Rendering Holy Worship
(Message delivered by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Oct 15, 06)
Text: Psalm 29
Calvin wrote, “No worship pleases God except what He sanctifies.” The worship of God is a most sacred exercise that must be done in God’s way. How may we render to God worship that would be pleasing and acceptable to Him? In order to render true and pure worship to God, we must observe the following three principles:
(1) Give Him Due Glory and Honour
Psalm 29:1-2 reads, “Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name.”
True worship of God requires the worshipper to know who God is. The living and true God is none other than the LORD (Hebrew YHWH)—Yahweh or Jehovah—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. YHWH is God’s covenant name known only to God’s covenant people, namely, the children of Israel. As Christians, we are also God’s covenant people. In order to worship God in spirit and in truth, we must have a covenant relationship with Him. We must be born again, born of the Spirit, born into His family. God’s people must worship no other gods, but the living and true God who is Jesus Christ. Only He is worthy of our worship. So, the first step towards worshipping the living and true God aright is to believe in Jesus Christ, and be part of God’s covenant family.
True worshippers are commanded to give glory only to the one living and true God and no other. The “mighty” men (ie, the educated, the rich, the powerful) who receive respect and honour from lesser men must nonetheless kowtow to the Almighty who is above all, who is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful.
Are we careful to give to God the glory that is due to Him? Take the Lord’s Day for instance; do we come early to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord or are we always late to church? The Bible talks about being absent from the body, and present with the Lord, but how many of us are present in the body, but absent from the Lord, especially at the worship service on the Lord’s Day? I speak from experience. When I do not discipline myself, I would find my heart and my mind wandering away from the worship of God, and I would lose focus on God and His Word.
How can we give to God the glory that is due to Him? There are many practical ways whereby we can glorify our Lord at the Sunday service. We can come to church early or on time. We prepare our hearts by confessing our sins and repenting of our ways. We can sing the hymns with feeling and understanding. We pay attention to the sermon and are sensitive to the Spirit’s convicting and sanctifying work as the Word is read and preached. The auditorium becomes a sanctuary—a holy place—when the call to worship is given, and remains a holy place until the benediction is given. The sanctity of worship should keep us from eating, drinking, napping, or chit-chatting during the worship service.
It is important for God’s people to come together to worship the Lord. Being present in the house of the Lord is part and parcel of serving the Lord in His house. Do you not realise that your presence in church on Sunday morning is a great encouragement to others? For example, our pastor, despite his physical frailty makes it a point to be with God’s people every Lord’s Day. His quiet presence I am sure is an encouragement to us for we see the grace of God in his life. So, let us make the Lord’s Dayworship service a priority in our timetable. It is a sacred day, and we should come into the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day to worship Him in the beauty of holiness.
(2) Live a Separated and Christlike Life
The second part of verse 2 says, “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”
The living and true God must be worshipped in the beauty of holiness and not in the ugliness of sin. The Lord says in Leviticus 20:26, “And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine.” The word “severed” here can also be rendered “separated.” In the context of Leviticus, it has the sense of separating the clean from the unclean, the holy from the profane. The holiness of God is the reason for our separation from the unclean and unholy things of this world.
The Apostle John commands us not to love the world, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
The Apostle Paul likewise wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (latreian, worship). And be not conformed to (suschematizesthe, to fit into the scheme or pattern of) this world: but be ye transformed (metamorphousthe, to undergo a metamorphosis, to be changed from that which is ugly to that which is beautiful) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:1-2).
We need to worship God by living a holy life. We worship Him not just on the Lord’s Day, but every day of the week. We must conduct ourselves in a godly way not only in church, but also at home, at work, or at play. We must not lead a double life. On Sunday, our conversation is very clean, but during the week our conduct is foul. Do we expect to present acceptable worship and service to God on Sunday when throughout the week we live in a godless or ungodly way?
God tells us to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. We cannot worship God in the filth of sinfulness. Every Lord’s Day, we present ourselves as “living sacrifices” in worship of God. O “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” There is great beauty in holiness, but only ugliness in ungodliness. When we come to worship the Lord on the Lord’s Day, we want to present ourselves to Him as beautiful flowers and not rotten eggs. To do so, we need to live a separated life, and not a sinful life throughout the week, and be beautiful for the Lord on Sunday.
(3) Believe in the Power of His Word
Verses 3-9 highlight the power of God’s Word. The phrase, “voice of the LORD,” occurs seven times here. Seven is the number of perfection and points to the perfect purity of God’s Word. The voice of God is full of power and majesty. It inspires awe and fear. That is why we begin our worship service each time with God’s Word. The call to worship is given by reading a portion of Scripture. God’s Word has a sanctifying influence. In our worship service, we seek to maximise the voice of God, and minimise the voice of men. In a proper worship of God, it is God that must be heard, not man.
True worship must always be centred on the Word of God, and that is why our pulpit is placed at the centre and not at the side. In liturgical churches, ceremonies and rituals take centre stage. In modern or contemporary churches, entertainment hogs the limelight. The pulpit is either pushed aside or completely removed. The Word of God is just not relevant in many churches today. People today do not see the Word of God like the Psalmist does; that it is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). The postmodern man does not want the Word of God to expose his sin or error, his evil thoughts and wicked intentions. Anyone who preaches God’s Word faithfully and truthfully, rebuking sin and error, is written off as unloving and divisive. A sermon that convicts a man of his sin and the error of his ways is considered unedifying by many a church-goer today. The Apostle Paul had already prophesied about such a time in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Do we not see that such a time has already come? There is such rampant backsliding and falling away from the faith today! And it all begins with having a low view of God’s Voice or God’s Word.
Psalm 62:11 says, “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” When God speaks once, we must hear twice. But today, people shut their ears to the Word of God. Why then do people come to church today? Do they come because of God and His Truth? Do they come because they realise they are sinfully sick, and need spiritual healing? Many today go to church without the Bible. They go to church not to worship God or to learn from Him, but for selfish gratification. The church degenerates into a community or country club, a place for
personal advertisement—swopping name cards making business contacts, boosting self esteem, having a jolly time.
I believe in the power of God, and in the power of His Word, perfectly inspired and perfectly preserved. The Word of God today is 100% perfect without any error, without any mistake. Do you hear the voice of God today? Is it loud and clear to you? What is the voice of God? The Holy Bible is the Voice of God! Dean Burgon said, “The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, every word of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High. The Bible is none other than the Word of God, not some part of it more, some part of it less, but all alike the utterance of Him that sitteth upon the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme.”
When we worship God according to His will and His way by (1) giving Him the glory and honour that is due to Him, (2) living a separated and Christlike life, and (3) believing in the power of His Word, we will experience His strength, and be blessed with His peace. The last verse is a promise, “The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.” Each Sunday when we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness applying the three principles of worship above, we will leave this sanctuary spiritually strengthened, and blessed with the peace of God. Are you finding this to be true in your worship experience in church? O “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” May the Lord help us!
