True worship is offered to God in spirit and in truth, not through human traditions or rituals. Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4 illustrates that worship is not tied to a specific location but is a matter of the heart. The sermon emphasizes that salvation is solely through Christ's finished work, and any attempt to add to it through human effort or 'vain worship' is futile and an insult to God. True worshipers are those who acknowledge their lost state, are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and worship God through the power of the Holy Spirit, guided by His Word.
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John chapter four. John four and verse nineteen. This is a very, very interesting passage. The Lord Jesus is dealing with a wicked woman. And she eventually saved. And it seems wonderful that the Lord should take up such a wonderful subject as worship with a woman of this kind. And yet this conversation is a masterpiece on what real worship is.
Verse twenty, might read, verse twenty-one. Jesus saith unto her, woman, Believe me, the hour cometh when Ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. No earthly spot. Ye worship, ye know not what. Ye know what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Now is there, leaving Judaism. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We're still taking up our studies in First Corinthians. We were speaking the last week or two, First of all, what the gospel is not, and the Apostle pointed out in verses three and four of First Corinthians fifteen, he tells us in simplicity what the gospel is. But then we notice some things which were the gospel. First things which were not the gospel. Then we spend another Sunday morning on things that were the gospel.
Very simply, plainly, the gospel. Last week we mentioned some of the fruits of that gospel. When a person believes the gospel, receives the gospel, the good news, in all its simplicity, a wayfaring man, though he be a fool, need not err therein when it comes to the gospel. You need not be educated. You need not be a doctor of the law or something like that to be saved. The gospel is very simple. In fact, many people stumble over the simplicity of the gospel. Mass people were pointing out what the gospel brought into a heart that believed. That person has found a substitute.
He has mercy. He has redemption. He has forgiveness. He has been claimed. He has peace. He has nearness. He has liberty. All these things are the portion of the one who has really, truly... believe the gospel, and is saved by the grace of God. You have all those things. But now we come to this subject of worship. You read about vain worship. Vain worship. And there is a lot of vain worship today. The Lord Jesus reminded the scribes and Pharisees.
He says, ye worship men. In other words, you're worshiping according to the doctrines of men and not according to the Scriptures. How easy that is. And he told them in Matthew fifteen, nine, in vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Now he's talking to scribes and Pharisees. He's talking to the leading religious leaders of that day. And he said, In vain do ye worship me. Your worship is a vain thing. In vain ye do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The basis of your vain worship is the commandments of men, and not the word of God. And so he says your worship, with all its formality, with all its riches, with all its gaudy garments, He said, it's all an empty thing. Because you're following the commandments of men and not the commandments of God, vain worship. And how much there is today. All over the world, you see what man thinks worship is or should be. And yet it's vain in the sight of God. Now, that's quite a strong statement, but nevertheless it's true.
Now, you'll notice in our text, what the Lord Jesus says here. The Father seeketh worshipeth. The Father seeketh such to worship Him. Imagine God seeking worshipers. There are two great circles in the world. There is a circle of the unconvertedness. All who are outside of Christ. and there are millions and millions and hundreds of millions and maybe billions, in that circle of unconverted unbelievers. Then you have the circle of believers.
Those who are saved by the grace of God, they're born again. And so you have two circles, the circle of the unbelievers and the relationship. And in that circle of unbelievers, God only knows they go from the extreme right to the extreme left. And in that circle of unbelievers, the Lord Jesus is seeking what? The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. In that great circle of unbelievers, the Lord is seeking lost people. that all sinners, but he's seeking those who are lost.
For all sinners don't admit their loss. They don't think their loss. They don't like to believe their loss. But only the loss gets saved. Now you find that in Luke the theme, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost sum. And the Lord is pointing out very plainly and very clearly. that it's only the lost people who the Lord seeks to save. There are lots of religious people. They don't think they're lost. Oh, no, I'm not lost. I know I'm not what I should be, but I'm not lost. You are lost. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
lest the lights of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them, and they should be heard. The devil is trying his best to keep a man or woman from acknowledging he's lost. From finding it out, and being conscious, he's lost. Now the Lord Jesus said in Luke, this great sphere of the unconvergent, he's looking for someone who's sick, who's lost and wants to be sick. When you stop to think of this, all the time a man thinks he knows the way.
Why, he refuses any guy. No, I don't need a guy, and I know the way. All the time a man thinks he's a good swimmer, He rejects a lifestyle. All the time man thinks he can do the job, he doesn't ask for help, all the time man thinks he knows it, he resents anybody to tell him. And that's the trouble. Yet man is lost, and to think that he knows it, feeds his ego. But let me tell you this, friend. If ever there is an area where man has got to acknowledge he doesn't know it, and he doesn't have it.
He doesn't possess it, and he can't do it. It's relative to Christianity. Because salvation is of the law. If ever those words can be applied to man and everything, he can't do it, it's in salvation. Man can't do it. A lot of people think they can, trying their best to get them. And when man can do it, my, that seems as evil. But when a man finds out he can't do it, he's humiliated. And friend, you're going to be humiliated before you're ever going to be saved, because you cannot save yourself.
On the cross, the Lord Jesus said to him, is finished. Now, if man can save himself, that was unnecessary, the finished work of Christ. As we pointed out, he did not die in vain last week. Last week we pointed out Christ came into this world to do one thing. He came into this world to accomplish salvation for sinful man, helpless man, lost man. And when he said it is finished, the work was done, and who can add to it?
Take the architect. He spends hours on that drawing. He goes into every detail. He studied it by the hour. So when he gets through, you say, well, I think I see a mistake. A mistake? For I'm a master at this thing. That's a master thing. Ah, but I think I can improve on it. That master presents that. Also, when you stop to think of a man, and you might say he's an artist, and he's finished that painting, He put the last touches to it.
That finish. It's the final product. That's excellent. And someone takes up the paintbrush and he tries to cut it up. The master says, You'll spoil it. That was a finished product. You'll spoil it. Yes, he would. He would spoil it. Also, you can think of another cabinet maker. We have one here this morning. And he uses all his tools and all his skills and all his experience, and he produces a cabinet.
And he stands back and he looks at it, that's it. That's the final product. And I came in and I looked at it. I said, give me a chisel and a hammer. I want to work on this thing. I want to improve it. I ruin it. And friend, you try to add to the work of Christ and you rule it and you'll insult God. God's work of redemption is finished. Christ finishes. He's finished it in agony and blood. And you can't add it. No prayer of yours can add to it.
No work of yours can add to it. No vain worship can add to it. No church membership can add to it. No sacraments can add to it. No ordinance can add to it. He's finished it. And it's done. And that's where you'll get saved, or you'll never get saved at all. And yet there are people today that don't like to admit them. Well, you'll either admit it or you'll never be in heaven. The work is done when Jesus Christ said it is finished. Who can improve upon the cross work of Christ?
Nobody. He wove that pattern of redemption in agony and bloods and in sorrows and sobs. When the last wave of divine wrath will lower his spotless soul at Calvary, the storm of God's judgment against sin was spent, his death is finished. His alert and keen mind went over all the Old Testament prophecies concerning that work he came to do in the cross. And when he knew that all things were now accomplished, in John, he said it's finished.
I finish every prophetic forecast of what I had to do to say, man, to finish. Don't you try to spoil it. Your good life, your good work, we're ruling. And so the work is done. The work is finished. And to try to add to it, you tempt God. You tempt God. So the Lord Jesus came to speak and to save that which was lost. And before you get saved, I don't care how religious and how mortal, how respectable, how kind, you are.
You're not lost, isn't it? Because there are only two classes of words, the lost and the found. You're lost. I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, but you're lost. I went to hospital yesterday to visit. Sometime when I say things on the platform, maybe the person's in the audience, it's all the phrase. I went in to visit the party in the hospital yesterday, and I went by the desk. I picked up the little patchy jet with minister on it, and she said she started coming through the names of the people in the room. I said, I don't need that.
I know where I'm going. In other words, I knew the room. She said, well, that's something a lot of us can't say. And so I went off. And while I was up there, she came along with a lot of flowers. I said, and I could tell you her name. She's not a Christian. She's a Catholic. I said, I wanted to tell you why I said what I did. I said there are a lot of people who don't know where they're going spiritually. But that one thing I do know. And it's not because I've been preaching for over forty years that I know I'm going to heaven.
I'm going to heaven because Jesus died for me. And she patted me on the hand. She was an old lady. She patted me on the hand and nodded her head. Yes, friends. It's a wonderful thing. You know you're saying you're going to heaven. You know it. There's no doubt about it. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Are you a lost at all? Well, the Wilson, I'm a church member. I could tell less. I do the best I can. I live a good, clean life.
I help my neighbor. I'm not asking you that question. I'm asking you if you're lost. Has there ever been a time in your life when you discovered you were lost? If there hasn't, you haven't been saved. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now to the second point. If the Son seeks lost sinners in the realm of the unconverted, but a lot of sinners won't admit they're lost. They think they can do something about it. God is seeking worshipers in the realm of the believer.
For all believers, sad to say, are not worshiping God in the way he wants them to. The Father seeketh worshipers. We read that in our text. The hour cometh that now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That's a remarkable thing. God-seeking worshippers, he certainly is. And he seeks them on the first day of the week in particular. When we come together to remember him and the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine, that's a true worship meeting.
And he's seeking his people there that they might worship him. And he find some on the golf course. He finds some going down and seeing a relative. He finds some going fishing. He's seeking worshipers. Those who will meet with him and remember him in the way he said he wanted to be remembered. And he does say it. The Father seek a worship. The faith that God has to seek people to worship him. you think they do that brilliantly and readily. It's sad to say there are a lot of Christians not worshiping the Lord.
They're grieving him in a back-student condition. The fathers keep with it. And that word, worship, is a solemn word, different than love. Worship belongs to God. And when I hear a mother or some human beings say about a loved one or a little baby, I worship that baby. I said it. Worship belongs to God. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. Now, you can love that person with all your heart. There are degrees of human affection. But then, when it comes to worship, that belongs to God.
We worship God. That's what's sacred to us. God is the object of worship. The Father seeks us out to worship him. If God is the object of worship, Christ is the substance and fragrance of worship. Over in Ephesians five, two, Christ gave himself for us. An offering and sacrifice is God for a sweet, smelling favor. Christ is the substance and freedom of true worship.
You can't worship God unless it's through Jesus Christ. All kinds of religions in the world, and they don't believe in Jesus Christ. You have to engage in all kinds of worship. There's vain worship, the Bible says. It's empty. God doesn't get a thing out of it. You can only worship God through his Son. No man comes under the power that he says, but by me. And so Christ is the very substance and fragrance of worship. You know, there's a wonderful text over in Genesis chapter eight and twenty one, and I'm going to read it to you. And Noah built it on an altar unto the Lord of every clean beast and third foul, and offered it a burnt offering unto the Lord.
Now listen. God smelled, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor, and said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. Here is God, and he gets a sweet smell, an aroma. coming up from that altar, and he didn't command or ask Noah to build it. Noah did this voluntarily. Why? God had saved him and his family. And he's stepping out on a new earth. And Noah himself, he built that altar, altar voluntarily, and he put animals on it.
And he offered it unto the Lord. And as the smoke of that altar curled heaven, God received a sweet savor. Oh, Lord, how that proved me. Here you are praising me, thanking me, for having saved me from that awful deluge. It was a voluntary altar. That's worship. thanking God, worshiping God for saving. Noah could have said, if I'd have got my desert, I'd have been with that crowd outside the ark, I'd have been drowned.
But by faith Noah, being warned of God, built the ark for the saving of his heart. Remarkably, and I want you to get this. Only that which was in the ark God accepted. For God told Noah when they went into the ark, he takes in beasts, birds, creeping things. They've all got to be cleaned. No pig goes into that ark. Whatever goes into that ark, no dog goes in. God specified what kind of animal. They chew the cud. They divide the hoop.
The other kind of animals God says he can take in. In my sight, they're clean sheep, oxen. You know, that's the kind of people who worship God. They feed a cud. They feed on the books. They divide the hoops. They have a separate walk. And only what was in the ark God accepted from that altar. What was in that ark was saved and cleaned. And then only those who are saved by the grace of God, and Christ is the eye, and only those who have a clean hand and clean heart can worship God the way he wants to be raised.
And so here are the worshipers. God is seeking. If you're not in Christ, if you haven't been saved like Noah was, you can worship God. You can look pious. You can look sanctimonious, you can sing hymns and warble away the best you can on some classical, peaceful, spiritual music. God said, I didn't get a note out of that thing. That person is unsaved. You know what God says about the throat of the unsaved person? Their throat's an open sepulcher. Rough language, Jesus in Romans three. God only gets something from those who are saved from the judgment that comes.
and what they offer is clean. Yes. And if Christ or God is the object of worship and Christ is the substance and vagueness from worship, the Holy Spirit is what? He is the power of worship. You better see that. I get that. God is the object Christ is the substance and fragrance, the Holy Spirit is the power to worship. No spirit, no worship.
In our text, they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. If a person doesn't have the Spirit of God, he cannot worship God. That's impossible. Listen to this verse over in Philippians three, three. We are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. Worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. A man starts strutting in to the presence of God with his chin high in the air, and I know it.
plenty of confidence. I have the gift. I have the ability. God says, that fellow has got absolutely nothing to do. Nothing. We are the that worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. None more than that. Your worship has got to be by the Holy Spirit. Now that's what the Bible says. In other words, the blood of Christ gives us entrance. into the presence of God, the Spirit gives us utterance. Unless you're saved and trusting in the blood of Satan, you can't enter the presence of God.
And if you don't have the Spirit of God in your heart, there's no utterance. You have nothing to say. This is what the Bible says. Then there's another thing. What is the guide in worship? The Word of God. It says in verse twenty-four, that worship God in spirit and in truth. Truth. What's truth? The Bible. Our worship has got to be according to the Bible and nothing else. God is the one to be worshipped and he has a right to lay down the guidelines. He said, well, I don't believe you should do that way.
I don't see it necessary. It's not what you think. It's what God laid down. He told Moses, if you make God's covenant, after you make it according to the pattern that I showed you in the month, then don't you depart or deviate from. That's what God says about worship in the Bible. We read about will worship over in Colossians, verse two, twenty-three. God warns against will worship or self-inspired, self-imposed worship or devotion. I talked to a lady a few years ago, and she spoke about, she went down to the beach, and she said, oh, it was a lovely Sunday morning, and she said, I walked along the beach, and she said, I took my Bible, and I sat down there, and she says, the Lord and I had a ball.
So, that went over like a lead balloon, talking about having a ball with a balloon. Friends, God has no time for that sentiment. In other words, there's such a thing as true worship, and you've got to worship in spirit and in truth, according to what this blessed book says. And so the Bible is our garden. Now listen what Paul says. But this I confess unto thee, talked to his opponent, his critic. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.
Paul says, My worship is governed by the word of God. And the prophets preach this. They didn't preach gospel like we have it today, but they made these two points plain. You can only get into God's presence through blood, and you have to exercise faith in that blood to get into God's presence and worship. And those two things stand there. Faith in the blood of Christ is the only thing that will qualify you to enter into His presence and worship the Lord. Not by tradition. Now the text I referred to in Matthew fifteen nine.
Christ says to his religious leaders, Ye hypocrites, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people go up nigh unto me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship, in vain worship. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Oh, what traditions do they? We're taking up church history of our night service. And over nineteen hundred years, there's different ideas and inventions of trying to worship God. There's legion. You can hardly count them there are so many.
And the majority is vain because that was not according to the scriptures. Where do we worship? We worship in the holiest of all. Listen to this text in Hebrews ten. having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest, that's where we worship, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated or opened up for us, to the veil that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, that's the Lord Jesus. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled upon an evil constant, and our bodies washed with pure water or controlled by the Word of God.
In the whole year, the presence of God. For convenience, we meet together on earth, but our place of worship is really in heaven. That's where we were. There is one sense in which he's with us, where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. But there's another sense in which we are with him. We, by faith, enter in to his presence. The Lord made a remarkable statement in John three. I think it's thirteen. He says, No man ascends us up to heaven, but he which came down from heaven Even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
Now, this sounds kind of contradictory. He's talking on earth, and yet he says the Son of Man which is in heaven. Yes. Christ was on earth, but he was also in heaven and spirit. And although we worship here on earth collectively, we're worshiping one who is in heaven at God's right hand. symbolically he's here in the bed and the wine, but physically and literally he's in the presence of God. Our place to worship is in heaven. You don't have to go to some shrine or some big central office to worship the Lord.
He's worshiping right here or wherever a number of Christians gathered together. and they worship God. They're all able to get into the presence of God and worship Him. When is the time for the worship? Listen to what it says. The disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread. First day of the week. The Jews came together on the first month of the year. Christians come together on the first day of the week. That's a wonderful time to come, the first day of the week.
And over in that great chapter in Hebrews ten, he says, For sink not the assembling of yourselves together, as the man of the Son is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more you see the day approaching. There are four things in that passage on worship. Drawing near, entering in, but there are two more, staying away and holding back. God is seeking men and women saved by grace to draw need on entering. Some are staying away. Others are holding back. All that is in that passage in Hebrew, chapter.
Now the last point, what and who are our companions in worship? With whom do we worship? Oh, the Lord's here. And I want to say this affectionately. The Bible presupposes or never presupposes that we worship in association with unbelievers. I'm talking about the worship meeting. This is not a worship meeting. We have unsaved people, and God knows we're happy to have you here.
We'd love for you to be here. But when it comes to the worship meeting, the communion, the Bible is very, very clear that only born again believers have a right to be there. Think of the upper room. The Lord had twelve disciples. One was a hypocrite, Judas. And after Judas went out, the Lord instituted, the Lord suffered. Believers and unbelievers, all associated together in the blissful exercise of worship, is not the mind of God. Our eleven o'clock service is not a worship meeting.
Individuals can work it. Our night service is not a worship meeting. Twenty nights are prayer sessions. There's only one courtroom. Worship meeting, and that's the communion service. We had a funeral not too long ago, I think the last one I had. And the preacher helped us, and he said, Lord, we've come to worship Him. And I didn't see much to worship about His funeral. It was altogether out of place. Now, let's see what the Bible says. In St. Corinthians, sixteen, fifty, six and fifty, all that believed were together. And of the rest, no man burst join himself unto them.
That's in Acts five, Thurston. All that believe, brother God. In the early church, only those who were believers and born again would come together and take the communion. Unbelievers don't. If they do, they eat and drink condemnation to themselves, not discerning the Lord's body. And our object is to see men and women saved and become a true believer that they might enter into this blessed full meeting of worshiping the Lord. And that's what the Bible says. Listen to what David says. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that seek thy peace.
How wonderful. When a group can come together, everyone knows Christ. all born again, and then they can worship. But if you've got half saved and half unsaved, you can worship the Lord. It's a family affair. When you have a get together with your family, a family reunion, you're going to allow anybody to come in, change it. This is a family relationship. And those who come together to break bread, they're all in the family. all the believers here together. So you have God as the object of worship.
Christ is the substance and the fragrance. The spirit is the power. The scripture is the guide. Heaven is the place. And the first day of the week is the time, and believers are the companion. I haven't tried to go into the most wonderful chapter in the Bible on worship. The fifth chapter of evolution. What a beautiful shade of worship. All worship, pure worship. And this is what he reads. It says, And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down before the land, having every one of them hearts and gold and vials full of odors which are the prayers he sings, and they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy.
to take the book and to open the seals that are off for thou was slain and hath redeemed us of God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue people and nation. This is an international anthem. Out of every kindred tongue people and nation, and hath made us unto our God, kings and priests, kings to reign with him, priests to worship him. And chapter five ends with worship. That's the coming day in heaven. And who are they going to worship? The man on the throne, in the midst of the throne, was a lamb freshly slaved.
Do you know the wounds of the Lord Jesus are still moist? He sits in heaven, freshly slaved. No corruption in connection with the person of Christ. The only man in heaven throughout all eternity with myriads of people that have any marks of earth on them, marks of sin, is the Lord Jesus Christ that have those scars in his hands and feet and a wound in his mouth. Every born-again Christian may have a crippled body down here, but then Jesus comes and has a purple body, but they will not have the scar.
The only person in heaven with a mark of sin upon will be the man who knew no sin, was without sin, but was saved sin for me, for you, that we might be made the righteousness of God and him. And only worshippers, the only ones who are going to worship in chapter five, and that's in heaven, and the worshiping of Paul and his son, are going to be those who have been born again. It says they sang a new song. And if you're going to worship there, you're going to have to learn that song here, the new song that comes from a new life, the result of the new birth.
That just was plain and simple. In that wonderful chapter, who is worthy? Thou art worthy. Worthy is the land. Here is pure, full, united, eternal worship. Worship is the outpouring of a soul addressed in the presence of God. A heart overflowing with gratitude. Gratitude and worship to the Father who gave the Son, to the Son who gave himself and to the Spirit, who revealed these things and dwells in the heart and the Christian. This is true worship. That's what Christ said about the reviewing.
The hour is coming, it's now within the true worship. So worship the Father in the spirit and in the spirit. And the Father sees himself. Yes, worship him. You're not a Christian. You can't sing this, Anson, as God wants you to. Do you take Christ as your Savior? I know as an individual you worship. Thank you.