Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I've entitled this message, God
is Spirit. My text is found in John chapter
four, beginning in verse 19. Now this is the woman at the
well speaking to the Lord. And she says, sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. Now, this was after the Lord
had said to her, go home and call your husband. And the woman
answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her,
thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five
husbands. And he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly. Now, this woman had never met
the Lord before this, and he tells her about her history. And she concludes from this,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. And then she begins to speak
her, I'm gonna call this religious mumbo jumbo. She says, our fathers
worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship. She talked about
places. She tried to change the emphasis into the proper places
of worship. My denomination teaches this,
your denomination teaches that. Jesus saith unto her, woman,
believe me, The hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know
not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. You see, God gave the Jewish
nation his oracles, his word. He didn't give this to the Gentile
nations. But then he says, but the hour
cometh, 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. And the Lord tells this
ignorant woman, and I can identify with this woman. I'm not saying
that harshly toward her. She represents all of us by nature,
but she's a very ignorant woman. And the Lord says to this ignorant
woman, God is spirit. You talk about the place where
men ought to worship. You think it's in this mountain
of the Samaritans. The Jews think it's in Jerusalem. God is spirit. He cannot be confined
to a place because he is spirit. He does not have a body. He is
not made out of matter or material. He is spirit and that's how he
is omnipresent. There is nowhere where he is
not in all of his fullness. He's not bound by space or time
the way you and I are. God is spirit. He knows all. He's the cause
of all. He's infinite. I love the way
the writer to the Hebrews said, he that cometh to God must believe
that he is. And that he's a rewarder of those
that diligently seek him. Now notice he didn't say he must
believe in his existence. It says he must believe that
he is. And he reveals his isness in
his word. And his isness is God is spirit. He said, I am that I am. God is Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, the Lord is speaking to this woman, this
Samaritan woman, and she says, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
That's because of what he told her about her life. He couldn't
have known this unless he could see things that a natural man
couldn't see. And she doesn't know he's the
son of God at this time. She doesn't know he's the Christ.
But she perceives that he is a prophet because of the things
he knows about her. She'd never met him before. She'd
never heard of him before that very day. And he tells her of
her past life. I perceive that thou art a prophet."
Now, the Samaritans believe that this mountain in Samaria is where
God is supposed to be worshipped, and the Jews believe Jerusalem
is the place. Now, she was wrong in her perception
of where God was to be worshipped. It was in Jerusalem. You see,
the temple was in Jerusalem. This is where the Day of Atonement
was observed. This is where the Tabernacle
was. This is where the Holy of Holies was. This is where the
High Priest was. Now in the Old Testament, there
was a man named Jeroboam who tried to change that. He was
the king of Israel, and Rehoboam was the king of Judah, where
Jerusalem was. And he was afraid that when the
people saw Rehoboam in Jerusalem, when they came to worship, they
would not want him to be king anymore, and they'd kill him.
So he changed the place of worship. He said, it's too much for you
to go all the way to Jerusalem. And he established two other
places that were closer. where you could go worship, and
where it would be more convenient. Sometimes I think this is the
beginning of contemporary worship, making it easier. And this is
said to be 27 different times the sin of Jeroboam. It was the
measuring stick of other sins. No, Jerusalem was the place to
worship. But she still had no understanding of what that meant.
She said, we think we should, our denomination believes worship
is here. Your denomination believes worship should be over there
in Jerusalem. And Jesus saith unto her, woman,
believe me. You know, I pray the Lord says
that to me and you. You know, if he tells you to believe, you
know what you'll do? You'll believe. If he tells me to believe, You
know what I'll do? I'll believe. This is speaking
of the command of his irresistible grace. Now, when he says to a
person, believe me, you know what they do? They believe. And
we're going to see that this woman ended up believing. He
said, woman, believe me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
father. The hour is coming when place
doesn't even enter into the equation. Then he says, you worship you
know not what. You have a form of religion and
it's all based on ignorance. You do not know the living God. And then he says, for we know
what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now, what did
he mean by that? Does that mean that only Jews
will be saved? Well, in a qualified sense, let
me answer, yes, only Jews will be saved. Christ is the King
of the Jews. Now, when I say only Jews should
be saved, I'm not talking about national Jews. I'm not talking
about men and women who were born in the nation of Israel. Paul straightened this up in
Romans 2, verse 28, when he made this statement. Listen to these
words carefully by the Apostle Paul. He said, For he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Now that was the mark of a Jew,
a male Jew, he was circumcised. And Paul says, that's not circumcision. And that person who claims to
be born in Israel, that's not a Jew. But he is a Jew, which
is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. In the
spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. God praises the true Jew because the true Jew is the work
of God. A Jew is someone that God has
given a new heart to, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
in this sense, every believer is a true Jew. Not one who is
one outwardly, but one who is one inwardly. God has done something
for them. He's circumcised their heart.
They now believe on Christ. Salvation is of the Jews. Now
he's not talking about simply the national Jews. He's talking about the spiritual
Jews. Do you remember when the Lord said to the Syro-Phoenician
woman, I've not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I didn't come to save everybody. I only came to save the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. That's talking about God's elect.
That's talking about every true Jew. Now he says, we know what
we worship for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh
and now is. when the true worshipers. Now I wanna get in on that. I wanna be a true worshiper. He says, the hour cometh 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, true worshipers. I want
to be in on that because there's so much false worship. Most—now
listen to me, and I'm not saying this in just a critical, judgmental
manner. I'm saying this because I want
to tell you the truth. Most of what goes on under the
name of Christianity is false worship. It's phony. It's not real. It's not according
to the Scripture. And I say that without apology.
Most of what goes on under the name of Christianity is not true
worship. It's false worship. Now, God seeks true worshipers,
those who worship in spirit and in truth. God is spirit. Now, this is an attribute of
God. He's spirit. He's not confined to a body. He's not made of matter. He is spirit. That doesn't mean
he's air or gas. It means he's not matter at all.
He is spirit. That means he's omnipresent.
Now, he's a person. He's a person with a personality,
with a will. God is a person. God is spirit. God the Father is spirit, invisible,
immortal, eternal. The Bible gives us his character.
We could not know his character without this book called the
Bible. This book is the inspired word of God, and it's given to
teach us his character. We can't just figure it out.
Somebody wakes up one morning and thinks, well, I think God
is one God of three distinct persons. Of course, that's never
happened. The only way someone can know that is from God revealing
it in his word. He reveals his character in his
word. He's holy. You know what that
means? He's other. That means he's not
like me and you. He is holy. He's sovereign. His will is always done. He's all powerful. He's immutable. He cannot change. He's independent.
He has no needs outside of himself. He's absolutely just. Justice
and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. He's love. I love
the scripture. God is love. Not here's love
and God fits that. No, God is love. You know, the
second commandment of the Ten Commandments is the commandment
against idolatry, making a false image of God. Any likeness we
make of God is wrong because God's not like anything. He says
there's none like me. And any idea or image we make
and portray on him is only bringing him down to man's level and making
a false god. God is spirit. Now the hour cometh, the Lord
says, and now is. when the true worshipers. Oh,
I want to be in on that. I want you to be on that. I don't
want to be a false worshiper. I don't want to worship a false
God from my false heart. I want to be a true worshiper,
somebody who truly worships God. The hour cometh and now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father. Oh, they'll worship
God the Father through the Son. There's no worship if I'm not
worshiping God the Father through God the Son, by God the Holy
Spirit. The hour cometh and now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. What does that mean? What does it mean to worship
by the Spirit? Does it mean in a spiritual manner?
Does it mean your worship doesn't have all the traffic trappings
and smoke and mirror of religion, all the incense and the robes
and the choirs and the music and the big temples? No, you're
more simple? No, it doesn't mean that. The
simpler the better, but that's not what it means. Does it mean
you have spiritual worship where you're the hotbed of charismatic
emotionalism and miracles and tongues and everybody's excited
and you feel some kind of That's not worship in the spirit. That's
worship in the flesh. All that stuff is with the smoke
and mirrors of high religion and the emotionalism of charismatic
Pentecostal religion. All that is, is flesh, fleshly
worship. There's no spiritual worship
involved. What does it mean to worship in the spirit? Do you
remember when God said to Adam, in the day you eat of that fruit,
you shall surely die. Genesis 2, 17. Now Adam, we know,
ate the fruit. That's the fall of our first
parents. Now on that day, he didn't die physically. He didn't die in the sense of
it's over for him. He was still alive. His soul
didn't die. His soul kept right on going,
his body, his soul, but his spirit died. The natural man has no
spiritual life. In order to worship God, you
have to have spiritual life. The natural man is dead in trespasses
and sins. And when somebody is born from
above, they're given spiritual life. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. It can never rise above that.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And in order to worship
God, I'm going to have to be given a spiritual nature. I'm going to have to be born
of God, birthed by the Spirit of God. It's only the spiritual
man that can worship God. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit. Romans 8, 7 says the carnal mind,
that's the mind we're born with, is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. I'm going to have to be born
of the Spirit. You know, I want you, I invite you to come to
the Todd's Road Grace Church. I want you to hear the gospel
preached. I hope you're already a believer, but I don't come
and say to a mixed audience, come worship with us because
you can't worship unless you have a spiritual nature. I'll
say, come hear the gospel. I want you to come and hear the
word of God, but worship can only be done with a spiritual
nature. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and
in truth. Now, what does it look like when
someone worships God in spirit? What does that mean? Let me give
you a scripture that tells us exactly what it means. Philippians
chapter 3, verse 3. Paul says, we are the circumcision. We are the true Jews. We are the true Israelites. We are the circumcision, and
he gives three marks, which rejoice in Christ Jesus. No, worship
God. Number one, we worship God in
the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
we have no confidence in the flesh. Now, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit, only by the Spirit of God with
the spiritual nature that He has given in the new birth. You
see, it's only the spiritual nature that sees the beauty of
God and that believes the gospel. It's only the spiritual nature
that sees the sinfulness of the old nature. You have to be born
again to understand the things of the Spirit of God. We are
the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. Now what does
worshiping God in the Spirit look like? He said we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now here's spiritual worship.
You look, you glory in only the Lord Jesus Christ. You look nowhere
else but Him for everything in your salvation. Paul put it this
way in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul was the chief apostle. Paul was used by God to write
scripture. Paul was brought into the third
heavens and was taught the gospel directly by the Lord Jesus Christ,
one on one. Paul was used in such a mighty
way. But what does he say about all
that? I don't glory in any of that. God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only hope. that I have, Paul says, is that
Christ lived for me and died for me, that he gave me his righteousness
and paid for my sins on Calvary Street. That's the only hope
I have. I'm not glorying in my preaching. I'm not glorying in
the fact that I've read the scripture. I've written the scripture. I'm
not glorying in any of this. All I glory in is the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I have nothing else to glory
in, nothing else to have confidence in. Now, somebody that worships
God in the spirit, they rejoice, they glory in Christ Jesus. All I want is to be found in
Christ, so that when God sees me, all he sees is Jesus Christ. What happens when someone glories
and rejoices in Christ? Paul gives the third bark, no
confidence in the flesh. Now if my fingerprints are on
it, I have no confidence in it. All I have confidence in is Christ,
and I have no confidence in anything else. Now, that is worshiping
God in the Spirit. It's rejoicing only in Christ
Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh at all. Listen,
I don't have any confidence in my experience. I don't have any
confidence in my understanding, in my ability, in my ability
to fight sin, in the strength of my faith, in my scripture
reading, All I have confidence in is Christ, nothing else. I have no confidence in anything
that has my fingerprints on it. It's bad if my fingerprints are
on it. I look to Christ only. Now, God is spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There's no worship of God apart
from the truth of His word. The Lord said in John 17, 17,
sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. He said in John 14, 6, I am the
truth. And he said in John 18, 37, I
came to bear witness to the truth. And when the Lord died on the
cross, oh, he bore witness to the truth, the truth of God's
character, God's holy. Sin must be punished. God's gracious. He gave his son. God's merciful. God is all-powerful to put away
sin. Every attribute of God is revealed
in the cross. The truth concerning my character,
I'm so sinful. Well, what are you doing? I killed
the Son of God. That's how sinful I am. That's
how sinful you are. Somebody says, I didn't do that. Yeah,
you did. When Adam did it, you did it. God judges everybody
in what Adam did. We were all in him. And it's
not like we're charged for something we didn't do. When he did it,
we did it. That's how bad we are. Don't
look at the things you've done. Look at what you did to God's
Son. That's what we thought of him. And I see the truth of how
God saves sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's no
salvation apart from the truth. Hearing the truth, believing
the truth, rejoicing in the truth of how God saves sinners by Christ.
Now, let me give you one illustration. This is found in Galatians chapter
2. Peter is at the table with the
Gentiles, eating, fellowshipping, having a good time, and then
some people from Antioch who were Jewish believers come. They
were from Jerusalem, and they came into Antioch. They were
Jewish believers, and they come, and Peter gets nervous. He knows
that they won't approve of him eating with the Gentiles, so
he, without a word said, he gets up and walks across the room
and sits down at the table with the Jews, and that way he's pleasing
these Jews that come. He's not going to be offending
them. And Paul gets up just by Peter getting up, not saying
anything, and moving tables, Paul gets up and publicly rebukes
him that the truth of the gospel might remain with him. Now what
Peter was saying was yes, you can be saved as a Gentile, but
you're more pleasing to God if you do these Jewish practices.
And the implication of that is Christ is not all in salvation. Yes, Christ is necessary for
salvation, but he's not all in salvation. You're more pleasing
to God if you fill in the blank. And that is a complete denial
of the gospel. God is Spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Verse 25, the woman said unto
him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When
He has come, He'll tell us all things. Now what the woman is
saying by that is, I don't know what you're talking about, but I know
when Messiah comes. He'll tell us. And then the Lord
gives this woman something he'd never given anybody else, like
this. He said unto her, Jesus saith unto her, I that speak
unto thee, am he. Do you know when you'll worship
in spirit and in truth? when you know that Jesus Christ
is the Messiah, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king,
and you trust Him as such, knowing that He only is your salvation. I that speak unto thee," the
Lord said to this poor woman, "'am he.'" May God say that to
each one of us. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you get on our website or
call the church, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg,
praying that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send
a request to todd.neibert at gmail.com or you may write or
call the church at the information provided on the screen.