We're starting our 9.30 Sunday school class here in the auditorium at 4811 George Road. You're welcome to join us. Just come on in or pay attention online if you want to. I like to sing when we get started. I like number 495 this morning. I'm feeling joyful. So page 495 in the hymn book, if you want to sing along or if you're not, just endure. We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land, climb the steeps and cross the waves. Onward is our Lord's command, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Amen. There's a verse of that that says, give the winds a mighty voice. The radio station, the Christian radio station over in Pinellas County used to have that as their motto, giving the winds a mighty voice. And I like to listen to that. So let's pray together. Father in heaven, as we open your word this morning, we ask you to get this guy out of the way and you be the teacher. Let your spirit put in our minds the meaning and the truth of the words from your word, help us to understand, help us to remember what we understand, help us to let them affect and change and be a part of our life as we go forward. In Jesus' name, amen. We have notes, we call it Lesson Six, Matthew Chapter Five, and I gave it a title, How to be Happy, How to be Happy. How to be happy? You'll recognize the lesson as we get into it. At the very last of last week, we looked at Matthew 4.25, which says, There followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, because he was healing people. And so crowds came from all over the place. Galilee is where he lived. Decapolis is on the other side, the east side of the Jordan River as it comes out of the Sea of Galilee. From Jerusalem and Judea, that's way down south. and from beyond Jordan in the east up like towards Syria and all with just people from all over coming to here and see and be healed and helped by Jesus, which sets up chapter 5. I've been failing in giving page numbers. If you're using a Schofield Bible, this is page 999, which is just neat. It's the last three-digit page number. So there you go. It begins in chapter 5 with a little title inserted by Matthew, or not by Matthew, but the people that published this Bible, the Sermon on the Mount. But that is what we tend to call this. verse 1 of chapter 5, seeing the multitudes. You see chapter 4 sets this up. There's a lot of people there and he saw multitudes. And he went up into a mountain, it really says up into the mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. So we've got Jesus, a great multitude, he goes up a mountainside, the disciples come on to him. In the other two Gospels, in Mark it says he went up into the mountain and called the twelve disciples. This is where it names in the Gospel of Mark the twelve disciples that are called. In Luke chapter 6, he says, he went out into the mountain to pray all night and called the twelve and then delivered the address to the twelve and to the multitude. There's two opinions. It's either the same event, Luke and Matthew, or it's two different occasions where he gives very much the same message. And either of those is OK with me, but I like to see that it's possibly the same event. I don't care. They said in Luke it was on a plane. Well, the multitude were not hanging off the cliffs. They were before him. Think of it as a big natural amphitheater, and he's up in the focus of it and speaking out. And it's a great multitude. Is it possible? It says he, by the way, in verse two, it says he opened his mouth and taught them saying, but in verse one it says when he was set. Well, the setting is just what you sound like. It's sitting down. In those days, the teachers sat down. I'm quite willing, if you'll stand up, I'll sit down and we'll teach from, we think that was a good habit. You might say, how could he teach such a great multitude? No electronics, no speakers, no microphone. And I picked two examples, I'll put them in the notes. A preacher named George Whitfield spoke to great crowds in England and in North America. In Boston, it was reported that at one occasion, one occasion, he spoke to 80,000 people. And they heard him. They could hear him a mile away and plainly. And George Whitefield spoke to maybe not that high a crowd every time, but 20,000 or 10,000 or 15,000. On many occasions, he preached something like 18,000 times in his lifetime. Astonishing. Now, John Wesley's another one. He's just a hacker compared to Whitefield. John Wesley preached to a crowd as large as 20,000 and was heard plainly. And he preached at least some 4,000 times. So we've got some catching up to do, boys. Get started. Maybe some of you are well along the way. We hope that they were preaching the gospel. Some people talk about Benjamin Franklin as though he were a deist and didn't much think God was involved with his creation. And yet George Whitefield was preaching near where Franklin was and Franklin went out to hear him. And after Franklin heard him, he contributed financially to George Whitefield for the rest of his life. That doesn't prove he's saved. It just is an interesting thing to put up next to, well, I think he's a deist. Maybe you think that. Let's look at the scripture. I have to, I called it how to be happy. But you know, this is in, The Old Testament, right? What do you mean the Old Testament? The Gospel of Matthew starts the New Testament in my Bible. The New Testament, the New Covenant, the new arrangement with God began when Jesus went to the cross paying the sin debt. And then some 50 days later, 47 days after he rose, sent the Spirit. He ascended up into heaven and a few days later than that sent the Spirit and began the new arrangement with God we call the church. where there's not the distinction anymore between Jew and Gentile, between slave and free, between male and female, we're all one in Christ Jesus. That's an astonishing change from the Old Testament. So this is the Old Testament. The law of Moses is still in place for Jewish people. And so Jesus, he's got a new arrangement in mind too. What did John the Baptist, who announced him, come out and say? He said, changing your minds for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This hymn book is at hand for me. This computer mouse is at hand. I can reach him with my hand. It's right there. It's in reach. And John the Baptist said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then Jesus picked that up and started his teaching with the same thought. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said that, as is recorded there in chapter four, preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's in verse 17 of chapter four. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was telling the Jewish people in these opening remarks, they needed to change their mind about this kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the heaven's rule over the earth, and Jesus is the king of that. And there's coming a time when he will be in present, in person, king over the kingdom on the earth. But as long as he's here, as he is here, he can say the kingdom of heaven, it's right within reach, people, here I am. The king is here. The kingdom is here. It's not the limited thousand-year kingdom of Revelation, but the king is here. In that sense, the kingdom of heaven is right there. In the notes, it says, when Jesus was here the first time, he offered it and was rejected. You might recall, he healed healed, brought back from the dead, a man four days dead in the little town of Bethany, a few miles outside of Jerusalem. Lazarus was his name. He brought him back from the dead in full view of a great crowd that had followed him down from Galilee and were there just wanting to be with Jesus. They're headed for Jerusalem for the Passover feast. And so there's this great crowd with Jesus marching toward the city on the first day of the week we call Palm Sunday. And they're saying, Hosanna, save now. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna is the son of David. Hosanna in the highest. They're saying, here he comes, the promised one of the Old Testament. And then there's the folks in Jerusalem under the sway of the Pharisees and the chief priests who really like their very comfortable political arrangement with the Roman government. And they're saying, hmm, what are we going to do? The whole world's going after him. What are we going to do? And the chief priest, speaking as a prophet, says, don't you know it would be a good thing if one man died for the people and the whole nation perished not? And John lets us know, he said that not realizing it, but he said that in his role as chief priest prophesying that Jesus would die for the whole nation and not for them only, but also for all of us who believe. So he offered the kingdom, the crowd with him was all for it. The crowd in Jerusalem a week later, worked up by those leaders, were saying, crucify him, crucify him. We have no king but Caesar. We have no king but Caesar. So he offered it, but was rejected. He's coming back. And when he comes again, he will have a kingdom of his, a kingdom of heaven on the earth. Revelation chapter 20 speaks several times about this. At the beginning of the chapter, it talks about binding Satan, the dragon, the old serpent, the devil, and Satan, binding him a thousand years, cast into a bottomless pit, shut him up. Boy, I bet that We don't like to say shut up, but I think that's what it means. He can't mouth anything. And put a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he has to be loosed a little season. But after they get Satan bound in the bottomless pit, I saw thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment was given to them. These are people that rule and reign with Christ. I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. those believers who died for their witness during the tribulation period just before he comes back, and for the Word of God in which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image nor had received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands. Those guys are special. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. You know, we do too. We come back with Him. The rest of the dead, those who died lost, lived not again until the thousand years were finished. The resurrection of the believers is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. That second one's not really a resurrection to life, it's a second death. On such, the second death has no power. They'll be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him a thousand years. That's verse four and verse six of the Revelation. And it mentions that it lasts a thousand years, this reign of Christ over the earth. We'll look a little bit more. After the thousand years are finished, he's not done being king of the kingdom. In 2 Peter chapter three, There's something else happens. Peter mentions this. He says, we according to him. Well, before that, he says, looking for and hasting unto the day coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved. I wouldn't want to watch that from the earth's surface. and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Sounds like a nuclear war to me. Nevertheless, we, the believers, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. Is that something we could have? I think it is. Back in Revelation again in the next chapter, chapter 21, John starts off saying, I saw new heaven and new earth. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away. There's no more sea. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place, the temporary residence of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. This is after the thousand-year kingdom. when God sets up the new heavens and new earth and we are going on into eternity with all the bliss of eternity. All tears wiped away, no more death or sorrow or crying. The former things have passed away. Behold, he says, I make all things new. So that's coming. The kingdom of heaven. When Jesus was here the first time, they could have had it. The kingdom of heaven is going to come when he comes again. He comes again, as recorded in Revelation chapter 19. And after the thousand-year kingdom, he's going to continue being king of the kingdom of heaven over new heavens and new earth. I want to go back now to Matthew 5 and just look at what he said. He's got the multitude and the disciples in hearing. And he opens his mouth and taught them, saying, and this is called a sermon. But I think it's a, I'm a teacher more than a preacher, if you make a distinction there. It doesn't have just one point. And a sermon should have one main point and maybe three sub points and get it done, because people can't remember more than about one. You ever ask the family as you're going home after Sunday morning service, did you get a good thing, did you think that was good? What did he talk about? He told a good joke? Yeah, well, maybe. But he taught them, and here's his first point, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven, he's back to that theme again, he says that belongs to these people, I'm gonna tell you who they are, they're called the poor in spirit, and those guys are blessed, which means happy. It just means happy. They're blessed by God. They're given good frame of mind by God. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven that Jesus says is right here, right now, it's at hand. It belongs to them. The poor in spirit. Now, what does that mean? Over in Luke's gospel, he just says the poor, but he's getting at the same idea. I wrote down those who know they have no standing with God. How do you stand before God? If you're lost and you're honest, you don't have any standing before God except condemnation. He that believeth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he believes not the name of the only begotten Son of God. I ask you to look at Revelation chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. I just want you to see what this says here. This is written to the church in Laodicea, to the preacher at the church in Laodicea, the angel of the church in Laodicea, the preacher. And Jesus is the one talking. He says, I'm the amen. I'm the faithful and true witness. I'm the one that began the creation of God. And he says, I know your works. You're worthless. Not hot, not cold. I wish you were hot or cold. You're lukewarm. I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. That's a little bit ugly, but that says, you know, God wants to throw you out of his mouth. You make him sick. And this is what the people that Jesus is talking to through the preacher there, this is what those in the church of Laodicea said about themselves. I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. That was their opinion. They thought they didn't need anything. Right? If you meet a lost person who says, I don't need anything, you need to point out to him he doesn't have any standing with God. He's a sinner. He's separated from God by sin. And the only way that's paid for is by the death of Jesus on the cross. But these people said, I'm good, rich, wealthy, don't need a thing. And Jesus says about the people that said that about their spiritual condition, you don't know, you're wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I think that describes the spiritual condition of lost people. Now there can be saved people in that same description, but the easiest way for me to understand that is those guys are lost, but it's written to a church. Have you ever noticed sometimes churches have lost people in them? Do we occasionally want to give the gospel message in the church because there's lost people there? Oh yeah. You think the churches back then were nothing but saved people? I think this might be a description of the lost people that were hanging out in the church in Laodicea. What's Jesus' advice to them? I counsel to thee, I counsel thee, buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich in white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thy eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. I really think it's advice to lost people to get saved. Isaiah talks about come buy and eat something that has no price. Get what you can get from Jesus, his perfect righteousness without anything but faith. White Raymond, the righteousness of Jesus Christ put to your account, covering up your nakedness. Don't go making those fig leaves. Don't go making those aprons. You're naked. You're naked. Get a covering from God, because your own works won't work. And anoint your eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. You may remember that Jesus at one point healed a blind person, and some of the Pharisees came to him and said, are we blind also? And he said, if you were blind, now you'd see. But you say, we can see. And so you're still blind. The religious that don't know their need of God are lost. to the poor in spirit, the ones that don't claim anything of themselves, Jesus said, yours is the kingdom of God. And I wrote in my notes, we who are saved by grace, not of our own works, have and shall have a place in the presence of the King. The second thing he said is very much like the first thing that he said. Verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit. No, excuse me. Blessed are they that mourn now. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. There was a case written about by Luke in the Lord's Life on Earth, Luke chapter 18. Let me get over there. Where two men, I'm sorry, over there. I'm getting there. Two men came to the temple to pray, one of them a Pharisee, that's the guy that's really, really righteous and knows it, and the other a wicked tax collector, a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed not with God, he prayed with himself. He was talking out loud so he can hear himself and so everybody else can hear him. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. I'm not an extortioner. He's throwing a stone at the publican, you know. Tax collectors had the power of the government behind them. They had to take, they were obligated to pay the whole tax for the region they were over to the, to the government, and so they had soldiers and most of them were crooks and took all they could get and just gave the government what they had to. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like this wretch, this publican. Yuck. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He was a very righteous man. You'd like to have him as your neighbor, I'm sure. You probably would. They're good people. The publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner." That's mourning. I'm undone. In Isaiah chapter 6, I'm going to see Isaiah say something like that about himself. This is a big occasion. The year that King Uzziah died, Uzziah was a good and great king. But he died, because we all do eventually. He was a friend to God's man Isaiah while he lived. And the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, clothing, whatever, like a bride's train. Above it stood the seraphims, burning ones, some kind of angelic being. They each had six wings. With two, they covered the face. With two, they covered their feet. With two, they flew. And they cried, one cried one to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The posts of the door, these are things that are about 30 feet, they're huge. The door of the temple, the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke, which I believe might be the first instance that we have recorded holy smoke. But Isaiah's there, and he sees God, and he knows God told Moses, nobody can see me and live, and he's worried. Then said I, Isaiah said, woe is me, for I am undone. That's the definition of poor in spirit, of mourning. I don't have a thing and here I am in the presence of God. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I'm going to just melt. I'm like the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard of Oz. Somebody threw a dish pan and I'm melting. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he'd taken with the tongs from off the altar, and laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Looking forward to the cross of Jesus, that altar before God in the temple where Isaiah saw him, the angel said, Look, that's taken away your sins, your sin is purged. And then God said, whom shall I send and who will go for us? He had a bigger voice than that. But Isaiah, who had just said, woe is me, for I am undone. Isaiah spoke up and said, here am I. Send me. If you want a three-point outline, preacher, we got, woe is me, lo, you've been purged, go and tell this people. Woe, lo, go. Nice three-point outline. Very good. They that mourn, Jesus said, shall be comforted. Comforted. They that mourn shall be comforted. I don't always do this, but I'd like you to see the dictionary, and I can do that on the screen here. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. These numbers are the Strong's Concordance Dictionary numbers, and if I click on that word, there's it in Greek, but there's it in English, so you could read it, parakaleo. Parakaleo. call near, invited, invoked, hortation or consolation, that's the same word, it's an adjective form of it, or a participle that's used as an adjective, as the word Jesus called the Holy Spirit, the Comforter has come. It's the same word that Jesus himself is called in 1 John chapter 2, where it says we have an advocate with the Father. Para means alongside. Kaleo means to call. Somebody called alongside to help. When you go in front of a judge, they say if an attorney is on trial, he's a fool. If he represents himself, he has a fool for a client. We need somebody alongside of us, no matter how skilled we are ourselves. And Jesus and our Holy Spirit friend are our comforter. It's also translated in a verb form in the New Testament many times, exhort, in the King James Version. And I really like to think it means less of the, get in your face and exhort you that way, and more of the, come on, you can do this. Encourage is really the best translation. Encourage. They shall be encouraged. Those that are down, those that are mourning, they shall be encouraged, comforted. The next thing Jesus says in his message, we've got the poor in spirit that mourn. They're very much the same. Now we have the meek. The meek. Well, that's a strange thing. We're not meek. We're Americans. I was a Marine. Well, I was. And the Marines are not known for meekness. But it's a good thing to be meek. Who's the first one mentioned in the Bible that was meek? Do you know? Numbers chapter 12, see if I can find myself here. There it is. Numbers chapter 12, beginning of the chapter, Moses' sister and brother, there is older sister and older brother, you know, he was the third son, second son, third child. They spoke against Moses because this Ethiopian woman whom he'd married, he'd married an Ethiopian woman. I don't think it was their business, but they were, you know, I don't know, prejudiced? Don't know. But there was a problem right there in the family because Moses made a choice they didn't like. And they said, has the Lord spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us? And they thought they were just speaking where Moses might hear it. But it says the Lord heard it. You know, if you're complaining against God's man, you're probably not in a safe place. The man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. This is the Moses that went into Pharaoh. and said, let my people go or else. And he said it 10 times, 10 different plagues. He stood in front of the sea and said, Go forward. And they did, and walked through the sea on dry ground. Well, more meek, and the Lord said, suddenly unto Moses and Aaron and Miriam, y'all get out here. Come out, you three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation. They three came out. You do come when God says come. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they stepped forward. And he says, listen, hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against him, and he departed." Oh my. And I might think that Miriam was the leader of the quibbling with Moses. The cloud departed from off the tabernacle. God went away. And Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not this sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb. And Moses, in spite of the insult he'd received from her, from them, Moses cried to the Lord saying, heal her now, oh God, I beseech thee. And the Lord said to Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, shouldn't she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days. After that, let her be received in again. Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. The Lord did heal her, but he said, you're going to waste a week's time for this vast crowd of people of God. So Moses was meek more than anybody else. Through and through the Psalms and the book of Isaiah and some of the other prophets, meekness is one of the terms to describe poor people that God loves and takes care of. God protects them and takes care of them. And it does say in Psalm 37 verse 11, the meek shall inherit the earth. It looks like Jesus might have been quoting directly from Psalm 37, 11. But another one besides Moses, who in the Bible is called meek, is the Lord Jesus himself by his own mouth. In verse 27 of Matthew 11, he says, all things are delivered unto me of my father. No man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father. But save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. And then he gives an invitation to salvation. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. If you think works will get you a place with God, you're mistaken. Let it go. Burdened down, working for salvation, I'll give you rest. Rest in Him. The word of invitation to salvation is come. Just come and be saved. In the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, the last invitation, In Revelation chapter 22, it says, the spirit and the bride, that's us, say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Take the water of life freely. But going back to where we were just now, Jesus, goes on from verse 28, the invitation to salvation, to an invitation to discipleship. After you're saved, he says, now there's some work to do. Take my yoke. That's what you put two animals at least in, so they pull together. You take my yoke on you. Jesus is in there pulling. He says, I want you to go right alongside of me, I'll pull. Guess who pulls hardest? Guess who's good to be in a yoke with? Jesus, yeah. Learn of me. That's what disciples do, that's what followers do. They listen to the rabbi, they listen to the teacher. And then he says, first thing you should learn, I am meek. And lowly in heart, kind of a repeat of the same idea. Strength in restraint, not weakness at all. Strength in self-control. You'll find rest to your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. So this is for the meek. The meek shall inherit the earth. Be like Moses, be like Jesus. People God cares for because they are not bully it up for themselves. Continuing in Matthew, the next thing he says is verse 6, "'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.'" Going back to the scripture here to see it. "'They which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.'" We need the righteousness of Jesus Christ put to our account. And having that because we believe in him and what he's done for us, we're filled. I don't often do this in the lesson, but I want you to see what John Gill, one of the old commentators, how old is he? Well, let's look here just a second. John Gill's commentary, according to the information about it here, he died in 1771. This was published, finished in 1766. That's a couple days ago. So John Gill said this, "'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst, not after the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world, but after righteousness, by which is meant not justice and equity as persons oppressed and injured, not a moral legal righteousness which the Jewish nation was eagerly pursuing, but the justifying righteousness of Christ, which is imputed by God the Father and received by faith.'" Isn't that good? to hunger and thirst after this, supposes a want of righteousness, which is the case of all men, a sense of want of it, which is only perceived by persons spiritually enlightened, and a discovery of the righteousness Christ to them, which is made in the gospel and by the Spirit of God." Isn't that good? I just thought that was good. I put just a hint of that in the notes there. But I want to look at John chapter 4. I'm going to let Mr. Gill go. In John chapter 4, Jesus came to a place called Samaria in between Judea and Galilee. In the middle of the day, high noon, he's thirsty. And he comes up to a well and he's sitting on the edge of the well. It says he sat thus on the well because he was wearied with his journey. And you can just see John telling the story before he wrote it down. He sat thus on the well. Comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says, give me a drink. She says, what in the world? You're a Jew. I'm a woman of Samaria. You're asking a drink from me? The Jews have no dealings with Samaria. Great racial hatred. But Jesus' answer to her is a word of gospel invitation. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. And she says, how do you you're not good as Jacob. How are you going to get water to give me? And he says about that, whoever drinks of this water will 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. She says, I like that. She doesn't understand it all yet, but that's what he describes. Receiving the drink of water from him, knowing who he is, they get the gift of God. And they're satisfied. They're satisfied. Complete satisfaction of spiritual hunger and thirst. They which hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. That was another one of the commentators. Vincent said they'll have complete satisfaction of spiritual hunger and thirst. I'm going to kind of have to stop in the middle of the Beatitudes here, but I want to go one more place before we're done in time. As I mentioned earlier, Jesus brought back from the dead a man that had been dead four days, recorded in John chapter 11. And one of his dear sisters said to Jesus when he got there, Lord, if you'd been here, this is John 11, 21, my brother wouldn't even have died. You could have healed him. And then she had an idea. Oh, I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Hint, hint. Jesus saith unto her, thy brothers shall live again. Martha says, yes, yes. I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" And she, you know, he gave some things, truths, if you will, about him. And she said, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which shall come into the world. He said, you believe these things? She said, I believe in you. He didn't explain to her the cross and the payment for sin and the resurrection and the imputed righteousness. It's not the whole gospel story. And yet he told her what she needed to hear. And she said, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which had come into the world. Don't you think he was accepting that answer? I think he was. You know who he is? What he said to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it was that's speaking to you, would have asked him, he'd have given you living water. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? We use this illustration with something to represent sin, and we place it on our hand because we all have sin on us. But you know, we don't right now. We're all sinners, but the sin 2,000 years ago went from us to Jesus. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He did give his Son, who paid for all sin, was buried, and rose again, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We have a sin problem. It's been solved. The only problem we have left is, do you believe in the One that did die for sin and rose again? The death for sin and the resurrection is what makes this invitation to just believe in Him. I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. It's what makes that make sense. And so we present it so that people will understand and make sense of it. But I don't think everybody that ever believed got everything that's involved in why that makes sense. And yet they believed. Well, we're going to stop with that. We'll just leave it at that. Let's get back here. If you're listening and you have not, answer Jesus' question. I heard Dr. Arnold yesterday out at the Men's Bible Study very nicely say, we need to ask questions when we're talking to people that might be lost. We need to ask questions so we'll know if they're understanding. We did ask the question so that they have something to respond to, and that's what Jesus did. I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And I ask you that question. Do you believe what Jesus said to the sister of Lazarus? And is this your answer? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which shall come into the world. That's a good answer to a good question. And when you believe in Him, He gives the gift of God eternal life, the gift of God's salvation, the gift of God, His perfect righteousness to everyone who believes so that they can stand in front of God covered, inheriting righteousness. They are filled with righteousness, as Jesus said in the sermon. We're out of time. Let's pray together. Thank you for the book. Thank you for the word that we can read. Thank you for the son who came and spoke the words, delivered the message, and then made it real by dying on the cross. Thank you for his resurrection. We're so glad he went back to heaven and sent the spirit to be our teacher in this time. We pray if anyone's listening, they'll think about the question Jesus asked. Do you believe this? and they would be able to answer, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. Father, help them to trust Him only for their salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.