The scripture reading for this morning is in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, and we're going to be, this is where we're going to be looking here in just a few moments, and regarding the account of Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, at Jacob's well. And there are tremendous principles there and applications for us as we're going to see. But follow along as I read. This section begins in verse 4. I'll start there. John chapter 4, beginning in verse 4. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. She said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. He said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you have now is not your husband. This you have said truly. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. At this point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he'd been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, come, see a man who told me all the things that I've done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they're white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored. Others have labored and you've entered into their labor. From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world. So is the section of the word of God. And it is a remarkable section, as we shall see in a moment. Well, let's ask the Lord's blessing then on the ministry of his word. And as we do so, I wanted to also pray then this morning for the people in Venezuela, in Iran as well, and the leaders of our own nation. It's rather incredible times in which we find ourselves. So let's pray. Father, we come before you this morning and we thank you for your word that we're able to gather together as your church and look into your word and hear from you. We pray then that by your spirit, through your word, you would speak to us, that through this account of the Lord Jesus' conversation, remarkable conversation with this woman, a Samaritan woman, that you would show us more about the wonders of your grace that you've shown to us, that we might grow in our love for you and our faith would be increased. And Father, we do lift up the events in the world. We know that you are in perfect control. We pray for the people in Venezuela who have been under a heavy hand of oppression. But they've also been under, and are still under, a heavy, dark, spiritual hand of the devil. And we pray, Father, that you would work in these events, that the true remnant of your people in that nation would be protected. But you'd also give them opportunity now, new and renewed opportunity, to share the gospel of Christ with their countrymen. We know that Rome has its hooks deeply within South America. And so, Father, we pray that you would overcome those fortresses that are set up against the knowledge of Christ and breakthrough, and that as a result of these events, many, many people would come to know you in truth. Father, we pray for the leaders of our nation, we pray for our president, and we also pray for Marco Rubio, as he's no doubt going to be very much involved in this transitional period in Venezuela. We pray for your protection over them all, that you would continue to guide them and direct them, but also that you'd protect them not only from bullets, from wicked people, but also, and probably more importantly, from the devil, from pride, from the temptation to become arrogant rather than trust in you. We pray that in these events they might all come to know you as well. And so we lift all of these situations up. We know you've told us that we would live in times of war and rumors of war, and we're certainly seeing these things played out. We pray for our own nation where there is much wickedness, and we pray that evil leaders in our country would be brought down, Lord, that they'd be exposed, their wickedness would be seen, and they would be frustrated in all of their attempts to overthrow your church. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. All right, Christ and the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. This is an account of which I think is a perfect illustration of what Isaiah wrote about, spoke about, Isaiah 65, where the Lord says, I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call on my name. Professing Christians today and pastors and churches and so forth, frequently you hear them talking about seekers, people who are seeking the Lord and they'll design their ministries and so forth to be sensitive to and tailored to people, unsaved people who are allegedly seeking the Lord, and we're told that's what we're supposed to do, and so on. But we know from God's Word that man, in his sin, does not seek the Lord. He runs from Him. He refuses to acknowledge Him. Left to himself, he simply does not seek the Lord. It's plain. Romans 3, as it's written, there's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. And in our text this morning, in the case of this Samaritan woman at the well, we find an excellent illustration of that. we find what Isaiah was talking about, the Lord revealing himself, permitting himself to be sought by someone who didn't ask for him. This woman was not seeking the Lord that day. She, in fact, if anything, because she was a Samaritan, she and her fellow citizenry were rebelling against, in fact, they were rebelling against the Lord. But this was a momentous day when the Lord set his saving grace upon her. and upon many of the people in that town of Sychar where she lived. Jesus also spoke of this matter of people not seeking him and yet him revealing himself to them. John 15, you did not choose me, but I chose you. and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you." So if you're a Christian, I hope we all know this by now, if you are a Christian, the fact of the matter is the reason that you are a Christian is not to be found in yourself. It isn't because one day you decided, you know, I've got to shape up my act. I'm going to seek the Lord. I'm going to seek salvation in him. No, in fact, what we were doing at the moment that the Lord sought us, first he sought us, we were doing just exactly what this woman was doing. We were going about our daily affairs. probably not even giving a thought to the Lord. And so it's in this woman, as we go through this passage, just keep in mind, in this Samaritan woman is a picture of us. of every unsaved person and of us before the Lord chose to reveal himself to us. I've mentioned in recent weeks to you that I've really appreciated the old Scottish preacher John Brown. And I really would highly recommend his books to you. He wrote complete commentary on Hebrews. He wrote a three-volume set on the sayings and the discourses of the Lord Jesus. He wrote commentaries on 1 Peter and 2 Peter and so on. And I've really appreciated it. But listen to what he says here. The saving blessings of Christ are not only always undeserved by those upon whom they're conferred, but they are unsought, right? The saving salvation in Christ is unsought. the sinner. When they were going on in their folly and sin, when I was going on in my folly and sin, when they were ignorant of and careless, and look at that word careless, yeah, I could care less, right? That's what the meaning is. When they were ignorant of and careless about him and his salvation, He apprehended, that's a good word. He arrested, he grabbed you. You, you, you're coming with me. He apprehended them, aroused their attention, poured light into their darkened minds, opened their understandings to understand the truth, and their hearts to receive the love of that truth so as to be saved by it. And herein is the, total depravity of man overcome by the electing grace then of God in Christ. So in her mind, this woman of Samaria, this is just another day. She's just going, I've got to go out to the well. You know, we're not told how far it was. It must have been some distance. She goes out to this ancient well dug in the days of Jacob, and she comes out to draw water. When we lived in Montana, we knew people that didn't have any electricity, and they had a well. And so every day, though, they'd have to go out to the well. And it wasn't as hard as this, because at least they had a pump and so forth. But if you ever had to carry water very far, it's heavy. And you also find out that you use a lot of water every day. It takes a lot of water. And so it's quite a chore. And here it is in this hot weather. And she had to come out there and get get the water, and so forth. So here she is. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. And in those words, I think John's giving us an emphasis here upon who she is. She's a woman. And not only that, she's a Samaritan woman. And she's not a rich person. She has to come and draw her own water. This speaks of her lowly estate, especially in the eyes of Jews. And she recognized this. She's a woman. She's a Samaritan. And so when Jesus, who's there, sitting down and resting from his journey, going through the Samaritan area. And when Jesus says to her, when he speaks to her, right, give me some water, she's shocked. She's absolutely shocked. She could tell somehow, I guess, they knew they could recognize each other. He's a Jew, obviously a Jew. And so she says, how do you? being a Jew asked for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman. How is that? This is beyond her experience. And John, he puts in a little explanatory phrase for maybe Greek readers or people who aren't familiar with the customs of the Jews, he adds, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And she recognized that. This is probably a first, that a Jew had asked her for a drink. And you probably know enough about the Jews of Jesus' day that probably inherent within her statement is, how can you ask for a drink from me? You people say not only that I'm unclean, but if I give you a drink, the drink will be unclean for you. So she doesn't understand what's going on here. Well, let's look at the background and see what was the root of this hostility between the Jews down in the south at Jerusalem, area Judah, Benjamin. and the area up north. Well, Solomon, long before this account had happened, in the days following Solomon's death, the northern 10 tribes of Israel revolted under that wicked, self-proclaimed ruler, Jeroboam. And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, you read that. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. and introduced idolatry and so forth. He set up a separate center of worship in the north there at Samaria. And so you had that great division after the death of David's son, Solomon. The kingdom had reached its peak under Solomon, and then it divided. But then in 722 BC, The Assyrians come along, and they conquered the 10 northern tribes of Israel in that area of Samaria. And so they were no more. That was it. That was the end of the northern 10 tribes. They weren't like the southern tribes carried off into captivity for 70 years and then brought back into the land. They never returned. That was the end of that. But what happened was, the Assyrian king, after he wiped them out and carried them off and spread them all over who knows where, he brought in people from the east, from his own kingdom, from all different nationalities. And he brought them into that northern land that had been the country of the northern 10 tribes there in Israel. And so what happened was a syncretism took place. There may have been a few lingering Jews or Israelites left there. We don't know. But somehow, this new religion syncretism, a combination of Eastern pagan religions combined with remnants, elements of Judaism. And so you have this thing, this counterfeit monstrosity of a religion. And they had an unauthorized priesthood at some point a temple, a center of worship was there instead of what God had ordained in Jerusalem. Well, they had their own. Well, it was the descendants, the offspring of those people that had been brought in by Assyria who, when the southern kingdom The Jews from the southern kingdom were finished with the 70-year Babylonian captivity, and they came back to rebuild the temple and rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem. You know, read about that in Ezra and Nehemiah. The enemies from the land that were living there at the time who tried to stop them from Ezra and Nehemiah, from rebuilding the city and rebuilding the temple, They were these Samaritans. That's who these people were. And so by the time of Christ, there was an intense and entrenched hatred of these Samaritans by the Jews. And it was more intense than the Jews' hatred toward the other idolatrous nations. And so this all is the basis of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. You know, his parables often include elements that would shock the listener. That was his purpose, to get their attention. So Luke 10, but a Samaritan. who was on a journey, came upon him, this wounded victim of crime Jew that was there, and when the Samaritan saw him, he felt compassion. You see, Jesus saying, a Samaritan helped this Jew, who is my neighbor. Well, this Samaritan was. And this animosity also explains the evil accusations that the Jews leveled at Christ. You wanted to insult somebody as much as you possibly could, Well, here's something like what you might say. The Jews answered and said to him, Jesus, do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? That's about as low as you could call somebody, you know, to call a Jew a Samaritan. Here's a little extract from writings of Jewish rabbis of the day. It is prohibited for a Jew to eat the bread and to drink the wine of a Samaritan. If anyone receives a Samaritan into his house and ministers to him, he will cause his children to be carried into captivity. He who eats the bread of a Samaritan is as if he ate swine's flesh." All right? So that gives you some insight into the attitude. This is the stuff that the Jews were steeped in by their They're teachers, you know, you are a Samaritan or, oh, this Samaritan, he's going to, what? He's going to help this wounded Jew. We're not allowed to do anything. You can't ask a Samaritan woman for a drink. Aren't you crazy? That is about as low as you could go in their thinking. So that's the background. That's the setting. when Jesus is at the well. Listen to these first few verses once again so they're right there in our minds. He had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar. near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. And it probably graded with the Jews that the Samaritans had Jacob's well. But so Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. And there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. Disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Now, that's interesting that they're kind of pushing the envelope there that Jesus, and of course, a lot of this purpose of this whole incident is that, teach his disciples about the kingdom of God. It's not just all about the Jews. It's not all about Israel. But they're going into that Samaritan city to buy food, but I thought you weren't supposed to do that, you see. So he's already operating on the edge of Jewish propriety there. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. You kind of get the idea that the disciples would have been kind of wondering or hesitating when Jesus told them, go into Sychar and buy some food. But it's a Samaritan city, we need to get out of this place, you see. Well, Jesus In response to what this lady tells him, how is it that you being a Jew asked me for a drink? He responded to her in a similar tone as he did with Nicodemus. He doesn't give her the answer that she expected. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and says, You know, you've got to be somebody sent from God, or you wouldn't be able to do the things that you do. And Jesus just said, unless you're born again, you'll never see the kingdom of God, right? And it's a shocker. What? What are you talking about? And so Jesus responds to her. How is that you're being a Jew? And he says, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And you know that right away, she's got to be, huh? Huh? What are you talking about here? She said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well's deep. Where do you get that living water? So she's still on the literal end of things. She's not understanding. You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle. And Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." Now, was she being facetious there? We don't know. We're not told. We do know that the light still hadn't gone on for her, at least not completely. But she knows. Maybe at this point, she's just thinking, this guy is weird. This guy, because it is strange. What are you talking about? You asked me for a drink and now you're saying that I should ask you and you'll give me this stuff called living water. What is that about? And the water that you give me will quench my thirst then forever. " She says, Now, what is it? Is she being facetious, or did she really mean that, oh, I won't have to come here and draw water from the well anymore? I don't know. Does he have a secret spring somewhere that he's going to ensure? Well, we're just not told. But she's slow to comprehend. And there's a lesson for us when the Lord begins to deal with us, right? Oftentimes, that's how it is. We're slow. He reveals himself to us gradually. And anyway, that's rather typical of what he does. But with the phrases, living water, and even more clearly, eternal life, he's revealing to her that he's talking about salvation. You know, woman, if you knew who I was, if you knew who I was, you would ask me to save you, right? That's what would happen. Right at that moment, at that well, this is another one of those accounts in the Bible that you would like to have been present at. It's just another day with her. She goes to the well. She's going to draw water. There's Jesus sitting there and asks her for a drink. It's going to turn out that this is hardly just another day in her life. It's going to be the most important day in her life. But she's at the well, and here's this guy. He's a Jew, only that's not the strangest part, that he's asking her for water. What's really going on? We got to meet this lady someday and ask her what she was thinking right there because at that moment. the guy that's sitting there is God. You see, that just blows you away, doesn't it? It's God. He's the son of God, and he's the one that created the water, and created her. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Now, here we begin to see more and more application toward ourselves. Consider that the concept of thirsting. Now, none of us have probably ever known intense thirst. You know, like some guy staggering through the desert or something. But we've all been thirsty and tasted how good or seen how good water tastes, and so forth. But Jesus, of course, he doesn't mean specifically physical thirst here, right? That part is obvious. Because the gift of living water, which is, of course, salvation. It's the Holy Spirit. The thirst he's talking about is man's thirst for the Lord, man's thirst to be put right with the Lord. The problem is man, and if you want to see examples of it, endless examples of it, just read the news, look out in the world today, go to a mall, watch the people, and so forth. What are they doing? What is everybody doing? They're trying to find something that will quench their thirst, right? That's what's really happening. And only the problem is, none of them want, in and of themselves, none of them want the thirst quencher that will quench their thirst. So they're trying to find all other kinds of things. looking around, trying to find, wandering here and there. So it's like when Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in thee, in the Lord. But man in his sin doesn't recognize that. So you can know this about the unsaved person. You can know this is what we were before the Lord saved us as well. We were thirsty. In a dry, parched land, we're thirsty. But the problem is we're going about trying to quench that thirst in wrong ways, which will never, you know, he who drinks of this water will thirst again. So, well, so people, what are some of the drinks that they try? Well, some of them is literal drinks, right? Alcohol. wealth, fame, looking for a clear conscience, lust, power, peace, material things, health and fit, all kinds of things. If I just get that, then everything will be fine and I'll be satisfied. But Jesus says it's not gonna work. Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. Everyone, everyone who drinks of this water is going to thirst again. Earthly water, it's stuff. It just, it isn't going to satisfy. Well, once more we see the woman, well give me this water, that sounds good. Give me that water, that living water that gives me, it'll quench my thirst then for forever. But once more, Jesus does what he does, and he directs her attention to the real issue. That's what Jesus does. What was the real issue for Nicodemus? Was it really to find out essentially, you know, who Jesus, why are you here, these kind of things. The essential issue for Nicodemus is he needed to see his sin and that he needed to be born again. And so Jesus cuts right to the chase. When he's dealing with us, he cuts right to it. And that's what God's Word does. It's that living and powerful two-edged sword. And it gets right down to the heart of things. So Jesus responds to her. He said to her, go call your husband and come here. Well, I thought we were talking. She's got to be like, changing the subject again here. But he's bringing it around to the real problem at hand. her thirst, okay? Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you've correctly said, I have no husband. Now, if he would have just stopped there, it wouldn't have been so uncomfortable for her, but he doesn't. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. She's on number six here, see? This, only she's not married. This you have said truly. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. So now you've got living water, the gift that he would give her, eternal life, and now He's looking, he knows all about her. He knows all about her. And she had to have been kind of squirming at this point. We don't know the specific reasons why she'd been married five times and then now has another illicit relationship then with a man. We're not told. Is she a completely immoral woman? Had each husband died? had each perhaps her husband's had treated her badly and put her out. We're not told. But the issue is that the woman recognizes right now that this man sees right into her mind and into her heart and knows her then perfectly. In some way, her sin is being exposed to one degree then or another. But notice what she does next. And this is really an insight into the sinful human heart and every one of us has done this very thing as well when the heat of the Lord's conviction gets a little bit too hot, right? Verse 20, our fathers worshiped, you know, she had just said, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, in Samaria. And you people, the Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. What's going on here? Jesus is making her aware of her sin, of her thirst, of her lack of satisfaction in life, and her sinful way of going about trying to quench that thirst, then, you see. She's being exposed. He's seeing. Here's a person. Again, try to put yourself in her spot. You come across a total stranger. And they start speaking to you about things that just don't compute. They're confusing. But then all of a sudden, they start telling you about exactly what's going on in your life. And they know you through and through. That would be a very, not just weird, but a very uncomfortable uncomfortable feeling. And yet, if anybody is going to be saved, they've got to be made self-aware. They have to come to be aware of themselves, and specifically of their sinful self. And this is what's so often skipped over in churches and so-called gospel ministry today. You can tell people all you want that they need Jesus. But if they don't think they need Jesus, then what's the purpose then, you see? But part of the reason that we come to God's word and we hear the preaching of God's word and we read God's word is that the Lord, well, if he's at work in us, we're going to be saying, Lord, search my heart. If there's a wicked way in me, search me and find it out, because I need to know so that I can repent of it. And that's what Jesus is doing with this woman. But what does she do? She gets evasive. And that's what we do when our sin's being exposed. Well, we want to get the spotlight off of ourselves. So you change the subject. Have you ever dealt with somebody like that? I mean, we've all been guilty of it ourselves. But there are people that profess to be Christians, and they are masters at changing the subject. They'll switch it off so that as soon as they sense some kind of conviction and are comfortable with it, then they'll change the subject. And that's what she's doing. And she does this by bringing up a hot topic between the Jews and the Samaritans. She says, who's right? The Jews or us? You guys or us? As to where should God be worshipped? We say it's here in Samaria. You say it's in Jerusalem. Then who is right? We run into people like this as well, and perhaps we've done it ourselves too. There are people who profess to be Christians, but their masters at keeping discussions from being too personal, too introspective, too exposing then of themselves. And they'll do this by, they'll have a pet sub. Their Christianity consists of debating and talking about some pet subject. For some people, it's the doctrine of last things. When's Jesus coming again? Are you post-millennial, or amillennial, or premillennial? What denomination are you? This kind of a thing. And those are all not necessarily unimportant subjects, but they're superficial. compared to what we really need to hear. And so that's what's going on here, he says. This is the big thing. The big thing is that the locale in which we worship, in Samaria or in Jerusalem, there's the question to be answered. But it wasn't the question to be answered. The real question is, is to be found in her own heart. Here once again is John Brown on this. Glad of an opportunity of shifting the discourse from a subject so personal and painful to her, she introduces the great point of controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans. It's no uncommon thing for people living in sin, not merely to pretend, but really to have an interest in and a zeal for what they call their religion. Speculation about theological doctrine is often found in unnatural union with habitual neglect of moral duty. And among the endless and winding trails of the depraved human heart, this is one to seek in debating discussions about true or false doctrine, protection from the shafts of conviction for their own plain sin. And so there's people. You can have a pretty detailed theological discussion with somebody that claims to be a Christian, But just try turning the spotlight onto sinful shortcomings in their own life. I'm not going to go there. My religion consists only of debating these kind of discussions and so forth. So this woman, she was introducing a detour. It's a good question, but her motive then was wrong. Now, Jesus does answer her question. Right? He gives her the answer. Maybe it wasn't the one she was looking for. But he tells her, essentially what he tells her is, you're wrong. And the Jews are right. Jerusalem is the place where God has directed his worship to take place. And you and your people are wrong. You're worshiping in the wrong place. Now, he's not going to leave it there. But we know. Four, there's passages, and I won't read them, but I printed them out in your handout here. Here's one in 1 Kings 9, another one in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, that in the old covenant, God made it very plain, you are to be worship at my holy mountain. The worship of God was to be done at the temple in Jerusalem, at Jerusalem, all right? That's where it was to be. And a large part of that was because there weren't supposed to be any other alternate sites set up like the Samaritans had done, because that leads to idolatry. He is to be worshiped there, in Jerusalem, and not then in Samaria. But Jesus then brings the subject back into the most vital subject of all. And he tells her, basically what he's saying to her now is, Your question is superficial and, in fact, shortly will be and, in fact, now is unimportant. All right? He says to her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We, the Jews, worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. OK, so there he's saying, the Jews are right. And you are wrong. The Messiah is going to come from the Jews, right? But an hour is coming, and now is. And the reason it now is is because Jesus is here, there, all right? An hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Now, think about worship in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, it wasn't that God didn't require worship from the heart. But largely, the Old Covenant specified earthy, physical, localized worship, all right? There were animal sacrifices. There was a specified priesthood, the priest wearing specified garments. There was an earthly temple in an earthly city in this place. All of this stuff very hands-on, very physical, and very earthy. And so Jesus says, the whole thing's changing. You've got to ask the right question. You're not asking the right question anymore. That question is immaterial. Well, should we worship here, or should we worship there? Which is right? The answer is, like, neither. Everything's changing. Why is everything changing? Because the Messiah has come, he's going to go to the cross, and the new covenant's going to be established. And it's all worship. And the new covenant is real worship in spirit and truth. So what exactly, then, does that mean? No, no, you won't worship. You don't worship anymore in Samaria or in Jerusalem. You worship in spirit. and in truth. So what are some of the things that means? It means, first of all, that the temple, that is the place where God is worshiped, is no longer a localized center. In fact, and you see this increasingly expanding as you go through scripture. For example, when Christ was here, His body was the temple. God indwelt. He was the temple. But when he ascended and sent the Holy Spirit, his church is the temple. We are the temple of God. And so wherever we are, we can worship in spirit and in truth, but it's going to expand to one more degree in the new heavens and the new earth, everywhere will be the temple. Everywhere, because God is present then everywhere. And so it's all changed. And Jesus said, look it, God is spirit. What does that mean? Well, listen to Acts 17. The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Our worship of God must reflect the fact that God is spirit. We don't worship a God who lives in a building, that we built. We don't worship a god like that. He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. There was some element of that in the Old Testament, but this has changed. It has radically changed. Somehow, somehow, true worship of God is spiritual. It has to, our worship of God needs to be consistent with the nature and character of God. God is spirit. If I'm going to worship God who is spirit, if I'm going to worship Dagon, an idol, then I go to Dagon's temple. But God is spirit. So if I'm going to worship him, I must worship him. I must connect with him. Spiritually, in spirit, you see. And more on that then in a second then. So just a little caveat here about Rome, and to a degree, evangelical churches as well. Notice that Rome betrays its false nature its heretical nature by being very, very carnal and earthy. It still is. It still is. The bread and the cup of Rome is that physical stuff that becomes the body of Christ. Rome has its Vatican in the city of Rome. It has its Pope. It has all, Rome is very, very much Old Covenant, only heretical Old Covenant then, you see. And it's really the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees, and for that reason alone is to be rejected. But here's the fundamental thing. If we are going to worship God, in the manner in which he has prescribed and which is acceptable to him. We must worship him in spirit and in truth. In spirit largely means from a heart that loves God. That's a prerequisite. I must, from my heart, from My innermost being, I must worship God because I love God and I attribute glory to him. It's not just outward motions, going through the motions. And it's in truth because I'm worshiping him through the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. John Brown again here, he probably does a better job explaining it than I. Under the order of things which is just about to be established, the new covenant, and in which God is to be manifested as Father, the great question will not be where he is to be worshipped, but how. The worshipper at Jerusalem will not be accounted a true worshipper just because he worships there. No, now the worshiper in spirit and in truth. Wherever he worships, whether in Jerusalem or Samaria or anywhere else, he and he alone is the genuine worshiper. And just a little note here, parentheses. This means that only a Christian can worship God. right, is only from a regenerated heart that you can worship God in spirit and love him, and in spirit and in truth. An unregenerate person. The pope has never worshiped God. His worship is unacceptable. God's pronouncement upon Roman worship The Roman church is, you can read about that in Isaiah 1. Who has authorized this trampling of my courts? That's God's view of false worship. Brown goes on. To worship in spirit is to worship spiritually. To worship in truth is to worship truly. They are not two different kinds of worship. They're two different aspects of the same worship. To worship spiritually. is the opposite of the mere performance of external rights. And I think that sentence pins it down most clearly for us. What does it mean to worship God in spirit? It means to worship spiritually is the opposite of the mere performance of external rights. Now, this is where it gets convicting for us, and we have to watch ourselves. It's easy for us to come to church and go through motions and sing hymns and so forth. But if it's mere performance, and our minds are somewhere else, and we're not doing it out of love for the Lord, it's not worship in spirit and in truth. He goes on, it is to give God homage and glory from an affectionate heart, a heart that loves God. To know, admire, esteem, love, trust, and submit to Him, and to worship Him truly is either to worship Him according to the truth set forth by Him, revealing His character, and worship that is not pretend but sincere. In other words, to worship in truth is the opposite of worshiping as a hypocrite, right? These are true worshipers. These are the ones the Lord seeks. Without this, the worshiper at Jerusalem will not be accepted. That's what Jesus is telling her. And with them, the worshiper at Samaria will not be rejected. Worship, to be acceptable to God, must be suited to his nature, his spirit. It must be spiritual. It must be the worship of man, from man, as an intelligent being, worship from mind and heart, not merely external, like that of some formal ceremonialist, and not insincere, like the hypocrite. And so there again. to worship God in spirit and in truth, I must be born again. I must know him. I have to have a heart that is affectionate to him, that loves him, and a mind that loves his truth and worships him according to his truth and through truth, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. things come on brighter, the lights come on brighter even more for this lady as she realizes increasingly that salvation has come. And you can bet when we get to, if you were to ask this lady, and we'll probably have, we will have that chance, we'll meet her, and ask her, tell me, what was the greatest day of your life? You know what the answer, you know what she's gonna say. It was that day at the well. And here's the outcome. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. See, she's getting closer here now. He who is called Christ, when that one comes, he will declare all things to us. And then Jesus just lays it out. He said to her, I who speak to you am he. At this point, his disciples came, and they were amazed. And he was speaking with a woman. And yet no one questioned him. What do you think you're doing? So she leaves, and she goes into the city. She left the bucket, or whatever it was, behind. She didn't even take the water back. And she runs back to the city and says, come and see a man who told me all the things that I've done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Now, Jesus isn't even physically in that city. He's out there at the well. But obviously, by this woman's testimony, and also his spirit already started. Why didn't those people in her town say, you're crazy. You're crazy. What are you drinking? They went. They listened to her. And the disciples are here, and they're looking. And so Jesus is telling them, Jesus is telling them, look, the fields are ripe for harvest. And all these people, these people are coming out of the city. From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him. Because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all the things that I've done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him, now look it, when Jesus cast the pigs into the sea, right, in Gadara, and those people heard about it, and they came out, and this guy's sitting here in his right mind, demons have been cast out of him, what did the Gadarenes tell Jesus? They told him, get out of here, depart from our land. But here, it's just the opposite. These people, these Samaritans are asking him, a Jew, to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we've heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world." So how would you have liked to have been there two days? Two days, Jesus is there in that detestable Samaritan city, and God in person is discipling these people who have come to faith in him. That's got to be one of the biggest revivals on record, and it would have been an incredible, incredible place then to be. But the point is, and largely the point is, that's how God deals with us. That's how he saves us. Here we are going about our way, going to get the water, whatever it might be, not really seeking God. And Jesus shows up. He shows up. Here he comes, a divine appointment set in eternity past. He shows us our sin. He shows us our sin. And then he offers to us living water and an eternal life. What was life in that town after those two days? That place probably became a missionary sending center, hub, that history knows nothing about. And what an incredible, incredible work then of the Lord, all because this lady says, I better go get some water. And little did she know what the Lord in his goodness would do. Father, we thank you for showing us this account here of your goodness in saving your people. We thank you that you came to us one day. and spoke to us and revealed yourself to us, even though we weren't seeking you. We were running away from you. We hated your law. We were dead in sin and bondage to the devil. You came and you set us free, and we give you thanks for this great salvation. In Christ's name we pray, amen.