The sermon, titled 'True Worshippers and True Worship' by Jason Dohm, explores John 4:1-26, focusing on Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. Dohm highlights how Jesus breaks cultural norms by engaging with the woman, offering her 'living water' as a metaphor for eternal life. The sermon delves into the themes of true worship, emphasizing that it must be done in spirit and truth, rather than through ritualistic or location-based practices. Dohm discusses the historical context of Samaritan worship and how Jesus redirects the conversation from physical to spiritual truths, revealing Himself as the Messiah. The sermon illustrates the transformative power of the Gospel, emphasizing the importance of heart-centered worship and the role of Jesus in making worship acceptable to God. The concept of 'dead orthodoxy' is introduced, warning against worship that is correct in form but lacks spiritual vitality. Overall, the sermon calls for introspection on personal worship practices and encourages seeking satisfaction in Christ rather than worldly pursuits.

Today's sermon is on John chapter 4 verses 15 through 26. I'm going to read 1 through 26 for context. John chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But he needed to go through Samaria.

So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being weary from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. And then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to him, "'Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, and that you truly spoke." The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

Father, we need your Holy Spirit as we have said multiple times to worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, help us now. Help us to worship over this. Help Jason to worship as he preaches may you bring to mind when you came to us and and put your finger on our sin and we rejoiced in that day that you set us free from it oh Lord stir our hearts May we be moved by the preaching. We pray for your help now.

In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon today is, True Worshippers and True Worship. Our text brings us to the topic of true worship, and though the words false worship are never used in the text, that's really the implication is that there are categories of true and false worship. And we should know which is which. And Jesus really teaches us which is which in our text.

Last week Jesus and his disciples were going from Judea to Galilee. They were going as the crow flies, meaning in a straight line. And that would take you through Samaria. It was the fastest way. It would take three days to go that way.

And we saw him in the text busting through the unbiblical norms that would say it was either unlawful or at least unwise for a Jewish man to be speaking with a Samaritan woman even out in the middle of public in the middle of the day. There was nothing unlawful, there was nothing unwise according to Scripture And so Jesus busts right on through that unbiblical norm in order to have compassion on a sinner who needs him, who needs redemption. And He speaks to her of living water. Rather than being thanked for it, she says, Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well 1800 years ago? This is Jesus' reply.

The reason I read it again is that these are the verses that take us right into our text. So just follow along as I read verses 13 and 14. Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water, this water and this well, will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." This is just like Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in chapter 3, last chapter. Nicodemus, you must be born again.

What in the world does that mean? How can a person be born again a second time? Sort of having a replay of that in a way. Jesus is using something physical to help her, or Nicodemus in chapter 3 and this Samaritan woman in chapter 4, understand the spiritual reality and they are really struggling to come out of the physical world to understand spiritual things. But Jesus clearly teaches that even a woman who's burned through five marriages and is now living with a man can be saved for the asking.

So this is just a wonderful, wonderful expression or articulation of the Gospel. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Father, I pray that you would save us from the fate of going through all our lives and never thirsting. We live in a world of people who thirst after all the wrong things, never spend a day of their life thirsting for something that is of true and lasting value. So they are never satisfied, They just bounce from one thing to the next.

They keep going back, hoping for satisfaction, never finding it. Keep us from that, God. May we know Christ. Not about Christ. May we know Christ.

And be satisfied to the depths of our souls. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to be breaking the text into three parts. The first part will be verses 15-18.

In verses 15-18, Jesus labors to make her thirsty. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, It's thirsty. Jesus labors to make this Samaritan woman thirsty. He goes to work trying to arouse a thirst, a desire in her. Follow along as I read verses 15-18.

The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband. In that, you spoke truly.

As I said last week, this is a woman who is like most people in the world. She lives on the physical plane. She has no category for living water. That's why she's struggling so mightily in our text to understand the spiritual thing that Jesus is teaching using a physical reality. She is all about the physical plane.

Bringing her up to the spiritual plane to understand the spiritual truth that is being taught is a real challenge. So in verse 15 the woman says, sir give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. She's talking about physical water. She's talking about physical thirst. She's talking about coming back to the well again and again and again, every day, day after day, week after week, month after month, to a physical well to draw physical water.

But recognize, at least in what she says here, there is progress, there is movement in the interactions. If only for selfish reasons, she now at least wants it. A desire is awakening in her. Even if it's just selfish, I'm tired of coming back to the stupid old well to draw the stupid old water, at least for that reason, she, with the thought of living water that you never thirst again, you'll be satisfied, has awakened a desire in her heart. Now Jesus totally redirects the conversation away from what he had been speaking of and he asks her to go get her husband and come back.

Think about her answer. She says, I have no husband. Technically true. True enough. She has no husband, but very, very, very, very misleading.

If you were talking to someone and they said, I'm not married, you would think certain things about their life and their past. If they said, yeah I've been married five times, all of them ended up in divorce but now I'm living with a man, you would think different thoughts about that person and their past. You would have a different view about them. You would think a lot better if they had just said, I'm not married. That's what's happening here in this text.

She doesn't want Jesus to think about her in terms of the reality of her personal history. And so she contents herself by just saying, I have no husband, I'm not married. Jesus immediately lets her know that he knows. The real answer to the question, the whole truth of her past, must have been a shocking moment for her when he lets her know that he knows all about her past. Imagine her first wedding.

Who knows how many years ago this was? It was probably a lot of years ago. Just imagine her first wedding. We can't know for sure, but probably She was there entering into her first marriage with a great deal of hope for the future. Isn't that how we go to the altar for the first time?

We have so much hope for what this is going to be like, about how satisfying life is going to be with this person. We're filled with hope for good things, but in time, in this lady's first marriage, at some point, for some reason, things go horribly wrong and there is a divorce. And then there is a second wedding. Maybe there is a lot of hope as she stood there engaging in her second wedding. The first marriage was a mistake.

She can see that now. She can see now what she couldn't see then. All the reasons. But now she knows what to look for and that won't happen again. But again, for things that we have no visibility to, things go horribly wrong.

And there's another divorce, and there's a third wedding, and there's a third divorce, and there's a fourth wedding, and there's a fourth divorce and there's a fifth wedding. Now, she's standing there for the fifth time. How much hope can there be? Whatever naivety that we stood at the altar, those of us who were married, when we were married for the very first time, whatever hopes that has to have been a thing of the past when she stood there for a fifth time. And the fifth didn't end in any way different than the first four.

There's another divorce, and now she's done with weddings, and she's not even bothering anymore. It's easy to read right over the top of this, but think about it. Wedding 1, divorce 1. Wedding 2, divorce 2. Through wedding 5, divorce 5.

And now, she doesn't even bother. She just lives with a man. There is a lot of sin and shame in this story. Undoubtedly she's sinned in many ways and undoubtedly she's been sinned against in many ways. I'm sure she's a victim, but there's no way she's an innocent victim.

The seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, has been trampled all over, probably by her, probably by the man that she's been married to. And certainly, we know for sure, It's speculation, but it's pretty reasonable speculation. At the very least we know that it's being trampled on in the sense that she's living with a man and she's not even married. They're trampling all over the seventh commandment. And now the picture of marriage, which ironically is supposed to be Jesus, who she is eye to eye with, and the church is totally warped and distorted.

I'm not saying that she should have known that marriage was to have been a picture of Jesus and the church. I'm just saying that even before the mystery was revealed in Christ, it was intended by God, it was designed by God to be a picture of faithfulness and love and self-sacrifice. That picture has just been warped into an unrecognizable mess in this woman's life. It hasn't represented faithfulness. It's represented unfaithfulness, it hasn't represented self-sacrifice, it's represented selfishness, it looks nothing.

None of the five marriages have looked anything like Christ in this church. You see what is played out at the well is a picture of what has played out in her life. She keeps coming and drawing but she's never satisfied. That's what's happening at the well. It's another day at the well.

And in her life, it's another day with another man. She keeps coming back with a faint hope that this time there will be satisfaction, but knowing that she will be back to the well. There is no lasting satisfaction here. This is a woman who has been chasing and grasping for satisfaction, but she's never satisfied. And now Jesus says, if you ask me I'll give you living water and you'll be satisfied.

You won't have to come back to the well and I'm not talking about physical water, I'm talking about what will satisfy your soul. You can be done with chasing, you can be done with grasping. Now listen to Isaiah 55, just listen because I'm going to come and go from there quickly. Just listen to Isaiah 55 verses 1 through 3. Just think about the woman at the well and her marriages.

Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear and come to me here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." The sure mercies of David. She has spent her life coming and spending her wages on that which is not bread. She has been spending on what doesn't satisfy Jesus. Jesus says, come without money. Come buy without money.

Let your soul delight itself in abundance. Jesus is offering the sure mercies of David. The Son of David is offering the sure mercies of David. Jesus is laboring to make her thirsty. This is how it works.

Anyone who is saved can look back in time and identify the time when God was awakening desire in your heart. You've been chasing and you've been grasping and you've been bouncing from this to that, and the thrills had been getting cheaper. Cheaper thrills. Satisfying less and less, and less and less, and you would have to identify another target. And then God, if you've been saved, you can know that this is true.

You do know that this is true. God awakened a desire for something that would really satisfy. It wasn't a cheap thrill, something that would last and satisfy a fountain within you that would well up to eternal life. Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. He says that in Matthew 9 verse 12.

If you're well, well people don't take the time and spend the resources to go to a doctor. It's people who Understand their great sickness that go to the physician. You have to have a sense of desperate need, a sense of your sickness and deformity before you go to the doctor. And in the same way, those who don't feel thirst, they don't have a category to even think about living water. They just are thinking on the physical plane.

A desire has to be created by the work of the Holy Spirit to make them thirsty. Jesus is doing this. Jesus is doing with this woman what the Holy Spirit does in the life of all who have been brought to Jesus after He left the earth and ascended to sit at His Father's right hand to intercede for His people. Back to John, chapter 3. Let's look at the next section.

The next section is verses 19 through 24, where we see that it's not where, but who and how. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's who and how. Not where, location, but who and how. Follow along as I read 19-24. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth. Not where, but who and how. She rightly acknowledges that Jesus is a prophet. This is really sort of a hilarious statement.

After Jesus exposes her sin, tells her he knows all about her history and names it, puts his finger right on it. Sir I perceive that you are a prophet. She understands that he has supernatural knowledge of secret details. As a stranger he can't possibly know the things that he knows. He has the supernatural knowledge of these secret details.

But then she says this curious thing, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. They are right there in the shadow of Mount Gerizim. Our fathers worshiped on these mountains, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. What is she doing here? Jesus just radically shifted the conversation from living water to you and your husbands.

Now, she is really sort of radically shifting the conversation to what the Samaritans say about worship and how the Jews contradict that. What is this? What is she doing? Well, many of the commentators say this is classic misdirection. This is changing the subject because she doesn't like the subject.

The subject of her marital history is an uncomfortable subject and she wants away from that so she asks about a religious controversy. That's possible. Some commentators though say she's groping for truth. She has met this man and she has acknowledged now that he is not just a dusty traveler. She started by thinking that he is just another dusty traveler at the well and he is not greater than Jacob, But now he has revealed that he is a prophet.

He has supernatural knowledge of secret details of her life that he can't know unless God had revealed these things to him. And so he is a source of truth and so She is groping for truth. And she knows that he is a Jew. She has already said, how is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? And so she goes to this source of difference to sort it out because she knows that he is from God and knows truth from God.

I started the week thinking This is classic misdirection, she is uncomfortable with the subject so she changes the subject. I am ending the week and preaching this believing that she is actually groping for truth. We are seeing a progression where light is beginning to dawn on this woman, I think. If you're born again, think about the early questions that you had when God was awakening you. You look back now and You just laugh about the questions and the things that you were occupied with during that period of time.

You couldn't really discern spiritual things because you weren't spiritual yet, and yet God was working on you, and you had crazy questions, and you were groping for truth. I think that's what we're seeing in our text, but I don't insist on it because the text doesn't say you have to make a judgment. Now consider the backdrop. I began to talk about this last week. There are really two things about Samaritan worship that we need to keep in view as this conversation unfolds because she is Samaritan.

This is her religious background. Around 930 BC, The kingdom split. Israel under Saul and David and Solomon had been a unified kingdom, but after Solomon, Rehoboam, his son, became king and the kingdom split. That was around 930 BC. And Jeroboam, the king of the break-off kingdom, the northern kingdom, was afraid that if people keep going across my border to Jerusalem to worship, their hearts will be turned towards the King of Judah and I will lose my kingdom." And so he set up two golden calves, one in Dan and one in Beersheba, so that people didn't have to go all the way to Jerusalem to do their worship.

And he set up rival religious practices, a rival priesthood, and it was all just to keep his kingdom. Secondly, because of this idolatry and the people falling away from the Lord in about 722 BC, God sends the Assyrians to judge that kingdom, to judge the northern kingdom, and takes them captive. They were conquering other kingdoms at the same time. They took captives from the other kingdoms and brought them in to repopulate Samaria. This is all captured in 2 Kings 17.

Turn to 2 Kings 17. It's a long reading. I may end the sermon saying, wow, I never should have done that. I never should have done that because it's a long reading. So I'm going to ask you to try to hang in there for a long reading.

2 Kings 17, I'm going to start in verse 5 and read through the end of the chapter. Stopping once in a while to make a comment. Second Kings 17, starting in verse 5. And we're going to see both of these things. One, the rival worship that was set up when the kingdom split and the two calves and the rival priesthood.

And two, the Assyrians coming, God sending judgment for their idolatry and taking them captive and bringing in other captives to repopulate and the effect that that had on their religion. Second King 17, starting in verse 5, Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria and placed them in Halah by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. So the people are carried away into captivity and taken to Assyria. Verse 7, For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

And they had feared other gods, and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel, and of the king of Israel which they had made. Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified cities." So now the idolatries that they engaged in are beginning to be described. Verse 10, they set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every tree. There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them. And they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, for they served idols of which the Lord had said to them, You shall not do this thing.

Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all his prophets, every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and statutes according to the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets." So what's being said here is that God didn't leave them alone. He actually was kind and merciful and sent prophets to tell them to repent and to turn to them. There were 200 years of patience while the people engaged into idolatries. Verse 14, Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them.

They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practice witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.

Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them from his sight. For he tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did.

They did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria as it is to this day." So up until this point we've been talking about why God brought the Assyrians in judgment to take them captive. Now the remainder of the chapter will be about the results of Assyria bringing in captives from other nations into Samaria and what that led to. Verse 24, Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Katha, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the God of the land. Therefore He has sent lions among them and indeed they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land." So they actually perceive that God is judging these people for not worshipping Him. They are actually right as far as it goes.

Verse 27, Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Sin there one of the priests whom you brought from there, let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. However, every nation continued to make gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. The men of Babylon made Sukkoth-Benneth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartac, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adremolek and Anemalek the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the Lord and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away." So what's being described here is a total mixing up of the gods from the lands where they came, the false gods, and yet they've mixed in the fear of the Lord right alongside as if these gods could coexist with one another, and of course they can't. Verse 34, To this day they continue practicing the former rituals. They do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, with great power and with an outstretched arm, him you shall fear, him you shall worship, and to him you shall offer sacrifice. In the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you.

You shall be careful to observe forever. You shall not fear other gods. In the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear, and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. However, they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals." Now here's the punch line, follow me here, verse 41, so these nations feared the Lord, yet they served their carved images.

Also, their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers even to this day." This is the infamous history of Samaritan worship. So Jesus says, the Jews are right, but it is about to no longer matter. Everything that Gary said is true. God can be worshipped anywhere. And yet, under the Old Covenant, there was specific worship that had been prescribed which was only to be done at Jerusalem.

So it would have been fine for Galilean Jews to pray and worship the Lord in Galilee, but there were three feasts per year which were to happen and only happen at Jerusalem. The Jews are right. That kind of worship was not to take place on Mount Gerizim. It was to take place in Jerusalem. Who said so?

God said so. The Jews were right, but it is about to no longer matter at all. Jesus doesn't want to talk about the where because the where is about to become, with him sealing the new covenant in his blood the where becomes totally irrelevant forever. Paul says this in Romans 9 in Romans 9 he's actually talking about what a blessing it is to be a Jew. He says this in Romans 9, 4, and 5, describing the Israelites.

Who are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption? God adopted Israel. The glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh Christ came who was over all the eternally blessed God. Amen. There were many, many, many advantages to being a Jew.

Salvation is of the Jews. The system of salvation is of the Jews. The Samaritans had jumbled it up with every other kind of God and religious worship. The promises of salvation are of the Jews. The Samaritans actually only considered the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as authoritative.

They didn't view the Psalms, the history books, the prophets, any of that as authoritative. So the promises of salvation are of the Jews. The Savior is of the Jews. Jesus is of the line of Judah. Salvation is of the Jews.

She wanted to talk about the place, the location, the where. Jesus wanted to talk about the who and the how of worship. The place had changed through the centuries. At first it was a moving tabernacle in the wilderness. Wherever the people were they would pick up the tabernacle that God had prescribed just how to make it, just what to do in it, they would pick it up and they would move when they moved.

How many times the tabernacle moved? We don't know. Many times. And then when they first came into the promised land, the tabernacle and the Ark of the covenant was in Shiloh. It was the place where they were to go to worship.

And then it became Jerusalem. And the tabernacle went away and it became a permanent structure, a temple. And then it was overrun by the Babylonians and destroyed by the Babylonians. And then it was rebuilt after they returned from captivity. And with the coming of the Messiah, the new covenant, the place of worship was changing again and the location was becoming completely irrelevant.

But the who to be worshipped, the God revealed in Scripture, only revealed in Scripture, and the how never changed. So the location We see in the Old Testament, even in the Old Testament, the location changes many times. But the who was to be worshiped was only to be the God revealed in Scripture, and the how to be worshiped never changed. These things are eternal. This God can only be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. These are the essential elements, the essential ingredients to any true worship, defining any true worshiper in spirit and in truth. Now what does in spirit mean? It simply means heart worship. A quote unquote worshiper can do or say whatever, but in your doing and in your saying, the question is what's happening in your heart.

What is happening in your heart when the words are going out? What is happening in your heart when your members are doing external things? Listen to Malachi chapter one verse ten. Malachi, the prophet, is condemning the people. God, through the prophet Malachi, is condemning the people for all sorts of compromise.

We get this in Malachi 1 verse 10. God says, Who is there even among you who would shut the doors so that you would not kindle the fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands?" So the question from God to the people in Malachi 1 verse 10 is, who will shut the doors of the temple against the worshippers? And do me a favor and shut out the worshippers from kindling a fire on my altar and doing what I have commanded them to do. The question in Malachi 1.10 is God saying, who will stop you from doing what I commanded you to do?

Now why is that? What's wrong with doing what God commanded you to do? Well, you're not really doing it unless your heart is in it. So, having the doors flung open and the altars there and you've kindled the fire and you're offering the sacrifices but your heart is far away, God is saying, I hate that, shut the doors and put out the fire. Last week the term was divine appointment.

Divine appointment meaning Jesus and the Samaritan woman are exactly where they are supposed to be, the only place that they could be. If you believe in a sovereign God, you believe that there is a 0% chance that Jesus and the Samaritan woman are not at this well at this time. From eternity past, God decreed that they would be there and salvation would be offered to this sinner at the well. And it had to be that way because it was a divine appointment. This week, the term is dead orthodoxy.

Dead orthodoxy. What is orthodoxy? It's correct believing. What's wrong with correct believing? Nothing.

We should believe truth as it is revealed by God, but that doesn't make you alive. It doesn't make you alive. Many people believe many correct things and they are not spiritually alive. Beware of dead orthodoxy. The right things can be preached, the right things can even be believed, the right practices can be practiced week after week.

It does not guarantee spiritual life. It does not mean that God is truly being worshipped. The orthodox should be careful about being proud of their orthodoxy, as if it imparts life. We should be orthodox. Don't get me wrong, we should be orthodox.

We should Guard what we believe jealously. Error introduces all kinds of decline in ways that we never anticipate. We should guard against error and be rigidly orthodox. That does not make us alive. Jesus talks about lip worship.

Listen to this in Matthew 15 verses 7-9. Lip worship. Listen to Jesus. Matthew 15, 7-9. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth, but their hearts, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." This is actually the second part of this verse is actually bleeding over to worship in truth. They were actually teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They were deviating from truth as it was revealed by God and it invalidated their worship. God says, in vain they worship Me, but He begins by saying, these people draw near to Me with their mouth. They say words of worship and honor me with their lips.

Lip honor, lip worship, but their heart is far from me. God says that's vain, that is in vain, that is worthless. In some ways it's worse than worthless because you're deceiving yourselves that you worshiped God when you've not worshiped God. It was not true worship. You were not a true worshiper.

It means that two people can sit side by side in a perfectly good and proper worship service and they can be dressed the same way and they can be saying the same things and they can be doing the same things, but one is a true worshiper offering true worship and the other is a false worshiper offering false worship. In spirit, worshipping in spirit means that you are worshiping from a cleansed heart and an engaged heart. That's what it means to worship in spirit. A cleansed heart. How can you worship God with an unregenerate heart?

You must be born again. You must have partaken of the living waters to worship in Spirit. A heart not cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a heart that can ever offer anything acceptable to God, and yet it must also be an engaged heart. If you are worshipping from a cleansed and an engaged heart, you are truly worshipping. You are offering true worship.

If you are worshipping from a cleansed and an engaged heart, you are truly worshipping. You are offering true worship. If you are worshipping from a heart that is not cleansed, no matter how much your heart soars in the doing of it, meaning there can be all sorts of feeling and emotion. Yes, I am worshipping, but if you are not born again, it is not true worship. You are not What does in truth mean?

John 17 verse 17 throws a floodlight on it. John 17, 17, Jesus says, he's praying to his Father, he says, sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth. Your word is truth. Worship and truth is worship which is regulated by what God has revealed. Worship and truth is regulated worship.

Here's the rule, whoever chooses the elements and the methods of worship is the one being worshiped. I will say it again. Whoever chooses the worship is the one being worshiped. God chooses the worship and says, worship me this way and you worship Him that way, He is being worshiped. If you choose the worship and say, I want to worship God this way even though He has never told me to worship Him in this way, you are worshiping you.

It's self-idolatry. Here is what the great Scottish reformer John Knox says, All worshiping, honoring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his own express commandment is idolatry. All worshiping, honoring, or service invented by the brain of man. In other words, it's not coming from what is prescribed by God, how God says, I desire to be worshiped like this, but it's invented, it's coming out of the brain of man without warrant from the Scripture, John Knox says, it's idolatry. This is one of the key doctrines of the Reformation that got them out of the mire that was Roman Catholicism and still is Roman Catholicism.

It's called the regulative principle of worship. What is not warranted in Scripture is prohibited in worship. If God hasn't said, worship me in this way either from a command or a pattern or a precept which clearly grounds the practice of worship, we may not do it. A key doctrine of the Reformation. So we may feel wonderful.

We may feel invigorated after we have burned incense and seen a procession of priests in gorgeous vestments, but we have not worshiped God. That is not worship. At no time have the new covenant people of God been told to worship God like that. That is not worship in truth. That is not worship that is consistent with what God has said.

How God has said he desires to be worshipped in his word. Both of these, in spirit, in truth, are the two essential ingredients. Both essential. So heart worship but not in truth is not true worship. Worship in truth without the heart is not true worship.

You're missing either of these. It is false worship. Now I've been speaking of these as if they're absolute. Worship in spirit, like yes or no, all or nothing. Is that your experience?

Worship in truth, yes or no, all or nothing. Do you think we ever worship on a Sunday in a way that is completely consistent with the truth of God? Heaven help us. If it's false worship, if there's any sense or any way in which our worship is distracted or half-hearted, then we will never worship truly, will we? If it has to be perfectly consistent with truth, with no allowance for our blind spots and the many ways in which we fall short, we'll never, and This is where Christ comes in, where Christ comes in, in Christ, cleansed by Christ.

So we should strive with all of our hearts to worship in spirit and in truth, to have our hearts engaged, to bring intensity and undistracted single mindedness to our worship, but when it's not all that it should be, Christ makes our work acceptable. We should exhaust ourselves trying to worship God in the way that He tells us that He desires to be worshiped, but when we fall short, Christ makes our worship acceptable. God is Spirit, so He must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth. God is not material, so He sees beyond the material, beyond the sound waves of our words, beyond what other people can see us doing with our members. God sees through that to the heart.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16 verse 7. God is seeking those kind of worshipers, those who worship Spirit and truth. Now God is seeking them. Consider Isaiah 65 verse 1.

We might have been thinking wrong about God seeking of those kind of worshipers. It sort of sounds like God is looking around to see, oh look, there is someone who is worshipping with a cleansed and engaged heart according to my word. Look, I like that. That is the wrong way to think about this. Consider Isaiah 65 verse 1.

God says, I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. What's God saying? He's saying, I was sought by those who did not seek Me.

Come again? How can people who don't seek you, seek you? Well, it's because God initiates. God seeks you, so you seek Him. Listen to it again.

I was sought by those who did not ask for Me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, Here I am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. Jesus is at the well in Samaria saying, Here I am, here I am. Have living water.

Did she seek him? Not for a second of her life. She burned through five marriages and she's living in adultery and Jesus is there anyway saying, here I am, here I am. Come, drink of living water. He's seeking out worshippers.

Four corners of the earth, He's seeking them out. He's sending people out to go gather them. Such a glorious truth. The last two verses. Verses 24 and 25.

We're back in John chapter 4. Follow along as I read Verses 25 and 26. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he." These two verses we have the solution, the Messiah.

So if you're filling in blanks on the handout it's Messiah. The solution is the Messiah. Here's my paraphrase to what she's saying. Sir, you said some interesting things. Messiah is coming.

He'll clear all this up. Jesus says, I'm here. I'm clearing all of these things up. I am clearing all of these things up. The Samaritan expectation for a Messiah was for a teacher.

They received the Pentateuch as authoritative but rejected the prophets. The Jews receiving the prophets were looking across all of it and they were expecting a king. The Samaritans actually in the Messiah were expecting Deuteronomy 18, 18, a prophet like Moses who would teach, would speak the words of God. Jesus says, I who speak to you, am he. The English construction is good English, but it doesn't really get at a nuance that would be in the Greek which is this is the first of the I AM statements.

The construction in Greek would in Greek would be more like, I am the one who is speaking to you, and he. I am as in Exodus 3, the burning bush, tell them I am saying to you. So She might not, she may or may not have understood the nuance, but throughout, especially the Gospel of John, we're going to encounter, I go, am I. That's the Greek words meaning I am, as in tell them I am sent you. Many times in the book of John, this is the first one.

It's a claim to be the Messiah and then some. It is really a claim to be God, but it might be nuanced enough that she may or may not have understood that. But it is the first occurrence, so I just put it there as a place mark, a bookmark, and we'll come back to it multiple other times. Let's conclude with this. By the way, this is the single most unambiguous statement that Jesus is the Christ.

He just says it here. The truth is throughout the Gospels in a hundred different ways, but here it's said with such clarity. Only a couple of other places where he just outright says it. There are a couple of other places. Let's finish in Ephesians chapter 2.

But not the normal part of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 14 through 22. Speaking of Christ, Paul writes, Paul writes, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one. So he is writing to Gentiles, he is talking about the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile. He Himself, Christ is our peace, who has made both one.

Who has made Jew and Gentile one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the imnity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Through Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles have access by one Spirit to the Father. He's talking about the middle wall of separation, these commands and ordinances that separated Jew from Gentile that would have sent good Jews to Jerusalem to do the prescribed worship.

Those days are over. The middle wall of separation is broken down. We Jews and Gentiles have access by one Spirit through Christ to the Father. Verse 19, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens and saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." This is now where God dwells in His people.

He's building a temple out of living stones. We are the place of worship. Three applications very quickly. Applications very quickly. What well do you keep going back to and yet you're never satisfied?

What is it? Keep returning to it. You're never satisfied. And this looms large over the unbeliever, but it has an application for the believers too. You know, Love of the world doesn't die the minute you are born again.

It lingers a lot longer than we wish it would. There is some of the love of the world left in us, and we keep going back to wells that will never satisfy us. What is it? Identify it, abandon it. Seek satisfaction in Christ.

Two, are you minimizing your sin? Do you have a set of technically correct answers? I have no husband that cover up your five failed marriages and that you're living. But just in a different category, in a different way. I know that's not accurate of anyone that I'm speaking to, but there are ways in which we do this.

We minimize our sin. We've said the line so many times that we actually believe it now. And our sin seems so small to us, and it's not small. Jesus went to the cross and bled and died because of sin. Sin is not a small thing.

You should never minimize it. Look, find the technically correct answers that are deceiving people and weed them out. Are you a true worshiper? Are you offering true worship? Are you offering worship from a cleansed heart?

Are you born again? An engaged heart, So that it's not just lip worship. It's worship from the heart. Are you worshiping in truth? Do you have ways that are nowhere to be found in the Word of God?

But you say, this is the worship I like to offer. Stop the self-idolatry. Stop the self-idolatry. Stop the self-idolatry. Find out how the object of your worship wants to be worshipped, and worship in that way.

It's not as fun. When we obey, the feelings follow. Chasing your feelings is a fool's errand, because they shift like the sand. Obeying God, the satisfaction will come in time. Trust the Lord.

Do what He says. The feelings will follow. Father thank you for your word. How sweet it is. How sweet it is to know that Christ has made a way that sinners like us could worship you with acceptable worship through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let our worship be in spirit. Let our hearts be engaged more than they ever have been. Let us bring intensity and single mindedness to our worship. Let us worship according to what you have said. I thank you that all of our deficiencies are accounted for in your son for all who have been born again.

You make our worship acceptable. Thank you God. Praise you for Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.