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 2011
8
True
Worship - Part 8
Outline
Introduction
Review
I. The Importance of Worship
II. The Source of Worship
III. The Object of Worship
IV. The Sphere of Worship
V. The Nature of Worship
A. The
Deviations of Worship in Spirit and Truth
B. The Discussion of Worship in Spirit and
Truth
1. Worship in spirit
a) The meaning
b) The method
(1) Possession of the Holy Spirit
(2) Thoughts centered on God
(3) Discovery and meditation of God’s Word
(4) An undivided heart
Lesson
(a) Psalm 86:5-11
(b) Psalm 108:1-3
(c) Psalm 112:7b-8a
(d) Psalm 57:7-11
(5) An open and repentant spirit
2. Worship in truth
a) Romans 1:18-19, 25
b) Psalm 47:7b
c) 2 Corinthians 4:2
d) Acts 2:42a
e) 1 Timothy 4:13
f) Colossians 3:16-17
g) Acts
VI. The
Results of Worship
A.
God is Glorified
B.
Christians Are Purified
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C.
The Church is Edified
D.
The Lost Are Evangelized
VII. The Preparation for Worship ( Heb.
A.
The Call
B.
The Checkpoints
1.
Sincerity
2.
Fidelity
3.
Humility
4.
Purity
VIII. The Barriers of Worship
A.
The Worship of Repentance
B.
The Worship of Acceptance
C.
The Worship of Devotion
Introduction
Recently, I have been greatly concerned about the
matter of worship. Wondering whether this concern was unique to my own era, I
began reading the works of some of the more ancient scriptural commentators and
saints of God. What I found out was that they faced similar periods of time
when the church had lost its perspective on worship. In fact, throughout church
history there seemed to be a rather constant cry, calling the people of God to
a worshiping life. For example St. Anselm of
Review
In our look at worship, we’ve tried not to exhaust
the theme, but rather to just touch the edges of it so that the Spirit of God
might begin to teach us. So far, we’ve looked at a definition of worship (see
p. 8) and discussed:
I. THE
IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP (see pp. 11-43)
II. THE
SOURCE OF WORSHIP (see pp. 47-51)
III. THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP (see pp. 72-78)
IV. THE
SPHERE OF WORSHIP (see pp. 78-81)
In our
last lesson we began a look at:
V. THE
NATURE OF WORSHIP (begins on p. 86)
A. The
Deviations of Worship in Spirit and Truth
B. The
Discussion of Worship in Spirit and Truth
1.
Worship in spirit
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a) The meaning
b)
The method
(1) Possession of the Holy Spirit
(2) Thoughts centered on God
(3) Discovery and meditation on God’s Word
(4) An undivided heart
Many
times in the Old Testament, God indicted His people for
worshiping
Him externally while their hearts were far from Him
(Isa.
29:13; Jer. 3:10; Ezek. 33:31). In fact, the Lord indicted
the
religious people of His day for the same thing. For example
in
Matthew 15:7-9a He says, “Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah
prophesy
of you, saying, This people draweth near unto me with
their
mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far
from
me. But in vain they do worship me.” You see, God desires
an
undivided heart.
Lesson
Now we’ll pick up where we left off.
(a) Psalm 86:5-11 (see pp. 90-91).
(b) Psalm 108:1-3 - “O God, my heart is fixed; I
will sing and
give
praise....Awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake
early.
I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; and I
will
sing praises unto thee among the nations.” In other words
the
music of praise rises out of a fixed, undivided, settled heart-
a
heart focusing only on God.
(c) Psalm 112:7b-8a - This psalm starts out,
“Praise ye the Lord,”
and
then continues as a psalm of praise. How is it that the
psalmist’s
heart can praise? Because “his heart is fixed, trusting
in
the Lord” (v.7b)and because “his heart is established” (v.8a).
Praise,
then, arises out of a heart that is fixed, established, and
focused
on the wonder of God.
(d) Psalm 57:7-11 - “My heart is fixed, O God, my
heart is fixed; I
will
sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake psaltery
and
harp. I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord,
among
the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.
For
thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the
clouds.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy
glory
be above all the earth.”
So
to worship in spirit we must possess the Holy Spirit, our
thoughts
must be centered on God, we must be in the
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Word of God with discovery
and meditation, and then we must
also
have an undivided and fixed heart. Fifth, we must have:
(5) An open and repentant spirit
In
Psalm 139:23-24 David says, “Search me, O God, and know
my
heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.” David
was
admitting here that he couldn’t fully understand his own heart.
So
he asked God to show him anything in his life that he needed
to
repent of.
As
we approach God in worship, we need to come with an open
and
repentant spirit. We must come to God with a willingness to
say,
“God, turn on the searchlight and expose whatever You find
in
the corners.” If you have found it difficult to worship, and there’s
little
sense of the nearness of God, it may well be that there are
areas
in your life that you have long overlooked and are only known
about
by God. If that’s the case, you need to plead with Him to
search
those areas out and expose them to you. Then you need to
willingly
confess them in a broken and contrite spirit.
In
order to worship, our sins must be dealt with. When Scripture
talks
about worship, it also talks about cleansing, purging, purifying,
confessing,
and repenting. Why? Because the only person who
can
utterly enter into communion with an utterly holy God, is one
whose
sin is utterly dealt with. We can’t go rushing into God’s
presence
in our impurity, thinking that all is well! We, like Isaiah,
must
confess our sin before God and allow Him to touch that live,
burning
coal to our lips to purge us (Isa. 6:6-7).
When
the Spirit of God resides within us, when our minds are focused
on
God, when we’re in His Word discovering and meditating with an
undivided
heart, and when we have given God full access to uncover
whatever
stands between us and Him - that is worshiping in spirit.
Many
years ago, Stephen Charnock wrote these words: “Without the
heart
it is not worship; it is a stage play; an acting a part without being
that
person really...a hypocrite. We may truly be said to worship God-
though
we lack perfection; but we cannot be said to worship Him if we
lack
sincerity.....” That’s so true! We may worship imperfectly, but we
cannot
worship insincerely. When we come to God to worship in spirit
it
must be from the depth of all that is within us-a sincere worship of
God.
Now,
lets look at the second (and balancing) element of the nature of
worship.
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2. Worship in truth
All
worship is in response to truth. It is not an emotional exercise with “God
words” and induced feelings, it is a
response that is built upon truth.
Pilate
asked Jesus a very important question: “What is truth?” (John 18:38a).
Well,
the answer to his question is found in
His
Father, “Thy word is truth,” or in Psalm 119 where the psalmist says, “Thy
law
is the truth” (v. 142b), “Thy word is true” (v. 160a).
Now,
if we are to worship in truth, and the Word of God is truth, then we must
worship
out of an understanding of the Word of God. If we’re going to truly
worship
God, we must understand who He is, and the only place He has fully
revealed
Himself is in His Word.
a) Romans 1:18-19, 25
“For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness
of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because
that
which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown
it
unto them.” God has disclosed Himself, first of all, in terms of conscience
and
creation, or what is called general revelation. But men suppressed that
truth
and “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served
the
creature more than the Creator.” (v.25).
First of all, God revealed Himself in
creation and conscience, and then He
revealed
Himself clearly in the pages of the Word of God. If we are to
worship
in truth, then we are to worship God as He is defined in the Bible,
because
only the Bible explains the God of creation and conscience.
Everything
we know about God is in the Word of God, so He can’t be
worshiped
apart from His revelation.
b) Psalm 47:7b
All
worship must be based on truth. This is seen in Psalm 47:7b, where the
Psalmist
says, “Sing ye praises with understanding.” Worship is not simply
holding
hands and swaying back and forth or having ecstatic experiences
that
have no meaning or content. Worship is not even a good feeling, as
good
as feelings are. Worship is an expression of praise from the depth of
the
heart toward a God who is understood through His Word. There’s no
virtue
in saying you’re worshiping God if you don’t comprehend what
you’re
doing. Why? Because there’s no true worship apart from a true
understanding
of God. Any group that does not understand truth about
God
does not worship God - cannot worship God - for He must be
worshiped
in spirit and according to truth.
c) 2 Corinthians 4:2
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walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by
manifestation
of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience
in
the sight of God.” In other words,
misuse
the Bible, nor will we ever be dishonest with anybody to gain our
own
ends. All we desire to do is to manifest the truth and to therefore
commend
ourselves in the sight of God.” All response in worship is a
response
to the Word of God.
Why is expository preaching important?
People
often ask me, “How can you have a worship service when you preach such a
long
time? When do the people have time to worship?” Well, I’m so committed to
expository
preaching because God cannot be worshiped apart from an understanding
of who
He is as He is revealed in Scripture. I’m committed to the systematic teaching
of the
Word of God - week in and week out - because God must be worshiped in
truth.
Now I could give clever sermons that would move the emotions and attitudes by
filling
them with a lot of stories. And I could make it all very interesting, fun, and
exciting.
However, when it was all said and done people might say, “Boy, John
MacArthur
can sure preach!” but they wouldn’t be worshiping God. It’s a far greater
challenge
for me to teach the Word of God and let it command men to respond to God
as God
is revealed in His self-revelation.
I
strongly believe that any young person going into the ministry who is not
committed
to
expository preaching is ultimately cutting his own throat. Why? Because people
must
respond,
in every dimension of their lives, to the truth of the Word of God. We have to
worship
in truth - truth that is revealed in His Word. That’s why I’m so totally
committed
to the fact that we must teach the Word of God.
d) Acts 2:42a
When
the early church met together, they “continued steadfastly in the
apostles’
doctrine.” What was their doctrine? The revelations of God about
Himself
that were manifested through the apostles’ writings and teachings.
They
were the substance of the truth on which the early church worshiped.
e) 1 Timothy 4:13
to
doctrine.” In other words, “Read the text, explain the text, and apply the
text.”
Timothy was to stay in the text and teach sound doctrine - the truth
about
God.
f) Colossians 3:16-17
When
the early church worshiped, they used “psalms and hymns and
spiritual
songs” and had times of praise and thanks. But before all these
things
are listed in verses 16-17, it says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in
you
richly [Gk., plousios, “abundantly, fully”].” In other words, when the
Word
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dominates us, our praise is
regulated, and our worship is conformed to
the
divine standard.
g) Acts
When
but
their worship was unacceptable. Look at his indictment of them: “For
as
I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
inscription,
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly
worship....”
You see, they were worshiping in ignorance, and their worship
was
unacceptable.
So
what is the nature of worship? It’s offering God worship from the depths of our
inner
being in praise, prayer, song, giving, and living - but always based on His
revealed
truth. It’s difficult to keep the church conformed to that because on one
hand
it tends to get cold and lifeless, but on the other hand it gets emotional,
fanatical,
and feeling-oriented. The balance is in the middle because God is to be
worshiped
in spirit and in truth.
A
loss of true worship is seen in cold orthodoxy where ritual, formality,
routine,
and
tradition have become a mindless, meaningless, activity - that is just as much
a
loss as the ecstasies of the other extreme. So I submit to you, if you’re going
to
worship
God, there must be faithful commitment to the Word of God. It isn’t going
to
happen by some “zap” out of heaven. Worship must come from the overflow of
an
understanding of God’s Word. As you study it, discover its truths, meditate
on
it, focus on God, have an undivided heart, and have an open and repentant
spirit
- the result will be an overflow of worship.
VI. THE
RESULTS OF WORSHIP
A.
God is Glorified
Psalm
50:23a says, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.” When we praise and
worship
God, He is glorified. In Leviticus 10:3b, the Lord tells Moses, “I will be
sanctified
in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.”
God
wants to be set apart and glorified among His people. And as we come to
Him
in worship, He is glorified. The supreme purpose of life is to glorify God -
and
when we worship Him as He is to be worshiped, He is glorified.
Second, when we worship God as
He desires to be worshiped:
B. Christians Are Purified
In
Psalm 24:3-4 David says, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who
shall
stand in his holy place? He who hath clean hands, and a pure heart.” A
worshiping
church is a pure church. Why? Because as we enter into God’s
presence
there is recognition of our sinfulness and a willingness to abandon that
sinfulness.
There is a consuming desire to be pure and clean, the closer we draw
to
God. And the nearer we come to Him, the more overwhelmed we become
with
our sinfulness and cry with David, “Search me, O God, and know
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my heart; try me, and know
my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way
in
me” (Ps. 139:23-24a).
The
reason the Lord’s Table is so important in the worship of the church is
because
it causes us to regularly face the reality of our sinfulness. In fact, that’s
the
reason the early church so frequently engaged in it - so that they might come
face
to face with the need to be pure.
Where
true worship occurs, not only is God glorified and Christians purified,
but
third:
C. The Church is Edified
In
Acts
found
favor with God, but they also found favor with all the people. Then it says,
“And
the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” They filled
the
city with their doctrine (Acts 5:28b) and turned the world upside down. They
were
winsome, attractive, and dynamic.
I
believe that a worshiping church is a church that is built up-edified. Now I’m
not
talking about people feeling better; I’m talking about people living better and
becoming
transformed. As we come together to worship the Lord, we become
built
up, strong, and transformed.
Let
me say that another way - True worship changes people. If you’re not
changed
after you worship, you haven’t been worshiping. No one can draw
nigh
into the presence of God without changing - It can’t be done! If worship
doesn’t
propel you into greater obedience, call it what you will, but it isn’t
worship.
It isn’t worship unless you come out of it with a greater commitment
to
obedience. As worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy expectancy-
or
it isn’t worship.
The
results of worship are that God is glorified, Christians are purified, the
church
is edified, and fourth:
D. The Lost Are Evangelized
The
profound testimony of a worshiping community probably has a greater
impact
than any single sermon does. In 1 Corinthians 14:23-25
basically
says to the Corinthian church, “If you’ll just get your worship shaped
up
and do it the way it ought to be done, the unbelievers that come into your
midst
will fall on their faces and worship God.” Worshiping people have a
great
impact on the lost.
I’ll never forget the Jewish lady who
went to the temple down the street from our
church
to get counsel for her marriage, which was breaking up. She hadn’t paid
her
temple dues, so they wouldn’t counsel her. Well, it happened to be on a
Sunday,
and as she left the temple, she got caught in the crowd coming to church
and
wound up in the worship service. I baptized her a few weeks later, and she
said
to me, “I don’t remember anything you said that morning. In fact, I couldn’t
tell
you what the sermon was about. But I was in awe of the joy, the peace, and
the
love that was going on among the people of the congregation as they
worshiped.
I had never seen anything like it
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before.” As a result of
seeing worshiping people, she became a Christian.
So
the results of worship are that God is glorified, Christians are purified, the
church
is edified, and the lost are evangelized.
Now,
some of you are saying to yourself, “John, I understand that the importance
of
worship is that God seeks worshipers; I understand that the source of worship
is
my salvation; I understand that the object of worship is God; I understand that
the
sphere
of worship is everywhere at all times, especially in the corporate assembly
of
redeemed people; I understand that the essence or nature of worship is that it
must
be perfectly balanced, between spirit and truth - the heart and the Word of
God;
and
I understand the results of worship. What do I do now? How do I really prepare
myself
to worship?”
VII. THE
PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP (Heb. 10:22)
When
you go to church to worship, the issue is not how well prepared the choir
or
the preacher is. The issue is, How well prepared are you to worship God? I
believe
that one verse, Hebrews 10:22, is the greatest summation of the preparation
of
worship anywhere in the Bible: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies
washed with pure water.”
A. The Call
“Let
us draw near.”
This
is a call to worship. Who are we to draw near to? God. The writer of
Hebrews
is saying, “Come on, it’s time to worship. Let’s draw near and move
toward
God.”
You
say, “That’s what I want to do, I want to draw near. But what do I do now?”
Well,
there are four checkpoints:
B. The Checkpoints
1.
Sincerity - “with a true heart”
Are you really sincere? Is your heart fixed
and undivided? Are you worshiping
with your whole heart?
2.
Fidelity - “in full assurance of faith”
The Hebrews, to whom this Epistle is
addressed, were still trying to hold on
to the old covenant. But because the new
covenant had come in Jesus Christ,
they had to say no to the old covenant in
order to worship God. There were no
more ceremonies, sacrifices, symbols,
pictures, or types. The old was gone,
and a new and better covenant had come. So
they had to be willing to say,
“I’m coming to God in full confidence and
assurance that I am no longer under
a system of works or ceremony but that I come
fully by faith in Jesus Christ.”
That’s fidelity.
So, not only are you to worship with
sincerity, but you are to worship
according to the truth revealed in the New
Testament, in
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full assurance that it is
saving truth. You’re not to hang on to any of your own
works,
any of your own worthiness, any of your self-righteousness, or any of
your
rituals. You’re to be fully assured that you can come to God simply and
only
through faith.
3. Humility - “having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience”
We
must come to God with the knowledge that we’re unworthy to be in his
presence
because our hearts are filled with an evil conscience. We must also
realize
that the only reason we can come to God is because we’ve been
sprinkled
by the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for us on the cross to
take
care of our sin and cleanse our evil hearts. So as we worship, there’s a
sense
of humility and unworthiness - knowing that we have no business being
in
the presence of God, except for the fact that the Lord has sprinkled us clean
from
the evil that is in us.
So
to worship God you must pass the test of sincerity, fidelity, humility, and
fourth:
4. Purity - “and our bodies washed with pure
water”
This is not the same as the cleansing of our
hearts at the cross, this is the daily
washing.
Before we can worship, we have to deal with the sin in our lives
through
confession. Even though our hearts were cleansed at the cross, our
feet
still pick up the dust of the world. So, there must be a confessing of sin.
Every
time you worship, prepare yourself by asking these questions:
1) Am I sincere? Is my heart fixed? Is my whole
heart devoted to God? Am I focusing
on
Him? Am I seeing Him in the Word, through discovery and meditation, so that
my
hungering desire is to draw nigh unto Him?
2) Am I assured that I can come simply and only by
faith, having the full assurance
that
it is sufficient?
3) Am I coming to God with the knowledge that the
only reason I am here is because
of
what Christ has done for me?
4) And am I coming in purity - having dealt with
any sin in my life?
I dare say
that if you would just take a little extra time on Sunday morning to open your
Bible to
Hebrews 10:22 and go through the checkpoints, you would do more to prepare
your heart
for worship than any other thing I know.
Are you
sincere? Are you committed to the truth of the new covenant? Are you placing
all of the
rights to your access to God on the finished work of Christ? And are you pure -
having
dealt with the sin in our life? If you are, you can “Draw nigh to God, and he
will
draw nigh
to you” (
Some of you
have been attending church for years, but you’ve never really drawn
nigh unto
God, nor have you ever sensed His nearness - even in your own private
devotion
and prayer. If that’s the case, your worship is probably being hindered.
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VIII. THE BARRIERS
OF WORSHIP
A. The Worship of Repentance
If there is sin in your life, you have to accept
the responsibility for it and confess
it.
In 2 Samuel 12 we find David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba,
after
he had had her husband murdered, and after he had seen the child born of
that
union die. After all of that, verse 20a says, “Then David arose from the earth,
and
washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the
house
of the Lord, and worshiped.” That is the worship of repentance.
You
say, “What do you mean by that?” Well, David was in the midst of a tragic
situation
- the loss of his baby son - and yet he worshiped God. Why? Because
he
knew he was receiving what he deserved. In the midst of his chastening he
worshiped.
The worship of repentance means that even in the midst of chastening
you
are able to pour out your heart to God, confess your sin, and say, “I’m
getting
what I deserve.”
Some
of you can’t worship because you’ve never dealt with your sin and poured
out
your heart in repentance to God. You may even be angry or bitter over some
of
the things you’ve been chastened by. If that’s the situation with you, the
barrier
you have to first overcome is repentance over your sin.
B. The Worship of Acceptance
In
the familiar words of Job, when he heard the news that everything he loved
was
gone - his children, his possessions, his animals - the Bible says, “Then Job
arose,
and tore his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground,
and
worshiped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked
shall
I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name
of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21.) That is the worship of an unquestionable
acceptance.
Some
of you have never been able to worship God because you’re still unable to
accept
some of the circumstances God has brought into your life. They’ve made
you
bitter, and you can’t worship. And until you get to the point of acceptance,
you’re
never going to be able to worship God.
George
Mueller put it like this: “There came a day when I died; died to the praise
and
the criticism of men; died to everything except the will of God for my life.”
And
may I suggest, that was the day he began to live? Job has said, “But He
knoweth
the way that I take; when He hath tested me, I shall come forth as gold”
(Job
23:10).
The
worship of acceptance is to be willing to accept your circumstances - your
place
in life, your job, your career, your partner, your children - and be willing
to
say, “God, You know all of the things that are happening to me (the loss of
your
loved one, the loss of your child, the loss of your job, the pain of illness),
and
yet in the midst of it all, I will worship You.”
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You see, sin, as well as
bitterness and an inability to accept what God has
brought
into your life, will keep you from worshiping.
C. The Worship of Devotion
In
Genesis 22, Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah because God had
told
him to slay Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering (v.2). Look what is says in
verses
4-5: “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place
afar
off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and
I
and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” The fact that
Abraham
was willing to take the life of his own son and still see it as worship is
incredible.
You see, that’s devoting oneself to
worship, no matter what the cost.
Some
people can’t worship God because they can’t bother to get out of bed!
How
far is that from being willing to stick a knife in the chest of your own
beloved
son because that’s what God told you to do?
Some
people can’t be free to worship until they overcome some barriers. Either
they’re
not willing to deal with their sin, or they’re not willing to deal with their
circumstances,
or they’re not willing to pay the price.
Are we losing our “Oh!”?
A.
W. Tozer said this: “Are we losing our ‘Oh!’?...When the heart on its knees
moves
into the awesome presence, and hears with fear and wonder things not
lawful
to utter, the mind falls flat, and words, previously its faithful servants,
become
weak and totally incapable of telling what the heart hears and sees. In
that
awful moment, the worship can only cry ‘Oh!’”
Are
we losing our “Oh!”? I pray not!
Focusing on the Facts
1. How did the
hypocritical Jewish leaders worship, according to the prophetic indictment
spoken
by Jesus in Matthew 15:7-9? What type of heart did they lack (see p. 96)?
2. Why did
David ask God to search his heart in Psalm 139:23-24 (see p.97)?
3. What is one
thing we should do if we lack a sense of nearness to God? Why (Isa.6:6-7;
cf. Ps.
66:18; see p. 97)?
4. We may
worship God ______________, but we can’t worship Him __________
(see p.
97).
5. Is worship
purely an emotional response? What must it be based on an understanding
of? Why
(see p. 98)?
6. How did God
reveal Himself in a general sense (Rom. 1:18-20)? What did man do
with
the revelation of truth (Rom. 1:18b, 25a; see p. 98)?
7. Why can’t
God be worshiped apart from His written revelation (see p. 98)?
8. Worshiping
is an expression of ______________ from the depth of the heart toward
a God
who is understood through His ____________ (Ps. 47:7; see p. 98).
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9. Why is
expository important from the standpoint of worship ( see p. 99)?
10. What was
the substance of truth upon which the early church worshiped (Acts 2:42;
see
p. 99)?
11. Why was
the worship of the Athenians unacceptable (Acts 17:23; see p. 100)?
12. What are
four results of worship (see pp. 100-101)?
13. Why is a
worshiping church a pure church (see p. 100)?
14. Why is
the Lord’s Table so important in the worship of the church (see p. 101)?
15. Explain
the statement “True worship changes people” (see p. 101)?
16. What can
have a greater impact than a single sermon (see p. 101)?
17. What are
the four checkpoints to determine whether you are properly prepared
for
worship (Heb. 10:22; see pp. 102-3)?
18. Identify
some barriers to worship. Give some scriptural examples of men who
overcame
them (see pp. 104-5).
19. How was
David able to worship in the midst of divine chastening (see p. 104)?
Pondering the Principles
1. If we are to
worship God, we must understand who He is. Most people will admit
to
belief in a superior being, but often they will have their own self-styled
concept of
who He
is. How would you go about trying to direct someone from his own subjective
speculations
about God to the truth of the Bible? Consider the following approach: Ask
him how
he knows what God is like and how God demands to be worshiped. If he
will
agree that God has revealed Himself, ask him where He has been more fully
revealed
than in the Bible. Demonstrate that it claims to be an objective source of
truth
(Ps.
119: 160;
Determine
if he thinks it is logical to worship in ignorance, regardless of how sincere
he may
be (Acts
being
is a serious issue, ask him if he is willing to pay the consequences if, after
a life
of
self-styled worship, he were to discover that his worship had been unacceptable
to God.
Share with him the consequences delineated in Scripture for rejecting the truth
(John
8:24; 14:6; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2:8-12). Stress that his eternal destiny rests on
whether
he has offered acceptable or unacceptable worship. Make sure he knows
that
Christ offers eternal life to those who believe in Him (John
forget
to pray that the Spirit would open his blinded eyes and to keep the doors open
for
future discussions with him (2 Tim.
2. Are you preparing
for worship any differently than before, now that you have
completed
this book? Before you worship on Sunday, go through the four checkpoints
listed
in reference to Hebrews 10:22. Are you worshiping God with your whole heart?
Are you
trusting in the truth revealed in the New Testament for your salvation? Do
you
come to God in humility,
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recognizing that you are
unworthy to enter His presence apart from the righteousness
bestowed
on you through Christ’s death? Are you constantly confessing your sin as
the
Spirit convicts you of it? Lastly, are there any barriers of bitterness from
chastening
or
difficult circumstances, or of apathy that are preventing you from worshiping
God in
spirit
and in truth? If so, strive to resolve them that your worship might be
acceptable
to God.
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Online since 1986