True Worship

James 4:17

James 4:17 KJV 1900

17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

I want to Make some very Important statements today that may even be offensive to some .

We are here to Worship GOD

The verse mentioned above in James 4:17

makes something very clear

a. We are here to Worship God not a meeting n the Park bench.

b. Last weeks service was the worst service i have been in for a long time

In fact it was extremely very disrespectful to say the least

We disrespected GOD,

we Disrespected GOD’S PEOPLE,

We Disrespected GOD’S PEOPLE,

So here are some Guidelines we are putting in as of today

All Phones will be turned off.

Comment on Answering of phone last.

No Moving around (except for going to the rest room)

All Questions to be written down and asked later not during the Worship service, This worship not Bible study to start with .

There will be no smoking on these premises at all . ( this is brought about by what happened last week.) eg Person coming to church then going straight outside for a smoke.

Smoking is Sin as is the Drinking of Alcohol.

While both are not mentioned in the Bible.

it comes pretty clear from the reading of the Word of God bothy are clearly pointed to as a sinful practice.

One Cannot be Spiritual while practicing sin . it

1. Must be confessed as sin.

2. And repented of.

3. Stopped

John 4:23-24

John 4:23–24 KJV 1900

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Joh 4:22-23

Ye worship ye know not what

The true worship

I. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SAMARITANS AND THE JEWS.

1. Samaritan worship was offered in ignorance.

They were little better qualified than the Athenians. Rejecting the prophets, their faith rested on tradition, and was given up to superstition.

As they were ignorant of the object so they were of the form of worship which God had appointed.

“Will worship,” however costly and apparently honouring, is rejected. So the Saviour brought home to the woman the sad fact that she had never worshipped.

This is just the case of those who only repeat the words of prayer taught them in childhood.

2. The true worshipper’s worship with knowledge.

(1) The Spiritual Israel. Christ was a worshipper of God not only as Mediator but as man.

As High Priest He gives to His people His informing Spirit, through whom they have an intelligent knowledge of God’s character and will, and the form by which to approach Him.

(2) The literal Israel to whom were committed the oracles of God, and such worshippers as Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna.

3. A special relation existed between the Jews and the great Salvation.

(1) Its author was a Jew.

(2) Its first messengers were Jews.

(3) And as Salvation so the true worship was of the Jews. To that all the Old Testament worship pointed.

II. THE TRUE WORSHIP.

1. Who are the true worshippers? Those

(1) Who have Spiritual knowledge of God;

(2) Who worship with grace in the appointed way;

(3) Who are opposed to all false worship;

(4) Who apprehend the true medium of worship and so have admission into the holiest.

2. What is it to worship the Father?

(1) Not as the judge and avenger.

(2) With the fellowship of children, not the penance of bond servants.

3. What is worship in Spirit?

(1) Not mere outward worship.

(2) Not mere intellectual worship.

(3) But “praying in the Holy Ghost” in that new nature He has given and with-the help He has promised.

4. What is worship in truth?

(1) That which corresponds with the nature of the God of truth.

(2) Through Him who is full of grace and truth, by whom alone we have access to God.

5. What is “the hour?”

(1) As coming it is the object of Divine appointment.

(2) As come, the era foretold, the dispensation

of the Spirit had actually arrived.

(3) Is there not a personal hint of that supreme moment which the woman made the crisis of her spiritual history! Only then can true and Spiritual worship begin.

III. ONLY THE TRUE WORSHIP IS PLEASING TO GOD.

The Father has a right to determine this and has done so. (A. Beith, D. D.)

Christ’s revelation of God

I. THIS REVELATION INCLUDES THREE THINGS.

1. God is real--not a dream or picture, a thought or an abstraction. The living God is. Thou art born of Him, and thy power to think of Him is proof of His existence.

2. God is Spiritual--not a material substance or a physical force. These cannot create thought, feeling, and free will. I am greater than mountains, rivers, gravitation, electricity; I reason, love, hope, will. The object of my worship must be like me and far above me.

3. God is personal

(1) Positivism tells us that He is abstract and general. “A Being immense and eternal--Humanity” (Comte)

. But adoration fixes itself on a single person.

(2) Pantheism tell us that He is everything, the Eternal substance which appears as conscious in our thought and unconscious in nature (Hegel)

. But we can no more worship this than a leaf can a tree, or a wave the ocean.

(3) Agnosticism tells us that He is unknowable, “the Power not ourselves which makes for righteousness” (M. Arnold)

. But behind the power we seek the Will, behind the law the Giver.

(4) From these vague abstractions the soul flies to God the Father with an eye to pity and an arm to save.

II. THE INFERENCE is swift and inevitable.

1. Our worship must correspond to the reality of God’s nature.

2. The text does not condemn outward forms. Christ used and instituted them. But all forms are dead and meaningless without reality.

3. In the temple there must be a spiritual altar; on the altar a living fire--the motion of the heart towards God. As fire is manifest in light and heat so is worship in praise and prayer. Without the intercourse of the two spirits it is only a painted fire.