56a) Directives for Ordering Public Worship #1

Introduction to Directives for Ordinary Public Worship

0:04 Now we return this morning, brethren, to the broad category of concern which constitutes the framework of this segment of our studies in pastoral theology, namely, the work of oversight, governing, and shepherding by the man of God in the pastoral office. And having examined the essence and the governing disposition of this task, we then proceeded to take up the first major division of the task, namely, those duties that pertain to the corporate life of God's people. And in beginning to open up this subject, we focused our attention, first of all, on the importance of ordering the corporate life of God's people, and much of our time was taken up with an exposition and extended application of 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. And having persuaded your judgment, I trust, of the tremendous importance of these issues, we began last week to focus upon the first area of the church in its corporate life for which you bear unique responsibility, namely, the corporate worship of God. And in the last lectures, I set before you four introductory perspectives relative to the public worship of God.

1:28 I was bold enough to assert that as an elder and an overseer, you must have, first of all, a well-grounded conviction that corporate worship is an institution of God, secondly, a well-grounded conviction concerning the regulative principle in reference to ordering the worship of God's people, thirdly, that you must have a well-grounded conviction concerning the precise nature of corporate worship. And, fourthly, that you must have a realistic appreciation of the practical problems connected with the corporate worship of God. Now today, the subject to which we will begin to address ourselves is listed in your notes page 135, large letter B, at the top, General Directives for the Ordinary Services of Worship. This will be our first major division of the Church of the United States. Read the following, if you'll, after this. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15.

2:26 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15.

2:27 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15.

2:28 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. the subject, and then, having covered that area, we will address ourselves to general directives for the extraordinary or occasional services of worship by the people of God. And precisely what is meant by these distinctions will become quite evident as we work our way through the materials.

2:49 So then we begin. General directives for the ordinary services of worship. Now, by the use of the phrase ordinary services of worship, I'm referring to that which in our structure and tradition will be generally identified as the Sunday morning and the Sunday evening gatherings of the people of God. In other circumstances, in other cultures, and in differing socio-religious political circumstances, the particular details of the Sunday morning and the Sunday evening gatherings of the people of God are not necessarily the public worship of the people of God on God's specially designated day may in many ways be very different from our own. The day is non-negotiable divine apostolic law. The precise time, the frequency, the circumstances, the particulars, those will vary from place to place. However, the arrangement within which most of you will function clearly illustrates the wise and balanced statement in our Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, and Paragraph 6, where, after asserting that the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for God's glory, man's salvation, faith in life is either expressly set down

4:17 or necessarily contained in the Scriptures, to which nothing is to be added, the Confession goes on to state, Nevertheless, we acknowledge and then there is an acknowledgment of the need of the inward illumination of the Spirit and also this qualifying statement, that there are such things as the circumstances concerning the worship and government of the church common to human actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word which are always to be observed. Now the gathering of God's people for the major purposes of prayer, the Supper of Remembrance, baptisms and other services of public worship will be treated separately, and although some of the principles and directives overlap and interpenetrate these various categories, I trust you will see that the distinctions of these two major categories are both real and workable. The ordinary services of worship, referring to the worship of God, will be treated separately, but we have been given the directives in our setting on what is ordinarily done Lord's day morning and evening, and then directives for the special gatherings for worship applicable

Directive #1: Scrupulous Concern for Worship's Great Ends

5:38 to the Lord's Supper, to the funerals, weddings, prayer meetings, etc. Now to the general directives, I have three to set before you today, and the first, number one is this. ..

5:54 1. 2. service, you must be controlled by a scrupulous concern to secure the great ends for which such worship was instituted by God. Now, as usual, I want to give a brief explanation of the key terms in that affirmation. In using the words planning and leading, the use of these words assumes that careful forethought and responsible planning do indeed go before the actual service of worship. And this principle reflects, in this aspect of pastoral labor, that which was constantly emphasized in our examination of that other department of our duties, namely in preaching and teaching. And that principle is this, that God's working, and our working, are concurrent realities. And that the necessity for His working does not negate

7:01 the necessity for our working, and the validity of our working does not negate the reality of His. Philippians 2, 12 and 13. We are to work out our salvation with fear and with trembling in the confidence that it is God who is working in us, both to will and to do. And to work for His good pleasure. Or, as I continually emphasized in our treatment of the subject of preaching, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And therefore, as we are consciously active in our redeemed humanity, in the planning and leading of the service, this does not negate the powerful, imminent, real presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. In using the word leading, I am assuming real, authoritative control of the worship service, fully acknowledging that the presence of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit are the two factors that are

8:11 the ultimate elements and sources of control. Nonetheless, we are both to plan and to lead in those services of worship. We are not a mere catalyst or standing in the posture of a referee. If the essence of our task, as we examined it and exegeted it in previous lectures, is to take care of the church of God, epimoleomai, then surely taking care of the church in its worship is no little part of our God-given responsibility.

8:50 So when I use the terminology in the planning and leading of a worship service, etc., this is what I mean by planning and by leading. And then I use the word scrupulous concern. You must be controlled by a scrupulous concern to secure the great ends for which such worship was instituted of God.

9:16 I spent considerable time rooting around in my dictionary, and in Rodale's Synonym Finder, to find the right word. And the word scrupulous, in my judgment, is the right word, though it often has a bad bedfellow when it's used with the word over scrupulous. Scrupulous is defined as characterized by careful attention to what is right and proper. When you show careful attention to what is right and proper, you're being scrupulous.

9:50 Furthermore, it's defined as that which is characterized by precision, care, and exactness.

10:01 Characterized by precision, care, and exactness. And that is exactly what I want the word to convey. It captures the essence of the burden of that first directive, that in the planning and leading of a worship service, you must be, not just occasionally influenced by, but controlled by a scrupulous concern to secure the great ends for which such worship was instituted of God. And if that scrupulous concern is there, it is the opposite of indifference and shoddiness, the opposite of imprecision and concern only with generalities. As Paul, under the guidance of the Spirit, is fixing the church in its steady state forms of public worship, he says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 13, that he is to give attention to the reading, to exhortation, to teaching. And the verb prosecho means to look at carefully. And as Timothy is ordering the life of the public gatherings of the church there at Ephesus, he was to pay, close attention to the substance and manner of the public reading of the scriptures,

End #1: Christ Meets with His People to Communicate Grace

11:27 as well as to the exhortations growing out of that, and the teaching based upon it. Well, reduced to what I believe is an irreducible minimum, or the lowest common denominators, my present understanding is that there are four basic reasons for the institution of public or social worship. And we, we must be guided by a scrupulous concern to see that these four things are dominant in both our planning and our leading of those ordinary services of worship. Now, the first is this, that the risen Christ himself might meet with his gathered people in order to communicate his grace to them as, as, their prophet, priest, and king. And perhaps the most crucial passage in underscoring this reality is Matthew 18 and verse 20. Remember that the setting is a word of direction concerning the rectifying of fractured relations among the people of God in church fellowship, but as the climactic statement validating that when the church acts what they do,

12:54 when they do according to the will and word of Christ, is ratified in heaven, our Lord says in verse 24, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And here we have a case where our Lord's generic statement, though it ratifies the specific issue in hand, it goes far beyond, beyond that mere specific setting of the church acting in discipline. Where two or three are gathered in my name, notice, not just to implement discipline, but whenever and wherever God's people in church fellowship are gathered in his name, that is by his authority in union with him, in order to meet with him, in order to do the things that he has manifested, that he has revealed, as his will, he promises, there am I in the midst. He is there in an instinct, real and unique way. We do believe in the real presence of Christ, but not the real presence in bread and wine, but in the midst of the gathered assembly of God's people.

14:16 And there's a beautiful picture of this in the second two texts that I've cited, in Revelation chapter one, when John is given that overwhelming, that shattering vision of the exalted Christ, when he is in the spirit on the Lord's day, he turns to see the vision, and we are told in Revelation one and verse 13, verse 12, I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks or lampstands, and, in the midst of the lampstands, one like unto a son of man. And then when the Lord sends his first message to the church at Ephesus, he describes himself in those very terms. Revelation two, one. To the angel or messenger of the church at Ephesus write, these things saith he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, he that walks in the midst of the seven stars.

15:24 These are the seven golden candlesticks or lampstands. And as he is in the midst, he is ministering to his gathered people as their exalted prophet, priest and king in the threefold office that he bears, beautifully symbolized in the vision in that first chapter. And therefore, when God's people gather, we must think of them gathering with respect to this blessed, reality that the risen Christ himself has instituted the gathering of his people, that he might meet with his gathered people in order to communicate his grace to them as their prophet, their priest, and their king. And the paradigm for that ongoing meeting of Christ with his people to communicate his grace, I believe, is beautifully symbolized and set forth in those post-resurrection gatherings recorded in the Gospel of John that are distinctly described as having occurred on the first day of the week. In John 20 and verse 19, when therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came

16:53 and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. He makes it known that he's appearing in the midst of this gathering of his disciples to communicate his grace to them. He comes with the shalom of divine, covenantal blessing upon his people. And though there was some question yet as to who he was, and he was going to strengthen his people, strengthen their faith and their confidence, he is there to bless his people.

17:28 Peace be unto you. Verse 21, Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you. And then indicates that they are to receive from him this endowment of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit that is to be imparted to him according to them, according to divine promise, will be the Spirit who comes out of the very spirit of the Holy Spirit, who comes out of the very spirit of the Holy Spirit, who comes out of the very spirit of the Holy Spirit, the very person and being of Christ himself. He breathes upon them, symbolically indicating that the Spirit will proceed out of and from him when he ascends back to the right hand of the Father.

18:07 And then again in verse 26, after eight days again the disciples were within and Thomas with them, Jesus comes, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace. Peace. Peace. Be unto you.

18:24 Peace be unto you. And then he promises his own blessing upon those who not only see and believe, but upon us, those of us who have never seen and yet have believed. And so though they have the physical presence, and we do not have his physical presence, we nonetheless have his real presence, Jesus standing in the midst to pronounce blessing and to convey his grace to his gathered people. Therefore, in the planning and leading of a service of worship, we must be controlled by a scrupulous concern to secure the great end for which such worship was instituted by God. And end number one is that Christ himself might meet with his gathered people in order to communicate his grace to them as their prophet, priest, and disciple. That is the first purpose. But then there is a second purpose, and I have stated it this way, that the Triune God might bring glory to himself through the divinely mandated, Spirit-empowered activities of his gathered people.

End #2: God Receives Glory Through Spirit-Empowered Activities

19:40 That God might heap glory to himself through, by means of, divinely mandated, but Spirit-empowered activities of his gathered people. That God might heap glory to himself through, by means of, divinely mandated, but Spirit-empowered activities of his gathered people. And this is so clearly brought out in the text that I have listed, as Paul writes to the church at Rome, as Paul writes to the church at Rome, having dealt with the principles of Christian Liberty, which if implemented will not allow cultural and religious differences of background and even present states of conscience to create fissures and disunity. He says, one of the great ends in Christian Liberty, ends in view in seeking to secure this unity in the truth in spite of existing diversities of conscience and perspective and native inclinations cultural and religious predispositions now the god of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to christ jesus that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ wherefore receive one another even as christ received you to the glory of god and whatever dimensions of this text may be found outside of the gathered assembly

21:05 and in other facets of the interaction of god's people surely one accord and one accord of the glory of god and the glory of god and the glory of god and the glory of god One mouth finds one of its dominant expressions in the stated gatherings of God's people. When we literally become, then, the one mouth, when we are visibly gathered as the one body, and what is to be secured? God's glory. When the one mouth is comprised of many mouths that by nature and temperament would never be found, gathered around one central focal point, even the Lord Jesus, who is the standard and the basis of our unity.

21:44 And when it grips us that God waits to be glorified through the divinely mandated, spirit-empowered activities of His gathered people, surely it will influence how we plan and lead such a service where such a noble end is to be realized. And then Ephesians 3, 20 and 21, a passage oft quoted around here, part of it is etched on our commemorative stone on the front of our church building. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. Amen. Unto Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. And whatever, whatever dimensions of fulfillment are to be realized of that text, surely when the church gathers to engage in divinely mandated activities of prayer and praise, the great end in view is that God will receive an intensified measure of glory to Himself.

23:00 The same emphasis comes through in the 1 Peter 2 passage, a pivotal passage as we saw last week on the subject of worship. We, we in contact with Christ, the living stone, are made living stones. To what end? To be a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

23:27 The spiritual sacrifices offered up within the spiritual temple by the new covenant priesthood are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, but not only acceptable. If we parallel this with Hebrews 13, 15, they bring a specific degree and measure of glory unto God as they are offered. Hebrews 13, 15, Let us then, through Him, let us then, offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of lips which make confession to His name, a sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of lips which make confession to His name. a, Sacrifice of praise to God.

24:12 And what does that praise do? Well, according to Psalm 14, Psalm 50, verses 14 and 23, that praise is a distinctive means, a unique means, not unique, but a distinctive and prominent means by which glory is brought unto God. Psalm 50, verses 14 and 23. Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High.

24:46 Why? Verse 23. Whoso offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me. And so in the divinely mandated, Spirit-empowered activities of praise and worship and prayer and proclamation, God is ordained to get glory to Himself.

25:11 And then in Colossians 3 and verse 16, familiar text and one that must regulate much of our thinking about the activities of public worship. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart. Now notice, unto God, whatever horizontal benefits may come, it is to be singing with grace in our hearts unto God. The consciousness that we are glorifying God by bringing unto Him that sacrifice of praise.

25:53 But you will notice that I have said they must not only be the divinely mandated, but the Spirit-empowered activities of His people. And here I commend to you again, I may have mentioned it last week, the marvelous chapter in Vaughan's work on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in which he addresses in a separate chapter the place and ministry of the Holy Spirit in public worship. It's chapter 13 called The Spirit in Public Worship. And God willing, later on, I'll have occasion to give some quotes from that particular book.

End #3: People Edified Through Biblically Exercised Gifts

26:35 But then there is a third, purpose for which God has instituted His worship, and that is that the people of God might be edified through the divinely conferred, Spirit-empowered gifts exercised with biblical propriety. Now what do I mean by that? Well, simply this. According to Ephesians 4, 11-16, the ascended Christ has given gifts unto His church, and among them are pastors and teachers, given for the perfecting of the saints unto works of service, unto the building up of the body of Christ.

27:17 And then the passage continues to indicate that the body then has a ministry unto itself, speaking the truth in love. It edifies, it builds up itself. And yet in all of this, in the exercise of those God-given gifts within the church, God's glory is still, the great end, according to 1 Peter 4, 10-11. 1 Peter 4, 10-11.

27:49 According as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speaks, speaking as it were oracles of God, if any man ministers or serves, ministering as of the strength which God supplies, that is the great end. Here's the great end. In all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

28:19 Amen. God has instituted His public worship that His people might be edified through these divinely conferred, Spirit-empowered gifts as they are exercised with Biblical propriety. God is the ultimate object of glory received in the recognition of the conferral of the gift and in the exercise of the gift, yes. But God has ordained public worship that in that theater, those gifts, many of them, might be exercised to the edification of the people of God.

28:58 The great overarching emphasis in Paul's treatment of spiritual gifts when he begins, in 1 Corinthians 12, saying he would not have the Corinthians ignorant of this matter of spiritual gifts, when he comes down to the matter of the purpose for which they are conferred, the great emphasis is corporate edification. First five verses of chapter 14. Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. Why?

29:32 For he who speaks in a tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God. For no man understands, but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. He that prophesies speaks unto men edification, and exhortation, and consolation. He that speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesies edifies the church.

29:51 Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that you should prophesy. Greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive. Edifying. And that emphasis comes to its apex of emphasis there in the little dictum at the end of verse 26.

30:15 Let all things be done unto edifying, unto building up, unto the strengthening and maturation of the body. And so God has instituted public worship with His divinely mandated Spirit-empowered activities, not only to get glory to Himself, but that His people might be edified. And that edification comes not only through divinely conferred Spirit-empowered gifts, but such conferred and empowered gifts exercised with biblical propriety. And I've used the words biblical propriety to summarize what Paul emphasizes at the end of the very chapter. Let all things be done decently and in order. That is, with biblical propriety. And he had been giving specifics as to what that propriety meant with relationship to tongues and to prophecy.

31:21 First of all, dealing with tongues and prophecy by way of comparison. In the earlier part of the chapter, in the latter part, focusing upon prophecy, who should prophesy as to gender, how many and in what order. This is a rubric of the biblical propriety of the exercise of those particular gifts. Therefore, in the planning and in the leading of a worship service, you and I must be controlled by a scrupulous concern to secure the great end for which worship was instituted by God.

End #4: Unconverted Convicted of God's Reality

31:58 Not only that Christ might meet with His people to confer His grace as prophet, priest, and king, that God might get glory to Himself through the divinely mandated, Spirit-empowered activities of His people, but that the people might be edified through the divinely conferred, Spirit-empowered gifts exercised with biblical propriety. And then fourth, God has instituted His public worship that a conviction of the reality, livingness, and special presence of God Himself may be given to the unconverted who may be gathered with His people. Now, how do we know this? Well, in 1 Corinthians 14, it's evident that Paul was conscious that unbelievers would most likely be present in the stated meetings of the church at Corinth. Furthermore, he indicates that their presence is not to be ignored in the conduct of the gathered church.

33:07 Though it is the gathered church, their presence is not to be ignored. And therefore he writes in chapter 14, verses 23 to 25, If therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad? You see, he assumes that such may be among them, and that people have a right to make an assessment of what's going on in the midst of the gathered people of God. But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so he will fall down in his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed. He has heard of your claim that when you meet in your non-ornate places of meeting, so contrary to the whole mindset of the pagan religious mentality, that the more ornate the outward temple, the more likely you were to know the blessing of the gods. And the way you honored your gods was with all kinds of rituals and with all kinds of ornate temples and garishly dressed priests and official ministers, in those temples. And here are people gathering in ordinary buildings

34:34 that have nothing about them that say this is a place of religious worship. And yet these people claim that their God, who no one can see, who no one can touch, no one can carry and place upon an altar, and to whom they can offer physical sacrifices, that their God is the one true and living God, and that he actually is present when they gather in a way that he is not present throughout the whole earth. What a claim! And he says, the unbeliever comes in, may come in skeptical, and if he finds you people carrying on the way you have been, he's going to say, not only is your claim invalid, you're a bunch of nuts, you belong in a loony bin.

35:12 There's a sense, he says, in which the unconverted understands what is proprietous with regard to religious worship. He may not understand truth, but when you're all carrying on like you're drunk, he said, the unbeliever comes in and says you're going to be mad. But when the word of God is duly proclaimed and truth is communicated in categories of linguistic forms that are cognitive to that man, the secrets of his heart are made manifest. He falls upon his face and says, your claims are valid.

Conclusion: Implications of Scrupulous Concern

35:43 God is of a truth among you. And surely then, if God has instituted his worship and has not prohibited the presence of the unconverted, but in this passage in particular indicates that their presence could be under the blessing of God, the very means of confronting them with the great realities of their own spiritual need, then surely God has instituted his worship that the livingness and special presence of God himself may be given to the unconverted who may be present among his gathered people. So then, as we think of the burden and responsibility that is ours in conjunction with the planning and with the leadership of the stated gatherings of God's people, we need to arrange the God-ordained elements so as to secure a maximum measure of these God-ordained ends. Now do you see how vital it is that you take seriously this first directive to be guided by a scrupulous concern to secure these great ends for which worship was instituted of God? What place is there for carnal display, entertainment, flippancy,

37:11 psychological stroking, or sloppiness, shawliness, and careless ad-libbing? No place in the presence of God. What place is there for diaconal announcements and birthday greetings, in the midst of the sacred worship of God? What place is there for jocularity inserted for the purpose of making people giggle and titter?

37:41 It's utterly incongruous. Once we are convinced that public worship is an institution of God Himself, and that in the exercise of the specifics of that institution, we are going to bring to God only the things mandated by Him, and hopefully, in the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit, then our planning and leading of a worship service will be marked by this scrupulous concern that the ends for which God instituted worship may be realized in any act of public worship for which we have peculiar responsibilities both in the planning and in worship. And in the leadership. Well, let's take our break here at this point, and then we'll take up the major heads number two and three, and I believe we'll have sufficient time then for some interaction, hopefully, before the next hour is completed. Let's take our ten minute break right now and reconvene at five past the hour.