True Worship, Part 3

Worship is so important that it is that for which God seeks. God makes an effort to gain worshipers. In fact, it is the most important activity that man can be involved in, the worship of God. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. There have probably been some Sunday mornings where you're physically present at church, but spiritually you're not there at all, just not ready to worship God the way he deserves and the way he desires. On days like that, what should you do? How can you put your focus back on Christ? And is worship only something you're supposed to do in a church setting? Find the answers to those questions today on Grace to You as John MacArthur continues his practical and challenging study called True Worship.

And now with a lesson, here's John. Now as we have called our attention to John chapter 4, we have focused on the most important passage in the New Testament on worship. And to begin with, we've just been highlighting one major point, and that is the importance of worship. That point is not extraneous to this text.

It is in fact inherent in it. If you'll notice the end of verse 23, it says, the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Worship is so important that it is that for which God seeks.

God makes an effort to gain worshipers. In fact, it is the most important activity that man can be involved in, the worship of God. Now we've been talking already about the importance of worship.

I've suggested to you that there are four reasons why it's important, and I want to review the ones we've covered and then go on. First of all, worship is important because Scripture is so dominated by it. No matter where you turn in the Scripture, you find that worship is enjoined. Worship is instructed.

It's all over the Scripture. For example, Exodus chapter 20, where the first of all the Ten Commandments, which reflect the law of God, is a call to worship. In Matthew 22, where the Lord Jesus Christ was confronted about what is the first commandment, He responded with the commandment of worship. We talked about the tabernacle and the temple being symbols to identify the importance of worship in the midst of God's people. We talked about the patriarchs who built altars to worship God, and that goes as far back as even Cain and Abel. And then we went to the New Testament and we examined Romans 12, 1 and 2 and 1 Peter 2, 5. And in looking at those two Scriptures, we saw that we are as Christians called to spiritual worship, which is acceptable to God.

Spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God. So all the way from Cain to the church, anybody who has ever identified himself with the saints of God has been called to worship, has been made a worshiper. So first of all then, we say worship is important because of the fact that it so dominates the life and times of Scripture. Second, we say worship is important because destiny is marked by worship.

It is not only a scriptural issue, it is an issue of destiny. How a person worships is indicative of their eternal destiny. And you remember that we said there are two kinds of worship, unacceptable and acceptable. And one who worships unacceptably is rejected by God. One who worships acceptably is received by God. Now I also told you that there are four kinds of unacceptable worship.

We looked at that first. There is the worship of false gods, unacceptable. There is the worship of the true God in the wrong form, reducing God to an idol. And then there is the worship of the true God in a self-styled manner. And then there is the worship of the true God in a wrong attitude.

All of those are unacceptable. To worship a false God, to worship the true God in a wrong form, to worship the true God in a self-styled manner, or to worship the true God in a wrong attitude, all of those are wrong. Now let me talk about acceptable worship.

And this is what I want you to think with me on especially. Your destiny is determined by acceptable worship. You're marked out as a believer by acceptable worship.

The goal of salvation is to create true worshipers. And I think as I alluded to in one of my earlier messages that Psalm 24 verse 3 to 6 is perhaps the most lovely Old Testament picture of an acceptable worshiper. It says, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? Who has a right to go into God's presence? Who has a right to come to God? Who has a right to draw near? He who hath clean hands and a pure heart.

You can't go there unless you're washed. And he who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him. The true seekers are those with pure hearts, clean hands, honest motives, the pure, the righteous, and the holy.

Now how can you become like that? You have to be redeemed. So redemption then is to create true worshipers who worship acceptably to God. I want to pick it up from Hebrews 12 28. The writer of Hebrews says that we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved unlike the earth which was shaken.

The illustration in point here is the shaking of Mount Sinai. But he says we have a kingdom that can't be moved or shaken. Therefore, let us have grace by which we may serve God. And the word serve is litruo from which we get liturgy. It means to worship. So let us have grace by which we may worship God acceptably. Mark that word.

That's the word we're after. Acceptable worship. Acceptable worship.

Let us have grace by which we may serve or worship God acceptively. And then he lists two key things with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. If you are to worship God, there will be deep in your heart a balance between reverence and fear. Reverence is positive in a sense. It affirms the value and the worth of God.

Fear is negative. It affirms the judgment, chastening, punishing, consuming fire of verse 29. And so the true worshiper worships out of reverence for God and out of fear of God.

And those are essential. We are then to worship God acceptably. That is the command of verse 28.

That is the command of verse 28. If we have been redeemed, we are the true worshipers. And as true worshipers, we must worship acceptably. And let me say at this point, I believe if you're a true worshiper, you will. But not all the time.

And not always as fully as you ought to. Because there's still that sin that is in us, right? But a true Christian is a true worshiper. But we don't always worship as truly as we ought to worship or as consistently. And so we are called here to worship God acceptably with positive affirmation of who He is in all His glory and a negative affirmation of the fact that He's a consuming fire and we have reason to fear if we don't worship Him acceptably.

So acceptable worship is what He asks of His people. Now what does it mean? What does that mean? Now follow because I'm going to show you what it means. Turn in your Bible to Romans 14. And I want you to stay clearly in mind with what we're saying now for the next five or ten minutes because it's all going to wrap up in a couple of statements that are going to make a big difference. So follow along carefully in your scriptures. If you can't turn fast enough, listen. Write them down. Romans 14 18 says this, for he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God.

What things? Well this whole chapter is all about not making a weaker brother stumble, not grieving a brother, not destroying a brother, not using your liberty to cause him to stumble. And he says this, if you serve Christ in these areas, that's acceptable worship. So worship first of all is a matter of how we treat our fellow believers.

Did you get that? How we treat our fellow believers. That's a matter of worship. That's a matter of worship. That's a matter of glorifying God and honoring God. Now look at chapter 15 verse 16, Romans 15 16. And Paul is thanking God of course for the grace that called him into the ministry.

And then he makes an amazing statement. He says that I have been ministering the gospel of God. Why Paul? In order that, watch this, the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable. Now that is the language of sacrifice. That is the language of worship. And he says I am offering up the Gentiles as an offering to God that is acceptable.

What do you mean this? Winning someone to Jesus Christ is acceptable worship. Paul saw his converts as offerings given to God which were acceptable to God. Isn't that a beautiful way to see evangelism? You're gaining a soul that you can offer to God as an act of holy acceptable worship. So worship is how you treat Christians.

And worship is winning non-Christians. Philippians 4.18, Philippians 4.18. And Paul writes Philippians in part to thank the Philippians for a gift of money which they sent him.

He was so glad they sent it because it was such an act of love. But he says in verse 18, I have everything. I abound, I am full, I have received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you. And when they came from you, they said, and when they came to me, they were an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

I love that. He says your gift of money, your gift to meet my need was before God, a sacrifice acceptable that brought to his nostrils a sweet smell. Listen, worship is giving money to meet needs. That's worship.

That's right. It's giving your resources to others, supporting the saints and the work of the church and the ministry of Christ. That's worship.

Now listen carefully. Romans 14, how you treat fellow Christians. Romans 15, the winning of non-Christians. Philippians 4, giving to meet needs. Worship, listen now, worship is sharing.

That's the sum of those three things. Worship is sharing with others, sharing with others your love, sharing with others the gospel, sharing with others your resources. That's worship. Go to Ephesians 5, 10. Ephesians 5, 10.

And here's another very, very important text. It says this, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Now here again, we have the language of sacrifice. We have the language of offerings.

We have the language of worship. And what is the issue here? Verse 8, walk as children of light, so that there may be the fruit of light.

Watch this. Goodness, righteousness, truth. Manifesting what is acceptable.

And that's what he's saying. When your life has goodness, righteousness, and truth, then you are acceptable. So worship, a true offering to God, is righteousness, goodness, truth. That's personal holiness, personal virtue. Now turn again to Philippians chapter 1, verse 11, and let me show you another scripture. Philippians 1, 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. There we are with the same concept again, righteousness and the fruits of righteousness through Christ, which are unto the glory and praise of God. And again, we see the same thing we saw in Ephesians 5, 10, that righteousness, holiness, goodness, godliness is worship that is acceptable.

That is acceptable. And just to sum it up, 1 Timothy 2, 3. 1 Timothy 2, 3, which says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. What is? The end of verse 2, a quiet, peaceable life lived in all godliness and honesty.

Did you see that? Godliness and honesty, righteousness, goodness, truth, holiness, that's worship. Now listen to me. I gave you three scriptures that showed worship as sharing with others. I just gave you three scriptures that showed worship as related to our own holiness, our own righteousness, our own goodness. That's worship. That's worship.

It is how you live every day of your life. Worship is a way of living, a way of living that not only manifests a personal holiness and a personal righteousness, but extends that in the love of the brethren, in the proclamation to the lost, and in the freeing of all of our resources to meet needs. That's worship. But let me give you the sunim bonim, where it all finally climaxes in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, verse 15, and it says, "...by Him," oh, I love that.

That's by Jesus Christ. Mentioned in verse 12, by Jesus Christ, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.

Now that is really the climax, isn't it? That is praising and glorifying with our lips and thanking God continually. That is worship. And that's what we do when we come together. We sing and we praise God with our hearts and our lips and we say thanks. But look at verse 16, "...but to do good and to share, forget not. For with such sacrifices God is," what? Well pleased.

Did you get that? Listen to me. God wants you to come here and worship. He wants you to be here to praise His name, to glorify His name, to say thanks to Him. But He does not want you to forget that worship is a way of life in which you do good and in which you share with others.

You see it? These two verses sum up all that I've been saying to you. And listen very carefully to what I say. If you think that you can live any way you want and walk in a Sunday morning and worship, you're dead wrong. You can't do that because worship because worship does not occur in a vacuum. It's a way of life.

May I add this? You also need Sunday to stimulate the rest of the week. That's right. It says in Hebrews chapter 10, let us draw near unto God. And then it says, listen carefully, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together."

Why? Because we can come together to stimulate one another to what? Love? That's sharing. And good works? That's righteousness. You have to have them out there in the world in order to worship.

And you have to be stimulated to them in the worship in order to live them out there in the world. Do you see the cycle? Now if you're not in the cycle somewhere, you better get in. See, how do you get in? Confess your sins.

Start right now. People say, well, I've got so many problems in my Christian life and I seem to be... You know what I think? I think it's all basically coming down to two things. One, they're not worshiping six days a week with a worshiping life. Or they're not worshiping one day a week with the assembly of the saints. You need both. Worship is essential. It's essential, as I said, first of all because of the ways it dominates Scripture, and secondly because it's a matter of destiny.

Let me give you a third reason. Worship is essential because it is the major theme of the universe. It's the major theme of the universe. It's the major theme of the ages.

It's the major theme of eternity. When Adam and Eve were created and put on this world, they worshiped God. They walked and talked with God in the cool of the day. They worshiped Him. They glorified His holy name. And the fall came because they wouldn't worship anymore.

That's right. Eve chose to worship whom? Whom did she worship? Satan. Adam chose to worship whom?

Eve. And as soon as they ceased worshiping God, they fell. The first division among men came between Cain and Abel.

Why? The division came over the way they worshiped. One brought an acceptable, one an unacceptable offering. And if you look at the future, look at Revelation chapter 4, you will find that history consummates in worship. Revelation 4, 10. Here you get a glimpse of the future, the glory of the Lord coming to set up His kingdom. The four and twenty elders fell down before Him that is seated on the throne and worship Him. They liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord.

See, worship is the theme of heaven. Chapter 5, verse 14. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever.

Now listen to the last two. Verse 10 of chapter 19. And I fell at His feet, the feet of an angel who spoke to John. I fell at His feet to worship Him, and He said unto me, See, Thou do it not. I am Thy fellow servant of Thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.

Would you underline those two? Worship God. Chapter 22, verse 8. John, again, in his vision was so amazed. And he fell down in verse 8 to worship the angel again.

And the same thing happened. The angel says, See, Thou do it not. I am Thy fellow servant of Thy brethren, the prophets. And of them who keep the words of this book, worship God.

Underline it again. That, beloved, is the everlasting gospel. That is the message from eternity to eternity that God has to give. Worship Me, worship Me. That is the theme of eternity, the theme of redemptive history, to worship the true and living and glorious God. So Scripture calls us to worship. Destiny calls us to worship. Eternity calls us to worship.

And just in case somebody might fall through the cracks and think you don't need to worship, can I give you one more? The fourth reason why it's important to worship, Christ commanded it. Christ commanded it. In Matthew 4.10, He said this and summed it all up. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And He said it to Satan.

And in so saying, swept into that command every being ever created. All are responsible to worship God. Do you worship God as a way of life?

That's what He's asking. If you find it difficult to worship the Lord when you come on Sunday, it isn't because the music isn't right. It isn't because there's too much noise in the auditorium when you come in.

It isn't because you had to hassle for a parking place. No, if you can't worship, it isn't because you got distracted. If you can't worship, it's because you're not in the flow. You see, everything there is calls for worship. Everything.

Everything. Scripture calls for worship. Destiny calls for worship. Eternity calls for worship. Christ calls for worship. The angels have said, Worship God, worship God.

But it can't happen once a week. It's a way of life. That's John MacArthur wrapping up today's lesson on true worship. That's the title of his study here on Grace to You. John, you said today that worship is supposed to be a lifestyle. And the first time I heard you teach this series, decades ago, that was the statement that just sort of rocked my worldview. And yet it was immediately obvious to me that this is a biblical concept, because Scripture says, whatever you do in word or deed, do it to the glory of God.

But I know people struggle with this, because it's not obvious how to do that. How do you worship God at a football game? And how can we worship God in everything we do? Well, I think you look at life through God-colored glasses, so that you see—I mean, at a football game you could say, I see the beauty of your creation. I see the wonder of the human creation that you have made.

You may be looking into the faces of 20,000 people, and you would say as well, I know some of these people know you, and many of these people don't know you. And everything is related to God. You see common grace. You see people happy, enjoying life, enjoying relationships, enjoying each other, enjoying the entertainment that's going on in the field, eating things that they enjoy eating. You're just—in my case, I'm just saying, God, you've given so much common grace.

These people are thrilled, they're excited, they're exuberant, they're running through the gamut of emotions, they're in relationships with each other, they're enjoying the beauty of your creation. That's worship. Everything that you see, everything that you look at, you see through God-colored eyes. At the same time, you see sadness in all of that, because you know these people are making the most of the common grace, but most of them ignoring saving grace. And I think worship just views the world from the perspective of God. And at that point, your worship is balanced in the sense that you're saying, thank you, Lord, for the ability to enjoy this. Thank you for your common grace to all these people.

Thank you for the richness of life. But, oh, Lord, help us to be faithful proclaiming the gospel so those who don't believe can hear. And you never are more faithful as a worshiper than when you're presenting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the highest act of worship.

Why? Because the apostle Paul said this to the Corinthians. He said, I preach to add more voices to those who praise God. In other words, everybody he spoke to about the gospel was somebody he could add to the hallelujah chorus, praising the Lord forever in heaven.

So work for the Lord is really worship for the Lord, worship offered to him. Thank you, Jon. And, friend, if you're benefiting from this study, maybe you're better understanding how to glorify God in every area of your life, we'd love to hear about it. When you have time, jot a note and send it our way. You can email us at letters at gty dot org, that's letters at gty dot org, or drop a letter in the mail to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And be sure to visit our website, gty.org, where you'll find numerous ways to take in John MacArthur's verse-by-verse teaching. You can listen to radio broadcasts you've missed, you can watch Grace to You television, you can search Jon's entire sermon archive by book of the Bible, specific verse or topic. That's 3,500 sermons from 53 years of John MacArthur's pulpit ministry. All of those sermons free to download in audio or transcript format, and there's a lot of video there as well. You can also purchase a variety of Bible study tools, including the MacArthur Study Bible, the systematic theology book called Biblical Doctrine, or a topical book like The God Who Loves.

All of that and more is available at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Keep in mind, Grace to You television airs this Sunday on DirecTV, channel 378. Or check your local listings for Channel and Times, and be here next week when John looks at the key to acceptable worship and how to make worship a greater priority for you and your family. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.