The Blessed Privilege Of
Public Worship
"As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of
thy mercy: and in thy fear will I
worship toward thy holy temple." - Psa. 5:7
Multitudes today who profess to be
christians, lovers of God, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and promoters of
righteousness, willfully absent themselves from the house of God and despise
the blessed privilege of public worship. They justify their actions and excuse
their disobedience by pointing to personal responsibilities, inconveniences, or
objectionable things connected with the local church. A person determined to
walk in a course of disobedience never lacks for excuses to do so! But you will
never find justification for neglecting the worship of God in Holy Scripture.
In Nehemiah's day, the children of Israel
who had long been without the privileges of worship in the house of God, made a
covenant and took an oath saying, "We will not forsake the house of our
God" (Neh. 10:39). The Shunammite woman rode a donkey every sabbath day to hear God's prophet at
Call it fanaticism if you choose, but I
say without fear of contradiction that anyone who talks about being a
christian, who talks about worshipping God, who talks about being a believer,
and yet willfully neglects the worship of God, ought to blush with shame for
his obvious hypocrisy! All who know God in the experience of his grace delight
in worshipping him.
Don Fortner