John Samson on Reformed Worship

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July 11, 2018

This powerful sermon from Pastor John Samson on Reformed worship was delivered at Apologia Church during Sunday worship. John Samson is the Pastor of King's Church in Arizona. You can get more great content from Apologia at http://apologiastudios.com.

00:00: Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel
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02:52: I'm gonna speak on something that I believe is near to the heart of God and that is the subject of worship
03:00: It's kind of a long journey for me in the sense that what I'm about to talk about. I Never in a million years thought
03:08: I ever would Because in theological terms it comes under the heading of liturgy and I thought
03:16: I'd never speak on that subject avoid it like the plague I remember one of the first cassette tapes
03:25: I ever heard which dates me Was of a man who said
03:31: Really boasting about the fact that they did not have an order of service Because they were able now to fool the devil because he didn't know where to interrupt and I was raised on that thinking to be spontaneous is to be led by the
03:48: Holy Spirit and Yet they did have an order of service. They just didn't write it down You know what?
03:55: I mean they had their four or five songs then someone did this then they did that then they did this then they had a word then
04:01: They had a song then they closed. They had a liturgy. They had an order of worship. That's what the word liturgy means.
04:08: It's Really a word that means worship, but in theological terms refers to the order of service that a church would ordinarily have
04:18: So that's what we're going to talk about and I want to tell you why we should be excited about it if you were a
04:26: Levitical priest And you were very interested in the book of Leviticus because it's a manual on how to stay alive many people start reading their
04:38: Bibles in January, they've got a Real goal to read through the
04:44: Bible in a year and they get through Genesis pretty easily a lot of stories a lot of great things Happening. How can you not get through Exodus with plagues and Locusts and all kinds of amazing
04:57: Supernatural events taking place. There's some intricate details about the tabernacle, but you can get through it but Leviticus is where it becomes like dreary like walking through treacle as you just have a hard time dealing with all of the
05:16: Intricate details of what the priest should wear what offering should be made when what kind of offering should be made?
05:24: How is it to be made and the details is where? The details are where we really run into the yawn of reading
05:34: But if you're a Levitical priest, you better get this right or else you're dead
05:40: Let's read in Leviticus chapter 10 And before we do that, let's pray
05:47: Lord Jesus we thank you for your wonderful Savior hood
05:53: Our Father God we thank you for your rule your authority We would come under it.
05:59: We would ask that the Holy Spirit who has inspired the Word of God would now help us worship a right and We would ask that you'd be glorified in all that said and done
06:11: Especially what goes on in our hearts and in our minds may we glorify you in Jesus name.
06:17: Amen So Leviticus chapter 10 and ladies and gentlemen, this is the Word of God Now Nadab and Habihu the sons of Aaron took their respective firepans and after putting fire in them placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the
06:35: Lord which he had not commanded them and Fire came out from the presence of the
06:41: Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord Then Moses said to Aaron it is what the
06:49: Lord spoke saying by those who come near me I will be treated as holy and before all the people.
06:55: I will be honored So Aaron therefore kept silent Moses called also to Michelle and Elsa fan the sons of Aaron's uncle or ZL and Said to them come forward carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp
07:13: So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp as Moses had said
07:20: Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eliezer and Ithamar Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes
07:29: So that you will not die and that he will not become wrathful against all the congregation
07:35: But your kinsmen the whole house of Israel shall bewail the burning which the
07:40: Lord has brought about You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting or you will die
07:47: For the Lord's anointing oil is upon you. So they did according to the Word of Moses The Lord then spoke to Aaron saying do not drink wine or strong drink neither
07:59: You nor your sons with you when you come into the tent of meeting so that you will not die
08:04: It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane and between the unclean and the
08:16: Unclean and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the
08:21: Lord has spoken to them through Moses So we understand our
08:33: Bibles from The time of the Garden of Eden. There's been a war over worship a war the enemy would have false worship occur
08:48: He would be worshiped But not the true God he would do all in his power to Rob God of glory
08:58: Wasn't long before two brothers Cain and Abel Brought offerings before the
09:04: Lord one was accepted and one was not Never have the mistaken idea that God accepts all worship.
09:10: Worship is always on his terms his way When God set up the tabernacle in Israel He said to Moses see that you make all according to the pattern shown you on the mountain
09:23: There was to be no deviation if something was to be a certain length They had to be that length if it was to be made of a certain material it was to be made of that material where we're talking about rods or curtains or the tabernacle altar all had to be done under the specifications of God and Only then when everything was finished according to the pattern did
09:49: God come amongst the people It's always been this way
09:55: It's always been this way and That hasn't changed in the New Testament God has a way for us to worship and It should be scary
10:08: Because we have a Holy God to deal with So our task as the people of God is to find out what is true worship
10:17: How does God wish it and will it to function? What is acceptable to him and Let there be no deviation made up and abide who became creative They would get 10 out of 10 for creativity, but in terms of what
10:36: God accepted they were totally rejected Hear this from the book of Jeremiah no need to turn to it
10:43: Jeremiah 6 Thus says the Lord Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths
10:51: Where the good way is and walk in it and you shall find rest for your souls
10:56: But they said we will not walk in it and I set watchmen over you saying listen to the sound of the trumpet
11:04: But they said we will not listen The ancient paths are the tried and proven truths of God who he is and what he's done in the person and the work of the
11:17: Lord Jesus We're not to come up with something new We're to follow the ancient paths
11:23: The CH Spurgeon who said I cannot agree with those who say they have new truth to teach
11:28: The two words seem to me to contradict each other that which is new is not true It is the old that is true for truth is as old as God Now he's using colorful language
11:42: God does not have an age. He did not have a beginning, but you get the point
11:47: If something is true, it's true because it's always been true and my desire is not up not to come up with something new because If God was revealing something new in our day would mean that the old is not true
12:02: Or wasn't enough but the promise of Jesus To the people of God is that the
12:08: Holy Spirit will be with you and will lead and guide you the people of God into all truth and So it is
12:15: I've found as I've become a student of the Protestant Reformation that certain
12:22: Fences were put up Certain things were erected certain things were put in place
12:28: And we do well to find out why the fences were put up before we take them down There's a story
12:34: I read about of a couple that bought a farm without having gone there before they just saw some pictures
12:40: Some photographs and that was enough for them to part with the millions It took to buy the farm and I'm coming to the farm on a
12:49: Friday The wife of the couple said to her husband, you know, I don't like those fences. They kind of block the view
12:57: Would you take them down and as a husband? He thought long and hard and said let me make this decision.
13:04: Yes, we will do that and so a construction crew came in and took the fences down and over a few days that occurred and Everyone was going swimmingly.
13:17: Well, the view was wonderful. They could see the lush mountain pastures Nearby with nothing to stand in their way
13:25: The problem came the next morning When looking out of the window of their house on the farm, they saw this massive bull
13:36: Who was tearing up the yard? with a vengeance and was
13:42: Huffing and puffing and making his will known that he didn't want to ever move and he wanted the occupants of the house
13:51: Either for lunch or a midday snack of some sort and Immediately worried about this as you can imagine they were terrified
14:01: They thought they could go outside and then they realized they could not this bull would not let them out the front door the back door
14:08: Any door this bull was in charge? And what they realized was that the fences were put up To stop things like this from happening to stop bulls in further fields coming nearby to the house
14:23: So we'd do well to find out why the reformers did what they did before we remove some of their fences
14:29: And as I've come to study some of these things I've realized they weren't making things up on a whim
14:36: These were people who are rigorous in studying the Word of God They desired that the truth of the gospel would be heard
14:45: It'd been heard throughout church history in various different pockets, but To a large degree had been obscured by religious
14:55: Falsehood, but the Reformers brought that back but their chief desire Beyond that even of the gospel was that God would be rightly worshipped
15:04: God would be seen to be holy God would be seen to be all that he is in Scripture And it was the reformation of the church that took place
15:13: Under men like Luther and Calvin and others men and women from various different nations whether it's
15:20: England or Germany or France or Switzerland God raised up men who did not care if they died they were going to do what
15:30: God said and Reform the church and its worship And there's a growing sense that we needed to come back to What the
15:40: Word of God says and not be creative in that sense It seems like a novel idea
15:46: But it is not we're going back to the ancient past Back to the book of John back to Peter back to Paul and back to Jesus back to the
15:56: Bible The Reformation was a back to the Bible movement in searching through the scriptures discovering the truth
16:03: Certain things needed to be established And so it was they put stakes in the ground said this has to be seen in the church
16:14: In the bulletin there's a quote I've made and I'd like to just read it at this point When we think of the
16:20: Protestant Reformation We immediately think of the act of biblical preaching as the means whereby the gospel was established in the life of the church
16:28: Well a very true statement. It's not a complete one It was when not only
16:33: Idolatry and falsehood were removed from the worship service, but when in its place biblical gospel truth shaped the week -by -week
16:42: Liturgy, that's the order of worship of the church that the people truly got the message before that time the service took place in a language that the people didn't understand usually in Latin and Nothing was understood by the people they did not sing
17:03: They watched and observed others who worshipped the priests who actually brought sacrifice on an altar
17:13: Such was the Reformation that was needed Each time the people gathered to continue the quote to worship
17:21: God With on purpose thought behind it each element of the reformed worship service was
17:27: Intentionally devised to reveal both law and gospel the law that slays us the law that says thou shalt not and Yet we have
17:37: All thou shalt and we have not Law and gospel with sinners and we need a
17:45: Savior and that's where the gospel of Jesus Christ comes in So they devised the service so that the preaching would
17:55: Include law and gospel the reality and consequences of our sin and the perfect work of the perfect Savior the
18:02: Lord Jesus Christ as a result the common people were able to gain a fuller and growing comprehension of the greatness of their salvation and Even more importantly the greatness of their
18:11: Savior God in the power of the Holy Spirit the two together Preaching and liturgy preaching and liturgy.
18:17: That's the order of worship. That's what brought Reformation to the church There was a third element taking place in the homes that of all age catechisms
18:31: Catechism training Adults as well as children which grounded the people in the truth of the gospel so there was preaching there was liturgy and there was catechism and Those final two are really alien to most of those who are in the professing church in our day
18:47: They have no idea about liturgy or catechism You guys do
18:55: Let's pray that more churches rise up With a similar interest in this because this is about the worship of God and about getting his truth between our ears
19:07: In the order of service as I say the technical word is liturgy We don't need new movements.
19:15: We need people that are interested in the ordinary the ordinary means of grace as it's called where God by The means of the gospel is raising dead sinners to life
19:30: Because it's not about us It's about him and the worship service is to be about him our task once again
19:36: It's not to be creative, but to find out what does God want and that flows out of?
19:43: the Bible being the Word of God We don't say if or if the
19:48: Bible is the Word of God then certain consequences occur No, since the Bible is the
19:54: Word of God. We go to the Bible to find out. How does God say he is to be worshipped?
20:01: Scripture is the product of the Holy Spirit moving upon human authors to produce his words in written form
20:10: Martin Luther said this from the beginning of my Reformation I've asked God to send me neither dreams nor visions nor angels
20:18: But to give me the right understanding of his word the Holy Scriptures for as long as I have
20:23: God's Word I know that I'm walking in his way and that I will not fall into any error or delusion so our worship is to be shaped by the word shaped by the gospel and Then we ask why do we do what we do?
20:36: And why do we do it in the order in which we do it? the idea of a church being designed for non -believers is
20:46: Foreign to both Old and New Testament really it is You never see Moses being asked by God.
20:52: Would you take a pole of the Amalekites knock on their tents and Ask them what kind of worship service they'll come to No Worship was designed for the people of God and God says this is how it will be.
21:07: This is what will be read when you assemble This is the way it will be and we ought to say.
21:14: Yes, sir not argue if God is pleased. It doesn't matter who's displeased and if God is displeased.
21:22: It doesn't matter who is pleased. I Believe in seeker sensitive worship except there's only one seeker and that's
21:29: God God seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth outside of Regeneration coming alive spiritually no man seeks after God.
21:43: Why build a service for people who don't exist? Our seeking begins when we're born again
21:49: Our seeking begins when God gives us a new heart we run from God we have a nature like Adam after the fall who hid from the presence of God and Religion is like putting leaves over our nakedness.
22:04: We know there's a need we just don't want God We want the blessing of God without God With liturgy you might say well,
22:16: I've never heard the word. It's okay But everyone has one every church has one it's not always written down Now as we think about worship
22:26: John MacArthur said this worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is
22:32: Through our attitudes actions thoughts and words based on the truth of God as he has revealed himself
22:39: It is all that we are reacting rightly to all that he is
22:44: Jonathan Gibson who wrote a book I thoroughly recommend called Reformation worship
22:50: He described worship in this way worship is the right fitting and delightful response of moral beings angelic and human to God the
23:00: Creator Redeemer and Consummator for who he is as one eternal God in three persons
23:06: Father Son and Holy Spirit and for what he's done in creation and redemption and for what he will do in the coming
23:12: Consummation to whom be all praise and glory now and forever world without end Amen, so we've defined worship one of the things we read in 1st
23:22: Corinthians 14 When we see what God said through the Apostle Paul there is that all things must be done
23:30: Decently and in order or properly and in an orderly manner There should be some thought to our worship
23:39: There's no Listing or order for a service found in the New Testament But to be biblical means that we think through why we do what we do on purpose every element of the worship service
23:53: Liturgy can mean all of life, but technically we're talking about the order of worship in a service
24:03: What I'm about to describe to you is what I believe the reform worship service look like whether we were
24:11: Going to churches in England Scotland some parts of France Switzerland Germany at the time of the
24:20: Reformation there would be a similarity in fact many of the reformers borrowed from each other They didn't swap
24:27: Things of material value they swapped liturgies when they met how are you doing it?
24:33: What are you finding in the scriptures? What do you see as you read God's Word and people would say that's a great idea
24:40: I can see that in the book of Deuteronomy. I can see that in the Psalms. I'm going to incorporate that liturgy in my church
24:47: And so it was I believe Foundational issues are things like this worship should be directed vertically from the people to God and then
24:59: God to the people rather than on a horizontal level of men speaking to men
25:07: We meet together on the Lord's Day to exalt him We speak and sing of his worth and why he's worthy of praise thanksgiving and glory we meet on the
25:18: Lord's Day because God calls us to We thrill over his mercies and graces we worship his magnificence out loud
25:27: Visibly publicly together and as we do our desire is to read the word
25:33: Preach the word pray the word sing the word and see the word in baptism and the
25:41: Lord's Supper As I've studied this one thing that has been new to me is a concept
25:48: I want to share with you and it's called the call to worship. This is the start of the reformed worship
25:55: Service, you'll see it in some bulletins where they say the call to summon
26:01: Solemn s -o -l -e -m -n To solemn assembly and this is
26:06: God calling his people to gather What they would do is to read the scriptures that speak of God saying come
26:16: Come into his presence with singing come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let all the nations bow before him
26:23: The call to worship and it's interesting the service began and ended with God addressing people
26:30: In the call to worship the scriptures are read and in the benediction
26:36: The scripture is read and God pronouncing his blessing on all those who've received his word in the gospel
26:43: It's a beautiful thought God initiates worship. That's the point of this
26:49: The triune God and I love the songs. We've already sung that emphasize that The triune
26:56: God is calling us to worship him calling us to gather to him and he summons us like a subpoena to come worship him in Spirit and truth.
27:08: He's the initiator not us and it's on his terms on the terms of the gospel We gather because the invitation and summons of the king were invited guests
27:19: Summoned to appear before him the call to worship announces. This is a
27:25: God -centered Christ centered thoroughly Trinitarian worship service if you've got an idea of God in your head
27:32: Other than that, you probably need to leave because this is the God is going to be worshipped here one
27:39: God father son and Holy Spirit Shout joyfully to the
27:44: Lord all the earth serve the Lord with gladness psalm 100 says So it is
27:52: I believe that the central aspect of life in the church revolves around the
27:59: Lord's Day worship especially Sunday mornings as we gather and The Bible says don't be neglectful make this a habit in fact the only time we see the word habit in the
28:11: New Testament at least in our English Bibles is Don't be like some who are not in the habit of coming
28:18: But all the more Be in the habit of coming as the day approaches make it a habit habit
28:26: I'd say this settle it now make it a habit build your calendar around it
28:32: There are times when we're what we would call providentially hindered. I know you lose your leg in a car accident
28:39: It's hard to hop to church. I get that But ordinarily if you could get to work, would you get to work in that condition?
28:47: We'll get to church Be under the sound of God's Word there's a man in my congregation who
28:55: Worked from 10 at night on a Saturday till 8 in the morning on a
29:00: Sunday morning He slept for an hour and came to church. I Thought whoa that man understands something and since I was lad since I was a boy
29:10: I understood I needed to be in church and God says this because he's Solemnly Calling us to worship and he says
29:20: I'll feed you there Oh, but I have such great private times with the
29:26: Lord if you see the emphasis of the New Testament It's on the corporate gathering. It really is.
29:31: I'm glad you and Jesus are close. You need to be but God says
29:37: Come and assemble yourselves and there I'll speak to you
29:42: The word would be read the word would be rightly interpreted you will be rebuked if you need it encouraged if you need it
29:49: Corrected if you need it Transformed by the power of God's Word preached
29:56: Decide now it's the first thing on my calendar. That's why it's called the first day of the week start your week, right?
30:03: Nothing comes in the way of this It's the most important 19 minutes of your life
30:12: Of your week. I really believe that first thing on the calendar and it starts the night before by our preparation because To understand what reform worship is biblical worship
30:27: What this means is? God's going to be addressing my soul in the morning. I need to prepare my heart
30:33: That means I'll get as as much as it depends on me a good night of sleep
30:40: I'll not be up till 4 in the morning if it depends on me I might have neighbors who keep me up with their noise till 4 in the morning, but that's out of my hands
30:48: I'm gonna do what I can do to get a good night of sleep as Much as it depends on me and then we come into his courts with praise.
30:57: It's the heavenly protocol God doesn't said say get this particular fruit from an
31:03: Amazon Jungle area that's hard to get to know. He just says anyone can come if you come
31:10: Joyfully Joyfully, that's it enter his presence with Thanksgiving enter his courts with praise come joyfully because of the sovereign rule of God We would sing a hymn we would sing a song and it bleep
31:26: I believe should be theologically rich Not Jesus is my girlfriend.
31:32: You know what those kind of songs are you can insert either Jesus or Mildred or Savannah or some other name and the the song would be equally as good.
31:43: You know, I feel good when I'm next to you God You do me good. I like you.
31:50: I Feel good when I'm around you. No The theological history of the church is men and women who were greatly gifted have written songs that endure there were songs that you could live for and songs that you could die to a mighty fortress is our
32:09: God is a Hymn that Martin Luther wrote which really is great when you're on the way to be martyred
32:17: Try singing I feel good around you at that time. No, it's not going to work
32:23: Let goods and kindred go this mortal life also the body they may kill
32:28: God's truth abideth still his kingdom is forever. Oh, that'll put some meat on the bone
32:36: And men and women who went to death in the center of the cities
32:41: I've been to some of these places in the crowds. They would be Protestant sympathizers and while they thought the backs of the governmental authorities were not
32:52: Observing them that shout out to encourage those on the way to death sing the 46th what they meant was
32:59: Martin Luther's hymn That's the song you can die to Praise God If it's not true, we shouldn't be singing it.
33:07: It should be dripping either with scripture or scripture based truth Church history didn't begin in 1994
33:16: God has been with his people throughout the centuries I love getting out of him that was first sung in the 10th century.
33:23: You do what? Yep I'm a strange fellow And I believe our song should be
33:31: Congregational rather than Performance based you know what? I mean by that. It's the whole people of God singing not merely someone singing and we observe worship that actually is a
33:45: Retreat back to Rome. We watch worship. We observe worship. No, no, no, we
33:51: Participate let all the people of God sing come you people of the
33:56: Lord Colossians 3 let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
34:06: Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God Ephesians 5 speaking to one another in Psalms hymns spiritual songs it speaks of Proclamation in song and it is an encouragement when brothers and sisters alongside us are singing these songs
34:24: Psalm 149 verse 1 his praise In the congregation of the godly ones let
34:31: Israel be glad in his mate in his maker Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their
34:36: King There's a place for individual singing Paul and Silas did that in the prison if you remember
34:44: They sang hymns of praise to God Acts chapter 16 verse 25 and the prisoners were listening to them
34:51: So there's a time when we are to sing Privately but the emphasis on the new in the
34:56: New Testament is congregational rather than individual performance type of singing you read
35:02: Revelation 5 It's not someone singing a song by themselves It's creatures of all kinds singing to God Sinclair Ferguson said this worship is deformed when it becomes vicarious performance rather than congregational and Participational the
35:21: Reformers knew this So what is worship? What is our singing the
35:27: King of Kings has issued a summons? For us to appear before him on the Lord's Day to enter his courts with praise and unless I'm providentially ended
35:36: I'm there all believers are to attend and Worship doesn't end after the singing.
35:43: It's a worship service where the whole service is worship I was in a church not too long ago, and they said well we finished our worship time now we're going to open up the scriptures know you better be worshiping
35:57: God as you're preaching and Worshiping God as you're listening to the preaching then there was the risk the reciting of creeds
36:09: Evidence of this is not only in the early writings of the church, but in Scripture itself I've already made the comment, but everyone's got a creed
36:18: They say the written down or it's not who's Jesus. Well when you start answering that question
36:24: That's a form of a creed in Deuteronomy 6 4 we have the most famous verse in the
36:29: Old Testament to the Jew You know it as the Shema Hero, Israel the
36:35: Lord our God the Lord is one And did you know that Jesus quotes the
36:41: Shema in? Mark chapter 12 verse 29 he was aware of that creed, and he quoted it
36:48: In Romans 10 9 we have the earliest creed of the Christian Church Jesus is
36:53: Lord And to say that there was a background where you were required by the
37:00: Empire to say Caesar is Lord But on penalty of death not only did they keep their mouth shut when demanded to say those little words in English in The original is
37:14: Kaiser curious. They wouldn't say it. They said no Jesus yes us
37:19: Ha Koryos they said Jesus is Lord, and they often paid for their lives
37:25: By that testimony by that creed the earliest creed That's why in first Corinthians 12 verse 3 it says no one can say
37:33: Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit Understanding the background. I think you know why because you could die for it
37:41: First Corinthians 8 6 it's something of a creed where the Apostle Paul speaks of God the
37:47: Father Through whom we exist and one Lord Jesus Christ He brought Christ to the level of the
37:54: Father in that early statement Ephesians 4 4 & 5 says there's one body in one spirit
38:01: And it's a confession to say that there's just one hope to what to which you are called one
38:07: Lord one faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who's over all and through all and in all first Corinthians 3 316 by common confession hear that this is what we agree as Christians We common we hold this in common together by common confession great is the mystery of godliness and so it goes on For the sake of time we're going to move on but creeds are wonderful and the reformers
38:39: Recited in public assembly four different things The Apostles creed
38:46: I've just spent two Sundays this morning being the second of the two on the
38:51: Apostles creed Again, something I thought I'd never do But just seeing the richness of the creed and how it is a biblical biblical creed it was actually designed as a form of initiation for the new convert before they're baptized
39:09: They were either be required to recite the creed or else the creed was said in front of them and You'll see the creed on the back of the handout you've received the
39:21: Apostles creed There was a legend that said that it was each of the
39:26: Apostles that Contributed a line of the creed, but that was just a legend The reason we call it the
39:33: Apostles creed was not because it was written by the Apostles But that the creed conforms to apostolic doctrine
39:40: The Apostles would agree with it. In other words, it was written in the late second century about 190
39:47: AD But it didn't become a creed until about 700. The earliest creed was the
39:53: Nicene Creed but at first it was simply a way of instructing new converts in the truths of the
40:02: Christian faith and If you look at the Apostles creed, you'll see it's in three sections
40:07: One concerns God the Father the second Jesus the Son and the third the
40:13: Holy Spirit and it starts with Credo, I believe this is what I affirm.
40:19: I affirm this about God. He's the maker of heaven and earth. I Affirm this about the
40:24: Lord Jesus Christ God's Son and it focuses on the death of Christ at the cross
40:31: Which is where it should be Much could be said about that I've just spent two hours as I say going through it with our church
40:40: You can find those online if you're interested those sermons the Nicene Creed Which goes into greater detail on the person of the
40:48: Lord Jesus Christ that he's God From God light from light speaks of his deity in clearer terms the
40:56: Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments Those four were recited Continually in the life flow of the service then
41:05: Catechism and it's great that you guys do this and I've learned just in the last few weeks that catechism wasn't simply for the kids
41:13: But pastors in the Reformation visited homes to make sure Everybody was learning the catechism adults and children alike.
41:23: How you doing with that? You'd get the pastoral visit and think oh, no
41:28: I'm somewhere behind and he'd come and he'd encourage you because he wanted everybody to be instructed in the gospel see this
41:36: Preaching liturgy and the Catechism rooted the people in the gospel then there would be the reading of Scripture If you have a
41:51: Bible and you've got access to it You're one of the few in terms of percentages in church history we are a very privileged people oftentimes a church had one
42:01: Bible if they had one at all and The Bible was like the one I brought with me a pulpit
42:06: Bible and it was often chained to the pulpit Because it was so valuable.
42:12: They didn't want anyone running off with it. They wanted to be able to find it They didn't want to hear that Mildred's taking it home to write
42:20: The gospel of Matthew out they wanted to be able to read the scripture every time the church opened up It's valuable valuable thing before the printing press
42:30: Because people actually actually had to write out the Bible to have a Bible there would be scribes
42:37: You can imagine how many hours of diligent work were required in the production of even one
42:43: Bible I've been around Pastors when they get a
42:50: Bible with study notes I heard of this taking place in Russia John MacArthur brought out a study
42:57: Bible and was having a conference for pastors in a certain part of Russia and The Bible that he produced was produced in the
43:06: Russian language with the study notes and he handed 200 Bibles to the 200 pastors who came and There was this visible reaction where they were so thrilled because some only had a
43:18: New Testament didn't have the whole Bible These were pastors pastors of churches never read or even seen the
43:26: Old Testament Think of that and now they're not only getting the Old and the New Testament, but study notes
43:32: I'm not sure I agree with everything in that MacArthur study Bible, but it's a pretty good Bible Study notes that tells them who
43:40: Amos was what kind of time he lived What he was dealing with what other prophet would have been alive at that time the background the history
43:48: They had no idea imagine preaching Amos and you have no idea where he fits And so these pastors were in tears.
43:57: Oh For the reading of Scripture I Went to one prominent church in the valley will will be nameless to protect the guilty and I seem to be the only one bringing a
44:09: Bible with me although I understand most people now bring their Bibles with them on their phones, but it just seemed odd that I was the only one there and It had everything this was a huge complex what they had for kids almost aircraft hangar sized
44:24: Buildings for each different age group of the church You know what? I'm talking about four and five year olds go here and you find 600 kids in there
44:34: Six and seven year olds you go here six or eight hundred people in there Well, they had everything you had
44:42: Starbucks coffee. I mean, what else do you need? and so the service went on and after a couple of songs the
44:49: Pastor came out and and rather than having a pulpit He had a stool which he sat on and he says
44:54: I just want to share with you And he had a production team in place
44:59: Which had produced a five -minute video on on one of Jesus parables just a little story
45:05: Of course, it wasn't the actual words of Jesus, but it was modernized And I thought well, this is interesting in terms of what they produced
45:13: I'm not sure that there's a television complex or company that could produce what these guys have produced
45:20: It was an amazing work of art, but I was still wanting to hear the Bible read And after talking about whatever he wanted to talk about He said now after 20 minutes
45:31: Jesus had something to say about this immediately my ears pricked up Great.
45:38: We're gonna hit Jesus and then he looked at his watch and he said well, let me just summarize what he said
45:44: You know, we never got to hear one word of the Bible in a place.
45:51: That was a Multi -million dollar complex. That's not a church. Ladies and gentlemen People need to come and hear the
45:58: Word of God read the Word of God preached the Word of God rightly interpreted That's what a church is
46:04: You can have a concert and call it that but don't call it a church if the Word of God is not present
46:11: First Timothy 4 13 hear the Word of God until I come give attention to the public reading of Scripture to Exhortation and teaching not everybody has a
46:21: Bible Let them hear the Bible when they come to church the most important part of the service is the
46:30: Bible being read I Don't want to know what my thoughts are or communicate my thoughts because I'm not interested in my thoughts
46:38: I want to hear the Word of the Lord one of the things I like about the NIV is the fact that rather than thus saith the
46:46: Lord as the King James Version puts The words that a prophet is about to speak a prophet of God instead of thus saith the
46:53: Lord or Something close to that the NIV puts it. This is what the
46:59: Lord says. I like that You've heard CNN. You've heard Fox News. You heard this guy.
47:04: You've got that opinion out there But this is what the Lord says Hmm, I could get excited, but I'm in church.
47:14: So I'll calm down. Oh The but that's the perfect part of the service the
47:21: Word of God is flawless The preaching is never flawless. Have you noticed?
47:27: but the Word of God is Then there's a pastoral prayer and in that prayer the pastor the officiator at the service is
47:39: Confessing corporately the sin of the congregation maybe the Ten Commandments or one of them has been read
47:46: And he would say the Bible has said thou shalt not steal and we have stolen
47:52: We've stolen from God this way We've stolen from our brothers and sisters this way and he would confess corporately the sin as The Word of God has gone forth and then he would apply the gospel
48:05: Corporation corporate confession of sin and the application of the gospel now
48:11: These are two things the next two that are under debate in the Reformed Church Service and there are many great churches that would not do these next two
48:21: I think you guys do it we do it at King's Church But because they so want to protect this idea of the whole worship service being vertical to God Or else
48:35: God speaking directly to us through his word. They'll not be Horizontal announcements like Come to the home group next week now we do that because I think it's good to tell people some important news
48:49: You know sister Joan was involved in a car wreck. We need to be praying for them
48:55: I think that's a good thing to say rather than people hearing three days later I think that for practical reasons it's good to have announcements, but don't make a lot of fuss with it
49:05: Don't take too much time with it If only 30 people out of 100 are there at right at the time when the church starts and a lot of people do this
49:15: They do announcements before the service, but if only 30 % or 40 % have heard it I think no no well let everybody hear the announcement if it's important But it shouldn't be pronounced prolonged.
49:28: It should be short. That's why we have bulletins, so you don't have to announce everything in Absolute detail then there'd be the greeting of one another you guys do that we do that and Here's what the
49:40: Bible says Romans 16 16 greet one another says with a holy kiss
49:48: Now the kiss I believe is a cultural mandate it will work in France maybe Rather than a universal one it'd be very kind of strange in our culture come to our church.
49:59: Hey first -time visitors I mean I mean come on When Would we do this when would we greet one another
50:07: I would say to my very highly esteemed reformed brothers who would disagree with me I don't think it means do this when you see a
50:14: Christian at the mall But when you are assembled when we gather
50:20: To follow Christ is to love other Christians, and it makes our worship real First John says how can
50:27: I say I love God if I don't love my brother? It should be an overflow of the love of God to say hey, how you doing and actually want an answer
50:38: It grounds our worship in reality loving God loving people, so I explained
50:43: That's why we do this we love God, and we love people and we want to say hi Genuinely to you.
50:50: Thank you for coming then there's a weekly offering first Corinthians 16 1 through 4
50:56: Spells that out Tithes and offerings laying aside something for a project that was explained in those verses in an early
51:07: Christian document called the didache one of the earliest documents outside the
51:13: New Testament it speaks of tithes and offerings and Being then being gathered on the first day of the week as the regular habit of the church
51:23: And if you read first Corinthians 16 there in 21st century terms It's like this and you're giving when it when you want to give to project
51:32: Jerusalem because there's needs there mark that on your envelope as a 21st century
51:40: Understanding of it. Do you know giving is a holy act of worship? Psalm 96 8 ascribe to the
51:48: Lord the glory of his name bring an offering come into his courts The singing of hymns the singing of songs then the sermon now, you know,
51:57: I've asked God to help me to be very brief Talking about the sermon we could talk about this for hours.
52:04: I promise we will not but intentionally It's the longest aspect of our worship
52:10: Because it's worship. It's verse by verse Expositional preaching going to the text reading it
52:19: Finding out what it means ahead of time and Declaring the interpretation to the people and applying it
52:28: We get that from Nehemiah chapter 8. You can read that verse 8.
52:33: It's a significant verse I encourage you to read it says they read from the book from the law of God Translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading
52:43: I want people to hear the Word of God and have it explained read the Bible Explain the
52:49: Bible and make application of the Bible Steve Lawson said this the preacher is nothing else to say apart from the
52:56: Word of God If you're not preaching the Bible, you just need to sit down. You need to go sell life insurance you need to do something else than to stand up and talk without an open
53:07: Bible in front of you and Everything you have to say is flowing out of the passage of Scripture.
53:18: I Meeting in a senior facility all ages come to the church but all around us in the rooms our senior people and one wandered in and Didn't know what kind of service they were coming to and I think they were used to very short sermons sermonettes for Christianettes and I spoke to this lady afterwards
53:39: I kind of went out and was shaking hands as people were on their way out and she said you are very
53:45: And I was actually thinking. Oh, she's gonna give me a compliment You you are very
53:51: She said it a third time. You are very long -winded
53:59: Yep, but on purpose I aim to be about 45 minutes. I'm already over for today and I normally deal with verse -by -verse expositional preaching, but we're dealing with a theme and it's an important one
54:11: But the normal diet of the church is verse -by -verse through books of the Bible. Can you say amen?
54:17: Amen Steve Lawson also said this to those who preach one ounce of what
54:22: God has to say is worth more than 500 tons of what you have to say It's a central act of worship the full careful balanced ministry of the
54:33: Word of God to the people gathered Much more could be said about that Law and gospel is the message
54:41: God's law that slays us the gospel that redeems us Spurgeon once made the comment that in England every road leads to London What he meant by that was if you go
54:56: In a certain direction on a road if you make a turn here and a turn there Eventually you can get to London from there.
55:03: And so in every text We are to head not for London, but for the cross of the
55:09: Lord Jesus Christ In every text there's a way to London from there. There's a way to the cross from there
55:16: I remember hearing a sermon about time management about making good use of the time for the days are evil, you know that verse and He slayed us with the law
55:27: But I'm thinking you know what? He's right I've sinned I've not loved
55:32: God even a hundred percent of the day today Let alone the rest of my life, but then we need the gospel.
55:38: Here's the message for you time dishonoring sinners We need that message to hear all law is not a sermon
55:48: Someone said I don't feel good about a sermon unless I'm beaten up a little bit No, you need to be beaten up where you need to be beaten up But then you need the balm the or the oil to be poured in and the gospel that says this is the message for you
56:03: Sinners Christ died for sinners. Here's redemption for you Amen Amen Christ's sheep will not be offended by Christ's voice virgin said preach the word preach in season and out of season that means when they like it and when they don't when you see
56:19: Results and when nothing seems to be happening preach the word. Oh God give us precious souls.
56:29: We preach Christ and him crucified Then we have celebration of the
56:36: Lord's Supper that's a means of grace I love the fact that you like us have it weekly because it's a means of grace
56:44: It's God giving grace to us under the sign of the bread and the wine
56:52: In the Roman Catholic Church, there was a stone table in every church because there was literally a
56:59: Sacrifice taking place the Reformers removed the stone table in its place was a wooden table
57:08: That's close Because it was a celebration of a meal and a feasting on the finished work of Christ Rather than a new sacrifice taking place
57:22: No It's a family meal The sacrifice has already been made and we are now part of the family of God forever because of the death of Christ Let's celebrate together.
57:32: It's a celebration meal and the Reformers would fence the table by that They would look into the eyes of the people they were pastoring and if they saw
57:42: Someone needed to be under church discipline that living in obvious sin and not repenting for the sake of their soul
57:49: They would say we would ask you to with withhold from coming to the Lord's table because it will bring judgment on you
57:57: And so they with pastoral hearts not with heavy boots But shaking as their knees were knocking they would say to a couple you need to stop hitting your wife
58:07: You need to repent of this adultery There is hope for sinners, but only those who recognize their sin and will turn from it
58:18: That's so far from the seeker sensitive church You can live in absolute sin and no one's going to say a word as long as you're still giving in the offering
58:28: Come on, am I telling you the truth? Exercise of church discipline along with the
58:34: Lord's table and then To all who hope and trust in the finished work of Christ There's an assurance of pardon
58:42: Where the minister says all you who trust alone in Christ alone by the grace of God alone
58:48: Your sins are forgiven hear the word of the Lord if we confess our sins. He is faithful He is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
58:59: Hallelujah an assurance of pardon Yep, no one else will tell you this but God says your sins are forgiven then there's a hymn a response of the congregation to the word that's been preached
59:16: If God says be joyful, we're joyful if God says mourn over sin We mourn but we sing in some way a response because we don't want to be hearers of the word only as James one says who deceive themselves but doers and we glory in the triumph and the wonder of the person and work of Jesus Christ Hallelujah As I go through this
59:40: I hope the aspects of what you're doing as a church makes the worship service more meaningful
59:45: I did something similar, although I'm kind of going in a different direction today But I did something similar at our church a couple of months back
59:54: And there was a lady who said I've been 40 years coming to church No one's ever told me why we do what we do in church
01:00:01: And the service is that much more meaningful now because of it. I hope that's true for you
01:00:08: There would be a doxology oftentimes in the Reformed Church service where we sing praise to God and have you noticed when there's high theology understanding the supremacy and the majesty and the sovereignty of God Our worship rises to the level of our understanding if all you
01:00:27: Understand of God is that he's a heavenly butler not much high worship arises from your heart
01:00:34: But if you understand it to be the high and exalted one Whom Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6 and it says of his train it filled the temple
01:00:44: Did you ever see Princess Diana's train? Her robe for the wedding that was a long train
01:00:52: But the Bible speaks of God's train in his temple as being so vast it filled the temple
01:00:59: Hey any seats available in the temple? No, no No, what why is that God's there and his train fills the temple?
01:01:09: Oh Wow, there are a few angels that hovered high in the sky so to speak but God's presence filled the temple doxology
01:01:22: When we understand the vastness and the bigness of God our worship arises And lastly, let me close with this and this might be news to you and hopefully it'll be encouraging to you
01:01:35: Benediction I used to love that as a kid because I knew when the benediction was happening The service is about to be over I can go home
01:01:43: But it's much more meaningful be to me now Bene is the word for good diction we understand that means words we have dictionaries which
01:01:54: Supposedly give us the meaning of words and put the two together bene and diction good words
01:02:02: This is a good word at the end of the service. Now. Here's where it gets exciting This is
01:02:08: God Giving his good word to us It's not on a human level
01:02:16: Just as the call to worship is God's sermon summons to worship The benediction is
01:02:23: God dispensing blessing, do you know through the Bible it's dispensed through words
01:02:29: Moses blessed the people and said fathers blessed their children and said
01:02:37: Deuteronomy 28 is a chapter filled with the blessings of God for obedience and the curse for disobedience and the ultimate blessing
01:02:46: Comes from being near to God With its favor upon us in Contrast now hear this the ultimate curse is to be abandoned by him
01:02:59: Encountering his disfavor Someone listened to a message of dr.
01:03:09: RC Sproul as he talked about Numbers chapter 6 verses 24 through 26.
01:03:17: It's one. I know you do regularly as a benediction We do as well at King's Church, you know this the
01:03:23: Lord bless you and keep you The Lord make his face to shine upon you be gracious to you.
01:03:29: So goes on And I'll see Sproul spoke of the hope of this benediction what it means the loving gaze of a
01:03:39: God Where you found favor with him? But then he turned it around he said what instead of a benediction
01:03:49: It was the opposite of this and because of our sin left us in a sin in our sin and Brought a curse upon us.
01:03:59: It would sound like this made the
01:04:04: Lord curse you and Abandon you made the Lord keep you in darkness and Give you only judgment without grace made the
01:04:17: Lord turn his back upon you and Remove his peace from you forever
01:04:28: Ladies and gentlemen, that's the ultimate in hopelessness The withdrawing of God's blessing
01:04:35: God turning away his face Bringing curse instead of blessing removing peace instead of extending it
01:04:44: That's what we would call a malediction and that malediction
01:04:53: Was Pronounced upon someone in human history called the
01:04:59: Lord Jesus Christ He became the curse for us
01:05:15: Christ suffered the curse that we deserved for our sin
01:05:20: For the Bible says cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree Deuteronomy the
01:05:26: Christ Endured our curse so we could have the blessing Let me say this as I close
01:05:37: To quote Jonathan Gibson from that book I mentioned earlier Many people view this as a prayer now hear this catch this.
01:05:45: I believe it will make the benediction much more meaningful to you Many view this as a prayer, but God's benedictions are not prayers their promises
01:05:54: When Aaron was told to say the blessing over the people at the end of the sacrifice in the Old Testament He was not praying and wishing for God to keep and bless his people.
01:06:04: He was Promising them that God would bless and keep his people This is why when you receive the benediction each
01:06:11: Lord's Day. Don't close your eyes and bow your head That's what we tend to do.
01:06:19: No lift up your heads catch the minister's eye and See his hands raised high
01:06:27: Because God is promising to bless and keep you in that moment He's promising to lift up his face upon you and be gracious to you
01:06:36: He's promising to lift up his countenance upon you and to give you his peace
01:06:42: And that is how God sends us out after hearing his word and rightly responding to it
01:06:49: With a charge to go forth and serve him and with a promise that he'll keep us to the end
01:06:55: Look the minister in the eye and say I I'm receiving this blessing from the mouth of God Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone
01:07:04: But by every word that proceeds out of that out of the mouth of God and the benediction is
01:07:10: God Pronouncing his word of blessing over you and your family. It's precious.
01:07:16: It's precious and A Trinitarian blessing is like this
01:07:21: May the God the one true God the triune God one God father son and Holy Spirit May this
01:07:28: God bless you and keep you made this God Bless you the
01:07:37: Reformers returned to the Bible they consulted church tradition They were not pioneers in that sense
01:07:46: They were coming back to the ancient paths finding out why certain fences were erected and putting them back in place
01:07:53: So you would not be trampled by bulls and false worship
01:08:03: And they borrowed from each other They designed the church buildings to show forth who
01:08:11: God was go to Europe and you see the cathedrals the high roof speaks of God's transcendence and The tower steeple on the castle church at Wittenberg speaks of God being a mighty fortress
01:08:30: What can I take away from this? I hope it's this the biblical Because I believe
01:08:37: Reformation worship is really just what biblical worship is worship is deliberate structured worship
01:08:44: And it tells a story the story of the gospel all the way through the service
01:08:49: And that's when the Reformation caught on they heard it under the preaching of justification by faith alone
01:08:55: But they observe it in the everyday week by week liturgy of the church where law and gospel was applied
01:09:02: Yes, I've sinned but look at this wonderful gospel. I see it in everything taking place
01:09:08: It's pointing to Christ this points to Christ that points to Christ. Oh, my heart is bursting with joy as the
01:09:15: Reformation truth of the gospel was grounded in the hearts of the people by what they heard under the preaching and what they observed in the liturgy and Then the pastor faithful pastor on his horse or walking would visit your house and say how you doing with the catechism
01:09:33: Ladies and gentlemen, because we want this truth grounded in you. We don't want you to know what
01:09:39: Rome says or Utah says Or New York says
01:09:47: We want to hear the Word of God and we want that truth to be between your ears And we want you to be able to pass it on to your kids.
01:09:54: Do they know this? No, well, here's a great catechism. We're asking all in the congregation to learn it
01:10:02: That ladies and gentlemen is why the Reformation changed not just a village not just a town not a city only but entire
01:10:11: Countries were swept by the power of the gospel, but it was on purpose Reformation Ladies and gentlemen here.
01:10:20: I stand I'm going for it. How about you? I want to see liturgy that pleases God I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but with all that's within me
01:10:30: I say Oh God may our worship be true. May we be free from all falsehood false worship
01:10:37: Let it be gone forever and let us build something that will last from generation a generation