Worshipping Him In Spirit & In Truth (01/17/1999)

It's good to have Brother Fisher come now for the morning special. Brother David, if you'd rather we just skip this and you can go ahead.

This is another old, old song. Those are the only ones with which I can identify.

Dwelling in Beulah Land. Ahem. Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling.

Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand.

Doubt and fear and things on earth to me in vain are calling.

None of these shall move me in Beulah Land.

I'm living on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky.

I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.

Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply.

For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation.

Hearing now his blessed voice, I see the way he planned.

Dwelling in the spirit here, I learn a full salvation.

Gladly will I tarry in Beulah Land.

I'm living on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky.

I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.

Oh yes, feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply.

For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

All of you sing the chorus with me. I'm living on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky.

I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.

Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply.

For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

Thank you. Well, some of you may not know this.

Brother Otis was the music director at Pecan Valley Baptist Church in Dallas for 20 years under Brother Barney Thames.

And I can tell that because even though his choir was out here in front of him today, you sounded great.

And I appreciate that special. Well, I'm disappointed that I'm going to miss next

Sunday. It's going to be interesting. And I really think it will be edifying as well.

And we've had a few others say they would like to do this. So we're going to put everyone's name in the hat.

Brother Russell is going to literally draw them out and put them in order. And if we don't all get to go next Sunday, the

Sunday after that, Brother Myron Golden will be here preaching. And the Sunday after that, as part of the service, we can let some go who didn't get the opportunity to go next

Sunday. So we'll get everybody, every family in that wants to participate in this.

And that way I'll get to hear a few of them as well. So I'm excited about that.

Well, this afternoon, let's turn back to Genesis 22. And let's start there.

And then we will travel through quite a few scriptures. And we want to talk about that we must worship

Him in spirit and in truth. John 4, verse 23 says,

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, and here's an interesting word, must. Must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

That sounds pretty good there, Tom, I think. I think you got it. Thanks, that's better than this morning.

Must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We don't have a choice about it. It's the only way that God will accept it.

And so that's what we'll talk about this afternoon. We focused more on the truth part this morning. Where the

Lord says in John 17, 17, Sanctify them through thy truth.

Thy word is truth. So it's the word of God. You must have the word of God present. And it must be according to the word of God for it to be true worship.

This afternoon we'll focus on the worshiping in spirit part. Let's pray. Father, we ask now at this time that you would guide our hearts and minds to the word of God.

That you might speak to us. And literally lift us to the heavenlies where you say we are seated in Christ.

And help us to learn heavenly things this afternoon. Amen. Now, let's go back to Genesis just for a moment here.

And this passage in Genesis 22. And we've really covered a lot of the material that's in the passage.

The last thing that I wanted to cover from this portion of the scripture, though, is the fact that worship is only possible in the presence of God.

And we alluded to it in the message this morning, but let me be a little more specific. When you look at Genesis chapter 21 and verse 33,

I want us to look at the names of God here for a moment. It says that he called thereupon the name of the

Lord. And that's all caps, L -O -R -D, all caps. And that always means Jehovah in the

Bible, in the English Bible. Now, Jehovah, it says he called on the name of Jehovah.

And then there's a comma and it says the everlasting God. And in the Hebrew, that is

El Olam. And so we see another name of God, which is El or sometimes it's

Elohim. So let's discuss those a minute before we go any further. First of all, where it says he called upon the name of the

Lord, the name Jehovah, the word Jehovah means the self -existent one.

Now, it specifically says that he called on Jehovah, the everlasting God, which is everlasting is the word

Olam. And God is translated from the word Elohim or El. It's abbreviated into the word

El sometimes. That name for God means strength or the strong one in its simplest form.

It has more meaning than that. And we'll get to that in a minute. But when you notice that you have the

Lord, the everlasting God, it shows that he's praying to, as we think of God, he's praying to God the

Father, but he's actually praying to the Godhead. Because you have Jehovah's name mentioned and you have

Elohim, which is the uniplural God, which is like when he said, let us make

God in our image. That's the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we see that the prayer is going that way.

And then in verse 1, where it says, and it came to pass there were these things that God did tempt him. Notice that that is capital

G, little o, little d, and that's the word El or Elohim. It is not

Jehovah at that point. It's Elohim. But when you come into verse 11, the angel of the

Lord, that's Jehovah, the angel of Jehovah called to him out of heaven and said,

Abraham, Abraham, lay not your hand upon the lad. That is the angel of Jehovah.

So you have to understand these different names of God because what they do is the names of God show different attributes of God.

And sometimes we may be talking about the Lord Jesus Christ specifically. Sometimes we may be talking about the

Godhead. Sometimes we may be talking about the Father specifically. So when we see the word

Jehovah, it literally means the self -existent one. And the best definition for that name is found in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14.

Abraham says, well, God, what do I tell them your name is when you send me to the Jews? They won't believe you sent me. Who's your name?

What do I tell them? Who sent me? And that's where he said, tell them that I am sent you. I am.

And that is actually Jehovah. Now, Jehovah, it comes from J and hova.

And hova literally means to be known. So the full meaning of the name

Jehovah is the self -existent one who reveals himself.

When you see God called Jehovah, that's what he's pointing to in himself. The self -existent one.

The Lord Jesus Christ is self -existent. You see, he wasn't created. He's the self -existent one.

And he's not only just that he's self -existent, but he has chosen to reveal himself to man.

So when that name is used, it is a name that is distinctively used as the redemption name of deity.

And it's also specifically used as the name that's associated with God's people on this earth in particular and his presence with his people because it comes into this concept of revealing himself.

So when we see the angel of the Lord coming down here in verse 11, that is

Jehovah revealing himself to Abraham on the earth in the realm of the earth,

I should say. I understand that it says the voice came from heaven. But you have to understand heaven can mean a lot of things.

It means at least three things in the Bible. It can mean where the birds fly or it can mean where the stars are or it can mean the third heaven which is where God is.

And this heaven means his voice is coming from the sky which is in the earthly realm. So you might as well say that the presence of God is right there with Abraham when

Jesus speaks to him. And yes, that is the connotation of Jehovah.

And so hi, come on in. We're in Genesis chapter 22. And we were actually looking at the names of God, the different names of God found in Genesis 21 verse 33 and verse 33 and Genesis 22 and verse 1 and then showing it again in Genesis 22 and verse 11 where it talks about the angel of the

Lord which is a manifestation of Jesus Christ in the

Old Testament. All right, now, so Jehovah, the self -existent one who reveals himself to man, that is carried in that name when

God calls himself that. Now let's look at this other name that we find here both in the end of verse 33 of chapter 21 where it says the everlasting

God and we find it again in verse 1 of chapter 22 where we see the word God. That is the name

El Olam. And El, which sometimes is written

Elohim in the Hebrew language literally means strength or the strong one.

You'll see it used a couple of places to give you an idea in Leviticus 5, 2 and Psalm 10, 1.

But it also comes from the root word Allah which means to swear or to bind oneself to an oath implying faithfulness.

So when you put all that together when you see this El or Elohim it means the strong one who is faithful is the connotation of it.

Now we have the word Olam too and that's translated in our English as the everlasting.

You see in verse 33, chapter 21, the everlasting God. Well, in English it looks like two words but in Hebrew it's like a name.

It's like El Olam, it's the person of God. And what it's emphasizing here now

Olam carries another meaning that adds to the concept of Elohim. Olam means a secret or hidden place or never ending time or age like the age into the age into the age.

So when we add the word Olam where in the English it says the everlasting God we get this meaning the everlasting

God of strength and faithfulness. And it also carries with it the

God of the mysteries of the ages. Now, so this is who

Abraham was praying to in verse 33 and 34 and who spoke to him and tested him in verse 1 of chapter 22,

Elohim. Now, Elohim Scofield says this about the word

Elohim is not merely that he is everlasting but also that he is the

God whose wisdom has divided all time and eternity into the mystery of successive ages or dispensations.

And when the tribulation period comes and then the millennial period thousand year millennial period would go into that that'll be another age.

And what's beautiful is you study the Bible you'll see after that there will be ages and ages.

And sometimes we translate that concept as everlasting but the original language ages and ages we can kind of we can't really see off into that but we get the feeling of it very well.

And so that's what this is talking about. Now also remember that Elohim which is the name of God that we find here at the beginning of chapter 22 is the uniplural noun for God that God was called back in the book of Genesis when

God said let us make man in our image those who do not believe in the

Trinity have a real problem with that because even in the grammar it's as if God made a mistake.

It's a uniplural word. How can a word be both singular and plural? And yet God's name is when we use the word

Elohim. And you'll find it very clearly where he says let God God says let us make man in our image.

It's one God but he subsists as three distinct persons the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit each had a part in the creation of course of everything and also specifically the creation of man.

Now it's interesting that however even though it's Elohim who said let us make man in our image it is

Jehovah who acts in time and space to make man.

Read this Genesis story and you'll see it. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 Jehovah was present for the creation.

In verse 7 he is present as the one who is making man. And in verse 8 he is present as the one who is making provision for man.

And in verses 15 through 17 Jehovah takes part in law. But what we see when we see the word

Jehovah the emphasis is on the presence of God in the earthly realm with his people revealing himself.

The self -existent one who reveals himself that's Jehovah. And it's

Jesus. And especially when it says the angel of the Lord it is many times a physical appearance of Jesus in the

Old Testament before the manger scene over in the New Testament.

This clearly indicates a special relation of deity in his

Jehovah character to man and all Scripture emphasizes this

Scofield says. So when we see God called Jehovah there's a special emphasis on his relationship to man.

Now turn with me if you would to Proverbs chapter 8 verse 29 and if you haven't been here the last two or three weeks we are discussing the sovereignty of God and worship.

That's what we're talking about here. And we're kind of building into this fact that we must worship God in spirit.

We talked this morning about you must worship God in truth. That's a reference to the word of God.

Worship must be in the presence of the word of God or it will go off in its own way and it won't please God. God tells us how to worship.

Even in this passage in Genesis 22 he says take thy son, thy only son and go up into the land of Moriah and go off out there until I tell you to stop and that's where you'll worship.

God told him how to worship. He didn't just say worship me any way you want to. And today in this world the religious age that we live in the churches just want to do whatever they want to do and just say it has to please

God. It's not true. It doesn't have to please God. God tells us how to worship and we've said so many times that what is going to please

God originates with God and comes to us and then goes back to God and that pleases the

Lord. That's just the way it happens. We've seen in the past days that that's true of prayer.

That's why the Bible says that the Holy Spirit must intercede for us in prayer because we don't know what to ask.

Prayer originates in heaven. It comes down and we meet with the Lord then it's sent back up from our spirit with his spirit back to God or else it's not true prayer.

Same thing is true of witnessing. You can't quote win someone to Christ. Only God can save someone.

So what do we do? We are laborers together. We must understand it.

Our personality and our good looks and our technique is not going to save anybody. Only God can save.

But he has chosen for some reason and we know the reason because he wanted to to include us in his work.

So he doesn't just write in the sky okay I'm here get saved. He doesn't do it that way. He'll use you and me and the men who penned this

Bible. He uses human instrumentality to reach other humans. That's how he's chosen to do it. But only together with him.

So worship is the same way. We cannot work it up. The biggest mistake that I see in the world of religion today is working it up and trying to make a show of worship and you can't do that.

It's not real. It must start in heaven. It must come down on the place and as we talked about this morning the word of God must be a part of it because Jesus said the only way you can worship

God is in spirit and in what? Truth and truth is my word is truth

Jesus said so that's the word of God and then what does it mean in spirit? Well that's what we're getting into.

What does it mean to worship him in spirit? Well look at Proverbs 8 29 for a moment.

I'm trying to get us to focus in for the next few moments on the angel of the Lord. That's the

Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the center in worship and he must be present in worship or worship is not real.

Now we live in a day where the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies and many though however have made the mistake of focusing on the

Holy Spirit and even call this the age of the Holy Spirit. They say the Old Testament was the age of the father. Jesus was here that's the age of the son.

Now we're in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth because the

Holy Spirit would not allow such a dispensation. Now let me make sure you understand what I'm saying. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to point us to Jesus and to magnify

Jesus and to help us see Jesus and understand Jesus and literally to see his face by faith.

And so it's the dispensation of Jesus Christ if anything but the Holy Spirit. The thing that we have that even the disciples didn't have is the

Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts living in us and taking our heads and pointing them towards the

Savior where we can see him and behold him and guess what he is?

He is the express image of the Father and then we can know God.

And so what happens is we must have the presence of the angel of the Lord to have true worship.

Now I'll grant you in this dispensation there will be a moment one of these days and it could be today when the

Lord comes back and physically will take us to be with him. But until that happens it will be the

Holy Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts coming upon us in power which the

Bible calls the filling of the Holy Spirit in the English which leads you to think wrong things. It's not like you're a cup getting filled up with more of God.

You fully have God if you're saved. Do you understand that? The Holy Spirit his person dwells in us fully.

When you want to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit that's where you're talking about Jesus had him without measure. We've talked about that in Sunday School.

Jesus is the only man who's ever had him without measure in the sense of the full power of the

Holy Spirit. We have the power of the Holy Spirit by measure. Now we have him personally fully.

Does that make any sense? That's the way it is. It's better. We have him living in us. We don't get more and more of him as we grow.

However, we might grow to the place where we have more power or more filling of the Spirit as we go.

But I'm going to say this. Why do we have the Holy Spirit and the power of the Spirit if not to point us to Jesus Christ and bring him into the worship as we're talking about worship this afternoon.

Now look at the person of Christ in Proverbs 8, 29 from the very beginning before the beginning.

Notice this. He gave, verse 29, when he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when he appointed the foundations of the earth then

I was by him as one brought up with him. Now this is a personification of wisdom.

It is literally talking about Jesus Christ who is our wisdom. He says, I was daily his delight.

That's the son was daily the delight of the father. Rejoicing always before him.

There's never been a time when he didn't rejoice before him at least when this was written. Now there was a moment when he didn't and that was when he was on the cross.

And he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There was a division and that's what

Jesus didn't want to go do when he was in the garden saying, Lord, take this cup from me. It wasn't that he didn't want to go to the cross for us.

He always wanted to do that. There was never a time. He came to do that. But he didn't, when he thought about being separated from the father which had never happened in all eternity past that he said, is there any other way we can do this?

Nevertheless, I will be done. But he says, I was brought up with him.

I was daily his delight. Rejoicing always before him. Now look at Proverbs 8 verse 31 because this is very important in understanding worship.

We talk about the Holy Spirit as a person of the

Godhead but many times having a specific ministry of leading us to learn more of Christ, right?

Well, Jesus Christ has a specific ministry and you have to understand the Holy Spirit is fully

God. Not only can he fulfill his ministry of leading us to understand

Jesus more, he can also create. I mean, he was there at the creation. It says, and the Spirit of God hovered over the earth when it was without form and void.

So you can take any member of the Godhead and show that he's fully God and does all things that God does because Jesus is

God. The Holy Spirit is God. However, the Holy Spirit does have to do with certain specific ministries and so does

Jesus. Now look at this. Rejoicing in the inhabitable part of his earth.

This is what the Bible says Jesus has done for all eternity and from the point when the earth was made he rejoiced in the habitable part of his earth and my delights were with the sons of men.

As if to contrast that with the Godhead who has many delights and who knows what all is out there.

Jesus says, well, I mean, I'm all of that too but I focus, my ministry is in the earthly realm in the habitable parts of the earth with the sons of men.

That's where my delight is. Why do you think it is that he stepped forward in eternity past and said that I am crucified before the foundation of the world.

Why would it be Jesus rather than, I mean, we know why because of physical body but I mean, let's just say instead of the Holy Spirit saying, well,

I the Holy Spirit will go down and die for them. Jesus said that, I will be the sacrifice because my delights are with the sons of men.

Now here I'm speaking as a man obviously because I mean, God the Father had ordained all of this and it is ordained and it's always been and it's the present tense and we can't hardly talk that way.

But yet when we look at Jesus we see that person of the Godhead whose desire it was to be with the sons of men and isn't it beautiful that he is the one who became the sacrifice.

Now therefore hearken unto me, O you children of Israel, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Now if we understand that it is a truth that Jesus Christ as that part of the

Godhead who is fully God but who specifically rejoices in the habitable part of this earth and whose delights are with the son of men then it does not surprise us to look in Genesis 22 when we see

Abraham's hand with the knife coming down upon his son Isaac his only son, his son whom he loved that it was the angel of the

Lord who stopped him. And it says he spoke from the heavens but don't be confused by that because that's just talking about the realm of the atmosphere around this earth.

He had come from the third heaven wherever that is to the habitable parts of the earth and was here in time and space with Abraham.

I'm talking about the angel of the Lord that's the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah the one whose delights are with the sons of men.

He was right here in this realm and he said don't do that. I will provide a sacrifice for you, a lamb.

And we know that they found a ram not a lamb because the lamb was still 1900 years out.

But God the Father provided Jesus as that lamb. And so we see here that Abraham and Isaac in verse 5 they went yonder to worship but the worship didn't begin until the son of God showed up in the form of the angel of the

Lord. So there he is in his presence and this worship was true.

Now we noticed already this morning that the word of God was a part of it because in chapter 22 verse 1 it says that God did test

Abraham and said unto him the word said, you circle that because that's the word of God. God spoke to him.

So you have the word of God which is truth and you have the spirit of God coming down in the form of the angel of the

Lord Jesus Christ specifically in their presence when they worshipped. Now in our dispensation

Jesus may not physically come it may be by the Holy Spirit who conducts us to the very throne of God where Jesus Christ is and where the

Father is as well and we can worship. I say we have it better than any other dispensation.

I mean the disciples walk with Jesus but Jesus walks in us. Now so the angel of the

Lord shows up in verse 11. This is the Lord Jesus Christ the self -existent one who reveals himself to man.

Let me show you a couple of other places in the Bible where this angel of the Lord was there during worship in Exodus 4 31.

It says and the people believed and when they heard the Lord that the Lord had visited.

Now that's an interesting word. The Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Now let me tell you a little something. If Jehovah chose to visit us

Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon we would not be seated in our pews comfortably with our legs crossed and our hands in our pockets.

We would be about like this. You know your forehead would be on that carpet and you'd be trying to squirm out the door.

That is where you'd look in the Bible at the position where people normally worshiped and that was the normal position of worship.

Now there are places where it says they were like this but they went from this to this. If they were standing their face was toward the ground the

Bible says. This is a position of worship. This is a position of worship. How often do we today find ourselves in that position either privately or publicly and I'm telling you it's because we don't worship.

Why don't we not worship? Because we don't have that wonderful combination of the

Word of God given in its proper sense like we talked about this morning. Where was that? I don't have the notes.

Where's the passage? Anybody take a note? Nehemiah something. That wonderful combination of the

Word of God given in its proper sense where the people understood it as God meant it and the presence of God and all of a sudden we had to worship.

I mean it's not that the people they were not even looking for this. They didn't work this up.

It is something that happened to them and it happened like that and we're going to see that here this afternoon if we get to it.

Got to move along here. But this passage in Exodus 4 .31 is the story where God was just about to free

Israel from the Egyptians and all of a sudden the people of God noticed very vividly that God had visited them.

You know how they noticed it? Because the firstborn of everybody in that land died except for those who had applied the blood of the lamb above their doorpost.

They noticed that God had visited and that led to worship. So we had the presence of God there in worship.

Now Exodus 33. Let's move on forward in Exodus 33 in verse 9. We see another place where the presence of God is there and it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the

Lord capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D that always means Jehovah talked with Moses.

Wow! And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshiped every man at his tent.

Can you picture this? You got the camp laid out and he puts a tabernacle out there kind of like a tent meeting puts the tabernacle off away from the camp and he,

Moses and Joshua go out there and they see the same pillar which was the presence of God and it led them and kept them in God's revealed will for their lives.

When it would go they would go when it would stop they would stop and it's a picture of being in God's revealed will and they saw that presence of God come down on that place and then all the sudden they understood that Jehovah now who is that?

That is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the self -existent one who reveals himself to man.

That's the one whose habitation is in the habitable parts of the earth. He's the one that comes from eternity and comes down into time and space and decides to be a part of his creation and I just say enjoy it.

Somebody says well why would he do that? Because he wants to. And that's in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ or Jehovah or the angel of Jehovah and that's the one who was talking to Moses and the people saw this and they saw the clouds stand at the door and then they all now it doesn't say they all ran down to that tabernacle

I don't imagine they wanted to go down there. It says as they looked from their tent doors off in the distance and they saw the

Shekinah glory come down on that place and they may have heard the voice of Jehovah speak to him at their tent the kids and the wives were back up in that tent and that man was out there looking like you know like the men go out and look for the tornado do we see it coming?

You know that's so we can get in the car and get away. But anyway they're looking out and they see that at a distance and probably before they even could say anything to their wives and their children they fell at the tent door and went like this and they worshiped

God because of the presence of God who had come from the third heaven down into the earthly realm into time and space in the form of Jesus Christ in the

Old Testament and in verse 11 the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend that was

Jesus and he turned again into the camp but his servant Joshua young men listen to me now teenage young men

I'm not saying Joshua was a teenager but he was younger than Moses he was the young man and Joshua the son of Nun a young man departed not out of the tabernacle he and Moses went together out there and met with God and Jesus Christ spoke to Moses face to face as a man

Joshua was just sitting there watching the man of God communing with God and the man of God communing with God got up and left and the young man just stayed out there and wanted to get more of it hallelujah and that's what we've got to have listen when we pass off the scene what's going to happen you know what happens to most churches when the group of adults that starts the church which this church was founded in 1980 and most of the people that were there are still you know right here and when our generation is gone what will happen to this church it depends on whether you stay for an extra portion or not who's going to fill this pulpit and teach these

Sunday school classes look who's raised up with you out there in the world and what they're getting in their little heads and how they're living you think it's tough to preach now wait till then when

I say preach I just mean proclaim the truth but this young man stayed departed not out of the tabernacle verse 14 it says and he said my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest and he said unto him if thy presence go not with me carry us not up from hence now you want to talk about separation the fundamental independent baptists which we you know there's a large portion of that group that we don't have anything to do with and rightly so we're truly independent

I guess you would say we're just us we're just local group of believers but there are people out there who talk about being separate from the world and they do that in and of itself for whatever reason it almost becomes a thing they worship you gotta have your hair this way you gotta have your clothes this way everybody looks every man dresses just like the preacher and every woman looks just like the preacher's wife in these kinds of churches and that is not if you want to see the true doctrine of separation look right here where we are it goes in here and it says

God met with him and Moses says I mean God says my presence will go with you and Moses says well hey if your presence is not going to go with us then don't even send us and look what he says because in verse 16 for wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight is it not in that thou goest with us so shall we be separated listen it is true that we ought to be different than the world but it ought not be us trying to be different because then you bring all manner of persecution on yourself all it is is you should walk in the presence of God and you will be different it won't be something you do it's something he does to you listen it wasn't

Moses who made his own face shine why did he have to wear a napkin when he came down from the mountaintop because he was trying to be separated you don't try to be separated what you try to do is to walk in like Joshua when you find

God coming down stay there don't leave stay there and all of a sudden your face may glow and scare everybody around you and they may treat you differently they may not even like you anymore and all of a sudden you find yourself separate from the world but it's not something you wanted or chose to do it's something that happened because of God's presence with you what a great rabbit trail that was

I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth and the Lord said unto

Moses I will do this thing also that thou has spoken for thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name now turn to Joshua chapter 5 and verse 12 in Joshua chapter 5 and verse 12 we have here the story of the battle of Jericho in verse 12 the manna ceased and that's kind of interesting historical fact that it was right before they went into the battle of Jericho that the manna ceased because now they're in the promised land

God's going to provide from the land itself the promised land pictures victorious

Christian living doesn't picture salvation you're already saved when you go in there salvation happened at the

Red Sea when they crossed it by power and God did it salvation is of the

Lord nothing could have saved them they had the sea behind them and that the armies of Egypt coming to destroy them and only

God could open that up and they pass through the same way you got saved you didn't save yourself God brought you through but once we're saved we can still live out in the wilderness if we choose to if we get away from disobeying the revealed will of God from the

Bible we just choose to just get out there and live by sight rather than faith we're going to be in the wilderness but when we cross over the

Jordan do you understand that that was just as miraculous God parted that river and they walked over that into the promised land which pictures victorious

Christian living it's all by the grace of God is it not and here they are at this place where the manna ceased so that old system is gone now the wilderness system where God gave them manna now they're in the promised land and the benefits will come from being in the land itself in verse 13 and it came to pass when

Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold now watch this look very carefully there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went unto him and said to him art thou for us or for our adversaries who was this man this

Jehovah the angel of Jehovah this Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and he said nay but as captain of the host of the

Lord Jehovah am I now come and Joshua fell on his face that is worship you have the presence of the angel of Jehovah Jesus Christ right there he fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him what saith my

Lord unto his servant that's the attitude of worship and worship is not what we think it is and we're not going to even get into what it is or what is attached to it

I said that right until you know two weeks from now when I get another opportunity to speak but I will say this that when he did worship the attitude of this worship was what do you want your servant to do it was not him sitting there doing a lot of stuff he was laying on his face still and quiet before God today we've been taught to think worship is yeah woo that's not worship you're not making any noise when you worship now that may you may call that praise

I don't know but you just don't call it worship when he worshipped he fell down on his face and had the attitude what do you want me to go do later and the captain of the

Lord's host said unto Joshua loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy and Joshua did so when you come to a place where it's real worship you will feel unclean you will feel like I am a man of unclean lips

I cannot worship you he may take the hot coal and put it on your lips and cleanse them you may feel that you should take your shoes off and you shouldn't even be in this place think how few times you felt that feeling why because we live in a church in this

Laodicean church age where everybody is taught well God loves everybody and he's our dada in heaven which he is but that's not all he is he is holy

God and when he brings us to a place of worship you look in your

Bible and see every time that the glorified Jesus after he died resurrected and was glorified what was their attitude when he came in their presence fell straight on their face every time that still

Abba doesn't take away from the truth that he's our father but there's an awe and a fear and and a worship that comes when the

Lord Jesus comes into the presence of people now in 2nd Chronicles or I should say of his people

I've got some others and we're quickly running out of time I want to just give you one phrase would you please turn to this 2nd

Chronicles 29 27 wish I had time to go through this whole passage and I'm not going to take it because I see the fried chickens hit its spot now but 2nd

Chronicles 29 just mark it start with verse 27 it's beautiful and I may preach through it later some other day but it talks about a case where there was true worship and the presence of the

Lord capital L capital O capital R capital D showed up on the scene and true worship occurred and when this happened towards the end of this after this amazing event took place and the implication is very clear that it was not something that happened every service that they had and see today there are circles that try to make it happen every service and it's just not that way in the

Bible and it becomes counterfeit God doesn't honor that if it's of the flesh he hates it but look at this in 2nd

Chronicles 29 verse 35 and also the burnt offerings were in abundance and the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for every burnt offering so the service of the house of the

Lord was set in order and Hezekiah rejoiced and all the people that God had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly the thing was done suddenly it wasn't something they could work up it wasn't something they could make happen it happened by surprise on that day and they thank

God later that God was able to prepare the people to be able to worship because they didn't know it was coming now you don't find that in the church today it's always

Sunday morning boy we're going to make it happen bring the banners in oh yeah you know all this stuff that they're doing

I mean they're doing all kinds of interesting things in churches across the country set the stage let's do a play and get everybody weepy get the music going get the play going bring the banners in and have one person stand up like this so then everyone stands up like this or have someone back there start doing this and they'll all start doing this it's not the way it was when it really happened where God came down on this place they were caught by surprise and later they had to thank

God that the people were prepared in time to worship anyway we don't have time to go on that let me let me get you to look at one last thing the first thing you see is this this revelation this was a revelation of Jesus Christ which

God gave to Jesus Christ God the father gave this revelation to Jesus Christ in order that he might show it to us so the father has the revelation he gives it to the son which is that part of the godhead that person of the godhead who loves the habitable parts of the earth who is the life of the son of men and he brings it into time and space that's exactly what happened so the angel of the lord which is

Jesus takes this revelation from the father brings it down into time and space where God is on the isle of Patmos and so he gave it to us and the third thing you see is it came to us on this earth by Jesus Christ the angel of the lord down there this message is from the father the holy spirit and Jesus but it is sent specifically to us by Jesus John to the seven churches which are in Asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come that is the father now sometimes they describe

Jesus but look what it says next and from the seven spirits now it doesn't mean there are seven holy spirits the number seven in the bible is always everywhere used as a number of perfections we're talking about the perfect holy spirit so this message comes from the father and it comes from the holy spirit which is before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our own sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests and the god and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever amen behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierce him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so amen

I am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the ending sayeth the lord which is and which was and which is to come the almighty we see that this message was from the father and the holy spirit and jesus but it was sent specifically to us by the angel of the lord jesus and the message brings the glory of jesus christ brings glory to jesus christ in verses five and six that's the right kind of message that's what it means by worshiping word and truth the word of god says that it brings glory to jesus christ and then it includes a message of the first and the second advent found in verse seven and then it includes in verse eight the fact that jesus is god which means it's a deity of the deity of christ but that's not all we see we see it bringing it look at verse ten was in the spirit on the lords day and heard behind me a great voice and in the following verses we see a picture of the glorified savior now i want to show you in the original greek what this says in verse ten remember that the bible says in john chapter four that if we would worship god we must worship him in spirit verse ten a literal rendering of this from the greek language is now you look at verse ten while i read this it doesn't say i was in the spirit now that's how we talk today they say well i was in the spirit well then why did worship happen what we saw may have been of the flesh that's not the spirit he didn't say i was in the spirit what he said was i became in spirit on the lords day and i heard at that point the voice after the word of god loud and clear like a trumpet the word became the word became is in the aorist tense in the greek language the aorist tense can be explained this way if it's not found in the indicative mood which this is not then the aorist is to be distinguished from the present tense which indicates continuous action the present tense the time action of the aorist verb is in all but a few cases in the greek language the aorist involves simple action as contrasted with continuous or repetitive action this is not something that you can continue or repeat on purpose this in fact is not something that you can do this is something that must be done and as john was here on the isle on the lords day i'm meditating on the word of god look what happens when he's in spirit in verse 11 it says he hears the voice like a trumpet saying i am alpha and omega the first and the last what you're seeing right in the book and then look at verse 12 and i turn to see the voice which speaks with me which is absolutely impossible in our dispensation unless the holy spirit makes you be able to see it absolutely impossible now remember at the point this is written 96