Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Gospel chapter 3. I'd like to look at 3:00.
Must tonight, and we find the first one at the beginning of the Gospel of John chapter 3.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night.
And said unto him, Rabbi.
We know that thou art a teacher. Come from God.
For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again.
We cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flashiest flesh.
And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must.
Be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone.
That is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel?
And no, it's not these things.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak, that we do know.
And testify that we have seen and you receive, not our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not.
How shall ye believe if I tell you?
Of heavenly things.
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must.
The Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name.
Of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light that his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Well, two of the three must that I want to speak on a little bit tonight are in the passage that I have read.
To Nicodemus, this religious ruler, this Pharisee.
This master or teacher of Israel.
He came to the Lord as a teacher. We know that thou art.
A teacher, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God, and he drew correct deductions. He says no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
And then the Lord immediately.
Addresses an issue which was far beyond.
The thought that was in Nicodemus's mind.
He said to Nicodemus. Verily, verily, truly, truly, whenever you read those two words together.
The following words are of the utmost importance. Those verily, verily should arrest our attention. If anything does that should arrest our attention to listen carefully.
He said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus.
He was a proud man.
A Pharisee, a religious man, and it's instructive, I think that it's to the religious man that was trusting in his own works, in his own religious activities, in his religion.
00:05:12
He could say we have Abraham for our father.
And he could make a boast that the Gentiles couldn't boast of. The Gentiles have no.
Past history that they can boast of, but Israel had, and here was this leader of Israel and he was going to be taught, he came to the Lord as a teacher and he was going to be taught depths of truth that he had never thought of.
And that.
Tremendously arresting statement. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God with all your religion, with all your good works, with all your ceremonial activities, with all the system that had been set up and established of God in the Old Testament, which a man like Nicodemus was keeping religiously, faithfully the Lord.
Stops him short and he says accept a man, be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God, much less enter into it. He can't even see it.
It's a spiritual thing and a new birth is necessary in order to communicate a new life. He's telling Nicodemus that life that you have, that religious activity of your flesh will not do.
You need to be born again.
And Nicodemus didn't understand him.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? A very absurd and ridiculous question. It wasn't a natural birth the Lord was talking about.
Talking about a spiritual birth.
I want to ask you a question tonight. How many times have you been born?
You've only been born once the natural way.
And you haven't been born again the spiritual way. You're still lost.
In spite of the fact that your parents are Christians, your brothers and sisters may be Christians, you've been brought up in a Christian family you've come to meeting, you've been under the sound of the word over and over again. But have you ever experienced personally, individually? For this is an intensely individual thing.
This is not a collective thing. Everyone individually has to come to grips with this.
Have I been born again?
Do I have a new life?
Without it, you'll never see God.
You will never be brought into the realms of the Blessed above.
You may have enjoyed and experienced all of the nice things of Christian fellowship, a Christian family, and Christian training and teaching.
But if this hasn't happened to you.
As an individual, no matter how young or old you are.
The word to you is you must be born again.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And then Nicodemus asked him this silly question, and in verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee again, notice that verily, verily, listen to this.
Except a man be born. He is amplifying out of the word born again now he says. Except a man be born of water.
And of the Spirit.
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
And he tells us all through the New Testament that the water speaks of the word.
The water of the Word Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
And Peter tells us, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. What is the incorruptible seed? The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So the water is symbolical of the Word. It's that which cleanses.
And when the word of God is applied by the Spirit of God to a soul.
And that soul comes to faith.
In the testimony that God has rendered to it, there's life there.
They come together at the same instant. I do not understand it.
You don't understand it.
It is one of those immense truths of Scripture that we accept.
00:10:03
The soul is born again.
He has both life and faith.
At an instant it's the work of God, sovereign act of the Spirit of God.
Notice he's been talking to Nicodemus.
He says in verse 5 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, that singular he was talking to Nicodemus, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. The water is the Word, the Spirit is the person that uses the word, person of the Trinity that uses the Word to produce faith and impart life.
Then he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It will never.
Be trained into anything but flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
You can train it, you can educate it, you can sublimate it, you can give it every possible privilege and advantage.
Send it to universities. But the flesh is flesh. It partakes of the nature of its source, that which is born of the flesh.
Is flesh.
And that will never enter the Kingdom of God.
But then he goes on to say that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. It's a new life.
It partakes of the nature of the Source, and that's the Spirit.
That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
So it's not an improved flesh.
It's not.
An educated and educated flesh. A trained flesh.
It's something altogether new.
The impartation by the Spirit of God, using the Word of God, of divine life.
To the soul.
And then he says a very instructive thing in verse 7.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, still talking to Nicodemus.
But any changes from thee the singular, to ye the plural? And he says ye must be born again. Who does he mean?
If you had a modern translation that rendered both of those words, you.
You wouldn't see this, it would read Marvel. Not that I said unto you, Nicodemus, you must be born again. And you would assume, of course, that the second you met him.
But it means more than him. He's saying to Nicodemus, a representative teacher of Israel, You Jews need to be born again.
Your first birth.
Claiming Abraham as your father and Moses as your spiritual leader, the lawgiver, and so on.
That won't do.
You need a new birth.
A new life.
The first must.
That's the first must. That's not gospel. That's not good news. It's the statement of an absolute necessity.
There must be affected this transaction in your soul individually or you don't have life.
You must receive the word of God.
By faith at your part.
God does his part. He imparts divine life when you do that.
And it comes at the same moment.
He goes on to explain the unknowable about this new birth.
And I'm not going to go into that.
In verse 13 we'll pass on we go come to the next must. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, this goes back to the time when Israel was passing through the wilderness. In Numbers 21 I believe it is.
And the fiery serpents were sent amongst them, because they murmured and complained, which was quite common with this people Israel.
And the Serpent's bit Many.
And they were poisonous snakes.
And the people died.
They were dying.
It's a picture. The serpent is a picture of Satan.
And everyone in this world has been bitten by that serpent.
And everyone in this world is dying.
The wages of sin is that you serve that master sin, you serve Satan. He's the.
You might say the most absolute personification of sin, sin personified would be Satan.
00:15:00
The picture of sin.
And God instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass.
Just like those serpents that were biting the people.
And they were dying.
And put it on a pole.
And he lifted that up.
And he said, Whosoever looketh.
By faith looketh on that serpent of brass lifted up on the pole shall live.
Shall have life.
Now what we learned at the beginning of the chapter, ye must be born again, but it doesn't tell you how you can get that. How do you how are you born again? How does it come about? Now we learn how Christ lifted up on the cross, pictured by the serpent, lifted up on the pole, made sin for us as we were singing Behold the Lamb of God on the cross here his overwhelming cry, Eli Lama Sabachthani on the cross when he was forsaken.
Of God.
A holy God forsaking him, the one who always did his will, the one who always pleased him to the utmost, never more pleasing to God than when He was on that cross bearing the judgment of our sins, though that pleasure could not at that moment be expressed.
Instead, he cried out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And that serpent lifted up on the pole is a picture of sin. Christ was made sin on the cross and bore the penalty for that. He took my place. He took, you can say, if you in faith look up there on that cross and see Him dying, you can say He died for me. He took my place. He bore the judgment that I deserved.
I deserve that place and he took it as a substitutionary sacrifice for me.
And so he says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That's the cross. They lifted him up on a cross, the most ignominious death that man has ever devised for one of his fellows, and they gave that death to the Son of God.
The Son of God and God sent him into this world, knowing the treatment that he would receive from the hands of his creatures.
And God looked down and saw what they were doing to His beloved Son.
You remember at the Jordan, and again at the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father's voice was heard. This is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased, and whom I have found my delight. And now he looks down upon that scene at the cross street, crosses the Lord in the center, and two thieves on either side.
What a scene.
There's nothing like it, since the creation to this time never will be anything like it again.
When God the Incarnate Maker died for man, his creature sinned.
He died for me.
Died for you?
To the infinite expression of grace.
For ye know that grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, rich in glory.
Yet for your sakes, he became poor.
That ye through his poverty, how poor did he become?
Even to the death of the cross.
He gave all he could give. He could not give more.
Blessed be his name forever. He would not give less.
Less would not have done the job. Less would not have done the work. Less would not have accomplished atonement. He had to go all the way.
His obedience.
Never faltered.
Never hesitated.
He expresses in the garden the awfulness, the holy horror to his soul as he contemplates what it would cost him to be made sin.
And he says all, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless.
Not my will.
But thine be done.
And so on the perfection that was always his, he submits to the will of his father.
And he could say, because he did that, he could say in John 10, therefore doth my father.
Love me because I lay down my life.
That I might take it again.
00:20:01
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. And then he closes that precious verse with this commandment.
Have I received of my father? He did it in obedience to his father's commandment. He went to the cross because his father said go.
And he went.
Jesus coming forth.
Met them with lanterns from the garden, with lanterns in torches and weapons.
Whom seek ye?
Jesus of Nazareth.
I am literally.
I am the name of Jehovah.
That's his answer. And they all went backward and fell to the ground. If He seek me, let these go their way. I told you I am He.
And they took him while I was daily with you in the temple. You stretched forth, no hands against me. But this is your hour.
And the power of darkness and the divine restraint which had always kept them to their from their purpose.
For they have tried to get rid of him many times.
You remember in Luke 4 they took him to the top of the hill when he spoke about Grace going out to the Gentiles, and he took him to the top of the hill with the intent of throwing him off.
And had they done so, and had he allowed them to do that, he would have walked away unharmed at the bottom.
But he didn't choose that method of delivering himself, It says he passing through the midst of them went his way.
Another time when they took up stones to stone him is when he said I and my father are one.
Blasphemy.
Blasphemy, they said.
He's claiming equality with the father. Yes, he was.
And that's why they crucified him, because they say in John 19 he made himself the Son of God.
What they meant by that? He said that he was the Son of God. But in John 19 it's put He made himself the Son of God. The truth is he never made himself the Son of God. He was always the Son of God.
He made himself a servant.
He became a man.
He emptied himself.
And he entered his own creation, the Creator.
Becoming a servant. Stupendous, stupendous truth.
Stupendous thought.
Do we know what grace is?
The grace of the Lord Jesus, the rich one becoming poor.
That we might be rich.
Have you received his bounties?
Have you received of His blessings?
Well, let's go on here.
Verse 14. I'll read it again. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That was the cross.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have eternal life.
For God, Southern loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son, who did he give his only?
Begotten Son.
The only one of his kind.
He was one with the Father, the only begotten of the Father.
That's the one he gave, the one who was the darling of his bosom from all eternity.
That's the one he gave.
He gave all that he could give.
Could not give more.
Would not give less.
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
That verse contains in our English translation 25 words.
The center word.
His son.
And all that goes before is what God has done.
Loved the world he's given his only begotten son and the latter part of the verse.
Is man's responsibility to receive that gift?
I want to ask you, have you received it?
Have you received the gift?
Of God's Son, eternal life is yours.
00:25:01
Then you can be sure I've been born again. I've met the first must because God has met the second must.
He must be lifted up.
He had to die. You see, the salvation of God is not something that he could have chosen one or two or three or four or five different ways of saving man.
The only way.
That could there could be salvation. The only way there could be salvation for man is that one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity had to become a man.
Had to come into his own creation.
He became a servant.
And he is God and man in one person.
The Father never became a man. The Spirit never became a man, but the Son did. That's the mystery.
Of the incarnation.
The mystery of eternal love.
That God loved us so much.
That he came to where we were.
Nothing else would have done it.
He had to be in order to be the mediator between God and men.
He had to be God so that he could lay his hand upon God, and he had to be a man so that he could lay his hand upon man.
There's no other way he could bring man to God.
Because man was at such a distance.
And the only way he could effect this would be to go to the cross, and as man, bear the judgment of man's sins.
On that cross.
Remove it. Remove those sins forever from before the face of a holy and a righteous God.
So that now God in grace, God can deal with us in grace now.
Because His Holiness has been glorified.
By the sun, become a man.
And that's the serpent lifted up.
In order that all we have to do is look.
Look can believe all the bitten Israelites dying of that poisonous bite had to do was to look at the serpent of brass lifted up and he that looked lived and the Israelite that refused to look that said he reasoned upon, he said that's ridiculous. How can a look save me? How can a look heal me?
But faith responded to Moses command and those that had faith, they looked.
And they were healed.
And the only way you'll ever come into the family of God and have eternal life and the new birth, the only way you'll have that is by that look of faith at the one that was lifted up.
On that center cross.
For you.
And for me.
But there is another must we must look at, and it's in the next chapter.
John, Chapter 4.
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, departed again into Galilee.
And there's a lot of children here. Judea was in the southern part of the land of Palestine, and then in between was in Galilee was at the northern part, and in between was Samaria, a strip of land claimed by the Samaritans that was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles.
There was great.
Strong national feelings against the Samaritans on the part of the Jews. The Jews were up in Galilee, they were down in Judea and in between with the Samaritan group.
That they had no use for. They didn't talk to them.
And they would always walk around. They wouldn't walk through Samaria. A Jew would walk around it. It was a longer way around, but that's because of his intense hatred for the Samaritans.
Well, the Lord Jesus verse 3 left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must.
Needs go through Samaria.
That must doesn't mean that there was not another route that he could have taken.
Because they did it all the time. They avoided going through Samaria.
But he had to go through Samaria. Why?
00:30:02
Because there was a precious soul there.
There was a precious soul there that he was going to bring into blessing.
For one soul.
He went against that strong national feeling the Jews had to have anything to do with the Samaritans.
And he went to that despised place.
He must needs go through Samaria.
He was constrained by love.
He was driven by love.
Not by Jewish prejudice. He was always above that.
He never had the fear of man.
Before him.
They would say things to him that to most men, would intimidate them and cause them to back off, not him.
Not him.
Never man spake like this man.
He must needs go through Samaria, then cometh he to a city of Samaria verse 5, which is called Sychar.
Near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, you see this place.
The Samaritans could claim it as having quite a bit of history to it.
And.
They thought it was.
A holy place.
And it has history near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there very historical place, historical well.
Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, for He was a true man.
Blessed man.
He sat thus on the well.
And it was about the 6th hour. This was a time.
When?
One of the character that came to the well.
Wouldn't.
But she would be there at this time because this wasn't the normal time.
Drawing water.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
A woman of Samaria, she had a checkered life, a sinful life.
She comes at this time. Lord meets her there.
He knew she'd be there.
I love the expression we find it in the Gospels. Jesus, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forth.
He knew.
Being who he was.
He knew everything.
So he sits wearied with his journey on the well and it was about the 6th hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
We don't ever read if we continue with the narrative, and we will, we don't ever read that. He got that drink.
But he did get a different kind of drink.
Not that physical water that he was asking her for.
But his soul was refreshed.
By the blessing that she received.
Jesus says to her, give me to drink.
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
And then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, she was amazed that he would a Jew. He would even speak to her.
Let alone ask of her a favor.
How is it that thou being a Jew?
Ask this drink of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria.
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Now he doesn't take up that subject of.
The hostility and the.
Strong feelings that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. He doesn't get engaged in that.
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? Only knew who I was, he says.
But he doesn't say it that way. He says who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink. He had just asked her for a drink. He only knew.
He only knew God as a giver.
The gift of God. The free giving of God. God is a giver, God in grace.
Oh, they knew the law. They knew the thunderings of Mount Sinai, and so holy was the mount that if one, just by mistake touched it, they would be killed.
Thunderings and the lightnings and the voices.
Mount Sinai.
Terrible mount.
God's righteous requirements on man.
00:35:02
10 commandments.
Written on 2 tables of stone.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shall not make a graven image of anything in heaven or earth and bow down to it to worship it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
They were not to work on the Sabbath.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not covet.
Covet thy neighbor's house, or his *** or his oxen, or his wife, or anything that is thy neighbor's.
Want something that isn't yours? Have you ever done that? We've all done that.
That last commandment brings us all in for guilty.
We don't pass the test.
Perfect moral code.
10 commandments.
The thunderings, the Lightnings, the terror of Mount Sinai.
If you were at the place you didn't keep your child in tow and they ran away and touched them out, they're dead.
So fearful was the sight.
That's not what we have here, he says to her. If you knew the gift of God.
We just read of that in the 3rd chapter. For God so loved the world that he gave.
His only begotten Son.
You only knew God as a giver. 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. Just like Nicodemus didn't understand what the Lord was talking about when he was talking about being born again.
How can I enter the second time into my mother's womb and be born? She doesn't understand it either. When he talks about living water, he thought she thought he was talking about this water that was from the well.
Talking about spiritual truth.
The well is deep. That was nothing to draw with. The well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our Father Jacob? Was he greater?
Infinitely greater.
She did not know to whom she was speaking.
Nicodemus didn't either.
He came as a teacher to a teacher and he was taught.
Profound depth of truth that he and all the Israelites needed to know.
You must be born again.
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, He doesn't answer her question directly.
He speaks in another place of Solomon, in all his glory. I behold the flowers of the field.
Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed as one of these, and yet he said.
Greater than Solomon is here.
And so it was. But he doesn't answer her that way. He says Whosoever drinketh.
Of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst.
On a statement.
These statements of the Lord Jesus, especially in the Gospel of John, they they they tell us of the person of the eternal Son of God.
They tell us of the person of the I am.
That Jehovah the I am, that I am the one who is the same.
That name of his essential existence, the I am.
Who lives in an eternal present?
And the New Testament expression for that is he who is and who was, and who is to come.
That's as close as you get in the New Testament to the word Jehovah.
And that's Jesus.
Art thou greater than our Father Jacob?
And he says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him.
Shall never thirst.
This is soul thirst he's talking about.
Men were living in the 20th century, almost going into the 21St and in my lifetime.
In my lifetime, not 70 years old yet in my lifetime, there's been the development of.
Cars and airplanes and radio and television.
00:40:05
And satellites.
And shots to the moon all in my life.
Tremendous increase.
In technology, and it seems as though as technology improves, the moral state goes down in inverse proportion.
That's where we are today.
Right at the end of man's day.
God will not.
Sit idly by much longer.
Allowing man to.
Spit in his face, as they did to the blessed Lord.
That's what they're doing today in this country of ours, which has been so blessed.
With gospel testimony ever since its inception.
So blessed there's never been a country in this world. So blessed is the United States of America.
And there's never been a country so guilty.
So guilty.
Of despising the grace of God.
Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Nothing worse than that.
Nothing worse than that.
2000 years of gospel testimony. I want to ask you how many times have you heard the gospel?
100 a thousand 10,000 times There are millions of souls on planet Earth today that have never heard it once.
Never heard it.
I was 19 years old, living in the United States of America, right outside of this huge city of Chicago, and I didn't hear the gospel until I was 19.
I didn't hear it till I was 19.
I'm not saying it wasn't presented to me.
I don't remember.
But I didn't actually hear the gospel.
Until I was 19.
And thank God when I heard it.
I received it. Have you done that?
Whether you've heard it once or twice, or 1000 times or 10,000 times, are you born again? Do you have a new life? Do you have eternal life in the sun?
Have you seen Christ lifted up on the cross, bearing the judgment that you deserved?
You know God is a giver.
You know God is a giver. The Lord must go through Samaria. He had to go there because there was a soul there that needed this water of life.
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.
Bringing up into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him, Sir.
Give me this water that I thirst not neither come hit her to draw.
He had awakened the desire of her heart. He had reached her heart.
He had offered her living water.
Something that would be a constant source of refreshment to her soul.
And her life was so checkered that hadn't come out yet.
And then he says, now go.
Call my husband.
And come hit her.
How did he know she had a husband?
He knows everything.
He knows everything you've ever done or thought or even purposed doing.
He knows you're down sitting and you're uprising. He understands your thoughts afar off. The darkness and the light are both alike to him. You can turn the light off and think you're doing something in secret that he can't see.
Oh no.
Darkness and the light are both alike to him.
Go call thy husband.
Now she hides behind a technicality.
The woman answered and said I have no husband.
That was literally true. She wasn't then legally married I think the way it reads.
Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband. Right away he lets her know, I know all about your life.
For thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou now hath, the man you are now living with, is not your husband.
In that sense, thou truly.
00:45:02
He's reaching the conscience because of the conscience isn't reached. There's nothing, nothing wrought of God in the soul.
The light has to come in through the conscience.
Man's state has to be laid bare before God, before he can be blessed.
He had offered her this living water, and it would have been so nice if she could just get it without having her conscience reached. But no, that's not God's way.
Not only is God loved, but He is light.
And so the light of God's truth must reach the conscience.
And every time the Lord deals with the soul, every time you can trace it through, it's a wonderful study.
It's always light and love, always light and love sometimes in the other order, love and light as it is here, but the two are always there because he always manifested God.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Only a prophet would know.
All these things about me, you've never seen me before, a total stranger. And you know, you know, I've had five husbands and the man I'm with now is not my husband.
She was a sinful woman.
And then she gets religious.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.
And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
I've seen that first hand. I for years preached the gospel at Skid Row in Chicago.
I remember one time speaking on the Prodigal Son.
And I was amazed to see, I thought that the men down there would, would relate to the story and would would receive it and they would realize, they would realize that they were they were pictured by that prodigal.
But I was surprised when they came up to me afterward and they said.
Oh, you think you're so good?
And we're the prodigals.
They understood the message.
But they resented.
The fact that they were being depicted as prodigals, exactly what they were.
Many of them.
Drunkards.
Living in sin.
Prodigals away from God.
But the last thing to die in man is his pride.
How many times they have come up to me and they've got liquor on their breath and they're reeling under the effects of it and they extol their virtues. I'm good to my wife and my children. I bring home a paycheck every week and I take care of them and this and that. But I don't mention about their habit of drunkenness.
And the other sad effects that it brings into the family.
Lasting to die in man is his pride. And if you don't, come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before you leave this scene, what will keep you from coming to him is pride.
Pride. And that's the last thing.
To die.
In man, that's why a proud Christian is an enigma.
And an anomaly, A contradiction, because in order to become a Christian you have to give up your pride.
You have to own. I am lost. I am utterly bad. I'm.
Incorrigibly wicked.
You have to come to the I remember telling my secretary at work until you come to the point where you say before God, I am vile, you won't be saved. And she said I'll never say that I'm not vile.
Now that's he was being truthful, that's the way she felt.
She hadn't come to seeing herself in the presence of God.
So she brings up this.
Subject.
Verse 20 Our Fathers worshiped in this mountain.
And ye say you Jews say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
And ** *** was trying to get him to get off of her case.
And get on to a general subject of a religious discussion.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me.
The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this.
Mountain.
Nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
He talks about worshipping the Father, a totally new thought to her.
Who is this that he's calling the father?
Ye worship, ye know not what, in that one sweeping statement, he says.
He disowns the Samaritan worship. He says he worship ye know not what.
And then he owns the worship that Jerusalem he says.
00:50:03
We know what we worship, speaking representatively as a Jew there for salvation is of the Jews.
God owned Jerusalem, not Samaria.
But then he says, but the hour cometh.
And now is when the true worshippers.
Shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Night neither at Samaria nor Jerusalem, but the true worshippers is looking on to the Christian dispensation.
Which we're living in now.
The true worshippers. He's unfolding this depth of truth of worship to a poor Samaritan woman. If I was writing this, I would have had him unfold this truth to Nicodemus. He's someone that could understand it.
All he says to Nicodemus is you must be born again.
You need a new life. You've got to start with an altogether new beginning.
You have to come to the realization that everything you've trusted in and valued and put your.
Your value upon.
Is not good.
You need a new life.
That's what Saul of Tarsus had to come to. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Touching the righteousness which was in the law, he was blameless.
But when it pleased God, he said, who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me.
Light flooded into his soul. God said let there be light.
And that religious Jew, Saul of Tarsus, had the light of God flood into his soul.
Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And now he makes the connection between Jesus, the one that he had heard Stephen crying to. Lord Jesus lay not the sins of their charge.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Solved Tarsus. He was keeping the clothes of those that stoned him, and he heard those words and now?
He personally is encountering the Lord Jesus from heaven.
To art thou, Lord, I am Jesus. And then the light floods into his soul.
He passed from darkness to light, from death to life.
Lord.
Wilt thou have me to do? Immediately? He called Jesus Lord.
You do that.
Jesus your Lord, if he isn't, you're not saved.
Not enough to save your Savior? Is he your Lord?
Is he Lord?
Well.
He says to this Samaritan woman.
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 saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh.
Which is called Christ.
When he has come, he will tell us all things.
Wonderful Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, and he.
And he there's two people in John's gospel he reveals himself to at this woman.
Of Samaria and the Blind Man in John 9.
I would speak unto thee and he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he spoke to the woman, Yet no man said, What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot. She becomes an evangelist now. And she went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She was driven.
By a new found light and love that had entered her soul.
Because he received her.
He revealed himself to her. Can you relate to that? Can we relate to that, beloved Saints?
Can we relate to that? Can we enter into the heart of the Savior?