We're going to go right into the scripture reading at this time, so I invite you to turn tonight to John chapter 4, to John chapter 4 as we take up the second part of our study tonight in this wonderful section of John 4 and consider Jesus and the woman of Samaria. I'm going to read the entirety of the section again to set the context and the verses tonight that we're considering will be taken from verses 19 through 26. So beginning at verse 1, Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock. Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You're right in saying I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. And there it's the reading of God's word. Well, tonight we continue the second part of our reflections in John chapter 4. And it's very important to remember what Jesus is doing in this particular section in bringing salvation to this lowly Samaritan woman. Jesus has purposely sought her out. Jesus has purposely gone after her. She was, as we looked at this morning, on the divine calendar, time-wise, to go and get at the particular time he needed to go through Samaria. This was the work that the Father had given him to do. The disciples, of course, are absent out getting food, and we will have to address that next time for Jesus will say, you're missing my food, which is what I'm doing right now. But this was no easy chore to deal with this woman from Samaria. She has a two-fold problem that Jesus is dealing with. She is buried in her sin, and she is buried in her tradition that was not the right one. So these are two mammoth issues and problems that the Lord Jesus has to overcome. Jesus has to undo both. So he has graciously pursued her, you'll notice. that we looked at this morning and offered her in this first section that we looked at living water. Jesus making the clear connections for us to the Old Testament as she sees certain things about that, that he is the fountain of life, that he is the one that all of those promises were anticipating to come, who would give living water. Come to the waters. Come, drink. A well of water will flow out of you. All the Old Testament had these kinds of promises. Well, the challenge was, as we saw, is that often as Jesus was speaking these spiritual realities, the people with whom he was coming in contact with did not understand him. This has been a big problem we saw in John. We looked at it briefly this morning with Nicodemus. You must be born again. How do I go get in a womb that's big enough? And he wasn't talking about that. go give me a drink, I'll give you living water, you don't have a bucket big enough to get water out of this well. It's just spiritual, heavenly talk that she cannot comprehend because the same problem, whether it be the religious Pharisee and head of the church or the person out in Samaria who is full of what they would say sin, both have the same problem of being spiritually discerned. The natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God, nor can he, because he's spiritually discerned. Well, Jesus here is now uncovering, and it's fascinating to watch him work, isn't it? It's overwhelming to watch him work. He is working to now do what John 3 said, uncover her life by his light, by his knowledge, by his truth. And that's where we left off this morning. She had said, sir, give me this water so that I don't have to come back here anymore. I would love if you could make my life a lot easier on me. I would love if you could solve my earthly problem here. You don't have a bucket, though. And it's at this moment that Jesus comes at her. Remember, go call your husband. How do you think he said it? Go call your husband. She wasn't getting it. So then he goes for it. Not have husband. Three words there. She has closed down. The wall has just gone up. You know this. You've talked to people about sin. Talked to a son or daughter about sin. And as soon as you touch on something that is very personal, something that is going on in their life, If they don't want that exposed, this is the kind of response you get. Back off. Stop judging. No husband. But then Jesus did something that was remarkable. You're right. You're right to say that. Notice what he said as he goes on to expose her. Jesus said, you're right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. Whoa. You see, now this is taking a little bit, a step further. This is not what I can do. This is not what you can do. This is the divine Son of God, isn't it? He's looking right into the heart. He's looking right into the life. He sees everything. And he is absolutely now pulling that right out into the open for her. How in the world did he know that? And that's a good question. Huge moment for her because the whole testimony, as you will see in the next section, I really can't wait for the next section because she goes back and brings the whole city of men to Jesus, which is fascinating, isn't it? She goes and she says, come meet someone who told me everything that I ever did. This just overwhelmed her. I think what's beginning to happen is her eyes are starting to see him. They're starting to comprehend him. It's fascinating to see how that happens. She's starting to become awestruck by who is standing in front of her. She can't quite figure it out, but no one can just do that. That becomes the real question. Who really reads my life? Who really opens my heart and reads it? Who knows me like that? I mean, think of that important question. Who knows me like that? Put it in context. No one has ever known her. No man has cared to know her. Here standing before her is one who knows everything. You know, this is just what Calvin said. It's evident that man never attains to a true knowledge Until he has previously contemplated the face of God. And come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For such is our innate pride. We always seem to ourselves just and upright and wise and holy. Until we are convinced by clear evidence of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Bingo. That's exactly what's happening right here. It is exactly what he's doing. She has come now and gazing upon, remember what the scriptures say about Jesus, we behold in the face, Jesus. He's the image of the invisible God. She's not been loved. She's stuck in sin. She is miserable. No man has ever cared for her. No man has ever taken to know her or understand her. And he has just read her like a book. This is where John 3 is really coming to light. Her life coming into contact with Jesus is being uncovered. Understand that. When you bump into Jesus, meaning he comes after you, your life is uncovered. It's brought to the light. No one in sin wants that. And that's where we are. It's the crucial moment of the text because you have one of two things that's possible at this moment. Either she is going to turn and run away and I'm out of here. I don't want that exposure. You're judging me. Leave me alone. You know this. Or she'll bow. This is why people stay away from church. This is why people are fine with ministries that story tell. Apply scriptures in a personal way. Bring it to bear on the conscience in a personal way. And then they're pressed with what they're doing with the light that has come in their life, you see. That's why it's so important to preach to the conscience. You can't sidestep the issues, and Jesus isn't. Her choice is to either hide the exposure or, John 3, whoever does what is true, listen to the statement. Whoever does, and this will help you in a minute, whoever does what is true comes to the light. It's about truth. I'll come back to that. Don't call your husband. Not husband. No, I have a husband. I don't have a husband. Yeah, you've had five. and the one you have is not yours. It's somebody else's. He has offered her life. He has uncovered her, and what does she now do? Sir, I perceive you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship, and you stop and you say, what? What are you talking about, right? What does that have to do with what he just did? What does that have to do with adultery? I used to think, like Leon Morris and others, that this was a major sidestepping of issues. You know what people do, and this is a problem when they're caught. What they do is they change on you and try to turn the discussion to another issue. It's a tactic to avoid dealing with what they need to deal with. Leon Morris takes that position with the woman at the well. I'm not so convinced. I think she's really beginning to think. I think she's really beginning to think about things. Already in her head is the possibility that this is the Messiah. Already in her head is the possibility, this might be him. Who can do this? Wouldn't you think if someone read your life like a book, you might say, God has just visited me? That's never happened to us. I'm not sure she's sidestepping. I think she's starting to ask the right questions. I think she's really thinking about the right questions here. Most people, when they're oppressed about their sin, the last thing they ever want to talk about is what? Worship. I mean, that's the taboo subject as is. Because everyone intuitively knows that worship, in some way, even if they don't quite understand it, they know that there's something special about worship and that worship is ultimately about meeting with God. But there's a giant problem for her, And the problem is this, I see you're a prophet, but you need to answer me something. Where am I supposed to go and make the sacrifice then to get right with God? Where? Because I have a big problem here. In 722 BC, the Assyrians had carried away Israel. And what became of Samaria? Well, some of the Jewish people had remained, remember. And strategically, the Assyrians moved back into Israel, settlers from five Babylonic kingdoms, so that what happened was you had intermarriages of the Babylonians and the Israelites. And the land became known later to Judah as a land full of half-breeds and compromisers, an impure religion. In fact, when Judah was carried off in 597 BC, they later returned to rebuild the temple and the Samaritans said, hey, we want to help you. And Judah said, forget it. So they built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. So from the Jewish perspective, the Samaritans were a bunch of defiled rebel half-breeds whose religion was viewed as a defection from the religion of the true God of Israel. The more I think about it, the more I think she was completely sincere in the question then. Okay, you see my life. What are you proposing is the solution? Because the Jews say, I can't go there. And I can't do the sacrifices. And that's not where we Samaritans worship. We worship here. You guys say Jerusalem. What am I supposed to do? I wish people would ask these kind of questions. I really wish today that people would ask these kind of questions, right? Where do I go to get right with God if that's what my problem is? Most people don't care at all about that question today. Mainly because we live in a time where no one really believes anymore there's one single way of salvation. There's one answer. So there are many ways, and whatever your religion is, that's fine. You do what you do, and we'll do what I do, and in our day, both are correct. And now it's changed somewhat to the point where we're all correct except you Christians. That's how it's weird it's gotten. I want you to notice what Jesus says. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. So clearly he is answering this issue of salvation and worship because he knows that's on her mind. God has always made known the way through the Jews. Salvation has always come from the Jews. There has only been one sacrificial system which the Lord has ever put into place by which people could draw near to God. You're absolutely right about that. And you know what? Here's the Jesus we have to accept. Your way of worship is wrong. Your way of worship is wrong. But I've got really good news for you. Woman, believe me, verse 21, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour is coming and now is. Why did he say now is? Because I'm here. When true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Wow. God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. It's one of the most beautiful statements in the scriptures about worship. If we understand it, it'll solve a lot of our worship problems. What Jesus just said is, the hour has now arrived when the Father himself is seeking true worshipers, and he is drawing from all peoples in the earth now, true worshipers. But you need to know what true worshipers are. In other words, if you're going to have your sins dealt with, you must come and worship in spirit and in truth. See, she wants to know, where do I go? Jesus wants to explain how do you go. How are you coming? You ever thought about what it means to start with the reverse in truth? If we were talking about the Bible, we might say according to truth as truth is revealed. We might say he's talking about the Bible. But I'm not convinced in this context that's at all what he's saying to us. That is true. We worship according to the truth as it is in Jesus, the truth of the deposit of truth. But think about what he's just come across. Think about this and you'll get it. He has just come across someone who has been worshiping a long time on the wrong mountain and living a lie. Did you hear me? Someone who is a long time worshiper living a lie. A worshiper who came every week, in our terms, and sat in the pew. And one with whom now she, right, is with who is not her husband. That's false worship. That's false worship. There are a lot of things about false worship. But when somebody is living in sin and has no atonement for sin, they can come up and do a lot of things in worship, but it's false worship. It's not according to truth, the truth of their own life. Take in spirit. He's not talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about the inner spirit. What he said to Nicodemus needs to happen. You need life. You and your spirit have to have life put there. It's not just coming, as one pastor said, because you've occupied a church building or sung a hymn or lit a candle or crossed yourselves or knelt an aisle. That's not worship. True worship is not because you got emotionally wound up. True worship, as pastor said, is when that part of man, his spirit, actually meets with God and in itself is praising him for his love, his wisdom, his beauty, his truth, his holiness, his compassion, his mercy, his grace, his power, and all his attributes. that's not mechanical. With my arrival on the scene of history, what is happening is, my Father, through my work, is gathering true worshipers. And if you knew the gift of God, you would ask. And I'll fill you with this life. The way you come in the inner man, the Spirit, is according to the truth. seeing your sin, repenting of your sin, and seeing who you need to deliver you. You want to know what true worship sounds like? There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought, and he brought it up, and it grew up with him and his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against that man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Nathan said to David, You are the man. And David said, I've sinned. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and incended my mother, conceived me. Behold, you delight in what? Truth in the inward being. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. There has been nothing about her that has had truth in the inward being, and now it's coming out. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. She hasn't had it. Let the bones that you've broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew what? A right spirit in me. It's right here. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. That's what she's going to go do. You'll see it. And sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. That is worship in spirit and in truth. Right there. The woman says to him, I know the Messiah's coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he'll tell us all things. I don't know how many times in the New Testament, I didn't count, but I know it's very few. Jesus looks at her and says, and the he at the end of this is wrong, I am. I'm here. It's me. You just heard everything you need to know. I am your living water. I am your temple. I am your drink. Come to me. Dear woman, come to me. In spirit and in truth, and I'll fill your life with this water. Jesus is standing before you today in his gospel, clothed in it. And what does he say? Do you know who has visited you? Do you know who sees your hearts? Do you know who's standing in front of you? If you do, then you're going to ask him. And he'll fill your life with this living water. But you must come in spirit and in truth. Is there anyone here who has not asked for that? Do you want that? anyone here like this woman who are covering? Come. He's not scaring you away. Come. Come to the fountain and I'll satisfy you and all of your days from your heart will flow rivers of living water springing up to everlasting life. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Thank you for so wonderful a pursuit that you have sought for true worshipers to worship in spirit and in truth. Let us be honest about our lives. Let the inner man be born again by the Spirit that in our spirits there would be sincerity and truth in our pursuits so that as we are read and our lives are open, we come to the light and receive forgiveness. Thank you for this marvelous text today and for encouraging our stories through this story because of the story of your beloved Son. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.