Hindrances to Worship in the Worship Service

Introduction: The Foundation of God-Honoring Worship

0:04 Will you give attention to the reading of the Word of God as an introduction and background to this, our fourth study in this vital subject of that which constitutes God-honoring worship? Give attention, please, as I read, first of all, from the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 4. And I shall read through the first half of the fifth verse, Genesis 4, 1 through 5a.

1:01 And then over to the account of the giving of the law of God in Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 20, and I shall read verses 3 through 6.

1:41 Exodus chapter 20, verses 3 through 6.

1:46 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them. Thou shalt not serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

2:27 This evening, as we come to this fourth in a series of studies, dealing with guidelines for God-honoring worship.

2:38 In public worship, I would simply remind you of the ground we have already covered. We considered, first of all, the activities involved in public worship. And we ranged those activities under two major headings. That which we are to bring to God, and that which we are to receive from God.

3:03 Then this morning, we took up the second major area of concern. Namely, did we not? Namely, did we not? Namely, did we not?

3:09 Namely, did we not? Namely, did we not? And I gave you the premise, and then sought to support it from the word of God, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

3:40 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

4:40 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

5:40 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

6:41 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

7:41 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God.

8:43 And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. And I would say again, particularly for any who may be in the public, that the child of God, the true Christian, consciously engaging all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity, is the proper and appointed agent of rendering acceptable worship unto God. If you misunderstand this principle, if you willfully reject this principle, everything else will either be a matter of indifference to you or it will actually provoke hostility in you.

The Regulative Principle of Worship: God Dictates How He Is Worshipped

9:58 So I plead with you at the outset of our study tonight to gird up the loins of your mind and seek to grapple with this fundamental principle which undergirds the lines of thought that I propose to open up in your hearing tonight. Now, the fundamental principle is this, that public worship is nothing other than the manner in which sinners gathered in church fellowship are permitted in their corporate capacity to hold communion with God. Let me run that by you again. Public worship is nothing other than the manner in which sinners gathered in a church fellowship are permitted in their corporate capacity to hold communion with God. In other words, when we come to consider the context, the framework, the elements of public worship, we are dealing with the law of God with respect to worship. This is why I read the second commandment. For after God enunciates that he alone is to be worshipped, he moves very quickly to the directive saying, and I am to be worshipped only in the worship of God.

11:17 This is the way that I appoint. This is why I read from Genesis chapter 4, the experience of the first two sons born to our first parents is an experience in which their characters were revealed in the kind of worship that they brought to God. One man bringing worship that was commanded and revealed by God as acceptable, and the other bringing a form of worship for which there was, there was no biblical warrant from God as to its acceptableness by God. In the larger catechism, in the section dealing with the Ten Commandments, when the question is asked in question 109, what are the sins forbidden in the second commandment? This answer is given. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and in any wise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself.

12:29 Do you catch something of the force of that? What sins are forbidden in the second commandment? All devising, counseling, commanding, using, and approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself. Now Bannerman in his classic words, in his work on the Church of Christ has written perhaps what to my knowledge is the most perceptive statement of this principle, and I'm not going to read a lengthy quote to you, I'll sort of paraphrase as I go along.

13:07 But dealing with this very principle, he starts with this fundamental biblical perspective, that when man sinned, man shut himself off from communion and fellowship with God. Therefore the sinner has no right to dictate but must submissively learn from God the conditions and the manner in which God will permit his approach for the purpose of worshiping Him. Now you see what he's saying? Man in his original state was in communion with God.

13:42 Man sinned, cut himself off from fellowship with God. If that fellowship and communion is ever to be restored, God must take the initiative to restore it, and God maintains the right to say on what grounds it shall be restored, and by what means it shall be maintained. Now do you see the force of that principle? God dictates how the creature shall approach Him.

14:11 That He should even give an avenue of approach is grace. But in the exercise of grace, He does not leave the creature to the dictates of His own darkened mind. But He Himself solemnly and clearly lays out the terms of that approach. Debenhamin goes on to say, The path of approach to God was shut and barred in consequence of man's sin.

14:37 It was impossible for man himself to renew the communion which had been so solemnly closed by the judicial sentence which excluded him from the presence and favor of his God. Can man ever again hold communion with God? If so, on what terms will he hold communion? This was a question for God alone to determine.

15:02 The sinner could not, from the very nature of the case, presume to dictate to God either the conditions on which his communion with God ought to be allowed, or the manner in which it might rightly and properly be continued. The creature doesn't come to God and say, Now God, I'd like entrance into Your presence on these grounds, on these terms. I would like to hold conscious communion with You within this framework. No, no, says Debenhamin.

15:31 The creature has lost, never had, let alone to say lost, any such right to dictate to God. Now what is public worship? Public worship is an institution of God conceived in His own mind by which redeemed sinners may hold communion with Him. But God alone reserves the right to say, what are the means deposited in the framework of public worship which become instrumental to this communion of the redeemed sinner with God and of God with the redeemed sinner.

16:09 Then Bannerman goes on to say that just as Christ alone is the great prophet of the church, dictates what the church is to believe about God, so Christ alone reserves the right to dictate how the believer shall approach to God. And as the church in its office bearers has no more right to alter the doctrines of the Word, it has no right to alter the terms of the worship of the living God. That's the great principle that he opens up and then he goes on to develop with tremendous power any worship beyond the limits of Scripture direction is an approach to God unwarranted and unblessed. And any attempt at communion with God except through the regulated channel and authorized manner of such communion is presumptuous and unsanctioned. It is competent and necessary for the church in carrying out that principle not to devise or appoint new institutions of worship of its own, but to apply the directory for worship contained in Scripture

17:31 to new cases and emergencies as they arise. Now do you see the great principle? Has it registered? Do you catch something of the force of it?

17:42 The church is not at liberty either by congregational consensus or by ministerial legislation to dictate the context, the ingredients of public worship. That is not your right. It is not our right as elders. It is a right reserved to the God into whose presence we come in worship.

18:17 And surely the instance of the first two worshiping creatures, the first recorded instances of public worship ought to stand as a beacon light to all successive acts of worship. It is not enough that we bring something. We must be concerned that we bring the thing that God requires. We gather to render what He requires in the manner in which He requires it and to receive what He offers in the ways appointed by Him to give it.

Hindrance 1: The Intrusion of Carnal Aids to Worship

18:50 And with nothing else will we have anything to do. Now that is the fundamental principle. Now with that principle, undergirding our approach to this subject of the hindrances to worship in the framework of worship, I give you three things tonight. Number one, the first great hindrance to rendering acceptable worship in the context of worship is the intrusion of carnal, quote, aids, A-I-D-S, not A-Y-D-S that help you lose weight, but aids to worship.

19:26 The intrusion of carnal, quote, aids to worship. Often people say that they must have helps which impinge upon their senses in order to be a catalyst to the rendering of worship. That was the great thing God forbade in the second commandment. He says, in worshiping Me, the one true God, you are to worship Me only in the way of My appointment.

19:58 You are not to make images, and idols, and representations of what you think Me to be as an aid in your worship of Me. You are to worship Me only in the way of My appointment. And I have heard many times in my own day people who say, well, I find that a picture of Christ helps me to think of the person of Christ and to worship Him better. And the Roman Catholic says that fingering his crucifix helps him to think of Christ dying upon the cross for sinners.

20:34 And others say stained glass windows in which you have pictured events in the life of Christ and the great figures of the Old and the New Testament help them to render spiritual worship to the God who has spoken in His word of the apostles and prophets and Moses and these great figures who are pictured on the stained glass windows. When I was in the itinerant ministry which took me into many churches across the country and up in Canada, I can remember the shock when I would go into evangelical church after evangelical church and find in the Sunday school what they told me were worship centers. And there would be a little table that was sort of constructed like an altar with a nice pretty red velour shawl over it. And in the middle would be an open Bible and a couple of candles. And I'd say, what's this? They'd say that's a worship center We use that to teach the children how to worship.

21:33 We cannot encourage them to render spiritual worship without something that impinges upon their senses as the center of their worship. Now what are these? These are carnal intrusions into the purity of spiritual worship. God has given but two aids to worship that impinge upon any other senses but the sense of sight in Him.

22:01 Hear Him. Those are baptism and the Lord's Supper. In the preaching of the Word and in the attention upon that Word with the ears and if God has caused us to retain our sight as our eyes follow the living communication through the living communicator, God has ordained no other elements in His worship that impinge upon the senses. In baptism the water impinges upon the senses and in the Lord's Supper the bread and the fruit of the vine impinge upon the senses of touch and sight and taste but to intrude anything else as to dishonor the living God who has structured His worship in such a way that it does not need the assistance of carnal aids. He who has Christ revealed to his heart by the Spirit in all the magnitude and uncontainable glory of His person needs no Solomon's head of Christ with its rather saccharine, sentimental, far-off, dreamy look in the eyes to think lofty thoughts of His Savior. I abominate the pictures of my Lord that represent at best

23:28 but one little dimension of His uncontainable glory and then tell people they need such if they are to worship Him. The Scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians 4, 6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And when the Holy Spirit has stamped a picture of Christ upon the heart any external picture of Him is at best disgusting. What picture can capture the glory the majesty of the exalted Redeemer? The full spectrum of all that is glorious in our Savior from His compassion, His tenderness, His patience, His holy anger. It's utterly impossible. The Apostle Paul says Wherefore henceforth know we no man, after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yea, henceforth know we Him no more.

24:57 Even those who lived with Him in the days of His flesh did not remain as the object of their worship what they saw with their physical eyes. We are the true circumcision who worship by the Spirit. And the worship of those who were the companions of His flesh, did not terminate upon the maintenance of a mental image of His physical countenance. The living proof of that is Revelation chapter 1.

25:33 When John on the Lord's day has this vision of the exalted Lord and when he gets this apocalyptic vision of what his Lord now is in the state of glory, he does not snuggle up and put his head upon his bosom. He says, when I saw Him I fell at His feet as one dead. And isn't it interesting that that's to be the fruit of true biblical preaching upon the unsaved as well? For Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, if the unbeliever comes amongst you and through the opening up of the truth that opens up his heart, he comes to see himself, we read, he falling down upon his face will worship saying, God is of a truth among you. No, we need no carnal aids to worship. That's why many of us have found to our delight there's been no material difference to our worship, whether we worshiped in the other gymnasium auditorium or in this old auditorium or in our little cracker box that's a little more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, at least I think it is. I'm prejudiced to the red drapes, I guess, and to the red carpet.

26:52 But why need there be no material difference in the vigor and the reality and the God honoring quality of our worship because we do not worship under the impulse of carnal aids to worship. This is why in seeking to plan the interior of the building that at one time we thought we might build, may yet, we don't know what God will do, there was unusual simplicity of color, of design, of ornamentation. Why? No stained glass windows, no projection of a cross on the back wall, though it was suggested by the architect it was flatly and resolutely refused. Why? For this very reason. It's not a matter of our tastes, it's a matter of whether God will be worshiped under the impulse and catalytic influence of so-called aids to worship.

27:57 Ah, but you say, Pastor Martin, you remember the tabernacle? Yes, I do. That's right. And God Himself required ornateness in the tabernacle and the temple and that's why they made it.

28:15 But He has made no such requirement for the worship of the living temple made up with living stones in which spiritual priests offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. And all attempts to justify ornate, carnal aids to worship from the old economy are a Judaizing of the new covenant. Well, you remember it was the priest alone who saw most of that ornateness while the worshipper stood on the outside. Well, I hurry on to consider the second-grade hindrance to the rendering of acceptable worship under the category of the worshipping context and it's what I'm calling the inclusion of unwarranted activities in worship. The inclusion of unwarranted activities in worship. In securing the worship which He seeks, John 4, 24, the Father seeks worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth, God has revealed the manner in which this worship is to be rendered. Now, He has not given us a manual

Hindrance 2: The Inclusion of Unwarranted Activities in Worship

29:43 in the Scriptures, 12 pages long, with an order of service, with a statement as to how frequently the people of God should meet for public worship, how long the praise and the exposition and the prayers should be. No, He has not done this at all. And in the language of the old Westminster Confession, you may want to look at it in your hymnal on page 674, there is this classic statement that applies to the issue we're dealing with now. Page 674.

30:18 Page 674. Paragraph 6, up at the top of the page. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture. And then it goes on to say nothing is to be added.

30:50 Now, nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word. And, here's the second qualification, that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, the government of the Church, common to human actions in societies which are not to be ordered, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. So when we address ourselves to this subject of the inclusion of unwarranted activities in worship, we are not saying that somewhere tucked away in an abstruse part of the Scriptures there is a little manual which has all the details of what should be included and how much and how long and how frequently to render acceptable worship. But, and here we build upon what Mr. Garlington gave us this morning, by gleaning from the practice and directives sanctioned by the apostles and by the written guidelines of apostolic writings, we may discern what is warranted by the Word of God. In other words, if in the Book of the Acts

32:15 we find record of the Church worshiping and apostolic sanction to those elements of their worship, and then we turn to the epistles and find references to certain ingredients in the worship which are not only alluded to, but specifically given as the will of God, by gleaning these things we come up with at least a broad outline of that which God warrants in His worship. Now in the implementation of those things, as to their details, we use the light of nature, principles common to our society and culture, and Christian prudence to work out the details, but we never violate what is clearly warranted by the Scriptures themselves. Now let me give you some examples. In 1 Corinthians 4.17 we read, 1 Corinthians 4.17,

33:17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child, in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church. You see what he's saying? He said, I have directives that I give wherever I go as an apostle, in every church where I exert an influence. Timothy, by his association with me, is fully cognizant of those directives.

33:54 He comes and gives them to you, though I am not there present in my person, he is my representative. What he tells you is the will of God, for he's giving you apostolic tradition, apostolic directive. Chapter 7, verse 17, a similar allusion. Only as the Lord hath distributed to each man, as God hath called each, so let him walk, so ordain I in all the churches.

34:27 Well, Paul, who in the world do you think you are imposing your will on the churches? You've got a pretty high opinion of yourself, don't you? No, this man said I'm less than the least of all saints. This man said I'm the chief of sinners.

34:42 This man said in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. Well, who in the world are you going around like a pope saying I ordain in the churches? Well, he could say, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was conscious that he was Christ's representative to articulate Christ's will for the churches.

35:06 Now, he did this not only with reference to doctrine, not only with reference to church order as we see in 1 Timothy chapter 3 with regard to the recognition of elders and deacons. He did this with regard to the principles of public worship. We see a classic example of that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. And I direct your attention to that portion.

35:33 In the Corinthian situation, when you had these unusual and what many of us are convinced were temporary gifts before God had completed his written revelation, concerned to nourish and cherish his church, the Lord Jesus gave these unique and temporary gifts for the edification of the church. And yet in those gifts, there was to be an order in their exercise. There was to be an order with respect to who would exercise them. And so, even though they had these gifts of a more spectacular nature, in which there was a more direct and a more, what should we say, a more direct and a more obvious influence of the Spirit of God in these gifts of prophecy and tongues and interpretation, the Apostle then lays out these clear directives, beginning with verse 26 and following. And it's very matter-of-fact. He says, in essence, I don't care what kind of divine afflatus is upon you, what kind of spiritual impulse you feel, things must be done decently and in order. And therefore, he says, let one speak, let another listen, let two, let another, and when three have done, that's enough for one time.

36:53 Wait till you come back again. And furthermore, look at the last part of verse 24, look at the last part of verse 33. It's the beginning of a paragraph in the ASV and all, most of the new modern translations, and rightly so. As in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak.

37:13 In the context of public worship, there is not only to be order with regard to who exercises his gift and how and how many, there is to be selectivity with regard to, what sex is dominant in the public worship. And the apostle speaks these things not as a rabbinic male chauvinist. And I say the wickedness of Paul K. Jewett in his book that is being gobbled up by the so-called evangelical feminist movement in which he impugns to the apostle nothing but the prejudice of his rabbinic training.

37:52 When the apostle Paul speaks as an apostle of Jesus Christ, giving directives for the worship of the church as he himself is led by the Spirit of Christ. And when we go through the New Testament, and I'm not going to do that with you, you find references such as these in which the apostle is giving explicit directives for those activities which are to form part and parcel of the public worship of the people of God. Now the interesting thing in all of this is that in doing this the apostles deliberately followed the pattern and model of the synagogue worship and not the temple. That's a very interesting subject. But you see, when God in the fullness of time sent His Son, you had a world not unified with Roman roads and with the Greek language, but you had these pockets of pure religion throughout the Roman Empire in these synagogues that had been raised up by Jews of the dispersion and ofttimes supported by Gentile converts. So you remember in the book of Acts, again and again, Paul would go into a city or town, what was the first place he went to?

39:16 He'd go to the synagogue. There was a synagogue in all of these major population areas and in many lesser places. There were these places where the people of God gathered and under the sign of God, under the sovereignty of God, the synagogue and its pattern of worship very naturally merged right into the structure and pattern of New Testament worship. So much so that James actually calls the coming together of the saints of God in the Jewish background of the book of James, he says in James 2, 2, if there come into your synagogue, and the very word synagogue was used.

39:50 Now that's tremendously significant. For the basic activities of the synagogue were these, and I quote now from another Bannerman who in a masterful treatment of the whole background of the synagogue to New Testament worship and life and structure of government says, the worship of the synagogue was essentially just what it was in the great religious gatherings under Ezra and Nehemiah in which we have seen reason to believe the institution of the synagogue took its rise. Bannerman has given in his treatise of this a tracing out of the historical development of the synagogue going back to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Then he says this, the reading and exposition of the scripture with prayer and praise formed the center and substance of the whole of synagogue worship. You remember Jesus came into the synagogue in his own town. The word of God was handed the scroll.

40:55 He read, he expounded. The apostle and his companions did this again and again. And all of the records indicate that the essential ingredients of synagogue worship were the giving of the confession concerning the one true and living God, prayers by leaders of the assembly, the reading, the exposition and application of the scriptures. That was the heart of the simplicity of synagogue worship.

41:24 There was no special priest. There were no special singers. There was no, in that sense, clericalism. There was a leader in the synagogue.

41:34 There were elders. The whole elder pattern grows out of the synagogue pattern and I can't go into all of that. But suffice it to say that as the apostles, the duly appointed representatives of Christ, form the worship of the early church under the authority of Christ, taking their model and their stepping point from the synagogue, we find emerging then those activities which are warranted by God himself. Now then, having laid out that principle, I want to come to application.

Application: Justifying Trinity Baptist Church's Worship Practices

42:12 Why do we elders include what we include in our services of public worship? Well, it's because as we have and continue to this day to scour the scriptures, we believe we have positive biblical warrant for including the things we include in our public worship. Why do we have the reading of the scriptures? Because Paul said to Timothy, who was left at Ephesus to guide the churches till I come, give attendance to reading as well as to exhortation and to teaching.

42:51 Believing that we are heirs of those directives, we must give attention to the public reading of the word of the living God. Why do we have men lead us in prayer? Because the scripture says, I will that the men pray in every place. I will, first of all, that prayers, supplications and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.

43:18 Why do we have the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? Because we have the warrant of Colossians 3.16, that the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart unto the Lord. Why do we have the preaching of the word of God?

43:41 Because we see in the apostolic pattern they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine. He hath given to his church pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. He that teacheth, give himself to his teaching. He that exhorteth, to his exhortation.

43:59 My friends, there is not one element included in the public worship of this place that is not included with the conviction that there is divine warrant for the conclusion. Now am I saying we are infallible in our present understanding? No. That's why there's been an evolution in what we include in our worship.

44:23 Some of you have not been long enough here to see the evolutionary process. A lot of things have dropped off. A lot of things are now included that never were. And I hope that evolution will go on.

44:38 Just as recently as two or three weeks ago, no little part of our regular Saturday night elders meeting was taken up with a fresh re-evaluation of the structure of our worship. Lest we get into some kind of unwritten tradition and we go again to the word of God. To ask the more sensitive question, why do we exclude from our worship what we do when many other churches include? Why do we exclude those elements?

45:12 Why do we exclude the singing of a choir from our public worship when many good churches include that? And I know this is a sensitive matter. And I say it is one who has a great appreciation for music. One who himself would delight to sing in a choir.

45:32 One who used to sing solos and duets and trios and quartets in public worship. I tell you why we do not have choirs singing in public worship. Because we have no conviction that God has warranted this musical expression as His ordained means whereby we bring to Him the spiritual sacrifices required or receive from Him the things He is committed to give in public worship. If God by the word can convince us as elders that a group of talented musicians are a legitimate, warranted means of our bringing spiritual sacrifices to God and of His conveying blessing to us then we shall include choirs in our public worship. But until we do tradition because it is God's worship, not ours. Why do we not have solos? Is it because we do not believe there are godly people with unusually fine voices who could sing to the glory of God whatever they sung?

46:52 Of course not. We believe we have several in our church who fit that category. But it is because we see no warrant in Scripture for the use of the solo voice as a God-appointed means of our bringing spiritual sacrifices to Him and of His conveying blessing to us. Does that mean then that such a person has no avenue to use his gift to the glory of God?

47:21 No. You know us better than that. We have had sacred concerts in the past and I hope we have more in the future where those who have such gifts can exercise unto the blessing and edification of others. But we are talking now about the structure and framework of the worship ordained of God when His people gathered.

47:42 Why do we have a planned structure and order? Because we have the warrant. Let all things be done decently and in order. And if that was true even with gifts that were more directly impulsed and governed by the Spirit of God than the ordinary gifts of exposition and preaching if yet there was to be order how much more then in the more ordinary times of the more ordinary gifts and the more ordinary operations of the Spirit.

48:12 You see dear people one of the great concerns of your elders is this that wherever this congregation meets we may with confidence bow before God and know that the worship framework we provide and dictate has no strange fire that is offered to God. Ah, now someone objects but I desire to offer my musical talent as a spiritual sacrifice. My friend, I do not question your sincerity but may I ask you this question? Has God made your sincerity the measure of His worship?

Addressing Objections to Exclusions in Worship

48:54 And I don't ask that to be a smart aleck. Has God made your sincerity to be the measure of His worship? Do you say no? Of course He hasn't.

49:08 He has made His own word and as He said to Israel in Isaiah 1 in verse 12 who has required this of your hand? We want to offer nothing to which God will point the finger and say who has required this of your hand? But someone else objects and says but I'm greatly moved by the ministry of special music. You may well be.

49:33 My question is does God sanction it as a means of public worship? I know Roman Catholics who were greatly moved by the Mass. Greatly moved by the sight of a crucifix. You see where that leads, don't you?

49:47 The fact that you're moved by anything is not the warrant for its inclusion in public worship. But someone else objects I don't agree with you. Yes, but my question is is your disagreement based upon a careful, thorough study of the word of God? You say well I think it is.

50:07 Alright, let's grant that it is. Has God constituted you an elder who is going to give an account for the framework of worship established in this church? Yes or no? Has God made you an elder in this church who will answer to God?

50:25 Yes or no? Well if he hasn't, my friend then you better be silent about your objections and if you feel so strongly about them that you cannot worship in the simplicity of this framework then you better go where there's a three ring circus where you'll feel much more comfortable. Do we claim infallibility as elders? No.

50:51 I repeat there may be things included in our worship today that will be excluded six months from now. There may be some things absent that will be present. But we must walk in the integrity of our conscience before God because the scripture says as elders we shall give an account for your souls. And we take that seriously.

51:21 Very seriously. And the form of worship the things included and excluded are not matters of tradition with us. If I were to have imported my tradition I'd have a big bass drum down there. My tradition goes back to the Salvation Army and I used to be the first one to run into the hall to grab whichever the kids who was able to grab the thing whatever you call it that you bang it with.

51:46 He could bang the bass drum that morning and oh I used to run in to get it. I'd be banging the bass drum. I'd be doing all sorts of things. I'd be doing a lot of things if I was projecting my tradition.

51:55 If Mr. Clark was projecting his tradition we'd have no stated pastors who are paid elders. That's abominable from his tradition. We'd have Lord's Supper every single Sunday if we were dictating worship by his tradition.

52:11 If we were dictating worship by Pastor Dixon's tradition we'd have some crucifixes. His background is Roman Catholic. And Pastor Rogers oh we'd have quartets, solos, trios. Double octets and who knows what.

52:29 Now why do I say that? Just to lend some additional credibility to the fact dear people that as your elders we take this seriously and though we know we are influenced by our traditions and backgrounds and our indwelling sin it is the earnest and constant prayer of our heart. Oh God give us light keep us sensitive to the word. One of the reasons why I continually read through in cycle the New Testament over and over and over again as well as the old but more so the new is that I shall not allow some thread to slip and overlook an issue but that again and again my own thinking and what I encourage along with my fellow elders is indeed being brought to the touchstone of the word of God continually. Well I must touch very quickly in the final place upon the third element that is a hindrance to public worship as far as the worshipping context. There is the hindrance of the intrusion of carnal aids to worship. The inclusion of unwarranted activities in worship.

Hindrance 3: The Toleration of Distracting Disturbances in Worship

53:41 Then thirdly there is the toleration of distracting disturbances in worship. We saw this morning that worship involves the whole soul and in a sense the mind is the leading faculty of the soul. What the mind dwells upon the affections will feel and what the affections feel the will will choose. Therefore anything that distracts the mind is an enemy of worship.

54:09 You wonder why we don't have some super personality up here saying everybody turn to 345 sing it out now everybody I had to suffer through it Friday night in a reformed church with an old clown standing and saying the Bible says you got to glorify God super personality doing calisthenics up here trying to whip up the troops. My friend if your view of God and of his glory and his grace and his forgiveness and his partners in Christ if the mind reverently contemplating those truths as they are reflected in scripture

55:18 as they are embodied in the hymns and psalms of our hymn book if they cannot inflame the souls and open up the then no cardinal catalyst will elicit acceptable praise to God. That's why we don't have a song leader up here distracting your mind with his antics. Now am I saying if there's a church where a humble servant of Christ in a simple way marks out the tune so people can follow that that's an abomination to God please please don't anyone say that I said that. I said the supercharged personality who's trying to whip up the troops and goes to his antics. I am not saying that God cannot be honored in a church situation where someone may lead the singing in a very modest way marking out the tune for God's people. I did not say that. Please please please don't quote me as saying that.

56:28 Nor infer that in any way I'm casting aspersions upon some humble servants of God who may serve God in the gathering of his people in that way. Now frankly I've always been at a loss unless you had a church full of deaf people why if you have a piano or organ to mark out the tune in the tempo you have to have somebody else up there doing this. I mean frankly it eludes me. But there may be peculiar circumstances which warrant it.

56:56 But I'm talking about unwarranted intrusion that distract the mind in worship. This is why we insist that parents who bring their children control their children in public worship. For children for popping their gum and giggling to their playmates are a distraction to the worship of God. That's why we don't tolerate it.

57:24 That's why we instruct our parents of little infants to sit at the back and you'll notice the minute a baby begins to cry out they go. Why? Because they're scared to death the elders will jump all over them. Well I hope that's not the reason.

57:40 I hope the reason is they have such a high view of God they would never dare distract the minds of three or four hundred people who are engaged in the solemn worship of God. I've never understood how a mother or father could be so irresponsibly determined to quote get a blessing by hearing a sermon that they would profane a whole fifty minutes of worship by keeping a crying baby in the assembly of God's people. I believe it's the height of insult to Almighty God and that's why we don't tolerate it here. Is it because we're anti-baby?

58:18 Is it because we're nervous with noises? No. Some of us grew up crying babies are part and parcel of all of life's memories. Being from a family of ten second oldest having three children of my own there hadn't been many years in my life when I haven't heard crying babies.

58:33 No my friends God's worship is a solemn and an awesome thing. This is why we urge modesty of dress upon our people men and women. Isn't it interesting that in the context of directives for public worship in 1 Timothy 2 Paul says in verse 8 I will that the men pray in every place lifting up holy hands without doubting and wrath in like manner that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel. You go into many churches worship services or the weekly fashion show and every head is being turned to watch Miss Futhy as she comes down the aisle with her latest.

59:16 Isn't it interesting that in the context of directives for public worship the apostle speaks about modest dress. Why? We want no human distraction. We're coming to meet with the living God.

59:33 This is why we will admonish anyone who comes amongst us and is excessive in loud amens because many find that distraction to be a sin. We said excessive. Frankly, I wish there were a few more loud amens from time to time but excessive and we've actually admonished people who've come amongst us and they said amen even in the pauses in the preacher's sermon. Maybe they were saying amen hoping it was done.

60:05 I don't know. But be that as it may we've gone and admonished people. Why? Because we didn't want the minds of God's people distracted.

60:18 If you're brought up in a culture where a lot of noise in public worship doesn't bother you as I understand in some oriental cultures when they have public prayer everyone prays all at once at the same time. And I understand in some of their schools that's the way they learn. They recite all at once at the same time. Well, when you're accustomed to that, fine.

60:36 You see, those are some of the general principles of the word that have cultural refinements and they're different in every situation. But a great distraction to public worship or I should say a great hindrance is the toleration of any distracting disturbances that take the mind away from fixation upon God. Now, I ask again, is this all merely cultural baggage? No.

Cautions: Infallibility and Judgment of Others

61:00 It's a conscious effort on the part of your elders to tolerate nothing that will distract from the solemn and joyous privilege of rendering acceptable worship to God. Now, two cautions and then I'm done. In all of these things these words of caution are in order. Number one, I've already alluded to it but I want to underscore it again.

61:21 We as your elders do not claim infallibility in the present combination of details. As God gives us more light we shall seek to regulate our worship accordingly. If there's any of you sitting here who is so convinced that you see something in the Scripture that we ought to include and we aren't or something that's included that we ought not, please do not assume that we are willfully overlooking that principle. Don't have such a high opinion of yourself that you're absolutely right in it.

61:56 Come, talk to your elders. There's not a person in this congregation who has ever sought to come and bare his heart in such a matter to his elders who's been either refused an appointment or refused a fair hearing. But I'm suspicious of some of you that you're very, very bold and confident in the presence of less knowledgeable people. And every time you speak out your objection to less knowledgeable people and they seem awed by your tremendous knowledge, you get confirmed in your own ignorance.

62:27 And the reason some of you don't come to your elders with your objections is you've got a sneaking suspicion if you did, you just might be met with a solid Biblical polemic that would shatter your position. I'm old enough and I've been around enough to see it time after time after time. Now, am I being pugnacious? No.

62:56 There is a body of God's people over whom the Lord has placed us. Oh, you say, Pastor Martin, you mean placed you. Those are just a bunch of yes-men. Is that so?

63:07 Tell them that. Tell any of these four other elders that they're just a bunch of yes-men to Al Martin. Tell them that. See the response you get.

63:16 They will tell you that on almost any issue that's brought before the elders, the last one to give his opinion is this man standing before you. I'm saying that in the presence of my fellow elders who would call me to account as a liar if it were not true. On issue after issue, brethren, this issue has come up. Lay out the facts.

63:41 What do you think? Rogers? Dixon? The consensus is given, and often the last opinion to be uttered is mine.

63:50 Why? That's only fair. I've got access from the pulpit. Dear people, God has given us the charge of this congregation, and we're determined to take our charge seriously.

64:03 But we don't claim infallibility. We do not claim that we have all the light we need. I indicated earlier we've undergone a great evolution in 11 years, and I hope the evolution goes on more and more conformed to the pattern of Scripture. If you see something we don't see, don't gather around you your little band of sympathetic followers.

64:26 We plead with you for the sake of the unity of the body of Christ. Come. Come! Our hearts are open to you, and our ears will be open.

64:37 I'm afraid, my friend, the men who give themselves selflessly for your spiritual well-being pounce upon you? No. Come. And then the second word of caution is this.

64:56 We as a church, we as elders, do not stand in judgment upon others who may differ in details. We do not say that the only way to worship is the way we do it. But, my friends, the best way we know to do it and maintain a good conscience before God is the way we're doing it. And we hope that that's true of our brethren who do it a bit differently.

65:20 Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. I will speak judgmentally of clowns who stand in the sacred presence of God and carry on like fools. And I believe clown and fool are not too strong to describe such antics. But of the humble servant of God who may do things differently, earnest Christians who may prayerfully render to God what they feel is acceptable worship in the singing of solos or trios or choirs, I before God do not stand in judgment upon them.

66:01 We as a church do not stand in judgment upon them. But, dear people, will you give us our liberty to walk in the integrity of our conscience before God? Would you want us to relinquish conscience for the sake of conciliation? Would you want us to relinquish conscience simply for the sake of conformity to the norms of an evangelical consensus?

66:25 We cannot do it. We cannot do it. So we claim no infallibility, but we do claim the integrity of our conscience. We do not stand in judgment upon others, but we know we stand before the judgment of our Lord and we seek to be true to the light he has given us.

Conclusion: The Price of Obedience and the Simplicity of Worship

66:45 What then are the great hindrances to God-honoring worship in the worshiping context itself? I suggest they are three. The intrusion of carnal aids to worship, the toleration of unwarranted activities in worship, and the toleration of distracting disturbances in our worship. May God be pleased to keep us from all of these hindrances so that in this place or wherever God is pleased to enable us to meet, we as his people may render worship that is a sweet savor in the nostrils of the living God.

67:27 Dear people, as any church will pay a price if it does what Mr. Garlington outlined for us this morning, any church that contends earnestly for the faith, that is the body of apostolic tradition, that refuses to give up one strand of the fabric of divine truth, that church will pay a price. And the church that refuses to intrude anything into its public worship other than that which is warranted by the word of God, will pay a price for that obedience as well. But when we gaze upon our Lord, the head of the church, the bread of life upon whom alone we can feed, if he is ordained to feed us in the midst of and by means of the simplicity of worship patterned not by the temple and tabernacle, but by the synagogue with its centrality of preaching and prayer and praise, if the bread of life is held on that platter, oh, what a lovely platter, in terms of the bread of life that is conveyed to our waiting souls. Let us pray. Our Father, we feel very painfully, we feel very acutely, that we know nothing as we ought to know,

68:56 that we see through a glass darkly, and we know that if we were to be translated into your presence in the next moment, we'd be aghast at how much we think and how much we do that is contrary to your word, that falls short of the standard of your word. But, oh Lord, we thank you that there is such a thing as walking with a conscience void of offense, all the while knowing that there is much more light to be given, yet to know that we are walking in the light that has been given. And, Father, we pray for those of us charged with the oversight of this congregation in a day of religious expediency, when people experiment with different forms of worship, when people experiment with the church of Christ. Oh, God, give us grace to stand against all this pressure and by your Spirit's help to structure a framework of worship in which there is no intrusion of unwarranted activity, no inclusion of carnal aids to worship, no toleration of unnecessary distractions to worship. And in that framework, grant that your people may be a worshiping people, that your heart may be glad by that which we render to you when we gather

70:23 in our appointed seasons. Father, we pray for those who have heard things tonight that perhaps have been difficult to receive. Oh, Lord, in compassion and mercy, give them a heart that will at least be like the Bereans to search out these things. Oh, God, if in any way we have even thought thoughts that are judgmental of others, cleanse our hearts.

70:49 We would not be guilty of sin even in our efforts to be true to the Word of God. Lord, we pray that you help us as a congregation to be biblically intelligent as to why we do what we do and why we do not do what we refuse to do, that we may give a reason of the hope that is in us concerning the simplicity of our worship. Father, I confess to you that it is painful to stand against good men, to stand against good people in the maintenance of biblical norms, but we thank you that for love of your Son we are willing for that pain. Give us grace, then, to be obedient.

71:32 Seal the Word to our hearts and regulate our worship by your Word until our Lord returns and we enter that true and pure, unstained worship of those who look upon his face. Hear our prayer. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.