By C. Jones (Wales)
The Lord Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and there He was tempted by Satan, Lk.4.1,2. It was impossible for the Lord to sin, 2Cor.5.21; 1Pet.2.22; 1Jn.3.5, and the testings Satin inflicted on Him proved that the Lord would not and could not sin. There was nothing in Him to respond to Satan's temptations and He could say “the prince of this world … hath nothing in Me,” Jn.14.30. When tempting the Lord, Satan told Him that if He would worship him then Satan would grant the Lord rule over the kingdoms of the world, with all their power and glory. Satan wants to be worshipped, and the Lord, who always did the things that pleased His Father, Jn.8.29, would certainly not worship Satan. The Lord would, at the time ordained, receive world dominion from His Father, Ps.2.8; Rev.11.15. In response to Satan's temptation the Lord quoted from Deut.6.13 and commanded Satan, with divine authority, saying “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,” Lk.4.8. The Lord gave a clear, unequivocal, unambiguous command, saying that God alone is to be worshipped. Close to the end of the New Testament the angel said to the apostle John “worship God,” Rev. 22.9.
Worship has many aspects. It emanates from feelings of love, reverence, awe, wonder, devotion, admiration, adoration and gratitude. These feelings create a desire to honour, do homage and obeisance, to praise and serve. True worship takes the worshipper away from self-centred occupation with himself or, if others are present, with those around him. True worship causes him to delight in, and be joyfully, completely and absolutely absorbed by, the wonders, beauties, attributes and qualities of the One he is worshipping.
It comes naturally to a man to worship something. God has placed a sense of eternity in men's hearts, Ecc.3.11. There is a deep-seated desire for eternal things and a capacity and a need to worship something. A man cannot be satisfied with that which is temporal, transient and passing. Through a God-given awareness, even though it may not, in all cases, be an awareness of which they are acutely conscious, men know that they are dependent creatures. They are dependent upon a higher power outside of themselves and need to have something or someone to worship, to trust, serve, enjoy and to which they can be loyal.
Over the centuries, those who have not been graciously brought to know the true God have worshipped all manner of things in an attempt to satisfy the God-given desire to worship. Men have worshipped idols of wood, stone and metal, and made idols of material possessions, worldly success, people, hobbies, activities and the pursuit of pleasure, and these things have consumed their time, energy and other resources.
Once a believer begins to learn what God has done for him, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, then the desire to worship God is experienced. The believer learns that “God is love,” 1Jn.4.8, and that every good and perfect gift comes from his unchangeable God, Jms.1.17. The response is to worship God. The more the believer learns of God, of His attributes, His greatness, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, goodness and truth, then the greater will be the believer's love to God, his admiration of God and the feelings of gratitude he feels towards Him. The desire to worship will increase and intensify. Love for God is initially a response to the blessings and gifts He showers upon believers, God's greatest gift being His only begotten, eternal and beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, 2Cor.9.15, who is “altogether lovely,” Song of Solomon 5.16. God did not spare Him, Rom.8.32, but because of His love for the world, Jn.3.16, gave Him to suffer, bleed and die on the Cross as our substitute so that believers might be saved by grace through faith in Him, Eph.2.8. A believer meditating, under the guidance and leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit, 1Cor.6.19, on the truths that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, Eph.5.25, and that Christ loved and gave Himself for the individual believer, Gal.2.20, will experience increasing love, wonder, thankfulness and gratitude and will respond to these feelings by praising and worshipping God.
The desire to worship God increases as a believer gets to know Him better, and seeks to glorify Him. At first it is a response to His love and the gifts He bestows. However, as by grace a believer goes on to greater spiritual maturity, studying and meditating on the written Word of God and responding to the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit by obeying the truths He reveals, he learns more and more of God. The more a believer learns of God then the more he will worship God, not simply for the blessings and gifts He graciously bestows but for all that God is in Himself. The believer's worship will be filled increasingly with love, adoration, admiration, wonder and praise. The worship will be less concerned with self and more and more concerned with God and all that He is. The worship will be more concerned with, and centred on the One who has an un-derived, eternal existence, the cause of His existence being in Himself. God is the independent, self-existent, self-sufficient One, who possesses eternal life in Himself and reveals Himself. He is eternally unchanging, Mal.3.6; Jms.1.17. He is the One who said “I AM THAT I AM,” Ex.3.14.
The Lord said to the woman of Samaria “true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him,” Jn.4.23. The believer does not have to go to a particular location to worship. “God is a Spirit,” and must be worshipped “in spirit and in truth,” Jn.4.24. Worship is not limited to particular places and situations: it is not connected with outward forms, ceremonies, ordinances or special days. Worship must be “in spirit,” and the worshipper must worship “in truth.” The worshipper must have no sin concerning which he has not repented and received forgiveness, 1Jn.1.9.
When God was giving Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, the people became impatient and tired of waiting for Moses. They asked Aaron to make gods for them, Ex.32.1. Aaron made them a golden calf which they might have believed represented God, for Aaron said “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,” Ex.32.4. We read that Aaron “built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord,” Ex.32.5. The people were going to worship, but their worship was not as God would have them to worship. They had an idol like the nations and like the ones they would have seen in Egypt. They were not worshipping God in spirit and in truth but in ways devised by themselves. God is seeking true, genuine worshippers who will worship Him in spirit, in truth, and without hypocrisy.
We find an early mention of worship in Gen.22.5 when Abraham told his young men that he and Isaac would “go yonder and worship.” Towards the end of the Old Testament there is a prophecy of the nations, in a future day, going up to Jerusalem to worship “the King, the Lord of hosts,” Zech.14.16,17. When the Lord Jesus Christ was born “there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?, for we … are come to worship Him,” Matt.2.12.
God is holy, Lev.19.2; Rev.4.8. God is to be worshipped in spirit, in truth, and “in the beauty of holiness,” 1Chron.16.29; Ps.29.2; Ps.96.9, and those who “worship the Father,” Jn.4.23, must be those who have been born again and are children of God, cleansed by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1Jn.1.7. A believer must be in the right spiritual condition to worship God and God must be worshipped with all the reverence of which the Spirit-led believer is capable. The more one knows God and the closer one is to Him, leading a life of obedience and service, then the more beautiful, reverent and wonderful will be the loving, adoring worship offered to God in and through the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself was worshipped, Heb.1.6; Matt.8.2; 9.18; 14.33; 15.25; 20.20, and He will be worshipped, Rev. 5.11-14.
True worship of almighty God is the most wonderful activity in which a believer can be involved. Worship is both a privilege and a responsibility. Those who know God and love Him stand in awe of Him, of His might, majesty, glory and the wonder of all that He is. Abraham fell on his face before God, Gen.17.17. “Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God,” Ex.3.6. The beloved disciple, John, who had leaned on Jesus' bosom, Jn.13.23, had been with Him when He was transfigured, Matt.17.1,2, and knew the loveliness, gentleness, meekness and beauties of his Lord and Master whom he loved, was overawed when he saw the risen glorified Christ, and “fell at His feet as dead,” Rev.1.17.
Our worship of God depends on our appreciation of the greatness of God.. The adoring worshipper, conscious of the greatness of God, will be lost in wonder, admiration, adoration, love and praise for God, who is infinite in every aspect of His Being, and so very far beyond the complete understanding of human beings. God has revealed Himself so that we may learn of Him. He has revealed Himself in His written Word and in and through His lovely Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Heb.1.1-3, who is the “image of the invisible God,” Col.1.15. If we learn more and more of God and serve Him in ways acceptable to Him then, by grace, our worship, led by the Holy Spirit, can rise to heights we would never have thought possible.