Category: Worship

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) The profundity of Jesus’ words must be taken into…

King Ahaz was described as one encouraging moral decline in Judah. We need to make sure we are not guilty of the same. This article offers some things which encourage moral decline, which we need to steer clear of as children of God.

I recently read an interesting short article on the use of the term “literally” that I want to share with you, then comment upon. Two…

Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He has established His own covenant, and has revealed to man what true worship under that covenant will be. It is left for us to search out His will, and submit to it fully. Only then will our worship of Him be, “in spirit, and in truth.”

It takes a commitment of Biblical proportions to be pleasing to God. But those who make it secure for themselves a crown of righteousness, “which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to [us] on that Day” (2 Timothy 4:8).

We should remember that during certain times in her history, Israel’s worship, though correct in form, was nevertheless not pleasing to God. In Zechariah 7, the Lord asked His people, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me — for Me?” (vs. 5). The principle is simple. When we worship God, we are to do it in the way we do it because it is the way He said to do it, not because it is what we prefer. When we sing He asks, “Do you do it ‘for Me — for Me?’”

Jesus did not die to establish an institution that entertains and amuses man. He did not shed His blood to found a body that caters to man’s physical cravings. Rather, the Savior sacrificed Himself to build His church — an organization that seeks to lead men out of the mire and muck of spiritual corruption to a life of purity and holiness. To pervert the purpose of the church is to rebel against almighty God and reveal a disregard for the eternal well being of man. For such actions, men will give an account to God, and be found wanting.

The Lord’s Supper is a wonderful and serious commemoration of our Lord’s sacrificial death. We must examine ourselves, to ensure we are seriously and sincerely observing it. The Corinthians failed in this, and were admonished by Paul, “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” We should heed his warning to them, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:27-28).

As in all acts of worship to God, our service in this must be rendered in “spirit and in truth” (cf. John 4:24). We must examine our hearts, and give ourselves first, that our liberality will commend us to God. In so doing, as it was with the Philippians, God “shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

For the edification of the brethren, the preaching of the gospel is needed in our worship assemblies. “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). May we all be blessed by the faithful proclamation of truth.

Prayer, offered confidently by a saint, can accomplish wonders. “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). As we engage in worship to the Almighty God in heaven, may we all “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:16), petitioning God in faith.

Men have long subordinated the directives of God to their own will and desires. Simply put, mechanical instruments exist in modern worship because men want them there, not because God authorized them.

Quantifying the collective worship of the local church is a rather simple thing to do. One need only read the New Testament and find out exactly what acts of worship the Christians of that time engaged in. If we are able to establish what God commanded the disciples to do, or to establish examples of them engaging in worship that was endorsed by God, we can then know what is constituted in God’s divine directives for congregational worship.

We are living in a time where the value or worth of an act of worship is determined experientially. That is, if the worshipper has a positive experience in the worship, it is determined to be valid. Such a standard is by nature subjective, and leads to widely divergent types of worship.

God does not want men to establish new and innovative types of worship that are more entertainment than true devotion. He is not seeking “dramatizations”, “Interpretive dances”, “Concerts”, “Choirs”, or “Passion Plays.” Rather, he desires the singing of Songs, Prayer, Sacrificial Giving, the Memorial of His Son’s death in the Communion, and the Edification of His people through the Preaching of the word.

The real question, then, deals with what Paul meant by the word “assemblies.” For, wherever these “assemblies” occur, women may not speak, but there is no prohibition from women speaking outside of these “assemblies.” Thus, I shall attempt to define this “assembly,” using only the context of 1 Corinthians.

Brethren, whether we believe it or not, or whether we will admit it or not, there is a growing disdain and disgust for “pattern authority” and “pattern worship.”

Why must the will of God be made subject to the popular approval of the church? Should not her opinions on worship be subject to the object? Or does she intend to offer God strange fire, in the doomed fashion of Nadab and Abihu, which he did not command?

Through simple obedience to the will of God, we can worship Him as He has directed. When we worship Him in this fashion, our worship is pure. If we add to or take from what has been given, then the purity no longer exists and we are no longer abiding by the will of God but the will of man. If we serve the impurity rather than the pure, we fall into condemnation by God (Rev. 22:18-19).