REALITY

^[p. 493] REALITY

John 4:10 - 19; John 4:28; John 4:30; John 4:39,40; John 4:46 - 53

This gospel was evidently written long after the ministry of the twelve and of Paul had been effective, so that in a widespread area of the world, Jesus was believed on. Among those nominal believers there were some who were not really converted, they were not born again. John has in view that all nominal believers should be real believers, and that there should be no merely feigned believers. He tells us at the outset, that those that received the Lord Jesus, obtained from God the title to take the place of His children, “but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name”; and then he adds, “who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God”, John 1: 12, 13. God has in mind to disqualify all others; a very solemn matter for them, but necessary on God’s account, for He hates unreality, and certainly will not have unreal believers. He knows they will drift away sooner or later. So John tells us in his wonderful sixth chapter, that when Jesus spoke words of “spirit and ... life” many of His disciples went away back and walked no more with Him. That is the inevitable result of unreality in our faith. The Lord challenges them, He says, “Will ye also go away?” And one of them answers, “To whom shall we go? Thou hast words of life eternal”. They were real, and they were detained near the Lord, as followers of Him, because He had the words of eternal life.

The gospel today must, in the nature of things, take character from this wonderful book called ‘The Gospel according to John’. Not that Luke’s gospel does not stand; it does — his is the loveliest of ^[p. 494] all books. And those of Matthew and Mark stand, too, but they must all serve in relation to John because the gospel of today is to those who are nominal believers, many of them, alas, unreal! John would say to us, ‘I should like to see all these people real believers, no longer merely nominal, otherwise they will turn aside in due course and end by being banished from the presence of God’. John is the same writer as the one who presents to us the solemn scene of the great white throne, and the One who sat on the well at Sychar in chapter 4 is the very same One that John presents, as sitting on that solemn seat called the great white throne, and from whose face the heaven and the earth flee away. Whilst John presents the love of God in the most wonderful way, for he knew it as perhaps no one else, yet he presents judgment. Not that judgment is opposed to love, it is not, it is the exigency of love, for how could God rest in His love, with rebellious men and women before Him? He could not. So John, taking account of us as nominal believers, presses the idea of coming to Jesus. John the baptist presents Him to us, at the outset, as standing. “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know, he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”, John 1: 26, 27. And then John presents Jesus walking, he says, “And, looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”, John 1: 36. I should like to call your attention to that wondrous, glorious Person, with the same sort of feeling that filled the heart of John the baptist when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God”. If I were to say, ‘John, of whom are you speaking?’ He would reply, ‘I am speaking of this Person who is walking’; but really the whole universe should hear, “Behold the Lamb of God”. That voice resounds in the power of the Spirit tonight, “Behold the Lamb of God”. Have you seen Him? Have you seen any of His ^[p. 495] movements? Have you heard Him? Have you moved on hearing of Him? There were two disciples of John the baptist who were within hearing of his voice, and they followed Jesus. They followed Him really, and feelingly, they were touched by the voice of the baptist, and they were moved to follow. Would that my voice could move you thus. They followed Jesus; attention is being called to Him by the voice of love, it moves hearers to follow. Let the word into your heart. As heaven looks down on you, it wonders that your heart can be so hard as to refuse such an appeal! If there is any movement, heaven notices it, and is pleased; “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”.

One of the two disciples who followed Jesus was called Andrew, a notable man; he had been with Jesus for some hours of the day, and then he went off to get his brother. Someone may have invited you tonight — your father, mother, brother, sister or friend — it has cost them something, some thought or it may be prayer, and you have come. But that is not all. When Andrew had found the Messiah, he went after his brother, and brought him to Jesus. I am here tonight for that purpose, that in the grace of God some soul may be reached and led to Jesus. Luke would lead Jesus to you, so in no sense are we to set him aside. Luke tells us of the man on the road to Jericho, who fell among thieves who left him half dead, and of a Samaritan who passed that way and “came to him”, that is what Luke would tell you, but John would say ‘Come to Jesus’. You have been led to this room tonight, that you might hear the voice of Christ in the preaching. Some do not think much about the preaching, but it is of great importance to God, for it is His way of calling attention to Christ, in such wise that you might “come and see”. John tells us that the Lord said, “No one ^[p. 496] can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him”, John 6: 44. It is a real work of God — of the Father, Son and Spirit — a mighty effective power to draw souls to Jesus. The Lord also says, “Him that comes to me I will not at all cast out”, John 6: 37. Whatever drawings there are, and there are drawings on this, the Lord’s day; this whole day has occasioned a mighty wave of divine power, and all with a view that souls might be drawn to Jesus.

This chapter is one of the most touching in John’s gospel. He deals with individuals; you get nothing in John as to numbers being converted or healed at one time, it is one after another. John’s aim is quality, real conversions and real believers who saw the glory. It says, “Jesus ... manifested his glory; and his disciples believed on him”, John 2: 11. They looked on Him as His glory was manifested and they believed; that is what John has in view, he wants quality. At the end of his gospel, John tells us about the great catch of fishes; it is very striking how he brings in the number of the fishes — “a hundred and fifty-three”. Where do they come from? From “the right side of the ship”, chapter 21: 6. Luke tells us that they come from the deep (Luke 5: 4), but John says that they come from the right side of the ship, he has more discernment. Luke speaks of their weight, which causes the ships to sink, but John gives their number and quality, they are great ones. These are living saints, brought about by the ministry as peculiar to this gospel. Living persons whom Jesus on looking at, can name as He did Cephas. “Thou shalt be called Cephas”. They were not like nominal converts who put up their hands and say, ‘I believe’, and who perhaps are never seen again! These are real believers, for the gospel is to secure men for God.

In this gospel we have a Nicodemus, in chapter 3, a man of distinction among the Jews; and a nobleman ^[p. 497] in chapter 4; but between these two we have an outcast woman; her circumstances, and the circumstances of Jesus, brought them together. Jesus was at this well on account of His love; He was going to Galilee but He came to this spot; He was weary and He sat thus on the well, making no effort to conceal that He was weary. The woman came to Him on account of something that she needed; she needed water. Possibly she came then, because she could not come when others were there; she was a sinner, a woman of no repute. Let no one think that does not apply to me, for no one has reputation according to the flesh; she is just a picture of us all. God sees right through us all. When Nicodemus came to the Lord, He saw right through him and said, “Ye must be born again”, chapter 3: 7. I do not know what classes are represented here, but the Lord knows; He said to Nicodemus, Your class, as a teacher of Israel, must be born again. That sweeps away all religious pride. People hide themselves, as they think, behind religious garb and custom, but the Lord says to that class of people, “Ye must be born again”. The Lord does not say a word to this woman about new birth, she had no status whatever in that way, she had no reputation; but the Lord knew she was a poor, thirsty soul, who had drunk deeply into this world’s pleasure and had come to the end of it. That was the class to which she belonged, and the Lord knew it. The Lord knows all about you; He knows what is going on in your soul, and what soul-experience you have had. He says to you, “If thou knewest” — there is no question of what He knows, but of your knowledge. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. The object of the preaching is to call attention to the wonderful gift of God, and to the Person through whom the gift ^[p. 498] comes. The Person is equal to the gift, and the gift is equal to the Person.

Then the woman says, “Give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw”. She was on natural lines, as most of us are at the outset; but there was a moral question to be settled with her, and the Lord says to her, “Go, call thy husband, and come here”. Were the facts all known as to ourselves, there may be some domestic or other difficulty, which will have to be met and judged; the light of God has to search you, and to disclose to you the motives that are acting with you; before God does His work He will search you through and through. The woman says, “I have not a husband”. It is not only what exists now, but what has existed, that matters, for God requires that which is past. If God is dealing with your soul, He will have everything out and settled; He will enter into and enquire into your past life. You can never be happy with God till things are all out and settled — everything owned and confessed. It is a wonderful thing to learn how to confess to God. He reverts to your history since the beginning of it, not only what you are now, but what you have been. So the Lord here says to this woman, “Thou hast had five husbands”, and the worst of it all is, that the one you have now is not your husband; so you said truly, “I have not a husband”. The light entered into her and exposed her, and she said, “Sir, I see that thou art a prophet”. Perhaps you have never spoken respectfully to the Lord Jesus. Have you said anything to Him? He is ready to hear you. He listens to the blackest sinner that turns to Him. If God works with you, you will speak respectfully to the Lord.

Now having gone so far, I want to speak about this woman’s body, as being typified in her water pot; because this chapter would secure you in your body and in your house. If we have in a town a ^[p. 499] certain number of persons secured in their bodies (I mean as to themselves — body, soul and spirit) and then in their houses, we have material for the assembly, in principle; and then there will be a place for Jesus in the town. That is exactly what happened here; this woman left her waterpot, that is to say, the material vessel which she brought, to get water from Sychar’s well. There is no hint that she had a house, or a head of her own, but she had a body, as every one of us has. The epistle to the Romans, which is the great gospel epistle, gives the exhortation to present our bodies “a living sacrifice”; without that there is no evidence that the gospel has done its work. If my body is not yielded up, the Lord would claim it. The Lord has need of the believer’s body; what a triumph that such a body should be in possession of living water! The woman drank the living water, in principle, and she lived. Her body was, so to speak, filled with that living water, though I admit that the Holy Spirit had not yet come. What happens today is that light comes in, then there is confession, and believing the gospel; then there is the reception of the Holy Spirit, and the body becomes “dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness” (Romans 8: 10); the body is presented to God “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”, Romans 12: 1. This is what you get illustrated in this chapter. The woman leaves her waterpot, and goes to the men and says to them, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?” (verse 29). How perfectly the light had penetrated her soul! “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”. One is challenged as to that, have we gone over the whole ground with God? The greatest cause of weakness among us, as believers, is the want of self-judgment — the confessing of things. “Is not he the Christ?”

^[p. 500] Speaking about Jesus in that way is sure to be noticed; it amounts to a very positive assertion, the strongest way of presenting Him. So “they went out of the city, and came to him” — I would call your attention to that; they went out to Him, there is soul movement. The gospel according to John would produce soul movement to Christ. Then they believed, having heard Him, and they invited Him to stay with them. Is not that very beautiful?

I think the Lord greatly valued that. He stays with them for a fixed time, for two days, “and more a great deal believed on account of his word”. Then they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of what you said, though they did not make little of that, for she had brought the living water to them; her body was a holy vessel, which had carried the living water, as she spoke about Christ to the men of Sychar, but they said, “Now we believe ... for we have heard him ourselves”. I would say to you, Go and hear Him yourself; that is what these men did, and then they say, He is “the Saviour of the world”. They got more than she did, but she would not be in the least envious of that; on the contrary, she would rejoice. If you go to Him, you will get increase of light; think of these men talking about “the Saviour of the world”. There was no reference to a house with the men of Sychar; they invited the Lord to stay with them two days, but they say nothing as to the accommodation they had; the Holy Spirit says not a word about the house, but at the close of this chapter we have the house of a nobleman. The narrative would not be closed until we had a house mentioned; I do not mean a material house, but a man’s family circle. We get here a nobleman’s household. The Holy Spirit would rebuke all radicalism in our souls, there is no radicalism with God, He saves a nobleman. He saves Nicodemus and He saves the poor outcast of Sychar — He is no respecter of ^[p. 501] persons. The door is open for all, whether a Nicodemus, a Joseph of Arimathaea, or this nobleman, to come to Jesus.

The nobleman came to Jesus in Cana of Galilee, the city where His glory once shone in turning the water into wine. The nobleman says, “Come down ere my child die” (verse 49). The Lord does not need to go down, He does not need to leave heaven tonight; He needs but to say the word. He did not go down to Capernaum, He remained where He was, and He said, “Go, thy son lives”. Precious Saviour, what power He has! He wanted to introduce into that nobleman’s mind the idea of a son; the man had said, “My child”, but the Lord says, “Thy son”. That son is to grace that house. Is there a young man or woman here tonight who belongs to a christian household? Are you unconverted, are you a blot on your house, and a grief to your parents? The Lord would speak to your soul that you might live. The man went down to his house and his servants met him and said, “Thy child lives”; he says, ‘At what hour did he begin to get better?’ and they say, “At the seventh hour”. The Lord worked instantaneously, though the distance was considerable, the child was healed at the same hour as the Lord said, “Thy son lives”. May this word tonight be the seventh hour for some of you! The seventh hour means the end of an exercise; a closing moment with the Lord; and it says this man “believed, himself and his whole house”. How gladly he would receive the Lord when He went to Capernaum, and how glad would Jesus be to go to the nobleman’s house. No one is truly noble, till he believes that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”, John 20: 31.