The Source and Nature of True Worship

Q: What does the Bible say about true worship?

The Bible teaches that true worship is spiritual and must be done in spirit and truth (John 4:24). True worship, according to the Bible, must be rooted in the heart and spirit of the individual rather than in mere external rituals. In John 4:24, Jesus explains that 'God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' This indicates that acceptable worship is a communion between a holy God and unworthy sinners, facilitated through faith in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. As the sermon emphasizes, the purpose of worship is not confined to a location or physical acts but is about a genuine relationship based on grace and understanding of one’s sinful state and God’s saving grace.

Q: How do we know God's grace is real?

God's grace is evidenced in His seeking out of sinners and changing their lives (John 4:6-26). The reality of God's grace can be observed in the transformative encounters individuals have with Christ, as exemplified in the sermon through the woman at the well. Jesus, knowing her sinful lifestyle, engaged her in conversation that ultimately led to her realization of who He truly was. This undeserved interaction highlights God's initiative in seeking out sinners for redemption. The covenant of grace, where God promises to save those He calls, reassures believers that grace is not just a concept but an active, life-changing force that leads to faith and worship. Such a change in one's heart and life serves as a testimony to the reality of God's grace.

Q: Why is understanding divine appointments important?

Divine appointments signify God's sovereign purpose in orchestrating encounters for His glory (John 4:6). Understanding divine appointments is crucial in recognizing God's sovereignty and purpose in our lives. Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well was not happenstance; it was ordained by God. This teaches us that God has a divine plan for our encounters and interactions with others, and those moments are often opportunities for His grace to be displayed. As emphasized in the sermon, these appointments remind us that God is actively at work in our lives, guiding our steps according to His will and purpose. Acknowledging divine appointments encourages believers to be mindful and responsive to the ways God engages with us and how He desires for us to minister to others.

Turn back to John chapter 4 and we'll be focusing on verse 6. The title of this sermon is The Source and Nature of True Worship which was done by Mr Gerald Buss in the Wednesday evening service on the 22nd of September 2021 at Old Baptist Chapel Chippenham. Back to John 4 verse 6.

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, set thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. This, dear friends, is a divine appointment. The place, the people, the purpose, the time and the manner in which it was conducted was a divine appointment. There is something very wonderful about divine appointments. They come from the very throne of God as one of his decrees. This divine appointment had such a contrast in one sense. On the other hand, there was the holy, harmless, undefiled Son of God, verily God and verily man, that person, Immanuel, God with us.

On the other hand, and it was no surprise to him as he sat thus on the well, there comes this woman of Sychar, the woman of Samaria. He knows her better than she knows herself. As God does of all sinners, He knows them better than they know themselves. And never the conversation ended, as is so often the case when the Lord speaks with a sinner, she went away knowing that He knew her inside out.

Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Friends, it is a mercy if God should tell you that. This is divine conviction. All things that ever I did, sin mingled with our thoughts, words and ways. That's his divine conviction. The Lord, in meeting with this woman, had a purpose of grace. As good John Kent puts it in one of his hymns, Yea, he decreed the very place where he would show triumphant grace. And in this chapter, we see triumphant grace plucking abrand, as it were, from the burning, one who had been Satan's slave for so long, now wrought upon by the God of all grace. For a moment, though, I want this evening to just dwell on our Lord Jesus Christ. There is something very beautiful about this verse. The first thing we have is the journey.

Jesus therefore being worried with his journey, what journey was he on? Well, you say, he was going from Judea through to Jerusalem. Well, that was the journey in a physical sense. That was the journey that was ordained by his father because every step he took here below was according to his father's mind and will. But, my dear friends, he was on another journey, wasn't he? He was on a journey from Bethlehem's manger through to the cross, and every step he took was nearer to that solemn, awesome place Golgotha. And the wonder of it is, dear friends, he never turned back. So the first thing is the journey. He tells us in Luke 2 the nature of this journey, Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? Is your journey like that? Is my journey like that?

Just examine yourselves, dear friends. Whose business have you been doing today? Sadly, and solemnly, our nature, left to itself, does business in the devil's marketplace. But have you been doing business in heaven's marketplace? Have you been in prayer, wrestling with the Lord to appear, even to speak to you tonight through his word? Are you in the footsteps of the flock? Are you following on to know the Lord?

I do ask you, friends, what journey are you on? We are on a journey, and there is only one of two destinations. to which we are travelling. It will either be eternal misery in hell, as a just reward for the sins that we have committed from our birth to the end of our life, or, by grace and free grace alone, to that blessed place where neither sin nor sorrow will ever interrupt the communion between God and his dear people. Friends, you are hastening to one of those two destinations. This woman was on that broadway that leadeth to destruction. She was rushing along it. But the Lord's purpose was that she should be plucked as a brand from the burning.

After this chapter, we read no more of her. We do not need to. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it. The next thing I want you to notice is the Lord's weariness. Are there some weary ones here tonight? You would notice how carefully the Holy Ghost has put this.

He does not say the Lord was wearied of his journey, he was wearied with it. He did not regret being on a journey, but nonetheless, being the real man that he was and is, while he was yet here below, He knew real weariness. When he slept at the back of the boat, that was real human sleep. His natural, holy body needed that sleep after the labours of the day in his father's service. And here, after having walked many miles, naturally, his natural body needed rest. Is there a poor, weary one here tonight? The Lord knows you need rest. He has been there before.

Are you wearied with your journey tonight? Although he did not have sin to wrestle with in himself, he had the devil ever opposing him and the world around him, and there were the sinless infirmities he carried. All this, dear friends, that you might know, you have a sympathetic High Priest. One, touch with the feeling of our infirmities. Do you feel your weariness tonight?

What does he say? This Jesus, what does he say? Come unto me, all ye that labour, or put it in another way, wearied, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My dear friends, don't be weary of the journey of faith, though you may be wearied in it. There is one who understands. We read in Isaiah 40 that lovely word, to them that have no might. That is extreme weariness, isn't it? Exhaustion. He increases strength. Are you exhausted tonight in the way? Has your wisdom gone? Has your strength gone? Has your patience gone? Has everything come to a standstill? And when their languid life is spent, supplies it with his own. The second thing, then, is his weariness.

The third thing is the purpose that he sat on this well. It was a very notable spot. It was Jacob's well. We do not read when Jacob dug it, but it was evidently known by those who lived in that locality that this was a place where Jacob resided at one time. And no doubt his family often came to this well to draw water. Why are we told it was Jacob's well? I believe there are two reasons for that.

Remember, to Jacob was given that same promise given to Abraham and Isaac. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Seed, singular with a capital S, he sits now on the very well that Jacob once drank from. The one, the promised seed, sits on Jacob's well. Secondly dear friends, what was Jacob's well? Leave aside the literal water here for a moment.

I will tell you what Jacob's well was, and behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Oh, how many of God's dear people have drawn from that well! Dear Paul did in Hebrews 13. He hath said, I would never leave thee, nor forsake thee. There he was drinking from Jacob's well. Fear thou not, for I am with thee, drawing from Jacob's well. We must not over-spiritualize Jacob's well, but it does lead us into a precious sort of meditation. Have you ever drunk from Jacob's well?

And especially remember that in Jacob's case, as it is in every child of God's case, it is replete with mercy. Jacob said on one occasion, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. how unworthy he felt in all the blessings he had received in providence and especially in grace. He found mercy was stamped upon them all.

The next point, the meeting here, This woman comes with her water pot. It was unusual for women to come alone to a well. But this woman was probably quite an outcast, bearing in mind her history. Perhaps she was shunned by those around her because of the life she had lived. We must not read between the lines too much.

But there it was. She comes at this midday hour and she finds this stranger sitting on the well. She immediately recognizes that he is a Jew. Our Lord must have dressed as a Jew while he was here below. She was a Samaritan and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. But it was a tremendous surprise to her when the stranger asked her for a drink.

Now we know the Lord had a deeper purpose in asking her that question. But it shows another side of his humanity, doesn't it? He hungered, he thirst, like you and I. Another aspect of his precious understanding of the path of his dear people are called to walk. But the very question was to bring forth a deeper conversation, causing a well of water to spring up in that woman's heart, springing up unto everlasting life. This was the beginning of it. This is where the Lord began with the woman. He put in her heart a well of water, springing up to everlasting life.

There had been a corrupt fountain in her life up until then. It brought forth its miasma of sin. The plague of sin had been so evident in her life. Friends, as you look at your life, and I look at mine, all that has come forth from that corrupt stream We realise it more and more as we look back over our lives. Through corruption felt within, darkness, dreadness, guilt and sin, still to Jesus turned thy eyes, Israel's hope and sacrifice.

So you see, my dear friends, the Lord gave her another well, a different well altogether. It was one that proceeded from himself, even the Holy Spirit. That is what this water is. It was nothing short of the gift of the Holy Spirit in this woman's life, and it made her realize one or two things.

Her eyes were opened to realize that she could not prevaricate with the One with whom she was talking. She could not deny what he was saying. It made her honest. And so would that spring in your heart and mine. It also raised this point, that eventually the Lord, as we read in this very chapter, was going to reveal himself to her. What did she say?

I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. I that speak unto thee am he. Apart from the man born blind, she was perhaps one to whom the Lord most clearly revealed himself. I that speak unto thee am he. Yes, the Lord did say that to Pilate when he was being judged. But to this dear woman of all people, the Son of God condescended so clearly as to so clearly reveal himself.

I that speak unto thee am he. How encouraging that is. You may feel to be so guilty tonight. Your corrupt fountain has showed all its true colours. I am not worthy that the Lord should show himself to me like that. Well, he did to this dear woman, and why not you? It is free grace to such sinners such as sinners be, and if we grace, why not for me? The next point I would have you notice, they are only thoughts this evening just to kindle in your heart meditation, is that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to her the Trinity.

He spoke of his Heavenly Father, he spoke of the Holy Spirit, he spoke of himself. Here was a babe in grace, a newborn lamb in the fold. And He was opening to her the true nature of the Godhead. God the Father, He, His dear Son, and the dear Spirit proceeding from them both.

She was well taught by the time this conversation finished, wasn't she? And then there was another thing which is so important. The nature of true worship. She had been taken up with the false worship that Jeroboam had ordained years before. She knew the Jews had said that Jerusalem was the place where they ought to be worshipping. But the Lord Jesus Christ said it was neither here nor there. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Real worship, dear friends, although it does have an outward form, while we are here below, because we are yet in the flesh, but real worship is communion between a holy God and an unworthy sinner, through the Son of God, by the Spirit. That is worship. How much do we know of it? How little do we know of it? But the wonderful thing is, and again, it is an amazing thing we read, the father seeketh such to worship him. He sought this woman out to be a true worshipper.

She wasn't a true worshipper when she first came to the well. She was still ignorant of her state as a sinner before God. She had no desire to be any different, as far as we know. But by the time she left that well, she left her water pot, significant of leaving her former life. She hastens into the city. She has something to say. She has heard, she has felt in her heart the power of it. Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? Those in the city must have marveled, this woman, who they knew to be so deep in sin, but now speaking well of a precious Christ. She had seen Him, and they went out to see Him for themselves. And they heard Him, and we read those wonderful words, now we believe, not because of thy sin. They were not despising what she said, but here is the crux of it all. for we have heard him ourselves. That is what makes a true worshipper.

I was reading a sermon of the late F.L. Gosden a day or two ago. In it he made a very striking statement which made me think. He said, God never speaks savingly to reprobates. It staggered me for a moment, I thought. Yes, that is true. The point I am making is this. If God speaks to you in the way he did to this woman, you are not a reprobate.

You are one being taught of God. And not only that, but God will also see to it with his teaching that you will get safe to that place where there is a pure worship, unalloyed and unadulterated within the veil. It comes right back to Philippians 1 verse 6. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ.

This dear woman never forgot the well, nor the word, nor the conversation, nor the company she was in. Friends, it changed her life. Do you have a spot like that? It may not have been all at once. It may have been over a period. But there was that period in your life when the same change that was wrought in this woman was wrought in your heart, and you had to say, come, see a man which told me, unworthy me, all things that ever I did. And it does not end there, does it?

We rejoice in what he has done because we have no merit of our own. So we would add to the woman's testimony. She would add to it if she were here tonight. Come see a man who has done all the things I could never do. He has done it all. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. May God add his blessing. Amen.

The Source and Nature of True Worship

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What does the Bible say about true worship?

How do we know God's grace is real?

Why is understanding divine appointments important?

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About Gerald Buss

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The Source and Nature of True Worship

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true worship?

How do we know God's grace is real?

Why is understanding divine appointments important?

Sermon Transcript

About Gerald Buss

Comments

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