THE CITY OF COMMITMENT

November 25, 2001 am
MF Blume

John 4:5 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.
John 4:9-16 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, 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 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. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

A couple weeks ago the Lord abundantly opened up some truths to us about the curse God put in the world.

We preached a lot of truth that weekend.
I want to break it all down for us today and concentrate upon one aspect of that revelation.

God did the work in planting a Garden for mankind to eat and drink fruit of life and water of life FREELY WITHOUT LABOUR.

It would make man live forever, and man did not even have to work for it.

Genesis 2:8-9 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And a test was there in that Garden.

Then obedience.

Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

FREELY EAT.

No work.

Despite the human race's failure in the Garden, over and over again, the Bible shows us God's continuing desire to take us back there one more time and give us a new lease on eternal Life.

This very same picture is shown to us in the great story of the EXODUS.

Instead of a return to the garden of Eden, God takes a people who were in Canaan generations ago, who became salves in Egypt, and returns them to the land of Canaan.

Remember the story of Joseph and his brothers who sold him into Egypt.

All the family was in Canaan.
And they sold Joseph who wound up a slave in Egypt, and rose to power through his ability to interpret the Pharaoh's visions.
Famine hit the land, and the brothers who sold him, and their father, all came to Egypt.
FOOD caused them to leave Canaan and come to Egypt where they soon became slaves.

Was it not food that caused Adam and Eve to leave the Garden, and become slaves to sin?

God then arranged for Israel to return to Canaan, and Moses came along with the blood of the lamb on the doorways.

What a wonderful picture of Jesus, the true Lamb of God, and His shed blood to save us from slavery to sin!

But at the borders of the land of Canaan, the land where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived, HOME, God warned Israel of some vital matters.

Israel had free provisions as if back in Eden again.

Deuteronomy 6:10-11 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good [things], which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;

Israel did not build these houses, but would enjoy them.

Adam did not plant the garden nor plant the trees and provide his own food and drink, but he was to enjoy them.

However, things would still be as they were in the GARDEN.

Obedience was necessary.

Deuteronomy 6:12-19 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.

COMMITMENT!

The town where this decision was to be finalized was called SHECHEM.

Deuteronomy 11:29 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.

Gerizim and Ebal were in Shechem.

Recall that BLESSING was upon the human race in the Garden, but also a CURSE when they disobeyed.

Genesis 3:17-19 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

As two trees stood in the Garden indicating blessing and cursing, two mountains stood in Canaan indicating the same.

Joshua 24:1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

It was at SHECHEM.

The blessing of food they did not work to obtain was now their's.

Joshua 24:13 And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

OBEDIENCE CAME NEXT:

Joshua 24:14-15 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Jesus spoke to a woman in a town called Sychar.

Sychar was previously named Shechem.
This is also the same are where Jacob made a commitment and paid a price.

Genesis 33:18-20 And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money {100 lambs}. And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.

Shechem was an area Jacob bought and built his first altar, calling the altar GOD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL.

Jacob promised God to serve Him if God's words were true and God brought Jacob back home safe and sound, while the threat of Esau loomed before him.
God did keep him safe and Jacob committed himself.

He gave the land to JOSEPH.

Genesis 48:22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Joseph's bones were returned to this region when Israel conquered Canaan.

Joshua 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

Jacob made a decision of commitment there.

Israel had to make a decision of commitment there.

And Jesus was speaking to a woman at a well and confronted her with a decision to commitment as He spoke of RIVERS OF LIFE HE WOULD FREELY GIVE HER.

God planted the Garden for Adam.

God put a river in the Garden.

FOOD AND DRINK OF LIFE.

Jesus showed her rivers of water that would never run dry, as opposed to a well whose waters would leave one thirsty.

He showed his disciples meat that would give everlasting life.
And it was free.
He would GIVE these things.

John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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.

John 4:31-38 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

Wells springing up unto everlasting life (4:14), and fruit unto life eternal (4:36).

Ever since Egypt, Joseph longed to return to his land.

A famine drove Israel from the land, and they came to Egypt.
And then an Exodus occurred in which they returned to the land.
But Joseph was dead by this time.
But he commanded that his bones be returned and buried in SHECHEM.

"Rivers" is a plural term, pointing back to the four rivers in Eden's Garden.

But it's a place of commitment.

Jesus confronted the woman with commitment, and told the woman to do something that would cause her to deal with that confrontation of honesty and truth.

He tells her to get her husband.
This would decide whether she would tell the truth or not.
It was a test before her.

There was a test in the Garden for Adam and Eve.

Two trees.
Choose one and be blessed and live, or choose the other and see a curse and die.

The woman responded.

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

She answered correctly.

She could have lied.

But she confessed she was in sin.
She passed the test.
SHE SPOKE WELL.

She had been in divorces, and perhaps some of her husbands died.

However, the man she was with was not her husband.
She did not even have the excuse that she was married.
But she confessed it.
Jesus had to make her see her sin before she could get this life.

God wants to bring us back to the garden to rivers of His Spirit that give you eternal life.

But before you get the Holy Ghost you must repent and be baptized.
You must come face to face with your sins.

I've had people argue with me when I discussed their sins.

But like this woman, I've also had people whose hearts were so sincere, that they hid nothing and confessed all.

John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

She did not argue, but admitted Jesus was of God!

In this same town where Israel would make a decision and enjoy the blessings of provisions they did not work to obtain, or throw them all away in disobedience, Jesus spoke to a woman about GIVING HER waters to drink that would make her live forever.

He would GIVE it to her.
It was FREE.

John 4:35-37 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

He said the same thing about FOOD.

But notice that FOOD was also linked to OBEDIENCE.

John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

And this meat was…

John 4:36 …fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

Who sowed?

GOD!!!

Who reaps?

US!!

And God wants to rejoice with us together!

There is a price for eternal life… IT IS OBEDIENCE!

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Obedience is doing his commandments.

AND YOU WILL LIVE.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

FREELY!