Worship With Lips Only

I strongly believe that humans have an innate inclination towards worship (even athiests). We are simply wired that way. Mankind has always been very religious. Perhaps one may not worship the God of the Bible, but everyone is worshiping something or someone. Bob Dylan put it quite poetically:

"You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody."

Due to the inclination towards worship that is innate, a heart that is void of worship of God will gravitate toward worshiping something or someone else. Sometimes that will be evident in very obvious pagan idolatry. However, I think most of the time it isn't that simple. Since we are surrounded in Christian culture, we as humans like to let our hearts run to worship other things while appearing to give homeage to God. Scripture anticipated that, not merely because of a prophetic sense, but also because this 'worship of lips only' which hides idolatry was very prevelant in the Bible times.

In Matthew 15:8-9, we find the strong words of Jesus when he rebukes the Pharisees by quoting from Isaiah: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

I think there are at least several things packed into that short statemet:

1. "This people" points to a special community, not just anyone. The prophet Isaiah says of this people "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity". But they are not token pagans, they were given a very special opportunity to know God through His revelation to them. And because of this unique status, there is an expectation and knowledge of true worship.

2. Honor is given, and in many respects this lips-only honor is probably indistinguishable from true honor and worship.

3. What is outside doesn't necessarily accurately reflect what is inside the heart.

4. The following verse (v9) says "In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men", which is considerably less optimistic towards hypocrates than the "they have their reward" assesment of Matthew 6. This implies that worshiping with lips only is useless before God.

5. The hearts spoken of here are not absent of worship, but are rather busy worshiping something other than God.

I think the fundamental concept here, in regard to the status of the heart, is that Jesus is indicating that the ones he speaks of are dominated by desires (or 'affections' in older English) which do not match their outward piety (hence speaking of their heart as being positionally 'far' from God). In other words, they participate in worship of the true God outwardly, but inwardly a different altar and a different "god" is being bowed to and longed for. That is an insult to God in the highest regard (a God whom we know as being a jealous God).

Now, here comes the tough part, application. God requires of me to both inwardly and outwardly worship Him. Psalm 29:2 - "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness." That is what God expects of me. But how do I get there? Saying the right formula or doing the right things is one thing. But the "heart" (center of our being) is a much more complicated thing. How do we tame our hearts which have tendencies to persue anything except for God? I believe that is only possible by the working of the Spirit of God and the sanctification He works in and through believers.

Sometimes we do mundane chores and we technically "do" them, but our heart is so disinclined from them that we have no inward involvement in them. Sadly, I must admit that my worship of God is not exempt from that sort of "double minded" emptiness. Even in private it is so easy to utter a prayer with so little feeling that my heart (and maybe even part of my mind) is wandering somewhere else.

I think the centrality of worship and our human inclination to worship something should lead Christians to think very carefully about this and also examine our hearts to see whether we are worshiping God with our lips only. In conclusion I also want to say that sometimes we sit so smuggly and look at the Pharisees in almost a clinical sort of way, removing ourselves from their mindset (or at least pretending to be far removed from their mindset). It is so easy to compare everyone to the Pharisees (except ourselves that is). One Mennonite book (which I have never read) has a title that really hits hard and is refreshingly honest: "We Are The Pharisees". If I scoff at the Pharisees and turn out to be really no different in so many ways, am we being Pharisaical?

Saturday's Mini Codices

From now on Ι'm going to share a list of interesting things every Wednesday and Saturday. Think of something roughly similar to Tim Challies "A La Carte".

I've already posted Wednesday's installment, now here are the featured blips on the radar screen for Saturday..

• The Archive.org Way Back Machine is very useful when you want to see what a web site looked like or what content it had back in time. It is accessible from the Archive.org front page.


• Check out the blog of Douglas Groothuis. Doug left some feedback on my blog one day, and shortly after I was looking at the Philosophy section in Chapters and I found his book "On Jesus" there. I thought that was cool!


• If you haven't discovered it yet, you should listen to the Men of Whom The World Was Not Worthy series on Archive.org by John Piper. It covers John Owen, Charles Spurgeon, John Newton, etc.


• For those interested in 1930's films, Archive.org has Rogues Tavern, The Man Who Knew Too Μuch, Shadows Over Shanghai, and Chinatown After Dark


• For bloggers that use blogging software that doesn't natively support category tags, there is a web-based technorati tag generator.


• A mockumentary is a fictitious and satirical documentary.


• I'm seriously considering reading Archive.org's scan of "Mistakes of modern infidels : or, Evidences of Christianity : comprising a complete refutation of Colonel Ingersoll's so-called Mistakes of Moses, and of objections of Voltaire, Paine, and others against Christianity". For more information, see the summary. It does look interesting!! Besides the interesting subject matter, it is also interesting in that it was published in Detroit and dedicated to someone from London, Ontario!


• Archive.org's scan of "The wars of religion in France, 1559-1576; the Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II" also looks interesting. Samuel Froehlich (who founded the ACC) was a descendant of Huguenots who fled France.


• If you haven't noticed, a lot of todays blips are from Archive.org. It's really a fine project that has a plethora of stuff!!

Manna Like They've Never Seen Before

Today I listened to a wonderful sermon on the "Bread of Life" porition of John 6. Rather than commenting on it or on the passage in question, I just want to quote part of that chapter here.

This passage is so interesting and rich with imagery. And it contains a lot of good application points as well.

John 6:35-49
--

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

--

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Related Tags: sermons, grace baptist, john, new testament, church, bible

Personal Peace & Affluence - Part Four

In my last post, I refered to some scriptural principles that help us keep a right attitude regarding affluence. Now, to conclude this series, I would like to share some things that can help keep our God-given desire for personal peace in check.

Regarding Personal Peace:

Idea #1: Peace is found in a Person

People seek for peace through an assortment of ways. Nations normally secure peace through diplomatic maneovering. People secure their personal peace possibly by insultating themselves from the ugly hard realities of life, or possibly by compromising and ignoring any path that may potentially bring tension. But the Bible teaches us that peace, at its zenith, is not found in circumstances or wise manoevers. It is found in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:14-15"For he himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace" (also see Rom 5:1)

Idea #2: True Peace Can Exist When/Where We See No Earthly Peace

Jesus once said "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:3) Sometimes having real peace involves times of tribulation. The peace that lasts is not necessarily tranquility, and by looking for traquility we may very well miss true abiding peace.

An often enigmatic semi-related aspect of this is that God is describe simultaneously as the Prince of Peace and a Man of War. This dichotamy shows us the great complexity of what true peace means. Also interesting is Rom 16:20, which says "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." Imagine that! The God of peace is going to deliver a final blow to Satan. Part of God's enduring peace is the destruction of His enemies.

Idea #3: Peaceful Times, While Good Can Lull Us To Sleep

In times of peace, we are tempted as a society to grow lax and wasteful, likewise in times of personal peace, our lives often collect a lot of looes ends.

The Bible describes the last days as a time when people will say "There is peace and security" (1Th 5:3), but suddenly at that time "destruction will come upon them...and they will not escape."

We should enjoy times of peace, both as individuals and as nations. They are blessings from God. But we need to remember that it may cause us to be blinded to ever present danger and also it may make us numb to the needs to others.

Issue #4. True Peace is Never At The Expense of Our Neighbour

"Personal peace" as we know it is often paved right over someone else. In order to maintian a certain standard of personal peace and tranquility, often someone elses needs are disregarded.

But true peace does not come at the expense of others. Consider these Bible verses.

Rom 14:19 - "So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."

Zechariah 8:16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.


I pray that somehow, and in some way, this series of 4 posts has blessed you and helped you to understand these issues