The Drink That Satisfies
Introduction
Would you take your Bibles, please, and be finding John, the fourth chapter? And if you didn’t bring a Bible with you, look there in the pew rack in front of you. Most likely there’s one there. Find the Gospel of John chapter 4 and then look up here, if you will, for just a moment. I just appreciate you bringing God’s Word and using it during these services.
You know, there’s not all that much to watch on television anymore. About the only thing worth seeing these days are the commercials. I do enjoy the commercials. Some of them are quite good, but there are some of them, they don’t tell the truth, and they really do twist things. There’s a certain beer commercial, for example, and it’s a well done commercial: these fellows, I believe, have been out fishing, and it’s the end of one of those big days, you know. They’re with their buddies, and they’ve really had a catch. They’ve pulled the boat up there by the shore, and there’s a roaring, crackling fire. And the sun is westering and going down, and they’re frying those fish. And they’ve got that brand of embalming fluid, whatever it is, there, you know, and they’re sitting there holding up a big foamy one. And they’re with their buddies and one of them looks at the other one and he says, “You know, it just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Have you seen that? Somebody look intelligent. Yeah, you’ve seen that one. All right, I don’t want to feel like the only guy that watches that. But anyway, he just says, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” And my thought is, “Oh, fellow, if that’s as good as it’s going to get for you, I really do feel sorry for you - I really do.” You see, to him, that’s what they call in business “the bottom line.” I mean, that’s it that is everything. There are good friends, and a day of catching fish and relaxation and getting a little high and all of that. That’s it to him that’s the bottom line.
What is the bottom line for you? I mean, for you, what do you think is the absolute best - I mean, when you would say, “It doesn’t get any better than this”? What is the highest attainment that a human being can come to? May I tell you what it is? Save your little thinking, if you haven’t already discovered it is to worship God “in spirit and in truth” - to truly worship God.
I want you to look in our scripture, and I want you to see what the Lord Jesus told a Samaritan woman so long ago. I’m reading here in John chapter 4 and verse 19: “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:19–24) Now here the Lord Jesus talked about worship. And I want to talk about worship today under the heading “A Drink That Satisfies.”
Now I want to give you the background. The Lord Jesus is on a sixty-mile journey. Of course, He doesn’t have an automobile, or a motorcycle, or anything He’s traveling by foot. And the Bible says in the early part of the fourth chapter of John that “he must needs go through Samaria.” (John 4:4) Now that didn’t mean that He had to go because of geography. He could have gone another way. And by the way, most of the Jews, when they traveled in that day, did go another way, because the way that Jesus went was through the mountains. I’ve been through the mountains on that same road going to Samaria on a bus and, folks, it’s tiresome on a bus - much less walking around those curves, and over those steep crevices, and so forth. But Jesus went through Samaria.
Besides that, Samaria was a very hostile country. The Samaritans cared very little for the Jews, and vice versa, as we’re going to show you in a moment. But Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” That is, He had a divine appointment. You know, the Bible says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.” (Psalm 37:23) And so it was by divine guidance that the Lord Jesus went through Samaria, because there He had an appointment made by God with a wayward woman. I say she was a wayward woman. Folks, she had been married five times, and she was now sleeping around with a man that wasn’t even her husband. And Jesus, I believe, went through Samaria, that He might meet that wayward woman and change her from a wayward woman to a liberated lady, because she was set free by the Lord Jesus Christ - one of the most delightful stories of salvation in all of the Bible.
I. A Wayward Woman
Now this woman, this woman of Samaria, had become a slave of Satan. I suppose Satan had told her that he was going to liberate her, and Satan had said, “Now, you just follow me, and I’m going to show you the way of fulfillment.” At that time she was young and gullible and pretty, perhaps. No woman could have been married that many times without having something, and so I just imagine she was what we would call today a “looker.” And he whispered in her ear and said, “Now, you pretty young thing, I’m going to show you how to get the most out of life I’m going to set you free.” But he made her a slave.
1. She Was a Slave to Her Sin
In the first place, she was a slave to sin. She had gone from husband to husband to husband to husband to husband, and they had discarded her like worn-out clothing. And here she is in the grip of her sin now, living with a man that wasn’t even her husband. You see, folks, the new morality, that’s not new it’s one of the oldest things around. And it’s not morality it is immorality. We had it then we have it today. She was pretty. She had a face like an angel, but she had morals like an alley cat. And she was a slave to her sin. Now I’m sure there were times when she wanted to do better. I’m sure there were times when she wanted to break loose. But she didn’t have the power to break loose, because Satan had put the iron bands and chains of slavery upon her. The Bible says, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” (John 8:34)
2. She Was a Slave to Her Sorrow
But not only was she a slave to her sin she was also a slave to her sorrow. I mean, you don’t have to read this entire chapter but one time to see here was a dejected, disillusioned, rejected, frustrated, sorrowful woman. The devil had promised her much, but he had paid her little. Dr. Lee used to say, “The devil offers high wages, but he pays with counterfeit money.” And here she had found that the “bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” (Proverbs 20:17) And the dregs of the cup of sin had become bitter to her, and her heart was filled with sorrow. I want to tell you something else, young people. Don’t you envy the people who are living in sin and immorality. It never brings joy. Sin has its thrills, but it doesn’t have any lasting joy. And this woman was a monument to the lies of the devil.
3. She Was a Slave to Superstition
But not only was she a slave to sin not only was she a slave to sorrow but to compound it all, she was a slave to superstition, because Jesus said to her in the verse that I just read, verse 22, “You worship what you don’t know.” (John 4:22) I mean, here she was religious she worshipped, but she didn’t know the God she worshipped. She had superstition, she had a form of godliness, but there was no power there to deliver her poor superstitious religion. She had tried it, and it failed her. It had no joy, no strength to bring her satisfaction. That’s the reason why she continued on in her sin. Everybody needs to be satisfied and she couldn’t find it in superstition, so she tried to find it in sin. And not only that, not only did it give her no satisfaction it gave her no strength. Even when she tried to use her religion to overcome her sin, it was just a pathetic religion. She had a form of godliness, but she denied the power thereof. (2 Timothy 3:5) She did not know the Lord.
Now it was to this woman that the Lord Jesus Christ came. Jesus Christ was there at a certain spot, the well in Samaria at Shechem. I’ve been to that well. That well is still there. I have drunk water out of that well. It’s one of the most authentic spots in all of Israel. And Jesus on His journey sat there. The Bible says, “Jesus…sat thus on the well.” (John 4:6) He was tired and hot and thirsty, because He was just as human as you are human. Now that doesn’t mean He wasn’t divine, because He was also God. But He was God in a human body, and that human body was tired. And He sat there on the curbing on the well, and He was thirsty.
Now this woman comes. It was high noon. Now, you see, because she was an outcast, a woman of ill repute, she did not come when the other women would come at the morning to draw the water from the well. She came at high noon, because she had been isolated, outcast, recriminated, despised, looked down upon. And she came, and Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” (John 4:7) Boy, she spat fire at Him. Her eyes flashed fire. She said, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9) Boy, the sparks started to fly. Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” (John 4:10) And then a conversation got started in which the Lord Jesus Christ brought that woman to Himself.
And I want you to see today how the Lord Jesus Christ kept pressing the issue and how the Lord Jesus Christ did not quit how the Lord Jesus Christ, the master soul winner, kept bringing Himself and His wonderful salvation to this woman. He had some barriers that He had to overcome.
A. The Racial Barrier
The first barrier is what I want to call the racial barrier. Look again with me, if you will, in God’s Word right here, and look in verse 9 - John chapter 4, verse 9: “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” - and then John explains it - “for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9) She said, “You’re a Jew. I’m a Samaritan. Why are you asking a drink from me?” You see, there was animosity and racial hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans.
Who were the Samaritans? Well, they were a remnant of the ten tribes that lived in the north - the ten tribes of Israel. When the Assyrians came down in 722 and carried the ten tribes away into captivity, they took the strongest and the wealthiest and the healthiest of the Jews and carried them into captivity. They left a remnant of those ten tribes there. Who did they leave? The ones who were sick, the ones who were weak, the ones who were diseased, the ones who were crippled, the ones who were impoverished, they left them the ones who were not completely mentally alert, they left them in the land. They didn’t want to be bothered with them. Then, later on, the Assyrians, in order to replenish the land, sent some Assyrians back in there. Those feeble Jews intermarried with the Assyrians and they became a half-breed race, a mongrel race. Now the pureblooded Jews of that day looked down upon them, and the Bible says, “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” There was a racial animosity, and Jesus had to overcome that racial animosity. Though He was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan, Jesus had to make certain that she understood the fact that the gospel is for everybody.
Now I want you to listen to me today. Jesus is not just the white man’s Savior. Jesus is not just the black man’s Savior. Jesus is not just the red man’s Savior. Jesus is not just the yellow man’s Savior. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children, and the big children, of this world. And we had better learn that, dear friend. He is the universal Savior.
Now old Simon Peter had been a little prejudiced, and God sent Simon Peter down there to talk to Cornelius. And God told Simon Peter what Simon Peter needed to know. Peter was a Jew. Cornelius was a Gentile. But Peter said in Acts chapter 10, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43) Listen: “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” (Romans 10:12) “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
“Pastor, do you think that somebody is lost because they are a Jew?” No. “Do you think, Pastor, somebody is saved because he’s a Gentile?” A person is saved or lost by what he does with Jesus Christ. Jew or Gentile, bond or free - it makes no difference, dear friend. It is not a matter of race it’s a matter of grace. And the Bible teaches that when somebody has Christ, he’s saved if he doesn’t have Christ, he’s lost. Jesus had to overcome the racial barrier.
B. The Resentment Barrier
But not only the racial barrier - in verse 9 you can see it there also, He had to overcome the resentment barrier, because she spat fire at Him. I mean, you can just hear the bitterness, the hostility. Oh, she had no time for Him: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask water of me, a woman of Samaria?” Boy, you can feel the hostility. She had been rejected. She had been put down. She had been discriminated against so long that her heart was filled with hatred and bitterness for every Jew that she met. I want to tell you something, friend. Do you know what prejudice is? It is judging a person before you know that person it is judging a person for something other than what he himself is. You see, she was judging Jesus by the other Jews of that day that she had heard about.
Don’t you let somebody prejudice you against the Lord Jesus Christ. You may have heard of some Christian, some church, some denomination, some cult, somebody else, and because they happen to be a Christian, and Jesus Christ is our leader, they have a prejudice against Jesus. There were people that were prejudiced - she was prejudiced - against Jesus in that day because of His brethren. There may be people today who are prejudiced against Jesus because of some of us. Do you know what Mahatma Gandhi said? He said, “I would have been a Christian, if it were not for the
Christians.” Boy, what an indictment! But I want to tell you, my dear friend, you may find some fault in some Baptist, some Methodist, some Presbyterian, some Roman Catholic but you’ll never find any fault in the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t you let anybody, any place, anywhere, cause in your heart a prejudice that will keep you from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to overcome that barrier, not only of race, but that barrier of resentment.
C. The Barrier of Reputation
And then there was another barrier He had to overcome: there was the barrier of reputation, because here was a woman with a bad reputation. I mean, folks, she was what some would call “trash” - married five times, first cousin to Elizabeth Taylor, now living with a man without even the benefit of a marriage ceremony. She had given up on that. And in that day - let me tell you something, folks - men just didn’t talk to women on the streets. And Jesus was what we call a “rabbi.” And the Jewish tradition said that a rabbi should not speak to a woman in public, even his own wife. And here was a fallen woman here was what we call a “streetwalker.” And the Lord Jesus Christ overcame that: her reputation.
I just like the way the Bible is written. I’m going to give you a Bible fact. You know, everybody learns one fact in every message, and here’s my Bible fact for this morning: Chapter 4 follows John chapter 3. Have you got that? Okay, that’s a fact. All right now, listen. John chapter 4 follows John chapter 3. And that’s just so wonderful the way God has put that together. What do you have in John chapter 3? Someone was converted in John chapter 3. Who was it? Nicodemus. Who? The ruler of the Jews. Boy, I want to tell you, if there was ever a high and mighty muckety-muck, it was Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, a group of only seventy-one in all Israel. He was a man who had learning he had position he had ancestry he had reputation - he had it all. He was a very, very self-righteous, very religious man. And do you know what Jesus Christ told Nicodemus in John chapter 3? He said, “Nicodemus, if you don’t get born again, you’ll never see the kingdom of God” - “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Now there was a self-righteous man - John 3 - an up-and-out. Jesus told him he had to be saved. (John 3:7) In John 4, there’s a down-and-out, and Jesus tells her she has to be saved. I just think that’s so wonderful that the Bible puts that side by side. Do you know why? Listen to me now. When I’m talking about this Samaritan woman, there may be some of you who just wrap your robes of self-righteousness about you and you say, “Well, I don’t need to be saved like she did.” Let me tell you something, friend. When
Jesus put these two chapters side by side - Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman - do you know what He was telling us? Are you listening? With Nicodemus He was telling us there is nobody so good he doesn’t need to be saved, and with the Samaritan woman He was showing us there is nobody so bad they cannot be saved. Isn’t that wonderful? I don’t care what your reputation I care not what your repute, whether you be religious and self-righteous like Nicodemus, whether you be fallen and down in sin like this Samaritan woman I want to tell you, there’s not a stain, not a blot, not a blur, not a blemish that comes across a human soul but that the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse and wash and make whiter than snow. Hallelujah! And Jesus overcame all of those things, and He just kept on pressing the point to bring salvation to this woman.
II. A Well of Water
The second thing I want you to notice: Not only do I want you to notice what I call a wayward woman, but I want you to notice, secondly, what I want to call a well of water. The Lord Jesus was the master soul winner, and so the Lord Jesus just used what was at hand. He was a great teacher, and He saw that well, He saw that water, and He used that as an illustration of Himself. You see, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 12 and verse
3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:3)
And actually, in the Hebrew, although it’s translated “wells,” it’s in the singular:
“Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the [well] of salvation.” That well that was there that day was used as an object lesson to talk about the Lord Jesus. So He said to this woman, “Woman, if you knew who was asking you, you would ask of Him, and He would give you living water, that you would never thirst again.”
Now, why does the Lord Jesus Christ call Himself “living water”? Well, look again - John chapter 4 and verse 10: “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” (John 4:10) Again, verse 13: “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water” - talking about the water in the well - “shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13–14)
Why is Jesus Christ like water?
A. Jesus Is Satisfying Water
Well, in the first place, Jesus satisfies and so does water. You see, your body is about seventy percent water. God has made us where we must drink or we die. And therefore a person without water has a thirst, and he has a thirst that only water can satisfy. Now, my dear friend, a person without Jesus has a thirst, and he has a thirst that only Jesus can satisfy. And Jesus is that satisfying water. You listen to me. You will never, never find satisfaction till you find it in Jesus - I don’t care who you are. You were made for the
Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no satisfaction apart from Him.
People are trying everything today to be satisfied: climbing mountains, racing boats, accumulating weal, going on trips, having parties, drinking booze.
Friends all around me are trying to find
What the heart yearns for, by sin undermined
I have the secret, I know where ’tis found:
Only true pleasures in Jesus abound. Harry D. Loes
I have an evangelist friend who got on an airplane one time, was sitting there, and the stewardess came. You know, they serve that liquor. It gives me a pain: they turn every airplane into a bar room. And these girls go up and down the aisles - and young men - and have to serve it. And she asked my evangelist friend, “Would you like a drink?” Do you know what he said to her? He said, “No thank you, little lady.” He said, “I had a drink about twenty years ago that satisfied me completely.” She said, “You did? It must have been some drink!” He said, “It was.” She said, “What kind was it?” He said, “You serve everybody else and come back, and I’ll tell you about it.” She didn’t know what He was talking about. She served everybody else and came and plopped down in the seat beside Him, buckled the belt, and said, “Tell me about it.” He did.
Oh, listen, friend. There is a drink that satisfies, and that water is satisfying water. You’ll never find satisfaction apart from Jesus. Oh, listen. Some of you listening to me by television right now, your heart is so hungry, and there’s just enough upheaval. You say, “I don’t know what it is I can’t find the meaning.” Friend, you need Jesus.
B. Jesus Is Sanctifying Water
But not only is He satisfying water He is sanctifying water. You know, the Bible speaks of “the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:26) The Bible speaks of “the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5) - because not only was she thirsty on the inside she was dirty. She needed to be cleansed. And, you see, there is the water of life that cleanses. Jesus, of course, can bathe us and cleanse us and make us clean.
I love that passage over there in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, if you want to put an annotation in your Bible there in the margin. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9, Paul says this: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Well, it looks bad for her, doesn’t it? But wait a minute. Listen to what else Paul says: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified.” (1 Corinthians 6:9– 11) And when that Samaritan woman received the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, I want to tell you, though she had been a fallen woman, at that moment she became as pure as a virgin. And every stain, every blot, every blur, every blemish Jesus Christ washed away. And the Bible says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18) And I want to tell you, some of the rest of you here today, if you are haunted by the ghost of guilt, I know some water that can wash away that guilt. Hallelujah!
C. Jesus Is Springing Water
He is satisfying water. He is sanctifying water. And He is springing water. Look at the scripture again. That verse says that the Lord Jesus Christ will be in you “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14) - verse 14. “Springing up”: what does that mean? It means that you have the well within you. You see, look, folks: salvation is not just something where I have to keep coming back to Jesus and keep getting saved over and over again. No. Listen. He gives me the well. The well is in me. The Bible says in John chapter 7 - Jesus speaking - “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” - “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37–38) There is a well right inside of you bubbling up. Remember that chorus we used to sing back in the olden days: “It’s bubbling, it’s bubbling, it’s bubbling in my soul”? I want to tell you right now, this moment, there is a well springing up in me, bubbling up. It is the water of life that the Lord Jesus gives.
This woman left her water pot when she went back into the town. Do you know why she left it? She didn’t need it: she had the well. I mean, there are folks that are going from Bible conference to Bible conference to get their cup filled. I’ll tell you something better than that: just carry the well with you. Always there’s this life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t mean that you don’t thirst again without satisfaction. Oh, you thirst, and you drink and you thirst, and you drink but there never comes a time where Jesus Christ does not satisfy the deepest longing of your heart.
III. A Way to Worship
One last thing, and I’ll be finished - listen: not only a wayward woman not only a well of water but a way to worship. Now this is the climax of the whole thing. Why did Jesus forgive her? Why did Jesus seek her? Why did Jesus satisfy her? So that she could worship God. For “God is a Spirit,” (John 4:24) and “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him,” (John 4:23) He said.
A. The Why of Worship
Listen to me quickly, and I’ll be finished. Why does God want us to worship Him? Not because God needs it. He’s not some kind of an egomaniac that needs to be bragged on. We need it. Folks, we become like what we worship. Don’t you understand that? When a man makes an idol, first of all, he molds the idol, and then the idol molds the man. We become like what we worship. When we worship Jesus, the Bible says this: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) That’s the why of worship.
B. The What of Worship
Now, listen. Let’s go on and think for just a moment about what is worship. What is worship? Worship is just simply giving the Lord Jesus Christ the glory and the honor that is due to His name. John MacArthur says this: “Worship is all that we are, responding to all that He is.” I like that. That’s what it is. Do you know the word worship comes from two words: worth-ship? You see, we worship Him because He’s worth it. How much is God worth to you? I know. How much is God worth to you? Well, I don’t know individually, but I can tell you how you can know: Examine your worship life and when you examine your worship life, you’ll know how much God is worth to you.
Now, dear friend, listen. Worship is all of you responding to all of Him. It is the adoration, the contemplation, of God. You can come to church and not worship. You can read your Bible and not worship. You can pray and not worship. It’s not that these things are bad, but you don’t have to be in church to worship. You can be in church and not worship. What is worship? It is all of you responding to all of God in adoration and contemplation.
Let me tell you a story. There was a woman in a building, and the building was on fire. It’s a true story. She came to the window and she screamed for help. The fire engines came. They put a big ladder up there. A young, handsome fireman went up that ladder, took that beautiful girl in his arms, and brought her down safely. He sat her on the ground. Later on, she thought, “That was a wonderful thing he did for me. I’m going to find him and thank him.” She went to the fireman and she thanked him. And after she thanked him, they struck up a conversation. They got to be friends, and they started dating. And after a while, they got married.
Now, let me show you something. When she was up there in that window saying, “Help,” that was like prayer. And he answered the prayer: he came and saved her. Then, when she came to see him to thank him, that was like praise. And that was very fine but the prayer is not quite worship, and the praise is not quite worship. But then, when she fell in love with him and committed all that there was that she knew of her to all that she knew of him, and the two of them became one, their lives are mingled and blended together, that is worship. Thank God for prayer. Thank God for praise. But, oh, my dear friend, worship is all there is of us responding to all that we know of the Lord Jesus Christ.
C. The How of Worship
The why of worship: We need to worship. The what of worship: I respond in adoration and praise. I blend my life with God. Now, the how of worship, and I’m going to be finished. How do you worship? Now, listen. The Bible says, “The Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:23) There must be regeneration by the Father. You must be born again. You cannot worship unless God is your Father and God is not your Father unless Christ is your Savior. Have you been born again? Have you received Christ as your personal Savior? Regeneration by the Father. Activation by the Spirit. Worship in Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God comes into you when you are saved, and He’s the One who enables you to worship God. You can’t worship God apart from the Holy Spirit, and you can’t have the Holy Spirit unless you’ve been saved. You must worship God in spirit and in truth. When you are regenerated by the Father, you’re activated by the Spirit, and you’re saturated with the Word, the truth.
Conclusion
You see, how am I going to worship the Lord? I see these signs on markets they say,
“Worship Sunday in the church of your choice.” That sounds good, but who are you: God? You had better worship God in the church of His choice. How are we going to know what’s right or what’s wrong? We’re to worship Him in spirit and in truth. If you worship in spirit without truth, that will make you a fanatic. If you worship in truth and not in spirit, that will make you a Pharisee. But if you worship God in spirit and in truth, that’s the proof that you’re a Christian. You must be regenerated by the Father. You must be activated by the Spirit. You must be saturated with the Word. That’s the way to worship.