John 4:23-24 How to Worship God Pt. 2: The Regulative Principle

Scripture Reading

Psalm 95:1-7 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Intro

How do we worship God in a way that is pleasing to Him?

After all…that is what worship is all about. Glorifying God.

The question is how do we do that?

Are we free to worship God in any way we see fit?

Or is true worship, the kind that truly honors God, one that God Himself prescribes.

We are in the second week of our miniseries from John chapter 4 on how to worship.

John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Last week, we focused on the Essence of worship.

What worship is in the first place.

And True Worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Spirit

Worshiping God in spirit means we worship God spiritually and from the heart.

Now first and foremost, that means we must be born again of the Holy Spirit.

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The only way to worship God spiritually is to be born again.

We cannot worship God in spirit, and we cannot worship God at all if we are still dead in our trespasses and sins.

A dead heart cannot give praise to God....Love God…and Worship Him for all that He’s worth.

That is only possible in and through Jesus Christ.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

Through faith in Christ...that He lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross in our place for our sins, and rose again three days later to give us eternal life…the Holy Spirit makes us alive again.

He takes out our hearts of stone and gives us new hearts of flesh that Love God and Love His Law.

And from that heart we worship God with love, adoration, and praise.

That is to say…true spiritual worship is worship that is offered to God from the heart in the inner man.

Its not just going through the motions.

Its not just doing a bunch of physical religious activity.

It is doing in religious activity in a spiritual way.

When we sing, when we pray, when we take the Lord’s Supper, it is engaging all of that religious activity, all of those religious works with a heart that overflows with love, adoration, and praise for God.

Anything less is dead religion.

Jesus said in vain do they worship me, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Matthew 15:8-9).

Worship without heart is worthless.

Singing without heart is worthless.

Prayer without heart is worthless.

It is dead, lifeless, religion, not authentic faith.

True worship is a heart on fire for God.

A heart that is filled with awe, love, fear, adoration and praise for all that God is and all that He’s done for us in Christ.

We might say it like this: Spiritual Worship is worship that has your heart in it.

One that doesn’t come to worship out of a sense of obligation or duty, but one that comes to worship God for all that He’s worth.

We might say its the difference between reading and singing about God’s love and praising God for His love.

True worshipers worship God in Spirit.

And that is going to be extremely important to remember today as we walk through the Regulative Principle and what we actually do in worship.

But we don’t just worship God in spirit, we worship God in spirit and truth.

Truth

Worshiping God in Truth means worshiping God according to True Knowledge.

Again, First and foremost that means worshiping God for who He is and as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

You cannot worship God, if you do not know who God is.

How do you draw near to Him if you don’t know His Name?

How do you worship Him for all that He’s worth if you don’t know what He’s like?

Who are you worshiping and why are you worshiping Him?

We must worship God in Truth.

We must worship God for who He is according to His Word.

That’s Scripture…God’s special revelation of who He is and what He’s done in Jesus Christ.

And the Word of God incarnate, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3).

Christ reveals the glory of God.

That’s why we worship God in and through Jesus Christ.

He is the Truth.

He is the One who reveals the Father and makes Him known (John 1:18).

That’s why our worship is Christ-centered and Trinitarian.

We worship God the Father through Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Worshiping Christ as the glory of the Father is worshiping all three persons of the Trinity at once.

But the other aspect of worshiping God in spirit in truth, is worshiping God as He has commanded in His Word.

That is what we are talking about today.

We are not free to worship God as we see fit, we must worship Him as He has commanded.

This is what theologians call the Regulative Principle.

And here’s really my goal for today.

I want to explain what we are doing in worship as a local church body, why we are doing it, and how we can make the most of it.

I want to help make our worship more worshipful.

That by understanding what we are doing and why we are doing it we can more easily engage our spirit so that we can worship God in spirit and truth, and offer God a sacrifice of praise that honors His Name (Hebrews 13:15).

Here’s the Big Idea:

The only worship God accepts is worship offered according to God’s Word.

The other way to say it is...

True Worship is Regulated Worship…Worship Regulated by the Word.

And I think the best way to do this because it is such an unfamiliar topic to most Christians, is to work through four different questions:

Number 1: What is the Regulative Principle?

Number 2: Where do we find the Regulative Principle in Scripture?

Number 3: Why does the Regulative Principle matter?

And Number 4: How do we worship God according to the Regulative Principle?

Let’s start with number 1...

I. What Is the Regulative Principle?

There are two basic philosophies when it comes to the corporate worship of a church.

How we worship God together.

One is the Regulative Principle the other is what is called the Normative Principle.

Normative Principle

The Normative Principle basically says whatever God has not explicitly prohibited in His Word is permissible in Christian worship.

This is the kind of worship you see in most churches today.

This is where you get things like skits, dramas, videos.

Sermons that are more focused on pop psychology and the culture rather than the Word of God.

Normative Principle worship is essentially worship that is tailor made for felt needs and more focused on what people want rather than what God wants.

You usually see this associated with “seeker sensitive” churches who are basically arguing that we need to make church less churchy so that more people can hear the gospel and come to Christ.

The only problem with that is, Normative Principle worship is idolatry and misses the most important person worship is about, God Himself.

John Calvin said that true worship is only concerned with what God commands...

But when men’s presumption intrudes, so that they devise a new mode of worship [that God has not commanded], they then depart from the true God, and worship mere idols.

Phillips, John, vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (P&R Publishing, 2014), 258.

This is why we must be committed to worshiping God according to the Regulative Principle.

Regulative Principle

Where the Normative Principle says we are free to worship God any way He has not explicitly prohibited in His Word...

The Regulative Principle says we are only free to worship God in ways that He has commanded either explicitly or implicitly in His Word.

1689 London Baptist Confession 22:1

The light of nature demonstrates that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all. He is just and good and does good to all. Therefore, He should be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and all the soul and all the strength.

Basically, there is a God and He is worthy of al our worship.

The confession continues...

But the acceptable way to worship the True God is instituted by God Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and inventions of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, nor through any visible representations, nor in any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.

(Mix of The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, Banner of Truth and The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in Modern English, Founders).

We are only permitted to worship God in a way that He has commanded us to in His Word.

That Scripture shapes our worship together as a church.

Nothing else. Its our highest authority.

This is why you normally see the Regulative Principle practiced in Reformed gospel churches.

One of the five solas is Sola Scriptura…Scripture Alone.

The Regulative Principle is just worship Sola Scriptura...

Scripture alone working itself out in the life and worship of the church.

So that’s what the Regulative Principle is, but where do we find it in Scripture?

You might have never heard of it before. Where is it in the Bible.

If we are going to be Scripture Alone, we better be Scripture alone all the way down.

That’s question number 2...

II. Where Do We Find the Regulative Principle in Scripture?

Let’s start first in the Old Testament.

Some of these are going to be quick, and we are going to look at some of these other ones more in depth.

First, its explicitly commanded in Deuteronomy 12:32 where God is telling His people do not worship Him, like the pagans worship their God.

Deuteronomy 12:32 Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

And then we see several examples of this all throughout the Old Testament.

Cain

Remember Cain who brought an offering to the Lord but was turned away, and the Lord had no regard for His offering (Gen. 4:5).

Now we know Cain murdered His brother. But Cain’s path down that road started with false worship.

That’s a warning in itself.

But what this also shows us is that there is some worship, that the Lord obviously does not accept.

Tabernacle

Then you have Moses and the Tabernacle.

The place where God’s people would worship.

Exodus 25:9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Exactly.

God had a pattern for His worship that He wanted His people to follow.

And then there’s all kinds of instructions about sacrifices, and washings, and food that instructed the people how to worship.

Uzzah

And what about Uzzah (1 Samuel 6:4-7)?

Do you remember how the people of Israel were transporting the Ark of the Covenant on a cart carried by Oxen when God had explicitly commanded that the Ark was only to be transported on poles carried on the priests’ shoulders? (Exodus 25:12-14, Numbers 4:15, 7:9).

And what happened? The oxen stumbled and Uzzah put His hand out on the Ark to keep it from falling on the ground, and the Lord struck Him dead.

Why? doesn’t that seem harsh?

Well Uzzah and the people of Israel as a whole were not honoring God’s Name as Holy.

And Uzzah didn’t realize that His sinful hands were actually dirtier than any dirt that might get on the Ark.

God’s Name must be revered and honored as holy and in regards to the things of worship, like the Ark of the Covenant, the people of God must obey God’s commands.

Nadab and Abihu

Finally the most famous story and probably the most important one for talking about the Regulative Principle is Nadab and Abihu.

Look at Leviticus 10:1-3...

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ”

Look what God does.

They offer strange fire before the Lord. Fire God had not commanded them.

And so what did God do? Fire went out and consumed them.

And what was the reason why?

Among those who are near me I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified.

They did not honor the Lord’s Name as Holy in how they worshiped Him.

New Testament

Now someone might say, well that’s all Old Testament. That’s Old Covenant stuff.

Well A. The Old Testament is still the Word of God.

But B. Let’s look at what the New Testament has to say.

Look at 1 Corinthians 11:27-30.

1 Corinthians 11:27-30 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner is the reason Paul says many of them were weak, ill, and some have died.

Now let me be clear. I don’t want you to be afraid of taking the Lord’s Supper as if its rat poison.

We should have a holy reverence, but the principle I’m trying to get across here…the principle of the Regulative Principle is that we must honor God’s Name as Holy and we do that by worshiping God, God’s way.

That is worship that is holy and acceptable to God.

In addition, even in the New Testament God shows us that He has a pattern for orderly worship.

Talking about hymns, teachings, tongues and prophecies in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul gives specific instructions on how to do that.

That there is an order to our worship 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

And finally Colossians 2:23 explicitly prohibits any self-made, self invented worship created by men.

Colossians 2:23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

So Old Testament, New Testament, we see the Regulative Principle working itself out all through Scripture because God is Holy and He has told us how to worship Him.

And only when we worship God God’s way do we honor God’s name as holy.

Number 3...

III. Why Does the Regulative Principle Matter?

Isn’t this all just nerd stuff?

Is it just being nit picky and stuffy about worship?

Let me give you Five reasons the Regulative Principle Matters.

Number 1...

1. Worshiping God God’s way Honors God as Holy

This is what we have already been talking about.

Worship is for God.

Its God focused. Not Man focused.

Our worship is for Him. So shouldn’t we worship in a way that pleases Him, and honors Him as holy.

Number 2...

2. It Promotes Unity of the Church and Gives Us the Freedom to Worship God with a Clean Conscience

It allows the church to worship God together as One body.

When churches follow the regulative principle it allows everyone in the church to fully engage in the worship of God, because our worship is dictated by His Word and not the whims or opinions of worship leaders or pastors.

Now to be clear, the Regulative Principle doesn’t make a rigid liturgy or cookie cutter order of worship everyone has to follow.

It doesn’t tell us how many songs we are to sing. How long a sermon should be.

Some of those things are left up to wisdom and prudence.

What it tells us is what we are to do in worship.

And this frees everyone in the church, because we know our worship aligns God’s Word, to worship God fully and with a clean conscience.

Number 3...

3. It Guards the Purity of the Church

How we worship God says what we think about God.

If we don’t honor God as holy in our worship, we will not honor God as holy anywhere else in our life.

The Christian life starts at the top. With out we worship God.

The Church is to be a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15).

And as Thomas Watson says: Those who will introduce into God’s worship that which he has not commanded, will be just as ready to blot out that which He has commanded.

Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture, Banner of Truth, 35.

Holy worship keeps the church holy before a holy God.

Number 4...

4. It Allows Us Enjoy All the Blessings and Benefits of our Salvation

When our worship is God focused and centered on the Word, the whole worship service becomes a celebration of the gospel.

Of who God is and what He has done to save us in Jesus Christ.

Worship becomes soul food that nourishes our faith and our souls by reminding us of God’s great love, mercy, and grace for us in Christ, and allows us a way to worship and give thanks to Him in a way that pleases Him in return.

With Habakkuk 3:18, we get to rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of our salvation.

Number 5...

5. Its Evangelistic

Now this is usually what seeker sensitive churches who practice the Normative Principle of worship will say.

They are just trying to reach the lost. Those who are seeking God.

Here’s the problem with that: Romans 3:11 No one understands; no one seeks for God.

They aren’t seeking.

Now that doesn’t mean we don’t try to make worship intelligible or missional to everyone who comes making an appeal for the gospel.

The Reformers who promoted the Regulative Principle were the ones who moved the worship service from Latin Mass into the common language of the people.

But here’s what’s ironic.

Sinners might not be seeking after God, but John 4 tells us the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.

The Father is the One seeking...but not if we kick Him out of our church with unholy worship.

True worship offered to God according to His Word, actually draws sinners to Christ.

Because everything about it tells them there is a holy God and He has made a way to be reconciled to Him and forgiven of your sins through faith in Jesus Christ.

And related to that, consider this.

Why would the world ever honor God’s Name as holy, if the Church doesn’t even do it in our own worship?

We are salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how will its saltiness be restored? Its not good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot (Matthew 5:13).

That’s the church today.

The World doesn’t honor God as holy, because God’s own people don’t honor Him as holy.

The church, at large, must return to the Regulative Principle as a whole if we ever hope to have our saltiness restored and our witness to the gospel be effective to the world.

How we worship God matters.

Number 4…last and final question...

IV. How Do We Worship God according to God’s Word?

This is where we get to what we actually do in worship.

We looked at what the Regulative Principle is...

Where its at in Scripture...

Why it matters for the church...

And now...how it informs our practice.

How do we engage in our liturgy, which is just a fancy word for order or worship, that allows us to worship God in spirit and truth?

In other words, What are we doing in worship and how do you spiritually engage in it?

Again, we are going to look at 5 things.

I know I’m giving you a lot of lists but I’m trying to break this down for you in the simplest way possible.

Number 1…How do we worship according to God’s Word?...

1. With the Public Reading Of Scripture

1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Why do we start every service with the reading of Scripture and have a responsive reading after we sing a few songs?

Stand for a benediction?

Are we just trying to get closer to a cult?

Trying to get everybody warmed up before we start asking people their Kool-aid flavors?

No. We read the word together because we are the people of God proclaiming God’s Word to one another and the world.

Its not just reading through the words.

Its remembering what God has said and taking it to heart.

And also, if you didn’ notice we try to select passages and songs that run with the theme of the sermon to try and drive what God’s Word has for us that service home.

So when it comes to the public reading of Scripture, you see how in 1 Timothy 4:13 we are commanded to do it.

But also, it is how we has a church we love God’s Word and God’s Word is the highest authority of our life and of our church.

Two...

2. With Singing

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Psalm, Hymns, and spiritual songs.

And what I want you to notice is how Paul ties letting the word of Christ, talking about the gospel, dwell in you richly, meaning abundantly not only with teaching, but singing.

Our songs, should be biblical, rooted in Scripture, and celebrate God and all that He’s done in Jesus Christ.

Singing is catechizing.

Its teaching you fundamental truths of the Christian faith.

Two weeks from now, you’re not going to remember the main idea or main points of my sermon, but thirty years from now you’ll remember your favorite hymn.

Singing songs together encourages one another, again proclaiming the good news of the gospel, as well as allowing us to make melody to the Lord with our soul.

We want songs that are rich in biblical truth so that we can celebrate God for all that He is worth.

You can think of singing as taking the truths of God’s Word and the beauty of the gospel and the glory of Christ and planting all that deep down in their soul that it might bear fruit

Encourage you on a hard day.

Remind you of God’s good promises.

Give your your soul an avenue to worship God with love, joy, adoration, and praise in such a way that the mind, heart, will, and emotions…affections are all united together for one singular purpose the praise and glory of God.

Don’t just sing the words. Sing the words with thankfulness in your heart to God praising Him for all that He’s worth.

Number 3...

3. With Prayer

Matthew 21:13 “He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’”

Now Jesus was talking about the Temple, but we as the church are now the Temple of the Lord.

We are being built up into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5).

Prayer is how we respond to God.

Its how we give God thanks.

Confess our sins.

Adore Him.

And ask for His blessing and provision.

In Revelation the prayers of the saints are holy incense offered as a sacrifice and a pleasing aroma to the Lord (Rev 5:8, 8:3-4).

Why? Because Prayer exalts God.

It says He is God who alone hears our prayers.

That we depend on Him.

Trust in Him.

Find our life in Him.

And that’s what we are saying when we pray.

We don’t just bow our heads, close our eyes, and wait for the next thing to happen in worship.

We engage in prayer as one body.

We bow our heads to come in a posture of humility before the Lord.

And even though only one person might be praying out lout at the time, saying Amen is uniting as a church in the one common purpose we just prayed for.

Its saying, “God let it be so.”

We pray as one body. God in your grace hear our prayers.

So in corporate prayer we should all be engaging what we are praying for.

Almost as if we are saying yes Lord within our spirit.

And this prayer honors God as God because when we pray it says He alone is God.

Number 4...

4. With Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

These are the sacraments.

Pictures of God’s grace that spiritually proclaim God’s grace to our souls.

That’s why at our church, we practice one sacrament every service.

Its how we as a church body remember and celebrate the gospel.

Baptism of Believers

Baptism...

When we baptize we are not just hearing someone’s profession of faith and affirming that testimony...

We certainly aren’t doing anything less than that.

But we are also remembering the grace of God.

Buried with Christ in baptism, dead in our transgressions and sins, raised to walk in the newness of life, made alive together with Christ.

Baptism is a whole church body event focused not on the person being baptized but on Christ and His grace.

Also, we are Baptist so I’m contractually obligated to put this in.

The Regulative Principle would teach us, that we are only permitted to baptize those who believe. Professing believers.

The Regulative Principle says we cannot add or subtract anything from God’s Word, and nothing in the NT gives any indication of infant baptism.

In fact the opposite...

If you look at Acts 2:41. Acts 8:12. Acts 18:8.

It is always those who believe who are baptized.

Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

The Regulative Principle is one of the reasons we believe in believer’s baptism.

The Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:26 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?...For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

When Paul says we participate in the body and participate in the blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, it means in sharing the meal, we get to share and enjoy all of Christ benefits.

All of our forgiveness, adoption, reconciliation, and salvation that Christ has given us through His death on the cross.

Its a meal of remembrance. Do this this in remembrance of me.

You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

In feeding on the bread and the wine, representing the body and blood of Christ, we spiritually feed on Christ’s grace.

And in the same way physical food nourishes our body, the bread and the wine, through faith, nourish our souls.

So how you take the Lord’s Supper is by remembering Christ’s death for you, repenting of all your sin, and committing yourself anew to follow Him.

That’s why Paul says, we must take the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner.

Not in one that’s perfunctory religion.

But one that’s engaged in the heart to remember the love and grace of Christ.

Number 5...

5. With the Preaching of God’s Word

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Ever since the early church and recaptured again during the Reformation, the preaching of God’s Word has been central to the life and worship of the Church.

Preaching is not just the act of a pastor giving a monologue.

It is the whole church body honoring God’s Word, and how God feeds His sheep through the ministry and labor of His under shepherds.

And allow me the chance to help make preaching, our sermons, more effective.

One Thing

All you need to do is ask one simple question.

What was one thing that stood out?

What was one thing that was new, convicting, confusing, encouraging, or challenging?

And pray through that.

As what does that matter? How does it apply? And what does it tell me about God’s glory and grace.

Ask your kids, ask your spouse, ask your friends…in your CG.

The Puritans would call it a holy conference where church members and families would review and discuss the sermon to encourage one another and grow in a spiritual zeal for the Lord.

That’s why we do sermon discussion in our community groups.

Sunday mornings are the air war. CG and your family worship is the ground war in the face to face trench warfare of our sin and a godly life.

(Following God Fully, 129).

Don’t try to remember everything I said. Don’t try to remember every verse reference or nuanced detail.

Let the Word flow over you.

Asking the Holy Spirit to meet with you. Convict you.

Grow you. Mature you.

And most of all grow in your knowledge of the glory of God and your love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Try to remember one thing…one thing that stood out and most importantly pray through it and put it into practice.

And hopefully your one thing for today is “I want to worship God for all He’s worth in a way that is pleasing to Him.”

And if your a father, lead your family, and if your a wife, encourage your husband and lead your children to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and spur one another on towards love and good works.

A sermon is not done just because a preacher is done preaching.

A sermon is not done until it is prayed up and lived out.

Until we do work in our soul and put it into practice.

As James says But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22).

Conclusion

How we worship God matters.

Jesus said God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

That word must, tells us that is not just the kind of worship God prefers.

Its the only worship God accepts.

The last two weeks, we have been looking at the question How do you worship God?

How do we as a church live out our highest calling as the people of God?

First and foremost we must worship God in spirit and truth, and that is only possible in and through Jesus Christ.

Only through faith in Him can we be spiritually born again...

And only through faith in Him can we know God as He has truly revealed Himself to be.

In Christ we see the fullness of the glory of God full of grace and truth.

And in Christ, we draw near to God to worship Him from the heart and according to His Word.

Remember Jesus said we must worship Him in spirit and truth.

Not spirit or truth. Both together.

That is the worship that is acceptable to God.

So when we talk about the Regulative Principle, and how to worship God…its not enough to just worship God the right way.

We must also worship Him with the right heart.

When we come to worship, its not enough to just go through the motions.

We must praise God for all He’s worth in Jesus Christ.

And this is really where I want to land.

Because talking about the Regulative Principle and spirit and truth isn’t just trying to be technical about how we worship.

Glory of Christ

Its intimately connected to the glory of Christ.

How we worship says just how much we understand what God has done for us in Jesus and how much we love Him in return.

So if you come to worship dry…going through the motions…just doing it out of duty or obligation...

Remember Jesus Christ.

He bled, suffered, and died for you.

He drank the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf so that we could drink His cup of forgiveness.

How can our worship be dry when we have such a gracious and loving Savior.

Let us be a church that understands the glory of the gospel.

Of how deserving we are to receive it and how good God is to give it.

And may we have a renewed vigor to worship Christ for all that He’s worth in spirit and truth in a way that is acceptable to Him.

That when we come to worship we come saying Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Let’s Pray