In the sermon titled 'Word Wednesday - John 4:19-22' by Douglas Campbell, the key focus is on the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. The sermon highlights how the Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch, leading to limited knowledge of God and an incorrect understanding of worship locations. In contrast, Jews had a fuller understanding due to their acceptance of the entire Old Testament. Jesus stresses that true worship transcends physical locations and must be in spirit and truth, necessitating correct knowledge of God. The sermon warns against the modern tendency to shape God according to personal comfort rather than scriptural truth. It emphasizes the importance of knowing God through the full revelation of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, to avoid worshiping an unknown God, urging believers to study scripture diligently.

Well, good morning. Thank you for our first morning live on Sermon Audio for our weekly Bible study, Word Wednesday. Today we're going to be looking at John chapter 4, verses 19 through 22 specifically, but I'm going to start reading at verse 13 to give us a little context with this. If you remember we're in Samaria where Jesus meets the woman at the well and she is surprised that he asks her for for a drink of water and Let's pick up at verse 13 Says Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Oh I'm sorry.

Let me share the screen with you. All right, so let's start at 13 again. I'm sorry. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, Sir, Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying, I have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Let's pray Heavenly father, thank you for this morning you've given us Father above all. Thank you for your word For your choosing to love us father Father for giving us knowledge and revelation of you.

But Father, this morning we continue to need you deeply. Father, we need understanding as we come to your word, Father. We pray that you would in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Let's go back to verse 19. So We've kind of talked in previous weeks. We've talked about the verses before this But it says the woman said to him sir. I perceive that you're a prophet our father's worshipped on this mountain But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship The first thing that we notice is, is she, the woman, and Jesus, we, the Baritons, and the Jewish people understood that there was a place, there was a specific place where we should worship God in this time. The difference being, and this helps give you a little bit of context, but the difference is the Samaritans, they only accepted the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Old Testament.

We could also call it the law. The Jewish people would have embraced and accepted the entire canon of the Old Testament. And so to think of it in one way, the Samaritans would have never known the book Isaiah, The amazing things that we find in the book of Isaiah essentially they they put themselves in the dark and Because they put themselves in the dark because they didn't know The Word of God and essence because they didn't know God They didn't know the correct place to worship God, where God was commanded to be worshiped. The Jews did know this, that it was in Jerusalem, that it was at the temple where he was to be worshiped at this time so we find that this lack of information they did understand that God should be worshiped in a certain place But because of their lack of information they didn't know where this place was But Jesus chooses not to Argue this point with her because he knows very shortly There isn't going to be a specific place as far as a place on earth, but we find just a little bit later that God desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

And but that connection is here. That connection to truth is still before the resurrection of Christ, before the veil tearing in the temple. Before that, there's still, We must worship God in truth. If we don't know the truth if we don't have the truth We aren't worshiping correctly So look at his Jesus his response and I don't remember When Jesus says woman when he starts with this word woman our English language tends to see this as a little bit strong or offensive That is not the case. That's not in and and The Greek or in the The original language this would not have been disrespectful.

She wouldn't have taken it that way It's kind of just it's it's a little hard because of the English wording But let's read it says Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. Okay, so let me let me illustrate that or show you this. So the difference or the distinction between the Samaritan and the Jew is this the Samaritan worships what they do not know the Jew worships what they know or what what what they know now obviously we don't want to dive too deep into this but not every just because you were of Jewish descent didn't mean that you were of the remnant or the elect.

Not every Jewish person was redeemed, but they had the ability, they had the Word of God, they had the knowledge they needed to come to a right relationship with God. So the distinction is that the Samaritan does not know, the Jewish person knows. And here's the result of it. For salvation is from the Jews. So Jesus is making this very clear.

Knowledge, we can't worship God without correct knowledge. We can't worship a God we don't know. We can't worship a God In our culture that's very popular the the postmodern culture We can't worship a God that we make up in our minds that that's like us that we're comfortable with We must worship The true God and we must know him We it doesn't matter what we think it matters what the truth is we must worship him and and spirit and then true And sorry that Listen to me says He says but our is coming and is now here When the true worshipers will worship the Father and spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. Today, God is calling his worshipers to worship him in spirit and in truth. And I guess in conclusion, to apply this to us, you and I don't even have the same excuse the Samaritan has.

We don't have the excuse that we only accept a portion of the scripture. I guess We could have that, but you and I have not only the full revelation of God, we understand in this that you can come to a knowledge of God, to a saving knowledge of God, just from the Old Testament, but we have even further revelation in the New Testament to confirm those things that the Old Testament laid out before us. Are we worshiping God in truth? Are we worshiping a God that we know is? Our Bible's gathering dust on our table do we think that coming to church on Sunday and and singing a couple of songs of the book to a God we barely know is is tied to salvation Salvation comes from Repenting and trusting in Jesus Christ But it's the Jesus Christ of scripture not the Jesus Christ that our mind tends to Make us want to Make him want to be like us Are we guilty of the same thing?

Do we worship the god we know or Do we worship the God we know or do we worship the God we don't know? Are you Hiding God's Word in your heart Are you studying it as are you studying the scripture and reading scripture as if your life depends on it because it does are you worshiping the God you know amen the the other the other thing that I The other thing that I want to say as a last thought is that the Americans willfully limit their knowledge of God. We find this similar push in our mainstream American Christian culture today, where we want to throw out portions of the Bible that we don't like. We want to, as Andy Stanley said, He wants to unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament. I would tell you that that is extremely dangerous you are Setting your see one.

You don't understand Scripture if you think that they they're two separate things it is Old Testament New Testament it is all the Word of God but if you throw out the scripture if you throw out half of it if you throw out a portion of it you are setting yourself up to worship the God you don't know. And that's a very perilous position to put yourself in. And I pray that you would see God, I pray that you would read his word. I pray that you would desire it as a baby desires milk, for in it's what we find in it is is the true God. It enables us to to worship Him in truth.

And we find here that's vitally important. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you don't leave us in darkness, that you don't leave us to worship a God we don't know, but God as we turn to you and we trust in Christ and we turn to your word, Father, we come to know you more and more.

And the more and more I know you father the more Or I are people In Jesus name amen Amen be blessed dive into dive into your, to God's word today. Amen.