True Worshippers

Introduction

And that’s a good lead in to what I want to talk about in regard to the fact that our God is worthy of our worship. One of the things the Psalms is helping us do is to realize how worthy God is, that it is reasonable to serve God and worship him, to adore and exalt him. And that’s one of the things that impresses me as I go through the Psalms is what we learn about worship and about the object of our worship. And that’s what I want to enhance for us today. The worship of God and serving him is reasonable. It’s logical, it’s good. Let us praise, exalt, and adore our God. I don’t want to look briefly at a specific set of Psalms. I talk about these a lot.

The songs of ascent, because when I started seeing that title below Psalm 120 in the 15 Psalms in that section, I wanted to know what that meant. And it’s, of course, a section of Psalms that follows the really big one. Psalm 11, dedicated to lauding the many benefits of the word of the Lord. Now, these are all shorter psalms. That’s why they are the songs of ascent. In fact, they’re covered on like three pages in my Bible, all 15 Psalms. These were songs that the Israelites would sing as they traveled, as they would often do, to Jerusalem for worship. So they needed to be shorter and sort of summarize the relationship of Israel with their God. So many great little snippets from this section. I would start with Psalm 120, but the verse I think about is, Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshach, for I dwell among the tents of Kedar.

And I’m not really sure a lot. I don’t know a lot about Meshach. I don’t know what that was like. Apparently it was a bad place to be. And they all knew that. And so if you were in Meshech, that’s bad. Woe is me. But when we come to Psalm 121, the psalmist begins, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall my help come. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Psalm 123. To thee I lift up my eyes. Remember, they’re going up to the pinnacle of Jerusalem to worship. To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until he shall be gracious, or until he shall have mercy on us.

And then finally, those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion. Okay, this mountain to which they were traveling looks strong and bold in the distance. Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.

Which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people. From this time forth. And forever. And may it be that the Lord is surrounding us. His people. Just prior to Psalm 119, is Psalm 118 that I’ve preached from recently. From which the song that we have sung. Oh, I forgot about the slide. Oh, we need this. Okay, I’m not going on. All right. Hosanna. Psalm 118, verse 25. This is not actually in the Psalms of the sense, but I wanted to draw your attention to this because we need to know what it is. We’re singing when we sing this song of praise to God. We are saying, save, deliver, we pray. It is what the Israelites in Jerusalem said when the Messiah came into the city.

Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. He is a worthy object of our praise. He provides what we so desperately need, salvation in Jesus Christ. And with those thoughts about worship, I want to come to a New Testament passage that speaks of our deliverance and our worship to the God who delivers us. And this text about worship will serve as the theme for our thoughts this morning. John chapter 4, verses 23 and 24. You may remember that all of this issues from the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. And in the course of that conversation where he mentions the living water, which I also preached about last week, John 4, 13 and 14, you would have asked of him if you knew the gift of God, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.

Jesus is the living water for our thirst. But here is this Samaritan. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They have different ideas about where worship should be conducted, whether it’s Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessings of the covenant of old, or in Jerusalem, where the temple is. And so Jesus answers that in verse 21. Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. Now that’s an interesting expression, a figure of speech. Obviously, they’re still going to worship in that mountain and in Jerusalem. But not exclusively there, not merely there. Then in verse 23, an hour is coming and now is.

Something just jumped out at me recently in regard to this text. Jesus, our Savior, King of kings and Lord of Lords, talks about those who are true worshipers. We had better be that. That’s who we need to be. True worshipers. Is that how Jesus regards us and our worship today? And if we are indeed to be his true worshipers, he has prescribed for us or explained to us how we are to worship him. First of all, God is spirit. We learned something about God’s being, his invisible spiritual nature. God is spirit, and those who worship him, if we’re going to be true worshipers, must worship him in spirit and in truth. The first thing that I want to do this morning very quickly with you is to explain this verse.

What is Jesus saying in verses 23 and 24 about true worship and worship in spirit and in truth? Let me tell you what you’ve commonly heard. What you’ve commonly heard, and I’ve talked about this before, so this is another attempt at this, and I just realized I should have done the slides differently. I’ll explain that in a minute. That in spirit and in truth, and we remember we’ve got to get this right because that’s how the true worshipers worship. And you’ll hear an explanation that goes something like this to worship God in spirit means we need to have the right heart, that is the right attitude as we worship. And we need to worship God in truth, that is, we need to worship with the right forms or the right acts or do the things that God has prescribed, like the Lord’s Supper in the way that he said to do it.

And so commonly you’ll hear an explanation of John 4, verse 24. Worship in spirit means with the right attitude. Worship in truth means the right forms. Have you heard that before? Or is that all brand new? If it’s all brand new to you, act like you never heard what I just said. Because I’m here to tell you this morning, if that’s what we think, we need to unlearn it. We need to stop saying it. Now, there is an element of truth in this. The true worship does involve those two things right heart and right forms. But that’s not what this expression is saying. Okay? And let me just show you why that is and why I had those lines disappear. To worship God in truth involves both of those things.

Not just in spirit. Worshiping God in truth involves them both. And so, yeah, this is a right answer. True worshipers worship this way, but it’s not conveyed in the previous lines. In fact, here’s how I should have done this differently. Okay? Instead of having them disappear, you’ll have to look at the screen over here. I should have drawn a line from in spirit over here and truth over here and had both words going to both points. Because that’s really what he’s saying. In spirit involves both of those things. In truth involves both of those things. That’s the right way to look at it. Well, let me tell you why that is. This really isn’t the main point of the text. The main point of the text, though it is an outgrowth of the meaning of this text, the main point of the text is that it’s not about mountains.

It’s not about place. It’s not about physical location or geography. It was like that in the old system, there was a lot of focus on a particular place, Jerusalem for worship in the Old Testament. He’s saying, not so anymore. Not physical, but spiritual, as God is spirit. So what this text is saying is that true worship, and what’s in blue is what I want you to really take with you today. True worship involves inward devotion of the mind from the spirit or heart of man. We must yield to God from our hearts.

See, it’s not physical. You can’t just say, and more on this in a second. Check. I did worship because you came and you were present. But what if you were thinking about football? What if you were thinking about what you’re going to eat for lunch? That’s not true worship. Okay, worship emanates from within, much like David displayed, and the reason why he’s the sweet singer of Israel and the man after God’s own heart, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? David got it. Real ultimate worship issues from the heart or from the spirit of man. And the other point that I want to make about this is the idea of truth.

It’s not just things that are right. Because in the Old Testament, they were worshiping in a way that was right or correct if they followed the Old Testament instruction. That’s not the idea of what is true. He said a time is coming when the true worshipers, and what he’s pointing to is what would ultimately be the ultimate expression of worship from his new covenant people, Jew and Gentile, offering devotion from their minds. And so he’s talking about that which was shadow in contrast to that which is substance or the ultimate in Christ. That’s the idea of worship in spirit and in truth. It’s primarily those last two points, but if you get those two points, you understand that in spirit and truth, worship incorporates the first as well.

So that’s an explanation of John 4, 23 and 24 in a nutshell. Then when you’re talking about worship and the right expression to God, immediately Hebrews 10 comes to mind, doesn’t it? Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of son, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Yes. The day draws ever closer. For all of us. Each day we live, we come closer to the day that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the day that the Lord will return. We move ever closer to that. And as you see the day drawing near, he says, we need encouragement so that we’ll finish the life of faith all the way to the end.

And one of the great ways we do that, not the only way we do that, but we participate in these assemblies together. Now, the previous verse that I have on the screen that you’ve been looking at. What’s prior to that verse about why we ought to participate fully, wholeheartedly, consistently among the Lord’s people, is that it’s about other people. He says, consider how that we might stimulate one another to love and good deeds. That’s my goal here today. Your goal should be this here today. I want to help stimulate you as our singing has stimulated us ideally unto love and good deeds. So I want to make five points about worship. I got these ideas when I was actually on vacation in Panama City area, Florida.

1. Not Me Centered, but God Centered

And we were worshiping with the saints there on Panama City Beach. The subject was about worship, and I sort of went on a tangent in my mind, and I do this sometimes when I’m sitting there listening, and Sherry’s watching me, I’m putting it all down on my iPad as I have these thoughts about our worship. When we talk about worship, we need to be talking about things that are going to help people connect spiritually with God in a way that’s pleasing to him. So I want to give you five things briefly. And then I’ll be concluded. Let me tell you about worship, true worship, stimulating one another unto love and good deeds. If we would offer an acceptable sacrifice of praise to God, when we come into this place, or whenever we worship, it is not me centered.

It is God centered. And so much of what is empty in the religious world in regard to worship is just that. It’s me centered. It’s all about catering to the consumer, causing them to feel a certain way. More on that in just a second. But worship, as we see in the Psalms, as we see our dependence upon God and saying, Hosanna, worship is about Him. It is only secondarily about us. And may I suggest what Hebrews 10 and verse 24 says that even others come ahead of us. When we talk about singing in Ephesians chapter 5, it says speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms. Let me tell you what worship does for us that’s really good, especially in our completely selfish, narcissistic culture.

Worship, when properly done, gets the focus off of me.

2. Not Feeling Seeking, but God Seeking

Every occasion when we take the focus of ourselves and place it upon God and others, that’s good for us. And so one thing we need to do, and this is what I’m talking about this morning. Every time we walk in these doors, maybe you need to make a little chart in the back of your Bible as I talk about these things. We need to be thinking about the object of my worship is God. I’m here to stimulate others. Yes, me benefits in the process, but it is first and foremost self less. And while God makes assurances and promises to me if I serve him, those things should only actually promote a greater desire to praise and exalt him. Point number two. True worship. And this relates to the first point is not feeling seeking, but God seeking.

Now I want to suggest you worship properly done, that sets God at the center and focus of our worship, that a feeling may well result from that. I mean, I don’t know. And I was thinking how deep the Father’s love this morning. I got a feeling. And the feeling made me cry. I mean, I think feelings do result, but that’s not why we’ve come. That’s a byproduct. That’s not the main purpose of our being here. Again, the motivation is not selfish, what I get out of it. It is a selfless expression. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. One of the thoughts I had that created all of this as we were driving to the congregation that morning, we had a good little drive, and I was trying to get there.

We were trying to check in on Southwest ten minutes before services began. So I wanted to get into the parking lot so I could get on my phone and get one of those A slots on Southwest. And I think, okay, it’s working out great. We’re going to be there one minute before it’s time to check in. We’ll be able to do that in the car before we get out and go in. And there was a traffic jam. Because just a little bit down the road from where we were going, there was this lighthouse church. And man, it was covered up. There were people coming from everywhere. Traffic jam in Panama City. So Sherry got a better morning pass than me. Because I was a few minutes late getting to the parking lot, waiting on the traffic jam.

3. Not Physically Focused, but Spiritually Focused

Well, then it just struck me. Sunday night, we’re going back to the evening service. No traffic jam. In fact, the parking lot was empty. And there was nobody there. Now I realized, I realize that if you’re serving God in truth, that meeting once on the first day of the week satisfies the requirement. But I thought, how interesting that you had everybody flooding to these people, flooding to this place on Sunday morning. And then where we were going, people returned for a second assembly, and we were worshiping again on Sunday night. And I could talk about maybe some of the things that motivates these megachurches and some of their approaches to worship of God, but I want to talk more about us. Point number three not feeling seeking, but God glorified.

Not physically focused, but spiritually focused.

4. Not Obligation Done, but Gratitude Rendered

We come to this place, we see people. We see a song leader. We see an elder making announcements or teaching a Bible class. We see Tony preaching. And we can get very focused on people, on things, our surroundings, our comfortable pew. How cold or warm it is in the building. But what we absolutely need to do to worship God in spirit and truth is we need to be spiritually focused. Again, this is God centered. Don’t let the physical trappings of worship interfere with your vertical praise and adoration to the living God. Number four. This worship in spirit and truth is not obligation done, but gratitude rendered. One of the greatest pitfalls, I think that plagues the Lord’s people is we start looking at worship as something to check off our list.

God commands it. I did it. Somewhat invested myself in it. It’s done. This is not an end in and of itself. And this is not about, well, it went a little over time this morning because Jesse sang an extra song. It went a little over time this morning. Wait a minute. It’s that doesn’t matter. Oh, yeah, I think we need to worship in a way that is conducive. I think I need to preach in such a way that is conducive to people listening or wanting to listen. Oh, I think we ought to give our best, and we ought to show people just how incredible these acts of worship are. But I’m not here because of some kind of obligation. I’m here to thank God for the fact that He has saved me and has promised me glory.

5. Not an Accomplished End: A Means to Being More Holy

This is about me overflowing with gratitude to God. And that leads me to this final point. It is not an accomplished end, but it is a means to being more holy in our lives. This spiritual acts, these spiritual acts of worship are designed for me to go out there and to be recharged in living a spiritual life unto God to be holy as He has called us to be holy. Another way of putting that is that we are to be His vessels.

His vessels.

Oh, there’s a corporate aspect of this, something that we’re doing together under the throne of God, and how we do that corporately is going to matter. But I’ve got to tell you, more importantly, what’s happening between you and God is the most critical thing here today. And I think one of the major reasons why worship is less to us than it should be, is that we struggle to see ourselves as his vessels.

Because if we saw ourselves as his saved people, as his vessels, his conduits, as we’ve been talking about in our evangelism class, his conduits to the world to be salt and light. I am here because I am one of his vessels. I’m here to be used by my God and Maker. And He wants me to understand my need for Him. And thus He calls us here to worship. I am His vessel. And I’ll tell you what else this does. It not only shows me worship, not only says, okay, this is what my life is supposed to look like tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. It causes me to be godly. It assists me to be God focused in my life. May these things help us to be true.

Conclusion

Worshipers. Oh Lord, we beseech thee. Do save us. Oh Lord, we pray. Give us success. Psalm 118, verse 25. Those are words that probably need to be on our lips continually. Do save us. Give us success. And if you’re not in Christ, you have not come yet to know what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth. The ultimate expression of the heart to God and being in His Son, Jesus. The appeal that you make, your Hosanna appeal, is described in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 21. As a result of our convictions about Jesus and our repentance from a vain way of life, as we read in other passages, in this text, Peter says, Baptism doth also now save you. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, it’s not like washing off external dirt.

But it’s the appeal to God for a clean conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the basis of Jesus being raised, we have confidence that we too will be raised from spiritual death unto life. This is your appeal to God. This is where it starts. And then we continue our lives saying Hosanna. If there’s someone in this audience this morning who needs to respond to the invitation, the very real invitation of our Lord, come now as we stand and sing with Jesse.