True Worship, Part 4

Paul says, All things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. In other words, everything we do, we do that you might receive the grace of God so that in response you might give thanks and glory to God. Everything ultimately is geared to produce worship. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You know what it's like when a dozen different tasks need your attention and need it now. Obviously, when you're spread thin, when your focus is divided, you need to prioritize and make sure that you devote yourself to what's most important. With that in mind, think about your worship. How disciplined are you in keeping the jumble of daily life, your career, family activities, a favorite pastime, from hindering deep, ongoing communion with the Lord? Well, today John MacArthur helps you answer that question and make worship the priority it should be as he continues his series, True Worship.

And now with the lesson, here's John. We're involved in a very essential study of acceptable, true, spiritual worship. There's nothing that is more important in the life of a believer. There's nothing more important in the life of any man or woman than that his life or her life be oriented toward worshiping God.

To worship God is the supreme activity of the universe. And so we're considering some of the very important elements involved in true worship. Now already we have noted several times that our text is John chapter 4, and particularly verses 20 through 24.

And as we have read them again and again, we have noted first of all the statement particularly at the end of verse 23. That the Father seeketh such, that is true worshipers, to worship Him. The Father seeketh true worshipers. And with that scripture in mind, we have discussed quite at length the idea of the importance of worship. And I have told you that basically there are four reasons why worship is important. First of all, because scripture is literally filled with the truth about worship. Secondly, because destiny is marked by worship. Thirdly, because the major theme of eternity and redemptive history included is worship. And fourthly, because Christ commanded us to worship. Scripture, destiny, eternity, and the very command of Christ tell us the importance of worship. And in order to try to sum up our thinking and draw what we've said together before we go on to the next major point in the text, I would again have you note verse 23. That God seeks true worshipers. That's the thrust of that most important verse. And what it tells us is the very important truth that the goal of salvation is worship.

You need to write that down somewhere. The goal of salvation is worship. The reason God redeems people is so that they may be worshipers.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 15, Paul says, In other words, everything we do, we do that you might receive the grace of God so that in response you might give thanks and glory to God. Everything ultimately is geared to produce worship. Such does the Father seek, according to verse 23. And just as a note for you theologians, I believe that the Father's seeking is efficacious and indicates His sovereign, eternal purpose to save.

Now, acceptable worship then becomes a very important theme. It is the essential and direct result of Christ's saving work. And if you remember that the Lord said He had come into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.

And you tie it in with verse 23, you get the whole picture of Christ's coming. The Father seeks true worshipers. The Son comes to seek and to save. The seeking of the Father for true worshipers and the seeking of the Son to save brings the two together. God seeks true worshipers and the only way they can become that is through salvation. Failure to worship God is the violation of Romans 1 that designates the whole world of Christ's rejecters. Now let me illustrate this to you by having you turn in your Bible to Psalm 22.

It may seem a strange place to go in regard to this, but I think you'll see how important it really is. Psalm 22 is a prophetic picture of the death of Christ. It is not vague. It is not symbolic.

It is explicit. It is prophetic in a very dramatic way. And many of the things that are said in Psalm 22 were directly fulfilled on the cross. For example, verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That anticipation of the Messiah's reaction to His death was indeed fulfilled by Christ who uttered those very words. And then through verse 21 you find a description of the crucifixion interwoven with that which relates, of course, to David the psalmist himself. For example, in verse 13 you have very apparent indication of the crucifixion, They gaped upon me with their mouths like a ravening and roaring lion. And you'll remember that in Matthew 27 the crowd gaped at Him indeed like a roaring and ravening lion screaming, Crucify Him. In verse 14 it talks about being poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. And that is exactly what happened in crucifixion from the suspension by the four great wounds. There was a disjointing of the body.

My strength is dried up, my tongue cleaves to my jaws. You remember how well John 19, 28 where Jesus said, I thirst. And then verse 16 talks about piercing His hands and His feet. It talks about being compassed about by dogs, a reference to the savage soldiers. Verse 18 about the parting of the garments of Christ, the casting lots for His vesture. All of those things very explicit. Christ would go to the cross and He would suffer those things. Indeed came to pass.

But for what? That begins in verse 22. I think it most interesting. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. Ye who fear the Lord, praise Him, all ye the seed of Jacob. Glorify Him and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel.

For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath He hidden His face from Him, but when He cried unto Him, He heard. In other words, the immediate response to the work of Christ is what? Praise, isn't it? Praise. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him. And your heart shall live forever.

That's everlasting life that comes through the death of Christ. Now watch verse 27. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall... What? Worship.

That's the climax. That is the element as you enter the kingdom. And so you have in that marvelous psalm a rather explicit indication that the goal of redemption is worship. Worship. Look at Exodus chapter 19 for a moment. Exodus chapter 19, verse 7. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. When Moses received the covenant from God, he told it to the people, told them everything God had said. And the people answered together and said, and this is the greatest illustration of wishful thinking in all the world, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do. Nice thought. All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.

You know something? God didn't believe that for one minute. God knew they wouldn't do it. He knew they would never be able to approach Him on the basis of their law keeping. He knew they would never be able to approach Him on the basis of their self-righteousness. He knew they would never be able to draw nigh unto Him with clean hands and a pure heart because they themselves had cleaned their hands and purified their heart. He knew that.

And so immediately on the heels of that, you look at chapter 20. And after He has given them the specifics of that marvelous Mosaic covenant, in verse 22, the Lord said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shall sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen, and all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." He did not want it to be the mark of man's craftsmanship.

Rough stones were enough. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not exposed thereon. He didn't want it elevated in the air so that when people went up, people could look up the back of their clothing, and they would be exposed. It was to be humble. It was to be on the earth. You say, what's the point?

The point is this. God knew that men had no place and no right and no access on their own to worship Him, because they could not keep His law no matter what they thought they could do. And so God established an altar as the basis of worship. And the implication was that you had to bring to that altar sacrifices, sheep and oxen, peace offerings, burnt offerings, so that the ground or the basis of true worship became sacrifice, you see. Sacrifice made possible communion between man and God. If that's true, then ultimate sacrifice made possible ultimate communion. And so we say then that the death of Christ was to provide God with the fulfillment of His seeking after true worshipers. And as we meet at the cross and our sin is dealt with and we are purified by the blood of Jesus Christ, we then become acceptable worshipers of the Father. So worship is always an issue of salvation.

The basis of worship is sacrifice. Now to look at it from another angle, look with me at the end of the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 66, the last chapter. The last chapter.

And just the last paragraph of that last chapter. And Isaiah has swept through redemptive history in a marvelous way, talked about judgment in the first half of the book. The first 39 chapters talked about God's punishing of the nations as well as the people of God. And then he has moved into the great future. He's talked about the coming of the Messiah. He's talking about the coming of the kingdom now in chapter 66, about the wonderful, marvelous future that God has, the millennial kingdom that is to come. And we read this in verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, and now He's gone beyond the kingdom, and now He is into the eternal kingdom, the eternal state. And God says, I'll make a new heaven and a new earth. And as that remains before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, and here you are ultimately, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And you can stop right there.

What's the point of this? You start out in the book of Isaiah with judgment. Then you come to great truths about the Messiah and His work. In chapter 52 and 53, we find out about the suffering Messiah who pays the price for sin, who dies on the cross.

Why? In order that He might produce a generation of eternal worshipers, it says right here. So Isaiah's flow tells us that the Messiah will come to produce in eternity worshipers who can truly worship the true and living God. Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 14, a chapter that most of us associate with the issue of speaking in tongues.

And indeed, that's correct. But I would like to draw you to verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 14. And he is talking about the meeting together of the church and what goes on in the church in Corinth. And he says in verse 23, if therefore the whole church be come together into one place and all speak with tongues and there come in unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say you're mad, you're out of your mind, you're insane? But if all prophesy, that is speak the truth of God in the language understood, and there come in one that believes not or is unlearned, he is convicted by all and judged by all.

Now note carefully verse 25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. Now if you want to really crack open somebody's heart, don't speak in tongues, speak so he can understand. If you really want to open somebody's heart, then speak that which will convict him, which will condemn him, which will reveal his heart to him.

That's how to reach him. And when he is convicted and when he is judged and when he is reached, here's his response. Falling down on his face, he will what? Worship God. Beloved, you know what I believe? I believe you have in that verse the very initial response to salvation. That is Paul's way of indicating the man has been brought to conversion. He'll worship God and report that God is truly in your midst. So that you see here evangelism with the result of what? Worship. That is the goal of evangelism. That is the goal of salvation.

And we see it in all of these passages. And I think I'll just allude to Philippians 3.3, where Paul defines a Christian this way. One who worships God in the Spirit, who rejoices in Christ Jesus, and has no confidence in the flesh. A Christian is one who worships God in the Spirit. So worship is that which God seeks, and the ground of worship or the basis for worship or the key that unlocks the door makes worship possible. Or what takes you from an unacceptable worshiper to an acceptable worshiper is salvation.

Salvation in Jesus Christ. Mildane wrote this, the perfect righteousness of God is witnessed in the Savior's blood. It is in the cross of Christ we trace His righteousness, yet wondrous grace. God could not pass the sinner by. His sin demands that He must die. But in the cross of Christ we see how God can save us righteously. The sin is on the Savior laid. It is by His blood the debt is paid.

Stern justice can demand no more and mercy can dispense her store. The sinner who believes is free and says the Savior died for me. And that, my friend, is the basis of worship. That we who are sinners should be redeemed by the worthy Christ. I think you understand then that worship is important. It is that which the Father seeks through redemption. And if you're a redeemed person and you don't worship right, you deny that very thing for which you were redeemed. You see, that's the core.

You're not talking about something peripheral. Now, let's return to John 4. John chapter 4. When Jesus arrived on the scene, people were worshiping. The Samaritans were worshiping. In fact, in verse 20 she said, We worship in this mountain.

And she made reference to Mount Gerizim. And the Jews were worshiping, verse 20 says, in Jerusalem. They were worshiping. But it was over against this unacceptable worship. They were worshiping the right God but in the wrong way and with the wrong attitude. It was over against that that our Lord postulates what is true acceptable worship.

And that tells us that theirs was not. If Jesus were to arrive on the scene today and to look at the big picture of Christianity, I wonder what kind of things He'd have to say about quote, unquote, Christian worship today. One writer says, Much of so-called public worship in Christendom is merely a form of Christianized Judaism. And in many cases it is thinly veiled paganism. For example, in Judaism there was a separate priestly caste who alone could conduct the worship of Israel. Whereas in Christendom a man-made priesthood called the clergy is essential to its worship in spite of the plain teaching of the New Testament that all believers are priests.

These priests of Judaism wore a distinctive dress as also does the clergy. Judaism emphasized an earthly sanctuary or building. In like manner Christendom makes much of its consecrated places of worship and miscalls the edifice the house of God. Jewish priests had an altar on which were offered sacrifices to God and Christendom has erected altars in these ornate buildings before which candles burn and incense is offered and in many cases on which a wafer is kept which is looked upon as if it were the body of Christ.

It is hardly necessary to say that all this copying of Judaism is absolutely foreign to the teaching of the New Testament. Thus Christendom has initiated its own specially educated and ordained priesthood whose presence is indispensable to quote, administer the sacraments. These men robed in gorgeous vestments from within a roped off sanctuary stand before a bloodless altar with a background of burning candles, crosses and smoking incense and conduct the worship for the laity. With the use of an elaborate prepared ritual with stereotyped prayers responses from the audience the whole service proceeds smoothly and with mechanical precision. It is a marvel of human invention and ingenuity with an undoubted appeal to the aesthetic but a tragic and sorry substitute for the spiritual worship which our Lord declared his father sought from his redeemed children.

End quote. If our Lord came today that's what he might do, he might indict that kind of worship and that would equate the Judaism or he might also indict the worship of the more traditional Protestant church which may be a little more like Samaritan worship, not quite as elaborate, not quite as ornate, not quite as sophisticated. In fact, the Samaritans of the time that Jesus spoke to this woman didn't even have a building.

It had been long ago destroyed. But it was shallow worship. It was indifferent worship. It was not according to the prescriptions of scripture and it needed to be corrected.

In fact, both the worship of its Judaism period as well as its Samaritan period were to be eliminated totally, totally in favor of the true worship. That's John MacArthur showing you the connection between repentance and true worship. That's the title of his study, True Worship, on Grace to You. John, this issue of understanding what true worship is and how to worship the Lord, there's some interesting history in your own pastoral ministry. It might surprise people to know that you were a pastor for a decade or so before you did this series on worship, and I remember you saying that you had learned some things about worship that you had not previously understood.

So talk about that for a minute. Yeah, I think in that generation when I was beginning here, worship was defined in a certain pragmatic way. I honestly don't think I'd ever heard a sermon defining it theologically. Worship was singing and praying and reading scripture and what you did at church. It pretty much seemed to me that the idea of worship never really escaped a congregational event. And it first struck me when I was going through John 4 that our Lord said, The Father seeks true worshipers.

And I thought, well, that's a purpose for salvation then, right? He's saving people to make them into true worshipers. And I think that experience in John 4 was the first time that dawned on me very early on in the ministry, because then that I began to explore, well, what does it mean to worship in a true way? What does it mean to worship in spirit? What does it mean to worship in truth?

Because that's very definitive and very, very foundational. And out of that came that original series on worship, and out of that came the book titled Worship. This is a book that's still very popular. I checked a report from Moody, and there are people still purchasing the book on worship, and it's been around for many, many... 40 years.

40 years. It's amazing. Yeah, for a number of years in my early ministry, I didn't really define worship in a biblical way. So when I did in that original series in the Gospel of John, it was life-transforming for me. And I would say that my understanding of worship is one of maybe four or five foundational elements of my life in ministry that basically still supports what I believe my ministry should be and what the church should be. So the study on worship from originally, way back in the early 80s, has been revised and updated a number of times through the years of my preaching. But in particular, this book called Worship will instruct you in what is, listen, your first priority. Your first priority is worship.

The Father seeks true worshipers. Your service comes after your worship. So I don't know how you view worship or what you think about it, but this book will change that and put it in line with the Word of God. Get a copy of the book Worship, and for the next two weeks, nearly all our resources, including this book, are available at 25% off the regular price.

That's right, and friend, this is a book about what should happen in a church service and every moment in between. Find out how to make worship your lifestyle. To pick up John MacArthur's book simply titled Worship at 25% off the regular price on U.S. orders, contact us today. Call 800-55-GRACE or place your order at gty.org.

This book will show you how to avoid counterfeit worship and experience the joy and blessings of the real thing. Take advantage of our current sale prices and order John's book titled Worship, and call during regular business hours 800-55-GRACE or you can order online anytime at gty.org. And now something you'll want to watch for, and that is our Truth Matters Conference starting this Wednesday, May 18th, the event is sold out, but you can catch every teaching session and Q&A via livestream. If you follow us on social media, be sure to check our latest posts about watching the sessions, or simply go to our website, gty.org, for the conference schedule and the links for streaming the teaching from John MacArthur, Ken Ham, Justin Peters, and more. Again, go to gty.org to find out how to livestream the Truth Matters Conference. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Make sure you're here tomorrow when John helps you turn from idols that you may not realize are hindering your worship. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Race to You. ...