Why Do We Worship?

“Why Do We Worship?” (Ephesians 4:11-16)

I. Introduction. A. Orientation. 1. Grace affects the heart. a. It creates a love for the Lord Christ Jesus and joy in Him that wasn’t there before. b. It produces more than just a love for the truths regarding Him and His will, but a real and strong desire to honor and serve the One that truth reveals. c. In other words, it will move us to obey, to exercise faith and repentance, not just once in our lives – such as coming forward at an altar call – but from that time forward in a continual act of love, faith, and obedience. 2. We saw this from several biblical examples, such as: a. David, who in many of the psalms shows us that he truly was a man after God’s own heart. b. Paul, who counted all that he had accomplished in his life apart from Christ as refuse, compared to knowing, loving and serving his risen Lord. c. Christ, whose zeal for His Father’s glory, grief over the sins of His people, pity and compassion, love for His own sheep, and willingness to undergo His Father’s wrath for them out of love for His Father and for His people clearly demonstrate that He was (and is) a man of deep affection. d. And heaven, where when that grace is perfected, we will be just like Jesus – a flame of fire of devotion for God. e. Christianity is all about love – not knowledge, not mere assent to the truth – which is why Paul tells us in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” f. It is love for Christ that produces faith in Christ. Without love for Him, we are unconverted. B. Preview. 1. Understanding this principle will also help us better to understand why God has ordained worship. a. If I were to ask you why the Lord has commanded us to worship Him, what would you say? (i) The number one answer must be: God has commanded it, and since He has it is our duty to do so. (ii) A second answer would likely be: So that we would be built up in the truth. (iii) Both of these are correct. But what does it mean to be “built up” in the truth? (a) Is it merely that we would understand Him and His will better? (b) Or is it more than this?

2 b. One very important effect worship has on us is to build us in holy love: this also is one of the main reasons we need to meet together for worship and not forsake the assembly of the saints. 2. This evening, let’s consider worship from this perspective: that God has ordained it to stir our hearts to greater love and thankfulness, or to strengthen our affections. We’ll look at two things: a. First, how the different elements of worship (or means of grace) are ordained by God to strengthen our affections. b. And second, how not worshipping, or doing worship’s opposite – sin – has the opposite effect of hardening our hearts, or making us cool in our affections. II. Sermon. A. First, let’s consider how God has ordained worship to stimulate our hearts to greater love and joy. 1. Once we understand that grace primarily affects the heart, we can better understand why the Lord has appointed the kind of worship He has in His church. a. It’s true that the Lord intends through the means of grace to give us more of the influence of His Holy Spirit, whose work is to strengthen our love for the Lord. b. But it’s also true that the means He has ordained tend to promote that love. (i) God hasn’t ordained that we insult or strike each other, or throw buckets of water on each other – things that would have just the opposite effect. (ii) Instead, what He has appointed tends to warm and stir our hearts towards holy affections. 2. Let’s take prayer for instance. Why has the Lord ordained prayer in His church? a. Certainly, to glorify Him by rehearsing His perfections, majesty, glory, holiness, goodness and our dependence on Him; to thank Him for all the wonderful grace and mercy He shows us; and to be a means of asking Him for additional mercy in times of need. b. This is our responsibility because God is worthy; it would also be very ungracious of us not to thank Him for His help; and we stand in need of His mercies every day. c. But understanding that God doesn’t need our praise or thanksgiving because He is all sufficient in Himself, that we really don’t need to ask Him for anything because He already knows our needs, and that we don’t need to plead with Him to answer our prayers because He is already disposed to answer them for the sake of His Son, the question remains, Why has He ordained prayer? d. The answer is: so that we will be affected by prayer: (i) That our hearts would be stirred by His glory and majesty. (ii) That we would be stirred to thanksgiving as we rehearse His mercies and goodness. (iii) That we would be more aware of our absolute dependence on Him and be better prepared humbly to receive His mercies as we lay our needs before Him. e. The same is true of our posture in worship.

3 (i) Why does the Lord in Scripture sometimes call us raise our hands, or to bow before Him, or fall to our knees or on our faces in order to seek Him? (ii) It’s because our posture not only reflects what is in our hearts, it affects our hearts. 3. Why did the Lord appoint singing in worship, rather than reciting the words of a hymn or psalm? It’s because singing tends to stir our hearts more than reciting. 4. Why does He give us visible representations of His invisible grace in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper? a. It’s because the things we see are much more likely to impress our hearts than just hearing about them. b. Which would affect your heart more: to read a story about the crucifixion of Jesus, or to witness it? c. Seeing something makes it more real, and therefore more affecting to our hearts. 5. Why did the Lord ordain preaching in worship rather than merely reading His Word? a. Reading does move our hearts somewhat. b. But to have that Word explained, applied and impressed on our hearts by preaching can be much more affecting. c. If we stayed home and read commentaries and books on various biblical subjects, we might learn as much or more than we would if we came to worship. But it wouldn’t have the same affect on our hearts as hearing these truths publicly explained and applied. d. God has ordained preaching to stir up our minds, and to strengthen our affections, by reminding us of the things we’ve been taught and need to remember and apply: Peter writes, “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder” (2 Pet. 1:12-13). e. Our Scripture reading reminded us that the purpose God ordained officers in His church was that His body might be built up in love (Eph. 4:11-16). f. As Paul writes to Timothy, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). 6. One final reason the Lord wants us to meet together on the Lord’s Day is for fellowship. a. Our worshipping together helps to encourage and stir one another up. (i) If we came together on the Lord’s Day only to find that there were two or three others besides ourselves, we might become discouraged. (ii) But when we come and see the building full of our brothers and sisters in Christ, it encourages us and confirms the truth of what we believe. (iii) This is one of the reasons we should try to attend the worship services: Not to do so gives others the impression that it’s not that important to us and discourages them.

4 b. When we meet together, we are also to minister our gifts to one another, which can encourage and strengthen our hearts. (i) Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Rom. 1:11-12). (ii) Just being here encourages the body. But we can further encourage each other by exercising our faith. c. Worshiping together not only glorifies God, it also nourishes the affections of the heart. B. Second, let’s consider how sin – or the failure to worship – has the opposite effect of hardening our hearts – the same as cooling the affections. 1. Our whole life is to be one continual sacrifice of worship to God. a. Paul reminds us of this in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” b. This is why the Lord saved us, why He raised us from spiritual death to life: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:12-13). c. Our life is to be a continual sacrifice of praise and worship to Him: “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:15-16). d. We are to do this even in the most routine things of life: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). 2. When we fail to do this – to worship God – we sin, and when we sin, it has the opposite effect of hardening our hearts – something we need very carefully to guard our hearts against. a. It was because of the hardness of their hearts that the Jews would not acknowledge Jesus: Jesus asked, “‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:4-5). b. It is because of the hardness of their hearts that men store up wrath for themselves in the day of God’s judgment: “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:4-5).

5 c. A hard heart is an unaffected heart, one that doesn’t easily move, like a stone. It is contrasted in Scripture with a tender heart, a heart of flesh, one that is easily moved and impressed with the things that ought to affect it. d. When we sin, we grieve the Spirit, causing Him to withdraw, leaving our hearts in a harder condition. 3. The Lord gave us a heart of flesh, a tender heart in conversion. a. The Lord said through Ezekiel the prophet, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God” (Eze. 11:19-20). b. He did this because this is what pleases Him: (i) The Lord commended Josiah for his tender heart: “But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD thus shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD. “Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place”’” (2 Kings 22:18-20). (ii) This is very likely what Jesus had in mind when He said that we should become like children if we are to enter into the kingdom of God: We must have tender hearts that are easily impressed and affected by spiritual things, in the same way children are in many things (Matt. 18:3). c. We often forget that though our hearts have been broken, they can harden again. (i) Our hearts are on a continuum between holy affection on the one hand, and hardness of heart, on the other. (ii) Worship warms and softens your heart towards God, while the lack of it causes your heart to cool and harden. (iii) That’s why worship on every level is so important. (iv) Your flesh doesn’t want you to worship, so that it can grow stronger. But you must put it to death and strengthen the love you have for Christ through a continual life of worship. (v) May the Lord help us to see this and give ourselves continually to worship that we might be men and women after God’s own heart. Amen.