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you you welcome good morning everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your song books and turn to song number 55 song number 55 in your song books we'll sing when the roll is called up yonder if you would stand we'll sing song number 55 when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more and the morning breaks eternal bright fair when the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore and the roll is called up yonder I'll be there when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there on that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise and the Gloria resurrection share when his chosen one shall gather home beyond the skies and the roll is called up yonder I'll be there when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there let us labor for the master from the dawn till setting Sun let us talk of all his wondrous love and care and when all of life is over and our work on earth is done and the roll is called up yonder I'll be there when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there and let's pray heavenly Father Lord again we just want to thank you God for a beautiful Sunday morning you've given us to meet in your house and to hear you were preached I pray Lord know that you'd be with our pastor a film with your power and spirit we love you for it's in Jesus and we ask all of it amen all right maybe seated and take your mountain Baptist psalm books those blue folders there on your chairs and turn to page number 21 so we're doing a new song a new song never done before mountain Baptist psalms hymns and spirit of songbooks on page number 21 save me Oh God by thy name and judge me by thy strength hear my prayer Oh God give ear to the words of my mouth for strangers are risen up against me and don't press her seek after my soul who said God before them see la behold God is my helper the Lord is with them that uphold my soul he shall reward evil unto mine enemies cut them off and I true I will freely sacrifice unto thee I will freely sacrifice unto thee I will praise thy name oh Lord for it is good for he has delivered me out of all trouble and my I have seen his desire upon mine enemies out of all trouble and my I have seen desire upon mine enemies amen welcome out Baptist Church on this Sunday morning beautiful Sunday morning and definitely have a lot of visitors this morning from Detroit from Canada and all over and all that so welcome everybody and my aunt is actually in from Ohio too so as far as service times today as far as on your announcements or your bullets in there everything should be normal today so we have obviously our Sunday morning service right now but we have our afternoon service at 4 p.m. am I correct to say that the women's prayer meeting is gonna be happening this afternoon instead of last I think I got kind of switched to this weekend anyway so between the services there I think the ladies are gonna be trying to do a prayer meeting there but then we have our main soul winning time at 1 p.m. today so get some lunch come back here a little before 1 o'clock get teamed up to go out soul winning and then on the regional so many times they're beyond the church group when it comes to that I think Monday for maybe the next couple weeks I think that one's gonna be postponed or different there but just beyond the church group there when it comes to times locations everything there and then as far as this past Saturday the solely marathon in Cumberland seemed to be success so was it 29 salvations so praise the Lord there and so good work for all those that went out and was a part of that on Saturday and then on the list here we're we're not in August yet but we're getting there so we have the women's prayer meeting in the men's prayer meeting on the upcoming events we do have the solely marathon I think that one was that one getting switched to the 24th I think I think right now we haven't shown us the 31st but it's gonna be at the end of August there and then the cannons Burke PA solely marathon September 21st which is the Saturday before our anniversary service so typical as far as doing a soloing marathon before that and then our anniversary service will be on the 22nd and we'll have our typical kind of fellowship and all that stuff between the services so there'll be food and all that fun stuff there probably fun stuff for the kids as well that we usually try to do there as far as on the back your bullets in there our memory our chapter memory for the month is Psalm 126 and then we're coming to the end of July here so obviously this will change into August we'll have a different chapter but some 126 is a very short Psalm but it's very pertinent one especially when dealing with soul winning so if you haven't memorized that you could probably do that today if you really wanted to so it's just a few it's like six verses or so in there so and then Romans 11 six is our memory verse for the week and if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work so obviously salvation verse they're dealing with salvation by grace not of works and then birthdays so we got to sing happy birthday to Kelly how old how did Kelly just turn for four years old and then and then Caleb is this it's gotta be this is this Friday Friday so so Caleb and how is Caleb gonna be seven so awesome there so we'll sing happy birthday to Kate to Kelly and Caleb does anyone have a birthday that's coming up this week we have a lot of visitors so we don't want to you know we want to keep you included there and then anniversaries did we sing happy anniversary setting happy anniversaries to the signs right so technically Holly and I didn't get sung to you so I figured you remember that so but our anniversary was this past Friday so and then pregnancy lists there so be in prayer for Krista McCloy and specifically be in prayer for her she's been dealing with some like platelet issues and stuff like that when it comes to obviously the birthing process but the thing is is that I think both she's got she's pregnant with twins and last I heard they were breach which means the C section would have to happen but the platelet levels need to be better for that and so just be in prayer for Krista McCloy for the babies but also for just the McCloy family in general there and then Rachel Hiles on the list there as well on the pregnancy list so be in prayer for her and I think that's about what I have for announcements the offering boxes in the back there if you want to give a tithe or an offering and the mother baby rooms for the mothers babies only and so we'll do the happy birthdays who's reading this morning brother Joseph's gonna be reading John chapter 4 for us after we do all of that and if we do another song so brother Dave's gonna come and do all that all right take your song books and turn to song 132 song 132 in your song books we'll sing never alone but before we do that look at that Kelly's already standing up she's ready to rock and roll man she's not shy all right sing happy birthday to Kelly and to Caleb where's Caleb at come on Caleb stand up yeah I know it's part of being a man you gotta stand up you don't have to stand up traumatize these kids all right so we'll see happy birthday to Caleb and to Kelly any other birthdays Lane your birthday no okay Lane is our resident every week birthday so I will sing happy birthday to both Kelly and Kayla ready happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday God bless you happy birthday to you happy birthday both of you Caleb you don't have to do that again for another year man okay all right I was saying how let's sing happy anniversary did we sing happy anniversary to Richie in them where's Richie we did okay I will then pastor and Holly stand up come on all right how many years have you married ten years Wow a decade that's awesome doesn't seem like that long ago actually those pictures you posted you look the same all right ten years that's awesome happy anniversary to both and we'll sing happy anniversary right happy anniversary to you happy anniversary to you happy anniversary God bless you happy anniversary to you hey all right we will sing song 132 I've seen the lightning flashing I've heard the thunder roll I've found breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul I heard the voice of Jesus telling me still to fight on he promised never to leave me never to leave me alone no no never alone he promised never to leave me never to leave me alone no never alone no never alone he promised never to Never to leave me, never to leave me alone. The world's fierce winds are blowing. Temptations are sharp and keen. I feel a peace in knowing my Savior stands between. Shave me from danger when earthly friends are gone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. When in afflictions valley, I'm treading the road of care. My Savior helps me to carry my cross when heavy to bear. My feet entangled with briars ready to cast me down. My Savior whispers his promise never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. He died for me on that mountain for three years to sign. For me he opened that fountain, the crimson cleansing time. For me he waited in glory seated upon his throne. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria, then cometh he to a city of 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. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. 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? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 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 the living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw water with, the well is deep. 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 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 of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith 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 whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that sayest thou truly. 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 said 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 that 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 the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, What seekest thou? Or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore, said the disciples one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto him, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye that are ye are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruits unto life eternal, that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, one soweth, another reapeth. I sent you to reap, that whereon ye bestowed no labor. Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of thou saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went unto the feast. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe. The nobleman said unto him, Sir, Come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed in the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the Father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth, and himself believed in his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was out of Judea into Galilee. Let's pray. Lord Father, thank you for this time we were able to gather this morning. Lord, I thank you for your pure and holy word. I ask you to be a pastor and edify us this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So you're there in John chapter 4. This is the story of the woman at the well. The woman of Samaria at the well. And I'm going to be preaching a sermon called Catholic Samaria. Catholic Samaria. So you're probably wondering what in the world are you getting into with this one. But this is more of an observational correlation. Reading through John chapter 4, dealing with... Samaria obviously is an area, right? It's a region of where Israel was at at the time. But the correlation of Samaritans to Catholics today. And the thing is that West Virginia is actually very Catholic. And this area is very Catholic and Methodist. I'd say this is like the two big denominations, if you will. And obviously I grew up Catholic, so I... Obviously that kind of just sticks out in my mind as far as correlations there when it comes to that. But I first want, before I get into the correlation of Catholicism to Samaritans, you really need to see the background of where did Samaria even come from. You know, when we're in the story of the Samaritans, or dealing with a Samaritan woman, you kind of have to know the background as far as who are they, where did they come from, that type of thing. Are they Israelites? You know, that's something to think about there. Because Samaria, Jesus grew up in Nazareth, right? Now he was born in Bethlehem, but he grew up in Nazareth. And if you're looking at a map, Judea is right here, Samaria is right here, and Galilee is up here. When Jesus, he'd constantly be walking through Samaria to get back and forth from Galilee to Jerusalem and Judea and all those areas, right? But he would... What we're going to see is that usually he was not preaching to people in Samaria, it was to Israel, okay? And those that were living in Galilee, there was a lot of Israelites living in Galilee, and then obviously in Judea as well. So, but let's look at the history, and just bear with me, okay? Go to 1 Kings chapter 16, 1 Kings chapter 16. And what you have to understand is that Israel, after Solomon's reign, was split up into two parts, okay? So you had obviously King Saul, King David, then Solomon, David's son. They rolled over all of Israel, so all 12 tribes. But after Solomon, the kingdom was split into what was called basically Israel and Judea. So you had the northern kingdom of Israel, and you had the southern kingdom of Israel, which is basically just called Judah, because obviously Judah was the major tribe there. And even the northern kingdom was a lot of times just called Ephraim, because Ephraim was the bigger tribe, okay? So, but basically you had 10 tribes up there, one tribe down below, and you're like, that's 11 tribes, another server for another day, as far as what's going on there. As far as what tribes were down there. Now, in 1 Kings chapter 16, we have this story with Amraim, and the idea of where the capital was for that northern kingdom. So Jerusalem's obviously the capital of Judea, of Judah. But the northern kingdom, when it got split, you had Bethel, and you had Dan and Bethel and all that, that basically the two calves were put in, all that. But basically, there's this struggle for a king, there's all these conspiracies, they're killing kings, then they're setting up other kings and all this stuff. So, in verse 21 here, it says, then were the people of Israel divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Timni, the son of Genath, to make him king, and half followed Amrai. So basically, after this whole conspiracy thing that was going on, there's Timni and Amrai. But it says, but the people that followed Amrai prevailed against the people that followed Timni, the son of Genath. So, Timni died and Amrai reigned. In the 30th and first year of Asa, king of Judah, began Amrai to reign over Israel 12 years. Six years reigned, he and Tirzah. So, he reigned six years in Tirzah, but notice what happens here in verse 24. And he bought the hill of Samaria, of Shemer, for two towns of silver, and built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria. So, at this point, this capital city of that northern kingdom is now going to be this city called Samaria. And Ahab, Amrai's son, and Ahab is obviously a very notorious king of Israel. Obviously, his wife is probably more notorious, Jezebel. But they start reigning from Samaria at that point. Now, fast forward, you go through a lot of kings, and eventually that northern kingdom is going to be completely taken out by the Assyrians. And the Assyrians try to take out Judah, but obviously God doesn't let that happen. But that northern kingdom of Israel is completely taken out. Go to 2 Kings chapter 17. 2 Kings chapter 17. Because what I don't, what I think a lot of people don't realize is that the Samaritans are in no way Israelites. They're not even, I mean, when I say they're not a mixture, meaning like, what happened here is that whole area of that northern kingdom was resettled by people completely outside of Israel. So, notice what happens here. 2 Kings chapter 17 covers the complete annihilation of the northern kingdom by Assyria. Verse 22 says, For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did, they departed not from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said, by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. So basically all those inhabitants of that northern kingdom were completely taken out, and they were basically in captivity in Assyria. Verse 24, And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sipharvayim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria. So notice how Samaria is now like a whole region where there's multiple cities, instead of the children of Israel. So now, are there any people of Israel in that land now? No, they're all taken out, and basically all these from different areas, right? So it's kind of like a bunch of different countries, they basically put all these people in there, right? And it says, And they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. Okay, so now we see, okay, the Samaritans, they're not, you know, basically of the same lineage as like those of Judea and stuff like that. Okay, so keep reading there, and it says, And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. So, get the picture here, basically they put in all these people, and the Lord's sending lions in there to basically take them out. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land. Therefore he hath sent lions among them, behold they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom he brought from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Now I want you to think about this, was the northern kingdom, okay, so basically one of the priests that was taken captive, they're saying bring one of those priests back, so that they can teach them basically how to worship the God of the land. But I want you to think about this, was that northern kingdom right with God? So you're basically bringing people that are religious leaders back in that time, of a kingdom that was taken out for not following the Lord. Therefore, they're going to bring that person back to teach this whole group of people that know nothing about it, how to serve the Lord. So do you see how we're starting off on the wrong foot to begin with? Right, you have basically a bunch of people that weren't serving the Lord, weren't keeping his commandments, that's why they were taken out, let's bring one of their priests in to go deal with this, right? And if you know, this is the priest dealing with the sin of the son of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which said these be thy gods, the golden calves that brought you out of the land of Egypt, right? So we're already dealing with, you're bringing the wrong person in to teach them this, right? But in verse 28 there it says, Then one of the priests, whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Notice in verse 29, Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made, so basically it's got to say like each one kind of had their own god, right? So the men of Babylon had Succoth, Benath, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and going down the line it basically just gives like these different gods that they had, right? Verse 32 it says, So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. So notice the combination here. So what is this now? Now it's basically a polytheistic religion that's melded with a semblance of worshipping the true God. Does that make sense? Like it's basically putting the two together, okay? The people that are there weren't believers to begin with, right? They weren't actually what we would call Christian or believers, right? And they basically took these two religions and basically put them together like this, okay? And it says in verse 34 for clarification, unto this day they do after the former manners, they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you worship, and to him shall you do sacrifice. So think about this, I mean the first commandment of the Ten Commandments is, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. And they're saying, we're going to fear the Lord and we're going to serve other gods too, right? I mean they're literally missing the first statute in the whole process here. And it says, go down to verse 41, it says, So these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day. So, where are we at, you know, going, you know, hundreds of years later, when Jesus is walking on the earth, and He comes to this woman at the well, what you see here is that these people aren't Israelites, but they have a semblance of the religion. Right? And you kind of see that with what she says, right? Jacob's well, our fathers, like going down the line, they're kind of bringing up They don't really know what they're believing. They don't know, there's basically this melding or this mixture of that happening there. And when it comes to this, okay, when it comes to, because there seems to be this resurgence in Catholicism, okay? Now, just to give you an idea of percentages here, okay? In the world, Christianity makes up about 33%, okay? And half of that Christianity would be considered Catholicism, okay? In America, almost a quarter of our population considers themselves Catholic, okay? And if I had people raise their hands, there's a lot of people in here that would raise their hands and say, yeah, I used to be Catholic, yeah, I grew up Catholic, and all that, right? And so it's very prominent in the world, but also in America when it comes to this. And I think one of the big reasons why people are drawn to Catholicism is because they believe that its roots is all the way back to the apostles. And really, a lot of it is historical basis as far as why they say, well, that must be the right one, that must be the true one because of historical, you know, basically backing or whatever, right? What you have to understand is that there was always false religions, there was always basically stuff being corrupted, and there wasn't like this time when the apostles were around when basically there was just, it was just pure and there was no corruption anywhere. And let me just prove that to you in some scripture here and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 is that, well, this precedes obviously even the time of Christ, obviously that there were corruptions within religion. I mean, think about this. Was the main religion in Judea right at the time? The Sadducees and Pharisees, were they right? I mean, Jesus was ripping their face off on a daily basis, right, on them not knowing the scriptures and that they're teaching commandments of men and traditions of men, all these different things. That wasn't right. So the majority, the main religion of Judea at the time was wrong. So the idea of, well, because the majority is following this group over here, or the majority over here considers themselves Catholic or whatever it may be, even if the majority were Baptist, that doesn't make it right, okay? And so in a historical aspect, one would maybe look at that and say, well, they must be right because most of them believe that, the leaders believe that. We can't go off of history, and one, because history is very subjective, okay? You have to take history with a grain of salt and know this is that they say about 1-3% of all ancient literature has been preserved. That means over 95% of all literature back then is completely gone. Now obviously we have the Bible, so the Bible is preserved, so that's part of the literature that's preserved, okay? And obviously we believe the Bible is the word of God without error, so therefore we can take this to the bank. When it comes to history, though, one, we don't have a lot, right? And then what you have, are you considering that perfect and without error? Who wrote it? And even within that history, there's a lot of contention as far as what's right, what's reliable, all of that, okay? So that being said is that I don't believe that's a good basis to go on, or the fact of just thinking that there was this pure line and then there was some point in history where all the corruption started happening, okay? Notice what it says in 2 Thessalonians 13, Paul is an apostle, and it says, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So the idea was, even back in the apostles' day, there were people that were basically saying they were apostles and they were false apostles. Go to 2 Corinthians 2, 2 Corinthians 2. This goes for the word of God, too, right? So one argument would be, okay, how do we know what Bible is right and all of that? And people say, well, the Bible has never been corrupt. You know, when we bring up these new versions of the Bible, they'll say, well, you're saying the word of God is not preserved or that it can be corrupted. It's like, I'm not saying that. I'm saying the Bible is actually saying that people were doing that. Now, obviously, God's word will never end and it will always be there. But it doesn't mean that people aren't going to try to corrupt it, okay? Notice what it says in verse 17 here, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17. It says, For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. So were there people corrupting the word of God? Yeah, all the way back, first century A.D., people were corrupting the word of God. By the way, you could go back to the Old Testament and people were corrupting it back then. Okay, so it's not like this is a new thing in the New Testament. It's just that this is just facts that you need to know. Is that people in Paul's day were corrupting the word of God and were basically writing scripture that was corrupt, okay? Notice what it says, But as of sincerity, but as of God, and in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Notice that it's not even just that there were some people doing it. It says, We are not as many, right? So there were many people, there were many false prophets, there were many false apostles, there were many people that were trying to corrupt the word of God. Go to 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1. And just the reality that you need to know, okay? So that being said is that when someone quotes some saint back in the second century or something like that, and say, Well, you know, this was the Pope of Rome or something like that back in that time. How do you know that person's right? How do you know that that church is right? I mean, like, there were false churches. I mean, there was false religion in Jesus' day and it was the prominent religion. That was false. The Sadducees, okay, which were, those were the high priests at that time, didn't believe in spirit, angel, or the resurrection. Which Judaism today is that religion. And the Pharisaical Talmud is literally the writings of the rabbis of that time and throughout history that is just continuing on with that religion. It was wrong back then. It's wrong today. And there has always been this corruption within, because the devil can't take away God's work. But he can put out counterfeits, right? He can't get rid of it, but he can try to deceive people into thinking, like, Oh, I have the Bible, right? So here's the NIV. Same thing with religion when it comes to churches. He can't get rid of true believing churches. But what he can do is try to mask and have churches that look like they would be churches that are Christian churches and basically deceive that way. In 2 Peter 2, verse 1, it says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves with destruction. And I can go on and on about verses on this, as far as marking those which cause divisions and contrary to doctrine, to learn, to employ them, and going on and on with that, okay? But let's go back to the woman at the well here, because what I see here is a correlation of the Samaritans and Catholicism, because Catholicism is essentially a melding of a lot of, like, traditions and pagan practices, okay? And Roman Catholicism, okay, for example, and I'm not going to get into deep history here on Roman Catholicism here, but there is a schism eventually, and then you have the Greek Orthodox Church and all this, and what you have is, like, the Greek speakers and the Latin speakers, and then they had differences and all this other stuff, so when I say, like, it's a bigger umbrella than even just, like, the Roman Catholic Church, okay, when it comes to this. Now, what we see here is, I want you to first see here that the Samaritans were not considered Israelites, and I just want you to see the correlation here. And in the end, what we see from the story is that many of these Samaritans get saved. And the light at the end of the tunnel of this is that when it comes to Catholicism, there are things that Catholics get right, okay? The Trinity, who God is, the Son of God. When we talk to people out soul-winning and they're Catholic, that's one that's just like, yeah, they got that. And there's certain foundational truths that they have, this foundation that's there, that just makes it just, like, low-hanging fruit that all they really need to know is, what do I need to believe is getting me to Heaven? Like, that's really it. And you're not going to some Hindu that's, like, believing in multiple gods, to where you have to be like, all right, there's one God, you know, in the Trinity, and let me explain the Trinity to you. That's all there, okay? Now, I'm speaking of generalities, because obviously I guarantee you'll run into a Catholic that doesn't understand the Trinity or, you know, basically whatever, right? Just like anything else. But majority believe in the Trinity, they know who Jesus is, and, you know, they know the story. They believe in the virgin birth, right? The deity of Christ is just, like, established when it comes to that. Okay, so when it comes to this, this is something to know that, hey, this is great ground to work off of when it comes to soul-winning. And I just want you to see how Jesus speaks to this woman, In verse 5 it says, Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground, that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. So, gave to his son Joseph, obviously we're in the northern kingdom, but Samaria obviously was inhabited by people from other countries, right? It says, 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. And there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. So, get the picture, Jesus is there alone, all his disciples are gone into the city, this woman comes out, and Jesus is saying, Give me to drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink to me, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And even Jesus himself says this in Matthew chapter 10, okay, when it's talking about preaching the gospel. So Matthew chapter 10, he's sending out his disciples two by two to go preach the gospel, right? But he says to them, and this is obviously in Jesus' earthly ministry, he was focusing on the house of Israel, and then afterwards he's saying, Go into Samaria, into the uttermost parts of the world, right? But it says in verse 5 of Matthew chapter 10, These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So notice how it's completely separating that from the house of Israel. So this woman is like, I mean rightfully so, she's kind of like, Why are you even talking to me? Because the Jews, and this gets into that story of the Good Samaritan, right? Why did that cut so deep with that story of the Good Samaritan? Because there was a priest and a Levite that left the guy half dead on the side of the road, but it was a Samaritan that came by, and was neighbor unto him, and healed him up, right? And that's why it cuts so deep, because they're just like, they had this superiority complex. And even after Jesus rises from the dead, there's this superiority complex with the Jews to the Gentiles, as far as the idea of just feeling higher up than them, okay? But what it comes down to is that Jesus is going to preach to her the Gospel, and these are always good places to go if you want to know, How do we talk to people about the Gospel? What do we bring up? Well what Jesus does, which is a really great tactic, is he meets the person where they're at, and uses the stuff around them, and incorporates that into the Gospel, okay? Obviously using the Word of God, he is the Word of God, but in verse 10 here it says, 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. And there's the Gospel in a nutshell. If you know what the gift of God is, and you know who the person that's giving it to you is, then you would ask, and he'd give it to you. How about for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is the eternal life for Jesus Christ our Lord. All you need to know to get saved is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is giving you that gift, and all you have to do is just ask for it. It's really that simple. In verse 11 it says, The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from whence then hast thou that living water? Very similar to Nicodemus, because remember he said you must be born again, and he said how can I enter into my mother's womb a second time? And he's taking it really literally, whereas obviously Jesus is talking spiritually speaking here. He's not talking about physical water, he's talking about spiritually, and then it says in verse 12, 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 dranketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever dranketh 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. Again, we're talking about what is the gift of God? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And how do you get that? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If thou should confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That is how you get eternal life, and that's obviously a spiritual thing, but notice how easy it is to be saved. It's like drinking a glass of water. That's how easy it is. And he's using the physical well and the physical water to represent the spiritual aspect there, which is salvation. And it says in verse 15, The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. So she's wanting it, but notice what Jesus does here, and some may wonder why, but it says Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband. And that saith unto him, Sir, I perceive the power of the prophet. So obviously Jesus knows, you know, he knows all things, but the thing is that what you have to understand is that for someone to get saved, they have to realize they need a savior because the Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that the law is given so that all the world may become guilty before God. So in order for someone to get saved, yeah, they need to know how you get saved, but they need to realize they need it. And so Jesus is showing her, hey, you're a sinner. And at this point, you know, she knows, like, this, yeah, he knows who I am. He knows that I've sinned, obviously. And go to 1 John 5, 1 John 5, and really what this comes down to is that salvation is just by faith. It's just by putting your trust in Christ. And when people, the point that I want to make here is that when people are just like, Why do you preach eternal security? Why do you believe you can never lose your salvation? Because it's crucial to understanding salvation. Actually, when you read the book of John, what you won't find is a lot of verses saying, What you'll see constantly, though, is that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. 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. Whosoever believeth in me hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is past from death unto life. I am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this. Do you notice that there's a trend there of what's being spoken about? Everlasting life, eternal life, never dying, living forever. So, when someone says, Well, you don't need to know, you don't need to understand that you'll never lose your salvation or that that life is eternal, you're not really understanding what Jesus is saying then. And let me just prove that to you, that you're not really believing on Christ if you believe you can lose your salvation because you're not believing it's eternal life. I mean, when Jesus says at the Martha, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. What if she said no? Or, when he said, Believeth thou this? What if she said no? I believe you can die. Right? Now, obviously we're talking about spiritually, we're not talking about physically. If she said no, then she doesn't really believe him, right? She's not really trusting in him. But, just to go further with that, 1 John 5, verse 10, it says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. So it's very black and white. If you believe the Son of God, on the Son of God, you have the witness in yourself, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. If you don't believe God, you're calling him a liar because you're not believing the record. And then it spells out what that is. It says, And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things that are written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. That is the crucial rubber meeting the road. And notice, that's what he's preaching to her. That's what he preaches to Nicodemus. That's what he's preaching to everybody when it comes to that. And so, when it comes to salvation, it's very clear that it's eternal life and that if you believe you can lose your salvation, then you don't believe it's eternal. Because if that life ends, if you can go to hell, for whatever reason, then it wasn't eternal and you're not believing the record that God gave to the Son. So that's why it's so crucial. But the thing is, the correlation that I see here is, go to John chapter 4 and verse 20. And I'm not here to pick on Catholics, okay? So, I love Catholics. I used to be one. And the thing is that I believe going to Catholic Church put a foundation there for when I heard the Gospel, as far as how to get saved. Where, it was like Paul, right? Paul wasn't saved when he was on the road to Damascus. But he was very well learned in the scriptures, wasn't he? But when he heard it, it was like this automatic, like, there it is. And it's just like, all these things are coming back to mind. You're like, yep, that's right, that's right, that makes sense. That goes together. Whereas if you're coming in completely ignorant to the scriptures, ignorant to the story, I'm not saying you can't get saved, but it's going to take a little bit more, right? Because you kind of have to process that. You have to think about it and be like, okay, I used to believe in millions of gods, let's think about one here. And I used to believe this over here, I've got to piece this together. And so, I believe that this is a very good foundation, not to be confused with saying that obviously the doctrine of the Catholic Church believes you can lose your salvation, that you have to pay penance and there's purgatory and all these different things, right? Obviously, they are wrong when it comes to salvation. But there are foundational things that they've received by tradition that help them get saved or basically is just like this low hanging fruit there. In verse 20 here, notice what she says. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me that the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. And this is really, when I was reading through John 4, this is what just stuck out to me, is that, and this isn't just for Catholics, this is just for Christians, people that believe they're Christian in general, is that they believe they're worshipping, that they're believing the right thing. But what they don't realize is that they're not worshipping what they think they're worshipping. And when it comes to Catholicism in general, they're worshipping and they're very zealous, so when it comes to this, they're zealous but not according to knowledge when it comes to what the scripture says on the issue. And just like Paul was zealous, not according to knowledge, but yet when that truth came, when he understood what the Bible says on this issue or what Jesus obviously told him when he was on the road to Damascus, then it was like this flip switch that was just ready to go. And it says ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now when he's talking about Jews, he's not talking about the religion as much as just the area. Meaning like, obviously there was a lot of people that believed wrong in Judea. And Jew is just a lot of times dealing with the region. When it says that Jesus didn't walk in Jewry, it's talking about he didn't walk in Judea because they were trying to kill him. So that's why he was up in Galilee and he was away from them, right? Because they kept trying to kill him and all this stuff and throw him off the cliff and everything else. So salvation is of the Jews, it's not of Samaria. So what the Samaritans believe, not right. But obviously salvation is of those of Judea, meaning that's where it's at. It'd be kind of like saying salvation's of America. But am I saying that everybody in America believes right? Of course not. But America is the country that is evangelizing the world right now. No one can deny that, even if you disagree with what is being evangelized right? That's where Christianity is being purported from. It's from America. So if I said salvation's of America, that's kind of very generalistic right? But if I said well salvation's of Christianity, well what part of Christianity? If I said well salvation's of, let's say Baptists, well that's still general. Because there's a lot of Baptists that don't believe right? And not everybody that's not Baptist doesn't believe wrong on this right? Does that make sense? Like there's people that aren't Baptists that believe right on salvation. But if it was a general statement I could say that because by and large, even by Wikipedia standards, Baptists believe that salvation's by grace through faith, by faith alone. So just on the bottom line, bottom shelf, that's what Baptists would hold to. And so it'd be like saying something like that okay? So at the time obviously Judea is where you're going to get, there was people that were saved when Jesus was coming and finding them right? Nathaniel's one of them. He says behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. And so there were people that were saved before Jesus, I mean Elizabeth was full of the Holy Ghost. Zachariah was full of the Holy Ghost. Mary was saved before Jesus was born right? Joseph right? There were people that were saved before Jesus was walking on the earth because there was still the gospel being preached at that time. Even if the majority of the country was wrong on it okay? And so when it comes to, when it comes to this, what I see here from the woman at the well is our fathers, our fathers, our fathers right? And not that this is just the Catholics but this is very much a family passed down type of religion okay? I mean how many people did we talk to to say well why are you Catholic? Well my parents were and their parents were and that's just where I went and this isn't just exclusively to that because obviously Mormonism is the same way and like other religions are like that too right? That this is very much like our fathers did this so we did this. And when it comes to Catholicism a lot of it is tradition okay? Tradition is passed down. There's nothing wrong with tradition on the surface right? Traditions are fine but here's the problem. If tradition contradicts the Bible then the Bible is right and the tradition is wrong okay? So when it comes to Catholicism okay? The tradition is well there's a pope over a universal church. Well pope means father and Jesus says in Matthew 23 call no man father upon the earth. So on the surface that would be like well you know it's a tradition. Your tradition is wrong okay? So stop. The universal church isn't biblical. And if you're going to say well the church at Rome is like the predominant church. Well Revelation is one of the last books written and I don't see the church of Rome mentioned there. I see churches in Asia. And if you're going to say well you know the Latin Vulgate and the Bible that came up with the Catholic church. By the way the Latin Vulgate is a translation of a translation of a translation okay? When it comes to that Bible that they have there okay? Well the Byzantine Empire in the eastern portion of that Roman Empire is where the Greek texts were found. And the King James Bible was translated from the original Greek. Whereas the Catholic Bible is translated from the Latin which was translated from supposedly the Greek back then. But the Old Testament is of the Catholic Bible is a translation from the Latin which was a translation from the Greek. Which was a translation from the Hebrew okay? Because they used the Greek Septuagint in a lot of that as well okay? And so tradition, there's nothing wrong with tradition but if it messes with the word of God then that's where it needs to stop. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. So, and I want you to think about this okay? So if right now they were to write the history of Christianity right now. And they were to say what does Christianity believe as a whole? Do you think that's going to be right? Do you think that any time in history that would be right? You're like well in the time of Christ they killed Jesus. Remember? And it wasn't just the rulers it was all the people. So even in the time of Christ that was not true. So when you think about history and if we've lost at least 95% of all literature. Most people would say 99% of all literature okay? Then how can you validate saying like well our church goes all the way back. The only thing that you can validate is what the Bible says because we know that's preserved from this generation forever okay? And that stops in the first century. Maybe goes on to the second century depending on who you read about when the New Testament was written right? So at that point you're just basically leaving it up to what man has said throughout times past. And basically one person said this and what was kept and what wasn't destroyed. And talk about leaning on your own understanding. Leaning on men and not on God okay? So when it comes to this obviously man's tradition is not what we're trusting in. And especially for salvation okay? First Peter chapter 1 verse 18 says this. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. From your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So notice that it's not by tradition of the fathers. It's not by the church okay? Now the church I would say indirectly causes people to get saved. It causes people to get saved because the church sends out preachers right? How shall they preach except to be sent right? So when it comes to preaching the gospel there is a progression there right? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except to be sent? As it is written how beautiful are the feet of them to preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So there is a progression there that obviously the church sends out soul winners, Jesus sent out soul winners and all of that. And so yeah I mean in the end I mean obviously the church of God is preaching the gospel and winning people to Christ right? But like coming to church that doesn't save you. Someone praying for you that doesn't save you. The only thing that saves you is you calling upon the name of the Lord in faith and salvation okay? So but it's also by the word of God. So in the end and I've watched different interviews from people that were in Catholicism or Catholic in their defense on like what they believe and everything. And what I've heard is that basically a lot of them believe that well they don't believe their traditions contradict with scripture. Which is where we would lie as far as what we believe right? Obviously we all have traditions. It's not like we all celebrate Christmas right? But you don't see Christmas like celebration in the Bible. It doesn't mean it's wrong to celebrate Christmas. It's just the fact that traditions are fine as long as it doesn't contradict clear scripture. But that's the problem is that in the end they believe that the church leaders and what they say are on par with scripture. Okay? And they put that tradition on par with scripture and then they just basically say well they have to coincide somehow. Instead of saying well no that's lower. So if it doesn't coincide it doesn't have to coincide because it's not even on par with it. Okay so but the word of God is what is someone gets saved. I mean even in that chapter in 1 Peter it says being born again not a corruptible seed but a incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. And so when it comes to this you know it's by faith in the word of God. This is the word of which by the gospel is preached unto you. All of that when it comes to salvation. So in this story of the woman in the well I see the woman saying okay our fathers did this. And our fathers you know built this well. And you know are you greater than our fathers? All of this and it's all based off tradition. And then Jesus basically preaches to her you know the gospel and basically says to her I am the Christ. So in this passage she says that we know that Messiahs cometh which is called Christ. And we know that obviously the Bible says we have found the Messiahs which is by interpretation the Christ. So Messiah, Christ, anointed all the same thing. Jesus says unto her I that speak unto thee and he. So at this point she leaves and goes into her city, the city of Samaria. And she ends up basically telling them what she heard and everything that Jesus told her. And many people get saved from that. But then people come out and then they hear Jesus themselves and more people get saved there. So what I want you to see here, go to John chapter 4 verse 39 is how many Samaritans get saved here. I'll say this, when I talk to someone that says they're Catholic it's almost 50% of the time they get saved. Cause they're just not, there's obviously diabolical Catholics that are just like I'm going to die Catholic and I don't care what you say. But a lot of Catholics they have that foundation and really it's not like I'm coming in and being like let me talk to you about the Pope. Let me talk to you about like your veneration. I don't talk to them about that at all unless they bring it up. I'm just saying hey let me show you that salvation is by faith and not by works at all. And then that's it. And that's where the rubber meets the road when it comes to salvation. And really most of them all know they're sinners. It's like you show them like hey have you ever sinned before? Yeah of course. I mean they've all gone to confession. And like confess their sins to a priest. I mean who is that this Catholic would say no I've never sinned before. And then you go on to say do you believe that Jesus is God? Of course he's the son of God, born of the Virgin Mary. The Trinity, three persons, one God. You're like you know there's better than Baptists. Like no lie. Like Catholics a lot of times will have the Trinity better than Baptists will. And then you say well okay what do you believe once he did that you have to do to go to heaven. And that's usually where the divide is right. That's where really you're going to say okay this is where we're going to disagree. This is where the difference is. Is that they'll usually say well I need to be a good person to do that. But isn't that every pretty much person out there in the world? Everybody's at that point okay. The difference is is that not everybody has that foundation that's already there. Okay. Of the Trinity, Jesus is God, the Virgin birth. You know that and the reverence. See here's the thing too. Is that Catholics also have a lot of times a reverence for the word of God. They just haven't seen it. Right they haven't seen it actually showed to them in the scripture. So there's this reverence that's there. There's this respect that's there. There's this foundation that's there. And a lot of times you're just like just let me show you what you need to believe about salvation. That's it. And it's really just a matter of like okay it's not you at all it's just Jesus. Okay that's it. Obviously I'm being simplistic in what I'm saying there. Obviously you're showing verses and all that other stuff right. But notice what it says in John 4 39. John 4 39. It says many of the Samaritans of the city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified He told me all that ever I did. So she goes in and testified and basically tells them everything that Jesus said to her. Which obviously is the word of God too right. So it's not like she didn't preach to them the word of God. Obviously faith comes by hearing about the word of God. But a lot of people need to look back at it themselves. Kind of like the Bereans where it says they searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. That some people aren't going to get saved when you're at the doorstep with them. But they have to look back at it and think about it and say yeah that's right. And they verify it and say yep there it is right there plain black and white. And they hear it from the Savior meaning like they're reading it themselves kind of thing right. It says so when the Samaritans were come unto him in verse 40 there. They besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days. And many were more believed because of his own word. And saideth the woman we believe not because of thy saying but for we have heard him ourselves. And know that this indeed this is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world. Now go to Acts chapter 1 in verse 8. And the thing that I want to show you here is that maybe a different perspective on this verse. Obviously this is a verse very well known for soul winning and preaching the gospel. But with what we were just talking about with the Samaritans. And the fact that the Samaritans are they have a semblance or a foundation of God. It's not like talking to a Mormon where you got to convince them that Jesus is God. Or Jehovah is going to convince them that Jesus is God. Or a Muslim is going to convince them that Jesus is God. Or a Hindu is going to convince them that Jesus is God. That's something that's like that is a whole other can of worms. And not to say that we've won people to the Lord from all those different backgrounds. But let me ask you a question. Who is easier to win Catholics or Mormons? Catholics or Jehovah Witnesses? Catholics or dare I say Church of Christ? Pentecostals? Because there's also the idea of people that are so enthronged into the religion. That they are so proud of where they stand. That they are not humbled enough to look at it and say hey you know what maybe I don't know everything about this. Maybe I haven't looked into this. So and this is anecdotal. Okay obviously when I say that meaning that this is just from my experience. Catholics are usually very humble at least to hear you out. And say hey we're on the same page as who Jesus is and what this is. Let's just hear you out on what you believe as far as how someone gets saved. But Acts chapter 1 verse 8 here it says, But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea. And in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Now a lot of times the way I've read this or thought about this is just more of a regional aspect right. Jerusalem and Judea is like where they're at right. Jerusalem is the city, Judea is the country. Samaria is outside of that. And the uttermost parts of the world is even further outside of that. So if you were to think about this in a manner of like okay where are we at right now. Well Fairmont, north central West Virginia is our Jerusalem. West Virginia is our Judea. America is our Samaria and obviously the rest of the world is the uttermost parts of the world right. Kind of a regional aspect of how you're kind of going out from where you're at. Think about this in a manner of what people know and believe okay. That Jerusalem and Judea are those that are claiming to be Christian. Meaning that they go to churches maybe like ours but they don't believe right on salvation right. They believe in a workspace salvation. Samaria is more like the kind of orthodox Catholic realm where they even separate themselves from Christian right. They'll say well I'm not Christian I'm Catholic right. And they'll kind of separate themselves from that group okay. That's kind of like the Samaria where they have this semblance and this great foundation there. And I want you to think about this. Who do you think is easier won in Acts, those in Judea or those in Samaria? Samaria. And even in the uttermost parts of the world it even gets even easy out there as well okay. So kind of on a regional aspect yeah you can think about just proximity. But how about just what is the belief system okay. Catholics are very conservative. I mean they have family values. They're against abortion. Like they are a conservative realm there okay. And so when you're coming at them as a pastor you're like I have family values. I'm against abortion. And you know what we believe the same thing about who Jesus is. We believe you know that he's God in the flesh all this. The hang up really is what do you believe someone has to do to get saved to go to heaven. And that's really where you're just hitting that. And obviously there's a whole bunch of doctrinal things wrong with the Catholic Church. But just know this. Most Catholics aren't exactly like investing themselves into like all the councils of all the popes back in history's past and like trying to reconcile everything okay. There are people that do that okay. That are really deep in the history. But you know when you think about it like do I need to know all the history about Saint Augustus and Saint Jerome and like all these different things out there. It's like no you don't need to know any of that. Cause here's the thing. When you go up to a Muslim what do you do? Preach the gospel. When you go up to a Mormon what do you do? Preach the gospel. Death, burial, resurrection. That you're a sinner. You're on your way to hell. You need Jesus to save you. Jesus is God. Who is he? That's who you're preaching to. Everybody is the same thing. Atheist. Guess what? Same thing. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. I don't have a special plan of salvation for Catholics. And I don't have a special plan of salvation for Muslims. Now obviously here's the thing though. If someone tells me they're Catholic I know already I don't really have to dwell on Jesus being God. Like I'm not like preparing myself mentally to get into this. Okay? If someone says I'm Muslim I'm like I got to hit that. I have to really get into that. Okay? But I don't need to know all the history of Islam. I don't bring up all the stuff about the prophet Muhammad and all that stuff. Right? I don't have to deal with all that. Okay? And the last thing to note here kind of dealing with this subject. Is that one, I believe, I believe Catholics are some of the easiest people to get saved. Because they're just like right there. They're just right there and really they just need to hear that. When I got saved, you know I understood all the foundational truths. And then I also had heard that salvation was by grace through faith and that it wasn't a work. And I was kind of like already kind of like on, like I understood that but I didn't fully grasp it. Until I went to a Baptist revival where it was like hey by grace through faith means that it's eternal life. You can't lose your salvation. And if you think you can lose your salvation then you're trusting in your works. Right? Because I was holding on, you know, anybody that's Catholic would probably agree with this. That murder and suicide are like the two big no-nos. Right? Those are like the two you can't do. Specifically suicide because you can't ask for forgiveness. Right? And those are the two things I was holding on to. Not condoning them. But here's the thing. Those are, that is a commandment, thou shalt do no murder. Right? By me believing I had to keep that commandment, I wasn't believing it was by grace. And it wasn't until like that was really pointed out and just made super clear. You think you can lose your salvation whether it's murder, suicide, anything like that, then you're not trusting in Jesus Christ alone. And it's just like yeah that makes sense. Yeah it's a gift. It's eternal life. Yeah I mean it's not by my works of righteousness, which I've done, but according to mercy you saved. Right? And our memory verse is Romans 11 6 which says and if by grace then is it no more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. So therefore it can't be by any type of works that I'm doing. And the last thing that I want to mention here, go to Romans chapter 9. The last thing I want to mention here is that the argument for Catholicism or Orthodoxy when it comes to this is the majority rule. Right? So many people are a part of it. And you know when it comes to history there's so much, like we don't have much history but what history we do have. A lot of it leans towards like Catholicism type stuff. Does that make sense? I mean think about it. Catholicism literally ruled Europe for a while. And know this is that the victors write the history books. So just off of logic okay, if Roman Catholicism was literally ruling, they were crowning kings at points in history. Right? I mean that's why King Henry separated from the Catholic Church because the Pope wouldn't let him get a divorce. And King Henry VIII then created the Church of England and then he got remarried and all that stuff. So that's basically kind of the schism that happened with England from that. But up to that point, basically the Catholic Church was over all of it. Right? So the thing is that just because history kind of leans toward and like what you see in writings, know that we don't have 99% of the writings of people back then. Okay? And even if you think about like Greek for example, I read a lot of like ancient Greek stuff. The Iliad, you know stuff that's like Plato, things like that. But let me ask you a question. Plato was obviously a very high up kind of philosopher and all this stuff, right? And a lot of these people that are writing these things are kind of in their ivory tower writing this stuff, okay? Do you think that if we gave a pen and paper to the celebrities of this world that they're going to basically give an accurate description of an everyday life for everybody on earth? Or do you think it's going to be a little skewed to their bubble they're in? Okay? So when you think of history, I can't go to Plato and be like, everybody's like this. Right? Everybody has their boyservant or whatever, you know? It's like, you know, they have all these different things. They're all just sitting in togas drinking and talking about love. You know? It's just not reality, you know? It's just, yeah, I mean that's a little view into like what they were doing. Okay? But you're not getting the whole scope. And when it comes to people being saved, know this has always been for you. Notice what it says in Romans chapter 9 verse 27. It says, And it goes on to talk about the Lord of Sabaoth or the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed. It says, when that's quoted, it's quoted from Isaiah. It says, So not only is it a remnant, but it's a small remnant. Okay? Remnant obviously just shows you that it's a part. It's a little piece of something, right? But it's also a very small remnant. Jesus' disciples even said, Are there few to be saved? And he says, Enter in the straight gate. Right? Try to enter in the straight gate. Because straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. Salvation has always been few. Not because it's hard, but because it's narrow. Because it has to be that one way. And that one way is Christ. Okay? So when it comes to salvation, it's always been a remnant. And in Elijah's day, there was a remnant according to the election of grace. In Paul's day, there was a remnant according to the election of grace. And actually, if the majority believes something, by definition we know it's wrong. When it comes to religion. When it comes to what the Bible says. Because it's always been a remnant. It's always been the few. Okay? That doesn't mean we're right. Does that make sense? Like obviously we're, you know, when it comes to Baptist and when it comes to churches, we're few. Right? But here's the thing. You know the majority is wrong though, right? The majority, by definition in the Bible, can't be right. Because it says, There are few there be that find it. There are few that are saved. It's a remnant that are saved in that group. Okay? And so, hopefully, you know, you enjoyed that correlation. And here's the thing. When it comes to this, Samaria is not a thing anymore. So when you're reading about Samaria, how does that apply to us in 2024 when it comes to the state that we're in right now? And when it comes to this, I think everybody has looked at the woman at the well as a great story of soul winning, of salvation. It's a fantastic story. And that's something that we deal with every week because there's so many people that are Catholic in our area. And I'll tell you this. You know, I'd kind of rather be in a Catholic area than in the Bible Belt. Because in the Bible Belt, okay, a lot of people think they know. You ever hear the phrase, you don't know what you don't know? It sounds kind of counterintuitive. But literally, you don't know what you don't know, right? You only know what you know. And what a lot of people think, they think they know it all. They think they know everything. And they're not coming into it in a full mind of like, okay, let's just hear this out. Let's look at this. And that's what I see with kind of Samaritans where she's just like, all right, what are you talking about? What's going on here? Great foundation but willing to hear. You know, that's what I see there. So Catholic Samaria, so that's kind of what, you know, getting into there with that correlation in John 4. Let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the passage of the woman, the Samaritan woman at the well. And just great truths there when it comes to salvation, eternal life. And Lord, just pray that you'd help us, Lord, to be a witness for you. And Lord, just be with those in our area that we talk to, obviously, to give them humble hearts to hear out the truth. And Lord, just pray that you'd help us to preach it rightly. And Lord, we love you. Pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. And Brother Dave's going to come sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right. Take your songbooks and turn to song 129. 129 in your songbooks. Sing Rock of Ages, if you would stand. We'll sing song 129. Rock of ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side, which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no languor know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to the cross I cling while I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown, and behold thee on thy throne. Rock of ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee.