No. 4. SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE AS TO WORSHIP.

Thus far our meditations have brought us:and we have seen, that to worship the true and living God one must be led, guided, by the Holy Ghost into God's thoughts about His Beloved Son, and thus to present a sweet savor of Christ to God the Father. And we need but two scriptures to make this as simple and plain as possible, the fourth and sixteenth chapters of John's gospel.

In the fourth chapter, beginning with the 20th verse, we hear the woman of Samaria saying to Jesus, " Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." How sad it is, in these days in which we are living, there are so many Christian people, – I say Christian people, because they have taken that position, have put on the Christian profession, I do not say "children of God," though many of these are in great darkness, who are on no better ground as to worship than the woman of Samaria. They do not know Christ. They do not know that they are saved, and they do not believe it is possible for any one to know that he is saved now in this present time. But they do know that they have "got religion"; or perhaps this is stating their position too strongly ; but they are not afraid to say"I know that I am a professor of religion, – a member in good and regular standing" in some recognized denomination:and they expect to live and die in that faith. Nor do they seem to want anything better than that; and no one but the Lord Himself can show them anything better.

Sometimes they say it doesn't make any difference if one is only sincere and honest, for we are all going to the same place. And so the woman of Samaria might have thought; and so she might have added " Surely God ordained blessing on Mount Gerizim." (Deut. 27:12.) But let us look at His answer to her queries.

"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what:we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers 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."

And now we have before us three distinct points as to worship:First, "Our fathers worshiped." Second, "Ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Third, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Now as to the first:"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain." What was there wrong in that? Why could not the people of Samaria build a temple in Mount Gerizim, and worship there in their own city, and according to the dictates of their own conscience ? Why could not God own and bless them there as well as at Jerusalem ? For this Mount Gerizim was the place where God commanded blessing to be pronounced when they had taken possession of the land. (See Deut. 11:29, and 12:5,6; 12-14.) "But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come:And thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and your heave-offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks."

Mark this, beloved reader:"the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there." Notice now the eighth verse:"ye shall not. do after all that ye do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. . . . Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there." (ver. 2:) "Thither shalt thou bring all that I command you."(ver. 12.) . . . "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offering in every place that thou seest."

In the wilderness they had been acting on the principle that so largely prevails now everywhere,- "doing that which was right in their own eyes." And this, beloved reader, is the citadel of Satan's power over men from the day that Adam succumbed to him in Eden. The citadel of Adam's strength was to abide in the will of God, but this he lost when he surrendered to Satan, and henceforth himself and his posterity became the bondslaves of Satan. This is the key to all the sorrow that the world has ever seen or felt. And there is absolutely no deliverance from this bondage except through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this fact is abundantly sustained in the teachings of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. We need only to hear Jesus saying to the Jews " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." (John 8:44.) And in the same chapter (ver.36), "If the Son therefore shall make yon free, ye shall be free indeed"; 40th verse, "And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." This is clearly illustrated in Israel's passing through the river Jordan from the wilderness into Canaan.

The waters of death were rolled back, and they took up twelve stones out of the bed of death, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, in resurrection, typically; and twelve other stones pitched in the bed of Jordan (death), as typically representing the twelve tribes dead and buried, – the end of man in the flesh, the natural man, – while the twelve stones in the heap at Gilgal represent typically the twelve tribes in resurrection life, now to go forth in the power of the Spirit to conquer the land.

And now, beloved reader, have you got the answer to those questions as to Mount Gerizim ? There was but one place on the earth where God had set His name. Mount Moriah (provided by Jehovah) at Jerusalem. "God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." (Gen. 22:8.) And so he found it, when he had, in the obedience of faith, offered up his son Isaac, – God accepting the will for the deed, – since the willing mind is first accepted. (2 Cor. 8:12.)

It is not, then, where man chooses to worship that he can be accepted, but where God has set His name. From this we see that no offering of sacrifices, however perfect and without blemish, by an Israelite, however conscientious, sincere and honest, could be accepted at Gerizim, but at the place which God had provided, and where he had set His name – Jerusalem.

But Jesus said "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." And He also added " the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers 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."

And this brings us to the sixteenth chapter of John's gospel, beginning with the thirteenth verse:" Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." …" He shall glorify Me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you."

And now, beloved reader, do you see how this fits our theme ? The Holy Ghost dwells in the believer. What for? To guide! Yes, to guide into all truth. And what is this "all truth"? "All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you." And this leads us to worship in spirit and in truth. By the Spirit led into all truth,-not by the Spirit led according to the dictates of your own conscience, much less every man into that which "seemeth right in his own eyes." No, no! but as God appoints.

The God-appointed place where He had set His name was the only place on earth where acceptable worship could be enjoyed. This was true during the one thousand years between Solomon and Christ. It was a God-ordained system and ritual, by which man "in the flesh" could be accepted as a worshiper.

Mark this, beloved reader:"man in the flesh," in contrast with man in the Spirit. "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Rom. 8:8, 9.) Note also Phil. 3:3:" For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." This is New Testament ground:not man in the flesh, but a man in Christ and in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in him.

And this is God's thought of every believer in whom the Spirit dwells. This was not true in Solomon's day; not true while the ritual of the law was in order for man in the flesh.

Let us look at the first meeting held in the temple built by Solomon (2 Chron. 5:13):"It came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."

This was man in the flesh worshiping:hence everything was suited to that state of things,-trumpets, cymbals, psalteries, and harps,- everything in the line of instrumental music. And, beloved, do we not know that the flesh in us delights in that kind of worship? And that kind of worship cannot be owned of God now, since Jesus has died and risen again, having swept away the whole scene of man in the flesh as having any standing before God. He is condemned already, judged already, root and branch; and now no man has any standing of acceptance before God but in Christ, as the head of a new creation.

In the fifth chapter of Romans, beginning with the twelfth verse, we get the two headships:Adam, as the head of the old creation, by whom sin and death came in; and Christ, the Second Man, or head of a new creation through death and resurrection. This is most important to see clearly, since there can be no intelligent service, much less worship, while this point is not understood.

In the sixth chapter we read, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death ? Therefore we are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:3, 4; also 2 Cor. 5:14-16.) "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all then were all dead:and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation); old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new! "

These two scriptures are most important, as showing the difference between Christian worship and Jewish worship. The Jew, on the ground of law, as a man in the flesh, the natural man, worshiping by proxy, through a priest and sacrifices, in a ritual of services which could only appeal to the flesh, or natural man. While the Christian, on the ground of death and resurrection, as a man in Christ, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and entering into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, offering up spiritual sacrifices, in which the flesh can have no part; since the moment it becomes a fleshly thing, or even in part flesh, it ceases to be a spiritual thing, and is sin, since whatever is of the flesh cannot be of the Spirit, and that which is not of the Spirit is not of faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." C. E. H.