How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? Thank you, John, and thank you,
Sherry. All right, go now to John chapter
4 with me, John 4. The story of this woman at the
well goes on. It is the story of every woman,
every man, every person in here who knows the Lord. It is your
story. I'm not tired of it. We've drawn
about that much out of the well of salvation. The half has not been told of
this story. I've heard this a lot. I've heard one of the best preachers
ever preach from this dozens of times. We haven't commenced
to get started. This is a deep well. This is
a river of water. The Lord in great mercy, love
and grace to this woman chose this sinful, foolish... I can't
quit preaching. This is my story. Chose this
foolish failure of a woman. I thought about that song we
just sung, How Can It Be. Buddy, if she was in our midst
right now. She is! How would she be singing it?
How can it be? Why did He come sitting waiting
on me? The Lord came to her. Could have
come to anybody. He came to her. Spoke to her. Convicted her of her sins. Conviction
of sin is a wonderful thing. We were talking about that the
other night, that salvation is not to just know the truth, it's
to need the truth. It's to be convicted of sin and
see your need of Christ. This woman, she was religious. And she was lost. This woman, the Lord came to
her and spoke to her personally, convicted her of her sin, and
then He comforted her. by revealing Himself to her.
He gave her a new heart. He gave her life. He gave her
love, love for Him. He gave her His Holy Spirit. It's the same with every person
the Lord saved. Everyone in here has met the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you're saved, if you're truly
saved, you've met Him. The woman, her heart was full
of joy after this. This is what we're going to look
at. What she said when she went home. Her heart was full of joy. Now she went home and told the
men, look at verse 29, verse 28, the woman left her
water pot and went her way into the city where she lived, openly. She was ashamed of herself before.
Still is, but now she believes, she rejoices that her sins are
gone. She's still ashamed of herself,
but buddy, she's full of joy now. She's got peace. She went back into that town
where everybody knew her, and she said in verse, say it to
the men, What men? What men do you think? What's
the first man you reckon she went to talk to? Huh? You know who it was. She went home with that fellow
she was living with. Whatever his name was. Bill, George, Ezekiel. Ezekiel. I met the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to believe what
happened to me today. I met God. A Son of God came to me, was
waiting on me. I've met the Lord, Ezekiel. I
want you to meet Him. You've got to know Him. Ezekiel,
here we've been living in sin all this time. We've been living
in lust all this time. We've been living seeking for
love. You say, I've found love. No, no, love found me. Ezekiel,
you've got to meet the Lord, or this thing ain't going to
last. Don't you know? The Lord told the woman caught
in adultery, go and sin no more. And this woman went home to that
man and said, You need to come see a man. Come see who I saw. Come hear who I saw. He told
me all things. He knows you. Ezekiel, He knows
you." How could He know me? He's God. This really happened. This is what happened. She went
home to these men, the first ones. She said, I want to follow this man. I
want to live with this God-man, the Christ. I want to know Him
better. I want to grow in grace and knowledge
of Him. I want to be with His people. And if you don't, we
can't live together like this. No, you've got to go. You've got to go. We can't live
together. If you don't know my Lord, we can't live together."
Do you know she said that? I've seen it happen many times.
Many times. And the Lord blessed her. Did
she meet a true man that loved her later on? Well, she didn't
need one now. She had Him. But if she did,
I guarantee you, the Lord sent her a man that loved the Lord.
And they lived in holiness. United forever around their love
for Christ and each other. It's the only one that will last.
The only way it will last. She went and told the men. She went
out. Now, women can't preach. Scripture
says women can't. You say, why preach? Because
the Lord said not. There's enough of that in it. Explain it. No. I'm not being smart, Alec. People
are rebels. It's not ignorance. It's rebellion.
The Lord talked about it in the Revelation. You suffer that Jezebel
to preach. Not permitted, Scripture says.
Not permitted. But now, hold on. A woman can,
and this is the prophecy of Joel in Joel chapter 2 that's fulfilled
in Acts chapter 2, your women, your young daughters will prophesy. Not meaning standing up as pastors
and bishops of the church. No, Scripture says it's supposed
to be a man. But they will witness and testify. What does it mean to prophesy,
Preacher? Telling future things. Not unknown things, but future
things. What's that? Christ is coming.
That's a prophecy. And they go out and the women
go out and tell everybody, whoever they come across. Anna was serving
in the temple. She wasn't a priest. She wasn't
offering sacrifices. She wasn't doing any of that.
None of them were women. I went and explained it anyway. But I don't apologize for what
God said. This is the Word of God. It's
the way it's supposed to be. But women can tell others, and
should, are told to go home and tell what great things the Lord
has done for you. That's what every witness, male
or female, is told to do. Go home. This is now your purpose
in life. This is why I leave you on this
planet and don't take you out of it. You're a witness to me,
male or female. Go home and tell the men or women
or your children, mothers, you've got children at home, souls that
need saving. That's your life's work. That's right. So she did, buddy. Now, when
she met Christ, she was religious before, and she talked to Christ,
she said, now we worship here, you worship there. You say, this
is the way, and we say, this is the way, and our fathers are
this and our dad, and Christ said, I am. Now, what's she talking about?
Him. This is how you know when somebody
has met the Lord. They don't go home and say, you
don't need to come to our church. Y'all are Methodists. We're Baptists.
Baptists have it right. No, no. Or, you need to come
see our building. Oh, we built this building. My
father built this building. His father built this building.
We've got a brick with his name on it. Oh, no. No, you need to
say, come see our choir. No, sir. Come see a man. Come see the Christ. Come see
Him. You want to see Him? Come where
He's preached, where He's lifted up. Come. You need to see Christ
and Him crucified, the Lord high and lifted up. Come. He'll tell
you everything. He told me, is not this the Christ? We've been waiting on the Christ.
He's the one thing needful, the Christ. Come. Come. This is what God's people do.
This is how they witness. They go out and tell people,
you need to come hear the gospel. You need to come hear Christ.
Not come hear our preacher. Not see our preacher. Not see
this. Not see that. You need to see Christ in Him
crucified. No way. My old brother Charlie Payne
used to say that. Get to Christ just as fast as
you can. Tell them about Christ. Tell them what great things the
Lord hath done for you. Not what great things your church
is doing. Tell them what great things the Lord hath done for
you. You know, that's the only effective
witness. Tell them what you've seen and
what you've heard. Woman at the well? Tell them. What a rotten, no-good
sinner you are. Tell them who you met. And urge
them, urge them, they need to meet him too. The God-man. He's a man, yes, but
she didn't call him that. She said, it's not just the Christ.
She thought before it's Jesus. She'd heard of Jesus, maybe.
But, you know, everybody then and now has heard of Jesus and
that's what they call him. Boy, when they meet the Christ,
When they meet the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what they'll
call Him now, don't you? He's the Christ. Yes, He's a man. Thank God. God
was manifest in the flesh. Oh, my, made bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh, made under the law, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That's
why He came. She didn't, well, look at the
next time. She said, come see a man that
told me, verse 29, he told me all things that ever I did. Now, the last verse in this Gospel
of John says this, the very last verse says this, says that if
all that Christ Other things our Lord did to which if they
should be written, everyone, the world couldn't contain the
books that should be written. Amen. Everything our Lord said
to her was not recorded. Everything our Lord did, every
message he preached is not there. We have all we need to know.
All we need though. But he went about, you go to
Matthew's gospel at this time, it said he went everywhere throughout
Galilee. Everywhere preaching. There was
never an idle moment with him. There was never an idle moment.
He just wasn't sitting. No, no, no, no. He's preaching everywhere, everywhere,
everywhere, everywhere. Searching for his sheep. We don't
know how many he saved around there. But the Lord spoke to this woman.
And all that he said to her is not recorded, but all we need
is recorded. And she said, he told me everything.
He told me all about me. Things I didn't know. Like, this is Solomon. This is
a greater than Solomon. The Queen of Sheba came and said
she came to prove him with hard questions. Like this woman. Our
fathers say this, you say that. And it says Solomon told her
all her questions. You're asking the wrong question.
Let me ask you. How can God, who is holy, have
anything to do with you? How can He be clean as the water
of a woman? How? How can you get to God? By worshipping on a mountain?
How? God's not worshipped with men's
hands. How can a holy God He was angry with the wicked every
day. It had nothing to do with you. Look at you, you've lived nothing but... Oh my... Psalm
139, go back there. If it didn't strike you then,
I hope it will now. This is... people, this is every
soul in this room. Psalm 139, Thou hast searched
me and known me. Thou knowest, when I sit down,
when I get up, you know, every thought in my head, you've got
me surrounded. I'm lying down, acquainted with
all my ways, good, bad, mostly bad, huh? Not a word that
you've ever spoken, I hear it. You know, the Scripture says
a man shall give an account of every idle word. You know that? You know, the
Scripture says a man by his words will be justified or condemned.
You know that? And not a word we've ever spoken.
It's not a thought in your head this morning that the Lord doesn't
know it. Have they been pure? Have they
been seeking God's glory? Have they been seeking God's
Spirit? Have you? Have you been asking the Lord
to glorify His Son, glorify His name, and glorify, reveal His
self to His people? Have you? Or are you thinking
about other things? Thinking about what you're going
to do, where you're going to go, what you're going to eat when we get out.
Anybody. Anybody. Anybody? Everybody. You know me. You know me. This is why David said, Oh Lord,
there are things about me I don't know about. David said, Keep back thy servant
from presumptuous sins. Keep back thy servant from secret
sins. Sins I commit in secret and sins
I don't even know I'm committing. You see it all. You know it all. You know me. That's both a fearful
thing This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. He said the darkness and the light are like to Him.
We can't hide from God. He that made the eye, does He
not see? He that made the ear, doesn't
He hear at all? Me not to fear Him shouldn't
have. But you know, there's forgiveness with Him. He'll hear you even if you don't
say anything. And that's a good thing. He knows you. This is both a
fearful thing and a wonderful thing to those who want Him to
know them. Verse 5, He said, You set Me
behind before, laid Your hand upon Me. You kept Me surrounded,
hemmed in, hemmed up, like old Job. Satan said, You put a hedge
about Him. A lot of bad things still happen,
don't they? It's the Lord's will. He still has an edge about it. You men, I love this, you men
get in front of my dad when he's going down the stairs, don't
you, to catch him if he falls forward. Somebody is behind him
when he's going up the stairs. How much more, your Heavenly
Father? Now, the natural man doesn't want God. I want to master
my own destiny. I want to control my own fate. I want my free will. I want to
have my will. God's people don't. Don't let
me have my will. You know what my evil will is,
Lord. You know what my sinful will is. Self! Self! Every time. Oh, not my will,
but Thy will, O Lord. Hedge me about behind and before. Root out everything in me, please,
before it kills me. Don't let me have my way. Show me Thy way. Set my feet in Thy way and don't
let me turn to the right or to the left. Set my heart on things
above, not on things of the earth, lest I perish. Oh, He knows us. He knows us.
He knows us. Oh, here's what we need. We need
Him to know us. You know what I'm talking about? Like this woman. We need Him
to come where we are. He knows you. She didn't come
to Him. He came to her. She didn't know
him. He revealed himself to her. Why?
He's come to know her. He loved her before the world
began. He has come to consolate that
betrothal to his bride given to him by the Father. He's come
to enter into a union with her. It is wonderful. This tastes
good. Eat, drink." And he said, I've
come to do God's will and I've come to my bride. I've come to
my wife. You're mine, honey. You're mine. Those men aren't yours. I'm yours
and you're mine. I've come for what is mine. Drop your water pot. Yes, yes
Lord. Take me. I know you. But Lord, you don't
want me. You can't get anything out of
me? I'm going to get what I can out
of you. I'm going to give up. You're
going to glorify me. You can't undo anything you do.
But I did. You can't straighten up your
life, but I blotted it out. You can't fix anything. Now I
got your heart fixed. Huh? You can't undo it. I did. Now, you go home and you tell them
all. About me. And that's why I did it. For
you. Put you where you are. And you go home. You tell her. She did, buddy. She skedaddled.
She ran home. She's like Mary Magdalene. She ran with the Word. He told me all things. He told
me all about it. He knows you, Ezekiel. You know, the Lord uses women.
Down through the years, He's used many women. He had a woman
named Sarah have a child named Isaac. Who do you reckon Abraham's
doing as Abraham? Who's teaching Isaac? Sarah. That's her job, feeding
Abraham and teaching Isaac. And then Isaac grew up and had
a wife named Rebekah. Who taught Jacob? Isaac's out digging wells. Remember
that story? Boy, I'd like to dive into that,
where she told him, you need to go to the Father with that
meat, that savory meat that he loves, Jacob. And then Jacob had a wife named
Rachel. She had a boy named Joseph. Who taught Joseph? Boy, he grew up in a fine young
man. Who taught him? Rachel. And then later on, a woman named
Rahab. Boy, she was a sorry woman, wasn't
she? Rahab. Well, the Lord saved her. He met her too. And He saved
her. And she had a boy and she taught
him. Her boy's name was Boaz. Well, then he met a woman and
her name was Ruth. And she had a baby named Obed.
And then she had a grandson, Obed had a son, Ray had Ruth's
grandson named Jesse. And she lived to see her great-grandson
named David. David's son, Ruth said, let me
tell you. What's he going to tell him?
Oh, you need to grow up and become a, you know, you've got big things
in store for you, son. You need to get your education.
David. David, my boy, there's one thing
you need to meet your kinsman redeemer, like I did. You reckon? They lost it all before. Huh? Huh? Ruth had it all and lost
it. Husband, houses, everything,
and lost it. Now what's important? Manoah had a wife. Oh, Manoah's
wife. We don't even know her name.
She's the most precious woman in Scripture to me, because I've
got one. The Lord used this woman. This man wouldn't be standing
in his pulpit preaching this message if it wasn't for that
woman right there. She brought me to hear the gospel. She brought
me to hear the gospel. I came to hear, and I met Christ
because of that woman. That's a fact. Anybody else? Right there sits another one. Oh, there's some men in here
that don't know Him. They've got wives that do. There's
some wives that know Him and men that don't. And men that
know Him and wives that don't. Oh, my. Come see a man. Come
see a man. Is not this the Christ? What's
that mean? The Christ? He's the prophet. He's the priest. He's the king.
We need a prophet. We need somebody to tell us all
things. That's what she said to her. Christ has come. He'll
tell us all things. This world's in a mess. It's
never been in more mess than this. It's absolutely despicable. Our Lord said, this untoward
generation, this present evil world, never has it been more
so simply because there's more people. It's just like the days
of Noah where the wickedness covered the earth. The whole
earth is corrupted this way. Look around you, filled full
of violence. Our Lord said, as in the days
of Noah, I'm coming back. That's now. Now. I've never been more wicked and
vile because it's just spread over all the earth. You can't
find... There's not a just man on earth that doeth good and
sinneth not. The highest man, every man at
his best, man and woman, is altogether filthy. But God, our Lord reigns. He still has
a people. He still has a people. And using
earthen vessels. You see here calling this woman.
The Lord used this woman and the Christ. He's our prophet. He's our prophet. He's told us
the whole thing. He's told us of life. He's told
us of eternal life. He's told us of Him. He's told
us of God. We wouldn't know God if it wasn't
for Him. And no man can come to the God but by Him. He told
us that. Huh? He said, so come unto Me. I'll
give you rest. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. Come to Me. I'll take you there.
He's the prophet. He's the priest. We've got sins. Sins we have committed, do commit,
and we'll commit. And something's got to be done
about them before they do us in. Christ has come to put away
sin. How? By the sacrifice of Himself. He's the priest. They say confession
does you good. It does if you confess to the
right person. If you confess it to a man, it doesn't do you
any good. He can't put it away. But Christ said, we have a faithful high priest,
who if you confess to him, his blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And he'll tell us, you're not
going to be a king. We need a king, don't we? Oh, I wish we had somebody running
for office that I could vote for. I wish we had somebody that
had some integrity, somebody with some honesty. I wish there
was somebody that knew the Lord that was going to reign over
our country. Oh, wait a minute. We do. We do. I get full of despair
if I start thinking about this world and everything in it. For
the sake of my children and grandchildren and your children, lift up your
head. Lift up your head. By God reigneth. This is not fatalism. It's comfort. It's God's Word. Thy God reigneth. Everything has already been predetermined
by the Lord. And for God's people, it's all
good. It doesn't matter how bad it gets in this world. It's good
for you. It's good. It's good. You'll
know someday. I've got to close. Look at verse
39. This woman went home. Come see
a man. He's not just a Christ. Christ
means Messiah, means intercessor, mediator, covenant head. He's
it. He's the one. He's the Savior.
The only one. She went home, and verse 39,
many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the
sake of the woman. Just for testifying, he told
me all that ever I did. Isn't this the Christ? Many believed
on Him. She preached Him to them, not
in a pulpit, but privately. She confessed Him, professed
Him, told them about Him. Now people, if you know Him,
and you ladies, if you know Him, men, if you know Him, and know
something of what he said and what he did and all that, if
you go, it's undeniable. Men can't deny it. Like Stephen,
they couldn't withstand the wisdom that he had. Why? He's talking
about Christ. He can argue about this, he can
argue about that. Are you a superlapsarian or inflapsarian? Which are you? Are you a post Malone or a Malone?
Which are you? Most of you say, I don't know what you're talking
about. Well, do you know Christ? Tell me about Him. It's undeniable. You tell me about Him. They don't know Him. They don't know Him. And they
want to shift the conversation, don't they? Let's change the
conversation. No, no, no. This is the issue. What think
ye of Christ? Let me tell you who He is. You can do that, can't you? You know that He's at least...
You know He's at least four things, do you, don't you? Everybody
in here from our children knows this and can preach this, can't
you? Of God am I in Christ? You can preach that a little
bit. How? How'd you get there? He chose me. He's Noah. He's
the ark. He's made unto me wisdom. Righteousness. Can you preach this, ladies?
Sanctification. What sets you apart? Horse and
ark from the rest of the horses? Noah. And redemption. You can preach that. Preach him.
They can't deny that. And they believed on Him because
of what she said about Him. But they've got to come meet
Him. And they did. Look at verse 40. So the Samaritans came to Him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me." Every person in this room has got to personally
come to Christ yourself. Your husband can't bring you.
Your wife can't bring you. You've got to come to Christ
yourself. You've got to come to Him and say, Lord, reveal
Yourself to me, please. We want to hear from You personally.
And they came to Him, and they besought Him that He would tarry
with them. Lord, please, would You stay
here a while? And he did. Two days, and I can really get
caught up right here because there's significance to two days.
Throughout the Scripture it says two days. Lazarus died and he
waited two days. Two days. Two days. On and on
and on. Two days. Days of a thousand
years. Thousand years is a day. Two
days. Hosea said after two days he's
going to revive us. Two days. He's still here. The Lord is still here. Yes,
He is. Still here. The Gospel is still
here. The Gospel is still on this earth. Or the earth would
be gone, but He'd already come. And Christ, I've got a hold of
this. This has got a hold of me. He's
still here at this little well. He's still here. Among these
Samaritans, these half-breeds, these Gentiles, He's still here. There may not be many Samaritans,
but I have to believe. I have to believe that somebody
is going to meet Him. Don't get excited, preacher.
But if it's your son, if it's your daughter, if it's your husband,
if it's your wife, you'd get real excited, wouldn't you? Honey, come see this man! You
reckon? If Donnie Bell was doing this
right now, you'd be whooping. Same thing. Honey, today's the
day of salvation. Right now, he's sitting on that
well. He didn't tell me he's going
to stay there. Come now. Huh? Don't yell, preacher. He told
Isaiah, lift up your voice. Mix it up! Right, Dad? I heard him lift
his voice for years. One day, boom! See, I've got a hard hearing.
Spiritual. Got a hard heart. Takes a hammer,
a fire. Come, see a man. He knows you. He knows you. You don't know
Him. If you don't know Him, you're going to die. Come now. There's no promises
you're going to be here tomorrow." And, buddy, they ran. Those men ran
to that well. Where did they find Him? Where
did they find Him? Robin? At the well. Apparently, he's waiting for
more people to be gracious. And they said, stay. Would you
stay? Okay. They said, well, I've got a son,
I've got a daughter. I want them to hear your message. I've got
a grandson, I've got a granddaughter. I want you to hear this message.
Would you stay today? Yeah, I would. I'd be delighted
to. That's why I'm here. If you ask, you'll receive. That's why I'm here. Is this
the most wonderful thing you've ever heard of? Mary? He's still got somebody. Buddy, our meat and our drink
is if for them to know Christ in them. If we lose everything
on this earth, it doesn't matter. If our lost loved ones come to
know Christ, everything is real good in it. And they followed him. And they
said, look at verse 41 and 42, many more believed because of
his own word. And they said unto the woman,
now we believe. Not because you told us. We've
heard him ourselves. And we know indeed. Don't just
believe it. We know. He's the Christ, the
Savior of the world. Many men follow their wives to
church, or many women maybe follow their husbands to church. And
one day, bless God, they hear from Christ Himself, like I did,
and they believe. and with all their heart, and
they say to their spouse, now I believe. Now I know who you
know. And I'm so glad. So glad. All right. What's the closing
hymn, Brother John? 127? 127.