Now how do we serve God in His glorious presence? One thing
is to serve the
Lord is to bring to Him praise and thanksgiving and adoration with great
joy and exuberance
by Dr Joseph Pipa
At the Greenville Seminary Conference in Taylors, South Carolina on
March
11, 2003 Dr. Joseph Pipa, President of Greenville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary and professor of historical and systematic theology, spoke Tuesday
evening on the purpose of worship.
In his introductory remarks, Dr. Pipa reminded that in order to understand
anything well, one must be acquainted with its nature and its purpose.
Whether it be something mechanical or even mental, if we don't understand
the nature and the purpose of a thing, we really cannot profit from it.
Dr.
Pipa gave the example of early computer users thinking the "cup-holders" on
their computers were not working properly and then discovering that the
reason they didn't work as expected was that they weren't in fact cup
holders but CD drives. The same is surely true about worship, he said,
and
the reason we are in the midst of worship wars is largely the result
of our
having lost sight of the nature and purpose of worship. If we are going
to
have reformation in worship today, we are going to have to recapture
the
biblical purpose for worship. To begin to do so, Dr. Pipa directed
attention to Psalm 100.
Coming at the climax of the Messianic Kingdom Psalms, Psalm 100 summons
us
into the presence of the LORD and describes to us the nature and purpose
of
worship. Because of who God is and what He does, we are to come into
His
presence with the service of corporate worship. The Psalm itself is divided
into two parts each with a command to worship and each with a foundation
or
basis for that command. Consequently, from this Psalm, we can observe
three
things: 1) the duty of worship, 2) the purpose of worship, and 3) the
basis
for worship.
THE DUTY OF WORSHIP
In addressing the topic of the duty of worship, Dr. Pipa called attention
to the Psalm summoning us to worship Him, acknowledging that in one sense,
all of life is worship. However, the commands of worship here are corporate
commands addressed plurally. The summons is to worship God in a corporate
capacity. We are to worship him privately and in our families and in
all we
do, but the commands given in Psalm l00 are a call to the corporate worship
of all people. It is an address to the nations, commanding all the world
to
worship Him. "Every individual who ever has or is or shall live
on the face
of this planet has the responsibility to worship God," said President
Pipa.
We have been made in His image, and thus we have been made to give Him
glory. "All of the creation was made for God's glory, as we well
know," he
stated. Birds singing and trees budding are giving glory to God, praising
their Creator, doing that which God created them to do. Adam and Eve
were
not only to glorify God in behavior, but they were to offer intelligent
glory and praise to God. As the crown of the creation, they were the
choir
directors of all the rest. Adam's rebellion was his refusal to give glory
to God and worship Him.
Man, the only creature made in God's image, the only one who could think
God's thoughts after Him, is the one who suppresses the revelation of
God
and gives glory to gross creatures rather thin to Him. That is the
chronicle of human history and is the most serious offense of all mankind
and every individual - the refusal to honor God as God. Addressing all
who
may not be Christians, Dr. Pipa stated, "I want you to understand
tonight
if you're not a Christian, and I'm sure there are some here tonight who
are
not Christians, that this is your greatest offense."
With respect to the outward acts of the law, he continued, you may not
be a
gross sinner. "But your worst sin, your most reprehensible act of
rebellion
against God is your refusal to come to Him in Christ Jesus and to worship
Him according to His Word. And for that, you should be judged more sorely
than Sodom and Gomorrah in all of her wickedness, for you refusal to
give
glory to the creator." You have a responsibility, President Pipa
pled, to
do homage to the Lord Jesus Christ. "And there is none more lovely
than
this Savior who calls you unto Himself. These Messianic Psalms anticipate
Christ's coming, and they are in light of His coming, a call to the nations
to shout joyfully unto the Lord and come before Him. And He has come,
you
see, and He is the one who is being exalted now in the praises of His
church from the rising to the setting of the sun."
Dr. Pipa described the sun rising on the Lord's Day with hour after hour,
from far East across the globe, God's people rising corporately to praise
Him because the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered and died and has been
risen
from the dead and sits on His throne and rules. This, said Dr. Pipa,
is why
we send missionaries - to bring worship to God from throughout the earth
that He might have praise and honor from all people from every tongue
and
tribe over the entire planet.
After addressing all the earth in Psalm 100, God then addresses us, His
covenant people. All are responsible to worship God, but it is our glorious
privilege that we have been redeemed, sought by God, brought into the
Covenant as His gathered people that we might worship Him in spirit and
truth. God's command to Pharaoh through Moses was to "Let my people
go,
that they may serve me!" It is for this, for the purpose of worship,
that
God has saved us. It is our distinguishing mark as Christians that we
are
the people who have been redeemed and instructed and know how to worship
God. "This is a glorious privilege, my friends! Delight in this
great
purpose of redemption!"
THE PURPOSE OF WORSHIP
Secondly, Dr. Pipa addressed the topic of the purpose of our worship.
We
are to serve God in worship. It is an act of service performed of God's
children unto Him. Worship is work. Thus, as you approach any other job,
you need to think about it and study it enough to do it and increase
in
your skill and ability to do this work. "But the most precious part
of
this," said Dr. Pipa, "is where this work is performed. It
is performed in
the special presence of God." We are told to "come before Him,
to enter His
gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise." God dwelt
in the
Holy of Holies in Jerusalem and was enthroned in the midst of His people
in
the temple. Thus, when they were to come before His presence, that was
most
fully realized for them in coming to the temple. But, who is our temple?
It
is the one who said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days, I
will
rebuild it" Jesus Christ is our temple and has entered into the
Holy of
Holies on our behalf. The veil has been torn apart so that we have free
access into Heaven. When we come before His presence as we worship, we,
in
a mysterious manner, because of union with Christ, are lifted up into
Heaven. We are transported into the throne room of Heaven in the presence
of the King and of angels and the souls of just men made perfect, and
that
is where we have our transactions with God
Now how do we serve God in His glorious presence? One thing is to serve
the
Lord is to bring to Him praise and thanksgiving and adoration with great
joy and exuberance. We are to revel in the greatness of our God. Much
of
Reformed worship today has become boring, the professor stated, not because
we don't have the right things, but because our hearts are disengaged
and
we don't come into the Lord's presence with joy and exuberance.
Another aspect of serving the Lord is to have communion with Him. We
come
there to gaze on Him, to "know that the Lord is God." We come
into His
presence to enter into a sweet communion, to gaze on His loveliness as
He
reveals Himself to us in the parts of worship - the Word read and preached
and sung and recited in our creeds and in the sacraments. And as we see
Him
revealed to us, we then respond with our prayers and through our hymns
and
Psalms and the humble hearing of His word read and preached. It is two
way
communication. When you come to partake of the Lord's Supper, He says
to
you personally, 'You're mine. I have forgiven you of your sins. Walk
boldly
in me." And our hearts run out to Him in response to the manifestation
of
His love and favor, and through corporate worship, communion occurs between
the worshiper and God.
Furthermore, edification is an outworking of communion with God. The
means
of grace are the Word, prayer, and sacraments, and though the Word and
prayer are used privately, there is much greater blessing in using them
corporately. As we commune with God, He is working in us, sanctifying
us,
mortifying our sin, and conforming us to the image of the Son, so that
worship is then for us edifying.
There are two important messages that must be driven home. The first
is
that out worship must be God-centered. If it is to fasten attention on
God
and to adore and praise Him and have communion with Him, it is obvious
the
worship must be God-centered. And this is one of the places we've gone
astray today; we're confused about worship because we "approach
worship as
'What am I going to get out of it, and what kind of buzz am I going to
have; am I going to leave self-affirmed, feeling good about myself? Am
I
going to be moved? We have come with all the wrong reasons and are asking
all the wrong questions." We shouldn't be asking what we are going
to get
out of this but what God is going to gain. How will His name be blessed
and
His loveliness portrayed? As we fasten our attention on God and seek
His
glory and commune with Him, our hearts will break We will be exuberant;
we
will rejoice with trembling; we'll serve the Lord with fear. We will
indeed
be moved from the depths of our being because we sought Him. Just as
in a
marriage relationship, if we seek our own well being, our marriages are
wrecks. But, if we seek the well being of our spouses, we find our
marriages to be fulfilling.
The second message we must learn from the purpose of worship is that
it is
by nature covenantal and not evangelistic. That is again a great mistake
that the church today is making and is the reason why so many are
departing. Everything is being defined by bringing the unconverted in
and
making the unconverted comfortable so they'll be saved. Their motives
are
great! They desire to see the lost converted. "But, I ask you this
very
simple question," said Pipa, "if an unconverted person comes
to your
worship service and leaves feeling good, who has not been present? God.
The
unconverted cannot come into the presence of God as we've described it
and
feel good or fulfilled. His conscience is going to have been scratched
with
the strong claws of the Lion of Judah. He's going to be probed. As Paul
says, he's going to fall down before the Lord, his heart made naked and
bare before God. And then God saves them that way. We are so foolish
to
take that which is God's and profane it and adulterate it to try to package
it for the world." We are changing God's glorious and holy celebration
into
an outreach enterprise, and He is no longer the center of attention;
he's
no longer honored and glorified in our worship.
If we are going to worship well, we must recover these purposes of worship
and their principles. As we do, our worship will become increasingly
God-centered and covenantal. We must not ignore the unconverted in our
midst and we should explain and translate to them using rubrics; but
we
must structure our worship for God.
THE BASIS OF WORSHIP
Finally, we must think of the foundation or basis for our worship. The
exuberant worship that the Psalmist describes flows out of the keen,
personal knowledge of God as He reveals Himself to us in scripture. We
must
know who He is, that He is the creator, and that He is our God. We are
His
people and the sheep of His pasture. God is good and compassionate, and
He
loves us, not in condemnation but in goodness and loving kindness,
faithfulness and purity. This is why we worship Him, coming into His
presence with thanksgiving for who He is and what He has done;
We often fail to worship properly, Dr. Pipa admonished, because we haven't
taken the time to savor the goodness of God. He has given us the Sabbath
to
exercise this privilege, but we too often fail to make use of the gift.
Many dread or neglect worship, especially evening worship. Why in the
world, if we had a gripping view of the beauty and glory and privilege
that
is ours to enter into His courts with thanksgiving, would we ever want
to
do anything but worship Him when we have the chance? May God grant to
you
and me the continued growth in grace to worship Him with skill, to worship
Him in some small way in the way He has instructed. Amen.
[as reported in "Presbyterian and Reformed News", January-March
2003.
www.presbyteriannews.org]
