ENTERING INTO HEAVENLY WORSHIP-3
Summer Series “Growing in Worship”
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
INTRO
· Today is week five in our summer series on worship.
· So far, we have learned about the language of worship, the purpose of worship, and we have been talking about how we enter into the presence of God.
· As we enter church to worship, so far we have said we are ascending God’s Holy Mountain; we are entering the gates of His City with thanksgiving in our hearts and entering his courts with praise.
· As we approach God, we come learned that before God’s throne angels burn incense that are the prayers of the saints and so accordingly, we do on earth what is done in heaven.
· We enter the presence of God by taking up the cross. The only way to enter the presence of God in heaven is through the finished work of Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross.
· Then, you see that taking up our cross and following Jesus clothes us in white robes at baptism that speak that each of us receive holiness as we deny ourselves and take up the cross in faith.
· Then, we greet God as we stand at the door to the royal courts of heaven, standing before the altar which is a place on earth where heaven and earth touch as we meet with God.
· As we prepare to enter the throne room of God, we pray a prayer for God to make our hands, hearts, and mind clean. This was symbolized by the lavers of water that stood outside the Temple in the Old Testament which were a type of New Testament baptism.
· In essence, every time we come to worship God, the first thing we do is renew our baptism and are washed afresh and a new from the effects of sin on our lives.
· And that leads us to today.
I. HOW ARE WE TO WORSHIP GOD—THE SUMMARY OF THE LAW.
· Last week, I mentioned that God does not leave it up to us to figure out how to come into his presence Exodus 25:8-9 8 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
· We are learning that God has a pattern for how we are to worship him.
· From the ancient days of worship, one thing God’s people have always heard as they to worship is how God expects us to worship him.
· In order to enter God’s presence, a human being must have absolute holiness and perfection—without holiness no man can see the Lord.
· When Jesus was asked by the legal experts of his day which was the most important of all the 613 laws, he said,
Mark 12:30-31:
30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[a]
31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b]There
is no commandment greater than these."
· These two passages from Deteronomy and Leviticus summarize the whole ten commandments: 1-4 tell us How to love God and 5-10 tell us how to love our neighbor.
1. "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me... .."
2. "Do not make a sculpted image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above to worship them..."
3. "Thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of the LORD..."
4. "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy"
5. "Thou shalt honour your father and your mother..."
6. "Thou shalt not murder"
7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
8. "Thou shalt not steal."
9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor"
10. "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's house..."
· I had to laugh one time when a man came to me and said, “Jesus is not all about laws, rules, and regulations. Jesus said all of the law can be summed up simply.”
· I don’t know about you, but loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself is pretty tough. Who can do this? Not me. As hard as I try, I keep falling down on this.
· From the Old Covenant Tabernacle, Temple, and synagogue services right on through till today, God’s people have been hearing these Scriptures we enter into worship—love God and love your neighbor perfectly-this is what God requires of us as our spiritual act of worship.
· As we have just prayed a prayer to God asking him to purify our lives, we hear God speak to us about how to purify our selves—look at your life and see if you are loving God and your fellow man perfectly.
· Where you are not, that is where you have sinned and that is what God wants to forgive you of, take away your guilt and shame from as we confess our sins in worship.
· So, by quoting the summary of the law Jesus gave us, right away in worship we realize, “Uh-oh. I cannot approach God by my own actions which are so far from perfect I cannot even see perfect from where I am.
· This is what the holy, righteous, good, and perfect law of God is about—the law shows us our sins and makes us feel that we desperately need God’s forgiveness and grace if we have any hope of ever entering heaven.
· The law was never given to people as a means of salvation. God was never saying to us here is my law—keep it or else. The law was given to an already fallen and then forgiven people living in covenant with God by grace.
· The law was given to show an already forgiven people how God wants them to live their lives as their life goal and aim.
· Since I cannot love God or my neighbor perfectly, that leaves me in a predicament. If I had to keep the law perfectly, I have no hope. My hope though, is that Jesus Christ, the perfect man did keep the law perfectly. And God says if you believe in my son, I will credit his righteousness to your account and will look on you as my child like I look on Jesus.
· What happens spiritually every week in worship is we begin to enter into the presence of God and we hear this summary of the law that makes us feel guilty, especially when we hear it full form in the Ten Commandments.
· But I know I can never be perfect, and all I can do is tell God the truth—Lord, I am sinner. This we do in the confession of sin.
2. THE CONFESSION OF SIN
1 John 1:8-10: 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
· So, in worship we are leaving our regular earthly to join with others of like precious faith to worship God. Coming to worship with the people of God is an invitation God gives us. He says whosever will, whoever is thirsty for life should come and be satisfied.
· So, we make our way to our Father’s House every week, and since our Father in Heaven is the King over the whole universe, he lives in a palace where Jesus said he was going to prepare a room for each of us.
· As we come to the door, we greet God, and he says before you come in, you need to be washed so we do not track the filth of the world into the house of heaven.
· And so, like we did when we first believed and were baptized, we renew our baptisms and get washed in the waters of God’s forgiveness every week as we enter into worship so we do not track mud all over the palace of heaven as we enter in.
· At this point in our worship, we have heard the law and we know we have not loved God and our fellow man perfectly. We know we have sinned in many ways, and yet we hear this invitation that God is willing to forgive us and purify us if we confess our sins.
· I want to remind you about the time Peter asked Jesus how many times should we forgive someone and Jesus said, “Seventy times seven times in the same day for the same sin.” In other words, “always.”
· You see, as a pastor, God has charged me to make sure you never come here without having the opportunity to know that God loves you, God’s is not mad at you, and God is ready to forgive you, and take away all our guilt and shame.
· All we have to do is simply admit our sins as a people together and ask for forgiveness. So, we have a moment of silence after the summary of the law to think of all the things we have done since the last time we stood in God’s presence that are sinful.
· Silently we should be saying to God, “Lord forgive me for all of these specific sins I have committed.”
· Then, because sin not only affects us, but everyone around us, we all confess as one local church family how we have sinned. It is not just mouthing these words, but really meaning them that brings us God’s grace.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
· You know what happens when you say these words, and in your heart you really mean them? God has me, the priest, a visible sign of Jesus in our midst tell you that you are indeed forgiven.
· From the ancient church till now, Jesus gave the Apostles, Bishops, and priests the authority to pronounce forgiveness of sin in response to a good confession:
Matthew 16 9I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven."
John 20:23:23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
In A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Ron Lee Davis retells the true story of a priest in the Philippines, a much- loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented but still had no peace, no sense of God's forgiveness.
In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God
and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her.
The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her he said, "The next time you
speak with Christ, I want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he
was in seminary." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked., "Well,
did Christ visit you in your dreams?"
"Yes, he did," she replied.
"And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He said, 'I don't remember'"
What God forgives, He forgets.