Sermon Transcript — September 6, 2003
I had an opportunity here just a few weeks ago. Mr. Peter Eddington of course arranges with Gary Petty, who is a pastor of San Antonio church, but is the voice on the Good News radio broadcast. They had a subject they wanted covered and Mr. Eddington had suggested to Mr. Petty, he said why don't you check with Ed Smith, he may want to go on the program with you. And he sent me a little email message and I wrote back and said, ohhh. I had been waiting for a long time for this. I would be happy to. So he sent me the script, kind of what we would be covering, and wanted me to fill in the counter part of certain things that he would lead off in saying.
The title of it, and of course it won't be out for some little while, the title of it was "Worship Wars". It didn't really turn into be that subject as such. It started that way, but then Mr. Petty asked me the question, he said maybe we are asking the wrong question. Just what does the Bible say about worship? What they had done, John Barbush, one of our members up there in Beloit, WI, went into Chicago, did kind of a survey on the street asking people why do you attend the church that you attend?
He got various and sundry answers to that. A lot of them said, because it is convenient. A lot of them said, because they have a nice nursery, a nice Cathedral that they meet in, or whatever the case might be. Mostly just for convenience sake.
And then, David Palmer gave some material that had been gathered by George Barna who is kind of like the old survey team. They will say such and such did a survey on so and so and they came up with this answer. Well, George Barna has done a good bit or religious surveying and it is amazing some of the answers, the status or data that comes from it.
And so I would like to read you what the George Barna report revealed in his study of a lot of the churches and whether they are growing, diminishing, or whatever the case might be.
In the report, "Churches are adding a variety of techniques, from skits and plays based on popular TV shows, to a variety of music. The styles of music vary tremendously. For example, according to the George Barna Research organization, almost half of all Protestant churches use music to enhance their chance of gaining followers. Some churches put more emphasis on music than on the message. In fact a small number of the churches don't even have a spoken message. The entire service becomes what they call a 'worship service'. And it means worship music. Music performed in a variety of styles, from traditional to blended or a combination of the two, to contemporary Christian as it is called, to what is even labeled gospel and a form of Christian rock. No longer is it simply the organ and the congregation singing a few hymns, and then with a message to follow. It is quite common to see a stage filled with instruments from guitars, drums, to saxophones, tambourines etc. As a result some churches are enduring painful divisions. Almost half of the churchgoers surveyed felt the purpose of a music service was just for personal benefit, and that entertaining music played an important role in that. While senior pastors surveyed, described the purpose of church service to connect with God. Some of those who stick to these traditional methods are losing the battle. Congregations are getting small while the more progressive church with their music, and all of that, with the added bonus of music for all tastes are winning what has been labeled worship wars."
So that was kind of how the program started out. Then we got into actually what does the Bible say about worship. And of course in about 27, or 28 minutes you don't cover much territory. You have got to really get with it and just hit some highlights.
Basically it got into the day of worship. And some of the just real briefest of the Sabbath day and how it applies to us in worship.
So I thought today I would like to take you through the subject of worship. Basically, what it is and what it is to do for us. Are there acceptable ways of worship? And what are they? And are there unacceptable forms of worship, and what are they? Because we are definitely going to find in the Bible there are worship methods which God says this is the way you do it.
Then we are going to find also that He says there are methods of worship that are not acceptable. That God will not listen to that form or that type of worship.
The word worship, actually in the Old Testament is shachah, which merely means to prostrate oneself, or to reverence God, to bow before God, to acknowledge God as the great creator. The first time we find that is over in the book of Gen. 22. What led up to this of course is all history that you are very familiar with, very familiar with the fact that Abraham married Sarah and they had no children. Sarah was barren. And finally then she did conceive. And Sarah conceived and brought forth Isaac. Isaac of course was the one who was the seed of promise that we read of in the book of Galatians, not the seed of the flesh or trying to get seed as Hagar had done for Abraham.
Now we come into the beginning to be the adult life of Isaac. And God says this to Abraham.
Genesis 22:1- Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, there was a son, Ishmael, but God is reckoning Isaac the seed of promise; the one through whom all nations would be blessed through Jacob, Joseph, Moses, all of those right on through. He said, take Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Actually it was going to be Mount Moriah.
Now, if we would do an exhaustive study into this, we would find immediately there are types here. Abraham sacrificing his son, Isaac, whom he loved, his only begotten son through the miracle that God performed, was like God offering up his Son for you and for me. And so he was now going to test Abraham to see how his relationship would be as regards to his son.
Genesis 22:3-5 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. [4] Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. [5] And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."
Now you know the rest of the story. When they got over there, Abraham put the wood on Isaac, went to the place, and Isaac asked him the questions, where is the sacrifice? Where is the sacrificial lamb to which Abraham replied, Genesis 22:8 "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."
You know the rest of the story. About the time he was ready to raise the dagger to take the life of Isaac, God stopped him. Genesis 22:11-12 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." [12] And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
Now what happened here in verse 5? It says we will go and worship. That is where we first find the word shachah which merely means to reverence, to do ambience to, to prostrate oneself, to humbly beseech God.
Now it doesn't say what type of worship or anything. But the Hebrew word can show us basically what Abraham was doing. Beseeching God, I am sure, if there is any other way. Like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, if there is any other way let this be. But not as I would will but as You will. But he was willing to take the very life of his son as we will read in the book of Hebrews; he accounted God was able to restore Isaac back from the dead, like a resurrection back to life just as Jesus was, if that was the way God planned it to be.
But God saw his motive, his attitude, and certainly the acceptable worship, when he went there to beseech God for his son.
Let's look at Exodus 34. We will just see two or three Old Testament examples here of what God says about worship. This of course is now when God is telling Moses to come back up into the mount and I will give you , I will rewrite the words that were on the first tablets that you broke. You read this in the first few verses.
Exodus 34:8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Again, this word shachah which means to actually to bow. To bow the head. He, before God, humbled himself. Exodus 34:9, 10 And He said: "Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Then he said, "If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance."
Now we know when the ten commands were given, they were told you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all you mind, with all your strength, and certainly be obedient to Him.
If we were to go through and look at the lives of the great men of God. Go through the book of 1, 2 Kings, 1, 2 Chronicles, you will find just history case after history case of those great kings who did obey God, who did that which was right in God's sight. And God blessed Israel. God blessed them as a people. He brought them in and gave them the land that He had promised to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then to Jacob.
But that king died off and another king came on and low and behold this is what it was said of him. He was not like the king before him. He did evil in the sight of God. He went and worshiped other gods and served them and God sent them into terrible problems and trials of which He would have to rescue them.
Back in Ezekiel 20 you find where over and over you find them doing good and God blessing. Doing evil and God having to punish them. So we find that more or less as an on going record of Israel through their kings of about 400 years, from about 1000 BC up to about 600 BC when Nebuchadnezzar ransacked Jerusalem and carried them off captive.
Now during that time is just a history of showing you God desired their honest, heartfelt, from the heart, worship. And it would go well with them. And when they didn't, of course, troubles and problems came on.
Let's look in the book of Psalms because the book of Psalms is nothing more than psalms, prayers, praise, to God. In Psalms 5, we will notice just a few examples of worship, and certainly worship that God would accept. Worship that came from the heart of David, a man after God's own heart.
Psalm 5:7-8
But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
[8] Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.
So we will find David over and over saying these very things.
Psalm 95:1-7
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
[2] Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
[3] For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
[4] In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
[5] The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
[6] Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
[7] For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Now, in your hymnals, do you remember our very first psalm that we sing here in our worship services? It says O come and let us worship Him. It is these seven verses that I just read you. The song starts out, our first psalm in our hymnal. O come let us in songs to God our cheerful voices raise. In joyful shouts let us the rock of our salvation praise. And then he goes and says we come before His presence. And it says let us worship Him and bow down with all.
In the 26th song of our hymnal, I will just read again. This is reading out of Psalm 99. We will turn to there. And after it goes through some of the wording of what God is doing and His greatness, this is Holy Mighty Majesty, the one we love to sing, worship and exalt the Eternal One. Holy, mighty, majesty. And you will notice again in the third verse it says the same thing.
So what Dwight Armstrong did, he took some of these very psalms and put them into music and we sing them now.
Psalm 99:5-6
Exalt the Lord our God,
And worship at His footstool--
He is holy.
[6] Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called upon His name;
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them.
You remember singing those words in the hymnal.
Psalm 99:7-9
He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar;
They kept His testimonies and the ordinance He gave them.
[8] You answered them, O Lord our God;
You were to them God-Who-Forgives,
Though You took vengeance on their deeds.
[9] Exalt the Lord our God,
And worship at His holy hill;
For the Lord our God is holy.
And we could go on and see others if we would go through that. Let's notice though, as I mentioned there are acceptable examples of worship. But also there are unacceptable forms of worship. Let's notice in Deut. 8. There are warnings that God gave to Israel. Deut is one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament because it is an admonition to remember God and not forget Him. And he was telling them, warning them, when you go to the land where you are going to posses, don't forget what God has done for you.
Deut. 8:18-19 And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. [19] Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, Now he says they would be worshipping, but they are worshiping the wrong God and or course would receive a wrong result. I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.
Deut. 8:20 As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. They went and worshipped other gods.
As I said, there are kings that came and went in Israel of old. Let's take a look at 2 Kings 17 while we are here in the Old Testament, and then we will get right into the New Testament. The King Hezekiah, and we will see what we find here, who of course was one of the good kings. He was the one who turned them back to worshiping the true God. This is Hezekiah speaking to Judah. Israel had already gone into captivity. He is of course King of Judah and telling them what they are going to run into if they disobey.
2 Kings 17:36-41 but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. [37] And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. [38] And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. [39] But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies." [40] However they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals. [41] So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; they tried to do both ways. We will be obedient to God, but, really they were serving the carved images, also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.
And that was the thing that led Judah into captivity, after Israel had already gone earlier.
What we do find, though, as we begin to look into some of the scriptures of the Old Testament, that they actually are going to come into a state of depravity that will take the day of the Lord to straighten the thing out.
Let's notice something in Zephaniah. Zephaniah comes right before Zechariah. Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and right on in.
Zeph. 1:4-6
"I will stretch out My hand against Judah,
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,
The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests--
[5] Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;
Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,
But who also swear by Milcom; One of the Ammonite god, their chief god
of the Ammonites.
[6] Those who have turned back from following the Lord,
And have
not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him." And again, it led to their
problems. They worshiped the hosts of heaven and all these different gods.
Isaiah 2, just like Micah 4, gives us some beautiful information about what is going to happen in the latter days. We are very familiar with this.
Isaiah 2:2-4
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord's house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
[3] Many people shall come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
[4] He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
But we usually stop with verse four where it says, neither shall they learn war anymore. But notice verse 5. This is the prophet Isaiah warning Israel of what was going to happen to them if they did not stop their idolatrous ways, and begin to worship God, the true God, their God who had brought them out of Egypt.
Isaiah 2:5-6
O house of Jacob, come and let us walk
In the light of the Lord.
[6] For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with eastern ways; Isn't that amazing; eastern
ways, out of which comes all kinds of oriental religions. And we as a world
today are filled with some of the Eastern ways. They are starving to death,
but yet cows roam right through the streets and tear up the shops and eat up
some of the food that some of the people could be eating, because the cow is
very sacred to them. Eastern ways.
They are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.
Isaiah 2:7-9
Their land is also full of silver and gold, Let's notice if this
might not apply to modern day Israel.
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land is also full of horses, in other words, we have it but it is
on paper. It is not really the silver and gold that has monitor value. On paper
we are a rich nation. But in reality we are a bankrupt nation. And it is getting
more so every day. We are trying to at least hold it off as long as we can before
the bubble pops.
And there is no end to their chariots. In other words, their cars are running up and down the highways every which way, and there is no end to their chariots, or their cars, their automobiles, their means of transportation.
[8] Their land is also full of idols; oh yeah. We might think not, but our land are full of idols. Why? Because it is what we of our hands have made.
They worship the work of their own hands,
That which their own fingers have made.
9 People bow down,
And each man humbles himself;
Therefore do not forgive them.
And then he goes on and talks about the day of the Lord and what it is going to bring up all of them, from those verses onward.
But you know, there is good news. There is good news just as we will find as we sort of leave the Old Testament to go to the New Testament. Let's notice two or three scriptures here. Let's go back to Zephaniah in the second chapter for just one quickie. It explains some of the problems that are going to be happening. They will have destruction because of their pride, vs. 10. But then He says in verse 11;
Zeph. 2:11
The Lord will be awesome to them, Some of the destruction that he just
told them.
For He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth; that is when
the day of the Lord comes, which is yet ahead of us.
People shall worship Him,
Each one from his place,
Indeed all the shores of the nations.
They will turn to worship God; all of the nations. Let's notice in Isaiah
66. Isaiah prophesied of the many things that would happen to Israel in that
day and time, warning them, but yet the book of Isaiah is literally filled with
promises for us and the world tomorrow and the many things that we picture at
the Feast of Tabernacles.
Isaiah 66:22-23
"For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me," says the Lord,
"So shall your descendants and your name remain.
[23] And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
in other words, from month to month
And from one Sabbath to another, from week to week.
All flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the Lord.
The world will finally come to see the true God, the living God, the sovereign God, the One who has had to bring them through all of the troubles, through all of the trails, through of their problems, and the day of the Lord when He will absolutely send Jesus Christ to step in with a direct intervention and bring about peace at last.
Isaiah 66:24
"And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
And man will see the results, finally, of going the wrong way. Let's look at Zech 14, which we always read usually during the Feast of Tabernacles time. And we are going to see, obviously, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, are special times for special worship of God. We will see that as we progress along. Notice here, you are very familiar with this; all that is going to be happening when Christ returns. He puts His foot upon the Mount of Olives, it cleaves in two, there will be a great plain, there will be peace, and then here is what is said will come to pass.
Zech. 14:16, 17 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year Now we already found that from month to month they will come to worship. From Sabbath to Sabbath they will come to worship. Now he says they will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
And then he says he will strike them with a plaque, and I think they will get the message. I am sure they will. And then they will come up to Jerusalem, or send representatives there to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Let's take a look now at the New Testament and see what we find there. That was just kind of a quick run through of the Old Testament and how that there were right forms of worship, worshipping the true God and it went well with them. There was the wrong type, and it went bad for them. And certainly they should have learned the lesson. All mankind will eventually learn the lesson. That is why they will eventually, then, come up to worship from week to week, month to month, year to year, to worship in a true and right and proper way.
Over in the book of John is material here for two full sermons. One in John 4, and one in John 9. obviously we will just hit the highlights of it. But from it we are going to find more or less a pick up from Old Testament times, we are going to see a transition happen. We are going to see that what the Samaritans or the Israelites who made up the northern kingdom was, there place of worship in Mount Gerizim. And the southern tribe, or the house of Judah was, there place of worship was in Jerusalem. We are going to see how that Jesus dealt with that very issue here.
In John 4 is a tremendous chapter in your Bible. One that you could study and study and restudy and learn something new from it all the time. I think you are very familiar with it. It was when Jesus was wearied because they had been traveling from Judea, Judah, up to Galilee, but He had to go through Samaria.
John 4:4-5 But He needed to go through Samaria. [5] So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now, Samaria, of course, was the capital of the kingdom of Israel, or the northern kingdom that broke away from under Jeroboam. You know all of that history, how that after Solomon died Rehoboam came to reign. They came and begged Rehoboam to make it easy on us, and lighten the load, lighten the burdens. And Rehoboam counseled with the old sage men of good advice and they said make it easy on them and they will serve you forever. But then he listened to the young counselors that he grew up with, and they said, oh no. You show them who is boss. You show them who has control. You show them who is in charge. And tell them you thought Solomon really laid it on you, I will make it even worse.
And so they rebelled, they said, …what are we to do with Judah. And so basically the ten tribes in the northern portion set up their capital in Samaria, their place of worship was Mount Gerizim. Tradition has it that they believed that the tabernacle was hidden somewhere on Mt. Gerizim. To them that is what made it holy. A good place to go. What happened to the tabernacle? When they got to the promised land and then began to build a house for God and worship there, what happened to the tabernacle? Well no one knows. But they claim that it was in Mt. Gerizim.
So this is now in Samaria. Notice what begins to happen. John 4:6-7 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. [7] A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."
Now was it that Jesus had to have water? No. He went forty days and forty nights without food or water. So it is not that He is just about to cave in because He had to have some water. He is going to teach her a lesson. He will teach a lesson, and from this lesson there will come several converts and of course, a lesson for us to remember.
John 4:8-9 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. And He was just resting and stayed at the well. I am sure that He had a purpose. He knew that there might be this encounter that would be happening. [9] Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" Now there are several things that come into play real quickly. A Jew did not speak to a woman in public. Even a faithful, really devout Jew, could not speak to his wife or daughter in public on the Sabbath day. Certainly, a Rabbi would not speak to a woman at all. That is why they had at their services that women sat on one side behind a curtain, the men sat over on another side. And she said besides that, I am a Samaritan. Jews have nothing to do with us. I am a woman and a Rabbi or a teacher would have nothing to do with her. So how is it that you, a Jew, would speak to me, For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, now the gift of God of course obviously is the Holy Spirit. He said the gift would be unto you and your children as many as afar off, this gift of the Holy Spirit that would come upon repentance and baptism and submission to God. So, if you knew the gift, what it is I could literally give to you, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
Living water, again, typical of the Spirit of God. He said out of His inner most being will flow rivers of living water, in the seventh chapter, speaking of the Holy Spirit that would bring about their growth to salvation.
John 4:11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
Now in those days usually you would not go out on a journey without a leather pouch that actually could be let down into a well and filled with water and bring it up again, and turn up the leather, kind of a leather pouch of a thing, and drink from it. She said you don't have one of those. Where are you going to get this living water? Now, again, living water to the Jews, or to the people of that land, represented not a well in a ground, not a stagnant pool, living water represented a rushing stream of water which always was refreshed. It was fresh water. So living water to them was more or less moving. Moving water like a river flowing through. So to let down into that, you surely would not get running water. You would go right into that deep well that had been percolating from the upper levels of the strata down into the pool.
John 4:11-12 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, you don't have one of these leather pouches, and the well is deep. It is estimated it was about a hundred feet deep. Where then do You get that living water? Kind of in jest. You don't have anything to draw with, where are you going to get some living water? That is just water down in the pool. [12] Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, in other words, in jest she is saying, who do You think you are? This Jacob gave this well to his sons and to his livestock and we draw from it. And we are drinking here today from it.
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, she is beginning to wonder what are you talking about. [14] but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
Now the woman, in jest, kind of questioning, where are you coming from? John 4:15
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
It is a pretty good walk from Sychar to the well to get the water. John 4:16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." Now He is beginning to zero in on terminology and an example that the woman could catch on that He was more than just a mere man.
John 4:17-19 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' [18] for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." [19] The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
To understand and know that you are just more than just mortal man, now she begins to talk in religious terminology.
John 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
Now what is Your answer? Which way is it? Our fathers say worship here. You Jews say over in Jerusalem. You remember back there when the temple was built, the dedication, the dedicator prayer, over and over Solomon in the dedicatory prayer was talking about how that if these people sin and they come to this place, or they face this way, hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land. He said if they go to war then they pray for deliverance, looking to Jerusalem, hear their prays. If they are in a drought or famine and they cry out to You and they look to Jerusalem, then hear their prayer.
What happened when Daniel was there in the time right about if anyone sought a petition of another God, he would be thrown into the lion's den. What did he do? It said as the windows were opened toward Jerusalem, he faced towards Jerusalem and prayed three times as has always been his custom. That is what Jesus is here saying. There was a time, Solomon said that back in 2 Chron. 7 and certainly there following up. But now Jesus begins to tell her, look, we are now coming into a transition period into not having to look or go to a certain place to worship, but God would accept your worship wherever you may be. Now notice:
John 4:21-22 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. [22] You worship what you do not know; Now actually the Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They did not accept any of the rest of it. Not any of the history, not any of the Psalms, not any of the Proverbs, not all of the wisdom of the prophets and so on. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. Jesus was literally telling her you don't know what you are worshiping. You do not know.
But we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. And if you would accept the entirety of the Old Testament, you would understand too, how that the Messiah would come, as it talks about in Isaiah of the virgin conceiving and bring forth a son and His name would be called Immanuel and He would be the Savior of His people. God with His people.
But He said you don't understand that because you don't accept that portion of the inspired word of God. John 4:22-23 …we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. [23] But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; Keep that in mind because this is the key to the sermon. We will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Not necessarily in a building. Not upon a mountain. Not in any particular secluded spot; a cathedral or whatever the place might be. We can worship God in our hearts and minds wherever we are. I will hasten to say and will explain that there are Sabbath services and all of that that goes with it in just a moment. But He is saying, you don't go to Mt. Gerizim. You don't go to the dome of the rock of any of those places and there you make contact. We make contact with God wherever we are. Doing the dishes at the kitchen. Driving down the road. At our work. Lying in bed meditating upon the word of God. We can make contact with God and be in a worshipful mood wherever we are at any time.
So this is what Jesus is saying to her. We must now begin to think in terms of not place or location to make contact with God. We should look at our inner self and see if our spirit is in tune with God's Spirit. If God's Spirit is in us motivating us and directing us into a reverence and respect and awe of God. He said they will worship God in spirit and truth. Now notice the end of verse 23, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him,
They are to do what? Worship Him in spirit and truth. What does it mean worship
Him in spirit? Well He goes on to say that God is Spirit, verse 24, He explains
it. and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
In spirit means not something you reach out and touch. Israel of old when they
came to this juncture and were of Egypt, now ready to go to the promised land,
they were here at Mt. Sinai, Moses had been gone for 40 days, they began to
say we don't know what happened to this Moses. We need something to worship.
What did they do? Took off their rings and gold and all of a sudden, you know,
Aaron said I just threw it in the fire and out came this golden calf. It was
a big lie. It didn't happen. It took some molding and shaping and fashioning
and so on. That is why they said they began to worship the work of their hands.
So man wanted something to touch. That he could touch, or go up and kiss the
foot of this statue or whatever it would be. It would be contact. So He is saying,
look, you worship in spirit. God is Spirit. We have within us Spirit.
And He says His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God. That is what He is talking about, worshiping in spirit and truth. That we in our minds, our thoughts, our emotions, our prayers, we turn our inner most thinking to God who is Spirit.
Now it says it must be according to truth. Well, John 17:17 says His word is truth. It must be according to the direction that He gives in His word. Does He give us some direction in His word on worshipping? Yes, He does. Does He tell us when to worship? Yes, He does. Does He tell us to keep on doing it? Yes He does. And we will see that as we progress from her on into a two or three more scriptures in just a moment.
John 4:25-26 The woman said to Him, "I know that
Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will
tell us all things." [26] Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am
He."
At that point the disciples came up, she went back in to the town and told the people back there that I have seen a man that told me all things that I have done before. And of course, some of them began to go out and look for Him.
Over in the ninth chapter there is a parallel with this and with the woman at the well, and with Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night. I don't have time to go into all those parallels but there is tremendous meaning in the parallels and you find that as you compare one with the other and what Jesus is teaching in them.It is about the man who was born blind. And they asked who sinned, the man or his parents? And He said well none of them. It wasn't because of the man or his parents' sin, Jesus said in verse 3,
John 9:4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
So He told the man, He spat on the ground, took the clay and made kind of a patty of whatever, and told the man to put it on you r eyes. He anointed the eyes of the blind man, said go to the pool of Siloam, which means sent. He went and washed and came back seeing, vs.7.
Then a real calamity came on, a real controversial intrigue between the man and the religious bigots of the time.
John 9:9-13 Some said, "This is he." Others said, "He is like him." He said, "I am he." He said I am the man. [10] Therefore they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?" [11] He answered and said, "A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and I received sight." [12] Then they said to him, "Where is He?" He said, "I do not know." [13] They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now the real intrigue comes on. The real inquisition.
John 9:14-21 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. [15] Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see." [16] Therefore some of the Pharisees said, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." In other words He broke the Sabbath by healing a man just like He broke the Sabbath on other occasions, when He did not. It was an act of mercy and love. Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them. [17] They said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet." [18] But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. [19] And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" [20] His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; [21] but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself."
Now obviously they were afraid of coming into disfavor with the religious leaders, and so they knew they would be put out of the synagogue.
John 9:24-27 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner." [25] He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see." [26] Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?" [27] He answered them, "I told you already, I already told you. This was about the fourth or fifty time, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?"
And then they really pounced on him. They reviled him. And the Amplified Bible says they criticized, ridiculed, cajoled and did all kinds of misdemeanor things against him.
John 9:28-31 Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. [29] We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from." I like the wording here in verse 30. [30] The man answered and said to them, "Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! [31] Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God one who reveres and stands in awe of God and is obedient to God, it says if he is a worshiper of God, and a key now we will notice in just a moment , is that he does His will, If he is a worshiper of God AND does His will, He hears him.
John 9:32-33 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. [33] If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."
Then they really got on him good. Jesus later on came to the man and encouraged him, and the rest of the story there.
So we find that in here, Jesus is now beginning to show several things. Number one, that you don't have to reach out and touch an idol. You don't reach out and grab something that your hands could make or bow down before something that you have made with your hands and say this is God. I can worship this. It reminds me of God or whatever the case might be, and that is the way I will worship.
No, He is saying you must come to realize God is sovereign God. God is the God of mercy and truth and love and everything, and we must then touch Him by means of our spirit and His Spirit communing or connecting. And we do that, of course, in prayer, in study, in worship and praise in song and all of that, and right here on the Sabbath day.
Now we could go into several other places here, but I would like you to notice something in Acts 17: One of my favorite chapters here in the book of Acts. This is where Paul was in Athens and his spirit stirred within him.
Acts 17:16-17 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. [17] Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
And there were all of those who were saying, wait a minute, we want to hear this babbler. He seems to be proclaim of a foreign gods because he preaches Him Jesus and the resurrection.
Acts 17:19-21 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, kind of a platform, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? [20] For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean." [21] For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
We have a lot of modern Athenians today. In the years in the church I have met so many people, they were the modern Athenian. In other words they like to hear the latest. What is this new thing? And it was just a novel thing for them. Kind of an intellectual curiosity. And they wanted to know about the truth of God. They heard it. They even agreed with it for a while. But then it wore off. It was old hat. What else is new? And so they went off in search of something else new. And stumbled right over the truth. And picked themselves up, dusted them off, and went on with life. Nothing had happened. When the truth of God had been made plain. And that is what is happening here.
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
Now just being religious, does that mean you are a worshiper of God, a true worshipper? That you can be very religious?
Acts 17:23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, or whom you ignorantly
worship, the old King James says, Him I proclaim to you:
That is the God I want to tell you about. The God who made the world and every thing in it. Not this shrine, not this object, not some physical thing, some accruement that you could touch and feel or make, and say that is god.
Acts 17:24, 25 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. You don't have to go to Mount Gerizim or over to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is he worshiped with men's hands. A key, a big key. He is not worshiped with men's hands or by means of what his hands could make.
Acts 17:25-28 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. [26] And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, [27] so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; [28] for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
We are in essence the begotten sons of God. So in Him is our life. In Him is our being. In Him is our everything. That is why all worship, glory, honor and praise belongs to Him.
Let's see if we can find a scripture somewhere around here that says we should assemble together on a day. Let's look over in Hebrews 10th chapter. You are familiar, you know exactly where we are going, Hebrews 10:25. He is talking about Christ being our high priest. And we have now a high priest over the house of God, the Church of God. In the earlier part of it it talks about the covenant that He had made with them after those days. And there would be remission of sins and all of that. And now we have a high priest over the house of God, vs. 21.
Hebrews 10:22-25 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. In other words, baptism, repentance, all of that that took place in our receiving God's Spirit. [23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. [24] And let us now notice he is talking about the house of God, back in vs. 21, and Christ is our high priest over the house of God. The Church is built upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, you remember in Eph. 2:20. And so Jesus is now our high priest, as well as our elder brother, our mediator, our intercessor, all of the roles that He plays, besides being our Savior, and our Redeemer, and our forgiver and so on. He said so now let us consider one another, as house of God, in order to stir up love and good works,
Does that mean we become isolated? Just me, myself, and I? We could just go off and, oh I can just serve God by myself. I don't need anybody else. Just me and the Lord. We have had a lot of people say that. A lot of people try that. It doesn't work. I am not judging them or condemning them, you know, that is between them and God. But let's notice what it says. …let us consider one another in order to stir up love. Love among the brethren. Love among ourselves, and good works. Things that would help each other. Would help spread the gospel, prepare a people, for God. He says to the house of God; [25] not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, even more should we be desirous and wanting to meet together. I don't know about you, but when the Sabbath is over, I have been a Sabbatarians for over 50 years, but when the Sabbath is over and we go home, I can't wait until we come back together again. This is the day of the week. I love it. I would never, never, ever, let anybody dissuade me against the Sabbath. It is the day of God. The Lord's day. The day He made for man, not the man for the day, but the day for the man to serve Him and be a joy and a delight and a blessing, as Isaiah said it should be over there in Isa. 55.
Now he says, [25] not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, encouraging each other. Talking about how great the Sabbath is and how good it is be together as the people of God. And so much the more, so much the more as what? as you see the Day, big D, the day, the day of the Lord. The day of His intervention. The day of His return. The day of establishing His kingdom upon this earth. Until you see that day approaching.
And it is getting closer and closer and closer. I know we can mock and say well where is His promise of His coming? We have heard that all of our lives. But, I guarantee that with each passing Sabbath that is one less. I don't know about you, but when we come together to sing as we start out our services, that is the time you can join in and actually verbally praise God and thank God and worship God in song.
I don't know whether you noticed, but last week when I started the song service, I said let's come and worship God in song. Literally I mean that. What about prayer? When we come together we have, of course, an opening prayer and a closing prayer. Does that mean the man gets up here and just prays and we stand silently, just nothing? What goes on in your mind during the prayer? Do you really listen to the prayer or does you mind just wander during the prayer? Much more, there is a better way, you pray along with the opening prayer.
Yeah, I know there are some churches they all pray at one time. I have heard the gibberish that goes on, nobody hears anybody because they are all praying out loud. Obviously, God said He is not the author of confusion, so we know that is not the way it is. But in the opening prayer, the closing prayer, mentally connect with God and pray yourself along with the opening prayer. God sees we are a praying people. And then of course we speak. Today just the one speaker, no we had two Mr. Kirkpatrick in the announcements.
Today we would have had two. Mr. Evans wasn't feeling well. But, again, is that Biblical? Sure, in 1 Cor 14 it says you all come together; everybody has a psalm, everybody has a hymn, everybody has some prophetic message, he said it only be but two, or at the most three that would speak. So we don't go through a bunch of jumping up, this that and the other. There are those that do that too. But the pattern is, as we begin to see and follow the instruction, we find that is exactly the way, the best that we can tell, the New Testament is going.
I would like to show you now just real quickly, as an admonition, that there is a worship God does not accept. And we dare not be guilty of that. Now what am I talking about? Let's go back to Matthew 15. Here were the Pharisees criticizing the disciples, criticizing Jesus for letting the disciples eat with unwashed, that is ceremonially impure hands. It doesn't mean they had dirty filthy hands that they had been in the grease pot, or in the slop pen with. It doesn't mean they had dirt all over their hands and mud in their fingers and all of that. It doesn't mean that at all. It just merely means they had not gone through their symbolism of dipping their hands in the water and letting the hands come up and the water come down off of the elbows and drip off. And then they were ceremonial cleansed. So they had this rigamarow they had to go through.
It wasn't from the Bible. You don't find a scripture showing you how to do it. That was the tradition of the elders. That was something that the elders added on to the list of do's and don'ts to be righteous with God. So to be really righteous with God you had to follow all of the tradition of the elders, their verbal law that they had handed down from Rabbi to Rabbi, or priest to priest.
But notice what He says here when they said Your disciples are doing that which is not legal.
Matthew 15:3 He answered and said to them, "Why
do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
They are disobeying God. They are displeasing God because they don't do this rigmarole. And then God gives them some instruction out of the scripture showing how that they, you know, certainly disregarded what God said, to do their own way.
Verse 7 He says flat out as it is. Hypocrites! That means proposing to be righteous, trying to appear very righteous, very in tune with God.
Matthew 15:7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
You go back to Isaiah 29:13 and almost verbatim he quotes what Isaiah the prophet was saying about those people in that day.
Matthew 15:8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
Now what is He saying? A lot of talk and no action or not obedience. Just talk. They honor me with their lips. With their mouths they show praise, but their hearts are far from Me.
Matthew 15:9 And in vain they worship Me, notice that, in vain. Same thing that you find in Mark 7:7 in that parallel account. In vain they worship Me Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' "
The commandments of men. You look into some of the doctrines of major churches today, you will find a lot of man's interpretation, man's invention, man's thoughts and ideas. Instead of using this as the scripture, they will us other's that are on par with or even above the Bible.
And so Jesus is here just nailing it for what it is, in vain do they worship me. There is something here in the book of Ezekiel. I would like for you to look at Ezekiel 33 because it is a parallel to what we find in Isaiah 29:13 that Jesus quoted in Matthew 15:9.
It is amazing because it is right before God's indictment against the shepherds who would not take care of the sheep and feed themselves and not the sheep. As He comes down to chapter 33, He is talking about the time coming when they would know that I am the Lord when I have made the land desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. He is telling them what would happen to them because they had disobeyed. You see, Ezekiel is the prophet in captivity prophesying against Judah and against Israel for what they have done and what was yet to come in the future. It was future because they had already gone into captivity; Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo, Ezekiel, were some of these among the captives.
Ezekiel 33:30 "As for you, son of man, or O mortal man, as some translations have it. the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, 'Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.' Let's go hear what this prophet, this man of God has to say.
Ezekiel 33:31 So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, in other words, oh we are pleasing God. We are praising God, we are in tune with God, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Their hearts are far from Me.
Ezekiel 33:32-33 Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. [33] And when this comes to pass—all the things that we read back in the book of Ezekiel, he said when they come to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them."
And so, that of course is a prophecy right in line with what Jesus said, the time will come when they claim to know Me, but their works won't bear it out.
Back to New Testament for just one scripture here in Titus 1:16. Something that was written here in the Bible just to show us that we dare not fall into this pattern of living.
Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, he is talking again about those who would be the false teachers and the ones that which would make for a good sound church, he said, They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. Or in every work void of judgment.
So you see what he is saying here? You can say I know Him, and you can do as Jesus said in Luke 6:46, he said why do you call me Lord, Lord, but you won't do the things that I say? That is why He said it is in vain when they say oh Lord, Lord, but they will not follow the instructions. They will not follow the scriptures, plain, clear cut scriptures of the Bible.
Let's notice 1 John 2. This is some of the last writings of the Bible. The gospel according to John, the three epistles and then of course, the book of Revelation written somewhere in the last decade of that first century of the apostolic age.
1 John 2:2-3 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. [3] Now by this we know that we know Him, now we are talking about worship, true worship, that which God accepts, we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.
1 John 2:4-6 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. [5] But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. [6] He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
So we see today the worship that God receives and accepts and acknowledges is when a man worships Him and does His will, then it says God will hear.
But He says if we call Him Lord, Lord and do not do what He says, He says, how can that be? He says if we say we know Him and we keep not His commandments, he said well then we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
So we can see worship is more than just saying certain words, playing certain songs, being you know, in some kind of a word. It is when we are absolutely in submission to Almighty God and to His word. We worship God, we fear God, we tremble before God, because we want our lives in harmony with Him. It is not a fear that we just shutter and want to run and hide. No. A fear that fears to go contrary to Him and disobey Him.
And so we could go through many a scripture here, but I would like to finish in Revelation 15. here we are talking about some of the things that will be coming right into the end time.
He is talking about those who had gotten the victory over the beast, vs. 2. Over the image, over the mark, and they were standing on the sea of glass having harps of God.
Rev. 15:3-4
They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
Now here is a song of Moses, here is the song of the lamb. What are the words of it?
"Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
[4] Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested."
That is what God is looking for; those who will realize He is the God who knows what is good for us, and will take care of us, and will be with us and see us to His coming kingdom.