What is the greatest problem in the world today? It is the same problem that has plagued mankind since Adam and Eve were forced from the Garden of Eden. The problem is sin - our disobedience of God. The problem is compounded more in a society such as ours that has an aversion to sin, not to the practice of sin, but to calling any practice, behavior or attitude "sin." Sin is now called "human error," mistakes, misunderstanding, and in many cases a "disease" for which the individual is supposedly not responsible. That perspective has also come into the church and is one of the reasons that Christianity in America is so weak. People do not want their sin pointed out. They want to be told they are okay and affirmed that they are good so that they have high self-esteem. The great concern of the church has shifted from the holiness of God and calling people to live in righteousness to what amounts to placating man's pride. Euphemisms do not remove or excuse sin, and it is sin that keeps us from responding to both God and one another properly. If we are ever to live in a close walk with God or if we are to ever live joyously with one another, then sin must be dealt with according to God's plan. Man simply cannot overcome sin on his own.

 

Last week we finished our series on the proper worship of God. This week I want to address a topic that arises out of true worship, for it is one of the responses of worship in daily life. We are to serve the Lord with whatever gift or gifts that He has given us. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 all make it clear that God gives every true Christian some means and ability by which He wants them to serve Him. Those passages also make it clear that it is vital to the rest of the body of Christ, the church, that you use those gifts, for the health of the body is dependent upon that happening. The question I want to address this morning is the manner in which you will serve the Lord.

 

This morning I will be concluding my series on the worship of God. If it has been half as helpful to you as it has to me, then I believe that our worship of the Lord here at Grace Bible Church will continue to improve according to our Lord's standards instead of our own. Throughout this series I have often been convicted about my own failings to worship the Lord properly. I look back in shame at how often I have been more interested in how I felt about the service instead of focusing on heart felt praise to God for who He is and what He has done. I have been finding that the more I concentrate on true worship, the easier it is to give praise to His name in all circumstances. I hope this has been true for you as well.

 

This morning is the 10^th sermon in our series on worship. From the beginning I have tried to stress that true worship must be done according to what God wants. Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4 that God is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth. Anything less than that is ignorant worship at best and may well be false worship. The tragedy is that too often our selfishness and pride results in us worshiping God according to our own designs instead of what He wants and we fool ourselves into thinking we are very spiritual in the process. As we have seen in our past studies, God is very serious about those who worship Him and the way in which they do it. Through the prophet Isaiah, God rebuked the nation of Judah for their sacrifices which He rejected because their hearts were far away from Him. When King David tried to have the Ark of God moved to Jerusalem, God struck Uzzah dead for his irreverence in moving the Ark improperly. It is God's patience and longsuffering that has kept Him from striking many more down through the years and in the present for their irreverence and failure to worship God according to His directions.

 

This morning we will finish the message from a couple of weeks ago about the place of music in the worship of God. Let me quickly summarize the previous message before going on this morning.

 

I approach this morning's message with some fear and trepidation because there is no greater area of opinion driven by emotion that can be discussed than music. The only other area I have found that people can be more touchy about is to talk with them specifically about how they are raising their children.

 

This morning I want to continue dealing with the importance and implications of God being the center of our congregational worship.

 

This morning I want to continue on with the topic of Worship That Pleases God. Over the past month I have already presented to you the marks of true worship, both for the individual and the congregation. True worship by the individual should be marked by The confession of Sin, An Active faith in God, Confident prayer to God, The fruit of Righteousness in the life, Verbal praise to God, A Content heart, A willingness to suffer for righteousness without complaint, and A clear witness to others of God's mercy, grace and love. True worship by the congregation will result in God being glorified, Believers being purified, the Church itself being edified and unbelievers being evangelized.

 

Over the last couple of weeks I have presented to you what I believe are the marks of true worship in both the individual and in the congregation. True worship by the individual should be marked by 1) The confession of Sin, 2) An Active faith in God, 3) Confident prayer to God, 4) The fruit of Righteousness in the life, 5) Verbal praise to God, 6) A Content heart, 7) A willingness to suffer for righteousness without complaint, and 8) A clear witness to others of God's mercy, grace and love.

 

Last week we started to examine the evidences that would manifest themselves in those that are true worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The marks of true worship that will appear in an individual are: Confession of Sin, Faith in God, Confidence in Prayer, the Fruit of Righteousness, Verbal Praise, Content Hearts, Suffering without Complaint, and a Clear Witness. This morning we are going to look at what should happen in a church where the congregation is truly worshiping the Lord God. If the marks of true worship characterize the individuals in a congregation, then there will also be marks of true worship within the congregation as a whole too. In a similar manner, if the individuals themselves are not truly worshiping God, then the marks of true worship will also be absent from the congregation as a whole.

 

Last week I pointed out that our worship will have consequences both personally and nationally. God will bring blessing on those that truly worship Him and will bring curses on those that give worship . I traced this in the lives of individuals and in our own nation. The underlying reason for the moral decline in our nation is rooted in our nation's turning away from God. It began with a failure to give God the honor and thanks He deserves, so He gave this nation over to its lusts resulting in the sexual revolution. The nation continued to decline and exchanged the truth of God for a lie and has worshiped and served that which is created instead of the creator. God has therefore given the nation over to degrading passions resulting in the perversions that have become so pervasive in the last decade. The nation continues to decline so that it no longer sees fit to acknowledge God. Therefore God is giving us over to depraved minds resulting in the inane and insane material broadcast daily over TV and radio and published in our newspapers and magazines.

Worship. A few weeks ago I gave an overview of this topic as part of the series Elias & I did on the purpose of the church. This morning I start an examination of this subject in more depth and detail. Worship of the Lord God is an activity that will be central in our lives throughout all eternity. It is the very purpose for which we were created, yet most people have no true concept, or only a faint idea of what it means to worship God and how to do it. Apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ no one can truly worship God for He can only be truly worshiped in Spirit and truth (John 4), and apart from Christ no human is spiritually alive or seeks the truth (Eph. 2; Rom. 3). Even for the dedicated believer, the Worship of God falls short because while we remain in our unglorified state on this earth our struggle with sin hinders us from worshiping as we should desire.

 

It has been on my mind for quite some time to speak on the nature and attributes of God. I was able to get a start on that back in January by giving a very general overview. I want to pick up from that this morning and expand on God's holiness. This is the first and foremost of God's moral attributes for it is an aspect of all the rest of God's communicable attributes as well as of His characteristics and actions. He is holy in His righteousness, love, goodness, longsuffering, mercy, grace and truth. He is also holy in His compassion, jealousy, anger and wrath as well as His judgement, forgiveness and condemnation. If we are to know and understand God, then we must understand what it means that He is holy. We also need to understand God's holiness because He has commanded His people to be holy (Lev. 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). We cannot do that if we do not clearly understand what it means that He is holy.

 

This morning we come to the fourth aspect of how we at Grace Bible Church strive to carry out our purpose of Glorifying God by Making Disciples of Jesus Christ. We do that by Communicating New Life in Christ - Evangelism; Cultivating New Life in Christ - Edification; Caring for New Life in Christ - Fellowship, and finally, Celebrating New Life in Christ - Worship.

 

Last week I presented a basic definition for God and gave some of the basic reasons why we believe in Him. Our faith is not an intellectual leap, but a very reasonable conclusion of the evidence that is all around us.

 

This morning we begin a series of sermons that will help us understand the nature and characteristics of God. While this may seem fairly basic to some, I can assure you that it is not simple. Charnock wrote two large volumes on the existence and attributes of God, and he only covered the major characteristics. Others may wonder why time should be spent on something that Christians already believe. The fact is that many Christians have a false understanding of God even in their basic conceptions of him, and all Christians, like all humans, fail at some point to fully understand God's nature and character. Why? Simply because God is infinite and we are not. He is beyond our ability to completely comprehend, but He has revealed Himself to us to a limited degree, and we are responsible to understand what he has revealed.