Living water of salvation

(my apologies once again for promising new article and not delivering. i hate when i do that. it will have to wait until tomorrow evening now) 

In John 4, a weary Jesus Christ sits at Jacob’s well and asks “the woman at the well” to give Him something to drink while His disciples have gone into the city to buy meat.

[9] Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

“The Lord Jesus Christ broke two of the taboos of His day. One, He spoke to a “strange woman” (meaning someone He didn’t know) in public, which was something you just didn’t do and two, worse than that, she was a Samaritan and the Jews didn’t have dealings with them.

“But Jesus Christ wasn’t one bound by religious tradition and social custom. His life and ministry weren’t controlled by those things.

“When she says, ‘How is it that thou, being a Jew?’ she doesn’t have any insight into what’s going on other than just seeing the physical things happening. She hasn’t any perception.

“She’s just as ignorant about spiritual things as Nicodemus was in John 3. She’s without the Jews’ religion, but she’s just as far away from God.

“Christ is going to begin to deal with her and try to whet her appetite for something more than just looking at the physical things.

John 4:10: [10] Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

“ ‘If thou knewest the gift of God’--that’s an interesting way of saying that. The assumption is God’s demanding and requiring and what Jesus is saying is, ‘God really wants to give you something. He wants to enable you to have something and if you had perceived the gift . . .’ That’s what she needed.

“If she had perceived her need AND who it is that said unto her; who He was. Those two things are inseparably connected. The gift and the provider.

“You see, she thought she was going to do the giving and what she needed was for Him to become the giver. She misunderstood what He was talking about.

[11] The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
[12] Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

“When she says ‘living water,’ she’s not saying the same thing He’s saying. She thinks He’s talking about running water--instead of it sitting in a pond, it’s running.

“Now I imagine when she said, ‘Art though greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well . . . ?’ she kind of drew herself up to her full 4’ 10” height and said, ‘By the way, do you realize this is Jacob’s well? He’s our father.’

“She begins to claim antiquity and heritage and so forth. She claims the greatness of her own family and descent. I mean, this well goes way back to the beginning. She’s saying, ‘Who in the world do you think you are anyway saying what you’re saying?!’

“So He answers her in verses 13-14: [13] Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
[14] 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.’

“You see, He brings her to the place where now she’s not looking just at this water; now she’s going to think about a kind of water that’s not the water in the well. He brings her all that way around to the place where she is conscious and interested in what He’s got to say to her.

“What He says is extremely important because He’s going to allude to some things in the Old Testament. Whether she picks up on it or not in the moment, it’s still what He’s doing. He’s not just using an illustration out of nowhere, is the point. He’s going to use the Scripture.

“He knows if He sends the Word out it won’t return void; God’s Word does its work.

*****

“That expression ‘living water’ is not a new expression in Israel. Jeremiah 2:12-13, for one example, says, [12] Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.

[13] For 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.

“Notice how the Lord describes Himself to Israel as 'the fountain of living waters.’ That’s a description of what Israel has done as they’ve gone into apostasy; they’ve left the Lord, the source of life-giving water and gone into Baal worship, the broken cisterns—all the things that have polluted Samaria.

“If you go down to Jeremiah 17:13, it says, [13] O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

“When He says in John 4:10 that He has a gift to give her and it’s a well springing up into everlasting life, and it’s going to be LIVING water, He’s talking about the restoration of Israel into her kingdom--the Messiah coming and producing everlasting life, kingdom life, for the nation.

“How’s that going to be accomplished? John 7:37-39 says, [37] In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
[38] He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
[39] (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

“It’s the same thing He was telling the woman at the well, but now He’s in Jerusalem talking to the Jews. This term ‘living water’ is a figure of speech, a metaphor from the Lord, and it’s talking specifically about the giving of the Holy Spirit.

'“The coming of the Holy Spirit is associated with the redemption of Israel, the regathering of Israel, the redeeming of Israel, the inauguration of that new covenant in Israel.

“Talking about the kingdom, Isaiah 12 says, ‘Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. [3] Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

“Jacob’s well was designed to be the well of salvation. So as Christ sits there at Jacob’s well, talking to a woman who’s made that well into just what Jerusalem had made the temple into (just an outward external exercise with no real spiritual truth), Jesus is talking about bringing the wells of salvation; the living water; the real issue, one that’s going to bring everlasting life.

“It’s going to be the gift of God. It’s interesting, the gift of God in the Bible is never described as faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.’

“The gift of God is always salvation; the issue of eternal life, the issue of doing for you what you can’t do for yourself. If you do for yourself, you’ll thirst again, but when He gives you the strength, you never thirst. It quenches the thirst spiritually.

*****

“The night before Jesus dies, He tells His apostles in John 14: [16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

“What that’s describing is the kind of relationship He’s going to have with the Believing Remnant under the provisions of the new covenant.

“He begins to educate them into the relationship their going to have now when the Spirit of God is placed IN them, regenerates them and then indwells them and becomes the animating force of life for them. So much so that Ezekiel 36 says, ‘I put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my judgments.’

“That is, He will supernaturally empower you to accomplish this. ‘I’ll write my laws into your heart.’ By the way, people often take that and say that’s what is happening with us. But the difference is, in II Corinthians 3, Paul talks about God doing some heart writing in us by His Spirit.

“He doesn’t write His law in our hearts. He writes Christ in our hearts. He says we’re epistles, not of the law, but we’re the epistles of Christ. What He writes in our hearts is grace, not the law.

“But what He’s talking to the apostles here is about what’s going to be theirs in the new covenant and the ministry of the Spirit there.

“Well, that’s what He’s talking to this woman at the well about. Because the only hope for Israel was regeneration, the life of the Spirit being given to them and this living water that never allowed them to come up thirsty again; the Holy Spirit indwelling them and being that powerful, animating force that brings everlasting life. 

“The Lord gets the woman at the well’s attention when, as John 4:15 reports, [15] The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

“She says, ‘I want that stuff! I want what you got! I’ll buy what you’re selling!’ Then in verse 16, He says right out of the blue, ‘Go, call thy husband, and come hither.’

“Now, that’s a problem because the woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus replies, ‘Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.’

“Whoa, mercy! She’s a five-time loser. Now, think about how she’s talking to a guy who says, ‘I’ll give you water that will never let you thirst again.’

“She’s realized He’s talking about something that’s going to quench that burning down in her soul, and she’s got the itch—I mean, she’s already had five husbands!

“Barney Google said, ‘Pity the man with a soul so tough to say one wife is not enough,’ but I got to tell you, five husbands would be a lot too! And besides that, the one she’s living with isn’t her husband. In other words, she’s living in a sinful state of immorality. 

*****

 “You see what Christ is doing? When He talks to her about that, what’s the first thing she’s going to feel? Shame, guilt. Her conscience has to be awakened because there’s more going on here than just Him giving her a gift.

“There’s a thirst that needs to be quenched, and the truth of her spiritual condition is brought right out on the table with her sins laid bare.

“By the way, He says, ‘Go get your husband and come hither.’ That’s grace. He didn’t say, ‘You can’t have this because you’re a dirty rotten, sinful, filthy . . .’ He doesn’t condemn her; He just says, ‘You need to own where you are and then come.’

“There’s that great old song, ‘Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bid’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!’ That’s what this lady’s learning.

“A wonderful verse in Luke 15 is when the Pharisees mock the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples and say, ‘Your master eats with publicans and sinners; he’s a friend of sinners.’

“I say, ‘Well, I’m so glad He is!’ They that are whole don’t need a physician but they that are sick, Jesus said, ‘I didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.’ And that’s where she comes to.

“She says in verse 19, ‘I perceive you’re somebody who talks for God.’ He shakes her out of her lethargy, brings to her the place of some spiritual awareness. By the way, He did it by supernatural means. He told her, ‘You had five and now you got somebody who isn’t your husband.’

 

“Later on, she’s going to tell the people of Samaria, ‘Come on, I’ll show you a man who told me everything I ever did.’ Now, you know she did more than just have five husbands. The point is, she knew He saw right through her.

“You remember what happened back in chapter 1 when He saw Nathaniel? [47] Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
[48] Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
[49] Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.’

“That same kind of supernatural knowledge He used to awaken Nathaniel He used to shake this little woman out of her physical sphere into spiritual consciousness that, ‘The one I’m talking to isn’t an ordinary guy!’

“So her conscience felt and owned the guilt. The songwriter says, ‘My conscious felt and owned the guilt and plunged me into despair.’

“Now, where do you run when you get plunged into despair and don’t know where to turn? One of the places people run is religion. So watch her do that.

“John 4 goes on, [19] The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
[20] Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 

“When somebody’s just come along and told you the mind of God; spoken to you and you understand He’s a prophet. She said, ‘I recognize the voice of God and what you’re saying,’ but she’s not saved yet. She’s not there trusting Him yet. She’s getting there, but for now she’s going to try to skirt the issue:

“ ‘I realize I’m facing a prophet. Well, our fathers (back in verse 12 it was our father Jacob and now it’s our fathers) worshipped in this mountain. Ye Jews say it’s in Jerusalem where men ought to worship. So let’s talk about this great religious controversy, about where should people worship. I mean, if you’re a prophet maybe you can answer this great religious question of the ages for me.’

“I think, ‘Geemanibidee! Isn’t that just what people do?!’ What relief is she going to get in some place of worship? How’s that going to unburden her heart and salve her conscience? It doesn’t. But it’s that attempt that your conscience makes to try to skirt around the issue of guilt.

“When you talk about the place, the mechanics, notice it’s anything but Christ.

“Jesus answers, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
[22] Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
[23] 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.
[24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’

“It’s interesting that Christ answers the question for her. Once and for all, authoritatively, He puts an end to the speculation between the Samaritans and the Jews and He settles the disputed point in one statement: ‘Salvation is of the Jews.’ Boom!

“You see, back in Deuteronomy 27, when God told Israel about where to worship, the Samaritan Pentateuch corrupted that chapter into saying that they should be worshipping in Mt. Gerizim. Now, by corrupting the Word of God to match their religious system, they had a false worship system.

*****

“By the way, when Jesus says in this mountain, go back to Genesis 22. Abraham is going to go into Moriah to a certain mountain that God has already picked out and that’s where he’s going to offer Isaac. Abraham actually named it the Mountain of Jehovah.

“In II Chronicles 3:1 it says that mountain in Moriah where David purchased the threshing floor is the same mountain where Abraham offered Isaac.

“That’s the mountain where Solomon built the temple—we’re talking about Jerusalem. And when He says in John 4 that you guys say ‘in that mountain up in Gerizim,’ they had corrupted the Scripture to make it go up there because they had tried to make the worship of Jehovah in the northern kingdom, which turned into Baal worship. 

“They tried to have a religious system like the one in the southern kingdom, but the real place where worship was going to be done was the place God had selected and that’s where he built the temple and that’s Mt. Moriah.

“So, there’s a lot of (major historical) discussion this woman’s trying to bring up here. And what Christ does when He says in verse 22, ‘Ye worship ye know not what,’ He’s saying, ‘You guys up here, you’ve got an apostate, vain, corrupted religion and you’ve got no idea what you’re doing; salvation’s of the Jews.’

“Now that’s slamming the door hard on the religious discussion by saying, ‘you know what you’ve got? You’ve got a bunch of false doctrine.’ Wham-O. Now what that did was turn her hot water into cold and cut it off to just a drip. While she’s trying to focus on all the religious stuff, Christ just wipes it right out of the way.

*****

"You notice what happens to the woman: ‘The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
[26] Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.’   

“That’s the Lord’s reward for being patient and dealing with this woman this way because she got it.  She said, ‘I know Messiah’s coming and He’s the one I really need,’ and Jesus said unto her, ‘I that speak unto you am He.’ 

“She got it and she immediately becomes a follower of Christ and a testimony to her people.

“You go down to verse 28 and it says the woman left her water pot and went away to her people, telling them: ‘Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’ She’s saying, ‘Don’t just look at me, look at Him and let Him speak for Himself.’

“Now, you’ll notice I skipped verse 27: [27] And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

“The disciples came back just at the moment to see the harvest--just at that moment to see the woman respond in faith to the testimony, ‘I am He.’

“They came just at the moment to see God’s salvation wasn’t simply going to be restricted to Israel, it was going to gather in Samaria, and obviously they didn’t get it. They were unaware, so there’s going to be some conversation with them about what they need to learn.”