Luke 2, verse 41 this morning. Luke 2, verse 41. Speaking of our Lord Jesus, it
says, His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the
Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem
after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the
days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem,
and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing
him to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they
saw him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they
had found him, and when they found him not, they turned back
again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after
three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst
of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto
him, son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father
and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, how is
it that you sought me? Wish you not that I must be about
my father's business. And they understood not the saying
which he spake unto them. And he went down with them and
came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother kept
all these sayings in her heart. That's what I want us to do.
To ponder in our hearts what the Lord taught his mother. And no doubt Joseph in his teaching
us this morning. They took the Lord Jesus when
he was 12 years old with them to Jerusalem to celebrate the
Feast of the Passover. As it says they did every year
and on the way back they discovered that he was not with them. They
supposed that he was but he wasn't. There's a lesson there isn't
there? And there's a clear explanation as to how that could happen.
That's happened to most parents at one time or another. They
thought their child was with them and they weren't. If it
didn't happen to you, you know somebody that it happened to.
And where they sought him tells you what they thought. They sought
him among their kinfolk. And so they thought for sure,
well, he's not with us, but he's with, last time we saw him, he
was with Aunt so-and-so, so he's fine. He wasn't with them at
all. And they found that out, and
so they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. It says it took
them three days to find him. Here's the thing now, their 12-year-old
boy, here's the difference. He's God's son. He knew they
were looking for him. He knew they were sorrowing. But rather than go directly to
them and relieve their great anxiety, no doubt, you can imagine,
They were a day's journey from where they figured they'd left
him. They're thinking, boy, we may never, we've got to find
him. But he wasn't in a hurry to relieve their anxiety. He
continued to do what he was doing so that we could be taught something
very important. Mary's thinking about that. She knows who he
is to some extent. And by his answer, she's thinking,
You know, he did this deliberately. He's doing something that we
don't know much about. He's talking about his father's
business. He's talking about Joseph. Clearly not. Joseph didn't
send him back and tell him to stay in Jerusalem. Well, she's
thinking about all of this, and he's teaching something very
simple here. When they found him, he was in
the temple. He was in the temple. And he said, it came to pass
after three days, it says, they found him in the temple, sitting
in the midst of the doctors and hearing them and asking them
questions. And they were astonished at how much he knew. They were
astonished at his answers, the questions he asked, how discerning
and how he got to the point and answered their questions. His
understanding, they were amazed. And when his mother and father
saw, they were amazed. They were amazed that he would do that.
He wasn't looking for them, they thought. They were looking for
him, and he didn't even know they existed as far as they knew.
Oh, he knew they existed. He did this deliberately to teach
them. So what is he teaching? Well, our Lord taught us this
same lesson in Luke chapter 9, verse 59. Let me read it. You can turn over there, of course,
and read it with me. That's probably good. Luke 9,
59. Our Lord said to somebody there,
follow me. He said to a man, follow me. But
that man said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
And Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but
you go and preach the kingdom of God. You see that? And another also said, Lord,
I will follow Thee, but let me first, let me first. It's not, you know, it's not
so much that we don't want to do what God wants us to do. We
just have some things to take care of first. No, first is Him. Is that the lesson here? Didn't
you see how it applies to our text in Luke 2? It was important
for Him to be subject unto His parents, but there was something
more important than that. There was something primary and preeminent. That was him and his business.
God's business. Let me first go bid them farewell,
which are at home at my house. You know? Jesus said unto him,
no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is
fit for the kingdom of God. What a lesson that is. Because
you think, well, boy, you know, what harm is there in just going
home and saying goodbye to everybody? Well, here's the thing. God said,
you come follow me right now. That's the thing. You know, there are things that
are just done in this world, aren't there? There are just
things that are done and not done. They are considered in
society to be musts. And then there is that which
Christ declares to be necessary. You see that in both of these
places in the Word of God. You just don't do that to your
parents. What are you doing? Why have
you dealt with us this way? You just don't do that. We have our musts, but God has his musts. And the
lesson here, I guess, is just a matter of
preeminence, isn't it? It's just a matter of which is
more important. It's not complicated, is it? It's not complicated. His parents scolded him because
he deliberately separated himself from them. It was he wasn't worried. So he, you know, he's going about
his business. And so that made him mad. Oh,
wait a minute. You're supposed to be subject
to us. Well, the thing is not, this is not teaching that children
aren't subject to their parents. It clearly says that he subjected
himself to them. But here's the thing, here's
what we need to understand first, is that we're subject to him. If him doing what he came to
do makes us sorrowful, then we're just going to have to shed a
few tears. You reckon? If it causes us anxiety for him
to go about his father's bid, then we're fixing to worry. And
that's okay. I mean, he teaches that. When
the man told the Lord that his father was old and he needed
to take care of his father before he died, that's what he was saying.
And then he would do Christ's will. Well, that's just something
that's done. You know, all of his relatives
are going to criticize him no end for not taking care of his
earthly responsibility. They're just going to have to
do it. And again, this is not teaching,
don't honor your father and mother. The Lord clearly teaches, honor
your father and mother. But the Lord also teaches, he
that cometh after me and does not forsake father and mother
is not worthy of me. Can we understand both of those
things? You just don't abandon your elderly
parents, do you? You just don't, unless the Lord
tells you to. And the Lord saw that they were
taken care of. He clearly says there that there were others
that could take care of that. He said, let the dead bury their
dead. Your father's not going to be neglected. The Lord will
take care of that for you. He got other people to take care
of that. And so we don't dishonor our
father and mother and we don't We don't teach parents to be
unruly and not subject to their children to be unruly and not
subject to their parents. But we see the important lesson
here is that there are musts in our mind, but they don't always
correspond with God's musts. You know, everybody thinks certain
things are a must, but I want to look in the word of God this
morning with you, by his grace, what Christ must do. And then
we'll look at what we must do. Christ said in our text that
he must be about his father's business. And we can't ignore
again now that him doing the fact of him doing the business
of God the Father put him in direct opposition to what people thought was important.
And this is taught all through now. It put him in direct opposition
to organized religion of his day, didn't it? What the big
shot religious people were saying, this is what needs to happen.
The Lord was directly opposed to them. But here's the problem. He's doing God's business. So
what were they doing? If we find ourselves at odds
with Christ, what are we doing? What are we doing? He's doing
the business of God. I know that. So I want to be
in on that, whatever that is, whether it agrees with the way
I think things ought to be or not. The so-called church of
this world claims to be doing the business of God, don't they?
They did then. But when God the Son came and
actually did the business of God, organized religion opposed
Him, and they still do. But what was the father's business
that he gave his son to do? Well, our Lord was never unclear
about that. He was never unclear. He said
in John 6, 37, what did he say? Let's look at it together instead
of quoting it. I want us to see it. I want us to look at the
wording of it and learn what the Lord is teaching us here.
What is the business that the father gave his son? He didn't stay behind in Jerusalem
on Joseph's orders. John 6, verse 37, talking to
the religious Jews, he said, you've seen me and you believe
not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven.
Now this is, that for is because. Here's why, what God has ordained
is gonna happen. All that the Father has given
the Son, they're all coming. Why? Because I came down to make
it happen. You see that? I came down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him that
sent me. Because Christ came to do what He came to do, all
of God's purposes are gonna be fulfilled. You see that? It's
pretty clear. I came down to do the Father's
will, therefore everyone is going to come. Everyone that He gave
me, everyone that He told me to come and get, I'm getting
them. Everyone He gave me, they're mine and they're His. John 17. And this is the Father's will
which He has sent me, that of all which He has given me, I
should lose nothing. But should raise it up again
at the last day. You see now he's going to say, and this is
the whole purpose of God now. He's going to save sinners. We
saw that in the Bible class lesson this morning. He's making a marriage
for his son. He's getting a bride for Isaac.
That's what God's doing in this world. Are we in on that? All
right. And he mentions in verse 39 and
verse 40, him doing something and them doing something. But
him doing something comes first in verse 39. I'm not going to
lose them. I'm going to save them. God the
Father sent me to save them, and I'm going to save them. And
then verse 40, they're going to come to me. And when they
do, I'm going to receive them. He's going to do something. And
then as a result of that, we're going to do something. We're
going to come to him. So this is very important. In
that passage, he first declares the certain result of him doing
what he came to do. And then he tells why that result
is certain. It's certain because he came
to get it done. And then he tells the result
of it. God doesn't try, he does. And it's done when he does it.
There are some things that shall certainly happen as a direct
result of him doing them. He must do his father's business,
and his father's business has everything to do with the salvation
of the people that God chose and gave to his son. He said,
I don't pray for the world, I pray for those that the father gave
me. He's saving people now, and he's
not here though. Could he have just stayed in
heaven and saved? He's doing that right now. Oh no, but see,
he had to come down here and get some business done. He's
saving people from his throne. Couldn't he have just stayed
there and saved them? No. He said, I must. There are some musts. If God's
elect are going to be saved, if the purpose of God is going
to be fulfilled, I must. I must. He couldn't just stay
on his throne. I must. I must do the business
the Father sent me to do. One must is brought about by
other musts. They must be brought in, didn't
he say about his sheep? There are other sheep which I
have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. They've
got to be saved because God said, I'm gonna have mercy on them.
Well, if that must is gonna happen, what else must happen? That's
what we're getting to. Now we understand this concept,
you know, if I say I'm gonna go somewhere tomorrow but my,
and it's, you know, across town, take me three days to walk there,
I've got to drive over there, but my car's broke down. Well,
I've got to be there, I've got to be there. So if I've got to
be there, what else has got to happen? Got to fix my car. You
see, that must causes this must. Our Lord must accomplish the
salvation of the people that the father gave him to save And
in order to accomplish that he must Luke chapter 9. Let's look
at it. Luke 9 18 What Christ must do but the Jews
look at it, I'm in John I better get back to Luke 9 18 And it came to pass, as He was
alone praying, His disciples were with Him, and He asked them,
saying, Who say the people that I am? And they answering said, John
the Baptist. But some say Elias, and others
say that one of the old prophets is risen again. And He saith
unto them, Whom say ye that I am? And Peter answering said, The
Christ of God. And he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, the son
of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and chief priests and scribes and be slain. Can you imagine
what they thought about that? Got to be slain. And he got to be raised again
the third day. It's got to happen. It's got to happen. If Christ is not going to lose
any of His sheep, in the sense of His words in John 6, then
He must establish for them a perfect righteousness. And He must pay
for all of their sins. Because nobody come into God
except righteous people. With no sin. He said that he's going to raise
them up at the last day there in John 6 to be with him. And
the only way he can do that is if death has no claim upon them.
We're not just going to come busting out of the grave because
the wages of sin is death. He's going to have to get us
out of there. How's he going to do that? He's going to pay the wage. Our sin must be dealt with. And
in the negative sense of them being put away, my actual sins
must be paid for and the guilt of them removed from me. You
see, there's two sides to this coin. He's got to, in the negative
side, he's got to do away with my sin. But on the positive side,
he's got to make me righteous. I can't just not have any sin,
I got to be holy. So he's got to die for me. as
my sin offering, pay for my sins, wash me from my sins in his precious
blood, as John said in Revelation. But also, he got to live for
me. He's got to do everything he
does for me. I can't just be rid of my sins, but I got to
love God perfectly. I've got to be positively holy
and spotless in character. Oh, He's able to keep us from
falling and to present us falling before the presence of His glory
because He presents us in Himself. We stand in Him. He's our representative. He's our last Adam. And so Christ
Jesus, in order to accomplish both the removal of our sin and
the establishment of our righteousness before God, which is His righteousness,
He must always do the will of His Father. as my representative,
up to and including his obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross. He said in John 4, 9, 4, I must work the works of
him that sent me while it stay. He said in John 8, 29, I do always
those things that please my father. He pleased the father before
he ever left heaven perfectly. What's he doing then? He's pleasing
him for me. He's pleasing him as me. And he got to pay for my sins,
which brings us back to what he said in Luke 9, that he must
suffer. He said, I must suffer and I
must rise. Paul preached, it says in the
book of Acts 17 3, it says that as his manner was, he went into
the synagogues and for three days reasoned with them, opening
and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered. He must
needs have suffered. This is what Christ must do.
And he said that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is that Christ.
He must suffer and die for the sins of his people. He must pay
the wages of sin for his people. He must bear their sins and the
consequences of their sins if he is to accomplish the will
of the Father and save them from their sins. Remember again the
saying that I taught you several weeks ago and probably more than
that. Certainty does not rule out necessity. People say, well,
God has ordained it and therefore we don't need to do, you know,
nothing has to happen. If God ordained it, some things
are going to happen and they've got to happen, don't they? He
that ordained the end ordains the means. Certainty doesn't
rule out necessity. The certainty that God chose
a people unto salvation from the beginning of the world. Paul
said that there's no dispute in that. Paul said, I thank God
who has chosen you from the beginning unto salvation. That's a certainty,
isn't it? But it doesn't rule out the necessity
that the Lord Jesus Christ has got to come pay for their sins.
There's no salvation without that. And so Christ must suffer
in their stead. Matthew 16, 21, from that time
forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must
go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again
the third day. Now you might think, that him suffering and
dying is not something somebody does. It's not an accomplishment
dying. Not for you it's not. Suffering
is not an accomplishment for you. It just kind of happens
to you, doesn't it? But his suffering and death was an accomplishment.
It was the accomplishment. It was the only thing that any
man has ever accomplished. You understand that? Our Lord spoke with Elijah and
Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration about the death that he should
accomplish. I don't accomplish death, but he did. And he did
so in order to accomplish the Father's business, which was
saving me. All that Christ must do becomes
a must when God says. When did it become a must? Well,
from eternity, of course, but he revealed it to be a must when
he said what? I will have mercy. All right,
right there. How many things have got to happen
if God's going to have mercy on a worm like you? There's a
lot of musts included in that, aren't there? And you're not
going to do any of them. Christ is going to do them all.
And he did. I will have mercy. And this is the will that Christ
came to do. If God is willing for you to have mercy on you,
for you to have his mercy, then Christ must come and do and take
care of the business. He came on a business trip, didn't
he? I must be about my father's business. How many times did
our Lord say that? Or does the Bible say that he
did something because the scriptures must be fulfilled? It is written. And this is a book of redemption.
The scriptures, the fulfillment of the scriptures is the fulfillment
of redeeming grace. Because this whole book is a
book of redemption. We've seen that old in there.
Mount Moriah, Abraham offering his son. Everything we see. God did not send his son to be
an example for us. He is an example to us as a natural
consequence of who he is and what he did. But that's not his
purpose in coming. And he didn't come to give sinners
a chance to be saved. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And if that's going to happen,
then he must suffer. He must die and he must rise. You see what he was saying when
he said, I must be about my father's business. He came to save those
that the father gave him. And I know who some of them are.
I know who some of them are. You might say, well, you know,
yeah, you know, you know, so-and-so, my friend, and you know, so-and-so
has been coming to church a long time. I'd say he's one of them. I don't know that anybody in
this building is God's. I think so. I got a pretty good hope that
you are. But you know who I'm sure of?
The woman at the well. Zacchaeus, pretty sure about
him. Lazarus, whom thou lovest. Those ones there. For Christ
to save you, he must do all of the Father's will as our representative. I've always got to remember that,
that he wasn't coming to please the Father for himself. He must suffer and die in your
place, in my place, under the wrath of God for your sin and
my sin. He must rise again from the dead,
being the first fruits of them that sleep. He's the first fruits
of somebody from the dead. And that's us if we're his. If
he did all these musts for that woman at the well, then why must
he go through Samaria? Wait, he died for her, he rose
again, God elected her, God chose her, isn't that salvation? Yeah,
but he's also got to come right where you are. He's still got
to go through Samaria, doesn't he? God chose me. Christ died for me, he rose again
for me. Yeah, and I tell you what else
is gonna happen. He's gonna come right where you are and give
life to you. By his blessed Holy Spirit, he
must, he must speak the very words of life to you. He said,
my sheep hear my voice and they come. They're not gonna come
otherwise. All that Christ did for you is
necessary, but what he does in you is also necessary. And I'll
tell you this finally today, there's never, there's a lot
more finally with regard to what he must do. Christ and what he did is our
salvation. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. We don't preach, here's what
you need to do to be saved. We don't preach a set of, here's
what you need to believe even to be saved. It's believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's believe
on him. People, you know, in religion,
I've heard them say it. I have a sure hope because I
was saved on, I remember the day I was saved. That's not much
of a hope. That's your experience. Are you saved right now? Do you
know him? Do you love him right now? Are
you bowing to him now? It's not about what happened
before. That's a false hope. It's no
better than trusting in the resurrection like Martha did. I know my brother
shall rise again in the resurrection. I believe in the resurrection.
He said, I am. I am the resurrection and the life.
Nobody's gonna live again because of there is a resurrection Sinners
are gonna live again because there is a person who is life
for sinners Christ must do some things but
it's not the things that he did which are our Savior It is the
one that must do them who is our Savior and if you don't think
that's a necessary distinction Then read our Lord's conversation
with Martha there. It's in John 11, 21 through 26
if you want to read it later. He clearly corrected and rebuked
her and brought her attention to himself and not an event.
However glorious, the resurrection, goodnight, that's a glorious
thing. Not salvation. Many say the scriptures
are my hope. I stand on the word of God. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal
life. But they are they which testify of me. And the only way
you're going to have life is to come to me. And you won't
do that. You're not going to do that. What must we do then? We see
clearly what Christ must do. Because he must be about his
father's business. He must save all that the father
gave him to save. And so he must die in their place. He must be their sin offering.
He must redeem them by his precious blood. He must rise again. He
must be their representative. He must be their high priest.
He must live for them. He must be their righteousness.
He must do always those things that please the father. For me. What must we do then? Well, this
is interesting because the first place that I could find the word
must concerning us, and this doesn't mean it's the first place
in the scripture, but the first one I came across is this. Luke 14, 16, then said our Lord
unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many
and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden,
come for all things are now ready. And they all, with one consent,
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. You see, this is our perception
by nature of what must happen. We've got business that we've
got to take care of in this world, don't we? We've just got to do
it. It's just done. That's the first thing we need
to understand about what we must do. Is that what we must do is
not just a waste of time. It's worse than that. It keeps
us from doing his will. You see, it's the affairs of
this life that we get entangled in that choke the word that choke
the seed. That our Lord warned us against. Then the next one I came across
is in John 3 7 our Lord said to Nicodemus marvel not that
I said unto you you must Be born again But wait a minute Chris
that that's something we must do but we don't really do that
exactly Exactly now we're on to something. Well, we must do
We don't really do it You think about this now. Okay,
so let's all be born again. He said we must be born. Let's
be born again this morning. But how are we going to do that?
You see, he told John that the way that happens is like this.
He said the wind blows where it pleases. And now here is the
sound thereof, but can't stop to tell whence it cometh or whither
it goeth. And that's how it is with everyone
that is born of the Spirit. When you're born of the spirit,
you're born of the spirit. The spirit is the one who births
you. And he births who he pleases. And you have no control over
that. Is that what he taught there? You can see him doing it. You
can see evidence of the wind, can't you? But you can't tell
him where to go or not to go. He goes where he pleases. If
you're going to be born of the Spirit, that's exactly how it's
going to be. He's going to go where He pleases,
and He's going to give life to whom He pleases. And you can't
control it. To be born again is not to make
a decision of some kind, that's what religion has it. Come and
be born again, you know. It's to be born of the Spirit,
and the Spirit goes to whom He pleases and gives life. So you
must, he said to Nicodemus, you must. But that's something done
to you. That's something done for you
by the Spirit of God. That's not something you do. And I'll tell you this, all of
our musts are that way. What you must do, you better
pray now. Who was it that said, I worship
God who performeth all things for me? Is that who you worship? John said in John 3.30, he must
increase and I must decrease. There again, have you tried to
do that lately? Have you tried to abase yourself? Have you tried
to see yourself that way? I'm not sure we have a whole
lot to do with that, do you? We must decrease, but you know
how that happens? It's not by your will. This must happen to us, it must. But how much of that decreasing
is initiated by the flesh, by us? This is the grace of God. He says, Zacchaeus, you come
down, and when He says come down, we come down. and not until. I believe that all of our musts
as believers, they are actually in all of us doing something
can be summed up in one. And this is why I talked about
what I did in the Bible class this morning. I believe they
can all be summed up in one in John 4 24. Now there are musts
that we are involved in that have to do with us doing things.
I believe they're all summed up in this, in John 4, 24. God
is a spirit. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. They must. What did we say this
morning? We worship him out of necessity,
don't we? They must worship him. And they must do it in spirit.
and in truth. Now I say this is us doing something
although we know that we we must be born in the spirit before
we can do anything in the spirit. Right? The flesh ain't gonna
do nothing in the spirit that which is born of the flesh is
flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. This
is the result of God's work and it is he which worketh in us
always if we ever want to do anything that pleases God Or
ever do anything that in any sense pleases him works of faith
works that honor his son It's him that worketh in us to do
that That's clearly taught in the word of god. We know that
But we do the thing we are doing them And that's why I say that
that way we worship him And that is as we saw in our in our lesson
this morning we count him worthy worship Is a shortened form of
the word worth ship worth ship If we call our services worship
services because we attribute here this way we attribute worthiness
to him That's what we're doing. That's what worship is. It's
worth ship It's to attribute worth worthiness to him just
as the saints in glory. What are the saints in glory
singing right now? He is worthy. How are they worshiping God?
He is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. That's worship. It's attributing
worthiness to Him. So we sing His praises as they
do. We preach His gospel. Why? Because He's worthy to be
proclaimed. He's worthy to be heard. He's
worthy to be obeyed. He's worthy to be acknowledged
and honored and praised. He is worth us putting aside
all of our other business. You see how this goes right back
to Luke 2 where we started? He is worth us putting aside
everything else, no matter how much of a must it might seem
to us. He is worth us putting it aside. to come and adore him
and serve him and honor him. That's worship. He deserves that. That's what it is to worship
him. But worship is all that we do for him. Don't think that
worship just happens here. I want us to see a little bit
more in the scripture and you'll see why I taught what I did this
morning. If I had done that right now, we'd be here way too long. But look at it with me. All that
we do now is worship. Now that we come to God, the
first place we saw the word worship in scripture was what? We saw
that the only way God can be worshipped, can be communed with,
can we have any access to Him, is by the precious blood of an
innocent offering that He demands, and that He supplies. But once that's true, once Christ
is our access to God, our communion with God, Once we see that He
was made a curse for us, that He might bring us to God. He
died the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
Once we see that and He is our access to God, our communion
with God, and we come as all men must, if they're going to
come, by Him. No man comes but by Him. That
being true, all that we do is worship, or ought to be. Giving
is worship, is it not? Whether it's put in the offering
box or whether it takes place at a place of business somewhere.
Giving is worship. Working your job is worship unto
God. If it's done for the right reason,
if it's done for His glory. We worship Him in our homes by
being the father, the mother, the wife, the husband that we
ought to be as He has taught us to be. Because all of that
pictures Him. What is marriage? What is a father
but God's authority in the home? You see, we must, most are never
going to worship him in anything that they do. But those that
do, don't just worship him in a church building. The woman
at the well, you remember what, if you remember John chapter
four there, we talked about her a moment ago, but we didn't read
this part. She said to the Lord Jesus, we worship in this mountain. But y'all, you Jews say that
you're supposed to worship in Jerusalem. And listen to what
our Lord said to her. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. He's not saying you're
going to worship God in some other place, neither the mountain
nor the Jerusalem, but in some third place. He's saying it ain't
about where you are. It's not a location. He said,
you don't know what you're worshiping, so it doesn't matter whether
you're in a mountain or in Jerusalem. You don't know who you worship
in. That's what he said to her in John 4, 22. You know not what
you worship. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews, 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. Why are we going
to do that? Because he's looking for us. And when he finds us,
we're going to worship him. We're not just we're not going
to do it in a location. We do worship him here. And that's
wonderful. This is the place of designated place in time of
worship. That's a wonderful thing. And
we see all through the scripture that it's always been that way.
But worship, just as Proverbs 21, four says that the plowing
of the wicked is sin. Those who are outside of Christ
cannot even plow a field without sinning against God. You know
why that's true, don't you? That's obvious, isn't it? Because
they're doing it for themselves. They don't honor God. They're
not thankful for what God's given them. They don't thank Him for
the ground that they have. That's my ground. No, it's God's.
He's letting you borrow it. They don't thank Him for the
sunshine or the rain or the seed or anything. They're doing it
selfishly for their own lusts. They're doing it so they can
build some barns, you know. And when they fill those up,
they'll say like that man that God called a fool. Man, I'm going
to have to build some bigger barn. Look at all the stuff,
all my harvest and never give a thought to God. But just as
the plowing of the wicked is sin, the plowing of the believer
is worship. The believer goes out in his
field and he says, thank God for this good ground. Thank God
for the sunshine. Thank God for the rain. And it's
all Christ. Thank God especially for that
which all of these things picture. That God has a field and he has
some seed. And when his word comes, his
word is like the rain that falls upon this field that I'm plowing
right now. It won't return to him void. When he sent it to
me, it didn't return void. It accomplished exactly what
he sent it to accomplish. It caused me to see his son and
to have life in his son. And I'm growing in the grace
and in the knowledge of his son. That's the plowing of the believer.
Worship. The characteristics of those
who worship God in spirit reveal what it is to worship Him in
spirit. This is what Paul said about them. Philippians 3.3,
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. We
just read those that worship Him are going to worship Him
in spirit. Well, who are they? Well, first of all, they are
the circumcision. They are the ones who are the
covenant people of God. That's what circumcision was.
It was a sign that, hey, we're God's covenant people. It was
the sign of the covenant. In other words, we're God, we
belong to him. We're God's people. And we acknowledge
that. That was just an outward. The
true circumcision are those who are circumcised of the heart.
He said, not of the flesh, circumcision of the heart, not of the flesh.
So that's a sign that we belong to him, a sovereign, eternal
covenant of grace. What else is about them? Well,
they worship God in the spirit and they rejoice in Christ Jesus. David said one thing and I desire
And that's what I'm gonna seek to do. I want to live where he
lives. I want to live in his house. He said, though it be not so
with my house, God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things insure, and this is all my salvation and all my
desire. All that I rejoice in, all that
I want, all that makes me happy, Christ. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus, the messenger of the covenant, and that precious blood which
is called the blood of the everlasting covenant. We rejoice in Christ
crucified and have no confidence in the flesh. Those that worship
God in the spirit that he has sought out to do that very thing
when they come together to worship him or whether they worship him
in the field. And there's no substitute for the public worship.
Don't take that away from this. We are to publicly come together
as his family and worship him. But what I'm saying is this.
Are we going to worship him here and then go into this world and
serve ourselves? We worship him in all that we
do, with all that we have. in every way that we can by His
grace. But when we do, the flesh has no place in that, does it?
The flesh, no confidence in this flesh. We don't worship Him. It's not my singing, my ability
to sing beautifully that worship Him, but I worship Him in song.
Well, what's the worship then if it's not me singing? It's
what's in my heart. He sought me out to worship Him
and put it in my heart to fall in love with Him and to adore
Him in song and in everything else that I do. God's not worshiped
with men's hands as though He needed anything, Paul said to
those that were so superstitious. He don't need anything from us. Us doing something for Him is
Him doing something for us. If you worship Him, is that you
doing something for God? Or is that Him doing something
for you? No confidence in the flesh. You
see that? Let's always remember that by His grace. Let's pray.