“Death comes to the ungodly man--as a penal infliction; but to the righteous as a summons to his Father's palace! To the sinner--it is an execution; to the saint--it is an undressing from his sins and infirmities! Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors--the commencement of glory!” — C. H. Spurgeon
• Bro. Darvin Pruitt is preaching today for GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH in Taylor, AR. • GRACE BIBLE CHURCH in San Leandro, CA will host its annual Sovereign Grace Bible conference next weekend (Friday-Sunday — October 10-12). Scheduled speakers are Don Fortner and the host pastor, Bro. Jesse Gistand.
“I am The LORD, and I Change Not.” — Don Fortner (Tune: #400 — Jesus, and Shall it Ever Be? — LM)
1. Blest sons of Jacob, chosen race, Our God’s the God of sovereign grace! He never alters His designs, And will not, cannot change His mind.
2. Though rocks dissolve and hills remove, With sun, and moon, and stars above, Though often we unfaithful prove, He loves us with unchanging love!
3. Though sorrows come and comfort goes, Our God no variation knows! Though full of sin, we blush with shame, His mercies sure remain the same!
4. “I am the Lord, and I change not.” — This word from God we must not doubt. His promise He will never break. — The honor of His name’s at stake!
5. Rejoice! Rejoice! Be of good cheer, Till temporal things all disappear! And then, in heaven’s vast domains, We’ll praise our God, Who cannot change!
A Wearied Savior
“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.” (John 4:6)
What a picture we have before us! Here is our great Savior, the Lord of Glory, the Son of God, that One who came to seek and save that which was lost, that One who lived to do his Father’s will, “wearied with his journey.” The Lord Jesus Christ was, as a man, as our Savior, wearied with his journey, as he sat upon Jacob’s well.
What does this mean? What does the Spirit of God intend for us to learn from the fact that our Savior was tired, weary, beat down, exhausted from the toil and burden of his journey? Obviously, this is not recorded to reveal some weakness in our Savior’s character. Rather, this event in the life of our Redeemer was and is intended to teach us that our dear Savior is a real man, a man touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Truly Human
How truly human the Lord Jesus Christ is! The Apostle John, more than any other of the gospel writers, wrote his gospel narrative to show the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is John, above all others, who shows us that Jesus the man, is God the Son, the second person of the holy Trinity (John 1:1-3; 1 John 5:7). Yet, he seems to go out of his way to show us the real humanity of Christ. Many today, who claim to believe in Christ, deny his true and absolute deity. But in John’s day many, who claimed to believe in Christ, denied his real humanity. And multitudes today loose much benefit to their souls because they fail to grasp the reality of our Savior’s humanity.
He who is our Redeemer must be both God and man in one glorious person. None but a perfect man could suffer the wrath and judgment of God for man’s sin as our Substitute. None but God could satisfy the infinite wrath and justice of God to put away man’s sin. That God-man, our Substitute, is Jesus Christ, who died, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
“God was manifest in the flesh.” — “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” — We repeat those statements of Scripture with ease. But I am sure we have not yet begun to grasp the reality and fulness of our Savior’s manhood. We seem to have more difficulty grasping the real humanity of Christ than we do in grasping the glorious godhead of our Savior. I know that I do.
When I read in the Bible that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator, Sustainer and Governor of all things, I have no problem at all in saying, “Amen, my Savior is my God.” Yet, I must confess to my shame that, when I read that he was tempted of the devil, that he was troubled in his soul, and that he was weary as a man, my first inclination is to try to explain away the reality of his temptations, troubles and weariness. In doing so, I dishonor him whom most I long to honor in all things. The humanity of Christ is every bit as necessary to our salvation as his deity, and every bit as comforting.
Comfort and Encouragement
The fact that our Savior sat upon Jacob’s well as a man wearied with his journey is intended to minister comfort to his people, and is intended to encourage sinners to trust him. Our Savior’s divinity did not, in any way or to any degree, diminish his capacity for suffering as a man.
You might ask, “Why is it that he who raised the dead, multiplied the loaves and fishes, and turned water into wine for the benefit of multitudes did not perform a miracle for himself?” That is a good question.
When he was hungry after forty days of fasting, and Satan tempted him to turn the stones into bread, he certainly could have done so with the greatest of ease. Without question, the water in Jacob’s well would have gushed out of the ground to quench the thirst of the Son of God and relieve his weariness had he simply willed it. But our Lord Jesus Christ came not to be ministered unto (even by creation), but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
If he would be our Savior, if he would stand to his own bond as our Surety, if he would put away sin as our Substitute, it was absolutely necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ endure all the consequences of sin. — “It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren.” From the moment he became flesh, the curse of the fall began to fall upon the Lord of Life and Glory.
Though he knew no sin, did no sin, and was altogether holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, our blessed Savior experienced all the frailties and infirmities of fallen humanity, which are the result of sin. He experienced all the calamities to which human life is exposed in this world. Our Redeemer was pricked with all the thorns and thistles the earth is made to bring forth to man. He was, at last, brought to the dust of death by his Father, just as he said he must be in Psalm 22:15. These were the conditions to which the Redeemer subjected himself in the days of his flesh, when he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Our Savior’s whole life was a life of weariness, sorrows and affliction. He was exposed to all the common miseries of humanity. He knew all the needs you can know in this world of woe, all the sorrows and all the pains. The man Christ Jesus felt in himself every groan he heard from suffering men; and, as the prophet spoke of him, “himself bare our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17).
Therefore, we are told by the Holy Spirit, that our Savior, “being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well,” that we might learn, when we are wearied with our journey through this world of woe, look to Christ on his throne and trust this God-man Savior, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities!
GRACE BULLETIN
October 5, 2008
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
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