I want so very much to be a blessing
to you tonight. I prepared a message a few weeks
ago on the subject, God's method of grace, and brought it to our
people, and many of them said it was very special to them and
was a blessing to them. What I try to do in this message
is state what we believe about this matter of salvation, how
God saved sinners, God's method of grace, how God saved sinners, and give an illustration of how
God met a sinner and revealed himself, Christ revealed himself
to that sinner. I want you to turn with me to
the book of John, chapter 4. John, chapter 4. Now, you know,
our pattern, Paul called himself a pattern, a pattern for preachers
especially. And the Apostle Paul was a very
positive preacher. He said, I know whom I have believed.
I know. And I'm persuaded, confident.
that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. In writing to the church at Thessalonica, he said, brethren,
beloved of God, I know you're God's elect. I know, just as
I know whom I have believed, I know you're his elect, because
our gospel came to you not in word only, but in power, and
you became followers of us and the Lord. And you turned from
the idols to serve the living God and to wait for his son from
heaven. And you became witnesses of this
gospel. I know he of God's children,
his elect. And then in Philippians 1, he
made this statement. This is a man of confidence and
assurance. He said, I'm confident, being
confident of this very thing, that God, who has begun a good
work in you, will perform it. He'll complete it. He'll finish
it in the day of Christ. It's no yes and no, yes and no. It's confidence. In fact, he
said over in, let me turn and read it to you, over in 2 Corinthians
1, he said this, the promises of God in Christ are yes. Not yes and no. In him the promises
of God are amen, so be it. to the glory of God. Yes and
amen. So reading the scriptures and
preaching the gospel through the years, the Lord has given
me a confidence about five things. If you want to, you can jot these
down or just remember them. But here are five things that,
like Paul said, I know. I'm confident of these five things.
And I think when I give them to you, you'll say, well, that's
so. Number one, I'm confident that
whom the Lord saves, man, woman, boy, girl, Jew or Gentile, whom
the Lord saves, doesn't matter how old or young they are, but
whom the Lord saves, a person whom God saves and salvations
of the Lord in whom He saves. He purposed to save from all
eternity. In that, you know that and I
know that. Whom the Lord saves, he purposed
to save. What does the scripture say?
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. What did
he say? I declare the end from the beginning.
And from ancient times of things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure. What
did he say? Whom he foreknew. He predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Whom he predestinated,
he called. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. So whom he predestinated, he
glorified. And we know that. We're certain
of that. I'm confident whom the Lord saves.
If he saves one of us, it's because he purposed to. He purposed to. He worked with all things after
the counsel of his own will. Whom he purposed. All right? whom the Lord saves. Every person
whom he saves will be confronted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And they're not going to be saved without hearing the gospel. Now, that's just so. Every person
whom the Lord saves, they will come, we used to say in the country,
smack dab, head on into this. They'll meet the gospel. God
will cross their path with the gospel. What did Paul say in
Romans chapter 10? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call out of sin,
out of distress, out of helplessness, out of inability, call on the
name of the Lord, shall be saved without a doubt.
But how shall they on him whom they hadn't believed. And how
are they going to believe in him of whom they haven't heard? You can't trust an unrevealed
Christ. You can't believe an unrevealed
Christ. You can't believe in one whom
you do not know and have not heard of. And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? Our Lord In John 6, you recognize
this scripture. He was preaching to the people
and he said, all that my father giveth me will come to me. And
him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him that
sent me. This is the will of him that sent me. That of all
which he hath given me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the
last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me. that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, shall have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up to
the last day. And then these religious fellows began to murmur.
And they said, Is not this Joseph, the son of Mary? Is not this
Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, whom we know? And our Lord
said this to them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can
come to me. except my father which sent me
drawing. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. And he that heareth and learneth
and is taught of God comes to me. So those two, I know whom
God purposed to save, he purposed to save from all eternity, whom
he saved. Secondly, whom he saved, that
person will be taught of God. He'll be taught the gospel. You'll
hear the gospel. God sent Paul to Lydia, sent
Philip to the eunuch, he sent Peter to Cornelius, he sent Ananias
to Saul of Tarsus, and he sent someone to you one day, and he
sent someone to me. I heard a preacher preach the
gospel. I was confronted with the gospel,
not a gospel, the gospel. I understood what he was saying,
too. All right, thirdly, whom the Lord saves. Every one of
them will be confronted with the sin question, and the sin
problem. Why do I need saving? I'm a sinner. You ain't going to be found until
you're lost. God saved a lot of people, sinners who cannot
save themselves. We're going to be confronted
with the sin question. Like Job of old who said, how
can man be just with God? We're going to meet that. How
can he be clean that's born of a woman? Behold, the moon shineth
not, the stars are not clean in God's sight. How much more
abominable and filthy are we who drink iniquity like the water.
From the sole of our feet to the top of our heads, we're full
of excess, corruption, wounds and bruises and putrefying souls. That's what we are, and we know
that. And we're confronted with that sin question. What about
my sins? How are they going to be put
away? Our Lord one day was eating with the publicans and sinners,
and the Pharisees saw him eating with these folks like you and
me, sinners. And one of the Pharisees said
to the disciples, why does your master eat with people like that? Why does he go among people like
that? And our Lord turned and said
to them, the whale do not need a physician, but they that are
sick. I am come not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. I will have mercy and not sacrifice."
Then he said, go learn what that means. I know what it means. Christ came to save sinners,
of whom I am the chief. That's what Paul said. You learn
that now. The Lord doesn't say righteous
people or religious people. He says lost people. I've come
to seek and to save the lost. Every one of us whom the Lord
saves has one thing in common. We think we're the greatest sinner
of all. That's right. We're all convinced that we're
the chief of sinners. This is one tribe of Indians
that's all chiefs. And that's the tribe of sinners.
They're all chiefs. Chief of sinners. The fourth
thing I know, all whom the Lord saves will believe on Christ,
will receive willingly, personally, consciously, Christ. Personally, consciously,
willingly, knowledgeably, They will receive Christ and bow to
him as the Lord of their life. Now, Barnard used to say this,
don't tell me who your personal Savior is, tell me who your Lord
is. Everybody has accepted Jesus
as their personal Savior, and how many people in this generation
have bowed to him as Lord, the Lord of my life? Well, if he's
not my Lord, He ain't my Savior. He's the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. If He's not a person's Lord,
if He doesn't reign in our lives, then He's not our Savior. Isn't
that true? That's just—I know that's so.
I know that everybody's got religion and a few people know the Lord.
And Romans 10 says this, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
Jesus to be," what, your personal Savior? No, Lord. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Because
he's Lord. He said in Matthew 11, you quoted
this this morning, Charles Ross, to me this morning, Matthew 11,
he said this. Come unto me. You come to me. All you that are labored and
heavy laden, laboring under sin, heavy laden with guilt, inability,
you come to me. I'll give you rest. But what
else did he say? Take my yoke upon you. Now this day and time, we don't
know much about yokes. But Years ago, our grandparents
knew something about a yoke they put on an oxen. And down in Mexico,
they still do this. They still have oxen who pull,
oxen that pull carts. And the owner will make a yoke
for that particular oxen. They don't just go downtown and
buy a yoke and put it on an oxen. It's those Mexicans, Walter told
me, they designed that so the yoke will not be uncomfortable
on the oxen. that it'll fit him, that it won't
shave and cut and so forth. So they put that yoke on that
oxen, and that oxen belongs to that master. He's that master's
oxen. He pulls the card, he plows,
he serves his master, he wears his master's yoke. And my Lord
said, you come. But when you come, you take my
yoke on you. And you learn of me." And he
said, my yoke won't cut your neck. My yoke is easy. My yoke fits you. My yoke you're
glad to wear. The only freedom a believer wants
is to serve his Lord. That's right. The only freedom
that a believer really wants is to please his master. He said,
you call me Lord and Master. You say, well, so I am. The disciples didn't call him
Jesus. They called him Lord. And you take my yoke on you.
My yoke. I designed it for you. I designed
it for you individually. And it's easy. And my burden
is light. And my commandments are not grievous. And he said, and you'll find
rest. He said rest twice, didn't he, Charles? He said, come unto
me and I'll give you rest. There's a ceasing from our labors
and entering into his rest. Resting in Christ. But I tell
you, the longer you live and the longer you learn of him, the more rest you have. That
rest grows. That peace and rest grows. And that's what he's saying.
You come to me, I'll give you rest. We'll settle that matter
of rest. You'll cease from your labor
and striving and trying to find acceptance with God by what you
do. You'll enter my rest. But the more you learn of me,
the more rest you'll find for your soul. You'll find rest to
your soul. So I'm saying, are these not
true? Whom the Lord saves, you want
an accident, he purposed to save you, John. It was no accident. All the years you were away from
him and didn't know him, he's keeping you. He's heading you
in the direction he wants you to go. And one day he crossed
your path, and you heard the gospel. And you said, Lord, I
can't be saved, I'm too great a sinner. He said, I'll take
care of that matter too. And then you bowed to him. He
took his yoke, willingly, lovingly. And I'll tell you the fifth thing
I know. That those whom the Lord saves, they stay saved. Now I've
seen folks come and I've seen them go. But His people don't come and
go, they come and stay. That's right, they come and stay.
That's what he said that he preached one time, and all those folks
laughed, and he said to the disciples, said to Peter, James, and John,
Nathanael, and the rest of them, would you go away? They said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and assure you the
Son of God. We've got no place to go. No one—we're satisfied. We're happy. And that's what
he said about Abraham and Enoch and And Abraham and Sarah and
all the rest of those people in Hebrews chapter 11, he said,
if they had been mindful of that country they came out of, they
could have gone back. If that's where their hearts,
if they were still in that country, they could have gone back any
time they wanted to. God doesn't save people against
their will. He makes them with it. And they
could have gone back, but not a one of them did. They died
in These all died in faith. These how many? All. These all
died in faith, and his well. John said that. He said if they
had been of us, there'd be no doubt. Isn't he saying no doubt?
No doubt would have continued with us. So folks that leave
the gospel, leave because they want to. But God's children don't
want to. No. And let me tell you, these
five things, there's no set pattern in which these things occur.
You know, some people whom the Lord saves are like Timothy.
They know the Scripture from their youth up. I'll bet you
there's people right here in this building tonight. I'm one
of them. I was raised in the church. I
was raised on the front row of the Baptist church. I knew the
Scripture like Timothy from my youth up. And some of you did,
didn't you? You was raised in the church.
And that's how I started out. But other people, like Zacchaeus,
he was a crook. He wasn't raised in the church,
he was a publican. See, a business crook. That's
the way he came up. And then, you know, Mary was
a harlot. Mary Magdalene. Cast seven demons
out of her. The man on the cross was a thief. Abraham was an idolater. In that
truce, seventy-five years old, he was still worshiping idols,
God called him. This Philippian jailer was a
pagan. That was right there in the book of Acts, chapter sixteen,
was Lydia. She was a middle-aged moral woman
who didn't know God, attending a prayer meeting. A middle-aged
moral businesswoman. attending a prayer meeting, and
God opened her eye. In that same chapter was a young
girl possessed of demons, who was a fortune teller. In that
same chapter was a tough guy, the Philippian jailer. Boy, he'd
whip you and chain you and put you in jail and keep you there,
you rotted. And God opened his eye. And so there's no set pattern. And people tell me, What about
time? Listen. What is important is
not when God conquered you, it's did he conquer you. Now that's
just so. It's not when I closed with Christ,
it's have I closed with Christ. Don't you agree with that? He
said, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them I
must bring, and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be
one foe and one shepherd. All right, now I want to get
in to show you an example of what I've been saying. Those
whom the Lord saved, he purposed to save. He purposed to save. He crossed the path, met them
head on with the gospel, showed them their sins, brought them
to the point they bowed and received him, and they continued in the
faith. Here in John 4, it says in verse
4, talking about our master, and he must needs go through
Samaria. People find a lot of reasons
why the Lord must need to go through Samaria. He's going from
one point to another, and Samaria was in the middle. And they say,
well, that was a direct route. If he's going from this point
to that point, he must need to go through Samaria. Other people
say, well, a Jew wouldn't go through Samaria because they
don't have anything to do with the Samaritans. They would have
gone clear out of the way. I tell you, he must need to go
through Samaria because he's got a sheep down there. That's
exactly why he went through Samaria. He has a sheep down there. One
that must hear. One that must be brought to faith.
Believe the gospel. He's going to meet one of his
own. All right, verse 5. 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 then, Joseph's well was there. And Jesus therefore, being weary
with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth
hour. What's that? That's high noon.
The third hour is nine a.m. The sixth hour is twelve noon.
The ninth hour is three o'clock in the afternoon. High noon. And there he sat on the well.
It was high noon, and in verse 7, there cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. And Jesus said unto her, Give
me a drink. His disciples had gone away into
the city to buy meat. Now I want to point out two or
three things here. Number one, it says here Jesus was weary.
He's the God-man. Why'd he get weary? And Jesus was thirsty. He asked
this woman to give him a drink. He made that well, but he asked
for a drink. And then his disciples had gone
into the village to buy food, and our Lord just a little while
after that would take five loaves and two fishes and feed ten thousand
people. Let me tell you this. Of all
the miracles our Lord ever performed, to feed others, and to relieve
distress, and lift burdens, he never did one of those miracles
for himself. You see, to be our Savior and
our Lord, he had to be tempted in all points as we are. He had
to know what weariness was, and what thirst was, and what hunger
was. That's what Satan tried to get
him to do. Remember on the Mount of Temptation, Satan came to
him and said, if you're the Son of God, you're hungry. Forty
days he'd fasted. He said, turn the rocks, the
stones, into bread. If he's my representative in
human flesh, tempted in all points as I am, he can't turn that stone
into bread and satisfy his hunger. You can't do it, and I can't
do it. They said to him, if you're the
Son of God, come down from the cross, he better not, or we don't
have a Savior. See, he's got to be born of a
woman. He's God. Don't ask me to explain
this now, but I just know he's God in every sense of the word. He never ceased to be God, but
he's an M-A-N man in human flesh, a man tempted in all points as
we are, yet without sin. And he was weary, he was thirsty,
and he was hungry. There's not a path you walk he
didn't walk. There's not a pain you feel he
didn't feel. There's not a trial you face
that he didn't face in all points as we are. Isn't that right,
Stan? That's exactly right. And that's why it says Jesus
was weary. Jesus was thirsty. Well, there
came a woman to the well. Women didn't go to the well at
noon. Women went to the well, not in the heat of the day, at
noon, they went to the well in the morning, drew their water
to wash with, and cook with, and so forth. But this woman
came to the well at noon because she didn't want to meet anybody.
She was a pretty well-known woman in town. She'd had five husbands
and was living with a fellow, one husband. And she thought
she wouldn't meet anybody. And she came to the well, and
you know something in chapter 3, this is interesting. Who did
the Lord meet in chapter 3? Nicodemus. Remember? In chapter
3, there was a man named Nicodemus. Chapter 4, here's a woman, no
name. Nobody knows her name. Chapter
3, Nicodemus was a man of rank, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin. Here's a woman, poor woman, who
had to come draw her own waters. no rank about her. In chapter
3 was a favored Jew, of which our Lord was one, a Jew. In this chapter is a Samaritan,
a hated Samaritan. In chapter 3, Nicodemus sought
Christ. He came to Jesus by night and
initiated the meeting. In this chapter This woman wasn't
looking for the Lord. He's looking for her. There's
a difference. She wasn't looking for Christ.
She wasn't looking for anybody. But he's looking for her. There's
a difference. In chapter 3, Nicodemus went
away empty. In this chapter, the woman stayed. She left her water pot and went
down to tell everybody, I found the Messiah. In chapter 3, the
Lord gave Nicodemus something he couldn't do. You must be born
again. He gave the woman something she
couldn't do. He said, you ask me, I'll give
you living water. What a difference. See this,
I'm trying to show that Nicodemus was religious and wanted to talk
religion, wanted to argue religion. This woman was a sinner. My Lord
had purposed to save and was seeking her out. And he matters. She didn't start this conversation,
he did. He did. Give me a drink. Give
me a drink. Well, he got a hold of him, a
talker. This young lady's a talker. She
said, she fired back at him, verse 9. Then said the woman
of Samaria to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask you
a drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaritan, Samaria." The Jews
have no dealings with the Samaritans. Now, she's a talker. It's forbidden
for the Jews to have any conversation with a Samaritan, let alone ask
one for a favor. A Jew would speak to a Samaritan,
here the Lord is asking her for a favor, would you give me a
drink of wine? That's his condensation, sent you, he came down. And here's
what he said to her. Oh, he said in verse 10, listen,
if you knew the gift of God. That's what the world doesn't
know. You know what the Lord said in, Paul said in 1 Corinthians
2, if the princes of this world had known him, they wouldn't
have crucified him. But they don't know him. But
he said if you knew the gift of God, If you knew the gift
of God, what is the gift of God? Eternal life through Christ Jesus.
If you knew, if you knew, listen, who it is that saith to thee,
give me the truth, or if they just knew it, if they just knew
it. And I'll tell you, when a person
does know Him, when God opens your eyes to see Christ, you'll
ask, you'll come. If you knew, The gift of God. If you knew who it is that says
to you, give me a drink, you would ask me, and I'd give you
living water. Ask and you'll find. You'll receive. Seek and you'll find. Knock and
it shall be opened. If you knew, you'd ask. If you
knew, you'd ask. Sunday morning, last Sunday morning, brief Sunday morning, yeah, I
lose track of time. Last Sunday morning, I believe
it was, I got up and came in the kitchen to make coffee. And
I looked out through the patio there in that flowering crabapple
tree that I've got, and there sat my cardinal. You know, you
have cardinals that'll come—the same ones come to your house
and eat. If you feed them, the same ones come. In fact, Doris
named them as Louis and Louise. My own famous St. Louis Cardinals,
that's where she got that. I said about that, he was clicking,
you know how they click. I didn't hear that. And I'd open
the door and I saw him out there, and he wanted some peanuts. And
so I keep them out there, and before I went to get coffee,
I shelled some peanuts and threw them out there to him, closed
the door, and he swooped down and got the peanuts and went over Little
one came back, she came, got some peanuts, and I made him
a coffee and walked by, looked out there, and there was a stinking
little sparrow eating those peanuts. And I stood there and I looked
at him and I thought, now who invited you? You know, I mean, nondescript,
who wants sparrows? But I said to him, I said, you
hungry, you help yourself. I put that out there for anybody
that's hungry. And my Lord puts this mercy out
for anybody that's hungry, even if it's a sparrow. Nondescript,
unknown, unrecognized, no count, I don't matter. Are you thirsty? He said come. Are you weary? He said come. Are you hungry?
Come and eat. So that's all you need to be
You know, that song the fellow wrote one time said, let not
conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream, all the
fitness he requires is what? To feel your need of him. So I said, little sparrow, you
eat all you want, and I'll put some more out there. Because
the Word of God says that not a sparrow falls into the ground
without your Father. That's the only bird he named,
wasn't it, a sparrow? So our Lord said to that woman,
if you knew, you'd ask. And here's the good part, and
I'd give. If you knew, if you knew the
gift of God, I do, you do too. I know what, it is a gift. It's
his gift, folks like me and you. It's a free gift. It's the greatest gift. It's
eternal life. If you knew, you'd ask. And we
did, didn't we? And you know what? He did. He
gave. He always does. Nobody's ever come to the Lord
and been sent away empty. Everybody that came to our Lord
in the New Testament came because they had a need. That's right. Well, she hadn't
quit talking. Men and I were talking about
this the other day. She's a talker. Oh, my goodness. She said, listen, verse 11, well,
sir, you have nothing. You ain't got no bucket. You're just a talker. You've got no bucket. You've
got nothing to draw with. You don't know how deep this
well is. I bet he did. You don't know who you're talking
to. That's what, if you knew who you're talking to. She said,
where are you going to get this living water? Isn't that something?
She said, are you greater than our father Jacob? Oh, she found
out later what she had said. Some of us found out later how
we used to pop off too, didn't we? About things we didn't know
anything about. Joe did. He said, I've spoken about things
too wonderful for me. Are you greater than Jacob? He's
greater than Solomon. He's greater than Moses. He's
greater than the angels. He's greater than anybody but
the Father, and they're equal. He gave us this well. He drank
of it himself. And his children, boy, that was
a bunch of scallywags, wasn't it? Jacob's children. They all
drank of it. Oh, she's just bragging, just
talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And he answered and he said,
listen to it. He said, he's so kind with us, isn't he? He's
so patient with us. He's so merciful. He said, Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again." Now he said, you
put that sign above all the wells of this world. Let me tell you,
everyone, we found this out. Put it over the well of religion,
and nothing there. Put it over the wells of vocational
pride. Put it over the wells of political
acclaim and accomplishment. Put it over the wales of social
acceptance, put it over the wales of education. I saw a preacher the other day
advertising himself, he had eight degrees. Old William Huntington
said he had a degree. It's William Huntington, S.S.
Senator Said. That's all he needed. See, this water is the product
of your works. That water is a gift of God. This water is from the earth. That water is from heaven. This
water, doesn't matter what it, on this earth, it cleanses and
refreshes the body. That water cleanses and refreshes
your soul. There's a difference. This water,
this water's found in a place. That water's found in a person. This well will soon run dry. I don't care what it is, it's
going to run dry. You know, there was a time, Rick,
you gave yourself to music. Boy, it was important, but it
ran dry, didn't it? It wouldn't satisfy. You can
give yourself to a lot of things, but it'll run dry. It'll run
dry. It always runs dry. But he said,
whosoever drinks of this water shall never thirst. It shall
be in him a well of living water that never runs dry. I'll give
him," listen to verse fourteen, "...whosoever drinketh of the
water I give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him
shall be in him, in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." When God saves a man, a person, a woman, a boy, it
gives him a new heart, a new nature, a new family, new direction,
and never gets old. Never gets old. His goings forth
have been from everlasting, but he's not old. It's ever new,
ever fresh. I preach for fifty years. 1950 I heard the gospel. Forty-seven
years. Almost fifty years. And I'm as
excited about what I'm trying to say tonight as I was the first
time I heard it. Most of it. That, how firm a
foundation. You sang, never gets old. I mean, sung that a thousand
times, John. A thousand times. Isn't that
true? Those at the cross, it never gets old. It's a well of
living water. Well, she's still talking. Bless
her heart. Listen. The woman said to him,
well, give me this water. Give me this water that I don't
have to come here and draw water anymore. Give me a better job. Give me two cars in my garage.
Give me health. Give me strength. Give me all
these things. Give me some flesh. I like these comforts you're
talking about. Well, he crossed her path, didn't
he? He loved her from before the world. Crossed her path.
He created an interest. He talked to her about the living
wire. Now then, watch what he does. He presents a problem. A real problem. He said to her,
go call your husband and come, Heather. The woman answered, I have no
husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband. You've had five. And he whom
thou now hast is not thy husband. In that thou sayest truly. See,
this problem is sin. Messed up lives. Messed up philosophy. Messed up understanding. When Adam fell, sin and death
passed upon all men. And we think wrong, we talk wrong,
we act wrong, we plan wrong, we walk wrong. Everything about
us is messed up, just like she was messed up. And the problem
was not the fact that she had five husbands, that wasn't the
problem. She could have had ten, she'd have had the same problem.
She could have had one, and still had the same problem. She could
have had none, and still been a sinner. And what he would have
done is just turned to another area. He was just turning to
the area that she knew about, where she knew she was wrong.
She was totally—that's why she was at the well at 12 noon, because
she'd had five husbands and was living with a man who wasn't
her husband. But what our Lord does is he meets us at some point
in our life and convinces us of sin. And see what I'm saying? He went to this particular point.
Five husbands living in adultery without a husband. But if she'd
have had only one husband or no husband, she'd have had the
same problem by birth, by nature, by choice, by practice. We're
sinners. And there's no hope for living
water or peace with God or hope of life, so that sin is put away
and taken care of by the mercy of God. And now a woman who's
had five husbands, or ten, or whatever she's done, if she's
in Christ, knows him, he's put her sin away, they're gone. That's
what I said, this one Joshua standing there with his filthy
garments, and he said, take them away, and give him a change of
aim. Our sins are put away. But what
he was doing is shutting her mouth. That's what he was doing. See, she's got to cease to be
a talker and become a hero. The scripture says, what the
law is saying, it says to them that are under law, that what?
Every mouth may be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God. And that's what he's doing, he's
shutting her up. But you know what she did? She
did what nearly everybody you witness to will do. She turned
to her religion. I listened to her. Oh, she said,
I perceive that you are a preacher. You are a preacher. Why, she
said, I am not without religion. My fathers, my fathers worshipped
in this mountain. I'll have you know, I'm a Baptist
and I come from a long line of Baptists. See, that's what people
do. You know, if you start zeroing
in on need, inability, sin, they'll turn to some refuge. They'll
turn to some refuge. I made a profession when I was
a boy. I can never forget the old revival meeting. I went down
to the front and I just felt wonderful. They'll turn to some
experience. She turns to her religion. She
said, our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And then she
began to find fault with his. She said, you Jews say that Jerusalem's
a place to worship. See, she's going to get in an
argument over religion. They'll change the subject. They'll
get back on those old experiences that stay old and on, that old
ancestor and heritage. And Paul, the apostle, said,
I count that stuff but lost. Done. But she's not to that point
yet. He said, woman, verse 21, believe
me. Oh, that you believe me. The
hour is coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor
at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship. You're going through
the motions, but you don't know what you worship. You're walking
in ignorance. And that's what most of religion—this
town's full of churches. They're everywhere. My town is
too. But they're ignorant. They don't
know what they worship. Now, he said the Jews We know
what we worship. The Jews had the law, they had
Moses' writings, they had the tabernacle, they had the priesthood,
they had the sacrifices, they had those things. They didn't
know God, but they did know those things. Don't throw away the Old Testament.
It's a type and picture. That's what you were talking
about in the study a while ago. It's pictures of Christ and types
of Christ. And don't throw it away. The
Jews knew what they worshipped. the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. They didn't know him. They didn't love him. When he
came in Christ as Christ, they didn't receive him. But they
had the Scriptures. Those Samaritans were ignorant,
even of the Scriptures. So he said, we have salvations
of the Jews. It came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
through David. But the hour cometh, listen,
verse 23, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh such to worship
him." God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and truth. And bless your heart, she's quiet
now, and listen to what she said. She said to him, I know this,
I know the Messiah's coming, the Christ. I know that the Messiah
is coming. She was raised in religion, too,
evidently. The Messiah is coming, the Redeemer,
the Savior, the one whom God promised, the seed of woman,
the priest, after the order of Melchizedek, the son of David,
the prophet like Moses. He's coming, which is called
the Christ. And when he's come, he'll tell
us all things. I'm waiting to hear from him.
And he said, listen, Jesus said to her, I'll just speak to them. Oh, and then she sat down and
he told her, because when she went to town, she said, I found
the Christ. I found the Messiah. So he crossed
her path. He created an interest in living
water. He presented a problem. See you. I'm going to speak this morning
from the book of Zechariah. Zechariah. Old Testament.