PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
Cecil Elliott
A word that is very important in the preaching is the little word need - a small word but very important. The Lord Jesus said, "I am not come to call righteous persons, but sinful ones" (Luke 5: 32) - persons in need. There are people who have need and do not know it, and there are others who have need and do know it. In Revelation the Lord had to say to one of the churches, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire", chap 3: 18. A state reached in that church that meant that there was a need: the Lord said "thou art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked", but they did not feel their need of Jesus. People have a need for Jesus, a need for the Saviour. We sometimes sing:
'I could not do without Thee,
O Saviour of the lost' (Hymn 220)
- Lost, and as we sometimes also sing, 'By sin undone'. Do you feel your need for Jesus? He is available today; He is not far off. It was need like ours that drew Him down from His throne on high. He comes to persons in need. Do you feel you have a need for a Saviour? Do you feel that you ought not to be without the Saviour? Well, if a need is stirred up in your soul, Jesus is great enough to fill the need.
This man in chapter 3 came to Jesus by night; there was a need in his soul. He was a teacher among the Jews, a ruler, but he had a need, and he came to Jesus, the One who is able to meet every need. The greatest need is soul need, something which all the wealth and pleasures of the world cannot satisfy. Only Jesus can satisfy it. This man came to Jesus by night, maybe because of the fear of being seen going to Jesus, He said, "Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs that thou doest unless God be with him". Is that the belief of every one gathered here? The preaching is a sign. God has worked with us - a sign, a miracle. Jesus has worked in our hearts that were darkened and deep in sin so that there is something for God Himself. "None can do these signs that thou doest unless God be with him". Jesus did not turn him away. O, the grace of the Saviour! Whoever you are, the hymn writer says, 'Come as you are in all your sin'. Jesus never turns any away. Come just as you are, Jesus is ready and waiting and willing now to save.
This man came by night and he found the Lord Jesus ready to give him what he needed. The Lord says, "Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God". That was not what Nicodemus was expecting to hear, but that is the news; Jesus tells the truth. He knows the condition of every sinner; He knows our histories, He knows every heartbeat, every desire of our hearts n relation to Himself or to anything else . But He said to Nicodemus, "Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God". Nicodemus did not understand; he says, "How can a man be born being old?". But Jesus answered, "Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". Jesus went into death: He had to go by way of death. A whole order of man was obnoxious to God, for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If we are living our lives in the flesh it is obnoxious to God, we cannot please God. Jesus went by way of death in order fully and effectively to remove that order of man from before the eye of God. It has never done and never will do for God; it had to go by way of death. Jesus went into death; He took your liability and mine upon Himself, everything that stood out against us, the burden of our sins. How grievous, how painful, all that He went through; He took it upon Himself. We sometimes sing, 'My guilt was borne by Jesus' He bore it all. He says to Nicodemus, "Except any one be born of water and of Spirit". God had to bring in a new order of manhood in Christ, His well-beloved Son. God had a righteous way to deal with the first order of manhood; it had to be removed completely from the eye of a righteous and holy God, and it could not be dealt with other than by death-three days and three nights the Lord Jesus was in the heart of the earth. So the word to Nicodemus was, "Except any one be born anew". Is there a sense of being born anew in all our hearts? Do we know what it is to be born anew, to have a new appreciation of Jesus, a fresh desire in relation to Him, an increased appetite in relation to what is pleasurable to God? Are you indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a new source, a new spring of life? Or are we going on with the old order of things that cannot please God? The word to Nicodemus was, "Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God". If the Spirit is in our hearts His delight is to focus our attention on Christ, and the more we let the Spirit do so the more we are helped to gaze upon the beauties of that blessed Man, and the more we become like Him.
The woman in chapter 4 had a need. I do not suppose it was the first time she had gone to the well, but she had a need, and there might be a need in your soul. What is the need in your heart at the present time? Is there in it any outgoing in relation to Jesus? This woman had a need and she went to the well as on any other day but this time it was different, the Saviour had come to meet her. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, but this time the Saviour came and placed Himself in relation to this woman. He knew she was going to be there, as He knows your heart and mine at the present time. The Lord Jesus came and placed Himself where He was available to this woman, and that is what He does in the preaching, He placed Himself where He is available to you and to me. No circumstance is too humble, no heart too far gone, that Jesus cannot come in and make a way for Himself. No area in your heart is inaccessible to Jesus or to the Spirit.
So Jesus came to this woman who no doubt had gone to the well many times before. Maybe you have been at the preaching many times before, but this time the Lord Jesus comes again in grace in order to appeal to your affections. He says to the woman, "Give me to drink". If He should make that request of you, do you have anything you could offer to Him? On one occasion the Lord Jesus went to His own and said, "have ye anything here to eat?" John 21: 5. The Lord Jesus had need. The Father has need; elsewhere in the chapter He says "the Father seeks such as his worshippers" (v 23). Divine Persons have need. It is good for us to get hold of that; not only has the sinner need for a Saviour but divine Persons have need. Think of the volume and the depth and the riches of the praises that arise from the hearts of sinners, ransomed people, redeemed sinners, in relation to Christ. There is a time coming when there will be people who will say, "Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain, to receive power, and riches ... and honour, and glory", Rev 5: 12, but people are saying it at the present time.
The Lord Jesus came where this woman was and said, "Give me to drink". If the Lord Jesus came to you at the present time and said, Give me to drink, what is there in your heart for Him? Is there anything in your heart, in your life, in your outlook, that the Spirit of God can draw upon and channel it to Jesus? The Lord says, "Give me to drink". The woman said, "How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman". The Lord Jesus is going to open up channels in her heart in relation to Himself. Then later He speaks of "living water". She came with her need, but she "left her waterpot and went away into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man". She came empty but she went away filled in her affections with Jesus. Then she could draw attention to that Man. So if the Lord Jesus comes to you, in what state is your heart? There was one who could say, My heart is welling forth with a good matter concerning the King (see Ps 45: 1). Can you say that in sincerity and in truth? Can you say that your heart is filled with good things in relation to Jesus? This woman came empty but went away as a vessel for the Master. She drew the attention of others to Jesus. At first she had a need which no one else could meet: all the connections she had before could not meet the condition of her heart, but Jesus came in and was allowed to have the place that rightly belongs to Him. There is nothing that can fill the soul as Jesus can. We spoke earlier of being filled with the Spirit; His constant work is to glorify Christ, to fill our vessels, keep them up to the brim, and then joy comes in, praise toward God. So let us keep these vessels filled for the Master. Continue to feel the need of the Saviour: you cannot do without Him. If you ever get to the point where you feel you are good enough, that you do not need Him, that is no good. Continue to feel the need for a Saviour, feel as the hymn-writer says,
'I could not do without Thee,
O Saviour of the lost'
Do you think you can get along without Jesus? I say, None can. People may think they can, but there will be a day of reckoning; it is coming soon, the time when the Lord is coming to take His own to be with Himself, those who have an appreciation of Himself, in whose hearts the work of God is proceeding. What a time it is going to be for those who have managed to get along without Jesus in this world! Be among those to whom, when the Lord comes, there is something in hearts in relation to Himself. This woman had her need met, and more than her need, she became a person who brought others to Jesus, she was so taken up with the Man. The gospel is to help us, to fill our hearts with that blessed Man in whom God has found His delight.
In the next passage there is a man who was in his condition of infirmity for thirty and eight years. He just lay there. It says, "In these lay a multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, awaiting the moving of the water. For an angel descended at a certain season in the pool and troubled the water. Whoever therefore first went in after the troubling of the water became well, whatever disease he laboured under". How remarkable that was! Whatever condition the soul is in, Jesus is able to meet the need.
There is no condition too far out for Jesus. When He took on your liabilities He took on every condition of heart. He went to the cross, suffered and died and was buried. He took on every liability that you can think of. It gives us a sense of the enormity of what He took on - the sin of the world. What a burden! How great it was to Him. It gives us some idea of how He felt when He prayed, "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me", Matt 26: 39. Every single issue that sin had brought in, that estranged man from God, Jesus took on. How great the liability - many sins. The Lord Jesus said of one woman: "Her many sins are forgiven", Luke 7: 47. He is the only One who could bear our sins and the One who could forgive sins. This man was in this condition for thirty and eight years; that is a long time. Imagine this man's condition day after day, how hopeless it must have seemed to him. But Jesus came to him, He came where he was, as He came to the woman in chapter 4. There is no condition, no area that is inaccessible to Jesus. It says in Revelation: "I stand at the door and am knocking", chap 3: 20. He appeals to us constantly in the preaching. He comes, as He did to this man. It says, "Jesus seeing this man lying there, and knowing that he was in that state now a great length of time, says to him, Wouldest thou become well?" The Lord Jesus knows the need of every soul, every condition of heart. He is the Lord of glory, the Saviour of sinners. We sometimes think that no one knows what we are going through, but Jesus knows everything. There is no issue beyond Jesus: He has feelings, He was tempted in all points like as we are, sin apart (see Heb 4: 15). How unique is the Person! He is able to come in in priestly grace and lift our souls up from these conditions to attract us to Himself. So He comes to this man and says, "Wouldest thou become well?". The man said, "Sir, I have not a man, in order that, when the water has been troubled, to cast me into the pool". But Jesus says to him, "Arise, take up thy couch and walk". He had not a man, but the Man is available, the Man Christ Jesus. How near Jesus comes when there is a need. Through this gospel of John you find people in need and Jesus meets it: the man in chapter 9, the man born blind ends up worshipping the Lord Jesus. He comes to individuals no matter what the condition, whatever her distance because of sin. He said to this man, rise, “take up thy couch and walk". Thirty and eight years, a life-time: it was not beyond Jesus.
Why not come to Jesus now and spend the rest of your days for His glory and praise? You realise that you have a need; it was sinners Jesus came to save, not righteous persons, not those who do not feel the need of repentance. In Romans 7 it says, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? " (v 24). Someone was crying out, realising the wretchedness that was in himself, but he goes on to say, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord". There was the need and it was met by Jesus. He is the only One. Come to Jesus today; feel the need for the Saviour, feel that you cannot live without Him. Those who came to Jesus in chapter 4 said ''we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world" (v 42). What can you do without Jesus? Can you live without Him? Do you feel you can get along in the world without Him? He died to save you, He shed His precious blood. He gave His life for sinners Christ died upon the tree. The outgoings of His heart are toward the sinner. He says, "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest", Matt 11: 28. He is inviting persons, saying, Come to me. Jesus is saying that at the present time. How available He is! The reason why He can do this in righteous grace is because He took all our liabilities upon Himself and has established a basis before God on which He can call persons to come to Himself and be saved.
May we know what it is to experience the need for the Saviour, that we cannot get along without Him. The apostle Paul could say, “for me to live is Christ", Phil 1: 21. He was prepared to suffer the loss of everything else that he may gain Christ. I trust that is the language and the outgoing of heart of every one here. We need Jesus, we cannot do without Him. We feel the need of the Saviour, and constantly we feel the need of the Spirit being given His place in us, to guide us through this dark and barren scene. We need divine Persons to help us through; it is a dark unchartered course, but the Spirit is available, and Christ is available on high to help us and to guide us through this scene. Jesus is still available. May we just seize the opportunity to find the company of this great, glorious and precious Saviour, that He may be ours for time and for eternity, for His Name's sake.
ORMOND BEACH
10 May 1992