The Lord said in John chapter
4, verse 24, that God is spirit. The proper translations, I think,
leave out the A and say God is spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Now being a pastor, whose business
it is on a regular basis to conduct worship services, I am critically
and vitally interested in the subject of worship, both on my
part and the part of those who hear me. And I know this, I know
this. I know that you can teach men
and women the mechanics of worship, but worship is not in form, and
it's not an act alone. It is an experience. Now, I do
know that. I know that you can teach the
mechanics of worship. For example, Charles Spurgeon,
one time years ago, preached a message on this subject, preparation
for worship. I'm not sure if that was the
title. for preparation for worship, and he had three points in there,
and he talked about us preparing our hearts to worship God before
the service. I believe Brother Simpson had
some things to say about that. You prepare to come into the
presence of the Lord. You even prepare your heart,
if a service is on the Lord's day, you prepare your heart the
day before, the evening before. You prepare your heart in you
when you're getting ready to come to the surface. And then
if you're really interested in this business of worshiping God,
as you come into the place of worship, there you prepare your
heart to worship God. You prepare to enter into his
presence. You prepare to call upon him.
For example, I called on Paul a moment ago to pray, and he
came up here and he stood here for a moment, and I knew what
he was doing because I often do it myself, trying to prepare
my heart to pray. Praying is not easy. It's difficult. Public prayer is difficult. Private
prayer is difficult. But you try to prepare to call
on God. And then Spurgeon also talked
about not only preparation before service, but preparation of heart
during the service. Oh, these pleading minds, these
wandering minds. God help us. And I think in that
message is when he talked about being on his knees in prayer.
He said, I can be on my knees in prayer talking to God, and
my mind get in a chariot and ride forty miles down the road,
and call on a friend and have tea with him. You know anything
about that? And there has to be, as you said,
as you prayed, Lord, help us to take our minds off the things
of this earth and set our affection on things above. That's got to
be done during worship. And I mean constantly during
worship. It won't do just to say, I'm
going to think on God through this service. Five minutes later,
you have to say the same thing. Like I preached a sermon not
long ago on on thanking God and praising God and rejoicing in
the Lord, and someone came to me and said, You need to preach
that to me every day. Because right now I'm rejoicing,
but tomorrow is another day. And so during the service we
have to keep reaching for these minds of ours, these hearts,
and bringing them back to where they ought to be. Now that's
true, and you know it, and I know it. Back where they ought to
be. And then he went on to say that
this business of worship There is something to be looked to
after the worship. It is not too good when we come
to the house of the Lord and we sing these great hymns like
Mike sang, and we praise God, and I try to preach, and we get
up and turn to the fellow next to us and say, ìWhat are you
having for dinner?î We need to feast on what we just got through
and think about it and talk about it, and I'm serious. I'm serious. And those are preparations of
heart for worship, both before, during, and after service. And
then there are various parts of worship. There are various
parts of worship. I mention this to the preacher's
class. There are several parts of worship that's praise. We
sing to one another and sing to the Lord in hymns and psalms
and rejoicing in the Lord, play upon the instruments. David said,
play upon the cymbals and the timbrels and the harp and the
lute and all the different instruments, praise the Lord in song and prayer. Then there's prayer. That's a part of worship. There's
the reading of the Word of God. God speaks to us. There's a preaching
of the gospel. There's fellowship with other
people. But yet, and I know these things
are all a part of it. But I haven't gotten yet to what
true worship is, because you can go through, you can approach
God in body and not be there in heart. In fact, he said himself,
he said, these people draw down to me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me. This is what I fear. I'd rather
not worship at all than approach God in body and not in heart.
That's mockery. We can even approach God in words. We can approach God in song.
We can approach God even in solemnity. I'm not trying to keep people
being themselves. There's a happy countenance and
a happy spirit. You know, you can go in a place
where everybody is sitting and looking at their Bibles and nobody
is saying a word and everybody is stone-faced and everybody
is solemn and reverent, and them still not be worshiping. You
can put on a black suit and a black hat and a black tie and black
socks and black shoes and black underwear and come sit in a mausoleum,
but that don't mean you worship. That fellow down there with that
bright checkered suit on just might be calling on God from
his heart. You see what I'm saying? It's
not the form, it's not the appearance, it's not the word, it's not the
solemnity, it's the heart. Now, that's where it is. That's
where it's done. That's where worship is. They
worship God in the spirit, and that means the Holy Spirit, without
whom we can do nothing. But it means in your spirit.
But now, here's what I've run into. Turn to Romans 12, and
I want you to look at three scriptures. And then I'm getting into this
thing of what is true worship. Romans 12, turn over there first.
And you don't know how dedicated my heart is in dealing with this
subject, how interested I am in it. If I could just pass it
on to you. The Lord seeketh such to worship
him. Now that's something that the
Lord seeketh such to worship him. Romans 12.1, now watch this. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." What do you see there? Here's what I see. There's no
need to talk to a man about presenting his body a living sacrifice who
doesn't, first of all, know something of the mercies of God. And that's
the basis on which the apostle here urges these people to present
your body a living sacrifice to God. Based on what? By the mercies of God. Therefore,
by the mercy of God, if God's been merciful to you, if God's
been gracious to you, if you know something of the mercies
of God, you want to walk with God. All right, here's the second
one I want you to look at, Ephesians 4. Now, this will help us in
this matter of worship. Turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
4.32. And you can go out here to a
man who's a religionist, and you can use the whip of the law,
and you can appeal to him through the rewards in heaven, or you
can appeal to him through all these different things to present
his body of living sacrifice. But if he ever gets the message
of the mercies of God, he'll do it anyway. If he ever gets
that message on his heart. All right, look at Ephesians
4.32. Be ye kind one to another. Tenderhearted, forgiving one
another. Now that's to be coveted, isn't it? Be kind to one another. Be tenderhearted. Forgive. Keep on forgiving. How many times
shall I forgive my brother? Seventy times seven. A definite
number for an indefinite number. Well, how in the world are you
going to get folks to do that? Well, you can promise them a bigger
pie in the sky. You can promise them a bigger
mansion. Or you can threaten them with hell, or you can threaten
them with God punishing them. Why don't you do it like God
did it? Listen. Even as God, for Christ's sake, forgave you.
That is the key. That is the key right there.
The person who has received mercy will show mercy. Our Lord said,
To whom much is forgiven, he will love much. And when Paul
exhorts the Church to be kind, just as flat, be kind. Be kind,
be tender-hearted, be gentle, forgive, keep on forgiving. Based on this, if God's forgiven
you, you've got all the motive you need. All right, here's the
third one now, and then I'll move into where I'm headed. John
13. John 13. Like a fisherman, I
know where I'm going to fish, I'm just baiting the hook. John
13, 34. Now watch this. John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another. That you love one another. Just
flat love one another. All right, what are you going
to base that on? You love one another as I've loved you. There
it is. No need to talk about a man loving
someone until he experiences true love, and that's the love
of Christ. Because no one understands the nature of true love until
he experiences the love of Christ. And when a man loves Christ and
Christ loves that man, that man's going to love others, I guarantee
you. Paul said, the love of Christ motivates me. constrains me,
restrains me, whatever I need, I find in the love of Christ.
Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know I love you. Then
feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. Then feed
my sheep. That's all the motivation here
in Aten. Yeah, but we're going to have to have a New Testament
church and And we're going to have to have a covenant, a constitution
of about 400 pages. We're going to have to have bylaws. We're going to have to have all
these things if we keep these people straight. We just need
one thing to love Christ. That's all you need. That's all
in this world you need. And so it is with this business
of worship. Do you know who's going to worship? I'll show you. like Job of old, those who have
seen the Lord in his majesty, those who have seen the Lord
in his glory, are going to fall down and worship him. What did
Job say? He said, Lord, I've heard of
you, I've heard of you countless numbers of times, I've heard
of you, now mine eye seeth thee." I see you. God spoke to Job out
of the whirlwind. God revealed to Job his majesty
and power and glory and holiness and might. He revealed that to
Job, and Job said, I've seen the Lord. Therefore, I repent. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Put my hand on my mouth. Once
have I spoken, yet twice thing far too wonderful for me. I popped
off all up and down the lane. But I'm going to put my head
over my mouth and bow before God and worship. What produced
that worship? A sight of the glory of God.
Turn to Revelation 1. Now this is blessed. Revelation
chapter 1. Same thing is true of Isaiah
while you're turning to Revelation 1. He said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, high above
all things lifted up, and His glory filled the temple. And the seraphims cried, Holy,
Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts, and He said, I fell down, and
I cried, I'm cut off, I'm done, done, woe is me. What produced
that? In Revelation 1, listen, verse
12, Revelation 1, 12, I turned to see the voice that spake with
me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man, clothed with
a garment down to the foot. He heard about the paps with
a golden girdle, his head, his hair as white as wool. as white
as snow, his eyes were the flame of fire, and his feet like unto
fine brass, as if they were burned in a furnace. And his voice was
as the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,
and his countenance was as the sun shined in his string. And
when I saw it, I fell at his feet." when I saw him. That's when we'll worship, when
we see him. Isn't that right? That's when
you'll worship. That's when I'll worship. That's
when I'll forget all the form and liturgy and ritual and who's
sitting next to me and what she's got on, or what I've got on,
or what I don't have to wear, or what time the service started,
or whether it's hot or cold, when I see him. And when I saw I just crawled to him. There
it is, Charlie. There it is. Thank God he laid
his hand on me and said, Don't be afraid. All right, number two. That's
the first one. When's a man going to worship?
When he sees the Lord in his glory. Talk about reverence. You've organized it, but you
can't promote it. Man ever hears God speak, he'd
shut up. Man ever sees God, he'll fall down. And you're wasting your time
trying to get him to until he does. Turn to Matthew 8. Now here's
a fellow, Matthew 8. Secondly, you know who's going
to worship and when they're going to worship? When a man sees the
loathsomeness of his sins, the loathsomeness of his sins, he'll
weep before God. He'll fall down before God. He'll
worship God. It'll take all the starch out
of him. It'll take all the brag out of him. It'll take all the
self-righteousness out of him. It'll take all the holier-than-thou
attitude out of him when he sees his scales of leprosy that just
cling to him. It says in Matthew 8, verse 1,
when he was come down from the great multitudes followed him.
And behold, there came a leper, unclean. The fellow walked there
with his mouth covered over, you know, and wouldn't let so
much as their shadow fall upon him. And he walked around unclean,
unclean, unclean. When that fellow came, he fell
and worshipped him. And he said, Lord, if you will,
if you will, you can make me clean. if you will. The thief on the
cross, he turned to the other thief and he said, don't you
fear God? Don't you fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation
and we're getting what we deserve? This man hadn't done anything
wrong. Lord, you're not going to stay dead, you're coming into
a kingdom. Would you remember me? That's real worship. This leper, he He realized his
uncleanness, his filth. Turn to Psalm 51. Listen, and
this is a believer here now. This is a child of God. This
is a man at God's own heart. Here's a man worshiping the Lord.
Here's a man calling on God. Here's a man, listen, God's man. And he says in verse 3, I acknowledge
my sin, my transgression, my sin as ever before me, against
thee, thee only have I sinned. Look at verse 10, Lord, create
in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me, straighten
me out, cast me not away from your presence, don't take your
Holy Spirit away from me. That's worship, isn't it? You say, I wish I could talk
like that. Maybe if we felt like that, we could talk like that. Oh, I wish I could express myself
like that. I tell you, dirt's dirt on whomever
it is. Fellas drowned and really can't
sing a good song. Help. Have mercy. That's when true worship is born. It's born out of need. Let me ask you this. When can
you pray the best? I heard a story one time. A fellow
said, well, the best prayer I ever prayed was when the pastor called
on me one Sunday night and the Spirit of the Lord was in the
place and the singing had been good and I just got a hold of
the horns of the altar. The next fellow said, well, the
best prayer I ever prayed was when we was in an old-time Back
under the old brush arbor in old times, you know, and in our
overalls and so forth and so on, you know, the Spirit of the
Lord was amongst us. And the third fellow said, Well, said,
Boys, I'll tell you. He said, I went out to the well
to draw a bucket of water. We had one of those old low wells.
It didn't have a very high wall around it. And he said, Somehow
my leg got tangled up in that cord. And so that bucket started
down and I went down with it and I was hanging upside down
in that well with my foot caught on the rope. And that's the best
prayer I ever prayed. There's a lot of truth in that.
Trouble. I can flat call on God when I
get in trouble. You let one of these children
here, one of these young people get sick, let one of these little
girls go into the hospital to have a bed, I can pray then.
Can you? I can pray then. Isn't that right, Clarence? Well,
if we'll ever be conscious of our need, we can pray. We can
worship God. Come thy fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy praise. All right, here's the third one.
Turn to John 9. I'm just telling you where worship is now. I know
where it is from the word and from experience. I know when
and why men worship, when they really worship. John 9, verse
35. Here was a blind man, been blind
all his life, all his life. Never had seen the light of day.
Christ came along, gave him sight. All right, watch it. Verse 35,
John 9. Jesus heard they had cast him
out of the synagogue, out of the Jewish religion. When he
found him, he said to him, Do you believe on the Son of God?
And he answered and said, Lord, who is he? Who is he that I might
believe on him? And Jesus said, You have both
seen him, and it is he that talketh to you. And he said, Lord, I
believe, and he worshiped him. Worshiped him. He Here's a man
who'd been born blind, lived in darkness, and standing before
him is the one who made him whole by his own hand and according
to his own will and for his own glory. What's the natural impulse? Fall down and worship him. And
I'm saying this, I wasn't saved by my free will, I was saved
by his free will. I wasn't saved by my dedication,
I was saved by his determined plan and purpose. I wasn't saved
because I deserved to be saved, I was saved because he decreed
my salvation in Christ. I wasn't saved because I came
to him, I was saved because he came to me. I don't see Christ
because I'm smarter than anybody else, I see Christ because he
had mercy on a fool. And so I'm going to fall down
and worship him. I'm going to give him the glory now, and when
I get to heaven, He'll never hear the last of it. I'm going
to praise him as long as the rolling sun goes across the sky. He's the King. He's the Lord.
He's my Savior. That'll bring worship out of
you. I turn to John 20. Watch this
now. Here's the... This spontaneous
worship. I'm talking about... You can
teach the form and the liturgy and the ceremony, but you can't
teach worship. It's born in the heart. It's
experienced in the soul. It comes because of where a man's
been, with whom he's been, and whom he's seen. That's when he
adores him. Adores him. I've heard young men say they
never did appreciate their fathers until they became fathers. Especially
fathers of teenagers. They sure can't appreciate mom
and daddy, they can't. I hear him going, he says, I
hope my son doesn't have a son like I had. All right, John 20, what's this?
It's experience. John 20, verse 26. After eight
days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst,
and said, Peace be unto And he said, Thomas, reach hither your
finger, and behold my hands. Reach hither your hand, thrust
it in my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered
and said, My Lord and my God." What had Thomas seen? The risen
Christ. The risen Christ. Let me just
read it to you over here. in Matthew 28. Listen to this. Matthew 28 verse 6. Listen. He's not here, the angel said.
He's risen. Come see where the Lord lay.
and go quickly and tell his disciples, He is risen from the dead, and
behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. Then shall you see him,
I told you.' And they departed from the sepulchre with fear
and in great joy, and they did run to bring his disciples' word. And as they went to tell the
disciples, Jesus met them and said, All hail! And they came
and held him to the feet and worshiped him." What did they
sing? The risen Lord. Luke 24, listen to this. They
worshiped They didn't have to have a prelude
and a postlude and an invocation. They just worshipped. They didn't
have to have any soft music in the background or somebody humming
or an organ playing. They just worshipped. They'd
seen the risen Lord. And here in Luke 24, 50, listen
to this. He led them out as far as Bethany
and lifted up his hands and blessed them. It's out in the countryside. came to pass that while he blessed
them, he was parted from them, carried up into heaven, and they
worshipped him. They had seen the risen, ascending,
exalted Lord, and they worshipped him. Now here is my last one. Luke chapter 10. I told my Sunday
school class about this this morning. This woman called Luke
10, verse 39. This is the way they identified
Mary. It says in Luke 10, verse 39,
and she had a sister. They're talking about Martha,
who was the oldest of the two sisters, and she kind of ran
the house. And verse 39 says she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet. That's where you usually found
Mary. When she heard the Lord was come and Lazarus was dead,
she was at his feet, weeping. Back down in another passage,
it says she was at his feet, anointing them with a precious
ointment. Always at his feet. I'm not sure that Mary could
give you a definition of worship, but she worshipped. I'm not sure
Mary could write out a form for you to follow. but she worshipped. I'm not sure that Mary could
tell you the best day to worship or the best time, but she worshipped.
I'm not sure that Mary cared how big a crowd was around, but
she worshipped. You know why? She adored him. She adored him. She loved Christ. She knew Christ,
and she found her place at his feet. And I'm saying this, this
is what I'm summing this whole thing up. Like Job of old, if
a man, woman, young person, I don't know how old or how young, but
if they can ever get a glimpse of the majesty and glory and
power of God, if we've ever gotten by experience some understanding
of the wickedness of this human heart, the sin that does so easily
beset us. If we could ever realize how
great salvation has come to us by his power, great salvation
from that from which we've been delivered, that pit from which
we've been digged, that cesspool from which we've been lifted.
If we ever see the risen justifying, ascending, exalted Lord. If we
ever fall in love with Him, we'll worship. We'll worship. From the rising of the sun to
the going down of the sand, we'll worship. Now, one thing, I think
you'll be blessed by this, turn to Song of Solomon. I have a
minute or two, and I want you to turn to Song of Solomon. Chapter
5. I've threatened through the years
to do some messages on this book, and just may do it some day,
but I'll wait till I get some leadership. But in Song of Solomon,
Chapter 5, they ask this woman, this lover, verse 9, Chapter
5, what is your beloved more than another beloved? What is your God more than any
other God? O thou fairest among women, what
is thy Beloved more than another Beloved, that thou dost charge
us so? Oh, watch it now. My Beloved
is pure, white, pure and holy, without blemish or spot. My Beloved
is ruddy He's a strong deliverer. My beloved is the cheapest, the
fairest among ten thousand. He's the greatest of all. He's
been given a name above all. My beloved, his head has the
most fine gold. He not only wears the crown,
he is the crown. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. My beloved, his locks are bushy,
curled, and black as a raven. He's eternally young. He never
ages. My beloved, his eyes are as the
eyes of doves, so gentle, so kind, by the rivers of water,
and washed with milk, so clear. His eyes are so kind and so clear,
and they're fitly set. They never change. Never change. They're set. Clear, kind, and fitly set. or as a bed of spices as sweet
flowers. Can't you see someone just curled
up on a bed of grass with their head laying on a whole bed of
flowers and spices? Sweet-smelling, comforting, a
gentle place to lay your head when troubles are all about you.
His lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. Grace flows
from his mouth. He doesn't rebuke me and reprove
me. He's kind. He understands. My beloved. And His hands are
as gold rings. He's wealthy. He supplies my
every need. His hands are as gold rings set
with a burl. His belly is as bright as ivory
overlaid with sapphire. That's His compassion that flows
from His innermost being. He loves me. His legs are as pillars of marble. He's strong. He can defend me,
and protect me, and keep me, and no one can touch me. His
legs are strong and set upon sockets of fine gold, never chained,
never rust. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His countenance is excellent.
His mouth is mouth. is most sweet, so satisfying,
yea, he's altogether lovely, altogether. This is my beloved,
this is my friend, and this is the object of my worship. Not
a myth, not a historical character, Not a traditional God handed
down through the generations by my ancestry. This is my beloved. In whose arms I lie, in whose
eyes I look, whose voice I hear, whose touch I feel, whose protection
I'm aware of, and for whose grace I'm grateful.
That's worship to me. And I just believed if we could
get a hold of that, get a hold of him, it just, it just, this thing of
coming to the house of God, this thing of reverence, this thing
of opening the word, and this thing of singing, and this thing
of getting hold of the horns of the altar in the simplest
language of praying, This thing of treating folks right, forgiving
and loving. This thing of keeping down the
hickack and the boating and the splits and the division. Just
go out the window. If we just sat around at his
feet. It's hard to start a fuss at
his feet. I tell you, my boys wouldn't
do it, would they? At my feet. I'm sitting in my
easy chair and my two boys are playing hang or fight. And they
fight in the other room. when I'm not around. And that's
usually when we fight, when he ain't around. Isn't that right? When we're not around him. So
just sit at his feet. Never be a challenge. And Satan
will never challenge you at his feet. You get out on your own,
he'll whip you to death. But out of his feet, he's not
going to come near. That's right. That's where it
is. I'm sure of that. Well, let's sing. My Jesus, I
love Thee, I know Thou art mine, for Thee all the power knowledge
of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior
art Thou. If For I love Thee, my Jesus
is now. I love Thee because Thou hast
first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love thee for wearing the thorns
on thy brow. If ever I loved My Jesus is now. I love Thee in life, I will love
Thee in death, and praise Thee Be as long as Thou didst be brethren,
and bathe with the depth in Thy soul of Thy breath. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus
is now.