THE SPIRIT AS POWER OF DELIVERANCE AND WORSHIP
[p. 233] THE SPIRIT AS POWER OF DELIVERANCE AND WORSHIP
JT This chapter supposes the teaching of chapter 3, but deliverance here is not only from what is natural, but from what is sinful. We have not the honourable marriage link, as in chapter 2; the relationship is utterly degraded here and the woman lawless. Her circumstances therefore are sinful; but withal there is a thirst and the Spirit here meets this need. The main feature of chapter 3 ends with verse 16. It sets out what God is and what He had in His heart for man, everlasting life. But what the Father seeks from man is presented in chapter 4.
EJMcB That is interesting. The Lord’s question to the woman to call her husband brought out her circumstances; she had been lawless, but underneath there was thirst.
JT We have developed here a very important principle. In the light of the situation established in chapter 3: 35, man is to pray. “The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand”. The Baptist called attention to Christ, not as officially sent to do so, as in chapter 1, but as one whose joy was fulfilled in hearing His voice; but the Father loves the Son and trusts Him implicitly, so that He delivers all things into His hand. This is the situation, and chapter 4 is founded upon it.
RSS What was your thought as to prayer?
JT “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water”. To understand the situation indicated in chapter 3: 35, induces confidence to pray. John the baptist represented the old economy, but he gives way to Christ, the heavenly Man. Christ,
[p. 234] receiving all things from the Father, necessarily supersedes the economy that had existed at Jerusalem; the gift of God was, according to the new economy, set up in the Son; all was on spiritual lines.
EJMcB What an appreciation John had of Christ! There was One to whom the Spirit was given without measure; then in chapter 4 we learn that a prayerful attitude is to be the result. What the Lord desired was that souls should be in communion with the Father, that there should be worshippers in spirit and in truth.
JT First Christ gives the living water, so that the soul may be delivered; then He brings in a worshipping company; see verses 23, 24. As the Father loves Him, He loves the Father, and so brings in what the Father seeks.
RSS In the woman there was an thirst underneath as away from God.
JT The Holy Spirit is introduced figuratively in a peculiar and forceful way. It is said that “the water ... shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life”. God’s thought for the believer is that he should be set up in spiritual independence in the very place of his degradation.
The spiritual man is really the only person independent of the world.
AFM There is a great contrast between Nicodemus and this woman. Is there any connection between them?
JT Nicodemus came from the religious quarter of the world, but the woman from the sensual. The teaching as to new birth was to meet the pretensions of the religious man after the flesh. With the woman the case was different; she was abandoned to evil, but there was thirst and the Lord proposed to meet this in grace. He proposed satisfaction in a spiritual way where lawless nature failed.
[p. 235] EJMcB If a man is incapable of pursuing the spiritual, he is likely to pursue the sensual.
FL We may say that in Nicodemus man was at his best; but even here nothing for God was reached. “The flesh profits nothing”. All is dependent on the Man who came down from heaven.
JT The word husband is very remarkable here; but in five husbands the relationship was evidently perverted, and then the woman was living with a man who was not her husband, so that she was utterly lawless, but there was thirst there and the Lord proposes to meet this by the living water.
JS In this chapter the subject of God’s worship is introduced.
JT Yes. The teaching of the chapter involves the liberation of the believer from the influences that would hold him naturally; he is set up in spiritual independence and all earthly ceremonialism in the worship of God, is superseded for him.
FL Is not spiritual independence illustrated in Rebecca? She is brought, as it were, to Isaac by means which he provided.
JT The believer, as in the light of the situation at the end of John 3, has everything in Christ; he only needs to ask.
EJMcB As set up here in the power of the Spirit we can respond to the heart of God.
JT You are thus delivered from the claims of current religious organisations. The systems come into their present form through the doctrine of Balaam; he could not curse the people, hence he resorted to doctrine which had the object of corrupting them. Christendom is a growth out of the doctrine of Balaam; it has in it the principle of accommodation; the standard is reduced to the level of natural conscience, whereas true worship and Christian practice were to be according to the truth, and Christ is the truth. God admitted no [p. 236] lower standard.
EJMcB Balaam, through Balak, taught Israel to sin. In the five husbands here no doubt there was legalised sin.
AFM In verse 14 it says, “the water shall become in him a fountain of water springing up”.
JT The word refers to the activities of the Spirit in the saint after He is received, not exactly to the fact of His reception. As recognising the Spirit, we are not deterred by any difficulty in our way, for we shall have abundant support. Paul is the great model Christian; his energies did not flag; he was equal to every situation; in Philippians his spiritual energies are set before us in a remarkable way.
EJMcB Great emphasis should be laid on the close of the previous chapter; we are in the presence of One in whom the Father has found His unbounded delight, and into whose hand He has committed all things.
Ques Does the “gift of God” refer to “all things”?
JT Yes; all things are given into the hand of the Son, but at the present moment He gives the Spirit.
FL In the coming day He will administrate other things, but today He gives the Spirit.
AFM It is clear from what is before us, that we should continue in prayer.
JT Christianity is a spiritual order of things, and it is characterised by prayer. It is very suggestive in this respect, that Paul, the great architect of the assembly, is introduced to the saints by the Lord, as a praying man.
EJMcB In Jude we are exhorted to pray in the Holy Spirit.
JT A man who prays for you would not do you any harm. Ananias was in dread of Saul, but the Lord says, “he is praying”.
EJMcB Prayer leads to spiritual independence. Acts 4: 23 - 31, indicates how things were to go on practically in the assembly.
FL Prayer is a proof that the flesh is subdued and repudiated; there is no pride nor hardness of spirit in the attitude of prayer.
HMB While you stand praying, you forgive.
Ques Is not the principal object in the gift of the Spirit that the Father might have worshippers?
JT First the believer is to be delivered in his affections. The thought of the Lord here is that these should be directed into new channels. In the types certain entrails of the offerings, especially the fat that covered them, were burned on the altar of burnt offering; they are said to be an offering “of a sweet savour unto the Lord”. This shows what the inward motives and affections of man, as governed by the Spirit, are to God. How different it had been with this woman heretofore!
AFM This woman had not a proper head; are we not recovered by Christ as Head?
JT Christ is the new Husband. Really we may say that one is not qualified for ordinary marriage unless married to Christ first, Romans 7: 4. What an effect the Lord’s interview with the woman had on her!
F.L. “Come, see a Man!”
JT Were the five husbands now before her?
They were entirely superseded. Now it is one Man; she has deliverance.
EJMcB Her expression here is beautiful, showing how the Lord is before her mind and heart.
JT Christ is now the source of supply; she has abandoned the flesh and its resources.
Rem In connection with this the well would spring up.
JT “Come, see a Man”. Now that the Spirit is come the bearing of this may be understood;
[p. 238] the woman is delivered from lawlessness, and we can understand how that henceforth Christ would be all to her.
EJMcB How she would have appreciated Philip’s preaching afterwards if she had heard it in Samaria! He preached Christ, and there was great joy in the city.
JT I am sure the natural relationship of marriage would afford much more joy if the spiritual preceded it. The married life of many saints would be much happier if they understood the relationship to Christ according to Romans 7.
RSS What is involved in being married to Christ?
JT Jehovah was Husband to Israel; but in no such way as Christ is Husband to us. Marriage supposes a new establishment, for a man leaves his father and mother; he leaves the old system, so that in being married to Christ we are set up in independence of the world; He supports and protects us.
FL In principle these things are illustrated in the woman here. Christ was so much before her in her testimony that many of the Samaritans believed.
EJMcB A distinct evidence of the Spirit is that we speak of Christ appreciatively. What will free us from lawlessness and legality is to have the affections captivated by one Man.
JT And there is no limit to His resources.
RSS The Lord speaks of salvation here. We must know salvation before we can worship.
JT Yes. The woman had expressed certain Samaritan pretensions which the Lord dissipates. In the ways of God on earth the Jews have the first place; salvation was of them. The Lord’s remarks here sustain God’s ways in connection with Jerusalem, but He immediately proceeds to the period of Christianity in which there should be true worshippers to worship the Father in [p. 239] spirit and truth.
EJMcB It is only by the Spirit that we can be delivered from earthly religious props.
JT There is often a question as to what worship is; it is more to be experienced than defined. If you see a worshipper you will get some idea of worship.
EJMcB If there are true worshippers there will be worship; real worship is a state Godward rather than utterance.
JT With disorder outside, nothing can afford more interest to the Father than a company of worshippers down here. It is a great testimony to what salvation is; worshippers are entirely free from the influence of things without.
RSS The priests are clothed with salvation.
EJMcB There are two sides of salvation seen in this woman; she left her waterpot, and she was not afraid of the men of the city, for she went and told them about Christ.
FL The more independent we are of the world in the power of the Spirit, the less can we do without our brethren.
JT As together, we are all one in Christ and we are in the light of the revelation of the Father in the Son. We have access to the Father by the one Spirit; we are of the worshipping company.
EJMcB People of “independent means” together!
JT We have a point of sympathy in the revelation of the Father and the gift of the Spirit. What common motives and affections are thus produced in our hearts which occasion our being together!