“God’s Sovereignty and Worship”

Psalm 135:1-6: “Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord; Praise Him, O servants of the Lord, 
you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God! 
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His possession.
For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in the deeps.”

As I stated the last time, we live in a time where high moral values and attitudes have gone awry and are trivialized to a point of ‘cotton candy fluff’ and where ‘perilous times’ have become more evident.  

There can be no doubt in our minds that the ‘mystery of lawlessness’ is ever with us.

Our current communication systems resound with a dismaying ‘YES!’ to this rampant condition, as we may already realize!

By now, it should be evident to every earnest Christ-centered believer that the world’s retort to the Sovereignty of God and His Anointed Christ is still ‘Away with Him! Away with Him!’

But, it is not an unusual happening to see such disregard to the understanding of the Sovereignty of God.

It is the natural and inevitable part of the mystery leading to godlessness.

And, in the light of this present lawlessness, it ought to increase within us our resolve to not be in alliance with this attitude ourselves.

And, as we look at it, the truth of His Sovereignty ought to give us a greater sense of His Majesty and cause us to grip even more fervently the riches of His Goodness and Forbearance and Longfsuffering in which we can find absolute security, shelter and rest. (Rom.2:4)

Oh! How the perception of His Sovereignty, as feeble and as deficient as it may be in us, must still cause us to worship Him in ever-expanding truth and spirit!

And to see the absolute Reality of His Supremacy by coming face to face with His Christ and living this truth out from His ever-available power, grace, and victory!

It is easy to talk about the world and its current acute problems and focus on its lack of awe and respect for the Sovereignty of God.

But, for those of us in His Church, there is a need to apply to ourselves - in a practical way - what our Lord’s Sovereignty means to us.

What should our attitude be toward it?

How should it govern us?

What should be happening that would please the heart of God as He lives and works among us?

The Scriptures give, among others, two very definite answers that concern each one of His own.

They are the ‘fear of God’ and the ‘worship of God’.

A true recognition of each one, as they are given to us in the Scriptures, will help us see His Sovereignty and hopefully cause us to just gaze upon the Sovereign Himself!

It will mean coming into the presence of our Most Holy, Awesome God, looking into the face of His dear Son, and gaining a glimpse of His unspeakable glory each time we corporately acknowledge His rightful place among us.

Is this not really why we come together - to see and enjoy Him and to give pleasure to His heart?

So, for the next few weeks, still in line with the functions of His Church, of which ‘worship’ and ‘reverence of Him’ are a part, I would like to concentrate on these two practical applications of the Sovereignty of God as it is to be expressed through His people.

In starting with the ‘aspect of worship’, let me say, first, that there is especially a danger of becoming more zealous of the ways and means of worship than for the reason for which the Church worships.

This is a great, great temptation which requires the need for every single worshipper in the community of believers to be fully aware of why he has come in the first place.

As we look through the Psalms, we notice how the context of practically every one is a praise of personal gratitude to the Sovereign God.

There is nothing doubtful or hesitant about the expression of adoration and wonders with which the Psalmists burst forth from the true and living experience with God.

In Psalm 135, David started, “Praise the Lord!” and then again, “Praise the name of the Lord” and once more, “Praise Him, O servants of the Lord.”

“Praise Him”, “Praise Him”, he shouted to ‘the servants of the Lord.’

And who are the servants?

It is in verse 2 that the question is answered: “You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.”

And then, repeated is the refrain: “Praise the Lord!”

Why?

“For the Lord is good...” is the reason.

And then another repeat, followed by a second reason:
“...sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.”

And, as this admonition to praise the Lord’s name is exclaimed, song after song, it always breaks forth in the lofty sounds of adoration, homage, affection, devotion, and piety.

And - you will notice - when he praises with every single fiber of his heart, with his attention fully caught up into heaven’s courts, - when that happens - the mundane, the earthly problems of his world lose the grips they hold over him, and their places of importance in him.

So, knowing something of the Psalmist’s life, we are well aware, then, that these are not the sounds of a successful man who has everything under control and has seeming little or no difficulties facing and challenging his life.

No - these are those joyful sounds coming from one who has been exposed to the bitter blasts of adversity!

And it is certainly not a vague poetic instinct nor an 
‘otherworldly mysticism’ that is behind this admonition for
the Church to praise the Lord.

No, there is a lively appreciation of God’s Sovereign Power and thought that has been transmitted to the heart and now is expressed in song.

This is the product of convincing worship that is flavored with praise, not from one who has been pampered and sheltered, but from the one who has been exposed to the anguish and pains life holds.

It has behind it the footprints of victories that adversity has marked in the sands of his time on earth, those victories borne out of a strong and abiding faith in the deliverance of the Sovereign God.

This is the consummation of a quality of life that represents a perpetual career of personal gratitude to Him Who sits on the throne of the poet’s life, the One Who has been granted His rightful place there.

And, as the poet is looking through wondering eyes at the enrichment and deepening of what God has done, it has broadened his vision of the living God.

His personal rejoicing in the Lord has quickly erupted to summoning all to join him in this jubilant song to the  Sovereignty of God.

Verses 1-2: “...praise Him, you servants...” who stand before Him with me. 

For, they, too, have experienced His mercy from generation to generation and have also found it to be inexhaustible.

Surely, it is fitting for humans to respond in sincere, glad, and grateful praise and adoration to Him!

And, so, the poet declares it in song and shouts it in words for all the Church to hear and to sing along in harmony with him.

Such joy - such remarkable joy that overflows and abounds from the heart of this divinely-disciplined believer!

And, as this single hymn of joy is mingled with all the melodies of brightness and gladness spilling out from the like-minded believers, from the Church, this single hymn explodes to a heavenly chorus of praise soaring into the heart of God!

For it is in verse 21 that we read: “Blessed be the Lord from Zion, Who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!”

The praises are flowing from the very heart of all the servants of the Lord in the ‘courts of the house of our God!’, flowing out from Zion, His City.

What joy we find here!

How fortunate the community of believers is to be able to praise and worship out from such experience and knowledge of the Lord!

This kind of worship is coming from that unbroken strand of personal gratitude to Him that each one separately has established before His Lord. 

This is the Church that is privileged to carry the lively appreciation of what the Sovereign God has done, a heartfelt, concerted praise that touches the living God of untouchable majesty!

Worship, genuine corporate worship, only happens when such an attitude is coming from each of its worshippers.

This overwhelming sense of awe and reverence in His presence is its norm and the cure for whatever may be a hinderance to such a choir of praises in song, word, and prayer.

I have been, and occasionally still am, sometimes saddened within my heart when individuals seem to be missing the point of corporate worship.

Except for the fact that we know the Lord is in charge of all things, it is an appropriate concern, Sunday after Sunday, week after week, to see a believer whose spirit is never being truly lifted in the corporate presence of our Lord.

Such a presentation of one’s self before the Lord exposes the deficiencies that should be increasingly more eliminated through the course of his weekly walk as years go on.

Surely, there have been trying circumstances and countless opportunities given him to yield his ways to the Sovereign ways of our Lord and to enjoy the same kind of perpetual career the Psalmist lived before the Lord.

It would seem that there is, rather, a perpetual nursing of one’s self going on within that comes only from a stubborn refusal to let go and yield to Christ and His ways.

And this is the attitude, if it is not dealt with during the course of every day living, is naturally brought to worship where there is that same refusal to let go and focus the attention on the living Christ Who we have come to worship.

Sometimes I think that we take this matter of worshipping our God so lightly that we are not at all ashamed to pretend to worship, with our hearts and minds not really being in it.

If we are honest before Him and with ourselves, we each one will realize that worship is the time when the worshipper must make a choice: do I come to worship God or Baal, Christ or myself?

The Church is a coordinated organism, ordered and regulated by its Head.

It is one life, one Body, functioning under the Sovereign Christ as its Head, one mind with Him.

It cannot truly be that if the Head is not given His rightful place during the course of each individual’s life during the other six days of the week.

If corporate worship serves only as a pacifier or a convenient gameboard at our disposal rather than a divine discipline that opens heaven for us in a greater measure, then it has moved into activity contrary to God’s purpose.

And, a divine discipline it is, for it takes nothing short of the power of the Holy Spirit of God to keep our minds fixed on Him, to drink in the messages of the songs and the spoken Word, and the words of prayer and praise, and let the genuine response to them flow out from each one of us in bountiful and heartfelt praise to the Sovereign God.

This is the worship, then, that is a joyful worship that heightens our communion with the living, risen Christ and our communion and fellowship with one another.

This is the attitude that emanates so freely, so reverently,
so worshipfully from the fully, participating community.

And this is that ‘more accurate expression’ of worship, we  corporately seek each time we are so graciously given the opportunity to worship our Lord.

Its message to the world is that the Church is taking part in the activity by which God is shaping His new creation.

It is a foretaste of His original thought and plan, to which the Church has been committed.

There is much more that I feel needs yet to be said about the Church coming to a true place of corporate worship before our Sovereign God where it can function in its ordained ministry of worship but, Lord willing, we will continue this next time.

But, in the meantime, I urge each one of us to take these things before the Lord, and ponder them in His presence!

So, “Praise the Lord!
    Praise the name of the Lord;
    Praise Him, O servants of the Lord,
    you who stand in the house of the Lord,
    in the courts of the house of our God!”

Song of Worship: #199

“He is exalted, the King is exalted on high, I will praise Him.
He is exalted forever exalted and I will praise His name.
He is the Lord forever His truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in His holy name.
He is exalted, the King is exalted on high.  (Repeat)

Great is the Lord and worthy of glory, great is the Lord and worthy of praise.
Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice, now lift up your voice, great is the Lord.

Great is the Lord, He is holy and just, by His power we trust in His love.
Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true, by His mercy He proves He is love.”   (Repeat)

Jude 24-25: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and to all the ages.”
AMEN.  

Continuation: (1)

Worship - genuine, corporate worship - only happens when a redeemed group of people gather together in a community response of awe before the living, Sovereign God through the mediation of His Son and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

This community has an overwhelming sense of reverence and adoration in His presence, for it comes before Him in a concert of the victories of Jesus Christ written on the heart of each of its individual worshippers.

It is that convincing worship with praise that comes, not from those who have been pampered and sheltered and have never had to deal with hard and demanding circumstances.

But it comes from those who have been exposed to the blasts of adversity and have sought relief, guidance, grace, and mercy only at the feet of their living Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is the praise that is sincere, wholehearted, and forms the corporate expression that pleases the heart of God.

It personifies the humble and contrite attitude of the publican in Luke 18:13 who demonstrated that it is not the hypocritical, pious presentation that gains the approval of God’s heart. 

But, it is, rather, the truly godly heart that He loves.

Luke 18:13: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”
The Lord Jesus was quick to justify the publican’s attitude  with a reply that confirmed Isaiah’s thought in Isa. 57:15 of the Sovereign God’s heart.

It reads: “For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose Name is holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’.”

In Isa. 66:1-2, the theme is carried further into the building of His house.

There it reads: “Thus saith the Lord, ‘heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house that you could build for Me? and where is a place that is My resting place? for My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,’ declares the Lord. ‘But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word’.”

He addressed the question of: ‘What kind of house is there that you could build, that would be worthy of Me, and what kind of place that would be worthy of being assigned to Me as a resting-place?’

He made it known that He needs no temple,- for the heaven is His throne, and the earth is His footstool.

He fills all in all, is the possessor of the universe, and if men think to do Him service by building Him a house and do not revere and honor Him, He wants no temple at all.

In this, - His exaltation, - He is not concerned with a temple, a house built with man’s hands, with the design of his clever arts. (Acts 7:48)
Oh, no - His gracious eye is fixed on the man whose heart is of a humble and contrite mind and is filled with reverential awe of Him.

Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are contrite in spirit.”

If His people have not been humbled by the refining blasts of adversities and have not been changed by the preaching of the Gospel, He wants no sacrificial acts or buildings at all.

Oh, how important to His heart is the Church, His habitation, whose heart breaks through in spontaneous, sincere, unassuming meekness before Him!

It will express itself in glad, grateful song that punctuates the divine work in the life of each worshipper, - of His inwrought, renewing principle of Life.

It will express itself in the sincere word that has been written in the heart, softened by the gentle shaping of Christ’s Hand.

It will express itself in adoring praise that sparkles with joy and brings satisfaction to God’s heart and gladness in the hearts of the worshippers.

This is what sends the Church onward with a heightened importance of such worship that God has ordained through His Beloved.

The sorrows and discords of life will not be ignored, but they will be transcended.

The burdens will often still be there, but they will become lighter.

The joy will not be locked up in individual hearts but it will spill over to others.

Such worship brings health and happiness to the whole community and hope to those burdened with fear.

David was the songwriter who lavishly praised Jehovah with a heart full of gratitude and adoration.

He certainly was not a pampered worshipper.

He had all sorts of trials to face and all manner of emotional problems to conquer.

Yet, he stayed true to Jehovah in all circumstances and gave Him glory due His name, the reverence He merits.

He showed us the appropriate pattern of attitude that is true of those who sincerely worship the Sovereign God.

He may have been king, but wherever he went, he could not escape the truth of God’s Sovereignty.

He celebrated an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God Who was never far from him.

He was well aware that there is no secret that can be hidden from His all-seeing eye.

He sits as Judge; yet, in mercy, He pardons.

In His love, He redeems, cleanses, sanctifies, and blesses beyond measure.

David, saw this as the “...perfection of beauty, God has shined forth...”

It was all too wonderful for David to grasp fully.

And, it is all too wonderful for us to grasp fully.

Yet, in His Sovereignty, He has abundantly revealed Himself in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

He it is to Whom we turn, and as He is consistently put to the center of our worship, He takes His proper place in the center of our every day affairs.

And, from this ‘perfection of beauty’, God has shined forth and the walls of His Church are built, in line with His good pleasure. (Psalm 51:18)  

This is the ‘Temple’ He fills in which its walls resound with worship and praise!

True worship is a common worship, requiring each one to understand and to confess within himself that this is the most important time of the week.

There are, it is true, important times for our own individual prayer and praise.

Just as Christ would go to a desert place, or climb the mountains to commune and be alone with His Father, so all of us seek those solitary moments with Him under the Spirit’s impulses.

Yet, increase and enlargement in spiritual life requires worship with like-minded believers.

And God has fashioned it so because we need it so desperately.

We need the support of one another as we approach Him in corporate worship.

We need the encouragement of other aspiring hearts to rise above the mundane realm into the heavenlies.

We need the guidance of spiritual pioneers, those who will  support us in our praises of Him.

And, most of all, we need the refining fire identified in Malachi 3:3.

It reads: “...He[Christ] shall sit as a refiner and purifier... and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.”

We continually need that divine training of bringing thoughts into subjection to Jesus Christ and acquiring a taste for what is being revealed to us, so that we are not frivolous in worship nor haphazard in attitude.

We, of ourselves, are not good at this.

We are so naturally prone to being sloppy, to being hardened in our receptivity of Him, in being so tasteless in spiritual aptitudes.

We sometimes forget that our time together is part of the offering of our lives unto Him.

This is not a ‘community sing-along session’ nor a club social that we attend each week.
  
And - it certainly is not a time to spend daydreaming, wishing for the end of the session to come quickly.

Nor is it a time to allow the attention to be drawn to the normal antics and demands of the babies close by, however cute they may be. 

The child’s parents are well able to attend to the child without the unnecessary glances and attention of the Church.

Neither is it the time to watch others, and allow ourselves to be distracted from the sole purpose of our corporate worship.

I am sure there are many other examples that could be added - things that we are all prone to doing.

Actually, I even hesitate to mention these matters since we are all surely aware of, not only the rudeness involved in these matters, but also the embarrassment it generates, not to mention the most important part as - being an affront to our God Who should be the Sole Object of honor and concentration.

But - is it not true - that we are just naturally wanting to reject that which is ‘good’ - that which Christ is doing and desires to do in and among us?

We are so prone to think it is unnecessary to move onward daily under the training of His divine Sovereignty.

Sometimes we are lulled into a fossilized form of piety in which we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are so right, we do not need any thing or anymore than what we now have.

So, we continue to need the divine training that Jesus Christ ministers to us by His Spirit for the accurate expression of His perfection.

Our spiritual beings require this way - His way - of healing and rehabilitation that He pours out upon us in corporate worship, in presenting Him “offerings of righteousness.”

Immense strength is available to the Church through the embracing of the vitalizing joy and favor of God that is poured out in true corporate expression of praises to Him.

Psalm 21:13: “Be Thou exalted, O Lord, in Thy strength; 
             we will sing and praise Thy power.”

Psalm 5:11-12: “But let all who take refuge in Thee be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; and mayest Thou shelter them, that those who love Thy name may exult in Thee.
For it is Thou who dost bless the righteous man, O Lord.
Thou dost surround him with favor as with a shield.”
 
And, as the Lord Jesus said, in John 4:23-24, “But the hour  cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

In the mutuality of Church life, the Church lives in the Spirit as God is a Spirit.

And Christians, then, represent, the life of God to one another in His Spirit of truth and reality, a Gift of great divine import.

And, so, the Sovereign power of God and His Sovereign strength are manifested in the Church through the service of Christians toward one another.

The Gift that He has given the Church is returned to Him in praise.

Thus the Church, that comes from God through His Eternal Gift, returns the Gift to Him in worship.

And together it celebrates to the praise of His glory.

What a Gift of His divine impartation we have, if only we would appropriate it aright and appreciate it anew! 

I repeat, what a Gift of divine impartation we have in Him as we come together as His Church!

There are parts we can do, should do, and are doing separately, and I thank our God for those who have been called to those posts and are being faithful to Him in them.

We cannot all instruct and we cannot all play instruments, but we can all worship in praises.

Praise is not limited to any one class of believers.

Little children can sing praises from their hearts unto Him, even though they are limited in their understanding of Him.

A parent who is faithful to the Lord will teach the children those songs and sing them in the home often.
I thank God for those parents who have songs in their hearts unto the Lord throughout the course of the week and who let that gladness spill over into the home life.

The Lord inhabits the praises of His people, at home, as well as in His Church corporate.

And He is in our midst when every heart, every mind, every voice responds in one glad, sincere chorus of praise and thanksgiving that has been born out of new, fresh attitudes and living hope in Christ.

This is when one becomes conscious of ‘the littleness of man’, in contrast to ‘the majesty of God’ and gladly bows in the humble dependence on the continuance of His grace.

And, how perfectly He has supplied that grace for us.

In His majestic goodness, He has given us the Gift of gifts: the Gift of the revelation of Himself in His Son Jesus Christ.

James, in 1:17, wrote: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with Whom there is no changeableness nor shadow of turning.”

James saw every gift given to the believer as coming from the hand of God Who does not change His mind nor vary in the giving of gifts. 

His Gift given to the believer is the Gift of a true grasp of the worship of Him in His ever continuing Sovereignty over the believer’s life.

It is His Gift of His divine impartation in us in Jesus Christ.

It is from Him that the light of learning comes.

It is from Him that the light of faith holds steady.

It is from Him that the purity of mind and heart is increased.

It is from Him that the light of understanding rises.

It is from Him that the divinely, living Spirit urges us to worship. 

And it is from Him that the privilege of worshipping Him aright becomes more priceless to us corporately.

Job 32:8: tells us that “The inspiration of the Almighty gives understanding.”

He has given the necessary Light to worship with worship  that is due Him.

It is the Word of truth, the Gospel, “having been begotten in Jesus Christ” (1.Cor.4:15) Whose Gospel inspires us to the pinnacle of this priceless, fragile worship of the Almighty God.

It is the glory of the Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign King.

This is the Church’s true prosperity - the divine Implant for the true worship of Him!

And the only adequate response that can be made to such a King is the concerted chorus of His Church that genuinely attends to what He has illumined - true worship and adoration of Him alone.

Psalm 89:15: “How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
O Lord, they walk in the light of Thy countenance.”

2.Cor.4:6: For He surely has “shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

I do trust that you will all take time to ponder these truths, giving the Holy Spirit much opportunity to make these things real to us and work them in all our lives. 

Now, please join me in singing: #242

“We worship You O Lord
     in spirit and truth.
We worship You before Your throne, 
We praise You Lord.
We glorify Your Name,
We magnify Your Name, and
We exalt You Lord over all,
We praise You Lord.              
                                 AMEN and AMEN!

Continuation: (2)

A corporate expression of Christ’s activity is taking place among us, whether we realize it or not.

It is a priceless gift which the Sovereign God has been pleased to develop in our midst as each one of us has, and will, I trust, continue to hold our Head, Jesus Christ, in His rightful place among us.

Each time we come together, we celebrate Him, His Salvation work, and the Sovereignty of God in all things.

And, we continually will seek an even more accurate expression of Him as we move on in Him, as each one of us functions:

    (1) In being led by His Holy Spirit, in obedience to  
       Christ.

    (2) In the knowledge that this is what He has called
       us to do.

    (3) In a gladness of heart and in a quality of purpose.

Yes, there are always snags and snaps of human quirks that may tend to restrain our venture in Christ some of which were mentioned the past number of weeks as we concentrated on His Sovereignty and the Church’s place in it.

The main point for us in it all was to learn to draw quickly from His grace to overcome our sin and learn to continue on in His perfection to carry out the expression of Himself through His Church.

The Church has been formed under the Almighty Hand of the Sovereign God and, when it functions out from Him, as it is designed to do, it will be the witness of His divine activity to others.

Along with this kind of attitude toward His Sovereignty in worship of Him, is the matter of ‘the fear of the Lord’ in grasping His Sovereignty.

It is this subject that I would like to speak about tonight.

There are many, many Scriptures about ‘the fear of the Lord’, each one offering a different light on the subject.

So, we can go many ways with this, but I would like to confine this to the Church’s calling of God in Christ.

But, before coming to that, there are some introductory thoughts to consider, which I would like to do this evening.

And, then, Lord willing, go on in this line of thought next week.

First of all, the promise is given of “I will teach you the fear of the Lord” in Psalm 34:11.

The subject matter of what this teacher in this song wanted to convey was ‘the fear of the Lord’.

This implied the understanding of that subject, of learning the true nature of God in His relationship to man.

It is in Proverbs 1:7 where, then, we begin: “The reverence of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

To begin learning of Him, it is necessary to know what the writer is meaning by ‘reverence, fear’ of the Lord.

Reverence of the Lord has an ingredient of fear in it, especially for believers, in the sense that we walk before Him circumspectfully, watchfully, mindfully.

You have often heard me use the phrase of walking in such a way, ‘lest we displease Him.’

It is the awe-inspiring respect due to the Sovereign Lord because of Who He is, what He is to us, and how He has become that to us.

It is that wonder and highest esteem that ‘stands’ in the completed work of God’s ‘Anointed One’ and ‘rests’ in His faithfulness to carry out the reality of that completed victory.

That kind of fear is right, it is good, it is healthy for a wholesome, Christian life.

You are aware of those religious groups who operate on ‘the basis of fear’ and have a dread and live in terror of the object of their worship.

It is strictly based on the kind of fear that throws one into a  miserable, disheartened, enslaved cringing before the object of his worship, expecting any moment for the final blow to fall. 

That is certainly not the fear the Psalmist speaks of in wanting to teach ‘the fear of the Lord.’

The ‘fear’ of the Most High Sovereign God does not mean going through life as a scared, terrified subject of His.

The Eternal task of His Person is the conquest of this kind of abject, cowering fear.

His object is to gain a genuine Eternal love that abounds unto fellowship with Himself.

“He has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2.Tim.1:7)

Reverence before Him is the response of the believer in His presence, not only because He is Almighty, but because He is worthy and deserving of praises and adoration, not cowering and cringes!

We look upon Him with an awesome attitude because we have been given the privilege to look at His goodness and His power, His perfect holiness. 

It is the attitude of adoration to a God Who would condescend to allot such an infinite inheritance to the Church in Jesus Christ.

It is knowing that we - in stark contrast to Him - have and are nothing, but we are dependent upon Him to sustain us in life and wholeheartedly bow to Him for it.

It is this reverential fear of the Lord that is the starting point of the believer’s spiritual life and spiritual progress. 

It is that reverential fear of the Lord in which we ‘stand’ in His ‘once-and-for-all’ victorious Eternal life and rest in His faithfulness to disclose it to us in an ever-increasing knowledge of Him. 

In one of His parables, Jesus told the story of a judge “who neither feared God nor regarded man.” (Luke 18:2) which deals with God’s character of the vindication of Himself.

This judge prided himself in his shrewd, judicial decisions.

And, since his reputation was at stake in the case of the importunate woman, he did not want to be bothered with such petty problems so he ruled in her favor just to get rid of her and her incessant nagging.

His decision was based on nothing except his own concern of himself.

He who builds his life and outlook without ‘the fear of the Lord’ acts very differently from the one who makes the reverence of God the foundation upon which he builds.

Reverence of the Lord takes the Sovereignty of God into account in all things.

Some people do not despise God - they simply act irreverently, and thoughtlessly, as though He does not exist, or as though they are on the same level as He is.

Reverence of the Lord is the highest use of thought, if we consider it in this way.

And that highest use of thought can only be that ‘thought’ that is prompted and executed by the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord.

So, a person may think that he thinks when he uses his reasoning to justify his actions.

For these things, he uses the processes of the thought waves of his brains.

But the man who really thinks, recognizes that he really cannot think aright, when it comes to his spiritual needs.

For this, he needs Someone higher, greater, more powerful, more wise than he is.

He may be brilliant beyond words, but unless he realizes he is helpless, powerless, and devoid of good spiritual sense, all the information he has packed inside his head is worth ‘nil’, when it comes to spiritual life.

In preparing for tonight, I came across a quote from ‘Samuel Johnson’ (18th century, English poet, critic, essayist and lexicographer) in this regard, that illustrates what I am trying to say.

In a comment about another man, he said, in answer to a question posed to him: [I quote] ‘I do not know, Sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but, if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he never thought upon the subject.’ [end of quote]

If a man is really thinking aright, he would worship the Sovereign God without ceasing!

The second part of the verse in Proverbs 1:7 puts ‘the fear of the Lord’ on the same plane as ‘wisdom and instruction’: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

And Proverbs 9:10 tells us “And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

True knowledge starts with the recognition of the Sovereign God, as the self-revealing One in Jesus Christ, the Lord of grace.

Apart from Him, there is no true knowledge, for “Thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and find true knowledge.” (Proverbs 2:5)

And there is no true moral virtue apart from ‘the fear of the Lord.’

We look at Prov.14:27 for this, for it says “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snare of death.”

And Prov.3:7 which says: “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”

In fact, Prov.8:13 exhorts: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, do I hate.”

Reverence of the Lord, understanding it and submission to His Sovereignty is the highest ground on which the knowledge of God can be found, and the wisdom of God can operate.

It is in His knowledge and wisdom, that we are called to go onward as Prov.4:7-9 admonishes: “The primary thing is wisdom: Acquire wisdom; and with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; she will pesent you with a crown of beauty.”

It is on that high ground that we are progressing into the true function of the Church, the function that sets upon its head a garland of grace and a crown of beauty.

Needless to say, there are pitfalls along the way - pitfalls that many have recognized and have therefore, sidestepped them and gone on into a fuller knowledge of the Lord.

We have recognized the deceptions of the enemy but continue to learn to ‘stand’ in the victory of Christ He has already procured for us to overcome and to progress toward the Sovereign Lord’s full plan.

The reverential understanding of Him wherein we learn to ‘stand’ and simply ‘rest’ in Christ is the major part of that increase in Him, and of the Church gaining the crown of His glory and splendor.

Yet, this does not mean that the obstacles of deception will not be thrown into our pathway as we go on.

And, we need to be fully agreeable to our Lord’s work in and among us so that He will have clear access to complete His work.

When Paul wrote his observations in Romans regarding the contrast of the acceptance/rejection conditions of God’s Salvation Plan that was opened to both the Jewish/Gentile nations alike, he issued a warning to the newly-opened plan to the Gentiles.

He flatly stated that what happened to the Jews, because of their refusal to accept God’s Sovereign Plan, could also happen to the Gentile nations if they were to follow the same path.

He made the brief, definite statement of: “Be not high-minded, but fear God...”. (Rom.11:20)

In this warning, there is that indication that ‘the fear of God’ has a side of ‘severity’ to it which is the consequence of rejection.

Due to the nature of human responses, the warning was issued to accept fully, in every way necessary, the fullness of His Salvation Plan.

It would not allow the fickleness of man to change any part of it.

Nor would it allow the pride of man to circumvent the need of bowing to His Sovereign Thought.

So, Paul warned the Gentiles to be alert, to reject the ‘haughtiness’ that pride engineers, and come unto Him in ‘the fear of the Lord’, in that reverent disposition, divorcing themselves from the natural inclination of human response, that is an affront to such a wondrous Sovereign Plan.

To carry this into the believer’s life, there is a sense of a ‘cut-off’ point brought about by insisting to go on ignoring the already secured victory of Jesus Christ.

It is not that a believer is cut off from obtaining Eternal Salvation.

That is fixed forever once he has accepted Christ’s atonement and embraced the Salvation Christ personally provided for him.

No - that is not it at all!

It is the point where, because of our own refusal to think concerning the greatness and magnitude of His work, to reverence Him in all of His Majestic intent and design for us, that we willfully, and most oftentimes, resolutely, refuse to submit to the grace the Sovereign God has made available to us in Christ.

This is the hampering factor to spiritual progress in Christ Jesus.

It is then that the normal progress into the full knowledge of God’s Son cannot be understood because it causes blindness to it.

It is that point that tells us immediately that the Lord will not coddle us in our obvious sin and disobedience, refusing to yield to the provisions Christ gained for us to circumvent the obstacle and go on in Him.

It is not that He is acting in ‘severity’.

It is that He cannot comply with our sinful responses and attitudes toward His Sovereign grace and mercy.  

The ‘severity’ of His divine character lies in the fact that He does not accommodate us in our whims and fancies.

In divine honesty, He waits until we have made the adjustments to Him that give us understanding of ‘spiritual’ life in Christ.

He does not and will not whisper to our hearts, ‘Oh that is all right!

You just keep going on in your stubborn, wanton ways.

I will just overlook that, and we will just move right on into the inheritance I have prepared for you through My Son’s sacrifice.’

Oh, No!

His Son and the Gift of His Son is not, and cannot be, subjected to our whims and fancies, brandished about as it pleases us!

No! The pathway each one of His own must take is the entire portion of Christ that is available, honoring Christ without reservation in all things.

His glory is designed to shine out from each one of us, and this is the only way it can and does.

And His glory, in its richness and brilliance, is to be the divine Implant in the Church, made up of such individuals, who settle for nothing less than the full portion of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The Church is to be brought into this full and complete plan, to understand it increasingly, and to be governed as a unit in and by it.

And, as it does, it will be dealing with the world in teaching and preaching the Scriptures as being the Revelation of Life, the Life defined, given, and lived by Jesus Christ.

And, it will tell the world that it is through Him that we are given a glimpse of the Majesty of God.

And convey to it the marvel of His Sovereignty in that we have been made more than just ‘spectator earthlings’, having been put in charge of our own morality and our own spiritual plight. 

It should, and will, foster thought to its highest level - 
Spirit-tenderized hearts that will bow to ‘the fear of the Lord’ and reckon Him and His Anointed in all of its spiritual quests.

I have said all this tonight because, next week, Lord willing, we will look into this matter of ‘spirituality’, the Church in its spiritual outlook, and try to see it in the light of what the appropriate approach must be for the Church to progress in His plan and Sovereign thought.

And now let me again encourage all of us to ponder these things before the Lord, and let the Holy Spirit continue His work in us as we all respond to His calling to function as ‘the Church corporate’, and prepare our hearts for what He has yet to teach us in this regard.

Continuation: (3)

Matthew 17:1-8: “...Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves.
And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!’
And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid.
And Jesus came to them and touched them and said,
‘Arise, and do not be afraid.’
And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone.”  (Parallel Scriptures are found in Mark 9:2-8; and Luke 9:28-36;)

You will recall that last week, I stated that the Sovereign God has been pleased to bestow a priceless Gift in our midst and will continue to do so, as we all hold our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His rightful place among us, and as we continually seek an even more accurate expression of Him among us.

Our attention was focused on ‘reverence, fear’ of the Lord; the awe-inspiring respect due to the Sovereign Lord because of Who He is, what He is to us, and how He has become that to us.
This leads us to the Church’s calling of God in Christ, which takes us to the matter of ‘spirituality’, the Church in its ‘spiritual outlook’, seeking to see it in the light of what the appropriate approach must be for the Church to progress in His Plan and Sovereign Thought.

We have looked at a number of Scriptures that speak of the Majesty, the Magnificence, the Solemnity, the Sovereignty of our Lord God Most High.

And beyond doubt, it has led us to ‘the fear of the Lord’ - that awe and wonder - in response to His Greatness.

This makes us all the more careful of the tendency that is so easy to fall into.  

It is that of trivializing God, of cheapening His grace, of becoming absorbed in our own ‘spirituality’. 

It is trying to make ‘spirituality’ a goal to ourselves, rather than becoming more and more transformed by the renewing of our minds, through Christ Jesus in looking at His Majestic Greatness. 

This will be our point of meditation tonight.

When we stop to consider that He it is Who has given us a taste of Eternity in Himself and the far-exceeding greatness of the Eternal, we immediately should know of that sense of utter impotence and unworthiness to be so privileged to be  cradled in His embrace.

The disciples felt this sense, no doubt, in the account of Christ’s transfiguration that ended in their reverence before Him and they saw “Jesus only”.

Jesus had taken three of them, Peter, James, and John, up to the mountain by themselves.

Moses and Elijah appeared before them and Jesus talked with them.

The glory of God overshadowed them and Jesus was transfigured before their eyes.

“His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.” (Mark 9:3)

The Matthew account reads in ch.17: 2: “...and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.”

Luke 9:29 reads: “And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.”

This is spoken of this one moment of heavenly glory that was manifested to these disciples.

They were privileged to see Jesus Christ in a quick and limited glimpse of His Eternal Glory.

It was a magnificent view that would, one day, prompt Peter, James, and John to marvel at the self-humiliation that brought Jesus to earth to serve and to save.

And, it would also prompt these men to glance a little at the majestic, elevated height in which He is now seated in His Sovereign heavenly Court.

What glory - what majesty - what splendor they were privileged to experience in this fleeting moment!
John could not help but write about it in John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”

And Peter testified in 2. Peter 1:16-17: “We were eye witnesses of His majesty...He received honor and glory from God the Father.”

Oh, the glory - the glory of the only begotten of the Father - the glory in the face of Jesus Christ!

We fall on our faces before Him in such a moment and are still before Him in wonder and awe!

But, then, we look at the response at such a glorious time: “Let us make three tabernacles: one for you, Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

And while the disciple was still making the proposal, there is a quick rebuke by a heavenly voice: “This is My Beloved Son...listen to Him.”

And the three trembled in fear before Him - in the right kind of fear, that fear that ought to be in the presence of that which is holy and filled with such glorious majesty.

Peter, well meaning as he was, tried to lay hold of the glory on the mountain. 

He offered to build tabernacles, to memorialize the spot and the occasion forever as man would do things.

He was ready to do it by putting Moses and Elijah on equal footing with the Lord Jesus.

He was quick to trivialize the one Sacred, Incomparable, Divine Gift to man that would bring the Infinite down on man’s terms.

In the middle of this incomparable, divine glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the disciple proposed to compromise the uniqueness of God’s own Son.

And, the Lord God could not let that pass by.

The one thing He jealously guarded in the case of the earthly life of Jesus was that whatever Christ was, it was always in the satisfaction of the ‘spiritual.

There was nothing in His earthly life that was anything but ‘spiritual’.

There was nothing that could be taken hold of naturally or temporally to credit Him with particular value and importance, as man would like to do.

Whatever Christ is in value is ‘spiritual’, and far, far above the temporal, the fleeting, the natural.

This guarding of the Sovereign God’s thought in Christ has never changed.

It is, even yet, which makes the base, unsound trivializing of the majesty of Jesus Christ and the Sovereignty of the Eternal God a growing concern which the Church must face today, as well.

‘Since’, as Hebrews 12:28-29 says, “...we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”, - the Church, then, has been ordained to worship Him aright, in the “beauty of His holiness”.

And this rules out the trivializing of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And even His name and the righteousness found in Him cannot be subjected to our current ideologies and lingoes.

Some of the O.T. priests were found guilty of this very problem.

The Lord God challenged them in the insignificance they placed upon the Sovereign God.

He was supposed to be their focus in all things - take top priority in their lives before Him.

He rebuked the priests of never asking the people in their straying from the living God: “Where is the Lord?” (Jer.2:8); in all of your wanderings from Him? How are you figuring Him into your scheme of things? 

Here, in the transfiguration of Christ before this small company of men, He graciously gave the antidote for this constant neglect in spiritual matters.

It was to be, from this moment onward, through the only Sacred, Divine Provision of His - “Jesus only”.

God made it clear - very, very clear - that it would be through His Son that His Majesty and His regal Character would transcend all things that would not be made subject to the insignificant, to the mundane.

In Him, in His Presence, in His full character, there is no room for trivialities, no room for clamoring for new and exotic entertainment from heaven, nor room for moralists who would anxiously pass off philosophies upon men that put men in charge of their own salvation and their own spiritual growth.

God’s majestic revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ cannot be brought down to man’s level.

Spirituality, God’s intended mind for His People, is an all too-wonderful thing!

His heart has designed it so that the image of His Son alone would constitute the spirituality of the Church’s heart in His own uniqueness and glory.

And He has given the test to which one can always measure one’s spirituality, if one is so inclined.

Very simply, it is, found in Col 3:10-11, in having “...put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created Him...”, for “...Christ is all in all.”

The measure to which He becomes “all in all” is the measure of growth in spirituality, and nothing else.

Can we, more and more, say of our personal walk before Him, “Christ is all in all”?

The end must always be “Jesus only”.

That was the message revealed by God, - the all-important revelation, - to these men, to all who seek the highest spiritual measure in this earthly journey.

There are so many who yearn for an understanding of the things of God - a hunger that seems to be increasing, even among the young people of today.

‘Where are the answers? Who can tell us?’ they cry.

The transfiguration of Christ that day on the mountain is the answer to these hungry inquiries. 

It is in “Jesus only!”, the full revelation of God Himself, His unique Son - “listen to Him”!

It is the spiritual value of Christ that God was so jealously guarding.

It is the only ‘spirituality’ that will satisfy fully the hunger of the hungry.

John understood it beautifully in John 3:30-31: later on:
 
“He must increase, but I must decrease.

He Who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. 

He Who comes from heaven is above all.”

This is the road God has designed for spiritual development to “...grow up in all aspects into Him, Who is the Head, even Christ,...” (Eph.4:15)
 
He is not ‘earthly’. - He is our ‘spirituality’.

His Son is being formed in each of His own, and then, the Church houses Him in fullness for He is the Church’s ‘spirituality’.
When one looks at the Church’s history down through the past generations, the term ‘spirituality’ is not easily accepted, in fact, it is often looked at in contempt.

This is because, very often, it has developed and degenerated into a state of selfishness, arrogance, even to violence and hostility.

How does this happen?

That is simple enough to answer.

Spirituality is always in danger of self-absorbtion, of becoming so intrigued with soulical matters that God is treated as a mere accessory to our experience.

It always happens, either in an individual sense or in a corporate sense, when the Gospel becomes a convenient text for occasional reference.

It happens when we take the Gospel out of ‘Gospel’ and use ourselves as the basic and authoritative text for ‘spirituality’.

It happens when we make ourselves the ‘governing text’.

Nowadays, that text inhales much of the world’s ideas of how life is lived and makes Jesus Christ, Who is the Life, not lived at all.

It happens when the unsurpassing excellence of the glory  of Jesus Christ is viewed as a memorial that is set up along side of ourselves.

That happens when we make ourselves the content of ‘spirituality’.
God, revealed in Jesus Christ, is the content of spiritual life.

The Lord Jesus is the Revelation of God. 

“This is My beloved Son...listen to Him.” came the heavenly voice when the disciples wanted to make the ‘heavenly’ ‘earthly’.

Face to face with such an awesome revelation demanded the awesome response in the worship in holiness and adoration alone.

That is the kind of attention His disciples are to give Him.

The content of a spiritual life and learning, the miracle of spiritual sight, stood before them.

He was there for the drinking in of this amazing sight, for seeing Him alone as the revelation of God in Him.

It was a God-given miracle, the miracle of sight given to the eyes of their hearts - that which they had never seen before.

And, oh, how the Church has benefited from their seeing - not right away, - but later on when it became so clear to these men.

It was where spiritual life for them began - in their ‘seeing’ Him clothed in majesty and robed in the splendor of His glory.

As we each have seen His glory, personally, we have increasingly recognized the revelation of His glory to our hearts.

That came only in a true, unreserved yieldedness to Him,  in which His glory could, in no way, become trivialized, for this is what leads on to His becoming “all in all” to each one of us.

And as His Body, we can only go on in the same way, to see “Jesus only”, the full revelation of God before us.

Seeing Jesus in His glory is the Supreme glory of the Church.

This miracle of spiritual sight - of seeing “Jesus only” - is the foundation of the life of the Church, and it is on that foundation that spirituality evolves and attends to its ordained mission.

Oh, how blessed is the Church that sees “Jesus only” as the ‘Supreme’ in all things, that unique Divine Person - God’s Son!

Its spirituality comes only directly from heaven that makes it a matter not to be taken lightly.

The Church, then, becomes extremely, solely, dependent upon Christ and the miracle of His transfiguration before it.

It is entirely dependent upon Him for every bit of ‘seeing’ that is yet to be afforded to the Church in this new dispensation.

Every fragment of truth, every work that has yet to be done, in and through the Church, is done, then, in His power alone.

And there is nothing trivial or earth bound about it.

The Church now sees what Peter, James, and John could not instantly see that day - the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And it will certainly not trivialize that glory by erecting its own monuments of self-absorbing ideologies and tacky lingoes that cheapen His grace with any absurd claims to ‘spirituality’.

Rather, it will give the Church that one end and desire that envigorates its heart and sets and keeps it on the right path to spirituality, that of seeing “Jesus only”!

It is that blessing of His brilliant glory in the Church to which we humbly bow with reverence and fear.

In closing, let me repeat a statement I made a moment ago, for all of us to earnestly meditate in His presence.

‘The miracle of ‘spiritual sight’ - of seeing “Jesus only” - is the foundation of the life of the Church, and it is on that foundation that ‘spirituality’ evolves and attends to its ordained mission.’

So, go before the Lord with an open heart, and may I suggest, reading Ephesians, chapter 4, in the light of this message, and let Him minister to you. 

Would you, please, join me now in singing: #181

Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see Jesus.
To reach out and touch Him to say that I love Him.
Open my ears, Lord, and teach me to listen.
Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see Jesus. 

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”  (Heb.13:20-21)