I've entitled the message for
this evening, They Worshipped Him. Would you like to do that? When I think of worship, one
thing that is very apparent to me, I cannot worship Him unless
He enables me. I'm just dead sure of that. And
I pray that the Lord will enable me and you to worship him. Now the setting is the ascension
of Christ. Try to picture in your mind this
group of people, the Lord blessing them, and all of a sudden he
started rising in the air. They see his feet right in front
of their face. They see him going up, up, up,
received into a cloud. And what response could there
be but to worship? They worshiped him. Did you know that the Bible never
gives a formal definition of worship? It never says worship
is, and then fills in all the blanks. I've heard adjectives
used to describe worship. In our day, particularly, there's
traditional worship. That's where you just have a
piano and organ playing and sing the old hymns and read the scriptures. And then you have contemporary
worship. That's where you have rock and
roll bands and praise teams and skits and plays and so on. Contemporary worship. I looked
up a website of a church this week and it said in the morning
we have traditional worship and in the evening we have contemporary
worship. Oh, okay. We read of formal worship
and we read of casual worship. Ouch. Casual worship. We read of charismatic worship. But the only adjectives that
should be used to describe worship is true worship and false worship. Those are the only adjectives
that should be used to describe worship. The Lord did warn, in
vain they do worship me. Absolutely pointless. In vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. And the Lord said in John chapter
4, the hour is coming. And now is when the true worshipers. Now, just the fact that he used
this word, the true worshipers, tells us that there are false
worshipers. And I don't want to be in that
group. Do you? I don't want to be someone who worships Him in
a false, pretentious way. I want to be a true worshiper. He said the hour is coming and
now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. And listen to this statement.
For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. The Father is looking. He seeketh
such to worship him in spirit and in truth. And there's a lot
that goes under the name of worship that just is not true. Turn to
Isaiah chapter one. This is God speaking. Verse 10. Now he's speaking to
the Jews at this time. He's speaking to the nation of
Israel, but look at the words he uses. Hear the word of the
Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, and give ear unto the law of our
God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not
in the blood of bullocks or of the lamb of he-goats. When you
come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand,
to tread my courts? I am not speaking of coming in
irreverence. Bring no more vain oblations,
incenses and abomination unto me, the new moons, the Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies. I cannot, away with its iniquity,
even the solemn meeting, your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hateth. There are trouble unto me, I
am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, I'll hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make your
prayers, I'll not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Now that's God's estimation of
what they considered scriptural true worship. And just because
there is no formal definition in the scripture of worship doesn't
mean it can't be defined. what worship there is when from
our hearts we pray our father which art in heaven hallowed
holy reverend is thy name that's worship you can say it billions have over the centuries. You can say it, but it's another
thing to understand it. Hallowed, holy, and reverend
is thy name. I would think the fear of God
and the worship of God are the same thing, wouldn't you? You're
fearing You worship Him. You worship Him. You fear Him. And I do know that the fear of
God is seen in the fear of looking anywhere but Christ alone. Now that's the fear of God. Someone
who does not do that really has no respect for God. They have
no understanding of His holiness and His awesomeness. But someone
that sees who God is, their one desire is to be found in Christ. That is worship. Now the word is first time used
in Genesis chapter 22, verse five. It's after God told Abraham,
take now thy son, thy only son, whom you love, and take him and
offer him up in a mountain which I shall show thee of. And Abraham
saddled his ass, went up, three days journey, They finally came
to the place. I can't even begin to think of
what was going through his mind, but I know this. He knew that
God had promised that the Messiah was going to come through that
boy that he was commanded to kill, and he believed that God
would raise him from the dead. He said that. I and the lad will
go yonder and worship and return to you. Hebrews 11 points out
that he believes, but what is worship? It's a response to God. It's a response to God. This was Abraham's response to
God. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship. It's a response to revelation.
When the gathering demonic saw Jesus afar off, the scripture
says, and everybody who ever sees him, demon or believer,
an unbeliever really never sees who he is. The demons knew. Now, what about this fella? He
was demon possessed, but the scripture says, when he saw him
afar off, he ran and worshiped him. And if you and I ever see
him as to who he is, this is what we will do. We will worship
him. I'd like to read you a passage
of scripture. If you wouldn't go ahead and turn there, Joshua chapter
five. I love this passage of scripture. Joshua chapter 5,
beginning in verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho, this is before the walls of Jericho fell, that
he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man
over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua
went unto him and said, are thou for us or for our adversaries? Are you on our side? Are you
on the side of our adversaries? Now let me say this. Christ doesn't
take sides. Christ does not take sides. And he said, nay. neither. But as the captain of
the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what sayeth
my Lord unto his servant? Now I know this about worship.
When you worship, You don't tell the Lord what to do. You want to hear what he has
to say to you. That was Joshua at this time.
And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose
thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest
is holy. And the reason it's holy is because
I'm standing here. Get your shoes off. Same thing
he said to Moses, remember, at the burning bush. I think of
when God made himself known to Moses in Exodus chapter 34 and
proclaimed the name of the Lord before him. What does the scriptures
say that Moses did after the Lord made himself known? Remember
he said, show me now thy way that I might know thee in that
prayer. Show me thy glory. God did all these things and
Moses made haste. and bowed his head to the earth
and worshiped. Worship is a response to the
revelation of God. And you and I will not worship
unless he makes himself known. And if he makes himself known,
we will worship. Now, I believe that the best
way we can understand what the Bible means by worship is by
seeing what it says about people who the scripture says did worship. That's the way we can find out
what worship is. You know, people say, well, we
had a worship service. Well, I don't know if you did
or not, but I know when the Bible says they worshiped, they worshiped. Now the first time, I'm going
to limit myself to the New Testament because this message would take
so long if we went into all these Old Testament examples of worship. But the first time the word worship
is mentioned in the New Testament is when the three wise men come
and say, where is he that's born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the
east and are come to worship him. Now, people love nativity scenes. They love to see the baby in
the manger and all that's involved in the nativity scene, but these
men had not yet seen the nativity scene. They hadn't got there
yet. Who did they come to worship? He that was born. king of the Jews. Now, if you and I ever see anything
of his kingship, his absolute sovereign kingship, he was born
king. He wasn't elected into office.
Behold, I've sent my king upon my holy hill of Zion. That's what God says about this
king. You and I ever see this king, there's only one response. worship. And the next time the word is
mentioned is Herod's reply, go and search diligently for the
young child. And when you found him, bring him again to me that
I may come and worship him also. His intention was to kill him.
He was afraid that he would hurt his position and all he wanted
to do was kill him. And when they left, he had all
the children, two years old and under, killed in that region
because he didn't want to have anything to do with that one
who was born king of the Jews. So the next time the word worship
is mentioned, it's with reference to false worship. Turn to Matthew
chapter eight. I'm so thankful for this passage
of scripture. Verse one, and when he was come
down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And behold, this is noteworthy, there came a leper and worshiped
him. Now, is there any doubt at all
that this is worship? There came a leper and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. Now we know from Luke's account,
this man was full of leprosy, but he comes saying, Lord. Now I've said this many times
before, but perhaps someone will hear it for the first time. You
only worship a sovereign. He didn't know whether the Lord
would heal him. He knew he had the ability to.
And he knew if he wanted to, he could. If you will, you can
make me clean. But this thing of worship has
got to be settled first. He's to be worshipped whether
He does anything for you or not. He is to be worshipped because
He is Lord. He is thy Lord. Worship thou
Him. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. Was He everybody's Lord? Yep.
He's everybody's Lord. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. He's everybody's Lord. What about
the goats? They're his goats. They're his
goats. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. As I said, this leper did not
know whether or not the Lord would cleanse him or not, but
still he came and worshiped him. And I believe the Lord is to
be worshipped without reference to what he does or does not do
for me. He's the Lord. He's to be worshipped. Lord, if you will, It's totally
up to you. I don't have any control in this
thing. If you pass me by, just and holy is your name. But if
you will, you can make me clean. Beloved, that is worship. Look in Matthew 9. Verse 18, while he spake these
things unto them, behold, Matthew 9, 18, behold, there came a certain
ruler and worshiped him. Now, one thing I know for sure,
this certain ruler worshiped him. This is true worship. Say, my daughter, is even now
dead. But come and lay thy hand upon
her and she shall live. Now you only worship when you
know that life and death is in his hands. Physical life and physical death. spiritual life and spiritual
death. Life is in his hands. And this man came and worshipped.
Now, you know that only God can raise the dead. Do you believe
Jesus Christ is able to raise the dead? This man did. He came
and worshipped him, knowing if you simply touch her, she'll
live. Matthew chapter 14. Now, remember the disciples are
watching the Lord walk on the water. Tried that lately? He defies or controls the law
of physics. The law of physics are his law.
Now, if you walk on the water, it won't work, but he is above
all law. And if he wants to walk on the
water, he can, because all laws are in his hand. He placed the
law of physics. If he put it in place and he
can suspend it when he wants to do it, because he's the Lord.
And we read in verse 31, and immediately, this is when Peter
had came to him, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand
and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith,
Wherefore didst thou doubt? Can you imagine the Lord looking
at us and saying, you have little faith. Have I ever given you
a reason to doubt? Have I given you any reason to
doubt? And when they were coming to
the ship, the wind ceased. You know why it ceased? Because
he told it to cease. Cease! Be still. And there was a great calm. Now,
can you imagine how this boggled these guys' minds when they saw
that? They watched this one do what only God could do, control
the weather, suspend the law of physics. And what did they
do? It says, then they that were
in the ship came and worshipped him. Now worship is an understanding of who he is. He's God. He does what only God
can do. He controls the weather. He walks
on the water. creates matter and brings it
into the universe that was not there before. Only God can do
that. He raises the dead. He gives
sight to the blind. He does what only God can do. You only worship him when you
worship him as God almighty, the God man, the son of God. They worshiped him saying of
a truth, thou art the son of God. You know, many saw his miracles. and didn't believe. As a matter
of fact, most people who witnessed his miracles didn't believe. You know, you've got to have
faith before you can worship. You've got to have spiritual
life before you can worship. There are many who saw and witnessed
his miracles but never believed. Those that did are those who
were given faith in who he is and an understanding of who he
is. Now look at Matthew chapter 15. And what I would say about this
passage of scripture is true worship never stops worshiping. It continues to worship. If it
can stop worshiping, it's not true worship. Now look, beginning
in verse 21, then Jesus went thence and departed into the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, A woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, a Gentile, and cried unto him saying, have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. Now, if you're going to approach
the Lord, if I'm going to approach the Lord, this is how we are
to approach. Have mercy. on me, O Lord, thou
son of David, and then state your case. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil." And you know, when these people came
to him, they came stating their case, but they didn't tell him
what to do. If you have reverence in him,
worship him you you can state your case and you can say that
will be done that will be done verse 23 but he answered her
not a word he didn't respond to her he ignored her Now, if
you pray to the Lord and ask him to do something for you,
have you ever felt that your prayers didn't get past the ceiling,
that they bounced right back on you and he wasn't going to
answer you? All you had was silence. Well, this woman teaches us how
to respond at a time like this. verse 23 and his disciples came
and besought him saying send her away for she crieth after
us she didn't stop crying he answered not a word did you did
she say well there's no use i might as well turn around and leave
this isn't doing i'm not getting anywhere like this no she continued
crying she didn't stop Verse 24, but he answered and
said to his disciples, they were the ones who said, she crieth
after us. He looked at them and he said with her listening in,
but he answered and said, I am not sent, but into the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. And this woman was a Gentile.
How many different ways were there for her to take this? I
didn't come to save Gentiles. I came to save the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. And what the Lord is saying is,
I came to save a particular people. And her only conclusion from
this is, he must not mean me. I'm a Gentile. He came only for
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And I'm a Gentile. Well,
what did she do? verse 25, then came she and worshiped
him. Now, I don't know whether she
worshiped him before this. I kind of think she did, but
in response to him saying, I'm only sent to the lost sheep of
house of Israel, she worshiped, saying, Lord, help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. I got nowhere else to go. I'm
utterly in your hands. Lord, help me. Here's my case. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. But verse 26, he answered and
said, it's not meat to take the children's bread. My gospel,
my grace for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's not
meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. Now,
if there's any time somebody should give up, it's right here. Well, I can't go any further,
obviously. But how did she respond to what
the Lord said when he said, it's not appropriate to take my grace? And here's what he means by that,
and throw it to dogs like you. You know how she responded? Truth. If I ever heard the truth, it's
right now. That's the truth. I'm nothing
more than a dog. I believe that about myself.
And I can see why you would withhold your grace from me. That's the
truth, Lord. Yes, Lord. I believe that. Remember,
this is part of worship. Yet the dogs, I'll take my place
as a dog. I wouldn't dare take my place
as a child sitting at your table, but I'm a dog sitting underneath
your table. waiting for the crumbs of your
mercy to fall down my way. I'll be so thankful to just lick
them up off the ground. I'm a dog, but I'm your dog.
I'm not asking for a place setting, but I would be oh so grateful
for any crumbs that come my way. Now, there are those who would
say, this woman has no self-esteem. She has no pride. She'll let
the Lord talk to her that way and keep coming. I mean, this
woman has got problems. But what's the Lord say of this
woman? 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. Turn to Matthew 28. Now this is after the resurrection
of Christ. Verse 16, then the 11 disciples
went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed
them And when they saw him, what happens when people see him?
Every time they see who he really is. When they saw him, they worshiped
him, but some doubted. Now that is a poor translation. Some is not even implied. in
the original. It doesn't mean that the twelve
were standing there and two or three of them doubted. It says
they saw, they worshipped, and they doubted. What's doubt got to do with worship?
Seems like if you worshipped, you'd have no doubt. My dear
friend, you can't see him and not be without some sense of
your own sinfulness and unbelief even while you see him. Your
prayer as long as in this life, Lord I believe help thou mine
unbelief. If you see him you're also going
to see your sinful, evil, wicked nature of unbelief. And if you
don't see your doubting, sinful, evil nature of unbelief, it's
because you don't see Him. Wherever there is true worship,
there is always a sense of sin. John chapter four. And let me give you the background
of this story. The Lord had sat down on a well
at noon, and a woman comes to draw water. Now we know from
reading this passage of scripture that this woman had been married
five times. Five times. That's a lot. That's
a lot. Needless to say, this woman had
some kind of issues, didn't she? She'd been married five times
and she was living in a sinful relationship even then. The one she was living with was
not her husband and she comes to the well to drink and The
reason she came at noon to drink is because she didn't want to
be around all those judgmental people who would say, look, there
she is. She's got issues. She's got, she just didn't want
to be around that. She knew she did. So she went
to the well to get some water at noon, the hottest part of
the day. And there set the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this scripture
begins with, he must needs go through some area. Why must he
go through Samaria? Because one of his elect is there,
and he's going to make himself known to that person. Now, let's
begin reading in verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him as a well of water, springing up into everlasting
life. The woman said unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
You see, she didn't have any idea what he was talking about.
It was all physical. It was all fleshly. She didn't
understand that he was speaking of spiritual water. Jesus saith
unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou now hast is thy husband, in that saidst thou
truly. And you know, I don't know how the Lord did
this, but he did it without being judgmental. He did this without being judgmental.
He presents this to the woman, And the woman said unto him,
Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped
in this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. She began her religious mumbo
jumbo. Talking about places and times
for worship and when it ought to be done and when it shouldn't
be done and where it ought to be at. Stuff that really was
useless. Religious mumbo jumbo. Verse 21, Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this
mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father you worship
you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of
the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers,
I've already mentioned this earlier. When the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him, God is spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. God is spirit. Now being
physical beings, that's hard to get hold of, isn't it? You
know what it means? It means God's invisible. You
can't see him. It means God is omnipresent. He's not bound by physical bodies
the way we are. He's everywhere all the time. You can't go anywhere where he's
not. What about hell? It's his justice fueling the
fires. He is everywhere. And because God is a spirit,
he's indivisible. There's not parts of him somewhere.
All of Him's there, all the time. God is spirit, and here's what
is necessary for worship. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Now, in order to worship Him
in spirit, you have to have a spirit. The natural man doesn't have
a spirit. That spirit died in the fall. When God gives you
new life, You have a spirit. You have a spiritual nature,
born of the Holy Spirit. There is no worship of God apart
from the spiritual nature. I've said this before. I never
tell people, come worship with us. I say, come hear the gospel,
but only God can enable somebody to worship. I don't say, come
to worship with us. No, come to hear the gospel.
You have to have spirit. the nature of God the Holy Spirit,
birthed by the Spirit. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and what? In truth. You can't worship God in error.
You can't worship God in a false gospel. You can only worship
Him in truth. I love that scripture in Philippians
3, verse 3, the simplicity. It's awesome. It's more than
we can get hold of, but it's so simple. We are the circumcision. We are the true worshipers. We're
the true Jews who worship God in the spirit. And what does
someone do who worships God in the Spirit? We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We glory only in Christ. He is all of our confidence. We don't have confidence in anything
else. And what's the proof that you'll
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus? The
third thing he said is we have no confidence in the flesh. I have absolutely no confidence
in my flesh. I have no confidence in your
flesh. I have no confidence in fleshly religion. This is what
it is to worship God in spirit and truth. It's to worship in
the spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence
in the flesh. John chapter 9. This is the story of the man
that was born blind that Christ gave sight to. And we read where
he says to the Pharisees, verse 30, the man answered and said
unto him, Why, herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from
whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know
that God heareth not sinners. He didn't know God yet. He didn't know God yet. We know
that from the fact that he didn't even know who Christ was. Do
you know the only kind of people he hears are sinners? He didn't
hear anybody but sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
man made the statement You know, people have made that a doctrine.
God doesn't hear sinners. There's no point in a sinner
to pray. God doesn't hear sinners. God does hear sinners through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. This man was giving his religion,
and he says, Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but
if any man be a worshipper 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. Then
they answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in
sins, and dost thou teach us? Why, we're offended that somebody
like you would dare to teach us. And they cast him out. That means it's the excommunicated.
This guy's out. No hope for him. We're cutting
him off. We're exercising church discipline. We're kicking him
out. He's gone for him to think that he could teach us. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they'd
cast him out. I think that's interesting, don't
you? Jesus heard that they cast him out. And when he found him,
he said unto him, dost thou believe on the son of God? And he answered
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Last scripture I'd like to read
is Acts 24. Paul is giving his defense before
Ananias. And he says in verse 12, And
they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man,
neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor
in the city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they
now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, I make confession,
I plead guilty. What they're accusing me of here
is true. I'll publicly admit this, that
after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers,
believing all things which are written in the law and in the
prophets. Now, what is worship? Well, it's
a confession. You may call it heresy, but this
is worship. And it's founded on this, believing
all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. Paul said, that's how I worship. May God enable each one of us
to be true worshipers. They see Him ascending back into
glory, back into the presence of His Father, and they worshiped
Him. Let's pray.