Charles H. Spurgeon
“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” —Paul to the Philippians.
The worship of God in private and in public, as it is prescribed in the Scriptures, requires our active attention always to the two grand divisions into which the service has been divided: the visible or tangible instruments to be used, and the effective power which is to be appealed to in the use of these instruments. In considering the worship of God and the surest means of benefit from it, it is necessary to recognize the outward ordinances as the only authorized method of our approaching him, and the only means by which we may expect his favor in benefits to ourselves. This dictates due care to have the ordinances as exactly conformed to the requirements of the law as it is possible to secure them. It is also indispensable to apprehend clearly, and then to act practically, on this knowledge of the correlated Scripture doctrine of the only agent and efficacious power by which the divinely-appointed ordinances can be made effectual. There can be no acceptable worship except in the use of those ordinances and actions in employing them which God himself has appointed. No man, or organized body of men, has a right to invent any action for the worship of God, and to challenge his blessings on the use of it. He would lay himself open to the cutting question, “Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts” therewith?
Every earthly monarch claims the right to settle the etiquette of his own court, the dress and acts of homage and ceremony by which strangers and his servants are to approach the royal presence. To alter those prescriptions for others entirely different, or make changes by addition or subtractions from them. But the teaching of the Scriptures is unequivocally clear, that even the ordinances appointed of God have no power in themselves alone to work the needful effects on the soul of the worshipper, unless accompanied by the efficacious influences of the Holy Spirit. The gospel must come, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Our present object, however, is not to illustrate the general doctrine of the relation of the Spirit to the ordinances of worship and the means of grace, but the particular doctrine of his relation to the public worship of God in the regular assemblies of the people for Sabbath service.
The assertion of this text is, that one characteristic mark of a true believer is that he “worships God in the spirit.” This includes all kinds of worship, whether secret, social, or public, whether in the use of prayer, or praise, or preaching, or sacraments, or any other ordinance. The presence and the exerted influence of the Spirit is essential to the right and profitable use of them all. The special presence of the Holy Ghost, then, in the public assemblies for divine worship, is a fact certified to us the word of God. The expression used by our Lord in reference to the Holy Spirit, “he dwelleth with you and shall be in you,” points to a distinction, which, perhaps, cannot be fully understood in its complete, actual application. But it evidently implies both a dwelling with and a dwelling in the believer. The dwelling with has been applied, and with obvious propriety, to the presence of the Spirit in assemblies for worship, considered as wholes, as companies, or bodies, associated according to the divine requirement.
His dwelling in has been stated, in contrast, as his presence in the soul of every individual worshipper, as the guide and animating influence of his personal feelings. The expressions do unquestionably embrace also a perpetual presence with and in the believer at all times, and not merely in connection with public worship. But as bearing on the matter of worship, the distinction evidently points to a presence with, and yet outside the worshipper, and also to a distinct presence of the spirit in worshipping. We have no fear of being far from the truth in saying that one of the meanings of these remarkable phrases refers directly to the presence of the Spirit in the assemblies for worship. He is no doubt a perpetual presence around as well as within the individual Christian. But he is also a perpetual presence in every Christian assembly. This last is the particular truth that invites our attention now:
1. The first question which excites notice is, what is meant by this presence of the Holy Ghost in that Christian assembly? There is a sense in which he is necessarily present in such assemblies. He is God, and God is everywhere present. But in this sense he is present in a drinking or a gambling saloon as truly as in a church. In this sense his presence in an assembly for worship signifies no more than it signifies in the depths of an impenetrable forest, in in the cave of a mountain, or in the solitudes of a desert. in this sense, also, the Father and the Son are equally present. The presence of the Spirit in the Christian assembly must mean something more than this natural and necessary determination of his omnipotence.
The analogy of similar conceptions of the divine presence may guide tot he meaning. Although the divine being is everywhere present, he is frequently spoken of in the Scriptures as “coming,” coming to a place or to a person, and for different purposes: “The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai.” “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower of Babel.” “The Lord met him and sought to kill him.” “He cometh to judge the earth.” It is obvious that all these forms of expression about a being, naturally everywhere present, simply mean some peculiar manifestation of his presence for different purposes, and the nature of the purpose in each case gives its peculiar coloring to the coming or presence which it qualifies.
Thus when he comes in judgement, it is God manifesting himself in the actual infliction, or in his official announcement of his purpose to inflict his judicial vengeance. When he comes or is present as the God of peace and love, he manifest himself in the grant of peace and in the expressions of his tender mercies. From these analogous forms of expressions it is safe to conclude that the peculiar presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian assemblies is the manifestation of that blessed agent in all the relations which he sustains to the worship of the church, and in such acts as he pleases to perform in the progress of the service. As Gd he is the object of the worship offered; but his peculiar relations to the worship, determined by the great covenant of salvation, present him prominently as the animating and guiding influence which controls the worship, and enables its offering in an acceptable manner.
It becomes clear, then, that the first in the official order of divine worship is the Holy Spirit, who enables the worshipper to offer it to the Father. This priority, of course, implies no precedence of dignity or honor, but merely indicates the appointed official relation to the worship to be offered. The first of the three sacred and mysterious persons of the Godhead in meeting his worshippers is the Holy Spirit of God. The Christian dispensation is emphatically called “the dispensation of the Spirit”; it is so called from the declared prominence given in the gospel to his part in the work of salvation. The Spirit meets the worshipper to prepare his approach, to enable him to exercise faith in the Savior, and thus through the mediation of the Son, realized and secured in its gracious functions by faith, to approach the Father, and to call him Abba, in acceptable worship.
To enable the worship of the Father through the Son, the Spirit takes the lead in the worship of the saints. No ordinance has any effective spiritual power, except as the Spirit gives it. No worshipper’s heart is ever in a proper frame for worship, except as the Spirit gives it. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and there is no true faith except that which is the fruit of the Spirit. The great fact, then, which is presented to us in this doctrine of the relation of the Holy Spirit to the worship of the Christian assemblies, is one of very high and solemn significance, a fact that ought to be fruitful of constant and profound practical effects on all who assemble for divine worship. That fact is, that the Lord is in his holy temple, in a peculiar posture, waiting to meet them. The Holy Ghost is pervading every sanctuary where the assembly meets to worship the Father through the Son. How striking the conception when we fully master it! How solemn the thought! To what searching inspection is the heart of every worshipper about to be subjected!
2. It dictates that there should always be some suitable preparation of the thoughts and feelings before we leave our homes to attend public worship. We are going to meet the Holy Ghost. If we were going to meet a king or any great person by his own invitation or command in his own palace, our anxiety would be keenly roused as to the propriety of our own demeanor in his presence. We should anxiously acquaint ourselves with the rules of etiquette to be observed. We should have our minds thoroughly purged of all listlessness and indifference. We should be solicitous to do nothing to forfeit his regard, or spoil our own welcome. If we went to solicit some favor or advantage for ourselves or others, we should prepare for the best presentment of our cause, and seek carefully to avoid everything which might hinder our success.
To go into the presence of the Holy Spirit without any recognition of it at all, with our minds i the same general attitude as if we were going into some secular assembly, with no feeling of reverence, with no quickened sense of obligation to wait before him in a suitable frame of feeling, it so offend the obtrusive proprieties of the position. To confound an assembly to listen to a lecture on art or a political address, is to annihilate the spirit and the conception of worship altogether. How keenly does this condemn the prevailing spirit of our attendance on public worship. This utter practical ignoring of the radical idea of divine worship, and construing it as a mere Sunday assembly of the people, warranted by custom, but of no vital significance, is altogether sufficient to account for the chronic unfruitfulness of ordinary Christian worship. No wonder the Spirit withholds his influences, and the ordinances are powerless, when his presence and the necessity for it in every Christian assembly for worship is so completely discounted. Let us fill our minds with the thought that we are going to meet the Holy Ghost whenever we come to the sanctuary, and come with some suitable frame of thought and feeling. It is as incongruous in itself, and far more so in the degree of its impropriety, to come unprepared than to come with studied or careless indifference into the presence of a king.
3. A suitable, that is to say, a serious and even solemn impression that the Holy Ghost is in the house waiting for us, would change much in the demeanor of the people before the actual commencement of divine worship. They would have little or no inclination to gather together and exchange all sorts of ideas while waiting for the service to begin. A diligent preparation of mind to enter into the impending service, before and after entering, would become a prevailing and instinctive habit. The custom of lingering in protracted talks about all manner of secular things, even after the signal for service has been given, would become a thing of the past, and the disturbance of the actual worship by the sound of the late-comers hurrying to their places would soon be unknown.
Listlessness and inattention, careless conversation in the house as well as out of it, would be abolished. The sentiment that the Holy Ghost was in the house, ready to search every heart to see what and how much desire was there for his blessing, and waiting to bestow his grace on all who really wanted it, would soon put an end to all hs censurable carelessness. Our whole view of entering into the sanctuary would be powerfully modified by the grand thought of his holy presence, and all our behavior would be adjusted to it. Sleeping during the service, the study of costumes, and the critical observation of our fellow-worshippers, would be swallowed up by our proper conception of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the sanctuaries of Christian worship.
4. The proper recognition of the presence of the Spirit in the sanctuary would suitable control that most difficult and dangerous question of dress in the Christian assembly. A certain limited class of people are censurably careless about their appearance. Another, a much more extensive class, err on the most opposite extreme, and seem to regard the temples of the most High God as the chief theatre on which to display the splendors of fashion and the taste of its devotees. No earthly king would be pleased with either of these species of display in his presence. A sloven would be probably shown to the door, and a rich parvenu who should refuse the court dress ordered by court fashions for the king’s guests, and appear loaded with the ostentatious pomp of overgrown wealth, would scarcely meet with a warmer reception. Elaborate dressing in the sanctuaries of God is a serious spiritual snare. It absorbs the thoughts; it raises the frivolous passions; it distracts others; it excludes or deadens the impressions of the truth, and indicates a mind as dead to the presence and purposes of the presiding Spirit as it would be in a saloon or a courthouse. A certain simple dignity and propriety of dress, alike distant from carelessness and ostentation, is alone suitable to the presence and aims of the Holy Ghost in the house of God.
5. The presence of the Spirit as the guide and animating energy of the worship of the church ought to qualify profoundly all our use of the ordinances. These instruments are appointed of God in order that man, the worshipper, may be assured that his action in the use of these instruments is acceptable to him. The ordinances are, as it were, trysting -places where the soul that seeks may find God. This meeting with God in the ordinances ought always to be definitely recognized whenever we use them. It would be a fruitful thought every time we employed any ordinance in public or private worship—prayer, reading Scripture, praise, sacrament—if we should formally remind ourselves that we are going to meet the Holy Ghost that he may lead us into the presence of the Father through the Son. These ordinances are not only instruments of worship towards God, but means of grace for ourselves. They are the acts which the King has prescribed by which we are authorized to approach him and obtain his favors. They can only be defeated by defected use. Their power will be increased by increased degrees of rightness in their use. The presence of the Holy Spirit properly dictates certain effects in the use of the ordinances.
In the first place, it dictates the use of all the ordinances, not to all men indiscriminately, but only such of them as have been prescribed to certain classes of men. Some of them have been appointed to be used by unregenerate men in order to regenerate them. Others have been appointed for the use only of regenerate men in order to have their growth in grace; and the limitation in the use is to be observed, as well as the use itself. Prayer, reading the Scriptures, and attending on the whole worship of the sanctuary may be lawfully used by the worst of men. The sacrament of baptism as applicable to adults, and the sacrament of the supper, are only to be used by those who avow their faith and obligation to obey the Savior. But no one, saint or sinner, has the right to decline the use of any ordinance which the law authorizes him to employ; for that authorization not only confers a privilege, bu issues a command. It is an offence to the present and watchful Spirit to refuse to join in all those acts of worship which he has required to be used. Disobedience in his special presence is a special offence, and effectually discounts the prospect of his blessing.
In the second place, the presence of the Spirit dictates, not merely the use, but the right use of all the ordinances. There is a certain spirit or frame of feeling in which the law requires them to be employed. There is a certain reverence which is indispensable. To challenge the Holy Spirit of God to meet us in the act and ordinance which he himself has appointed for the purpose, involves the obligation to do it with a reverent frame of mind suitable to his majesty. To meet him before whom all the angels bow in adoring awe, with no more concern than we would whistle up a dog or speak to boot-black, is appalling irreverence. All our intuitions of moral propriety are shocked by disrespectful conduct in the presence of superior dignity; and we fear a very brief inspection of the frames of feeling in which we commonly appear in the sanctuary would disclose a most alarming want of reverence and godly awe in the worship of God.
In the third place, the presence and the purposes with which the Holy Ghost presides in the worship of the Christian assembly dictates the eager expectation of a blessing on the worshipper. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” is a command and promise peculiarly adapted, and as such, designed for the public assemblies of believers. These ordinances of worship are not designed as mere empty forms. God is seeking not merely the homage which is due to himself, but he is seeking also the highests interests of his poor, sinful, and unhappy creatures. His appointed ordinances carry richer blessings, when rightly used, than all the valuables of the world put together. They ought to be employed, therefore, with an eager confidence in the grace they tender. They ought to be used with a lively desire and expectation, with an earnestness and vigor, an absorbed interest and occupation of thought and feeling, exclusive of all other thoughts and feelings, all other ideas and things.
In the fourth place, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the use of the ordinances determines also the spirit of joy and gladness in the public or private worship of God. The reverence due to his divine majesty does not in the least detract from the joy that is also legitimately due to his presence and the gracious purposes for which he is present. He is in the ordinances as the Paraclete, the one ready to be called to our side for the help of every worshipper. He is there for the purpose of taking the things of Christ and showing the unto us. He is there to unseal to our dull vision the gladness of the gospel. He is there to enable us to “serve the Lord with gladness.” How shamefully has the spirit of joy been banished from the worship of God, the gracious! Any true or adequate apprehension of the Spirit’s presence would make the worship of the sanctuary and the closest ring with delight. His presiding grace dictates a lively and loving expectation of joy and comfort in waiting upon him, an anticipation of realizing all the gracious ends of divine worship, comfort, and strength to saints, awakening and conversion to sinners.
In the fifth place, the presence of the Spirit in the public sanctuary dictates the keeping pure and entire all such ordinances as has appointed, not taking anything away, not adding anything to them. It requires strict compliance with his given law concerning ordinances. The notion is entertained by certain sections of the Christian body, that the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly of believers warrants any and every one to take the leadership of the worship when impressed with the belief that they are moved by the presiding power to do so. This notion is unfounded. If the Holy Ghost did so move, it would of course be right. But the presence of the Spirit is not designed to abolish the written laws he has ordained, but rather to secure their fulfillment. The words of Holy Writ are to be the guide of all acceptable worship; they order what is to be done; they affix every restriction, as well as impose every precept. The refusal to observe those restrictions, so far from being justified by his presence, is rather a demonstration of his absence.
In the last place, the right use of the ordinances, as determined by the presence of the Holy Ghost, dictates always a look beyond the ordinances to the Spirit himself to give them efficacy. To rest in the ordinances, though given by God himself, is to repudiate his own agency, which is alone efficacious. To attribute a mystic energy to the ordinances themselves, as many do, is to rely upon them, and to renounce all dependence on God himself or on his grace back of the ordinances. This is the grand central doctrine of Christianity, that salvation is of the Lord, and that he alone can give the increase, though even Paul may plant and Apollos water. The presence of the Spirit confirms this doctrine; there would be no need for his presence or the forth-putting of his energy if the doctrine was false. This living presence of the Holy Ghost requires every worshipper, while using the instrumental means of grace, with all fervor and engagement of feeling, to construe them as they really are, mere means, and to look beyond them to the power of the living Spirit, who alone can give them any efficacious energy or saving effects. This is the vital difference between an evangelical and a ritual religion.
This wonderful truth of the presence of the Spirit in the Christian assembly ought to make us open our hearts, and always keep the attitude of expectancy of a blessing and a readiness to receive it. Let it be distinctly marked and remembered, that this official presence of the Spirit is constant, a regular incident of all regular public worship, and not, as the course of events for many years has taught us to construe it, as only the incident of special occasions, called revivals.
If Christians would honor the Holy Spirit more in his regular offices in public worship, and always keep themselves designedly amenable to his influence, both in the sanctuary and out of it, there would be far more constant and effective manifestations of his power and grace, both in building up the saints and in the salvation of sinners, than is to be seen now. The long intervals of barrenness, the coldness and discomfort of Christians are due, in great measure, to the well-nigh complete degree in which all divisions of the church have lost the practical and adequate apprehension of the presence and the official designs of the Holy Ghost as the presiding power in the Christian assembly in the Christian assembly for public worship.
