Matt Slick Bible Study, John 4, 2/1/2017

Let's see if they can.

Should work now.

What?

No.

Yeah, I can wander.

It's no big deal.

I'm back here.

People don't mind.

All right.

Man, this takes a lot of work.

I have to get here a half hour early next time.

Set it all up.

If you can move the laptop to the right, that way I can look at it when I'm pushing myself.

See?

It goes.

We're watching right now.

Let's see how it works.

Test.

It's working.

People are hearing it.

All right.

We can get going here pretty soon.

It's on the CARM website.

Do that one, too, huh?

Yeah, might as well, because we're doing everything as well.

Work through.

Here's that.

Connecting wires here.

Oh, yeah.

I've got some long ones and some short ones.

That's the monitor.

I'll let you set it up.

I won't worry about it.

So the thing is, dude, is it started broadcast?

And next time, I won't broadcast until we're well into it, instead of

now.

Good night.

We'll just watch you get ready by 7.

Next time, we will.

Yeah.

We're going to have to.

All right.

That's quite a bit of work.

That is a lot of work, getting that going.

Next time, we'll go faster.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

This is a lot of work.

Yeah.

I did get everything, though.

I did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So nobody can say anything, because they might get in and just start saying this, and, you know, man, it's slick.

And, you know, a lot of upshippers twitch out there.

Yeah.

I talked to Matt Delahunty.

Or Matt, we were emailing last night.

Yeah.

He said no problem, but he's concerned about copyright stuff.

You know, if you want me to do it, I won't do it that way.

But I can just take excerpts.

I just took the whole thing he did, and I just went through, stepped in, paused, listened.

But I think what I might do next time is I'm just going to take excerpts,

just play like one minute, and then comment, and then find something else.

There's a lot to comment, but it is what it is.

You guys ready?

Are you guys ready?

Let's do a quick show.

You look familiar.

You've been here before, haven't you?

That's why you look familiar.

It wasn't because I was in a post office, because you looked like you could sleep on the wall there.

Josiah?

Oh, you did?

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Maybe the batteries are, oh, there it goes.

Well, good, man.

Glad you're back.

And Trish, if you're Josiah, Trish, talked.

You guys have been here before?

And what's your name?

Alex?

Okay.

I thought you said Alice, but I couldn't be right.

I have a hearing thing going on here.

And what church do you go to normally?

Oh, cool.

You know, he and I were going to go do some looking at some stuff at a couple of places two days ago.

We're sitting there, and I had a snow blower ordered weeks ago.

But the snow is basically over.

But anyway, so it gets delivered while he's there, and two Russian guys delivered it.

They delivered it.

I don't know.

It's just the place, a big truck.

Yeah.

It was kind of funny.

We're getting invaded by the Russians.

So let's see.

It's 1884E.

Let's see if it's showing up.

We're just going to jump in.

It's the same one.

Good.

All right.

I guess we're going.

All right.

Let's just jump in.

You guys ready?

Looks like it's working.

I should actually switch it back to the video thing.

Let's just see.

Just click on this.

All right.

Man, what a lot of problems.

All right.

So here we go.

Finally working.

Sorry about all the tech stuff.

It took us almost a half hour to get it up and have it working.

Hopefully, the feed on YouTube continue won't bail.

I don't know.

We'll see what we're going to do about it.

If it does, it'll work at once.

So what we're going to do is continue through the Gospel of John.

We'll start at verse 7.

And we already went over it a little bit.

I'll go over this a little bit more.

But first, we have to pray and the Lord to bless us.

Ready?

You ready?

Yeah?

Okay.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this time.

And Lord, we just ask that you would bless it, and that by your grace, Lord,

that all who would hear your words, myself incorporated, would be blessed and be

changed, and that you would open our hearts and our minds to understand the truth of what it is you

have for us in this Gospel.

Lord, I thank you.

Thank you for your word, for loving us and dying for us and freely giving us salvation.

Jesus, we want to give you the glory, and we thank you.

We ask this, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

So if you got your Bible, turn to John chapter 4.

Last week, we were at the Good Samaritan parable because it was relative to the issue of the Samaritan.

And we'll just start at verse 7.

And I'll do a couple of verses at a time and just come back and comment.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink?

I'm a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

So we went over this last week, these verses, but it's the nice pericope begin here

to get us back into the context of what's going on.

Remember, Samaritans were basically half -breeds from hundreds of years earlier.

And when Jesus, earlier in the chapter, he was moving from, not moving and

living, but traveling from Judah up to Galilee.

And there's two ways to go, one through Samaria and one to the other side of Samaria.

Most people would avoid Samaria unless they had to go into it for a particular reason.

They didn't like going in there.

It was a longer route to go through Samaria than it was the other way.

And yet Jesus chose to go to Samaria and, of course, meet the woman at that well.

Now, I always love to say that I've been to that very well and I've

just drank water out of that very well.

When I went and did a tour in Turkey, we saw seven churches of revelation.

We went to each location.

And then what we did was we went to Israel and we went into the, I think the Jordan side, I

know it wasn't Jordan, Palestinians, whatever it was, and into Galilee.

And we went to the hill that she was talking about, you know, on this hill, that hill.

And anyway, we got off the bus, we went in, we went down this little, these steps and there's this

basically a church around it and there's this well right there and there's all of that

kind of stuff.

And it goes down and it was, you know, you had to really crank on this and you got this water up and it

was really awesome.

We drove to the same well that Jesus was at.

So anyway, that was that.

We're in John chapter four and went over to the good Samaritan parables.

Let's just jump right up to verse 10.

Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me

a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Now Jesus spoke in such a way as to cause her to think, because that's what Jesus would often

do.

And I've tried to emulate him.

I like to ask questions, get people to think, not give them an answer.

You know, here's a, here's a fishing pole.

People to think I want them to look the word of God and examine it.

I try and give them the tools, not that I'm a great thinker or know everything.

You know, that's what it is.

Now what is this gift of God?

The gift of God is that's what God is.

Who is it?

Now you'll see that later.

Who is it that is in this woman request a drink from her?

Think about that.

This is God in flesh asking the Samaritan, this half -breed woman looked down at the Jews.

Jesus, the Messiah who was sent only to the law chief of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24,

went out of his way to meet this woman and ask for a drink of water so that he could tell her

what true water really was.

Now Jesus says in John 7, 38 to 39, he who believes in me, as the scripture said from an

innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

But this, he spoke of the spirit.

So this is what he's talking about here in John chapter four, verse 10.

It's going to give her living water.

The living water, of course, is the Holy Spirit.

Now a little bit of attention.

Some people, we all remember this in John chapter three, verses three through eight.

Now, when it talks about being born again, actually literally it's from above.

What Jesus is talking about there is being born again.

I know that some people think, I forgot what verse.

I think it's around verse seven or eight where it says must be born of water and the spirit.

Well, I believe the water, right or wrong.

I believe the water is the womb, the water of the womb.

That's not the most common held position, but that's the position I hold too.

I think it's contextual, but others will say that the water represents the Holy Spirit.

And one of the reasons is because of this verse in John 7, 38 to 39, we're

talking about living water flowing up and out, and that's the Holy Spirit.

But then that would say it was he born of the Holy Spirit and spirit.

It doesn't quite make sense to me, but there are different, um, different arguments for that.

We've already been over that though.

And John three.

All right.

Now she said to him, verse, sir, you have nothing to do with, and the well is deep.

Where then do you put the water?

And yes, that all is deep.

We took a cup of water and just, it was quiet and we'll just turn it over.

Somebody did just turn.

We waited about four or five seconds.

The sound come back up.

So it fell quite a bit.

And, uh, one of the most pleasant memories of that trip really was that and eating

olives, all kinds of cool, all of, um, any red.

So it was deep.

And, uh, where do you get that living water?

I don't know if when she said the well is deep, if she was just saying, you know, it's just, it's deep because

it is, but think about it.

Now we have this in English, you know, that's a deep thought.

Could it be that God inspired her to her ways?

Illegal, a, uh, various things.

And maybe this is record because, you know, the depth, the word of God, the depth of the spirit,

probably, but just about.

And, uh, let's see.

Verse 12.

Are you not bigger than our father, Jacob?

Are you Avis as well?

And drank of himself and his son and his cattle.

So our father need that.

She recognizes that both the Jews and the Samaritans have a common ancestor of Jake.

This is hundreds of years ago.

Maybe we'll do a study on Jacob sometime.

And after Jacob, the line split after a, uh, a period when, uh,

Israel was in bondage, but what I opened by a nation.

And so they interbred with the, uh, the people there and had Samaritans, Jesus answered and said, everyone who

drank water will thirst again.

He just begins to clear up the woman's misunderstanding of what was saying.

Now, isn't that exactly the case that we universally will very

frequently misunderstand the word.

Now I had a guy call today at the office and he was telling me, about various churches

that he goes to.

And he's been seeing various Harris coming into the Christian church.

And he actually, to my surprise talked about the rise of humanism in the Christian church.

And I was very tickled that he said that because I totally agree with him.

Humanism is a rising church.

And I'm going to write either a booklet or an article on it.

Haven't decided with which, which one yet.

Now the thing is, what is happening is just, he is going to

clarify what the issue is.

The way for us to understand Jesus is saying is to study his word in depth.

We have to have it in front of us.

We have to read it.

We've got to think about it, how to ask questions about it, better read other areas of the scriptures.

We've got to wonder, what does the text say?

What does it not say?

What are other related passages and things like this about the text?

Jesus had to clarify because her assumptions to begin with are wrong.

She believed in working on a particular hill, but Jesus said, no, that's not the right hill.

This is real basic way of saying your assumption to begin with is an error.

We have assumptions.

All of us have assumptions.

We wake up in the morning, we assume we're the same person who went to bed.

We don't have to go to the stove and turn on the heat.

We don't have to worry if it's going to work or not, or if the laws of the universe have changed.

We assume we'll always be the same.

Assume this because it's what we've seen, and that's the key.

What we do is we look at what we see, what we experience, and we decide what is

true or what is normal based on our experience, not always in the way of God.

Now, as an illustration, I've done it with many people, and the issue of deciding what free will

is.

What is free will?

People say, well, it's the ability to make choices.

It's the ability to make uncoerced choices.

I'll ask them, and I'll say, does free will mean that you have to have the ability

to make choices between good and bad and also be able to accomplish the good and bad in order to make the choice?

They say, of course.

And what they don't realize they're doing is they're starting with a humanist, man -centered idea because

God himself cannot choose between good and bad.

He can't accomplish both.

He can only accomplish good.

Inadvertently, people, what they're doing is starting with a man -centered idea of what truth is,

and then they're applying it to other things.

Now, I do this a lot with Christians, trying to get them to stop that.

Now, I'm not saying I have all my assumptions biblically arranged.

Okay.

We know it can't be the case.

But when you study the Word of God a lot, and when the cults are fighting against you, when Christians are

fighting against you, when atheists, when evolutionists, when false religious people are fighting against you, for

decades, I've been doing this for 37 years, you tend to kind of conclude how to understand some things

and learn some stuff.

It doesn't mean I got everything down.

I certainly don't.

The issue here I want you to understand is this basic principle I see as being very important.

We all have assumptions.

Are our assumptions true?

Are our assumptions biblically based?

Now, as Jesus, he teaches so that the assumptions they have, or she

has, be corrected.

So also, we need to have our assumptions corrected as well.

We have to do that.

I'm reminded of the British.

They were very evangelical.

The battery's dead, I guess.

Very evangelical.

Excuse me.

And what they would do is they would go to different countries, and they would get the

natives, so to speak, the natives to be converted to Christianity.

And then, there should be some more in there.

I thought there were.

What's that?

Oh, I left it there.

I put everything in there.

I had to put batteries in there.

Look at the top right there by your thumb.

Up high.

There you go.

Let's do one of those and one of these, and we'll get going.

Man, we've got to change these.

Oh, there we go.

Every single week.

Okay, sorry about that, folks.

More technical issues.

What, the ASIC 204?

As my brother would say, you're getting closer

to the moon.

All right.

So I'm trying to get through to you.

It's something that's really important to me that I've seen over the years that I'm really concerned about.

It's a false assumption that so many Christians have about some things.

It drives me crazy.

I know that Christians make all kinds of mistakes.

Please, again and again, I'm not saying I got it all down.

But we can just turn on TV, and I do this every now and then.

When I really want to get myself set and agitated, I'll watch on Sunday mornings.

I'll watch the religious shows on TV.

It doesn't take long before I'm yelling.

Not only do I see them teaching heresies and man -centeredness and humanism,

but the cameras off pan to the audience, the sheep who are just

believing everything, and they don't realize they're being taught humanistic principles.

But nevertheless, this is important.

Jesus begins to change her understanding.

He says, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again.

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I give him

will become in a well of water springing up to eternal life.

Now this here, shall never thirst again.

What does that mean?

Never thirst again, never thirst for what?

Now in Galatians 3 .24, it says the law is a tutor that leads us Christ.

And in Deuteronomy 27 .26, it says that we are to keep the law perfectly.

And Paul quotes that verse in Galatians 3 .10.

There is a sense for those of us, and those people whom God is calling and working, as

Romans 1 .18 -32 says, people know that God exists.

They suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness.

People thirst for God in different ways.

They have different ideas of what God wants for them, or what they think that Mormons believe in a false God,

Muslims believe in a false God, Jesus is no false God, the Roman Catholic gospel,

and they're thirsting.

They want the truth to some degree, but they're not getting it because

they don't have the one who is the truth.

Now I remember before I was a Christian, I remember

picking out a necklace with a symbol on it that I could identify with.

I knew there was something beyond me, something more than me.

And as a young, mature adolescent, I wanted to find a person, a

person.

I got involved in the occult, and I've seen things.

I've seen stuff, I really have.

And I always wanted more, not just more, a bigger car, a better car.

It was, no, something else in my life, the issue of truth.

I remember it well.

I remember that once I became a Christian, that all that thirst for everything else

disappeared.

Never had to worry about it ever since.

I don't need to go to the Jehovah's Witness religion, the Mormon religion, the

Islam, the Catholicism and its apostasy.

I don't need to follow any rules in order to be saved.

I don't need to be perfect in order to be saved.

I don't need to worry about my salvation.

I don't have to worry about it.

I don't thirst, I don't worry, I'm not concerned because it's not in Christ.

Everything is completed in Jesus.

I'm free to move forward.

I'm free to live for him.

I don't thirst for those things anymore.

In fact, the things I thirst for now are completely different.

To equip the Christians, to teach, to give answers.

I had a call on the radio today, and the guy was talking about, I think it was before or after the show.

I did the show from the office at home.

I get calls.

I forgot which.

Maybe you heard the guy who said that he had the opportunity to be a pastor.

He's from Honolulu.

That's right.

It was on the air.

We talked about the issue of should he go to this denomination.

It's pretty liberal in a lot of areas.

Me, I would consider that because it's an opportunity to witness.

I didn't have or didn't add this.

I'd probably be kicked out in two to three years, but I wouldn't try to get kicked out.

I would just stand up for truth, and they wouldn't want truth, and so I would be ousted.

That's me, but that doesn't mean it's him.

It's in oranges.

My desires are different.

That's the thing about us as Christians.

Before and after our conversions, our desires, what we thirst for are different.

So many people are thirsting for, well, some for righteousness, some for moral stability,

some for happy relationships, some for whatever it might be, a good job.

Those things are fine, but I'm talking about the issue of spirituality, the issue of truth, the issue of God,

that eternal something, that something that's there.

I've always been aware of that, even when I was an atheist, believe it or not.

I bounced back and forth between atheism and agnosticism and belief in God in my

early years, from being four or five years old to, like I

said, 17.

I literally remember standing outside of an apartment complex in Corona, California,

at the age of 10, contemplating infinite distance and trying to understand

it, because I knew there was something more than where I was, catching tadpoles down in the stream.

I still remember what I was looking at in the distance of the sky and the setting sun and the distance of it and

contemplating that and wondering, is there a God?

At 10 years old.

And then in high school, agnosticism, I don't know if God exists or does not exist.

I think maybe on Tuesday once I was an atheist, who knows?

But there was always this plight, this need, this something.

I don't know about you, but I just knew, down deep.

Sometimes I would press it, sometimes I'd let it bubble to the surface.

Something else, something more.

In fact, when I was very young, my mom on base, when my dad was in the

service, she got us these bracelets, because as young boys with three

brothers, we will take off in a direction, go chase a dog, go chase a piece of paper, because it just,

you know, young boys with no frontal lobe capacity, you know, and come, you know, wear a bag over your head

around the house because it looks like.

And she gave us these bracelets.

Yeah, you know, she gave these bracelets.

I don't remember this, and I must have been eight or nine, because we got lost on base.

She was very protective, okay, whatever.

And of all things that she put on, I'm surprised because I lived my mom's life at that time,

but she put on, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, right?

And I remember when she put that on, she said, you keep this on in case you get lost, address and stuff in the back, and

had that, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

I remember thinking, but I do want, because I didn't

understand, have any desire or need, but no, I do want him.

Even then, there was something there.

I don't want to thirst.

And what Jesus is doing is going to her so she won't have to thirst.

I don't know what her condition was.

She was living with one guy and five other husbands,

and she was obviously not a, well, I would say a very sanctified woman,

and that's why she was getting water at noon, because women would give her the cold shoulder, they're not going

to cool the evening to get water.

And carry a gallon of water is 8 .345 pounds.

That's, you do two pounds, that's insane.

You carry it for very long, and for women, that's not, you know, that's tough, and women were shorter back as men were.

So she was out there in the heat of the noon sun, maybe in her heart, this is just

conjecture, maybe in her heart she was sorrowful for her sin.

Just as Jesus gave the parable in Luke 18, 9 -14 about the Pharisee, the tax gatherer.

The tax gatherer said, Be merciful to me, the sinner.

Maybe there's something here that's in her heart.

The tax gatherer doesn't say so, I'm not saying it was.

He just went to see her.

I can't help but suspect that there was something there within her that was longing out for God's

thirsting, and he went to go meet her.

I suspect that's the case.

And if it is the case, then what does it say for us?

Our desire to further the gospel for those who are thirsting for God.

We have the obligation as Christians to further the word of God,

the kingdom of God, that gospel message.

And as I said before we started, I just got invited to go to India today

because they need some doctrine teaching.

I haven't said yes, I haven't said no.

I don't want to go to India.

No desire to go to India.

None.

And because I just said that, you never know how that works.

Now, if there's a bunch of preachers who want theology and I can teach for a few days, then it's worth it because I can

equip them.

But, you know, it's a different world and I just don't want to go to India.

I don't want to go to Hawaii either.

I don't want to go there on the beach.

I don't want to do that.

So, anyway, was that some mocking over there?

Yeah, Antarctica.

So what's interesting here, though, is that Jesus has given me a drink.

I'm going to assume he was thirsty for water.

He's a man.

And yet at this point, when her need is revealed, that issue of his own

physical need is avoided, is removed.

He doesn't consider it.

He abandons it because there's a greater need.

His thirst is not as great as the need for thirst to be satisfied.

Verse 15, the woman said, Sir, give me this water so I won't be thirsty.

It will come all the way here to draw.

Remember, there was no running water.

They had to go do that.

That's a woman's job and a servant's job, go get the water.

Now, how would you like to have to walk a mile to get water for your household?

Now, I'm a man and I could do it.

I could walk a mile.

I think my ability to handle two gallons all the way back, because I've got a slow

back, it would be difficult.

But I could do it for my family.

Now, a mile carrying 16 pounds, people don't think that's very much.

It gets heavy.

Now, somebody here is a soldier, knows how to carry a bunch of weights and can do it.

But the idea is a frail, small woman.

Now, generally speaking, women of that time were a little bit more in shape than women now.

They had to do stuff, probably handle it.

But still, it's a bit of work.

I'm trying to be really careful here.

I don't want to get myself in trouble.

I've digged a hole like this.

It's true.

Sorry, but it is.

The men 100 years ago, 200 years ago, worked out in the field.

They worked.

My idea of working like this was a mess.

All right.

He said, go, call your husband and come here.

Now, Jesus knows.

She doesn't have a husband.

What does he ask?

Why would Jesus ask what he already knows?

Because it's revealed later.

He already knows.

Why does Jesus ask what he knows?

I ask what I know all the time.

I'll be talking to them, dialoguing with them.

I'll ask a question that I know the answer to.

I want to see what they're going to say.

Now, with me, I have to learn about them.

I know what the answers are.

Generally, a strategy when you do politics is know the answer to the question you're asking before

you do.

I do this a lot, and that's why I study, so I can get answers to things.

It hasn't worked with my wife any.

I can't figure this.

Then I find out I don't.

Verse 16, go, call your husband.

The woman said, I have no husband.

Jesus said, I have no husband.

Of course, Jesus knows the truth.

For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.

This you said truly.

So he recited her history, and he pointed

out her present sin of fornication.

She's not what you would call a socially acceptable woman.

That's why she hit the well at noon.

The Jewish rabbis only approved of three marriages.

They would give permission, so to speak, or perform three marriages, but not five.

So who knows what the story is with her.

Now, notice what Jesus does not say here in verse 18.

You had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.

This you said truly.

What he doesn't say to her, she's in sin.

He doesn't tell her to stop.

He doesn't tell her to stop.

He doesn't say stop sinning.

He has others elsewhere.

But this woman he doesn't do that with.

Now, why do you think that's the case?

All we can do is guess.

I'm going to offer some guesses.

Because she already knew and felt bad.

Maybe her body language, you know, she's holding her head down low.

She's feeling bad.

You don't need to point it out.

But he's already there being the omniscient Lord, and he's going to tell her the

truth.

There's something about being in the presence of Jesus.

You're aware of your sin, and no one's going to tell you anything about it.

I remember that's the case when I was 17.

And the very presence of the Holy Spirit and then Jesus were there.

And there was no proclamation.

There was no anything I heard from to say repent.

It was natural.

In the presence of light, shadows flee.

Because that's the nature of shadows, to flee.

Sin is a form of darkness.

In the presence of God in that great light, you want to abandon it.

And you know me, I like to take vengeance at this point.

I wonder, why is it God doesn't send more people?

I don't have the answer to that.

Why is it he doesn't just shine his glory upon others?

You know, I've had public debates with atheists.

Why doesn't he save these atheists?

I don't know.

It's not my business.

It's above me, great.

I don't know.

I know he did that with me.

And people have said, well, Matt, others have had the same experience.

I say, no, they haven't.

Because they're talking about Mormons having the same experience, Muslims having the same experience.

No, they haven't.

If they had had the same experience, they'd be Christians.

Because when you're in the presence of the true and living God, you are affected.

Now, here he is.

What would you do if you were in the presence of Jesus?

You'd be immediately convicted by your sin.

You mean right now?

On the ground.

I like that one, yeah.

That's right.

Now, if all of a sudden we're talking and there's still this light.

And then we're all on the ground.

In the presence of Jesus, all right, if it happened, it'd be amazing.

I'd love that.

And we wouldn't be able to function for days.

You would not be able to function for days.

You can't be normal.

You're ecstatically enamored, happy, energized,

wondrously filled, want to proclaim for days and days and days.

That's all you can do.

If it ever happens, you can't go to work.

You'd get fired.

Stop talking about Jesus.

I know, but I don't want to hear about Jesus.

It's like that.

My dad thought I was on drugs.

He did.

After two months at my conversion.

I'm 60 now.

I'm down quite a bit.

Verse 19, I said to him, sir, I believe you are a

prophet.

So very quickly, you know, he knows things.

Now, why did you say that?

I believe you're a prophet.

I'm getting at something.

You probably won't jump into this one very quickly.

Her worldview allowed for there to be prophets.

Now, a Samaritan only acknowledged the Pentateuch.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

They considered those the final word.

And there's words in there about prophets.

Moses was a prophet, and others were prophets.

There are prophets.

And there was a prophecy about another prophet coming.

Now, her worldview allowed her to say, see if you're a prophet.

Now, if I were to go up to an atheist, and the Lord would give me a word of wisdom or a word of

knowledge about that person, and I was able to tell that person something that only that person knew.

I've done that once.

But I was able to do that with, say, an atheist.

The atheist presupposes functionally that no God exists.

So could the person then say, you got that from God?

Nope.

Or you're a prophet?

Nope.

Probably say something like, you've been watching me.

You've been spying on me.

A person's worldview is a set of assumptions that they use to interpret the

world.

Her view allowed the idea of God working and prophets who work,

who heard from God.

Now, remember, God's here, we're here, a prophet's in the middle, and a prophet speaks from God

to man.

A priest, in the middle, speaks from man to God on behalf of sinful sacrifices offered

to God.

Verse 20, our Father is worshiped in this mountain.

And you people say that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship.

I can actually see that mountain in my memory.

We've been there.

It was really cool.

And the tour guide was really interesting.

He would say these small things.

I don't know if others caught.

And I'd latch onto them.

And that was him.

He said, oh, yeah, and that's the mountain that the Samaritan was talking about.

And he just kept going.

And I'm like, what?

Stop for a second.

I want to catch what you're saying.

But that's it.

And another one was when we were driving in the bus, the tour bus, along a road in

Jerusalem.

And it was really interesting because the road was here, and then it was flat for a few hundred feet, and

then went up this little hill.

There's trees there, and the city was up there, and hilly and not hilly, whatever.

And this flat area with this kind of abrupt little rise, you could walk up it, but it might be a little bit

steep.

It wasn't like a slope.

It was kind of pretty high and pretty fast.

I'd say about 70, 80 degrees, if I remember.

And we're driving, and he's glancing, and he goes, you know, he's talking about this.

He goes, oh, by the way, those are the hills where Judas hung himself, you know.

And another one of those.

And, you know, I'm looking, and I could see, oh, the trees at the top of the

thing, how it says that he hung himself and then fell down and his guts burst open.

I could see how that would work.

It makes sense.

If you ever get to go to Jerusalem, it's worth it because then you get to brag about it to other

people who haven't been there.

Say, you haven't been there?

Like that.

You get a dismissive wave if you want.

A lot of fun.

So she was referring to Mount Gerizim.

So after the temple was destroyed by John Canas in 128 B .C.,

Samaritans continued to use that mountain as their place of worship.

As a matter of fact, there was a building up on the top.

I remember that.

The Samaritans were as firm in their worship on Mount Gerizim as a Jew were worshiping in Jerusalem.

They interpreted the once -sanctuary law of Jerusalem to refer to Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem.

So the Samaritans thought the Jews were worshiping in the wrong mountain.

And the Jews said, no, you're worshiping in the wrong mountain.

Who's right?

Well, when you're convinced, the other person automatically is false.

However, she is wrong.

Jesus said to her, verse 21, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in

Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Now woman is a polite form of address, not a rude one.

A Ferengi way of saying woman is a good one, though.

Woman, which is really nice if you like Trek.

Sometimes I'll say to my wife, woman, can I have a sandwich?

And then I've got to back off because usually she comes in my direction.

It's good for the marriage.

Woman.

And I can get into some other stuff, but we're on tape.

I don't want to say it.

Okay, so this is a polite form of address, woman, rude one.

And he said, the hour coming.

Now what's that hour?

An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Could an hour be referring to the time of Jesus' death, which will then usher in a new worship, a new

way of worship?

Remember, I've gone over this before, but Hebrews 8 .13 and Hebrews 9 .15 -16

speaks in there about the change of the covenant pattern.

The covenant with the death of the testator, a new covenant is in effect.

Old covenant, new covenant.

Old testament, new testament.

Latin for covenant is testamentum.

So it's the old covenant, new covenant.

And Hebrews 8 .13, when he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete.

But where it's becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Hebrews 9 .15 -16 says, for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant.

So that since a death has taken place under the redemption of the transgressions, for

the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called and received the

promise of eternal inheritance.

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

This is really an interesting thing.

We'll probably do a study through Hebrew one time.

We'll get to stuff like that in depth.

And that really is all there, but not for now.

He says, you worship what you do not owe.

You worship what we know, for salvation is from Jews.

Jesus does correct her.

He corrects her theological error.

He does.

1 Corinthians 2 .15 says, Christians can make spiritual judgments.

People say, don't judge me.

I'm going to correct your error.

I'm not judging your salvation, but what you're doing is wrong.

You know, you can do that.

He's correcting her theological error.

That's what I do a lot.

I correct people's errors all the time.

Again, I don't have all the answers.

But I've been studying for a long time, teaching for a long time.

Learned a few things.

And I can see so many times when Christians, non -Christians have error.

Benny Hinn, nobody should be supporting that guy.

Kenneth Copeland should not be supported.

Joyce Meyer should be supported.

The book The Shack shouldn't be acknowledged as a decent book.

The movie The Shack is coming out soon.

There are so many errors in the church.

Humanism is creeping in.

Where man is the center, where man is the reason that God created.

He wants to show us how valuable we are.

Robert Shuler, if you know who he was, the Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, California, I think it was

Anaheim, said, Jesus died to sanctify our ego trip.

That's a lie from the pit of hell.

I go into other things that some false teachers have said that are on TV.

Joyce Meyer has said flat -out heresies and preached a false gospel.

I've talked about it on the radio and other places.

We have a lot of error in the church.

I correct it.

Not that I'm the doctrine czar.

I'm the only one who does this.

There are a lot of guys out there doing the same kind of thing, and girls, and ladies.

The thing is, we must stand up for truth.

Some people might say, Matt, you're a Calvinist.

That's wrong.

They want to raise that level of something that will make or break as far as being a Christian goes.

That's wrong for them to do that.

We have our differences of opinion.

Romans 14, 1 -12 says that we're not to pass judgment on

debatable issues.

That's not going on here.

It's not a debatable issue that Jesus is talking about with her.

This is an issue of worshiping God in truth.

We must worship God in truth.

The way to do that is to study who Jesus is.

You've got to study him.

You've got to study him.

I was on the radio today talking about John 8 -28.

You go through life and you read verses.

They stick with you for whatever reason.

It happens every now and then.

Well, it's happened for me with John 8 -28 -29.

When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.

I do nothing on my own initiative.

I do nothing on my own initiative, he says.

But I speak those things as the Father taught me.

And he who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone, for I always do the things pleasing to him.

See, I want to be with Jesus.

I want to always do the things that are pleasing to the Father.

I want to.

I don't think I've ever done anything pleasing to the Father.

Except receive Christ, and that was by his grace.

Because I know my heart.

Wicked, deceitful, Jeremiah 7 -9.

But I'm saved by grace.

See, I want to know him in truth.

I want to know who he is.

Jesus says in verse 22, you worship what you do not know.

He's talking about the Jews, because he's Jewish.

Worship what we know salvation is from the Jews.

He's talking about himself.

Because the Messiah killed the Jewish nation.

And look at the next verse, 23.

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For such people the Father seeks to be worshippers.

Spirit and truth.

What is that?

What does it mean to worship him in spirit and in truth?

I would think, in the spirit, the Holy Spirit in us.

Worshipping God.

Adoring him.

Praising his name.

Have you ever prayed nothing but

praise for God?

Have you ever had prayer time with nothing but praise?

You are wonderful.

You are awesome.

Your salvation is perfect.

Your holiness is wondrous.

You just glorify him in Jesus' name.

You move on.

He knows our needs, but I think we need to worship him in spirit.

As the Holy Spirit would move us and guide us.

And in truth.

God, of course, is a trinity.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Three distinct, simultaneous, co -existent, co -eternal persons.

The Word became flesh and dwelt in us.

John 1 .14.

And he still is a man.

1 Timothy 2 .5, Cautions 2 .9.

And he forever will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6 .20, Hebrews 7 .25.

So that we can have eternal redemption with him.

10 .27 .28 talks about that.

This is truth.

And people say, well, Matt, you don't need doctrine that much.

If you say you don't need doctrine and you have the doctrine that you don't need doctrine.

Doctrine is a set of things that you teach.

Truths that you teach.

I guess it's a truth that you need truth.

People don't think about what they're saying sometimes.

I want to know who Jesus is.

For me, because of my autism.

My Asperger's.

I'm a little bit more intellectual than most.

The way I worship God.

It's kind of interesting sometimes.

We all do this kind of thing where we have this dichotomy.

We think about him and then we experience him.

But I like to think about him a lot.

The reasons for what he's done.

The nature of the vicarious substitutionary legal atonement.

I like thinking about that.

I enjoy thinking of things.

Because I like to teach to others to help them understand who he is.

Because I believe that we must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Who he is truthfully.

You cannot worship God truthfully if you believe he's an exalted man on another planet.

Like Mormonism teaches.

You have to have the doctrines that properly describe who he is.

And what he's done.

Now the issue of the spirit.

On the way up here I was listening to one worship song over and over again.

Just one worship song.

The Stand.

And about three minutes in or two minutes in it moves into

chorus.

And it's just beautiful.

The congregation starts singing.

And it's just wondrous.

And I love it.

I remember when I was younger I used to go to the Vineyard Church.

It wasn't my church.

I would go to it.

When it was founded it was in Anaheim, California.

John Wimber was still around.

And now what I know about some heresies inside of the Vineyard.

I still believe that they love the Lord.

And I can very clearly remember going into this converted warehouse

during the week.

I would drive, go to my business, and I would stop in.

I wasn't interested in the teaching so much as I was in the worship.

And I remember, I don't know, I don't know how many hundreds of people

were in this warehouse.

Carpet, hundreds of chairs, and a band up there praising God and singing

worship songs.

And what they would do is, I remember because I came up from the side so they were up to my left.

The thing was maybe 600 people were there.

And it was like Tuesday or a Wednesday or a Thursday night.

The band would be up on the stage and they were just playing.

It's almost as though they weren't concerned about the people.

But they were.

They were just playing.

They were just worshiping God and they were facilitating that worship.

And I remember, I remember seeing a woman on her face here

worshiping.

I remember seeing groups of people who had taken chairs and they were in a circle.

And they were, their heads were bowed because the music wasn't so loud you couldn't communicate.

But it was just filling the air.

And their heads were bowed and they were praying.

And there were places where just one and two people were just facing each other.

And praying.

And there were people who would just stand there with their hands lifted up.

And they just worshiped God.

And I loved to see it all.

And I loved to go in there and sit by myself.

Bow my head and praise God.

And I'm not a good singer, that's for sure.

My singing voice is exactly the same as my speaking voice.

There's no difference.

And the idea of pitch and key, I have no concept of what that is.

And I'm not being humble.

Basically when I sang once, dogs left the area for three days.

So I don't like to sing very much because I don't want to insult God.

I do know that he's considered the heart.

And so I would find a place where I wouldn't disturb everybody else.

And I would sing.

And it's wonderful to worship in spirit.

I believe that's one of the things that it was.

And this is in the Vineyard Church.

Right or wrong in a lot of what they did, and still do, or got a little worse to Mary.

I loved that worship.

And I want that.

I suspect that when we go to be with the Lord and His presence,

that the perfect angels, the perfect singing angels, are going to have tunes

and voices that are so majestic and wonderful that it's going to floor us

at its beauty.

Have you ever heard musical tones and stuff in worship that draw emotion out of you?

There are a few songs I've wept because of them.

And it's wonderful.

One of the things that touches my heart also, is whenever I see someone talk about

the conviction of Christ, I sometimes will break.

Because that's the place where I was bought.

And it means so much to me.

I know it means so much to the Lord.

And I'm affected by it.

Have you seen the movie, Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion?

Thank you.

I've only seen it once.

I can watch it a second time.

And I got out of the theater and I was weeping.

I know he's got some heresies, his Roman Catholic stuff, but I have a certain, I know what it

is, that place of Jesus there.

I'm pretty hearted.

It breaks me.

There's something about witness of our spirit with such a truth, such a loving,

sacrificial truth about what Christ has done for us.

And the respondent attitude of humble,

truthful adoration and praise for what he's done.

I think we're going to have that forever in heaven with him.

And it will never be an issue of, I remember you.

You robbed me.

I remember you used to talk about it up by the cloud over there.

Won't be that.

It's just going to be embracing, maybe weeping in joy, our

mutual pentance, the glorious

enjoyment of the presence of God.

That was wondrous.

For what it's worth, the day he gave me, I remember his presence.

It had been idle for many years.

I wanted it again.

I wanted it again.

It changed me drastically.

And if heaven is a tenth of that, a hundredth of that, it's going to be wonderful.

To worship him in spirit and in truth.

This is a great verse.

Verse 23 is where we're going to stop.

But now we're coming.

Now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for such people to follow.

Seek these worshipers.

I want to be one of those worshipers.

I want to be one of them who worshiped him like that.

I don't know why he wanted that.

I could theorize.

But I want to worship him.

And the thing is, when I'm going to worship, I don't care about anybody else.

Not that I'm narcissistic.

It's just, it's him.

If you're there with me, you will, Lord willing.

That's not the issue.

It's him.

I want to be with him.

If Jesus would give me one wish, just one.

I know what it is.

That I would have a single eternal exhale.

So that I could kneel in his presence.

Eternally praise his name.

And never have to waste time inhaling to continue.

I want to worship him.

He's worthy of all worship and adoration.

Why he picked me?

No clue.

Why he saved you?

Don't know.

But he did.

And he is showing love upon you.

A love that's eternal.

A love that has been for you.

And did for you.

From forever ago.

The depth of his love for you is infinite.

The number of thoughts of you are infinite.

He has loved you.

And we are going to be able to worship him in spirit and truth forever.

One day.

I'm looking forward to it.

Amen.

Next week we'll read verse 24.

A little bit of doctrine in there.

It's a good break.

What we'll do is we'll stop this vid.

Maybe get another one going.

We'll take a break here for five, ten minutes.

And we'll do Q &A.

If you've got any questions we can talk about.

If I can teach.

All right?

Sound good?

Let me pray first.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this time.

We ask that you would bless it.

And the words of truth that have come forth from your word.

I ask Jesus, bless everyone here.

And bless those who listen.

That they might be comforted.

That they might be encouraged.

That they might find rest and hope in you.

And worship you in truth.

We ask this, Jesus, your precious name.

Amen.