Purity Before God

The Vital Question of Acceptable Worship

0:00 We shall be considering this morning the third in a series of studies on the general theme of spiritual worship. What is it, and how may I render it to God?

0:14 I've been increasingly convinced that this is a vital subject where we come week by week, meeting here or elsewhere, especially during the summer, for what we call a worship service. And most of us here have spent a good many months and years involved in what we call attending worship services. Now, if this is so, then the question that ought to be before us continually is this. Is what I am bringing to God in a, quote, worship service really acceptable to Him?

0:56 Perhaps different temperaments will determine how we think about this. But I cannot imagine a person content to just come and sit and say the right words, and be at the right posture at the right time, and go his way week in, week out, and never ask this question, Is God accepting what I bring to Him? If He isn't, then let's quit and spend Sunday morning out on the golf course, worshiping by watching the birdies as we hit the ball down the fairway. Is God accepting what you bring to Him this morning? It's just that personal.

1:39 Has He accepted what you brought to Him you have brought to Him in past Sunday mornings?

1:46 That's a pretty basic, important question. And the only way to answer it is to turn to Holy Scripture and seek to understand what is true worship, what is that worship which is acceptable unto God.

Recap: Prerequisites for True Worship (Knowledge, Sight, Posture)

2:02 We saw in our studies last Lord's Day that according to the fourth chapter of the Gospel, the Gospel of John, the worship which the Father seeks is worship in spirit and in truth. For our Lord said to the woman of Samaria, God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must, must, it's imperative, if they are to offer acceptable worship, they must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is, their worship must be, be the involvement of the whole person, worship in spirit, worship of the whole man,

2:45 and it must be in truth, that is, according to the revelation of truth as found in Holy Scripture. Therefore, we are seeking to understand what is that true worship and how may we render it to our God. Last Lord's Day, we defined worship formally and then practically. Practically as that conscious, whole-hearted description of praise and honor to the true and the living God.

3:17 We read several passages in the book of the Revelation where we have a description of people of whom it is said they worshiped God and whose worship was obviously received by God. So if those people did something that the Bible calls true worship and it's obvious that God received what they did, then we must emulate God. And we saw that their worship was a conscious, whole-hearted involvement in ascribing worship, ascribing praise and honor unto the true and the living God. Now we are considering from Holy Scripture the prerequisites for such worship.

3:56 How is it that those elders, those heavenly creatures, in one case the beasts that surround the throne, in another case the angels, a great multitude of them, How is it that those elders, those heavenly creatures, in one case the beasts that surround the throne, in another case the angels, a great multitude of them, how is it that they are equipped to render this true worship? Not everyone can worship. Not everyone can render acceptable worship to God. There are certain prerequisites to true worship.

4:23 We've considered three of them thus far. The first one is a true knowledge of God. Worship of God must be worshiped, Jesus said, in truth. You cannot concoct a God out of the stuff of your own mind and worship that, no matter how wholeheartedly you give yourself to that worship, and have it acceptable worship, no.

4:44 We must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is, there must be a true knowledge of God. The mind must be furnished with right concepts of God before the life can be involved in acceptable worship to God. The mind must be furnished with right concepts of God before the life can be involved in acceptable worship to God.

4:58 The mind must be furnished with right concepts of God before the life can be involved in acceptable worship to God. The second prerequisite is a spiritual sight of God. The second prerequisite is a spiritual sight of God. It is one thing to have intellectual knowledge of God, but it is one thing to have intellectual knowledge of God.

5:08 intellectual understanding of the true god it's another thing to truly see him with the eyes of the soul so that that sight brings delight and every picture of true worship in holy scripture we find the person who is worshiping delightfully involved in worship because the eyes have been opened to behold the beauty of god and then the third prerequisite is a right posture before god not a physical posture but a posture of the soul and the physical posture is important only as it reflects the posture of the heart and we found last lord's day evening in passage after passage

5:49 reference to the physical posture of a man who worshiped he bowed the head he prostrated himself upon the ground he lifted the hands but whatever that posture was externally it was simply a reflection of the posture of the heart. posture of the soul and the only posture in which we can worship God is the posture of humility and submission if you come with a high head you cannot worship it must be the bowed head the acknowledgement that we are but creatures we are things he is the uncaused and eternal God

6:29 and you'll notice as we looked in those passages in Revelation the creatures are found worshiping prostrate before the throne the place of authority the place of power and so we must take that place of submission or we cannot worship now I want to make this intensely practical and I want to say it in such a way that the youngest child can understand if you as you sit there now are not in a posture of humility and submission to God God has not accepted one thing that you uttered in his presence this morning and this first 35 minutes or so the clock on the wall is fast when you leave

7:10 please be patient with me because that clock is five to six minutes fast and I haven't gone quite as long as it may seem when you look at that clock but the first 35 minutes unless the posture of your soul has been one of humility consciously taking your place as a worm before God and you have not accepted one thing that you uttered in his presence this morning and bow before his throne God has not accepted one thing that you'd offered unto him it has been vain empty hollow worship unacceptable to him now we come this morning to the fourth prerequisite of true worship and for lack of a better way to state it I'll state it this way and then we'll

The Fourth Prerequisite: Purity of Heart and Life Before God

7:53 enlarge it and I'm sure when we're done studying the thing you'll understand what I mean even though my title may be rather poor there must not only be true knowledge but also true knowledge of God a spiritual sight of God a right posture before God but there must be purity of heart and life before God now the principle is very simple yet very basic to all worship it is this a man's moral condition that is the condition of his life before the law of God determines his ability to worship now this is not true with many other things

8:35 no doubt there'll be some people who this very day will be enjoying ballgames really wholeheartedly involved in watching a ballgame now their moral condition has nothing to do with their ability to enjoy a ballgame they might have been out last night painting up the town drinking it up boozing it up chasing around to the haunts of iniquity and yet they can come today and really enjoy a ballgame in other words their moral condition the condition of their heart and life before the law of God has nothing to do with their ability to enjoy a ballgame there will be other people visiting art galleries and they will stand before a great work of art and

9:17 they will enjoy that and almost worship before it now that makes no demands upon their moral condition they could be the most despicable low down open profligate lawbreakers that you could find and yet they can go down somewhere off Fifth Avenue today in New York to one of the art centers and thoroughly enjoy somebody's work of art other people will be listening to concerts today out in the park or maybe in halls or auditoriums and beautiful music will be created by orchestras and people will thoroughly enjoy that but you see there's no relationship between the life that they bring to the ball game to the art gallery or to the concert hall there need be no relationship

10:00 between the moral condition of the spectator at the ball game the admirer at the art gallery and the listener in the concert hall but now that's not true when you worship if you and I are to enjoy God for that's what worship is the life that comes to worship will determine whether or not we can truly enjoy him therefore you cannot separate the life you have lived Monday through Sunday morning at five minutes to 11. from what you

10:39 do and render to God from 11 o'clock to 12 15 or 12 20. in fact what you have done and been from Monday through Sunday at 10 55 determines whether or not God accepts what you bring from 11 to 12 20. it's just that simple just that basic just that inescapable that there is a direct relationship between the moral condition of the worshiper and that God will accept this worship now before man fell and sinned this created no problem Adam was

The Problem of Sin and Aversion to a Holy God

11:20 like God in the sense that there was no stain of sin upon his conscience he could think of a being like God holy just full of power and might omniscient knowing all things and it didn't bother him he could be at home with a God like that because he was like that God was God holy So Adam was created in original righteousness, the theologians say. They don't use the term holiness, but there was no stain of sin. Is God just? Adam can feel at home with a God like that and look upon him with delight.

11:56 Why? Because Adam was just. There was no injustice in his state of innocence. Is God all-knowing? Does he know everything?

12:04 Does his eye search out the finest crevice of the human heart? Adam can feel at home with a God like that. Why? Because there's nothing folded away in the crevice of his heart from which he would hide.

12:18 He's willing for God to be omniscient. There's no dark crevice that he's trying to keep from the eye of God.

12:27 So man in a state of innocency can worship with no problem. Ah, but you and I are not in a state of innocency. Man in sin has a tremendous problem because instinctively our sin makes us do exactly what Adam's sin made him do. The moment Adam's sin, what is his first activity?

12:49 He runs. And where does he run?

12:52 It says he runs. He flees to hide from what? The presence of God. You see, the moment sin enters, he can no longer be at home with delight with a God like that.

13:10 For now, that God is holy and Adam knows, I'm unholy, I want to run. He is omnipotent. And I want to hide in the crevices of my heart, my sin. So he seeks to run.

13:24 He seeks to run. He seeks to keep at a distance from his God. Now that's the way all of us are by nature. We are born running from God.

13:37 And the moment we begin to have any true knowledge of God, the reaction of our heart is not that of a man who has, say, a disposition for music. A man who's born with a musical gift. You hear of some of these geniuses who at age three were playing stuff that some of us couldn't play at age 300 if we took ten lessons a week. Four hours a lesson.

14:00 There was that something in them. And the moment they heard a piano or something, they sat down and they took to it like a duck to water. The musical instinct responded to music. Others, it's the same way with ability in the realm of sports.

14:13 You've seen some people that maybe never played a certain sport and you put a soccer ball at their feet or put a baseball. Batten their hands and inside of five minutes you think they had the thing all their lives. But now the moment we begin to get some knowledge of God, there is never that corresponding response of delight. There is that corresponding response of aversion.

14:35 Hiding from the presence of a God like this.

14:40 Now I hope when I mention this problem you know experimentally what I'm saying. So man in this state cannot enjoy God. To think upon the true God is to bring torment. Now if we...

14:53 If we can create a God of our own, a God who isn't holy, a God who will not punish sin, a God who doesn't know everything, why then we can worship a God like that. That's why man continually makes idols. For what is the idol? The idol is man's attempt to make a God that he can worship and feel at home with in his state of sin.

15:16 So I make my little God and I set him in my living room. So when I go to the shop and I cheat and I take home a little material, and when I pocket a little of the boss's money, my little hunk of wood in the living room, he doesn't see me. So I can feel at home and I can go back at night, bow down and worship that kind of God. It doesn't bother me to have that kind of God.

15:34 But a God whose eye searches out every place, as scripture says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. That man doesn't want a God like that, does he? That God interferes with what he does in his business when nobody's around. Even when he just pilfers a quarter.

15:53 That God sees that pocket and hears the quarter when it touches the other change at the bottom. So man is continually attempting to make an idol. There's this instinct to worship, but since he's rejected the true God, he makes a God that he can worship and feel at home with in the state of his sin. You see, that's why the requirements for worship are spiritual.

Worship is Spiritual, Not Aesthetic

16:17 For once we begin to know who the true God is, then our spiritual condition must be such as to make a God that we worship. Just feel at home in his presence. This is why I am not at all impressed when people try to tell me that a beautiful building aids them in their worship. Rubbish.

16:39 Poppycock. True worship has nothing to do with aesthetic surroundings. Nothing whatsoever. If you can worship God better because of stained glass windows or the absence of them, your worship is carnal, not spiritual.

16:57 For what does stained glass windows have to do with the condition of your soul before a holy God? Does the soft light that filters through the picture of Christ, does the shepherd holding the lamb have any sanctifying power upon your spirit? If it did, I'll find the nearest stained glass window and stand there three hours a day, because there's sure a lot of sanctification that needs to be wrought in my life. If there is anything in the sonorous tones of a prayer, in the sonorous tones of a beautiful organ that can penetrate the inner recesses of the heart and make it more like Christ,

17:40 then I think the top item ought to be not an ad in the paper, Newark News all this week for land and a building for the Trinity Church, but it ought to be for an organ, because we need to be sanctified more than we need brick and mortar, don't we? No, no. Worship is spiritual. That's why when Jesus was talking to this woman at the well, in the context of spiritual worship, he brought in this whole matter of her moral condition.

18:07 Call your husband. The father's seeking true worshipers, but he's got to make people fit for worship. Call your husband. We've got to get your life adjusted before you'll ever offer acceptable worship to God.

The Problem Illustrated: How Can Fallen Man Worship a Holy God?

18:22 I don't want to labor the point, but do you see the basic principle? And it's illustrated again and again in Holy Scripture. Now, let's focus on the problem this principle creates. If this principle is valid, that true worship is directly related to the life that worships, its moral condition, then this creates a tremendous problem.

18:40 Turn with me to Revelation chapter 4 again, one of these worship passages. Revelation chapter 4. John has this vision of the throne of God, and the best way he can describe it is in these terms of lightnings flashing and thunder pealing, and lamps burning before the throne, and a sea of glass like pure crystal. And then he sees these beasts who are surrounding the throne, and notice what the theme of their song is, verse 8 of Revelation 4.

19:24 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when these beasts give glory and honor, and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, remember who he is now, he is this Christ holy God, and they worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power,

20:08 for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Now they seem to be perfectly at home in the presence of a God so holy that these beasts that surround them, full of eyes within and without, crying day and night, twenty-four hours around the clock, John says, Holy, Holy, Holy. Yet these elders, whoever they are, they feel perfectly at home with a God like that. They draw right up to his throne, cast their crowns before his throne, and they delightfully worship him.

20:41 You know why, don't you? Because there's no stain of sin to hinder them. These beasts, if they represent heavenly creatures who've never been here on earth and part of the fallen race of Adam, they have no problem. They've never known what it is to have their eyes dimmed by sin.

21:06 They worship God with undimmed eye. They love him with undivided heart. They praise him with undefiled lips. They pour out their worship from an unspotted character.

21:19 We aren't those creatures. We're part of the fallen sons of Adam, part of that race. What about these elders? Well, if they represent all the redeemed of all ages, they're in a glorified state.

21:31 Every last stain of sin has been purged from them. They are glorified. Sin has been forever removed. But now I thought, God sought worshipers here and now.

21:43 How can we worship? That's the problem that Mr. Binney focused in his hymn, Eternal Light. Eternal Light, Eternal Light.

21:53 How pure that soul must be. Which placed within thy burning light shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. See what he's saying? If any creature is to look upon a holy God with delight, he must be holy.

22:11 For any unholiness in the presence of a God like that would make us run like Adam. And so he says in the second verse, The spirits that surround thy throne, whether they be the beast or the elders, they may bear this burning bliss, but surely that is theirs alone. For they have never, never known a fallen world like this. But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear, and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being?

22:43 Mr. Binney said there's a problem. How in the world can a creature like me worship a God like that? Now has that problem ever gripped you?

22:53 Has it? Listen to the words of Mr. Spurgeon. Where angels bow with veiled faces, how shall man be able to worship at all?

23:06 If angels veil their faces, creatures who've never known sin, if they veil their faces to worship, how shall man worship at all? The unthinking, and I fear, brethren, that this includes you, and some of us. The unthinking may imagine it to be a very easy matter to approach the Most High. And when professedly engaged in worship, they have no questionings of heart as to the fitness, their fitness for it.

23:36 In other words, Spurgeon says, there are people who say, sure, I go Sunday morning to worship. I open the hymn book, sing the hymns, listen to the sermon, go home. So I worship. If you have never been perplexed by this question, am I really fit to worship God?

23:51 Spurgeon would call you an unthinking person. But truly humbled souls often shrink under a sense of utter unworthiness and would not dare approach the throne of God, the God of holiness, if it were not for Him, our Lord, our Advocate. Do you see the problem? To worship God, one must be like God.

The Solution: Positional Purity Through Christ

24:21 But we are not like God. Therefore, we cannot worship? No. Mr. Binney says in the next words of his hymn,

24:29 there is a way for a man to rise to that sublime abode and offering and a sacrifice of Holy Spirit's energies and advocate with God. Having looked at the principle and focused on the problem, now in the third place, what is the solution to this problem? We must be at home in the midst of a God of burning holiness. The answer is we must be pure.

24:53 And how can we be pure? God has made a way that we might be pure positionally and that we might be pure experimentally. Now what do I mean pure positionally? I mean by that we have a legal purity before God.

25:10 Once I begin to know something of how holy God is and how just He is and what a sinner I am, I know that God, if He is God, must punish my sin. Therefore, though I may admire Him for His holiness, though I may praise Him for His justice, I can never draw near to Him and delight in Him because I know I'm drawing near to my judge. Did you ever see anyone in his right mind who knew he was condemned walk into a courtroom and hold his head high and walk up to the judge and say, all right, give me what's coming? No, he may have been some kind of a brassy, impudent person, but if he had any understanding of what it meant to receive the wrath of the powers that be,

25:53 he would have to cringe to come before the presence of his judge. And so you and I, if we have any right understanding of God, if we're to worship Him in truth, He is in truth the God of holiness, the God of justice, but He's the God also of mercy and of grace, so that every time we approach Him, we should recognize that we cannot worship unless we are pure positionally, that is, we have a legal purity, and that legal purity has been worked out by the ministry and person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's beautifully set forth in Hebrews chapter 10. We don't have time to go into a detailed exposition of this, but will you look for a moment

26:37 at just several of the principles. In Hebrews chapter 10, he begins the chapter by speaking of the fact that the old economy, under the old Mosaic system, there was a repetition of sacrifices year by year. Verse 2 of Hebrews 10, For then would they have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

27:16 Get the picture. People come to worship, but they come with the sense that sin has not yet been finally put away, for they see the high priest every year taking that sin out of that innocent bullock. And they see the high priest shedding the blood year after year and taking it in to the presence of God. And then the high priest comes out and pronounces blessings.

27:42 Sin is passed over for another year, but then the year rolls around and there's a repetition of the sacrifice, a repetition, a repetition. But now the writer says, Christ has come, and by one offering, verse 8, and when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offering for sins, thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

28:18 There's the key thought. In the Lord Jesus and in the shedding of his blood there has been a sacrifice of finality. Man may now come to God confident that sin is blotted out and covered over. So he says in verse 19, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

28:45 Verse 22, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now isn't that what we're talking about? Worship in which we draw near not in a cringing fear, not in that kind of trembling awe, but with confidence, as the words of that hymn go, with confidence I now draw nigh and have a father cry. Why?

29:14 Because five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. What does this say to us practically?

29:26 And oh, may God make it real to us this morning. All worship must be preceded by a sense of a reconciled God. I can't come to God in that sense directly as angels come to Him. They don't need to come through a mediator.

29:44 They need to veil their faces before the glory of God. But they don't need to sink their sins beneath the blood of a mediator. Those beasts with the eyes within without may move about the throne with a holy restlessness because of the burning holiness of God. But they have no sin nor defilement to make them ashamed in His presence.

30:08 But you and I are not angels and we are not those sinless beasts. We are foul, depraved, defiled creatures of the dust. And how can we be at home with a God like that? If you come to Him directly, it's either because you have no knowledge of who He is or you have no knowledge of what you are.

30:27 Anyone who dares to approach this holy God in the defilement of his sin is either ignorant of God or ignorant of himself or ignorant of both. But people who know something of God in truth and something of themselves in truth, they'll never approach God directly. They always approach Him through a mediator. They approach Him through His Son.

30:54 And so the Scripture says in Hebrews 13, 15 that even our praise to God is offered through a mediator. By Him let us offer to God continually the sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 7, 25 said He's able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him. No man cometh to the Father to praise or to worship or to live with Him forever, Jesus said.

31:21 No man cometh to the Father but, what? By Me. Oh dear ones, as you sat here preparing your heart to worship this morning, were you consciously turning your thoughts to Jesus the mediator? That you might approach God through Him.

31:42 Every true approach to worship should be a fresh application to the Lord Jesus as our righteousness, the One who's given us a pure standing before God, whose blood has blotted out our sin, whose presence there is, whose presence there before God pleads on our behalf. This is why, frankly, I find it so difficult at times when we're singing hymns directed to Christ like that one we sang last week. It's been going through my mind all week. Jesus, my great High Priest, offered His blood and died.

32:18 My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside. And I look out and I see the look on the faces. I can't judge the heart, but when I see a genuine, when I see a general look of dullness and apathy and wandering eyes and easily distracted, I have to ask the question as one who's seeking to lead you as a congregation in worship, do we really understand what we're doing? If we know the God to whom we're coming and know something of the sinner who's coming, then to think of Christ, to sing of Christ should make us beside ourselves with early ecstasy.

The Solution: Experimental Purity (Practical Godliness)

32:57 So if we're to worship the prerequisite is not only a true knowledge of God, a spiritual sight of God, a right posture before God, but a purity before God, positionally legal purity, justification based upon the work of Christ. But then there must be an experimental personal purity. That is our own present experience of sanctifying grace. Will you turn for a few minutes to the 15th Psalm, which will be the focus of our study for the remaining minutes of our study today.

33:34 Now what we're considering at this juncture is based upon the first. If you don't have that positional purity, in other words, if you are not justified by faith in Christ and in His work, Psalm 15 is not for you. But if you are, then Psalm 15 is and is the necessary fruit of that positional purity. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?

34:06 Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Now what was the tabernacle? The place of worship. The place where the people of God drew near to their God.

34:18 And the Psalmist asked the question, who can abide in that place of worship? Who can dwell in the holy hill of God? And now the answer, he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. There's only one who perfectly kept

35:03 the requirements of this Psalm, of course, and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. And only those who are in Christ with that positional purity, who kept the law for us, who walked uprightly in every sense of the word, who worked righteousness perfectly, who perfectly spoke the truth in his heart, whose lips never uttered guile, his perfect record is put to the account of every believing sinner, and we have a position of righteousness. We now have a position before God that enables us to draw nigh. But this Psalm is not only speaking of Christ, the perfectly righteous one, in whom by faith we stand before God, but it's speaking

35:48 of the child of God and that practical righteousness which makes him at home in the worship of his God. Now notice what he says in answer to the question, who can stand in the place of worship? Who can abide in the tabernacle of God? In verse 2 he gives a general description of practical godliness.

36:10 It touches a man's walk, that is the general course of his life. He that walketh uprightly, it touches his work, he works righteousness, it touches his words, he speaketh the truth in his heart. Who's going to go on up to that tabernacle and render worship that is acceptable to God? Who's going to go up to that tabernacle and be accepted?

36:33 Well it's obvious, no one was accepted without the blood of sacrifice. David knew that. The whole worship of the tabernacle was we might say in a real sense drenched with blood. So David understands that, that the basis legally and positionally is sacrifice.

36:53 But now from the practical experimental standpoint of the worshipper, who will really be able to worship? And his answer is the man who walks uprightly, that is who walks according to the law of God. Now let's make it very personal. Who has truly entered the place of worship this morning?

37:13 The person who through this week has sought to frame his life by the holy law of God. The husband who has sought to love his wife as Christ loved the church. The wife who has sought to be subject to her husband as the church is subject to Christ. The young person who has sought to honour father and mother and be obedient to God's rule through the parents.

37:37 The person who has sought to love his neighbour as himself. The person who has sought to keep all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking from his lips. The person who has sought where there's been anything on a horizontal level that has not been right to be reconciled to his brother. The person that walks uprightly, that is who frames his life by the law of God.

38:00 He will enter the place of worship. So I say again, the life lived from Monday through Sunday at 1055 determines whether or not we truly worship. He works righteousness. That is, he seeks to positively do what is commanded in Holy Scripture.

38:21 He speaks the truth in his heart. He's found worshipping the God of truth and his knowledge of that God so permeates him that he himself seeks to walk in truth. Then he gets down to the specifics of what we would call interpersonal relationships. He that backbiteth not with his tongue.

38:43 What's backbiting? Well, you've been bitten so you're going to bite back. Isn't that what backbiting is? You can't bite back unless you've been bitten.

38:51 So your wife bites you with a stinging word and instead of having the love that covers a multitude of sins and the soft answer that turns away wrath, you bite back. The fellows on the playground, they bite you with a false accusation. They say, you cheated. Or you were out and you knew you were saved.

39:10 So what do you do? Instead of the soft answer that turns away wrath, you bite back. That's what he's talking about. You mean God won't accept the worship of these lips no matter how well they're formed if these lips have been given to backbiting precisely?

39:27 Precisely. How can lips be raised in holy worship as we sang in our hymn this morning? How can these lips bring meat homage to God if they've been backbiting lips? Cannot do it.

39:46 He doeth no evil to his neighbor. That is, he's concerned about his neighbor's good. He takes up no reproach against his neighbor. One old saint said it so quaintly.

39:55 He who gossips has the devil in his tongue. He who listens to gossip has the devil in his ear. And so whether the devil is in our tongue or our ear or both, he says we cannot worship. In whose eyes a vile person is condemned, we seek to have the same attitude to men that God does.

40:16 We don't show wrong kind of honor and flattery to men who are unworthy of it, but we honor those that fear the Lord. We are glad to let it be known that we cast our lot with the people of God, no matter how despicable they may be. He that is a man true to God, through his word, he sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. Some of us have made some pretty serious vows when we came into the membership of the Trinity Church.

40:42 We swore before God that we would do all within our power to attend faithfully the services of this Church, to support its work with our giving and our prayers, to conduct family devotions, to watch over one another. We've made vows before God that we have broken. And what's worse, we're unconcerned that we've broken them. We cannot worship in that state.

41:10 The person who can truly worship is the man of integrity, who even though he's made a vow that means he must hurt himself to keep it, he will be a man of his word and keep his word. He doesn't take advantage of his neighbor. He puts not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward of the innocent. That's a brief description of experimental, practical godliness, which the psalmist says is the mark of the true worshiper.

Application: Call to True Worship and Preparation

41:39 We could develop any one of these thoughts so much more thoroughly, but time has gone from us. May I close by bringing a brief, pointed word of application. There are those of you here this morning, young and old alike, who have never seen this great problem that I've tried to bring before your mind this morning. You thought, oh well, daddy and mommy go to church and they open the hymn book and sing praise.

42:03 I guess I can too. So you thought you could worship. Worship is something you could learn like your ABC's. No it isn't, young people.

42:10 Until you get a true knowledge of God and a true knowledge of yourself that causes you to say how in the world can a creature like me ever come and delight in a God like that. And seeing that problem you see that Jesus Christ is God's answer. And seeing him as God's answer you throw yourself at his feet and plead for his mercy. You've never worshipped.

42:34 I don't care how well you've learned the hymns and can go through the order of service. And I plead with you this morning an able and a willing savior stands before you among other things to make of you a true worshipper. To make of you a true worshipper instead of just a little parrot of the right words at the right time. I say to some of you adults who thought, well, worship is like anything else.

43:01 I grew up, went to church, I learned how so this is the place I'll worship. If you've never asked the question how can I truly worship, is my worship acceptable? I trust you'll ask that question and give yourself no rest till you have a biblical answer. But I would say to those of you who by God's grace are savingly joined to Christ, do you see now the necessity of conscious preparation for worship?

43:27 Just as Sunday morning you instinctively go to the closet and take not your work britches or your housecoat or your you may take your housecoat first before you come, but I mean as your last piece of attire, before you leave, but you instinctively move to take out of the closet your Sunday dress and your Sunday britches and your Sunday shirt and your Sunday tie. We should cultivate the holy art of true preparation for worship that we instinctively move to the closet alone with God that he would cleanse us, that we would again fix our faith upon Christ our advocate, that we would ask the Lord

44:10 by his spirit to search us out and prepare us to stand in his holy place. You can't turn on worship by passing through those doors if you bring through those doors a dirty life. You can't do it. You can't do it.

44:26 I can't do it. And I mentioned to you last week how real this is to me as a preacher to be sure that there are short accounts with God. See the necessity of Acts 24, 16, Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense to God and to man. And in the last place, see the great grace of God.

God's Grace for Repentant Worshipers

44:52 There's a beautiful description there in 2 Samuel 12. We don't have time to look at it. But it says that after God took the life of David's son, the fruit of his illicit union with Bathsheba, it says that when David received the news, he went into the presence of God and he worshiped God. And he worshiped.

45:11 Think of it. God received the worship of an adulterer. But he was a repentant adulterer. And God is more delighted with the worship of a repentant adulterer who looks to Christ alone for forgiveness than the proud, self-righteous, morally impeccable person who has no conscious need of the blood of Christ as the way into worship.

45:37 Oh, let me encourage you, no matter how stained you've been in this past week, if there is true repentance and true confession, the scripture promises he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we're fit to worship. The Father seeketh men to worship him in spirit and in truth. May God make of us true worshipers. The Lord willing, tonight we're going to consider what is the personal activity of true worship.

Prayer for Acceptable Worship

46:15 If the prerequisites are met and we are fit to worship, then what's actually involved in the activity of worship? I trust you will come and pray that God may make this profitable that we might render to him the worship that he will receive. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we confess with shame that we have often brought to Thee unacceptable worship.

46:50 Forgive us for this terrible sin. For we remember when men dared to offer strange fire upon Thine altars in the old economy, Your judgment fell upon them. We thank You that You've been merciful to us. But having received new light as to the kind of worship that is acceptable to Thee, may we not be guilty of rejecting that light or being indifferent to it, but give us grace to walk in the light as Thou art in the light, that we might be true worshipers.

47:27 Lord, seal this word to our hearts according to our individual need. We pray with thanksgiving through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.