Practical Helps to Enhance the Quality of Public Worship

Pastor Martin's Confession and Request for Forgiveness

0:02 Just a couple of verses from the book of James, and then say several things, and then we will pray together again and move into our lesson for the morning.

0:16 In James chapter 3, James set apart for the ministry of the word and even an instrument through which God brought us a portion of his infallible word, writes, Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. For in many things we all stumble. And here is a man in the place of great privilege, even the privilege of being an instrument of direct revelation that became inscripturated revelation, and yet he says, in many things we all stumble. And then he focuses upon.

1:00 He focuses upon the stumbling that comes through our words. And the scripture says, in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, therefore those of us who speak the most words will have the most sin to confess with respect to our words. And for those of you who were present at the prayer meeting this past Wednesday, you will remember that among the reports from the various churches, there was a letter from Pastor Kent Thompson relative to the visit. To you.

1:30 In the midst of making those comments, I said something, first of all, along the lines that in trying to affirm the worth of that congregation, I said to Pastor Thompson that if I did not have other and greater responsibilities back in New Jersey, I'd count it a privilege to come and minister to those people. Well, there were several who were offended at those words, two women in particular who spoke. They spoke of their offense to me and said that they gave the decided impression that I was somewhat of a hireling, that if I could just give up my responsibilities with a good conscience, I was not bound in love to you people above the love and desire I felt to minister to those people in Yazoo City. And for any others who received that impression, I ask your forgiveness for the careless use of words in leaving you vulnerable to any impression. That I have anything other than a deep, growing, God-given love for you, and as I have said on hundreds of occasions, there is no people on the face of the earth to whom I would rather minister than you, the Lord's people here, and God giving me the strength and grace to warrant the privilege I intend to live and die in the fellowship and ministry of this assembly.

2:54 But if two women who are not picky women were offended, there may have been others, and I ask your forgiveness if offense was given. And then one of my fellow elders did not take offense at that statement, but judged that the manner in which I spoke of the lack of enthusiasm on the part of some of you was indeed a form of scolding, and scolding is defined in the dictionary as finding fault angrily to rebuke or to chide severely. And again, knowing the...

3:30 Goodwill and the discernment of my fellow elder, if he receives such an impression, then I have to believe that that impression was given to others, and for any who receive that impression, I take upon myself the blame for giving that impression as I have searched my heart before God. I was not conscious of a carnal, scolding spirit within, but that does not mean that our indwelling sin...

4:00 The sin always rises to the level of the consciousness, and I have sought God's forgiveness for the sin that may have been and obviously was involved if it caused offense to any, and I ask forgiveness, for there is never justification for carnal scolding of the people of God. Now, I am thankful that amidst the sense of grief that I should cause pain to some of God's people through carelessly speaking. And perhaps unwittingly allowing aspects of my own remaining sin to be expressed, God did give me some comfort by sending me a letter from one of our more sensitive sheep, a woman whom I have known for many years in this fellowship, and she wrote, saying, I want to thank you for every concern for us as the children of God. The exhortations given to us in the prayer meeting were much needed. Each of us, if honest, must acknowledge how easy it is to become complacent. I am grateful that God has given me a letter from one of our more sensitive sheep, a woman whom I have known for many years in this fellowship, and she wrote, saying, I want to thank you for every concern for us as the children of God.

5:00 The exhortations given to us in the prayer meeting were much needed. Each of us, if honest, must acknowledge how easy it is to become complacent. I am grateful that God has given me a letter from one of our more sensitive sheep, a woman whom I have known for many years in this fellowship, and she wrote, saying, I want to thank you for every concern for us as the children of God. The exhortations given to us in the prayer meeting were much needed.

5:06 Each of us, if honest, must acknowledge how easy it is to become complacent. I am grateful that God has given me a letter from one of our more sensitive sheep, a woman whom I have known for many years in this fellowship, and she wrote, saying, I want to thank you for every concern for us as the children of God. Each of us, if honest, must acknowledge how easy it is to become complacent. in Christian love, signed.

5:13 Well, for those of you who put the best construction on it and who were not offended, I thank you for your love that overlooked my sin. For any who were offended, I know not what to do but to say, please forgive me and assume that you do extend your forgiveness. If you find that you cannot, then please come to me. If you don't come to me, I will assume I am a forgiven man and can enter into the ministries even of this day with a good conscience before God and before men.

5:44 Now let us pray again and ask God's blessing and the grace of His Spirit that we may not sin in word.

5:54 Our Father, we do take our posture with James, the privileged man of God, and confess in many things we all offend. And how we thank you for a Savior who ever lives to represent us at your right hand and for your promise, which declares, if any man sin, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and He is propitiation for our sins. O Lord, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that goes on cleansing us from all sin. And O Father, I thank you for your cleansing of my sin and pray that in any heart where offense was caused, there may be forgiveness, forgiveness extended, that we may put this matter behind us and press on to the things that are before. Bless us in our study of the word of God this morning. And O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight. O God, our strength and our Redeemer.

Transition to New Studies and Introduction of Sermon Topic

7:07 Amen.

7:14 Now those of you who attend the class regularly know that we have completed, our series of studies on the subject of the training of our children. Not that our need for instruction has been terminated. Not, I trust, that we have closed off our minds to receive further light from the word of God and from those who would instruct us both in living ministries, ministries on tape and books. But as far as this class is concerned, our present studies in that subject have come to an end.

7:46 And God willing, within the next couple of weeks, there will be a new unit of study that will cover probably at least a year and a half. And that will be what will eventually be called our pre-membership and post-membership class. Materials that we will lay before all prospective members for 13 weeks before they are actually brought into membership. And then material they will all receive for at least 40 to 42 weeks after they're received into membership.

8:18 And somewhere in between that, classes will be given over to going through the revised constitution. So that's the agenda for probably at least the next year and a half in the adult class. However, in this transition period, there are two matters that I will be addressing, God willing, before we return or before we turn to these announced subjects. Today, we take up the first and I have entitled it stating, it is positively as I know how and I hope my spirit has been thoroughly purged of any carnal negativism, practical helps to enhance the quality of our public worship.

9:01 Now, isn't that sweetly positive? Practical helps to enhance the quality of our public worship. Now, seriously, as we take up the subject, let me, by way of introduction, remind you of the great importance of the worship of God according to the word of God. And this is just a reminder.

The Paramount Importance of Public Worship

9:24 How important is the worship of God to God himself? Well, first of all, I remind you that God the Father's great quest is a quest for proper worshipers. For in John chapter 4, our Lord Jesus himself declares to the woman at the well and through that declaration, to us, verse 23, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. God is on a great quest not for worshippers who will give some kindness of worship to him, but he is on a quest for those who will worship him as he ought to be worshipped even in spirit and in truth. And then the importance of God's worship is seen secondly by God's identification of his true people and in that identification he says that their experience as worshippers constitutes one of the distinguishing marks that they are his true people.

10:50 Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3. For we are the circumcision. We are the true covenant people of God who worship by the spirit of God who glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. One of the three distinguishing marks of the true people of God, the spiritual circumcision of the true Israel is that they worship God by the spirit.

11:26 So this is a vital issue if it is one of the distinguishing marks of a true Christian. And then thirdly, the great end for which we were incorporated into the church of God conceived of as a living temple is that within that living temple as a new covenant priesthood we should be active in the church. And of course I refer here to the teaching in 1 Peter 2 and verse 5 in which Peter declares to us that you 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. Now how important must the matter of worship be if the great end for which we are a church of God which we were incorporated into the living temple as living stones was that within that temple we as a new covenant priesthood should offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. So in expressing a concern for the quality of our worship we are not taking up a secondary concern but one which lies at the very nerve centers of true religion. And in the relative sense that we have this morning and I do want to limit this

Category 1: Preparation for Public Worship (Remote and Immediate)

12:52 to this one Lord's Day morning that's the mandate I have for my fellow elders consider with me three simple categories related to enhancing the quality of our public worship. And then at the end I will give some recommended literature and audio cassettes for those of you determined to pursue this matter further. First of all then the category that I address on the front end is what I'm calling very simply preparation for public worship. Having dealt with that then we'll deal with engagement in public worship and finally enablement for public worship.

13:37 Preparation, engagement, enablement. First of all then preparation for public worship. Now the idea of conscious specific, peculiar preparation for public worship was deeply embedded in the old covenant system of public worship. All one need do is read through the book of Leviticus and he comes away with many dominant impressions.

14:04 One of them certainly would be this that God's worship was pretty serious business to God. And all who were connected with it from the high priest to the serving priest to the ordinary worshipper who came with his sacrifice or his offering that preparation for the specific dimensions of worship mandated by God was an absolute necessity. You could not run out thirty seconds before you were to go up to offer a sacrifice and grab the first lamb that you put your eyes upon. It had to be a male.

14:40 It had to be without blemish. You had to take careful specific preparation for acceptable worship unto God. And in the chapters such as 2 Chronicles 35 time will not permit us to turn to it and look at all the passages but in verses 10, 14, 15 and 16 in the reinstitution of the Passover the word prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare comes over and over again underscoring that with reference to that one instituted element of the power of God. Of the public worship of the people of God preparation was essential.

15:22 Now under the more spiritual and less ritualistic and external economy which is now the new covenant worship preparation is nonetheless needed and that in two categories. The first I'm calling remote preparation. The second immediate preparation. Remote and immediate.

15:46 And I've chosen the words not to be clever but to try to give you a handle by which you can reflect week by week as the Lord's day approaches and ask yourself have I engaged in remote and immediate preparation for worship. Now when I say remote preparation I'm referring to the preparation that actually precedes the dawning of the Lord's day itself. And in our confession of faith in chapter 22 dealing with religious worship and the Sabbath day there is a beautiful description of this remote preparation that precedes the Lord's day. Listen as I read a section of paragraph 8.

16:32 The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men after after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs aforehand we would say beforehand do not only observe a holy rest etc. But you see the framers of our confession tell us that it is impossible to keep the day as it dawns from dawn until the end of that day holy unto the Lord unless there is due preparation of heart and ordering of common affairs aforehand. That's the remote preparation as well as the immediate. And this means that for most of us we ought to consider and I've chosen my words carefully so that I'm not binding your conscience where I don't have chapter and verse. For most of us we ought seriously to consider regarding supper time on Saturday as the time when remote preparation begins in a concentrated way so that normal innocent and perhaps even for some necessary TV watching is questionable

17:59 as to whether or not it contributes to that due preparation of forehand for the Lord's special day. It means that moms and dads must work together to make sure that the Lord's day morning is something other than a shambles of flurried activity because at the last minute Susie has no socks to match her dress and Johnny has no shirt that is ironed and dad has no trousers that are pressed and Sunday morning becomes a flurry of innocent activity in itself but activity which not only occupies the time and turns us into a society of Martha's but often agitates the spirit because the husband says honey why didn't you have that shirt ironed and the mother's chiding herself why didn't I do that load of dark clothes well you should have thought of that Saturday afternoon or Saturday night and it's too late Sunday morning as a matter of testimony even when our children got to the age of serious courtship let alone dating we had a 10 o'clock curfew on Saturday night and a lot of courtship on Saturday night and a lot of courtship on Saturday night and a lot of courtship on night. I don't care who it was. A son-in-law who's a preacher, we laugh about it now, come ten o'clock, he was there at the house, out he went. And if he were somewhere with my

19:26 daughter and did not show up at ten o'clock, he was in big bad trouble. Why? This was an attempt to follow the direction of our confession which embodies a multitude of biblical principles as well as precepts to make that remote preparation for the Lord's day. So that there is a sense of holy excitement and solemn anticipation that sort of pulses through the whole household from Saturday suppertime right on through to bedtime and on into the Lord's day. I believe for some of you, the institution of practical expressions of remote preparation would be to radically transform the quality of your worship in this place every Lord's day. Please make an effort at it and then prove me wrong. And I will gladly testify that you are the great exception. Because I have found over many years, wherever I've been in the company of people who find profit as a consistent input from the Lord's day, one of the marks is their household is clean.

20:41 Clearly set apart as one in which there is this remote preparation as a matter of conscience before God. But then there is immediate preparation. And what do I mean by immediate preparation? Well, I mean the preparation that attends the Lord's day itself. Rising early enough to have something other than agitated bedlam in order to get everyone ready. Oh yes, the suits and the socks. And the dresses and the trousers may all be laid out and the shoes are all shined. But if you don't allow enough time to get the socks and the shoes on and out the door, you have agitated frenzy. And the spirit is not in a frame to worship the living God. And

21:29 often it's only the difference of 10 to 15 minutes on the alarm clock. And I think it can be proved that that additional 10 to 15 minute sleep, gained or lost, makes no fundamental difference to anyone physiologically. An hour's difference might. Two hours' difference certainly will. And some of us who preach and often have early preparation Sunday morning can tell you three hours certainly does take its toll. But 15 minutes is not going to make a difference with any of us. I believe that could be medically attested. But oh, what a difference it can make between a quiet, calm, peaceful preparation of body and of soul, as opposed to the bedlam of agitation.

22:14 You'll have time to do as David said. Oh, Lord, in the morning, thou wilt hear my voice. In the morning, I will direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. And I fear that there may be many of you who don't spend so much as even five minutes alone with God Sunday morning, praying that God will prepare your heart to have large thoughts of God and warm and devotional thoughts of Christ.

22:44 The sensitivity to the Spirit and praying that God will come upon our public worship and come upon his servants who lead us, come upon the unconverted with conviction. I think it would embarrass us if we were to have an honest show of hands. How many of you did not spend five minutes in secret, in quiet waiting upon God before you came here this morning? You did not make that immediate preparation of your heart as our confession has embodied the biblical message.

23:14 The biblical principles. And my conscience does not trouble me that I'm not citing dozens of texts. I simply don't have time to. And if you're familiar with your Bible, you know that there are texts upon texts which underscore these principles. So rising in time to make sure that the necessary affairs of eating and dressing and getting out the door are done with a quiet, orderly calm as opposed to an agitated bedlam. Rising in time to make time to at least have brief season to wait upon God. Leaving in time that you don't have to violate your conscience by driving 60 miles an hour in a 40 mile an hour zone. Then in the car on the way to church, singing hymns. It's one of the most precious memories we

24:05 have of our family life. I can still go over the hymns that we memorized, driving first of all to Caldwell for many years, and then the later years, driving here. Some of my soul thou Savior dear. Majestic sweetness sits in throne. Jesus thou joy of loving hearts.

24:22 And all of the stanzas come to me in my devotions. They come in times in preaching. All of them were memorized driving to church. And the kids loved it. That's a good time to go over catechism questions that may be appropriate to worship. Scripture memory that the kids may have for their Sunday school class. To do a last minute review. What are you doing?

24:42 There is immediate preparation. We are going up to the house of God. To the place of congregated worship. And then arriving

24:54 and setting our minds upon having dealings with God. Not with one another. Oh yes, being civil in our greeting. But especially between Sunday school and Sunday morning. Making it evident that we don't come here as a social club. We come as a worshiping community. And while again we would not set legalistic scriptures upon our church. We would not set religious on you, it should be evident that preparing your heart to meet God is more important than verbal exchanges with your closest human friend on these premises. And we need to remember the necessity of the immediate preparation. This is why, among other reasons, we've allowed that half hour. Take care of the kitties, those that need to have their lunches, those of you that are borderline hypoglycemic need to have your banana or your sandwich or your crackers and peanut butter, whatever else. And God does not despise those things, nor do we. We'd love to see far more conscience about getting up out of that lobby and into

25:55 your places and quietly preparing to meet the living God. Frankly, there's too much jocular conversation. A stranger coming in would not think often, between 10.30 and 11, that people here were preparing to meet a glorious God.

26:15 This majestic, breathtaking God. I urge you to consider the immediate preparation between the services and then taking your place here in this building, in this room, and reading a psalm, bowing your head in prayer, whatever is the particularly appropriate preparation that you need at that time, without any one of us telling you, here's six steps. No. Some morning, you're going to be ready. You're going to be ready. You're going to be ready.

26:46 Some morning, you're going to be ready. You're going to be ready. You're going to be ready. Some mornings, you may need to just go to the fountain, open for sin and uncleanness, because you blew it that morning. Everything was laid out. You did all your remote preparation.

26:57 But one thing you didn't factor into that was the busted shoelace when you were tying Johnny's shoes. Oh, I've had a Lord's Day almost turned on its head with a busted shoelace. And I had no extra shoelace. And here I was trying to tie a knot small enough that there was still enough room to get the thing through the six-eye loop. Lord's Day has been colored by a busted shoelace. You say, Pastor Martin, you're that carnal? Yes, I am. And so are some of you, if you didn't let it. So you may have to come in, and your preparation is, oh, God, forgive me for letting my spirit get all in a tizzy over a busted shoelace, and then for being irritated with the kids. Lord, I think I've got to whisper to the kids, and you lean over and whisper, Daddy's sorry for the way he acted before church. I'll talk to you more about it later. But Daddy's asked God to forgive him.

27:50 That may be the preparation one morning. Another morning, you may come in here so full of joy and of the Holy Ghost, you'll have to pray for grace not to get up and dance in the aisles. Because you know that that would be unseemly, and love does not behave itself unseemly. You know, some of us get so full of joy with a dance, you don't know how many times I've resisted dancing in this pulpit. My feet and legs said dance. Everything in my heart said dance. But my head, under the light of the word of God, said don't dance until you're in big bad trouble. So, we're not binding your conscience to any specific mode. All I'm suggesting is this practical help to enhance the quality of our public worship, and that is preparation, remote and immediate. But now, secondly, I want to address the matter of the engagement of all

Category 2: Engagement in Public Worship (Rejecting Passive Views)

28:49 of our redeemed humanity in every facet of our worship. Not only preparation, but also engagement. And by engagement, I mean putting into active gear all of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in all of the elements of public worship. And as I was wrestling with God, saying, Lord, help me to try to give to the people something they can hang these false concepts on, I believe God answered my prayer and helped me to think of some things in the realm of worship.

29:27 When we look at the new-found nature that you can relate to, some of you have a radically defected view of worship. You have what I'm going to call, first of all, the dry-leaf-on-a-windy-day view of worship. You say, Pastor Martin, didn't quite have enough food in your stomach. It's affecting your brain. What do you mean by the dry-leaf-on-a-windy-day concept of worship?

29:49 Well, when I look out my picture window from that lovely study of mine in Meadowbrook Lane, and we had a large, large tree at the back, and then the leaves had fallen, and when they had dried, the leaves fell off, and we had the tree in our presence. And that tree was and there's a windy day where the wind swirls. You see a leaf out there, a poor little lonely dry leaf, and the wind swirls this way and it'll go north. The wind swirls that way, it'll go west, it'll go south.

30:10 Wherever the wind takes it, the little dry leaf is glad to comply. Now that's the way some of you come to worship. You come like a dry leaf waiting for the heavenly wind. And if the heavenly wind blows you to enthusiastic singing on this Sunday, oh, you'll sing with all of your vigor.

30:28 You'll even work up a sweat singing.

30:32 But on another day, there's no wind, and you just mouth the words because you don't feel like praising God with your whole heart. You're waiting for the wind to blow you into enthusiastic praise, to blow you into careful attention to the word of God, to blow you into earnest agreement of heart with those who lead us in prayer. That's a defective view of worship. You're not a dry leaf in the wind.

30:55 Others have. I had the puppet hanging loose on Celestia String's view of worship.

31:01 You know how puppeteers work? Not the Muppet puppets. I mean weird puppets. Not this newfangled stuff.

31:07 I mean old puppets where the limbs were all attached to strings. And if you had your strings cut out here, up above it, people stood and worked all the little bars. But when the puppet had all the strings loose, he just hung there waiting. He couldn't do anything.

31:23 The strings were pulled. And when the strings were pulled, the topic of that, you see, that's the view some of you have of worship. You come, all of you is there, but you feel you're attached to the influences of the Spirit by Celestial Strings. And you're waiting for God and the angels to pull the strings.

31:43 And if the string that opens the mouth to praise is pulled down, and, oh, I really feel like, my friend, that's a terribly unbiblical view. You're not a puppet held by Celestial Strings when you come to worship. Then some of you have, you're a dry sponge passively waiting for heavenly dew and heavenly rain view of worship. You view yourself as a sponge.

32:08 Oh, yes, you put the sponge in the right place at the right time. But what's the sponge do? It's sitting there, dry, waiting for some dew to descend upon it. It'll absorb it.

32:17 And if rain comes, it'll absorb that very quickly. But it's totally passive. Now, I hope those three analogies, silly as they are, will get to your conscience. You're not a dry leaf in the wind, worshipper.

32:30 You're not to be a puppet at the end of Celestial Strings, worshipper. And you're not to be a dry sponge waiting for heavenly dew, worshipper. Even in the Garden of Eden, and this struck me with tremendous power and preparation yesterday, when God made it plain to Adam that in the cycle of his life, one day in seven was to be a day of a different kind, a day of rest from ordinary labor, but not a day of inactivity. And Adam, to have said, sanctified the day unto the Lord, would have, in a different kind of labor, been as active on his Sabbath as he was on the other six days.

33:11 Well, in the other six days, mind and faculties were engaged to dress the garden and to keep it. On the seventh, mind and faculties were engaged to span back and simply to admire the handiwork of God and then to engage all of the power, the powers of mind and soul in framing words to address to God praise and worship and adoration and thanksgiving. So it was not inactivity. It was labor-rest of a different kind.

33:50 But now how much more would the intrusion of sin and the reality of remaining sin in the heart of a believer, which viciously fights against all activities that are of God, that as John Owen has pointed out, the more spiritual any activity is, the more active is indwelling sin. And in a book that I highly recommend, and I'll say something more about it later, Gospel Worship by Jeremiah Burroughs, available in our bookstore, Burroughs says, there must be preparation because our hearts are naturally exceedingly unprepared for every good work. The duties of God's worship are high and spiritual and holy, but by nature our hearts grovel in the dirt and we are carnal, sensual, drossy, dead, slight, sottish, and vain, altogether unfit to come into the presence of God. And we need to recognize, brethren, that if we have the dry leaf in the wind, the puppet at the end of the string, the passage sponge mentality, we're never going to render acceptable worship. We need to have the discipline that the psalmist had when he said in Psalm 9, 1 and 2, with my whole heart, with the grace of the will

35:16 to engage the whole heart. And in terms of Jesus' answer to the question, what is the first and great commandment? The first and great commandment is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and what? Strength.

35:33 That means Adam in innocency would have, would have worshipped with the same vigorous strength with which he worked.

35:43 I say it without any sense of embarrassment. These lights contributing to it, yes. But when I stand as a worshipper where you're sitting and I sit where you sit, I sweat when I worship, even when I'm not in this puppet. Why?

36:01 Simply because one of the problems, I have very active sweat glands. I know that. But another thing is, I try to worship with all of my...

36:21 either a natural obligation or a sinful passion. I did it with all of my strength. God had less than the devil had.

36:30 If some of you gave to your work what you give to God on Sunday, you'd have been fired years ago. Your boss would have said, I can't stand your lazy bunch of bones around this place anymore. Get. Here's your pink slip in your severance pay.

Engagement in Worship: Intention, Affection, and Faculties (Burroughs)

36:44 Thank God he doesn't deal with us that way. But dear people of God, we need to engage all of our faculties and to whet your appetite for this book. And I'm sorry, Chuck, that I didn't tell you I was going to quote from it because I didn't know it till this week. So you couldn't get prepared.

37:00 I don't know how many are in stock. Chuck always lovingly and cheekily, not in the wrong sense, but tongue-in-cheek chides me when I recommend a book. He says, please warn me because if we don't have them in stock, we're in trouble. But in this lovely, helpful book, my wife and I have begun to start Saturday nights to read a portion of it and making our more remote, preparation for the Lord's Day, breaking off our regular devotional patterns.

37:28 He says, in this matter of preparation, three words are critical. Intention, affection, and faculties. And I like the use of those terms. Let me let Jeremiah Spurrow speak for himself.

37:42 We're talking now about the engagement of all of our faculties. He says, first of all, there is the strength of intention. We must intend our work as if it were for us. If ever we were seriously intentive or attentive about anything, it must be when we are worshiping the name of God.

38:04 When you're coming to pray, be intent about it. When you see some that when they're going about in the street, intent on their business, if their friends meet them, they give them no mind. In other words, they walk past them and say, sorry, I'm on business. My brethren, look upon every duty of worship as a great thing, which you must be intent in your thoughts, and not give way to the wandering of your thoughts.

38:28 I've read of one martyr that when he was to die and the fire was kindling, the officer said, what, will you not speak when you see the fire kindling? Said the martyr, I'm speaking to God. That is, he was praying and he minded not what at all they were doing. Oh, what little things take our thoughts away from holy duties.

38:50 When every toy, every feather, every light matter calls them off, is this to sanctify God's name? You see what he means by intention? He says we must come with mind and spirit, heart, the whole of our being, intent that we will allow nothing to walk God of worship that reflects a serious effort to worship Him with all the heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Let that intention be kindled as we prepare and sit in the presence of God and let it be renewed.

39:25 At the second or third stanza, if you begin to have a wandering mind, renew again. I came to place the whole sacrifice upon the altar. The left leg is jumping off. Lord, help me put it back on again so that the whole of my redeemed humanity is being offered up in the act of worship.

39:47 Then he says affection. What does he mean by that? Well, on page 132, he says strength of affection is required. That is, the affections must work mightily after God, striving with God in prayer.

40:01 If you ever had a heart inflamed with anything, it should be when you're praying or attending upon the Word, even as the heathens that worshiped the Son. There must be strength of affection. And then he uses a beautiful illustration. He says the air that comes out of our bellows is cold.

40:21 The air that comes out of the mouth of a living man is warm. And he said, but when our worship has no stirred-up affections, it is like the wind coming out of a bellows. It is cold. And the cold chill goes over the assembly.

40:36 But when there is warm affection stirred up by contemplation of the mercy of God, or as you heard last week by the unfathomable, immeasurable, incomprehensible love of God, or as you heard in the evening, the faithfulness of God to fulfill His purpose, what tools to inflame our hearts?

40:58 As I listened to those messages while working out, I almost threw away the accoutrements of a physical workout to fall on my face in worship. For they stirred my affections concerning my faithful and my loving God. The God whose purposes are so sure He speaks them as in the past tense hundreds of years before they come to pass. The God whose love encompasses eternity past and eternity to come.

41:29 Dear people, we need the engagement of the affections, but then, like a good practical puritan, he says there thirdly must be the strength of all the faculties. We should store up whatever we are or have or can do to work in our worship. The bent of the mind, the conscience, the will, the affections, and should be put.

41:56 It's not some strange, nutty idea that I have. If it's strange and nutty, they had it back in the 1600s as well. And those that worship God to purpose spend their bodies in nothing so much as in the worshipping of God. It will be a sad thing in another day when this may be charged upon some.

42:17 You've spent the strength of your body upon your lust, but when did you spend any strength of the body about any holy duty? And he says, for a lot this sounds like a mystery, but for the children of God they will understand. May I make several quick practical applications? Dear people, when the hymns are being played as you prepare for worship, if they're familiar hymns, turn to them in your hymn book and meditate upon them.

Practical Applications for Engagement in Worship

42:43 When the psalm is being read, many of you do this. I know you do. You anticipate the psalm and you read it Lord's Day morning because not a few of you have said to me on different occasions, why did you skip the psalm for the morning? I've had to say, well, we didn't have a portion of it in the Psalter in our own hymn book where I've had to say I just didn't see how it was appropriate at this present time given the present state of the congregation and I made a judgment that it might be best to take up the next psalm.

43:11 Some of you do that, but that's a way to get the mind engaged. And when the pianist is playing through the entire hymn, is that a performance? No, that's to give you an opportunity when we've announced the hymn to get your mind engaged with the words so that when we stand to sing them, mind and heart have preceded tongue. While I was musing, the psalmist said, the psalmist said, then spake I with my mouth.

43:36 That's musing time. That's not time to wait. Oh, maybe the heavenly strings will twitch on the third stanza. I'm waiting, Lord.

43:45 No! You get engaged. You're no puppet. And you bring your mind to those words and say, oh God, I want to be able to say that Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my breast.

43:59 Lord, make it true of me. Make it more true of me. Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts, Thou fount of life, Thou light of men, from the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again. Lord, it's true.

44:16 I've come from every fountain, legitimate and some of them illegitimate this week. And, oh Lord, it blots me empty. Do fill me with Yourself. So when the hymns play, follow, think through.

44:29 And when one leads in prayer, concentrate all of your faculties to follow, what they're saying to God on our behalf and as our mouthpiece. And that's why incumbent upon us who pray to try to pray in such a way that it is not difficult to follow the track of our thoughts. Not to have such long, complex sentences that the children cannot follow. And I'm speaking primarily to myself.

44:54 And I have to remind myself I'm not having my devotions in public. And what may be fully appropriate for devotional prayer because God never gets confused with my grammar. And with my run-on sentences. It might confuse the people of God when I'm their mouthpiece.

45:11 But you must engage your mind and there's no one who can pray so fervently and so eloquently with whole eloquence.

45:20 But that you must consciously and deliberately give your mind and your heart to engage God with the one who becomes our mouthpiece at the throne of grace. And when the word is being preached, sit up back against the chair. Take, breathe with all of the lungs. Not just off the top one third and get oxygen starved.

45:45 And if you need to bite your lip if drowsiness comes. I determined I would go through college never falling asleep in a class. And it meant sometimes I had bloody inside of my lip. You say that's extreme.

45:57 Well, you call it what you want. To me, it would have been shameful as a man let alone a Christian to fall asleep in a class. I was working hard to pay good money for that prof to teach me. That's what Paul meant when he said, I buffet my body.

46:12 I keep it under. And some of you, you get in so easily. You get dopey times coming on you at work. But you dare not slump your head on the desk and take a nap.

46:23 You know, you'd get fired. But you think God can be napped on? Shame on you. You have more regard for your boss than for God.

46:34 Shame on you. You say you're scolding? If that's scolding, I call it biblical rebuking.

46:41 Some of you need to take hold of yourself. Some of you, I talked with one brother Wednesday night. I had to play doctor and give him some dietary suggestions. He's got all the marks of being borderline hypoglycemic.

46:55 I tried to tell him how he could get a little protein into him that would metabolize over the long haul during the service so he wouldn't get dopey. And eat in a candy bar in the answer. Shoot the blood super way up and then, choom, down he comes and boom, down goes the head. So if you've got a physical problem, look into it.

47:11 But when the word is preached, enter into it. And dear people, when at the end of a hymn we sing the amen, that's not because we've gone formal. Amen means so be it. Lord, I meant every word of it.

47:23 And if I didn't when I said it, I mean it now. So the amen shouldn't be amen.

47:31 I mean, either you mean it or you don't. I mean, that's sort of taken away with the right hand when you give it to the left when it's amen. Or do you mean the man or the car? Well, leave no doubt.

47:42 Sing the amen.

47:49 And at the end of the prayer, has the one who's led us in prayer expressed the yearning of your heart, the grief of your heart, the pain of your heart, the joy of your heart? Leave any doubt. If you get too vociferous, we'll tell you. We haven't, over the years, we've only had one or two people we've ever had to speak to who were show-offs and said an amen so loud about everyone else that it appeared they were attracting attention themselves.

48:17 So don't assume it's too loud until somebody tells you. All right?

48:23 You ask yourself if everyone else affirmed that this was his expression of joy and praise and confession and intriguing before God with as much enthusiasm as I did, how much would the one meeting in prayer have to believe that he had been my mouthpiece?

48:42 And that's the disposition each of us ought to have. Not let Henry and George and Pete and Sally and Mary but, oh Lord, with all my heart I say amen.

Category 3: Enablement for Public Worship (Objective and Subjective)

48:56 You say, but I feel a little strange. I don't care what you feel like. And that to do with your feelings has to do with what God is worthy of in his worship. But then very quickly now in the last few minutes we ask the question having made by God's grace due preparation remote and immediate having sought and it will always be imperfect when you've had your best worship experience it will still need to be cleansed in Christ's blood it will be full of enough sin to send you to hell.

49:26 And so it comes to the question now what is the source of our enablement for worship? And I thank God that scripture makes plain there's both an objective and a subjective enablement for all the people of God. Just as we have an advocate above 1 John 2 2 and we have a paraclete an advocate a representative a pleader within Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 so when we worship we have Christ for us making our worship acceptable and we have the spirit within us making our worship acceptable. And here I commend to you Jeremiah Burroughs I don't have time to read it on the objective work of Christ making our worship acceptable pages 146 and 7 he takes the analogy from the Old Testament that it was the altar that sanctified the gift in other words when the altar had been properly consecrated and cleansed then when the worshipper brought his gift the moment his gift was placed upon that altar it was set apart it may have been common meal it may have been a common animal but once it touched the altar it was sanctified set apart and made acceptable to God he said Christ is our altar and when our worship is offered up upon his virtue and his merit it is the altar of Christ perfect work which sanctifies our imperfect worship through him therefore let us offer to God

50:55 the sacrifice of praise to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God how through him but then there is the subjective spirit within us making worship acceptable we are the circumcision of worship God by the spirit we worship in spirit and in truth and here Burroughs again uses a very fascinating illustration pages 138 and 139 he said for a coin to be acceptable coin in Bible days it not only had to be made of the right material it had to have the right superscription on it had to have Caesar's face on one side and I don't know what was on the obverse he said so that our worship it must not only be regulated in proper coinage material the regulative principle but it must have the right stamp upon it the stamp of the energizing presence and power of the Holy Spirit and dear people when we come to worship the source of our enablement to worship is objective Christ for us the spirit within us and with such provisions made at such a price there is no excuse for us not to be whole souled worshipers now very quickly and for those who get the tape and others of you I can give this to you personally if you don't catch it all I want to get it out I recommend Jeremiah Bell's

Recommended Resources for Further Study

52:24 gospel worship would even encourage those of you whose children are up into the junior age and early junior high school age to read a section each Lord's Day evening as part of your devotions that's only a recommendation and suggestion helpful hints these are not divine mandates and then if you struggle with wandering thoughts in worship Steele's book a remedy for wandering thoughts in worship by Richard Steele another old Puritan and just the introduction is enough to grab the heart of any true Christian you have here an antidote against the most common distemper of God's people in his worship my own disease caused me to study the cure the general complaint of good people against these Egyptian flies moved me to preach it and the common good of God's church not without request from them have persuaded me to publish it do not be offended that so much is written on so minute a point greater tracks on the fever gallstone or toothache whereby they might be certainly cured would not be thought too long if you were sick of any of these diseases he calls his wandering thoughts Egyptian flies and he said in trying to kill my own Egyptian flies I've written a book grown out of my preaching to help my people I highly recommend it and then Baxter volume one the Christian directory page 616 two pages that's all

Concluding Prayer and Dismissal

53:54 two pages but 20 helps to public worship you could take one of those a week on a Saturday night with your family several of them are irrelevant in our present situation but it's pure gold excellent material and then for tapes I suggest Pastor Fisher's two tapes on the regulative principle in worship his four tapes on the centrality of worship in the believer's life and then the series I brought a number of years ago on true worship and then another series on public worship and for those of you whose consciences aren't persuaded that you ought to say the amen in public worship there are two messages called the amen in public worship and I'm going to request of my fellow elders a decree that all of these be placed in our lending library if they're not there so that economics will not keep any of you from having them available to you if you feel the need for them well dear people that's what I want to lay before you under the heading of practical helps to enhance the quality of our public worship whatever has been true to the principles and precepts of the word of God and to sound judgment may the Lord enable us to lay to heart and to implement by his grace let's pray father we thank you for the great privilege of gathering for the public worship of your name we confess our many

55:23 sins of the sanctuary and we pray that even this morning we may be cleansed and then equipped to worship you as we ought help us oh help us our father and may we know your special grace attending even our most feeble effort as we offer it up through the Lord Jesus even as now we bring our request to you through him amen amen we're dismissed