The Faith, The Cross, The Gospel, and The Worship of God The W in Worship stands for Wonder The Worship of God Chapter One The W in Worship is for Wonder Worship without wonder is at best a mimicry, and at worst a mockery. It is to be feared that much of the worshiping that is done today is so full of formality and tradition that the wonder and awesomeness of the One being worshiped is either heavily blurred or totally lost. There is a mysteriousness that surrounds the Godhead which cannot be defined or described in any human terms, and notwithstanding the many thousands of books that have been written in an attempt to tell the reader as much about Him as the writers are capable of putting into words, none have been able to fully comprehend who and what He is. We are taught in the Scriptures that the nature and being of God are so far above the nature and being of any of His creatures (including man), that He is to be feared with a reverent fear, and we are to stand in awe of Him. His name is above every name, and His nature is above every other nature. His words are purer than any other words, and His works are more wonderful than any other works. Devils tremble at the mention of His name, and angels hide their faces before His glory. Saints wonder at His saving grace, sinners wonder at His awful judgements, and the poor atheist - well, he is just a pitiable fool. I am acutely aware that this book will never become a textbook on what worship is, or how worship is to be practiced, because we already have The Textbook on worship – it is called The Bible. God is to be worshiped, and He alone has the authority to teach His creatures concerning the what, how, and wherewithal He is to be worshiped. But the worship of God, like so many other sacred things that we are taught in Scripture, has been perverted and lowered to a level that is unworthy of The Lord. Much of the worship that we witness in the churches today is centered more in man and materialism than in God. The sense of wonder is disturbingly absent from both the place and the people. Sin has done its awful work upon all of man’s faculties, including his spirit, his mind, and his will. Adam’s capacity for worship was severely damaged in The Fall, and all of his descendants have inherited their father’s depraved senses. But lest any should attempt to use The Fall as an excuse for their own improper worship of God, may I humbly remind the reader that he has no such excuse, for we now have the finished Revelation of God - The Scriptures. And The Scriptures are our infallible guide to the proper and acceptable worship of The Author of Scripture. The Scriptures show us what worship is, and how it is to be done in order to be counted worthy of our God. The Scriptures give us example after example of how God is to be worshiped, and, negatively, how He is not to be worshiped. The Scriptures show us how that God is well pleased whenever men worship Him according to the due order, and the Scriptures also show us how that God is sorely displeased whenever men attempt to worship Him contrary to the due order. But the modern trends of fashionable but false worship are nothing new. One of the most scathing indictments against mankind and his depravity is found in Romans 1:25, where Paul, speaking of the ante-diluvians, wrote: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. These folks had convinced themselves that they were worshiping God, but not only were they not worshiping God - they were, in reality, worshiping themselves. Their sense of wonder at the Being and Majesty of God had given way to a debauched, self-centered, and ritualistic worship and service toward that which God had created, rather than toward The Creator Himself. It is no different today. We watch men as they wonder at the scientific accomplishments of other men. We see men wondering at every new discovery in the areas of medicine, astrology, technology, physics and robotics. Men are wondering if they might be able to circumvent the fixed laws of God, and cheat death through cryogenic preservation of the human body. And Hollywood adds its own dimension to the foolishness in producing movies like Ice Man, in which a long-frozen corpse is brought back to life. But what of us who believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work upon the cross? What has happened to our own sense of wonder and spiritual admiration of His person? I am deeply saddened by the fact that we Christians have, to a great degree, compromised our convictions. If the masses of unbelievers in this world have no sense of wonder toward God, could it be because we who profess to know Him have compromised our own beliefs, positions and convictions? If the unbeliever has no sense of wonder or awe of God, could it be because he sees none of it in us? And if we have indeed lost this sense of wonder, or if we have substituted something else in its place, can we regain it? The Devil likes nothing more than seeing God’s own people substitute shields of brass for shields of gold. Our sense of wonder toward God has given way to a sense of admiration toward skillful and knowledgeable speakers and talented singers and beautiful buildings. The one-hour worship service is filled - not with holy wonder, but rather with wandering - wandering from one circumscribed step to the next circumscribed step, being ever so meticulous so as not to go beyond the two-minute limit for prayer, the five-or-so minute limit for the offering, and the ever-so-popular twenty-minute (or less) limit for the message. And the rest of the hour (if the meeting lasts an hour) is spent in “special singing” and a testimonial from some super-star sports figure who got caught having an affair, but then...found Jesus. And somewhere near the end of this whole mess someone may casually mention the name of God. And then someone will usually suggest that someone might – if he feels like it, confess that name...and be saved? What is even sadder is that whenever anyone asks us where they might go in order to find some semblance of true, Biblical worship, we are hard pressed to give them an honest answer. And all of this is to get to this point, namely, that God is not worshiped strictly according to our timetables, He is not worshiped strictly according to our man-made rules and regulations. He is not worshiped because we have built for Him a magnificent architectural structure. He is worshiped when our whole being is rapt in awesome wonder at His Word and His Presence. He is worshiped when we bow our hearts to Him in absolute trust and submission, with no regard for the passing of time or the strict observance of denominational peculiarities. God is worshiped when nothing else detracts from the worship of Him. God is worshiped when He and His Word are exalted in both word and deed by those who worship Him. God is worshiped when the unbeliever cries out; “woe is me, for I am undone.” God is worshiped when the unlearned and the unbelieving fall on their faces, confessing their sins, and worshiping, and saying of us; “God is in you of a truth (I Cor. 14:25).” There is little doubt among Christians that Moses is the human author of the first five books of the Old Testament. It was to Moses, then, that God gave the revelation of the worship habits of those Old Testament saints who lived before Moses. Some of those saints remain unnamed in the Bible. The first mention of one who worshiped God in the Bible is found in Genesis 24:26, where the servant of Abraham had neared the end of his mission - that of finding a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. There we read of him: And she (Rebekah) said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in. And the man bowed down his head, and worshiped the Lord. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren (Gen. 24:24-27). Can we not see the wonder in this man’s words and actions? He was filled with wonder at the way in which God had so guided his steps to the very place he needed to be, and to the very people who would fulfill his quest. Moses himself experienced this same sense of wonder while in the Presence of God. Luke tells us of that experience: And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground (Acts 7:30-33). Worship cannot be spelled without a W, for to do so would corrupt the word, and render it a thing of nought, having no meaning. The W in worship is for wonder, and without the wonder there is no worship, but a cheap counterfeit of it. The Old Testament saints worshiped God, and each of them felt a deep sense of wonder each time they worshiped. In the experience of Moses at the burning bush Moses saw a sight that made him wonder, and he heard a voice that made him tremble. This brand of worship is seldom if ever seen in our day, and yet God Himself has said: ...but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word (Isa. 66:2b). And David wrote: My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgements (Psa. 119:120). And the patriarch Job said: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5,6). And when the lame man who sat at the gate Beautiful and begged was healed, we read that: ...they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him (Acts 3:10). And when Jesus visited His hometown of Nazareth for the first time after His temptation...we read: And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son (Lu. 4:22)? And when Jesus had commanded the wind and waves to be still...we read: And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this For he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him (Luke 8:25). The W in worship is for wonder, and if we have lost that wonder, and if we have substituted something else for it, then we have ceased to worship God after the due order. Having been a pastor, evangelist and teacher for more than thirty years now, I am still waiting for that day when, after attending a place of worship, I can hear someone - anyone say...”What a Savior ” I have often heard many folks remark after leaving their place of worship: “My, what an eloquent speaker”, or, “What beautiful singing we heard today”, but I have never heard anyone say...”What a Savior”. And that in itself is a scathing rebuke to all of us who profess to love and worship The Savior. We have grown so accustomed to our timetables and rituals and ceremonies that we have crowded out the things that make for true worship. The brazen shields of fashion have been substituted for the golden shield of Faith, and the brazen shield of catering to the creature has been substituted for the golden shield of the preaching of the cross. And what does God think of all of this fashionable facade? Let us hear what He says about it: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of the goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting (Isa. 1:11-13). These burning words were sent to the southern kingdom of Judah, who, like her treacherous sister Israel, had abandoned the true worship of God, and had substituted their own brand of worship. But it seems that we, the New Testament churches, have not learned anything from their example, for we also have abandoned the true worship of God, and have substituted something else - something that is far beneath the dignity and majesty of Jehovah, something unworthy of Him, something with which I fear that He is not well pleased. And there is yet something else that must be said concerning the abandonment of the awe and wonder in our worship. It has been my experience that once we have abandoned something that was once held sacred then it is seldom, if ever, recovered and restored to its once sacred status. Let me illustrate. In my days of childhood my brother and his wife had moved in with our already large family of twelve. My brother owned a beautiful old 1951 Ford car. Other than the family horse, that car became one of the most prized possessions in the family. Its color was a beautiful deep chocolate, and my brother kept it well maintained for many years. But then something happened, and I can’t recall to this day what that something was, but I do remember that the old car was abandoned, and left sitting behind our old barn, and my brother was gone to Detroit. Weeds soon began to grow up all around the old Ford, and its deep chocolate color began to fade into a gruesome mixture of rust and faded paint. The interior soon became the habitat of all sorts of unsavory creatures, including spiders, snakes, and skunks. I kept wondering when my brother would come back and reclaim and restore the old car, but he never did. And when my brother finally did return he traded the old Ford to a neighbor for an old bicycle with warped rims and flat tires The old car still ran fine. Our neighbor installed a new battery, and aired up the tires, and drove it away. My heart sank in utter despair as I watched that old car go out of sight, and I never saw it again. I remembered the days when I used to sit in the front seat of that car, holding the steering wheel and trying to reach the accelerator, pretending to drive the finest automobile I had ever seen, and being filled with wonder at all of the mechanical stuff that made the car what it was. But now it was gone, and all of the wonder soon faded into fond memories. This is similar to what has happened to the once-sacred elements of worship. We have sadly neglected and abandoned those holy things that make worship what it is, and we have nothing left but fond memories of what worship used to be. That inner sanctum where God alone was once reverenced has been invaded by all sorts of unsavory things. There are some of us who still remember the sacred aura that lingered in and around the old country churches, an aura that remained even after the worship service had ended, and the people had left. I can still remember walking by the old wooden church when I was a teenager, and feeling a sense of need - the need of salvation, the need of Christ. The worshipers who worshiped there had that deep sense of wonder in their worship, and the place itself was considered to be...holy ground. And what does all of this mean? It means that our God is a God of wonder. He is the only true and living God, and His creatures stand in awe of Him. His Presence induces the wonder of His creatures. His Power induces wonder, His Precepts induce wonder, and even the Place where He is worshiped is (or should be) saturated with a sacred wonder. How, then, is this sense of wonder to be reclaimed, and restored to its proper place in our worship? It must begin with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ the Son of God. We who know Him as our personal Savior may sometimes worship Him contrary to the due order, but those who do not know Him as Savior cannot worship Him at all. The Samaritan woman worshiped, but she and her fellow Samaritans...knew not what they worshiped. Only after meeting and personally receiving Jesus Christ by faith could she (and they) know what it meant to worship God. Where God is truly known and worshiped, the wonder of worship will manifest itself - sometimes more powerfully than at other times, but it will be there, because He is there.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 20:23:46 +0000
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