Very recently, I attended and
spoke in a Bible conference in the West Indies on the island
of St. Lucia. And the theme of that
Bible conference, which featured preachers from America, England,
and from the West Indies, was worship. Worship. For eight days,
a conference on the subject of worship I spoke at that conference
twice on the subject, what is true worship? What is true worship? And since that time, and yea
prior to that time, I've been thinking a great deal about this
subject, what is true worship? You know, our Lord said to the
woman at the well, God is a spirit, or God is spirit. And they that
worship Him, They that worship Him. Now, you can worship, not
worship God. But they that worship Him, you
can worship an idol. You can worship another person.
Worship is to adore, to idolize, to love, to bow before. But God
is Spirit, and they who worship Him, worship Him in spirit and
truth. And Paul wrote in Acts 17, now
listen carefully to this scripture. Paul is speaking at Mars Hill
to these educated philosophers and debaters. He said, God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. God that made the heaven and
the earth dwelleth not in synagogues, cathedrals, church buildings
made of wood and stone and brick and made with men's hands. Listen,
neither is he worshipped with men's hands and gimmicks and
processionals and symbols. Neither is he worshipped with
the works of men's hands as though he needed anything. seeing he
giveth to all life, breath, and all things." Looks like we could
learn from that, doesn't it? David wrote, O come, let us worship
and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. O worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness, there before him all the earth. Now, I'm a pastor
and have been for many, many years. And my business is to
conduct worship services on a regular basis here and in other places. And I'm interested, vitally,
deeply, personally interested in this business of worshiping
the Lord. I want to worship the Lord. I
want the people whom I pastor to worship the Lord. I know this,
I know this, and most of you know it, that the entertainment
business, which we call religion today, and all the promotion,
and the organizations, and the average church service, and the
average church program, which we loosely call worship services,
in most cases is not worship at all. You know it, and I know
it. It's not worship now. It's carrying on the business
of religion, the mechanics of religion. But I know this, you
can teach a man the mechanics of worship, you can teach him
the form of worship, But true worship is not in form. True
worship is not in word only. True worship is not in bodily
acts. Bodily acts and exercise profiteth
little. True worship is from the heart.
True worship is an experience. As our Lord said to the woman
at the well, God is spirit. And they that worship Him, worship
Him in spirit. That is, not only in the Holy
Spirit's leadership and revelation, but from their spirit. My spirit
beareth witness with his spirit. Now, that's what we're talking
about. And he said this, the Lord said this, well, these people
draw down to me with their lips. That's words. They draw down
to me with their bodies. That's action. But he said, their
hearts are far from me. There's the problem. It's their
hearts that are far from me. And I know this. I know these
things. I know that there are various
parts of worship mentioned in the Scriptures. There are parts
of worship. And these are aids to worship.
In other words, there's the praising of the Lord in song. That's an
aid to worship. That's a part of worship. That's
what people do who truly worship. They praise the Lord. We come
before God with sacrifices, not of blood and bullocks, the sacrifices
of praise unto the Lord our God, the sacrifices of thanksgiving.
And then there's prayer, this calling upon God. We're exhorted
to pray, me and Art, always to pray. And then there's the reading
of the Word. In one of the epistles, it is
commanded that this epistle be read in all the churches. And
then there's the preaching of the gospel. Paul said when the
early church met together on the first day of the week to
break bread, he preached to them. So their worship services included
praise, prayer, the reading of the word, the Lord's table, and
the preaching of the gospel. And then there's the fellowship
of believers whereby we exhort and encourage one another. No
man's an island. We don't live alone. We need
one another. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. But now, wait a minute. You can
go through the motions even in these things. Even in singing
and praying and reading the Word and preaching and breaking bread
and fellowshipping, you can go through the motions in all of
those things and still not worship God. If the heart and the soul
is not involved in these things, then they are repulsive to God.
That's right, singing praise to God without the heart is an
abomination. Prayer without the heart and
spirit of sincerity would be refused by God. That's what he
said in Isaiah 1, I won't hear your prayers. Bring no more vain
oblations and sacrifices. Your Sabbath days and holy days
are an abomination to me, God said. You call on me and I will
not hear you. God says, my son, give me your
heart. Out of the heart proceeds the
issues of life. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
as the man thinketh in his heart, so is he. God is known to them
of a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit, O God, thou
wilt not despise." Let me illustrate what I mean. Now, over in Romans
12, 1, this verse of Scripture, Romans
12, 1 and 2, commands us to present our bodies a living sacrifice
under God, which is our reasonable service. Are you familiar with
that? Many of you are. But do you know that that command
is preceded with these words? He said, I beseech you, brethren,
by the mercies of God that you present your body. by the mercies
of God. In other words, there's no reason
to expect a man to present his body to God who knows nothing
of the mercies of God to him. This is his motive for presenting
his body, a living sacrifice, the fact that God is merciful
to him. That's his motive. And that's
what Paul uses as the motive for presenting our bodies a living
sacrifice. He said, I beseech you, by God's
mercies and love in Christ to you. And when you experience
that, enter into that, in your heart, the natural response is
to walk with the King. And then Ephesians 4.32, listen
to this. Ephesians 4.32 commands us to
be kind to one another. to be tender-hearted to one another,
and to forgive one another. But the reason for that is given.
He said, be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, tender-hearted,
gentle, forgiving one another, watch it, even as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave you. You're wasting your time trying
to get people to be kind if they know nothing of God's kindness.
You're wasting your time trying to get people to be forgiving.
They're not going to forgive until they're forgiven. They're
not going to forgive until they've been forgiven. And when they've
been forgiven, they'll forgive. When they know something about
God's forgiveness and God's mercies, they'll demonstrate it. A man
who's never been forgiven of God will find it impossible to
forgive other people. The kindness, mercy, and forgiveness
of God unto us is the very motive and reason why we're merciful
and forgiving to others. In fact, our Lord taught us to
pray, forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against
me. And our Lord said, if you forgive not me and their trespasses,
neither will your father forgive you. You're wasting your time.
Go to an idol. Don't go to God. He knows your
heart. You can fool an idol. but not fool God. God's not mocked. In John 13, 34, listen to Christ,
a new commandment I give unto you, a new commandment, that
you love one another. Now, my friends, do you suppose
a natural man can do this, or will do this, to love somebody
better than he loves himself? No. But Christ adds this. Now, listen. He said, this is
my commandment, that you love one another even as I loved you."
Now there's the motive. There's the motive. We love Him
because He loved us, and we love others because He loved us. And
if God can love me, I can love you. If God can forgive me, I
can forgive you. The love of Christ constraineth
me, motivates me. Our Lord looked at Peter around
the fire there. conversing with him privately.
And he said, Peter, do you love me? Boy, he said, yes, I love
you. He said, well, then you feed
my sheep. And he asked him that three times. He said, do you
love me? And finally Peter grieved that he asked him three times.
He said, Lord, you know everything. You know I love you. Then he
said, feed my sheep. When you love Christ, you behave
like it. You live like it. You talk like
it and you walk like it because it's a natural response. And
this is where true worship is born. True worshipers have a
reason to worship God. True worshipers have a reason
to worship God because it's born of heart and experience. They
know God. They love God. Now let me illustrate.
Like Job of old. You familiar with Job? Job saw
the glory and the power and the majesty of God. He saw it. He
said God spoke to him out of the whirlwind, told him about
the treasures of the snow and the creation of the world and
the swaddling band about the oceans and the life habits of
the birds and the whales and the fish and all these things
that God powerfully and graciously brings about, and in Him we live
and move and consist and have our being. And Job answered,
he said, Lord, I've heard of You, I've heard of You. Now mine
eye seeth Thee, wherefore I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Once
have I spoken, yea, twice, things too wonderful, I put my hand
over my mouth, and I'm not going to speak again. Here's a man
in contrition, brokenheartedness, in worship, in the dust before
the throne of God. Why? He'd seen the Lord. He had seen the Lord. And that's
what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. When
a man sees the glory and majesty and power of God, He'll worship. He won't go through some little
chocolate tin soldier processional and ritual routine and form somebody
laid down for him. It'll be him and God. And he'll
worship. That's what happened to John
on the Isle of Patmos. He saw the Lord. He said, I turned
to see the voice that spoke to me. And that voice was like the
rivers of many waters. And his head was white as snow.
And he glistened with the glory of God, and out of his mouth
went a two-edged sword, and in his hand seven stars. And he spoke to me, and I fell
at his feet like a dead man." Now, you ever see the Lord, you'll
worship. You'll worship. A revelation
of the glory, majesty, and power of God will make a man worship,
truly worship. But this generation hasn't seen
God. They've heard this little Old
man upstairs that's about as powerful as a peanut, and there's
no respect for him, and no fear of God before their eyes. They've
never seen the Lord God that Job saw, or that John saw, or
that Daniel saw when he said, My comeliness fell into corruption. Or Isaiah saw. What about the
leper in Matthew 8, 1 through 3? This leper, our Lord came
down from the mountain, and here was a leper. You know, leprosy
is a type of sin. It was a horrible disease back
in Old Testament days. The lepers were separating the
people. They wore these clothes over their scales, and their
bodies were rotting and withering and dying, and they put something
over their mouth. A person wouldn't even let the
shadow of a leper fall on them. And they always went around,
when they saw anyone, they'd cry, unclean, unclean. But when
our Lord came down from the mountain, this leper, this filthy, decaying,
rotting, scaly leper came running toward him and fell on his face
at the feet of Christ and worshipped him, he said, worshipped him,
and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, let
me tell you something. If you ever see your sin as the
leprosy of the soul, as that rotten, putrefying view in the
eyes of God, wiggling maggots, that's right, eaten away in the
soul of rebellious men, and you see your doom and darkness and
damnation, if you ever see it and see Christ in His power,
an ability to heal and cleanse and save and accept and regenerate,
you'll fall down worship. Like the public in the temple,
you'll stand afar off, but you'll cry, you'll cry from a genuine,
broken, sincere, contrite heart, God, be merciful to me, be sinner. That's worship. That's worship. By and by, he was blind, plum
blind, hopelessly blind. But Christ passed by, and it
didn't take a committee to get Him out of the church. It didn't
take a committee to get Him to worship. It didn't take a committee
to get Him to call on God. It didn't take a soul winner
pulling His hand and dragging His legs. He cried out. They
even tried to keep Him quiet and shut His mouth, but His mouth
wouldn't be shut. He cried, Oh, Jesus, Thou Son
of David, have mercy. That's worship. David said, My
sins are ever before me. Oh God, cleanse me, create in
me a clean heart, purge me with hyssop, and renew a right spirit
within me, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me." That's
when men worship. That's when men worship, not
when they line up at a certain way and kneel at a certain time
and sing the liturgy and recite the Apostles' Creed and read
the Responsive Reading standing around in circles, holding hands
and burning candles. When do men worship? When they
see the glory of God. When they are aware and conscious
of their rotten, filthy sins and their need of redemption.
You read about the blind man whom Christ made to see? Cast
out of the synagogue, excommunicated by the religionists, Christ our
Lord met him and said, Just, I believe on the Son of God.
He said, Lord, who is he that I might believe? And Christ said,
it's he that speaketh to thee. Oh, he said, you know what he
said? Lord, I believe. And he fell down and worshipped. That's worship. And I'll tell
you, if a man's ever aware of his blindness, I'm not blind. My eyesight's very bad. But I've
never been blind. My hearing's very bad, but I've
never been deaf. But I just believe, if I were
in the darkness of blindness, and total deafness, and silent,
and someone made me whole, I'd just believe I'd love him forever. And I believe this, if you've
ever been in sinful spiritual darkness and Christ gave you
sight, Now most folks are not too happy with Christ because
they've never been lost. They've never been lost. They've
never been stripped. They've never been dead. They've
never been in darkness. They've never been hopeless and helpless
and lost. But people who are real sinners,
you know what our Lord said about that harlot that was at his feet?
To whom much is forgiven, he'll love much. He'll love much. To whom much is forgiven. They'll
worship at his feet. People today are going through
the motions. Going through the motions. I
know that. I watch them. I watch them ho-hum through morning
services and evening services and all the other kind of services.
But those people who are worshipping, worshipping God, individually,
personally, they've seen the Lord, the glory of God. They've
seen the glory of God. And they've seen themselves sinners.
And they're mighty glad He had mercy on them. And that he keeps
them, they don't keep themselves. And that they've been saved and
forgiven by Christ, and that's their motive. Now, listen to
the Scriptures. Listen to it. It says here so
clearly, Matthew 28, And as the women went to tell his disciples
that he was risen, the Lord Jesus met them, and said, All hail!
And they came, and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
Whom did they see? They saw the risen Christ. What
was their response? They worshipped. Listen to this,
John 20. He said to Thomas, as he appeared
in their midst, Thomas, reach hither your hand, and behold
my hands, and take your finger, and put it at my side, and don't
be faithless, believe. And Thomas worshipped and said,
My Lord and my God, my God. What had he seen? Whom had he
seen? The risen Christ. And worship was spontaneous.
See what I'm saying? Listen to this, Luke 24. And
as the Lord blessed them on the mountain in Bethany, and as He
ascended up into heaven, they fell down and worshipped Him.
Whom did they see? They saw the risen Christ, the
exalted Christ. All of these men had seen Him,
the victorious, risen Lord. And what did they do? What was
their response? Worship. You go back all through
this, Job, and this is what I'm saying, you can teach men the
mechanics of worship, the form of worship, the words of worship,
the creed of worship, the catechism of worship, all of these things,
and they'll go through all of this ritualism and form and ceremonialism
and never worship God. But if by the grace of God they
ever see the glory of God and see their sinfulness by birth,
by nature, by practice, in word, in conduct, in conversation,
If they ever see the power of God through the blood of Christ
to wash and cleanse and make them whole, if they ever see
the risen, victorious, exalted Christ, they'll worship. And
they'll worship Him from the rising of the sun to the going
down of the sea. They'll worship Him in the building,
in the home, on the streets, in the car, in the factory. They'll
worship Him. I'll tell you the last thing.
Now listen. Those who truly love Christ, are found at his feet
in worship and submission. Here's an interesting scripture
in Luke chapter 10, verse 39. Listen to it. Martha had a sister
called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet. That's where she
sat, at Jesus' feet, and heard His Word. Almost every time this
Mary is mentioned in the Scriptures, it is said she sat at Jesus'
feet. I can think of three times offhand
right now they've talked about her sitting at His feet. At His
feet. Now, I'm not sure, I'm not sure
that Mary could give you a definition of the word worship, but she
worshiped. I'm just not sure that Mary could
write out a form for your church to follow on Sunday morning in
a worship service, but I guarantee you that little girl worshipped
the Lord. I'm not sure that Mary could give you a time or a day
when it's most suitable for you to worship, but boy, she worshipped
the Lord. In fact, he said of her, this
good thing will never be taken from her. You're going to hear
about it from now on, when she anointed his feet with that ointment
and dried them with the hair of her head. And he said, he
said, Mary hath chosen the good thing. I'm just not sure that
Mary cared about how big the crowd was. That's all I hear
today, how many, how much, and I beg. Mary sat at his feet. It really didn't matter whether
anybody else was there or not. She was there. And she worshipped
the Lord. You know why? She knew Christ.
She knew Him. She loved Him. She adored Him. And she worshipped Him. And my
friends, this is true worship. Now, I'm going to give you one
thing in closing. And you take your Bible and open it to the
Song of Solomon. Chapter 5, verse 9 through 16.
And the question is asked of the lover of the bride of Song
of Solomon. The question is asked by the
watchmen who were disturbed with her, irritated with her. They
said, what's your beloved? What's your beloved more than
any other beloved? Why are you so sick with love?
What's your beloved more than any other beloved, they ask again.
And she replied, my beloved, and this is Christ, Song of Solomon,
the bridegroom is Christ, no question about it. She says,
my beloved is white, pure and holy without spot or blemish. My beloved is ruddy. He's a strong
deliverer. His grace is strength and power. My beloved, Well, he's the greatest
among ten thousand, the fairest among ten thousand, the rose
of Sharon, the bright and morning star, the name which is above
every name. My beloved, his head is as fine
gold. He's the king of kings and the
Lord of lords. My beloved, while his locks are
black and bushy, he'll never grow old. He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever, eternally young. My beloved, His eyes are
as gentle as a dove, washed with clear milk. Clear eyes, and His
eyes are never changing. They're fitly set. He never changes. His gifts and calling never change. My beloved, His cheeks are soft
and comforting, like a bed of spices. My beloved's lips drop
with grace and mercy. My Beloved's hands are rich with
gifts. My Beloved's legs are strong
to defend. And His countenance is excellent.
My Beloved, His mouth is most sweet. To tell you the truth,
to sum it all up, He's just altogether lovely. How can I help but worship
Him? Get a hold of that. You'll get
the form. forget the denominations, forget
all this ritualism, and fall at His feet, and reign with Him
in glory. I got two messages on this tape,
lucky to have. The gospel, the cross of Christ,
and this message on worship. Write for them, send two dollars.
Until next week, God bless you.