Jesus Speaks Concerning Synthetic Worship
“Jesus Speaks Concerning Synthetic Worship”
Introduction:
Along with the synthetic worship of the day, comes a synthetic Gospel. In thinking about the Gospel of the Day and the worship of the day as being synthetic, I thought that it would be important for me to correctly define for you exactly what the word synthetic means: “devised, arranged, or fabricated for special situations to imitate or replace usual realities”[1]. A synonym for this word would be “Bogus” which is defined thus and gives us deeper view of today’s worship, “not genuine”. That, in a nutshell, is what we can say about today’s form of the Gospel and today’s form of worship.
It is very saddening to hear the average evangelical get the Gospel presentation totally wrong. The Gospel and worship are inseparably linked together. You get the Gospel wrong and your worship is going to be wrong as well. To teach people to come to Christ in an unscriptural way and you will teach people to worship that God in the wrong way. Listen, before anyone can come to the Savior in faith, they must know about God. So, therefore, in order to properly worship that God they have to know Him as well. If sinners are not taught about God in evangelism, in the proper way, then they are not going to understand the God they are supposed to be worshipping.
I hear evangelicals all the time portray the Gospel as “receiving Christ as personal Savior”. That terminology is no where found in the pages of Scripture. The terminology that is found in the Scriptures is Romans 10:13
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Some have asked me over the years if I believe in the teaching that has been labeled as “Lordship Salvation”. To which I reply, “There is no salvation but Lordship Salvation. Just for clarification, Lordship Salvation is defined thus, “the view that for salvation a person must trust Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin and must also commit himself to Christ as Lord of his life, submitting to his sovereign authority.”[2] Lordship Salvation does not teach, as some have incorrectly viewed, that at the moment of salvation there is a complete understanding of who God is a total surrender of everything in our lives to the Lord. And while for those new in the faith there will not be a total surrender of everything at the moment of salvation, there is the desire to give to God anything that He should ask. To say that a person will give over every sinful thing in their lives to the Lord at the moment of salvation is non-sensible; (Ex. I have more convictions today than I had the day I was saved. God grows us up and touches on areas in our lives as we live the truth that has already been revealed to us), but at the moment of salvation the desire to hold on to my sin left. That is the theme that is missing from the Gospel presentation today, in order to be saved; there must be a relinquishing of sin.
Some have accused us “Lordship” preachers as adding works to salvation with phrases like “they talk about making Christ Lord of your life”. What a silly notion. We do not make Christ Lord, He is Lord. Those who will not receive Him as Lord are guilty of rejecting Him. “Faith” that rejects His sovereign authority is really unbelief. There are two statements in Scripture that clearly teach this and I want to draw our attention to this: Acts 16:31: And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Acts 2:36: Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. There is no invitation to salvation without the acknowledgment and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Thus, there is no salvation, except Lordship Salvation. True faith is not lip service. Our Lord himself pronounced condemnation on those who worshiped him with their lips but not with their lives (Matthew 15:7-9
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. ). He does not become anyone’s Savior until that person receives him for who he is—Lord of all (Acts 10:36
36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) ).[3]
A.W. Tozer wrote much on the subject of Lordship Salvation and saw the dangers of no-lordship nearly a half century ago. He said:
The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe on a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is—the anointed Saviour and Lord who is King of kings and Lord of all lords! He would not be Who He is if He saved us and called us and chose us without the understanding that He can also guide and control our lives.[4]
This attachment is all-inclusive in that it joyfully accepts Christ for all that He is. There is no craven division of offices whereby we may acknowledge His Saviourhood today and withhold decision on His Lordship till tomorrow. The true believer owns Christ as his All in All without reservation. He also includes all of himself, leaving no part of his being unaffected by the revolutionary transaction.[5]
Further, his attachment to Christ is all-exclusive. The Lord becomes to him not one of several rival interests, but the one exclusive attraction forever. He orbits around Christ as the earth around the sun, held in thrall by the magnetism of His love, drawing all his life and light and warmth from Him. In this happy state he is given other interests, it is true, but these are all determined by his relation to his Lord.[6]
To accept Christ is to know the meaning of the words “as he is, so are we in this world” ( I John 4:17 ). We accept His friends as our friends, His enemies as our enemies, His ways as our ways, His rejection as our rejection, His cross as our cross, His life as our life and His future as our future.[7]
Arthur Pink, a classic reformed theologian, also wrote on the subject of no-lordship salvation. He said. “The evangelism of the day is not only superficial to the last degree, but it is radically defective.” [8]
It is the unreserved acceptance of Christ as my absolute Lord, bowing to His will and receiving His yoke. Possibly someone may object, Then why are Christians exhorted as they are in Romans 12:1 ? We answer, All such exhortations are simply a calling on them to continue as they began: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” ( Col. 2:6 ). Yes, mark it well that Christ is “received” as Lord. Oh, how far, far below the New Testament standard is this modern way of begging sinners to receive Christ as their own personal “Saviour.” If the reader will consult his concordance, he will find that in every passage where the two titles are found together it is always “Lord and Saviour, and never vice versa: see Luke 1:46 , 47 ; 2 Peter 1:11 ; 2:20 ; 3:18.27[9]
Pink heralds this call, “It is the bounden duty of every Christian to have no dealings with the “evangelistic” monstrosity of the day: to withhold all moral and financial support of the same, to attend none of their meetings, to circulate none of their tracts. Those preachers who tell sinners they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without-surrendering to the Lordship of Christ are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works and that Heaven must be earned by our own efforts.[10]
There are certain elements that must be in every Gospel presentation and if these are missing, the Gospel is missing. First, there must be preaching about the Character of God. Preaching on the attributes of God is essential to the conversion of a person. Without knowledge of God, the sinner does not know who he has offended, who threatens him with destruction, or who is able to save him. The tragic thing about this is the fact the evangelicals today plunge in with the “5 things that God wants you to know” or “The four Spiritual Laws” and the sinner is completely impotent in his knowledge of who God is. And when the sinner is evangelized this way, they never understand their plight and they do not know who they have offended. And because of this, the pews of Churches and the Church rolls across our land are filled with people who are not really born again, and one reason is because they do not know who God is. They do not understand his character and His hatred for sin. We must explain to sinners (in non-technical terms of course), the attributes of God. As Cornelius VanTil puts it: The Independence of God (the fact that God is self existent); The Immutability of God (God Does not change and his hatred for their sin 2000 years ago is just as strong as it is today); The Infinity of God (God is boundless is His existence); The Unity of God (The Lord is one Lord, the trinity. When the sinner offends God the Father, he is also offending God the Son and God the Hoy Spirit).
Second, and this will summarize the text for this evening, there must be preaching about the Law of God. The sinner must understand that they are law breakers and stand under the just wrath of God. The woman at the well must have the seventh commandment applied to her conscience or she would never be converted.
I. Faith as Religion (vs. 19-20)
Keep in mind now what I told you at the beginning of our look into this account, when the Hebrews reached the Promised Land Moses directed them to climb Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal. Six tribes stood on each mountain according to Dt. 27:11-14, then Moses pronounced the blessings for keeping the law on Mt. Gerazim and the cursing for not keeping it on Mt. Ebal. When the Jews returned from their years of captivity in Babylon, they refused to allow the Samaritans to assist in rebuilding the temple. In the days of Alexander the Great, a Samaritan temple was built on Mount Gerizim. Although it was destroyed by the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus in 128 b.c., the Samaritans still worshiped on Mount Gerizim in Jesus’ day (John 4:20–21). The small Samaritan community in Israel continues to celebrate the Passover on Mount Gerizim to this day.[11] When the woman said “Our fathers” she was no doubt describing the worship of Abraham in Genesis 12 and 33 and also to Jacob’s digging a well there. This was also the location where, according to Joshua 24:32, that the bones of Joseph were buried.
All of this talk about worship sounds good and must have sounded good to woman, but the problem, was that worship for her had become a matter of extremities. The ideals of this woman are the same ideals of many of the “gospel” presentations today, the only thing that is important is an external display of some form of religion. The thing that this woman hoped would get her out of trouble with her violation of the law, was a fact of an external religion. How many Pastors have people sitting in their pews with nothing but an external show of religion because they will not preach and allow their people to see themselves as violators of the law of God.
II. Faith as Real (vs. 21-24)
Jesus let this woman know that her externals meant nothing because the time was coming very soon that neither place was going to be a place of worship. Jesus gets the point of her religion in verse 22. Listen the externals of her worship did not mean anything because she did not even know what she was worshipping. Ask the average “churches” sinner sitting in the pew what it means to worship, why they are in Church and they cannot tell you. That is what Christ is trying to get this woman to see, you do not even understand what you are worshipping. It is just like Paul mission to Mars Hill in the book of Acts. He goes into the city and sees an altar of worship, but inscribed on the altar was the inscription: “To the Unknown God”. That is this woman, big in worship , but had no idea about it because there was no real spiritual life, there was just religious externals. Again any form of self-willed worship is patently also immediate and tends to become sensuous.[12]
Jesus lets this woman know about true worship in verse 23. He tells her that true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth. Now, “true” is the Greek word “ἀληθινός” and does not deal with, in this context, to that which is genuine, but means that which is according to fact. Listen true worship is a result of facts. Worship is not a result of feelings. It is a result of the facts that I know about God. I cannot truly worship God if I know nothing about Him. That is why people who hardly attend Church or attend Churches were the preaching of the Word is limited or takes a back seat, they cannot truly worship God. Because worship is as a result of knowing facts about God. Although facts mean nothing by themselves without heart knowledge about those facts, it all starts with knowing. Because if my worship is from the “heart” knowledge without a knowledge of God, it is still empty. Jesus tells her that true worship is worship that is in spirit and in truth. Notice that the word “spirit” is not capitalized which menas we are not talking about the Holy Spirit here, but are talking about our spirit, our inner person. Jesus’ point is that in light of His coming as Messiah and Savior, worshipers will be identified, not by a particular shrine or location, but by their worship of the Father through the Son. With Christ’s coming, previous distinctions between true and false worshipers based on locations disappeared. True worshipers are all those everywhere who worship God through the Son, from the heart[13]
True worshippers are those who do not put confidence in the external practices of the flesh but in the inward realities of their spirit working in conjunction with the truth or the Scriptures. Because God is a Spirit, he is invisible and has physically revealed himself to man, but does reveal through truth worshippers who know God through the Word and worship God based on the internal witness of the spirit through the Word and not by the externals of the flesh. Christ was setting this woman back to the fact true saving faith and salvation is not by what we do on the outside, in our form of worship, but is by what goes on in the inner spirit of the man thorough the working of the Word of God. Jesus says that for their to be true worship and salvation this kind of worship MUST be true in her life.
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[1]Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Includes index. (Eleventh ed.). Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
[2]MacArthur, J., F. (1997, c1988). The Gospel according to Jesus : What does Jesus mean when he says "follow me". Includes index. (Electronic ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Academic and Professional Books, Zondervan Pub. House.
[3]MacArthur, J., F. (1997, c1988). The Gospel according to Jesus : What does Jesus mean when he says "follow me". Includes index. (Electronic ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Academic and Professional Books, Zondervan Pub. House.
[4]MacArthur, J., F. (1997, c1988). The Gospel according to Jesus : What does Jesus mean when he says "follow me". Includes index. (Electronic ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Academic and Professional Books, Zondervan Pub. House.
[5]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
[6]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
[7]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
[8]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
27 Arthur Pink, Practical Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1974), 20.
[9]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
[10]MacArthur, J. (2000). The gospel according to the Apostles : The role of works in the life of faith. Originally published: Faith works. Dallas : Word Pub., c1993. Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
[11]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.
[12]Van Til, C., & Sigward, E. H. (1997). Unpublished Manuscripts of Cornelius Van Til (Electronic ed.). Labels Army Company: New York.
[13]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 4:23). Nashville: Word Pub.