True Worship, Part 2

John 4:20-24

We return tonight in our study to the theme of worship. And I would draw your attention to John's gospel again; chapter 4 and I want to read again verses 20 through 24 as the setting for our message. John's gospel, chapter 4 verse 20 ... the Holy Spirit writing through John says:

"Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Now in that passage there are eight uses of one form or another of the term worship. It is the key passage, I believe, in the New Testament on the subject and we'll be going back to it again and again.

I was reading this afternoon that in the United States alone churches have about eighty billion dollars worth of buildings.... eighty billion dollars worth of church buildings. I wonder with all of that facility with the intention of worshipping God, how much actual worship occurs.

It's important for us to understand what the Bible teaches about worshipping God. Now this morning we began our study by examining a text in John 4 as a substance and a basis. And then by moving to a definition. And we said that worship, the term used so frequently in this passage, simply means honor or homage or reverence, or adoration or praise, or respect given to God. A very simple definition.

Our Lord instructs here that we must worship God in spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. And so essentially, worship then is giving respect or honor to God. And we are called to that end.

Now we discussed a little bit about the definition, what that means to lift up our hearts in worship to God. And then we introduced to you the first major point in our study, THE IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP...THE IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP. And I want to go back to that point tonight. And we want to talk about the importance of worship. We're going to talk about THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP. We're going to talk about THE NATURE OR THE ESSENCE OF WORSHIP, and some other things. But to begin with we must talk about the importance of worship. We have to lay that foundation.

And if you remember this morning I suggested to you that there are four reasons why worship is essential ... four reasons why it is important.

Reason number one is because Scripture so repeatedly speaks of worship. It is a major emphasis in Scripture and I suggested to you several passages. We looked, first of all, at the Ten Commandments and saw that the very first one of those is indicative of worship. We saw that in Matthew 22 where the Lord is asked what is the first and great commandment, He replies that it is, in effect, worship, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We saw that when God ordained a nation and brought them out of Egypt He set in their midst a tabernacle which was a focal point of worship. When they came into the land He gave them a temple which was a focal point of worship. He gave them a system of offerings which began with one which was centrally emphasizing worship. We saw the facet of angelic worship, the occupation of the seraphim in the sixth chapter of Isaiah being primarily that of worship,‑ And then we looked into the New Testament and we saw that based on Romans 12:1 and 2 and I Peter 2:5 we are called to offer God spiritual worship which is acceptable to Him.

Now, worship is important, then, first of all because it is such a major emphasis in Scripture. Then secondly, and we just got started on this this morning, worship is important because all of time and eternity depends on it. Destiny is determined by worship. Who you worship and what you worship and how you worship is determinative and reflective of your destiny. And we suggested to you that there are only two ways to worship really that will reflect your destiny ... one is unacceptable and the other is acceptable.

If Your worship is unacceptable to God then you will be excluded from His eternal Kingdom. If your worship is acceptable to God you will be included.

Now to begin with we began looking at the thought of unacceptable worship ... which is a determiner of the destiny of an individual. And I asked you to think with me for a moment through four kinds of unacceptable worship. So I hope you can keep that outline all in mind.

There are four kinds of unacceptable worship. We just talked about one this morning. The first one is the worship of false gods. The Bible is very clear that God does not accept the worship of false gods. God will not accept people into His kingdom, into His eternity, into His presence who worship other deities whether they are deities of a religious nature or whether they are supernatural idols such as gold and silver and power and prestige and self. Anyone who worships false gods is excluded from entering into God's presence because that is unacceptable worship. He will not accept that, and thus will not accept the one who offers it.

Now the second kind of unacceptable worship is where we want to pick up tonight. And that is this ‑ worship is unacceptable when it is the worship of the true God in the wrong way. God will not accept the worship of the false god and He will not accept the worship of the true God if offered in the wrong way. Worship of the true God is very specifically established in Scripture and its mode and manner is equally specifically established.

If you were to go back and recall the exercise of Israel in worshipping the golden calf in Exodus 32 you will remember that while Moses was up receiving the law from God on the Mount and Aaron was in charge of the people down below, the people decided to bring all their gold together and melt it all down and make a golden calf. And then they began to bow down and worship that golden calf. But what you may not know, and you must study the text to discern, is that that was their representation of Jehovah God. They had reduced God to an image. They were not worshipping some other deity. They were not worshipping some other god; they were worshipping Jehovah God in an unacceptable way. And you'll remember that when Moses came down he was so distraught that he actually threw down the Ten Commandments and they had to be replaced. And God was so upset that He threatened to destroy the entire generation but was gracious and only several thousand lost their lives. But they were executed on the spot, because God will not accept worship offered to Him that is offered in an unacceptable manner. And an unacceptable manner is to reduce God to an image ... to reduce God to a material representation ... to reduce God to an idol or to reduce God to anything that is the result and product of your own thinking.

I very often here people say ‑ Well, God as I perceive Him to be is such and such, and such and such. And if your definition of God does not square with the Word of God then your worship is unacceptable even though you may identify it with the true God.

Now that leads me to a third kind of unacceptable worship. The first one is worshipping a false god, the second one is worshipping the true God in an unacceptable manner, and the third one is worship of the true God in a self‑styled manner. Not just reducing Him to an idol, not just reducing Him to an image, but reducing His worship, or the activity of His worship to some personal definition.

Now what do I mean by that? Look back with me in your Bible at Leviticus chapter 10. Now this records for us a great event, Aaron was the high priest and Aaron had two sons. And they, of course, would be entering into the priesthood. It was a great and wonderful day because this was their ordination day. They had been allowed to accompany Moses to the holy mountain. They had been prepared to be ordained, to function as those who represented God. They had been part of that ordination of the priesthood. This was their first day really, to be considered as those who would lead in the worship of God. And it says in verse 1: "Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer." And the censer was that which was filled with incense which was emblematic and symbolic of worship as it rose in its fragrance, as it were, to the nostrils of God it was like their worship pleasing to Him. "They took their censers and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not."

Strange fire ... believe it or not, it may well be true that they were drunk. If you look down at verse 9 there is a warning immediately following that the Lord gives to Aaron which suggests this possibility because He says ‑"Don't drink wine or strong drink, thou or thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die."

Now it may well have been that they got a little bit inebriated and when they went in they began to fool around in there and do things that were not according to God's law for the priesthood and it says in verse 2 ‑ "There went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died." Kind of a sad way to start your ministry. No start at all. God will not accept self‑styled, self‑invented modes of worship. We do not worship God on our terms but according to the terms of Scripture.

Then there are lots of people in our society who think they worship God, and they have some self‑invented way to do that. I always think about the lady in New Mexico who baked tortillas, Mrs. Rubio. And the Chicago Tribune recorded the story some years back, and one day she was frying a tortilla and she took the tortilla out of the pan and she said with a great amount of shock ‑ It is the face of Jesus. Because burned on that tortilla were skillet burns that she said looked like Jesus. And so she was so thrilled she showed it to her husband who agreed that it must be Jesus. And she showed it to her family and they agreed, and a neighbor and she agreed. And she went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. And the priest who had not really been accustomed to blessing tortillas was somewhat reluctant to do so but nevertheless he did it. And she took the tortilla home and she built an altar in her house. She put the tortilla in glass and put piles of cotton around it so it looked like Jesus floating on a cloud. And within a matter of months Mrs. Rubio had over eight thousand people come to the shrine of the Jesus of the Tortilla. And everyone unanimously agreed that it looked like Jesus except one reporter who said it looked to him like Leon Spinks. I really don't know where he was coming from but that was his viewpoint. And so she worshipped the tortilla and she wrote her testimony which is recorded in the Chicago Tribune and said the tortilla had changed her life. And her husband agreed she'd been a more peaceful, happy, submissive wife ever since the tortilla had arrived.

Now that is a stupid bizarre illustration. Little different honestly, little different than Nadab and Abihu. You don't worship God taking liberties, doing things your own way. You follow the instruction of Scripture.

In I Samuel, let me draw you to chapter 13, and we find in I Samuel chapter 13 that Saul the king does a fearful thing. Verse 8 "He tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: and Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him." It was in a battle situation. "And Saul said, Bring here a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering."

Now you say ‑ Is that any big deal? It sure is. There was only one problem; nobody was allowed to function on the altar except what? Priests. And Saul got to feeling his power and his confidence, and wanted to put on a display before the people. And so he intruded into the priestly office. And verse 10 says: "It came to pass as soon as he had ceased offering the burnt offering, behold Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, that he might bless him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash; therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication to the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering."

Pretty lame excuse. "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which He commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart."

God will be worshipped by one who is after God's own heart. And, listen, one who's after God's own heart obeys God's word. And there wouldn't be anybody in Saul's line ever on that throne. David would step in and take his place.

You do not worship God, even the true God, by reducing Him to some image. And you do not worship Him in some self‑styled way. I always think of that illustration in II Samuel chapter 6, and I would just call your attention to that for a moment. There are many that we could use. But in II Samuel chapter 6 the story of Uzzah and Uzzah was transporting the ark of God, verse 3, in a cart. And Uzzah was a member of a group known as the Kohathites. And the Kohathites were the ones who transported the Ark of the Covenant. And from the time they were small, according to Numbers chapter 4, from the time they were raised, they were raised to know nothing but how to transport the Ark of the Covenant. And it was always to be done without anyone ever touching it. It had big rings on the side, and you slid poles through and carried it on your shoulders and you never touched it. And that was what a Kohathite was raised to do, was to transport the ark. And Uzzah took the liberty to put it on a new cart which he never should have done. God will not be handled at the whim of man. He will not be handled in a self‑styled, manufactured way that comes out of man's own mind, no matter how good his intentions are. And so the ark is put on a cart, it should never have been on the cart. And it's being transported. "And as it comes," in verse 6, "to Nachon's threshing floor," which is simply a geographical location,, it bounced along and looked like it might fall off so "Uzzah put his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God smote him there for his error; and he died by the ark of God."

He knew better. He had been trained all his life that you do not touch the ark. But in his own confident way he thought he could intrude into God's commandments. You cannot worship the true God in a self‑styled way. You cannot worship the true God by reducing Him to some material representation. And you must not worship a false god.

Now, this is little different than the New Testament. And if you will look with me at Matthew for a moment I'll show you chapter 15, this is exactly what the Pharisees did. They tried to worship the true God with their own self‑styled system. Not according to His commandments, not according to His standards, but according to their own inventions. And, of course, the Pharisees had developed this very sophisticated system of worship which was totally man‑made. And in the first nine verses of Matthew 15 you have a very interesting situation. The Pharisees say to Jesus: "Why," verse 2, "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" Why are You breaking our rules? Our standards? "Because they're not washing their hands when they eat bread." It didn't mean that they weren't washing them for the sake of cleanliness but that they were not ceremonially washing.' They were not going through some ritual.

"And He answered, Why do you transgress the commandment of God by your traditions?" That's the issue. They said ‑ You don't worship by our traditions. And Jesus said, ‑ You don't worship by God's commands. You've invented your own system. And then He gives them an illustration of it and then down in verse 7 He says ‑ You hypocrites. "You 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 for in vain do they worship Me." It is useless, fruitless, pointless worship because they have substituted the commandments of men for the truth of God. And every time I see all the holy hocus‑pocus that goes on in so many, many so‑called Christian churches I see the substitution of the tradition of men for the commandments of God. God says ‑ I will be worshipped in spirit and in truth... not through images or through rituals, or through liturgies, but in spirit and in truth.

In chapter 23 the Lord further indicts the Pharisees, in Matthew. And it goes all through a whole list of things. But as one classic illustration of the folly‑ of their kind of worship, verse 23 of Matthew chapter 23 says: "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay your tithe of mint and anise and cumin." That's herbs and plants and seeds. If they had ten seeds they'd count out one, you know, and give it. "But you have omitted the weightier issues of the law; justice, mercy and faith: these ought you to have done, not to have left the other undone."

And so they had missed the whole point of true worship. They were straining at gnats and swallowing camels, and they were hypocrites. "Cleaning the outside," verse 25, "while inside they were full of extortion and excess. And painted white, but inside full of dead men's bones."

So, what I'm trying to show you is there is a category of unacceptable worship. You cannot worship false gods. You cannot worship the true God by reducing Him to imagery, reducing Him to an idol, reducing Him to an icon in any way. And you cannot worship the true God in a self‑styled manner. It must be according to the prescription of holy Scripture.

And fourthly, and I think this could kind of sum it up, the fourth kind of unacceptable worship is to worship the true God with a wrong attitude. You cannot worship Him with a materializing of Him into some image, you cannot truly worship Him with a self‑styled way, and you cannot worship Him, even though you don't have an image, and even though you try to follow the Scripture, if your attitude isn't ‑right ... if your heart isn't right.

So, now we've really funneled it right down, haven't we? True worship ‑we eliminate all the false gods. We eliminate all the images of the true God. We eliminate all the self‑styled modes of worship. We come down to the biblically revealed kind of worship of the true God but it must be with a true heart attitude. And now we really get down to where we live. All of you can say ‑ Amen ‑ to the other things, you don't worship false gods, and you don't worship the true God in an image, we don't have some kind of statue up here or some kind of replica that we all bow down to like the golden calf, and we don't even invent our own ways to worship God. We pretty much try to stay by Scripture. So, we funnel all the way down to the last element of unacceptable worship ‑ do you have the right attitude? Because if you don't God will find that unacceptable just as well.

Now I want to take a minute to develop this so turn in your Bible to the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament and we'll work our way from there back deeper into the Old Testament to see this truth. And I really believe this provides a death blow to all legalism and all ritualism... all formalism.

Malachi the prophet indicting the people of God, indicting them because of their sin, and he does so in many ways in this marvelous prophecy, he points up at least seven sins which are monumental sins of which they're guilty. But one that stands out and dominates all is that they were involved in worshipping God with the wrong attitude. They were going through it as a functionary, they were just going through the motions and their hearts weren't in it. They were just like the Pharisees, really, whose heart was far from God. But just watch...begin in verse 6 of chapter 1 and Malachi speaks to Israel. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master." Now, that's a truism, isn't it? That's an established fact. Nobody is going to argue with that. A son normally honors his father, a servant honors his master. That's the basic principle.

"If then I be a father," and they couldn't argue with that either, he was their father. "Where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my reverence? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, 0 priests that despise my name."

Now, wait a minute. The priests despised His name? Where is My honor? Where is My worship? And what do the priest's say? "In what way have we despised Thy name?" What are You saying? How did we do that? We've been carrying out our function. We've been doing it all just the way the prescription says. The prophet takes it a step further in verse 7. "Ye offer polluted flesh upon Mine altar, and ye say, In what way have we polluted Thee?" You know how? Listen to this, "In that ye say, The altar of the Lord," that's what it means. The table of the Lord refers to that altar. ?'The altar of the Lord is contemptible." What in the world were they doing? They were treating their worship with contempt. It was strictly a function. It was strictly a routine. It was strictly a ritual. There was no heart. And they were actually bringing to God that which was the least rather than that which was the best. They had contempt for worship.

Before you pounce on them with both feet, and before I do, may I remind you that having contempt for worship is coming to worship with any kind of a wrong attitude ... any kind.

And what were they doing? Verse 8, "They were offering the blind for sacrifice, is that not evil?" What does that mean? Well, when they would want to bring an animal to sacrifice to God they'd bring a blind one because a blind one was useless to them, a blind one would probably die anyway because it couldn't find its way to the food. And they would just get rid of the blind animal that way. And it may reflect the fact also that the blindness was due to some disease and so they brought a diseased animal. That was the kind of worship they offered God. Just give God what you can't use anyhow. "And if you offer, "it says in verse 8, "The lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto the governor," try that when you go to pay your taxes. "And see if the governor will be pleased with thee and accept that?" You give Me what you wouldn't even give the government. "And now I pray you, beseech God that He will be gracious unto us, this has been by your means: will He regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts." If this is how you treat God how do you think God's going to treat you? You think He's going to regard you any different than you regarded Him?

He says in verse 10: "You kindle fire on My altar for nothing." There's no heart. There's no spirit. "And I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts," now watch this, "neither will I," watch the next word, what is it? "Accept an offering at your hand." There's some things God won't accept. He will not accept worship offered in a materialized way. He will not accept worship offered in a self‑styled way. And He will not accept worship offered half­ heartedly. "For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name and a pure offering." I do not want your impure ... you know, when God told them to bring a lamb, what kind of lamb were they to bring? Without spot, with­ out blemish, the best in the flock. They weren't doing it.

And verse 12 says: "You have profaned it." In other words, you have treated it as an unworthy thing. You've treated it as a useless thing. "And you have said, The table of the Lord is polluted." It's contemptible. They were treating the table of God with contempt. And then verse 13, just a really sad statement, "And you have also said, Behold what a weariness and you sniffed at it, and you brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick, and thus you brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? Cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and vows," makes a big vow to God, plays spiritual, "and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing, for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and My name is terrible among the nations."

So, He says ‑ Look and here, by the way if you go all the way back see to verse 6 He's indicting the priests. The priests were the leaders in the sin and it filtered all the way down to the people. The whole system was rotten from top to bottom. They had contempt to the table of the Lord. In verse 13, I think, is the key, it says ‑ "Behold what a weariness." To them the whole exercise of worship was just a big pain in the neck ... what a drag...what a boring deal ... what a pain. We have to go down there and do that deal again. Well, just get rid of that blind lamb, or that lame one. And they went through the function and they went through the form but their hearts weren't in it.

There was no reality there.

And in chapter 3 they even went further. Verse 13, they got so sick of doing this that they finally began to just bad mouth God. "Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say," and they always co