The only God that we are to worship Is the God who reveals himself in sacred scripture, and true worship focuses on the whole counsel of God. not on isolated aspects of God, with which we are comfortable. You shall have no other gods before me. When God gave his people the Ten Commandments in the desert, that was the first. Our worship is meant for God and for God alone.
Hello and welcome to this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thanks for joining us. Worship is a vital part of the Christian life, but what is it exactly? And how can we do it well? Is it just singing or is there more to it?
Today, we join Dr. R. C. Skroll in his series Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, and we'll consider the third of those five things, How to Worship. If you'd like to dig deeper into this topic for yourself, you'll be able to receive lifetime downloadable access to the complete teaching series.
Just give us a call today at 800-435-4343. or give a gift online at renewingyourmind.org. You'll also receive the e-book edition of this series and one of our crucial questions booklets: How Should I Live in This World? But now let's turn to our study. Here's Dr.
Sproul.
Well, let's go back into the scriptures for our initial cues for understanding. the importance of proper worship. And let's start with the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments in its first four laws, which is called usually the first table of the law. Concentrate on our responsibilities toward God.
The very first commandment says, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Now the fact that he starts there... would indicate to me that there is some level of priority, some level of supreme importance given to that very first commandment. And what does God say? Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Now that before is critical. He's not saying that you can have all kinds of other deities that you are engaged with as long as they don't rank ahead of me. I want to be judged to be first in importance, and you can have many other gods and goddesses. No, no, no. The statement, thou shalt have no other gods before me, means in my presence.
And God's presence is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. And so what God is saying is, I will not tolerate any other gods.
So, that the first principle of the law is a principle that guards against. All forms of idolatry. Because what idolatry does is that it misdirects worship from the true God from the living God to some kind of substitute fraudulent deity That is replacing the God who is. And what is the second commandment? Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Again, the second commandment strongly reinforces the first commandment.
So that the very first two commandments of the Decalogue Protect. worship. And they give us guidelines for that worship.
Now. Just a few pages later. in chapter 32. We read in verse fifteen these words And Moses turned and went down from the mountain. and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand.
And the tablets were written on both sides, and on the one side and on the other they were written. And now the tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There's a noise of war in the camp.
Now you get the picture. Moses is coming down from the mountain with the two tablets of stone, and Joshua meets him as he descends. And then in the distance, he hears this enormous roar of people screaming and shouting. And Joshua says, Moses, it's the noise of war. You know, while you've been gone, a battle must have broken out because we hear this kind of yelling and screaming and shouting.
It can only mean. the presence of war. But Moses said, It's not the noise of the shout of victory. And it's not the noise of the cry of defeat. But it's the sound of singing I hear.
Now the sound of the singing that Moses and Joshua heard coming from the distance. was so lusty So loud.
so enthusiastic that it was mistaken for the sounds of war. what Moses and Joshua were hearing from a distance was arguably the most well attended worship service in the history of the planet. where every single person from the camp of Israel came out to worship. and the choir was singing with greater enthusiasm. The whole multitude was singing with such enthusiasm Their music was so popular that everybody joined in.
Now, if you've ever been to church on Sunday morning and watch what happens when the hymn is being sung, there are some people who look transfixed, they're enraptured as they sing the hymns. And they're just singing out with all of their hearts. There's others who stand there and sort of move their lips and kind of mumble. And they're not really much engaged. And there are other people who will stand throughout the whole hymn with their lips tightly sealed, never singing a mumbling word.
But on this day Everybody was joining in this happy chorus. Not only that, but in this worship service The people were dancing. as well as singing. and everybody was in attendance. Nobody went fishing, nobody played golf, nobody stayed home in bed that day, they all came out.
To worship A Golden Calf. Because this is the Biblical record. of Israel's radical degeneration into idolatry. While God Himself had come down to reveal His law to Moses. The people wanted something else.
They didn't want the true God. They wanted worship. that was relevant. and meaningful to them. They wanted worship that would be like the people around them.
that would communicate to their culture. that would draw people into attendance. that people would get excited about. And boy, they found it. They found a way to worship that everybody was engaged in.
and it was a kind of worship. that was utterly blasphemous. And it was completely opposed to the very first two commandments God had just given. And while Moses is coming down holding the tablets of stone, there they are. having another God before God.
There they are with their graven image. there they are, with false and blasphemous worship. But you see, we stand from the vantage point of the 21st century and we look back at those people and we say, how could those people be so corrupt? Because they're just like we are. The problem with idolatry is not in making deities out of stone or wood, but the issue of idolatry is producing a substitute.
For the true God Now we don't make idols of stone and wood any more. But the kind of idolatry that pervades the church today. is that idolatry where we take the biblical revelation of God And we look at those attributes of God that we find distasteful, such as his sovereignty. His Holiness his justice. his wrath.
And we say, oh, we don't like those. We like the love of God, the mercy of God. The grace of God. And we construct a God who is all love, all grace, all mercy, no sovereignty, no justice, no holiness, no wrath. And we create a God.
With our own minds, who is not God? That god is an idol. The only God that we are to worship Is the God who reveals Himself in sacred scripture, and true worship focuses on the whole counsel of God. not on isolated aspects of God, with which we are comfortable. And I want to look at the positive side of the coin on how we are to be engaged in worship that is pleasing to God.
And to do that, I want to turn your attention to the Gospel according to St. John to chapter 4. where in this chapter we have the record of Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman, sometimes called the woman of Sychar and also sometimes simply referred to as the woman at the well. And in the midst of this discussion that Jesus has with the woman at the well. She says to Jesus, after he's exposed her history of having had so many husbands and so on, in verse 19, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.
Now again, this woman is a Samaritan. and the Samaritans were estranged from the Jews. And the Jews had their central sanctuary established in Jerusalem. And that's why on festival occasions and so on, the people would come from all over the nation into Jerusalem for the purposes of worship. But the Samaritans who had no dealings with the Jews had their own central sanctuary, which was on Mount Gerizim, which overlooked Jacob's well.
If you've ever been to Palestine and visit the ancient site here in Sychar, you can stand by the well and just lift up your eyes and you see Gerizim there right in front of you. And so this woman takes advantage of her new understanding that she's talking with a prophet to settle an ancient controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews. And so she says to Jesus, our fathers worship in this mountain and the Jews worship in Jerusalem.
Now, which is it? Which is the proper place to worship?
Now, notice that the question this woman is asking Jesus with respect to worship. is the Where question? But Jesus takes the conversation to a different dimension. He's not satisfied to simply answer her question of where. But he directs the conversation now not so much to the where question as to the how question.
So let's see how he answers her. Jesus said to her, Woman, Believe me. The hour is coming when you when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Worship the Father. You worship what you do not know.
We know. What we worship For salvation, Is of the Jews.
Now, this is a strong rebuke against the departure of the Samaritans from classical Jewish faith. Because the reason why the Jews hated the Samaritans in the first place was because the Samaritans intermarried with the pagans and they developed a religion of syncretism, where they blended pagan elements. together with the elements of Jewish worship. And Jesus is saying the time is coming where both of these sites are going to be removed. And presumably he's giving a thinly veiled hint here of what he specifies later of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem as well.
But he now says, you worship what you don't know. You don't know what you're doing in your worship. You're engaged in a worship that is grounded in ignorance. or in falsehood. Do you remember Paul when he confronted the Athenians at Mars Hill in the book of Acts?
When he came into Athens, And Paul first set his eyes upon this magnificent city. Instead of being impressed with their high culture, we read in the book of Acts that he was moved. because he saw the whole city was given to idolatry. And then he goes up to the Areopagus, to the temple that was dedicated to Aries, who was the god of war, corresponding to Mars. And that's why he's sometimes called Mars Hill.
And there, when he went to Mars Hill, he confronted the people for their idolatry, and he noticed that they had a monument there inscribed to the unknown god. And he said, What you worship in ignorance. I now declare to you in power. the God who made heaven and earth and so on. And so the Athenians received the same rebuke from the Apostle Paul that the Samaritans received from the lips of Jesus here in this conversation, because he said, You people don't even know who it is.
that you're worshiping because at the heart of your worship is ignorance. And so, let me just say, by way of application, whether it's in Athens. or in SciCar or in the United States, God is never pleased. with ignorant worship. with worship that is not grounded in the knowledge of God.
So then Jesus says to her. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation, is of the Jews. But the hour is coming when And now is when the true worshipers Will worship the Father in spirit. And truth.
Let me just stop there for a second. Jesus announces a time of impending crisis. A time Where the kingdom of God is being made manifest, because the king is here. And one of the things that the king is concerned about. is true worship.
And now it's time for true worship, Jesus is saying. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipper Will worship God in spirit and in truth.
Now, when Jesus Qualifies the word worshiper by the word true. Why do you suppose he does that? Obviously. There is a difference between true worship and false worship. Let me say it again.
When our Lord talks about the moment has come for the true worshiper to do something, he's obviously distinguishing the true worshiper from some other kind of worshiper, and the obvious antithesis to true worship is what? False worship. And so now Jesus sets before us the norms. The ultimate criteria that defines true worship. And he gives two normative considerations.
And those considerations are spirit and truth. And before I define what that means, let's read the rest of the narrative where Jesus says. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, semicolon. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. Isn't that a strange?
thing. We usually think about people seeking God. But here Jesus speaks about God seeking people. And what is it that God is searching for? God is seeking, God is searching for people.
who will worship him correctly. God is searching for people who will honor him as God. God is searching for people who will put aside all forms of idolatry. and worship him the way he commands that he be worshipped. in spirit and in truth.
And again, Jesus repeats this when he says, God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Now again. The word here. that is operative. is the word must. That means We have an obligation.
given to us by God Himself to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The true worshipper must worship in spirit and in truth. Yeah. I think it's not going to be too difficult for us to understand what Jesus meant when he said we must worship God in truth. I'll consider that in a moment, but that should be the easier of the two.
The difficulty is found in understanding This somewhat cryptic reference that Jesus makes to the to worshiping God. In Spirit. Because remember that the discussion here focuses initially on the WHERE question. The woman is saying, Where should we worship God, Jerusalem or Jerusalem? And one of the things that Jesus is teaching her and us by extension is that God's presence cannot be confined to some physical location.
It's not like if Jesus says that if God is in Mount Jerusalem, he can't be in Jerusalem, or if he's in Jerusalem, he can't be in Jerusalem. because God is omnipresent. And so there's one sense in which because God is everywhere, we can worship Him everywhere. We're not restricted to one particular place. And so since there's having this discussion about the nature of God, His being a spirit and not a body, You would think that what he is saying is, well, therefore, we shouldn't worship God with our bodies, but rather we should worship God with our spirits.
Well I don't think that's what he means. I think that that's part of what he's getting at. That because God is spirit, what God wants is spiritual worship.
Now, that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to have our bodies with us when we go to church and we send our souls and our bodies sleep in or our bodies go to the golf course. That's not the point of what Jesus is saying. But what he's getting at is that the way we are created as a unity of body and soul. that we can do things in an external physical way that are in fact distanced or divorced. From our minds.
or our souls. And the great problem in Israel in the Old Testament that the prophets addressed on many occasions was the people would show up physically for worship. And they would go through the rituals. They would offer the sacrifices, which you could see. They're physical, they're tangible.
They would go through the rites in the corporate worship: stand up when everybody else stood up, sang when everybody else sang, and so on. Their lips were moving. And Jesus said of these people, This people honors me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me. And what happened in the worship of Israel in the Old Testament was it degenerated into externalism.
or formalism. Just outward activity. People knelt when they were supposed to kneel, you know, and did all the physical things while their souls were somewhere else, while their minds were engaged in wool gathering. They weren't participating from the depth dimension of their characters, from their heart or from their soul or their spirit. And what Jesus is saying is that I want people who, when they come to worship me, come with their hearts fully engaged with what they are doing.
That worship that pleases God is a worship that is not given grudgingly out of a mere sense of duty to show up at church on Sunday morning. But it is motivated and driven by a soul that delights. in the presence of God. What does the psalmist say? I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
You see, spiritual worship is worship that is offered by a person who takes delight. In honoring God, in praying to God, who listens to the Word of God with His mind fully engaged. In the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, that deals with prescriptions for worship, talks about how worship services should contain the sound preaching of the Word of God. But also The conscientious or diligent health. Hearing.
of the word of god That the true worshiper whose heart is engaged is involved body and soul in the entire experience of worship. Listens. attentively. to the reading of scripture. To the proclamation of the word of God, pays attention to the words of the hymns, doesn't just move his lips and sing the tunes.
But he is engaged. inwardly in his spirit. We read in the book of Hebrews, in the roll call of the saints, that by faith, Abel offered a more perfect sacrifice to God, an acceptable sacrifice to God. Where Abel's sacrifice was pleasing to God and Cain's was not pleasing to God. And some people think that the reason why Abel's sacrifice was acceptable is because it was an animal sacrifice, and Cain's was unacceptable is because it was not animal.
I don't think that has anything to do with it. because the Old Testament had provisions for both. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that the difference is that one sacrifice was offered in faith and the other one wasn't. And I can only say to me that when Abel brought his gift to the altar, he brought with it his heart. and his soul.
His was a spiritual act. Whereas Cain was merely physically there with a physical offering. And his soul was far removed from it.
So God is seeking people whose souls are aflame. who can't wait for Sunday, who love. The worship of God. And finally. Worship that is pleasing and acceptable to God.
is worship that is in truth. People today say it doesn't matter what doctrine is, all that matters is human fellowship and relationships. And that I can worship God and make him happy, even if the rest of the time I'm opening my mouth and disseminating heresy. No, no, no. God wants to be worshipped in truth, according to truth, not according to falsehood.
And why is truth so important? As we saw in our last message, because what truth is getting at is who God is. And ultimately, this most important thing about truth is understanding the truth about him. Who is the one true God? And Christ, His only begotten Son, who is the incarnation of truth.
Now, how can somebody say they love Jesus and not care about the truth when Jesus is the truth? That doesn't make any sense at all. And yet I hear that every day of my life. Doctrine divides. Of course doctrine divides.
It is always divided. The doctrine also unites. It binds together the hearts of God's people who celebrate the truth of God together when they come for worship. And God is seeking people who love the truth, who love his truth. who love his word.
And will worship him not according to heresy, but according to the truth that he has revealed. How amazing is it that when we worship God, we're not just communing with Him, but with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And that's also a helpful reminder that the purpose of doctrinal clarity is not division. but unity. I hope you've been enjoying this series, Exploring Christian Growth.
but there is so much more teaching material we weren't able to fit into our short time together. If you're interested in exploring this series more deeply for yourself or perhaps with your family or church small group, we'd like to send you this resource. If you call us with a donation at 800-435-4343 or go online to renewingyourmind.org, You'll receive lifetime downloadable access to the complete 10-part series, along with the e-book edition of 5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow. We'll also send you the crucial questions booklet, How Should I Live in This World? Thank you for your support.
We're just about to the end of our time in this series, so make sure you tune back in tomorrow as we consider the fourth thing we need to grow in our Christian walk. because it's a big one. How to serve. I hope you'll join us here. on Renewing Your Mind.
