I would ask you to turn in your copies of God's Word this morning to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Ecclesiastes chapter 5. And while you're turning there, as always, any time that I have had the opportunity, the privilege of being able to be here among you, and especially to be in the pulpit, I want to bring warm greetings to you all from the brethren there in Bluefield. We pray for this church on a weekly basis, and I'm more than certain that you have been prayed for already today, perhaps more than once you've been prayed for today. And so it's a joy always to be able to come and to have fellowship with you. I'd like to read to you just the first couple of verses here in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 where Solomon, the preacher, says this, walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Lord, we would look to you again, having already prayed and having already sought your help, Lord, we cry out to you that your grace, that your peace would indeed be unto us as your word is preached, that your name would be magnified, that every heart would be drawn out unto you, that we would believe in you, that we would walk in the fear of you, that we would worship you aright. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. I want to speak this morning and this afternoon as well on the topic of preparing ourselves for worship. Now before we consider that specifically, I do feel like it's necessary that I should give to you some sort of context here as to how these sermons even came about. So bear with me as I do that very briefly this morning. But several months ago, I was given the privilege of participating in a family conference in Costa Rica. During that family conference, I was assigned the task of speaking on the role of a man in his home and also the role of a woman in her home. And as part of addressing specifically the man in his home, I was asked to give one session to the topic of the man leading his family to worship. Now, in saying that, I want you to notice that I didn't say, the man leading his family in worship. That was not the specific request. The specific request was that I would preach a sermon on the man leading, and I underscore the preposition, the man leading his family to worship. which means that it was my responsibility to address the biblical instruction that we are given on preparing our heart and the hearts of our families in so far as we are able for the public worship of God. Now when I was given that topic. My very first question was, is that even a matter which is addressed at all in the scriptures? For my part, I can say that up until the time that I was assigned this responsibility, I had never in the 20 some years that I have walked with the Lord Jesus set under a message that was addressing this particular topic. Nor had I, up until this point, ever read anything that dealt with it extensively. And so that was my question. And I can say to you as I stand before you, I've preached this now, on several different occasions in different settings, and as I've studied, as I've preached, as I've prayed, I've come to the overwhelming conviction that this is a subject that the scripture deals with, and it does so in a rather unmistakable way. The whole idea of preparing ourselves Preparing our hearts to enter in to the public worship of God is something which the scripture speaks plainly to. Leading up to this and this is a part of my sermon that that you won't get because I had already preached a couple of Sermons to these people in this family conference on this one particular topic but leading up to preaching on the preparation of the heart for worship I had already and I mentioned this because I think it's important for us, but I had already begun to build a a foundation, again, a very important foundation regarding the necessity of the fear of God as a governing principle in the heart of both the man and the woman. So I was opening up Psalm 128. Blessed are all those who fear the Lord who walk in his ways and then he goes on to speak about the man and his family and I also opened up Proverbs 31 and that woman there that we find in Proverbs 31 and how it is that she's marked by the fear of God and so that was something that I used as a launching pad, a foundation to drive us to our thoughts and what scripture says about this topic. And as I did that, I spoke with them. And again, I want to share this with you so that it can be hopefully lodged in your thinking. But I shared with them how that the fear of God, if we understand that the right way, biblically, that the fear of God will dictate all that we do. within the domestic sphere and the fear of God will dictate all that we do in every other sphere of life. As part of those preliminary studies that I gave to those people, I made the case that the fear of God is that work of God that causes the heart to have a high and a right regard for God so that the earnest desire of the man or the woman's heart is that every part of life should be progressively brought by grace into greater conformity to all of the revealed will of God, not the least of which is that which concerns worship. when the gospel comes to the soul and God shows a man through the gospel what he is in himself and humbles him into the dust of the earth and then through the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that we find in him takes that man that has been humbled down into the dust of the earth and raises him back up as a new creature His heart's desire then is that I should walk with God, and that I should have a right view of Him, and that I should know that His eye is upon me in everything that I do. And again, not the least of which, that which I do in worship. Now, not just that we worship, But the way in which we worship is also something that's vital to the man or the woman who fears God. His great concern, her great concern, having a high and a right regard for God is not only that his family be found worshiping, but that they be found worshiping in the way that is most pleasing to God. because that's the great concern of God. And therefore, as one who fears Him, that's my great concern. And so we read things like Leviticus chapter 10 and verse 3, what the Lord says to Aaron after his sons had offered up that false fire and God breaks forth upon them and devours them with fire. He then says right on the heels of that to Aaron, must be sanctified in them. that come near me, and before all the people I must be glorified. Psalm 89 verse 7 says much the same thing. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, which is language that points us to public worship. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around him. And so I say again, I said to them, I say to you, this brethren is God's great concern. And therefore it is to be the great concern of all who would rightly serve him. Now, with that preliminary context set forth, and I'm sorry I can't open up to you in further detail the fear of God because I think that it is so vital, but with that preliminary context and those thoughts before us, We come to this text, Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse 1 in particular, and we do well to carefully heed its instruction. So I'll read it again. He says there, walk prudently. Some translations render it, guard your steps or keep your foot. When you go, to the house of God, and draw near to hear, or be ready to hear, rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil." That was the instruction of the old preacher. and there have been many commentators who have really said something of a similar kind to that which I'm about to read, but I think John Gill kind of summarizes what the thoughts of many other commentators have been, and so I do want to read him here in his comment on Ecclesiastes 5.1. He says this, Having observed many vanities under the sun, The preacher directs men to the house of God where they might learn the nature of these vanities that he's been speaking of and how to avoid them. Though, Gill says, if care was not taken, they would find or introduce vanity there in the house of God. And he says, which of all vanities is the worst and ought to be guarded against. And so he continues. When men go to any place of divine worship, which is their duty and it is their interest, and for their honor and pleasure and profit, they should take care to keep their feet. And men, I say especially to you, it's our responsibility to lead ourselves and to lead our families in this way. guarding our steps and making ready our ears and our hearts to enter into the presence of God. Now, in order for us to do that, there are certain fundamental principles which must govern our thinking concerning worship which will ultimately, these principles governing our thinking about worship, will then ultimately govern how we and our families approach worship. And I want to mention them briefly. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but there are some things that are important here. For instance, the man who truly fears the Lord has a sober assessment of what true worship indeed does consist of. He understands on the one hand who it is that he's coming to meet with. He says with Jacob, the Lord is in this place, not a mere man, not even some human dignitary. And you might be able to use your imagination. Here, in some way, if you were going to take your family to meet with some important person, some human dignitary, then there would be some sort of protocol wherein you would be making yourself ready, dressing appropriately. Right? Preparing your children. This is the way that you're going to approach this individual. Well, when we think about worship, and when we think about what our God requires in worship, we must understand that it is not a mere man that we're coming to meet with. It's not a human dignitary that we're coming to meet with. This man is not bringing his family together for a social gathering with friends. He's not taking them to some sort of place of entertainment, no? Our Bibles tell us that it is the infinite, eternal, holy God of heaven and the holy God of all creation. that we mortal finite creatures of the dust are coming in worship to have dealings with. And the man who fears God is aware of that. He says with the preacher here in verse two, for God is in heaven and man, me, who I am, I'm here on earth. I'm the dust of the earth. Secondly, the man who fears God is aware not only of the person in which he's coming to meet with, but really there's a sense in which he takes into account also the particular place which he's approaching which is called the house of God here in this text and other places throughout the Bible it's also called the temple of the living God that not only is he coming before God though It may be, in some people's minds, some sort of distance between himself and God, as though God were far removed. But the man who fears God understands that he's not only coming before God, but he's coming to the place where God has promised to predominantly and peculiarly dwell and to make himself known on earth. That's vital. We find this stated in various and vivid forms throughout the scripture. It's said to be in Exodus 20 and verse 24, the place where he records his name. That place of public, the public gathering of the assembly of the saints is the place where God records His name. It's said in Isaiah chapter 60 in verse 7, to be the house of His glory. the habitation, Psalm 26 in verse 8, and the place where his glory dwells, Ephesians 2, 22, the dwelling place of God. Or if you read Revelation and the letters to the churches, I find this to be a striking picture that we're given. It is the place where the Lord Jesus himself walks in the midst of those people who have gathered together with eyes like a flame of fire. And as he walks through each and every pew and looks upon every single man and woman, boy and girl that's gathered together, he's familiar with his people. It's the epicenter of worship in the earth, the place wherein His name is proclaimed, where He communicates His choice, His precious, His most excellent mercies, to his people, and I would be so bold as to say it this way. There is no other place in all the world at this moment where the infinite comes nearer to the finite, the creator to the creature, the majestic to the dust. Nowhere else in all the world wherein I will encounter my God and my Savior so manifestly present, so near, than in this place. And of course people could say, well, we have union with Christ. And I would agree, yes, what a wonderful nearness and intimacy that we have with our Lord Jesus Christ in that way. And yet the illustrations that were given in scripture with regard to the public gathering of the people of God is that those individual temples of the Holy Spirit come together and form a temple wherein God himself is pleased to condescend and dwell. And so the man of God knows this. He knows this, and he says with Jacob, not only the Lord is in this place, but how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And as such, this man's great concern is that he would render the kind of worship that this great God demands and deserves. Worship befitting of one that is so great. Worship befitting of one that is so glorious as he. Therefore, the man or the woman who fears God doesn't come before God presumptuously, He doesn't come before God casually. He doesn't come before God flippantly, strolling into God's presence, offering, as the preacher says in Ecclesiastes 5, the sacrifice of fools, demanding his own ways and his own will be done. The man who fears God dares not offer up that false fire. He dares not lay his hand on the ark. This is God's place. And God has told us how he would be worshiped. And the man who fears the Lord takes that into consideration as he goes into the household of God. But he also knows that God is very concerned, not only about forms, but he's concerned about the heart. His complaint, God's complaint about the people of old. We know this text well, but these people worship me with their lips. They were gathering together. They were even oftentimes going through all of the formalities that would have looked on the outside like true worship. But the Lord says their heart is far from me. God wants the heart in worship. And therefore the man who fears the Lord labors to be ever mindful of his own heart. And he labors to be ever mindful, really, of his family's heart as well. He labors that not only himself, but his family, as much as depends upon him, that they, when they draw near, would indeed be drawing near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, that they would come before God with hearts engaged in true spiritual worship. That's his concern. That's his concern. Therefore, this man knows that in order to bring that kind of worship to God, there are certain things which are absolutely necessary, that His steps, as our text indicates, must be carefully ordered. He understands A man who truly fears God, there is no way around this. If God in his grace has come to the soul through the gospel and has crushed the man and raised him up as a new creature and has put his spirit within him and lodged within his soul the fear of God, then there is no way around this that that man understands that if I am going to come before God, the only acceptable acceptable way of worship begins through the offering of blood, and that the only way in which any of our approaches, the only way that any of our spiritual acts of worship are ever made acceptable is by faith exercising itself continuously in and upon and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says, 1 Peter 2, 5, that we as living stones are coming to him offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. by Christ Jesus, that all of our spiritual worship must be bathed, consciously bathed in the blood of the Lamb. Further, he understands that there are necessary components in worship, and I'll just mention that, that make worship to be what it is supposed to be. And so this man, his worship is harnessed, it's regulated by revealed truth. He also understands that there are things necessary after worship, how we respond, repentance, obedience. hope, confidence, joy, that when he comes and he hears the word of God preached, it's his responsibility to take care how he hears the word of God. And then when he walks away from that time of worship, he then begins to labor to apply all of those things in his life so that it's not flippant hearing going in one ear and out the other. But faith acts upon that which it has heard. That's all what it means for God to be sanctified and to be held in reverence. And therefore, this man who fears God, his steps are carefully guarded with regard to all of those matters, all of them. But the man of God must also know and be earnest about something else. And this is where we're going to spend the rest of our time this morning and this afternoon. He also knows it's not just that he must come to God through the blood offering of the Lamb of God. He not only knows that there are certain necessary components in worship and set certain necessary components after worship, but he knows that he must take care to think upon that which comes before worship. That there's a necessary prerequisite to all of those things. that there must be, and I say that again, must be, because it is indeed a commandment, that there must be a proper preparation if he would render himself fit and ready to come before God and to worship him. And that's chiefly our concern. So as we think about this, there's an aspect of it that many men have made this comment, that there is an aspect of all of this, this whole idea of preparing the heart, which common sense tells us. I've already made reference to it with regard to a human dignitary. Or you could use the illustration of something like a wedding. And anyone who's had a wedding ceremony knows that you don't just show up on the day that you decide. In fact, if you didn't prepare, you wouldn't even have a day, would you? The day and the time is part of the preparation of that, but you take something like a wedding, and all of the work that goes into it, right? You've got the day, you've got the time, you've got the place, you've got the preacher, you've got all of the cards that go out, the invitations that go out, and then you've got the dress, and you've got the suit for the bride and the bridegroom, and all of those things, and the list could go on. It shows that there's this aspect of common sense. When there is something of great importance to us, what do we do? We prepare ourselves, right? You could use it in a lesser form. I always like to use the illustration of Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite holidays. And I love it because even long before we get to that day, I can envision in my mind who's going to be there, who's going to be sitting around my table. I can so think of it in terms of all of the food that's going to be spread out on that table. I can smell it. I can almost taste it. My mind and my heart runs to that place with joy and excitement and preparation. So I say, It's common sense. And we should think this way also with regard if we think that way about a wedding, if we think that way about Thanksgiving, if we think that way about having a guest in our home. Should we also not think that way and even more so about the Lord's day? And what kind of day is it? The old writers had various ways of describing the Lord's Day. They called it the Regina de Eru. the queen of all days. They refer to it as the best of all days, a day crowned with God's blessing. This is the day that the Lord has made, the psalmist says, and that is not in reference to every day. That is in reference specifically to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which when his gathered people come together, that is what they are remembering and proclaiming. And they are worshiping the one who is alive forevermore. And the psalmist says, this, this is the day that the Lord has made. And those things that we come to do, they're the greatest things that concern us in this world. You'd agree, right? The things that we come to do when we meet together in the presence of Almighty God and our blessed Savior, they are the things that are of utmost importance, that surpass all other things that we do. And so the old writers would also call it the market day of the soul, a day in which we trade in holy commerce and traffic with God. The psalmist David in Psalm 122 verse 1 said, I was glad. That's an interesting term to me. I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. And the reason that I say that that expression is so interesting is because the gladness is expressive of a readiness to enter into worship. They come. I'm ready. They say, let us go to the house of the Lord. Oh, my heart is glad. to go and to worship my God. That was the response of the psalmist. It's the response of the man who fears God. So Thomas Watson wrote, when therefore this blessed day approaches, we should labor that as the day is sanctified, so may our hearts be sanctified. And again, I say this is just common sense, but it's more than that. It is a command. God does require this of us, that we should be laboring to prepare ourselves for worship. He requires it. Again, Leviticus 10.3, I must be sanctified in them that come near me. Ecclesiastes 5.1 is a command. Keep your steps when you go. In other words, fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins. And therefore, brethren, we are to be mindful of it always. The Jews, when you come to the Gospels, you find this This day is mentioned four times in the New Testament, but this designated day that the Jews had before the Sabbath, and it's called what? The day of preparation. I want to show you this because Again, the unfamiliar aspect of this to us, that we have. This is not, for many people, this is not something that they often give much thought to. So I want to show you, I'm not pulling this completely out of thin air, right? Luke 23 verse 54, we read, and that day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew near. Again, that same language is found elsewhere towards the end of the Gospels. Well, where does that idea come from? Why did they do that? Why did they have this day of preparation? I mean, was this something, another law that the Jews just made up? Was it just, they had that propensity, the scribes and the Pharisees, the lawyers, they all had this propensity to add to the law things that were not there? Is that, so when we read about this day of preparation that the Jews had, is that what we're coming up against there? Well, no. I think so. We find a long pattern of this throughout the Old Testament, and I just want to point out to you a few passages, beginning all the way back in Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3. And there in Exodus chapter 3, something that you're very familiar with, I know. But here is Moses, and he sees the bush that's burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed, and so he begins to move towards the bush as he hears God calling, Moses, Moses, verse 4. And Moses says, here I am. And as he moves towards the bush, the voice of God speaks to him and says this, then he said, do not draw near this place, Take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. There's an idea there of this whole aspect of preparation. But then turn to Exodus chapter 12 with me and see how it develops a little bit more. Exodus chapter 12 is where the Passover is instituted. there in Exodus chapter 12 as God gives instruction for the Passover he tells them that they are to take a lamb for each household and then in verse 4 and if the household is too small for the lamb let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons according to each man's need you shall make you shall make your count for the lamb. And then he says, verse five, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the 14th day. So back in verse three, they're told to take the lamb on the 10th day of the month. and they keep the lamb in their home or wherever it is that they would have kept it. They keep it until the 14th day and then on the 14th day that lamb is offered up. Now, I'm not going to begin to try to open up all of the possibilities there of why. That lamb was in the house for four days. But this one thing I can say, that that lamb being there, that they seeing it, that they hearing it day by day by day, surely was unto them something that was to be a reminder that in four days from now, in three days from now, in two days from now, tomorrow, We are coming before God and we must prepare ourselves even by the offering up of this lamb. There's another text, Exodus 16, about the Sabbath and gathering double on the day before the Sabbath. We won't take time to read that because I'll come back to it this afternoon, but I do want to read to you also Exodus chapter 19 and verse 10. Because in Exodus 19, and this is going to be important for something that God willing in just a moment I'll draw out, but in Exodus 19 when God was pleased to come down upon Mount Sinai and to meet with the people there, He commands them in verse 10, notice, then the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. So God tells them, he is coming, he's going to condescend, he's going to meet with them. They're going to be called out of their tents, away from their tents, to the foot of the mountain. And God says, therefore, with that aspect of the public assembling of the people of God, be sure, Moses, that they ready themselves and sanctify themselves so that they might come before me. and worship. And we find this kind of language in so many other places throughout the Old Testament with respect to God's drawing near and meeting with his people. And in each instance, it's clear that there is a distinct time separate from the time that they would interact with God so that they could properly prepare themselves for him. And that's what I simply want to point out from some of those texts. And then I do want to read to you another one. So notice in 2 Chronicles, chapter 29, and again, I've picked these to read for very specific purposes, but 2 Chronicles chapter 29, and there in 2 Chronicles chapter 29, Hezekiah instructs the priests to go and to cleanse the temple, the Levites, and he says in verse 5, hear me, Levites, Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. Now notice verse 31, after all of that happens and the temple and the people are sanctified, then Hezekiah answered, verse 31, and said, now that you have been consecrated, or now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. Now that you're consecrated, come near. Then again, verses 35 and 36, also the burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the peace offerings with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoice. that God had prepared the people since the events took place so suddenly. One of the reasons, there are several, I'll make reference to this passage again, but one of the reasons that I find this so striking is that when there's a departure in among those old people, those old covenant people, and there's always this forsaking of the law that you see, And when there is revival and they begin to take the law of God seriously, one of the very first things that happens when there's revival in religion is that the people get in blood earnest about the way in which they worship. And when they begin to think about drawing near to God, and here in that last verse we see who it is that's causing this revival of religion. It's God Himself coming upon the people in power and in grace. And it said that He prepared their hearts. And the outward activity of that was that They prepared themselves. They consecrated themselves. They made themselves ready. The activity of preparation was considered to be a part of the acceptable worship of God. Now, that was under the old order. Everything that I've read has been referenced to the old order. And I want to say this, that does not mean, brethren, as some would take it, that we under the new order are exempt from thinking about worship in this way. In fact, I would go a step further and I would say it means the exact opposite. That it's even more necessary now than it was then. Have you ever considered that? Just think about this. Paul asked the Corinthians, Do you not know, 1 Corinthians 3, verses 16 and 17, do you not know, O Corinthians, that you are the temple of God? And he's speaking to them there corporately. Do you, church at Corinth, not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? And then he says this. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." That's the church under the gospel. And as I think about worship, as I've considered this now for many months, and how we approach the living God, It's apparent in this day among those who profess Christ as Savior, it's apparent that we carry in our minds far too low a view of worship. We so often come so hurriedly We so often come so carelessly, we so often come so glibly, we so often come so casually, we so often come so indifferently. As though, in our thinking, as though grace, because Christ gives grace and where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, and therefore it's as though, in the thinking of many, that grace somehow is supposed to lessen or even replace Gravity in worship. Grace does not replace gravity. Grace does not lessen gravity, brethren. What grace does is that it makes it all an infinite weightier matter than it ever was, ever was under the old covenant. Grace makes it possible to stand affectionately and warmly before the Creator, but it doesn't remove any of the holiness of the ground upon which we stand. Our God is an all-consuming fire. And even as the bush was set all aglow with the holy flames of the burning presence of God, and yet it was not consumed. Brethren, so we must understand that the only reason that we're not consumed by our approaches to God is because of the grace of God towards us. And we must also understand this, that it's by that grace that we have been made to be those living stones. And it's by that grace that we are being built up a spiritual house. And it's by that grace that we have been made a holy priesthood. And it's by that grace that we can come and offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And the sheer recognition of this ought to cause us to fall on our faces in reverence and in awe. Sheer recognition of that ought to cause us to fall before Him in worship and adoration. Forgiveness of sin and liberty in Christ does not remove fear. It corrects it and it heightens it. Psalm 130 verse 4, there is forgiveness with you so that we might live any way that we want, so that we might worship any way that we want. There is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. That's the whole argument if you'll turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. That's the whole argument of Hebrews chapter 12. The reason that I wanted to read Exodus chapter 19 is because Hebrews chapter 12 makes reference to that. Here in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 18, the writer is telling these believers, you have not come to the mountain that may be touched, that burned with fire to the blackness and the darkness and the tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of word, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. He said, this is not in the gospel what we have come to. This is not the mount that we have come to. And then he tells us what we have come to. But you have come to the Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. And so you would think that after saying all that, he would then say, relax, it's okay, take it easy. He doesn't lessen it. He heightens it. Notice what he says in verse 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, Let us have grace. Let us obtain grace. Let us improve upon grace. Let us, as John Owen commented in his commentary on Hebrews, let us be prepared by grace in our hearts and minds. And he goes on and he says, for it is grace that is being set forth as the effective instrumental cause here. of what he goes on to say, let us have grace by which we may serve or worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. You've not come to that mountain that shook and the people trembled. You've come to something that's so much greater. And therefore, let us have grace as the instrumental cause of our hearts being made ready to worship God acceptably with reverence and fear. He requires that we take the necessary steps to prepare ourselves in grace and to prepare ourselves by grace to worship before him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. That's a new covenant. I want to go back to Hezekiah really quickly to point out one thing, and sorry for jumping around just a bit here, but I think it's important because that's actually what we see back in Hezekiah. Though there was a failure externally due to the brevity of events, and I'll read it in just a moment, there was a failure externally due to the brevity of events, yet what we find in this whole episode of the revival of religion in Hezekiah's day was that God was pleased to accept them because of the internal posture and the readiness of their hearts to truly worship Him. Notice what Hezekiah says in 2 Chronicles 30, beginning at verse 17, for there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves. That's that outward consecration that we've been thinking about. Therefore, the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord. For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he's not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. That's vital. That's vital. Because here, this great revival of religion moved so rapidly upon the people that not all of them were able to consecrate themselves according to the law, though that was required. And yet, the Lord looked upon them in favor because their heart was prepared. It's not as though even in that situation that they just trampled into the presence of God without any heart preparation. And brethren, that's what grace calls us to do when we come to worship God. Not only that, and I'll finish on this note this morning, but not only that, and here's something that's so vital, and I hope I can explain it well enough to you, but it would seem that scripture actually makes this preparation of the heart something of a measuring stick with regard to true godliness. How do you prepare for worship? Scripture uses this language very interestingly. There's a direct correlation drawn for us in the Bible between the way a man prepares himself for worship and the degree of the uprightness of his heart before God. We can see this correlation in respect to what happened in the days of Hezekiah, what I just read, that their hearts were prepared and therefore God looked upon them acceptably. But I wanna give you three other examples. Notice, flip back to 2 Chronicles 12, 14. 2 Chronicles 12, 14. I'm not gonna read much of this. But I'm going to read verse 14 where we find these words, and he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. Have you ever noticed that in reading through your Bible? This is spoken of Rehoboam, Solomon's son. He did not serve properly because he did not seek properly. Okay? Now, let's turn to 2 Chronicles 19. And we find some of the same kind of language, 2 Chronicles 19 and verse 3, where we find the opposite thing spoken of Jehoshaphat. Verse three, nevertheless, good things are found in you in that you have removed the wooden images from the land and have prepared your heart to seek God. Both of these come at the end of these men's lives. And both of these men were a mixture of successes and failures throughout their reign. At times, it would seem that they honored the Lord and they did good, both Rehoboam and Jehoshaphat. And at other times, they failed miserably, much like ourselves, right? But the thing to note is that at the end of their lives, God's final verdict upon their character and their spiritual disposition is directly linked to the proportion of the preparations of their hearts to seek God. One more. Back in Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter seven. When Samuel calls Israel to repentance, 1 Samuel chapter seven. And here, as we read these words that I'm about to read, what we're going to see is that Samuel is equating true repentance and uprightness of heart to a holy resolve to prepare themselves to seek the Lord. Notice verse three, then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying, if you return to the Lord with all your heart, Then put away the foreign gods and the asterisks from among you and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. And if you go on to read, actually, the immediate context here is that after he tells them that they worship. It's in the context of worship, as if Samuel said, if your repentance and the uprightness of your heart be true, according to what you seem to profess in turning to God, then it will be seen in the manner in which you have prepared your heart to serve God, which has as its primary or principal focus, the worship of God. And here I think something very important must be understood. that when a person or a people are said to seek or said to serve the Lord, it's not just with respect to all of life, but the very core of any of those calls to prepare the heart to seek and to serve the Lord, the very core is always worship. It was that worship of God that was the epicenter of the rest of life. Everything else that they did grew out of that. As you read through your Old Testament, you have to understand what is the first part of the Decalogue. It all deals with worship. And then you have all of the ceremonial laws, and you have the civil laws even preserving those people. Why? So that there might be a people that would give worship unto God. And as I said earlier, when there's a return from the casting off of the law, there is always, always, without exception, what you see every time that the people return is worship. Worship was at the epicenter of all the rest of their life. Everything else they did grew out of that. And the reason I want to point that out is because I want to say to us this morning, remind ourselves of this, that the worship of God is not a byproduct of true religion. It's not somewhere on the fringes with other things taking center stage. That's how Christianity is framed today. Worship is the center stage. It is the center stage in everything and especially in what we come to do today. Worship is the beginning and the end of true religion. Worship is the nucleus of all true faith and public worship is the culmination of all true faith. I bring friends with me sometimes because I know, especially when I'm talking about things like this that may be foreign to many people, I want to have a posse with me to back me up a little bit. So just listen to a few men, Jeremiah Burroughs. You do not in truth turn to God except you make conscience to prepare your hearts. Therefore you that never yet knew what it was to make conscience to prepare your hearts for holy duties, Know that you have not turned with all your heart unto the Lord. There have not been the true turning of your hearts unto the Lord. Do you understand what he's saying there? If a man's not preparing his heart to earnestly seek the Lord in this matter of worship, then he scarcely prepared his heart to seek God at all in truth. Another man, I won't mention him by name, he knows who he is because I've already told him that I would be quoting something from him, but he's here with us this morning, has said this. Your preparation is the authoritative commentary on your consciousness of who you are coming to meet, and your desire and determination to meet with him properly. That's been a powerful thought that's been lodged into my conscience. Robert Martin in his book on the Sabbath writes this, our level of preparation is a barometer on which we may read the level of our love for God's day and by which we may rightly estimate not our professed but our actual esteem for him and his institution. Now, I want to just remind you that the man who fears God is concerned with what the eye of God is most occupied with and must therefore take seriously this call to preparation before entering into worship. Right? Do we fear God? Then I want all of my life to be progressively brought into greater conformity to all of the revealed will of God, not the least of which is this, this call to prepare ourselves that we might worship God aright, that we should guard our steps carefully when we go to the house of God. And so many forget that. They don't prepare themselves, they don't rise with anticipation on the Lord's day. They're not ready to meet with God, and therefore they find worship to be dry, they find worship to be cold, they find worship to be distant, and they look around and they say, what's wrong with all these people? When the problem is inside. We must guard against that. We must be in earnest about this. Christ has opened the way. Let us then, brethren, be careful that we keep our steps in that way by the due preparation of our hearts, lest we be guilty of introducing the vanities of indolence and apathy into the worship of our great God and Savior. Is he not worthy of our utmost attention to this, that I should be ready to come into the presence of my God and meet with him? It's something I would say that will be of great importance to all who are gathered on that great day when the bride is presented to her bridegroom, and I close by reading this one passage, and we are done, but listen. to Revelation chapter 19, verse 6. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. She prepared herself. for that great culmination of the public worship of Christ. She, the bride, the church on that day will be marked by a preparation of the heart and life to meet with and to worship forever her bridegroom which gave himself for her. And there's a sense in which all of this life is one great act of preparation for that day of worship, wherein we will stand before the bridegroom and sing Alleluia. Brethren, we ought to take this seriously. Might God help us. We'll come back this afternoon and we'll answer the question how. Lord, please seal this to our hearts this morning. For every one of your people, O God, that you might be pleased and graced to revive our hearts, that it would not just be something that is an afterthought when we come to worship you, but that we would even even every day of the week be endeavoring to think about being in your presence and worshiping you and having our hearts ready to meet with our God, that we would be marked by this and that all the world would see and that we would have a testimony that we indeed love our God and adore our God and fear our God and live holy lives that are marked out for our God. Lord, we pray for any here that are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is coming a day in which they will stand before you. And if their hearts are not prepared to meet you and Lord, they will be cast away into the everlasting flames of eternal damnation. Know how we pray, Lord, that they, even today, would be thinking about their own heart condition and that they would come to you through Jesus Christ, trusting Him and Him alone, that He should grant unto them forgiveness of sins and a new heart that has a love for you and a desire to worship you above all things. Please help us all, Lord. We are so desperate and so needy, and yet we do want to honor you. We ask for your grace towards us, in Jesus' name, amen.