Would you turn to Genesis chapter
22? I'm so delighted to be with you.
And I don't know how to say this,
but when Clay decided to stay here, I just knew the Lord was
going to bless this place. And I'm very thankful for that. I want to ask this question, what is worship? Have I ever worshipped? What does the Bible mean by worship? Now the answer to that is found
in our text in Genesis chapter 22. Let's begin reading in verse
1. And it came to pass, after these
things, that God did tempt Abraham, and
said unto him, Abraham. And he said, behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son,
thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had
told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. is a response to the living God. God spoke to Abraham, take now
your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him up as
a burnt offering on a mountain which I'll tell you of. And Abraham looked at the two
young men that were with him and said, I and the lad will
go yonder and worship. And I'll return to you. You see,
he knew that after he slew that boy, God would raise him up from
the dead. And it was done already in his
heart. And when he raised his hand up with the knife to slay
his son, believing that God would raise him from the dead, worship
took place. What is worship? When Abel brought the blood of
that slain lamb representing the coming Lamb of God, he knew
exactly what he was doing. He You know, the English word worship
means worth-ship. You are ascribing proper worth. When Abel came into God's presence
with that blood sacrifice, he was acknowledging God's worth. This was worship. God is holy,
and the only way I can approach Him is through the blood of that
coming One, the Lamb of God. I wouldn't dare come any other
way. He worshipped. When Cain came into God's presence,
there was no worship, no acknowledging of God's holiness. When he brought
his own works, the things that he had done, there was no recognition
of the character of God. There was no worship. What is worship? Some time ago, a man called me
and he said he wanted to visit our church. And he said, I want
to understand something about reformed worship. What's that? Does worship need
reform? There's no such thing as reformed
worship. You know, we hear terms like
we have contemporary worship, but we have traditional worship. Now listen real carefully. There
are only two adjectives that can be used to describe worship. True worship or false worship. That's it. What is worship. Now, I know this about worship.
God demands exclusive worship. He said, thou shalt worship no
other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous
God. He is intolerant of false worship. He is intolerant of idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of a
false god. The word worship quite often
in the Old Testament is translated to bow to the ground. It means
by definition to lay prostrate. To lay prostrate. Lying on the
ground. That's a response to God in worship. The New Testament word worship
means to kiss like a dog licking his master's hand. Now what is it that brings on
this attitude of worship? I think of Satan's words to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He showed him all the kingdoms
of the world in a moment of time. And he said, all this will I
give thee if you'll fall down and worship me. What was our Lord's reply? Get
thee hence, Satan, for it's written. I love the way the Lord uses
that in those temptations. He could have destroyed him,
he could have tortured him, he could have... But what honor
he gives the word of God when he said, it is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve. What is worship? Now I want to try to answer that
question from scriptural examples where it was said people were
to worship. Now here's the first point I
want to make about this thing of worship. I've already said
it's a response to God. It's a response to divine revelation. But when someone truly worships
God, they worship Him for who He is and not what they can get
out of Him. Now what do I mean by that? Because
I want to qualify when I say that every time I come into God's
presence there's something I want to get out of Him. I've never
come into God's presence and just I praise you, nothing else. Maybe
I should. I remember somebody talking about
Psalm 103 once, and they said in that Psalm, David doesn't
ask the Lord for a thing. All he does is thank Him and
praise Him. And I admire that, but it's not happening with me
like that. Every time I come into the Lord's presence, it's
with something I'm wanting. I need mercy. I need grace. I need Him to do something for
me. And this leper came knowing he needed the Lord to do something
for him. But the Scripture says, Behold, a leper came and worshipped
Him. Now we know that this fellow
worshipped, don't we? The Bible said he came and worshipped
Him before he got what he was asking for. The Lord is to be
worshipped whatever he does for me or you. Amen? He's to be worshipped. If he passes me by, he's to be
worshipped. Behold, there came a leper and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. I need to be clean. And I can't
make myself clean. And whether or not I'm cleansed
is up to you. Whatever you do is right. You're
still to be worshipped. But if you will, you can make
me clean. That's what I need. Now that
man worshipped. Now understand this regarding
worship. You will only worship a sovereign. You will only worship
one that you can't manipulate, that you can't control, that
you can't get to respond to. You're utterly in His sovereign
hands and He can do with you whatever He's pleased to do.
That's when you worship. Not before then. I think of the Syro-Phoenician
woman coming to the Lord with this great need. Jesus, Thou
Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. She came the right way. And the
scripture says, He answered her not a word. He did not respond. Silence! Did she stop? My dear friend, if you and I
ever need mercy, nothing will stop our crime." She continued
crying. And then the Lord said to the
disciples, not to her, but so she could hear, I'm not sent
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I didn't come
to save everybody. I came to save a particular people.
No other way that can be interpreted. There's no interpretation involved. That's what He said. I'm not
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know
what the Scripture says about that woman? Then came she and
worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. If You don't help me,
I won't be helped. Then came she and worshipped. I think of the gathering demonic
in Mark chapter 5. When he saw Jesus afar off, he
ran and worshipped Him. Now this man worshipped. But
he's a demonic. Still says he worshipped. He's
demon possessed. Still says he worshipped. This
man ran and worshipped Him, saying, What have I to do with Thee,
Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God? What connection is there
between me and You? You're light, I'm darkness. You're
good, I'm bad. You're holy, I'm evil. There's
no connection between us. Have You come to torment me before
the time? He wasn't thinking the Lord was
going to do anything for him, but he knew the Lord was to be
worshipped. Mephibosheth, before David. He comes before this one. He
doesn't know if David is going to kill him or spare him. He's
at the house of Saul. He doesn't know what's going to happen.
He's brought before David. You know what the scripture says
he did? He came and did reverence before him. He bowed before him
and didn't say a thing. He knew he was in His hands and
it was up to Him as to what's going to take place with me.
He was in David's hands. And He did reverence. And when
David said, I'm surely going to show you the kindness of God
for Jonathan's sake. You know what his response was?
Who am I that you would look upon such a dead dog as me? Worship is a response to the
divine revelation. In Luke chapter 5, when the Lord
revealed Himself to Peter, and Peter finally knew who He really
was, you know what His response was? Depart from Me, O Lord. I'm a sinful man. You don't want
to have anything to do with somebody like me. I'm a sinful man. You see, it's not until we see
who the Lord is that we see who we are. When you see who He is,
you're going to see yourself as sinful. Full of sin. And that's the result of seeing
Him. Will you turn with me for a moment
to Exodus chapter 33? I repeat, true worship is a response
to God revealing Himself to you. If He reveals Himself, you will
worship. You won't have any choice. You
will worship. You see, in this thing of responding
to God, there's really only two responses. Hatred, we will not
have this man reign over us, or worship, bowing down to the
ground. Look in Exodus chapter 33 verse
18, this is when Moses is praying for the children of Israel after
the golden calf incident, and he says in verse 18 during the midst
of this prayer, and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, God said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
Now that's God's glory. His goodness. His capacity to
save somebody like me or somebody like you. His name. His name is His attribute. It's
who He is. His sovereign mercy. I'll be
gracious to whom I will be gracious. Now, he said, I'm going to proclaim
my name before you. Now, look in chapter 34 verse 5. This is
the Lord proclaiming His name. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation." And Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth. and worshiped. And if God ever reveals this
to me or you, you know what we'll do? We'll make
haste. We'll bow our heads to the earth
and we will worship. Turn to Joshua chapter 5. This is before the conquest of
Jericho, verse 13 of Joshua chapter 5. And it came to pass, when
Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes, and looked,
and behold, there stood a man. Joshua chapter 5, verse 13. There
stood a man against him, with his sword drawn
in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, and
said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he
said, Neither, nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord
am I now come. I'm not on somebody's side. I'm
the captain of the host of the Lord. And what was Joshua's response? And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? Now let me tell you this about
worship. When you worship, you're concerned about what He says
to you. Not what you say to Him, but
what He says to you. I think of Job, after God had
spoken to him from the whirlwind, and he spent chapters 38 through
40 speaking to him from the whirlwind. What was his response? I've heard
of thee with the hearing of the year, but now mine eye seeth
thee, wherefore I hate myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And that's what will happen to
me and you if we ever see Him. Now whenever He reveals His person,
a revelation of Himself, He always reveals the accepted sacrifice. He doesn't reveal Himself to
you and leave you right there and just leave you feeling like
you're nothing but sin. That's true. You are nothing
but sin. I am too. You know, somebody came up to
me once and said, I'm thinking I'm sinful. I said, it's a whole
lot worse than you think. And it is. But turn with me to
2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 1. Now, this always comes along
with the revelation of this person. Now when Solomon had made an
end of praying, 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 1, when Solomon
had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and
consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory
of the Lord filled the house, and the priests could not enter
into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled
the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw that the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground,
upon the pavement, and worshipped." Now what's that fire? I like
that thunder happening while we're reading the Scriptures.
I like that. The fire coming down from heaven and consuming
the sacrifice represents God's acceptance of the sacrifice. That fire came down from heaven
and consumed it. Like the fire coming down and
consuming Elijah's sacrifice. Remember that? He doused it with
water. The fire came down from heaven
and it consumed the sacrifice and the rocks and the dust and
the stones and licked up the water. There was nothing left
showing how God had accepted the sacrifice. I think of the
fire of God coming down on Christ and that's the one time the sacrifice
consumed the fire. Nothing left. If I ever hear
in the power of the Holy Spirit by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to worship. I'm going to worship. If I ever
see God's complete acceptance of me for Christ's sake because
of the sacrifice of Christ, there's only one response. Worship. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles
chapter 20. This is Jehoshaphat. Beginning in verse 12, this mighty
army has come against Israel. And Jehoshaphat says in verse 12, O our God, wilt thou
not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh up against us. Neither know we
what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood
before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.
And then this prophet, I'm not going to try to pronounce all
the names, but you can read it in verse 14. He comes with this
message, verse 15, and he says, Harken, all Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
for the battle is not yours. but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and you shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with
you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, be not dismayed, tomorrow
go out against them, for the Lord will be with you." And Jehoshaphat
bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord. What? Worshipping the Lord. Now, when you find out that the
battle really isn't yours, and that there's no fighting for
you to do, you go on reading this chapter, the Lord made their
enemies fight each other and kill each other. All they do
is sit there and watch. Nothing else. Stand still. Don't move,
don't work, don't move a finger, don't do anything. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. You know what that's called?
Grace. Grace. It has absolutely nothing
to do with you. You know, we call grace unmerited
favor, and that's really not that good of a definition of
it. Unmerited favor. If a man comes up to me and asks
me for money, I give him some money, it's unmerited favor.
He didn't deserve it. But if somebody murdered my daughter
and then came up and asked me for money and I gave it to them,
that's demerited favor, isn't it? That's grace. The Lord giving
us grace when we've murdered His Son. Grace. What is the only response to
grace? By grace you are saved. Worship. No other response. Worship. And there can only be true worship
by the Spirit of God and truth. Turn with me to John chapter
4, you know this passage. John chapter 4, verse 16. John chapter 4, verse
16. Jesus saith unto her, Go call
thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said,
I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom
thou now hast is not thy husband, and that saidst thou truly. And
the woman proceeds to start speaking religiously. The woman saith
unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, believe me, The hour cometh when you shall neither in this
mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father you worship
you 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 spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now here are two things that
are absolutely necessary for worship. Number one, God the
Holy Spirit. I never say to somebody who I
don't know as a believer, come to our worship services and worship
with us. I don't say that. Natural man
can't worship. You have to be born of the Spirit. There is no worship without the
Spirit of God giving you a spiritual nature to enable you to worship
God. Turn with me for a moment to
Philippians chapter 3. Hold your finger there in John
chapter 4 and turn to Philippians chapter 3. Paul says in verse 3 of Philippians
chapter 3, For we are the circumcision. We're the true Jews is what he's
saying. We're the true Jews. Every believer is a true Jew.
We're the true Israel. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, in the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh and will never rise above that. That which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. Now let me tell you exactly what
somebody who worships God in the Spirit does. Look at the
next phrase. Here's what people who worship
God in the Spirit do. They rejoice, and that word rejoice
is the same word Paul uses in Galatians 6.14, glory. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if somebody
worships God in the Spirit, here's what they do. They rejoice only
in Christ Jesus. Now what does that mean? That
means at all times, the only grand of acceptance is being
in Christ. Nowhere else. I look to Christ
only. as everything in my salvation.
I don't look for... Everything God requires of me,
He looks to Christ for. That's what it means to glory
in Christ. You look nowhere else. And you know what everybody does
who glories in Christ? Look at the next phrase. They have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence. I don't have any
confidence in my flesh. Anything that arises from my
flesh, it's no good. It's evil. It's sinful. It won't
do me any good at all. I don't have any confidence in
your flesh. We have no confidence. Absolutely no confidence in the
flesh. Now that's spiritual worship. You worship God in the spirit. You rejoice in Christ Jesus and
you have no confidence, none in the flesh. God is spirit and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no worship of God apart
from The truth. The truth of the gospel. Somebody
says, well, we really had a worship service. Was the truth preached? If it wasn't, you didn't have
a worship service. I don't know what it was. Well,
I believe I do know what it was, but it wasn't a worship service. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. II Thessalonians 2.13 says, We
are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Belief of the truth is the result
of sanctification of the spirit. And belief of the truth is the
evidence of being sanctified by the spirit. You can't separate
them. The truth of the true character
of God as is revealed in the scriptures, the truth of the
true character of man as is revealed in the scriptures, dead in sins,
unable to save himself, totally depraved. the truth of salvation,
salvations of the Lord, of the Father in eternal election, of
the Son in redemption, of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration. There's no worship apart from
the truth. Now turn with me to 1 Chronicles
chapter 16. I've got three more Scriptures. 1 Chronicles chapter 16 verse 29. Give unto the Lord glory. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before
Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. We read that about a half a dozen
times in the scripture. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. There is no worship of the Lord
apart from worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness. Now how
do you know when you're worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness. Is it because you see you're
such a holy person and now your worship is acceptable? You've
reached a sufficient degree of victory over your sin? Now you
can think you can worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness?
Is that what that's saying? Well, let's look at what the
verse says. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. That is worshiping the Lord in
the beauty of holiness. do His name. And next He says,
bring an offering. And the only offering you bring
is the offering of Christ. You come only with Christ. No other way. Now if you give
God the glory, do His name. What's that? All the glory. He
gets all the glory and salvation. I know that when I'm saved, I'm
going to be a testimony to just how much salvation is by grace. And He's going to have all the
glory in my salvation. I'm going to give Him the glory,
do His name, it's all do His name. None to me. None to any
man. And I'm bringing the only offering,
that offering that by that one offering He hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. Now you do that, you're worshipping
Him in the beauty of holiness. Only holiness does that. Turn with me to John chapter
9. Beginning in verse 35, this is
the blind man that the Lord had healed. Jesus heard that they
had cast him out, and when He found him, He said unto him,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He didn't say, Do you believe
you're saved? He didn't say, do you believe
you're one of the elect? He didn't say, do you believe
that Christ died for you? He didn't say, do you believe
that you've been born again? But what did he say? What did
he say? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ,
and I'm asking you this, do you believe that Jesus Christ is
the eternal, uncreated Son of God, Lord of heaven and earth,
the one who controls everybody and everything, the one who created
and the one who saves, the only one who saves, who is salvation?
I'm not asking if you believe you're saved. I'm asking you
if you really believe he's the son of God. I can't help but
think of Peter after he was restored after that terrible denial of
Christ. If you would have said to Peter, Peter, are you saved? I don't know, probably not. Peter,
are you one of the elect? I doubt it. Peter, have you been
born again? I don't know. Peter, do you believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God? Yes, I do. With all my heart. He answered, verse 36, and said,
Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said
unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and is He that talketh with
thee? And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. What is it to worship? It's to
believe. And remember, faith doesn't have
anything to do with what you believe about yourself. Get that? Faith has nothing to
do with what you think about yourself. Do you believe He is
the Son of God? He said, Lord, I believe. And He worshipped. You believe Him. You're worshiping
God. One last scripture. Turn with
me to Acts chapter 24. And this is part of true worship. Acts chapter 24. Verse 12, Paul is answering his
accusers. And he says, and they neither
found me, Acts 24, 12, and they neither found me in the temple
disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither
in the synagogue, nor in the city, neither can they prove
the things whereof they now accuse me, but this I confess unto thee. I plead guilty. Guilty as charged. I'm saying
this to all the world. This I confess to thee, that after the way which they
call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing
all things that are written. Now understand this, true worship
is always confessional. You admit, that's exactly what
I believe. Publicly, to not confess the
gospel is to not worship. This I confess to thee. After the way which they call
heresy, so worship the God of my fathers." Now this is a public
admission of guilt. I confess. What they're calling
heresy, so worship. It's not just I believe
that, but that's worship. I think of the Pharisees. It
says, Regarding them nevertheless among the chief rulers, many
believed on him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not
confess him. They believed. I see the Bible
teaches that. I can't deny it. There it is.
But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him. Because they love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. Where there is true worship,
there is confession. Worship. It's an obedient response to
God. God said to Abraham, take now
your son, your only son. Offer him up as a burnt offering. I'll tell you both. How did Abraham respond? I'm
the lad who will go yonder and worship. When we worship Him,
we worship Him for who He is. And not simply for what we think
we can get out of Him. You see, He's to be worshipped.
If He sends me to hell, He's still the object of worship. whatever He does with me. Now,
I hope He does something for me. I hope He saves me. I want
His mercy. But whatever He does, He is to
be worshipped. We worship by the Spirit of God
with His truth in the beauty of holiness, in faith, confessing
Him before me. That is worship. And I think of the words of the
psalmist in Psalm 45, 11. He is thy Lord. Worship thou Him. May God enable us to worship
Him.