Okay, let's look back at Ecclesiastes
chapter 5. And as I said, I've entitled
this message from the first seven verses of Ecclesiastes 5, Fulfillment
in Worship. Somebody might ask why this section
is here, because Solomon, as you know, he'd been really majoring
on the issue of the vanity, the worthlessness of life under the
sun. showing that the only way that
man, sinful fallen man, can attain fulfillment and completeness
and ultimately salvation is by the grace of God in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. That man's only hope to rise
above the sun in this issue of vanity and find find the reality
of eternity is to be connected to a holy God, His Creator, but
not only His Creator, His Savior, through that connection of that
great and glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the accomplishment
of His work on Calvary for our sins. And we who are sinners
and subject to the vanity of life under the sun, and you know,
even we as believers, we can see that. I mean, you see it,
don't you? As you grow older, especially,
you can see the vanity of life on this earth. How fleeting it
is, how quickly the good days go by. Things that we put so
much value on in our youth just have absolutely no value now,
do they? If you think about it. Things
that we just were so involved in. And now we look back on it
and say, well, I should have spent my time a little better.
But we know also God's in control. There's a time for everything.
That's what Ecclesiastes 3 said. But we who are sinners and subject
to the vanity of life under the sun can only rise above it as
we are saved by God's grace in Christ and brought to do what
I believe is the most important thing that a believer can do
here on this earth. And that's to worship God and
to serve God in newness of spirit. And this thing of worship is
one of the most important. Somebody said it's the most important,
but it's certainly one of the most important things that a
believer, a sinner saved by grace, can be involved in and engaged
in, that you can hear about and learn about. And we have to be
taught not only to serve God aright, but to worship God. And
worshiping God is more than just entering the door of a building,
sitting in a pew, opening up a hymn book, and opening up your
Bible. It really is. Those things are certainly involved,
and there's nothing wrong with those things if they're done
the right way in the right spirit under the preaching of the truth.
But this is an important thing that we need to understand. And
I believe this is what Solomon, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
is showing us here, that As we look at all the vanity of this
life, the injustices of this life, and as man is seeking fulfillment,
which he can only find by revelation from God, that the most important
thing we can do in this life is to worship God. Now, before
I get into these verses, I want to show you two verses about
worship in the New Testament that I think are so important.
And you need to have these marked. Memorize them if you want to.
Learn them, certainly. The first one is Philippians
3. I've often said that if you want
a concise, simple definition of what a Christian is, look
at this verse. Philippians 3. And verse 3, and
let me give you just a little bit about the context. What the
Apostle Paul is doing here in writing to the church at Philippi,
he is combating those false, self-righteous Jewish professors
who claim that in order for a sinner to really be saved, especially
a Gentile, that they had to be circumcised with the circumcision
of the flesh, the circumcision of the law. Like the male child
on the 8th day. And so, Paul exposes them for
what they are. He says in verse 1 of chapter
3, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same
things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. Now, he's describing there those
false, self-righteous Jewish professors who were preaching
that a sinner had to be circumcised in order to be saved. He called
them dogs. He called them evil workers.
Some of the most moral men and most sincere men of their day.
He called them the concision. We know what fleshly circumcision
is. Well, the concision is just like
a play on words for that. He's saying mutilation. They're
mutilators. In other words, if they get you
to be circumcised, all they're doing is just mutilating you.
He said it in Galatians chapter 5 this way. He said, if you be
circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. In other words,
if you do that in order to be saved or to be made righteous,
then you're denying Christ. But what's the reality? Now look
at verse 3. He says, for we are the circumcision. What's he talking
about? Well, the circumcision was a
way of referring in the Old Testament to the children of God. And he's
not talking about physical circumcision there in verse 3. He's talking
about spiritual circumcision. You can read about that in Romans
2, verses 28 and 29. I won't turn back there, we don't
have time. But read about that spiritual
circumcision. Now, what is spiritual circumcision?
It's the new birth. Christ said, you must be born
again. It's just another metaphor, another way of referring to the
new birth. It's the cutting away of the
filth of the flesh of the heart, you see. And when a sinner is
born again by the Spirit of God, what happens to them? They're
convinced of sin, that I'm a sinner, that I have nothing to recommend
me unto God. I deserve nothing but damnation.
I've earned nothing but damnation. And the best works that I can
do cannot save me or make me righteous or earn me God's favor
and blessings. Now that's the cutting away of
the filth of the flesh of the heart. Right there. And I'm driven
to Christ. I'm convinced of righteousness.
Where am I going to find righteousness? In Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. Only place, only person I'm going
to find righteousness in. My whole righteousness before
God is Christ. and convinced of judgment." What
does that mean? That means that all my sins were
judged and paid for in full at Calvary, in Christ, when he died,
and shed his blood as payment. Now, those who believe that have
been born again. So what is he saying? You've
been spiritually circumcised. So he says, we are the circumcision. We're the children of God. Now,
notice what's the first thing he says that evidences spiritual
circumcision. Look at it. Which what? We worship
God. That's the first thing he said.
That's the first evidence. You worship God. But not that
you just go through motions. Not that you just show up on
Sunday or Wednesday. But you do it in a particular
way. Which? Worship God in the Spirit. In the Spirit. Alright? And I believe that has two connotations. Number one, we think about in
the Spirit as being from the heart. This is a heart worship. It's not outward ceremonies.
It's not pomp and circumstance. It's not with physical, visual
aids. We don't need statues. We don't
need crosses to hold up. We don't need any of those things
because we worship in the Spirit from the heart, and God is Spirit.
I'm going to show you that in the next verse. And then secondly,
we worship God not as we think Him to be, not as we imagine
Him to be, not as we reason Him to be, but we worship God as
He says He is. We worship God as He reveals
Himself. I hear these guys all the time
arguing against God's sovereignty. Well, God says He's sovereign. Now, if you're going to worship
God in the Spirit, you're going to worship Him as a sovereign
God. You know why? Because that's what He says about
Himself. Now, you might find old Dr. So-and-so,
who's got a degree from such-and-such a seminary, who's saying, well,
that's not so. But you say, I'm going to worship
God as God says He is, in the Word. God says He's holy. God says He's merciful. He's
gracious. All of those things. in Christ. So this is it. We worship God
in the Spirit and then here's the next thing. You can't worship
God in the Spirit except you rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now
that word rejoice there is an interesting word. It doesn't
mean to be happy. It doesn't even mean to joy.
Now we certainly can be happy in Christ and we can certainly
have joy in Christ. In fact, the book of Philippians
said that elsewhere. Some people kind of label the
book of Philippians that way. It's the book of joy. And that
is speaking of happiness. But this word is a different
word. It's translated in another way in the book of Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 14. Paul in Galatians 6 and verse
14 says this, God forbid that I should glory. Same word that's
translated rejoice here. That means to boast. That's what
he's talking about. It's a term of assurance. It's
a term of confidence. God forbid that I should glory,
that I should boast, or that I should have assurance and confidence
save or except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other
words, my boast and my confidence and my glory and my assurance
of salvation is not in my works, not in my pedigree, not in my
promises, Not in my baptism. It's not in anything I do or
am or think or anything that proceeds from me. It's in the
finished work of Christ. Now, what he's saying here is
that we who worship God in the Spirit, we glory in Christ Jesus. He is our boast. Let's brag on
Him. You see, you go to these church
services where they brag on people. God forbid that I should brag
on anyone but Christ, Jesus, my Lord and Savior. We're not
here to brag on me or to brag on anybody. We're here to brag
on Christ, to boast in Him, to find our assurance and our peace
and our salvation and our righteousness and our own glory in Him. Now,
you can't worship God except by glorying in Christ. And then
he says, we have no confidence in the flesh. That confidence
there is virtually the same kind of word that is rejoicing. We
have confidence in Christ. We have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence in self. Now that's the first verse. Turn
to John chapter 4 now. Here's the second one I wanted
to show you. So important. And they all go together. You
can't leave one element out. See, if you don't glory in Christ,
you can forget worshiping God in the Spirit. You may be going
through some motions, and it may look good to men, and they
may admire you for it, and they may give you the key to the city,
but you're not worshiping God. Not the true and living God.
You can worship idols any way you want. And that's what I say,
we don't need these visual aids like that. We just need the Word
of God that points us to Christ. And let me tell you something. This Christ that we preach, He
can't be struck by lightning and burned down. And He don't
cost you $300,000 to put out in front of your church. And
plus, that's not a statue of Jesus. It's a statue of somebody
else, some concoction in some man's mind. If you want to know
who Christ is and what He's like, read the Bible. He said, you
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. They are they which testify of me. We don't know what He
looked like physically, and I'll tell you what, I'm glad. Aren't
you? Because that's not the issue.
But look at John 4, now here he's talking to the woman at
the well. And look at verse 24, verses 24 and 25. Well, I mean
verses 23 and 24, I'm sorry. And he tells her, he says, the
hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers, now that's what
I want to be, how about you? I want to be a true worshiper.
He says, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now,
there's that worship the Father. You don't even know God as Father
without Christ. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, Christ said, John 14, 6. I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. And he says, shall worship the
Father in spirit, that is, from the heart, sincerely, and in
truth. where the gospel is preached,
where Christ is preached, where the truth is preached. Now listen
to this. This ought to just amaze you. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. That's what God the Father seeks.
But now go on, verse 24. God is Spirit. It says, a Spirit. God is Spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Now,
with that in mind, go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Now,
all this is expressed by the wise man Solomon as he's inspired
by the Spirit in these areas of worship. And I want to give
you just a few things here briefly about worship. I think I've got
about four things here. And here's the first one. Number
one, worship, true worship, sincere worship. requires reverence and
respect unto God. That's number one. Verse one
of Ecclesiastes 5, he says, keep thy foot when thou goest to the
house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice
of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. What does
that mean, keep your foot? It means watch your step. Guard
your steps. Now, he's not just talking about
how you walk physically, or how you walk down an aisle. He's
talking about your conversation, your conduct, when you come into
the place of worship. The house of God, that's the
family of God, that's the assembly of which Christ is the ground
and the foundation and the builder of. He said, upon this rock I'll
build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against
it. You see, you walk how you think. And God, by His Spirit,
has to change our thinking, has to change our heart. That's why
you cannot worship God until you're born again by the Spirit.
We are the circumcision which worship God. You see, an unbeliever
cannot worship the true and living God. He can go through the motions.
He can outwardly appear to be a worshiper, but he can't worship
from the heart. It takes the circumcised heart.
It takes the spirit of a man, the inner man, that's what the
scripture says, the inner being, with the mind, with the affections,
and with the will. And so, however your thoughts
and your heart is toward the true and living God, that's how
you're going to walk. And what he's saying when he
says, keep your foot, he's talking about that you come to the house
of God to worship with respect to God, with reverence to God,
in the fear of the Lord. You know, whenever God reveals
Himself to His people, They will come as they see His glory in
the face of Jesus Christ. Look over at Isaiah chapter 6
with me. You're familiar with this passage,
every one of you. Isaiah chapter 6. This is when
Isaiah saw the Lord. And he's speaking of his own
conversion here. In chapter 6 of Isaiah, verse
1, it says, "...in the year that King Uzziah died." Now, you remember
why Uzziah died? Remember what happened to Isaiah? He didn't die immediately, but
you remember what happened to him? He was struck with leprosy.
And you remember what he did? He went into the holy place.
Not the holiest of all, but he went into the holy place. You
remember in the temple, or the old tabernacle, which became
the temple, you had the outer court there. And anybody could
go into the outer court, but then you had the holy place and
only the Levitical priests could go in there. That's where the
table of showbread was. That's where the labor was. That's where the golden candlestick
was. And then on the very center,
the very innermost chamber was the holiest of all, where the
Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. Well, Uzziah, he went into
the holy place where he was not supposed to go. You know what
he didn't do? He didn't keep his foot when
he went into the house of God. He didn't guard his steps. He
didn't reverence the Lord God. Because God said only the priest
could go in there. That's it. And then in the innermost,
only the high priest could go in there one time a year. And
only with the blood. But Uzziah didn't respect God.
He didn't reverence God. I'm sure he had good intentions.
And you know what it was? He was lifted up with pride at
the success and the prosperity of his own kingdom and his own
kingship. And so he took it upon himself
to go into the holy place where he was not supposed to go. And
the Lord struck him with leprosy and he lived the rest of his
days in isolation as a leper. And here Isaiah, and they say
Isaiah was related to King Uzziah, I believe Isaiah was of the royal
court. But it says in the year, and
I lost my place, it's Isaiah chapter 6. Alright, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
See, these are all expressions of the holy glory of God. 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." God's holy. Most commentators will agree
that that's a reference to the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. One God in three persons, but
all holy. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke, filled with the glory of God. Then said I, woe is me,
for I am undone, literally I am cut off, alienated from God. I have no approach to God, no
right to God, no goodness before God. Because I'm a man of unclean
lips, he says, and not only me, I'm not alone in this thing.
We all fell in Adam. We're all ruined in Adam. I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. Keep your foot when you go into
the house of God. Then he says, then flew one of
the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand. That's
the picture of purging here. And where did he get that live
coal? Now listen to this, which he had taken with the tongs from
off the altar. That's the altar of sacrifice.
That's the altar where God's justice is satisfied by the blood
of the sacrifice, the blood of the Lamb. And that live coal
that purges our lips, our very persons from all sin comes from
off that altar of sacrifice through the blood. That's a picture of
Christ. He is my altar, He is my sacrifice,
He is the one who by Himself purged our sins. Hebrews chapter
1. And then it says, He laid it
upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Think about it. Turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Back
in the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, when the tabernacle
and the temple of old stood, how did they worship God? In
those temporal ways. In those ceremonial ways. What
he tells us here, in Hebrews chapter 9, he talks about the
tabernacle of old. Look at verse 1. In verily the
first covenant, that's the Old Covenant, first in time. had
also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. It was
an earthly covenant given to an earthly people. There was
a tabernacle made. The first, wherein was the candlestick
and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.
That's the holy place. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, that's where
the Ark of the Covenant was. He says it had the golden censer,
the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid round about with gold. Everything
about this was picturing something, some aspect of the person, the
offices, and the finished work of Christ now. When was the golden
pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables
of the Covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing
the mercy seat? You see, Christ is our mercy
seat. That's why we don't have a literal tabernacle temple today. of which we cannot now speak
particularly. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, the priests always, went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God. That's the holy place. All
the priests went in there. They attended to the table of
showbread, and the golden candlesticks, and the altar, the golden labor,
where they washed. But look at verse 7. But into
the second went the high priest alone. Once every year, underscore
this in your Bible. without blood. I'm going to tell
you something. One of the most important things
you can ever learn about worship, and keeping your foot when you
come into the house of God, is don't you dare come without blood. You say, well, preacher, what
are you saying? Am I to go out here and get a lamb and split
its throat and come in here all bloody and everything? Oh, no.
Oh, no. We don't have that literal blood
now. I'll never forget, y'all remember Brother David Adkins.
He and his wife, they started listening to Brother Henry on
television. And David decided he was going to read through
the Bible. He just started Genesis. And when he got up through the
book of Leviticus, he told his wife, he said, you know, if this
book's true, we ought to be out here sacrificing lambs. If this
book's true, And then he turned on Brother Henry, and Henry's
message on TV that morning was, Behold the Lamb of God. And he
showed how Christ is the fulfillment of all those physical lambs that
were slain on Jewish altars. And how we don't need to do that
anymore. We have the blood of Christ. And so what am I talking
about when I say when you or I come into the house of God,
keep our feet Guard our step. Don't come without blood. Don't
come without knowing that you're washed in the blood of Christ
from all your sins. Don't come without having on
your mind and your heart that your whole salvation is in the
blood and the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only right I have to stand here and preach the gospel to
you. That's the only right you have to be sitting there hearing
it and worshiping in spirit and in truth. We're under the blood.
Under the blood of Christ, under the blood of Jesus, Jehovah our
Savior, we have no right or title. We have no goodness or righteousness
but the blood of the crucified one. That's what I'm talking
about. Not without blood. Verse 7, he says, which he offered
for himself and for the heirs of the people. All of that. He's talking about this Old Covenant. But there was a time of change.
Verse 10 speaks of it. A time of reformation. And now
he says things have changed now. Verse 11. But Christ being come
and High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle. What is that greater and more
perfect tabernacle? It's His body. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.14. You know what the
literal translation of that word dwelt is? Tabernacle. The glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ. Remember Isaiah, he saw in the
temple the fullness of the glory of God. You want to see the fullness
of the glory of God now? Look to Christ. Look to the crucified,
the risen Christ. Keep your foot when you come
into the house of God. You follow His steps. You look
to Him and rest in Him by faith. Now, we could go on and on with
that, but look back at Ecclesiastes now. See, this is what worship's
all about. This is it. This is why we're
here. All true worship is worship of
God by faith in Christ. Christ is our altar of sacrifice. Christ's blood is the labor in
which we're cleansed. Christ is the bread of life,
the manna, the table of showbread. Christ's intercession, that's
our incense that went up unto God. Christ is our ark of testimony. Christ is our sacrifice, our
Paschal Lamb. Christ is our great High Priest.
Christ is God in present with us. God with us. His name shall be called Immanuel.
We are the circumcision. We worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. He says here in verse 1, he says, be more ready to
hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. The sacrifice of fools
could refer to any act or ceremony or talk, speech, sermon, message,
discussion that does not lift up Christ and adhere to the written
word of God. That's the sacrifice of fools.
Somebody got into a Sunday school class at a church one time And
he was going to listen to the Sunday school lesson, and the
first thing the Sunday school teacher did, he said, now I'm
going to read a verse, and I want to go around the room, and you
all give me your opinion on it. Now, my friend, that's the sacrifice
of fools. I'm telling you. I don't want
your opinion, and I'm not giving you my opinion. Now, some people
may argue that point. Let them argue. We preach Christ. Sacrifice of fools could be any
attempt at worship without faith in Christ, without grace, without
heart, without knowledge, without spirit, or worship with the aid
of the flesh, icons, statues, visual aids that keep your mind
away from the truth. Our Lord spoke of it. when he
spoke of the hypocrites of which Isaiah himself prophesied, saying,
This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. He said,
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Remember Samuel's words to Saul
when Saul disobeyed God, and he brought back that which he
was forbidden to bring back, and he offered them unto the
Lord. covered it up by saying, I'm giving it to the Lord, and
he even built an altar. And here's what Samuel told Saul.
Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold,
he said, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than
the fad of rams. That's what Solomon is saying.
Look at verse 2, he says, Be not rast with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God,
for God is in heaven. He says, God's in heaven and
you're on earth, therefore let thy words be few. Here's what
he's saying, we don't need to hear the opinions of men, we
need to hear from God. God's in heaven. Revelation comes
from above. It doesn't come from below. We
can't figure it out. It's all vanity down here. We
can discuss it and cuss it and end up arguing over it. But all
it'll do is divide and make men and women weaker. Take them away
from Christ. God's in the heaven. We need
to hear from God. That's what we need to hear.
Here's the second thing. He says worship requires hearing
God's Word with a heart and mind towards obedience. When he says
in verse 1, be more ready to hear, that doesn't mean just
to hear with the physical ear. That means to hear with submission. It means to hear and mean to
obey. That's what he's talking about.
Revelation and truth and wisdom come from God, not from man.
And listen, verse 3, he says, For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by the multitude
of words. You know what he means by that? When your mind's all
at a kilter and you've been working here and working there and it's
coming from troubles and thoughts and ideas are coming from north,
south, east and west, what happens? You don't sleep well. You dream.
Nightmares maybe. And that's an evidence that the
business here, the multitude of business, you're just over-involved,
you've got too many irons in the fire, that's what he means
by that. He said, well, just as you know that those dreams
and that lack of sleep is evidence of somebody who's too busy for
their own good, you'll know a fool by the evidence of he's got a
lot to say. Many, many words. Many words. What's the point? What's he talking
about? He's simply saying this. In worship,
we need to preach God's word. We don't need psychology and
philosophy and doctrines of men. We need God's word. That's why
I preach God's word. That's why I preach the verse
by verse like I do. Here's the third thing. Worship
requires sincerity and honesty. Look at verse four. When thou
vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it. For he hath no
pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it
that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not
pay. He says, Suffer not thy mouth
to cause thy flesh to sin. In other words, don't say things
with your mouth that you're not going to do. He says, Neither
say thou before the angel. The angel there is the messenger
that God sends in worship. You don't have to come up here
and make promises to me. the messenger, the preacher,
the pastor, the teacher that you don't intend to keep or that
you can't keep, you don't need to do that. He says, neither
say thou before the messenger that it was in error, wherefore
should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine
hands. Many people make vows and oaths and promises they either
know they cannot keep or never intend to keep. Incidentally,
a couple of you asked me about in James where it talks about
don't make a vow. And ask me about that, is there
any situation where we can make vows or take oaths? And there
is. What James is talking about,
keep it in the context now, what James is talking about is when
you're in trouble, making those oaths as if that confirms your
salvation and assures it. Because there's nothing that
will confirm or assure our salvation except one thing, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You don't need
a vow for that or another. But we'll take those. We take
those in the courtrooms, where to tell the truth. There's nothing
wrong with that. And we make promises, especially in worship.
There's a lot of people who come to worship service and they walk
out on cloud nine saying, boy, I promise I'm going to do this.
Nothing wrong with that if you keep it. That's what he's saying. Don't do that. Worship requires
sincerity and honesty. Now, sincerity in and of itself
is not an indicator of salvation. The Jews were sincere, but they
were ignorant of God's righteousness. They wouldn't submit to Christ.
But you be sincere and honest. Those who worship God in spirit
and truth are to be sincere and honest, honest about ourselves
and honest about salvation by God's grace in Christ. And then
lastly, look here, worship requires fear of God. Look at verse 7.
He says, For in the multitude of dreams and many words there
are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. When we come together
to worship, the dreams, the visions, the words of men mean nothing. That's all vanity. And you ask
what people like to hear, that'll get a crowd. I had a dream. I saw a vision. I'm going to
tell you about the future. It's all vanity. But when we
come in the fear of the Lord, it's true worship. Now, what
is that fear of the Lord? That doesn't mean being afraid
of God. It means reverencing, respect, and worshiping God. We come to hear from God. Hear
His Word. And that's worship. Fear God.
Those who fear God run to Christ and lift Him up and rest in Him
and serve Him. We worship God in the Spirit
and we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh. So the God of glory, as John 4 told us, is seeking a
people to worship Him in spirit and truth. Worship Him upon the
basis of a blood atonement. Don't come without blood. Don't
come without Christ. Worship Him in the power of His
Spirit, and the Spirit will always drive us to Christ, won't it?
Worship Him with a heart of faith, believing God's Word. Worship
Him looking to Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith.