Well, good morning. Well, that's
not so bad. Let's see how this goes. I apologize
for my voice. I've been struggling with it.
But by God's grace, he'll strengthen it and give me strength to preach
the gospel to you today. And it is a privilege. that I am here to preach the
gospel to you. It really is. And I'm thankful
for the privilege the Lord has given to me. And I trust that
his blessing will be with us today as we look at this passage
that Angus just read. And it's a glorious passage.
It's a wonderful passage. And it's packed with truth. But we'll just look at some of
the things that we find here today and trust that the Lord
will use it to be a blessing to you and to me as well. I'd
actually, just as some background, I'd actually prepared this message
to preach here when I was here last time with you. I didn't
end up doing that. I preached a different passage. and I later did preach this in
the States. But coming down, I thought, you
know, I love this passage. I think it's a great portion
of the word of God and has a lot to teach us. And I thought I'd
bring it to you. So I trust that the world will
be pleased to bless that. And the reason it's, I think
it's a important passage for me as we find in it a real representation
of the missionary work. And I think you see that. And
of course, that's what we want to look at in a general sense
today. But let's look then at this passage
that we just heard. And what I would like to do,
above all, is bring before you the greatest and most glorious
of all work, the work of the Gospel. And we see that presented to
us, portrayed to us in this passage by the best and brightest of
all beings, the Lord Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Gospel
itself. There's no finer illustration
of the work of the Gospel than in this passage, in this episode,
concerning the woman of Samaria. This is one of the great stories
that reveal the power of God and the power of the Gospel.
The story really presents to us the very essence of the Gospel. This woman went out that morning. Think of that. She went out that
morning to draw water. A woman whose understanding was
darkened, alienated from the life of God, heart of heart,
without Christ, and without hope. And she returned. She returned
to her home with the eyes of her understanding enlightened,
reconciled to God, knowing the hope of His calling, having experienced
the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,
she returned a new woman in Christ. This is how the Gospel is spread.
This is how souls have been saved, and this is what makes preaching
worthwhile and a joy. As you know, my father has been
a missionary in New Guinea for upwards of 50 years. They just
returned permanently to the U.S. I always remember when he spoke
to me about the fact that he is always optimistic when he goes
out to preach the Gospel. Because he said, it doesn't matter
what the situation is or how discouraging. He said, today may be the day
that the Lord calls one of his people, calls one of his lost
sheep into the kingdom. And that's a great encouragement,
isn't it? That's a great hope. And we never know when Christ is
going to appear. You never know when the Holy
Spirit is going to descend and work powerfully in the heart
to reveal sin, to reveal Christ and His righteousness, and give
repentance and faith. You know, last year, early in
the year, I was blessed to hear the testimony of a young woman. She was only a child, her first
child. She spoke about the Lord using
a message that I had preached from Ezekiel 16, and in bringing
her to an understanding of the truth, and bringing her into
faith in Christ. And I remember perfectly that time,
because it was the time that the Spirit worked in an unusual
way. I was in a conference, actually,
in one of the farther parts of the neighboring tribe, and it
was an evening message, and I remember the kerosene pressure lantern
hissing. group of very dark faces and
their eyes glistening in the light. And the reason I remember
it so well is, like I said, that Spirit appeared to really be
working in an unusual way at that time. And the Word was speaking
to the people who were powerful. And the believers who were there,
many were openly weeping as they considered the great truths that
are found in that passage in Ezekiel 16, if you don't know
it as a passage, which gives us that really. dramatic illustration
of this child that is born and is cast out in its blood and
left there wallowing in the filth, in the mire, in the pollution. What a glorious picture that
is of us as the Lord's people who are left. perishing in the
pollution of our sin, death just awaiting us. And what does the
Lord say? He comes and He says, He passes
by and I said to you in your blood, live. And I said live. And I was speaking from that
passage and the Lord really was blessing it. And it was speaking
to people and unsaved too. It was clear there were unsaved
people under conviction of sin. And it's interesting, because
many of the Christians, and Bernie Crozer, a co-worker who was there
at the time, said, we'll hear of the Lord saving. And I had
that expectation too. And yet, in the months succeeding
that, this was upwards of 10 years
ago. I never heard of anyone being
saved until this woman. And she was a young girl, they
don't know their ages, but I would guess at that time she was maybe
10 or 12. And the Lord kept that truth of the gospel that she
had heard in her heart, in her mind, all of these years. And
in that period of time, she married, had a child. And along with other
word that she'd heard, the Lord, in His time, in His place, brought
that home to her heart. And she confessed that before
the Lord's people. And what a blessing that was.
But isn't that true? Here, we never know. We never
know. But here is the story of this
woman of Samaria. And it, too, it's a truly remarkable
story. This is the story of every redeemed
sinner saved by grace. But there would be no story were
it not for this one man we read out here in these opening verses.
Look there at verse 5. So he came to a city of Samaria
which is called Sycarnia, the plot of ground that Jacob gave
to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being weary from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. He doesn't appear very impressive,
does he? The heat of the midday sun is beating upon him. He's
weary. He's hungry. He's thirsty. And he arrives on foot, not in
a carriage, not with a host. No, he arrives on foot with dust
clinging to his feet. You know, in Job, in the Psalms,
in particular, but really throughout the work of God. But we're given
this picture of this majestic person laying the foundations
of the earth, striding among the innumerable stars, and calling
each one by name. unbounded by space and time.
And we read that, so wondrous was this sight, speaking of when
the Lord created this earth, and the sun, and the stars, and
all that's in them. So wonderful was this sight,
that these angelic beings, the sons of God, shouted for joy. He's the fairest of 10,000. He's the lion of Judah. He's
the mighty king. We read that the mountains shake
and the nations tremble at his presence. Heaven is his throne
and earth is his footstool. Who would believe that this same
person, this same person is this man, the man Jesus of Nazareth. Where is this divine nature? Well, right here, sitting by
the well. Here He is, clothed in human
flesh, perfect humanity. But here too, perfect divinity. For in Him dwells all, all the fullness of the Godhead
body. All the glory and majesty power
and wisdom, infinite and eternal in His being, holiness, justice,
goodness and truth, all in its fullness in this man, Jesus Christ. Two distinct natures and one
person, forever, forever. And as the disciples looked upon
this man, as they witnessed his ministry, experienced the fellowship
of this man, this is what John tells us. He says, we beheld
his glory, the glory as the only begotten Son of the Father, full
of grace and truth. Who would believe that this man
sitting by the well is the eternal Son of God? Who would believe
that he made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and
came in the likeness of men? Who would believe that he came
to give his life in atonement for sin? Who would believe? Isaiah writes this in that glorious
prophecy, doesn't he? He says, who has believed our
report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry ground. He has
no form or comeliness, and when we see him there is no beauty
that we should desire. Who would believe? Who would
believe? Well, this woman is about to
do just that. Look at verse 7. A woman of Samaria
came to draw water. Jesus had left Judea and was
traveling to Galilee, and he came to this well. But this was
not by chance, was it? Nothing which happens in this
world is by chance, as Angus just mentioned. Not only that, everything that
happens in this world, seen and unseen, known and unknown. Everything
is ordered to bring about the salvation of the Lord's people,
whether we understand that or not. And I think that's one of
the glories that we'll see when we're with the Lord, that we'll
look back and all these things will be open to our eyes and
we'll see the perfect harmony with which the Lord has worked
all of the chaos of fallen humanity to bring about His purposes and
accomplish His will that He and He alone is glorified. What a
wonder that'll be. All is ordered to bring about
the salvation of the Lord's people. We read, a woman of Samaria came
to draw water. That's why Christ is there, isn't
it? This is the reason that Jesus is there at this particular place
and at this particular time. This is always how it works.
He's come to find this woman. He's come to save this woman. He knows her. He's known her
from eternity. He's known her from before He
ever created those stars that He strides through and calls
each one by name. In fact, He created for one purpose.
that he might be glorified in the salvation of a multitude
of sinners just like this woman. The woman of Samaria came to
draw water, and she had no idea. She had no idea. She had no idea
that this would be the single most important day of her life. She had no idea that this man
sitting by the well so unimpressive, seemingly, would transform her
life, not only now, but for eternity. So what's the first thing that
Jesus says to her? He says, give me a drink. He
says, give me a drink. Something so simple. He begins
a conversation with the woman. It begins a conversation, however,
that he'll use to turn to spiritual things. And there's a world of
wisdom and simplicity isn't there? Well, how does the woman respond?
Does she give Jesus a drink? No. No. Look at the response
of the woman. Verse 9, the woman of Samaria
came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
And the first disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you being
a Jew ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Now here's, in the eyes of the
woman, here is a stranger traveling through Samaria in the heat of
the day. And he's clearly tired and thirsty. And the woman, when he asks for
a drink, shows him no honor, no respect. She doesn't give
him a drink of water, but in fact answers roughly and with
disdain. How is it that you, being a Jew,
ask the drinking me, this Samaritan woman? As you know, the Jews viewed
the Samaritans with repugnance. They had no communion with them.
As far as the Jews were concerned, the Samaritans were unclean.
In fact, they referred to them as dogs. That's how they viewed
it, as dogs. But consider the kindness, the
love, the goodness, and the grace of Christ in His Holy Spirit. What did He do? What did He do? He just ignored all this. He
just ignored it. Listen, verse 10, Jesus answered
and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is
who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and
he would have given you living water. You see, Christ knows
the woman isn't going to be converted by a sectarian discussion of
the merits of the doctrine of the Samaritans versus the doctrine
of the Jews. But she will be converted by
the gospel. So he just ignores all this and he turns her attention
from his need of a drink of water to her need of living water. This living water is not found
in a well. This living water is of God. This living water is a gift of
God. But more than that, this living
water, this gift of God, is a person. Is a person. Do you see how it
says that? If you knew the gift of God and
who it is who says to you, give me a drink. This gift of God
is a person. This person is the very one standing
before her, speaking to her, the very one who has asked her
for a drink of water. You see, the Gospel doesn't tell
us about something that God has to offer us. The Gospel tells
us of a promise of God which has been fulfilled. The Gospel
tells us of a gift of God which has been given to a particular
people. God does not offer to send His
Son to be a propitiation for our sin. He gave His Son to be
the propitiation for our sin. God does not offer redemption
through His blood. Christ came and with His own
blood He entered the most holy place, once for all having obtained
eternal redemption. Christ does not offer to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ appeared and
by the sacrifice of Himself put away sin and brought in an everlasting
righteousness. We read there in John that this
is the testimony, that God, this is the words, this is what God
has to say to us. This is the gospel, this is the
testimony that God has given us, he's given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. This is the testimony. And here
is the great tragedy of the human condition. If you knew the gift
of God, you would have asked. That's what Jesus says to her.
If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked Him. But
this woman will never ask for something she has no knowledge
of. And neither will you and I. In Romans 3, verses 10 and 11,
we read this powerful declaration of man, who he is,
there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who
understands. There is none who seeks after
God. But if you're one for whom Christ
died, he will seek for you, and he will ask for you. And let me tell you something,
if you're asking, if you're asking, then you've already received
the gift of God. If you're truly seeking Him with
a humble and contrite heart, then He's already found you. And if you know Him, then He's
already given you an understanding. John also writes in that first
epistle, he says, and we know that the Son of God has come. And how does he know that? We
know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him who is true. But the woman, this woman of
Samaria, does not know the gift of God, does she? If she knew,
she would have asked him and he would have given her living
water. Rather, this woman again responds with derision. Look
at verse 11. The woman said to him, Sir, you
have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where then
do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as well
as his sons and his livestock? There's no possibility that this
woman could have misunderstood the spiritual overtones of Christ's
statement to her about the gift of God. She intentionally twists
the words of Christ back to the literal water of the well. Really? Really? Where are you going to
get this water? Where's the water? And then the woman makes what
she believes to be a very cutting point. The Jews, as we know,
put great stock in their pastoralism, didn't they? They revered their
ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Are you greater than our
father Jacob? She asked. She knows that no
Jew would dare elevate himself above these great fathers. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? Asked the woman. He gave us this water. He gave
us this well. He drank of it himself. It was
good enough for him. It was good enough for his livestock.
Are you better? Is the water that you give better
than the water that Jacob gives? Are you greater than our father
Jacob? But note again how graciously,
kindly, and patiently The Lord continues to deal with
this woman. Again, he ignores her question.
Again, he speaks to her these wonderful and precious gospel
truths. Look, verse 13, look. Jesus answered
and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Whoever drinks of this water
will thirst again. The things of this life will
never, ever provide satisfaction. If your interest is in the things
of the world, as the word says, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life, you'll thirst again. You'll thirst again. All that
is in the world will never quench the thirst of the soul. I think you know that my son Ryan just
graduated this past year from Harvard. And while I was back, he said that he's never seen
a more miserable and unhappy group of people than he found
at Harvard University. He said Harvard had actually
just released statistics, which they had not released in previous
years, but fully 25% of those currently at the school had sought
psychological counseling. So you can imagine how many more
are in that state, just don't happen to go and see the counselor. But he said that there's the
appearance, and there is. I mean, these are accomplished
people. Brilliant. This is arguably one
of the best universities in the world. And in that class that he came out
of, there's no doubt there's going to be world leaders. world
leaders politically, world leaders in business, world leaders in
policy that come out of that class. They're really at the
pinnacle, in a sense, of the achievement of this world. And if there was anyone who you would
think had it all, it would be a Harvard University graduate.
And yet, what a commentary, isn't it? Ryan said that once you get
to know People, you find out that they, many of them, are
just miserable. They're just unhappy. And for
us as believers, we shouldn't be surprised by that. In fact,
we should expect that. No matter how the world looks
and appears, there's no satisfaction. You will thirst again. It doesn't
matter what you do. You will thirst again. we'll be out of joy in terms
of the human condition until we're made right with God. What a powerful and sovereign
picture is revealed to us in that narrative of the rich man
and Lazarus. The rich man is in hell, and
he has this roaring and raging thirst, and he lifts up his eyes
and looks and cries, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me and send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am tormented in this flame. You see, what that's telling
us is there's a total lack of every good thing apart from
bliss. That's one aspect of hell, a
total lack. He doesn't even have one drop
of water to quench this roaring and raging thirst. And that's
true for everything, everything apart from bliss. The thirst of the rich man, furthermore,
will never be quenched. Never! Never! Not in 10,000 years. Not in 10,000 times 10,000 years. Not for eternity. Never quenched. Never quenched. But listen. Listen to this. Verse 14. But whoever drinks
of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him will be coming in a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting
life." What a wonderful proclamation of gospel truth. This is good
news, isn't it? Christ Jesus gives Himself, and
through His Spirit, He becomes in His people a fountain of water,
springing up into everlasting life. In Him, in this person,
in this divine God-man, is found full, complete, and perfect satisfaction. Do you believe that? You know,
we sang Psalm 23 this morning. What a great psalm, isn't it?
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not
want. What a truth. What a truth, isn't
it? Full, complete, and perfect satisfaction
found in this man, in this shepherd. Surely this woman will be moved,
wouldn't you think? Surely this woman will be spoken
to. Surely this woman will receive
these spiritual truths spoken to her by the very Son of God
Himself. Not so. Not so. The woman again
twists these wonderful words of truth. Look there in verse
15. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may
not thirst nor come here to draw. See, again, the woman diverts
from the spiritual truths that Jesus is telling her. So if this
water will spring up continually, well, then give me this water.
I come out here every day to get water for cooking and for
livestock or whatever. And it's a lot of work. So you tell me this water won't
spring up. Forever, give me this water,
so I don't have to make this trek out here every day to get
this water." But was Jesus speaking to her
about natural water? No. No. He's made that abundantly
clear. He said what? He said, whoever
drinks of this water will thirst again. But this woman of Samaria is
hard. She's hard. She's a tough one.
She's past feeling, you might say. How perfectly the apostle
Paul describes her in Ephesians 4 when speaking of the Gentiles,
he says, who walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart,
who being past feeling have given themselves over to licentiousness
to work all uncleanness. And this is you, and this is
me, apart from Christ. This is every man apart from
Christ. The wonderful words of God's grace in Christ fall upon
ears as nothing. And worse, we twist the very
words of truth and mock the gospel in our hearts, if not in our
mouths. We will not believe. If you doubt this, we have a
perfect parallel to this response of the woman in Samaria, just
one chapter over. Just turn over to John chapter
6. Now this, I think, is a very familiar passage to you all,
so I want to dwell on it. But look in verse 28, beginning
there in verse 28, as you know Christ had performed this, John
6 in verse 28, Christ had performed this marvelous miracle of feeding
5,000 people after preaching to them. And so you can imagine,
who is the preacher? The greatest preacher the world
has ever known. Isn't that true? The creature
whose every word is perfect and right and true and accomplishes
what he purposes for it to accomplish. And here then he comes and he
does this remarkable miracle of feeding 5,000 people from
this small amount of food. All right, and then he goes and
all these people follow him, and he rebukes them, as you know.
He rebukes them and says, you came, why? Because you thought
of the food. Now that's remarkable, isn't
it? But that is man. But anyway, he then tells them
not to labor for the food which perishes, right? Just as Christ
is speaking to the woman about the war. Don't labor for the
food which perishes, but for that, the food which the Son
of Man will give you, right? The everlasting food. And so what is their response?
Their response is, what shall we do that we may work the works
of God? Jesus answered, this is the work of God that you believe
in Him whom He sent. Now listen to this. Therefore
they said to him, what sign will you perform that we may see it
and believe in you? What work will you do? But they
just seen him perform this remarkable work, this remarkable miracle
of feeding 5,000 people. If there's anything that's a
testimony to the total depravity of man, this is it, isn't it?
Look at who it is who's preaching to them. Look at who it is who
does this great miracle. And yet, why should we believe
you? What are you going to show us
that won't believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers
ate manna in the desert. As it is written, he who gave
them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, most
assuredly, let me say to you, Moses did not give you bread
from heaven. You see, just like the woman there looking back
to these fathers, these ancestors. Christ said, no, no. You say
Moses gave you bread from heaven, but no, the bread was not from
Moses. He says, my father gives you
the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who
comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord,
give us this bread always. Just like the woman. Lord, give
me this water. Then I don't have to come out
here and draw. And Jesus said to them, I am
the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never
hunger. And he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But listen,
but I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. For what hope is there? None
in you. None in Me. None in this woman. This woman is willful and unwilling. She will not come to Christ. But read on in verse 37. All that the Father gives me
will come to me. All that the Father gives me
will come to me. There's the hope, isn't it? Not
in you, not in me, not in this woman. We will not believe. We
will not come to Christ. But here's the truth. All that
the Father gives me will come to me. And this woman will be
made willing, won't she? She'll be made willing. This
is the day of His power. She will come to the Lord and
she'll come in repentance and faith. She'll come with rejoicing.
Think of that great cry of repentance in Hosea 6, where we read, Come,
and let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, but He will
heal us. He has stricken, but He will
bind us up. And the Lord is about to tear
her soul. He'll expose her sin and strike
her proud heart, verse 16. Look there, back in John 4. Verse
16, Jesus said to her, go, call your husband, and come here. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said, I
have no husband, for you have five husbands, and the one whom
you now have is not your husband, and that you truly spoke. The woman is clearly a very disreputable
woman. And a wicked woman. And it now
becomes clear why it is that she's coming out in the middle
of the day to draw water. She's an outcast. Now what is
Christ doing here? Why does he bring up her husband, or rather, men in
her life? Well, it's to speak to her about
her sins. He's revealing His sin to her. He's demonstrating that He knows
every secret thought and intent of her life. He knows all things. Now this is the first time that
the Lord clearly reveals to the woman that there's a supernatural
element at work here. and that he's no ordinary man. And this is the case for every
man. He'll be unmoved by the greatest preaching of the Gospel
until the Spirit moves in his heart. And when the Spirit moves
in his heart, then the softest voice of the Gospel will shake
him to the very core of his being. Now this woman, is clearly shaken. She's clearly shaken. Her whole,
you'll note, her whole demeanor changes. In verse 19, the woman
said to him, Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. A prophet, who's a prophet? A
prophet is one who receives the words from God and communicates
them, isn't it? So now she sees that this is
no ordinary man. This man is a prophet. He comes
and speaks God's words. So she says, Sir, I perceive
that you're a prophet. She's suddenly serious. Now she's
serious. He has ripped her to the very
core of her being. And what does he find? What does
he find? Sin. Sin. And she's shaken by
the knowledge that this man has of her. Her sin, figuratively
speaking, Christ takes and puts it right in front of her face
and holds it up before her eyes. And for the first time, the woman
begins to think in spiritual terms. She understands that the
man who's speaking to her is from God. She knows that only
God can know all these things. Sir, I perceive that you are
a prophet. Unless a man sees his sin, he'll
never come to Christ. He'll never come to Christ. How
true this is. That a man must not only see
his sin, he must see and believe that Christ put away his sin
by the sacrifice of himself and has given him an everlasting
righteousness. And this is only ever received by a supernatural
revelation. The woman is pricked in her conscience. Sir, I perceive you are a prophet.
She's shaken by the shocking revelation, the shocking sight
of her sin. But this is not enough. What is the great refuge for
natural man when his conscience is awakened? What is the great
refuge for natural man when his conscience is awakened? Religion. Religion. Here are the first
stirrings of conscience in what does a woman turn to? Religion,
first of all. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you do say that in Jerusalem is the place where
I ought to worship. The woman turns aside from the
inward spiritual truths that Christ has been speaking to her
about. She turns away from the inward corruption that he's revealed
to her. And the woman turns aside to
the outward forms of religion. Well, place of worship, the controversy. Well, you Jews say, you know,
we worship in Jerusalem. Well, we worship in this mountain,
you know, in Hamelot. Surely that's happening to you.
I can't tell you how many countless times as I sought to speak to
people, great gospel truths just like this. And they'll immediately
divert into discussions about controversies in religion. And
you reel them back in, back to the truths of the gospel that
you're trying to deal with, and of Christ, and who man is, and
who God is, and what justification is, and then they'll be off here
on some other controversy of religion. But this is human nature,
this is man. Don't be surprised, this is exactly
what we would expect. This is exactly what the woman
does. She's concerned, there's sin, she sees that. Alright,
so now she's going to talk about religion. Without Christ, that's all man
will ever know. Just religion. But He, that's
all man will ever do. that he'll never do the one thing
that he must do. And that's stop doing and believe
in Jesus. Isn't that what Jesus told those
Pharisees? And he says, they say, what work shall we do that
we will do the work of God? And he says, this is the work
that you do. Believe on him whom he has sent. This is always the
case, isn't it? believe on the one who God purposed
to glorify his name in, his son. Look there, verse 21. Jesus said
to her, believe me, and this is a strong statement, believe
me. Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither
on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship
what you do not know. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. He makes this very strong statement.
Woman, believe me. He again directs her to the spiritual
reality. Don't be concerned with all these
things in religion. Worship here, worship there.
The time is coming when the place of worship will be of no consequence. In fact, he says the time now
is, isn't it? The time now is when the place
of worship will be of no consequence. But no, look, Christ does not
allow her to lump together the worship of the Jews with worship
of the Samaritans as if both were of equal merit. See, this type of thinking is
much in evidence today, and you find it in expressions like this.
Well, doctrine doesn't matter. Doctrine doesn't matter. Doctrine
does matter. The gospel is doctrine, and doctrine is the gospel. Any
truth is doctrine. Doctrine does matter. Doctrine
tells us who God is. Doctrine tells us who Christ
is. Doctrine tells us what Christ has accomplished. Doctrine tells
us who we are as man. Doctrine is important. And yet
how often do we hear, well, doctrine doesn't matter. We all in this
adhere continually to Papua New Guinea. We all worship the same
God. We all worship the same God. Have you heard that? No, we don't
want to worship the same God. And this is what Christ has told
me. Here is the revelation of God. What I'm speaking to you
about, this is the revelation of God. If there's some other
belief... That's not God. A person might
use all the same terminology and use the words Jesus Christ,
in the cross, in Him crucified, in all of these things, but unless
it matches with the word that has been delivered to us, then
that's not the same God. He says, you worship what you
do not know. That's the statement directed
to. virtually all religion today.
You worship what you do not know. Christ soundly condemns the religion
of the Pharisees. They not only corrupted their
relationship to the Israelites by intermarriage with all the
heathen nations, they also corrupted the worship given by God to Israel
with all sorts of false religion, philosophies, and worship of
idols. The Samaritans worshipped what they did not know, regardless
of what they said. But the Jews, the Jews worshipped
according to the religion given to them by God. They had the scriptures, Paul
says. They had the covenants, the law, the promises, the service
of God. Where did they receive those
from? All received from God. They had those, they worshipped.
according to the worship given to them by God. The Israelites
knew what they worshipped. They worshipped the true God.
We know what we worship, Jesus says. That wasn't the failure
of the Jews, was it? What was the great failure of
the Jews from the inception of the nation of Israel until the
crucifixion of Christ on the cross? What was the great failure
of the Jews? What was their great fault? unbelief. They did not believe. Isn't that what Hebrew says?
Why so many perished in the wilderness? Because they did not believe.
And then when Christ came, what was their great fault? What was
a great error of the Jews? They refused to believe in the
one who prophesied. We know what we worship, says
Christ. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. Nevertheless, Jesus tells her
that even these outward forms of worship instituted by God
for the worship of the Jews were at an end. Were at an end. The time is coming and now is
where all these things will be done away with. Worship in Jerusalem
will be of no consequence. But the hour is coming, and now
is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. You see, the ceremonies,
the priesthood, the sacrifices, it's true, all delivered by God
to Israel. They were obligated to keep those.
The Sabbaths, all of these things. Yes, but the time is coming and
now is when all would be ended. All would be ended. True worship
was never in these outward things. These were merely copies of the
things in heaven, copies of the truth. And Christ says, true
worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. God, He says this. Simple statement. God is Spirit. God is Spirit. Well, if God is
Spirit, then certainly He must be worshipped in Spirit. Isn't
that simple enough? And yet, how man perverts everything. Everything. God is not found
in temples made with hands. He's not found in forms of worship.
He's not found in the outworks of religion. This was one of
the final points made by Stephen, if you remember, in that great
message that he preached before he was stoned to death. Our fathers,
he said, had the tabernacle in the wilderness as God appointed.
Up until the time of David, who asked to find a dwelling place
for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him a house.
And he said, however, the Most High does not dwell in temples
made of hands. You see, this is his whole point.
Yes, we as a people and as a nation have this religion which was
delivered to us by God, but these things were just copies of the
truth. They were never, never meant
as the forms of true worship. However, the Most High, yes,
Solomon built a temple. However, the Most High does not
dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, and he quotes
then from Isaiah. Heaven is my throne, and earth
is my footstool. What house will you build for
me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest?
This is one of the most important and greatest distinctions between
true religion and false religion. True religion is not made with
hands. In Hebrews we read that Christ
came as a high priest of the good things to come, but the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation. God is Spirit. How must then
He be worshipped? He must be worshipped in Spirit.
He must be worshipped in the heart. And we know that A powerful
statement Paul gives us in Romans 2, where he says, for he is not
a Jew who is one outwardly, that is, of the hands, nor is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh, that is, the circumcision
which is of the hands. He is a Jew who is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the life. and only the spirit can accomplish
that work, can't he? God is spirit and those who worship
him must worship in spirit and in truth. He must be worshipped
according to the truth that God has revealed. How few people understand that.
They say, we're worshipping God. No. No, you're not worshipping
God unless you're worshipping Him according to the truth that
He's revealed Himself. And what is the truth that God
has revealed? This is the testimony that God has given to us eternal
life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son
does not have life. John tells us there in 1 John,
the truth that God has revealed is His Son, isn't it? This is
what he's telling this woman. He is this gift of God. He is
this one who is this fountain of water which will become in
her fountain water spring up into eternal life. This is the
truth that God has revealed. This is the testimony of God,
His Son. And this is what he builds up,
then, a spiritual house. You know, in 1 Peter, Peter writes,
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God. And what sacrifices are acceptable
to God? Those through Jesus Christ. All
true worship is through Jesus Christ alone. And the father,
what do we read? The father is seeking his son
to worship him. That's who the father is seeking. We would never seek after God. But oh, what a blessing. What
a blessing to know that the son seeks no sinners. His father
sent him to do just that. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. And this is the very thing that
he's doing as he speaks to this woman of Samaria. He's come to
seek and save this woman. Well, what does she say? Look
at verse 25. The woman said to him, I know
that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes,
he will tell us all things. See, the woman's thoughts are
now running in the right direction. She's thinking spiritual thoughts.
She understands that Jesus is speaking to her about spiritual
things. And she knows he's speaking to her about the coming of the
promised Messiah. I know that the Messiah is coming. Amazingly, she understands, she
clearly has some knowledge of the truth, because she understands
that the Messiah will be the full, complete revelation of
God. I know that the Messiah is coming,
and when he comes, he will tell us all things. And that was her testimony, wasn't
it? When she went back to the village. And you can almost see the truth
beginning to dawn in her heart. He will tell us all things. But
as she later said to him, come see a man who told me all things
that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? The
son of righteousness is rising in her heart, healing in his
wings. He's torn, but he will heal.
And look at verse 26. Jesus said to her, I who speak
to you am he. What a glorious revelation. Rarely
do we find it so clearly given in the Word of God that it was
given to this woman. I who speak to you, am He. Remember the question she said
to Jesus? Are you greater than our Father,
Jacob? Well, now she has her answer,
doesn't she? He is greater than Jacob. He's greater than Moses. He's greater than Solomon. He's
greater than the temple. He's greater. He who speaks to
her is the gift of God. He's the water of life that will
become in her water, the fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life. Amen.