How do you respond to questions
that probe your heart? Someone's talking to you in even
casual conversation and they bring up something that gets
pretty close and it reminds you of your own sin, your guilt,
something you try to keep secret, your personal sin and guilt before
God. How do you react to it? If that
happens when I'm preaching to you or someone else is preaching
the gospel to you and the message comes to you almost as though
I've been reading your mail or reading your diary, how do you
respond to it? In John chapter 4, our Savior
deliberately stuck his finger in the heart of a fallen, depraved,
guilty sinner. That's what preachers are supposed
to do. This woman was guilty. She was
an adulteress. Her guilt before God that she
tried desperately to suppress, he deliberately stirred. Things
that You just wouldn't talk to someone about politely. You know, you just wouldn't bring
them up. Those are the things that he
deliberately stirs as he speaks to her. And she responded just
exactly like you might expect if you've ever preached to folks
and watched their response. She defends her religion. She takes refuge in religious
traditions. The traditions she had learned
from her fathers and the ceremonies that she had observed all her
life. John chapter 4 verse 19. The
woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet. Since you
know these things about me, I guess you must be a prophet. Our fathers
worshiped right here in this mountain. And you say, since
you're a Jew, you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought
to worship. Then, after plainly declaring
to her that her religion was a sham, that her imaginary spiritual
knowledge was utter ignorance, the Lord Jesus speaks to her
in verse 23, the hour cometh and now is, when true worshipers
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 Him in spirit and in truth. As soon as the Lord exposed this
woman's sin, her conscience was aroused and she was not yet converted
but she became somewhat concerned and that's always hopeful. It's
hopeful when sinners who up to this point had no concern for
their souls and no concern for God's glory, no concern for the
gospel, no concern for God's truth, now they begin to have
a little concern about God and about eternity and about their
souls. Now she was troubled. Before
this, she thought nothing of these things. The Master probed
the matters of vital importance, and she was disturbed by them.
Her natural instinct, the natural tendency of her depraved heart,
like yours and mine, was to shrink from these things. We always
shrink from the barbed arrow. Penetrating truth, we put up
our shield. Don't come here. Let's not go
there. It was too probing, too personal,
too troubling, too humbling. But she tried to hide, and the
only thing she knew to hide in. She took a refuge in what she
knew. The refuge was religion. That's the natural refuge of
carnal men. Always has been, is now, and
will be tomorrow. are confronted with things that
make them uncomfortable about themselves, about God, and about
eternity. If they're not so brazen as to
try to make fun of them and to ridicule them, they will take
refuge in their own ideas with regard to religion. When the
Word of God first pricks the conscience, the sinner's most
instinctive reaction is to run to his religious den like a frightened
rat runs to its nest in a garbage dump. The Samaritan woman tried
to take the sharp edge off our master's words by discussing
points of religious dogma, denominational questions, and historic religious
traditions. Imagine that. He's talking to
her about her soul. He's talking to her about eternity. He's talking to her about living
water. He's talking to her about God's
salvation. And she talks to him about holy
mountains and holy places and holy traditions. She takes refuge in carnal religion. That's the common response of
sinners who will not bow before God Almighty. Instead of confessing
her sin, instead of asking that she might be forgiven of her
sin, she said to the Son of God, our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you say we aren't supposed to do that. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. Will we ever learn that? The
natural mind The natural mind, all that goes on up here naturally,
and all that goes on here naturally, all that's in the seat of intellect
and reason and emotion in man, all of it hates God. Hates God. Hates God. Not hates religion. Everybody
loves religion. If you don't believe that, hang
on till, gets to be the, around December 20th, 25th. Just hang
on. This town is going to be a religious
put all. I mean, you'll see, you'll see
grown up, full grown men and women. I'm talking full grown
folks. Folks who are not in a nut house.
Folks who went to college and got them a degree, got PhDs and
other doctor's degrees. Standing around and holding candles
on a platform, making a living. Christmas tree for Jesus and
sing that they want their light to shine. This little light of
mine, I'm going to let it shine. Folks love religion, religious
tomfoolery, religious idolatry, religious shenanigans, but they
hate God and hate the knowledge of God and won't have it. The
Samaritan woman takes her refuge in her religion The fact is there
is nothing so adverse to human flesh as that which is spiritual,
spiritual truth. Now please let me digress. The
one of the most popular words you hear if you watch the news
or you hear an interview, especially somebody who's out on the left
side of the country in that place called Hollywood, is surreal. You hear folks talk, well it's
almost surreal. Let me tell you what that means.
That means it's almost like witchcraft. It's a cult, not spiritual. That's what they mean by surreal. Not that which concerns the spirit
of God. that which concerns the demon
world, that which concerns the occult, but not that which concerns
the Spirit of God. That which is spiritual has to
do with God's Spirit and God's truth. And men won't have that. Men despise spiritual things,
spiritual truth. The natural mind finds the most
convenient way possible to avoid anything that's spiritual. The
natural mind finds the most convenient way possible to avoid anything
that presses the claims of Christ as God upon you. I'm preaching
to you this morning. Some of you I have preached to
for a long time. Some for the first time. I'm
preaching to you who do not know our God. And I know that this
is what you do every time the Spirit of God brings the message
somewhere close to home to you. You will do anything you can
to suppress it, to put up a shield and say, don't go there. I won't
hear this. I won't have that. And the only
way you'll ever hear it is if God Almighty knocks down your
heart's door and brings himself in by omnipotent grace and does
for you what he alone can do, giving you life and faith in
Christ. Oh, Spirit of God, come. Break
down the barriers, me and Reza. Speak by your word to the hearts
of chosen sinners for Christ's sake. Men and women, instead
of stopping to weigh the Word of God, in their depravity, run
to questions. And they talk about holy places
and holy times and holy deeds and holy customs and holy days,
church dogma, prophecy, anything except grace and redemption and
righteousness. Men and women are willing to
talk about most anything, discuss most any religious subject as
long as they don't have to deal honestly with themselves and
God. Now I'm calling for you to do
something you can't do unless God graciously forces you to
do it. I'm calling for you to open your
heart honestly before God. Stand naked before God. No sham. No pretense. No defense. God, this is what
I am. I beg for your grace. If where you sit, you find yourself
able to confess your sin and at the same time confess Christ
the Lord. God Almighty has done a wondrous
thing for you. He's granted you grace in his
son. To this woman, it was utterly
astonishing that the Lord Jesus informed her that the question
she raised was totally irrelevant. He said, honey, the things you're
talking about don't matter. Neither what your father said
nor what the Jewish father said. He said the hour has come and
now is. Since Christ is standing here, since the Messiah is standing
here talking to you, since that one of whom the Old Testament
scriptures spoke is standing here, worshiping in this mountain
or in another mountain is irrelevant. The hour has come and now is.
when true worshipers must worship God in spirit and in truth. You see, God is spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And God Almighty is seeking sinners
to worship Him in spirit and in truth. I want to talk to you
this morning, if God will enable me, about worship. Now, this
message is important for two reasons. Number one, worship's
essential. Where there is no worship of
God, there's no spiritual life, no knowledge of God, and no salvation. The Apostle Paul describes God's
people like this. We are the circumcision which
worship the Father, which worship God in spirit, and in truth. We worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Our Lord begins this discourse
by declaring God is spirit. Look at verse 24. God is a spirit. Quite literally, God is the spirit
or God is spirit. in describing that which sets
forth the infinite character of God. He is the incomprehensible,
infinite, eternal spirit. God is not one who is physical
in any way. He can't be touched by that which
is physical. He can't be seen with the natural
eye. When the scripture speaks of
God having hands and having eyes and having ears and having a
heart, it's speaking of God using human terms to describe His character
to us, His attributes to us, but don't ever have the idea
that somehow God is a physical being that can be comprehended
in a body. He's not. God is spirit. He is the eternal, incomprehensible,
omnipresent Spirit. And if we would worship Him,
we must worship Him spiritually. We must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. But Pastor, didn't God come in
the flesh? Oh, He did. And that's how we
know Him. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, so that the incomprehensible, eternal Spirit came into this
world in humanity, in our nature. And He dwells in humanity, in
our nature, in the person of Jesus Christ. Accomplished redemption
for us in our nature, and sits upon the throne of glory in our
nature today. But essentially, God is Spirit. That in itself ought to tell
us that all true worship is spiritual worship. I'll get to that in
a moment. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. There
are three things in this chapter of which John says they must
be. In chapter 3 verse 7 he says,
ye must be born again. In chapter 3 verse 14 he says
the Son of Man must be lifted up. And then in this text he
says God must be worshiped. They that worship him must worship
in spirit and in truth. The order is significant. These
three things are given in this order. Those who worship God
are born again. They have been redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ, and they now worship Him because they
have been born again, because they have been redeemed. This
message is important because we must worship God, and it's
important because there is very little worship in this age. Without question, the worship
of God is the most important Most urgent, most glorious action
of humanity. You didn't pay attention to that.
I want you to get it. The worship of God is the most
important, the most urgent, the most glorious action of humanity. We've come here to worship God. And if we didn't come to worship
God, I suggest you go home. I just suggest you go home because
there's not going to be anything offered here for you. I suggest
you go find another place. What goes on today in most religious
circles is worse than the practices of pagans in idolatry in ancient
days. Have you noticed, surely you
do, church signs and church advertisements in the newspapers? The churches,
and badness churches are worse than any. Badness churches are
the worst in the bunch of badness churches. We have two services
every Sunday morning. We have a Contemporary service,
and then we have for you old footy duddies who don't like
to dance while you worship, we have traditional service. Do you know where you find the
word contemporary in the dictionary? Right in front of the word contempt.
And their contemporary worship is but the outward display of
man's contempt for God Almighty. Oh, how do you know? You don't
come to our services. I'll tell you what, you just let me go
over there and tell them about God, and I'll show you how much contempt
they have. Contempt. And so they, because men have
nothing but contempt for God, they treat Him and His worship
contemptuously. People wonder, I'm often criticized,
and that's all right, I'm big enough to take it. Doesn't bother
me any. I mean, it doesn't bother me any. I take it as a badge
of honor. I have a reputation for being
kind of grumpy about insisting folks behave and not run in and
out and be quiet and listen and listen. Why? Because we've come
here to do something other than just entertain you while you
go to hell. I've come here to talk to you
as God's servant from his word to worship God. To worship God. These days we have folks who
are trained to be worship leaders. Do you know what a worship leader
is? I'll tell you what, pick up your phone this afternoon,
get hold of anybody in any church office you can, where they've
got a big staff, and ask them what the responsibilities of
their worship leader is. The worship leader, he's the
fellow that gets you worked up in his whoopee tie. And they
have their stage productions. And they plan out months in advance
exactly how things are going to be done. And they have their
put on shows, and pageantry, and songs, and entertainment. Oh, it's so wonderful. This is
the worship leader's responsibility. He puts all that together. What's
the preacher supposed to do? Oh, he comes in when the worship
leader gets done, and he's allowed to talk 10, 15 minutes. Contempt. Just contempt. Nothing else. Nothing else. Why
don't you have plays and skits and programs and movies? Because
we don't hold God in contempt. That's why. Why do you insist
that men and women at least act as though they have some interest
in what's going on? Because we don't hold God in
contempt. That's why. That's why. God's spirit. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. And let me show you four or five
things in our text. The only place we can find what
worship is is in the book of God. If we would worship Him,
we must learn, as David did, to worship Him in due order. And let me give you five statements
in this regard. Number one, our Lord Jesus here
tells us that there is true worship and there is false worship. He
says, you worship, you know not what. He's asserting that worship,
both among the Samaritans and among the Jews, had been reduced
to nothing but outward religious ceremonies, outward religious
forms, nothing else, just doing things. And God Almighty holds
outward worship in contempt. Pastor, you didn't really mean
to say that, did you? I meant to say that. If all you practice
is outward worship, God holds it in contempt. God doesn't require
it of your hands. Us, you just received an offering,
you give your gifts every week. If you, all you do when you make
your offerings is give your money, I suggest you keep your money.
I hold it in contempt and God holds it in contempt. You mean you're not begging for
money? If the day ever comes you hear this preacher beg for
money for something, don't you ever listen to him again, because
I have betrayed myself as a hireling prophet. No. Beg you for nothing. You or anybody else. No. God Almighty says your prayers,
you spread your hands. Who asked you to do that? You
bring your sacrifices. Who required that from you? Well,
the book says do that. Oh, but it says something more
than that. When you spread your hands in prayer, spread your
heart open to God. Or it's useless to spread your
hands. You bring your sacrifices, bring your faith to God, trusting
His Son, or whatever sacrifice you make is a useless sacrifice. God looks upon it as nothing
but the sacrifice of a man, the slaying of innocent blood, and
putting blood of a man on his altar. That's what He calls it.
God looks upon it as nothing but the acts of the Sodomites
in Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the first chapter of Isaiah.
That's what God calls it. That's what God calls it. Pastor,
what does God expect from us? He expects and demands something
more than an outward form of godliness. Something more than an outward
form of religion. Something more than a religious
work, ritual, ceremony, piece of formality, or service. That's not worship. Our Lord's
doctrine in the Sermon on the Mount, in its essence, is that
worship is spiritual, not carnal. He tells us in that sermon, Matthew
5, 6, and 7, that we ought to always carefully avoid being
satisfied with or making any pretentious show of religious
service. How can I speak clearly? I want
you My brothers and sisters, read this book. Study this book. Learn everything you can about
this book. But if all you do is read this book to fulfill
your duty, reading your Bible schedule, you haven't read it. You understand that? Spend time
with God in prayer. Do that. But if all you do is
fulfill your duty, well, I'm supposed to pray for 30 minutes
today. I've done that now. Get up and go watch TV. If that's
all you do, you haven't prayed. I urge you, be here. We meet
four times a week. Twice on Sunday morning, Sunday
night, Tuesday night. Be here every time the doors open. Be
here. For your soul's sake, be here. Be here hungering for the
Word. But if all you do is fulfill your duty, you haven't worshipped
God. You haven't worshipped God. No.
No. Worship requires the heart. Worship
requires your soul. Worship requires your mind. Worship
requires all of us. Our Lord tells us throughout
this book, in its essence, worship is inward, not outward. Humility,
faith, repentance, these are inward things, not an outward
show. Prayer is done in the secret of your closet, in the lonely
watches of the dark night, in the secret of your heart. It's
not an outward show. Give it. Don't let your right
hand know what your left hand does. It's spontaneous, free,
generous, secret. Men like to talk about fasting.
I find it interesting. I get questions about all kinds
of things. I'll be talking to somebody about the wonders of
redeeming blood, and they'll want to talk to me, well, what
about fasting? And I know why they ask. I know
exactly why they ask. You know, nobody much does that
these days, but I do. See, I fast. Go ahead. But if you do, and you tell me
about it, you didn't. If you do, and you put on a sad
countenance, make it appear that you do, you didn't. No. In this
house today, there are both worshipers and those who pretend to worship. The difference is this. Some
of you come here wanting to know Christ, His will. You want to understand His word.
You want to know what it is to believe Him, to walk with Him.
You want to know what it is to live with God and live for His
glory. And some of you come because
it's your duty. Or you're still at home and mom
and dad have got enough sense to make you come. You got a boyfriend
or girlfriend, you just come to satisfy them, or you want
to impress somebody, or it's a good place to network with
folks and do business. Whatever the reason, God Almighty
requires if we worship Him, we worship Him from within. Second,
true worship involves, now listen to me, listen. This is so good,
you'll miss it if you can. True worship involves kinship
with God. Twice our Lord says, the Father,
they that worship the Father, and the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. You go back through the pages
of the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi, and show me somewhere
during all the days of the moral law, during all the days of legal
ceremonial religion, during all the days in which legal sacrifices
were offered on a physical altar, in a physical temple, and sprinkled
on a physical mercy seat, throughout the whole typical ceremonial
age of Mosaic law. Find me any place where anybody
ever called on God as their father. Find me someplace. You mean he
wasn't Abraham's father? Yes he was, Abraham's friend
too. But you won't find a place where they called on him as their
father. But now, coming to God by faith in Jesus Christ, having
the spirit of adoption planted in our hearts by God the Holy
Spirit himself, creating life and faith in us, the first thing
the sinner does is lifts his heart to heaven and calls God
Father. True worship involves a kinship
with God that belongs to sinners through the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ and belongs to sinners through the work of God
the Holy Spirit giving us life and faith in Christ. It belongs
to sinners by virtue of our union with the Son of God. We're one
with Christ and now we worship God as our father. Oh, what a
privilege. You who had the privilege of
being raised in a home where you had a father. I'm not talking
about somebody sired you, everybody has that. I'm talking about you
had a father, had a father. A man who took care of you, provided
for you, trained you. A man who taught you to worship
God. Oh, my soul. I guarantee you
there's two things about him. Two things about him. If you
have a father, two things about him. There's nobody on this earth
you respect more. And there's nobody on this earth
around whom you're more comfortable. Not if you have a father. I've got a father. Oh, I have a father in heaven
for whom I have the utmost reverence. And he's the only person in the
universe around whom I'm completely, absolutely, all the time comfortable. All the time. All the time. Able to approach Him through
the merits of His darling Son and not even have to hide all
that I am. Able to approach Him confessing
my sin and fully confident of acceptance by Him, all the while
filled with reverence for Him. Here's the third thing. Worship is a work of grace. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. For this purpose,
that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple. Really, worship is not something
a man does for God. It's something God does in a
man. David said concerning prayer, he said, therefore thy servant
found it in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. Isn't
that a strange way to talk? It is unless you know what prayer
is. A prayer is something God puts
in the heart. that he may hear it from the heart and he may
answer it for your heart's sake, for Christ's sake, for his glory.
Worship. Worship something God works in
you. Worship something God puts in you. Brother Lindsey and I
were talking earlier this morning about faith. Faith in Christ. It is your responsibility and
mine to believe God. But you can't. You must, but you can't, until
God creates faith in you. And Claus, that's just as true
today as believers as it was before God ever saved us. Is
it not? Trouble comes, we're responsible
to believe God. Go ahead and try. Go ahead and
try. You ought to. Go ahead and try.
have difficulty to believe God. Be at peace! Be comfortable! Rejoice in the Lord and the peace
of God will keep your heart. It will. It's just you trust
Him. But, Merle, you can't trust Him
in the best of times or in the worst of times except as He graciously,
continually gives you faith in Him. Can't be done. Can't be done. And worship is
something God must work in us. And so I urge you, children of
God, every time you come to this house or go to another, pray
earnestly that God will speak through your pastor by his word
to your heart. Pray earnestly that God will
enable you to worship him. How often we sing our hymns I
was trying to sing a little bit ago, as Lindsay led the song,
How Great Thou Art. And I want so much to sing His
praise with my heart. And while I sing How Great Thou
Art and mutter out the words, and mutter them out with a loud
volume perhaps, my mind wanders to the most insignificant, trivial,
meaningless things on this earth. And I have to keep praying, God,
focus my heart on you. Lord, set my heart on my Redeemer. Take from me everything that
would intrude and stand between you and me. I'm preaching to you. And it's
usually not too hard for me to keep my mind on what I'm preaching,
otherwise I couldn't do it. But I sit where you do once in
a while, and I don't get to do it often. I don't get to do what
you're doing near as often as you do. Sit and listen to a man
preach the gospel. He struck me from the word. Do
you know how much I want that? I go sit down and listen to Brother
Todd preach. We're waiting in meetings together. Oh, let me
hear the word. Oh, God speak to me. and my mind
will run like yours does in a thousand directions unless God arrests
my heart and arrests my attention. God, teach me to worship. Worship
is a work of God's grace. Third, and I've already hinted
at it so I won't say much, worship is spiritual. It's altogether
spiritual. I don't mean by that with God's
people physically. It's not important. It is. You
won't worship God outside these doors if you don't worship Him
in these doors. You're not going to neglect the worship of God
with His people and worship Him in private. It ain't going to
happen. You can fake it all you want to. I'm telling you, you're
a liar if you say you do. Oh, I just... Oh, no, no, Brother
John, you don't understand my circumstances. Yes, I do understand
your circumstances. You're not going to worship God
outside the fellowship of His people if you don't worship Him
in the fellowship of His people. But worship is not principally
physical in any of its forms. Worship is spiritual. The word
comes from two English words. It's made up of these two words,
worth-ship. It is assigning to God his true
worth. We sing our songs of praise Brother
Lindsey picks out the hymns and picks out hymns by which we assign
to God his true worth. I write a hymn almost every week
for you, an attempt to assign to God his true worth. We bring
the messages and always seek to assign to God his true worth. And as you lift your hearts in
gratitude and praise to him, a sign to God, his true worth,
you come to his house. Most of the time, Lindsay, we
rush in here and stay up half the night on Saturday night,
nonsense, and don't even think, then sit down, oh, I forgot,
Lord, now help us to worship. Or sometimes, from the time you
get up on Sunday morning, to the time you hear the piano opening
the first note of the song, you're seeking God. Oh, God, let me
meet with you. I need to hear from you. And
then you assign to God his true worth. You bring your gifts. You may make a sacrifice of $5. Some do. And you might give $5,000
and not make a sacrifice. Some do. But when you give generously,
With open heart and open hand, you assign to God his true worth. That's what worship is, assigning
to God his true worth. And anything less is just going
through the motions. Worship, not a physical thing. Paul said, bottom of the exercise
profiteth little. And he wasn't talking about walking
five miles a day on a treadmill. He was talking about doing what
we're doing right here, going through the physical exercise
of worship. But godliness, true worship,
assigning to God his true worth, now that's profitable both for
life now and life eternal. Worship. Is it primarily an emotional,
soulish thing? But rather it is a spiritual
heart thing. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. In spirit and in truth. That's
the reason we don't have pictures of Jesus and crosses
and images and icons and statues of Mary and statues of the saints
and images of angels. We don't have them because that
stuff's idolatry. We worship God in spirit. We
worship God in spirit. Worship Him with our spirits.
Worship Him spiritually. Worship Him by the gift and grace
and power and teaching of the Holy Spirit. And fifth, true
worship involves worshiping God in truth. In truth. What does that mean? Worship
God truthfully. Truthfully. Worship God in sincerity. Without duplicity. Worship God
honestly. If I would truly worship God,
I must stand before God with no mask. and no covering, just
naked before Him. You can't worship God and pretend.
It can't be done. You can't worship God and attempt
to cover up. You've got to open your heart
before Him. Worship Him like you really are,
with no righteousness but Christ. and no atonement for your sin,
but Christ. No redemption for your soul,
but Christ. No access to God, but Christ.
No hope before God, but Christ. No acceptance with God, but Christ. And you must worship God according
to the body of revealed truth. Worship Him as He is revealed in this book. in all his holy character as
he really is as God. Worship him. Must worship him
in the due order, after the due order. When David sought to bring
the ark of God up, the reason I read 1 Chronicles 13 and 15
to you, the first time he consulted with the people. Did you notice
that? He said, what do you fellows
think? And the Lord, of course. We're going to leave him out, but really
we want to know your opinion. And I'm telling you something,
anytime you seek God's direction by seeking the opinions of men,
even of faithful men, you're gonna get their direction and
not God's. And he brought the ark of God
up, got him a brand new cart, got him a brand new yoke of oxen,
and they put that ark on the cart and they took off to Jerusalem. reached out steady of the ark,
and God killed him. And David was displeased and scared of
God. And then he went to the priest. And he didn't ask the people
of Israel what they were going to do. He said, this is what we're going
to do. And we're going to do it the way God said do it, because
we've been living with a breach on us for three months, because
we sought him not after the due order. Well, what does all that
mean to us today? We baptize folks this way. The
only way baptism can be performed by immersion in water as they
confess Christ as their Lord. How come? Because that's what
God said, do it. There's not another way. It's not an option.
We observe the Lord's table. You'll come together tonight.
You who believe will have the privilege of eating unleavened
bread and wine in remembrance of the Savior. Well, why not
grape juice and soda crackers or soda crackers and Kool-Aid?
Most folks do that. You mean that's not acceptable?
As acceptable as spitting in God's face. Just as acceptable. And no more acceptable. We worship
God in spirit and in truth. But preacher, that's just not
acceptable to people in these days. God has never been acceptable
to people. Christ has never been acceptable
to people. That's the reason he was nailed
on the tree. The gospel has never been acceptable to people. Now
you got one of two choices. We have one of two choices. As
a body of believers, we can make ourselves acceptable to men,
or we can worship God in spirit and in truth. But it's impossible
to do both. Our Father, Teach us, as only
you can, to worship you in spirit and in truth, for Christ's sake. Amen.