John chapter four, we've been dealing in these sessions on the great subject of worship. And we've been lifting out of this conversation our Lord had with the woman of Samaria in John four, where he speaks more of worship. In fact, this is the most concentrated passage in the word of God, dealing with the subject of worship. And what we want to do and what we have been doing, is lifting up the concepts that are found in relation to our approach to God and the subject of the worship of our God as revealed in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us begin our reading at verse nineteen again. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. and ye say that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the ark cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the ark cometh now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, am he. When the Lord bless his words, Let us pray. Our Father, again as we look into thy precious word and multiply words upon that which we have written, we earnestly beseech thee that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart will be acceptable in thy sight, for we pray for the honor and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we give thee thanks in his name. Amen. We have noticed from this passage that the basis of worship, the basis of approach to God is redemption. Only a redeemed person can worship. A person who has been born of God, a person who has been made acceptable to God through the finished work of the Savior on the cross on Calvary's Hill. A person by nature is not prepared to worship. A person by nature is a sinner. A person by nature is lost before God. And therefore, the imperative statement of the Savior is, as stated to Nicodemus, you must be born again. And this new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us now to come into God's presence in worship. This was what Adam's occupation was in the garden. Oh yes, he dressed the garden, but he also had the privilege of fellowshiping in worship with God in the cool of the day when God came down to worship with him. However, sin brought a barrier, and man was cast out of the garden. And now, It is man's responsibility to worship God. But he cannot. He cannot because by nature he is lost. By nature he is alienated from the life of God. And this is true of everyone in Adam's family. This is why our Lord said you must be born again. And this is why our Lord Jesus came to earth. He came in order that he might redeem. for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Therefore, the ability to worship, the foundation of worship, is redemption. We notice that the scope of worship covers all of human history, culminating in the redeemed of the Lord, in the presence of the Lord in eternity, a worshiping people, a people who bring forth that which is acceptable to God and that which he desires. Then we were examining the concept that God is spirit. God is spirit, and that is revealed here in John four. And the thought that God is spirit means that he is everywhere present. This is his essential nature. God is spirit. Or as the Greek puts it, Spirit the God. And they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The thought behind the fact that God is spirit means that he is everywhere present. There is never a time that I am out of his sight. There is never a time that my life is not an open book before him. There is never a time and I can never get in any circumstance. that God is not there. And this draws out the other concept of the nature of God and the revelation of God that God is holy. And it is the holiness of God and the fact that God is everywhere present that brings us into purity of life. Realizing as a believer that I can never get out of His presence and that God is holy, it immediately brings into my relationship with him a knowledge of my unholiness and a desire to walk in purity before him. This is why it is said of a child of God that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. He's a new creation because of the new birth. He was born of God. And this new creation, which is the result of the new birth, desires to walk in purity and in fellowship with God, who is everywhere present. This is why being saved, knowing Christ in a real way, affects our business life. This is why knowing Christ affects our social life. This is why knowing Christ affects our family life. It affects every area of life. God is spirit. They who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It is this concept of holiness. that we examined last week from Isaiah chapter six. When Isaiah saw the Lord and he cried out, Woe is me, for I have a dirty mouth. And I dwell in the midst of a people with dirty mouths. For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And whenever anyone is in the presence of God, The closer we draw to God, the closer we realize His holiness, and the more we realize our unholiness. Of Isaiah, it could have been said, well, Isaiah, you're the prophet of God. You have the best mouth in the nation. If anybody has a good mouth, it's you. But in the presence of God's holiness, he saw himself as he really was. Beloved, I'd like to dwell on this a bit this morning before we move on to the next concept of God and His essential relationship as Father. He says, God is Spirit. And then he also says, the Father seeketh worshipers. We have two concepts here. The concept of God's essential nature. He is Spirit. And that which most reminds us of God and His attributes is His holiness. And therefore, we want to dwell on His relationship. He is a Father and He seeks worshipers. But before we get into that concept of the essential relationship of God to His redeemed people, I'd like to talk about the Lord Jesus. the one who revealed the Father, the one who speaks to this woman of Samaria, and he reveals that in himself he possesses the very essential attributes of deity. For consonant with the truth that God is Spirit, he told this woman all about herself, and it is this that enabled her to say, I perceive that thou art a prophet. And it is then that our Lord revealed to her the truth of worship. And finally, in the last verse that we read this morning, which isn't the last verse in this life of the woman, but he said to her, I that speak unto thee am the Messiah. I'm the anointed one of God, for that's what the word Messiah means. It is the Hebrew of the equivalent Christ Christos so and the word Messiah or the word Christ simply means the anointed of God this is what our Lord said and when he opened his ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth speaking and using the prophet Isaiah chapter sixty one when he said the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me for he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor to bind up the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and the acceptable year of the Lord and then he added this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears he's a Messiah but let us consider his life for a few moments this morning as a revelation of the holiness of God when our Lord was here on earth A lot of people get the idea that he walked around with a bouquet of flowers in his hand and he dropped petals from the flowers at different places at different times. That is not the concept that we find in the Word of God. Rather, in the earthly life of our Blessed Lord, people marvel. And the Greek word is domazzo. And it means they were traumatized. in his presence by the holiness of God that he revealed. And we need to examine the New Testament scriptures. And I'm going to move rather rapidly through this passage or with this idea of Christ as being the revelation of the holiness of God. And if you have a pencil and a jump down some references and think them through on your own because it is very important. He did reveal the holiness of God. We already saw that the authority of our Blessed Lord was apparent. His words were unique. Never man spake as this man spake. And his works were undeniably of God. This, everyone who heard him, who saw him, had to acknowledge. Furthermore, the wisdom of Christ was superhuman. His answers baffled his hearers. In Matthew twenty-two and verse twenty-two, the scripture says that they marveled. And here the word for marveled is the Greek, sumazo, which means they were traumatized. They were traumatized by the answers that our Lord gave and by the insight that the parables he told revealed their own hearts to themselves and the coming judgment of a holy God. For the more his purity was undeniable. He could say to the multitude in John seven, which of you convinces me of sin? His truthfulness was unquestionable. He said, If I say unto you the truth, then why do you not believe me? They couldn't question the truthfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. His power frustrated them. For they said, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey him? His provision fed them. John six. With a little boy's lunch, he fed the multitude of over five thousand men apart from women and children. And he had to say to them in the great discourse on the bread of life in John six, he said to them, the multitude who followed him, he said, you seek me. Not because you want me, but because you ate of the loaves that were filled. the provision of God fed them. For the more his healing took away their sicknesses. His healing took away their sicknesses. When the woman with the issue of blood just touched the hem of his garment, he said, Virtuous going out of me, and she stood trembling. She was made whole, but she stood trembling. She realized that This man, even just simply touching the hem of his garment, revealed that he was of God, that he was God, and she was traumatized in his presence. His love overwhelmed them. In John chapter eleven, at the grave of Lazarus, when our Lord wept, they said, Behold, how he loved him. Oh, think of it, friends. If you were to dwell on the attributes of God, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His love, every one of these, He is in an absolute sense. And while He is absolute in His holiness, He is absolute in His love. And here's the glorious part about it. And His love overwhelmed them. They said, behold, how he loved him. His command over the demon world shocked them. In Matthew nine and verse thirty-three, the scripture says, the multitudes marveled. The dumb man spake. In other words, the people were traumatized. And the word marveled there again is the word to Mazdo in the Greek. They marveled. His judgment was awesome, friends. When the disciples and he were walking down the road and he saw a fig tree, it only had leaves but no fruit, and he cursed a fig tree, and his judgment was awesome. It just withered away. How would you like to be walking down the street with a person like that? Just pronounced judgment on the fig tree and the fig tree withers away. His composure and his confidence were beyond anything that was human. He was silent before Pilate. He showed no fear of Pilate. He offered no defense. He answered never a word and Pilate marveled. And it's the same word, Tamazzo. He was traumatized in the presence of Christ. And Pilate said to him, Don't you realize I have power to release you. I have power to crucify you. The Lord says, You don't have any power. He wasn't scared. He not only wasn't scared, he answered every word when he was accused. His composure and his confidence were beyond anything that human beings had ever seen. His teaching was far beyond anything human beings had ever known. In John seven, fifteen, the Jews marveled. There's that word again. They marveled, they said to one another, ha, nor this man letters, having never learned. He never attended our colleges and our universities, and he's way beyond us. Where did he get it? They marveled. They marveled. As a boy, he showed them when he spoke that his independence made them shudder, even as a boy of twelve. He defied the ceremonies of the Pharisees. He didn't enter into their ritualistic washings. His tender condescension was more than they could handle. They couldn't handle it. They didn't know what to do with him. He didn't fit into their groove. They didn't know what to do with him. And here in this fourth chapter of John, his own disciples marveled that he spoke even to this woman at Jacob's well. They were traumatized by the fact that he spoke to this kind of a woman. They marveled. You see, he defied their ceremonies. More than that, when his own disciples, Peter, James, and John... were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he was transfigured before them, and they beheld his glory, an incident that Peter could never get away from. When you read his epistles, especially Second Peter, chapter one, he says, we saw his glory. We were with him there in the Holy Mountain. We heard the Father speak. But when you read the account of it, They were sore afraid there on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were fearful. There's an interesting passage in Mark four, verses thirty-six through thirty-one. The disciples and our Lord are in the boat and they're crossing the lake. And as they're crossing the lake during the storm, our Lord is asleep on the in the boat is lying on the captain's pillow. And the boat is being filled with water. How tired he must have been. And the disciples wake him up and he said, Carissa, not that we perish. And he stood and he rebuked the wind. All he said was, hush. Hush. And the waters just leveled up. There wasn't a ripple. And the Bible says they marveled greatly. You see, there's one thing worse than having a storm outside the boat. It's having the Lord Jesus inside the boat. You see, they were afraid when the storm was outside, but when they realized they were in the presence of divine holiness, they feared when the storm was outside. But now, seeing whose presence they were in, they marveled exceedingly. Remember Peter? Someone has said Peter with his foot-shaped mouth. He was always getting his foot in his mouth. Remember the day the Lord used Peter's boat, and he said to Peter, it's Luke four, he said to Peter, cast the net on the right side of the ship. And Peter said to him, Lord, we've toiled all night and we've caught nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I'll let down the net. And when he did, he brought in such a big catch of fish. Now, I went fishing with certain men from this assembly one time. They'd only take me along once, you know. But there was a Scotsman in the group, and I tell you, he caught the first fish that day, and everybody on the boat knew it. Everybody knew that Willie had a fish. You see, can you imagine Peter bringing that load of fish in? The size of them, the number of them, the net break? They couldn't get them all in the boat? And what did Peter do? He bowed before the Lord Jesus and he said, go with me again next week. No, he didn't. He said, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He realized that he was in the presence of God, manifest in the flesh, and he had no right to be there. He's unholy, and he's holy. And beloved, this is what the redemption that is in Christ Jesus does. for a sinner in Adam's family. He takes him from the position of being a non-worshipper into a position of being a worshipper of God, and it's all because of the finality and the fullness of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's thrilling, beloved. And that brings me to a passage in Isaiah. And I'd like you to turn to it. It's Isaiah chapter fifty-seven. Isaiah fifty-seven. Now we've been dwelling in Isaiah these mornings in the Sunday school, but this verse we missed. Isaiah fifty-seven, verse fifteen, where we read this. For thus saith a high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. This verse reveals who God is, and it reveals the two places where he dwells. He says, I am the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. That's beyond me. Whose name is holy. That describes who he is. And it reveals his attributes. God says, I dwell in the high and the holy place. But I also dwell with him that is contrite. And that word contrite means to him that he's crushed. With him that he's crushed. Now here are the two places that God dwells. The only two places. While God is spirit and he is everywhere present. But the places that he dwells and he will meet with me. The only two in the universe. He will meet with me in the high and the holy place. Or he will meet with me in the lowly place. Our problem, beloved, is that we think that we can meet God on some middle ground somewhere, and he'll be satisfied, a middle ground of our own choosing. But we can't. God says, I only dwell in the high and the holy place. I'm the one who inhabits eternity, but I'm a creature of time. I know nothing about eternity. My name is holy, and I know so little about the holiness of God. But I also dwell with those that are crushed. And you see, when Peter brought in that great drought of fishes that day, when he brought them in, I say a great drought of fishes, a great draft of fishes. He brought them in and what happened? He said, depart from me. I'm a sinful man, O Lord. And we see Peter now meeting both requirements. He recognizes that he's before God who is holy. And he takes the position of being crushed in his presence. And God says, that man I can use. That's my man. That's my man. Have you ever been crushed before God? Or do you have an idea that you're so important that God needs you? That this work of the Lord couldn't get along without you? Oh, we need to be crushed in the presence of God. Do we understand the fear of the Lord, what it means to fear God, the God revealed in the person of Christ? I am afraid, beloved, that we have become so acquainted with His grace and His mercy that we have forgotten who God is. God said to Adam, in the day that thou leadest thereof, thou shalt surely die. But when Adam partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he didn't die immediately. And God in grace provided for Adam redemption. God has continuously, to the sons of Adam, manifested his grace. And his grace is continuous. But instead of rejoicing and accepting the mercy of God with thankfulness and keeping that perspective before us of fearing the Lord, We trade on God's grace. We trade on His grace. And when God acts justly, as He occasionally does, we think He is unjust. David got angry with the Lord when he killed Azza. You can read it in Second Samuel six. When Azza had put up his hand to hold the ark of God from falling off the cart, God killed it. God acted justly. But David thought he was unjust. He was angry with God, and he set the ark aside. Furthermore, when the two sons of Aaron were killed by God, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, God is acting justly. When Ananias and Sapphira were slain, trying to sing, I surrender all when they only were surrendering part. God killed them. Acts chapter five, God was acting in justice. Or think of those children that cried out after the prophet of God, you old bald-headed guy, you. You know, that's what he cried. Go up, thou old bald head. And the prophet cursed them and the she-bears came out and killed the children. Hmm. Is that the God of the Bible? Yes, it is. That's the God of the Bible. Now, why did God do this to these children? See, this question comes up in the New Testament with our Lord. You see it. there were those who came to the Lord and talked about those people who were at Siloam and the tar of Siloam fell on them and killed them. Why did God have lost something like that? And our Lord says, were they sinners above other people? Were they worse than others? That the tar of Siloam fell on them? No, the Lord said to them, except you shape up, it's going to happen to you. He said, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And then our Lord said, but what about those people who were offering their sacrifices in the temple? And Pilate sent the soldiers down and he threw them there and their blood was mingled with their sacrifices. Were they worse sinners than others? No, he said, except you repent, you will all likewise perish. This matter of the fear of God, We have become so acquainted with His grace, so acquainted with His mercy that we trade upon it, and we have a tendency to forget His holiness and our obligation of fearing before Him. The Scripture says concerning the wicked and the ungodly that there is no fear of God before their eyes. May there be that fear before us. And when God permits these things to happen, when He kills an Uzzah, when He slays an Ananias and Sapphira, when the tower falls on someone of Siloam, what is God doing? He is erecting a billboard, reminding man, I am God. And while I am gracious and merciful, And while I have provided full salvation at the expense of the death of my son, remember I am God and I am holy and I have rights and I'm the only one who has them. And I have the right to snuff out life at any time. Oh, don't ever get to the place, my friend, where you become presumptuous. over the mercy and the grace of God, that you have gotten away with something. You haven't. You haven't gotten away with anything. Don't you abuse God's mercy. Don't you abuse God's righteousness and His grace. Or God can call you into question at any moment. He is God. God is Spirit. And because he is everywhere present, he is to be worshipped by us in spirit and in truth. But our Lord Jesus reveals in John four that he's also the Father. This word Father is interesting. And in this concept, he speaks of his essential relationship. Now I may shock you when I say this, but what our Lord is saying, when he says, God is Father and the Father seeketh worshippers, He is not talking about our relationship to Him, but He is talking about His relationship to God as a Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus prayed in the New Testament, He always addressed God as Father except one time. And that was when He was abandoned on the cross for your sin and mine. The only prayer that came from the lips of the Savior that's recorded, that he didn't call God's Father, was when he was abandoned on the cross and he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In other words, there is no way that you can know God apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's by having a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. that you have a relationship with the Father. John fourteen six, our Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. So when our Lord Jesus reveals that God is the Father, what he is saying is this, that the essence of the nature of God is now the essence and the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. on the earth. This is what establishes the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ. He is the eternal son of God. This is what he said in John chapter ten and verse thirty. And they picked up stones, the stoning. He said, I and my father are one. in John seventeen in the great high priestly prayer of the Lord the Lord Jesus addresses God as his father his father now there are results to this relationship the relationship of the father to the son if God is a father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that they are essentially one and the same in nature and in being, then whatever is deserved by God is deserved by Christ. And this is exactly what the New Testament teaches. Always in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus accepted the worship that was given to him. When anyone worshipped him, he accepted it, and only God can be worshipped. the angel that John that reveals great things to John in the book of the Revelation in chapter twenty two he falls down to worship the angel and the angel said get up don't you do that you worship God God is to be worshipped God is to be worshipped Paul and Barnabas in the fourteenth of Acts when they were at a place called Iconium and Lystra and Derby. They wanted to, at Lystra they wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas. They had given to them names, Jupiter and Mercurius. And you see, Paul and Barnabas would not permit them to worship them. How different were the apostles than those who claimed to be their successors today? Beloved, if you're going to worship God, you must worship Him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God who seeks worshipers, and Christ is the way to God. Therefore, when we worship God, we worship Christ. And no one worships God who does not worship in and through the person of God. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now quickly, I'd like to just, I wish I had another half hour, but I don't. I'd just like to pull a few threads together in closing. A few threads. Those who worship God, worship Him because they know Jesus Christ, the Lord. Who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. In Ephesians chapter three, verse nine, there's a great statement. It says, God created all things by Jesus Christ. What a statement. Whenever we think of creation, we think of God. And God created all things by Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter one we read, all things were made by him. He is the source of all things. Now when we think of the Lord Jesus as being the creator, along with God the Father, in Genesis chapter one and verse sixteen we read five words concerning the heavenly bodies. It says this, and he made the stars also think of that suppose you were able to make a star how much would you talk about it god just used employs five words and he made the stars also let me just say a word about the stars god created all things by jesus christ We read from Isaiah that he is a high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. The star in Tires is so large that it could swallow up sixty-four million suns the size of ours. I can't imagine that. The sun is about a million times larger than the earth. And here is a star in the heavens. that is sixty-four million times bigger than our sun. I can't understand this. Now if we take the Eureka constellation, there is a star in that constellation which is epsilon. This star is so large that its diameter is three thousand times that of our sun. and its volume is twenty-seven billion times greater than the sun's. That's mind-boggling. I can't grasp that. God says, I am the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity. When God told us about the stars, he employed five words, and he made the stars also. But when I open this book, I find that he uses fifty chapters to tell us about the tabernacle and how to approach him. Beloved, God wants us to know what it is to draw near to him. The Bible is not a handbook of astronomy. It's a handbook of redemption. What God does for sinners in bringing them into His presence and not on a righteous foundation in that Christ has died on our behalf. Fifty chapters on the tabernacle, five words from the stars. Now, beloved, all that you can ever know about God is what he has revealed in unto our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way to God. So we ask you a question. Do you know him? Knowing Christ is to know the Father. Is he yours? There's a hymn in our hymn books. I'm not sure we can sing it. So I don't ask anybody to move yet. It's number forty-seven. I'd like you to read it with me. I'd love to sing it if Brother Bobby can lead us. Now, if you can't, we'll learn it sometime. I know Bobby will because he's great at learning a hymn like this. This is one of the great hymns in this book. Do you know it, brother? He doesn't. All right. I'm going to read it. I hope you read it with me because the essence of a song is what it says. All glory to Jesus, begotten of God, the great I am is he, creator, sustainer, but wonder of all, the Lamb of Calvary. To think that the guardian of planets in space, the shepherd of the stars, is tenderly leading the church of his love by hands with crimson scars. The king of all kings and the Lord of all lords, he reigns in glory now. Someday he is coming, earth's kingdom to claim, and every knee shall bow. I wonder, have you bowed the knee? Oh, you will in a coming day. Happier those who bow now. Would you bow the knee to him today and receive him as your Lord and Savior? When this hymn is sung and you get to those last words and the audience is able to take it up a notch and every knee shall bow. It almost takes a roof off. Beloved, it's true. God says, I am the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity. I dwell in the midst of him who is crushed. In order that I might revive the heart of the crushed ones. This is what it means to be born of God. To acknowledge who he is. and what we are and the greatness of the self