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The Regulative Principle II

John 4:7-26 and Various Texts

Grace Fellowship Church

June 22, 2008

Series 4 Sermon 2

On Proper Biblical Worship

⁷ There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 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.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Introduction

I want you this morning to pay particular attention to verse 23. Look at it with me.

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.

Did you mark out the distinction that the Lord Jesus made? He used the term true worshipers. By using this term “true” that means there are false worshippers. There are those who claim to be worshippers of the true and living God who are false worshippers. Which means that it is entirely possible for any of us to be false worshippers and for our congregation to be involved in false worship. In light of the second commandment that we looked at last week feel the weight of the truth in that statement this morning. It is possible that all that we have done up to this very point has not and will not be acceptable to the Lord as worship and is utterly distasteful in His sight. What does the Lord Jesus say the true worshippers will do? Look at verse 23 again.

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.

Then the Lord finishes this off in verse 24 by restatement and then a strengthening of this initial statement. Look at verse 24.

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Notice that very small but powerful word, “must.” Verse 24 takes worship out of the hands of man and puts it squarely where it always belonged and that was in the will and authority of the Creator. To worship in any other way than is mandated and commanded by God is to be involved in false worship just like we saw two weeks ago with Cain in Hebrews 11:4 and Genesis 4.

Now I want you to understand something this morning from our text. The answer that the Lord Jesus gave in verses 23 and 24 was not to the question that the Samaritan woman posed. Look at her question in verse 20.

²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

The Samaritan woman was more concerned about who was right in the debate between the Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritan woman was concerned over the “where” of worship and the Lord Jesus is much more concerned with the “what” of worship. The Lord knew that both the temple that the Jews worshipped in and the temple that the Samaritans worshipped in would be destroyed. And after all a building should not be the object of worship. That is why the Lord gives her the answer He gives in verse 21.

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.

Then I showed you last week what the whole problem the Samaritans had in worship and that was in verse 22.

²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

The Samaritans built their own temple, had their own priests and held their own religious observances that were Scriptural but at the same time contrary to the Word of God. God had designated a place for sacrifice and that was Jerusalem. These Samaritans had the Frank Sinatra syndrome, they did it their way. And so they were rejected. They were false worshippers. The Samaritans had a desire to worship. There was no doubt. You don’t go through the trouble of building your own temple if you don’t. The problem was it was not done in spirit and in truth.

So what does spirit and truth mean? Can we put a definition on it? I think we can because we have two polar opposites in Jews and Samaritans and both groups were accused of false worship by the Lord Jesus. Both groups worshipped. Both groups at least had the same God in mind, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I think we can accurately say that the Samaritans leaned toward the spirit side of worship while the Jews leaned more toward the truth side of worship. The Samaritans, contrary to the revealed will of God, assumed it would be acceptable to God if they just built their own place of worship and held services there. I am sure they were sincere of heart and excited about the prospect of worshipping the Lord but the Lord did not accept their worship because even though it may have been in the correct spirit it was not according to revealed truth.

The Jews on the other hand kept all of the ordinances. They kept the feast days and fast days. They knew the ins and outs of the temple regulations. They knew what sacrifice to bring and when. They knew what passages from the Torah to read on certain days. They knew what Psalms were to be sung on particular occasions. Even though they had the mode of worship down to a science they missed out for the most part on the right spirit of worship. And then they added to the Biblical revelation for their worship. Listen to what the Lord Jesus said to them in Matthew 15:7-9. ⁷ You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ⁸ “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; ⁹ in vain(or to no purpose) do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

So let’s summarize this. The Lord Jesus emphasized truth over the Samaritan zeal, ignorance, and error and He emphasized spirit over the Jews hypocritical worship. The truth of worship is humble obedience to the truth of God’s revealed will in Scripture and the spirit of worship is doing in happy obedience what God has revealed to God’s glory for our benefit. A great summary statement can be found in Deuteronomy 12:32,

"Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

So what is true worship? Or better said what are we to do and how are we to do it in such a way that our worship is acceptable to the Lord? We have already established from Hebrews 11:4 and from John 4 that God does not accept worship that is done the way we think it out to be done or even the way we enjoy doing worship. What are we to do in worship that will be pleasing to the Lord? Let me give you three statements that our passages bear out for us.

1. True worship is worshipping the God of Scripture according to the revealed pattern in Scripture; no more and no less. We are not allowed to add to it and we are not allowed to take away from it.

2. True worship is to be done in happy obedience to the revealed will of God because we know that He loves us and is concerned about us being molded into the image of Christ Jesus. Not only that, He knows what is best for us.

3. True worship is God glorifying, not human entertaining, but ultimately edifying to the individual as well as the congregation.

Biblical worship is correctly done when our hearts and our heads are engaged and active in the worship of almighty God. As sinful humanity we tend to lean one way or another. Because of personality some of you would gravitate more toward the heart of worship where your emotions could be fully engaged while your head was doing very little thinking. While the rest of us would have our thinking caps on and feel emotionally very little. Brethren, these things ought not to be. Think about worship like a riding lawn mower. The mind is the motor and the blades are the emotions. You can run the motor without engaging the blades. But you can not engage the blades without running the motor. Therefore you should not engage your emotions in worship without having your mind engaged and you should not engage your mind without next engaging your emotions. Worship should be such that our minds are focused on God, His character, and His ways and from that revealed truth we respond appropriately.

Let’s use preaching as an example. You know the difference between good preaching and bad preaching. Let’s talk about bad preaching. There is bad preaching that comes out like a lecture. It is stale and cold but filled with lots of truth. The preacher drones on and on and your are engaged for a while but after a few minutes you are about as interested in the subject at hand as he seems to be. Or you have the opposite of that and you have a guy who gets in the pulpit and goes off like a roman candle. I mean sparks are flying and he is sweating and hollering and pacing and panting and you think to yourself if he keeps this up he is going to have a heart attack. But in all that time he really has not said anything worth saying. He could be a coach pepping up his team before the game. He has engaged your emotions but not your intellect. Although one form of bad preaching is entertaining and the other form is enlightening the error is that both preachers are too much in one world and not enough in both.

Good preaching affects the head and the heart, the intellect and the emotions. Not only does the preacher deliver truth but it is obvious that the truth he delivers has engaged and affected his heart. It is a balance of heat and light.

We have to have that same balance in worship. We worship in spirit and in truth.

So let’s draw a line in the sand this morning. If what has been gleaned from Scripture is true and my summation of that truth is true then there is a lot of false worship happening in a whole lot of churches this very day. And I would say that there probably is very little true worshipping happening this morning.

Remember that worship is not what we think it is, worship is what God says it is.

This is why the Regulative Principle of Worship is helpful for us. We must know what God has said so that we can do all that He has commanded in humble, happy obedience. The first and greatest commandment, according to the Lord Jesus, is Deuteronomy 6:5 and it makes its way into worship as well.

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

If we are to worship God in truth then we need to have worship that is saturated with the truth. The Lord Jesus said in His High Priestly prayer of John 17, “Sanctify them in truth. Thy Word is truth.”

Piggybacking on what Christ said, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 this.

¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

So true worship will be Bible saturated. It is very important here to understand why the worship of God should be Bible saturated. It is because in worship we are communicating to the outsiders our very understanding of God or our theology. Our worship is an expression of our theology. It communicates to our children and to each other what we believe about God and what we believe He has revealed to us.

Let me give you some examples. The Roman Catholic Mass is held the way it is because of their theology. In their theology saving grace is passed to them through the wafer. In their theology the wafer has actually become Christ’s body and the wine has actually become Christ’s blood and the priest is the one that can make that happen by a series of rituals that he performs. Many evangelicals in our day have minimized the worship because of their Arminian or semi-Pelagian views. They believe that man is the ultimate determiner of saving faith and therefore they cater to the lost in their congregations by singing songs that are not overtly biblical. They neglect the reading of Scripture and the sermons are short, pithy, funny and deal with so called relevant issues. Everything that happens in that church service is intended to culminate in people walking forward to make a decision or to join the church. The church service comes to a dramatic end with a so called evangelistic invitation where the Gospel has not even been partly proclaimed usually. Then there are the anything goes churches and the utter chaos that they can quickly degenerate into. All of these communicate to each other and to the world what they believe about God.

So in our worship we communicate what we believe about God as well. So where do we learn about God? In the Bible. The regulative principle of worship is a fruit of the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone. The Protestant churches since the Reformation of the 16^th Century have held to this doctrine albeit many have forgotten this in our day. This doctrine teaches that Scripture is the God given authority which instructs us in what we are to do and what we are not to do as Christians. The doctrine of Sola Scriptura is a tacit denial of the authority of church tradition, man’s tradition, religious experience, or anything else that would be held as authoritative over and above Scripture. Let me read to you or statement from our church confession.

We affirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.

We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

Therefore Scripture must be the guide of our worship and our worship must be saturated with the Bible. Let me provide you with a very good rule of thumb for worship.

In worship we should read the Word, sing the Word, pray the Word, and preach the Word. These along with the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the biblical example of Christian fellowship should be a part of our worship services.

Let’s begin with the reading of the Word. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:11-16.

¹¹ Command and teach these things.

What things are Paul telling Timothy to teach? Look at verses 4-10.

⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ⁵ for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. ⁶ If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. ⁷ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; ⁸ for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. ⁹ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. ¹⁰ For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Here is a brief summation of what Timothy was to teach the people. First to avoid unbiblical commands like dietary restrictions for the sake of godliness. Avoid irreverent and silly myths. Be biblically trained for righteousness sake. Set your hope on Christ. Why was it that Paul gave Timothy the command to teach these things?

Look at verses 1-5 of chapter 4.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ⁵ for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

What was the problem? If you remember last week we talked about worship that is of the suggestion of Satan. Here in verses 1-3 we see what some of those suggestions were. Read them with me again. These suggestions of demons were additions to the worship of God. Don’t marry and don’t eat certain things.

So how does Paul tell Timothy to combat this error in the church? Look at verses 12-13.

¹² Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Why would Paul say what he said in verse 12 about Timothy’s youth?

There was a couple in a church I served that disagreed with me on some theological issues. They thought I was wrong and I thought they were wrong. It was not an issue that should have divided us and I dealt with them with lots of love and charity toward this particular doctrine. I even affirmed to them that they could be right and I could be wrong. That was not good enough for them. They basically told me because I was young was the reason I did not believe the way they believed. It’s hard to have a respectful return for that remark. Out of respect for those who are older you take the criticism for your youth as though you can help the year you were born and keep silent.

Paul understood this and so his instruction to Timothy was to not let the false teachers of his day have an upper hand on him just because he was young. How was Timothy to keep the upper hand? He was to be an example of all things godly and then Paul gave Timothy the weapon for combating false teaching in the church and it was to be done in the worship services of the early church.

What was that mighty sword that would slay the enemies of sound doctrine and orderly church services? It is the most neglected aspect in modern worship today I think. It’s in verse 13. Look at it with me.

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

Look at the opposite of this devotion back in verse 1.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith(how are they going to depart from the faith?) by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,

The false teachers had devoted themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. Timothy was to devote himself to the Word of God and was to demonstrate that devotion publicly in the worship services in the reading, exhortation, and teaching of the Word of God.

The command of God for the public reading of Scripture in worship was for two reasons. One was to exhort and instruct the people of God and the second was to combat the rampant false teaching that was taking place.

How many churches have you been to that had either no Scripture reading or very little Scripture reading? I have been to many where the only passage read in the entire service was the few verses that the pastor was going to preach on. I have been in services where no Scripture was read at all.

Now I know what most will say about this element of worship. “People have the Bible and they can read it themselves now.” The problem is that many do not. We all have Bibles and we all should be reading them but can we say that all spent enough time in the Bible this week? Did you spend so much time in the Word this week that you have all 66 books down and can give an accurate summary of all the books of the Bible?

Furthermore, we live in a day of biblical ignorance that is only rivaled by the dark ages. Most people go to church exactly the same way as they did in the dark ages comfortable with their tradition and trusting in the professional clergy to tell them the truth. And as there was mass manipulation then, there is mass manipulation now and many are devoted to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons. There is mass deception in the church today.

There is the health and wealth theology, there is the cult of the free will of man, there is the mass emotional manipulation by long drawn out music that is in essence mantras designed to lull people into manipulability. There are the great superstitions of our day that derive themselves from the imaginations of man rather than theology derived from the text of Scripture.

There is overwhelming opposition to the Bible today masquerading as preachers of the Gospel leading people astray left and right into doctrinal error. The newest opposition to Biblical Christianity is in the emergent or emerging church movement that approaches Scriptures just like the theological liberals of the 19^th and 20^th centuries with skepticism rather than with the conviction of Christ that the Word is truth. So they breed doubt in the church and cause people to trust in something other than the Word of God which has been intended for the people of God. Normally it comes down to a trust in the teacher rather than the Scripture.

But a commitment and a devotion to the reading of Scripture in the worship services of the church will combat these heresies. It worked in the days of Timothy and Paul and it will work in our day as well. When men and women are left to their own devices then they will quickly leave the worship of God for the doctrines of demons. That is our bent because of sin. In our natural, unconverted state we love darkness rather than light. Even after we are regenerated to spiritual life in salvation our flesh still desires darkness. That is why we are either killing sin in our lives or it is killing us.

Its not that those who were devoting themselves to deceit and demons knew they were doing this. They probably thought just like the Samaritan woman they were doing the best they could and God would be pleased with what they were offering.

The reading of Scripture and its teaching and exhortation has always combated the creeping heresies among God’s people. It was true in the New Testament, it is true today, and it was true in the Old Testament.

Turn to Nehemiah chapter 8 and we will begin reading in verse 1.

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. ² So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. ³ And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. ⁴ And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. ⁵ And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. ⁶ And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. ⁷ Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. ⁸ They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

How important is the Word of God to the people of God? According to John 1 Christ is the personified Word of God.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Hebrews 1:3 says:

³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.

Hebrews 4:12 says:

¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Hebrews 11:3 says:

³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Hebrews 13:7-8 says:

⁷ Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

James 1:18 says:

¹⁸ In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

James 1:21-25 says:

²¹ Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. ²² But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

1 Peter 1:23-25 says:

for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS,
AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS,
AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, ²⁵ BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.

Romans 10:17 says:

¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

The testimony of Scripture is that Scripture is God’s method of convicting and converting the sinner and correcting and comforting the believer. This word is the word of our sanctification. It is the Word by which we live and breath and eat. This Word is where we taste and see that the Lord is good. This Word is where we learn that God is our hiding place and shelter in the times of life’s storms. It is of the utmost importance to the Christian to be under the reading of the Word in the worship of God.

The command to read Scripture is binding on us in the church. The elders of Grace Fellowship are commanded to read the Scripture to you in the worship of God. Some would argue that there is no freedom in this at all. Why do we have to sit through the reading of Scripture? Here is where the freedom is within this command.

First the Bible does not command that we not have translations. When Ezra stood up to read he gave them the translation so they could understand. You would not get much out of the Scripture if I stood up and said, “Berosheeth bara elohim ha shamayim et he aritz.” Or if I said, “Pater hamone, ho en tois uranois.” But if I read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” or “Our father, who art in Heaven…” That catches the English speaking ear.

So if the discipline of the elders is to read the Word of God to the people of God the discipline of the people of God is to be hearers of the Word of God.

The Bible also does not dictate how much Scripture should be read in a given worship service. Typically reformed churches have read from the Old Testament and the New Testament and usually a chapter each.

And a word here to the Scripture readers. We should approach the text in a careful manner. We should never read it flippantly. But we should work on reading it well. If we have read it and studied it then we should understand the sense of the passage and be able to emphasize what the writer is emphasizing.

Briefly let me say a word about the teaching and exhortation. Part of the Scripture reading should be a brief explanation when needed. And then we should be exhorted to further godliness and faithfulness and the text of Scripture naturally lends itself to that. Plus we also for the sake of teaching and exhortation not only read Scripture aloud we also read through our confession of faith and allow the children to recall the catechism because we believe that those two documents are an accurate summation of what the Bible teaches.

And as I close this morning I want to show you how the reading of Scripture with teaching and exhortation lead to sound teaching. In case you have closed your Bibles turn back to 1 Timothy 4 and start reading in verse 14.

¹⁴ Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. ¹⁵ Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. ¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Notice particularly verse 16.

¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Illustration- Dr. Whitney..

Let’s pray.