Let’s turn in our Bibles to John 3:26-36. Last week we finished studying the words that Jesus said to Nicodemus, telling us that He is the Savior of the world. John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world as the Christ, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

John is still preaching, and John’s disciples hear that Jesus is preaching, and baptizing people. This bothers John’s followers, so they come to John and tell him:

John 3:26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

What Does John The Baptist Think About Jesus?

What do you think they expected John to say? They expected John to speak harshly of Jesus. Jesus is getting followers from John. Jesus is hurting John’s Church. But what did John reply? He said:

John 3:27-30 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. 28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. 29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

John started with “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven”. God is in control of all things. It is God that gave John the Baptist his ministry, not John. But John goes on to say that he told them at the beginning that “I am not the Christ”. John is the Herald of Christ, the Messiah. John compared himself to the best man at a wedding. Jesus is Heaven’s Bridegroom. Jesus is the main attraction. Without the Bridegroom, there would be no Bride. Without Jesus, there will be no Church. John played a supporting role, and knew it. He said, “He must increase, but I must decrease”.

The reason we come to Church is to learn more about Jesus – to not only be SAVED by Him, but to be CLEANSED by Him, SANCTIFIED or set apart from sin. Only Jesus can cleanse us from our sins. John said:

John 3:31-34 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. 32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. 33 He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. 34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Jesus is “He that cometh from above”. Before Jesus was born of a virgin, He was eternal God. Jesus still is eternal God the Son, though He is in human form. Jesus would later say:

John 8:23 … You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

The Bible says that “Christ is God over ALL, blessed forever” (Romans 9:5). Jesus is the

John 6:33 … Bread of God … Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world..

Jesus Christ came to us from Heaven to tell us the things of God. John said “what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth”. Jesus has the Holy Spirit without measure, for God walks with God. Why did Jesus come?

Jesus came to destroy the power of sin and of the devil.

There is no other way to defeat sin, but by Jesus. John speaks of this in absolutes:

John 3:35-36 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Jesus will heal people’s sicknesses. He will cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the cripple to walk. Jesus will raise the dead, and cure the leper, Jesus will cast out demons. He will be able to do this because “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. Only Jesus has the power to destroy sin.

Sin Will Destroy Us If We Do Not REPENT
and COME To Jesus as Lord and Savior

People do not think that sin is deadly. It is. They think a little sin is fine. It isn’t. Sin always leads us down a terrible path.

Illustrate: I love to drink water. It’s good for you! I have a bottle here with a little color to it (prepare bottle with 3 drops red food coloring). Let’s say this bottle represents you and I. The devil comes along and whispers to us, “A little sin won’t hurt you. Jesus just wants to control your life, and keep you from being happy.” So you say, “Sure, I’ll try a little sin”. When you do (put 3 drops of green food coloring in the bottle) it shakes your life up (shake the bottle). Look at what’s in your life now! How can we fix this? We can’t. But Jesus can. When you hear Jesus and give yourselves to Him, He will save you. When He does, He will come into your life, and make you more like a child of God each and every day. He will teach you to love yourselves, and to love others. My prayer is that God will reach each one of you for Himself!

Dismiss the children at this point! The following is adult content.

On March 27, 2023 a confused and sin ridden young lady named Audrey Elizabeth Hale went into the Covenant School, a Presbyterian private school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. Just 28 years old, this confused woman shot her way into the school, and killed six people. One victim, 9 year old Evelyn Dieckhaus, is being grieved by her 5^th Grade sister Evelyn. She cried as she said, “I don’t want to be an only child”. Little 9 year old Hallie Scruggs was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the Senior Pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church. William Kinney, also 9 years old, was murdered. A substitute TeacherCynthia Peak, was but 61 years old when evil called.Also murdered was the Principal Katherine Koonce, 60; and the Custodian Mike Hill, 61. Mike was a father of seven children and 14 grandchildren. When the police thankfully stopped Audrey’s evil rampage, she was killed just 14 minutes after the first emergency call.

Sin is no toy. Sin is a horror. I watched the video as this disturbed young woman stalked through the halls of the school. Dressed in military camouflage, she was intent on killing all she found. The liberal news outlets were incensed that – when the police reported the incident – they identified Audry as a “woman”. Bowing to public pressure, police later said that Audry “was a transgender man assigned female at birth”, which is just more anti-Christian hogwash from Satan and his forces. The President Joe Biden declared,

“We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation. And we have to do more to protect our schools, so they aren’t turned into prisons.”

The problem isn’t gun violence, but sin. It is sin that told this young woman she could be a man. It is sin that whispered to her, that she could be happy if she but kill innocent people. Sin dressed her up. Sin speaks through the President and the news channels. Sin calls “she” a “he”. Back in 1972 when I was 13 years old Lou Reed came out with a song, “Walk on the Wild Side”. The song celebrated sin. The very first stanza is (in part):

Holly came from Miami, F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, “Hey, babe – Take a walk on the wild side”

The devil wants us to “Take a walk on the wild side”. Jesus came into this world to defeat sin and Satan – not to enable it. Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Hale did not become a murderer overnight. The 5 gun shops that she bought her weapons from did not make her a murderer. She became a murderer when she began to slip away from God and His Word. The Scripture says:

Galatians 1:4-5 {Jesus Christ} gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

As Hale was a past student of this Christian school, I suspect she was presented with the Gospel of salvation. Sadly, the Presbyterian Church (USA) which sponsors that school has a confused view of what the Bible determines is sinful. The Gospel demands REPENTANCE toward God.

Repentance does not mean to continue in your current behavior, but to stop doing what God says stop,
and turn to Jesus.

Repentance is the first step in salvation. Hear the Scripture:

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Luke 5:32 {Jesus said} I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Matthew 12:41 {Jesus said} The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Luke 13:3, 5 {Jesus said} Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Pastor John Piper notes:

“The first demand of Jesus’ public ministry was, “Repent.” He spoke this command indiscriminately to all who would listen. It was a call for radical inward change toward God and man. … Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience. This change of mind also embraces Jesus in the same way. We know this because Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God.” Seeing God with a new mind includes seeing Jesus with a new mind. … No one is excluded from Jesus’ demand to repent.”

A Good Example Of Repentance & Salvation

John 4:1-6 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

The Pharisees hated Jesus from the very beginning. The Pharisees believed in a “SHOW religion” not a “KNOW religion”. They loved to SHOW everyone how holy and righteous and good they were. Jesus spoke of the Pharisees some 80 times in the Gospel, and in most cases it was negative. Jesus said,

Matthew 5:20 (ESV) … unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…

Jesus said “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. Their doctrine promoted outward righteousness to be seen of men and not of God, and as a result was hypocritical and unsaving. When Jesus called them on it, it enraged them. So Jesus leaves Galilee and moves into Samaria. The Bible says that

vs 4 {Jesus} MUST NEEDS go THROUGH SAMARIA

Why does Jesus feel the need to go through “SAMARIA”? Because there was a woman here who needed to hear not Pharisaic nonsense nor politically correct, virtue signaling silliness. This woman needed to hear THE TRUTH. The Enduring Word Commentary notes:

“Because the Samaritans had a historical connection to the people of Israel, their faith was a combination of commands and rituals from the Law of Moses, put together with various superstitions. Most of the Jews in Jesus’ time despised the Samaritans, disliking them even more than Gentiles – because they were, religiously speaking, “half-breeds” who had an eclectic, mongrel faith. The Samaritans built their own temple to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews burned it around 128 B.C. This obviously made relations between the Jews and the Samaritans even worse.”

Jesus gets to this well “about the sixth hour”, which would be six hours from daylight or about noon. All the other women have already gathered their water in the morning while it was cooler. This woman waited until noon to get her water. She has been bullied, or shunned because of her lifestyle choices. She expected to see no one – but here comes Jesus! Alexander Maclaren wrote:

“She is frivolous, ready to talk with strangers, with a tongue quick to turn grave things into jests; and yet she possesses, hidden beneath masses of unclean vanities, a conscience and a yearning for something better than she has.”

She needs Jesus. Our Lord “Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (vs 7)” Barclay notes in his commentary,

“The strict Rabbis forbade a Rabbi to greet a woman in public. A Rabbi might not even speak to his own wife or daughter or sister in public.”

A Pharisee would not have asked to drink from a Samaritan’s cup. Yet this is what Jesus does. It startles the woman. She questions Jesus.

John 4:9 … How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Jesus doesn’t answer her question. He is not drawn into silly side issues, but sticks to the power of the Gospel. The Apostle said:

Romans 1:16 … I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The devil loves to draw us away from the Gospel and the promise of the Scripture. If he can get us onto side issues or endless debates, he can keep us from sharing Jesus. Jesus ignored her question, and said:

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee Living Water.

Jesus tells this woman that He alone is the Giver of “Living Water”. In the Old Testament God called Himself the Fountain of Living Waters:

Jeremiah 2:13 (NKJV) My people have … forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters

Jeremiah 17:13 (NKJV) … All who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters.

God is the “fountain of living waters”. Jesus applied this prophecy to Himself when He would later say:

John 7:37-39 … If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit

Those whom Jesus saves receive the Holy Spirit of God. This is why a person saved is a “IN CHRIST A new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Saved, a person is brought from death unto life, from sin unto saint, from cripple unto whole, from blind unto seeing, from child of Adam to Child of God. The woman asks Jesus another question:

John 4:11-12 … Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Again, Jesus does not answer her questions. He continues to share the Gospel.

John 4:13-14 … Whosoever drinketh of this water {the well water} shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Those who come to Jesus and “drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”. Those who come to Jesus are spiritually blessed and – becoming children of God – are released from the power of sin and Satan. Is this woman ready to be saved? No for she is still bargaining with Jesus.

Many people come to Jesus for a temporal or passing blessing. Jesus did not come to give us “Consumer Christianity”. He came to give us life.

The woman says, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” (verse 15).She wants a temporary blessing. She wants to not have to come to this well at noon because of her messed up life. She wants to avoid the comfortableness which her sin has brought into her life, and in the life of her family. Jesus tells her, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” He didn’t promise to give her anything, but Jesus wants to expose her SIN. She replies:

John 4:17-18 … I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

The woman has made numerous bad lifestyle choices in her lifetime, choices that now keep her from interaction with the moral society of her day. She next seeks to argue with Jesus about the proper place of worship. She and the Samaritans believe they should worship in the mountain. The Pharisees and priests believe that all worship must be in the Temple of Jerusalem. But Jesus will not argue with her. He says:

John 4:21-24 … Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Worship is not a thing tied to one place. It is tied to one Person, to God. God cannot be worshiped unless He is worshiped “in spirit and in truth”. God calls people to worship Him not just on Sunday, but every day of the week. The woman’s heart opens up to Jesus. She is ready to repent and turn to Him. We read:

John 4:25-26 … I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

The woman has been search for the Messiah, the Christ, our Lord Jesus. Jesus confirms that He is the One and Only Messiah. The woman is saved. How do we know? We know by her actions. The Bible says:

John 4:28-29 The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

She received Jesus as the One and Only Christ, then went her way to ask her friends to come see Jesus the Christ. The life saved does not stay in sin, but moves away from evil and toward God. Though no Christian is perfect, the Scripture is quite clear:

John 8:34-35 (ESV) … Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.

Sin I not a friend or an associate, but a SLAVE MASTER. It binds you to death. May God lead you to Christ TODAY while there is time. TODAY is the day of salvation (Psalm 95:7-8; Hebrews 3:7-8). Amen and Amen.