True and False Worship

Introduction

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspect of being a human being in our society today is our need to worship. In a world that constantly feeds us the ideology of individualism and focuses on the need for individual expression, people feel lost in finding their own identity because they’ve been told that their identity is centred on who they are and what they want. Instead of making people happy and enlightened, this has done more to make people more confused and miserable than ever. Phrases like “be true to yourself” carry very little weight when you don’t know who you are supposed to be in the first place. The problem isn’t that people aren’t true to themselves, the problem is that people are neglecting their created need to worship God.

But what does it mean to worship God? What is worship? Today I want to revisit a part of the story of Cain and Abel and look at two boys who offered worship to God, one was accepted and the other rejected. From this text, we can learn what the purpose of biblical worship is and how we can worship in a way that pleases God and creates a joyful experience for us as Christians.

What is Worship?

Before we look at the acts of worship displayed by the first brothers, it is important for us to define what worship is. A lot of churches call the singing portion of their service “worship” but is it really so narrow? Worship has rightly been seen as giving worth to something, but it’s even more than that. Throughout Scripture, we see worship being done in many different ways, but there is a consistency to it. We see in Scripture that worship is something that is displayed, and in much more than only singing, although singing is one way that we worship. The OT shows worship in songs, in prayer, in obedience, in service, in ceremonies, in the reading of God’s word, and in sacrifices.

Definition (Daniel Block)

So how can we take all that the OT says on this topic and boil it down to a simple definition for us to follow? I have found OT scholar Daniel Block’s definition to be helpful:

“True Worship involves reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign in response to his gracious revelation of himself and in accord with his will.”

Lets break that definition down so that we can appreciate all its parts.

Reverential human acts of submission, homage, (and I would add adoration) before the divine Sovereign

Worship is not primarily about your experience. Experience is important. Feelings are important. But they should be seen as a possible and hopeful result of worship, not worship itself. A lot of people are very confused about worship and fall into it either being an emotion-based experience on the one hand or a cold formalism on the other. What is often forgotten, the missing piece in many people’s idea of worship is that worship is primarily an act of submission and homage. To worship God isn’t simply to have a mystical experience, it is to come before your Lord and bow before him. God is our Lord, and he is a great and mighty sovereign. His love is sweet, but is wrath is terrifying and we only avoid it because of his mercy granted to us through faith in Christ the crucified.

Worshiping God is meant to convey the idea of coming before a great king and laying yourself prostrate before them to show humility and submission to him. It is how we are meant to display, to God, to ourselves, and to the world, that YHWH is our commander and Lord. We belong to him, we will listen and obey him, we will show him the respect and reverence he deserves, with a posture that says, “what would you have me do my Lord, I and all that I have are yours to command.”

This is all done in reverence. Not in coldness or distance. God is our Lord, but he is also our Father and he loves us. Our submission is that of a reverent love that ought to ignite our affections for our heavenly Father. A submission based on loving respect and humble passion for his glory. This is why I add adoration. Worship must be done with fear, but not only fear. A servant may serve his master only because of his master’s whip, not because he loves him. While we acknowledge and respect God’s power in Godly fear, true worship also approaches God with adoration. A loving respect keeps us submissive in his service, lofty thoughts of our Lord should be often on our minds, and the defense of his honour is a most cherished and personal charge.

in response to his gracious revelation of himself

The next part of the definition (read). God is the one that makes the first move in worship. It is from his Word as special revelation and creation as general revelation that we learn who he is and what he has done. Worship is the proper response to reading your Bible just like it is the proper response to going to the zoo, walking on a beach, or hiking up a mountain. It is also the proper response to reading a history book, enjoying a good meal, or playing a game with your friends. All these things can be done without worship, but through the Scriptures we know that all of these good things were created for his glory and they display his goodness, love, power, sovereignty, majesty, and beauty. The King is displaying himself in all his glory, and the proper response is to bow down and worship at his feet.

in accord with his will

Finally, all this is in accord with his will. We do not have the liberty to choose how we worship, just like we don’t have the liberty to choose who we worship. God decrees how he is approached, and it must not be taken lightly. When we make worship about our own personal experience, we are much more likely to tweak it to suit our needs rather than his will. If you are walking into the presence of a great King, you are going to want to know what kind of behaviour is acceptable in his court. How do approach him? Do you kiss his scepter? Bow? It’s not up to you, its up to him. Its not about your experience, its about his glory. The famous OT story of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu and their creative offering before the Lord remind us that God does not let us come to him in any way we want. As we dive back into the story of Cain and Abel, I want that to stay there in the back of our minds and we’ll come back to it.

The Worshiper and the Sacrifice

In our text, both Cain and Abel offer a sacrifice to the Lord as an act of worship. However, only Abel’s sacrifice is acceptable before God. We are told in Genesis 4:4 that God regarded, or looked on Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. The broad language of looking specifically means looking with favour. God smiled on Abel’s sacrifice, he found it acceptable and a worthy tribute to him, their sovereign God.

But God did not look upon Cain’s sacrifice with that same favour and acceptance. We’re not told how they knew whether God had accepted their sacrifice or not, but we do see later in the story that God seems to speak rather freely with Cain. They had no Bible in those days, and special revelation likely came in a very direct way, although the close fellowship that Adam and Eve had once enjoyed with God was now distant and lost. As a result, Cain becomes angry, apparently both at God and at his brother.

What did Cain do wrong?

In this short episode, there has been much debate about why God chose Abel’s sacrifice as acceptable and not Cain’s. When Cain kills Abel, it seems that Cain thinks that he is the problem, as if God would accept him if he didn’t have his brother to compare himself to. Some have suggested that it is because Cain offered fruits of the ground, but Abel offered a blood sacrifice. However, we are not told that this is a sacrifice for sins, and Israel was commanded to have grain offerings, so that is unlikely. However, we do notice that, while Cain simply brought the fruit of the ground, Abel brings the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. Now, my wife like our meat differently. I like a bit of fat and gristle on my steak, but she doesn’t and she’ll cut off the fatty parts and put it on my plate. In the ancient world they apparently liked their steaks my way. This was before we had corn fed beef, so having a fat animal was harder to accomplish and the fat was seen as the best part of the animal to eat. So not only is Abel offering the firstborn of his flock, he is offering the best part of the meat to God as an act of submissive worship and adoration.

What’s missing from the description of Cain’s offering is the word “firstfruits”. When Israel was commanded concerning what kind of food to bring before God in Exodus 23:19, he said,

English Standard Version Chapter 23

The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.

Now, it’s true that Cain couldn’t exactly go to the book of exodus and read this, but what it shows us is the different approach the two brother had to worship. Listen to God’s rebuke of Israel in Malachi 1:8 when they were sacrificing injured animals,

Malachi 1:8 ESV

When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.

Remember that worship is primarily an act of submission to God based in reverance and adoration. Are you truly declaring God to be the absolute sovereign authority of your life if you give him second best? How would a King feel if you him less honour than another man in his court? And are you truly showing absolute love and adoration for God when you give him second best? How would a wife feel if the flowers her husband gave her are not as nice as the ones he gave to a woman at work? Do you see how God might have a problem?

Daniel Block (For the Glory of God) points out that Biblical worship is far more exclusive than what is common in modern evangelicalism. We have songs that tell us “come just as you are to worship” and yet Scripture features multiple characters, such as Cain, who did just that and were rejected.

An Unacceptable Worshiper

As we read on, we see more clearly why Cain’s sacrifice did not catch God’s eye. Verses 6-7,

Genesis 4:6–7 ESV

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

God tells him that if he does well he will be accepted, but if he doesn’t he is on the verge of sinning in a way that will catch him like a wild lion about to go in for the kill. What this assumes is that Cain was not doing well. There was sin in Cain’s life that God was not impressed with, and because of that not only was his sacrifice rejected, he was rejected. In other words, the problem with Cain’s worship was Cain, not the sacrifice itself. God accepts two penny’s from a woman as acceptable worship because he sees the heart of sacrifice and submission that they were given with, but God rejects a gift that does not reflect the heart of one who bows the knee to God in all of their life. Cain came just as he was, a man with un-repented sin and an unrepentant heart. A man who thought he was owed the favour of God because of his sacrifice, as if the smile of God is something that can be purchased and he wasn’t getting what he paid for.

God’s solution is repentance. He must rule over the sin by rejecting it and committing himself to God in order to have an offering acceptable to him. Unfortunately, Cain did not do this and he let his jealousy and hatred lead him to murder and a life of self-worship.

But this reveals to us a most important truth about worship. It is not something that remains in a church service or your devotion time. We can see worship in two different scenarios, both equally important. There is worship in ritual. The word ritual isn’t a bad word, we are commanded to practice rituals as Christians. The Lord’s Table is a ritual that we will observe later this morning. Not an empty, meaningless, or cold ritual. It is these rituals, singing together, giving our offering, hearing the word, praying, and fasting that is like us coming into the throne room of the King and bowing before him, pledging ourselves to him and adoring his majesty. We cannot do without it.

But if, when we walk out of that throne room, we stop acting like subjects of the King, it proves that our rituals were all just a hypocritical show. We aren’t actually worshipping God, we are worshipping ourselves in a round-about way by thinking we can garnish the praises of God and people who see us worship. Jesus talks about this kind of false worship in Matthew 6:5

English Standard Version Chapter 6

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6

Worship must follow us out of the rituals and into everyday life. The words we say in worship and prayer need to be true of how we live. This means not only declaring that Jesus is our King, but submitting to our King in all that we do. A subject who worships his King before the throne but then goes and lives like he has no King but himself will be known as a double minded traitor who will surely not be allowed again before the throne. If worship is reverential acts of submission and adoration of our great and sovereign God, those acts cannot be limited to the rituals of worship. The Bible places no boundary between the sacred and the secular in our lives. As an image bearer of Christ, a servant and child of the sovereign God, you are called to worship in everything you do. Work, vacation, family, entertainment, education, goals, romance, retirement, politics, passions, and even the mundane must all be part of worship.

Unacceptable Worship

Someone might object, “Pastor, this is all in the OT. In the NT God doesn’t reject anyone who comes to worship him.” Friends, the fact is that God didn’t change. He is the same God and he still must be approached rightly. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:7 that a husband’s prayer can be hindered if he is not honouring his wife. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:29 that someone who takes the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner without examining themselves and repenting of any ongoing sin, they eat and drink judgement upon themselves. He goes as far as to say that taking the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner can make you sick and even be fatal. Or think of Ananias and Sapphira who both died offering money to God in worship, and yet doing so while lying to the Holy Spirit. Worship is extremely dangerous if done wrongly or hypocritically, and the New Covenant didn’t change that.

But something did change in the New Covenant in terms of worship, didn’t it. When Christ died, the curtain separating the Holiest place in the temple was torn in two, symbolizing that through Christ’s death anyone may approach God’s presence in worship. And it’s true, anyone can approach God in worship, you no longer have to be a Jewish High Priest with an animal sacrifice and incense once a year. But that does not mean that you can come worship God just as you are. You cannot bring you sin into the presence of God. You cannot bring your hypocrisy into the presence of God. You cannot walk into his throne room a rebel and expect to be accepted.

But, you can come through the blood of Christ. In our sin, we rebelled against the King of the Universe and our rebellion deserved an eternity of living death. But on the cross, when Jesus said it was finished, he not only washed away the sins of his people but also gave them his own righteousness. You cannot come before the throne of God in worship just as you are, but you must come to Christ just as you are, and only with his righteousness can you worship God rightly. This is a very important distinction to make. You cannot make yourself good enough to come before God, but that doesn’t mean that you can come to God in worship just as you are. You must have the righteousness of Christ.

Jesus illustrates this in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22. In that parable, everyone is invited to the wedding since those previously invited rejected the invitation. The servants go and collect whoever they can find from the highways and byways. However, when the King finds someone without a wedding garment at the feast, he is kicked out into the darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth. That wedding garment represents the righteousness of Christ recieved by faith in his work, and without it you will be rejected. So we see the presence of God is conditionally open. Anyone can come, but on the condition that they are in Christ.

The pursuit of true worship

True worship, as a Christian, is based on the Gospel. When we come before the throne of Grace, we come by faith in him alone. Come with your works, and you will be cast out. Come with hypocrisy, and you won’t be accepted. Come with your sins covered by blood of Christ, in repentance and faith, and you will be accepted.

But this does not make our worship casual, nor does it make the presence of God something to be taken for granted. Remember than those Christians in Corinth who were sick and dying because they weren’t taking the Lord’s Table rightly. They were still Christians, and yet taking the worship of God lightly had its consequences. So how can we, as Christians worship rightly?

Submit ourselves to the Word of God. Remember that true worship is a response to God’s revelation of himself, and our source for God’s special revelation is his Word. All that we need to know to live a life of worship as subjects of our Great King is in there. Worship is the correct response to reading the Word and believing it. This means holding the Bible as our #1 authority in life. We live in a culture that emphasizes being true to yourself and looks negatively at the idea of submission and conforming to the expectation of another. And yet this is exactly what our attitude towards Scripture must be. Submission to what it clearly says, not matter how much that goes against what we want or think, and conforming ourselves into the image of Christ. Being true to him, not to us. Study and meditation are key. Memorize Scripture, pick up a good commentary, stay in the Word and constantly ask yourself how you can apply what you are reading rightly to your own life.

Make Christ the centre. After his ascension, Jesus became the focus of glory in the NT. Philippians 2:9-11 says,

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Notice that the worship of Jesus bring glory to the Father. Christ is our redeemer, and we are the sheep of his pasture, his people. It is through him that we enter the presence of God in worship. It is through him that we have adoption as sons and daughters into the family of God. If worship is not done in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God the Father, it’s not worship. The entire trinity is involved here, but the focus of our worship is Christ. The relationship between the Father and the Son is such that the Father has sent the Son to create a people for himself, a people that Christ will hand over to the Father at the close of the age. This is why Jesus is our good shepherd, ever leading us to the Father. If we do not come with Christ, we will never come at all.

Worship humbly. Remember that worship is an act of submission and adoration. This means we need to worship in the ways God has commanded us to. Every Christian is commanded to worship through Baptism, and afterwards through the Lord’s Table. Every Christian is commanded to worship through loving fellowship, edifying songs and hymns, the hearing of the Word preached, generous giving of time, energy, and money, exercising our spiritual gifts, and living a consistent Christian life in both public and private. When we see these things as submissive acts of love towards God, our Father and King, they become joyful experiences. But when we worship with pride in our hearts, or when we make a divide between our worship and the rest of our life, worship will tend to become stale and dry, because it’s not really real. If your worship feels dry, perhaps consider that you may have not approached God with the humility and submission that we must have. James 4 says submit to God, draw near to him and he will draw near to you. Are you truly submitting to him? Or are you worshipping with ulterior motives?

Worship with your very best. Half-hearted worship is no worship at all. If worship is all about displaying God’s sovereignty and our submission to and adoration of our Father and King, we must do it with out best. Pray at the time of the day when your mind is sharpest. Don’t stay up late on Saturday night so that you are sleepy for church. Give generously and be serious about killing sin in your life. On top of this, live your life as an act of worship to God. Do your work the best you can, even if your job is restocking shelves at Wal-Mart or pouring coffee at Timmies. Love your family the best you can, do all you do in worship and do it with all your heart. Living a life full of Worship to God will make you live your life to the fullest in any situation or circumstance.

Conclusion

You were created to worship, and you will not experience true joy unless you are worshipping God rightly.

Psalm 16:11 ESV

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The presence of God is open to you if, by faith, you come clothed in the righteousness of Christ. The invitation is open to you, whoever you are, to come to the throne in Faith and lay yourself bare before your Lord and Father. Cast any rebellious sin aside, forget any nagging distraction, and seek him on your knees and in all your life. Don’t make worship about the experience, make it about pledging yourself to your sovereign God, make it about turning your heart to adore him and love him with all of your being, and the experience and feelings will usually follow.

Worship is our great delight. Come taste of it’s joys. Come experience the security of God’s throne room. Come know the confidence of knowing Christ and the weight of glory it is to live life fully in him.