Lecture #2 Biblical and Reverent Worship

(7) Worship a spiritual dialogue & elements of Biblical worship

Worship in Scripture is a spiritual dialogue, in which we enter God’s presence in Christ, to have communion with Him, in the Spirit by the Word. In worship, God speaks to us by His Word. He is first, Ecc. 5:1. We come to hear His Word by the preaching of the gospel, and to be spiritually fed by it, Matt. 28:19, 20; I Peter 2:2. By the Word and by the Spirit of truth, Christ speaks to us, John 16:13; John 10:1-15; 14:26, 27. Our word and praise is the spiritual response to God, the fruit of His grace, Ps. 27:8. It is rooted in our need of God, dependence on Him as creatures, as sinners, as His people, in need, trial, trouble, and thanksgiving. We come to God expressing the confession of our sin. I John 1:9; Luke 18:13, and in the knowledge that God Himself must teach us how to worship.

The elements of the spiritual dialogue

• God speaks to us by His Word.
  • Preaching, the heart of the worship of God (See Lecture#3).
  • Other elements (following the pattern of the apostles): God’s blessing is pronounced, “Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you...” Rom. 1:7; I Cor. 1:2, 3; II Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2, Col. 1:2, I Pet. 1:2, II Pet. 1:2 God’s benediction is also pronounced and His Name upon His people. Num. 6:22-27; Rom. 16:24; I Cor. 16:23; II Cor. 13:14; Gal. 6:18; Eph. 6:24; Phil 4:23; Col. 4:18; I Peter 4:14; II Peter 3:18
  • God’s will, His moral law, is also to be declared. Ex. 20; Deut. 5; Matt. 22:37-40, as the will of God in Christ for His redeemed people, John 14:23, 24; I John 2:7, 8; I John 3:23, 24; I John 5:2, 3. Therefore it is called the law of liberty, James 1:25; 2:12.
  • The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are to be administered.
• Our speech to God is a matter of prayer and confession.
  • Prayer is the first element of our corporate worship. It belongs to the calling of the office of the ministry to lead the congregation in prayer (one of the reasons the office of deacon was instituted was to relieve the apostles with a view to this). The reference in Acts 6:4, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word,” is not first of all to private, but public prayer, along with the preaching.
  • Congregational singing is a form of mutual prayer, whether of petition or praise. It is not entertainment! In harmony with the principle of prayer, congregational singing is also determined by the Word. God gave His church a songbook, the Psalms, by which, we pray in union and edify one another with the Word of God. This calling to sing Psalms is the explicit testimony of Scripture. Psalms; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5;13.
    • The Psalms are the songbook of God in Christ, and Christ is declared and revealed in them, I Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...in psalms...”
    • The expression, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” must be understood in the light of the rest of the Word of God as the threefold division of the book of Psalms or Psalter.
    • “Psalms” means the Psalms in general
    • “Hymns” refers to the psalms of thanksgiving such as Jesus sang before going to Gethsemane, Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26.
    • “Spiritual songs” are the songs of ascents or degrees, Psalms 120-134. They are spiritual, i.e., inspired by the Holy Spirit for singing, not spiritual as opposed to secular.
    • In calling us to sing Psalms, the Word of God determines the content, and with it, specifically the doctrinal content of congregational singing. The manner of setting or musical form, other than that it fit the content, is not specified. Such singing has in view, “making melody in your heart to the Lord,” Eph. 5:19. It is a spiritual activity. Note too that it is the body, one heart (singular), not hearts (plural) that sings, and yet it is your (plural) heart that is to make melody.
    • To introduce another songbook, when God has given us one is at the least an act of presumption with no Scriptural foundation. Liberty in Christ does not consist of ignoring the plain language of the word to invent our own.
  • Confession of our faith is also rooted in the nature and reality of the church. The church is “the pillar and ground of the truth,” I Tim. 3:15. The calling to confess our faith is not merely a personal calling of the believer, I Peter 3:15, but is, in harmony with the calling of the church as a body, to let its light shine, Matt. 5:13-16. The church, not the individual, is a “city set on a hill.” Matt. 5:14 The church also has the calling to “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints,” Jude 3. This is the corporate calling of the church, cf. Acts 15. The calling to personal confession is not separated from the “one body” which has “one Lord, one faith,” Eph. 4:3, 4. While personal confession of faith in the church is called for, it is not set forth in Scripture as an extended affair, focusing on the individual Much less is it a substitute for preaching. It is the witness of the gospel, preached, which Scripture requires, Matt. 24:14. The church witnesses to her unity with the church of all ages in the formal statement of the Christian confession of faith and doctrine as this developed in history by contending for the faith, under the Spirit of truth.Eph. 4:3, 4; John 14:26; John 16:13; II Thess. 3:6; I Tim. 1:18, 19; II Tim. 2:2; Titus 1:9; II Peter 1:1-4; II John 4, 7-11; Jude 3

This pattern of the dialogue of worship and its elements is and has been the scriptural pattern of worship since the time of the Reformation, and was found, with some variation, in virtually all Protestant churches until recent times. The shape of New Testament worship is simply God-centered and spiritually minded.

While there are elements, as we have seen, which are, in the light of the principle of Christian worship, matters of liberty, these are few and belong to attending circumstances which accompany worship, not to acts of worship in themselves, nor to a corruption of the principles of worship. These include posture in prayer or worship, (whether we sit or stand), musical accompaniment, church buildings and their architecture, special day services in addition to the Lord’s Day, whether to commemorate some aspect of Jesus’ life or national days of thanksgiving or prayer, and the use of forms in liturgy or prayer, including the use of the Lord’s Prayer.

But there are also matters which have been introduced into public worship which depart from or violate these principles and corrupt the worship of God. To list all of these would be tedious. Rather, we should note certain things which Scripture says about what underlies these matters. Worship is the service of God, not the pleasing of men or self-aggrandizement. Jesus condemns the pretense of the Pharisees in prayer, for their desire to be seen of men, Matt. 6:5, Matt. 23:5, 6,14. In worship we do not give anything to God which is not His already (as if God needed our worship). This was the error of the Jews who thought that in bringing their sacrifices they were doing God a favor or supplying something He lacked, Psalm 50

The reintroduction of external forms and rituals as a substitute for the internal principles of worship (for preaching and prayer) is to draw near to God while our heart is far from Him, Matt. 15:7-9. It is also to turn again to the ceremonial law repackaged. Scripture condemns imitations of pagan worship repackaged as the worship of God. This underlay the sin of Jeroboam. We are called to spiritual separation from the world. The temple of Christ and of the devil have nothing spiritually in common. II Cor. 6:14-18. Repackaging the music and entertainment of the world under the guise of christianizing it and introducing it into public worship partakes of the lie of sin. Man-centered, it serves the lusts of the flesh. We must apply Jesus’ words regarding prayer, and by implication congregational singing. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Matt. 6:7. This in itself, aside from the matter of singing only Psalms, condemns much that passes for Christian singing in worship.