Month: July 2021

“A Definition of Worship”

October 20, 1957

Now, let me read what the Holy Ghost said through the mouth of the prophet David. Psalm 8, O Lord, Our Lord, O Jehovah Our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. Who hath set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has Thou ordained strength. Because of thine enemies, Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Thy heavens, and the work of Thy fingers, the moon, the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that thou visitest him? But thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!. And there is that verse in Psalm 45:11, which I have used every night on this series, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.

And I have been developing a thesis. It is that God made us to worship. That is why we were created. Everything has its reason for being here. We have this reason that we might worship the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And we sinned and lost the glory and fell; and the light went out in our hearts. And we stopped worshipping God and set our affections on things below. But God sent His only begotten Son. He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, and rose the third day from the dead, and sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens in order that He might restore us again to worship. Indeed, not only restore us again to worship, but put us so much higher, as much higher as Christ is higher than Adam. For all we could do in Adam was to be equal to Adam. But in Christ, He raises us until we shall be like Him. So that actually redemption is an improvement upon creation.

Now, what is it to worship? Usually, I can’t find definitions; I am unable to define them. I don’t know anybody that said what I want to say. Probably, somebody did say it and say it better. But I define the word worship as I see it. It probably is an imperfect definition, but it is close and it’s what my heart said, that to worship is to feel in the heart. Now to feel in the heart, not to strike a certain pose necessarily, and not to go through a form of a word necessarily, but to feel in the heart and express in some appropriate manner. It may be through a form of words. It may be through song or the sounding of the Scriptures, the sound of the reading of the Scriptures. It may be in awesome silence. It may be in loud praise. But, it is to feel in the heart and express in some manner, a humbling, a humbling. There’s no pride in worship. Never.

A fellow who leaps up when he’s announced, rushes over, slaps the pulpit and begins to talk fast, he’s not worshiping. He belongs on Broadway, not in a pulpit. A humbling, to feel in the heart and express a humbling, but delightful sense of admiring awe, and astonished wonder, and overwhelming love in the Presence of that most ancient mystery, that unspeakable Majesty which the philosophers have called the mysterium tremendum, but which the prophets call, the Lord our God.

Now, that is the definition which I have given for worship. And it is for this reason that we are redeemed. We are not redeemed that we might not drink, though the redeemed man will not be a drinker. We are not redeemed that we might not smoke, though the redeemed man is not likely to smoke, unless he’s been brought up in an atmosphere where he doesn’t know any better. I think some Christians have used the weed because they’ve been brought up in an atmosphere where they never were taught anything else and they love God and puff their pride. If that shocks any of you are hyper fundamentalist, it’s a good for you to get all shook up. Well, that’s true. I believe it’s true, nevertheless.

But God does not redeem us that He might stop our smoking, though He certainly will get the fire out, that kind of fire if we are redeemed. And He doesn’t save us that we might escape hell, though we will escape hell. For we shall not perish but have everlasting life. But He redeems us that we might worship again. That we might take our place again, even on earth, with the angels in heaven, and the beasts, and the living creatures. And we might feel in our heart and express in our own way, that humbling, but nevertheless, delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overwhelming love in the presence of that Ancient Mystery, that unspeakable Majesty, the Ancient of Days.

Now my brethren, that’s a definition. And I want you to notice, as you probably have, that I had said “that, that, that.” Why did I not say He? Why did I say “that” most Ancient Mystery, that unspeakable Majesty? Why did I not say He instead of that? Because the human heart in its present state, in the presence of mystery, always says some thing before it says some one.

In the book of 1 John, I’ll notice that later, but I wanted to call attention to it now. The Holy Ghost says, That which was from the beginning. That which we have heard. That which we have seen with our eyes. That which we have looked upon and our hands have handled and the Word of Life. For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that Eternal Life, that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifest unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto to you.

Now, that was an inspired apostle speaking, and he said, that, that, that, which, which, not who, whom, He, but “that which.” And in the presence of the Overarching Mystery, the human heart reaches up and leans out and feels and says, “some thing.” And it always says some thing before it can say some one. Why did John say “that” instead of He? Because, at the root of human thought, there is an “it.” In the root in human thought there is that, that. The human heart searches for the original substance, for being, for empathy.

Do you remember the little word essentia in Latin, which means to be actual being. And it’s this the human heart struggles for. In the midst of the whirling waters of humanity and sin and time and space, man’s heart struggles for the rock of being. The rock of essentia of the essential, that actual being. And our fathers knew that when they talked about the substance of God, or when they talked about the essence of God, or when they said that the sun was of the essence of the Father, or when they said, the Spirit was of the same substance as the Father and the Son. Back to the personality, back of the “He” was the “That” which was with the Father. And then as we go on, God’s personality emerges, as God manifests Himself. But the first thrust of the human heart out, the first leap of the human spirit out of the swirling waters is for that rock of being, where he says, “that which was with the Father.” And as we reason and pray and meditate and read the Word of God, “that” becomes He. He says, When you pray, say our Father which art in heaven.

There lived once in the 17th century. A man by the name of Blaise Pascal. Pascal was probably the greatest mind of the 17th century, and I personally think the greatest mind France ever produced, though I am probably not in position to pronounce on that. It would take a great deal of scholarship to say for certain. But this man goes down in history and is found in all the books and in the encyclopedias and in the histories of science and mathematics as probably the greatest thinker of the 17th century. He was a scientist. He was a mathematician, and he was a philosopher. He didn’t write much, but what he wrote has been seminal. It has come like the seed of God in the minds of men. Well, this man astonish the learned world by his works on mathematics, particularly geometry, when he was only in his early 20s.

But later on, Pascal became interested in theology, and then found God and became a Christian. And while he went on with His scientific work, he began to write about God and Christ and redemption and revelation. He wrote with such wondrous clarity and insight that he startled the learned of the universities of his time. And Pascal wrote a little testimony, and he folded that testimony up and put it in close to his heart. And all his life he carried it here close to his heart. And I think died with it close to his heart. And this is only part of it. It isn’t very long, but I’m giving you only part of it. A little of it’s written in Latin and the rest was translated into English and here it is. Pascal said, from about half past ten at night, to about half after midnight, fire. He cuts it off there. He doesn’t go on. He just cuts it off and then prays, O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers, nor the wise. Security, security, feeling joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ, thy God shall be my God. Imagine one of the greatest minds of the last 1000 years carrying this against his heart. Forgetfulness of the world and of all, save God. He can be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel. O Righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. He kept that in against his heart while he studied the heavens and wrote his great books. But he repudiated the God of the thinker and of the philosopher, and sought the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who can be found only in the ways of the gospel. Fire, Fire, he said, from 10:30 to 12:30, for His sake, I repudiate the world.

My brethren there was worship. In Luke 2:11, the Holy Ghost said, or the angel said, it was all God’s revelation. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Now comes the bliss and wonder of revelation and manifestation. And to the thirsting, searching mind that is crying for that, and it and substance and essence and being, the angels sing, behold, there is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.

Now, God has given us this object of our worship. He is person, but He’s also Being. He is One, but He’s also that, that Ancient Mystery, that unutterable Majesty in whose presence angels tremble and the creatures that have gazed for centuries on the sea of fire, fold their wings and cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He is Lord of all. I want to speak of only two things of which He is Lord this night. I’ll finish it two weeks from tonight if I can. I think I will be able to.

Well, He is Lord of all, and you will find that over in the book of Acts. He is Lord of all, said the man Peter. And He is the Lord of all Being. And that line is borrowed out of a hymn which we’re going to sing later. But He is the Lord of all Being. What I’ve said tonight is just as orthodox as Augustine, and just as evangelical as Dwight Moody. So don’t imagine because I’m using language you’re not familiar with, that I am off the deep end somewhere. But He is Lord of all Being. That is, He’s the Lord of not all being. that would have been a poor, cheap way to say, Lord of all beings, a kind of boss over the beings. No, He’s that, but that wasn’t what the man meant, nor what he said, He is the Lord of all Being. He is the Lord of all the concept of being. He’s the Lord of all possibility of being. He is that and that is He. And He’s the Lord of all actual existence. This is the Lord.

And so my friends, when we worship Him, we encompass all science and all philosophy. You know it, all science and all philosophy. Science is great, philosophy is greater, theology is greater still, and worship is greater than all. For worship goes back of what science can go, back of where human thought can penetrate, and back of all the wordings of theology, and back to the reality. And when the Christian gets on his knees, I’ve said before and repeat, that he’s having a meeting at the summit. He can’t get beyond that. There isn’t an archangel that can go higher than he can go. There isn’t a cherub that can burn his way higher than he can go. For he is worshiping that Awful Mystery, that Overwhelming Majesty, in humbling, but delightful love. He’s worshipping his God.

And so I tell you, that when we’re called to be Christians, were simply not called only to give up a few little things and to be saved from doing a few bad things. All of that is, simply; it’s what a bird is to a Spring day. It’s what a swallow is to the Summer. And one swallow doesn’t make a Summer. Neither does giving up beer make a Christian. The swallow will come with the Summer, and the giving up of all this trash will come with the Christian’s new birth. He’s been born again that he might push through, and press in and pass the blood sprinkled way, and find that after which the minds of men sought and seeked. Whether it be the most superstitious creature that knows nothing, eat human flesh and wears no clothes and cries after that some thing. Whether it be the learned theologian, He leads us into that. For “That” is none other than He who came and was born of the Virgin Mary, to suffer under Pontius Pilate. He is no lately come One. No new One to add to Buddha and Mohammedan, Zoroaster. He goes back of all.

So, no Christian ever has to be ashamed and say I’m no philosopher. Don’t be foolish, you are. You say, I’m no scientist. Don’t be foolish. You are. The man who pushes back past where science can go and on through past where minds can think, into the presence of the Lord of all, and in meek devotion and in holy rapture and awestruck admiration, cries, holy, holy, holy. He’s vaster than the philosopher, wider, bigger, grander than the science.

Were you greatly moved by the little satellite that they shot into the air the other night? To tell you the truth I was bored and I’m bored now. They shot it into the air 350 miles up and it’s going at 17,000 miles an hour, giving of a beep, beep, beep. Poor little thing. But everybody got excited and said, oh, what have we done?

I remember when an old man came down from the hills of Tishbe, dressed in camel’s hair and girded about the loin with a golden girdle. He had never, not a golden, leather girdle. He had never seen a king, and the palace was unknown to him.  The pine trees had been his temple. The sound of the wind had been his work. And the stars at night had spoken to him and whispered of the Lord God of his fathers. And he knew the Word. But, he walked boldly into the presence of a degenerate, decadent king and said, I am Elijah. I stand before God. He was bored with royal, red tape. Bored with scepters and crowns and cheap little barber chairs set up and called thrones. He was bored and said, I’ve spent my years standing in the presence of the Ancient of Days and I’m not afraid of kings. I’ve come with a message, there will be no rain. Then he disappeared, walking in rustic dignity out of the presence of that puppet king, hen-pecked mouse that he was. A cheap utensil used by a Baal-likish woman by the name of Jezebel.

So when the whole world exploded, oh, they’ve sent up a satellite. Well, they’re good at satellites, they’ve gotta love it. And I’m bored with it. I’ve stood in the presence of Him Who encompasses the universe and holds it in His hands. He calls the stars by name and leadeth them forth as a shepherd leads forth his sheep across the green blue heavens above. Am I therefore going to fall down and worship and say how wonderful? I worship the Lord of the sun and the stars and of all space and all time and of all matter and all motion. Therefore, I am not too excited.

He is the Lord of all beings, not of the philosophers, not of the wise man, but the revealed God, the God who reveals Himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And since He is the God of all being, He is the enemy of all not being. Therefore, when some fellow with a highly illustrated book, rushes up your sidewalk and wants to play you a little disk, shut the door, shut it kindly like a Christian but shut it. For he wants to talk to you about annihilation. There’s no such concept in the whole Bible as annihilation. The Lord of all Being is the enemy of all not being. God knows nothing of not be; He only knows be.

The second and last, He is the Lord of Life. Turn to John, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and which we with our eyes have you seen which we looked upon and our hands have handled the Word of Life. For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father. And was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

So there He is the Lord of all life. He is the Lord of all says Peter. He is thy Lord, worship thou Him, said David. His is of Light, the sole Fountain. There isn’t any other Light. He is the fountain of that Light. It’s all the light we know comes from the sun, that is all we know I suppose, the stars give off light and all that, but we’re thinking as plain people now looking up at the sun. It comes from the sun, and so all light comes from God, from Jesus Christ, the Son.

And when the man of God said, Thou of life the Fountain art, freely let me take of thee, he was like Elijah in the mountains of Tishbe. He had gone past Shakespeare and past Homer. He’d gone past all the philosophers and the wise, and was worshipping in the presence of the Lord of Life. Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of thee; spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity.

You can go into the average library; I say this with great care. You can go into the average library and you will not find an whole shelf, whole shelves as big as the side of the wall of this church. Almost anywhere you want to go on the writings of man. You’ll not find anything as magnificent as those four lines, Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of thee, spring Thou up within my heart, and rise to all eternity. For the books stop when the undertaker comes. The books and the plays and all the celebrities, it all stops when the undertaker come. This man says spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity. And when the stars have faded out and all the suns have burnt themselves away, we’ll still be with Him. For He is the Lord life. He is the Lord of the essence of life. He is the Lord of all the possibility of life. He is the Lord of all kinds of life. And there is no life of which He is not found. Since He is the Lord of life, He is the enemy of death.

And let me read again. Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits afterwards, they that are Christ’s that is coming. Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. All He shall put down all rule and all authority and power, for He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Since He is the Lord of life, He is the enemy of death. And He came down and went into this cave where death snarled and snapped its jaws. He went in there with it, in the darkness. They called it a cross on a hill, but it was a cave where the snarling dragon lay and broke its filthy jaw, and rose again the third day from the dead, and threw teeth in all directions never to be gathered again together.

And He is the enemy of death. The enemy of my death and the enemy of yours. He is the Lord of life. What does that mean to us? I ran into this written by an old German man many years ago. Jesus lives and so shall I, death by sting is gone forever. He who deign for me to die, lived the band to settle. He shall raise me with the just, Jesus is my hope and trust. That’s what it means. Jesus lives and death is now but an entrance into glory. Courage then my soul for thou hast a crown of life before thee. Thou shalt find thy hopes were just, Jesus is the Christian’s trust. But the old brother was evangelical and evangelistic, and he couldn’t closes his hymn without giving the poor sinner outside there a chance to come in. So he said, Jesus lives and God extends grace to each returning sinner. Rebels, He receives as friends and exalts the highest honor. God is true as He is just, Jesus is my hope and trust. Jesus lives and God extends, grace to each returning sinner, and rebels He receives as friends and exalts the highest honor.

That’s what it’s all about my brethren. I wish the world could hear it. I wish the world could hear it. I’d like to tell it to the whole world. I’d like to write it into books. I’d like to have it circulated. I like these ideas to get hold of the minds of men until a new day would dawn in evangelical circles. But I don’t know. I remember that Keats said, when I have fears that I may cease to be before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain. And he did. Teeming brain into which he dipped his pen and wrote his imperishable poems.  This same Pascal of whom I have, from whom I’ve quoted tonight, Fire fire, joy, joy, tears of joy, he said. And he said, I’m going to write. I’m going to write so that the world will get it. He took notes madly, but he died before he got to print. So, all we’ve got is his notes.

I would like to be able to write a book or two. I’d like to be able to make my voice heard all over the world, to the poor, poor church living on cheap fiction with the name of Jesus in it. Living on the smiles and bows of converted celebrities. Living to sing cheap songs about once I smoked and now I don’t. Once I drank beer, now I don’t. Thank God you don’t brother. It’s cheaper not to and healthier. But, if that’s your concept of Christianity, you haven’t even seen the door of the outer chambers, let alone the Holy of Holies, or the Sanctum Sanctorum. Let’s push all in. Let’s move on and let’s tell the world why He died and why He lived. That a people once made to worship Him, who had lost their harp and lost their tongue and lost their desire even to worship; now caught and renewed and quickened and made live and enabled to worship again. And it works my brethren, it works.

In 1935 I think it was, I recall, Jaffrey moved down from Indo-China to the country they call Borneo, now called Kalimantan. There he found headhunters. Men with poisoned little arrows which they shot through long blowguns. You can see one of them downstairs in the missionary room. And they hunt those heads, shrink them and hang them up. And He went in there and prayed through, and almost died one night, and praying through, God began to work. Headhunters began to get converted.  Older men everywhere all over that era began to get converted. They built their chapels with joy. They threw their idols away and then with joy, they gathered up the shrunken heads they had themselves taken, threw them into the boiling river and they were carried away out into the sea. And they built their chapels. Now in their language they talk about Jesu, Jesus Christ the Son of God. It works my brethren. It works. It works. Of course, He saved them from headhunting, and that’s what He saved them from. What did He save them to? To kneel in a simple bamboo chapel and worship the Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and Jesus Christ his only son. That’s what He saved them too, and that’s all that matters.

Jesus lives and offers to returning sinners a place in His heart. He might restring your harp and give you back your organ again. The organ that can play the anthems and join with the hosts of others. Dear God, how far the church has wandered and how far from being the kind of Christians we ought to be. Put away fleshly things. Put away worldly things. Put away the cheap twaddle of fallen Adam’s brood and turn your eyes upon Jesus, the Lamb of God. Your mind will be cleansed and your heart will be cleansed and trust the Holy Spirit to fill you with a spirit of worship again that you may join the angels and the redeemed, and prophets and saints and martyrs singing the songs of the Father who loved you and the Son who loved you, and the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of the Father and the Son.

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“God’s Great Purpose in Redemption-Worship”

September 29, 1957

So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, worship thou Him. As you can see, there’s desire on both sides, the King greatly desires the beauty of his bride. And the bride is exhorted to worship Him who is the Lord. He is thy Lord worship thou Him.

Now, I’d like to say that I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was begotten of Him before all worlds, who is God of God, the Light of Light and the very God of very God and begotten and not made. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, which proceeded from the Father and the Son, in which with the Father and Son together, is worshipped and glorified. And I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary. And He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and was buried. On the third day, He rose again from the dead, and sitteth at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.

Now, why was this? This we all believe, but why was? It had a purpose. Not to give you peace of mind, though that’s part of it. Not to deliver you from bad habits, though, that’s part of it. But what was the great central purpose of the Great God who never does anything without a purpose in all this rich, gold and glorious odyssey of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

It was that He might make worshipers out of enemies. It was that He might take those whose backs were to Him, backs to Him and turn their faces to Him. It was that He might persuade those moral beings who had forgotten how to worship, to turn around again and bow in ecstatic adoration before the presence of the Triune God. So, the purpose of Christ in redemption was not to save us from hell primarily, but it was to save us unto worship, that we might become again worshipers of the living God.

Now, I’d like to state that worship is the normal employment of moral beings. That moral beings worship God normally as a bird sings. Normal beings worship God; that’s their normal employment. And if you look in your Bible you will find that every glimpse of heaven shows the people there, the persons, the beings there, worshipping God.

Let me take the time to do what I know sometimes bores some people, and that is read a little from the Scriptures. Listen to this. It came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Kebar and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. And I looked and behold a whirlwind came out of the North, a great cloud, and the fire unfolding itself. And the brightness was about it. And out of the midst of it thereof is the color of amber. Out of the midst of the fire, also out of the midst thereof there all came the likeness of four living creatures. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color of the terrible crystal stretched from over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings straight and one toward the other. Everyone had two which covered on this side and everyone had two which covered on that side their body. And when they went I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech as the noise of an host. When they stood, they let down their wings, and above the firmament that was over their head was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone. And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a Man upon it. And I saw as the color of amber as the appearance of fire round about within from the appearance of his loins, even upward. From the appearance of his loins, even downward, I saw as it were, the appearance of fire, and the brightness round about. As the appearance of the bowl that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so is the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One that spake.

That’s the Old Testament, come to the new. After this, I looked, and behold, the door was opened in heaven. And immediately, I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardin stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. And I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white rainment and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God, and the beasts and those give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne Who liveth forever and ever. The four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying, Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts. And in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God. And He came and took the book, and they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and has redeemed us to God by that blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation. And behold, I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the Beast and the elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, blessing and honor and glory and power belong to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever.

Now, there my brethren is a picture of heaven, just a little peep into heaven. Just cup our ear and listen and we hear it for it’s going on now. It’s not something that’s prophetic only. It’s prophetic in the sense that it will be in the future, but it’s present in the sense that it also is now. And my friends, our Lord taught that worship is a moral imperative.

Now, let me read to your brief passage only, from the book of Luke. Listen, And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. It’s a moral imperative my brethren, and God will have somebody worshiping him if He has to raise up a talking, shouting, singing stone.

Now, we have a little song we sing some times, and I want you to note it. I just want you to note it. It says, bless, Oh my soul, the living God. Call home thy thoughts that are roam abroad. The old man of God believed as I believe tonight. That when our thoughts are roaming all over the face of the earth, and are not centered on God, that they’re away. They’re like a stray dog out in the alley. They’re roaming away from home. Call home thy thoughts that are roam abroad. Let all the powers within me join to work in worship so divine. What work is there? What worship is there so divine as worshiping God. Bless oh my soul that the God of grace, His favor claims the highest praise? Why should the wonders He hath wrought be lost in silence and forgot. Another one tells us that it is a guilty silence and cries break to his tongue, break my tongue thy guilty silence. That when a man or a woman born to worship God is not worshiping God, the very silence of his tongue denotes guilt in his heart. And the man who did not worship God today has a guilty tongue. For worship is a moral imperative. Worship belongs to heaven and to all beings that are moral beings, not to the beasts. Not to the birds that fly and the worms that crawl, but all beings with moral perception and intelligence. It is the business of our tongues to be worshipping God and when we do not we are guilty.

Now, I would like to tell you this, that worship is the missing jewel in evangelicalism today. The church has decked herself with everything. I read yesterday in the newspaper that the churches have been building all this summer, and that we were running into a whole welter of dedications. Now, God bless them, and I’m glad for every building that went up this Summer. We happen to be in a boom. You’ve heard about it. Everybody has more money than is good for him. And so the churches are building, and that’s all right. We’ve decked ourselves with every kind of ornament. We have everything. But there is one shining gem that has been lost to the church. And it has been lost even to the evangelical church.

I got a letter this week, I don’t know whether those friends are present tonight or not. And if they are they will understand. I got a letter from a woman. And she said Mr. Tozer, we were out to hear the sermon on worship, and I’d like to tell you this, that my husband who was a Parsi, that is, Zoroaster fire worshiper, had to teach me to worship the Savior, even though I was brought up in a certain denomination. I had to learn from my converted Parsi husband to worship God. Worship, my friends is the missing jewel in evangelicalism. And the awesome and wonderful jewell with its mysterious luster has been all but lost to us. We meet together and we go through rituals and forms, but worshipping God is something else and we’ve forgotten to worship God.

There was once a noble being and it disturbs me. I don’t know too much about this now, and don’t press me for a very careful exegis, because I’m not sure I know who this is. But, I read about it in the inspired Word of God. He forgot to worship. Listen, thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering. The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day the tower was created. Why did he have tablets and pipes, which are of course musical instruments? Why did this creature, this anointed cherub that covereth; why did he have in his divine workmanship, these instruments built-in? He was a walking organ, a walking harp. God made him so. I have set thee so, it goes on to say. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. I read quite a little about fire tonight. But don’t forget my brethren, that when we come to try to understand what God is like, the best we can do is to talk about spirit and fire. Now, physical fire is not God. And God warned against that and said, when thou gazes up into the sky and sees the sun, or the stars by night, do not fall down and worship them. For that is an abomination unto Jehovah thy God for so did the nations around thee.

So, we’re not fire worshippers, but we recognize that God dwells in fire and these creatures came out of the fire and stood with their six wings. With twain they covered their faces, and with twain they covered their feet, and with twain they did fly. When the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, He came with fire, and sat upon each one of them. It is as near as God can get to telling us what He’s like, that strange, mysterious, lustrous, shining, beautiful thing. And thou wast perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. And he who had come beautiful beyond all description, with his worship built-in, and who is permitted to walk up and down amidst in the shining holy stones of fire, now finds iniquity there. God finds iniquity in him, therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. And I will destroy thee old covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire. I believe that’s Satan if I should be wrong in my exegis, it’s some being, for I read from Ezekiel 28. And if a great being like that, should could be cast out, and would be and was cast out of heaven because he forgot the purpose of his creation. If he forgot that his tongue was made to sing the praises of his Creator. If he could be cast out, hurled down from heaven, shear over the crystal battlements, then I asked you, is it not possible the church that forgets to worship God is in danger of losing her place among the stones of fire?

Is it not possible that the church that doesn’t worship, that only meets and knits or only meets and reads, or only meets and things, or only meets and fellowships, or only meets and eats? Is it not possible that that church may lose her candlestick? Jesus said at one time, you remember, to the Ephesian church, I will pluck out thy candlestick. I’ll remove it. I don’t know what that means exactly, but I don’t want it to happen to me. If God were to wake me tonight at two, or tomorrow morning at two or three o’clock wide, stark awake and say to me, I am removing the Alliance candlestick from the corner of 70th and Union. I wouldn’t have to write to Moody Monthly to find out what it meant. I wouldn’t have to look up the various commentators to see what it meant. I’d be terrorized. And I’d fall on my face and cry, O God, these are Thy people. These are Thy people. Turn not away, my God from these Thy people, for they belong to Thee. And what will the heathen say if you destroy Thy people? I don’t have to know all that means. I only know that it’s terrible enough just to read it. I will take thy candlestick out of its place.

So, there’s danger that we Christians should simply be utilitarian Christians, using Jesus Christ as an escape hatch from hell. That we should simply use the Lord as we use insurance and social security, and whatever else fits into our scheme of self-promotion. But worship, worship my brethren, God has made us to worship. And the man who doesn’t know how to worship, doesn’t know, doesn’t know the purpose of his creation. I’d like to analyze worship if I could a little bit. It can’t be done. It lies beyond. It lies beyond the intellect. But we can we can stand and at least admire, and walk around her holy battlements, and see the Gates of Jerusalem and look a little.

Now, what is it? I think that worship is an attitude. It is a state of mind, a sustained act, if you could allow that, subject to degrees of perfection and intensity certainly. Because, not even the Apostles could worship God always with the same degree of intensity. And all the great mystics and devotional writers that I have heard of during the years, and have read about, and seen their hymns and their devotional works. They all claim that the intensity and degree of worship rises and falls; that it’s impossible to sustain it too long. Even on the mountaintop there, they could not stay too long. The Lord said, go on down the hill. So, I do not claim that this is to be a continuous, unbroken, and yet it is to be unbroken in some measure, because it embodies a number of factors; mental, spiritual, and emotional; worship does.

And let me let me point to some of the factors. One is boundless confidence in the character of God, and nobody can worship God unless he has this boundless confidence in the character of God. You see, confidence is necessary to respect. You cannot respect anybody you have no confidence in. And of course, you cannot worship anyone you do not respect. So that we have to have respect raised to the nth degree. We must have respect that believes with absolute confidence in God, in the character of God, in the being of God. And worship rises or falls, depending upon the idea that the church has of God, whether it’s high or low.

Now, it so happens that the evangelical concept of God is very low today. An Englishman by the name of Philips, the man who has made the translations, wrote a little book that somebody put in my hand called, “Your God is Too Small.” Well, it’s true, the God of the evangelical is too small. We can put Him in our pocket, or put Him up by the way some of our friends do to keep us from having accidents. I threatened to buy brother Ericson a plastic saint put up in front of his car to keep him from having accidents. It doesn’t protect you from policemen, because I saw a policeman tagging a car that had a plastic saint on it one time. And I said to the cop, well, I’ve learned one thing saints don’t protect you from cops. He said, No, they don’t. I’ve got so many to tag and I’m out tagging them. And he said they’re following me around. If I don’t do it, they will get me.

So, this God we have now, this God isn’t much bigger than St. Christopher, and the God of popular Christianity can’t be worshiped, because He isn’t respected. And He isn’t respected, because He’s not big enough. And the Sovereign God of our fathers that we sing about, the God of Abraham that the Jews sang about, the God of Abraham praise. And that Mighty God, that Mighty God, brought men to their knees with great respect. And so, boundless confidence is first, and the second is admiration.

Now, admiration is the appreciation of the excellency of anything. And man is made capable of appreciating excellency. If you were to bring a canary or a nightingale or a mockingbird in here, and play this piano to it, I suppose it would, I’ve understood the canaries will sing when you turn the radio on. I guess they do appreciate a little but they certainly wouldn’t be able to appreciate as much as an audience like this. They certainly wouldn’t be able to understand the beauty of music, and certainly the lower creatures have not in them the ability to appreciate or to admire, as we do. God has made us with ability to admire.

And then, He has given Himself to us as the object of our boundless unlimited admiration. And this can grow, this admiration. It can grow in knowledge and in depth until it fills the heart with wonder and delight, to admire God, just to admire God, not to admire people. I quite agree with the young man’s prayer here tonight, “O God save us from people and from big shots.” He didn’t use that, he won’t use slang the way I do, but save us O Lord from people. We’re always hearing, the big fellow did this, another big fellow did that, another big fellow did that. And I feel like crying, O God, we have heard man’s voice and we’re weary.

Speak Thou to us, O Lord, for I want to admire God. I can admire man who was made in the image of God, but my admiration for man is only because he was made in the image of God. God is the object of our admiration, my brethren. And when we admire, did you ever hear music? You know, there are some things that are so wonderful that you can’t use them. Matthew Arnold said about the poetry of Burns. He said that some of the poetry of Burns is so piercingly, piercingly, so penetratingly pathetic, such piercing pathos in it that it hurts you. You can’t read it. You can’t read it. And have you ever heard a piece of music that hurt you? Hurt you that you bent over with pain when you admired it to a point where it got the better of you. And there are certain great works of literature like that, certain great passages in Milton and Shakespeare are so great that the average rank and file can’t rise to take it. It is too grief and wonderful.

So, when we admire enough, it becomes a delightful pain. It becomes an enjoyable agony within the bosom. Agony? Why? Because we’re not big enough inside. God is going to make us bigger, He’s going to make us. Paul cried, “Be thou enlarged. Thou art constricted,” he said within your heart. Be enlarged. And He wants to make us big enough to admire God, and admire Him with wonder and delight.

And then, following in this analysis, is fascination. That is, it’s to be filled with a moral excitement. I have never have been able to understand, and I can’t to this day, the solemn, sad, long face, composed, poised, self-possessed, temperate, and cold people who sing hymns, and are not affected by them. Who hear the Scripture, but are not affected. Who pray in a monotonous drone. I have not been able to understand them because the fascination of worship is a moral excitement. And it excites us inside. And by excitement, I use the word means when I say excitement. There’s an excitement about love, an excitement about adoration. And this fascination, it captivates and it charms, and it entrances. And the Christian who’s ever seen God in holy worship, I’d say he’s been struck with astonished wonder at the inconceivable elevation, at the magnitude and splendor of the being we call God.

And I pray that God will send to us again. I pray that he will send to us again men out of the fire. Men who’ve walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Who can come back to the world, not to be great founders or great promoters or great mixers, but whose presence with us, is as the presence of an angel. When they looked upon the face of Stephen, they saw his face as the face of an angel, because he said, I see Jesus lifted up. I see him standing. And his face shone. And the shining of the face of Stephen has done more to illuminate the church of the living God than 10,000 theologians and cold teachers of the Law.

My brethren, we need men out of the fire again. We need bold, terrible men. We need men and women who have fought their way, and prayed their way, and been scorned maybe and called fanatics and scoffed at, and named every name, as the song says, the colored song, when they’ve called me everything but a Christian. They were Christians, but they called them everything but a Christian. And some of these will have to go through the fire and be called everything but a Christian to push in and beat their way past the flesh and the world and the devil and cold Christians and dead deacons and elders that are cold, and the general level of things. And they’ll have to push themselves in until they’re fascinated by what they see and find there.

Elijah came down from the mountains of Tishbe girded about the loins with a leather girdle and walked into the presence of the king and said, “you don’t know who I am, but I am Elijah. I stand in the presence of God.” And that’s why he could command fire when the occasion required it. And Ezekiel, before God ever allowed him to be a preacher at all had to have this first chapter experience that I read part of tonight. Isaiah before he could ever write his great book, had to see God high and lifted up with His train filling the temple and had to hear the vibrant voice of the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And so it was with some of the other prophets, Jeremiah. And so it was with some of the apostles. Paul could never, that stiff, cold, hard man of theology and logic. He never would have been the blazing apostle surific in his feet, except he had that experience on Damascus Road when God’s light shone round about him, brighter than midday and blinded him for three days.

Oh, that we might raise up some people. I don’t care whether they’re Baptist, Presbyterians, Reformed, or what they call themselves, I wouldn’t ask God to let them come out of this society of ours. If we have lost our worship, then our candlestick will be removed. I would only pray that God would raise them up, that his all. As old brother MacArthur used to say, “I’ll follow the man with oil on his forehead.” And I’ll follow the man with the flame that sits there. And I don’t care what denomination he calls himself.

So fascination, the inconceivable brightness, the unbelievable elevation, the magnitude and the splendor of God. When it shines in upon a human heart, it changes things brethren. And we’re not what we used to be. He doesn’t kill our sense of humor, but it chastens. It doesn’t destroy all fun, but it takes levity out of the system. So, we never can again be anything but serious-minded men and women. And I pray God it may be so.

But passing on to adoration, adoration. Adoration of course, is the state of adoring. It is to love with all the power within us. It is to love with fear, and with wonder, and with yearning, and with awe. Our trouble is, dear people, we have hearts as big as the world, and the object of our love is small as little peas in a pod. That’s our difficulty. That’s what’s the matter with the people out on the highways tonight. That’s what’s the matter with the women who keep the houses down here. That’s what the matter with the men who stand and belch over the bar and drink their beer in some saloon tonight. That’s what’s the matter with the women who go into weird cults up on the Gold Coast because they have too much of their husband’s money to know what to do with. That’s what’s the matter with the people who are out tonight raising hell all over the world. God has given them ability to love, and they can’t find anything worthy of their love.

Out in Hollywood, it leaps like a drunk bird from one bow to another. It jumps here and then shuts it off, and jumps there and shuts it off, and jumps there until they’re married as much as three and four and eight to ten times because they’re trying to find something to love and they can’t find anything worthy of their love. God made them too big inside. Thou hast set eternity in their heart. Even a fallen man. Even the fallen cherub never found again an object worthy of his love. And all the devils that have fallen in the being, the angels that fell out of heaven, have never found an object worthy of their love. Never. Never. That’s why I grieve when I see someone made in the image of God off on a little sidetrack doing silly things, foolish things. Little, spending their lives doing little things.

There died some year or so ago, a great woman, the greatest women athlete probably that ever lived, Babe Didrikson. And I was discussing Babe Didrikson with one of the men of the church. Penetrating mind he has and he said, “well, she was a great woman, unquestionably. But it seems too bad that she should have dedicated her greatness to jumping over things and knocking little balls and doing little things that were unworthy of her affection.” If you want to do that and keep you in good shape, all right. I stretch a rubber bands in order to keep healthy. And so, you’ll go ahead and do that if you want to. I don’t mind, to dedicate your life to it, my friends, to dedicate your life to it. There are men who start the last of April and end the first week in October, and every day except when they’re traveling, they’re looking at ballgames.

Well, it seems to me this is an awful, when God has made our heart as big as the world that we should pick out a tiny little object and kneel before it and worship, or at least love it so much. And Jesus when they came to Him and said, what is the great commandment of the Law, He said, this is the greatest commandment, thou shalt love the Lord that God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and strength and with all the power in you, you are to love God. So, adoration is love with fear and wonder and yearning and awe. When Jesus walked among men, He affected them two ways, and sometimes, two ways at once. He affected them with a magnetic drawing, and He affected them with a fear that repulsed. And the same heart that yearned for God with a great yearning, also an awesome fear, might have been repulsed by the greatness and elevation and magnitude of the being we call God.

This is not only to love, but it’s to feel a possessiveness, a crying mind. Go through your Bible and see how many times that men say mine to God, my, mine, to God. They tell us the personal pronoun shouldn’t be used in religion. That’s the difficulty with it. We’re using it about ourselves, and about what we’ve done, and about where we’ve been, and about who we know, and about what we own. But we’re afraid to use it about our relation to God. And one of the great theologians, who was it, Luther that said, the whole heart of religion lies in its personal pronoun.

And when the human heart cries with the Psalmist, or a prophet or an apostle or a mystic, “mine, mine, mine, God is mine.” And when the human heart worships God and says, mine. God says, Yes, I’m, I’m yours. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty? For He is thy lord, worship thou Him. And the times all this rises to the place of breathless silence, wrapped in deep adoring, silence, Jesus, Lord, I dare not move, lest I lose the smallest saying meant to catch and hear love.

Now, when all these are present, these mental, emotional, and spiritual factors are present continually; they’re present in varying degrees, but when they’re present, they’re present in song and in praise and in prayer, and in mental prayer, in inward prayer, and the ejaculatory prayer, kept blazing by long seasons of prayer. They condition our thoughts, and our words and our deeds. And they give us a philosophy of life. They give us an outlook, a vantage point. They give us what the moderns like to call a scale of values. That’s all right, because the liberals use it, don’t throw it away. But they give us a scale of values. We value some things more than others and we learn what is valuable and what isn’t. And it hallows every place and every time and every task. And it can do that for all of us. And it gives back the glory which Jesus had with the Father before the world was. It prepares the heart to worship.

When Jesus said come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He talked about a burden. And what was that burden? It was the burden of the tuneless heart. It was the burden of the voiceless nightingale. It was the burden of the heart that was capable of tremendous, all but infinite love that couldn’t find an object. It was the burden of the man whose tongue was made to praise God, but it had been guilty in his mouth for all the years. And what is the rest? The rest is among other things, the rest of adoration.

My brethren, you will learn more in a half hour of adoring silence in the presence of God with your Bible than you will learn in all the schools, and I believe in the schools. I’ve supported the schools. I’ve promoted them. I preached to their people. I have done everything possible and I’ve never talked them down. But you will learn more of God, Wesley said it, Augustine said it, Thomas à Kempis said it, and I’ve repeated it a thousand times; but a little while spent adoring, a little while spent caught between fear and fascination, between joy and repentance, or the sharp pangs of repentance, adoring God, you will learn more, more of light, more, more of light than you will ever find at any other time.

O Father, we beseech thee for all of these. Take them through the fire and through the flood, but above all things, to the blood. And if they have to sit by the river Kebar as Ezekiel did, or be thrown down into a pit as Jeremiah was. or be surrounded by dancing, fanatical foes as Elijah was, or be on the Isle of Patmos as John was, or to fall flat down in a faint as Daniel did, oh, whatever the cost we pray Thee, make Christian worshipers out of these men and women. This we ask in Jesus’ name.

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