These days there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding worship within the services of our local congregations. Typically, when someone mentions worship, many of our minds are immediately transported to the portion of corporate worship that consists of lifting up a united voice in praise, thanksgiving, and honor unto God. Yet, even with that thought, most of us do recognize that every other aspect of ministry, whether public or private, is also worship unto the Lord, be it prayer, the reading, preaching, and teaching of the Word, the fellowship of saints, provoking one another to love and good works, the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Table, and etceteras.

I believe that there is an aspect of worship, perhaps the most important aspect of worship in Scripture, which is often overlooked. I hope that I may convey this truth properly and reverently, so as not to be misunderstood. It is the truth concerning God's holiness.

The Holiness of God

After God parted the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh's mighty army, Moses sang a song that expressed the God's holiness:

"Who is like unto Thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Exodus 15:11).

In His holiness, God is so gloriously above all His creation that nothing can compare with Him. God is incomparable in His glory and superlative in His excellence. Through the prophet Isaiah, God asks us to ponder that truth:

"To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? ...To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One" (Isaiah 40:18, 25).

It is not only in who He is that is holy, but also in what He does:

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).

In Worshipping a Holy God

Have you ever considered that God's holiness is so high above all that He has created the purest and most reverent of all of our worship toward the Lord is by His grace?

How corrupt the flesh is that wars against the truth of the Spirit that we cannot see that the Word of God also says...

"For all... come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

How dreadfully haughty and presumptuous we must be to think that as created beings we could be equal to God, or somehow match His glory in anything that we are, or anything that we think, say, or do, apart from the glorious Redemption found in Christ, and Him crucified.

Even when all of the redeemed saints have received glorified bodies, when "death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54) and when this corrupt mortal has put on incorruptible immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53), our purest worship will still fall short of the glory, honor, and praise God deserves as the holy Creator, holy Redeemer, holy Sustainer, holy Restorer, and etceteras. The work of God and the attributes of God on display at the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and promised return of Christ, according to all that are in the Scriptures, is so holy in its infinite and eternal glory, and so holy in its superlative excellencies, that for all of eternity, we could never possibly give to God the praise, honor, glory, and worship due His most worthy name.

God's grace by the shed blood of Jesus Christ through His Spirit not only grants us access to His eternal presence (Ephesians 2:18), but that same grace also grants the believer access to worship Him with joy:

"By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).

This is the wonder and glory and beauty of Christ Jesus.

"Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm 73:25-26).

Oh, the great joy that comes with the revelation that Christ Jesus is my desire; that I get to worship Him now; that I get to worship Him for all eternity because of His infinite glory; and because His glory is infinite, my worship will be eternal, and it must be eternal, because although I am an eternal creature in Christ Jesus, I can never be infinite, and therefore, must worship and will worship His infinite glory eternally.

Let us, therefore, approach our worship of Him now in holiness and godly fear, though often frail and failing because of the corruptions of the flesh. Yet, even if we fail, falter, or have been unfaithful in our worship, let us confess unto repentance and rejoice because the same grace given to forgive us those sins has received our scant worship as worthy, as it is written, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).

Therefore,