John 4:20-24
Introductory Perspectives on Public Worship, Part 1
In "Introductory Perspectives on Public Worship, Part 1," Pastor Albert N. Martin lays the foundational principles for understanding and ordering corporate worship. He expounds on the concept of a "well-grounded conviction," defining it as a clear, biblically rooted, and deeply felt persuasion. Martin then argues for two crucial convictions: first, that corporate worship is a divine institution, mandated by God in both Old and New Covenants, and second, that the regulative principle must govern all aspects of public worship. He draws heavily from Old Testament examples (Exodus, Leviticus) and New Testament passages (John 4, 1 Peter 2, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, Acts 2) to demonstrate God's explicit directives for His people's approach to Him. The pastoral application emphasizes the necessity for church leaders to have these convictions firmly established, ensuring that all elements of worship are biblically warranted and offered in faith, avoiding the "strange fire" of human innovation.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 63 min
- Introduction to Public Worship and Well-Grounded Convictions 0:04
- Corporate Worship as a Divine Institution 5:22
- Biblical Basis for Corporate Worship: Old Covenant 6:40
- Biblical Basis for Corporate Worship: New Covenant 14:46
- Corporate Worship in the Early Church and Apostolic Directives 27:25
- The Regulative Principle: Definition and Confessional Basis 40:08
- The Regulative Principle: Essence vs. Circumstance and Scriptural Grounds 47:11
- Application of the Regulative Principle: Avoiding Strange Fire 59:15
Key Quotes
“So when I speak of a well-grounded conviction, two strands of thought are dominant in the terminology well-grounded. First of all, there is clarity of perception, and there is a healthy, vigorous, biblicalism at the foundation of that perspective.”
“That is felt religious and moral persuasions of these things, so that if in our ministries we fall short of them, we will feel true biblical guilt believing we have sinned against God and His word.”
“Never did the prophets say, Never did the prophets call them to innovate or to abandon the pattern of worship shown in the mount. And that's very significant.”
“You must have a well-grounded conviction concerning what is called the regulative principle in relationship to the ordering of the corporate worship of God.”
“But, the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.”
“After the fatal separation between man and God occasioned by the fall it remained for God and him alone to say whether he would ever again permit the approach of man to him in the way of worship and if so it remained for God and for him alone to prescribe the terms and to regulate the manner of the approach.”
“You see brethren one of the great problems we have in our day is that men simply don't believe that the church is the living temple of the living God. It's God's house in which God makes the rules and dictates the terms and the manner in which his people are to draw near to him.”
“And if you have any doubt that you are leading the people to bring something that God has not required then whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Applications
All listeners
- Cultivate felt religious and moral persuasions concerning public worship, so that falling short of them in ministry leads to true biblical guilt.
- Wrestle through to a resolution in your own mind and heart the conviction that public worship is a divine institution in the new covenant as clearly as it was in the old, as your perspectives will set the tone for decades.
- If you have any doubt that you are leading the people to bring something that God has not required, then hold off including that element in worship until your conscience is satisfied in the light of the Word that God Himself has required it.
- Conduct a thorough study on elements of worship, such as the public Amen, to ensure they are mandated by God and can be urged upon the people as acts of faith and obedience.
- Study the biblical data on the corporate Amen so you can add your Amen as an act of faith and obedience unto God.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 77 paragraphs, roughly 63 minutes.
Introduction to Public Worship and Well-Grounded Convictions
We come this morning, brethren, to our fourth lecture in this vital subject of the essential elements of effective pastoral oversight, and in terms of the abstract that I hope you continually keep at hand, we have already dealt with unit number one, the biblical description of the task in its essence and in its disposition, and under unit two, the biblical categories of the task. I mentioned last week that there are basically two categories, those duties pertaining to the public or corporate ordering of the life of God's people, and then those pertaining to the private, and everything in our lectures in this semester will take in that first category, and your intercession on pastoral counseling will address the second. Now as we come to Roman numerals...
So, in article number one, Directives for Ordering the Corporate Worship of God, what we are to do this morning is to give some introductory perspectives on the public worship of God, and when I use the term the public worship of God, I am speaking of the Church as a worshiping body. That is, an assembly of God's people called together to engage in stated gatherings of corporate praise, proclamation, prayer, giving, and participation in the sacraments. And as we come to this vital subject, our concern today will be to focus on what I am calling some introductory perspectives on the public worship of God. And in the four headings of the lecture, I will be using a phrase as a common denominator to each heading, and that phrase is a well-grounded conviction, and I want to exegete what I mean by that phrase. When I speak along these four lines of having a well-grounded conviction concerning, and
then there will be four different. units of thought, this is what I mean by the terminology. First of all, by well-grounded, I'm referring to that which rests upon an intelligent, legitimate, biblical perspective.
It is the opposite of a nebulous, misty notion, and it is the opposite of clear conviction that is not rooted. In Scripture, but in some non-inspired tradition for personal preference and inclination. So when I speak of a well-grounded conviction, two strands of thought are dominant in the terminology well-grounded. First of all, there is clarity of perception, and there is a healthy, vigorous, biblicalism at the foundation of that perspective. Now by conviction, I mean a felt religious and moral persuasion. When I speak of a well-grounded conviction, I mean by the word conviction, a felt religious and moral persuasion. This is the opposite of clear notion.
This is the opposite of clear notion. This is the opposite of clear notion. There are notions which one may regard as expendable and negotiable, or convictions rooted in Scripture, but not having taken root in the conscience of the person who perceives them. And so, I'm concerned that in approaching the subject of the public worshiping, the concept of God, that we have well-grounded convictions.
That is felt religious and moral persuasions of these things, so that if in our ministries we fall short of them, we will feel true biblical guilt believing we have sinned against God and His word. All right? Now then, by way of introduction to this whole subject of ordering the corporate worship of God, we take up our four introductory perspectives on this subject. And the first is this.
Corporate Worship as a Divine Institution
You must have a well-grounded conviction that corporate worship is an institution of God. You must have a well-grounded conviction that corporate worship is an institution of God. Or you might want to state it this way, that corporate worship is of divine origin. Now it is amazing to realize how much shallow thinking there is on this subject in our day.
Many view the public worship... ...public worship of God as a necessary expedient, others as a convenient and helpful arrangement.
But they have no appreciation of the fact that it is an institution of God. And I'm prepared to assert that we will not be prepared to give this subject its due consideration until we see public worship as that which comes to us ...as that which comes to us as a necessary expedient.
...as that which comes to us as a necessary expedient.
...as that which comes to us as a divine institution.
Biblical Basis for Corporate Worship: Old Covenant
Now in his classic work on the Church of Christ, James Bannerman suggests on page 324 of volume 1 that the foundation for the duty of public worship lies in the law of nature itself. The heart of his argument, I read in the closing paragraph, or the closing section of a large paragraph, on page 324 of volume 1, in which Bannerman writes, Man in the closet, that is, man praying alone, man in the family, man in his domestic duties, man in the church, is equally bound to the duties of the personal, the domestic, and the public worship of God. Without this, there are many of the powers and faculties of man's nature as associated with God. Without this, there are many of the powers and faculties of man's nature as associated with God. Without this, there are many of the powers and faculties of man's nature formed as they were for the glory of God, which he cannot bring to do their proper work of glorifying him.
The worship of God publicly and in society with others is the proper expression towards God of man's social nature. The very law and light of nature tell us that the public...
worship of God is a standing and permanent ordinance for the whole human race. Now that's just a summary of his argument that nature itself demands the social or public or corporate worship of God. But in addition to this, and overlaid upon it, is the express warrant of direct revelation dictating both the necessity and the manner of corporate or social worship which God requires of his people. Now there is a reference to this matter of the light of nature demanding worship, in our own confession, paragraph 7, dealing with the matter of religious worship. Furthermore, John Owen, in volume 15, pages 448 and 49, alludes to this matter of social or public worship being
something that is inbred in man as an image-bearer of God. However, both Owen and our confessor, John Owen, in his own confession, paragraph 7, dealing with the matter of religious confession of faith, and supremely the scriptures, clearly indicate that the details, the manner, the time, and the circumstances of social worship are to come under the rubric of special revelation. From the detailed regulations of the corporate worship and rituals of the old covenant to the authoritative, though less detailed, directives for corporate worship under the new covenant, it is God himself who directs his people to gather together and in concert to draw near to him by means, activities, and attitudes mandated by him. Now let me remind you of some of the specimen passages. which underscore this assertion. First of all, in the old covenant community and in the new covenant community. And what we're seeking to establish is that God himself directs the specifics of the
worship that he demands of his people. When God gathers his recently redeemed people to himself at Sinai, bound up in the delivery of his laws and statutes, are his specifics or are these specifics of His will regarding public or corporate worship. This is some verses 8 and 9, we read the following, And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them, according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, if the law that I teach you Sister Lex Bella you shall have sufficient respect, Fleαe снuce eis I a breve Father, Even so shall you make it. And then, from chapter 25 through chapter 30, God gives specific, detailed instructions concerning the building of the place of his special dwelling where the activities of his corporate or public worship would be conducted.
There is recorded the disobedience and the restoration to favor of the people of God, and then sundry laws follow. And then in chapter 35 and following, we have a detailed record of the detailed obedience of the people of God to the directives of God concerning the place of his special presence and the activities. Again and again in these chapters, you find the terminology coming back again and again and again. They did this, they did that, according to the pattern shown in the mount. And in these chapters, we see the great principle underscored again and again that God's corporate worship was mandated by God. God himself. And the godly, under the old covenant, in coming to the appointed place at the appointed seasons, in the appointed way, would know that the God who redeemed them out of Egypt,
the God who thundered his law from Sinai, the God who had entered into special covenantal engagements with them, the God who had entered into special covenantal engagements with them, that this God both mandated their drawing nigh to him at the place of his special presence, and all of the details pertaining to their drawing near unto him. In this way they could draw near knowing that the smile of God was upon them. And furthermore, and in the unfolding of the history of Israel, whenever the corporate worship of God degenerated into empty formalism or was defiled or abandoned, the call of the prophets was always a call back to God's institutions performed in the spirit of God's word. Never did the prophets say, Never did the prophets call them to innovate or to abandon the pattern of worship shown in the mount. And that's very significant.
Never did the prophets call them to abandon or to innovate.
Biblical Basis for Corporate Worship: New Covenant
And we know what happened to a couple of characters that thought they could violate some details about some of the rituals. Nadab and Abedin thought they could innovate with regard, with regard to the matter of the fire by which the incense would be ignited, and God showed his displeasure by opening up the earth and swallowing them. As if to say, do not take lightly any detail with respect to my instituted worship. Now when we come to consider this matter in the new covenant community, we find that under the freedom, and liberty of the new covenant, there is a radical alteration of worship that will take place. When our Lord is evangelizing the woman at the well, He makes what, to my understanding, is perhaps the most profound statement, the most seminal statement, concerning the fact that under the new covenant there would be a radical alteration of worship. In John chapter 6, verse 9. chapter 4, and verses 20 to 24, we find these words of our Lord, or the words of our Lord and
the woman. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto 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. We worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Here our Lord establishes that the worship on Gerizim was not divinely instituted worship. It was humanly contrived and humanly promoted worship. He says you worship that which you know not, we worship that which we know.
Jerusalem worship is mandated worship. Jerusalem worship is divinely instituted worship. But the hour comes and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such doth the Father seek to be His worshipers.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Well, here our Lord clearly announces that under the new covenant, the hour is coming and now is when worship will undergo some radical changes. No longer will it be tied to a specific place geographically. And it will partake of dimensions that will be characterized by spirit, either the internalization of that worship or the presence of the Holy Spirit, and by truth in its fullness and final and consummate revelation in the Lord Jesus and His apostles. And when we turn then to the documents of the New Testament, we do not find, as we do in the documents of the Old Covenant, chapter after chapter giving specific details about every facet of public worship. We find no detailed rubric of New Covenant worship in one concentrated section. Everything is to be adapted to the mandate of New Covenant communities
established in the New Covenant. Everything is to be adapted to the mandate of New Covenant communities established in the New Covenant. Among tafne, among all the nations. And so the commission of Matthew 28, as it were, determines this flexibility in many of the specific details of the worshiping community.
Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. There shall be one initiatory ordinance among all the nations, teaching them, them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. However, we do find some amazing statements concerning the nature and identity of the new covenant community as a worshiping people and also some very clear indications of authoritative apostolic directives concerning the regulation of that worship. Three of the most pivotal passages are 1 Peter chapter 2. Now, you see, we're talking about just a section of one chapter of one epistle in contrast to chapter after chapter in the book of Exodus and in the book of Leviticus. But in 1 Peter chapter 2, using the rich imagery from the old covenant showing the continuity, of many of the fundamental concepts, notice how worship now in the spirit and in truth
is elevated to a level of spirituality utterly unknown by the mass of the old covenant community. We read in 1 Peter 2, 3 to 10 as follows, Blessed be the God, sorry, chapter 2, verse 3, picking up the thread of thought, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable, to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame. For you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness, but for such as disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, for they,
stumbling at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were also appointed. But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies, the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who in time past were, in time past, were not, were not, were not, were not, were not, were not, were not, people, but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but have now obtained mercy. Now, without attempting anything like a careful exposition of the passage, what I want you to see and to highlight is this, that in describing the new covenant community under old covenant terminology, he brings together the concepts of the new covenant community community as the recipients of God's mercy, and their constitution as a worshiping assembly. And those are the two things that I want you to see in that passage. We often concentrate upon the truth that we are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that we are called
to show forth the virtues of the God who called us out of darkness into marvelous light, but overlook the previous imagery in which the people of God are likened to a spiritual house, and within that house to be God's new covenant priesthood in order to offer up new covenant sacrifices that are acceptable to God, through our great high priest, even the Lord Jesus Christ. So that the concept of the new covenant community and new covenant worship as defining that community are brought into the closest conjunction in these words of Peter. So you see our Lord's words coming to fulfillment, that the hour is coming, and now is. When the new covenant community described in one of their dominant characteristics, worshippers, they will be worshippers as living stones in a spiritual temple,
who function as an appointed priesthood in the offering up of spiritual sacrifices unto God. And you see the very fact that we are called living stones, built up, to a house destroys any notion of crass individualism. Passage must not be viewed atomistically, but it must be viewed corporately. And then in a parallel but much briefer passage, of course, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22, which the genius of the gospel is that by which God is constituting the new humanity, is described in this language, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19 to the end of the chapter, So then, you are no more strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the house of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom...
Then each several building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. And here the imagery of lesser temples comprising the greater temple, the corporate nature of our identity. as the new covenant community is underscored by the apostle. And then when he gives the marks of the true circumcision, here the church at Philippi was either about to be troubled or was being troubled by Judaizers. And when Paul strikes out against the heresy of the Judaizers, he said, do you want to know who the true circumcision are? Here is the mark of the true circumcision, Philippians 3.3.
We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God or who worship God in the Spirit. However you render it, this much is clear. The primary mark of a member of the true Israel is to be found in the realm of worship. Worshiping by the Spirit of God or worshiping God in the Spirit.
Corporate Worship in the Early Church and Apostolic Directives
And so though we do not have this detailed rubric of the worship of the new covenant community, we have passages such as these that throw the concept of worship and the new covenant community in their identity as priests offering sacrifices. These things are thrown into a place of first-rate prominence in the thinking of God. In the thinking of the New Testament writers. Now as this reality comes to birth, the corporate life of the community as a worshiping community is underscored in the events that precede and attend and immediately follow the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And while we do not take the position of total discontinuity between the people of God under the old covenant and the people of God under the new, we do believe that something radically new was begun at Pentecost. And you men who've had your ecclesiology and Christology courses are well grounded, I trust, in the rationale for that. But as God is about to break in with this new dimension of redemptive life
and power and the identity of His new covenant community, it's interesting how corporate worship is brought to the fore. Turn to Luke 24, verses 50. Ignored passages in the post-resurrection life of our Lord and what I would call the pre-Pentecost life of the people of God. Verse 50 of Luke 24, after our Lord gives a summary of the message that is to be preached among all the nations and reiterates the promise of the coming of the Spirit, notice Luke's dispensation of the people of that moment ends in bless them.
While carried up into heaven,
a new covenant comes.
Read in the next verse, came to pass while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually gatherings in the upland of His community. It is not yet by the new living temple as it were identity unto the truth. The transition of begin the temple gather in that earthly and they returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olives which is nigh to Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey off and when they were come in they went into the upper chamber
where they were abiding. Peter and John and James and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew and James, etc. Verse for unanimity. It was identity steadfastly and brethren of God.
In the context of those latter verses of Luke their blessing of God had to do with the things they had come to understand concerning their resurrected Lord. Vision of Him.
Now we find them also isolated from the community of those in the temple and in this place called the upper chamber where they are found together praying, waiting upon God. And in the next paragraph we read, how they attended to the business of appointing a substitute and replacement for Judas. Then chapter 2 and verse 1. Now when the day of Pentecost was come in one place suddenly from heaven the sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind and it filled all the house on their face agonizing and pounding the floor and pleading eyes together
and identity and dynamics.
Sooner does God come to enlarge that the result of the coming of the Spirit the attention getting influence of their speaking in other languages and Peter's preaching and the work of the Spirit.
At the end of that day verse 41 of Acts 2 then that they that received His word were baptized were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls and in this summary statement we have as it were the essence of the worshiping community and they continued fellowship and so the day of Pentecost as it were the description of it ends not with their individual homes and describing their individual joy enlargement made up of living stones still company within that living temple gauged offering up the sacrifices of praise and petition and intercession. As we read through the New Testament documents it becomes evident that under the guidance of the Apostles the New Covenant community
is given divine directives respect to such matters as special day early chapters of Acts because many were gathered for these feast days they were meeting daily but that does not become the universal practice of the apostolic churches. It is not wrong for the church in God's name to have unusual circumstances to meet daily but it becomes evident that the universal apostolic practice is there is the special day for corporate worship the first day in verse 7 by the time the writer to the Hebrews writes his exhortation Hebrews 10.25 forsake not the assembling of yourselves together the assumption is they knew when to assemble with the rest of God's people then we not only find under apostolic guidance, the special day of corporate worship,
11.17 and following.
The apostle indicates that he delivers to the people of God that which he received concerning the Supper of Remembrance. 14. The directives concerning the exercise of these gifts tended for public edification. In 16.1 and 2, the receiving of the collection for the saints to one prehensive Colossians 3.16 of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Hebrews 10.24 and 25.
The gathering together to provoke unto love unto good work.
Galatians 1 and verse 3. We're gathered to hear the reading of letters or at least specimen passages for everyone to indicate that though we do not have gathered together in one place as under the old covenant, a detailed rubric of the worship of the new covenant community, nonetheless there is sufficient data to convince us that the course I've indicated you get more definitive teaching in this subject in your ecclesiology course systematics. I think this has been enough to butt this that you and I must have a well-privileged no higher than those which you and since many of you will be instrumental in starting churches, your perspectives will set the tone on these matters,
The Regulative Principle: Definition and Confessional Basis
perhaps for decades to come. So if you're not settled that the public worship of God is a divine institution in the new covenant as clearly and patently as it was in the old, then you wrestle this thing thrown. through to a resolution in your own mind and heart. But now closely related to and growing out of this first perspective is the second and equally important, and it's this.
You must have a well-grounded conviction concerning what is called the regulative principle in relationship to the ordering of the corporate worship of God. You must have a well-grounded conviction of what is called the regulative principle in relationship to the ordering of the corporate worship of God. As the first perspective points to the divine authority in the institution of corporate worship, the second points to that authority as it relates to the specifics of the corporate worship. The worship itself.
The first principle establishes that we should gather. The second, what we should do when we gather. You see, some are convinced that the corporate worship of God's people is indeed a divine institution. Therefore, their consciences would never allow them to do away with the corporate worship of God's people.
However, having gathered, they are relatively... relatively free to do what they will and what they choose when gathered.
I'm asserting that if we're to think biblically about the subject of the corporate public worship of God's people, we must not only have a well-grounded conviction that corporate worship is an institution of God, but a well-grounded conviction of what is called the regulative principle in relationship to the ordering of the worship of God. Now, what is the regulative principle, and on what scriptural evidence does it rest?
Well, the regulative principle is very succinctly and repeatedly stated in the old confession of faith that we love, and these parts are not altered except for some of the Elizabethan English in the revision of the confession that we are proposing. For example, in the chapter on scripture, paragraph number six, we read, "...the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new......"
The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for faith and life. Well, surely, a vital element of our life as the people of God is our divinely mandated worship. Our confession states that the whole counsel of God is set down or necessarily contained, in scripture. Now, that does not mean, as the next paragraph under paragraph six states, that we have a detailed rubric of every single last jot and tibble.
Nevertheless, we acknowledge that there are some circumstances, notice, circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church, common to human actions in societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian principles. According to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed. So, here a distinction is made between circumstances and essence.
And that's a vital distinction. Furthermore, in chapter 22 of our confession, paragraph number one, the light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is just, good, therefore to be feared, loved, praised, etc. But, the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.
Paragraph five, the writers of our confession specify those things prescribed in Scripture that constitute the essence of divinely mandated worshipping activities. The reading of the Scriptures, preaching, hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, as also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence and godly fear. Moreover, solemn humiliation with fastings, thanksgiving, upon special occasions, ought to be used in a holy and religious manner. So you see, the framers of our confession both understood and applied the regulative principle with respect to God's worship and even went to the specific things that God has mandated as that which would have included his worship. And furthermore, you will find in the section dealing with the doctrine of the church, paragraphs five and seven, I won't take the time to read it,
The Regulative Principle: Essence vs. Circumstance and Scriptural Grounds
but the basic thrust of those paragraphs is that the authority of Jesus Christ through his word is sufficient to guide us in all the ways of our obedience unto him. So what is the regulative principle? Well, in the language of our confession, it is the concept that every person, that every person, that every person, that every person, that everything in the worship of God is to have specific mandated warrant from the word of God. To use the language of Thornwell, writing in volume four, page 248, this is what he says. In public worship indeed, in all commanded external actions, there are two elements, a fixed and a variable. The fixed element, involving the essence of the thing, is beyond the discretion of the church. The variable, involving only the circumstances of the action, its separable accidents, may be changed, modified, or altered according to the exigencies of the case.
The rules of social interaction and of grave assemblies in different countries vary. The church accommodates or arrangements so as not to be a burden to the church. To revolt to the public sense of propriety. Where people recline at their meals, the church would administer the Lord's Supper to communicants at a reclining attitude.
Where they sit, she would change the mode. Dr. Cunningham, the noble principal of the Free Church College at Edinburgh, and one of the finest divines of Europe, has not scrupled amid the light of 19th century to teach the same doctrine. And then he quotes Cunningham.
Of the views generally held by the reformers on the subject of the organization of the church, there are two which have always been offensive to men of a loose and latitudinarian tendency. That is, the alleged unlawfulness of introducing into the worship and government of the church anything that is not positively warranted by Scripture and the permanent binding obligation of a particular form of church government. He says, wherever people don't like taking the Bible seriously, these two things are. When you say in the worship of God we include nothing but that which is mandated, and in the government of the church we will not govern ourselves in any other way not mandated by Scripture. And then Cunningham goes on to identify that mentality as it has come to expression, in the Lutheran and Anglican section of the Reformed Church who take the latitudinarian view, and then of course in the Presbyterian and there at Geneva under Calvin and thankfully in the English Baptists who had their theological roots in Geneva and their ecclesiastical roots, we believe, more thoroughly embedded in the Scriptures in understanding the uniqueness
of the New Testament. The New Covenant community and therefore the difference of course in the matter of baptism and the identification of the community, but that's a secondary issue when it comes to the matter that Cunningham is pressing. And what he is pressing is this concept of the regulative principle difficulties and differences of opinion may arise about details even when sound judgment and good sense are brought to bear upon the interpretation and application of the principles. But this does not afford ground for denying or doubting the truth or the soundness of the principle itself.
This is why when a Mr. Donnelly comes among us he can worship with a free and open heart in our midst. Though his conscience will not allow him in his understanding of the application of the regulative principle to sing an uninspired hymn by Herodotus Bonar. He can worship without a grieved spirit among us because he knows as he told me that in our singing an uninspired hymn of Bonar or Wesley we are singing it in the conviction that it fulfills the mandate of Colossians 3.16 and we are therefore singing it in the framework of the regulative principle. Now his conscience differs in the application of the principle. He and his covenanter brethren cannot sing uninspired hymns in public worship. We can but we are agreed in the principle you see that we believe we have exegetical biblical warrant for what we are doing and that's the essence of the regulative principle.
And in the matter of the regulative principle no man who's written responsibly on it no church that is sought to apply it has failed to make a difference between the essence of a warranted activity and the circumstances of that activity. For example prayer is of the essence of a mandated activity. I will first of all that prayers intercession supplication giving of thanks be made for all men 1 Timothy 2.1 Now shall we sing shall we stand shall we sit shall we kneel shall we lift our hands those are of the circumstances not the essence and so we can apply it in other areas as well. When it says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching one another admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord shall we sing with a five note scale or an eight note scale that is of the circumstances of obedience to Colossians 3.16 not of the essence.
Shall we sing without any musical accompaniment or shall we have a piano to help us keep in unison so that with in the language of Romans 15 with one voice we shall glorify God and in obedience to the command make his praise glorious. Our piano is there with the conviction that there are biblical principles that mandate it. If we were not of that conviction it wouldn't be there. But I've been in other circumstances where it wasn't piano but a little hand organ the little bellows over in Pakistan.
Well you see those are of the circumstances but not of the essence. Now on what scriptural grounds does this matter of the regularity of principle ultimately rest?
On what scriptural grounds does it ultimately rest? I've tried to describe it for you rather than give a formal definition.
On what grounds does it rest?
Well here I would refer you to the words of James Bannerman again volume one of his work on the Church of Christ and at the bottom of page 324 he writes in what manner man as the creature of God is to hold intercourse with him for the purpose of worship in what form or by what methods he is to express his natural duty of honoring and adoring his maker by what positive institutions or in what appointed way he is left to draw near in religious service to God all this has not been left to the wisdom or invention of men to regulate but has been determined and ruled by God himself. And then Bannerman goes on to articulate what to me was the most helpful succinct scriptural grounds on which the regulative principle rested I ever found. Listen carefully now as I read from page 326. After the fatal separation between man and God occasioned by the fall it remained for God and him alone to say whether he would ever again permit the approach of man to him in the way of worship and if so
it remained for God and for him alone to prescribe the terms and to regulate the manner of the approach.
Once man banished himself as it were from the presence of God through his sin and was banished from the presence of God it was left for God to say whether he'd ever welcome him back into his presence and for God to dictate and determine by what manner man would approach him. And then in the following section he takes the argumentation that I used earlier with reference to showing that worship is a divine institution and demonstrates that the people of God in the old covenant were not left to themselves to determine how best they could worship Jehovah. God prescribed his worship and God very clearly set the guidelines for his worship and then instituted some frightening sanctions if they were in any way to disregard those directives. And then he summarizes after making a statement of the institution of worship in the New Testament in short in no one age since the first sinners in no one age since the first have sinners been left to their own devices or option in regard either to the duty or manner of social worship. Nor could it be so.
The sinner may not dare to approach to God even for the purpose of worshiping him except according to the example expressed manner that he has laid down. And then he goes on to give the specifics of those things which are mandated by the scriptures. You see brethren one of the great problems we have in our day is that men simply don't believe that the church is the living temple of the living God. It's God's house in which God makes the rules and dictates the terms and the manner in which his people are to draw near to him.
Application of the Regulative Principle: Avoiding Strange Fire
And we have a multitude of Nadabs and Abihus offering strange fire upon God's altar and I believe it is a manifestation of the infinite patience of God that he does not cause the ground on which many a so-called church building sits to open up and swallow up the ground on a Sunday morning with all the foolishness that goes on in the name of worship. It is a witness to the infinite patience of Almighty God in the face of the impudence of man the creature. So by way of application let me say as we bring to a conclusion our concern with regard to this matter of the regulative principle that there is a text of scripture that has burned its way into my heart and I've found it helpful over the years that when I read it and I stand to lead the public worship of God I want to be able to say in answer to the question of Isaiah 1.12 who has required this at your hand to be able to say Lord I bring in concert with your people that which you have required at my hand. Therefore I can bring it in faith I can bring it in the plea that you will accept it through the mediation of your son
that it will not be an insult or an affront to you. Why? Because Lord you have required it at my hand. And if you have any doubt that you are leading the people to bring something that God has not required then whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Romans 14.23 And you better hold off including that element in the worship until your conscience is satisfied in the light of the Word. It is the Word of God that God Himself has required it. And that may mean you'll have to do a thorough study on something as some people would say as inconsequential as the public Amen in the worship of God.
And if you get the tapes from our tape library and you're welcome to get them on the Amen in the public worship I did two studies on gathering the biblical data until it became a matter of clear conviction to me and my fellow elders that not only was the corporate Amen permissible but it was mandated by God and therefore we could urge our people to enter into it on the basis that God requires it of His gathered people. And if some of you have never done a study on it I hope you'll do that so you'll be able to add your Amen as an act of faith and of obedience unto God. So let's break at this point brethren and then we'll pick up the next two principles and obviously it will not take me anywhere near as much time to deal with them. These first two are the most crucial in this whole subject of the public worship of God having a well-grounded conviction about public worship or corporate worship as an institution of God and a well-grounded conviction regarding the regulative principle in the public worship. So let's break now it's 12.20 let's start promptly at 12.30
alright?
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is central to understanding the shift in worship from the Old to the New Covenant, emphasizing worship in spirit and truth over geographical location.
This passage is expounded to describe the New Covenant community as a spiritual house and royal priesthood, highlighting their corporate identity and function in offering spiritual sacrifices.
This passage, along with subsequent chapters, is used to demonstrate God's detailed institution of corporate worship in the Old Covenant, setting a precedent for divine regulation.
Texts Expounded
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