True Worship, Part 1

If you come to church for what you can get out of the music or what you can get out of the sermon, if you come to church for the fact that you'd like to get blessed, you've missed the point, because we're here to worship God, and that's giving not getting. So, you hear and use the term all the time, and yet with all the talk about worshiping God, when was the last time you considered exactly what God considers to be genuine worship? Find out if your worship qualifies as true worship, as John MacArthur starts a study by that name, True Worship, today on Grace to You.

Now, John, this study is one that changed the way I looked at worship. I always thought of worship as something we do in church on Sunday, and that seems to be the common view among evangelicals today. When they use the word worship, they're usually talking just about the music, as if that's all there is to worship. But when you speak of worship, when you teach about worship, what all is included in that concept?

John MacArthur Well, worship, by biblical definition, has two components. Jesus said you have to worship in spirit and in truth. So worship in spirit means that all my faculties, my soul, my spirit, my mind, my will, my affections, are all wrapped up in expressing adoration to God.

But it has to be embodied by truth. Through the years, I have felt that worship has moved away from anything related to the mind to pure emotions. Much of modern worship is the repetition and repetition and repetition, almost a mindless, hypnotic kind of inducing of a good, warm feeling. That is not worship, but that is what is basically declared to be worship. Worship is the mind consciously understanding, affirming, declaring, and singing divine truth.

It doesn't need to be repeated 14 times in a row to induce some kind of semi-hypnotic stage. So I think when we talk about worship, we're talking about giving God honor. That means thanking Him for who He is and what He's done, and reciting all of that who He is and what He's done. That's why the hymns are so important, because the hymns may have a chorus that's repeated to kind of affirm one great truth, but they have verse after verse after verse after verse to chronicle the glories of God and His work in salvation. So true worship is directly related to how you understand sound doctrine. Your worship is only a reflection of your theology. We're going to get into it. True worship. You don't want to miss this.

Right, friend. John 4 is the go-to passage for this series, and I encourage you to head there now as John MacArthur begins his series, True Worship, by coming before the throne of grace. Fathers, we come now to the study of the Word of God. We pray that the Spirit of God might give us entrance into the truth, that we might see and hear and understand, that we might respond with obedient hearts for Christ's sake.

Amen. I would like you to take your Bible and look with me for a moment at John's Gospel, Chapter 4. John's Gospel, Chapter 4, and I would like to read verses 20 through 24. And this text is going to be the touchstone for our study of worship.

We'll be coming back to it, intermittently and then finally in a very in-depth study. Because I believe John 4, 20 to 24 is the most significant New Testament passage on worship, and we must understand its truths if we are to understand our subject at all. The conversation is between the woman of Samaria and our Lord Jesus Christ. And she says, Our fathers worshiped 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 worshipers 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. The word worship appears in one form or another eight times in that passage.

It is essential that we understand what our Lord is saying here, and we will, I trust, by the time our series is finished. Most people come to church for what they can get. There are some people, you know, who just check the church page and see who's playing where on a given Sunday and go for what they think will appeal to them or quote-unquote bless them. If you come to church for what you can get out of the music or what you can get out of the sermon, if you come to church for the fact that you'd like to get blessed, you've missed the point. You really have, you know, because we're here to worship God, and that's giving, not getting. We come to offer to Him something, not to receive. Granted, if we offer to Him the praise due His name, we will receive at His hand. For the Bible says in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is more blessed to what? Give than to receive. So there is blessing in giving, much more than if you just come to receive.

If you came just to analyze the music or just to analyze the sermon, and if your response is, well, I've heard better, and I'm sure you have, at least in the case of the sermon, you've missed it. All we are doing is prodding your heart to worship God. And if your heart is in tune with God, frankly, it should take very little prodding, very little. Worship. Do you do it when you come?

I mean, is that what you have in mind? Do you prepare your heart for worship? Have you ever asked yourself that question?

Well, you're going to have to ask yourself that question in this series. And I'm going to tell you right at the very beginning what my purpose is. I want to really back you into a corner and force you to make a decision about whether you're going to worship God or not. And that's really what a preacher is for, you know, force people to make decisions. There are all kinds of views of the preacher, and I'll confess which one I take of myself in the process of explaining this.

The first one is the ritualist. Some of you come maybe from a background of a more ritualistic church where the preacher's role is just another 10 minutes in the liturgy. He does his thing like everybody else. And then there's the role of the preacher as the foreman. He just comes in and browbeats everybody and intimidates everyone. And then there's the huckster who uses the pulpit to sell his latest enterprise or to promote his latest cause.

And then there's the professor who just dumps information unrelated to life. But I would like to think of myself as a persuader. And the objective of this series is to make you think, first of all, about what worship is, secondly, whether you're doing it or not, and thirdly, if you're not, will you? And if you won't, then you're going to have to deny what the Bible says.

That's the objective of preaching, to force you to the corner where you have no other alternative than to do what God says or not do what He says and know clearly what you've done. So worship is incumbent upon us, and I believe we're going to see some things that perhaps we've never seen as clearly before. Now, what is worship? Let me give you a definition to start with, now that I've gotten your attention, I hope. What is worship? Very simple definition.

You're ready for this? Honor paid to a superior being. Honor paid to a superior being. That's worship.

Very simple word to define. It means to give homage, honor, reverence, respect, adoration, praise, glory to a superior being. Frankly, the word in the Scripture is used indiscriminately. It's used of people who gave that kind of homage to idols. It's used of people who gave that kind of homage to material things as well as to the true God.

So the word in itself is not a holy word as such. It only describes honor given to a superior being. The common New Testament word, and there are several that have implied in them the idea of worship, but the most common one is the word proskuneo, which means to kiss toward. And it came from that ancient custom of kissing the hand of a superior, a person bowed down on the ground, bow his head and kiss the hand. It also is used to convey the idea of bowing down or prostrating oneself. And it is the idea that you prostrate yourself before a superior being with a sense of respect and awe and reverence and honor and homage.

And in a Christian context, we simply apply that to God. We bow before God. We prostrate ourselves before God.

We kiss the hand, as it were, as the Psalmist says, kissed the Son. We bow in respect and honor before God, paying Him the glory due His superior character. Essentially then, worship is giving. It is giving honor and respect to God, and that is why we gather here.

We don't gather here to give respect to the preacher or even the people who participate in the music. Although it is fine that we should hold one another in respect, at this point in our experience as Christians, all of us fade and we are here for one purpose, and that is to give honor to God. And through all that occurs, there is to be the stimulating of that desire in our hearts to honor God. So if you come for what you can get or if you come to quote-unquote get a blessing, you've missed it.

You have come to give, not get. And worship is a consuming desire to give to God, and it first begins with the giving of ourselves and then of our hard attitudes and then of our possessions. Let me see if I can't illustrate a couple of places in the Scripture of this thought. Exodus chapter 30 provides a graphic illustration, I think, of worship. In Exodus chapter 30, we are hearing the instruction given by God for the worship of the tabernacle. God had given them clear instruction about how worship was to be carried on in the tabernacle, and there were many things that were a part of that instruction that had great symbolic value. They were great teaching tools.

They were visual aids. One of them is described in the 30th chapter in verse 34, and I think this is a wonderful, wonderful insight. The Lord said to Moses, take unto these sweet spices, stacte, anika, galbinum, and those were available elements in that part of the world, these sweet spices with pure frankincense, and of each there shall be a like weight, four components in equal part, and make a perfume, a perfume after the art of the perfumer. Use all of the skills that it takes to take those spices and make them into a perfume, tempered together, pure and holy, holy being unique, separate, untouched by any other element, and thou shalt beat this very small and put it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation where I will meet with thee. Now God says, get this perfume all put together and put it in the tabernacle where I'll meet with thee. It shall be unto you most holy. Now here is a concoction, a perfume, a sweet smelling incense is what it really is.

It's incense. And it is to be holy. That is, it is to be only used for this purpose in the tabernacle. Look at verse 37. And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof.

It shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. You can't make any for your own use. You can't have any personal perfume of this particular recipe. And verse 38 says, if you do make it for yourself, to smell it for yourself, you will be cut off from God's people. Now did you know there was a perfume recipe in the Bible? And did you know that it was probably the most lovely fragrance imaginable? And that God said it could cost you your life if you ever made any of this for yourself? You say, well, what in the world is the point?

The point is this. Here was a fragrance designed to be only for God. And when this incense rose to God's nostrils, it was unique to Him.

You say, well, what does it picture? It pictures worship. That unique gift, that fragrance that rises out of the heart to the living and glorious God. And it is something that is to be offered to no other person.

It is to be used for no other purpose. It is to be a unique, separated, sanctified, holy act that rises out of the heart of the person to the very nostrils of God. It is symbolic of worship.

When you come to meet me there, let there rise from you something that is holy and only mine. Now believe me, beloved, there are many things that go on that people think are worship, but they're not. There is certain kind of music that makes us feel like we're worshiping because of the lilt of it and because of the style of it. And it gives us a feeling of peace and maybe a few goosebumps.

But the fact is that it may well be that that same style of music, that same mood of music with words that were totally without God could affect the same emotion in us. That's not worship. Worship is that which is distinctly and only for God and which while capturing the most profound of our emotions does so by the most profound divine truth. We are to worship God as a sweet-smelling offering. And that was to be the expression in symbol in the worshiping place, the tabernacle. Now in the New Testament, I would like you to look at John chapter 12, verse 1.

And I want to show you a similar thought. As the incense fragrance rose to the nostrils of God, it signified worship. And here we have another fragrant gift offered in worship, this time to the living God in human form, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 of John 12, Jesus, six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was who had been dead whom He raised from the dead. And there they made Him supper and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary, a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly.

How costly? Probably a year's wages for just that amount. And she took it and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 says, the glory of a woman is her hair. And so she uses her glory for the lowliest task imaginable. Anybody in that part of the world who washed people's feet would have been thought of as the most menial slave. She uses that which is her glory to wash the dusty, dirty feet of Jesus.

And doesn't just use water but pours out the costliest fragrance. And that's the essence of worship. Worship is self-humiliating and worship is profuse in its giving. And you remember that Mary and Martha were different. Martha was always serving and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus and Jesus said, Mary has chosen the what?

The better part. And Judas said, wait a minute, that's 300 denarii worth of ointment and we could have given to the poor. He didn't really care about the poor.

He held the bag and wanted it as much as he could get out. But Jesus said, let her alone. Let her alone. It is better to worship than to give welfare. That's right. What you give God is infinitely more important than what you give man, any man. That is not to say it's not important to give to men.

It is to say it is important more so to give to God. And we tend to be so pragmatic. We are the generation of the Marthas, aren't we? I mean, we've got the church fine-tuned to a system and we've got the programs and the whole shot.

We are the busy ones. We are not the generation of the Marys. And we are very careful that we don't waste our substance and we tend to mark out very carefully even what we give God rather than to pour out that which is a year's wages and stoop in humility to wipe His feet with our hair. That's worship. And rising out of that fragrance was the essence of a worshiping heart.

That's what God's after. True worship is better than welfare. True worship is better than religious activity, though it be good. And welfare is necessary and so is activity, but worship is better.

And yet I fear that many of us don't even know what worship is. I suppose we could compare worship with ministry and help to distinguish it a little. We are very ministry-oriented, aren't we? But let's compare that ministry concept with worship. Ministry is very important.

We have to have that. But ministry can be looked at in this way. Ministry is that which comes down to us from the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit to one another.

God through Christ by the Spirit gives to us spiritual gifts to minister to one another. Worship is the opposite. Worship starts from us by the Holy Spirit through the Son to the Father.

And both are in perfect balance. There must be worship. God seeks acceptable true spiritual worship.

Did you get that sentence? God seeks acceptable true spiritual worship. Every one of those words is critical, and you're going to understand, I hope, each word by the time we're done in its fullest. God seeks acceptable true spiritual worship. In John 4, the text we read at the beginning, verse 23, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers, underline that, true worshippers, that's the theme of this text, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. For the Father seeketh such. God seeks acceptable true spiritual worship.

Now, if we're going to give Him that, we have to know what it is. So we ask ourselves the question, what is acceptable true spiritual worship? And I want you to ask yourself that question. Do I worship God?

Is that a priority for me? Do I come faithfully, regularly, with a deep hearted commitment to worship God? Not to hear a sermon, but to worship God. Am I so consumed with that hungering desire to worship God that I hurry myself into the assembly of His people for the expression of worship? In Psalm 45, verse 1, there is a most interesting statement.

You don't need to look it up, it's just a simple statement I can quote to you. It says, my heart is bubbling over with a good matter. And that's a psalm of praise. You go all the way down to verses 10 and 11 in that psalm and it's great praise.

And the psalmist is saying, my heart is bubbling over and the Hebrew is the idea of something boiling over. And that is really, I think, in a wonderful way what captures the thought of worship. Listen, worship is a heart so warmed by the truth of God that eventually it boils over in praise.

You see? It is the heart so warmed by the truth about God that it boils over in praise. That's the real stuff of worship. Well, I hope that's a definition you can comprehend.

And you'll find it further defined as we go through. Let's pray. Our Father, we know that You are to be worshiped and You are to be worshiped as a priority of our life.

This is not an option. This is not something we can pick and choose. You have called us to worship You. And Lord, we ask Your forgiveness for those so many times when we have not worshiped, when we have been so indifferent, those times when we have sought only that which would bless us, feed us, fill us, and not sought that which would glorify You, when we have sought our own joy and not Your glory, when we have sought our own pleasure and not Your majesty, when we have in our little Christian way worshiped ourselves rather than You. Help us to know the importance of true, acceptable, spiritual worship which You seek. And if there are, Lord, some who have not known Christ and thus have no capacity to worship You at all, those who have been worshiping false gods or worshiping the right God but in the wrong way or any other unacceptable form, we pray that today they would come to Jesus Christ and be cleansed and purged and made true worshipers such as the Father seeks to worship Him. For Christ's sake, amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. John is currently looking at the nature of true worship.

That's the title of our series. And friend, the goal of this series is to help you glorify Christ in everything you do. It's really one of our most important studies, and there's lots of material that we won't have time to air, so I encourage you to go to our website and download this entire series free of charge, or you can order the CDs when you contact us today. Our web address, gty.org, and there you can download all of John's sermons from his first one in 1969 to his most recent message at Grace Community Church. That's over 3,500 messages covering every verse in the New Testament and much of the Old, and again, every lesson is free to download at gty.org. You can also order the True Worship 8 CD album at our website, or when you call, 855-GRACE. Also, while you're online, don't forget about the Study Bible app. It's preloaded with the English Standard, New American Standard, and King James versions of Scripture, and for a reasonable price, you can unlock the footnotes from the MacArthur Study Bible. These 25,000 detailed explanations, plus dozens of charts and introductions to every book, will help you study Scripture more effectively. Just go to gty.org and download the app.

Our website one more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week off with Grace To You and be here tomorrow when John looks at the crucial differences between biblical worship and false worship. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.