[0:00] We can turn now and with God's help. Consider words in the chapter that we have read. The Gospel according to John, chapter 4, reading from the beginning.
[0:16] And therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. For Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples.
[0:28] He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. So on. We can think of the meeting between our Lord Jesus Christ and this woman of Samaria.
[0:59] And a few thoughts arising as God would help us from this narrative. And I remember many years ago at a question meeting at a communion on the island.
[1:17] Here in a man who was home on holiday from Canada. And he told us something of his experiences over there and in the States.
[1:36] And in his young days he was a boxer. And he excelled at his profession.
[1:49] And eventually he was preparing for a world title fight. He was either in the preliminary stages or he was actually preparing.
[2:04] God crossed my path. And this is what he said. God crossed my path.
[2:17] God crossed my path. He was going on in life as if there was no other life but the life that he knew.
[2:30] God crossed my path. And God met him. Now that is true also of this woman of Samaria.
[2:41] God met her on her life's journey. God saved her life's journey. God saved her life's journey. God saved her soul. And may this be the experience of all of us who are travelling through time.
[2:59] And who must shortly pass out of time into eternity. And we read first of all of a providential necessity.
[3:19] Christ must needs. Go through Samaria. And this tells us first of all something of God.
[3:32] Of the being of God. He is incomprehensible to us.
[3:43] Because he is uncreated. And this is what is said concerning the revelation that he has given of himself.
[3:56] He is I am. Not I was. Not I will be.
[4:09] That would imply change. But he is I am. An eternal presence. Above time.
[4:21] Above sense. Self existing. In the glory of his being. Therefore this is the God who foreordains.
[4:39] Ordains. All things that come to pass. He knows the end from the beginning.
[4:50] The beginning from the end. He knows all things. And we should make use of scripture.
[5:02] When we think of the being of God. Especially what he has to teach us. Concerning his knowledge of us. You remember when Saul of Tarsus was converted.
[5:17] When he met Christ on the road to Damascus. And what happened on that road. And how God sent Ananias.
[5:30] To be the means of saving. Of converting the apostle. The means. It is God who converts.
[5:43] And you remember what he said to Ananias. He will go. He said to this town. To this street. To this house.
[5:55] To this person. To this house. Think of the world. The fullness of it all. And think of a being. Who knows.
[6:07] All about us. That is nothing hidden from him. The one who sent Ananias. He is the one who is omniscient.
[6:19] Who knows all. And therefore. He knows what he is about. There is a must need. He had to go through.
[6:31] Some area. To meet. With this woman. There is no chance. With God. There is no luck. Nothing occurs.
[6:43] By chance. Because he is. I am. Unchangeable. In his being. And.
[6:54] As he. Journeys. On. Through. Some area. He comes to a well. And.
[7:06] He is weary. And he rests. On the well. He sits on the wall. Of the well. Now here again.
[7:19] We see. The mystery. That surrounds. The person. Of God. What do we mean.
[7:29] When we say. God. Was in Christ. Reconciling. The world. Unto himself. Who is this.
[7:41] Who is weary. Who is weary. In the way. Weary. In the way. And in order to understand.
[7:53] Something of. His passion. We must understand. That he has. A nature. That is.
[8:05] Exactly. Similar. To ours. Without sin. That is the great. Lesson. That the bible.
[8:16] Teaches us. Great. Is the mystery. Of godliness. God. Revealed. In the flesh. He took our nature.
[8:27] And just to remind ourselves. What. Is a nature. The sum total. Of the qualities. Of that nature.
[8:38] It is the sum total. It is all. That that. Nature involves. Jesus. Took.
[8:50] To himself. Assumed. Our nature. With. All. The sinless. Infirmities.
[9:01] That belong. To the nature. That he assumed. Remember. Our sinful. Infirmities. Jesus. Had.
[9:12] Sinless. Infirmities. And he assumed. Those sinless. Infirmities. He took them.
[9:24] To himself. Now long ago. The reformers. They drew up. A formula. In order that we might.
[9:36] Understand. A little. A little. Concerning. This person. And this is the formula. What you attribute.
[9:47] To an nature. You must. Attribute. To the person. What you attribute. To an nature.
[9:59] You must. Attribute. To the person. God. God. God. The second person. Of the Trinity. Assumed.
[10:09] Our nature. And therefore. It is true. And right. To say. That the one. Who is weary. On the well.
[10:23] Is none other. But almighty God. Inhumanity. Inhumanity. Almighty God.
[10:35] Whose spirit. Is weary. And if we follow this reasoning through. You will see. What is involved.
[10:47] In assuming our nature. The sufferings. Of Christ. Are the sufferings. Of God.
[11:01] That is the wonder. Of the revelation. Of scripture. Concerning his person. But the being. Who cannot. Sin.
[11:13] He cannot sin. The being. Who cannot suffer. The being. Who cannot die. The being.
[11:24] Who is God. Suffered. Wept. Was hungry. Thirsty. And died.
[11:36] In our nature. Here. On earth. Now we logically. Follow through the formula. What we attribute.
[11:46] To a nature. We must attribute. To the person. We see something. Of what. God.
[11:58] Did. For us. By coming. To seek. And to save. That which was lost. And no wonder.
[12:08] Therefore. No wonder. That scripture says. Concerning him. The love of Christ. Passes.
[12:19] Knowledge. You know that. You can see the effect. Of human love. To this extent. That a person.
[12:29] Can die. For the object. Of his love. But. The love of Christ. Passes this. It is the love.
[12:40] Of a divine. Person. And the love. Of a divine. Person. Going as far. As this. Greater love.
[12:52] Hath no man. Than this. That a man. Should lay down. His life. For. His friends. And we are faced.
[13:02] With this. We cannot understand. We cannot even. Begin to understand. How precious. A human.
[13:15] Being. Is. Elected. From all eternity. And saved. What can we say.
[13:26] Concerning that human being. That God. laid. Down. His life. In order.
[13:37] To save. That one. Individual. Now that is something. That we must believe. Because scripture has revealed it.
[13:48] And it should handle us. To think. Of what God. Has done. For us. And. It is.
[13:59] A call. To those. Who have not. Trusted in him. To come. To him. In order. That they.
[14:09] Might be saved. From their sin. Jesus Christ. Took upon him. A nature. Jesus Christ. Lived.
[14:20] On this earth. For a period. Of time. And on this earth. He suffered. And he died. In a Roman stead.
[14:31] This is most important. Again. We think of this formula. Concerning his person. Remember. He is weary.
[14:42] In the way. He is not weary. Of the way. There is a difference. So. No. Who is義.
[14:55] To come. To come.開始. is love for the lost. And therefore he is to attain the object, the reason for his coming.
[15:09] That will be fulfilled. And it is interesting that one of the great divines, one of the ablest of the Puritans, Dr John Owen, he tells us that there is joy in the heart of Christ.
[15:35] And this is why he endured the sufferings. And in our joy there are two elements that make up his joy.
[15:49] First of all, the glory of God. And secondly, the salvation of his church.
[16:01] When you bring those two elements together, you will see that that is not only true of our Lord, but it is also true of every individual believer.
[16:13] But the joy consists of this under the teaching of God, to glorify him and to save their soul.
[16:28] Now, this is inconceivable, that the one who endured for this joy should not be willing to take all that is in the way in order to endure to the end.
[16:53] And this is what has happened here. Jesus willingly, Jesus willingly, willingly, suffered all that he suffered for the gold, the glory of God and the salvation of the church.
[17:14] He is therefore weary not of the way, but in the way. And this is true not only of our Lord, it is true of every believer.
[17:27] They also are weary, very often, in the way. But that is not to be confused with being weary of the way.
[17:38] In fact, it is impossible for the believer, impossible, to be weary of the way that God has provided for him in Christ Jesus in order to save his soul.
[18:01] Whatever happens in the experience of the believer, he will never deny his faith. And all that is involved in that faith as the way of salvation in Christ Jesus.
[18:21] To deny this is to deny all. That will never be denied by the believer on life's journey. He is weary in the way and he meets with her.
[18:39] She comes to him, to the well. And we think of it as one who has been born and brought up on this earth.
[18:51] She lives as if there is nothing but what her senses tells her in this life.
[19:07] The things that are seen, though that is reality, that is no reality, but what is seen, felt, heard, and so on.
[19:21] Now that is a picture of you and I. How we live on this earth as if there is nothing but the things of this world.
[19:33] what our senses describe, teach, tell us. We can go as far as this. The fool says there is no God.
[19:46] We cannot see him. We cannot know him without understanding. Who, by understanding, by reason, can discover him?
[19:58] He is invisible. And one of the reasons why we cannot discover him by our intellect is this. But it would give the glory to man, not God.
[20:13] Man could say, I have discovered that there is God. I have discovered the I am, the reason for all. And because of his sin, he would exalt himself and his reason.
[20:29] But God teaches us that we cannot discover him except he reveals himself.
[20:41] And he will do this in his own time to his people. He must reveal himself in order that we might come to know him.
[20:54] So she comes and she meets with one whom she knows by his dress is a Jew. She belongs to another race, Samaritans.
[21:08] The Samaritans were a mixed race, Jew and Gentile. And the Jews despised the Samaritans because they were of a mixed race.
[21:24] And we see that as she saw him, she is biased. She reacts to him. And is this not true again to this day in our own lives?
[21:43] Our first reaction to Christ, to God is biased. We are biased. We are against. And we will feed our bias by excuses.
[21:58] How often have we heard this regarding God's people? How the world will criticize them.
[22:09] The world will point to their faults as a reason for their unbelief. And when you begin to question why, you will find that at heart we are biased against our God.
[22:27] And it is also mindless. It is unreasonable. Why should one despise God?
[22:39] He took us as one I said from the abyss of non-existence. We did not exist. God made us formed us.
[22:50] Giving us a true body, a reasonable soul. Providing laws by which we are to live. Laws that give them physical, mental well-being.
[23:04] And so on. All that we have, those food, those drink, our comfort comes from him.
[23:15] and what happens. We will not have this man to rule over us. We are biased.
[23:26] We are against him. It is mindless. It is unreasonable. It points to our sin. Art. Well, in a tube, do you ask me for a drink?
[23:43] And we know, we can infer that here there is a refusal. First of all, give me to drink. There is a refusal because of enmity, hatred.
[23:59] And it is interesting to see that the Lord asks her to give him something.
[24:11] Not, first of all, that he is to give her something. You would think that that would be inaccurate. But here, we find him asking her for something.
[24:25] And scripture teaches us that the salvation of an individual glorifies God.
[24:38] You know that we give him something when we trust him. We give him the glory that is due to his name.
[24:51] This is to him a drink on life's journey that she should believe in him and on him and be saved.
[25:08] Now, you think that if you put your trust in Christ, it will not only save your soul, but you will honor him.
[25:21] It will be a drink to his love for you as a lost sinner who came to seek and to save that which was lost.
[25:33] she refused. But he persisted. He did not leave her. He did not turn away from her.
[25:46] And again, we see that his love overcomes all sin. When you think of even an animal in your home that persistently troubled you, you would cast it out of your home.
[26:10] Think of someone who was your enemy and who persistently showed enmity toward you.
[26:22] How would you deal with that person? Well, thankfully, his thoughts are not old thoughts, nor his ways are ways.
[26:37] He has come to save and he will save to the others. But it's nothing that she might say and do or do will stop him, will cause him to reject him.
[26:58] And now he goes on to teach her concerning what he means by this water, by this drink. And he leads her to see what scripture teaches that this illustrates, this water illustrates the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit in his work.
[27:25] You remember that the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. And he is compared in his work to water.
[27:39] He is a spring of water springing up into everlasting life. that means that he is within the heart of the believer.
[27:53] And he shows her that this must occur in her experience. That this, that the person of the Holy Spirit must come into her heart and life in order to conform her to the image of the one who is speaking to us.
[28:22] If you read the epistle Romans chapter eight, we are taught there what salvation is, what it involves.
[28:32] salvation is to be Christ-like. Salvation is to be holy. Salvation is to bear the image of Christ.
[28:48] we can only bear the image of Christ by a new creation, by the work of the Holy Spirit. And he here teaches that the Holy Spirit will come upon her through his word and will enable her to put her trust in him.
[29:14] I don't think that that is really too much into what is taught. It is correct to say from the revelation given in scripture that we believe in Christ because we have been reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[29:42] We have not been reborn because we believe but we are reborn by the work of the Holy Spirit within enabling us to believe and enabling us to put out trust in him.
[30:05] Christ in him.
[30:24] Now it is through the word that God works in us through the word. Christ is speaking. He is teaching.
[30:37] This goes on continually in the church through the teaching ministry of the church. Christ is still speaking and the Holy Spirit is still working through the word.
[30:54] This in no way denies your responsibility and mine before God.
[31:04] Just in case someone thinks that by the power of the Holy Spirit we mean that man's responsibility is dispensed with.
[31:16] Man's responsibility is necessary for our salvation. Remember what a Lord taught the Jews. You remember how they came to him and he said he will not believe.
[31:40] Now there were many arguments that Jesus could raise but he placed his finger on the will on their willingness are on their own willingness.
[31:53] So remember that we are without excuse regarding the gospel. Faith cometh through hearing hearing by the word of God.
[32:06] But we are trying to explain that the act of faith is the reason behind our faith.
[32:19] It is because God is at work and God is at work in and through us. The glory is his and his alone.
[32:32] The responsibility is ours and ours alone. If we do not believe we shall be lost.
[32:43] You remember again those who came to him and said what works shall we do plural in order to please God.
[32:55] This is the word singular that you shall do. You shall believe on him whom he hath sent.
[33:09] Faith is the soul saving act. Without faith it is impossible. You see what scripture says it is impossible to please him.
[33:21] Faith is the response to the claims of the gospel in our need. We come to him as lost sinners and we put our trust in him in order that we might be saved.
[33:39] He teaches her the work of the Holy Spirit. But he goes on to teach something else. what the Holy Spirit does.
[33:51] He must convince of sin of righteousness and of judgment to come. You know the sort of reason that we have we must have a reason before we do anything.
[34:11] God will give us a reason to believe in Christ. and it is the most important reason of all he will convince us of our need of Christ.
[34:26] So he said to her go call thy husband. And then he goes on to show that he knew all about her her past life.
[34:39] the man the man who told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ.
[34:50] And you know there is a principle involved there. If he will show you one thing if he proves that you are guilty of one sin he will prove that you are guilty of all sin.
[35:07] That is the principle that we have here. He reveals to her that he knows she is standing before a sin haiding God.
[35:22] A God who will deal with her sin righteously. Who will righteously deal with her sin. Who will not hide her sin.
[35:35] Who will not cover her sin. and he will lead her to conviction and to repentance.
[35:47] But there is something else who tells her if you know if he knew the gift of God he would ask. And here is a call to every one of us and there is no excuse regarding a relationship to God pray caught upon in the day of trouble in the day of need.
[36:17] It is true that we have no prayer apart from the prayer that God gives us. it is interesting that Simon Magus if you remember Simon in the Acts of the Apostles the one who showed his ignorance by thinking that he could buy the Holy Spirit he is commanded by the Apostles to pray to call upon God and here there is a warrant again brought before us in Scripture all men should pray and call upon God in order that they might be saved.
[37:09] Remember Satan will say you cannot pray you have no prayer he commands and therefore he gives ability along with the command there is this principle again brought before us in Scripture when God asks us to do anything he will provide the means by which we will lead.
[37:38] God is asking you to do something for him he will qualify you for what you have to do that is true of all professions on this earth.
[37:59] You remember that God makes a carpenter a doctor a lawyer we shouldn't forget this we are liable to forget it that every good and perfect gift comes from him.
[38:17] You see he is supporting and keeping all things and we should glorify him with the gifts of mind of body that he has given that he has given us on this earth for his own glory.
[38:37] What have we that has anyone that he has not received why have we received it is to glorify God therefore pray God upon him while he is near and put your trust in him in order that you might be saved.
[39:00] He convinces her then of her sin of her need of him and what she does all of us do and have done.
[39:14] We turn to our own religion. We turn to the externals. We turn to self-righteousness. Many have said in their hearts when they have felt conviction when I will turn over a new leaf I will begin living today a new life to please God where he will close every door and he will open his door alone.
[39:49] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and all the anguish the sorrow the trouble that must be in our lives when all doors close on us but this one and isn't it strange it is the last door that will open before us.
[40:16] We are so sinful so ignorant that we will do anything and everything in order to escape faith in Christ in order that we might be saved.
[40:34] She turns to an active of religion he teaches her they who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.
[40:50] There is no door that we can turn to that we can open to escape. The externals will not help us.
[41:02] There are many false religions in the world. There is only one true religion. You know we can lump all religions together.
[41:15] We can see basically there are two religions on this earth. One religious system pleasing God by works.
[41:31] The other pleasing God by faith alone. The truth is this. Praising God pleasing God by faith alone.
[41:50] Faith without trust in works in order to salvation. And we see again that scriptural worship is according to truth.
[42:11] It is not what I think is pleasing to God. It is not what you think is pleasing to God. It is what he has revealed that is what pleases him.
[42:28] And eventually we must come to this. Worship him in spirit and in truth. We might look upon our form of worship as being drab without color, without any glory, outward pomp, or show, or ritual.
[43:00] Long ago, one of the Puritans left this written. What he said, if a coming generation devoid of the presence of God in their worship will fill the vacuum with ritual and music.
[43:26] And is this not true? God's presence has gone. What is in its place? The senses.
[43:38] senses. And we think that through the senses that please us, they will please God. We cannot please him without doing his will.
[43:55] This is his will, the teaching of the word, the listening to the word, the doing of the word, the singing of his praises, the life that will please him.
[44:13] That is to worship God. They who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth in the way that he has revealed.
[44:24] And that is the only way that we can please God. And flowing from that she comes to realize that she is facing the Messiah that has come in the flesh.
[44:41] God revealed in the flesh who worked well. And others said thou what the Christ the son of the living God.
[44:54] Well if you have said that in your heart you have met the Messiah you have put your trust in him. and those who have not those who have not met the Messiah they are in danger of losing their immortal souls.
[45:14] We mean by losing their immortal souls to be separated forever from God. Look at Calvary look at the person of our Lord look at his sufferings the world condition on this earth is not serious.
[45:36] If we are not in danger then all this is falling. It is not falling. God has been revealed in order to save us from Gehenna heaven.
[45:56] You could your trust and call upon that you might have the experience of this woman of Samaria who found Christ and who is with him now in glory.
[46:10] Let us pray.