The War for Worship
MATTHEW 15:8-9
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. (Your heart is where you think from (that’s what Proverbs 23 tells us), and so these people lacked a true revelation and understanding of God in their hearts. And so your heart cannot be in something that you don’t understand – a lack of understanding results in a lack of appreciation.)
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (The teachings of the doctrines of man won’t reveal the true God to a person, especially when that teaching is contrary to the truth of the word of God so then it renders any worship toward God completely empty and worthless because God won’t receive worship for something that He is not, but Satan can, and he does)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
MATTHEW 4:8-10
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. (Notice the extreme price that Satan was offering to pay just so that he would be worshiped – this shows us how bad Satan really wants to be worshiped)
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
REVELATION 13:8
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The War for Worship
There has been a war for worship going on between God and Satan ever since iniquity was found in Lucifer’s heart - that’s what actually started the war in heaven.
EZEKIEL 28:15
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
And so we want to try to introduce this subject in this service and then see where the Lord will lead us.
*In 1965 (from about August on - so only in around the last 4 months of His earthly ministry), Brother Branham began to preach sermons like – “Satan’s Eden”, and “The God of the Evil Age” and “God’s Only Provided Place of Worship”.
All these sermons were because of a revelation that God had begun to reveal and make clearer to him of this age that we are now living in of where the whole world would eventually become deceived into a fully blown worship of Satan, even many who claim to be Christians.
And so this is something that I think is important for us to look at in a closer way, because if it was important for God to show these things to His prophet in the very last few months of His life and ministry, then I think that it is very important for us to understand these things also.
**Satan’s desire for people to worship him is based solely on the pride that rose up in his heart, and this is a complete perversion of the desire of what is in God’s heart for people to worship Him.
***The desire in God’s heart for people to worship Him is based on the truth of who He is by the revealing of His great character. When God truly reveals Himself to you through the revealing of His word, and especially when it is the word for the season that you live in, then it automatically pulls a worship toward God out of your heart that is in the right spirit of what God can receive – you can’t help it, because that is the way that God made your heart to be.
*This War for Worship between God and Satan is being fought from different strategic angles. Satan is trying to attract worship through beauty and science and intellectual reasoning that is contrary to the truth of the word of God.
Why are beautiful woman worshiped, because Satan is using beauty in a perverted way to pull worship out of a man heart. God made things beautiful in order to pull worship out of the man towards the one who made all things beautiful, but Satan uses beauty in a perverted way to get and receive worship to himself.
*Satan will receive worship from a man in many different ways of perversion, but God can only receive worship from a man if it is from a heart of where the truth of the word of God is revealed.
Jesus told of a time when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. JOHN 4:23
*There is a term that is used among many Christian churches called “Worship Wars”, and it is when wars are fought between different members of the church (like a civil war) over the types and styles of music that are played in the song “worship” part of a church services.
There are many accounts of churches dividing over the differences of opinions relating to worship music.
*And so over the years, this has become known as “worship wars” of which arguments are fought out between members and even different churches regarding the different styles of lyrics and music that are acceptable to God as worship.
*Christians have been asking this question for centuries “What is the right way to worship?” And the intensity of the disagreements that have arisen have at times became very contentious to the point of causing ugly church splits.
Even among the early church fathers there were many disagreements about what was acceptable in church music. They even argued about whether music in church should be enjoyable or not. All down though history this has been a problem in churches.
*Followers of Luther and Calvin argued over which musical style was appropriate.
*Isaac Watts who was later on recognized as the "Godfather of English Hymnody" was criticized for the lyrics of his hymns, which some considered to be man-centered and humanistic. Isaac Watts is reported to have written around 750 hymns of which included the famous hymn - "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"
*When organs were first introduced in the church, many were shocked and even disgusted.
**So for centuries, these “Worship Wars” would periodically and with reasonably consistency break out among and within churches.
*But this is not the direction of the path that we want to go down with this subject and study that we have called “The War for Worship” – but is it still an interesting fact to note these things.
*People can worship in many different ways, and in many cases, and often they may not even know that they are worshiping.
*The act of worship is not restricted to a way of performing in a certain style on the outside, like seeing a person bowing down and prostrating themselves or raising their hands and singing words of praise, but the bible teaches us that true worship comes out of the heart of man from what has been formed in his heart, and so this is what Lucifer’s pride has been craving for ever since he fell and was kicked out of heaven. (How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! - ISAIAH 14:12)
He started this war for worship against God, because it was his desire that he would be the one that would be in the hearts of men of which they would admire and adore him, and that they would direct all of their worship toward him of what he thought that his great beauty and wisdom deserved.
The word “worship” that is used here in the Greek is the word “proskuneo” {pros-koo-neh'-o} meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand
1) to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence; hence among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence; in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication
1a) used of homage shown to men of superior rank: the Jewish high priests
1b) of homage rendered to God and the ascended Christ, to heavenly beings, and to demons
This is the meaning that is used consistently for the word “worship” throughout the New Testament, and of which is also used in the discourse between Jesus and the woman at the well.
JOHN 4:23-24 (Jesus speaking to the woman at the well)
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers (a person can pretend to worship God by acting it out, but true worship looks very different to an outside act of bowing or praising or kissing the hand) shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth (Truth is spirit – a lie is also a spirit): for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (In other words, there are many forms of worship – from a person pretending to worship, to singing songs of worship, to bowing down to a shrine or something or even kissing someone’s hand, but yet all that worship can be just an outward show. But Jesus is teaching us that true worship toward God comes from an inward spirit of truth, and this is the worship that God desires from man.)
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
CS Lewis in his early Christian life found the idea of God “demanding” praise, to be of somewhat a stumbling block to him, but would later on come to understand it.
In one of his last books, “Reflections on the Psalms”, C.S. Lewis included a chapter titled “A Word About Praising.”
A brief excerpt:
What do we mean when we say that a picture is “admirable”? We certainly don’t mean that it is admired (that’s as may be) for bad work is admired by thousands and good work may be ignored. Nor that it “deserves” admiration in the sense in which a candidate “deserves” a high mark from the examiners – i.e., that a human being will have suffered injustice if it is not awarded.
The sense in which the picture “deserves” or “demands” admiration is rather this; that admiration is the correct, adequate or appropriate, response to it, that, if paid, admiration will not be “thrown away”, and that if we do not admire we shall be stupid, insensible, and great losers, we shall have missed something. In that way many objects both in Nature and in Art may be said to deserve, or merit, or demand, admiration. It was from this end, which will seem to some irreverent, that I found it best to approach the idea that God “demands” praise. He is that Object to admire which (or, if you like, to appreciate which) is simply to be awake, to have entered the real world; not to appreciate which is to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all.
*When we think of the idea of “worshiping” something, we know that this word worship can have a very broad meaning to many different people. Worship is something that is so a part of a man’s human design and make up, that in many cases he is not even aware of the fact that he is worshiping something.
*He may be worshiping his beautiful new car without knowing it, or his big flash fishing boat, or a million other things of what he values. It’s not like he has to fall down with stretched out arms and chant words of praise to it – because true worship is something that comes from the heart of man, and so it can often be totally invisible, yet the person will be worshiping because his is made to worship.
This is why it takes a true revelation of God in order to pull a true worship out of a man’s heart toward God of what God can receive, because true worship toward God must be based on the truth of His word that truly reveals Him.
Opening scripture:
MATTHEW 15:8-9
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
**It is impossible for God to be admired and worshiped by a person in the right way if their revelation of Him is not a true revelation of the true God according to the truth of His word. And this is something that when the seven seals were opened in March 1963, that it revealed that true God, and this was something that God wanted us to understand in these last days.
DEUTERONOMY 16:5-6
5 Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates (Man made denominations), which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun (that is the season we are living in now – evening time), at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. (Egypt represents the denominations – and we have been led out of them by an end time third Exodus Prophet)
*Brother Branham reads this portion of scripture as the text for his sermon “God’s Only Provided Place of Worship”
He explains to us that God will not receive worship from a denominational religious gate, but only from the place of where he has placed His name in – and we know that his name is placed where the word of God is being interpreted into flesh for the day that you are living in – lets read that...
GOD'S.ONLY.PROVIDED.PLACE.OF.WORSHIP_ SHP.LA V-7 N-4 SUNDAY_ 65-1128M
48 Now, the pla-... The thing I want to speak about this morning is that God has only one place that the worshipper can meet God, only one place. Through the ages many has sought for this secret place of God, through all the ages. Even Job wanted to know where He lived at, "If I could only go to His house and knock at His door." Job wanted to find God's dwelling place, 'cause there God and His family is worshipped together.
206 God did not put His name then in Babylon. Closely now. He cannot put His Name in Babylon, the churches. Oh, they, they put His Name in there, but He never. No.
207 You say, "Well, now, Brother Branham!" Wait, wait, just sit still just a minute. You asked me to stay a little longer. All right. Now notice, they put His Name in there, but He didn't.
208 Now, He said, "The place that I'm going to meet you and receive your sacrifice is where I choose to put My Name. You come in at this gate, this door where I choose to put My Name. There's where you come."
209 Well, they put, "This is the Church of Christ." If there's anything that's wrong in that declaration, it left out one word: "anti." Uh-huh, all that He taught, they disagree with It. Modern Pharisees.
In the New Testament, the word for NAME in the Greek is the word “onoma” {on'-om-ah} this word “name” is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one's rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.
When you hear the name Marilyn Monroe, you don’t see the letters appear in your mind that spell her name, you think of a person that lived and of the type of life and deeds of what that person did – in other words, you think of the events of that person of when they lived in the season that they lived on the earth.
*If we said the name “Julius Caesar”, you would think of a great Roman general and statesmen that was born in Rome around 100 BC, and that a lot of history was written about him because he did many great things – so when we hear his name spoken, it is not the spelling of letters that we see visualized in our minds, but our thoughts are directed to the manifestation of the events of that person’s life and of the deeds of their life.
GOD'S.ONLY.PROVIDED.PLACE.OF.WORSHIP_ SHP.LA V-7 N-4 SUNDAY_ 65-1128M
214 And the Name is in the Word because He is the Word. Amen! What is He then? The Word interpreted is the manifestation of the Name of God.
***God has been interpreting and bringing His word to pass under the umbrella of this end time message. He has sent Malichi 4’s ministry, and there has been a people raised up in this hour to receive that ministry, and so this is the place of where he has chosen to place is name, not in a denomination, but where He is working in bringing to pass His promised word for this hour.