We turn now to the New Testament scriptures and to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, and we're going to read verses 19 through 26. John chapter 4, verses 19 through 26. Jesus has met with the woman of Samaria at the well. and he has spoken to her and she has responded with regard to the discussion of both physical water and the living spiritual water which Jesus himself would provide. And we pick up the narrative at verse 19. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where the people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain 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 is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Amen and so far again God's inerrant and infallible word. Last Lord's Day we began a new series in our second service in which we are seeking to address the subject of the doctrine of worship. And we formulated a question which will guide us as to how we are going to conduct this short series. The question is this. What ought we to do when we're assembled together in the Lord's name in the public worship services on the Lord's day. What ought we to do when we're assembled together in the Lord's name in the public worship services on the Lord's day? We know that the scriptures teach us that the Bible itself, the holy scriptures, are the only sufficient certain and infallible rule of all matters of doctrine and practice. And therefore, if we wish to know how we ought to worship God, then we must be directed exclusively by what God Himself has revealed. So our strategy, our approach, is going to be what has God said with regard to His worship. And we recognise, last Lord's Day, and we recognise again that this has been a matter of some controversy. How are we to deal with that? Well, again, the Scriptures are our final arbiter and judge in all matters of faith and practice. And so, we're going to look to the Bible to see what the Lord has revealed and what He's instituted Himself with regard to His worship in his church. Now, one other thing for us to review before we progress this evening is to recognise that the Scriptures, as we have said, are the final arbiter. They are what we call magisterial and determinative. They are the final authority with regard to this. But also, we need to recognise that the Scriptures are not a matter of private interpretation. It is not simply a matter that you can have the Bible on your knee and I can have the Bible on my knee, and we simply have the right to say that I think it says this, even whilst agreeing with each other that the Scriptures are the final authority. In Reformed churches, we have always said that we read the Scriptures with the church. The Scriptures, first and foremost, were given to the church. not simply to private individuals, though of course they are with us as individuals through the Lord's Church. And then we need to recognise that there is nothing more important than this question for professing believers who seek to worship God as he has instituted. There can be no more important question for us to answer than the one we have posed. What ought we to do when we come and assemble in God's name? When we come on the Lord's Day as His people, there is nothing more important than for us to know what He requires of us. Well, as we seek to move forward this evening, I have a new summary for the next aspect that I want to deal with. and it is this. The Scriptures reveal that the primary purpose of creation and of recreation is for man to know God and to glorify Him by worship and obedience. Let me repeat that summary for us. The Scriptures reveal that the primary purpose of creation and recreation is for man to know God and to glorify him by worship and obedience. Let me just simply explain what I mean by purpose of creation and recreation. Of course, by creation we mean from what was from the beginning when God called everything into existence that we now know as this created reality. But also in terms of God's redemptive work when he recreates, when he brings us to be new creatures in Jesus Christ, the primary purpose does not change for what man is to do and to be. primary purpose of God in creating man as He was in the beginning, and as He is recreated in the knowledge and in the image of Jesus Christ as a saved believer, is the same to know God and to glorify Him by worship and obedience. Well, as we seek to unpack that, we're going to do so under three headings. First of all, the ultimate priority. Secondly, our Reformed heritage, and then thirdly, Christ's emphasis. So, the ultimate priority, our Reformed heritage and Christ's emphasis. So, let's think first of all about the ultimate priority. In verse 23 of John chapter 4, Jesus says that the Father is seeking such worshippers, these true worshippers. He says the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. Now in this somewhat unusual way of describing the people of God, but it is a very significant way Jesus sums up the saving activity of the Father. It is not that the Father is simply looking for people who are naturally like this, as if somewhere embedded in humanity are the true worshippers and somehow God has to discover them. No, they will only become true worshippers as God saves them in His Son, Jesus Christ, and that salvation is applied to them by God's Holy Spirit. But you see, the work of salvation is seen here in terms of the ultimate purpose of God. It is not simply to save people from their sins, though glorious that is. But there is a purpose beyond that. They are saved so that they might be again, through great recreation, be made new creatures in Christ to worship God according to what He has said in spirit and in truth. And so we might ask the question, what is the Father doing through his Son, by the Spirit, as it's announced in the Gospel message? What is it all about? Well, so often, of course, we rightly focus upon the saving purposes of God, to save us from the wrath to come and to bless us with all of the glories of the inheritance which is ours in Jesus Christ. And we do not want to deny that for a moment. But we must not lose sight of what Jesus says here. The point of the incarnation and life and death of Jesus Christ, his resurrection, ascension, the outpouring of the spirit and Christ coming again in glory at the great consummation is so that there will be a worshipping people that will worship God in spirit and in truth. And Jesus describes that point in this way, the father is seeking such worshippers. Now again, I think it would be right for us to acknowledge this is somewhat an unusual way of speaking. You don't often hear this expressed in this way, do you? Perhaps we would not have anticipated this language from the lips of our Saviour if we had not read this passage before. But nevertheless, what Jesus explicitly says here is that the Father seeks. That is what this is all about. It's what the Father is seeking is true worshippers. And so the point of God's saving purposes in Jesus Christ is, yes, to make saints of sinners. Yes, to bring them out from the great penalty that hangs over them because of their law-breaking in their father Adam. and to bring them to all the glories of the salvation which is ours in Jesus Christ. But it does not stop there. God's purpose is so that His people will worship Him according to the pattern and according to the institution that He has made. Notice again here in this passage how Jesus moves from the topic of worship to that of salvation. Let's back up one verse to verse 22. He says to this Samaritan woman, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. And so in the way that the Lord speaks here, to be saved, to know salvation, is to be delivered from the ignorance and oppression of idolatry and false worship, and to be brought to that situation where you are once again enabled to worship God according to spirit. and truth. And so, he says, for the Jews to know the way of worship is to possess salvation, no less. Again, a somewhat unusual way for this to be expressed, perhaps. But nevertheless, that is what our Lord says. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. And so, again, we need to acknowledge this afternoon We may not be so accustomed to speaking in this way about these two topics and relating them, worship and salvation, as our Lord does here, but this is the clear teaching of our Saviour. The ultimate end of God's redemptive purposes is to create a people to worship God. The apostles, in various ways, laid it out for us in their subsequent preaching and teaching. Let's just survey a couple of examples. The disciples of Christ, how are they described by the Apostle Peter? They're described as living stones, he said, 1 Peter 2.5, who are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That is what God's purpose is in saving these men and women. living stones in his holy temple, a worship context, to offer spiritual sacrifices, worship context, to God through Jesus Christ. So here Peter is emphasizing again his ultimate purpose. He goes on later to say that God creates a people for his own possession, so that they may proclaim the excellences of him who has called them out of darkness into his most marvellous light. You see, brothers and sisters, ultimately our salvation is not to be insular, and for us to simply think it's ours and we can just have it for our own personal satisfaction and enjoyment, in the same way that man was not created in that way in the beginning, to be autonomous and simply to exist for his own benefits and enjoyment and satisfaction. Again, as it was in the beginning, so is it in God's work of salvation and recreation. We are created to be these living stones in His temple, We are people for His possession, so that we may proclaim what? The excellences of Him, bring praise to Him, declare His glories, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2.9. Now, often people have some difficulty with this way of speaking. They think that it places too much emphasis on worship to the neglect of other things. I don't think that necessarily has to be so. but we do have to acknowledge where God has put the priority. Many people, in speaking in this age and in the world in which we now exist, think to place this emphasis on worship is to neglect other things, particularly with regard to the call of the Great Commission, for instance. And they think there ought to be far more emphasis on evangelism than has been consumed about thinking what true worship is in spirit and in truth. But however, there is a great priority placed upon evangelism and the Great Commission. We have to acknowledge this, that when this age is over and the countless millions of the Lord's redeemed from every tribe and nation and kindred and tongue fall on their faces before the throne of God as we see in the book of Revelation, at that time there will be no further need for evangelism. Yes, evangelism is a necessary, commanded activity of the Church of Jesus Christ at this time. God has been pleased to use His Church as the means and the instrument through whom He will call men and women and boys and girls from darkness to light by His words. But evangelism is not an eternal thing that will go on forever and ever. When the last of God's elect are called in, it will have no further purpose. Our Lord will come in great glory and in great consolation. And what will be the eternal priority? The worship of the one true living God. That's why the glorious pictures of heaven are that way, with all bowing down to God. Those of the angelic beings and hosts, those of redeemed humanity, praising God not only as Creator, but also for man as Redeemer in all of his grace and glorious works. You see, true worship is our ultimate priority. Secondly, then, we want to come to our reformed heritage. We said in our introduction that we do not read the Scriptures in isolation, as each personal individual believer, as if there was no other believer on the face of the earth. And we want to note here in our second point, that just from a point of our history as believers, as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is not something that we are simply seeing as the church in this day or as this local church, in isolation from all who have gone before. That again, there is a broad Reformed tradition that who have read the scriptures in this way and seen that this is what God is saying in his word. that worship is our ultimate priority. Because not only does the Bible emphasise the importance and priority of worship, but also does our reformed heritage. Let me just give you some examples. Back in the early 16th century, the time when John Calvin was born, then the religion and worship of the Christian church was somewhat mixed and confused. It was a mingling of spiritual and material. The church historian Carlos Eyre summarises it this way. He says, the worship of the church was the sacred, was diffused in the profane, the spiritual with the material. Divine power embodied in the church and its sacraments reached down through innumerable points of contact to make itself felt, to forgive or to soothe. to protect against the ravages of nature and to work all sorts of wonders. That was the situation in the 16th century in the medieval church. Worship, a mixture of all sorts of things, including perhaps some things that God had commanded, but mixed up with many other practices of men, with the idea that somehow in it the church dispensed grace that made people feel better. It soothed them. The church granted forgiveness through these things. Now, one of the most significant impacts of the Reformation was to abolish this kind of religion. And so, within the Reformation as a whole, that is what they sought to do. But nevertheless, the Reformation as a total movement did not have a consistent view with regard to reforming worship. And we need to be aware of that. Again, quoting one of the church historians, he says, while some Protestants cast down the idols of Rome, in other words, removed the statues and all of that from the churches, Luther cast out the image breakers of Wittenberg. So, when some sought to break the idols and statues in Wittenberg, Luther was not happy and he put them out. So, sadly, there was not a consistent view always in the Reformation. And so consequently, the reform of worship became one of the key issues in the Reformation, that not only separated Protestants from Rome, but also separated the Reformed from the Lutherans. And that's a salutary lesson that we need to take on board. And so by the time John Calvin came to Geneva, 1536, the Lutherans, despite their protests against certain Roman Catholic piety, were not particularly interested in reforming worship. They had settled into some conflicts of opposition and saw that it did not need to be reformed any further. Again, let me just quote for you Carlos Ayer, he says, stressing instead an opposition to work's righteousness, they, that is the Lutherans, remained open to the use of material objects in worship. as long as they were regarded as with indifference. The reformers, by contrast, I should say the reformed, by contrast, focused much more on changing the outward expression of worship, aiming to remove any practice that compromised the worship which God had commanded. So again, what does this teach us? It teaches us, we may be right in many other areas of doctrine, Luther, you know, we hold in high regard for the great stand he made for justification by faith alone, for his opposition to works righteousness that men could achieve of themselves. But simply because we hold an orthodox view in one area of doctrine does not guarantee that we will do so in other areas. And so we need to be diligent We need to be zealous to seek out the truth in each and every area and reform accordingly. Let me just show you for a moment, too, an example of how this was done through the work and life of John Calvin. For Calvin, knowledge of God and the worship of God were inseparable. You couldn't speak of one without speaking of the other. If a man comes to know God, then it is a necessary corollary that he will then render proper worship to God. So, according to Calvin, the purpose of creation is for man to know God and to glorify him. I make no apologies that some of my summary came from John Calvin's quote, because as he read the Scriptures, he saw that that was the case, the purpose even from creation, is for man to know God and to glorify him. And so this was the foundation of all that Calvin sought to teach from the Word of God regarding his theology of worship. Now often the first surprise that may come to those who know something of Calvin is to find out the great importance he attached to worship. There are many nowadays who want to say that they're Calvinists. But when you question them and say, well, what do you mean by that? Why do you want to call yourself that? What you actually find is they agree in substance, if not in total, with what Calvin taught regarding the sovereignty of God in salvation. And that's a good thing. Because Calvin, we believe, though he was fallible, we're not saying he's infallible, but Calvin, by God's grace and blessing, taught a right and brought the church back to the biblical understanding of God's sovereign action in the salvation of men. But as you speak with some, and maybe even I'm going to speak to some in the congregation this evening, you may be surprised to know that for Calvin the greatest importance was worship even ahead of the doctrine of salvation. Let me quote to you from a number of his writings. In 1543, he wrote a short treatise. He called it On the Necessity of Reforming the Church, emphasising the need to address the various matters that had come into practice that were not in accord with the word of God. And he wrote this. If it be inquired then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence among us, and maintains its truth, It will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently, the whole substance of Christianity, namely, a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped, and secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. So, what's Calvin saying? He's saying, well, if you think about Christianity, you can really bring all of it together under two headings. But there's one that has priority of the other. The first is the knowledge of God and how he is to be worshipped. And then, secondly, the source from which salvation is to be obtained. So, we might be greatly surprised this afternoon, but it is the case that Calvin put worship ahead even of salvation. in his list of the two most important elements of biblical Christianity. Again, his treatise, it wasn't the only place in which he said this. Let me give you two brief other quotes. Calvin's Institute, his well-known statement on doctrine and practice. He said this, Surely the first foundation of righteousness is the worship of God. Again, in his great defence of the Reformation, when it was brought under attack, and we quote again from his reply to Sadaletto, one of his famous treatises, he says this, there is nothing more perilous to our salvation than a preposterous and perverse worship of God. That's strong language, isn't it? There is nothing more perilous to our salvation, Calvin said, than a preposterous and perverse worship of God. And so we cannot simply separate these things and say, well, my doctrine of salvation is orthodox and good and right and proper, but, you know, I don't need to worry too much about worship. We can have very much an a la carte menu approach. You have yours, I'll have mine and everything will be fine because we agree on the salvation doctrine that we all hold. No, no, Calvin would say, there's nothing more perilous to your doctrine of salvation if you simply think that you can form worship as to your own desires and think you can have yours and I can have mine. Let's come back to the key question. Why is worship so important? Why do the scriptures say that it is? Why did men in our Reformed tradition, as God gave them great insight in the scriptures, concur with that view? Well, it's because worship is the key meeting place of God with his people. That is what goes on. That is what is going on here as we are in public worship. God meets with his people. So often we can simply see it from our own perspective, can't we? If we gather together and we simply do something that we give to God. Now in one sense that is true, we do. We offer up our praises, our sacrifice of praise. But it's not as if we are doing something and God is so somewhat distant from this and somehow or other he collects it and we all go away and that's all that it is. It's not like we come to some empty building and in some spiritual way we create this offering to God and somehow some later when we're all left God comes and takes it and that's all good and what God requires. No, in our worship We meet with God and God meets with us. He comes to speak and to bless us. And we, in thankful response, offer up our praises and our thanksgiving. And so, why is worship so important? It's because it's the key meeting place of God with his people. Again, let me quote Calvin here. He says, let us know and be fully persuaded that wherever the faithful, who worship him purely and in due form, according to the appointment of his word, are assembled together and engaged in the solemn acts of religious worship, God is graciously present and presides in the midst of them. You see, that's what is at the heart of why this is so important. God himself is here. and therefore we are to conduct ourselves right and properly in his presence. What is God's purpose then in our recreation? In making us again new creatures in Jesus Christ? It is a restoration of that meeting of God with his people that was fractured because of man's sin and because of the fall, broken by rebellion by man, that God in his mercy and grace restores, brings peace through salvation, so that there might be again proper, true spiritual worship offered to himself. But when we think about it, brothers and sisters, we're not so accustomed to thinking in that way today, are we? It might have been prevalent in the 16th century in the ministries of John Calvin, Basil, Spingley, Bollinger, all of the great Swiss reformers. But we do not see that so much emphasised today, do we? In fact, the current situation, where even some churches that would call themselves reformed, nevertheless fail to reform and order worshipper rights, can be frequent and can be many. In many ways, that couldn't be more ironic, could it? having seen just briefly the heritage that we have of those that have gone before us and where we would seek to identify ourselves with them, but in this area of worship we could be so different from them and not think there was anything amiss. What is the issue? Well, as we've said before, we know that this is a controversial issue. It's not an easy one. It causes debate and discussion. There have been, what we thought about last week, no worship wars because of having to think through this topic. And so many may simply think they just don't have the stomach for it. They don't want to have to think about it. Can't we just live and let live and so not have to deal with this difficult issue? So some may simply seek to avoid it. Others perhaps don't even see the need of it. That's the burden of this sermon, to impress upon you the importance and priority of worshipping God are right. But not only do many see no connection between doctrine and worship and practice, they also come to the conclusion that really it is just divisive to even talk about these things. So, when you ask people why it is the church does not regulate worship according to God's Word, Why is it there is little determined zeal in this area of the church's life? Very often it's because people say, well it would only divide. And what's the purpose of that? It's not that important if you're going to cause Christians to disagree about this. Well that response is not a new one. That was said to Calvin in his day and has been said throughout the generations of the church before Calvin and after Calvin. There were those who were his detractors, we might say. They accused him of fracturing the unity of the church over unimportant matters. But I trust by the end of the sermon I will have persuaded you from God's Word that it is not an unimportant matter. There may be other secondary issues that we do agree to some extent in a fallen yet to be consummated world that we will not fully resolve, but we ought not to accept that this is one of them. God has made clear how he is to be worshipped and we should seek with all of our might by his grace to know what that is and to act accordingly. Well, thirdly, let me bring you to Christ's emphasis. I trust not to ultimately persuade you on the basis of our Reformed heritage. I simply want to show you that we're not saying this in isolation, as if we're the only people who've ever thought this. But why do we think this? Why have our forefathers thought this? Because of what our Lord himself says and his emphasis. Let's come back to John 4. In John 4 you know Jesus encounters this Samaritan woman at the well. He offers her the living water which she says she wants. But then Jesus brings up her current living arrangements and the sinful lifestyle in which she has lived in previous times and even now is still living. She has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not a husband. This woman, somewhat trapped by the penetrating application of God's law to her heart, seeks to divert the direction of the conversation, doesn't she? Often we're very good at that, aren't we? When God's word shines a spotlight, let's talk about something else quickly. And so, she wants to talk about worship now. Let's not talk about my sin and how I am to repent of that and to follow God. Let's talk about where we are to worship and how we are to worship. That's what's going on here in John 4. Now, O Lord, answer to the question she asks in verse 20 is somewhat startling. She's talking about physical places. You know, you Jews worship in Jerusalem, we worship in Samaria, where's the right place and so forth. Now what cuts through all of that debate doesn't it in verse 21. Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Now, Jesus, to some extent, does side with the Jews. If you're going to have a Jew-Samaritan debate, Jesus sides with the Jews here, not because the Jews were perfect, but because the Jews were given the law, God's revelation. The Samaritans, by very de facto definition of who they were, had separated from the Jews and set up their own competing form of worship in Samaria. And Jesus says, verse 22, you worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. What is our Lord saying here? He's not saying that everybody has to become an ethnic Jew in order to worship God aright. That's not His point. But He is saying that salvation is going to come in the Lord's sovereign purposes through the tribe of Judah, through Messiah who is a Jew according to His humanity. and that the deposit of the truth was given to the Jews, the Old Testament scriptures. But that is not even his main point. He says here that those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. What does that mean? He says here that knowledge counts, truth counts when it comes to worship. It has to be in truth. And by implication, he's saying here that Samaritan worship was in error. They were wrong at that time according to God's command to worship in Samaria, on Mount Gerizim, as opposed to at Mount Zion. And so, Samaritans, by extension all people, our Lord says, must look to the Jews not again to individuals or to a race ethnically, but to that place in which God has placed at that time his revelation ultimately to the book of the Jews, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, in order to learn how to worship God and thus possess salvation. You see, our law's emphasis is what? Worship must be in accordance with truth. Now let me say just as we close, and we will continue to open this up in subsequent weeks as the Lord grants us, that it is not simply to be about correct forms, because he says it is to be in spirit and in truth. It is not that the Lord is just concerned to have outwardly correct, compliant worship that externally dots all the i's and crosses the t's. It is to be in spirit, that is comes from the heart, with a desire simply to do it because God has commanded it according to our motivations and wills. Our Lord, again, we will see in subsequent weeks, condemned what was just outward will-worship, just doing it for the outward conformance sake, when he says, your hearts are far from me. So don't misunderstand that simply to have the right form makes it in-spirit, in-truth worship. But at the same time, Simply having a zeal and a sincerity does not make worship acceptable to God. Simply saying that I do it in spirit, that my will is to please God, but really I don't need to understand what He has said. To do what He commands is not in any way acceptable to God. It must be in spirit and in truth. This is the emphasis of Christ. He says that the time is coming, and even now, that even what God had placed by his law in the spiritual worship of Israel, and some of those things with regard to physical place are passing away. But there is still a commanded worship of spirit and truth. And it is such that God is seeking. Again, not that they're automatically there and God is just trying to find them, but as God makes such true worshippers, through His Son by His Spirit. That is His purpose. That is the purpose of salvation. To bring a people of God to be that holy temple that will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let's close then just with a summary again to leave it in our minds. The Scriptures reveal that the primary purpose of creation and recreation is for man to know God glorify Him by worship and obedience. And how are we to do that? We worship God in spirit and in truth. Let's pray. Our Father, we humble ourselves before You and we confess and admit that so often our worship is the worship of our own hearts. But how so often we want to innovate And we want to bring what we think would be best and we think would please you. Grant us, O Lord, to be delivered from such folly. Help us to understand, O Lord, that in our natural hearts we are so prone to making idols and worshipping them. But grant by Your truth and through Your Spirit, You would help us to worship in spirit and in truth. Deliver us, O Lord, from simply thinking that we have to have the outward forms right and conform with them. But grant us, O Lord, to have hearts that are orientated and that desire nothing greater than to worship you. But also, O Lord, deliver us from simply thinking that we have to be sincere and zealous and that you do not really care about how we do it as long as we are sincere. Grant us to follow Scripture Grant us to hear the words of our Lord. Grant us, O Lord, to hear the words of the church that have gone before us as they read these scriptures and worship you aright in spirit and in truth. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.