Activity of Soul and Body in Worship

The Church as the Depository of True Religion and the Importance of Public Worship

0:05 I direct your attention to the book of the Revelation, chapter 4, verses 9 through 11. Revelation, chapter 4, beginning with verse 9. And when the living creature shall give glory and honor and thanks to him that sitteth on the throne, to him that liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne and shall worship him that liveth forever and ever and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were and were created.

1:07 We come this morning to the third message in this brief series in the book of Revelation, chapter 4, verses 9 through 11. It is entitled, Biblical Directives for God-Honoring Worship. Last Lord's Day, I sought to set this brief series in the setting of 1 Timothy, chapter 3, and verse 15, in which the church is called the pillar and the ground of the truth. In other words, God has constituted the gathered church as the main depository of those means which he himself has ordained for the preservation of true religion in the earth.

1:49 And the majority of those means, though not the sum total of those means, are exercised in what we call the public worship of the gathered church. Therefore, the purity, the existence, and the power of public worship is one of the most fundamental factors in the maintenance of the church. of pure religion in the earth.

2:18 With that broad context as the framework of our study, we then proceeded to examine 1 Peter 2.5 as a pivotal text addressing itself to the whole subject of public worship. And the great point of emphasis in the text to which I made reference in Peter is that the people of God in their corporate entity are constituted not only a living temple made up of living stones, but they are constituted a holy priesthood who are to be engaged in the offering of spiritual sacrifices unto God in the midst of that temple which they themselves are. So the people of God are temple, they are a holy priesthood, and they are the ones who offer up those sacrifices, and in a very real sense they are themselves that sacrifice, according to Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. This is indeed your spiritual service. And so as the people of God, we must be concerned with this subject of public worship.

Defining Acceptable Worship: Bringing and Receiving

3:34 What is it to render to God acceptable spiritual worship? And I suggested by turning you, to a number of passages of the Word of God, that all the activity of public worship required by God can be categorized under two headings. Those things which we bring to God, and secondly, those things which we receive from God. And that order is of critical importance.

4:05 For he who comes with empty hands to bring nothing to God should not be surprised, if he leaves empty-handed, receiving nothing from God. For it is only those who come with their hands laden with previously prepared spiritual sacrifices to render to God in the presence of his people that will go away with his hands full of blessings from the God whom he has worshipped. Now with that brief review behind us, one in which we addressed ourselves to the major, major activities of God-honoring worship, we now come to the second major division of our subject, namely, a consideration of the agent involved in God-honoring worship. We've looked at the activities involved in such worship. The activities by which we bring something to God, the activities of faith by which we receive something from God. That leads very naturally to the question, who then, why is the agent involved in the exercise of these activities of bringing and of receiving?

The Agent of Worship: The Redeemed Child of God

5:22 The word agent, of course, refers to the person or thing that performs a given action. Who is to bring such worship to God? Well, my major premise today is this, that the child of God, in the entirety of his redeemed humanity, is the proper agent, of rendering God-honoring worship. The child of God, in the entirety of his redeemed humanity, is the proper agent of bringing acceptable worship to God.

6:02 Now, why do I begin with the child of God? Well, for the simple reason that according to 1 Peter 2, 5, these spiritual sacrifices are acceptable worship, acceptable only through Jesus Christ. Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Peter is assuming that these holy priests are in such relationship to Jesus Christ, that what they offer, is found related to the mediation of the Son of God. In other words, they are in union with Jesus Christ. And union with Christ, adoption into the family of God, being a true Christian, are all synonymous concepts in the New Testament. Peter, therefore, assumes that the agent of worship is that man, that woman, that boy, that girl, of whatever age or background, who is in this relationship of vital spiritual union to the Son of God.

7:22 Or we might take the words of the Apostle in Philippians chapter 3, We are the true circumcision, that is, the true people of God, and then he gives three characteristics, who worship by the Spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who have no confidence in the flesh. The first mark then of those who are the true people of God is that they worship by the Spirit of God. That is, they worship by an energy and a perspective and an enablement that is divine in its origin, and they worship by the Spirit of God because they are indwelt by the Spirit of God, and only the children of God are indwelt by the Spirit of God. All the children of God are indwelt by the Spirit of God. This is the teaching of Romans 8, 9. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

8:27 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. So then we must establish at the outset that the kind of worship we described last week, that bringing to God of the joyful anticipation of expectant hearts, the praise and adoration of glad hearts, the confession and contrition of broken hearts, the prayers and supplications of believing hearts, all those spiritual sacrifices, the only agent who can bring them is that man or woman, boy or girl, who is in Christ Jesus. And here is the dilemma of the unconverted man or woman, boy or girl. He is obligated to worship God, but he cannot perform his obligation in and of himself, and yet he is guilty for not doing it. And God holds him accountable, and he is doubly accountable when he comes within the orbit of the gospel by which he is able to be constituted a true worshiper. But then I go on in my premise. The proper agent of acceptable worship is not the child of God.

The 'Entirety of Redeemed Humanity' Explained

9:40 In any case, the child of God is not the child of God. In any state or condition, but the child of God in the entirety of his redeemed humanity. Now, what do I mean by those words, entirety of redeemed humanity? You say, there goes the preacher.

9:56 Pile enough fancy-sounding words. No, that there goes the preacher carefully choosing words that I might convey chiseled, clear thought to your minds. The child of God in the entirety. That is, all that he is as a man or woman, boy or girl, is to be engaged in worship.

10:20 Now, what makes you a man or woman, boy or girl? Well, you are a body and a soul entity. To use the language of a passage such as Matthew 10, 28. Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, but who cannot kill the soul.

10:35 Or, to take the language of another passage, I pray God your whole body, soul and spirit be preserved blameless. The Word of God recognizes that as creatures made in the image of God, we have a material and a non-material aspect to our existence.

10:56 Now, that's not the fruit of observation. That's the declaration of revelation. It is confirmed by observation. But what we are, in other words, a true psychology is to be rooted in the facts of divine revelation.

11:11 Man is body and soul, or body-soul. So when I say the proper agent, according to the Word of God, in rendering this worship, is the child of God in the entirety of his redeemed humanity, I'm referring to the whole engagement of the whole soul and the conscious, active engagement of the whole body insofar as it will serve the soul.

11:44 Now, I've used the term in the entirety of his redeemed humanity. And what do I mean by that? Well, simply this. Though a child of God is one upon whom God has wrought a supernatural work of grace, making him a new creature in Christ, redemption destroys nothing of the basic fabric of our humanity.

12:08 Redemption goes after sin with a vengeance, but it touches nothing. But it touches nothing of our humanness.

12:18 In fact, the scheme of redemption is so planned and executed by God as to elevate and sanctify what we are as creatures, not to negate and to emasculate what we are as creatures.

12:37 So that whatever I am as a human being, I'm a thinking, a willing, a choosing, a reasoning, evaluating, considerating creature. One who can say to himself, even as I preach, I shall raise my voice. I shall lower my voice.

12:58 I shall sing with all my heart and soul.

13:03 I will number words that are being told to God.

13:08 Now, do we believe God is sovereign over every activity? Yes, even the falling of a leaf from a bird's wing to a speck of dust turned up by your tires on a dusty road. We believe this is a control. Not a control universe, but a universe in which man acts as man.

13:26 And even in redemption in which he never ceases to act as a man. Therefore, when I say that the proper agent of rendering this worship is the child of God in the entirety of his or her redeemed humanity, I am saying the child of God, the true Christian, acting as an intelligent, reasoning, choosing, feeling creature, who though within the orbit of redemption has not been neutered as to all the physical and psychological elements of his humanity. And those must all be brought consciously and deliberately to the holy service and privilege of bringing worship to the living God. All right, so much for my premise and what I mean by it. Now, it's my task to show that that's a biblical premise. So we shall consider then, first, first of all, the activity of the whole soul in worship.

The Supreme Importance of Whole-Soul Engagement in Worship

14:27 And then, as time permits, we will touch briefly upon the activity of the body in worship. That the engagement and activity of the inner man is the supreme issue in worship is made clear by two passages dealing with the subject of worship. Made plain in many places. But these two in particular, one from the Gospels, or two from the Gospels, I'm sorry, one from the Gospel of Mark and one from John.

14:56 Now, what we're trying to establish is we move to this first area of consideration. The proper agent of worship is the whole redeemed humanity of the child of God. We're going to split up his humanity into the two basic biblical categories, the activity of the whole soul, the activity of the body, as we stand on the threshold of this first major division of the subject matter, the activity of the soul, we must see that this is of supreme importance. Mark chapter 7.

15:30 Our Lord speaking to the religionists of his own day. Those who found themselves frequently engaged in public, specific acts of worship. And our Lord says to them, in verse 6 of Mark's Gospel, chapter 7, And he said unto them, Well did I say, Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, but in vain do they worship me, teaching for their doctrines the precepts of men. Vain worship, condemned by our Lord in the language of Isaiah the prophet, is seen to be constituted of two, two major ingredients. On the one hand, it is worship in which there is not the whole soul engagement of the worshipper. There is the engagement of the body.

16:40 There is even bodily function joined to bodily presence. They draw near with their lips. But he says, The heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me.

16:53 For a thing of naught, it is emptiness, or in the language of Isaiah 1, I am weary of it, I am tired of it, I want no more of it. So worship that is soulless is worship that is vain. And then on the other hand, it is worship framed not by the clear teaching of the Word of God, but by the teaching of men. So wherever there is a worshipping people, a worshipping individual, where there is this activity of external presence and some physical involvement without the heart, there you have vain and empty worship.

17:36 Or we could consider John chapter 4 as the other pivotal passage in the New Testament, or one of the other pivotal passages, that classic statement on Christian worship in which our Lord, in the midst of evangelizing an immoral woman, gives a treatise of worship.

17:58 For in a real sense, the whole goal of evangelism is to make worshippers of God out of worshippers of self. The goal of evangelism is not to pump the charts of church growth so that you have a success image. It is to take idolaters who worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, and under God to see them made worshippers of Him who is blessed forever. Amen.

18:29 And so our Lord gives a treatise on worship as He evangelizes a wicked woman. And in that treatise He says in John 4 and verse 24, God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. And you'll notice the 1901 edition has spirit in a small letter. It's often difficult to know whether there is reference to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit.

18:55 I'm personally convinced that it's proper to put it in the lower case, that He's not talking of the Holy Spirit explicitly, but He's talking about worship that is not external, worship that is not found in the wooden, uninspired, unzealous, any other term you use, involvement in form, but it is worship in spirit, that which flows from the spirits, the hearts, the citadel of men. And our Lord says, such worship alone does the Father seek, such worship alone will the Father receive. So you see, the agent in worship then is first of all the redeemed child of God in the totality of the soul, the inner part of what constitutes Him a man or a woman. Now for the sake of a more complete consideration, let's think of the soul in three categories. Now this is not a statement of accurate psychology, it is a reflection of biblical mentality and so I'm comfortable with it. Think of it in terms of the division of the soul into not airtight compartments, but into broad categories of subsistence.

The Mind's Activity in Worship

20:13 There is man's soul as thinking, my mind, my intellect. Man's soul as feeling, my affections. Man's soul as choosing, the will. Now as we think of what constitutes acceptable worship, worship involving the whole soul, we must think of it in terms of worship that involves the most intense engagement of all the faculties of the soul throughout the whole of the worship experience.

20:48 That means the engagement of the mind, my thinker, of the affections, my feeler, and of the will, my chooser. Now look at these three categories briefly, and let me bring some words from the Word of God to bear upon them. In the activities of what we bring to God, if we take that first one, the joyful anticipation of His presence, is that element of spiritual worship possible if the mind is not reflecting upon the promises of His presence? Is that activity possible if the mind is not reflecting upon the promises of His presence?

21:33 Is that activity possible if the mind is not reflecting upon the promises of His presence? Is that activity possible if the mind is not reflecting upon the promises of His presence? Is that activity possible if the mind is not reflecting upon the promises of His presence? acting upon the marble in the glory of the God who has promised to be present?

21:43 Of course not. There is no magical gasp let loose in an auditorium like this or an ornate place of meeting that suddenly causes the spirit to be filled with the joyous expectation, Lo, God is here, let all adore. No, no. You must, with your mind, engage yourself in intense reflection upon the promises that God will be here.

22:13 So you see, unless the mind is engaged, the soul cannot be engaged in worship. Or think of that other area of sacrifice, that sacrifice of praise and adoration from glad hearts. Can we render that if the mind does not think upon who He is? What He is and what He has done?

22:35 For instance, in the book of the Revelation, and I find that it is the most helpful section of Scripture on what it is to worship, and I try periodically to read these passages in which we have descriptions of heavenly worship, which we know is sinless worship, and therefore the object of our aspirations and the standard for our exercises of worship. I read from Revelation 4 at the beginning, at the beginning of our study, and do you notice what it is that occupies the mind in worship?

23:10 The four and twenty elders, verse 10, fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne and worship Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory, honor, and power. Why? Thou didst create all things because of thy will. They were and were created.

23:35 You see, the sacrifice of their praise is made up of the stuff of the mind's reflection upon the magnitude and glory of the created order, and it's as they contemplate mentally the glories of God reflected in creation that they find themselves abandoned in specific worship. Chapter 5 and verse 8, And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to open the seals, for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priest, and they reign upon the earth. And as you read, you see that pyramid of praise enlarges and expands and overflows. But you see this praise reflecting specific concepts of God in terms of who He is in Himself and what He has done in His works, both of creation and redemption. Well, you see, if that's what worship is, how can we worship if the mind is not intensely active,

25:01 not just coming, as it were, in a state of passion, not just coming, as it were, in a state of passion, hoping that some wonderful thought of God will zap the mind? No, no. We come riveting the mind upon the revelation of God in creation and Scripture, and we determine to engage our minds upon those glorious aspects of who He is and what He has done.

25:29 The same is true with regard to the sacrifice of a teachable and cleansed and submissive heart. How can we? How can we bring to God a submissive, cleansed, teachable heart unless the mind is consciously reflecting in the language of 1 Peter 2, 1? Lord, is there any guile that I need to put away that I may receive the word to my prophet?

25:52 Is there any wickedness that I need to put away? Or in the language of James, is there any overflowing of wickedness that I must put away that I may receive the word with meekness? Lord, help me to know, to face, with realism, anything that would hinder my heart being a fit receptacle of Your truth today. So you see, there must be the activity of the mind in the totality of our worship experience, if I may use that term in its proper sense.

26:28 And it's also true with respect to what we receive from God. Everything we receive from God we receive by faith. And since faith terminates upon objectivity, collective realities, addressed to the mind, there can be no activity of vigorous faith without the activity of a vigorous mind. I didn't say a clever mind, but I said an active mind.

26:53 For instance, Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, 7, having given some instructions to Timothy, he says, Timothy, think on these things, and the Lord give the understanding. You see, in redemption, he never ceases, to deal with us as men. The Holy Ghost has been given to be the illuminator of our minds concerning truth, but He has not come to set a premium upon mental laziness.

27:22 Some people have the idea, all right, Lord, come by Your Spirit, and we'll just sit there, sort of passive, and whoo, something will just come and zap me and go down my spine and give me tingles, and whoo, it'll just be wonderful. No, no, my friend. As surely as the servant of God labors in the Word, seeking to understand the mind, and how to structure the sermon, and how to convey it in simple language, and in a form that is not confused, in which you can separate the strands of his argument, and he is involved in the most assiduous, that is, the most diligent labor in his preparation. He throws himself in the totality of his redeemed humanity into his presentation.

28:05 You'll get by with nothing less if you're very blessed. You must then come to that exercise of whole self, whole souled engagement in preparation and preaching. You must bring to it whole souled engagement of eagerness, of carefulness, of diligence, or you'll receive nothing from God. This was true even with regard to Him who spake as no man ever spake.

28:35 You know what Jesus said to His hearers? Luke 9, 44. Having spoken to them, He says, Let these words sink down. Let these words sink down into your ears.

28:46 And He says, that's your job. He didn't say, stand there while I press them into your ears. He said, I've spoken to them. You let them sink down.

28:54 And that's your job.

28:57 That's your job. Oh, you say, well, in the world, we put my money in the plate to pay the preachers. That's no, no, no, my friend. No, no.

29:06 Our task is to labor in the Word and in doctrine, to seek to be sensitive to the Spirit's direction in the subjects we take in hand, to be dependent upon the Spirit as we labor, in exegesis, in the form and structure of the sermon, how to make it come to the best of our ability in a living, clear, vibrant, relevant way. But if you do not bring to it an equally vigorous labor of the mind, you'll go away uninstructed. And it's your fault. And don't you blame the preacher.

29:38 Too deep. What you mean is you're too lazy. Or you bring a mind so clogged up with Charlie's angels, so clogged up, so clogged up with yesterday's ball games that the Son of God Himself could not speak to your edification. Have got to prepare your mind.

30:02 You have got to prepare your heart. You must let these things sink down into your ears. And that's your job. And it's part of worship.

30:12 And what higher act of worship is there that when the creature who only knows as God reveals, whose highest mental activity is to think God's name, to think God's thoughts after Him, what higher act of worship is there when a gathered people sit and focus all the powers of their mind upon the Word of God to receive from their living and ever-blessed God and Savior the Word of life and direction. And you see, if your mind is not engaged in your worship, it's vain worship because it is not worship of the heart. But now what? What about the affections? If it's to be an activity of the whole soul, there must not only be the mind. We are not some kind of animated computers a la Star Wars variety.

The Affections' Activity in Worship

31:13 We have affections. God made us in His image. He loves. He hates.

31:20 He feels grief and joy. And we are a feeling body of people. And our affections are no longer the same. They are not the same.

31:30 They are so little part of our humanness. They are not our sinfulness. Now, sin has taken great advantage in the realm of the affections. But never forget, Jesus, who was holy, harmless, separate from sinners, displayed the full range of every human emotion in the days of His flesh.

31:48 So our affections, our emotions, this element of our personalities as made in the image of God, this is not sinful. And in redemption, God lays hold of the affections. He doesn't neuter us emotionally. He doesn't neuter us in the realm of our affections.

32:07 He does not make stoics of us who have clear heads but icy cold hearts. No, what He does is He so regulates the affections that we love the things we ought to love. And we start hating the things we ought to hate. And we get shouting happy about the things we ought to get shouting happy about.

32:26 And we weep about the things we ought to weep about. What sin has done is so twisted us that we laugh at things that ought to make us weep. And we weep at things that ought to make us laugh. Isn't that what Jesus had to deal with?

32:39 Isn't that what James says? Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning. He says, you people are laughing when you ought to be weeping.

32:49 Jesus said, blessed are ye who mourn now, for you shall laugh then. You who are heavy now, your day of dancing is coming. Well then, in what sense can we bring the emotions to work? Well then, in what sense can we bring the emotions to work?

33:01 Well then, in what sense can we bring the emotions to work? You say, pastor, you understand enough of human psychology to know you just can't command your emotions. You can't say to your affections and your emotions, be happy! And all of the sudden, you get a happy fit.

33:13 And you can't do that. Be sad! You don't stand in the place of regulating your emotions. No, but listen.

33:21 We can as conscious, rational, responsible creatures turn the mind to the considerations which will produce which will produce proper affections. Which will produce proper affections.

33:34 Let me illustrate, and then we'll turn to the Word of God to demonstrate.

33:38 You do not have the volitional power to open and close your pupil.

33:45 You can't sit there right now and say, Pupil, open up. Pupil, close. You can send all the signals from your head. Your iris will not listen to them.

33:56 You can say, try it. See if your iris will listen to you. Pupil, open. She says, I don't hear you.

34:03 Pupil, close. I don't hear you. But you know what you can do? If you want your pupil to dilate and expand, just take your hands, put them over your eyes, surround your eyes in darkness and open them.

34:13 And you know what happens? Automatically, open up. If you want them to constrict, look up at one of those spotlights, and they'll come right down to pinpoint size.

34:21 Now, you see, we have no direct power over the expansion or contraction of the pupil. But we do have power to choose to subject the pupil to those influences which will either open it or contract it. And the same is true. I cannot say, be joyous in the Lord.

34:44 But realizing it is my duty to rejoice in the Lord, I can turn my mind to the contemplation of those things which are calculated to produce joy. His unchangeableness, the infinite majesty and glory of His being, the wonder of His grace, the great spectrum of His provisions for me as an unworthy creature and a doubly unworthy sinner. Isn't that what David? Isn't that what David?

35:09 That's what David did in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. And it's as though he said, well, I'm not in too much of a blessing mood.

35:21 So he said, I'm going to get myself in one. Bless the Lord, O my soul. He talks to his soul and says, don't what? Forget all His benefits.

35:32 David feels the feet of his soul dragging themselves to exercise themselves in praise or to exercise themselves in praise. So he says to his soul, start thinking upon His mercies. He forgives all thy iniquities. He heals all thy diseases.

35:51 He redeems thy life with loving kindness so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. And my friend, if you have an ounce of grace in you, you can't think on those things long before your happy fire goes to work.

36:06 The same is true with grief. Be afflicted, mourn and weep. How can I? Think upon your sins.

36:14 Bring your sins to the light of God's holy law. Bring your sins to the light of God's goodness. Above all, bring your sins to the light of the cross. Deliberately think of that uncharitable word you spoke last week in the light of the agonies of the Son of God.

36:32 Bring that hypocrisy and that sham to the light of the cross. Bring to the cross those attitudes of jealousy and bitterness and suspicion and lust and pride. And you cannot gaze upon your sins in the light of the cross and not have the affections move to some degree of grief. Well, you see, if worship then is the activity of the whole soul, then it's not only the activity of the mind.

37:03 It is the activity of the affections in what we bring to God in worship and in what we receive from God in worship. I want to read one of those passages in the book of the Revelation. And I want you to tell me what's wrong with the way I read it. Revelation chapter 4, the passage with which we open.

The Will's Activity in Worship

37:28 And I use this because it is said to be an expression of worship. Verse 10, The four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne and shall worship him that liveth forever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power. For thou didst create all things. Because of thy will they were and were created.

38:07 What's wrong? I didn't add anything to the Word of God. I read every word. I didn't subtract anything from the Word of God.

38:15 But did I really read that passage in a way that conveyed truth? No. I read that passage in a way that conveyed a lie. Yes, I did.

38:29 I read the passage, though every word is truth, I read it in a manner that conveyed a lie. And what was the lie? The lie was this, that in the worship of those elders who cast their crowns on activity of abandonment, who prostrate themselves before the throne, the lie was this, that their worship was only the worship of the mind. I read it in a way that reflected the neutering of the affectionate. We stand and sing apparently under the God's blessing. Last week's message made in your singing this morning. I was tempted not to join you as a priest, but listen as an outsider.

39:40 But oh, how we tell a lie! If we open a hymn of testimony, I love to tell the story of unseen things above. I love to tell the story...

39:51 It's a lie! But when we say immortal, invisible, God only, wise, enlightened, accessible, how can the mind be feeding any impulses to the affections without there being something of the infraction of love and wonder expressed in holy enthusiasm as the body becomes servant to the state of the soul? Now, we all have different emotional intensity. I'm fully aware of that.

40:25 And we must beware of anything affected. We must beware of offering the strange fire of sham zeal. And I know that not everyone is as volatile in his personality as I am. I'm fully aware of that.

40:41 But this much I know. I have seen some of you who are very reserved in your basic personality style. Your personality stamp. I've seen you show excitement about carnal things.

40:53 And I've seen some of the most reserved people go bananas at their favorite ball game. When they got caught up in what was happening on the field and forgot themselves, the joy that their team scored a touchdown, that fact so gripped them that their emotions were released. Is the infinite God and eternal saving truth worthy of less? Holy abandonment?

41:22 I leave the answer to your conscience. Well, I must hurry on. For it involves the will. Not only my thinker, not only my feeler, but my chooser.

41:34 If the mind is the faculty of thought, the affections of feeling, then the will is the faculty of choice. Now, follow closely. In the unsaved man, the will is in bondage to sin. It's still the will.

41:46 The sinner thinks he's free. He says, I choose to do this because I want to. I choose to do that because I want to. Yes, but all his wants are in the realm of the basic state of his soul.

41:59 He drinks iniquity like water. And if you want to know, dear sinner friend, how much you're in bondage, sit there right now and say, I will love God supremely. I will for this one day not bow down to my own idols, my own idols, in terms of what I want and I desire and I choose and I get turned on. I get turned on by.

42:23 This day I will become taken up with God and His word. You'll see how much you're in bondage to sin. Now, God in grace liberates the will of the believer, but He doesn't neuter His will. He releases the will from the bondage of sin.

42:43 He infuses the will with evangelical motives. But the will of the believer is still the will of a human being. I must choose as a willing, thinking, rational creature. Now, that being so, notice the language of David with regard to worship.

43:03 Psalm 9 as an example. Give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart. I will show forth all Thy marvelous works. I will be glad and exult in Thee.

43:20 I will sing praise to Thy name, O Thou Most High God. You see the resolution. Realizing that God is worthy of this praise and adoration, He says, I choose to render to God that which is His due. Now, here's where many of us fail.

43:40 And I confess with shame I have failed too many times in this area. We allow the present state of our feelings to bully our wills rather than making the will to bully our feelings. Now, you turn to Psalm 56. Psalm 57 for a classic example of this.

44:02 You say, here's a man who's probably on cloud nine. He's just coming off a wonderful glory fit. The Lord's blessed him with some wonderful blessing. And so he says in verse 7 of Psalm 57, My heart is fixed.

44:19 My heart is fixed. I will sing. I will sing praises. Awake up my glory.

44:26 Awake, psaltery and harp. It's like he's talking to his instrument, saying, What are you doing? I'm asleep. God is to be praised.

44:32 And I'm determined to praise Him. And he says, I myself will awake right early. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

44:43 For thy lovingkindness is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the skies. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. You think here's a man that's been praying that God would meet him in a given area of need for months and years.

44:58 And God has finally answered him. And he's just bursting with gratitude. No, no. You read the first part of this psalm.

45:05 You read the historical setting. You know where David is? David's out in the cave being hunted like a criminal by Saul. For no evil did he have done.

45:15 And he says that he is in a situation as though he were surrounded by lions. Verse 4, My soul is among lions. I lie among them that are set on fire. Think of it.

45:28 God had promised David you're going to be king. And now the Lord sends him into this baptism of suffering and opposition from Saul for no evil that he has done. And God allows this trial to go on week after week, month after month. David's cut off from wife and friends and all of the comforts of life that he had previously known.

45:51 And yet he says, I will. I will to give thanks to my God. He bullies his people. He bullies his feelings into obedience to the duties prescribed by the word of God.

46:05 And oh dear people, perhaps in a real sense, this is where the sacrificial element of praise enters, a sacrifice cost for something. The man who would bring the lamb to God in the old economy had to tick off one less lamb in his flock. It was costly to render to God his due. And there's an element in which it is costly.

46:27 To say to your present state of mind and feelings, the mind running out to a thousand legitimate concerns, the feelings as it were overpowered by negative circumstances, to say, Almighty God requires of me my worship. Almighty God is worthy of that worship. And I will to bring by the grace of God mind and affection subject to the word of God as I choose obedience. Choose obedience as a child of God.

47:01 You say, where's the Holy Spirit and all that? That sounds like sheer determination. My friend, whoever gave you that desire to bully your feelings in your mind in conformity with the word of God, where'd that come from? That's God working in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

47:18 But in the complexity of His working, you are never neutered as a human being. You must with David say, I will sing. You must say to your psaltery and harp, voice cords, vocal cords, lungs, wake up! God is to be praised.

47:37 Don't slumber in His presence. Throw back the shoulders. Suck the air into the lungs. Support the lungs with a diaphragm and throw yourself into the praise of God.

47:48 No matter what you feel like. You see, worship is work, isn't it? It's the whole soul engaged in the praise of God. Now, very briefly, and I say this, I said it would be brief.

The Body's Activity in Worship

48:04 What about the activity of the body? Since we do not worship as disembodied spirits, those who've gone on before and joined the spirits of just men made perfect, they worship with no body. They're disembodied spirits. Nor do we worship as spiritless creatures such as the angels, seraphim, cherubim.

48:26 We worship as whole men and women. And it's interesting that the major word in Hebrew and the major word in Greek for worship are words which describe doing obeisance. That is, bowing in the presence of a monarch. Bowing in the presence of one greater than we are.

48:46 And when you turn to the Old and the New Testaments, you find this phrase again and again. He bowed down and he worshiped. The physical posture was, as it were, an outlet of the posture of the soul and was the answer on the outside to the state of heart on the inside. Let me give you a couple of examples from Old and New Testaments.

49:09 Genesis 24. Genesis 24. Abraham's servant has gone to seek a wife for Isaac. God is blessing his mission.

49:23 And when it becomes evident that God is doing that, we read in Genesis 24, 26 these words, And the man bowed his head and worshiped Jehovah. You see, as he thought of God's goodness in answering his prayer, he felt overwhelmed with the sense of God's goodness and glory coupled with his own unworthiness. And as the soul felt that reality, as the mind dictated those concepts, as the will complied in rendering worship, the body, as it were, became servant to the state of the soul. And that sense of being overwhelmed, his head is bowed and he worships.

50:07 You'll find that again and again in the Old Testament. Time will not permit me to even give you the references I had written down. But you find it in the New. You'll remember in the famous scene or the well-known incident in Matthew 2 that the Magi came and it says they bowed down and they worshiped Him.

50:25 And then these passages in the Book of the Revelation, Ah, but someone says that's just Eastern custom. My friend, as Mr. Garlington reminded us this morning, who framed, the customs within which the Word of God came to us, who framed the cultural milieu out of which the Word of God came to us, Almighty God did, and He made it the vehicle of conveying His truth to us and as surely as the Hebrew language and the Greek language are the linguistic medium of conveying the mind of God, God has chosen those cultures to convey the great principles of duty and privilege for His people. Now the bodily, if you get hold of this principle, this is the heart of it, the bodily should be the conscious reflection of the state and attitude of the soul. I beseech you to offer your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind. If the mind is being renewed in its understanding of what pleases God, the body will reflect that renewal in that its service will be rendered according to the precepts of the Word of God.

51:46 Do you know that the standing, sitting posture we assume in our worship is not just a tradition, at least it's not that with me? The Bible records the people of God standing in worship. What should we think when we stand to worship? Oh, my friend, many, many thoughts, but these are some of them.

52:03 Lord, I thank You. I can stand to praise You, something no beast can do, something no reptile can do, something no dolphin in the sea, no crocodile in the river can do. Lord, I of all creatures stand upright, made in Your image, and I can stand to praise You. Lord, I stand as one who knows who He is.

52:28 I stand as one who will stand before You in the last day. I need not cringe. I need not worship, bowed off in a corner with my hymn book. I may stand with open face, and countenance bold shall I stand in Thy great day.

52:44 Let those thoughts flood your mind in the posture of standing. Why do we bow our heads when we pray? Because when we sense something in the soul of the majesty of God, the unworthiness of that which we are as sinners, somehow you just can't be content to lift up your face to such a God. You feel you must bow before Him.

53:06 However, there are times when in prayer we may, be given such a sense of intimacy, of access to God, that we will do as our Lord did. It says, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Holy Father. You see, there is no specific posture prescribed in the Word of God. The principle is, the posture of worship at any given point is reflective of the state of the soul.

53:33 That's the great principle. And so the body is made servant of the soul in the activity of worship. You have that incident in Samuel where David was so thrilled that the ark of God was coming back. Second Samuel 6.14, it says, he danced before the ark with all of his might. So much so that he offended his carnal wife. He says, you made a donkey of yourself. Shame on you.

54:00 He says, I'll shame you some more. I'll go back and dance with even greater fervor before the Lord. I will that the men pray in every praise lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. The custom was to stretch out the hands as receiving something from God.

54:17 He says, make sure that the hands you stretch out that have been washed before you come to the public assembly are hands of a man whose soul has been washed in the blood of Christ. Lifting up holy hands. You see, we do not worship as angels or disembodied spirits. And therefore the body must be the servant of the soul in our worship.

54:42 And as we deal tonight with the hindrances to worship we'll see the direct connection then between carelessness in giving the body adequate rest and indisposition to the kind of worship we ought to render. You see, you must not only cultivate the soul and prepare it for worship. There's a sense in which you must prepare the body for worship. For if the body sends out such strong signals of weariness, the soul will not be able to respond unless God is pleased to give an unusual quickening of the mortal frame which He sometimes does.

Call to Unbelievers and Believers

55:16 Well, I must close, and as I do I address myself to you who are not the children of God. It's a terrible thing to realize you can't worship the God who made you. But you can't until you're in Christ. God accepts nothing that you render to Him.

55:35 You say, well, should I stop coming then? No, that would add sin to sin. No, don't stop coming to public worship. But come to Christ.

55:45 So that you may begin to worship Him in spirit and in truth. For in a sense, my friend, Christ died for sinners to make them worshipers. And until you flee to the Son of God, you'll never worship the living God who made you. And child of God, I hope you see this morning as never before from the Scriptures that the proper agent in God-honoring worship is the entirety of your redeemed humanity.

56:17 Which will mean the engagement of that entire redeemed humanity. A whole-souled and bodily activity. And may I say to you men preparing for the ministry this is essentially the basis of a proper biblical theory of preaching. Preaching is a whole-souled bodily activity of living communication of the Word of God.

56:42 And this notion that the preacher is just an accurate word machine some kind of an ecclesiastical computer. It is spelling death on true preaching. Well, I can't go into that. I'd like to, but I can't.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession

56:56 May God grant, may God grant that we as His people shall be true worshipers by the enablement of His grace. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we thank You that You are willing to receive the worship of such poor, miserable creatures as we are. Not only willing, but that You command our worship.

57:29 And we thank You that in the person and work of Your Son a way has been made whereby our worship may be acceptable through Him. Oh, God, forgive us for the thievery that we've engaged in many times even in this place. When we've held back from You some faculty of our redeemed humanity and our worship has been lame and halt our worship has been something less than the engagement of the entirety of our redeemed humanity. And yet, our Father, we acknowledge that even when we are enabled so to worship You that apart from the mediation of Your Son our worship would be a stench in Your nostrils. So we thank You for Him and we present to You our efforts to worship You this day in His name and in the virtue of His own precious blood and constant mediation. Hear us, and may the Word continue to work in us to make us a body of worshipers. Hear our prayer as we offer it in Jesus' name.

58:43 Amen.