How Important is Public Worship?

 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”                                                                       -- Hebrews 10:24-27

 

David, a man after God’s own heart, declared, -- “As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple” (Ps. 5:7).

 

The House of God

 

“I will come into thy house.” The house of God is the congregation of the saints, wherever they gather in public assembly to worship God. When we come into the assembly of God’s saints, we come into the house and temple of the living God (1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:15).

 

“I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy.” It is not enough merely to 'go to church'. We must come into the house of God in faith, trusting the Lord's mercy. And there are a multitude of mercies with God in Christ. Sinners need mercy. We must come to the place of public worship as sinners trusting God's abundant mercy in Christ. If we do not come as sinners seeking mercy, we will not worship. But sinners looking to Christ for mercy always find a multitude of mercy in him (Luke 18:13-14). In him we find…

 

 

Truly, “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lam. 3:22), and every worshipper in God's house finds it to be so.

 

“And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.” We must come to the house of God with reverence and godly fear to worship him, that is, to see him, to hear him, to adore him, to praise him and to obey him. This was David's resolve. May it ever be yours and mine. May God give us grace to make public worship our delight and truly to worship him in the assembly of his saints.

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Most Important

 

Public worship is the single most important aspect of the believer's life. When David was banished from Jerusalem, the place of public worship, he envied even the sparrows who made their nests in the house of God. His heart longed not for the throne, the riches, or the power that had been taken from him, but for the assembly of God's saints in public worship. When the blessed privilege of public worship was taken from him for a short time, nothing was more important or precious to God's child (Ps. 84:1-4).

 

The fact is, all who are born of God love the assembly of God's saints in public worship and love the ministry of the gospel. There are no exceptions. God's people will not willingly absent themselves from the worship of God. It is true, there are many who very strictly attend, and even love, the outward service of public worship, who do not know the Lord. Their outward worship is nothing but a show of hypocrisy, for they never worship God in private. But anyone who willfully neglects and despises the public assembly of the saints for worship, also neglects and despises private worship. And those who do not worship God do not know God.

 

Many people are very busy with all kinds of things. The cares and pleasures of life in this world consume almost all their time and attention. When it is convenient they attend church, give God a little tip and sing, “Oh, how I love Jesus!” But any time something more important comes up (a good football game, a special television show, a visiting relative, or a sick dog!), they absent themselves from the house of God with little regret. They say to themselves, “I can always go to church next week. The Lord knows my heart.” Of that much you can be sure: the Lord does know our hearts, and he will judge us accordingly!

 

Those who are truly God's people love the house of God and the worship of God. They arrange their lives around the worship of God. Nothing ever comes up, over which they have control, to keep them from the house of God. They see to it that when the saints of God gather for worship, they are among them, unless their absence is genuinely unavoidable. Their faithfulness in the matter of public worship is much more than a matter of duty. It is their delightful choice. Public worship is the single most important aspect of their lives in this world. Nothing is more important to the children of God in this world than the public assembly of the saints for worship; and that public assembly of the saints for worship is the local church, the congregation of the Lord, the house of God.

 

Why do God's people place such importance upon the public worship of the local church? Here are five reasons.

 

1.      This is the place where God meets sinners in saving mercy.

2.      This is the place where our family gathers.

3.      This is the place where the Lord Jesus Christ meets with his people.

4.      This is the place where God deals with men.

5.      The neglect of public worship is the first step towards total apostasy.