at all in my mind as I read my Bible that God is interested in individuals. God is interested in people. And whenever you look at the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, you will discover that so often the Gospel writers give detailed accounts of the Son of God coming face to face with individuals, ordinary people. Maybe people that were very religious or maybe people that were not religious at all. Maybe people who had glaringly obvious needs in their lives and others perhaps who could cover up the needs and the emptiness and the guilt and the loneliness within. And if ever there was an account in the Bible that illustrates the truth, that our Savior is interested in individuals, it's this account given here in John's Gospel chapter 4. It says in verse number 4 that the Lord must needs go through Samaria. Now that was not a geographical necessity. That wasn't because the road that He was traveling passed through Samaria or He had to get to Samaria in order to get to another city or another village. He needed to go through Samaria because the Lord knew that in that city there was a woman who had good, great needs in her life. And so He went out of His normal route to meet this woman and to meet her at the point of need. And it's wonderful tonight that all of these years and generations later, in 2022, in this very city of Lisbon and in all of the villages and hamlets and outlying areas and communities that Jesus Christ is still meeting people at the point of need. Jesus Christ our Lord is still changing lives, still bringing people to Himself and giving people a purpose worth living for. And it's our prayer that tonight in this meeting And God willing, tomorrow night and in the remainder of this week and then next week, God willing as well, that God will meet individuals on the road of life and bring them to Himself. And it may be tonight that you're such an individual. Can I tell you right at the start of this service that God loves you. Can I tell you tonight right now that Jesus Christ cares for you and He's able to meet you tonight, and I pray that your heart will be opened and that you will respond to the gospel of redeeming grace. Tonight as we think for a few moments about this woman of Samaria, I want you to consider four great things. Four great things about the woman at the well. The first thing that I think we can learn about this woman is this. The first great thing is that this woman had great notoriety. This lady had great notoriety. Now the word notorious, it means to be famous, it means to be well-known, perhaps for all of the wrong reasons. And here's a woman who had got great notoriety. You say, well, how do you know that this woman had great notoriety? Well, it says in verse number four, he must needs go through Samaria. Then in verse number six, Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, and that shows us the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what it is to be tired. He knows what it is to be hungry. He knows what it is to be weary. He knows what it is to be lonely. He knows what it is to suffer pain. And being reared with his journey, he sat down at the well, and the Bible says it was about the sixth hour. Now, the sixth hour was about midday, noontime. And nobody ever went to the well at the sixth hour. Everybody who went to draw water either went first thing in the morning before the sun had risen to its height and it was still in the cool of the morning hours and the dew was on the ground and they congregated there and they drew their water. Or if they didn't go first thing in the morning, they might have gone last thing in the evening to draw their water for the day that was to follow. Their drinking water, their cooking water, their washing water. But nobody would have gone to the well at the sixth hour to draw water. It was too hot. It was too warm. But the Lord went there at the sixth hour because He knew that every day, whenever the sun was out at Zenith, that there was a poor woman. who went to that well every day to draw water, and it's my conviction that the reason she went at the sixth hour was because she did not really enjoy facing people. She didn't like to meet her neighbors, she didn't like to meet the people that lived in her locality, because everybody knew the type of life that this woman was living. And it seems that this woman was ashamed of her life, and she couldn't really look people in the face. She didn't like to meet people. She just wanted to keep herself to herself because she had great notoriety. It seems in verse 27 that even the disciples knew something about this woman because it says in verse 27 that they marveled. They marveled that he talked with the woman. They couldn't understand why the Son of God would sit on that well and spend time in conversation with this woman who had great notoriety. I believe that she was known to men. People knew who she was and people knew what she was. In fact, it says in verse number 18 that this woman previously had five husbands. So she had many in-laws living in that locality. And all of her marriages had ended in failure and ended in shame. And everybody knew that this woman had made a real mess, a real mess of her life. She was known to men. She had great notoriety. And it may be tonight that in your life you find it difficult to face people. It may be that in your life you would rather just stay at home and not go out and not mingle with people and not meet people. And maybe it's because of loneliness in your life. Maybe it's because of disappointment. Maybe it's because of shame. Maybe it's because of guilt. Maybe it's because of disgrace. And people maybe know you tonight. Maybe your family have given up on you. Maybe your friends have let you down, and you find yourself a little bit like this woman, just wondering, is there anybody that I can really trust? Is there anybody that really cares about me? Is there anybody that really thinks about me or wants to know how I'm doing? This woman was known to man, but you know, more than that, she was known to Jesus Christ. George Whitefield, the great evangelist, once said, Jesus Christ, will save the devil's castaways. And here's a woman who needs the Lord, and she was known to men, but more importantly, she was known to the Lord. The Lord knew who she was. The Lord knew what she was. The Lord knew how she was, and the Lord knew exactly where she was, and nobody knew this woman as well as the Savior did. He knew absolutely everything that there was to know about her, and He knows everything that there is to know about us. He knows our likes and our dislikes. He knows our joys and our disappointments. He knows our hopes and our dreams and our aspirations. He knows our struggles. He knows our trials. He knows the burdens that we carry. He knows all about the skeletons in the closet, the things that we have tried to cover up. He knows about the sleepless nights. He knows about the dissatisfaction and the lack of peace within our hearts. He knows all about our past and all about our sin, and yet he loves us. The hymn writer said, he knew me, and yet he loved me. I wonder tonight how it is with you. Can I ask you tonight, how are you? How are you really? You know, we live in a culture and a society where we put a smile on our face and somebody says, how are you? And we smile and we say we're fine. But very often, the opposite is the case. It's like that advertisement, remember, that used to be on television and the young lad has been out with his mates in the town and they're sitting in the back of a taxi. And it's all laughter and smiles, and he bids them goodnight, and then he goes into his home, and he opens the door, and he goes up to the bedroom, and then into the bathroom, and he takes off the mask, and he's miserable, and there's this loneliness inside. One famous American psychologist, Carl Jung, said that loneliness is the central neurosis in society. And I believe that this woman, with all of her failed relationships, was lonely inside. And maybe tonight you're lonely and you realize that I need something. I need a Savior. Jesus Christ knows all about us. This woman had great notoriety. This woman, secondly, had great needs. The Bible says the Lord must needs pass through Samaria. And that need was to facilitate the needs that this particular woman had. You know, we live in a world that is very needy. The Bible says that we are poor and needy. And yet the Lord thinketh upon us. And there are many things that we need in life. We need bread upon our tables. We need a roof over our heads. We need family. We need friends. But man's greatest need is not financial, not social, not physical. Man's greatest need is spiritual, and this woman had great spiritual needs in her lives. In fact, the Bible says in Acts 4.12 that we need to be saved. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And I trust tonight that you'll understand some of those fundamental things that are in the gospel, that you need the Lord. that you need God's salvation and that Jesus Christ is able to meet you at the point of need. Now, as I look at this woman, I see some of the great needs in her life. Verse number seven would indicate that this woman was hungry or she was thirsty. We might say that she was longing. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Now, she was looking for something. She was looking for water. But I believe her physical thirst was illustrative of that hunger and that thirst inside. And we are all born into this world of ours, this lost and broken world with a hunger and with a thirst. And some of the famous rock stars and pop stars over the years have illustrated that in the songs that they sing. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Everybody's got a hungry heart. I can't get no satisfaction. And all of those things illustrate that this woman had a longing, a longing in her heart, and the history of the human race is a history of hunger. of thirst, of looking for something, man is always trying to discover the next big thing. I remember reading in the National Geographic years ago, Edmund Hillary relating how he felt whenever he ascended to be the top man to ascend Mount Everest. And they said, how did you feel whenever you were the first man to stand on the roof of the world? He said, for a few moments there was this amazing feeling of elation and achievement. He said it lasted for about five minutes, and then I realized that I would have to come down again. It didn't meet that longing in his heart. And it may be that you're here this evening and you would acknowledge that you're looking for something, you're longing for something, there's this hunger in your heart, this woman was longing. I would say as well that this woman was lonely. We have mentioned already that it was the sixth hour, and it says that the Savior went and He sat thus in the well. It was the sixth hour, and there was nobody there, and then this woman came along, and she was there, and she came along on her own, and she had this awful sense of loneliness in her heart. Jesus Christ, our Lord, understands loneliness. The Bible says that He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, and He knows what it is to be lonely. You maybe say tonight, nobody understands me. Nobody knows how I feel. Nobody really cares, or nobody can identify with me. Nobody understands me, I tell you tonight, Jesus Christ. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. He knows all things, but the Scripture says He was at all points tempted like as we are. And whenever they took the Son of God and they nailed Him to that cross 2,000 years ago, the Bible again makes mention of the sixth hour. And it says from the sixth hour to the ninth hour for three hours there was darkness over all the earth. And during the midst of that impenetrable darkness, the Lord Jesus Christ cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He became sin for us upon the cross. And as the hymn writer said, how deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that He should give His only Son to make a righteous treasure. How deep the pain of searing loss. The Father turns His face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory. The Lord knows tonight that you're longing. The Lord knows tonight that you're lonely. We could say as well that this woman was licentious. She had five husbands and now she was living with a man who was not her husband at all. And her life was a life of immorality presently. And she was trying to find satisfaction in horizontal and physical relationships, but she could never, never find anyone that would be able to satisfy her. People went with her for all the wrong reasons, but she knew in her heart that nobody really loves me, nobody really cares for me. Not only was she longing and lonely and licentious, but simply she was lost. In verse 22, the Lord said to her, ye worship ye know not what. She talked a little bitter about her religion, but the Lord says, you don't know who you're worshiping. She was cut off from God, separated from God because of sin. And the Bible says we're all the same. We are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousness is not our sins, our righteousness is, the Bible says, are as filthy rags. And yet the Son of God has come to seek and to save that which was lost. But you know something? While she was longing, and while she was lonely, and while she was licentious, and while she was lost, I tell you something, this woman was loved. She had never really experienced love before. But the day she met the Savior, she really began to understand the greatness and the majesty and the wideness and the length and the breadth and the height of God's great love. It's lovely to know that somebody loves you, but I tell you tonight there's no love in all the world like the love of Jesus Christ. The hymn writer put it well, the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell. It reaches to the furthest star that stoops to the gates of hell. Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Some of the older saints tonight I know in this meeting sat under the ministry of Pastor Willie Mullen. What a remarkable testimony he had, born into a home in Newtownards. His mother didn't have very much, and she had lots of children to look after. And he says, whenever we went to bed at night, we all slept in the same bed, and it was all feet and faces as you looked into that little bed. Face and then feet, and a face and more feet as we were crammed into that bed like sardines. But he says, mum used to pray for us every night and she would pray, Lord, save my boys and save my girls. And Lord, don't forget about Willie. He was the youngest. Lord, save him and make him a man of God someday. Whenever Willie Mullen was in his teens, he went into a public house. He had his first drink. He'd come out drunk and he was on the road to becoming an alcoholic. And for a number of years, he spent his life living in derelict houses around about the county down in Newtonards area. sleeping outside sometimes under hedgerows. His life was a mess. He found himself in the group of some men who were planning robberies in different homes in the area. And they one day sent them on a reconnaissance mission to spy out a certain home that they wanted to burgle. And yet a few weeks before that, he had sat on a gospel mission just like this. And old Pastor Tucker from the Temple Moore Hall in Belfast had talked about the coming again of Jesus Christ and the great day of God's wrath. Willie Mullen said, I sat at the back of that meeting and I thought that the old preacher was crazy and he never thought about it again until walking down the road to plan a robbery. And all of a sudden this question came into his mind, what about this great day of God's wrath? And all of a sudden he came under what Joanne talked about, conviction of sin, I'm lost. And he was on his own, and he was walking down that road in fear now and trembling, and he stepped off the road and into a field, and he took off his tweed cap, and he said, I screwed it into a rope, and I was thinking about this great day of God's wrath, and here I am. And if Jesus Christ comes back again, I'm not ready, living the way that I've lived. And then all of a sudden, the words of his mother came back to his ears. Willie, never forget that God loves you. And all of a sudden, he realized that he didn't need to be lost, and he realized that the Savior had died upon the cross. And simply in childlike faith, he prayed in that faith, Lord, if you'll take me now, I'm coming to you, and I'm going to give you my life. And that changed everything in a moment of time, because he realized that there was somebody in heaven, a man in the glory that loved him. Oh, tonight, your love, this woman had great notoriety. This woman had great needs. We might as well say that this woman had great notions. My wife often says to me, you know, that's just an old stupid notion that you've took. I tell you, I often, she says, you know, you live in the past. You're the most nostalgic person I know. I never threw out old magazines or comics or toys. And mum's heart's broke, the attic at home, the old home, full of bicycles, BMX bikes. skateboards, Action Man, Star Wars, all of these old toys because I'm just nostalgic. And sometimes I say, I'd love to buy a new skateboard or a new... She says, that's just a notion. You'll get over that soon enough. You know what a notion is? It's to have a vague or an imperfect conception or idea of something. A fanciful or a foolish idea. And whenever it comes to the things of God and religious things, we live in a society where people have all sorts of notions. And this woman had great notions about the things of God. She was taken up with all of these notions about God and about salvation and about heaven and about worship, and the Lord was going to put her right. I think the first notion she had was about her ancestry. In verse 12 and in verse 20, she talks about our father, Jacob, and then she talks again about her fathers. the family religion, you see. This is the religion that I was born into. This is what I was brought up to believe, our Father Jacob, and so it goes on. And many people in Northern Ireland have a lot of confidence in the family or the religion that they were born into. It might be Protestant, it might be Catholic, it might be Orthodox, it might be some other group. It might be Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Free Presbyterian, Gospel Hall, Elam. And many people have the notion, the idea that because I was born into a religious group, then everything must be well. But the Bible says it's as many as received Christ, as many as received Him. To them gave He power to become the sons of God, which were born not of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God. And then great notions about antiquity. In verse 12, she talks about this great well that they have. Our father Jacob gave us this well, and she was really proud of this well. It wasn't a recently dug well. It was one of the oldest wells in the locality. And Jacob had given them this well, and this well for her had become something of a relic. And again, people have all sorts of notions about relics. They maybe have a cross hanging around their neck, or a cross stuck into their ear, or a cross up in their home, or maybe a big family Bible. I can remember knocking doors in the short strand area of Belfast a good number of years ago, and really enjoyed speaking to the people down there. And I met so many people, and you said, I'm here to talk to you about the Bible. They say, now we've got a Bible in the house. And it stays upstairs in a special box on top of the wardrobe. And we bring it out sometimes, but we don't let the kids get near it. Don't want it to get damaged or dirty. And I often ask them, did you ever read the Bible? Oh, no, no, no. We keep it very special, but we have it in the house. And for them, it was just like a good luck charm. Just something that was antiquated. But they never really read it. And then she was taken up as well with activity. The Lord speaks about her drawing the water, helping others, which is a lovely thing. She talks about worship in verse number 22, and she did worship, and she did work. But the problem was she didn't know the Lord. She didn't know her sins forgiven. Can I ask you tonight, is that you? Maybe very religious. taken up with your church, and taken up with your religion, and taken up with all of the antiquity that goes along with it, may be very active in your church as well. I remember speaking at a little church in Belfast as a Bible college student, and the church at the time was vacant, and there was this lovely wee lady, and she attended church twice in the Sunday. She attended the prayer meetings before the services. She attended the midweek Bible study. I After the service was over, she'd go around and she would gather up the hymn books and put them in a bookcase at the front of the church. And my, she was such an encouragement. She used to say, thank you for coming. I really enjoyed you. And all there was, she was such an encouragement. And one day standing in the church car park, I was convinced that this was one of the most godly women in the church. And then out of the blue, she just looked me in the eye and just said, I'm not saved, you know. And I could hardly believe it, and I said to her, well, tell me, why are you not saved? And she just began to cry, and she said, I don't know. I don't know. Well, would you not come to Christ now? And she put her small hand on my shoulder, and she said, she just said, thank you, son. And off she went. And I think that was the last time he ever saw that wee woman. She would have put many a Christian to shame with the way that she was living. But she didn't really know the Lord. Plenty of activity, plenty of ancestry, plenty of antiquity, but the problem was no authenticity. She didn't have a real authentic relationship with Jesus Christ. And the woman at the well was the same. I wonder tonight, do you have an authentic relationship with the Son of God? Do you know God tonight? I'm not asking you if you're religious or you go to church on Sunday. All of those things have their place. But whenever the rubber hits the road, the most important thing is, do I really know God? Do I know Christ as my Savior? Are my sins forgiven? Am I right for heaven? Am I right for home? One last great thing about the woman at the well. She had great notoriety. She had great needs. She had great notions. But praise God, she heard great news. You know the word gospel, it simply means good news. Whenever the angels appear to the shepherds at Bethlehem and says, we bring you good tidings of great joy, the words there, good tidings, are the same words that are translated gospel in other places in Scripture. And I want tonight to leave you at the closing moments of this meeting with some good news. The Lord came to where she was. She didn't go looking for Him, but the Lord came looking for her. And the Lord knew exactly where to find her. And maybe tonight you're here in this meeting, and the Lord has brought you here. The Lord knows that He'll find you here under the sound of God's Word with all of your great need. And the Lord can meet you at the point of need. In verse 26, As the Savior was speaking to her in verse 25, she spoke about the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Christ, and the Lord said unto her, I that speak unto thee, and he, I'm the Messiah. I'm the Christ, he said. I'm the one that you're looking for. You've been looking for the Messiah, the Christ, waiting all these years, and here I am with your Savior, face to face with the Messiah. Maybe it didn't happen the way that she expected. Maybe she was expecting the Messiah to come with pomp and ceremony and a large cavalcade of people with Him and trumpets blowing before Him, but the Lord just came in meekness and in humility and came to where she was, and she realized later on that this truly is the Son of God. And then she understood something of the freeness of salvation. Verse number 10, if thou knewest the gift of God, Dear friends, tonight the Bible says that God's salvation is a gift. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave. I wonder tonight, will you receive the gift? Will you receive Christ as your Savior and as your Lord? And then something else, great news that she heard was not just about the identity of the Messiah, not just about the freeness of the gift of God's salvation, but also the scope of the invitation. Verse 14, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, whosoever. So many times in the Word of God we have that word, whosoever. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that that whosoever, it's broad, it's wide, it's liberal, and it includes you tonight. You can be part of that whosoever if you come to Christ tonight. as your Savior. What a wonderful, wonderful Savior. What a wonderful, wonderful gospel. You see the change in this woman's life in verse 29, she went back into her city and now she can face people. Now she can talk to people. Now she's no longer ashamed because her past has been forgiven. She has found the Savior. She's trusted in the Lord. Her life has been changed and transformed. And she goes out and she simply says to others, come. Come and see a man which told me all that I ever did is not this, the Christ. She wanted others to come as well. She discovered that the Lord Jesus Christ is all-wise, all-knowing, full of grace, but He's also affable. He's kind. He's welcoming. And she knew that if others come, they can trust in Him as well. And she simply said, come and see a man. And that's what I'm asking you to do tonight in this mission, in this first meeting. I'm asking you to come. Jesus Christ himself invites you to come. He said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You maybe say tonight, well, how do I come? I can identify with so many things that this woman experienced in her life, and I want the Savior, but how do I come? You just come as you are. You come in simple, childlike faith. You come as a sinner to Jesus. You come believing. You come trusting. You come confessing. As one old preacher put it, you just turn and you trust. Turn from your sin and turn from yourself and turn from any thought of saving yourself and trust, trust in this wonderful Savior. I trust that you'll come tonight and experience the wonder and the joy of sins forgiven, and the Lord will bless you. for doing that. You know, just up at the gates there, there's a little gatehouse. The back door of that gatehouse will be open every night. And if you want to speak to myself or somebody else here, we can have that little room. It'll be nice and quiet and just talk together about the things of God. I've got some little booklets here as well. There's one called, A New Beginning. And then there's this old one, What Must I Do To Be Saved? If you would like a little booklet, maybe you're timid, you're shy, you don't want to You don't want to annoy anybody, you don't want to speak to anybody, but you would like a little booklet to take home with you. You can ask me for one, I'll be at the door. And if you want to speak to me, just take me by the hand. I'll tell you I'm easy to talk to. And whatever you talk to me about, it'll be in confidence. But friends, listen, don't leave without the Lord. Four great things about the woman at the well. Great notoriety, great needs, great notions, but she heard great news. the Son of God came to seek her and find her and save her.