Church Identity and Perpetuity Part 6

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:28-29

The true church seeks to conform herself to the commands of God and doesn’t expect God to adapt to her offerings. Let’s consider how God is to be approached.

God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go so they could hold a feast unto him. Ex 5:1. It was imperative that they worship him outside of Pharaoh’s domain. Having delivered them from Egyptian bondage with his own power, God gave his people instructions on how he was to be worshipped. He told him how to build a sanctuary: the tabernacle, instruments, sacrifices, and priesthood. Ex 25:8-9. God declared how to construct the place where he would dwell among his people. The high priest was to place a golden bell on the hem of his robe that gave a constant reminder on how seriously God expected his people to follow his instructions in worship. Ex 28:35. Nadab and Abihu were priests killed by God because they offered strange fire to God, which is defined as a step that was not commanded by God. This tells me that God’s instructions were complete and additions were unlawful. Lev 10:1-2. While disobeying God’s commands resulted in death, following them had the exclusive benefit of seeing God’s glory in the earth. Ex 29:43.

At the end of Joshua’s life, he very famously challenged the people to follow the Lord. He gave a principle about the worship of God that will be critical for finding the true church in history. In Joshua 24, he said that to serve the Lord, all the gods of the world had to be put away and forsaken. God is a jealous God, a holy God. The worship of God means doing his will without mixing it with anything from men.

When Christ came, he signaled a change in worship for the New Testament era to the Samaritan woman at the well. John 4. The woman pointed out that her people worshipped in this mountain, but the Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place to worship. While Jesus pointed to the new era, he also acknowledged that in the old era it did matter where worship was conducted. Jesus said, ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. This goes back to the division of Israel by Rehoboam and Jeroboam after Solomon died. In 1Ki 12 we read that Jeroboam was concerned of losing his power over the ten tribes of the north by them attending worship in Jerusalem. So, he established a worship that was more convenient for them. Jesus was saying that tradition was illegitimate. Today, true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. If the Samaritans put themselves outside the covenant by abandoning Jerusalem, we know that any sect—however powerful or popular—that mixes God’s word with man’s tradition is illegitimate.