Sermon Tone Analysis

What Spiritual Worship Is

We have walked through some general thoughts on worship as Sam led us through the Scriptures in our previous sermon.

Now, at the lead of Charnock, we will continue our discussion on spiritual worship by discussing what spiritual worship is.

Like holding this piece of fruit, I can tell you that it is crispy, or juicy, or red, or shiny, or perishable.

I can say that it is edible, nutritious, something grown worldwide.

I can tell you that it contains trees within its case.

I can tell you many things to describe it, or I could summarize it with the word apple.

We are dealing with spiritual worship, and what it is.

What is involved in spiritual worship?

What is required?

How can one thing be spiritual worship and another thing not be spiritual worship?

In our churches today, many things occur that are called “worship.”

People, upon leaving the service may say something like, “Wow, we really worshipped today!” referring to the stirring music.

Or, after a hell-and-fire sermon, they may say, “He was really getting it, and I was worshipping!”

Or, in some churches, they may have choreographed dancing and people call it a “worship service.”

Building upon Sam’s foundation, we will now pull out the apple of worship and learn what it is, and by default, what it is not.

If we are to be a people who worship the Lord, we must worship him in spirit and in truth, or, as Charnock describes it, “That the worship due from us to God ought to be spiritual, and spiritually performed.”

(283)

What is worship?

We answer that in two ways, by connecting worship and reason and then by connecting worship and grace.

The first, Worship and Reason, involves our minds and understanding.

The second, Worship and Grace, involves God as He aids us in practicing spiritual worship.

I. Worship and Reason

We are answering the question, “What is spiritual worship”, and to answer this question, we must also describe it, flesh out the necessary requirements and accompanying needs for spiritual worship.

Let me read Charnock’s words.

He writes, “Worship is an act of the understanding, applying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thoughts of his majesty, recognizing him as the supreme Lord and governor of the world, which is natural knowledge; beholding the glory of his attributes in the Redeemer, which is evangelical knowledge; that is the sole act of the spirit of man.” (298)

There are two things that stand out.

First, is natural knowledge.

That is facts about God, his excellency, or his might, or his sovereign reign.

These are intellectual truths that form our natural knowledge.

But we can believe that and still not engage in spiritual worship.

James tells us that the devils believe these truths, but rather than worship God their oppose him.

Spiritual worship involves natural knowledge, or intellectual facts, but it is not solely natural knowledge.

As the psalmist writes in Psalm 47:7 “For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding!”

With this two-fold knowledge of natural and spiritual worship, let us set out what Worship with Reason is.

A. Spiritual Worship is Worship from a Spiritual nature—you must be saved

“You must be born again”

Eph.

2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Col. 3:4 “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

“If the soul be habitually carnal, the worship cannot be actually spiritual.”

(299)

“All worship issuing from a dead nature, is but a dead service.”

(299)

B. Spiritual Worship is influenced and supported by the Spirit of God—he is our helper

“A heart may be spiritual, when a particular act of worship may not be spiritual.”

(299)

“Without an actual influence we cannot act from spiritual motives, nor for spiritual ends, nor in a spiritual manner.”

(299) We are hopeless without the help of the Holy Spirit.

“Never any great act was performed by the apostles to God, or for God, but they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost.”

(300)

Rom.

8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

,

Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Eph.

6:18 “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

C. Spiritual Worship is sincere worship—it must be heartfelt

Romans 10:10 “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Psalm 119:108 “Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.”

“A carnal worship, whether under the law or gospel, is when we are busied about external rites, without an inward compliance of soul.”

(300)

“Sincerity is the salt which seasons every sacrifice.”

(300)

“How can we imagine God can delight in the mere service of the body, any more than we can delight in converse with a carcass!” (301)

“We may be truly said to worship God, though we want perfection, but we cannot be said to worship him if we want sincerity.”

(301)

D. Spiritual Worship is performed with a united heart—God must be a sole focus

Psalm 119:10 “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!”

“A heart quickly flitting from God makes not God his treasure; he slights the worship, and therein affronts the object of worship.

All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God, bound up in him as in a bundle of life.”

(301)

“A carnal heart is seldom with God, either in or out of worship.”

(301)

“Worldly affections are to be laid aside, if we would have our worship spiritual.”

(302)

“He is a carnal worshipper that gives God but a piece of his heart, as well as he that denies him the whole of it; that hath some thoughts pitched upon God in worship, and as many willingly upon the world.”

(302)

E. Spiritual Worship is performed with an active understanding and an engaged will—God is transcendent and glorious

Psalm 150:2 “Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!”

“If we understand the amiableness of God, our affections will be ravished; if we understand the immensity of his goodness, our spirits will be enlarged.”

(302)

“What strength of affection we naturally have ought to be as much and more excited in acts of worship than upon other occasions and our ordinary works.”

(303)

“This activity doth not consist in outward acts.

Strong spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense.”

(303)

II.

Worship and Grace

We are dealing with spiritual worship, worship that is acceptable to almighty God.

It makes sense, then, considering the sinfulness of man and the holiness of God, that we are in need, desperate need, for aid from this good God.

Or, to put it another way, we cannot worship God in spirit and in truth without divine assistance.

A. Spiritual Worship requires confidence in God

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

“a spiritual worship cannot be performed without an evangelical confidence in him as a gracious redeemer.”

(305)

B. Spiritual Worship requires love of God

Matthew 22:37 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

“In that one word love, God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us.” (306)

C. Spiritual Worship acknowledges our weaknesses

Dichotomy: the closer we get to God, the farther we feel we should be separated.

Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

“When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God, the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually suitable.

The more we act love upon God, as amiable and gracious, the more we should exercise grief in ourselves, as we are vile and offending.”

(306)

“It is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it.”

(307)

D. Spiritual Worship requires an insatiable desire for God

“A carnal worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the temple, a spiritual worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the sanctuary (Ps.

63:2).”

(307)

Psalm 63:2 “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.”

Psalm 119:10 “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!”

Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

“To desire worship as an end, is carnal; to desire it as a means, and act desires in it for communion with God in it, is spiritual, and the fruit of a spiritual life.”

(307)

E. Spiritual Worship includes thankfulness and admiration

Revelation 5:13-14 “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”