Introductory Perspectives on Public Worship, Part 2

The point: If you were not here for the pastor's conference last year, the studies that Pastor Fisher did on the subject of the regulative principle were masterful and we highly commend those to you and they're available to you if …

Martin quotes Professor Murray's sermon 'Christ in All the Assemblies of His People' to illustrate the precious, yet surpassing, reality of Christ's presence in the gathered assembly, emphasizing its apprehension, experience, and enjoyment.

Perhaps I may stun you by saying we believe in the doctrine of the real presence, but not the real presence in the way of God. We believe in the doctrine of the real presence, and in the wine, but the real presence in the gathered assembly. In a wonderfully warm sermon by Professor Murray entitled Christ in All the Assemblies of His People, found in Professor Murray's works, Volume 3, listen to the good professor as he writes on page 197. Christ's presence with his assembled people is a precious reality, but one that surpasses understanding. Yet it is to be apprehended and experienced and enjo...

3:39 - 4:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Since most of you are not presently in a situation of leading the worship of God's people, some of us who are must make you aware of the problems you're going to encounter.

Martin describes coming out of a Saturday night elder's meeting with a 'broken spirit' due to pastoral problems, illustrating the emotional challenges a leader faces when trying to lead worship with joy.

Furthermore, you're an emotional being. The scripture says the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but abruptly, a broken spirit, who can bear? You may come, as sometimes we do, out of an elder's meeting on a Saturday night. That's why people question that practice.

10:51 - 11:07 Read in full sermon

The point: You must recognize that you are not alone in those problems. We're not dealing now with how to rise above them, how to confront them. I just don't want you to be shattered and disillusioned when you face them. You will.

Martin uses examples of a splitting headache or severe backache to illustrate how a leader's physical state can create problems in leading worship.

And sometimes, your own physical state. You've got a splitting headache. And all you can think about is your headache.

11:24 - 11:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the third category of problems: the immediate and often unpredictable circumstances of the congregation, such as collective low spirits due to weather, shared…

Martin describes a scenario of four days of straight rain, leading to heavy spirits in the congregation, to illustrate how unpredictable circumstances affect the atmosphere of worship.

And you could not predict that there were going to be four days of straight rain in which nobody saw the sun. The air is heavy and people's spirits are heavy. As the gray skies have been above their heads for four days, some of the grayness has worked its way into their spirits.

14:11 - 14:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the third category of problems: the immediate and often unpredictable circumstances of the congregation, such as collective low spirits due to weather, shared…

Martin uses the example of a congregation experiencing a 'baptism of grief' due to tragedy or sudden death to illustrate how collective sorrow impacts the worship service.

And you feel it in your own spirit. What are you going to do? Or maybe the congregation has had a baptism of grief, a very dull, dearly loved and esteemed member of the congregation has faced a horrible tragedy just a day or two before. Or maybe been suddenly taken away.

14:36 - 14:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the third category of problems: the immediate and often unpredictable circumstances of the congregation, such as collective low spirits due to weather, shared…

Martin recounts the early years of his church meeting in various temporary locations (women's club, fire hall, schools), illustrating the problems arising from the conditions of the meeting place.

And everyone's spirit is just held in a vice-like chilling grip of paralyzing grief. What do you do? Many of you will experience being nomads in terms of a place of meeting. Our brother Neme mentioned the problems they have in this matter of a meeting place.

14:57 - 15:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the third category of problems: the immediate and often unpredictable circumstances of the congregation, such as collective low spirits due to weather, shared…

Martin describes leading worship with the backdrop of a Parisian café stage set from a school play, complete with colored spotlights, to illustrate the distracting and sometimes absurd circumstances of temporary meeting places.

Well, there are problems that arise from the conditions of the meeting place. It's not easy to live in a place where you give people to a God-centered perspective of worship when they're sitting there looking up at the one leading and behind you is all the stage or all the stage props for the local school play. And the play that year happens to take place in Paris in an outside café. And so behind you are all of the props and the backdrop of a Parisian café.

15:41 - 16:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the third category of problems: the immediate and often unpredictable circumstances of the congregation, such as collective low spirits due to weather, shared…

Martin tells a story of fire sirens going off during his closing prayer in a Grange Hall next to a fire station, illustrating how unpredictable events can occur and how a leader can capitalize on them for spiritual application.

Or as the other night with Alan and his people in the Grange Hall, they're right next to the fire hall. And right in my closing prayer, the fire sirens went off. So I said, Lord, give me wisdom to capitalize on this. So in my prayer and I just had begun to pray, I said, and Lord, as surely as the siren shrill has captured our ears, we know our ears will hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God that prepares for that day.

16:32 - 17:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now it's a strange thing for me to have lived long enough to see men claim to believe the 1689 confession and love the Puritans and fight that which Owen says was the very genius of Puritanism. Namely the regulative prin…

Martin quotes John Owen's polemical response to Samuel Parker, where Owen defends the regulative principle as the 'foundation of all Puritanism,' illustrating the historical and theological weight of this doctrine.

no, I want to get the right volume here, no, I think that's Volume 15 where he is answering, yes, yes, he is answering a work by Samuel Parker and it's called A Survey of a Discourse Concerning Ecclesiastical Polity. And Owen as a polemicist is amazing. He mastered the other man's work and his arguments and listen to what he says when he comes to this matter of the regulative principle in worship and what the essence of Puritanism is. This is Owen now writing about this man Parker's book.

22:37 - 23:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And it's interesting to see that some of the brethren are not yet convinced that actually giving included in the service so that plates are passed is mandated so they have plates at the rear. I like that. I wouldn't want…

Martin shares his delight in visiting new churches like Flemington, where he can worship without reservation, illustrating the joy of seeing spiritual worship rendered according to biblical principles, even with circumstantial differences.

Well our time is gone brethren and I do sincerely trust that God will write these things upon all of our hearts. I can say and I mentioned to my wife and I think one or two of the elders since I've been back what a delight it is to go to these churches that have just come to birth in the last couple of years such as Flemington and to be able to sit and have my heart drawn out and worship without having to bite my lip. It's a wonderful thing that God is raising up temples for his praise where spiritual worship is being rendered unto God. And all the details are not the same.

29:56 - 30:36 Read in full sermon