Sermon Tone Analysis

The Uses of Spiritual Worship

We come now to the practical part, though we could certainly say that the rest of the sermons have been practical, at least in part.

The typical structure of the typical sermon by the typical Puritan was: doctrine, exegesis, and application.

So far in our Charnock Conferences we have examined Charnock’s sermons on Divine Providence, God’s Goodness, and this weekend on Spiritual Worship.

Each of these three sermons have followed the same pattern: doctrine, exegesis, and application.

In each of the sermons, our speakers have displayed the doctrine and the basis (i.e., exegesis) for it.

Now, in our last sermon, we will see the application.

What benefits should we take away from this conference?

What warnings should we heed?

How can we worship in spirit and in truth?

I hope, with Charnock’s sermon and with the help of the Word of God and the Spirit of God, to answer these questions this morning.

There are four uses of this knowledge: information, examination, comfort, and exhortation.

I.

For Information

Information is key to all aspects of life, but particularly to the Christian.

As we learn more about ourselves and about our God, we are able to be more like Jesus Christ.

That is, after all, the exhortation offered by Paul in Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

A. So Many Neglect Spiritual Worship—not in public, but private

None who have attended this conference will be able to plead ignorance about spiritual worship.

However, though numbers have certainly decreased over the years, what Charnock focuses on here is not public but private spiritual worship.

We gain the following information:

1. Worship is a duty of every human being

Psalm 100:1–5 “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

2.

Not to worship is “a high degree of atheism”

Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.”

Psalm 14:4 “Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?”

“Not to worship him with our spirits, is against his law of creation; not to worship him at all, is against his act of creation; not to worship him in truth is hypocrisy; not to worship him at all is atheism, whereby we render ourselves worse than the worms in the earth, or a toad in a ditch.”

(322)

3. False or idol worship is less a sin than a perpetual neglect of spiritual worship

“Though it be directed to a false object instead of God, yet it is under the notion of a God, and so is an acknowledgement of such a being as God in the world; where as the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supreme majesty.”

(322)

B. Spiritual worship is more than outward show

“A pharisaical diligence in outward forms, without inward spirit, had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour, than that of hypocritical.”

(323)

Matthew 15:8 ““ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;”

Let us remember these truths, these principles, every single time we engage in spiritual worship.

We need this information.

But we also have the use of examination.

II.

For Examination

Charnock offers four questions for us to use in examining our hearts.

I have rephrased these a bit to make them a little easier to remember.

A. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship?

Charnock begins this section asking, “Is our diligence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture [i.e., spiritual worship], than our bodies in a decent garb?” (324) There are two ways that we can prepare our hearts for worship (though many more could be discussed).

First, Charnock asks, do we prepare by exciting our hearts and spirits to worship?

Psalm 27:8 “You have said, “Seek my face.”

My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.””

Second, Charnock asks, do we approach God in spiritual worship with expectations?

Psalm 62:5–8 “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.

Selah”

“Or do we design nothing but an empty formality, a rolling eye, and a filling the air with a few words, without any openings of heart to receive the incomes, which according to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us?” (324)

Prepare your hearts for worship, more than you prepare your bodies.

Come expecting to be filled to the full by our Gracious God!

B. How are our hearts fixed upon him, how do they cleave to him in the duty?

Charnock asks, “Oh, do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix themselves with spiritual duties, and fasten our minds to the creature, under the presences of directing them to the Creator?

Do we not pass a mere compliment on God, by some superficial act of devotion, while some covetous, envious, ambitious, voluptuous imagination may possess our minds?”

(324)

Love the Lord with your whole heart, but we love the Lord.

He is the object of our entire focus, everything else passes from our view.

C. How do we act our graces in worship?

Hebrews 2:15 “and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

2 Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;”

Has the grace of Jesus Christ changed our acts in worship?

Do we worship in terror, or reverential fear?

Let us worship in the wonder of God’s grace!

D. How do we find our hearts after worship?

After engaging in spiritual worship, what changes?

When you engage in true spiritual worship, there will be fruit.

Charnock says, “Spiritual fruits are a sign of a spiritual frame.”

(326) Do we have increased appetites for God and holiness, and a concurrent distaste for worldliness and sin?

So use these questions to examine yourself, to determine if you are in deed worshipping in spirit and in truth.

How therefor are our hearts prepared to worship?

Are we prepared, and are we expectant?

How are our hearts fixed upon him, how do they cleave to him in the duty?

How do we act our graces in worship?

How do we find out hearts after worship?

III.

For Comfort

We engage in spiritual worship for comfort.

Charnock writes, “It is very comfortable to consider that the smallest worship with the heart and spirit, flowing form a principle of grace, is more acceptable than the most pompous veneration.”

(327)

Sometimes we derive comfort from the truth of knowing our worship, when engaged in spirit and in truth, are accepted to our gracious God.

But other times, and in Charnock’s sermon, he reminds us that even negative aspects can be comfortable.

It reminds us of our starts (distractions), those times where our hearts turn away from focusing on the delightful Trinity to the degraded world.

A. Distractions are normal

“There will be starts, and more in our religious than natural employments; it is natural to man.” (327) writes Charnock.

It is a comfort, because we all are prone to “starts.”

But how can we rid ourselves of these starts?

Well, God has in His wisdom allowed us to undergo the process of sanctification, an “irreconciliable war” as the Westminster and London Confessions of Faith state.

What comfort, then, do we have?

We are comforted because distractions are normal, they happen to every believer, be they the Apostle Paul or Bobby.

Why?

1.

Because of our natural corruption