Well, I owe everybody a big apology. You're all excited about doing the book of Daniel, chapter 11. And I have seven new messages to prepare this week. Some of them over one hour in length. And Daniel, poor old Daniel didn't get a look in. So I'd like to just, my theme this weekend is gonna be worship. And one of the assignments is worship in the Pentateuch, the first five books. And so I'd like you to turn with me to the first book of the Bible, and the book of Genesis, and chapter 18, Genesis 18, and at least begin to, in the minutes that remain, think about the matter of what worship is. And many years ago, A.W. Tozer, said that worship was the missing jewel of the evangelical church. And many others agreed with him. When I was newly saved, my wife and I went to a church where they talked a lot about worship, but I'm not sure that I personally experienced worship. It was usually synonymous with the preacher. and it was reading a book on the Pentateuch. that gave me my first genuine experience of worship. It was called Notes on the Pentateuch by C.H. McIntosh. And as I was reading this book, required reading at that time at New Tribes Bible School, that I would pause, put the book down, and just have to worship. And so it's a thrill to be able to look at worship in the book of Genesis. And one of the ways that we study the Bible is a principle called the principle of first mention. And what that means is that the way a word is used for the first time often gives it that character throughout the whole word of God. And so when you come to this topic of the first mention of worship, you end up with a bit of a problem, because really there are three first mentions of worship. And what I mean by that is that, for instance, in the Hebrew Bible, the first mention is Genesis 18. The English Bible, it's Genesis 22. Unless you happen to have a chronological Bible, and then it would be Job chapter one and verse 20. So what we're gonna do is look at all three, not at the same time, but we'll look at all three individually. And we'll begin with Genesis 18. And if you turn there to Genesis 18 and verse 2, well, we'll read from verse 1. It says, the Lord appeared unto him. This is to Abraham in the plains of Mamre. And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself. to the ground. That phrase, bowed himself there, is the word that is used throughout the Old Testament Hebrew, meaning worship. And so it gives us an idea of what worship is. And it literally means to bow down to prostrate oneself before a superior to kiss the feet. That's the, in other words, the idea is this, that you recognize that you're in the presence of a superior, and in his presence, you make yourself as small as you possibly can. You get right down in the dust, right down as low as you can get. And what you're doing is, you're doing two things at once. You're recognizing who you are, you're just a man of dust. And at the same time, you're recognizing who he is. Who is he? He's the great almighty God. And so Abraham gets low, and he gets down, and he bows down towards the ground. And the English word worship actually comes from a word, an old English word, worthship. It means the acknowledgement of worth. Acknowledging the worth of God. Acknowledging the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the idea. And so Abraham knew that he was in the presence of someone greater than he. And it was to do with who and what God is, and not what Abraham was, who and what God is. In fact, worship is really the complete abnegation of self in the presence of God. It's the least selfish, least egotistical act of man. Because it's not, you're not in the picture. You're taken up entirely with someone else. It occupies the spirit, the mind, and the mouth of man. And it's really this, it's the occupation with the blesser, not the blessings. Praise is the occupation with the blessings. You know, we praise the Lord because, well, because I could pay my bills this month. I praise the Lord because I'm healthy enough to stand on this platform. I praise the Lord because of Christ dying for me, right? It's all to do with what I'm receiving and the benefits I'm getting. It's to do with the blessings. Praise is a response to the blessings. Worship is just a response to the blesser. Whether I got anything from him or not is not the issue. It's who he is. That's the issue, being taken up with Him. And I wanna suggest to you that we need to take worship as a way of life, not just, of course, we love coming together on Sunday morning, and we love to remember the Savior, which causes us to worship, and that, for many of us, is one of the high points, if not the high point, of our week. But it ought to be something we do constantly. In fact, one person says, if you don't worship constantly, it will be hard to worship instantly. And I know what he means, right? We just need to have that sense of worship, who God is, how great he is. David, and of course this is not in the Pentateuch, but I'd like you to just turn here for a second to 2 Samuel chapter seven. And one thing I like about David was he had a heart of worship, and you see that in his life. And verse 22 of 2 Samuel seven he says, wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And he just sits down, and what's he doing? He's just proclaiming, God, you're great. There's nobody to be compared with you. You're just, you're amazing. That's what he's saying. He's just taken up with who God is, and just thrilled with who God is. Now let's look at the first mention in the English Bible, and that's Genesis 22. The Hebrew one, remember, said to bow down before. Here in Genesis 22 verse 5, you know the story well. It's the story of Abraham offering up his only son Isaac, the one he loved, and God had told him to do that. We'll break in in verse two. He said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burn offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son claimed the wood for the burn offering and rose up and went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. I and the lad will go yonder and worship. Now in this instance, it's not so much just bowing down physically in the presence of God, but what Abraham is doing is he is bowing his will. to the will of God, even though it goes against everything that he holds valuable, right? What an act of worship. Give your son, your only son, who you love. And Abraham went there with every intention of obeying God. Wow, that's amazing, isn't it? Talk about a worshiper. That's tremendous, isn't it? Again, it's the idea of someone prostrated, at least in his heart here, in his will, before a superior, one who is willing to completely submit and prostrate himself before God. It's also interesting that it's to do with a father willing to offer the son he loved on the altar of sacrifice. That gives us a beautiful clue of what will come clearer as we go through the scriptures. Now I want you to go to Job, and what I mean by saying chronologically, if you had a chronological Bible that actually puts the Bible in date order, in other words, when the books were written, rather than how they've been collected. Job usually comes after Genesis 1 through 11, but before Genesis 12 in the chronological Bibles, that he was at the very least a compatriot of Abraham's, living at the same time, if not before Abraham. And so again, we put him in the first mention bracket just because of the chronological connection. But I want you to notice in this instance, the worship here, let's just notice, let's just read from verse 13. There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job, and said the oxen were plowing the asses feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. First piece of news Job gets is that his cattle have all been raided and stolen and his servants have been killed. And so he's just lost. I mean, that's how he determined how wealthy a guy was back in those days was how many head of cattle he had. That was his wealth. And he said, it'd be like saying the stock market just went belly up and you've lost all your retirement just like that. That's what it would mean, right? Everything's gone in one second. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God is fallen from heaven, hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. So now he's lost all his cattle and he's lost his sheep. It's not looking good. So now his camels are gone. His sheep, his cattle, his camels. He's losing everything. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house. And it fell upon the young man and they are dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee." Now he's lost his kids. Isn't that amazing? What a day. I mean, just one piece of bad news after another piece of bad news after another. I mean, it couldn't get worse. I mean, if ever there was a time to have an absolute pity party, this is it, right? So what does Job do? Verse 20, then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped. and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. That's powerful, isn't it? That's worship, isn't it? You've just lost everything. And the natural tendency, when you've just lost everything, is to be consumed with yourself, right? Even if it's just self-pity, self is the natural focus And yet, what does he do? He falls on the ground and he worships. One thing that stands out to me is that these instances of worship, two of the three instances we've just read, the people concerned are getting nothing out of it. Abraham's about to lose his only son, as far as he's concerned, as far as he knows at that moment in time, that's what's gonna be the outcome. He doesn't know chapter 22 yet, it hasn't happened, right? As far as he's concerned, he worships even though he's gonna lose his only son who he loves. Job has lost his sons and daughters, he's lost his cattle, he's lost everything, and he worships. So worship obviously is not about how things are going, how well I'm doing, how my bank account is at any moment in time, how my circumstances are going, whether my kids are healthy, whether everything's... No, worship is acknowledging the greatness of God, period. Nothing to do with me or how I feel. Everything to do with Him and who He is or how we need to be worshipers. constant worshipers. Lord, help us to worship. Also, I want you just to notice the absentees of these first mentions of worship. Notice there's not a single mention of music in any of the three occasions. That's somewhat surprising, isn't it? Because the average Christian today in the world, if you were to talk to them about worship, the first thing that would come to their mind would be music. Isn't that true? Oh, I left that church because I didn't like the worship. I'm going to this other church, I really like the worship there. What do they mean? I left one that sung the old hymns, and I've gone to one that sings the contemporary hymns, and that suits my style, right? And so, in their minds, worship is a synonym with music. And what we're saying here is the first mention, and this affects how it's found all the way through the word of God, has got nothing to do with what I've got in my bank account, and it's got nothing to do with whether there's nice music playing. It's me in the presence of God, recognizing my smallness and recognizing his greatness. That's real worship. And I think that A.W. Tozer was right on the money. I think there are a lot of Christians who use the word worship and have no conception at all what real worship is. So there's no music. Mind you, of course, if Hollywood were dramatizing these incidents, you would have music. Can you imagine Abraham and Isaac going up the mountainside? You can imagine it'd be classical music, and it would be the heavy kind of classical music. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it'd just be the emotions, especially as they got close. Of course there'd be music. Job, oh, there'd be music, all this high drama, right? In the actual literal events, I doubt there was any music when Abraham and Isaac climbed Mount Moriah. I doubt there was any music the day that Job had these messengers come one after the other. And it didn't, it didn't call, music didn't influence these men to worship. It wasn't there. What caused them to worship was understanding who God was. and falling on their faces in his presence. That's what did it. Notice that there was no special clothing. They didn't wear priestly garments of any kind. They were just wearing what they were wearing at that particular time. There were no circumstances favorable to it. We just mentioned that. Nothing would happen that would say, oh, I've got to spend time worshiping God because of. There was no because of except God. That was the only because, because of who God is. There was no congregation either. This is not corporate worship or congregational. This is the worship of an individual in the presence of God. And again, I want to encourage us, challenge us, even before Sunday morning, to get alone with God and just tell him, what you think of him without any, you know, just know the reason, know who he is. Just do that. Let's learn to be worshipers. Let's bring worship more into every fabric of our lives. Let's be people that just do that because of who he is. Their worship was a response, in one sense, to divine revelation in the past. Each of these individuals somehow had had a revelation of God. We know Abraham had seen the glory of God when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, so he's responding to a revelation. If he just decided out of his own heart, I think I'll go and kill my son, I think God might like that, that would have been murder, right? It would have been like offering to Molech or whatever. If it came out of his own imagination, his own heart, it would be totally wrong. but it came out of a submitted will to the revelation of God. That's an important point. When we worship, we need to recognize that revelation, God's revelation of himself should drive our worship, should direct our worship. That's how we find out who he is so that we can bow in his presence and worship him. And so we need to recognize that. Also I want to, point something out which is of interest. Turn with me to Matthew, the first mention in the New Testament of worship. And I want to go back to Abraham again in a moment, but Matthew 2. And this is, again, a very precious chapter. Verse 1 of Matthew 2, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. And then look at verse five. No, that's the wrong verse. When Herod the king had heard these things, verse three, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he gathered all the chief priests and scribes and people gathered, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said to him in Bethlehem or Judea for the sake of the prophets on and so forth. And these wise men go and they worship the child and let's break in in verse 11. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. Notice, they didn't fall down and worship Mary. They fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasure, they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And so they brought costly gifts to lay at his feet. They didn't get anything out of it. In fact, they gave something as a result of it. Interestingly enough, Abraham earlier, in Genesis 18, when the Lord appeared to him, he immediately, after he had worshiped, he served. He got a meal ready for them, remember? So worship led to service here, in Matthew, worship leads to generous giving. The recognition of who God is, cause them to want to give something to him. Also, just to point out why I went to the Matthew connection primarily was this, that in Genesis 18 and Matthew 2, the person who is the object of worship is really the same person. In other words, in the Old Testament, when there is a theophany, it was God appears. It really is a Christophany because nobody's seen God at any time, the Lord Jesus said, but the only begotten who's in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And he always declares God to people. And so whenever you see a theophany in the Old Testament, you always know who it is. The angel of the Lord, it's Christ in his pre-incarnate form. He is the first object of worship, and then when we go to the book of Matthew, Christ in his carnate form, or his, yeah, after the incarnation, yeah, incarnate form, he is also the object of worship. So that is helpful to us, right, to know exactly who it is, who is to be the object of worship. And we said it led to giving generously and graciously and it led to service. And I do believe that if we would be better worshipers, we would be better workers. because everything we did would be out of just the sheer enjoyment of who God is, and a desire just because of who He is to want to lavish things for Him. And so, Lord, help us to be worshipers. I want to look at one other thing. I want you to go to Exodus now, in chapter 20, Exodus 20. across the part of the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. But we get some very clear guidelines about worship in the Ten Commandments. And so, we'll read verses one through three. God spake, this is Exodus 20, verse one through three. God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, so on and so forth. Let's just think about, we'll have no other gods before me. The only proper recipient of our worship is the God who has revealed himself in scripture. No other is worthy of worship, no other should receive worship from us, right? And so he's telling us, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me. In other words, me first, me only. Then he says, thou shalt not make to thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or that's the earth beneath, that is in the waters under the earth. And so the second commandment contains the focus on worship, telling us how God is to be worshipped. He does it in a negative sense by forbidding us to worship God with human inventions. In other words, do not use your imagination to frame or fabricate what you think I look like and use that to worship. Do not make any graven image to bow down before and to worship it. Because in a sense, it's a false deity. No man has seen God at any time. So at the very best, it's educated guesswork. And because of the corrupt nature of man, it will be wrong every time. And so no physical images to be imitated or embellished. God absolutely forbids that. In fact, the reformers, and the Puritans, they had this teaching. They believed there was a divine pattern for worship and they called it the regulative principle of worship. In other words, if scripture doesn't allow it, don't do it. That's pretty safe territory, isn't it? Stick to what it says in the word. Don't veer away because knowing the heart and imagination of man, if you do, it'll be off beam, right? So do not bow down to these things. Do not worship them. In fact, later on, I told when they go into the land in Deuteronomy, if you find one of those things, grind it to powder. Don't even destroy it completely, which doesn't sound very tolerant and loving, does it? But God is pretty serious about worship. And he says, I'm not gonna give my glory to anybody or to graven images. And so we need to be, now I always thought that because I came out of Catholicism, when it came to images, I was a weaker brother. because I really have a hard time with images, big time. Got me into trouble more than once because of my reaction to seeing images. But I am now more and more convinced that maybe I'm not a weaker brother, I'm just a scriptural brother. Because God is very clear. No graven images. No human invention. Right? Worshipping God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, the revelation of the Word of God is sufficient. That was the Reformer's whole point. The soul of Scripture, if we really believe that, it should be our guide for everything, including worship. And I think they have a very valid point. Right? What does the book say? be directed by the book in terms of our worship. Well, we also have to be directed by the clock as well. But, so forgive me for missing Daniel, but I think it's good for all of us to be reminded of the absolute importance of worship. Let's pray. Father, we just want to acknowledge that even if we never had got anything from you, you are still worthy because of who you are. You're the great creator of all things. You're the sustainer of all things. You're the God who's all wise, all knowing, all powerful. And you're a God who is so morally holy that you cannot do things against your evil, that would compromise your holy nature. So we just thank you for who you are, for your absolute greatness, and we just wanna acknowledge your worth, and we wanna acknowledge the worth of your beloved son, who Abraham bowed down to worship, and who the wise men, oh, and how wise they were, they fell down and worshiped him too. Lord, we pray this week, pray for each saint here that you would give them a special time alone in your presence where they might just have the joy of worship. And Lord, when they come together this coming Lord's Day, I just pray that their very hearts would be overflowing with your goodness and greatness. We'll give you the glory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.