I wonder if we, and I think about this quite a bit,
are we preaching so that people can understand what we're saying? I consider this a great deal.
After I preach or after I hear someone preach, I try to put
myself in the place of a fellow that just came in, just came
in and sat down. I think back over the service
and over the message, and I wonder, was there anything said with
which he could identify? Was there anything said upon
which he could think and discover his need and lay hold of Christ
or lay hold of God in Christ? Well, I'm going to try to do
that this morning. I'm going to try to talk as simply and
plainly and sincerely and truthfully and scripturally as I can to
you on the subject, I am He. I am He. John chapter 4. Now
here, boys and girls, you don't color or read in a book. A lot
of times we bring along something for our children to color because
they are not going to understand what he says anyway. Maybe they will this
morning. Or some young person sits here and says, well, you
know, the preacher is going to preach. See if I can survive
35-40 minutes of hymn. and then we'll go home to eat.
But let's see if we can lay hold of something here in John chapter
4. It says here in John chapter 4, but let's begin with verse
1. We're just going to comment as we go along. When therefore
the Lord knew, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, knew. He knew all
things. He needed not that anyone should
tell him anything. He knew all things. How the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than
John. Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples did the
baptizing. The Lord didn't baptize, his
disciples did. He left Judea. Now, Judea is
this country down here where Jerusalem was and other noted
places with which you are familiar. He departed Judea, down south
here, and departed into Galilee. Now, Galilee is a country up
here. And right between Judea and Galilee is a country called
Samaria. And it says in verse four, now
watch this, and he must, needs, go through Samaria. Now why did
the Lord put that in there? Anybody look at a map and tell
you he had to go through Samaria? Well, Samaria was a country of
people who had no dealings with the Jews. They hated the Jews,
the Jews hated them. It's like the Jews and the Arabs.
And usually, when a Jew went from Judea into Galilee, or from
Galilee to Judea, instead of coming down through Samaria,
he'd go around Samaria to keep meeting those people, keep having
anything to do with them. There was bigotry and prejudice
and the most evil feelings. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
going from Jerusalem, or Judea, up to Galilee, and the Scripture
says here he must need to go through Samaria. Now, I'll tell
you why he had to go. You know why he had to go? Because he
came to seek and save his lost sheep, and there's one of his
lost sheep in Samaria. Ron, that's why he must needs
go through Samaria. There's one of his sheep there.
He had to go that way. It was eternally ordained for
him to go that way. It was eternally purposed for
him to go that way. He has a sheep there. Now, you
don't need to turn to it. Just let me read over here in
John 10. It says this, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep,
and I'm known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Now,
listen to me. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't come down here
on a venture. Our Lord didn't come down here
in an attempt to do something. He came from heaven to earth,
from heaven's glories to earth's humiliation, to save his sheep,
to seek and to save his sheep. Where did he get his sheep? His
father gave them to him. He got his sheep from the father.
When did the father give them to him? From the foundation of
the world. That's what the scripture says. And he says in verse 16,
I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have, which
are not of this foal. He's talking about his disciples.
Now watch this. Them also I must bring. Now that's what he's saying in
verse 4, John 4. He must, must, must, must go
through Sennacherib. He needs to go through Sennacherib.
He's on the trail of his sheep. Thank God he's on the trail of
his sheep. And we're on the trail of his
sheep. Now, I'm preaching this morning. I'm going to explain
this preaching business to you right now. This is the way I
feel. This is the way I live. This
is the way this church is set up. We preach the gospel to every
creature. I go wherever anybody invites
me to preach. It doesn't matter. I'll preach
anywhere. I'll preach to a Seventh-day
Adventist church, a Nazarene church, a Baptist church, a Southern
Baptist church, a freewill church. I don't care. I'll preach anywhere. I'll preach on television. We
preach the gospel to every creature. We got missionaries all over
the world. We send our television out. We
send tapes out. Anybody who wants a tape gets
it. We're preaching the gospel to everybody that'll listen. But you know what's in my heart?
I'm looking for His sheep. I'm looking for His sheep. I
don't know who they are. I don't know who they are. God
doesn't have any unusual markings on them. They just look like
you or me. They're just some You know, last week I was in
this meeting down in Alabama and there was some vistas came.
Different people brought vistas to the services. And one man
came one night, Tuesday night. I saw him sit down and I looked
at him. And a man about 50, 52 or 53. I looked at him and said,
Pritchard, what do you think when you look at somebody like
that? I was looking at him thinking this. I'll be honest with you.
I wonder if he's one of God's sheep. That's exactly what I'm
saying. I wonder if he's one of God's
sheep. And as I preached the message, I was prayerful and
hopeful that that message of grace was finding a spot in his
heart. And if he's one of God's sheep,
it will. And if he's not, it won't. Let me quote you another
scripture from John 10. The Pharisees came to him and
said, Are you the Christ? If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. He said, I told you, but you didn't believe me. You
didn't believe me. My sheep hear my voice. You didn't
believe me because you're not my sheep. You know, lo and behold,
the next night I sat there in the pulpit waiting to preach,
and that fellow came in again. I thought, hey, he might be one
of God's sheep. But you know, this happens to
me often. I think he's one, and pay no attention to the fellow
over here, and he's the one that was God's sheep. He must need to go through cement. He will bring his sheep. All
right, what's this next thing here, beginning with verse 5?
Then he comes to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near
to the parcel of granite Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now,
Jacob, where was that? And Jesus, therefore, being wearied
with his journey. Listen, this sounds like a contradiction.
Jesus. Who is Jesus? He's God, in human
flesh. He's very God, a very God. Is
he not? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And without Him, all things were
made by Him. Without Him was not anything made, was made,
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory. The glory is the only begotten of the Father. How can
God be weary? How can God get tired? Here's
God in human flesh, but He's tired. He's weary. His body aches. His legs ache. He's dusty and
dirty and weary. He's walked all the way for miles. up here to this place, and he's
tired. And he sat down on a wheel. See, that's our substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's God in human flesh. And
let me tell you something. Every weary step you take, He
took. Every time your joints and bones
ached from labor, you remember, He ached. This is what I'm saying.
He was identified with us and numbered with us in all things. Every temptation you feel, heap
out. That's right. And when you see
the master walk up to this well, weary and tired and thirsty and
dusty, and walk over there and heave a sigh, bearing all the
burdens and cares, man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and sit
down, boy, let your heart rejoice. He's your substitute. He's your
righteousness. He's enduring everything for
your sake. And I know there's some of you
here, through these years, I've got a little bit of a posturous
heart. Your burden is my burden. False is any weight that I don't
weigh. And I know some of you right now are going through a
valley that's just choking you to death. Your heart right now,
I know some of you, your heart is as heavy as a sack of lead. It just sits down here, there's
a lump in your throat. But I want to tell you this,
there's no burden you feel, or grief you experience, or load
you carry, that He didn't carry. And He understands. And He carries. And I'll tell you this, that's
going to work out for your good, you wait and see. When we get
on the other side of this thing, this situation, this difficulty,
this heartache, when we get over here, we've got to go through
it. There's no shortcut. We got to go through it. We got
to carry every load. We got to walk every step. We
got to stumble over every brick. But this joy comes in the morning. Weeping and do it for the night.
And you got to go through the whole 20, 12 hours. Got to go. But joy comes in the morning.
And you know why? Because of this right here, Jesus
being weary. He was weary. We don't have a
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all things tempted as we are, tested as we are,
weary as we are, yet without sin. And I'll tell you this,
we grumble, don't we? And if it wasn't for the fact
he didn't grumble, God would have to deal with our grumbling.
Does that make sense? Do you hear what I'm saying?
We don't endure these trials like we should, do we? We find
fault with God's providence, or we grumble, and we're not
rejoicing. But now wait a minute. Through
all of this, he'd never complain. And he's our substitute. That's
my hope. All right. He sat down on the
well. Now, the king sat down on the well. He was weary, and
he sat down on the well. And it's about the six hour.
You say, Pritchard, what time was that? High noon. High noon. Straight up. And it says there
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Now, let me tell
you something. I don't know a great deal about
the habits of those old oriental countries or far eastern countries,
but I do know this, that the women came to the well in the
morning, and they came in the evening. They didn't come at
noon. The very fact there was nobody there indicates that they
didn't come at that time. Our Lord Jesus is there by himself.
He sent his disciples into town to buy food. He was sitting on
the well. The weary, dusty, tired Savior is sitting on the well
all by himself. And here comes a woman up the
road with a water pitcher, carrying a water pitcher, coming to the
well at high noon. You see, the women came to the
well in the morning to get water for the day, water to cook with
and bathe with and wash with and take care of the children,
drinking water. But this woman came at noon, I'll tell you why.
She got up that morning at the regular time to go and get water,
but she didn't go on purpose. She was embarrassed to go. You
see, she'd been married five times, and at that time she was
living with a man who wasn't her husband. And she was the
talk of the community. Folks were criticizing and finding
out she was a sinner. And she deliberately didn't come
to the well that morning. She wanted to go when there wasn't
anybody there. She didn't want the women whispering, there comes
so-and-so, you heard about so-and-so, you know the guy she loves, so
forth and so on. So she aborted until high noon, and she went
to the well. She was embarrassed to go. She
came to the well at noon out of embarrassment. He came there
out of grace. But you know, here's good news.
He came to that well to meet that sinner. to meet that sinner. I was talking to somebody not
so awful long ago whose life has been messed up, fouled up. Life has been one of confusion
and an unacceptable behavior in the common term. And I asked
this individual, I said, the last time I came to this church
and preached You attended the services, but you didn't speak
to me. You avoided me. I could tell that you were avoiding
me. And this person looked at me and said, I was too embarrassed
to talk to you because of the kind of life I've lived. Why would a sinner be embarrassed
to come to church? Have we given that impression?
I wonder. Why would a sinner be embarrassed
to approach a minister of the gospel? Have we ministers given
the impression that we don't have anything for sinners? You
see what I'm saying? This woman was embarrassed to
meet people, but I'll tell you this, the Savior wasn't embarrassed
to meet her. I'm sure glad. I'm sure glad
he loves sinners. I'm glad while the world is not
the friend of sinners Christ is. I'm glad while religious
professors are not friends of sinners, Christ is. I'm glad
this woman, though she didn't come to the well to keep from
meeting those religious people, she came to the well and she
met the Lord and he received her. Our Savior is kinder than
we are. Our Savior is more understanding
than we are. Our Savior is more affectionate
than we are. Sinners find a welcome to the
Savior. Do they find a welcome with you?
That's right. He welcomed her. In fact, he
even spoke to her. Listen to this in verse 7. And
he said to this woman, give me a drink. Give me a drink. His disciples were going away
into the city to buy me. And then the woman said to him,
now watch this. Verse 9, she said, How is it
that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which I am a woman of
Samaria, but don't you know that the Jews have no dealings with
the Samaritans? I wonder. I wonder if now I have
the gospel, and I know I have the gospel. I'm sure of it. Right
here, 13th Street Baptist Church. I've been here 35 years, and
I preached on the radio 20 years, been on television 12, 13 years.
God's miraculously, marvelously blessed this ministry. Here's
a little church in the industrial city of Ashland. Who knows where
Ashland is? Just about nobody but people
around here. And yet God has established here a church preaching
the gospel of his grace, the gospel, the gospel of his grace,
and has given us a worldwide ministry. This church is known
in Australia, in Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, England, France,
Spain, you name it, this church is known. Zaire, Africa, Ivory
Coast, and Israel, the people who listen. There's a church
in Jordan using our literature in the Sunday school classes
in Amman, Jordan. And we have the gospel. But you
know there are people right here in Iceland that will not come
to hear me preach because I'm a Baptist preacher. The name
Baptist, I wonder if we ought to wipe it out. I don't know.
Would that do any good? I don't know whether it would
or not. There are people who won't come because I'm a Baptist. There may be some that won't
come because I'm a Republican. I don't blame them, you know. But we get these prejudices,
don't we? When she looked at him, now here, I want you to
think about this. Here's the Son of God sitting
there, the Son of God, the Redeemer, asking this woman in conversation
about drink, and she doesn't want to speak to him because
he's a Jew. I wonder how much of that, and
I wrote this down here, and I tell you, Don't allow anybody's race,
don't allow anybody's name, don't allow anybody's experience or
education, don't even allow anybody's conduct or attitude to keep you
from Christ. Does that make sense? We're the strangest people. We
get these little with these little eccentricities,
you know. Well, he's a Presbyterian, or
he's a Baptist, or he's... I wish all those names were suddenly
just obliterated. And we judge people by this,
whether he has the gospel or he doesn't have the gospel. Whether
he's preaching the Word of God or he's not preaching the Word
of God. This woman said, You're a Jew. And then our Lord looked
at her. Now listen to this. He said to her, He said to her
here, He said in verse 10, If you knew, Jesus said to her,
never mind this Jew business and this Samaritan business,
if you knew the gift of God, if you knew the gift of God,
if you knew who it is that speaks to you, you'd ask me and I'd
give you living water. If you knew. But who is this gift of God?
Well, the gift of God is twofold. The gift of God is a person.
The unspeakable gift of God is Christ Jesus. But the gift of
God is eternal life through that person. The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see that? The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, if you knew, if you
knew, if everybody in this building, this preacher and everybody here,
boys and girls and men, knew this gift of God, this free,
eternal, gift of God. We'd do some asking. We'd do
like Jacob. We'd do some begging if we knew. Now let me tell you
something. We had this in the Sunday school
class this morning, and this is so real to me. And I believe
it. I believe most every believer
in the 20th century goes through this. Here's this man Jacob. Jacob. Now this man Jacob, we
know God chose him. That's what the Bible said, Jacob,
have a love. Before he was born, God set his love on him. He said,
Jacob, have a love, Esau, have a hatred. This man Jacob was
born in a home to a mother that was conscious of God's dealings
with her son. And she told him so. He had all
the mechanics. He was born in a home, a Hebrew
home, a rigid, disciplined, religious, orthodox, traditional home. And
he had all the upbringing and all the teaching. But he didn't
know God. Isn't that right, Charlie? He
didn't know God. And then on his way, when he
was running from his brother, out yonder at Bethel, he had
a revelation of the way to heaven, the ladder, reaching from earth
to heaven, which is Christ. He came to earth. He's in the
bosom of the Father. The angels of God ascended. And
he had a promise of God, and he had some knowledge of God,
and he had a revelation, but he was still unchanged, still
Jacob. Brought up in religion, had that
religious revelation and religious information, but unchanged. And then later, when he was almost
fifty years old, forty, fifty, somewhere in there, doesn't have
to age, doesn't have to do anything, don't try to apply anything to
age, he met God. Face to face. And God wrestled
with him from all night till the breaking of day. And God
touched him and God crippled him. And Jacob held on. God would leave him again. He
would come and go again. And Jacob got a hold of him and
said, Not this time. Not this time. And I won't let
you go. You're blessed now. And he blessed
him. Now, here's what I'm saying.
And I'm saying most, I experienced this Many of you have already.
Gerald, you experienced that. Most of you are brought up in
religion. You know the Bible's God's Word. You know Jesus lived.
Like a preacher said, a fellow, not a preacher, a fellow said
last night on television, he said, this is all there is to it. Believe
Jesus died on the cross bearing a rose again. That's all there
is to it. Then I've been saved since I
was four years old. And everybody in here, from that
wall to that wall, from that paint to that paint, and from
that door to this baptism, is saved, because there ain't nobody
in here that doesn't believe that. And you can't find many
people in this town that don't believe that. Jesus died, was
buried, and rose again. There's not many people in this
town that don't believe that. We're brought up, believe me,
we're brought up with a head knowledge, with an understanding of those
things. And then when we get a little older, we find out some
things about doctrine. We become theologians. We become taught in the Word. We get some commentaries, and
some reference books, and some concordances, and some Bible
dictionaries, and we go to preaching, and we go to Bible conferences,
and we learn something, and we have a certain amount of enjoyment
in that realm. We know some things. But wait
a minute now. There's still something, a key,
they're missing somewhere. Do you know why I'm talking about
that? The reality of it, the glory
of it, the joy of it, the happiness of it, the certainty of it, the
assurance of it, the anticipation of it. In fact, a lot of times
you go home, you say, I know there's more to this God business
than mental agreement. I know there's more to this God
business than profession. I know there's more to this God
business and this salvation business than what I got. You're dead
right there is. You're dead right. There's more
to this God business than me figuring out how much I made
this week and reluctantly giving the church ten percent of it.
There's more to this God business than Sunday morning when I'd
heap rather go to the football game going down to the church.
There's a whole lot more to this God business when I'd rather
read the paper any time than read the Bible. There must be
more to this God business. And the rest, you're dead right.
Though you may be one of God's elect. But Jacob that night,
Jacob that night, like this woman here, our Lord looked at her
and he said, if you knew, if you knew the gift of God, if
you knew the birthright of God, if you knew the power of God,
if you knew it, and you don't know anything, you'll experience
it. That's when you know it. You ask me. And that night, Jacob
met God. And there was a conflict. It
wasn't no decision. He didn't walk down there and
make a decision. He didn't sign a pledge card. He didn't have
an experience. He met God. And they wrestled
this thing out. There was some eternal decisions
to be made. There was some conflict. There was some wrestling. There
was all these things going on here. And Jacob wrestled with
God. And he met God. He met Christ.
That's who that was that wrestled with his crap. And then he touched
it and broke it, broke it, broke it. Just took the fight out of
him. He surrendered, but he held on. And he said, now, my mama told
me about the birthright, and one day I decided to get the
birthright, and one day I got it. But Lord, I want it from
you. I want it from you. And that's
when God said, I bless you. What's your name? I'm a cheat.
I'm a supplater. I'm a deceiver. No more. No more. No more. I'm a proud, arrogant
man. No more. I'm a self-willed man. No more.
I got my own ambition. No more. No more. You're Israel
now, child of God. And I'll tell you this, he wasn't
afraid to meet Esau after he met God. And I really believe that this
is the experience of a great number of religious people. There's
an upbringing, and then there's an education in religion, which,
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures that are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. So don't neglect this. Let me
tell you something about children. Somebody asked me this week about
children. You boys and girls, listen to me. Abraham knew God,
but he didn't know what Moses knew. But he saved, wasn't he? He walked in the light of day.
Moses knew God, but he didn't know what John the Baptist knew.
He didn't have the revelation John the Baptist had, but he
knew God. John the Baptist knew God, but
he didn't know what I know. Is that right? That's right.
So I say concerning these boys and girls, don't make, don't
tell them. Now, you wait till you have a
full revelation of all truth, and then you can say you're saved.
No. Boys and girls, listen to me. Walk in the light God gives
you. Walk in the light of understanding
you have. And hold to Christ. Believe God.
Believe God in the light He gives you. Believe God in what He lets
you experience. And as days go by, as you seek
and ask, He'll give you more light. Is that right, Bob? He
will. And you walk in the light you
have, act on that light God gives you, and He'll reveal more to
you as you are able to receive. What do you say to His disciples?
I've got many things to say to you, but you're not able to bear
them yet. And they're not. They're not
able yet. But they're still His. Someday
they'll be able. Someday, and I'll tell you this,
even some of you out there in your 30s, I'll say this, you've
got some things out yonder that you can't understand until they
get there. And he'll reveal them in his
own time. Well, if you knew, watch this, but the woman said
why. She said, verse 11, the water's deep, the well's deep,
and you don't have anything to draw this living water, this
living water. Are you greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the whale and drank thereof himself his
children's cattle? And our Lord said, Whosoever drinketh of this
water will thirst again. Do you believe that? Oh, I've
experienced that. Let me tell you something. Drink all you want of the world
and its wealth and its education and its popularity and its possessions
and its fame and its power, even its religion, and you'll thirst
again. Thirst, thirst, thirst. But listen
to what he said, but the water that I give, whosoever drinketh,
verse 14, the water that I give him, what water is that? That's
union with God. That's union with God. That's
that peace and joy and righteousness and hope and love and faith and
assurance that's within the heart that comes from a Christ living
within. Christ indwelling, Christ revealed
in you. Verse 14, whoso drinketh of the
water I give him will never thirst. And I'll tell you why. Because
the water that I shall give him shall be in him. It's not a going
to church to meet God. God dwelleth in his people. In them. And it's a well of water
that's always replenished, springing up, springing up, springing up,
springing up. It's within them. It's a well
of living water within them. under everlasting life. And then
the woman said, well, give me this water. Now, I'm going to
have to make a point here, and I'll move quickly. The woman
said, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come here
to draw. She still had this thing in a
physical aspect, a material aspect. And Jesus said to her, go call
your husband and come hither. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said,
I have no husband. You have had five husbands, and he whom thou
now hast is not thy husband, and that thou saidest truthfully.
There are several reasons why our Lord presented this problem
to this woman. Here He is talking to her about
inward peace and spiritual peace as He talks to us. And He presents
her with a major problem, her sin. And there is a threefold
reason why He presented this problem. First of all, It is
our sins and our rebellion against God's law that separates us from
God and got us in this mess to start with. He's trying to show
this woman that her messed-up life and her embarrassment and
her shame and her guilt and her coming to the well at this time
and her thirst could be attributed to her sins. That's what got
us there. That's right. The Lord Jesus,
that's what He's doing here. He came to redeem us because
we are sinners. That's why He came. That's our
need, and that's why we need Him. But the third reason why
He brought this question to this woman, and put it before us is,
she must face her problem herself. She's got to admit it. She's
got to admit it. And that's the reason He asked
her. It's like that question He asked Adam. Adam, where are
you? He knew where it was. He wanted
to hear from Adam. I was naked and I hid. He asked
Cain, he said, Cain, where's your brother? Now Cain's got
to consider that himself and face it, and he says this, my
brother's dead. He's dead at my hands. I killed
him and I can't bring him back. I got a mess on my hands. And
he says to this woman, go call your husband. Call forth your
whole life. Bring it forth. Bring it out
into the open. Weigh it before God. Now what do you merit? Helpless. Helpless. So what she do? Here's a woman who came to the
well. Here's the master. Here's a woman
that our Lord has brought before her her whole past, her helplessness
and inability. And here's a woman to whom the
Lord has presented her need of living water and presented the
living water. What's she going to do? What so many of us do.
I tell you, this thing just jumped out at me. She said, look at
verse 19. She said, I perceive that thou
art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in the
mountains. And you Jews say that Jerusalem's a place to worship.
Now wait a minute. Here's a sad commentary on our
whole race, and this is the thing that I run into so often. Here's
a person with an ignorance of the gift of God. Christ said
you don't know the gift of God if you knew the gift of God,
if you had any understanding of the gift of God. Here's a
person faced with a natural ignorance of the gift of God. Secondly,
here's a person, oh, the emptiness, the emptiness of her life, the
emptiness of her life. the guilt, the shame, the embarrassment
of her life. And no peace, no joy, no hope,
no happiness. Here's the promise of God to
make it all right, to give her that joy and peace. Here's the
word of God himself speaking to her, and what she do? She
turned to her religious experience and tradition. You see what she
did? We hear somebody preach this
glorious gospel, and we think, well, now I made a profession
of faith. I go to church every Sunday. My family's church. I'm
a Baptist. I'm a Catholic. We turn to our
religious tradition. Listen to Paul over here in Acts
17. Give some attention to this right
here. Acts, the seventeenth chapter.
And Paul's talking to those people there in Athens. Now listen to
this. And he says in Acts 17, verse 24, God that made the world
and all things therein, seeing he's Lord of heaven and earth,
he doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. He's not worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth,
hath determined the time of the four appointed, the bounds of
their habitation, that they should seek the Lord." Not the right
place to worship, but seek the Lord. Not the right church, but
the Lord. This is what this woman is saying.
When she's faced with this ignorance of the gift of God, when she's
faced with the emptiness of her heart, when she's faced with
the gift of God, she runs to religion. She runs to some profession,
or some religion, or some tradition, or some place, or some temple,
or some name, or some organization, and Christ said to her, listen
to John 4, 31, woman, woman, believe me, believe me, the hour
coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem
worship the Father. In other words, all patterns,
and altars, and temples, and sacrifices are done away in Christ.
The worship of God will not be in those sacrifices anymore.
neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain. You're worshiping,
but you're worshiping ignorantly. You know not what you worship.
We know what we worship, salvations of the Jews. In other words,
salvation from Abraham, seed of Abraham and Isaac, tribe of
Judah, family or house of David, maid of the seed of David. Salvation
came down through those chosen Jewish people, through the line,
household of David, right down. Salvation is of the Jews. Now
read on. The hour cometh, and now is, when true worshipers,
true seekers after God, people with a true heart, worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, in heart, in affection, in the
Holy Spirit, in the Spirit of Christ, in the truth of the gospel.
We are the circumcision who worship God in spirit, who rejoice in
Christ, who have no confidence in the flesh. What's this? For
the Father's seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit. And
they that worship him, worship him in spirit and truth. And
then the woman finally, totally disarmed. Now here's where we
need to come. And I hope this has been at least
beneficial to you. Think about it again. Read it
over again. The woman totally disarmed now. This Jew and Samaritan business
put aside. This living water, the interest
is there. This guilt and shame. The feeling
of our sins dealt with. This religious tradition and
all its patterns and traditions custom put aside, God is spirit.
The woman finally said to him, guilty, needy, helpless, nowhere
to turn. She said, well, I know this. I know this. The Messiah's coming. Messiah's coming. Seated woman. Seated Abraham. Son of God, Redeemer,
He's coming. And when He's come, He'll tell
us all things. He'll reveal all things. He'll
give us all things. He'll provide all things. And
the Lord Jesus looked at her and said, I that speak to thee
am He. That's it. You see that? I am He. I am the prophet Moses
said would come. I am He. I am the priest eternal.
I am He. I am the King in David's life.
I am He. I am the Lamb of God. I am He. I am the One Atonement. I am
He. I am the Mediator and Advocate. I am He. Christ is all. That's where this matter of salvation
is. It's in fully believing, being fully persuaded, and by
God's grace in heart, fully laying hold on Him. And boy, she dropped
her water pot and ran down. Now she said, I found the Christ.
I believed. Our Father, Your Word. All of our preparation and all
of our study and all of our application and illustrations are so human
and so frail and so useless. But Your Word, Your Word, will
not return void. It shall accomplish that whereunto
you have said it. And I pray that you take your
word today, your word spoken to the ears of this congregation,
your word, I do pray and trust, spoken in the power of the Holy
Ghost, not in the wisdom of men, but that you would make it bring
forth and bear fruit. Oh, that we may win Christ and
be found in Him. That the congregation, that this
group of people might see, this pastor and his people, that Christ
is all. He's the Messiah. He's the Redeemer.
That all of these means and methods and traditions and customs and
things on the lips and minds of men is not the living water. Christ is the living water. And
that we may lay hold of Him, by faith lay hold of Christ,
turn from all things to lay hold of Christ. As guilty, helpless
sinners, lay hold of Christ by experience that we may have that
living water that springs up within unto everlasting life,
seeking the Lord. Thy promise is that if we seek
Thee with all our hearts that thou wilt be found. We pray this
in the name of our Master and for his sake. Amen.