True Worship, Part 4 B

So our Lord says, look, it isn't the place of worship, lady. It isn't the place of worship. It's who you worship that is the issue. It's who you worship. And first of all, you worship God as Spirit. It's natural to think of worship only in terms of religion, worshiping God. But the fact is, people can and often do devote enormous time and money and physical effort and mental energy to people and things, in effect, worshiping those things as a way of life instead of worshiping God and God alone.

So how do you avoid that? How do you make God the sole object of your worship and keep other things from pulling your focus from where it needs to be? John MacArthur tackles those questions today as he shows you a biblical roadmap to true worship. That's the title of his series on Grace to You, True Worship.

And now with a lesson, here's John. We have discussed quite at length the idea of the importance of worship. And I have told you that basically there are four reasons why worship is important. First of all, because Scripture is literally filled with the truth about worship. Secondly, because destiny is marked by worship. Thirdly, because the major theme of eternity and redemptive history included is worship. And fourthly, because Christ commanded us to worship. Scripture, destiny, eternity, and the very command of Christ tell us the importance of worship. And in order to try to sum up our thinking and draw what we've said together before we go on to the next major point in the text, I would again have you note verse 23, that God seeks true worshipers. That's the thrust of that most important verse. And what it tells us is the very important truth that the goal of salvation is worship.

You need to write that down somewhere. The goal of salvation is worship. Now, let me see if I can set the scene for you. Chapter 4, verse 4. He must needs go through Samaria. There was a divine appointment with a special woman. This was a woman God was seeking to be a true worshiper. And as I said, God's seeking is efficacious and He sought her out, sending Jesus out of the normal route to go through Samaria to a place called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat by the well and it was about the sixth hour.

By Roman time, that would be six o'clock in the evening. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me who am a woman of Samaria? For, literally, the Jews don't use the same vessels as the Samaritans. Jews don't drink out of our cups.

We don't have any relations with Jews. You say, Why is she asking that question? I'll tell you why she's asking the question because of what just went on. Go to verse 10. Jesus said unto her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me a drink, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water.

Lady, if you knew who was talking to you and what he could give you, you would have asked for it. And the woman said to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep. From where then hast thou that living water?

Where are you going to get it? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his cattle? In other words, have you got some kind of water that's better than this water? Are you greater than Jacob? And Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life eternal. And the woman said, Give me this water that I thirst not, neither come here to draw.

And then he went to the heart of the matter. I could give you this, but you've got a problem. And here's how he brought the problem up. Go call your husband. And the woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You said it. You have no husband.

You said it well, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. You really said it, lady. The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Good thinking. Why'd she perceive that? Two reasons. Number one, he spoke of supernatural truth. That's why I believe although she appears to be answering him in the literal sense, I think she understood what he was saying to some extent. He is speaking about eternal things. He is speaking about spiritual things.

Secondly, because he went right to the core and indicted her for her sin. And you could even add a third, because he knew secrets that only God could reveal. Here's a man who speaks of spiritual realities. Here is a man who deals with sin. And here is a man who knows things that only God can reveal. That, my friend, is a prophet. Her first reaction was, I've got to get my life right. That's what I believe. The implication is here. I think she may have even felt deep, profound conviction at this point, because I think when Jesus said something to someone on a one-to-one basis, it would be a little tough to evade it.

He had a totally commanding presence. And I think her response was, I want to get my life right. I want to worship. But I've got to ask you a basic question. I don't know where to go.

Right? I don't know where to go. I don't know where to go to worship. I mean, my people say to go up here, and your people say to go down there, where do I worship?

And he says, lady, in just a little while, there isn't going to be an up here and a down there. So that is not the issue. The issue is that you worship the Father in spirit and in what? Truth. And that is the picture that sweeps us into this marvelous teaching on true spiritual worship. Her conscience was pricked. Her soul was pierced. And she had to acknowledge her sin and she wanted to deal with it, but she didn't know where to go. She believed like the rest of the people in that shallow religious day that worship is something you do some place at some time, a prescribed place and a set time.

And she wasn't sure what place was the right place. And so he launches into this great statement. Now the first thing that I want you to note as we look at verses 20 to 24 is the object of worship.

Watch carefully what the text says. Verse 21, at the end of the verse, three words, worship the Father. In the middle of verse 23, three words, worship the Father. Verse 24, middle of the verse, worship Him. Who are we to worship? The Father. The Father. Worship Him.

But it says more than that. It tells us in verse 24 who He is. God is a Spirit. Now beloved, that gives us two aspects to the object of worship. One, God as Spirit. Two, God as Father.

Got those two? We worship God as Spirit. We worship God as Father.

Now listen very carefully. One speaks of His essential nature. One speaks of His essential relationship. His essential nature is that He is what? Spirit. His essential relationship is that He is what?

Father. And both of those are basic to true worship. Let's start out with the first one, God as Spirit in His essential nature. And I think you'll find this tremendously exciting. And believe me, when you start to try to describe God as Spirit, you really find yourself without words.

I'm going to take a wild stab and see what we can do. We worship then, first of all, God as Spirit. God as Spirit. The one glorious Spirit. Look at verse 24 again. The literal Greek in this verse is very interesting.

This is what it says. Spirit the God. Spirit the God.

It just melts those two together. Spirit the God. God the Spirit.

Making one equal to the other. God is Spirit. Spirit the God. One glorious Spirit. What is a Spirit? Well, Jesus said, a Spirit hath not what?

Flesh and bones. A Spirit hath not flesh and bones. Look with me for a moment at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 18. And I think this will help us to understand what we're talking about with God as Spirit.

Verse 18, to whom then will ye liken God? In other words, if you can't deal with God as Spirit and you're going to reduce God into something else, what are you going to make it that's going to be like Him? Can you draw a picture of a Spirit? Can you carve an image of a Spirit?

Can you melt down silver and make it into a formation of a Spirit? What are you going to make it like? What likeness are you going to compare it to? The workman melts and casts an image and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot, seeketh a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that shall not be moved.

He takes a tree and tries to carve the tree. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits on the circle of the earth. I mean, you're trying to reduce the eternal God. And the inhabitants of the earth are like grass hoppers who stretch out the heavens, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. This is the God of the universe.

And you're pouring a little deal in a pot and carving a little piece of wood. He maketh, verse 23, the princes to become nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted.

Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth and He shall also blow upon them and they shall wither and the whirlwind shall take them away like stubble. In other words, He says the princes or the chief people or the most important people or the most powerful people in the world are nothing when compared to God. So verse 25, to whom then will you liken Me? Or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One?

Lift up your eyes on high. And behold, who hath created these things? Who bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might. For He is strong in power and not one faileth.

And then He goes on to talk about how that God doesn't faint, gets weary never, and so forth. In other words, when you conceive of and you draw in your mind's eye or in theological terms or biblical terms the concept of God, you cannot reduce Him to an image. He cannot be reduced to a building. He cannot be reduced to a statue, to anything. He is Spirit and He must be worshiped in the fullness of the infinity of His eternal Spirit.

What does that do immediately? That immediately says you don't have to go to a place at a time to draw an eye unto God. The shorter catechism says God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being. Some of the cults teach that God is a man.

That's a lie right out of the pit. God is not a man. God is a Spirit. In Jeremiah 23, 23, Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God far off? In other words, what he's saying is, listen to this, Am I a God someplace? No. God is not a God someplace.

He is a God what? Every place. You cannot confine me. Can any hide himself in secret places that I'll not see in? And I love this. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord.

Now listen to this. God is not an idol confined to a place. God is the infinite place.

He cannot be confined to a specific place or a specific time. Now see how important that is in worship? We don't go somewhere because God is there and we're going there to worship Him. Now the heathen believed that God was someplace. In 1 Samuel chapter 5, you know, the Philistines had a temple and they had their god Dagon in there. And when they stole the Ark of the Covenant, they thought that was the representation of the God of the Israelites. They took the Ark of the Covenant and they stuck it in the temple of Dagon. And they figured that's where gods live over in that place, so they stuck him there. Remember the next morning they came back and their god, Dagon, who was that fish god, was dumped over, bowing down to the Ark of the Covenant. So they put him back up.

The next day they came back, he was dumped over again. Only this time his hands and his head were cut off. God had performed some supernatural surgery on that idol. But the point was they associated that god with that place.

That was the whole point. But God is a spirit. And what he's saying to the woman is, hey, the issue isn't here or there because God isn't here or there. He's a spirit.

He's a spirit. Now go back to John chapter 4 for a moment and let's see how he's specifically responding to this lady, verse 21. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, she says, and you say in Jerusalem. I mean, where is God? Is God up here or is He down there?

I mean, I want to get my life straight, so where do I go? And then in verse 21, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe Me. I'm telling you the truth. The hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Now that statement is so loaded you can interpret it with a sort of a telescopic thought. If you take it individually, if you take it individually, it could be saying, lady, you're about to enter into a relationship with God through me that's going to make it so you don't even worship God in either place but in your heart. It could be saying historically, the time is coming when the destruction of Jerusalem will wipe out that place and you've got nothing up on that mountain anyway. It could be taken in its widest possible significance that he is saying, I will bring about, about redemptive work on the cross of Calvary that will eliminate all that is even in any way associated with the old covenant, true or false? And I really think what he's saying is, lady, there's an end to those systems coming very, very fast. In a very real sense, Jesus says in verse 23, the hour comes and now is. That's a fascinating statement. It's future and yet present.

What did He mean? It comes and yet it now is. He was saying, I'm standing in the transition and in one hand, I've got the old covenant and the other hand, I've got the new covenant.

The hour is coming and it's already here because here I am. When this is gone and the new covenant is here. And in that new covenant, there's no place. There's no Jerusalem. And to make sure nobody got confused, in 70 A.D., God just wiped out Jerusalem.

Just wiped it out. And so worship is the worship of God as spirit. And as a spirit, He is everywhere. He is everywhere. And listen to this. He is everywhere available to a true worshiper.

Everywhere. He is predicting the end of the ceremonial system and I think He dramatized it so marvelously with one great climactic event that occurred when Jesus died on the cross. What was it? What happened to the veil of the temple? It rent from the top to the bottom. And the whole system was over. The Holy of Holies was exposed.

The ceremonial system was ended. And that, I think, is what our Lord really had in mind when He talked to this woman. In Hebrews 10, verse 19, in the language of this marvelous book, it is because of what Christ has done that we have a new kind of worship.

This is so beautiful. The 10th chapter talks about verse 4, that it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. The sacrificial system couldn't do it.

No way it could do it. But I love this. Verse 12, but this man... See verse 11 says, "'Thou, those priests, over and over the same sacrifice, never take away sin.' But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." What does it mean that he sat down? It means that he sat down because his work was what?

Finished. And verse 14, "'For by one offering he perfected forever them that are sanctified.' And this is the new covenant," verse 16 says, "'This is the covenant that God said I will write on their hearts. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And where there is this kind of total remission, there is no more need for any other offering.'"

Right? So the sacrificial system was over when Christ died. He perfected everything. Verse 19, "'Having therefore...'" Therefore?

What's the therefore there for? To make the transition because of what Christ has done. "'Brethren, have boldness to enter into the holiest.'" Oh man, a Jew wouldn't go near the holiest. Be afraid he'd be dead.

He says, go right on in. Watch this, verse 20, "'By a new and living way.'" Not the dead way of dead animals. Not the old way of ceremonies. "'But a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.'" Isn't that great?

Let us draw near. You see, it's because again of the work of Christ on the cross that we become a worshiping people. It isn't in Mount Gerizim. It isn't at Jerusalem. Those old ceremonial systems are gone. And there is no place today for a special elite priesthood. And there is no place today for altars and sacrificial masses and burning candles and smoking incense. That's Judaism and paganism dragged across, ignoring the new and living way, and the priesthood of all believers.

That system is over. So our Lord says, look, it isn't the place of worship, lady. It isn't the place of worship. It's who you worship that is the issue, right? It's who you worship. And first of all, you worship God as spirit. He is a spirit. You say, well, John, I mean, how can you say that God was to be worshiped in spirit everywhere when they had the temple?

Listen to me. The temple was only a resident, present symbol and location to stimulate worship as a way of life. You understand that? If you don't understand it, you missed the whole point of the temple. Temples are symbols, not realities. We say, well, didn't the Shekinah glory of God dwell between the wings of the cherubim and the top of the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies? Sure, but do you think God was only there and that was all He was? He was right in there, just staying in that little tent?

No. That was a symbol of His presence. And only the ignorant Jews really confined God to the temple alone. He may express Himself in a place.

He may reveal Himself in a place. For example, very often, God would meet one of the patriarchs in a unique place and the patriarch would build an altar there, wouldn't he? But just because God was in one place at one time for one special reason doesn't mean He wasn't everywhere else at the same time. No, the temple was just to stimulate a life of worship to Him. So it isn't where you worship. It isn't even when you worship. In fact, the apostle Paul says, I don't, I just want to tell you, you don't need any more new moons and feast days and Sabbath days and all of that, Galatians 4, 10, Colossians 2, 16.

That's not the issue. God is a spirit and needs to be worshipped in a spiritual way. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is a pastor for over 50 years and he's the chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. I trust you were encouraged today by his look at true worship. Now, you could say that today's lesson was about the freedom believers have to worship God wherever and whenever they can, that you don't need a specific space and time to draw near to God. And so, John, I'm wondering, how does that affect my involvement in the church? If I'm worshipping all the time, no matter where I am, can that supersede my need to come and worship at church? No, because the New Testament is crystal clear. And even in the Old Testament, you have a pattern given in the nation Israel. Worship is not only an individual experience and responsibility and spiritual duty.

It is a corporate one. That is why Paul says things like to the church, speak to yourselves, plural, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You can't have worship without truth. And that's another feature of coming together with the church. When the Word of God is taught, when the Word of God is preached, it becomes the truth that fuels your worship. And there's obviously a high priority to the corporate expression of worship. In fact, Paul, particularly in 1 Corinthians, regulates corporate expressions of worship and confronts the things that shouldn't be there and identifies the things that should be there. So what happens is your personal lifelong worship is enriched and enhanced and expanded in the corporate worship of the church.

And that is highly necessary and powerfully blesses the life of a believer in that setting. There's a lot about that in a book I wrote some years back called The Master's Plan for the Church. It talks about leadership in the church, elders, deacons. It talks about the marks of an effective church. It talks about the nature of worship. It talks about the nature of church discipline, the dangers church must avoid. And this all comes together to help us to see biblically how the church first of all should worship and then should minister. The title of the book, again, The Master's Plan for the Church.

The Master, of course, is our Lord Jesus. Great, great resource for any church leader, and especially those of you who are young and maybe aspire to be a pastor one day. For a limited time, our books all available at 25% off the regular price, and you can order a copy of The Master's Plan for the Church today.

Yes, and if you have questions about what to look for in a local congregation or how your church can be effective in serving Christ, John's book The Master's Plan for the Church can help. To get a copy at 25% off the normal price, contact us today. Call 800-55-GRACE or place your order at GTY.org. Again, John's book called The Master's Plan for the Church and nearly every item we sell are available at 25% off regular prices for a limited time.

Take advantage and place your order now. Dial 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. Well, whether it's through the books we make available or the Bible teaching you here on this daily broadcast, the goal of Grace to You is the same. We want to help you see that God's truth applies to every circumstance of your life, and also help equip you to dig out that truth on your own. If you believe in that kind of ministry, you can express your support when writing us at Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or go to GTY.org. And keep in mind, our Truth Matters Conference kicks off tomorrow in Kentucky. The event is sold out, but you can live stream all the sessions. For details, check our website GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson, inviting you back for another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Tomorrow's Grace to You.