Well, I can't sing a lick, and
y'all don't have to say amen all at one time, but I know good
singing. That's good singing. And I'd
sure like to preach just like that. Never miss a note. Just one note. Middle C. Christ crucified. God, let me
preach Him to you. Turn with me to John chapter
4. John chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus has come to Samaria
because the time of love has come for the saving of a Samaritan
harlot. And He met her there at the time
of love when He would be gracious to her. And He is working His
way into her heart by His Word, by His Spirit, and by his grace. This Samaritan woman had been
in conversation with the Lord Jesus and she said, our fathers
say we ought to worship in this mountain. You Jews say we ought
to worship here at Jerusalem. And the Lord Jesus responded
to her by saying, you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
You don't know what you worship. You just go about the facade
and outward show of worship. in your various forms of religion.
And the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers won't
worship God in any carnal place. They won't worship God by any
means of ceremonialism. But true worshipers will worship
God in spirit and in truth, for God is spirit. He tells us the
Father seeks such to worship Him. And then it comes to verse
24. God is spirit. Not a spirit. God is pure spirit. God is spirit. And they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now in the light of that statement,
God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. I have a question, a question
that needs desperately to be answered, a question that cannot
be answered by emotion or experience or sentiment. A question that
cannot be answered by creeds or confessions of faith. A question
that cannot be answered by mother and father and their traditions
they've passed along to you. A question that can be answered
only from this book that you hold in your lap. God, answer
this question in your heart today. Who worships God? Who worships God? Everywhere in this town, on every
corner, somebody's gathered in a facility just like this called
a church, and they claim to worship God. It's going on all over the
world today. Folks gather in assemblies like
this and claim to worship God. Now, I'm not talking about folks
outside of what's called Christianity. I'm talking about folks in what's
called Christendom. What a big, useless word. Who
worships God? Only the Word of God can tell
us. This much is clear from what
we've just read. If we would worship God, we must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. You cannot worship God
merely by coming to a physical place. You cannot worship God
merely by going through a physical or even mental exercise. We must
worship God in spirit and in truth. We must worship Him by
His spirit, in His spirit. We must worship Him in our hearts
spiritually, in our spirits. And we must worship Him in a
spiritual manner. And if we would worship God,
we must worship Him truthfully. Without duplicity, with sincerity
and honesty, we must worship God truthfully with open hearts. Take off the mask. Lay aside
the pretense. Quit trying to put on a show
and worship. And we must worship him with
such deliberate nakedness before him that we attempt to hide nothing. I keep asking for grace to rip
my heart open before God and for grace so to preach to you
in the power of his spirit that he will rip your heart open to
yourself before him. No pretense, no sham, no hypocrisy. Our Lord says, this people draweth
nigh to me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. And if your heart's far from
him, you're far from him. And do you no good to draw nigh
with your body and with your lips if you don't draw nigh unto
God with your heart? But there's more. If we would
truly worship God, we must worship him in accordance with revealed
truth. Thy word is truth. Pick it up, will you? Pick it
up. What you're holding right there
is God's word. Now, if what you do in worship
isn't found here, it ain't worship. If it's contrary to anything
written here, it's not worship. If it is not inspired by what
is written here, it's not worship. We must worship God in accordance
with revealed truth. That is, we worship Him as He
is revealed in Christ, who is the truth, and we worship Him
as He requires in this book the word of truth. If we worship
God, we must worship God confessing our sin and our sins. If there's anything on this earth,
this religious world, designed to keep you from knowing, it
is your sin. This world doesn't mind too much,
at least the fundamentalist conservative aspect of the religious world,
doesn't mind too much talking about acts of sin. Because everybody can see them
if they've got half an eye. They don't mind talking too much
about acts of sin. You know, we all commit acts
of sin. That's our justification for
anything we do. Nobody's perfect. We all commit
acts of sin. But to get you to deal with your
sin, That's another matter, what you are. If we confess our sin,
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. But if we say we've not sinned,
or we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and we make
God a liar and his truth's not in us. To worship God in accordance
with truth, He's revealed in Christ is to worship God trusting
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ Alone as our Savior
and Lord it is to come to him in his name Calling upon the
name of the Lord back in Genesis chapter 4 verses 24 to 25 and
26 Adam knew his wife and she brought
forth a son named Seth and Seth begot a son by the name of Enos
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Then men began
to worship the Lord. This is what it is to worship
God. It is to worship Him in the Savior's
name. Our Lord Jesus said, where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. Recently, or just yesterday,
That passage in Matthew 18, 20 struck me as it never had before. Our Lord did not say where two
or three gather in my name. That's not what he said. He said
where two or three are gathered in my name. And we can't do that. That's
something that's done to us and for us. Oh, I pray we have been
gathered here now in the name of Christ, gathered here by His
Spirit, gathered here by His grace to worship Him, to call
on the name of the Lord, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as our
only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Our Lord Jesus
says in verse 23 of John 4, the Father seeketh such to worship
him. What a wondrous declaration of
grace. God Almighty seeketh. The word is one of those linear
verbs. This is what God's doing in the
course of time. This is what God's doing in all
providence. This is what God's doing in all
His work. He is seeking out a people to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Father is seeking
sinners, such as you and I are, to worship Him who is spirit,
in spirit and in truth. to worship Him in the person
of His darling Son, by the power of His Spirit, with our hearts,
looking to Christ alone for access and acceptance with Him. God
is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. But It is ever the nature and the
tendency of fallen man to pervert the worship of God. It is ever the nature and the
tendency of fallen man to pervert the worship of God. Cain and
Abel were taught by their father Adam to worship God. One of them
worshiped God in spirit and in truth. The other one perverted
the worship of God and offered his own works to God. We've been
blessed with the ordinances of divine worship. But rather than
using these ordinances to worship God in spirit and in truth, we
pervert them into carnal ceremonies, services, and rituals that can
be performed just as well without the spirit of God as with the
spirit of God. We content ourselves with bodily
exercises of outward worship and neglect the inward reality
of spiritual worship. All men by nature, all of us,
prefer and would, if God would let us, find contentment with
outward gaudy religion. We prefer gaudiness to godliness. We prefer show to reality. We prefer pretense to truth. And if God would leave us to
ourselves, that's what we will have. Paul said in 1 Timothy
4 verse 8, bodily exercise profiteth little. He's not talking about
doing push-ups and lifting weights and running. He's talking about
the bodily exercise of religion. Going through the motions of
religion, profit little. But godliness, oh, godliness. We've even perverted that, haven't
we? What do you think of when you
think of godliness? What's in your mind right now? I'll tell
you exactly what's in your mind. Oh, I used to accept Brother
Bob Ponson, now he's a godly man. Am I right? Brother Lindsey Campbell, he's
an example of godliness. He reads his Bible, prays, he's
an honest man, he's faithful, dependable, all those things. And all those things we ought
to strive for, sobriety, uprightness, all those things. But Lindsey,
that ain't godliness. Godliness is worshiping God in
spirit and in truth. Godliness, you see, is profitable
unto all things. Worshiping God, that's godliness. That's profitable unto all things,
having the promise of life that now is and that which is to come. But you and I, we're pleased
with, we're impressed by, and we're dedicated to outward triviality. The Lord looketh on the heart,
and that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
him. We look on that which is highly
esteemed among men and treasure it, and that which has to do
with the heart we could care less about. That's our nature,
Bobby. That's our danger. And that'll
be our ruin if God doesn't prevent it. God is spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now understand
what I'm saying. Outward public worship, the outward
service of God, must never be neglected. I promise you, I promise
you, you neglect what we're doing here today, what we will do here
tonight, what we will do here Tuesday night, you neglect the
outward assembling of God's people to worship God and you don't
worship God. I don't care who you are and
what you pretend. It don't happen. Folks who won't
worship God with his people in public don't worship God in private
if they say they do, they're liars. Can anybody misunderstand
that? I just don't want to gather with
God's people. I'm not going to do that. If you're able, you will, if
you're His. You will if you're His. I have
often said, One great difference between believers and religious
folks is this. Religious people arrange to worship
God and they fit the worship of God into their lives. Believers
do things a bit differently. Believers arrange their lives
around the worship of God. Brother John, that doesn't qualify
me as a believer. Well, believers arrange their
lives around the worship of God. All of them do. All of them do.
But we like outward stuff. Turn to Isaiah 29. Show you what
God thinks about it. Isaiah 29. There's so many passages
I thought about reading for our scripture reading this morning
in this connection. Isaiah 29, verse 13, wherefore the Lord
said, for as much as this people draw near to me with their mouth
and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me and their fear toward me. That is, their outward exercise
of worship, their religion toward me is taught by the precept of
men. Therefore, now I'll tell you
what I'll do since you have chosen your ways and not mine. I'll
tell you what I'll do since you like outward ceremony and despise
real worship. Tell you what I'll do, since
you prefer bodily exercise to godliness. Behold, I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among this people. Even a marvelous
work and a wonder. Folks will be astonished at this.
It's a wonderful thing. Folks, if they could perceive
it, they'd stand back and say, God couldn't do that to us. God wouldn't do that to us. Abraham's
our father. Moses is our teacher. God would
not deal with us that way. We have tradition and history
behind us. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. I'll make their prophets and
their priests and their preachers and their theologians a bunch
of bumbling idiots. I'll make their prophets and
their preachers and their priests fools. In Matthew chapter 15,
if you want to read it at your leisure, our Lord Jesus applies
this text to the Pharisees of His day, and He applies it to
the Pharisees of our day. Rather than reading Matthew 15,
I want you to turn to Mark 7. You can read Matthew 15 later.
Our Lord said, in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men. In vain they do worship me, teaching
for commandments the doctrines of men. The Pharisees added to
the Word of God the traditions of men and insisted upon obedience
to their traditions. They perverted the commandment
of God to suit their own self-serving, self-righteous, hypocritical
religion. In Mark chapter 7, verse 16,
the Lord Jesus answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied
of you hypocrites. Oh, would to God he give somebody the backbone he had here. Can't
tell you what I'd give to hear a preacher who talked like a
man who spoke for God with some backbone. So when he said, you
hypocrites, you knew he was staring right at you. He looked right into your heart.
The hypocrite couldn't escape. You hypocrites. You. pretentious hypocrites. As it is written, this people
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Verse 7, albeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines
what men tell them to say and believe, the commandments of
men. For laying aside the commandment
of God, That's what God said. Let's see
here. I like this better. Laying aside the commandment
of God. I know nobody'd do that. Several years ago, I was sitting
in church over in Lancaster. Went over there, getting rid of a
fella. And this is what I heard the
fella say. I was just sitting there. Shovels hit me. You verify
or tell them I'm lying, one of the two. Deacon got up in the
back of the building and had a piece of paper waving it around.
It's where you were raised. He said, it doesn't matter what
the Bible says. This is what we believe. This
is our constitution. Is that what the man said? Lay aside the word of God. Lay
aside, just forget it. Ye hold the traditions of men.
What traditions? We like to wash pots and cups. We can't use that for holy services. We like to put on a show. We
like to put on a show. Many other such things you do.
And He said to them, full well, you reject the commandment of
God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die
the death. But you say, if a man shall say
to his father or mother, it is Corban. It is Corban. Now this is not talking about
Corban, Kentucky. Let me tell you what it's talking about. This
word Corban. is a word that was used to specifically
identify money set aside for God. A gift set aside for God. This is my tithe money. This is what I've set aside to
use for God. I'm going to send this to the
missionary. I'm going to send this over to
help build the church down in this part of the world or that
part of the world. This is for God. and your father and your
mother are hungry. Your father and your mother need
some help. And God says, honor your father and your mother.
Daddy, I tell you, I sure would do that, but this is for God
and I can't use it for that. So you'll just have to starve
to death. You'll just have to go naked. You'll just have to
die. And this is what our Lord says
these Pharisees do. You put out a show, and you say,
this is for God. But you don't use it to help
your parents, whom you claim to honor, and you don't use it
for God either. You hypocrites, you use it for
yourself, your time, your money, your labor. This is for God. I'm devoting this to God. Hypocrites. Read on. That is to say, a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. That's what you tell him. And
you suffer no man to do aught for his father or mother. That
is, you don't do anything for your folks, you don't do anything
for anybody else either. Making the Word of God of none effect
through your tradition. The Lord Jesus declares that
all such religion is vain and hypocritical and utter abomination
to God. Turn to Isaiah 66. I want to
make five short statements. I hope you will hear me. All merely outward religion Every
form of outward religion, even what we're doing here this morning,
if it does not involve heart worship, is utter vanity and
then an abomination to God. Brother Don, that's sure not
the way to get folks to come to church. No, but it might be that the
truth is the way to get folks to come to God, Rod. I ain't near as much interested
in you filling your spot on that pew as I am you filling a seat
around the throne of God in heaven. I'm not near as interested in
folks looking here and seeing what we're doing for Grace Baptist
Church or for Don Fortner or for anything else as I am in
you knowing God Almighty and worshiping Him. Any religion outward religion
that doesn't involve our hearts is false. It's sham. It's pretense. It's an abomination
to God. This people, our Lord said, draw
near to me with their mouth, with their lips, honor me, but
have removed their heart far from me. What's he mean? They prayed and called upon the
name of Jehovah. We're not talking about folks
who called on Allah or Buddha or one of the gods, one of the
thousands of gods they've got out in Hollywood. They've brought
it, imported from India. They called on Jehovah. They
professed to be Jehovah's people. They said they believed the doctrines
God revealed in his word by Moses and by the psalmist and by the
prophets. They practiced the ordinances
of outward religious service to Jehovah just exactly as God
said do them. They kept their Sabbath days,
their holy days, their new moons, their feasts, but their hearts
were far removed from God. And God regarded the whole thing
as an abomination. Isaiah 66, thus saith the Lord. The heaven is my throne, the
earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you shall
build me? Where is the place of my rest? Verse 2. All those
things hath my hand made, and those things have been, saith
the Lord. But to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor. That doesn't mean he doesn't
have any money in his pocket, it means he doesn't have any in his heart.
He doesn't have anything to exchange with God. He's poor. He got no
righteousness, no strength. Got no grace. Got nothing to
offer God. He's poor. And contrite. He may or may not appear contrite
before men. He's contrite before God. Contrite. You ever been contrite? I mean,
really contrite. A few months ago, I was reduced to contrition before
men like I can't imagine ever experiencing. Set in the hospital
utterly, completely helpless at the mercy of men to get me
up to even go to the bathroom. Utterly stripped of strength
and Oh God, make me like that before
you. Oh, break this pride. And God promises, I'll look to
you. contract to this man who trembles
at my word. But where there's no poverty
of soul, no contrition of heart, no trembling at my word, your
worship, you might just as well kill a man's rocks. You might just as well cut off
a dog's neck and sacrifice a lamb. You might just as well offer
swine's blood as bring me an oblation. You burn your incense to idols
as if you're blessed of an idol. Look at the last line, yea, they
have chosen Their old ways, their soul delighteth in abomination. Number two, all acts of divine
worship, all precepts of righteousness, all doctrines imposed upon men
by church and by church traditions and church customs, those things
made of men are utterly vain. God said their fear toward me
is by the precept of men. Now, just in case you ever should
get a notion to ask, well, brother, daughter, why don't you have
a confession of faith? Why don't we have a creed? Why
don't we have some sort of a religious liturgy? Because I want that
our fear toward God be taught by God's precept and not by man's. So long as I live, I will not
sign any creed. Any confession of faith, I don't
care who writes it. So long as I'm pastor of this
church, we won't have what? Doesn't matter who writes it,
why? This is it. This is it. And we won't have
another. People today, again, all kinds of religious nonsense.
I get letters. I can let friends of mine try
their best to convince me it's all right to slosh a little water
on a baby's face and call it baptism. When you can find it
in this book, we'll start doing it. And that's
what we'll call baptism. But until you can bury a dead
corpse by putting some sand on his face, you can't bury anybody's
body in baptism with putting a little water on their face.
It's nothing but an invention of Romanism. That's all it is.
I don't care who does it. It's just an invention of Romanism.
It is but the remnant of Romanism. And most of what goes on in the
name of religion is but the remnant of Romanism in Protestant and
in Baptist churches. The legality, the asceticism,
the rules, touch not, taste not, handle not. Oh, so sick of religious
rules and tomfoolery. the freewillism and the religious
activities and ceremonies and programs, the Sabbath days, holy
days and solemn feasts. God says they are an abomination.
Away with them. And it's time we did the same.
Third, all true worship is heart work. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart, Believe in your heart. It's no trouble at all for me
to get hold of what I say and teach to you from this book right
here. That's no trouble at all. But
to believe God. God will enable me next Sunday
evening. I'm working on a message for you. What is it to believe? Believe in thine heart. in your heart that God's raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Turn to Philippians
chapter 3, verse 3. Our Lord says, now summing up
for all these things, writing by the apostle, He said, finally,
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. And then he said, beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware
of the concision. Wow. Those three terms he uses. Now listen, he's not talking
about politicians, though they may be included. And he's not
talking about pimps, though they may be included. And he's not
talking about prostitutes, though they may be included. He's talking
about religious people. Religious leaders. Evil workers. Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. That's what our Lord says to
the Pharisees about their works. I never knew you. Dogs. male prostitutes, those who prostitute
the gospel of God's grace for their own gain. Religious leaders,
promoters of free will works, religion, they're dogs, they're
evil workers, promoters of evil work. The concision, that word
concision, it refers to those who cut themselves. It's amazing
to me how folks love to cut themselves. You folks, you young people,
don't fall for the stupidity of tattooing your body. Don't
do that. Just don't do it. It's stupid.
It's idiotic. It's nuts. Don't do it. Don't
do it. God forbids it. It's the practice
of heathen. Don't do it. Even if you are
heathen, don't act like one. Just don't do it. Don't fall
for that idiocy. But people love to cut their
bodies, got tattoos everywhere. And you know, we have 24-hour
day news now, so we've got to dig up all kinds of stuff, have
shows on the stuff. People love to cut themselves.
But this talk about people who cut themselves in the name of
religion. They get in a cell and they beat
out evil. And they'll sit in the monastery
and pull off the robe. and take a whip and beat themselves,
beat themselves, beat themselves, and beat themselves. And finally,
when they've bleed enough, they got rid of a little sin. What
foolishness. What idiot ever came up with
such nonsense? The concision. Those who tell
you if you'll be circumcised in your flesh, you've got everything
sewed up with God. Merlin's talking about folks
who will tell you to do without this and do without that and
go here and go there, wear this, wear that, eat this, eat that,
don't eat this, don't eat that, drink this, don't drink that,
that'll make you spiritual. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Now, listen to your pastor, young
and old, listen to me, listen to me. If you prefer not to drink
anything, don't drink anything. That's perfectly all right. That's
perfectly all right. If you prefer to drink vinegar
every meal, that's okay. You can have your vinegar. That's
just fine. Just don't tell me I've got to.
Just don't tell me I've got to. And if you prefer not to chew
or smoke or smell tobacco, that's all right. Don't use it. Just
don't tell me I can't. Don't equate it with something
spiritual, because it ain't. Don't make it something holy,
because it's not. And if you want to have a glass
of wine, or Jack Daniels, or moonshine with your meal, I don't
care. That's just fine. Drunkenness is another story.
That's another story. But touch not, taste not, handle
not, that's got nothing to do with godliness. Godliness. is worshiping God in the spirit. What it says, we are the circumcision. We are the circumcision. We're
truly circumcised in the heart. And if you practice the concision,
you can't be of the circumcision. Not possible. Long as you think,
as long as you think, By not eating pork, you're more holy. Or by not drinking wine, you're
more holy. Or by not wearing shorts, you're
more holy. Or by not sleeping but so many
hours a day, you're more holy. Or by abusing yourself, you're
more holy. You can't worship God. Not possible. If you practice
the concision, you can't be of the circumcision. We are the
circumcision, circumcised in the heart. circumcised in the
heart. That's what circumcision was
a picture of. We've been born of the Spirit who worship God. What does that mean? We call
on Him. We trust Him. We believe Him. We worship God in the Spirit. in here with what we are. We heard a
lot of talk on both sides of the political spectrum recently
about core values. I thought, man, I'd like you
to expose your core values. I'd sure like to see what's at
the core of your value system. It seemed to me like you don't
have what? Core values. We are truly God's people who
worship God in the core of our being. Lord, thou knowest all things. I can't hide anything from you. Larry, Lindsey, and Bobby, They
know some things I wish they didn't know, but there's some
things they can't know. All they can do is look at the
out and stuff. Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love
thee. Worship God in spirit and rejoice. Rejoice. This word rejoice is not the
same as the word used in verse 1 where Paul says rejoice in
the Lord. This is another word. That word
means be happy, be tickled, be delighted. This word rejoice
means to glory in. to boast in, to wear proudly, rejoice in the Lord. His name
is Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. I deliberately wear no slogans
on my clothes, no banners on my car, on my lapel. I don't need to wear an American
flag here to demonstrate my patriotism. I salute the flag as it weighs
before me, but I don't wear it so you can salute me. Now, I'm
not saying don't wear one. That's all right. Don't misunderstand
me. But this is the point. Wear Christ as your banner, not
only your lapel, in your heart. That's the word. Rejoice in the
Lord. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Have
confidence in Him. And no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in anything you
are or anything you have or anything you do or anything you can give. What's your confidence before
God? What's your hope? What's the core of your faith? Christ Jesus, that's all. Amen.