Knowledge of God

Father, there is no truth apart from your Holy Spirit. Lord God communicating to our very hearts, Lord, I pray that you would pour out upon us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, of the knowledge of God today. And, Lord, that every person here, Father, whether they've come here hungry or bitter, whether they've come here searching or satisfied, Lord, that you'd raise up in them, Lord, a fire for your very heart. And, Lord, use the simple words that you've put into me to enable that to happen today. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Praise the Lord. Turn to John 4. We're learning to understand the wisdom of worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth. I'm not going to read the entire passage again that we began last week in John 4, but we will begin in verse 16. A woman at the well at Samaria, it says, after they had their first part of the encounter. And then Jesus said to her, verse 16, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you said. Truly. The woman said to her, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such the Father seeks to worship him. Hallelujah. God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. An opening thought about this passage for today is that I love the way that you can never predict the Lord. Who of us ever would have predicted that to a wayward woman in a well at Samaria, Jesus would utter the jewel of his teaching on worship to all of mankind, right? We would have expected him to say something profound like this. Maybe to the Pharisees or the scribes, those who were trained in worshiping God according to Jewish custom. But he takes a woman out of nowhere, one who really had no reason whatsoever to hear this beautiful, profound truth. And God chooses her. And that says something to me today, and I hope it says something to you that you may not feel today that you're anywhere near being able to worship the Lord in spirit. And Truth. You may feel that you're far from God. You may feel that you've come here today confused, upset, maybe just comfortable and satisfied with where you've always been. But the Lord Jesus always approaches us at the least expected point and speaks into our hearts. And I just take the encouragement from that today that he'll speak into each of us wherever we are. We're talking about praise and worship out of conviction, not out of the fact that it's on the lectern calendar for the year 1981 and the sequence of topics to be preached about. But we're addressing it because it's of conviction that we believe that praise and worship are the central activities of. Of eternity. I don't know that I believe that they're the only activities because the Lord speaks about the fact that those who overcome with him shall rule with Him. And I believe there's dominion and rulership in heaven. But I do know, and how many of you know from reading Revelation that praise and worship and the glories and the hallelujahs will go on eternally. That's why David said all the way back in the Psalms, I will praise your name for a thousand years, ten thousand years. What did he say? Forever and ever and ever. So that's our first conviction. Our second conviction is that praise and worship are central for us to learn as a people, because in it we bring pleasure to the Father. The Father seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth. And I didn't dwell on this last week, and I probably will in a coming week. But therein, brothers and sisters, lies the only promise in the Word that I remember to my knowledge, where God is found to be seeking after people. Wow. He's looking for us in that regard. It's also a conviction that praise and worship are a lost activity of the church as a whole. Most of us, even as was prayed last week at the end of the time of worship. Most of us have grown up in church life where praise and worship, as the Bible seems to indicate that it is full of life and expression and full of dynamic, has been lost from the church. And we have a road thing that we go through and we stand up and we look at the back of someone's head and that's all we do. And the Bible is full of expression and joy in life, in praise and worship. We're going to study because we have the conviction that in the moving into praise and worship, we come into a release of personal and corporate revelation and fulfillment. Now that's a point that I want to speak to very directly in the coming weeks because not only is praise and worship something that we're going to do when we get to heaven, but in doing that very thing here on earth, the Bible says that an entire realm of spiritual dynamic is opened up to us. And we're going to see what happens when we praise the Lord. Okay, that's coming up. Let's begin today by a bit of a definition of what worship is. I thought about this a lot, and I read about 15 different books or parts of books that had definitions of worship. And I've come to this conclusion. To define worship. It's really better experienced than described. Amen. Kind of like if someone asked you to define what a rose smells like or to define what sunrise means. Anyone see the sunrise? A couple days? I think it was Thursday morning. It was beautiful. You can tell what it is. And the sun elevates above the horizon line. But does that really tell what it is? You can't describe the changes in the colors and the cloud formations and all worship is that way. One man described worship this way or defined it. It's the outpouring of a heart at rest in the presence of God. The outpouring of a heart at rest in the presence of God. David said in Psalm 23, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. That's worship. When God anoints your head with his oil and your cup runs over, that's worship. Another said that worship is living water returning to its source. You see, true worship of the Lord comes from the Lord. When you're really in freedom, worshiping and loving him. It's from him, through you, back to Him. It's a channel, that's all. It's living water going back to where it came from. Another person said that worship is the response of a human heart to the revealed person of God. The revealed person of God. When we thank the Lord for answering prayer or bless him for what he's done here, that's not really worship, brothers and sisters. That's praise and thanksgiving. But worship is that which comes forth from our lips when we see who God really is. I just did a quick survey of verses in the Bible that talked about men and women who had seen God and then their response. And all through Genesis talks about Abraham saw the Lord, the Lord spoke to him and told him about him being the Father of many nations. And the Bible says he built an altar. Isaac had the same kind of a situation. He worshiped the Lord as the Lord revealed Himself to him. Remember the story of Moses on the burning bush? What happens when Moses saw the burning bush? The Lord said to him, take off your shoes. This is holy ground. He bowed down and worshiped him. Solomon, as he came and dedicated the temple. And the Lord revealed his glory, and Solomon fell down and worshiped him. David. The same thing. Paul. When Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, what did he say? When Jesus appeared in his glory and said to him, saul, Saul, what did Paul do? He fell on his face. You see? He worshiped the Lord. Anytime the revealed person of God confronts a human being, the response is always worship. Always. The Greek word for worship is proskineo. That's the one that's most frequently used. Proskineo means literally, to prostrate oneself. When you see that word in the New Testament, that's what it means. That's the root of the word to prostrate, to pay homage to a doer. The other word in the Greek, liturga, which from which we get the word liturgy, means literally to serve another. So you get the picture, don't you? Have you ever seen the old movies when a slave would come in to the king, I can't do it today. But he literally kneels down in a crouched position in front of him and said, at your bidding, master. That's in essence what the term in Greek for worship really means. Now, I don't know about you, but that is a humbling posture to be in, isn't it? How many of you have done that for your boss? How many of your bosses expect you to do that? What we're talking about here is bowing down literally, physically, not just in the spirit. Don't put your hand up, Rosalie. That's not true. My secretary is complaining about what she has to do in the office. Every word in the Hebrew language for worship has to do with bodily posture. Isn't that something? Every word that deals with worship has to deal with bodily posture. Prostrating, bowing down, lifting hands, everything. And we'll be looking at those in weeks to come. It's an exciting thing. You see, God knew all along what he wanted. People say something like, I'll worship the Lord God in the way I choose to worship him. And people say, I have a choice how I'm going to worship God. You know something? You do have a choice. You have a choice about the God you're going to worship. But once you choose the living God Jehovah, then your choices have narrowed down considerably to what you're going to do because he Tells you there's only one way to worship. That's the way he's prescribed. I'm telling you this. I know I've been where some of you are today saying, boy, that's awful dogmatic. That's closed minded. You mean all the other churches are wrong? I don't know about all the other churches. All I know is that the Bible talks about how the Lord wants to be worshiped and that's where we want to go together as his people. Okay, a few things need to happen in us to see this worship come forth. Look in verse 21. Last week. Well, here we are, verse 21, I won't get ahead of myself. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor, nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Here's this woman who has just been confronted with her sin of adultery, after adultery, after adultery. And what does she come back with? Oh, in my religion they say, we talked last week about how the confrontation of the word of God always brings forth the religious side of people. And we've all had experiences of that happening. I mean, if you ever think you have it bad, you ought to be with a person who is known to be a pastor. It is a skit you walk into even a store or a car lot or something like that. I remember once I went with one of the brothers here whose dad's in the car business. And we were in the shop and the guys were just going on and on with all these jokes. And I think Jay kind of did this on purpose. He said, I'd like you to meet Reverend Passephen. And there's all this gagging and coughing and people like, somehow my presence was going to be a condemnation and it's a skit. But you see it happening all the time. And you've had that happen too. When people know you're a Christian, they clean up their act a little bit. Ever have that happen? The other side of that is true. If you walk in a place and they don't care, then you have to wonder, what does my presence mean here? But that's not the other side of that story. But anyhow, the woman here says on and on about her father's this, and we worship that way. And Jesus said to her, lady, you better get something straight. No, he doesn't say that way, does he? He doesn't come down in condemnation. He says this. There's no crusade, there's no heavy, you're wrong, lady. He just says, I didn't see this the first time I studied through this, he says, look, woman, believe me. If. Jesus Christ said to you believe. That'S. Cause to really pay attention to what he's saying, isn't it? Believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You've got to see, ma', am, that God is changing everything and that no longer will all the ways that you've held to be traditional and right because your fathers told you that way. But that's no longer the way it's going to be. And the first thing that you must do, if you're to grow in worship and praise, if you're to mature in loving the Lord, you've got to be willing to see that in your life, which is just a shell of reality. You've got to be willing to acknowledge before God that some of that which you've been into has had no life in it. And that's a hard thing to do. But Jesus was saying just exactly that the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. What you had to say, ma', am, is not right. And it takes a release. It's your choice. God will never say to you, you must do it this way or else. But he says to you, here's the way I have chosen. Will you choose it? And listen, you can choose to sit here every Sunday and not do the things that the body is doing. And no one will ever come up to you and say, sir, would you please leave? You haven't done what we're doing. No one will ever say that it's between you and the Lord. But we do have a direction, and we are going to go after it. And we are going to choose. And it's up to you to choose to say yes to the Lord or no. Okay, then, let's go on. Verse 22. The first thing is to release your old patterns. The second thing is to recognize your need. Look what he says. You worship what you do not know. You worship what you do not know. That word expression, what you do not know is in the neuter gender in the Greek, which means it's neither masculine nor feminine. It's talking about the whole matter of things and the whole matter of an unclear identity. Now, he was speaking specifically here. Remember last week we talked about the Samaritans and their confused religious practice, and we said that it was a blending together, that Samaritans were really a conglomeration of all the captives that the Assyrians brought in and put in the land. And so they brought with them some of their gods from here and some of their gods from there. In a minute we're going to turn to a passage that describes that. And what he's saying is that you don't even know what you're doing. Look at it. Let's turn there now. Second Kings 17. If you have your Bible turned there, it's really worth seeing. There's a very significant truth there. 2 Kings 17. We have Bibles on the table out front when you're coming in. If you happen to forget yours, you're welcome to pick one up. Second kings, not first. Second kings 17. This is an obscure passage, but it's very relevant to this morning. I'll read selections from it, beginning in verse 24. Follow along. And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Avah, Hamath, and Sepharavam, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. And so the king of Assyria was told, and he's told that they're dying, and they better do something about it. Verse 27. The King of Assyria commanded, send there one of the priests whom you carried away thence, and let him go and dwell there and teach them how the law of God. Teach them the law of God of the land. So one of the priests whom they carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. You got the picture? Here's this conglomeration of people that are doing things in all different ways. And the king of Assyria says, well, lions are coming and eating the people. And that may have literally been taking place as a symbol of God's judgment on the people. And so the king said, well, get one of their Jewish priests and have them go back and teach them what they're supposed to do. There's verse 29. Look at it. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made every nation in the cities in which it dwelt. And it goes on and describes them. And look at verse 31. The Avites made Neboz in Tartach, and the Seraphites burned their children in the fire to Adrimalech and Animelech, and the gods of Sevarim they also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. Listen, verse 33. So they feared the Lord, but also served their own gods after the manner of the nations from among whom they'd been carried away. Do you see that? Verse 34? To this day they do according to the former manner. What a tragic thing was taking place there. Look at verse 40. Let's start in the end of verse 38. You shall not fear other gods, verse 39, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner. So these nations feared the Lord and also served their graven images, their children likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did. So they do to this day. Do you see that they had God plus a whole other set of religions and they passed it on to their children and their grandchildren. And I want to say to you today, beloved, that many, many, many Christians today have Jesus plus Jesus plus other religions. Now it may not be formal graven images like was represented here, but it's the same thing, isn't it? They have Jesus plus they have their own self styled gods that they alone have raised up. And it may be their position or their job and it may be their way of doing things and it may be their trips to the bar, it may be anything at all, or it may be a dilution of this form, of that denominationalism and that form and this denominationalism and all the rest. But it's Jesus plus a whole set of religions and you can't tell that person anything because they figured this out and they have. And the sad thing is that that's a very hard person to get through to because they have built up a form of religion and a style and you can talk to them about Jesus and being born again. He said, I know, I know have to be born again, but you also have to do things this way. And I believe it should be like this. And it's Jesus plus and it's an abomination and it causes hurt to that person and they teach it to their children and their grandchildren. And I'll tell you true worship and praise will never come out of a mouth. You worship what you do not know. The Lord says to that kind of a person, when we say Jesus Christ is Lord, that means that he has the final word to say on everything that we do, beloved. Even the Final word is what we're doing in all of our denominational church life. We cannot have Jesus and have our own way. That's clearly the teaching of the Word of God. It's interesting to me that Jesus says to the woman back in John 4 again, you worship what you do not know. It's interesting to me that he didn't say, you don't worship. Wouldn't you have expected him to say something like, what you're doing isn't really worship, ma'? Am? No, he said, you worship. And I'll tell you, I thought about that. And you know what I think the Lord is saying implicitly, there is. You're worshiping the wrong thing, this hodgepodge of gods that you've made up, because every human being worships something. Beloved. I found it just profound in the scriptures, and someone pointed this out to me this week, and I. I had seen it before, and I appreciated their reminding me of it, that worship is the central issue throughout eternity. What caused Lucifer to fall in Ezekiel 28? He wanted the worship of the most high God, didn't he? He wanted to exalt himself above him. What did Satan tempt Jesus with? He said, if you bow down and worship me, then I will give you all the kings of the earth. And it's interesting to me, In Revelation chapter 13, what does the beast, the Antichrist, what does he expect of people? Their money, their resources? Turn to Revelation 13 just in case you're not familiar with that. Verse. Four men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it? And the beast was given a mouth, uttering haughty and blasphemous words. And it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in the heavens. Also. It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given over it, over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world, in the book of Life, of the Lamb that was slain, the beast, the Antichrist, the consummate enemy of God, requires worship. And then I rejoice as we read through the book of Revelation. At the end, Beloved, what is eternity full of? We worship God. The angel said to John, worship God. And so you see, Jesus was right. In saying to the woman, you worship what you don't know. And many of us have come out of a heritage where we worship what we didn't know. And Jesus said, we worship what we know. There is a right worship, a worship that flows out of the knowledge of God. A.W. tozer said something I really appreciated. He said, you can only worship a being that you trust, and you can only trust a being that you know. And if you want to learn how to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, that's what it's all about. It's knowing God. Oh, I'm so thankful that worship isn't just so much mechanics. I'm so thankful that really you can worship the Lord in a traditional service somewhere. And your spirit, it's possible because you know him and you commune with Him. It's just that the patterns that have been promulgated over the years in so many of our backgrounds don't have life in them. And ultimately, if you do that, week after week after week, you end up dried out, lifeless. But beloved, if you know God, you can worship him anywhere. That's why Jesus said, it's not on this mountain or on that hill or in this city. It's anywhere you can worship him because we worship what we know. I want to ask you today, do you know God? Not, do you know about Him? Young people, I can ask you a question this morning. If I asked you today, how many of you know Ronald Reagan, President. All. Of us here would be able to say, I know who he is, right? Some of your questions, you know who I mean? I don't want to assume too much these days. You know, these are studious people. They don't get out of their books too much. You know who I mean, right? So you know about him and you know exactly what I'm talking, but do you know him? And beloved, there are many people who know Jesus that way. They understand how he works and they somehow feel like they are related to him because they are under the dominion of his decrees and all the rest and promises and commands. But they've never really sat down in the Oval Office of Heaven and communed with the living God. And that's what Jesus wants to bring us all into. Now I want to tell you something that's for everybody. Beloved, when the veil was rent to enter into the holy of holies, it wasn't just for a few people who had a special tag on their back. It was for you and me and everyone who realizes that they need a deliverer and a savior and so many of us stop short and we spend our time in the outer courts. We don't go on into what God has for us. And that's why we're here today. And that's why I'm looking forward to sharing this truth with you today. Because many here today and over the next weeks, for the first time in your life, you're going to come into a freedom of worship that you've never known, because you're going to know God. What does it mean to know God? Knowledge. In the Bible there's two Greek words for knowledge, ginosko, which is G I N O s K o transliterated and oida o I D A. Ginosko is the word that's most frequently used. And how many of you remember that in the Greek culture, knowledge was the cherished commodity? I mean, they didn't give a rip about how physically adept you were because they thought that the body passed away anyhow. But knowledge would remain. Knowledge was eternal. The head is what counted. And so they glorified knowledge and they equated their spiritual value system and hierarchy based on what you knew. And the smarter you were, the more intelligent you were, the more knowledge you had, the more spiritual you were in the Greek culture. Aren't you glad you're not Greek? I am, but that's the genre out of which the Bible was written. And so when Jesus would speak of knowing whom we worship, he's saying that we have a complete revelation of him whom we worship. Knowledge of a person in the Greek culture meant that you had a relationship with them. It was implicit. And the word oida that Jesus uses here in John 22 is the word that has the implication of face to face relationship. So that when you know God, you know God because you sat down and talked with Him. Amen. That's what it means. It's not because you read about him in a book or heard about him in a sermon. Does that make you want to get to know the Lord? That you can commune with him and you can have relationship with Him? Jesus says, we know whom we worship. That's the whole meaning of knowledge in the Bible. It's a person to person thing. In fact, the same word in the Greek was used for sexual union. When you know a person. You probably heard that before in Genesis. The Bible says Adam knew Eve. That's what it meant. Joseph knew not Mary before Jesus was born. That's what it means. Do you see what God's saying He wants of us? Do you see the picture of it? And so worship is so much more than whether or not you raise your hands or whether or not you bow down. It's all wrapped up in knowing God, the knowledge of the Lord. Now, the Bible says that this knowledge is progressive. Note these Scriptures, 2 Peter 3, 18. Peter prays that we grow in the knowledge and the love of God. Colossians 1:10. Paul prays that we grow in the knowledge of God. Moses asked the Lord, teach me to know the O lord. In Exodus 33, Paul said in Philippians 3:10, One of my favorite verses, that his goal in life was to know him and the power of his resurrection. How many of you think when Paul wrote that after having been a Christian for a number of years that he knew God pretty well? He did. And see, this is what's deceiving, beloved, and this is a really important point. Don't think that because you're young in the Lord that you don't know God at all, or that somehow you're going to get cut out or that somehow you're going to work your way on up and then suddenly you're going to get there and know Him. But knowledge is an increasing revelation. And listen, the key to growing in knowledge of God is to come to him where you are and praise and worship because a cycle is launched. I'm going to destroy an overhead here. Bear with me. Didn't plan to do this. I have that cover, Paul, just laying on top half there. Okay. We have a starting point of our knowledge of God and we come to him in worship and praise. The lifting of our hands, the bowing of our hearts, the whole expression, what we're going to be learning about in the future. And we have new revelation of the. Lord. And that new revelation of God. What do you think it does when the Lord opens himself up to you some more? Does it make you go back down and say, well, go back down and start here again? No, you grow. And so you want to praise him some more. And it's almost like a cycle of things. The more you know, the more you praise, the more you praise, the more you know. Do you see that? And beloved, the reason I know it's true is why do you think they can say in heaven they'll praise God forever and ever and ever because the more they discover of God, the more they want to worship him. And why do they want to worship Him? Because they're discovering more. And you know, it just so happens that the Bible tells us that God is what he's all powerful, all knowing, he's unlimited. He's Infinite. So the more you know, the more you love. The more you love, the more you know. Isn't that neat? That's what we're all about. But the key is to see that you begin right here, right now, wherever you are. Lord, make me an instrument. An instrument of worship. Let's close our Bibles and ask him to begin to do that even now in our hearts. Okay? Praise the Lord. The knowledge of God. Isaiah 11:9 says that in the end the knowledge of God will cover the. Earth. Like the seas. And that's why there's going to be praise and worship. Because we're going to know God and know him more and love him, and then know him more and love him more. And we begin right now asking him to make us an instrument. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads for a moment and ask the Lord just to prepare our hearts. Thank you, jesus. Sam. Wherever you are this morning, let's begin right now to worship and love the Lord who you know and whatever degree you know him. Trusting his promise that as you do so, he's going to reveal more of Himself to you than you've ever known. Begin it today. Don't wait till next week. Because the Lord wants to do a work in your life, not a relation. Amen. Praise the Lord Jesus. Let's sing together. Now is the time. Now is the time. To worship Let the Father. Lord. Here's the song that we sing. Sing I love you Lo. I sing out, sing out. My hands to the Lord. I. Love you. Holy. Rash oh Father. Glory to your name where you're seated, Father that we might come unto you Praise the name of the Lord Church be a living temple under the Holy God Church Where Jesus might inhabit his praises the praises of his people where he would have for himself a living temple Not a temple built with hands of man but by the spirit of the living God. Hallelujah Lord Jesus oh Lord, we worship. Lord God Almighty. The morning God. Holy, Holy. Praise the name of the lord hallelujah lord jesus, jesus. Bless the name of the Lord. O jesus. O lord jesus thank you, father.