Turn with me to Leviticus chapter
26. Leviticus chapter 26. I want to talk to you very plainly,
I hope helpfully, about worship, specifically about public worship. Leviticus 26, verse 1. You shall make you no idols nor
graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither
shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down
unto it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths
and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in
my statutes and keep my commandments and do them, then I will give
you rain in due season and the land shall yield her increase
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. You shall
keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. This 26th chapter
of Leviticus, instruction to us about the worship of God. Worship, at least in part, is
paying honor to God as God. Paying honor to God as God. That's the business of worship,
public worship and private worship. paying honor to God as God. The Lord God in infinite mercy
has given His Son to redeem us. His Son, by the sacrifice of
Himself, has put away our sins. He sent His Spirit and revealed
Christ in us. He was life and faith in the
Son of God. took us from the pit of doom
and made us to be the sons and daughters of God Almighty. Made
us who by nature hate God. Us who by nature love everything
evil and despise everything good. Who by nature pursue the lust
of our flesh. He took us. and made us his own
dear children, covenant children, giving us the sure mercies of
David, all his covenant promises, all his salvation. And our business
while we walk in this world is to worship him, to pay honor
to God as God. What a simple thing, what a simple
thing. but in the church of today. And I use that word in the broadest
possible sense. In the religious world today,
what passes for worship is utter nonsense, if not utter blasphemy. Churches are built around and
function around and practice continually, not the honor of
God, but the honor of man. Man is honored for everything,
recognized for everything. Preachers and churches bow and
scrape before men as though God were a beggar at the door of
man, seeking for man to offer him a little tip and give him
a little bit of honor. Man, however, is honored, set
up in the house of God, and everything is done for the honor and the
glory of human flesh, just exactly opposite of the way things ought
to be. The words used in the word of
God for worship speak of bowing or falling down, reverence and
obeisance, humility and surrender, praise, and honor to God. I challenge you, I challenge
you, find a church, Baptist or otherwise, where there's anything
like that going on Sunday morning, Sunday night, or midweek, any
other time, where God is worshiped. In the typical worship service
of the modern church, everything's done for the elevation of the
flesh, the pampering of human pride, The recognition and praise
of men. We greet men, turn around and
shake their hands, have a good old-fashioned welcome, and make
folks just feel wonderful for being here. How blessed it would
be to find some people gathered who are honored to be allowed
of God to come into his house, call on his name, sing his praise,
hear his word, and worship him. God is spirit. and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Paul
says we are the circumcision. That is we are God's elect. We
are God's covenant people. We are those men and women who
are born of God, who worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Most worship services
today are nothing but religious pep rallies. They're designed
to get more people to come, raise more money, perform more baptisms,
build bigger buildings than the church around the corner, that
men might recognize us for being somebody. And you have to ask,
is it possible, really, in this day to have a worship service? Last week, Shelby received a
call from someone asking about services here. I just heard Shelby's
end of the conversation, but she said, we meet on Tuesday
nights at 7.30 and said, if you come on Tuesday night or Sunday
morning or Sunday night, everything's the same. Nothing's any different. We meet and worship God. That's
been my determination in the years we have met together. We
meet together to worship God. If indeed we would worship God,
there are some things that must be done. We must make the entire
service a worship service. I mean by that, it's impossible
to have both religious promotionals and divine worship. We can't
both entertain men and worship God. It's impossible to have
for our motive both the honor of man and the glory of God,
the pleasure of man and the pleasure of God. That God's glory be the
theme of our services, always. From the first hymn to the last
amen. And maybe, just maybe, if we
seek the glory of God, we will be privileged to see the glory
of God. If we would worship God, we must continually eliminate
all excess baggage. What are you talking about, preacher?
Anything that interferes with the worship of God must go. Anything
that detracts from the worship of God must be put aside. We
must take everything that men bring in and take it out to the
garbage dump and burn it. Our songs ought to be songs of
praise to God. Our scripture reading is for
the honor of God. Our prayers for the honor of
God. Everything for God's honor, our worship of him and giving. We make no show of those things,
but the giving everything for God's honor. I know I've said
this to you before. We have the offering boxes for
folks in the evenings. If you prefer to use that, that's
fine. A lot of my friends have chosen not to receive an offering,
receiving as we do on Sunday mornings. Why do I continue to
do so? Because our giving is as much
an act of worship as what I'm doing right now. Our giving is
as much an act of worship as the singing of God's praise.
We bring, week by week, every man as he purposeth in his own
heart, according to his ability, and give freely. We give freely
and collectively for the cause of our Redeemer in worshiping
Him. Everything else, except prayer and praise, thanksgiving,
preaching, reading the scriptures, must be cast aside. And we must
stick to the gospel. Stick to the gospel. Heresy. It's just as bad if you sing
it as it is if you preach it. Brother Lindsey takes great care
in picking out our hymns. We don't sing as a congregation
what's not preached from the pulpit. We don't preach one thing
and sing another. We sing our hymns of praise to
God and sing them with deliberate purpose for giving God praise. Anything short of the gospel
doesn't belong in the worship service. Not in our songs, not
in our prayers, especially in our prayers. Everything should
be filled with the gospel. It's amazing what the gospel
will do for men when it's the sum and substance of their worship. Oh, that men would worship God.
With those things in mind, let's look at this matter of worship,
public worship. It's never defined in the scriptures
specifically, so I won't attempt to define it, but there are several
words used in the word of God involved in the business of worship.
As I've already hinted, worship speaks of honoring God as God. To worship means to bow down
in reverence, in awe, in obeisance. It means to stand in awe before
God. To worship is to kiss the hand
of your master like a grateful dog licks his master's hand. To worship is to fall prostrate
before God. To worship is to supplicate the
throne of grace. is to serve the one true and
living God of heaven and earth. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and
reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. We recognize that there is a
sense in which believers, there is no sense at all in which believers
under the law. We don't have a sanctuary. We
don't observe Sabbath days. We don't live under the commandment
and rule of the law. We don't recognize any place
on this earth as a holy place. But that does not mean that these
laws given in the scriptures are meaningless. What we read
here in Leviticus 26, the whole of this Levitical given in these
27 chapters of Leviticus seems to make no sense to folks unless
you understand these things are designed to be typical of and
to point to our worship of God by faith in Jesus Christ the
Lord through the merits of His blood and righteousness, finding
acceptance with God only in Him. It is bringing honor to God as
God. bringing honor to God as the
Lord our God. These types and shadows of the
law are full of instruction for us. Now you've heard me say this
many, many times. I want to show it to you if I
can. There is nothing on this earth so important to your soul
as the worship of God in the assembly of his saints. Nothing
on this earth is so important to your soul as the worship of
God in the assembly of his saints. The greatest privilege men and
women have this side of eternity is the privilege of worshiping
God in the assembly of his saints. David said, 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. Multitudes today who
profess to be Christians, lovers of God, believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and promoters of righteousness willfully choose
to absent themselves from the house of God and despise the
blessed privilege of public worship. And they justify their actions
They excuse their disobedience by pointing to personal responsibilities,
inconveniences, objectionable things connected with local church. A person determined to walk in
a course of disobedience, if you're determined to walk in
a path of disobedience, you will never lack excuses for doing
so. Let me remind you of how men in other days at other places
look at worship. In Nehemiah's day, the children
of Israel who had long been without the privilege of worship in God's
house, they had been in Babylon for 70 years. And when they returned
to Jerusalem and started to build the house of God, they made a
covenant. They took an oath saying, we
will not forsake the house of our God. The Shunammite woman,
during the days of the prophet, rode a donkey every Sabbath day
to hear God's prophet at Carmel, though her husband objected to
it. Every Sabbath day, she went to hear God's prophet speak.
In David's time, the saints of God passed through the valley
of Mecca to worship God in Zion. In Daniel's day, the children
of God ran to and fro to increase knowledge, that is to know more
of the Lord God. Zechariah tells us that in his
days, the inhabitants of one city went to another saying,
let us go speedily and pray before the Lord and seek the Lord of
hosts. Our Lord Jesus and his disciples
went to considerable trouble. much inconvenience, usually by
foot, to meet together and worship God. On the day appointed for
worship, the Lord Jesus and his disciples were found in the house
of God worshiping. Isn't that amazing? The Son of
God, all the days of his earthly sojourn, made it his business
to be in the house of God worshiping. The Ethiopian eunuch journeyed
from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship God, seeking to know
him of whom God and the prophet spoke. For many years, I went
every year to different missionary places, went to Jamaica every
year for about 10 or 12 years, went every year down to Mexico
for many years, and I would often go down to Chiapas, where Brother
Milton Howard was many years ago. And from Chiapas we would,
or from Tuxta in the state of Chiapas, we'd drive up into Chiapas
Highlands. There was a place, they called
it The Ranch, it was a coffee plantation. Roberto and his wife
had built a little chapel there about a quarter the size of this
building, about a quarter the size of this auditorium. And
folks came and worshipped whenever Milton could get out there. And
when they had services, we'd go, I'd preach to them, Milton
would translate. And I recall him pointing out
a few people, oh, maybe 20, 25 people would come. He said, that
lady and her family walked three hours one way to get here. pointed
to a man who rode on a horse. At least it looked something
like a horse. It looked like it was gonna fall down any minute. He said,
that fella rode that horse three hours to be here and was there
at every service, at every service. Call it fanaticism if you wish,
but I say without fear of contradiction that anyone who talks about being
a Christian, who talks about worshiping God, about being a
believer, and yet willfully neglects the worship of God ought to blush
with shame for his hypocrisy. All who know God in the experience
of his grace delight in worshiping him. David, the man after God's
own heart, was cut from a different bolt of cloth. He found great
pleasure and satisfaction in daily prayer, in daily private
personal worship, That was a characteristic of his life. With every rising
sun, David arose in his heart toward God in prayer. Every morning,
he directed his thoughts and prayers to the throne of grace,
looked to the Lord God in faith, and every evening gave thanks
to God as he laid his head on his pillow at night. Blessed
are those men and women who worship God in their homes, in private. I would say nothing and do nothing
in any way to distract from that. I do everything I can to encourage
you and those I influence to worship God at home, to read
his word, to call on God in prayer, to seek to know him day by day. I've written two books specifically
for that purpose, encouraging that we worship God in private.
But there's something more important than that. Something that has
a greater impact than that. And that more important thing
is this, what we're doing right now, public worship. Meeting
together with God's saints in his house to worship him. Without neglecting private worship,
David said, 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. He could not force others to
come, and he would not if he could. But he said, as for me,
this is what I'm going to do. I make no attempt to force people. to put rules and regulations
on people. I wouldn't pass any laws to force
folks to be here if I had that ability. Make no attempt to worship,
must be free, or it's not worship. But I cannot imagine a man or
a woman forgiven of sin, washed in the blood of Christ. made to be an heir of God and
joint heir with Christ, neglecting the privilege of worship, worshiping
God in his house. Here we come to the house of
God in the multitude of his mercy, everlasting covenant mercy, sin-atoning,
redeeming mercy, his effectual saving mercy, his immutable preserving
mercy, his daily providential mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. In thy fear, while I worship
toward thy holy temple. We come to the house of God with
reverence, with godly fear, to worship him, that is to see him,
to hear him, to obey him, to praise him, to commune with him. This was David's resolve. May
it be mine and God give you grace to make it yours. Public worship,
I say again, is the single most important aspect of your life
if you're God's. The single most important aspect
of your life if you're God's. Turn to Psalm 84. When David was banished from
Jerusalem, from the place of public worship, he envied the
sparrows who made their nest in the house of God. His heart,
while he was banished from Jerusalem, now this is the key. When he
was banished from Jerusalem, his heart longed not for his
throne, not for his riches, not for his power, not for revenge
upon those who opposed him, but his heart longed for the assembly
of God's saints in worship. Psalm 84, verse one. How amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea,
even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found
a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young, even thine altars. O Lord of hosts, my King and
my God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will
be still praising thee. Verse 10, for a day in thy courts
is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. The
fact is, all who are born of God, love the assembly of God's
saints in worship. They love the ministry of the
gospel because they need it and because by this God is honored. There are no exceptions. God's
people do not willingly absent themselves from the worship of
God. It is true, there are many who
enjoy outward religious activity. and go to church and enjoy being
at church who do not know God. No question about that. Folks
travel, go around Bible conferences, not because they're so much in
love with the preaching, but they get to be around friends
and they get to have a party afterwards. Folks go to church
to meet up with folks and network with folks and folks go to church
because it's good business. Folks go to church to have a
good time. But God's people, come to the house of God to worship
him, to worship him. And they don't allow things to
interfere, just don't allow things to interfere. I've heard folks
make more excuses for absenting themselves from worship than
you can imagine. Well, my aunt came, my sister
came, my son came, my daughter came, my dog was sick. You can't
imagine. I've had folks tell me to stay
home with the dog. Shoot the dog. Shoot the dog. I can't imagine such nonsense.
God's people worship God in his house with his people. not forsaking
the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some
is. I don't mean by that they go to church because it's time
to go to church. I mean by that, Lindsay, where God's given you
a place to worship, you're devoted to that business of worshiping
God. Where God's established his gospel,
God's people are devoted to that business of worshiping God and
seeking others to worship with them. are those things that we
find important. Things that are important to
us. You, please correct me if I'm mistaken. If they're important
to you, you know, things like work, gotta be work at seven
o'clock in the morning, or you have a dinner date tomorrow night,
or you have a social affair that's been in the works for a good
while, or you are playing a golf game on Saturday morning, For
those things that are important, we set dates, make appointments,
and arrange our lives to keep them. Do you not? If you didn't, you wouldn't have
a job very long. If it's important, you set dates and arrange your
life to maintain those things. And if the worship of God is
important, you do the same thing in worshiping him. We arrange
our lives around the worship of God. It's just that simple. I don't know how to say this
without someone misunderstanding it, but folks who want to misunderstand
do anyway. God saved this sinner nearly 53 years ago. And in 53 years, I've never desired
nor have I ever allowed anything to keep me from worshiping God
at the appointed time in His house. And it's not going to
happen tomorrow. If I could physically be here,
this is where you'd find me. Why? Because I'm God's. I've been saved by His free grace.
And the least thing I can do is be where you are right now,
sitting here, worshiping God, singing his praise, giving thanks
to him. Not only is that my privilege
and responsibility, by doing so, I recognize that some folks
are watching me. Bill Raleigh, you probably never
think about this, There are a lot of people in this world, the
only thing they know about Christianity, about the gospel, about God our
Savior, the only thing they know is what they hear and see from
you. What a responsibility. What a
weight of responsibility. It makes, that makes it my business
and yours to exemplify that gospel that we preach, to exemplify
that devotion of faith we declare. Why do God's people place such
importance upon this business of public worship? Let me give
you five reasons and I'll be done. First, this is the place
where God meets with sinners in saving mercy. It is true. God uses personal witnessing.
God uses books and tracts and recordings and other instruments
by which he instructs men and women in the gospel, perhaps
by which he calls his elect to life and faith in Christ. But
generally, God saves his sheep in congregations where his saints
meet together to worship him. Read the second chapter of Acts
when the disciples will come together worshiping God. God saved 3,000 people one day.
When Peter went to Cornelius' house, they met together, God
saved thousands more. Of the people who I know who
know God, the ones I know who know God, I don't know of a one
who wasn't converted, listening to the gospel in the house of
God, not a one. God's saints know themselves
sinners and need a mercy. And we come here because God
here meets sinners in mercy. He spoke of the Ark of the Covenant
and the mercy seat. And he said, I will meet you
on the mercy seat. I will meet you right there in
my house on the mercy seat, in the place where my people gather
to worship me through the merits of Christ, the Son of God, the
sacrifice, his blood, and his righteousness. There I'll meet
you and commune with you and you with me. Second, this is
the place where our family gathers. Every true local church is a
family. In fact, our Lord Jesus on one
occasion, his disciples said, your mother wants to see you
and called him away from his disciples. And he said, This
is my mother and my brother and my sister and my father. This
is my family. This is my family. This family
is my family forever. This family is my family because
we're the family of God. And here, family members meet
together, greet one another, help one another, and show one
another kindness and care, tenderness and thoughtfulness. Several folks
have met me at the door this morning and let me know their
thoughtfulness of me, my wife, my family. praying for me as
the pastor, praying for me in time of need. Oh, I can't tell
you what it does for my soul, for family to care, for family
to care. And we meet with the family.
This is the place where God's people come together. Third,
this is the place where the Lord Jesus meets with his people and
makes himself known. Our Savior said in Matthew 18,
20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. What does that mean, gathered
together in my name? Not just where two or three decide
to come together, but where two or three are gathered by the
sweet influence of God's Spirit. Gathered by the gift of God's
grace. gathered by the call of God,
gathered by the work of God into him, where two or three are gathered
together in my name. They've come together to worship
me. They've come together trusting
my blood and my righteousness. They've come together to come
to God by me, to come together for my sake. They've come together
for my honor. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am always, always. This is where
Christ meets with man. The old man Simeon found God's
salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ in the temple, at the appointed
place and the appointed time of public worship. And if we
would see Christ, we come with his saints when they gather together
in the place of worship. Fourth, this is the place where
God teaches men and women. This is the place where God deals
with people by his word. Read the fourth chapter of Ephesians.
The apostle Paul writes by inspiration, and he quotes from Psalm 68 with
regard to the ministry of the word, the preaching of the gospel.
And he describes pastors, gospel preachers, apostles, prophets,
evangelists. He describes them as the ascension
gifts of Christ to his church. The gifts of Christ to his church
are men who faithfully stand where I stand now and preach
the word of God to you, instructing you in the word. Not giving you
religious opinions, not giving you my thoughts about some religious
thing, my business as a preacher. is to teach you what God teaches
in his word in the place from which I am reading his word.
God says you shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. This is what that
means. We keep no Sabbath day physically.
God forbids that. To keep his Sabbath is to rest
in Christ. To rest our souls upon the doing
and dying of the Son of God. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. To reverence his sanctuary. It's
not to, when you come in the church building, pull your hat
off. Though that's perfectly all right. But this is not a
sanctuary. This is not, this building is
not the house of God. The house of God is the assembled
body of believers, whether they're two or three, or whether they're
several hundred or several thousand. Here we come together and a man
directed by God opens the word and teaches you what God teaches
in his word. He does that only as God the
Spirit teaches him and gives him grace to minister to you.
Each local congregation of believers is the house and temple of God.
Here God reveals his glory, makes his will known, bestows his blessings,
instructs, reproves, edifies his people. In all ages The people
of God have been known and identified by their public gatherings for
worship. In the beginning of the Bible,
right to the very end, you find this. Cain and Abel, we find
them in Genesis chapter 4, learned something from their daddy. They
learned to worship God. Cain didn't know God, but he
learned to come together with God's people to worship. Cain
was a reprobate. Cain was a man who believed in
works and was self-righteous. But Cain and Abel learned from
their daddy to worship God in the public assembly of his saints. Noah's first act after the flood.
was to erect an altar to God's worship. Wherever the patriarchs
went, they pitched their tents in days of old. There they erected
an altar to worship God throughout the Mosaic economy. The Jew who
did not worship God, who refused to obey God's reverence, his
sanctuary, and reverence his Sabbath, he was cut off from
the people of Israel. Throughout the book of Acts,
wherever the children of God were scattered by persecution,
soon they gathered together as an assembly and worshiped him.
Public worship identifies God's people. That's one of the things
that identifies them. Like David, we say, 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. Here's the fifth
thing. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. The neglect of worship, the neglect
of public worship is the first step downward toward total apostasy. I had been a pastor for a while
now. You and I had been together for a good many years. And I'll
tell you what I've observed, seldom do many women turn away
from Christ and the gospel of his grace suddenly. That rarely
happens. Usually, it comes by degrees
as the charms and cares of the world gradually choke out the
word of God. Apostasy is usually so gradual
that those who forsake Christ don't even realize they've forsaken
him. but they went out from us because they were not of us.
But had they been of us, they would have remained with us to
this day. Hebrews 10, 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. Should you never hear me speak
to you again from this pulpit, or personally, I say to you,
my brothers and sisters, hold fast. Hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. He's faithful that promised.
Let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is. but exhorting one another, and
so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin
willfully, after we've received the knowledge of the truth, if
we abandon our faith, abandon the worship of God, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law, and died without mercy under
two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath done despite, hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite under the Spirit of grace. For we know
him that hath said, vengeance belongeth to me. I will recommend,
saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. I urge you, my brother,
my sister, as God commands, keep my sadness. Reverence my sanctuary. Worship me. Worship me. I am the Lord your God. Make it your business. Put yourself
in the house of God. Worshipping God. and do everything
you can to encourage your brother, your sister, your neighbor, your
friend to come with you to the house of God and hear God speak
forth his word. I urge you, make it your business
to do what you can to build the kingdom of God in this place
where God has put us for the glory of his son, and for the
good of immortal souls around us. Amen.