Spiritual worship is very important. This devotional reading looks at how we use the information we gain to worship God.
Nuggets
- It is our duty, obligation, and privilege to worship God.
- When we do not worship God – when we don’t even acknowledge Him – our sinful nature reigns unchallenged.
- When we don’t use our knowledge to worship God, we live far away from Him.
We’ve been studying about spiritual worship. To do this, we’ve been looking at Menander and Charnock’s sermon Spiritual Worship.
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We are about to the end. In this last section of the sermon, Charnock begins his discussion of how we make use of this.
Charnock’s first point was that we use what we have learned for information. How do we use what we have learned to worship God?
How sad their state who, so far from giving it, render no worship at all.
We were created to worship God, so when we don’t worship Him, we go against our purpose. That makes a sad state of affairs.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Finding Jesus through Spiritual Worship study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series is Menander and Charnock’s Spiritual Worship.
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The blue headings are Charnock’s words.
Worship because of Creation
“Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” (Ps. 100: 2-3 NLT)
Worship is founded on creation (Psalm 100:2, 3), and man in no state can be exempted.
It is our duty, obligation, and privilege to worship God.
Because God is Sovereign God, He is worthy of our praise. Because He is our Creator, it is our duty to worship Him.
The obligation comes when we must worship God with our hearts, not just our lips. We must submit totally to Him — and be sincere.
Smith put it this way. He wrote, “Our outward worship must be verified and substantiated by inward truth; and this can only be done as we serve God in spirit, principle, life, action, and thus with the whole man show forth His praise.
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Our worship must flow from our love of God. “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Gal. 5: 6 NLT).
People get wonky on the submission part. We shouldn’t.
When God asks us to submit, He is asking us to follow His laws and commandments. All are ones we can keep.
No, we sin and break God’s laws at times. However, we can choose to obey them and be successful.
The psalmist said that we should worship the Lord with gladness. We shouldn’t consider submission a hard yolk. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11: 30 ESV).
It is our privilege to worship God because He has redeemed us. He demands, as Smith said, that we worship Him in righteousness and love. Righteousness is the indwelling goodness that is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments and from which all virtues flow. God’s righteousness is the result of His being pure, how He pardons those who genuinely repent through the gospel. God’s purity stems from the fact that He cannot sin.
We worship God for Who He is and what He has done for us.
Worship because of Protection
“Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel! The LORD has brought charges against you, saying: ‘There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere — one murder after another” (Hos. 4: 1-2 NLT)
Where there is no acknowledgment of God, the gate is open for all sin (Hosea 4:1, 2; Genesis 4:16).
When we do not worship God – when we don’t even acknowledge Him – our sinful nature reigns unchallenged.
By nature, we have sinful natures. These became part of us when Adam and Eve originally sinned.
God charges us with our sins. He cannot associate with sinful creatures.
These sins undermine our worship.
We think, after conversion, that we can’t sin. We also think that God has forgiven us of all our sins, so everything is okay.
We forget about the sanctification process. Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
God has forgiven us of our sins, but He does not exempt us from our cleansing.
Instead, we are to look to God’s Word for truth. Burroughs shows us how. He wrote, “The knowledge that any truth is the Word of the Lord is a special means to prepare the heart to receive it with reverence and all due respect, even though it be hard and grievous to flesh and blood.”
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We prepare our hearts for worship when we read God’s Word. We focus on God when we listen to Him. That helps us focus on Him.
Worship because of Proximity
“So Cain left the LORD’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Gen. 4: 16 NLT)
When we don’t use our knowledge to worship God, we live far away from Him.
Charnock’s next example drew from the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, killed his brother Abel because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not his.
No, nothing much has changed. We kill for what seems like inconsequential reasons.
But if we look at it through God’s lens, we see that Cain’s worship was off. We don’t know exactly why his offering was unacceptable to God.
We just know that it was.
We can’t offer worship to God that is not acceptable to Him. We just talked about this in the last devotion.
God tells us in His Word what is acceptable worship. We have to be knowledgeable about what is and isn’t acceptable.
Exell reminded us that Cain lived a life after this sin. He had a wife to help him. He associated with other people.
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But Cain was cut off from God. That is the worst punishment that there is.
We want to stay close to God so that we can worship Him as we grow in our faith.
Making the Connections
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!” (Rev. 3: 15 NLT)
Where there is no acknowledgment of God, the gate is open for all sin (Hosea 4:1, 2; Genesis 4:16).
Worship to a false God, or in a false way, is better than none at all.
Charnock said something that echoed what Jesus said. He wants us to be either hot or cold toward Him.
I know. That seems kind of funny at first glance. Of course, Jesus wants us to decide to follow Him.
Regardless of what we decide, though, Jesus wants us to do just that – decide. He wants us to make up our minds regarding Him.
Until we decide and confess that we believe Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer, He can’t be. We won’t gain salvation until we ask Him to save us.
This is a yes or no question. Either we believe and submit, or we don’t.
Being lukewarm opens us up to being Matthew 7: 21 people.
Making the Connections
Humphrey gave us the reason why we are to want to worship God. He wrote, “Because the service itself is holy, ennobling, and in its very nature joy-inspiring. To be in harmony with God, to be engaged in His service, seeking to raise men out of the ignorance, guilt, and misery of sin — how blessed is such service.”
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Worshiping God makes us joyful!
How Do We Apply This?
- Be humble and teachable.
- Resist the pull of the world.
- Become as a child.
- Look forward to 24/7/365/eternity worship in Heaven.
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Father God. We worship You. Thank You for providing us with knowledge so that we can learn how You want us to worship You. Amen.
What do you think?
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