God has
shown, in the Bible, His approval with those who follow His will
and His displeasure and wrath with those who refuse to worship
Him the way He has directed. God has always been clear about
how he is to be worshipped, but man has not listened.
An example of acceptable and unacceptable worship in the Old
Testament is that of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both worshipped
God. Abel did as God directed, but Cain tried to worship God
the way he saw fit. We read in Genesis 4:3-5, "And in
the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering
of fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the
firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected
Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his
offering."
Why did the Lord have respect for Abel’s offering and
why did He reject Cain’s offering? Hebrews 11:4 tells
us, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain." Notice Abel offered his sacrifice "by
faith" but Cain did not. Romans 10:17 says, "So then
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." So
faith comes by the word of God. Abel offered his sacrifice
by faith or according to the word of God. If we worship God
by faith, we worship as the word of God directs.
Abel offered the firstborn of his flock "by faith" and
it was accepted because his worship was according to the instructions
of God. But Cain chose to ignore God’s instructions and
sacrificed an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Cain chose to sacrifice to God the way he saw fit. Cain did
not offer his sacrifice according to God’s instructions,
so God rejected his sacrifice and worship, since it was not "by
faith".
From this example we see our worship must be "by faith",
that is "by the word of God." We read in Romans 14:23, "For
whatever is not from faith is sin." If our worship is
not "by faith", that is it is not "by the word
of God", then it "is sin". It will also be rejected
just like Cain’s. It is a very serious matter if God
rejects our worship. If He does we are going to be lost.
One cannot obey God without doing what God says to do, when
God says to do it, how God says to do it and for the reason
God says to do it. If what we do in worship is not according
to the word of God, then it is vain and useless and will cause
us to be eternally lost.