True Worship #4

Q: What does the Bible say about true worship?

The Bible defines true worship as the conscious, wholehearted ascription of praise and honor to the living God, requiring specific prerequisites. According to Scripture, true worship is defined as the conscious, wholehearted ascription of praise and honor to God. This definition is vital because worship must align with God's revelation of Himself in the Bible. As indicated in Psalm 29:2, God commands us to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. To worship authentically, there are prerequisites which must be fulfilled, including a true knowledge of God, spiritual sight of God, proper posture of humility and submission, and purity both positionally and experientially. These elements ensure that our worship reflects the holiness of God and the readiness of our hearts to engage with Him rightly.

Q: How do we know that worship is a personal activity?

Worship is a personal activity requiring full engagement of our redeemed will, mind, and body in ascribing worth to God. The nature of worship as a personal activity is evident when we consider how Scripture describes the worshipers' involvement. For instance, in Revelation 4:10-11, the elders are depicted as physically engaging with the act of worship—falling down, casting crowns, and speaking specific praises. This indicates that true worship is not a passive experience; rather, it involves the conscious and active participation of our entire being. Our will, which determines our choices, must be directed towards worshiping God. Likewise, our mind must be engaged to reflect on who God is and His deeds, stirring our hearts into awe. Therefore, worship is an activity that demands the full engagement of our mind, will, and body.

Q: Why is understanding the prerequisites of worship important for Christians?

Understanding the prerequisites of worship is crucial as they prepare our hearts to commune with a holy God authentically. The importance of understanding the prerequisites of worship lies in their role in transforming our approach to God. True worship requires a genuine relationship and understanding of who God is. Scripture emphasizes prerequisites such as a true knowledge of God, a spiritual sight of God, humility in posture, and purity. Without these, our worship can become shallow or insincere. As indicated in Psalm 99:5, God commands us to exalt Him and worship at His footstool, which requires us to present ourselves appropriately before Him. Acknowledging these facts drives believers to self-examine their readiness and strive for true engagement, ensuring that their worship is not only acceptable but also pleasing to God.

Q: How does the mind play a role in the worship of God?

The mind is essential in worship, as it engages in remembering God's attributes and works, fueling our praise. The role of the mind in worship is fundamental, as it actively engages us in the process of recalling who God is and what He has done. For example, in Psalm 103, David addresses his soul to bless the Lord, illustrating that worship involves a conscious act of remembering God's benefits and mercies. This mental engagement ensures that our worship is rooted in truth, stimulating heartfelt responses. Additionally, as seen in Psalm 100, knowing key truths—such as God's sovereignty and goodness—shapes our worship experience. Therefore, when we worship, we must harness our minds to think deeply about God’s character and deeds, which cultivates a richer, more profound worship experience.

Q: Why is physical expression important in worship?

Physical expression in worship demonstrates our heartfelt engagement and can enhance the authenticity of our praise. Physical expression plays a crucial role in worship as it manifests the internal state of our hearts. Scripture often highlights physical acts of worship—such as bowing, kneeling, and lifting hands—as natural responses to the recognition of God's majesty. For instance, in Revelation, worshipers are described as falling down and worshiping with loud voices, indicating a full-bodied engagement in the act of praise. Such expressions reflect our involvement and submission, often leading to a deepened experience of worship. The act of using our bodies in worship signifies our whole participation and commitment, affirming that worship is not merely a mental or emotional exercise, but one that encompasses our entire being.

As I look out over the congregation,
I note that with perhaps just two or three exceptions, all
of you who are here tonight were with us this morning, and so
I will not be tedious with a lengthy review as I complete this brief
series of four studies on the subject of spiritual worship,
what is it, and how may we rightly render it to God. We have thus far considered what
worship is and have sought to describe it as that conscious,
wholehearted ascription of praise and honor to the living and the
true God. If worship is what those people
do of whom it is said they worship, then that's what worship is.
For we only know what true worship is in terms of any definition
or description of it given to us in Holy Scripture. But we
have seen not everyone is able to worship. There are certain
prerequisites which must be met if a man or woman, fellow or
girl, is to be a true worshiper. And we have considered four basic
prerequisites of worship. There must be, one, a true knowledge
of God. Two, a spiritual sight of God. Three, a proper posture before
God, namely humility and submission. And then, as we saw this morning,
there must be purity before God, both a positional purity, justification,
and an experimental purity, that is, practical The command of
scripture in Psalm 29, too, is to worship the Lord not in the
beauty of the filtered light of stained-glass windows. The
command is to worship the Lord not in the thrilling, sonorous
tones of a deep-throated organ, but in the beauty of holiness. In other words, God's worship
is to be carried out in a context in which worshipers who worship
a holy God are themselves holy men and women. Now tonight we
come to the third area of our study, touching the general subject
of worship, having considered the essence of worship, what
it is, the prerequisites to worship—and we've looked at four of them
Now tonight this third aspect in what I am calling the personal
activity of worship. If by God's grace we have met
the prerequisites and are qualified to worship, what then is actually
involved in worship? And may I say by way of introduction
that I'm convinced that perhaps there is no greater stumbling
block to true worship outside of the moral demands of worship
than this. Outside of the fact that we must
be pure before we can adequately worship, and so often our flesh
just doesn't want to go through the agony of self-examination
and humiliation and repentance and confession, outside of that
hindrance I'm convinced that perhaps there is no greater hindrance
than a failure to understand that worship is a personal activity
to which I must bring all of the powers of my redeemed being. In that sense, worship can be
called a holy work, as much as prayer is a holy work. If you've
never felt that prayer was work, you've never prayed. Now, thank
God, sometimes prayer is delight. But sometimes it's just plain
work. And there are times when worship
is what we might call a very delightful experience, to which
we are not very much conscious of bringing all of our faculties. But more often than not, if worship
is to be true worship, there must be a conscious bringing
to that activity all of our redeemed powers. Now I say this because
all of those descriptions of worship, and we looked at a number
of them last week in the Old and New Testament, and I keep
coming back to those in the book of the Revelation because that's
worship at its purest. And I want you to look at one
or two so you'll realize I'm not just talking off the top
of my head. It's obvious that whatever creature
is said to be worshiping, that that creature is totally involved
in worship. As we mentioned last week, I've
seen people knit and at the same time talk and watch their children.
You and I can drive and at the same time talk, carry on a conversation,
and even occasionally look at the person in the seat opposite
us. But now, will you find anybody worshipping and knitting at the
same time when you read Scripture? Well, I think not. Notice one
or two of these examples. Back again to Revelation chapter
4 and verses 10 and 11. And the four and twenty elders
fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him
that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and were created. If you take these
verbs of action, they fall down, they worship, cast their crowns,
saying, You see, the whole person is involved. They were doing
something physically. They were doing something mentally.
They were thinking thoughts about God. Their mouths were articulating
what their minds were thinking. Their whole being was involved
in the holy work of worship. A similar example is in chapter
7, verses 10 through, perhaps we should begin
with verse 9, Revelation 7, 9. And after this, I beheld in law,
a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and
kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne of God
and before the land clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God,
which sit upon the throne and unto the land. And all the angels
stood round about the throne and about the elders and the
four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped
God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. What they're doing, Scripture
says, they're doing with a loud voice. They do it from this posture
of falling before the throne. They are saying distinctive things
about God. There is a certain order and
logical structure to what they're doing. They're wholeheartedly
involved in the act of worship. Now, if that's so, then it will
involve at least three or four compartments of our total being. And I want to tonight suggest
to you, then, that the personal activity of worship in a general
sense involves the whole man, but specifically it will involve
the will, the mind, and the body. And I'll conclude with a fourth
thing. For lack of a better way of saying it, I'm going to call
it my whole renewed being. First of all, then, worship,
the personal activity of worship, involves the will. Now, what
is your will? That's your chooser. That's the
thing which sets the sails of the light in a given direction.
Now, the will has no power to move the boat. any more than
the sails have a power or the rudder has any power to propel
the boat. It determines direction. Now
the will determines direction. There must be power and ability.
And the scripture says in Philippians 2 and verse 12 that it is God
who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But God's working does not bypass
my will. Therefore, if I am to worship,
my will will be consciously involved in the holy art of worship. Notice two classical examples
of this in the Psalms. Turn please to Psalm 5. Psalm
5. Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my meditation, hearken unto the voice of my cry, my
King and my God, for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou
hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct
my prayer unto thee and will look up. For thou art not a God
that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil, that is the
evil man, dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into
thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will
I worship toward thy holy temple. Now the psalmist, you see, is
giving a confession of the bent of his will. He's saying, the
wicked man cannot dwell with God, and though the anger of
God is turned against wicked men, I am not a wicked man. I
am a child of God, and I am going to set myself to the worship
of my God. As for me, I will come into thy
house in the multitude of thy mercies. Now another example,
Psalm 132. Lord, remember David in all his
afflictions, how he swore unto the Lord and vowed unto the mighty
God of Jacob. And this was David's vow. Surely
I will not come into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my
bed. I will not give sleep to mine
eyes or slumber to mine eyelids until I find out a place for
the Lord and habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Lo, we heard
of it in Ephrata. We found it in the fields of
the wood, that is, the ark of God. We will go into his tabernacles
we will worship at his footstool. You see, in recounting the history
of Israel and the fact that David had determined that he would
seek to find a dwelling place for the Ark of God—you remember
the Ark of God was sort of a vagabond thing during David's time, and
it was David's determination to bring the Ark of God back
to the place of central worship And the psalmist, whoever he
was here, looking back upon this and thinking of the tremendous
privilege of coming to worship God at the appointed place, says,
in the light of this, we will go into his tabernacle, we will
worship at his footstool. Before he worshipped, he sets
himself to that act. He is not there worshipping,
but he says, this is what we will do. And then I read to you
this morning from the 108th psalm, which is the personal testimony
of David again. Another beautiful and very, I
trust, easy to understand psalm on this point. Psalm 108. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise even
with my glory. Now notice, he says, I've got
a fixed heart to praise God. He's not yet doing it, but he
says, I'm determined to do it. My will is set to do it. So now
he calls his psaltery in his heart to wake up. There's his
psaltery. sitting over there in the corner
of his room and his heart. And he says, Oh, Salterian heart,
wake up. We're going to go up and praise
God. Oh, wake up, Salterian heart. And David, you get yourself awake.
You said your heart's fixed. All right, now get yourself awake
and get up there and worship God like you ought to. I will
praise the Lord among the people and I will sing praise. He isn't
doing it yet. He's saying what he's going to
do. And then, as we'll see later, he begins to use his mind. For
thy mercy is great above the heavens, thy truth reaches unto
the clouds. On his way up to worship God,
he starts feeding facts about God into his mind that will build
the fires of worship, so that when he comes to worship, His
heart is aflame and his mouth will be opened to the praises
of God. Now, I think these Psalms here
that I've read are enough to show this whole aspect that worship
involves the choice of the will. It is for this reason that worship
is commanded in Holy Scripture. Whether or not you worship is
not optional. God has commanded worship. In Psalm 99, in verse 5, we have
the explicit statement of Holy Scripture, Psalm 99, in verse
5, Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. Well, if it's a command, like
all other duties expressed in commands, the child of God sets
himself to obey whether he feels like it or not. Is it your duty
to pray? Yes or no? It is. Now, ideally speaking, should
you always feel like praying? Wonderful. But if you only pray
when you feel like it, I wouldn't want to exchange your prayer
life for mine as shoddy as mine is. You pray because it's your duty.
Men ought always to pray and not to faint. Ought is a word
of duty, of responsibility. Now, you ought to love your enemies. Now, it's wonderful when you
feel like loving, but what about the times when you don't? What
do you do? Well, I hope what you do is say,
Lord, I've got to love that character because you say it. And I'm your child and I want
to obey you, but Lord, I can't. I must, but I can't. And what
does that do? The sense of duty that must be
performed without any ability to perform it drives you to the
God for grace to perform it. But if you say, oh, well, God
commands it, but certainly it isn't right to do it unless you
don't feel like it and you don't do it. That's adding sin to sin.
So that when we think of worshiping God, and in particular I'm thinking
of the worship that we give Him not only alone in our closet
of prayer, though that's included, but I'm particularly thinking
from a pastoral standpoint. The worship we bring to God when
we gather together, as you think of coming to these services where
we meet to worship our God, You should come with this consciousness
that David had, my heart is fixed, I will worship God because He
commands it. Whether I feel like it, whether
the weather oppresses me, whether I've got a headache, regardless
of what I feel like, God has commanded me to worship Him.
Since He has commanded it, I must. And then as you think of the
imperative nature of the command and the inability of your own
heart, that's the very thing that'll drive you to God for
the grace that you need. Just like a sinner. You say to
the sinner, you must repent. Once he begins to say, God says,
unless I repent, I'll perish, I must repent. And so he begins
to try to repent. And is it long before he discovers
he can't change his heart? So what does it do? It drives
him to Christ for the grace to do what he must, but what he
cannot in himself. I shall never forget the testimony
of Sheila Tate when she was interviewed by the elders when she applied
for baptism. And I'll never forget some of
the things she said. And one of them was this. As
she was sharing her testimony, how as a proud, self-righteous
Anglican, she came to the church there and called well determined
that whatever she heard or learned, she was never, never going to
question her proper Anglican upbringing. And I remember saying
how as the word came home week after week, she began to get
under conviction. The law of God began to show her sin. And
she said, then I came to this place where I knew I had to repent,
but I knew that I couldn't repent. And this drove me to seek the
Lord for grace. That's it. Now, you see, if you
come into this place to worship and you say, oh, my heart's cold
and I've fouled up this week and I've got unconfessed sins,
so I'll just sit here and go through the motions. No, no,
no. Far better to love to get up and go out and sit in the
park and pray through and get issues right. But I know something
even better than that. Say, Lord, here I come totally
unprepared to worship, but you've commanded me to worship and I
must worship you. Now, Lord, in the shortest time
possible, help me to get in the place where I can worship. and
give me grace to worship." That's what we ought to do. Right? Well, if you don't agree with
me, I'm right anyway, because I've got the Bible on my side. Seriously, He's God. Is there
ever a time when He's not worthy of your worship? Is there? Is there ever a time when He
doesn't command your worship? Well, if He's ever worthy of
it, and ever demanding it, we ought to be ever giving it, regardless
of what we feel like. And knowing we must, we flee
to him for grace. Now, you can see that in a very
real sense, then, the battle as to whether or not you will
worship is won or lost before you ever enter those doors. See,
the battle is won or lost in whether or not you come to that
place where David was when he said, My heart is fixed, I will
worship. I will worship. I will worship. All right. Secondly, then, since
it involves the whole man, it's not only the involvement of the
will, but also the mind. The will is the choosing faculty.
The mind is the thinking faculty. Now, you'll remember in those
passages from which I read in the book of the Revelation where
they are said to be worshiping God. They are obviously thinking
as they worship. They're not just before the throne
of God, as it were, squeezing out of their hearts a big lump
of white-hot emotion. That's not worship. No, they're
thinking. They throw their crowns before
Him and fall before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy because... And then they give reasons. And
in the light of what you are, you ought to have honor. and
glory and power and dominion. They're reaching into the grab
bag of their vocabulary and pulling up all the terms they can to
ascribe unto God the things of which he is worthy. So if worship
is wholehearted ascription of praise to God for who he is and
what he's done, then the mind must be working, thinking about
who he is, thinking about what he's done. Now let's turn to
the Psalms again for a beautiful, simple example of how this works. And the thing I'm emphasizing
is that this is the personal activity of worship. This is
something you do. You just don't sit there, shift
into neutral, and hope it'll come. No, it's something you
and I do. By God's enablement, yes, but
we do it. Psalm 103, please. Now, the first
question I want you to ask and answer in your mind is to whom is David talking in
the first few verses of this psalm? Just look at it and then
answer in your own mind. To whom is David talking? Or
whoever the psalmist is, it says the psalm of David. Is he talking to the Lord? Is he talking to his fellow worshipers? Talking to his kids, telling
them to pay attention? Or is he talking to himself?
He's talking to himself, isn't he? Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. David recognized
that unless he stirred up his own soul, his own mind, to think
of the benefits of God, he would forget them. And once you forget
the benefits of God, who He is and what He's done, you've taken
away the fuel of worship. You can't worship in a vacuum.
Even those glorified saints don't worship in a vacuum. They're
thinking of who God is or what he's done, and their worship
is framed accordingly. And so David acknowledges that
if he's to truly bless the Lord, if he's to be caught up in the
worship and praise of God, his mind must be stirred up from
its sluggishness. He must remember the benefits
and mercies of God. So then he begins to enumerate
them. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities? Who healeth all thy
diseases? Who redeemeth thy life? Who crowneth
thee? Who satisfieth thee? And then
he deals with what the Lord is. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, like as a father pitieth his children. He thinks of all
the glorious attributes of God, and in particular, the relationship
of God to his covenant people. Now you find essentially the
same thing in Psalm 100, a familiar psalm. And I'm doing this, taking
the familiar to show again that this is not some deep kind of
profound insight. It lies right on the surface
of Holy Scripture. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Are you going to sing? Are you
going to come before His presence with singing and serve Him with
gladness? Then you've got to know certain
things. Know that the Lord is God. Know that He is the Creator. Know that we are the sheep of
His pasture. Know that the Lord is good. Know
that the Lord is everlasting. His mercy is everlasting. Know
that His truth is to all generations. What you know will affect how
you sing. what you know will affect whether
or not you come into his courts with this overflowing gladness. Therefore, worship then involves
not only the will set to worship, but the mind calling to remembrance
Basically two things, and I've mentioned them several times,
who God is, His majesty, His might, His power, His love, and
what He has done and is doing for us, His people. He is a tender,
compassionate Father. He is a loving, forbearing Savior. He is a gracious, kind Lord. All of these things we must call
them to remembrance deliberately, consciously, actively. Now let's
consider several practical implications of this principle as it relates
to worship. The first one applies to the
singing of hymns. You see, most of us were reared
in a context—and I say us, not editorially, but I mean me—in
which we were taught to think of the value of a hymn in terms
of how it made us feel as we sang it, rather than in terms of what
does this hymn say about my God. See, the whole concept of hymn
in our day is basically sentimental and emotional. How does this
make me feel? What does this hymn say about
me and what I get from the Lord? So many of the hymns in most
hymnals today begin with I, and they, at the middle, have I,
and they end with I. They are experience-centered
hymns. But, beloved, if hymnody is part
of worship, then what should be the center of our hymnody?
The being and works of God. Now, another purpose of hymns
is to share our experience, but that's not primarily the purpose
of hymns in the context of worship. That would be the function of
hymns, perhaps in self-edification as we walk around the house.
or as we're seeking to bear witness, or in what we might call more
evangelistic type service, where we're communicating the gospel
by song. I see nothing that's violated
in scripture to communicate the gospel by song, any more than
it's violated to communicate it by writing and by preaching.
But when we gather specifically to worship the Lord, as His people
gather together to be a holy temple to offer up holy sacrifices,
then the hymns that we use should primarily center upon the being
and works of God. And I'm convinced that we have
perhaps the best collection of hymns for that purpose produced
in our own century in the Trinity Hymn. Now, this may help some
of you, because I know Some of you, at least you've been kind
and not been too vocal outwardly, but really you've been a little
suspicious of some of these kind of what you may feel are long-haired
hymns. And you say, well, I'm just not
a musician. And, well, perhaps it will help
you to know what the motive is behind this. It is not that I
and a few others in places of leadership are long-haired people
and want to make you long-haired people. If that were so, I would
be trying to make all of you appreciators of the fine classics. Now, I happen to appreciate them,
but I don't force my appreciation on you, because that's an area
that doesn't directly relate to worship. But when it comes
to the worship of God, I and others in place of spiritual
responsibility, we have a solemn trust, a seed to it, that we
allow nothing to intrude in the worship of God that detracts
from the worship of God. But the hymns chosen should be
ones that help us, as we think of them when we sing them, to
truly have our minds exercised with the character and the works
of God. Thy work, not mine, O Christ! Say a wonderful hymn of worship,
acknowledging to Him that it is His work that forms the basis
of our coming unto Him. Immortal, invisible, God only
wise! In light inaccessible, hid from
our eyes, we're declaring who God is. So that's not a matter
of a person's background or aesthetic taste. It's a matter of scriptural
or unscriptural worship. And if we understand that, I
think it will help us to apply ourselves. If you could see me
sitting at my desk sometimes, actually spending—I've spent
as long as 10 or 15 minutes sometimes trying to find a tomb we know,
to a new hymn in order that it might aid us in our worship,
scouring down through the metrical index. Sometimes I've gone through
twenty-five, thirty different tunes. Now, why am I doing that? Well, certainly not because I
don't have other things to do. But that recognizing that some
do not read music as well as others, I don't want the music
to be a stumbling block, but neither am I going to just choose
a hackneyed hymn that's easy to sing because we all know it,
if it doesn't contribute to true spiritual worship. So that's
the first implication of this matter of the mind being involved
in worship. Second implication is this. As
people pray in our public worship, seek in your own heart to make
his mouth your mouth, and his mind your mind, so that as they
worship the Lord and ascribe unto him honor and praise, your
heart is saying amen. And may I add, I find it hard
to have my heart say amen without my lips saying amen. And I think
there's good scriptural grounds for this. First Corinthians 14
and verse, and I looked it up in the Greek to make sure that
it actually meant to speak with the lips and not just to think
with the mind. First Corinthians 14 and verse
16 says, else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall
he that occupy the room of the unlearned say amen at the giving
of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest. Here's
a man praying in tongues, and he says, now the problem is if
you pray in tongues, the rest of the people in the assembly
can't say amen to your prayer, indicating if you prayed in a
known tongue, they would say amen. Doesn't say just think
an amen, but say an amen. Now, what's the significance
of this? I believe the significance is here. And I mentioned this
when I came back from England the last time and tried a little
experiment and it went flat, but I'm game, I'll try again.
I was tremendously impressed in the prayer meetings over there,
and I'm sure my wife will have the same testimony when we return,
the Lord willing. When you pray in a public prayer
meeting, you've no sooner finished your prayer and said, we ask
this in the Savior's name, when everybody in the room says, Amen. And you know they're right with
you, their hearts have been beating with yours, their minds have
been moving with you. It isn't as though there's an
all-amen and suddenly somebody wakes up and says, amen. No,
no, you sense that they've been following right along because
they're right there to catch your train of thought and be
amen. And there's a tremendous sense that though one voice is
prayed, every heart is prayed. I can't impose that on you as
a congregation, but I think there's a principle here. And it's obvious
that apparently, I should say apparently, this was the custom
of the early church, that when one would bless the Lord, others
would say amen. When one would pray, others would
say an amen or an amen, according to the dignity of their background. The mind is active then. As we
sing the hymns, think of the words. As one prays, follow with
them. And then, as the word of God
is preached, let the mind be led to God. I shall never forget
the words of a dear servant of God who, at the conclusion of
a service, came to a preacher and he said this to him. He said,
Brother so-and-so, as you preach tonight, you brought God to me. And that's the goal of all true
preaching. As you preach tonight, you brought
God to me. Now there were people there that
night to whom that preacher didn't bring God. Now what was the difference? The difference lay not in the
preacher, but it lay in the disposition of the mind and spirit of the
hearer. Some were there as their goal, that they might be brought
to God as the Word was preached. It might lead them to God. Others
were there to observe, maybe the preacher's style, his gifts
or lack of them. Others were there to criticize,
to jump on his words, to analyze them. But apparently there was
at least one man there that night who was there to be led to God,
and the preaching led him to God. But you see, it did so as
the mind was exercised, so that as the truth unfolded something
new of the character of God and the relationship of man to God,
the mind became the vehicle through which the heart and life were
led unto God. And I might say at this juncture,
that's where I feel some amens in the Holy Spirit might not
be out of place either. If I felt that the reason we
are so formally silent in our own assembly is that there was
something spiritual in silence. I would encourage more silence.
If I felt that there was something spiritual in just a lot of noise
and everybody saying amen, then I'd do like the Pentecostals
do. Though I don't think you people would buy it, but I've
been in their service. Everybody here love the Lord? Say amen!
Anyone with any discernment is grieved. But I would like to
encourage you that if the reason you don't say amen is a constriction
of spirit, it is a grieving and quenching of the spirit. And
I'm confident this is true of some of you because you've told
me personally that there are times when your heart has fairly
been bursting, but you just couldn't seem to get it out. Well, don't
you quench the spirit. And if an amen just gets up so
close to here that it's just going to spill out, well, you
just let it spill out. You just let it spill out. I
remember one or two instances where someone has uttered an
amen at the right time in the Holy Spirit, and the only way
I know to describe it is like when someone kicks in the afterburner
on a jet airplane. When someone is ministering in
the Spirit and people seem to be listening in the Spirit and
there's an amen in the Spirit, why, you just feel maybe a little
bit more and you'll get transfigured. But let me encourage you along
this line, you see, to follow with the mind, so that as the
mind is active and the truth leads to God, there will be true
worship, even in the listening to sermons. Well, let me hurriedly
mention then the activity not only of the will and of the mind,
but of the body. Your body is involved in worship,
that is, your physical faculties. The will is your choosing faculty,
the mind your thinking faculty, the body your physical acting
faculty. Those of you who were here last
week will remember we looked at about a dozen passages in
which the word worship is used of an individual or a group of
people and something about their physical posture is described.
They fell down and they worshiped. They fell to the ground. They
bowed their heads. There was some physical activity
and we brought out the principle that this physical activity was
simply a reflex action of what was going on in the soul. Feeling
humbled in the soul, it was natural to bow the head. feeling overpowered
with the sense of God, it was natural to fall prostrate upon
the ground. They did not say, all right,
let's see, this is page 13 of the prayer book, and at this
point we bow the head. At this point we do this. At
this point we genuflect. At this point we bow. No, no,
no, no. This was a spontaneous reaction to the activity of worship,
but it did involve some activity of the body. We noticed in these
passages in the book of the Revelation, worship almost invariably involved
the voice. They worshipped saved. And then we have the ascriptions
of praise to God, and it's interesting that many times it is said that
when they worshipped and the voice was used, the volume is
mentioned. In that passage in Revelation
7, it says, they cried with a loud voice. And I looked up the word
worship and volume, loud, in my concordance, and it's amazing
how many references I've written down here, about six or seven,
and that was only probably about half of them, where the Holy
Spirit has recorded the volume in terms of loud praise. Now, what? Well, stop to analyze
it for a minute. There's no virtue in volume.
If you don't believe it, turn on WABC and listen to the kind
of music that comes over that, and you'll know that there's
no virtue in volume. Some of that crazy music is just
plain loud and raucous. But the volume of a man's voice,
of a woman's voice, of a child's voice, is one of the natural
ways that he shows wholehearted involvement in something. If
you're at a political rally, And the political hero who's
been long awaited finally comes out on the stage and the spotlights
are there. What does he think if his expectant
so-called political followers sit there and say, hooray, what's
going to happen? He wouldn't be very impressed.
Why? In fact, they'd have a pretty
hard time convincing him he's ever going to make it. Because
you see, one of the natural ways that people show enthusiasm is
in terms of what? Volume. Wholehearted involvement. You only got two hands to wave.
And you've only got one voice to use, so what are you going
to do? You just get all you can out of that one voice. If you
had six voices, you'd use them. That's what the hymn writer said.
Oh, for what? A thousand tongues. Well, if
you don't have a thousand, the proof you'd use them rightly
is you use the one God's given you. And if you won't use the
two good pair of lungs God gave you and the one good diaphragm
to project the praises of God so that your whole being is in
it, don't talk anymore about a thousand tongues. You're abusing
the one God gave you. Why should God give you 1,000
sets of lungs and 1,000 diaphragms and 1,000 larynxes if you're
not going to use the one He's given? And so the praise of God. Let me just give you a few references,
and we don't have time to look them up tonight. But Ezra 3,
verses 11 through 13. Ezra 3, 11 through 13. Nehemiah
12, 42 and 43. Psalm 95, 1 through 6, and here
is where actually commanded to praise the Lord with a loud voice.
Yes, it's a command to praise the Lord with a loud voice. Luke
17, 15, and 16 speaks of the lepers who were cleansed and
one came back and he praised God with a loud voice. Revelation
5, 12, and 7, 9, and 10 speaks of the praises of the redeemed.
Now granted, there are times when in worship silence is the
only appropriate reaction. Be still and know that I am God. There are times when we worship
best when we say nothing. Granted. But when we gather together
in the assembly to ascribe unto God honor and glory, it is dishonoring
to God to bring him weak-mouthed. low-volume, half-hearted praise
that cost us nothing physically. And I repeat it again, it's dishonoring
to God. The political candidate would
be insulted to see his professed enthusiastic followers. Now there may be some dear little
old woman that at best she can only get out five-tenths of a
decibel of sound. But she's going to squeeze out
all five tenths she can if she's really for it. And there may
be some fellow over here with a 50-inch chest that can get
out 500 decibels. He's going to be content with
nothing less than 500. Decibels is how you measure sound, just
like pounds is how you measure weight. But whether it's five
tenths of a decibel or 500 decibels, the person who's involved in
the worship of God, is going to be involved wholeheartedly,
and volume cannot help but enter in. Now there's a fleshly way
to try to get volume. And that's to say, everybody
sing now! No, no, no, that's out. That's
fleshly. All I'm trying to show you is
that if there's something in you that doesn't want to give
to God that full voice, turned up volume of praise, then it
could be that there's either something defective in your enthusiasm
for God, or you've got some kind of a mental block that you identify
that with Pentecostalism and radicalism. Now, I don't know
which it is, but whatever it is, it's wrong. And the praise
of God should be glorious, full-voiced praise. I have found at times
when my heart's been as cold as the ice cubes that you put
in your iced tea before you came tonight, It is I have just in
cold blood opened my mouth and begun to praise God until it
cost me something, a little soreness in the throat, or more often
a little soreness in the diaphragm and the tummy muscles. God is
pleased with the act of obedience, and my own heart is melted and
thawed as I draw nigh with full-voiced, full-hearted praise. Now I hope
you see the implications of this. This means if you're not careful
about what you do all day Saturday and how you get to bed Saturday
night, if you're just worn out physically because you've dissipated
your time and your energies, you're not going to be able to
give yourself to worship. And frankly, dear ones, I really feel that
this is one of the great problems with our Sunday morning worship
service. We've lost the battle Saturday night. I really do. If you could stand
where I stand some Sunday mornings and look up, you just plain so
seem to be so worn out, emotionally, you just can't raise yourself. Now, I don't mean to be unkind,
but I've got to be truthful. And maybe it would help to just
ask you to switch places with me one by one, maybe go down
the list alphabetically. and have you maybe stand behind
those curtains when we get back in the school and just take a
little peek out there, one each Sunday morning. Or maybe have
the candid camera come. and do a little bit of work for
us. I don't know. But this is deeply concerned me, beloved,
because I feel that one of my tasks as an under-shepherd is
to lead you in worship. And yet I know I can't do it
on a fleshly basis. And I've asked God, Lord, what
are the factors spiritually that is keeping us from being a people
abandoned in worship? You say, but I don't have a very
good voice. Who cares? Says they praise Him with a loud voice.
Didn't say it was melodious. Nowhere does it comment on the
beauty of the voice, it comments on the volume. So use what God's
given you. Then maybe someone with a good
voice will have to sing louder to cover up your bad voice. But you see, this is contagious.
It's contagious. Dullness is contagious. Holy
involvement in the worship of God is contagious. And I am convinced
that there are scriptural principles involved in this matter of the
physical activity of worship. It costs you something physically
to worship. Now, thank God, there's refreshing
that comes. It's that mystery. A number of
you mentioned about Wednesday night. It costs something to
pray, but wonder of wonders, when you come out to pray, you
leave refreshed. And when you come to worship
and feel dull, but say, I'm going to worship God anyway, and though
I don't feel like it, I'm going to open my mouth wide and sing
his praises, wonder of wonders, you'll leave refreshed. But the
body, the physical faculties are involved, just as they're
involved in preaching, just as they're involved in any other
spiritual activity. The last point—and I don't know
hardly how to say this—involves not only the mind, the will,
the body, but my whole renewed spirit, that is, my whole inner
man. And I've got to recognize the
principle we dealt with in terms of meditation, that the flesh
lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
And if we're to worship aright, we need to sing and say to ourselves
very often the words At hymn number 331, Awake, my soul, and
with the sun thy daily stage of duty run. Shake off dull sloth
and joyful rise to pay the morning's sacrifice. Awake, my soul, stretch
every nerve. You and I must do this. Spiritual
energy must be expended in resisting this indisposition of the flesh,
the flesh lusting against the spirit. the spirit against the
flesh, these two contrary the one to the other, so that more
and more we learn the holy art of holy worship, which will be
acceptable unto our God. Well, the personal activity of
worship then involves the whole man. I hope amidst some of the
unplanned, spontaneous humor tonight, And the many portions
of scripture we've looked at, you've heard the voice of God.
And I hope God has come to you rebuking you for dishonoring
him with half-hearted worship, mentally lazy worship. I hope
he's come encouraging you, strengthening you, instructing you. And I hope
that when we come back in a few weeks' time, I'll have a wonderful
report of how there's a new quality, a new intangible but very real
something in our worship services. Because by God's grace, we're
meeting the prerequisites to worship, true knowledge of God, a spiritual sight of God. By God's grace, we're knowing
what it is. to have a pure standing before
God. We know what it is to come with
our will set. We're going to worship Him. With
the mind active as the hymns are sung, we're bleeding out
of every word the truth that is contained about the character
and being of God. When someone prays, we're refusing
to shift into neutral. We're active. Our minds are intent.
We're expending mental energy, giving ourselves. And in our
hearts, and if not upon our lips, in our hearts, we're saying amen.
As the word is preached, we're seeking to follow. We're listening,
praying that God will come to us in the preaching. We give
ourselves mentally, we give ourselves physically, we give ourselves
to that worship of which our God is so worthy. And I say in
closing that this is the one art that is going to carry on
with you into eternity. There'll be no preaching in heaven,
there'll be no comforting, there'll be no crying, no sighing, no
tears, no petitions, but there's going to be worship. May God
grant that we shall begin to learn well the holy art that
will be our portion through all eternity. Let us pray. O Lord, we thank Thee that Thou
art a God worthy of our worship. When we think of the devotion
shown to those gods which are no gods, and the zeal with which
men worship their false gods. What can we do, Lord, but confess
with shame the sin of our half-hearted worship, our mentally lazy worship,
our sluggish worship? O God, give us a new sight of
Thee. Give us a new appreciation of
Thy marvelous works to the children of men. that thy person and works
shall be like fuel for the fires of worship. Take away from us
the inhibitions we've picked up along the way, our fear of
fleshly enthusiasm, our reaction to a soulish kind of enthusiasm. Lord, deliver us from those fears
that would inhibit us and give us the liberty and freedom of
the Holy Ghost in our worship together. Lord, we long to know
that if in nothing else in life we are utterly loosed to give
Thee all of that which You deserve, may it be when we worship Thee. Hear us as we pray and seal to
our hearts this Thy holy word. We pray through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.

True Worship #4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true worship?

How do we know that worship is a personal activity?

Why is understanding the prerequisites of worship important for Christians?

How does the mind play a role in the worship of God?

Why is physical expression important in worship?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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True Worship #4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true worship?

How do we know that worship is a personal activity?

Why is understanding the prerequisites of worship important for Christians?

How does the mind play a role in the worship of God?

Why is physical expression important in worship?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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