Genuine worship is not tied to a specific location but is an intimate, spiritual connection with God, who is Spirit and Father. The sermon, drawing from John 4, emphasizes that worship's basis is redemption, its object is the omnipresent God, and its scope is eternal. True worshipers approach God through Jesus Christ, recognizing Him as the sole mediator, and worship in spirit and truth, which requires the Word of God to dwell richly within believers through meditation and discovery. This internal transformation, empowered by the Holy Spirit, allows believers to worship the Triune God in all circumstances, recognizing that they themselves, as the redeemed, constitute the temple of God.
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Thank you, brother. My, what a hymn of praise. What a delight to know Him, who is coming again in power and great glory. Now, since this is my last night with you, let me express my sincere gratitude to each of you, especially those who put me up and put up with me, whether you did it voluntarily, or if you drew short straws. Because our brother Lacey is sure that everybody who had that unfortunate privilege of having me certainly drew short straws.
So it's a delight to be here. But over and above all this, I trust that the ministry of the Word of God has been such that our souls have been stirred. we've been looking at the great subject of worship we have hardly scratched the surface and we're working out of the passage in John four again I ask you to turn to it for we want to continue tonight where we left off this morning John chapter four we're going to be beginning our reading at verse nineteen this is our Lord's ministrate to the woman of Samaria.
And it is this passage which is the most comprehensive passage on worship that is found in the Word of God. The Word appears ten times here within a short space of less than ten verses. And our Lord here outlines the various concepts that are involved in genuine worship And tonight we want to continue looking at we worship the Father. And then we want to move on quickly to the how of worship. What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?
Verse nineteen. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our Father is worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem... is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith 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 what 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 spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiahs cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee. am he. Now may the Lord bless the word. Let us pray. Our Father, as we would again speak of our approach to thee, this great privilege that is ours now, which will consummate in that day when every knee shall bow and tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And in that consummation, a worshiping people in thy presence, with one heart, with one voice, shall exclaim, worthy is a lamb that was slain. And while we anticipate all this, enable us to learn and to comprehend in a measure what it is to genuinely worship thee, the God and Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We wait upon thee and we ask you to minister to our souls as we would expose ourselves to the searchlight of thy word and to the Holy Spirit's ministry to us in this hour.
For Jesus' sake and glory, amen. the concepts that we have examined on the subject of worship. As our Lord speaks evangelistically to this woman, for you must remember he's proclaiming the gospel to her. She's a lost sinner. She needs to be saved. And it is to her that he speaks about worship. It is to her that he says the Father seeketh worshipers. and he says the Father seeketh and therefore we conclude from this concept that the purpose of redemption is to make non-worshippers worshipers and the purpose for which Christ came into the world in seeking and saving that which was lost is the transformation of non-worshippers into worshipers so the basis of worship is redemption.
We worship because we are a redeemed people. Furthermore, the scope of worship is that in the eternity the whole of the redeemed family of God in heaven and in earth will with one mouth glorify Him in a worshiping congregation throughout the unending ages of eternity. The culmination of all history is the worship of the Lamb in the book of the Revelation. And then we saw that the object of worship is God who is Spirit.
And here the concept is that God is everywhere present. And this was consonant with our Lord's ministry to this woman. for she realized that God knew all about her. There wasn't a time in her life when she was out of the gaze of God, that all things indeed are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And for those of us who by divine grace have been transformed, by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God. We realize that there isn't a place that we can ever be, where we cannot be worshiping Him, for He is wherever He wants to be, and wherever His people are, He is, for He said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, and therefore we are bound to Him in a life that knows something of His holiness and demands purity from us as the people of God.
It is upon this that a concept is based that we are a new creation, old things having passed away, all things having become new. God is Spirit. So we do not worship God because of a geographical relationship, we worship God because He is everywhere present. So I cannot be in any occupation. I can never be in any circumstance that God is not there and that God is not able to be worshipped.
No matter how difficult, no matter how severe the test, God is there and He is to be worshipped under every circumstance and in every circumstance of life. How wonderful to know Him, God is Spirit. And we are bound to Him in holiness. Now this morning we introduced the other concept that God is Father. And you notice that in verse twenty three we notice that the Father seeketh worshipers and we notice also in verse twenty three that the Father is worshipped in spirit and in truth and then in verse twenty four we have the imperative that God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
And when we think of God as being spirit, this speaks of His essential nature. And when we think of Him as Father, it speaks of His essential relationship with us. But His essential relationship primarily is with our Lord Jesus Christ. For this expression, God is Father. God is especially and in particularly the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this links the essence of the nature of God in heaven with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
who came to earth and who manifested the Father. And no one worships God who does not worship Him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no coming to God by any other means than in and through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what our Lord said in John fourteen and verse six. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Furthermore, in that great benediction in Ephesians one verse three, we read, Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us.
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, so that the blessings which we possess in the heavenlies in Christ is because of our relationship to Christ and because of Christ's unique relationship with God the Father. God is Father. In the seventeenth verse of Ephesians one, we read that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him again uniquely ascribing fatherhood to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in second Corinthians chapter one in verse three again we have that benediction where it says blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.
And the only way we know the mercy of God, and the only way we know the comfort of God is by our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter two, verse eleven, having spoken of the condescension of the Savior, How did he, who was in essence with a father, and taught it not robbery to be equal with God, he came down, down, down, down, seven steps down, till he could come down, no father, even the death of the cross.
And we read, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God the Father. In Romans chapter fifteen, verses five and six, we read, that ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when the Scriptures speak of God as Father, he is a Father essentially of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we know him as Father because of our relationship to his beloved Son. Jesus Christ the Lord. So our Lord Jesus in John chapter fourteen he says, He that has seen me have seen the Father also. John fourteen verse nine. And the reason he could say that is because God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is linked. The essence of God with a person of Christ in his humanity.
So we're declaring in this passage the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the language of John, verse twenty-eight, the Lord Jesus said, I came forth from the Father and him come into the world. Again I leave the world and go back. to the Father. And while our Lord Jesus was here on earth, he claimed that God had sent him. John three sixteen says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
So Christ claimed that he was given to the world, sent into the world by God the Father. And the purpose of his coming was God gave him, and he gave him up to die on the cross on Calvary's Hill that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Therefore, God in matchless love confirmed his sonship. Romans one, verse four, says, that Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
When the Father sent the Son into the world, he made him of the seed of David. But when he raised him from the dead, he declared that he was a Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. And when we know God as Father, we know him as the Father because he is uniquely the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And God proclaimed that Christ is Lord by raising him from the dead. And this truth is confirmed to our hearts in Romans chapter six and verses nine and ten where it says, knowing this, that he being raised from the dead, he dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And because we are linked to our blessed Savior in life, if death cannot have dominion over him, it cannot have dominion over us. We worship the Father. Why? Because we know Jesus Christ. And because we know Jesus Christ, we know him as a way to God. There is no other way.
Now I particularly enjoy a statement that Francis Schaefer made. It was made in his book. He is there and he is not silent. He says Christianity is not the best religion. And I agree with that. That's a wonderful statement. Christianity is not the best. You see, when you use the word best, there are other words that go with it, good and better. Francis Schaefer points out Christianity is the only religion.
way to God. There is none other. I was having a cup of coffee with a Jewish man one day. He's a tennis pro, by the way. That little game of hitting that yellow ball or gray one, whichever kind you use. He's a tennis pro at a country club. And we were sitting there talking, and I like to go to talk with him once in a while. I bought a racket from him and one or two other things. But the thing is this, I like to talk with him about the Savior and about the Messiah. And he said to me in the restaurant as we were having a cup of coffee together, he says, Philip, do you mean to tell me that other people are lost who don't believe the way you believe?
Do you know how I answered him? I said, that is exactly what I believe. Don't misunderstand me here. That is exactly what I believe. And I'm not ashamed of it. For the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And if God is anything, He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And since He is seeking worshipers, and since He has provided redemption by sending His only begotten Son, there is no other way.
We have become so narrow, beloved, there isn't any other way to God. Have you embraced this? Have you embraced the person of Christ? All beloved, when we find our all in him, there's nothing else. There's nothing else. Oh Christ, he is the fountain, the deep sweet well of love, the streams of earth I've tasted, more deep I'll drink above.
There to an ocean fullness, his mercy doth expand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. And the third stands us as, O I am my beloved, and my beloved's mine. He brings a poor vile sinner into his house of wine, I stand upon His merit. I know no other stand, not even where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. Christ is essentially the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Quickly, let me just review. The basis of worship is redemption. It's only as we've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ that we have the ability to come into his presence. For the Father is seeking worshipers. He is seeking in order that he may transform us from non-worshipers to worshipers. The object of worship is God who is spirit, the one who is everywhere present. And I am expected to worship him. At all times, under all circumstances, this is why the person who is a child of God cannot do his own thing.
This is why he cannot persist in shady deals, in sin, because God is there. This is why if he does, God judges. Not only is the object of worship God who is Spirit, everywhere present, but God who is Father, essentially the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore no one approaches God who does not approach God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But, beloved, our worship is in spirit and in truth. They who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. For through Him, Christ, Ephesians, two-eighteen, we both, that means Jew and Gentile, believing Jew and believing Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the Father. and the One Spirit is the Holy Spirit who has been given to us upon the completion of the work of redemption at Calvary's Cross. It is the Father who planned redemption.
It is the Son who provided redemption. It is the Spirit of God who proclaims redemption in and through His people. And His people approach God by the Spirit. We worship in spirit and in truth. Romans chapter eight and verse fifteen declares unto us that we now possess the spirit of adoption. And the spirit of adoption within us is that which cries, Abba Father. And it is this spirit that affirms the work of Christ to the soul of the believer. And our worship, therefore, is toward God who is Father.
It equates him in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in him and through him by the Holy Spirit that we approach. We approach by one's spirit unto the Father. Therefore, our worship involves the three members of the Godhead. Beloved, this is why we have to be wary of, quote, Jesus' unquote movements. We must be wary of, quote, Holy Spirit, unquote, movements. We must be wary of those who would divide the Godhead and exalt one at the expense of the other.
We worship the triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, in genuine worship, there is the acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity. Well, we cannot explain this glorious doctrine. It is a truth that is taught in the Word of God. Now, that brings us to how do we worship? The Scripture says we worship in spirit and in truth. And this is the expression of our worship. In the expression of our worship, we worship in spirit and in truth. There's a verse in Colossians I would like you to turn to.
Colossians chapter three and verse sixteen. Colossians three sixteen. Where we read. It's a great passage. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Notice the Word. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now the key to worship is therefore the expression, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Let the word, that means there must be meditation upon the word of God. Psalm one says, the blessed man is the man who meditates day and night in the law of the Lord. Meditation is to focus your mind upon a subject and to think about it. It is the contemplation. Contemplation. When you consider the various parts of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, there is more gold in the tabernacle proper than anything else. And gold speaks of our contemplation of God.
How much time do we give to our contemplation of God, thinking about Him, His attributes, the revelation of Himself, our approach unto Him, the provision he has made, the relationship of Christ to the Father, the joy that he's going to be ours in the coming day when we're in his presence forevermore, our contemplation of God. You and I are living in a busy age. We are living in an age when we have so many gadgets to keep us in their work savers, and it seems we have less time than ever.
less time than ever. And I believe the purpose of a lot of this is satanic to keep us from contemplation of God. Now, what is it that makes meditation? How do we meditate? How do we meditate? If the Word of Christ is to dwell in us richly, and this dwelling is by meditation, what is it about meditation? that enables us. What is the process? Well, first of all, to think about the Word of God, you have to read it. You have to read the Word.
No person will ever grow spiritually, and no one will ever learn to worship who does not read the Word of God. The Blessed Man meditates day and night in the Word, in the Law of the Lord. Now, what is it about the Word of God that enables us to meditate? As you read the Word of God, you think about it. And as you think about the Word of God, something happens. And I call it what the Word of God does, it generates something. It generates what I call discovery.
Discovery. Oh, as you read the Word of God and you discover something, you've read it many times before. But now you have a fresh insight as you discover the greatness of God and as the Spirit of God reveals something to you. A lot of times I'm sitting and meditating upon the Word of God and I feel like I'm taking an orange. And I'm just squeezing that good juice out of the orange as I'm reading and meditating upon the Word of God. Well, I'm discovering, I'm discovering something new about the person of Christ.
God is giving fresh revelation to the soul. And with the reading of the Word of God comes the joy of discovery. And the joy of discovery leads to further meditation as we rejoice in the presence of Him who reveals Himself to us. And out of that meditation comes worship. Did you get it? Let's go back over it backwards, shall we? No study. No discovery. No discovery. No meditation.
No meditation. No worship. Do you see, beloved, why the church is poverty stricken? A compliment was paid to us by a young couple who've come into fellowship. They've come out of a Baptist church that has a great program, a great musical program. In fact, this young man used to be the choir director. And coming into our little meeting in Burlington, I tell you, he said to me, he said, you know, he said, if anybody comes here, and we usually have a full house, we have a small building.
You see, And therefore we have a full house. Bobby was with us when we had some special meetings and the place was packed out. They had us sit in a little corner up on the platform and he couldn't move from it, you see. But we have about a hundred and forty thereabouts and we can squeeze about a hundred sixty maybe into our buildings. So we normally have a pretty full house. So he said to me, you know, brother, it isn't a musical program that will attract anybody here.
He said, because you simply don't have it. And if anybody sat near me and listened to me sing, they'd say, amen. He just doesn't have it. He just doesn't have it. And he said, There's only one thing that you really have here. It's the Word of God. And he said, what is most attractive here is the Word of God. And when you go away, you have something from God. You've met with Him. He said, I haven't gone away once that my heart wasn't stirred in the Word of God. Beloved, let me encourage you tonight.
With reading and study comes discovery. With discovery comes meditation, and with meditation comes worship. They that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And you can never worship in truth apart from the Word of Truth. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Not just a little bit. Richly.
Richly. And it will never dwell in you richly. If all you give to the Lord is, well, I have to read a verse today. Where am I going to read? And you let the book fall open somewhere. You see, I have a friend up north, his name is Elwood Shaneley. He used to wear a question mark in his lapel. I probably told you this before. Well, if I did, I'm going to tell you again. He used to wear a question mark in his lapel. And Elwood was a different fellow, mightily used of God.
And he was going up the steps at Philadelphia in one of the chapels there. And a lady said to him, a well-known woman, a woman who was well-respected. And she said, Well, Elwood, what's the question today? By the way, did I tell you this before? Well, you didn't. Well, you're lucky. But anyway, anyway, she said to Elwood, What's the question this morning? Well, he said, the question is, where are you reading in the Bible in your personal devotions? By the way, where are you reading? And she hung her head, and she said, you know, to be honest with you, I'm not.
And you know, I have a suspicion, beloved, that a lot of God's people who come week after week after week to our fundamental churches are in that condition. They are not reading the Word of God. Hence, there is no joy. The joy of discovery is lacking. And with the joy of discovery lacking, there is no meditation. And with no meditation, there is no worship. They who worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
You see, worship, beloved, is related to the divine truth of the Holy Scriptures. Jesus said to his disciples, Eyes to see and see not, ears to hear and hear not. to the various churches in the book of the Revelation. Chapters two and three, our Lord said, He that hath ears to hear. Let Him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. In other words, He that hath ears, that's capacity. He that hath ears to hear.
That's opportunity. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That is responsibility. Eyes to see, but don't see. Ears to hear, but don't hear. Why? Again, no study, no discovery. No discovery. No meditation. no meditation, no worship, and yet the purpose for which the lovely Savior came to earth was to transform us from non-worshippers to worshipers.
Beloved, where are you reading in the Word? Are you meditating upon it? They who worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth now very quickly I'd like to deal with a sphere of worship the sphere of worship the Samaritan woman identified worship with geography verse twenty she said our fathers worshipped in this mountain to this woman worship was a matter of geography now I remember when I was in the electrical field I was working in a large Lutheran church in the city of Lebanon.
It was a veritable cathedral. For a building, it was beautiful. It had a dome ceiling and the top of the dome was about sixty some feet high. And you talk about an organ. Oh my. That pipe organ in that building was something else. I had a doctor friend who would come in there and play it, and he could open it up. And he'd fill all that space up there with music. And there was a group of painters that were church decorators working there, and I got to know the boss of that group.
He lived in York, Pennsylvania. And we got to know one another. He was a genuine believer. He fellowshiped with a brand of people called Brethren. And we got to talk about many things. And I took him to the chapel building that we had there. And he was rather strange in some of his ways. And of course, our pews were like these. They were screwed to the floor. You know? And the first thing he did, he said, you know, he said, I think you ought to take the screws out of these pews so that these front pews could be turned so that when you have the Lord's Supper, the table's in the midst.
He said, he is in the midst, isn't he? I just looked at him and smiled and I said, being in the midst is not a matter of geography, brother. It's a matter of spirit. A matter of spirit. The woman of Samaria, she thought it was a matter of geography. Our Lord said to her, Neither this mountain, not even yet at Jerusalem. The hour cometh and now is. Now, beloved, this does not deny the reality of worship in the tabernacle. the reality of worship in the temple, nor the reality of the Old Testament priesthood or the system of offerings.
That was a symbolic thing to prod the mind and the conscience as to a genuine way of life and worship. It all pointed to the person of Christ, who is the sole revealer of the Father, who is the object of worship. Genuine worship, beloved, has always been none geographical. It always has been under the New Covenant, the geographical things which were previously used to prod the believer's mind to worship.
They're all done away. It doesn't matter what kind of a building you meet in. The building doesn't mean anything. There is no symbolic building today, whether it's built with a dome on top, whether it's built with a flat roof, whether it has stained glass windows or whether it has no windows at all, whether it has an organ or no organ, whether it has a piano or no piano. These things do not make worship. What makes worship is the reality that you are in the presence of God who is Spirit, and that you have been meditating in the Word of God, and you have discovered the reality of the person of Christ who reveals the Father to you.
There is no special place of worship today. have no symbolic building. We do not have a system. We have only the simplicity of the Lord's Supper. And when you read the Gospel accounts, the accounts of the Lord's Supper are marked by simplicity. The simplicity of meeting around the Lord. Now while we say there is no special place of worship today, when we come together, beloved, we, we constitute the building.
Turn with me to Ephesians two. Ephesians two. Verse nineteen. to verse twenty two where we read now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens were the saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom also ye are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
Think of it. We constitute the building. It's not of stone or a wood, but of flesh in which the Spirit of God dwells. When I was in the Congo back in nineteen sixty-nine, I was just there for ten days working at Nienkundi. They came and said they expected me to preach on the Lord's Day morning. There were three services on the Lord's Day. On the evening, there was a service in Swahili in the big tabernacle. There was a service in French in the printing press building.
Then there was a service in English in Dr. Becker's home. Now I had previously spoken in English in Dr. Becker's home, but they asked me if I would speak to the group on the Lord's Day morning, which was where everybody gathered and it was in Swahili. So I spoke to an interrupter. And as I spoke to us, what I did, I took the second chapter of Ephesians and I had the brother read this chapter. And then what we did, we made a composite sentence out of the whole chapter. From verse one, we took the word you.