Are You Here to Really Worship God?

Are you here to really worship God? I mean to really worship God. Are you here to worship God in spirit and in truth? And what does that really mean? Are you here with a perfectly teachable heart? To learn more about our Heavenly Father and how to to develop a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him. Are you here to really grow in grace and knowledge? So if you answered yes to all of the foregoing questions, then we should expect one to be really tuned in to the sermonette, to the sermon, to the music, to the prayers, to be attentive and not allow any distraction to break your focus and concentration. Such a one would probably take copious notes and be as the Berean, search the scriptures daily whether these things be true and dig deeper into the Word of God. Is that what we're doing, each one of us? Is that why we are here? I say to you today, brethren, we are here to worship God. Note the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 10. In Matthew chapter 4 and verse 10. Jesus Christ had been baptized, and after His baptism, He was led away into the wilderness. He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and the devil came to Him, attempting Him. In Matthew chapter 4, the devil had taken Him up to a high mountain, shown Him the kingdoms of the world, and said, if you'll bow down and worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. See, the great fight today is who's going to rule the world. Who's going to rule the world? And basically, the intelligentsia, the ones who have called the shots through the ages, have now determined that the best way to rule the world would be through a one-world government, one-world religion, and whether you like it or not, you feel do it. And so, when Jesus is presented with this alternative, His response is verse 10. Then said Jesus unto him, Get you hence, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. So we're here to feed on the words of life. Remember the exhortation that Christ gave to Peter to feed his sheep. Three times, he said, Do you love me, Peter? And three times, Peter said yes, and then Christ said, Well, feed my sheep. And then in 1 Peter 5, 2, Peter, in later years, writing his epistle, 1 Peter, told the elders that were among them to feed the flock of God, to feed the flock of God, to lead, to take care of, to shepherd the sheep. So we're here in the presence of God. We ask in the opening prayer each time that God's Spirit would be here, that He would lead, that He would guide, that He would direct us in all that is said and done.

John 6, 63, should continually be ringing in our ears. It is the Spirit that quickens the flesh, prophets nothing, the words I speak. They are spirit, and they are life. In the Pentateuch, in Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19, and Moses, apparently the author of the first five books of the Bible, he writes, I call heaven and earth this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your seed may live. Choose life. Why would one choose death? And how can Satan be so successful in selling death as opposed to life? And all of us need to ask ourselves, am I taking my appearance before God each Sabbath too lightly? You know, I look out, I see the body language, I see the faces, I see that, and sometimes it's like, well, I don't want to look there because it distracts me because they're distracted.

So am I taking my appearance before God too lightly on the Sabbath? I would say that most of you seem to be attentive, but only God knows what is in your heart and where your focus and mind really are. I don't know that. Brethren, we must not allow ourselves to view Sabbath services as we would a television program or some other medium of entertainment. That is not what this is. And it's so easy to be swept along by the culture, what we've always done, and all what we always believe, or however you want to phrase it.

It is much more than that. We have made a covenant. Recently I gave a sermon titled Covenant of Sacrifice. We have made a covenant with God and Christ, and we have entered into that covenant of sacrifice. We cannot just sit here and think that through the process of spiritual osmosis, and I doubt there is a process of spiritual osmosis, that some of what is being said will seep into our minds, and we will retain it and perhaps act on it.

It has to be far more serious than that. It has to be a greater commitment than that. Apparently, the brethren in the first century, the first century of the church, probably somewhere around 60 AD when Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, they had fallen into a similar kind of state of mind. If you would, turn to Hebrews 5. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 10. Of course, the church had begun on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and they had been told, that is, they being the disciples, that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached first in Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world.

And so here we are down the road, maybe 30 years later, from 31 AD to 60, 61 AD, and Paul, probably knowing that the temple was going to be destroyed. And what would they do? What would the Jews do in view of that? In Hebrews 5 verse 10, speaking of Christ, called of God and high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.

This word dull means to be somewhat in a stupor. It's notros in the Greek, sort of in a stuporific, if there is such a word, state of being, in which it would be somewhat like a Laodicea and a lukewarm. You are dull of hearing.

Are we dull of hearing? Are you dull of hearing? Oh, I've heard it all before. I don't think we've heard it all before. Paul, who was taught by Christ for three years or so in the Arabian wilderness, said that we see through a glass, now dimly darkly. We look forward to that time in which we'll really come to understand it all, or as much as the Father and Jesus Christ, our high priests, cares to teach us.

Just think about being a glorious, radiant spirit, being in the kingdom of God, and being taught by Jesus Christ. I mean, how awesome is that? For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.

Brethren, we are trying to deliver strong meat here, and we're hoping that you are acting on it, that you are taking it to heart. And it seems that you are. And I've heard many positive comments, but what we say here is posted on the internet. It goes around the world. People can tune in right now. And the sermons are posted, and people around the world listen to what is said in the various congregations in the church of God around the world.

So we do want to be a shining light, a light on the hill, a true light, and not a point of light like the Illuminati or George Bush talks about when he talked about the New World Order as he gave the order to invade Kuwait after Saddam Hussein had taken it over. When the great heiresses began to be dumped on the church back in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, they would not have taken root if the people had not become dull of hearing. How could it be? How could you go from 150,000 people keeping the feast to even with all the scattered groups together, maybe 30,000? Maybe a few more, maybe a few less. I mean, just like overnight, because a man or a group of men make a certain pronouncement.

How is that possible? I don't believe it would have been possible unless people had become dull of hearing. They were not equipped to deal with the Harrises, and furthermore, it was as if they wanted an excuse to be so-called set free. I walk into the office of the pastor general shortly after that, my wife and I, and here he holds up this about half-inch thick of emails from all over the world, one saying, quoting Martin Luther King in this context, free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, free at last!

Of course, the Passover is all about freedom. It's all about how you come out of spiritual Egypt. And so people who had been released from spiritual Egypt, thinking that the way to freedom now was to do whatever you wish to do, just believe in certain things and everything would be all right. They were not equipped to deal with the Harrises, and furthermore, like I said, as if they wanted an excuse. They had been drifting for quite a long time and becoming more and more lukewarm. The Harrises at that time were so obvious, it was so obvious that it is amazing that anyone could have been deceived by them. I mean, the law is done away with. I mean, the law is done away with. Come on, give me a break. Don't you know better?

But because of their weak and spiritual condition, they were right for deception and easy pickings for the devil. Just throw a few little grains of, you can plunge back into the world and still be in the kingdom of God. Any fool should know better than that if they'd ever read the Bible at all. They would have known differently. People are somewhat like water. They follow the path of least resistance, and Jude warns us to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered. The heresies of the future. Now listen to what I'm about to say now. The heresies of the future will be more deceptive than what was faced in the early 90s.

They will be more subtle, more difficult to detect. In fact, Jesus states, here's the words from Jesus himself in Matthew 24, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. That's how deceptive it will be. And if you are not in tune with God and His Word, then you will be one of the ones deceived, or at least you will surely be ripe for deception. Peter warns us in 2 Peter, let's go there, 2 Peter, over a few pages, 2 Peter chapter 1, he warns us to make our calling and election sure. So are we here really to worship God, to come to a deeper, fuller, more meaningful understanding of who He is, what He is, and how we can have a deeper relationship with Him. In 2 Peter chapter 1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, then have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as the divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We have that knowledge of that which pertains to life and godliness. But if we trample it under our feet, if we treat it as profane, as mundane, as I've heard it all, then what good is it? And Peter here is reminding the people of his day, and we'll come to that verse in a moment, that we have to be put in remembrance of these things.

According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. There are no greater promises. I mean, we talk about the succeeding in life. We talk about what constitutes success.

I mean, if we don't attain unto immortality glory honor in the kingdom of God, what good is it? What good is it? And that's what the world is lost sight of.

Precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. You know, John, in his epistle, 1 John 2, 14, 15, 16, 17, says, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, to give in to those things.

Verse 5, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge.

And to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience. Temperance means moderation. Do all things in moderation. And to patience godliness.

Godliness literally means living according to what God has revealed to us that we should do. And to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, agape, spiritual love. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Does it take work? Yes, it takes work. We have to labor in the Word. How much labor have you done in the Word this week? Have you spent five minutes laboring in the Word?

Back in the 60s, and even probably started in the 30s, 40s, 50s, a lot of talk was, you know, pray 30 minutes a day, steady 30 minutes a day, and that was repeated over and over again. I never set a clock myself, but try to pray, try to study, try to labor in the words. I mean, if you want deeper understanding, you've got to dig. You've got to labor over it. And there are various ways to labor, and I won't go into that right now, but that's one of the themes that we have for this coming GCE. And I'm supposed to give the keynote address to that. It will be titled, The Trunk of the Tree. We must never let the trunk of the tree slip. If we let the trunk of the tree slip, then there's no reason for us being. There's a thousand or more denominations out there. That we could teach, only believe.

The precious knowledge that we have is revealed knowledge, and God has called you, He's elected you, to be here. In verse 9, But he that lacks these things is blind, cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, instead of going down that track, and returning back to wallowing in the mire, as the pig does, he can clean a pig up time after time, and once he sees a mud hole, it's all his. He's going to go for it.

He that likes these things is blind, cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. But it does not come axiomatically, it does not come magically, it does not come mystically. It comes through effort. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Of course, it's also called the kingdom of God. Jesus went about preaching after John was put in prison the kingdom of God. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth. Can you become dull of hearing? And you might use the term rusty with regard to being able to explain even the basics. Like Paul writes to the Hebrews and says, at a time in which you should be teachers, you have need that once one teach you again, what be the first principles. Then in the first verse of chapter 6, he lists the principles, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith toward God, baptism, laying out of hands, resurrection, judgment, go on to perfection. See, I think one of the things that happens to people that are called into the church. See, the church used prophecy as the great hook line, as it were. Here's what's going to happen. Though we didn't, we spoke in such dogmatic terms, set dates that some say we didn't. We did! It's one of the reasons I'm here. I read that 1975 in prophecy, sitting there, the wee hours of the morning and somewhere in the early 60s, and I had two young children. One was, I had just been born that that month in March 16th of 63. And you look at that and say, what's going to happen to them? What's going to happen to them? I don't want them to have to go through this, so I better get my spiritual house in order. Of course, I was teaching Sunday school in the morning and whatever they called it at night in the local Baptist church. See, everywhere you teach and coach, in those days in the south, you went to church basically for whether you liked it or not. And that's what I was doing. But you have to have this commitment to God about worshiping Him, which we were going to go deeper into. And that very trunk of the tree, when you come to understand, it was about that time that I received this booklet, Why Were You Born? And once you understand the purpose for human existence and what it means to really have a relationship with God, you might think, and I thought, and I think some of my prayers were answered in those... I started praying as a very young child, as I saw so many tragedies around me. And, of course, I grew up in a religious kind of family setting and environment.

And you pray. That doesn't mean you're perfect or anything else like that, but you come and begin to come to your senses. We have a tendency to forget, and we need to be reminded over and over again until it is indelibly stamped into our minds and hearts, so that we cannot forget. Let's turn to Psalm 95. Psalm 95, to a large degree, is a basis for what I'm talking about today, where in this video, the count video, you saw time after time, God is the central focus. We learn more about God. I understand the things of God more deeply, and it just went on and on of these young people. By the way, some of those guys there had great speaking voices. Boy, if they can make it into the to the point where God calls him into the ministry, there should be some great speakers coming along. In Psalm 95, beginning in verse 6, Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. We sing this hymn. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Israel, on the way to the Promised Land, Paul basically quotes large segments of this in Hebrews chapter 3. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, saw my work, forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, it is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways unto whom I swore in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. But, brethren, we cannot let that happen to us. We're not just going into a rest in the physical sense where the land flows with milk and honey, where physical promises are promised. We are bound for the Promised Land. We are bound for the kingdom of God, in which I have not seen, here and not heard, neither is entered in the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him. Verse 6 again, O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. Is He really our God? I believe all of us have a lot to learn about worshiping God, and I am not excluding myself by any means. Worshiping God has a connotation of recognizing God's great power, that He has the power of life and death, that when He speaks, we're expected to hear and obey. We sing to Him about, by His great hand we're led. God commands us to worship Him. Why would we worship Him? Well, as after all, we wouldn't exist if He hadn't, if it were not for His love, His mercy, His grace would not even exist in the first place. Let's look at Exodus 34 in verse 14. Exodus 34 and verse 14.

Of course, Exodus is a book about even the title of it, leaving sin and death, being set free. Exodus 34 and verse 14. For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. Now, the cynic, the critic, would quote this verse and say, oh, He's a jealous God. Well, I thought you were not supposed to be jealous. It simply means that God says, I am the one who created you. I am your Father. Without me, you would not even exist. In view of that, I want you to worship me, because if you don't, you are going to die. So therefore, I'm jealous for your affection. 15. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice under their gods, and one of you, and one call you, and you eat of his sacrifice. Behind the the altar of the pagans, Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians. There is a demon. You shall make you know molten gods. The feasts of unleavened bread shall you keep seven days. You shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you in the time of the month Abib, for in the month of Abib, you came out from Egypt. So God wants us to worship Him. It has to do with recognizing who God is and what He is, believing God and doing what He says, recognizing Him for who He is and what He is. It doesn't have to be, well, I'm in this church organization or that church organization. However, there is a critical threshold of knowledge that must be present for you to come to understand and be able to answer the great questions.

Worshiping God has to do with a loving relationship with Him where we come to reverence Him, to hold Him in awe, in deep respect, deeply desiring to please Him in every aspect of our lives. Why do we want to do it? Not because there's just some kind of commandment hanging over our head. It's because of understanding of what life is all about. It is here in this realm that is a relationship that the world has missed its mark. And to some degree, I would say the church of God in recent decades or in the past century or so.

Some denominations are so busy trying to save souls that they present a false picture of what life is all about. All you've got this immortal soul within you, this spiritual soul, it's housed in this evil flesh. We just want to save your soul. If we could just get you to confess that Jesus is the Christ and ask Him to forgive you of your sins, I mean, that's all there is to it. I mean, Wanda and I were a gasp, sort of, as her brother was lying there in the bed, dying of lung cancer, only a few days to live. And then comes my nephew, who is an orthopedic surgeon, and really a nice kid, guy who's in his 40s or whatever now. All of a sudden, he gives her brother this testimony of, it's so simple, all you've got to do is profess Jesus is the Christ and believe, and I mean, who wouldn't want to do that? So you get his soul saved, and it misses the whole meaning of life and who God is and what God is and everything that goes with it. Some denominations are caught up in structured methodology so much that they miss out on teaching about what it means to have a personal relationship with God and a personal relationship with Christ and that commitment that goes with it in view of fully understanding as much as we can what life is about. And the Church of God has fallen into both of these traps to some degree, not necessarily of saving the soul, but we boast of knowing the truth, and it is as if knowing the truth will save you. Knowing the truth is necessary, but he's not going to save you. It will not save you. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9 that, knowledge puffs up and charity edifies. There is no perfect church structure. There is no church that perfectly teaches the Word of God. There is no church administration that perfectly administers righteous judgment. Now we're commanded in Leviticus 19.15. Long in there, maybe 15.16, to judge righteous judgment. We cannot. We don't have it within us in every case to administer righteous judgment. And sometimes people let various human reasonings, politics, or whatever it might be, cloud their judgment, and they don't judge righteous judgment. Of course, Jesus Christ is the righteous judge, and he judges perfectly. The people, young, old, rich, poor, well-educated, not so well-educated, or any other social delineation that you want to name, will make it into the kingdom of God. Not just through knowledge, but through a personal relationship with God in Christ. You don't have to have a great education. You don't have to be economically well off. You don't have to be, and you could fill in the blank. You don't have to be 50 years old. You can be five, six years old, begin to understand something about relationship, and it begins with the parents.

You see, you can be young, old, rich, poor, well-educated, not so well-educated, whatever social delineation or other delineation you want to make, and you can be committed to God. His way of life is revealed in the Bible. A child can be taught and come to understand at a very early age, and teaching must include this relationship aspect. You're not doing it because mother and daddy said so, though mother and daddy needs to be the teacher, first of all, and also practice what they teach. You're doing it because you understand who you are in relationship to God and the whole world. See, that's the lesson Job had to come to when he made that very quotable quote that said, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ears, but now I see you. See, I see you. I understand who you are in relationship to me.

The churches are obsessed with good works and saving souls. Their mentality is don't get in our way. We're devoted to churchianity!

Now, what are some of the reasons we should worship God and just melt at his feet? Let's go to Psalm 100 and Psalm 100. Yes, I was encouraged by that camp video because it was the first one, and see, there was no narration basically by anyone other than the campers themselves. Well, there was some transition of a camp director in some places, but basically it was the God-centeredness of it. Psalm 100 and verse 3. See, what is going to be said here, we're about to read, is that the crux of the whole matter is that we know you that the Lord, the YHVH, he is God. It is he that made us, and we not ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into the gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name, for the eternal is good, his mercy is truth, and doers to all generations. I hope we don't get in, and there seems to be even some tendency of, well, the what was prevalent at that time, you have to understand the culture, the context in which a Bible writer said this, that, or the other. Know the word of God, no matter in what culture, what context, what period of time, it is true forever and will always stand the test of time. God does not make mistakes. The law of God is perfect, converting the soul. That's Psalm 19. You look at that Psalm 100 again. It's only five verses, but does it say a lot? The Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. God deeply desires a relationship with each one of us, with you, with me, with everyone. He wants us to come to know him so well, in the same way that he came to know Abraham. He came to know Abraham in such a way that Abraham was called a friend of God. The world is obsessed, especially the youth, with social networking through cell phones and computers, and one of the chief ways of bullying now is through the cell phone or through email computer. They post nude pictures and everything else you want to name through on the cell phones and on computers, breaking the hearts and the reputation and the character of people that they claim that they want to associate with.

The greatest wireless communication is with God. Regardless of your age, you can have a lifetime plan, unlimited minutes, and building a relationship with the greatest being in the universe. Oh, I got friends. How many likes do I have? Not that I'm on Facebook, but I've heard that there's such a thing as likes, and there is a thing like I was defriended. They blocked me.

Everything that God does is motivated by love, and He wants to know you and me and to be our friend. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2.19. 2 Timothy 2.19.

2 Timothy 2.19, Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure having this seal. The Lord knows them that are His. Does He know you? And how does He know you? And what does He know about you?

If God were to appear before you today or you appear before Him, you'd be a better way of probably saying it. Would He say, Why know you? You are the person. And then He would fill in the blank.

The Lord knows them that are His, and let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now in James 2.23, James chapter 2, this is in conjunction with faith without works is dead, and using the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful, believed God, did what He said.

You look at verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? He could just as easily use the word obedience. He believed God. He did what He said. Go there yonder and sacrifice your only son.

Of course, he had fathered Ishmael, but it was the only son born of faith.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? See, you have faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. You want to have perfect faith? Well, obedience and faith are inexorably linked together. You cannot have one without the other.

The scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. He had that kind of relationship with God.

How could I make such a statement? This is a statement. Everything that God does is motivated by love. He always has our best interests at heart. God is love, 1 John 4, 8, 1 John 4, 16.

His law is a summation of love.

His law is a summation of love. Now, how can I make such a statement? It's quite simple. He created us to become his sons and daughters in a family relationship. Thus, he knows what it takes for people to develop meaningful relationships and come to love him and one another. And so here are these, you could call them rules, but they're laws. And they're absolute laws. If you do these things, the 1 John 5, 3, for this is the love of God that we should keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous or burdensome. God instructs us on how to build relationships, build relationships with him, with one another, relationships that lead to respect, to reverence, to awe, to desire to please, obedience and submission. It is not based on holding a club over your head.

It's based on understanding. Now, that does not mean that eventually a club will not be held over your head because the day of judgment does come.

And it's back to the Deuteronomy 30.19. Choose you this day whom you will serve.

Choose life or choose death.

I believe that all of us could develop a closer relationship with God, a more worshipful attitude toward him. And I believe that all of us could develop a more loving and closer relationship that we just...

It's sort of like that in Romans 8, where verse 16, it is, says, maybe it's 15, it says, whereby we call him Abba, father, in a way that is even closer than what you may call your earthly father.

The word worship defined, the Greek word translated worship, is pros-cuneo, basically means to show honor and respect for God who created you and gave you life. That you recognize that he is your father, your creator, the one who loves you and has the power of life and death. And one of the great problems facing our youth today is that they have been so desensitized by media and older people to some degree as well, and other means in our world that we have developed a I-don't-care attitude.

And when you come to the point that you are so desensitized that you don't care, then there's very little hope.

One of the topics in club today have to do with how do you motivate someone on the job who doesn't care? They're just there for a paycheck.

How do you motivate someone in the church who has become lukewarm, who somehow feels, well, I should do this. It's what everybody expects. But really, my heart is not in it. You see, after you drift for a certain period of time, it is really difficult to get back. This I-don't-care attitude, all that matters is whether or not I'm accepted by my peers, and whether or not I have my senses satiated, filled up. You know, the John Denver song, You Fill Up My Senses? Well, that's one of the goals of the world today. Fill up my senses, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

This don't-care attitude leads to what is called, in philosophical terms, neolism. Neolism literally means nothingness. Nothing is worth putting out the effort. Here's what some write about it, an extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value, and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief. The belief that destruction of existing political and social institutions is necessary for future improvement. Down with the establishment. We've got to destroy it all, bring it all down, and then I'm going to look to you to rebuild it.

Of course, eventually this establishment is coming down, Satan's world, and there will be a new government over the earth. A new government over the earth, and this government is going to bring peace and righteousness to all the peoples of the world.

Now, Jesus Christ is our higher priest. He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. He's making intercessions for us. He's ever on the job. We pointed this out in recent times, the Hebrews 725. Through the ages, going all the way back to Cain and Abel, people brought offerings to God. Somehow God even revealed to Adam and Eve Cain and Abel about offerings. You know the story of Cain and Abel's offerings. When Abraham came into the Promised Land, one of the first things he did was he built an altar. After the flood, one of the first things that Noah did was he built an altar. As Israel came out of the Promised Land, one of the things that God instructed them to do was to build a sanctuary. In this sanctuary, there was an altar and a mercy seat. And now we have come to the greater reality of Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, our advocate with the Father. He has paid the penalty for our sins. We're going to make a new commitment to that on Thursday evening, realizing that apart from God and Christ, we are going to die. That we understand our being in relationship to God.

Brethren, we have ascended to the spiritual mountain of the Lord.

Today, God has made it possible through Christ for us to live in the holies. Do we think that we can come before God just any old way?

You know, I think about the... and I've had this to happen in recent times because our granddaughter lives in the area in Tyler of Green Acres Baptist Church. And a few times we have gone through that area as they are getting out of church. So, do we think we can approach God and come into His presence just any old way today? Do you think God is pleased with the Green Acres dress code?

Come to our praise and worship service in your jeans, then your dress to go to your Sunday shopping at Walmart. So, what about dress and demeanor as we come into God's special holy convocation on each and every Sabbath day? The command is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And much of the Bible instructs us on how to worship God, which is the same as saying how to develop a faithful spiritual relationship with our spiritual Father.

But in approaching to God, in our worship of God, we can't just come any old way. Isaiah writes, God heareth not sinners. So, like we have said, one of the great requirements for taking a Passover is that you're reconciled to God, to Christ, each member of the body of Christ.

Now, Satan and his ministers would have you believe you can just come any old way, any old way, any old day. That'd be all right.

They don't realize that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto God. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto God. Oh, Israel, after the kingdoms were divided, and Jeroboam set up a fault system in the northern kingdom, and he selected his kind of priest, and he changed the feast from the seventh month to the eighth month. And although they were diligent to offer sacrifice, those sacrifices were really an abomination to God.

So, we have to approach God and worship him in a worshipful kind of attitude.

Come you before him, fall on your knees, for he is the one who made you. You see that we have been called in our worship to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. So, what is one of the greatest spiritual sacrifices that we can offer to God? Let's look at Psalm 51, verse 15. Psalm 51, verse 15. This will be, to a large degree, the condition of heart that you will come on Thursday evening to take the Passover.

Then Psalm 51, verse 15.

O eternal, open your lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you desire not sacrifice, else would I give it. You delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise.

See, that's the kind of sacrifice that God wants from each one of us in worshiping him.

Do good in your good pleasure, unto Zion.

Bill you the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall you be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon your altar. In other words, you clean up from the inside first, and then you do your offerings. Similar to what Roy Holiday writes in the E-News, which I send out to all of you on email, either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Clean up from the inside out.

So, here we are, another Holy Day season pass over on leavened bread upon us. And we need to ask the question, is the worship of God paramount in our life? In your life, in your home?

Is the law of God written on your inward parts? Have you labored so in the Word that the Word of God is indelibly stamped on your mind and heart through the Holy Spirit? Today, brethren, is our day of salvation. It's not next year, or it's not second resurrection. Today is a time for you and I to learn and practice what it means to worship God. The day is coming when all the peoples of the world will worship Him. They will be called together and they will worship Him.

Notice this verse, Isaiah, the last couple verses in Isaiah. See, the world tends to forget these verses. Have we forgotten these verses?

See, the day is coming in which all the nations will be called to worship.

We'll start in Isaiah 66-21. And I will also takeeth them for priests and for Levites, says the Eternal. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Eternal. So shall your seed and your name remain. I wonder if we understand it. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Eternal.

May God hasten that day.