So Worship I – Acts 24:14-15

So here was Paul defending himself before Felix, the Roman Governor.

As we should expect from a genuine Christian, he offered no flattery, deceit or exaggeration.

He admitted to the charges which were true, but explained them logically, truthfully, and even cheerfully.

Just for a little background: what do you think that his accusers, the Sadducees and Pharisees, thought of each other?

Do you suppose that the legalistic Pharisees ever called the liberal Sadducees “heretics?”

As I explained a couple weeks ago, the word “sect,” which Tertullus used in verse 5 –

“For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the SECT of the Nazarenes.”

Tertullus used the same Greek word that Paul used in verse 14, but it was translated differently.

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call HERESY, so worship I the God of my fathers.”

Do you suppose that the Sadducees ever called the Pharisee’s “heretics?”

Or to turn the word back to it’s other translation: do you suppose that the Pharisees ever called the Sadducees “the LIBERAL sect of Israel?”

Paul’s defense went essentially something like this:

“Our religion is divided into what they call sects – the sect of the Pharisees and the sect of the Sadducees.

The only difference between them and me is that I belong to neither of these, but to another sect.

I worship the God of our Fathers according to the directions of the Messiah, Whom they call the Nazarene.

This is the reason that I am hated by these people: because I am not a part of either of their groups.

Roman law allows the people every nation to freely worship their own deities.

I claim protection under that law, worshipping the God of my ancestors, even as my accusers claim to do.”

This morning I’d like to focus on one word within Paul’s defense – “worship.”

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call HERESY, so worship I the God of my fathers.”

Paul was a worshipper of the Lord, and I think that all would agree that is a good and important thing to do.

But that leads to an obvious question: What is it to worship the Lord?

Worship is a very anamorphic subject (If you were here Wednesday, you’d know what that word means).

Worship is a 3-dimensional, multifaceted subject.

Dictionaries give it all kinds of definitions & synonyms: honor, respect, idolize, venerate or simply to bow.

Our question however is not what the dictionary says, but what Paul was thinking when he used the word.

And even then we are still left with a very anamorphic subject.

We could multiply these scriptures:

But Psalm 99 teaches us that the worship of God means His EXALTATION:

“Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.”

To exalt is to lift up, to give the Lord first place, the give Him all our attention.

The Lord Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

This is one phase of worship.

Psalm 100 equates worship with PRAISE, THANKSGIVING and SERVICE.

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 96 says that to worship the Lord involves HOLY LIVING.

“Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”

Psalm 95 reminds us that HUMILITY is a part of worship.

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

Psalm 5 equates worship to the proper kind of FEAR OF THE LORD.

“But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.”

This is talking about true spiritual reverence which is the beginning of wisdom.

“God is a spirit and He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.”

This means that no lost man can worship the Lord.

And it means that no carnal Christian can properly worship the Lord either.

As an outline for our thoughts this morning, let’s use the first half of Deuteronomy 26.

This is the sort of passage that is not often studied or even considered by the modern Christian.

It involves old Hebrew rites and ceremonies.

There aren’t any murders, car chases, intrigue or sin here.

In other words there isn’t anything here which pleases the flesh or tickles the fance.

But it reminds us that “God is a spirit and He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.”

Let’s notice what Deuteronomy 26 taught Paul about worship.

Fundamental to the basis of Jehovah’s worship is PERSONAL SALVATION.

Deuteronomy 26:5-8 – “And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God,

A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.”

Remember that these words had been given to Moses to pass on to Israel.

And the Lord wanted Israel to remember and admit that she began life as a wicked idolater.

The Syrian to which this scripture could refer to ABRAHAM.

He was born in Ur in the Chaldees, in Iraq, but he eventually moved to Haran in northern Syria.

Abraham was an idolater before the Lord revealed Himself and called him.

Just what Paul said of the Gentiles was true for Abraham, the Father of Israel:

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,

and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

But it’s more likely that this Syrian was JACOB or ISRAEL, Abraham’s grandson, who was born in Syria and spent nearly all his life in Syria or Canaan.

The Lord wanted the nation of Israel to remember and confess her humble origins.

And he wanted her to remember her slavery to the Egyptians, as an illustration of her bondage to sin.

This was, or still is, the condition of every one of us.

“There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

Whosoever practices sin, or whosoever sins, is a slave to sin

The whole nation of Israel illustrates that, because every person in that nation was a slave to sin.

Where there isn’t a recognition of God’s salvation there can be to proper worship of the Lord.

But “when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.”

In the background of Paul’s worship of God was his horribly sinful past with greed, idolatry and murder.

“AND such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Beloved, only the Christian can worship the Lord.

And only the Christian who remembers his roots in the filthy soil of sin can worship the Lord properly.

Worship demands a broken and contrite heart.

When Paul said that he worshiped the God of his fathers, it was not as did the Sadducees with their smorgasbord theology, picking and choosing what they wanted to believe and accept from God.

And it wasn’t like the Pharisees filled with self-righteousness.

Paul worshiped the Lord as a man who had been brought back from the dead, as Israel had been brought back from Egypt.

And Paul’s worship acknowledged that he had already possessed a GREAT INHERITANCE.

With justification – that deliverance from sin – comes a veritable cornucopia of divine blessings.

“And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.”

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.”

There needs to be a word of caution at this point.

Even though the Lord’s blessings should encourage us and help us to focus our worship, that doesn’t mean that the person who refuses to recognize the Lord’s blessings doesn’t have the responsibility to worship God.

Adoration should be given to God for Who He is, not necessarily for what He has done or promised to do.

Jehovah doesn’t stoop to buying our love or bribing us to worship and adore Him.

Paul loved Christ, because Christ first love him; not because the Lord had showered His blessings on him.

But I have to admit that it is hard to dispel thoughts of God’s blessings.

The Lord Jesus had commissioned Paul to preach the gospel with a specific design:

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Paul had been promised an inheritance in Christ Jesus.

The word of God has been designed to “build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

All Christians, including Paul ought to “give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”

But where is that inheritance? I don’t see it.

Just because we haven’t received it, and can’t see it because it’s in a different place than we are at the moment, doesn’t mean that it isn’t real or that we shouldn’t worship and thank the Lord for it.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Our Saviour has told us that He has gone to prepare a place for us.

He has not only gone to prepare the place, but all the furnishings as well.

The Christian’s name is there in the Lamb’s Reservation Book.

There has been a pass-key already made, and the Christian’s name has been embossed upon it.

True worshippers have an inheritance in God.

They don’t have that inheritance because they worship the Lord.

That inheritance is a part of the grace of God, the gift of God.

And those Christians don’t worship the Lord because of the promise of an inheritance.

True worshippers glorify the Lord because He is worthy of that worship.

Something important to notice in Paul’s statement was that worship cannot be confined to mere words.

True worship involves service and obedience.

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.”

The word translated “worship” is “latreuo” (lat-ryoo’-o)

It is found twenty-one times in the New Testament, but it is translated “worship” only three times.

Sixteen times it is translated “serve.”

It is not incorrect to say that Paul worshiped God, but what he said was that he worshiped God by serving Him.

If you stop and think about it, much of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy were designed to give Israel step-by-step instructions on how to worship the Lord.

You and I don’t have the privilege of determining our worship methods.

If someone failed to follow the pattern of First Fruits Worship as taught by God in Deuteronomy 26,

then at the very least, he failed to worship the Lord,

But more than that he has heaped more guilt upon his sinful head.

When Cain offered his bloodless sacrifice to God, it was the wrong offering at the wrong time, and it was rejected by the Lord.

When the modern Idahoan says that he worships the Lord off the stern of his motor-boat roaring down Lake Coeur d’Alene, he is quite mistaken.

And Paul’s worship of the Lord so far exceeded that of the Sadducees and Pharisees, that it’s not fair to call their’s worship.

But what about this business of worship and service?

Can we do the things that God commands us to do and call that worship?

Sometimes we can, but that’s not always true.

Proper worship is a marriage of hands and heart, actions and emotions.

Look at Deuteronomy 26:16 – “This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.”

No man can live a life of revelry and sin all week and expect the Lord to accept his worship on Sunday.

The Jews killed Jesus, then Stephen, then James, and now they want to kill Paul in complete disregard for the Word of God and then they expect the Lord to receive their worship.

They couldn’t reject the Saviour and expect God the Father to do anything but judge them.

“Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Later Paul spoke about “the obedience of faith,” and Peter called Christians “children of obedience.”

Obedience to the Lord illustrates union with Christ;

obedience is the test of our faith;

obedience is the foundation of our worship of God.

In addition to obedience, true worship is HUMBLE.

This is the whole tenor of Deuteronomy 26.

The number one enemy to proper worship is idolatry.

The most wicked form of idolatry is self-worship.

And the key to self-worship is pride.

Pride destroys man’s ability to properly worship the Lord.

And perhaps they each had their own form of it, but the other two sects in Israel reeked of pride.

God has said, “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.”

And “him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.”

When the arrogant man comes into the temple, stands next to the humble publican and attempts to pray, the Lord doesn’t listen.

That man’s worship is vain.

II Chronicles 26 says, “Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men:

And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.

Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.”

The smallest particle of pride renders our worship null and void.

But looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith has a tendency to destroy personal pride.

Paul had looked unto Jesus and he worshiped him.

His enemies also looked toward Him, but they didn’t see anything in Him that they wanted.

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”

Obviously, true worshippers, like Paul are GRATEFUL worshippers.

Most people have a difficult time distinguishing between worship and thanksgiving.

Praise and thanksgiving are occupations of the soul based upon the blessings of God.

Worship is the occupation of the soul for the God of those blessings.

Thanksgiving should be a part of our worship, but only a part of it.

As Isaiah put it, “Thy maker is thine husband.”

There is a difference between loving him for making us, loving him for supporting us, and loving him for loving us.

Turn to Psalm 45 – “My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.

And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;

So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.

The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.”

How can the men who crucified the Saviour sing this Psalm or worship the Lord with these words?

Paul could, and so should you.

One more thing about worship is that likes TO GIVE.

“And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:

And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.”

Salvation is something received by us from the Lord; worship is something which is given by us to the Lord.

Deuteronomy 26 is all about giving to the Lord a token of the worshipper’s love.

Someone might say, “But God gave that harvest to his people in the first place.”

Undeniably true, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it pleases the Lord that we should want to give it back.

In prayer David said, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”

When God so freely and unstintingly pours his blessings out on us, is it too much of Him to expect us to give a little bit back to Him.

And of course my thoughts are not confined to money.

Tithing can be worship, if the heart is in it.

But worship on a higher plane is the surrender of our lives completely to Him.

“All to Jesus, I surrender; all to Him I freely give.”