Half-Hearted Worship

Hear the reading of God's Word and may it be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If I am a father, will the honor do me? If I am a master, where is the respect do me?

says the Lord Almighty. It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, have we shown contempt for your name? You place defiled food on my altar.

But you ask, have we defiled you? By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?

Try offering them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands.

My name will be great among the nations from the rising to the setting of the sun, and every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty. But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, it is defiled, and of its food it is contemptible. And you say, what a burden, and you sniff at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty.

When you bring injured, crippled, or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands? says the Lord Almighty. Cursed is the cheat who is an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations. And now this admonition is for you, O priests, and if you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name, says the Lord Almighty, I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. Because of you, I will rebuke your descendants.

I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. You will know that I have sent you this admonition, so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord Almighty. My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him. This called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction, because he is the messenger of the Lord. But you have turned from the way by your teaching, and have caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant with Levi, says the Lord Almighty. So I have caused you to be despised, and be humiliated for all the people, because you have not followed my ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.

You may be seated. Let us pray. Dear Emily father, you deserve all praise, all honor, and glory. For you alone are worthy to be praised. You have called us to worship you who was, who is, and is to come. For you alone have revealed yourself to be worthy to receive glory, and honor, and power.

For you created all things, and by your power they were created, and have their being. Oh Holy Spirit, I pray you direct our thoughts in the eyes of our hearts, so that we would not be distracted, but capture our attention, so that through the ministry of your word we might be filled with riches of knowledge, and wisdom, found in the word. We want to honor, and glorify you who reigns over all, and in our hearts. We want to honor, and glorify you who reigns over all, and in our hearts. We want to worship you in spirit, and in truth. We understand that we've been bought, and purchased by the precious blood of the lamb, not to serve ourselves, but to be living sacrifices, a pleasing aroma to you, and the smell of death to the world. I pray in Jesus name, Holy Spirit, you would work in each one of our hearts, sanctifying us, and making us holy, as you are holy. For it is in the powerful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Back in 1985, I was preparing to walk the Appalachian Trail.

There's a couple of veterans here in our congregation, and I want to give those people kudos for fulfilling a dream that they had. It's a long, hard, arduous task to walk from Georgia to Maine. Some people, they actually walk from Maine to Georgia backwards. Back in 1985, there wasn't much information available to prepare for such an endurance trek. We didn't have the internet at that time.

All we had was books, if you can believe that. The main book that I referred to is the Appalachian Trail Hiker by Ed Garvey. He's got this guy in blue khakis and nylon shirts, and he's got a rocker in Appalachian Trail, and he's sitting in front of a typewriter, sitting out in the woods like he's smoking a pipe, thinking about his travels and travails on the Appalachian Trail. This was the only book that I had. I was 24 when I embarked on this long hike, and this book had a lot of wisdom in it, and I want to share a little bit of that to you.

When you walk along the Appalachian Trail, you go through New York, the state of New York, and you pass along a monastery called Graymoor Monastery, and Appalachian Trail hikers are welcome to come and stay in the monastery. It's kind of a unique experience to sit at the table with these monks, to participate in worship, if you would call it that, to engage these people and wonder why they came here, and then as quick as you entered, the next day you're on your way and moving on. This was written by a monk from Graymoor Monastery. He said, now remember this guy's Catholic, so you have to take into consideration or give it a little context. He said, if I had to live my life over, I'd try to make more mistakes. I'm not sure what he means by that.

I'm sure he doesn't mean sin, but I'm sure he probably means to live life more freely. He goes on to say, I would relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I've been on this trip.

I know of a very few things I would take seriously. I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic.

I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would have more actual troubles than fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of these people who lives prophylactically, and sensibly, insanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I try to have nothing else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things and travel lighter than I have. If I have my life to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would play hooky more.

I wouldn't make such good grades except by accident. I would ride on the merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

I'd pick more daisies. What he's saying is that it's not just about reaching the destination. It's about the journey. By the way, it took me six months and five days to walk from Georgia to Maine.

Most people do it in a lot shorter time, but if I had the opportunity, I would probably take this man's advice and take even longer to do it. So I'm reading this to say that in preparation for this sermon, I found that Malachi was loaded with all sorts of riches and treasures that I felt obligated to share with you, but if I cut it and pasted, which I sometimes fall into the trap of doing, I would cut out so much of that, which I think is going to be beneficial to understanding the text, that you would be short-changed, so to speak. So I deemed it wise to slow down, to pick more daisies, and instead of just plowing through in one sermon, it's going to be a three-part series. So my introductory point is going to be, what is worship? My second point is going to be about the priest's half-hearted worship. I thought that, well, gosh, how can we understand what half-hearted worship is unless we understand what true unadulterated worship is? Now, I don't know if there's been a series on worship.

This isn't going to be a series just on this one topic. This is going to be just one sermon, but yet I hope to cover the bases in such a way that when we go into the second part, next time, whenever that might be, that you will be thoroughly convinced or even convicted of the need to worship the Lord with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. So next time, we'll talk about the priest's half-hearted worship, and then finally, in the third, my conclusion, the application, answering the question, so what? It's going to be about the priesthood of believers. In the Old Testament, we're going to hear a little bit about the Levitical system today. I want to focus on it more next time, but it really is a foreshadowing, a typology of who we are, of what Christ accomplished as the great priest in Hebrews 7 and 8, but then the priesthood of believers and who we are called to be. I pray that the Lord would bless that time so that as we live our day-to-day lives, we would be, as Paul said to the Corinthians, or to the Romans in chapter 12 1 and 2, that we would be living sacrifices. In 2 Corinthians, that we would be a sweet aroma to those, to the Lord, and the smell of death.

And who is equal to such a task? For we do not peddle the word of God for profit, but God makes us to be this way, and we need to be conscientious of our being new creations in Christ. We need to be conscientious that when we enter into the fellowship of believers on Sunday mornings, on Sunday nights, on Wednesdays, when we gather to hear the Word taught, when we sing hymns, and when we pray, and when we have fellowship, and there's breaking of bread, that we need to understand that we're doing this unto the Lord our God, who has given himself up for us that we might be saved, that we might not, that we might have new life in him. So what are you going to take away from tonight?

If it was to be in one sentence, it would be this. In order to understand the priest's half-hearted worship, we first have to know what worship is. What is worship? I'll start off with the question. What is worship? And then I have the second point. How do we worship?

And then a conclusion. What is worship? Very simply put, so we aren't going to get caught up in a bunch of verbose definitions and something that you might get lost in, worship is our response to God's revelation of himself. It's what we do when God reveals himself. It's how we respond to the glory of God, his power, his opening our eyes and our hearts to see who he truly is, the extent of his love for us.

It's our reverent devotion and service to God, motivated by God's opening our hearts to see the extent of his love in Christ Jesus. Worship is like the word love. Love is hard to define, but you know its characteristics. We know it from 1 Corinthians 13.

We know and we can spot it. You can feel love, and it's easily definable by those characteristics. So is worship. You can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The people in the Old Testament didn't have that necessarily, but we do. We can be motivated by feelings, and even if we're not motivated by those feelings, we're still obligated to worship. The word love is our response to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. So worship is that devotional service we render to the creator of the universe, who has opened our eyes to see him as he truly is.

In the catechism, it defines that who is is spirit. He's infinite, eternal, unchangeable being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. When we think of what encapsulates God in our finite selves, our limited view, God opens our eyes to see a glimpse of his glory.

Even his backside, if Moses was in the crack of the rock just enough to see the glory of God, it would be unspeakable. We wouldn't know how to respond, except with devotion, falling down, worshiping the Lord. So how does God reveal himself to us?

So I'm asking the question, what is worship? Well, it's our response to his revealing himself to us. How does God reveal himself to us? He reveals himself to us in general revelation and special revelation.

Some of you, this might be a new concept, but I think it's important for us to understand as we develop this concept of worship, because we have been given that special revelation, whereas the world walking in darkness only has a general revelation. General revelation is the ability to see God's handiwork in creation. We see the sunrise, we see the beautiful mountains, the gardens, you know, walking the Appalachian Trail. We saw many beautiful sunrises and sunsets and beautiful sites that only people who were there at that moment.

Now we all have those experiences, but those reveal God's handiwork. On my phone I have an app, most of you probably do as well, Instagram. One of my apps that I have is the National Park Service, and the National Park Service feeds my phone with pictures of the national parks at all different times of the day in different seasons, and it's really awe-inspiring.

I really love it, and I just encourage you, if you just want to see beautiful pictures, download that app. Another time, back in the 90s, I was living up, I was going to a seminary up in Boston, and I had lived up in New Hampshire for a period of time, and so we would go up to a mountain called Mount Washington. Tuckerman's Ravine in the springtime, and they have what they call a spring ski.

You hike up three miles, you put on your boards, and then you slide down the slope, and you climb back up, and you go back down. On the way up the mountain from the base camp, so to speak, down at the road, I met a gentleman, and we were walking up with him, and I proceeded to bridge into the gospel message with this guy, and so one of the first questions in EE is to begin a conversation about church, you know. That's a really easy conversation. He's like, well, this is my cathedral. This is church to me, and I agreed with him. That's what you want to do. You want to agree with people.

Yes, it is beautiful. I knew in my own heart, though, that this is not the fellowship of believers. This is not church. We are the church, and I'll talk about that in the priesthood of believers, the tabernacle, and how we make up that temple, but the idea here is that he thought, because of his limited vision, that this was his worship. He comes out here and recognizes God out in this creation, this beautiful creation for what it was worth, but he was limited by that. It made me feel sorry for the unbeliever and the atheist, because they have no one to thank when they feel the sense of overwhelming beauty of God's creation.

Isn't that true? We see, though, the handiwork of God not only in creation, but in mankind. We see it in science. We see it in the universe in which we live. We see that the evidence pieces together to reveal God's handiwork, his power, and his making, all things that are.

The evidence is astounding to us so much that we want to praise God. In Psalm 8, we would agree with the psalmist, O Lord our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? God, you're so great.

Who am I? Psalm 19, in agreement, the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge.

There's no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Sounds like Revelation chapter 4 verse 11 that says, you are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory, honor, and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they were created and have their being. We know the truth, but they don't. They're walking in darkness, but we're walking in the light. We can see where God has rescued us from, but they can't see what they're in the midst of. God has opened our eyes that we might see. Now remember, at the end of all the seven churches in Revelation, there's no the seven churches in Revelation. It's also in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 and also in Ezekiel. There are these texts where he who has ears to hear and eyes to see.

Eyes to see and ears to hear. The point is that God cursed. Now see, this is in the exilic and the post-exilic period that we're talking about here in Malachi. God cursed them because they had embraced idolatry of the nations around them. He says, you like these idols out here?

Well, I'm going to make you just like them. So he shut up their eyes and he shut up their ears so that they couldn't see that they were like the idols that they worshiped, the stone and the wood. But God, when he saves us, he opens our eyes to see his magnificent beauty. He releases our tongue that we want to praise him in all things. We want to lift up empty hands and worship him who is, because he saved a wretch like me.

That's special revelation. In God's Word, we see God's faithfulness, his love, his mercy, his grace, his kindness expressed in Christ Jesus. We see it in his birth, in his ministry, his death. We see it in his resurrection, in his glorification.

We see in Jesus Christ the problem of sin and evil resolved in the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ is hours. We own it. We possess it.

We have it because the Holy Spirit has shed that truth abroad in our hearts and planted in us as a deposit of greater things to come. Amen? Praise God!

He has not left me to be like I used to be, and neither has he done that to you. He has not abandoned us, but he's filled us. How do we respond? We respond with worship to God's goodness. Worship is our response when our eyes are open to see his mighty power and his glory, his awesomeness, his love to people like us. Oh, his grace and his mercy has been shown in Christ who paid the penalty for our sin, for my sin. Praise the Lord and thank you, Lord Jesus. That's the beginning of worship.

Recognizing what he's done and responding. Praise the Lord. Worthy is he to be praised. I do want to say at this point that we should worship God even when we don't feel like it. Much of the Old Testament sacrificial system was following through the guidelines of worship, offering up sacrifices, giving those sacrifices, receiving the benediction, and moving on. There was no movement of the Holy Spirit like we have today, and there was no warm, fuzzy feelings, probably more guilt than anything else.

It was out of obedience to the ceremonial law for God's people that these priests were offering up these sacrifices. Today, sometimes we don't feel like it when we come to worship. We're distracted by the troubles and the concerns on our hearts. We're concerned by politics. We're concerned by COVID.

We're concerned by a myriad of things, health, family members, loved ones. It's hard to focus. It's hard to turn our attention and give to God what he deserves. But we need to make our unwilling flesh submit. We need to learn to control our mind. That's what fasting is really all about, is learning to control your flesh and make it bow down.

Make it submit. Have control over yourself. Learn to say no to those fleshly desires and yes to worshiping God.

Separate yourself and quiet in a closet. Charles Wesley's wife's name, what's her name? Susanna. What would she do? She'd sit in the middle of all the kids and she'd pull her apron over her head.

Mayhem! And she's got peace amidst the storm. What a great illustration. Sometimes, you know, you feel like you need to go for a little hike, you know, or sometimes you need to go separate yourself into your little reading room or go for a walk or something like that, but sometimes all you can do is just pull the apron over your head. So let God's Word dictate to you rather than our flesh, our feelings, and our emotions. So how do we worship? Worship begins, well, our understanding of worship begins in the Old Testament. It begins with this morning's bulletin and the call to worship. Eugene had put in there Psalm 95, one through three.

So I want to read that again just because it's here. Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Oh, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God. He's the King above all gods. And then we opened up this evening by singing that psalm. What a glorious psalm it was and a good tune as well. Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our God, for he is our God. Most likely this is a song of ascension.

Let me take that back. People three times a year would go to feasts. They would go for, let me see here, for Passover, for the festival of weeks, and for tabernacles. And along the way they would be singing psalms, psalms of praise to God, which is essentially or psalms of anticipation of going to Mount Zion, going to Jerusalem, where they were heading to, to worship the Lord.

So within that, they are heading, think of this, to Mount Zion. I want to read to you, there's a hymn, it's a little bit different in this hymnal. This is a celebration hymnal.

It's a little bit different than our Trinity hymnal in the pews there. Trinity hymnal doesn't have this little refrain here, but it goes like this, Come we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known, join in a song of sweet accord, join in a song of sweet accord, and let us surround the throne, and let us surround the throne. We are marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. There's a sense of anticipation to come and worship the Lord, because he has opened our eyes and transformed our hearts and filled us with the Spirit that we are going to gather with other people who are just like us, and we're going to give resounding praise and have him speak to us, and we're going to lift up empty hands of praise, of sacrifice, of praise, of praise, of praise, and he's going to fill us with a joy, with treasures in our hearts only known through the Holy Spirit, and it's going to abound in our hearts, and we're going to go forth from this meeting, from this worship service, and be bright lights and salt in a dark world.

That's anticipation. That's looking for God to do something, to appear, to work in our hearts. That's looking for God to come, to appear, to work in our hearts. The word in Hebrew, shaha, doesn't mean much. It means something to me, because I did a whole lot of work on this, and shaha, this primary term we interpret is worship. If you were looking up in a concordance, it would say worship.

How many times does it say the Old Testament? But when you get into the background of the word shaha, it means to bow down. Worship, true worship, is used and interpreted literally to bow down. It's a prostration.

It's a gesture. How do we respond to the mighty power and glory and honor of God? We fall down. We're casting crowns. We're bowing down and worshiping the Lord our God. We show this symbolic show of devotion, and by lifting up hands of submission and surrender, we're making our body do what it does not want to do. We're reformed. It's not often you find in Reformed churches, people just throwing down. You might go to some Pentecostal churches, some Holiness churches, where it's more based upon emotions and things like that, but we shouldn't be an either-or. We should have a blended, a true blended service of worship, amen? We should be focused on the word and let that be our guide to worship, but at the same time, we need to let ourselves go.

I think it's funny. I went to a lot of concerts. Some of y'all probably did too when you were young, Grateful Dead, you know, all these people dancing, and you know, then you go to some heart, you know, ZZ Top, you know, Billy Gimmons just died recently, you know.

People going back in the 70s and 80s, they would light their lighters, you know, and people dance and they wave their hands. These people are unleashed and they're filled, but it's not with the Holy Spirit, but they are so free that they are going to move by whatever evil spirit that is that's moving them. We, as the people of God, are filled, and I don't misunderstand them here, we are possessed by the Holy Spirit.

We are vessels which contain that deposit and that guarantee, and we need to be poured out. We need to express that with joy, with life, not only as we walk out these doors, but even in the doors, in the security of our brothers and sisters, we should worship freely. I think it was last month when I was here, and I briefly mentioned something about we're quick to open our hands for the benediction. Why don't we offer up our hands in a sacrifice of praise? I saw Eugene raise his hand, leading in worship, raising his hand. Praise the Lord. I want to see more people raising their hands in worship, showing, if anything, a complete surrender. I am yours, you are my, you have bought and purchased me with the precious blood of the Lamb. Praise to you, oh God. Do you do that in your own time?

Do you do that at home in the closet? Now, you don't have, you know, Susanna Wesley, she could only sit there. You don't have to raise your hands, you don't have to do these things, but how do you express yourself? Psalm 28, hear my cry for mercy, and I will call to you for help, as I lift up my hands to your most holy place.

Which is interesting. That was Psalm 28, verse 2. Daniel, chapter 6, verse 10, with the windows opened towards Jerusalem, three days after Jerusalem, three times a day, he got down on his knees and he prayed, and he gave thanks. And this is during the exile, folks. He had a lot to lose.

In fact, he was thrown into the lion's den as a result. And the king didn't want him, and so he comes, you know, the next day, he says, are you alive as your as your Lord rescued you? And he says, I'm here, the Lord, and angels shut their mouths.

What a great story. Psalm 63, verses 2 through 4, I have seen you in the sanctuary and upheld your power with your end glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name, I will lift up my hands. Now, I'm emphasizing gestures, because the word for worship is to bow down. But there's other gestures by which we can show our, not only reverence and respect, but our worship. You can raise hands, you can bow down, there's lots of things you can do.

Lay prostrate on the floor. In Genesis, chapter 4, verse 26, the word is not there, but the concept is, it was the very first time that men began to call on the name of the Lord. The word's not there, but they were calling upon the name of the Lord. Then, in Genesis, chapter 14, Abraham, after he had rescued Lot from Kedelomer, Melchizedek was there, and how did he show and express his thanksgiving? He tithed.

He gave 10 percent. And this precedes the covenant, I mean, the Sinaitic law. That's very important for us in the future, because in the fifth disputation, we're going to talk about giving and tithing. Pastors usually don't preach on it unless it comes up in the text, but I'm going to preach it for you, brother. And I know y'all are a giving church, and that's wonderful, because it's obvious, I think I had somebody say that even during COVID, the giving has just been tremendous, so that's representative of your heart.

So good job! Praise the Lord! And the church is going to use that to build his kingdom, but we have to understand that that is one of the aspects, one of the elements of worship.

Tithing, giving, building of the kingdom in the hearts of mankind, those who are walking in darkness. Then, in chapter 22 of Genesis, Abraham, this is the only time in the book of Genesis where the word worship is used, Abraham said to his servants who were there with him and Isaac, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you.

Take into context now the word meaning to bow down. He's going to go offer up his son as a sacrifice, but the author of Hebrews gives his hindsight to see that he must have been expecting God to do a great miracle, because he said, we'll come back. He was going to offer up his son as a sacrifice, which foreshadows Christ, God offering up his son that we might be saved. In the book of Exodus chapter 3, God told Moses he would bring his people, God told Moses that he would bring his people out of Egypt and worship God on this mountain. And then on Exodus, when they came back, Exodus chapter 20, in the second commandment, he says, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or on earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, says the ESV.

The NIV has a worship, it hasn't mixed up, but the point is still the same. You shall not bow down and worship them. Talking about the idols that they had possibly come to know in Egypt.

Don't be like those people over there. There's a pillar of fire and cloud here in your midst, and it's filling, or going to fill, because he hadn't given them instructions for the tabernacle yet, but it's going to be in your midst, and everybody's going to know that I am the true and living God, and there are no others. Unfortunately, a little bit later on in the book of Exodus, at the golden calf, and it's in it, Moses came down and saw that the people were bowing down and sacrificing to that golden image. You know what they also did? They sang and they danced. Makes you think of 1 Kings 18, the priests of Baal. They sang and they danced, and eventually they were cutting themselves. Anything to get the attentions of their God. Elijah says, he says, maybe he's out going to the bathroom. That's what it means in Hebrew. He's not here. Try a little bit harder.

Maybe he's busy, which means he's possibly out in the woods going to the bathroom. And finally here, just to point out worship in the Old Testament, we have in the book of Leviticus, at the end of Exodus, you have the guidelines for building the tabernacle, and you have the instructions given by God to Moses for the priestly attire, and we'll talk about that in the third part, the conclusion, because we're the priesthood of believers, and the role of the priest was to guard. In fact, right after this text, you have the calling of the Levites. The calling of the Levites was because they were to strap swords on their side and kill their family members, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, those who had bowed down and worshiped the calf. Now, speaking earlier in the last sermon about Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated, and then Luke, you know, making that point about hating your family members, these men took it to the nth degree by putting them to death, and because of that, God separated.

They were ordained immediately. They were set apart to guard the sacrificial system. So, when we read about this half-hearted sacrifice in part two next time, it should open our eyes to see how far they have come from strapping swords and representing in their garb to all the people, the presence of God, and whom they represent, and how far they have come from that. Worship in the New Testament. Worship in the Gospels in the very beginning is based upon the Old Testament.

The New Testament hadn't been written yet by Paul. So hence, Satan tempted Jesus, Matthew chapter 4 verse 9, and he said, "'All this I will give you if you bow down and worship me.'" The word there for worship is serve.

Actually, the word for serve is the word where we get liturgy from, service. Jesus said, "'Away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Quoting Exodus chapter 20 verse 5.

The second instance is pertinent to our discussion here about worship in the New Testament was the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well. I wish we had a map, but to the west, this side of the Sea of Galilee, and a little bit down below, is Mount Gerizim. There's a little town that's a mountain, right? Mount Gerizim.

Just below Mount Gerizim is a little town called Sychar. So if you turn to John chapter 4, right there at the beginning, it tells that there Jesus was thirsty, and he met this woman at the well. The Samaritans are pertinent to our study of the post-exilic time, because it was after the northern kingdom, in the southern kingdom, was taken by the Assyrians. And when they took the best of the people, kind of like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know, the best of the best, the cream of the crop, there were people left behind, so to speak. It's kind of funny when you think about it, but these people left behind ended up intermarrying with these Assyrians who moved into the vacuum to fill it all up, to take everything to get the booty. So they ended up intermarrying with them, and then over a period of time, they built themselves a temple like what was once in that had been destroyed, and now the second temple has been built in Jerusalem. They built their own temple at Mount Gerizim, which was eventually destroyed by the Jews, by Hasmoneans, and all that.

That's a long discussion. The point is, is that Jesus said in this conversation to the woman, believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, this mountain, that's what I'm trying to describe for you, Mount Gerizim, which they were at the bottom of, that there once was a temple there, but it's there no longer. A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do not what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. So hopefully I've drawn a contrast between Old Testament worship, kind of a background of the gestures, the body language, but now we're starting to move into a spiritual type of worship that is going to be fulfilled in Christ's glorification. In Acts chapter 2, oh boy, we could depart on a rabbit trail here. The Holy Spirit has come at Pentecost. Glory be to God. He sent the Comforter to come and to be with his people, to sanctify us, to guide us, to convict us, to go before us. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It's a once and done kind of thing. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit. Now Paul says to the Ephesians that we should continually be filled. It's an ongoing thing that we're striving to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be poured out. We've received the Holy Spirit upon regeneration. That's what we believe.

I got neighbors up the street who think that, no, it's a second work completely. The coming of the Holy Spirit, living in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, all sorts of stuff. Manifestations of the Spirit.

That's the test and the fruit of a true believer. When the people were filled with the Spirit, it says here in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts, you see. That's where everybody knew together was in the synagogues or in the temple.

People were meeting, so what were they doing? They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily. Then chapter 3 verse 1 says, one day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer. The response is that the Holy Spirit came then and has come now. If you are a genuine believer of the Holy Spirit, of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. The question is, do you keep in step with the Spirit? Do you walk, as Paul said in chapter 4 of Ephesians, in the Spirit? Because it's then that you see the power of Spirit working not through you, but manifesting himself and glorifying God through your life. The Holy Spirit came and as a result the people were gathering together in the temple courts for teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, praising God. Now some people want to say that the breaking of bread is the sacraments, I'm not sure if that is because it goes right along with fellowship.

They were sharing food. Let me see here. Turn, grab a hymnal. Everybody grab a hymnal. If you got one there in front of you, grab a hymnal and turn to page 860. While you're turning to page 860, I realize what time it is, so y'all just got to hang on. I'm almost there.

860. You know, if you go out looking for a theology of worship in some theology book, there's not much there, but we have it right here. And in fact, I would encourage you to get your own hymnal and use it for worship at home, because we are the priesthood of believers.

We don't do it just here, we're supposed to be doing it at home. Not only do we get to learn all these wonderful hymns, but in the back we have all these psalms that we can recite and learn, and then we have the Westminster Confession of Faith, and we have the Shorter Catechism to learn and to teach our children. This in and of itself, along with the Bible, is an awesome instrument, a tool, that we all should have and be using every day. I'll tell you what, you teach your children to sing hymns acapello, and it'll be on their minds and their hearts all day long.

You'll see them and you'll hear them walking around the house just humming the tunes. Look at chapter 21 on page 860. I'm just going to read the first paragraph, because what I'm talking about here is the Regulative Principle. These are the elements of worship defined by Scripture. The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good and does unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted, and served with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his revealed will that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men or suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in Scripture. That's the Regulative Principle. The Bible is our guide how to worship God, just like God defined how he wanted to be worshiped specifically, whether you feel it or not, in the Old Testament. Things have not changed.

Now, there is such a thing. It's called a Lutheran form of worship. What do I mean by that? It's in contrast to the Reform.

The Reform is a Regulative Principle. We worship God, guided by what I just read in Acts chapter 2 there at the very ending. There are other texts that talk about, you know, how we would, you know, celebrate the Lord's Supper, and we give tithes and offerings and things like that, but we have prayer, teaching, praise, fellowship, okay? The Lutheran Principle of worship says this, as long as it's not prohibited, you're free to do it. As long as it's not prohibited, you're free to do it. You're not breaking the law, you're not breaking the Word, because it doesn't say anything about that. Well, I guess then if you believe in prostitution like they did in the Old Testament, then essentially, you know, you could do that and call it worship. I know some people who, they were really filled with the Spirit, and they took off their shoes, and they slid down the aisle filled with the Spirit in their socks, and the Holy Spirit was leading them to do it. As soon as you open the door up for what's not prohibited, all of a sudden things like drama, performances, on stage, so to speak. I'm not saying anything about what we do here that's very tastefully done, but I'm talking about productions for applause, people singing into, like the sirens singing into the microphone.

Opens the door for snake handling. Up in New England. I'm heading toward the conclusion here, folks, so I appreciate you staying with me here. Up in New England, I went to a seminary up in Boston, North Shore of Boston, and the church that we attended was over 400 years old. The building was, and a lot of the churches are. They're just old, Puritan buildings, and people still worship. They got the little gates, you know, they got people who pay for their stalls, their seats. I mean, it's very interesting going into these Puritan-type buildings and worshiping and singing a cappella or whatever they do very simply.

It's a wonderful experience. In these buildings, there's a loft in the back. It's for the choir. The choir is behind you singing and leading worship. They're not on stage, the focal point.

They're behind, up in the loft, singing. That's the idea of worship. It's not about us.

It's not about a stage performance. It's about God. So this evening, I've tried to answer the question, what is worship? What is worship? To define that so that next time we can understand the extent of the priests half-hearted worship.

C.S. Lewis made this point in Mere Christianity. He said, you cannot know what sin is apart from the love of God.

He was making the point that it's the negative of the positive. Sin can only be understood in contrast to God's righteousness, his goodness, and his love. Likewise, you can't understand half-hearted worship.

If I'd just gone into this, I would have said a lot of things about the text, and I'm not sure what you would have taken away. But next time, you'll hear a little bit more attentively about what the priests were doing that was displeasing to God. You can't understand what half-hearted worship is apart from what pure, unadulterated worship is supposed to be.

There's got to be a standard to compare with to know what is the truth. So in the Reformed tradition, we believe that we're given the Holy Spirit, and we seek to be filled. We're guided by the Word in our worship of the Lord in spirit and in truth. That means for ministers that we are typically doing our homework. We're preparing sermons. Some ministers actually write their prayers out because they want to be careful, and that's okay.

It might be a little staged. You might feel that way, but they have the reverence of the Lord that they want to be careful and not stumble and lead people astray. James says that teachers, Jay, teachers are going to be doubly judged. It's a big responsibility to stand up here and proclaim the Word of God, and you better be on target, because you're going to be held accountable for one day for the careless words you speak. Ezekiel 3 makes the point that their blood, the people's blood, is going to be upon our hands. That's a huge responsibility. I would never want to be a minister of these revolving door, massive churches.

People, you don't even know people's names. It's not to say the Spirit can't move spontaneously. God can speak through a donkey. He's done it before, but we don't want to be that donkey.

We don't want to be Balaam either. We are concerned, and we desire to glorify God according to His Word. Likewise, we want to worship God according to His Word. So I say to you as a congregation, as the church, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, it says this.

Let me read it to you. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. After the Lord's Supper, he says, Therefore whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. If we had judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we're judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. We ought to examine ourselves, not only before we come before, for communion, but for worship. I went to this church, like I said, up on the north shore of Boston, and they taught us there, the week before communion, that if you had something against your brother, or your brother had something against you, do not come and take communion until you go and make things right.

You do everything within your power to make things right with your brother or your sister in the Lord. Talking about preparing your heart and examining your heart, most of us don't. When we're given just a minute or two to to confess our sins in the service of worship, we don't know where to begin.

Maybe the list is too long. Maybe you're still thinking about something else, like, I can't believe he's asking me to confess my sin. Preparation is key to making this whole gathering of what we are doing personal and glorifying to God. We need to examine our hearts. We need to focus upon the Lord.

We need to recognize and know what it is that separates us as well. We need to know what he has done for us, so that in turn we will worship him with whole hearts, soul, mind, and strength. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, nothing compares to your greatness. You are the Lord God Almighty, and there is no other. Everything else, Father, is just a creation of machination by the devil, but you have revealed yourself to us and shown yourself to us and confirmed it in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We thank you that you've shed that knowledge abroad and given us the riches and treasures of the Spirit in your Word, that even now we can praise you for your love extended to us, for opening our eyes and our hearts that we can know how awesome you are. Truly, Lord, you are glorious above the heavens. You are the majestic Lord of the universe who deserves all of our worship, all of our praise and adoration. My words are insufficient, but I know, Father, that in unison it's a sweet song of praise to you, for you deserve it and you know our hearts. We thank you for loving us, even while yet we were sinners, sending your Son and giving us the Spirit. In the future, Father, we pray that our worship would honor you and that you would be pleased with our response. I pray, Father, that together with the angels and those casting their crowns before you, that we would regularly cry out to you unabashedly, worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lord God Almighty. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.