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