Great is the Mystery of Godliness Part 14
The Mark of Belief: Worshiping God in the Spirit
Philippians 3:3 Notice that New Covenant circumcision is in the reverse order of our human reasoning!
#1 Worship God in the spirit; #2 Rejoice in Jesus Christ; #3 Have no confidence in the flesh.
Human reasoning would be something like this: #1 Work real hard to overcome the flesh, or at least hedge it in so that, #2 we can come to Jesus, thankful for His sacrifice on the cross so that we may #3 have the Father’s approval. And that would be legalism!!! Our two cents worth will never give us access unto the Father, nor earn the approval of the Lord of Heaven and earth!
But we will never understand this futility of fleshly reasoning, much less put to death it’s deeds, until we come first of all, to worship the Father through the Son by the Indwelling Operation of the Holy Spirit!
John 4:23-24 Jesus to the woman at the well, a Gentile “dog” sinner in Jewish eyes. The time has come when worship has nothing to do with a mountain or city, any location. “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
Vs 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.” Any visible “stuff” in worship MUST be the response of a heart operating in Spirit and in truth!
Acts 17:24-25 “God, Who made the world and everything in it, SINCE HE IS LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, does not dwell in temples made with hands. NOR IS HE WORSHIPED WITH MEN’S HANDS, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath and all things.” He has the Hosts of Heaven to worship Him. He doesn’t need us. And yet he is pleased to create us for that purpose!
John 3:3-8 The natural “eye”, the one we were physically born with, cannot see the Kingdom of God! In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not observable with the human eye because,”the Kingdom of God is within you.” This is why a spiritual birth, initiated by the Holy Spirit, is foundationaly essential to seeing the Kingdom of God and seeing it is to enter into it and entering into it is to worship the King of the Kingdom. Notice especially:
Vs 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You MUST be born again.’”
John 6:63 “It is the Spirit Who gives Life; The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are Life.” All of that visible stuff we were taught to look at, to value, to look to, the stuff that builds the human ego, or in some cased, tears it down, it profits nothing in the Kingdom of God!!! If we insist on hanging on to it, it gets in the way of spiritual understanding and growth.
II Corinthians 3:4-6 Paul and the other Apostles were “ministers of the New Covenant”, now note: “Not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE.” Remember, God is Spirit, the letter of the law cannot commune with Him, that is, worship Him because the flesh profits nothing, it cannot see the Kingdom of the God Who is Spirit, nor enter into Spiritual Worship of Him. THAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!!! WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!!! THE LETTER OF THE LAW COULD NOT CHANGE THE HARD HEARTS OF NATIONAL ISRAEL! Godliness is God-ward-ness, and it requires a new birth, a new person created in Christ Jesus through His 6-fold “mystery of Godliness!!!
I Peter 2:4-5, 9 When we come to Christ, The Living Corner Stone, we become by New Birth, living stones, “being built up A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, a holy priesthood”. WHY??? “To offer up SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES acceptable to God THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.” All of this is through Jesus Christ which means that anything of our own before our new birth, in and of itself, is unacceptable!!! And vs 9 says that all of this is for the purpose, “that you may proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” That is Spiritual Worship!!!
Romans 12:1-2 Paul uses Old Testament worship language–sacrifices–and adds a Glorious New Testament twist! Living sacrifices: unheard of in the OT. It is by the Mercies of God–everything we have looked at in the “mystery of Godliness”. Were it not for the Mercy of God through Christ Jesus, our bodies–everything they are and represent, could never be “holy, acceptable to God.” Now notice, “which is your reasonable service.”
New Strongs: “Spiritually intelligent service.”
NAS: “Spiritual service of worship.”+
ESV: “Spiritual worship.”
This is not a verse for “super dedicated christians”. It isn’t just for those who “dedicate their lives to christian service”–preachers and missionaries, and the rest of us are off the hook! It has nothing to do with our usual “visual concepts” of “sacrificing for Jesus”. Every single "born from above" person will find their earthly history in this verse!!!
Here’s the point: Our lives, after the Spiritual New Birth (Born of the Spirit of God), after being made a living stone in the Spiritual House to offer up Spiritual sacrifices–our life in Christ–OUR LIVES ARE THE WORSHIP SERVICE. We don’t go to one, we are one!!!
Those “born from Above”, whose new hearts beat unto their God, live God-ward in their existence on this earth. The new “worship hearts” will gather them selves together with other “living stones”, uniting their hearts in worship as the “Holy temple unto the Lord” (Eph 2:21) This is the “natural” (and commanded) evidence of the heart of Worship that God has put in His people. The “worship heart” of New Born people prays without ceasing, but it breaks out in congregational “prayer meetings” from time to time. In other words, The Kingdom of God is within you, your heart is God-ward, You are His Worship Service wherever you are. The visible expressions of that continual heart of worship is the outward mark of what is continually the lives of those born from Above. What is called “worship” today should be the outgrowth of the heart of worship that governs the existence of God’s people on the earth. The visible should flow out of the “within you worship”. But beware, the outward cannot create the inward!!! The best it can give is goose bumps!
Vs 2 Now notice, the sanctifying work, the transforming of our minds (Phil. 2:5-8), which brings us into agreement with of the will of God, (no longer conformed to this world and it’s thinking and doing) is positioned after Paul’s exhorting us about our “worship service”. I think that this transforming work of the Spirit is continuous with, simultaneous with our presenting our bodies as sacrifices. It is on the “Altar of life” that the “deeds of the flesh’” get burnt off, and as our visible behavior becomes increasingly God-Ward in that fire, there is a sweet smelling fragrance that ascends unto our Father. Verse 2 is the process of bringing a worshiping heart into a behavior that manifests the delight to do the Father’s will!!!
And guess what! We don’t get to choose the Altar or its location! Whatever is the context of our lives, our past, our present, or our future, that is our Altar upon which this Spiritual Worship Service occurs. As Paul told the Athenians, God “has determined their (our) pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitations (lives), so that they should seek the Lord.” That Altar may be defined by poverty or prosperity, sickness or health, a loving upbringing or an abusive beginning. Whatever the stones of your Altar, God, through the Spiritual New birth, will bring Worship to His Name out of it! And in so doing, we will grow in our conformity to the Image of His Son!
The Mark of Belief: Worshiping God in the Spirit
Philippians 3:3 Notice that New Covenant circumcision is in the reverse order of our human reasoning!
#1 Worship God in the spirit; #2 Rejoice in Jesus Christ; #3 Have no confidence in the flesh.
Human reasoning would be something like this: #1 Work real hard to overcome the flesh, or at least hedge it in so that, #2 we can come to Jesus, thankful for His sacrifice on the cross so that we may #3 have the Father’s approval. And that would be legalism!!! Our two cents worth will never give us access unto the Father, nor earn the approval of the Lord of Heaven and earth!
But we will never understand this futility of fleshly reasoning, much less put to death it’s deeds, until we come first of all, to worship the Father through the Son by the Indwelling Operation of the Holy Spirit!
John 4:23-24 Jesus to the woman at the well, a Gentile “dog” sinner in Jewish eyes. The time has come when worship has nothing to do with a mountain or city, any location. “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
Vs 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.” Any visible “stuff” in worship MUST be the response of a heart operating in Spirit and in truth!
Acts 17:24-25 “God, Who made the world and everything in it, SINCE HE IS LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, does not dwell in temples made with hands. NOR IS HE WORSHIPED WITH MEN’S HANDS, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath and all things.” He has the Hosts of Heaven to worship Him. He doesn’t need us. And yet he is pleased to create us for that purpose!
John 3:3-8 The natural “eye”, the one we were physically born with, cannot see the Kingdom of God! In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not observable with the human eye because,”the Kingdom of God is within you.” This is why a spiritual birth, initiated by the Holy Spirit, is foundationaly essential to seeing the Kingdom of God and seeing it is to enter into it and entering into it is to worship the King of the Kingdom. Notice especially:
Vs 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You MUST be born again.’”
John 6:63 “It is the Spirit Who gives Life; The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are Life.” All of that visible stuff we were taught to look at, to value, to look to, the stuff that builds the human ego, or in some cased, tears it down, it profits nothing in the Kingdom of God!!! If we insist on hanging on to it, it gets in the way of spiritual understanding and growth.
II Corinthians 3:4-6 Paul and the other Apostles were “ministers of the New Covenant”, now note: “Not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE.” Remember, God is Spirit, the letter of the law cannot commune with Him, that is, worship Him because the flesh profits nothing, it cannot see the Kingdom of the God Who is Spirit, nor enter into Spiritual Worship of Him. THAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!!! WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!!! THE LETTER OF THE LAW COULD NOT CHANGE THE HARD HEARTS OF NATIONAL ISRAEL! Godliness is God-ward-ness, and it requires a new birth, a new person created in Christ Jesus through His 6-fold “mystery of Godliness!!!
I Peter 2:4-5, 9 When we come to Christ, The Living Corner Stone, we become by New Birth, living stones, “being built up A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, a holy priesthood”. WHY??? “To offer up SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES acceptable to God THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.” All of this is through Jesus Christ which means that anything of our own before our new birth, in and of itself, is unacceptable!!! And vs 9 says that all of this is for the purpose, “that you may proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” That is Spiritual Worship!!!
Romans 12:1-2 Paul uses Old Testament worship language–sacrifices–and adds a Glorious New Testament twist! Living sacrifices: unheard of in the OT. It is by the Mercies of God–everything we have looked at in the “mystery of Godliness”. Were it not for the Mercy of God through Christ Jesus, our bodies–everything they are and represent, could never be “holy, acceptable to God.” Now notice, “which is your reasonable service.”
New Strongs: “Spiritually intelligent service.”
NAS: “Spiritual service of worship.”+
ESV: “Spiritual worship.”
This is not a verse for “super dedicated christians”. It isn’t just for those who “dedicate their lives to christian service”–preachers and missionaries, and the rest of us are off the hook! It has nothing to do with our usual “visual concepts” of “sacrificing for Jesus”. Every single "born from above" person will find their earthly history in this verse!!!
Here’s the point: Our lives, after the Spiritual New Birth (Born of the Spirit of God), after being made a living stone in the Spiritual House to offer up Spiritual sacrifices–our life in Christ–OUR LIVES ARE THE WORSHIP SERVICE. We don’t go to one, we are one!!!
Those “born from Above”, whose new hearts beat unto their God, live God-ward in their existence on this earth. The new “worship hearts” will gather them selves together with other “living stones”, uniting their hearts in worship as the “Holy temple unto the Lord” (Eph 2:21) This is the “natural” (and commanded) evidence of the heart of Worship that God has put in His people. The “worship heart” of New Born people prays without ceasing, but it breaks out in congregational “prayer meetings” from time to time. In other words, The Kingdom of God is within you, your heart is God-ward, You are His Worship Service wherever you are. The visible expressions of that continual heart of worship is the outward mark of what is continually the lives of those born from Above. What is called “worship” today should be the outgrowth of the heart of worship that governs the existence of God’s people on the earth. The visible should flow out of the “within you worship”. But beware, the outward cannot create the inward!!! The best it can give is goose bumps!
Vs 2 Now notice, the sanctifying work, the transforming of our minds (Phil. 2:5-8), which brings us into agreement with of the will of God, (no longer conformed to this world and it’s thinking and doing) is positioned after Paul’s exhorting us about our “worship service”. I think that this transforming work of the Spirit is continuous with, simultaneous with our presenting our bodies as sacrifices. It is on the “Altar of life” that the “deeds of the flesh’” get burnt off, and as our visible behavior becomes increasingly God-Ward in that fire, there is a sweet smelling fragrance that ascends unto our Father. Verse 2 is the process of bringing a worshiping heart into a behavior that manifests the delight to do the Father’s will!!!
And guess what! We don’t get to choose the Altar or its location! Whatever is the context of our lives, our past, our present, or our future, that is our Altar upon which this Spiritual Worship Service occurs. As Paul told the Athenians, God “has determined their (our) pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitations (lives), so that they should seek the Lord.” That Altar may be defined by poverty or prosperity, sickness or health, a loving upbringing or an abusive beginning. Whatever the stones of your Altar, God, through the Spiritual New birth, will bring Worship to His Name out of it! And in so doing, we will grow in our conformity to the Image of His Son!