord, lead me to seek thee, and
seeking thee to find thee, and finding thee to love thee, and
loving thee to serve thee." If you knew this, if you knew repentance
was the gift of God, what would you do? You'd ask him for it,
wouldn't you? All right, faith is the gift
of God. Look at Philippians 1.29. Faith is the gift of God. Every
good gift and perfect gift comes from God. Faith is a good gift,
and it comes from God. In Philippians 1.29, the scripture
says, "...unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only
to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake. It's given unto
you to believe on him. The scripture says, no man cometh
to me except my Father which sent me draw him. And in Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. The disciples prayed,
Lord, increase our faith. The Roman centurion said, Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief. Faith is the gift of God. You
want faith? You don't have to go to him who
gives faith. If you knew it, if you knew the
gift of God, what would you do? Christ said to this woman, if
you knew the gift of God, and who it is that's talking to you,
you'd ask me, and I'd give you living water. My friend, wisdom
is the gift of God. James says, if any man lacked
wisdom, let him what? Let him go to school. Let him
ask of God. I'm talking about spiritual wisdom.
Let him ask of God. The Holy Spirit's the gift of
God, Luke 11, 13. If you being evil know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Brother Mann,
you're saying that this whole thing of salvation from beginning
to end is of God. That's exactly what I'm saying.
I'm saying he's the author and finisher of our faith, the author
and finisher of our faith. I'm saying he's Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. I'm saying that eternal life
is the gift of God, that repentance is the gift of God, that faith
is the gift of God, the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, and
any man who's saved is going to say unto him who loved me
and washed me from my sins in his own precious blood, to him
be all the glory, not some of it, all of it. If you knew the
gift of God, you'd ask and listen. He said, and I would give you
the water of life. The difficulty is not with the
Lord, it's with you. He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. He's plenteous in mercy. Plenteous
in mercy. I hope you'll join us next week
at the same time, over this same station. Until then, Henry Mahan,
bidding you a very pleasant, good day.

If You Knew -- You Would Ask

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

If You Knew -- You Would Ask

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book