We turn again to the portion
of scripture we were reading in the Gospel according to Saint
John. In chapter 4, where we read of Christ and the
Samaritan woman, We're told, aren't we, in verse 4 how he
must needs go through Samaria and then we see the reason for
that needs be in order that he might meet with this woman and
the conversation that Christ has with the woman and in many
ways it's a debate with regards to the worship of God. She was a woman Samaria and we
read here at verse 20 following of some detail of the conversation
as she says to the Lord in verse 20 our fathers worshipped in
this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye, that is, the Samaritans,
worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. for the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So I want to look in particular
at these two verses, 23 and 24, and the true worshipers, that
worship that is to be offered to gods under the gospel dispensation. I'm sure many of you are aware
of just who the Samaritans were. It was after the division of
the kingdom upon the death of King Solomon. Remember Rehoboam,
his son, behaved foolishly really and his behavior caused a division
and ten tribes in the north rebelled against the house of David and
chose a man called Jeroboam to be their king and so we have
the division just two tribes really in the south Judah and
Benjamin and they're loyal to the house of King David to the
line of David Rehoboam is the king but ten tribes in the north
and they established their capital at Samaria and in 1st Kings chapter
12 and there at verse 26 following we are told what King Jeroboam
did he was concerned that three times a year the people would
be wanting to go up to Jerusalem for the great feasts And he thought
that that would lead really to the demise of his new kingdom.
They would turn again to follow Rehoboam, so he set up golden
calves, we're told there in 1 Kings chapter 12, and he puts one in
Dan, puts the other one in Bethel, and he tells these people to
worship God by means of the golden calves. And that was a great
offense. to God. They were not to make
any images. But this is what began to take
place there in the Northern Kingdom. God had made it so abundantly
clear that Zion was the one place where he was to be worshipped. And we see it several times in
the language of the Psalmist, the opening Him that we sang
this evening, of course, is one of Isaac Watts' paraphrases of
the Psalms, and in many ways, it's based upon words that we
find in the 132nd Psalm. And there, at verse 13, we're
told, how the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for
his habitation. This is my rest for ever. Here
will I dwell, for I have desired it." There was one place, and
one place only, where they were to worship. And it was not in
the north, in the Mount of Samaria. It was to be in the Mount Zion. But in this discourse, the Lord
says something more. He indicates to this woman that
The whole form of the worship of the Old Testament is now passing
away. Verse 21, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, where
the Samaritans would worship, with their idols, nor yet at
Jerusalem. Not going to be in either of
these places. And then, In those words of the
text, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh
such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And so to say something with
regards to this gospel worship and the true worshipers. And there are two aspects of
God's nature that are mentioned here with regards to his worship. Worship of God is a vast subject.
We're only going to, as it were, scratch the surface a little
tonight. So just speaking of two particular
aspects that are so evident in the words that I've read for
our text. Here we learn two basic truths concerning the God we
worship. God is a spirit and the God who
is a spirit is a sovereign God. And I just want us for a little
while to think about those particular truths with regards to worship.
Firstly, God is a spirit. He doesn't have a body. He is
spoken of, isn't he, as the invisible God. the Lord Jesus is the image
as we see him in the incarnation we see well we don't see him
but we hear him as a man but he is the image of the invisible
God and there in 1 Timothy 1.17 Paul speaks of the King eternal
immortal invisible the only wise God Again later in that same epistle
to Timothy in chapter 6 and verse 16 he speaks of him who only
hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach
unto whom no man hath seen, neither can see. God then is invisible,
he's a spirit. And it's made clear When God
enters into covenant with the children of Israel, when He takes
them to Mount Sinai and sets before them the Ten Commandments,
and tells them how they are to worship Him, it's quite clear
that they're not to make any graven images. That's the Second
Commandment. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, any likeness of anything in the heavens above,
or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth, and not
to make any image, and certainly not to make golden calves." Because
that was the great sin that they committed even whilst Moses was
in the mount. receiving instruction from God
40 days and 40 nights and they're wearied of waiting for Him and
Aaron in his foolishness makes a golden calf and tells them
they can worship God through the golden calf. You can see
why Jeroboam thought of golden calves and setting one up at
Dan and the other one at Bethel. And it's interesting because
you remember when the Ten Commandments are repeated the beginning of
Deuteronomy chapter 5 or in the course of chapter 5 After 40 years of wilderness
wanderings they're now on the borders of the Promised Land
and they're about to enter into that land and Moses begins to
recount something of the Lord and the Lord's ways and we have
a second rendering of the Ten Commandments in chapter 5 of
Deuteronomy. But in the previous chapter We
see something of the reason behind the second commandment where
they are told not to make any images. And the reason is quite elementary we might say.
Deuteronomy 4 verses 15 and 16. Moses says, the Lord commanded
me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you
might do them in the land with you you go over to possess it.
take therefore good heed unto yourselves for ye saw no manner
of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb
out of the midst of the fire lest ye corrupt yourselves and
make you a graven image the similitude of any figure, the likeness of
male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth,
the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness
of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any
fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. They are told and
they saw, they didn't see God. No man can see God and live.
And so they're not to imagine that they can make some image
that will help them in the worship of the true God. They didn't
see Him. And of course, we know in the
New Testament that it is only Christ who is the image of the
invisible gods but how is it the image of the invisible god
in the sense that he is god man the great mystery of godliness
god was manifest in the flesh so god is there in human form
but it's interesting we have no description of the physical
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ we're not told are we? anything with regards to the
color of his eyes, the color of his hair and we appeared we
know that his visage was marred more than any man's and his form more than the sons
of men he was a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief,
that's all we know but that's all to do with his human form,
he is a man, he is a real man And yet is true almighty God. The great wonder, the great mystery
of Godliness. God manifest in the flesh. The
God himself is a spirit. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The three persons in the one
Godhead. God is a spirit. Well, there's the basic truth
with regards to worship. What is the Lord saying here?
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. And then in the previous verse,
of course, the Father seeketh such to worship Him. We are to worship Him according
to what He Himself says with regards to His worship. And so,
coming to our second point this evening, that God is Sovereign.
God is Sovereign, and it's indicated, isn't it, by the fact that this
God is to receive worship, the true worshippers. How do they worship the Father?
They worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, the word that
we have to worship, the verb that is used here, means to do
reverence, to make obeisance, to be cast down, as it were,
to be humble. And what do we see with regards
to the experience of John, the Divine, there in the opening
chapter of the book of the Revelation, when he sees the glorified Christ. How does he worship? I fell down
at his feet, hasn't he? That's worship. I fell down at
his feet. He did obeisance. He's humbled
to the dust before the glorified Christ. This God, you see, is a sovereign
God. As we've said previously, if God is not sovereign, he's
no God at all. And God has said that as he is
a spirit, his worship must be spiritual in its very nature. But that worship must also be
according to truth. Whose truth? Well, God's truth. the sovereign dictates the way
in which men are to serve him and to worship him and so as
we think of God's sovereignty I want to think in terms of the
worship that was required under the Old Testament and then the
worship that we are required to give him under the New Testament
because there's a difference there is a difference Remember
when God entered into Covenant, He gives the Ten Commandments,
He speaks the words Himself. They hear the thunder as God
descends upon the mountain, He speaks. And He speaks those Ten
Words or those Ten Commandments. But then subsequently they are
so overwhelmed that they don't want God to speak anymore they
want Moses to be their mediator they want Moses to stand between
them and God and that is Moses the Lord is given by Moses in
that sense in chapter 20 of Exodus we have
the Ten Commandments and then at the end of the chapter verse
19 they say to Moses speak thou with us And we were here, but
let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the
people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his
fear may be before your faces, that ye see not. And the people
stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that
I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods
of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. An altar
of earth thou shalt make unto me. and shall sacrifice thereon
thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and
thine oxen. In all places where I record
my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if
thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it
of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast
polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. how
solemn it is then to worship this great God and Moses eventually
is in the mount and he's receiving all those laws all that regulation
with regards to the building of the tabernacle and the furnishings
of the tabernacle and all the various laws that they are to
observe all the dietary laws and so forth and everything that God requires
of them if they are going to be his people they are going
to be a people who are distinct from every other people on the
face of the earth And with regards to the worship of God in the
tabernacle and those furnishings, how many times do we read there
in those closing chapters of Exodus? Look that thou make them
after their pattern which was showed to thee in the mount.
It's repeated time and time again. Chapter 25 verse 9, chapter 26
verse 30, you can go through or take a concordance down and
see how many times God gives that instruction to Moses according
to the pattern which he showed unto thee in the mount. So what do we see with regards
to that Old Testament worship? Two things in particular it certainly
was typical its truth set before them in
types and in figures and of course the book of the New Testament
that helps us so much with regards to all that God is telling them
there in the Old Testament is the book of Hebrews for example
in Hebrews chapter 8 and there at verses 4 and 5 he's speaking
of the Old Testament priests, and
contrasting really that with Christ and the New Covenant. It says in verse 4 here, if he
were on earth, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, he is a priest,
he has accomplished his priestly work. by making the great one
sacrifice for sins forever, and now he has ascended on high and
entered into heaven. He's a praying priest. If he
were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there
are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve
unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle,
for see, saith he, that they make all things according to
the pattern shown in the mounts. It was typical really, the sacrifices, their foreshadowing,
that that will come in the fullness of the time. The body, of course,
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, in that same epistle,
and in the opening verses of the 10th chapter, what do we
find the apostle declaring? He speaks of the law having a
shadow of good things to come. and not the very image of the
things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the commerce thereon too perfect for then
would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers
once purged should have had no more conscience of sins but in
those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year
for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. All those ceremonies, all those
sacrifices, they're typical. There is to be an anti-type.
They're foreshadowing the bodies of Christ. He will fulfill all
of those things. And in Colossians, in Colossians
Chapter 2 and verse 17 Paul declares quite plainly a shadow of things
to come but the body is of Christ and we know the significance
of course of what is happening in the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ because it marks the end of all those Old Testament types
the veil is rent in two. And the way now is opened up
into the Holy of Holies. All that was prefigured there
is now fulfilled, all is finished. There is no more any place for
typical worship, no more any sacrifices for sins. But that
Old Testament worship was not only Typical, it was also physical
in a certain sense. And again Hebrews, Hebrews chapter
9, the opening verse. We read then, Verily the first
covenant had also ordinances of divine worship and a worldly
sanctuary. the First Covenant, the Old Testament
Covenant. It has a worldly sanctuary. And the word that's used there
literally means the sanctuary pertaining to this world. I like the remark of Calvin,
the great Protestant reformer of course, commenting here. He says, the worship of the law,
Old Testament worship, was spiritual in substance. All true worship
is spiritual. That's the very essence of the
worship. God is a spirit. The true worshippers worship
Him in spirit. The worship of the Lord says
Calvin was spiritual in substance but it was carnal and earthly
in form. Now what does that mean? Well,
it was a worship that really appealed to the senses. It's carnal in that sense. There's
something to see. There's something to touch, really. There's something to smell. There's ritual. There's ceremony. There's incense. All of these
things. There's music, there's dancing. We read of these things, don't
we? We read of them in the closing books of the Psalter. Remember what we have there as
we come to the last two Psalms, 149 and 150. We certainly read
there of much dancing and musical instruments
and the like. Psalm 149. Verse 3, let them
praise His name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto Him
with the timbrel and harp. And then we have it even more
so in the very last of the Psalms. there in verse 3 of Psalm 150.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with
the psalter and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise Him with string instruments and organs. Praise
Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sounding
cymbals. And there are those of course
who appeal to such verses and say, look we can do all of this
in worship. We can have dancing and it's
not improper. Well, That's all part and parcel
of a worship that was physical and typical. If we can have those
aspects of it, well, we can also have the sacrifices. It's all
of a piece. That is Old Testament worship.
You know, even David danced, didn't they? You remember when
they were bringing the Ark up to Jerusalem to put it in the
tabernacle? David had removed it now from
Shiloh And he wants it there in Mount Zion, God has chosen
Zion, above all the dwellings in Israel. And how David rejoices
and David dances there in 2 Samuel chapter 6, but read it through,
it's so significant. How does David dance? He was
dressed in a linen ephod. Every word of God is pure. Every
word of God is important. Why is he dressed in a linen
ephod? Well, the linen ephod is really
the garb of the priest. We're told, aren't we, Odoic
killed 85 priests wearing ephods. That was the garb of the priest.
In a sense, although David was not a priest, it's a priestly
act. it's part and parcel of the worship
of God it's not just dancing but it's part of the whole of
that worship that worship of the Old Testament that is certainly
spiritual because God is a spirit but in its form it's typical,
it's foreshadowing something and more than that it's It's
physical, it has an appeal to the senses, it excites the senses. But how different is New Testament
worship? And it is that worship that is
really instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ has authority. to order a new form of worship. And do we not see who this person
is that's speaking to the Samaritan woman? He can say to her, the
hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father. He is engaged in a work that
the Father has given him to perform. The true worshippers, he says,
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. They that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. What is the truth?
Well, it's that that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches.
He is the way, the truth and the life. That great I am statement
in John 14 here. I am the way, the truth and the
life. He is the Messiah. He is the
Christ. He is the Son of God. And this
woman seems to recognize this so clearly. Come see a man which
told me all things that ever I did. He's not, he's the Christ
she says. And what does the Lord Himself
say? He is the Christ, the Son of Man. The Son of Man is Lord
also of the Sabbath. Why He can even change the commandment
of God? The law of the Old Testament
says that the Sabbath, the seventh day
Sabbath is to be observed as a day of
rest, but Christ has changed the day. Under the Gospel, which
day do we observe? We observe the first day of the
week. That's not inappropriate. If that first Sabbath of the
Old Testament marked the completion of a great work, the work of
creation, how God made all things out of nothing in six days and
rest on the seventh day, why isn't the work that Christ has
accomplished a greater work, the work of redemption how he
has come and finished the transgression and made an end of sin and made
reconciliation for iniquity and brought in everlasting righteousness
and sealed the vision and the prophecy and he rises again the
first day of the week And we observe that day in remembrance
of the accomplishment of a greater work than ever was marked by
that Old Testament Sabbath. So under the Gospel then we we gather to worship God on the
first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day we call
it. Now because the Lord changes
things, it doesn't mean that we have liberty to do as we please
with regards to the worship of God that there are no laws regarding
our worship we mustn't confuse gospel liberty with the confusion
that many would want to bring into the services of God's house.
Remember again what Christ says in the gospel concerning the
Jews, albeit in vain, they do worship, teaching the doctrines
of men. That's the Jews, they were imposing their traditions upon
the Lord of Gods they spread all that tradition
of scribes and pharisees and by that they really perverted
what God had commanded in the Old Testament in vain do they
worship teaching the doctrines of men Paul again writing to the Galatians
can speak of a show of wisdom in will-worship when men would
do what they would do, please themselves, with regard to the
manner of worship. How we need, when we come to
worship God under the Gospel, be aware that it is a greater
thing that we do than was ever done under the Old Testament.
And isn't that really the point that Paul is making again in
that epistle to the Hebrews. In chapter 12, he draws a contrast,
doesn't he, between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. It's very solemn,
really, what he says concerning the latter, worshipping God under
the Gospel, Mount Zion. He says there in verse 22 of
Hebrews 12, Ye are come unto Manzion, unto the city of the
living God, the heaven of Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels, the general assembly, and church of the firstborn.
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the blood of sprinkling,
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. And he says then,
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape
not who refused him that spake on earth, he's speaking of Sinai,
much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven. Oh, it's a more solemn thing.
How all our worship must be marked with due reverence. How the children
of Israel were filled with awe at Mount Sinai. Oh, they were afraid. What do
we know of the fear of the Lord as we come together to worship? There's to be reverence in all
that worship under the New Testament Scriptures. And then of course
another mark of that worship under the New Testament is what
we might term the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. 2nd Corinthians 11 through the
simplicity or there's a plainness, there's a simplicity there's
not that ceremony and ritual that's appealing to the senses
anymore worship is now not tied to any
particular place And we're not to be those who feel obliged
to observe special days and the like. All that is gone. Again, we see it, don't we, in
the way in which Paul addresses those churches of Galatia. Remember
what he says in the fourth chapter, and there at verses 9, 10 and
11. Now after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, out turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage,
ye observe days and months and times and years, I am afraid
of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." All
is different you see. And of course the great important
element in the New Testament worship is the heart even when it comes to the singing of the praises of God speaking to yourselves in Psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in
your heart it says in Ephesians, Ephesians 5.19 but I like a similar statement
that we have in the epistle to the Colossians in Colossians
chapter 3 he speaks about the word of God is dwelling in our
hearts when we come to that worship let the word of Christ that the
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing
one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs making singing with grace in your heart
to the Lord not making melody singing with grace in your heart
to the Lord the word of Christ should be in all our worship
He is the very center of course of all our worship We'll sing
just now that lovely hymn of Heart 789, Worship God then in
His Son. How else can we worship God?
Worship God then in His Son. There is love and there alone. And I do have to say this, I
like the way what's in his paraphrases of the Psalms is simply concerned
to Christianize the Psalms Psalm 72 he Christianizes it, doesn't
he? Jesus shall reign where'er the
psalms doth his successive journeys round his kingdom stretch from
shore to shore till time shall wax and wane no more he brings
Christ into the Psalms. Christ is there in the Psalms.
Of course he is. So many of them are messianic.
But we don't have the name of Christ. But our Christ is to
be that one who is at the very center of all our worship. He's
the only mediator. One God. One mediator between
God and man. How interesting is this discourse
that we find here as the Lord speaks with this woman. The hour cometh, he says, and
now is. Oh, that hour has come. Christ
has accomplished all his work. And when we gather, what do we
gather to do? We gather to worship God in his Son. The true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. It is what the Father delights
in. God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. O God, help us then that we might
render those praises that are pleasing in his sight, that we
might worship him in a manner that becomes that one who has
revealed himself to us now fully and finally in Christ, the image
of the invisible God. The Lord be pleased then to bless
his word to us.