Let's come to God in prayer before our Bible study tonight. Heavenly Father, Almighty God, we thank you we can come to your house tonight, Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you we've got somewhere to come in the middle of the week, Lord. We thank you we can come and serve you and worship you, our heavenly maker, the person that created us from dust. Heavenly Father, Almighty and Great God, you are, and how small we are, And yet, Lord, you know each one of us. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you know us, Lord, and we thank you, Lord, that if we can say we know you. We thank you we can have a relationship with your almighty God. Heavenly Father, although we sin, although we do things wrong, Lord, you saw it pleasing to send your Son to die for our sins. Heavenly Father, we thank you for all our hearts that you died for us. Heavenly Father, forgive us for when we sin so lightly, Dear Heavenly Father we pray Lord that in some way we can serve you as best as we can. Dear Heavenly Father we pray Lord that you would see fit to bless us tonight Lord. We pray that we may worship you with our whole hearts. Dear Heavenly Father speak to each one of us Lord we pray. We pray Lord that Pastor may have a word for each one tonight Lord. Build us up dear Heavenly Father. We pray Lord that we may worship you with all our hearts and begin to serve you as you want us to. Dear Heavenly Father we do pray for Pastor now Lord. We thank you for the work he's done in preparing tonight's Bible study. We pray, Lord, that as you speak to us, we pray that you may bless Pastor Tu, and speak to him as well as us. And we pray, Lord, that all the glory may be yours tonight, Lord, and that we may serve you with full and grateful hearts. Heavenly Father, help us to understand your word tonight, and we pray, Lord, that we may each have a blessing. In Jesus' name we thank you for everything you've done for us. Amen. In your Bibles if you could turn to John chapter 4 and we're going to read from verse 13 to 26 and you may see from your notes that pastor is going to be preaching the local church and it's worship tonight. Perhaps you might think about that as you're reading from God's Word. It's when a Samaritan woman meets her Messiah. Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, call your husband and come here." The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. And you, Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know that we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When He comes He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. Well we come this evening to our final study in the doctrine of the church and what I intend to be our final study in this series on the great biblical doctrines. I had thought about concluding with a little series on the last things. to round it off, but I felt that we had touched upon many of those themes in our studies in the book of the Revelation and also in Thessalonians. And so tonight this will be our concluding study in the great biblical doctrines. And it's certainly one of the most important in this doctrine of the church, the local church and its worship, the worship of the church. Now it goes without saying that this is perhaps the most important subject on everyone's lips at the present time. It's prevalent in evangelical circles. Everybody is thinking about worship and the subject has been brought to our attention as never before. Worship today is certainly big business. You only have to go down to your local Christian bookshop to find thousands of resources to assist you in worship. Just look at the books that are written today. Maybe 20, 30 years ago you would probably find just a handful on this subject. Today the shelves are absolutely bursting with hundreds of titles dealing with issues concerning the worship of God, how to find a successful worship leader, how to worship as a spirit-filled church and so on. Everybody is thinking about worship. And today it's become a very complex thing. For one thing, no longer is the worship of God led by the pastor or the elders of the church. Now you have to import a specific song and worship leader, someone who will be a salaried worker in the church, someone who will give his self full time to this, someone who knows all the latest songs and is able to create the right atmosphere and mood in the services. No longer is the singing to be assisted simply by a simple organ or a piano or a guitar. Now it needs a full-blown orchestra with brass and woodwind sections. There needs to be a choir and choir leaders. There is this great emphasis today on these things. Some churches go down the contemporary route and they wouldn't do without their drums and electric guitars and synthesizers. These they believe are essential to worship. And then people need something to focus their minds while they're jigging along to the latest tunes. And so everything has gone high-tech today. There are all these PowerPoint presentations flashing worship images before the congregation to assist them in their praise. You may think I'm exaggerating in all this but just a few weeks ago when we were on holiday down in Hampshire we went down to Bournemouth and went into the Christian bookshop there as we often do which is quite a reformed Christian bookshop and all the customers were handed a software catalogue of Christian software and there are absolutely pages of this software to assist you in your worship. Take your church services to the next level of clarity with Presentation Manager 5, the leading multimedia praise and worship presentation software package. And then over the page, look, we've got video backgrounds on CD-ROM to enhance your worship, flowers and trees, mountains, waters, clouds, animations, fusions. The worship image gallery, so you have pictures of the cross, chains broken, flash before your eyes. Just Worship 1, a unique collection of points and click, video bible passages, reflections, poems, prayers and images for worship. This is worship material that will stimulate the imagination and bring your worship to life. What did we do before all this came in? Some years ago I attended a seminar on a particular subject and this minister from America finished by saying that he hoped to return the following spring to bring over their new worship package. What on earth that was I have no idea and I didn't wait around long enough to find out. But you see worship today is something that can be packaged. It's something that is a commercial product today. It's something that can be sold at a high cost. It can be implemented in the church and so that the church begins to worship. But in the light of all this I simply want to get back to basics with you tonight and to ask the simple question, what is worship? What exactly is worship? And the first thing that we discover as we turn to the Word of God is that this is the very thing for which we were created. We were formed from the clay in order to be to the praise of his glory. The first article of the Westminster Shorter Catechism sums it up perfectly. What is the chief end of man? What's the chief reason, the ultimate purpose for our existence on this planet? It is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We were created for his praise. But of course when our first parents fell into sin, sin spoiled and ruined all that. And yet man today is still a worshipper. He's still a compulsive worshipper. The tragedy is he's become an idolater. The focus of worship has now shifted from the living God to self and to things created. You remember how Paul sums it up in Romans chapter 1, he said they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is forever praised. This is the great indictment upon the human race. We've turned in upon ourselves, we've become self-centred rather than God-centred. Every Lord's Day as we make our way to church we see worship going on in the world all around us. We see people bowing down in the streets. What are they doing? They're bowing down over that sports car, polishing it to a beautiful luster, lavishing all their devotion and love on a piece of metal, rather than the living God. We see people kneeling down, worshipping in their gardens. You can even buy these kneeling pads now to assist you in your garden worship. They worship their roses and the creation of their own hands, their own landscaping. You see people worshipping at work, living for their jobs, working every hour God sends, burning the candle at both ends, living for promotion, living for their work. You see man is a compulsive idolater, he's a worshipper. And yet though this has happened, God in salvation is now restoring man to that original purpose, to glorify him and to enjoy him forever. Peter says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. But what exactly is worship? Well the words that are used in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New, mean essentially to serve. to bow down, to pay homage, to revere, to kiss the hand. You see it's the very word that is used for the relationship between a subject to his monarch. We bow down in their presence. It draws our attention to the honour and the respect and the due that is due to such people. It's an inferior coming to a superior. It's a lowly subject coming towards one who holds high office and position and they are to be honoured as such. And how much more is this true when we speak of the relationship between creature and creator. We need to bow down, we need to kneel before the Lord our maker. You see the heart of biblical worship is this attitude of humble submission and reverence and godly fear. In fact, our very English word, worship, comes from that old Anglo-Saxon word which we translate as worth-ship. Worth-ship. You see, it's a realisation of the worth that is due to the one to whom we are coming. We bow down, we kneel, we offer him praise and adoration because we acknowledge that he is worthy. We're unworthy and yet he is worthy, worthy of our praise. Herbert Carson, I think, defines it beautifully when he says, Worship is the declaration by a creature of the greatness of his Creator. It is the glad affirmation by the forgiven sinner of the mercy of his Redeemer. It is the united testimony of an adoring congregation to the perfection of their common Lord. It is the summit of the service of the angels and the climax of the eternal purpose of God for his people. It's man's supreme goal here and the consummation of his life in heaven. Worship. And worship in the Bible is a very large concept. We so often think of worship only in a very narrow, restricted sense, when we're singing a hymn, a song of praise. when we gather together with the assembly of God's people twice or three times in the week or whether we're engaged in private devotions. But worship according to the Bible is a much bigger term. It in fact comprehends all of our actions and our thoughts and our words 24-7. You see we are continually worshipping. You've been engaged in worship throughout this day. I've been engaged in worship. The worldling outside is engaged in worship. He's worshipping himself. He's living for the gratification of his own lusts and desires. But the Christian is God-centred and the Christian lives to do everything to the glory and the praise of God. That's why Paul says, whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. so that whether we're engaged in preaching a sermon or witnessing in the open air or even washing dishes after a meal, we're engaged in worship. That's why some people have that little motto above the kitchen sink, Divine Service conducted here twice every day at 11 and 6.30. There's an element of truth in that. Whatever we do, we have to do to God's praise and glory. It's worship. But of course tonight we're thinking of worship in the more restrictive sense. We're thinking of the public worship of God. And the public worship of God is comprised of four essential elements. And all of these four are absolutely vital. First of all there is that element of admiration. You see, admiration is the soul standing back with a sense of holy wonder as it contemplates and considers God. You see, worship first of all engages the mind. There's sadly too much mindless worship today. People carry it away with their emotions and the whole thing is mindless and it could be a cultish thing and a mere superficial and emotional thing. But true spiritual worship engages the mind. Our minds are focused upon God, we're worshipping Him, we're considering His attributes, His mighty actions, His works. When we sing, Paul says, sing with the understanding. It's so easy, isn't it, to sing these hymns. I wonder if we sang that opening hymn tonight with the understanding, or were we just carried along by the tune? We liked it, we enjoyed it. Was our mind engaged? Were we thinking upon the very words that we were singing? Was there this element of admiration? And then the second element is adoration. And adoration surely takes us one stage further than mere admiration. Because it's possible to admire the works of God without necessarily adoring the God who performed them. And in adoration there is this element of devotion and love and affection. You see not only is the mind engaged, now the heart and the passions and the emotions are engaged. They stir as we contemplate the greatness of God. And then thirdly there is the element of thanksgiving which engages the lips. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter his courts with praise. And the final element is, of course, dedication. And this is the total response of the Christian to all that God is and all that God has done for us. Not only is the mind and the heart engaged, now the will is engaged, now the very body, all of our ransom powers and energies are caught up in the worship of God as we present ourselves as living sacrifices, wholly acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Friends, how much of true worship do we really know? You see, we attend so many services in the course of a lifetime. We sing so many Christian hymns and songs, but how often do we actually get to a place of true spiritual worship, where the mind is engaged, where the heart is engaged, where the will is engaged, where the lips are engaged, where our body, our entire being is caught up with this great and glorious God, and we are simply lost in wonder, love and praise. This is true biblical worship. It involves this total response. Now we could spend much time this evening simply discussing the merits and the demerits of certain hymn books and song books. We could spend our time this evening discussing whether we should be exclusive psalm singers or whether we should sing hymns and Christian songs. We could be caught up with styles and forms of worship. whether we should pray on our knees or whether we should have our arms stretched out or posture in prayer and in worship and so on. But it seems to me that the most important and vital thing is that we should understand the biblical principles that underlie worship. You see, because this subject is such an important one, God has not left it to ourselves simply to explore the best way that we enjoy worshipping God No, no, he has given us clear principles and instructions in his word. We believe that this book is our authority. We believe in the sufficiency of scripture, that it contains all that we need for faith and life, and that must include the subject of worship. So we don't need to turn anywhere else this evening. We need simply to come to the law and to the testimony. What says the scripture? Scripture must regulate this matter of worship. And the first principle is that public worship must be governed by the Word of God. And that's so essential. You see, we cannot go our own way on this matter this evening. How often do we hear people saying, well, you like to worship God like that and I like to worship God in this way. And it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day we're all worshipping. But it does matter because we must worship God in the way that God has prescribed. There is no place for imagination and creativity in worship because God has given us a biblical pattern and clear principles that we need to follow. We see this clearly in Matthew 15 verse 9 where we find our Lord scathing criticism of the religious leaders of his day. He rebuked openly their worship. He said hypocrites Well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You see there's such a thing as vain, empty worship. There were plenty of words, there was a form, there was a ritual, there was a ceremony. There was much zeal, there was much fervour, but God was not in it. The heart was not it. It was empty worship. And the reason was, Jesus says, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. It was not worship in the way that God had prescribed. They were doing it their own way. We see this also, don't we, in the Old Testament in 1 Chronicles 13. Do you remember that important occasion when David and the others sought to bring up the Ark of the Covenant? which had been captured by the Philistines and was in Kiryat Girim. The Ark of course symbolised the very presence of God in the camp. The Ark was literally God's throne amongst his people and they wanted God to be there in the midst of their worship. And so they sent for the Ark. And what did they do? Well, they immediately brought in innovation. They built a new cart. They thought they knew better than God. rather than go to what the Lord had prescribed as to how they were to worship. No, no, they thought they knew better. They built the ark, they hitched up the oxen and they carried the ark on this new cart. We read that there was a great procession with singing and rejoicing and with praise. What a tremendous time they were having, but God was not in it. and God was angry. Do you remember as the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, God struck him down dead. And suddenly the singing and the praise stopped and the people were filled with fear. They could not bring back the Ark of the Covenant into the city. Now of course if they had followed the scriptures, if they had done things in God's way, they would have known God's blessing and God's smile upon them. You see, the ark should have never been carried on a cart. It should have been carried by those staves, those poles in the side, on the shoulders of the Kohathites. If they'd done it in God's way, according to the pattern, they would have known God's blessing. It was do-it-yourself worship. We find the same thing too, don't we, in Leviticus chapter 10, the case of Nadab and Abihu. Again, they thought that they could do it their own way. Then Nadab and Abiyu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and put incense on it and offered profane fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke saying, by those who come near me I must be regarded as holy and before all the people I must be glorified. So Aaron held his peace. What a solemn occasion. God is concerned about the way that we worship him. It must be according to the pattern. And in the New Testament we find six basic elements in the public worship of God. And the first thing is that believers should be led in united public prayer. Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 2 verse 1, Therefore I exhort first of all, notice that, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. You see praise and prayer should be prominent in the gathered assembly of God's people. And yet sadly this is something that is being neglected in so many churches today. with this desire for entertainment, prayer is being dumbed down. And often prayers in some churches today amounts only to a few sentences. I said at the beginning and at the end, there is no prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks. There's no prominence of prayer. And yet Paul here is instructing Timothy to lead the people of God in public prayer. You remember how Jesus said, my father's house should be called what? A house of prayer. Notice that, not a house of singing, not a house of dancing, not even a house of preaching. My Father's house should be called a house of prayer. Prayer should pervade our worship services. And then secondly, every assembly for public worship should give attention to the public reading of Holy Scripture. 1 Timothy 4.13, Till I come give attention to reading. Here's Paul again instructing Timothy, and in the NIV it comes out even stronger, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture. You see this is not something that should be a hit and miss affair. No, no, Timothy, he said devote himself to this. This is something that must take up his time and his attention. He must do it carefully, he must do it reverently, the public reading of Scripture. We see this again in Revelation chapter 1 how the book of the Revelation was to be read in public worship. We read also in Acts chapter 10 how the apostolic letter from the church at Jerusalem was to be read and how it was read in the church of Antioch and how they rejoiced in its encouragement. And of course all this is based upon our Lord's own example in the synagogue of Nazareth in Luke chapter 4 You read there, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And you remember how he opened the scroll and found that place in the prophecy of Isaiah and was able to say this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. The public reading of scripture. Thirdly, united public praise, congregational singing is a blessed form of public worship. Ephesians 5 of course we cannot forget, speaking to one another says Paul in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. Some tell us there that Paul is simply referring to the book of Psalms. These are the three headings of the book of Psalms. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So that literally Paul is simply saying to us, speaking to one another in Psalms, Psalms, Psalms. But no, no, he's talking about Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. He's talking about songs given by those gifted by the Spirit. He's speaking about other songs, new covenant, worship. how sad it is when we hear congregations simply singing only the Psalms. Thank God for the Psalms. This is the hymn book of the church, but we are the new covenant church. We're living in the age of fulfilment and so much of that is missed and lost as people just sing exclusively the Psalms. Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwelling you richly in all wisdom. You see, this is the word of Christ, this is New Testament as well as Old Testament. Let it dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Public singing should be loud, it should be clear, it shouldn't be mumbled, we should sing heartily with grace to the Lord. And then fourthly, financial giving. We often neglect this. We think that this is just simply something that we need to do and it's just like the notices, you just fit it in somewhere. Some churches even don't have a collection taken during the service. They simply have a little box stuck out the back somewhere so people can secretly tuck something in while nobody's looking, while they're leaving the doors. This is surely wrong. Giving is part of our worship. Think of the emphasis on giving in the New Testament. God loves a cheerful and hilarious giver. This is part of our worship to God. We're giving back to him who first gave to us. Financial giving. And fifthly, the most important aspect of public worship is of course the preaching of the word. Again, there are many people who reject this. They think that to listen to a man preaching, well that's not worship. It's got nothing to do with worship, they think. Worship is only something where the congregation is active. They say to sit passively listening to a man preaching, that's not worship. But my friends, nothing could be further from the truth. We're not to be passive hearers of the Word, we're to be active hearers. We're listening for God's voice, we're hearing Him speaking to us through the Word. It's the time when we're silenced, so that we listen to Him. And then as we respond to that word, as our hearts and our minds are engaged in the word of God and as we receive that application to our hearts, we are worshipping. Jesus said, take heed how you hear. It's something that is active, it's part of worship. Do you remember how this is wonderfully brought out in that lovely illustration in Cornelius' home? Now Peter had been brought along to him and do you remember what Cornelius said? He said there, now therefore we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God. That's worship. That should be the attitude of every congregation. They come to the preaching of the word. Oh, we're not going to listen to another message from that man, are we? No, no, that's not their attitude. We've come before God to hear all that God has commanded him to say to us. Worship. And then finally, we must regularly observe the ordinances of our Lord in public worship, believers' baptism and the Lord's supper. And these six things are the things that God has prescribed for public worship. Anything else is imagination and inventiveness and it's adding to the scriptures. These are the things that are governed by the word of God. And then the second principle of course is that our worship should be spiritual. It should be governed by God's word but it should be spiritual. And we see that clearly brought out in John 4. in that well-known passage. Here was a woman who was trying to catch our Lord off the scent. He had spoken to her about her husband, about her idolatry and her adultery and sinfulness. But she raises this theological question, this red herring about worship. Which mountain should you worship on? Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem? Which one? And Jesus said to her, the hour is now coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. God is spirit and they who worship must worship in spirit and truth. It's not a question of location, it's not a question of which mountain. It's a different type of worship that God is looking for in spirit and in truth. Now the question is, what exactly is this worship? What does our Lord mean by in spirit and in truth? Well, there are those who believe our Lord is referring here to the Holy Spirit and so it should be a capital S. That our worship should be governed by the Spirit of God. That we should be spirit-filled Christians, offering up joyful praise by the Spirit and by His enabling. That's what Paul, our Lord, is referring to, they say, in spirit and in truth. And of course there is a sense in which that is true because the New Covenant age is the age of the Holy Spirit. We are living in the age of the fulfilment. The Holy Spirit has been given to the church and our worship should be in and through the Holy Spirit. But I do not believe that that is necessarily what our Lord is speaking about here. I believe that when he mentions in-spirit he is referring to the spirituality of New Covenant worship. In other words, our worship should be inward. There should be a spirituality about worship and not resorting to the physical or outward forms. You see, here was this woman caught up with the location of worship. Which mountain? This mountain or that? Jesus said, no, it's not a case of geographical location. It's not a case of position. No, no, it's a case of heart. It's a case of the inward attitude. It's the spirituality of worship that God is looking for. And then he goes on, God is spirit. You see, God is not a localised deity. He doesn't dwell on this mountain or on that mountain. No, no. God is spirit. God is everywhere. He's a spiritual being and therefore our worship should be spiritual. There should be this spirituality about it. And of course as we pass from the Old Testament into the New Testament, we notice that there is a great change in public worship. The worship of God in all covenant times was basically outward and external and physical. It was about buildings. It was about dressing up. It was about bells and pomegranates. It was about smoke and incense. It was about forms and rituals and ceremonies. It was about dancing. It was about clapping. It was about this and that. But when we turn to the New Testament, we find that the external, the physical, is completely done away with. You won't find any mention in the New Testament about dancing or about musical instruments. All these things fade away. The emphasis is upon the inwardness of worship, the spirituality, the simplicity of worship. We are the circumcision, says Paul to the Philippians, who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. You see there is a complete change. It seems to me the sad thing is that so many of our charismatic and Pentecostal brethren are taking their prescription for worship from the Old Testament and not from the New. They like to tell us that they're up to date, they're modern, they're contemporary, they're nothing of the sort, their worship is old. They're taking us back under the old covenants. Our worship should be in spirit and in truth. Thirdly, it should be orderly. Ordered worship, 1 Corinthians 14, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. Let all things be done decently and in order. There should be an order about public worship. Yes, thank God, there can be elements of spontaneity and freshness, but there's no place for chaos and disorder and confusion, which we find so prevalent today. People often criticise us for our hymn prayer sandwich services. But friends, what's wrong with a sandwich? There's nothing wrong with sandwiches. It all depends, of course, what's in the sandwich. And we're living in the day when we have super sandwiches. Years ago it used to be quite a pathetic thing with a couple of little pieces of bread and a thin slice of something in the middle. But no, no, now today we have great sandwiches with salad and with herbs and with, pity about the mayonnaise though, but we have all these other things, these delicious fillings. when we were in Hawaii we had these American sandwiches and there must have been about two pounds of meat in them and they were absolutely solid and they were just I think I had a beef sandwich there were 16 slices of beef in that one sandwich and as well as the salad and everything you know it was about this thick that's what you call a sandwich and so our worship should be full of content and it should be orderly Fourthly, it should be holy. Our God is a God of absolute holiness and purity. And we are to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Holiness should characterise our worship. Do you remember the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 5? He says there, watch your step when you go to the house of God. Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God, for God is in heaven and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few." In other words, we need to address ourselves with a solemn pause as we come into God's presence. We need to prepare our hearts for worship. We need to stop and realise the majesty and the greatness of the one to whom we are coming. We must realise that there is this enormous gulf between ourselves and God. He is in heaven and we are on the earth. He is the creator, we are but a creature and our words should be few. And then of course in Psalm 24, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? only he who has clean hands and a pure heart. We need to keep short accounts with God. We need to come to that order of cleansing and know that forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ before we come and bring our worship to have clean hands and a pure heart. Matthew 5, Jesus taught the same thing, you remember. He said if you come to the altar with your gift and there you remember that your brother has something against you, well leave your gift and go and first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. You see we must keep short accounts with God and with one another if our worship is to be acceptable to the Lord. Peter speaks also about marital harmony, so that our prayers are not hindered. Worship is nothing, it's vain, unless there is harmony in the home. There must be holiness in every department of our lives if we are to offer up acceptable praise. And finally, worship should be Trinitarian. And I cannot emphasise and stress this enough. We find it right the way through the New Testament. We'll see it many times in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Our worship should be Trinitarian in its structure. You see there is a goal in worship. The ultimate goal of worship is the Father. We come to the Father through Jesus the Son and by the Holy Spirit. And yet in some areas today all we hear about is Jesus this and Jesus that and Jesus our charm and our friend. There's no mention of any Father as if he didn't exist. Of course we need to worship the Son and we honour the Father by honouring the Son. But the goal of worship is through the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. We come through our Blessed Mediator. Our prayers are Christ-centred, but the ultimate goal is the Father. We're coming to the Father. It's interesting that you read through the New Testament and you'll find that there is not one clear petition in prayer in the New Testament letters or the Acts of the Apostles to the psalm. It's interesting. There are praises to him in various parts, but there is no direct petition to the Son. It's coming to the Father through the Son. When Jesus taught us to pray, he said, you are to say, Our Father, which art in heaven. John 17, Jesus prayed, Holy Father. And Paul's prayers to the Ephesians, both prayers, Trinitarian in structure. I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Yes, and in Ephesians 2.18, he says, by one Spirit we have access, or through him, through Christ, we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Our worship should be Trinitarian. Well, we've only just scratched the surface of these great biblical principles concerning this vital issue of worship this evening, but I trust we've seen enough to realise how little we know and experience of true biblical worship. How frail, how faulty our worship so often is. How cold our hearts so often are before God. How many distractions we experience when we're engaged in the public worship of God. And so often we have to admonish ourselves for our coldness and our deadness and dullness before our God. Thank God there are those occasions when, as we draw near to God, He draws near to us in a wonderful way. And there are times when we lose sight of the congregation around us, we lose sight of time, and we're simply lost in wonder, love and praise. But oh, how we bemoan the fact that these experiences are far too rare. We know so little of true spiritual worship. Blaise Pascal, that great 17th century French mathematician and philosopher, had an encounter with God one night which transformed him into a true worshipper. Up until that time he had been afraid of his emotions in worship. And isn't that often the case of those in reformed circles today? We're afraid of emotions. Yes, we should be afraid of emotionalism. but there is an emotional element to true spiritual worship. Not only should the mind be engaged but the heart and the passions and the desires. We should know this burning heart, we should know a heart softened and full of love for our Lord. We should know something of those holy affections and those holy passions. Certainly Blaise Pascal experienced this on this occasion and he was never the same again. In fact so wonderful and amazing was this vision that he had of God and his glory and majesty that he didn't want to lose one moment of it. And so he quickly got a pen and paper and he began to write out exactly how he felt in that experience. He put it on a piece of paper, screwed it up in his top pocket near to his heart and he kept it there for the rest of his days. and times when his heart was cold he would take out this piece of paper from his pocket and he would read this and it would warm his heart again and stir up his emotions and affections in the worship of God. When he died and he was being buried by his friends as they were preparing him for burial suddenly they found this piece of paper, this old screwed up bit of paper in his pocket. They took it out and this is what it read. From half past ten at night to about half past midnight. Fire! O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not the God of the philosophers and the wise, but God of Jesus Christ, whom can be known only in the ways of the Gospel. Security, feeling, peace, joy, tears of joy. Fire! Amen. Were these the rantings and ravings of a charismatic in the 17th century, an extremist? Not a bit of it. He was a great mind, a great intellect. It's generally accepted today that he has been one of the six greatest thinkers this world has ever known. He was a man who was more at home in mathematics and philosophical concepts than anything else. But he spent two awesome hours in the presence of God and so overwhelming was the experience that he was simply lost in wonder, love and praise. And the only term he could use to describe it was fire. It was a baptism of holy fire. And he was never the same again. Christian friends, if we are to become true worshippers, then we need God to come down. We need a visitation of His Spirit from on high. You see, true worship is not something that we can manipulate in the congregation. It's not something that can be worked up and whipped up in some emotional, highly charged meeting. No, no, it is God coming down. And as we experience that baptism of fire, so true worship will rise from our hearts. May God grant us to know more of it, for His eternal praise. Amen.