Sermon #34 Luke
Sermons
Title: WORSHIP
Text: Luke
6:12-19
Subject: Worship
Date: Sunday
Evening –
Tape # V-95a
Introduction:
Most every religious order calls
its regular meetings “Worship services.” We do, the papists do, and the
Campbellites do. When men and women go to church, they are, at least they say
they are, going to worship. But is religious activity synonymous with worship?
It is Sunday morning. — A crowd has gathered at
the church building for the regular weekly meeting. The service begins with a
song or two and the pastor takes the floor. It’s time to welcome the people.
"We’re glad to see Sis. Long-Tongue back today.
We sure missed you. Deacon Hurt Feelings, we’re so happy you are back with us.
Brother Nowhere-Else-To-Go, we are so delighted you are here."
After several minutes of
this pandering to the flesh, he reads a few verses of Scripture and goes
through the motions of prayer in his “pastoral prayer,” followed by another
hymn and announcements!
·
Monday – “Boy Scouts meet.”
·
Tuesday — “The ladies’ missionary society has a luncheon.”
·
Wednesday – “Prayer meeting. Our attendance has been falling off
lately; let's all turn out this Wednesday.”
·
Thursday – “Visitation night. — When we go
they come.”
·
Friday, “The deacons' board meets.”
·
Saturday – “We clean the church. And, oh, yes, don't forget next
Sunday. Everyone bring one."
When all else is done and the preacher finally gets around
to giving a little sermonette. Everyone is looking at the clock, wondering, —
“How long is this going to take. The roast is in the oven. The lines are
backing up to the doors at all the good restaurants. The ball game starts at
What nonsense! Worship is,
at least in part, "the act of paying divine honor to God." Who is
honored in the religious activities men call “worship services”? — Man! There
is nothing in the average church service that is even remotely related to the
honor of God.
The words used in the Word
of God for "worship" speak of a "bowing or falling down,"
of “reverence and obeisance,” of “humility and surrender,” of “praise and honor
to God.”
In the typical "worship
service" of the modern church everything is done for the exaltation of the
flesh, the pampering of human pride, and the recognition and praise of men. We
greet men, turn around and shake hands, recognize everything men do. In general,
churches and preachers do everything possible to bow and scrape before human
flesh as though man were God and God Almighty were a beggar, groveling before
sinful worms to get a little attention! Today, we praise men and women for
blessing us with their presence in the house of God. In the Bible, men praised
God for the privilege of coming.
Most "worship
services" today are nothing more than religious pep rallies designed to
get more people to come, raise more money, perform more baptisms, and build
bigger buildings than the next church around the corner. Oh, that
men would WORSHIP GOD!
Can a church have a true
worship service? Yes, sir! I am no expert. I do not pretend to know a great
deal about this business of worship. But I do have some suggestions about what
we can do, some things that may help us to worship God when we gather for
public worship.
1.
Make the entire service a “worship service.” You cannot have both
religious promotionals and Divine worship. We cannot both entertain men and
worship God. It is impossible to have for our motive both the honor of man and
the glory of God. Let God's glory be the theme in all our services, from the
first hymn to the final “Amen.” – Maybe, just maybe, if we seek the glory of
God, we will be privileged to see the glory of God.
2.
Eliminate all excess baggage. Anything that interferes
with the worship of God must go. How will the people know when to meet if we do
away with the announcements? They might consider reading the bulletin! I put
the announcements in print (and don't insult your intelligence by reading them
to you). How will the visitors know they are welcome if we don't recognize
them? Strangely enough, people know whether or not they are welcome before we
sing them a song, have an “old fashioned hand shaking,” have them to stand and
be recognized, or hand them a card to fill out and drop in the offering plate!
“But, preacher, if we don’t
keep people pumped up, enthusiasm will die. We have to promote the church and
our programs, or people will lose interest.” – No, sir. That is the way it is
in the world, but not in the house of God. Spiritual enthusiam (if you will
permit me to use such a word) is found in and maintained by the gospel of
Christ. It is inspired by God the Holy Spirit. It is derived from the knowledge
of the love, mercy, grace, and glory of God in Christ. Enthusiasm,
faithfulness, or generosity stirred by any other means but the gospel itself is
not genuine and will sour, not enhance, true worship.
3.
Stick to the gospel. Heresy in music is just as
bad as heresy in the pulpit. A hymn or special music that is not thoroughly
consistent with the gospel is out of place in the house of God. Anything short
of the gospel does not belong in a worship service. Even our prayers,
(Especially our prayers!), should be filled with the gospel. It is amazing what
the gospel will do for men when it is the sum and substance of their worship.
Oh, that
men would worship God! Let us deliberately and continually clean the
house of the Lord, taking everything that has nothing to do with the worship of
our God, the glory of God, and the preaching of the gospel out to the garbage
dump and burn it.
With those things said, I
want to tall to you tonight about WORSHIP.
Worship is never defined in the Word of God. Therefore, I will not attempt to
define it. But there are several words used in the Old and New Testaments,
which give us an indication of what is involved in the business of worship. I
have already hinted at this. The different words translated “worship” in the
Bible mean “to bow down in reverence, awe, and obeisance, to kiss the hand of
our Master like a grateful dog licks his master’s hand, to prostrate one’s self
before the Lord, to supplicate the throne of grace, and to serve the one true
and living God of heaven and earth.
I.
The greatest privilege men
and women have this side of eternity is the preivilege of worshipping God in
the assembly of his saints.
·
(Psalms 5:7) "But 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."
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
·
In David's time, the saints of God "passed through the
·
In Daniel's day, the children of God ran to and fro "to increase knowledge," to know
more of the Lord God (Dan. 12:4).
·
Zechariah tells us that in his days, the inhabitants of one city went
to another, saying, "Let us go
speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts" (Zech.
·
Our Lord and his disciples went to considerable trouble and
inconvenience to meet together and worship God (Mk.
·
The Ethiopian Eunuch journeyed from
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.
II.
The Worship of God is the
duty of all men. – No
one can worship the Holy Lord God who does not worship him freely.
Yes, it is our duty, as well
as our privilege to worship God.
·
To Celebrate His Praise
·
To Confess Our Faith
·
To Encourage, Comfort, and Edify His People
·
To Spread His Gospel
Yet, in its very essence,
worship is a free, voluntary thing. It is something that cannot be forced,
except by the sweet force of irresistible grace.
·
(Ezra 2:68-69) "And some of the chief of the fathers, when
they came to the house of the LORD which is
at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his
place: {69} They gave after their
ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of
gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests'
garments."
A.
As the grace of God operating towards his people is
free, so the grace of God operating in his people is free.
We know and rejoice in the
fact that every blessing of grace and providence, as well as every blessing of
heavenly glory is free (1 Cor.
B. As we have freely received the grace of God, so we
must freely proclaim the grace of God to all men (Matt. 10:7-8).
Paul said, "I have preached unto you the gospel of
God freely" (2 Cor. 11:7). God's servants are worthy of their hire
(Lk. 10:7; 1 Cor. 9:7-14); I Tim.
C. God’s saints worship him freely. (Psa. 54:6-7).
·
(Psalms 54:6-7) "I will
freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good. {7} For he hath delivered me out of all
trouble: and mine eye hath seen his
desire upon mine enemies."
Both private worship and
public worship are to God's people free, uncoerced acts. Worship that is forced, or performed out of the dread of punishment or the
desire of gain is not worship at all, but only the pretentious act of a
mercenary servant.
D. Sinners who have been saved by the grace of God give
freely of their means to maintain and promote the worship of God (Ezra 2:68-69;
·
(2 Corinthians 9:7) "Every
man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful
giver."
Those to whom much is
forgiven love much; and love is manifest in two ways: doing and giving! God
does not need any of us. What can a man do for, or give to God? Nothing! But
the Lord allows us the privilege of giving to the cause of Christ, ministering
to his people, maintaining the repair of his house, and caring for his
servants. These things God receives as done unto himself and his people do
freely, as unto the Lord.
III.
If
we would worship God we must worship him in Spirit and in truth.
·
(Philippians 3:3) "For we
are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."
A.
We must worship God as God.
To call upon the name of the
Lord is to worship him. But you cannot call upon him, if you do not know who he
is. Worship begins with God Almighty revealing himself to us and in us by the
mighty operation of his grace. If God is pleased to reveal himself, we will
worship him. We will fall down in awe before his glorious majesty, supplicate
his throne, seek to hear from him and know his will. And we will celebrate his
praise joyfully.
If we worship God, we do not
pick and choose what aspect of his works or his being we will worship. We
worship him for all that he is and all that he does.
·
His Attributes
·
His Grace
·
His
·
His Judgments
·
(Psalms 36:6) "Thy
righteousness is like the great
mountains; thy judgments are a great
deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast."
·
(Psalms 48:1) "A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in the
mountain of his holiness."
·
(Psalms 97:8) "
·
(Psalms 119:39) "Turn away
my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are
good."
·
(Psalms 119:43) "And take
not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy
judgments."
·
(Psalms 119:52) "I
remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself."
·
(Psalms 119:75) "I know, O
LORD, that thy judgments are right,
and that thou in faithfulness hast
afflicted me."
·
(Psalms 119:120) "My flesh
trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments."
B.
We must worship God in spirit.
·
Spiritually
·
By the Power and Grace of His Spirit
·
In the Spirit – In the Life and Realm of the Spirit
C.
If we would worship, we must worship God in truth.
·
In Sincerity
·
In the Truth of the Gospel
·
In Christ who is the Truth – There is no knowledge of God and no
worship of God outside Christ.
D.
If we would worship God, we must renounce all trust
in the flesh and trust Christ alone as our Savior.
IV.
Now, turn with me to Luke 6:12-19. I touched on this a few weeks ago, but just
barely. Here are seven things absolutely essential to the worship of God.
·
(Luke 6:12-19) "And it came
to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and
continued all night in prayer to God. {13} And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he
named apostles; {14} Simon, (whom he also named Peter,)
and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, {15} Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called
Zelotes, {16} And Judas the brother of James, and Judas
Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
{17} And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of
his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and
Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to
hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; {18} And they that were vexed with
unclean spirits: and they were healed.
{19} And the whole multitude sought to touch him:
for there
went virtue out of him, and healed them all."
A.
A Priest Interceding For Us
(v. 12)
B.
A Man Sent of God with A
Message (v. 13 – Apostle — Messenger)
C.
Christ’s Manifest Presence
(v. 17)
D.
Come to Hear Him (v. 17)
E.
A Need Christ Alone Can Fill
(v. 17 — “To be healed”)
F.
An Earnest Desire To Touch
The Savior (v. 19)
G.
Virtue Flowing Out From The Son of God To Us (v. 19)