MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 30:34-38
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP
Notice here—
I. The elements of true worship.
1. There must be nothing in prayer but what is sweet. “Sweet spices.” No anger. Some nations leave their swords outside their temples; we must cherish no angry or warlike sentiments in worship. “Lifting up holy hands, without wrath.” No pride. No, “I thank God I am not as other men.” No selfishness. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3). No unbelief. “Without doubting.” Some prayers have in them so much of doubt and passion, of pride and hypocrisy, that they go up to the sky more like the vapour of a noxious drug, than the pure incense in which God delights. In worship there are various elements of thought and feeling, as there were various spices in the priestly censer, but we must take care that there is nothing bitter or bad. All peace, love, faith, charity, admiration, hope, joy—whatsoever is otherwise enters not into true worship.
2. Nothing in prayer but what is pure. “Pure frankincense.” If we do not renounce iniquity in our life, God will not hear us. (Isaiah 1:12-15). If we do not renounce iniquity in our heart, God will not hear us. Worship is not a substitute for righteousness, but the expression of a soul delighting in righteousness, longing for righteousness. The prayers of a bad man, although offered in a white or golden surplice, although expressed in seraphic language, although borne upward on the voices of singers and organs, are an abomination to the Lord—it is the smoke of the pit, not the sweet incense of God’s holy temple.
Pure and sweet worship is delightful to us; it is the highest condition of the soul. Such worship is sweet and grateful to God.
II. The expression of true worship. “And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony.” Is it not suggested here, that in worship there should not be vague and general feeling and language, but that our service should be specialised and particular? Our penitence should be thus special. Our sins should be discriminated as far as possible, so that with each fault should go the appropriate confession and sorrow. Our supplications thus distinguishing. Our intercessions thus. Praying for special individuals, pleading for special gifts. Our praises thus. “Forget not all His benefits.” It is a good thing to recall the mercies of God, one by one, as far as that is possible. We are not to worship in the lump, as if God were too grand to recognise the detail of life; we are not to worship in the lump, as if the “least mercies” were not worth recognition.
III. The efficacy of true worship. “Where I will meet with thee.” God met them as they came near Him with this incense. We hear worship depreciated sometimes, and are told that life is worship, work is worship; let us not be led away by such plausible sayings from a personal, constant, express fellowship with God. It is only as we come to God with the pure and loving worship of the heart that we realise His presence. Life may be worship, and work may be worship; but life and work are never worship, until the heart gives its highest love and trust to God.
IV. The exclusive object of true worship. “As for the perfume,” &c., Exodus 30:37-38. No worship of man: No worship of humanity: No saint-worship: No angel-worship. “Worship God.”