True Worshippers
“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.” John 4:23
“But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.” John 4:23
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The question
should surface – “When does this come to
fruition?”
God’s gracious
and patient dialogue with the Samaritan woman gives us the answer. It is in “an hour coming.” The KJV gives another
answer with the future tense “shall
worship.” That is a future tense. This is one of the reasons Christ was
sent to earth because the Father is seeking true worshippers. The only place he
has found them up to this point is in heaven itself where the angels
continuously worship and serve Him. Worship involves service (Rom. 12:1-2) and that service is based
upon truth as taught by God. Spirit led is the state of a man who has been saved from
a condition where the spirit is said to be dead, inactive, motionless, and in
hiding towards God, Eph. 2:5
Prior leadership came from the desires of the flesh. Eph
2:3. Eph. 3:10, or from false teachers. 2 Pet 2:1.. At this point the flesh relinquishes control in order to serve
the spirit and its leadership from the Holy Spirit Who now indwells the person
forever. John 14:16.
The Samaritan woman had been falsely led into certain doctrines that Truth Himself gave her the correct teaching and that concerning correct worship the father desired to see from believers. They were to base their belief on truth so that their spirit would respond with conduct and service. When she learned that worship could even be done where this lady presided as well as Jerusalem. When she learned she was in the presence of the promised Messiah her conduct responded with service. She gave the gospel to those she knew. Even a Samaritan can display worship based on truth and her spirit responded as it should.
The Samaritan woman had been falsely led into certain doctrines that Truth Himself gave her the correct teaching and that concerning correct worship the father desired to see from believers. They were to base their belief on truth so that their spirit would respond with conduct and service. When she learned that worship could even be done where this lady presided as well as Jerusalem. When she learned she was in the presence of the promised Messiah her conduct responded with service. She gave the gospel to those she knew. Even a Samaritan can display worship based on truth and her spirit responded as it should.
The dead
spirit is quickened by the Holy Spirit Eph. 2:1; Rom. 4:17. The Spirit begins
His threefold work of cleansing that we call sanctification. His method is
accomplished through the instrumentality of the word using it to reveal,
cleanse, as well as transform. Revealing first our sinful condition James
1:23-24; Heb. 4:12-13. It then cleanses us from those sinful ways Eph. 5:26;
John 15:3. And then it transforms us into the very image of Christ 2 Cor. 3:18.
Virtues grow in the places of vices. Now we are able to live our life like
Christ John 5:26; 1 Pet 3:18. We are now made up of the body, soul, quickened
spirit as well as the Holy Spirit; a very complex organism at this point.
At
salvation, the spirit now made alive has a limited palette to work with having
just been made conscious by the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment
John 16:8. Since the spirit was dead this took a supernatural act of God.
Immediately, the new convert is instructed to be baptized and that in a certain
way Matt 28:19. This brings more information to the palette concerning God and
the triune involvement of the whole Godhead in the salvation. Along with
baptism the convert is to renew his mind and enrich his spirit by being taught
to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded Matt 28:20. This will
involve all in the church in order to accomplish this task. No one man separate
from Christ can perform this task. Even Christ has chosen to use gifted men of
the Spirit to accomplish this 1 Cor. 12. Each Church has been gifted with a variety
of gifts as the Spirit wills 1 Cor. 12:11. With the Spirit gifting men all the
possible situations that might arise in the local body can be handled not by a
board or council but by those that shall judge angels 1 Cor. 6:2-3 as well as
the world. The kingdom of men differs greatly from the Kingdom of God
especially in the idea concerning leadership Luke 22:24.
Christ
demands worship to be in the spirit and truth. John 4:23-24. Now that is
possible and since the convert is a spiritual, pneumatical individual, he
becomes a priest of a special order and that forever. 1 Cor. 15:44; Heb. 5:6; 1
Pet. 2:4-10.
To walk
this new way takes a conscious decision to co-operate this way Rom. 6:11-13.
Jesus was the example of living His life in the Spirit side. He was anointed
for ministry by the Spirit of God. He went down into the wilderness to
temptation, driven by the Spirit of God. He came out of the wilderness and went
back again to ministry in the power of the Spirit of God. He wrought miracles,
as the record declares, by this self-same power of the Spirit. He came to the
sublime mystery of His death, and we hear the word again, “through the eternal
Spirit He offered Himself without blemish unto God.” He came to the morning of
resurrection, and by the power of that Spirit He took life again, and came back
into human consciousness and being. He tarried for forty days among His
disciples, and, as Luke, the accurate Greek, the cultured scholar, tells us, He
instructed His disciples by the Holy Ghost long before the Spirit was poured
upon them. I open the Gospel of John, and read: “In Him was life” essential
life ”and the life was the light of men.” What is the life of Jesus? Spiritual
life, not spiritual life as we too often use the phrase, as though it were
something distinct from human life; but spiritual life in the simplest, and
broadest, and profoundest sense of the truth that all life is life by the
Spirit of God. The life of Jesus is life in the Spirit from beginning to end,
and when I read that “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” I
understand the evangelist to mean that if I want to know what life really is, I
must look at Him physically, mentally, and spiritually, and see this truth,
that all life is by the Spirit of God. Man’s being, in all its complex wonders,
is the creation of the Spirit of God, and the proper use of all the powers of
the being is possible only in submission to the Spirit of life.
So that
when we speak of regeneration, or of the filling of the Spirit, or of the
anointing of the Spirit, or of spiritual life in the deepest and profoundest
sense of the term, we are not asking men to enter a range or realm of life for
which they were not made. We are calling them back to normality, to
naturalness, to the fulfillment of the deepest and profoundest meaning of their
own first creation. A man does not by his new birth become something other than
himself. He becomes himself, as he never has been until by that new birth he
finds himself.
The new man
walks Eph. 4:1; Col. 2:6 now as Christ walked. Adam walked each day with God in
the cool of the day. Gen. 3:8 as well as Enoch who walked with Him Gen. 5:22.
Conversation with the Leader Matt 23:10 as well as reading from His book brings
enlightenment, direction, and purpose to the spirit each and every day Luke
24:27; John 14:26. Said Jesus, “I am the Light of the world." (John
8:12). He was born of the Spirit (Matt.
1:20), baptized of the Spirit (Luke 3:22), led of the Spirit into the
wilderness (Luke 4:1); He went in the power of the Spirit to proclaim the
Kingdom of God (Luke 4:14); He wrought miracles through the power of the Spirit
(Luke 4:18); He came to the mystery of His death and offered Himself without
blemish through the eternal Spirit unto God (Heb. 9:14); He came to resurrection
morning and by the power of the Spirit He came back into human consciousness (1
Peter 3:18); for forty days He then instructed His disciples concerning the
Kingdom of God by the Spirit (Acts 1:2-4). Of Him, the meek and lowly, the
Galilean peasant according to human measurement, the great central truth may be
spoken: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith Jehovah.”
And the new man said He to His own disciples, and through
them to the whole Church to the end of the age, “Ye are the light of the
world.” They are born of the Spirit (Gal 3:3), baptized by the Spirit (1 Cor.
12:13), sealed by the Spirit (Eph. 1:13), anointed by the Spirit (1 John 2:20),
filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). They speak with tongues as the Spirit gives
them utterance (Acts 2:4). They receive gifts which equip them for service in
the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11). They are a spiritual company, and the power which
makes them able to shine as lights in the world is the power of the indwelling
Spirit of God. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”
We are
light bearers John 8:12 and that is reflected light made bright by the ministry
of His Spirit of all the things He has commanded. Matt 28:19. Christ is our
lampstand amongst all the churches Rev. 1:12-13 casting light into the
darkness. In the end there is no more darkness Rev. 22:5.
We no
longer are able to suffer separation Rev. 1:18; Rom 6:9. At resurrection the
spirit is endowed with a new and indissoluble relation to the material body.1
Cor. 15:42 It is raised an imperishable body and now capable of lasting for
eternity.
- Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us
kneel before the LORD our Maker (Psalm 95:6). Israel’s desire but unattained by them so far.
- You shall fear the LORD your God and serve
Him, and shall take oaths in His name (Deuteronomy 6:13).
- And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me,
Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and
Him only you shall serve’” (Luke 4:8). Peter followed and made promises he would follow
and serve Him but actually ended up denying Him 3 times. At this point he
was not born of the Spirit.
- All the angels stood around the throne and the
elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the
throne and worshiped God (Revelation 7:11). This is one place where the father finds true
worship.
“Hear, O Israel:
The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words
which I command you today shall be in your heart.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) The destination given in Deuteronomy of
the nation Israel. Again this is a future prospect and is only attained by the
nation after great tribulation.
Jesus quoted
those words when the lawyer asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the law?” (Matthew 22:36). Three of the gospel books record the
various occasions when the Lord Jesus referenced the necessity of a heart and
mind and soul and strength that would love the God of heaven and Earth (Matthew 22:36-39; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 10:27). This approach is attested many times elsewhere
in Scripture.
- But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his
appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the
LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward
appearance, but “the LORD looks
at the heart” (1 Samuel
16:7) and He said “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) therefore in need of redemption.
- For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy: “I
dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones” (Isaiah
57:15). Christ’s residence is in heaven
with redeemed people (“absent from
the body present with the Lord”) along with the angels and from where
He performs His work of redemption using sanctification of the contrite
ones like Peter who denied Him 3 times. And when He told His followers He
was returning to heaven to begin to finish His 3-fold sanctification
process of His followers Peter asked if he might follow Him at that point
and He told him “Where I am about to go flesh and blood cannot
survive long enough. The flesh has desires it needs to be rid of, for they
cause death and where I go is an eternal place.” John 13:33 That is why Jesus
said this "Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews,
Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." And it is also says in Rev. 21:27 "And there shall in no wise enter into it (the New Heaven and
the New Earth) anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works
abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life.” That is at the point of completed sanctification, not to be
left on earth but when He returns to take them with Him to heaven and
there they are to serve and worship as the angels.
- Do not let your adornment be merely
outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine
apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the
incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious
in the sight of God (1
Peter 3:3-4), rearrange your focus, while awaiting
what happens at the completion of sanctification at His second coming,
where your standing will match your state.
·
Nothing
in the created universe could be directly compared to the Creator Himself. Any
attempt at physical representation strikes at the heart’s core of rebellion, in
that a person who does this has “changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and
birds and four-footed animals and creeping things....who exchanged the truth of
God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:23-25).
·
Furthermore,
the third command makes clear that those who would dare to “take the name of the LORD...in vain” (Exodus 20:7) would be
considered as attempting to relegate the Creator to the contempt of a “worthless” reference. Finally, the
fourth commandment demands that humanity follow the design and process of the
creation week. God “worked” six days
and rested one (Exodus 20:11) and, therefore, demanded that man honor the “rest day” in a perpetual commemoration
of what God had accomplished. Today many in the church use that day as the
others, a day of work. Millennia later, the Lord Jesus noted that He had
designed the six-day workweek into the fabric of creation itself: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Man awaits the Second Coming of the Lord and
then he attains a perfect body, a perfect mind as well as a perfect heart. Then
the Sabbath will be used for its original purpose.
God is interested
in the integrity of our “inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). True worshipers eventually who “bow down” in their love to the heavenly
Father will seek to allow the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in their
spirits. Please note that this fruit is all spiritual: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
While God does
demand “spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5), He also most certainly expects us to “do” truth with our observable behavior
(1 John 1:6). Jesus insisted that those who ran from the
light of His message were easily spotted because they were “practicing evil” (John 3:20). But in contrast, “he who does the truth comes
to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in
God” (John 3:21). He will use great tribulation to bring
this about.
- “And now, Israel, what does the
LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the
LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy
10:12-13).
- “But take careful heed
to do the commandment and
the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart
and with all your soul” (Joshua 22:5).
- “He who has My commandments and
keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). He will manifest Himself, at the end of the
tribulation to rescue Israel from a
certain end of the place on this earth.
- “But this I say: He who sows
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also
reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not
grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2
Corinthians 9:6-7). Israel
spreads the gospel to the entire earth during the tribulation. (Matt. 24:14)
- “By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are
not burdensome.” (1 John 5:2-3).
Perhaps the
greatest endowment that the New Testament saint has been given is the “new creation” that God executes in us
when we are twice-born. We are given “the
mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), the Spirit of truth (John 16:13), “the
riches of His grace...in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephesians 1:7-8), that is His second part of His
sanctification process but not the end when “an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). That part will be won at the Second
Coming of Christ. We have been given “all
things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who
called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3), enabling us to become “true worshipers eventually [who] shall worship the Father in spirit
and truth” (John 4:23).
Discipline
yourself to do truth as you “work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you
both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13) co-operating with the Holy Spirit Who
was left to bring to remembrance all the things He left us and spoke to us.
With our spiritual worship wholesome and our truthful worship active at last,
we should find it “cheerful” to give,
knowing that in return “it will be given
to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be
put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be
measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). We await your return for the final
piece of sanctification that brings meaning to our lives as never before.
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