56a) Directives for Ordering Public Worship #1

The point: Pastors are to exercise real, authoritative control in leading worship services, not merely acting as catalysts or referees, as part of their task to 'take care of the church of God.'

Martin explains the word 'scrupulous' by distinguishing it from its 'bad bedfellow,' 'overscrupulous,' to clarify that he means careful attention to what is right and proper, not excessive or neurotic concern.

I spent considerable time rooting around in my dictionary, and in Rodale's Synonym Finder, to find the right word. And the word scrupulous, in my judgment, is the right word, though it often has a bad bedfellow when it's used with the word over scrupulous. Scrupulous is defined as characterized by careful attention to what is right and proper. When you show careful attention to what is right and proper, you're being scrupulous.

9:16 - 9:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We do believe in the real presence of Christ, but not the real presence in bread and wine, but in the midst of the gathered assembly of God's people.

He contrasts the Reformed Baptist belief in Christ's real presence in the midst of the gathered assembly with the Roman Catholic doctrine of real presence in the elements of bread and wine, clarifying the nature of Christ's presence in worship.

when they do according to the will and word of Christ, is ratified in heaven, our Lord says in verse 24, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And here we have a case where our Lord's generic statement, though it ratifies the specific issue in hand, it goes far beyond, beyond that mere specific setting of the church acting in discipline. Where two or three are gathered in my name, notice, not just to implement discipline, but whenever and wherever God's people in church fellowship are gathered in his name, that is by his authority in union with h...

12:54 - 14:16 Read in full sermon

The point: In planning and leading worship, pastors must ensure that the service facilitates Christ meeting with His gathered people to communicate His grace as prophet, priest, and king.

The post-resurrection appearances of Christ to His disciples on the first day of the week (John 20:19, 26) are presented as a paradigm for Christ's ongoing meeting with His people to communicate grace in corporate worship.

These are the seven golden candlesticks or lampstands. And as he is in the midst, he is ministering to his gathered people as their exalted prophet, priest and king in the threefold office that he bears, beautifully symbolized in the vision in that first chapter. And therefore, when God's people gather, we must think of them gathering with respect to this blessed, reality that the risen Christ himself has instituted the gathering of his people, that he might meet with his gathered people in order to communicate his grace to them as their prophet, their priest, and their king. And the paradigm ...

15:24 - 16:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Pastors should plan and lead worship services with the understanding that God waits to be glorified through the divinely mandated, Spirit-empowered activities of His gathered people.

Martin mentions that part of Ephesians 3:20-21 is etched on the commemorative stone of their church building, highlighting the significance of God receiving glory in the church.

And when it grips us that God waits to be glorified through the divinely mandated, spirit-empowered activities of His gathered people, surely it will influence how we plan and lead such a service where such a noble end is to be realized. And then Ephesians 3, 20 and 21, a passage oft quoted around here, part of it is etched on our commemorative stone on the front of our church building. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and e...

21:44 - 22:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second great end is that the Triune God might bring glory to Himself through the divinely mandated, Spirit-empowered activities of His gathered people. Romans 15:5-7…

He commends Vaughan's chapter 13, 'The Spirit in Public Worship,' from his work on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as a resource for understanding the Holy Spirit's ministry in public worship.

But you will notice that I have said they must not only be the divinely mandated, but the Spirit-empowered activities of His people. And here I commend to you again, I may have mentioned it last week, the marvelous chapter in Vaughan's work on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in which he addresses in a separate chapter the place and ministry of the Holy Spirit in public worship. It's chapter 13 called The Spirit in Public Worship. And God willing, later on, I'll have occasion to give some quotes from that particular book.

25:53 - 26:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Pastors must conduct worship in a manner that acknowledges the potential presence of unbelievers and aims for them to be convicted of God's reality, livingness, and special presence.

He contrasts the pagan mindset of ornate temples and rituals for honoring gods with the Christian claim of God's presence in ordinary buildings, to highlight the radical nature of Christian worship to an unbeliever.

Though it is the gathered church, their presence is not to be ignored. And therefore he writes in chapter 14, verses 23 to 25, If therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad? You see, he assumes that such may be among them, and that people have a right to make an assessment of what's going on in the midst of the gathered people of God. But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are mad...

33:07 - 34:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Pastors must conduct worship in a manner that acknowledges the potential presence of unbelievers and aims for them to be convicted of God's reality, livingness, and special presence.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'loony bin' to describe how an unbeliever would perceive disorderly, tongue-speaking worship, emphasizing the need for biblical propriety to avoid being seen as 'mad.'

that have nothing about them that say this is a place of religious worship. And yet these people claim that their God, who no one can see, who no one can touch, no one can carry and place upon an altar, and to whom they can offer physical sacrifices, that their God is the one true and living God, and that he actually is present when they gather in a way that he is not present throughout the whole earth. What a claim! And he says, the unbeliever comes in, may come in skeptical, and if he finds you people carrying on the way you have been, he's going to say, not only is your claim invalid, you'r...

34:34 - 35:12 Read in full sermon