Well, what could be more blessed than what you just sang? Nearer,
my God, to Thee. And the nearest you can be to
God is in Christ. If you are in Christ, you are
as near to God as you can be. Because if you are in Christ,
Christ is in God and so are you and God is in you. I love that
hymn, never my God to thee, never my God to thee. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to John chapter 4. The gospel according to John
chapter 4, today we will continue this series of messages on Jesus
and the Samaritan woman from John's Gospel chapter 4 verses
1 through 43. This is the fourth message in
this series and I have heretofore read the entire passage on each
of the three occasions. Today we're going to read only
down to the verse at which we're going to begin our exposition
for the day. John's Gospel, chapter 4, beginning
in verse 1. When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples. Note one point concerning that
verse that I thus far have not brought to your attention. The
Lord knew and Jesus made. The Lord is Jesus and Jesus is
the Lord. Verse 2, Though Jesus himself
baptized not but his disciples, Jesus left Judea and departed
again into Galilee. And he must needs go through
Samaria. 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. 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, twelve o'clock noon. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water, Jesus said unto her, give me a drink, for his
disciples were gone away into the city by me. Then saith the
woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew,
askest drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews
have no dealings with the Samaritans. And 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 wouldst 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. Now we had come down to that
point in our exposition thus far and we're going to continue
from that point in today's exposition. Verse number 13, Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Well,
she knew that. She had to come to this well
every day. It was one of those daily chores. Everyone in Samaria
did it. Someone from every house went
to the well with a water pot and brought back water for the
family in the house. They did it today, they'll do
it again tomorrow, just like they did yesterday. Jesus is
letting her know that if you drink this water, you're going
to thirst again. There is a thirst that this water
cannot satisfy. But he continues, 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. Here's the truth of what Jesus
is saying. If you drink the water that I
give you, it will give life to you. Not only will it give life
to you, it will sustain that life forever. You'll never thirst
again. I suppose some of us know something
about having drunk the water from this well, that cistern,
whatever. Sometimes we drank from mud puddles
in religion and thirsting again. Some of you drank the water given by preachers
of the law, but you still had a thirst. Some of you drank the water provided
by preachers of free will and Arminianism and it did not satisfy
your thirst. In my youth, I drank the water
of Pentecostalism did not satisfy my thirst. Then I drank the water
of Calvinism and it did not quench my thirst. There is only that
water that you get from Jesus Christ that will satisfy your
thirst. You can go from this cistern
to that mud hole to this puddle to this or that or the other
only until you come to Jesus. And when you drink the water
Jesus gives to you, you come to Him as a dead sinner and it
quickens you, gives you spiritual life. And this water becomes
in you through the Holy Spirit a spring bubbling up forevermore,
never ceasing. There is in you not a cistern,
there is a spring always bubbling. And Jesus says, if you drink
the water that I give to you, you will never thirst again.
Furthermore, if you drink this water that I give to you, you
will never die. You will live forever. This is
living water. This is living water that never
dies. This is living water that gives
life, sustains life, and never loses its strength. Verse 15, the woman saith unto him, Sir,
I want you to notice she treats him with respect all the way
through. He is talking way over her head. He must. He must. I mean, he's speaking in spiritual
terms. He's going to bring it down so
that she understands. And he's going to bring her up
so that she can understand. But all this time she still is
treating him with respect. Sir, sir, she says, give me this
water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw. Give me
this living water you're talking about. Now, she is here exposing
her spiritual ignorance. And do not be harsh against her
on this account, we were just as ignorant. She says, so if I drink the water
that you give to me, it's living water, so I never have to come
to the well again. And she is under the impression
that Jesus' living water will alleviate her need for the well's
physical water. She does not understand. And
the same is true with all of us. There is a misunderstanding
about so many things regarding the Christian faith. I've heard preachers tell people,
you come to Jesus and all your troubles are over. Oh really? That's when they begin. Read
that book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Read the teachings
of Jesus himself. You come follow me, your own
father and your mother will hate you. and your children will rise
up against you and turn you into the authorities. And yet preachers
say, come to Jesus and all your troubles are over. No, that's
when they begin. That's when they begin. Now they
will be over eventually, but not in this life. Not in this
life. If you think that coming to Jesus
is some kind of a Panacea for all your earthly problems? No,
no, no. It is not. It is not. And this woman is saying, so
if I drink your water, I don't have to come to this well. That
saves me a walk every day. Do you know how heavy that water
pot gets? And I've got to put a bucket
on the end of the rope and drop it down over a hundred feet.
So if I drink your water, do not have to do that ever again."
And she has not understood. As I said, do not be harsh. Neither
did we. She is here illustrating the
truth that Paul the Apostle speaks about when he says that the unregenerate
do not understand spiritual truths. In 1 Corinthians 2.14, Paul writes
that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned. I have had many conversations
with people in certain cults. I have shown them from their
own scriptures that they are wrong. I have shown to them that
they were wrong and they would say, well, let me go away and
I'll come back with an answer that I know they're not coming
back. They know they're not coming back. They know they're wrong. But they cannot understand the
truth. Oh, they know they're wrong, but they cannot understand
the truth. Paul has described that to them. Do not be harsh with your friends
when you explain the truth and they do not understand. You did
not understand at first. So Jesus now, it's almost like
he changes the subject. Have you noticed that repeatedly
it appears he's changing the subject. He's not changing the
subject. He's just drawing her into it. And so here's what he says in
verse number 16. Jesus said unto her, Go call
thy husband and come here. Call your husband and come here. He's about to do two things with
this one statement that he makes. He's about to do two things.
First, He is about to expose her immorality when he says,
bring your husband here. He's going to expose her immorality. But second, second, he's going
to reveal to her himself as her only hope of salvation. Those
two truths are implied in that statement, go call your husband,
bring him here. I got something I want to say
to the both of you. And he is exposing her immorality
and revealing himself as her only hope of salvation. Verse
17, 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."
Yeah, you told the truth this time. You told the truth. Jesus healed. Now remember, it's
his first time at this place. He has met this woman for the
first time ever. They had never corresponded in
the past. this was the first time these
two had ever been together and he lets her know that he knows what
no one else knows yeah you said the truth You've had five husbands and
the man you're living with now, your paramour, he's not your
husband. And she is just dumbfounded that
this man, a complete stranger to her, knows all about her. He knows all about her. He knows
what no stranger could know. And there's a reason why he knew.
He is omniscient. Now we need to realize that our
Lord Jesus Christ during the days of his incarnation on this
earth had both the human and the divine natures in one person. Both the human and the divine
natures. The divine nature is his inherently
from eternity through eternity. The divine nature, the human
nature he assumed in his incarnation when God was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Now he here at this well of Samaria
is letting us see both his human nature and his divine nature. How do you see his human nature?
He's weary, he's thirsty, he's hungry, just like any other person
mortal would have been in the same situation. Jesus is as human
as the rest of us in this regard. He knows our human weaknesses. He knows our hunger, our thirst,
our weariness. He knows all these things. But
on the other hand, He has the divine nature. And having the
divine nature, He, while in His flesh, in the days of His incarnation,
manifested the divine attributes. What are they? Eternity. Jesus says, before Abraham was,
I am. That's his divine nature. He
shows his omnipotence when he stands up in the middle of a
boat that is about to be cast into the bottom of the Sea of
Galilee and rebukes the wind and it stops blowing and says
to the waves, be still! And they do. How could he do
that? No man can. Ah, but this one
has omnipotence. He has omnipresence while he's
here on this earth. He calls a man to him named Philip. goes to get Nathanael, brings
Nathanael to Jesus from a long distance, and Jesus says, Ah,
an Israelite in whom there is no God. Yeah. What do you know about
me? Oh, I saw you when you were up
there a few miles away sitting under the tree. You did? Yes. How could you do that? I am in more than one place at
the same time. He says on another occasion,
the Son of Man on earth is also in heaven. Now that's His omnipresence. He's eternal even in His incarnation. He is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. And here He shows He is omniscient. He knows more about this woman
than any other person anywhere knew about her. He has let himself
be known to her as being omniscient. And so, she is taken aback by
what he is about to say here. What's he saying? You've had
five husbands and the man you now are with is not your husband.
Now that's interesting, she has had five husbands, five husbands. It is doubtful that she had been
widowed five times because she's living with a man and I'm sure
that if he had asked her What happened to your first five husbands?
Oh, they all died. That raises a red flag. Evidently
she had not been widowed five times. She evidently was a very
loose woman, had been divorced evidently because
of her immorality, and now was living with a man who did not
care. that she was immoral because he was as immoral as her. Jesus knows all about this. Yeah. You've had five husbands, and
the man you now live with, he's not your husband. In that, you
have said truly, she is living in an adulterous relationship,
and Jesus has let her know. I know all about it. I know all
about it. Now, look in verse 19. The woman said unto him, Sir,
there it is, that term of respect again. He has just let her know what
she is. He has just let her know that
he knows what she is. Well, one would think it's a
good time to be leaving, going back home. Don't stick any longer
around with this man. You don't know what he's going
to do next or what he's going to tell next. But she says no. She says, Sir, when Jesus exposes
her for what she is, she knows he is no ordinary man. She says, I perceive that thou
art a prophet." Now, she did not deny what Jesus said about
her. Rather, she owed what he said
about her as true. And she acknowledged him as a
prophet, a man, a spokesman sent from God. You are a prophet. He is no ordinary man. He knows
all about her. You must be a prophet. A prophet
is one who is sent from God with the Word from God. And she knows
that there is now one at the well with her. It's just him
and her there together. She the sinful woman and he the
prophet from God. And she therefore will ask him
a question. There is a question that is heavy
on her mind. She has a question that has bothered
her for quite some time. And here is a prophet. He can
answer the question as he asks it in verse number 20. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain and ye Notice she says ye, not
thou. Thou is the singular pronoun,
ye is the plural. And ye say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship. Now she's wanting
to know, where must I go to find acceptance with God? Oh! This man knows all about me.
This man knows my infidelity, my immorality. He knows all about
me. And now I know I need acceptance
with God and I need to know where must I go to find it. In saying Our fathers, she spoke
of the Samaritans, they worshipped in this mountain. She's referring
to Gerizim. It was the site of the Samaritan temple. Jeroboam
had built it as a counterfeit of the temple down in Jerusalem. There was this temple. most holy
place in Samaria. And she says, our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, here at this temple in Gerizim. And she says,
you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought
to worship. And she said, there's a difference
here. And I didn't know which is right. Our fathers say that if you want
acceptance with God, You must come to the temple in Gerizim.
But you Jews say that if a man wants acceptance with God, he
must go to the temple in Jerusalem. I need to know where is the place
where I can find acceptance with God. She not only perceives Jesus
to be a prophet, but she also realizes that she is a sinner
needing salvation. And here in her request, we find
in her like we found in Lydian when Paul preached to her in Philippi. And the Scripture says
that as Paul preached to her, the Lord opened her heart. to receive the things spoken
by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. Oh, preachers all around us are
telling sinners, you need to open your heart. You need to
open your heart. Nope. The natural man does not
understand that. I've heard preachers say, Jesus
is knocking on your heart's door wanting to come in, and he cannot
get in because the handle is on the inside, which begs the
question, when you leave the house to go somewhere, how do
you get back in? People never think these things
through, but here he is, please let me in, please let me in. I tell you right now, Jesus will
not beg you to let Him into your heart. He can take His cross
and use it like a battering ram and tear down the door of your
heart if He wants to. But God, through the preaching
of the gospel, will open your heart. Bit by bit, her heart
is opening. As with Lydia in Philippi, bit
by bit, the Lord is opening her heart. You can almost see her
eyes are squinting trying to understand what is being said
and bit by bit by bit wider they become open until the Lord has
opened her heart. First a little shaft of light
came in and illuminated some dark corner of her heart and
now the door is flung open and her heart is illuminated with
light. The Lord opened her heart to
receive the things spoken by Jesus. And in verse 21, Jesus
said, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither
in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father. Jesus is telling her that in
a future time. Notice, the hour cometh. At some time in the future, Jesus
says, you will neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship
the Father. Now He does not mean that you
will not worship Him in any way there. What He's saying is There
is a time coming when you will not worship God exclusively here,
nor in Jerusalem exclusively. Or you can still worship Him
in Jerusalem. You can still worship Him and
shuck Him. But that is not the only place
you must be in order to worship Him. And that is what Jesus has
said. The Father will not be worshipped
exclusively in any place. Well, that day has come. We know something of that day. We've gathered here this morning and I see we have some folks
that have driven all the way down from Choteau and all the
way over from Sand Cooley. And some of us have come from
the west side of Great Falls, and some of us have come from
the east side of Great Falls, and some of us have come from
other places. And we've all come to this one
place, this one building, to worship. And we do it every
Lord's Day. But this is not the only place
where we worship. This is not the exclusive place
where we worship. For tomorrow, we'll find the realization of
the Word of God that says that men will worship in every place
where they call upon the Father in truth. All across the earth. All across the earth. So that
tomorrow, some folks in Choteau are going to be calling on the
name of the Lord. Some folks in Sand Coulee will
be calling upon the name of the Lord. Some folks in West Great
Falls and East Great Falls and points in between and other places
in power as well. Fairfield. We're scattered out,
aren't we? Bunch of different places. And
yet, God meets with us in all these different places at the same time. How does He do that? You see, we do not have to meet
him exclusively in one place. In whatever place we are, we
can worship. You can worship as well sitting
here in your living room in Great Falls as Daniel could in a lion's den and Paul could do in a prison.
It matters not. It matters not. The Father will
not be worshipped exclusively in one place. The hour comes! Then he says, ye worship ye know
what, ye know not what. For the Samaritans, like all
who follow a man-made religion, had no authority from God for
their worship. You do not know what you worship.
Oh, we do. But you do not. Your authority
to worship did not come from God. Quince Tameit. Jeroboam. Now, I have mentioned
the name before. I'm going to be mentioning it
again. He is one of the most important
figures in the northern kingdom of Israel. And in order to introduce to
you what I'm about to tell you about him, I want you to turn
in your Bible to 1 Kings chapter 12. Now, I very rarely have you
to locate a passage of Scripture, but I'm going to do so today,
and I'm going to read a chapter. It's not very long. It is historical,
biographical, so it should be easily comprehended in what I'm
about to say. 1 Kings chapter 12. Now let me set the background
for you from chapter 11. A man named Jeroboam, an industrious
man, Solomon is king over all 12 tribes. the kingdom had been
united, one monarchy under David Solomon inherited it. Jeroboam was an industrious man and Solomon saw it and gave him
great authority. Jeroboam got himself a new garment,
robe, went for a walk, and a prophet by the name of Bahijah the Shalanite
met him, said, give me that new robe you got. Jeroboam recognized
him as a man from God, gave the robe to him. Bahijah the Shalanite
took the new robe of Jeroboam and ripped it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, pick
up ten of them, lead two. Okay. Jeroboam picked up ten
pieces of the rent rope, left two, and the house of the Shalana,
the prophet from God said, that's what God's going to do to this
kingdom of Solomon. Remember that Solomon in his
latter days became rather loose, heavy taxes on the people, put
great burdens on them. And Ahijah the Shalanite says
to Jeroboam, God's going to tear this kingdom of David apart and
he's going to give to you ten tribes and leave the rest of
it to Solomon's successor. Solomon heard about this and
Solomon put a price on Jeroboam's head and Jeroboam the son of Nebat and Ephraimite
had to flee to Egypt because Solomon did not like the report
that he had heard about the kingdom being torn asunder and Jeroboam
getting ten tribes and leaving only Judah. Solomon died at the end of chapter
11 and now his son Rehoboam, do not confuse Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Rehoboam is Solomon's son. He inherits the kingdom In chapter
12 of 1 Kings we read, And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel
were come to Shechem to make him king. Now Shechem is the
place known as Sychar, same place, different time, different name.
Rehoboam, Solomon's son, goes to Shechem where all the twelve
tribes of Israel are going to make him king. And it came to
pass when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt,
heard of it, for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon,
and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt, that they sent and called him
Jeroboam. And all the congregation of Israel
came and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, Now Jeroboam is now representing
all the people of the ten tribes of Israel, and Rehoboam is come
there to be crowned. And Jeroboam says to Rehoboam,
thy father made our yoke grievous, now therefore make thou the grievous
service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon
us lighter, and we will serve thee. Sounds fair enough. And
he said unto them, Rehoboam did depart yet for three days, then
come again to me, and the people departed. And King Rehoboam consulted
with the old men that stood before Solomon his father while he yet
lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto
this people this day, and will serve them and answer them and
speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever.' But he forsook the counsel of
the old men which they had given him, and consulted with the young
men that were grown up with him and which stood before him. And
he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this
people who have spoken unto me, saying, Make the yoke which thy
father did put upon us lighter? And the young men that were growing
up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this
people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke
heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us. Thus shalt thou say
unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And now, whereas my father did
lay you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father hath
chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. So Jeroboam and all the people
came to Rehoboam the third day as the king had appointed saying,
come to me again the third day. And the king asked the people
roughly and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him. And
he spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My
father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke.
My father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise
you with scorpions. Wherefore, the king hearkened
not unto the people, for this cause was from the Lord. that he might perform his saying
which the Lord spake by her Niger the Salamite unto Jeroboam the
son of Nebat in the preceding chapter. So when all Israel saw
that the king hearkened not unto them, The people answered the
king, saying, What portion have we in David? Neither have we
inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their
tents. Notice, the kingdom split. Ten tribes to the north, Judah
to the south. But as for the children of Israel
which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over
them. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram
who was over the tribute and all Israel stoned him with stones
and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam made
speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. And I'm going to drop down a
few lines because I want you to see what
happened in the aftermath of all this. Verse 25, ìThen Jeroboam,î we return to
him, the leader of the ten tribes to the north, ìThen Jeroboam
built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein.î and went
out from thence and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, if this
people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem.
Then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their
Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill
me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king
took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them,
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Remember Aaron at the foot of Sinai when Moses was gone? made a golden calf and said,
Behold your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Well,
here's Jeroboam. History repeats itself because
some people never learn lessons. And he set the one in Bethel,
and the other put he in Dan, and this thing became a sin.
For the people went to worship before the One, even under Dan. And he made a house of high places,
and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not
of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the
feast that is in Judah. And he offered upon the altar,
so did he in Bethel. sacrificing unto the calves that
he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests
of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the
altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth
month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart,
and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel. And he offered
incense upon the altar pardon me, and he offered upon the altar
and burnt incense. Alright, now that is the beginning
of the counterfeit religion in Samaria that this woman was following. I want you to look at the characteristics
of it and you're going to see that It's all around us today in a
different form, but it's still here. He made idolatrous golden calves,
contrary to God's law. Golden calves. Aaron made but
one. This man made two. Because he's
going to make it very convenient to worship. puts two of them
up made of gold. Oh, they must have been beautiful.
Oh, undoubtedly. Gold and cash, contrary to God's
law. He built a temple in Shechem
so the Samaritans would not go to the temple in Jerusalem because
he realized that the only place where God was to be worshipped
was in Jerusalem. And if his people in Israel,
the northern ten tribes, are going down there, Rehoboam is
going to be talking to them. The priests are going to be talking
to them about why they're rebelling against God and having gold and
calves. And so he says, well, I'll just
build my own temple. They won't need to go to Jerusalem. We'll have our own temple right
here. in Shechem. He made priests of
the lowest people, not of the Levites. A priest under the law
had to be a descendant of Levi, had to be. This man made priests of the
lowest people, not of the Levites. It is probably evident that the
Levites were not going to be worshipping in that temple in
Shechem anyway, and they're not going to be walking around that
golden calf, and so Jeroboam has no Levites to be priests,
so he makes priests of the lowest of the people. We would not be surprised if
men bought their office that has often been done. It is the
sin called semeni. It is the sin of Simon of Magus
who thought he could buy the power of God. And men through
the ages have bought their ministerial positions. And here is this man
making priests of the lowest of the people. He ordained in
Samaria a feast as a substitute for the feast of tabernacles
in Jerusalem. Because remember, every Jewish
adult male had to go to Jerusalem thrice every year. And so here
is Jeroboam saying, no, I got to keep these people from going
down there. I'll have my own feast. He sacrificed
upon the altar he himself had made. He is not only a king,
he's also going to be the priest. And he established what was called
the Way of Jeroboam to make Israel to sin. In chapter 16, and repeatedly
you're going to find this, that this king in Israel, the northern
tribes, walked in the Way of Jeroboam to make the people of
Israel sin. Well, other man-made religions
do the same. They make idolatrous statues
and pictures. Look around you, folks. There
are none in this building. We have no statues, no graven
images, no pictures of our God, of the Virgin, of the whatever.
None of it, none of it. But you find it all around you.
They build ornate cathedrals to attract the world. I recall
when I was stationed at an Air Force base in Germany that one
of the organizations on the base used to arrange tours for us
and good bargain, good price, go to this city, go to that one,
get a tour. Quite often it would be to a
cathedral in one of the German towns and they were very large,
imposing buildings, beautiful. Some of them took centuries to
build and walk inside and, you know, the beautiful tapestries,
the statues, the pictures, the burning candles, all the pomp
and ceremony. And, yeah, anybody likes this. Even the world likes this. Well,
that's what he was doing, Jeroboam. That's what people do today.
They build ornate cathedrals to attract the world. They make
priests of men not called by God. They deny the priesthood
of all believers. That separates us. I am not your
priest. I am not your priest. You do
not need me for your priest. You are a priest. We are a kingdom
of priests. We offer sacrifices of praise
to God. Am I right, Priest Chris? Priest
Jenny, am I right? Yes, we're all priests under
Christ the High Priest. When a religion says you need
a priest, what they're saying is, you don't qualify. God will
not accept you unless you come through one of us. And then they
have their own unscriptural holy days, and they erect altars of
various sorts at which they make their sacrifice. We have an altar. We do not need one made by men. at which men come to seek the
face of God and find salvation. We do not need an altar where
a priest makes a sacrifice for sin. We have Jesus Christ, and
He is our altar. O God, our Father, be pleased,
we pray, to bless Your Word to the glory of Your Son. In His
name we pray, Amen.