We Must Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth

Again, happy Sabbath! As we draw closer to the time of year that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, I thought it might be helpful to discuss why we choose not to observe Christmas. No, we're not against fun. We're not against joy. We have nothing against giving gifts or looking at beautiful lights or appreciating bright, beautiful colors. No, we're not Grinches. We're not the Grinch who stole Christmas. We are not genetically related to Ebenezer Scrooge. We're not party poopers.

We're not legalists. We're not killjoys. Our conscience simply guides us to enjoy other festivities and celebrations at other times of the year, rather than a day that this world calls Christmas Day. And we choose to do that because of a very clear biblical concept that I'd like to talk about today. And that is that God has already decided how He chooses to be worshiped.

You see, He's God. That's why He gets to have that title. And as the creator, as God, He decides how He's honored. He chooses to be worshiped in a certain way. And when we deviate from that way and we say, you know what, I'm just going to do it my way. You know, it's like the old Frank Sinatra song, I did it my way.

When we decide that we know more than God, that we're going to worship Him in the way that our grandma did, or the way our culture does, or this way or that way that may be contrary to what He desires, then does that really honor Him? So that's what I'd like to talk about today.

And I'm going to begin by looking at a conversation. We're going to deep dive into a conversation in John chapter 4, so you can begin the term there if you would like. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman, and they have an interesting conversation, first of all, about the Holy Spirit and then about her marital status. And eventually they get to the point where they begin to discuss proper ways to worship God. And that's what we would like to talk about, because we're talking about, is Christmas the proper way to give God worship?

Does it really honor Him as a day of festivities that this world enjoys? So we'll eventually get there, but let's begin John chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, and again we'll do a little deep dive into this conversation, because there's really a lot here between Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman. So beginning in verse 1, therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but His disciples, He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but He needed to go through Samaria.

So the Pharisees now understand that Jesus is even more popular than John the Baptist was. He's becoming a threat to the status quo. John was a threat to the status quo, the little artificial world that they lived in, where they got to feel important and had wonderful titles and got to dominate everyone and tell people what they should be doing. But now Jesus Christ was even more of a threat, becoming more of a problem than John the Baptist was.

So it says He left Judea, and that was south, and departed again to Galilee, which was in the north. Now Mr. Mango just talked about this a little bit. Samaria was right in the middle. So you have Judea in the south, if this is a map, you have Judea in the south, you have Galilee to the north, and then to get there, you have to travel through a territory that's called Samaria.

And for many Jews, that was a problem. They hated the Samaritans. They would avoid going through Samaria. They would go outside of their way to go around and just north of the Dead Sea to be able to get from Galilee to Judea or vice versa and not have to go through Samaria. As it says here in Rari Bible notes, normally Jewish people avoided Samaria by crossing to the east of the Jordan to travel from Judea to Galilee, but Christ wanted to witness to these despised Samaritans. End of quote. And again, that's from the Rari Bible notes.

So let's have a little quick history of what's going on here and why they despised the Samaritans. Samaria was the only major city. It began as a city founded by Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and Mr. Mango mentioned about the Northern Kingdom in his sermonette. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom split into two. You had Judah in the south and you had the northern tribes. It became known as the Northern Kingdom. Well, they rebelled against God and the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians around 721 BC. And the Assyrians had a term that we would say today called ethnic cleansing.

They took the inhabitants out of what had been northern Israel and they drove them into Asia Minor. And then they would take peoples from other conquered cities and they would bring them down to live in what had been the Northern Kingdom, Israel, now becoming known as Samaria. So they believed in ethnic cleansing. And so they brought in exiles from many nations and settled them in Samaria. That's in Ezra chapter 4, if you'd like to look that up. And then later the Greeks themselves, when they conquered the region in 331 BC, Hellenized the area and they brought in Greek inhabitants and culture into this part of Palestine.

So these diverse peoples began mixing pagan worship with the worship of God, with the worship of Yahweh. And that's expressed in 2 Corinthians chapter 17.

So about 150 years after the northern tribes had been sent into captivity, Judah didn't learn anything from that because fear is not a very good teacher. So they didn't learn anything from that and they themselves went into captivity about 150 years later, this time by Babylon. And they went into captivity, but a large number of Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple about 440 BC. And two very important people involved in that were Ezra and Nehemiah. And when they were building the temple in the walls of the city, the Samaritans wanted to come and help.

And they said, oh no, you're not real Jews. You can't help us. And of course that's recorded in Ezra chapter 4 and Nehemiah chapter 4. And the inhabitants of Samaria said, okay, we'll have our own mountain. We'll worship our own way then if you don't want us to be part of you. So they chose a mountain called Mount Gerizim as the chosen place that God had chosen as the only center of worship and they replaced Jerusalem with worshiping on this mountain. And they even built their own temple there. So at this time you have a temple in Jerusalem and the Samaritans had their own temple and they are worshiping on their own mountain at this period of time. Well, what did they believe? What set them apart is a little different. Their scriptures were limited to the Pentateuch. That's the first five books of the Bible. That's all they recognized is true and legitimate. Moses was regarded as the only prophet and intercessor in the final judgment. So the only prophet who ever lived was Moses and they believed that on Judgment Day the righteous would be resurrected in Paradise and the wicked would be roasted in an eternal fire. They got the idea of the immortal soul from the Greeks who, remember, came in, influenced the area and sent some Greek people to live there.

So now let's get to New Testament times by the time of this episode of Jesus and this woman from Samaria. By this time, that city that had been called Samaria in the northern kingdom was now a region was called Samaria and it became identified with that central region of Palestine with Galilee to the north, Judah to the south, and sandwiched in between the two of them would be this region that was called Samaria. The animosity, again, was so great that religious Jews bypassed Samaria. As they traveled between Galilee and Judea, they went an extra distance to avoid it.

All right, so now we're poised to look at this conversation with a little bit of background. By the way, Mount Gerizim is still considered sacred today to the Samaritans who lived there. They're still Samaritans alive and they actually still live and they worship on that mountain. Now the temple no longer exists, but they regard it rather than Jerusalem's Temple Mount as having been the location that was chosen by God for His people and originally for His holy temple, which they believe was right there. So with that background, let's pick it up now in verse 5.

And so he came to a city of Samaria which is called Saikar. Now this is just a little over a mile from Mount Gerizim, so you can look up and you can see the mount from this city and this conversation that Jesus is having with this woman. Near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Joseph's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied. And remember, Jesus was the Son of God, but He was also clothed in a physical tent just like you and I are. He hungered. He became tired. He needed rest. He felt pain, physical pain, just like you and I feel. Being wearied from His journey. Set thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Now if we use Jewish counting, reckoning, for hours this would be about approximately 12 noon. And here Saikar refers to the city anciently that was called Shechem, the place where Abraham stayed on his arrival in Palestine. That's in Genesis chapter 12, and where Jacob purchased some land in Genesis chapter 33, and where his bones were later reburied as the account is in Joshua chapter 24 verse 32. So it has a rich history with the Hebrew and the Jewish people. It's in the land, the region, called Samaria. Verse 7, a woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink.

For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. And the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? Again, the typical Jew, particularly a religious Jew, considered them to be defiled and unclean, would not talk to them, would not do business with them, would ignore them, and even avoid the land. The well here that's mentioned outside here of Shechem still exists to this day. The woman coming for water at noon suggests that she had a bad reputation, and this bad reputation led her to avoid meeting other women who most likely would have come to that well earlier in the day when it was cooler. They wouldn't wait until it's 12 noon and the sun is overhead to get water. They would come earlier in the morning when it's cooler and you're going to be sweating and perspiring less in order to take water out of the well. She was puzzled that an Israelite would ask a Samaritan, who again was considered unclean and untouchable, that he would boldly ask her for some water. Verse 10. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is, if you knew what I could offer you, and he's going to be talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, and if you knew that I am the Savior who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. If you only understood what I can offer you.

She says here, and of course the living water again is referring to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is oftentimes the scripture referred to as water. Verse 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? So Jesus is in a spiritual plane. He's talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit. She's on a physical plane. She doesn't get it. She's talking about, well, how in the world there's the well right there? How can you go that far into the well and find living water inside of that? So there's a disconnect going on here for a little bit. Are you greater than our father Jacob? I want you to notice how religious she is. The Samaritans consider Jacob their father rather than the Jewish people, who gave us the well and who drank from it himself as well as his sons in his livestock. And Jesus answered, said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Speaking of the water that came out of that well. Verse 14. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. You'll be fully satisfied with the Spirit of God. You ultimately will be transformed into a Spirit being. You'll have eternal life. You'll never be hungry again. You'll never need water again. You'll never be weary like Jesus was weary dwelling in this physical tent, this body that he walked in on earth. None of those things will ever happen to you again ultimately when you have that Spirit and you were transformed from mortal to immortal. Continuing this verse, 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. That fountain of water is the fruit of the Spirit being developed in us as we take on more of the mind of Christ and as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and eventually at the return of Jesus Christ that leads to everlasting life. Verse 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. She still really doesn't quite get what he's saying. He's discussing with this woman the gift of the Holy Spirit that provides eternal life without the need for food or water or rest. He's speaking on a spiritual level about a gift that he's offering her, the gift of the Holy Spirit as living water, while the woman continues to think about physical water taken from the well to quench a mere human thirst. Verse 16, and Jesus said to her, go call your husband. I'd like to speak to both of you and come here. Come back here. Go get your husband and come back here. And a woman said to him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you have said, well, I have no husband. For you've had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly. He says, you've been married five times, and the guy that you're shacking up with now, you're not even married to. Now, this probably got her attention.

The reason it got her attention is because this complete stranger who knew nothing about her, knew everything about her most intimate part of her life, only someone whom God was working through would know this intimate, most intimate part of your life. And this certainly got her attention.

And the discussion goes on about worship and about correct religious practices. And we're moving into the theme of the day on why we don't observe Christmas. Verse 19, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet, since as a total stranger, you knew the most intimate details of my personal sexual habits, I perceive that you're pretty smart and clever, and that you are a prophet, that God is indeed working with you. But she continues, and they get into this religious discussion. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. And again, that's Gerizim, and you could actually see that from Shechem, from the city that they were at. It was only about a mile away. And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. And Jesus said to her, and this is a prophecy, he said, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither worship on this mountain, and that hour would be that far away. Their temple was destroyed in 109 AD, and the temple was the central area of worship. So he says, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem temple would be destroyed in 70 AD, worship the father. He said, so the time is coming when neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem will the temple exist, and you will worship the father from a physical temple. So he's prophetically telling the Samaritan woman that both temples would be destroyed. And he was exactly right. Neither of them exist this very day. Only their ruins exist today, not either one of those temples. And he continues in verse 22. Again, he's getting into a discussion with her about proper worship. He says, you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

Now who's saying this? It's saying the individual who was descended from Judah, descended from the line of David, Jesus Christ himself who was a Jew, salvation is of the Jews because it was from Judah that eventually the Messiah would be born. And that Messiah happens to be talking to this woman this very minute. So again, salvation here is the promised Messiah, the Savior of all mankind who comes into the world as a member of the line of David, of the tribe of Judah. His shed blood and his ultimate sacrifice for all mankind as a Jew proved that salvation is of the Jews. Now many distort this scripture to imply that one has to either be a Jew or pretend to be a Jew or dress like a Jew or cling to the old covenant or do all kinds of Jewish things in order to be saved, in order to achieve salvation, and that is a total distortion of what this scripture is saying. Yes, indeed, the Jews were privileged to be the first messengers of God's word that we call the Old Testament, but Jews cannot offer salvation.

Writings cannot offer salvation. Only the shed blood of the Messiah who came from the line of Judah can offer salvation. So he's telling the woman here that everything about the way she worships is simply physical and artificial and based on false understanding. That's what he's telling her here, verse 23. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. So Jesus is saying here, what does the Father desire? What honors the Father? What honors Him are true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. First of all, who worship Him in spirit, who aren't obsessed with stained glass and lit candles and crosses and all the things that people, all the icons and things that people think are somehow religious or somehow give praise or honor to God, those are physical things. They're not spiritual. They're material. They're made out of wood or clay or metals or something of that nature. And also, he says, of course, also who worship not only in spirit but in truth, who say to themselves, I want to worship God His way with truth, not with artificial things, not by copying things that other people do because it's convenient or pretty or nice, but I want to worship God in a way that is truthful. Continuing here in verse 24, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us of all these things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. You've had this conversation with the Messiah is what Jesus is telling this woman. This episode is important to us, especially because we are surrounded by the Christmas season. Since so much of what we call Christmas is saturated in pre-Christian paganism and mythology and raw materialism, it's only right that we ask ourselves if borrowing pagan customs to honor Christ is worshiping Him or worshiping God in sincerity and truth. Now, I'm not going to spend any time attempting to prove to you that Christmas is saturated with pre-Christian or pagan symbols and concepts. The reason I don't need to do that is all you have to do is go online and search any encyclopedia and it will clearly tell you why it's on December 25th and what Christmas trees represented and all the mythology and the symbolism of this time of year. It's easily found, so I'm not going to spend time discussing all of those details today. What I am going to spend time doing is asking ourselves, are we committed to worshiping God in spirit and in truth? Let's go to Joshua chapter 24 and verse 13. We'll begin in the Old Testament and see where a phrase very similar to this is used by Joshua as he was encouraging the Hebrew people to stay faithful to God. Joshua chapter 24 and verse 13.

Joshua says, quoting God here, Speaking on behalf of God, I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. So God says, I handed all this over to you on a silver platter. These cities were already here. You just invaded the land and took it over. The crops, the vines, everything's already here. It was given to you as a gift. Again, as we say, on a silver platter.

Continuing verse 14. Now, because you have given all this as a gift, therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served in the other side of the river and in Egypt, serve the Lord. So he's saying, because you have been given so much, and I've been so good to you, you need to serve me with sincerity and in truth. And how do you do that? You don't borrow ideas, customs, rituals from the gods that your fathers worshiped.

You have to look at my word. You have to look at my law and worship me in a way that pleases me. The word here, sincerity in the original Hebrew, is tamim, and it means integrity without blemish, complete, full, perfect, without spot, undefiled, and whole. So we're told it's important to serve God with sincerity and truth. So what are some of the things that this means? Well, it means that we serve only one God. We don't serve other gods like material things or money or status.

We don't feed our addictions. You know, we can get habits and addictions that become our God.

If we don't feed that addiction in a couple hours, we're all shaking from some type of chemical withdrawal in our bodies. That can control us. That can become a dominating factor in our life, and that can literally become our God to feed that addiction. It means you don't do things or accept things just because everyone else does. You do things out of a desire to respect God, living your life in sincerity and truth. It means we're free from duplicity. It means we're the same respectful person at work, at shopping, as we are at home. It means that we're the same person here, as we are at home and at work and shopping. It means we're transparent, that there are no layers of artificialness in our lives. It means we communicate with God on a regular basis. Prayer and Bible study being sincere means we just don't appear to be religious. We are religious. Our value system is based on God's law and God's way of life. And if you look at the book of Acts, there's a phrase used five times. It's called the way. It refers to the actions of the early disciples. It means that Christianity was their life philosophy. It was a value system in which they embraced being Christ-like in everything that they did. So Joshua reminds us of the importance of serving God with sincerity and truth and putting away all the leftovers, all the remnants of the God's small g in order to worship God the way he wants us to. Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 1. Let's turn there, take a look at this scripture. Jeremiah warned the house of Israel. Chapter 10, again, beginning in verse 1.

Jeremiah writes, hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, do not learn the way of the Gentiles. So don't look at Gentiles and admire what they do in their religious practices. Don't look at them and say, boy, that's really pretty. That's really cute. I think I'd like to do that. I think I'd like to borrow that idea or their concept. Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them, for the customs of the people are futile. And it gives an example here of cutting down a tree in order to make an idol and how futile it is, how silly it is.

For one cuts down a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the woodmen with an axe.

It's interesting here that humanity keeps trying to make God into our own image.

People want to make a sanitized creator who's more of a symbol than someone who's ever present.

They would prefer to have God represented in an idol or in a cross. Again, I've been, I think I've told you this before, I was at a funeral once and the priest got up and, all right, everybody had this big brass cross. All right, everybody, it's time to come up and everyone kiss the cross. People got up wanting to kiss the... Who are you adoring? Tell me, who are you worshipping? Kiss the cross? Where did that come from? Well, there's a history behind that. You'll also find that in if you do some research. But the point is, is that people want a God like that. They want an image because you don't have to have a personal relationship with an image. You can just adore the image and think that you're righteous. Think that somehow what you're doing is godly, but God has called us to be a people of sincerity. And one reason we don't observe Christmas is that we don't believe we have the right to give God a makeover.

We don't think we have that right. We can't borrow religious customs from other cultures and say, oh, this is how we choose to worship God. We make that choice. You see, churches, organizations, councils, individuals do not have the right to choose how one worships God.

The very being whose name is God, he gets to decide how he wants to be worshiped, how he wants to be adored. He gets to make that choice. Continuing on verse 4, continuing what they do with this idol, they decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They don't want it to fall over. They are upright like a palm tree. They cannot speak. They're so stupid. They're worshiped as something that's to be honored.

They're put in a prominent place like someone's living room, and they're put there because they think it somehow is honorable to have that. He says, don't fear it. First of all, it's too stupid to speak. It has to be carried. It can't even move itself around. It can't walk. It has to be carried. It has to be nailed so it doesn't fall over. It has no strength. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good. In contrast to that, the prophet says, inasmuch as there is none like you. Aside from all this silliness with people doing all these rituals in an attempt to honor God, he says in contrast to that, there's none like you, O Lord. You are great, and your name is great in might, and shouldn't be soiled with people's desire to lower you to their level so they can recreate who and what you are in their own image. Now, this isn't specifically describing a Christmas tree. Specifically, it's talking about an idol, but it's a similar idea of the prophet ridiculing the concept that you can somehow borrow a pagan custom, and you can put a little lipstick on the pig, and you can say, wow, God is honored by this.

I cut this tree out of the forest. Now, I hang all of these male fertility, these round male fertility symbols all over it, and somehow this gives honor and glory to God. That's the idea that many people have. Down here, let's take a look at verse 10. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God in an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth will tremble, and all the nations will not be able to endure his indignation. I want to give you a metaphor.

My lovely wife, she has a birthday, and I believe it's December 2nd.

I'm going to ask you if she would be honored in the following scenario, because this is what people do in the celebration of Christmas. Come June 1st, I say, happy birthday, darling.

I really love you, and I just wanted to give you this card and these gifts and wish you a happy birthday. She says, well, my birthday isn't now. My birthday is December 2nd. Oh, honey, but I love you. That's okay. I just choose to do this, but I love you. You really mean a lot to me.

All right, and she takes this, lifts the card up, and it says on it, Bertha. And she pulls it out and says, I love you with all my heart. She says, but this is Bertha. Oh, honey, it's okay.

It's really for you. I love you. I honor you. She opens this gift up, and there's a negligee in there.

And she pulls out this beautiful negligee, and in print it said Bertha, but it's been crossed off with a magic marker went through it, and it says BJ. She says, is that the name Bertha crossed off? Oh, honey, but it's really for you. I'm honoring you. I love you. And while she's opening up this gift, I'm walking around the dining room, and I'm starting to install pictures. Here's a picture of Bertha with bread. My wife says, what's that? Oh, honey, Bertha loved to make bread, but I'm honoring you. I love you through this picture. And here's another picture with Bertha sewing. She says, is that Bertha? No, honey, but I'm honoring you. I really love you.

So do you think that my wife would be honored in that kind of a scenario?

You can ask her after services.

But I don't think that she would be honored by that.

And neither is God. The true God is majestic, and he's great and awesome. And he's also jealous. He says in Exodus chapter 20, I am a jealous God. I don't like it when people play games in the way that they worship me. I don't like it when people take other things borrowed from pagan pre-Christian cultures, put a little lipstick on it, shine a light on it, and say, oh, but this is how we choose to worship and honor Jesus. God says, I'm jealous. I don't like that. This means that we should want to know how he desires to be worshipped and adored. Being a sincere believer means we want to please him. We don't want to please a great grandma who maybe loves Christmas.

We don't want to please our neighbor who happens to have all those lights hanging off of those trees, and though it may be pretty, we're not interested in pleasing people. We're not interested in being people pleasers. Instead, we're interested in pleasing God. It means that we choose to worship God on days that he happens to refer to in Leviticus 23 as my feast, as if he owns them, as if he has possession of those feasts, as if they're important to him.

That's what we choose to use as opportunities to serve God and to worship him rather than days that began in mythical pre-Christian cultures and evolved into mainstream Christianity. What God detests is the using of pagan religious practices, especially when repackaged and tried to be made pretty or godly in order to worship him. God wants us to worship him in the way that he desires, not through a makeover of some pagan ritual or practice. Deuteronomy chapter 12. Let's turn there.

It says, observe and obey. All these words which I command you, that I may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. Verse 29, when the Lord your God cuts off from before you all the nations in which you go to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land. Verse 30. After you've done all that, and again after I've given you everything that was theirs and handed to you as a gift. Verse 30. Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their God, saying, how did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise. So what he's warning his people here is you don't do things like, well let's see, the Roman sun god, his birth was celebrated on December 25th. So therefore, since we're already celebrating it, and we already have these customs, let's just put a little lipstick on it and call it Christmas, and let's be like everyone else.

And they're being told here, you can't do that. You should never say, how do other nations worship their gods? Let's imitate it, let's copy it, let's do the same thing. Verse 31. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods, for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it or take away from it. So you don't look for other things that people are doing because it's pretty or colorful or convenient, and add that to the way that God desires to be worshipped. And you certainly don't decide, well, I don't think we need to keep this particular holy day. I don't like to fast on atonement, so let's do away with that one. No, he says you can't add to it. You cannot take away from it. You have to respect the days and the times that God has given us to worship him. God knows human nature, and there is a strong desire to conform within human cultures to be like everyone else. And he warned his people not to borrow these kinds of worship rituals and practices and use them in an attempt to worship and honor the true God. The Samaritans had done this, and this is why Jesus warned them. This is why he basically said, you don't know what you worship. You have no idea what you're doing. You may be comfortable. You may all think it's true, but you have no idea of what it's really like to worship God, is what Jesus told the Samaritan woman. And the same is true in mainstream Christianity, as it does these kinds of things today, and they do not really honor God. So with that, now let's go to the New Testament and see a man who speaks about this subject more than anyone else combined. That was the Apostle Paul, and read a few scriptures and see what he taught us. Philippians chapter 1, beginning in verse 9. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Paul writes, and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. So God wants us to be knowledgeable, to know what the truth is, in order to worship him in spirit and truth. We have to know what the truth is, and that's why knowledge is so important. And all discernment, that's being able to decide, hmm, this is good, this is bad, this is iffy, I need to think about this long and hard before I accept it as true or right. That's what discernment is. That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So here Paul is encouraging the congregation at Philippi to grow in knowledge and discernment and to make sure that they are sincere in the way that they conduct their lives and in the way that they worship God. The Greek word here, sincere, we looked at the Hebrew word earlier, the Greek word here is islegrinus from a root word that means the sun's ray, judged by sunlight, not hidden in a shadow but exposed for everyone to see, judged by sunlight, tested as genuine. It means being pure. Are we a sincere people? Do we have a reputation for sincerity? Or do we offend others because of insincerity or a lack of honesty? Sincerity is so important to God and particularly in the way that we worship God and the worship practices that we use to give him honor and to give him glory. Today we saw the Hebrew word that is translated sincere. We saw the Greek word that was used just a minute ago that's translated in English as sincere. And I'd like to share with you one more word that is translated into English sincere. It comes from the Latin language. This is one of the traditions of how the word sincere came to be invented and used in the Latin language.

If you lived in ancient Rome and you were a wealthy aristocrat, you would boast of your wealth by doing something that told people you had arrived. And the way that you did that is you would have statues throughout your villa and lots of statues. Statues were a status symbol and important to impress your peers. And possessing a large number of elaborate statuary told others that you were important, that you were rich. Now today we might have different standards. We might have chia pets throughout our home to show that we've arrived. You might have the clapper in your bedroom.

The light comes on, the light goes off. But anciently people had statues in order to show their wealth, to show off a little bit. I've arrived in Roman society. I've made it.

But as the empire became more decadent and people were willing to pay more for statuary, things began to change. At first, in the early days of the empire, if a sculptor made a mistake, he accidentally chunked off the nose or maybe broke a finger off. You know what he would do in the early parts of the Roman empire? He would break the whole statue up in the pieces. But as the empire became more decadent and people were willing to pay more for statuary, things began to change. After a while, some sculptors, when they made a mistake, they would hide the blemish with wax. They would fill in that crack with a little bit of wax. Think of a soft crayon, or they would use the wax to hold pieces together that had broken off and fill in that little crack. They became so good at it, it was hard to tell an unblemished quality statue from one that had been remodeled with wax. You couldn't tell the difference between the two when the statue was new. But after you purchased the statue that had its flaws hidden in wax, the wax repair would begin to show in time. As a matter of fact, on a very hot day, and there were lots of those in the Roman Empire, the wax would begin to melt and leak from the statue.

So to find a statue with the highest quality, one would go to the artisan's marketplace in Rome, and one would look for a very special Latin sign. An artisan who was of the genuine article, excellent, first-class artisan who would not cut any corners, put a Latin sign up, and that sign said, Sina Sera. And it meant these products sold here are without wax.

The products that I sell are of the highest quality, and they are genuine, and they have no wax in them.

Well, thousands of years later, people still admire the rare value of Sina Sera, that is being sin ser, or without wax, being without a cheap filler to make something look good on the outside, when it's actually inferior and of inferior quality on the inside.

In English, the word sincere according to the American Heritage Dictionary means the quality or condition of being sincere, genuineness, honesty, freedom of duplicity. And those are the qualities that God wants us to have as we approach His throne in prayer, and as we come before Him as His people to honor Him, to worship Him, and to give glory to Him.

Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 23. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 23.

Paul writes to this congregation in Ephesus, he says, Peace to the brethren and love with faith, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

How can we love Christ in sincerity if we're doing things that supposedly honor Him and are used in an attempt to give Him glory and worship that are borrowed from pre-Christian mythology or rituals? Paul ends this valuable epistle here by asking God for special favor upon those who love Christ with a sincere heart and sincere motives. Brethren, is that us? First Timothy chapter 1 verse 1. He ended the epistle of the Ephesians by talking about sincerity. Here in 1 Timothy he begins this epistle by talking about sincerity.

So do you think this is a topic that's really important to Paul? Let's see what he says here. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Again, this is 1 Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope.

To Timothy, a true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification in the faith. Now, many of the so-called Christmas celebrations and the way that people attempt to honor Jesus Christ, you know what they are? They're fables. They were traditions and ideas and rituals that were created before Jesus Christ was even born in parts of western Europe and northern Europe that have been borrowed and relabeled and a makeover given, little lipstick put on, so that they can be called Christians so that people can say, ah, this is how I choose to honor Christ.

They're fables. Continuing verse 5. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and from sincere faith, from which by some, having strayed, have turned aside the idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. So Paul begins his epistle by commenting about the importance of sincerity. A sincere faith is not based on gossip but the study of myths. It's not based on borrowing things because they're convenient, they're from other religions, or they're pretty, or they're attractive, or they make us feel good.

That has nothing to do with sincerity. A sincere faith is built in having a real, personal, one-on-one relationship with God. A sincere faith encourages and builds other people. It's not interested in some perceived status or authority or being like everyone else. Let's take a look at one final scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 12. A final scripture today, what I want to emphasize in this scripture is that Paul just didn't talk a good game. He set a personal example of being sincere.

So he lived the things that he taught, that he told the church that the brethren that they should be doing. He set a personal example of sincerity to the brethren of the church. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 12. He said, he says, he wrote here that the church at Corinth, for our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity. Not with fleshly wisdom, not with the wisdom it says, well let's see if I just want to convert these masses of people. Well, they're going to resist if I tell them they have to stop keeping those pre-christian pagan observances.

So we'll just sprinkle a little pixie dust over and call it Christmas. We'll just call it okay. We'll just change a few names and we'll relabel it as something that gives God glory. You know what that is? That is fleshly wisdom. Wanting to be like everyone else is fleshly wisdom. Wanting to borrow religious or worship practices from pagan deities and say, I can apply this to God because it makes sense or it feels good or I get to be like everyone else or it's pretty. That's fleshly wisdom.

Paul said about himself, I didn't live that way. I lived with godly sincerity. Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly toward you. So in conclusion today with this sermon, the scriptures we have read can be paraphrased this way.

God says, I am the true God and I am not honored by the ways that mere men decide to worship or give honor to me. My awesome, majestic glory cannot be polluted by religious practice, borrowed from things that I utterly despise.

The scriptures are clear. The scriptures teach us that we worship God in spirit and in truth. That we can make that choice. We can honor God the way that he desires, the way that he teaches us in his word. We can honor him in the ways taught and lived by his son, Jesus Christ. Or we can worship God the way that we want to, in order to fit in with our culture and receive acceptance by others. The decision is yours, but I hope that you will make the conscious choice to realize what God wants us to do and that we have the wisdom and the courage to worship him in spirit and in truth. Have a happy Sabbath!