In this sermon, Pastor Martin provides a working bibliography on the subject of public worship, recommending various books and authors that have shaped his understanding. He emphasizes the regulative principle of worship, arguing that only what God has explicitly commanded in Scripture should be included in corporate worship. Martin highlights the historical Puritan commitment to this principle, contrasting it with contemporary practices, and concludes by expressing gratitude for churches that uphold biblical worship while allowing for liberty in 'circumstantials' not explicitly mandated by God.
Key Works on the Regulative Principle and Puritanism1:56
Further Recommendations: Clarkson, Directory, and Commentaries7:11
Call for Additional Resources and Contemporary Relevance10:30
Liberty in Circumstantials vs. Essence of Worship11:52
Concluding Prayer for Biblical Worship14:35
Key Quotes
“Some of the most masterful stuff on the regulative principle and the worship instituted by God to be found anywhere.”
“That nothing ought to be established in the worship of God but what is authorized by some precept or example in the word of God. which is the complete and adequate rule of worship, end quote.”
“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 principle in worship.”
“Public Worship Preferred Before Private.”
“Mandate! The consecutive reading through the Old and the New Testaments is part of the worship of God.”
“But in the essence to see that the elements mandated by God are present and only the things that are mandated by God.”
“Father, we are indeed grateful that in this matter of your worship we are not left at the mercy of our own whims, our own fancies, our own notions.”
Applications
All listeners
Consult a working bibliography of recommended books to deepen understanding of public worship.
Share helpful books or resources on worship with fellow believers.
Seek out and support churches where spiritual worship is being rendered unto God, even if minor circumstantial details differ.
Ensure that the elements of worship are those mandated by God, and only those things.
Be convinced of the biblical warrant for practices like giving before implementing them in the worship service.
Always maintain a high and biblical view of God's worship, not relying on personal whims or fancies.
Seriously ask the question, 'Who has required this at your hand?' regarding worship practices.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 64 paragraphs, roughly 16 minutes.
Machine transcription
Recommended Bibliography on Public Worship
Let me conclude this morning by giving you a working bibliography on this subject. I want to give you some, if you have in your notes with you, a record of some of the books that I have found helpful in thinking through and wrestling with this subject, and I hope you will find them helpful as well. Since I gave the lecture last three years ago, I've got a couple of editions. First of all, an excellent book entitled, Oh, Come, Let Us Worship.
Obviously, I don't endorse everything in it, but it has some very helpful perspectives. Oh, Come, Let Us Worship by Robert Rayburn, R-A-Y-B-U-R-N, published by Baker.
And then this reprint of an old work.
It's entitled, A Remedy for Wandering Thoughts in the Worship of God. Obviously, an old pure of entitlement. A Remedy for Wandering Thoughts in the Worship of God by Richard Steele, W-E-L-E.
To whet your appetite, listen to some of the subjects dealt with. Kinds of distractions. The devil, the mind, the fancy, the outward senses.
The causes of distractions with their remedy. Secret atheism and its remedy. The corruption of our nature and its remedy. Unpreparedness.
The holy duties.
Lukewarmness and its remedies. Worldly-mindedness and its remedies. Lack of watchfulness. Before duties, in duties, and after duties.
And its remedies.
Key Works on the Regulative Principle and Puritanism
Tremendous stuff. They left no corner of the human heart unturned when they addressed the subject. And so here you have a tool that I couldn't even recommend three years ago. Then I would highly recommend the section in the church.
Church of Christ by James Bannerman, Volume 1. Church of Christ, James Bannerman, Volume 1. Pages 322 to 420. 322 to 420.
Some of the most masterful stuff on the regulative principle and the worship instituted by God to be found anywhere.
All right? Then the collected writings of John Murray. Volume 1.
165 to 165. 168.
And then Volume 3. The sermon I just referred to. 194 to 198.
I have three volumes and four or five different sections. In Volume 9, there's an excellent, excellent treatise. Pages 53 to 84. I don't need to take down the name of the treatise, but oh, in Volume 9, 53 to 84.
The nature and beauty of gospel worship. Volume 13.
Page 468. 462 to 506.
462 to 506.
And then Volume 15.
445 to 530.
445 to 530.
Here you have in this section a catechetical approach. By what means do we come to know that God will thus be worshipped? Answer. That God is to be worshipped and that according to His own, will and appointment, is a principal branch of the law of our creation written in our hearts, the sense whereof is renewed in the second commandment, but the ways and means of that worship depend merely on God's sovereign pleasure and institution.
And then he opens it up.
And it's very, very interesting that in Volume 15, I believe it's Volume 15,
in his, uh, answer.
No, I want to get the right volume here. No, I think that's Volume 13 where he is answering. Yes. Yes.
Um, 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 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. The sixth chapter in this discourse, that is Parker's book, which is the last that at present I shall call to any account, as being now utterly wearied with the frequent occurrence of the same things in various dresses, is designed to the confutation of a principle which is termed, quote, the foundation of all Puritanism, and that wherein, quote, the mystery of it, end quote, consists. This is what Parker says. The foundation of Puritanism is the mystery of it. Now this is, quote, that nothing ought to be established in the worship of God but what is authorized by some precept or example in the word of God. which is the complete and adequate rule of worship, end quote.
Be it so that this principle is by some allowed, yea, contended for, it will not be easy to affix a guilt upon them on the count of his being so. For laying aside prejudices, corrupt interest in passions, I am persuaded that at the first view it will not seem to be foreign unto what is in a hundred places declared and taught in the scripture. And then, he goes on to say, we glory in the allegation that that's the heart of Puritanism. 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 principle in worship. Very interesting, isn't it? Well, I don't want to dilate on that matter. All right.
Further Recommendations: Clarkson, Directory, and Commentaries
Um, then, and here you've got a benefit that you didn't have three years ago. See how God's been good to you men. Clarkson's Practical Works have been reprinted. He was Owen's successor.
Clarkson's Practical Works, Volume 3,
page 187 to 209.
You want to hear a juicy title? Public Worship Preferred Before Private.
And then he expands, I believe Psalm 84 is in the text.
Public Worship, Preferred Before Private. It's in the, I used to have to say, in the old Nicolle Standard Divines. It's now been reprinted by the Banner of Truth from the same edition, 187 to 209. And then don't neglect the Directory for Public Worship, page 369 to 394, in that lovely reprint of the Confessions and Catechisms done by the, the Free Press.
We have that in stock. It has a green cover to it. Marvelous stuff in there, brethren. Page 369 to 394.
I'll never forget when reading the Directory for Public Worship where they mandate the consecutive reading of the Scriptures. I said, well, we didn't discover the wheel. We came to that conviction when studying the Scriptures that it ought to be done. And then lo and behold, I found we were in a good tradition in the old Scottish Directory for Public Worship.
Mandate! The consecutive reading through the Old and the New Testaments is part of the worship of God. Then several other things. With the whole introduction of mime and dance and all the rest, Brian Edwards' book, Shall We Dance?
Evangelical Press.
And then all of your standard commentaries on the Second Commandment. Most of the old writers saw that the Second Commandment set the, the framework and the decalogue for what we have now come to call the regulative principle in the worship of God.
That, of course, would not only mean your commentaries dealing with Exodus and Deuteronomy, but all of your commentaries on the larger and shorter catechism when they deal with the matter of the Second Commandment. Hendrickson's work, not Hendrickson's, I mean, Williamson's, J.I. Williamson's study manual on the, on catechism particularly you'll find helpful.
And then there is a good section in Packer's Knowing God on the Second Commandment. 38, page 38 to 44.
And then a work that has some excellent material in it entitled Discovering the Fullness of Worship. Discovering the Fullness of Worship by Paul Engle, E-N-G-L-E.
And that's Great Commission's publications.
Call for Additional Resources and Contemporary Relevance
So that, brethren, I hope will help you. Now, do you know of something, any of you come across a book or something on worship that you have found helpful? Plug in to the rest of your brethren here. Anything else, Rob, that you can think of?
No. No. No, I haven't.
Yeah. Yes. Well, if any of you in the course of this semester come across anything, please let us know because the materials are not exactly as as readily available. in this area simply because we live in a generation that's given so little thought to the matter.
Yes. Did he give out one? Okay. Well, let's, well, one of you, you got a copy of it?
Good.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes.
Liberty in Circumstantials vs. Essence of Worship
Yeah. Well, thank you, Jim, for mentioning that. Good. Well, our time is gone, brethren, and I do sincerely trust that God will write these things upon all of us 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 Perth in the last couple of years, such as Flemington, and to be able to sit and have my heart drawn out in 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. For some reason, the brethren down there stand, have an opening prayer as they stand and sing their opening hymn.
I'm glad there's a little difference in circumstantials. And I didn't get a chance to ask Alan, but I bet he has good reason for that. Knowing Alan as I do, he doesn't do things without reasons. And it's wonderful to go into the various churches and find in the area of circumstantials the details of the order of services, some variety and some differences in the circumstantials.
But in the essence to see that the elements mandated by God are present and only the things that are mandated by God. 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 to see them have plates passed until they're convinced that that really ought to be included in the actual structure of the worship. See, that's where in the circumstantials that the people of God ought to give regularly, they're convinced. And on the first day of the week the plates are out there. They're not there on Tuesday and Thursday, but they're there on the first day of the week.
That's the essence. Circumstances differ. And it's wonderful to see that kind of liberty expressed among the churches. And anyone would be a fool to claim that.
And I think that's the essence. And I think that's the essence. And I think that's the essence. And I think that's the essence.
And I think that's the essence. To claim that he had light from heaven on all the circumstantials. And when we get accused of telling people that, it just isn't so. And all you need to do is go to the places where our graduates labor and you can see that in the circumstantials there's a wholesome diversity.
But not in the essence. There's only difference in the essence when they've chucked over what they once professed to love. All right? Well, let's pray and thank God for our time together today.
Concluding Prayer for Biblical Worship
Father, we are indeed grateful that in this matter of your worship we are not left at the mercy of our own whims, our own fancies, our own notions. And we are deeply grieved when we think of the many places today where men stand and will stand this Lord's Day never really seriously asking the question who has required this at your hand. And we pray, Lord, that you will help us that we may always have a high and biblical view of your worship and that we may know and expect that promised and special presence of our Lord Jesus in the midst of his gathered people. Write then these introductory perspectives upon our hearts that when we come to deal with the practical matters of implementing biblically warranted worship you will be our teacher. Lord, lead us all that we may know your mind and have grace to do your will. We plead these mercies in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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