Sure good to again be here in the ministry of the Word of God. Before we look at John chapter four tonight, I have one question. Everyone here knows Lacey Buffalo, don't you? Well, he's the king of the court. I always said, you know, in this game of tennis, it isn't winning. That's so important. It's winning big. And he did. And I never saw him shine quite as much as today because he was wiping it continuously. It was great. Well, so much for that. I just wanted to announce that he was the king of the court. But I enjoy the fellowship with you here in the things of the Lord. And we want to again consider this great subject of worship. And we want to read that passage from John four. And we're going to work out of it again as we continue where we left off this morning. Verse nineteen of John four. The woman saith unto him, Not a woman here is the woman of Samaria. She's a prostitute. A woman of low character. But she's one who comes into contact. with the Lord of glory. And she becomes a worshiper. She becomes a worshiper and in the process she says to him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our Father is worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is a 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 a 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 let us pray. Father, as we have again opened thy precious word and would multiply words upon the sacred page, we pray that the words of our mouth and that the meditation of our heart will be acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer, For Jesus' sake, amen. We have been examining the great subject of worship in these times together, and we've been using a question, why did the Lord save you? And the answer to that question, he saved you in order that you might become a worshiper of him. And we found that The basis of worship is redemption. God redeems us in order that He might transform non-worshippers into genuine worshipers. In our text, we notice that He speaks of true worshipers in verse twenty three and then in the end of verse twenty three as we noted this morning and we're continuing in this theme that the father seeketh worshipers and that therefore the express purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ's coming into the world was that he might seek worshipers he's come to seek and to save that which was lost And in saving that which was lost, he transforms men from false worship and brings them into the sphere of true worship, for true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Therefore, according to verse twenty-three, it is redemption that produces true worshipers throughout eternity. In the consummation of God's redemptive program, we notice this morning the redeemed are going to be worshiping the one, true, and only triune God revealed His Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, God saved you to enjoy worship now. Does worship bore you? I asked that question this morning. If worship bores you now, imagine being engaged for eternity in worship. How awful of God if He takes you to heaven and you don't enjoy worship now. So you see, the object of worship or the object of redemption is not simply to keep us out of the lake of fire, beloved. Well, that is a glorious prospect and a glorious reality. But the object of redemption is to make us worshipers. And throughout eternity we're going to worship Him. And if it is boring to you now, what will it be then? So the object of worship is to transform non-worshipers into worshipers. Our Lord said in John four, verse twenty two, to the woman there at Cyprus well, he said, Ye know not what You worship. But we know what we worship. Now I want to ask you, do you? Do you know what you worship? Do we know the how, the why, and the wherefore of genuine worship? How can you tell a true believer? How can you tell? Well, we stopped there this morning. Philippians chapter three, verse three. I want you to turn to that passage, and that's where we begin tonight. Philippians chapter three and verse three, where it says, We are the circumcision who worship God by the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. How can you tell a genuine believer? He says, We are the circumcision who worship. There are many groups that are in the world today and they all claim to be genuine. The charismatic cries out, I have an experience. That's what the charismatic cries out. The liturgist says, oh, worship, we have such a beautiful building. You ought to hear the pipe organ. You should see the stained glass windows, and they get all caught up in the aesthetic forms of worship, the liturgist. How can you tell a believer, well, the charismatic says, I had an experience. The liturgist says, oh, we have such a beautiful building. You should see the windows. You should hear the organ. So we turn to the fundamentalist. The fundamentalist, he says, well, I want you to know that there are certain things I don't do and there are certain things I do. So the fundamentalist, he's known by his taboos. So we have the modern evangelical. How do you tell a Christian? Oh, he says, you'll know that we are Christians by our love, by our love. So you turn to the Jew. How do you know? He says, I'm a circumcised. I'm circumcised. And Paul turns to those who are genuine. And he says, we are the circumcision. The Jew had his badge. It was a mark in the flesh. In order to belong to the covenant people of Israel, he had to be circumcised. And God sought to kill Moses in the inn, Exodus chapter four, because he had failed to circumcise his children, his son. The sign of the badge under the Old Testament economy was a circumcision, a mark in the flesh. But for those who are the children of God today, we have a mark too. And our mark is we worship God by the Spirit. For that's the purpose for which we were redeemed. Beloved, you can talk about your experience. You can talk about stained glass windows. You can talk about great organ music. You can be overcome by the things you do and you don't do. But do your worship. Paul says this is a badge. This is a mark of the child of God. We worship God by the Spirit. Here is the mark that... of a child of God. It is our identifying mark. Now, how important is it? Turn over to Hebrews ten, please. Hebrews chapter ten. I don't know of a portion in the word of God like Hebrews ten that explains the gospel, what our blessed Lord did through his work at Calvary's cross. Notice verse four. Speaking of all that took place under the Old Testament economy, he says in verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace and wash away its stain. Verse four, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. And then he speaks of the work of of Christ, the greatness of his coming. And when you get down to verse eleven, we have another contrast between verses eleven and verse twelve. He said, and every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, Sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Our Lord is not standing tonight. He's seated. Why? The work is finished. There's nothing else to do. What the blood of bulls and goats could not do, the blood of Christ did once and for all and for ever. and our Blessed Lord is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Redemption is complete. The work is finished. There's nothing else to do. Now, on the basis of this, he speaks of the greatness of the covenant that he makes with his people. He can thereby forgive our sins, remembering them against us no more forever. And because of this great redemption, look at what we have in verse nineteen. Because of this great redemption, in verse nineteen he says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We who are the redeemed, we enter in. Why? We enter into worship. We worship God by the Spirit. How do we worship? We enter in. by the blood of Jesus, verse twenty, by a new and living way, which ye have consecrated for us through the veil, that is, to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Here we have worship. the result of this great redemption that is ours in Christ. Why did God save you? He saved us to make us worshipers. And may I confess to you tonight that a few months ago when I studied this subject of worship, it changed my whole attitude. toward the Lord and toward this blessed joy of coming into his presence and presenting our praise and adoration and thanksgivings unto him who is alone worthy. I hope by next week we can go over what does it mean to worship God in spirit. Beloved, this is a concept that our Lord told this woman of Samaria, that gives you a whole new outlook on life, it did to me. It did to me. It's revolutionary in its outlook. When we realize who God is and what is required of us who would draw near. But because of what Christ did, The invitation is, let us draw near. How am I to come with a true heart? That means with a heart that's open before God. We're to come with integrity. In full assurance of faith, we're to come believingly. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, we're to come with sins confessed. Our bodies washed with pure water. The word of God has been applied to our lives and we're walking in fellowship with Him. That's how we come. That's how we approach. That's how we enjoy God. Now who is our Lord speaking to in John four about worship? He's speaking to a harlot. He's speaking to a prostitute, a woman of a vile lifestyle. And it is to this person that he speaks about worship. And it is to this woman that our Lord reveals the Father seeketh worshipers. Well, you see, beloved, the word of God says something in the book of Romans. There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If God can take a woman like that, redeem her and bring her into his presence as a purged worshiper, then he can redeem a sinner like me and bring me into his presence as a purged worshiper also, and I can rejoice in his presence. There is no difference concerning sin in Romans chapter three, and when you get to Romans chapter ten, there is no difference in salvation. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, the basis of worship is redemption. And the purpose of redemption is to change none worshippers into worshippers. Now what about the span of worship? Let us consider for a few moments tonight the span of worship. The span of worship extends throughout all redemptive history as revealed in the Word of God. When our Lord was confronted by Satan in the wilderness of Judea and Satan showed him all the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time, and he said to him all these will I give you if only you'll fall down and worship me remember what our Lord did he quoted from the book of Deuteronomy and he said thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve so throughout all redemptive history the object of worship has been the Lord our God and worship is called for of God's redeemed people and from God's redeemed people throughout all of redemptive history. Think of the first two commandments that God gave. Exodus twenty. Let's begin quoting verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, I am the Lord thy God that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other God before me. What God is saying there, I am the object of worship. I am the one who has redeemed you. I'm the one who brought you out, and I want to be the object before your eyes. I want to be the object of worship. There will be no other object of worship that I will countenance. I will not have it. The second commandment, maybe we ought to do all this together. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. but keeping mercy for thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. The first commandment tells us who God is. The second commandment tells us how he must be approached. And under the Old Testament economy, he was not approached in any other way than we approach him today. Since God is not unknown or likened to anything that we've seen in the heaven as we look up, on the earth as we look around, in the waters under the earth as we would look down. God is not likened to anything that we have seen or anything that we know. Therefore, my worship and my approach to him must be on the basis of not the physical but the spiritual. I must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The first commandment that God gave to Israel, thou shalt have no other gods before me, it regulates worship. The second commandment tells us how our God is to be approached. And in the New Testament, when the A lawyer said, what is the greatest commandment of the law? Our Lord answered, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. So here we have the reiteration of the greatest commandment, which is really the embodiment of the whole of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments given by God. However, God in matchless grace commanded the children of Israel beginning in Exodus chapter twenty five and moving all the way on through chapter thirty one he said to them make a tabernacle that I may dwell among you and the only building that God ever asked men to build that he would dwell therein was a tabernacle in the wilderness And the tabernacle was a temporary building. And you remember when David wanted to build the temple, God said to David in that great seventh chapter of Second Samuel, when David said, I dwell in the house of Cedar. The ark of God dwells in a tent of curtains. I want to build him a house. It was in his heart. But God said, no, David, you cannot build a house. Where on earth is a building that can contain me? Oh, what a passage, beloved. How can man build a building to contain God? It's utterly impossible. Utterly impossible. This great one that we worship, the God revealed in Scripture, is so great, beloved. Our concept of him is so small and nebulous. When I read Isaiah fifty-seven, verse fifteen, God tells us that there are only two places that he dwells. Two places that he dwells. He said, I am the high and the lofty one whose name is holy. I inhabit eternity. That's one place he dwells. And then he says, and I dwell with him that he's contrite to revive the spirit of the contrite ones. Where does God dwell? God dwells in the high and the lofty place, and God dwells in the low place with him that is of a contrite spirit. But somehow or another, we would like to have some middle ground where we can meet God. Neither the high nor lofty place nor the low place. And we'd like to meet him somewhere on middle ground. We don't like the idea of them being crushed. And that's what the words are contrite ones mean. We don't like the thought of being crushed. We'd like to meet God on some middle ground. We don't want to be crushed. And we know that the high and lofty ones who inhabits eternity is too great. And we wonder why there's no revival in the church today. It's because we're trying to meet God somewhere on the middle ground, and it can't be done. He says, I'm not going to meet you there. So we can go through all the forms and all the ceremonies. We can know all the songs and everything else. But we don't meet with God. God said to Moses, make a tabernacle that I may dwell among you. The only house that God ordained and that God gave directions to be built, the tabernacle, it was designed and constructed. Beloved, this should humble you and me. Five words in the sixteenth verse of the first chapter of the Bible. Five words. Five words. You know what it says? And He made the stars also. When you look out into the heavens and you look at the starry heavens with its multitudes of galaxies, billions upon billions of stars, some of them could hold a million suns and a billion earth. They're so vast and so great, and all that is recorded in the Word of God is He made the stars also. But when I come to the book of Exodus, and God says, Make a tabernacle that I may dwell among you, in order that He might be worshipped. He writes chapter upon chapter and detail upon detail in order that I might be a worshiper and come into his presence and know something about being crushed because of his greatness and marvel at the majesty of his grace that he would deign to dwell amongst us. Friends, our God wants our worship. He wants us to know what it is to enter into His presence and to enter into it with joy. The tabernacle, beloved, was designed for worship. Numbers chapter one, we're not going to turn to it. You all know it, I presume. And if you don't, just make a few notes. I'm going to move rapidly. In Numbers chapter one, God regulated the worship around the tabernacle. That's a whole essence of the book of Numbers. How the children of Israel were going to worship God and present themselves before him. It was their worship, not where they worked, that regulated their lives. We are living in an age when our occupations regulate our lives. Not the worship of God. Isn't that amazing? With Israel of old, it was the worship of God that occupied their whole being. Oh, that we might see this truth. that we might see this truth. It's not where we work that's important. It's not where we make our money and how much of it we make. How much am I occupied with the worship of the God of heaven? That's what's important. Not before man, but before God. We are occupied today with that which is great in the eyes of men. But God said, worship is most important. So when we have the outline in the book of Numbers of the people that he had redeemed, you'll notice that round about the tabernacle the tabernacle was central it was the very center of the camp of Israel everything radiated out from the tabernacle that's where God dwells so what do you have round about the tabernacle the priests who were the priests those who worshiped they were the closest they were the closest the next You have the Levites. Who were the Levites? Those who served. Here we get an illustration of the relationship of worship and service to God. Worship is more important than service. What you are to God is more important than what you do. For what you are determines what you do. So you first of all have the priests, then you have the Levites, And finally, you have the tribes, the people of God. Now let me just give you something else from the book of Numbers real quickly. In Numbers chapter one, to be a soldier in the army, you had to be twenty years of age. In Numbers chapter eight, to be a Levite, you had to be twenty-five years of age. In Numbers chapter four, To be a priest, you had to be thirty years of age. Think of it. You had to be ten years older to be a priest than you had to be to join the army. What is God saying in this? To enter into his presence. There is a maturity. A maturity that is expected and developed in the people of God. May I ask you a question, do you know anything about this? Do you know anything about this? That's what Ephesians chapter four is all about. That we may grow up into him in all things who is ahead, immaturity, immaturing in worship. There is a maturity at the level of worship that is not required at the level of service or at the level of being a soldier. Now the order of the offerings in the book of Leviticus is most important. The first one is a burnt offering. The burnt offering was first. It was all for God. Leviticus is a book of worship. For it's a book of the offerings, and the first one mentioned is the burnt offering, and the burnt offering speaks of all for God. All for God. The priest got none of it. The offerer got none of it. It was all for God. May I ask you a question tonight, where are you living? Are you living because of your relationship? to worship or are you living where you are because of your relationship to your daily work now I have a question for you which is most important well I know what you're going to say well worship is most important but let's turn that question around which is most important to you When I was in Africa back in nineteen sixty nine, there's a nurse there in the field from British Columbia. Her name was Louise Opal. That gal could sing. That gal had talents. All she had talents. And beside that she was a pretty girl. There she was a single girl on the mission field, and she said to me, here's where God called me. I'm willing to spend the remainder of my life here to serve him. That beloved is worship. that the object of the burnt offering all for God all for God all for God so you see God doesn't take second place in worship to our bed to our natural desires to what we want thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou beloved what bothers me in these messages is that you and I are living in a day when the world is controlling the church the things of the world are controlling the church and the lives of God's people instead of being controlled by God and by the worship of God many times are manipulated by the world and we come back to Joshua when he said to the children of Israel when he was about to die he said to them choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods on the other side of the flood the gods of the land in whom you dwell you know who the gods of the land are in whom we dwell you know there's Westinghouse and General Electric and Western Electric and all these other gods that are there to control. And beloved, God has called us to peace. God has called us to enjoy peace with himself. And worship has to come first. And our Lord Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. What is the span of worship? Throughout the redeemed history of mankind the worship of God is always a priority. Why did God save you? He saved you to transform you from a non-worshiper to a worshiper of him. May we learn what it is to enjoy his holy presence. Let us pray. Our loving Heavenly Father, as we bow in our holy presence, we thank thee tonight for what you've done for us. We thank you for the joy and the privilege of divine grace. To think that you take us, transform us, and then accept our worship that is presented to thee in spirit and in truth. It's all by grace, for we have nothing to give unless you first give it to us. We have nothing that we didn't receive. And so having received of thy grace, by grace we present grace back to you, our worship for the person of Christ. Deliver us, our Father, from trying to create a middle ground whereby we can meet thee, rather than the two places where you said you would meet with us, in order that we will know what it is to meet thee in a genuine way, that it could be said of us that we are true worshipers. For Jesus' sake,