Christ's purpose in dying was to transform non-worshippers into true worshippers who worship God in spirit and truth. Natural man worships the creature rather than the Creator, as indicted in Romans 1. Genuine worship is challenged by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and can be hindered by self-will, worldliness, and a critical spirit. Worldliness involves leaving God out of pleasures, people, places, or pursuits, and a critical spirit is a fault-finding attitude that occupies the believer with others instead of the Lord. The remedy for these hindrances includes self-judgment, a determination to honor God, apology, prayer for one another, and genuine love, leading to a restored soul, enlarged capacity for God, and a free spirit.
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I invite you to turn to the gospel by John chapter seventeen. John's gospel chapter seventeen. And we want to read verse eleven, verses fourteen, and verse fifteen. John seventeen is our Lord's high priestly prayer, prayed on the night in which he was arrested and betrayed by Judas. And now he says, verse eleven, I am no more in the world. But these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep to thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
Verse twelve, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. but the Son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them. Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word.
Let's pray together. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that we can come into thy presence and ask and receive. We thank you that you're more interested in us than we are in ourselves. And often we are very dull to understand that which you're seeking to do in us and through us. Make us aware, O God, of thine infinite love and thy continuous care for your people. We ask you to work in and through each of us, that which is well-pleasing in thy sight. Deliver us, O God, from anything that would hinder.
Help us, O Lord, to see the importance of worship. and how it can be hindered, and how you delight in our coming to you. And we'll thank you in the name of thy dear Son, who provided divine righteousness for us by his impeccable life and through his death and resurrection at Calvary. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the purposes for which Christ died on the cross of Calvary's Hill was to transform non-worshippers into worshipers.
The problem with natural man is that he worships and serves the creature rather than the creator. That is God's indictment of man in Romans chapter one. And we examine the foundation that the scripture lays for acceptable worship in the presence of God. And we examine this from Romans chapter eight and verse thirty four, where the question is raised concerning the believer's relationship to the Lord that can never be broken. The question is raised, who is he that condemneth? And the answer is given. It is Christ that died.
That means redemption. Who is even risen again from the dead? And that's relationship. Who is even at the right hand of God. And that is representation. Now because worship in a genuine way blesses the heart of God. It will never go unchallenged by the enemy. And the enemy challenges us when it comes to genuine worship. And we must be conscious. and we must be assured that the enemy is going to seek to hinder our worship of the Lord.
Now there are three enemies that we as believers have and they work together. There is the infernal enemy, Satan himself, the devil, the accuser, the dragon. We have the external enemy, the world. And we have the internal enemy, the flesh. Now, these experiences of being hindered by the world, the flesh, and the devil are not only personal things that will attack us when we would personally and privately worship the Lord, but they will hinder the public worship of the child of God in the assembly of the saints.
And if we think that Satan is not to hinder the spiritual worship of the people of God. We're wrong. And anything that would seek to hinder the spiritual worship of the child of God should be avoided by the believer. And we've been looking at hindrances to worship. Last Sunday night, I dealt with one. and we called it self-will. And we looked at it in the theme of Leviticus chapter ten, the sin and the death of Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron, who offered strange fire before the Lord, and God killed them.
And then we looked at Nadab and Abihu in the light of the new covenant, where Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts chapter five, basically did the same thing in the church and God dealt likewise with them tonight we want to look at two more hindrances to worship the passage that we read from John chapter seventeen has one word that appears time and time again it is the word world the world in verse eleven our Lord says that we are in the world, but he is not. He sees himself in this high priestly prayer as he is now in the presence of God, occupied for us as the people of God.
And he says, I'm no longer in the world, but my people are in the world. And he prays that we would be kept from the world, from having the world system dominate us. So what we want to look at as a hindrance to worship tonight is worldliness. Worldliness is the sum total of all those things in the world from which God is left off. They could be pleasures, it could be people, it could be places, it could be pursuits. And any of those categories If God is left out, it is worldly.
Now the child of God is in the world. This is what our Lord prayed. And in verse fifteen he prayed that we wouldn't be taken out of the world. And if we're not to be taken out of the world, it is the will of God that you and I should live in the world. And there's only one way to live in the world, and that's physical. physically we live in the world this is our abode in other words I learned from verse fifteen it is the will of God for me to live physically and I don't need to be scared about living physically every day of my life I can live it to the full because I'm not going to die before my time it is the will of God that I live physically in the world I'm not going to do anything foolish You see, that could bring on a problem.
Because thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. We need to be balanced. But what a blessing it is to realize that it is the will of God for me to live. And I can go into every day with this knowledge. I am living today because it is the will of God for me to live. And I'm going to live until the Lord Jesus prays a second prayer concerning me. At the end of the chapter, Father, I will, that they who know I've given me be with me where I am. And when he answers that prayer, I'm going to leave. And I'm going to leave to be in the presence of God. Now this is great comfort.
We are in the world. But while we are in the world, this text in John chapter says, we are not of the world. You're not of the world. And we, as a people of God, must remember that. Now the worldling, on the other hand, is of the world, worldly. The worldling not only lives in the world, but he lives for the world. This world system directs his steps. His steps are not ordered by the Lord. His steps are ordered by the world.
The worldlings' life is lived with no reference to God, no reference to the Word of God, and no reference to eternal reality. That is the attitude of the worldlings. Now we who are saved were all worldlings at one time. We were. some to more of an extent than another. Because when someone is saved like David Hines at five years old, or someone like me who was saved as a boy, we don't drift into the world as far as someone who gets saved when they're thirty-five and have lived in sin and in various lusts and pleasures that the world has.
But we were all worldlings to one extent or another. But we have been awakened by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has awakened us. And Galatians chapter one and verse four says that Christ has delivered us from this present evil world. And wherever that present evil world is, it could be in Burlington. He has delivered us from Burlington. Or he has delivered us from Neban. Or he has delivered us from wherever we may live. But not in Christ. has reference to us as a new creation, as part of the new covenant. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
Now, the time came that Paul in Second Timothy chapter four and verse ten had a right. Demas have forsaken me, having loved his present world. Worldliness will hinder genuine worship of God. On the other hand, in Second Timothy chapter four, Paul says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord shall give unto me at that day, but not to me only, but unto all them also who love his appearing.
Deem us when you read the final chapter in Colossians. We find his name present. and he was useful to the Apostle. But when it comes later on, worldliness captured his heart and his worship and his usefulness to God is gone. Worldliness can hinder our worship. Now the Apostle John, in the first epistle of John, he warned believers of the appeal that the world has to them and that the world has for them.
Look at First John chapter two and verse fifteen, where the apostle says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away. And the desires thereof, the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abides it forever. Let me quote what I said on Wednesday night. I'd rather be a failure in that which is going to succeed than be a success in that which is ultimately going to fail.
The world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abides it forever. And while we all fail as the people of God, for when we have done everything that we were told to do, we must confess that we are unprofitable servants. But I'd rather be a failure in that which is sure to succeed than to be a success in that which is sure to fail. The world passeth away and the desires thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now you can't confine worldliness in our thoughts to the visible and the outward manifestation of it.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, and these many things may never be outwardly noticed in a believer. And they may never even be suspected. by a fellow believer. They can be artfully concealed, and they can be in an abundant measure in each of us. Worldliness, friends, is a subtle thing. It consists of thought and attitude, as well as outward behavior. And we can be so...
well organized in our own life that we can conceal these things. But whether it's in thought or whether it's in behavior in the child of God, it will hinder us in our worship of the Lord. And when we're thinking of hindrances to worship, worldliness is one of them. Turn with me please to the book of Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six and verse fourteen where the apostle Paul says but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world here in this text in Galatians six the apostle Paul shows two princes The cross on the one hand and the world on the other.
And it appears that each one can be so honored in accordance with its purpose. The cross and the world. And Paul says, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me. and I to the world. I turn my back on the world and before me is the person of Christ and the cross of Jesus Christ. Worldliness is a hindrance to worship and the very attitude of it.
The attitude of worldliness we may be confined old I'm a Christian and I can't do that and all the while have a desire to do it on the inside. And with that desire on the inside to do it, how can I genuinely worship the Lord? How can I say, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, when inward they are glorying in the world? It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You see, the message from the book of James, in James chapter one and verse twenty-seven, that practical New Testament book, he tells the believer to keep themselves unspotted from the world.
The world will spot your garments. So is a thought there in the book of James. Now, that is not isolation, friends. The Lord says, my people are in the world. We don't get to crawl in a monastery somewhere and live like a monk. That is not the will of God. The will of God is that we live in the world, but that the world doesn't dictate our policy and that we do not serve the world and this world system. When James says, keep yourselves unspotted from the world, What he really means is this is true separation.
It is separation unto God, like Paul spoke in Galatians six. It is separation unto God, and it is determined by our occupation with a person of our Lord Jesus Christ. As I am occupied with him, I will be truly separated from the world and the world system. Hindrances to worship, not only self-will as we saw last Sunday night, in Nadab and Abihu in their strange fire, but it is worldliness in thought, it is worldliness and behavior.
Now I'd like to turn to two other passages I want to deal with another hindrance to worship. and one that I had to deal with in my own life many, many times. It's what I call a critical spirit. A critical spirit. A critical spirit is a fault-finding attitude of mind in the believer. And a fault-finding attitude in the mind of the believer is fatal to worship because it occupies the believer with a follow-believer. instead of the Lord. And it's possible to be occupied with others rather than the Lord.
A critical spirit. Now I'd like to turn to two passages. Let us note first of all Galatians chapter five. You probably are still open at Galatians from having read Galatians six. But in Galatians chapter five verse fifteen we read this. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This is written to a New Testament church. And he says, if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
Now there's a passage in the Old Testament that we want to look at. The book of Numbers, chapter sixteen. And we shall begin our reading at verse one, because this is going to occupy most of our mind on this matter of a critical spirit. The book of Numbers chapter sixteen. And we begin our readings at verse one. Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and David and Abarim, the sons of Eliab, and Un, the son of Pilate, sons of Ruben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. Now may the Lord bless these verses to us tonight. What is the problem with a critical spirit in a child of God? A critical spirit can ultimately power the whole life.
of the believer. His life can be sour. And when a person looks at things with a sensuous criticism, everything becomes distorted to his vision. He doesn't have a clear vision of Christ because his worship is hindered. He has his mind on other people and on other things. And when that happens, then other things come in and begin to work. It's when these other things come in and begin to work that pride in that person raises a sardile head. And when God raises a sardile head, something comes with it. Prejudice.
You see, then due to prejudice, he's unable to appreciate the viewpoint of others. You can't accept what someone else has to give. Because in your own soul, you're sound. And you're prejudiced toward them. So you see, instead of looking for something to commend in the other person, the critic is always looking for something to condemn instead of commend. In my we should be commending one another instead of condemning one another. Now this person demands usually much more of others than he ever does of himself and that he would be prepared to give.
of himself. A critical spirit. Now the problem with a critical spirit is this. It can spread from one person to another. A person with a critical spirit is never content to take it to the Lord and leave it there as we sing. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. We don't do that. We tell somebody else in order that we can align their thinking with our thinking. And that's the whole purpose of it. And because it spreads from person to person, this is what Paul wrote to the Galatians, that passage that we read. If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another.
Now there's a real problem that we read about in the book of Numbers, chapter sixteen. And I believe it becomes a great illustration of the critical spirit. Here we have a a large number of the men of renown, princes in Israel, Korah, David, Abiram, who were the ringleaders and their companions. Remember, the little book of Jude in the New Testament speaks of the gainsaying of Korah. On the other hand, you must remember the sons of Korah. You cannot appreciate a lot of the Psalms.
if you don't know anything about the sons of Korah. And I'll never forget when I had to teach a Sunday school lesson in a rather large church in the city in Pennsylvania, a friend of mine had me come and teach this lesson, and the preacher was in the audience. And it was on the eighty-fourth psalm. I said, now to appreciate this psalm, it's a psalm for the sons of Korah. Who can tell me who the sons of Korah were? And this man who invited me, said, Reverend, he turned to the preacher. He said, Reverend, that's a question for you. And the first thing he said was he said, I really don't know.
It was nice that he admitted that he didn't know. So the sons of Korah were just that. They were the sons of Korah. But to understand the sons of Korah, you've got to understand who Korah was. He's the man that's spoken of as a ringleader. He was a spokesman for at least two hundred and fifty-three princes in Israel. You see, they had got their group together. And he was their spokesman. Now, the sons of Korah did not enter into the sin of their father. And they became, and they were the doorkeepers in the house of God.
not a problem with Korah and these other men. They were not satisfied with a position God gave them in the service of the Lord. Korah was a Korah sight. He was a doorkeeper in the house of God. That's why in the eighty-fourth Psalm, that Psalm, it's one of the many for the sons of Korah. Psalm forty-six is one for the sons of Korah. Forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine. Those are psalms for the sons of Korah, and there are many others. For the eighty-fourth he begins, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth it changeth for the house of the Lord.
And then when he gets to the end of that psalm, he says, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Korah, David, and Abarim dwell in the tents of wickedness. But the psalmist said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper. I'd rather have the job God gave me that dwell there. That's what he's saying. And then he says, why? For the Lord God is a son in shield. He will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly. So the sons of Korah are young men who separated themselves from the sin of their fathers.
And God spared them. And God blessed them. And all you need to do is read the Psalms. And especially that forty-ninth. I'm not going to go. If I get out on a limb on the forty-ninth Psalm, it'll take a while. So Korah and his companions notice. Or notice what he did. He accused Moses of lifting himself above. the congregation of the Lord. That's what he says, you see, in the end of verse three. You have lifted up yourself above the congregation of the Lord.
And notice, it is in the plural, not yourself, but yourselves. Now, that needs to be explained. Moses was God's chosen leader, but God selected of the tribe of Levi. Cora was a Levi. But he, God did not select the family of the Colossae, but he selected the family of Aaron for the priesthood. And what he's really doing is saying, Moses, you had no right to select Aaron and his four sons as a priesthood in Israel. That is what he's saying.
You see, You have lifted up yourselves. It's like he was accusing Moses of nepotism. You see, giving his family the first place, that's what he's accusing Moses of. But it wasn't Moses who did the selecting. It was God who did it. And when we realize that, You see, we see the awfulness of their sins before the Lord. Now God immediately moved upon the scene. You see what Moses did in verse four.
Moses fell upon his face. Moses was a humble man. The word of God says that Moses was the meekest man of all men upon the face of the earth. He was a man who wasn't scared to go into the mightiest monarch of Israel and say, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go. That was a man whom God said was the meekest man upon the face of the earth. God knew his heart. God knew the heart of Moses. Now, what did God do? Well, let me just say very quickly, God vindicated Moses.
in two ways. First, with a miracle of Aaron's rod that budded. That was the occasion for establishing beyond any other idea that any man may ever have or may ever have. The priesthood, an Aaron's rod that budded, declared that Israel's high priest would be associated with resurrection power. For there were dead sticks, and you have to go over to chapter seventeen to read it.
Chapter sixteen and seventeen are most interesting chapters. They laid up twelve dead sticks before the Lord. And God said the one that blossoms is the tribe I have chosen, and for the tribe of Levi, He didn't put on the stick Korah. He put on the stick Aaron and he shunned. That's why it's called Aaron's rod that budded. And when Moses went into the tabernacle of the Lord the next day, Aaron's rod budded. It blossomed and it brought forth almonds. It brought forth fruit. That's the first way in which God vindicated Moses.
But the second way... God visited judgment upon Korah, Jason, and Abram and their company. And the way he visited judgment, they did not die the death of other men. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed the tents of Korah, Jason, Abram, and their company, and they went alive down to the pit, and the earth closed their mouth again. As I studied these chapters, they sit down and wonder how the sons of Korah fell when they saw what happened to their father.
You can't read this without an imagination. I wonder what it was like to be in the camp of Israel and have the earth open their mouths and swallow the tent. and then close the mouth again and come back. It must have been an awesome scene. God vindicated his servant. Now I believe that when you come to a passage and when we think of hindrances to the worship of the Lord, worldliness is a hindrance. So is a critical spirit. And I believe there's a remedy for the critical spirit.
And if God's word would not give a remedy, we would be in bad shape as God's people. But there is a remedy, and I believe it consists of, first of all, we must realize the sinfulness and the hatefulness of a critical spirit in the sight of a holy God. It's a hateful thing before God. There's a second thing. parts of the remedy and it is self-judgment on the part of the child of God it's likely read in first Corinthians eleven concerning the Lord's Supper if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged and God gave Korah Jathan and Abarim time to judge themselves but they were so set in their way they did not submit to God.
Self-judgment is a blessing. And if you and I, in fact, that's one of the purposes in the weekly gathering of the Lord's Supper, to judge ourselves in order that we can worship indeed in spirit and in truth. I think there's a third part of the remedy. The third part is a determination not to allow this attitude in the life again to mean business with God. And then there's a fourth part, an apology for those who have been grieved by your actions. And that leads us to something very important, which is a fifth part, the ability to pray for one another.
Prayer for one another. And that leads us to the final part that I believe is a remedy, and that is a spirit of genuine love for one another. Why? Well, first of all, when you read First Corinthians, the qualities of love, love thinketh no evil. Love thinketh no evil. And then Furthermore, it says, love endures all things. Now that brings us to resolve. You see, when it comes to a hindrance to worship, and I find that I have it and I deal with it, there's going to be a result that flows from it.
And it's a good result. Number one, the soul is restored. Psalm twenty three says, he restores my soul. Now there's no need for a psalmist to write that if his soul had never gone astray. You see, he restores my soul. That doesn't mean that the man was lost, by the way. But he was out of fellowship as a child of God. And he couldn't worship a right because his own soul was not in the right condition before God. And the psalmist could say, he restores my soul. And the The whole of that psalm is a psalm of the shepherd who restores the soul of his people, who leads his people, who blesses his people.
There's a second result, and that is an enlargement of our heart's capacity for God. Oh, we get a new view of God. To think that God would put up with us all the while that I had a sensuous spirit of others and he graciously led and led until he could restore. A heart capacity for God. And then there's a fourth result, a free spirit. And I like this. In the fifty-first psalm, the psalmist confesses his sin to God after he had committed adultery and murder.
and tried to cover it all up, but eventually it all came up. He says, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and in connection with that he speaks of worship for the free spirit, or the freedom of spirit in the presence of God. Free spirit, not in bondage, no longer bondage, but genuine freedom before God. And then there's a final result. And the final result is a genuine appreciation for all that Christ has done for us at the cross and what he is not doing in us as he's conforming us to the image of God's dear son.
And every one of God's people is in a state of conformity somewhere along the line because none of us have arrived. We're all in a state of conformity, and we can trust the God of all grace to lead another person and to give them hard occupation with Christ, the same as he has done for us. Who of us has not had worldly attitudes? Who of us has not had a critical spirit Who of us have not acted in self-will at one time or another?
The grace of God is truly abundant. What a blessing to take a good look at them. Take a good look at ourselves. Take a good look at the free grace of God and enjoy what God has given us, removing the hindrances and worshiping in spirit and in truth. The purpose for which Christ redeems men is that he might transform non-worshippers into worshipers. The Father seeketh worshipers. He seeketh such to worship him.
Our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in John three of the necessity of the new birth. Nicodemus was religious. While the Old Testament, especially Ezekiel thirty-six, spoke of the new birth, Nicodemus was ignorant of it. He was a leader in Israel, but he was ignorant of something very important. So our Lord dealt with Nicodemus about regeneration. But when the woman of Samaria who was living in sin, she had five husbands and she was now living with one who wasn't her husband, our Lord spoke to her about worship. and the need to be truthful, they who worship him must worship him in spirit, that free spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such they worship him. We have enemies. The enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil. And since worship is so important, we can expect these three enemies of the child of God to be active. But he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Let us worship in spirit and in truth. Again, let me say, I would rather be a failure in that which is sure to succeed than a success in that which is sure to fail.
Let's pray again. Our Father, in the name of thy dear Son, we thank you for the riches of grace. We thank you that you can receive all who come to God by these. And your reception is real. And you have given us to receive one another even as you have received us. to thine own glory. And therefore we ask you that you would remove anything that would hinder a genuine worship of thyself, that we may stand forth full and complete in all the will of God.
And that will be unspotted from the world. For this we pray in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.