Pastor Aaron Prelock continues the portraits of faith series in John 4 with the Samaritan woman at the well.
Bloomington Bible Church Sermons
Repentance in Faith
Bibles to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, we're looking at portraits of repentance. This week we're looking at portraits of faith, portraits of faith and this week we're looking at repentance and faith and how they relate. How repentance and faith go together, how true faith always involves repentance. Let's look at John chapter 4 verses 1 to 42. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee and he had to pass through Samaria and he came to a town of Samaria called Saikar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, weird as he was from the journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to drink or to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink," where his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will be coming him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying I have no husband, but you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our Father's worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman believe me. The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ, when he comes he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." Just then his disciples came back, they marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek or why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. See, the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days, and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you have said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." Let's pray. Father, we praise you that you have sent us your Son to be the Savior of the world. May we see him today truly as Savior and God, which in this passage means may we see ourselves as sinners in need of repentance. Father, give us faith this morning. Give us faith to hear what this passage has to say to us about faith, about repentance, and about ourselves. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to get right to it. There are three lessons this morning about faith in Jesus, three lessons about faith. In Jesus' lesson number one, Jesus offers life. Jesus offers life. Look back again at verses 13 to 14. Jesus says to this woman, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will be coming him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Brothers and sisters, Jesus offers life. I got to mow our yard the other day. The first time I've had to mow on a regular basis in a long, long, long time. I don't mind mowing. I don't like hot summer days, but coming in from mowing, or coming in from running, or coming in from working outside, what is nice? Just a glass of ice cold water. Think about stepping in the AC after a miserably hot June day. The humidity just sort of sticks to you everywhere you go and you walk in and all of a sudden it's cool and dry and refreshing. Jesus here, creator, miracle worker, God offers us not just AC to our bodies, not just water to our mouths, but living water, life for our souls. He knows our past sin. He knows we will still sin. He knows all there is to know about us and yet he still offers us life. What a Savior. What a Savior. Brothers and sisters, do we look for opportunities to offer Jesus life? Do we look for chances to share the gospel? I know Christianity is unpopular in this day and age, especially in this town. Do we look for opportunities to share Jesus life, living water, eternal life with those around us who are destined to an eternity in hell if they do not repent and trust in him? You see there are so many reasons this story shouldn't have happened according to our logic. We hear lots of funny things, interpretations and stories kind of grow over the years. I blame the flannel graphs, but it wasn't necessarily so that Jews would walk years out of the way to avoid Samaria. It wasn't like they'd get in a boat and sail around Samaria to go up there. But they did not enjoy going around Samaria or going through Samaria. There was a long, long lasting hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. So Jews would avoid Samaria if they could help it or if they went through it. They'd go through it as quickly as possible without seeing anyone, without touching anyone and being richly defiled, without having to interact with the Samaritans. There were a lot of Jewish traditions about how men and women interacted. There were not so much based on biblical principles of propriety, but sometimes were based frankly on just sexism and elitism. There are a lot of reasons, a lot of details and background to this story that this is an odd story. This isn't just a parable, this is a true story that happened and there's a lot of reasons why if you and I were involved, we probably wouldn't have had these interactions. Praise God, Jesus is about giving life. So Jesus is willing to enter into an uncomfortable conversation. He's not bothered about being in uncomfortable territory. He's not looking at the people around him the way other Jews in his time frame would have been. He's willing to take the opportunity that is literally right in front of him because it's an opportunity to offer life, Jesus offers life, like in the assurance of pardon from John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And did you notice in the very first verse that Jesus offer to give life, Jesus' life giving ministry, it works, it works. He's not just holding out life like some snake oil salesman just wanting to pocket your money and then run away with the loot. He actually gives what he offers back in verse 1, now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John. In other words, Jesus' ministry is already bearing fruit. Here at the beginning of John, Jesus' ministry is already accomplishing something. Life is spreading in and through him. My brothers and sisters, you and I need to know this. The only way for us to have life and the happiness and stability and security that comes from true life is through Jesus and his word. Make no mistake, Jesus' life works. We'll see in a moment, sin doesn't. May work for a short season, it may work for a while, but it cannot give us true life. Jesus offers us life. By the way, that's why starting soonish, I don't know exactly when, we're going to be in Titus for the rest of the year to get basic principles of life together in the Christian world, basic principles of church, how we function as men and women covenant together in a body of believers together. Jesus gives life and it's essential for us to study this, to live for this, to be consumed with this focus on life. If we want life ourselves, lesson number one, Jesus offers life. Question number two, sin brings death, sin brings death. Israel at this time, and the Gospels is under the thumb of the Roman Empire because of Israel's past faithlessness. You can read about that in the prophets in the book of First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles. Israel is suffering God's discipline, punishment for their faithlessness to God and is now under Roman occupation. The Samaritans are the descendants of those who were left in the land north of Israel. It was in the Old Testament, the northern kingdom is called Israel, it's a bit confusing, but those in the region called Samaria during the time of the Gospels are the descendants of those who were left after the Assyrians came through and wiped out most of the people, took a few that were left off to Assyria and left a very small few and then sent back Assyrian or people from other ethnicities around the area to intermarry with them. So the Samaritans are living in consequences of sin. Jesus is in this story in the very first place to offer his life as a toning sacrifice because of our sin. Brothers and sisters make no mistake, sin brings death, figuratively of course relationships break down because of sin. Our lives are filled with misery because of sin. We have guilt in our minds that tries we like we cannot shake because of sin. Sin brings death and then literally, physically. There is death and sickness all around us. Why? Go back to the very beginning because of Adam's sin. Sin brings death. Don't forget that. When the pleasures of sin offer life and happiness and the promise of satisfaction, remember, it's a lie. It's always been a lie. Sin can only lead to pain. And death, as we get to verse seven in the passage, here comes a woman to draw water. Again, we have to be careful that we don't over exegete the details here, but this woman doesn't appear to be living her best life now. You don't go do the hard labor of drawing water in the heat of the day. She's alone. Again, this is a very communal society, so that's a bit odd. She's by herself. She seems to be trying to avoid people. We find out later she's not great with relationships. She's not having a good time. And where she wants to get water by herself to just get what she needs for daily life and then to get home without interaction, there's a Jewish man sitting down. He asks her for a drink. Now, please tell me, please tell me that sounds familiar that there are echoes. I just talked about this a couple of weeks ago. There are echoes of 1 Kings 17 and Elijah. That's a clue. As soon as Jesus says, "Give me a drink," our ears should peer cup. Whoa, something is about to happen. And I love this about what the passage tells us about Jesus in verse six. Jesus is weary from his journey. So he's sitting by the well to get rest. He's alone. The disciples have gone into town. He's by himself. Anyone else just find a moment to sit down, by yourself, in quiet, really nice. Here comes this woman and Jesus asks for a drink. I'd be tempted to see, okay, she's here for work. She wants to get stuff done. I'm going to just off I go and let her be and be myself away. Jesus sees an opportunity to give life. So a woman who, as we see, is in desperate need of the life that Jesus offers. They begin talking. He asks for a drink. She is surprised because she knows these cultural differences exist. Jews and Samaritans, as John tells us, have no dealings. That's an understatement. If Jesus still talks with her, they go back and forth. It may be a bit confusing for her. The word for living water can mean fresh water or running water. But I think she gets through here that Jesus is not just talking about water. And think about it. This woman's not dumb. It would be odd for someone, a foreigner, to have access to water in Saikar, in this town, that nobody else who lives there knows about. Okay? It's a hot kind of desert climate. There is really important for daily life. If there's a source of water, people are going to know about it. He's a Jew. He's a stranger. He's obviously passing through. All of that to say, I think she has some understanding here that more is going on than a discussion about H2O. She gets that something else is going on. She seems intrigued. She keeps talking with him. So the point in verse 15, she says to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." It may be she's just talking about not wanting to get stuff out of the well. But I think she gets that something else is going on. This man who's talking with her is different than the other men she's known. She wants to know what Jesus has to offer. She gets a sense that there's something different. And in verse 16, Jesus changes the subject to sex. I have a note that means something. I have no idea what it says. I like the rich young ruler. I had R-Y-R because, of course, I would know what that meant. Like the rich young ruler, Jesus changes the subject to what's key in this woman's life. The barrier between her and him. The rich young ruler, it's money. Jesus puts his finger on the issue. The Pharisees and their lusts for public opinion, the disciples and their lusts for vengeance when they want to call down fire or their faithlessness, Jesus always goes straight to the heart of the matter. Brothers and sisters, Jesus goes straight to the heart of a very personal and a very vulnerable matter here. And we have to be able to talk about these things. We have to be able to talk about sex. We have to be able to talk about money. We have to be able to talk about our other various lusts for respect for what it is that we want in church. And especially, like sex, we have to do so appropriately, cautiously, sympathetically, without any hint of immorality or course-gesting, but we have to talk about it. Okay, do we get embarrassed when we go to the physician and they ask questions? Yes. Do we like it? No. Is it necessary? Yes. Why? because our world is obsessed with sex. If we're honest, so are many of us. This town, Bloomington, is soaked in sexuality and godless sexuality and destructive sexuality. And if we're to have a witness here, like Jesus is willing to with this woman, we have to know how to deal with it. We have to know how to deal with it for our own benefit as well. Not because we want to talk about things that should be kept private, but because in these so personal and intimate areas, this is where we sin and sin can be so incredibly destructive. Starting place, the Bible's starting place, that Jesus is working against this backdrop is that God made sex good in the beginning, in monogamous, heterosexual marriage, sex is good, it is life giving, it is a source of mutual benefit and encouragement, it is a means of companionship between husband and wife. It's a way to appropriately show love, it is mutual, it is life giving together. It's in many ways for a marriage a thermometer. And marriage counseling, one of the first questions that often comes up and should come up is how often are you having sex? You can tell a lot from that answer. It's a thermometer, it's a gauge of how things are in the marriage, if there are relational problems in the marriage, it's going to come out there. It's also a thermostat, it helps regulate the relationship, the comfort and encouragement that can be there, the mutuality, can help provide strength in a godly marriage, it's regular as is appropriate for each couple, that may not mean the same thing, but it's a regular part of life. It is good and necessary as a part of Christian marriage, but get this outside of this context, outside of monogamous, heterosexual marriage. It's selfish, it's destructive, and it abuses the other person engaged, whether that's a person in the same room or a person on the other side of a screen. Godless sexuality is abusive and it destroys us, a sexuality outside of the context of Christian marriage always brings us lower, it humiliates us. It destroys us, and in the New Testament it's abundantly clear brothers and sisters, our view of sex is a litmus test of how we view every other thing in the Christian life, every other aspect of the Christian life. In other words, you cannot be godly in 99% of the Christian life, an indulgent worldliness over here, and truly be godly over here. You can't have a good theology or good ethics and everything else, it's sort of wall-off sex that it's by itself and at work. That's not the way it works. God intends it to be much more interconnected with Christian life. Sexuality outside of God's context of monogamous heterosexual marriage leads to pain and suffering. It's interesting to me even the world is starting to understand this. Jewish feminist Louise Perry wrote a book, "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution," which she documents through the last 50 or so years since the second wave of feminism, how women's liberation, particularly as it deals with sex, has fundamentally harmed women rather than helped them. It's funny, she comes to the end of this book, she's a brilliant woman. She comes to the end of this book and says, "I wish there were something like a lifelong promise to be involved in one another's lives forever solely," and I'm thinking, "You mean like Christian marriage?" Some people can be so smart and yet it's worth a read that even the world is beginning to understand this. And if you're in this body today and you're living in sin in this area, let me urge you to bring it into the light, confess, bring it public as is appropriate, men, if you're living in sexual sin and others are not aware of it, come talk to me about this. Women, come talk to Kate, she's got no boundaries. There's nothing she's not afraid to ask. She's good at this, she's helpful. It doesn't have to be us, another godly man or woman, it's pretty clear in these issues where Jesus is talking with this woman, it stays pretty high level but repentance often has to go much deeper and men talk with men, women talk with women, but let me urge you, don't let another day go by living in the misery and guilt and shame of unconfessed sexual sin. It's not worth it. It will destroy you. In verse 16, Jesus says go call your husband, getting to the root of her, block with God. The woman tries to deflect, I don't have a husband, Jesus says yes, you're right. You don't have a husband. It's interesting, there's discussion today, the word man or the word for husband can be man but it probably here is right in the translation, it probably means husband, it'd be a little bit weird to have Jesus say to this woman, woman go call your boyfriend, just doesn't quite fit the vibe of the passage. She's had five husbands and the man she's with now is not her husband. She's seen how it goes, enough of that. What you have said is true. Verse 19, the woman again tries to distract, she decides she wants to talk theology now. And I noticed this, this week, I think for the first time, that Jesus is willing to let her distract. He brings it back to himself. At the end of verse 26, there's an appeal to authority where the conversation is done. They're not arguing anymore, Jesus has presented himself as the Christ. This woman has a choice, but until then he's willing to talk with this woman on her terms. Notice the compassion, Jesus knows what this woman has done better than she does. And he's still willing to graciously and sympathetically and compassionately draw faith out of her and bring her to a point of repentance. The conversation continues, they talk about differences between Jewish and Samaritan worship. At the end, she seems to know something, verse 25, she appeals to the Messiah, it may be her way of trying to stop the conversation, well, we just can't know, can we? It might not be that different from Pontius Pilate asking what is truth. In Jesus' response to verse 20 speaks, "I who speak to you, am He." In other words, I am the Messiah. I am the one that both Jews and Samaritans seek, the disciples wander back into the frame with food. They're very happy to point out they've got food, they're all about food, missing the point. They wander back into the frame. Can you imagine the discussion amongst the disciples is there walking down the trail towards this well and all of a sudden they see Jesus and a woman? They're kind of clueless, a Samaritan woman to that. She's slowly backs away, leaves her water jar and goes into town. Can you imagine what they think is going on? She's going into town to tell all of the people, "See a man who told me everything I ever did." Could this be the Christ? She takes the choice that she's given in verse 26. Will you accept Jesus as Messiah, as Lord and God, which means you have to deal with Him knowing everything about you and you have to deal with what He says about that now? Are you just going to go back to your life of misery? She walks into town and Jesus and the disciples have a conversation. We're not going to get into what they're talking about now, but the point is Jesus is basically telling them, "Open your eyes, see what's around you, the possibilities to give life." Again for us brothers and sisters, do we see the opportunities to share the life of Jesus that are around us? Are we consumed with our own mindsets, our own hang-ups, our own prejudices? However legitimate they may be, the opportunities to give life to those who are stuck in the misery and death of a life in sin. You see, the choice that Jesus gives this woman in verse 26, and make no mistake, it is a choice, by claiming to be the Messiah to her, He is giving her a choice, accept this message or reject it. This choice is truly ours as well, it's here for all of us. Will we accept that Jesus is the Christ? By the way, it makes not a bit of difference to the fact whether or not we accept it. Jesus is Christ, He is King in God, whether or not any of us here believe it. But in Philippians 2, it's clear that one day everyone will confess that Jesus is God. Many will do so from joy, others purely out of slavish fear. But everyone will confess that Jesus is Christ, have you? Is this your only hope in life and death? Is this your only comfort, is this center, bedrock, the core of who you are, that Jesus is the Christ? Maybe you're caught in sexual sin and you don't want to give it up. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's a matter of the heart that's inside and nobody else knows. Maybe it's outward action. Either way. Here God's word very clearly this morning, sin brings death. If you want to be free, if you want life, then turn to Jesus. Come to Him. Admit what He knows about you already, that you are a sinner. That's what everyone else who is here that a Christian has already done. It's no surprise to us. It's no surprise to Jesus that we're sinners. Ask Him to forgive you. Lead with Him for His mercy. And know that He promises that all who come to Him in faith shall find forgiveness. He has never turned away any that come to Him in faith. Jesus offers life. Sin brings death. Third and final lesson. Repentance brings life. Back to basics. It's chatting with someone this weekend. Basics are kind of important in everyday life. Want to learn to play basketball? I'm terrible at basketball. I can't play basketball. I hated dribbling. I hated practice. I hated layups. It's because I'm left handed. My PE coach couldn't teach me how to do it left handed. No, it's because I'm lazy. Basics. Basketball. Cooking. You don't put strawberry jam on stake. Pretty basic. Anything in life that requires repetition and training, you've got to stick with the fundamentals. This is true with Christianity as well. John 3 16, whoever believes in God's only Son, will not perish but have everlasting life. Repentance brings life. Sin is where we perish. We perish even in this life by giving ourselves to sin, but through repentance we gain life. Others and sisters, repentance isn't just the entry point into Christian life. Repentance is the Christian life. You will get tired of hearing me say this. I won't stop saying it though. Repentance is the Christian life. The whole Christian life is a life of repentance. We don't ever get to stop repenting. We don't ever grow a mature past repentance. There's no such thing as a Christian who's not repenting. And it doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter how deep you're in it, how long you've been and how destructive it's been. There is no sin that Christ cannot forgive. Yes there may be consequences. Yes there may be chaos to unpick afterwards, but Christ offers forgiveness to all who repent and come to Him in faith. All of us. It's why at the beginning we looked at the song "All Creatures of Our God and King." Because praise God we can repent and once we repent we can praise God. Brothers and sisters you know this already. I've heard from so many of you over the past few weeks even you get this point of how central repentance is to us. But I want to make this abundantly clear especially for anyone who's visiting. This is a church for sinners. This is the church for sinners. That has to be our starting place doesn't it? That has to be not just where we begin but where we live and where we end no matter how much God does in and through us through our Christian lives. When we reach our deathbed this will be our plea Jesus blood has purchased my salvation. We don't get past that. This is a church for sinners. Why do we go to see a physician? Why do we take our car to the mechanic? Why do we even go to the grocery store? Because we know we need something that we can't provide for ourselves. Because we know we have a problem that we can't fix ourselves and we need someone else, Jesus. To fix the biggest problem of all that is the sin in our hearts in verse 29. In verse 29 of chapter 4 this is the cry of a believer, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. I think a lot of Christians are afraid of that. They're afraid to go too deep. Afraid it will turn people away. And there are many people that this message will turn away. There are many people that Jesus approached his going straight to the heart of the matter turns away. That's okay. Remember later on in John Jesus turns away hordes of people who want to make him king because they want him for the wrong reasons. Jesus isn't interested in you if you come to him just to make your life better or if you come to him just to fill your belly with bread like those did in later in John. But for those who want to have their sin shown to them so they can see what to do about it, those who cry out won't someone please speak to me of my sin and show me how to repent. Jesus has all the patience in the world for and so should you and I. It doesn't this story give hope by the way for those who have made a mess of their lives. Those who look at their lives and think wow I made a few left turns on that road. What do I do now? Doesn't this passage give us hope? That's you by the way and you're looking at your life thinking I've made such a mess. Praise God for that. Praise God from that. And by the way if you kind of look at your life and think you know what? Praise God I haven't made too much of a mess of my life and I think I'm doing okay. Thank you God for that. You might want to look at Jesus parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector like this afternoon it's in Luke 18. We've all made a mess of our lives. One Corinthians 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 to 11. The Apostle Paul writes, "Do not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor feminists nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Brothers and sisters that's us. Every single one of us and I think most of us can say we're in there more than once. What does the Apostle Paul say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and such were some of you? That's not what we are, that's what we were but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God every single one of us has made a mess of our lives. Maybe there's more or less outward carnage. We've all made a mess of our lives and Jesus comes that repentance brings life, that through trusting in Him, through looking to Him and pleading for His mercy, we might find life. Not just healing and restoration today, praise God, that's also on offer but even more so eternal fellowship with the triune God Jesus offers life, sin brings death, repentance brings life. Let me close with three applications. This should change how we look at people. These truths, John chapter 4 should change how we look at people. Last night we went to the grocery store and we're getting pizza, I was waiting while Kate was in the line trying to contain the kids and notice someone walking towards me who was wearing a t-shirt that let's just say indicated he and I would be on very different sets of a lot of cultural conversations and my heart was filling with contempt, disgust. Like no mistake, there was much that this individual stands for that is contemptuous and disgusting. We can't lose that. But I think for a lot of us here, maybe we're a little bit too much on this side. There are a lot of Christians today who are willing to soft coat sin, who can't seem to call sin sin, that's cheap grace, flattening the gospel. I don't think that's the problem here. Brothers and sisters, we need to remember that Jesus looks at sinners with compassion. So should we. Yes, it's true Jesus does not only look at sinners with compassion. Jesus also looks at them with the searing holiness of being God. We don't have that. We have more the, maybe we should be a little bit more afraid of his searing holiness looking at us. But there still is a place for compassion. If Jesus can go and sit down next to this woman or sit in this woman, come up to him and talk with him and look at her with compassion. If Jesus can show compassion to his disciples, maybe that's how we should act with those around us as well. Maybe we shouldn't jump too quickly to assuming people are reprobates or rebels. The irony is I'm sitting there filling my heart with loathing and disgust and my two-year-old looks at him and says, "Hi!" She doesn't see all the things I see. And I wondered, "How does Jesus see this man?" I'm sure there'd be a lot to talk about in pastoral counseling. But if that's all I see, I don't have the heart of Christ. We should see people the way Jesus does. And John chapter 4 gives us an indication of what that means. Second, closing application. We are all responsible for our own sin. Whatever portion of the sin is our responsibility, we need to own that and repent for that. Jesus doesn't look at this woman merely as a victim, however much that may be the case. Given the pattern of her life, we can be pretty sure that she's been taken advantage of in the past. But she's still responsible for her own sin. We all are and healing can never come to us while we're shouting, "It's their fault. It's his fault. It's her fault." Look, it's easy to blame others for our sin. Look, our world is consumed with that. Our country is consumed with that, blaming everyone else, refusing to take responsibility ourselves. There's no healing in that. Healing only comes as many of these Samaritans found out that day in the next two days, verse 39 in chapter 4. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. The brothers and sisters, health and growth and life only comes as we take responsibility for our own sin. And that's a testimony to the world around us when you and I are concerned more about our own sin than we are about the worlds or about others. A third, final application, confession should be a part of a normal Christian life. If you're not in the habit of opening your heart up to other people, if you're not in the habit of confessing your sin to other people, I would urge you to do so. We don't understand that the New Testament teaches an office of confessor or that the pastor is the only one you confess to. If you're not the habit of confessing your sin regularly, I would urge you this week. You know their patterns or actions of sin in your life, and if you don't ask someone else around you, they'll be able to tell you, confess specific sin. And I don't mean, oh, I only spent 10 minutes in my Bible reading this morning and I meant to spend 15. That's not confessing. Confess specific and actual sin and ask a godly brother or sister, men confess to men, women confess to women. Ask a godly brother or sister to pray for you and pray that you would grow, that you would fight this pattern of sin. Be honest, be open, something that you are sorry for, bring it to God and bring it into the light with another believer, because that's repentance. And if we can't confess small things, would we really know that we need to confess if we've not stretched those muscles? They're not going to work then. The brothers and sisters, praise God. The faith in Jesus involves repentance, because through repentance we come to see who Jesus is, who we are, and the path to true life. Let's pray. Father, You have given us Your only Son to atone for our sin. Thank You. Thank You. Father, help us not to run from this truth. Help us to run from our sin. Help us not to be afraid of Your Son in His grace that exposes our sin, but instead to rejoice when our sin is brought into the light. Help us to be a people that confess and repent and are unashamed of Your Son's work of redemption in our lives. We pray this all in the name of Jesus, the great physician of our souls, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]