Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-24 | Date: September 5, 2010 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Take your Bibles, please, and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Before we begin, a couple of remarks and a couple of different things. First of all, I’d just like to add my word of appreciation for the excitement about the Banderis joining us today. They have been dear friends of ours. We were talking the other day; it’s 25-plus years now, and it is just wonderful to have their fellowship with us. Also, many of you have asked about Gina. She’s not here this morning, but she is still doing great. It seems the Lord has healed her. She has missed some sleep, and she was just very, very tired when she woke up this morning. So we said to stay home, stay put. We don’t want to overdo things.

But she’s raring to go. As far as she’s concerned, it’s all in the past. Let’s get going with life. Jimmy’s taking her for a couple of motorcycle rides this week. And she said yesterday, “Dad, we’re going to try to go to the conference, you know, next week, Ocean City. How about if Jimmy takes me on the motorcycle?” Forget it. You may be ready for that, but I’m not ready for that. But she really is doing well. And you folks have just been wonderful in your prayers for her all this time. And just praise the Lord. He has heard us in a remarkable way. He’s healed her. You can pray for faith on my part because I still haven’t begun to breathe yet really to believe it, you know, that it’s done.

And then about the book, it is back there if you’d like to take a look at it. It is a beautiful production, The Theology of B.B. Warfield. If I can just get people to think that the content is as nice as the package, it’ll be a real seller. But it’s not due out until September 30th, but they said since I would be speaking at a conference in New Jersey, they wanted some shipped to me, so they drop-shipped it there from the printer. And the pastor there at the conference called me Thursday and said, “Hey, I’m sitting here looking at a new copy of your book. And man, I’m jealous.” So he sent me a copy, and that’s what’s back there. But I’m not going to let any of you have that. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to put that in the mail to my mother. It’s dedicated to my mom and my dad, and I’m going to send it off to her. And so I’ll have some more here in a few weeks. And you’ll notice in there, by the way, in the preface, a note of appreciation to Reformed Baptist Church in Franconia for listening so long and so patiently to so much about Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield.

Worship That Is Unworthy Of God

All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Again, not one of the happiest portions of scripture. We might call the title of this message Snobs, Schism, and Sham Worship, or something like that. Worship that is unworthy of God is the theme of the passage. First Corinthians chapter 11 will begin with verse 17.

“In the following directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent, I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat. For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in, or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ The same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.’ Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. My brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together, it may not result in judgment. When I come, I will give further directions.”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, there is still such a tendency in our hearts to selfishness, to sin of all kinds. We thank you for the instruction of your word, even from the bad example of the church at Corinth. May we learn from it today. We pray that you shall shape us by it. We pray that as a result of this, you’d improve our worship. May it be a worship that is more worthy of our great God. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

The practice of church socials with a common meal has a long history. In fact, the Apostolic Church had a habit of practicing that as a regular event. It seems even that with them it was a weekly event. I wondered about that this week when I was thinking through this. As much as the ladies here work on our fellowship Sundays with the lunch, I wonder how much they would like to do that every week. But they, it seems, met every week for a common meal together. Each Sunday, they’d gather together for what was called a love feast, an agape feast, a term that the society around them terribly misunderstood and in turn accused the church of various kinds of immorality when they met together. They misunderstood the term entirely. But as we often do, they met together in what we call a potluck affair. Now, they had a much better grip on God’s providence; I think they probably called it a “pot providence” lunch, something like that.

But then following the dinner, or rather at the climax or the culmination of the dinner together, they would observe the Lord’s Supper. As such, it was not simply an occasion for eating together, but it was a meal that had a specific kind of meaning, a symbolic meaning attached to it. It was a love feast, for one. It was so named because of the love that they had experienced in Christ, and also it was named that way as an expression of their desire to be together. After all, they were all children of Christ, and they loved one another as brothers and sisters in Him. And so with the observance of the Lord’s Supper at the end of the meal, there was in that even an expression of their unity in Christ, their oneness in Him.

And the Lord’s Supper, of course, had various levels of symbolic meaning. It was expressive, first of all, of course, of the very heart of the gospel. Here we take the bread and the cup, the bread and the wine, and here is symbolized the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. And there, of course, we come to the heart of the gospel. He is the one through whose death we live, the one through whose death we have access to God. As Hebrews puts it, through His torn body, we enter through the curtain, as it were, into the Holy of Holies. Through the death of Christ, our sins are forgiven. Or as He has it here, “this cup is the new covenant in My blood.” God had promised a new covenant in which He would provide for His people all that He required of His people.

The obedience that He requires of us, He says, “I’ll provide for you. And I’ll write My law in your minds and put it in your hearts. I’ll send you my Spirit and we’ll create you all over again.” But also for the disobedience that you’ve shown, God says, “I’ll provide a full and a free forgiveness.” And Jesus’ death is the basis of all of that. Not only does it purchase for us the various blessings that we enjoy in terms of our obedience and faithfulness to Christ and walking in fellowship with God, but it provides for us that foundational blessing of forgiveness, justification before God through Christ, our substitute, bearing our sin in our place, taking the curse that we had deserved through our sin and standing in our place, he brought us to God.

As Paul says in several different ways throughout his writings, he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He’s redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. Or as Peter says, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And so when we come to observe the Lord’s Supper, first and foremost, we’re reminding ourselves of the basics of the Christian faith, the very heart of the Gospel. When we take the wine and the cup, we are reminding ourselves, as he says here in verse 26, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death. And we’re in symbol. The Bible isn’t big on symbols in the New Covenant, but we do have a couple: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And in this we symbolize his death for us, which is the basis of our fellowship with God. And so it’s a time of reminder of Christ.

The bread that we take in the Lord’s Supper, though, has a dual kind of significance. It’s not just a picture of his body that was torn for us, but it in turn becomes a picture of the body of Christ, which is the church, of which he is the head. And then as we all take of this loaf, which is Christ, symbolizing our participation in him as members of Christ, we symbolize in that also our membership with one another, our fellowship with one another in Christ. And we’re acknowledging as we take the Lord’s Supper, not only that he has died for us and established our fellowship with God through the forgiveness of sins, but he’s established a unity among us who share that fellowship in Christ. And so these levels of significance regarding the Lord’s Supper—and I think we will look at that again further next time.

The Problem Of Sham Worship

But it was a symbolic experience then, giving expression in their meal to the basic truths of the gospel. A picture of Christ and what he’s done for us, and a picture of our oneness in Christ; an expression of our love for one another because of our common love for Christ and the common love we have received from Christ. So it’s a beautiful picture. Except in Corinth, all was not that picture perfect. And it’s really sad to see something so beautiful and wonderful corrupted in a kind of way that makes it a sham. But that’s what was going on at the Church of Corinth. In this wonderful display of their fellowship with Christ and their fellowship with one another, something much less had gone on.

In fact, Paul tells us in verse 17, “you’re accomplishing more harm than good.” Now, that’s a fascinating statement. We’re going to see that throughout the rest of the message. So if you happen to fall asleep and come back and forth, at least you’ve got the point here: entering into the worship of God with something that Christ himself has prescribed for the church, and in doing what Christ had prescribed for them, because of the way in which they are doing it, they are accomplishing more harm than good.

Verse 18 then begins to define the problem for us. We have it in verse 19 as well. Verse 18 speaks of divisions among you. And verse 19, differences among you. And these are not just superficial kinds of differences. The idea is that of factions in the church. Divisions, schisms in the church, and factions in the church. Party spirit of one kind or another. Party spirit is what Charles Spurgeon defined as: “party spirit is the fungus that grows on the dunghill of conceit.” That’s not a compliment.

The Corinthian church was marked by these schisms as we’ve seen before since chapter one. They had divisions in the church regarding race, Jew versus Gentile. They had divisions in the church over those who were supposedly mature, over against those who were not so mature. There were divisions in the church, it seems, over those who had the spectacular gifts, over against those who did not. And the specific problem here, although it may entail some of those other as well, the specific problem here seems to be something of a class warfare, something of a snobbish exclusivism, those who have versus those who have not.

We find that defined for us in verses 20 through 22. “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.” Now mark that. It is the Lord’s Supper that they were eating. But Paul says it is not the Lord’s Supper you were eating. Why? “As you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”

The idea here seems to be that we have members of the church from all classes of society, from the slaves to the rich, and they’re meeting for this common meal. But the rich would bring good food and lots of it, and not really be willing to share with the poor. And the rich, it seems here, is what Paul is saying, they would arrive early enough and get started. The poor, some of them being slaves, were not able to come, and certainly not able to come early, and certainly not able to bring as good a food and probably not as much either. Well, the rich bring theirs. They arrive early and they start. And they eat up. And then finally, when the poor arrive, they are not able to eat as much and they’re hungry while the rich are full, and getting fat, and burping with excess, and even getting drunk.

Class division. Alienation. Resentment toward others, despising others in the church, and this in a meal that is supposed to symbolize our oneness in Christ. The whole thing just really stinks. A love feast, they have the audacity to call it. A love feast. And here they were, humiliating those who don’t have. Party spirit, a snobbish exclusivism, treating brothers and sisters according to considerations that have nothing to do with spiritual realities. “He has money. He has privilege.”

I’ll never forget in one church that I pastored, a respected elder in the church came to me several times. “You see so-and-so over there?” “Yeah.” “Visiting with us?” “Yeah.” “Make sure he gets a really good welcome and a good visitor’s letter this week. He’s got lots of money.” And you never could understand me when I would say, “Well, I would rather be more like Jesus and greet the poor people more than this rich man.” But there it is. And this is what’s going on at Corinth. And it just really stinks.

And what we should notice here is that this isn’t just my opinion. God hates it and finds it offensive too. We find that in verse 17 again: “you’re doing more harm than good.” Here you are observing the Lord’s table, no less, and by it doing more harm than good. Now, there’s one, I suppose, if you can say it this way, there’s one good side to all of this in a way, verse 19: “No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.” Well, at least we can say that for these factions in the church. We know now who’s real and who’s not.

But it’s an awful thing. And so he says in verse 20, “you’re coming to observe the Lord’s Supper. I’ve got news for you. You’re not observing the Lord’s Supper at all.” You may be going through the motions externally. But you’re not accomplishing what you think you’re accomplishing. You’ve come and you’re observing the outward forms of worship, but because of what’s going on among you, Paul says, “I’ve got news for you. God has no part in it. You are not really observing the Lord’s Supper.”

And so here they were, coming to church, making a good show of worship in an external way, and never stopped to consider that it was not worship at all. It was, in fact, an offense to God. And so he says, if you look at verse 27, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” That is, in observing this ordinance in that way, you have positioned yourself with those who are responsible for the death of Christ.

Now, we’ve got to be careful with verse 27. The point here is not that Paul is saying you can’t observe the Lord’s Supper unless you are worthy of it. If that were the case, none of us would ever be able to observe the Lord’s table. But there’s a difference between being unworthy and worshiping in an unworthy manner. And that’s what Paul is getting at here. Notice the wording again in our translation: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner.” The point then has to do with, in this case, something of an accumulated sin. Engaging in an act of worship, which in itself is good, but because of the way in which it is observed, we are actually increasing our guilt by doing it. Because of the circumstances, because of our own condition at the time, the worship is rendered sinful. The worship is rendered a sham. And in this case here, the point is with the Lord’s Supper. Coming to the table of the Lord, which portrays not only forgiveness, redemption in Christ, but portrays our oneness and our fellowship in Christ, but also the oneness that we enjoy together in that sense. And then at the same time, snubbing one another and being snobbish. And by it, your worship is shown to be a sham and is no worship at all.

There’s an external formalism. There’s an external observance of what God has prescribed. Here’s an ordinance with the Lord Christ has prescribed himself. And as they observe it, they are increasing their guilt, doing more harm than good. And so Paul says in verses 28 through 30, it’s because of this many of you have been sick. He’s not saying here that every case of sickness is because of God’s discipline for disobedience. But he is saying that in some cases, this is the reason. And he says, “For this reason, many of you have been sick. Many of you have died.” Because of this, you have trifled with God. You have treated the holiness of worship in a way that is trite and trivial. You have brought to the worship of God your own sins and harboring your resentments toward one another. In fact, you’ve made a sham of the worship of God. And guess what? God isn’t fooled by it. And He’s not pleased with it.

Examining Ourselves

And so He says in verses 31 and 32, there are preventative measures that ought to be taken when you come to worship. Here in the context, when you come to the Lord’s table, you ought to examine yourself, that you come in a worthy manner. What ought to have been done before you’ve come to the Lord’s table, what ought to have been done is that you carefully considered the significance not only of the ordinance itself, but of its implications, and of your own heart before the Lord, and deal with things yourself. He said, “Judge yourselves, lest you be judged of God.”

And so when he says in verse 28, “a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup,” he is telling us that worship is not a matter of external form only. Worship is not a matter of external form only. When our worship becomes a show of religion that is really not conveying the condition of our heart at the time, we’re making a sham of the worship, and the worship is not acceptable to God, and in fact, we do more harm than good.

Now, this is just a fascinating concept to me, and we see it several times through the scriptures, and we’ll see some examples of it here in just a second. But it’s just a sobering thought that we are worshiping God in such a way that we are actually accumulating our guilt. Ever thought about that? You go through the forms of worshiping God in such a way to actually accumulate guilt. Well, did you ever consider that your worship in this place has only served to add one more item that you should repent of? Have you ever considered when the communion tray is passed, that when you observe it, you’ve added to the guilt? Or when you’ve taken the hymnal and sing praise to God, have you ever considered that the condition you are in at the time has rendered that worship offensive to God?

Well, it’s a tough spot, isn’t it? Because it’s not like you have the option not to worship God. That accumulates guilt, too. And you’re stuck. You don’t trifle with this God. You’re responsible to worship Him. But we are responsible to worship Him according to His terms. And He will not take a sham worship. And He will not be fooled by it. We think, “Well, at least I went to church. At least I give my money in the offering plate. At least I preach sermons. At least I teach a Sunday school class. At least I serve in various offices in the church.” Sometimes we forget to think that worship is not a matter of external form only. As I say, this is a familiar theme in the Bible, and just to drive the point—I’ve told you I’ve been criticized for driving a tack with a sledgehammer, and we’re going to do that again this morning. Keep your hand here; we’ll be back.

But I want you to see this theme in the Old Testament for a bit first. Look at Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs 28 verse 9: “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.” Isn’t that a fascinating concept? And he doesn’t say simply your prayers are of no avail. He says they’re detestable. They’re offensive. That is, you are not walking in obedience to God, and then you go pretend to pray? And you think God’s fooled by that? You’re harboring sin. You refuse to be rid of some darling sin, and God says, “You come to me and offer prayer? You think I’m going to be fooled by that?” He who turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.

Look at chapter 15, verse 8. Proverbs 15, verse 8: “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.” Now, who prescribed those sacrifices that he’s talking about here? God did. And God says, “I detest the sacrifices of the wicked.” You come to me with a wicked heart and go through the forms, the external pretensions of worship. It’s just adding to the offense.

Look at Psalm 51. Psalm 51. You remember, it’s David’s prayer of repentance to God after his sin with Bathsheba. And David says, Psalm 51, verse 16: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” Now, that’s an interesting statement, isn’t it? Does God delight in sacrifice? Does He take pleasure in burnt offerings? You bet He does. He prescribed it. I suspect David here is pointing back to his time of unrepentant sin, going through the motions of worship himself and bringing those sacrifices to the priest. And he says in here some kind of a comparative negative: “You don’t delight in sacrifice, or I’d bring it. You don’t delight in burnt offerings.” Then verse 17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” That is to say, this is a matter of the heart first, and only then are the externals right.

Look again at Isaiah 1. We read that earlier this morning. A fascinating passage where God comes against Israel with His severest rebuke. And He says, for example—we don’t need to read the whole passage again, but in verse 4, He says, “they have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.” Now, what do you think he means by that? We’ve read through the passage. You remember? He doesn’t mean that they have ignored God’s law entirely. They’ve gone through the forms of worship. We know that because later in the passage, he’s condemning them for their sacrifices. Look at verse 11: “The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me? says the Lord. I have more than enough burnt offerings of the rams and the fat of fatted animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.” So they are going through the forms of worship. It’s not that they’ve left it entirely. What is the problem? The problem is in their heart and in their lives they have not obeyed; they have not taken seriously the law of God. And ignoring God and forsaking Him in that sense, coming to Him in worship and offering these forms of worship, God says it’s offensive. I don’t want anything to do with it.

Well, we don’t need to take time to look at all of these, but for those of you who are writing them down and would like to look at this further, look at Amos chapter 5. Verses 18 and following, God says, “I don’t like your songs. I hate the music of your harps.” And again, the point is, they have forsaken Him with their hearts. Micah 6, verses 6-8: what the Lord wants is not your sacrifices and your external forms of worship. What He wants is your heart and your life of obedience, and then your worship.

And let’s go to one more passage in the New Testament. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 through 24. It’s part of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, verse 21: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder. And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raka,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool,’ will be in danger of hell, the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar first. Go and be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.”

And notice here, he’s not saying you have something against your brother. Your brother has something against you. Disruption in the family of Christ. And then you come and offer worship. God says, “I don’t want it. I don’t want it.” You ever thought when you put your money in the offering plate as it passed, “I wonder if God really accepts this”? The church does. We haven’t given too many of them back yet. I did that once, but that’s another story. I wonder if God accepts this. You stand behind a hymnal and you sing praise to God. Is this acceptable worship?

We tend to have our own little game of compensation. We tend to think that we can buy off God. We go to the church. We put the money in the offering plate. We feel good about ourselves. We sing a hymn of praise. We feel like we’ve been through the forms of worship. We read the scriptures. We’ll pray. And we never stop to think, “Is God impressed with us? And is my life and is my heart matching up with this worship that I’m offering?”

All week long we’ve been mistreating the wife, or you’ve been mistreating the husband. All week long you have no time whatever for God. And then you come to worship. “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” Is it a sham? The form of worship may be fine. The content may be fine. But the worshiper himself may render the worship offensive to God. And again, it seems instinctive to us that we think that we can buy God off by compensating. It’s kind of a merit theology that we’ve smuggled in, even though we’re Calvinists. We ruin the whole significance of worship. And in fact, verse 17 again, 1 Corinthians 11, we even can do more harm than good going through the externals of worship.

Now, I have the advantage over you. This passage beats me up all week long, and then I come and give it to you. But we’ve got to put it to the question. What was God’s opinion of our worship here today? When we stood to praise God, were we harboring resentment in our hearts toward another believer? And if so, was God impressed with the worship? Was it offensive? Was it acceptable? Did we do more harm or good?

We put our money in the offering plate. Do we drop it in the plate still with a heart that’s stubbornly refusing to give up some favorite sin? Pride, greed, lust, whatever it is? And if so, we need to hear God tell us again from this passage, “I don’t want your money. I don’t want your songs. I don’t want your observance of the Lord’s table. What I want is your heart and your life. And then come to me and worship. What I want is a heart that is broken and contrite over sin. A heart that’s true and submissive before Him.” If you won’t do that, God says, “If you won’t do that, I don’t want your worship.”

And again, we’re caught in a spot, aren’t we? You can’t say, “Okay, I won’t worship.” We’re accumulating guilt again that way. But He’s God. He demands our worship and He demands that that worship be rendered in a worthy manner. I think at times the Puritans, although they tended to understand this subject very, very well, I think they tended at times to have taken it too far, maybe a little too introspective at times. Sometimes it might seem that they were a little too slow to rejoice in the freedom that we have coming to God and that he does delight in our worship. But I think they were right in reminding us at times, as some of them did, that there are times when even our worship needs repented of; there are times when even our repentance needs repented of.

If we are to worship God, he tells us then here, if we are to worship God in a worthy manner, we must learn to come before Him with our heads bowed low, with repentance in our heart, praise in our lips to Christ, from a heart that’s true, a life that is aimed at pleasing Him. And so we come—this tells us then—we come before God in our worship, whether it’s at the Lord’s table, or standing behind our hymnal singing, or putting our money in the offering plates. We come to Him saying, “Lord, I don’t come before You because I’m worthy. In fact, I have a keen sense of my unworthiness. But I come with a humble confession and repentance of my sin. And I come with praise on my lips for Christ who has taken that for me. Lord, I’m unworthy. I’m unworthy, an unworthy recipient of Your grace. But I come to You in the name of Christ, with praise for His redeeming blood, and I vow all over again to live in submission to Your law.”

And we come to Him saying, “Lord, help me. Help me to live and to worship in a way that’s worthy of You. Because without Your help, I’ll fail again.” It’s a humiliating thing, isn’t it, to be reminded that even in our best moments, our moments of worship, our twisted hearts can ruin that too. God, give us a heart to please Him. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, what a sobering reminder this is. Lord, there’s not a one of us that doesn’t need this reminder. Forgive us, Lord, for trifling with You. Forgive us for taking our sin too lightly. Give us a heart to please You. For this, Lord, we are utterly dependent upon the workings of Your Spirit. You have promised Him to us. We pray that You would make His work in us to be ever more effective. Bring us from glory to glory.

Lord, in our heart of hearts, we do love You. In our heart of hearts, we are utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus and what He has done for us. Forgive us for our inconsistencies. Make us more and more acceptable worshipers, we pray. Lord, we look forward to that time when Christ comes. We can stand before Him with completely redeemed hearts and stand with pure hearts offering worship to Him. Give us more and more of that today, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.