True Worship
by
John
MacArthur, Jr.
Word
of Grace Communications
ã 1982, 1985 by
John MacArthur, Jr.
All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Note:
Permission was received for Bible Bulletin Board (www.biblebb.com) to transcribe this book for
posting on their website, and all original copyrights and other rights are
still in effect.
Selected Scriptures
Tape GC 2008
5
True
Worship - Part 5
Outline
Introduction
Review
I. The Importance of Worship
II. The Source (Basis) of Worship
III. The
Object of Worship
A. God as Spirit (His Essential Nature)
1. The spirituality of God
a) He cannot be reduced to an image
b) He cannot be confined to a place
(1) Mt. Gerizim/Jerusalem
(2) The Tabernacle/Temple
Lesson
a) Acts
b) Acts
2. The holiness of God
a) A response of godly fear
(1) Psalm 96:2-9
(2) Hebrews 12:28b-29
(3) Isaiah 6:1-8
(4) 2 Timothy 2:22
b) A response of thanksgiving
(1) His mercy extended
(2) His justice exemplified
Introduction
I believe there’s a very serious problem in the
church today. Little emphasis is given to the
matter of worship. Today’s church doesn’t focus
itself on true worship. A.W.Tozer, of a
past generation, said, “Worship, is the missing
jewel in the evangelical church.” If that was
true in his time, it is equally or more true in
ours.
know how to worship. For
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this reason, we’re looking at
the subject of worship and calling the people of
God to commit themselves to acceptable, true,
spiritual worship.
Review
I. THE
IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP
II. THE
SOURCE (BASIS) OF WORSHIP
In our
last lesson we ended in the midst of discussing the third major point
in our
outline:
III. THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP
Who is
it that we worship? It’s not enough to just worship. The object of
our
worship must be clearly understood. There are people all over the world
who
worship-and have been throughout all of human history. They do not,
however,
worship the right object. Our Lord, in John 4, clearly instructs that
there
is only one object of worship. He says, “Worship the Father” (v.21b),
“Worship
the Father” (v.23b), and “Worship Him” (v.24b). So we are to
worship
the Father. Also, in verse 24a Jesus says, “God is a Spirit.” The One
we are
to worship, then is defined to us in two terms: Spirit and Father. Spirit
speaks
of His essential nature, and Father speaks of His essential relationship.
A. God as Spirit (His Essential Nature)
1. The spirituality of God
a) He cannot be reduced to an image (see pp.
51-52)
b) He cannot be confined to a place (see pp.
52-54)
(1) Mt. Gerizim/Jerusalem (see pp.52-53)
(2) The Tabernacle/Temple (see p. 54)
Lesson
We left
off last time discussing the misunderstanding that many people have in
believing
that God lived in and was confined to the Tabernacle and, later, to the
in a
limiting sense. Although His presence was there, He was also everywhere
else.
The
all
symbols. In fact, the whole ceremonial system was symbolic and existed in
order
that man might perceive God in the symbol. It was to be the starting place
of
their perception of God, not the ending. They were to see beyond the symbols
to the
reality of the living God.
Let me
give you some scriptural illustrations.
(a) Acts 7:46-50 - In Acts 7, Stephen preached a
great sermon
in
which he recited much of the history of the people of God.
In
verse 46, he says that David “found favor before God, and
desired
to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon
built
Him an house.”
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Now, the fact that Solomon built God a great
that God was
confined to that
house.
This is confirmed by verses 48-50: “Nevertheless, the Most
High
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet,
Heaven
is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will ye
build
me? saith the Lord. Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not
My
hand made all these things?”
Only
an ignorant Jew would have perceived that God was limited to
the
a
symbol in the midst of the people as a reminder of the eternal
presence
of the eternal omnipresent God. In fact, they knew that
from
the very beginning. In Deuteronomy 6, they were given the
most
basic truth of their religion: “The Lord our God is one Lord”
(v.4).
God then told them to teach it diligently to their children and
to
speak of it continually, “When thou sittest in thine house, and
when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when
thou
risest up” (v.7b). In other words, no matter where they were,
or
what they were doing, they were to be aware of the eternal,
living,
one, holy God. The
ceremonial
sacrificial system was only to be a prodder of their
conscience,
causing them to turn their hearts toward the true and
living
God. The symbol was to produce in them the reality of a life
committed
to worshiping God. It was never intended to be the end,
only
the means.
(b) Acts 17:24-25 -
“God,
who made the world and all things in it, seeing that he is Lord
of
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands,
neither
is worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed
anything,
seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” In
other
words, the God who extends through all of time, space,
infinity,
and eternity cannot be confined or limited. Therefore, He is
to
be worshiped at all times, in all places, by all people.
The Pagan Perspective of Limiting God
The Syrians called the God of Israel “gods of the
hills” (1Kings
their own idolatrous perspective, because their gods
were the gods of the valleys. They
had built groves for their gods in the valleys and
felt that they were confined to those groves.
This pagan perspective of God being confined to a
specific place may have influenced the
confused worship of the Samaritans who thought that
God was confined to
But the truth of the matter is
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that God is Spirit and is to be
worshiped in the fullness of His spiritual presence.
Outward Symbol Versus Inward Reality
In Jeremiah 7:21-23, the Lord gives Jeremiah a
message to speak to His sinful people:
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Put your burnt offerings unto your
sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spoke not unto your
fathers, nor commanded them in the
day that I brought them out of the
In other words, “Put that away. That wasn’t what I
was after. That was only a symbol
of the reality!” Verse 23 continues, “But this thing
commanded I them, saying, Obey
My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people; and walk in all the ways that
I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”
The sacrifices weren’t an end in
themselves, they were only symbols, visible
reminders of God’s presence.
But all that was in the old covenant. The new
covenant ended the ceremonial symbols and
the symbol of the
the living Spirit of God dwelt, and that Spirit of
God became the prodder of true worship.
Worship was no longer prodded by an outward symbol,
it became an inward reality. We
who are of the new covenant possess the Spirit of
God and together form the living temple
of God. The external reminder to worship, which
occurred when the Israelites camped
around the Tabernacle, now occurs internally through
the prompting of the Holy Spirit in
the life of every believer.
So, God
is to be worshiped as a living Spirit - anywhere, everywhere, at all times,
by all
people. And when it’s said that the basic feature of Christian living is a
worshiping
life, that’s exactly what is meant. Worship is the bottom line. “For we are
the
circumcision,” said
Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).
Now, if
we are to worship God as Spirit, then we must define His nature. It’s important
for us
to worship the God who is Spirit in terms of how He is revealed in Scripture.
And I
believe the one attribute which most sums up the nature of God is:
2.The
holiness of God
God is
holy, and He must be worshiped as holy. His holiness can be defined as “His
unique
otherness” or “His unlikeness to the human creature.” He is flawless, without
error,
without sin, without mistake, and fully righteous - utterly holy. The basic
comprehension
for true worship is that God is holy.
There’s
a lot of well-meaning effort today and a lot of supposed worship going on that
does
not regard God as holy - and thus falls short. There are a lot of nice songs
being
sung,
nice feelings being
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felt,
nice thoughts being thought, and nice emotions being expressed - but not in
terms
of the
holiness of God. So these “nice” things may be little more than emotional
exercises
that make one feel good.
God
must be worshiped as holy, and the perception of His holiness produces:
a) A
response of godly fear
(1) Psalm 96:2-9 - “Sing unto the Lord, bless His
name; show forth His salvation
from
day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all
peoples.
God the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared
above
all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the
heavens.
Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His
sanctuary.
Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the peoples; give unto the Lord
glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto His name; bring an
offering,
and come into His courts.”
After
all of this worship and praise, we come to a key statement in verse 9.
Here
is the attitude or perspective of worship; “Oh, worship the Lord in the
beauty
of holiness; fear before Him, all the earth.” Holiness can never be
perceived
apart from fear. Why? Because if you perceive God as utterly holy,
you
will in turn perceive yourself as utterly unholy. This will produce a sense of
fear,
because a holy God has a right to a holy reaction against an unholy
creation.
So, the true spirit of worship is an overwhelming sense of unholiness
in
the presence of a holy God.
Just
so you don’t think the concept of worshiping God with holiness and fear
is
just an Old Testament concept, look at:
(2) Hebrews 12:28b-29 - “Serve [or ‘worship’] God
acceptably with reverence
and
godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.”
(3) Isaiah 6:1-8 - Isaiah went to the
died
after fifty-two years on the throne, and the
to
go into captivity as a judgment for their sin. Isaiah saw the demise of his
people,
and he sensed the problem in his nation, so he rushed into the presence
of
God to worship.
In
verse 1, we find that he had a vision of God in which He was majestically
lifted
up and surrounded by seraphim - the guardians of God’s holiness. Two
of
the seraphim’s wings were used for service, and four of them were used for
worship
(v.2). In verse 3, the seraphim are worshiping God and crying back
and
forth to each other, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the
whole
earth is full of His glory.”
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As Isaiah worshiped God, he perceived His holiness - holiness that
causes God
to
react against sin - and he responds in verse 5, “Then said I, Woe is me! For
I
am undone [i.e., disintegrating, falling apart, going to pieces], because I am
a
man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” He
was
overwhelmed with his sinfulness. All he could see was his sin. Even though
he
had the cleanest mouth of all of them, when he saw himself as compared to
God,
he couldn’t see any goodness in himself. What caused this stark
comparison?
“For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Now,
you may not have a vision like this, nor may I, but, nonetheless, the
lesson
is true that when we enter into the presence of God, if we truly see God,
we
see Him as holy, holy, holy. We are then faced with a sense of our utter
unholiness.
If you have never worshiped God with a broken and contrite spirit,
then
you’ve never really worshiped God. That’s the proper response when
entering
the presence of a holy God.
Holiness
inspires fear, and Isaiah was afraid. Why? Because he knew that
a
holy God had every right to react against an unholy sinner. He knew that God
had
every right to judge him and to take his life on the spot.
My
heart is concerned that there’s a lot of flippancy going on in Christianity
today
in entering into the presence of God. God has become so casual in our
thinking
- so human, so buddy-buddy - that we don’t understand the whole
perspective
of His utter holiness. We don’t understand that God is a consuming
fire
and that He has a holy indignance against sin. We must consider that if we
flippantly
rush into His presence with lives unattended to by repentance,
confession,
and cleansing by the Spirit, then we are vulnerable to the holy
reaction.
It is only by His grace that we breathe another breath, is it not? He has
every
reason to take our life! Why? “For the wages of sin is death”
(Rom.6:23a).
So Isaiah had the only reaction that a true worshiper could ever
have
in true worship - humble, broken contrition. He saw himself as a sinner.
In
the midst of his repentance and confession, an angel came with a coal and
purged
him (vv. 6-7). Then God told Isaiah that He would send him in His
place
(v.8) - revealing a marvelous communion, comradery, and union that
takes
place between God and a true worshiper through the confession of sin.
That’s
really the spirit of true worship - seeing the holiness of God and
becoming
overwhelmed with your own unholiness.
(4) 2 Timothy 2:22 - In 2 Timothy,
about
being a godly man and a faithful
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servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells him what is necessary to
guard his life
for
usefulness, talks to him about being “a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit
for
the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (
peace,
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” This last statement
is
a marvelous insight into true worship - calling upon the Lord out of a pure
heart.
Now, our hearts are not made pure by our own designs or by our own
devices,
they are made pure by the confession and the repentance that is
experienced
when we face a holy God.
What happens when men encounter God’s holiness?
In the Old Testament, whenever the people of God
encountered God, they usually had a
terrifying reaction - they felt afraid, intimidated,
and that their lives were in danger. Why?
Because they knew they were sinners in the presence
of a holy God. For example:
* Abraham - In Genesis 18:27, Abraham entered into
God’s presence and confessed that
that he was
nothing but “dust and ashes.”
* Job - When Job, who was a righteous man (Job 1:8),
came to the end of his amazing
pilgrimage,
he saw God as the sovereign, holy Lord of the universe, and said,
“Wherefore
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).
* Manoah - When Manoah, the father of Samson, saw
the angel of the Lord, he said to his
wife, “We
shall surely die, because we have seen God” (Judg. 13:22).
* Habakkuk - When Habakkuk heard the voice of the
Lord, this was his reaction: “When
I heard, my
belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered into my
bones, and
I trembled in myself” (Hab. 3:16a).
* The restored remnant - When the holy words of God
were spoken by Haggai to the
restored remnant
of Israel, “The people did fear before the Lord” (Hag. 1:12b).
*Ezra - In the ninth chapter of Ezra, Ezra goes
before the Lord with a broken and contrite
heart in
the spirit of true worship, and says, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift
up my face
to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our
trespass is
grown up into the heavens” (v.6). And then he said, “Behold, we are before
thee in our
trespasses; for we cannot stand before thee because of this” (v. 15b).
A true worshiper comes into the presence of God with
fear - knowing that God has a right
to take his life. Even though we are His children
and have been redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ, God still has a right to punish us for
sin. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom He receiveth.”
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In the New Testament, when men
encountered the holy God in human flesh, they too reacted in fear. For example:
* The disciples - In Mark 4:41, after the disciples
saw Jesus still the wind and the sea, it
says, “And
they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this,
that even
the wind and the sea obey him?” You see, they realized that having God in
their boat
was far worse than the storm outside their boat. Why? Because they had to
face His
holiness in the power that had been displayed.
* The people of Gerasa - When Jesus cast a multitude
of demons out of a man and into a
herd of pigs,
which all ran violently into a lake and drowned, the people of the country of
Gerasenes
ran out and “besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with
great fear”
(Luke 8:37b).
* Peter - In Luke 5, Jesus comes up to Peter, who
had been fishing all night without
catching
anything, and said, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a
draught”
(v.4). Grudgingly, he obeyed. But when he caught so many fish that his nets
broke,
verse 8 tells us, “He fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for
I am a
sinful man, O Lord.” All Peter could see, when confronted with the reality of a
holy God,
was his own sinfulness.
* The Pharisees - I believe one of the reasons that
the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus was
because they
were so afraid of Him. They were astonished at what He taught and at what
He did.
They panicked when they saw His power and heard His wisdom.
Jesus traumatized people, because when they knew
that God was in their midst, they were
immediately confronted with the evil of their
hearts.
A
true worshiping life is a life of brokenness and contrition - a life that sees
sin
and
confesses continually. You can’t live a life of sin throughout the week and
then
go to church on Sunday thinking you’re going to worship the Lord. If God
is
a spirit and is everywhere at all times, He is to be worshiped that way. And
if
He is holy, we are to worship Him with a sense of fear. Why? Because He
has
a right to chasten our unholiness.
Just
to keep the balance, however, the perception of God’s holiness also
produces:
b) A
response of thanksgiving
You
say, “Why does God’s holiness cause us to live a life of thanksgiving?”
Because
He doesn’t give us what we deserve - He hasn’t rendered to us according
to
our sins. But even His mercy causes us problems. According to Romans 2:4b,
“the
goodness of God leadeth...to repentance.” But we get so used to sinning and
getting
away with it that we just keep
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sinning.
We’re so used to God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness that we abuse them.
(1) His mercy extended
God
is a holy God. If He wanted to enforce His holiness, all of us would be
dead,
because Romans 6:23a says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Originally,
God told Adam that if he
disobeyed Him, he would die (Gen. 2:17). God only
gave
Adam and Eve one prohibition, and if they violated it, they would die. But
when
they did disobey, God was merciful and spared their lives.
In
the beginning, any sin was a capital offense, but by the time of the Mosaic
covenant,
only thirty-five sins had a capital punishment assigned to them. And
in
many instances, God acted graciously toward the violators of those sins. For
example,
David committed sins that had been given the death penalty - over
and
over again - but God was gracious and merciful and forgave him. Now,
there
were consequences, but death wasn’t one of them.
Another
example is the sin of adultery. According to the Mosaic law, if a
partner
committed adultery in a marriage, the punishment was death. But God
in
His grace, because of the hardness of men’s hearts provided divorce to spare
a
life.
God
has shown Himself gracious, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t care about
our
sin. It doesn’t mean we can run into His presence with sin in our lives, and
it
doesn’t mean we can abuse His mercy. The day may come when He acts in
righteous
indignation against sin in our lives. And if He does, He has every right
to
do so. You see, we get so used to mercy, that when God does what is just,
we
think He is unjust.
(2) His justice exemplified
When
somebody dies prematurely, people often say, “How could God let that
happen?”
When problems arise and life becomes difficult, people say, “How
can
God allow that to happen?” Well, the question is How can God not allow
those
things to occur when we are sinful people? You see, we look at it
backwards!
Many
people look at the Bible and ask, “What kind of God sends two
out
to tear up forty-two little children, just because they yelled, ‘Baldy, baldy,’
at
the prophet Elisha (2Kings 2:23:24)? What kind of God slays two young
men,
Nadab and Abihu, on the day of their ordination, just because they got a
little
drunk and fooled around with the Temple incense (Lev. 10:1-2)? What
kind
of God slays a man who touches the ark to try to keep it from falling off a
cart
(2 Sam. 6:6-7)? What kind of God gives a man leprosy
65
when he’s been a faithful king for fifty-two years - just because he
got a little
proud
(2 Kings 15:1-5)? Why does God punish some and not others? Why
did
God slay Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10)? After all, they gave a gift
to
the Lord - it just wasn’t what they said they’d give. Why did they have to
die
for that?
Well,
the question isn’t, for example, Why did Ananias and Sapphira die? The
question
is, Why didn’t you die when you failed to give the Lord something
you
promised Him? The question isn’t, Why did God take the life of someone
who
committed adultery? The question is, Why doesn’t God take the life of
everyone
who commits adultery? You see, it’s never a question of God’s being
unjust,
it’s only an issue of God’s being merciful. Sometimes, when He does
do
what is just, He does it as an illustration, or signpost, to remind men of His
holiness
and to warn them of His judgment against sin (see 1 Cor. 10:5-12).
So,
as we look through Scripture and see the times when God acted in a holy
way
against unholiness, it shows us what God has a right to do. The question
isn’t,
How can God be so unjust? The question is, How can God be so merciful
when
His holiness is violated? That’s the issue!
I’ve
heard people say, “Isn’t it awful that some Corinthian Christians actually
died
because they were coming to the Lord’s Table with a sinful life (1 Cor.
11:27-32)?”
Well, that’s not the issue. The issue is. Why are we still alive when
we’ve
come that way so many times? It’s only by His grace.
People
say, “Why did God turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt (Gen.19:26)?”
That
isn’t the question. The question is, Why doesn’t He turn us into pillars of
salt
when we act in a similar worldly fashion and lust after the things of the
flesh?
You ask, “Why did He swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in the
ground
for being disobedient (Num. 16:23-33)?” That isn’t the question. The
question
is, Why doesn’t He swallow us up in the ground when we’re
disobedient?
We have to see things from the side of God’s holiness. God is
gracious,
but don’t let His grace sell short His holiness.
In
Luke 13:1-5 some people come to Jesus and tell Him about the Galileans
who
went into the Temple to offer sacrifices. While they were offering the
blood
of their sacrifices, Pilate’s men came in, sliced them up, and mingled
their
blood with the blood of the sacrifices. Then the people asked Jesus, “Why
did
God let that happen? Were they worse sinners than anybody else?” Jesus
answered,
“I tell you, Nay. But, except ye repent, ye shall
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all likewise perish” (v.3). In other words, “You better get your lives
straightened
up,
or the same thing could happen to you!”
Then
the people said, “Well, why did God let that tower in Siloam fall over and
kill
eighteen victims? What did they do? Were they worse than anybody else?”
Jesus
answered, “I tell you, Nay. But, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish”
(v.5).
You
see, the question wasn’t, Why did those Galileans get slaughtered? or,
Why
did those eighteen people get crushed under a falling tower? Jesus showed
them
the real issue and said, “You had better get your life straightened up, or
the
same thing could happen to you.”
This is
all summed up in Hebrews 12:28b-29, which says that we must worship God
“acceptably
with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.” This
means
that we are to live holy lives before God. We are to live lives of confession
and
repentance,
so that our worship is pleasing and acceptable to God. And we must never
go
rushing into His presence to worship with unholiness in our lives, lest we
receive our
just
deserts at His hand. While we are thankful for His grace, and we understand His
love,
we have somehow, in twentieth-century Christianity, missed His holiness-the
heart
of worship.
God is a living, eternal, glorious, holy, merciful
Spirit - the object of our worship. And we
must come to worship Him in the contrition,
humility, and brokenness of sinners who see
themselves against the backdrop of His utter
holiness.
F.W.Faber, who has written so many beautiful words,
wrote this hymn of praise:
My God,
how wonderful Thou art, Thy majesty how bright!
How
beautiful Thy mercy-seat in depths of burning light!
How
dread are Thine eternal years, O everlasting Lord!
By prostrate spirits, day and night,
incessantly adored.
How
wonderful, how beautiful the sight of Thee must be,
Thine
endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity!
O how I
fear Thee, living God, with deepest, tenderest fears,
And
worship Thee with trembling hope and penitential tears!
Yet I
may love Thee too, O Lord, Almighty as Thou art,
For
Thou hast stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart.
No
earthly father loves like Thee; no mother, e’er so mild,
Bears
and for
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Focusing on the Facts
1. Why was the ceremonial system established (see p.
58)?
2. What was the
most basic truth of Judaism that was to be continually
brought
to mind (Deut. 6:4; see p. 59)?
3. What were the
symbols of the ceremonial sacrificial system designed to
produce
in the people (see p. 59)?
4. What was the
reality that God sought from His people, according to
Jeremiah
7:23? What would be the result of that (see p. 60)?
5. Explain the
realities of the new covenant that replaced the symbols of the
Old
Covenant (see p. 60).
6. What is the
one divine attribute that most nearly sums up the nature of
God?
What does it mean (see p. 60)?
7. What does
the perception of God’s holiness produce in man? Why (see pp.
61-67)?
8. In the
vision of Isaiah 6:1-8, how did Isaiah see himself as compared to God
(see p.
62)?
9. Describe the
flippant attitude that is common in Christianity today. What must
such
Christians understand? What reaction should a true worshiper have as a
result
of that understanding (see p. 62)?
10. Name some people in the Old and New Testaments
who encountered God’s
holiness
and describe a typical reaction (see p. 63).
11. Even though Christians have been redeemed by the
blood of Christ, does God
still
have a right to punish us for sin?
63).
12. How does the reaction that the Gerasenes (Luke
8:37) and the Pharisees
had toward
Jesus differ from that of the other people mentioned on page 64?
13. In a positive light, what does the perception of
God’s holiness cause us to do?
Why
(see p. 64)?
14. What would happen to men if God wanted to
enforce His holiness? Why (see p. 65)?
15. Explain how God had been gracious to David (see
p. 65).
16. Under Mosaic law, what punishment did adultery
incur? What did God allow
so that
a life could be spared? Does this mean that His mercy can be abused
(see p.
65)?
17. When might we think that God is being unjust?
Why? Give and example (see
pp.
65-66).
18. How does the demonstration of God’s justice
serve as a signpost (1 Cor.
10:5-12;
see p. 66)?
19. The question isn’t, “How can God be so
__________?” Rather, the question
is,
“How can God be so ______________ when His ______________is
violated?”
(see p. 66).
68
Pondering the Principles
1. Although our
finite minds can’t comprehend how it is possible, the Trinity
resides
within every believer. With whom does God make His abode,
according
to John 14:23? What does God give to those He indwells,
according
to Romans 8:11? What is the mystery that has been revealed,
according
to Colossians 1:27? Knowing that God has graciously chosen
to dwell
in those He has redeemed and has empowered us to live a
righteous
life and promised that we will someday be glorified, offer to God
a
prayer of thanksgiving. Make a commitment to viewing everything in your
life -
temptations to sin against God as well as opportunities to glorify Him -
from
the perspective of realizing that your body is the temple of God.
Meditate
on 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 and Ephesians 3:14-21.
2. Most
people today have overemphasized God’s love to the point of excluding
His
holiness. But there must be a balance between the two. Those who see only
a God
of love falsely assume that God would never punish sin. They fail to
recognize
that God, who is merciful, is also just and must punish those who sin
against
His holiness. Consider the two great sins of David: his adultery with
Bathsheba
and the murder of her husband (2 Sam.11: 14, 15); and the census
of
Israel ( 1 Chron. 21:1-4), which demonstrated his reliance on his army rather
than on
God. Though David confessed his sins (Ps. 51: 1 Chron. 21:8, 17), what
were
the consequences for them (2 Sam. 12:17-18; 1 Chron.21:9-14)? In
spite
of those heinous crimes that were met with divine justice, David recognized
the
mercy that God had graciously bestowed on him. Do you willingly accept
the
consequences for your own sin? Are you able to see - like David was - God’s
mercy
in the context of His justice? Meditate on his words in Psalm 103:6-14.
69
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Online since 1986