Clean Transcript

There Shall Be War - Part 2

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• Alright, let's open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 5. And let's begin reading with verse 1 and read through verse 8. Remember, if you would please, that I started this message last week, and Lord willing, I'll finish it next week. But each message will stand, I believe, on their own. But the title of this short series is "There Shall Be War." And notice, if you would, Exodus chapter 5, beginning with verse 1.

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• And afterwards, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." And they said, "The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword." And the king of Egypt said unto them, "Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens." And Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens." And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, "Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves."

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• "And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God." You remember last week we dealt primarily with verses one and two, and we demonstrated that, practically speaking, war of every kind stems from and is a result of a failure to acknowledge and submit to the sovereignty of God. Pharaoh, of course, did not recognize God, would not admit to his sovereignty and his jurisdiction, and therefore he said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." So by refusing to acknowledge God's sovereign authority, he therefore was confessing and acknowledging his own godhood and claiming to be independent from God and not under God's jurisdiction. Consequently, he believed it was not necessary for him to obey God. Now, I want to just reiterate the one main point that I developed last week, and here it is. I said, all rebellion in individuals and rulers stem from a refusal to acknowledge and bow to God's absolute sovereignty.

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• And that's true. All rebellion in individuals and in rulers stems from this one little thing. They fail to acknowledge and submit to God's absolute and total authority. We examined Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 last week, and I showed you this was in essence the rebellion of Adam and Eve. They were denying God's sovereign authority that they may become their own gods and do their own thing and make their own laws and determine for themselves right and wrong. We also looked at Psalm 2 last week and saw the same truth in regard to civil rulers. And I pointed out that those that are in authority are prone to idolatry since they always devise to further their power and further their authority and determine good and evil for themselves. And therefore, they are always pushing tyranny, despotism, totalitarianism.

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• And if you don't understand this, just look at our modern day politicians and you'll get a glimpse of it. But we need to understand this principle that I taught last week. So if you did not get this principle last week, please get it today. It is simply this. Where there is no recognition of God's sovereignty, there will be no obedience to His commands. What did Pharaoh say?

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• "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." So the obverse is actually true as well. Obedience, that is true obedience, stems from the recognition of God's sovereign authority. Have you ever stopped to think that the reason we as Christians obey God is because we believe that He's sovereign? That He has all authority, all power, all jurisdiction, and therefore we believe that He has an absolute right to dictate to us as to how we're to live and how we're to act in every area of our life. So it is faith and belief in his absolute sovereignty that compels us to obedience.

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• Now, here's the second point that I want to develop today, and I want you to see this very clearly from verses three through eight, so I want you to listen carefully. Where there is no recognition of God's absolute sovereignty, not only will there not be obedience to his command, there will not be any real worship of God. Look in verse three. "And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword."

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• "And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them."

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• "Ye shall not diminish ought thereof. Watch, for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God."

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• Now, I want you to notice the fact that worship and obedience are intimately tied together. I've often been asked a simple question, how is it that the heathen cannot worship God? And the answer to that question is revealed in Pharaoh's answer to Moses. If one does not recognize God's sovereignty, he does not believe that he owes him obedience. Now, listen, obedience is tied to worship. Where there is no true obedience, there will be no true worship. Now, listen carefully to what I'm about to say. It is not just the heathen that do not worship God aright. Many professing Christians do not worship him aright either. Moreover, our little puny ceremonial and ritualistic attempts at worship are vain and worthless. I want to tell you something. Pharaoh was right on the one hand. What was Pharaoh right about? Here's what he was right about. If you do not believe in God's absolute sovereignty, there will not be any obedience. And if there's not any obedience, there's not going to be any true worship.

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• And therefore, you might as well keep on working. Because your attempt at worship will be absolutely useless and worthless. So you have to ask this question, these questions: Why did Pharaoh demand that Israel keep working? Why did Pharaoh accuse Moses and Aaron of allowing the people to go free from their work? Why did Pharaoh say that the people were idle? They didn't have enough to do. The answer comes roaring back into our ears. Pharaoh said those things because first of all, he did not acknowledge God's sovereignty and jurisdiction.

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• Secondly, he did not believe that God therefore had to be obeyed. And thirdly, since there was no sovereignty and since there was no obedience, there could be no worship. And therefore, God did not need to be worshiped. Now, listen. If God is not sovereign, if God does not have all power and authority, if God is not the controller of everything, if He does not have sovereign jurisdiction over everyone and everything, why would you waste time worshipping Him?

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• You understand what I'm saying? God is either sovereign and demands our worship, or He's not sovereign and He does not deserve to be worshipped. So I hope just simply by laying these few simple facts out, you're beginning to discern the state of our churches and the disposition and the thinking of the average Christian. We're living in a day and time where, generally speaking, God's sovereignty is absolutely despised. Since His sovereignty is despised, obedience to Him is nullified and His worship is vilified. It's this truth that explains why most church buildings sit empty and the few that do attend them really and truly do not worship God. It is also this answer that explains why so many people are satisfied with just pure ritualism and ceremonialism, and therefore they refuse to give God the worship that he demands. They refuse to worship him in spirit and in truth. And most professing Christians generally think, and erroneously think, that just simply because they attend a building on Sunday morning, and listen to a message, and maybe sing, and maybe give, that therefore they have worshipped God.

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• And that is the farthest thing from the truth. You may do all those things and never worship God. Unhappily, most Baptist churches have become just as ritualistic and ceremonialistic as your Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal churches. We've reduced everything down to an absolute ceremony. We have fallen in the same trap that Israel fell into, and we tend to think then if we go through this little ritual and if we go through this little ceremony, then it really doesn't matter how we live. It really doesn't matter whether we obey God or not. Let me show you.

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• I want you to hold Exodus chapter 5, but turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1, and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10. I want you to see exactly where we are today. Isaiah 1, verse 10. We've come full circle into the same error, into the same trap that Israel fell into. Isaiah 1, verse 10. God says to Israel, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." Now, he's talking to Israel, and he's calling them Sodom and Gomorrah.

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• Now, look at the questions that he asks. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?"

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• "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless."

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• "And plead for the widow." Now, let me ask you a question. Why did God despise the ordinances and the sacrifices and the ceremonies that he demanded and that he set up, that he originated, he initiated? These things did not just come out of the mind of Moses. God is the one that said, here are my Sabbaths, here are the new moons, here are the sacrifices. And now he comes to the point where he says, I hate, I despise, I will not have it. I cannot stand it.

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• I'm weary with all of this. Why? Well, skip down to verse 17. Look what he said. Well, let's read verse 16. He says, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." What is God saying? God said, if you want to worship me, it must be through obedience.

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• You do what I command you. You do what I tell you. What you've done is basically ceased obeying me and gone to rituals and ceremonies. And God said, I hate it. I despise it. I will not have it. I want you to understand again that obedience is tied to worship. Where there is no obedience, there is no worship. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos. Look in Amos chapter 5. Amos chapter 5. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos chapter 5.

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• And let's begin reading there with verse 21. And we'll read through verse 27. Look in verse 21. Here again, God says basically the same thing to Israel. Amos chapter 5 verse 21, God says, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts."

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• "Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts."

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• Now go back to verse 21. God said, "I hate, I despise your feast days, I will not smell your solemn assemblies." He says in verse 22, "Though ye offer me burnt offerings, I'm not going to accept them." And then he says in verse 23, "Take away from me the noise of thy songs." It does not matter if you are singing the songs which are divinely inspired songs. If you're singing them in disobedience and rebellion to God, it's just noise. And God says, no, I'm not going to have that. What did he say in verse 24?

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• "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." If you're going to worship me, you must obey me. You must be righteous as I am righteous. You must be just as I am just. And so God then is admonishing Israel to repent and let judgment come down as waters, as a mighty stream. And notice if you would, even in the wilderness, he said, for these 40 years, you really didn't worship me. You carried the image of your Moloch and Chiun and your images, the star of your god.

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• You have to remember something. These people that God was leading through the wilderness, they saw His miracles firsthand. They saw His mighty power. They saw His providential provision. They saw how He sustained them and took care of them. And yet, they still refused to give Him the worship that He demanded. If you will look in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 7, Acts chapter 7, you'll see Stephen brings this fact out very clearly to these people in our Lord's time. Notice Acts chapter 7, beginning there in verse 42. Acts 7 and verse 42. In fact, let's begin reading with verse 40.

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• "Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." God said you were worshiping your idols when you were pretending to worship me. Do you understand it is impossible to fool God?

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• I've known people in prayer, and I've heard people pray so many times and they dance around saying what the real sin is and what the real problem is. Let me tell you, you might as well be honest with God, for He already knows. He's the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, immutable, infinite God of heaven and earth. Obedience is entwined in worship. Let me say this again. Where there is no obedience, there is no worship.

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• You remember what the Bible says in Psalm 66 and verse 18, David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." How can God hear us if we're in sin and rebellion? Obviously, he will not. I want you to turn back in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 9, 1 Kings chapter 9, and I want you to see that which God told King Solomon. 1 Kings 9. In this passage, God is making it exceedingly clear that where there is no obedience, there is no worship. Look in 1 Kings 9, beginning there with verse 1. "And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him."

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• "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication." By the way, I'll go ahead and tell you when God said "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication," he's referring to the prayer that Solomon prayed in 1 Kings chapter 8 where he was dedicating the temple to the Lord. You can read that prayer this afternoon. So he says in verse 3, "And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually."

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• Now watch. "And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people."

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• Now let me tell you, verse 4 and verses 6 and 7 in this passage are the keys to understanding worship. I just told you Solomon had just finished dedicating the temple to the Lord in 1 Kings chapter 8. However, I want you to notice what God told Solomon. Look in verse 4. He said, "And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments." Then says God, yes, I'm going to honor your prayer. I'm going to do everything that you've asked me to do. However, skip down to verses 6 and 7. He says this. "But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this

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• house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people." What is God doing? God is telling us. God is stating explicitly that obedience is tied to worship. What is he saying? If you obey me, if you worship me, I'm going to honor you. I'm going to keep everything going just the way it should be going. But if you disobey me and if you dishonor me and fail to worship me, then I'm going to cast you out of my sight. Then I'm going to judge you. You see, it is vain to pretend to worship God while we're disobeying God. That truth is explicitly stated in the New Testament as well.

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• You need to understand that which our Lord told the Pharisees. And may I remind you that the Pharisees were known as the fundamentalists in our Lord's day. At least they claimed to believe the law of God. They did claim to believe in angels and the resurrection, where the Sadducees did not. But our Lord said this in Matthew, chapter 15, verses 7 through 9. Listen to what he said to these Pharisees. He said, "Ye hypocrites."

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• "Well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." What did he say? You people honor me with your mouth and with your lips. Your hearts are far away from it. Your lives are absolutely contrary to what I've commanded. And you're following the commandments of men, not the commandments of God.

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• I want to tell you something. There are a lot of churches that establish their own laws, their own rules of do's and don'ts, which are over and above and beyond the word of God. And so many people think just because we follow man's rules and man's laws, therefore, we must be right with God, which is totally, completely untrue. Our Lord said it like this in John 14 in verse 21.

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• "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." Do you love the Lord? Well, if you love the Lord, you obey and you keep his commandments. He made it even plainer in John 14 in verse 24 when he said this, "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings." Wow. Our Lord said, if you love me, you'll keep my sayings. If you don't love me, you will disobey me. Do you remember what our Lord said in Luke 6 and verse 46? Listen to this. He said, He asked this question, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Remember the word "Lord," I've told you before. The Greek word is kurios.

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• And it literally means boss, owner, sovereign, master. Why are you calling me sovereign? Why are you calling me boss? Why are you calling me master if you don't do those things which I tell you? You have to understand that our Lord will not tolerate and cannot stand a double-hearted individual or a half-hearted individual. You remember what He said in James 1 and verse 8? "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." Every time I think of that verse, I think of all the little squirrels that get killed on the highway.

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• I'm serious, and I kill my share of them. What did they do? They'll run across the road right in front of you and then they turn and turn and they can't make up their minds and inevitably they get squished. If they had just kept going, they'd have probably made it. Or if they had turned and kept going, they'd have probably... But they just keep going back and forth.

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• You look at all the squirrels that are mashed on the highway. And when you see those squirrels that are mashed, you think of this verse, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." He can't make up his mind and he always gets in trouble. You know this passage, but I want you to look in your Bibles, Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3, because our Lord here is talking to the church at Laodicea. Look at what he says in Revelation 3 verses 15 and 16. Revelation chapter 3. It is not 1. Revelation chapter 3. Look in Revelation chapter 3, beginning there with verse 15. In fact, let's read verse 14. "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God."

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• "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." What did he say? "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. You are lukewarm. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

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• Now let me just tell you, according to this passage, I believe our Lord is saying this, I'd rather have you out and out against me than to be lukewarm. You can either be cold against me or you can be hot for me. But do not be lukewarm. If you're going to oppose God's sovereignty, oppose it. At least he'll say you're cold, you're an enemy, but don't come here with lukewarmness. If you're going to be for him, then you obey him and you honor him and you worship him. Now, listen. We all say and all believe that God is immutable. That is, that God is unchangeable. If God's attitude toward Israel's worship when they were disobedient was, "I hate, I despise, I cannot stand your worship, I will not have it." If that was His attitude then, what do you think His attitude is toward the modern church today?

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• I'll tell you what. If you will turn to Jeremiah, chapter 13, I'll show you what God thinks.

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• Jeremiah, chapter 13, I have preached on this passage before. This is the girdle that God told Jeremiah to go and bury by the river Euphrates, and then he told him to go and dig it out again. And after he dug it out, the girdle, of course, was rotted and worthless. So in Jeremiah 13, verse 10, God says this concerning Israel. In fact, let's read verse 9. "Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem."

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• Look what he talks about now. Look what he calls them. "This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing." Wow! So what does God say? God says the people who do not obey Him and their worship is good for nothing. He hates it. He despises it.

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• He will not have it. It's the same in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament.

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• Now, I want you to turn to the little book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah. You will find the book of Zephaniah after Habakkuk and right before Haggai, right before Zechariah and right before Malachi. OK, well, it's Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. But it's after the book of Habakkuk. You have the little book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah. So it's about the fourth book from Malachi. Look in Zephaniah chapter 1 and let's begin reading there verse 2. I want you to see what God is going to consume and God is going to destroy. As Zephaniah 1 in verse 2, God says, "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea." Oh, look at this.

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• "And the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him."

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• Who's God going to destroy? All of these, the compromisers, the double hearted. Those who have not sought Him. Those who say there is and really are not. God said, I'm just going to wipe them out. Why? Because they're not worshiping God. Obedience is tied to worship. We cannot and we will not worship the sovereign God aright until we are obedient unto Him.

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 95 and look at verse 6. This is a very interesting verse. Psalm 95 and look at verse 6. Look what David says. Psalm 95 and verse 6. David says, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." It's interesting, as you read through the Bible, you will find men worshiping prostrate before the Lord. Many times in the Bible they fall on their faces before the Lord. Oftentimes they're on their knees before the Lord with their hands lifted toward heaven.

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• They are bowing down their bodies as an indication that their soul is bowed down as well. Interestingly, in the New Testament, one of the main words for worship is proskuneo. The Greek word proskuneo is actually made up of two Greek words. The first word, pros, is a preposition which means "to" or "toward." The second word, kuneo, is the verb form of kuon, which is the noun. And the Greek word kuon means a dog. The word worship means "to or toward a dog." Yep. Literally, what it means is this: to lay at one's feet as a dog, or to kiss or to lick the hand as a dog. You say that's worship? That's a good illustration of worship. I have a dog, Jeb, the Bullmastiff, and he lays at my feet.

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• Alice can tell you all the time. If I'm in my office working on my computer, usually he's under my desk with his head on my foot. If I sit down, he comes and either gets beside me or at my feet. If I just simply hold my hand out, he'll obligingly lick it. You know what that dog is doing? That dog is telling me, "You're my master. I'm your dog. I'm subservient to you, I'm submissive to you. I'm willing to listen to you and obey you." That's what the dog is saying. What is worship? It is to lie at our Lord's feet in submission and obedience.

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• We're there waiting for his commands. We kiss his hand, so to speak. We acknowledge the fact that we love him, that we obey, that we honor Him, and that we rejoice only in Him, and that we're there to fulfill His demands and obey His commands. Wow. Yeah. Real worship is being "to or toward a dog" in that sense of the word, because we acknowledge that he's our Lord and Master.

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to John Chapter 4. I want you to look very carefully at verses 23 and 24, because worship continues. John Chapter 4. Look, if you would, at what our Lord told this Samaritan woman. John Chapter 4, verse 23. Our Lord said it like this, John 4 verse 23. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Now, what is God teaching us? He's teaching us that real worship is bounded by spirit and truth. On the one hand, we must worship God in the power and in the person of the Holy Spirit, because no one can come to the Father except through the Son and in the Spirit, Ephesians 1, verse 18. But secondly, we must worship Him in our spirit as well.

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• Just because we fall on our face does not mean that we've fallen down before him in our hearts. We may fall on our face before God, but our hearts must be bowed as well, and what God is telling us is this. He's not interested in some dry dead, ritualistic or ceremonial worship. He wants that which is living to be given to him. It must be in the Spirit. What do I mean by in the Spirit? Well, let me show you.

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• Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 103 and look what David said in verses 1 through 5. Here is an example of worshiping God with our spirit. Look in Psalm 103, and let's begin reading there with verse one. Psalm 103, verse one. David said it like this, and I love this passage. "Bless the Lord, O my soul."

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• Now watch. "And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

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• Now go back to verse 1. "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." So how are you blessing the Lord? You bless Him by forgetting not all of His benefits. You understand His forgiveness. You understand His blessed mercies to you and healing you. How He's redeemed you. How He's crowned you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. He satisfies you.

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• You think of all that God has done for you in your spirit, in your mind, and you're giving God praise. It's not some dead, dry, worthless, useless worship. No. You're active. And you're giving God the worship that He does, that He deserves, because everything within you is acknowledging that He is God, and that everything you have comes from Him. So, our worship is bounded on the one side with spirit, and it's bounded on the other side with truth. In other words, in our spirit, we bless the Lord with all that is within us. We are alive and we are active in our worship. On the other hand, our worship is bounded by truth. Our worship never exceeds or goes beyond the Word of God. God's Word is truth.

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• Now, I want you to turn to one last passage. I want you to look in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3. Philippians, chapter three and verse three, I want you to see that which the Apostle Paul states. Philippians, chapter three and verse three. He said this. "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Note, if you would, we're the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

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• So here's the principle that we must learn today. Where there is no obedience, there is no true worship. Are you listening? Our obedience is tied to God's sovereignty. Our worship is tied to God's sovereignty. Pharaoh said, "You think I'm going to let you go? You think I'm going to let you go out in the wilderness for three days so that you can sacrifice and worship the Lord? You're idle. You're idle."

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• "You need to get back to work." Why did he think that? Because he did not acknowledge God, His sovereignty, His jurisdiction. And since he did not acknowledge God, he did not believe that God had to be obeyed or worshiped. So here's my application. Your attitude towards worship reveals whether or not you understand the sovereignty of God. Those who disobey him and refuse to give him worship in spirit and in truth have no idea who God really is and his position and his jurisdiction. If we deny God's sovereignty, we cannot worship Him aright. If we believe in and acknowledge God's sovereignty, we know that He must be obeyed and He must be worshipped.

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• Now listen, I told you last week, where there is no obedience, there shall be war. Because God made war not only upon the Egyptians, but upon the gods of Egypt. Where there is no true worship, there shall be war. What did God say in Isaiah 42 and verse 8? "My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." When people refuse to give God that which he demands, there shall be war.

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• I want to read to you very quickly six paragraphs from the Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith. You'll find that probably if you look at the Westminster Confession, it's probably word for word exact. But, here it is, listen carefully. This is the Philadelphia Baptist Confession on worship. "The light of nature shows there is a God with lordship and sovereignty over all, is just, good, and doeth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart and all the soul and with all the might."

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• "But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations, or in any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. Religious worship is given to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and to Him alone; not to angels, saints, or other creatures; and since the fall, not without a mediator, nor in the mediation of any other but Christ alone. Prayer and thankfulness, being one special part of natural worship, is by God required of all men. But that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son, by the help of the Holy Spirit, according to his will, with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and when with others, in a known tongue. Prayer is to be made for things lawful, or for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter; but not for the dead, not for those whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death."

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• "The reading of the scriptures, preaching, hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, as also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God, to be performed in obedience to Him with understanding, faith, reverence and godly fear; moreover, solemn humiliation, with fastings and thanksgiving upon special occasions, ought to be used in a holy and religious manner. Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now under the gospel tied unto or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed or towards which it is directed. But God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth; as in private families daily, and in secret each one by himself, so more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly nor willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God by His providence calleth thereto." Isn't that amazing?

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• Do you realize those six paragraphs you could preach for six months? Because it's telling us that God is sovereign. And God does not—we do not need to go to the Old Testament temple or to a special building to pray to God. Why? Because God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. But there are public assemblies and solemn assemblies where we're to give God public worship. But until then, we're to give him private worship.

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• I want you to understand. Where there is a denial of God's sovereignty, there is no obedience and where there is no obedience, there is no worship. And the reason we are such a disobedient and unworshipful people is because we've never really comprehended the absolute sovereignty of God. And where that is not apprehended, there shall be war. For God will fight to maintain His honor and His glory.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We acknowledge Your love, Your grace, Your mercy, Your goodness, Your kindness. Help us, O Lord, to love Thee with all of our hearts, to give Thee worship in spirit and in truth. Enable us to bless the Lord with all of our souls, with all of our might, with all of our being, with our minds conscious of Your blessings and Your graces. Help us, Lord, to praise Thee and to love Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T12:48:15Z