God is the great “I Am” the “Self-Existent One” who created all things for His own glory. We exist for Him, not Him for us. Therefore, He can be approached only on terms He Himself establishes. Since the Lord Jesus said that God must be worshipped in “spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24), clearly, there are untrue ways to worship Him; e.g., idolatry in the Second Commandment.

Part of the problem in discussing true, spiritual worship is that often, we assume we already know what the words mean and then interpret the Biblical evidence in light of what we assume to be true. For example, in common (though not theological) usage, the word “worship” is understood by the average believer today to mean something like “The feelings of awe and reverence about God we get from the music.” Many times, I have heard sincere, dedicated believers make a clear distinction between “worship” and other elements of a Lord’s Day service such as “preaching” or “praying.”

Now, we do not want to be unkind towards those who do not think in precise theological categories; however, there is a danger here. If we misunderstand key Biblical terms, it can affect whether we are worshipping God “truly.” Since God desires true, worship (Jn 4:24), false worship, no matter how sincerely it may be offered, does not glorify Him. Therefore, if we make a mistake on defining what the word “worship” means, then logically, we will not give to God that which He rightfully requires.

Our English word “worship” translates a number of Hebrew and Greek terms, none of which means “the part of the service where we get to sing songs or listen to special music that make us feel close to God.” Both Testaments have words that mean something like, “bow down” or “prostrate” with the idea of “doing homage to” or “make obeisance” as well as “revere.” These terms certainly imply that a central part of “worship” requires acknowledging God’s nature, being, attributes, power, glory and majesty.

However, another set of words appears to mean something like “religious duty” or “pious actions” or even “to work.” Worship requires more than just creating an attitude, but actions as well. For example, in the Old Testament, God required specific rituals to be carried out by specific persons (the Levites). If someone neglected those rituals (i.e., “works”) or added their own, there could be serious consequences; e.g., the sons of Aaron discovered this the hard way when they offered “strange fire.” Saul lost his kingdom, at least partially because he offered a sacrifice that he was not authorized to perform. Later on Jeroboam tried to keep his people from travelling to Jerusalem for worship and so built his own alters in Samaria, losing his kingdom as a result. The entire nation of Israel, North and South were eventually judged because of false worship.

Now clearly, once the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, many of the rituals of Old Testament worship passed away; they were signs, shadows and types to point Israel to God’s Messiah. When He came, the shadows passed away. Therefore we no longer build alters, sacrifice animals or observe certain holy days as Israel did (c.f. Col 2:20-23). Yet, surely there are universal precepts that God gave to govern true worship; precepts that were present in the Old Testament and remain in the New - the question is, what are they?

To answer that vital question requires us to take a step back for a moment and consider the issue from a whole Bible perspective. In Genesis, Adam sinned and brought death and judgment into the world when he desired to be as God, knowing (determining) good and evil apart from God. The core issue here was whether God was God; and whether His Word was true. The Adversary claimed that God had lied, that He was jealous of His position and was deliberately keeping Adam ignorant and powerless. For Adam to become like God he had to reject God’s revelation and trust the Adversary’s. Adam then conducted an experiment; he would judge between God and the Enemy; he allowed his wife to eat from the fruit and when she did not die, he declared that God had lied and ate himself, hoping if not to replace Him at least become His equal.

Therefore original sin came from Man doubting God’s word, wanting to replace that word with his will. And the rest of the Biblical record can be summarized as an outworking of this fundamental rebellion; sinful men want to be gods determining good and evil for themselves. In antiquity, this meant suppressing the truth of God clearly visible in creation and worshipping false gods (Rms 1:18ff). In the modern world, it often means men creating worship that pleases them at the expense of God’s requirements.

Israel constantly fell into judgment because of syncretism; of mixing the true worship of God with pagan rituals and practices. After the destruction of the Ten Northern Tribes and the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews became technically correct in their worship but suffered from a lack of “spiritual” truth; they used the worship of God to justify and rationalize their own sin - with the most religious people of the day receiving the harshest criticisms of the Lord Jesus.

The early church was torn apart from various errors with first the “Christian Pharisees” attempting to force Old Testament ceremonial laws on Gentile converts. At the same time, false prophets arose and attempted to replace the apostolic truth of the gospel with heresies such as proto-Gnosticism, mysticism, Greek philosophy, etc. Though surviving all the heresies of the first three centuries, eventually the universal church allowed man-made religion to replace true, spiritual worship so that by the time of the Reformation, the gospel itself had been largely lost.

All evangelicals will agree that the Reformation was necessary to restore the gospel and purify the worship of God - to restore it to its Biblical foundations. Yet, few would also deny that objectively, Roman Catholic worship was the most aesthetically pleasing, and sophisticated liturgy ever developed. There is grandeur to formal liturgical worship, especially when practiced in gothic cathedrals that even die hard atheists can appreciate and enjoy. As one wit quipped, “Roman Catholicism is the greatest religion ever invented by man…”

The Reformers however saw that true worship of God had been lost in the splendor, the man-made rituals as well as the sub-Biblical doctrine of salvation by faith and works. They insisted that God must be worshipped only as He Himself desires. This was and is a logical necessity; if God insists that He is to be worshipped in truth, then there is such a thing as false worship, worship that He does not desire and finds repellant.

Which brings us right back to the Garden again; if original sin resulted from man rejecting the Word of God, then true worship must begin with accepting the primacy of that Word. We may not begin by offering Him worship that pleases us, thrills us, or motivates us but rather that which He has expressly revealed in His Word that He desires. This fundamental assumption is seldom considered in most modern, evangelical churches. While the details would take us too far afield for this brief analysis, ever since disestablishment, when there were no longer state supported denominations, churches have had to compete with each other for members. Thus churches in the 19^th century subtly morphed into businesses; those that were most successful in meeting customer demands grew, while those that did not, shrank.

Take for example the celebration of Christmas; up until the 19^th century Christmas was a religious holiday created by Roman Catholics, and retained by Lutherans and Episcopal churches - all of which were a tiny minority in American religious life. Congregationalists, Baptists and Presbyterians rejected the celebration of Christmas as a “Roman” holiday. However, many of these churches were shocked when their congregants began attending “other” churches on Christmas Eve and thus began their own celebration. It was either recognize Christmas or risk losing members - the theology followed the popular whim.

Now this is just one example; the entire evangelical church in the 19^th century moved away from their Reformation background, striving to appeal to a Christian population seeking new experiences. Today, if a local church does not offer what the congregation wants, some other church down the street will and as a result, pleasing men, rather than God has become the operational presupposition in most contemporary congregations.

However, true worship must be Word centered; if it is to please God any element must logically derive from God’s own expressed will in Scripture. Historically, this has been understood that God desires prayer, with thanksgiving, and the reading, preaching and singing of His Word (as well as the right administration of His sacraments). To lose any of those elements, or to replace them with something else, is to risk losing true worship to something man-centered and false. Does God want His people to “dance” in church or watch “drama?”  Certainly these actions are increasingly popular; but He commands neither and both are offered as substitutes for His explicit command to preach His Word. Modern people live in a fast paced world and have developed short attention spans; the average Christian will not read even great books, and has no patience for sermons longer than just a few minutes. Furthermore, he is unused to actually thinking about abstract concepts; so the pastor offers sermons full of warm, friendly anecdotes adorning platitudes that no one can reject - and if he does it well enough, he can fill the sanctuary or even a sports stadium.

But has he actually led the people of God into worship? Is this what God wants? Will the people of God actually come closer to Him, grieve over their sins, repent and grow in wisdom, holiness, kindness and love?

Let me suggest that true spiritual worship demands that we pray God’s Word, sing God’s Word, read God’s Word and preach God’s Word (See “Calvin on Powerful Preaching” http://christian-civilization.org/articles/calvin-and-powerful-preaching ). I personally have no problem with contemporary choruses as long as they are doctrinally sound; my one complaint is that too often, the most popular ones are about our feelings about God rather than about His nature, being and attributes. I was recently switching through the local radio station while waiting for my wife to finish up some shopping. I found a station playing a nice, romantic ballad that was actually quite sweet and sentimental - until I realized that this was a woman singing about Jesus! The words, the tune, the sentiment all sounded like some romantic interlude!

However, I do not blame the artist for her music, but her pastor and elders. While I know nothing about her, I can take an educated guess that her entire Christian education has been that her feelings are the center of life. Therefore, anything that makes her feel closer to Jesus is good regardless of how inappropriate or even blasphemous it may be. Without being Word centered, she simply has no defense; nor do the millions of people who listen to her music or attend similar churches.

The sermon today falls into the same category; in many “successful” evangelical churches the sermon is relegated to a “good but not necessary” element. Sermons are either watered down to those pious platitudes we mentioned earlier, or considered something that can be replaced by drama, dance or the youth group sharing about their latest adventures. Furthermore, without being unnecessarily caustic or cynical, the unstated purpose of many sermons is to make people feel good about themselves; that God loves them and accepts them right where they are, and that they never have to do anything other than what they have already determined to do anyway. You see, if a pastor preaches the truth, he risks offending those who do not want the truth, who do not want to change (see “Why Won’t People Change” at http://christian-civilization.org/articles/why-wont-people-change-2/). If enough people get offended, he risks losing members to churches that are more “loving” down the street - or even his job. Therefore there is subtle but constant pressure on the pastor to make people like him - and that means never saying anything that might make anyone feel uncomfortable; as one of my seminary professors said decades ago, “People don’t come to church to feel bad…”

Obviously this view is contrary to Scripture where the preaching of the Word is central (cf. 2 Tim 4:1-5). We are to let the “Word of Christ richly dwell” within us as we “teach and counsel…” (Col 3:16). The moral issue before all men is whether we will believe and obey God’s Word; and the minister’s PRIME duty is to deliver that Word (1 Tim 5:17); the reason why elders who teach and preach are considered worthy of a “double honor” is because they have been entrusted with delivering the very Word of God and woe to them if they get it wrong (c.f. James 3:1ff). Our experience of God will not save us; our emotions about God will not lead us into His presence. It is the WORD of God that created the heavens and the earth; it is the WORD of God that condemns sinners and it is the WORD of God that accomplishes our redemption and sanctification. If we neglect that Word, devalue it, or replace it with something else just to please men we risk bringing God’s own judgment on our heads (1 Cor 3:10-15).

Applications:

First, if the Word of God is primary to worshipping Him in truth (Jn 17:17), we need to carefully reconsider our hymnology. For the sake of brevity we will side-step the issue of exclusive psalmody here; but can there be any “truer” way to sing to His glory than by singing His inspired word? Therefore, the church needs to rediscover the Psalms as God’s own hymnbook both as the source of what we sing and how we sing it as well as a guide for how we pray. The Psalms were intended to be a model, an example of how God wants His people to sing and pray to Him (one of the Hebrew words for “prayer” means “a song of praise”). God delights in the praises of His people; and we NEED to praise Him if nothing else to remind ourselves constantly of His goodness, power, majesty, glory and sovereignty. Therefore, let us all go back to the Psalms on a regular basis and study them for what God wants.

Secondly, we need to recreate a culture within the church that sees the pastor’s teaching ministry to be the central focus of worship - and give him the time and encouragement to study the Scriptures and learn how to apply them practically. God instituted teachers in the church for a reason (Eph 4:11ff) and to neglect that gift is to weaken the entire body of Christ. Granted, many Christians today have been starved spiritually so long, that like anorexics, they have lost their appetite for good, solid food (Hebs 5:11-14). But you do not help a starving man by refusing to feed him; you just have to break the food down for him into edible bites.

Pastors therefore need to see that they have no more important function than to study the Scriptures and teach them accurately to those entrusted to their care; as a “shepherd” he must feed the flock - that is his job and if he does not do it, then it will not be done. He has to love them, encourage them, and lead them; but he must also feed them regularly. I have been amazed over the years by the number of pastors who do NO study and regard preaching as ancillary to their “real” ministry - whatever that is. Some borrow their sermons from “Pastors’ Annuals” which provide messages for every meeting during the year.

God wrote His Word through men, and entrusted other men to interpret and teach that Word. Hence, I suspect that there is a personal transformation process that every good pastor undergoes as he studies and preaches. A sermon might be theologically accurate, or rhetorically pleasant, but unless the man has personally wrestled with the text, had his own sins confronted, considered how THIS word applies to THAT situation in his life, family, friends and fellow believers, he simply has nothing of significance to say.

What kind of father would entertain his starving children instead of giving them the food they need for life? And let there be no mistake, God’s Word is life. Preaching is more than just an academic or intellectual exercise but is food for the soul. God is pleased to take His preached Word and use it spiritually to transform us at the very depths of our being. He delights when His people, reject the false counsel of the Adversary, and receive His Word, rejoice in His truth and then APPLY it to their own lives. There can be no true worship without the Word; the Word prayed, sung, read and preached. All the vain things that men create to replace God’s elements only lead us to a dry and dusty land, without the water of life or the green grass of hope. His Word is true, and those who would worship Him must love and obey that word…

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and dead and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Tim 4:1-5