Jesus left Judea and departed into Galilee, and
he must needs go through Samaria, and he
came to a city called Sychar, and that
city was near the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob's
well was there.
I read those verses to bring before you
the place names so familiar and so plentiful
in the New Testament.
And I think how pleasant and how inspiring
that you have walked with Jesus in old
Palestine, Before the dust of the centuries had
obscured the footprints of the friends of God.
For the friends of God crossed and crisscrossed
through the passing of the years the little
land we call the Holy Land.
And now many of their footsteps have been
lost in obscurity, for Palestine has been the
land that has been fought over, and marching
armies have trampled many of her sweet highways
down into the bog.
But when our Lord walked among men, time
had not done its work as fully as
it has done it now.
Changes were not so radical and many.
Civilization had not come like a swarm of
locusts over the earth, and a great many,
almost all, of the places that were so
familiar to the Old Testament were known and
familiar to those of the New.
The historic scenes could be identified as they
can't now.
And almost every valley and hill and mountain
and stream and cave had a historic and
meaningful significance.
And I've tried to imagine myself walking around
with our Lord and his disciples, or going
out with his disciples as they went two
by two to declare the coming of the
Kingdom, and moving up and down through the
land we call the Holy Land, the land
that was once called Canaan and then called
Palestine, and today has still a different name,
but then it was the Holy Land of
promise.
And you wouldn't have gone very far then
until you'd have come to the place where
the altars of Abraham had been, for Abraham
had left altars strewn all over that land.
There was an altar at the place of
Sikkim, I read, and in the valley of
Mori, and at the mountain east of Bethel,
between Bethel and Ai.
And wherever the educated eye of a Jew
went, he landed upon some hill or plain
or plateau or mountain or some grove or
beside some river, where Abraham had built his
altars.
For there was no temple then when the
old Bedouin from Ur of the Chaldees walked
with his people in that wide land that
God had given him and his seed after
him.
And wherever Abraham went, like Johnny Appleseed went
west, leaving apple trees coming up behind him
to bless future generations, so Abraham, the man
of faith, wherever he went, left an altar
there, a simple stone altar, for there was
nothing any better.
And the common sandstone, the plain, unused stone
that Abraham had picked out with his own
hands out of the hillside and formed into
some kind of homemade altar where he offered
his sacrifice and his prayers unto his God,
those simple altars became shrines and became holier
things than if they had been built by
some Solomon or by the richest men of
the world.
What a heritage this man Abraham left to
his nation and to his seed after him,
the heritage of a praying man.
For Abraham, there were many things that he
didn't have, but Abraham was incurably addicted to
the habit of prayer.
He was a man of prayer, and the
altars of Abraham were everyplace.
And I think of that mountain altar where
Lot and Abraham on one historic and notable
occasion shook hands and parted, for their husband
couldn't get along, and they decided that they
would love each other and not quarrel, but
shake hands and part and strike out two
different directions.
And the noble old man of God gave
his young nephew the choice, and he said,
You go wherever you want to go, don't
let's quarrel.
And Lot lifted up his eyes and looked
at all the green plains of Jordan and
chose them for himself.
And Abraham raised his hands and blessed the
ambitious young man and turned away silently back
to the plains of Mamre where the grass
was sparse, hardly able to sustain the herds
of Abraham.
But Abraham had seen a city that had
foundations whose builder and maker was God, and
he cared little for the green pastures of
the valley.
So they separated there, and then years later
when Jesus and his disciples walked those ways,
no doubt they knew where they were, for
I say times had not changed as they
have now, and they could be identified, and
perhaps our Lord, as he walked along, would
say, John, you see that plateau there, there
is where Abraham and Lot shook hands and
parted.
And as we look down on that valley
below, there is where Lot was tempted to
go with his family and to his own
terrible sorrow and chagrin, and those sparse green
spots of grass yonder was all Abraham had.
And I think they felt better and were
better men and their faith mounted as they
saw where old Abraham had been.
And then think about that plain there before
the city of Sodom, down in the valley
of the Jordan, where one time afterward, old
Abraham was called upon to take the army
out of his house and go rescue the
young ambitious fellow who had got into high
politics in Sodom but had got himself in
a jam and was carried away.
And Abraham came down and rescued him and
brought him back.
And when he came out before the plain
on the plain of the valley of Jordan,
he was met by that mysterious character called
Melchizedek.
And I suppose that when they passed by
that plain, as they did sometimes traveling around
through that enchanted land of Palestine, that one
would remind the other, for they had no
books, no radio, no television, no five minutes
of the latest news, no printing press to
roll out books, trash for everybody to read,
nothing to distract the mind.
They knew only one book, and that was
the Old Testament.
And they knew only one land, and that
was their own land.
And they knew only one religion, and that
was the religion that God had given to
Abraham and to Moses and to the fathers.
So they had nothing to talk about but
something spiritual and religious, something pertaining to the
sheep and the cattle and the hillside and
the clouds and the rain.
And so they talked familiarly.
And when they saw that place there marked
by some simple marker where Lot and Abraham
had parted, they talked about it and said,
here's where Father Abraham did that noble thing,
turning over to his nephew whatever he wanted,
and here's where he proved he meant business
by refusing to take a shoelace from a
king, lest the king should take some of
the glory from God.
I think that was an education in itself.
I don't know what they would call that
in the curriculum, but I know that that
was a general introduction to Old Testament that
you can't get in any Bible school now,
brother, as they walked up and down in
that land.
Then I think of old Mount Moriah, that
little old mountain there where Abraham offered Isaac.
And as they walked along there, I think
they must have bowed their heads a bit
and felt real solemn as they moved past
that little mountain where a man once, an
old man, had taken his son, his beloved
son, and put the wood on his back
and said, let's go to the hilltop.
And they expected there, or Abraham expected to
offer his son Isaac.
There was a picture of consecration unto the
death and the surrender of the dearest object
of the man's heart.
And when they passed by old Mount Moriah,
I think there were better men for it.
And there even was the old cave of
Machpelah.
Maybe I'm a sentimentalist.
I asked Brother McAfee tonight, and he said
yes.
I said, Brother McAfee, do you think I'm
getting old and sentimental?
I'm literally in love with the Bible and
Bible names and Bible places and Bible streams
and Bible people.
And he said I was, getting old and
sentimental.
But whether I am or not, I don't
know, but I do know this, my friends,
I know that I even like to think
about the old cave of Machpelah and Abraham.
Abraham and Sarah were man and wife for
a great many years.
And when Sarah was 127 years old, she
lay down in that last sleep from which
men do not rise until they are awakened
by the judgment trumpet.
And Sarah whispered a gurgling good-bye to
the bearded old patriarch who had walked by
her side all those long years and died.
And Abraham stood still, tall and strong, though
ten years older than his old wife, and
looked down on that old wrinkled form, that
old face of hers, filled with wrinkles like
an apple that's been frozen a hundred times
and thawed out again, hanging in the spring
on the bough, wrinkled and fallen in, only
the faintest trace of the beauty that once
had been so dangerous that Abraham had to
tell his only lie and maybe commit his
only real sin to guard himself from death
when Abimelech said, you're so beautiful that if
they know you're my wife, they'll kill me
to get you and I'll tell them I'm
your sister.
She was his half-sister, so he told
only a half-lie.
But he did tell that half-lie anyway,
and there she lay now in her old
wrinkled death, and I say, only the dim
memory and faint outline of that sharp beauty
that once had been dangerous to Abraham and
to Abimelech.
And the old man said, I must bury
my dead from before my sight.
So he went out to look for a
place, he owned all the land.
And God said, Abraham, it's all yours, north
and south, east and west, it's all yours.
And yet he hadn't a place to pitch
his tent that he could call his own.
And when his dead died before him, he
had not a place to bury her.
So he went out to the sons of
Heth, and he said to them, from the
son of Heth I have, there's a little
cave up here that I'd like to lay
my dead away.
And they said, Abraham, take it, it's yours.
Don't ask, is it yours, whatever you want.
And the old man, pride, simple pride and
high faith in God once more, came to
the front.
And he said, I don't want to take
a place to bury my dead for nothing.
I don't want to die knowing that I
have laid my dead in the land that
was given to me.
Therefore name the price and I'll pay it.
And Ephraim said, well, the price is so
-and-so, and the old man counted out
the money and got the receipt and said,
it's mine now, and then he laid it
dead away from before his face.
And when they passed the quiet, solemn old
cave of Machpelah, where now Abraham slept beside
the old wrinkled form of Sarah, his wife,
I think there was something wonderfully sweet and
solemn and elevating about all that scene.
Yes, it was Palestine, that holy land.
But you know, they didn't stop there, because
then there was the man Jacob.
And as Jesus and his disciples crossed and
crisscrossed that land and traveled all over it,
put sore sometimes and weary, and covered with
the dust of the journey, they must have
come to the place they called Beth-El,
meaning the house of God, and I never
get tired, never get tired reading it, the
story of how Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran.
And he journeyed, and he lighted upon a
certain place, and stayed there all night, for
the shadows were falling.
And he took the stones of that place
and put them for his pillows, and he
lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and lo, a ladder set
up on the earth, and the top reached
to heaven, and lo, the angels of God
ascending and descending upon it, and above it
God stood, and said, Jacob, this is all
yours, for I am the God of Abraham,
thy father, and the God of Isaac, and
all this around about you is yours.
And Jacob came out of his sleep and
said, Surely this is the house of God,
I do exceedingly dread and fear, for this
is none other than the house of God,
this is the gate of heaven.
And there he set up his pillar, and
anointed it, and prayed, and made his vow,
and called it Bethel, the house of God.
And you think when our Lord and his
disciples went past the town of Bethel, the
house of God, there did not rise up
in them, and they did not live over
again?
In faith the story of Jacob the wild,
turbulent Jacob, and his conquest by the God
of his fathers there at Bethel.
And then twenty years after twenty years of
discipline and cheating, and if not cheating at
least skinning sharp bargains, after twenty years of
life that was not to be proud of,
God called him back again to the altar,
and on his way back to the altar
at Bethel, he stepped one step ahead of
Bethel, and beside the river of Jabbok where
the ford crosses the stream, he wrestled all
night and called it Pemeo, meaning the face
of God.
I don't know, but I think without adding
anything to the scriptures I can say this.
I believe that I can say while I
cannot locate it either in the scriptures or
in the geography, I believe that before God
was done with Jacob he had gone one
step more than Peniel yet.
I believe he had gone on to that
what we call the heart of God.
He began with the house of God and
went on to the face of God, and
before he had suffered and suffered enough and
suffered some more, and had gone down into
Egypt mourning for his son.
I believe that he, we can say, that
he had also gone to the very heart
of God, and as they passed Bethel they
thought of Jacob's wrestling, and as they passed
Peniel they thought of Jacob's prayer, and how
limping old Jacob went out to be Jacob
no more, but now Israel while the ages
roll.
That was an enchanted land, a wonderland, a
land filled with significance and meaning, a land
where every bush was alive with God, and
every hill had been a spot where an
altar had been erected, and every town had
a history, a history of faith and obedience.
The friends of God had crisscrossed the land
and their footsteps were everywhere, but come on
to this fellow Joshua, for Joshua had also
gone over the land and had left his
trail there.
There was that city of Jericho which was
victory, and everybody knows how Jericho stood in
the path of Joshua, the son of Nun,
when he came out from the river Jordan,
that it stood up in terror when he
spoke the word.
And on he moved, marched to Jericho, and
God said to Joshua, march around the city,
and so in terrible, increasingly terrible silence, they
marched day after day around that city until
the seventh day, they shouted with a great
shout, and the walls came tumbling down.
And then, strong in their confidence, in their
overconfidence, without remembering that you can only be
victorious while you're keen, they allowed sin to
enter the camp, and in the valley of
Acor, they suffered their tragic defeat.
And I suppose when our Lord passed the
city of Jericho, he smiled and said, You
remember Joshua?
And when they came to the valley of
Acor, they remembered Achan, the man for whom
the valley was named, for Achan had brought
the curse to the marching armies, and they
fled from before Ai, and several thousand of
them were slain.
And when Joshua fell on his face and
said, Why the defeat?
God said, The defeat is because you have
stolen goods in your midst.
And when they found the stolen goods, it
was all over.
I suppose they looked at that pile of
stones there and that pile of stones over
there, and they bestopped and had a good
-natured debate over which pile of stones was
the tomb where lay Achan and his family,
reminding them that God is not only a
kind God of victory, but also he's a
terrible God of swift vengeance.
Then how could they pass by Gibeon, when
the armies of God were facing the armies
of the alien?
And the whole thing looked awful, and there
wasn't time for Joshua to finish his amazing
and successful campaign.
He suddenly shouted, Son, stand thou still upon
Gibeon and moon in the valley of Adjelon.
The sun and the moon obeyed him and
gave him time to finish the job and
drive out the foe.
And after the passing of the years, you
think that when men passed by the little
mountain of Gibeon, they didn't remember Joshua and
his famous centurion command, Son, stand thou still
upon Gibeon.
When they saw the low-lying valley of
Adjelon, how could they forget the moon, who
stopped her phases and her motion long enough
to obey the voice of a daring man
who believed in his God?
I say, Joshua and all the historic memories
enriched their lives.
And then what shall we say of David?
I think that they could not have forgotten
away from David, because those traveling men as
they passed along, truly they sang as they
went, and it certainly was not a popular
song.
Maybe they had chanted one of the psalms,
Jesus and his disciples.
They did in the Garden of Gethsemane, having
sung a psalm, they went out to the
Garden of Gethsemane.
And it seemed to have been a common
thing for them to sing the psalms of
David as they went.
I ask you, as they traveled along, how
could they escape David?
You know Wordsworth, in that great narrative poem,
a great philosophical poem called Prelude.
Wordsworth tells about Bruce.
Bruce was what to Scotland, what maybe Washington
and Lincoln, or Lincoln might be to America.
And Wordsworth condensed it, as he could do,
into a simple sentence.
He said, Bruce fought for Scotland and left
his name like a wild flower to bloom
throughout all his loved country.
Wherever they went like a wild flower, they
found a little red-headed Bruce, a little
big-eared Bruce, a little freckled Bruce, a
little Scotch Bruce, blossomed everywhere throughout all Scotland,
because Bruce had fought for Scotland and left
his name like a wild flower.
So David fought for Israel, and there was
hardly a stream he hadn't crossed and hardly
a cave where he hadn't been and hardly
a hill that he hadn't taken and hardly
a mountain he hadn't climbed.
And the name of David was like a
wild flower throughout all that holy land.
As they traveled along, they would only be
human if they looked at some plateau covered
with grass and maybe with sheep browsing there.
And Philip might say to Bartholomew, I wonder
if David wrote the 23rd Psalm lying on
his back there one night.
I wonder if the 19th Psalm might have
been written under that old tree over there,
or one tree of which it is the
descendant.
For David was every place and his name
like a wild flower.
Then there was the man Elijah.
And they go, I don't know if they
ever got that far north, really, but if
they ever got as far north as the
land of Gilead and came to the mountain
of Tishbe, where he got his name Elijah
the Tishbite, Elijah wasn't a city-bred slicker.
Elijah wasn't a reverend product of a ministerial
sausage grinder.
This man Elijah came down from the stormy
cliffs and projecting ridges of the mountains of
Tishbe.
And he had in him all the strength
and hardness of the rock and the wild
love of liberty that belonged to the eagle
that screamed on her area there among the
rocks.
And when this man of God came down
and faced out the cowering king at Samaria
and dared to stare down the unkingly king,
the unroyal husband of the domineering Jezebel, the
royal mouse, who feared to call his name
when she dared to clip her finger.
I'd like to have been that woman's husband
just long enough to tell her off once.
But this man of God didn't.
This man of God, this poor man of
the flesh who cowered before the man of
God, he was very afraid of his wife,
and she was a wicked idolatress from old
Sidon and a worshipper of Baal.
And whenever she whistled, he danced to her
music.
And one day there appeared a strong, vigorous
old man smelling of the ozone of the
free hills of Tishbe.
And he looked down at that mouse, and
he trembled under his shaky crown.
And Elijah took over and was king from
there on.
And I suppose when they passed by Tishbe,
they got that far north and looked at
the old mountains of Gilead, they said, thank
God for old Harry Elijah, thank God for
a man like that.
They couldn't but be better men because Elijah
lived.
Oh, but brethren, you will find that enchantment
everywhere.
I'm sure you'll find it everywhere.
Because there were the high mountains of Lebanon,
and there were the turbulent waters of the
Jordan.
I even like such names as Beersheba, don't
you?
They used to say when they met, it's
all the way, they said, from Beersheba even
under Dan.
And when an old Jew said, it's from
Beersheba even under Dan, you didn't fool around,
brother, you knew you'd been somewhere.
That was their expression.
Oh, Beersheba, the well of the oak, even
unto the city of Dan.
And then there was Eschol, where the grapes
grew as large as grapefruit, I think, because
it took, they picked off one bunch, and
it took two men to carry one bunch
of grapes.
And as it says in the old song,
and grapes of Eschol found, they found the
grapes of Eschol there.
Well, it must have been wonderful to have
walked with Jesus and walked in Jerusalem just
like John, and to have lived in those
times while the footprints of the friends of
God were still to be seen and identified
throughout all that wondrous, wondrous land.
And so Jesus came to the city of
Sychor, where there was a well, the well
that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
And he sat down on the well's edge,
and when the woman came out, that woman
of Samaria, the cursed city, and asked for,
he asked her for a drink.
And thus the conversation began.
And here he sat, at ease, relaxed, on
that well's edge, that ancient well that told
of faithful Jacob, and the water of God,
and the gift of Jacob to his loved
boy Joseph, that had been kept alive in
the memories and traditions of the Hebrews all
during the fightings and the losses up and
down.
And now Jesus sat there.
Who was he?
Oh, it was in him and through him
and by him and for him that all
the prophets had written.
It was of him that David had sung,
and it was of him that Abraham had
spoken, and it was toward him that Abraham
had looked, and it was to his city
that Abraham had traveled.
And all the rest, Joshua with his mighty
armies, were only the dim forefigurings of this
one who sat, relaxed, on the well of
Sychor.
He had come.
"'I that speak unto thee am he,' he
said.
And so all this wondrous, shining history comes
alive, and all its significance and all its
meanings now condense and wrap themselves in a
simple toga and sit tired on the well
of Sychor.
He had come.
Abraham had not dreamed in vain, nor had
Abraham given up his son in vain.
David had not fought in vain, nor sung
in vain, nor worshipped in vain, and old
Elijah had not faced out the Baalites on
Carmel in vain.
He had come.
And now he makes a revelation to a
woman, and not a very good woman she
wasn't.
Not a very good woman.
Why did he choose this woman?
There were so many other women, trim, neat,
carefully tucked up and maybe dried up women,
a lot of them everywhere, who would have
said, "'I have kept thy commandments.
I have done nothing amiss.'" They were all
around him.
Why didn't he tell one of them?
But I do know that this woman came
out to the well, the woman who had
sinned.
And here sat the man who had never
sinned.
And the man who had never sinned had
come because the woman had sinned.
And the man whom Abraham had seen and
rejoiced to see his day was now sitting
available at the well of Sychor, which Jacob
had given unto his son Joseph.
And now comes the woman of Samaria.
And the Lord made his wondrous revelation, one
of the profoundest revelations, one of the most
emancipating revelations ever made, he made to this
woman.
And the members of the lady's sewing circle
raised their eyebrows and said, "'Look, this man
talking to this woman, yes, he made his
revelation to this woman.
Why?
I don't know why.
But I wonder if it could have been.
Because he found in her a hungry heart,
she'd had five husbands.
The man she was now living with was
probably number six, and he wasn't her husband,'
Jesus said bluntly.
She'd found husbands couldn't satisfy anybody.
They'll find that out in Hollywood sometime, but
they don't know it yet.
But she'd found that out, and she was
beginning to wonder if, after all, all this
succession of fish that she was pulling out
of the matrimonial sea was ever going to
satisfy her poor heart.
And Jesus knew all that, and he saw
her coming.
And he said to his heart, "'Here's a
woman that's got an open heart, and she's
hungry, and she's thirsty, and she's humble, and
she's got a longing.
She's got a longing.
I didn't find it.
Oh, no, not in Israel.
Not in Israel did I find it.
These prims, sisters, I didn't find it there,
but I find it in this one.'" So
he sat and talked with her face to
face and heart to heart, and led her
out, and then made his revelation.
And she embarrassed and tried to hide and
said, "'Oh, prophet, prophet, I see you were
a prophet.
Now tell me,' she said, to get the
heat off.
She said, "'Tell me.
You know, there's a difference between you Jews
and us Samaritans.
We say, worship in Samaria.
You say, worship in Jerusalem.
Who's right?
Because we know whom we worship, and you
don't know who.' But nevertheless, I've got good
news for you, lady.
I want to tell you the time is
coming when it won't matter who you worship.
I've got news for you.
I want to tell you that there'll be
when neither in your traditional Samaria nor in
sacred old Jerusalem where David captured the stronghold
of Zion, where Solomon built the temple, and
where for centuries the priests waved their censers
and offered their sacrifices.
The city of the great king, the house
of God, I've got good news for you,
neither in Jerusalem nor in Samaria shall men
worship the Father.'" She was fearing news.
You'd say, oh, she needed two years in
Bible school to be able to come up
to that.
He didn't think so.
She was raw out of Samaria, fresh right
out of the woods or timbers or wherever
she crawled out of to come after water.
And Jesus began making a revelation to that
woman that was so profound that there are
seminary professors in this city that don't know
it yet, and men who have lived spotless
lives and good men and learned men and
theologians and thinkers.
There are in the churches and schools of
our land who have never yet seen what
the woman of Samaria saw by a flash
of inspiration.
They're celebrating Lent now.
A few weeks ago you could eat pork.
Now you can't eat pork.
Woman, I have somewhat to say to thee,
the time is coming, and now is, when
men shall not worship God in Lent, nor
in Samaria, nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit
and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
And on the day called Good Friday, when
our breast-beating and Baalitish cuttings have gone
the limit, and masses of half-saved and
non-saved people all over the world have
gashed themselves and starved themselves and put ashes
on themselves to make themselves sorry that Jesus
died, on Good Friday they'll really go the
limit.
I have some good news for you.
Either on Good Friday or Blue Monday, shall
men worship the Father.
But he so worships the Father, worships him
in spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Oh, that was news.
And there are professors with degrees like this.
You could put them on the tail of
a kite for a tale, or on a
kite for a tale in the windy maple
weather, but they've never found out what the
poor woman out of their uncertain background, found
by a flash of inspiration, that this religion
is inward, this is a spiritual thing.
There was old Jerusalem, and there were the
priests in their order, and there was the
incense, and there were the altars, and there
was the tradition, and there was the enchantment
of all the places we've mentioned, and there
was all the externalities of religion.
And in the middle of all that, the
essence and core and beating heart of all
the meaning, he stood and said, all of
this, all of its beauty and tradition and
meaning and elevation and inspiration, it's all been
condensed now into this.
I am he, and whosoever believeth in me
shall have water that he'll never need to
come to this well any more, but water
that'll spring up unto eternal life and be
a well of water springing up.
And this woman understood and raced like mad
back to the city to tell the man
that she had found him, whom Moses and
the prophets did write, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
And so he took religion out of days
and places, out of Samaria and Jerusalem, out
of Good Friday and Lent and Easter, and
he put it in the human breast.
And he said, true Shekinah is man, and
the human soul is a moving sanctuary, a
portable shrine, and every human breast that believes
in Jesus Christ is a Bethel.
And every redeemed eye can call his place,
Camel, the face of God.
And he can go on into the heart
of God.
And he will be in you, said Jesus.
I don't know where else it was ever
said, in you, said Jesus, in you.
Now there is a sense in which we
live in the hearts of those that love
us.
There is a sense, I know.
There is a sense in which we inhabit
the breasts of those who love us.
There is desire, and there is memory, and
there is presence.
But what normal human being has not, after
going from the presence of someone they love,
but what has felt that presence with them
and around them, even though they knew they
were not there.
It's a trick of the heart, it's a
psychology, it's feeling rather than fact.
But it's true and wonderful, and the world
cannot destroy it, distance cannot destroy it.
But there is a sense in which we
live in the hearts of those that love
us.
But that's only an emotional thing, only a
feeling, only a symbolic thing.
No one can ever enter another human heart.
But Jesus our Lord said, the Father seeketh
such to worship him, they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth.
And he that believeth on me, out from
within him shall flow rivers of living water,
and it shall be a well of water,
springing up unto eternal life.
Old Sychar here, where you and I sit,
lady, this was Jacob's well, and we smile
appreciatively when we think of Jacob giving it
to Joseph.
He said, here boy, I won't be around
much longer, and I won't need this well,
this is yours.
So Joseph said, thank you, Father, and took
the well, it was his, and they named
it Sychar, and it was a good one.
But Jesus said, you won't need it anymore,
because I'm telling you that I'll transfer the
wells inside your breast, not in feeling only,
not as a symbol only, but actually and
freely, I'll dwell inside your breast, and I'll
inhabit you, so the true temple is the
human breast, and the true incense is prayer,
and the true priest is the believer.
And we need not walk away from the
sanctuary when we walk away from the house
of God.
There are little churches here and there, and
I suppose they are very good, and I'm
glad for them.
There are little chapels here and there, where
the doors are never closed all day long,
and into the evening, and people off the
street come in and sit down to meditate
a few minutes.
That's a very good thing.
But oh, how tragic to say, God is
three blocks up.
God is three blocks up, and if I
can just hold out to get there.
God is in the box, three blocks up.
I'm so weary and tired and sick and
full of heartache, I want to commit suicide,
but if I can just hold out three
blocks, I'll get where God is.
Oh, man, I have some good news for
you.
Not in that box, three blocks up there,
not in that temple, not in this church,
not in that sanctuary, not in that camp
meeting tabernacle, but right where you are now,
and if you will open your heart and
receive him, you will have a moving sanctuary
to be with you all the rest of
your days.
And you never need to hurry to get
where God is, you'll always be where God
is.
And you never need to leave the church
walking slow, with reluctant steps, hating to leave
the place where God shows his face.
For you will have found Peniel, the face
of God, and Bethel, the house of God,
and you will carry it with you, a
moving sanctuary.
This is what Jesus told the woman, and
this is the message that the Church has
forgotten.
And the free Protestant Church is slowly moving
back, back to seasons and times and days
and years and places and sanctuaries and shrines,
back to the paganism of yesterday.
Oh, that we might see that whoever worships
the Father must worship him in spirit and
in truth, he of whom Moses and the
prophets wrote is Jesus Christ the Lord.
Take him, believe in him, love him, follow
him, trust him, obey him, believe on him,
put your confidence in him, and you have
your sanctuary.
You are worshiping him in spirit and in
truth.
For the Father seeketh such.
I don't know any number our choir does
that I like better, maybe, than the sweet
little number, For the Father seeketh such.
For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
I'm seeking you tonight.
If I could do something dramatic, I suppose,
that I could stir you, and we'd have
a packed house next Sunday night.
If there was something big and dramatic and
colorful that I could supplement this message with,
I could say, God called you to worship
the Father, now we'll bring on the target
shooters.
And we'd have some fellow shoot at a
flying saucer.
I'm sure.
Brethren, I'd turn my back on all such
business and walk out into the quiet groves
and kneel with a brother in Christ and
worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
before I'd settle all the religion of the
Spirit down the river and violate the holy
principle of the New Testament.
Jesus gave this revelation to a woman of
a spotty reputation, and she responded with a
bounce.
And from that hour on, she had the
water that was never drawn from a well.
I wonder if we, more favored men and
women, might not be in danger of allowing
our pride and self-confidence and self-righteousness
to shut our hearts to the simplicity of
this wonderful message.
Let's watch it, and let's pray.
Lord, we thank thee, we thank thee, for
the faith once delivered.
We thank thee for all the music and
poetry and artistry, all the high flights of
the religious spirit, all the dreams of holy
men and the visions of sage and seer.
We thank thee for the places that are
marked to remind us of men who once
walked on earth, good men and true, faithful
men and true.
And we thank thee that all their activities
in faith and belief and discipline and prayer
and warfare all led us to him who
is its fulfillment.
And now we have found him.
We have found him, this man who told
us everything we ever did, this wondrous man
who never sinned, who will sit and talk
to us who never did anything else but
sin.
How we thank thee for this miracle, this
wonderful, shining miracle of the man who came
from men.
Blessed Jesus, receive our thanks.
We thank thee, Lord, we thank thee.
We pray that thou wilt help everybody here
tonight to open his heart, her heart, wide
to the Savior and to believe that he
will come in instantly and at once and
plant a well there and spring up and
spring up and spring up on and on
while the ages go by, up unto eternal
life.
Lord, help us.
Help any who may be on the borderline
tonight.
Help any who may be partly backslidden.
Help any who may be wandering.
Help any who may be doubting.
May we beseech thee this night, may there
be a quick turning of the Spirit to
the God of spirits who seeketh such to
worship him, these who worship in spirit and
in truth.
We ask it in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.