John 4, if you will. I'd like for you to keep that
open in your hands while I bring the message. I'll be referring
back to the scripture frequently. Verse 26 is my text, I guess,
if I have a text. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. I'm persuaded that it's not more
religion that we need. I don't think that we need more
religion. I think we have an abundance
of religion. I believe what we need in this
day is a clear, personal revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
hearts of men and women. Paul said, God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace was pleased
to reveal his Son in me. This is what it's all about.
His Son in me. Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. It's
not what you believe about Christ. It's Christ in you. That's the
hope of glory. And then I'm persuaded it's not
a stricter moral code that we need. I don't think it's going
to help us to lengthen the ladies' skirts. I don't think it's going
to help us to take off our makeup and jewelry. I don't think it's
going to help us to close all of the motion picture theaters
and get rid of our television sets. I don't think that's going
to help us. I don't think it's going to help
us to close the stores on Sunday. is a heart union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. I believe that dictates a person's
behavior. Paul said, The love of Christ
constraineth me. If he died for me, then we're
all dead, and those which died in him should live unto him.
I believe men are better motivated by love than law. I really do. I believe more righteousness
will be forthcoming If it's motivated by love, then by laws and rules
and statutes and commandments and regulations. I believe an outward holiness
can hide a heart of hate. But I believe a heart of love
will produce a life of holiness. Our Lord told the Pharisees that.
He said, You are so busy cleaning up the outside of the cup and
the platter, and within you are just full of extortion and excess. You are like a whited sepulchre
that appears beautiful unto men. It has all the appearance of
a wholesome place, but within you are full of dead men's bones. I don't think the Church accomplishes
a thing by by making rules and regulations about the Sabbath
day and about Wednesday night and about the mode of dress and
where folks ought to go and what they ought to do and marching
in front of picture shows with banners and signs. I don't think
that's what we need. I believe it's a revelation of
Jesus Christ to the heart. That's what we need. And it's
not more religious activities that we need. It's not more going
and giving and doing. I believe the demand and the
need of this hour is more heart love for Christ, more worship,
more faith, more quietness of spirit. The Lord is in his holy
temple. Let all the earth keep silent.
They said to Christ one day, they said, what shall we do?
What shall we do? That we might work the works
of God. Would you like to work the works
of God? Would you like to serve God?
Actually, to actually work the works of God. I'm in the work
of the Lord. I'm doing the work of the Lord.
What are you doing? What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? And Christ said, this is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom God has sent. Five minutes of real prayer,
real concern, real intercession is worth a day of walking the
streets, making a lot of religious noise. You may not understand
what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is so, and someday you
may understand it. What we need is not more religious
activity. We need more heart-love and heart-worship
and heart-faith and heart-communion with the throne. More can be done for this preacher
and this church by ten minutes of real, godly, consecrated prayer before the throne of God
than could be done by all the knowers that all of us could
make together, if we could get hold of the horns of their altar,
if we could beseech God, God's mercies and God's in the name
of Jesus Christ for the true, pure motive of his glory, if
we could just get to that place. God may do something for us. The revelation of Jesus Christ
to a sinner's heart, that's the need of the hour. Atrebel, Paul
said, till Christ be formed in you. The revelation of Christ
to a sinner's heart. And it's no small thing. Believe
me, it's no small thing. It's not just walking an aisle.
It's no mere doctrinal position. It's no mere correction of doctrine. The revelation of Christ, when
God comes to earth, when God comes to earth, when Christ left
heaven and came to earth, God put a star over the birthplace,
a bright star stood still. When God comes to earth, angels
accompany his coming and announce his coming. It's made known when God comes
to earth, when God reveals himself among men. Let me tell you something,
when Jesus Christ comes to the sinner's heart, when he's pleased
come to that cesspool of iniquity and set up his throne, when he
is pleased to once again incarnate himself in a human being, in
a human body, in a human heart, it's no small thing. It's not
just the signing of a document It's not just the correction
of a doctrinal position. It's not just a moral reformation. It's just not sweeping the streets.
They didn't sweep the streets of Bethlehem when he came, but
he came. And they knew he came. It was known everywhere. It's
not just a mere religious conversion. It's not like the visit of the
Pope to Poland. And they roll out the red carpets,
and when he's gone, they forget he was there. It's a constant
dwelling, in-dwelling. It's a new creation. If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. It's the birth
of a son. That's no small thing. A son
is born unto us, a child is given. There's a new son born! Announce
the news! Unto us a son is given. It's the resurrection from the
dead! Lazarus lives! Lazarus lives! Hey! Lazarus alive! Lazarus come back! It's God dwelling in you. out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This he spake
of the Spirit, which those that believe on him should receive." We may give the impression that
for a person to become a Christian is just a matter of of turning
over a new leaf, or having a moral reformation, or getting a fellow's
doctrines straightened out, or establishing some facts in his
mind, or establishing a good moral code. Listen, when God
comes to earth, when God is incarnate, when God forms himself in a sinner's
heart and reveals himself, it's no small thing. It's a son is
born. The dead is raised. It's a new creature. A sinner has had Christ revealed
to him. That's a miracle. Isaac's come
on the scene. Isaac's born. Ishmael, goodbye. Isaac's here. The heir is here.
The King's Son is here. And there's a way that God does
this, there's a method of grace, and you'll find it in the 4th
chapter of John's gospel. And I'm going to point out about
six things here briefly. When God comes to earth, when
God reveals himself to a sinner, the revelation of Christ in a
sinner's heart, for first of all, the Lord chooses that sinner. This is not of the will of the
flesh. The flesh doesn't decide where Christ will be revealed. It's not of the will of man.
Men don't get together and decide whom they shall save. It's not
of blood, that is, it doesn't follow a family bloodline. It's of God, John 1.13. To as
many as received him, the revelation of Christ, the coming of Christ,
to as many as were partakers and received him, to them gave
he the right to become sons of God, which were born, not of
blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man,
but of God. So it says in John 4, verse 4, he must needs go
through Samaria. Now, you can select whatever
reason you desire as to why the Master must, must, must needs
go through Samaria. But I can only see one reason
why Christ must do anything, and that's to fulfill his Father's
will. My Lord must go through Samaritan. You can come up with, that was
a shortcut, or that was somebody laying in wait for him. No. There
is only one reason why our Lord must do anything. He said, I
must be about my Father's business. I must. I must work the works
of him that sent me. I must. Even so, must the Son
of Man be lifted up? No, sir. Just one reason why
he must go through Samaria, because there was a Samaritan there that
belonged to him. He must. He must. One of those given him by the
Father, one of those included in that blessed, mysterious covenant
of mercy, One of those whom from the foundation of the world had
been promised to Christ, one of those for whom he would suffer,
one of those who would forever sing his praises, she's in Samaria,
so he must go by there. He must. He must. And then he crosses that sinner's
path, verse 7. He's not going to miss her. God's always on time. Christ
is always where he's supposed to be. So verse 6, he sat down
on the well. He sat on the well. It was noon. It was an unlikely time for anybody
to come drawing water. They didn't draw water at noon
around there. They drew water in the morning, in the cool of
the morning. The women came to the well in the morning, so they'd
have fresh water through the day. They'd have fresh water
for their kitchen, for their children, for doing what they
needed to do. They didn't come to the well
at noon. They came before breakfast. And he sat down here, and there
wasn't a soul around there. He said he was with the disciples on
in town. There wasn't a soul around there but the Lord. It was new. Nobody was going
to come. Yeah, one of his own was coming. He was going to cross
her path. God chooses a sinner, and then
supernaturally, in his own way, in his own time, the situation
may not demand it, may not expect it, the circumstances may not
produce it, but God will. He's going to cross that sinner's
path. I don't care where you are or
who you are. If you belong to our Lord, he's
going to cross your path. When you can't flee, you can
take a ship with Jonah and flee to Tarsus, but God's going to
find you. You may wind up in the belly
of a whale, but God's going to find you. You may be seated with Matthew
at the seat of customs. You may be hanging on a cross,
but he'll find you, like the thief. You're going to meet with
the Master, if you want to hear. You may be in Meta de Yucatan,
you may be in Thadjeevichin, you may be up there in the county
Cork in Ireland, you may be down there in Valencia, Spain, you
may be down somewhere in the middle of Russia, but he's going
to cross your path. Yes, he will. And oh, what a
day! What a day it is, what an unforgettable
day, when this woman met the Lord. She came to the well. Do
you know why? pretty loose woman. She had five or six husbands
and was living with a fellow that wasn't her husband, and
the other women didn't approve of that, and she didn't want
to face them. So she came to the well when
nobody else would come. She kind of sneaked out there,
you know, at the middle of the day, and who was waiting on her
but the Lord of Glory. The Lord of Glory. What a day
it is when you I'm not talking about just any
Jesus some fellow happens to be preaching. I'm talking about
the Lord of glory. He's revealed in his Word. Whosoever
shall call upon the name, the blessed name, the scriptural
name, the divine name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.
You've got to call on the right Jesus. And how shall they call
on him? in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear of him unless somebody tells them, a
preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Our Lord said, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me. Philip, have I been so long time
with you, and yet thou hast not known me? thou hast not known." What a time! Here our Lord was
sitting on the well, and here comes the woman that he came
to save. She doesn't know it, but she's
about to meet the Lord. She doesn't know it, but this
is just about to become the greatest hour of her whole life. She doesn't
know it. Totally unconscious, of whom
she will encounter. Isn't that something? But our
Lord is the author and finisher of our faith. Then he creates
an interest. He says, Give me a drink. And
she said, How come you, a Jew, are asking me for a drink? The
Jews don't have anything to do with the Samaritans. And then
he created an interest. This woman, like you and me,
being in the flesh, was totally taken up with the flesh. She
was interested in the man with whom she lived. She tried five
husbands, and they hadn't been able to get along with any of
them. Or maybe she was an ambitious woman, you know, and she was
interested in the man she was living with. She was interested
in the wealth. She was interested in the water.
She was interested in the flesh. She was interested in the things
that appeal to and satisfy this flesh. Meats for the belly, and
the belly for meats. What shall we eat? What shall
we drink? What shall we wear? She had no other interests. Oh,
she was religious. She talked about our father Jacob.
She was educated in Jewish history, Samaritan history. Oh, she knew
who Abraham was and Jacob. She worshipped on the Sabbath
day. She had the outward form or ceremony
of religion. She wasn't a pagan. She wasn't
a heathen. But she had no interest, no interest
in God. And our Lord said to her, if
you knew the gift of God, if you knew, what is the gift of
God? Well, my friend, Christ is the
gift of God. Christ is the gift of God, his
unspeakable gift, the gift of God's eternal life. It's a divine
life, it's a spiritual life. Peace is the gift of God. He
said, My peace I give unto you. Rest is the gift of God. Christ
said, Come to me, I'll give you rest. The Holy Spirit is the gift of
God, another comforter will I give you. If you knew the gift of
God, if you knew Who it is that speaks to you? Who is it that
speaks to you? Who is it that is speaking in
this way? Who is speaking? I often think
when people are irreverent, when someone is reading the Bible,
Cecil, they don't know who is speaking, do they? I often think
when people misbehave during a preaching service, look out
the window, find something else to do, thumb through songbooks,
write notes, they don't know who is speaking. They are like
the woman at the well, they don't know who is speaking. It is he who spoke the world
into being. It is he who spoke, and as far
as the period, it is he who spoke in the world. began to come into
being. It's he who can say, Thou seest
me forgiven thee. He who is speaking is the one
who can speak peace to your heart. You've gone to this one and that
one, the other one's seeking peace. Won't you listen to him? If you do, who's speaking to
you? Why, he said, Peace to the troubled
sea, and it lay down. That's right, that's right, that's
right, he did, he did. Who's speaking? Are these just
words? Who's speaking? If you knew the
gift of God, and who's speaking to you? It is he who said, Can he not speak today, and the
dead come forth? Can he not speak today, and the
troubled sea be calm? Who is your God? He's not Jesus
Christ, because when he speaks, things are done by his word. That's right. It's he who said, Take up thy
bed and walk. He that healeth thy diseases,
that's who speaks. And it's also he who someday
will say, when you tell him about all that you've done and all
that you've given, Who is speaking is the one who will speak then
and say, I never knew you, depart from me. Oh, I'm interested in
this one who speaks. If you knew the gift of God,
if you, oh, you know about the mountains and you know about
And you know about Jacob, and you know about Abraham, and you
know history maybe better than anybody else, and you know the
doctrines. But if you knew the gift of God, peace, rest, joy,
life, if you knew who was speaking, you know what you'd do? You'd ask me, and I'd give you
living water. I'd give you living water. She
says, I'll take some of that water. I'll take some of that
water. And then our Lord, I'll take
some of that, won't you? Then our Lord presented a slight
problem. He said to her in verse 16, The
woman, go call your husband. Our problem is sin. This woman
This woman was a woman of sin, just like you and I are men and
women of sin. Our problem is sin, sins, our
sins, and there can be no peace, there can be no rest, there can
be no joy, there can be no revelation of Christ to the heart until
the power of sin is broken. No man can serve two masters,
and sin had its beginning in bowing to another master. That's
right. We've tangled sin up, we've messed
up this thing of sin. Preachers that claim to be preaching
against sin don't even know what it is. The things that I say that are
ugly and the things that I do that
are ugly But that's sins, but those sins
are products of sin, the results of sin, are a nature of sin,
the root of sin, the nature. It's in us, it's rebellion, it's
will, self-will, my will, my will, our will, our will. And
that needs to be broken. We've got to come to that place
where it's thy will be done. And there can be no peace or
rest till sin is dealt with in justice toward God and in mercy
toward the sinner. There's got to be a work for
us on the mercy seat and a work in us by the Spirit of God. The guilt of sin and the power
of sin must be dealt with. Cleanse me, be of sin, the devil
cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and
power. That's no small thing. It's got
to be a transaction before a throne. It's got to be a transaction
in the department of justice. There's got to be some communication
between a mediator and an offended God on behalf of the sinner.
It's not just deciding I'm going to
heaven. Heaven is not open to rebels. Heaven is not open to
criminals. Jail is open to criminals. Heaven
is not open to the guilty. It's open to the ones who, by
God's grace, are not guilty. It's got to be something done.
Our Lord poses a problem. I'm who I am and you're who you
are, but the two can't get together until this problem is dealt with.
S-I-N, S-I-N, S-I-N. And it's got to be dealt with
in justice toward God. God's got to be satisfied. God's
got to be reconciled. And that's what Christ did in
his sacrifice, in his substitutionary work. in his atonement, he did
a work for us, he did a work between him and the Father, he
did a work in the courts of glory, he appeared into heaven itself
to obtain eternal redemption for us. And then in time he comes
down here and breaks the power of counsel sin and sets the prisoner
free. He puts in our hearts a new principle,
a new a new spirit, a new attitude. But you know before he does that?
He deals with our religious refuges. He destroys these religious refuges. Look at verse 19. When he got
to talking about her husband, which she didn't have, or had
had, or something, and the woman said, I perceive you are a prophet,
then she began to talk about her hope. This is I tell you, you get to
preaching to a fellow about sin and about heaven and hell, and
he'll say, Well, when I was a boy, I went to church and I made a
profession. I got fixed up. I was twelve
years old, and I'm all right. You get to talking about this
thing of sin and God's hatred for sin and God's judgment against
sin, and some dear lady will tell you about how she dreamed
a dream or saw a vision or Christ appeared to her, and that gives
you peace, you know. If you find peace anywhere but
in Christ, you're in trouble. And this woman began to talk
about it. She said, Our Father is worshiped in the mountains.
She said, You see, I'm a Baptist. I'm from a long line of Baptists. My father was a Baptist. And
they worshiped in this mountain. We've held forth in this place
a long time. And you say in Jerusalem is a
place to worship, and our Lord said, Woman, you don't know what
you worship. You're going through the motions,
going through the motions, the idle, dead motions. God is spirit. You don't worship God in a mountain,
you don't worship God in Jerusalem. You don't come to know God going
through the motions of religion, whether you bow or stand or sit
or lie prostrate. God is a spirit. And they that
worship God, worship God from the heart and they worship God
in spirit. They worship God not according
to the dictates of their conscience, but according to truth. According to truth. Our Lord
is this way every time, and it's a tough thing, it's a painful
operation. But like Saul of Tarsus who said,
I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a tribe of Benjamin, blameless in regard
to the law, above many my equals and a Pharisee, I count these
things but don't. And the old family church and
the old experiences and the old dedications and rededications
and consecrations and re-consecrations and baptisms and the old services
and all of these old things have got to be counted as rubbish
that you may come to know Christ and win Christ and be found in
him. Believe me, listen to me. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I don't care what you've seen,
whether awake or asleep. I don't care what you've dreamed.
I don't care what you've practiced or what works you've produced.
If you're resting in any of those things for acceptance with God
or to find any peace with God, you're going to be in trouble
some day, because Christ is our hope and Christ is our refuge
and Christ is our peace. And before Christ will reveal
himself to the human He's not going to sit on the throne with
your experience. He's going to sit there alone.
He's not going to share the throne with your preaching or your works
or your morality. I know people brag on you, and
you're a good man, and I'm glad of that. But Christ is not going
to share his throne with that. That's filthy rags, really, in
God's sight. God is going to get rid of the
filthy rags. He's not going to sit on the throne with the filthy
rags. I know you've given to the Church and you've done this,
that and the other, and bless your heart, I'm glad for it.
But on this throne of redemption sits my Lord, and my Lord alone. There was two salesmen down at
Owensboro, Kentucky last week. A friend of mine was down there
conducting some business, and they were out by the pool. It
was in the afternoon toward supper time. And my friend walked up,
and one sailor was sitting there reading his Bible, and the other
one was messing around in the water. They didn't know each
other. None of the three men knew each other. And my friend
thought, I'd like to talk to that fellow reading that Bible,
but I'm afraid I'll get in some kind of religious argument, you
know. So he just kind of kept quiet and walked close enough
so he could, if something happened, he could talk to him. But the
fellow messing around in the pool wasn't content to leave
that man alone. He turned and said, what are
you reading? And the boy said, I'm reading my Bible. I enjoy
reading my Bible. And the fellow made some kind
of remark, I don't know what he said, and the young man said,
Friend, answer a question for me. All right. He said, Tell
me this. When you stand before God at
the judgment, it's just you and God. It's eternity. You're standing before God at
the judgment, and God asks you this. Why should I let you into
my heaven? Just tell me. Boy, I thought
this was a good question. Why should I let you into my
heaven? Ah, he said, we make our heaven
or hell right here on this earth. I said, Jesus said that. The
young man said, show me where Jesus said that, I'd like to
know. Oh, he didn't want to talk, you know. And this guy reading
the Bible turned to my friend. My friend was just standing there
listening, you know. And he turned to him and he said, What are
you going to say? And my friend said, I'm going
to say, Christ died for my sins. That's what I'm going to say.
He said, That fellow knows the gospel! And the young man sitting there
reading the Bible says, Come over here and sit with me. Let's
go out to dinner together. I said, You know the gospel.
And my friend said, Well, evidently you do too. Where did you learn
it? He said, I'm a Jew. I live in Warren, Michigan. And he said, The Lord saved me.
He said, I was in love with a girl. Oh, I love that girl. He said,
I love that girl more than anything. And she wouldn't marry me, because
I wasn't saved. So we argued, but she would not
marry me. She said, I will not be married
to an unsaved man, a man that does not know my Lord. I will,
I love you, but I will not marry you. And he said, she got a brain
tumor and died. And he said, it devastated me.
It actually devastated me. I didn't know what I was going
to do. He said, I wanted to be where she was, and I knew she
was with God, wherever that was. And he said, you know what I
did? He said, I started reading books on science and books by
priests that I couldn't find any like, and I bought me a Bible. And he said, I started in this
book. That's the reason I love it.
I was looking for salvation, and he said, I found out that
Jesus Christ is the Messiah. I found out that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Messiah. He is the one that God wrote
about all through the Old Testament. He's the Redeemer, and he saved
my soul. He said, I'm not happy going
where I'm going to church. I'm not hearing anything much.
I go to a fundamentalist church. I was reading my Bible, and this
friend of mine told him up there in Michigan where he could go
down and hear the gospel over there with Monticello's and that
other group over there. Oh, God's still speaking in me.
But he'll tear down your religious refuges, he'll destroy them.
And then you know what he'll do? In verse 26, she said, verse
25, when all was gone, God had revealed her helplessness. Our
Lord had created an interest and revealed her helplessness,
and shut her mouth, and tore down her religious refuge, and
she had nothing to hang to or cling to or hide in. Well, she
said, verse 25, the Messiah's coming. The Savior's coming. And when he's come, he'll tell
us all we need to know. And Christ looked at it and said,
I'm he. I'm he. Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need. He alone is all my plea. He's all I need. Righteousness,
holiness forevermore, my redemption, full and sure, is all I need. You know that chorus? Kelly,
you know that? See if you can find over there. Let's say, Jesus
Christ is made to me. All I need, all I need. He alone
is all my plea. He's all I need. Wisdom, righteousness,
holiness forevermore. My redemption, full and sure,
is all I need. Let's stand and sing. Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all wisdom, righteousness, and power,
holiness forevermore. Thy redemption full and sure,
He is all I need. One more time. Jesus Christ is
made to me, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need.