Hindrances to Worship in the Unconverted

Review of Previous Sermons: Activities, Agent, and Context of Worship

0:04 We come this morning in our study of the Word of God to the fifth part of a brief series of studies dealing with the very vital issue of God-honoring worship.

0:23 The pivotal text by which we set the framework of this study was 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15, in which the church in its corporate existence and life is called the pillar and the ground of the truth. And since no little part of the corporate life of the church comes to expression in her seasons of corporate worship, there is this very delicate, this very vital relationship between the church as a worshiping body and the maintenance of true religion.

1:00 And then with 1 Peter 2, 5 as our basic text, we addressed ourselves to the first area of concern, namely, what activities are involved in God-honoring worship. Peter tells us that we are made a royal priesthood or a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And all of the legitimate elements of God's worship, pure New Testament worship, as far as the corporate worship of the people of God is concerned, can be ranged under two fundamental activities,

1:42 those activities in which we bring something to God and those in which we receive something from God. Both ingredients are essential and the order is of no little importance. And it is not until we begin to discipline ourselves to do so that we will be able to receive something from God. And it is not until we begin to discipline ourselves to think in terms of the bringingness of worship that we will really begin to know something of the takingness of worship.

2:14 We are to offer up, that's an activity of giving, and in the offering up, we thereby receive. And then the second major area of our concern was to grapple with this matter of the agent in the activity of public worship. And we saw from our study in the Word of God last Lord's Day that the proper agent of this kind of worship is the child of God in the entirety of his redeemed humanity. Biblical worship is the whole-souled activity of the whole inner life of the child of God, and it also involves the body insofar as its activity

2:57 is essential to give vent to the whole-souled activity. This is the exercise of worship. And then last Lord's Day evening, we began to address ourselves to the third area of consideration. Having looked at the activities of worship, the agent of worship, we then began to consider what are the hindrances to the rendering of God-honoring worship.

3:23 And I suggested on that occasion that the hindrances fall into two major categories, hindrances in the worshiping context and hindrances in the worship of God. The first category is the hindrances in the worshiper himself. And all we did last Lord's Day evening was to address ourselves to that first major category, hindrances in the context in which the child of God attempts to render whole-souled worship to God. And we grappled with that fundamental principle that undergirds the whole biblical teaching on the subject of public worship, the principle that God alone has the right to dictate the terms upon which he will be worshiped.

4:03 And we approached the terms on which his people are warranted to hold communion with himself. Our sins shut us out from God's presence. If God invites us back, he dictates the terms and the circumstances within which we may not only come to him and experience initial communion, but the terms upon which that communion is sustained day by day, both privately and publicly. That's called in theological language the regulative principle as it impinges upon worship.

4:41 And some of the hindrances in public worship are found not so much in the worshiper, but in the worshipping context. It must be one in which there is no intrusion of carnal aids to worship, no inclusion of unwarranted activities of worship, and no toleration of unnecessary distractions in worship. And although perhaps some of these things sounded new to the ears of some of you, this is no novel position. It is spelled out very clearly in the Westminster Confession of Faith, in the larger and shorter catechisms, and was one of the major points of concern in the period of church life following the Reformation.

5:24 Many people today would be terribly surprised to know that Charles Spurgeon, who has the image of being a rather flowery Victorian orator, was one who was deeply consumed with this passion of not allowing any intrusion of carnal aids to the worship of those 5,000 people who met Sunday by Sunday for 30 years under that ministry. He would not tolerate the inclusion of unwarranted activities in worship, nor unnecessary distractions. And that body of people worshipped from week to week with the singing of psalms and hymns, the reading of the Scripture, and the preaching of the Word of God, and they didn't even have a piano to help them sing.

6:07 Now, that's unknown to a lot of people, but those are facts. Now, I'm not saying we should rid ourselves of our piano. I deeply appreciate this aid to making our praise glorious, since many of us come from a setting where the voice has not been trained, and our praise would be something less than glorious if we did not have the loving service of these, our brethren, who aid us and sisters by means of that instrument. But I only do that to underscore that this is no novel position, to which we've arrived de novo, out of nowhere.

6:39 No, no. This is the historic position of the Church in the purest periods of its life,

6:47 and in direct proportion to the loss of its life, has been the intrusion of carnal aids, unwarranted activities, and the toleration of unnecessary distractions in worship. Now then, with that review behind us, we come to consider this second large area of hindrance to the Church, and that is the position of the Church, the hindrances to the rendering of God-honoring worship, the hindrances found in the worshiper himself. Assuming that the worshiper is coming into a context that has no glaring biblical contradictions, or no glaring contradictions of the biblical norms for worship, assuming that the worshippers gather in a framework

Introduction to Hindrances in the Worshiper: The Unconverted

7:28 where there is a determination on the part of the overseers that there shall be no intrusion of carnal aids to the worship, no inclusion of unwarranted activities, and no toleration of unnecessary distractions, does that automatically assume that pure worship will rise from every man, woman, boy, or girl who is found in that context? Oh, how we wish it were true. But it is not true.

7:59 For the purest context of worship can be one in which there are great hindrances to worship arising from the worship of God. And what I propose to do this morning is to look at those hindrances to worship that arise from the unconverted and because of their unconverted state, and then this evening, the hindrances to worship peculiar to the people of God. And I believe that division is a biblical one, for the Bible divides this whole congregation into two fundamental categories. And the most fundamental, the one is not boys and girls, males and females.

8:43 The most fundamental category of division in this place this morning is the saved and the lost, the just and the unjust, the regenerate, the unregenerate, the in Christ ones and the in Adam ones, the under grace ones, the under law ones. And that division of all mankind into two distinct categories applies from the, from the youngest to the oldest. It applies no matter what our background may be, what our privileges may have been or presently are. And therefore, as we think of the hindrances to the rendering of God honoring worship,

9:26 I believe it is proper for us to think of those hindrances as they come to light in the peculiar condition, first of all, of the unconverted, and then this evening in the children of God. Therefore, I lay before you the hindrances, the hindrances to God honoring worship, peculiar to the unconverted. And the sum and substance of our entire meditation in the scriptures this morning rests upon this simple principle. Try to get it at the outset.

Principle 1: No Acceptable Worship Without Acceptance of the Worshiper's Person

9:56 I'm telling you what I'm going to tell you. And then by God's help, I want to demonstrate the validity of that principle. It's simply this, that to worship God acceptably in the company of his people, there must be two fundamental ingredients. There must be the gracious acceptance before God of the worshiper's person and the gracious furnishing by God of the worshiper's heart.

10:31 That's the beginning, middle, and end of what I hope to lay before you this morning. If the worship is to find acceptance with God, there must be the acceptance of the person of the worshiper, there must be the furnishing of the heart of the worshiper. To couch the principle in a negative form, I'll state it this way. You cannot render acceptable worship if you're unconverted because reason number one, your person is not accepted before God, and secondly, your heart is not furnished by God for the rendering of worship.

11:14 Now, let me open up these realities to you. The first, there can be no acceptable worship unless the person of the worshiper is accepted by God. Turn, please, to Genesis chapter 4, a passage which we may call, if we use the term loosely, the first recorded instance of public worship. There are specific activities connected with worship, and they are done in some kind of a public manner.

Biblical Proof: God Accepts the Person Before the Offering (Cain and Abel)

11:48 There are specific activities connected with worship, and they are done in some kind of a public manner. And we'll not go into the moot, that is, the oft-discussed and oft-debated question as to how Cain and Abel knew that God was to be worshipped in the context of sacrifice, but we want to address ourselves to this basic issue that standing on the face of this passage is the indication that until the person of the worshiper is accepted, nothing that he brings in his specific acts of worship is accepted with God. Nothing that he brings in his specific acts of worship is accepted with God. Nothing that he brings in his specific acts of worship is accepted with God.

12:21 Nothing that he brings in his specific acts of worship is accepted with God. Genesis 4 verse 1. Genesis 4 verse 1. And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah.

12:35 And, again, she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. He is engaging in an act of sacrifice.

12:52 He is engaging in an act of sacrifice. of specific worship. He's bringing the fruit of his toils in the ground as an offering unto God. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

13:07 Now notice this very pregnant statement. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, the person, and to his offering, his specific act of worship. But unto Cain, the person, and to his offering, his specific act of worship, he had not respect. Now do you see where the emphasis falls?

13:31 The emphasis falls upon God's gazing with favor upon Cain, upon Abel, and gazing with non-favor upon Cain. And that's what the Hebrew word means in this particular construction, that God looked with favor. Favor upon the man Abel, and therefore received his offering. But he looked with disfavor upon Cain, and therefore rejected his offering.

14:04 Now we have, most of us, been brainwashed into thinking that the basic difference was one brought a blood sacrifice that God had required, the other brought a sacrifice of grain which was not required. But that's reading into not only this passage, but into the entire. It's an inspired record commenting on this passage. For according to 1 John chapter 3, the fundamental difference was not to be found in the specific content of the sacrifice of these two men.

14:36 John tells us in this explicit reference to Cain and Abel, 1 John 3.10, In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not. Neither he that loveth not his brother.

14:53 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another not as Cain, now notice the emphasis, who was of the evil one. He was a child of the devil as to his person, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because, notice, it doesn't say his sacrifice was evil.

15:18 His works were evil and his brother's righteous. So the Holy Spirit, in commenting upon the incident that we've read from Genesis 4, places the emphasis upon the difference as to their persons. One is a child of the devil, the other is a child of God. One is a righteous man as to his person.

15:40 The other is an unrighteous and evil man as to his person. And the other inspired comment, of course, is found in Hebrews 11. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. The emphasis falls upon the fact that one as to his person was a believing man.

16:02 The other as to his person was an unbelieving man. But someone says, Pastor, does not the matter of the blood and the rest enter in? I do not know. The Scripture is silent on the issue.

16:14 So why trouble our minds with silences when God addresses His words to our understanding? And He says, His words tell us that the fundamental reason for the rejection of this specific act of worship on the part of God with reference to Cain was found in His person.

16:39 For surely, as we see the unfolding of the sacrificial system later on in the Levitical directives, God did direct that offerings be brought to Him from the fruit of the ground. And there were meal and grain offerings which were provided to Him. They were pleasing to God. So if they were pleasing later, who is to say they were not pleasing earlier?

17:00 So you see, that issue is neutralized by the other contents of Scripture. But the primary emphasis is not. And there it stands as an eloquent testimony that in the whole matter of worship, if our persons are not accepted before God, nothing that we bring, even if we bring it specifically in the way appointed by God, nothing of our offerings will find itself in acceptance with Him.

Biblical Proof: God Rejects the Offerings of Unaccepted Persons (Malachi and Proverbs)

17:28 And then when we turn to the last book of the Old Testament, that same emphasis comes through. We turn to Malachi, chapter 1.

17:41 And in this chapter, the prophet is denouncing the carelessness of the priests who bring to God for offerings that with which they would not even insult an earthly ruler or monarch. And with a biting kind of sarcasm, the prophet in the name of Jehovah goes after the prophet in the name of Jehovah. The wickedness of these priests, beginning with verse 6 of chapter 1 in Malachi. And now we read in verse 10, Oh, that there were such, that there were one among you that would shut the doors that ye might not kindle fire on mine altar in vain.

18:21 I have no pleasure in you, your persons, saith Jehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering, at your hand. I have no pleasure in you, I will not accept an offering from your hand. You see the close connection? If God does not regard with favor the hand of the offerer, He thus refuses the offering brought in that hand.

18:55 Even though the thing in the hand of the offerer may be prescribed by God.

19:02 What then is the great hindrance to the rendering of truth? True worship by every unconverted man or woman, boy or girl in this building today? It is the fact that your person is not accepted by God. And if your person is not accepted by God, nothing that you bring to Him is accepted by Him.

19:25 It's because of that fundamental principle that Solomon can write in Proverbs 15 and verse 8. These words familiar at least to some of us, Proverbs 15 and verse 8, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Jehovah. But the prayer of the upright is His delight. You see the focus is upon the person, the wicked, the upright.

19:58 In the case of the one, the sacrifice is an abomination. Even when he takes the time to lay hold of that which cost him something, he even goes, goes through the prescribed ritual of the Levitical system and brings the unblemished lamb, a year old, to the priest. God says if he goes through all of these things, it matters not. If the hands that lay hold of the lamb in the flock, if the hands that bring that lamb to the priest, if the hands that present it are joined to a wicked man, that sacrifice is abomination.

20:32 But when there is a righteous man, even when it costs him nothing, he simply lifts up his heart in prayer, that slightest motion of approach to God is delightful to the God who is approached in prayer. You find a similar emphasis in the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 20.

21:02 Here are a people who as to their persons are apostate, set upon their idols, set upon their own ways. They've rejected the law of God, the latter words of verse 19. As for my law, they've rejected it, but they go right on with the rigmarole of formal external public worship. And God says, to what purpose cometh there to me frankincense from Sheba?

21:27 You bring the most expensive external elements into your worship. But he says, to what purpose is all of that to me? And the sweet cane from a far country, your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me. Why?

21:43 Because God had rejected their persons. Now, do you see? Do you see the establishment of this principle in Scripture? And I've taken all this time to open up the verses so that you must be convinced by the authority of the Word of God that if you sit here an unconverted man, woman, boy or girl, you can render no acceptable worship to God because your person is not accepted.

Why the Unconverted Person is Not Accepted: Fallen in Adam

22:06 But you say, Pastor Martin, why is not my person accepted? The simple reason, my friend, that you with me fell in our first father Adam. And from the moment, into Adam's sin against God, the human race viewed in its own native ugliness is something that sickens God. And some of the strongest language in all of the Word of God is found when God is describing man's native state has fallen in Adam.

22:38 You and I fell in Adam. We've become odious to God and filthy and defiled. We are sinners from our conception so that the Bible uses, uses vigorous language such as this. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

22:56 Or the language of our Lord, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Or in the language of the apostle in Romans 8, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You see, that state of fleshiness that binds me, as it were, to all of Adam's race cannot do anything that is pleasing unto God. In your person, you're an object of divine wrath and displeasure.

23:25 The Bible describes every unconverted man or woman in this place in this language. We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

23:35 Or in the language of Psalm 5, 5, God is angry. He hates all workers of iniquity. While unconverted men and women are the objects of divine forbearance and long-suffering and mercy, they are nonetheless, at the same moment, the objects of an active outgoing of divine displeasure. The wrath of God abideth, present tense verb, on him that believeth not.

Illustration: The Righteous King and Rebel Subjects

24:07 There are in this very building this morning the outgoings both of divine wrath and of divine long-suffering. And they pour out of the heart of the same God. Think with me for a moment of a kingdom in which there dwells a righteous king. This king has a very strange amalgamation of subjects.

24:31 These subjects were once all rebels against the kingdom over which he rules. But by the sheer overpowering force of mercy and pardon and setting terms of reconciliation, he now rules over a kingdom which by and large is filled with loyal subjects. Subjects who are not only bound to the kingdom, but by external coercion of law, but by the internal delight of their own hearts because they see in that king the one who could have consumed them. But instead he broke down all their prejudices against his kingdom, against his person, against his laws.

25:11 And he in a sense has conquered them by the power of his love. But he knows that within that kingdom there are some who still hate his rule, who still hate his laws. And he knows that within that kingdom, the true state of their hearts is that he chose them by name and by sight. They at times think he is ignorant of the true state of their hearts, but he is not.

25:34 And though he could send his royal troops to seize them and to summon them before his throne and to demand that they give up their rebellion and submit to his authority or be killed, he does not do that. He continues to allow them to be the benefactors of his gracious rule. And the gifts that he bestows upon that kingdom of loyal subjects, Subjects are gifts of which they are partakers, all the while hoping that His goodness will lead them to see the folly of their prejudice against Him, to see the irrationality of fighting so gracious a king whose laws are gracious so that they look all around them and see the fruits of that gracious reign

26:17 in the hearts and lives of their countrymen.

26:21 But now a day is appointed in which the subjects are going to have an opportunity to express their gratitude to the king. And so the king's couriers go out through the entire kingdom and they send forth the announcement that on such a day all will gather on the grounds of the king's palace to render expressions of their gratitude to the king and the expressions of their goodwill. And they are to bring whatever they can bring within their hands of a reasonable nature to present as gifts to the king. Well, you see, on that particular day they gather.

26:54 And the chorus begins, Long live the king. And it's taken up by some. Some hear and some hear until the entire mass is as one voice saying, Long live the king. Now in the midst of it, the king looks out and he sees those whom he knows are still rebels in heart.

27:12 They have the language of loyalty upon their lips,

27:17 but the rebellion is still in their hearts. When it comes time to lift up the gifts and then to parade by an appointed place and present them as gifts to the king, they lift up their gift and he sees them with others holding up this gift. It's a symbol of love and adoration and appreciation, but he knows it's only a hypocritical symbol. Now they come and they pass before him.

27:42 And as he sees in his loyal subjects the gifts presented, there is the outgoing of affection to them. But when the hypocrite comes by, the gift is placed at the king's feet. But there is no reception of that gift as a bona fide expression of love. Why?

28:00 Because there is alienation of person.

28:05 Now the king, may if he chooses, set upon them in his righteous anger, he may continue in loving kindness to forbear with them in the hopes that his goodness will bring them to repentance.

Application: Flee to Christ for Acceptance

28:18 Do I need to draw out the lines of application? Sitting here in this place this morning, in this expression of the kingdom of Christ,

28:30 it's a great number of people who once were rebels against the king,

28:36 but the king has disclosed his heart to us. He disclosed his heart to us. In a saving sight of his mercy. And the sight of grace and mercy in a bleeding king has broken our hearts.

28:54 And the sight of mercy extended from the hand of a risen king has filled us with hope. And we are now what? We are the king's loving subjects.

29:07 In bonds not only of law, but of love. And in this place this morning we've sung Long Live the King. We've sung our praises. We've sung our praises to the king.

29:18 We've presented our tangible expressions of loyalty and love. But in the midst of this, there are some of you who have had the language of loyalty upon your lips. You may have even placed the tangible symbols of loyalty upon the offering plate. But God has not accepted either the language of the lips or the offering of the hands.

29:40 Why? Because he has never accepted your person. And until you as a person find acceptance with God, your worship should to God find acceptance in my person. My friend, it is not by doing more acts of worship.

30:07 It's by fleeing to the only one in whom sinners can find acceptance. It's to cease from your doing and to begin believing. It's to flee from all confidence in yourself as we saw with that Pharisee. He thought his acceptance was based upon what he was and what he could do.

30:28 Whereas the publicans said in essence, Oh God, there is nothing in my person or performance that can form the basis of my acceptance. God be propitious to me, the sinner. Turn away your wrath from the grounds of the bloody sacrifice that is there upon the altar. And wonder of wonders when sinners cease from their doing.

30:55 And stand before God owning from the heart. That they are indeed part of Adam's fallen rebel race. That they have been conceived in sin. That they are sinners by legal standing.

31:09 Sinners by nature. Sinners by practice. Nothing can be done to form the grounds of acceptance. And they go out of themselves and rest upon Christ.

31:20 The scripture says they then find acceptance in the beloved one. And then they perform their first. Act of true worship. For the Lord will then have respect unto that and to his offering.

31:38 Oh dear children, listen. Don't think that you will become worshippers. If through the years you can learn to do it like mommy and daddy do. If you can learn to sing like daddy sings the hymns.

31:50 If you can learn to pray like daddy prays. If you can learn to sing and pray like mommy does. Then maybe when you get up to their level of doing it. God will then.

32:00 No. No children. Dear children, listen. Listen.

32:03 Listen. Until your sins are washed in Jesus' blood. None of your worship is acceptable with God. But you say, don't I have to wait till I'm older?

32:16 No, no. Jesus whom we read of this morning. Who welcomed children. Welcomes them today.

32:22 Dear children, there's enough sin in you to send you to hell forever. And there's enough grace in Christ to save you forever.

32:32 Go to him. Go to him. And then you children can begin to be true worshipers. You say, pastor, you mean then even some of those hymns when I don't even know the meaning of some of the words.

32:44 That the Lord will accept that? Yes, he will. Because he's accepted your person in his son. He will take those feeble expressions of your worship.

32:55 And they will be more acceptable to him than the well-articulated tones of the mightiest, most competent.

33:06 Who is not in Christ.

33:13 You see your situation. Who is desperate. But it's not hopeless. But now I hurry on to touch on the second aspect.

Principle 2: No Acceptable Worship Unless the Heart is Furnished by God

33:21 There can be no acceptable worship unless the heart of the worshiper is furnished by God. You see, not only must the person of the worshiper be accepted by God. The heart of the worshiper must be furnished by God. You remember last week that we started the exposition with Mark 7.

33:41 In which our Lord, quoting from Isaiah, emphasizes that in worship. The heart is paramount. This people draweth nigh with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me.

33:55 Well, what are the spiritual sacrifices? All of which have their origin in the heart. Well, they are the sacrifices of the joyful expectation of his presence. As we saw in the first exposition.

34:06 The sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart. The sacrifice of a teachable, believing heart. Well, you see, you cannot furnish. You cannot render those.

34:15 Because you're not furnished. You cannot furnish with them. You can't come with the joyful expectancy of God's presence if you're unconverted. Because if you're unconverted, you have an aversion to God.

34:27 The first response of sinning. When he hears the voice of God walking. Or hears God walking and speaking. Adam hides himself from the presence of God.

34:44 You know, it breaks my heart at times to look out and see some of you trying to hide from God in public worship. I look into the faces of some of you and I can see at times. In spite of yourself, you're really caught up in the message. Then you say, oh, wait a minute.

34:55 If I do that, something might come home and I see you retreat and hide. I see that when I'm preaching. I see some of you young people doing that. You came determined.

35:06 You're not going to get to me today. No, sir. But lo and behold, something happens and you begin to be drawn out. And then all of a sudden you retreat.

35:13 Why? Because you have an aversion to God. Because you're unconverted. Your heart has no delight in God.

35:20 Because when you think of God's conscience. Becomes. Very active. And when conscience is.

35:28 Prounds. You know God is angry. You know that hell you are.

35:35 And you know if that's so, there's only one thing to do. That's to quit your sin.

35:40 Become his bond slave. But you don't want to. Why? Because you're tied to all your little idols.

35:49 No idol worshiper feels comfortable in the presence of the living God.

35:57 And what does God do? Like that beneficent king. He doesn't strike you down. While his anger burns.

36:05 His mercy and his long suffering. And his goodness withholds judgment. Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? You see, you need a heart furnished for worship.

36:20 Not only your person to be accepted, but that heart needs to be furnished. You have that aversion to God. You don't have a broken and a contrite heart, which is that spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God. You've got a heart of stone.

36:33 The scripture says you don't have a teachable believing heart. You have a heart that is enmity against God. And is not subject to the law of God. That's why we read in Philippians 3.3.

36:45 That we are the true circumcision. That is the true Israel. The true people of God. And what's the first characteristic?

36:54 Who worship by the Spirit of God. The first characteristic of a true Christian mentioned in this passage is. That he worships by divine agency. His heart has been furnished.

37:10 Furnished by God in order to render acceptable worship to God. And you see, dear unconverted man, woman, boy, girl. You don't have a heart furnished by God. And you can't create such a heart.

37:28 Your situation is desperate. Isn't that what Jeremiah said? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. But it's not hopeless.

Biblical Proof: The Furnished Heart of the New Covenant

37:39 Because what is the great blessing of the new covenant next to the full? And complete pardon of sin. What does God promise in the new covenant? Two great blessings.

37:48 What are they? Their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. I will write my laws upon their heart. Oh, my friends, again, I would point you to Christ.

38:00 He's the mediator of the new covenant. He's the gracious King. Who can take not only the person of a rebel. And form a just basis of accepting him as to his person.

38:14 Furnished. Furnished the heart with all the fuel of holy worship.

38:20 And some of us, though we've been converted for many years, can think back to the first time when we found it a delight to pray. We knew we should pray. And some of us reared in Christian homes. We were taught to pray and made to pray.

38:35 But there was no delight in prayer. Why? We didn't have a heart furnished. But oh, when God gave us the spirit of adoption, the crowning gift of the new covenant, we were able for the first time to say Abba.

38:49 Now, prayer became our native breath.

38:55 Hymns that we were taught to sing. The words of which either stuck in our throats or poured out meaningless, heartless, spiritless. It's as though we were seeing them for the first time. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

39:16 And we'd sing them with tears coursing down our cheek. Why? Somebody furnished us to render worship. And the one who furnished us, is the great mediator of the new covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

39:30 My dear friend who is not in Christ, you cannot render the sacrifices described in 1 Peter 2.5 until you can render them to through Christ. They are acceptable to God through Christ. And your basic problem is if you're unconverted, you're an idolater, and that's why you can't render worship to the true God even in the context of true worship.

Biblical Proof: The Idol Chamber of the Unconverted Heart (Ezekiel 14)

39:51 I want you to turn for our closing passage this morning to Ezekiel chapter 14.

39:57 Why is it that you cannot render worship? Well, the heart is not furnished. And it's not as though it's an empty room. It's not livable because it lacks furniture.

40:08 It's a heart that is like a full room, but it's got the wrong furniture in it. And if you're unconverted this morning, your heart is an idle chamber. Just as we read in Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 1, Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And Ezekiel 14, verse 1, And Ezekiel 14, verse 1, And Ezekiel 14, verse 1, And Ezekiel 14, verse 1, And he thought, Wonderful!

40:33 Here come these leaders. They have come to hear Me, the Prophet of God. Look, they are bringing that sacrifice of a teachable, believing, submissive heart. They are bringing it into the presence of the Prophet.

40:44 Boy, it looked like a wonderful, spiritual sacrifice. They didn't come carrying any idols. They were coming to the Prophet. But now God says, Ezekiel, I know something you don't know.

40:53 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, These men have taken their idols These men have taken their idols their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of it all by them? Be deceived, Ezekiel. They look like they are coming for this specific act of worship. That is, they desire to know and submit to the Word of God

41:23 through the prophet. And as we saw, that's a spiritual sacrifice to bring to God a teachable, expectant, believing spirit into the presence of His Holy Word. God says, don't be deceived, Ezekiel. Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols.

41:58 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are estranged from me through their idols. Oh, may the Spirit of God drive this home to the hearts of some of you. You know what you did when you came here this morning? You thought you left your idols at home. Some of you, your idol is your money. Some of you, your idol is your popularity.

42:25 Some of you, your idol is your own career ambition. Your idol is your children, your home, your possessions. The human heart is not fussy or fastidious at all. It'll grab upon anything and make it its idol. And you say, I didn't bring any idols with me here this morning. I've taken

42:46 an hour or two hours of my time to come and worship. No, no. You come and your idols are there in your hearts. And that's why you receive no profit from the Word of God. Because you've

43:00 set your iniquity before your eyes. And even in this, the Word of God is neutralized by the idols within your heart.

43:12 You're not worshiping God. Some of you are here to salve your conscience. May God take the salve and scrub it away this morning. God takes no pleasure in your coming with a heart full of idols. You can hear the gospel until the preacher is hoarse and until you're

43:32 laid in your grave. But until you're prepared to deal with your idols, there'll be no profit. Now, what's your idol? What's your God? Come on, what is it? I speak to you children. What's

43:43 your God? What do you worship? What is your affection? What's the object to which you give your life? You teenagers,

43:50 what is it? What is your God? What is your idol? What is the thing that if you had to part with everything else with that, you would not part? That's your idol. What is it to

44:01 which you give your energies, your thoughts, your ambitions, your longings, your dreams, your aspirations? That's your idol. And my friend, you'll never worship until it can be said of you as was said of the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1-9. Turn to God from your idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. You've got to turn from those idols. And you are not to sit back and wait until

Call to Repentance: Turn from Idols to the True God

44:30 God wrenches them from your hands. Look at those idols, my friend, as God calls the Israelites to do again and again. Look at your idol and ask yourself, can this deliver me in the day of calamity? What is that thing to which you're giving your life? Sensuous pleasures.

44:51 You in the day of your calamity. Why in adversity? In the griefs and sorrows of life? Worse than this, can it carry you through death and take you to judgment with confidence?

45:16 Can it stand you before the bar of eternal justice and vindicate all the claims of the law? Silence all the claims of the law? My friend, any God who can't do that, you better forsake it now. But Jesus Christ is just.

45:40 Such a One! Hindrances to Worship If you are unconverted, my friend, the two great hindrances are these. You cannot worship because God does not accept your life and condition. You cannot worship because your heart is not furnished. And it never will be. And you will never be accepted

46:04 until you are in Christ. And child of God, do you not see what God did in saving you? He formed a just basis to accept your life and condition. And then He createdHindilities. I want you to worship,

46:16 not worship. And just worship, conversion, andial museum. This is the best thing to do. For that, magma.My father

46:16 taught me how to pardon, not to lose sight of sin or go against personalities. Our God saved you and then sent His Spirit into your heart to furnish you to do what? To be a worshiper in spirit and in truth. That's what Jesus did with the woman at the well.

Conclusion: God's Work in Saving and Furnishing Believers

46:26 He took an immoral woman and made a worshiper out of her. How? By accepting her person on the grounds of the righteousness of another, and by furnishing her heart with motives to worship. Now you see, dear people of God, why we must stick tenaciously to our principles of not intruding any carnal aids into worship.

46:51 Because when you do, then carnal unconverted people will feel comfortable with that framework of worship. And the church will begin to be so mixed with the world that it will lose all of its distinctiveness and its power.

47:08 And as we said back when there were fifty people, it's good to say it now when there's four hundred, I would sooner preach to three people sitting who are hungry to know God and to worship Him by the Word, than to three people sitting who are hungry to know God than to three thousand if the price to be paid is dishonoring God by drawing carnal bees to the nectar of carnal elements of worship.

47:37 For when God furnishes the heart to worship, that heart is content with the worship dictated by the God that furnished it.

Prayer for the Converted and Unconverted

47:50 May God grant that that will ever be our portion as the people of God. Let us pray. Our Father, our hearts this morning do rejoice in Your great grace to many of us gathered in this place who were once rebels against You,

48:20 the just objects of wrath and displeasure, but how we praise You for Your mercy. We thank You that You've subdued us and brought us believing and submissive to the feet of Your Son.

48:35 We thank You that at least we have begun to know something of the joy of being a part of Your love. We thank You that at least we have been accepted in our persons, no condemnation to those who are in Christ. We thank You for at least the beginnings of that furnishing of our hearts so that our delight is to offer spiritual worship.

48:57 But, O Lord, in these same hearts that rejoice this morning, there's grief that sitting in this place there are boys and girls, young men and women, old men and women, who can render no acceptable worship, because their persons are yet in Adam and their hearts are yet devoid of grace. O God, use the preaching of the Word in the attempt to exalt Your Son, to bring them to Him, the great Mediator of the New Covenant, that in Him they may be given that standing of acceptance and that heart furnished unto praise and unto worship.

49:41 To this end, we commend to Your care Your own Word, asking that Your Spirit will seal it to every heart through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.