Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
David commands the people of God to worship the LORD with reverence (Ps 2.11) and all God’s people are summoned to worship at His footstool (Ps 132.7). The heavenly worshipers fall down before the throne and worship God who lives forever and ever (Rev 4.10) exclaim His worthiness to receive glory, honor and power (Rev 4.11). God must be worshiped! He will be worshiped! In this brief essay, some brief phrases elaborating on worship will be expounded.
1. God deserves worship!
None is so worthy to receive worship than infinite Creator of the universe and the Almighty King over every moment. God created time and yet works within time. He made all things and has sovereign authority over all His creation. He knows everything and indeed nothing can be hidden from His omniscient, watchful, perfect, scrutinizing eye. He made all and he shows mercy to all! He created and He calls! He predestined and He pardons sinners. He crafted the plan of all time, He executes the plan according to His decree, and He will consummate every detail of that plan to ensure that all will come to pass just as He wills. None deserves worship besides the one, true and living God. Many make the claim to be a god; but only one possesses the exclusive prerogative of God. Many wish they would be god; but only one rules over heaven and earth as God. Thus, God deserves worship. Not so much for what He has done but supremely and gloriously for who He is. He is infinitely worthy of and deserving of worship!
2. God demands worship!
God commands all men everywhere to repent and trust in Christ since God will judge the world through Jesus Christ (Acts 17.30-31). Speaking to wayward Israel, Yahweh speaks to His people through the mouthpiece of His prophet Ezekiel and demands that they repent and turn away from their idols (Ezek 14.6). Another prophet in line with the heralds of the Old Testament was John the Baptist who cried and commanded for all to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 3.2). Jesus came preaching that very same demand for all to repent (Matt 4.17). God tells those given to sin to repent (Rev 2.16) and even to be zealous and repent (Rev 3.19). He demands that all people turn from sin and come to Him in saving faith and by turning from idols. He does not ask people to worship Him. He demands that all worship Him. For He alone deserves it and He alone will receive it gloriously and happily. He requires that His people do not worship any other God for the LORD, whose Name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Ex 34.14). Thus, God mightily and mercifully demands worship from all creatures.
3. God delights in worship!
God delights in the people of God who worship Him (Ps 22.8). God delights in the man whose way is in accord with His Word (Ps 37.23). The servant of the LORD who obediently did the will of the Lord delighted in the Lord and the LORD delighted in Him (Isa 42.1). Nothing so delights the heart of God than making much of His own name, fame and renown. He is supremely glorious, infinitely marvelous, eternally full of holiness, and always exacting perfect righteousness. He delights perfectly and purely in Himself. All who delight in Him and in His character enjoin themselves in the perfect delight of God: in Himself. God takes great delight when His people worship Him. He is enthroned upon the praises of Israel (Ps 22.3). He sits enthroned above the cherubim (Ps 99.1) and thus all must fall and worship at His footstool (Ps 99.5). Thus, that which brings the greatest and purest delight to God is when His people take joy in that which makes Him the most joyous, namely, making much of Himself and delighting in Himself.
4. God delivers to worship!
Jesus called Levi out of his life of sin and summoned him to leave everything and Levi submitted, surrendered everything, and obeyed by following Christ (Luke 5.27-28). God predestines men from before the beginning of time so that they would praise Him throughout all eternity. He secures the salvation of sinners so that they would become singers of His redemption. When He saves a sinner and when He grants them a new nature at the moment of the new-birth, that newly regenerated sinner with his new nature granted to him by God has a driving desire to worship God, praise God, speak of God, proclaim his God, and disseminate the truth of God. God delivers His people not for them to contain it and hold the message in but for them to cast themselves forth and proclaim the message from the housetops. Saved sinners sing loudly! Let the redeemed of the Lord say that the lovingkindness of the LORD is everlasting and that the LORD Himself is good (Ps 107.1-2). God calls His people out of darkness into His marvelous light so that they would proclaim the glories of Him (1 Pet 2.9). The world of heaven is populated by sinners who have been delivered by the blood of Christ and who have worshiped Christ on earth and who join with countless multitudes in heaven to perfectly worship the Lamb in glory!
5. God defies false worship!
God adores true worship because He alone deserves true worship. When any of God’s creatures worship anything or anyone other than Him alone, it is idolatry. When people adore creation or other creatures more than the Creator, God declares that it is abominable sin. God will destroy all false worshipers. All those who refuse to bow the knee to Christ and acclaim Him as sole Savior and trust in Him alone as the perfect atonement will receive His just judgment in hell. God deserves perfect worship so He thus defies all false worship! But false worship does not include merely the bowing down to a wooden carving. The act of idolatry may also entail the worship of the one true God but thinking of him wrongly, viewing him incorrectly, or seeing him insufficiently. If one sees the God of the Bible (that is, the one and only true God) as a God merely of love rather than a God of perfect justice and righteousness, that is idolatry. It is the worship of the one true God yet God is worshiped improperly because He is viewed incorrectly. This is why the Word of God must inform the minds of believers so that the worship of God is Word-filled, Christ-exalting, and God-magnifying. All idolaters will be judged by God and all rebels will be cast into hell to receive God’s eternal sentence of divine justice. The reason that God hates all false worship is because He passionately enjoys and supremely deserves pure worship. Therefore, since He deserves all true worship, He hates all false worship just as much as he loves all true worship!
6. God decrees eternal worship!
Heaven is a world of worship! That which will saturate heaven for millions of ages to come is the endless, loud, triumphant, and happy worship of the Triune God. God Himself speaks of heaven as a place of joy and it is a world of worship (Matt 25.21; Rev 22.3). God’s slaves will serve Him forever and ever in the New Heavens and the New Earth (Rev 7.15; 22.3). God decrees that worship will take place forevermore in glory. Worship will take many forms. Heaven will include singing to God, serving the Lord, remembering His worth, beholding the very face of God, adoring the work of Christ the Lamb at Calvary, marveling at the eternal decrees of God, enjoying nearness and sweet fellowship with other believers, and serving the Lord and working for Him. Indeed, heaven is a world of sinless worship! God decrees that heaven will be a world of whole worship; that is, worship will not fade away, it will not be partial, nor will the worshiper be plagued with distractions like often occurs here in this age. God gloriously wills that heaven will be a place where blood-bought worshipers stand before the Throne and live with saturated minds focused on Christ, enflamed hearts in love with God, and happy lives serving the Lord doing His will. Believers must continually and resolutely set their hearts on this future day which will certainly come to pass. Neglecting to remember this future certainty opens the door to discouragement, depression, and a sort of myoptic-focus — that is, a near sightedness. Live with an eye on heaven. Remember that God’s worth should prompt our worship. As it will take place in heaven, so believers should engage in and delight in that eternal praise even now!
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