The Samaritan Woman (7)

How tenderly and compassionately the Lord Jesus deals with sinners in the school of grace. Step by step He gives instruction to the sinner in what must be known for it to be well for the soul for eternity. They learn, ever more deeply, what it is to have knowledge of self and knowledge of the Lord. When a sinner is stopped from above, then by the light of God's holy law there comes a knowledge of self. There comes a knowledge of their guilt. They receive a broken heart and a sorrowing after God. Sinners then see something of the breach between God and their soul.

The Samaritan woman received that knowledge of sin when the Lord Jesus paged back in the book of her life and revealed to her that it was all known unto Him. Oh, my friends, irresistibly He opened her heart, and she heard that she was living in sin. She heard that the relationship that was hers was nothing but sin in the eyes of the Lord. She knew herself now as a guilty sinner before God.

What a wonder of God's grace it is when such a one learns that from above there is a Way that the Lord has opened in His only begotten Son. The sinner then longs to know more and more about that only Way that is opened whereby sinners can be reconciled to God. What a blessing it is when He strips away all our righteousnesses, and when He makes room for the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We read in verses 20-24 some of the instruction that the Lord Jesus gave the Samaritan woman. When she was at Jacob's well, the Lord Jesus taught her about worshipping: the place of worship, the time to worship, and the manner in which to worship.

“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say....” Oh, we see the Samaritan woman as an asking and seeking woman. “Our fathers say it was here, but you say it was over there. Where is the place where we may bow before God?” My friends, if only there were more people with the question in their heart, “Where is now the place, O Lord, where I may bow before Thee because of my sins and iniquities?”

“Woman, believe Me.” There He drew her attention away from everything, and He began to draw that attention unto Himself. He instructed her that the hour was coming when “ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” What a tender instruction He gave her. “Woman, you are looking for the temple because you are living under the law of Moses. You have yet no eyes to see that the time has come that the Son of Man has come to be the sacrifice for His people.” She did not know yet that Jesus Christ must shed His blood so that the way might be opened for sinners to be saved. She had given her body to the world by living in sin. If it was to be well for her, then the Holy Spirit must dwell in her. We read in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

“The hour cometh.” The New Testament dispensation was now at hand. Here Christ pointed to Himself. He was given a mandate from His Father, to be the sacrifice. “The hour cometh” pointed to the new dispensation, when the middle wall of partition would be taken away, and when the gospel of Jesus Christ must go forth. The gospel would spread forth, because they must be gathered from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Those who belong unto the Father by His chosing and electing love must be brought out of darkness and brought unto the heavenly light. There He stood, my friends, upon this sin-cursed earth, with Gethsemane before Him. He was the only One there who knew these future events, because He is God. Jesus was standing at the threshold of the new dispensation when He was speaking unto the woman at Jacob's well.

We stand at the end of the new dispensation. We stand very near the time when the Lord Jesus Christ will come back. He longs for His church more than the church longs for Him. I know that there are times here below that the church of the Lord longs for Jesus Christ. The church, at times, longs and thirsts for the blood of Jesus, and to be clothed with His righteousness. But there is more longing in heaven that the church may be one church, and that He may gather them all in His arms. Then He will hold them in His bosom and bring them unto His Father, saying, “Holy Father, here are all the children who were loved, redeemed, and delivered through My blood.” Then eternity will have begun for the church, and it will be full and complete. There they will know everything. There sin will never touch them anymore. There the pains, trials, and difficulties can never come to them anymore. Blessed time! Blessed time! Jesus Christ longs for that time. Will you be among those who may go home to heaven? Will you have a place in the heavenly mansions? Will you be among those who will praise and glorify the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, saying, “Oh, they have chosen, sought, and delivered me”?

“They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” What is true worship? True worship is a true bowing before God. It is a seeking after the Lord in truth. It is the Name of God exalted to the highest, and the sinner abased to the lowest. Then we hear about death in Adam and life in Christ. In Adam we are nothing but sin and death before a holy God. That is the punishment for sin and iniquity. But there is also life in Christ, as that only Savior. If there is true worship, then there is a bowing before God. There is a coming low before God, examining your heart. Then something of that great breach between God and your soul is seen. There is also seen, by God's grace, how that breach can be healed by the Savior, Jesus Christ. The Samaritan woman's eyes had to be opened for that yet. True religion, He said, is spiritual. Oh, woman, you may spread forth those empty hands unto Him, saying, “Lord, be merciful unto me.” Just one drop of that precious blood of Jesus was enough to wash away all of her sins.

to be continued

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