And we'll start reading in verse
23 and read down through 24. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer as we begin this morning. Our gracious heavenly Father,
we thank you once again for this day and we thank you for life. We thank you for the service
of God and the house of God. We thank you, Father, for churches
that you've placed all around this world. where men and women
are meeting together today to glorify and honor you, to worship
you, to exalt you, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, to love
and edify one another. And Lord, what a great privilege
it is to be involved in that, to be a part of the Lord's church. And Father, we pray that wherever
the saints are meeting today, that you will meet with them,
that you'll give them the words to speak, the songs to sing,
the heart to rejoice and to lift up praise and worship to you,
for you are worthy. We know that you are worthy,
Father, because you have created us. You have purposed within
your eternal plan, Lord, to set us aside for your use, to call
us and to save us from our sin, to give us life that we might
be justified before God, you've given us the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, imputed to us. Father, we stand before you today,
follow us before the throne as we just sang in the hymn. Lord,
and we have all this because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, the head of our church, the gracious husband to us, the
one who loved us, cared for us, gave his life for us, the great
shepherd of the sheep. So we look to him today. We look,
Father, for his spirit to come and to give us understanding,
to give us utterance, to give us heartfelt worship. Lord, we
ask today that as we do these things, that they might be pleasing
in your sight. We need your help. We need your
help to worship in spirit and in truth. We need your help to
be attentive to the word of God. We need your help to preach the
word of God, to understand the word of God. And so Father, Lord,
I pray for these that are here today, that you might touch them
with your spirit, minister among them today. Father, give them
understanding. Father, I pray for those who
may have not been converted to the gospel yet. Lord, I pray
that you might, by your gospel this morning, Lord, that you
might draw them to you, that you might bring them into belief
and understanding, Lord, that you might give them the knowledge
of their salvation and that they might profess that before me
and that they might submit to you in baptism and that they
might be added to this church as a member of serving you and
honoring you and being a part of the service of God here. Lord,
we pray for our members that are not here this morning. We
ask, Lord, that you would just be with them, that whatever purpose
and reason that you have, Lord, for them being gone, we pray,
Lord, that you might give us faith and give us hope that you
will, at some point, bring them back, Lord, into the service
of you here. Lord, we pray for those that
are in Joplin and the surrounding areas that love the truth of
the gospel of imputed righteousness, of freeing sovereign graces as
salvation. Lord, we pray that if there's
any out there seeking this truth and desire to worship and to
fellowship in it, Lord, we ask that you would just bring them
our way, that you would just add them to our number, Lord.
And Lord, I pray that you'd help me today to preach your word.
Lord, help me to give truth, to explain the words of God faithfully. Lord, I pray that this might
not be just a time of ritual, of religious activity, but Father,
truly our hearts desire to hear from you. and to speak of you,
Lord, and to be pleasing to you in this worship. And we ask,
Lord, that Jesus be glorified in all of it. For it's in his
name that we pray, amen. John chapter four, starting verse
23, we'll read 23 and 24 again. 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. Now, brethren, we looked last
week as we began a new section in our study on the Lord's Church
or the New Testament Church, Christ's Church, or the Ecclesia,
whatever title you wanna hold to, in our study here, but we
started a new segment here on the worship of the church, the
worship of the church. That is the purpose why we meet,
is to worship. We do not meet here for a social
gathering. We do not meet here for fun and
activities. We do not meet here to give kids
something to do of entertaining value. We don't meet here to
have karate classes or yoga classes or stop drinking classes. We don't meet in the worship
of God for all these things. These programs, these activities,
these fads, all these things that ministries try to do now
does not make a ministry effective. The only thing that can make
an effective ministry, or the only thing that is, I should
say, an effective ministry, the Holy Spirit is the only thing
that can really make an effective ministry, but the only thing
that is an effective ministry, the only thing that is a genuine,
true ministry, is one that faithfully preaches the Word of God. We look to the Word of God for
everything, and we look to the Word of God for how we are to
worship, what the Bible says about what worship is, and how
we are to go about that worship. And we began last week looking
at this very thing, we read these verses, and we saw that Jesus
here, speaking with the woman of Samaria beside the well, he
gave her something that he had yet not revealed to some of the disciples, and
that is the fact that the worshipers of God are worshipers who worship
in spirit and in truth. And this isn't something that
we just can get a book down and learn how to do that, okay? You
cannot learn to worship in spirit. You only can worship in spirit
if the Holy Spirit of God is in you. We must have the Spirit
of God in us to guide us in our worship, to lead us in our worship,
to prompt us in our worship, to bring us to a worshipful attitude
and character before God. The Holy Spirit brings remembrance
of what Christ has done for us. It reveals to us and shows us
that our Creator is the one who has created all things and is
over all things. And that by his hand, he has
made all things for him and his purposes. And that as creator,
he is worthy of our praise. The scriptures tell us that God
is holy and that he is righteous and that he is just, but that
he is also wrathful. And as we look at the God of
the Bible, we see that we owe him. reverence. We owe him worship
due to who he is, due to his name. He should be revered. He is the only one that should
be revered. I know a lot of preachers go
around and they call themselves reverend, but that is not the
title that should be given to men. The only one that is to
be revered is God. And so in worship, Jesus has
explained to this woman here that The hour cometh and now
is when true worshipers, see there are true worshipers and
there are false worshipers. This world is plagued with many
false worshipers. We see them in every city and
every town, multiple edifices that's built in great structures
with millions of dollars of money put into buildings and complexes
and things like that. And whenever the people gather,
they gather together and they worship falsely. They worship
under a false God, under a false Jesus, and under a false gospel. A God that isn't sovereign, a
Jesus who hasn't saved all his people, and a gospel that is
a gospel of human effort, a human merit, a gospel of free will,
a gospel that says, that salvation is conditioned upon things that
you do. And there are complexes all over
this country. Even in this town right here,
there are hundreds of places that are meeting today under
false worship, but true worshipers, true worshipers, those who have
been born from above, converted of the gospel, believing on the
true Lord Jesus, who truly saved his people from their sins. The
God who has done all things and is doing all things and has predestinated
all things, absolutely nothing hidden that God has not done. Those people worship in spirit
and in truth. They worship in the spirit because
they only are the ones who have the spirit of God and can lift
up true spiritual worship to God. They are the only ones who
have the truth. And in that truth, they worship. They look at the truth and they
hold to the truth. They defend to the truth. They
stand on the truth. And the truth is what comforts
them. The truth is what feeds them.
They don't need to hear their best life today type stories. They don't need to hear all these
little you know, stories about how things
can be good and how things can be great. And they don't need
to hear old ship stories and things that make your heartstrings
be pulled and everything. They want to hear the doctrine
of Christ. They want to hear the truth of
the gospel. And that's what feeds them. And
that can't come by anybody who is not spiritually alive. And
Jesus said here, this is a matter of fact. It isn't something that
we work up to. He says, when 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.
That means that the Father isn't looking out to see who's doing
this, who's doing this. I don't need to find who's worshiping
me in spirit and truth. No, the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. He seeks out those who are His
and he gives them the spirit of God, and he converts them
to belief of the truth so that they will worship him in this
way. See, people think here that the
father is looking out there all over the country, all over the
world, trying to find, well, who's worshiping me in spirit
and in truth? But no, the father seeketh his
people and brings them to the place where they worship in spirit
and in truth. 24 says, God is a spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. So we
have the admonition, even though that's the reality of how it
will be for us, we have the admonition there because of our sinful flesh
that still wants to do its own thing. We have admonitions from
the Lord that remind us, hello, if you're a child of God, you
will be worshiping in spirit and in truth. And so we saw that
last week, that worship is about worshiping God in spirit and
truth, and only those who are truly born again can worship
the Lord. Now, with that being said, does
that mean that those friends of ours, those family of ours
who are not like that, that we shouldn't bring them into our
worship? Well, I will say this, we need
to be careful who we do bring into our worship. But that doesn't
preclude the fact that we can't invite people to worship, although
they themselves, until they are born of God, cannot be a part
of that true worship that goes to God. Now they can attend and
they can listen, they can hear and they can observe the work
and the service of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we
pray that those who come that God would open their ears and
open their eyes and open their heart that they might attend
the things that are being said as Lydia did, okay? But we need
to be very careful about our worship and who we allow here
to worship because the Bible is also very clear that we are
not to invite in those who have false doctrine. We are not to
invite in those who have these things. And so if we know outwardly
that they're trying to spread these things, and they're not
open to listen and to learn, then we need to be very careful.
And at that point, we need to part ways with them and ask them
not to come back. And I know that's not something
that people hear anymore today, but the discipline within the
Lord's church is something that God calls us to do. And one of
the things that the pastor should be doing wherever he is in whatever
churches there are out there, not just me, but everybody that
is out there that is a pastor, One of the things that they need
to be doing is watching over the sheep, that we are not only
to feed the sheep, but we are to keep watch over them. And
whenever we see false doctrine and things such as that, we should
be addressing that, confronting that and removing that. And the church should be made
aware of that. And matter of fact, if the church is listening
to the preaching and the teaching of God, if the pastor is faithfully
doing that, If the church is listening to that, they should
be learning these things as well, and as they hear these things,
they should be on board with the pastor. It shouldn't be,
well, the pastor is saying that, but I don't believe that. We
want everybody to come. Well, brother, we all need to
be in one accord. We need to be all on the same
page. The Bible says that we are a body, and this body, if
it's trying to go in two different ways, is gonna be ripped apart.
And so we need to, and the reason that bodies get ripped apart
like that is because they neglect the Word of God. See, if we let
the Word of God be our counselor, if we let the Word of God be
our dictator, you know, to dictate how we do things, if we let the
Word of God be our final rule of authority, then we'll come
and see, well, yes, we must do that, we must do this or not
do this, And so it comes to the Word of God. But the problem
is, brethren, is too many people do not believe the Word of God
or hold the Word of God in enough esteem to let that be the case
in their churches. They're afraid, well, we're gonna
lose all of our people if we do that. Okay, well, maybe you
need to lose a little bit of people. Maybe there really should
be a losing of some people before that you're gonna actually gain
some people that are people who worship in spirit and in truth.
And so, We see that those who worship God must worship Him
in spirit and truth. Now we learned last week, and
this is just in recap here, we learned that the word worship,
as we go back into the Old Testament and see how that word was derived
in the first place that we find in Genesis 22 five, we see that
that Hebrew word behind that means to bow or to prostrate,
to bow down or to prostrate before somebody. The word prostrate
means to, to basically lay down before, lower yourself before
somebody. And we see that 99 times in the
word of God, that Hebrew word is translated worship. 31 times to bow, 18 times to
bow down, nine times to obeisance, five times reverence, three times
to fall down, one time to stoop or crouch. And in the New Testament,
the Greek word behind that, 60 times it means to worship, okay? So the word worship means to
act, an act of reverence. When we come into worship, it
is a time of reverence. Now that doesn't mean we have
to be stiff as boards and act all robotic and nobody can say
something funny or smile or anything like that, but there needs to
be a reverence when we come before God during the time of worship. And that's why we keep things
separate. That's why we have fellowship during fellowship
time. We have worship during worship
time. Whenever we come together for
the corporate worship, as the body gathers together for corporate
worship, that time of worship is a time of preaching, time
of praying. It's a time for singing of the
hymns. And so that time is a time where we lift our voice and our
heart to God while we bow in reverence to Him for who He is
and what He's done. Now we've seen last week that
it's defined there in John chapter four, verses 20 through 24. We saw Jesus define this as the
verses that we just read we saw that it was commanded, that worship
is commanded us, and that was back in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles. Let me get back over there, I
forgot the marking spot. One Chronicles, 1629, the Bible
says, give unto the Lord glory, do unto his name, bring an offering
and come before him, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And so we are commanded and exhorted,
extolled to give our extoll to God, to our worship to God because
of who? He is, we learned last week also
that that could be corrupted, that there's corrupted worship
in Romans chapter one, that those that have a darkened mind, they
suppress the truth and unrighteousness, and they begin to worship the
creation, the creature, the creation, rather than the creator. And
that can be corrupted and it can be perverted. We've seen
in second Kings last week, that worship can be perverted and
that it can also be debated. But the Bible tells us that there
is only one way to worship God, that is in spirit and in truth. And then he has given us prescribed
ways of carrying that out in the New Testament. But before
we get to some other things this morning, I'd like you to turn
to Malachi. Malachi chapter 3. Now, I just talked about the
fact that the true worshipers will worship God in spirit and
in truth. Now, true worshipers, if they
are in the Spirit, meaning that they have the Spirit of God in
them, and that Spirit of God that is in them gives them to
discern. We have the ability to discern
right from wrong. We have the ability to discern
truth from error. And we have the ability to discern
true worship from false worship. You say, well, wait a minute,
preacher, Where'd you get that out of they that worship God
must worship Him in spirit and in truth? Well, if those who
are in the spirit know the truth, okay, and have been taught the
truth by the Holy Spirit, then whenever they see something that
is not true, they will realize that that is false. Now, I've
given this example to you before. My grandpa used to use this example
in his preaching back when he was alive. And he used to talk
about in the early days that the government had special men
who dealt in counterfeit money, and they were all the time dealing
in people who make counterfeit money. And these experts in money
didn't go out and study the false money. They didn't go out and
study the counterfeits. to learn what was out there and
what they could know about the counterfeits. What these men
did is they studied minutely every little aspect, every little
thing about the genuine money, and they knew it so well, the
feel of it, the smell of it, the look of it, the print of
it. They knew every little jot and
tittle on that money bill that whenever a counterfeit come before
them, they could tell it because they were so familiar with the
original or with the true money that they could tell that that
was a counterfeit. Now, that same principle applies
to us. Now, is it okay for us to learn
about other denominations of people and religions and belief
systems and things like that? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with
us knowing those things and getting to understand those things. But
listen, the best way to know whether someone is of the truth
or not is to get to know this thing right here, front to back. Start praying that the Lord would
give you understanding of this, that you spend time reading this
and knowing this. There's people that knows Calvin
and Luther more than they know this. And so now their whole
entire thought process is skewed. And when they come to the word
of God, they come with a presupposition because of what they heard from
Luther or from Calvin or from Spurgeon or from whoever else. But we need to get our understanding
from the word of God. So we need to pray that God would
show us what this says and that we preach and teach this. We
read this and we study this. The Bible says that we should
study to show ourselves approved, a workman who need not be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth, that this word here is
something that needs to be studied. It needs to be, we need to meditate
upon God's word. The Bible speaks about us in
several places in the Psalms and the Proverbs, that we ought
to meditate upon God's word. And let that meditation have
time for us Think through things, you know, it's not meditation
at all, time meditation. It's read a verse and ponder
that. How does that fit with the rest
of scripture? How does that fit with the context? How does that
fit with the things that I believe? Does that go against the things
that I believe? Well, if it does, why? And meditate upon God's
word. And whenever we do that, whenever
we're under the preaching and the teaching of God's word by
faithful Preachers, okay, there are unfaithful preachers out
there. No doubt they've given faithful preachers a bad name
But there are faithful preachers that are out there if you're
under a faithful preacher You've been blessed of God to be given
a faithful preacher But faithful preaching and teaching of God's
Word Studying and reading the Bible we learn the truth and
we learn it so so well that whenever we see a fake or a counterfeit
then we know it right away. And so in Malachi, look what
the Bible says here in Malachi chapter three in verse 16. And the reason I bring this up
is because I was thinking to myself as I was studying more
for this this week, why is it that these other edifices that
are out there, these complexes that's built to man, these free
will churches that's out there all these Armenian institutions
and charismatic Pentecostal institutions that are out there that just
have thousands and thousands of people there. How is it that
some people that are genuine, that you think are genuine at
least, people can go in and out of these things and think, well,
there ain't nothing wrong with it. You know, how can people
that have been taught rightly, have been given correct preaching
and teaching of God's word, who have heard the gospel of Jesus
Christ, how can they just go in and out of churches that preach
false things and then not have any effect on them? Well, Malachi
has something to say about this. Malachi chapter three, look if
you would, verse 16. It says, then they that feared
the Lord. Now that word feared there again, we looked at that
last week, that word feared doesn't mean that I'm scared of him.
It means that I have a strong reverence to God that weren't
feared. So we're talking here about a
reverence. Those that reverence the Lord. Okay, there's a lot
of people that don't reverence the Lord. They don't give him
the wonder and awe that he is. They don't give him the reverence
that he deserves. Then they that feared the Lord,
what did they do? The people who revere the Lord,
they spake often one to another. That means they fellowship together,
right? Those who fear or reverence the Lord, what do they do? They
gather together, and they spoke together about Christ, about
God. They spake often one to another,
and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before him for them that feared the Lord. and thought
upon his name." Now, let me ask you, brethren, before I go to
verse 17, the majority of churches you see today on TV and here
on radio and things like that, and the majority of the modern
worshipers, quote-unquote worshipers, that are out there, the reason
they go to church is to get something out of it. They go to church
to make them feel better, to feel good, I wanna go to a church
where I can do this, where I can do that, where I can get, where
I can get, where I feel accepted, where I feel loved. Okay, well,
that's important. And the church should obviously
be accepting of brothers and sisters in Christ and make them
feel wanted and accepted and loved. That's true, I'm not bashing
that. But the whole motive of why they
go is so that that worship is about how it makes them feel
and how they go away with. instead of thinking about that
you come to worship as a servant of God. What does a servant come
to do? A servant doesn't come to be
served. Isn't that what Jesus said? He
said, I did not come to be served, but to serve. Jesus didn't come to be served.
Now he had all authority and had the right to be served, but
he didn't. He humbled himself and became
as a servant and served men. Well, the worship of God is about
that, coming as a servant. A servant doesn't come worried
and all the time looking for how I'm supposed to be served.
They're worried about how am I supposed to serve others and
serve God? That's what proper worship and
coming together in the church is all about. It's about our
mentality, our heart motive is coming and how can I serve those
that I'm going to meet with because I love them this much that I
want to be a servant to them. But most people are too worried
about how they're treated, about how they're, well, they didn't
talk to me enough whenever I was there. They didn't sit by me. They didn't shake my hand today.
They didn't do this. They didn't do this. I can't
sing the way that I want to sing. Talk the way that I want to talk.
I can't do this. They didn't play the music that
I wanted to hear. They didn't sing the songs that
I wanted to sing. They sing in hymns. I'd rather
hear worship songs. Or they sing in worship songs,
but I want to hear rock and roll songs. Well, they come and act
like cowboys at their church. It's all about how does it make
me feel? What do I get out of it? Brethren,
that's not worship. That's not worship. And here,
the scriptures tell us, those who revere the Lord, those who
worship the Lord, who are revering Him, spake often one to another,
and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that
thought upon His name. See, when you come to church,
it's about speaking one to another about Him, and thinking on his
name. If we come to church and all
we talk about is other things, then we've not truly come to
worship. Now that doesn't matter that when we're sitting around
the table eating, we can't talk a little bit about football or
hunting or fishing or crocheting or whatever, you know. But the
main gist of our gathering for worship is to speak often to
his name. Especially whenever we're in
the time of preaching and teaching, it is a time to speak often of
His name. I'm not here to give you a wonderful
guide to your finances. I'm not here to give you a beautiful
sermon and series about how to be a beautiful husband. Now that
comes whenever you preach God's word. But brother, listen, we
speak often of his name. We speak often of his name. Now
look at verse 17. These people that worship this
way, that revere God, that speak off one to another of God and
have thoughts upon his name, what does it say in verse 17?
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Brethren, that's a great honor
to be said by the Lord of Hosts. He's mine. She's mine. They shall
be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. In that day when I make up my
jewels. Have you ever thought about that?
You being jewels? That day when I make up my jewels,
and I will spare them as a man spared his own son that serveth
him." Now, how's the son supposed to be related to the father? By serving him, right? I will
spare them as a man spared his own son that serveth him. Why? The son that is serving him is
important to him. The man that's serving him, serving
his needs, serving, of course, God doesn't have any needs, I'm
not saying that, but in the illustration here. A man that has a son that
serves him, that son is serving the needs of the father, the
needs of the family. He's serving whatever, you know,
needs to be done. And so the father views him as
valuable, why? because that son brings value
in the fact that he is doing something for the father. Now,
our value, brethren, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
works in us to will and to do his good pleasure, that God has
caused us or made us to be his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that
we should walk in them. And if we are the servants of
God, it's because he has made us that. And as servants, we're
valuable for Him. Why? Because He's created us
for the purpose of worshiping Him as He is. That's why Romans
tells us that He has made vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.
The vessels of honor He has made for the purpose of showing forth
His glory. And so we serve to that end.
We serve to show forth the glory of God. We preach about the glory
of God. We talk about the glory of God.
desire the glory of God. We worship in the fact that God
is glorious and that there is glory that is due his name. And
so it says here that I will spare them as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him. We become of use to him. Now, what does that mean? That
means that we've been sanctified. We've been set apart for God's
use. He is using us as that vessel
of honor, of glory. to show forth that part of God. Now look at verse 18. Then shall ye return and discern. Remember I was speaking a while
ago that those who have the Spirit of God have been given to discern
truth from error, right from wrong, false from genuine. Then shall ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. The true worshipers who
worship in spirit and in truth, who have the spirit of God, who
have studied and worshiped and know the truth of God, who revere
God's name, who speak off of God and think upon his name,
those who are the servants of God, what does the Bible say? The Bible says that they return
unto God. They don't go away and they don't
stay away, for one. But second of all, what does
it do? What do they do? They discern between the righteous
and the wicked. Why? Because we have the spirit
of God and the truth of God. We're able to discern those who
serve God and those who are playing like they're serving God. We
have the ability to discern those things And you say, well, you
mean you're judging people? Absolutely we are. If someone
professes to be a Christian, someone professes to be a brother
or sister in Christ, the Bible says that we are to judge them
that are within, not those who are without, but those who are
coming and being a part of our local assembly, we have that
judgment. And God has given us the ability
to discern those who are serving God are serving themselves, those
who are serving God and those who serve Him not. And that is
given to those who have been given genuine faith, those who
have been given the Spirit. Now, let's look now as we go
here back to the New Testament, and let's look at places where
Christ or God was worshiped. And let's see who all has given
worship to God or will give worship to God. You know, right now,
only those who have the Spirit and the truth will worship God,
but there is gonna come a day when all will worship God for
who He is. Look with me, if you would, back
at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. Look with me, if you would, at verse six. It says, and again, when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, who's the first begotten? The Lord Jesus Christ, right?
And when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith,
and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels
he saith, who maketh his angel spirits and his ministers a flame
of fire." Okay, so we see here that the angels have been given
to worship Christ. All the angels shall worship
Christ. Now, we know this to be true.
We see, matter of fact, if you wanna turn, you can. If you don't
want to, you don't have to turn right away. But back in Isaiah
chapter six, we find Isaiah and the king of
Uzziah, the year the king Uzziah dies, but the Lord gives him
a vision to see into heaven. And what is going on in heaven? And he says in verse one, in
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Now that's not a choo-choo train,
okay? That's talking about the length
of his garment, okay? His royal robe. We've talked
about this before whenever you guys have been to weddings before
and you've seen the bride walk down the aisle and you've seen
that big old long train that follows behind her that goes
down the aisle, okay? That's what this is talking about.
It's a sign and a symbol of majesty, of royalty. It's a sign of someone
who is very important. And it says here that he saw
the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple, and above it stood the seraphims. Each
one had six wings, With twain he covered his face, with twain
he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried
unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke." So here we see that the angels are giving praise
and worship unto God. and particularly Christ, the
one seated upon the throne high and lifted up. We find that this
one who is on the throne in the book of John, it tells us in
John 12, 21, I believe is where it's at, John 12, 21, that it's
Jesus Christ that Isaiah saw in the vision. But look with
me if you would also, Revelations chapter 14. Come with me to Revelations chapter
14. See what the Word of God says
about these angels and what Isaiah saw. Revelations chapter 14. And let's start reading in verse
He said, and I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell
on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people
saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for
the hour of his judgment has come and worship him that made
heaven and earth and sea and the fountains of water. And there
followed another angel saying, Babylon has fallen. is fallen
the great city because she made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed
them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And so
here we see that there are angels that are declaring the work of
God and the reverence that he should be due. We also see that
the coming judgments that are coming are declared by them as
well. Look, if you would, at Ephesians
chapter six. I'm sorry, that's not what I
wanted to read. I'm sorry, I wrote that down wrong,
brother. But we'll go ahead and move on. But we see in the scriptures
that the Bible teaches that the angels worship the Lord. Now, we just came out of the
time where everybody celebrates this a holiday of Christmas,
although we know that Jesus wasn't born in December. But let's look
at Matthew 2. Matthew 2. Let's read the first
couple of verses and then we'll read verse 11. Matthew 2. It says, now when Jesus was born
in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold,
there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, where
is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star
in the east and are come to worship him. Look at verse 11. And when
they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with
Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him. Now, remember,
we talked about the word worship means to bow, to prostrate, to
kneel down, to stoop. They did physically what we do
in our hearts, okay? Now, whenever we give worship
in our hearts to the Lord, we bow down in our heart, okay?
Meaning that we give reverence, that we humble ourselves before
God in our demeanor, in our thoughts, knowing that we are lower than
him and come in reverence to him. Brethren, listen, there's
nothing wrong with physically showing that by kneeling, by
bowing, by putting yourself prostrate before your feet. Sometimes,
you know, I'm not saying that you're more spiritual if you
do that, okay? I know people that whenever they
pray at the dinner table that you'll see them, some people
will hold hands as they pray, and some people, they'll put
their hands together and bow their heads like this, and some
people, whenever they pray, they'll kneel down on a knee or two knees
or, you know, The way that we do that doesn't make us more
spiritual or make our prayers more spiritual. It's how it comes
from the heart. But if the heart is truly moving,
there's been a time, I've mentioned to you guys before, whenever
I was being called to preach, and specifically to pastor, and
everything like this, as the Lord began to burden my heart
for people, that one day that I was at home alone at the house,
God so burdened me for the church that I was at at the time, and
how that there was not very many people who was very spiritual
or desired the word of God or desired the fellowship in the
word of God. And that how God had just overwhelmed
me with a need to pray for them, that I got out of the middle
of my living room floor on my face with my hands and my feet
spread out with my face down to the carpet praying that God
would do that. I wasn't doing that trying to
be more spiritual to make God do something for me. No, I was
moved to do that because I felt I needed to get as low as I could
because I was so humbled by the fact that God would even call
me to do such a thing, to preach and to minister the Word of God,
and to come before Him, and to come before Him with such a huge
thing as to minister to a people the things of God. And listen,
if the Holy Spirit moves you to bow, moves you to kneel, moves
you to lay face down, there's nothing wrong with that, okay?
But again, we don't do things, same thing with singing. If we
sing here and we're singing the hymn and that hymn is speaking
to your heart and you love it and you wanna raise your hand
and say praise the Lord, amen, hallelujah, there's nothing wrong
with that. We're not gonna escort you out,
okay? What we don't want is people
that do it to make themselves look more spiritual, that think
that they have to do that to worship or to be spiritual, okay? If the motivation of your heart
to do that is to show your spirituality, then you come in with the wrong
motive. But if the Lord truly is blessed in your heart and
he raised your hand and say, amen, hallelujah, then there's
nothing wrong with that. Preach on, brother, preach it,
amen. Hey, those things are great encouragements
to the preacher, great encouragement to the brothers and sisters in
Christ whenever they hear those types of things. But again, our
motives is what we need. But here the Magi came, they
fell down and worshiped him. And when they opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts of gold and frankincense and
myrrh. Okay. And so we see that the
wise men here worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ. They were brought
to worship him. And they showed forth that in
not only prostrating themselves, but also in bringing Gifts, isn't
that what we read earlier about bringing our gifts or our offerings
to God? We bring those, why? Because
we love God. Why do we have an offering box out there? Is it
because we have a command to tithe? No, we have that offering
box out there because the Bible says that as the Lord has blessed
you, you should in turn give unto the Lord. It's a thing that
we do freely before God as we are prompted by God as we have
been given, so we give. And that whenever we bring these
offerings, okay, again, they're called offerings. You offer up
that, not bring it by compulsion, okay? It's an offering. But why
do we bring our offerings? Because we love the Lord and
we wanna see His ministry and His gospel and the service of
the ministry continue. And so we give out of our heart
to the Lord And that's part of worship as well, giving unto
the Lord. Whenever you bring your money to give to the church,
it isn't given to the pastor because I don't take a dime.
It isn't given to make this thing more popular or famous or to
build up big. No, what do we do with our money?
We keep things running around here so we can continue to worship.
Keeps the lights on, keeps the heat on, keeps the water running. It buys the coffee, it buys the
utensils that we eat with. It buys the books that we have,
all the literature that we distribute to the people. And as the Lord
prospers us, we then turn that around and give that to the Lord
as an offering to Him so that we might turn around and use
that for worship, for worship. A lot of the money that comes
into churches, though, rarely aren't for that purpose. But
here we see these men brought an offering as they came to the
Lord, and they showed forth their reverence. Look with me, if you
would, to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. Look with me now, verse 30. It says, the man answered, said
unto him, What I hear in is a marvelous thing that ye know not from whence
he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God
heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and
doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began, was it
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born
blind? If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They
answered and said unto him, thou wast altogether born in sin,
and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus
heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him,
he said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? Not in, but
on. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Verse 36, he answered and said,
who is the Lord that I might believe on him? Now, let me just
pause here. Here's a man who had been given
spiritual eyes and understanding, but yet did not know what to
believe on yet. I believe that people can be
quickened of God, born of the Spirit, but yet still have knowledge
to gain to understand the true gospel. Whenever they hear that,
they are converted and believe the gospel. That belief comes
from, you first have to be born again. You can't believe, you
can't see, you can't hear, you can't understand the things of
God unless you're born again first. So being born again doesn't
come from the preaching of the gospel. It comes from the immediate
work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, upon the soul, upon
the person. and giving them spiritual life.
And that comes without any means, without any activity of man. It comes by the work of the Holy
Spirit himself, and then they are converted by the preaching
of the gospel. And there can be a time that
there is in between, that somebody has heard the gospel in the time
that they were actually brought to spiritual life. Now, I'll
be honest that it seems that the normality is that usually
that happens within a short amount of time or at around the same
time. But brethren, we can't preclude
the fact that it can happen and that it isn't gospel quickening. We're not quickened by the gospel.
We are quickened by the immediate work of the Holy Spirit. It is
the Spirit that gives life. And so the word of God is what
converts us to the truth. But what does he say here? He
answered and said, who is the Lord that I might believe on
him? And Jesus said unto him, thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And
he saith, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Now, we've
already seen that the worshipers of God are ones that worship
in spirit, and in truth. Until they understand the truth,
they worship awry. They worship falsely. And this
man here, he knew something had happened. Something was different.
His life had changed, but yet he didn't know to who did it
and how it took place, other than the fact that it did it.
Now, brethren, I've heard Brother Roar say this many, many times,
and I believe it to be true. God often, and most generally
does, take those things of the physical realm to teach us things
of the spiritual realm. That he takes the physical, and
that from the physical, we learn about the spiritual. And here
we see that this man was a worshiper of God, but was worshiping in
an untruth. He didn't know yet who he was
to worship upon. But whenever the truth came,
because he had already had his eyes open, as the natural here,
whenever he had his eyes open spiritually, when we have our
eyes open spiritually, then we hear the truth that tells us
who we are to worship and how we are to worship and why we
are to worship those things. Then we listen and believe and
we worship him. What did this man do? They said,
whenever he heard those truths, whenever he found out the place
where his worship should be taken, he says, I believe, and he worshiped
him. Those who are believers worship,
and we found that worship is worshiping in spirit and truth,
right? And only true worshipers are born of the spirit. And only
those who are born of the Spirit can be true worshipers. So if
this man worshiped the Lord, it was because he was born of
the Spirit and because he had learned the truth about Christ.
And so he worshiped him in Spirit and in truth. And so those who
are not doing that have yet to be given that understanding,
to be given that light, to be given that life. But here we
see that men worship the Lord Jesus Christ. This man worshiped
Jesus Christ. Now, we don't wanna leave you
ladies out. Women worship the Lord Jesus Christ and probably
one of the, turn with me if you would in Matthew chapter 15,
if you would. Matthew chapter 15. And look
with me if you would at verse 21. It says, then Jesus went
thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And
behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried
unto him saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.
My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. And he answered
her not a word. Now here's a woman that came
with a great need. Her daughter was vexed with the devil. And she came to Jesus because
she knew Jesus could help her. And Jesus didn't say nothing
to her. And his disciples came and besought him saying, send
her away for she crieth after us. So when she couldn't get
Jesus to respond, what'd she start doing? She started pestering
the disciples. She probably was going to the
disciples and saying, please, would you tell your master to
come and heal my daughter? And whenever that person was
like, you know, lady, he said, he isn't saying nothing, go away.
She probably went to the next disciple, then to the next disciple,
till she went to all 12 of the disciples. And if there was more
than that, probably more than she went to. And she kept going
to the disciples saying, how come Jesus isn't answering me?
Look at verse 24, but he answered and said, I am not sent unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I am not sent but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Look at verse 25. Then came she and worshiped him
saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it
is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. He just called her a dog. He
said, you're a Gentile. You're a dog. The food that I came to bring,
I came because my father sent me to the lost sheep of Israel. And here you are a Gentile coming
and asking for me to help you. But listen to what she says.
And she said, truth, Lord. She said, that's true. I understand
that. It's not right for you to take from what God has sent
you to do and to give to others. Yet the dogs eat of the cronums
which fall from their master's table. She's claiming that he
is her master, that although she was a Gentile, God had given
her faith. Now remember, even in the Old
Testament, Gentiles, there were Gentiles that was given faith,
right? Remember Rahab, the harlot? God saved her and gave her faith
and she was Gentile. She wasn't in the house of Israel.
Now, Jesus's main purpose at that time before his crucifixion
was to come and to minister as Messiah to the people of Israel,
the elect within Israel. We know that the non-elect in
Israel, he didn't come to minister to, but he came to minister to
the elect children within Israel, the lost sheep of Israel. The
reprobate's not a lost sheep, by the way. Whenever we talk
about going and reaching the lost, we're not talking about
everybody. We're talking about those who are the elect of God.
Now, we don't know who they are, so we have to kind of preach
to everybody, but the only ones that are out there that are lost
are the ones who were Christ to begin with. But what does
he say here? He said, I'm not sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. She says, I understand that,
but listen, we believe you to be our master too. Why? Maybe she heard something about
the Old Testament Gentiles that were saved. I don't know. Maybe
it was just the fact that God had put it in her heart by the
spirit of God. She knew that he was to be worshiped
and to be revered, but yet not had heard the truth yet. I don't
know. But all I know is that here she
comes and knows that the only hope she has is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And she says, I understand that
your mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. But even us dogs benefit
from the crumbs that fall from the master's table." And look
at Jesus, what he says, then Jesus answered and said unto
her, oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Jesus didn't even have to go
on site. He healed that woman's daughter from wherever he was
at. Now, did Jesus know that that
woman had faith before she even came up to him? Yeah, he did. Why? Because he's the one that
gave her that faith. Did Jesus know that he was going to heal
that woman's daughter? Absolutely, he did. Jesus knows
everything that he's going to do. Jesus is omniscient. He's
God. He knows the end from the beginning.
Known unto God are all his works, the end from the beginning. He
knows it all. He knew the woman was gonna come
and cry. He knew that the daughter would
be healed by him. But why did he go through the
exercise of all this right here? So that she would bring forth
worship to him. What did she do? She bowed and
she worshiped before him. She declared his name to everybody
that he is the only hope that she has. See, worship isn't about
what we do for God, because yes, are we serving God? Yes. But
does he need any service? Absolutely no. God doesn't need
us for anything. But yet, when we come and give
him worship, he delights in the worship of his saints. He delights
in the prayers of his saints. He delights in the singing of
and worship of the saints to him. He delights in those things. And so we come and so he brought
this whole about so that she might come to a place of acknowledging
her need for him and giving her worship to him and showing forth
the hope, the only hope that is found and that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This wasn't an exercise in Jesus
not knowing what was going on or an exercise in Jesus trying
to be, you know, mean to her. It was to show forth, and not
only that, but also to show the disciples that mercy and grace
has been extended to the Gentiles. Yes, I've come to my main purposes
here with Jerusalem and with the people of Israel, but don't
think that my words ain't gonna go outside of here because it
already has and it will even more after my death. But anyway,
we see here that this woman worshiped the Lord Jesus. Christ in Matthew
chapter 28 and verse 17. In the great commission, we learned
that all those who met him in the mountain, the women, the
brethren, the 11 disciples, whenever they met him in the mountain
in Galilee, look at verse 17, it says, when they saw him, they
worshiped him. They worshiped him. They all
worshiped him. Again, in Revelation, in chapter
four, this time, Revelation chapter four. Look with me at verse 10. It said the four and 20 elders fall
down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth
forever and ever. and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for thou has created all things, and for
thy pleasure they are and were created." So we see that all
of heaven will be worshiping. Matter of fact, if you go up
to a few verses, in verse eight, it says, and the four beasts
had each of them six wings about him. This was actually the verse
I wanted to read. I think I wrote down the wrong verse when we
read the wrong verse. But anyway, verse eight, and the four beasts
had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes
within. And they rest not day and night saying, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. So all of heaven now is worshiping
Jesus Christ. Why? Because he is worthy to
receive glory and honor and power because he's created all things
and for his pleasure, they were and are created. So we see that
there is worship of Christ. Now we're gonna stop right there,
brethren. We're gonna finish this up, Lord willing, next week.
And we're gonna look at the wrong things to worship, the wrong
ways to worship and Then we'll close off with that, but then
we'll move into, after that, we'll move into, still within
the worship of the church, we'll move into the ordinances of the
church, because the ordinances was given as parts of our worship,
okay? But next week, we'll look at
the wrong things to worship and the wrong ways to worship and
who has done that in scripture, and we'll kind of look at their
accounts and what God says about them. Anybody have any questions
or anything that you'd like to say before we dismiss here and
go to lunch? All right, let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Our great Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, we come before you this morning and our hearts are bowing.
Along with our heads, we bow and we honor you and give glory
to you. We praise you, just as we just
read, for thou has created all things. for Thy pleasure they've
been made. Thou art accomplishing all things
according to the purpose of Your will. And as our Creator, You
are due honor and glory from us. But Father, even though we look
and see the glory that is due Your name because of the things
that You have created, our hearts, so to speak, just lift a little
higher whenever we see the salvation that you've brought to these
fallen men and women. Whenever we see the salvation
that is in Christ. To be in union with Christ, to
be one with him, to be loved everlasting, to be given imputed
righteousness, to stand faultless before God, although filled with
sin, to be able to be given the spirit of God within us, to govern
us, guide us and direct us and instruct us to be given a hope
and an assurance of our salvation by that spirit. To live in this
world, knowing that we still continue to battle with the flesh
and sin, but yet before God we are justified. That we are given
to serve God and to be of use to him in the ministry of the
gospel through the local church and that you called us into this
gospel to preach and to minister. Father, Lord, it's something
that we don't deserve, but Father, we truly praise you and worship
you for all these things. But Lord, we know that salvation
doesn't stop just here. That one of these days, these
bodies of flesh, this corruption will put off corruption and put
on in corruption. You're going to raise us with
new bodies that have no effects of sin, like into your own body. Father, you're gonna raise us
from death, and you're gonna give us a body that can worship
you for all eternity without sin. What a glorious time. We think of these things, Lord,
and we just pray with the writers of Scripture, come quickly, Lord
Jesus. Can't wait to be in your presence, to be rid of this life
and this sin that we, have been burdened with that has been given
to us by you is our lot. To keep our eyes focused upon
you to keep us coming to you to show the the brevity and the
and and the and the inability. This fleshly Adamic nature. Father
Lord, help us to worship you. Help this church Lord. To stand
in faith upon your word. To boldly proclaim it from generation
to generation. Lord, if you desire to be another
100 years before we come, Lord, I pray that the Church of Joplin
be found a faithful witness still even in those days. Lord, I pray
that you would bring those true worshipers to meet with us, Lord. We desire to have others in the
service of the gospel and to minister to and to love upon.
So again, we thank you for all that you've done for us. We ask
you to bless this food that we're about to eat. May you nourish
our bodies by it. Thank you for these brethren
that we have time to sit around and visit, to learn of Christ
from one another. Father, may this also be glorified
to you. And it's in Jesus' name that
we pray. Amen.