John

[0:00] I invite you to turn again this evening to our word we considered this morning, which is found in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel and the fourth verse.

[0:22] Fourth chapter of John, verse four. And he must needs go through Samaria.

[0:39] As I pointed out this morning, these are very plain, simple words almost. One could safely pass them by and go on to other things that are so seemingly great and greater than these words that introduce one of the greatest subjects of the greatest works of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:10] And these seven verses, taking in the conjunctive, are most striking and wonderful verses.

[1:22] Now, if you wanted a complete and absolute commentary on the previous chapter, the third chapter of John's, and if you're inquiring about those questions that Jesus made to Nicodemus, you have all answers set out in this fourth chapter.

[1:55] That's how the scripture runs so often. What is laid down as a very deep, all-important question will find an answer, very shortly at least, in the word of God to those questions.

[2:20] And that's a help, help to you and help to me. We can have no better guide for us than the word of God.

[2:34] And the Lord Jesus gives us this. As we look at both those chapters, where Nicodemus was asked some solemn questions that he could not answer, but he has the answer, or at least the answer is given in the following chapter.

[2:59] Now, tonight, I have these things on my mind to further open to you.

[3:09] One is this, the supreme sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he must needs go through Samaria.

[3:24] Then we have the divine purpose that is to be seen and traced out in these dealings this blessed Lord had with this poor woman of Samaria.

[3:40] And thirdly, the mighty power that those dealings effected in her heart and in the hearts of many others beside.

[3:51] And then as we turn from the Lord Jesus to this person whom he blessed so very wonderfully, we see these things in her case.

[4:12] We see that she was not in total opposition to the Lord. There is much in her, we might be surprised to realize this, much in her that gives us evidence without declaring it, that she was a person deeply concerned with the real nature of true religion.

[4:41] She, you see, she had been brought up from her earliest childhood in a place that was renowned for everything in opposition to God, his truth, and to Godliness.

[5:02] It was a heathen city. It was recognized as such. And she was steeped in it, not only by the very fact that she dwelt there, but by the fact also that she committed a great deal of evil there.

[5:21] It was her trade, her occupation. And yet, there seems to be deep down a desire to learn.

[5:37] And then we have the mighty change in her that we can see in the scripture here. Mighty, wonderful.

[5:49] From darkness to light. From the power of that evil condition to the liberty of Christ and the gospel.

[6:03] And then thirdly, we see what a missionary Christ made of this woman. He didn't make her a missionary by sending her to college.

[6:20] In fact, there's no evidence or word that we may read in this chapter that indicates he gave her any command whatever except, go, fetch thy husband.

[6:41] And yet she went. She went with greater success and purpose that we read of in the whole of the word of God.

[6:57] The disciples could not come in any degree, as far as we know, to match the service of this woman.

[7:13] And that's what a missionary. Now, let us look at those few things then tonight briefly. First of all, the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:26] He must knees. Speaking of this this morning, Here he was traveling from Judea to Galilee.

[7:42] And he must knees go through Samaria. And as I pointed out, it was three, a third, one of three possible routes.

[7:53] And the worst of them all. The longest of them all. And evidently the Lord Jesus was feeling even naturally the heavy burden of fatigue, of energy spent.

[8:16] And here you find him sitting at the mouth of the well to rest. Christ will spare no pains.

[8:29] He will take all that is needed in the way of effort and trouble to reach his people whom he knew, foreknew.

[8:41] You see, the reason why his needs go through Samaria, there was one poor soul in need of his mercy there at Samaria.

[8:56] And he knew the moment when she would be drawing water. This is a wonderful revelation of the sovereignty of God, of the Lord Jesus.

[9:07] He knew when she would come that day. Here is a day of 12 hours in daylight, possibly more. But here in that 12 hours, there was just a brief space of time when she would have to go and he would be there.

[9:29] Oh, my dear friends, there are no mistakes possible with the Lord Jesus. No miscarriage.

[9:41] No miscalculation. Everything working perfectly according to his own purpose and will. And he must needs go through Samaria.

[9:59] And that was the reason for it, the purpose. And here we have another great part of this glorious person, this wondrous ministry, that he had to go because of one single soul who had come out of Samaria and was now alone with him at the well of Sychar.

[10:26] And also it was a purpose of the Lord that the disciples should be absent at this time of interview. He knew full well how they would act or react.

[10:38] Like he did with the Syrophoenician, like he did with, they did with others, like they did when little ones desired to come to him and they stood as a guard around him to prevent them.

[10:56] He says, suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Now, the purpose then, the salvation of one sinner.

[11:16] He that made heaven and earth, the greatness and glory of his name is incomprehensible. had a purpose to meet with one of the human race who was a sinner.

[11:40] Then, the power, wonderful power, demonstrated, not by any great movement, not by any flourish of outward power, by the simplicity of the words that Christ spoke to the woman and by the effects that it had upon her.

[12:06] there was a mighty demonstration of the power of Christ. When you come to consider those three things, what a wonder they are.

[12:25] How very blessed it will be if you and I are made to know them and to partake of their blessings. We shall not belittle the Lord Jesus Christ.

[12:39] We shall not attempt for one moment to make him as we are, of the same standing and so on, as if he was just man and not God.

[12:53] we shall revere and we shall worship the Savior. And then the power of his dear name and his word we want.

[13:12] That's what we lack sometimes. And a great many other people lack it with us. greatly. So much so that religion becomes an empty shadow without a spark of reality whatsoever about it.

[13:33] But where there is divine power, there is full attention, full concern of heart, and a real movement in the soul that will issue forth in acts and deeds and works and ways that are glorifying to Christ.

[14:06] So then, we come to the power then of this dear son of God. I said just now that he sent away the disciples in order to be alone with her.

[14:22] That's rather a solemn fact, isn't it? He had to dismiss them for the time being. And yet, he was to teach them a great deal when they returned that they needed to learn.

[14:54] But the power is seen not so much as I said just now in the great demonstration or flourishes that we might judge as being power.

[15:06] It was demonstrated in the simplicity of the word. In such like things as these, go, call thine husband.

[15:17] and in those few words it brought to that woman's heart the whole range of view of her nature, her ways, her deeds, her sins.

[15:34] Sir, she said, I perceive thou art a prophet. all this power, nothing can equal it.

[15:51] People tried to imitate it and also substitute it by such things as sudden descent of the spirit, such like things as we hear of day by day that are ruining the churches and diverting men's minds from the living Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit indeed and in truth to something that they can manage, control, and bring about when they and where they will.

[16:39] My friends, that is not the power of Christ. It's seen in the effects it had upon this woman and upon her ultimate ways.

[17:02] she largely disappeared from the central view or the central stage if I may so call it and in the place there was what she had been able to do in the name of Christ.

[17:29] Now then let us look at this woman and then for a moment or two tonight and how she responded to that simple question.

[17:42] You see the Lord didn't say to her woman I condemn thee. In John we've just been reading how Christ said I came not into this world to condemn the world but that the world should be saved.

[18:01] and he said not the very first opportunity he said not to this woman thou art condemned. She was indeed under condemnation she was about to feel that in all its weight tremendous significance things.

[18:23] But he was the one who spoke the language. And so in a very marvelous all wise and wondrous way he doesn't say to her woman you've been a sinner you've had men in your lives that have been illegitimate.

[18:55] He says go call thy husband. Brought it to an absolute complete state and word for this woman.

[19:12] And she fell under it. She didn't attempt for one moment to hide the fact. This is one great feature of real religion.

[19:25] This is one great mark of being really taught and called by God's grace. A person so being called does not attempt to excuse their sin or to hide it.

[19:44] They do not say, well I haven't had the knowledge, the upbringing or the teaching. I haven't known the scriptures, not being very intelligent and such like things.

[19:59] They're all produced in order to be an excuse. But no, she says, I have no husband. love. Then Christ revealed his knowledge of her very being, all the innermost parts of her life and her ways from beginning to end.

[20:30] And she said, I perceive thou art a prophet. Now this is the wonderful thing about it, that the Lord at that stage and the woman began the part of this interview at this point where she speaks to him about worship.

[21:01] She's questioning the worship you see. She's fully acknowledged her sin, but she's now questioning the rightness or wrongness of her worship.

[21:16] She said, our fathers who gave us this well, art thou greater than he? And she went on to speak about the way in which she took a view of religion.

[21:42] She said to him, thou art greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself.

[21:56] That made it a mighty place of renown and attraction. It was a kind of mecca for these Samaritans to go to a place where Jacob once was there, built it, drank from the waters of it.

[22:16] It forever in time becomes to such a place of great significance. She said, the Jews say that it's in Jerusalem that men ought to worship God.

[22:40] But our fathers have taught us that in this mountain here in Samaria is the place for worship. see the contention between the two things.

[22:52] It's being brought to light now in this woman's case. And the Lord's reply is great and wonderful and special.

[23:10] You worship whom ye know not. We know whom we worship for salvation is of the Jews.

[23:21] Amen. Then he went on to describe what real worship was. And you know to this woman of Samaria this sinner out of Samaria's city he gave her more wonderful insight to real worship than anyone else received as far as we can judge from the scriptures.

[23:50] God is a spirit. they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[24:05] No indifference, no nothing about real reality must always attend the worship of God.

[24:20] they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth, nothing less. Oh, not this casual kind of worship, oh, just let us go in, and then we needn't even go into the place.

[24:38] We shall be aiming and pretending that we're going for worship. that is not the worship of God.

[24:53] So Jesus Christ, he shows and opens up to her the great nature, the wonderful nature of worship, who God is to be worshipped and who those who are real worshippers, how they worship him in spirit and in truth.

[25:16] It doesn't mean always that we have to present our bodies. So long as we've done that much, we've done all that is required of us. No, in spirit.

[25:30] And you may be in a desperate place. You may be in the midst of great travail. You may be surrounded by all kinds of danger.

[25:46] And yet there's a spirit of worship in the heart. Well, at this point, you see that the woman, she speaks to him about the drawing of the water which he had no instrument to draw with and the well was deep.

[26:15] Quite reasonable to make a statement like that because it was true. And he began that wonderful sermon on the water of life.

[26:30] he that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

[26:46] water and so he comes to this point when she says she has to leave her pot, that pot that had been used many, many times in her life, no doubt, to draw this vital necessity water.

[27:09] She had to leave it. quite reasonable and quite sufficient for her now to leave it for the time being at least because it was the least important thing now in her life.

[27:29] There again is another point of importance. When Jesus comes into the heart of a sinner they have to leave those common things that they have put so much trust in and made so much to be the center of their lives.

[27:54] They have to lay it all down, put it on one side and where did you go? Into the city. The Lord knew where she was going.

[28:06] He knew also why she was going without her saying one word about it. He knew because he knew everything. He knew about Samaria, he knew about this woman in Samaria, he knew the time when she would appear at this well and he knew this, she was not going for idle purpose or to practice again the vile things in her life.

[28:42] She was going to be a messenger and a missionary for Christ. She went to the men, the very men that recognized her and knew her well, knew her from all kinds of ways and she said to them and this was a mighty thing to do really when you come to weigh it up and think about it we are shy creatures we have a great deal of reticence about us if it is a matter of revealing our own selves but all that sort of reticence was taken away from this woman in a moment and she says come it was the first word Christ spake in his ministry it was the first word that this woman spake in hers come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not this the

[29:44] Christ he hadn't as far as the scripture records it he hadn't mentioned anything about her lives except the fact that she had five husbands and her worship was doubtful and questionable and false apart from that he had made no reference to her inward ways and lives and condition but she said he told me all things and that covers a great wide surface it embraces the least as well as the greatest sin he told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ then you see what an event this became what a mighty opportunity it was undertaken by a poor weak woman and yet it had more effect than many many others that have been out determined to spread the gospel of

[31:12] Christ come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ and they went out few in number at first as far as we can judge but they heard from the lips of the dear saviour the gospel of his wonderful grace and we believe that this is the

[32:41] Christ saviour of the world amen Christ of m of how the gospel from itself.

[33:12] Christ and free grace therein abound. Free grace to such as sinners be. And if free grace, why not for me?

[33:24] 984 and 634. Amen.

[34:10] And if free grace why not for me? No secret I am by me God is I God Thank you.

[35:05] God bless you.

[35:35] Amen. Amen.

[36:35] Amen. Amen. We ask Thee, O Lord Jesus, to deal with us as Thou didst deal with this poor woman.

[37:03] by the same precious grace with the same blessed effect for Christ's sake.

[37:15] And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and evermore.

[37:28] Amen. Amen.