The Need for Repentance
A Sermon on John 4:27-30
Scripture
27And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” 28So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and *said to …
27¶ And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29Come, …
Sermon Description
What sets Christianity apart from all other religions in the world? What one characteristic marks the beginning of every great revival? What was the purpose of the Old Testament law, and what do these questions have to do with each other? The answer, as presented in this sermon on John 4:27–30 titled “The Need for Repentance,” is the conviction of sin. Using the woman at the well as an example, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows that the beginning of Jesus’s message is to convict of sin and for all to agree with the woman who said, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” Throughout the Bible, people who are brought into the presence of God are first convicted of their sin. Jacob feared and Isaiah confessed in their encounters with the most Holy God. This conviction is not hopeless, but is the mode in which the Christian is brought to the necessary hatred and repentance of sin. Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds that if one has not been brought to a place of repentance, then they are in a religion without Christ and one that ends in hellfire. For those who have repented, their conviction of sin is an assurance that they are God’s people.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.