Redling, Jim: Studies In Gospel Of John-09 ~ John 4:12

It's been great to be with you once again. I always enjoy being here and that lovely singing, and, uh, it's just been a joy being with you saints once again. We think of you and pray for you often, and we hope you do the same for us. We'll be looking again at the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John tonight, and, uh, looking further on into this chapter because we really didn't get finished with it this morning. What a great portion of God's word this is in the fourth chapter of John, as we see this woman that was in sin, and yet she met the Lord Jesus Christ at the well, and he asked her for a drink, and uh, she said that uh, she gave, would give him the drink, and he said, if you knew who asked you to drink, you would ask him for something to drink. And she said, the well is deep, and you have nothing to draw with. How could you give me something to drink? And you know, then he answered in that fourteenth verse, but said, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water. You know, beloved, I believe right there, that woman was converted. And after conversion, what a change takes place in her life. Right there, because she did what the Lord Jesus Christ said to her. In the tenth verse, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. But you know, the Lord Jesus Christ met her need. If you ask, I'll give you. She asked, and he gave. But before we get into that part of the lesson and the rest of the chapter, I want us to turn in a verse of scripture in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John, and notice the thirty first verse. You know, this verse is really should bring out every time we, I guess, speak on a Gospel of John, although I don't always do it, but we should. One of the first verses I memorized at Northwestern Bible School years ago. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Why are these things written? That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's the one that can take away the sin of the world. He's the Messiah. He's the sent one, and she speaks about the Messiah. And if she doesn't see that he's the Messiah, the sent one of God, she'll never be able to trust her soul with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the front of my, uh, Gospel of John, I have written, so sinful, so guilty am I, I dare not confide in his blood, nor on his salvation rely, unless I am sure he is God. And you know, the word of God brings out so powerfully in the Gospel of John that the Lord Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh. He came down to save sinners. He left all the realms of heaven, all the worship of angels, everything, because he loved you, and he loved me. He didn't want us to go to the pit. He didn't want us to have to pay the penalty of sin, so he pays it for us. That's love. You know, I said to him last week, I said, I have a daughter, and I said, you know, it's my only daughter, it's my only child. But you know, I said, there's not one, though I like the people here, I told him, and I like the people here as well. But I said, though I like all of you people, I would never allow my daughter to even die for the best of you. But God let his son die for the worst of us. All of us were sinners, all of us were cursing him, and God allowed his beloved son to come down here to be made fun of, to be spit upon, to be cheered, and all the rest to be slapped, to die for sinners like that. He loved us. What love, as our sister was singing about it tonight, the love of God. Could we ever write enough about the love of God? Just think, the Lord Jesus Christ never wrote a book. The only two sermons he ever wrote were on, one was on stone and was on, one was on the floor, and no doubt that was a stone floor, was when he wrote the ten Commandments, and when he met the woman that had committed adultery and they brought, brought her to him, and they said she was caught right in the very act. Now, what do you say? You remember he just stooped down and started to write. And I believe the writing that he wrote, beloved, was the same thing he wrote in the Old Testament. I believe he started with the Ten Commandments, thou shall, thou shall, thou shall. And he went down the commandments, and then he said, he that is without sin cast the first stone. Remember what happened? They went out from the eldest to the youngest. The only thing that the Lord Jesus Christ ever wrote. Once was on the floor, and once was the Ten Commandments, because you see, he was the creator of all things. But until you see who Jesus Christ is, you're really not impressed with him. And this woman, no doubt, wasn't impressed with him when she first met him. She maybe thought that he was just like any other person, but the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't like any other person. I want us to turn to another verse of scripture in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, and notice the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in this wonderful portion of God's word in the eighth chapter, in the twenty third and twenty fourth verse. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe, for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. If you don't believe that he's the Messiah, the sent one of God, you're going to die in your sins. He says, I'm from above. I'm not from beneath. I'm not from this world. I am sent of my Father to do his will. And beloved, here he's speaking in this chapter to a woman that has five husbands that she's had, and she's living with another, the sixth. And before he exposes this to her, he first brings him to his himself. And this is an important part, the next part of the chapter is so important for everyone that's a believer, and every one of us that try to lead people to the Lord, because one of the biggest mistakes that the Christians are making today are trying to convert or have people that aren't converted to live like Christians, and they're not. You see, Christianity is different than any other religion of the world. Other religions of the world, you can live in sin and still be a member in good standing. But Christianity, you have to forsake your sin. And but not if you're a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what he gets to next in the lesson. After she makes the deal and says, but whosoever, when he says in the fourteenth verse, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. It's something that springs up in you and bubbles over, and you can't help but tell others. And that's why a Christian is so hard to keep quiet. You know, the world says to us, leave me alone with your religion. Don't preach to me all the time. Friend, if you're a sinner here tonight, the reason they preach, they just can't help themselves. It's a well of water springing up in them, and it just bubbles out the first thing you know, they're talking about the Lord. And you say, why does that guy always have to talk about the Lord? But you see, he says to her, this is a well of water that will spring forth out of your life when you get this eternal water, when you get this eternal life within you. It just bubbles out, and that's what happens to this woman. She's been converted. Now, notice what it says. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water. Didn't he say, if you ask, I'll give you? She said, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Give me this water. Now, maybe she didn't realize what she was getting. But beloved, after you're converted is when the Lord straightens out your life. He didn't start on the woman before. Notice what she says. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly. The woman said, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped. Now, isn't it funny, beloved, when he started to talk to her about her life, the first thing she started to do was get religious. But she does, like everybody does, starts to talk about religion. When you start to talk about a person, about accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, what do they start to talk about? Religion, the religions of the world. They start talking about doing and so on and so forth, the world's religion. And you know, you can join all kinds of religions of the world and fulfill their requests, but still go to the lake of fire, because it's only by the Lord Jesus Christ, by those that receive him. Now, that sounds very narrow-minded, but the word of God tells us it's a broad way that leads to destruction, and there's a narrow way that leads to heaven. Few that are going to be on the narrow way, but a lot are going to be on a broad way. Why? Because religion, you can still have your sin in religion. But now, beloved, Christianity is a different thing. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're a righteous individual. You are clothed, as we saw this morning, with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You are now supposed to be representing the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has a great standard, for his standard is righteousness, doing that which is right. And that's where a lot of us fail to show that, uh, the Lord Jesus Christ, even to this woman, she starts to speak about, uh, worship. Well, what about worship? Beloved, do you realize in the Old Testament that they could not worship any place but in Jerusalem? They had synagogues around the country and on different places, but where did they have to go to worship? They had to go to Jerusalem. They couldn't worship any place they wanted. They had synagogues, they had readings, but when they went to worship, they had to go to Jerusalem. That was the only place of worship. When the church is snatched out of the earth and into heaven, the place once again to worship will be in Jerusalem. Why has it changed? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a great doctrine. Now, you would think that the Lord Jesus Christ would have put what he said to Nicodemus in the fourth chapter and what he said to the woman in the fourth chapter to Nicodemus, but he didn't. He gave a great truth to the woman that he never gave to Nicodemus. He gave a great truth to Nicodemus that he never gave to the woman, because everybody would have said to the woman, yeah, you need to be born again because you're such a sinner. But he didn't give that to the woman at the well. He gave that to Nicodemus, the most religious man. He said, you need to be born again. You see, Nicodemus had religion, but he didn't have the new birth. You can have religion without the new birth. You can have all kinds of religion within yourself and never know God. You can fall down, as I saw, and I'm not critical. Please don't think I'm critical. My heart went out to the people when I was over in the Arab countries. And you talk about prayer, we don't know what prayer is. Listen, those people know how to pray. They go and wash their feet at noon. I want to take a movie of it, and a little Mohammed said, no, no, no, no, that's holy. You can't take a movie of it, and they'll take your camera away if you do. I wanted to take a movie of the men washing their feet before they went into the mosque to pray in Jerusalem. Before we could go into the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Egypt, in Cairo, Egypt, we had to put on shoe coverings, pay ten cents for a shoe covering so we could walk, because they feel that's a holy place. And beloved, they get in and they bow down on their knees, and then they bow their head right to the ground. And you know, it's one thing that really struck me when I was there to see them pray. The man said, now the ladies, they believe in segregation, old ladies and men sitting together. No, the men are up towards the front and the women are in the back. And the guy said, the reason the women are in the back, when we pray, we don't want to be distracted by the women, for we bend over, and we don't want to see something we're not supposed to see. We don't want to see our sisters. We don't want to see them when they bend over. He said, because we want to think of prayer. They made provision that they wouldn't be tempted in their prayer. And beloved, they pray with their head right down to the ground very humbly, but it's still religion. And when they end their prayer, they go, ah! A loud scream and scare you half to death. I woke up everybody. Should do that more often in my pre- Are you awake now, Edgar? But you know that these people are sincere. But religion of the world, beloved, is something else, and when you think of meeting their standards, and yet all of these people are not going the right way, you might say, that's an awful hard thing to say. Aren't all religions going the same place? Listen, beloved, Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. The Jews could not go and worship any place, and that's what this woman, you might say, what are you bringing up about worship here? Well, that's what this woman brings up. She says to the Lord Jesus Christ, when he asks her about her husband, our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. You see, the Samaritans, the half-breed, the Samaritans were known as a half-breed, half Jew and half Gentile. That's why the Jews would have no dealing with them. So the Samaritans had to have their own place to worship. They couldn't worship in Jerusalem. The Jews wouldn't allow them because they looked down their nose at them. You're Samaritans, get out of here. You know, you can't worship with me. I'm better than you. The Jews had their place of worship in Jerusalem. She said, well, the Samaritans say these mountains, the mountain of blessing and the mountain of curse, this is the place to worship God. But ye say it's Jerusalem. But now the Lord Jesus Christ gives her the greatest doctrine of all, of where to worship. And beloved, he speaks about you and me today, how to worship. Notice what he says to her, her in the twenty first verse. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship. Notice what it says, ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jew. Now I want to just take that first part of that phrase, ye worship, ye know not what. You don't know what you're worshiping. How many people of the religious world today are worshiping God, and they don't know what they're worshiping. Some are worshiping a little piece of paper, some are worshiping candles, some are worshiping other things. Now, I'm not poking fun, beloved, but I'm trying to bring you to the place to see even what it brings out in First Corinthians, the tenth chapter and the twentieth verse. Notice First Corinthians ten and verse twenty. This is a wonderful portion of God's word, and you know, sometimes we just overlook these great portions of God's word. First Corinthians ten and verse twenty. notice what it says here. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devil. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of the devil. Do ye, do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are ye stronger than he? Now, beloved, he's giving them something great here. The Gentiles sacrifice to idols. The religious world sacrifices to idols. They give and give and give, give of their money, give of their time, and this is religious world, and that's what the Jews were worshiping in. And when they came to worship, they had to go to Jerusalem to worship because there was where the, the temple was, and that's where the ark was, and that's where the, the mercy seat was there, the Ark of the Covenant was there, and the curtain was there. And they had to have a priest. They had a priest had to be garment certain way. Why aren't I in a garment tonight? If I'm a preacher of the gospel, if I'm a priest of God, why aren't we draw- robed like the priests in the Old Testament? Why don't we do it? Because, you see, the Old Testament priests had to be, have a certain garment on because they were representing Christ. Their garments spoke of Christ. Aaron the priest was a man that sinned, and yet he was a priest. He made the children of Israel sin and make a golden calf, and then he lied. Here the priest lied, the great high pri- or the high priest, I should say, lied to Moses, and he said, oh, I, I just, it just was thrown in the furnace, you know, and I, that calf just came out. And it said he formed it with the tool. He made it, and he lied. He was the high priest. He's the one that had to go in between Israel and God and stay the plague. But it wasn't the man, it was his garments. For the garments that the priest wore spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The veil of the temple was closed, and they couldn't go to the mercy seat behind. It was a big curtain, and the inside was a mercy seat, and that's where God dwelt, on that mercy seat. And when Jesus Christ died, that veil of the temple was rent to- from top to bottom, tore right in half, and everybody could see in. It ended the worship on earth. And that's what he's speaking to her about. He says, we're not going to worship in Jerusalem or in Samaria. But where are you going to worship? But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. And beloved, that's how we worship God tonight, is we worship him in spirit and truth. We can meet in a building like this and worship the Lord. Just think, they couldn't do that in the Old Testament. They couldn't worship. They could come together and read the scriptures. They could come and hear the rabbi speak, but they couldn't worship. It was only one place they could worship, was in Jerusalem. It was only one place where the Samaritans could worship was in Samaria by those mountains. That was their place of worship, and all the rest would have to come two or three times a year to worship at that place. Other places they couldn't worship. But you and I as believers can worship every Sunday morning. We can worship in a cave, we can worship in a dungeon. Look at all those that were in the Rome, and when I was at Rome and I looked at that Colosseum, I've got movies, and my wife said to me when I got home, she said, why did you take so many movies of the Colosseum? I said, honey, I got taken away when I started with my camera, and I zoomed over that Colosseum. I went backwards and forward and went down into the holes where the people were and so on. And I said, every time I shot another compartment, I thought of those dear Christians that were cast to the lines. Listen, those Christians were persecuted, and what did they do? They had no place to worship. They had, they couldn't go to Jerusalem, but they were saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God was seeking such to worship him. Where did they worship him? They ran down into the caves under Rome, into that place, and there for miles and miles they were hid under Rome from the Roman government and the Romans that wanted to put them to death for believing in Christ. That's the kind of worshippers God is seeking today. Those that are looking for him. He said, we're not going to worship in this mountain or at Jerusalem. God is seeking such to worship him. You can worship him in a house, you can worship him in a factory building, you can worship him any place. For God seeks those to worship him in spirit and in truth. But beloved, how can you worship the Lord until you first meet him? Notice what he says to her in the, uh, fourth verse. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Beloved, remember this morning I said the dead cannot be saved after they're dead because their spirit goes back to God, and their body and soul, their soul is either in hell and their body is in the grave. They can't worship God because their spirit is back to God. God wants you to worship him with your spirit. The spirit consciousness that brings you God consciousness. Notice what it says. The woman said unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. Beloved, somebody said the Lord never claimed to be the Messiah. There he claims it. Some people said he never claimed to be the Messiah. Well, what do you do with this verse? He gave her the doctrine, I am the Messiah. I am the one that sent of God. Will a Messiah do greater works than this? I am he. I'm the Messiah. Oh, beloved, what did he start with, with this woman? First of all, he said, I'm going to give you living water. She said, I'll accept. The next thing he does is he goes right into her life, and he says, now bring your husband. Oh, I, I have no husband. You said right. You have five husbands. He shows her her conviction. If you're going to worship me, if you're going to follow me, the sin must go. You know what she was going to do? She was going to have a testimony for the Lord. When do you have a testimony for the Lord? Is when there's been a change in your life. You know, you can say you're a Christian. You can say you're a believer, but if you're still living in a cesspool of sin, you've never met my Savior. Never met him. Now, we might fail, as many of us do, but beloved, as the Word of God says, a Christian will not continue or practice sin. And anybody that I find out is practicing sin, I say they need to be born again. Somebody said, oh, they're saved. Listen, I think there's a lot of people that need to be saved. They're just religious. This woman had religion, but she wasn't saved. She was living in idol- adultery. She was living in fornication. She was religious. She talked about worship. All people talk about worship. In the United States, how many people didn't go to church today? It was a many people go to church today in America, and they worship, but they know not what they worship. They just went to church, and they sat in a pew, and they heard a preacher give a few talks, and so on and so forth, and they went home, and they thought they did their daily dozen. They weren't convicted, they weren't brought closer to the Lord. They maybe felt a little bit cleaner afterwards. This one man came out of a service one time, he says, I feel a little bit better now. He says, I went to church and did what I should do. You know, you should do what you do. And then he started, as soon as the church wore off about fifteen minutes, he started to curse and swear and drink and all the rest. Just a little religion. You see, beloved, religion doesn't work. It's conversion that we need. We need a new birth because we were born wrong. We were born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and we need a brand new me. That's what I need, a brand new me. And you see, that's what God needed to do to me. But you know, first of all, he showed me that of my need, and here he shows her of her need, and she starts to get religious, and he says, now wait a minute, don't put up that flag. Ye know not what you worship. What do you worship? He knew if he would have stopped with that woman and said, now look, you're a woman Samaria, what is your religious ideas? What do you believe? Well, my priest says. Oh. And do you believe? Well, I, I just have to go on what he says. Isn't it strange that sometimes people can tell you all what the preacher has to say, but they can't tell you what the Lord has to say? You know, what we need to do is find out for ourselves according to the book. That's why it's so important for the Christians to take their Bible and to see what the preachers say, that it's from the word of God. It's not just a bunch of rules and regulations that I can give. I could set up a religion tonight to say, now, if anybody follows after me, and if you do these things, you know, I- I'd pack the place out. I'd pack the place out. I'd have a good group and they'd give their money and they'd, uh, you know, just put down like one fellow does. He says, yeah, you have to give thirty percent of your income. You can't be a member of this organization. Now, maybe some of you've, uh, got some of his mail, but if you're going to join his club, you got to give him thirty percent of your income. He, and he has somebody come and live in your house for two or three weeks. Sorts out the books that he wants you to look at. And beloved, it's as false religion as false can be. But his followers give thirty percent of their income. Beloved religion, you will find that people will follow religion, but they won't follow Christ. They will do, and they will give, but beloved, what we need is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wants those to worship. As we read in Corinthians, behind every idol, there's a demon. And that's what Paul was talking about. The world will put up idols and say, if you worship this little candle, if that's a god to you, fine. You know, some people, they try to get over their alcohol experience and so on by going to, now I'm not poking fun of anybody, I'm glad to have anybody helping anybody that's alcoholic, but the best thing that they need is they just need your sin cleanse. You get the sin cleanse and you get rid of the alcohol. That's what we need, is the cleansing of the sin. You see, we say it's a disease. Yes, it's a sin disease, and we have to get down to the root of the matter. But you can't do this until you man- bring the man to calvary, until you show him that Christ can do it. And one, one man said to another man, as you try to get him off the alcohol and so on, he said, now you just, if, if, if you don't want to look that there's a God, you just pretend that tree is your God and you worship that tree, and that'll help your alcohol problem. So the guy was going around worshiping a tree. When I went to see him about Jesus Christ, he said, my God is that tree. I said, oh boy, you sure got a sad God. I said, that poor tree drops his leaves every year. My God never drops one. What a poor thing to worship a tree. I said, what you gonna do if somebody cuts down a tree? He said, well, I'll get another tree. You know, now this seems funny to us, worshiping of the world, but the world is worshiping things like that. Some are worshiping the bottle, some are worshiping a child, some are worshiping a wife, some are worshiping a car, a home, a business, and these are our gods. And God says, ye know not what ye worship. They worship other things, but the true thing. But God wants true worshippers. And you know, beloved, as he says here to this woman in the twenty first verse, the woman said unto him, I know the Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this his disciples, uh, his disciples, uh, well, and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the men, come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Oh, beloved, is this not the Christ? She was a converted woman. He talked to her about her life. And who did she go back to? Notice what she did. When the other men came, she said, this is no place for a woman. I've got to get out of here. Now, if she would have still been keeping her old traits, that would have been a place that she would have stayed. But you see, she was converted. She left those men, but that was the kind of person she was. She was one that loved the men. But she met Jesus. She met the Lord, and when she saw these other men, why did it take twelve men to go and get a loaf of bread? Do you ever think of that? Twelve disciples went to get a loaf of bread and left Jesus alone. You'd think one would have stayed there to be company with the Lord, but they all left. The Lord didn't want them around, but you notice after they came, she left. He wanted to have a private conversation with her. He wanted to deal with her, and beloved, this is one thing I love about the spirit of God. It's a wonderful thing when the Spirit of God gets a hold of a man and shake him over the pit of hell. Never rush salvation. Let the Spirit of God just grab a hold of that man and woman, shake them over the pit of hell until they get tired of their sin. That man being a Christian. I thank God for the hours of conviction that I spent under sin. God showing me that I was lost. I was going to the pit. My friend, have you ever been shaken over the pit of hell and knowing if the Lord would come, you'd be left behind? Listen, that preacher, he preached, and he preached about the coming of the Lord, and then he kept on saying, behold, the Lord stands at your door, and now why don't you let him in? And I didn't know how to let him in. He said, the handle's on the inside, invite the Lord into your life. And I wanted to be saved, and the next night I woke up, or woke up the next morning, I looked out on the road, and there wasn't even a car stirring. My mother and my father weren't around. I looked for my brother and sister, nobody was around. I ran around that house. I said, the Lord's come, left me behind. I'm so thankful that I was scared. Sure, I was scared. I was just twelve years old. I thought I'd been left behind. And beloved, you might be left behind. You might be left behind, and one day you might wake up and not find a wife or a daughter or a son, or you might wake up as a child not seeing a mother and a father because the Lord's come for, and you're left, child, to face the world yourself because Jesus came and took your mother and dad, and you're going to go to hell. You're going to go through the tribulation period. Oh, I'm glad that I went through that time of conviction when the Spirit of God showed me I was lost. But there's so many people today, they don't know their needs, like this woman didn't know her needs. When she went to that well, she didn't know she was going to be changed. Maybe when you came in here tonight, you didn't know you were going to be changed, but beloved, the Lord can change you tonight. He can give you a new life if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You notice this woman, she said to the men of the city, notice what she said, the twenty eight woman. The woman then left her water pot. Somebody said she left her water pot and went away with the well. And notice what happens. And went her way into the city and said to the women of the city. Ha ha. She didn't know any women of the city because she was despised by the women. She was a harlot. She was looked down on by the rest of the women. Who did she go to? She went to all of those friends that she had affair with. She went to the city, to the men of the city, and said, hey, look, come see a man. Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Notice what they said. Then they went out of the city and came on to him. Now, isn't it funny, beloved, that Samaria is the same place, or one of the Samaritan cities is the same place I referred to this morning in Luke nine where James and John went into the city to prepare for the Lord, and they would not let the Lord come in to the city. They would not let him to come into the city because his face was set towards Jerusalem, and they said, let us bring down fire from heaven to consume them, Lord. And he said, ye know not what spirit ye are of. The Lord doesn't go into the city because I believe, now you can correct me after if I'm wrong, because I believe that they refused him. But what did they do? The men of the city come out to him. The Lord want them anyway. They didn't want him in, so he just brought them out to them. How did he do it? He did it by one woman. By one woman. They said when they looked at that woman, if a man could tell you all that you ever did, we sure want to see him. How about that? He can tell everything that you've ever done too. But he doesn't want to tell it. He doesn't want to tell it. Isn't that wonderful? Just think, all the sins that I've committed, you're not going to know one of them unless I tell you. You're not going to know one, because they've been all washed away by the blood of Christ. You know, you never can find... a Christian is a foolish person when they go and dump the garbage can over and tell all that they ever did. The Lord will never tell it on you. The Lord will never remind you of it. You don't have to do that. You could just say, I'm a sinner. You know, you could just say, hi, the Lord saved me from my sin. And I knew some have had bad lives. But you know he'll never bring up one of those things against you again. She said to the men of the city, he told me all that I ever did. They said, boy, if he can tell you that, we want to go see him. You mean to tell me he? Yes. She had a testimony. Beloved, whatever became of that woman. Do you remember when a church started in the book of Acts, and I haven't got time to turn to it, but you can turn to it later on in your leisure at the eighth chapter of Acts. You will notice that Philip is having a great revival. Where is Philip having a great revival? In the city of Samaria. Why is he having a great revival? Because a woman met Jesus at the well, I believe, and she told all her friends all things, and you notice what it says in the thirty ninth verse, and many of the Samaritans of the city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all that I ever did. She gave a testimony of Jesus Christ, but she changed her style of living. She started to live for the Lord, and beloved, if you check the book of Acts, you will find at one place they were beaten the tar out of, another place they were cast into jail, but when they came to Samaria, there was a great revival. Why? Because of a woman that met Jesus at the well. I think when we get to heaven, we're going to find out what a testimony that woman had. But beloved, you don't have a testimony until you find Christ, and after you find Christ, then you have to show the difference he's made in your life. And this is why many people aren't saved today, because they don't see any difference in our life. When the Lord saves you, he expects you to live a holy and a godly life. He doesn't expect any sinner out here to live a holy and a godly life. Just recently, I heard of a couple that was very broken up in a place. Another Christian was criticizing him, and they said, we don't think you should do this for the Lord, you don't, we don't think you should do that for the Lord. They said, look at your children. Your children's out there, they're smoking, they're drinking, they're running around with the gang. They're not a good testimony. The brother said to me, you know, they're, they're not a good testimony because they've never been saved. Listen, you can't legislate for a person that's not saved. You can't put them under a holy life when they're still living in sin. Listen, you have to be born into God's family to live that life. You can't live a Christian life outside of the new birth. It's impossible for any man to live it. You have to be born again. You have to get the Spirit of God within you. He'll give you eternal life, and when that comes, what happens? Just like the woman, she started to bubble over. I don't think she said about her water pot. She wasn't interested in that water pot anymore. She ran and left that water pot there at the well, and she ran to the city and said to the men, look, what did she do? She was just bubbling over. The spring of the living water was bubbling out of her, and she just started to tell everybody, look what this man did. This man told me everything that I ever did. Is this not the Messiah? This is the Christ. And because of her testimony, many believed. Beloved, because of your testimony, many will believe. But you have to have the walk with the testimony. Not just the talk, but the walk, the change of life. Has there ever been a change in your life? Oh, beloved, I wish I could finish this chapter tonight, but I'm not. But you know, it's a wonderful thing to be saved. But maybe there's one here tonight, you're not saved, you've never been born again, and maybe people try to get you to live the Christian life. Yeah, listen, you can't live it until you get saved. Now tonight, what are you going to do with the decision? He's been asking you to make a decision all night. And tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ once again invites you to himself. Come to me, and I'll give you rest. Not come to this church, not come to this preacher, but come to the Savior. Beloved, right where you sit, you could ask the Lord to come into your life and to cleanse you from every sin. Tonight, you could be born again. How? By simply just praying and saying, Lord, I am the sinner that he's talked about. I see I'm condemned, and now I want to be saved right where I am. And you could invite the Lord into your life. He's knocking, he's waiting, he's wanting to come in. Will you let him in? Tonight, he wants to come into your life. How about it, friend? Will you do it in the closing moments of this meeting? Receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, yes, I see he died for me, and I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Shall we bow in prayer? Father, maybe there is one that needs to be saved here tonight. Maybe there's one that needs to trust him. Oh, tonight we just pray that they might rest their faith in Christ. Father, we just pray that thou would guide and bless them. And Father, may they know their sins forgiven. We're not interested in church membership, Father. We're interested in a person accepting Christ, getting into the one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe there's one, maybe there's a boy or girl that needs to be saved. Oh, Father, save that one tonight. Save that man, that woman that needs to be saved. Oh, forgive them of their sins. Cleanse them and make them whole. We pray that thou would be with us during the invitation, that someone might respond to the invitation and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Amen. Could we sing, in closing, Just As I Am, number three hundred and seventy three? Number 373, Just As I Am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Maybe there's one here tonight, and you'd like to slip out of that seat to just come to the Savior. He's inviting you. Not my invitation, not the church's invitation. It's the Lord's invitation. He wants you to come to him. Will you come to the Savior tonight? He wants to save you. Maybe you've already prayed and said, Lord, save me. Well, why don't you publicly just walk forward and say, yes, by my walking forward, I'm saying I've decided for the Lord Jesus Christ. Many have done this throughout the years. Most of us here have done this. How about you tonight? The Lord wants to save you. Will you come? Beloved, I want to help you. Maybe there's somebody that's been saved during a week and you haven't told anybody about it. Why don't you come? That's the best way to tell us, by just your coming, telling us that you've accepted Christ. You don't have to say a word. I'm not asking you to join this chapel. I'm only interested in you receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into your life. Will you receive him tonight? Shall we just sing this hymn? Shall we stand as we sing three seventy three? Just let my end without money, not as my love would have for me, and let the wind be on me. Notice that second stanza says, just as I am, and wait me not, to rid my soul of ones I blot, to thee whose blood can cleanse me, Father, like a thought I come. You want to get rid of those sins that I found you come. He'll cleanse you, he'll save you. Like, it's a long way down there, preacher, it's a long way to Calvary. He died openly for you on the cross. Everybody could see him. I told you the other night, as you saw in the films of Jerusalem, Calvary is right outside the wall, everybody could see. He died openly for you, and he wants you to come openly for him. Will you come? He's asking you tonight. How about it? Will you come as we sing a third thing? We're gonna sing the fourth and the fifth stanza, and that'll be all. We're not gonna sing the sixth, but we will sing the fourth and the fifth stanza. If you're spoken to, why don't you come? You know you need the Savior. Why don't you come? The first step's the heart. The second step, you will just go right down to the front. Why don't you come? Come, make that first step to Christ. The fourth stanza.