Authentic Worship
To be able to worship God authentically,
we must come to know our Creator
personally as our majestic,
all powerful, eternal, and holy King.
Here's Gene:
As you look at this particular psalm,
there are attributes of God that are
listed for which we should praise Him:
The majesty of God. The power of God.
The unchangeable God. The eternality of God.
We have all of that right here in the
opening paragraph.
Notice what the psalmist wrote:
The LORD reigns!
He is robed in majesty;
The Lord is robed, enveloped in strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
Your throne has been established
from the beginning;
You are from eternity.
And there, these words are actually
describing the attributes of God.
And they're powerful statements about
who God actually is:
His majesty, His power,
His unchangeableness.
Established. That's what that means.
His eternality--without beginning, without end.
Concepts that are beyond anything we
can literally understand.
And of course, one of the things we
need to understand here, that there's
some prophetic aspects to this.
Very important prophetic aspects.
Because you see, God has never reigned
like He will reign someday.
Yes, in the Old Testament, Israel was
supposed to be a theocracy.
It didn't work because God didn't reign.
They replaced God with a king.
Any government organization today,
whether it's a dictator or whatever
system is used, even a democracy.
God has not reigned as He someday
will reign through Jesus Christ.
And so this is prophetic in relationship
to a theocracy that is to come,
a perfect environment where
Jesus Christ will reign. Probably referring to
the thousand-year reign of Christ--
after He comes back again.
Now going on, we have God's holiness.
Another great attribute.
And this is one that is--once you begin to
think about this, it's just it's humbling.
If we're thinking in terms of our humanity:
LORD, Your testimonies are completely reliable;
holiness is the beauty of Your house
for all the days to come.
All the days to come.
Thinking in terms of the fact that someday,
projecting ahead, God will reign in Jesus Christ
in all of His glory and all of His holiness.
And by the way, and not by the way,
when people got a concept of God's
holiness in the Old Testament.
Take Isaiah for an example. We read about it.
When he had a glimpse of God,
he fell on his face before God.
He says: Woe is me.
Because he was viewing himself in the light
of God's holiness. God's holiness.
Incredible concept.
Here's Paul's perspective, I believe on the
same thing that the psalmist is writing about.
He says in 1st Timothy chapter 6:
God will bring this about in His own time. ...
Now if you look at the context,
he's referring to the second coming of Christ.
He's just described the second coming of Christ:
...God will bring this about His own time.
He is the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
the only One who has immortality...
That's a description of God:
...dwelling in unapproachable light;
no one has seen or can see Him,
to Him be honor and eternal might.
The wonderful thing is that God has
revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
He came unto His own.
He revealed Himself.
And John says we have beheld His glory.
His glory through whom?
Through Jesus Christ.
When the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, we beheld God's glory,
enabling us to look on Jesus Christ. On God.
Here's a question:
Under the new covenant...
The New Testament, the day of grace, we call it:
...how does our freedom from the law
and our freedom in Christ enable us
to worship more authentically?
Well for one thing it allows us to go into
the presence of God through Jesus Christ.
We have freedom in Christ.
Galatians 5:1:
Christ has liberated us to be free. ...
Free from the law. Oh, happy condition.
Remember that old gospel song?
...Stand firm then and don't submit again
to a yoke of slavery.
We have freedom and that freedom is
to live for God.
Not to take advantage of His grace.
Not to continue in sin that grace may abound.
But the most marvelous thing is this holy God.
This God that is unapproachable, as it were,
can be approached through Jesus Christ.
And we read about that right here in a
passage of Scripture that talks about
our great high priest:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable
to sympathize with our weaknesses...
In other words, He can sympathize
with our weaknesses. Why?
...but One who has been tested in every way
as we are, yet without sin.
I can't comprehend that either.
How Jesus Christ, when He was on this earth,
was tempted in every way [that] every human
being is tempted.
I don't understand that but it says it.
And because He has been and without sin:
...Therefore let us approach the throne
of grace with boldness...
He is our intermediary.
He can identify with every temptation.
He's our great high priest:
...Therefore let us approach the throne
of grace with boldness, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help us
at the proper time.
So let me repeat that Principle.
I call it authentic worship:
To be able to worship God authentically,
we must come to know our Creator
personally as our majestic,
all powerful, eternal, and holy King.
I love the story told by Jack Hayford.
When he was visiting England with
his wife Anna in 1977.
Jack is a pastor and he was vacationing
in Great Britain.
And it was also the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth.
And of course, pomp and circumstance was everything.
You know the story in relationship to
that kind of celebration in England.
And one day as they were driving along
through the countrysides in England,
he was thinking about the king, the queen.
He was thinking about all this talk of "your majesty."
Which--when you stop and think about
that in terms of the majesty of God--
it's a little bit out of place as far as I'm concerned.
But that's another story.
I think we should give honor
to whom honor is due.
But he began to think about the majesty of God.
The majesty of Jesus Christ.
And so he began to write some words
and compose some music in his head.
And he told Anna, he said:
Write down those words. Write down those notes.
He gave her the key, and whatever,
and write it down.
And later, when he got back to the states,
He actually completed the song.
The song today is called Majesty.
And I think Jack captured the aspects of this song
but he didn't only capture the future--
when Jesus Christ will reign as
King of kings and Lord of lords.
He captured the idea, the essence that
Jesus wants to be King of kings
and Lord of lords in our hearts right now.
And we can make him King of kings
within our lives.
Not as He someday will reign but as we
serve Him and put Him first in our lives.
So as we close out this particular Principle,
I'd like to share that song with you.
Think about your own life and
your relationship with this eternal God.
[Music]
Majesty, Worship His Majesty,
Unto Jesus be all glory,
honor and praise.
Majesty, Kingdom, Authority,
Flows from His Throne, Unto His Own,
His anthem raise.
So exalt, lift up on high
The name of Jesus.
Magnify, come glorify
Christ Jesus the King.
Majesty, Worship His Majesty,
Jesus who died,
Now Glorified,
King of all Kings.
Majesty, Worship His Majesty,
Unto Jesus be all glory,
honor and praise.
Majesty, Kingdom, Authority,
Flows from His Throne, Unto His Own,
His anthem raise.
So exalt, lift up on high
The name of Jesus.
Magnify, come glorify
Christ Jesus the King.
Majesty, Worship His Majesty,
Jesus who died,
Now Glorified,
King of all Kings.
Jesus who died
Now Glorified,
King of all Kings.