The Samaritan Woman and Her Mission

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1882,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And upon this came His disciples, and marveled that He talked with the
woman, yet no man said, What do You seek? or, Why are You talking with
her? The woman then lefther waterpot, 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." John 4:27-30.

Behold our Lord and Master with divinely skillful art seeking after a
single soul! We must have large Congregations or we are disinclined for
soul-winning. The habit of the age is to do nothing but what is
ostentatious–every work must be with beat of drum or sound of
tambourine! I pray that the Lord may work in us the steadfast desire to
do good on the quiet, by stealth, when no one looks on, when not a
single disciple is near. Oh that we may have such an estimate of the
value of a single soul that we count whole days well spent to bring one
fallen woman or one drunk to the Savior's feet! Blessed is he who works
on though he is never heard of and looks for his reward from his
Master.

In the heat of the day the Lord Jesus found rest and refreshment in
speaking to one whom many would scarcely look upon except with eyes of
scorn. Blessed Savior, we do not marvel, as the disciples did, that You
did speak with the woman, but we do wonder with a higher kind of
astonishment that You ever did speak to the likes of us who have so
sadly fallen, done You dishonor and grieved Your heart! We are amazed
that He who is the Glory of Heaven, "Light of light, very God of very
God," should shroud Himself in the likeness of sinful flesh and, being
found in fashion as a Man, should seek after us unworthy ones. Oh, the
compassion of the Redeemer's heart!

Read this chapter through carefully and see the skill which that
compassion taught Him. How sweetly ready He was to converse with her
and take up her questions. Never imagine that the 30 years of
retirement at Nazareth were wasted. I would gladly go, if I were young,
for 30 years to learn how to talk as He did, if His own Spirit would
teach me the lesson. He was a perfect Teacher because as Man, He had
lent a willing ear to the heavenly instruction of the Holy Spirit and,
therefore, grew in knowledge and fitness for His work. As says that
notable Scripture, "The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the
learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that
is weary: He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as
the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back."

By communion with God in private and by watching men in seclusion, He
learned both the mind of God and the nature of man, so as to know how
to handle the human mind. Men are "unpredictable cattle," and can only
be managed by a wise hand. Many an earnest fool has driven a soul to
Hell in his endeavor to drag it to Heaven by force, for human wills
yield not to such rough force, but rebel the more. Souls have to be
brought to salvation by a gentleness and wisdom such us the Savior used
when He fascinated the Samaritan woman into eternal life and enticed
her to the truth–so I can only describe that wondrous power which He
exercised over her in the few short but blessed sentences with which He
addressed her.

Now, turn a moment from that Glorious One, that perfect Man and yet
infinite God, whom we would lovingly adore before we look away from
Him. Here come His disciples! They have been in the city to buy
food–an errand most neces-sary–that they and their Teacher might
live. But look! When they perceive Him talking with a woman, they
marvel, each in his own way. Some are dumfounded and cannot explain the
phenomenon! Others look as if they would interpose, if they dared, and
would cry to the woman, "Away you vixen! What right have you here,
speaking to such a One as our Leader, whose shoe-laces even we are not
worthy to unloose? Your approach dishonors Him! Take yourself away."

They did say so with their eyes, though awe of their Lord restrained
their tongues, for these disciples of Jesus were steeped in the
customary antipathies of the age. First, it was sufficiently offensive
that the person with whom Jesus was conversing was a woman. My beloved
Sisters, you owe much to the Gospel, for it is only by its agency that
you are raised to your proper place. For what said the Rabbis? "Rather
burn the sayings of the Law than teach them to women." And, again, "Let
no man prolong conversation with a woman. Let no man converse with a
woman in the streets, not even with his own wife." Women were thought
to be unfit for profound religious instruction and altogether inferior
beings. My Sisters, we do not think that you are superior to us, though
some of you, perhaps, fancy so, but we are right glad to acknowledge
your equality and to know that in Christ Jesus there is neither male
nor female! Jesus has lifted you up to your true place, side by side
with man!

Even the Apostles were tainted, at first, with that horrible
superstition which made them marvel that Jesus openly talked with a
woman. Moreover, they wondered that He could talk with such a woman! I
do not suppose they knew all about her character, but there is a look
about the fallen which betrays them–they cannot conceal the boldness
which a course of vice usually produces. They may have thought, "If He
had talked with an aged matron, a saintly mother in Israel, it might
not have been surprising; but how can He converse with such a woman?"
They did not, as yet, understand His mission to rescue the perishing
and save the lost. This poor woman, also, had the misfortune to be a
Samaritan and, above all things, Jews hated Samaritans as aliens and
heretics who dared to call Jacob their father and to believe themselves
orthodox!

Jews and Samaritans were much alike and you know the sects that
approach nearest to each other usually reserve their most bitter hatred
for their next of kin. They will tolerate those who are far removed
from them because they are altogether in the darkness of error and so,
are somewhat excusable. But those who have so much light, they detest
for not seeing eye to eye with themselves. We pity a dumb man, for he
cannot speak at all, but we are indignant that one who can say,
"Shibboleth," will not take a little more trouble and pronounce it,
"Shibboleth," as we do! Surely he might go that other inch and be quite
right. This woman was one of those Samaritan heretics who had dared to
set up an opposition temple to the one at Jerusalem and say that they,
also, were the people of God–so the disciples shrank from her and
marveled that Jesus did not do the same. How could so good a man mix
Himself up with such people?

I have, myself, heard a great deal of foolishness spoken about mixing
up with certain people because we dare to meet with them upon some
common ground to accomplish a right purpose. I have sometimes wondered
whether people ever read of Abraham, when he fought for the cause of
the king of Sodom. A horrible man, I have no doubt, that monarch was,
yet when his country had been plundered by the invading kings, Abraham
marched out on behalf of the King of Sodom–not that he cared for
him–but that he desired to deliver his nephew, Lot. For that reason he
is found in some measure of association with Sodom's king–but when the
object upon which they were united was achieved, then see how the
princely Abraham washes his hands of the man. He says, "I will not take
from you a thread even to a shoe-lace lest you should say, 'I have made
Abraham rich.'" Thus there may be a temporary union among men, between
whom there is the widest difference, and this apparent unity may be
lawful and expedient because the end to be gained is altogether good.

Our blessed Lord was seeking the good of this unholy woman and,
therefore, He was fully justified in talking with her. Thereby He
rebuked the superstition of His followers more effectually than by
words. There is another side to the question. How could these disciples
marvel that He spoke with anybody, after having chosen them and called
them? Surely, when they frowned on others, they forgot the dunghills
where they grew! If they had only remembered where they were when He
found them and how often they had grieved Him by their perverseness,
they would have reserved their surprise for their own cases. Ah,
Brothers and Sisters, ever since the Lord spoke with me, I have never
marveled that He spoke with anybody–it has not crossed my mind to make
it any subject of wonder that He should stoop to the lowest and
meanest, now that He has stooped to me!

Yet I fancy I have seen, in certain Brothers and Sisters, evident signs
that they forget that they were, themselves, once strangers in Egypt.
They forget that Grace washed and cleansed them, or else they would
have been filthy still, for Paul truly says, "such were some of you." I
am sorry when saved ones affect superfine purity and marvelous
spirituality–and turn away from such as Jesus would have welcomed.
Alas, such disciples have little of the tenderness of their Master! Our
Divine Lord has more tenderness for sinners than the whole of us put
together! There is more love in His soul towards

lost ones than there is in all these thousands of Believers here
present, though I hope that many of your hearts beat high with a loving
desire that the guilty may be delivered from the wrath to come.

But look at the disciples! Look, yonder is John, that sweet-souled
John, and yet he marvels! And there is Peter, good but faulty, and he
marvels! And there is Thomas, the thoughtful, and he marvels! They are
all good men and yet they are marveling that Jesus is gracious to a
poor woman! Oh, Peter, and John, and James and the rest of you, look
into your own hearts and let a glance of the Holy Spirit lighten up the
darkness of your spirits–and you will renounce this self-righteous
marveling which grieves the woman–and you will enter into deeper
sympathy with your Lord's love. Dear Friends, let us never disdain the
worst of men or women, but seek, with all our might, to woo and win
them for our Lord! Oh, to have hearts of mercies as Jesus had! This
will well become the followers of the compassionate Son of Man.

Look, as the result of this conduct of the disciples, one of the
sweetest conferences that was ever held was broken up and brought to a
close at its very climax. Just when Jesus had said, "I that speak unto
you am He," then it must end, for here they come, these cold,
unsympathetic ones! Yet they were disciples, were they not? Oh, yes,
and true disciples, too! But, alas, no breakers of communion are more
blamable or more frequent in the offense than Christ's own disciples
when they are out of sympathy with their Master. You see, they are
thinking about the meat and about the Savior's need of it–and these
thoughts were most proper–but not very elevated or spiritual. They
come, amazed that Jesus speaks with a woman, and so the holy conference
ends and the woman must go!

Oh, when any of you draw near to Christ and He is just lifting the
silver veil from His dear face, and your eyes are beginning to behold
Him, mind that you keep your door shut! "Oh, but it is a good man at
the door." Yes, but he will be just as likely to mar your fellowship as
anybody else! The best of men may sometimes intrude between you and the
Well-Beloved–and fellowship which seemed as if it must mellow into
Heaven, itself, will come to a speedy and sorrowful close! I do not
blame Peter that he wanted tabernacles in which to remain upon the top
of the mount, for he was pretty well aware of what he might meet upon
the plain. Do you not often wish that you could sing–

"Sequestered from the noise and strife, The lust, the pomp, and pride
of life; For Heaven I will my heart prepare, And have my conversation
there"? Although the conference was thus broken up, the consequence was
the Lord's Glory, even as often out of evil He works good. Since the
woman cannot sit and gaze upon the Divine face of her Lord, nor hear
the strange music which flowed from His blessed lips, she will give
herself to holy activity–she goes her way to the city and she speaks
to the men. This is well–there is little to deplore when men's hearts
are so right that you cannot take them away from glorifying Christ, do
what you may! When, if you disturb their private communion, they are
ready, at once, for public service! Driven away from sitting, like
Mary, at the Master's feet, let us rise to play the Martha, by
preparing a table for the Lord! Always reckon, dear Friends, whenever
you are taken off from your usual course of life, as it were, by a
jolt, that the Lord has some special work for you to do.

Do not fret, or try to buck the engine to get on the old lines again.
No, if the switch is turned by the Divine hand, go on–He that has the
management of all the railroads of your life knows better which way
your soul should go than you, yourself, can know! I have observed
Christian people jerked out of a pious family, where they were
extremely happy, and placed in the midst of ungodliness–a situation
not of their own choosing or seeking, but appointed of the Lord–that
they may bring godliness into that house and shed light in the midst of
the darkness. Friend, you, too, may be taken away from this Church
where your soul has flourished, and you may feel like one banished and
bereaved. Well, never mind! If you are sent to some Church where
everything is dreary and dead, go there like a firebrand to set them on
fire!

Your Lord would not have permitted the breaking up of your peace unless
He had some high service for you. Since you are His servant, find out
His will and do it! God will thus honor Himself in you and, by-and-by,
He will honor and comfort you, also. Observe that the woman, now,
becomes a messenger for Christ. She has to quit conferring with Him to
go and testify about Him! She did not go unbidden though, for she
remembered that the Lord had said at an early period of the
conversation, "Go, call your husband and come here." So she goes to
call her husband! It is well to have a warrant for what we do. Observe
she interprets her orders very liberally. She thought as the Christ had
said, "You have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your
husband," He could not have limited her errand to one who was not

her husband except in name–and so she might as well call any of the
six men with whom she had dwelt and, therefore, she might speak to all
the men who were loitering about the public square and tell them what
she had seen!

Remember how our Savior gave a large interpretation of His own
prophetic mission. He was not sent as a Teacher except to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, but He went to the very edge of His
diocese, if He did not go over it. He went to the borders of Tyre and
Sidon and when a woman came out of those parts, He had healing for her
daughter! Though He did sow most of His seed upon the acres of the Holy
Land, yet He made it fly over the boundary. In fact, He sowed all the
ages and, on this once barbarous island there have fallen blessed
handfuls which are bringing forth fruit to His Glory! Always go to the
verge of your commission–never stop short of it. Try to do more good
than you can and it is very possible that you will be successful.
Indeed, if you only try to do what you can do, you will do little! But
when, in faith, you attempt what you cannot, alone, accomplish, God
will be at your back–and in your weakness His strength shall be made
clear!

Notice that the woman leaves her waterpot. The Spirit of God thought
well to record this circumstance and, therefore, I think there must be
a measure of teaching in it. She left her waterpot, first, for speed.
Perhaps you have got it into your head that it was an ordinary English
waterpot, such as you water the garden with–possibly you so picture
it, rose and all. Nothing of the sort! It was a big jar, or large
pitcher of earthenware she had to carry on her head or her shoulder. It
was quite a load for her and so she left it, that she might run the
more quickly. She was a wise woman to leave her waterpot when she
needed to move rapidly. Others think she did so because she was so
taken up with her errand that she forgot her pitcher. It is blessed
forgetfulness which comes of absorption in a holy design!

When the King's business requires haste, it is wise to leave behind
everything that would hinder. Our Lord Jesus, Himself, forgot His
hunger in His zeal to guide a soul to peace. And it is said of Him in
the Psalm, "I forget to eat My bread." He was so absorbed in His
heavenly work that He said, "I have meat to eat that you know not of."
A man has hardly felt the power of eternal things, unless, at times, he
forgets some earthly matters. If a man is called to rush for his life
through a room full of crockery there will, probably, be a number of
breakages. You cannot think of everything at once–your mind is limited
and it is not advisable that you should divide the strength of your
thoughts by having two or more aims.

So she left her waterpot. Without thought she hit upon as good an
action as thought would have suggested. The wa-terpot would have
hindered her, but it might be useful to the Christ and His disciples.
Thus they could give Him to drink. He was thirsty and probably so were
they–and with her pitcher, they could help themselves. Besides, it was
a pledge that she was coming back. She said, "I am running away on an
errand, but I shall come back again. I have not listened to the great
Teacher for the last time. I shall return and hear Him further, till I
know Him better and trust Him more fully." So it was significant that
she left her waterpot.

Sometimes you will have to leave your shop to win a soul. You will cast
up a row of figures wrongly and wonder why–and the reason will be that
before your mind there fluttered the soul of a swearer or the figure of
a drunk, or the image of a fallen woman–and your heart was filled with
the longing to find the lost sheep. Never mind. I dare say the woman
had her water pot, again, and you will get back to business, again, and
rectify your blunder, attend to the shop and set all matters right. And
if a soul is saved, you will have made a profit by any loss you have
sustained.

We have started the woman on her mission. Now I want you to observe
particularly her mode of address, for there is teaching here. She said
to the men, "Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I did:
is not this the Christ?" Observe first, when she did go back to the
men, she had but one aim and that was to bring them to Jesus. She
cries, "Come, see." She did not tell them anything about their sin at
the time, nor try to reform their habits. She called them at once to
Him who could set them right. She knew that if she could bring them to
Christ, all things would inevitably come right. It is good for you to
shoot only at one target. Choose your design and aim at it, but not at
two objects. Drive away at the souls of men in the name of God to get
them to Christ, and nothing short of Him. Labor for this. Be willing to
live for this and to die for this, that men may be saved by Immanuel's
love, blood and Spirit.

This Samaritan woman aimed at this object and tried to gain it by an
exceedingly earnest address. I guarantee you she said it very
prettily–"Come, come, come, see a Man that told me all things that
ever I did!" Perhaps with all her charms, with all the softness of her
winsome tongue, with all the entreaty of her bright eyes, she cried,
"Come, every one of you; come, see for yourselves, a Man which told me
all things that ever I did." If you go upon the Lord's errands, take

your heart with you! Speak every single syllable earnestly and, if you
are thoroughly alive, you will not need to be taught the way of doing
it! The way comes naturally to those whose hearts are set upon the end.
She spoke self-forgetfully–she seemed entirely to have forgotten
herself and yet she remembered herself–a paradox, but not a
contradiction. She said, "Come, see a Man which told me all things that
ever I did."

She quoted herself and yet if she had thought of herself, she would not
have said a word on the subject of her own life. She might have feared
that the men would have replied–"A pretty story that must be!" They
knew her well and might have turned round and said, "You are a beauty,
to come here and talk to us in this style!" No, she let them talk of
her as they pleased. "Come, see a Man which told me all things that
ever I did." That putting aside of all affectation; that genuine
simplicity was part of her power. Never try to be otherwise than you
are. If you have been a great sinner, be ashamed of it, but do not be
ashamed of that love which saved you from it, so as to refuse to bear
witness to its power! Put away the thought of what people will think of
you and only look to what they will think of Jesus for having forgiven
and renewed you!

Note how short she was. Ralph Erskine calls her the female preacher. I
am not so sure of the correctness of the title. If women preached just
as long as she did, and no longer, no one could find fault with them.
Her testimony lies all in one verse and is an invitation and a
question. There needed no more words, no, not another half a word. She
said exactly enough, for she was successful in leading the men to
Jesus, who could do the preaching far better than she could. I cannot
call her words a sermon–at any rate, you would not care for me to
preach so briefly! However, brevity is a great virtue. Do not crave to
be fluent, only ask to be earnest. Then, how vivacious she was. "Come,
see a Man." The words are all alive and very far from being dull and
heavy. "Come, see." It is almost as laconic as Julius Caesar's famous
dispatch–"I came, I saw, I conquered." "Come, see a Man which told me
all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"

Then, it was so sensible. There is a dispute about the exact force of
what the woman said, but most of those who give us precise translations
differ from our common version. It is what she meant and believed, but
not exactly what she said. She probably said, "Come, see a Man which
told me all things that ever I did: Can this be the Christ?"–or, "This
is not the Christ, is He?" She did not say He was, but she suggested it
with great modesty for the men to examine. She believed that Jesus was
the Christ, but she knew that men do not like to be taught by such as
she and so she humbly threw it out for their examination. "Can this be
the anointed One whom we are expecting? Come and judge."

She did not express all she believed, lest she should provoke them to
opposition–she was adept and wise. She fished after the manner of her
Master, for she could not but feel how dexterously He had fished for
her. She was an apt scholar and humbly copied the Friend who had
blessed her–"Come, see a Man who told me all things that ever I did:
can this possibly be the Christ?" This led them to come, if it was only
to set the woman right! Possibly they thought her a poor, mistaken
woman, but, in their superior wisdom, they would look into the matter
and so the thing she desired was granted her. Oh, to have our wits
about us for Jesus!

But the argument is exceedingly strong, let her put it how she may.
"This Man has told me all things that ever I did." She might have said,
if she thought it wise to say it, "He must be the Christ." And that is
my last point, namely, the grand argument drawn from herself and
adapted to the men. Observe the force of her reasoning. His power to
read her heart and manifest her to herself, was conclusive evidence to
her that a special anointing was upon Him. But before I get at that I
must have you examine more fully the whole of the woman's little
message, of which it was a part. It divides itself into two parts. You
have been looking for my firstly and secondly all this while, and now
you shall have them! There are two parts in her sermon. The first is
the invitation–"Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I
did." The second is the argument–"Is not this the Christ?"

I. Consider at once THE INVITATION. It is a clever as well as a genuine
and hearty invitation. She says, "Come, see." This was putting it most
fairly and men like a fair proposal–and the Holy Spirit works by means
which suit the mind. She does not say, "You must and shall believe what
I say." No, no, she is too sensible. She says, "Come and see for
yourselves," and that is exactly what I want to say to every
unconverted person here, this morning. My Lord Jesus is the most
precious Savior that I ever dreamed of. Come and test Him! He is
altogether lovely and He has blessed my soul unspeakably, but I do not
want you to believe because of my saying so–come and see for
yourselves! Can anything be fairer?

Seek Him by prayer. Trust Him by faith. Test His Gospel for yourselves.
It is an old-fashioned exhortation–"Oh taste and see that the Lord is
good!" And, again, "Prove Me now, says the Lord of Hosts." In fact,
this is Christ's own word to the first disciples, "Come and see," and
they used it when pleading with others, saying to them, "Come and see."
Moreover, this woman's invitation throws the responsibility upon them.
She says, "Come and see." Thus would I say to you–If you do not come
and see, I cannot help it and I cannot help you, either. I cannot stand
sponsor for you–use your own judgments and clear your own consciences.
Come and see on your own accounts. If you do not, then the blame must
rest with you. If you do, then your personal investigation will be sure
to end in a blessing.

O dear Hearers, I may preach the Gospel to you, but I cannot go to
Christ in your place! It is mine to entreat and persuade and to use
every kind of means by which I may get you to the Savior, but it is a
personal matter with each of you! Oh that the Holy Spirit would lead
you to come, yourselves, to Jesus, for it must be your own act and deed
through His blessed working upon your nature! You must come, you must
repent, you must believe, you must lay hold on eternal life for
yourselves! Nothing but personal religion can possibly save you. The
woman's call was a good exhortation in that respect.

Then, is it not pleasantly put, so as to prove the sympathy of the
speaker? She does not say, as she might have said, "Go, see a Man."
No–"Come, see a Man," as much as to say, "Come along. I will go with
you and lead the way. You shall not say I have seen enough of Him and
do not care to go again, and now want to send you packing there alone
because I am tired of Him. No, come! Come along! Come with me–we will
all go together. The more I have seen of Him the more I want to see.
Come, see the wondrous Man." Dear Friends, when you try to win a soul,
do not try the, "go," system, but use the, "come," system! When man
cries, "I cannot go to Christ," or, "I will not go to Christ," look at
him through your tears and cry out, "Friend, I am a sinner like
yourself, and have no hope but in the precious blood of Jesus. Come,
let me pray with you! Let us go to Jesus together!"

Then, when you pray, do not say, "Lord, I am one of your saints and
come to you bringing this sinner." That may be true, but it is not a
wise way of speaking. Cry, "Lord, here are two sinners that deserve
Your wrath and we come to ask You in Your pity to give the Savior to us
and renew our hearts by Your Spirit." That is the way God helps
soul-winners to draw others–when we say, "Come," let us lead the way
ourselves. What you wish another to do, it will be wise to do yourself,
for example has more power than precept! How would you like the sinner
to turn round upon you and say, "You may well give away advice when you
do not intend to use it, yourself." No, but, "Come, see a Man that told
me all things that ever I did." A Sister's heart spoke out in that
word, "Come."

Again, what a blessed vanishing of the speaker there is! I have heard
of Brothers whose preaching is spoiled because they are so
self-conscious. The man wishes you to feel that he is speaking in
first-rate style and is an eminent divine. When he has finished, the
common exclamation is, "I never heard such a clever man." But he was
not so wise as he might have been or should have been, for he who
preaches rightly makes you forget himself! In fact, the observation
about him, if it comes out at all, is in this fashion–"I did not
detect any eloquence; anybody might have talked like that, but somehow
I have felt as I never felt before."

The fish knows little about the angler, but he knows when he has
swallowed the hook. When the Truth of God has gone right home to the
hearer's heart, the form of speech is of little consequence. This woman
does not say anything to make the Samaritan men admire her, but she
draws them to Jesus with the exhortation, "Come, see a Man." What she
does mention about herself is with the design of extolling the Savior.
That is a grand sentence of John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I
must decrease." Less, less, less of John, that there may be all the
more of Christ! There is but one great universe and Christ and you are
in it. The more space you occupy, there must be so much the less for
Jesus. When you get less and less there is more for Jesus–and when you
reach the vanishing point, then Jesus is All in All–and that is
exactly what you should aim at!

This sensible woman's invitation deserves to be copied by every worker.

II. Now for THE ARGUMENT, with which I close. An argument lies
concealed here and if you look at the text a minute or two, you will
discover it. She conceals it because she is persuaded that they have
already agreed to it. It is this–"If Jesus is the Christ, the
Anointed, then it is fit that you should come with me and see Him." She
does not argue that point because every Samaritan agreed to it. If
Jesus is the Christ, then we ought to go and listen to Him, look at Him

and become His followers. Alas, my dear Hearers, I am obliged to urge
that argument with many of you because you are not so practical as
these Samaritans.

You believe that Jesus is the Christ. I suppose every man and woman of
you does that. Why, then, do you not believe in Him as your Savior? You
never had a doubt about His Godhead–why is He not your God? "If I tell
you the truth," says Christ, "why do you not believe Me?" If this is
the Anointed One whom God has sent to take away the sins of men, why
have you not sought Him, that He may rid you of your sins? If this is
the Propitiation which God has set forth, why have you not accepted
this Propitiation? If this is the Fountain wherein sin can be washed
away, why are you not washed? There is no reason in your course of
action–it is illogical and irrational. If there is a Savior, the man
who is taught right reason vows that he will have Him! If there is a
fountain that can wash away sin, he resolves to be washed in it–if he
can get right with God by any process, he hastens to be rectified. I
say this woman did not argue the point because it did not need arguing.
It goes without saying and there let it stand.

But what she did argue was this–"This Man who was just now sitting on
the well, is He not the Christ?" How did she prove it? First, she did
as good as say, "He must be Christ because He has revealed me to
myself–He has told me all things that ever I did." The words are wide.
Stop, dear woman, surely He has not revealed all your life, certainly
not in words! He has revealed your unchastity, but nothing else. But
she was right. Were you ever out in a black and murky night when a
single lightning flash has come? It has only struck one oak in the
field, but in so doing it has revealed all the landscape. It struck one
object, but all around you was light as day for the moment! So, when
the Lord Jesus Christ revealed this woman's lustfulness, she saw
clearly the whole of her life at a single view and the Lord had,
indeed, told her all things that ever she did!

Do you wonder that she said, "Is not this the Christ?" Beloved, no one
proves Himself to be truly anointed unless He begins by showing you
your sins! If any teacher leads you to hope that, without repentance,
or any sense of sin, you may be saved, he is not of Christ! I charge
you, fling away any hope which is not consistent with your own entire
hopelessness apart from Jesus! If you have not known yourself a sinner,
you cannot know Christ as a Savior. Some are preaching, nowadays, a
dry-eyed faith and men seem to jump into assurance as if there were no
new birth, no conviction of sin and no repentance. But it is not
so–"You must be born again." That birth is not without pangs. Trust in
Christ brings a hatred of sin and a mourning because of it. A man
cannot hate what he does not know, but this woman was made to see her
sin and that sight proved that the Messiah was dealing with her.

The non-repentance prophets cry, "Peace, peace," where there is no
peace! They film the sore, but Jesus puts the knife into it, lays it
wide open and makes the patient see the gangrene of the wound–and then
He closes it up and, with His heavenly ointment makes a sure cure of
it. There is no binding up the heart that was never broken! There is no
comforting a man who has always been comfortable! There is no making a
man righteous who always was righteous–there is no washing a man who
has no filthiness. No, and this is what the Messiah does–He lays bare
the disease and this is a proof that He is sent of God because He does
not adopt the flimsy, flattering mode of deceivers, but goes straight
to the truth. Her argument is–He must be the Messiah, for He revealed
me to myself!

Secondly, He must be the Messiah, for He has revealed Himself to me.
"No sooner did I see my filthiness than I saw at once that He was every
way ready to cleanse me." A sinner's eye is never ready to see the
Savior till first it has seen the sin. When the man sees despair
written across the face of human strength, then he turns and sees hope
mildly beaming from the kind eyes of the Son of Man–but not till then.
Jesus has revealed Himself and now she says, "I see that He knows me
and knows all about me." Wonderful it is how the Gospel robe exactly
fits a man–when he gets it and puts it on, he feels that He who made
this garment knew His form. Perhaps you have some special weakness or
singular deformity, but you soon perceive that Jesus knew all about it,
for His salvation exactly meets the lack.

There is a bath. Ah, He knew I was filthy. There is a robe. Ah, He knew
I was naked. There is eye salve–He knew that I was blind. Here is a
ring for my finger–He knew I wanted a forget-me-not to keep me in
memory of mercy received. Here are shoes for my bare feet and a banquet
for my griping hunger. Every need is taken care of and this proves the
Omniscience of my Savior! "Therefore," she said, "He knows all about
me. He must be infinitely wise; He must be the Christ." This is good
arguing, is it not?

Then she seemed to say to them, too, "This is a great deal more to me
than it can be to you, for He has dealt personally with me and,
therefore, I abide in my assurance that He is the Christ. But go and
learn the same arguments for your-

selves." Brothers and Sisters, if the Lord Jesus Christ had told this
woman all that ever her third husband did, it would have had far less
power over her than telling her all she had done, herself! When
conviction comes personally home and the discovery is all about your
own state and character, it has a special power over your heart and
mind to make you say, "This is the Christ." Also, my Brethren, at the
remembrance of my Lord's surgery when I was wounded and sorely broken,
I am ready to cry, "See how He handled me! Never was a hand so strong
and yet so tender! Never a physician with such a lion's heart and such
a lady's hand. I can feel His strength as He holds me up and I can feel
His tenderness as He embraces me. Surely He is the Anointed and sent of
the Lord to bind up the brokenhearted, for He has bound up my broken
heart! The case is proven to me–come and experience the same
conviction within yourselves."

Moreover, and perhaps there is force in this which has not been
noticed, she says, "Come, see," as much as to say, "You may come, I
know, for when I came to the well, He did not look daggers at me. And
when I did not give Him water, He did not grow hot with me and say,
'Disrespectful woman, I will not speak to you.' No, but I was at home
with Him in a moment! Come, see a Man who made Himself so at home with
me that He told me all that ever I did. I am sure He must be the
Messiah. The Messiah is to come to open the blind eyes and He must
necessarily be among the blind to perform the miracle! He is to fetch
prisoners out of prison and they are the lowest class that are in
prison–and yet He goes to them! So, come along! I will go first and
introduce you to Him."

That is the woman's little speech and how good it is! I am going to add
a bit to it which she did not know, but which we know. I wish I knew
how to say something that would make you unconverted ones hurry to
Christ, but if anything ought to do it, it is this. Suppose you never
do come to Christ in this life and die without Him? God grant you may
not die without having listened to Him and received Him, but if you do,
you will be awakened at the Last Day from your grave with the blast of
a terrible trumpet and with the cry of, "Come to judgment! Come to
judgment! Come away!" Whether you will, or not, you will have to come
and see a Man sitting upon the Great White Throne, judging the nations!

And do you know what He will do with you, then? He will tell you all
things that ever you did–and as the scenes pass before your mind's eye
and as your own words go ringing, again, through your ears, you will be
sorely distressed! Perhaps this morning's scene will be revived before
you and conscience will tell you, "You were at the Tabernacle that
morning. The Gospel was put plainly to you, by one who in his heart
longed for you to be saved, but you did despite to all those entreaties
and turned away." I tell you it will be your Hell for Jesus to tell you
all things that ever you did! And you will then see the argument–"Is
not this the Christ?" But, alas, He will be no Savior to you, for you
refused Him! He will, then, tell you, "I called, but you refused. I
stretched out My hands, but no man regarded."

Still shall proceed that awful tale of all things that ever you did,
concluding with this–you refused mercy, you rejected Jesus, you turned
away from salvation, you would not have this Man to save you and,
therefore, have you come to have your past made the fuel for your
everlasting burning! God grant that no one, here, may ever come to
that! No, if I had the task to select one man out of this congregation
that would have to spend an eternity in having his life rehearsed to
him, where should I find him? No, I cannot see one that I dare to pitch
upon, not one–not one–not even the worst man or woman here! I would
not if I could!

O God, of Your mercy suffer no one here to know the terror of being
driven away forever from Your Presence and the Glory of your power, for
Jesus' sake. Amen.
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One War Over and Another Begun