Trust me I’m a preacher!
Matthew 15:2-9

Intro:
Good morning. Just a reminder that if I say anything you disagree with in the lesson please come and see me and we can look at the scriptures together.

Over the last few lessons we have had, I talked about the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation. Then we wondered what our Lord would say to the church today, discussed how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and then talked about making sure we are open and available to do God’s work. Now I’d like to take a bit of a look at worship.

I’ve told this story before so I beg your pardon. A little girl said to her mother one day, "When I grow up, I want a boyfriend who is handsome,” Her mother jokingly said, "You don't want one who is too handsome or the other girls may steal him from you," The little girl was quiet for a few moments, and then she looked at her father and asked her mother, "Is that why you chose daddy?"

Unfortunately, when it comes to worshipping God, many people choose their religion based upon something that looks good, rather than something that teaches the truth.

What picture comes to your mind when I say the word, tree? What picture comes to your mind when I say the word, car? When I asked you to picture those things in your mind, each of you probably came up with different types of trees and different types of cars.

I. Let me ask you this question. What picture comes to your mind when I say the word, worship? You see your idea of worship is probably different from the church of England’s idea of worship. Your idea of worship is probably different from the Catholic church’s idea of worship or the denominations.
a. In Matthew 4:10 - when Jesus is being tempted by the devil Jesus said, “… “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”[NKJ] Over in Revelation 22:8-9 - an angel says to John after John fell down to worship the angel, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”[NKJ]
b. The New Testament begins and ends with worship. Within The New Testament we find 4 types of worship mentioned and that’s what I want to look at today.
II. Ignorant Worship - Let’s look first at what we will call “Ignorant worship”.
a. In Acts 17 we find Paul speaking to the so-called wise men of Athens. He stood up among them and said in Acts 17:22-23 -, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:”
b. Paul goes on to tell them about God. Many people are very religious in what they do but their worship is ignorant. When I say ignorant, I mean that they are unaware of the way God wants them to worship Him. Notice the way Paul introduced God to them. He said, “Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”
c. Paul in a gentle, loving, caring way looked around at what they were doing. He saw an altar which had an inscription on it that said “To an unknown God”. Paul took advantage of that inscription. These people, who were very religious in every way, had made an altar and wrote on it, “to an unknown god”, just in case there was a god they had missed.
i. But notice how Paul did not introduce God. He did not start by saying, “Trust me I’m a preacher!” Notice also Paul didn’t go in there all guns firing; he didn’t go in there saying you are committing idolatry; you have got it all wrong! That’s because, although he knew that what they were doing was wrong, he also wanted to share the truth about God with love.
ii. Because you can’t have truth without love and you can’t have love without truth. That being said, let’s ask ourselves, do we sometimes compromise the truth with love? Maybe you’re having a conversation with someone about God and you know that the way they are worshipping is not acceptable to God, but you don’t want to offend them or sound judgmental.
d. Now folks, I need to put my hand up here and say I am guilty of that. I’ve done that, but I have also repented of that since then because I now know that just listening to other people’s reasons for worshipping God the way they do, is not going to save them.
i. I need to share the truth with them after I have listened to them. I need to show them what the Bible says about worshipping God because as we know, it’s the truth that sets them free. We need to show them what is and what is not acceptable to God as worship. Because if we don’t, we leave them with the impression that God accepts anything as worship.
III. Acceptable Worship. God has never accepted just anything from people as worship, unless it is what He asked for in the first place. Looking back to Genesis 4:3-7 - “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin lies at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." [paraphrase]
a. It was like that in the beginning and it is still the same today. If people worship God how He wants them to worship Him then God accepts that as right, but if you don’t, He sees it as sin.
b. I want to relate a story from an old book about a British warship, which was near the Bay of Biscay. The pilot of the ship came to the admiral and said: “It will be an awful night, and there is a lee shore and the wind is rising.” The admiral said to him, “Sir, you have done your duty in pointing out the danger to me. Lay me alongside of the enemy.”
i. We need to point that truth out to people, because they are in danger. Oh, I’m sure there will be people like Paul met in Athens who will just sneer at us but there will also be others who will believe.
ii. How people react to truth is not our duty, but sharing that truth with them is. You see it’s not a matter of what looks religious but a matter of will. This brings me to my next example of worship in the Bible.
IV. Will Worship. I call this one, “Will worship”. In the Book of Colossians we find an example of will worshipping. In Colossians 2 we find some people who are imposing their opinion on the saints that are at Colossae, about what is true worship of God.
a. Paul warns the Christians they are not to submit to decrees such as those in verse 21, "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" Then Paul’s answer to them gets down to the real reason as to why these things are being taught. He says in Colossians 2:22-23 -, I paraphrase: “These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
b. Paul has just described to you where most world religions go wrong. They are based on human commands and teachings and people trust them because they trust their preachers and teachers to know better. That is a big, big problem. Whose will is being done?
c. Now we find ourselves living in times where it is not so much, don’t do this or that, but anything goes. Why do you think so many charismatic groups are growing in number? Why do you think denominational churches are trying to change their views on homosexuality? They are changing because they want to give the world what the world thinks is true religion. They pander to the world.
i. I ask again, whose will is being done? It’s the will of the world, which is being done, not the will of God. When Jesus was teaching people how to pray He said in Matthew 6:9-10 - “Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”
ii. Not Tom Blackford’s will, not the will of the Pope, not the will of the congregation at Chardon but the will of God. Oh, I’m sure other religions look like they have wisdom. But Paul tells us that their worship is self-imposed and false and it’s false because it isn’t Bible based.
d. That’s how you know the difference between true worship and false worship; you test their teachings with what the Bible says. Romans 12:2 - “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” [NKJ]
i. People may think they are worshipping God the way He wants them to but spiritually they are dying. Think about what happened to Adam and Eve when they decided to approach God in the wrong way. God said to Adam in Genesis 2:17 - “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'' But they ate from the tree and they began to die, physically they were still alive a little while but spiritually they were dying.
ii. Look then at what happened to Aaron’s sons in Leviticus 10:1-2 – “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” “Aaron's sons offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. You see, God doesn’t change and His will doesn’t change either.
e. A little girl named Jane said to her mother one time, “Mom do you know that vase that you said had been passed down to you from generation to generation?” her mother said, “Yes dear.” Little Jane said, “Well mom, I’m sorry but this generation has just dropped it.”
f. That’s what’s happening in the religious world today isn’t it? The will of God, which has been passed down from generation to generation, is being dropped to accommodate the will of man. Preachers everywhere are saying, “Trust me, I’m a preacher!” And sadly so many never seem to question what they are being taught.
V. Vain Worship. Folks, we are not here to put our own thoughts forward about how we should worship God, because we already have everything we need know. We are told in 2 Peter 1:3 – and I paraphrase: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
a. We know what God wants because He has given us everything we need to know about what He wants from us in His word. That brings me to my next point, “Even what looks religious and sounds religious, may not be religious at all”. Jesus calls this, “Vain worship”.
b. In Matthew 15 we find some Pharisees and teachers of the law coming to Jesus from Jerusalem and they asked Him a question. They asked Him in Matthew 15:2-9 - "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ " [NAS]
c. Now the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law knew the scriptures, they knew what God’s will was for everyone but all they did was pay lip service. And people trusted them because they were the preachers and teachers of the Law. But they swapped the will of God for their traditions or as Jesus said, “Their teachings are but rules taught by men.”
VI. Whose Will. We have looked at some of the ways people worship God, but can you spot the common denominator in these worship styles? They all have their origins in mankind; they are aimed to please men and not God. Man substituting the will of God, for the will of man.
a. Paul said in Galatians 1:10-11 - when he was being questioned about the message he was preaching, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
b. Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, preached the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Folks, there is nothing wrong with traditions provided they don’t over rule the word of God. Tradition elevated to the status of law becomes vain.
i. Tradition said during the days of Jesus, “If a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is now a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honour his father' with it.” What Jesus says is, “'Honour your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”
ii. Tradition says, “Take your new born baby to a priest to be Christened or that baby will go to hell, if you don’t.” Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” <Matthew 18:3> <R.C Sproul vs John MacArthur>
iii. Tradition says, “We don’t need the Bible, we can worship God however we want to because He is a God of love.” Jesus says, “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” <Romans 2:7-8>
iv. Jesus said in John 4:24 - “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
VII. In Truth. Worshipping God in truth refers to worshipping God according to the instruction of God. Like the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 12:28 - “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;”
a. You see, God requires two things from us in worship. He wants our proper attitude, frame of mind and character to be spiritual. And He wants our faithfulness to the specific items which God pinpointed as the proper external acts to be performed. In other words, God wants the right attitude along with the right action. Obedience.
b. For example in John 4:24, He tells us, that He wants spirit and truth. In Joshua 24:14, He tells us, that He wants sincerity and truth. In Ecclesiastes 12:13, He tells us, that He wants us to fear God and keep His commands. In James 2:17, He tells us, that He wants faith and works. In 1 John 3:18, He tells us, don’t love in word and Tongue but with our deeds and truth.
VIII. Practice When Jesus was talking about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, he said to the crowd that was listening in Matthew 23:3 -, paraphrased “So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” They preach one thing but their actions tell another story.
a. Now if we are to practice what we preach, we first need to understand why we preach, what we preach. Take for example the type of music God wants in our assemblies. We have had lessons on this before.
i. The problem seems to be that some people are looking for life through the physical. In other words since God’s will doesn’t make sense to some people, other religions will offer people whatever does make sense to them.
ii. Even if that means compromising the will of God. Even if that means not judging anyone. Even if that means using all sorts of ideas to attract people into their assemblies. Even if that means using guitars and drums, religious raves and exploiting people’s emotions.
b. Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” [NAS] This tells us that the songs that we sing are for teaching and admonishing, not for our entertainment. If you want entertainment there are plenty of venues we can go to. If you are attracted to, and I quote, the power and majesty of the music and choir then perhaps you need to look closer at what you are doing.
c. Ephesians 5:19 – “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;” This tells us that we are to make music in our hearts. You see, when we sing, we are teaching and admonishing each other and thereby filling each other with the word of Christ. This is not an outward attitude, expressed with instruments, or by clapping our hands in time with the song. It is very much an inner attitude.
d. Let me go ahead and try and break it down a little bit and see if we can understand what Paul is trying to say to us. First of all God says listen “Singing is also a way of getting fed spiritually”. You see, when you are singing the words, which are based on the Bible, you are feeding each other on the word of God at the same time.
i. Because you are feeding on those words, you are also promoting purity of the heart within yourself. After all Jesus and His disciples did this too. In Matthew 26:30 after they had taken the Lord’s Supper, the Bible says that, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” It doesn’t say anything about them getting their guitars out and praising God.
ii. God tells us that we’ve got 4 things to remember when we are praising Him in song. 1st we are to sing Psalms, spiritual songs and hymns. 2nd our singing needs to be aimed at Him. 3rd we need to sing with gratitude. 4th we need to sing from the heart.
iii. You see, it’s not a matter of our feelings; it’s a matter of our gratitude. Music from the human heart is the only style of music God has authorized and wants from us. That’s why we sing together as a body of believers and that’s why we have to sing together at the same time. When we sing together, we are praising God, and that’s part of our worship to Him.
iv. I find it interesting that there is nothing in the New Testament which indicates that God is impressed with the beauty or quality of our voices. The average voice does not have to be professional in quality to please God. For those of us who aren’t blessed with good singing voices, God hears the crows singing as well as the nightingales.
e. We also must worship in spirit and truth. We looked at Ephesians 5:19 – “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;” Now lets look at it in context Ephesians 5:17-18 - “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,” Now is Paul jumping on to a different subject in verse 19? Of course not, he’s still speaking about attitude towards other people and the will of God. You see, being filled with the Spirit means filling our minds with the word of God and then that creates gratitude in our hearts, which is expressed in our singing to God. That’s why he says, “Don’t get drunk on wine”; he is saying the Lord’s will for us is joy, not drink.
IX. Thanksgiving. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 5:20-21 - “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject (some translations say submit) to one another in the fear of Christ.” [NAS]
a. In other words everything we do in our worship assemblies is done out of gratitude. Paul says it should always be like this, he says we should be thankful for all things, we should be thankful for everything in Jesus name, and our thankfulness should be aimed at God. 1 Corinthians 14:15 - “What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” [NAS]
b. Do you see how when we sing it has nothing to do with the external things we do with our bodies? It all has to do with our hearts, it’s not a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of submission. That is where it always comes back to, God’s will or our own. The main character of music in the worship of God should be vocal.
i. John Wesley the founder of the Methodist denomination, said one time, “I have no objection to instruments in our chapels provided they are neither heard or seen.” Charles Spurgeon the famous Baptist preacher said, “Musical instruments would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto Him. This is the sweetest and best music. We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it.”
ii. But sadly as you know the Baptist and Methodist denominations didn’t listen to this advice. Now the use of instruments not only attracts people into their worship assembly, especially the young, but where you have more people, you have more of a collection. I say a collection because in certain parts of the country they are strongly encouraged to give a certain percentage of their income to the Lord every week.
c. 1 Timothy 6:3-5 - “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.”
i. But the point is this; you can’t use substitutes for the word of God for any reason whatsoever. Not even for so called “worthwhile projects”. People have travelled far and wide to preach to people with all kinds of teachings about the Bible, sometimes anything but the truth.
ii. But to what end? Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 23:15 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” [NAS]
Conclusion:
Let me leave you with a couple of thoughts. 1st thought Don’t put your faith in preachers and teachers.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 - says, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” [NAS] People will try and convince you with clever arguments about what is and what isn’t acceptable to God as worship. You need to test what they say, not just accept what they say as truth.
And the way you test it is by measuring what they are saying with our measuring rod, the Bible. 1 John 4:1 - says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
What is one of the ways to test them? Following on in 1 John 4:2-3 - “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
2nd thought If people don’t acknowledge that God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, then you can safely say that their teaching isn’t Bible based. Just because a group of people are 90% doctrinally correct, doesn’t mean that they are 90% right, it means they are 100% wrong. In other words, if their Jesus doesn’t match up with the Biblical Jesus, then they are taking the authority and deity away from Jesus.
Folks, we sing and make music in our hearts and we worship Him in spirit and truth because that’s what God wants from us. We need to let the Bible guide us and rule over our lives because that’s the way God wants it. The question I want to leave you with is this, do you accept that?
Don’t trust me because I’m preaching, but be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 - where it says, “They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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