John chapter 4 and verse 19. All of you know, I'm sure, about
our Lord Jesus Christ meeting this woman at the well and the
conversation that they had. And then After this, our Lord
Jesus told her to go call her husband and come back again. She said, I have no husband.
And our Lord said to her, you've well said, you have no husband. You've had five. And he whom
thou hast now is not your husband. And that says thou truly. This
is what the woman says. The woman saith 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. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain
nor at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye 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 in spirit and in truth. The woman saith
unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, whom is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell
us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee, am he. I want to talk about worship
tonight. Worship. Our Lord Jesus Christ said here
in verse 23, The hour cometh and right now is. Our Lord used
that phrase a couple of times. The hour cometh and now is. And
that's what he meant with the true worshipers. So if there's
true worshipers, that means there's false worshipers. And he talked
to this woman who was a false worshipper. She said, he told
her, you don't even know what you worship. You just go up there
on that mountain. And you do whatever they tell
you to do and you're happy with that and you come back. And you
say that, you hear that everybody's supposed to go to Jerusalem if
they're really going to worship. Our Lord says, now, it's now
coming. Cometh in the hours now with
the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth
for the father seeketh such to worship him and God is a spirit
and listen they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and truth God is to be worshipped God is to be worshipped This
is a very very very important subject vital interest. We ought
to have vital interest in this business of worship. I of worship. You know, when Satan tempted
our Lord Jesus Christ and took him up on that pinnacle and up
on that mountain and showed him the world, he says, Now all this
I'll give unto you if you'll fall down and worship me. And our Lord Jesus Christ says,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. Him only shalt thou worship. And that's what our Lord told
Satan. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou worship. And out on our sign out there,
we have, it says on our sign, worship service. Wednesday night,
Sunday morning, Sunday night. That's what we call them, worship
services. And this thing of worship is a vital thing that we need
to, and it is to my heart, but it's vital to all of us, our
lives, both spiritually and physically, or temporally, I should say.
But you know, the worship has to do with our spiritual health.
It has to do with how we react in our temporal lives, even.
And I say this, beloved, that there is a subject we can know.
This is a subject we cannot know too little about. But it's one
that we should know enough about to we can worship God. Worship
God. And our Lord's having this conversation
with this woman about the true worship of the one true God. And let me tell you what worship
is not. Worship is not in a place. Ain't that what he said here
to this woman? Verse 20, our father, she said, our father's
worshiped in this mountain. And how many people say, well,
that's where the fathers worshipped at. That's where we've always
worshipped at. This is how we've always worshipped. We've always
done it this way. We've always went through this,
that, and the other. And then she said, when you say,
you Jews say that over in Jerusalem is the place where men ought
to worship. And they did. They came to Jerusalem four times
a year to have feasts and to worship up at Jerusalem. And
our Lord said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh you
shall neither in this mountain or at Jerusalem worship the Father. So worship's not in a place.
It's not in a mountain. It's not in Jerusalem. It's not
in a particular place that you worship. And it certainly isn't
in a building. And look in Isaiah 66 with me. It's not in a building. Everybody
talks about, let's go to church. You know the church comes to
a building. The building's not a church.
And people say, well, it's time for us to go to church. And I
understand what they mean by that. But, you know, the church
is a people. The church is the people that
come to a particular building. I'm a member of the church, the
body of Christ. He's the head of the church.
The church that he built is worshiped in his blood. The church established
upon the blood of Christ. We come to discuss, let's go
up to the services. Let's go up to the house of God.
Let's go up to the place God's appointed for us to meet. But
this worship is not in a building. Look what Isaiah 66 verse 1 said. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where
is the house you'll build unto me, and where is the place of
my rest? With the heavens as my throne,
and the earth as my footstool, where is the house that can hold
me and contain me, when he says the heaven of heavens cannot
contain me? For all these things, he said,
all the things that you see my hands have made, and all these
things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man, this is where
I look, I'm not looking for a building to worship in. I'm not looking
for a building for you to come and meet me in. But he said,
this is where I'm looking at. The man that is poor and of a
contrite spirit and trembles at my word. That's the man. That's what he's talking about.
Don't build me no great big building. Where can I sit in it? How big
would it have to be? But he says, you know where I
go? where I dwell, where I find a place for me to be, is in the
heart and the souls of men of a tremble of contrite heart and
a broken spirit and trembles at my word. And I tell you what
else worship is not. It's not in ceremonies or rituals. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He says,
those Pharisees, they teach for doctrines the commandments of
men. And they draw not to me with their mouth, but their heart
is far from me. They don't know what worship
is. Worship is not in an altar or coming through any kind of
a ritual we go through. And let me say this. You know
why our worship is so simple? You know why we come in here?
That's why Paul told Timothy. He said, give heed to reading
and exhortation. That means reading the scripture
and preaching. And what it is, is that why we
have such a simple way of worship. Come in the building, sing some
hymns, read some scriptures from God's Word, and if you have something
to say about a sin, And then pray and get up and preach. You
know why we do that? Because the flesh has no opportunity
to get involved in it. We don't want the flesh involved
in any of our services. That's why we're here to worship
God. Not to brag on the flesh. Not to give the flesh any place.
And that's why if you have a ceremony, or a ritual, or some place to
go, or something to do here, just as sure as you're given
to do it, you'll do it, and you'll glory in it, and you'll boast
in it, and you'll brag in it. Is that not right? And it's not
any external thing. It's not burning candles, or
altars, or getting the music just right. I was in a place
in California preaching one time. And every time, you know, when
you're preaching, they got a guy sitting at the organ. And every
time you say something good, he'd hit that organ, you know.
You know, you get to preaching, you go... And it really got on my, it got
on my last nerve. And you know, we said, whoa,
this is, this is crazy. It's nuts. And I tell you what,
we don't worship in external things. We don't have to have
something to look at. Something to look at. And it's
not done with the mouth, and it's certainly not done with
the hands. But what is worship? How can we know what worship
is by the Scriptures? And it's necessary for us to
have a knowledge of what it is to worship. Well, look what he
says. This is how we're to worship. Look in verse 22. Excuse back
over here. Yes in verse 22 of John chapter
4 What is worship? Well, we can know how can't we
know by the Word of God and it's right here in front of us He
told that woman you worship, you know Not what all you know
is that our fathers went up here on and Samaria went up on the
mountainside and worship. I And he says, we know what we
worship. We know where the temple is,
salvations of the Jews. That's where the temple is, that's
where the altars were, the sacrifices were, the prophets come from,
the sacrifices given to them, God saved them from Egypt. But he says, the hour is coming
and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father. Worship
God the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh
us to worship Him. God is Spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And what
a man, if there's going to be worship, it's got to have come
from a knowledge of God. You've got to know God. Ain't
that what it says right here? God is Spirit. God is Spirit. And I tell you what, you've got
to have a knowledge of God. If you're going to worship the
Father, You gotta worship in spirit. You gotta worship in
truth. God is spirit. And God's not
like us. He's not like us at all. He that
cometh to God must believe that He is. And He is a rewarder that
He'll keep His word to those that seek Him. And here it says
God is spirit. And if He's spirit, that means
He's not like us. You can't see Him. You know why
God gave all the commandments in the law never to make any
kind of image at all of a bird or a fish or a man or a beast
or anything? Don't make any image. Because
He said if you make an image, you'll worship that image. And
since God is Spirit, there's no image that you have of Him.
And so He is pure Spirit and therefore He's not like us. And
not only that, but He's omnipotent. And we're weak as water. He is omnipresent. He's everywhere
at all times. So that means you can worship
Him everywhere at all times. Beloved, He's not like us. We
have to be in one place at one time. He is omniscient. God knows everything about everything
in this world, in this universe that has happened, will happen,
and ever shall happen. He knows the thoughts and intents
of our hearts before we do. He said, I know your thoughts
way, way off. And listen, He's not like us. And God is like God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all. He's not like us. We've
got to know who God is. If we're going to worship God,
we've got to worship Him as He is, not like we think He is.
And God is ever-living. Life is in Him. Life is in Him. All life that's in this world
is in Him. Every world that's created, He
created it. The starry world, the terrestrial
world, the sea, the world that's down in the sea and all that,
everything it is, He made it. And they say, boy, somebody's
talking about how many worlds is in certain galaxies and things.
But I tell you what, they say God's in the universe. No, no,
the universe is in God. There ain't no universe without
God. There ain't no galaxies without
God. There ain't no stars to shine
without God. And I tell you, when you start
dealing with a God like that, and facing a God like that, who
can look and knows everything there is to know about us, that I'm telling you, we'll update
this world, let Paul do it, just with the whole of his hand. And He's sovereign over everything
and controls all things. Me and you can't even control
our thoughts. We can't control our appetites. But God can control all things.
Now when you start facing a God like this, there's one or two
things you're going to do. You're going to say, He's not
like mine. Or else you're going to bow down. You're going to
worship one or the other. And men will worship and will
not really worship until they truly know who God is. That's
why God told David, be still, just be still David, and know
that I am God. Just be still and know that I
am God. Don't get in no uproar. Don't get in no hurry. Don't
try to control things. Don't try to run things. Just
be still. Know that I am God. You keep
John 4 and look at Ecclesiastes chapter 5 with me. Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is right before
the book of Proverbs. Song of Isaiah. Song of Solomon. And then Ecclesiastes. And it says not only is God spirit
but He is truth. He is truth. And he must be worshipped in
truth. Look what he said here in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and
verse 1. Now watch what he said. This
is God. This is the wise man now. He said, keep your foot
when you go up to the house of God. Don't be running here. Don't be running there. Don't
use your feet to run here. When you go to the house of God,
you keep your foot now. You just keep your foot. Don't
be too quick to run. Don't be too quick to stand up. Don't be quick to run around
and tell what you know. And that's why he says, and be
more ready to hear. And listen to this, than to give
the sacrifice of fools. That's why he says God must be
worshipped in truth. You know what that means? He
can't be worshipped by a lie. He can't be worshipped by lies
or telling lies about Him. That's why sin is so imperative
that men know who God is. Because if you don't know who
He is, you're going to say things about Him that's not true. To
say that He can't do something is a lie. Well, first of all,
He can't lie. He cannot change and He cannot
be tempted. So that's some things He cannot
do. But to say He can't do nothing unless you let Him, that's a
lie. To say that God will not invade
your free will and do anything against your free will, that's
a lie. to say that God needs you and
needs your money and your time and your efforts and your service
and you need to be out serving the Lord. That's a lie. That's
why he says don't offer the sacrifice of a fool. Don't just jump up
and start popping off about God because God's not like us. And
everybody's got something to say about God. Nobody dies lost
Nobody dies without God because God is so weak and so impotent
and so helpless and so pitiful that he has to wait and take
men to heaven and women to heaven that ain't never God ain't never
crossed their minds. But he got to take them to heaven
when they die. And that's why I said it. And
when the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, you
know what happened? He went out, not knowing where he was going.
But he didn't go until the God of glory appeared unto him. And look what else it says now.
In verse 2 here, Ecclesiastes 5. Be not rash with your mouth.
Let not your heart be too hasty. taught her anything before God?
Huh? Oh listen, these men when they're
asked to pray and they know they got to get up and pray and find
some scriptures to read and it's a wage, it's a burden. You know, anytime that you're
supposed to get up and lead people in prayer, read some scriptures
that you feel like God's laid on your heart, and you want to
pray, and you've got to address God right and address Him in
such a way so that when people hear you, they say, yes, that's
Him, that's Him, that's Him, where the heart can be taken
into worship. And oh, look what He says. Do
not let your heart be hasty on anything before God. Listen to
this now. For God's in heaven. Where are you at? You're down here. Huh? Therefore,
you just let your words be few. Let your words be few. Oh, listen. I know this, beloved. When men
and women and when God in His sovereign mercy opens our hearts
and we see that He is Spirit, that he's worshipped in spirit
and truth when they find out who's something about themselves
when they learn who he is when they actually see him like our
Lord told this woman she went up to worship on the mountainside
and our Lord says you don't even know what you're worshipping
this is who you're to worship God God Right now the hour is,
and right now is the year to worship God. How am I supposed
to worship Him? In spirit. Truth. For God is a spirit. And it must be worshipped that
way. And when men, and I'll tell you something. Men don't see
their sinfulness and start turning to God. They see God in His glory
and that's when they find out something about their sin. If
you see God, you cannot see Him and not see yourself being nothing. You can't do it. That's what
happens. Everybody in the scriptures that ever called on God, they
called on Him after they saw Him. That's what I just quoted
to you. When the God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham, he was an idolater in the earthly counties. And he says, when the God of
glory appeared, Abraham went out. When Isaiah saw, he said, you're
the king whose eye died. He said, I saw also the Lord. And His glory filled the temple. And then He said, Oh my. He was in the presence, in and
out of the presence of the King, Uzziah. He knew Hezekiah, one
of the best kings Israel ever had. But He said, when I saw
the Lord, He said, Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I tell you, that's when Jacob,
when the Lord got a hold of him, he said, oh, what's your name?
He said, Jacob. He said, you're not going to
be Jacob anymore. Why? Because I'm going to change you.
Who are you? I'm wonderful. My name's secret.
My name's wonderful. And I tell you, beloved, once
you ever This is what worship is. Once you ever see God in
His glory, you know right then and there that you're like Mephibosheth
when he comes in King David's presence. First of all, David
has to say, don't be afraid. And he says, who am I such a
dead dog that thou shouldst look upon a servant like me? And once
you ever see God, From then on, you stay down. You ain't got
nothing good to say about yourself before God. You ain't got nothing
to contribute to God. You ain't got nothing you can
give to God. All you can do is worship Him
the way He appointed us to in Christ. And I tell you, He says,
God is a spirit and must worship Him in spirit and truth. And
when He talks about worship in spirit and truth, that worship
is the heart. And the Spirit, our Spirit, His
flesh don't have nothing to do with it. And oh, the heart and
Spirit, both of us are necessary to truly worship God. He says,
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But the heart and
the Spirit, and our Lord Jesus, well, the Proverbs says, my son,
give me your heart. Lean not to your own understanding.
Go, my son, listen. That of the heart are the issues
of life. And oh, my son, give me your
heart. And that's what God, He wants
hard. And I tell you what, in worship
it's a heart and spirit thing, not of the flesh, not with the
works of men's hands. And it's not having anything
to do with self. Claiming up, you know, they've
got this claimant theology. Used to have this claimant theology.
And they knew that. And these, oh, listen, they have
these businesses, you know, these pyramid schemes. And they'll
say, boy, if you want a new Cadillac, claim it, get your pension, stick
it on the refrigerator, you know. They'll say, that's the claimant
for yourself. And that's what they do with theology. Claim!
Lay claim to this healing. Lay claim to this miracle. Lay claim to this God doing this
for you and God doing that for you. And I tell you that's what's
like the Pharisee. He went before the presence of God and he said,
I thank you. I'm not like other men. I, I,
I, I pray. I fast. I tithe. I do. I do. But there's one man in that group
that really worshipped. He smote on his heart. And he
said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the sinner, be merciful
to me. And I tell you what, beloved,
we can't claim anything. You know, the only thing I got
of my own that really actually belongs to me, the only thing
I've got before God that's my own, and that's my sin. And if God had to put that away,
there'd be no hope for me. So what am I going to bring tonight?
And to worship with the heart is to worship with the whole
being. With our mind, our will, our
affections, our spirit. Communion with God. Being filled
with awe and the wonder and humility and thankfulness and reverence
before God. Now I know that we do, there's
times that we do that in a public worship, but most of our worship
is done privately. When we're sitting around, and
we read our Bibles, or we're sitting out in the backyard,
or we're sitting on the porch, or we're sitting somewhere, and
all of a sudden we're taken up with God. Our thoughts start
thinking about God, and we're taken up with God, and we're
filled with absolute awe and wonder at God. And you say, who in the world
am I? And oh, it produces this humility and this thankfulness
and this reverence. And I know, now listen to me,
every true worshiper, he says, you know, he says, the Father
seeketh us to worship Him. Every true worship has private
as well as public worship. Public worship is necessary. I have a firm believer in gathering
together with God's people to worship publicly. I'm a firm,
firm believer in that. You know, we gather here to set
forth God in His glory, Christ in His power, Christ in His grace,
and Christ in His wondrous work and salvation. But every true
worshiper, he worships privately also. You know, to worship publicly
and not worship privately, that's being the worst kind of a hypocrite.
To act like you know something about God here and worship God
here and go home and never look at Him, never call on Him, never
trust Him, never worship Him, never look to Him and never be
filled with awe and reverence for Him. That's hypocrisy. And all this worship that I'm
talking about here, it's the heart worshiping Christ for who
He is. For who He is. Not what He's
just done for you, but for who He is. We've seen His glory. What does Solomon say? He's the
chiefest among ten thousand? The lily of the valley? Oh, it's the heart worshiping
Christ for who He is. with His power and His glory
and His majesty and all that He is that makes Him who He is. And it's drawn near to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the heart and soul bowing
in reverence and all. It is intimate and true communion
with God in secret prayer. And it's obedience to His Word.
Oh my! Oh, and let me tell you something
else now. Worship, true worship. What is
it? It's the worship from the heart.
It's knowing God. God is Spirit. But the Lord Jesus
Christ is necessary to worship. Look what this woman said here
in verse 25. Back here in John 4. Listen,
the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary to worship. That's why she said,
you know, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. I see you're
a prophet. I perceive you're a prophet.
You know things. You know something about me. You know all about
my life. And then our Lord, that woman
saith down in verse 25, I know that when the Messiah comes,
which is called Christ, God's anointed one, when he is come,
he gonna tell us everything. Oh, she said, when he comes,
she said, I know this, that when the Messiah comes, the Christ,
he will tell us all things. Oh, listen to what our Lord said,
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am. So the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary. The woman would have went on
worship and she knew not what had not the Lord Jesus came and
came to where she was. But after hearing him, seeing
him and looking at him, look what she does. In verse 28, the
woman then left her water pot. She was at the well to get water.
She forgot about water. I need to get some water to take
to the house to wash the dishes, take a bath in, you know, and
have water to drink. But here it says, she left her
water pot and went her way into the city and said to the men,
now listen to this, come see a man. Come over here. I got
some water. Come see a man. which told me all things ever
that I did. Now she's starting to worship
now. Is not this the Christ? God's not worshipped apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh no, I think I dealt with that
a little this morning. But you see, He's our prophet.
He's our prophet. He's the one to teach us of God. And He's the one to reveal God's
person in His mind and His will to us. You remember over in Luke
24, verse 44 over there, it says that He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures concerning Himself. not only is He the prophet to
teach us and make God known to us and His person known to us,
His mind known to us, and His will known to us, but He's the
priest. He's the priest. Man ain't never
been able to come to God by himself. We only come to God through and
by because of a priest. And we have a great high priest
that's passed into the heavens. And boy, that priest He has to
have a sacrifice. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He is that sacrifice. He is the altar upon which that
sacrifice was offered. He shed the blood. He provided
the righteousness. And He alone is our plea as to
why and how our worship can ever be accepted of God. And that's
why I said, come unto me. And he said, come boldly into
the holiest of holies by new and the living way. Do you all
remember when I showed you over in Acts 28 the other day, Ephesians,
excuse me, Exodus 28 the other day, about when Aaron had that
miter on his head that said, holiness unto the Lord. And he
put that on and said, and God told him, said he would bear
the holy things of the worship You remember that? He had by
the sins of the holy things. He had by the sins of our worship,
of our prayers, of everything that's wrong with us when we
come, Christ has to make it acceptable. I don't care how pure it is.
I don't care how honest it is. I don't care how sincere it is.
Christ still has to make our worship acceptable. Oh listen, we come under, look
at Hebrews 13.15. Let me show you this. Hebrews
13.15. Look what it says here. Hebrews 13 15 by him by him therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that
is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name but you notice
it says by him therefore let us it's by him it's through him
we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God and everywhere
in the scriptures God is spirit must be worshiped in spirit and
truth and everywhere in scripture God is only apprehended through
the Lord Jesus Christ everything in the Old Testament the only
way I know God was through either the tides or the shadows or the
pictures or the promises Everything and
that ever tight, that first lamb that was slain in the garden, the ark, the Passover lamb, the rock,
everything pointed to Christ. and God being known only in Christ.
And let me show you in Matthew 18. Let's look with me at this,
and I'll try to wind this up here. Matthew 18. We're talking
about worship, worship, worship, worship. God is Spirit. Oh, to worship Him with our hearts,
to worship Him with our mind, to worship Him with our will,
to worship Him with our affections. Look what it said here in Matthew
18.20. He says, wherever two or three
are gathered together in My name, My name, there am I in the midst
of them. So when we come to worship, you
know what we do? We gather in His name. We pray
to the Father in His name. Everything is vested in His name. And you know, He says, wherever
two or three are gathered together, Now notice here, the place has
nothing to do with it. He says just where? Wherever?
Where? Where? Huh? The number has nothing
to do with it. He says wherever two or three.
And I'll tell you what, you can have some real worshipers that
are just two or three people. I tell you, me and Ruby's worshiped
several times over the phone and talking to one another. Me
and old Bruce Crabtree's worshiped. Me and Sherry's worshiped. You
don't take a whole lot of people to worship. I bet you and Peggy
worship, don't you? It don't take a whole lot, just
two or three. Number has nothing to do with
it. How many of you have been in service? I'm afraid of David,
you know, he numbered Israel with God's sin plague. I'm afraid
to number people. But oh, listen, and I tell you
what, number has nothing to do with place, that's just where.
And when sinners gather in His name to worship, What is it we
do when we gather in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to come
in here to worship? Huh? I believe, I believe that
what we do in our first and foremost purpose in being here and what
we want to do while we're here is to seek His glory. Is to bring
glory to His name. Bring glory to His person. Whether
we're teaching or preaching or praying or praising We seek His
glory when we gather in His name. Whether we live, whether we're
given or living, our chief concern is His glory. And we cover His
presence because we seek in His glory. And I'll tell you another
reason what we do when we gather in His name. Not only do we seek
His glory to worship, but we seek His mercy. I'm here to seek
mercy. What else am I going to ask for?
I'm here to seek the Lord's mercy. To look to Him for His grace. Our Lord Jesus said, I'll have
mercy and not sacrifice. I'm not here seeking justice.
I'm not here wanting any recognition. I'm not here to try to get some
preacher to tell me how the rewards I'm going to get or the wages
God's going to pay me. I just want mercy. I'm here for
mercy. A mercy beggar. There's never
any worship on the ground of merit, only mercy. And we gather
in His name to worship Him. To seek His glory, to seek His
mercy, we're like Bartimaeus. And oh, and to seek His righteousness. Oh, we're here because He's the
only righteous one. And oh, to be found in Him, not
having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God
which is by faith, Isaiah 23, Jeremiah 23 says this, the Lord
Jehovah secure you, the Lord our righteousness. Huh? Oh, we want His righteousness.
Our Lord said, except a man be born again, he can't see the
kingdom of God. He said, except you repent, you
can't enter the kingdom of God. Except you be converted and become
as a little child. You'll not enter the kingdom
of God. And except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter in. So, oh,
I'm here to seek His righteousness, because I know I ain't got one
of my own. I don't have one. And if I have one, it's got to
be somebody else's, and I'm here to seek Him for His righteousness.
And, beloved, if we would truly, truly worship God in Christ,
If we would truly worship God in Christ, don't forget who and
what you are. Don't forget who and what you
are. You know what that is? It's a sinner. A saved sinner, yes. A redeemed
sinner, yes. But nevertheless, a sinner. And I tell you, if you want to
worship God in Christ, then justify God in everything He does. Clear
God of everything He does in this world. Justify Him. Justify
His wholeness and His justice. In dealing with this world, dealing
with your children, dealing with your home, dealing with your
heart, dealing with your health, dealing with your wealth, dealing
with anything that happens in your life, you justify God. He's the judge of all the earth
and He must do right. Everybody wants to justify God
when he's doing something against somebody else or dealing with
somebody else. But when it comes to dealing with us personally,
we got to do the same thing. I believe that with all my heart. And I tell you that's where worship
is. And never, never, never come seeking anything but grace and
mercy. Bartimaeus heard that big crowd
coming, knew the Lord Jesus was coming, you know why they cried
out? Jesus, Thou Son of David, I've been over here doing the
best I can. I'm really doing something, you
know, and if you'll stop here, I think you owe me something. You ought to pay me because I
was born blind, I was born helpless. No, no. He said, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Christ stopped right in his tracks.
That Canaanite woman brought her daughter to the Lord. And
the Lord put every obstacle he could in her way. He said, oh, my daughter is grievously
vexed. Oh, Lord, have mercy on her.
Oh, it's not fit to take the children's bread and cast them
to dogs. Oh, I know that. Yeah, I'm a
dog. I admit I'm a dog. And our Lord said, oh, go your
way. I never see such great faith. And she went. All she wanted
was mercy, mercy. And I tell you, beloved, Our attitude about worship tells
a lot about the state of our heart. Our attitude about worship
tells a lot about the state of our heart. And if a person can
and does willingly, habitually absence himself from public worship,
one of two things is true. Now this is what I told you now,
if a person can and does habitually absent themselves from public
worship. There's one of two things is
true. They are spiritually sick condition. They're spiritually
sick condition and sickness causes a loss of appetite. Or else the
second thing is they're lost and they don't care anything
about the worship of God. That's true. If somebody can do without the
worship of God and the worship of Christ, they will. And then, I tell you what, the
more you do it, the easier it becomes. The more you do it, the easier
it becomes. And God set apart, God set this public worship.
He said gather in my name. The hour is coming and now is. If you worship God, you're going
to worship in spirit and you're going to worship in truth. You're
not going to worship Him with a lie. You're not going to worship
Him in the flesh. You're not going to worship Him
with our ideas. We're going to worship Him in
spirit and in truth for He is spirit. Oh, our Father, oh, our Father,
our Father, in the blessed, blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come with our hearts and souls humbled before you. Oh, to think
of you, how high and holy and lifted up you are. And here we
are on this earth, flesh weak. You're the vine, we're just the
branches. But oh Lord, we do want to, in
our heart of hearts, we want to worship you, we want to know
you, we want to call on you, we want to look to you, we want
you, we want to worship you as you are, And we want to come with a heart
made new, with a soul hungered and thirsting. After our Lord
Jesus Christ, work these things in us. Work in us to will, work
in us to do. Work in us a heart of worship.
Take our minds and help our minds to often, often, often fix upon
you. And Lord, Cause the gospel, cause the truth
of Christ to find a logic in the heart. We ask these things
in his blessed name. Amen. Amen. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. You'll find He's not too busy. To hear your heart's cry He's
passing by this moment Each need to supply Reach out and touch
the Lord As He goes by I'm like old Bartimaeus, I'm hollering
for mercy. I'll see you. Miles McKee will be here Wednesday
night to preach to you. He's over from Iowa. Oh yeah, next Saturday. I am.