Now shall we turn to the fourth chapter of John's Gospel. John's Gospel chapter four. Verse one. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearyed with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus says unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria. For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 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 wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our Father Jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever should drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. For the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said to her, Go call thy husband. Go call thy husband. The woman answered, Pardon, I'll read that again. Verse sixteen. Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said, 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 says unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, Believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit, and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know that when Messiah has come, which is called Christ, when he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee, and he. May God bless the reading of his own precious words. Shall we pray again? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful book thou hast given us, the Bible, thine own message, the message from God to man. We thank thee thou hast preserved this book down through the ages, and we have the inspired God-breathed word of God. No other book in all the world like it. No other book with God for its author. And the marvel is that thou hast given us this book in our own mother tongue so that we can read it every day. We thank thee for the wonder of this book. We thank thee for the fact there are no errors and no mistakes in it. It's perfect like thyself. And we pray that thou take this living, wonderful word of God today and apply it to our hearts. And as we see fresh glimpses of the glories of thy beloved Son, and the wonderful character, and the wonderful ways, and the love of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray thou speak to every heart this morning. Speak, Lord, in the stillness of this morning hour. May we hear thy voice, Lord. and feel thy touch of power. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Last year I was giving a series of talks on the Gospel of John. The last talk I gave was on Sunday the fourteenth of November. And then very soon after that, our conference season started, and I haven't been back here since. except a couple of weeks ago to talk about the Bible, and we had the Bible Sunday. So six months have elapsed since we were talking about John's Gospel. How quickly they've gone by, and yet what wonderful, wonderful truth we've listened to as day by day at our conference, we've listened to the Word of God. For those of you that are visiting, we have a winter conference which lasts for thirteen weeks with a different speaker every week, and two messages every day except Monday. So we really have listened to many, many talks from this wonderful book, the Bible, and we have learned many things. But I would like now to get back to John's Gospel. We said that in our studies we would look upon John's Gospel, we would break it down into what I called periods. The first period was a period of consideration. It lasts from the nineteenth verse of the first chapter. to the last verse of the fourth chapter. God sent his son into this world. John's Gospel starts different to the other Gospels, what we call the Synoptic Gospels. He doesn't tell us about his birth at Bethlehem. He doesn't tell about Mary and John the Baptist and the birth of John the Baptist and so on, like Luke does. But John's Gospel goes way, way back into eternal ages and starts back there. And it says, In the beginning was the Word. The eternal Son of God ever existed with the Father back in eternal ages. And he's called the Word. And then in verse fourteen of that first chapter, it says, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. There is the birth of Christ. but it's not mentioned as the birth. The Word, the eternal Son of God, became flesh. And there's the marvel of Christianity. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is God, the eternal Son of God. He ever existed back in eternal ages. And he came down into time and was born into our world. And for thirty-three years, He walked down here and men looked at him and men watched him and men observed him and men have written about him. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, they all wrote about the same person, the Son of God. We're talking about John's gospel. It's different to the other gospels. John's gospel was written with a specific purpose. He tells us, chapter twenty. And verse thirty, he tells us, Many other signs truly did Jesus, or many other miracles truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. It's John's Gospel. But these are written. Why? These are written that He might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's why John wrote His Gospel. That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. But there's something that goes with that. vital eternal importance. These are written that he might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing he might have life through his name. Eternal life comes to those that believe in the Son of God. That's the way of salvation. And that's why John wrote this gospel. And the little word believe. comes in John's Gospel. I think it's ninety-four times in the Gospel. You get the word believe. That is the key word of John's Gospel, believe. Some people call it the Gospel of belief. These are written that he might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that believing he might have life through his name. John selects out of the many signs, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples. John selects seven. Now, in the Greek, the word simea is sign, and that's the word used for miracle. It's translated in our English version, miracle. But in the Greek, the word is sign. What John did, of all the miracles which the Lord performed, he selected seven. These seven miracles he gives in this Gospel. If you read it carefully, you'll pick them out. Seven miracles starting with the turning of the water into wine at Cana of Galilee. It says this first miracle did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and his disciples believed on him there. That was the first one. Going right on to the final miracle, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Seven miracles selected by John. And these signs are miracles. He says, there are many others. But these seven signs I've selected. What for? That you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That's why he selected these and chose them and gave them to us. Now there are periods in this gospel. There's a period when... The Lord Jesus appears, first of all, before men. And men gaze at him. Men listen to him. And men are forming their opinion about him. I call that the period of consideration, when men are considering the Son of God. There's no opposition. There's no seeking to kill him. They're just listening to him, making up their mind. Who is he? This strange prophet that's come. Speaking these words, words as if they came straight from God. Who is he? They were expecting the Messiah. God had promised them centuries before that he would send a prophet. A prophet, shall the Lord God raise up unto me? He said, and that prophet was to be the Messiah. That prophet, the Messiah, was the Son of God. And they were expecting the Messiah. Of course, they were in bondage. The Jews at that time were under the yoke of the Roman Empire. Rome held sway through all the world at the time when the Lord Jesus was born and when the Lord Jesus lived here. Rome was the great world power. God has given this world, according to the Bible, God has given this world over to four great empires to rule over it. From the time that the children of Israel sinned and sinned and sinned until God had them taken away into captivity, and God ceased dealing with the children of Israel because of their sin. From then on, God gave this world over into the hands of four great empires, the Babylonian empire, Nebuchadnezzar, was the great monarch who came and captured the city of Jerusalem and took the children of Israel. away into captivity for seventy years in Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar, you have to read history only to get this, but the Bible tells about it before it took place. That's the wonder of the Bible. It tells you today what's going to happen tomorrow. And Daniel, in his prophecies, told us what was going to happen. He said to Nebuchadnezzar, thou art this great head of gold. After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. And after the Babylonian Empire, just read ancient history and you'll find, after the Babylonian Empire came the Medial Persian Empire and they owned world sway over the whole world. Babylon went out and Medial Persia came in. After Medial Persia, there came a young man called Alexander the Great, a Grecian. And Alexander the Great defeated the whole world and conquered the whole world. I have been to two famous battlefields. One, the first great naval battle in history, the Battle of Salamis. And quite near to the city of Athens, from the Acropolis, that gray rock in the middle of Athens, you can look down and see the island of Salamis out there in the Asian Sea. And I've been there. And there in the Straits of Salamis, the first great naval battle of history was fought. And the Greeks... defeated the medieval Persian, defeated the Persian. And then over on the, towards the east shore of Greece, there's a place called Marathon, Marathon. That's where the Great Battle of Marathon was fought. And there's a great mound. Great, you have to go up steps. I've been to the top of it. Great mound there, like a pyramid. And that's where they buried the dead at the Battle of Marathon. But at the Battle of Marathon, the Greeks defeated the Persians. The Persians had world power. They were in Greece. But the Greeks rose and drove them under Alexander the Great, defeated them. That's where we get that famous word marathon, the marathon race, you know, because a soldier ran from the Battle of Marathon, twenty-two miles to Athens. And he rode, and he ran, and he ran, and he ran on foot. And he got to Athens, and he made, he reported, and he said one word, and in a quesadilla. We have defeated them, we have won. Victory, he said, victory. And he was so exhausted, he dropped dead. But he brought the message of victory that the Persians were defeated and the Greeks were now in power. And Alexander went out and he conquered the whole known world, went right down into India. And they say at twenty-eight years of age, he wept because there were no more lands to conquer. But God had promised that after the Grecian Empire should arise another empire. An empire... strong, like iron, fierce. That was the Roman Empire. And the Roman Empire defeated the Grecian Empire. And when the Lord Jesus was born, and when the Lord Jesus lived, the Roman Empire was in power. And the Jews longed for the day when they get free. And they thought God would send the Messiah, and he would be a great king, who would conquer their enemies and defeat the Roman Empire. and give them back their land and give them back their kingdom. I tell you a marvelous, wonderful thing. You and I live in a wonderful age, do you know that? We live in the age after thousands, hundreds and hundreds of years. We live in the days when Israel has gone back to her land, do you know that? The state of Israel came into being once more. After all those hundreds of years, from the time when Nebuchadnezzar carried the children of Israel into captivity, all down through those years, Israel has been without a land of her own. But at last she's back in her own land, ready for the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah is coming, coming very quickly. Everything in the world around us tells us that he's coming is so near. He's coming back in judgment. He's going to deal with the Jewish enemies. Don't worry, he'll deal with them. He'll deal with the Jews too. Because they're back there, not in faith, they're back there in unbelief. They've thrown over their God, the God of their fathers. They've gone back with all their wisdom and their knowledge. And he'll deal with them as he'll deal with the nations. And his coming is very near. And you and I live in a wonderful age. When these things prophesied in this book, hundreds of years ago, are actually taking place before our eyes. But I want to come back to this period of consideration. There's no opposition to the Lord here. When we get to the fifth chapter, we get to what I call the period of controversy when they start arguments. And they start to argue with the Lord and argue with the Lord. And then later there comes a period of conflict. And so on, right up to the period of crisis. when they nailed him to the cross. But here during this period, the first four chapters of John's Gospel, men are observing him. And we have seen in our studies in the first chapter, various people, the disciples of John the Baptist, they heard John say, Behold, the Lamb of God. And they gazed upon him. And John said, The Lamb of God which beareth away the sin of the world. And there was something that drew them to him. And then two of them asked that they might go and see where he lived, and they spent the whole night with him. And their lives were changed. And one by one, Peter, Andrew, Peter, John, Nathaniel, all these men, Philip, they were all brought to the Lord Jesus and became his disciples. They were observing him. And then in the second chapter, he goes up to Jerusalem for the first time. And up there, the people in Jerusalem, watch what he does. He goes into the temple and he found they were selling... all sorts of things in the temple. Changing money, selling oxen and sheep to be slaughtered. He said, you've made my father's house a house of merchandise. And he took a cord, wound up a cord and drove them all out and cleansed the temple. He said, this is my father's house. So they didn't do anything. He just watched. They were considering him. He spent some time up there. There was one very learned man. a gray leader of the Jews called Nicodemus. And Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night time and had an interview with him. In our reading this morning, we've got the second interview the Lord Jesus had here on earth with people, recorded in John's Gospel. I mean, it might have had many others, but in John's Gospel. The first interview was with Nicodemus. And it's very interesting to draw some comparisons. between the first and the second interviews the Lord Jesus had with men of this world. He talked to Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a very educated man. He talked to this woman by the well side. She was not an educated person. He talked to Nicodemus, a very religious, a very devout man. He talked to this woman. As we read the story, you can see there's very little devout about her life. Her life was a whole mess. Nicodemus came by night. He met this woman not at midnight but midday. See the comparisons and the contrast? He talked to Nicodemus in a very straight way. A man who was a leader of religion and he said, listen, Nicodemus, when Nicodemus began to flatter him and say, we know thou art a teacher come from God. No man can do the miracles thou doing. He said, Nicodemus, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven what an abrupt answer for a great jewish leader of religion except a man be born again what he was saying to nicodemus was listen nicodemus religion will never get you to heaven church membership will never get you to heaven trying to do good and so on will not get you to heaven There's only one way to get to heaven. You must be born again. And he uses that word. Mar will not that I said unto thee, ye must, M-U-S-T, ye must be born again. Except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of heaven. This is a very serious thing for every one of us here this morning. We might have been very religious during our life. But if we've not been born again, the Lord Jesus said, we will never see The kingdom of heaven. That's what he said to the religious man. But when it comes to this woman, there was little religion about her. He talked to her about worshiping the Father. You'd hardly understand it. You'd think he talked to this leader of religion about worship. And he talked to her about sin and the need for the new birth. But he talked to the leader of religion about the need for the new birth. And he talked about this poor woman about leading her to a place where she could worship God. All the wondrous ways of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It says he must need go through Samaria. Samaria was that part of Palestine north of Judea. Jerusalem is in Judea. Samaria is north of it. And away to the east is the River Jordan, flowing down. is Judea down here, Samaria there, and Galilee up here, and the Jordan down there. And this woman said the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritan. They hated him. They didn't like the Samaritan. And they would not travel through Samaria. If a Jew wanted to get from Jerusalem up to Galilee, he'd go right down to the River Jordan. cross the river Jordan, go all up through Perea and right up around the north of the Sea of Galilee and come back into Galilee that way. But the Lord Jesus made a straight cut right up through Samaria. That was just taboo with the Jews to even go through Samaria. But I love the word. It says, He must. He must, needs, go through Samaria. John makes use of this word several times, must. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. But then in the tenth chapter he's talking about himself being the good shepherd, and he talks about himself coming to the sheepfold to Israel, his own people. And then he says, are there sheep I have which are not of this fold? That's the Gentiles. He came to the Jews. He came to his own. His own received him. Not the Jewish people. But he says, other sheep I have, which are not of this full. That's the Gentiles. Them also I must bring. John likes this word. Them also I must bring. And it's with that in his mind, I'm sure, that he must need go through Samaria. They were looked upon as kind of half Gentiles, you know. You see, when Israel was taken away into captivity, before Judah was taken into captivity, they allowed some to come back and to set up a kind of religion there. I'll just read you a few verses, but it was not the true thing. They set up some kind... It means it's falling right in through the fulfillment of what Balaam prophesied there. The first prophecy concerned the re-gathering of Israel. The second prophecy dealt with the military power, the rule in Greece. The second prophecy says in verse twenty-four of chapter twenty-four. We'll be in Christ when by. But... The king of Assyria commanded saying, take there, carry there one or two of the priests whom he brought from then, and let him go and dwell there. Because they had taken the children of Israel away, and now the land was getting out of order altogether. And the king said, take a priest back there, and let's set up some kind of a religion. and let them go and dwell there, and teach them the manner of the God of the land. One of the priests whom they carried away was from Samaria and dwelt in Bethel, and he taught them how they should fear the Lord. How be it. Every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. They set up a kind of a religion, but they did it their own way. They made gods of their own and put them in the houses. And God was very, very severe about this. God says, The Lord thy God is one God. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any idol of any kind to worship. And this is what they did. And it says, verse thirty-two, So they feared the Lord. This is the second Kings seventeen. They feared the Lord, and they made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests, of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. How in the world could that work out? They feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from them. Until this day they do after the former manners, for they fear not the Lord. Neither do they after their statutes, after statutes or ordinances. This was a strange setup in Samaria. And it persisted, all down through the many, many years. Until the time of the Lord, the Samaritans had this strange, they built their own temple there, you know, on Mount Gerysen. We'll come to that in a moment. But the Lord said, he must meet those who eat of the prey and drink of the blood. To the Jews they were Gentiles. So we have not only seen in these past forty years, five years, five years, five years. But the government of those who remember, we've also seen them by the military and talent. And the Lord is showing now that he's coming with a spirit of love. He's coming to show them what God really meant. Not that they had to separate themselves. And Israel has already made, the Jews have already made the tools of the temple. They have the archery. The covenant is wrapped right now. They are prepared. The woman. I can't say much about her life. I read it. He says, Thou has had five husbands. He whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that sense. In that sense, thou shalt. I don't want to talk about that. You have your own mind and imagination. You can read the story. Thou has had five of them, and the one you have now is not yet. Here is a woman living in immorality. This is the movement of the Lord Jesus of Jacob, and by tabernacle so in the previous interview he spoke to them. And Israel has already made the Jews, the Jews have already made the seals of the temple, they have the reason, they have the argument under wrath right now, they are preparing for that day. How many men knowing her can be restored to the temple? The fascinating thing is, they're going to let Balaam have... As a perfect gentleman, as the eternal Son of God, This is a modern age who had a Babylonian wedge of gold. It says Jacob's well was there for six years. On back account. So, again, to restate this, we'll be very clear about what we're talking about. We see a new movement. You recognize from the Madrid priesthood. The days started in six o'clock in the morning. They had the Cairo talk. Resulting in peace with Dr. Aro talk. The Cairo talk continued, revolting in peace with King Hussein of Jordan. It's hard to imagine that we are still perceiving by Him were all things made, that are made. All things consist, they're held together by Him, and yet He was weary. This is the position He took. He laid aside His glory, His Godhead as such, and came down here to be a man, although He was always God. And He was subject to the limitations of our bodies. Here He became weary, tired with His journey. In the heat of the day, he sat on the well sign. Now, I have been to Jacob's well, and I've sat on this well, sir. When I went there, the old Greek priest who was sitting there for the well now is covered up, built over by a Greek Orthodox church, all in ruins anyhow. But he let us look down into the well, and they put a candle on a little platform and wound the winch and put it down, seventy-five feet down. That's where the water was. She said the well is deep. So it was seventy-five feet. When I went there, that was the way in perhaps nineteen forty-two, I think I went there. The well is deep. And the old priest dropped some water and gave us to drink. Jacob put that well. It's really exciting because we can see a fulfillment in the book. We can see a story or a scenario in the book of Numbers that is actually being played out today, somewhat of an antithesis today. You'll notice that the women always came out to draw water in the evening time. In the cool of the day they came with their pictures to draw water. Here's a woman that came at high noon. I think it tells the story, don't you? I think her life was such that She couldn't associate with the other women. She came out when she could be alone. And the Lord knew all about this. When he left Jerusalem to go to Galilee, instead of going down over the river Jordan and all up through the coast of Peron up there, right up to Heria, right up to Galilee, the Sea of Galilee, he came straight up and he went right to the well, Sarkar's well, and he sat at the well. He was early for his appointment. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Now she's looking at him. As a Jew, he would wear a fringe of a ribbon of blue around the bottom of his skirt, so she would know right away he's a Jew. And she hated the Jews because the Jews hated the Samaritan. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said unto her, Give me a drink. his disciples had gone away to get food. So he was all alone with this woman. Now here's a wonderful lesson for us if we want to win souls to Christ. He didn't start upbraiding her about her life, but he kind of got on her side, you know. If you want to help a person, you ask them to do something for you. That makes a friend right away. You know, you've got a kind of an indebtedness. He said, woman, give me a drink. And from then on, you know, he was indebted to her for this drink. How tactful he was, how clever as a perfect gentleman he dealt with this woman. Woman, give me a drink, she said. She says, then says the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask this drink of me which I am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaria. How is it? We can answer that question. How is it? Why, why did he ever go there? He must need to go there. He went there with one great purpose to meet this woman and reveal himself to him. How is it that thou askest drink of me? We'll find out presently why it was. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knew it the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee give me a drink, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living more. Here's the Son of God on earth, meeting a poor, sinful, immoral woman. And he says, if you only knew woman, who's talking to you? If you only knew. You know, I think there are moments in your life of mine like this. When the Son of God speaks to us, perhaps sometimes in deep sorrow and bereavement, sometimes in sickness and sadness, God speaks to us. And sometimes you can say, if you only knew what God is trying to do, he's trying to speak to our heart. He says, woman, if you only knew who's speaking to you, you'd have asked of him, and he would have given me living water. The woman said, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. He had no bucket, he had no rope, he had no winch. If thou hast nothing to draw with, the well is deep. For whence then hast thou that living water? How practical she was, wouldn't she? She knew what it was every day to wind down that winch and pull the water out. She said, how can you get water without a bucket, without a winch, without a rope, and the well is deep? Ah, she little knew what he was talking about, but he soon revealed it. Aren't thou greater than our Father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? He had no greater than he. Of course he was greater. He made Jacob. Jesus Hanson said to her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. For the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The Lord was not speaking of that water in the well. He was speaking of the spiritual water, the life he could give them, water which would be a well of life, a fountain springing up into eternal life. He was telling the same thing that he told Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. You've got to have a new life. You've got to start all over again. He was saying it to her in different language. And he said, I'll give you water, which will be the water of life. That's what John meant when he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what John meant when he said these are written that he might believe. That's the water of life. Springing up into eternal life. Yes, but you know, before the Lord could give her eternal life, there were things to be written with. You see, God doesn't save good people as such. Now, God saved lots of good people, but God saved sinners. The Lord Jesus said, the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He didn't come to call the righteous, but the ungodly, the unrighteous salvation. For you and me to be saved, we've got to come to a state when we recognize and own before God we're sinners. Our sin was so deep and our need so deep that the Lord Jesus had to go to the place called Calvary and die for us. and bear the punishment of our sin in his own body on the tree, and shed his precious blood. Because we're sinners. You say, but I go to church. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what's inside here. God says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we all must be born again. And before he could deal with this woman, he had to deal with the same question. So how tactfully, how gentlemanly he said to her, go and call your husband. Let's talk together with your husband. How about that hit the sore spot, you know. Sir, I don't have a husband. I have no husband. He said, in that sense thou truly, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou knowest is not thy husband. You're talking the truth. But he's getting home now, telling her she's a sinner. And those sins of yours that have been going on in this immoral life she's been living, it all comes out before the Son of God. That's where you've got to get, you want to get saved. You've got to come to the Lord and confess that past history and tell him about that sin. And you know, as he spoke to her, she said, I perceived that thou are the prophet. I perceived thou the prophet. You've ever noticed the progress she made in her consideration of the Son of God? In the ninth chapter, she said, how is it thou being a Jew? She called him a Jew. And then in verse twelve, she said, greater than our Father Jacob. And then in this verse she says, thou art a prophet. And then when you get down to the further down, she says, is not this the Christ? The steps she made as she learned more and more about. And so the Lord Jesus began to explain to her now that her life has got to be cleaned up. But you know, she took the argument that everybody takes. She talks about salvation. I found whenever I try to lead a sinner to Christ, nearly always they say the same thing. Well, now, wait a minute now. You think that way, I think that way. You see, I belong to this denomination. You belong to that denomination. We do it this way. You do it that way. And after all, we're all going to get to heaven. All roads lead to heaven. All roads don't lead to heaven. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And so she said, to our fathers worship in this mountain. You say it. In Jerusalem you ought to worship on Mount Moriah. We worship on Mount Gerizim. You worship on Mount Moriah. Which is right. And the Lord gives a wonderful answer. Believe me, the hour cometh when ye should either in this mountain or Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship, ye know not what. We know what. We worship for salvation is of the Jews. Because Christ came as a Jew. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It doesn't matter about this religion or that religion or this denomination or that denomination, what really means is, what really counts is my personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says the hour is coming when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The woman said unto him, I know Messiah is coming. When he comes, you tell us all things. Listen to the answer. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee, and he, what a wonderful revelation. She knew Messiah was coming, but this stranger that sat upon the well side and asked her for a drink was the actual Son of God the Messiah. And in that tremendous moment, he revealed himself to that woman. I am he. Have you had a moment like that in your life? I remember a moment in my life at ten years of age when God opened my eyes to see the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Have you had that experience? This woman got that experience there. Nicodemus found it, I think, at night. This woman found it at midday, but she found him. And all through John's gospel, you get the... incidents of men and women who made this amazing discovery that God in the person of his Son had come down to dwell among men, and he revealed himself to them. I that speak unto thee am he, who I trust that in our meeting this morning, the Lord will reveal himself to some waiting heart. And I repeat what John says. All these things are written. that we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's what she found out. That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that believing we might have life, eternal life, through his name. May God bless his word for his name's sake. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful story of how thy beloved Son came down among men and walked amongst men and women. We thank you for the wonderful way he dealt, alone with a woman of doubtful character, he acted as a perfect gentleman. He told her of the deep need of her soul, and he revealed himself to her. I that speak unto thee, am he. Blessed Lord Jesus, reveal thyself to our waiting hearts in the closing moments of our meeting this morning, that the great miracle of salvation might take place in some heart for thy glory. dismiss us with thy blessing. We thank thee for an hour spent together with thyself and with this wonderful book of the Bible and seek thy parting blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.