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True worship, then, demands a clear awareness of God’s holiness, a deep sense of my sinfulness, and a sincere cry for purging.
We are so used to mercy and grace that we think God has no right to be angry with sin. Romans 3:18 sums up the world’s attitude: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
God is gracious, but don’t confuse His mercy with justice. God is not unjust when He acts in a holy manner against sin. Don’t ever get to the place that you are so used to mercy and grace that you abuse it by going on in your sin. Don’t question God when He does what He has every right to do to punish sin. Don’t abuse God’s grace; He will judge you, too. But do know this: He is holy, and He is to be feared.
Jesus had identified the sin in her life, and that caused her to consider seriously whether He might be the Messiah. She sensed His supernaturalness for two obvious reasons. First, He brought a message of spiritual truth, and second, He knew what was humanly impossible for him to know. He had a divine message and divine perception.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified … “This is the [new] covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them … and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. [vv. 14–18]
There were several kinds of Sabbaths, but they all had one purpose—cessation of labor to worship God.
The fundamental concepts behind every Sabbath observance were rest and worship.
Much of the so-called “public worship” in Christendom is merely a form of Christianized Judaism, and, in some cases, thinly veiled paganism.…
Those who say they worship God, and affirm that God is the eternal living Spirit everywhere present, and call Him Father, but deny that Jesus Christ is essentially the same as God are offering unacceptable worship. God can never be worshiped unless He is worshiped as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first is sincerity. We must draw near “with a true heart.” Acceptable worship requires a single-minded heart fixed and focused on God and His glory. Hypocrisy is fatal to worship.
A second checkpoint in preparing to worship is fidelity:
A third checkpoint is humility. Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near … having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” While we come to God confidently, in full assurance of faith, we must nevertheless come humbled because of our own unworthiness, knowing we have no right being there without purification by the blood of Jesus Christ, because our hearts are evil.
The final checkpoint in Hebrews 10:22 is purity. “Let us draw near … having … our bodies washed with pure water.” That refers not to a literal washing of the body, but rather to the daily confession and spiritual purging necessary to deal with the sins of our humanness. The sprinkling with the blood of Christ that occurs at conversion is a permanent and complete cleansing of the life, but our feet tend to pick up the dust of the world in which we live and walk, and they require a periodic washing.
These, then, are the checkpoints: sincerity, fidelity, humility, and purity. Without them we are not prepared to enter God’s presence to worship.
When God’s people worship as God requires, several results can be observed. First, and obviously, God is glorified.
When we worship God as He desires to be worshiped, believers are purified.
In fact, another hallmark of worship as God means it to be is that the church is edified—the saints are built up and transformed. How you worship as an individual will affect not only your life, but also the life of the church as a whole.
Finally, when we worship God acceptably, the lost are evangelized.
