Lecture #2 Biblical and Reverent Worship

(6) Liberty is not License

Christian liberty in public worship in the New Testament is not a license to the flesh. It is the external forms which have fallen away. The New Testament is not concerned with external forms and attending circumstances such as prayer posture, accompaniment in singing, pews, pulpits, etc. These are a matter of liberty. They are governed by the principles of sobriety, reverence, and mutual edification in corporate worship as a body.

Scripture warns us against a false notion of Christian liberty We are free from “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” the ceremonial law of worship, Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14-17. We are to stand fast in that liberty, Galatians 5:1, but liberty is not an excuse for following our sinful flesh, Gal. 5:13-16. Christian liberty is the freedom from sin and condemnation to serve God in willing obedience from the heart, in the Spirit. Christian liberty does not mean “anything goes.” Christian liberty calls us to a walk of faith in Christ, according to the Word, Col. 2:5-7 Christian liberty calls us to worship God in harmony with Who He is, I Peter 1:15-19; John 4:23, 24.

Scriptural warnings condemning the corruption of the scriptural principles of worship therefore are many. They warn us in the light of the truth of God that corruption and all self-willed worship is sin. Old Testament warnings, many of which the New Testament applies to the New Testament church, are to be taken to heart, I Corinthians 10:1-12; II Peter 2; Jude 11. These include the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32), the sin of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10), the rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16).

The sin of Jeroboam brings many of the elements of this false worship together. I Kings 12:25-33 Formally, it involved the introduction of the golden calves and was a corruption of the truth of God and the whole foundation of the worship of God in Christ, I Kings 12:28 It included a corruption of the offices in the church by dispossessing the Levites, I Kings 12:31, a corruption of the manner of worship by, acorrupting the feasts, particularly the Day of Atonement, and a violation of commandments concerning the house of God, and the form of worship, I Kings 12:31, 32. Its internal spiritual principle was rooted in that which is pleasing to men.“...It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem,” I Kings 12:28. It was devised “of his own heart,” I Kings 12:33. It proceeded from self-interest, I Kings 12:26.

Christ Himself warns us in various ways of this same issue of the self-willed worship of men, Matt. 15:7-9; Matt. 16:6. Scripture also warns that in the last days the love of many will wax cold, and that both the doctrine of the gospel and the worship of God will be corrupted. Matt. 24:11, 12; II Thess. 2:8-12; II Tim. 3:1-9; II Peter 2, Jude

Thus, the shape of New Testament worship must be drawn from the whole of the Word of God, formally, as we are taught in the Scriptures, and spiritually, in harmony with the internal principles of true worship. Scripture lays down a basic pattern for worship. Preach the gospel, pray, sing God’s praises, from the Psalms. The apostolic practice, including worshiping on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, is binding. The spiritual principles of reverent, orderly, sober worship edify. That worship, as the body of Christ, not a collection of individuals, also shapes what is appropriate in public worship.