Book of John page NOT on original site
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The Father wants true worshippers
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Words of Christ: Jesus speaks to the woman at the well |
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John 4: 23 ( King James Version )
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| 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." |
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| verse 24 > "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth." |
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John 4: 22 - 24 ( New International Version )
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| "You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews |
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| v. 23 > "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks"
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| v. 24 > "God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth."
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Text Quoted in Spirit of Prophecy
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Although God dwells not in temples made with hands, yet He honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to seek Him, to acknowledge their sins, and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit. But those who assemble to worship Him should put away every evil thing. Unless they worship Him in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness, their coming together will be of no avail. Of such the Lord declares, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.” Matthew 15:8, 9. Those who worship God must worship Him “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” John 4:23. { PK 50.4} Read entire Chapter 2
“The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20. { PK 50.5} |
| The Teacher from heaven, no less a personage than the Son of God, came to earth to reveal the character of the Father to men, that they might worship him in spirit and in truth. Christ revealed to men the fact that the strictest adherence to ceremony and form would not save them; for the kingdom of God was spiritual in its nature. Christ came to the world to sow it with truth. He held the keys to all the treasures of wisdom, and was able to open doors to science, and to reveal undiscovered stores of knowledge, were it essential to salvation. He presented to men that which was exactly contrary to the representations of the enemy in regard to the character of God, and sought to impress upon men the paternal love of the Father, who “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] He urged upon men the necessity of prayer, repentance, confession, and the abandonment of sin. He taught them honesty, forbearance, mercy, and compassion, enjoining upon them to love not only those who loved them, but those who hated them, who treated them despitefully. In this he was revealing to them the character of the Father, who is long-suffering, merciful, and gracious, slow to anger, and full of goodness and truth. Those who accepted his teaching were under the guardian care of angels, who were commissioned to strengthen, to enlighten, that the truth might renew and sanctify the soul. { CE 74.1 } also { FE 177.1 }
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| Our institutions for any land are not to be crowded together in one locality. God never designed that the light of truth should be thus restricted. For a time the Jewish nation was required to worship at Jerusalem. But Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “Believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” “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.” John 4:21, 23, 24. Truth is to be planted in every place to which we can possibly gain access. It is to be carried to regions that are barren of the knowledge of God. Men will be blessed in receiving the One in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered. The acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus will fill their hearts with melody to God. { CH 216.4} |
| Our institutions for any land are not to be crowded together in one locality. God never designed that the light of truth should be thus restricted. For a time the Jewish nation was required to worship at Jerusalem. But Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “Believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” “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.” John 4:21, 23, 24. Truth is to be planted in every place to which we can possibly gain access. It is to be carried to regions that are barren of the knowledge of God. Men will be blessed in receiving the One in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered. The acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus will fill their hearts with melody to God. { 7T 53.1}
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| God honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to acknowledge their sins and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit. But unless those who assemble to worship put away every evil thing, their coming together will be of no avail. Those who worship God must worship Him “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” John 4:23. { SS 25.1 }
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Christ was the greatest teacher the world has ever known. He came to this earth to shed abroad the bright beams of truth, that men might gain a fitness for heaven. “For this cause came I into the world,” He declared, “that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John 18:37. He came to reveal the character of the Father, that men might be led to worship Him in spirit and in truth. { CT 259.1}
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| He desired to lift the thoughts of His hearer above matters of form and ceremony, and questions of controversy. “The hour cometh,” He said, “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.” { DA 189.1}
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These lessons Christ gave in his teaching, showing that the ritual service was passing away, and possessed no virtue. “The hour cometh,” he said, “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.” True circumcision is the worship of Christ in spirit and truth, not in forms and ceremonies, with hypocritical pretense. { SpTEd 173.2 } |
| “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” ( John 4:24 ). When our hearts are tuned to praise our Maker, not only in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs but also in our lives, we shall live in communion with Heaven.... There will be gratitude in the heart and in the home, in private as well as in public devotion. This constitutes the true worship of God. { TMK 322.4} |
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God has chosen us out of the world that we might be a peculiar and holy people: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” God’s workers must be men of prayer, diligent students of the Scriptures, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, that they may be a light and strength to others. Our God is a jealous God; and he requires that we worship him in spirit and in truth, in the beauty of holiness. The psalmist says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” As workers, we must take heed to our ways. If the psalmist could not be heard if he regarded iniquity in his heart, how can the prayers of ministers be heard if iniquity is regarded among them? There are dangers to which we are continually exposed. It is Satan’s studied plan to make the workers weak in prayer, weak in power, and weak in influence before the world, because of the defects in their characters,— defects which in no way harmonize with the truth. { RH November 10, 1885, par. 3 } Read entire Section
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| Where is Christ? We would see Jesus, not the places where he used to make his abode. Christ is the bread of life, and we must feed upon his word, and be a doer of his commands. What is Christ to me? How am I related to Christ? He is in the heavens above, and as our high priest, is offering up the incense of his own merit. His holiness mingles with our prayers of repentance and faith. Through conversion we are brought into close relationship with God, and the Father loves those for whom Christ has died as he loves his own Son. Through the almighty ransom he has made, we become sons and daughters of God. We should earnestly inquire, not in regard to old Jerusalem and concerning the fables that are repeated for truth, but we should turn our eyes to the loving Saviour, who ever liveth to make intercession for us. We should prostrate the soul before the incarnate God. We are not to trust in fables, and worship places that God has cursed, and foster idolatry in so doing. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “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.” { John 4: 22 -23 } Many visit Jerusalem, and go away cherishing ideas which they suppose represent the truth, while in fact they have only come in contact with fables. They publish these falsehoods as truth. { RH February 25, 1896, par. 9 }
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