Worship from the Word, Part 1

What is Worship? Tim Gruchacz takes us through selections from both the Old and New Testaments in order to discern and explain what worship is from the Word - not based on man's traditions or thoughts, but dictated by God Himself, regulated by His Word, and revered by His people.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Lord, we thank you for this night.
Lord, thank you that by grace, by your perfect plan, by your
mercy and your wisdom and your great power, you draw
worshippers to yourself. Thank you that you bring us
near. Lord, by the blood of Christ,
that you make us acceptable, that we can even offer worship

(00:21):
before you. God, we thank you that we can be
here, that we have the truth of your Word that is complete, that
is sufficient, that it guides usin all of life.
And we pray, Lord, that you would give us humble hearts to
submit to your word. We pray that you give us
discernment to understand what it says.
And we pray that you would give us eagerness to obey us and that

(00:43):
you give us conviction so that we'd be able to explain it to
others and share with others. We pray that you'd be glorified
this night, Lord, that everything we say would be true
and honoring to you. We pray that you challenge us
and refresh us, Lord, as we rejoice that we are your
worshippers in these things. We commit to you, and we pray in
your name. Amen.
No, I'm thankful for this church.

(01:08):
I'm thankful that it's a good church, and I'm thankful that I
don't have to explain from Ground Zero what worship is.
You guys know that, you know, worship is not limited to music,
but it's important for us to remember that in Christianity,
if we call it that at large, there's so much that is untrue

(01:28):
that's said about worship. So many people say, so many
bizarre and confusing and false things.
You know, some people would say,what is worship?
Worship is a group of songs. Worship was great today, or I
didn't really connect with worship.
Today people might say that worship is an experience.

(01:50):
I was looking through the top songs that are most popular in
the United States, worship songssung in churches.
And one of the song says this, I'm caught up in your presence.
I just want to sit here at your feet.
I'm caught up in this holy moment.
I never want to leave. Some people see worship.
Is that as some sort of experience that they're longing

(02:11):
for? It's something emotional.
It's something that you have to achieve.
There's some people in some songs who claim that worship is
a weapon. Another song says, I'll praise
when I feel it and I'll praise when I don't.
I'll praise because I know you're still in control.
Not so bad so far, right? Because my praise is a weapon.

(02:31):
It's more than a sound. My praise is the shout that
brings Jericho down. You think, oh, that's not what
that means at all. That is not, that's not what the
scripture says. So we need to be able to
articulate it because mixed in with all these false sayings,
these false beliefs, there's little bits and Nuggets of

(02:54):
truth, OK. When you Google worship or
quotes about worship, there's a lot that's said that's good out
there and a lot of bad churches that teach heresy, throwing a
lot of good little things. Worship is a lifestyle.
Worship is about exalting God. Worship is coming closer to God.

(03:16):
And there's many things that they'll throw in there that are
true, but most of the time they're diluted.
They're connected with things that are blatantly false, and
the whole picture that they paint of worship is absolutely
untrue. So we need to be clear from what
Scripture says. We need to set aside everything

(03:37):
that we've heard in songs, everything that we've heard
other people say, and just go toScripture and ask, what does God
say about worship? Is it something that we
experience or something we attain?
Is this something that we cultivate with an environment or
an atmosphere? Does it only happen here in this
building or does it only happen during music?
Is worship about my emotions andhow I feel or is it only

(04:00):
intellectuals? It just about me understanding
something? Does worship music?
Does music have spiritual power?Does it matter if I don't really
feel like a musician and I neversing on a Sunday?
So I trust that you guys can answer a lot of those questions.

(04:22):
They're not a surprise. You're taught God's word and
you're grounded in God's word and you're there.
But we need to think more deeply.
We need to be prepared to discern and divide.
There's so much good that helps us in worshipping truly today,
but it's vastly outweighed by the bad Christian culture.
Books, music, radio is is mostlyunusable.

(04:45):
OK, you, you might want to say don't throw out the baby with
the bathwater, but at this pointthere's, there's no baby left.
It's just dirty bathwater leftover.
And so we're looking at tonight from Scripture as our authority.
What is worship? So we're going to start from
scratch. If you have an outline, there's
some in the back that are printed just to help you.

(05:05):
And I hope to clarify my thoughts and to lead you through
an outline that is easily understandable.
But the thing that I hope that you take away from this at the
end of the day is a simple definition of worship.
There are many wise men, godly men, who have given better
definitions from me than than me.

(05:26):
But I would encourage you to think about worship, boiling it
down to 1 simple definition. OK, and we can expand beyond
that. But what is worship?
OK, if we want to define worshipas simply as we can without
missing any pieces, we'll defineit this way.
Worship is a right response to Revelation.
OK, it's all alliterated. It's even easier.

(05:47):
OK, worship is a right response to revelation.
And every one of those things are vital.
We have to remember every one ofthose elements in order to
please God with true worship. When we define worship, we
understand that the word itself means ascribing worth.
It means saying something is valuable, that it has
weightiness, a gravity and importance.

(06:11):
Someone defined as worship this as this.
It's recognizing God is unconditionally superior to
ourselves in every respect. As one whose true greatness is
beyond our poor power of expression.
He is the ultimate object of praise.
MacArthur defined worship this way.
It is our innermost being responding with praise for all

(06:33):
that God is through our attitudes, actions, thoughts,
and words based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself.
That's a great definition. It's better than mine, but at
the end of the day, it's great to remember something simple.
And so I want to encourage you to remember worship is a right

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response to revelation. When we look at Scripture, Psalm
29, two says, ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name
or the glory that His name already has.
Recognize the glory in the majesty of His person.
Psalm 86, verses 8 through 10 say there is no one like you
among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.

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All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before
You, O Lord, and they shall glorify Your name, for You are
great and do wondrous deeds. You alone are God.
So those three elements in worship, it's a right response
to revelation. It has to begin with His
revelation, OK? It has to be about God.

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You don't have truth about God. There's no worship happening.
It has to be a response. OK, worship is something that
comes from me in response to God, but that response has to be
right. It has to be dictated and guided
by the revelation that we've received.
Because God has not made his worship vague.

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He has not left us in the dark about what He desires, what He
commands. God is very clear, He is
gracious to us, He knows our nature, He understands that we
need things clearly and simply. And so in His word He's made it
very clear what He wants, what He desires.
Now, when you compare to worshipfrom other religions, even some

(08:26):
of these cults and other religions have themselves said
that their worship is trying to sweetens God's face towards
them. They're saying everything that
we do to worship our God, false God, is to gain his favor.
It's turn his face toward me to basically make him smile upon me
so that he'll give me favor, so that he won't destroy me, so

(08:47):
that I can get something good from him.
But when we come to worship, we Christians know we can't do
that. We cannot gain God's favor.
We can't earn it. Romans 323 I trust you know, for
all have fallen short, for all have sinned and fallen short of
the glory of God. OK, that separates us from God.
We have no ability to earn His favor.

(09:09):
Isaiah 64, six says For all of us have become like one who is
unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.
Isaiah 59 two says, But your iniquities have made a
separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden
his face from you so that he does not hear.
So worship is not a matter of mejust trying to do some things to

(09:30):
get God's approval and gain His attention.
We're automatically disqualifiedas worshippers.
No one can worship, OK? No one can give God worship that
is worthy of Him, that is good enough, that is pleasing and
acceptable to him. There's just no way you can do
it except because of Christ. And that's the glory of the

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gospel is that God has reconciled us.
He has brought us to Himself so that we can fulfill our original
created role of being His worshippers.
So when we look at the requirements for worship, we
talked about what is worship? It's a right response to
revelation if it's just as simple as we can make it.
We understand that there are three basic requirements for

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worship that are given in Scripture.
Would you turn with me to John chapter 4?
John chapter 4? This is a familiar passage.
I am sure you've heard this before.
I'm sure you've heard people preach on it before.
So there are three requirements for worship.
If I desire to be a true worshipper that pleases God,

(10:37):
that does what he commands, there are three things, three
things required, and the first of those is regeneration.
Because we're sinners, we're automatically separated.
Nothing we can do, nothing aboutus is in any way acceptable to
God. We, he, literally, we, we are
loathsome to Him because of our sin.

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But in Christ we are reconciled.Christ died in our place,
bearing the punishment that we deserve for our sins.
And so God credits us with Christ's righteousness, making
that trade so that our sins are washed away.
They're atoned for, they're paidfor in Christ.
And now God sees us as being credited with the righteousness,

(11:23):
with the perfection, with all ofthe good deeds that Christ has.
So now we may approach Him. Now we may be worshippers if we
have faith in Him, if we confessHim as Lord.
In John 3, right before the passage, we're going to look at
you're turning to John 4, verse 23.
In John 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about this.

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You must be born again. That's the starting place in
Hebrews 10. It tells us in verse 19.
Therefore, brothers and sisters,since we have confidence to
enter the most holy place by theblood of Jesus, so now you can
enter to worship. You can come before God's
presence. And the author of Hebrews is, of
course, using imagery from the Old Testament.

(12:08):
Here there was a separation in the Old Testament worship in the
temple. OK, Worshippers could not
approach the most holy place in the center.
Only the high priest could once a year when he offered atonement
for the nation and for himself. But everybody else was blocked.
They were kept away because theywere sinners.
But the author of Hebrews is saying, now you have access to

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the presence of God. It says in verse 20, by a new
and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his
body. And since we have a great priest
over the House of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere
heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.
Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty
conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water.
So now we have a right standing.Now we have been cleansed.

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Now we are brought near by Jesusso that we can be worshippers.
Hebrews 11/6 says without faith is impossible.
To please God, we have to have faith.
We have to have salvation. We have to have new life and new
heart given by God. Remember, we cannot earn God's
favor. He freely bestows us it on us in

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Christ. As Ephesians 289 says, it's a
grace, it's a gift that we wouldhave no merit or boast.
So the first requirement for worship is regeneration.
It's important for us to understand because we don't want
to give people the false impression that anybody can
worship God and that He'll accept it.
That's just not true. You have to be a believer.
You have to be regenerated and have new life.

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That's the first requirement. Second requirement is in John 4,
verse 23 and 24. We'll read that, but an hour is
coming, and now is when the trueworshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father
seeks to be His worshippers. Now if we back up, Jesus is
talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, and she's asking

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him a the Jews say we have to worship this way at the temple.
The Samaritans have their own place.
What's the right way? What what, what is required for
worship? And Jesus said it's not about a
location, it's about worshippingin spirit and truth.
For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers.
Verse 24, God is spirit and those who worship him must

(14:17):
worship in spirit and truth. So the second requirement for
worship is that we worship in spirit.
That means from the heart. That means we must have a right
inner attitude. And Deuteronomy 6, it commands
Israel and it's an example and aprinciple for us.
It says teach your children and all of the generations to fear

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the Lord as long as you live in verse 4, it's familiar hero
Israel. The Lord is our God.
The Lord is 1. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
might. Psalm 211 says worship the Lord
with reverence and rejoice with trembling.
Psalm 1031 says Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within

(15:01):
me, bless his holy name. Revelation 15 says Great and
marvelous are your work, so God the Almighty, righteous and true
are your ways king of the nations, Who will not fear, O
Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone are holy, for all
the nations will come and worship before you, for your
righteous acts have been revealed.
So all throughout Scripture, it paints a picture of the proper

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spirit, the attitude of worship.It's a fear of God.
It's a love for God. And we're going to expand that
more soon. But what's required is a spirit
of response, of humility, of fear, and of love.
The other requirement is truth. This is the one that we have to

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bring people back to. When people say, I've had people
say to me when I speak to them about songs, to say what about
the songs you choose on Sunday mornings or or whenever you lead
worship? Your songs don't have much
substance. They don't say a lot and they
say, but it doesn't really matter because we know the God

(16:07):
that we're worshipping, OK? And it's about our expression,
OK? It is about a spirit or
response, but it's about truth. It's about God's truth.
Whenever there's worship in the Bible, which is the whole Bible,
it always starts with revelationabout God.
It starts with truth. Psalm 14518 says the Lord is

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near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in
truth. John 1717 says Your word is
truth, and so worship requires truth.
It requires the word of God because that's how we know God.
That's not how we know what He has done.

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That's how we know what He has commanded.
Second Timothy 316 says that allScripture is inspired by God.
It's breathed out by God. It is guided by God.
So that is exactly what He wantsto communicate.
In Second Peter chapter 1, verses 19 through 21.
This is a great passage. Peter's talking, he talks about

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his experience on the mountaintop when he saw Christ's
glory, He saw his flesh unveiledon the transfiguration and Peter
talks about that. All right, we were witnesses of
this. We saw who Jesus was.
But in verse 19 of second Peter chapter 1, he says so we have

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the prophetic word more sure. Now in your translation it might
be confusing there might have the word made there, but it's
going to be italicized because the proper translation is we
have the prophetic word more sure if you had made it confuses
it. The experience of seeing the

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transfiguration is not more surethan the word of God.
The Word of God is more reliable, more sure than any
experience that a man can have. So it says you have this word
more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp
shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning
star rises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that

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no prophecy, no divine truth of Scripture is a matter of 1's own
interpretation. It's not about in its source or
in its end interpretation, what we think.
It's not about that, but oh sorry I skipped a phrase.
It's not of our own interpretation.
For no prophecy was ever made byan act of human will, but men

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moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
So when we look at God's word, verse 21 says no prophecy was
ever moved directed as if you were a person sailing on a ship,
you are carried along by that ship.
You are born along. So no prophecy was ever carried,

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born along by a human will, by human choice.
OK, but it says but men moved. It's the exact same word.
Moved along, born along, carriedby the Holy Spirit, spoke from
God. And remember, this brings us
back to truth. Truth is the requirement for

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worship, and God's word is exactly what He wants us to
cling to. So we need the truth of God's
Word. It must be central.
It must be in everything. It must dictate everything.
Those are the three requirementsfor worship.
We have to be clear on that. And again, we're not talking
about music. We're expanding out our gaze to

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what the Scripture says. When you look at the Bible, it
is a handbook for worship. It explains to us who God is.
It explains us to us what he desires from us.
It explains to us what he commands and how we should live.
And so the requirements are thatwe're saved, we're regenerated.
The requirement is that we have a proper spirit she'll talk

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about soon and we'll have the proper truth of God's Word at
the center of everything. And it's interesting if you, you
can turn to Romans chapter 1 if you like, or if you're familiar,
we'll just be there a minute or so.
But in Romans chapter 1, Paul says that in all unbelievers,

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what's indicative, what is true of all them is that in verse 19,
excuse me, 18 of Romans chapter one, men who suppress the truth
in unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.
They push back on the truth thatis true of all humanity, of

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unsaved humanity. And so as believers, as the
Church of God, it is our job to exalt that truth.
Unbelievers will always suppressit.
And we have to be careful because there are many
unbelievers involved in Christian culture, Christian
worship, Christian music. There are many unbelievers

(21:21):
involved in that and they desireto suppress the truth.
They desire to limit what we talk about God.
Unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and they
choose to worship something elsethat says they're futile.
In their thoughts, in their hearts are darkened.

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Professing to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds andfour footed animals and crawling
creatures. And this highlights what is
really happening. What's really happening in those
who write bad music, untrue music, who, those who are in

(22:06):
false churches and who lead it, What's happening is that they're
actually committing idolatry. They are suppressing the truth
that is known about God and they're committing idolatry and
they are twisting everything in Christianity in their churches
to be idolatrous, to worship themselves or to worship

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something else. Here's the reality.
Those who do not worship according to God's truth, His
character and commands as revealed in His Word, are
committing idolatry. They are actually worshipping
another God. And this can be true in the
meetings of churches. This can be true in the music of

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churches is that they're not worshipping God at all.
When you read what they sing andyou listen to what they say,
what is it that distinguishes them as being Christian?
So much of what they do and whatthey say could pass as worship
for any God. It could probably be directed to

(23:12):
Allah or whoever else, because there's no truth in it.
And we as believers have to havediscernment and we have to look
deeper because sometimes things can look OK, sometimes the song
can look OK. But you don't only ask what is
it saying? You need to ask what is it not
saying? What is the truth that's being

(23:32):
suppressed? What is being left out in
worship, in songs, in preaching?Of course we know Exodus 20, the
10 commandments, the primaries shall have no other God before
me. God created us to be
worshippers. There's no way around that.

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There's nothing that we can do to change that.
Every person is a worshipper because we were created by God
to be that. The problem is that in our
sinfulness now, we suppress the truth and we worship anything
except the true God. And when I do something other

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than what God has commanded and prescribed, I am setting myself
up as God. I'm setting myself up as the
authority on what true worship is.
And I am worshipping something else, often ultimately myself.
Worship my desires, my thoughts,what I think is best.

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The world has such a strong emphasis on autonomy, and you
hear this everywhere. People should be free to make
their own decisions about their own body, make their own
decisions about the day of theirdeath.
There's so many issues that are connected to worship when we
understand what's behind it all.OK, the issue behind abortion is

(25:06):
that God gives life and that we don't have the right to
determine the life that God has given.
We don't have the right to take that away.
The the issue beside behind euthanasia, which is more and
more common, especially in European countries and other
parts of the world, is that people are saying I want to feel
like I'm in control, I want to have autonomy, I want to take

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the place of God. I want to determine how I die in
the circumstances of my life andeverything in between, birth and
death. People suppress the truth about
God and they want to reject any limits.
They want to reject any accountability, any truth, any
of God's commands, and they wantto determine themselves in every

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way. So the challenge is great for
us, as it has always been. It's no different now from the
beginning when Adam and Eve first sinned.
We must be true worshippers who worship regenerated, saved by
God and worshipping in spirit and in truth.

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And we have to exalt our God in a hold to true worship in the
face of a world that rejects Godand will mock us.
And we'll do everything it can to distract us, to confuse us,
to take us away from the truth that God has given us.

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These requirements for worship are not just limited to John for
these other Scriptures. All of Scripture echoes in
harmony, right? Has one author ultimately the
living God? And so all of Scripture says the
same thing. These two requirements, spirit
and truth for believers, are echoed and intertwined in

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Scripture. If I have a right spirit and
attitude of worship, then I willingly and gladly submit to
all that God's Word contains. And that word leads me.
It shapes my mind, my attitude, and my actions to be more
pleasing to God. OK, if I reject the truth, His
commands, or I try to add to them because it seems good to
me, I reveal a wrong heart. I'm not fearing, I'm not loving,

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I'm not submitting. So that defines worship and
simply sums up what God requiresof us in worship.
What does worship look like? OK, those are simple principles,
but we want to flesh Him out a little bit.
What is a right response? Because remember, God's word is

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not lacking in detail. What does worship look like?
Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 10.
Deuteronomy chapter 10. There are 5 principles here in 2
verses that help concisely illuminate what worship looks

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like. And for myself, I was a lot more
familiar with Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great Shema hero.
Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is 1 You shall love the
Lord with all your heart and your soul and strength.
I was more familiar with that passage than with this one.
In Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses12 and 13 it says this.

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Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?
But 5 things, to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His
ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commands
and His statutes, which I am commanding you today for your

(28:50):
good. OK, we flesh out the
requirements of worship. God was very clear to Israel.
He was so clear and He repeated it to them over and over.
There are five things, OK, And if we want to alliterate them,
we can put them this way. In Deuteronomy 10, a response is
summed up in five ways. First is awe of God.

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OK, It says fear the Lord your God.
A right response is awe. It's a fear.
It's a reverence. It's understanding his holy
character, the fact that he has all knowledge, nothing is hidden
from his sight, the fact that hehas all authority and power,
there's nothing outside his control, and that he is

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perfectly holy and cannot tolerate any sin.
We look at his character in every believer, in every true
worshipper. It will produce a response of
awe, of fear, of reverence for God's characters.
That's the first one, awe. Second is allegiance to God's
ways. This is a life of submission and

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commitment. It says to walk in all his ways.
We have an awe of God and an allegiance to God.
These are the right responses. It's a life that is committed to
saying I am his, I will walk in his way.
It is a commitment. You could say it's a, it's a,
it's broader than obedience, which is one of the other ones,
but we'll get to that. It's a life of overall

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submission, all allegiance, third affection for God.
It says love him. We love because he's graciously
bestowed his favor. We love because He first loved
us. We love because He has not cast
us away in our sin, but instead has drawn us near.
He has reconciled us by the blood of Christ and made us new,

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new people that are able to worship and able to find the
greatest satisfaction possible in His worship.
All allegiance, affection #4 activity for God's worship.
It says to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul. This activity, this service is

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through the duties that God decrees.
OK, not only do I have a reverence for him, I'm committed
to his ways. I have a love for him, but a
right response of worship means that I have a, a visible
activity. You can see the way that I'm
serving God because he's told meto do certain things with his
people in his gathered worship. And the fifth one is adherence

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to God's will and it says verse 13 to keep the Lord's
commandments in his statutes, which I am commanding you today
for your good. So it's obedience to a specific
commands. Remember we have an allegiance
that overall he's our king, He'sour authority, but also there is
an adherence to specifically everything that he commands, the
details and all the things that he has told us and we know it's

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for our good. So Deuteronomy 10, verses 12
through 13 gives us 5 aspects ofa right response of worship.
What God tells us. This is what I require of you.
When we look at worship throughout the Scriptures, it's
helpful to define some of the language.
And as we think about those fiveprinciples, we see that there

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are three groups of words all throughout Scripture that are
connected to worship or that aretranslated worship or that
describe worship. OK, the first group of words is
used. One of some of them is used
right here in Deuteronomy 10. It's also used in Psalm 2223.
It says you who fear the Lord, praise Him.

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OK, so that attitude of fear of reverence is a word translated
and connected with worship. So the first group of words in
Scripture is attitude. Worship involves an attitude
saying the same thing. We already know that spirit,
spirit and truth, right? An awe of God, an affection for
God. And so we see in Scripture

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worship is connected to an attitude.
There's a lot of words that talkabout our inner heart attitude.
Second, in the Bible there a specific language used connected
with worship that talks about gesture.
It talks about our posture. It talks about the way we
express and hold ourselves In Psalm 95, verse 7, it has three

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of them, all in a row. Oh, it was verse 6, sorry.
Psalm 95, verse 6. Come, let us worship and bow
down. Let us kneel before the Lord our
Maker. OK, so those 3 verbs for worship
there, OK, there is worship. OK, there's that attitude of

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reverence, OK, there's bow down,which is the physical gesture of
worshipping. And then it has kneeling.
And so these are some of the words that are used, connected
to and translated as worship in the Scripture.
So when Scripture, the very words talk about worship, it
speaks of attitude of gesture and it speaks of activity all

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throughout the Bible. It talks about service.
It talks about ministering, OK. In both the Old and New
Testament, it uses words that were used in ceremonial worship,
OK. In religious tasks, in sacred
services, a priest would serve and minister, OK.

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A spiritual leader would do this.
The same word is used throughoutthe Scripture for us that we
serve and that we minister and that we carry out duties in the
worship of God ourselves, OK. And again, all of these are
inseparably linked. They're intertwined.
They're used together in Scripture.
You can't have outward worship without a right inner

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disposition, and an inner attitude of worship will
manifest itself in outward actions.
So I hope that's not confusing, but basically I'm trying to
explain in the different way thethe Scripture speaks.
It's saying the same thing. It requires spirit and truth,
OK? It requires a right response,
awe, allegiance, affection, activity and obedience.

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OK, in the very words it uses, it speaks of fearing and
attitude. It speaks of bowing down and
kneeling, the gesture. It speaks of religious service,
of duties. All these things are part of
worship. Which leads us to the
conclusion, when we say, what does worship look like?
What is the right response? How do we, how do we sum it up?

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We have some principles. We looked at Deuteronomy 10, but
we can sum it up as this My right response is my entire life
given to the love, fear, obedience, and service of God.
My right response of worship is my entire life given to the

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love, fear, obedience, and service of God.
Turn to Romans chapter 12. I'm sure you knew we were going
to end up there. We're talking about worship.
We're going to end up in Romans chapter 12.

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Wonderful verse. And remember, in Romans, what
has Paul been talking about? He's been explaining the gospel.
He's been taking us through God's holiness, man's sinfulness
and unworthiness. OK, the sacrifice, the
substitution of Christ, the atonements, OK, the work of God

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in all things, the great plan ofGod.
And so he says in light of all this, God's plan, God's
salvation, in light of all that we've been talking about for 11
chapters in Romans, he says in Romans 12, verse one.
Therefore, I urge you, brethren,by the mercies of God, to

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present your bodies a living andholy sacrifice acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual service of worship, your
spiritual service of worship. That word spiritual means
rational, it means informed, it means having an understanding.

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So what Romans 12/1 is saying isthat your response when you
understand the mercies of God, when you understand all that He
has done and who he is in his worthiness and greatness, the
only rational, the only thing that you can do is to give

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yourself everything that you areas a living sacrifice, something
that is continually given, neverconsumed.
OK, that's the significance of living, but continually offered
to God in the Old Testament, sacrifices were consumed, right?
They were burned up. They're done.
But you give yourself continually as a sacrifice in

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the service of God. OK, right response, is my entire
life given to the love, fear, obedience and service of God?
And it says in the next verse, it says do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so
that you may prove what the willof God is, that which is good

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and acceptable and perfect. So he just said, this is your
attitude. I give myself to God,
everything, all of me. That's my service.
That's my worship. That word service is the word
minister. OK, so this is your priestly
ministry before God. Just like the priest each day

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would offer sacrifices to God. That was their job.
You have a similar rule, except it's not something else.
You're giving, you're giving youyou're offering yourself, all of
you completely given over for God's glory and floor is
pleasure. And the next verse, verse 2, it
says be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can

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know so that you can discern what the will of God is.
Again, verse one talking about spirit, my right attitude,
offering myself. Verse 2, it says don't be
conformed to this world. Don't think like the world
thinks, but instead have your your mind changed by the God's
Word so you can know exactly what he wants.

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Truth, right? It's the same thing.
It's the same refrain. How many different ways can God
say it? Thankfully, he says it so many
different ways for us to understand, but he says the same
thing over and over. Offer yourself, have the right
spirit of worship, and do it in truth.
Don't do it the way you think. Do it the way that God has

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already commanded and made clear.
In first Samuel 1224 it says only fear the Lord and serve him
in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things
he has done for you. Colossians 317 says whatever you
do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
They do all for him under His authority because of him giving

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thanks to through Him to God theFather. 1st Corinthians 1031.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for
the glory of God. Sorry if I was, I don't know if
that came across as fast or anything.
I've been studying it a long time trying to put put together

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how to articulate it. So I hope that's concise and
clear. But God is so clear in His word
as we look, it says the same thing.
Worship is a right response. Worship is the right response of
my heart from my spirit. Inwardly.
It's saying, yes, Lord. It's saying I understand what
you've done, Lord. It's saying I fear you and I

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love you, Lord. It's saying I give myself to
you, Lord. And the right response is always
shaped and guided and controlledby truth.
It always has God's word as it as its authority and it knows
that it cannot do anything outside of what God has
commanded and decreed. It just reiterates the fact that

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God cares about proper worship. God has made it clear He's the
one who allowed us to be worshippers in the 1st place.
But God is very clear about whatHe wants and so scripture also
gives us warnings. God cares about proper worship,
and He illustrates for us in Scripture how important proper

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worship is to him. Turn to Leviticus chapter 10.
Leviticus chapter 10. I don't know how often you read
Leviticus. It's probably not the most
popular book of the Bible if we were to take a survey, but it's
great. It's a wonderful book.
This is a tragic passage in Leviticus 10.

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It's so sad. If we look at the context in
chapters 8:00 and 9:00, what's happening is that God is giving
the law through Moses and the Old Testament sacrificial
system. The system of worship is being
set up. It's being initiated.
This is the beginning. This is where the priests are
beginning their service. They're starting to put into

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practice what God has commanded them.
They've been brought out of Egypt.
They've been protected by the hand of God.
They've been guided by God himself, shown in a pillar fire
at night, pillar cloud by day. He was doing wondrous things and
he says, OK Israel, these are your regulations for worship.

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And the priests began their service.
They're set apart, they're consecrated.
They begin from Moses direction,from the commands that God has
given, practicing for the first day, the sacrifices, the
offerings that God says, this iswhat I desire.
So they do it. They do everything that God has
commanded. You look at the end of Chapter 9

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of Leviticus and it says then fire came out from before the
Lord. It consumed the burnt offering
and the portions of fat on the altar.
And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their
faces. OK, if you're looking for a
worship experience, this is it. OK, The priests are all in their
priestly garb. Everything's brand new and

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fresh. Everybody's watching.
There's an altar. They're starting the sacrifices.
They do everything OK. Everybody's learning.
Oh, this is this is neat. This is what God desires.
And at the end, what happens? The sacrifices are there.
Fire comes down from heaven and incinerates everything.
And what does everybody go, whoa, this is incredible.
God accepted the worship, but wait for the tragedy immediately

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after. Immediately after Leviticus 10,
verse one. Now Nadav and Abai, who the sons
of Aaron took their respective fire pans, and after putting
fire in them, placed incense on it, and offered strange fire
before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
And fire came out from the presence of the Lord, and

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consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said to Aaron, It is what the Lord spoke, saying, By
those who come near me, I will be treated as holy, and before
all the people I will be honored.
So Aaron therefore kept silent. So immediately after this great
mountaintop experience, this momentous occasion, on the very

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same day, after fulfilling what God had expressly commanded, 2
of Aaron's four sons go rogue. It says they offered strange
fire, which he had not commandedthem, so they offered some sort
of worship that was alien. It was different.

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It was not what God had commanded.
OK, I don't know what was going on their heads.
Maybe they thought, wow, this isreally great.
We get to be priests. We call down fire from heaven.
This is really impressive. Let's do this again.
The implication a little bit later is that they were probably
drunk when they did this. But the result of them offering

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their own worship, not accordingto what God has had prescribed,
is that they were consumed with fire just as moments, minutes,
an hour before the sacrifices had been.
And the result was their death. And the true tragedy in all this
is the disregard of God's commands and the offense to God.

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The fact that he said this is exactly how I want you to
worship me. I've made it clear, OK, I've
made it memorable. I will respond.
I will bless. And yet, what do they do?
They offer strange fire. They do what they want.
I can only imagine being Moses. I'm trying to think I'll know if
there would be anybody who with the more potential to be

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frustrated in Scripture than Moses.
Except for maybe Jesus, right. But Moses is saying I received
these from God. Do this exactly.
OK, I'm supervising. Do it exactly.
He turns away for a minute. They do what God has not
commanded and they're burned up.Like you got to be Moses saying,
what are you guys doing? It's the first day you just

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started this thing. But God is has this in Scripture
to warn us. He has it to warn US against two
things. And if you have an outline,
there's two blanks you can fill in.
God is warning us about unauthorized worship, which is

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neglecting His truth, and about unclean worship, which is
neglecting the proper attitude, the proper reverence, OK.
And the two, of course, go hand in hand.
In verse one it says that they offered strange fire before the
Lord which He had not commanded them, so they're neglecting the
truth that they would be given. In verse 3 it says I will be

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treated as holy before all the people.
I will be honored. Worship happens on God's terms.
It is. He's weighty.
It has great importance. And the priests, in disregarding
His commands, showed a disregardfor His authority.
They showed a carelessness and irreverence in worship and in
their example of worship to the nation of Israel.

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So they offered unauthorized worship, and that's a warning
for us. Second, they offered unclean
worship. OK, they were neglecting the
spirit, the proper attitude of fear and reverence.
In verse 9, God tells Aaron, don't drink wine or strong
drink, neither you nor your sonswith you when you come into the
tent of meeting so that you willnot die.

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It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations.
And so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane
and between the unclean and the clean.
So in their attitude, in their carelessness, in their
drunkenness, the sons of Aaron were offering unclean worship.
They didn't treat God as holy. They didn't realize that there's

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a distinction between what is holy and not.
They didn't realize there's a distinction between what is
clean and acceptable and what isnot.
They didn't honor that. A disregard of holiness for any
of us is at its root a heart issue.
God is set apart from us. He is not like us.
And if we, in any part of our worship, treat him as trivial or

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like a person, or as something that we can choose or that we
can be in control of, we are participating in unclean
worship. And if we have a life that is
not set apart, that is not clean, that is not confessed,
that is not walking in obedience, then we are offering

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unclean worship. Scripture has many other
examples, warnings for US against unauthorized worship,
which is neglecting truth and unclean worship, neglecting
spirit and reverence for the holiness of God.
In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel gaveofferings.

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You know, God accepted Abel's and rejected Cain's.
OK. It's not about what they were
offering. One offered animals, one offered
fruit and grain. The point was that Cain had a
wrong attitude. He had a wrong heart.
It also says that Abel gave his first lings the best part of his

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flock. It doesn't say that about Cain.
But again, that comes back to a heart issue.
And God did not accept Cain's offering because he did not have
a heart that fear the Lord. And he just proved that point
afterwards when he became angry at God and jealous of his
brother and he murdered him, murdered him.
It's a warning to us. In First Samuel, chapters 2

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through 4, it says that the sonsof the priest Eli despise the
offering of the Lord. They took the best parts of the
offerings that people brought, the best parts that were
intended for the Lord, and they committed immorality openly.
They showed no reverence for God's glory or his directions

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for sacrifices. They both did things that were
unauthorized and they lived unclean.
And so they died for it. And Eli died for it because he
did not deal with their sin and remove them from service.
In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira died because they lied
about their offering, their worship through giving.

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They wanted to appear generous, all right?
They wanted to appear impressiverather than giving to please God
and to to help believers. So they offered unclean worship
and God killed them. And in Psalm 50, God condemns
His people, Israel, for the samething.

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They could offer all the right sacrifices, they could do all
the right things, but internallythey were unclean, they were
rebellious, they were steeped insin.
And at the end of Psalm 50, verses 23 to 23, he gives this
warning. Now consider this, you who
forget God or I will tear you inpieces, and there will be none

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to deliver. He who offers a sacrifice of
Thanksgiving honors me. And to him who orders his way a
right, I shall show the salvation of God.
So the people who are truly saved, the people who are truly
worshippers, are going to do both things.
They're going to honor, they're going to give a sacrifice of
Thanksgiving. They're going to do what God has

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commanded in His truth. They're going to do those
outward things and they're also going to order their way a
Right. They're going to choose
obedience. They're going to live in the
fear of the Lord, and that's going to affect the way they
live. Again, Scripture says the same
thing over and over. It's clear for us.

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We're almost done with our time tonight.
Again, summing up, worship is a right response to revelation,
and we want to remember the revelation determines the
response. The revelation shows us what is
right. When we look at these warnings
from Scripture, how do we heed them?
What is the way of worship? And there are two principles to

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lead us in the way of worship. If we want to not offer
unauthorized worship, if we don't want to offer unclean
worship, then there are two things, two principles.
The first is we must have regulated worship.
We have to cling to the authority in the Word of God.
We do what he decrees. We don't have self designated,

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self invented worship, do we? Follow carefully all that he has
commanded. John Calvin was the first one
who articulated something calledthe regulative principle.
OK. And he said this God disapproves
of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by his
word. So basically God doesn't accept

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anything he doesn't command. That's called the regulative
principle and it's a, it's a godly, it's a biblical
principle. Scripture says, behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice, and toheed than the fat of a ram.
OK, God doesn't say don't sacrifice, don't serve, don't do

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those outward obedience. But he says to obey, to have a
right heart is better. Matthew 59 says, But in vain do
they worship me, teaching his doctrines, the precepts of men.
It's true then, it's true now. So much called worship is vain,
empty, and false because it's not according to what God's Word
says. It's according to traditions or

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teachings of men. It's according to some sort of
invention that we have come up with because we enjoy it,
because we're entertained by it,because it makes us feel
something. But we must have regulated
worship. It must be an exact compliance
with what God has already said. The second thing, the second
principle, is that we must have reverent worship.

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Do we regard the holiness of God?
Do we daily love and fear Him? Does that produce in us an
attitude that wants to please Him, that wants to do exactly
what He says? Scripture over and over says, be
holy yourselves because it is written, You shall be holy, for
I am holy. First.

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Peter 2 says You are a holy priesthood.
You offer sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing that we should be concerned with because
that's what God is is first concerned with.
Lance has written a great booklet called The Fear of God.
The fear of God is missing from the lives of too many people who
call themselves Christians, and many people don't understand it,

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even true Christians. There's so much emphasis today
on the love of God, and we don'tlose that.
God is love, but you must hold both.
You must have these intertwined.Is love for God and reverence
for God a fear of him, Right? Not a fear of judgement if

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you're a Christian because your sin has been judged already, but
you have a reverence for his power, his authority and
understanding of his greatness and a respect for his
discipline. So we heed the warnings in
Scripture by having regulated worship and reverent worship,
and that leads us in the right way.

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As we close briefly, I just wantto sum up, everything in
Scripture about worship is in a chord.
It is in harmony. Old Testament worship does look
very different from New Testament worship and there are
many reasons for that. The primary of which is that

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Christ supersedes and replaces everything that happened in the
Old Testament. Everything in the laws and the
ceremonies and the sacrifices ofthe Old Testament pointed to
Christ. They set up for Christ.
They pointed to the need for Messiah.
They primed and prepared God's people to know there was a great

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sacrifice coming. There was 1 great atonement.
There was one person who would bring them close to God, and
that was God himself. But when we look at Old
Testament worship, even though it is superseded now, it is done
with, as Hebrews 9 and 10 talks about, it says, we don't have to

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obey all those laws anymore because we have something
better. We have Christ.
Even though we don't practice all those things, they're still
valuable for us to understand because everything about
Israel's worship taught true principles that ring true today
about God and about our worship in our response to Him, right?

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And so as we close just a few ofthose things, Old Testament
worship showed us principles like we should be motivated.
Our worship is motivated by knowing God's character and
experiencing his grace. Old Testament worship taught
that holiness is not a burdensome, burdensome legal
imposition, but a privilege involving a grateful response to

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a gracious God. It teaches us that commitment to
holiness effects every area of life.
There's a great book called For the Glory of God talks about
worship by Daniel Block. And a lot of these things he
helped me draw out because there's so much in Old Testament
worship to understand, but he really helped me draw out some
of these principles. Old times of worship show the

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character and work of God, even in visual reminders, in the way
was built, in the images that were used.
It emphasized the transcendence and holiness of God.
You can't just approach God's presence.
There was a place you physicallywere not allowed to go in the
holy of Holies. It also taught the gracious
presence of God, the fact that He was there.

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He inhabited the Tabernacle, He inhabited the temple, He was
with his people. The sacrifices taught the
sinfulness of man that we are separated from God and that we
need atonement. The rituals and commands and the
rules about all the eating and the way they dressed showed
God's absolute authority over every detail of life.

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It showed His intention and His care for his people in every
command. And it showed that he wanted his
people to be separate. Separate in culture, separate in
conduct, separate even in the way they ate and the things they
wore in order to represent Him and to be clean and kept away
from sin. The Old Testament ceremonial
worship showed us the need for reminders of truth, and we have

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that same need today. That's why we have communion.
That's why we celebrate Christmas, Great Friday,
Resurrection Sunday. Ceremonial worship in the Old
Testament taught that there is acontinual focus on and study of
God's Word. It taught that there's a
responsibility of individuals and there was a responsibility
corporately. Above all, it taught that

(01:00:01):
worship and access to God is only on His terms.
His followers must acknowledge his kingship, they must be
distinct from other people and religions, and they must show a
spirit of worship through the observance of truth in every
area of life. And all those things are true
today for us in worship. And so we need to be instructed

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by the full breadth of scriptureand understand that both are
consistent. And I've used scripture from
both to hopefully illustrate that.
When we come back next week, we'll talk about individual
corporate worship and then we'lltalk about music.
We'll spend some time talking about why is singing part of
music. We didn't even talk about
singing tonight. We just talked about worship is

(01:00:44):
life. It's a life given in the right
response to God. But singing is important.
Music is important. And so we'll talk about that
next week and we'll dive into some of the issues, some of the
things we have to discern, some of the things we have to be wary
of. But again, at the end of the
day, if you remember anything, Iencourage you to remember that
worship is a right response to revelation.

(01:01:06):
That's what Scripture says. And if we remember that, that
will help us when we deal with other people from other
churches. So we deal with people who are
confused or we see various teachings and read books and
hear songs about worship. It will guide us and will bring
us back to Scripture, to its authority, and to its truth.
And so I encourage you if you have any questions about any of

(01:01:27):
that or if you have anything specific next week as we brought
into music and to corporate meeting, if you have any
specific things that you'd like me to talk about and to address,
I would love to hear those. But I'm thankful for this time
tonight and I will close in prayer.
Lord, thank you that you make usworshippers.

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Help us to be people who are concerned first of all, in life
with worshipping truly, with worshipping from the Spirit in
the truth that you have given according to your word.
Lord, help us to be reverent. Help us to live in awe and love
towards you. Help us to fear you.
Help us to have an attitude thatdoes not change, but sees you as

(01:02:11):
the authority, but sees you as the whole goal of our lives, the
focus of our lives, the theme and the King of our lives.
We pray that you'd instruct us. We pray that you'd encourage us
this week. Thank you that we can be
together and talk about these things.
Thank you for your perfect word.We love you and we praise you.
In your name we pray. Amen.