TPW 55 Christian Worship Versus Novelty and Instant Gratification

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January 17, 2019

00:06: We are by adoption God's children, he lovingly encloses us with barriers for our safety sake, for the good of our children and grandchildren, so they still have the gospel when we're gone.
00:17: Welcome to the
00:33: Protestant Witness, this is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church. I wanted to give a quick update.
00:41: We have the baby. On January the 9th, Gianna Irene was born and she was 8 pounds and 1 ounce and she's beautiful and is doing well.
00:52: My dear wife is in the process of recovery, so we're very thankful to have her with us and she's just been a delight to us and I just can't believe
00:59: I've got 7 daughters now and 3 sons. So I've got a total of 10 children and it's a huge blessing,
01:06: I love the kids and everybody's doting all over this beautiful little baby. We are so blessed, so thankful for her.
01:14: And today is the very first recording I'm doing with this really nice, new Yeti Blue microphone.
01:21: I did a little research and digging around and it was reasonably priced and I got real good reviews and it just records really, really well.
01:29: We're going to start using this for the Sunday morning worship services too, I believe, or certainly going to try to, but I'm really happy to have this new microphone and thankful for it.
01:40: So I just wanted to let you know that's probably why the sound quality sounds a little bit better. Today I would like to post the second sermon on the
01:50: Regulative Principle and this particular sermon deals with the issue of novelty and instant gratification, which are two major themes in our society today.
02:03: Our society is a society of perpetual novelty, always looking for something new, very much like the
02:08: Athenians that Paul preached to there in Acts chapter 17. They spent their time in nothing else but to hear some new ideas and some new thing.
02:18: And our culture is very much like that. People in general have always been like that. People like novelty. They like cutting edge and new and things like that.
02:26: And also instant gratification. People don't like to be patient. I think that's one of the reasons that music today is as bad as it is.
02:34: When I grew up in the 1980s and even in the early 90s, you could turn the radio on and hear some fairly creative and pretty music and today you just can't.
02:44: Occasionally I'll turn on the radio and surf through the stations and the music is just horribly bad.
02:50: And I think people want instant gratification even in their music and so they don't want to invest any time or energy or anything like that.
02:58: So those are two huge cultural motifs that we have today. Perpetual novelty, always wanting something new, and also instant gratification.
03:07: The thing is, when it comes to the Christian faith and knowing God and walking with Him, we offer neither.
03:14: We have neither novelty nor instant gratification because the
03:19: Bible does not change and the gospel does not change. There was a time when theologians were real strong on not liking novelty.
03:31: B .B. Warfield, for example, way back in the old days there at Princeton, was the professor of polemical theology and it was basically his job to keep his nose to the wind and his finger on the pulse of the church and anytime
03:44: Warfield heard anything new, he would pounce. That's why his nickname was the Lion of Princeton. And he wrote something like 700 -something book reviews.
03:53: He was constantly reading to see what direction is the church going, what's becoming popular, and anything that deviated from the
04:00: Westminster standards, he would pounce on it and he would write about it. He was a very gentlemanly figure.
04:07: But he hated novelty. His predecessors were the same way. The Hodges. Charles Hodge said when his tenure was over there as the head of Princeton Seminary, not a single new thing has ever been taught here during my time.
04:21: And they took pride in that. And the reason they liked that was they really saw the Westminster standards in particular was the crystallization of the very best of Christian scholarship up to that point in church history and that is the best systematized version of the
04:38: Christian faith. And so any deviation from it is innovation and novelty and things like that.
04:43: And they didn't like that. And as Christians in general, we don't offer novelty.
04:48: The Bible never changes and God's message doesn't change. God himself in his inner being does not change.
04:55: Malachi 3 .6, I the Lord God do not change. So we don't offer instant gratification either because sanctification is a brutal, lifelong, you know, tiring, difficult process of fighting with sin and putting sin to death and it's a real struggle.
05:10: So the two primary cultural motifs, we don't offer anything for them. Perpetual novelty?
05:16: Nope. The message is still the same as when God first gave it once for all to the saints, which we're still contending for.
05:22: And we don't have instant gratification because the Christian life is a lifelong struggle and it does not end.
05:29: The battle with sin does not end until you draw your final breath and arrive in the presence of Christ. So this message is also on the regulative principle of worship and it addresses those issues from scripture.
05:41: And I hope that you will find this to be edifying. Let's pray for God's blessing on our time in his word now, please.
05:50: Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for breathing forth to us the very words of eternal life. And we confess that apart from your divine revelation, the saving revelation that you've given to us in these very pages, that we are lost and without hope.
06:04: And we thank you for Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. And we pray that you would bless us now as we listen to your holy word.
06:11: May we receive its truths with faith and love, lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. We ask in Christ's name.
06:17: Amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy chapter four. Deuteronomy chapter four is our first scripture reading.
06:27: We have three passages to look at, two in Deuteronomy and then one in Proverbs. Deuteronomy chapter four, verses one through eight is our first scripture reading.
06:38: Deuteronomy four, verses one through eight. Deuteronomy four, one through eight.
06:45: This is God's word. Now Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which
06:50: I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the
06:56: God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the
07:03: Lord, your God, which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Peor.
07:09: For all the men who follow Baal Peor, the Lord, your God, has destroyed them from among you. But you who held fast to the
07:15: Lord, your God, are alive today, every one of you. See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the
07:22: Lord, my God, commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
07:38: For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it, as is the Lord, our God, whenever we call on him?
07:45: Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which
07:50: I am setting before you today? And then turn over a few chapters to Deuteronomy 12,
07:57: Deuteronomy 12, 29 -32. Deuteronomy 12, verses 29 -32.
08:07: Deuteronomy 12, 29 -32. This is
08:13: God's word. When the Lord, your God, cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, how do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?
08:34: You shall not behave thus toward the Lord, your God, for every abominable act which the
08:39: Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
08:47: Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to nor take away from it.
08:55: And then finally, Proverbs 30, Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6.
09:05: Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6. Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6.
09:18: Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
09:24: Do not add to his words, or he will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.
09:31: May God bless the reading of his infallible word. I mentioned to you all last
09:37: Sunday morning that the only indigenous school of philosophy ever to arise in this country was the philosophical school known as pragmatism.
09:48: Pragmatism, the idea that whatever works is true. Because of this,
09:54: Americans in general, including American Christians in general, tend very strongly in the direction of being indifferent about theological precision and doctrinal accuracy.
10:06: We are not as concerned with the question, is it true, as we are with the question, does it work?
10:13: In fact, there's a book that came out a number of years ago by Rick Warren called The Purpose -Driven
10:19: Church. And in the opening chapters of that book, he makes the statement that, as Christians, we must not ever criticize anything that God is blessing in the church.
10:33: And the question immediately has to be asked, well, how can you tell if God is blessing something? And the answer is, is it making the church bigger?
10:41: Is it making the church bigger? Is it making the coffers bigger? Is it bringing more people into the church?
10:47: Whatever it might be, if it's making the church bigger, God is blessing it. And we must not ever criticize what
10:54: God is blessing. And folks, that's not our modus operandi. That is not what we're called to do as Christians.
11:00: What we must ask first is, is it true? Is it faithful to scripture? We tend to be very minimalist in our approach to what we're supposed to believe.
11:09: American Christians don't like confessions of faith. They don't like detailed doctrinal statements.
11:15: That's why the majority of conservative, broadly evangelical churches have very, very short doctrinal statements.
11:24: When you look carefully at the Westminster Confession of Faith and the shorter and larger catechisms, you can't help but think, good grief, the people that wrote this are just way too concerned about doctrinal precision.
11:35: However, upon further examination, looking up all the scripture references that are cited and looking carefully at each statement made in our confession, you can't help but be impressed at how comprehensively biblical these documents really are.
11:48: But even more than this, you can see clearly that the authors also believed that the scriptures were sufficient and that it is never to be added to or subtracted from.
12:01: What God has given to us, we are to believe it and to believe all of it. And we're not to add to it or subtract from it.
12:08: In fact, the Westminster Confession, its longest chapter is the opening chapter on scripture. Point number six of the
12:14: Westminster Confession, chapter one says, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the spirit or traditions of men.
12:36: And hence, point number one there in your sermon outline, addition to and subtraction from scripture.
12:43: And we will see from the passages that we read this morning that what the Westminster Confession teaches in 1 .6 there is exactly what all these passages teach us.
12:51: But we also need to understand what it means that the doctrines, practices, and ideas can be deduced from scripture as well.
12:59: Hence, point number two in your sermon outline, deduction from scripture. That same point of chapter one of the
13:06: Westminster Confession goes on to say, nevertheless, we acknowledge that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, the government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed.
13:25: And hence, point number three of this morning's sermon, the light of nature and Christian prudence and New Testament worship.
13:31: So remember, we're in the middle of our series on the regulative principle of worship, that what
13:36: God says we're supposed to do, that's what we limit ourselves to. And so this morning is simply an extension of that concept.
13:43: The authors of the Westminster Standards and of many of the other Reformed confessions, which contain the exact same principles that are laid out here, they speak to us from across the ages.
13:53: My friends, dead bones of men buried throughout the world, calling out to the church in America to listen to their voice.
14:01: The fact is, this entire discussion of the regulative principle of worship has largely been abandoned in our day by the church.
14:09: And let us now look at these three passages and hear what they say to us. And I want to say this before we start going into the passages.
14:17: What we're talking about here is not a Reformed or a Presbyterian distinctive. This is a biblical
14:23: God -breathed mandate. These are not just our quirks as Reformed folks.
14:30: This is what the scriptures command today. For many today, the way we worship, purely a matter of taste, purely a matter of preference and freedom.
14:40: People look at all the various denominations and think in terms of preferences. Well, these folks do it this way, others do it that way.
14:48: These folks have a puppet ministry during their church service. This guy preaches in costumes.
14:53: These folks do special performances in worship, et cetera, but everyone just kind of does whatever they want.
14:59: But remember, what we are talking about in the regulative principle is not a Reformed or Presbyterian or Reformed Baptist distinctive.
15:06: It is a biblical God -breathed mandate, a requirement of us.
15:13: These are commands that we are obliged to hear and obey if we would be pleasing to God in our corporate worship on the
15:21: Lord's Day Sabbath. Doing only what God commands of us in worship is simply the Christian and biblical concept of worship.
15:31: So look at point number one there in your outline. We're going to go through these three passages, addition to and subtraction from scripture.
15:40: Now, the first passage that we read, Deuteronomy 4, if you want to turn back to that, Deuteronomy 4, 1 through 8, that deals with the sufficiency of scripture to living all of life, not just the specifics of worship, but the sufficiency of scripture for living all of our lives.
15:54: Listen to it again. Verse 1 of Deuteronomy 4, Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which
16:01: I am teaching you to perform so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
16:08: You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the
16:14: Lord, your God, which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal Peor. For all the men who follow
16:21: Baal Peor, the Lord, your God, has destroyed them from among you. But you who held fast to the
16:27: Lord, your God, are alive today, every one of you. See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the
16:32: Lord, my God, commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
16:49: For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord, our God, is whenever we call upon him?
16:55: Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which
17:01: I am setting before you today? Now think about that. When God tells the people, you shall not add to the word which
17:09: I command you, nor take away from it, what he is telling them is this, please hear. What I've spoken to you and given you in this law is sufficient for you.
17:20: Do not add anything to it and don't subtract anything from it. Now, when my older children were younger, we used to read a book by Dr.
17:28: Seuss about Otto the fish. Anyone here ever read about Otto the fish? Give him this much and no more.
17:35: I always thought that's a great illustration of what we're talking about here. And of course, the little boy gives the fish more food and it becomes the size of a large building and eventually he's in the neighborhood swimming pool and makes a real mess of things.
17:46: And the owner of the pet store gets called on the phone who sold Otto to the little boy and he finds out, yes, he gave him more food than he was supposed to.
17:53: And the store owner hangs up the phone and says in his mind, I always say just this much and no more, but they never listen.
18:00: And when the store owner has to fix Otto and make him small again, he tells the little boy, I always tell you kids just this much and no more, but you never listen.
18:10: God gives us divine revelation and says just this much and no more, but they never listen.
18:16: So what do we wanna be? We wanna be among those that do listen. We wanna be among those that satisfy themselves with doing what the store owner said, just this much and no more.
18:28: Do what I tell you and you'll be happy and blessed. Embrace the enclosure that I put you in and you'll be happy and blessed and everything will go well for you.
18:38: What God has revealed to us in scripture is sufficient to make the people of God, to make the man of God complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work, which includes worshiping
18:48: God, teaching the Christian faith, being married, worshiping, being an officer in the church, raising children, doing our jobs, taking godly dominion over and subduing the creation, et cetera, et cetera.
18:59: And notice also here in verse six that it is specifically in this passage that God's people's observation of what he commands them, that is our wisdom.
19:10: You wanna be seen as someone who is wise, not a fool. I mean, everyone wants to be seen as wise.
19:16: Well, then obey what God says to do. And that will be your wisdom in the sight of all the nations.
19:22: When we invent commands and methods of our own, we no longer display the wisdom of God to the watching world.
19:30: And in fact, we make God look foolish. That's why he reminds them, remember Baal of Peor? Remember Baal of Peor in Numbers 25, what happened?
19:38: God struck thousands of people dead because they were invited to go hang out with the pagans and worship their gods with them.
19:46: And they committed sexual immorality and God unleashed a plague upon them. They were behaving like fools.
19:52: They were blaspheming the name of God. When the Christian church today invents ways of worshiping
19:57: God, invents methods that God has not told us to do, we make God look foolish and we look foolish too.
20:03: Unbelievers ought to see God's people, see how they live, how they worship, see their priorities, see their love, the wisdom of God and what they obey from the word of God and say, surely these people are a wise and understanding people.
20:18: It is these statutes, what God has said in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and all that God has said with nothing taken away.
20:26: This is our wisdom in the sight of all who see us. And while the Christian church over the past century or so has largely turned its back on the law of God and the wisdom that it contains, many in our day are beginning to dust off the book of the law and are searching it for answers to today's problems which relate to the spheres of government, church, state, family, individual.
20:48: Maybe God does know what he's talking about when it comes to being married and being happy.
20:54: God's law is wise. When each sphere does its job, societies prosper.
21:01: When government tries to do the jobs of the state and the family, it fails not only at doing those jobs, but it will fail at doing its own job.
21:07: The education and discipleship of children is the duty of the family. It is the divinely given duty of the family, not the state.
21:15: Protecting human life is the duty of the state. And today we have the state sanctioning the murder of unborn children, failing in its duties, and trying to educate disciple children instead.
21:25: It's failing at its own duties and at the duties it has stolen. So today we have families that stand outside of abortion clinics pleading with people and the state to stop killing babies while the state indoctrinates the family's children in the tenets, doctrines, and systematic theology of secular humanism.
21:42: But if God's people obey scripture, all who look on will not be able to keep from noticing that when
21:49: God's law is obeyed in the various spheres of government, do what God designed them to do, everything prospers.
21:56: The family prospers, the church prospers, societies prosper. This is our wisdom in the sight of those outside of God's people.
22:04: Our lives ought to tell them what wisdom is because God has given us alone in the world his divine,
22:11: God -breathed, written revelation in the Bible. What we must think is that we cannot do better.
22:19: It is the height of foolishness to think that we can improve on what God has told us. We can do it better. We can ask
22:25: God to come down here and sit at our feet and learn from our wisdom. We don't have anything to offer him in that regard. We need to obey his word.
22:32: God's word informs all of life. It informs everything that we do. Now, the next passage that we read in Deuteronomy 12 is more so geared at worship.
22:40: Look at Deuteronomy 12 again, verses 29 to 32. This passage is dealing primarily with worship.
22:46: Deuteronomy 4 addresses the sufficiency of God's wisdom in all that it addresses for all of life. The world will see us and say, look at how wise they are and the righteous statues that they have.
22:56: Deuteronomy 12, 29. When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, listen carefully to verse 30.
23:06: Beware that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, how do these nations serve their gods that I may do likewise?
23:17: You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
23:29: Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to nor take away from it.
23:36: Ken Myers of the Mars Hill Audio Journal, which is a journal, it was an audio journal.
23:42: I used to get a one CD a month and subscribe to that. And I quit subscribing to it because every time I got one of those
23:47: CDs I'd have to buy 12 more books. So I just got rid of it. But Ken Myers is a very interesting reform
23:53: Christian author and he wrote a wonderful book that analyzes American culture and its influence on the church.
23:59: It's called All God's Children in Blue Suede Shoes in which he speaks of American culture having two primary themes that drive it.
24:08: There are two themes that drive the culture that we live in. Number one, the quest for perpetual novelty. Number two, instant gratification.
24:17: The quest for novelty and instant gratification. Guess what we have in the church? Neither, neither.
24:25: Myers rightly points out that that's the opposite of what biblical Christianity is. And so we really are standing against almost everything our culture likes and believes in.
24:33: We don't have perpetual novelty. The scriptural message is still the same.
24:38: It never changes. The character of God is still the same. He never changes. Even Paul the apostle dealt with that very same cultural motif in his evangelistic efforts in Acts 17 .21
24:49: when he went to Athens. Listen, for all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new.
25:01: Does that sound familiar? Our culture is bored out of its mind and has been amused to death mentally.
25:10: People are always looking for something new, something to make them laugh, something that's clever and witty.
25:16: That which is new and fresh and cutting edge will always have a heyday for a little while before it's dumped onto the ever -growing pile of bad ideas.
25:26: The same is true in theology. I recently listened to an excellent lecture by Colonel John Idesmo about the rise of liberalism in America.
25:35: And he quoted a historian of Christian doctrine. I just love this quote. He said, quote, America is the place where old
25:42: German heresies come to die. It's almost comical, really. Heresy from Europe and the
25:49: UK totally destroys Europe, totally destroys the UK. And then it shows up here in America and everyone is bristling going, ooh, this is cool, this is new.
25:57: Just like the new perspectives on Paul. I've said before, I really think one of the only reasons the new perspectives on Paul gained any traction here is because the word new was used in it.
26:07: Because it was nothing new. Everything that those guys are saying has been said before, but everyone's always wanting something new.
26:13: People get bored. They get bored by the truth, bored by the gospel. And yet our message never changes, never changes.
26:20: German higher criticism of the Bible, which was completely atheistic and naturalistic in its study of the
26:25: Bible, destroyed European Christianity in the 19th century. And here it is here now, trying to do the same thing here with a great deal of success.
26:34: The thing is, however, folks, if Deuteronomy 12, 32 could be burned into the collective minds of God's people in the world, no scripture denying heresies would ever be tolerated at all.
26:47: Listen to it. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to nor take away from it.
26:55: Are we ever gonna have any new ideas? Any new revelations? Anything new to share with people?
27:01: No, it's the same old Bible. It's the same old things that God revealed thousands of years ago.
27:06: They haven't changed at all. We are not a people of perpetual novelty, nor are we a people of instant gratification.
27:15: How many of you have instantly overcome all your sins? Have you noticed it's taking a while?
27:21: It's a long ongoing battle. It's a struggle. It's an uphill climb. Sanctification is a slow, painful, lifelong process.
27:28: It's not like microwave popcorn. It takes your whole life. And yet our culture wants it now, instant gratification, today.
27:36: And our message is no, you come to follow Christ, you take up your cross every day and die, and you have desires that you know in your heart are contrary to his law, contrary to his character, and you've gotta fight and fight and fight, and you're gonna be bloodied and sore and worn out by the time it's over.
27:53: God's word, it's fixed and unchanging. What our society doesn't understand, just like the Athenians didn't understand when
27:59: Paul preached to them, is we need a fixed and rooted foundation to stand upon in the midst of the chaos of contradictory and foolish ideas and worldviews that are swirling around us today.
28:11: To those who have never heard it, the message of the gospel is new, but to the rest of us, it always stays the same.
28:17: And aren't you thankful it always stays the same? Aren't you thankful that that truth is still true? Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
28:27: Lord Jesus Christ. It's glorious to know hundreds of years of the Lord's terrors after we're all dead and buried and forgotten, there'll be people trusting in that same promise because it'll be the same for them.
28:37: God doesn't change, his gospel doesn't change. Now, how does this apply to the worship of God? People often desire novelty in worship.
28:46: God specifically told the Israelites, beware, beware of that, beware of not being happy with that.
28:55: We desire novelty in worship instead of contenting ourselves with what God has commanded. Our culture influences us, listen, our culture influences us to become bored with truth, bored with repetition, bored by what is fixed and unchanging.
29:12: John Calvin wrote what to me is one of the most insightful paragraphs I've ever read on Deuteronomy 12, 29.
29:18: Listen to this man's insight here. Listen carefully to Calvin. Quote, for in as much as it was easy for the people to lapse into the imitation of the
29:27: Gentiles and to worship their false gods, under whose protection the inhabitants boasted their land to be, all inquiry respecting them is also strictly forbidden.
29:37: For this is the origin of idolatry. Listen, when the genuine simplicity of God's worship is known, that people begin to be dissatisfied with it.
29:49: And curiously to inquire whether there is anything worthy of belief in the figments of men.
29:56: For men's minds are soon attracted by the snares of novelty, so as to pollute with various kinds of leaven what has been delivered in God's word.
30:09: Nor does he only withdraw and restrain them from the desire of inquiry, but expressly commands them to take heed to themselves, to keep themselves, because men are naturally disposed to this wanton curiosity and take much delight in it.
30:27: Therefore, listen, I love this. Therefore God encloses his people with barriers.
30:35: Why? To keep us from being foolish. He encloses them with barriers, which may keep them back from all hurtful desires.
30:46: Nay, he would have them so abominate the practice of superstitions, as to fly even from the infection of hearing of them."
30:56: End quote. Pray that God will give us another guy like that again, Calvin. God encloses his people with barriers.
31:07: Why? For our good, to keep us from, as Calvin says, all hurtful desires.
31:14: What do children need from their parents? Clear boundaries and expectations, barriers.
31:20: When children know what's expected of them, they can thrive. There's no question about what they're allowed to do and what they're not allowed to do.
31:28: And we are by adoption, God's children, often just as ornery as our own children towards him, dissatisfied with what he says.
31:37: Well, you're too restrictive. I should not go to bed now. I should be able to do whatever
31:42: I want in worship. Are we really that different from a five -year -old, a 10 -year -old, a 15 -year -old?
31:49: We are by adoption, God's children. He lovingly encloses us with barriers for our safety sake, for the good of our children and grandchildren, so they still have the gospel when we're gone.
32:00: I think a good illustration to compare how loving this is on God's part is the guardrail that the
32:05: Old Testament people were required to put on their flat rooftops to prevent people from falling off to their deaths.
32:12: God has built a beautiful rooftop platform for us to enjoy. He has built us a wonderful platform and he has enclosed it with barriers for our good and said, you can't go over the edge.
32:25: Don't go over that edge either, or this one, or this one. Here's what I want you to do. Be active here and you'll be fine.
32:30: You won't fall off and get hurt. You won't be attracted to the evil desires of men and their pagan worship practices.
32:38: Notice verse 31. You see what verse 31? Verse 31 is what's called a reductio ad absurdum, reducing the argument to absurdity.
32:45: Look at what he says. For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
32:52: I want to promise you something. I promise you this. That had never occurred to a single
32:58: Israelite that heard this, read to them for the first time. What are you talking about?
33:04: How could any of us ever seriously think about burning our children in the fire as sacrifice to pagan gods?
33:10: But their grandchildren and great -grandchildren did, didn't they? You see why this is so important?
33:17: You see, we think, you look at some of the absurd practices that go on in churches today and we think, no way could that ever happen here.
33:24: Oh, sure it could. Oh, sure it could. The next generation or the one after that, forgetting these things, these are important.
33:31: These are covenantal things you need to teach to your children and grandchildren so that they know this.
33:37: When people cut themselves loose from scripture, even burning their sons and daughters in the fire,
33:44: God adds the ultimate absurdity to drive home the argument to them. The most abominable practice imaginable, the sacrifice of innocent children as an act of worship.
33:55: Surely that's as extreme as anyone could ever go in abandoning the true and proper way of worship. And so why would
34:01: God cite this example here? To show them the end result of abandoning his revealed will in scripture.
34:08: Once a local gathering of God's people no longer feel constrained by the loving barriers in which
34:15: God has enclosed them, there is no end to the depths to which they will sink.
34:23: Yes, even offering their own children as sacrifices to pagan deities. And folks, how can we be sure that we're safe and that our kids and grandkids and great grandkids will be safe for generations to come?
34:36: You shall not add to nor take away from it. And then
34:42: I just, you don't need to turn to it. I'm just going to read it one more time. Proverbs 30 verses five and six. Every word of God is pure as opposed to our words.
34:51: Every word of God is pure. He is the shield to those who put their trust in him. Do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
35:01: Okay, so there you have the end of point number one. Point number two, deduction from scripture. Westminster standards in that same point goes on to say, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture.
35:22: In Joe Moorcraft's excellent book, How God Wants Us to Worship Him, he wrote this on page 69. Divine commands that are by good and necessary consequence deduced from scripture are as authoritative as statements expressly set down in scripture.
35:37: Conclusions fairly deduced from declarations of the word of God are as truly parts of divine revelation as if they were expressly taught in the sacred volume.
35:48: This is the way Jesus proved the doctrine of the resurrection against the
35:53: Sadducees in Matthew 22, 31 and 32. And the way Paul proved that Jesus is the
35:59: Christ by reasoning with the Jews from the Old Testament in Acts 17. Furthermore, some of the most basic doctrines of the
36:05: Christian faith are based on necessary inferences from express statements in the Bible, the doctrine of the
36:11: Trinity and biblical inerrancy, effectual calling and infant baptism, end quote.
36:17: Anything that is a necessary logical deduction is just as binding as a direct statement in scripture.
36:25: Okay, point number three, the light of nature and Christian prudence in New Testament worship. This is one
36:30: I promise you, folks, if you start talking to people about the regulative principle, you need to understand this point really well because you'll get tripped up if you don't.
36:40: The Westminster Standards go on to say there at 1 .6, there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed.
36:55: Now, folks, there's a very important distinction between the elements and the circumstances of worship.
37:01: Those are very important terms to understand, the elements of Christian worship and the circumstances.
37:07: The elements of worship are these, prayer with thanksgiving, being one special part of religious worship, the reading of scripture with godly fear, sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the word and obedience to God with understanding, faith and reverence, singing of psalms with grace in the heart as also the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God besides religious oaths, vows, solemn fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions, which are on their several times and seasons to be used in a holy and religious manner.
37:41: So what are the elements of a worship service? Prayer, reading scripture, singing psalms, sacraments, those are the elements of worship.
37:51: Now, what does the confession mean by circumstances? It says, some circumstances are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence.
37:59: Okay, so what does that mean? What are the circumstances? As Dr. Moorcraft defines them, he says, things that are common to any serious public group meeting of people.
38:07: They include, the circumstances include such things as lighting, seating, the time of the meeting, the place and an almost infinite amount of individual circumstantial issues.
38:18: This is one of the areas in which people become confused about what we mean by the regulated principle of worship. People say, well, the
38:24: Bible doesn't say you're supposed to use a pulpit. Show me that in scripture. Well, that's part of the circumstance.
38:30: That's not an element of worship. You see the difference? Well, the Bible doesn't say to have pews. Well, it doesn't say to have chairs either.
38:36: That's a circumstance, not an element. And so this often raises the question, does
38:42: God command that ministers must preach in suits? No.
38:49: Does God command us to use pews, have pulpits, have pianos, organs or instruments or even have a building to meet in?
38:55: The simple answer is no to all those questions. But you also need to remember, those are not asking about elements of worship.
39:01: Those are circumstances. So please keep that distinction in your reasoning and be ready to explain it to others who ask you about it.
39:08: And before John Calvin took his position in Geneva, he would regularly meet with Protestant refugees in France in local caves for worship services in celebration of the
39:17: Lord's Supper. And at the time, Protestants were being hunted down and executed by French authorities. And so Protestants could not meet in public places for worship and so they had to improvise.
39:28: And I've actually seen pictures of this. They actually had a communion chalice that could be unscrewed into three smaller pieces and they could hide it in their tunics and their coats and everything else.
39:38: They also had a miniature one inch tall copy of the Psalms that they would pin up in a woman's hair to keep it hidden.
39:45: And then they would gather together in these caves and they would have real worship services there. They would have every element that I just mentioned to you.
39:53: All the elements of worship would be there, although their circumstances are very different from what we're experiencing right now.
39:59: And Dr. Moorcraft says, elements in worship being commanded by God are not optional.
40:06: You hear that? Circumstances can be changed, eliminated or added without consequence to public worship.
40:13: For example, a church might decide to exclude air conditioning from its sanctuary, but it most certainly may not decide to exclude prayer.
40:22: See the difference? This is not a denial of the sufficiency of the Bible, but rather a statement of God's wisdom in giving us what we need in order to worship him properly.
40:31: If every conceivable detail of the circumstances of worship was addressed by the
40:36: Bible, the Bible would be 10 ,000 times its present length. God expects us to use common sense and to be wise.
40:43: Okay, so that's an important concept to remember. So in summary, we've seen that addition to and subtraction from scripture is expressly forbidden in the word of God.
40:55: We've also seen that we are also bound to what is deducible from scripture. And then thirdly, the light of nature and Christian prudence and New Testament worship are important with regard to the circumstances of worship, not the elements of worship.
41:10: To review the regulative principle, we must limit our worship practices to what God has expressly commanded or to what is necessarily deduced from scripture or by biblical apostolic example approved in scripture.
41:22: Whatever is commanded is required. Whatever is forbidden is prohibited. Whatever is not commanded is also forbidden.
41:31: Now, why did the Protestant Reformation so heavily emphasize this point, at least the reformed wing of the
41:37: Reformation said regulative principle. You see, the Lutheran Reformation was not as thoroughgoing as the reformed
41:42: Reformation was. The Lutheran said that you can do that which is not commanded. You can be creative.
41:49: And the reformed tradition said, no, we have to limit ourselves to what's commanded and what he hasn't said, we are not allowed to take the freedom to go do it.
41:58: Why did they emphasize that the way they do? Well, they did that directly because of those passages that we just looked at. But they also did it because they had seen what happens when you don't limit yourself by scripture.
42:09: They had seen firsthand the corruption and the abuses. I want to read a quotation that will illustrate this for you.
42:16: In a book on Roman Catholicism called the Faith of Millions by the Reverend John O 'Brien. We read the following description of what the
42:24: Roman Catholic religion at the time of the Reformation and even to this very day believes is taking place in the Catholic mass.
42:30: This is an example right here of why the regulative principle is so important. Listen to this quote. When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings
42:42: Christ down from his throne and places him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man.
42:51: It is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of seraphim and cherubim. Indeed, it is greater even than the power of the
42:57: Virgin Mary. While the blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings
43:05: Christ down from heaven and renders him present on our altar as the eternal victim for the sins of man, not once, but a thousand times.
43:15: The priest speaks and lo, Christ, the eternal and omnipotent
43:20: God bows his head in humble obedience to the priest's command.
43:27: Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest, who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and vice regent of Christ on earth.
43:36: He continues the essential ministry of Christ. He teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ. He pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ.
43:43: He offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement, which Christ offered on Calvary.
43:50: No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of alter
43:56: Christus, for the priest is and should be another Christ, end quote.
44:04: That's one of the most blasphemous paragraphs I've ever read in my life. It had come to that.
44:10: It had come to that. You think this is a Presbyterian distinctive, a reform distinctive?
44:18: It would break my heart into a million pieces to think any of my grandkids or great grandkids would ever think that that was okay.
44:25: When sola scriptura is abandoned, when the regulative principle of worship is abandoned, what I read to you becomes the inevitable result.
44:31: In fact, God said murdering children as a sacrifice to pagan deities, that's where you will end up.
44:39: A complete abandonment of Christian worship altogether and the replacement of truth with complete and comprehensive falsehood and blasphemy masquerading as truth.
44:49: Throughout the history of Christianity, the abandonment of sola scriptura and the regulative principle is always a very slow, gradual, subtle process.
44:58: And I want to warn you, it's usually done in the name of evangelism. And that's why
45:04: Francis Schaeffer said, it is evangelicalism in the name of evangelicalism that is destroying evangelicalism.
45:11: It's like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water, slowly but surely until the frog's dead.
45:17: And therefore, it's no small part of our church's mission statement. Myrtle Heights Presbyterian Church desires to glorify
45:24: God through biblical worship. What God is pleased with and the only thing
45:29: God is pleased with in our worship is what biblical worship is. The only way the Christian church can shine as the light
45:35: Christ said it is, is through biblical worship and biblical living and all four spheres of government, church, family, state and individual.
45:44: And may God keep us faithful in our worship so that we, by his help, by his grace and for his glory, glorify
45:50: God through biblical worship. We don't add to or subtract from scripture. We make valid deductions from scripture and we use wisdom when it comes to the circumstances of worship so that we can make sure all the biblical elements of worship are always protected in their purity.
46:06: The regulative principle of worship is what we follow in order to ensure that we are pleasing
46:12: God in our service of worship to him. But there's another very important reason we follow it.
46:18: We also follow the regulative principle to protect your conscience. It would break my heart if people sat here on Sundays scratching their heads or thinking in their heart or getting in their cars and driving home going, should they really have done that?
46:33: Is that really okay for the pastor to ride a motorcycle down the aisle? Or to preach with a beer and a cigar on the pulpit?
46:43: Or to do other foolish, nonsensical things to shock people to get people in? We don't want you to ever think things like that.
46:50: We don't want people sitting in the pews, should we really be doing that? If we would please to try in God, who loved us and sent his son to die for us and save us so that God could have worshipers, we need to do in worship what he tells us to do.
47:02: We must believe in the sufficiency of scripture and its sole unique God -bred authority to order all of our worship practices, to please and to glorify
47:11: God alone. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for giving us your all -sufficient word so that we need not doubt, we need not wonder what it is that you expect of us.
47:25: As you said to the prophet Micah, you have shown us. He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what the
47:31: Lord requires of you. We want to be obedient, we want to be humble before you, we wanna submit to what your word tells us to do so that we can know in our hearts that the sacrifice of praise we bring you truly is glorifying to you and it really does please you.
47:46: And we pray that you would bless us, Lord, and keep us faithful for generations to come. God bless the truth we ask in Christ's name, amen.
48:00: This is Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridewell Heights Presbyterian Church, located at 108 Bridewell Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee.
48:07: And you've been listening to the Protestant Witness Podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m.
48:13: sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord. You can find us on the web at www .bridewellheightspca
48:22: .org. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.