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And the Appendix #18.
Though I shall be like thy sound.
And is it?
All.
Right we are here.
At all.
I glory blinded, Lord.
Ah, so appreciate you.
Lord.
Matthew.
Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter 26 of Matthew.
And verse 6 Matthew 26 Six Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the House of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at me.
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But when his disciples saw, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me you have not always.
For in that she hath poured disloyment on my body she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman has done, be told for a memorial of her.
John's Gospel.
Chapter 12.
Verse 3.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of Spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Let's pray our blessed God.
And I be forgiven if I make a few comments.
I was thinking about Mr. Darby when he just before he passed away.
He made the request, he said he wished that the Brethren, the Brethren, he said.
Would not give up John's ministry that they would. He commanded the ministry of young to the Saints, he says, So needful in these last days.
Well, I think I'm a dear Mr. Ballot who we love. We're going to see you one day. Mr. Darby went to visit him.
And.
He found that he was on his deathbed, He said, Oh, he was so saw him as he's so sadly different.
Dorothy Nolan.
Anyhow.
But his heart was filled, Seems that in his last utterances.
He dwelled so much on that scene, that psycho as well.
And.
Someone has put in verse.
Only those last utterances of dear Mr. Ballot.
And I think of some of the lines. Well, he says it is the man Christ Jesus with with whom.
I'm going to dwell.
The very man of Saikar.
Who sat upon the whale?
Whose matchless love filled that poor soul and gave her eyes to see that he was God's anointed? And the man that the man that died for me, all the man that died for me seemed to be the theme of our dear brother. Last moment and at the end.
To see the one the world cast doubt to be with him up there.
Before the Kingdom glories.
And the many Crowns appear.
Old and the man of Saikar.
It is him I'm going to see.
The man who sits in glory, the man who died for me. Well, I was just wondering if you forgive me if I was to just suggest for maybe for an hour or so, maybe we can dwell a little on the 4th of John.
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Is that before disciples? And John? Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left Jadia and departed again to Galilee. And he must need to go through Samaria, and cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Psychor, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being worried with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the 6th hour.
Samaria to draw water. Jesus sat under her Give me to drink, for his disciples were going away and to the city to buy meat.
Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask his drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans? Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is, that's after thee, give me the drink, I would have asked of him, and he would have given the living water? The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou has nothing to draw with.
And the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the whale, and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water, that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither Come, hit her to draw, Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hit her. The woman answered, and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.
And that says thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet, our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And ye say that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father, He worship ye know not what we know what we worship. For salvation is of the Jews, But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, am he? And upon this came his disciples, and marveled, that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what seeketh thou, or why talketh thou with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men.
Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat, that you know not of. Therefore saith the disciples, 1 To another hath any man brought him, ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye there are yet four months, And then cometh to harvest. Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields for
they are quite already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true. 1 Soweth, and another reapeth I sent you to reap, that were on ye bestowed no labor other men labored, and ye are entered into their laborers. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified.
He told me all that ever I did So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he bowed there two days, and many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman. Now we believe not because of the saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
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John presents the Lord Jesus as the Son of God from all eternity.
His deity brought out in a most wonderful way in the first chapter.
But he was. But he was one who became man. He became a man. We find him, and John presents him as one who.
It's hungry, thirsty and weary.
He'd sit on a well and ask a drink of a poor outcast airing daughter of.
Samaria.
What a savior. What a friend.
Because he said, pardon me, you have something to say?
Because he's presented in John as the Son of God deity. You have no genealogy in John's gospel. How can God have a genealogy? He always existed. He's the I am no beginning and no ending. So it's beautiful to see that there's one other gospel that has no genealogy. I believe that would be Marx. He's the perfect servant.
The servant boasts not in his ancestors or genealogy. So as a perfect servant and as the Son of God deity, there's no genealogy for Jesus. But of course you have one in Matthew and you have one in Luke.
We won't get into that, but there's none here.
He always was at no beginning.
Ma'am, why do you think the woman was found sitting on Jacob's well?
Jacob's well.
Well, I suppose these, those Samaritans, they've taken over pretty much what the what really belonged to Israel and what really belonged to Israel. In fact, they even had their own temple. They even built a temple, and that's what made him so odious to the Jews. The Jews had no use for them because they appropriated what belonged, what really belonged just to God's earthly people. Did you claim you've got something better than?
Born with that.
Jesus in his tribals went from Judea to Galilee, and he did not bypass Samaria because of the mixed race that was there. He came to present himself to the Jews, but there were others in the land, and it was a time of confusion if you go back to the way it started. And 2nd King 17 after the captivity.
There was trouble in the land where Israel had come from and.
I don't remember it well, but the the king that led them captive sought to stop that, and so he imported some profits back into Samaria amongst that people who were largely of another race and back there it made a mixture.
And it says there I'll just read a verse without turning.
You turning to it?
The 33rd verse of.
Second King, 17 says they feared the Lord.
And serve their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from this Now I think that would direct us back to Don's.
Address of the state.
That the Church has a responsible vessel of testimony has got into, and he pointed out some of the most severe errors and sins in that which is professing Christianity the day in which you and I live.
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So we have to go back to God and get the truth from Jesus.
The one who is the Son of God.
Who always would direct us rightly, and that through the word of God. So it's and I think the heart of God, the heart of the Lord Jesus in this chapter is to direct us today to the true place of worship.
That's right. Please hold. That's the grand theme of this chapter is worship.
Worship.
The book ends up twice in Revelation with a little statement. You worship yours, worship God.
You're not. He was at Jacob's well because Jacob was named Israel by Jehovah and that's his chosen people. And and the well speaks of the word of God itself, the source of it. Water is typically the word of God in scripture. But I was just thinking of that Jacob's will. Israel had the word of God, and that's where the water of life comes from.
And they started with Israel. They had it.
She didn't have it, but she was sitting up above it, looking down at it, wanting to draw it out. So he turns her two living water. You find living water again in the end of Revelation.
And you find the tree of life in the end of Revelation, so all the failure of man.
And the frustration that it's caused.
Confusion which is going to end up in another Babylon in the professing house. I'd like for Don to say something on this.
Is that Don?
Well, I guess I just want to make a comment about he must needs to go through some area when God.
Lays hold of something as his own, he never gives it up.
And the Lord Jesus could say, those whom thou hast given me, have I lost none?
And in one sense to say he must needs go through Samaria, Well, the only way he could avoid it was to go outside the land, because you had to go through Samaria to get from Judea to Galilee physically. But in a spiritual sense, he had to go to Samaria because this woman was there and Jacob's well belonged to the people of God. And he wasn't going to give it up in another way either. And so the Lord what's his own?
Ultimately he never give it up and to me it's a wonderful thing that the grace of God.
At work here says I have a soul in that place.
And I have to go there for her sake. And in this, I don't want to interrupt you, but is that kind of the answer to what He said? I have meat to eat that you know, not I'll. It was food for the Lord to go out to those poor people.
Absolutely. The whole conversation between the Lord and this woman is at first a total miscommunication, as it were, on her part, because she thinks he's talking about physical water and and people and so on.
But the Lord Jesus is constantly bringing before her something more wonderful, which is a spiritual water, the living water. And for us too, the same often may happen in our lives. The Lord speaks to us, and at first we don't understand them. We don't realize what point in our lives He's getting to. But the wonderful thing is that if it's the Lord doing it, he will get to the point in a way that is comprehensible and understandable to our own souls. And so we follow this woman and we follow the Lord in this dialogue and.
There's at first no understanding between them, but in the end she she knows him for who he is.
The Lord had come down to the feast of Passover.
And but he. And while he was down in Jerusalem, he.
Did many great, many miracles, and there was real blessing, and the crowds flocked to him. Well, this drew force the jealousy and hatred of the of the of the the.
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In Jerusalem, those those Jewish.
Well.
What was the name?
Pharisee. Yes, the Pharisee. Excuse me. Yes, the Pharisees. And so, well, the Lord wouldn't stay. So he he goes, He's on his way back to.
On his back to Galilee, and he must needs go through some areas, as what said, in order to get to where he wanted to go. But it was, I believe that we have two contrasts here. We have Jacob's well, which is deep.
The well which is deep and the wells of this world are deep, but the.
The Lord Jesus, he gives the living water. It's a fountain. It's a fountain. And we don't have to labor together. We don't have to labor together. And so the how many our poor souls all around us who are seeking to get refreshment from the from the wells of this world and the wells of this world are deep and so worrisome. But the Lord Jesus gives the living water, the living water.
And I asked the question here. Was it just to get a drink?
To satisfy his thirst, to slake his thirst that the Lord asked for a drink from this woman. How about it, Jim?
Do you think the only reason why he wanted it? I think.
Was it not because he wanted to get a conversation started with this woman?
He wanted to open, open her up, as it were, and lead her.
And it doesn't seem as if she was altogether closed. Her heart wasn't all, wasn't all closed against God.
But he wanted to lead her into a precious truth and give her the word. And it's the word that's that that brings about our salvation. Peter speaks about it as the incorruptible word whereby we have been born again. It's the end. And this is what the Lord wanted to do, to get into her. Was, was the Word, His word, and we it was wonderful how he.
But you know, there was this was a picture we have here of a poor, lonely woman.
She'd come there to draw water at a time of the day when women don't come, didn't come to draw water. It was in the heat of the day. She came, no doubt because she was ashamed. She was ashamed of her, of her life. She wouldn't be ashamed. So much ashamed today in our society. Sad to say, but she was ashamed to come.
And there was a stranger, and she could see that he was a Jew. Oh, what a lonely soul she was. But there was one there that was more lonely than she was. The loneliest man that ever saw this earth as he speak about him as the Pelican of the wilderness. An owl of the desert he was as a Sparrow alone upon the housetop. He was more lonely than she was, but his heart went out to that poor soul.
And he wanted to make her a worshipper, and that was what he was out for. The worshiper see in John's Gospel, as our brother has brought before us the Son of God down here dealing with individuals as individuals. And I've enjoyed in reading through John's gospel to see how that he didn't deal with the woman here at the well the same way he had dealt with Nicodemus in the previous chapter, he met souls where they were.
Of course, being the Son of God, he knew man through and through as it says of him. He knew what was in man and needed that none should testify of man.
But you see him dealing in this way. He met Nicodemus, who was a ruler of the Jews, familiar with the law. He met him on that ground, took him up on that ground, said, art thou A ruler, a teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things? But is that the way he dealt with the woman here? No, he met her in her need. She knew she was a Sinner, no doubt his brother Clem says that's why she came to the well at that time of day. You didn't have to tell her that she was a Sinner. She understood this, and her life certainly proved it.
But then you go on through John's Gospel. In the next chapter, there was a man who needed to be healed. Did the Lord deal with that man the same way he dealt with the woman at the well? No. He met her again as an individual. And I think, brethren, it's a good exercise for us because we have opportunity to meet and to deal with souls from day-to-day in the sphere in which God places us, whether it's at school, whether it's at work, whether it's at in the neighborhood where we live.
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Whether it's in the assembly and we need to be exercised to seek the discernment that the Lord can give, and He does delight to give it to us if we seek it, that discernment to meet souls where they are and to deal with them as individuals. But if you'll just allow me in connection with the question that was raised as a little earlier, I'd like to add a comment or two. Because you know it's always good when we take up something in the word of God to go back to the beginning.
Of that thing, and we won't turn to it. But if we were to go back to Genesis 33 and 34, I think we have some very helpful instruction as to why the Lord Jesus must sit here on Cycar as well. We find that, as it says here, it's the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And if we were to go back to the 33rd of Genesis, we would see the purchase of that piece of ground. But then in the 34th chapter, something comes in.
Sin comes in and their shame connected with this parcel of ground in connection with the matter of Dinah. We won't go into it. Read it sometime for yourself, and you'll see that there was shame now connected with this parcel of ground. But here was the true Joseph. Come now in, John Four. And why had he come? How could he sit on side cars? Well, brethren, he'd come to remove all the shame. Isn't that a wonderful thing? He knew there was shame connected with that place.
He knew the heart of this woman that came at this moment as he sat there, but he could speak to her in the way he did. He could offer her a gift because he had come to remove the shame. And perhaps it would be helpful to go back to the 48th of Genesis, because there I believe we have something else that helps us in connection with this thought, in connection with Joseph.
And in Genesis 48 and verse 21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. And then notice this verse. Moreover I have given to the one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. Now would you agree with me that this speaks prophetically of the work of Calvary?
How could the Lord Jesus come to remove all the shame? How could he offer her this wonderful gift here, this living water? Oh, he was looking forward to the cross, he said, I have a baptism wherewith to be baptized, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? And as you trace through John's Gospel, these various instances of dealing with individuals, what was the Lord Jesus looking forward to? What was the basis on which he could bless? What was the basis on which he could sit on the well and speak to this woman?
Oh, he knew what was at the end of the journey, brethren. He knew that the cross was before him and that he was going to take that portion with his sword and with his bow. Well, I just add those comments in connection with what has been said, because I do think it has a connection.
Joseph is a fruitful bow. His branches go over the wall. All right, Dave, these branches. And now the Lord had told the disciples when He sent them out, they were not to go into them, and they were not to go into the cities of the Samaritans.
But here we find the Lord himself. Well, here's here's Joseph. He's a fruitful bow. His branches are going over the wall to bring blessing to a poor, poor, sinful woman. Oh what? What a savior. What a what? A what a Lord. And.
Joseph as the fruitful bow, he's now leaving Judea and he's now leaving Israel and he's reaching out to the Gentiles. And so when you, you know every word in the word of God, every number and every name has meaning. Well, we shouldn't just push over so quick. But I would mention verse three, he left Judea and he went to Galilee. You know, Judea is where Jerusalem was.
It's also where the Lord was crucified. It's where it was the Holy Land.
And he left it. And why? He wanted to go to Galilee. Galilee means the circuit all the way around the world, and so now it's to Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles alike. That's why he went to Galilee. It has that meaning. But it says.
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A woman of Samaria. What does Samaria mean? Stranger in this world. And you know, Gentiles were strangers.
To God's promise to Israel. And so while he's reaching out a branch that has branches of all whose branches go over the wall, the closure of Israel, he's leaving it. And he's reaching out to Gentiles who were dogs at that time. They considered them dogs as the woman who came to Jesus and wanted her daughter healed, he says we don't take the bread for the.
What was the word children and give it to dogs? Well, she took the place. She was a gentile, yes, but dogs can have the crumbs from the table.
Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead and admire was to think of the person of the blessed Son of God as we had earlier, the Creator. All things are created by him. Nothing was ever created but what he it was created by him. And so. But here he is at that blessed man, thirsty and tired after press bait on the road for hours. And they walked. In those days there is sitting on the well the blessed man.
Blessed man of Sichard sitting there on the well, and he's talking to this poor outcast, this poor woman. Oh, what a moment for her in her lifetime.
He was weary.
The creator of this world, all powerful, almighty, was weary. As a man, He suffered the same things we did apart from sin. It said Jesus wept and he was thirsty and he was tired and he wearied. You know, that's wonderful that we can see him as a real man. That's incarnation God in flesh.
I remember in the meeting he he sort of contended that it was 6:00 in the morning. This took place well.
This same question was asked Mr. Darby. Well, he says I've always taken it to be noon when I look at looked up in the Bible dictionary as something for.
The temperatures in Palestine, they run up in the summertime, they run up to 100 and 300 and 303 and there they were, these blessed Lord.
With his disciples trudging up and down those dusty roads of Palestine.
In order to bring blessing to poor souls, well, the I was thinking about.
All that the.
The Lord, he was on his way back. He was on his way back to Galilee. And that's where I believe in Matthew and Mark and Luke. Most of his activities were in Galilee and John we find him more so in around Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the was the great seat of Judaism. Judaism was the national as it were in in a sense was the national, was the national.
The religion of the Jews. The national religion of the Jews. God put an end to the whole thing.
John judged the whole thing at the cross.
And then finally God loved the Romans to come up. He destroyed their temple and destroyed their city and and as it were he wiped the whole thing out until.
And God has begun, and God has found a new world.
A new world founded upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and you by grace, all who know the Lord as our Savior. And that poor woman at Psychar, she's all We're all in that new world now by grace, and we're looking for his coming to take us to be where He is. He's the man that sits in glory, the man that died for me.
Oh, isn't he in Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 13? It's interesting. It says my people have committed.
Two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. The Lord Jesus himself and his person is the fountain of living waters. There he was sitting, and I think it is so beautiful to meditate on it, and it is so profitable for us to think of this.
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Here's a man, a weary man sitting on the side of the well, a thirsty man, and just to repeat what has already been said, reading from Isaiah 40. What is true of this man who is sitting on the edge of the well? Isaiah 40 and verse 28.
Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?
That the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no mighty increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, and shall mount up with wings as Eagles.
They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Here's the one who is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.
And it says he's not weary. But here's a man sitting on the edge of the well that is wearied with his journey. Oh brethren, the beauty of knowing Jesus, his person, as the everlasting God at the same time as a real man here in this world. And as a man, he was weary. He was thirsty. He was hungry. Passed through the circumstances of life that you and I passed through. We can't look up and say.
God, you don't understand.
The circumstances I'm passing through he does because he went through them all. And that's what constitutes the well that flows, dear brethren, to satisfy these thirsty hearts of ours. It's him himself that is the fountain of the living waters. Here comes this woman, and she was going to, as ordinance said, have to pull.
A long ways that water out of that deep well. But here was the fountain sitting right on the edge of Jacob's well. What a beautiful thing to meditate. Brennan, I'd like to let you.
Verse 4 Where it does say must go through Samaria. I don't believe it was because of the restrictions of topography that he must go through Samaria, nor do I. But I believe it was because of the needs of a poor sinful woman that he must go through Samaria. You know, must means something different than shell or will. Must means absolutely necessary.
Webster. But that's what it means, Mr. Darby. It doesn't really think that that was the underlying need that that was customary for the Jews to go through Samaria to get up to. However, no doubt God was over at all, and there was this woman sitting there. She came. God knows how to bring souls together, to bring them to Christ.
What her brother Bob Tony has said. I think it's wonderful to realize that the Lord Jesus.
Never passes is any of his own through anything in the path of faith and service that he as a man hasn't felt himself. Sometimes, perhaps, the young people feel well, it's hard to take a stand for the Lord, and sometimes they feel reproached even amongst their their fellow young people. You feel reproached at school or at work. But then the hardest reproach is to take from the other young people. You say they ought to know, ought to know better. But what about the Lord Jesus when he was here?
It says, reproach hath broken my heart. He knew what it was to be misunderstood. He knew what it was to be reproached, as well as the things that Bob has already mentioned. And we sometimes sing a hymn. 281 In the little flock with joy we meditate. The grace of God's high priest. Above his heart is filled with tenderness. His very name is love. He, in the days of feeble flesh, poured out his cries and tears, and though ascended, feels afresh what every member bears.
You say nobody knows what I'm going through, nobody knows how I feel inside, but there's one who does.
He knows us through and through and he's not only with us in the circumstance, but he walked here amongst men.
And it tells us in the end of Hebrews chapter 2 it says it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
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That he might be a faith, a merciful, and a faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
And then it gives us two reasons why he did that. One, that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
And the other is that he being tempted, is able to sucker them that are tempted. Because, brethren, he could have come as a full grown man, gone to Calvary's cross, and accomplished the work of eternal redemption. But he didn't do it that way. And there are those of us in this room this afternoon who are at various stages both of physical growth and spiritual growth. And think of the Lord Jesus. Did he know what it was to be a boy, a child growing up in this world? Indeed, he did know what it was.
To be a child growing up in this world, he knew what it was to have brothers and sisters in a family circle and earthly parents. Did he know what it was to be a young person and how hard it is to live for God's glory in this world? Indeed, he did. He grew up a young person here in this world.
He was a boy of 12 years old. There in Luke's Gospel he was a young person, he was a man and he experienced all these things. And now it says.
It says we have not in high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points. Notice that not just in some things, but in all points, tempted like as we are yet without sin. He was wholly harmless, undefiled, and suffered from sinners.
But as a man, a perfect man, he felt keenly everything that he he passed through, and now he feels it with us. So I just say that there's a very human side. Yes, we have his divinity brought out in John's gospel, perhaps in a way that it's not brought out anywhere else but in John's ministry. But we have a very human aspect of what is here.
The thought of the word tempted because in English.
It has more than one meaning, and it's used consecutively in connection with the Lord.
But he could not have a lust for anything down here. Never.
His delight was to do the Father's will.
That was his food, his delight. It really means tried in many cases, and no one was tried like him in all those aspects, but he was just as perfect as a man, as he is as God. Now that's the inscrutable person of the Lord Jesus, whom we cannot know, but we believe it. I think that he went through that these tests, these awful tests for man, and it was a trial to him.
But when Satan came to catch him.
Perhaps in the 13th of this book, but that doesn't matter.
Meaning when the Lord's words are, if thou knewest, the gift of God, would you give us a word on that?
Well, I'll say something then. I'll listen to you on that point, but.
If thou knewest the gift of God.
That's verse 10.
And who it is?
That saith unto thee, Give me to drink, Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. And the Lord, in meeting this woman, getting into her heart, reveals who it was. It was talking, and if you go on down, she is getting late and.
In the 25th verse she asks another question.
It's developed here, the woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Now look, the Lord's answer revealed it. The Lord says unto her. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee and.
I am. I am.
There she met the Lord and are thinking of that when Bob was talking about the whale, that Christ is the whale that just before that or just after that she got so animated that she left her water pot and went away to seek others to tell them. And some have said, well, she left the water of this world and she went away with the well. She went away with the well who is the one who is the living water. So that answers the question, doesn't it there well.
00:50:06
Bill is the gift of God. I think it. I think it's reads a little easier if don't know it's God as the giving God.
God had all ever prior to this. God had been as a demander. He was demanding people. That was what the that was the nature of the law. The law demanded from that man. But God never got anything from man. Man never had anything for God, and but God had. God has everything for man. That's what we have here. If thou knows God as a giving God. So from from here on, God is the is the giving God. It's our newest God as the giving God.
And then he says, If thou and if thou knows who it is that saith unto thee, He doesn't say. He doesn't say, Well, do you know who I am? If you knew who I am, why you would you would ask? I would ask of him, and he would have given me the living wire. But the Lord takes that low, low place, He says, If thou knewest who it is, and so it's gone as the giving God. But then to think of what God has given, He's given his own dear Son, and here he is down here on this earth. What a gift.
What a gift. It's only with God as the giving God. God delights to God delights to give.
And so he has given us all things in Christ and all things in Christ, and the Lord Jesus here is the One.
He's the one that gives the living water. He gives the living water. So we have all the blessed Godhead, all here in this verse, God the Father.
Who gives the Lord Jesus? Who gives the living water? And we have the Spirit of God. I believe the living water here is the Spirit of God. Is that right, Madam?
I believe it is Clem, although I think it's connected with life in the spirit. It's the life and the spirit himself that makes that life what it is in US.
There's quite a con between the divine well, the Lord Jesus, of whom it says springing up, and the well. That the woman here came to the well at Jacob's Well because she had to draw and the well was deep has been mentioned. But I've wondered, without reading into scripture something that isn't here, as she came from day-to-day and year to year and others no doubt came from day-to-day and year to year to draw up this water. I wonder if from year to year they didn't have to go a little deeper each time.
To draw of the water that only satisfied for the moment. And isn't that the way it is with the wells of this world? Isn't that the way it is with sin? Brethren, If there's someone here and you're trying the wells and cisterns of this world, that is, you think that the things of this world are going to satisfy your soul. You'll find that perhaps for a moment they do. There is pleasure in sin for a seasoned scripture says. And so you find that momentary pleasure, that momentary satisfaction which as someone else said is gone with the act. But don't you find that you have to go deeper. The thing that satisfied yesterday is not the thing that satisfied tomorrow. And we see this in the world all around us. Men going deeper and deeper into sin to try to satisfy their poor hearts. Is it going to satisfy. No. Did this water that she?
Drew from this deep well satisfy her soul. No, it did anything but that.
But one day she came, as we've been saying, and she found one. And she didn't have to draw here and go deeper and deeper each time. No, this was the well of water springing up into everlasting life. And we can drink deeper and deeper of that well, and it will satisfy our souls now, and I suppose it will satisfy our souls for eternity. But let's not be digging or drawing from the wells of this world that don't satisfy. And some of us have had to learn by bitter experience that these things don't satisfy.
But you don't have to learn it by better experience. The Word of God tells us these things and the result and the folly of drawing from the world's pleasure to warn us not to do it. Sometimes people say, well, a young person has to sow their wild oats to find out what the result is. That's not true. Sometimes we learn by those things, and God is gracious, but we don't have to draw from these wells are so wild oats to find out what the result is. The Word of God tells us very plainly what the result is, but he also tells us the positive as well.
The Lord Jesus said in the 6th chapter in verse 35 he says I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And I do appreciate Mr. Darby's translation. He adds the words at any time. I think that's in the original.
00:55:07
He that believeth on me shall never thirst at any time, you know it's a strengthened negative and.
He also says that applies to hungering. Those that come to him shall never hunger at any time. I really enjoyed those strengthened negatives that were used.
Of our chapter.
Where it says he had sat down at that well of Jacob's the Sycar as well, but this woman who was a prostitute.
Known as such by all the women of that city because they wouldn't come with her when she drew water.
But at any rate, he said to her, give me the drink. Why was that strange? The Israelites had nothing to do, no dealings at all with the Samaritans. And she said, you asked me to give you water. You're a Jew, You're an Israelite in a sense. Well, you know, Jesus Christ could touch the dead body. And of course, a Nazarite in Israel could never touch a dead body, even if a dead man.
If a man fell dead next to him, bumped him accidentally, he lost his Nazarite ship. But Jesus could touch the dead body. He could touch the coffin with it in there, and the young boy would sit up. And you know, when the leper came to Jesus, he said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean what Jesus nearly had to say. I will. That's all. But in another gospel it says he touched him.
That's compassion.
But no one else could touch a leper and not get contaminated. But not Jesus. You know, it's beautiful. So here on this woman, he could say, give me the drink. And what did she say? Well, she said, I'm a woman of Samaria. How is it, thou, being a Jew, Ask us drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Well, you know, Jesus can touch that.
A leper speaks of evil and sin. Leprosy always speaks of that in the word of God, typically. Well, the Lord could touch the leper. He hated sin, he hated evil, but he loved the Sinner has been brought out already. And so this woman who had five husbands and the one she's living with is not her husband at all. The Lord loved her. Isn't that beautiful? He loved her, and that's what they've been mentioning.
He hates sin. That's why anyone who does not receive him as savior and has his sins washed away in his blood is going to face the wrath of the lamb and that's Jehovah Jesus. He'll be the judge and he hates sin. He has the punishment because of righteousness.
The Lord Jesus approaches this woman or begins the conversation.
As far as we know, he never got a drink of water, but he started the conversation on a level that she knew what he meant. And I think, as has been mentioned, in dealing with souls we have to get where they are, otherwise we we're just talking way above their head and things that we they don't understand. But she understood what thirst was and here was a man that asked her.
To give him to drink of the well, and she understood that. But another thing I think is so interesting, brethren, is that.
When she responds with what she says, how is it that thou, being a Jew, ask us drink of Maine, which I'm a woman of Samaria?
He doesn't really answer her question. If you notice what is said in verse 10, he just answers the need of her heart. And I think that's an interesting thing to think about in dealing with people too that are still.
Strangers to the grace of God is not to answer their curious questions, but to answer their conscience, as Paul says in Second Corinthians chapter.
For commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
And so he doesn't answer her question, he just leads her on to the next step. I think it's so beautiful, brethren to to see how he leads her on. He doesn't scare her away. I'm afraid that when I deal with souls, sometimes I scare them away and I need to meditate more on this perfect servant and the perfection in the which he dealt with souls.
01:00:20
Is to be meditated on brethren beautiful, and I enjoyed what was brought out to that in verse 10 in the Lord's answer.
He talks about God as a giving God, brethren, that's Christianity.
In Judaism, the focus was what man could produce for God. In Christianity, we can say it's basically the opposite. It's what God is for man. We have learned God to be a giving God. Oh what a great giver he is. Oh how he loves to give. And not only when we need salvation brethren, but all our Christian lives.
We prove again and again and again what a great giver he is. He loves to give. You need more grace to continue on. Sometimes you meet with souls that are weary in going on with the Lord, and they feel like they're at the end of their tether. They need more grace working to get more grace. He gives more grace. You need some more ask. He's a great giver and he loves to keep right on giving all our Christian lives. That's what's characteristic of Christianity.
So young people, when Christianity is presented as sometimes it is that God expects you to produce, that is really more characteristic of Judaism. It's not what his characteristic of Christianity and Christianity. God gives. And we're the receiver and our hearts are so filled that the things of this world don't fit in there any longer. No, there's no more room for him. It's not that God has deprived us of some pleasure in this world. No, He's just filled the heart so full that we no longer need those other things.
This poor world offers not his own son, but delivered him up for his all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things. He's a giving God. Yes, he's a giving. His gracious giving out I believe we have. There are two words I believe in this. The well and what the Lord speaks about. Here is the living water shelves. A springing well. It's it's it's a different word. I believe what we have a springing well.
And it's and it's springing upward. The whales of this world are deep, but here's a whale that springs upward.
Always fresh.
No. Took a trip down here into the Ozark Mountains and saw the biggest spring I've ever seen. Maybe some of you have been there.
I was amazed at it and what you're saying.
The class of this water makes you think of what produces a spring. They've got some mountains down there.
And the water starts from heaven. That's where it comes from. It comes down to this earth and it's the rocks, and it gets down the crevices and gets down there deep in the earth and builds up the pressure, the pressures, according to the height of the water that that's pushing on it. And when it finds an outlet, it will arise up to the same level. Now if you and I can get this water of the Word into us.
Maybe we'll have the heart and the intelligence.
To meet a soul in their need by the word of God. That's what meet souls need. It's the word. That's what comes from God.
Put out by pressure in the preacher.
It's it's work to preach the gospel sometimes, but it's a lovely thing. And the water that comes out of a spring is so wonderful. Well, that's the well. It'll be in him, a well of life springing up, and the water comes down. It satisfies our tools and then it close, and then the sun, the sun draws it back up and it returns to its own source where it came from. And so with the living water, it comes down, it satisfies our thirst.
And flows back up in worship to God, and it also flows out to others too. And that's what you have in the 7th of John where the Lord Jesus said, let's just read it because just to follow up what our brethren have been bringing before us. Verse 37 of the 7th chapter, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. That's individual. That's the first thing that's taking that drink yourself and finding it satisfies.
01:05:18
And then he says he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said. Now notice this Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake concerning the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, and so on. And so there's an outflow to others. But, brethren, if we don't drink it ourselves, it can't flow out to others. We can only share what we've taken in ourselves. Are we walking in the power of the Spirit and enjoying the precious things of Christ? Then we can't help but share them with others. Why is it sometimes when I meet a soul, either an unbeliever or a believer, who needs?
Needs help that an unbeliever needs the gospel. The believer maybe needs encouragement or something of Christ. Why is it sometimes I can't give that person what they need? I haven't been drinking myself. I haven't taken it in. But if we're enjoying these precious things of which we've been speaking white brethren, then it'll just flow out as a river of living water to others. And so let's be exercised to drink deep ourselves of this living water, that there might be that blessing.
And I'd like to say this too, because we've passed on a little and there's a little expression in verse eight. I think we ought not to miss, brethren.
It says for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Now why did the spirit of God record this little expression? I believe one thing it shows is that the Lord desired to be alone with this soul, because that's the way the Lord deals with souls. We were speaking earlier of the Lord dealing with souls as individuals.
But he delights to deal with them alone. There was a case, I think it's in Mark's Gospel where there was a blind man.
And what did the Lord Jesus do? Did he heal him in front of the whole crowd? No. It says he took him outside the city. He got alone. And this blind man got alone in the presence of the Lord Jesus. And there was blessing. And I believe it was ordered of the Lord that these disciples would go into the city at this very moment to buy meat, so that as this woman approached the well and the Lord Jesus sat there weary with his journey, he could spend a little time alone with the Lord Jesus. And maybe you'll allow me to just make a practical remark or two in that connection.
Because it's true that in connection with salvation, that's the way the Lord deals with us. And if there's somebody here who's not saved this afternoon, get along with the Lord. Oh, I don't mean you have to leave your seat and go outside, but get along with the Lord and your soul right where you are. He wants to save you. He wants to give you this living water and satisfy your soul's thirst as we've been speaking. Get alone in the presence of the Lord. Have you ever been alone as a Sinner in the presence of the Lord?
Going to find out this woman received a term men just blessing because she spent a little time alone. Is it true? He exposed what she was? Indeed, the light manifested exactly what she was. She couldn't hide. And you can't hide in the presence of the light this afternoon. You can't hide what even your thoughts he knows afar off but what a blessing. But then if I could just say this too. For those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, do we are we exercise to spend those times alone?
In the presence of the Lord Jesus, why is it sometimes I'm dry and barren in my soul, why is it sometimes there isn't that living water flowing out? I suggest, brethren, it's because perhaps one reason is because we haven't spent enough time in the presence of the well, drawing on the well. But let's spend some time He wants to deal with us as His children, alone in His presence.
Happened to Job in the 42nd chapter. Now to start with, Job was the best man that God had.
But God lets Satan get at him, and Satan is effectual in bringing in terrible things, whether you read through the book of Job and there are some 40 or more chapters where Job is just losing everything except his integrity.
And he didn't lose that until he gets the 42nd chapter and finally is convinced to say to God, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine I see it thee he was alone in the presence of God, He says, Wherefore I am ***** myself, Where's his integrity gone? Well, he gets the blessing. He gets a double blessing. God alone with a soul be saved or not saved.
01:10:09
Is a wonderful thing because God wants to produce something.
And it's wonderful that when we feel comfortable alone in the presence of the Lord, that's a test of our state of soul. We can come to these meetings, we can be with the people of God, and certainly that's part of Christianity. And certainly fellowship one with another is a blessed resource given to us for the pathway down here. But the real test of our state of soul, brethren, is can you get a loan in the presence of the Lord and feel comfortable? And I've enjoyed that in connection with David.
Little expression. David was a man after God's own heart, and this is what it says. He sat before the Lord.
Don't read of them saying anything. Just can you sit comfortable in the presence of the Lord. If you have a loved one and you sit in their presence, sometimes you don't even have to speak, but you feel comfortable in the presence of that loved one, and things perhaps pass between you even though you don't say one word aloud. That's the way David felt comfortable in the presence of his God. Let's learn to be comfortable in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
David Clive, when he was having so much trouble all the way around him, and it finally gets to the place where it says and David encouraged himself in the Lord his God, but there wasn't anything around. He encouragement from the Lord was there. That's true of us, no matter what's happening.
I'm going to say that all of the Lord, the Lord says to this woman, it doesn't reach her. It really doesn't involve your speaking about the word entering the conscience, Mr. Darby. Somewhere, he remarks. He doesn't believe there's one truth that ever is received through the intellect. It must come through, received through the conscience.
Received through the conscience. Well, that's really what we have here.
This woman she could she could talk about. We know that when messiahs can't he'll tell us all things. Apparently she was intelligent soul and but what the Lord said to her was never got anywhere until he put his finger on it and he says go call thy husband. Now this this is this is getting down into her conscience And then from then on then we find a change. So the truth enters through the conscience and then.
It receded into our hearts but came to mind Clem.
Twin conscience came to man. When did he get conscience?
Who told thee? Who told thee that thou was naked?
The minute.
And God saw to it, it was in the IT was in the mercy of God that when God drove him out of the garden, he sent him away with a conscience. And this is what we all have every son of Adam has has that conscience.
That's right.
That was there. God shut that off, but God brings it back through the work of Christ.
Who came to put away the sin?
And to give life as we're getting here. And so we see.
In the last chapter of the Bible, let's just turn to that 22nd chapter and read the 1St 2 verses because it's one of the very wonderful things that we get in the book as it closes up.
There are the two things mentioned. We've touched on them in this meeting.
And John writes in verse one of chapter 22 of Revelation. And he showed me a pure river of the water of life. There it is a pure river in the water of life, flowing undisturbed, clear as crystal. Where does it come from? Proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now look what it says next. And in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life that's brought back.
Man, it's fixed up. It's the day of God coming in and everything fixed up just right. And the tree of life there, What a wonderful God, what a tree of life. In the 53rd of Isaiah, He says he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. And so well now that tree of life has borne its fruit here in this world, in spite of the fact of the dry ground of Israel or this world.
01:15:29
The Blessed Lord has borne that fruit, the tree of it says, Borne 12 Manner of fruits and the.
The.
But the man didn't want that man. The flesh doesn't want Christ. He doesn't want anything of God and Christ.
And so God man didn't want that tree of life, so God transplanted it.
This world to the heavenly paradise, and there it flourishes and bears all its precious fruits. And you and I can enjoy that fruit. We you and I, by grace we can enjoy that fruit down here, as we're going to enjoy it forever up there. And what is that fruit? But my soul? Has thou not tasted of the tree of life?
On high and through barren lands of Hasted Esko's grapes, but never nigh.
Yes, that tree of life is planted.
Sweetest fruit in here is born to its own rich soil. Transplanted, it waits alone, the eternal born. When we're going up there and we can walk down the street of life, walk down the street of gold and help ourselves, there be no flaming sword to no prohibition up there. We can help ourselves. We can have all we want and walk down the street of gold with him. How wonderful, Yeah.
He acts.
To first bring out the truth. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Before he begins to work with the woman's conscience, he presents the goodness of God to her. He draws out her heart to himself, and the moment, when he starts, as it were, directly to speak to her conscience, is when she says to him, Sir, give me that is, she has been drawn by the goodness of God.
In this person to recognize the thirst that was in her own soul, which she wasn't perhaps fully aware of. And then she says, Sir, give me And so many times in wisdom it's right to present the heart of God to the soul, to draw out that heart toward himself. And then the absolute necessity has to come in, The conscience has to be reached. And in the case of this woman.
Part of it was the recognition, she says. He says to her, you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What was she doing? She was trying to satisfy the thirst of her soul. It's not just a thirst that had to do with a well of water, but the Lord looks and meets the need, which is deeper. And she was attempting with what she could naturally to satisfy the thirst of the soul. And it's unsatisfiable in sin.
And yet the conscience has to be reached in that way. And it's what, as it were, awakens her to this person and what he had to give her. And when the conscience is fully reached and the heart has been won, then the soul comes out into the light. And she was willing to go tell people she wasn't hiding her sin. They knew it. And yet she was willing to go to the very people who knew her reputation.
And say, come see a man. That's a wonderful thing. When the soul is brought to that point where, as it were in the presence of the Lord, they're comfortable to acknowledge their need and ready to speak about it with himself and others.
Bert said. Sometimes.
Let conscience be your guide.
It's not enough.
Conscience needs to be guided. The woman had a conscience, but the word of God was what guided her. She had the Word in front of her, and he told her all things ever she did with every one of us. The conscience bothers us. What are we going to do? Go to the word of God and be guided by the Word of God?
Conscience is knowledge of good and evil. That was the tree that was prohibited in the garden, and as has been brought out when they ate of that tree they had.
Conscience. So that's what conscience is, is the knowledge of good and evil. But it's like someone has said.
01:20:00
You need more than conscience. Somebody has given the illustration that conscience is like a pair of good eyes. I can have good eyes, but if I'm in a dark room, I can open my eyes. There's no problem with my eyes. What I lack is light. And so the Lord Jesus was the light of this world. And it's beautiful how he deals with this woman in a way. He doesn't condemn her manner of living. He just brings it out into the light where she can realize.
How wrong her way of living is, I think that's so beautiful, brethren, in our dealing with souls.
So often we drive them away. But that wasn't the case with the Lord Jesus, he said, go call your husband and come here, she says, I have no husband. That was kind of like you'd say 1/2 truth. But he said, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband that says thou truly so he didn't really condemn her Lantern of living, he brought it out into the light.
Where her own conscience could realize that way she was living was not the right way of living. And that's the way we need to deal with souls, not do it in a condemning way, simply bring them out into the light where they themselves. Because conscience of every living soul brethren, is always, always gives testimony to the truth of God.
It doesn't sometimes. Somebody has said Man May.
Be an infidel or an atheist in his mind. But his conscience is always there to give testimony to the truth of God. Let the light shine. The person's conscience will tell them that. That's right. That's all we have to do, and that's the way it was with the Lord Jesus of this woman.
With souls too, we need to bring before them. First of all, that they have a need. But I enjoyed what Brother Dawn said, because it's more than just their realization that they have a need, but it's also the realization that they have no power within themselves to satisfy or remedy that need. And the woman had to learn these two things. She had to learn, first of all, that she had a need, but I believe she knew that already. She knew if you'd asked her when she came to that well, if she was thirsty, she would have no doubt recognized that she was thirsty, but she felt there was something she could do by drawing the water from this well.
To satisfy her thirst.
And so it's been brought out, and I don't want to belabor it, but just to show she had to learn that not only did she have a thirst, but there was nothing she could do to satisfy that thirst apart from taking a drink of that living water that the Lord Jesus was offering. And every one of us here who know the Lord Jesus is our Savior, we had to come to the realization of those two things. Not only that we were sinners in need, Not only that we were thirsty, had a spiritual thirst, but we had to learn that we couldn't get rid of one sin or satisfy within ourselves that spirit, that that that thirst that we have.
And so I think it's good to bring this before souls. Of course, then we bring before them the remedy and the one who can satisfy the need. But they're not going to want the remedy. She wouldn't know. She'd never have taken asked for the water of life if she didn't realize that she had a thirst and that the well that was in the water the Lord was sitting on was never going to satisfy that thirst.
Things are dry 153.
01:25:10
All right.
Love.