Biblically Mandated Activities

Introduction to the Series and Sermon Rationale

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 15, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those who are members of this assembly and who come regularly to our morning hour of worship will know that we come this morning to the third message in a series of sermons that I have entitled, Living Together in the Father's House. A title borrowed and revised from a most helpful book written by Wayne Mack and David Swavely, which bears the title, Life Together in the Father's House, with the subtitle, A Member's Guide to the Local Church. And for the benefit of those who were not with us for the first two messages in this series, I will take just a few minutes at the outset to explain the rationale for such a series, and then to identify the major issues already covered in the first two messages. The constitution of this assembly, by which we, the members of the Church, have agreed to regulate our life together, contains a section entitled, Conduct Required of Members. And the second issue addressed in that section reads as follows, Commitment to our Corporate Standards. It is the responsibility...

1:30 It is the responsibility of every member to contribute to the maintenance of the doctrinal purity and unity of the congregation. And two pivotal texts are cited. In pursuit of these goals, all regular members of the Church are strongly urged to read the Confession and Constitution of the Church at least once every year in order to maintain sensitivity to our commonly held standards of doctrine and practice. In addition, and here is the rational for this series of sermons, In addition, the elders shall be responsible every five years, beginning five years from the adoption of this Constitution, to plan the public ministries of the word, so that no fewer than 15 messages in the Lord's morning services be given to the proclamation of those Biblical Doctrines armas central to Proclamation 2 And contained immediately in our confession of faith, and no fewer than 15 concurrent adult classes will be given to teaching the major biblical principles embodied in this Constitution. Well, as many of you know, in the providence of God, we have been studying our confession of faith for about a year and a quarter, some 50-plus studies already being led by

2:54 Pastor Lamar Martin, and because of that, the Church, by its unanimous consent, allowed us as elders to flip-flop the specific directive of the Constitution and to take the morning worship service for a minimum of 15 weeks to expound the biblical truths and principles that lie at the heart of the major concerns of our Church Constitution, and in God's providence, having completed... I completed the expositions of 1 Peter on October 1 of this year, two weeks ago, to the day, five years from the time we adopted the Constitution, I began to preach those biblical truths foundational to the polity of our life together as embodied in our Constitution. So, the title, Living Together in the Father's House. Now, what we did in our...

Review of Previous Sermons: God's Concern for His House and the Church's Supreme Purpose

3:55 Our opening study was to focus our attention on 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15, as we asked ourselves the question, how does God himself regard behavior in his house? And from that text, we saw that God is deeply concerned about behavior in his house, and through the pen of the Apostle Paul, he tells us why he is so concerned about behavior in his house. And fundamentally, it says, because of the glorious identity of the Church, and because of the strategic function of the Church. The Apostle calls the Church the house of God.

4:38 He designates it as the Church of the living God. That's its glorious identity, and its strategic function he identifies with the words, the pillar, and the ground of the truth. And I commend...

4:55 I commend to any of you men who may be wrestling with this whole issue, is it not fiddling while Rome burns to seek to be concerned with the details of our life together? I commend to you Warfield's sermon in Faith and Life on the 1 Timothy 3, 16 text, which in setting the context in the introduction has, in my judgment, the most profound statement I've ever read, pages 374 to 378. On why? Because God is concerned about behavior in his house.

5:28 So I commend that to you men who may in due course feel inclined to preach along similar lines. Then last Lord's Day, we began to address the first article of any significance in our Constitution having to do with the purpose of the Church. And our Constitution states the purpose very simply and straightforwardly in these words. The purpose of this Church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures.

6:01 The purpose of this Church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures. And I call this statement a reflection of the supreme and the all-embracing purpose of the Church. And I was bold enough to assert that any gathering of professed disciples of Christ that a day that identifies itself as a Church of Christ must have as its supreme and all-embracing purpose to glorify the God of the Scriptures. And so we spent the hour opening up what I call the primary text, the text that is etched in stone on the left hand of the entrance of this building, Ephesians 3 and verse 21. 1. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto the generation of the ages of the ages. 2.

7:03 And Paul cannot restrain from saying Amen to his own spirit-inspired statement, Amen. That is the pivotal text identifying the purpose of the Church in her existence not only now but in every unfolding generation. 3. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto the generation of the ages of the ages.

7:43 That is the pivotal text identifying the purpose of the Church and in Christ Jesus unto the generation of the ages. 4. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto the generation of the ages. That is the pivotal text identifying the purpose of the Church and in Christ Jesus unto the life together corporately. We must be driven with the desire that through all of the ministries and activities of this assembly, God himself, in the mystery and glory of his self-revelation as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that this God shall be known and regarded as worthy of our whole-souled homage and praise, worthy of our unreserved trust and confidence, worthy of our undivided love and loyalty, worthy of our uncompromising obedience, and that nothing, no thing, however apparently noble, however ostensibly useful, and however undeniably

9:10 praiseworthy, nothing! Nothing, I say, must rival, let alone replace, this purpose as the supreme and all-embracing purpose of this church and of any church that claims to be a church of Christ, a church that would be sustained in its life and ministry by the presence and power of Christ. Its passion must be unto him be the glory in the church. And in Christ Jesus unto the generation of the ages of the ages.

9:50 And I have the temerity to make the statement that the church does not exist primarily to meet the needs of men. It meets unnumbered needs, but it does not exist primarily to meet the needs of men. And in going back through some of the pages of Wayne Mack and Mr. Swavely's book, I found this statement, and I want to read it to you as I conclude the review.

10:22 Having identified this matter of the purpose of the church, the supreme and all-encompassing purpose, listen to our brethren as they write. The leaders and members of a church must realize that the church does not exist primarily for the benefit of man, but for the glory of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. And several verses are typed out. Then this statement is made. All things exist primarily for the glory of God rather than for our benefit, and that includes the church, which was created predominantly for his honor and not for our happiness.

11:03 And you know what text he cites? Ephesians 3 and verse 21. Unfortunately, however, that is not the focus of most churches today. Their primary purpose is to solve people's problems.

11:14 Their primary purpose is to solve people's problems. Rather than bringing glory to God. However, rather than bringing glory to God in the first place, the following contrasts can help us determine whether a church is a God-centered or a man-centered church in its focus. A man-centered church will follow extra-biblical traditions that make people more comfortable because of their familiarity, but a God-centered church will jettison on biblical traditions and be wary of any that might somehow obscure the simplicity of the church, of Christ, even reformed Baptist traditions of 25 years, I may say. A God-centered church is prepared to see God glorified by uncompromising obedience to his word. A man-centered church will hesitate to address certain doctrines or avoid them entirely because they might be offensive to some members, but a God-centered church will boldly and faithfully proclaim the whole counsel of God. A man-centered church will choose worship and teaching styles primarily on the basis of people's preferences, but a God-centered church will endeavor to conform their services as closely as they can to the biblical model regardless of what people may think or how many people might

12:34 come. A man-centered church will encourage people to receive counsel from ungodly experts, either directly or through the integration of their ideas with scripture, but a God-centered church will point its people to the sufficient answers provided by a jealous Lord in his word. A man-centered church will not practice church discipline in regard to sinning members because that process is too harsh or unloving, because it might diminish attendance or giving, or simply because it involves too much hard work. A God-centered church, however, will reveal true love for its members and obedience to Christ, by carrying out discipline when it is necessary. And finally, a man-centered church will have very little emphasis on prayer and will seldom be engaged in corporate prayer, again because it's such hard work, but a God-centered church will be like the early believers in that they will be continually devoting themselves to prayer. And I trust your heart says amen to the sentiments of these brethren.

The Church's Biblically Mandated Activities: An Overview

13:46 This morning, with an explanation as to why we are engaged in this study, trying to capture the highlights of two hours of exposition over the past two Lord's Day mornings, we come now to the second major heading concerning the purpose of the church. Having considered the supreme and all-embracing purpose, namely, to glorify the God of the scriptures, we now come to consider the biblically mandated activity of the church, which is to glorify the God of the scriptures. In the process of this, we'll discover the biblically mandated activities by which we are to pursue this supreme and all-embracing purpose. We are settled, I trust, in our minds what the purpose is.

14:28 Now we're going to consider, as these things are set before us and collated in our constitution, the biblically mandated activities by which we are to pursue this supreme and all-embracing purpose. The way it's stated in our Constitution is this. The purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures in promoting His worship, evangelizing sinners, edifying saints, planting and strengthening churches, and showing benevolence to the needy. We are committed to the proclamation of God's perfect law and glorious gospel of His grace through all the world and the defense of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Now, as I wrestled with how to open up the biblical data that lies beneath, and I trust you will be persuaded surrounds that statement, I considered just taking it in the shopping list form in which it's given in the Constitution, but I judged that this would not be most helpful in helping us both to grasp and to retain these things, and so what I've chosen to do is to address them in terms of three different directions of arrows. If you picture with me that I...

15:45 I had a big white board behind me, and I drew a nice big circle on it, and that circle is the church committed in the totality of its life to glorify the God of the Scriptures. Now, what are the activities by which we seek to glorify Him as a church? If we are subject to the Word of God, what activities will we engage in in our effort to see God glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus? Well, I want to...

16:15 I want you to think of one arrow going upward out of the circle. That's an activity that is an upward activity, and then I want you to think of, within the circle, arrows pointing inward from all directions, and that's the function of activities in which the church ministers to itself. Then picture some arrows going out this way. That's the church in its outward activities in seeking to make an impact upon a lost...

16:45 and a needy world. And this morning, I'm not sure, it's the first time I've flown this aircraft, and I don't know how long it'll be before we run out of time, but I hope to be able to take the upward arrow and then the inward arrows, and, God willing, leave to next time we come to the subject the outward pointing arrows. First of all, then, the biblically mandated activities by which we are to pursue this supreme and all-embracing purpose of glorifying God. And the upward activities can all be basically subsumed under the word of worship.

Upward Activity: Promoting God's Worship (John 4)

17:28 We've stated it in our Constitution this way. The purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the Scriptures in promoting His worship. And that is listed first, and it ought to be first. We are committed.

17:44 We are committed to pursue the glory of God in promoting His worship. Now I want us to look at several pivotal texts as we consider this dimension of our privilege as a church to be worshipers of the living God. First of all, John chapter 4. John chapter 4.

18:08 Most of you will remember the setting. Our Lord is speaking with the Samaritan woman. He has engaged her. In conversation.

18:16 He's beginning to tighten the noose, as it were, in seeking to draw her to face her sin and to embrace the one who welcomes sinners to Himself. And in the course of speaking to her, when the Lord begins to come close to her conscience, she, in my judgment, and many preachers have made this point, seeks to divert the issue from a direct pressure upon her conscience when the Lord tells her to call her husband, she says, I have no husband. And when our Lord says, I know all about that, she says, I perceive you're a prophet. And if you're a prophet, here's a good discussion point for prophets.

18:59 And so the question is raised. Verse 20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And you'll remember that the Samaritans set up their prostituted worship, their rejection of large sections of the Old Testament, established their own place and forms of worship.

19:16 And she alludes to this. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. You see, her fixation is upon worship at the right place.

19:32 Is it Gerizim or is it there in Jerusalem? This mountain or in Jerusalem? Place is all important. You're a prophet.

19:43 You know that. I'm an immoral woman. But I know that, so settle the issue for me. What's the right place?

19:51 Jesus responds, verse 21, Jesus said to her woman, believe me, the hour comes when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you know not. Samaritan worship is ignorant, will worship because of its rejection of the full light of God's revelatory data in the Old Testament. You worship that which you know not.

20:19 We Jews worship that which we know for salvation is from the Jews. Then he says, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father. And now you see the emphasis shifts from the matter of place to the nature of true worship. Worship the Father in spirit and in spirit.

20:45 Worship the Father in spirit and in spirit. Worship the Father in spirit and in spirit. And truth. For such does the Father seek to be His worshipers.

20:54 God is the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And here our Lord makes it plain to this woman that in conjunction with His own presence as God's final prophet, priest, and King, there will be a tremendous disruption in the whole thinking concerning worship. Let's take this to the next example. will it be up to Jerusalem, to the place where God has put His name and placed His priesthood and the Levitical system. No longer will it be Jerusalem or Gerizim, this place. But the Father will have a people who worship Him in spirit, referring either to worship that grows out of the human spirit, engaged in the revelation of God as Father, a revelation that awaits its full display of glory till Jesus comes and by His work shows us the way to the Father, sends the Spirit as the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, Abba, Father. The Father seeks a people to worship Him as Father and to worship Him as Father in spirit, that is, with their whole heart engaged. Or it can be an allusion to worship in the power and understanding.

22:14 And in truth, that is, in the substantial realities, no longer types and shadows. The law came by Moses, types and shadows pointing to Christ. But grace and truth have come in the Lord Jesus. He is the substance. He is the truth. Or it could be that He is alluding to the fact that the Samaritans did not embrace the whole of God. And in the worship which the Father seeks, it will be worship that is not only in spirit, but in truth, that is regulated by the full revelatory data that God will give in conjunction with the coming of His only begotten Son. But one thing is clear, that the Father is on a quest for worshipers. And Christ has come that in every place...

Upward Activity: Promoting God's Worship (Philippians 3)

23:15 There might be those who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now I want you to move to the second text. And then, as we look at these three texts, I hope to show that there is not an artificial progression in them that bears directly upon our consideration this morning. The second text is Philippians chapter 3. Paul is conscious that he needs to issue a needed warning to his beloved brother Peter. bravely desperate lunges in a matter. a notarized and sisters at Philippi. And so he writes in chapter 3, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you to me is not irksome, but for you it is safe. Beware of the

24:05 dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the knife wielders, would be a contemporary way of translating that word. Now, obviously, Paul didn't go off to the latest seminar on how to have a totally unoffensive ministry and be true to God. Surely word would get out that he's called these Judaizers floating around the church there, and they've not yet done too much damage here as they had done in other places. But he says, watch out for them. They are dogs. Imagine what that meant to a kosher Jew. You're an unclean, ravenous, prowling dog. Beware of the dogs, predators,

24:53 evil workers. They think they are working righteousness. Beware of the knife wielders. They go around saying, we're the circumcision. We're the circumcision. No, no. I'll tell you who the circumcision are. Who are God's covenant people marked by God as his own? For we are the circumcision. Now, notice he gives three identifying marks of the true circumcision, of those who are God's true covenant people. And how are they marked? Mark number one, who worship God.

25:23 They worship by the Spirit of God. The first identifying mark of God's covenant people in his present covenantal administration is this. They have come to a sight of God in Jesus Christ that draws out their heart in worshiping him under the influence of the Holy Spirit. They worship by the Spirit of God. They have come to see and taste reality. They have come to see and taste reality.

25:53 Far beyond what these Judaizers point you to and seek to with which to ensnare you, you have tasted by the work of the Holy Spirit a saving sight of Christ as the fulfillment of all the types and shadows. You've experienced circumcision of heart. You have the spirit of adoption. You are God's new covenant community, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit. You worship in the Spirit of God. You are God's new covenant community, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit. You are God's new covenant community, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit. You have the spirit of God.

26:24 Now notice the second identifying mark. Glory, you exalt, you boast in Christ Jesus. Wherever the Spirit comes in saving life, transforming power, he comes to testify to the beauty, to the worth, to the trustworthiness of the Lord Jesus, so that the true people of God are not boasting in their lineage back to Abraham. They are not boasting in their lineage back to Abraham.

26:54 They are not boasting in their lineage back to Abraham. They are not boasting in external rights that would mark you with an external nation. They boast in Christ Jesus. And I've wondered how many times I've been trying to do this in my own devotions recently. Every time I come to the words Christ Jesus, what they would mean to Paul, Messiah Jesus. And I've been saying it out loud to try to get it under my skin. What a marvel of grace. Saul of Tarsus saying all the time, Messiah Jesus.

27:23 Messiah Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. Messiah. Messiah Jesus. This one who thought he was going to blot out any such notion from the face of the earth.

27:37 Messiah Jesus. No. Imposter Jesus. Now he says Messiah Jesus. Messiah Jesus. And the mark of the true circumcision is they worship by the Spirit of God. And that which is opened up the conduit of their access to the Holy Spirit. And that which is opened up the conduit of their access to the Holy Spirit. And that which is opened up the conduit of their access to God in adoration and adulation and homage and praise is that Christ has been savingly revealed to their hearts through the gospel. And they glory in Christ Jesus. Third mark. Have no confidence in the flesh. And what he means by that he expounds in the following verses. Confidence in the flesh means trusting in anything you have by your bloodlines, by your background, by your training, by your association with God.

28:24 Confidence in the flesh means trusting in anything you have by your bloodlines, by your background, by your training, by your association with God. And he said now that's the mark of God's covenant people. And at the head of the list is that they've been made worshippers. Every one of us by nature is an idolater. The word of God says of us, we worship and serve the creature more than the creator. And when God in regenerating grace brings us to himself, he makes of us idolaters.

Upward Activity: Promoting God's Worship (1 Peter 2)

29:25 Worshippers. And the apostle says that's the mark of the true people of God. Now our third text. First Peter chapter 2. The connections I hope to get to when we've considered all three texts. First Peter chapter 2. We said a fond farewell to Peter last Lord's Day evening. Many of us felt like we were kissing a dear friend on the cheek. Hoping to see him again in a better place.

29:58 But here in chapter 2. Opening up more of those grand indicatives to these suffering saints. The things that they are and have in Christ. That are to act like ballast in their souls as the ship of their lives goes through turbulent seas. Peter is constantly putting in the ballast of sound doctrine of what they are and what they have in Jesus Christ. And here he opens up some dimensions of what they are and have.

30:30 That go beyond the focus on the individual. The focus on the individual is in that first chapter. But now notice the emphasis. To whom coming verse 4. That is coming continually to Christ a living stone. Rejected indeed of men but with God elect precious. You also. You who are coming to Christ. You as living stones are built up a spiritual high.

31:00 To be a house. To be a holy priesthood. To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. All of this rich Old Testament imagery and terminology. It just drips with old covenant ritual and divinely instituted people and things.

31:27 And he says all of that now has its fulfillment in Christ and in his people. And he identifies them here. All of the individual believers coming to Christ who is the living stone. Verse 4. Unto whom coming a living stone. You who were dead by nature. Coming in contact with Christ. He conveys his life to you.

31:53 And when he does. He doesn't just roll you down the hill and say. Nestle under a tree and be happy happy happy till I take you home. Every one of those stones that comes in contact with him. The living stone. Is made a living stone. And what does God do with those living stones. He builds them into a spiritual house. They are given relationship to the other stones. And all of the stones form a. It is a living house. Indwelt. A spiritual house. Indwelt. By God.

32:29 By God's own presence in the person of the spirit. Ephesians 2. Build it together for inhabitation of God by the spirit. And then he says. But you're not only stones that together form his temple. He says you're also the priesthood. What's a temple without priest. He says you're the new priesthood. You are all given the right of direct access to God. Well what's a temple with a priesthood and no sacrifices.

32:57 So he says oh yes. And God is also warranted you to bring sacrifices to him. You are the living stones who constitute his living temple. You are the priesthood in union with Christ given direct access to God. And together you are privileged as a spiritual priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. Acceptable through Jesus Christ. By him therefore let us offer to God the.

33:29 Sacrifice of praise. The fruit of our lips giving thanks or making confession to his name. The apostle can speak of the offerings and the collection the material stuff sent to him by the hand of Epaphroditus as a spiritual sacrifice in order of a sweet mouth unto God. We are told in Romans 12 that the grateful response of the believing heart of a true Christian is to offer up a.

33:59 Himself a spiritual sacrifice. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit a broken in the contrite heart. Oh God you will not despise. You see the connection with these three texts. Our Constitution says that the purpose of this church is to glorify the God of the scriptures in promoting his worship. And where do we get that notion. Well let's look at those three texts now in their connection.

34:30 Jesus says that one of the central effects of his coming the hour is coming and now is is that the father's quest for worshipers will be fulfilled in having the people who worship him in spirit and in truth. And how are they brought into that position. Philippians points the direction. The gospel comes to them in power and the spirit of God.

35:00 In conjunction with the gospel. Begets them unto spiritual life and in the embrace of penitent faith. Christ becomes the sole ground of their acceptance their confidence of acceptance with God. And because they are now sons having received Christ. Paul says he sends forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba father enabling us to know him and approach him as father.

35:30 And. Conscious that we have that privilege solely on the grounds of what Christ has done. We boast we exalt in Christ Jesus alone. And that being true we place no confidence in anything we have by bloodlines by training by knowledge the acquisition of this that or the other. We put no confidence in the flesh. And while that makes of every true child of God.

35:59 An individual worshiper. God has a purpose that those who come into these redemptive blessings. The also conscious of their identity in a corporate way. They are building together to be a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood in order to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The Global and Heavenly Reality of Worship

36:26 Think with me in crassly material. Physical ways of what is happening around the world today. Last night in our family worship it was interesting. Pastor blaze has been staying with us.

36:40 And I said well brother this is what we normally do on Saturday night we start over in the other hemisphere. Instead of our praying a regular. Format of prayer. We start praying in the other hemisphere.

36:51 For Andy Hamilton. And for Steve Hoffmeyer and other brethren in the Philippines and our brethren in Australia and New Zealand and across to Pakistan. And across. And across to northern Cyprus where Andrew Swanson is and our brethren from Spain and he said brother that's exactly what we do.

37:08 So I said well you take the first half and I'll take the last half as we pray together. And as we were reflecting upon the think of what's happened already today from the other hemisphere where they are already gone to bed. There have been these expressions of the work of Christ in conjunction with the gospel. We're living temples have.

37:31 Come together. And in those places this newly constituted spiritual priesthood has been offering up sacrifices so that from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same the name of our great and glorious God has been worshiped not by people making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Some of the meeting in basements for fear of the intrusion of a hostile government. Some of the meeting in.

38:01 Facts rules. Some of them sitting cross-legged on dirt floor. Every temple is glorious because it is the fruit of the sufferings of Messiah Messiah Jesus has fulfilled his word and is yet fulfilling it. Other sheep I have that are not of this fold them also I must bring and when he brings them to himself he incorporates them into his living temple and gives them the privilege of.

38:33 Surrendering to him. Spirits will sacrifice was acceptable on to him. Through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. Well I have thought of going in to revelation for.

38:50 Revelation five revelation seven revelation eleven revelation nineteen do it if you can this afternoon. We're going to pull back the. Day. And he shows that the occupation of heaven is.

39:03 The. Strange. creatures with the eyes and wings. What are they doing? John says he sees them falling before the throne and worshiping. And then the elders join, and what are they doing? Falling before the throne and worshiping. And then he shows the picture of a lamb in the midst of the throne. It's alive, but it is as though it had been slain. And all the creatures in heaven honored unto him. What are they doing? Worshiping unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb be glory and power and honor. Chapter 7, the multitude whom no man can number. What are they doing? Worshiping. Chapter 11, chapter 19, the whole

39:49 business of heaven is worship. And nobody's fit for it there that doesn't begin to experience it here. God will make worshipers of ourselves. Idolaters here, they might be at home in the great occupation of the age to come. So then, if we as God's people in this assembly are to fulfill that supreme purpose for which we exist, namely, to glorify the God of scriptures, we must understand the strategic central place of the worship of our God.

The Transformative Power of Worship for Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14)

40:32 When the unconverted come among us, it should be our prayer that they will be changed in the very context of our worship from idolaters to worshipers. And I've got Biblical grounds to say that. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 14. This is part of my application if you didn't get the idea. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Paul is sorting out what we would say were the irregularities of some of the public worship services of the church at Convent. He says that things go on the way they are. The uninstructed, the unbeliever will come in and listen and watch and he'll say he's walked into a nut house. He'll say, you're all mad, got to stop all this nonsense. This is what we have to do. One here, two, most,

41:23 three, no women doing that. Do this. The others do. He's sorting out behavior in God's house.

41:29 One of his great concerns is that that behavior will be such that when the spirit of God is present in conjunction with those gifts that he gave to that assembly in that period of redemptive history, the unbeliever or the uninstructed coming among them would be gripped of all else with one central reality. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 23. 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? I've walked into a nut house. Contemporary jargon. One said, why don't they say that? He said, then just carry your judgment. But if all prophesy and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all. He is judged by all.

42:19 The secrets of his heart are made manifest. And so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring God is among you indeed. You notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, you notice, the unbeliever in terms of an assembly in which the spirit of God is present. And those who are gifted, are exercising their gift in a biblical in orderly way with the understanding and the full cooperation and the prayerful involvement of this whole assembly, regulating its life by no Aeriscala direction pulses.

43:01 This is what I envisioned. The uninstructed, the unbeliever comes among you, and as he And as he observes, his own wretched, idolatrous heart is laid bare. He sees himself for what he is. And he has a glimpse of your God that doesn't make him jump up and dance and clap his hands and say, Oh, I thought God was a terrible, awesome, overwhelming being.

43:27 But I see he's just a nice, sweet, innocuous, little, little cuddly bear. And I want to cuddle up to him and get a vision of God that puts him on his face.

43:42 God is of a truth among you. We've heard you crazy people say when you meet in this plain place, while we're on our way to our ornate pagan temples where we've got beautifully attired priests and we've got complex and visually and aesthetically impressive rituals and rubrics. We've heard you people say that we have no gods. Our gods are just notions and words.

44:09 They don't exist. And you've said the living God is among you. And I see where you meet. You meet in John's basement.

44:17 And nothing but concrete blocks. And you say God is among you? Why in the world would God come to such a plain, jane place? We've got the temples.

44:25 We've got the priesthood. And you people meet. And those who speak, they have no gowns. They have no turntablers.

44:31 They have none of the accoutrements of the religious professionals. You say God is among you? What a bunch of...

44:37 What a bunch of... What a bunch of humbug.

44:39 So he comes in. And he sits. And God is in the midst of his people. And the Spirit of God is moving and working as different ones speak under the direction of the Spirit and within the framework of apostolic guidelines and directives.

44:56 And he's gripped. And he says, this is not a figment of their imagining. The living God who knows my heart, whom I've never encountered in my ornate temple, with all of the rigamarole and all of the mumbo jumbo of the priests and all of the easily impressive rituals have never once seen myself naked and stripped and exposed to the God of heaven.

45:24 God is of a truth among you.

45:29 And God takes an idolater and makes him a worshipper.

45:34 And my dear brothers and sisters, that's what we need to cry to God will happen in our own assemblies. And it won't happen if those who are not in the church and those in leadership have as their great passion to prove to any visitor we're a very harmless bunch. We're really a bunch of nice guys like you are. You're a nice guy.

45:57 I'm a nice guy. This is a nice guy's club.

46:02 For the last year, people, that's the great passion in many so-called churches today.

46:09 To prove we're a nice guy club, you can join us without being threatened, without being intimidated, without having your lifestyle radically constrained, without being haunted.

46:20 That's not the New Testament vision. That's not the New Testament vision. Fear came upon all. No man dared join himself to them.

46:32 Why? Word got out, if you're a hypocrite, they got a God that kills you. Yeah. Ananias and Sapphira within a space of hours.

46:45 God kills them. No sense that this is the nice guy club on the corner. But what's the next part of the verse say? But the Lord added,

46:59 such as should be saved,

47:02 who come in that mystery of the spirits working in conjunction with the gospel, in which the exposure of who and what we are crushes and intimidates and is oppressive. And yet in the midst of it, men hear this God in his righteous intimidatingness as holy and divine, just and angry with the sinner. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever among the sinners of the world believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And as Christ is preached exegetically and theologically and warmly and passionately, and the spirit of God reveals Christ, there is that glory, this enigma of being driven back by the glory and majesty of the God who has a controversy with me, but being drawn to him to worship him for the loveliness of his grace in the face of Jesus Christ.

48:12 Paul says, that's what we hope happens at Corinth. May God grant that some of us will live long enough to see it happen in our own assemblies.

Warning Against Weariness and Novelty in Worship

48:23 But it won't happen if those in leadership are trying to create a climate of cuddliness. And it won't happen if those of you in the pew become restive and say, well, I know what to expect this Sunday. It's going to be reading of word. It's going to be hymns.

48:40 It's going to be prayer. Let's have some of this manna, this manna stuff. It always looks the same. Oh yeah, we can boil it sometimes and we can broil it and we can pickle it, but it's manna still, you know.

48:59 Manna still. Every day, almighty God does a miracle. Creates this food with all the necessary nutrients in it and sustains you. Manna only.

49:16 Just hymns, psalms, prayers, reading the Bible, making you think, telling you the connections, opening up the context, showing the connections in the grammar. Manna, manna, manna. I want something different.

49:35 Dear people of God, listen. You have as solemn an obligation as men in the pulpit to be persecuted to be persuaded that the primary way in which that supreme goal is to be pursued, the glory of God is in promoting His worship. You have an obligation to determine that you will never grow weary of manna and that you will resist if necessary unto blood any sophistry that says God's manna is not enough.

Concluding Applications: Commitment, Guarding Purity, and Crying for Power

50:14 Now that's the uppercut. Arrow.

50:17 I've already preached for 45 minutes and it would be irresponsible to look at the inward arrow so that's going to have to wait.

50:25 So, what do I do? Well, I move to my last page of application and I try to piecemeal these applications that assumed I would have gotten the inward arrows just to tell you where we're going, God willing. The inward arrows have to do with all the activities connected with mutual edification and secondly, with the manifestation of God's practical love for His people which will take in the subject of benevolence and in those inward arrows we look at those activities God has ordained for mutual edification and for the manifestation of His love in practical ways but now, let me come to these concluding applications I think they will almost fit even though they assume we looked at the inward arrows and for you preachers here saying you should know better after preaching for almost 50 years, Pastor Martin, how to construct a sermon and know where it's going to come out. Well, as I told several of my younger brethren this morning, in this past year, as I've been pleading with God to understand more what preaching is, I've said, Lord, don't let me go in the pulpit determined to get through my notes, but let me go in that pulpit determined to preach out what I believe the Spirit of God is constraining me to preach out. Not stand up here and blether. I'm blethered.

51:45 I think you would agree. I'm not rambled from Dan to Beersheba and back again with no order or symmetry to what I've said. But brethren, the Bible does mean something when it says quench not the Spirit. And when God enlarges the hearts of His people in the heart of the preacher and you're struck into an area that you mutually sense is critical, then don't be so determined to get through your notes.

52:09 If God's given you some facility of extemporaneous utterance, that's the if. Some men soberly judge. God hasn't given them that. They must do what they must do to maintain a good conscience, and I respect that.

52:23 But some of you perhaps fit the other category. All right, what are my applications? It's this. I've already alluded to it, but I'm going to state it.

52:33 That this calls from all of us a renewed commitment to be engaged more faithfully in the biblically mandated activities by which God is glorified. If He has said, I'm glorified in the corporate worship of my people, not corporate alone, but in a unique way, I'm glorified in that worship, then you and I must determine as a personal issue before our God, I will not be delinquent in the appointed times of worship lest God be robbed of a portion of that spiritual sacrifice which He desires to receive from me. The Father seeks such to worship. He seeks. Will I rob Him of that which He seeks, that which He has secured to Himself at the cost of the giving of His only begotten Son, that which the Lord Jesus has purchased at the price of His own bloodletting under the fury of His Father's wrath? Surely the heart of every child of God says, Lord, give me anew and a deeper commitment to be engaged more faithfully

53:57 in this biblically mandated means of bringing glory to you. Furthermore, it should draw from us a renewed commitment to guard with a passionate jealousy the simplicity, purity, and power of this biblically mandated activity.

54:23 It should draw from us, my brothers and sisters, a renewed commitment to guard with a passionate jealousy the simplicity, purity, and power of the biblical mandated activity by which God is glorified. Remember, the Christ we worship is the Christ of John 2, the Christ into whose image we are being progressively conformed as we gaze upon Him and the Spirit works internally upon us. 2 Corinthians 3.18, is the Christ who has flashing eyes and a whip in His hands.

55:07 And I'm convinced if we had dropped down in a helicopter right as He went into the thing, we would say a madman is loose in the temple. When you read the vigor of the verse, over through the tables of the money changers, drove out the money changers and the beasts. You got a little bit of sanctified imagination? See that ox and that lamb?

55:31 And that he-goat and the rest kicking up its heels, Christ whacking its flanks, driving them out. Then it says, the disciples remember, zeal for thy house has eaten me up. Take these things hence. It is written, my house shall be called a house of what?

55:53 Prayer to and heart intercourse with God. You've made it a den of robbers. And it didn't happen overnight. It started with people saying, hasn't God ordained that the poor people offer pigeons and turtle doves?

56:14 And those who can this, well surely if they come from a long distance, God doesn't expect them to have in their entourage cages for the birds and fodder for all the animals. We want to help them worship God. So we'll set up a little shop outside the temple where we'll exchange money, get a common currency, help them to worship. Well, it might be a little more efficient if we move into the alcove.

56:40 Well, then it, you see it all starts with very good motives. That's why I said, brethren, no matter how noble, no matter how successful, and how apparently owned of God is any deviation from the simplicity, purity, and power of God's mandated worship, we don't need to tinker with God's way. And my third and final application is this, a renewed commitment to cry mightily to God for greater measures of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon these mandated activities. Brethren, we say, we don't want to tinker with God's worship. We don't want to experiment with novelties. Are we saying that we know experientially all that God's word wants, or that God's word warrants us to expect?

57:48 No, I have yet to see a sinner come in this place and slump over in his pew and fall out in the aisle and have somebody go and say, feel this way, you got it. No, no, no, no heart attack. What's the matter? I'm not right with God.

58:02 I don't know God. I've been an idolater. And to God you people worship. I don't know him.

58:09 Can you help me? I pray God I'll live yet to see it. We're not saying God help us. If we are saying that we think we know experientially all there is to know of the presence and the power of God in our stated seasons of corporate worship along for the day when I cannot sing some of these hymns without the tear ducts spontaneously opening up in tears of gratitude and wonder.

58:43 I'm not going to produce them, and I'm not going to tell tear-jerking stories to try to produce them in you, but that the Holy Spirit would bring us into such closer proximity to the powers of the age to come that the fingers of our soul will be touching and handling in increased measures these blessed realities. And why do we need this renewed commitment to cry mightily to God for greater measures of the presence and power of the Spirit upon the mandated activities? Well, among many other reasons, let me give you this. Nobody, nobody gets the itch for novelty, for intruding unwarranted elements into God's worship whose soul is ravished with the manna of God. When a congregation comes and gathers with prayerful hearts and prepared hearts, and God has been pleased to hear the cries of His people that He would come in grace and power into the gathering of His people, as they now constitute one of those living temples with the new covenant priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, if God comes in soul-ravishing tastes of reality, how can anyone persuade such a person,

60:09 you need something more? And I say, no. No, God has come in His own mandated activities and fed my soul upon Himself and given me fresh sights of the glory and the grace of the Lord Jesus, given me a fresh sight of all that I am in Christ and all that I shall be and all the glory that awaits me and a host of other things. You see, it's when men are determined to stick by the simplicity and the purity of God's instituted activities but are content to do so without the power, that people who hunger for something real begin to look in another direction. You follow what I'm saying? Does it not answer to your own heart? A man with a growing, deep, God-instituted love and passion for his wife is, for the most part, never vulnerable to another woman.

61:26 Let him have attention filled, emotionally flat, decaying relationship with his wife, and his heart yearns for companionship that is real. Does it justify him? No. Is it ever justifiable for the most moribund, dead group of God's people to intrude will-worship into his church?

61:52 No! But it's much less likely to happen if the souls of God's people are kept fat with heavenly manna. And, oh, my brothers and sisters, can we not plead with God that we'll know something of that in these days? That God Himself will come and give us to taste and to feel, in the context of truth, new and ever-expanding dimensions of His grace and of His glory.

Prayer for Deeper Longings and Spirit's Power

62:28 And then worship will be as natural as breathing. Let's pray. Our Father,

62:44 we confess in Your presence our wretched sins of contentment with little. Forgive me, O Holy Father, forgive Your people in this place, insofar as our narrow desires and our shriveled expectations have been the measure of Your blessing. Have You not said, Open Your mouth wide, and I will fill it? Have You not said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst?

63:21 For they shall be filled. We pray that it may not be said of us that we think ourselves rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing when You know us for what we really are. So we pray, our Father, take Your word, use it in all of our hearts to stir us up to greater longings after Yourself, for greater manifestations of Your grace and power. Keep any sensitive heart from fanaticism, from seeking anything beyond that which You have given us warrant to seek in the Scriptures.

64:04 And we pray for those who know You not, that even the experience of being among Your worshipping people attending with eagerness to the word, O Lord, may it strike them that You are not a God to be trifled with. And may You give them no rest until they find rest in the Lord Jesus. We do pray now Your special blessing upon us in these days together. We pray that the afternoon hours will be marked by holy conversation and holy rest and holy preparation for tonight.

64:42 Be with Your dear servant as he will come and minister to us. O Father, may he be filled with the Spirit. May You be with his mouth and give him utterance. And we, by Your grace, say, Lord, speak, speak for we hear.

64:58 Speak to us words of comfort, words of rebuke, words of instruction. Lord, if You speak, our hearts will be satisfied. So we come to You and lay our petitions before You and ask that You would now dismiss us with Your blessing resting upon us. Forgive us even for the sins of the sanctuary.

65:23 We have not praised You with all of our being as we know we should and as we desire to do. O God, hasten the day when we shall no longer drag about us this clod of remaining corruption. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Hear us, our Father, we plead.

65:48 In Jesus' name, Amen.