Worship

John 4, verse 20. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.

Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah's cometh which is called Christ.

When he has come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. Now for a passage in the Old Testament from the 45th Psalm, please.

The 45th Psalm will begin at the beginning. Psalm 45. To the chief musician, upon Shoshanim.

For the sons of Korah, Maskel, a song of loves. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made, touching the king.

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee forever.

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee.

Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness.

Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honorable women.

Upon thy right hand did stand the queen of gold, in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thy ear. Forget also thine own people in thy father's house.

So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor.

The king's daughter is all-glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.

The virgins or companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's palace.

Instead of thy father shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princess in all the earth. And I will, or I will, make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.

Now one short reading again in the book of Hebrews, please. The book of Hebrews in chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10.

If we begin reading at verse number 19, we would do well. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is, to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God, 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.

And that's all we'll read. For the next little while, we're going to take up a very practical, but I feel a very important subject from our Bible. The subject of worship.

Now we're going to think in very simple terms of worship as it is presented to us in principle by the Lord Jesus in John chapter 4. Also we're going to glean some things from Hebrews chapter 10 as it relates to worship. And then from Psalm 45, we're going to get a little bit of a glimpse of scriptural worship. Now, I believe it's important for us to go over these simple things.

In fact, I believe it's important for myself to refresh on these very simple things. Simple things that are so important to the Christian life. I had the opportunity a little while ago, I say when the good preachers wouldn't come, I had an opportunity to have ministry in our home assembly.

And I spoke about different themes in the Bible that ended in ship, right? So we spoke about the Lordship theme in the scriptures, also discipleship and headship, right? Different things like that, that we can glean practical truth from. Another one was stewardship, which I thought was very interesting and that we all should be aware of how we are entrusted with certain things by God and how we use what God has given us really is our responsibility. And we need to report at the end of our stewardship to the Lord with how we use the things that he has given us.

But the thing that I put first in order of all the ships from the Bible is worship. Because I believe worship should be of primary importance in the life of every believer. Now it's hard to worship if you don't know what worship is, but I think what you'll find out as we go through this is that even if you haven't been clear on the definition of worship, you probably have been worshiping, right? You probably have been practicing these things, but we're going to look first of all at John's gospel chapter four, one of my favorite chapters, perhaps in all of John's gospel.

If you're allowed to have favorites, John's gospel, perhaps being my favorite book in the New Testament and the New Testament is my favorite Testament in the Bible. So perhaps this is my favorite chapter in the entire Bible. If you're allowed to say that, I believe in John chapter four, we have a beautiful devotional chapter.

As we look at the Lord Jesus Christ here at the end, perhaps of these Judean ministry, this is definitely before Mark chapter one in verse number 14. We have a moving from Judea up into Galilee and it says that he must needs go through Samaria. He must needs go through Samaria and the word there is a word that he was really constrained or he was he was impelled to go into that place of Samaria.

There was an inward compulsion that caused him to move in the direction of that particular place on that particular day. And I believe not only devotionally, but practically it was the fact that there was going to be a woman there, a woman who had a desire to meet the Lord Jesus. Perhaps she didn't know it, but she was searching.

She was searching for spiritual fulfillment. She was a woman who lacks satisfaction. And what she found at Sykers.

Well, that day was a man who was able to give her something that nobody else was able to give her. He gave her something that satisfied. We love to preach that in the gospel, don't we? But we all should remember, brethren, that when we trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, we received something that we can never, ever lose.

Something that will never, ever depreciate in value. See, I'm one who believes that eternal does not only mean the duration of its life, but eternal means the character of that item. And the character is such that it will never, ever depreciate in value.

He has given us something that satisfies. And I think practically we do well to ask ourselves, are we living like a satisfied people? But that's not my message. I see the tender Savior.

I think we have bookends put on this chapter for us. The first is that verse, when he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Syker, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. And we find here in John chapter four, that the relationship between Jacob and Joseph is brought in.

And we know that John's gospel is the great gospel of the relationship between the father and the son, right? And you trace it all throughout John's gospel, and you find that the father loveth the son, giveth all things into his hand. The father loveth the son, showeth him all things. And the Lord Jesus could say to his disciples, that the world may know that I love the father.

And he said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. And he said, I do always those things that please him. And you see this lovely father and son relationship throughout the gospel of John.

But this verse, at the beginning of John four, is the first that mentions Joseph. I believe verse number 42, I'll check and see if it's the right one. Verse number 42, when those men came, they came to that woman and said that we have seen him ourselves.

And we do believe that this is the Christ. And you remember the words they said, the Savior of the world, the Savior of the world, your mind should immediately go to the Old Testament. Again, when Joseph is taken from the prison, he appears before Pharaoh, he interprets those dreams through the power of God.

And Pharaoh makes him over all the kingdom, you remember that? And he gives him the wife and he puts him in the chariot and he gives him the new clothes and he puts on him that ring, that ring that carried with it the seal of the nation of Israel. But he gave him a new name. You remember what the name is? Zaphnath Phaneah.

And if you will, it could be the interpreter or the revealer of secrets. But it could also be the Savior of the world. So you see it, don't you? You see our heavenly Joseph as he comes now and he sits beside this well.

And we're caused again to remember the words of Jacob as he addressed his children on that day to tell them what things should happen in the future, right? You remember what he told them? He said, Reuben, unstable as water thou shalt not excel, right? Judah, and he talked about Judah being the lion's whelp and the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and onto him shall the gatherings of the peoples be, right? That's Judah. But remember when it comes to Joseph, he says, Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall. These things have thrilled me as I look back and I see how the scriptures are woven so perfectly together and our heavenly Joseph now moving from Judea and the area of the Jews and you have him by the well and he's bringing forth fruit and the branches are now running over the wall and we see how he's going to handle this woman.

He begins to talk to her about the gift. He begins to talk to her about her sin. But the part where we broke in is when he begins to teach her about worship.

Worship. She said, our fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. He's going to tell her what it means to worship truly.

He's going to reveal to her the importance of worship in spirit and in truth. But if he's going to have to tell her about true worship, we might do well to consider what did she know about worship to begin with? Have you ever considered that? What did she really know about worship that made the Lord Jesus have to clarify these things for her? Now we have to go to the Old Testament of our Bible to find this out, but I find some very practical things. What happened here or what the worship that was taking place in this area and in this mountain, as she said, was something that began with a revolt.

You can't read the Kings and the Chronicles without coming across this phrase. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. Remember that phrase? Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.

I believe it is contrary to the line of Judah, where it would say for those good kings who went after his father David. He had the heart of his father David, right? But when we talk about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he revolted and rebelled against Rehoboam. So he, out of rebellion, took those ten tribes from the place where at that worship was being conducted, and he took them into another place.

Now I know there were all kinds of things, not only political, but perhaps even of the Lord that resulted in that separation. But what happened was that rebellion took those people away, and I believe anything that starts with rebellion against the Word of God and against the place where God would have us worship, anything that begins with rebellion, I am not sure, brethren, but I'm quite confident, cannot enable true worship. We have to check our attitudes.

We do. An attitude of rebellion is not conducive to worship in spirit and in truth. You'll also find in the history of these people and in this land, there was a captivity.

It was the Assyrian captivity, right? Where they were taken away. But they weren't just taken away, there was land there. So those who took them away, they decided to allow the people from the nations to come in and inhabit the land.

And when the people from the nations came in, this is the one I think that is the most pertinent and applicable to our day. When the people from the nations came in, they brought with them their gods, right? Their pagan gods, their idols, their idols that had their own specific type of worship. When they came into the land, you'll remember that the lions were eating them.

And they went to the leaders of the nation and they said, we need something to stop this. So they got a priest, a priest who had previously worshipped the God of heaven. This priest who had worshipped Jehovah was now taken and he was placed in the land so that all of these people who had their own religion would be taught to worship the God of heaven.

You say, well, that's good. And it is. But when you read the account, you find that they put that priest there and they said, teach us, but they weren't willing to give up their own gods.

They wanted to keep worshipping their idols. They wanted to keep their practices that they currently had and then pay lip service to worshipping the God of heaven, Jehovah. It really is a picture of ecumenism, right? Perhaps you've never heard that word ecumenical.

I think it's something that we should all consider. The idea of an ecumenical worship is the thought of many people of different persuasions, religiously, coming together to worship. It is the idea of trying to produce unity by setting aside truth and conviction.

Very simply, if I was to worship in an ecumenical way with those in my own community who I believe are absolutely saved and going to heaven, and I'm thankful to have family fellowship with them, and I love every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, don't you? Hope you do. Our attitude should be one of love and care and kindness. They belong to the Lord Jesus.

But if they want me to worship with them, I'm going to have to set aside some convictions that I know are true from the Scriptures. I'm not willing to set aside the truth of the Scriptures in order to get together and worship. And we're going to look a little further and we'll find out that truth is very important in worship.

I'm not willing to set aside the truth of eternal security to pretend like I am in unity with believers who don't believe in that. And I think it's dangerous for us to assume that we can worship God apart from truth in the Scriptures. But you see, that's what she was used to.

Anything goes when it comes to this worship. I think one more thing before we move on from what she would have known. Her people had the Bible, okay? They had the Bible, but they only had the first five books of the Bible.

They could have had copies of all the rest of it. They could have had the prophets, they could have had the poetry, they could have had all of that, the historical books. But they chose to ignore that and just take the first five books as Scripture.

Now what happened was that their focus on those first five books became limiting to them. They didn't know the mind of God for the whole Old Testament. Their lack of truth, or being limited in truth, limited them in their ability to worship.

And this is all going to move forward to what the Lord Jesus says. And in fact, an unhealthy focus on a certain part of Scripture at the exclusion of the rest of Scripture is not healthy, and it does not produce true spiritual worship. If I focus too much on the book of Acts and leave out the teaching of the epistles, I am soon to find that I am unbalanced in my approach to Scripture, and it produces things that go against what the Scripture teach.

And you can cite many examples. In order for us to worship in truth, we have to take the Scriptures as a whole, rightly divide it, and properly interpret it. So this is what she knew as worship, right? And the Lord Jesus says, that's not good enough.

There is something missing from what she knew. And he says, there is coming an hour when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But he says, first of all, I'm going to tell you the place of worship.

They had thought that Mount Gerizim was a place of worship, right? That mountain that was there, visible as they were sitting on this well. And the people in Jerusalem thought that the temple was a place of worship. Now very simply, from the Scriptures, Mount Gerizim was never recognized by God as a place of worship.

And Jerusalem was no longer recognized by God as a place of worship. So when the Lord Jesus says, neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men worship the Father, where is it that people worship today? Have you ever thought of that as a believer? Where is my place of worship? Perhaps you think your place of worship is in the gospel hall, but it's not. Perhaps you have friends, good Christian people, and they will bring you to the building where they gather and they'll say, right in here where we have the sanctuary, that's where we worship.

That's our place of worship. But if they're believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's not their place of worship. You see, the Lord Jesus is getting at something here that's very important.

And I believe it's explained to us in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 9, we are reminded of the Old Testament tabernacle, aren't we? We are reminded of how things were set up, all according to how Moses was showed the pattern in the mount, things were set up, and there was an altar, and then there was a holy place, and then there was the holy of holies, the holiest of all, where that high priest would go according to Leviticus chapter 16, one time a year, not without blood. So the fact is, in the Old Testament, they had a sanctuary, an earthly, it's called worldly in the book of Hebrews, but an earthly sanctuary.

This earthly sanctuary was where a priest would go when there was a sacrifice that was made, and this priest could enter in and worship. When we come to chapter 10, we find that there is no more earthly sanctuary. There is no place on this earth that a believer enters into taking a sacrifice so that he can worship, but there is a place, and that place can only be entered with a sacrifice, and worship can only be offered by a priest.

Now I'm going to tell you something, if you're newly saved, this may come as a surprise, but according to the Bible, in 1st Peter, the moment that you trusted the Lord Jesus, God made you a priest, according to the Bible. You are part of a holy priesthood. Peter tells us we are part of a royal priesthood.

In fact, in Revelation chapter 1, we are told that we are a kingdom of priests. So when it comes to offering and worship, if only a priest can do it, then we're all right, because every believer in the Lord Jesus is a priest. And when it comes to the sacrifice, according to Hebrews, the sacrifice is a better sacrifice, a better offering.

It is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ that he offered through the eternal spirit. He offered himself without spot to God. This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

The sacrifice has already been offered. The sacrifice has already been accepted. So now as a priest being made a priest by God upon conversion, having had a perfect sacrifice, Hebrews chapter 10 says, I can come boldly or I can come confidently.

And when I address my father, God in worship, I am entering right into the holiest, holy of holies. Right into the presence of God himself. That's where my place of worship is.

Now you have a nice gospel all here, but my place of worship is much better, right? And there are beautiful buildings where Christians gather, but our place of worship is right into the very presence of God. And God says we can come boldly or confidently and worship him in that place. What does it mean to worship in spirit, in spirit? You may say you're thinking about the Holy Spirit now, but I would say you want to reconsider that.

You want to reconsider it because the idea here is not that we worship through the power of the spirit of God, although I believe that is what takes place during worship. What's going on here is that it is my spirit that is worshiping God. Spiritual worship is not to do with the physical, right? So the physical makes me aware of the world around me, right? My soul, you could say, makes me aware of myself and my feelings and emotions and all the rest.

But my spirit, my spirit is able to interact with God and I am able to worship in spirit according to the scriptures, which excludes anything physical, tangible, touchable. So we don't have an earthly altar, right? I was having gospel meetings in Brampton and this man came out first night and then he came every night. He said he thought we might have been related.

I don't know that for sure, but he thinks that maybe when I grow up I'll look like him, maybe. I don't know. But he's a nice guy, so if I'm related to him, that's all right.

But every once in a while he'd say, where's the cross in here? Where's the cross? You know what he was looking for, don't you? He was looking for a statue or he was looking for some kind of an emblem in the building in the shape of a cross. He said that helps him to worship. That's physical, that's not spirit.

According to the Bible, we worship without the physical aids of a tabernacle, without the physical tangibles of statues, without the scents and smells of incense. We worship with our spirit, which I think is wonderful because the fact is you don't have to be gathered together with the people of God to worship. And I don't have to go down to a church building and kneel before an altar to worship.

I can worship when I address my God and my Father and enter right into the heavenlies in spirit and in truth. Now in truth, in truth is very important. And maybe there are some here today that think the truth part of worship has to do with truth that governs our worship.

If that's what you believe, then that's fine because I think that there are things in the scriptures that govern our function in worship. And we have to worship within the guidelines of what we are given in scripture. But I'm convinced, brethren, that worship in truth is greater than that.

Worship in truth is really a response of my heart to the truth of God that I receive. You see, maybe there's someone here today and you think that worship is some kind of an abstract term that has to do with emotions and has to do with activity and has to do with with music and everything that is outside. Perhaps you are one who thinks you have to raise your hands and raise your voice and shout and dance unto the Lord.

But the fact is, true worship is simple. True worship is a response of my heart to truth that I have received from God. So very simply, I read in the scriptures, in whom we have redemption, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

That is truth from God. I receive that. I receive it, first of all, by reading it or by hearing it.

And I process it and I don't know all that happens, but I begin to think about it. And when you begin to think about the truth and you begin to appreciate it, then it comes out and it is expressed in words. It is expressed in worship.

So our worship is not abstract. Our worship is a response to something that we learn about God, about what God has done for us, about what Christ has done for God. All of those things from the scriptures are truth that should cause us to worship.

Right? Now, I want you to get that. That will save you from error. That will save you actually from much evangelical error that is leading us astray when it comes to worship.

I love music. Okay? And there are some good musicians here. And I love good spiritual songs.

But simply saying, I love Jesus and thank you, God, is not worship. But when I acknowledge the truth and I respond to that in appreciation, I believe that is worship in spirit and in truth. Well, we have to move along.

He also tells us the person that is to be worshipped. And we'll only touch it as we go on. But there is a specific person that is identified here as the object of worship, and it is the Father.

I believe according to John's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse number 23, that any time a person honors the Son, they are honoring the Father. I believe, according to that, that equal honor is due to the Son. But when it comes to the normal course of worship, the worship is to the Father through the Son.

You will notice that there is worship given to the Son in the New Testament. There is also worship directed toward the Father in the New Testament. But you will never find, in the pages of Holy Scripture, worship directed toward the Spirit of God.

Do we believe He is equal to the Father and Son? Absolutely. Do we believe He has a special function? Absolutely. But we believe that worship is directed primarily to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit in spirit and in truth.

And now we go to Psalm 45. Psalm 45 is something that's going to help us. While we realize that we do not have to be in assembly gatherings to worship, and while we realize that we, in a sense, worship in every assembly gathering, there is a sense that the meeting, the breaking of bread, the Lord's Supper tomorrow morning, is set aside especially before we do that for worship, right? What we're going to go over here in Psalm 45 should help us tomorrow morning.

I think it's very practical, brethren, and it's helped me in my own worship. We're reading here a psalm, a psalm that is marked as a shoshanim. It's upon the lilies.

That's the idea there. For the sons of Korah, maskel. Maskel is one of those words in the psalms that not everyone really agrees on what it means.

Perhaps you are confident that you know what silah means. Perhaps there are different ideas about that. That's the idea of pausing.

Perhaps it's a instruction to the musician. Perhaps it's think on this, or perhaps it's what do you think about that. There are different slants on what that word could mean.

Maskel has been taken to mean an instructional psalm or a psalm for instruction, but it could also be a psalm for contemplation or consideration or meditation, and I think it lends itself very well to worship. A psalm upon the lilies for a meditation or a consideration, a song of loves, and we begin the psalm with my heart. My heart.

I'm not sure what it's like in Garnevillo, but brethren, we have to protect against the danger, brethren and sisters. The danger of formal, cold worship. Now, I want you to think about that for a second.

The psalmist, first of all, says, my heart. My heart is indicting a good matter. Worship is something that should be done with our heart, not only with our minds as we engage in truth, but it's a heart's response to truth, and it should be a warm heart, a warm heart that has been touched by the truth of God from the scriptures as it pertains to the character and the goodness of God and the character and the goodness of the Lord Jesus.

Those are things that should touch our heart, right? And if you get up every time and worship the same words in a cold old methodical manner, let's check our heart. Now, I don't mean to offend anybody, but brethren, it's a heart work. Christianity is a heart work, and if all you do is go through the motions, keep doing it, but let's get enthusiastic and put our hearts into it.

It's much more than just a formality, this thing called worship. It is something that is of absolute importance to God, and when it's done right, it is done with a warm heart that is touched. My heart is indicting a good matter.

That word indicting made me worship when I considered it one day, right? My heart is indicting a good matter. What does that mean? It's a picture word. I call them picture words from our Bible, but it's something that is meant for us to think of a picture, and I believe the picture is like a pot, just a pot, a pot that you're going to make soup in.

Now, I don't know if you've ever made soup. I like to make soup sometimes, but I take a big pot and I don't just turn the heat on and leave it on the stove, right? Well, not intentionally anyway, right? You turn it on, leave it there, you're going to have problems. You have to put stuff in the pot, don't you? You have to put the ingredients in.

You have to put the liquid in. You have to put the vegetables if that's what you're making. You have to put all of the ingredients in and then you apply the heat, right? After you put the ingredients in and you apply the heat, what happens is below the surface, there is something taking place.

It is a warming and things are getting heated up. And while you can't tell by looking at it, there's something going on under there. And sooner or later, depending on the amount of time and the amount of heat that is applied, sooner or later, the surface of that material can no longer contain the heat.

And what do you have? Bubbles, right? It starts to bubble up. And that's the word for indicting here. My heart is bubbling over with a good matter.

And brethren, we have to have material in our pot. That's the truth of scripture. So let's say we're going to worship every brother in assembly fellowship tomorrow morning.

Remember, come exercise to worship, not to have one of those sermon prayers. We don't need that, but we need you to come exercise to worship. It honors God.

Even a 15 seconds of something that you've appreciated and you rise to your feet and you express it respectfully to God. It's not only honoring to God, it encourages the believers in your assembly. But in order for you to come and to be able to worship, you're going to have to put something in your pot.

You're going to have to spend time in the word, collecting ingredients. And when you read the word, it's like you're putting things in your pot. And when you meditate on it, now don't get the wrong idea.

Meditation is not sitting there with your legs crossed and some kind of Eastern mystic thing. Meditation is simply thinking about what you've read, thinking about the word of God and appreciating it and developing little thoughts in your mind that have come from the input of the material. And that's the heat.

That's the heat supplied to the pot. And when you put the ingredients in and you provide the heat of meditation, eventually you won't be able to contain it, but your heart will bubble over. In worship.

And you'll have to express it to God. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made.

I don't have much time to speak of the things which I have made here, but I want you to remember this. In the tabernacle, the cunning work, the fine needlework, all of those words that are used to describe the detail work of the tabernacle is the same word as the things that I have made. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show with his handiwork.

That word handiwork is the same word for the things that I have made. It gives us the idea that there's a focus and an effort and an energy put into the preparation of this because someday it's going to be displayed. Isn't that just like worship? Sometimes I think we put more effort into getting dressed for meeting than we do into actually preparing for meeting.

And that's a little bit of honest confession, perhaps. The amount of time it takes me to put on my suit and my tie, sometimes I don't spend that much time in the scriptures preparing for meeting. But brethren, we are going to present something to the King when we worship and sisters, when you worship, you're presenting something to the King.

We should take time to be in the word. We should take time in preparation because we speak of the things which we have made touching the King. I hope that this has been practical and helpful as we consider worship.

From the word of God.