Okay. Well, good morning to you all. It's good to see you all here this morning. And we are as Walter made mention we are considering what is known as the regulative principle of worship this morning, and you said, well, you might say to yourself, well, we were talking about local church unity and the love of the brethren, and this is actually a continuation of the subject of local church unity. We began that back on February 9, and now we have been through that section in 1 John, about the love of the brethren. We're going to consider the strategic place of the regulative principle of worship in local church unity. And if you're wondering what that is, what is the regulative principle of worship, just hold on, be patient, and I'll seek to make it crystal clear. Local church unity is a complex thing. It's not a simple thing. We know that we need to love the brethren in order for there to be real local church unity. It's basic and important. And since it is so basic, we might assume that once we have learned about the love of the brethren and grown to some extent in the love of the brethren that we're almost done. But biblical love of the brethren as important as it is there are other important elements in local church unity that are not in place just because we love one another with a biblical love. I believe that if we once we do catch up as it were on the biblical love of the brethren there will be a great deal of unity but and just as in our more mundane relationships, there is a lot to it. Think about the love of husbands and wives. When a man says, I do, when a woman says, I do, they have the basics of love, but then what happens? For those of you who are not married and might anticipate marriage at some time in the future, there are a lot of little things. One man called marriage a multi-dimensional thing. And there are many things that people who love each other do that are invisible to others. And there are many things that they do which seem commonplace. But again, an emotional attachment to one another is not the end of the matter in marriage, and it is not the end of the matter in church life. Where true biblical love rules in the heart, there is a certain legitimate diversity to our lives and a large measure of conformity. And this reality in the local church is especially relevant in the matter of our worship. Our worship has to be practiced in the context where there will be a legitimate diversity among brethren, but also a Christ-centered conformity. I'm not going to take a deep dive into the diversity that marks the people of God and this principle of unity, but I want to consider the vital principle of unity, which marks worship expressed in Romans chapter 15. So let's turn there. That's the first passage we're going to look at, which deals with this subject of worship and local church unity. I toyed around with the idea of pushing Romans 15. Thank you for asking. I want everybody to be, as it were, on the same page. So I toyed with pushing this passage later in my lesson, but it's good that we get it right here because we're going to see the relationship between local church unity and how we worship God and our unity in worshiping God. So let's read, I'll read out loud. You read as I, you read as I read, but not out loud. So Romans 15, verses five and six say this. Now, may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord, you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there you have unity of purpose and practice and you have worship, and the two things belong together. Professor John Murray talks about these two verses this way. He writes, these verses are not directly in the form of a prayer addressed to God. They are in the form of a wish addressed to men that God would accomplish in them the implied exhortation. In an eloquent way, of doing two things at the same time, an exhortation to men and a prayer to God. Without the enabling grace of God's exhortation, exhortation will not bear fruit. Hence this combination. No form of exhortation is more effective in address to men than this, that we are asking God to accomplish something for us, and we are anticipating that our lives are going to be shaped by that desire by the apostle Paul. I hope that you can see it, but let me draw it out just a little bit. In Romans 15, 5 and 6, we have three elements. There are three elements to what Paul says. He talks about what God provides. God provides perseverance and encouragement. The first thing, perseverance, keeps us on track in our duties. That's what perseverance is. The persevering believer doesn't wander off in some direction, but it keeps him on track in his responsibilities. And then there is encouragement. The second, encouragement, provides positive motivation. So God gives us two things. perseverance and encouragement, and they go hand in hand in accomplishing our responsibilities in unity and worship. Second thing that Paul has in these verses is the grace we need for which Paul prays. Paul is praying for a particular grace to be manifested in us. He prays for conformity of mind among us, so that we will think the same way about certain activities. And it's worship in particular. He's driving at unity among us. And it's not a unity in every single thing that we do. For example. We don't all like the same foods. We don't eat the same things. Some people like raw fish. They like to eat raw fish. I do not, but that's okay. Paul is not talking about what we eat. He says in this same letter, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. I remember one man, I think it was Pastor Donnelly at one of the pastor's conference was saying that there's a new legalism among Christians and in the world, and it's what you eat or don't eat. You have to eat. The things that the experts say you should eat. But, again, that's not what Paul's talking about here. It's not every single thing. Paul has a particular activity in mind that he wants us, as the people of God, to engage in with the same mind. And there's the what we should do and how we should do it. So he uses two phrases, the point in this direction, that we would be of the same mind with one another. In Paul's prayer, he wants us to be thinking the same way and expressing the same faith. Right? And you'll remember how Paul expresses that in Ephesians 4 in our earliest foray into local church unity. He says there is one body. the brethren who are members of the one body. There's one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. And that's the grace that we need to have a unified mind. So in our passage, we have what God provides, perseverance and encouragement, and the grace that we need. And then there's the third thing, the use of our faculties in the worship of God, the use of our faculties. Paul uses the word voice, right? So that, let me get back to my verse here, And 15, six, so that with one accord, you may, with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that Paul uses actually, the word there is mouth, that with one mouth. And the mouth is what most of us use in worship. Okay, we sing the hymns, we pray prayers, we say, hopefully, at points, amen to something that particularly ministers to our souls, right? We all use our mouth in the worship of God. But this is a figure of speech, actually, what Paul's doing. saying with one mouth, it's a synecdoche, that's a tricky word to say, synecdoche. A synecdoche is a part expressed for the whole. For example, we used to have a song, thanks be to God, the board is spread. Thanks be to God who gives us bread. Well, the board is the table, and what's served on it is the bread. But it's not just bread, it's the food, it's the meal. So synecdoche takes apart for the whole. When Paul says, with one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father, he's talking about, he's using one part of worship for the whole of worship. It's not just that when we open our mouths, we say the same thing. Now, I thought I had turned this off. So let me, let me make sure that it's not gonna disturb us. There we go. So, when Paul talks about the use of our mouth, our voice in worship, again, he has in mind the whole of worship, all of worship. Paul expresses the standard that unites us. We have considered how in Romans 15, five and six, God provides for us, grace for us. He gives us the grace that we need. He tells us about the use of our faculties in worship. That's part of the way we are united. And he expresses the standard that unites us. Our worship is united. And we bring the same worship of God according to a standard. And let me ask, what's the standard according to Romans 15, five and six? A little phrase in there. If you have a recipe, and you're going to make a particular dish, let's stand to this Christ. And what's the phrase that indicates that for us, Brother Bill? Towards one another according to Christ Jesus. Okay. Yeah, that's it. That's according to Christ Jesus. You see, Christ's teaching, Christ's example, It's the standard we aim at in our worship that will give us a united worship. There is a, I don't know if I have said much about this, there is a philosophy about how to build a church. how churches grow. They say, well, you go out to your target audience, you go to your population, and you ask people, what would you like to see in church? What would bring you to church? And somebody might say, well, you know, if we had a barista when you walk in the door and you could order your favorite coffee, that would Walter's already in favor. Well, you see, they think that the way we grow is by finding what people want and fulfilling that need. So according to the standard is what people like. That's not what Paul calls us to. He says, we are to think of worship in relation to the lordship of Jesus Christ. So it's what Jesus taught and what Jesus did and how he instructed his apostles. Because again, a large measure of what we receive in the instructions we have for worship are given to us by the apostles who are authorized by Jesus Christ to tell us how we do worship. So it's not what's popular, it's not what people will come into the church for, it's what the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to do. So, Romans 15, five and six is a valuable text that points us in the right direction for local church unity in worship. Now, in the history, of the church, there have been two principles of worship, two principles of worship. And I'm thinking especially about the period of the Reformation when the church made radical changes. Prior to the Reformation, 1531, we'll put a date on it, the Roman Catholic Church, took some principles of the Bible, they took Old Testament principles, and they conformed worship to those things. But the Reformed churches did not do that, and the Anglican churches did not do that. They each had a principle. Anybody know what those two principles, well, one you should already know, And there's another one. Not general, though it's close to that. The normative principle of worship. That was what the Anglicans did and the Lutherans. The Lutheran said, anything which is not forbidden in scripture is allowable. We can do in worship whatever God says do not do. And of course, right away, that rules out idols, right? Because God says in the second commandment not to worship using idols. So that's one thing. The normative principle would, at least in theory, rule out idols. Many churches, many churches today don't do that. They have various idols, which they have to assist in worship as a means and aid to worship. Well, the regulative principle of worship that, so there's the normative principle, which we could call the general principle, and the regulative principle of worship, And I want you to understand the difference between them, because when we turn to the scriptures, we need to understand, well, what does the Bible teach regarding worship? Whatever the Bible teaches according to Jesus Christ is what we as a church should be united in doing. So we're gonna ask the question, what does the Bible teach? And are we doing that? Are we doing it? Are we doing all of it? Are we leaving anything out which ought not to be left out? That's why we're looking at the regulative principle, because we want to be united. But we don't want to just be united in our common view. We want to be united by what the Lord Jesus Christ teaches. So my job is to present to you the biblical data and show how it applies to our worship. The goal is that we'll understand how we are to worship and continue to worship God according to his word. And I'll say this because I might make you nervous by the way I present these things. I don't think we have to make big changes in our worship, but we need to look at the foundations of worship and ask ourselves, okay, is that what we're doing? Are we doing the right thing? And are we doing it for the right reasons? One man used to say that sometimes in your church, you need to, as it were, take a backhoe and lay bare the foundation and look at the foundation. Everything rests on the foundation. We want to make sure that our foundation is sound. Okay, so there is one passage which the Reformed churches, the Calvinistic churches, insisted on during the period of the Reformation. It's one of the 10 commandments which embodied, in the opinion of the Reformed, embodied the regulative principle of worship. And that ought to be a pretty big hint What commandment tells us how God wants us to worship? Hint, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5. Okay, which of those 10 commandments tells us how we ought to worship? Okay, well it helped Mark evidently. Well yes, the first commandment would certainly do that. You shall have no other gods before me. I'm the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. That rules out a lot of things. Beth. The fourth commandment is very important in our practice of worship. Remember the Sabbath day? To keep it holy, God tells us to remember. Why? Because it is often forgotten. It is often neglected. So God says, okay, when you're going to worship me, you must do so on the day that I have appointed for worship. Okay? We still haven't gotten to the commandment I was hoping to hit. Okay, turn to Exodus chapter 20. We're gonna get there, and I don't mind the fact that we haven't picked it out right away, because that gives us opportunity, again, to say, okay, why didn't we get it? Maybe it is too cryptic. Let's start with verse four. This is the second commandment. And the second commandment is this, in verse four, of Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5.8 is the parallel. You shall not make for yourself an idol of any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. God says, I don't want you to worship this way because I'm a jealous God. Furthermore, he says, I discern in idolatry the wrong motivation. Why are people idolaters? Why do people create idols and worship them? God has two emotionally charged words here in the second commandment. Why do people worship God with idols? There's a four-letter word. In fact, there are two four-letter words. One four-letter word says why some worship in idols. And the other four-letter word states why some people don't worship using idols. Anybody know what I'm talking about? They hate God. Pardon me? They hate God. Thank you. Very good, Rocky. That's right. Idolatry. And you would never think this. You'd say, well, they think that idols are a help to them. And they think that it's good to have an image, to have something visible. God's invisible. We can't see him. So we're going to make an image that represents God through which means we are going to worship God. But God says, that's hatred. You see that? I taught this in my Bible doctrines class, my ethics class. took time to go through the regulative principle in worship. Believe it or not, in my Bible doctrines class, I got an ovation for stating this. People who worship God with idols hate him. And people who refuse to worship God with idols love him. And God is jealous. God has an emotion. It's not, it's jealous. So, what God does in the second commandment is he says, I'm in charge of worship. I tell you how you must not worship and why you should worship without idols. Now, during the period of the Reformation, oh, I should say one other thing before I proceed on to the Reformation. God actually has a section here, and I'm not gonna weary you with making you think too hard at this point, but God says why he doesn't want idols in his worship. Look at Deuteronomy chapter four and verse 12. On the one hand, he says, It's a matter of your devotion to God, whether you love God or whether you hate God. It's quite striking for God to put it so bluntly, but it is faithful. In Deuteronomy chapter four and verse 12, he speaks specifically to the giving of the commandments, and he tells them what happened the day on Sinai when I gave you the commandments, ought to show you why you shouldn't worship God with idols. The Lord spoke to you, verse 12, from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form, only a voice. God says the reason why you don't worship God with idols is because at that high watermark of revelation, When God spoke on Sinai and gave the commandments, you saw no form. Visible representations of God are inadequate. Men make idols that are actually an insult to God, because that doesn't represent God in His livingness. Now, I'm not going to take the time, but if you're taking notes, you might want to write down Isaiah 40.18 and following. and Psalm 115, verses 4 to 8. These are passages in which God says why idols are inappropriate for the public worship of God. Now, I have preached in churches where there are idols. There was one church that I went to, and I was their pastor, and they had a life-size picture of Jesus Christ right behind the pulpit. That qualifies as an idol. Number of churches I've preached at, where they have big wooden crosses. And one woman said, well, I like it. I said, well, if you can't worship without it, guess what you've got? You've got an idol. So when I come into this place, my heart is glad because we have no idols. We have no representations to assist us in worship. What assists us in worship? The word of God, right? We unite our voices. We sing hymns which are fitting for the worship of God, but our hearts are not directed to some other visible representation because God has said in the second commandment not to do it. Now, let me get to where I wanted to get in the history of reformed worship. When I taught Bible doctrines and ethics at Trinity Christian School, I made a point that the reformed confessions are very much united in many respects, not in every respect, but many. Particularly in this point, you have four major reformed confessions. Now I have a book of reformed confessions from the 16th and 17th century and I've started reading through it. One of my goals is to read through all of the reformed confessions between 1500 and 1700. That's a lot of them. But there are four big ones. You have the Baptist Catechism. You'll see my well worn copy of the Baptist Catechism. Then there is the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Westminster Larger Catechism. And then you have the Heidelberg Catechism, which the free reformed use. Okay, those are the four major reform confessions of the period. All of them talk about the regulative principle in their exposition of the, uh, Deuteronomy and Exodus passages, the 10 commandments. Let me read from the Baptist catechism. So, uh, They say, question 52, what is the second commandment? I won't read that because you already know it. But what is required in the second commandment? The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed in his word. So, our responsibility to God in the second commandment is to receive what God says ought to be part of public worship, keep it pure, keep it all, and make sure it's what God has appointed in his word. And now when they come to what is forbidden in the second commandment, the second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images or by any other way, not appointed in his word. Now, if you think about the second commandment, you meditate upon it a while. I think, I think you see that this is, this is really very faithful. God doesn't want us to worship with idols. God wants us to worship as he appoints in his word. So, the regulative principle. It regulates how we worship. You might put it in more contemporary English this way, the regular principle determines what we may do in worship and what we may not do in worship. Worship is not a free for all. Worship is not, it ought to be every person's favorite thing, every Christian's favorite thing. But it doesn't mean that we just do what we like. Now I have the privilege of picking hymns. And you might say, well, that's very nice. Brother Frank, we don't know some of the hymns that you pick. I hope that we'll become more familiar with some of those hymns. But I don't pick them because they're my favorite hymns. We haven't sung some of my favorite hymns here yet. And I've been here for now going on three months. And really, it's not important that we sing my favorite hymns. What is important is we sing hymns which direct us in worship to God, which will please God. We're not here to please Frank Diwana. And Frank Diwana is not here to please, if I can put it this way, I'm not trying to be cantankerous, I'm not here to please you. I have a responsibility to God, to direct worship according to God's will. We're gonna get to where you get that in the Bible. But first and foremost, remember you get that from the second commandment, because God is saying that he's in charge of worship. Yes, in the first commandment, then the fourth commandment, and in one sense, all the commandments have an impact on worship. But the second commandment historically has been the place, the go-to place for the regulative principle of worship. I'm gonna give a little church history. I don't do that as often as I would like. When I was learning history in public school, I was not fond of it. And I blame it on my teachers because they didn't present it enthusiastically. They didn't make it interesting. And church history is inherently interesting. So where did this, where did this, uh, regulative principle come from? Remember prior to 1531 when on October 31st, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the castle at Wittenberg. And then somebody said, well, that was the original, uh, uh, blogosphere. It was a blog in which Martin Luther said, these are the issues we need to talk about. That's the 95 theses. They didn't have the internet, but they had the castle door where you posted notices like this. Well, from Martin Luther, this idea began to spread in reform circles. I am indebted to a man named Glenn Clary, a living OPC minister who has written about this, and he asserted that during the Reformation, this principle of, the regulative principle of worship was first taught by a Baptist, particularly The early Baptists of Zurich, Switzerland. In Zurich was a man named, why am I not remembering his name? He was the head of, the Baptists, I'm sorry, the Reformed people in Zurich, Switzerland. Ulrich Zwingli finally came. Ulrich Zwingli was the priest who was in charge of the churches in Switzerland. And there were Baptists who were adherents to Zwingli's movement in Zurich, one by the name of Conrad Grebel. He expressed the principle of the regular principle of worship in a letter he wrote in 1524, essentially stating, that anything not explicitly taught in scripture should be forbidden in worship practices. This is what he wrote. That which is not taught by clear instruction we regard as forbidden. Just as if it stood written thou shalt not do this. That was the regular principle in a nutshell. And where did Conrad Grebel get this idea? He got this from the writings of a church father, Tertullian. in the year 205. So the regulative principle of worship actually goes all the way back to 205. And as we'll see, it comes from the Bible. It doesn't come from Grebel or Tertullian. It comes ultimately from the Bible. But Grebel got this from the writings of Tertullian. He had a book called De Corona of the Crown published in 1521. Tertullian wrote about a certain soldier. who refused to wear the laurel crown on the accession of the emperor Severus. So when Severus was crowned king in the Roman Empire, he wore a crown and all of his soldiers had to wear a crown. And this soldier decided that he should not wear a crown. And that led to the soldier's imprisonment. Now some Christians argued that the soldier was making a big deal out of nothing, a mere matter of dress. After all, they reasoned, we are not forbidden in scripture from wearing a crown. Tertullian, on the other hand, wrote De Corona in defense of the soldier's actions of refusing to wear a crown. This is what Tertullian wrote. This is in English and of course Tertullian wrote probably in Latin. He wrote this, to be sure it is very easy to ask where in scripture are we forbidden to wear a crown? But can you show me a text that says that we should be crowned? If people try to say that we may be crowned because scripture does not forbid it, then they leave themselves open to the retort that we may not be crowned because scripture does not prescribe it. But whatever is not forbidden without question, I'm sorry, whatever is not forbidden is without question allowed. That's the normative principle of worship. But he said, rather do I say, whatever is not specifically permitted is forbidden. That's the regulative principle. Tertullian was the first man to enunciate it in writing among the church fathers, and Conrad Grebel reiterated that in his letter, which then became the regulative principle of worship. So during the Reformation, Read the quote again. Sure. It sounds like he's supporting both the normative and regulative. No, he's expressing the normative principle with the purpose of establishing the regulative principle. So he says, he's quoting the people. Whatever is not forbidden is without question allowed. So in other words, during public worship, I'll be really ridiculous and foolish. I won't say with the Apostle Paul you compelled me, because you didn't. I like juggling. I like juggling a lot. Imagine that I take some balls up here in worship, and after the pastoral prayer, I start juggling. It's a gift. Our gifts are supposed to be used in the worship of God. It's not forbidden. It doesn't say anywhere in the Bible, thou shalt not juggle and worship. Okay? Whatever is not forbidden, without question allowed, that's the normative principle. But rather do I say, Tertullian says, whatever is not specifically permitted is forbidden. See, that's Tertullian, that's Grebel, and that's, again, all of the Reformed took this position about public worship. Now, the two groups that are generally credited with teaching the normative principle are the Anglicans and the Lutherans. They held to the normative principle of worship. But it's very interesting, I have a little book by Martin Luther called Table Talk. He used to have students who wanted to become ministers eating at his dinner table, and they would pepper him with questions, and they would write down Martin Luther's answers, and that was table talk. In table talk, this is what Martin Luther wrote. It's actually number 171 in the book. All manner of religion where people serve God without his word and command is simply idolatry. And the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is. For it leads people away from the faith of Christ and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness. Even Martin Luther sang, he's espousing the regulative principle of worship. But the Lutherans generally did not follow him. And even Martin Luther was inconsistent. But at least he gave voice to the regulative principle of worship. Okay. But we don't, we don't believe in the regulative principle of worship simply because in church history you had some very astute leaders who espoused the regulative principle of worship. We espoused the regulative principle of worship because that's what the Bible teaches. Now I'm really pressed to it. because we won't get to look at all of the passages, but let me, I'm gonna give them to you, and you can look them up next week. Brother Edie is teaching, so we're gonna have to wait another week before we get back to all these passages, because I want us to really look at them and examine them carefully. Let's look at, here they are, I'll list them. John 4, 23 to 24, very important passage. Hebrews 12, 28 and 29, 1 Peter 2, 4 and 5, Leviticus 1, 3 and 4, and Leviticus 7, 18. We're going to look at every one of these passages. And I hope that by the time we're done, you'll see why I'm teaching about the regular principle of worship. Let's go to John 4. Wonderful passage about the Lord Jesus Christ pursuing a sinner in need of his sake and grace. He meets a woman of Samaria, and here's an evangelistic tip for you from the Lord Jesus Christ. He starts out asking her to do something for him. Give me water to drink. And that starts the whole conversation from that point. But in the course of things, he tells the woman, go call your husband and come here. And the woman says, okay, I have no husband. Jesus says in verse 17, you have correctly said you have no husband, et cetera. And the woman says, sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Now, verse 20, she starts asking this question about the proper place of worship. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. That's our tradition. That's the way we kick it. And your people say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. And here we go, verse 23, but an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers, people who do it right, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now, for such people, the father seeks to be his worshipers. You see, Jesus is saying there's a kind of people that God wants to see in churches worshiping him. They're people who worship in spirit, and you can take that for the human spirit. They're not just in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time, but they do it with their heart. They do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's both God's enabling and the people engaging with their heart. They worship in spirit and they worship in truth. What's truth? Well, truth is what God determines ought to be done. Truth is not a consensus. It's not a democracy. We don't all say, well, we think this is the way it's done. No, God has a way in which he wishes to be worshiped and he's looking for worshipers. They worship the way he wants to be worshiped. I like the illustration of my breakfast because June knows exactly how I like my eggs cooked. Right? And if she gives me runny eggs, she knows the game is over. Right? What's God want? That's the regular principle. We're asking, what does God want? He doesn't want our favorites. He wants his favorites. He wants people who worship him in spirit and in truth. And again, he repeats it for emphasis in verse 24, God is spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Now, dear brethren, that is the regular principle of worship. that God has the right. He does it in the second commandment, and he does it here through Jesus Christ. Tells him, God has a specific worship he wants. Bring something else, God doesn't want it. I didn't list Isaiah 1. I will turn there, because my time is just about gone. So we'll use it this way. because going to Hebrews 12 and 1 Peter 2, Leviticus is just gonna take too much time. Isaiah chapter one, Isaiah is taking God's part and reproving the worship that is not in spirit and in truth. Start in verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. He's really insulting the Jews here because he's calling them the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Okay, but he's got their attention. Verse 11. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I have had enough. of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats when you come to appear before me. Who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Who's telling you that this is how you ought to worship? He says it's not. Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure. Here's the key. Iniquity and the solemn assembly. You're coming with your sins, you're not repenting of your sins, you're not forsaking your sins, and therefore your worship is vitiated, is worthless. I'm not asking you to go out and sin and then come before me, pretending to worship, using the very ordinances that I have given you, but you're not doing it right. You're not coming in spirit and in truth. You're insulting me, God says. Don't want it. Don't want it. That's the regulative principle of worship. That's why Nadab and Abihu were consumed because they offered strange fire, which the Lord had not commanded. Well, I have to stop. We're out of time. But in two weeks, we're going to come back and we're going to look at these other passages. And you can look at them at your leisure. I'll give you a hint for you. since I don't always make things easy, the word acceptable. In Hebrews 12, 1 Peter 2, the word acceptable. That's a word for the regulative principle of worship. Okay, well, let's pray and ask God to give us what we need, his Holy Spirit and his word. Our father, how thankful we are that you don't leave us to ourselves. You don't let us wander off. You're the good shepherd. And you call your sheep. Your sheep hear your voice and they follow you. And your sheep will never perish because no one will snatch us out of your hand and out of your father's hand. So Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teach us, guide us, help us. We do long to worship you with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our strength. So hear our prayer and answer us in your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.