Sermon Cloud

 

Biblical Faith is an Authentic Worshipping Faith

Hebrews 11:4

Grace Fellowship Church

June 8, 2008

Series 3 Sermon 47

 

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

 

Introduction

I heard a story this week about a church.  This church was pastored by a faithful man of God who preached and taught through books of the Bible in this church for over thirty years.  Upon his retirement from pulpit ministry a successor was called.  This successor came in and sowed the seeds of theological liberalism among the congregation.  You see he used the same words as the former pastor but he had a different dictionary for those same words.  Faith meant something different to him than the former pastor.  Theology meant something different and the church became less and less a church the longer this man stayed. 

 

The man who told this story met with a member of the church and asked her how this could have happened.  The former pastor faithfully expounded the Word of God to the people of God for over thirty years and now they are following a false shepherd.  She gave a startling answer.  She said that it was true that the pastor was a faithful man of God and he spent over thirty years telling them what was right but he never told them what was wrong. 

 

Folks, there are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  There are false shepherds. There are men who are gifted orators who are not true believers but masquerade themselves about preying on uninformed Christians. 

 

I have often struggled with saying anything negative about the modern church.  I do not want to be a controversialist.  I have struggled many times as I have done the work of studying and preparing throughout the week in order to tell you on Sunday what the Lord has spoken in His Word.  I have literally grieved over what should be said in order to tell you the truth so you will know what God has said.  And I often think back on my own church experiences and wonder how I could have been involved in some of the things that happened in those churches.  Part of it was newness in the faith and a lack of understanding of the Scriptures.  Part of it was just not being taught what was wrong or right.  So if I am destined to be called a controversialist then so be it but I am going to attempt to serve you by telling you what the Lord says is right and what the Lord says is wrong.  So here goes.

 

I began my previous sermon by stating that by and large the modern church has no idea what biblical faith looks like.  Let me say to you this morning that for the most part the modern church has no idea what authentic theologically driven worship looks like either.  We live in a day of Baskin Robbins worship.  There is a different flavor on every block.  Now I like different flavors of ice cream but should there actually be so many flavors to choose when it comes to the worship of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe who has commanded all men, women, and children to worship before Him?

 

Many believe that God really does not care how we worship Him as long as we worship Him.  You see signs by the roadside and on bumper stickers that say, “Attend the church of your choice.”  People in churches learn to hate one another over style of music.  We see various denominations and clusters of churches that unite over style and methodology.  By the way, churches at one time united in associations by like theology now it is by like methodology. 

 

Worship in the modern American church ranges from the dead orthodoxy of some to the happy clappy right on over to mosh pits and coffee bars.  Most of our churches are driven by the consumer and if the consumer wants something churches will clamor to get it for them.  This is called being market driven. 

 

For instance, if McDonalds discovered that Americans really liked elk burgers you can bet in a matter of weeks McDonalds would be advertising the McElk.  Likewise with the market driven church.  It’s all about the flavor of the week.  If people want dramas or interpretive dance or mosh pits and the churches think they can get people into the church that way, they will do it.  Most of the time it will be hidden in this type of language, “We need to do something to attract the younger folks to come to our church.”  The market tells churches that if they are not big then they are not doing something right when the opposite may be true. 

 

I recently saw on a news program a mainline church hosting a contest of heavy metal rock bands in the meeting facility at the church.  The only catch was after it was over the youth minister got up to talk for five minutes.  It was held so they could invite the attendees to church by saying, “Look at us.  We are cool just like you.”  I heard excerpts of what the youth minister said to the crowd and what he said in church should not be uttered by a so called minister anywhere.

 

And so the worship changes to fit the culture.  But why should we not do this?  After all, if we mold ourselves to look more like the world then we can attract more people to the church and if the church isn’t much different than the world then maybe more people will get saved and go to heaven.  And that is our goal right?  Isn’t the evangelization of the world our ultimate goal as Christians and so we need to break down every possible barrier and hindrance to the lost world gaining access to the Gospel.  So the church in response to this has started more Baskin Robbins services.  If you like traditional worship you come to the 8:00am service.  For those of you who enjoy a more contemporary service you come to the 9:00am service.  And for those who are about to rock or rap, or mosh give us an extra hour and come at 11:00am so the lighting can be adjusted.  Tuesday night will be biker church for you motorcycle riders and on Thursday they will meet in the barn for you cowboy types.  There will be a country western band and they all sit on saddle shaped pews. 

Folks I tell you with disgust this morning that most Christians in our country would attend with joy a church like that.  After all these are the mega churches.  Three or four services and several thousand people coming through with multi-million dollar budgets and sound crews and lighting crews is what history will record about the late 20^th and early 21^st Century church in America. 

 

Previously I read a quote to you from Joel Osteen, the pastor of the largest church in America where he basically said that people do not come to church to hear theology.  They want something that will actually help them that is why he “preaches” positive and uplifting and encouraging sermons.  They are “helpful” to people.  And judging from the size of his gathering he is correct in his assessment but is he right biblically? 

 

At Rick Warren’s recent church growth conference at Saddleback Community Church, speaking to pastors he stated that all that preaching and praying that you do pastors, will never grow your church.  It’s your skill that will allow your church to grow.

 

I may be naïve, I don’t think I am, but if I recall correctly it was the Lord Jesus Christ who proclaimed, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”  And if I am not mistaken that statement was in response to a theological statement made in response to a theological question that the Lord Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responded with a theological answer, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”  So in the proclamation of Christ as the Son of God the Lord Jesus Himself has claimed He will grow His church, not my skill at organization or my craftiness. 

 

People have made the assumption that God is most concerned with the evangelization of the world.  I would say that God is very concerned with that but is that what God’s main concern is?  No.  God is ultimately concerned with His glory.  Therefore He has graciously given us His Word that reveals to us His nature, His ways, His works, and His character.  Ultimately all of that is revealed to us is done so in Scripture in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, through the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity. 

 

Context

Two weeks ago we saw how important theology is to faith.  We looked together at Hebrews 11:2-3 and saw that Biblical saving faith is a theology driven faith.  That theology starts with the work of God in creation from Genesis 1 through the work of God in creating a new covenant community of faithful believers by calling them to life from the deadness of depravity.  We saw together that saving faith is concerned with theology and is driven by theology.  Or said another way, biblical saving faith comes as a result of God revealing Himself to the person who is being saved. 

 

This week the writer takes us deeper.  We would all agree that Christians, those with a theologically driven faith, desire to worship in response to the revelation of God in their lives.  The Seraphim in the presence of God in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 all worship in response to God and His presence.  They cry out holy, holy, holy over and over again as a response to God revealing Himself.  Likewise the person who has saving faith will desire to worship in response to the Lord who has and is revealing Himself to the Christian. 

 

Humanity has an innate desire to worship.  Everyone worships its just that most people do not worship the one true God.  Most simply worship their own selves.  CS Lewis said that in that desire we are much too easily satisfied.  We would rather make mud pies in the alley than spend the day at the beach.  Humanity has taken that desire to worship and because of our darkened minds the object of our worship has been mud pies rather than the Lord in His glory.  We all understand the dangers and the depths of depravity fleshed out in idolatry.  The first commandment states that you shall have no other god before the God of the Universe as He is revealed to us in Scripture.  The second commandment states no graven images of anything are allowed for the worship of the one true God. 

 

Throughout Scripture God is very specific on how He desires to be worshipped.  Because of His majesty and His holiness and His righteousness and His mighty power and all His other attributes the Lord of Glory must be worshipped and He has had grace and mercy on us and allowed us to worship Him. 

 

People who have had an encounter with God desire to worship God.  I don’t have to tell you that because this morning you are here and not fishing or shopping or doing something else to please your flesh.  So I think this morning it is imperative that we take on the subject of worship and explore what God desires in worship and what we are required to do in the act of worship. That is what Hebrews 11:4 is all about.

 

Point

From Hebrews 11:4 I want you to see one point this morning and here it is.  Biblical, saving faith produces theologically driven worship that is both biblical and authentic and therefore God pleasing. 

Last time we saw that biblical, saving faith is a theologically driven faith but this week we need to understand that a theologically driven faith results in an authentic worshipping faith. 

Purpose

My purpose this morning is to show you from the text that God only accepts worship that He has specifically prescribed and anything else is rejected.  By faith we understand that God is the creator of all things and then we respond to Him in worship correctly by a theology driven faith. 

 

People in our day believe that it does not matter how you worship just as long as you worship.  There are few boundaries in the modern church when it comes to what is considered worship.  I have seen so called worship services begin by playing instrumental rock music.  I have watched on television as churches sang Van Halen’s Jump as they jumped up and down like they were at a rock concert.  There have been Elvis impersonators, clowns, magicians, puppet shows, and many other things.  One church held a wrestling Sunday where members of the staff wrestled in front of the congregation during the worship.  Drama production has replaced preaching in some places.  There is interpretive dance.  There are the “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs that have seven words that are sung eleven times. 

 

Is all this okay with God? And this is a few examples and not even the worst some of which I would blush telling you about.  If it is not okay then why is it not okay?  What do we base what is acceptable in worship on?  Most people base it on this.  If it moves me or other people emotionally then it must be authentic worship.  If it feels like worship to me then it is okay for me to do and then we should do it in church.  Scripture has the answer to this question and I want to show you this morning that God has decided and revealed how He desires to be worshiped and it just so happens that in that worship God desires our further sanctification or the killing or as the Puritans would have said, the mortification of our flesh. 

 

PNP

This morning from our text I want you to see that biblical, saving faith produces theologically driven worship that is both biblical and authentic and therefore God pleasing. 

 

If our worship is so that we can be pleased then we are worshipping ourselves or a god of our own creation.  Worship is God focused and God informed.  If what we call worship is not those things then we can not accurately call it worship.  It can be called a lot of things including an abomination.

 

Some of the best advice I ever received for ministry came from Dr. Don Whitney in a class on worship.  He said it does not matter how old you are or how young you are when you battle for authentic worship.  Either you will be too young to understand or too old and set in your ways.  You can’t win.  So no matter how old you are or how young you are be biblical. 

 

So before we get started in our text this morning lets ask the questions.  Why do we at Grace Fellowship worship the way that we do?  Why do we not have a praise band?  Why do we not sing 7-11 songs that are so popular in churches?  Why do we not have a weekly solo or music special?  Why do our youth not do dramas for us on Sunday morning?  Why do we not have some occasional interpretive dance?  Why are my introductions longer than most pastor’s sermons?  Why do we not give an invitation at the end of the sermon?  Why do we not sing 27 stanzas of “Just as I Am?”  If we did all this surely we would grow faster.  After all people like that stuff.

 

I am now in an awkward position.  I was once a young pastor who was wet behind the ears but that was when I was in my twenties.  But I am not yet old enough to be set in my ways.  Being thirty five years old is strange pastorally speaking.  I’m no whippersnapper but I am not salty yet either.  So how did I get here and flat out refuse to have all that stuff happen in worship? 

 

With that in mind this morning let me call your attention back to our text, Hebrews 11:4.  Here is our point.

 

2.  Biblical, saving faith produces theologically driven worship that is both biblical and authentic and therefore God pleasing.

Look at Hebrews 11:4 with me.

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

 

Those who say the Old Testament has nothing to say to the Christian will stumble over the last phrase in verse 4.  “though he died, he still speaks.”  It is obvious that there is something in Genesis that we either should already know or we need to learn in order to properly and effectively apply this verse both personally and congregationally.

 

Even the Lord Jesus mentions this man Abel in Matthew 23:35.  Listen as I read that within its context of verses 34-36.  He is speaking to the Pharisees here and the Lord says:

³⁴ "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

 

The Lord Jesus proclaims Abel righteous.  The writer of Hebrews says in verse 4 that “he was commended as righteous.”  And it all goes back to the sacrifice that he offered in worship to God.

What was it about the sacrifice that Abel offered?  Why was he commended as righteous and Cain was not commended and his sacrifice rejected?  Was this unfairness on the part of God? I want you to turn to the story in Genesis 4 and we will start reading in verse 1.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ² And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³ In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

It seems here that everything is okay.  Cain was a farmer and he brought an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel is a herder and he brings sheep.  Makes sense right.  Bring what you have.  But notice what happens.  Read the rest of verse 4 and 5.

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵ but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

To the depraved human heart God seems unfair here.  Why would He choose to accept the offering or worship of Abel and reject Cain’s?  Notice also that because his offering was not accepted Cain became angry which is the opposite of repentance.  This is a tell tale sign of a hard heart.  But there is more here than just a hard heart.  Look at verse 6 and 7.

⁶ The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷ If you do well (or what is acceptable), will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

What did Cain do wrong?  Was it merely the attitude of his heart that was unacceptable to God?  Or is there more here?  The writer of Hebrews tells us that it was an issue of faith.  Abel’s faith led him to provide a sacrifice or worship that was pleasing to God.  Cain obviously had a lack of faith or a corrupt faith which is just as bad.  Notice that Cain did not deny that there is a God nor did he deny that God must be worshipped.  What he did deny is what our point is this morning.  Biblical saving faith is a theologically driven faith that produces authentic, biblical worship that is pleasing to God. 

 

Cain had some theology right.  There is a Creator and that Creator is our Lord and He must be worshipped.  The part he got dreadfully wrong was what the Creator demanded in worship.  Some will argue here.  They will say that it was just Cain’s heart attitude that caused God to reject his sacrifice.  I will not deny that this is indeed a matter of the heart but what is in the heart is always broadcast by our actions.  Jesus said in Matthew 15 that out of the heart proceeds all kind of transgressions and here out of the heart of Cain proceeded false, unbiblical, God angering worship.  And Cain knew better.  He could not plead ignorance.  How do I know that? 

 

Cain would have known what God required in worship.  Adam and Eve worshipped and by example would have taught Cain and Abel what was acceptable. But Cain decided to be a maverick.  So how did Cain know what was right and what was wrong in worship?  It all goes back to Genesis 3:21.  Let me read it to you. 

²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Adam and Eve needed a covering.  And right before them God killed animals and from that skin he covered their nakedness. Remember that they had already tried to make a covering for themselves out of fig leaves but God did not accept the covering that they made.  Because of sin, it would be through a blood sacrifice that any human being could ever come before the holy and righteous God. They needed a covering then and we need a covering now.  At that time their covering was an animal more than likely it was a sheep and ours is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  In all Adam and Eve’s years they would have worn out many garments and worshipped many times and so every time they changed garments or worshipped before the Lord a death had to occur and Adam had to kill the sheep because of his own sin and rebellion.  Adam and Eve would have taught Cain and Abel this.  How else would Abel have known what to bring?  He brought sheep and the blood was the covering for him to come before the Lord.  Do you really think Abel thought this up?  Humans will never contrive worship that is pleasing to God.

 

So Cain’s sin was in not only his heart but his lack of faith resulting in him bringing what he believed ought to be an acceptable sacrifice before the Lord and the Lord rejected Him. 

 

Understand that this is a constant biblical principle.  God will always reject unsanctioned worship.  The God of Scripture commands that He be worshiped and also commands the way He is to be worshipped.  Spend some time reading the Law this week and see how many times the Lord tells Moses just how to do something in regards to worship and sacrifice. 

 

Remember with fear and trembling the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who offered unsanctioned fire on the alter of incense and God killed them on the spot.  God told Moses that those who come before Him will regard Him as holy. 

 

Remember with fear and trembling Uzzah as the Israelites were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back and he reached out with his hand to steady the ark and God struck him dead right there.  Why?  Because no one was supposed to put their sinful, unclean hands on the ark.  God commands that He be worshipped and also how He is to be worshiped. 

 

When the sinful imagination of man gets involved in the worship of God understand that an abomination is about to take place.  So look what happened to Abel.  Look at Genesis 4:8.

⁸ Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

And thus began the worship wars.  You thought the fight started over yippy skippy happy clappy music versus traditional in the latter part of the 20^th century but now you know that worship wars have been going on for millennia. 

 

Go back to Hebrews 11:4. 

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

 

Just as a side note, the first living and breathing example in Scripture of faithful obedience to God is Abel and his own brother killed him because of it.  The first martyr for the faith still has a lot to say to us today.  Abel offered to God in worship what God required and God commended him as righteous by accepting his gifts.  And this was the mark of biblical saving faith in the life of Abel.  Cain is not and never has been commended as righteous.  Listen to 1 John 3:11-13. 

¹¹ For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; ¹² not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.
¹³ Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

And if you condemn the false worship in the church today don’t be surprised if the church hates you as well. 

 

So what can we learn today about worship that is pleasing to God from our passage? 

1.  I think first that we can learn that worship that is pleasing to God may not be personally pleasing to us.  Abel, by faith, took a knife and slit the throat of a bleating sheep who had done nothing wrong.  This worship causes us to remember that it is our sinfulness that caused the death of this animal.  There is our sin and then there is the victim.  Cain brought what was easy.  Pick some vegetables and some fruit and bring it to God.  No pain, no thought of sin, no problem. 

 

Sounds an awful lot like modern church services.  No mention of the victim, the Lord Jesus Christ, is allowed in many churches today.  They have taken out the words cross, blood, nails, suffering, death and any other words that may offend the modern mind.  This is obviously nothing new.  Cain was offended by these same terms.  The sin of personal preference is destructive.  What makes me happy in worship in the flesh is guaranteed to be an abomination to God.  Which leads us to the second thing we can learn.

 

2.  Worship that is pleasing to God will lead to a dying to ourselves and a trust in God. 

Or as the Puritans would say it, in worship our flesh is to be mortified.  The cardinal sin for churches today is to be irrelevant.  But in the quest to become relevant the modern church has become irreverent.  The church growth gurus will tell you to have music that is pleasing to the modern pagan and you will attract them to your church.  Keep the prayers short and use lingo that they will be familiar with.  Forget that you in prayer are addressing a holy and righteous God.  Preaching is so 16^th century and nobody is really interested in biblical exposition so talk about relevant topics like marriage and relationships and how to find and keep a good job.  Use lots of stories and see if you can keep them entertained.  Play clips from movies to illustrate your points and if that is too much for you for 499.95 you can download sermon manuscripts complete with power point outlines and movie clip illustrations for the month and spend more time doing real ministry like golf course ministry or internet chat room evangelism, or outdoorsman evangelism and your people will think you are the best thing since sliced bread. 

 

In the church planting program of the seminary that I went to they give the graduates two years worth of sermons on a CD rom complete with outlines and illustrations so the church planters can spend there time doing real ministry.  I did not get one of those CD’s and now I feel deprived.  I could always use a good Frisbee or target for honing my shooting skills.     

 

Remember, no one wants to hear about sin and sacrifice and suffering and a Savior.  And with that statement I would heartily agree.  Sinful man wants to have no part of a reminder of his or her sin and the cost of salvation.  But this is where the mortification comes in.  It does not matter what we don’t want to hear, it matters what God has said that we need to hear.  And in His word the Lord talks an awful lot about sin and sacrifice and suffering and a Savior.  Those of us who have been saved by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ know the importance of hearing the Gospel.  It is not just for the unconverted, it is a reminder to we believers of the sacrifice on our behalf.  We are shown the victim for our trespasses and promised eternal hope precisely because Christ died on our behalf and on the third day rose again.  Our hearts and minds are called heavenward and not just in mere emotion. 

 

Authentic, biblical worship changes us.  That is what God intended.  His purpose for us is to mold us into the image of Christ and worship is part of that molding process.  So if it was important for Cain and Abel to worship and do so correctly and it was important for all of the biblical characters to worship and to do so correctly then it is important for us to do so as well. 

 

Can you imagine Moses on Mt Sinai when God appeared to him in a flaming bush that did not burn up dictating to God what would be acceptable worship?  “No Lord, I think I will leave my sandals on.  I know that is holy ground but surely you understand there could be rocks or thorns on that ground and if I step on them it might hurt. I don’t want to be uncomfortable.”  Of course you could not imagine that.  But in our time this is an all too often occurrence.  People choose churches based on how they personally prefer to worship not based on what Scripture states.  They will go to one church because it is traditional or another church because it is contemporary.  You hear, “The preaching does not matter I just really like the music.”  Never once have they stopped and said, “Lord what would you have me do?” 

 

Just like every time, this day in which we live is all about me and what pleases me unless of course I have had a changed heart through the conversion wrought by the Holy Spirit of God.  Then we understand that our worship is all of a sudden not about our comfort but about what God has said. 

 

So how do we handle these very important issues of worship?  How do we decide what is biblical and God sanctioned?  How do we know that God is not pleased by interpretive dance or dramas or yippy skippy songs? 

 

Let me introduce you to a very important doctrine this morning that I would like to flesh out over the next few weeks.  It is the Regulative Principle of Worship.  How many of you have heard that term before?  It is revealed in Scripture and is summarized for us in our confession of faith.  Let me read it to you.

 

1._____ The light of nature shews that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; (He) is just, good and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.

 

So the Regulative Principle of Worship states that God has instituted and limited by His own revealed will what is acceptable in worship.  We saw that played out in Genesis 4 and Hebrews 11:4 where Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was rejected.  Abel worshiped by faith according to the revealed will of God and Cain worshiped by his own will according to what he was comfortable with.    

 

 

The language in the confession is intentionally chosen.  You have already seen from Hebrews 11:4 and Genesis 4 that there is acceptable and unacceptable worship.  Those early Baptist puritans who wrote this confession were drawing a line in the sand just like we need to do today and say to the world and the church that God has revealed that there is acceptable worship and unacceptable worship.  We can’t just say that we are glad people are worshipping because that worship may be unacceptable to God and furthermore it may be an abomination. 

 

There are good folks who don’t hold to this principle but let me assure you that in their worship services they are not seeking what God has said to do in worship but rather what they can get away with in worship for the pleasing of man. 

 

Let’s go ahead and get it out of the way and say it.  Biblical worship will never be pleasing to the natural man.  He or she will be bored out of their mind if God does not cut them to the heart.  But if God has indeed revealed to us what He desires in worship then we must conform to that and not what pleases us. 

 

So what has God commanded?  The guiding principle is the revealed will of God and that is found in His Word, the Bible.  I could give you a long drawn out lecture on this but we don’t have the time or patience for that so let me give you what has been helpful to me. 

 

Authentic Biblical worship glorifies God and is Word centered.  God has commanded us to pray, to sing, to read, to preach, and to observe the ordinances.  Let me give you some Scripture.

 

The overarching principle for biblical worship starts in the Ten Commandments with the very first command.

Exodus 20:3 says:

³ "You shall have no other gods before Me.
Only God is to be worshiped.  Exodus 20:4-6 tell us that the worship of the one true and living God is not to be done with our vain imagination.  Listen as I read.

⁴ "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

 

As Christians we understand that the true and living God has been revealed to us as the Triune God who being One in essence is Three in person so we worship the One true God who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We do this in a Triune way as the Holy Spirit guides our worship and that worship is mediated through the Son and given to the Father.  I think we have that part.  The question of whom to worship is not really at stake here but the question of how He is to be worshipped is.  So how do we worship the God of Scripture? 

We simply need to ask the question, “Is it biblical?  Does God command it?”

 

Let me give you the four “P’s” of authentic theology driven biblical worship that is by faith.  And all of them are by faith. And all of them are to be done not only privately but also congregationally.  

 

The first “P” is prayer.  God has commanded us to pray in worship to Him.  We find admonitions to pray all over Scripture.  We could go to passage after passage that teaches prayer to God.  But there is one that stands out and it is in 1 Timothy 2:1 and 2.  Let me read it to you.

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, ² for kings and all who are in authority , so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity .

 

Paul is telling Timothy how to order the church and what to teach the people of God in light of some very bad teaching there.  The first thing Paul tells Timothy to do is to teach the people to pray and to do so congregationally.   

 

I Thessalonians 5:17-18 which was written to a church congregation says, ¹⁶ Rejoice always; ¹⁷ pray without ceasing; ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

Let me hurry through these because I am going to cover them in detail in the coming sermons. 

 

The second “P” of worship is Praise.  Psalm 95:1-7 says,

¹ O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. ² Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms . ³ For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, ⁴ In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. ⁵ The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. ⁶ Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. ⁷ For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

  

We are to sing to the Lord.  So what are we supposed to sing?  Colossians 3:16-17 says,

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

 

Ephesians 5:18-20 echoes this same command.

¹⁸ And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; ²⁰ always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God , even the Father;

 

So we have prayer and praise and the third “P” is the public reading of the Scriptures. 

Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13 this:

¹³ Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.

 

And then the fourth “P” of biblical worship is the Proclamation of the Word.  2 Timothy 4:1-2 commands:

¹ I solemnly 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: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

 

These are the reasons that we order our worship services the way that we do.  The elders are not particularly interested in whether or not our worship services make you comfortable.  We are much more interested in what Scripture tells us to do and whether or not our worship is acceptable before our Lord.  And remember this overarching principle of worship.  The object of our worship, God, is not nearly as concerned with your comfort as His child as He is concerned with conforming you and me to the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

So we don’t come to church for warm fuzzies we come because we desire to be in the presence of God and to be changed by Him. 

 

The greatest errors in our day is the manipulative, emotion driven services that usually end up in outright abomination.  Sure they are pleasing to the flesh and to the ears and the eyes but that may be and usually are in opposition to the revealed will of God. 

 

Lord willing I am going to take off from Hebrews for a couple of weeks and explore this theology of Biblical worship together with you and help us see exactly what we need to do in worship and why we order the service the way that we do.

 

Let’s pray.