I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me this morning to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Deuteronomy chapter 12. We're getting completely back into the pattern of looking at one chapter in each Old Testament book in our search for Jesus in the Old Testament. We're doing that because Jesus tells us that it's all about him, and so we look with anticipation I've suggested six letters that might help you think about how to look for Christ as you're reading the Old Testament. The first two begin with the letter P, the progress of redemption and promises or prophecies fulfilled in Christ. Then two Ts, types, that is people, places, or things that point to Christ in a particular way, and often the New Testament tells us that. And themes, themes that God works all through the scripture. And then two Cs, as we compare and contrast the way God works with his people. Sometimes in the Old Testament, very much the same as in the New Testament, sometimes different, and so we compare and contrast. I've suggested that as we're looking at least through these first five books of the Old Testament, for the most part, I've been looking for key words and phrases, and then chapters in which those are concentrated. How do you pick one chapter out of a book? In the book of Deuteronomy we have Lord and God as highly continued phrases or repeated words, but particularly the Lord your God as a repeated phrase. It's a phrase that's found 450 times in our English translations of the Bible. And it's found more than half of those times in the book of Deuteronomy. Some 60% of that phrase, the Lord your God, is in the book of Deuteronomy. And it's found 19 times in this chapter. Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law, the retelling of the law, as the people of God prepared to enter the promised land. Not the people who left Egypt, for that generation died in the wilderness as God's judgment upon them for their unbelief. But their children, who they said the nations would destroy, God said, no, they will inherit the land. And so for this second generation, Moses is reminding them of the law of God, and Deuteronomy is literally second law. The theme of Deuteronomy, one person has suggested, is an uncompromising monotheism, that's one God, coupled with concern that Israel would have an uncompromising loyalty to that one God. In chapter six of Deuteronomy, we have what's sometimes called the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength. And that theme really permeates this book. Chapter 12, we come to worship matters. Now matters is an interesting word because of the noun, it refers to things having to do with a given subject. And so what we find in Deuteronomy chapter 12 are matters to do with worship. But matters also is a verb that means it's important. And we also find that idea in Deuteronomy 12, that worship is important. And so listen for that even as we look for Christ in Deuteronomy chapter 12 as I read God's word. These are the statutes and rules that you should be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and to make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around so that you live in safety, then to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall bring all that I command you. your burn offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you should do all that I am commanding you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns as much as you desire according to the blessing of the Lord your God that He has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and of the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood, you should pour it out on the earth like water. You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grains, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd, or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the contribution that you present, but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servants and your female servant, and the Levite who's within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. Take care that you do not neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land. When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put His name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of the herd or of your flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You should not eat it, you should pour it out on the earth like water. You should not eat it that it may go well with you and your children after you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. But the holy things that are due from you and your vow offerings you shall take and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose. And offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you not be ensnared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I may also do the same? You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you should be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take away from it. This is the word of God and having heard from God and his word, please join me as we seek him in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we do ask that you would open our eyes, that we would behold wonderful things out of your law. We do ask that you would help us to see Christ in these words that seem a bit strange to us, and yet might we understand your application for us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if worship matters, it should not surprise you that we would see in this text the call to worship. Worship the Lord your God. Worship the Lord your God. And in fact, what we see in this text and in all of scripture is that to worship is human. In other words, we are made as worshiping creatures. From the beginning it has been that way. And the fact that people choose to worship incorrectly or worship false gods does not change that reality. Why would it be that the nations whom the Lord was going to dispossess as He gave the land of Canaan to His people Why would it be that they had gods that they worshiped in their way? Because to worship is human. Human beings are worshiping creatures made in the image of God, but that image of God is corrupted, and therefore, we turn to false worship. Everyone will worship something or something. And sometimes it's multiple some ones and multiple some things. Someone or something that you dedicate your life to that's more important than anything else. Something that you value or hold sacred above anything else. That is what you worship. And it doesn't have to be in what we would understand as the religious sense of worship. We have in our culture even a recognition of hero worship or celebrity worship. Now, it's not always used with that language, but sometimes it is, and that ought not surprise us. And so who or what are you worshiping? To worship is to declare worth. Our English word comes from an older English word, worthship. I wonder if it just contracted over time because worship is a lot easier to say than worth-ship. But I would encourage you as you think about worship that you think about worth-ship. That in worship we are declaring to God His worth, His worth to us. As this word is used in the Bible it's often in the context of bowing down or falling down in reverence. But in the modern age in which we live, the thought is that we've evolved past that need, past the need for religion and worship, and yet interest in spirituality in general, and even as we considered last week, in the last 200 years, the growth of Christianity specifically, outpacing the growth of humanity over those 200 years, and interest continues in true worship. Here in Deuteronomy 12, we have the beginning of about five chapters of particular laws about worship. And you might ask, why? Why is it so important? Well, it's important because God is seeking worshipers. God is seeking worshipers. And he has been seeking worshipers since the beginning, since creation. Adam and Eve didn't go to a particular place. They walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day. They were intimately involved with God until they sinned and hid from God, hid from the voice of God. We see worship explicitly first mentioned in Genesis chapter four. A son was born to Seth and he named him Enosh. And at that time, people began to call on the name of the Lord. That calling on the name of the Lord, an act of worship. Now if God were not God, then his demand for worshiping would be of the ultimate arrogance. But God is God. And what we might consider arrogant in God in our rebellious hearts We often allow that sort of an arrogance among people. Like, it's okay to have hero worship, because they're worth it. Well, they're not, but we think that way. But from long ago, there's been a temptation connected to worship. that we worship only externally and not with our heart, or that we worship according to the ways that we want to worship. Isaiah says it this way, the Lord said through Isaiah, these people approach me with their words to honor me with lip service, but their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me. It's not a new problem, it's an age old problem. The temptation to worship only externally or to worship in our own way. The temptation not to worship the Lord your God. And Jesus came so that we can worship God. Jesus came so that we can worship the Lord our God. We read in our Call to Worship part of John 4, and many of you are familiar with that account, Jesus meeting with a Samaritan woman, interacting with her about her married life, which wasn't all that attractive. And then she shifted the conversation. Some people think she didn't really want to continue to talk about her married life, but I don't think that we have to assume that. She recognized something in this Jesus who knew everything about her. And in recognizing that, she changed the subject to worship. She said to Jesus, Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming where neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you don't know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here where true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And the woman said to Jesus, I know that Messiah is coming. He was called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I am, I am he. Jesus came to teach us how to worship. Jesus came to enable us to worship. Old Testament saints certainly worshiped by grace, a grace that they looked forward to being fulfilled in the Messiah who was to come, whom this Samaritan woman, thought would come and would explain everything. And Jesus said, I have come and I am He who explains these things to you. You see the Samaritans, as the land of Canaan, of Israel, was being repopulated, had a blend of true and false worship, and Jesus came to correct that, and Jesus came to correct you and me, and to enable us to worship the Lord our God. So worship the Lord your God, because God is seeking true worshipers. And worship the Lord your God only. Worship the Lord your God only. The one true living God. the one true living God. There is only one God. He exists in three persons in a way that's somewhat of a mystery to us. The Bible is clear that there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and yet these three are one God. And so worship God. Verse one in our text in Deuteronomy 12 says, worship the God of your ancestors. Verse four, the Lord your God, one of the first of these 19 times that that phrase occurs in this chapter. Worship God, the Lord your God only. Don't worship, verses two and three say, don't worship the gods of the nations. Don't worship the way they worship. in a way that seems, I think, silly to us as we think about it, and it should have seemed silly to them, but God knew that they would be tempted as they came into the promised land, and as God destroyed the nations and their false gods, that Israel would say, hmm, I wonder how these people worshiped their gods. If they were gonna think about that at all, they should have said those gods were impotent, as all false gods are. but the call is to worship the Lord your God only, not the God of the nations. As God says in the first commandment, following his reminder, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, have no other gods before me. Worship the Lord your God only, the true and the living God, not angels. We see John in the book of the Revelation, chapter 22, he says, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me. But he said to me, don't do that. I am a fellow servant with you, with your brothers, the prophets and those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. Paul and Barnabas, upon a miraculous healing, the people of Laodicea wanted to worship them. They called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes and they brought bulls and wreaths to offer a sacrifice in worship to them. And Paul and Barnabas tore their robes, rushed into the crowd shouting, people, why are you doing these things? We are people also just like you. and we are proclaiming to you good news, that the living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, turn from these worthless things to this living God. Worship the Lord your God only. And lest we feel any sense that worship is a burden, God emphasizes in this text that worship brings joy. And worship brings joy, not just in the moment, but to all of life. Sometimes people say all of life is worship, and I don't think the Bible particularly says it that way, but worship brings joy to all of life. The assembly of the saints together brings joy all through the week. One of the reasons in this Worship Connected family worship guide that I put together week by week, one of the reasons and the hopes for that is that you would find joy through the week as you reflect on the assembled worship on the Lord's day past and on the Lord's day to come. All of life should reflect the blessing of God. We see that in verse seven in our text. You shall rejoice in all that you undertake. Worship brings joy to all of life. But maybe that's not your experience. Maybe you find when you worship you don't have joy. Why might that be? Well, it might be simply because you're not worshiping. You might be here. You might even be going through the motions and yet not have a heart toward God whatsoever. It may be that you're not worshiping God, that the idols of your heart may be distracting you from the one true living God. Nancy and I watched an interesting movie this week. It was about Paul Potts. Some of you will remember that name. He was a mobile phone salesman and he appeared on Britain's Got Talent and won the competition singing opera. He came out, this sort of dumpy young man, didn't look very impressive. The judges, you could tell, were looking at him scornfully. But as he began to sing, some of them had tears. They and the crowd stood and applauded. It was a pleasant story about a pleasant man. I think it was intended to be fairly accurate about his life. But there was a very sad statement that he made. Whether he made this himself or whether the film put it in there, I don't know. But he said this, I'm only happy when I'm listening to or singing opera. I'm only happy when I'm listening to or singing opera. Now there's nothing wrong with listening to or singing opera making you happy. But there is something wrong If you say about opera or anything, I'm only happy when I have this. There are all kinds of things that will turn us away from the joy of worshiping God with an invitation to a false happiness. Nothing but God being your God. and you living to worship Him will bring you true and lasting joy. Even in the midst of trouble, even if God, it seems, isn't fixing the problem that you face, if God is your God, if you are offering to Him true worship, you can always say, I have God. And when I am aware that I have God, then I am truly full of joy. You see, we can have blessings in all of life and the things that we have blessings in can tempt us to worship them instead of God. It can be a spouse, parents, children, the great American dream of owning your own home, a good job, a successful job, money, technology. That's been one of my temptations. I haven't added up the numbers recently, but for a long time, Nancy and I could say accurately that I'd spent more money on computers and things like that than on cars. I bought a computer a week and a half ago, and I returned it. because God convicted me that maybe I was trying to have an idol. You might think that's silly, but I found it convicting. There are all sorts of things, things that are good, that are not sinful in and of themselves, things in which God brings joy that tempt us to turn from the God who gives us the joy to the things in which he gives us joy. Enjoy life, enjoy the goodness that God brings, but worship God only. That's the call of our text before us. And Jesus resisted Satan so that we can worship God only. You're familiar, most of you, if not all of you, with the temptation that's recorded in Matthew 4 and other places in the New Testament, where the spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. raises an interesting question that I'll just throw out there to tickle your thinking. Jesus teaches us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation. Does God ever lead us into temptation? God never tempts us, we know that. God never causes us to sin, we know that. But the Spirit of God led Jesus, God the Son, into the wilderness in order to be tempted by the devil. And three times the devil tempted Jesus with a false view of worship. Worship food, as it were. You're hungry, it's been 40 days since you've eaten, and you have authority, you have the power to turn these stones into bread, so do it. And Jesus said no, even though there would not be anything sinful in him eating at that point. As far as I understand, it would not even have been sinful for him to make food out of non-food. But what he understood from the word of God was that God gives us food so that we realize God's word is the most important thing. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And then the devil tempted Jesus to trust God the wrong way. Throw yourself off and God will save you. That's what I tell my wife when she says she wants to go hang gliding. Don't put the Lord your God to the test. With Jesus, it was a real test, and he understood, no, that would be a false worship of God. And then that final temptation. Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, and he said, fall down and worship me, and they're all yours. I will give them to you. And Jesus could have debated with Satan about the propriety of his offer. The kingdoms of the world are not Satan's to give. But instead, he got right to the heart. Get away from me, Satan. You shall worship the Lord your God only. You shall worship the Lord your God only. And it's in Christ defeating Satan that we defeat Satan. His obedience is our obedience. His worship of God only is the means by which we can worship God only. Worship God. Worship the Lord your God only. And lastly, and the text draws our attention to this, worship the Lord your God in His way only. Worship the Lord your God in His way only. The beginning of this discussion talks about the how and the where that God chooses. Where God chooses, where God puts His name. We see that repeated in verse five, verse 11, verse 14, and verse 18. The second commandment reminds us that we are to worship God in His way only. Don't make idols, don't bow down to them, don't worship them, for God is a jealous God. And so worship the Lord your God in His way only. Worship God how and where He chooses, where He puts His name. Now God in the Old Testament put his name and the location where he was to be worshiped in a particular place. That was the reason for the Samaritan woman's conversation with Jesus. We worship on this mountain. You Jews worship on that mountain. Which is the right mountain? Which is the place where God has put his name? That's really what she was asking. But where's the place now where God chooses? It's not the beach. It's not the mountains as majestic as they are and as much as they remind us about the God who made the mountains. It's not the golf course. It's not our living room. It's in the church. The church is God's house. It's where God has put his name. And the church assembles to worship because God said, worship where I've called you to worship. Worship how and where he chooses and worship as he has commanded. Don't worship, verses 30 and 31 say, don't worship God the way the world worships their gods. Verse eight, don't worship God the way you think best. As I said, those aren't new issues, those are long time problems. Verse 32 states it very clearly, don't add to my commands regarding worship and don't take away from them. Genesis 12, 32 is one of the clearest Old Testament declarations of what we often call the regulative principle of worship. That is that God regulates how we are to worship Him. The way that the regulative principle of worship is stated is that whatever is commanded in worship by God is required and whatever is not commanded in worship by God is forbidden. That's the reason that we sing the Psalms only in worship in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. That's the reason that we sing without instrumental accompaniment. That's the reason that we baptize covenant children. It's the reason that we guard the table of the Lord as we come together to communion because we believe that is what God commands. And we are to do what He commands and we're not free to do anything He doesn't command. Now we need to recognize as reformed Presbyterians that we may be tempted to think that because we do the right thing, therefore our worship is acceptable. Don't forget the kind of worshipers that the Father is seeking, those who worship him in spirit and in truth. There's some gentle debate, discussion about that phrase in spirit and in truth. Is the reference to God the Holy Spirit, that is that we're directed by God the Holy Spirit so that we do worship in truth? Or is the reference to our own spirit, that we worship from our heart? And I think the best answer, and many commentators, I agree with them, is it's both. Jesus said, I will send the comforter and he will guide you into all truth. He will remind you of what I've taught. And so when we worship, the Holy Spirit reminds us what it is that Jesus wants from us in worship. But we dare not be those people who go through the motions of worship and our hearts are far from God. And you and I are tempted to do that. You're tempted to think I'm here, I'm worshiping. Even if you don't completely agree with our form of worship, you're at least submitting to it. Therefore, it's okay. Well, maybe it's okay. It's okay if you're worshiping in spirit and in truth. Our efforts by themselves are useless, but we come to Jesus. We come to Jesus so that we can worship God in his way only. Hebrews chapter 12 is one of, in my opinion, the clearest declarations of the regulative principle of worship in the New Testament. In Hebrews chapter 12, there's a contrast, and I won't read all of verses 18 through 29, but what we have in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 through 29, is a reminder for these Hebrew Christians. We have not come to the mountain of terror, referring back to Mount Sinai, but we have come to the mountain of grace. We have come to Jesus himself, and I am convinced that the last half of Hebrews chapter 12 is a description of what happens every time we come to worship, that we come to the heavenly Mount Zion, that we come to Jesus. There were those who came to the disciples when Jesus was here on this earth, and they said to them, sir, sirs, we want to see Jesus. Might that be our heart attitude whenever we come to worship? Lord God, Father in heaven, we want to see Jesus, not with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. And because we have come to the mountain of grace, because we have come to Jesus, the assembly of the firstborn, I know there was some discussion in what we would call this room when we moved into this building. Maybe you like, maybe you don't like. I don't know. I tend to like. We've called this room the Assembly Hall. I think it's a very appropriate name because it is the assembly of the firstborn who meets in this room to see Jesus, to see Jesus with the eyes of faith. And when we join together in worship, we are not merely here at 2315 North Circle Avenue, but we are transported spiritually into the very throne room of God himself. and because we have come to the God of grace, and because we have come to the mountain of grace, what does Hebrews 12 tell us? Verse 28, therefore be grateful for having received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship. Let us offer to God acceptable worship. How do you know what's gonna be acceptable to God? Because he tells us. If you want to get somebody a gift, and you want to make sure they like it, ask them for some ideas. And if they're being honest with you, and you listen carefully, and you get something they ask you to give them, they will be satisfied. They will be acceptable to them. If you want to know how to worship God, ask Him, in His Word, by His Spirit, what's acceptable. And notice the warning at the end of Hebrews 12. Our God is not to be trifled with. Our God is a consuming fire. You might remember Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons. They decided to worship God in a way that he had not commanded and they took their censors and they offered unauthorized fire and the fire of God did not consume merely their offerings, but it consumed them. Our God is a consuming fire. And for the believer, for the one who's been rescued in Christ, for the one who comes to the mountain of grace, this is not a reminder of dread and fear, but a reminder of what God has rescued you from. the consuming eternal fires of hell, having been rescued from that offer to God, acceptable worship. Worship matters. And in Christ, we worship the Lord our God. In Christ, we worship the Lord our God only. And in Christ, we worship the Lord our God in his way only. Please pray with me that God would make it so among us and give us a heart to do this. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we have and we are worshiping you. We have come to worship you and we are worshiping you. And we want to worship you rightly. We want to worship you acceptably. We want to worship you in the ways that you have commanded and not in the ways of our own thinking. And certainly not in the ways of the nations around us. And so, God, help us. Lord Jesus, help us worship our Father in spirit and in truth. Thank you, God, that in seeking worshipers, you made a way for us to be those worshipers through the perfect work of Christ, in whom we offer our worship, for in and of ourselves, we cannot offer acceptable worship. But accept what we offer in Christ and perfect what we offer in Christ and perfect even our efforts, what we do and how we do it. We pray in Jesus' name.