The Lord Jesus says in verse
23, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers, those
two words are important, underline them, true worshipers, shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is spirit And they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Now, the Lord
Jesus had just exposed this woman's sin, and now her conscience is
aroused. She wasn't yet converted, but
she was at least concerned, and that's hopeful. It's hopeful
when men and women suddenly become concerned about their sin, about
their souls about God and judgment and eternity. That's where we
find this Samaritan woman. Before this, she thought little
of these things, and now she's troubled. The Master had proved
the matters of most vital importance. She was disturbed by them, but
her depraved heart naturally shrank from the Savior's barbed
arrows, and she fled from the penetrating truth of God, just
like we all do by nature. You see, God's truth is too probing,
too personal, too troubling, too humbling for any man to face
it unless God makes him face it. But look where she tries
to hide. This old hussy flew to the best
refuge she knew. She sought refuge in religion.
Read the chapter. Here's this gal. who's been shacking
up with five different men. Not a principle of moral integrity
about her, but she's religious to the core. Brother Todd Nyberg
told me once years ago when he was meeting over on North Limestone,
he said, I thought I wouldn't have to deal with self-righteousness
down here, but he said the winos and bums down here are just as
self-righteous as folks in church. And that's exactly the way it
is. Man's self-righteous. That's his nature. No matter
how vile he is. This old gal flees to a refuge
of religion. That's the natural refuge of
the carnal mind. When the word of God first breaks
the conscience, man's first, most instinctive reaction is
to run to his religious den just like a scared rat runs to his
nest in the garbage dump. Man runs to religion. That's
the nature of man. This crusty old gal tried to
take the sharp edge off the master's words by discussing points of
religious debate. denominational questions, strife
between the Samaritans and the Jews, or the prehistoric traditions
and religious customs and religious creeds. She had her denomination
to defend, and the Jews had their denomination to defend. She had
her creed, and they had their creed, and so she attempts to
take refuge in the differences between them. Imagine that. Such
behavior shouldn't surprise us, but it does. It's so natural
and so common it shouldn't, and yet it's still surprising because
it's so utterly foolish. Instead of confessing her sin,
instead of asking how she might be forgiven of her sin, instead
of seeking God's mercy in Christ, she said, our fathers worshiped
in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place
to worship. Now, we got us a problem. Yes, we do, because the carnal
mind, the carnal mind, Are you listening to me? Your natural
mind, every instinct of your being, everything, is enmity
against God. The scripture doesn't say it
is that enmity, it says it is enmity. That means Bill Raleigh,
all of us by nature hate God. Everything in us hates everything
there is in God. Old man loves his notions about
God, loves his ideas about God, loves his thoughts about God,
but the carnal mind hates God. That's the nature of man. There
is nothing so averse to human flesh as spiritual truth. The
natural mind finds the most convenient way possible of avoiding the
claims of Christ in the gospel. Instead of stopping to weigh
the word of God, instead of stopping and saying, now wait, wait. This
is God speaking. This is God's word. This is God's
truth. The natural, defrayed heart runs
to questions and fights against the truth of God. Runs to questions
about holy places and holy times and holy days and holy deeds
and holy customs and other people. Church dogma and prophetic schemes,
these are the things we want to talk about. You see, men and
women are willing to talk about. Men and women are willing to
discuss. They're willing to go to war over. almost anything
concerning religion except their sin. Almost anything else. They'll talk to you and debate
with you about almost anything. But when it comes to talking
about themselves, having to deal honestly and pointedly before
God Almighty with the corruption of their hearts, the depravity
of their hearts, the enmity of their hearts against God, they'll
go to war rather than do that. Man won't do it. He won't do
it. Because man by nature is a personal, depraved, rebel,
hating God. And the only way that will ever
change is if God himself takes the initiative and changes the
hearts. To her utter astonishment, the
Lord Jesus informed this woman that the question she raised
was totally irrelevant. Mona, you talk about getting
somebody's dandruff. I found out a long time ago the surest
way to get a fella really, get his cockles up, I mean get his
back high, is to tell him what he's talking about is meaningless.
The things that are concerning you are just very irrelevant.
They don't matter. I get correspondence folks all
the time asking me about this position of that, this doctrine
of that, and I tell them I'm just not interested. I don't
care. I just don't care. It's irrelevant. It's meaningless.
It's not even an issue. Our Lord said to this woman,
in effect, woman, believe me, the question you raise is of
no importance now. For the hour comes, yea, and
now is when the externals of religion, all the holy days,
all Sabbath days, all sacrifices, all priests, all laws, all ceremonies,
all holy places, the temple itself must be completely abolished
and replaced by true spiritual worship. What a shocker. What a shocker. You mean this
temple? Man, this is Temple Solomonville. This is, this great, gorgeous,
elaborate, costly temple. This is the place where our fathers
have worshipped God for hundreds of years. You mean to tell us
we got to throw it all away? You never will, so I will. And God tore it. absolutely took
pieces, so that not one stone was left on another, showing
his utter contempt for it. You see, all true worship, all
true worship, are you listening? All true worship is spiritual. Carnal worship, legal worship,
ceremonial worship, priest worship, Altar worship, church worship,
denomination worship is idolatry. It's idolatry to go confess your
sins to a priest and call it worshiping God. And it's idolatry
to walk down in front of a Baptist church or a football stadium
and confess your sins to a man. It's idolatry. It's not worshiping
God. It's idolatry to build altars
anywhere in your house or in the church building. It's idolatry,
utter idolatry. But preacher, are you saying
that everybody who worships like that is idolaters? Well, you
put it together. It's just idolatry, idolatry. In these two verses before us
this morning, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a very brief
but a thoroughly instructive description of the necessity
and the nature of true worship. The hour cometh, he said, and
now is. When the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him, God is spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now this message is important
for two reasons. Number one, worship is essential. Our Lord Jesus says here in verse
24, They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. This is not a matter of question. It's not a debatable issue. It's
not an optional thing. The Lord God says you've got
to worship him. You're going to worship him.
You're going to worship him. You must worship him. Worship
him or perish. In fact, the word must is used
several times in John's gospel. There are three in this context
that are very important, and the order is very important.
Our Lord said in John 3, 7 to Nicodemus, you must be born again.
And then in verse 14, he said, the Son of Man must be lifted
up. And here he says, you must worship. Now, the only people
who are born of God are those who are redeemed by Christ being
lifted up, and the only ones who can or will worship God and
must worship Him are those who are called by His Spirit, born
again, and redeemed, justified by His blood. This message is
also important because there is very little true worship in
our day. Without question, the worship
of God is the most important most urgent and most glorious
thing in the history of any man. It's the most important, the
most urgent, and the most glorious thing in the history of any man. I told my daughter all her life,
and I tell you young ladies, don't even think about marrying
a man with whom you cannot worship God. Don't even think about it.
You men don't even think about taking a job that moves you away
from the worship of God. Don't even think about it. I
don't care how much it pays you. I don't care how enticing it
is. Don't even think about it. Nothing's so important. When
Doug came and asked for a face hand, I'm sure he will recall,
I said to him, I'm not interested in how much money you have or
you might have. I'm not interested in anything
you possess. I'm interested in one thing, that you worship God
with my daughter. That's all. That's all. Nothing
else is relevant. Nothing else is relevant. Nothing. Nothing else is significant.
Nothing else is important. Don't let anything or anybody
keep you from worshiping God. Don't let it happen. Worship
is the creature ascribing greatness and praise to the Creator. And
yet the sad fact is, most of what passes for worship these
days is anything but worship. That which men call worship today,
you go around town, if you care to. Go around town and just sit
in. You don't have to do that. Turn on television. Turn on radio.
Just listen. Just listen. What men call worship
today is designed and executed for the pleasure entertainment,
indulgence, and gratification of the flesh. It's got nothing
to do with the praise and honor of God. Nothing. These days, most churches have
a service that's even more odious than the previous generations. Most of them have a separate
service now, they call it contemporary worship. It's a good name. The next name in the dictionary
is contemptible. Contemptible worship. What is
this contemporary worship? It's worship where you can get
even more pleasing to the flesh. It's worship where the old folks
who can't stand having men, we don't have folks dancing in church
and shaking timbrels and all that nonsense, where the young
folks say, oh, that's what we want, that's what we want. Most of you I'm sure have read
about this huge church that was built in Chicago several years
ago. They sent out an advanced team, and churches do this all
the time. Denominations do it all the time. Send out an advanced
team before they plant a church and they ask, what do you want
in a church? What would you expect from a
church? You want entertainment? Oh, you want folks to come sing
to you? You want folks to have an orchestra? You want to come
as you are? You want to come naked? What
do you want in a church? We'll give it to you, just whatever
it takes to get you. Contempt. What's being called
worship today? Churches develop programs and
stick to their programs. They have cantatas and entertain
folks. They have programs and plays
and skits. They have groups for old folks,
young folks, single folks, divorced folks, queer folks, and every
other kind of folks. Everything. Just anything to entertain you. Because true worship is essential
to Christianity. And because that which passes
for worship in our day is a display of man's contempt for God, not
his reverence for God, we must find out something about what
worship is. And the only place we can, I
wish I could get folks to understand this, the only place you can
find out how to worship God, find out what worship is, is
in this book. The only place. The only one
who has the right to tell you how to worship, the only one
who can tell you what's required of worship, is the one worshipped.
He's the only one. Let's just suppose, let's just
think for a moment, let's put ourselves in a time, and this
is hard for Americans in this democratic society, you know,
where we claim to be self-governed. It's hard for us to even grasp
this, but let's put ourselves mentally in a state, in a nation,
Well, we have a king, an absolute king. I mean, Larry, all we got
to do is snap his fingers and your head rolls. An absolute
king. Got answers from nobody. Nobody. And you say, I'm going to go
into the king's court and I'm going to worship him. And somebody
says, well, how are you going to do that? He says, well, I
have, I've read the books and I've decided this is the best
way to worship him. And I've got, I've got this gift and that
gift and I'm going to dress this way. I'm going to come this way.
But what does the king say? Oh, he'll take anything I come.
You wouldn't dare. First thing you do, that's the
king. How do you expect men to come to you? How do you require
that men worship you? And I want to tell you something.
If you're going to come to God, you're going to come to God the
way he says, or you won't come. You're going to worship him the
way he says, or you won't worship him. Now in this passage of scripture,
Brief as it is, our Lord tells us five distinct things about
worship. Here's the first one. There is
a true worship and a false worship. When the Samaritan woman began
to talk about worship, our Lord quickly told her, you don't know
anything about it. You ought not talk about it because
you're ignorant of it. You have no idea what it is to
worship God. You know not what you worship. Our Lord was saying
to her in essence, You're totally ignorant with regard to the worship
and knowledge of God Almighty. You worship you know not what.
You see, the worship of God in the Old Testament employed many
carnal, typical, outward ordinances of divine service which were
to a greater or lesser degree corrupted both by the Jews and
the Samaritans. But the worship never was. It
never was merely outward. It never was merely carnal. It
never was merely ceremonial, but rather it was inward. It
was a principle of the heart. It was an act of faith. Read
Isaiah chapter 1. The Lord God speaks of the Jews
coming and bringing their oblations and spreading their hands, entering
into his courts. He said, I didn't ask you to do this. He said,
I'm weary of it. Your sacrifices are stench in
my nostrils. These are your sacrifices or
things that I'm weary of. They're abomination. Away with
them! And away with you. How come? Because all they did
was worship outwardly. Outwardly. The very first thing
we must learn about worship is this. That worship which is no
more than an outward religious work, ritual, ceremony, formality,
or service is no worship. This was the essence of our Lord's
doctrine in the Sermon on the Mount. He told us there plainly
that we must be careful, and we must be careful because it's
the tendency of our flesh, Gary, not to be satisfied with or to
make a show of mere religious service. Don't do it. Don't do
it. People today do all kinds of
things in the name of saying, well, I want to be a good testimony.
I want to show folks how much I love the Lord. Don't do that.
He said, don't do it. Read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Don't
do it. Don't by something you do try
to impress folks with how godly you are. Don't do it. Go to a
restaurant. We've got 500 people in a restaurant.
Folks bustling around with coffee and food, and they stop and pray.
How come? Well, we want the Lord to know
we're thankful. He knows. Who are you trying to impress?
Who are you trying to impress? Don't make a show of it. Well,
how are we going to know that we love the Lord? Love Him. They'll know. Bid for it. They'll know. Don't try to show
men anything. True worship is primarily inward.
All true service to God is primarily inward. Our Lord told us in Matthew
5 that humility and faith and repentance are inward graces. They're not outward shows. He
tells us that prayer, whether you stand here in this pulpit
and lead the congregation in prayer, or whether you speak
in your private heart, in your closet before God, prayer is
not to be done before men, but before God. Give in. Give in. Oh, I've spent a long
time here, but whatever you give, I don't ever, I don't, I don't
care to know. I don't want to know. Somebody
asked me, he said, does so-and-so support this? That's none of
your business and sure none of mine. That's nobody's business. I want folks to know what I do,
that's the problem. That's the problem. What do you
do? You give, don't let your right hand know what your left
hand does. You give as unto the Lord. Give generously, freely,
but you give to God. Fasting. Folks say, well, what
do you think about fasting? You gave away yourself already.
Our Lord said, when you fast, don't let anybody know you're
fasting. Don't tell your wife, don't tell your husband, don't
tell anybody. Well, how's anybody going to know? They're not supposed to. It's just plain as it can be.
Matthew 5, 6 and 7, read it again. Worshipping God is spiritual.
It's spiritual. In this house today, there are
some true worshipers, and then there are some other folks who
think they're worshipers. We stand together, we sing the
same hymns, say the same words, read the same scriptures, bow
our heads in prayer together, we hear the same message, but
there's a vast difference between us. Some of us are here endeavoring
to worship God. We want to know We want to know
his will. We want to honor him. We want
to understand his word. Some of you have no interest
in these things at all. None at all. You're here out
of a sense of duty to soothe your conscience, pacify your
own conscience, maybe to please a friend or a relative, or maybe
just to save face. After all, you've said you're
a Christian, now you've got to go to church. But you've got no
interest, no real interest in knowing God, worshiping God,
honoring God, serving God. Secondly, true worship involves
a kinship with God. Our Lord here uses a phrase that
was never used to worship in the Old Testament. Never. In the Old Testament, men worshiped
God as Adonai. They bowed before Him as Jehovah,
they reverenced Him as El Shaddai. But nobody ever dared bow before
God, lift his heart toward heaven and say, Our Father, which art
in heaven. Nobody. Nobody. They didn't dare. They didn't dare. But now the
Lord Jesus by His blood has opened a new and living way whereby
sinners may approach God and worship the Father as the sons
of God. Now are we the sons of God. Imagine that. We have received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, so that
we now draw near to God with the full assurance, with the
full confidence of faith, being accepted as the sons of God,
reverencing and worshiping Him, not just as our Creator, not
just as our Sovereign, not just as our King, not just as our
Lord, not just as our God, but as our Sovereign Creator, God,
Lord, and King, who is our Father. He's our Father. Our Father. And we call him such because
God the Holy Spirit has given us the spirit of adoption so
that we, looking to Christ, have confidence that God Almighty
has received us as the sons of God, our Father. And I said,
well, that makes worship today somewhat less than it was in
those olden times. Oh, no. No, no. Not for a loving
son. Now for a loving son. You see,
a loving son recognizes, if his father is the judge, he recognizes
he's a judge. If his father's an honorable
man, he recognizes his father's an honorable man. And he seeks
to honor his father, but he delights to call up on his lap and call
him father. is our father. He made himself
so. Our father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Thirdly, our Lord tells us here
that true worship is a work of grace. Our text declares that
those who worship God in spirit and in truth are those who have
been taught by God to do so. They have been sought out by
God and caused to worship him by the operation of his grace.
For the Father seeketh such to worship him. The implication
is obvious. No man would ever worship God,
not really worship him, if he were not sought of God and taught
by the grace of God to worship him. in spirit and in truth. In other words, worship is not
something man does for God. Rather, it is something that
God works in man by his grace. Some of you are sitting here,
I have no doubt at all, and you're confused. You think
to yourself, I don't understand what it is
that motivates my mom and my dad, my pastor, my husband, my
wife, my brother, my sister. Why is it that they're so sold
out to the worship of God? And I'm not. Why is it that they're
willing to sacrifice anything for the honor of God, and I'm
willing to sacrifice the honor of God for most anything? What's
the difference? What's the difference? Why is
it that they, that they bow to God gladly and worship God on
the throne? And in my heart I still wish
I was on the throne. What's the difference? What's
the difference? The difference is God, oh my
soul, moral heart, God has put it in our hearts to worship That's the difference. Remember
how David prayed in 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel 7? He said, Therefore
hath thy servant found it in his heart to pray. You see, true prayer, true worship
is not something you conjure up in your heart. It's not something
somebody talks you into. It's not something mom or dad
give to you. It's something God puts in you. Fourthly, true worship is spiritual
worship. The Greek word translated worship
means to kiss the hand like a dog licking his master's hand. It
means to fawn, to couch, to bow to, to prostrate oneself. The
English word, if we live during the days between Chaucer and
Shakespeare, And when the English language was being developed,
this word worship would have been put out as two words. It
would have been worth-ship. What is worship? It is assigning to God his worth. That's what it is. It's assigning
to God his worth. It's not a bodily function. Paul
said bodily exercise profiteth little. And he's not talking
about running either. He's talking about religious
exercise. Worship is not a soulish thing. It is not an emotional
thing. It may involve weeping, and it
may involve laughing, and it may involve neither. Worship's
not a feeling. Worship's a spiritual, mental
work of the heart. It's spiritual. That means No
images. No images. Crosses of angels,
statues of Mary, symbols, statutes, physical representations of God
of any kind are to be a myth. It's just idolatry. 2 Kings 18,
you remember how the children of Israel, for some, they had
managed to keep that brazen serpent that Moses made in the wilderness
all the way to the days of Hezekiah. Folks said, well we don't worship
that old thing, it's just a relic, it's just something we keep around. They were burning incense to
it. And so Hezekiah came one day
and he said that thing's a worthless piece of brass, and he ground
it to powder. And I recommend that you do the
same thing with all your religious trinkets and relics. No holy
things. Folks talk about the holy land.
You been in that place over there where those Jews and Arabs been
fighting? Holy? Just about as holy as your barnyard.
I'm not being irreverent, I'm being as plain as I can be. This is a sanctuary. This is
no sanctuary. This is just a house. This is
not the church of God where you're meeting in it. That you, God's
people are His church. We don't worship temples and
shrines. No holy places, no holy days. None. None. Now what about Sabbath day? Every
day to me is a Sabbath day, what about you? Every day to me is God's day.
The Lord's day, the day the Lord made. I don't behave any different
on Sunday than I do on Monday, do you? My attitude toward God is not
any different on Saturday night than it is on Sunday night. No
different. No holy days. Not Christmas,
not Easter, not New Year's. Nothing. No holy days. Every
day to us is a holy day. No holy places. We call every
place Jehovah Shema. The Lord's there. The Lord's
there. True worship is inward, spiritual,
heart worship. It is the worship of God by faith
in Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us we have
an altar. Christ is our altar. He's the altar of sacrifice.
We have a labor. Christ's blood is the labor by
which we are cleansed. We have a showbread table. Christ
is the bread of life. We have an incense altar. Christ
makes intercession for God's saints. We have an ark of the
covenant, an ark of testimony. Christ is our ark. We have a
paschal lamb sacrificed for us. His name is Jesus Christ. We
have a great high priest. His name is Christ the Lord.
And we have God present with us. His name's Emmanuel. God present with us. To worship
God in spirit is to worship Him in faith. Now you wonder why is that so
difficult? Because fallen man wants a God he can see. Everybody
does. Wants a God he can show off.
Fallen man wants a God he can impress and obligate and in some
way by his gifts and works make him look favorably upon him like
Cain thought he could. It's a whole lot easier to go
through a forum, a ceremony, a religious ritual, a liturgy,
a whole lot easier to say hail Mary's and rub rosary beads than
it is to worship God. A whole lot easier to say a scripted
prayer some evangelist or soul winner has written out for you
than it is to worship God. A whole lot easier to defend
a creed than it is to worship God. If we worship God in spirit,
we must acknowledge and confess and seek the forgiveness of our
sins before him. And I'll tell you something else,
the reason why it's so rare to find anyone worshiping God in
spirit, because you can't traffic in spiritual worship. You've
got no trinkets to sell, no idols to sell, no priesthood to put
off on folks, make folks fear, no rewards to gain, no rewards
to lose. And one last thing. I'll come
back at it another time. If we would worship God, we must
worship him in truth. That means when we come to worship
God, we take the mask off, all up. No pretense, no hypocrisy, no
duplicity. God, be merciful to me, sinner. We worship God in Christ who
is the truth, and we worship God according to the word of
truth. Oh God, give us grace so to worship
you. Amen.