Would you turn to 2 Samuel chapter
12? 2 Samuel chapter 12. I'd like to read verses 19 and 20. But when David saw that his servants
whispered, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, David said unto his
servants, is the child dead? And they said, he's dead. Then David arose from the earth
and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came
into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he came to his
own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and
he did eat." Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be enabled to do what David did at this time.
and worship. Lord, that would be the gift
of your grace. We realize that this cannot be done in the strength
and energy of the flesh. But Lord, we ask in Christ's
name that this day we might be enabled to worship. May we be found in Christ. Oh
Lord, that our sins would be blotted out and forgiven and
that you'd cleanse us and give us the grace to sit at the feet
of thy dear son and worship. Be with all your people, wherever
they meet together, meet each need here. According to your
will in Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Now here we get a beautiful look. at a man after God's own heart,
David. Now what I think is so beautiful
about it is we've seen the ugliness of his flesh. We've seen that
very clearly in his conduct during this time, how he murdered somebody
and how he committed adultery and how he implicated others
in his crime. Um, what a, sad sight at his flesh, but here
we see what a man after God's own heart looks like. Now, we
considered his confession of sin last week, but let's pick
up in verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I've
sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. How be it
because by this deed, thou has given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme. The child also that is born into
thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed into his
house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife, barren
to David. And it was very sick. Now try
to put yourself in David's place at this time. What if the Lord
told you that your child was going to die because of your
personal sin? Be rough to deal with, wouldn't
it? I think of how he must have felt knowing that that child
was dying because of his sin against God. So let's go on reading
verse 16. David therefore besought God
for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night
upon the earth. He was in the dirt at this time,
and he was fasting, praying, pleading for the Lord to spare
this child. Now, wouldn't you do the same
thing? If you thought the Lord was gonna put your child to death
because of your sin, you'd be asking the Lord to spare the
child, and that's exactly what David was doing. Verse 17, and
the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him
from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread
with them, he just couldn't be consoled. And it came to pass
on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David
feared to tell him that the child was dead. They'd seen how he'd
acted while the child was still alive. What's he gonna do once
the child's dead? He'll really lose it at that point. So they
were afraid to tell him. For they said, verse 18, Behold,
while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would
not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself
if we tell him that the child is dead? They thought David would
just lose it at this time. He would just utterly lose it.
But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that
the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his
servants, Is the child dead? And they said, he's dead. Then
David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and
changed his peril and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. What a response. We're going
to come back to that in a moment. That's what I want to deal with
is this thing of worship. But he came into the house of
the Lord and he worshiped. I think it's interesting the
way he changed his apparel and came into the house, the way
he washed himself. You know, I think it's interesting in what they
call casual worship in this day. Casual. Come in your pajamas.
I mean, don't make any effort. Just come as you are. Casual,
casual, casual. The worship of God is not casual.
And notice how he came into the house of the Lord. He washed
himself. He changed his apparel. He'd
been dirty. He'd been laying on the ground for a week, fasting,
praying, crying. But when he finds out that the
child is dead, there's nothing he can do anymore. He rises. He changes clothes, washes himself,
anoints himself, comes into the house of the Lord and worships. Let's go on reading. And when
he required, they sent bread before him, and he did eat. Now
the fast is over. Verse 21, Then said his servants
unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? They were
totally confused by this action. Thou didst fast and weep for
the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead,
thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child
was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell? whether
God will be gracious to me that the child may live. I love that. That's kind of the same thing
that the men of Nineveh did when God told them, this place is
gonna be destroyed in 40 days. And they cried and fasted and
prayed and said, Lord, turn from this. And they said, who can
tell whether the Lord will be gracious? Don't you love that? At all times, no matter what
is being said, you can always say, who can tell? Who can tell
what the Lord will do? And that was his response. Who
can tell what the Lord will do that God will be gracious to
me that the child may live, but now he's dead. Wherefore should
I fast? There's nothing I can do about
it now. It's over. It's over. The Lord has answered that prayer
and he's answered it with a no. He's not going to spare the child.
Now he's dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back
again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." Now
this is a scripture that seems to imply the salvation of infants.
And I'm thankful the Lord put that there, aren't you? I mean,
I don't think we can make a definitive statement about it. Don't need
to. The Lord would have made a definitive statement if it
needed to be made. But this scripture certainly implies, he says, He's
not going to come back to me, but I'm going to go to him. And
he's talking about when he dies. So I'm thankful for that verse
of scripture with regard to that. But, um, what did he do after
his response to the Lord taking the child's life? He came into
the house of the Lord and worshiped. I remember some years ago a man
who attended a Reformed church here in town. It's a Presbyterian
Reformed church. He called me and said he wanted
to visit a couple of weeks because he wanted to learn what Reformed
worship was. Reformed worship. And my thoughts
were, who cares? I don't care anything about Reformed
worship. The whole idea of reform, I've been on this two or three
weeks, but the whole idea of reform I find offensive. The
truth never needed to be reformed. The gospel never needed to be
reformed. It's always been true and glorious and perfect. And
the very idea of reformed gives you the idea of some men coming
to the rescue and rescuing the truth from being damaged. And if we can do this, we can
save the truth. Truth doesn't need my help. Truth
doesn't need your help. Reformed. The only way I know
to respond to reformed is reformed from what? What you used to be.
What you used to do? What crime did you used to commit?
That's the way I want to handle that. Anytime somebody says about
reform, I could care less about reformed worship. I just don't
care. But I tell you what I do care
about. Worship. What does it mean to worship
the Lord? Now, when David had a no for
his answer, what did he do? He went into the house of the
Lord and he worshiped. David's response to God killing
his child, and God did it, his response was worship. Now that gives us some idea of
what worship is. Worship is worshiping the Lord
for who he is without any regard to what he does or does not do
for me. Now, I want to ask you a question.
I've asked this question before. I'm asking myself this question
once again. If God sent you to hell, and never extended mercy toward
you, would he still be worthy of worship?" Now that's the issue. Now I want
to look at a few verses in the New Testament where we can learn
something about worship. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
8. Very familiar scripture. I hope it comes to us like we've never heard it before. Verse one, when he was come down
from the mountain, great multitudes followed him and behold, there
came a leper. And what? and worshipped him. Now, we know that this is worship. I don't know what reformed worship
is, but I know what this is. This leper came and worshipped. The Bible says he came and worshipped. And what is so interesting about
this is he worshipped before he even made a request. Now he
wanted to be healed of his leprosy. He wanted to be made clean. But
what first had to be settled was this issue. The Lord Jesus
was to be worshipped without reference to what he does or
does not do for me. He's to be worshipped for who
he is. And this leper understood that,
didn't he? Behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, he didn't know if the Lord
would do it, but he knew he could. He knew he was the Lord. He knew
he was in absolute, complete, sovereign control. And he bowed
himself before his feet and he worshiped. Now, that issue is
going to be settled before anything else is. worship. He is to be worshipped for who
He is, whether He saves me or not, whether He answers my prayers
the way I want them to be answered. He is to be worshipped. And that's the way this man came
to Him, Lord, if You will. He knew it was totally up to
the sovereign will of Christ. There's no, you know, you'll
only worship a sovereign. And you can just write that down.
There's no worship apart from bowing before his absolute sovereign
control in all things. Lord, if you will, you can. If you worship him, you believe
in his absolute ability. If you will, you can. And he
came for the right thing. He wanted to be made clean. Lord, if you will. You can make
me clean. Now that is worship. He came and he worshiped him. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. This
is another one of, I guess you'd call our favorites, but this
tells us something about worship. Beginning in verse 21. Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coasts, she was a Gentile, and she cried
unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil." Now this woman has an impressive resume. She
knows who the Lord is. She knew he was the son of David. She came for the right thing,
mercy. And she came with a great need.
My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Verse 23, but he answered her,
not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us." How hard-hearted
they seem to be at this time, but one of the things I see from
that passage of scripture is his non-answer didn't cause her
to give up. She kept beseeching him. She
kept beseeching him. She wouldn't be denied, as it
were. She just said, Lord, help me.
Verse 24, but he answered and said, I'm not sent. but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I've only come to save
the elect. Now, how many different ways
are there to take that? I've not come to save everybody. I've
not come to help everybody. I'm only sent for the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. I came for specific people, my
people. Now, how did she respond to that?
I love this. Verse 25, then came she and worshiped. Then came she and worshiped him. Now she still didn't have what
she was asking for, but he was to be worshiped. This was her
response to this. Then came she and worshiped him. Now you worship the Lord. When
you know He's the Lord, and whatever He does is right, whatever He
does is just, whatever He does is holy, whatever He does is
true, He's the Lord. And He's to be worshipped for
who He is. If He only came to save the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, He's to be worshipped. He's to
be worshipped. Whatever He does, He's to be
worshipped. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. But he answered and said, it's
not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Turn with me to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter five. I love this
passage of scripture. Verse 13, Joshua chapter 5, verse
13, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he
lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, there stood a man
over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And this man
is the Lord Jesus Christ, as we're going to see. And Joshua
went unto him, and said, Art thou for us? or for our adversaries? Are you on our side or are you
on their side? Now look at his answer. And he
said, nay, neither. I'm not on anybody's side. The
Lord doesn't take sides. Neither. But as captain of the
host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship and said unto him, what sayeth my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for
the place wherein thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Now here is worship. You on our side or their side? Neither. I'm the Lord of hosts. I'm the God of glory. Now, Joshua,
at this time, wasn't concerned about what he had to say to the
Lord, but what the Lord had to say to him. What sayest thou
to thy servant? Now that is worship. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
34. is a response to who the Lord
is. Now we're gonna see that. If
he reveals himself to you, if he reveals himself to me, we
will worship. We're not gonna be thinking about
what we can get him to do for us, how we can manipulate him
or get him to act on our behalf. What we're gonna do is fall on
our face and worship him for who he is. Now look in verse five of Exodus
34, 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, Jehovah,
God is salvation, the Lord God, El Almighty. The God of salvation,
the self-existent one, the almighty one. He's almighty. That means
whatever he wants, he has the power to accomplish. And here's
who he is, 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
and to the third and to the fourth generation. Now, it's important
to point out that God doesn't punish children for somebody
else's sin. He's not going to punish my daughter
because of my sin. But also know this, my sin can
have a great effect on others. generations down, and your sin
does as well. That's what that means, but the
point is, He's almighty, He's gracious, He's long-suffering,
He's abundant in goodness and truth, and under no circumstances
whatsoever will He ever clear a guilty person. There's another
implication of eternal justification. If you're justified, you've always
been justified in His sight through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's never
viewed you as guilty. Think about that. Isn't that
glorious? If you're a saved person, He
has never viewed you as guilty. If He ever views you as guilty,
by no means will you ever be cleared. God is just. God is
holy. But thank God He's merciful and gracious in His Son. And
there's a way that He can actually view me as not guilty, and it's
for this one reason, because I'm really not guilty. Jesus
Christ took my sin and put it away and gave me His righteousness,
and now that's my personal righteousness. Now, what was Moses' response
to this. Verse 8, and Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. That's the only response to God's
revelation of himself. Worship. Turn with me to John
chapter 4. Wouldn't it be a blessing of
grace if the Lord allows me and you to worship this morning?
To actually worship him for who he is. John chapter four, verse
21, 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. You don't even know
what you're talking about when you talk about worship. We know
what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour
cometh and now is when the true worshipers. They're false worshipers
and they're true worshipers. I want to be one of these true
worshipers, don't you? 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. God is spirit. And me and you just really don't
even know what that means. We're flesh. Spirit means no
body. He's everywhere all the time
at once. He's omnipresent. He's above
all things. He can't be confined by time
the way we are. He can't be confined by space
and material things the way we are. He's spirit. He's spirit.
And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit. You know
what that means? That means the only way I can
worship God is if I have the same kind of spirit He does.
And that's what is given to the believer in the new birth. A
new nature. Born of God. Born of the Spirit
of God. Given a spiritual nature. The
only way I can worship God is if I'm given this spiritual nature. Partakers of the divine nature,
the scripture says in 2 Peter 1.4. I have to have a nature
that is able to worship God. No natural man can worship God.
It's just above us. It's beyond us. It can't be done.
I have to be born of the Spirit. They which are born of the Spirit,
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. It can never rise above its source,
but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Something else
that's needed. They that worship God must worship
Him in spirit and in what? Truth. The truth of the gospel. There's no worshiping of God
apart from the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. the
truth of how God saves sinners by Christ. There will be no worship. Somebody says, we really had
a worship service. No, if the truth wasn't there, you didn't.
You might have been worshiping idols, but if the truth is not
there, there is no worship. They that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. 2 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. When you're sanctified by the
spirit and given a new nature, it always is done so through
the truth. James 1.18 says, of his own will
begat he us through the word of truth. There is no worship
apart from the truth. Now one final scripture. Philippians
chapter 3, I'd like you to turn here. This passage of Scripture just
puts things in such clear perspective. Verse 3, Philippians chapter
3, verse 3, For we are the circumcision, we're the ones who are truly
circumcised, we're the true Jews, And here's three marks of the
true Jew, the true circumcision. Number one, we worship God in
the spirit. With a spiritual nature, the
nature that he's given by the Holy Spirit, we worship God in
the spirit. And that's the only way God can
be worshiped, is in the spirit. And here's what somebody does
who worships God in the Spirit. Here's the evidence of worshiping
God in the Spirit. You rejoice, or you glory is
the word. You have confidence in, you boast
in, you rest in Christ Jesus and nowhere else. If you worship
God in the Spirit, this is a sure sign. You'll look only to Christ
and nowhere else. Now, if you're worshiping God,
here's the mark. You're looking only to Christ
right now. And you won't look anywhere else
but Him. Your only desire is to be found
in Christ. Not having your own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now,
if you worship God in the spirit, that means you look only to Christ,
you rejoice only in Christ. And you will tell me if you're,
or if I'm really looking only to Christ, look at this third
mark. You have no confidence, no confidence,
absolutely none, nada, zero, zilch, no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in your flesh,
really no confidence in anybody else's flesh. Flesh is flesh
and you have no confidence in the flesh. Now that is worship. You worship in the spirit, you
look to Christ only, and you have absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. May God enable us, even now,
to worship. Now what was David's response
when he begged God for a week to spare his child? He laid on
the ground weeping and fasting for an entire week. God killed
his child. And what did he do? He worshiped. May God put that
spirit in us. Amen.