Good morning, everybody. It's good to be here. It's good
to have those who might be watching as well. You don't have to turn with me,
but I'm going to be reading from John 4 and verse 24. I'm only
going to read one verse. John 4 and verse 24. God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Men talk about truth. We here
talk about truth. Here we read in our text that
if you are to worship God, it must be in spirit and in truth. My subject today is truth, but
I want to be clear. If you are to worship God, it
must be in spirit and in truth. Your worship will not be the
worship of God unless it is done this way. I'm not going to spend
a lot of time today speaking on the spirit, so I'm just going
to oversimplify it for the sake of time, meaning much more could
be said about it. But when it says spirit here,
it is talking about the spirit of God in a person. 2 Thessalonians
2 and verse 13 says, but we are bound to give thanks all the
way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. The spirit which this
talks about is the spirit of Jesus Christ. What does the spirit
do? John 15 and 26 says, but when
the Comforter is come, that is the Spirit of God, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, He will testify of me, being Jesus
Christ. Not everyone has this spirit.
John 14 and 17 says, even the spirit of truth whom the world
cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him,
but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now knowing that the truth must
be accompanied or come right along with the spirit, what is
the truth spoken of here? the truth that is of the Spirit.
In short, and I know this is no surprise in this place, John
14, six says, Jesus saith unto him, this is Thomas he is speaking
to, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. So the truth is Jesus Christ. I know I've kind of given away
my punchline already, but the punchline is always Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people out
there that say they preach the truth, and we even say here we
preach the truth. The world is not about speaking
God's truth. That is, they are not about preaching
the truth of God. That is who he is and what he
has done. If you are not doing this, then
you are preaching lies. And I'm not trying to be mean,
it's just a fact. Do men do this? Do men preach
lies while at the same time saying they preach the truth? They do. And this is how we know
if a man is preaching lies. Now if you would, turn with me
to Romans 1. Romans 1. And I want to begin in verse
18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as
God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds,
and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God
also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. who
changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served
the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Their version of the truth has
man as the one being worshiped and not God. They have man being
served and not God. They may say they are worshiping
and serving God, but by what they teach, they say otherwise.
The God they say they worship is likened to them. There are
many ways this truth can be seen as the lie that it is. Here is
one statement that I can kind of touch on all of them with.
Man is proclaimed too high, and God is proclaimed too low. They
tend to bring both to the point where they are at the same level. God says his ways are past finding
out. And we read this in Romans 11,
33 and Isaiah 55, 9. There are several places that
tell us that God is higher than us. It does not take much to
be higher than man. Man is of the dust. He is less
than nothing, but God is so much higher than we are. We cannot
get to God, He is so high. So if what is being said has
man put as low as he can go, and God as high as he is, if
what is being said has not put man as low as he can go, and
God as high as he is, it is a lie. And I'm talking about preaching,
because we certainly cannot put God anywhere. He is where and
who he is no matter what we say about him. Nor can we cause man
to be any lower than he already is. But we can talk about either
as if they were higher or lower, and that is by our doctrine.
There are those who preach that man must choose God or choose
Christ. They may say it like this, make
your decision for Jesus. Jesus Christ is not looking for
your choice. He is looking for you to bow
down at his feet. God does not anywhere in his
word tell us to choose him. In fact, scripture says in Psalm
64, 4, blessed is the man whom thou choosest, that is God, and
calls us to approach unto thee. that he may dwell in thy courts,
we shall be satisfied with goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple. He tells us to bow down to his
son. This is something that all will
do eventually. But thank God there are some
who will be enabled by God himself to do this now because God has
chosen them to approach unto him through Jesus Christ the
Lord. So if your doctrine, your truth
says man has to choose God, or that man has the ability to choose
God, then you are preaching man too high, and it is a lie. Man as he is born in Adam is
dead in trespasses and in sins. He is an abomination to God. Men call this, this so-called
ability to choose God, they call this free will. This is the lie
Satan told Eve in the garden. If you are telling this lie,
it may be that Satan is your father, because he is the father
of lies. If God does not intervene, it
is evident that you are a child of Satan. I heard Mike McKenna
say this in one of his messages. The God they have is a wheelchair
God. because he has no hands or feet
or mouth of his own, but only man's hands, feet, and mouth. Their God they push around in
a wheelchair because he can do nothing. The God of his word
is the total sovereign of heaven and earth, who hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. You have a God who is dependent
on you doing something? You have a wheelchair God. Your
God is an invalid. He can do nothing without your
help. You make God the sovereign of all to be like unto you. It
is man who is the invalid by nature and can do nothing apart
from God Almighty being pleased to do something. There is another
indication of a man who wants to lie on God or those who want
to hear lies on God. They will talk to you this way
about the truth. In John 18.38 we read, Pilate
saith unto him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find in
him no fault at all. First of all, as it has been
said here many times, the truth is not a what, but a who. Pilate asked here, what is truth? Did he really care about Christ?
He says he found no fault in him, right? He did say that. But what did he do? He still
gave Christ over to the Jews to have him crucified, although
he had the authority, humanly speaking, to do so. He gave him,
that is Christ, up to those who he knew would have him crucified. Now we know he could have not
done that because of the ordination and purpose of God, but that
is no excuse. He killed an innocent man according
to his own words. Titus 1, 15 and 16 reads, unto
the pure, all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and
unto every good work reprobate. They may give credence by word
or by their lips to Jesus Christ, but in their works they deny
him. They deny his power, his authority,
His justice, His anger, His judgment, His righteousness, His mercy,
His grace, His truth. If you are teaching man doing
anything for salvation or doing something to help God in any
way, you are lying on God. You have put man up too high.
You are not preaching the truth. If you are teaching that God
in any way needs or is in want of anything, you are lying on
God. God does not want and He does
not need. He purposes and brings it to
pass. This is what man does, even those
who are not of the religious groups. They might even say or
think they have no problem with Jesus. They find no fault in
Him. He was a pretty good man and
did some nice things. If you are not bowing down to
Jesus Christ the Lord, then you hate him. There is no middle
ground. Matthew 12 30 says, he that is
not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth abroad. There are men who know doctrine.
Doctrine in this sense is as easy as reading a book. Read
this book and you can find doctrine all day long. But the one thing
you will not find just from reading is Jesus Christ the Lord. You
must be revealed the truth, the truth that I'm talking about.
The only way it will happen is if you are reading or hearing
that if you're reading or hearing is accompanied by the spirit
of God and truth. If not, you will be like those
spoken of in Scripture in 2 Timothy 3, 7, ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. We have already
read it that Christ is the truth. He is not just a man. He was
not just doing good things for mankind. He is God. He is not just someone who told
us some good things. He is not someone that helped
a few people out by feeding them or healing them of their sickness.
He is not someone who came and made the world a better place
to be. He is the judge of all the earth.
He does all things well. He purposes all things. He carries
out his purpose. He will destroy this world. He
is a just God who will not at all acquit the guilty. He is
not just going to sweep things under the rug. God's justice
will be satisfied, either if you are paying for your sins
for eternity yourself, or in Jesus Christ, who is truth. This
is Jesus Christ. You want truth? Then you can
look to Jesus Christ. John 114 reads, and the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. This is a truth in which we worship
God with the Spirit. That is, we worship God by the
Holy Spirit of God in Jesus Christ, who is truth. He is full of grace
and truth. To know Jesus Christ is to know
grace and truth. When you know who he is and what
he has done, then you worship God by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Truth will only come through
or by Jesus Christ the Lord. John 117 says, for the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So I know knowing Christ is pretty
important In fact, it is absolutely vital to know him in the way
I am talking about. In a way that you worship him
in spirit and in truth. Those who do this, they do it
in a way that bows them down to who he is and what he has
done. It is this Jesus Christ the Lord
that is in full control of everything. Those who preach or teach that
man has pardoned his salvation in any way do not know this truth. This truth came into the world
to save sinners. These being those who know they
are in bondage to sin, lost from the presence of God, dead to
God, under condemnation. They know there is no salvation
in any other. They know that it is not up to
what they will do, will to do, or choose to do, or decide to
do. It is all up to what he wills. Some can make a start towards
this as it would seem, but then they turn from it. Knowing Jesus
Christ, or rather being known of Jesus Christ is not a one
time thing. It is something that you can
never get away from, although you may try. God does not do
a work that is not complete and perfect. But there are those
who start down the path as if they believe Jesus Christ, but
other things get in the way. Jesus Christ says in John 8 and
31, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If
ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. This
God, the one true and living God, is an almighty God who is
in the heavens and hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. This
is the God we serve and worship by the Spirit in Jesus Christ,
the truth. Knowing this God, you will be
freed from the bonds of sin, if he is pleased to give you
eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to perceive. Christ the
truth will be the one to do this. John 8 and 32 says, and ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. That is
Jesus Christ. But he also says, as I've already
stated, then said Jesus to the Jews who believed on him, if
ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. So
don't think you can take or leave Jesus Christ, or if Jesus Christ
is what you think about just on Sundays, on Christmas, or
on Easter. If God has begun a work, it will
continue, and you will continue until the end. you will continue
in his word, that is the doctrine of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Otherwise, you never started to begin with. I see these things
in scripture and it partly makes me wanna say, seeing
these things, why don't men cry out to God? Choose me, almighty
sovereign God, be merciful to me, sovereign of the universe.
But at the same time, I know they can't. The scripture says
they cannot, and it says they will not. If he does not will
to do so, you will never know him. But you will love to have
it this way because this is the whole point. Man is who he is
by nature, will not seek after God. Oh God, please choose me. Cause me to approach unto you.
the blind man that was told by Christ to go wash in the pool
when he would receive his sight. He did this and he could see.
There were those who would not believe him even though this
man had been blind. He lived with himself every day
and he knew he could not see until Christ opened his eyes.
Once Christ did, he could see. He could not help but see. But
he could not convince those around him that he had been blind and
now he could see. It's still like this in this
world. Man continues to go about trying to establish their own
righteousness when they have none. They are totally blind
to know who the sovereign God is. They cannot see what you
are saying no matter how well you say it, how nice you say
it, how much you beseech them to see it. We who have been given
sight know this very thing because we were all once there where
they were, blind, not having the ability to see anything until
the truth of God laid hold of us and opened our eyes. That
is, Jesus Christ laid hold on us and opened our eyes. Truth
is doctrine, but doctrine is not necessarily truth. This is
not just a play on words. I'm being honest with you. Ephesians
4 and 14 reads this, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
in wait to deceive. And again in Titus 2.1 we read,
but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. So when we preach and teach doctrine,
it better be the truth. That truth being Jesus Christ.
Whoever Jesus Christ is, is the truth. Whatever Jesus Christ
did, is the truth. Whatever Jesus Christ says, is
the truth. He is full of grace and truth.
Grace and truth came by him. He is grace and truth. So as
we go about our lives, as we proclaim the gospel here, as
we proclaim the gospel on the internet, as we proclaim the
gospel on TV, we should take care that we are doing it as
it becometh the gospel of Christ, the truth of Him. There will
be those who become our enemy because we speak the truth in
Christ. So be it. As long as God is pleased
for us to proclaim here at Sovereign Grace Chapel the truth of God,
we will proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified to whomever
God allows it to go to. His word will not return unto
him void. It will accomplish that for which
it was sent to do. Meaning this, it will be either
a saver of death unto death to you, or a saver of life unto
life to you. What kind of saver is it to you?
Are you seeking and worshiping God in spirit and in truth? Amen. Your holy sovereign God almighty,
it is all in your power, in your will, that you open our eyes,
ears, and hearts, dear Lord. We pray you do so. for all who
are here and anyone else that you are willing to do so, dear
Lord, that they may see the wondrous works of Jesus Christ, our Lord. All these things we ask in Christ's
name, amen.