A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 7
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly’” (John 4: 16-18).
It was critically important for Jesus, the ‘Master Evangelist’ to bring the ‘woman at the well’ to face the personal culpability of her life of sin, (John 3:18). Also, she must know the conviction of the weight of God’s divine wrath, which was abiding over her life, (John 3:36). The Lord Jesus had summoned her to go and retrieve her husband, purposefully for her to have to measure her rebellious life before the righteous requirements of the moral law of God.
In this summons, the Lord Jesus was subtly presenting the evidence that the Holy Spirit of God would use to prosecute this Samaritan sinner in the courtroom of God. This adulterous woman must come to see herself as a guilty, condemned, and desperately needy sinner before she will ever thirst for the salvation that only God the Son can provide. Moreover, the Giver of the moral law was taking the 7th commandment in hand to expose the true condition of her soul before the pristine holiness and inflexible justice of God.
Historians believe that the Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. They rejected the remainder of the Old Testament. However, there was plenty of evidence in Exodus to prosecute and convict this woman of her guilty condition. Friend, when reading these words, we should be starkly reminded that there must be a far deeper reality within her heart than a superficial desire to receive a ‘soul-satisfying blessing through a gift from God’. This woman must be confronted with her guilty condition before the holy law of God.
Consider what occurred when hearing those words: “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The omniscient Lord is fully aware of the entire history of this Samaritan woman. He knew her life story of continual iniquity in this area, marked by a multiplicity of marriages and divorces. In addition, the Lord was fully aware of her present living arrangement. This time, she was living with a man without being married. So, the Lord Jesus confronted her with the 7th commandment, to reveal God’s holy character; so that this would reveal God’s righteous requirements for her life; so then this would reveal that she had utterly failed to meet God’s requirements; so that this would reveal that she was a guilty, lost, and condemned criminal, who deserved the unmitigated wrath of God. Then it would expose that she was in desperate need of a Savior, a Deliverer, and a Redeemer!
Think of this conversation. It would not have been so devastating to her if the Lord had stopped by saying, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband’. But the light exposes the darkness. So, Jesus continued to expose the complete story. He continued by saying, “For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”
Now, if the Lord had only presented the ‘good news of the gift of eternal life’ without confronting her with the ‘bad news of her guilt and condemnation, she would have never seen herself as lost in her own mind. She would have never been convinced by God’s law, convicted by law, or condemned by law! She would have fallen short of seeing her urgent need to repent and believe on the Messiah. It was absolutely essential that the moral law of God be presented to her, to unveil the true nature of her rebellious and wrath-deserving condition. But now, this woman could realistically identify herself as a defiled, destitute, and desperate sinner.
It is tragic to note that many contemporary Gospel presentations of today have deteriorated into an ‘offer to enjoy a full and meaningful life’, rather than revealing the ‘sinner’s desperate need to be made right with a Holy Lord God’. The modern Gospel has devolved into an offer of a ‘free ticket to Heaven’, rather than issuing an urgent warning for them to ‘flee from the wrath to come, through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’. However, friend, this is the sad symptom of a biblically ignorant outreach ministry, when the proclamation of ‘the bad news of the shattered law’ is considered unimportant.
The evangelical witnesses of 200 years ago always engaged the sinner with a preliminary ‘law work’. Even as recently as 1900, the evangelist, D.L. Moody, said, “It is a great mistake to give a person who has not been convicted of sin, certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs. Do not offer the consolation of the Gospel until he first sees and KNOWS that he is a guilty sinner before God. I pity that the man who only preaches one side of the truth, always the Gospel, without ever mentioning the Law.”
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 6
“The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, ‘GO, CALL YOUR HUSBAND, and come here.’ The woman answered, saying, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had FIVE husbands, and the one whom you now have is NOT your husband; in that you spoke truly’” (John 4:15-18).
Notice that this woman’s natural mind was still preoccupied with material things. The Lord Jesus was speaking of Himself as He taught about the spiritual well of everlasting life. Yet, she was still focused on physical wells and drinking water. Moreover, she was being somewhat sarcastic. Basically, it is like she was sneering in her response as if to say, “Okay, give me this living water you claim will cause me to never thirst again. Considering the fact that you don’t even have a bucket, I really want to see this!”
Then, “Jesus said to her, ‘GO CALL YOUR HUSBAND, and come here.’” What prompted the Lord’s sudden and radical change of subject? Why did He abruptly give her an authoritative command to retrieve her husband and bring him back to the well? Why did the Lord Jesus bring up the concept of ‘a husband’ into the conversation? The reason is an important issue in this encounter. He initiated this subject because there was a major issue she needed to face: this woman had a sin problem. Her life of sin needed to be challenged so that she might come to the true realization of her urgent need for ‘the One who is the living water of everlasting life’”. If this adulterous woman is going to receive this glorious gift of eternal life, she must first come to the Source of living water, as an indicted, convicted, condemned, and contrite sinner!
The Lord Jesus knew that, if he evangelized her merely on the basis of a ‘gift to be received’ (as many do in modern evangelism), she would certainly sign up for a free gift. But she would gain nothing more than a false religious experience! This woman, like any other sinner, must feel the heavy burden from the weight of her countless sins against God. The iron fist of the moral law must bang on the door of her guilty heart, so that she might be awakened to the truth of her spiritually bankrupt condition before a Holy Lord God!
The woman answered, saying, “I have no husband.” Jesus replied, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband’, for you have had FIVE husbands, and the one whom you now have is NOT your husband; in that you spoke truly.” Since she was unwilling to tell the Lord Jesus the unadulterated truth, Jesus employed His omniscience to confront her with the entire truth concerning her life of serial adultery. In doing so, the Master Evangelist confronted her with her thoroughly guilty and utterly condemned condition before the moral law of God. See, this indifferent rebel must be brought to the place of Holy Spirit conviction and contrition, concerning the startling reality of her wretched condition before the moral law of God in the pristine holiness of God, and the inflexible justice of the Lord God.
Let us never forget that the 'good news of the Gospel' never truly becomes ‘good news’ to the lost, until that sinner personally comprehends the 'bad news' of their terrible problem before the moral law of God! Observe Romans 1:16 and notice what immediately follows in that monumental epistle? Paul joyfully declared, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” Then immediately, Paul switched gears by proclaiming, “For the WRATH OF GOD is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The apostle heralded the glorious reality that there was ‘GOOD NEWS’. But then, quickly, he launched into 63 verses of BAD NEWS! Why did Paul proclaim so much bad news before returning to the good news? We see the answer in Romans 3:19-20: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become GUILTY before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of SIN.”
By Jesus saying, “Go call your husband,” the Lord was confronting the Samaritan woman with the fact that she had repeatedly shattered the moral law of God countless times. The 7th commandment of God’s moral law was the instrument by which God the Son used to bring this sinner to the realization of her spiritually bankrupt and needy condition. This woman must be drawn to the reality of her lostness before she will truly thirst for the Living Water Jesus was offering.
So the Giver of the moral law held up the mirror of the moral law, to reveal the immensity of her guilty, lost, and destitute condition; and her desperate and urgent need for salvation on His conditions!
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 5
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.’ “(John 4: 13 and 14a).
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly” (John 4:16-18).
This Samaritan woman had been driven from one marriage bed to another, and one illicit relationship to another. Somewhere within the recesses of her lost soul, she was attempting to quench her ‘soul thirst’ by some earthly, carnal, and sensual relationship. The Lord Jesus confronted this woman with the truth that, speaking of the physical well known as Jacob's well, “Whoever drinks of this well shall thirst again.” For years, she had been coming to the empty well of sensual pleasure and immorality, only to have her ‘soul thirst’ unmet.
No one has yet found lasting satisfaction in the sensuous appetites of this fallen world system. Nothing, neither transient possessions, nor fleeting pleasures, nor temporary prestige or power can satisfy the human heart. The heart has been created for eternity! Oh yes, it may be temporarily satiated for a moment. But it will soon be chasing after other peculiar and tyrannical appetites.
But, make no mistake, Jesus Christ stands above all of the hollow voices of the temporal things of this passing world system, and declares, “Whoever drinks of these empty wells, shall thirst again and again…ad infinitum”! Sensual delights and short-term pleasures can never permanently satisfy the thirsty soul. Yes, the Bible doesn’t hide that there is pleasure in sin for a season. Just like having to go to the earthly well every day, the sinner is compelled to return to those counterfeit wells. Why? They continue to seek to discover lasting satisfaction in insubstantial and fraudulent cisterns of this world!
There are multitudes of phony wells, including all manner of seemingly harmless diversions and ecstatic delights. Many imagine that if they can only be entertained by their favorite sports team or some form of their prized amusement, they will experience this inner satisfaction. Deceptively, they falsely assume that if they can only saturate their lives with these things, they will certainly satisfy the longings of their parched souls. Oh, but these are spurious wells, too! On one hand, we know God has given us all things richly to enjoy. But these ‘things’ were never meant to alleviate our ‘soul thirst’. God did not create us in a way that the so-called moral entertainments of the world could substitute the ‘soul satisfaction’, which can only be quenched by the ‘GIVER OF LIFE’.
Others attempt to drink from the well of intellectual achievement. They seek knowledge in psychology, philosophy, and all manner of the phenomenology of the sciences of the mind. However, the immense wisdom of the world will never be enough for one to enter into a saving knowledge of their Creator and thus discover a divine gratification! “Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of all of these wells shall thirst again.” Nothing that comes from earth can produce anything more than a temporary, superficial satisfaction! Likewise, the broken cisterns of the false religions of this fallen world may satisfy a man’s desires for a while, but before long, they will thirst again.
Jesus said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The only genuine and lasting fulfillment is that which finds its source in the eternal Lord and God, as He is revealed in the scriptures! The Lord Jesus Christ is the only satisfaction for this gnawing soul thirst! The one and only bona fide ‘salvation of the soul’ is received by grace alone; through saving faith alone; in the Lord Jesus Christ alone!
Oh, dear reader, please grasp that when you drink of the Lord Jesus Christ (through repentance of your sins and placing saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ), He becomes the secret fountain of the inner core of your very being! The Spirit of God graces that person with a supernatural and miraculous ‘spiritual heart transplant’. As soon as He comes to indwell you, He fully and freely satisfies the longing soul! The one who drinks of the Living Water shall never thirst again. A continual fountain of living water flows, growing you in the grace and knowledge of the Water of Life!
Jesus said, in His first sermon, as He entered His earthly ministry: “He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, shall be filled! This means, satisfied! Justified!
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 4
“Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
The Lord Jesus did not delve into the long-lasting feud that had persisted between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Lord was driving home a far more personal and pressing issue to this Samaritan woman’s heart. This immoral woman desperately needed to enter into a saving knowledge of the One who was gazing into her empty, ‘sin-polluted’ heart. She wasn’t seeking to know God.
Her guilt over her current live-in boyfriend and her five marriages, which had probably ended because of her multiple adulteries, caused her to keep her distance from God. The only explanation for this story is that Jesus was seeking a sinner who wasn’t even seeking Him. This stranger, sitting by the well, who physically appeared to be nothing more than a weary and thirsty Jewish traveler, was actually the solitary source of the eternal life that the sinner urgently needed!
Notice how the Lord Jesus (the master evangelist) actually turned the conversation upside down to emphasize her deep need for the salvation of her soul. Jesus began saying to her, “Give Me a drink.” However, the Lord quickly identified that “it was this Samaritan woman who had the thirsty soul. Moreover, he was the one who would give her an everlasting supply of “Living Water”!
Pay careful attention to His words: “If you knew the gift of God.” If this woman had only understood who was speaking to her, she would have immediately cried out for the salvation of her lost soul. She would have believed on the One who was exposing her urgent need for the gift of eternal life. Her entire life, this woman had been attempting to satisfy a ‘soul thirst’ at the well of immorality and sensual pleasure. From this conversation, we know she also had some vague connection to the utterly contaminated religion of her people. But neither her perverted lifestyle nor her polluted religiosity could rescue her from the wrath of God, which was presently abiding over her life (John 3:36). Yet, in this divine appointment, she came face to face with the Lord of glory, who was in Himself “the gift of God”! To enter into a ‘saving knowledge’ of Him is the very definition, the essence of eternal life!
Take note how the Lord continually emphasized that this “living water”, which He was offering to this needy sinner, was a GIFT OF GOD? In verse 14, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will GIVE him shall never thirst. But the water that I will GIVE him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” In this repeated statement, the Lord Jesus states that this glorious entrance into a saving knowledge of Himself is a GIFT to be received and not a reward to be earned!
One of the most deceptive and soul-damaging errors on this planet is the lie that “a sinner can earn the approval and acceptance of God, as a reward for some measure of good works or religious activity”! Every false religion in the world operates on the principle that one must earn salvation. The way you earned salvation is through some amount of religious activity and/or moral performance. However, the apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is eternal death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The scripture clearly confronts every sinner with the fact that ‘the best (not the worst) of their moral performance or religious activity is as filthy rags to a perfectly holy God.” A condemned sinner can do absolutely nothing to save themselves or make themselves acceptable to God in any way! A sinner can only be saved from ‘the wrath to come’ by a GIFT of the grace of God, through repentance from going their own way and placing saving faith in the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Dear friend, it is an unspeakable privilege to have this gift of God offered to you, as well as the opportunity to embrace the glorious reality of eternal life by entering into a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ! Yet, in verses 11-12, this needy woman manifested her utter spiritual deadness and ignorance by responding: “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?”
Please understand that her utter spiritual blindness prevents her from seeing the truth at present. At this point in this Divine appointment, she was exactly like the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus. Jesus said to him, “You desperately need the gift of the new birth (living water).” But recall, this religious and moralist leader sarcastically responded, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
The Lord Jesus spoke similar words to this serial adulteress, offering her the new birth by saying, “I am offering you the gift of living water, (LIFE).” Like Nicodemus, she sarcastically responded, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?”
Oh friend, do not miss this tremendous analogy. One of them was a sin-blinded religionist, and the other a sin-blinded adulteress! Yet, both, left to themselves, are unable to see the glories of the only begotten Son of God. Oh, but thanks be to God, the Gospel light is coming!
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 3
“So He came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour” (John 4:5-6).
Sychar was approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Nazareth, at the base of Mount Gerazim, and Jacob’s well was about a half mile outside the village. So the total distance from where Jesus had been to Sychar would have been approximately 40 miles by road.
For an entire day and a half, the Lord Jesus and the disciples would have had to walk for HIM to arrive at Jacob’s well by noon. Unknown to the disciples, but Jesus knew he was to be there for the precise time of His divine appointment with this needy sinner!
Dear friend, this geographical information reminds us that the Son of Man was continually walking in impeccable and absolute submission to the will of God the Father, as well as in perfect cooperation with His ‘saving agenda’. Thereby, the Lord was compelled to go through Samaria. There was a sovereign necessity and a divine determination for the Savior’s meeting with this serial adulteress. The Lord Jesus had a glorious purpose to seek and to save this rebel sinner, who would then become a willing herald of the Gospel to a number of other lost sinners in her hometown!
Please understand that this divine appointment was occurring because of the “amazing grace and marvelous mercy of a seeking Savior! This Samaritan woman was not soon to be blessed with this gracious encounter because of any human worthiness or achievement on her part. Moreover, this adulteress was not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ. Quite the contrary! She was a woman who had lived a life of public shame and scorn. She had been married five times and was presently living with a man who wasn’t her husband.
It was because of the sinful actions of her life that she was coming to Jacob’s well at noonday. She knew that none of the other women of Sychar would be drawing water from the well in the heat of the day. So, by coming alone, she could avoid the obvious ridicule she would have faced if she had come to draw water in the early morning hours, as the habit of the other Sychar women did.
Friend, this was a needy woman who had a profound ‘soul thirst’ that had never been met, never quenched. More importantly, this Samaritan woman is the life portrait of every person who has yet to drink of the Fountain of Living Water. The unconverted people of the world are continuously coming to the numerous phony fountains that the world system has to offer. But these empty wells can never truly quench a “soul thirst”. There is only one way to satisfy this “inner soul thirst.” A needy sinner must seek the Lord while He may be found. They must call upon Him while He is near. They must forsake their way and turn (in saving faith) to the One who is the Living Water.
Dear reader, this woman was a “bottom of the barrel,” an outcast of society! Oh, but so was the man who is writing this devotion! I was once an agnostic, arrogant, argumentative, and alcoholic rock and jazz drummer. I needed to look up to see the bottom of the barrel! I, too, lived for almost 30 years with a gnawing soul thirst. I had tried almost every counterfeit well that this world system had to offer, attempting to quench the thirst of my soul. But I came up empty! Dissatisfied! Unfulfilled! Even though I was unaware of it at the time, I was created to know the One who is the Living Water. And yet, I looked for life in all of the wrong places. I was attempting to quench that thirst by drinking from all the wrong fountains. While simultaneously, not realizing I was living under the just wrath of God.
However, I was not hungering and thirsting after God. As we read in Romans, “There is none who seeks after God; no, not one!” Instead, the unconverted human heart seeks to fill that acute vacancy with numerous 'cheap and phony substitutes' which can never satisfy the longing soul. This is precisely why the prophet Isaiah wrote, “There is no peace for the wicked.” My problem, before my conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ, was that I was hungering and thirsting for the wrong things. I was seeking soul satisfaction at all of the world’s counterfeit wells. But these bogus wells can never quench a thirsty soul.
This is why the Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again”. Every single ‘well of the world’, which men attempt to gratify their gnawing soul thirst, is only a transient satisfaction and superficial supply! The Lord Jesus declared that the root of man’s restlessness is the gnawing void which has been left by a vacated God.
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 2
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’” (John 4:13-14).
This passage in John 4 begins by stating that “Jesus needed to go through Samaria.” When observing a map of the ancient Middle East, it is easily discovered that the quickest route from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north would have been to travel directly through Samaria. However, the issue of traveling through Samaria was that the strict Orthodox Jews would go to radical extremes to avoid any contact with the Samaritans. For centuries, there had been intense hostilities between the Jews and the Samaritans. After the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., they deported most of the Jews and replaced them with foreigners. Some of the remaining Jews intermarried with these foreigners. As a result of this blending of cultures, the religious practices of those who intermarried became altered, combining elements of foreign gods with aspects of Judaism that had altered their worship of God.
Then, around 400 B. C., the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerazim. The Jews burnt that temple to the ground in 128 B.C. Obviously, this did not improve relations between the two groups! In addition to these past conflicts, the Samaritans accepted only the first five books of Moses as scripture. For these reasons and more, the Jews viewed the Samaritans as biological and religious half-breeds.
All of these events and factors had led to intense hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews by the time that the Lord Jesus walked the roads of the Holy Land. So, friend, you can’t properly understand the full scope of this divine appointment in Samaria, unless you keep all of these centuries of hostilities in the forefront of your mind.
The Orthodox Jews had an extreme prejudicial hatred for these Samaritans, whom they considered to be half-breeds. Oh, but the Lord Jesus Christ had a sovereign purpose to go through Samaria. God the Son had a foreordained redemptive appointment which would lead to the conversion of a serial adulteress, and then scores of other Samaritans! Thus, the Lord’s arrangement to travel through Samaria was far more than a geographical necessity. The Good Shepherd was seeking some of His lost sheep in Samaria. He began by ‘seeking and saving’ this singular immoral woman. He was compelled to walk 40 miles to fulfill this divine appointment with this sinful woman. It was binding on His heart to transform this wicked sinner into a worshiping saint!
In John 10:16, the Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of our souls, proclaims, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” In using the term ‘other sheep,” the Lord was describing Gentile sinners and these half-breed Samaritans. By traveling to Samaria, He was declaring that He was laying down His life, yes, to transform a remnant of Jews into true and spiritual worshipers. But also, He was presenting Himself as the sinless, substitutionary sacrifice so that Gentile dogs and half-breed Samaritans might be saved, becoming true and spiritual worshipers of the living God!
The Prophet Isaiah wrote, “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6b). Then in Isaiah 40:5a, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save this nefarious adulteress and transform her into a worshiper and a witness of the Lamb of God.
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH THE LIVING WATER — Part 1
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14).
Today, as we begin a new series of devotions, let’s use the following questions as a spiritual examination. Do you often find yourself in the midst of a quest for better circumstances to surround your life? Are you sensing dissatisfaction with your present situation? In your inner being, do you often experience a yearning for greater fulfillment, a higher attainment, or deeper contentment? Are you seeking a higher level of satisfaction (beyond where you presently abide), one you have not yet experienced and enjoyed? Would you need to admit that you are still seeking to ‘find and build an identity’ that will give you a sense of completion of your inner being? However, you would have to honestly confess that, ‘to this point in your life, this identity has been eluding you.’
Let’s examine the answers to these inquiries based on what we witness daily. Multitudes seek to establish their identity in the accumulation of material possessions. Others attempt to find this personal satisfaction in the amusements and pleasures of this age. Still others imagine that pursuing academic achievement will satisfy the longing of their inner person. Still others assume that marriage and a family will quench their soul's thirst!
However, the truth is that nothing in this physical realm can truly satisfy the longing of an eternal soul. The One who created the human soul declares that there is only one source of genuine and perpetual soul satisfaction. As Augustine once said, speaking of the Lord God, creator of all things, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until they find their rest in You.”
Since the deepest longings of the human soul can never be satisfied with the substitutes of this temporal world system. God has created you for Himself. So, if one does not know His purpose for creating you, whereby your life is not in alignment with His purpose, then you will find yourself at cross-purposes with God. Furthermore, you will tragically discover one day that you will be excluded from His eternal kingdom in the age to come!
As we consider this familiar encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, we must keep in mind that ‘the conversion of this woman is actually a secondary purpose in the passage’. The primary purpose of this passage is to continue to unveil the majestic glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we begin to observe this Divine appointment, we will find that both Jesus’ deity and His humanity are simultaneously displayed. When God the Son met this Samaritan woman, He already knew her entire history. This omniscient knowledge declares His deity. However, at the same time, the Son of Man experienced thirst, thirsting for a drink of water, after walking this lengthy journey from Judea to Galilee, traveling through Samaria. Experiencing thirst depicts His humanity.
When studying the opening chapters of the Gospel of John, you read testimonies to the Messiahship of Jesus Christ from the lips of the apostle John, John the Baptist, and other disciples. However, when you arrive at John 4, you read a direct personal declaration of Jesus’ Lordship and Messiahship” from the lips of the Lord Himself! Notice Jesus response to this woman in verse 26: “I who speak to you am He.” It is quite incredible that the Lord’s clear and concise proclamation of His own ‘Lordship and Messiahship’ was initially given to a Samaritan outcast, who was a spiritually ignorant woman. It was announced to a serial adulterer who was still living in the depths of immorality.
Let us not forget that the Samaritan woman was the direct opposite of the encounter with Nicodemus in John 3. The Pharisee of John 3 was the leading religious teacher of Israel. Furthermore, it was Nicodemus who sought to speak with the Lord Jesus. But this immoral adulteress, involved in a thoroughly corrupted religious system, did not seek to speak with Jesus. She came to the well to meet her physical needs and quench her thirst.
Notice, Jesus' initial revelation of His Messiahship would be revealed to a Samaritan sinner and not the religious elite of Israel, was a stinging rebuke to apostate Judaism! Moreover, this was a powerful declaration that the salvation Jesus would accomplish is for ALL who will come to Him on His terms. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I hope that you will continue reading the following devotions, as we contemplate this “divine appointment with The Living Water”!
CONFESSION OF SIN IN THE LIFE OF THE DISCIPLE OF JESUS — Part 5
“Jesus said to him (Peter), 'He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, 'You are not all clean’” (John 13:10).
Sin needs to be confessed and forsaken as a regular pattern in the life of the disciple of Christ. This is not confession before a judge, who would otherwise condemn you to hell, but confession before an astoundingly loving and perfect Father, who loves us enough to chasten us if we do not deal with our sin!
Our holy Lord God does not condemn sin in the sinner and then condone sin in the saint. Observe the following verse found in Hebrews chapter 12: "And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: 'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they (the human fathers) indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He (our heavenly and holy Father) for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
It is quite true that all of the genuine disciple’s sins are totally forgiven and forgotten at the instant of justification, as far as the judgment of God is concerned. However, God is not purposefully ignorant of the sins of one of His born-again children. God does not deny or lay aside His omniscience in relation to the sin of His children. There is nothing He fails to observe. God sees your sin as a follower of Christ. The Spirit of God is grieved or quenched by your sin. God is robbed of the glory that He is worthy of when you fall into sin. For these very reasons, this convert is urged to confess and forsake their sins when they stumble and fall on the highway of holiness. Both of these spiritual realities (the reality of justification and the need for confession) are true at the same time! Both are taught in Scripture. Through these devotions, we have observed the words “completely bathed” and “the washing of the feet,” and seen how they harmonize!
Friend, if you are born from above, the Lord did not save you to only give you an exit from hell and a ticket into Heaven. The Lord Jesus saved you to transform you from an unholy rebel into a holy worshiper of Him. As a born-again child of God, your ultimate destiny is to be conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ! Realizing that goal, you are to strive to be “holy and without blame before Him in love, which is why confession and forsaking of sin is imperative.
Furthermore, your Heavenly Father is very interested in the process that takes you to this ultimate destiny. Our Lord cares deeply about your practical progression in the pursuit of holiness. If the Lord must correct you to bring about confession and repentance, it can sometimes be a very painful experience. “Chastisement is never joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, it afterward yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto holiness."
Oh, dear reader, God always possesses a holy animosity and a just hostility against sin, whether it's a non-believer sinning or a believer sinning. Perfect holiness is always offended by sinful and selfish iniquity. So, if the born-again believer refuses to confess and repent, they can be assured that the chastisement of their Father is headed their way!
There is a punitive component in His discipline of unrepentant sin in the life of a disciple. We find words like “scourging, chastening, and rebuking,” all of which are contained in this idea of the parental sense of divine disapproval. However, notice that this is not the wrath against abused justice; this is the divine discipline of God the Father because of abused grace.
Oh, dear friend, when you struggle and stumble on the narrow road, don’t run and hide! Be quick to flee to your Advocate in confession and repentance. What a promise awaits you from a loving Father who says: “If you confess and forsake your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”
CONFESSION OF SIN IN THE LIFE OF THE DISCIPLE OF JESUS — Part 4
“Jesus said to him (Peter), ‘He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, ‘You are not all clean’” (John 13:10-11).
There are a number of clear distinctions laid out in 1st John that starkly contrast those who are genuine disciples with those who are not. One of those undeniable differences is found in the first chapter: “If we SAY that we have NO SIN, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The unconverted person either denies or minimizes the reality of sin in their life. Recently, I had the joy of spending some time in fellowship with a man in his 40’s, who the Spirit of God has ‘graciously birthed from above’ in recent days, after I had the precious privilege of proclaiming the truths of the Gospel to him.
Several glorious evidences are presently being manifested in this life as a baby believer. One of those pieces of evidence was his transparency to confess his sin; as well as his humble testimony of God’s deliverance from a formerly 'dominating sin' in his life! It certainly appears encouraging that the Spirit of God has graced him with a spiritual heart transplant.
This individual is openly candid about ‘confessing remaining sin’, as he is convicted of sin by placing himself under God’s word. He rejoices as he glories in the grace of God for a miraculous emancipation from a particular controlling sin in his past. John wrote, “If you say you have no sin, you're deceiving yourself.” Visiting family in my home state, my precious daughter and I were graced with another opportunity to witness to my unconverted 88-year-old mother, with other family members in the room. Suddenly, the door opened to proclaim ‘the bad news of my mother's terrible problem before a Holy God’ and ‘the good news of God’s tremendous provision in the Gospel’.
As we were proclaiming the bad news, my mom responded with the most shocking statement I have ever heard in all the 1000s of witnessing opportunities the Lord has given me. She said, “I am perfect! I have never sinned!”
Of course, I responded by confronting her with the fact that she has been breaking the “first and greatest commandment” every day of her life. I continued to demonstrate a number of ways in which she had been breaking the King of all the commandments. Her heart is in the bondage of the tyranny of sin, and yet she denies, deceiving herself, that she is a sinner!
One who has been transformed from a rebel sinner into a true disciple has been emancipated from the tyrannical grip of the mastery of sin. Yet, they will still battle with the unredeemed flesh that remains.
Consequently, he confesses and forsakes his sins as a pattern for their lives. A born-again follower of Jesus has been graced with the glorious reality of judicial forgiveness and the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus. This means that all of their sins have been imputed to the sinless Lamb of God. Simultaneously, the pristine righteousness of Jesus has been imputed to the convert’s account. This is the “GREAT EXCHANGE. It cannot possibly be revoked; neither in time nor in eternity!
What a glorious truth has been given through the Apostle Paul. In his letter to the Romans, he wrote: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
For this reason, one of the bona fide pieces of evidence that one has been completely bathed is the fruit of this “practical washing of the feet” (through confessing and forsaking the sins of the flesh).
Those who remain walking in darkness refuse to confess and forsake their sins. But those who are walking in the light are continually confessing and forsaking their sins.
This begs a question, dear reader! If you profess to have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, “Do you come to the Lord’s table with a sincere searching of your heart, to discover if there is any present sin in your life?”
Observe closely the words written to folks in the church at Corinth, whom Paul calls saints: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man EXAMINE himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would JUDGE OURSELVES, we would not be judged. But when we (saints) are judged, we are CHASTENED by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world”.