Grace Community Church, Milwaukee, WI

There are, these days, many who do not make a connection between daily behaviors and the affects they have upon worship. Read on and consider what the Scripture and voices of the past can teach us which is well worth consideration.

The Connection Between Worship and Conduct 

 Scripture Reading : Psalm 15: 1-5

Application from Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:

“Here is a very serious question concerning the character of a citizen of Zion. It is the happiness of glorified saints, that they dwell in the holy hill; they are at home there, they shall be for ever there. It concerns us to make it sure to ourselves that we have a place among them. A very plain and particular answer is here given. Those who desire to know their duty, will find the Scripture a very faithful director, and conscience a faithful monitor. A citizen of Zion is sincere in his religion. He is really what he professes to be, and endeavors to stand complete in all the will of God. He is just both to God and man; and, in speaking to both, speaks the truth in his heart. He scorns and abhors wrong and fraud; he cannot reckon that a good bargain, nor a saving one, which is made with a lie; and knows that he who wrongs his neighbor will prove, in the end, to have most injured himself. He is very careful to do hurt to no man. He speaks evil of no man, makes not others ‘faults the matter of his common talk; he makes the best of every body, and the worst of nobody. If an ill-natured story be told him, he will disprove it if he can; if not, it goes no further. He values men by their virtue and piety. Wicked people are vile people, worthless, and good for nothing; so the word signifies. He thinks the worse of no man’s piety for his poverty and mean condition. He reckons that serious piety puts honor upon a man, more than wealth, or a great name. He honors such, desires their conversation and an interest in their prayers, is glad to show them respect, or do them a kindness. By this we may judge of ourselves in some measure. Even wise and good men may swear to their own hurt: but see how strong the obligation is, a man must rather suffer loss to himself and his family, than wrong his neighbor. He will not increase his estate by extortion, or by bribery. He will not, for any gain, or hope of it to himself, do any thing to hurt a righteous cause. Every true living member of the church, like the church itself, is built upon a Rock. He that doeth these things shall not be moved for ever. The grace of God shall always be sufficient for him. The union of these tempers and this conduct, can only spring from repentance for sin, faith in the Savior, and love to him. In these respects let us examine and prove our own selves.”

And from Henry Law’s Commentary :

“Here is a beautiful picture of the holy man. Holy Spirit, mold us into this blessed form!

‘Lord, who shall abide in Your tabernacle? who shall dwell in Your holy hill?’

Profession is not always real. Many may cry, “Lord, Lord,” who shall at last be outcasts. Hence it is all-momentous to escape deception, and to know assuredly our state. Here is the question put. Here is the answer given. He who alone reads well the heart, He who discerns the wheat from chaff, hears the appeal and gives reply. Who then maintains communion with the Lord, who talks with God upon His mercy-seat, who shall forever dwell with Him in the new heavens and the new earth, who shall receive the welcome, “Come, you blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?” Who will be Zion’s inhabitants when the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and shall be their God? The reply forbids mistake. God’s people are all righteous. Holiness is written on their brow. Holiness pervades their heart. Holiness directs their steps, supplies their words, and is the very essence of their being. They are newborn by the Spirit’s power. The divine nature is implanted. Let not, however, this decisive test mislead. Our holiness presents no title at God’s bar; it blots out no sin; it pays no debt; it arrests not condemnation; it weaves no justifying robe; it presents no shadow of a claim. Christ, and Christ only, justifies; His blood alone can cleanse from sin; His death alone appeases wrath. His pure obedience, placed to our account, is the only robe for heaven. Holiness is not our title, but it is assuredly our character. It is the evidence before God and man that we are really Christ’s. It is the test of union with the Lord; it is the proof that we are one with Him. By faith we have an interest in Christ and all Christ’s work. By works we prove that the gift of faith has been received. With earnest prayer that godliness may be our element of life and fitness for the new Jerusalem, let us now ponder the beautiful portrait drawn by the Spirit’s hand.”

How many today would answer the question like this:

“The gospel of Christ in general is this: It is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. More largely it is this: As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again…Namely, the second person of the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction by keeping the law perfectly, which satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him…And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and they they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”

Jeremiah Burroughs, 1600 – 1646 

Grace and Peace,

Elder Dale

Here is some excellent teaching from Scripture and Charles Spurgeon:

‘But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And  they that understand among the people shall instruct many.’ Daniel 11:32–33

Suggested Further Reading:  Ezra 7:1–10

“Search the Scriptures. Do not merely read them—search them; look out the parallel passages; collate them; try to get the meaning of the Spirit upon any one truth by looking to all the texts which refer to it. Read the Bible  consecutively: do not merely read a verse here and there—that is not fair.  You would never know anything about John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress  if  you opened it every morning and read six lines in any part and then shut it up  again; you must read it all through if you want to know anything about it. Get  those books, say Mark or John; read Mark right through from beginning to  end; do not stop with two or three verses, or a chapter, but try to know what  Mark is aiming at. It is not fair to Paul to take his epistle to the Romans and  read one chapter: we are obliged to do it in public service; but if you want to  get at Paul’s meaning, read the whole epistle through as you would another  letter. Read the Bible in a commonsense way. Pray after you have read it as  much as you like. When you are reading it, if you come to a knotty point, do  not skip it. You all have some Christian friend who knows more than you do;  go to him and try to get the thing explained. Above all, when you have read  any passage, and do understand it, act it out, and ask the Spirit of God to  burn the meaning into your conscience till it is written on the fleshy tables of  your heart.”

For thought and action: Daily readings should supplement Bible study, not replace  it. Have you ever tried to read the Bible in a year? Try the reading schedule the Elders have chosen to help you. It may be hard work, especially the first time, but many have been so blessed that they have resolved to read the whole Bible every year.  But beware of it becoming an academic exercise. Note Ezra’s example—his  desire was to study God’s word, to do it and to teach it—in that order (Ezra 7: 10). His aim was not to practice what he preached, but to preach what he practiced!

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale

Here is another great devotional from the the pen of Richard Sibbes:

“As the sun is on its course though we cannot see it move, and as plants and herbs grow though we cannot perceive them to grow, even so it does not follow that a Christian grows not because he cannot see himself grow. Nay, if believers decay in their first love, or in some other grace, yet another grace may grow and increase, such as their humility, their broken-heartedness; they sometimes seem not to grow in the branches when they may grow at the root; upon a check grace breaks out more; as we say, after a hard winter there usually follows a glorious spring.

It is not sufficient for a Christian to have habitual grace; there is no vine can bring forth fruit without the fresh influences of heaven, though it be planted and well rooted in a good soil; so we cannot bring forth fruit unless God assists us; our former strength will not serve when a new temptation comes.

As men cherish young plants at first and fence them about with hedges to keep them from hurt, but when they are grown they remove these things and leave them to the wind and weather, so God sustains His children at first with props of inward comforts, but afterwards He exposes them to storms and winds because they are better able to bear them. Therefore let no man think himself the better because he is more free from troubles than others; it is because God sees him not fit to bear greater.”

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook
The Old Paths

A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
Isaiah 42 : 3

These days, it is pretty easy to get caught up in the bad news of the day whether it is local, national, or global. Personal circumstances have a way of bringing us down when they are not going well. If this would be the case for you, please be encouraged by this excerpt from “The Bruised Reed” by Richard Sibbes. In his day, his teachings were referred to as a “balm for the soul”. I trust they will be for you, too!

“The sighs of a bruised heart carry in them a report, both of our affection to Christ, and of His care to us. The eyes of our souls cannot be towards Him unless He has cast a gracious look upon us first. The least love we have to Him is but a reflection of His love first shining upon us. As Christ did, in His example to us, whatever He charges us to do, so He suffered in His own person whatever He calls us to suffer, so that He might the better learn to relieve and pity us in our sufferings. In His desertion in the garden and on the cross He was content to be without that unspeakable solace which the presence of His Father gave, both to bear the wrath of the Lord for a time for us, and likewise to know the better how to comfort us in our greatest extremities. God sees fit that we should taste of that cup of which his Son drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son’s love was. But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will succor us, so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of His displeasure which we may feel. He became not only a man but a curse, a man of sorrows, for us. He was broken that we should not be broken; He was troubled, that we should not be desperately troubled; He became a curse, that we should not be accursed. Whatever may be wished for in an all sufficient comforter is all to be found in Christ:

1. Authority from the Father. All power was given to Him (Matt. 28:18).
2. Strength in Himself. His name is `The mighty God’ (Isa. 9:6).
3. Wisdom, and that from His own experience, how and when to help (Heb. 2:18).
4. Willingness, as being bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh (Gen. 2:23; Eph. 5:30).”

Grace and Peace,

Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook
The Old Paths

Just in case anyone was wondering, I will continue the articles on worship soon. I am reading some recently acquired study materials related to that subject that may enhance future posts on that teaching. In the meanwhile, I would like to re-post an article from The Daily Evidence for your consideration:

Zephaniah 3:2 She has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, She has not drawn near to her God.

The ungodly often think that all that God requires of them is to “believe” in Him. However, God does not require just belief (the demons believe and tremble); He demands obedience. We are to bow to the Lordship of the One who gave us life. He is the Lord and if the world refuses to bow to His absolute sovereignty now in mercy, they will bow later in judgment.

“Salvation comes not by ‘accepting the finished work’ or ‘deciding for Christ.’ It comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and man, fought our fight and won it, accepted our debt as His own and paid it, took our sins and died under them and rose again to set us free. This is the true Christ, and nothing less will do. “But something less is among us, nevertheless, and we do well to identify it so that we may repudiate it. That something is a poetic fiction, a product of the romantic imagination and maudlin religious fancy. It is a Jesus, gentle, dreamy, shy, sweet and feminine, almost effeminate, and marvelously adaptable to whatever society He may find Himself in . . . He is used as a means to almost any carnal end, but he is never acknowledged as Lord. These quasi Christians follow a quasi Christ. They want his help but not his interference. They will flatter him but never obey him.” A. W. Tozer

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook
The Old Paths

“Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels.”
Thomas Watson (1620 – 1686)

These days it is not uncommon in Christian circles to hear folks comment about what they “got” or did not “get” out of a worship service. How few are the remarks concerning what individuals put into their worship of God, whether it was during the prior week, night, or the day of the worship service. The study of the Word from the last sermon (or any study for that matter), confession and repentance from sin, and prayer are rarely, if ever, talked about as the means by which preparation for worship is personally undertaken.

Could we fathom Moses, after being given God’s prescription for worship, canvassing the pagan nations for instruction to improve upon those directions? How about Paul polling the followers of Diana in Ephesus for ideas to make the Christian worship service more inviting? These actions would be preposterous to these (and many other) men, yet many a “seeker-sensitive”, emerging, prosperous, and purpose driven congregation follow that design. Unfortunately these principles do not remain in a vacuum but float around and are picked up by others. Sadly, those ideas create much confusion and division about what worship is and should be. Jesus taught us who the Seeker is that we should be sensitive to, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4 : 23-24). Moses exhorted the people of Israel before they entered into the Promised Land not to follow in the ways of the people there, “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’” Deuteronomy 12 : 29-30. Both in the Old and New Covenant, Christians are commanded to worship God in the manner He sets forth and not according to, or accepting for their own, the felt needs and ever changing attitudes of an unbelieving society. When God is worshiped His way, He becomes the center of our worship as we worship Him by His Spirit and His Truth. Having anything else as that center is, simply stated, idolatry.

God-centered, Spirit-driven, Christ-exalting worship is in the truest sense evangelistic as well as nurturing. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ” Paul writes in Romans 10 : 17 and Peter wrote “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God…Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1 : 23, 25b). Allowing our theology to direct our methods, if we truly believe that God is sovereign over all things, then God-centered worship will be the means by which He draws the unconverted to Himself and nourishes those already called into His sheepfold. We would do well to follow His ways, yes?

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook

“No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to His mind and will.” John Owen (1616 – 1683)

As we look at how to apply the Regulative Principle to worship (and life), we need to examine the role we have in the implementation of our duty to worship in spirit and truth. While it is true that we are to “do all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) as a rule in a wide, or broad sense; also true is the command to “do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24) in a specific, or narrow sense; the Scripture does not give us specifics as to when or where to gather together on Sunday, which or how many hymns to sing, what or how many prayers to have, what the sermon text should be, and so forth. The Westminster divines recognized this and wrote in the Confession of Faith, “that there are some circumstances (emphasis mine) concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed” (1.6).

The word “circumstances” is the key to our understanding here. Remembering that “what is not commanded is forbidden”, a worship service is a meeting that is held for a specific purpose and the details concerning that purpose are to be “ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed”. Scripture does not specifically prohibit that we employ a knife throwing exhibition during a worship service, and entertainment that is ordered by biblical standards under certain conditions is acceptable, even to the point of being seen as worship in a broad sense. However, Scripture does instruct us as to the purpose of a worship service, and entertainment seen as acceptable under different circumstances, does not meet with the specific circumstance of a worship service. This is where the exercise of “Christian prudence” ordered (that is, directed) by Scripture, instructs and guides us in the application of the Regulative Principle.

The truth of the matter is that God, in His Word, commands and instructs us in every aspect of our lives. The Regulative Principle then should be seen as not only for the ordering of our worship (public and private) but also a command for every part of our lives. “Common to human actions and societies” takes into account the timelessness and universal application of the Scripture. The misuse of the Regulative Principle to enforce traditionalism or a set form of standard, of the very sort that is to be avoided, has been an oft repeated error in Christian history. The Scripture says of Jesus ” For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). There are many different people and cultures called to worship in spirit and truth, within the boundaries prescribed in Scripture. Think of it this way, a fish in a lake has great freedom of movement in the water but once removed from the water, that freedom is lost. The Regulative Principle sets us free to worship within the set principles of the Word and also allows for applications of those commands that will most edify worshipers of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation at whatever point of history they have been Providentially placed. Stay tuned, as we learn more about “staying in the water” as we continue studying through our outline.

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook

“You all have by you a large treasure of divine knowledge, in that you have the Bible in your hands; therefore be not contented in possessing but little of this treasure. God hath spoken much to you in the Scripture; labor to understand as much of what he saith as you can. God hath made you all reasonable creatures; therefore let not the noble faculty of reason or understanding lie neglected. Content not yourselves with having so much knowledge as is thrown in your way, and as you receive in some sense unavoidably by the frequent inculcation of divine truth in the preaching of the word, of which you are obliged to be hearers, or as you accidentally gain in conversation; but let it be very much your business to search for it, and that with the same diligence and labor with which men are wont to dig in mines of silver and gold.” JONATHAN EDWARDS

The title of this post sounds like a no-brainer, but it must be said. There exists two schools of thought regarding what constitutes acceptable, Biblical worship. The first teaches that whatever is not expressly forbidden in Scripture is allowed. This practice casts the Scripture in a negative manner, allowing it to merely exercise veto power over the practices of men. The second teaches that whatever is not expressly commanded is forbidden. Here the Scripture has a positive role, allowing God’s Word to regulate what is practiced as worship in a manner that is acceptable to Him rather than what we may think or feel is worthy. This view, held historically by Reformed and Presbyterian churches, is known as the “regulative principle of worship”. The Westminster Confession of Faith, XXI defines it like this: “But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited to His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture (Ex 20:4-6; Deut 4:15-20; 12:32; Matt 4:9, 10; 15:9; Acts 17:25; Col 2:23).”

The importance which God gives to His worship is illustrated in Leviticus 10:1-11, where we read about Nadab and Abihu offering strange or unauthorized fire before the Lord and were burned alive for their transgression. In Hebrews 12:28-29 we learn ” Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” Both in the Old and New Covenant, God commands acceptable worship.

The second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-5a) adds credibility to the regulative principle. The Westminster Catechism, A. 109 states, “The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself”.

One may think, ” Wow, this is pretty harsh. Don’t we have freedom in Christ?” The answer is yes, the true convert has freedom from the bondage to sin and the condemnation of the Law, however, that freedom does not extend into worshiping God in a way not prescribed by Him in His Word. In the next lesson, we will study the practical application of the regulative principle to our worship and lives as Christians.

Grace and Peace,
Elder Dale
The Shepherd’s Crook