Let's ask the Lord's blessing
on this. Our gracious Father, we come
before you and ask you that you would meet with us this morning,
that you would be our teacher and our guide,
that Christ would speak this word effectually, the Spirit
would clear our minds and our hearts and cause us to enter
into this glorious gospel. Forgive us, Lord, our sins, and
help us now truly to worship you. In Christ Jesus we ask it. Amen. Now, here in John 4, we
see, back up in verse 10, he's talking to this Samaritan woman
at the well. He's come to give her everlasting
life. He's come to give her the Holy
Spirit, regenerate her, give her faith in Christ, eternal
life. And he told her there, he said
in verse 10, 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, ye to ask me, and he'd have given thee living water.
Then down in verse 14, he tells her, he said, Whosoever drinketh
of this water, of that earthly well, I'm sorry, 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. Now listen to what she said.
The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not,
neither come hither to draw. Now she's still thinking about
earthly water. She's still thinking about that
earthly well and being saved from carnal thirst and from carnal
work. But she did ask him. He told
her, if you ask me, I'll give you this water. And she asked
him, sir, give me this water. And our Lord's about to give
her the living water. He's about to give her a new
spirit and make her see and know him for the first time. But when
the Lord does this work, he's gonna do two things. He's gonna
reveal two things to us. He's gonna reveal to us we're
guilty sinners, and He's gonna reveal to us that He's salvation. And He never stops revealing
this to us. He continues, and He does it
the same way. He's speaking, here's the word,
speaking the word to this woman, and this is how He does it. He's
gonna speak into her heart and make her know she's a guilty
sinner, and He alone is her salvation. Christ makes a true worshipper,
and this is how he does it. Now first, the Lord Jesus speaks. It's always by his word. Even
when the gospel is going forth, it's he that speaks into the
heart. And he's going to speak to her here, and he's going to
reveal personally to her that she's a sinner. And this is what
he has to do. The first hour and from then
on, he speaks and makes us know you're the sinner. You're the
sinner. Now look, verse 16. He gonna make her know she guilty
of the whole law. Verse 16, Jesus said to her,
go call thy husband and come hither. And the woman answered
and said, I have no husband. And 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, and that saidst
thou truly. Now that word came to her and
convicted her in her heart of her sin. And you and I sitting
here now have committed the exact same sin as this woman since
we've walked in this door. How is that? Well, brethren,
all sin is sin. All sin is one sin. And if we've
had one sinful thought since we walked in that door this morning,
since we've been sitting here, we're guilty of the whole law
of God. And because we're breathing,
we've had a lot more thoughts than just one. Be sure of that. Whosoever shall keep the whole
law and offend in one point, he's guilty of all. By just convicting
her of this one sin of adultery, he convicted her of being guilty
of the entire law of God, of every sin there is to commit.
You know, in the Lord's parable, the Pharisee compared himself
with the publican. Remember that? He said, I'm not
like this publican. as comparing ourselves with ourselves.
And that's what we do until the Lord speaks this word to us personally
and makes us know we're the sinner. And when we compare ourselves
with ourselves, that Pharisee thought he was righteous and
he walked out of there despising that publican. But the Lord speaks
and makes us know we're the chief of sinner, we're the least of
the least of sinner. And this is vital. to casting
your care on him, but he has to make us know that till he
reveals our sin to us personally. We will go to a scripture like
this. You may remember doing this when you were dead in sin.
You go to a scripture like this, read it, and compare yourselves
with that woman and say, well, I'm not as bad as she is. We're exactly as she is. We're
guilty sinners, guilty in ourselves. But when the spirit convinces
us that we're the sinner, he creates an entirely different
spirit. Entirely different spirit. That publican smote upon his
breast and said, God have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the
spirit he's putting in this woman. But there's more he's got to
reveal to us than just the fact that we're the guilty sinner.
He has to reveal to us that all our very best righteousnesses
and all our religion is sin. Verse 19, the woman said to him,
sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped
in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem's the place
where men ought to worship. And he revealed her sin to her,
and she's pricked in her conscience. And so quickly, what does she
do? She puts on her fig leaves. He tries to cover it with righteousness. You know, as soon as somebody
perceives you're a preacher, they either let you know right
away they don't even believe there is a God, just trying to
get you to stop talking about it, or they show you their fig
leaves and let you know, I'm religious. And what is that? That's that carnal mind that's
enmity for the unregenerate man. That's the carnal mind that's
enmity against God, trying to cover sin, just at the mention
of God, trying to cover it with a fig leaf, righteousness. But
when the Lord gives a new spirit, he gonna strip away our fig leaves.
And he never stops doing it, he never stops stripping away
any false refuge that we might have. Verse 21, Jesus said to
her, woman, believe me. When he speaks that command into
a sinner, It comes with power, it comes with faith, and the
sinner obeys that command. Woman, believe me. That's how
he gives faith and repentance in the beginning. That's how
he gives it to us and sustains it in us from then on. He speaks
it, believe me. And it's how he mortifies the
flesh. He said to her, and it's Christ
speaking to her. He says this to her in irresistible
power. He doesn't have to speak loud.
The power is Christ, not at the volume of his voice. Even when
he speaks to us in whispers in that still, small voice and says,
believe me, he turns you. He turns you. But he makes us
know our worship and our righteousness is only sin. If that's what we're
looking to, if it's our fig leaves and it's a form, he's gonna make
you know it's nothing but sin. He said, verse 21, Jesus said
to her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Her worship
was a form, just in the outward, in the ceremony, just in the
outward practice of going to a place and going through the
motions. And she was boasting here, saying, our mountain's
better than your mountain at Jerusalem. And that's, what the
flesh likes to do. Christ has to make us know true
worship's not in form, it's not in a place, it's not in a building,
it's not in a denomination, it's not in church membership, it's
not in the baptismal pool, it's not even in a system of doctrine,
even if that system of doctrine's true doctrine. If we're coming
to our doctrine and thinking we're righteous because we believe
the right doctrine, that can be a form just as much as anything
else. It matters not where our father's
worshipped. It doesn't even matter that our
father's worshipped. She said, our father's worshipped.
He said, he said, woman, believe me, you shall worship the father,
the father. And that's a promise. He's about
to make her worship the father. And truth is, we only worship
when we worship the father. And we only worship the father
when we worship the son, when we believe on the Lord Jesus.
He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. Scripture says he suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And he said, he receiveth me,
receiveth him that sent me. It's the only way we worship
the Father is worshiping Him. But before we're going to enter
into true worship, before we're going to enter into true worship,
not only do we have to have our sin revealed that we're guilty,
we have to be made to know that our righteousnesses are sin. That's what keeps a sinner from
Christ is his righteousnesses. He says you worship you know
not what. He tells her that, verse 22,
you worship you know not what. Christ has to reveal to us that
we're totally ignorant. He has to reveal to us our worship's
an empty, vain form. He has to reveal to us that all
our righteousnesses are sins, filthy rags. So that's the first
love. He must reveal to us our sins.
He must reveal that we're guilty sinners, guilty of the whole
law of God, and that all the very best deeds we've ever done
in religion or whatever it is, it's just filthy sin before God. There's nothing we can bring,
nothing, ever, ever. And he has to make us see we're
the sinner. It's so personal. You say, I'm
the sinner. There's no other like me. I'm
the sinner. And then secondly, Christ must
reveal himself. He must reveal the gospel, the
truth. He must reveal himself in us. Verse 22, listen to the
dogmatism in this, the authority and the power. In the second
part there, he says, we know what we worship, for salvation
is of the Jews. Reverend, never a man spake like
this man. You see the authority in that
statement and the power in that statement, the dogmatism in it?
We know what we worship. Salvations of the Jews, and that
can only be said about true Jews, about his true Israel. We know
what we worship by his spirit, by him circumcising our heart. We know, we know. and salvations of the Jews, of
the true Jew. Now this was the hour of love
for this woman. She's a chosen sinner. Christ
is her surety, her righteousness, and he's about to reveal himself
to her. This is her hour. This is the hour that God predestinated
before this world began. He said right here, verse 23,
but the hour cometh and now is. The hour cometh and now is, when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. He said, the hour
cometh and now is. This was her hour, brethren. This is when she was about to
be made a true worshiper and she's about to truly worship
the Father. He making her a true worshiper,
making her a true worshiper of Him so that she worships the
Father. He's about to give her this living
water, that's what He's doing. Giving her the living water,
giving her a new spirit, making her see He's all. The Father
seeketh such to worship Him. Father has sent the Son to seek
and to save those chosen sinners that are lost. Those that Christ
has made righteous by His precious blood, justified and cleansed
and made whole in Him He's coming now to make us know it. That's
what this gospel is about. And he never stops making us
know it. This is the hour God determined. Paul said in Ephesians 1.5, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself,
according to the glory of his grace, wherein he made us accepted
in the beloved. This was Christ coming to bring
her the adoption of the Spirit of Adoption. Bring her to see
she's a child of God. When the fullness of time was
come, the hour had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the Spirit of Adoption. That's what
He's given her, the living water, the Spirit of Adoption. He's
gonna send forth His Spirit into her, the Spirit of God's Son,
and crying, Abba, Father. And only Christ can make a sinner
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He's the only one. And he does this, this way, speaking
his word in power, effectually. He said, it's the spirit that
quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, the words that I speak unto you, words I speak, their
spirit and their life. their life. Now here's the point
of this whole passage. Here's the point of the whole
passage right here in verse 24. This is what he's been referring
to about this water and the necessity of this water. This is what he
was referring to when he told Nicodemus a man must be born
of the Spirit, must be born again. Here's the point, verse 24. God
is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. This is a mud, it's only He that
can make it happen. God is a spirit as opposed to
all carnal conceptions of God. God's a spirit, He's invisible.
He sent forth His Son, the fullness of the Godhead in a body and
we see Him manifest in the person of the Lord Jesus in a body.
But God's a spirit, God's a spirit And so true worship must be in
spirit and in truth. Paul stood up there that day
at Athens and they had all these man-made idols and they were
worshiping those idols and he stood up and he said, God's not
worshiped with men's hands. As though he needed anything.
He doesn't need any help bringing us to worship him in spirit and
in truth. He doesn't need outward forms. and our hands. He's able to do this. He gives
all life, breath, and all things. He's the one in whom we live
and move and have our being. He's able to do this in his people
spiritually and give us spiritual life. He doesn't dwell in temples
made with hands. He's not worshipped with men's
hands. He's not worshipped merely by
carnal ordinances and forms. You can go through the carnal
carnal ordinance, the physical ordinance and the form and not
be worshiping him. Bodily exercise profiteth little. We come here in body to hear
the word. It profits a little. But true
religion, true worship is not in body, it's in spirit. It's
in spirit and it's in truth. It's in singleness of heart for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking to your flesh, anybody
else's flesh, putting confidence or having no confidence because
of things done in the flesh. It's Him. It's Him. Singleness of heart for Him.
This is what Paul said, I'm fearful that It's like Satan with God's
Eve, that through his subtlety he's going to turn you from the
simplicity that's in Christ, from Christ only. His singleness
of heart. We have to be brought to confess
from a new spirit that I'm nothing but sin and Christ is all my
salvation. That's the truth. That's the
truth we have to be brought to. Nothing good is in my flesh. Nothing. Christ only is my salvation. Because we're the true Jew. We are the circumcision. This
is the description. Which worship God in spirit. In that new heart he gives. In
that new spirit he gives of God the Holy Spirit. And rejoice
where? In the form? Nope. In Christ
Jesus only. And what about our flesh? No
confidence. No confidence in it. Not positive,
not negative. No confidence in it. These things
of the Lord. What did she do in her body to
bring herself to Christ? Nothing. Nothing. He gives us
this spirit. He does it. He does it. Here's how we come to worship
in spirit and in truth right here. The woman said to him,
and this is how we know our sin, this is how we know that our
very best righteousness is our sin, and this is how we know
him, right here. It's all wrapped up in this right
here. Verse 25, the woman said to him,
I know that that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, and when
he's come, he'll tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her,
I that speak unto thee am. I am. When he speaks that word,
that's when a sinner stops comparing ourselves with others. We always
make exception for ourselves when we do that. We always do. But we stop doing that when he
speaks this word. And when he speaks this word,
we hit our face and we worship. Remember when he spoke this to
Moses, he hit his face and worshiped. When he spoke this word to Isaiah,
Two things Isaiah said. He said, woe is me, for I'm undone,
because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips. And the second thing he said
is, because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
You see these two things? I'm the sinner, he's the savior. And he has to make you see this
by making you see he's righteous, he's holy, He's all our salvation. That's when we're made to see,
the more clearly we see Him, the more clearly we see, there's
nothing good in me. At the revelation of this, when
the Lord spoke this to Job, Job said, I've heard of thee by the
hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I pour
myself and repent in dust and ashes. It's seeing Him. and seeing Him as He is, Him
revealing that He is the righteousness of God that makes us see we have
no righteousness apart from Him. We're just sin. And then He makes
you confess Christ is all your righteousness. Now when He works
this, it's so intensely personal. You've experienced this in the
beginning, you've experienced it over and over again. It's
so intensely personal. He won't allow anybody to interrupt
it. He won't allow our flesh to interrupt
it or any other flesh to interrupt it when he speaks this word.
Remember how he, on the road to Emmaus, how he held the eyes
of those disciples and they couldn't, they didn't know him? Well, he's
holding the tongue of his disciples right here. Verse 27, upon this,
soon as he's told her, I am, here comes his disciples. And
they marveled that he talked with this woman. Yet no man spoke
a word. They didn't ask her, what are
you seeking? And they didn't ask him, why
are you talking with her? He's not going to let them interrupt
this. When he comes in spirit, you could have every hoopla and
every distraction going on around you. But he speaks this, and
he's not going to let this word be interrupted. He saves through
this gospel because this is how He does it so that no flesh is
going to glory in His presence. He's going to get the glory.
And when He does it, this is when we forsake all our carnal
confidence, all our carnal wills, all our carnal water, all our
carnal works. This is when you forsake them
for Him. Look at this, verse 28. The woman
then left her water pot. Before, all she could talk about
was that well, that physical well, and that physical thirst,
and that physical work of getting that water out. She's not thinking
about that now. She don't even need her water
pot. She left it. She left it. He'd given her a
new heart. He'd given her a new spirit.
He'd set her affection on him. And she went her way into the
city. Can't you picture this? running and if you had a camera
right here looking at her face, she's running and she's probably
holding her dress up and running through a sandy path and she
just, she just confessing her sin in her heart and she confessing,
oh Lord, everything, thank you Lord, just rejoicing in her heart
and mourning in her heart and just all that comes with it when
he makes himself known to you. And she's running to tell somebody
else about it, about who she's met. And she ran to the men and
she said to the men, come see a man which told me all things
that ever I did. Is this not the Christ? He revealed
to me I'm a sinner. He told me I'm a sinner. He told
me all I ever did was sin. He told me all my religion was
sin. He told me I would no longer
worship in this mountain and now I don't. He told me I'd worship the Father,
and now I do. He told me everything I did.
He told me I'd worship in spirit and in truth, and now I do. He
told me all things that ever I did is not just the Christ. It's just Him. That's it, brethren. That's everything. That's how
we worship Him. That's how we put all confidence
in Him and no confidence in us. From the beginning to the end,
it's Him speaking, Him modifying, Him strengthening inwardly, Him
bringing us to see we're nothing, He's everything. I pray He'd
do that for us and make us worship Him in spirit and in truth, worshiping
the Father through faith in Christ. Amen. Father, we thank you for this
word. We're thankful that you sent your son to seek out your
sheep and to give us this living water. Lord, we need the water,
continually need the life within us. Lord, continually reveal
yourself to us. Make us truly worship you in
spirit and in truth. Turn us from us. Turn us to Christ
and make us lowly at His feet, confessing Him to be all and
ourselves nothing. Lord, we thank You for this day.
We thank You for being able to hear this gospel and thank You
for giving the message. Lord, we pray You bless it. Every spiritual blessing we have,
you've given it freely. Lord, we praise you. We thank
you. Lord, we ask you to keep us right
here, right with a single heart on Christ. Thank you, Lord, for all your
blessings in him. It's in his precious name we
ask it. Amen.