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. Copyright. 1992 by Christian Publications Camp Hill, Pennsylvania CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS Camp Hill, Pennsylvania In the Psalms you hear a rapturous call to worship. They answer that famous question put to us by the Presbyterians: "What is the chief end of man. God never acts without purpose.never. I feel that a great deal of what we do in the church today is purposeless. But God Never Acts Without A purpose. God has intellect and this means that God thinks. and so God never does anything without an intelligent purpose. Nothing in this world is without meaning. Science of course deals with the relation of things and their effect upon each other. and when we say this we know very well that some philosophies hold otherwise. Now I Use The Word "dogmatism" because I want to be dogmatic about what I'm saying. But I Use The Word "gentle" because I don't want to become offensively dogmatic. I believe it with sufficient emphasis that I control my life by it. It has been the reason I've lived and it's the reason, if the Lord tarry, I can die boldly. Now, these plain people of whom I speak believe that God created things for a purpose. God made man for a purpose and that purpose is given by the catechism. the answer is, "To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That was the purpose of God in bringing us into the world. I believe there is good sound reasoning back of all this. I believe that He created man out of no external necessity. The most godlike thing in the universe is the soul of man. He might not be a flower that no one could smell. He might not be a star that no one could see. God made somebody to smell that flower, the lily of the valley. He wanted someone to see that glorious image. He wanted someone to see the star, so He made us and in making us He made us to worship Him. I'm going to give you a definition of the word worship as I shall use it. You'll not find this definition anywhere because I made it myself. After Webster's Done The Best He can For You, then a good thinker ought to make his own definition. I want to define worship, and here is where I want to be dogmatic. Worship means "to feel in the heart". that's first.feel it in the heart. Now I Happen To Belong To That Segment Of The Church Of Christ On Earth That Is Not Afraid Of The Word "feeling." We went through a long deep-freeze period at the turn of the century, when people talked about "naked faith." They wanted to hang us out there like a coonskin drying on the door. and so they said, "Now, don't believe in feeling, brother. we don't believe in feeling. The only man who went by feeling was led astray. that was Isaac when he felt Jacob's arms and thought it was Esau." But they forgot the woman who felt in her body that she was healed. A person that merely goes through the form and doesn't feel anything is not worshiping. Worship also means to "express in some appropriate manner" what you feel. Now, expressing in some appropriate manner doesn't mean that we always all express it in the same way all the time. and it doesn't mean that you will always express your worship in the same manner. But it does mean that it will be expressed in some manner. "A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder. "A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe." There's an awesomeness about God which is missing in our day altogether. there's little sense of admiring awe in the. I like some of the things you do here in canada very much. It probably started in a simple form and whoever did it first had a good idea.after the benediction you sit down and worship a minute. I'm sure that for many it has become form. But when it's real it's a good thing. I see some occasionally who come in and bow their heads and worship before the service starts. Well, there's that admiration and awe. If there is no fear of God in our hearts, there can be no worship of God. An awful thing has happened to us, brethren, when we can explain the Christian faith. I am just as much afraid of evangelical rationalism as I am of liberalism. they're both heading in the same direction. In the States now we have a new school of thought which goes by various names. new-evangelicalism, it's called, but it's neo-rationalism. The evangelical rationalism which tries to explain everything takes the mystery out of life and the mystery out of worship. There must always be that awe upon our spirits that says, "Ah, Lord God, Thou knowest. Now we were made to worship, but the Scriptures tell us something else again. Man alone sulks in his cave. Man alone, with all of his brilliant intelligence, with all of his amazing, indescribable and wonderful equipment, still sulks in his cave. Man was made to worship God. I put more strings on your instrument and I have given you a wider range than I have given to any other creature. You can worship Me in a manner that no other creature can. Now, God Almighty sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world for a purpose, and what was the purpose. Now all of these things are true. Without worship we go about miserable. that's why we have all the troubles we have. You wonder why young people Act like such idiots. But not all young people have gone wild. They know why they came into the world. That's why I believe in the deeper life. We're here to be worshipers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after than he can learn to be a worker. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel." Peter wanted to go at once but Christ said, "Don't go yet. Wait until you are endued with power. Yes, but that's only half of it. maybe that's only one-tenth of it. The other nine-tenths are that the Holy Ghost May restore to us again the spirit of worship. Out of enraptured, admiring, adoring, worshiping souls, then, God does His work. The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, "God, where art Thou." It was God who cried, "Adam, where art thou. The whole substance of the Bible teaches that God wants us to worship Him. Now, there are good, sound, theological and philosophical reasons for this. But while God wants us to worship Him we cannot worship Him just any way we will. The One Who Made Us To Worship Him Has Decreed How We Shall Worship Him. He accepts only the worship which He himself has decreed. I want to speak of some kinds of worship that God has ruled out. There's no use trying to be nice about it. I believe that God wants us to be right, though He wants us to be right lovingly. The first false worship is Cain worship, which is worship without atonement. This kind of worship rests upon three basic errors. One is the error that assumes God to be different from what He is. He who seeks to worship a god he does not know comes without having first been cleansed by the coals from off the altar. But this kind of worship will not be accepted by God. The second error is that man assumes he occupies a relation to God which he does not occupy. He is mistaking error for truth, and spiritual tragedy is the result. The third error is that sin is made less serious than it is in fact. To worship God acceptably we must be freed from sin. Cain worship is worship out of an unregenerate heart. and then there is Samaritan worship. It is heretical worship in the correct meaning of the word "heretical." Heresy is picking out what you want to believe and rejecting, or at least ignoring, the rest. They worshiped Jehovah but they didn't worship in jerusalem. they worshiped at samaria. The history of the Samaritans shows that there were some Jews among them and that they had Jewish theology. That is Samaritan worship, and our Lord said, "Ye worship ye know not what. That is the worship of the natural man, only on a very poetic and philosophical level. It is an appreciation for the poetry of religion. It's a high enjoyment of the contemplation of the sublime. It says that the shape of your head tells what you are. There are certain bumps on your head that reveal your personality. If you have a bump here just above your forehead, that's the bump of sublimity. Such are the poets. they like to look at trees and write sonnets. Well, there's a good deal of religion and supposed worship that is no higher than that. People May mistake the rapt feeling they have in the presence of trees and rivers for worship. Yet Emerson Was Not A regenerated Man. I want to warn you against the religion that is no more than love, music and poetry. I happen to be somewhat of a fan of good music. I think Beethoven's nine symphonies constitute the greatest body of music ever composed by mortal man. Yet I Realize I'm Listening To Music. I'm not worshiping God necessarily. There's a difference between beautiful sounds beautifully put together and worship. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only the Holy Spirit can enable a fallen man to worship God acceptably. As far as that's concerned, only the Holy Spirit can pray acceptably. only the Holy Spirit can do anything acceptably. Otherwise the Church would have died the day that everybody who had been in the upper chamber died. I believe that the gifts are in the Body of Christ and they that worship God must worship Him in the Spirit. But also we must worship Him in truth. Now the worshiper must submit to truth. I can't worship God acceptably unless I have accepted what God has said about five things. Before my worship is accepted I must accept what God has said about Himself. We must never, never apologize for God. No man has any right to get up in the pulpit and try to smooth over or amend anything that God has said about Himself. There is that passage about God hardening Pharaoh's heart. There have been books written to explain that away, but I will not explain it away. If I Don't Understand It I Will Let It Stand Anyway. I believe what God says about Himself. Then to worship correctly I must believe what God says about His Son. Not what some philosopher says about God's Son, or some theologian. I must believe what God says about His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Then I Must Believe What God Says About Me I Must Believe All The Bad God Says About Me, and I also must believe all the good things He says He'll do for Me I must believe I'm as bad as god says I am and I must believe His grace is as great as He says it is. Then I must believe whatever God says about sin. Here's another place where the psychologists and psychiatrists have done us great injury. Some of you have no doubt read of Peter Cartright, the great Methodist preacher who lived a century or so ago. Well, Peter was quite a preacher.an ignorant fellow, but God was on him. They tell how he once went to a conference and preached. The conference was in the charge of a little fellow from a seminary and of course Peter had little time for those boys. He came down to the front and threw himself down and began to pray. He'd been a sinner and he told God about it loudly, which scared this little seminary student half to death. He ran to him and said, "Compose yourself, brother, compose yourself. He picked him up and went dancing around at the top of his voice. It was hard on the young student's dignity, but perfectly right nevertheless. Now it is possible to have religious experience without Jesus Christ. It's not only possible to have religious experience, it's possible to have worship without Jesus Christ. That is, it is possible for a man to have an experience of talking with God or being talked to by God. Cain had a religious experience, but God did not accept him. He had an experience and yet God was not pleased with him. In an old Catholic church in mexico I saw a pale-faced old lady come and kneel down before a statue of the Virgin. Yes, it's possible to worship but not be accepted by God Almighty. It is not an experience that saves us. it is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That May be beautiful but it's not worship. All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father. To Thee All Angels Cry Aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein. To Thee Cherubim And Seraphim. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of. The glorious company of the Apostles praise. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise. The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee, The Father of an infinite Majesty. Thine adorable, true and only Son. Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Worship: The Normal Employment Of Moral Beings. Why is He now at the right hand of the Father. Now because we were created to worship, worship is the normal employment of moral beings. It's the normal employment, not something stuck on or added, like listening to a concert or admiring flowers. It is something that is built into human nature. In luke 19:37-40 the whole multitude of disciples were worshiping the Lord as He came along and some rebuked them. The Lord Said, "Don't rebuke them. if they didn't worship Me the stones would cry out. Now, worship is the missing jewel in modern evangelicalism. We're organized. we work. we have our agendas. We have almost everything, but there's one thing that the churches, even the gospel churches, do not have: that is the ability to worship. We are not cultivating the art of worship. It's the one shining gem that is lost to the modern church, and I believe that we ought to search for this until we find it. I think I ought to talk a little more about what worship is and what it would be like if it were in the church. Well, it's an attitude, a state of mind, a sustained Act, subject to degrees of perfection and intensity. As soon as He sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts we say "Abba" and we're worshiping. But it's quite another thing to be worshipers in the full New Testament sense of the word and up to our possibilities. Now I Say That Worship Is Subject To Degrees Of Perfection And Intensity. There have been those who worshiped God to the place where they were in ecstasies of worship. I once saw a man kneel at an altar, taking Communion. Suddenly he broke into holy laughter." So worship is capable of running from the very simple to the most intense and sublime. Now what are the factors that you will find present in worship. Let Me give you a few of them as I go along. You cannot worship a being you cannot trust. Confidence is necessary to respect, and respect is necessary to worship. Most of us see God too small. Our God Is Too Little. David said, "O magnify the Lord with Me," and "magnify" doesn't mean to make God big. You can't make God big. But you can see Him big. I do not think they worship at all because their concept of God is unworthy of God and unworthy of them. and if there is one terrible disease in the Church of Christ, it is that we do not see God as great as He is. Communion with God is one thing. familiarity with God is quite another thing. I don't even like (and this May hurt some of your feelings.but they'll heal) I don't even like to hear God called "You. I can call a man "you," but I ought to call God "Thou" and "Thee. Also I Think We Ought Not To Talk Too Much About Jesus Just As jesus. "He is thy Lord. and worship thou Him." That would do more for the church than everything or anything else. Then there is admiration, that is, appreciation of the excellency of God. Man is better qualified to appreciate God than any other creature because he was made in his image and is the only creature who was. This admiration for God grows and grows until it fills the heart with wonder and delight. "In our astonished reverence we confess Thine uncreated loveliness," said the hymn writer." The God Of The Modern Evangelical Rarely Astonishes Anybody. He manages to stay pretty much within the constitution. Never breaks over our bylaws. The God Of The Modern Evangelical Isn't A god I Could Have Much Respect For. But when the Holy Ghost shows us God as He is we admire Him to the point of wonder and delight. Fascination is another element in true worship. To be captivated and charmed and entranced. Excited, not with how big you're getting or how big the offering was. Not with how many people came out to church. But entranced with who God is, and struck with astonished wonder at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor of Almighty God. I remember as a young Christian when I got my first awful, wonderful, entrancing vision of God. I was in west Virginia in the woods sitting on a log reading the Scriptures along with an old Irish evangelist by the name of Robert J I go. up and wandered away to have prayer by myself. He put Levi in the middle and Reuben out in front and Benjamin behind. It was a diamond-shaped moving city with a flame of fire in the middle giving light. Suddenly it broke over Me god is a geometrician, He's an artist. You know after that I began to love the old hymns and I have been a lover of the great hymns ever since. Next is adoration, to love God with all the power within us. To love God with fear and wonder and yearning and awe. To yearn for God with great yearning, and to love Him to a point where it is both painful and delightful. At times this will lead us to breathless silence. I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don't say one single word or ask for anything. Now God Does Answer And He does Give Us What We Ask For. That's plain. nobody can deny that unless he denies the Scriptures. But that's only one aspect of prayer, and it's not even the important aspect." God's already put Me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for Me we go to God as we send a boy to the grocery store with a long written list. "God, give Me this, give Me this, and give Me this," and our gracious God often does give us what we want. But I Think God Is Disappointed Because We Make Him To Be no more Than A source Of What We Want. Ever our Lord Jesus is presented too often much as "Someone who will meet your need." That's the throbbing heart of modern evangelism. You're in need and Jesus will meet your need. Well, He is that indeed. but, ah, He's infinitely more than that. Do you know what mental prayer is. I mean by that, do you know what it is to pray continually. I'm in communion with God all the time." He had learned the art of fellowship with God, continuous and unbroken. I am afraid of the pastor that is another man when he enters the pulpit from what he was before. You should never have to be a different man or get a new voice and a new sense of solemnity when you enter the pulpit. Moses came down from the mount to speak to the people. Woe be to the church when the pastor comes up to the pulpit or comes into the pulpit. He must come down to the pulpit always. Wesley, they said, habitually dwelt with God but came down at times to speak to the people.