WORSHIP OF GOD AND OF CHRIST IS COMMANDED

We owe worship to God. It is his due. We owe love to man and obedience to parents, but worship to God. It is our first duty toward him. He is the all holy, all wise, the Almighty, the Infinite, all perfect One, and our rightful attitude toward him is that of bowing before him, or prostrating ourselves before him, in adoring contemplation of his infinite loveliness and glory, of his attributes, of himself. If we do not worship God, we are robbing him of what is his due. It is not enough that we obey him, that we pray to him, that we return thanks to him, that we seek to serve him and do his will. We must worship. How much time do you spend daily in bowing before him in silent and adoring contemplation?

GOD IS SEEKING TRUE WORSHIPPERS.

The one thing above all else that God desires of men is worship. God desires obedience of men, he desires service, he desires prayer, he desires praise and thanksgiving, but his supreme desire from men is worship. He is seeking "worshippers."

It has been said that "we are saved that we may serve." This is true, but this is even more profoundly true: we are saved that we may worship. The whole work of redemption finds its culmination and completion in a body of men and women being found and fitted to worship God.

WE SHOULD WORSHIP BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

The only true worship, worship acceptable to God, is the worship which the Spirit inspires. Not all worship is "in the Spirit." Very much is of man himself, in the power of his own will. It is of the flesh. The flesh seeks to intrude into every sphere of life, even the highest and most sacred. The flesh has its worship. Men seek to do the things that please God and win credit for themselves, of their own motion and in their own strength. But this worship is not acceptable. Men may be earnest and sincere in this worship, but it is not acceptable. It is not what God is seeking. God is seeking worshippers who worship in the Spirit and who have "no confidence in the flesh." To worship aright we must recognize the utter inability of the flesh—i.e., ourselves untaught, unprompted, and ungoverned by God's Spirit—to worship acceptably. We must realize the danger of the flesh intruding into our worship. In utter self-abnegation we must cast ourselves upon the Holy Spirit to lead us in our worship. The first thing we should do when we worship is, with a realization of our own utter helplessness, to look up to the Holy Spirit to teach us and enable us to worship properly. He must present God to our mind for our contemplation. He must subdue and awe our hearts before him in true adoration. The only living that is acceptable to God is living in the Spirit, the only walk that is acceptable to God is walk in the Spirit, the only service that is acceptable to God is service in the Spirit, the only prayer that is acceptable to God is prayer in the Spirit, and the only worship that is acceptable to God is worship in the Spirit. For us to worship well, our hearts must look up and cry, "Teach me, Holy Spirit, to worship!" He will do it.

WHEN THERE IS TRUE WORSHIP, THE WORSHIPPER IS SATISFIED; HIS HIGHEST JOY IS FOUND.

There is no higher, no deeper, no purer joy than that which springs from the adoring contemplation of God. I have walked miles, and climbed through underbrush and briers and over crags and precipice just to get some beautiful view, and as I have looked out upon it, and feasted upon the never-to-be-forgotten vision of mountain and valley, forest and river, village and hamlet, cloud and sunshine, I have felt well repaid for the trial and suffering and weariness. I have sat by the hour before a great painting in joyous beholding of its beauty. Earth has few purer joys than these, but they are nothing to the profound and holy joy that fills the soul as we bow before God in worship, asking nothing, seeking nothing from him, occupied with and satisfied with himself. Was the psalmist thinking only of the future, or of what he had enjoyed in the present, when he wrote, "In thy presence is fulness of joy" (Psa 16:11)? One of the highest privileges of heaven will be that we shall see his face.