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[0:00] What do you worship? What do you worship? A bit noisy there. Let's have that reverence now as we put the lolly wrappers away.

[0:14] ! Honestly, we need to have a reverence, don't we? We need to be still and know that he is God. We need to have that come before him with honour and reverence and acknowledge who he is.

[0:26] Worship, what is it? And what do you worship is a big question I pose to you tonight. We've got to get the worship right. We've got to get the worship right. What is worship?

[0:37] The word worship, it comes from two distinct words, worth and ship. Worth means to assign worth to something or someone. A value, you assign worth.

[0:49] There's some acknowledgement of a certain value, a worth. And then there is this sense of the worth ship, that we assign it to something, to someone.

[1:01] And this word worship, it began as a secular word where you ascribe or assign worth or value to some matter or thing or person.

[1:13] And humans need to worship something. I put to you that everybody does actually worship something.

[1:25] Even atheists. They worship. It's inbuilt in man, in mankind. There's this sense of worship. There's a sense of something that you credit value to.

[1:37] I suppose with an atheist they put themselves on the throne and honour themselves and their own intellect, supposed intellect. The question is, what do you worship?

[1:49] And God wants our worship. He wants us to worship him. We're going to turn to John chapter 4 just to lead in. God wants us to worship.

[2:00] He wants authentic worship. Authentic worship. To worship him rightly. John 4 verse 19. Our Lord meets the woman at the well.

[2:15] And he challenges her. It tells of drinking of the water.

[2:26] I'm thirsty tonight. It tells of water of which a man can drink and then he shall never thirst because it's given him from our Lord.

[2:40] And he tells of the woman's living arrangements and challenges her. And she perceives that he is a prophet. And we'll take it up from verse 19.

[2:51] The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where man ought to worship.

[3:03] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.

[3:16] You worship ye know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.

[3:28] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

[3:39] For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[3:53] The Father seeketh such to worship him. It's got this sense of constantly seeking. He's seeking. He's constantly seeking. He was constantly seeking then. And I put to you tonight, He's constantly seeking now.

[4:06] He's seeking worshippers to worship him. Our Lord tells how the Father is looking for worshippers. He's looking for people who will worship. Those who will worship. Those who will worship the Father.

[4:19] Those who will worship the Father in spirit. Those who will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Let's consider worship tonight. What is it? What do we worship?

[4:31] How should we worship? What is the true worship? What is the false worship? Firstly, let's consider the false. False worship, what is it? Fact is, God plainly rejects some worship.

[4:45] He rejects it. God does not smile on all religious activity. As I've talked on of late, Cain and Abel, what an example, that one.

[4:57] Cain brought an offering, he worshipped. God did not accept it. Cain's worship was by works. It was the fruit of his toil, of the labour, of his sweat, of his brow, of the manufacturing of his own hand.

[5:15] Abel's sacrifice was accepted. It was the lamb. It was the animal slain, the substitute. It was the substitutionary atonement in picture form of Christ to come.

[5:27] Cain's worship was by works. Abel's was by faith. Now, there's other ways you could consider that question, but certainly there's an obvious fact here is Cain's worship was not accepted for whatever reason, but we could honestly understand that Cain's was not the bloodshed.

[5:48] Abel's was. Abel's was true worship. Cain's was unacceptable worship. And what a problem that began from the garden.

[6:02] False worship is a problem, I'll put to you. False worship is something the Bible speaks about quite a lot. False worship. Worship that is in vain.

[6:14] That is faulty. It's false. For example, we see God's strong rebuke in Amos 5. You may not necessarily turn there, but I'll read it to you.

[6:24] You can just tune in. Amos 5 from verse 21. What the Lord says in this context of false worship. Amos 5, verse 21. God's strong words of rebuke.

[6:36] Amos 5, 21. He says, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. It's got the sense of, as we know, there was a savor, there was a scent, an aroma, a fragrance from the burning animal that there was this censor of smoke of their time of worship.

[7:03] They would burn incense and such, I believe. Is that correct? There's that sense of a burning of an animal, of incense, a picture, a form of prayer.

[7:14] In other words, he says, I don't accept this worship. I will not smell in the sense he would not receive it. He would not delight in it. Whereas in some context, we see that our Lord delighted in that.

[7:25] He delighted in receiving the worship. But in Amos 5, he says, I hate it. He says, I hate your church. In effect. I hate, I despise what you're doing.

[7:36] I hate your kind of worship. This solemn assembly should be a reverent gathering, an assembling, a gathering of God's people in praise and worship, something that should be reverent and holy.

[7:46] He says, I don't want it. I hate it. I despise it. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings or your fat beasts.

[7:57] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs. For I will not hear the melody of thy vials. There's a sense of even the noise of the songs. God said, I don't want to hear it.

[8:07] I don't want to receive it. I despise it. I hate it. Take it away from me. Take your songs away from me. So there's a sense where the melody, the noise of the songs was not acceptable unto God.

[8:22] A like passage we could put is Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 13. It's the like sentiment from our Lord in Isaiah 1 verse 13.

[8:35] He says, bring no more vain oblations. You know, these sacrifices, they're vain. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies.

[8:46] I cannot away with it. It is iniquity. Even the solemn meeting. He says the gathering, the solemn meeting, what should be a holy gathering of God's people, a reverent and honoring holy time.

[8:59] He says, away with it. It's sin. It's iniquity. False worship is a problem. God's got a problem with false worship. So it's very important we consider, is our worship acceptable?

[9:13] False worship, furthermore, it's dangerous. It's dangerous to have false worship. We see that in Leviticus 10. Leviticus 10. This is Leviticus 10 from verses 1 through 2.

[9:26] Tales of Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron. They took either of them, his censer, this receptacle, and they put the fire there on.

[9:37] There's some kind of vessel that they put the fire there on and they put incense there on. And they offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them.

[9:51] And they died before the Lord. Here are these two, I don't know whether they were well-meaning or presumptuous, or certainly it appears that they were careless in not heeding God's instruction, that they blindly gather this fire that is strange fire.

[10:11] It's not a fire that is ordained. It's not appropriate. They tried to bring worship wrongly. What they did was carnal of their own invention.

[10:22] They did not use God's appointed method. They brought something of their own invention. We have to follow the scriptures. We have to follow the scriptures. Because worship can be dangerous when it is undertaken unscripturally.

[10:38] When it is out of accord with the scriptures, this is a big no-no. Again, there's different views of looking at what Nadab and Abihu did and what they did right, what they did wrong, what the context is.

[10:57] But it's clear that they offered strange fire. So there's something about the fire that it was not the appropriate fire. It was not the ordained fire. It wasn't brought according to God's direction.

[11:12] And so it was out of accord with God's will. I think the key point we can learn here is that our worship must be valid biblically.

[11:24] Our worship must accord with the scriptures. It must be in accord. Likewise, we see David's cart. He was worshipping. They got the Ark of the Covenant there. This was some big deal.

[11:35] This was a great celebration, a time of joy. And they pulled out all the stops and everybody was going for it. This was just a glorious time of worship.

[11:48] But he acted off his own bat in situating the Ark of the Covenant on a man-made cart instead of on the shoulders of the priests according to God's direction.

[12:01] He did something novel and contrary to the word of God. Not so much that he did something novel, but that it was contrary. It was contrary to the word of God.

[12:12] It was contrary to the instruction of God. I think there's a degree where we can have some innovation, but there's a problem here when it becomes contrary to the word of God.

[12:26] God said, do it this way. They did it some other way. They thought, no, we know better than God. We're going to have something. We're going to do it different. We're going to just jazz it up a bit here.

[12:37] We're just going to do it our own way. We're going to put something extra here. We're going to do it differently. And we're going to do it contrary to what God has directly instructed them to do, which was that the Ark was to be carried by the ordained method, which was on the shoulders of the priests.

[12:56] False worship is a problem. It's dangerous. It could be deadly. As we see when they tried to carry this Ark on the cart, Uzziah tried to steady it.

[13:09] He thought he would help God out to keep the Ark from falling off when the animals hit a bump in the road, as it were, and Uzziah was struck down. We cannot touch the holy things in a careless way, in an unscriptural way.

[13:28] So it's needful we understand what is false worship and what is true. As we've seen, it's a problem for God. He hates it. It's dangerous.

[13:39] People get killed. It's deadly. What are some ways of false worship? What does the word tell us? We see the Lord condemns different kinds of worship.

[13:51] So it's good to get a handle on what does God condemn? What does God show displeasure about? One of those things is Isaiah 29.

[14:04] Isaiah 29, 13. The Lord condemns worship that is just going through the motions, just lip service. Isaiah 29, verse 13.

[14:16] You know, lip service is a kind of, it's a phrase that we use in the modern lingo, isn't it? Lip service. They're just paying lip service. Well, they get that really from Isaiah 29, 13, when it appears in the word of God, where it says, Wherefore the Lord saith, for as much as this people draw near to me with their lips, they draw near to me.

[14:36] They're saying, Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. They draw near with their mouth and with their lips.

[14:46] They do honour me. Lord, Lord. But have removed their heart far from me. They've removed their heart far from me. And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.

[15:02] Our Lord quoted this same passage later on when he tells and he confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 23. We see he tells them that they're paying lip service.

[15:12] You're drawing near to me with your mouth, with your lips, but your heart is so distant, so far, far, far away from me. It was empty words, empty worship.

[15:27] I like to the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18. The story goes of the two men going to the temple to pray. Luke 18, verse 11. We see the Pharisee, you know, he's got all of his, all of the appearance right.

[15:44] He's got, he's got, all of the credentials, all of the, applause and the recognition.

[15:57] People would say, Rabbi, Rabbi, as he walked down the street, he was one of the, one of the, kind of nobles of the day.

[16:07] He was, you know, one of the, the upper class, the elite, yeah, of the day, you could say. And, you know, maybe you could liken it to, as you see some, in our day, with the bishop's mitres on, and their vestments, and the, the gold, and silver, and the chains, and the, and the, and the tassels, and the, and all of the show, and the impression that they give.

[16:36] And the Pharisee stood, it says, and he prayed thus. He prayed with himself. God wasn't, the, God wasn't the one to whom he directed the prayer. The Pharisee prayed with himself.

[16:50] God, I thank thee, that I'm not as other men. I'm someone special. I'm not, as other men, not extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

[17:05] And yet, we know the story goes that, it was the one, the publican who said, Lord, God be merciful. God be merciful to me, a sinner. There's a sense where he actually, you could put it that he said, God's be merciful to me, the sinner.

[17:18] I am the sinner. You know, I'm the sinful one. I'm the sinful one here. He wasn't hiding it. He was acknowledging it. And God said, Jesus said, that he was the one that went home justified.

[17:31] Now, sadly, the Pharisee, for all of his showy prayer, was engaging in false worship. It was just a showing off, a bragging, showy, selfish action.

[17:43] Now, sometimes the greatest prayers we can pray is just, God be merciful. Hardly a word set, isn't it? The heart, getting the heart right. Now, the Lord's against false worship such as that.

[17:56] The Lord's against false worship like mixed religious practices. We see in the children of Israel's wanderings and the many mistakes they made on their journeys.

[18:08] We see the evil kings and the good kings and the evil practices and the good ones. And 1 Kings 12, we see an example where Jeroboam the king, he made two calves of gold.

[18:23] He made two. You know, you can take your pick of these two, he said. It's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

[18:34] 1 Kings 12, 28. These two calves brought you out of Egypt, says Jeroboam. That was a lie. That was false worship. It was according glory and honor for the redeeming of God's people, the deliverance out of captivity in Egypt.

[18:51] He's saying, praise these little two calves that I've made, two calves of gold. I'd imagine he would have engaged the greatest craftsman of the day. He would have spared no expense.

[19:02] These were the best golden calves you could ever manufacture. You could imagine. I'm kind of ad-libbing here a little just to kind of imagine what it would have been. Everybody would have thought, wow, don't they look beautiful?

[19:14] You could imagine, couldn't you? That he would have had the very best looking golden images that he could manufacture. But it was vain. It was compromise.

[19:25] It was false worship. It was demonic. It was a blending of the devil and God, as it were, that somehow he would attribute the deliverance of God to these two calves.

[19:40] What a dreadful, deadly compromise, a devilish, devilish blending. And we see this going on, this mixture, where there's a mixing of truth and error. We've got to be very careful of that.

[19:52] If you mix truth with error, it's error. If you mix truth with what's false, it's false. Just has to have a little bit of it to be false, doesn't it?

[20:03] Just a little bit of drap poison in your breakfast. Just sprinkle it on. You know, don't touch it. It's tainted.

[20:14] And we see the mixture going on through the word of God, this mixture of the false with the true. It's a big problem. Still is. This mixed multitude, where some are right with God and some are playing around.

[20:28] They're playing church. We see the golden calf. It was a symbol, really, of Baal. Of Baal. The devil's representative, really, God, you could say, isn't it?

[20:40] Baal represented the devil, really. The worship of the God, who delivered the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage, was false worship. We see this again in the time of Elijah, where he stood on the mount, largely outnumbered here.

[20:56] It seemed like he was the only one at a time, and yet God opened his eyes. But we see that he was certainly outnumbered by the prophets of Baal, as he stood on Mount Carmel.

[21:07] And there was this great contest in the time of Ahab and Jezebel. And he addressed the assembled people. He said, how long hulk ye between opinions, two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him.

[21:19] But if Baal, then follow him. He says, step over the line. I'm drawing the line in the sand. If you're going to follow Baal, follow him. If the Lord be God, follow him. Make your mind up.

[21:30] Can't mix the two, one or the other. And true worship causes for us to be a sold out, separated, sanctified, set apart, set apart unto, and set apart from.

[21:45] False worship. False worship can include trusting in man's works or power, such as Isaiah 31 verse 1. Isaiah 31 verse 1. It tells of the people trusting in military power.

[22:00] It says, Isaiah 31 verse 1, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong.

[22:10] But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. We can trust in man's power and might. You know, sometimes I think we should praise God that the technology fails us, that everything goes kaput, and we can just simply worship the Lord.

[22:28] And even if the electricity goes out, or the PowerPoint fails, when the preacher's got some lengthy PowerPoint sermon or whatever, let's just honour the Lord and worship him, such that we don't trust in chariots.

[22:41] We don't trust in horsemen. We don't trust in having some big denominational backing behind us, or some great machinery of men, manufacturing of, you know, a worldly conjured up kind of spectacular show.

[23:01] We don't have the smoke machines and the disco lights and all of the razzmatazz, because we don't want to trust in chariots.

[23:11] We want to look unto the Holy One, the Holy One. We seek the Lord. False worship. False worship can include misdirected worship. For example, the worship of sports heroes.

[23:23] Don't you reckon? I don't care what they're, you know, the hot goss, the glossy gossip magazines, and the, what do they call them, the tabloid newspapers, where it's all the latest, what do they call it, the latest kind of, you know, the bad thing that they've done, the latest scandal, that's it.

[23:50] And we've got to read all the dirt about them, and all their goings on, and their carings on, and their immorality. And it's all front page headlines, isn't it?

[24:03] And, you know, if one of the royals trips on the stairs, it's the front page, it's the headline news. Who cares? Who cares about that?

[24:14] It's rubbish. But the world would idolise and venerate these people, the sports heroes, the film stars, the pop stars, the rock stars, the rap music, whatever it be, the hero worship.

[24:28] It's what the world seems to feast its eyes on, doesn't it? Feast their attention on. They just, their flesh just craves more and more. I want to know, I want to know more about this hero worship, this worship of men.

[24:42] Sounds to me a bit like, alike to the days of the worship of Caesar. Caesar, you know, where the Christians would be told, you can either say, Caesar is Lord, or you're off to the lions.

[24:54] You know, it's getting to that point, isn't it, brothers and sisters? Or it could be said for us, are you going to worship those that the world would worship and venerate, and follow the lemmings down the cliff face?

[25:05] Or will you stand with Christ, and say, no, I'm going to stand with the Lord. I'm going to do what's rightful in his sight. We see, not only misdirected worship with men, but the worship of angels.

[25:17] In Colossians 2 verse 18, Colossians 2 verse 18, Paul warns the Colossians, let no man beguile you, seduce you, or fool you, trick you, into this voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.

[25:32] He talks about it being vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. This brings to mind, I know there's some gentleman I'm in communication with, he's quite allured by going to the spiritualist church down the road.

[25:47] And he seems to think there's nothing wrong with such a thing. To go and conjure up spirits and communicate with dead people so they believe. Really, it's demonic. They're conjuring up demons.

[25:59] This is just a deadly, devilish scheme. Of the enemy of your soul. Have nothing to do with such. Spiritism, it's anti-Christ.

[26:15] And yet some would think, oh, it's a sign about my dead relative, or oh, they're sending me a message from beyond the grave. But it's devilish, it's wicked, it's evil, and we should have nothing to do with it.

[26:27] I've been very strong with this man, yet he still vainly goes this way. Foolish. Foolishness. What's coming up soon?

[26:38] Halloween. And there's some ignorant Christians who will think nothing of it. I know, I think it's more of an American thing, but you see, churches even, carrying on with Halloween.

[26:56] You think, what wickedness, what blindness, what foolishness, that the enemy's holiday, that the enemy's feast day, would be made a celebration, and Christians blindly go along with it.

[27:08] Fools! False worship. Another false worship we could consider is in Malachi 1, from verse 6 through 8.

[27:20] It talks about unacceptable or tainted sacrifices. Kind of giving what's polluted. Giving what's shoddy, what's contemptible. Second grade.

[27:30] Our worship can be lacking as well. Giving what's on a second rate. as if our Christian commitment is something we just give what we can, what costs us nothing.

[27:48] We just give weekly, in what's a shoddy, weekly way. Giving what's contemptible, second rate. Rather than giving our hearts, our souls, all on the altar, as living sacrifices.

[28:06] Just giving what's tainted, and unacceptable. God is against man-made worship, man-made religion, doctrines of devils. God is against false churches, false worship.

[28:24] Now I'm not saying we've got a monopoly on the truth here, or in our style of churches. I'm not saying we've got it all down pat, and we've got it all perfect, by no means.

[28:35] But there's some styles, some schemes of Christianity, that is just totally left field. And yet, that's becoming mainstream.

[28:47] It's counterfeit worship. And look, we know for sure, we could all accept, some things are wrong. Jehovah's Witnesses, plain as day.

[28:58] We know that's of the devil. Mormons. Seventh-day Adventists, you might say, oh, they sing hymns, they use the King James, they've got some good standards, they're moral people, but their salvation is man-made.

[29:19] It's works-based. Seventh-day Adventists believe in a works-based salvation, salvation. And a salvation that is, it's very shaky, even if they think they've got it.

[29:36] It's very, and they're following a false prophetess. We could say much more. I know some people might think, oh, is Seventh-day Adventism a cult, or maybe they're, look, could there be Christians amongst them?

[29:49] God knows. Despite the false teaching, who knows? God knows. But certainly, if they're following in lockstep with Ellen White and what the doctrinal statement of the Seventh-day Adventist movement is, then they are not Christian, I put to you.

[30:10] And so it's false worship. It's false worship. We see dead liberal churches today. Dead liberal churches. We see these churches that harbour evil in their sanctuaries.

[30:24] And a church where you would scarcely open a Bible or hear the gospel message. These churches are dead and deadly. Liberal churches.

[30:36] We see the prosperity churches. I've been having some conversations with a fellow of late. He thinks it's always God's will for us to be well and healthy and wealthy and healed.

[30:51] And yet, it doesn't stack up for me. I know many, many Pentecostals that are actually quite sick people. They're sick. They're physically sick. They die.

[31:01] I was at something recently and I was in a conversation with a Pentecostal preacher and he's from the, what's it called, the one that's been on the news lately?

[31:14] The C3. And I got quite close to him and I noticed he had hearing aids on both of his ears. And I thought, well, here he is. He's claiming this healing all the time.

[31:25] Yet, he's wearing hearing aids in his ears. I think something doesn't quite, it doesn't quite stack up there. It doesn't quite stack up. If God's will is for us always to be healed and healthy and for a sickness is a curse and if you're a Christian who's sick, you don't have enough faith to be healed, then this preacher's a poor example of what he preaches.

[31:49] You know, there's danger here. Now, I could say much more. I don't want to labour the point. But there's this false doctrine, there's false practices. We see this falling in the spirit so-called.

[32:01] It's not in the Bible. We see this, these goings on. And friends, let's face it, we've got to be discerning people. Not saying that our worship is perfect.

[32:13] It's very, very much, there's very much room for improvement. But we need to be careful about our worship. Is it that which appeals to the flesh of carnality?

[32:25] We see this, you know, Bethel, Jesus culture, these things, it's just like a rock spectacle. That's not to say we can't have music that's joyful and uplifting and makes us want to rejoice and shout and sing.

[32:47] but there's a sense where there's some worship that is founded on false doctrine. You look at the words of the songs. I know Julie and I in times past, years back, we were in it and Julie questioned when they said to sing a certain song and actually it was a lie.

[33:09] I'll tell you what it is. The song was saying, I'm going to shout it in the street, here's Lord. And Julie said, as she was playing the music, she said, Pastor, are we going to go and shout it in the street?

[33:21] She said, oh, well, we might kind of whisper it or we might kind of, you know, say it quietly. No, we're not going to sing what we're not going to do. What we sing should be true, shouldn't it?

[33:33] It should be worshipped in spirit and in truth. It should be true. If we're not going to do it, if what we're singing isn't true, we shouldn't sing it. And so she wouldn't play that one as well as numbers of others and it became quite clear to us that we couldn't stay there.

[33:50] But God's wrath is against false worship. And friends, I put to you, it's possible to worship the true God falsely, ignorantly.

[34:00] Now I could say, and this will probably upset everybody here tonight, but you could even include Christmas, for example. The things about Christmas, they're plainly wrong. It is wrong. Plainly wrong. It is pagan.

[34:14] Let's face it. Now that's not to say, and as a church, we can sing the songs that people sing at Christmas time and we can have a rejoicing and we can remember his birth and we can rejoice that he has come.

[34:29] Emmanuel, God with us. We're not afraid to say that. We can say that any day, any Sunday of the year. But someone, they major on Christmas and kind of Christianise it and they say, we're going to put Christ back into Christmas.

[34:42] Well, he never was there. Christmas is Christ mass. It's the mass of Christ. It's Catholic. It's pagan. It's false doctrine. It's false worship. So we don't major on Christmas as a church.

[34:56] And look, there's issues of conscience here and preference and I'm not going to major on it. I'm just going to say that for me, I'm very careful about what we do at that time of year.

[35:08] We don't just follow lockstep with those that, you know, you see some churches that's got a Christmas tree on the stage. They've got multiple Christmas trees on the stage. I think, why are we honouring Christmas trees?

[35:20] No, it's not about that. There's one tree that we think about. 24 by 7 by 365. His body was put on the tree, wasn't it?

[35:30] For our sin. The tree, the cross, that's what we think about. So, I don't want to get sidetracked here or step on too many toes here, but there's that sense where, look, my point is we've got to be careful.

[35:44] We've got to be careful because false worship is in all kinds of guises and it's like these days you almost can't say anything because you're going to worry that someone's going to get offended. It's like, you know, what I've been putting out on Facebook lately as I was saying before.

[35:58] It's like everyone's just kind of, there's an uproar and a, oh, how dare you talk about things like how people should dress or how about conduct or about right living or, you know, we need to cry aloud.

[36:11] We need to step on some toes. We need some gumption, some gusto, some guts in the printers that we're not muzzled and man be pambying around and beating around the bush and catering for the fleshly.

[36:24] Paul uses strong language sometimes. Especially about error. He doesn't mince his words. He says it's an accursed gospel in Galatians 1. You know, I would imagine he would have said that to the Mormons, you know, I'm Elder Smith and I've got another testament.

[36:39] That's another gospel. You're accursed. In Galatians 1, if an angel from heaven come and preach to you another gospel that I have preached then let him be cursed.

[36:52] If there's another gospel we've got to recognise, hey, if your gospel isn't what's in here then it's accursed. It's false. We won't receive it. Friends, we could say much more about false worship.

[37:06] You know, we could think, for example, formalism. There's some churches where it's an empty ritualism. There's this kind of a liturgy and it's all very, you know, all very rigid and empty and ritualistic and really that's fleshly too.

[37:22] And then on the other side of the coin you've got this showmanship where everything's staged and it's performance oriented. I was talking with a chap who used to operate some of the TV technology that would follow the preachers in some of these you know, mega churches and it was all stereo, it was all kind of what do they call it?

[37:43] Choreographed. It was all kind of written down. Oh, the preacher's going to turn his face this way so we need camera three and to, you know, this, that and the other. It was all staged what he was going to do through the whole antics that he was going to do and then, oh, we're going to have the you know, the carpet time so we're going to have to you know, zoom the cameras down here and we're going to have the mosh pit time and this one, the other, you know, we're going to have the put the disco lights on at this time and get the disco girls up at this time to sing the songs or whatever it be.

[38:13] It's all kind of orchestrated so it's all a showmanship and it's all performance oriented. Where's God in that? False worship is a men pleasing worship.

[38:25] As we see in Matthew 6, some would pray or fast or give alms. You know, they would want to show, they wanted to show people what they're doing. Oh, I'm going to pray and so I'm going to pray this great big flowery prayer so everyone's got to be impressed with my prayer or I'm going to brag about I'm fasting this week and you know, I'm not eating any of the refreshments today because I'm fasting.

[38:49] You know, I'm more spiritual than you or you know, oh, all this money that I've been giving. It's kind of this attitude of men pleasing worship, isn't it? What matters most is pleasing him, doesn't it?

[39:03] Pleasing him. That's what matters. To bring him the glory, the honour that is due unto his name. False worship includes idol worship. 1 Chronicles 16, 26, it says, the gods of the people are idols but the Lord made the heavens.

[39:17] 1 Chronicles 16, 26. An idol, the definition of our dictionary is an object of extreme devotion or a representation or symbol or object of worship.

[39:31] In Daniel 3, the crunch time came as the statue was there on the plain of Nebuchadnezzar's statue and we know Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they said, be it known unto thee, O king, but we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

[39:57] God's people will not bow down. We will not bow down to idols. You know, there's some well-meaning Christians that have got crucifixes and crosses and they've got these kind of icons and statues and pictures and paintings.

[40:15] things. We don't need that. Maybe it helps some, I don't know. It's a question for conscience, I suppose, to a degree, but even, and we've got Sunday school pictures of the Lord and, you know, maybe there's helpful ways and means and situations where you would have pictures of Christ in a Bible story book, for example, people.

[40:40] But, it's a question, isn't it? But for me, I wouldn't have pictures of Christ displayed in my home. We know, we know it's speculation. Yeah, I'm just talking about as a teaching aid, you can have pictures of Bible characters.

[40:57] We're not talking about venerating. We're not talking about venerating them. I know what you mean. I'm like you, like you, Jimmy. I know we need to be careful. We don't want to worship the golden image.

[41:08] We want to be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Now, I've spent all this time talking about false worship. Now, in this last two minutes, I'm going to talk about true worship. True worship. It's important we get our worship right, isn't it?

[41:21] We get the worship right. And look, I'm learning, I'm trying, I'm striving, God helping me, I'm hoping and praying that how we worship, how we run our times of worship are honouring to our precious Lord and Saviour, that they are uplifting and edifying and God honouring.

[41:39] Hebrews 12, 28, it tells how we should have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12, 28, serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

[41:56] For our God is a consuming fire. When we serve God acceptably, now this word serve, elsewhere in King James, the same word that underlies the word serve is translated worship.

[42:10] So that sense of serving God, of worshipping God, we should serve God, we should worship God acceptably. In Psalm 2, verse 11, it says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

[42:22] Now I put to you tonight as Bible believing, as God blessed, saints of the living God, that you want to get your worship right. You want that worship to be rightful worship.

[42:33] That your worship will be serving the Lord with reverence and godly fear. That it will be serving the Lord with fear and rejoicing with trembling. That it will be a delight unto your heavenly Father. And really, it's an individual question, isn't it, for all of us as God's people.

[42:49] It's a question of conscience for these matters. I know I've been blessed with music that in the past I wouldn't endorse today. There's things that we can learn from music, music styles, music, ministry, worship, songs, and we can see, actually I won't touch that now because I see what it's associated with, where it's come from, who's behind it.

[43:15] And we make those questions of conscience. What is it that's going to be God honouring, that's not tainted, that's rightful worship, that will be a fragrant incense to delight the heart of God.

[43:27] And what is rightful worship, what is godly worship, true worship? I put to you tonight that true worship lifts up our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord calls for spiritual worship in contrast to idol worship which we know we're against.

[43:42] In Exodus 20 verse 4, part of the Ten Commandments, it says, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. So our worship requires not images but spiritual worship.

[43:56] not graven images. As beautiful as they might be, as pretty and lovely and artistic as they might be.

[44:08] We don't need images to worship God and better not have them. Our Lord calls to worship him in humility. In Matthew 6, he talks about those who are as hypocrites, they love standing, they love to pray standing in the synagogues, in the streets to be seen of man.

[44:24] We're not like that. We don't want, we don't want to have a worship that's prideful. That there would be no flesh here. That there would be no flesh here. That I would be crucified.

[44:38] That whoever does the music, they would be dying to self. That they would be humble. You know, I was asking for some help with the music and I tried to make the point.

[44:50] People had a right with God and someone took offence. Oh, we're all unworthy vessels. Yeah. I'm not saying that anyone's going to be big noting or whoever's ministering in whatever capacity that they're any better than anyone else.

[45:06] But there's a sense where we want it to be, we want God to be the centre. We want God to be glorified. We've got to have the right heart that our ministry is rightful. In Micah 6, verse 8, it says, what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

[45:27] Now, sometimes it can be whoever ministers and, you know, sometimes people get called a deacon and it goes to their head. They think, oh, I'm the deacon, I'll get a badge with it on. I'm going to polish it every day, my humility badge.

[45:40] I'm the deacon. No, we are for deacons. We want deacons. We need deacons. We need deacons who are humble that won't go to their head.

[45:51] You know, we need humility. We've got to walk humbly. We're all servants, every one of us and so we want to worship him in humility. It's absolutely critical and essential and, you know, to get something with people here and they, you know, got musical talent.

[46:10] I'm certainly not in their number but, yeah, some people with musical talent and they want to kind of be showy and it's all adding the syncopation and, you know, all the jazz it all up and, you know, they're kind of prancing around like they're rock stars on the stage.

[46:23] There's no place for that. There's no place for that. We need humility. The ones who minister need to be humble servants. God wants our exclusive worship.

[46:33] We see in Exodus 20 verse 1, again, part of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt have no other gods before me. You could, where it says thou shalt have no other gods before me, you could also put it no other gods in addition to me.

[46:50] Exclusive worship. Our worship is exclusive. Our Lord commands exclusive loyalty. As it says in Exodus 34 verse 14, thou shalt worship no other god for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.

[47:08] Now, that's one of these names we should think about that sometimes, shouldn't we? God's name is jealous. Now, there was a time I got jealous because there was another man around and made me very strong.

[47:27] I'm going to get that woman for myself. She's probably going to be annoyed at me saying this, but, no, God's name is jealous. He doesn't want you to have anybody else. He wants your exclusive worship, doesn't He?

[47:39] He wants you to exclusively love Him, exclusively honour and want Him for yourself, for Himself. There's no one else in between. His name is jealous.

[47:50] He's a jealous God. Jealous God. Thou shalt worship no other god. Don't try to add anything. One God. And let's not cater for the flesh or be divided about what we worship.

[48:05] Our Lord says, in Matthew 6, again, He says, no man can serve two masters, but either he will love the one, sorry, he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold the one and despise the other.

[48:18] You cannot serve God and mammon. That's not catered to the flesh. No man can serve two masters. You can't worship two. You can't serve two. You can't worship two masters.

[48:30] You need one. Who will it be? Who are you going to worship? Who are you going to worship? That's the question. And God wants our wholehearted worship. He calls us to wholeheartedness. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, may we be wholehearted.

[48:44] In Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, just to close on this one, may we be wholehearted. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

[48:57] Don't hold anything back. All your heart, all your soul, all your might. Back to John 4, just to wrap up here. We know we started with this one and I've really not, I've not exposited it.

[49:10] I've really just set the scene by saying this woman wanted to talk about worship. She argued about worship. She says, we Samaritans, we worship here in this mountain.

[49:22] You Jews, worship at Jerusalem. Jesus says, no, it's not about that. It's not about the place. It's about the person. The father seeks true worshippers.

[49:36] And what is that? Worship him. Worship him, the father, in spirit and in truth. And he's seeking, he's constantly seeking, he's seeking still that we will be such a people, amen, that we will know him.

[49:50] And friends, really, to worship him truly, you must know him. To know him there's some who would think that they worship God yet they're not saved.

[50:02] Now that's, again, that's vain. It says that he won't hear our prayers. If we hold iniquity in our heart, the father can't hear us. Our prayers don't go past the ceiling.

[50:14] And friends, I urge you tonight, if you're not saved, this is the starting point for worship. To be saved, to know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. To be saved, to be saved, saved, saved, saved.

[50:28] But you can say, I am saved. Not in a presumptuous way, not because of anything you do, or can do, but everything that he has done.

[50:40] And wow, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved. You can shout it, glory I'm saved, because of what he has done. And God helping me, he'll maintain me.

[50:52] He'll help me grow. He'll help me thrive. He'll help me be a sustaining, maturing, growing Christian. That my worship will be honouring unto him. Let's pray.

[51:03] Lord, we thank you that we give you all the glory and honour and praise. Lord, we know there's so much more on this massive subject of worship. We see the beasts in Revelation worshipping you, just flying around your throne, Lord, and glorifying you.

[51:20] We see the saints on their faces before you, throwing their crowns at your feet. We see them saying blessing and honour and glory and power and majesty and might unto the Lamb, worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty.

[51:37] And Lord, one day, we know that we that have trusted you will be in that number. And we'll see the praises in perfection then. We'll see the praises for the meantime, help us in our stumbling ways, Lord, help us to know how to worship and to worship you rightly.

[51:55]  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.