And before I get going, is there
any of you brothers that have anything that you might like
to say before we get into our study? Anything the Lord's laid
on your heart this week or anything that you'd like to share? All
right. Well, turn with me, if you would,
over in your Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter one. That's where the first verse
we'll read will be, Hebrews chapter one. We're still looking at this subject
of worship. We talked last week about the
definition of worship. And we've seen that it was an
act of reverence or extolling God for who He is. We've seen
that the Scriptures command that we are to worship God. We see
that there is corrupted worship that's out there. perverted worship
and we even see where there is alternative views of worship
that can be debated back and forth and we've seen that the
scriptures gives a clear distinct call to worship God as he defines
and as he sets forth and that worship isn't just up to the
individual to do however he wants, in what fashion he wants and
to whom he wants. And then of course we went down
to Pineville and I kind of followed up with some of that and looked
at some counterfeit things that can take place as far as worship
is concerned. But today I would like to look at some things that actually
worship, how every part of God's creation worships him. Of course,
we already know right off the bat that the scriptures say that,
and we can turn there here in just a minute, but first one
I wanna look at is Hebrews chapter one, and starting in verse, I'm
sorry, I'm in the wrong. I was in Timothy for some reason. In verse 1 of Hebrews 1, we read,
God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times
past under the fathers by the prophets. hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day
have I begotten thee. And again, I will be unto him
a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he
bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and
let all the angels of God worship Him. But under the sun, he saith,
thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest,
and they shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt
thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the
same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels
said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of
salvation? Now, we look here in this first
chapter of Hebrews and we see that Jesus Christ is who is in
view here. Matter of fact Hebrews is all
about Jesus Christ Whenever we go through that we see his prop
his priestly prophet Priest and kingly offices all being extolled
through the Hebrews Writing but what I'd like us to look at Especially
here is the fact that and I know that we have a lot of people
particularly Jehovah's Witnesses who who believe that Jesus is
not God, that Jesus is some, you know, second-rate prophet. Some say that he's even the brother
of Lucifer, just a man. The Bible is very clear that
Jesus is God. Now, we've seen here that The
scriptures in two or three places here attribute the attribute
or the designation of God to Jesus. Look with me if you would.
Number one, it says that Jesus was God's son. It said, God,
who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in times past unto
the fathers, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds." So one thing we see here is that Jesus is called
the Son of God, but he is also attributed to the one who created
all the worlds. And we know that throughout all
of Scripture, The Bible talks about, and especially if you
go back to Genesis, in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. In Colossians we find out that
Jesus is said to be the one who made all things. By Him were
all things made. All things consist and are held
together by Him. And so that is the prerogative
of God. Creation is the prerogative of God alone. Only God can create. Now we might make something,
you know, my son likes to build stuff with Legos and make some
pretty elaborate things with Legos, and he can create something
with these Legos, but he didn't make that out of nothing. It
was something that was already there. Even here today, men can
make something, they can create things, but they can't create
something out of nothing. God created all things and he
created all things out of nothing. Before anything was, there was
only God, and God said, let there be, and then there was. And once
there was, it is with these things that has been made that man does
his making of things. So all these things that you
see on TV and all these science guys that's on TV that talks
about how they're learning where they can even create life, nobody
can create life except God. Nobody creates life but God.
The only way that they can create life, yes, have they mixed parts
in a little vial and created and infused that into a woman
and made a baby? Yes, but that started with two
forms of life. So they didn't create life. They just bypassed God's normal
means of creating life, but they still created it with something
that was already existing. So God is the only one who has
the prerogative, has the ability, is ever said in scripture to
have created anything And here we see that Jesus is given the
prerogative of creation. He says, by whom He made the
worlds. Now, as I looked at that, that
worlds there is not talking about Jupiter, Venus, Mars, everything
like that. The way the Hebrews understood
this term worlds and everything is just regions of places within
the earth. There was the east, there was
the west, there was where they were from. Those things were
what they determined or called the worlds. They were different
worlds. There was the world of the east,
there was the world of the west, there was the world of where
they were from. And so they weren't understanding that he was saying,
you know, he's made all these quote-unquote so-called planets
out there. They are talking about here on
Earth, all the different worlds. And as we went off, you see that
he mentions, it was, where was it at? I'm sorry, I didn't mark
it. Sorry, I'm trying to scan through
here to find where it was at. It's where it talked about being
out of every tribe and tongue. Am I imagining that? Did I not
just read that? Must have been something else
I was reading this morning. I'm sorry. I thought it was in
this passage. But anyway, we see that He is
the Creator of all things. And then it also goes down and
says that He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. Okay, nobody is worthy to sit
at God's right hand except him who is God alone. It says, being
made much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. So we see here that Jesus is
exalted above the angels. Now we live in a day now where
a lot of people worship angels. They go on and on about angels.
Matter of fact, if you look, especially across Facebook, you'll
see that these quasi-religious people, you know, they have a
little bit of religion and they're all the time talking about angels,
you know. you know, my little angel this, my little angel that,
you know, they talk about, you know, thankfully all the angels
were there to protect me and you know, all that stuff. And
I'm not saying that's not true, because the Bible does say that
God's angels encamp around us and keep watch over us. And so
I'm not saying that, nor do I deny the fact that angels exist. Okay,
but what I'm saying is a lot of people put a lot of stock
in angels. They worship angels. They make angels this great and
magnificent thing. Now, they're only great because
God created them and created them to be worshipers of Him
and to do the things that God calls them and bids them to do.
But you'll notice here that Jesus is made more excellent than them. So angels should not be worshiped.
But Jesus said, for unto which of the angels said he at any
time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again,
I will be unto him a father and he shall be to me a son. And
again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world,
he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him. So right
here, the scriptures say that even the angels worship Jesus. Now that should, that right there
should be clear as day for anybody who doesn't think that Jesus
was God. God is declaring the angels should be worshiping Jesus. So worship should be directed
to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to angels. And so we see
that they even, even the, Most wonderful angels all are worshipers
of Jesus Christ. They all worship Him. As a matter
of fact, go back to... Keep your finger right there,
but go back with me to Isaiah. Isaiah. I think you probably know where
I'm going. Go to Isaiah chapter 6. Look at verse one, it says, in
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the
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, and 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. 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. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For my eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts." And
you notice there the King James translators have that word Lord
all in capital. That's referring to Jehovah.
It's referring to the proper name of God, okay? Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with the tongs off the altar, and he laid it
upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thy
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the
voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go
for us? Then said I, Here am I." Now
we'll just stop there, but I just wanted you to see. Isaiah saw
the Lord. He saw Jehovah. He saw God. And he said that he was high
and lifted up, sitting on a throne. And it said that his train filled
the temple. That train is talking about His
robe, His skirt, His regal robe, filled that and it speaks of
His glory. And it went on to say, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Now, we learn in the Gospel of John that this person that
Isaiah saw was Jesus Himself. John tells us that Isaiah saw
Christ and it was speaking of Christ whenever he wrote those
things in the sixth chapter of Isaiah and so we see that the
angels were there even before what we see here in Hebrews,
even before what we've seen in Bethlehem, before what we've
seen anywhere, we see that Isaiah saw Christ, seen Him on the throne,
Him receiving glory from the angels, and those angels were
crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. So the worship that was being
done by the angels was to Jesus, And it was about how His glory
fills everything. It was filling all of heaven
that they were looking at, and it was filling all of the earth.
So everything is about the glory of Jesus Christ. Our worship,
if our worship is gonna be that of the angels, You know, we hear
a lot of charismatic talk about angelic talk and angelic prayer
and angelic this or that. They're not going to be talking
about the Holy Spirit. They're going to be talking about
Christ. Now that's not to say that you
have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You know, He's
the third class citizen of heaven. The Son is the second class,
and we use those terms. the first person of the Trinity,
the second person of the Trinity, the third person of the Trinity.
Nowhere does the Bible ever tell us that there is first, second,
and third. Okay? It never puts a gradient
in the levels of the Godhead. All it says is the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Spirit, these three are one. Now it shows that there is roles
that the Son is subservient to the Father, and the Holy Spirit
proceeds forth from the Father and the Son. And so there are
roles within that, but whenever we talk about the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit is God. Whenever we talk about the Father,
we're talking about God. When we talk about Jesus, we're
talking about God, okay? So we're not talking about gradients
here of different people, but yet what we see here is that
the angels, whenever they proclaimed worship in heaven, it was to
the sun. It was to the man, Jesus Christ. Now, of course, we've had our
discussions here, and I've taught several times upon the manhood
of Jesus Christ, and how Jesus is the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Spirit, all in one flesh. And the Bible is very clear about
that. Colossians says that all of the Godhead dwells in Christ
bodily. And whenever we look at that
term Godhead, what is that talking about? We're talking about all
of whoever God is in spirit is found in Christ in flesh. Christ
is the embodiment of the invisible God. And that's why in that scripture,
I believe in one John where it says that the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Spirit, these three are one. There's three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, the Holy Spirit, and
these three are one. I believe that they bear record
through the man, Jesus Christ. And they are one in him. I believe
that he is the embodiment of all that God is. And so whenever
one is giving praise and worship to Jesus, he's giving worship
and praise to the Father, to the Word, and to the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit isn't sitting over here in the corner. Okay,
the father isn't sitting over here in the corner saying, boy,
I wish I was getting some love like Jesus is. No, they all are
receiving worship because all of them are found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh and receives
all worship. There are some that may say,
well, no, that's not true, because whenever all things are said
and done, in the beginning, it's Christ who's gonna offer up the
kingdom unto God, and so the father now is gonna be back in
charge, and he's the one that's gonna receive all the worship,
and Jesus is gonna be worshiping him just like us. Brethren, I
can't find that anywhere in the scriptures where it says that
Jesus isn't the one on that throne. Matter of fact, there in Isaiah,
They're talking about holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, night
and day. And John, whenever he sees the
vision in Revelations, and God opens up heaven for John to look
in to see what's going on behind the veil, John sees the exact
same scene. He sees that there are angels
crying holy, holy, holy over and over and over, night and
day without stop, forever. The Bible talks about that time
whenever everything is around the throne, there's one who's
seated on that throne and he looks like a lamb. It's Christ. So Hebrews tells
us here that this man, Jesus Christ, who has been made better
than the angels, receives worship by angels. Now we would probably
think that, you know, angels is probably a little notch above
us. you know, that they're a little notch above us. I mean, they're
divine creatures. Well, no, they're not divine
creatures. They're creatures. They're creation, just like we
are. They're not divine. There's only one who's divine,
and that's God. And so angels shouldn't receive
any kind of worship. Matter of fact, we have many,
and I should have probably put these scriptures down in my notes
here, but there are many places where men tried to worship an
angel. Matter of fact, in Revelation,
we find that John, and he said, hey, don't worship me. Don't worship me. The worship
should go to Jesus Christ. So angels were aware of that.
God has proclaimed that here, that Christ should be giving
the worship and that those who tend to want to look to angels
to worship, that even they worship Christ. So why worship them?
They're nothing but messengers. Worship Christ Jesus. Now, turn
with me over to Matthew, if you would. We'll see some other places where
Jesus was worshipped. Matthew chapter 2. And again, this isn't an exhaustive
list of all these places. I'm sure that there's several
more that could be added here. I'm just trying to hit some highlights
of some of the places where it shows that our worship should
be centered upon Jesus Christ and that he, in all ages, has
been the center of worship. In Matthew chapter two, let's
look at verse one and two to begin with. 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. When Herod the king had
heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And
when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of
the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be
born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus
it is written by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land
of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah. For out
of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people. Remember,
Isaiah called him a governor also. And on his shoulders was
going to rest the things of the governments of the world that
he was also going to be known as the everlasting father. But
anyway, it says, then Herod, when he had privily called the
wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently
for the young child And when ye have found him, bring me word
again that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard
the king, they departed and lo the star, which they saw in the
east, went before them till it came and stood over where the
young child was. When they saw the star, they
rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were coming
to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother,
and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened
their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense
and myrrh. And being warned of God in a
dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into
their own country anyway. And when they were departed,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream,
saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother. Flee into
Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word. For Herod
will seek the young child to destroy him." Now, here we see
that these are wise men who have traveled, and the Scriptures
tell us that they had come from the east to Jerusalem, that they
had been looking to see about this time that Christ would be
born. Now, this is what was kind of interesting to me in all this.
And especially as we remember, as we've been going through John
verse by verse, we've seen in many, many places where these
religious leaders, all evidence pointed that that was Messiah,
and they knew that. They knew that from the very
beginning, especially from the very beginning when Jesus was
baptized, they knew this was the Son of God. The voice came
down from heaven and everybody could hear, say, this is my beloved
Son, whom I'm well pleased. You know, they heard that, the
miracles, the teachings burned within their heart. They knew,
hey, this man speaks as one who had authority. I mean, all these
things pointed that Jesus was the Messiah, but yet their eyes
were blinded, their hearts were calloused, their ears were deft
up, where they couldn't hear or see or understand, just as
Isaiah had prophesied, just as God had told him he was gonna
do. And while every evidence was there and they knew it, their
evil hearts would not receive him because their evil hearts
had not been given grace to receive him. But yet we see that Jesus
was looked upon by those who knew who he was and was worshiped
by these men. Traveled all the way from the
East to come to worship Jesus, even as a young child. And they
knew. And you see there in verse five, it said, and they said
unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the
prophet. They knew that Christ was going to be born there. And
then they knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They knew
that he came from Bethlehem. So they knew all these things,
but yet they did not worship Him. But those who were given
to worship Him, they worshiped Jesus because they knew this
is Messiah, this is God, in the flesh, come to us. Now, I've
not talked a whole lot with Jews, and I don't really know, I don't
read a whole lot of Jewish stuff, but, I don't know how they delineate
certain things in this area, but to me, it's like, you know,
if you knew this was the Messiah, if he is Messiah, do you recognize
Messiah as being God? Or was Messiah somebody sent
by God, but not God? Okay? Now, obviously they reject
Jesus as Messiah. And obviously there are other
false religions that have stemmed from these other false religions
prior that reject Jesus as God. Some of them look to him as Messiah,
like the Mormons and things like that. They will say that he is
Messiah, but he's not Jehovah. He's not God. So I don't know
how they delineate all that stuff, but here to me, Messiah speaks
of God. The Anointed One. The Messenger
of God. the voice of God, the word of
God. All these things are attributed
to Jesus Christ. And here he receives, even to
these now, I can only assume, I don't know, maybe some of you
brothers might be able to enlighten me on this, but you know, whenever
it says that there were wise men from the East that came,
you know, were these Gentiles or were these Jews who had went
to live in other places? wise men from the other places.
All I know is somehow they knew the Old Testament scriptures
and the prophecies about Jesus. Somehow they knew that there
was going to be a sign in the heaven that was going to lead
them, lead to where the Messiah was. And so I don't know, I don't
know exactly who these are, but these men came and they give
worship to Jesus. and recognize that only God is
the one who should receive worship, even as a child. He wasn't worshiped
as God after the resurrection. He was worshiped as God before
the resurrection. As a matter of fact, he was worshiped as
God even now, as a little child, as we're reading here. Turn with
me now over to John chapter nine. John chapter 9. Another example of Jesus receiving
worship and not. And in this case you'll see he
didn't tell the guy not to do it. If he was a prophet of God,
a messenger of God, a preacher of God, and someone was given
worship to someone who shouldn't receive worship, he should be
instructing that person not to do it, right? I mean, if someone
came up and was worshiping me, I would hope that one of you
would tell them, hey, hey, don't worship him. I hope I would say, don't worship
me. Uh, you know, Why? Because we know the scriptures
teach that there's only one that should receive worship, and that's
God. Now look at this in verse 30. Again, this is the man who
was healed who said, and the man answered and said unto him,
why herein is a marvelous thing that ye know not from whence
he is, and yet he hath opened my eye. Now remember, if you
remember when we went through this, the religious leaders are
kind of Questioning him and all what happened and all this stuff
and really this blind guy kind of made the fool of them to their
face and of course he felt the blunt force of the Religious
hypocrisy at the end of this but he says now we know That
God heareth not sinners Now I'm gonna make a side note here Here's
the answer to the question Does God hear everyone's prayers? It says that he heareth not sinners.
Well, let me ask you, who all here is a sinner? So does he mean God doesn't hear
everybody's prayers? So God hears nobody's prayers,
because we know, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. No, but there is a group of people
who are not considered sinners, right? Here again is one of the
reasons why I believe in eternal justification. Because if we're sinners, and
everybody is a sinner, and God does not hear sinners, at what
point do you cease to not be a sinner? Where God hears your
voice. Even when you're justified by
faith, you're still a sinner. So it's the legal declaration
that makes you not the sinner, right? It's the legal declaration
that makes you not the sinner. So at what point whenever you
pray, Lord save me, whenever you pray like the one who was
in with the Pharisee, have mercy upon me, a sinner, did God not
hear that because he was a sinner? But that act of faith made him
not a sinner anymore. He was now entered in. This man
has exercised his faith. He's now entered in and is no
longer a sinner, whether than that prayer of have mercy on
me, I'm a sinner. Not count, now he has to pray
it again. Now I know these are semantics and I'm not trying
to be facetious here, but I'm trying to expose the fallacy
of the Armenian system. expose the fallacy of these conditional
things that has to do with salvation. See, if God does not hear the
prayer of the sinner, at what point does God ever start hearing
you? Does He not listen to you until
you exercise faith in Him? Does He not listen to you until
you have been born again? Well, he's the one who quickens
you. He's the one who gives you faith.
He's the one who brings all those fruits and works out of you.
So does he decide, well, I'm just not, I'm gonna decide in
and of myself, I'm not gonna listen to that until I start
working in them. Brother, I know you're grinning
over there and I know probably people watching this and listening
to this is gonna laugh and they're gonna say, well, that's just
stupid. It is, isn't it? It is stupid. But unfortunately
there are a plethora of people who believe that. Brethren, the
reason that Jesus, the reason that God hears our prayers as
sinners is because before the foundation of the world there
was a surety that stood for us. Before the foundation of the
world there was a mediator. who said, don't count their sins
against them. That's why the scriptures say,
blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin. That's why the scriptures say
that God does not behold iniquity in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. It's because there's one who
has always stood in our place. And because of that, he hears
these sinners, who are not really sinners in the eyes of God, prayer. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, him he will heareth. Who does the will of God? Well, we definitely know we do
because It is God who works in you both to will and to do His
good pleasure. Now I'm gonna ask a hard question
here, and this goes back to our talk a while back on the sovereignty
of God in sin, sovereignty of God in evil, the providence of
God in sin and evil. The Bible says it is God who
works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Was
that ever qualified by only when it's the good things? It's kind of a hard question
to ask and a hard answer to give, right? If God says that he's
working in us to willing to do his good pleasure, if he says,
I will put in a heart of flesh and cause you to walk in my statutes,
is it only the times whenever you obey me? Is that what he's
talking about? Only the times when you choose
to do what's right? Only the times when you do holy
things, righteous things, praiseworthy things, honorable things? Godly
things, scriptural things, biblical things. Just a question. Since the world began, was it
not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born
blind? Now remember, this is the answer
of the blind man. They was asking, you know, who
did this to you? And he said, You don't under, I mean, my eyes
were opened. I was blind from birth and now
they're open and you're asking me, religious leaders, who did
this? Since the world began, was it
not heard that, 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 sins, and dost thou teach us?"
Now don't that sound like a lot of modern day preachers? Whoa,
wait a minute, you're coming and correcting me? You're coming
and preaching to me? I'm Dr. So-and-so. I have 15 letters behind my name,
you know. D-D-M-D-I-V-M-D-M-D-R-E-B-R-B-L-I,
you know, whatever. Sounds like a bunch of gibberish
Pentecostal speak behind their names. You don't, you're coming
to tell me? If this man were not of God, he
could do nothing. Simplistic, right? This man has
just simple understanding. Listen, we've never heard of
anybody who was born blind ever, ever, ever being healed by anybody. And the only person that could
ever do that, give sight to somebody who does not ever have sight,
has to be God. Has to be God. Or at least sent
from God. At the very least must be sent
from God. And they said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are
you trying to preach to us and trying to set us straight? So what do they do? They say,
well, come, let's reason together. Let's open up the scriptures
and look and see if this be true. Well, brother, you got a good
point there. Maybe that's something I ought to go back and look at.
And maybe we can talk about it at a later date after how I've
had time to. No, what do you say? and they
cast him out. Get out of the synagogue. Get
out of here. We're not going to have you teaching us. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out and when he had found him, he said unto him, does thou
believe on the son of God? Now here's Jesus asking this
man if he believes on himself, on Jesus. But he formed it in a question
because he knew the man didn't know who Jesus was. But he said,
do you believe on the son of God? Jesus is encouraging belief,
trust, and worship upon himself to this man. So that would answer any question
of those who might say, there's nowhere in the Bible where Jesus
ever instructed someone to worship him. Well, here he's saying you need
to believe on him. Isn't believing part of worship?
Is that not why we're gathered here today? We believe on His
name and are worshiping Him because we believe that He has saved
us. We believe that He has given
unto us life. We believe that He has promised
He is going to return. We believe that He is God of
gods, King of kings, Lord of lords. He is worthy of our praise.
And so we set aside a time out of the week to come together
corporately to lift up our praise and say, thank you, Lord, for
all that you've done for us to worship Him, for all that He
is and what He does. Is that not worship to believe
on Him? Verse 36, he answered and said,
and this is strange, and this gets all the gospel regeneration
people in a quandary here. And he answered and said, who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Hmm. A man who believed, but yet don't
believe. A man who had faith, but not the object of the faith
yet. The object of the faith had not
yet been revealed to him, didn't know what to believe in. All
he knew is that he believed. I once was blind, but now I see.
And whoever did this, obviously this can only come from God.
And when Jesus said, Do you believe on the Son of God? He said, Who
is he that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Now look at verse 38. And he said, Lord, I believe. and he worshipped him. And Jesus
said, for judgment I am coming to this world, that they which
see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? And Jesus said unto them, if
you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see,
therefore your sin remaineth. Now, Jesus didn't tell that guy,
now wait a minute, I'm just the messenger of God. Don't worship
me, worship Jehovah. worship Yahweh, worship Yahuwah,
whoever they want to call it, you know, this whole movement
of God's proper name. They don't want to call Jesus,
Jesus. They want to call him, you know, Yeshua Meshach, you know. Well, Yeshua just told this man
that he was the one who was the Son of God, and that man worshipped
him, and he proceeded to allow the man to worship Yeshua. A.K.A. Jesus. Now, let me ask you. If Jesus himself not only encouraged
someone to worship him, and then once someone did worship him,
didn't deny that or didn't, you know, try to squelch that, does
that mean Jesus is God? And then as it pertains to our
worship, Should we lift our worship to anything else or anyone else
besides Jesus? So far we've seen that angels
worshiped Jesus and was directed to point that. That would be
something that we would put a little bit higher than us. We've seen
that wise men, learned men, men from afar, they worshiped Jesus. And now we see here that even
the lowly of low men worshiped Jesus. But I don't want to leave
you women out. Look with me, if you would, at
Matthew 15. There are several places that
we can go to. We can go to the Shulamite woman. Look at Matthew 15, verse 25. Then came she, oh, I'm sorry.
Let's go back up to verse 21. 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. Have mercy on me, O
Lord. Now son of David, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. So this woman here knew
that he was Lord and knew that he was the son of David. Now
we know all through the Old Testament that the son of David refers
to the Messiah, right? The son of David. My daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not
a word and his disciples came and besought him saying, send
her away for she crieth after us. Now remember this woman is
a Gentile. But he answered and said, I am
not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of, am I not sent
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and
said, it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. That's a reference that they
had to Gentiles. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. So she realized, or she at least
acknowledged that he was her master. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. And Jesus departed this and came
nine to the Sea of Galilee, went up to a mountain, sat down there.
So here we see that even there were women who worshiped Jesus. Mary Magdalene worshiped Jesus. We see whenever they were in
the house and the lady broke open the perfume, she worshiped
Jesus. In all of these instances, never
did Jesus say, don't worship me. Look while you're there in
Matthew at chapter 28. The instance that I was just
speaking about. After Jesus had resurrected,
the women had saw Him. And they all came back together. The church gathered. in the mountain
in Galilee where Jesus had instructed them to go. And if you look in
verse 16 or 17, it said, And when they saw Him, they worshipped
Him, but some doubted. It's kind of funny. How could they worship but some
doubt? Have you ever worshipped God
but sometimes have doubted? Is this all real? Is this all
true? What am I doing? Is this just a waste of time? Is this just a waste of... We
all have those times of doubt. The Lord has to reveal things
to us, bring Himself real to us. Have you ever been in those
times whenever God has made Himself real to you? A lot of times we
worship, as I mentioned last week, a lot of times we might
worship and we'll go through the motions and sometimes it
just doesn't seem, you know, it doesn't seem like the Lord
is there. It doesn't seem like he's with us. It doesn't seem
like he's invigorated the worship. He's injected himself into our
hearts where, you know, it just seems like cold ritual. But then
there are times where it is so pleasing and pleasant to the
soul because it seems that Christ has been there. Well, during
those times, we can have doubt. Is all this thing just us getting
together in a little club? Well, there was some that worshiped
him. But you know, Jesus didn't say in verse 18, Jesus came and
spake unto them saying, don't worship me, I'm just a man like
you. Or did he say, don't worship
me because I'm just a messenger? Or don't worship me, I'm just
a prophet of God. Now look what he said whenever
they fell down and worshiped him. All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. That's what he said. It's almost as if whenever they
bowed down to worship Jesus, said, rightfully so. Rightfully
so. Because all power has been given
to me in heaven. and an earth. Now, a lot of times
we breeze over these. We've read this, how many times
have you read this set of scriptures, whether you want to call it the
Great Commission or whatever you want to call it. We've read these
verses, we've put these verses to memory. I can stand up here
and quote these verses over and over and over again, but a lot
of times we just skim over these words. Sometimes we don't think
about what is being said here. Jesus said, all power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Now, let me ask you, if Jesus
was anything less than God, he would not have all power. He would have a delegated power,
subservient to the one who had all power. Because only the one who has
all power can give one who is not God power. So whenever the cults, false
religions out there are saying that Jesus, and especially if
they're ones who are pseudo-Christian, you know, they say that he's
just a prophet or he's just, you know, this or that, then
say, then why in the world did Jesus hear himself say, all power
was given to me in heaven and in earth? Let's just say, Jehovah's Witnesses,
that Jehovah is God and Jesus is lesser. Let's just say that's
true. It's not true, okay? It's not
true. Let's just say that that's true. If all power was given then to
the lesser, the lesser is now the superior, and the superior
has become the lesser, because he has vanquished all power and
given it to somebody else. Is that not true? Is that not
what is going on? If God gives all power to someone
else, then someone else now has all power. And you don't. It didn't say He gave him part
of power or equal power. He said He gave him all power
in heaven and on earth. And if you look, He says, baptizing in the name of Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He is equating
himself with God in the commission to men, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever Jehovah has commanded. No, whatsoever
I've commanded you. Oh, why? Because I have all power
and all authority in heaven and on earth. That's why I can command
you. That's why I can tell you what
to tell them, how to do it. And lo, Jehovah is with you. No, he said, no, I am. Wait a
minute. It's not comforting to me to
have a prophet be with me always. But if God was with me always,
now that's comforting. Because if you're just a prophet,
you can fail and you can die. You can change your mind. But if you're God and you say
that you'll be with me always, that gives me comfort. So how
would this even have any kind of meaning to these disciples
who were gathered there after Jesus' resurrection and what
they experienced and saw, all of what took place leading up
to that time of His death, and now here He is in the flesh,
after dying, has resurrected from the grave, come to them
and is now speaking to them, and is about to go back to heaven
from where He came down out of. How could they have any comfort
if this was just a prophet? if this was someone subservient
and not really God. No, they knew He was and that's
why they worshiped Him. And that's why we worship Him.
That's why we talk about Jesus. Not just the Father. We talk
about Jesus. Why? Because if we talk about
Jesus and we glorify Jesus, we glorify the Godhead. We glorify
the Father. Now, one more and we'll be done.
Look with me in Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. It says after this, verse 1, And this is after he went through
all the letters. He dictated all the letters to
the churches. He says, after this, I looked,
and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice
which I heard was as it were a trumpet talking with me which
said, come up hither and I will show thee things which must be
hereafter. And immediately I was in the
Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne." And one sat upon the throne. There weren't three
seats. There was one throne. There wasn't three people sitting
in one big chair. There was one who sat upon the
throne. And he, okay, he that sat, not her, Okay, for all the feminazis out
there that want to make the feminist version of the Bible, and I think
they've already got it out now, where they've changed all the
pronouns to her and she, and he that sat was to look upon
like a jasper and a sardine stone. and there was a rainbow round
about the throne in sight like unto an emerald." And round about
the throne there were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats
I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment,
and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne
proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven
spirits of God. And before the throne there was
a sea of glass likened to crystal. And in the midst of the throne
and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes, before
and behind. And the first beast was like
a lion, the second beast like a calf, the third beast had a
face as a man, the fourth beast was like, fourth beast, was like
a flying eagle, 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." This almost sounds like the exact
same scene that Isaiah saw, okay? And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat upon the throne, who liveth
forever and ever. The four and twenty 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 art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy
pleasure they are and were. created. Now wait a minute, that
sounds almost like the very first verse that we read about the
angels, right? That sounds like what was being
said in Hebrews. That this Jesus, who is made
better than the angels, are being worshipped here by all of heaven,
and all of heaven is saying the same thing. Thou, he, him, the
one who sat upon the throne. is worthy to receive glory, honor,
and power. Why? Because He, Him, the One
who sat upon the throne, created all things for His, for Thy,
the One who sat upon the throne, Him, for His pleasure. They are, meaning that they have
existence, and were created. The reason that they are here
and the reason that they existed at any time was for His pleasure. Brethren, people want to chop
up the Godhead and they want to make it about one person in
the Old Testament, one person in the New Testament, and then
one person now in the Church Age. during, after, and soon to come. It's all being focused upon One
who sat upon the throne and His name is Jesus. At the name of
Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. His name
is the name that is above every name. So all worship should be of Christ. So whenever we come together,
we don't come together to worship a church. We don't come to worship
a denomination, a theological system. We don't come together
to worship angels or miracles or gifts. We come together to
worship Christ. And if he's not the center of
our worship, our worship has been in vain. If he is not at
the center of our preaching, our teaching, our fellowship,
our singing, if he's not the center of all those things, then
what we do is not worship to God. It's worship to something
else. Anybody got any comments or any
things you'd like to add to that? Thoughts on that? the Talmud and the Kabbalah teach
that the Messiah is not a person, but a universal mind of only
Jews. And so, we can see that even
their Messiah is a denial of the Son of God. The Kabbalah
and the Talmud says that the Messiah is the coming together
of all Jews in a universal line and not an individual person. That's really weird whenever
the Bible says that those people was looking for one to come.
Remember whenever John the Baptist first came on the scene, they
said, are you him? You know, are you the man? Are
you the one that the Bible talked about that would come? And so
even the Jews themselves don't understand what their own people
believed, and how tainted even the Jewish religion has become
because of the Babylonian influence. That Babylonian influence did
reign. I mean, God warned them about
that. He warned them if they went down and worshiped their
gods and joined in their things. And that should be a warning
to all of us. Why are we not ecumenical? You know, why don't
we just hold hands with everybody that just, we're all wanting
to do good, right? We're all wanting to help the
poor, help the sick, help the widows, help the orphans. We all want to, you know, feed
the down and out. And, you know, we all want to
tell everybody about the love that God has for mankind and
how He's made a provision of salvation for everybody if they'll
just be accepting of it. You know, can't we all just hold
hands and tell everybody about the love of God? It's all about
love, right? see those jews they went down
in the babylon and they begin well the bible says they went
horn after other god considered that spiritual
adultery and yes god divorced that whole thing Influence them
in such a way that you know what we see in the time of Jesus with
the Pharisees That wasn't what God set up with Moses That whole
pharisaical Sadducees Pharisees All that stuff was and the scribes
and everything that was all man-made stuff That was not what God had
set up, you know how God set it up there was one man who was
the voice of that God spoke to and shared
that with everybody. He didn't set up a Sanhedrin. He didn't set up a collective
of men to rule. No, God gave His words and then
He had one man speak those words to all the people and to tell
them and to remind them of what God had said, not give His opinion
about what He thought. He was the fourth teller. You
see that all through the Old Testament, one man being the
fourth teller under the group of people. It wasn't until that, I hate to even say it, but that,
just the whole entire turning away from God, that they went,
because it was the pagan groups that had the groups of men the
councils and the the people that would listen to their priest
and group me matter fact you look on whenever Elijah went
up on the Mount Carmel with the with the prophets of Baal what
it say it was 400 or something prophets of Baal but there was
only one prophet of God there According to the latest rabbis,
they say the oral tradition takes precedence over the Bible. Yeah. So, even those prophets, you
know, they didn't speak except for what was spoken to them by
God. They didn't go by tradition. The only tradition they went
by was that which was already confirmed by the Word of God. And whenever God annulled those
traditions, The New Testament church quit doing that. We don't
see anywhere where the New Testament church was commanded to continue
on with the feasts and the tabernacles, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. No, God did say to remember Him
in two ways, right? He give us the Lord's Supper
and He give us baptism. Those were two things to identify
the people and Christ and to remember Him by. I didn't tell
him to worship my birthday, worship my resurrection. He said, baptism
and the Lord's Supper, these are the two ordinances that I've
given for you to remember me by and to carry on until I come
back. So yeah, Larry's right. I've
not studied it as much as he has. And again, there's a great
book that Edward Hendry has written, several great books that Edward
Hendry has written about. about the tainting of the Jewish
religion from Babylon and then how that has been passed on now
even into quote-unquote Christianity. So if you haven't read his books,
and I'm telling you because I hadn't read them all either, but if
you hadn't, I have read some of the biggest one that he wrote,
The Mystery of Babylon. That's the name of it, right?
that that is a very good book. Anybody else got anything? It's always a perversion of Christ.
And then after that, there's the perversion of the things
of Christ. But it always seems to be a perversion of Christ. Yeah, that's right. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank You today for Your mercy and Your grace, and we do thank
You for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for the Word that
guides us and leads us and teaches us of who God is, who He is in
Christ, and what Christ has done and said. And Lord, we thank
You because we know that there are many deceivers that's out
there. There are many false Christs. There are many false prophets
and false teachers, false disciples. We know that there are counterfeit
Gospels. There are counterfeit Christians. There are counterfeit
churches. And Father, we know that there are counterfeit Scriptures.
But yet You've given us Your Word. That has stood the test
of time. You've given us Your Scriptures
that will never, as You've promised, never fade away, but will remain
forever. And so, Father, we look to those
Scriptures for our guide and direction. We look for that for
our information of who You are and what we are and how You work.
And so, Father, I pray that this church that You've gathered here
together, Lord, I pray that You might keep us faithful to Your
Word. not to a man's opinion and not
to a man's philosophy or any traditions of men, but, Father,
that You would keep us faithful to Your Word and thus faithful
to Christ. Father, we pray that our worship
is centered upon Christ, Christ alone. We pray, Lord, that you
would help us to learn more of Christ, to convey more of Christ,
to desire more of Christ. Father, we pray these things
because we know in the flesh that these things cannot be done
and will not ever be done. But Father, that as you build
that inner man, as you build By furthering us in the grace
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, Lord, we pray that our extolling
of Christ will become more and more. And Lord, we just thank
you now for this time together. I thank you for each one of these
brothers and sisters that you've gathered here. Father, I thank
you for the way that we see Christ in each one of them in different
ways and hear of Christ and how he is ministered to them and
through them. Lord, how that just gives us
a different understanding of Christ whenever we see how He
works in each one of us. And Father, Lord, it's so wonderful
to see that and the things that You've done in and through each
one of us. Lord, we pray now that You might be with our time
around the table eating. Lord, I thank You for these women
who have prepared these things for us. And I ask, Lord, that
You might bless the food that we're about to eat. May it nourish
our bodies. And may You be honored and glorified
For it's Christ's name that we pray these things. Amen.