Equipping Eve: True Worship

Is the Church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the Garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello ladies and welcome to Equipping Eve, the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word so that you are prepared to stand strong in an age of deception.

When we know the truth, we can recognize the error. My name is Erin Benzinger, I am your host,

I hope that you will take some time today or tomorrow to check us out on Facebook or Twitter.

You can email me anytime equippingeve at gmail .com or visit the website equippingeve .com

or dot org and there's also a way to contact me there as well. I love to hear from you ladies, it's always an encouragement just to hear how the show, how you're learning from the show and to hear your suggestions for future show topics as well and your questions and just want you to know that you are a blessing to me.

So thank you for listening. I usually say that at the end of the show, but I want to say it at the outset this time and just acknowledge how much

I appreciate your listening and your feedback. Let's see,

I was browsing through Twitter a few days ago and I saw a tweet that was sent out by Alpha USA.

Alpha USA would be the US arm of the Alpha Course.

It's a rather large organization based over there in the UK, headed up by Nikki Gumbel.

And I know that the Alpha Course has received a little bit of, I don't want to say publicity, but some of the discernment websites and ministries have kind of picked up on Alpha recently and have been talking about it.

And that's a good thing because Alpha is something that should be warned against. And I saw this tweet and it just reminded me of the conversation that I have heard going on lately and just kind of demonstrates some of the errors with Alpha.

And it's a quote by Emily Dickinson, and it says, quote, the soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience, end quote.

And, you know, we have talked at length here, ladies, about how we cannot rely on our experience as a measure of truth.

And that is one of the dangers of so many women Bible teachers today and really the dangers of the charismatic movement as well and the non -cessationist movement.

And the Alpha Course and Nikki Gumbel has been heavily influenced, directly influenced by things like the

Toronto Blessing and other very charismatic movements with just quite honestly, aberrant theology.

And so I would warn you against the Alpha Course and encourage you to do your own research. You can feel free to email me with questions.

It was actually the Alpha Course and research into the Alpha Course that started my blog

Do Not Be Surprised dot com. So if you go there, you can find there's a tab at the top of the page.

I think it's called the Alpha Course Compromise, and you can find multiple resources there linked to other websites with research and as well as a fair amount of my own research as well.

And so I say that not to boost my own resources there, but just to point you in that direction, because Alpha is it's in your churches.

It is. It's very popular. And so I just want you ladies to be equipped.

So please visit Do Not Be Surprised dot com and check out the information that is available there.

And let me know if you have any questions. But I think that it is something that you probably need to be apprised of.

And so I hope that you will do some research that way. So, hey, let's have a

God calling segment. Sometimes, you know, we'd like to do different brief segments here on the show.

Sometimes we do a Jesus calling segment from Sarah Young, and sometimes we do our

Just Be Awesome segment where I look at my little calendar that's called

You're Already Amazing. And I read something from that and we all slam our heads against our desks and it's a good time.

So this is just kind of a light hearted thing, light hearted in the sense that this sounds ridiculous. But at the same time, it's really kind of sad, isn't it?

That this kind of theology exists out there and this kind of teaching and that people are eating it up.

That's what is scary. And the same is true for God Calling, which is a book that has been around for a very long time.

It is what inspired Sarah Young to start listening for the audible voice of God.

And it was written by two anonymous women. They basically claimed that God spoke to their hearts and they wrote it down and out came

God Calling. So as you can see, Sarah Young was not too creative in the title of her book,

Jesus Calling, but it's sold millions and millions of copies.

So I guess I guess it worked for her. So I am looking at God Calling and this then would be written from the perspective of God, as if God is saying these things and it reads, quote,

Never doubt, have no fear. Watch the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything and rest before me until you are joyful and strong again.

Deal in the same way with all tired feelings. I was weary, too, when on earth and I separated myself from my disciples and sat and rested on the well, rested.

And then it was that the Samaritan woman was helped. I had to teach renewal of spirit, force rest of body to my disciples.

Then, as your example, I lay with my head on a pillow asleep in the boat. It was not, as they thought, indifference.

They cried, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And I had to teach them that ceaseless activity was no part of my father's plan.

When Paul said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me, he did not mean he was to do all things and then rely on me to find strength.

He meant that for all I told him to do, he could rely on my supplying the strength. My work in the world has been hindered by work, work, work.

Many a tireless, nervous body has driven the spirit. The spirit should be the master always and just simply and naturally use the body as need should arise.

Rest in me. Now, there's more, but I want to pause there and say not everything in there is untrue.

However, the way this is written is, well, first of all, being in the first person written by God slash

Jesus is incredibly erroneous because we have the Bible to look to for God's word.

But, you know, things like when Paul said, I can do all things through Christ, he didn't mean that it was that he was supposed to do everything, then rely on God.

It was for those things that God called him to do. And of course, God will equip us for whatever he calls us to do.

You know, we think of Moses and Moses said, well, you know, I I'm slow speech.

How am I to do this, Lord? And God equipped and enabled

Moses to do that work, which God had required of him. So not everything that we have just read here from God calling is necessarily, could

I talk today? Not everything that we have read here from God calling is necessarily untrue.

However, there's a very great danger in this approach. But I want you to listen to these last few sentences, quote,

Do not seek to work for me. Never make opportunities. Live with me and for me.

I do the work and I make the opportunities. So is this kind of a let go, let

God type of a mindset, which, by the way, is not biblical. I immediately, when I read that thought of Matthew 6, 33, which isn't necessarily talking about, you know, work, work, work.

But it's a seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. We are to actively seek and pursue the kingdom.

We are to actively obey God. We are to actively take part in our sanctification.

Not that we sanctify ourselves, but we have to seek to mortify our sin.

You know, we see sin in ourselves. By God's grace, he shows our sin to us. And we don't just sit back and say,

OK, God, you know what? Take that sin away. I'm just going to sit here and wait around while you do it.

Well, now you're sinning in another way because you're being slothful. That's.

That's a very lazy attitude and a very dangerous approach to the

Christian life as well, because Christ did not call us to just sit back, let go and let God. He called us to actively work in his kingdom.

He saved us unto good deeds. When we just want to sit back and let

God make the opportunities in the way this is worded, then teaches that really we are just to be completely passive in our

Christian life and just let things fall where they may. We understand that God is sovereign.

We understand that God does give us opportunities. We understand all of those things.

But we have to understand that we are called to pick up our cross and follow after Jesus Christ.

And that's an active thing. And so, again, we're looking at some bad theology in books like God Calling, Jesus Calling and so many other books that are out there.

They're on the quote unquote Christian bookshelves. There is no true

Christianity in these books, but they sell. Why do they sell? Because they scratch itching ears.

They tell us what we want to hear. They tell us things we like. They give us the warm fuzzies and we eat them up.

Ladies, I know you know this. You've been listening for a while now. We go to the word of God and that's what we eat up.

That is what we feast upon. It's the word of God. That is our sustenance from day to day.

Do not neglect that. Do not starve yourself with the word. Please, please, ladies, do not starve yourself.

And that includes finding a church that you can worship and hear

God's word taught to you and fellowship with other believers and have a family, be a part of the body of Christ and be an active part of that body and find that fellowship and that family that God has given to us.

When he saved us, he adopted us as daughters. And have you ever noticed when you meet a fellow believer, someone you've never met before, regardless of their situation in life, you know, it doesn't matter if they're in a completely different place in their life.

You know, maybe they have young children, maybe they're not married and you're retired, but they're 25 or whatever.

There is a connection. There is a connection with our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we know them or not.

And it doesn't mean that we are best friends with everybody, but there is a connection. And ladies, that is the

Holy Spirit. And God has given us such a gift that we have a family.

We have a family that spans across the globe and spans across the centuries. And someday in heaven, we will be able to meet our brothers and sisters who have gone before us.

And I am so looking forward to that. Of course, I don't think I'm going to get to talk to anybody for millions and millions of years because I think

I'll just be busy lying at the feet of Jesus, still thanking him for what he's done for me.

I can't even imagine. I am so ready for that time, aren't you, ladies? We so look forward to the coming of our

Lord. But until he comes or until he takes us home, we are to be busy and be about his business and proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

We are to be calling people to the truth that is found in God's word. We do that in our families.

Maybe you do that with your children. If you have children, you must be doing that. We do that with our spouses, our parents, our brothers and sisters.

And then, of course, we go outside of our families as well. All right, so speaking of local churches,

I received a mailing. Some people actually use mail like you get out of the mailbox.

And so I received this from a local church a few days ago. Maybe it was a few weeks ago now. I don't remember.

It's been on my desk for a while. And this church was kind of welcoming me and wanting me to come visit them.

And they say that we are not only excited about the growth of the area, but as a church, we are enthusiastic with the growth of our church.

Many people have come as visitors and have found us to be an active, vibrant, friendly church with a desire to meet the needs of everyone in the family.

Because of the constant growth of the church, we just finished a 1400 seat auditorium. Why? Because, all caps, we made room for you.

If you've never visited, I would like to extend an invitation to you to come and visit. And if you have, you know that this church is an exciting place to worship the

Lord. And we are a family of friends that care about the community around us. And then they sent me a little gospel tract with it.

And it has the flag on the front and says, and with a coin, in God we trust. So I don't know what that has to do with the gospel, but apparently the gospel is

American. So there you go. And then there's issues with this gospel tract as well.

But that's not where I'm going today. So maybe I'll save that for another day. But I was so obviously struck by the language in this letter, how it boasted about itself as a church that is there to meet the needs of everyone in the family.

And we made room for you. And it's all about you and bringing your family. We'll have something for the kids. We'll have something for you.

I don't know. Maybe they've got something for the dog. I don't know. And I thought, you know, this is all about felt needs.

It's all about me, is this mindset that we have in American evangelicalism. I can't tell you how many people

I have spoken to who, oh, you know, yeah, I visited this church, but it just wasn't a fit.

And I'm looking for a church that does A, B, and C, and it is all about them.

They want a church that coddles them. They want a church that caters to the needs that they think they see in their life, and they are completely missing that the point of the church, the reason the church exists is to glorify

God and to glorify Jesus Christ, exalt Him, lift Him high because He is worthy to be praised.

So can I, or am I, worshiping God rightly if I attend a church to see what they can do for me, or if I attend thinking that it's all about me, if I'm sitting there thinking,

I don't like the son, or I don't like the sermon, or, you know, hey, this sermon is about marriage and I'm not married, or, hey, this sermon is about singleness and I'm married, or the sermon is about young women and I'm an older woman, it doesn't matter.

We go to church to worship God. I mean, ladies, the world is full of idolatry, but within the church, we have created so many false gods within professing

Christendom that it is almost unfathomable. I think it was John Calvin who said something to the effect of, and I'm definitely not giving an exact quote, but that the mind is an idol factory, idol

I -D -O -L, that we just so easily can create idols for ourselves.

We can create gods and Jesuses of our own imagination. Some people write a book, call it

Jesus Calling. Other people simply serve a God that meets their needs or their perceived needs.

Dr. John MacArthur has said that, quote, idolatry is thinking untrue thoughts about God, and he's also said, quote, the most basic truth in worship is the worshiper's understanding of God.

So we may be thinking we're worshiping, but if we have a wrong understanding of God, we are committing idolatry.

S. Lewis Johnson has said, quote, what can be more practical than right thoughts about God? In fact, all life that pleases

God can issue only from right theology and right thoughts about our triune God, end quote.

Think about that. A life that pleases God can issue only from right theology, only from a right understanding of God, only from thinking right thoughts about God.

And that just, that seems to be common sense. And yet it is so prevalent that people have untrue thoughts about God and misunderstandings about God, whether they are deliberate or not based on their misunderstanding of the scripture, and they are worshiping a false

God. Ultimately, they may be sitting in a Christian church, air quotes, but are they worshiping the

God of the Bible? Are they worshiping the true God that they claim to be worshiping? You see the truth, truth, and especially true things about God and worship go together.

John four, turn there with me, ladies, John four. Okay. I was going to start in verse 23, but let's go back to verse 15 to give you the context.

John four, 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water. So this is where Jesus meets the woman at the well.

Sir, give me this water. So I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. He said to her, go call your husband and come here.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said, I have no husband for you have had five husbands.

And the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. The woman said to him, sir,

I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and your people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the father?

Verse 22, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the

Jews, but an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for such people.

The father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ, when that one comes, he will declare all things to us.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. So what is this about the spirit and truth worshiping in spirit and truth?

John MacArthur says that a person must worship, not simply by external conformity to religious rituals and places, but inwardly in spirit with the proper heart attitude.

The reference to truth refers to worship of God, consistent with the revealed scripture and centered on the word made flesh who ultimately revealed his father.

John 14, six, and isn't that the truth that we have to worship consistent with scripture?

Scripture is what reveals Jesus Christ to us. It is how God reveals himself to us. It is how we know who

Jesus is, and it also prescribes worship for us. And so we must worship as prescribed in scripture and we must worship the word incarnate, the

Lord Jesus Christ, truth incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is, in fact, the ultimate object of our worship.

He is the object of our true worship and our true affection. In fact, Jesus Christ is the object, even of the worship of angels.

Turn quickly to Hebrews one, ladies, verse eight, but of the son, actually, no, back up, verse six.

And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him.

The angels worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels winds and his ministers, a flame of fire, verse eight, but of the son, he says, your throne, oh,

God is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. Jesus Christ is the object of our true worship.

And what is so awesome about the first we just read, Hebrews one, eight, is we actually see these words being ascribed to the father,

God, the father saying of the son, your throne, oh, God is forever and ever, thereby also affirming the deity of the

Lord Jesus Christ. I love how scripture intertwines so many rich, wonderful doctrinal truths about our

Lord. It's a great day to talk about our Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it, ladies? It is an awesome day.

What better topic could we discuss? And you'll notice in these verses back in John, back in John four, that we see a statement on the nature of God, that God is spirit.

And so MacArthur elaborated a little bit on the second use of spirit in those verses, what it means for us to worship in spirit, that is our proper heart attitude.

But we also see in verse 24 that God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

And we see as part of this revealed character of God, God is spirit. J .C.

Ryle says about that in his expository thoughts on John, he says, the declaration before us is one of the most lofty and definite sayings about God's nature, which is to be found in the whole

Bible. That such a declaration should have been made to such a person as the Samaritan woman is a wonderful instance of Christ's condescension.

To define precisely the full meaning of the expression is past man's understanding. The leading idea, most probably, is that God is an immaterial being, that he dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and that he is not, like ourselves, therefore absent from one place when he is present at another.

These things are all true, but how little can we realize them? It just is so interesting how

Ryle declares that this is one of the loftiest definitions that we see of God, and that is the

God we worship. That is the God who is the object of our worship. You see, ladies, worship, so often we hear that someone does or does not like the church because of the worship.

Oh, my worship, the worship at our church is so awesome. The band is so wonderful, and we have such amazing singers.

Music is part of how we can worship God and sing praises to him, and I'm not putting down music, but worship is not the music in your church that's part of your worship, but your church service needs to be focused on the opening and proclamation of God's word and the exaltation of the

Lord Jesus Christ through the teaching of his word. That is worship. And then, ladies, that is

Sunday morning. Ladies, what is true worship for you throughout the week? What is that?

What does it look like to worship in spirit and in truth, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon?

It goes back to this idea of spirit and in truth, worshiping with a proper heart attitude and worshiping the correct

Jesus. You see, in Psalm 51, David really tells us what

God wants from his people. In verse 16, he says, This is part of that spirit, that proper heart attitude that we are repentant before our

Lord, that we recognize our spiritual bankruptcy before our God, that we exemplify the beatitudes and that person described in the

Sermon on the Mount, who is a truly repentant person. That is what that sermon is describing.

And so we must come to the Lord with that proper attitude about ourselves and a proper understanding of God and attitude toward God in order to worship him acceptably.

And as J .C. Ryle says, again, in his expository thoughts on John, If God is spirit, it behooves those who would worship him to worship him acceptably in spirit and in truth.

It's unreasonable to suppose that he can like any worship which does not come from the heart or can be so well pleased with worship, which is offered through types and ceremonies as with worship offered through the true way, which he has provided and is now revealing.

And that is precisely what Jesus was saying to the woman at the well here. You see, ultimately,

God saves us for his glory, ladies. God saves us not for us, but for him, for his glory.

He saved us unto good works, unto good deeds. Titus 2, verse 11,

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave himself, verse 14, for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

We have been saved by God to bring glory to him and we can bring glory to him by obeying him.

We worship God by living according to his revealed word and obeying him in that word.

This God is high and lofty and holy. This God, says

A .W. Pink, is solitary in his majesty, unique in his excellency, peerless in his perfections.

He sustains all but is himself independent of all. He gives to all but is enriched by none. Such a

God cannot be found out by searching. He can be known only as he is revealed to the heart by the Holy Spirit through the word, through the word.

The truth of God and Jesus Christ is found in his word. We are sanctified even by reading his word and understanding how we can serve him.

Jesus prayed to his father, John 17, 17, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth.

We are renewed by the word. True worship requires a transformation of life.

Romans 12, verse 1. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

This is your spiritual service of worship, presenting our bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

What does that look like? Not being conformed to this world, being transformed by the renewing of the mind, which is a work of God.

True worship is not the music you sing on Sunday. True worship is Sunday all the way to the next

Sunday. It's every single day, 24 hours a day, a life and a heart affection.

That desires to serve, love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, a heart and a life that has been transformed by the renewing, regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit. A life and heart that acknowledges. It's spiritual bankruptcy, it is contrite.

Self -sacrificing, it is the entirety of our life, the life of a repentant woman, ladies, the life of a repentant woman is by definition a life of worship.

This is a call to holiness, a call to true worship is a call to holiness.

It goes to our inner man, our inner woman, if you will. And that is how we worship in spirit through the truth that is revealed to us in the word.

You see how so much of these truths intertwine, ladies? It is so, I mean, I can get on so many tangents talking about one thing because it leads directly into another, just directly impacted by another doctrinal truth.

This is why people who want to say, oh, doctrine divides, let's not talk about doctrine. You cannot not talk about doctrine, because if you believe the

Bible and you claim to live by the Bible, well, the Bible is full of doctrine and doctrine affects your life.

And right doctrine and right theology determines the trajectory of your life and determines if you are worshiping the true

God or not. You cannot worship the true God if you do not have a right understanding of him.

You simply cannot. And so if your understanding of the church, which exists to glorify

God, if your understanding is that the church exists to entertain you and to meet your felt needs and to entertain your entire family for two hours on Sunday morning, then you have a wrong understanding of God and you are not worshiping the true

God. It is so easy for us to become an idol,

I -D -O -L factory, but the true

God is found in his word. And when we open that word and we let it renew our minds, transform our hearts, we can live a life of worship toward our

God. And isn't that what we all want? We can't do it perfectly. We are still fallen ladies.

We know that. Someday, just keep looking up, keep looking for that day when we see the

Lord Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes fixed on him. He is the object of your worship.

And remember that someday you will worship him perfectly and you will worship him eternally.

What a day that will be. What a time that will be. Eternity. Worshiping the

Lord Jesus Christ. Who came and didn't simply come and die on the cross for our sins, he came and lived a life of perfect obedience, perfect obedience that is required of us.

You must be holy as I am holy, said God. But we can't do it. But Jesus Christ did.

He lived in perfect obedience to the law and perfect submission and obedience to his father.

And he did it not for himself, but to obtain a perfect human righteousness for his church and for his people.

Hebrews 2 .17, he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Jesus Christ, and I have this written in my notes and this might be a quote,

I think it is, he not only had to die for our sins, he had to live for our righteousness.

I want to say that's R .C. Sproul. Jesus Christ did that. For those who he called and he saved.

And he is sanctifying and he will glorify those who are his.

Isn't that God worthy of your true worship, ladies? We've certainly not exhausted this topic, so we will return to it another time.

I am certain of that. But for now, since we opened with a rather poor example of theology, a rather bad segment, the

God -calling segment with bad theology and thoughts about God, let's end on a more edifying note.

And I'd like to read from there's a little devotional by John MacArthur called Truth for Today. And it's just a very, very short daily reading.

And so while I recommend this, I would recommend that your daily study be far more in -depth.

But this, I thought, would be nice to share in light of what we were just talking about.

And John MacArthur writes, Genuine love for God has many facets. Here is a list of the most important ones.

It longs for personal communion with God. Psalm 42 and 73. It trusts in God's power to protect his own.

Psalm 31. It is characterized by peace that only God can impart. Psalm 119, verse 165, and John 14, 27.

It is sensitive to God's will and his honor. Psalm 69, 9. It loves the people God loves.

First John 4, 7 and 8, 20 and 21. It hates what God hates. First John 2, 15.

It longs for the second coming of Christ. Second Timothy 4, 8. That's genuine love for God, longs for personal communion with God, trust in God's power to protect his own, characterized by peace only

God can give, sensitive to God's will and honor, loves God's people, hates what God hates, longs for the second coming of Christ.

And then writes John MacArthur, finally, and most important, it is marked by obedience to God.

And he offers John 14, 21 and First John 5, 1 and 2 for that. MacArthur says we are able to love

God and manifest these facets only because he first loved us. Do you love

God? Ladies, if you love God, you will desire to worship him. And by being obedient to him and to his word, you can worship him daily and in your day -to -day life, whether you are a businesswoman, whether you are a mother.

It doesn't matter. We worship God through our obedience to him with a proper heart attitude, in spirit and in truth.

So I hope that's given you something to think about over the next few days, ladies, and until we meet again, get in your

Bibles, get on your knees and get equipped. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no -compromise radio production.

If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com, or you can check out one of our two websites.

DoNotBeSurprised .com or equippingeve .org. Thanks for listening.