Gospel

I hope it will come nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I hear the cross, the sweetest prayer, moving in on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, while other ground is sinking sand.

Darkness seems to veil His face, I trust on His unchanging grace. While other ground is sinking sand, His oath is covenant and blood. Support me in the whelming flood, when all around my soul gives way.

He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, while other ground is sinking sand. While other ground is sinking sand.

Well, thank you very much for coming to the gospel meeting tonight. It's a pleasure to see everyone. My name is Scott McLeod.

I am visiting from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and I flew up here with Murray McCandless, who will close the meeting. Now, just before we read from the Word of God, we're going to bow our heads, and we'll take time to speak to God. Our gracious God, we praise Thee once again for Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank Thee for the salvation stories that we were privileged to hear tonight. Thank Thee for the wonderful story of Jesus Christ coming from heaven to go to the cross of Calvary and die for our sins. We thank Thee for the Word of God that we can read from and depend upon.

We thank Thee, Father, for the fact that God does love this world, and God desires the salvation of all men and women, boys and girls. And we thank Thee for those lovely words in John 3, verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We look to Thee for help as the gospel is presented tonight, that someone in the meeting in their sins might understand that they are heading to an awful place called hell and the judgment of God forever, and they need to be saved, and they need to be saved now.

We ask for help in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Now, if you have a Bible, please turn to John 4. We're going to read a story about a conversation that took place between the Lord Jesus, God's Son, and a woman. John is in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then comes the Gospel of John.

The New Testament is the latter half of your Bibles. Just take time to read the majority of this story, but we'll skip over a few verses for sake of time. Let's look at John 4, and verse number 3. It says this about the Lord Jesus.

He left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must, needs, go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Sychar, which is called Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. As we said, that was 12 noon. Interesting to notice that the Lord Jesus was waiting for this woman.

Verse 7, then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Now I want you to notice how she addresses him.

Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew? That's important. Asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and these are tremendous words, 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.

The woman never heard that before. Verse 11, the woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. Now listen to this expression of hers, And the well is deep.

She understood that. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever, and you can see the Lord pointing at the well, whosoever drinketh of this water 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. It's really the thought of a spring, is what the word means, a bubbling spring.

Shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that sayest thou truly. The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and so on. Look down at verse number 25. The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.

When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. Now verse number 28.

This is a wonderful verse. This is where I want to center my thoughts. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and sayeth to the men, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? Then came out of the city. Then they went out of the city and came unto him. Now finally, just down to verse number 41.

She has been telling these people of the city, and here's what they say, adding to her story. And many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying. And we're going to find out what she said.

For we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior of the world. Now that's all we're going to read, but I want you to look at your Bibles again. I want you to look at verse number nine.

Here is a simple conversation. The woman started out and she called this man. This man, she was talking to a Jew.

Then in verse 11, she said, sir. And then in verse number 19, thou art a prophet. It's tremendous.

And then in verse number 29, the Christ. Do you know where she ended? Verse number 42, the savior of the world. What a day that was.

That is what gives... If there's ever a depressed gospel preacher, I'll suggest you go and read John chapter 4. Because here is a woman and she woke up this particular day in her sins on the road to hell. No hope. There was really no purpose to live.

You can tell that from the story and a little bit of searching into history. You're going to discover that in this little town of Sychar, you're going to discover that there were three wells. Two of them were right in the city.

And that was the easy place to get water. You're going to find out from history and even from the story that this well was outside the city, a good distance. Now, listen.

Nobody in their right mind went to get water at dinnertime. It was too hot. That was a long journey.

That was not the proper time to get water. You always went in the evening as the sun was going down. You know what this dear woman was trying to do? She was trying to avoid people.

This woman is at the low point of her life. This woman has no respect in the town. Nobody wants her.

Nobody wants to be associated with her. But I love this in the story. God wanted her.

I come from Canada. I'm looking into faces tonight. I don't know who you are.

I hope to get to know you. But I can tell you one thing. I am representing God.

And He wants you. He wants to save you. Just like He did with this woman.

And isn't it wonderful to read in the story that here is the Lord Jesus and He had to go this way. And then we find out that when He goes this way He is purposely sitting at that very well where in maybe a matter of half an hour or an hour I don't know how long the Lord Jesus sat there but He just patiently sat at this woman's well. He was waiting for her.

Now do you know what the well speaks of? Do you know what the bucket speaks of? It speaks of sin. It speaks of a world that will never satisfy. It speaks of a world with all of its lights and all of its music and all of its entertainment and all of its glitzy advertisement that allures people in and says this will satisfy.

This will bring for feminine life. This will set you for life. And it leaves you empty.

That's what sin does. It leaves you empty. It leaves you ruined.

I can relate to this woman. I became a born again Christian at the age of 24. I used to be a DJ in a nightclub and into other parties and all that sort of stuff.

And I can remember the emptiness, the literal achiness with inside. I don't want anymore of this God. I am sick and tired of this lifestyle.

I'm sick and tired of this drink but I got no power to stop. I'm tired of these drugs but I got no power to stop. I'm tired of this nightclub and this job but I got no power to stop going to it.

And every time you went to it, the well got deeper. And when this woman looked at the Lord and said the well is deep. She felt the depth of that well.

Friend, that's the people that God wants to save. See, it's very interesting as a preacher when you talk to people. I want you to follow me carefully here, okay? Because people will come off and they will say, and I believe it's sincere.

They'll say, oh, I want to be saved. You know the first question we ask? Why? Why do you want to be saved? Do you know what often the first response back is? Well, I want to go to heaven. That's not the right answer.

That is not, friend, why you need to be saved. There is a truth that just eclipses that truth. You know the reason why you need to be saved? Because there's a real burning hell beneath our feet.

That's why. And every single one of us that are not saved, we're heading quickly down into that awful place the Bible calls, and in hell, He lifts up His eyes being in torment. That's why you need to be saved, friend.

And that's what I wish by the Spirit of God, someone get a hold of tonight. You would get beyond the preaching and get beyond the preachers and get beyond the little Sunday school experiences and all that, and you would just start to deal with God Himself and come to that understanding. I need to be saved from where my sins are taking me.

I am going to be in hell. Sometimes when I sit with sinners that are troubled and the last gentleman or the second last gentleman that was up here, he said he had a hard time believing. And I was like that too.

But I'll tell you what. The minute I understood and agreed with God that I was a sinner going to hell, no one had to tell me to believe. No one had to explain believing to me.

I just remember that day clear as crystal. April the 4th, 1990. I can remember where I was, the 5th floor of a building, back from the church.

And then the town where I come from, I was a telephone splicer working in the closet, working on the telephone lines. And I can remember the desperation that just sunk over my mind. Scott, the Bible says you're a sinner and you're going to hell.

You know what happened? Oh God, save me! Right there. That's why Jesus died. It's just like it was crystal clear.

No one had to sit beside me and explain it to me. I saw the Savior. I didn't see him with my physical eyes.

I understood through the Bible. Jesus died for me. You had a moment like that? You know, you go to people and you talk to them, eh? If you interviewed a person that was rescued by a lifeguard, do you think he'd be hazy? Well, I'm not really too sure what happened.

I don't think so. You go and interview a person that was rescued by the fireman from a burning house. Do you think it would be some hazy, cloudy thing? I don't think so.

I often tell the story, I knew all kinds of facts about the fireman. I knew what a red firetruck was. But there was a particular day in my life when my shop was on fire.

And this desperate boy made a 911 call. And I had five firetrucks, close to 30 firemen. And I just stood back and what used to be just a fact literally became a reality right in front of me.

And they put the fire out. And my little mind moved from just merely recognizing something to, for the first time, appreciating I know what they can do. An awful lot of people know about Jesus.

This woman did. She even refers to it. Here she is.

She doesn't even know who she's talking to. And she says, but we know that when Messiah comes and here's the Messiah, the chosen one of God, standing right in front of her. But she'd read about Him.

She'd heard men preach about Him. And she even talked about worship. And they had their little church that they went to.

So this woman wasn't ignorant of the Bible. She knew this. But it was all just facts to her.

But my, as she stood there before God's Son, holding on to that empty bucket, she came face to face with Savior of the world. What was she going to do? That's why it's so important where the word, nothing is just arbitrarily thrown into the word of God. I love the verse.

She left, let it fall, the water bucket. Empty. It just reminds me of a life that is full of sin.

A life that can't bring satisfaction. And at the feet of the only man who can satisfy, she drops what is empty. And she embraces the Savior of the world.

I tell you, it's not a wonder we read that she went home. Not a wonder she ran home. And she started to tell everybody.

She had no story prior to this. She woke up this morning with nothing to tell. Empty.

Just empty. And here she is. I can see her coming back into the town.

You know what? I love preaching the gospel. Not that I love to preach, but I love to direct you to the Bible. There is nothing more powerful than the word of God.

Nothing more powerful. Just as I'm passing by here, I enjoyed all the testimonies, but just a simple little point of correction. Read from this book first before you tell me how you got saved.

Leave me some of the Bible. One verse. Just give me the Bible.

This is what this woman had. And here's this woman as she is leaving her house this particular day. It's just a normal day to her.

She has no idea who's going to be sitting at that well. She had gone to that well day after day after day at high noon and there was nobody there. All of a sudden now she comes out of her house and she starts to walk up that road and I don't know what position on the road.

All of a sudden she lifted up her eyes and she saw there's someone at the well. Uh-oh. There's never anybody at that well.

What am I going to do? Oh, this is embarrassing. I often wonder if the woman didn't just pause right in the street. Do I go back home? Or do I go to the well? Am I speaking to someone here tonight and maybe a couple of years ago, maybe a week ago, you would never be in a gospel meeting.

Am I speaking to someone tonight and maybe there are things happening in your life that you just can't explain? It's out of the ordinary. Maybe there's someone in your heaven trouble sleeping. Never had that before.

Maybe there's thoughts of heaven and hell and the Bible. And is there really life after death? Never thought like that before. Everything prior to this was just hunky-dory, going right along.

Life was life. Friend, that is God trying to speak to you. Thoughts of eternity.

Thoughts about the Bible. A fear of meeting God. Wondering if this is all just what is life all about? Maybe there's someone here and you're wondering what is really the purpose in life? I went through all of this stuff and I didn't know what was happening to me.

And you hear about these people and that's what I want to do. I want to take a leave of absence from my work and jump on my motorbike and go across Canada and down to California and over to Florida and come up. I wanted to find myself.

And there I just had to look at the very square foot I was on and there I was. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what was going on with me.

I'm so thankful for an individual that came alongside me and he said, God is speaking to you, Scott. You need to listen. You need to get into the Bible where God can speak to you more.

And I'm so glad that that woman kept going up the road. She kept moving toward that strange figure sitting at her well. Oh, it's wonderful to flip the story.

It's not a wonder she said to this man, how is it that you're actually speaking to me? My, why God would take time to speak to any of us. It just baffles my brain and I got a small brain. Why God would ever take time out of his busy schedule to look down into this world that is so full of sin and nobody's down here saying, please come and help us.

No, no, no. They're kicking God out of the schools. They're kicking God out of the home.

They're kicking God out of the life. They want to take it off your coin. They want to kick God out of everything.

And God still in love speaks to sinners. He still searches for them. I tried to emphasize that in the story, the Lord Jesus was waiting for her.

And who spoke first? The Lord Jesus spoke first. My, I love that. That just shows me the grace of God.

Now you need to understand a little bit of history because this woman had no idea of all of this activity that was happening. She had no idea that two or three days earlier, the Lord Jesus was way down in a place called Jerusalem. And the Lord Jesus had to go way up north into a place called Galilee.

And right in the middle was this province of Samaria. No Jew went through Samaria. Do you know why? History tells us this.

The pure Jews looked at the Jews that lived in Samaria and they really called them half-breeds. It was a terrible cultural thing. And they thought, a Jew thought, that if I step foot into Samaria and if I talk to a Samaritan, I'll be defiled because they're not true Jews.

They're only half-Jews. Do you know what every Jew did? Here's the country of Samaria. Here's Jerusalem.

Here's the northern country of Galilee. Every Jew came up to the border of Samaria and they went across a dangerous river called the Jordan into the desert. And they went right around the province of Samaria, crossed the dangerous Jordan again, and into Galilee.

There. Having been defiled by those Samaritans. Isn't it wonderful? Jesus must, needs, go through Samaria.

I love that. Every single person that I can look at tonight, I know that God loves you. I am so thankful for a verse in the book of Acts where it says, God is no respecter of persons.

Doesn't matter to God how much religion you have in your background. Doesn't matter your family name. Doesn't matter your social status.

Doesn't matter your income. Doesn't matter how influential you are in the neighborhood or non-influential. It doesn't matter to God.

What matters to God is this, you're a sinner heading to hell. That's what matters to God. And God says, I want to try to reach them before they die in their sins and go to hell.

And I just love it. This woman wouldn't even know about this. To her she'd see this man at the well and think, what's the coincidence of that? No friend, it's not a coincidence that you're in this meeting tonight.

Don't believe in coincidence for one minute. And it annoys me. This will be a little ax I can grind here.

I hope there's no Christians that are superstitious. Fate, chance. A Christian should never use the word, oh, I was lucky.

Oh, glad that didn't happen. I guess I was lucky. I can remember when I worked for the telephone company and I did a lot of work in the Charlotte Metro, Charlottetown area, the city area.

A lot of traffic. And of course, a lot of the telephone lines are right over the sidewalk and you'd have your ladder up and you'd have your ladder over the sidewalk out into the line of traffic. And you'd have a couple of pylons out.

I used to sit up there in the air, laugh my head off at people that would literally come to the ladder. What do I do? I either walk under a ladder or I walk out into traffic to go around the ladder. That's the way people think.

We're so superstitious. Friend, this Bible teaches God has purpose. Purpose for you.

Things that are happening in your life. The fact that you might be here tonight with someone who is a Christian on the road to heaven. The fact that you have parents that are saved and they're conscious of going to heaven.

That is purpose. God is like with a loud horn saying, come to me. I want to be your savior.

God is trying to speak to you. Maybe you're like those people standing at the ladder. What do I do? Well, this woman kept going.

Isn't it wonderful? The Lord Jesus just kept walking and I'm sure those disciples were awful nervous as they came to the borderline where they traditionally went to the right across the river. I can guarantee you that these disciples were never in Samaria before in their life. Never.

And the Lord Jesus just kept walking. You know why? Because there was a lonely soul. She was looking for help.

Amazes me when I go through the Bible and I find out the distances and the things that God will move to speak to sinners. You know what? I've said it many times from the platform as I preach the gospel. It's not a wonder, dear friend, you read about a place called hell because God is doing everything to try to stop you from going there.

Everything. Do you know what sinners do? They resist. Just like this woman.

Here's the Lord Jesus and He starts to speak to this woman and I get this picture of this lonely soul holding this empty bucket. And as long as I've got this bucket, I've got a little hope. Oh, the devil has all kinds of empty buckets.

We heard about one tonight. False profession. I think I'm okay.

That empty bucket is going to take you to hell. Oh, the devil's got another empty bucket. It's called good works.

I'm a good person. I pay money to the church. That will take you to hell.

It will never satisfy. That empty bucket will never bring you to a point in life where you're able to drop it and say, I'm now ready for heaven. I'm satisfied.

Never. I wonder what bucket you're holding tonight if you're not saved. Now let's go over that slow.

If you're here tonight unable to say, I'm going to be in heaven when I die. Friend, you're presently holding an empty bucket. You're holding on to something.

Every sinner comes to God holding something. That's what they're holding on. That's where they got their confidence.

That's where they got their faith. This, this will do it. My priest says I'm okay.

That will do it. As this woman, as this woman was talking to the Lord Jesus, I can almost see that grip on the bucket start to loosen. What? This man is telling me that I can have living water? Never heard of it.

I stand before you tonight and I know my sins are all forgiven. Friend, that's living water. There's not a person that can take that from me.

I discovered that 21 years ago on April the 4th. I understood that when Jesus died, He died for my sins. That is worth getting excited about.

I will be in heaven when I die. Is there anyone here tonight and you're thinking, man, I wish I could know that. Well, let go of your bucket.

Let go of what you're trusting in. Drop it. And with both arms, embrace God's Son.

That's all she did. The Lord Jesus, first of all, introduced her to salvation. But now listen, here's the very difficult point.

Do you know what that bucket was in her life? It was immoral living. The world has all different names for it today. Oh, you don't have to get married.

Just live common law and that's okay. No, it's not. The Bible calls it sin and it will damn your soul in hell forever.

Well, we love one another. The Bible calls it fornication and it will take your soul to hell. This woman had to face this.

She had a desire for the water. She said, sir, give me this water that I thirst not again. And then the Lord just put his finger right on sin.

Do you know what she did? We worship in this mountain. It's amazing how quick this religious, this woman got. In a split second she got religious.

That's what happens all the time when the spotlight of the gospel and as a person comes out night after night and they listen to the preaching of the gospel from the word of God and all of a sudden they start to zero in and they realize, man, that's speaking about me. I'm the sinner going to hell. Amazing how quick people start to get religious.

They start to clean up their life. I remember my wife telling me she was brought up, our brother over there mentioned that in a Calvinistic, she was brought up in a very hyper-Calvinistic church. She thought that all her job was was to read a chapter every day, say her prayers, and then just sit back and go, oh, God didn't save me.

Okay. That's how she was brought up. And I remember her telling me, and with this I'll end, I remember her saying to me, I remember they saw this tent and Albert Ramsey and Peter Rorsack, those that know them names, were preaching in this tent and they, her and her brother, went in to see this tent thing, gospel preaching, and they heard all kinds of whatever kind of preaching you want to call it, and when those two men started to preach, they were just, they were all ears.

Wow, this is good preaching. Man, those fellows are really on fire. Listen to them.

She said, after two weeks I was sitting there one night and all of a sudden it hit me. They're preaching at me. Yeah.

And if you missed it, I'm preaching at you. I'm trying to touch you. I'm trying to show you from this book, friend, that you're the sinner and Christ is trying to find you.

What a wonderful story to read. Woke up in her sins. She went to bed that night having put her faith in the Savior of the world.

Friend, that's how you could go to bed tonight, knowing the Savior of the world.