 And our sermon title this morning is Boundless Grace. Boundless Grace. And we have come to this glorious passage of Scripture in John chapter 4 and the account of the woman at the well. And this comes on the heels of another glorious chapter in Scripture, John chapter 3, and just all that the Lord Jesus Christ taught there. We could spend months and months and months and months in these passages of Scripture. There's just so much truth packed into these passages. And there are many different directions that we could look at with respect to John chapter 4. Many different ways and paths that we could take through this and much that we will learn from going through this chapter. We could look at the evangelistic example of the Lord Jesus Christ and we certainly will. We can look at the grace of God in this and we certainly will. We can look at how the Samaritans and the Jews related to one another and we certainly will. We'll look at all those things. But the primary purpose for John writing the Gospel, the primary purpose for him writing John chapter 4 here, still governs our understanding of the text. And we need to look at what is presented here by the Lord Jesus Christ and John the Evangelist in chapter 4 in light of that overarching purpose. Again, the overarching purpose is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to the people, to point people to the Lord Jesus Christ that they might believe that he's Christ, that he's the Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that believing they may have eternal life in his name. That is the overarching reason for which John writes. In that, there is a way that John chapter 4 reveals more of Christ, reveals more of God and is working in redemptive history, his work in salvation. We saw that in John chapter 3 verse 16 where we study that passage, the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And we looked at the grace of God in Christ, not coming into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Chapter 4 then expounds upon that glorious truth in revealing the Lord Jesus Christ in some very important and profound ways. The title of our sermon is Boundless Grace, because in John chapter 3 and now into John chapter 4, we see revealed to the people of God revealed to us this morning the boundless grace of God in salvation. When in John chapter 3 verse 16 the Bible says that God so loved the world, we get a picture of what that world entails in John chapter 4. I was witnessing to a young man one time and the young man was saying to me that he believed all that the Bible said about Jesus. He believed who Jesus was, he believed that the Bible was the Word of God and yet he got to the point of faith, if you will, and he just couldn't utter the words that he believed that the Lord Jesus Christ would save him. Listen, that is the sum total of faith, is to understand who you are, a sinner in desperate need of a Savior, and who Jesus Christ is, the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he just couldn't utter the words that Jesus Christ would want, would desire, came into the world to save him a sinner. But listen, God's grace is boundless. As terrible a sinner as you are, God came into the world in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on the mud of our humanity, walked the dirt of this earth to save sinners. Paul said, always amazed at the grace of God that he saved him, the chief of sinners. Lord came into the world to save sinners, and just like in John chapter 3, 16 where God so loved the world, John chapter 4 is the outworking of that. God's grace has no boundaries. God's grace has no limits, shows no partiality, and it points to the grace of God in Christ. If you look at John chapter 3 and the conversation that we explored with Nicodemus, right, and looking through that passage, one point of this passage is to set up for us a contrast between Jesus Christ's conversation with Nicodemus and now his conversation with the woman at the well. Think about the boundless nature of God's grace. Nicodemus was a Jew. Salvation is of the Jews. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, one of the religious elite. This woman at the well is an uneducated and immoral woman. Nicodemus was a leader of the religious elite and obsessively moral, and this is a nobody, an uneducated immoral woman. She was basically irreligious. He had a name in John chapter 3, and the woman at the well is nameless. He came seeking after Christ, and Christ pursued her. John places these two accounts in succession to show us the boundless nature of God's grace in Christ, to show us the boundless grace of God in salvation. It's the same salvation that God freely offers to you this morning if you're not in Christ. God's grace shows no partiality, has no boundaries, and no limits. We're going to see the boundless nature of that grace in several ways as we walk through this text, but I want you to see this morning to begin our account here in John chapter 4, the boundless grace of God revealed in the providence of God. Boundless grace revealed in the providence of God, and we see that in verses 1 through 6, where here the Bible says, therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria. And so he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Verses 1 through 6, as you look at this text, gives us the context or the background, the setting for our account here. But I want you to see in our setting, in our context, in our background, I want you to see in these circumstances the boundless grace of God in his providence, in his providence. Now, the Bible teaches, and we know this to be true, the Bible teaches the sovereignty of God over all things, the sovereignty of God over all things. Proverbs 16, verse 9 says this, a man's heart plans his way, but what? The Lord directs his steps. God is sovereign over all things. The Bible clearly teaches it. Providence, then, God's providence is the provision that God makes to effectively bring about that which he decrees to pass. God's providence, then, is the provision, the means that God provides to effectively bring about that which he decrees, that which he intends to bring to pass. It is God in his administration, or his governance, or his reign over his creation, once sustaining all things by the word of his power in a general sense. God's providence in a general sense, but to actively operating in all that comes to pass in a specific sense in order to bring everything to its appointed end. That is the glorious providence of an almighty sovereign God. Now, David understood this well when he said in Psalm 139. Listen to these words from David in verse 16. David says, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. That is the providence, the sovereignty of almighty God. Now, think about that for a moment. In our context, there are no coincidences, right? Coincidence, there's no such thing. There's no such thing as chance. God is sovereign, and God executes his sovereignty in providence. Jesus Christ has just explained in his conversation to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that he was sent into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. That had always been the plan of God. From eternity past, God knew, and God planned. He foreordained that Jesus Christ would be taken by lawless hands and crucified, that Jesus Christ would come into the world to die for sinners. It had always been the plan that through Christ the world might be saved. God said to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 45, verse 22, he says, look to me and be saved all you Jews. Is that what he says there? No. He says, look to me. I gotta keep up now. Look to me, he said, and be saved all you ends of the earth. He says, for I am God, and there is no other. God had always intended to save those from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. And we see that gloriously worked out in fulfillment today, don't we, in the church? It always been the plan. The Jews themselves had mistakenly set up boundaries and limits to the grace of God, thinking that only the Jews would be saved. And here we see in Christ the boundless nature of God's grace revealed in his providence. And that most gloriously seen in verse four, where he said he needed, he must go through Samaria. In God's providence here in chapter four, verses one through six, we can see God has determined in eternity past from before the foundation of the world that the middle wall of separation, like he talks about in Ephesians two, right? The middle wall of separation is going to come down. There is going to be one people of God from every top tribe, every tongue, every nation. To bring that about, there's going to be a divine appointment in John chapter four. There's a divine appointment by God's decree according to his providence. There's a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman at a well in Sychar. And grace is going to be poured out in Samaria. It's boundless grace. First, let's look at that from verses one through six. In God's providence, verse one says, the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Verse two, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples. So Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee. I want you to see that these details, the details that we see here in scripture are according to God's plan, according to God's providence. Listen, the details and circumstances of your life, if you're in Christ, the details and circumstances of your life are working out for your good according to God's providence, according to God's sovereignty. There are no circumstantial chances. There is no coincidence. God works all things together for your good. Here in verse one first, we see the hostility and the defensiveness of the Pharisees. You think about that for a moment. John the Baptist was a threat to their religious system. He was a threat to them. And so the Pharisees came out in opposition against John the Baptist. And Jesus here now is baptizing more people than John, where John was drawing crowds. John was doing no miracles. John 10 and 42 says he performed no sign, yet many believed in him. But now Jesus comes along. And in addition to baptizing, Jesus is performing miracles. And so Jesus is drawing out masses to himself. Now this was a baptism here of repentance. Jews turning from sin, Jews turning from sin and recognizing their need for an inward cleansing. To the Jews, this was as if they were saying, listen, I'm no better than a Gentile. I need to turn from my sin and be inwardly cleansed. That's what this baptism represented. And so it made the Pharisees, the religious elite, hot under the collar. This was a threat to their system, a threat to their authority. So Jesus started drawing crowds and drawing more crowds, drawing more people than John the Baptist did. Now according to verse two, Jesus was not actually even the one performing the baptisms. It's as if John here writing says about Jesus, listen, Jesus was drawing this opposition and he wasn't even the one baptizing. But it's important there in verse two to recognize one, they saw Jesus Christ as the authority which he was. And so they were threatened by his authority and his baptism. And so they viewed Jesus as a danger. Okay. But point two, Jesus probably, we had to speculate a little bit, for the same reasons that Paul did not baptize in 1 Corinthians one, that Jesus didn't baptize here either. And that was that it could have caused factions or divisions. Someone might have come along and said, were you baptized? Yes, I was baptized by John. And then the person turns that, well, I was baptized by Jesus Christ, right? As if one was more important than the other. And Jesus not wanting to cause that kind of division, that kind of factions, factious belief, didn't baptize. He had his disciples baptized. But now listen, in the providence of God, being that it was not yet his hour to be in Jerusalem, the hostility of the Pharisees pushed Jesus Christ on toward Galilee. We see in verse three, certainly Jesus was motivated to go to Galilee because of ministry there. We also see Jesus motivated to leave Judea because of the hostility of the opposition against him. And all of that in God's providence, you might say to yourself, well, you know, why would God allow the Lord Jesus Christ to be persecuted in this way? It's by the providence of an almighty sovereign God so that the gospel would go out and people would be saved. You know, at some point in your life, by the sovereign providence of an almighty God, you were brought to salvation. Many of you in thinking of your conversion, right? You may go back in the timeline and remember the way in which the Lord drew you to himself. For me, I could see the pieces of the puzzle laid out for years ahead of time. That the Lord, in drawing me to himself, working in providence to that end, laid the circumstances in place that would drive me to rock bottom, that would drive me to recognize my wicked sin before him, such that I would turn to him in faith and plead for a savior. And maybe you recognize that in your circumstances also. That is the providence of almighty God, a sovereign God, in bringing you to salvation if you're in Christ. Here, we see the hostility of the Pharisees against the Lord Jesus Christ. Later, we would see the hostility of the Jews and the Romans against Christ in crucifying him. And yet, from Scripture, we know that that was by the foreordained plan of God, that he would fall into the hands of lawless men and be killed. All for working out the glorious plan of God to save mankind, to redeem worshipers to himself. So again, in verse three here, we see the providence of God at work. These first words here, for a couple of reasons, in verse three, very, very informative. He says at the beginning of verse three that he left Judea. Now again, thinking about the providence of God, it just doesn't mean that he walked away from Judea. The word there for he left, and then Judea, he left, is a word that could be better translated, abandoned. Abandoned. There was another word that could be used for walking out of, he abandoned Judea. Not like you're going to, at some point, much later this afternoon, walk out of this building, joking. It's not just walking out, it's an abandonment. It's an abandonment. Here carries the sense of he abandoned Judea. Now, you could chalk that up to the hard hearts of the people, not responding to his work in Jerusalem and the Judean countryside. You could chalk that up to the hostility of the opposition. But either way that you look at it, Jesus Christ, judicially, in an act of judgment, abandoned Judea at that time. And he did that with a purpose that he would start his ministry in Galilee, that he would head toward Galilee. Now, thinking about it, no coincidences. From where Jesus was in the Judean countryside, Galilee was north by about 40 miles. So, in the providence of God, what lies between Jesus Christ and Judea and Galilee 40 miles to the north? Samaria. Samaria. Is that a coincidence? That happened by chance? No. There's no such thing. This is God's providence. And he is about, in his providence, he's about to demonstrate the boundlessness of his grace. This is the providence of God. Now, a devout Jew at that time, you've got to understand, a devout Jew at that time would have avoided at all costs walking through Samaria. He wouldn't have gone through Samaria. He could have gone farther to the east, taken easier terrain up the plain, the coastal plain, like next to the Mediterranean Sea and walked north to Galilee that way. Most Jews would have crossed back over the Jordan River and would have gone up the western side of the Jordan River to reach Galilee. But Jesus says in verse 4, he needed, he must go through Samaria. Again, that word there needed is the divine necessity. We saw in John chapter 3 verse 14 that Jesus Christ must be lifted up. It is a divine necessity. Here in John chapter 4 verse 4, he must, divine necessity, must go through Samaria. He's about to go through an area that was most hated by the Jews. He's about to interact with the people that were most hated by the Jews. He must go through Samaria. Donald Gray Barnhouse used an analogy for this that I thought was helpful. He talked about a soldier that was returning from war overseas. And he's coming back in the United States, maybe he comes in through New York on his way to LA where he lives. And he says, I must go through Miami. Well, that's a little out of the way, right? Go from New York down through Miami to LA. But you find out that his fiance lives there. And then you realize the must. In the same way the Lord Jesus Christ going from Judean countryside up to Galilee must go through Samaria. And in the same, in a similar way, going to exhibit love toward this outcast people with the gospel. He must go through Samaria because someone needed the gospel there that were going to be people saved. And everywhere, we think about it from Judea through Samaria up to Galilee, everywhere that Jesus goes, Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, right? No matter where he goes, Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, even among the Samaritans. And that's because God's grace is boundless. Ethnic boundaries weren't going to get in the fence in the way of the grace of God. We're not going to fence in the grace of God. Religious boundaries were not going to fence in the grace of God. Geography couldn't fence in the grace of God. Hostilities, even age old hostilities, were not going to fence in the grace of God. Circumstances, no matter how difficult, how hard, were not going to fence in the grace of God. In fact, all of those things, ethnic boundaries, religious boundaries, geography, hostilities, circumstances were all used in the providence of God to get his grace out to the Samaritan people and eventually bring the gospel to the Samaritans they might be saved. It's the boundless grace of God revealed in his providence. And that's not all. Look at verse 5. It says here in verse 5 that he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. But Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. And it was about the sixth hour, loaded here with the grace of God and his providence. You know, in addition to seeing the providence of God at work in his circumstances, we also see the providence of God at work here in the humanity of Christ himself, even in the Lord's humanity. Verses 5 and 6 are a beautiful example of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a hundred percent God, fully God, and yet a hundred percent man, fully man. And there's a heresy that was going around at this time. There was a heresy that has gone on throughout the church. It's still around today. Heresy called dosetism. And dosetism is a heresy that attacks the humanity of Christ. The dosetists believed that Christ's humanity was an illusion, that it was not real, that it was Jesus Christ not really fully man, but it is flesh. His humanity was just an illusion. And that's not what we see here in the Bible. Jesus here, as he came to the well, was weary. The word there literally means that he was exhausted. He was exhausted. He was spent. If you look at the map, Sychar and the well there would have been along a road that led through the middle of Samaria. It was about halfway. So in this period of time, Jesus probably walked about 20 miles. As he comes to the halfway point, is there just a coincidence it was a halfway point? No. Just a coincidence there was a well there by the road? No. The very well that was there was Jacob's well. Jesus Christ was the angel and Lord who wrestled with Jacob. We just see everything coming together, right? God's providence in this situation. Jesus is exhausted. He was spent and he was thirsty. It's amazing to think that in the heat of the day, right? He came about the sixth hour. If the day started at dawn, which is about 6 a.m., the sixth hour would be about noon, the hottest point of the day, the middle of the day in the heat of the sun, and the Lord of glory who came in human flesh, who created the sun now sits under its heat, toiling, right? Weiried and wanting something to drink. Jesus Christ was fully God and yet fully man. And in the providence of God, he is about to get something to drink and he's going to start an awakening, right? In the providence of God, the timing of this was all perfectly according to the plan of God. It was perfect. Verse 6 says that he sat by the well at the sixth hour. Again, that was the hottest point of the day. Ordinarily, the women who came out to the well to draw water wouldn't come during the hottest part of the day. It was hard work. It was hard work. They would have come at dusk when it was cooler, when the sun was going down. But a shamed and immoral woman feeling the weight or the pressure of scorn from the other women might have come at this point of the day, right? To avoid the shame that she would have felt coming at dusk with the other women? Here again, in the providence of God, we don't know the details specifically. That's certainly possible. That's exactly what happened. For whatever reason, at the hottest part of the day, this woman, this Samaritan woman comes out to the well to draw water. She comes out by herself. The time was perfect. The circumstances perfectly according to God's plan. The steps of our Lord, even his exhaustion, his thirst perfectly in accord with God's plan. And look at all that God did to bring about this divine appointment that we see here at the well. And all because there was this woman and all because there was a people that lived in that village who in the providence of God were about to be objects of his boundless grace. We see God's boundless grace displayed in his work through providence to provide the circumstances by which salvation comes to the Samaritans. So do you see how that works? Do you see all that fitting in together? Do you see God's grace in his providence and his working out of his decrees? You think about it for a moment. What if the woman at the well or what if the Samaritans in that village had rejected Christ? At the same time that the Bible teaches God's sovereignty, the Bible also teaches man's responsibility. They have the responsibility to respond to Christ's free offer of grace. And if they hadn't, then we would have seen on the pages of scripture in Samaria another judicial abandonment. Jesus Christ would have shake the dust off his feet and would have kept walking up the Galilee. But that's not what happens. That's not what happens by the grace of God. You know, right? Beyond all boundaries of race or ethnicity, beyond all obstacles of geography or distance or travel time, whether you're here from Russia or here from Germany or here from Haiti or here from Brazil or the Dominican Republic or from the west side of town, right? Despite financial concerns, despite what family you were born into, who you are married to, the kind of job that you have, whether you can be here live to listen to the preaching of God's word or whether you're someone that's streaming in over the internet listening from far away. Through your many varied circumstances and across sometimes years and great divides, it is the boundless grace of God revealed in his providence that has brought you here to this point this morning. It is the grace of God in his providence, not for the purpose of judging you. The Bible says that Jesus Christ did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. If you're outside of Christ, God says in his word that he desires that all men come to repentance, that he desires that you are saved. It's for the purpose of believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You might have everlasting life. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, listen, if you are here today and you're not a Christian, look with awe and wonder at what the Lord has done for you. It's often that people come to a service, come to a sermon, and they just don't get it, or they yawn their way through it, or it's in one ear, out the other ear, because you don't realize your great need and you won't understand the graciousness of God in his providence toward you. The Lord God does nothing by accident in sovereign control over all things, directing your steps brings you to himself, drawing you to himself, that you can hear the Word of God preach, that you can be faced with his gospel, and that you might believe on his Son and be saved. Think about it this morning. He's brought you to a biblical church, which is incredibly rare, amen? He's put a Bible in your hands. He surrounded you with godly, genuine Christians, evangelistic Christians who care for your soul, because he desires this morning that you are saved. That is the Lord of glory, the one who created you, who created the heavens and the earth, and now in his providence directs your steps to show you grace. Despite the fact that you are a liar, despite the fact that you are an adulterer, despite the fact that all your life outside of Christ, you are an adulterer, despite the fact that every single day you wake up and you break the greatest of his commandments, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You're called an enemy of his by his, by your wicked works, and yet in all that, God shows the boundless nature of his grace in that it extends even to you at this moment. It is the providence of God. He's done all that for you in his gracious providence. The only appropriate response is to turn from your sin now to say, I'm not going to continue living life for myself. I'm going to turn for my sin and I'm going to put my faith and my trust alone in Lord Jesus Christ and trust all that I am to all that he is and follow him till my dying day. If you don't, if you spurn the gracious providence of God, the gracious drawing of God, the grace of God to you this morning, if you reject that, then at some point there's going to be a judicial abandonment of you. You don't know when that point comes. For most it comes before you die when the Lord gives you all of the grace that he's going to give and then as Romans 1 says, he abandons you to a debased mind. Have at it. Here's your sin. This is what you want and no longer is the Lord able to be found. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 6 says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. That presupposes there will be a time when he can't be found and when he is not near. Let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Turn to the Lord is the Lord today that has brought you by his providence to this point where you have a Bible in your hand, Christians surrounding you and you're hearing the preaching of God's word. If you're here today and you're a Christian, acknowledge what the Lord has done to bring you to salvation. Acknowledge the grace of God and his providence toward you, the circumstances that led up to your conversion, the people that God worked through to bring you to salvation, right? Maybe he brought you to rock bottom, you know, to the end of your rope before he lifted you up. Sometimes those circumstances are very painful, very difficult, but in all of it, right, in all of it, looking back on that, don't you see the grace of God at work? I remember the gut wrenching rock bottom way in which the Lord saved me and I look back on it now as all of grace. That's God being gracious to me, a wretched wicked sinner. Do you know, Christian, that the providence of God is still at work in your life today? The providence of God is still active in your life right now, every detail, every circumstance. Those circumstances may be difficult, they may be trying, they may come to you in the form of God's fatherly chastening, but isn't all of that the grace of God to you? Every bit of it, bringing you closer and closer in conformity to Christ, every detail. Do you see then why it's such a wicked sin to be angry with God? Are you kidding me? To be angry with God who in his grace works all things together for your good? How can we be angry with God? How can you complain? Right? How can we grumble against him? How can we be discontent? You know, many Christians wonder what the will of God is for their lives. You know, what's the will of God? Well, in one place in Scripture it says the will of God for you is your sanctification, and we know that sanctification comes by his work through the word of God to conform you into the image of Christ, but think about it this way. If God works all things together for your good, if God is in his providence all gracious to you as a child of God, then the will of God for you or to find God's will is you being faithful to obey every instance, every circumstance, obey God's providence and to follow him in faithfulness, to be faithful, obey the Lord. You respond with faithfulness in every circumstance of his providence, you're going to be doing the will of God. If you fail, Christian, if you fail, there is a sense in which there is a judicial abandonment of what was once possible. If you're a genuine Christian, the Bible says that we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And in standing before the judgment seat of Christ, if you've been faithless or if you've been unfaithful in God's providence toward you and his grace toward you, then when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the works that you do are going to be chalked up to nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble. That's what the Bible says, wood, hay, and stubble. And you lose reward, you lose blessing, you certainly lose joy, you lose sanctification. There's a loss there, right? Be faithful. You know, secondly, we see the providence of God in those verses gloriously working toward the salvation of this woman at the well and this village full of Samaritans. We've seen that in our lives, haven't we? And we're even to recognize it now, living the Christian life, that God works through his providence to bring about that which he has decreed. But point two, and we see this as we continue working through the text, we see the boundless grace of God revealed in the evangelism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Boundless grace revealed in the evangelism of Christ. Look at verse seven. It says here, a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? You know, first, the boundless grace of God revealed in this evangelistic conversation that's about to happen with the woman at the well, is revealed in Jesus, one, wearying himself to bring the gospel to them. You know, Jesus is exhausted from the trip. He's thirsty. He's under the heat of the sun. He is worn out and he's sitting by this well. Look at what Jesus Christ did in order to bring the gospel to this woman and the Samaritan village. Don't let that just pass by you. The Lord wearied himself in work, in the work of the ministry to get the gospel out. This was often true of Christ. He had nowhere to lay his head. Jesus Christ was itinerant, basically homeless, poor and walking. He was tired often. He often gave up comforts, often gave up leisure. He was always hard at work. And yet now this is the example that we're to follow from Scripture. We're to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and many of us are so unfaithful because we're too self-centered. We're unfaithful because we're self-indulgent. We're selfish. Not willing even to sacrifice a little bit of time to get the gospel out to somebody who needs it. And here the Lord Jesus Christ wearyed himself to get the gospel out. The first step for you in light of that example, if that's you, if you're not even willing to put a little time into getting the gospel out, you need to repent of that sin. You need to repent of that sin of laziness and you need to follow and obey the Lord. Care enough for the lost. One of the ways that you cultivate in yourself a burden for the lost or a care for lost souls is to remember and think on what the Lord Jesus Christ did to save you and the weariness and the toil and the suffering that he faced to get the gospel to you. And then go out and take it to the lost. It was the grace of God to you that he saved you. But secondly, we see the grace of God in this evangelistic conversation of Christ in its evangelistic scope. In John 3.16 it says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? That whoever even Samaritans who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He's the one in chapter 1 verse 29 who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In chapter 6 verse 33, he's the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. In John chapter 12 verse 47, he is the one who did not come to judge the world but to save the world. In verse John chapter 2 verse 2, he himself is a propitiation for our sins. It's the wrath satisfying sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world it says there. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 14, he is the one sent by the Father to be Savior of the world. Jews, Gentiles, even these outcast Samaritans, every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And so verse 7 then begins this evangelistic contact that Jesus has with this Samaritan woman. And look at the boundless grace of God in this. By God's providence he's at the right place at the right time. And here Jesus makes no distinction. Makes no distinction between male or female. She was a woman. Makes no distinction between Jew and Samaritan. He doesn't equivocate. He doesn't hesitate. He just starts talking to this woman. Jesus Christ here in boundless grace again acts as though he is completely oblivious to all the boundaries and the barriers that have been set up by the people to separate themselves one from another. He said to her simply here in verse 7, give me a drink. Now think about this for a moment. No Jew in his right mind would have ever asked this of a Samaritan woman. They would have died of thirst first, right? They would have never asked her of this. It was in the 8th century BC that the Assyrians came through and took captive many of the 10 tribes of Israel in the northern kingdom. They deported the Jews that lived in the northern kingdom, kicked them out, but left some to remain and attend to the land. Those Jews that remained, the Assyrians shipped in people from the east, foreigners from the east with the purpose that they would intermarry with those Jews and keep the kingdom in shape, so to speak. Jews were not to intermarry with foreigners. Intermarriage with foreigners was a big no-no and then it always brought pagan idolatry with it, false religion with it. So the Jews that were left intermarried with foreign wives and intermingled pagan false religion with their Judaism. In all of that they became physical half-breeds according to the Jews and spiritual half-breeds. The Jews hated them. The Samaritans only took the first five books of Moses, first five books of the Bible, and then they set up their worship on Mount Gerizim. Worship was to be in Jerusalem at one temple, but in Nehemiah's days the Jews wouldn't let them worship at the temple and so the Samaritans set up their own temple, so to speak, on Mount Gerizim. All this to say there was great contempt of the Jews for the Samaritans and great contempt of the Samaritans for the Jews. They hated each other and this led to verse 9, we have no dealings with Samaritans. And in addition to this, in light of all this, here is Jesus Christ speaking to a Samaritan, and not just a Samaritan, a Samaritan woman. Jewish men, as the story goes, used to pray daily thanking God that they weren't born a Samaritan. But then as the story goes, they also prayed, blessed art thou, O Lord, who has not made me a woman. So they were, you know, racism going on here, genderism going on here, the whole deal. But right away now Jesus Christ just not even looking at this, not even giving it a moment's thought, a moment's concern, but the Samaritan woman picked up on all of it. She doesn't refuse, but she's certainly surprised. And she said to him in verse 9, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. That word there for no dealings means they don't share stuff. They don't share utensils. They would have dealt with Samaritans, you know, the disciples were off in the town getting food for lunch. But often, even if a Jew went into the marketplace and came in contact with Samaritans, they would wash first when they got back before they did anything else because they had contact with Samaritans. Here it means that certainly, certainly you're not going to drink after a Samaritan. You're not going to use the same cup that a Samaritan would use. And here, the Lord Jesus Christ in great graciousness toward her in about to give her the gospel, about to save her wretched soul, didn't even consider concerned himself with that. He would have certainly taken a drink from her. That woman who wasn't worthy to unloose the strap of his sandal, right? Yet he asks for her a drink from her cup. And then he starts this conversation with her. Why? Why did Jesus Christ start this conversation with her, a Samaritan woman, an outcast Samaritan, an immoral woman? It's because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever, even a Samaritan woman would believe in him might have everlasting life. This is the boundlessness of God's grace, the limitlessness of God's grace toward wicked sinners. Look at the lengths to which Christ went here to bring the gospel to these people and look at the boundless grace of God toward them in his evangelism. You know, God from before the foundation of the world chose that this woman in the well would be saved, chose that the Samaritans of that village would hear the gospel and be saved. And yet, right, even though we understand God's sovereignty, we understand God's providence, we understand God's election, but none of that, knowing any of that, wouldn't hinder evangelism, right? If you knew, Jesus Christ's omniscient knew, he must go through Samaria. There's a divine appointment waiting, there's a woman who needs to get saved, and he labors to go and get the gospel out to this woman in Samaria. Don't let the sovereignty of God or the foreknowledge of God or the providence of God hinder or cause you to be lazy or negligent in evangelism. Listen, knowing this truth, knowing what we see here should spur you on to evangelize every opportunity you get because God is crushingly sovereign because his providence extends to every single circumstance. When you go out and share the gospel, it's not by accident. It's by God's providence. It's by God's boundless grace. It is by God's directing your steps. When you're standing there having a conversation, it's not by accident, not by chance. It is a divine appointment. The fact that you're here this morning is not by accident, not by chance. It is by divine appointment. God's providence extends over all circumstances and shouldn't that charge you up, Christian, to evangelize all the more, knowing that you're fishing in a stock barrel, right? If you're here today, though, and you're outside of Christ, think about the lengths to which Christ has gone to even bring you to this point and in presenting his boundless grace to you this morning, don't reject the Lord in that. Turn to Christ and be saved. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, we praise you and thank you for your gospel. God, thank you for this glorious passage of Scripture. Thank you for the example that we see here. Thank you, Lord, for the works of providence that we see here. God, thank you for what this reveals of our Lord here. Thank you, Lord, for the example that we have in Christ. And God, thank you for the provision that you've made to save sinners. We are eternally indebted to your grace, God, worshiping you and praising you for all eternity, just with grateful hearts, God, for all that you've done for us in Christ. All praise, honor, and glory be to your name. In Jesus Christ we pray.