Philippians chapter 3 verse 3
now last time we spoke of The first phrase in this verse, I
guess you could call this a sermon series on this verse Because
I want to go through This a step at a time and it identifies who
we are as believers and it's in in contrast to what Paul has
described before and The dogs, which we talked about, is the
Jews which returned to works like a dog returning to its own
vomit. Beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision. Those who call themselves the
circumcision but are not. And he says this, he identifies
us by four things in verse three. We are the circumcision. Notice
he doesn't say we are circumcised. That's not the issue We are the
ones whom God Has circumcised our hearts in a spiritual way
Which is a cutting and doing away with the flesh. This is
Paul saying all of my religious heritage I count but dumb That
I may win Christ. This is the Savior saying if
your right hand offends you cut it off this is This is this is
If you're gonna follow me, take up your cross first. In other
words, the flesh has got to go. The flesh has got to die. We're
not gonna worship ourselves anymore, we're gonna worship God. And
that's what the second phrase is, which worship God in the
spirit. Now we worship God in the spirit.
When I've heard people talk about this verse, it's just sort of
assumed, the first part of it's sort of assumed, and we skip
right to the in the spirit part. Just defines how we worship God
and that's fine. But let's not miss this we worship
God We worship God that's what happens when when the Lord circumcises
the heart and Every fleshly thing that mattered to you as Paul
talks about in the rest of this chapter You cast it behind your
back That's why you do it because you worship God and That's the
result of doing it. We don't worship ourselves anymore.
We worship God. And this is the other side of
that coin. One side of it is the cutting
away of the flesh. The denial of the flesh. Let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. That's first. Denying yourself. And then what comes next? Follow
me. Follow me. You've got to cast off your filthy
rags, Bartimaeus, before you can be clothed with the righteousness
of God's Son. And so it's two sides of the
same coin. In order to be one who worships God in the Spirit,
God has to do something in the heart. The circumcision of the
flesh was an outward symbol of that. And that's why we're described
that way. You saw that it was the sign
of the covenant. You're the covenant people of God. You're the people
he was talking about when he said, I'll be your God and you'll
be my people. You're the people he was talking
about, not the earthly Jews, clearly, not the earthly Jews. You're the people he was talking
about when he said, your sins and your iniquities will I remember
no more. You're the covenant people of
God. The circumcision identifies you as that. In the flesh, it
was an outward thing. Just like the offering of an
animal couldn't take away sin, circumcision in the flesh couldn't
make you worship God. But when God does something in
here and takes the flesh as a, all of your, All of your trusting
in the flesh, all of your trusting in your keeping of the law, all
of your so-called righteousness, your self-righteousness, when
He cuts that away, and you look to Christ for all that you need,
and Him alone, that's what this is. It's a spiritual denying of self. It's a losing all things pertaining
to the flesh. Paul said, I've suffered the
loss of all this, and I count it but done. Why? That I may
win Christ. That I may win Christ. So having
denied self, taken up our cross, followed the Lord Jesus, we worship
God. We worship God. Now there's the
public worship of God, which is what we're doing right now.
But this thing of worshiping God, and we are going to talk
more about the public worship, It doesn't have to do though
with places It doesn't have to do with specific times It's it's
very it's fine to call this a house of worship wherever God's people
meet That's a house of worship, but understand that worship is
not confined to a house Worship is something that happens in
the heart turn to John chapter 4 with me, please and John 4, 19. This is the woman at the well.
We won't read the whole story, but I want to look at this particular
part. John 4, 19. The Lord sat on the well and
asked this woman to get him a drink of water. But then, this is part
of the conversation. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. You see, she's off on the wrong
track. She's talking about where to
worship. And here's what the Lord says, Woman, verse 21, Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh. You reckon that was a command,
kind of like let there be light, when he said believe me? I think
maybe. Just maybe because you realized
who he was. Believe me. Believe me. I can say believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ until I'm blue in the face, but until
the Lord Jesus speaks to your heart and says, believe me, that's
when salvation happens. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. Here's the problem, you don't know what you're worshiping.
It's not about where. It has nothing to do with where.
It used to, under the old covenant, you're supposed to worship in
Jerusalem. In our study in the Chronicles, well not the Chronicles
yet, but in Samuel and the Kings, we saw how that was circumvented,
how people denied and despised Christ in all of the Pictures
and types that the Lord ordained But now it's not like that. He
said the time is coming and now is it's it's already happening
Because he was fulfilling all that Christ is Our house of worship. He is our Who we worship? So he says to her you don't know
what you're worshiping. That's the problem. We know what
we worship For salvation is of the Jews But the hour cometh
and now he is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit
and in truth And here's why they're gonna do it not because they're
seeking God, but because he's looking for them In that The father seeketh such to worship
him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth The woman saith unto him. I had to
I had to add these two verses though. They're not Directly
pertaining to what what we're talking about about God being
worshipped in spirit, but listen to this The woman saith unto
him. I know that messiahs cometh which
is called christ when he has come. He will tell us all things
And jesus saith unto her I that speak unto thee am am To worship God in the spirit
is to worship him in your heart In your spirit all doesn't matter
where doesn't matter what time I Want you to worship God I want
to worship God and I want you to worship God no matter what
We've said this before when a baby's born We come together, we worship
God. When somebody dies, what are
we going to do? We're going to worship God. It's not a funeral, it's a worship
service. You can call it what you want
to, but it's worship for a believer. Worship him at a restaurant,
and I'm not talking about putting on a religious display for everybody
You know I'm talking about just thanking God that that that food
is put on your table And you have the money to pay for it,
and you're enjoying life You have luxuries in this life on
top of all of the necessities worship God wherever It means
attributing worthiness to him worth ship he's worth it and
That consists of thanking Him for everything. He's worthy to
be thanked. He's worthy of our gratitude.
He's worthy of our praise. Praising Him from our hearts,
adoring Him who has loved you with an everlasting love. Love Him because He first loved
you. To obey Him is to attribute worthiness
to Him. It's not easy to obey God, is
it? It's not that His law is grievous. But because of our
flesh, it's hard to do. It's impossible without His grace.
But when you do, you know what you're saying? You're worth it.
You're worth it. Whatever sacrifice it takes.
Whatever ridicule. Half my family don't even acknowledge
my existence anymore. You're worth it. I wish it wasn't
that way, but you're worth it. If it's got to be that way. Can you worship God on the deer
stand? If you can't, then maybe you shouldn't get on the deer
stand. And I mention these occasions because we're real devotion now,
where deep worship and real devotion take place is in the preaching
and hearing of the Gospel. No question about that. But if
you worship God only when you're here, then that's a problem.
That's why I mention these other things. It's got to go beyond
here because it's not here. It's here. And I'm not at all making an
equivalence between worshiping God at a ballgame and coming
to the worship service and hearing His Word. There's no equivalence
whatsoever to that. What I am saying is that true
worship cannot be contained in a building or limited to a specific
time. But this is where it really happens.
This is where it starts. If you don't worship God here,
you're not going to worship Him anywhere, even though you think
you are. Well, I can worship God out on the lake. Not if you
ain't worship Him even the way He told you to worship Him, you're
not. Your thumb and your nose in His face is what you're doing.
When He said, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,
and He's ordained a holy convocation, which we're going to talk about
next. You're lying to yourself. You're lying to yourself. You
might worship nature, you know, but you're not going to worship
the God of heaven and earth apart from the Gospel. And then it
will spread to everything else. When the Gospel is preached and
sinners come apart from this world to hear from Christ, to
come where He has promised to meet with us, and to commune
with Him and His people. This is where and how the fullest
sense of worship takes place and all worship starts. Right
here. We worship God how He's prescribed
that we do so. And as I've said to you many
times from the very beginning, God ordained a holy convocation
after the Passover. This is what God said, just listen
to it. Exodus 12 12 for I will pass through the land of Egypt
this night and Will smite all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord I And the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt. And this day shall be unto you
for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout
your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread, even the first day you shall put away leaven out of
your house. For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first
day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation." The word
convocation means a calling together, a sacred assembly. In the New
Testament, the word church means assembly. That's what it means. And in the seventh day, there
shall be a holy convocation to you. No matter of work shall
be done in them. This is symbolic. The Sabbath
is a rest. The Lord is our Sabbath. We rest
on that day. Together and we worship but we're
not going to do any work Save that which every man must eat
that only may be done of you. You can eat you can fix a meal
and that's it And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread
for in this self same day Have I brought your armies out of
the land of Egypt and you remember how he did that? By the blood
when I see the blood I'll pass over you He brought them out
by the blood of The plagues God hardened Pharaoh's heart through
all of the plagues But when the Passover lamb was slain And the
blood was put on the door when Christ was exalted when Christ
was worshipped when Christ Was set forth What happened? freedom freedom That's why You
shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. Why are we here because of the
blood? I Why are we here this morning? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ set us free. He was slain and has set us free. We don't keep a Sabbath or a
Passover because Christ is both of those to us. He fulfilled
those and made it clear in the scripture that He did. But the
assembly or church all through the New Testament is precious
in the sight of our Lord. And listen to Ephesians 5.25,
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself for it. He loved the assembly. He loved
the gathering of His people. He loved His people, His family,
who He called His body. His body. Our Lord said in Matthew
16.18, Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Ephesians 3 20 now unto him that
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
According to the power that worketh in us Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end the
church in The eyes of many has become obsolete. God said world
without end Let him be worshiped let Christ be worshiped in the
church as long as there is a world. Acts 20, 28, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood. So it's here. This is the house
of worship, the house of prayer. This is where we gather together
and it's not a place, it's not a building, it's not a time,
it's not a location. When our savior calls the church
his body, I take that to mean that it's not a transient or
dispensable entity. We worship God. Worship is a response to the
holiness and glory of God. And God's holiness and glory
are seen only in His Son. Particularly the Son of God crucified,
because when He was betrayed by Judas to be crucified and
slain, He said this, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God
glorified in Him. In John 17, in His high priestly
prayer unto the Father, He said, the hour has come. The hour has
come. They couldn't kill him before
that. They couldn't lay hands on him. Why? Because his hour
had not yet come. But he said in his prayer to
his father, the hour has come. Well, we know what hour that
is. The hour when he would make his own soul an offering for
our sins. And what was the next word out
of his mouth? Father, the hour has come. Glorify. Glorify. That's when worship starts. When
the glory of God is seen in the crucified Savior and the reigning
Savior. Now what I just said from God's
Word is that we worship God in His Son and Him crucified. The heart of a worship service
is the preaching of the Gospel and the Gospel's a person and
what He did for sinners. When good news of the magnitude
that we preach, you think of the magnitude of the idea that the champion
of sinners gave Himself for us. When that news, when the news
that the most wretched sinner on this earth, if God has mercy
on your soul and the Savior shed His blood, For your soul, the
salvation is yours. Good news, a sinner can actually
be saved. Religion takes that for granted.
They put that act in the hands of men. Mercies from God, that's
good news now. He delights to show mercy. There's
mercy for sinners in his son. Come now and let us reason together,
sayeth the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. When that news comes to the ear
of faith that God gives, if you can hear and hear while you're
hearing. Remember what he said to his
disciples, they're gonna hear and yet not hear. When you hear,
can you hear while you're hearing? Then thank God for that. Blessed
are your ears, for they hear. The hearing ear, God has made
that. He gives the ear of faith to hear the gospel With spiritual
ears, that's when a sinner attributes all worthiness to God right there.
That's what worship is You're attributing worthiness To God Almighty and I'm going
to show you that That's just not something that sounds good
that I made up look at Revelation 5 with me He's a just God and a Savior
And that's where worship comes from. That's what causes worship. That's our, as believers, it's
our natural, new nature, natural reaction to hearing the good news. To
knowing the good news. Revelation 5, 8. You listen to
this now. See what's happening here. When
He had taken the book, Christ, the Lamb, had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb. The Lamb. Now, why is He called
the Lamb? Because it was the Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb, the
Passover Lamb, that God saw on Passover day. When I see the
blood, when I see a sacrificed Lamb, picturing and offered by faith
in Him, who is the eternal Lamb." But you see, just in that word
Lamb, there's blood in there. The elders fell down before the
Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vows full of
odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new
song, saying, you're worthy. That's worship. What are they
doing there? They're worshiping God. That's what we're going
to do forever. We're just getting a little taste
of it here. And if it ain't sweet to you here, then it's not going
to be sweet to you there because you're not going to be there. God calls a holy convocation
this morning of His people together to do what they're doing right
there. Yes, with sinful hearts. Yes, with weaknesses. Yes, with insufficiency. Mixed with our
wretched sin But this is what we're going to do forever you're
worthy that's less worship attributing worthiness to God and let's see
what Why are they worshiping this one this land? For you were
slain Because you were slain Because you were killed because
you were sacrificed And When you were you redeemed us
to God by your blood Not every kindred tongue people
in nation, but out of every kindred tongue people and nation And
I want you to notice this and I I may just close with this Christ was slain and Don't ever read it any other
way. Don't ever think of it any other
way. The Gospel is not that Christ was slain and gave you a chance. The Gospel is this, and this
is why we attribute all worthiness to Him. This is why the angels
in heaven and the saints who gather around His throne attribute
worthiness to Him. Because He was slain and He wasn't just slain and that's
it. He wasn't just slain and here you go. He was slain and
has redeemed us unto God. That's why we worship him. And
you're not gonna worship him otherwise. You're not gonna do
it. You can call it that. I'm sure all religion is having
worship services this morning. If they believe in a Jesus that
did his best on the cross, they're not worshiping him. They're not
worshiping God. you're only going to worship
at the throne of the lamb who was slain and whose precious blood was enough
was enough whose precious blood actually redeemed those for whom
he shed it you come up with whatever Doctrine
you want to come up with and call it whatever you want to But the precious blood of God's
Son was shed for his people He said I lay down my life for my
sheep And what else does he say about them in John 10? They shall
never perish When you see that lamb, you're gonna worship. And
you're gonna worship all the time. When somebody dies, you're
gonna worship. When somebody's born, you're
gonna worship. When somebody gets married, you're gonna worship.
If everything goes wrong, everything that you feel strongly about
doesn't happen and it goes the other way, you're gonna worship.
When you see that lamb. He was slain in and this is where
worship happens now look at what else they did They fell down Before the lamb They fell down That's where worship
happens now, and it doesn't matter the earthly location Thomas fell at the feet The Lord
Jesus Christ didn't he now when he said my Lord and my God Where
are you Thomas? I'm at his feet I'm at his feet
You can't worship a false god that needs you and it's waiting
on you you can call it that but it's not worship You're worshiping
yourself Who's worthy of worship Your
God or the one that He needs, the one that He's waiting on
to actually get something done. Only the LORD, L-O-R-D, all caps,
can be worshipped. You can't worship a false God
that needs you. You can call it worship, but
what is it really? It's just entertainment and empty
rhetoric. Religious rituals. Notice the
language of Revelation 19.4. And you can turn there or not,
but I want to read to you 19.4 of Revelation. We're talking about we worship
God now. We don't worship ourselves. We don't worship a God of our
imagination. We worship God. Revelation 19.4. And we worship Him in our hearts,
not in our location. We worship Him all the time. 19.4 of Revelation, and the four
and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped
God. You see that next phrase? That
sat on the throne. That's the only one that can
be worshipped. Whoever is sitting on the throne now, you can say,
God is, Jesus is Lord. You can have a bumper sticker
on your truck. Jesus is Lord. Still you're Lord
in your heart over him You can feel sorry for the Jesus
who's begging and waiting on you, but you can't worship him Let me read Revelation 4 1 through
11 to you we will close with this Revelation 4 1 through 11, the whole chapter.
After this, John said, I looked, and behold, a door was opened
in heaven. And the first voice which I heard
was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up
hither, and I'll show you these things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit. What does our text say?
We worship him in spirit. That's got to be true. God's
got to revive your spirit. There's got to be a regeneration
of the spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is nothing but flesh and will never be anything but flesh.
You must be born again of the Spirit of God. And in the Spirit, behold, a
throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne. Somebody
was sitting on the throne And it wasn't me and it wasn't you
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 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 like unto crystal and in the
midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts
full of eyes before and behind we talked about all of this when
we went through revelation and just saw simply that this is
christ seven spirits just means that it's the perfect complete
Spirit of God, that He's everywhere all the time. And all of this
is significant of different things. But look at verse 7, And the
first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf,
the third beast had a face as a man, and the 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. What did David say about God
when the heathen asked him, where's your God? They could point to
their gods, idols of stone and wood, and say, here's what we
let them do. One of them rules the sky, you
know, and one of them is the God of the water, and one of
them does this and that. Where's your God, David? Remember
what he said? My God is in the heavens. How
would you identify God if you just had one phrase that you
could use? You know what David chose? He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And sure enough, everybody in
heaven says this, He's Lord God Almighty. He's God. He does as He pleases. He's Almighty. He's the Lord. He's the one that
owns you and has the power of deciding when it comes to you.
And He'll do with you what He will. And me too. That's where you worship. That's
where you worship. That's where you cry for mercy.
That's where you find mercy. And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before
Him that sat on the throne. How many times are we going to
be reminded in this one chapter that He sits on the throne? And what do they do? They fell
down before Him that sat on the throne and worship Him. And there's
not much I need to say about that. You see what worship is,
don't you? You see how that happens. Him
that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before
the throne saying, you're worthy. Always remember that's what worship
is. When you come into the building where the gospel is preached,
in your heart the whole time, what are you saying? You're worthy.
You're worthy. You're worthy to be praised.
You're worthy that we honor you in saving and not man's will. You're worthy that we recognize
and acknowledge that you're the first cause of everything. You're
worthy that we praise you for your mercy and grace in Christ,
that we praise you for that precious blood. You are 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. May God reveal himself to us
in the gospel in such a way that we quit playing. We gotta quit
playing. As long as we are worried about petty things
and petty disputes and petty divisions, as long as what we
call worship is something that we fit into our lives, instead of having the attitude
that, well, if I can fit a life into my worship, then I'll do
that. If not, then I won't. May God show His face and melt
it all away. All of the vanity that we call
life. May He be lifted up and draw us to Him. Amen. Let's pray.