If you will, let's open our Bibles
this evening to John chapter 4. The Lord willing, we're going to
look at the first 26 verses in this chapter. And among the many
things that we will see, or that we may see in this passage of
Scripture, is the fulfillment of one Old Testament prophecy. And that prophecy is found in
Isaiah 65 and verse 1. I am found of them that sought
me not. I, that is the Lord, I am found
of them that sought me not. When this woman of Samaria picked
up her water pot that day and headed to the well to get water
to bring home to her family, she had no idea. She had no idea
that she would find Christ. Or would it be better if we were
to say that she would be found of Christ? Many people mistakenly
say, I found the Lord. But the problem with that is,
He was never lost. We're the ones who are lost.
And He finds His sheep. He said Himself, for the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. This woman of Samaria, as the
prophecy said, I am found of them that sought me not. She
sure did not leave her house that day, intending to go and
seek after the Lord. And yet she was found of Christ. She was found by Christ and she
found Christ to be her Lord and Savior. There's seven things
I want to point out to us in these verses. First, the Lord
Jesus is truly man. Let's read these first six verses.
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 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, set thus on the
well. And it was about the sixth hour,
about 12 noon. We know that He is the eternal
Son of God who was made flesh in the fullness of the time. That is, in the fullness of God's
time, the time that God had appointed from before the foundation of
the world for His Son to be manifested here in the flesh. He is the
eternal Son of God who was made flesh. And we might see in verse
1 and say this, that as God, by His omniscience, by His all-knowing,
knows everything, it may be how He knew, the Scripture here says,
when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, it may be
by His omniscience that He knew what the Pharisees had heard.
Now the Pharisees, they despised and they hated John the Baptist
who came preaching the gospel. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. And when some of them went out
to him, remember he called them a generation of vipers, who hath
warned you, a generation of vipers, to flee from the wrath to come.
Well, John evidently is now put in prison, and we saw last week
how The disciples of John came to him and said, everyone now,
all men go to Christ. Well, the Lord knew, this verse
tells us, the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that
if we thought John the Baptist was the problem, many people
were going out to him. We've really got a problem now,
because the Lord Jesus Christ, He is preaching, and all men
are going to Him, to hear Him. Now, they would seek, the Pharisees,
the religious leaders of the nation of Israel, they would
seek to put Christ to death. And He would be put to death,
but in His time. in his time. And that time had
not yet come. His hour had not yet come, as
we see many times in the Gospel of John. So he leaves Judea and
he returns now to Galilee. And in verse 4 we read, he must,
needs, go through Samaria. This is the second time in the
Gospel of John that we read of something that He must do. The second time, when we read
here that there's something that Jesus Christ must do. Look back in chapter 3. He said
this Himself. In verses 14 and 15, He said,
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. If He's not lifted
up, if He's not lifted up on the cross, if He does not bear
the sins of His people, if He does not satisfy God's justice
in the place of those He came to save, there would be no salvation. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, if anyone was going to be healed of the
snake bites there in the wilderness, it was going to be one way and
one way only. And that was God's way of Moses
lifting up that serpent on the pole there in the middle of the
camp and commanding everyone who was bitten, look and live. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life. That's the first must we see
here in the Gospel of John concerning Christ. But now in our text,
we come to another one. In verse 4 of chapter 4, it says,
He must needs go through Samaria. Now, we know that there was another
way he could have gone from Judea to Galilee. There was another
route he could have taken, a much longer route, that's true. But
our Lord must needs go through Samaria. And we believe it's
recorded because he had an appointment with one that God had given to
him from before the foundation of the world that he would meet
with on this day, this woman. But I wanted to point out, and
I said, the Lord Jesus is truly man. You know, in the history
of the church, there have been those who have tried to teach
that the Lord Jesus Christ really did not have a body. That he
was a phantom. That he was more like a ghost.
that he really did not have a physical body. There have been all kinds
of heresies that the church has had to contend with over the
last 2,000 years, and most of them have been around the person
of Jesus Christ. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. There's no question about that.
And Satan always does his best to show ignorance about Him. Now there's many things in the
Bible you may not need to know, but there's one thing that you
must know, and that's Christ. We must know Him or be eternally
damned, eternally lost. For there is no salvation apart
from Him. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. But we see
here that He was truly man. He was truly man. And we see
this because we are told that He was weary. Now, Jacob's well
was there, Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey. God sent His Son into this world,
the Apostle Paul said, in the likeness of sinful flesh. If you had been alive and if
you had been at this time here in the world and you had seen
the Lord Jesus Christ, He would have looked like any other man.
There was nothing to distinguish him. In fact, the scripture in
the Old Testament records there's no beauty in him that we should
desire him. He was a man. There was no halo
around his head or anything like that to distinguish him and mark
him off from other men. But there was one exception,
and it's a great exception, isn't it? He was like every other man
with the exception of sin. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He himself had no sin of his
own. And this is necessary. The Scripture teaches us that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. That he might be
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was never
weary of the He said, I delight to do thy will, O God. He was
never weary of the work that the Father gave him to do, but
he did as a man grow weary in the work. And we see that here,
that because of his weariness, he sets on the well as his disciples
go into the city. The only time, think about him
being weary. He had walked, this is 12 o'clock
noon, evidently, this hour that's mentioned here. Now it's hot
over there in that country. It's a hot place. And he didn't
travel by a mule or donkey. The only time we ever read of
the Lord Jesus Christ riding on a beast is when he rode into
Jerusalem later at the end. of his earthly ministry, the
week in which he would be crucified. He did ride into Jerusalem on
the back of that donkey, and the people spread their coats
and took the palms, you know, and said, Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. But all the other time that he
was traveling, he was walking. He was walking by foot. And so
we see here that he was weary. He who holds all things up by
the word of his power, as a man here, was weary. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us. The word was made flesh. He had
a body and he had a soul just like you and I have. The only
exception, he knew no sin. Let me ask you something tonight.
Are the words of this hymn ever your experience? We sing this
hymn sometimes. It goes like this. I must tell
Jesus all my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress, he kindly will
help me. He ever loves and cares for his
own. He may be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. He was a man. Now here's the
second thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gift of God. Notice that in verses 7 through
10. 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 am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said, if, said unto her, if thou knewest
the gift of God. The Lord Jesus is the gift of
God. Now this woman, we see she was
surprised. She was somewhat taken aback
because the Lord Jesus asked her to give him a drink. One of the writers tells us that
the Jews They would sell to the Samaritans, and they would buy
from the Samaritans, as we see here. His disciples went into
the town to buy food. But they would never take anything,
a gift, from a Samaritan. They would never put themselves
in obligation to a Samaritan. They would never accept a favor
from a Jew. or from a Samaritan. And here
the Lord Jesus Christ asks this woman for a favor. Give me a
drink. Give me a drink. Who were these Samaritans? There
was such a discord between the Jews and the Samaritans. Who
were they? Why was this great division? Why was it that most Jews would
travel miles around to get to Galilee from Judea rather than
go through Samaria. Who were these Samaritans? Well, let me give us a brief
history lesson, remind us of this. You know, the nation of
Israel was made up of twelve tribes. After they came into
the land of Canaan, they were one nation, and they had one
king. And David, of course, was the
king, the mighty king, the great king. And his son Solomon reigned
after him. But Solomon loved many wives,
the scripture says, and his heart was turned away. And the people,
of course, they followed with him in idolatry. And after Solomon died, God took
ten of the tribes away from the king of Judah. And the ten tribes are then called
the Northern Kingdom, and they are called Israel for the most
part in the Old Testament. And this other kingdom, a much
smaller as far as the number of tribes is concerned, Judah
and Benjamin, is referred to as Judah. Now we know that took
place. Well, the ten tribes, they just
continued. The first king they had was named
Jeroboam, and he was a wicked man. And listen, a person can
have influence over other people for good and for bad. And Jeroboam had influence over
that kingdom for bad, and until they were carried away by the
Assyrians, they never were able to escape from the bad influence
that that king led them into. That's the reason the Scripture
in the New Testament says, evil companions corrupt good manners. You young people here, you wonder
why your parents are insisting upon your friends, knowing them. And they want you to have good
friends. People that will not be a detriment
to you in any way, will be a help to you. And I just say that that
king, his name was Jeroboam, and for the rest of their history,
they just followed one after the other, and they all, all
the kings and the people behind them, they followed in the sins
of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat. They were never able to escape
from that. And so I want you to turn back
to 2nd Kings. You say, what does this have
to do with the Samaritans? Well, look back here to 2nd Kings
chapter 17 with me. 2nd Kings chapter 17. In about 721 BC, about 721 years
before Christ came into this world as a man, the Assyrians,
the nation of Assyria, they destroyed Samaria, the walls of the city. Now Samaria was called an area
and the capital of those ten tribes was Samaria. In about
721 BC, the Assyrians destroyed the walls of the city and they
carried the people away into Assyria. Look in verse 23, chapter
17 of 2 Kings. Verse 23, well let's read verse
22 as well. For the children of Israel walked
in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did. That's the man I've mentioned. That was their first king. They
departed not from them until the Lord removed Israel out of
his sight as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So
was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria until
this day. Now, he took the Israelites,
the king of Assyria did, carried them into Assyria. But he brought
Assyrians into the land of Samaria. Notice the next verse. And the
king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthath, and
from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharim, and placed them
in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel. and
they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so
it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared
not the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions
among them, which slew some of them. Wherefore they spake to
the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed
and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God
of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among
them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner
of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded,
saying, Carry thither one of the priests, whom you brought
from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let them
teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of
the priests, whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt
in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Howbeit,
every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses
of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation
in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon
made Succoth-Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and
the men of Hamath made Asherah, and the Avites made Nebhez and
Tarket, And the Sepharites burnt their children in the fire to
Adrammelech and Anamelech, the gods of Sepharim. So, now here, so they feared
the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests
of the high places, which sacrifice for them in the houses of the
high places. They feared the Lord, and served
their own gods. They feared the Lord because
the Lord sent lions among them. And the scripture says the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but there is a slavish
fear that is not meant by the fear of the Lord. The fear of
the Lord is reverence, reverence to God, reverence lest we offend
God Almighty. They feared the Lord, these people
did, but notice and serve their own gods after the manner of
the nations whom they carried away from thence. Well, we know
that about a hundred years, I think, within a hundred years, this
other nation of Judah, they were carried into Babylon for seventy
years in captivity, just as God had told them. And when the seventy
years was up, then you have in your Bible the two books of Ezra
and Nehemiah. Ezra first, he leads some of
the Jews back out of Babylon, and they have a decree from Cyrus,
the king of Persia, to build the temple. And they begin to
build the temple. Some years later, Nehemiah, he
leads more Jews back, and their mission is to rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem. And they did it. But there was
a man there by the name of Sanballat. You've run into him as you read
through Nehemiah. Sanballat was a Samaritan. And when Nehemiah began to purge
the priesthood, many of the priests had married Samaritan women,
women who were not Israelites. And that was strictly prohibited. And Sanballat had a daughter
who was married to the high priest's grandson. And rather than put
his wife away as Nehemiah commanded, he left. And he went to his father-in-law,
Sanballat, and Sanballat built him a temple in Mount Gerizim,
as we will see this woman mentions here in just a moment. By the
time Christ had come into this world, the temple was gone, but
the Samaritans still believed that Mount Gerizim, that's the
place where we are to worship God. You see, they received the
Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, but after that
they rejected them because In the first five books of the Bible,
God told the nation of Israel that He would name a place where
He would put His name. But that didn't happen until
after the book of Deuteronomy, after they came into the land.
He chose Jerusalem. So there's a competition, we
see, between the Samaritans and the Jews. And it was ferocious,
it was fierce. That's the reason there's this
conflict. They wouldn't have anything to
do with one another. This woman was surprised that
the Lord Jesus, she recognized he was a Jew, why he would ask
her for a drink. But something that is much more
important for you and I to know, and for this woman to know, Not
who the Samaritans are, but that Jesus Christ is the gift of God. And that's what he told her.
If thou knewest the gift of God and He, it is that speaketh unto
thee. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gift of God. The Apostle Paul said, but thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. We don't have the words. You and I, all of us together,
we do not have the words to fully appreciate and put into words
the praise and exclamation that Jesus Christ is worthy of. He's God's unspeakable gift,
for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He told this woman, if you knew
the gift of God. She didn't. She didn't. Now here's
the third thing. Salvation is a gift from the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the giver of salvation. Notice in the last part of verse
10. 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. He, the gift of God. He would have given thee living
water. From this verse we may learn
three things that lost men and women do not know. If you're here tonight and you
are lost, you've never been saved, then I'm telling you tonight
there are three things you don't know. First of all, you do not
know who Christ is. You just don't know. And you
will never know unless He chooses to reveal Himself to you. Unless
the God who commanded the light to shine way back there in the
book of Genesis when He created the heavens and the earth and
said, light me, unless He causes the light to shine into your
heart so you will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
you will never know who He is. Number two, a lost person does
not know that salvation is a gift. If you're here tonight and you
are lost, I know, I know from experience that you think you've
got to work to be saved. There's something you've got
to do. There's something you may not, if there's two or three
people here lost, everyone may have a different idea of what
I have to do, but I know that lost people do not know that
salvation is a gift of God. There is a way, the proverb says,
there is a way which seemeth right unto men, but the end thereof
is the way of death. And that way, that all men have
their own way, they believe I've got to do something to earn eternal
life. There's something I can do to
obtain eternal life. The third thing that lost men
do not know. They do not know that salvation
is a gift. It's a gift. Isn't that what
the Lord said to this woman? 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 maybe, perhaps... No, he didn't say
that, did he? ...thou wouldst ask of Him, and
He would, He would have given thee living water. Now, the rivers of living water,
if you turn over to John 7, this is clearly the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 7, in verses
38 and 39, Our Lord said in verse 38, He
that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water, but this spake he of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. The living
water, the Spirit, is the one who begins the work of grace
in the heart of the sinner. And he not only begins the work,
but he maintains the work, sustains the work. Because salvation is
God's work. Henry Mahan, in his commentary
on the book of John, he gives four reasons as to why water
is such a beautiful figure of salvation. Number one, it's the
gift of God. Nobody's going to manufacture
any water. There's just so much water here
on this planet. And it's the water that God made
and God created in the beginning. It's a gift. And for water, men are absolutely
dependent upon God. Number two, water is indispensable. It's not a luxury. Not a luxury. There's a lot of things that
we have today that we could live without. But I tell you what,
if the water was cut off, we wouldn't live for very long.
Water is indispensable. And salvation is indispensable. It is. It's not a luxury, it's
a necessity. You must, you must be saved. Because if you're not saved,
you will spend eternity in hell, separated from God. Number three,
water is the need of everyone. Rich, poor, colored, young, old,
sick, healthy, whatever. Water. It's the need that everyone
has. That's something every one of
us in this building tonight, we need. We need salvation. And number four, water descends
from heaven. Have you ever seen water come
out of the earth? It descends down, doesn't it?
It comes down from the clouds. It's not a product of the earth,
but it comes from above. So is salvation. It's a gift
of God. Now here's the fourth, and I'll
be very brief on these others. The fourth, the Lord Jesus declares
the things of this world to be empty. Verse 13. Verse 13, Jesus
answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again. And my friends, you can write
that over everything in this world in which men seek happiness. Everything. It may be wealth
for some people. They just think, boy, if I could
just make a lot of money, I'd be happy. Whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. It may be fame, if I could be
famous and everyone would know me and recognize me when I walk
down the street. Whosoever drinketh of this fountain
will thirst again. It might be good health, and
we all prize good health, don't we? It might be long life, want
to live a long life. But all of these things in the
end will leave the soul empty. empty, empty. Whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. Here's the fifth thing. The Lord
Jesus is the Savior of sinners. Now this woman, we're not, we
don't have the time tonight to go through all of these verses,
but you know the story well enough. This woman wanted to discuss
things about religion. People love to talk about the
Baptist denomination and the Presbyterian denomination, the
Catholic. I mean, people love to talk about
religion, different denominations and all of that. And that's what
this woman tried to do. That's what she wanted to do.
But the Lord Jesus Christ asked her a question to make her confess
her sin. He came to save sinners. Big sinners, little sinners,
and all in between. He came to save sinners. Notice what He told this woman,
verse 16. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call
thy husband, and come hither. Now she would just assume He
had never brought this subject up. Oh, she didn't care. She didn't mind talking about
religion, about where to worship God, and where not to worship
God, and all of that. But when he told her, go call
your husband, she knew she was in trouble.
Why? Because she said, I have no husband. I don't have a husband. Well,
maybe I got off the hook there. If it had just been a man like
myself, maybe so. But not this God man. He said
unto her, Thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In other words,
she was living in fornication. She was living in adultery. She
was not married. Go call your husband. I don't
have one. Well, you said that right. What
is he doing? He's making her aware of her
need, of her sin. God saves sinners. Brother Scott
Richardson used to say, you've got to hear the bad news before
you will hear the good news. And the bad news is we've sinned
and come short of the glory of God. The good news is Christ
came to save sinners. Notice the sixth thing here. The Lord Jesus came to fulfill
the Old Testament types and ceremonies connected with the temple. And
we could spend a whole service on this. The woman saith in verse
19, I perceive, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our
fathers worshiped in this mountain and you say, that is the Jews,
they say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship. Jesus saith unto her, woman, Believe me, the hour cometh
when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father. You worship you know not what.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. They had the law. They had the
types. They had the ceremonies that
all pictured Christ. Salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is.
When the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
It's not about a place, it's about a person. It's not about
a place in this building or that building, this cathedral or out
under the stars. It's about worshiping God. God
is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. And notice the last thing, the
Lord Jesus Christ confessed himself to be the Christ to this woman. He confessed to this woman to
be the Christ. The Jews later, the Pharisees,
they said, how long are you going to keep us in doubt? If you be
the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. He told
this woman. She said this in verse 25, The
woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh, that
is the Christ the anointed, which is called Christ, and when he
is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her,
I that speak unto thee am he. He revealed himself, confessed
himself to be the Christ to this woman. What a blessing it is
when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to any sinner to be the
Christ, the Son of God. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of God. And thou hast the words of eternal
life. I trust the Lord would bless
the word to all of us here tonight. And if you are here and you have
never confessed Christ as your Lord and Savior, if God has revealed
himself unto you, and you know him, and you have a love and
a desire to serve him, you need to confess that. And you need
to follow him in baptism. That's our confession of faith. And submit yourself to Christ
in baptism. and honor him. We don't sing
a sad hymn at the end of these services and beg people to come
down to the front. Music can really work on people's
emotions. I know that. It works on mine. Salvation is a work in the heart. It's not you being moved by your
emotions. It's by God revealing himself
to you. as the Christ, the Son of God,
and you want to confess Him as your Lord and Savior. I trust
that you would speak to me and do that. I really do. Let's sing
a hymn, David,