We have to remember that spiritual worship is focused on Sovereign God. This devotional reading looks at how we are to humbly approach God.
Nuggets
- We are to humbly worship God because we are sinners saved by grace.
- We are to worship God humbly because He is King, and we aren’t.
- We are to worship God humbly because He is Sovereign God.
We’re looking at Charnock’s portion of a sermon that he did with Menander. We talked about how we are to offer our worship with delight.
Charnock said that worship would be paid through reverence. (We talked about reverence, but we didn’t equate it with payment.)
Associated with that is payment through humility. Charnock described what he was talking about here. He wrote, “God commanded not the fiercer creatures to be sacrificed, but the meek; none that had stings in their tails or venom in their tongues.”
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Okay. Clear as mud. Let’s see if the verses help decode this.
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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Humble Because We Are Sinners
“And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution.” (Hos. 2: 4 NLT)
We are to humbly worship God because we are sinners saved by grace.
Oh, Charnock! Where did you take us?
Let’s put Hosea in context. He was a prophet that God told to marry a prostitute.
I know. That is the last thing that we would expect God to ask of a preacher. Aren’t they supposed to be placed on a pedestal and be an example of how everyone else is supposed to do things?
No, pastors are human, just like us. They have the same temptations and sin, just like us.
I get two points out of this. The first point is that we have to be humble.
We are all going to sin. We are all unworthy of having a relationship with God.
God, however, doesn’t see it that way. We are only worthy because we have been saved by His grace.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV).
God sees us covered by the blook of Jesus Christ. He sees those who believe in His Son as their Savior and Redeemer as being worthy.
The second point that is that God takes us where we are. He allows prostitutes, murderers, liars, adulterers – and all other sinners to ask Jesus to be their Savior.
Thankfully, God doesn’t leave us there. He sanctifies us to grow to where He wants us to be.
Pusey rambled a little, but what I got out of it has to do with predestination. In Elaine-speak, God knows evil will come. He didn’t plan for it or make it come, but He knew it would and will come.
Therefore, God has a judgment for the evil. He predestined that those who would commit evil and not repent would be judged.
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So, the bottom line is that we shouldn’t get conceited. We are only worthy to worship God because He has made it so.
“Then I said, ‘It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies’” (Isa. 6: 5 NLT)
We are to worship God humbly because He is King, and we aren’t.
This verse continues the last topic — God is worthy; we aren’t.
We may think we are good people. However, being good isn’t good enough.
The Homilist said that holiness is normal. We are anything but because of sin.
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The only way we can be good — be holy — is through believing in Jesus.
God’s Word is full of Him revealing Himself to us. Yes, this is just an introduction. We can’t think that is all there is.
The humility part comes in when we are like Isaiah. “Then I said, ‘It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man …’” (Isa. 6: 5 NLT).
We have to say, “Woe is me,” too.
See the different areas we have to address. It isn’t that we have given up. It isn’t that we don’t see a way out. It isn’t that the world is corrupt.
It is that we, personally, are sinful and need Jesus. We individually need “…the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies” (Isa. 6: 5 NLT).
Think about this. How do you see God? Edwards wrote, “Every man’s course is shaped by the view that he forms of the Supreme Ruler.”
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Edwards is correct in saying that, if we don’t see God as Sovereign God, we are in bondage.
We have to remember where God is during Isaiah’s vision. He was on His throne. It is our duty to worship Him.
An important aspect of worship is our willingness to say as Isaiah did, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” We have to be totally committed to God, regardless of what is asked of us.
Humble Because God Loved Us First
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!” (I Chron. 29: 14 NLT)
We are to worship God humbly because He is Sovereign God.
We are totally unworthy to even go near God unless we have asked Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer.
God is Creator and Sustainer of all we see and don’t see. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. He is eternal.
To read a devotion in the Finding Our Center series, click on the button below.
Because God created us and provides for us, everything we have does come from Him.
I know. We like to think we are self-sufficient. We are successful at our jobs because of our own abilities.
Nope.
God gave us those abilities. They didn’t come from us.
I love it when God’s Word connects. Look at the last part of the Chronicles verse. “… we give you only what you first gave us!” (I Chron. 29: 14 NLT).
- “We love because he first loved us” (I Jn. 4: 19 ESV).
- “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5: 8-10 ESV).
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).
Our worship of God has to bubble out of our love for Him.
Making the Connections
The topic of this devotion is humility. We have to approach God humbly, knowing that He is worthy, and we are not.
Unfortunately, some see God sparing sinners and think that makes them worthy, too. It doesn’t.
Hutcheson warns of this. He wrote, “However the Lord may for a time spare sinners, and they be ready to sleep because of this; yet at last when their cup is full, and they have proven themselves incorrigible, judgment will certainly come.”
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We can’t assume that, because God is not currently judging sinners, that he never is.
More importantly, the church cannot buy into the mindset that God spares unrepentant sinners. We must witness to them and keep ourselves from compromising with the world.
How Do We Apply This?
- Accept Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer.
- Worship God humbly because we are unworthy without faith in Jesus.
- Determine how we see God and how we need to change to see Him correctly.
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Father God. You are Sovereign God. We are unworthy because we are sinful. Yet, You sacrificed Your only Son so that we could be restored to You. Lord, we are only worthy because of Him. Help us to humbly worship You because of Who You are. Amen.
What do you think?
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