SERMON: Elements of Reformed Worship by John Samson

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It's a real joy and delight to be with you. If you have a

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Bible, I'd encourage you to open it to Colossians and also

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Book of Psalms, two different openings. My name is

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John Sampson, I'm one of the elders at King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, so not too far away, and there's a real connection between our churches.

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And I just want to acknowledge some folk who are here. There's my fellow elder, Doug, who's here to check on me.

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And can you stand up, Doug, so everyone can see you? There he is, this handsome man. And I have with me my lovely wife,

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Linda, I left the ugly one at home. Linda, would you stand?

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That's my favorite wife right there. And I have with me two of my four kids, and I had the joy as a parent of baptizing them about ten days ago.

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And so Casey, would you stand, and Kyra, would you stand? I love those guys.

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Thank you. Thank you. Am I too loud?

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Too soft? It's the accent. I've been sent ahead of you guys to prepare you for heaven, because we need to warn you, this is how they talk there.

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And I know many of you are wanting to go, and it's going to be kind of upsetting if you're not used to it.

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And all of you want to hear the immortal words of the master, well done, good and faithful servant.

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Wouldn't that be a shock? You mean God's English? No, not really.

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Colossians chapter 1 and Psalm 100.

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Is it easy to find two different places on a phone? Is that hard? It's kind of difficult.

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Colossians 1 .18. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God.

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And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

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And Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

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Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the

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Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his.

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We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. And to his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.

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Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever.

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And his faithfulness to all generations. Let's pray together.

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Lord, we thank you for the word of God, the inspired, inerrant word that you've given to us.

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We ask now that the same Holy Spirit who has inspired the text of the

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Bible, the text that we've read, would now help us understand and implement its truths and apply it to our lives.

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All that you may be glorified. Pray in Christ's name, amen. As you can see from the bulletin, my theme today is elements of reformed worship.

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The word reformed there stems from something called the Protestant Reformation.

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And the last Sunday in October every year is a time when churches throughout the world celebrate what

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God did in that Protestant Reformation when the gospel of Jesus Christ became clear again under the ministry of Martin Luther.

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It was on the 31st of October, 1517, that Martin Luther penned 95 ideas to be discussed at an academic level called the 95

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Thesis on the Door of the Church at Wittenberg. And his anonymity, his ability to stay hidden was just completely torn away from him because students, although the thesis were written in Latin, the

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Latin being the language of the scholar, they were quickly translated into German by students.

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And then due to the invention of the printing press, it went throughout Germany. And so within weeks, everybody knew of these writings and it sparked, brought into being the

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Protestant Reformation. So when we talk about reformed worship, in my mind at least,

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I associate that with biblical worship because the reformers wanted to bring the

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Bible into the church again and to discover its truth and to come under its authority.

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Let me just say this. God cares about how we worship.

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Do you believe that? And God has told us what kind of worship pleases

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Him. Do you believe that? I want you to hold your finger in Psalm 100 because I believe we'll be back there, but go to the book of Genesis in chapter 4,

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Genesis chapter 4. And as you're reading through the

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Bible, we have the declaration of creation in chapter 1 and chapter 2, and then in chapter 3, we have the record of the fall of man.

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The subtlety of the serpent was seen as he asked the first question in the universe.

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Did God really say? And behind that question was the venom of Satan himself.

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Book of Revelation calls him that serpent of old. And that first question was an attack on the

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Word of God and Satan's tactics has not changed since, because why change when you've got a winning tactic?

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Many times he's able to win because of the doubts and the accusations he brings against Scripture.

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Thankfully, God is raising up people who can defend it. But suddenly the attacks are undiminished in our day.

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And Adam with his eyes wide open, Eve with her mind being deceived, partook of the fruit that was offered by the serpent, took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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God's judgment came, and rightly so, and yet even in that, he provided redemption.

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And an animal was slain to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness.

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Chapter 3 is a tremendous passage of Scripture. In verse 15 we have the first promise of good news, even in the middle of this calamity.

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This was all known by God. He was not shocked, and He had planned redemption even before He ever made the world.

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Not only has it been written in the heavenly minutes that the Lord Jesus Christ would be slain,

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Scripture says He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, but God also handpicked out people who deserved hell and torment forever and made a bride for His Son in eternity past.

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And we're carrying out in time all that God had decreed. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 said,

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He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Isn't it good to serve a

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God who's not just trying, not just hoping that things work out, that there's this cosmic struggle going on, and somehow there's a great relief because we read the back of the book and we win.

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That's something. I'm glad we win, but God's winning now. God is accomplishing His purposes now, and the enemy is under His feet.

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God has never been intimidated by the devil. God has never been intimidated by anything finite.

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He's a created being, and as Martin Luther said, even the devil is God's devil. He can handle

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Him. And at the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ obliterated Him, and in verse 15 of chapter 3, the promise was made to the serpent, and that was a curse, but it's a promise to us.

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I'll put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, and He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise

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His heel. That's a passage that is loaded. It speaks of a virgin birth.

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You don't normally talk about the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman is that which we now know of as a person called the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He shall bruise your head, serpent, and you shall bruise His heel.

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Promise of redemption, the promise of victory, the promise of God being glorified, not just trying.

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Not just trying. But in chapter 4, we have the record of what happened after this incident, and verse 1, it reads this.

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Now Adam knew his wife Eve, and he knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore

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Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel.

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Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time,

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Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

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And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard.

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So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your face fallen?

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If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

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Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. There's really two types of religion that's outlined in this passage.

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And as we look at the book of Genesis and go through our Bibles to the book of Revelation, I believe we could ascertain two different types of religion and their fruit.

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We have the religion of Abel and the religion of Cain. If we do a little bit of detective work, we can learn much as we read through our

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Bibles, as it makes reference to this incident in other places. Abel received divine revelation, whereas Cain rejected it.

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The book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4 reads this way. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commanded as righteous,

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God commanding him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

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We understand this. If someone is acting in faith, it's because they've had access to the

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Word of God. God has spoken. We know that because of a Bible verse, Romans 10, 17, that says,

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So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, or the Word of Christ.

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That's the way faith comes. It comes not by a feeling or by someone playing music.

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It's because they've heard something of the Word of God. It may be through music that they heard the

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Word of God, but faith only comes by the means of hearing that Word.

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And so, obviously, if we put Hebrews 11 with Genesis chapter 4, we recognize this.

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The Word of God had been proclaimed. And Abel accepted it and acted on it.

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Cain rejected that divine revelation. Abel acknowledged a substitutionary sacrifice.

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He brought an offering of the firstborn of his flock. Cain denied the need of a substitutionary sacrifice.

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Just brought something from the ground. Something else other than what God had spoken. And for Abel, there was a supernatural attestation.

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God, somehow, though we don't know how, made it clear to both brothers that one sacrifice was accepted and the other was rejected.

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Abel's was accepted. Cain and his offering was rejected. Now here's where it gets interesting.

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Abel's offering produced a martyr. Cain's produced a murderer.

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All through history, the greatest enemy of the true church has been the false church. If you were to read

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Revelation 17, it speaks of the mother of harlots, the work of Babylon, the great, this spirit behind all false religion, drunk with the blood of the saints.

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And I believe it's speaking not just of a future age, but of all time where the enemies of God rise up, looking very religious, having pomp and ceremony, but not having anything of the pleasure of God in it.

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Do you realize this? God does not accept all kinds of worship. We see that in Genesis.

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One brother's offering was accepted and one was not. Though most people would say it just means you need to be sincere, just have an idea about God in some vague sense, and God will accept that as far as you go.

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God says no. It has to be based on Revelation. It has to be based on what I've said. What is interesting, too, is that Abel's religion will bring forth the bride of Christ.

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Cain's will bring forth the harlot. Now, when we talk about reformed worship, I'm referring to biblical worship.

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Someone might say to me, John, I'm becoming more and more reformed. That to me just means you're becoming more and more biblical, because I believe the reformers brought us back to the

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Bible. It was the bringing back of the Bible that fueled the Reformation.

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Once England had been subjected now to the Word of God in English, not just merely the language of the scholar of Latin.

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That's when things took off. That was true in Germany also, and Martin Luther was key in translating the

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Bible into the language of the vernacular, the people of Germany. The reformers came up with a phrase.

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It's called Semper Reformanda, which means reformed and always being reformed.

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Our job is not to say that on the march of this year we became knowledgeable of everything we ever need to know and just freeze that.

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No, but always we should be reforming and allowing the Scripture to change our thinking as we learn more of it.

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There are some things we know. There are some things we can be certain of. But there are other things that we're saying, you know what, let's reexamine what the

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Scripture says. Things about God we don't need to reform. We know what the

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Bible says. We know about God as a holy trinity, one in essence and three in persons, and we don't need to keep revisiting that.

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But on some minor issues, it's good to go back to Scripture.

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Two big things happened at the Reformation, and scholars will tell us that it was, first of all, the material principle, which was the material, the language, the debate that was running amok amongst the people was the answer to this question.

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How is a man and woman to appear before God who is holy when they themselves are not?

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How were we brought into right standing with God? How does a man get right with God?

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The answer of the Reformers according to the Scriptures were something called sola fide, faith alone.

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You'll hear of the five solas of the Reformation. Solas being a word that means alone, sola, just like on a flight if you're by yourself you're flying solo, or if you're singing a song you do a solo.

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That's the same idea. And it's faith alone in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone, the

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Reformers said, based on what Scripture alone tells us. And all of this came out of the formal principle, which was who speaks for God?

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The Bible might say this, but the Pope might say something else, and a cardinal might say a different idea, and the priest down the road might say

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I've got a still another idea. What is the right to bind our conscience?

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What is the right to say this is what you should believe? Who am

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I to defy Popes and bishops? Well, the Bible says let God be true and every man a liar.

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And God has spoken in His word, and when we understand that it comes with the highest of authority.

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It's God breathed information. And every Pope and bishop and pastor and every one of us needs to submit our thoughts to Scripture to be thinking in line with God, because God has spoken in His word and He has spoken clearly.

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And the Reformers in the principle of sola scriptura identified that Scripture alone has the authority to bind the conscience.

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It's the soul, the one, the only infallible rule of faith for the people of God.

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Martin Luther believed that, believed those two things, Scripture alone and faith alone.

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And Calvin certainly did. They were agreed on these points, no doubt of that. But what is interesting is when

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John Calvin continued in the Reformation after Luther, he focused on reforming worship according to the word of God.

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He had the idea, and I believe the right idea, that the heart of man is deceitful above all things.

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It's actually an idle factory, just as a factory might produce cars over and over and over again.

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So the heart can produce idols over and over and over again.

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And that's true even in our worship. We can bring in things that God says are not good, that are corrupt.

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Our worship can be corrupt just like that of Cain. Let me say this.

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If we don't know the purpose of a thing, abuse is inevitable.

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Can we say that out loud together? Maybe after me.

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If we don't know the purpose of a thing, abuse is inevitable.

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How many parents know that? If your son, age five, gets hold of a hammer, look out.

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He may not know the purpose of the thing, and though he might be good when he has nails and a piece of wood around, if he has a hammer in his hand, it's time to hide the sister.

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Because if you don't know the purpose of a thing, abuse is inevitable. It's good for one thing, but it's not good for another.

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So what we need to do as Christians is ask this question. What is the purpose of worship? That's what I want to talk about.

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What are the elements of biblical Reformed worship? And I've got three main things I want to say.

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First of all, it's centered on God. Let's go back to Psalm 100. Here we read this.

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Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the

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Lord with gladness. Come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God. Enter His gates, verse four, with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.

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Give thanks to Him. This is what we find in our Bibles. Let's turn back to chapter 95 or Psalm 95 here.

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Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

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Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.

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For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. That's the purpose of our worship, that we might center it all on God.

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That He would receive glory in the gathering together of His people. That should be obvious, shouldn't it?

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But it's amazing how much this truth is ignored in the modern -day church at large. And that leads to corrupt worship.

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I remember a couple visiting church hours pastoring. In fact, actually it was only the husband who came, if I remember right.

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That's right. Only the husband came. And he said, I'm enjoying the service.

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I love it. I love the preaching. But I won't be back. I said, why? He said, because I'm here on behalf of myself and my wife.

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And unless the music is heavy metal music, my wife won't be interested. And I thought, really?

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Really? Really? That would be it?

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The reason you'd come is that you like the worship? There needs to be a whole swing turnaround.

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The purpose of our meeting is that not you and I like the worship, but that God does. He says,

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I like what's happening. I like what's happening in people's hearts. I want people to worship in spirit and in truth.

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That's His mode of operation. That's what He desires. He seeks that. Corrupted worship is all over the place.

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Let me talk a little bit about that. And for that, I want to let you know something that not a lot of people know.

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That age five through about eight, I had an ambition that I don't know existed in any other heart of a young boy in England.

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I wanted to be a guard. I need to say it with an emphasis, G -U -A -R -D, guard.

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Because otherwise, if I say it the way I normally say it, guard, it sounds like God, G -O -D. No, I didn't want to be a guard.

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We got past that in Genesis three. I wanted to be a guard outside Buckingham Palace.

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In fact, I had my own shrunk down military tunic, you know the red things that the guards outside Buckingham Palace wear?

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And I had my own Busby, that's the name of the hat, and my own belt. I come from a military family, and my father was in there, and my uncle was a major, and I had a shrunken down belt, and we couldn't find the little strap that goes with the

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Busby for something the size of my head, so my mother didn't tell me until years later that it was actually a dog collar, shrunken down.

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But it looked real. It really did look real. And I had my own gun, and I could stand outside the house for hours and not move.

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Little kids my age would say, you're coming out to play? You're weird.

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I wouldn't move. Now I know it was a parent's delight. They didn't have to worry about me for hours.

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I mean, I had a gun. And every summer

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I used to go from Chester, my home city, to London where my uncle was, and every day, weekday at least, would go to the

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Changing of the Guards. Ever heard of that? And at least I love it. One day

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I actually went in my guardsman uniform, and a lady I think from Dallas came, and she'd missed the big ceremony.

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But she saw me and said, well, can I take a picture of you? And I'm sure I'm now on the wall in some

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Dallas house as a little five or six -year -old. She was thrilled to meet this young kid who

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I think I'm the only one I've ever met. I mean, there's no magazines for kids. Guard magazine.

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I mean, it's very unusual. I saw the Queen many times.

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There's something called Trooping the Colour, and I was there every year for those three or four years. I saw the

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Queen, and saw Prince Charles, and saw some of the others, Princess Anne, and yet I never met her personally.

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But should I have met her personally, should, I mean, literally, the Queen should have seen from her vantage point this amazing subject of hers, age six, outside Buckingham Palace and said, oh, please go get him.

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But she never did. But should I have received an invitation from the

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Queen to meet her, there is something called protocol. This is totally unknown information to Americans.

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We don't have Queens here, right? Except it's a place in New York, but nothing like the real thing.

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Should you be given the privilege of an invitation to have an audience with Her Majesty, do you know you cannot just walk into the palace unannounced?

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A time and date is scheduled. Bear in mind that it's highly offensive to be late for your meeting.

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I'm not looking around. Before the actual audience takes place, you'll be escorted into a room where for several minutes a palace official will explain correct procedure and protocol.

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These include the following. Are you ready? Are you ready?

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Okay. When the Queen enters a room, all in attendance are to stand.

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Men are to bow. Women are to curtsy. USA citizens need not comply with this.

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Only the Queen's subjects under her rule, all Americans said. When first meeting the

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Queen, she should be addressed as Your Majesty and then afterwards as ma 'am. Got to get those two in the right order.

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If Her Majesty is accompanied by a husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, it should be noted that by rank he is lower than the

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Queen and should be addressed as Your Royal Highness rather than Your Majesty.

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After this initial greeting, he may be addressed as sir and then when departing as Your Royal Highness again.

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Should you be eating a meal with the Queen in attendance, when the Queen stops eating all others should stop eating also.

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Regarding shaking hands, you must wait until the Queen extends her hand towards you. You are not to initiate contact offering a handshake.

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That just seems like the natural thing. Oh, good to see you ma 'am. Oh, I've got it wrong both ways. Definitely there are no hugs, no kisses on the cheek or the touching of the shoulder.

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In conversation, allow Her Majesty to initiate any conversation with you.

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Never, for any reason, turn your back on the Queen. Now I'm told that Prince Charles, even behind closed doors, even if he wakes up on a

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Saturday morning and goes into the Queen's room and she's in her bed and perhaps even has her curlers on and on her hair, he can't just turn his back on her and walk out the door.

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Even behind closed doors, he backs away. That's an unusual household to grow up in,

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I have to say. But we're not used to dealing with royalty. This is the protocol for interaction with an earthly ruler.

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What do you think the Bible says regarding protocol for God Himself, the

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King of Kings, the Lord of Lords? Well, we don't have to guess. Psalm 100 tells us.

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This is how we approach Him. You'd think, wouldn't you, He'd make it really, really hard.

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You'd think He'd say, now, for you to approach me, you must bring the pear of Brazil and bring it on a plate, for I love the pear of Brazil.

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And you'd think, but I don't live in Brazil. No, so go to Brazil and get the pear of Brazil and then you can approach me.

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You'd think He'd make it hard. Or get some plant that is so ornate that only a few can find it and it's so expensive.

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But you know what the Bible says? This is how you come into God's presence. This is the protocol.

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Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Make a joyful noise.

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There are many people that tell me, I can't sing. I say, well, can you make a noise? Yeah, I can do that. Can you make it joyful?

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Yeah, I can do that. And then you can come. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

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Enter His gates with thanksgiving, verse 4, and His courts with praise. That's what the

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Reformed Church is and that's why we do what we do. Because the Bible says that's how we approach

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Him, not with mournful dirges. There are times to be mournful. There's an entire book of the

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Bible called Lamentations. Many of the Psalms speak of the dire condition of the human heart as you cry out to God.

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But in terms of the corporate gathering, God says, don't come mournfully. Come joyfully into my presence.

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I've given you much. I've given you the breath in your lungs. Every cell in your body I hold together.

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I've given you... People say, what has God done for me lately? He's holding you together. He's causing you to have breath, even breath where every breath you're in defilement and defiance of God.

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What a gracious God. And we can do this. Make a joyful noise to the

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Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. If you were to read

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Leviticus 10, you'd read the story of Nadab and Abihu, who perhaps, although we're not told exactly why, did something strange.

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They offered strange fire on the altar and they were killed by God.

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Does your belief about God allow you to believe in someone who can kill as well as make alive?

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The Bible describes him that way. Perhaps they said, you know, this is boring. We've done this for some time.

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This is old hat. Let's make it more exciting. Let's mix a little this and a little that and see what happens.

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Well, they did and they weren't around long enough to tell anyone about it.

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They were dead. God says, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to put up with this. I'm not going to allow you to profane my name before the people.

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You're dead. I just think worship is the way we should like it and what

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I feel. And if I don't like a certain thing, I'm not going to do it. God says it's my way or the highway.

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I'm not sure I like that. It's a bit like petting a cat. You've seen a cat and it's kind of the wrong way around, you know, turn the cat and then the petting's okay.

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Okay, not a good illustration. Okay. Let's go to Exodus chapter 32.

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I'm going to talk about the most enthusiastic, the most well -attended service in Israel's history.

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Here we have it, at least up until this time, Exodus 32, verse 1.

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In other words, perhaps he's dead already. So Aaron said to them, Again, corrupted worship.

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When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Can you believe he said this?

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I'm building a golden calf and let's celebrate this as our God. This is the one who brought us out of Egypt.

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Basically, he was calling this false idol, Yahweh. They rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.

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And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now, verse 21, just jumping ahead for the sake of time.

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I'd encourage you to read all of that chapter though. Verse 21, And Aaron said,

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You know how they are. Really? You know the people?

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Give them what they want. This is what they wanted. This is the kind of worship they wanted.

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Let me tell you this. In all seriousness. If our worship is not pleasing to God, it doesn't matter who else is pleased.

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If God is displeased, it doesn't matter who's pleased. And if God is pleased, it doesn't matter who is displeased.

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In the tabernacle, you read through the Bible and you come to Exodus 25.

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And it speaks of this constructed tent that was to be mobile. So that when

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God moved and said it's time to move on, they could move quickly. But it was ornate.

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It was intricate. In fact, the details of which can be a little bit boring.

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Unless you're a Levitical priest. Because your life depends on getting it right. As people read through their

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Bibles, they can handle Genesis usually. Because a lot of excitement. There's something happening on almost every page.

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Same with Exodus. I mean, there are plagues everywhere. And gnats and camels and sand and blood red rivers.

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And it gets exciting. But you start reading Leviticus. And you think, how many chapters have

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I got? Three of this? Three chapters of this today and then another tomorrow. And it's talking about tents.

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And it's talking about curtains and rods and the bearing and the color. And this is the kind of fabric you'll need.

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And you think, tell you what, that's a Levitical pastor manual. It's basically the way to stay alive as a

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Levitical priest. Levitical priests read that with a lot of interest. They want to stay alive.

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It all speaks about something. Exodus 25, 40 tells us we're to make everything according to the pattern shown us on the mountain.

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It's not anything we'll do. It has to be God's pattern. And God says, when the tabernacle is done my way and is finished, then

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I'll show up. And you'll see the cloud appear as a sign of my presence. But not until.

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Not until it's finished according to my specifications. Let me say this.

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Worship is not that you and I feel good. That we fill our spiritual tanks or even that we impress outsiders.

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God never said to Israel, do this so that the Canaanites will come to your meetings. Moses didn't go around the tents and take a survey.

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Hey, Canaanites, I know you serve all kinds of false gods, but if we were to change our dynamics a little bit, what kind of service would you come to?

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God says, this is the way you will worship me and this alone. Our praise should be directed towards Him.

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That's correct protocol. Our target audience is God. That's why we come.

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And to Him shall the gathering of the people be. Romans 11, 36, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

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To Him be glory forever. Amen. A lot of people get this wrong because it's a bit like buttoning a shirt.

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Both for men and for women. If you get the wrong button in the wrong hole at the top, it's going to be wrong all the way down, right?

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So our worship is about Him and He's the target audience. We exist to please Him. It's not what you and I get out of it.

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It's what pleases Him. It's not for evangelism.

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That should not be primary. That's a well -meaning intention because anyone who knows

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Christ wants to make Him known. We want to see people converted. But it's a misunderstanding of the church to see that as the height of our worship, the purpose of worship, so that the non -believer feels comfortable.

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The person who doesn't know God feels comfortable. Everybody I've ever read in the Bible who meets with God were never comfortable.

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Isaiah in chapter 6 sees the Lord God high and lifted up. His train fills the temple, which speaks of His royal robe.

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It fills the entire sanctuary, speaking of His amazing, majestic, awesome majesty.

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And it speaks there of angels who had six wings. You read Isaiah 6. And these were angels specifically designed for the purpose of appearing in the presence of God.

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Birds are designed to fly in the air. Crocodiles in the waters. But these angels were made for the very presence of God.

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And yet with two of the wings, it says, they hide their faces. They're made for His presence, and they can't handle it.

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They can't handle the glory of God, such as the majesty of God, though they're built and designed for it.

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Doesn't that speak of the majesty of God? And Isaiah, when he saw the Lord in this way, didn't say, oh, okay.

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No, there's this curse he brings on himself. A woe, woe is me, for I'm undone.

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For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among the people of unclean lips.

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And my eyes have seen the King. When someone meets with God, they don't say, that's interesting.

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I might be back. I'm interested. No, they're forever changed.

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Some cry. Some shout for joy. Some dance. Some do something.

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But they don't just sit and say, hmm, interesting. The worship of God is the reason we gather.

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Not evangelism. Not edification. I hope that people feel edified.

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It means to be built up spiritually. But that's not the gathering's purpose.

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It's not self -improvement. Self -improvement. You know the kind of sermons you can hear?

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Seven ways to better time management. Six ways to happier pets. Fourteen ways to a more stress -free vacation.

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I want something relevant. I want something I can use on a Monday. Yeah, try the holiness of God.

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Just dump that concept between your ears. That'll change what you do on a

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Monday, if you really get it. When God is the focus, often evangelism does take place, as well as edification.

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But these, hear me, these are byproducts of the main focus, which is

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God -centered worship. One of the things I love about this church is, whenever I come, the worship is about Him.

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It's not, I feel good. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. What you win them with is what you win them to, someone said.

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I heard of a church, I believe it was Texas. It could have been Arkansas, but it certainly, as I remember, it sounds like Texas.

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Where some rich people, quite a few of them were getting together and they wanted to start a church. And they said, let's start off with a splash.

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Let's start off with something big. And let's get off to a good start so that we've got hundreds coming very, very quickly.

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And they said, well, what are we going to do? I know one said, let's purchase a house and let's give it away on our first Sunday.

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You're kidding me, right? No, that's exactly what happened. And they advertised in the local press and they said, come to church.

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I don't know, can't remember the name of the church, but they said, come to church on Sunday. Some of you, in fact, one of you will get a house.

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Well, they started the meeting and started with a song and then started with another.

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And then suddenly a guy got up and says, right, guys, we said that someone here who is going to get a house.

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Check under your seat, would you? Does anyone have a key? If that's you, bring it up.

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There were 5 ,000 people at the first meeting. Why wouldn't there be? Someone's getting a house. One at the back said,

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I got a key. Bring it up here. You know what? You've just got a house. That's the key to your new house.

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Come up here and we'll tell you the address. Interesting. 200 showed up the next

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Sunday and they're off and running. They call it a church, though.

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That's my big problem with it. It's okay to give away a house. I've got no problem with giving away a house, but just don't call it a church.

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That's not how you build a church. You know how you build a church? Slowly. You start off with 3, 4, maybe 12.

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If you preach well, you have 7 the next week. You mentioned tithing and half the church goes.

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And you just said, this is what the Word of God says. And this is verse 6. And next week, it'll be verse 7. You mean you're not giving away a house?

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No. Down the road, they're giving away bikes next week. No, it'll be verse 7 next week.

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Rollerblades? They're giving rollerblades to kids next week. Well, we might get as far as verse 8.

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You can build a crowd very easy, but to build a church, you know what it takes? God.

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You know what it takes? The Word of God. You know what it takes? The work of the Holy Spirit genuinely in the lives of people.

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Here's what I know. You preach the Word and only the Word, the sheep will love it. You don't get shepherds going up to fields and say,

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Hey, guys, have I got something spicy this week? Ooh, I've just been in field number 14.

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They're rocking with the head man right now. And if you just mix it with what

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I got, ooh, you're going to feel a buzz. No? You know what they like?

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Sheep food. Anybody got sheep food?

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What you got, shepherd? Better be sheep food. C .H.

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Spurgeon said this, Christ's sheep will never be offended by Christ's voice. There are times in my living room when

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I preach the living daylights out of the four people that were there. And they said,

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You prepare and you preach as if there's 10 ,000. I said, There's more than that. There's more than that in my mind.

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The Bible says we're coming to heavenly Zion. We're coming to angels in festal array.

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I think John the Baptist is listening to this. We're joining with David and Daniel and Ezekiel.

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And we're actually joining with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's present in this meeting. And he said we're to approach

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Him with joy, with joyful sounds. And He's called me to proclaim

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His word. And all I know is verse 6. I don't know what verse 7 is yet. I haven't studied it, but I tell you

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I'm going to be in the book. My face is going to be in the book all this week to really and rightly understand what verse 7 says.

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You know what? Sheep will come back. You build your church.

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That's what the Reformation brought us, the word of God. The free gift of the house confirms its right to just seek the things of this world.

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What you win them with is what you win them to. It confirms that a consumer -driven approach to church is the right way.

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What you can get out of it. Isaiah didn't feel that way. God tells us how

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He wants us to worship in spirit and in truth. All right, that's point number 1.

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There's 3. I'll be quicker with these 2. Blessed are the short -winded for they have a chance of being invited back.

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That's what the Bible says. I haven't got a watch, but the good news is

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I do have a calendar. So we'll be through by Tuesday. Praise the

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Lord. Reform worship, number 2, is mandated by God's word.

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It's formed by God's word. Theologians call this concept the regulative principle.

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In other words, if God says it, we can do it. And if by implication there's nothing in Scripture that would say there's a problem with this, we need to pray about it, think it through.

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But look at the Scripture. Go to the Scripture text first. You see, the Bible doesn't say, No, I believe there's room for liberty.

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You can do 4. You can do 2. You can do 32. But you should do some.

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John Calvin said this, We ask the question, does our worship derive from Scripture?

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And we then draw conclusions on what we read. One of the defining characteristics of reformed biblical worship is that it's regulated by God's word.

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Can you say amen? Come with joy.

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Why are we doing that? Because God said so. We pray. Why are we doing that? Because God said so.

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We read God's word. Do you know most Christians in history never had what you have either on a phone or in paper?

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The word of God. The only time they would ever hear it in their ears would be when the man at the front read

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Scripture. So Paul wrote to Timothy and said, Give yourself to the public reading of Scripture.

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At King's Church, Doug usually starts after a couple of hymns reading a passage of Scripture.

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And he's a great reader. But he practices. If I'm reading Scripture, I practice. I don't want to be stumbling over every third word.

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This is God communicating with His people. This is food for the sheep. I want to know how to say

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Mesopotamia, not mess it up. Laodicea.

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It's kind of hard to say some of the words in the Bible. Yeah, practice. Give yourself to it.

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Give yourself to it. It's the most important part of the service. The reading of God's Word and the preaching of God's Word.

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Service should be filled with God's Word. Our songs should be based on the truths of Scripture.

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Elders should be around saying, can we look at that? I know it's popular right now and everybody's singing it. All the churches around are singing it.

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But does the third line really match up with Scripture? There are many songs we can't sing as a church because there's a line in there that's just off.

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That's a little strange. No, I want us to be worshiping in spirit and in truth. I want the people to be able to say, what we're singing is true.

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Reformed worship means that there are the preaching of God's Word. And I believe in expositional preaching.

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What I'm doing today is actually not that. It's topical. It's unusual. But the normal diet of a church, and this is one of them, is that you go verse by verse through the books of the

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Bible. There's many benefits of that. And one of them is it allows the people to get a good diet in the order in which the

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Holy Spirit inspired things. Verse 1, verse 2, verse 3.

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John Calvin, because we're talking about the Reformation, the man who kind of followed Luther in the scheme of things, was based in Geneva, Switzerland.

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I've been there. It's an amazing place. But his tactics were so humorous when we look back, because he wanted to bring reform and remove idolatrous practices and bring actually

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Christians to church and allow for Christians only who were really

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Christians to partake of the Lord's Supper. And he brought in things like church discipline. And people didn't like it.

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They don't like it now. And they booted him out. They actually got rid of him.

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And he was away for three years. What's really funny to me is when historians found this out, he came back.

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He mounted the pulpit. They basically said, we want you back now. We're ready. We want this Reformation. We want to be conformed to the

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Word of God. We're ready now. Come on, John. Come back. He mounted the pulpit on the first Sunday.

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You know what he did? He said, well, last time I was here, we were in verse 16.

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Let's go to verse 17. Three -year gap. Why?

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He believed in verse -by -verse exposition. It stops the preacher from simply just preaching on his hobby horse.

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You know, we all got them. No, you don't know. Preachers do have their pet subjects.

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But going verse -by -verse means you address things you wouldn't normally address. John Calvin said this,

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Every season of Reformation, Steve Lawson says, It's cause and effect.

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As the pulpit goes, so goes the church. Another thing we do in Reformed biblical worship is receive the tithes and offerings of God's people.

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Read 1 Corinthians 16 where Paul says in terms of an offering, There was this weekly thing going on of receiving

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God's offerings of His people. The sacraments.

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Rome speaks of seven. The Bible speaks of two. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These should be rightfully observed.

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What about drama ministry? We have drama ministry. It's called the Lord's Supper.

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What a drama it is. That's what God has said should happen. That's what the early

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Christians did. Well, it kind of gets a little boring when we do it every week.

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No, no, no, no. These are the means of grace. It's God saying, that's where I'll meet you.

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I'll meet you as you do it this way. Just as I formed a tabernacle and asked you and commanded you to do it this way.

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So this is how I'll meet with you. Prayer. Reading God's Word.

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Preaching God's Word. The sacraments. John Calvin again. The sacred feast.

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Means of grace. A lot of people say this. Well, sermons.

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I can't always remember sermons. You know, that's true of the preacher. You ask him, what did you preach on Sunday?

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What was it? Oh yeah, verse six. What does it say? Can't remember. Let me ask you this.

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How many of you are over the age of seven? Okay. How many remember every meal you had between the age of seven and eight?

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Can I see your hands? You remember every meal? No. Let me say this.

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I know you did eat between the age of seven and eight. Otherwise, you'd be dead. You may not remember every meal, but you're alive because of it.

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So it is spiritually. You may not remember every sermon, but you're alive because of it. It sped your soul.

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Never miss a Sunday if you can help it. Point number three. Worship is the covenant people of God meeting.

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There's this public corporate gathering called church. It's the gathered worship of the people of God.

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It's not two Christians at a bus stop. No, there are a lot of people say, I have church.

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I have it on the internet. Really? I understand when people are shut in and they are what we call providentially hindered.

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They can't get to the meeting, but if you can get to the meeting, get to the meeting. God says, that's where I'll meet with you.

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Hebrews, in fact, says that. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

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This is Jesus through the writer to the Hebrews. Do you read your New Testament that way? I do. It's not just Paul.

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It's Jesus through Paul. You got a problem with Paul, you got a problem with Jesus.

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Because Jesus made Paul his apostle when he wrote scripture. That's Jesus speaking to us.

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Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

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And all the more as you see the day drawing near. God says, I've designed a church body and I put you in it.

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The moment you were converted and it's for your nurturing. I want to nurture you and I'll do it through qualified leadership.

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They'll be under shepherds of mine. And I'm going to speak to them and they're going to have to one day render an account for how they did what they did.

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And what they did with the authority I gave them under me. They're stewards, they're not owners. They don't own the church.

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This is my church, Jesus said. But their job is to feed you. Their job is to break the word of God to you.

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So that you can hear it and understand it correctly and apply it to your life. And something supernatural happens when it's done that way in God's order.

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When a member says, pastor, elders, watch over my soul. And the elder says, we will, we take that very seriously.

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We'll pray for you, we'll be here for you. And we'll speak into your life with trembling knees at times.

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Because we love you and we want to serve Christ. And see you grow in the things of Christ and be formed by Christ.

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Something cosmic is happening when we do church. We join as the gathered people of God to praise

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Him. Hear from Him for His glory and for our blessing. You know what a preacher is?

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He's a lot like a waiter. The job of the waiter is not to take the food on the plate. And before it ever comes to the table, say, you know what?

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I'm sure that I've seen the kind of people that come to this restaurant. And they don't like peas.

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They don't like carrots. There's a little too much meat on this plate. I'm just going to take that off.

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That's a dereliction of duty. I wrote an article one time called, waiter, did you mess with the food?

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There's a particular pastor in England. And he and I were corresponding. And he had some issues with some of the things that I was teaching.

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And I had some issues with what he was teaching. But I was excited because he told me he's going to do something unusual.

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He's going to go verse by verse through the book of Ephesians. I thought, wow, there's things that are unavoidable there.

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Whoa. You can't get very far in Ephesians before God just tells it like it is.

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He doesn't just sneak it in or sneak it in as a P .S. P .S.

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Elections true. Bye. That's not how he does it. Right at the outset, he says, you are chosen in him before the foundation of the world.

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Predestination, predestined. So a few weeks in, I called him.

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I said, how's it going? He says, oh, I'm loving it. It's a new thing. I said, how do you handle verse four, knowing that he didn't believe it?

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He said, well, I didn't go much into that because I didn't want to get into any controversy.

01:00:00

I think that's when I wrote the article. Waiter, did you mess with the food? I believe this.

01:00:07

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And what God has revealed, he wants the young people to know, the elderly to know, everyone in between.

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That's God's inheritance. Who am I to have the audacity to say, I've got a better idea.

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People won't like that. No, my job is to say, I may not like that, but God has revealed this.

01:00:27

Let me make sure I've understood it correctly. And what's crazy is you read through the

01:00:32

Bible and Jesus gets excited over the doctrine of election. He says, I praise you,

01:00:37

Father. You've hidden these things from the wise. That's activity on God's part. If you hide something, you've been active doing something.

01:00:44

And you revealed it to babes. For so it was right in your sight. Jesus gets excited about it.

01:00:50

And I can't mention it because I've got this little issue with it. Well, get over the issue. Preach the word, pastor.

01:00:59

This is a church that will say, God said it. And we're going to say it too.

01:01:05

Praise God for that. Means of grace. Methods.

01:01:11

The Word of God. Prayer and the sacraments. I'll feed you this way, God says. Show up like sheep in a field.

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I'll come every week and I'll bring good food. Psalm 100 tells us, know that the

01:01:28

Lord, He is good. Part of our worship is the knowledge of God. The Word of God rightfully administered and interpreted.

01:01:37

We understand that He's our creator. He made us, not we ourselves. And that we are

01:01:43

His sheep, the sheep of His pasture. One of the benefits is that God does speak to us and tells us of His love.

01:01:51

And secures us. And we understand even in the preaching and in the singing that He will hold us fast.

01:02:01

It's not our ability to hang on that's going to save, but His ability never to lose any of His true sheep.

01:02:08

Jesus is a good shepherd. Sometimes we read our Bibles and we don't get the full impact of what we're reading because we're

01:02:16

Gentiles. We're not Jewish. And in the first century, you know how the

01:02:22

English ribbed the Irish? And here, you know, you might hear jokes about who,

01:02:29

I don't know, whoever's in vogue. He's kind of in a political correctness. You don't even say jokes like that anymore, you know.

01:02:37

Blancs, Polish, whatever, you know, you can't say that anymore. But back in the first century, they told jokes.

01:02:43

You know who they told jokes about? Shepherds. The Bible says that when

01:02:51

Jesus was speaking, the common people heard Him gladly. A lot of times He'd start off His sermons with shepherd stories.

01:02:58

He says, gather around, guys. There was this shepherd. Oh, really, Jesus? A shepherd story?

01:03:04

Can't wait to hear this. Yeah, here we go. There was one shepherd. He had 100 sheep.

01:03:10

Oh, yeah? Okay, good. Carry on. And they were all secure. Yep, great.

01:03:17

But one of them got lost. Oh, okay. Okay, go on, Jesus. What did the shepherd do?

01:03:22

You know what he did? You're going to laugh. He left the 99.

01:03:29

What? He left the 99 and he went out looking for the one sheep. It wasn't very valuable, but he left the 99.

01:03:36

Do you hear that? Who'd do that? Shepherds would do that. Shepherds are silly people.

01:03:44

Shepherds can't even testify in a court of law. Do you know that was true in the first century?

01:03:51

Neither women nor shepherds could testify in a court of law. And Jesus said, then this one shepherd, he left the 99 in search of the one, and he found the one and brought him back.

01:04:06

Oh, amazing story. And then Jesus looked them full in the face and says, God's like that. Wow, that's powerful stuff.

01:04:15

He had their attention. God will never lose any of his true sheep.

01:04:21

He'll go on the hound looking, looking, looking, searching, searching, searching.

01:04:30

Whenever you see someone searching for God, it's because God first searched for them. He found them.

01:04:37

That's one of the lost sheep. He brings them home. We don't know who they are. They're not walking around the countryside with the letter

01:04:43

E stamped on their forehead. That's why we're called upon to preach the gospel to all creation.

01:04:52

But God knows who his elect sheep are. Acts 13, 48, it says, and as many who were appointed to eternal life believed.

01:05:01

Amazing, amazing statement. All those who had the appointment made the appointment. God knew what the appointment would be and how and when are all fixed by him.

01:05:13

But God has allowed us to be part of it so that your and my evangelism can be part of God's eternal decree by which he says,

01:05:21

I'm going to save Martha Starnes on the 14th of January, and I'm going to use your testimony to reach

01:05:27

Martha. You don't know that. You're just sharing with Martha and Martha comes into the kingdom.

01:05:35

And Martha needs to know that her salvation is not because of her wise choice, but because of a choice made of her in eternity past.

01:05:45

And that he who began a good work in her will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That there's no way that she now can be lost if she's genuinely repented.

01:05:55

You know, the angels get this. How do the angels get this? The Bible says there is more joy in heaven amongst the angels over one sinner who repents.

01:06:07

The angels get it. If there's genuine repentance, they know God's been at work. And if he starts something, he'll finish.

01:06:13

Let's have the party now. Some say, we can only party when we know, when we know, when we know they've made it all the way to the end and they've not lost their salvation.

01:06:24

No, the angels know. If there's genuine repentance, it's because God has been at work and he started it and he'll finish it.

01:06:32

So let's have a party. Praise the Lord. That's what reformed worship is.

01:06:38

We go to God's word, find out what it says. We build our worship on it, centered on God.

01:06:51

Do you believe that? Mandated by God's word. And we recognize it's

01:06:58

God meeting with his people in covenant, bringing provision to us just as he said he would.

01:07:05

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you brought to the church in the 16th century.

01:07:14

And Lord, it was marvelous. You're still leading your people into all truth. And we pray,

01:07:20

Lord, that as disciples of Christ, we would be led by the same Holy Spirit to uncover your word and be formed by you.

01:07:28

That we would be people of protocol, who despite things happening in our lives that we don't understand and going through grief and going through wonderful times of joy, whatever it is, we can still bring you joyful praise.

01:07:44

We enter your presence with thanksgiving, your courts with praise.

01:07:51

Be with your people. Cause us to delight your heart. May we be those that please you, who worship you in spirit and in truth.