The Amen: Some Dangers to be Avoided

Introduction: Review of Previous Studies and the Purpose of This Final Study

0:03 The following message was delivered on October 3rd, 1993, in the adult Sunday school class of the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, while others are finding their places, let us again extend a very cordial welcome to those who are visiting with us. I see several faces of visitors, and we do welcome you to our adult Bible class. And we come this morning to the fourth and final study on the subject of the verbal amen in the public worship of God.

0:45 God willing, next Lord's Day morning, Dr. Robert Martin will begin to lead the class in a survey of the first eight chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And some of you, in preparation for that study, may wish to at least speed read. The opening chapters of Acts, so that you are familiar with the basic drift of that record of the mighty works of the ascended Christ.

1:13 But we come today to this final study on the subject of the verbal amen in the public worship of God. In our initial study, I attempted to do two things. Number one, to set the study in the context of the most crucial passage. On this subject, in the New Testament, namely, 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 16.

1:40 And then secondly, to answer anticipated objections to serious concerns relative to taking up such a subject. Then, in our second study, we engaged in a survey of the Old and the New Testament usages of the word amen. Amen. Seeking to discover.

2:02 The meaning and significance of that word as it is used in the scriptures. Then, in our third study, we took up the two major principles which must guide us in our use of the verbal amen in the public worship of God. First, the overarching goal of corporate affirmation must not be obscured in the use of the amen. In the public worship of God, or in the pivotal passages in the Old and the New Testaments, such as Deuteronomy 27, its usage in the Psalms, and then 1 Corinthians 14, 16, Romans 15, 6, and the examples in the book of the Revelation. The concept of corporate affirmation is dominant in all of these recorded instances of the use of the word. So, with regard to corporate affirmation ________ like we are used to, in the Qur'an and in the Scriptures, there is naturalну Lopez aa. Remember?

3:05 You ask why Paul knew the world, so why do we have necessary to take up this. Here is how. livres seekers to practice who practice and practices of the martial life ________ or practice ________ att Lt. mobilization version Radical Ritual Coin ________ sunk coat an th ________ mo Char Gr targets words all easy ________ alignment in the public worship of God.

3:34 And there we looked primarily at 1 Corinthians chapter 14, where no fewer than six or seven times the apostle underscores the principle that the great goal of the exercise of all gifts and the conduct of the assembly and its public gatherings must be all things unto edification. Now, this morning, in this, our final study, we will take up the subject of the major practical dangers to be avoided in our use of the Amen in the corporate worship of God. Now, our subject is not an exhaustive treatment of every possible danger to be avoided in our use of the Amen in the corporate worship of God, but the major... practical dangers to be avoided in our use of the Amen in the corporate worship of God.

The Necessity of Addressing Dangers: The Reality of Indwelling Sin

4:38 Now, some may ask, why do we need to spend a whole Sunday school session dealing with the dangers to be avoided? And my answer is very straightforward. Because of the presence and the activity of indwelling sin. Sin, even, are in our most holy moments.

5:04 There is no Christian duty or privilege, individual or corporate, which is not liable to abuse, and there is no duty to which remaining sin, whether an individual or corporate duty, does not create in us an inbred aversion or indisposition, so that with reference... with reference to duty and privilege, remaining sin will both press us in a direction contrary to the will of God and will seek to hold us back from doing the will of God.

5:44 Galatians 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to the other. Furthermore, Romans 7.21 says, I find that to me who would do good, evil is present with me. And as John Owen in his masterful treatment of indwelling sin underscores so powerfully, never is the presence of indwelling sin more active than when we are set upon the highest good. When I would do good, evil, evil is present with me. And 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is a clear indication that though God had conferred these marvelous gifts for the edification of the church upon the church at Corinth,

6:43 the actings of remaining sin had so exerted itself that in that congregation the very gifts given for edification were creating... were eroding the validity of the witness of that congregation so that Paul had to state in no uncertain terms 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 33, God is not the author of confusion but of peace.

7:19 So the confusion that was rampant in the church there at Corinth was not the result of God's activity. It was the result of the activity of remaining sin within these believers even when they gathered for public worship and the exercise of God-given gifts. Indwelling sin had made the use of those gifts grotesque, unseemly, and non-edifying. And therefore the answer to the proper use of the gifts is 1 Corinthians 13, the more excellent way of love regulating and determining how those gifts should be exercised. So if I could find in the scriptures and have it validated in our experience that there was some magical power that met us as we entered those doors and totally neutralized the reality of our own indwelling sin and its acts, this lesson would not be necessary. But since there is nothing in scripture and surely nothing in the experience of any honest child of God that in any way indicates that our remaining sin is shed even for five minutes in the sacred acts of public worship,

Danger 1: Attracting Attention to Yourself

8:49 it is vital that we address the subject the major practical dangers to be avoided in our use of the internet. So I have five words of exhortation. Number one, beware of using the amen in such a way as to attract attention to yourself.

9:16 Beware of using the amen in such a way as to attract attention to yourself. If ever God is to be the unrivaled focus of our attention, surely it is in the context of his public corporate worship. If ever the intrusion of man as the center of attention is the height of an affront to God, it is in his corporate public worship. What a terrible thing to draw the attention away from the creator, to the creature in the very act of worshiping the one who is blessed forever. And whenever the amen is rightly employed, it will fit the description of 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 20. For how many soever be the promises of God in him that is in Christ is the yes. God's promises come to us in Christ, immersed in God's yes.

10:32 Yes in Christ. These promises are yours. These promises are accessible. These promises are valid.

10:43 They are trustworthy. How many soever be the promises of God in him is the yes. Wherefore, also through him is the amen, the certainty, unto the glory of God through us. Now some have suggested that in this text we have a reference to the verbal amen of the congregation.

11:11 So it is not far afield to say the verse at least has reference to our subject and whether the use of the term through him is the amen is actually referring to the practice of the people of God saying, the amen to the promises of God that come to them in the proclamation of Christ and all of God's redemptive privileges in him. This much is clear that the tendency of this reality that God's promises that are yes in Christ and through him are worthy of the amen of the faith and the confidence of the people of God, the end, and envisioned is this, the glory of God through us. Therefore, any use of the amen that does not tend to enhance and to buttress the glory of God in his worship cannot be of God. Therefore, I give this pastoral warning, beware of using the amen in such a way as to accomplish or attract attention to ourselves. Now, how is that done?

12:32 Well, when people use ill-timed amens, when the entire congregation is obviously in a solemn, concentrating, contemplative attachment to the word of God and in the midst of that someone booms out an individual ill-timed amen and it immediately disturbs that concentration and turns the mind from engagement with the word of God and the God of the word to this person who has boomed out his or her ill-timed amen. Furthermore, excessively loud and repetitious amens. If you have to sense, well, over there in the left-hand quadrant of the congregation is an unusually vocal man or woman who is like a constant, almost machine gun amening every phrase that can only attract attention to that person and not result in corporate edification. Some may think, well, if others were as spiritually minded as I or as spiritually liberated as I, they would be more frequent, more intense, more loud in their use of the amen. Well, the mark of true spirituality

13:58 is not to draw attention to self, but to be sensitive to others. True spirituality accommodates itself to others. Love seeketh not her own. And if it is a matter of spiritual weakness in your brothers and sisters that they do not say an amen as frequently as they ought or as intensely as they ought, God says, if you are a stronger, more mature brother, we that are strong, Romans 15, 1, ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.

14:37 And here we come again into the principles of Philippians 2, 3, and 4. Look not each one of you upon his own things, but each upon the things of another. And so I would give this pastoral warning, whether intentional or in innocence, beware of using the amen in such a way as to attract attention to yourself. And I cannot give you from the scriptures or out of pastoral experience a list of 25 ways you can know this.

15:10 If you're in doubt, just ask some more mature brethren in the church and say, do you find my use of the amen in the preaching of the word or that my use of the amen at the end of the public prayers and praises distracted you? And if you're in doubt, just ask me. And I'll be prepared to respond in terms of their honest assessment. The second practical warning is this.

Danger 2: Doing Violence to Yourself (Temperament and Sexual Identity)

15:37 Beware of using the amen in such a way as to do violence to yourself.

15:46 Beware of using the amen in such a way as to do violence to yourself. One of the things that I emphasize again, and again, and again, and again, and again to the men in the pastoral theology course, no matter what aspect of pastoral work we're dealing with, is that grace sets itself in an irreconcilable warfare with sin. But grace has no warfare with nature. Grace wars with sin, not with nature.

16:25 Now in this particular context, what I'm attempting to say is this. God has given to each one of us His own distinct temperament. Just as my fingerprints are uniquely mine and no one else's, and yours are uniquely yours and no one else's, so according to Psalm 139 and verse 13, when God knit us together in our mother's wombs, He knit us as distinct individuals as distinct individuals as distinct individuals according to His own design and purpose. For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst cover me in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret. And here is a reference both to the constitution of the soul, the inward parts, and the body, my frame. And God has given to each one of us His own distinct temperament as well as our own distinct physical characteristics.

17:37 And one servant of God writing on this very subject has very perceptively commented to be sure there are cultural differences within the universal church. The Scot or the New Englander may be less expressive than the South American or the Southern American. During the days of the British Commonwealth there were marked differences of expression within the churches of Great Britain. The Irish Puritans expressed themselves in the public worship with a kind of shrill sound while some of the English Puritans did so with a kind of a grunt.

18:18 But while there may be regional differences there ought to be unanimity among us as to the employment of the Amen and the Amen in prayer, praise, and hearing the word read and preached. And so my pastoral counsel is beware of using the Amen in such a way as to do violence to yourself. Now while determined not to do violence to yourself if God has given you a basically retired, shy, withdrawn temperament it would be doing violence to yourself for you to have the most loud, intense, vocal Amen. On the other hand if God has made you an intense, outgoing, more vocal person for you to whisper an Amen like your more retired, medicine brother or sister is to do violence to yourself. And grace makes no war with nature. And if we've grasped what I preached last Lord's Day morning that we unreservedly, unfeignedly receive one another for what we are in Christ we receive one another with all of that wonderful variegated display of differing temperaments.

19:49 And God does not expect us to have all of that neutered when we walk through those doors. And therefore the manner, in which we affirm from the heart our so be it to the reading and preaching of the Word. The manner in which we affirm from the heart so be it I place my vocal signature upon the praise and the petitions that have been offered in so doing we will do so in a manner consistent with the fingerprints of our own God given temperament. Now granted one of the fruit, the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit is self-control. That means for some of us who by temperament and nature are very vocal and if we were at a football game or a soccer game we would not be there just occasionally tapping our foot if someone on our team did something they should. We'd be hollering ourselves hoarse. And when we come into the house, the house of God, that temperament comes with us.

21:00 And for some of us self-control will mean restraining what nature would do because it would be unseemly. And love does not behave itself unseen. For others whose judgment tells them that that natural reserve is so overpowering that one would barely hear a whisper of an amen, self-control says, get hold of yourself, God's worthy of something more than a mumbled amen. So you see, self-control will enable some who are more naturally vocal and expressive to restrain themselves out of deference to not detracting from the glory of God, attracting attention to themselves or offending their brethren. But self-control will also work that the more naturally reticent will not simply allow their natural temperament to bury the performance of a God-given duty. For where we are commanded on the one hand to exercise self-control, 1 Thessalonians 5.19 says, quench not the spirit.

22:12 So there must be in our judgment a prayerful distinguishing between temperament and basic obedience to the word of God. Now, you see, it's precisely at this point that a number of our women have sensed a reticence to say an individual amen under the preaching of the word because when that is done, there is a sense in which you are speaking not as one voice among the many, but you are taking a place of leadership in affirming, yes, so be it, what has been proclaimed as the affirmation of my heart. And I do not believe that that's a matter of sinful reticence. I believe it is an expression of God-given modesty on the part of our women who otherwise feel no reluctance to say the corporate amen with great enthusiasm. And I commend you, dear women, and it's interesting, the two women, or three women, who wrote about that, one of them would be naturally a little more shy, but the other two are women who are naturally quite vocal and quite outgoing. Yet they said, Pastor, is it sinful? I feel a reluctance to say an individual amen under the preaching of the Word of God.

23:28 I feel far more comfortable letting the men do that. And I want to commend you because I believe that's within the general principles of the Word of God. Remember our confession? There are some things concerning the worship of God that are not expressly set down in Scripture, but the general principles of the Word of God.

23:47 Let the women keep silence in the churches. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor usurp authority over the man. And where there are individual amens, it is appropriate that those should be male-dominant, though I am not prepared to say it would be unbiblical and unscriptural for a woman consistent with the meek and the quiet spirit and her deference to her brethren to have a relatively subdued individual amen. I cannot prove that from the Word of God.

24:21 I can demonstrate and have sought to demonstrate that the congregational amen must include the women. And in Nehemiah, they are specified along with the children who were listening with understanding. And when Paul writes to the Corinthian church when it comes to prophecy, he says the women are not to speak but to be silent, but he does not infer that with regard to the congregational amen. So then, beware of using the amen in such a way as to do violence to yourself, not only your temperament, but as I have indicated, your sexual identity.

Danger 3: Degenerating into Mindless, Heartless, Vain Repetition

25:02 But then I have a third pastoral caution. Beware of allowing the amen to degenerate into a mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. Beware of allowing the amen to degenerate into a mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. If anything is condemned by God with holy irritation, it is that which I have just described.

25:40 Mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. In both the Old and the New Testaments, God cries out against this. For example, in Isaiah chapter 29, we find God through the prophet speaking of his utter distaste for mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. Isaiah 29, verses 13 and 14, And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near unto me, and with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which have been learned by rote. They are going through the motions. It is vain, repetitious, religious jargon. It is mindless.

26:47 It is heartless. God says, Therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people. And that work is not a work of grace, but a work of judgment. Likewise, in Ezekiel chapter 33, notice God's detestation of mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon.

27:15 Ezekiel chapter 33 and verse 31. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but do them not, for with their mouth they show much love. If you were to judge their religion by their mouth, you'd say, Oh, they truly love Jehovah. But he said, Their heart goes after their gain.

27:49 And in a very special way, notice the focus upon their response to the word of God. Lo, you are unto them as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words. And I wonder if they didn't verbally clap by saying amen when the prophet preached. Ezekiel, that was beautiful.

28:12 Amen! That was powerful, Ezekiel. Amen! With their mouth, they were showing much love.

28:20 But the problem is, God says their hearts were not the source of what was going on with their mouths. And God detests this. And in the overall setting, we know Ezekiel is prophesying the judgments of God upon such a people. And remember, in the New Testament, when our Lord Jesus turns to the subject of prayer, how does he begin his formal teaching in the Sermon on the Mount?

28:51 He begins with this warning. Verse 7, And in praying use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think they shall be heard, for their much speaking be not therefore like unto them. The first thing he says with respect to the content of their prayers, after dealing with the place of their prayers, namely the closet, he says in the content of your prayers, don't allow your mouth to run beyond the state of your heart. And then quoting from this very passage in Isaiah, it's found in Matthew 15 and Mark 7, the Lord Jesus spoke to his own generation and said, In vain do you worship me, because you draw near with your mouth, but your hearts are far from me. So brethren, beware of allowing the Amen to degenerate into a mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. Jesus said in John 4 that the Father seeks a people to worship Him in spirit, that is the full engagement of the heart, under the influence of the Holy Spirit,

30:18 and in the realm of truth, so that it is not truth apart from spirit, spirit apart from truth, but the pleasing worship of God is marked by those two distinct elements, worship in spirit and in truth. Better not to say or sing the corporate Amen than to add the sin of hypocrisy to the sins of unchecked distraction in prayer and praise. You hear what I'm saying? If when someone says, let us now seek the face of God, and as the brother is leading us in prayer, in prayer meeting or in this place, and you allowed your mind to wander off into whatever it wandered, it may have been something innocent in itself, something positively sinful, and you did not check it and bring it back, ask God's forgiveness, and then let your mind and heart consciously go out with the patterns of thought expressed by the one who was leading us in prayer, far better to be silent at the end of that prayer than to say a hypocritical Amen and add the sin of hypocrisy to the sin of unchecked wandering thoughts. But you see, if you and I believe in God, it is our duty

31:45 to give our corporate Amen at the end of the prayers and praises of those who lead us in those exercises. You see what an added discipline it will be to help us with our tendency to distracting thoughts? How can I say the Amen as an act of faith and intelligent obedience to God if I have not focused my mind and my heart and the energy of my soul upon the sentiments expressed in the content of the prayer or the praise? And that's one of the reasons I'm convinced that God has instituted the Amen to be a means of grace to help us. When the thoughts begin to wander and it can flash through our minds in a millisecond, shall I add the sin of hypocrisy to this wretched sin of a wandering mind? No, Lord, I will not! And you gather up the wandering thoughts and refocus upon the things that are being expressed at the throne room of God so that when the brother says these mercies we ask, these praises we bring in the name and through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, your Amen can be a non-hypocritical Amen, an Amen expressed in spirit and in truth.

33:13 So beware of allowing the Amen to degenerate into a mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. And that will not only help us with the matters of prayer and praise when we're being led by others, it will help us when we're singing our hymns and our psalms. When the pianist is playing through the stanza, we will focus our minds upon the content, the content of that psalm, of that hymn. We will seek to get the energy of the soul flowing into the direction of the sentiments expressed.

33:55 This is why some of us when we lead in worship, most of the brethren make a brief comment even before we sing to help bring our minds into that channel of thought. Why are they doing this? Do they like to hear their voices? No, dear people.

34:09 It's that we might worship in spirit as well as in truth, but then there comes a point where I can't do your work for you. You see, we still have got this wretched notion that in worship we're somehow half passive waiting for the heavenly zapping. No, worship is work. It's a different kind of work than we do on the other six days of the week.

34:33 But true worship is work, dear people. It involves the engagement of the mind as teaching and preaching is labor. I'm not up here just laid back talking. All of my faculties from my mind to my hands to my feet to my diaphragm to my stomach muscles to all of this speech apparatus, tongue and teeth and all the rest, everything's engaged to try to convey the truth.

35:00 And everything must be engaged in the reception of the truth. Well, it's in the same way with the praises of God. Do you think that these paraphrases in meter and rhyme of the Psalms came easily? When a man sat, some of them with their Hebrew text, seeking to be as true to the sense of Scripture as they could, coming from Hebrew poetry into English poetry, into meter and to rhyme, they labored.

35:29 They labored, dear people. They sweat. And shall we just sit back and think, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. God have mercy on us.

35:40 And when a hymn writer, seeking to be true to the mind of Scripture, was trying to express the yearning of a soul for Christ, don't you think it took sweat and mental anguish and intense concentration and prayerful dependence upon God to pen such words? More love to thee, O Christ. More love to thee. This is the peer thou the prayer I make on bended knee.

36:10 For Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of men. From the best-blasted earth in parts we turn unfilled to thee again. We taste thee, O thou living bread. Things like that, folks, just don't come out.

36:29 Some of us who've labored in trying to compose a little poetry now and then know what it's like to spend hours sometimes on one phrase. And shall these people labor to give us an accurate, biblically structured framework of praise and aspiration and confession and devotion, and we sit back, passive, mind shooting off in a hundred directions? No, dear people, we must engage all of our faculties so that when we come to the end and sing the amen, it is not a vain, mindless, heartless repetition of religion. It's our saying, O God, everything I said in the language of that hymn, I meant it, so be it, let it be. If it was pure praise, we're saying, O God, all that I've said, I wish I could say a hundred times over and a thousand times better. Amen.

37:41 If it's aspiration, if it's confession of certain truths, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. Sing that hymn you consciously bring near the day of judgment and you think of standing with head uplifted in the presence of the Holy One of Israel and doing it with joy. Why? Because of the blood and the righteousness of Jesus.

38:11 Well, at the end of a hymn like that, you've got to say, Amen, so be it, let it be, even so come Lord Jesus. God help us, dear people, beware, beware of allowing the Amen to degenerate into a mindless, heartless, vain repetition of religious jargon. Fourth pastoral exhortation is this, beware of using the Amen in an inappropriate set of circumstances. Beware of using the Amen in an inappropriate, and you talk about having to use all of your, say the words, in an inappropriate. Just try it when you get home today. Beware of using the Amen in an inappropriate set of circumstances. Remember, we're dealing with the corporate Amen in the public worship of an assembly instructed in these things.

Danger 4: Using the Amen in Inappropriate Circumstances

39:20 But 1 Corinthians 13, 5, a text that I trust we will memorize and pray God will write its implication upon our hearts. Love does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own. Love does not behave itself in an unseemly manner. When we are under the control of that selfless, principled affection which wills and seeks the good of others, we will have a built-in monitor to check us from unseemly behavior.

40:04 It is unseemly if you're a visitor in a church where people have not been instructed in the use of the corporate, amen, for you as a visitor on someone else's turf at the end of the pastor's prayer to boom out an amen. That's unseemly. No one puts you there as their teacher by example. They've not been instructed.

40:29 They may be a godly, spiritually-minded people, but they are uninstructed in the use of the amen in the public worship of God. And if you boom out an amen because you say it's right, it's biblical, and I'm here, and I'm going to do it, that's behaving unseemly. That's allowing your good in the context of Trinity Church where the people are instructed to be what? Evil spoken of.

40:57 That's insensitivity, the kind that Paul said he would not be guilty of in 1 Corinthians 9 when he says, I can accommodate myself to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To the others I become as they are, that I might gain them. And Romans 14, 16, let not your good be evil spoken of. So if you're a visitor in another congregation, then blend in.

41:29 And if you want to encourage the preacher, no one is saying amen. Don't you attract attention here. In some churches, you may as well go in with a cap pistol and shoot it off like you were the Lone Ranger as to say an amen. Oh, the eyes will turn and they'll look at you.

41:47 Well, dear people, that can't be of God. But if you want to encourage the preacher in your own heart so full, just nod when he looks at you and he's saying something good. Now, if you're sitting at the front of the church, then don't nod too much or people will think you've got the palsy. You see, love does not behave itself unseemly.

42:12 It does not do that. Well, it's not a matter of what they are. It's a matter of where they are. You're in a funeral.

42:23 Those of you who've attended funerals where I've preached, you know how I keep a very tight rein on the volume of my voice. Why? Because the social expectations in our culture is that the whole climate of a funeral home is subdued. We say it shouldn't be.

42:44 That's the way it is, dear people. And if I'm to commend the gospel, I don't go in there and rear back on my hind legs and roar like I do in this pulpit. It is unseemly. He says, compromise!

42:59 That isn't compromise. It's the accommodation of love. And it means great self-control. When I'm in a little funeral parlor and I'm talking about one of our beloved brothers or sisters who died with a solid hope in Christ going to be with the Lord, I tell you, I could dance.

43:20 There are times I get so blessed in this pulpit. You don't know the many silly things I haven't done. Because love does not behave itself unseemly. There are times when the truth so gripped me and blessed me that I literally want to dance across this platform.

43:36 But I know all it would do is make a fool of me and all people would remember is that's the day Pastor Martin danced. But I don't want you to go out and remember my dancing. I want you to go out and remember the truth that made me want to dance. But I held back on the impulse.

43:54 Why? Love does not behave itself unseemly. It does not attract attention to itself. You see?

Danger 5: Indulging Carnal Reticence

44:02 So dear people, in our use of the Amen, beware of using it in an inappropriate set of circumstances. And then my fifth warning, and it looks like we will have time for six or seven minutes of questions. Beware of indulging. Now, some of you have been breathing easy up till now, and I'm going to nail you.

44:23 All right? Come on now. You've been breathing easy. Now I want to get you.

44:28 Beware of indulging a carnal reticence to engage in a biblically disciplined use of the Amen. And I've chosen every word carefully. Beware of indulging a carnal reticence to engage in a biblically disciplined use of the Amen. Remember the picture of Romans 15, 6, where Paul says that you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

45:12 I'm trying to illustrate this, the first incident that came to my mind because of my frequent visits to the Christian school. Is that when the students have finished the chapel period, one of their number is assigned to go to the front of the group gathered in the phase one auditorium and hold a little American flag. Then all of the students are expected to stand, place their hand over their heart, and say the Pledge of Allegiance. Now suppose a student stood, put his hand on his heart, but refused to say, I pledge allegiance to the flag.

45:48 What is he doing by his silence? Well, first of all, he's refusing to obey the directives of his teachers, and he's violating the fifth commandment. But he may well be manifesting that he does not have the heart of a true patriot, not an idolatrous patriot. My nation, right or wrong, that's idolatry, whether it's America, whether it's whatever country.

46:14 But one of the ways that people can show that they do not have the heart of a patriot is refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. Dear people, a biblically disciplined, corporate amen is a divinely warranted Pledge of Allegiance to the Word of God, to the worship, and to the praise of God. And because you, by temperament and background or whatever else, are reticent to do it, I'm giving the warning to you, beware of indulging that carnal reticence to engage in a disciplined use of the amen. It's an insult to God and will send out signals to your brethren that maybe your heart is lying. It's not a matter now of your temperament. It's a matter of biblical obedience.

47:19 Again, if a dignitary were to enter the room and social decorum warrants that all stand out of respect and you sit, what are you doing by your refusal to stand? You're making a silent but very powerful statement of insult to that dignitary. And when the congregation with one voice at the end of the prayers and praises to God revealed in Christ affirms its commitment to that praise and to the sentiments of aspiration and praise by the corporate amen at the end of our songs and hymns, at the end of the prayers, just simply because you don't feel like it, that's a carnal reticence and that needs to be overcome by biblical mortification and by godly obedience. It's not a matter then of your background or your temperament or your natural inclination any more than if background and temperament and inclination would make you a churlish, self-centered, harsh, insensitive husband. God still says to you, love your wife as Christ loved the church and you've got to learn how to do it. And so it's not a matter of whether this is in our background, our temperament, our natural inclination.

48:35 One's conscience is convinced by the word of God that one of the very crucial ways in which God has ordained group participation in his public worship is by the biblically disciplined use of the amen than any reticence to use that amen as a pattern, not the exceptions I mentioned earlier, can only be regarded as a manifestation of indulgence of carnality. Just as someone so determined to boom out his amens even though it detracts others and attracts attention to himself, no matter how spiritual he may be, once that's been pointed out and he continues, that is a carnal, that is a carnal indulgence of his amen, not a biblically disciplined use of the amen in the public worship. So we come around full circle to where we began. Having considered the biblical basis of this subject, the basic meaning and significance of the word amen, the foundational principles with respect to its use, and now these concluding warnings, let me read something that ties us into history. Jerome, in the fourth century, described the worship of the church in his day.

Historical Context and Call to Action

50:02 He said that the corporate amen of the congregation sounded like a clap of thunder. The author says he would hardly write like that of many of our congregations today where barely a perceptible whisper or at best a slight murmur is the most that people seem able to muster. How can we sing the Psalms of David? How can we read the ascriptions of praise in the New Testament without being moved?

50:34 But to be moved deeply is to look for a means of expression. The biblical expression is, however, ready for our use. Let David himself emphasize the point. Let all the people say amen.

50:47 Let Nehemiah describe the uninhibited response to such a summons to praise. And all the people answered amen. Amen. Let Jude touch our lips with the fire of the Spirit as he reaches his final crescendo of praise.

51:03 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with exceeding, I'm sorry, the presence of his glory with rejoicing to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time now and forever. Amen. Well, we don't have six minutes but we have two. Time for maybe one, two quick questions.

Q&A: Teaching Children the Amen

51:34 I haven't answered all of them and I can't because God hasn't given us a detailed rubric but I hope these principles will be helpful. Is there anyone that has a burning question that you just feel has not been addressed and would be helpful if it were? Please raise the question. Yes, Mr. Davies.

51:54 Yes. Should we encourage our children? I would say more than encourage, Mr. Davies.

52:07 I would say we mandate our children to say the Amen as it is their duty to pray so it is their duty to affirm their hearty consent to those prayers and the family is the place where we know the time at which we can begin to insist that they say the Amen. Hence the benefit of singing in our family worship. They learn to sing the Amen. They learn to say the Amen to our prayers and in the homes that I've been in where family worship is meaningful and alive without exception, I believe I can say, the children heartily entered in to the Amen, to the prayers prayed and that way then they are instructed to carry them over into the public worship of God.

52:52 The passage in Nehemiah is the most helpful when they gathered together the men, the women, and all that could hear with understanding and that's the whole group that said Amen and Amen to the reading of the Word of God and to the praises that were offered to God. Very practical question and I'm glad it was raised. Alright, time for one more question. Yes, Pete?

53:16 Yeah, yes. Now I would say, Pete, we're here in that whole area of is it right for us to teach our children to pray even before we have no reason to believe they are regenerate. It is their duty to pray, it is their duty to praise God and part of prayer and praise is the affirmation of the Amen. God holds the pagan nations who never heard the Word of God responsible, Romans 1, for not giving thanks. Neither did they give thanks but became vain in their imagination. So though our children's Amen will not be the Amen of spiritual perception till they are regenerate any more than their prayers will be prayers of spiritual perception and true communion with God, we nonetheless teach them to perform their duty with the prayer that within the framework of even performing that duty, the Spirit of God will bring them to life in due course.

54:40 So I would put the teaching of our children to say the Amen in the same category as the duty to teach them to pray and to praise and to give thanks to God. And if we see it in that category then it takes that burden off us of thinking, well, we are encouraging hypocrisy. No, we are not. Because one of the very things we have them pray and they hear us pray for them, Lord, be pleased to work in the hearts of each of our children.

55:08 Give them a new heart. Show them that they are sinners and we make them say Amen to that. You see? So that there is nothing hypocritical in that but it is a teaching of their God-given duty.

55:21 Okay? Yes, I think here again with our kids, we have to monitor it because some of them would be like a new toy. And some of them would just love to attract attention to themselves like their new dress. Everybody buy a new dress?

55:37 And so we have to monitor it. But again, that is a parental responsibility. But in due course when we judge that they are of sufficient age to reasonably expect that that will be used appropriately and not as a little show-off tool, that is where we as parents ought to demand that they engage in saying it as well as singing it. Alright?

Conclusion and Prayer

56:00 Good. Well, our time is gone. If any of you have any other personal questions about it, please feel free to ask me. I don't claim to have all the answers.

56:09 But where possible, we will try to bring biblical principles to bear. Let's pray together. Our Father, we are so thankful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you that you have given to your gathered people this medium of corporate expression in the midst of worship.

56:36 And while our hearts are grieved as we see man-made intrusions into your worship, we bless you for this medium by which we may together express that our hearts have run out with those who have led us in prayer and praise and confession. And when our hearts are bursting with thankfulness for your promises, and when our hearts are prepared to receive your commands, Lord, we thank you you've given us this means of expressing the affirmation of our hearts by the verbal Amen. May its presence and use under the discipline of the Word and the Spirit be a means of causing our worship to be more well-pleasing unto you and a means of greater edification one to another, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.