The fact that both of the Adam’s boys brought an offering to God and Abel’s offering was accepted (Gen 4:4) suggests that God had already instructed the Adam family on what was an acceptable offering to bring for worship. God had already revealed in Genesis 3:21 the need for an animal sacrifice as a covering for sin, foreshadowing the substitutionary death of Christ.
But Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground instead (cf. Gen 3:17) and his offering was rejected (Gen 4:5). Here is the first example of false worship of the One and only true God; Cain willfully failed to meet God’s standard for worship. Abel, on the other hand, brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat (Gen 4:4). The Hebrew idiom reveals that Abel brought the best of the very best offering he could give to the LORD. God respected (or look upon with favor) Abel and his offering (Gen 4:4) but He did not respect (or look upon with favor) Cain and his offering.
Here we see God looking at both the giver and the gift.
- Abel’s heart was in the right place and gave the right offering. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks (Heb 11:4).
- Cain’s heart, on the contrary, was not right and neither was his offering. The offerings reflected the condition of the heart of the worshipper. One who saw his need for God and desire to please Him and the other who saw no need or desire whatsoever to please God. Jude 1:11-13 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. (12) These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; (13) raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. The way of Cain is religious, hypocritical, and self-righteous, going through the motions but worshipping God in vain.
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him (Gen 4:8).
Listen to what John says of Cain in 1 Jn 3:11-12,
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, (12) not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous.
It is interesting to note that the first murder was over worship. How quickly sin manifested itself in dramatic fashion. There is only way to worship the One and only true God; all others ways are false.
Turn now to John chapter four and verse three. We will read to verse 26 and look at some prerequisites for true worship to take place in a post-Mosaic economy or the Church age or age of grace (Jn 4:3-26).
Worship should be a natural response to our love for God. The greatest commandment is to do what, love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37). Jesus called this the first and great commandment (Mt 22:38). In other words we are to love God with the totality of our being, from head to toe. True worship is a response of the heart toward God. Worship is a love service to God, not a lip service (honoring God with our lips but our hearts are far from him).
The heart is the seat of the mind (the intellect, rational thought), the emotions (affections, feelings) and the volition (the will, motion, movement of the head and heart, a physical response). As in our love for God, a proper application of all three of these components of the heart must be engaged in true worship or love feast.
To love God requires the whole heart; to worship God requires the whole heart. Worship is a love feast; our love for God is expressed in our worship. Worship is a behavioral response to the knowledge of the Holy One. Our belief and behavior are to be grounded in knowledge of God’s divine disclosure of Himself from Genesis to Revelation, comprised of sixty-six books exclusively. As wisdom is founded on knowledge, so is worship grounded in the truth (Jn 4:22-24). Such knowledge generates an emotional response (how our feelings or affections interact with that knowledge) and translates into an inward or outward expression of the bowing down of the will in recognition of the glory and majesty of God who only is worthy of worship.
- If the emphasis in our worship is on intellect, then dead orthodoxy occurs.
- If the emphasis in our worship is on the emotions, zeal without knowledge occurs.
- If the “head and heart” are in sync, and the will is not engaged, it is analogous to knowing and feeling the right things about Christ but never committing to Him in faith; faith without works is dead (Jas 2:26). The will must be involved.
What is the quality of your worship?
- Is your worship cold, external, intellectual, and sanctimonious?
- Is your worship an emotional frenzy, Katy bar the door kind?
- Is your will not in worship (a James 4:17 saint)?
- Are you worshipping God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24, KJV)?
If there are true worshippers, let’s state the obvious; then there must be false worshippers; and it makes sense that the false worshippers far exceed the number of true worshippers for the Father is constantly seeking them (cf. Mt 7:13-14). The absence of any or all of these basic elements results in false or vain worship. And believers can worship the One and only true God in vain!
(1) The worshipper must be a child of God.
A worshipper must be born again. We see this with Nicodemus (Jn 3:3) and with the woman at the well when Jesus was addressing her lifestyle (Jn 4:16-18). There are those who claim to be Baptist of the Christian faith; they have the lingo down like the woman at the well (cf. Jn 4:25), but their lifestyle tells another story; they wouldn’t know Jesus even if He was standing before them (Jn 4:26). If Jesus does not live within the heart, there is absolutely no way a Samaritan or Jew or Gentile can offer acceptable worship to Yahweh! Any worship that leaves Jesus out of the equation is false worship. Read what Jesus said about this - No one comes to the Father except through Me (Jn 14:6).
(2) The worshipper must be in fellowship with God.
Sin must be addressed whether an unbeliever or a believer. Fellowship with God must not be broken by unconfessed sin (1 Jn 1:8-9; Psa 51:6; 66:18). Worship will never be acceptable with one foot in the church and one foot in the world.
(3) The worshipper will worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Jn 4:23).
Though the context deals specifically with the Father, comparing Scripture with Scripture reveals that both the Son and the Holy Spirit possess the nature of God and are objects of worship (cf. Jn 10:30; Heb 10:15-17, the Holy Spirit is Yahweh). Worship involves the triune Godhead! We worship the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
(4) The true worshipper must worship in spirit (Jn 4:23-24).
We will discuss this prerequisite in our last installment on authentic worship, part 4 next week, God willing.
(5) The true worshipper conforms to the truth (Genesis to Revelation, 66 books exclusively)
The parallel of what we have seen between the Samaritans and the Jews was that they both had an incorrect view of God because both altered the Scriptures to fit their viewpoint. The Samaritans only believed in the first five books in the OT, and they recognized Moses as the last prophet before the arrival of the Messiah (cf. Jn 4:25). The Jews, on the other hand, embraced all of the OT but had made the Word of God of none effect because of their traditions.
THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME. (9) AND IN VAIN THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN Mt 15:8-9).
They both had abandoned the Word as a matter of faith and practice and both had established a religious system that honored God, but their hearts were far from Him. Both held an incorrect view of God because their knowledge of Him was deficient, incomplete or corrupt. So the Samaritans held only to the first five books of the OT, the Jews only to the entire OT, and the Christians to the OT and NT.
Since the Bible reveals who God is, our view of God will be determined by our view of Scripture. A high view of Scripture results in a high view of God. Jesus comes along and tells the woman at the well, God is Spirit and they that worship Him must (of necessity) worship Him in spirit and truth (Jn 4:24).
Both the Samaritans and the Jews were colossally wrong in their definition and handling of the truth. Acceptable worship conforms to absolute truth (the content of Christianity from Genesis to Revelation, 66 books exclusively). It is not subjective truth determined by feelings but actual truth as measured by divine revelation. Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:17, Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Christ emphasized that true worship is more than emotion or sincerity; it is grounded in knowledge Jn 4:20-22). A proper view of God is linked to divine revelation. And a proper view of God is quintessential for worship. If our knowledge of God is off, our worship is off, in vain. Any intentional tampering with the Word of God and worship is affected. The Father demands worship to be according to truth encompassing the entire spectrum of divine revelation.
We can’t cut out or modify what we don’t like or fiddle with it to our liking. That is asking to be a target of Divine indignation. We incite the wrath of God when we tamper with His Word (cf. Paul’s warning in Gal 1:8-9).
Authentic worship cannot be realized or take place if truth has been compromised in any way shape or form in the head or heart of the individual. If our belief and behavior contradicts the Word of God then any form of worship based upon that spiritual condition of the heart, is unacceptable to God and merely results in a lip tribute to God, but the heart is nowhere to be found.
The whole body of truth from Genesis to Revelation is bound up in one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev 1:8).
The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He (Jn 4:25-26).
Again I ask you; what is the quality of your worship?
- Is your worship cold, external, intellectual, and sanctimonious?
- Is your worship an emotional frenzy, Katy bar the door kind?
- Is your will not in worship (a James 4:17 saint)?
- Are you worshipping God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:24, KJV)?
