Worship in the Prescribed Manner

Read

John 4:21–24 (ESV)

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Opening Prayer

Setting the Stage

Truths from Last Week:

What Matters is Not What You Think or Feel, But What is True.

Truth is according to God’s revealed Word.

Worship is Not about the Where, But the How.

You cannot truly worship the Father unless You are Spiritually Alive.

You cannot truly Worship the Father unless You are Worshipping According to God’s Prescribed Worship.

Christ is the Messiah, the Christ and He is the true Temple, through Whom We Gain Full Access to the Reconciled Presence of God.

Now, an important aspect of these truths that we did not have time for last week, but is critically important is this question...

What About the With Whom & When of Worship?

If Jesus is teaching us that the location does not matter.

If Jesus is teaching us that what matters is the:

Who we worship, the Father.

How we worship, spiritually and in God’s truth.

In light of these truths:

Are we to suppose that worship:

As an individual practice is to be practiced individually?

With no regard to a corporate worship?

With no regard to the day?

And, as I preach this sermon this morning...

Please hear my use of the word Church mean the people of God, not a building.

And, generally speaking, when the NT uses the word Church it is speaking to/of the local church.

So, let’s take on the first question...

Are we to suppose that worship is an individual practice to be practiced individually?

We are called in the NT to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to the Lord, not one day...

But every day.

This is the same call we see in the OT.

A proper worship of God is in everything…every day.

We are called to do everything, whether we eat or drink to the glory of God.

We are called to do everything with excellence as unto the Lord, not one day...but every day.

However, although our justification is a personal, work within an individual...

And expressed solely by the individual.

—meaning no can have faith for you—

That faith should not be lived out privately.

One major Goal of the NT towards the Churches written to...

And, the churches who read those letters...

Including all true churches today...

Is that there be uniformity in its practices.

And, we notice that as we read the NT that it is written to Churches and for the benefit of the Churches.

Christianity is to be lived out in the context of the church.

The epistles are not written for individualistic practice.

The commands within the epistles are to be fleshed out within the context of the Church living out the faith together.

IOW, Christianity is not a private practice.

Not to say that there are not exercises in private & within the family, among your neighbors...

But, the much larger, more specific, more often, thrust of the NT is the individual Christian’s connection to and life within the NT Church.

There is to be a mutual edification of one another by the observance of the commands in the NT...

Fleshed out within the local church.

1 Corinthians 1:2 (ESV)

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

So, even though there are true churches in multiple locations all over the world...

We have all been equally instructed in the will of the Lord for His bride, the Church.

That instruction contained within the Holy Scriptures.

And, Christ promises to gift churches to carry out those responsibilities, if they are seeking to obey the Lord’s instructions...

Ephesians 4:11–16 (ESV)

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This is a major purpose for the singular Church meeting in multiple locations around the globe.

And, we notice that this takes place...

Not in your living room on a Sunday, but within the congregation...

Within the Body of Christ, the assembly of Saints on the Lord’s day.

Which brings us to the second question…which we’ve answered in part…however...

Are we to suppose that worship as an individual practice is to be practiced individually with no regard to a corporate worship?

Yes, faith is within the individual.

Faith is to be expressed, holiness pursued by the individual.

However, we are also commanded to gather corporately as a local expression of the Bride of Christ, the church.

Someone should be able to walk into a church across the country and find those prescribed methods of worship being expressed.

Our Confession states...

26.5 The Purpose of Local Churches

To carry out the authority given to him, the Lord Jesus calls people out of the world who are given to him by his Father through the ministry of his word, by his Spirit.

He calls them to walk before him in all the ways of obedience that he prescribes for them in his Word.

He commands all who are called to walk together in local congregations, or churches, to edify one another and participate in the elements of public worship that he requires from them while they are in the world.

We see this practiced in the NT...

Acts 2:42–43 (ESV)

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

This is a church, the first church.

And, they were devoting themselves as a gathering of the local people of God.

We not only see this in practice throughout the NT...

But we see this gathering commanded...

Hebrews 10:23–25 (ESV)

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

So, we have the practice and the command to gather as the people of God for the express purposes of Christ...

For the glory of God and the benefit of His people.

As far as the day that we meet…the 3rd question...

Are we to suppose that worship is an individual practice with no regard to the day?

We believe that in the Moral Law of God, written upon the conscience of every person born… (LBCF 22)

Romans 1-2 teach us this explicitly in the NT.

Within that Moral Law is a command to set apart a proportion of time for the Worship of the Lord.

Every human conscience knows that God is worthy of our worship.

We see this pattern in the Lord resting from His work of Creation on the seventh day.

In the Ten Commandments we see a positive law attached to this proportion of time of worship being stipulated as the seventh day of the week.

In the NT, Christ fulfills all moral Law and the ceremonial laws of the OC...

And, we see the NT Church practices their proportioned time & day of worship to be on the First Day of the week...

Which celebrates and commemorates the Resurrection of the our Lord & Savior JC.

The CoW states that you must work rightly in order to rest.

The NC, with its regeneration, justification, sanctification...

All possible through the person and finished work of Christ...

And, the work of the HS to apply that to each member of the NC...

The gospel teaches us to rest and then good work flows from the full rest we have in Christ.

It teaches us Finished, so be free to work with out earning.

The pattern in the NC is to Rest in Christ, and then work out of gratitude.

As Paul states in...

Acts 20:7 (ESV)

7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

We see the weekly gathering on the first day being practiced...

And, in this instance, we see preaching as a central component of the service.

Paul commands Timothy to preach the Word in season and out.

To rightly divide the Word of God.

To trust the Word for its perfect ability to train us in righteousness.

We are commanded to pray for one another, for everyone, even our enemies.

We are commanded to admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

We are commanded to baptize those who confess Christ as Lord in the name of the Father, Son, & HS.

We are commanded to remember the Lord & His promise as we partake in the Lord’s Supper.

We are commanded to be responsible for and to one another in our testimony of the Lordship of Christ in Church discipline for the mutual edification of each other and for the blessings of a life lived for Christ.

The importance of all of this is so that we can understand that we are not making this up as we go.

I think there are far too many Christians and Christian leaders that think we get a license to creative freedom of how we worship God.

But, that is not true.

We are commanded in Scripture of how we are to worship.

We are commanded in Scripture of who we are to worship.

We are commanded in Scripture of when we are to worship.

We are commanded in Scripture of who we are to be united to in worship. (the Saints)

We are anchored in the truth of God’s Word.

We are anchored in constrained by God’s prescribed manner of worship.

We are anchored in the Offices and gifts that Christ has given to His Church.

And, we should know this & confess this so our children can know this.

So, they can be anchored and drawn into unbiblical methods of worship, nor unbiblical doctrine.

The Church is a means to & the context of that which Christ ordained for the human element of the Christian life.

While & with the HS ruling and reigning in our hearts...

Both individually & corporately.

If you think that individual religious expression of worship is more central to the Kingdom of God than the Church...

I would ask you to go back to your Bible.

If you think family worship, as important as it is, is more central to the Kingdom of God than the Church...

I would ask you to go back to your Bible.

† – The true Church is the blood bought Bride of Christ.

† – The true Church is the New Covenant people of God.

Are we free in Christ from a centralized single earthly Temple?

Yes – Christ is the True Temple. The only Mediator.

Are we free from regularly gathering together as the people of God?

In Christ, we are free from the condemnation of such a command...

Yet, at the same time, if we are freed from the condemnation of such a command...

Then, with that freedom there should be a compelling to obey the Lord and all His commands due to the new heart & affections we have in Christ.

In Christ, we do not perform for the wage of Eternal Life.

But out of gratitude for the gracious gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, we obey.

Let’s think about it...

Is your commitment to the Bride of Christ on the same level as other commitments?

Is your commitment to the Bride of Christ lower than other commitments you have?

What is more important to you than the Bride of Christ?

Imagine saying to someone, I’d love to hang out with you in the prescribed manner...

I’d love to spend time with you in the way I ought...

If you could just get rid of your spouse.

I think a major reason the Church isn’t attractive to the World is because it’s not adored by Christ’s Bride.

Our commitment to the Church should make people see the church as something they want to investigate.

And, if and when they come they see a Church exalting the name of Jesus...

Preaching the gospel of grace...

Singing with joy in our hearts...

Adoring our Savior corporately...

Worshipping God in His prescribed manner...

So they may fall down on their knees and say...

God is in this place!

Closing Prayer