Personal Activity of Worship

Introduction: The Personal Activity of Worship

0:00 As I look out over the congregation, I note that with but perhaps just two or three exceptions, all of you who are here tonight were with us this morning, and so I will not be tedious with a lengthy review as I complete this brief series of four studies on the subject of spiritual worship, what is it, and how may we rightly render it to God. But we have thus far considered what worship is, and have sought to describe it as that conscious, wholehearted ascription of praise and honor to the living and the true God. If worship is what those people do of whom it is said they worship, then that's what worship is. For we only know what true worship is in terms of any definition or description of it given to us in Holy Scripture. But we have seen not everyone is able to worship. There are certain prerequisites which must be met if a man or woman, fellow or girl, is to be a true worshiper.

1:12 And we have considered four basic prerequisites of worship. There must be, one, a true knowledge of God, two, a spiritual sight of God, three, a proper posture before God, namely humility and submission. And then, as we saw this morning, there must be purity before God, both a positional purity, justification, and an experimental purity, that is, practical sanctification. The command of Scripture in Psalm 29.2 is to worship the Lord not in the beauty of the filtered light of stained glass windows. The command is, worship the Lord not in the thrilling, sonorous tones of a deep-throated organ but the command is worship the lord in the beauty of holiness in other words god's worship is to be carried out in a context in which worshipers who worship a holy god are themselves holy men of women holy men and women now tonight we come to the third area of our study touching the general subject of worship having considered the essence of worship what it is

2:30 the prerequisites to worship and we've looked at four of them now tonight this third aspect and what i am calling the personal activity of worship if by god's grace we have met the prerequisites and are qualified to worship what then is actually involved in worship and may i say by way of introduction that i'm convinced that perhaps there is no greater stumbling block to true worship outside of the moral demands of worship than this outside of the fact that we must be pure before we can adequately worship and so often our flesh just doesn't want to go through the agony of self-examination and humiliation and repentance and confession outside of that hindrance i'm convinced that perhaps there is no greater hindrance than a failure to understand that worship is a personal activity to which i must bring all of the powers of my redeemed being in that sense worship can be called a holy work as much as prayer is a holy work if you've never felt that prayer was work you've never prayed now thank god sometimes prayer is delight but sometimes it's just plain work and there are times when worship is what we might call a very

Worship Involves the Whole Person: Examples from Revelation

3:54 delightful experience to which we are not very much conscious of bringing all of our faculties but more often than not if worship is to be true worship there must be a conscious bringing to that activity all of our redeemed powers now i say this because all of those descriptions of worship and we looked at a number of them last week in the old and new testament and i keep coming back to those in the book of the revelation because that's worship that it's purest and i want you to look at one or two so you'll realize i'm not just talking off the top of my head it's obvious that whatever creature is said to be worshiping that that creature is totally involved in worship as we mentioned last week i've seen people knit and at the same time talk and watch their children you and i can drive and at the same time talk carry on a conversation and even occasionally look at the person in the seat opposite us but now will you find anybody worshiping and knitting at the same time when you read scripture well i think not notice one or two of these examples back again to revelation chapter 4 and verses 10 and 11 and the 4 and 20 elders fall down before

5:15 him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy oh lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created if you take these verbs of action they fall down they worship cast their crowns saved you see the whole person is involved they were doing something physically they were doing something mentally they were thinking thoughts about god their mouths were articulating what their minds were thinking their whole being was involved in the holy work of worship a similar example is in chapter 7 verses 10 through perhaps We should begin with verse 9, Revelation 7, 9. And after this I beheld in low a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne of God and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts

6:36 and fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. What they're doing, Scripture says, they're doing with a loud voice. They do it from this posture of falling before the throne. They are saying distinctive things about God.

7:04 There is a certain order and logical structure to what they're doing. They're wholeheartedly involved in the act of worship. Now, if that's so, then it will involve at least three or four compartments of our total being. And I want to tonight suggest to you then that the personal activity of worship in a general sense involves the whole man, but specifically, it will involve the will, the mind, the body and I'll conclude with a fourth thing.

The Will's Conscious Involvement in Worship

7:40 For lack of a better way of saying it, I'm going to call it my whole renewed being. First of all, then, worship, the personal activity of worship, involves the will. Now, what is your will? That's your chooser.

7:55 That's the thing which sets the sails of the light in a given direction. Now, the will has a purpose. The will has no power to move the boat any more than the sails have a power or the rudder has any power to propel the boat. It determines direction.

8:14 Now, the will determines direction. There must be power and ability. And the scripture says in Philippians 2 and verse 12 that it is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. But God's working does not bypass my will.

8:32 Therefore, if I am to worship, my will will be consciously involved in the holy art of worship. Notice two classical examples of this in the Psalms. Turn, please, to Psalm 5, Psalm 5. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.

9:13 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee, will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.

9:36 Neither shall evil, that is the evil man, dwell with Thee. The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.

9:49 The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple. Now, the psalmist, you see, is giving a confession of the bent of his will. He's saying the wicked man cannot dwell with God, and though the anger of God is turned against wickedness, he's saying, I am not a wicked man, I am a child of God, and I am going to set myself to the worship of my God.

10:28 As for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercies. Now, another example, Psalm 132. Psalm 132, and again the first seven verses.

10:53 Lord, remember David in all his afflictions, how he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. And this was David's vow. Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed. I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, and habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

11:16 Lo, we heard of it in Ephrata. We found it in the fields of the wood, that is, the ark of God. We will go into his tabernacle, and we will worship at his footstool. You see, in recounting the history of Israel, and the fact that David had determined that he would seek to find a dwelling place for the ark of God, you remember the ark of God was sort of a vagabond thing during David's time, and it was David's determination to bring the ark of God back to the place of central worship, and the psalmist, whoever he was here, looking back upon this, and thinking of the, the tremendous privilege of coming to worship God at the appointed place, says, in the light of this, we will go into his tabernacle, we will worship at his footstool. Before he worshiped, he sets himself to that act. He is not there worshiping, but he says, this is what we will do. And then I read to you this morning from the 108th Psalm, which is the personal testimony of David again, another beautiful and very, I trust, easy to understand, psalm, on this point.

12:31 Psalm 108. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise even with my glory. Now notice, he says, I've got a fixed heart to praise God.

12:46 He's not yet doing it, but he says, I'm determined to do it. My will is set to do it. So now, he calls his psaltery in his heart to wake up. There's his psaltery.

12:57 Sitting over there in the corner, in the corner of his room, in his heart. And he says, oh psaltery in heart, wake up. We're going to go up and praise God. Oh, wake up, psaltery in heart.

13:07 And David, you get yourself awake. You said your heart's fixed. All right, now get yourself awake, and get up there and worship God like you ought to. I will praise thee, oh Lord, among the people, and I will sing praise.

13:19 He isn't doing it yet. He's saying what he's going to do. And then, as we'll see later, he begins to use his mind, for thy mercy is great above the heavens, thy truth reaches unto the clouds. On his way up to worship God, he starts feeding facts about God into his mind that'll build the fires of worship, so that when he comes to worship, his heart is aflame, and his mouth will be opened to the praises of God.

Worship as a Commanded Duty

13:46 Now, I think these psalms here that I've read are enough to show this whole aspect that worship involves the choice of the will. It is for this reason that worship is commanded in Holy Scripture. Whether or not you worship is not optional. God has commanded worship.

14:09 In Psalm 99, in verse 5, we have the explicit statement of Holy Scripture, Psalm 99, in verse 5, Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool. Well, if it's a command, like all other deeds, expressed in commands, the child of God sets himself to obey whether he feels like it or not. Is it your duty to pray? Yes or no?

14:39 It is. Now, ideally speaking, should you always feel like praying? Wonderful. But if you only pray when you feel like it, I wouldn't want to exchange your prayer life for mine, as shoddy as mine is.

14:56 You pray because it's your duty. Men ought always to pray. And not to faint. Ought is a word of duty, of responsibility.

15:07 Now, you ought to love your enemies. Now, it's wonderful when you feel like loving. But what about the times when you don't? What do you do?

15:18 Well, I hope what you do is say, Lord, I've got to love that character. Because you say it. And I'm your child. And I want to obey you.

15:28 But Lord, I can't. I must, but I can't. And what does that do? The sense of duty, the sense of duty that must be performed without any ability to perform it, drives you to the God for grace to perform it.

15:42 But if you say, Oh, well, God commands it, but certainly it isn't right to do it unless you don't feel like it and you don't do it. That's adding sin to sin. So that when we think of worshipping God, and in particular, I'm thinking of the worship that we give Him not only alone in our closet of prayer, though that's included, but I'm particularly thinking from a pastoral standpoint, the worship we bring to God when we gather together. As you think of coming to these services where we meet to worship our God, you should come with this consciousness that David had.

16:14 My heart is fixed. I will worship God because He commands it. Whether I feel like it, whether the weather oppresses me, whether I've got a headache, regardless of what I feel like, God has commanded me to worship Him. Since He has commanded it, I must.

16:30 And then as you think of the imperative nature of the command and the inability of your own heart, that's the very thing that will drive you to God for the grace that you need. Just like a sinner. You say to the sinner, you must repent. Once he begins to say, God says, unless I repent, I'll perish, I must repent.

16:50 And so he begins to try to repent. And it isn't long before he discovers he can't change his heart. So what does it do? It drives him to Christ for the grace to do what he must, but what he cannot in himself.

17:03 I shall never forget the testimony of Sheila Tate when she was interviewed by the elders when she applied for baptism. And I'll never forget some of the things she said. And one of them was this. As she was sharing her testimony, how as a proud, self-righteous Anglican she came to the church there in Caldwell, determined that whatever she heard or learned, she was never, never going to question her proper Anglican upbringing.

17:27 And I remember her saying how as the word came home, week after week, she began to get under conviction and the law of God began to show her sin. And she said, then I came to this place where I knew I had to repent, but I knew that I couldn't repent. And this drove me to seek the Lord for grace. That's it.

17:48 Now you see, if you come into this place to worship and you say, oh, my heart's cold and I've fouled up this week and I've got unconfessed sins, so I'll just sit here and go through the motions. No, no, no. Far better, beloved, get up and go out and sit in the park and pray through and get issues right. But I know something even better than that.

18:08 Say, Lord, here I come totally unprepared to worship what you've commanded me to worship and I must worship you. Now, Lord, in the shortest time possible, help me to get in the place where I can worship and give me grace to worship. That's what we ought to do. Right?

18:23 Well, if you don't agree with me, I'm right anyway because I've got the Bible on my side.

18:32 Seriously, he's God. Is there ever a time when he's not worthy of your worship?

18:38 Is there? Is there ever a time when he doesn't command your worship? Well, if he's ever worthy of it and ever demanding it, we ought to be ever giving it, regardless of what we feel like. And knowing we must, we flee to him for grace.

The Mind's Active Role in Worship

18:56 Now, you can see that in a very real sense, then, the battle as to whether or not you'll worship is won or lost before you ever enter those doors. See, the battle is won or lost in whether or not you come to that place where David was when he said, My heart is fixed. I will worship. I will worship.

19:18 I will worship. All right. Secondly, then, since it involves the whole man, it's not only the involvement of the will, but also the mind. The will is the choosing faculty.

19:29 The mind is the thinking faculty. Now, you'll remember in those passages from which I read in the book of the Revelation where they are said to be worshiping God, they are obviously thinking as they worship. They're not just before the throne of God, as it were, squeezing out of their hearts a big lump of white-hot emotion. That's not worship.

19:55 No, they're thinking. They throw their crowns before him and fall before the throne saying, Thou art worthy because...

20:04 And then they give reasons. And in the light of what you are, you ought to have honor and glory and power and dominion. They're just reaching into the grab bag of their vocabulary and pulling up all the terms they can to ascribe unto God the things of which he is worthy. So, if worship is wholehearted ascription of praise to God for who he is and what he's done, then the mind must be working, thinking about who he is, thinking about what he's done.

20:35 Now, let's turn to the Psalms again for a beautiful, simple example of how this works. And the thing I'm emphasizing is that this is the personal activity of worship. This is something you do. You just don't sit there, shift into neutral and hope it'll come.

20:53 No, it's something you and I do. By God's enablement, yes, but we do it. Psalm 103, please. Psalm 103.

21:05 Now, the first question I want you to ask and answer in your mind is to whom is David talking in the first few verses of this Psalm? Just look at it and then answer in your own mind. To whom is David talking? Or whoever the psalmist is.

21:21 It says the Psalm of David. Is he talking to the Lord? Is he talking to his fellow worshipers? Is he talking to his kids down to pay attention?

21:41 Or is he talking to himself? He's talking to himself, isn't he? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name.

21:53 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his blessings. Not all his benefits. David recognized that unless he stirred up his own soul, his own mind, to think of the benefits of God, he would forget them. And once you forget the benefits of God, who he is and what he's done, you've taken away the fuel of worship.

22:18 You can't worship in a vacuum. Even those glorified saints don't worship in a vacuum. They're thinking of who God is or what he's done, and their worship is framed accordingly. And so David acknowledges that if he's to truly bless the Lord, if he's to be caught up in the worship and praise of God, his mind must be stirred up from its sluggishness.

22:41 He must remember the benefits and mercies of God. So then he begins to enumerate them. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities? Who healeth all thy diseases?

22:51 Who redeemeth thy life? Who crowneth thee? Who satisfieth thee? And then he deals with what the Lord is.

22:58 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, like as a father pitieth his children. He thinks of all the glorious attributes of God, and in particular, the relationship of God to his covenant people. Now you find essentially the same thing in Psalm 100, a familiar psalm.

23:23 And I'm doing this, taking the familiar to show again that this is not some deep kind of profound insight. It lies right on the surface of Holy Scripture. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.

23:40 Come before his presence with singing. Know ye. Are you going to sing? Are you going to come before his presence with singing and serve him with gladness?

23:50 Then you've got to know certain things. Know that the Lord is God. Know that he is the creator. Know that we are the sheep of his pasture.

23:59 Know that the Lord is good. Know that the Lord is everlasting. His mercy is everlasting. Know that his truth is to all generations.

24:08 What you know will affect how you sing. What you know will affect whether or not you come into his courts with this overflowing gladness. Therefore, worship then involves not only the will, not only the will set to worship, but the mind calling to remembrance. Basically two things, and I've mentioned them several times.

24:34 Who God is, his majesty, his might, his power, his love, and what he has done and is doing for us, his people. He is a tender, compassionate Father. He is a loving, forbearing Savior. He is a gracious, kind Lord.

Practical Implications for Corporate Worship (Hymns, Prayer, Preaching)

24:53 All of these things, we must call them to remembrance, deliberately, consciously, actively. Now let's consider several practical implications of this principle as it relates to worship. The first one applies to the singing of hymns. You see, most of us were reared in a context, and I say us, not editorially, but I mean me, in which we were taught to think of the value of a hymn in terms of how it made us.

25:23 Of how it made us feel as we sang it. Rather than in terms of what does this hymn say about my God? See, the whole concept of hymning in our day is basically sentimental and emotional. How does this make me feel?

25:46 What does this hymn say about me and what I get from the Lord? So many of the hymns in most hymnals today begin with I, and they at the middle have I, and they end with I. They are experience-centered hymns. But beloved, if hymnody is part of worship, then what should be the center of our hymnody?

26:07 The being and works of God. Now, another purpose of hymns is to share our experience. But that's not primarily the purpose of hymns in the context of worship. That would be the function of hymns, perhaps in self-edification as we walk around the house, or as we're seeking to bear witness or in what we might call more evangelistic-type service, where we're communicating the gospel by song.

26:35 I see nothing that's violated in Scripture to communicate the gospel by song any more than it's violated to communicate it by writing and by preaching. But when we gather specifically to worship the Lord, as His people gather together to be a holy temple, to offer up holy sacrifices, then the hymns that we use should primarily center upon the being and works of God. And I'm convinced that we have perhaps the best collection of hymns for that purpose produced in our own century in the Trinity hymn. Now, this may help some of you because I know some of you, at least you've been kind and not been too vocal outwardly, but really, you've been a little suspicious of some of these kind of what you may feel are long-haired hymns. And you say, well, I'm just not a musician, and, well, perhaps it will help you to know what the motive is behind this. It is not that I and a few others in places of leadership are long-haired people and want to make you long-haired people. If that were so, I would be trying to make all of you appreciators of the fine classics.

27:49 Now, I happen to appreciate them, but I don't force my appreciation on you because that's an area that doesn't directly relate to worship. But when it comes to the worship of God, I and others in place of spiritual responsibility, we have a solemn trust, a seed to it, that we allow nothing to intrude in the worship of God that detracts from the worship of God. But the hymns chosen should be ones that help us, as we think of them when we sing them, to truly have our minds exercised with the character and the works of God. Thy work, not mine, O Christ.

28:31 See, a wonderful hymn of worship acknowledging to Him that it's His work that forms the basis of our coming unto Him. Immortal, invisible, God only wise, enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes, we're declaring who God is. So that's not a matter of a person's background or aesthetic taste. It's a matter of scriptural or unscriptural worship.

28:57 And if we understand that, I think it will help us to apply ourselves. If you could see me sitting at my desk sometimes, actually spending, I've spent as long as 10 or 15 minutes sometimes, trying to find a tune we know to a new hymn in order that it might aid us in our worship, scouring down through the metrical index. Sometimes I've gone through 25, 30 different tunes. Now, why am I doing that?

29:26 Well, certainly not because I don't have other things to do. But that recognizing that some do not read music as well as others, I don't want the music to be a stumbling block, but neither am I going to just choose a hackneyed hymn that's easy to sing because we all know it, if it doesn't contribute to true spiritual worship. So that's the first implication of this matter of the mind being involved in worship. Second implication is this.

29:56 As people pray in our public worship, seek in your own heart to make his mouth your mouth and his mind your mind, so that as they worship the Lord and ascribe unto him honor and praise, your heart is saying amen. And may I add, I find it hard to have my heart say amen without my lips saying amen. And I think there's good scriptural grounds for this. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse, and I looked it up in the Greek to make sure that it actually meant to speak with the lips and not just to think with the mind.

30:36 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 16 says, Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? Here's a man praying in tongues. And he says now the problem is if you pray in tongues, the rest of the people in the assembly can't say amen to your prayer, indicating if you prayed in a known tongue, they would say amen. It doesn't say just think an amen, but say an amen.

31:13 Now what's the significance of this? I believe the significance is here. And I mentioned this when I came back from England the last time and tried a little experiment and it went flat, but I'm game, I'll try again. I was tremendously impressed in the prayer meetings over there, and I'm sure my wife will have the same testimony when we return, the Lord willing.

31:33 When you pray in a public prayer meeting, you've no sooner finished your prayer and said we ask this in the Savior's name when everybody in the room says amen. And you know they're right with you. Their hearts have been beating with yours. Their minds have been moving with you.

31:48 It isn't as though there's an all amen and suddenly somebody wakes up and says amen. No, no. You sense that they've been following right along because they're right there to catch your train of thought and the amen. And there's a tremendous sense that though one voice has prayed, every heart has prayed.

32:05 I can't impose that on you as a congregation, but I think there's a principle here. And it's obvious that apparently, I should say apparently, this was the custom of the early church, that when one would bless the Lord, others would say amen. When one would pray, others would say an amen or an amen according to the dignity of their background. The mind is active then.

32:31 As we sing the hymns, think of the words. As one prays, follow with them. And then as the word of God is preached, let the mind be led to God. I shall never forget the words of a dear servant of God who at the conclusion of a service came to a preacher and he said this to him.

32:51 He said, brother so and so, as you preach tonight, you brought God to me and that's the goal of all true preaching. As you preach tonight, you brought God to me. Now there were people there that night to whom that preacher didn't bring God. Now what was the difference?

33:18 The difference lay not in the preacher, but it lay in the disposition of the mind and spirit of the hearers. Some were there as their goal, that they might be brought to God as the word was preached. It might lead them to God. Others were there to observe.

33:38 Maybe the preacher's style, his gifts or lack of them. Others were there to criticize, to jump on his words, to analyze them. But apparently there was at least one man there that night who was there to be led to God and the preacher led him to God. But you see it did so as the mind was exercised so that as the truth unfolded something new of the character of God and the relationship of man to God, the mind became the vehicle through which the heart and life were led unto God.

34:10 And I might say at this juncture, that's where I feel some amens in the Holy Spirit might not be out of place either. If I felt that the reason we are so formally silent in our own assembly is that there was something spiritual in silence, I would encourage more silence. If I felt that there was something spiritual and just a lot of noise and everybody saying amen, then I'd do like the Pentecostals do, though I don't think you people would buy it, but I've been in their service. Everybody here love the Lord?

34:45 Say amen! Anyone with any discernment is grieved. But I would like to encourage you that if the reason you don't say amen is a constriction of spirit, it is a grieving and quenching of the spirit, and I'm confident this is true of some of you because you've told me personally that there are times when your heart has fairly been bursting but you just couldn't seem to get it out. Well don't you quench the spirit.

35:08 And if an amen just gets up so close to here that it's just going to spill out, well you just let it spill out. You just let it spill out. I remember one or two instances where someone has uttered an amen at the right time in the Holy Spirit, and the only way I know to describe it is like when someone kicks in the afterburner on a jet airplane. When someone is ministering in the spirit and people seem to be listening in the spirit and there's an amen in the spirit, why you just feel maybe a little bit more and you'll get transfigured.

35:42 But let me encourage you along this line, you see, to follow with the mind so that as the mind is active and the truth leads to God, there will be true worship even in the listening to sermons. Well, let me hurriedly mention then the activity not only of the will and of the mind, but of the body. Your body is involved in worship. That is your physical faculties.

The Body's Physical Involvement in Worship

36:09 The will is your choosing faculty, the mind your thinking faculty, the body your physical acting faculty. Those of you who were here last week will remember we looked at about a dozen passages in which the word worship is used of an individual or a group of people and something about their physical posture is described. They fell down and they worshipped. They fell to the ground.

36:36 They bowed their heads. There was some physical activity and we brought out the principle that this physical activity was simply a reflex action of what was going on in the soul. Feeling humbled in the soul, it was natural to bow the head. Feeling overpowered with the sense of God, it was natural to fall prostrate upon the ground.

36:58 They did not say, all right, let's see, this is page 13 of the prayer book and at this point we bow the head. At this point we do this. At this point we genuflex. At this point we...

37:07 No, no, no, no. This was a spontaneous reaction to the activity of worship. But it did involve some activity of the body. We noticed in these passages in the book of the Revelation, worship almost invariably involved the voice.

37:24 They worshipped saying. And then we have the ascriptions of praise to God and it's interesting that many times it is said that when they worshipped and the voice was used, the volume is mentioned. In that passage in Revelation 7, it says they cried with a loud voice. And I looked up the word worship and volume loud in my concordance and it's amazing how many references I've written down here about six or seven and that was only probably about half of it.

38:02 Where the Holy Spirit has recorded the volume in terms of loud praise. Now, what? Well, stop to analyze it for a minute. There's no virtue in volume.

38:13 If you don't believe it, turn on WABC and listen to the kind of music that comes over that and you'll know that there's no virtue in volume. Some of that crazy music is just plain loud and raucous. But the volume of a man's voice, of a woman's voice, of a child's voice is one of the natural ways that he shows wholehearted involvement in something. If you're at a political rally and the political hero who's been long awaited finally comes out into the stage and the spotlights are there, what does he think?

38:47 If his expectant, so-called political followers sit there and say, hooray, he wouldn't be very impressed. Why? In fact, they'd have a pretty hard time convincing him he's ever going to make it. Because, you see, one of the natural ways that people show enthusiasm is in terms of what?

39:15 Movement. You only got two hands to wave and you've only got one voice to use, so what are you going to do? You just get all you can out of that one voice. If you had six voices, you'd use them.

39:30 That's what the hymn writer said. Oh, for what? A thousand tongues. Well, if you don't have a thousand, the proof you'd use them rightly is you use the one God's given you.

39:38 And if you won't use the two good pair of lungs God gave you and the one good diaphragm to project the praises of God so that your whole being is in it, don't talk anymore about a thousand tongues. You're abusing the one God gave you. Why should God give you a thousand sets of lungs and a thousand diaphragms and a thousand larynxes if you're not going to use the one he's given? And so the praise of God, let me just give you a few references and we don't have time to look them up tonight, but Ezra 3, verses 11 through 13, Ezra 3, 11 through 13, Nehemiah 12, 42 and 43, Psalm 95, 1 through 6, and here is where actually commanded to praise the Lord with a loud voice. Yes, it's a command to praise the Lord with a loud voice. Luke 17, 15 and 16 speaks of the lepers who were cleansed and one came back and he praised God with a loud voice. Revelation 5, 12 and 7, 9 and 10 speaks of the praises of the redeemed.

40:46 Now granted, there are times when in worship silence is the only appropriate reaction. Be still and know that I am God. There are times when we worship best when we say nothing. Granted.

41:02 But when we gather together in the assembly to ascribe unto God honor and glory, it is dishonoring to God to bring him weak-mouthed, low-volume, half-hearted praise that costs us nothing physically. And I repeat it again, it's dishonoring to God. The political candidate would be insulted to see his professed enthusiastic praise and his enthusiastic followers. Very glad he's here.

41:39 Now there may be some dear little old woman that at best she can only get out five-tenths of a decibel of sound, but she's going to squeeze out all five-tenths she can if she's really for it. And there may be some fellow over here with a 50-inch chest that can get out 500 decibels. He's going to be content with nothing less than 500. Decibels is how you measure sound, just like pounds is how you measure weight.

42:03 If it's five-tenths of a decibel or 500 decibels, the person who's involved in the worship of God is going to be involved wholeheartedly and volume cannot help but enter in. Now there's a fleshly way to try to get volume. And that's to say, everybody sing now. No, no, no, that's out.

42:23 That's fleshly. All I'm trying to show you is that if there's something in you that doesn't want to give to God that full voice, turned-up volume of praise, then it could be that there's either something defective in your enthusiasm for God or you've got some kind of a mental block that you identify that with Pentecostalism and radicalism. Now I don't know which it is, but whatever it is, it's wrong. And the praise of God should be glorious, full-voiced praise.

Overcoming Physical and Spiritual Sluggishness

42:56 I have found at times when my heart's been as cold as the ice cubes that you put in your iced tea before you came tonight, that as I've just in cold blood opened my mouth and begun to praise God until it cost me something, a little soreness in the throat or more often a little soreness in the diaphragm and the tummy muscles, God is pleased with the act of obedience and my own heart is melted and thawed as I draw nigh with full-voiced, full-hearted praise. Now I hope you see the implications of this. This means if you're not careful about what you do all day, Saturday and how you get to bed Saturday night, if you're just worn out physically because you've dissipated your time and your energies, you're not going to be able to give yourself to worship. And frankly, dear ones, I really feel that this is one of the great problems with our Sunday morning worship service. We've lost the battle Saturday night. I really do.

43:56 If you could stand where I stand some Sunday mornings and look out, you're just plain so, seem to be so worn out emotionally, you just can't raise yourself to praise. Now I don't mean to be unkind, but I've got to be truthful. And maybe it would help to just ask you to switch places with me, one by one, maybe go down the list alphabetically and have you maybe stand behind those curtains when we get back in the school and just take a little peek out there, one each Sunday morning. Or maybe have the candid camera come and do a little bit of work for us.

44:35 I don't know. But this has deeply concerned me, beloved, because I feel that one of my tasks as an under-shepherd is to lead you in worship. And yet I know I can't do it on a fleshly basis. And I've asked God, Lord, what are the factors spiritually that is keeping us from being a people abandoned in worship?

44:53 You say, but I don't have a very good voice. Who cares? Says they praise him with a loud voice. Didn't say it was melodious.

44:59 Nowhere does it comment on the beauty of the voice. It comments on the volume. So use what God's given you. Then maybe someone with a good voice will have to sing louder to cover up your bad voice.

45:12 But you see, this is contagious. It's contagious. Dullness is contagious. Holy involvement in the worship of God is contagious.

45:23 And I am convinced that there are scriptural principles involved in this matter of the physical activity of worship. It costs you something physically to worship. Now, thank God, there's refreshing that comes. It's that mystery.

45:37 A number of you mentioned about Wednesday night. It costs something to pray, but wonder of wonders, when you come out to pray, you leave refreshed. And when you come to worship and feel dull, but say, I'm going to worship God anyway, and though I don't feel like it, I'm going to open my mouth wide and sing his praises, wonder of wonders, you'll leave refreshed. But the body, the physical faculties are involved.

The Whole Renewed Spirit and Resisting the Flesh

46:01 Just as they're involved in preaching. Just as they're involved in any other spiritual activity. Well, the last point, and I don't know hardly how to say this, it involves not only the mind, the will, the body, but my whole renewed spirit. That is my whole inner man.

46:18 And I've got to recognize the principle we dealt with in terms of meditation, that the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And if we're to worship aright, we need to sing and say to ourselves very often the words of hymn number 331, Awake my soul and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run. Shake off dull sloth. And joyful rise to pay the morning sacrifice.

46:51 Awake my soul, stretch every nerve. You and I must do this. Spiritual energy must be expended in resisting this indisposition of the flesh. The flesh lusting against the spirit.

47:06 The spirit against the flesh. These two contrary the one to the other. So that more and more we learn the holy art of holy worship. Which will be acceptable unto our God.

Conclusion: A Call to Wholehearted Worship

47:22 Well, the personal activity of worship then involves the whole man. I hope amidst some of the unplanned, spontaneous humor tonight, and the many portions of scripture we've looked at, you've heard the voice of God. But I hope God has come to you, rebuking you, for dishonoring him with half-hearted worship, mentally lazy worship. I hope he's come encouraging you, strengthening you, instructing you.

47:55 And I hope that when we come back in a few weeks' time, I'll have a wonderful report of how there's a new quality, a new intangible, but very real something in our worship services. Because by God's grace, we're meeting the prerequisites to worship. True knowledge of God. A spiritual sight of God.

48:25 By God's grace, we're knowing what it is to have a pure standing before God. We know what it is to come with our will set. We're going to worship him. With the mind active as the hymns are sung, we're bleeding out of every word the truth that is contained about the character and being of God.

48:48 When someone prays, we're refusing to shift into neutral. We're active. Our minds are intent. We're expending mental energy, giving ourselves, and in our hearts, and if not upon our lips, in our hearts, we're saying amen.

49:01 As the word is preached, we're seeking to follow, we're listening, praying that God will come to us in the preaching. We give ourselves mentally. Give ourselves physically. We give ourselves to that worship of which our God is so worthy.

49:17 And I say in closing that this is the one art that is going to carry on with you into eternity. There'll be no preaching in heaven. There'll be no comforting. There'll be no crying, no sighing, no tears, no petitions, but there's going to be worship.

49:34 May God grant that we shall begin to learn well the holy art that will be our portion through all eternity. Let us pray. O Lord, we thank Thee that Thou art a God worthy of our worship. When we think of the devotion shown to those gods which are no gods and the zeal with which men worship their false gods, what can we do, Lord, but confess with shame the sin of our half-hearted worship, our mentally lazy worship, our sluggish worship? O God, give us a new sight of Thee. Give us a new appreciation of Thy marvelous works to the children of men, that Thy person and works shall be like fuel for the fires of worship. Take away from us the inhibitions we've picked up along the way, our fear of fleshly enthusiasm, our reaction to a soulish kind of enthusiasm.

50:53 Lord, deliver us from those fears that would inhibit us and give us the liberty and freedom of the Holy Ghost in our worship together. Lord, we long to know that if in nothing else in life we are utterly loosed, to give Thee all of that which You deserve, may it be when we worship Thee. Hear us as we pray and seal to our hearts this Thy holy word. We pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

51:26 Amen.