True Worship, Part 6

We don't wait to worship, to bow our heads and draw our conscious mind and the gods throne room as it were in prayer. God is everywhere at all times and therefore to be worship everywhere at all time and we have been redeemed are able to fulfill the seeking fathers wish that we worship him everywhere and at fact they exchange the temple for the theater and turn ministers of God into actors whose business it is to amuse men that sounds like a description of today's user-friendly approach to crafting a worship service, but Charles Spurgeon spoke those words more than a century ago, clearly worshiping God the wrong way is nothing new, of course, the instructions on how to worship God. The right way aren't new either learn how to apply those instructions, as John MacArthur continues his series called true worship here on grace to you. Now here's John open your Bible if you will with me to the fourth chapter of John's Gospel as we continue our series and worship. Looking at this marvelous passage and drawing out of it. The things the spirit of God would teach us that we might worship God as he would be pleased to be worshiped.

Jesus is in conversation with the woman of Samaria in the fourth chapter of John and we pick up the conversation in verse 20 is the woman speaks, our fathers worshiped in this mountain and he say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Jesus set under her woman. Believe me, the hour, when he shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Worship the father he worship you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour, then now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the father seek at such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Another clear word that comes out of this text is that God seeks true worshipers. God seeks those who will worship him in a manner that is acceptable to him not understanding worship. It is important that we have a definition and so we began our series with a simple definition. Worship is giving honor to God giving honor to God.

That's a very simple definition, but that really says it several key points come out of that definition, the first one is that worship is giving worship is giving we are soul oriented toward receiving that it's hard for us. I think to understand. We live in such a consumptive selfish ego centered society where everything is for us.

For me, but it's hard for us to understand that God wants us to give to him and when we come together as God's redeemed people in the congregation of fellowship and we come for the purpose of worship is not to receive it is to give is not to get a blessing or to gain something as much as it is to worship and that is to give to God when a Jew in the old covenant came to worship. He did not come to take anything he came to give. He would give an offering, he would give not only money as was prescribed, but he would offer a sacrifice upon the altar. Everything was geared around giving to God and that is the essence of worship. It is giving to God not receiving that we are concerned with worship then also we noted in our definition is in contrast to ministry ministry is that which flows down from God to us.

Worship is that which flows out from us to God, and they provide for us a very beautiful balance is in the Old Testament there was a prophet who spoke down to to us from God. There was a priest also who spoke up to God on the behalf of man, and those two things are always held in balance, having given a definition.

We then talked about the first major point the importance of worship.

Why is it important, it is important we noted from verse 23, because true worshipers are those whom the father seeks God seeks true worshipers. Now, if God seeks true worshipers than true worship is important. God seeks true worshipers. This then is the priority. In fact, I'm convinced is we've been seeing all along that you as a Christian, have as a single primary reason to live. The fact that you are to worship God.

That is what you are a true worshipers. That is what you are to do truly worship that is the very core of the meaning of the existence of redemption of the redeemed person so you are called to be a true worship is important is the very most important thing you do to worship God because that's what God seeks you to do. And even when you serve God in a very real sense that is a form of worship isn't because you are honoring him by obeying his commands relative to service the second major point that we looked at was the source of worship and the source of worship again in the same thought the father seek at such to worship him. The source then is the seeking of the father, and I believe it is an efficacious seeking is a redemptive seeking.

It is, if you will use the old theological term and irresistible seeking God is drawing into his kingdom. True worship and when an individual's redeemed, that is the transformation that makes him a true worship in the New Testament we are redeemed to worship. We are made in the true worshipers. That's why we said that maybe the best definition of a Christian is found in Philippians 33 where it says there that we are they who worship God in the spirit that's a classic definition of a Christian a worshiper of God, a true worship and Hebrews 10 says, since Christ has redeemed us since his sacrifice has perfected us since we have been brought into God's presence through a new and living way. Let us draw near. In other words, the response to redemption is worship come near God and offer him the praise that is due his name. We are redeemed to worship. Therefore the ground or the basis or the source of worship is our salvation are redemption, so the importance is seen in God's seeking worshipers. The source of worship is seen in God redeeming and saving us to that end. Now the third point that we looked at is the object of worship. The object and we saw that, didn't we, in several verses.

First of all, verse 21 says worship the father. Verse 23 again twice worship the father and then verse 24 God is a spirit we are. Then to worship God and God is defined to us into terms first as spirit and secondly, as father first as spirit. Secondly, as father now. We've already discussed God as spirit, but it's very important that I refresh your memory, so listen very closely. God is first of all, spirit that is God cannot be confined to a building he cannot be confined to a temple. He cannot be confined to a grove as the pagans thought their God's word.

He could not be confined to a mountain somewhere. He could not be confined to an image made with hands out of wood or brass or gold or silver or any other substance. God cannot be confined to temples made with hands, it says in acts seven and also annexed 17 God is behind that kind of confinement because he is never living, ever present eternal spirit. He has no flesh and bones.

He is a spirit who is everywhere at all times pervading the full universe and ordering new endless eternity with his conscious presence. God is everywhere at all times.

He is the eternal living spirit.

So God then is to be worship as an ever present spirit. He is alive at all times. He is everywhere at all times. Therefore, worship becomes a way of life doesn't every living breathing moment of life.

We live in the presence of God. In acts 17 it says it's in him we live and move and have our being. We move in the midst of his spiritual presence. Therefore, at all times. Worship is fitting and worship is proper because we are in the presence of God. We don't wait to worship to walk into a church, we don't wait to worship, to bow our heads and draw our conscious mind and the gods throne room as it were in prayer. God is everywhere at all times and therefore to be worship everywhere at all time and we who have been redeemed are able to fulfill the seeking father's wish that we worship him everywhere and at all times and so then first of all, we worship God, who is the eternal night present spirit, but we can't stop there because three times in the text it says we also worship the father. The father and that is a further qualification of the object of our worship now want to listen to what I say because I think most people have misunderstood this concept when you think of the term. The father think of God as father and I know this because this is the way I thought for many years, you immediately think of God as our loving father we worship God is a loving father. We are his children and he is our father. And as we worship and we not only worship him is this vast night present eternal spirit, but as this intimate, loving personal father and that is true but that is not what is being discussed in John chapter 4. That is not the issue here is not talking about our father, the father of believers that is not the emphasis made here. The emphasis here is that the father and I watched is the father in the Trinitarian sentence God is father, son and Holy Spirit write three and one the triangle, the Trinity, father, son, Holy Spirit is in that Trinitarian sense that God is designated here as the father is not primarily in relation to us as his children is his essential relationship with in the Trinity. Now he is then presented here watches very carefully as the father of the son and the son is the Lord Jesus Christ is very important so that when you worship God as spirit you worship him also as father, not just the father in a vague sense of all mankind is the liberals might say, but as the father of the Lord Jesus Christ and you cannot worship God.

Apart from that designation. Now you say will what is all this means they would manuals first and foremost in the New Testament whenever God is discussed as father. It is as father of Jesus Christ. I think about 70 times. Jesus speaks to God and every time he comes before God. He says father except one when he was separate on the cross and said, my God, my God, why is there for second every other time he calls him father is unique within the Trinity that God is the father and the son and then the Holy Spirit and this is an intra-Trinitarian designation. Let me show you what it means is not that when Jesus says father, the emphasis is not that he is a son in submission as a son might submit to his father although that's true, the emphasis is that he is son in that sameness on the essence, as a son is with his father to get that it is talking about the sameness of essence. He is the son, and God is the father, meaning they both are the same essence. If I am a a man if I am a a man from the race in the tribe and the people and the generation and all of the genetics that have gone into me and I have a son.

My son will be what I am is sameness of essence and that people is the heart and soul of the relationship.

The Jesus constantly expresses with the father. He is emphasizing the sameness of essence.

The oneness of nature, so that God can never be worshiped unless he is worship as one and the same with Jesus Christ so that Jesus says no man comes under God. But what by me. You can never worship God at all unless you worship God as the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one with Jesus Christ. It is a statement of deity of equality. Initially he say how in the world can you see all of that in those verses were just as worship the father because I know how John uses the term follow it. Chapter 5 verse 17 this is a great truth profound truth. John 517 Jesus answered answered the Jews who were persecuting for what he did on the Sabbath day. He answered them. My father works hitherto, and I work in the areas calling the first person of the Trinity.

His father and he says we work together. My father and I know what they think he meant by that verse 18. They sought even the more to kill them because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father making himself what equal with God, right on target. Folks, that's exactly what he was saying. When Jesus said he is the father and I am the son he was speaking of their equality of essential being of essence of nature of deity. He is God of very God as God the father is God a very God. They were right on.

That's exactly what he was saying look at chapter 10 in John's Gospel, and Jesus says in verse 29.

My father, who gave them to me, is greater than all the no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand, and I goes one step further. I and my father are one. Again, the father and the son. The same essence and the Jews took up stones to stone him and he answered them many good works.

Have I shown you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me. The Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone the not, but for blasphemy and because that thou, being a man make us die self. God you see when he said he was the son of God, and God was his father. They knew he meant the sameness of essence deity equal to God the father. 17. Check and Jesus prays to the father in verse one. He says father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify the as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou is given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know the the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou sent you quite himself with the father and that eternal life is through knowing him as much as it is knowing God. In verse five he says glorify me with thine own self with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Give me back that prior full glory that I knew before the incarnation that which is deserving. He was equal with God and the father and the son is the statement of their equality in Matthew chapter 11 I just would note one other verse and there are more that I could show you but these are samples. Matthew 1127 Jesus said all things are delivered under me by my father and no man in the north of the son but the father neither know if any man the father except the son and he to whomsoever the son will reveal it and here in that marvelous passage, the Lord is again presenting the unique essential oneness of the father and the son. There is an intimacy of knowledge between the father and the son that is not available to any human perception.

They are one. They are one Nellis in go back to John for if you want.

When Jesus calls God father. It's not our father that he has in mind it's his father and it is a blatant outright statement of his deity is equality and that's why said in John 14, which I didn't read you, but just will quote if you have seen me, you have seen hello the father. The father and the son are one. What are you single and why are you doing all this, John just for the snow. Listen very carefully.

There are people who say they worship God and to affirm that God is the eternal living spirit everywhere present and they are worshiping him, and they may be saying that he is there, father, and they worship him as their father, but if they deny that Jesus Christ is essentially the same as God the father there worship is unacceptable. Understand that so no one no time worship God as spirit who does not worship God as the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God cannot be defined in the other terms God is not just God, but there he is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there's no other way to define them or worship. So when you have Jehovah's Witnesses or the liberals who would deny the deity of Jesus Christ yet claim to worship God.

It is a lie because God is none other than the one who is the same with Jesus Christ and that is the message of the epistles only show you how they understood it, even if we don't look at Ephesians chapter 1, and let's just see some samples of their worship in Ephesians 1 you have one of the great crayons of praise ever given in the Bible. One of the great benedictions. One of the great statements of glory offered to God.

In fact, from verse 3 to 14 is one sentence without. It's just a just a long list of praise phrases, but it begins this way. In verse three, Ephesians 13 Blessed be the God what God what God the God and father, the father of whom all our Lord Jesus Christ. That is how God is no and is not known. Apart from in verse 17 of the same chapter in Paul's great prayer.

He prays that the God what God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory and again God is qualified as the God who is identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In second Corinthians. Another illustration chapter 1 verse three Blessed be God. What God what God are you worshiping even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and again you see, God is known as the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in Philippians chapter 2 that great passage. Verse nine God is highly exalted Christ given him a name above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bounce over and in verse 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God. What God the father, the father of whom the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way God can be no in Romans 15 next to the last chapter the sixth verse, the apostle Paul says, that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God. What God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, you can not worship God. Apart from a recognition that Jesus Christ his son is equal to God. That's his deity you say will that's all Paul did everybody agree with that.

Well just give you a sample Peter sure did. First Peter 13 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ about the apostle John. He did to second John verse three. Listen to this grace be with you mercy and peace from God what God the father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of the father great to see God is not just some floating spirit going through space and anybody could sort of plug-in anywhere they want with any particular form they want God's eternal God is fast filling all of eternity ever present everywhere to be worshiped at all times by all people. But the only way you ever come to God is as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and now you know why he had to say no man comes unto the father but by me. So I just tell you that because you can't worship God apart from Jesus Christ and this is grace to you with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us.

John's current study is showing you how to glorify the Lord and every aspect of your daily life. The title of this study. True worship John we've all had days where were tired or the kids are disobedient door were going through a trial and it's hard to worship and to keep your focus on the glory of God. And so I was wondering what do you do when you're going through times like that. Is there a specific part of the Bible that you would turn to. Or maybe a Psalm or something that brings your thoughts back into focus on worship well in this is pretty consistent with what we've been saying the last couple of days this week is I find myself in moments of stress, singing hymns, I guess because I've been saying them since I was no able to sing is a tiny little child I remembered as an illustration of this.

When Patricia had the car accident 25+ years ago. Now broke her neck. People asked me how did you respond when I was trying to get to the hospital to find out what it happened and I said all I can remember is singing hymns all the way there I find my comfort in rehearsing the truth about God. Great is thy faithfulness.

It is well with my soul.

Those were two hymns that I son as I was trying to find out what happened to my wife and those are based on Scripture.

In fact, many, many great hymns or actual Scripture or a very slight variation from Scripture. So I have found that I obviously worship the Lord as well in the remembering of Scripture versus my brain is also saturated with Scripture.

So it's sort of a mingling of the of the hymns familiar hymns said that also have an uplifting capability just because they are hymns and they have the beauty of a melody and remembering Scripture verses and there's 1/3 thing I would say fill in times of trial. I remember the providence of God in the past I always remember the passage amazing. People say when you get old you all you do is talk about the past. There's a reason for that. The reason when you get older you talk about the past is because you have this incredible history of God's intervention, there's never been anything in my life I looking back, that I can't say God worked it out for good.

I'm a living illustration that Romans eight is true and if you're 23-year-old your 23-year-old Christian, you don't know that yet fear €35 Christian, you might've seen it a few times, but if you're my age. The history of divine providence and intervention that turns every disaster into something absolutely God honoring in glorious and beautiful. The memory of providence serves me well in any time of difficulty. Yet thank you John that's very helpful and friend before you head into the weekend. Let me remind you that nearly everything we sell is 25% off the normal price so I would encourage you to pick up the MacArthur study Bible more a commentary or John's book on worship when you contact us today. Our phone number here is 855 grace. You can also go to the website@tty.org. The study Bible is available in multiple translations and John has commentaries on every New Testament book again to order the MacArthur study Bible, the MacArthur New Testament commentary series. John's book on worship and more at 25% off the regular price.

Call us at 855 grace or go to TTY.well, friend.

If you have not been following the live stream for our truth matters conference today is the last day for that.

But having a great time with members of the grace to you family at this sold-out event at the York encounter in Kentucky to live stream any of the remaining sessions will find the details you need@ourwebsitetty.org again that's TTY.org now on behalf of John MacArthur in the entire grace to you staff on Phil Johnson remind you also to look for grace to you television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378 or check our website for local air times, then join us Monday when John continues his series. True worship with another half hour of unleashing God's one verse at a time on grace to