The Highest Duty of the Church (Part 2 of 3)

The Lord of the Sabbath
God is a holy God.17 God has set forth a holy day.18 God has redeemed for Himself a holy people.19 Therefore, the worship of holy God on His holy day by His holy people must be holy worship; worship set apart by the object of our worship, the appointed time of our worship and by the proper means and attitude of our worship.20 The worship of holy God must, by necessity, be set apart in all respects from every other human activity.21 Our model of worship cannot reflect the values, preferences or demands of the world.22 Worldliness in worship diminishes the glory of God and robs His people of a truthful and real encounter with Him.23 “When God’s people understand who God is, who they are in His presence, and what is happening to them when they come into His presence, not only their minds but their hearts are transformed.”24

The Sin of Idolatry
The people of God in every generation face the temptation to either worship falsely by not worshiping the true God or by worshiping the true God the wrong way.25 Either case is idolatrous. The Church cannot worship who she wants, the way she wants, in any manner she chooses. How26 we worship is as much God’s concern as Who27 we worship. It is rare indeed that in the biblical record God’s people ever demanded from their leadership God’s best for them.  This is certainly true in the demands of people today for culturally relevant, personally experiential and sensuously exciting “worship.”

Church leaders should never forget Aaron yielding to the pressure of the crowd making for Israel a golden calf to worship. The people of Israel were unified, generous, full of zeal and excitement, yet idolatrous. They had mixed worship of the gods of Egypt with worship of the true God. It carried no weight with God at all that Aaron declared, “Tomorrow shall be a feast day to the LORD.” God was angry. The unity, zeal, dancing, enthusiasm and excitement of God’s people didn’t matter. Aaron’s golden calf was not God’s appointed way for His people to come near Him. We should find it enlightening that “While God was giving his redeemed people a written and preached Word through his servant Moses at the top of the mountain, they were busy fashioning a golden calf that they could see, and touch – and control.”28 Mixing the world and the ways and means of the world into Christian worship displeases God.29

We must not forget the “strange fire” that Nadab and Abihu offered to the Lord.30 These young men were the sons of Aaron. Their uncle was Moses. On several occasions they were included with their father and uncle in receiving special revelation from the Lord.31 They were consecrated priests of the Lord. Yet, when they “offered unauthorized fire” that God had not commanded, “fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.” God then said, “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.” We cannot come to God nor worship God in any way other than that prescribed by His Word.

People today want to have it their way rather than God’s way. They create God in their own imaginations as opposed to accepting God’s self-revelation of Himself in Scripture. They demand “worship” that is casual and comfortable. Too many think that whatever is done sincerely in Jesus’ name is acceptable worship. Sincerity never makes a false thing true or a wrong thing right. In the absence of knowing God truthfully and approaching Him biblically, sincerity doesn’t matter at all. Both the object of worship and the manner of worship matter greatly to God.  Like the kings, priests and prophets of old, pastors and elders must make the choice of whether to acquiesce to the demands of Israel for God in their own image, or, lead God‘s people in the worship of God His way, according to His commands, for His glory alone!

God Centered Worship32
God centered worship by definition is Word centered worship and is therefore worship rooted in Scripture. The substance, order and propriety of what a church does in worship reflect what a church believes about God. Worship is theological not psychological. The goal of worship is the glory of God and not the worshiper’s self-esteem, their need for therapy or their own emotional experiential gratification. Therefore, the doctrines of Scripture, not the culture, the “felt needs” of the people, or individual preferences determine the proper worship of God.

Worship must maintain a biblical doctrine of God. As biblical Calvinists we are committed to maintaining the Creator/creature distinction between God and man. Because of sin there remains a great gulf between infinite God and finite man. Thanks be to God that Christ bridged the gulf between God and man.33 We cannot, however, focus our attention and hearts in worship in any way that brings God down to our level, makes Him common, or allows men to think more highly of themselves than they should.

Sermons, readings, prayers and music that fail to affirm that – “There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty,”34 do not glorify God in spirit and in truth.

Worship must also reflect a biblical doctrine of man. Scriptures teach us that men are sinners radically depraved in our ability to know or serve God. By the fall of man we were all “wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of the soul and body” and “are utterly indisposed, disabled,and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to evil.”35 We cannot assume that any heartfelt sincere “new concept” of worship is pleasing to God. In fact, we should assume the opposite. As redeemed sinners we must rely upon God and God alone to tell us what is acceptable to Him. To paraphrase John the Baptist, we must decrease that He might increase.

Biblical worship maintains a high view of the doctrine of Scripture. We believe the Scripture to be both the Word of God and the Voice of God and that everything we need for our lives and the worship of God is contained therein.36 When we add to our worship those things not prescribed by God, such as drama, dancing and images, we undermine the truthfulness and sufficiency of Scripture through which God alone reveals Himself. God does not redemptively reveal Himself through any medium other than His written Word.37 For us to add more or less to His divine revelation dishonors God and leads to idolatry.38

The reformed doctrine of the Church limits the authority of her power to that specifically delegated by Christ.39 The Church can only require of her members that required of them by God. Church officers cannot demand or permit extra biblical doctrine or practice. Requiring people to worship in a manner other than that prescribed by the Lord binds the conscience of the worshiper to an unbiblical practice. Governing authorities cannot bind the conscience.40 To permit worship in a manner other than that prescribed by God is force God’s people to worship falsely. Governing authorities must obey God rather than men in deciding appropriate and acceptable worship in the solemn assembly of the saints on the Lord’s Day.

Worship must reflect the sovereignty of God. It is the glorious doctrine of the sovereignty of God that gives the greatest insight to the proper worship of God. God alone has the prerogative to determine who worships Him, the time they worship Him, the place they worship Him and the manner in which His people worship the Lord of Glory. He is sovereign over worship.  Modern concepts advocating innovative worship, alternative worship, and informal worship are incompatible with the above referenced doctrines. Unbiblical and extra-biblical notions of worship cannot maintain a high view of God or His Word. Losing the “worship wars” to contemporary and unbiblical notions inevitably leads to the disappearance of the divine transcendence of God from our worship services and to the elevation of man.

The Cambridge Declaration says it well, “Whenever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God’s and we are doing his work in our way.

The loss of God’s centrality in the life of today’s church is common and lamentable. It is the loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into techniques, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and
rest too inconsequentially upon us.”41

The Means of Grace in Worship
Much, if not all, of the clamor for new and innovative worship experiences is justified in the name of evangelism. Soul winning trumps everything. Therefore, the means of drawing people to God doesn’t matter much as long as the ultimate goal is soul winning. This often turns the Lord’s Day into a giant appeal for cultural relevancy so that everyone will feel comfortable with us and with God hopefully creating an environment conducive to making decisions for Christ. In other words, we hope that if sinners like us they may like our Jesus. Every church should desire a winsome and welcoming demeanor in its people. All churches should be aware not to put artificial road blocks in the path of those who may come to God. But there are two fallacies with the premise that evangelism should shape the tenor and focus of worship.

The first issue has to do with purpose. Clearly, the purpose of the Great Commission is evangelism. But evangelism is not the primary purpose of Christian worship. The Lord’s Day gathering remains primarily the meeting place between God and His people through the Word.  While we should expect God to save the lost on the Lord’s Day, people come to Christ only because of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God and not through any other means.42At a recent pastor’s  conference, R. C. Sproul was asked about the concern many pastors’ have that if we make the Lord’s Day only about the worship of God the saints won’t stay and the lost won’t come. Dr. Sproul obviously concerned and agitated by the question, pulled himself up in his chair and said, “If you pastors create and order your worship services for the ungodly – it’s blasphemy.” You could have heard a pin drop. Worship really isn’t about us – it’s about God!

The second issue has to do with means. God works redemptively one way – by His Spirit through His Word. In times past and in different ways God spoke in extraordinary ways through signs, wonders and miracles. In these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son through the ordinary means of preaching, sacraments, and prayer and through no other.43 As Michael Horton has said, “God has promised to save and keep his people through the means he has appointed and no others; the ordinary means of grace are limited to the preached Word and the administered sacraments; God’s rationale for these means is made explicit in Scripture.”44 The Church may not create other means to communicate grace than those which most directly and truthfully declare His Word nor declare any other message than the gospel proclaimed in Word and sacrament.45

The Elements of Worship46
The one place in the New Testament that says God seeks anything from us is found in John 4:23-24. “But the hour is coming and now is 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.” How then do we do this in the course of Sunday worship? Terry Johnson’s simple answer is sufficient, “Read the Bible, preach the Bible, sing the Bible, pray the Bible, see the Bible.”47

We read the Bible in our public worship. Scripture commands that we “give attention to the public reading of Scripture.”48 The public reading of the Bible has been at the heart of the worship of God throughout redemptive history. God speaks most directly to His people through the reading of His Word.We preach the Bible in our public worship. The preached Word is at the heart of Reformed worship. “Faith comes by hearing” the Word of God proclaimed. Faithful preaching must be expositional and evangelistic preaching, based solidly on the text itself. Biblical preaching cannot be personality driven, theologically vague or superficially practical. We must preach the “whole counsel of God”, line by line, precept by precept, book by book. Paul told Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”49

We pray the Bible in our public worship. Jesus said that His Father’s house would be called “a house of prayer.”50 Our prayers should be permeated with the language and thought of Scripture.  We pray to the blessed Trinity to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Public prayers should build faith in God’s people as to His character, attributes, grace and mercy. Prayers should reflect the priority of Scripture. We commit ourselves to prayers of invocation, intercession, illumination and supplication. Our tradition calls for studied prayer prayed from the heart where the Holy Spirit touches both the mind and affections of the one praying.

We sing the Bible in our public worship. Scripture commands the singing of God’s people with “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.”51 Singing the Psalms was once the primary source of musical worship in the Christian Church. Sadly, Psalm singing by God’s people has been lost to most of His Church. When hymns and spiritual songs are included in worship they too should comport with the substance and style of God’s songbook – the Psalms. Hymns and spiritual songs must reflect the themes, proportions, substance and weightiness of Scripture.52  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament directly encourage the congregational singing of the people of God.53 Special music sung by choirs, ensembles and soloists, must never take the place of the corporate singing of the Body of Christ on the Lord’s Day. Instruments are used toenhance the singing of God’s people and therefore should be understated and appropriate to the worship of holy God. To “sing the Bible” means to sing that which is biblical, filled with the language, categories and theology of Scripture.

We “see” the Bible in our public worship. God has given to His Church two visible sacramental signs of His grace. These are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.54 These signs and seals of the covenant of grace are “visible signs of invisible grace.”55 In these “visible words” we see with our eyes the promise of God. In reading and preaching God addresses the mind and conscience through hearing. In the sacraments God addresses the mind and conscience through the other senses. Through the senses God’s promise is made tangible. The sacraments of God remind and assure us of His covenant. Therefore, these “visible symbols of Gospel truths” are essential to corporate worship.

Clearly, Reformed worship is worship through the Word. Therefore, words and ritual that communicate the Word of God through reading, preaching, praying, singing and sacrament are God’s regulated methods of communication. With a biblical standard this rich and clear why isn’t this enough for modern contemporary evangelicalism? I suggest three reasons – a decline in biblical doctrine, a wrong view of what is necessary to evangelism and a distorted understanding of the purpose of worship.

For example, many churches now utilize drama as a means to communicate to gospel. Can we not worship God on the Lord’s Day with plays and skits? The simple answer is “no.” Not only is their no biblical mandate for dramatic expression in worship, people cease to be participants in worship when watching drama; they becomes spectators. Biblical worship is corporate worship.  Contemporary modern churches that have embraced drama as an acceptable expression of worship have done so arguably for three reasons – people really like it, it seems a better way to communicate than sermons, and people are generally not literate enough to have a Word directed worship experience. This is not unlike the Medieval Church that encouraged extra-biblical plays in worship; dramas filled with images, stirring music, and a sense of majesty and mystery. After all, people liked theater in the church, Catholics didn’t preach much anyway and passion plays etc. were touted as “the ‘books’ for the unlearned.”56 Reformed churches responded, “No, we should not try to be wiser than God. He wants his people instructed by the living preaching of his Word – not by idols that cannot even talk.”57 Regardless of what the theme or intent of a drama may be, dramatic arts as such are not acceptable in worship on the Lord’s Day according to Scripture.

Dancing in a worship service is a bit more problematic. There are biblical references to dancing in the Old Testament.58 Read in context, however, dancing would appear to be either a cultural expression unique to the Middle East or a response to particular things God had done for Israel like bringing them through the Red Sea or giving them victory in battle.59 As Edmund Clowney
said, “Set in its cultural context, David’s dancing appears to be a circumstance, rather than an element, in worship.”60 No reference exists of dancing as worship in the New Testament.61 It appears from the biblical evidence that dancing was not utilized in covenantal worship in the tabernacle, temple, synagogue or early church worship. The problem is not with the beauty or the intention to glorify God with dance; the real problem is dancing is expression without words.  While dancing may convey the aesthetic quality of beauty that may be God honoring it cannot convey truth and therefore cannot clearly communicate the gospel.

Many of the same arguments referenced above are applicable to a biblical church not using any images, DVD presentations, or other new innovative methods in worship. That is not to say that fuller expressions of the fine arts and technology are not only appropriate but desired in other forums than worship on the Christian Sabbath. Every church should embrace the fine arts for the glory of God. There are other meetings, banquets, concerts and conferences where more of the arts would be appropriate and desirable. All things that are true, good and beautiful are expressions of God, but not all things are equally useful in the communication of the Word in worship.

“The elements of worship should be kept in biblical proportions, extra biblical elements excluded, and God ever remain the unambiguous focus.”62 Therefore, we regulate ourselves to reading, preaching, praying, singing and seeing the Word in our worship on the Lord’s Day.

17 Leviticus 11:45
18 Exodus 20:9-11
19 I Peter 2:9
20 Matthew 15:8-9
21 Acts 17:24-25
22 Deuteronomy 12:32
23 II Corinthians 6:14-17
24 Michael Horton, A Better Way, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 2002, p. 14
25 II Timothy 4:3-4
26 Exodus 20:4-6 (2nd Commandment)
27 Exodus 20:3 (1st Commandment)
28 Michael Horton, A Better Way, Baker Books, 2002, p.36
29 Exodus 32
30 Leviticus 10:1-6
31 Exodus 24:1, 9; 28:1
32 Taken in part from, Terry L. Johnson, Worship That Is According To Scripture, Reformed Academic Press, Greenville, 2000, p. 27-29
33 II Corinthians 5:21
34 Westminster Confession of Faith, Of God, and of the Holy Trinity, Chapter II, part I.
35 Westminster Confession of Faith, Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof, Chapter VI
36 II Timothy 3:16, 17
37 Hebrews 1:1-3
38 Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32
39 Matthew 16:18; 18:18
40 Westminster Confession of Faith, Of Christian Liberty, Chapter XX.2
41 The Cambridge Declaration – www.alliancenet.org
42 Romans 10:17 ESV
43 Hebrews 1:1-3
44 Michael Horton, A Better Way, Baker Books, 2002, p.29
45 Read, WCF, Of Saving Faith, XIV.1
46 Taken in part from, First Presbyterian Church Jackson MS, A Guide To Morning Service, Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III.
47 Terry L. Johnson, Worship That Is According To Scripture, Reformed Academic Press, Greenville, 2000, p. 35-36
48 I Timothy 4:13
49 II Timothy 4:2-4
50 Matthew 21:13
51 Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16
52 Consider the weight and substance of the Song of Mary in Luke 1:46-55; the Song of Zechariah in Luke 1:68-79; and, the Song of Simeon in Luke 2:29-32.
53 Psalm 98:1; Revelation 5:9
54 Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38-39; Colossians 2:11-12. Luke 22:14-20, I Corinthians 11:23-26
55 Saint Augustine
56 Michael Horton, A Better Way, Baker Books, 2000, p.15
57 The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Lord’s Day 35, Question 98.
58 I Chronicles 15:25-28; Psalm 149:2-3
59 Exodus 15:20-21
60 Edmund P. Clowney, The Church, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1995, p. 129
61 There are negative references, however, to dancing in the New Testament. See, I Corinthians 10:7 and Matthew 14:6
62 Terry L. Johnson, Leading In Worship, The Covenant Foundation, Oak Ridge, TN, 1999, p. 15