Good afternoon. It's good to see you. I'm scared of that. I just thought I'd say that. It's a joy to go first, because I can honestly say it just gets better from here. OK? So that's a little bit of comfort for us all, I suppose, as we begin. I know we prayed, but it would do me a lot of good if I pray again. So would you do that? Oh God, you are good. You are good in a way that we simply, at this point in our existence, cannot comprehend. Your goodness is perfect, is full, is infinite. Your goodness is beautiful. Your goodness is awesome. Your goodness is humbling. Your goodness is comforting. So, Father, we come, God, confessing our full trust and hope in that goodness that You have displayed in us through Jesus Christ. Oh, God, what a treasure Jesus is, and we do pray that today as we come to Him, as we come, God, in His name, as we come, God, before You, that You would remind us of what an amazing kindness it is that you have mediated your goodness to us through him. You have truly, God, brought us near you. You have given us bold entrance into the throne of grace. You have given us access in which we now stand in that grace. You have given us, God, your smile, your acceptance of us in Christ Jesus. So, God, we pray that in these moments you would help us As we come to Your Word, as we come to consider this subject of worship, God, as we are in the initial hours of this conference that we do pray, it would be a great encouragement to our souls. A great glory to Your name. And God, a rich blessing to our churches. God, we ask that You'd help us in this hour for Your namesake. In Christ's name, Amen. Recently, I came across the following announcement inviting the surrounding community to attend a worship service. It read these words, due to the extended absence of our pastor, Mo Stoneman, Our lead worship pastor, Aaron Goldsmith, will be leading this weekend's services at the request of the congregation. He'll be starting his most sought-after series, God as you've always wanted him to be. Your children will love the kids' worship where they will sit down for snacks and get up to play over and over and over again. They will want to come back again and again. In fact, they may not want to leave Our worship times are never boring. You're sure to find the messages relevant. After all, we're talking about what you're talking about. Our services will reach you right where you are. You won't even have to change a thing. You'll never have to pay for a seat. You can keep your money and spend it on whatever you want to. Our worship times are listed below. We'll be meeting right at the foot of Mount Sinai. You'll find us by the Golden Calf. Okay. In all honesty, I did not read that in a local newspaper. And no, it's not about a real church. Or is it? Though I tell the story somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the reality behind the made-up story, I believe, is all too true and lacking in humor altogether. In truth, while Moses, the leader of the people of God, was up on a mountain meeting with God, the people who were prone to impatience got Aaron, who was apparently prone to leadership by survey, to make them a visible representation of God that they could worship and have lead them since apparently Moses was never coming back. The Apostle Paul, making use of this story to encourage the Corinthian church to be faithful, states in no uncertain terms that this act by the people being led by Aaron was nothing short of a treasonous act toward the God of heaven. In doing this deed, the people gave themselves to the worship of idolatry. In doing this deed, God tells Moses on the mountain that the people had turned out of the way out of the way that he had clearly commanded them just days before. Whatever the people's intention in having Aaron make a golden calf, either to simply have a physical representation of the true God or maybe make another God that they could have in addition to the true one. They are clearly in violation of God's words that He had spoken to them in Exodus chapter 20 when He said these words, You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God will not have his people's affection for him being drawn away to anything other than himself. This perilous stealing of our affections is at the heart of all idolatry. Martin Luther noted in his larger catechism, whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your God. Trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and idol. J.A. Mortier's article in the Illustrated Bible Dictionary adds that, quote, the idol is whatever claims the loyalty that belongs to God alone. Calvin says, every visible shape of deity which man devises is diametrically opposed to the divine nature, and therefore, that the moment idols appear, true religion is corrupted and adulterated. Thus, idolatry corrupts and adulterates the true and the pure worship of God. Men may, and they often do, Find an idol much more appealing to their fallen sense of reason than the true God of heaven and earth. But this is due to their folly. Not to their wisdom. We must understand that man is at heart of being that was designed for worship. He worships, in fact, all the time. And this is not to his natural credit in the way, shape or form. This natural design of being a worshiper was put there by the designer God himself. The scripture states that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men, that he has made man in his own image, that he has given man a conscience, that his law is written on the heart of every man, woman, boy and girl. And he is designed with the capacity. And a longing. to know God. The problem here is that though man is a being designed by God for worship, man is, as the hymn writer puts it, due to the fall, false and full of sin. And therefore, this man who is a being designed for worship is by nature now. An idolater. That's where he goes. He's prone to idolatry. The Apostle Paul said it this way in the text that you're probably very familiar with in Romans chapter one. Verse 18 says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they, men, are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. And thus, due to the refusal of men to confess as truth what the Word of God says they clearly know, they have been given over by Almighty God to a reprobate mind. And the result now is a world that is filled with perversions of worship of every kind all over the globe. The Apostle Paul goes on to say in Romans 1 verse 22, claiming to be wise, men become fools and they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Now, this would be bad enough. If it were just the pagans who did this. But sadly, this is not the case, believers, too. having hearts still filled with sin, minds that have not been so fully renewed by the truth of God as we would like, and affections that are all too easily drawn after temporal pleasures in the surrounding world. They're prone to wander from the path of true God-centered worship. Don't you feel it? Don't you feel it in your own heart? Don't you know it's true when you're all alone and you don't have your tie on And you look great for a conference and you're preaching a sermon. Don't you know it's true? Worship that would be characterized as true worship is rare indeed. In fact, it is so rare that the following words by A.W. Tozer that some of you may have read the beloved pastor from the early 20th century, his words seem almost prophetic. Tozer wrote the following regarding the state of worship in the church of his day. Just listen to it. I wonder if there was ever a time when the true spiritual worship, when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb to great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely and its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the program. This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us. Worship is the missing jewel in evangelical Christianity. What a what a word. Recalling the warning given by Moses to the people of Israel before entering the promised land, Paul says this in Deuteronomy 12, When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations that you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? that I may also do the same. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods. They even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. And everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take away from it." He was warning them before they went into the land. Before they went in and dismissed all the people, that there's a propensity in your own sinful, fallen, wicked heart that's going to be drawn after the same things that they're drawn after. Be careful not to worship the Lord your God the way they worship their gods. Our hearts, your hearts, Your heart as a pastor, your heart as a pastor's wife, your heart as a layman or a laywoman, your heart as a young person. Your heart is going to be taken captive by whatever you put your eyes on and fix there. Either the ways of the world or the word of our God. Whichever captivates your attention, that's where you're going to go. G.K. Beal recently wrote a book that I would recommend to you. It's called We Become What We Worship. Perhaps some of you have read this. I read it about a month or two ago. It blew me away. G.K. Beal It's a subject, it's a work on idolatry, and he says this. All humans have been created to be reflecting beings. They will reflect whatever they are ultimately committed to, whether the true God or some other object in the created order. We resemble, he writes, what we revere. Either for ruin. Or for restoration to that We resemble what we revere, either for ruin or for restoration. Thus, to guard the heart against idolatry, we must hear from God again. We must hear anew and afresh on this matter of true God honoring soul satisfying worship. We must return to that way which the children of Israel were so quick to turn out of. And I would propose to you today that we must return to the base of Mount Sinai. No, not on the day of the idolatrous feast. That's not when you would want to be there when the Levites took up swords. And began to slay their brothers. But rather, we should return to that mountain on the day that in the spirit of reverence and awe, the people assemble themselves to hear from God the 10 words of worship that provide wisdom for approaching God for every generation that bears the name, the people of God. Thus, we must hear from God on the matter of true worship, we need to hear afresh what God commanded the people now. I already know we have a problem. Before we turn our attention to these 10 words, somebody is out there saying, I can hear it. You think you're being quiet, but you're being very, very loud. I hear it. The Ten Commandments? Isn't that a little old? Wasn't that a whole other people? It would take us back to the law. I told you we shouldn't come to this founders conference. I am going back home. Back to Egypt. Well, before you pack your bags and go back there. Before you think maybe I just should have turned to some New Testament text because obviously this one's not called the Old Testament for nothing. Let me beg your patience for just a little bit. You've come this far. OK. But what. We would reply. Is the truth that God requires of man. We would contend that the same righteous worship in substance that God required of man under the old covenant, He requires of him now under the new. In fact, the same righteous laws in substance put forth to the children of Israel under that Mosaic economy, in that Decalogue, those ten words were in fact written upon the heart of man from the time he was created in the image of God, and they are in substance the same righteous laws rewritten now on the heart of man in the New Covenant as he is now being formed and shaped into the image of Christ. God's righteousness is God's righteousness is God's righteousness. His law is his law is his law. He does not change or shift or have any shadow of turning. He doesn't stutter or take back his word. But this is the consistent testimony of the reformed tradition. And in full keeping with the Word of God, we should not be in doubt. But just in case you are, I want you to hear some testimony from our Reformation heritage. What is it that God requires of man? The law of nature, the law written on the heart, the Decalogue, the ten words is established for all time as God's moral, unchanging law. Recall from chapter 19, if you have read the 1689, the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, it makes this statement in section two, the same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall. The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments. This law is commonly called moral. The objection is often made, as has previously been asserted, that the framers of the 1689, from which the preceding words were taken, or those framers of the Westminster Confession, have not been faithful to the Reformed tradition. Some claim, in fact, they've hijacked the Reformed tradition and they have changed it. To see if the charge is just, we need to go back to the reformers themselves and those who write of them. What did the reformers actually teach? The following is a sampling of their teaching on the natural law. I want you to hear first from Calvin, who wrote the following out of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. It's not a place to quote Calvin, a thing on Calvin and the SBC, is it? OK, all right, it's good because I got a lot of stuff by him. So we got to do something with it. It is a fact, Calvin says, that the law of God, which we call the moral law, is nothing less than a testimony of the natural law and of that conscience which God has engraved upon the minds of men. Earlier in the Institutes, Calvin makes clear that the moral law is the law of God that we find in the Decalogue, or the Ten Words. He says in Book 4, Chapter 20, Paragraph 15, the moral law then, to begin with it, being contained under two heads. The one of which simply enjoins us to worship God with pure faith and piety, the other to embrace men with sincere affection, is the true and eternal rule of righteousness prescribed to the men of all nations and of all times who would frame their life agreeably to the will of God. For this eternal and immutable will is that we are all to worship Him and mutually to love one another. He says in book two, chapter eight, section one, the law was committed to writing in order that it might teach more fully and perfectly that knowledge of God, both of God and ourselves, which the law of nature teaches meagerly and obscurely. Proof of this from an enumeration of the principal parts of the moral law and also from the dictate of natural law written on the hearts of all and a manner faced by sin. He says later in that same section, I believe it will not be out of place here to introduce the Ten Commandments of the law and give a brief exposition of them in this way. It will be made more clear that the worship of God originally prescribed here. This is still in force. Moreover. The very things contained in the two tables are in a manner dictated to us by that internal law, which, as has already been said, is in a manner written and stamped on every heart for conscience, instead of allowing us to stifle our perceptions and sleep on without interruption, acts as an inward witness and monitor reminds us of what we owe to God, points out the distinction between good and evil and thereby convicts us of departure from duty. But man, being inured in the darkness of error and scarcely able by means of that natural law to form any tolerable idea of the worship which is acceptable to God. At all events, he is very far from forming any correct knowledge of it. In addition to this, he is so swollen with arrogance and ambition and so blinded with self-love that he is unable to survey, as it were, descend into himself that he may so learn to humble and abase himself and confess his misery. But that should not be taken to mean that men are therefore incapable of discerning right from wrong. To ascertain more clearly what Calvin intends herein, we need to hear from him in his commentary on Romans chapter two, verses 14 through 16. You're familiar with that passage. Regarding the work of the law written, that is the work of the law written on the heart of the Gentile. It doesn't have the written form of the law like the Jew. He says this. That is, they prove that there is imprinted on their hearts a discrimination and judgment by which they distinguish between what is just and unjust, between what is honest and dishonest. He means not that it was so engraven on their will that they sought and diligently pursued it, but that they were so mastered by the power of truth that they could not disapprove of it. For why did they institute religious rights? Why is there religion all over the world? Except that they were convinced that God ought to be worshipped. Why were they ashamed of adultery and theft, except that they deemed them evils? Without reason, then, is the power of the will deduced from this passage. As though Paul had said that the keeping of the law is within our power, for he speaks not of the power to fulfill the law, but of the knowledge of it. Men don't have the power to fulfill the law, but they know about the law written within. As Calvin would say in another place, there's enough in creation to damn a person, but not enough to save a person. Thus, the necessity of preaching the gospel to all the nations. Well, he goes on, and I better speed to the next example. Let's hear from Luther. Experience itself shows that all nations share this in common, this common, ordinary knowledge. I feel in my heart that I certainly ought to do these things for God, not because of what traditional written law says, but because I brought these laws within me when I came into the world. For although the Decalogue was given in one way at a single time and place, all nations recognize that there are sins and iniquities. You don't have to convince the nations of the reality of sin. They believe in it already. They believe in it so much, they're scared of it so much, they sacrifice and do all kinds of things to appease their gods. Furthermore, Francis Turretin, that reformed theologian from his own institutes, writes regarding the relationship between the natural law in the hearts of men and that law contained in the Decalogue, these words, if it is asked how this natural law agrees with or differs from the moral law, that is, the ten laws laid out in the Ten Commandments, the answer is easy. It agrees as to substance and with regard to principles, but differs as to accidents and with regard to conclusions. The same duties both toward God and toward neighbor prescribed by the moral law are also contained in the natural law. The differences with regard to the mode of delivery. Time prohibits me from reading about Zacharias Arsenius, the writer of the Heidelberg Catechism, Robert Leighton, that Scottish pastor, William Shedd and his dogmatic theology. Stephen Grable, Wrote a book several years ago called Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics. He had this to say, and we'll use this to conclude our look at the reformers. He said the reformers and their successors held the idea that God promulgated a natural law that directs and binds human creatures. That this law of nature has been written on every human heart, that conscience and reason serve as natural lights leading people to act in accord with natural law. That the natural law and the old law, the Decalogue, differ only as means or conveyors of moral information, but not in fundamental moral content. That while human cognition of the natural moral order was obscured by sin, The natural law still yields sufficient data to assist people in distinguishing between good and evil. Notice, not enough to save. But sufficient data to distinguish good from evil. That neither knowledge of nor adherence to natural law is sufficient for either justification or redemption, and that a natural law jurisprudence is crucial to maintaining just and well-ordered temporal policies. regardless of whether they are governed by Christian princes or legislators. Now, that's just a little sampling of what the reformers taught on the matter. We could go on and on and on, and eventually I'd run out of pages, but we could go get some more books and find some more stuff. Those who want to say that our Reformed Baptist forefathers and our Presbyterian brothers hijacked the Reformers are simply wrong. Now, you may still be sitting there going, you know what, I just love you Reform people, but I'm really not too interested in the Reformers. I believe in the Bible. This is one of those news flash moments. So do we. That's good. Evidence for the existence of moral law of God before the codification of the Ten Commandments abounds in the Bible. They were not standing at the foot of Mount Sinai going, I never heard this before. Where did God give these things? Are you sure? Maybe you could go back and check. Every one of the Ten Commandments before Moses ever received them from God is found at a point of violation in the book of Genesis and before the event at Mount Sinai ever takes place, including commandment number four. You don't know what that is. We'll get to that later. Worship is due to God alone. Genesis 35, too. We won't have time to read all these. Just jot them down if you want to. God is not to be identified by His creation, Genesis 31-30. God's name is not to be held emptily, Genesis 24-3. Time is to be set aside for God's worship, Genesis 2-3, Genesis 4-3-4, Exodus 16-22-26. Parents are to be held in honor, Genesis 27-41. Murder is always wrong, Genesis 4-9. Adultery is sin, Genesis 39-9. You cannot take what is not yours, i.e., you can't steal. Genesis 44, 47, your testimony must be true. Genesis 39, 17, covetousness is sin. Genesis 12, 18, Genesis 20, verse three. OK, so it was before Moses and it was with Moses, but surely when they lost the tablets, it's done and Jesus came and did away with all that mosaic stuff. Jesus has fulfilled all the ceremonial laws. Jesus has brought to an end that need for the political entity of Israel in that sense. Jesus has fulfilled for us even the moral law. Praise be to God for that. But he has not erased it. They were the only laws spoken directly by God to the people. They were the only laws etched by the finger of God. They were the only laws put on tablets of stone, front, back, forward, two copies of them given two different times to all the people. They were the only tablets that were put into the ark. They were the only abiding testimony of that moral law of God to the people. God's law is God's law is God's law. He has not changed. He has not shifted. Well, it's nice to say that, but what about some proof for that? After the Mosaic economy came to an end, that which was obsolete, that which was fading away, that new covenant which gained, gloriously so, the law was now written, Hebrews says, on the heart of every man, woman, and child in that new covenant community. Worship is due in the New Testament to God alone in Revelation 22, 9. God is not to be identified by his creation, Acts 17, 29. God's name is not to be held emptily, Mark 7, 6 and 7, or Titus 1, verse 14. Time is to be set aside for God's worship, Mark 2, 27, Acts 27, Hebrews 4, 9, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, Revelation 1, 10. I gave a few extra ones on that because it's the one that everybody seems to question the most. But have no doubt we are still under obligation to set aside time for the worship of God. like the apostles in the church would give the first day of every week celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ to his worship. Parents are to be held in honor, Ephesians 6, 1 and 2. Murder is always wrong, Romans 13, 9. Adultery is always sin, Romans 13, 9. You can't take what's not yours, Romans 13, 9. Your testimony must be true, Acts 5, 3 and 4. Covetousness is sin, Romans 7, 7. Beloved, more evidence could be amassed, but suffice it to say that both Scripture and the reformed tradition affirm the abiding validity of the moral law, the substance of which is codified for us in the Decalogue to warrant our attention should be given to it. We should hear God's words. Now, with that in mind, by way of introduction, I always love that. Let's actually hear what God said. And we will get to dinner because, as you can tell by visible evidence, I like to eat. OK. Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 to 17. If you have your Bible, I want you to look there. Most of this sermon or lecture or whatever this is I'm doing up here is introduction and conclusion with a little bit of something in the middle to send you off and go do some homework later on. Even though the little section in the middle is 10 pages in my notes, we're going to probably skip the whole thing. All right. Exodus chapter 20, verse 1. I'm reading from the ESV. And some other texts will come from the New American Standard. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your sons or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land. and that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." What did they learn from these words? that we should heed well if our worship is to be God-glorifying worship, Christ-exalting worship, spirit-empowered, truth-regulated, sin-exposing, gospel-offering, joy-producing, and world-reaching kind of worship. They heard ten transforming words. We're going to break these down into five statements, putting the 5th through the 10th Commandments together. Let me just offer these five things to you and then we'll say just briefly a word about them. Word number one is this. They learned that worship must be of the right God. Worship must be of the right God. Number two, or word number two, worship must be in the right way. Number three, worship must be in the right affection. Number four, worship must be at the right time. And number five through 10, worship must be to a right end, a right end. It must be the right God, the right way, the right affection, the right time and a right end. Had the statement, God opens with these words, God spoke all these words saying, and then the quotes open, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. There's some question as to whether or not this is a prologue or they're not. This is part of the first commandment. I take it as a prologue, an opening word before we actually get to them. God opens with these preliminary statements. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And it says first that God spoke all these words. Notice about these words. They are of divine origin. God spoke. God spoke them all. Moses didn't didn't speak one of these. He didn't write one of these. There's no argument on whether or not Moses got this wrong somehow by the time he got down to the bottom. They're of divine origin. Secondly, notice the covenantal context of these ten words. God is not giving these words to people that he wants to be in covenant with him. God is giving these words to people that are in covenant with him already. I am the Lord your God. I am Yahweh. I am the covenant making, the covenant keeping God. When he said that to Moses in Exodus 20, Moses' mind must have gone back to Exodus chapter four, where he says, Who should I say has sent me? Tell them I am that I am. I am the covenant keeping God. I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I am the God of promise. I am the God who has said to you that I will never leave and I will never forsake. Notice, number three, the redemptive motivation of these ten words. They are delivered to a redeemed, delivered covenant people. These are words, yes, for all people. Yes, the law is written on the heart of all people, but these are words specifically stated and codified for the people of God. With that in mind, notice the words themselves, and again, we simply have time to mention a few things about each one. We must worship the right God. You shall have no other gods before me. You know, people make gods out of all kinds of things, don't they? Job, people make idols out of their wealth. They make idols out of themselves. Habakkuk says people make power their idol. Revelation people found worse or worshiping demons and physical objects in Revelation chapter 2 and 13 people dismay display the ultimate form of idolatry in the worship of Satan himself. We are surrounded by idolaters The heart Calvin said is a what a factory of idols. It's just an idol producer. You kill one and another one pops up What all these idols have in common they are all part of the created world Order the worship of false gods or idols at its heart is the ascription of worth to the creation rather than the creator. God forbids idolatry in any form or shape, and though it typically took in this cultural context the shape of physical objects, let us not think that idolatry is fundamentally physical. It's a spiritual affection. that leads you, I, your people, all men away from the worship of the one true God. We are to worship God and God alone. Much more to be said, but let's consider not just worship of the right God, but worshiping God in the right way. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath. Unacceptable worship is further marked by the scripture as worshiping the right God in the wrong way. It is not enough to worship the right God, one must also worship the way that God has deemed appropriate. It is amazing how easy it has been for the church to miss at just this point. Did not the first two laws of the Decalogue line out not only the who, but also the how of worship. God has been very specific throughout all the Scripture as to how his people were to worship him. When this is disregarded, it is quite a serious thing with consequences. The Scripture says there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. The all things of Hebrews chapter four would apply to our worship, would it not? We need not only a biblical theology for worship, Worshipping the right God. We need a biblical methodology of worship also. Worshipping Him in the right way. Now this is where those within the church today really start to part company when it comes to worship. Not to mention the other issues of just overall ministry. Though most would agree that our theology of worship is defined by the scriptures, we should worship the right God. The methodology of worship isn't held to be as defined by the scriptures as we would at first think, at least so they say. This is the difference historically between Luther and Calvin. This is the difference between what is often called the regulative principle of worship and the normative principle of worship. Luther affirming the normative principle of worship, saying that we can do whatever Scripture doesn't forbid. Calvin coming along and saying, no, by the regular principle, we can only do that which God commands. How do you know your worship will please God unless He has said it will? You're just guessing. You're hoping. The Kids Committee comes to you after Sunday morning service and says, Pastor, I'd really love to do this next Sunday. In the worship hour, what are you going to say? Hmm, I don't know if that's a good idea. Oh, but pastor, the children really want to do it. What are you going to say? What are you going to use as the as the standard test for whether or not it passes the test of worship? Nadab and Abihu, remember them? They learned about innovation from their dad there at the base of Mount Sinai. Didn't learn very well. And we find them in Leviticus chapter 10 offering what? Strange fire before the Lord. Now, we don't know really what they were doing. Later on, there's a command for them not to drink. This is after they're consumed. Maybe they were drunk. We don't know exactly what was going on, but it was strange. It was unauthorized worship. It was not commanded worship. It was worship offered maybe to the right God, but not in the right way. And God doesn't have just one commandment. He has at least two. And then he's got eight more. What's fascinating about this is just moments before. In Leviticus chapter nine, you have another offering consumed. They've offered this wonderful time of worship and fire comes out from the presence of God. It consumes the offering. But Leviticus chapter 10, it's not the offering that's consumed, it's the offerers that are consumed. In one example, you have obedience. In another, you have disobedience. And what does Moses say to Aaron? By those who come near me, God says I will be what? Treated as holy. Different. Distinct. You may not understand all of God's ways, but friends, they are God's ways. And we can't play with them. You ever think about Uzzah? Good old Uzzah. Just wanted to keep the ark from falling on the ground. Somehow he thought that his hand was more pure than the ground. So he reaches out to grab the ark and stabilize it. That's being, by the way, carried in an inappropriate way on a cart, not poles. If they had carried the ark the way God said, they wouldn't have almost dropped it. And Uzzah would, well, I guess he wouldn't still be here, but at least he would have lived a little longer than he did. Remember where they learned how to carry the ark on the cart? The nations. The Philistines. Remember what he said in Deuteronomy chapter 12? When you go into that land, do not worship like they worship. Oh, I'm sick of surveys. Oh, I'm tired of taking a cultural barometer. I'm tired of looking around and saying, oh, what are they doing over there? Let's do that. That'll get them. It might get you burned up. But at least you'll go down with friends. God has not given us the freedom to take personal liberty when it comes to the area of worship. One must worship the right God. One must offer Him worship in the way that He has prescribed. Furthermore, worship can still be unacceptable if I don't worship with the right affection. I must worship the right God in the right way with the right affection. Just cut to the chase here and read Mark chapter 7. Listen to what Jesus condemns the worshipers of His day. He says, He said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. In vain, emptiness do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, neglecting the commandment of God you hold to the tradition of men. You're going to have to do the homework on these commandments and go back and read some stuff and see the amazing implications and applications of some of them. There's just not time to tease them out. Worship must be offered to the right God in the right way with the right heartfelt, joyful affection. Or it's a hollow sham. You can look right on the outside. You can have your theology down and your methodology down and fry. You can be a great Reformed pastor that holds to all six points of Calvinism. Hopefully you get what I mean. You can be the most flaming Calvinist that there ever was and miss the joy of worship. You can miss the Gospel. You can miss the transformation of the heart and the life and the soul No wonder some people don't want to be Calvinist. I've met some of them. I used to be one. I got converted to Calvinism years ago. I was a flaming Calvinistic evangelist. Probably pushed more people away from it than ever. Why? I wasn't happy about it. I wasn't joyful. I was stuck on the five points. And I hadn't really come to really love The one who gave them. You can plant a tulip in everybody's garden. And never win a soul. Never, never draw a heart. And I love the tulip. But I love Jesus more. And so do most of you. Let's make sure we make that clear to the people that we talk to. Well, very quickly, worship also has to be at the right time. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Obviously, time prevents us from giving a full exposition of this commandment, but simply to say God displays here his sovereignty over man's use of time. God is the maker of the week. God made it in the garden. He confirmed it with the people of Israel there. And they are to keep it in Exodus chapter 20, because God made the world in six days and He rested before they go into the promised land. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, God gives it all to them again. He says, not only do you keep it for that reason, you also keep it because I redeemed you from the land of Egypt. We keep it to honor God as our creator. We keep it to honor God as our redeemer. For the better part of 2,000 years of church history, the keeping of one day holy to the Lord has been accepted by the church. The day having been changed to the first day of the week with the principles remaining unaltered, our own Southern Baptist heritage is very clear on this point. If we were to study the 1925, the 1963 and the 1998 Baptist faith and message, we would see that it affirmed the sanctity of the Lord's day to separate it apart from times where we would do our thing so that we would set those things aside to pursue the things of God. Sadly, in the year 2000, they adopted Article 8 on the Lord's Day, and it simply leaves it up now to the believer's conscience as he follows the Lordship of Jesus to know how to spend the day. When we fixed the subjectivity and the mysticism of one part of our confession, we opened it up in another. It's interesting that happened. I would commend to you Article 22, Paragraph 7 and 8 of the 1689 Confession, which I think holds a glorious position on the Lord's Day. And by the way, it was the confession of most of our founders when we started our convention over 150, 16, 5, almost years ago. It says the Sabbath is kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering their common affairs of forehand, do not only observe a holy rest all the day, But from their own works, words and thoughts about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and the duties of necessity and mercy. There's one more word or maybe there's six, but we'll simply cover them as one worship must be to the right and. They're very quick, they're very terse. Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, his wife, his servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that is your neighbor's. It is at this point that the law of God seems to turn its gaze away from that pure worship principally owed to God and exhorts the people of God Toward the proper end of such worship, the display of the righteousness of God amongst themselves and before a watching world. God wants us to be a different kind of people. Calvin says were those first four. regard the worship of God these last six regard the love were to show to our neighbor Jesus himself broke those up in the first and the greatest commandment and then the second it was like that he said love the Lord your God with what all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself and so many places in the New Testament it seems that that the writers Paul And James and Peter sum up this idea that that last half of the Decalogue is fulfilled in that one command, love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love my neighbor? It means don't steal his stuff. It means don't steal his wife. It means protect his marriage. It means go home to go to bed. It means don't covet everything else that he's got. It means honor your parents. It means honor to whom honor is what Paul says do. The implications and the applications of those commands are they're huge. But to what end is this all pointed? Let me see if I can sum it up in just five minutes and we'll we'll be done. I know we got dinner, don't we? We give you four words. One word is vision. One word is awareness. Number two is awareness. Number three is renewal. And number four is display. Why? Why did God give these commands to the people? I think we see why God gave these commands to the people when we see what the people did after he gave them. After he spends these 17 verses of this, what must have been the hugest voice ever heard in the world. Amidst smoke and flashes of lightning, it says in Exodus chapter 20 verse 18, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, the sound of the trumpet, the mountains smoking, the people were afraid. And they trembled. They stood afar off and said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak to us lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood afar off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Consider that when people hear this kind of word, they gain a new vision of God. Absent the preaching of this kind of word to the people of God, they will keep a vision of God that's likened unto themselves. But they hear God and they see God in a whole new way. A new vision of God and preaching his law that we respond to with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire There's so many that want to say, well, I'm glad we're not under that old covenant. I'm glad we're under the new covenant where things are nice and things are easy and there's lots of grace, because there wasn't any grace then. Go to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 19 through 29 and read that. It says, but you haven't come to a mountain that can be touched. You haven't come to that blazing fire. You've come to what? Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. You've come to Christ. You've come to the assembly, that community of the firstborn. But then it says what? Offer to God what? Worship with reverence and awe for our God is a what? Our God. God of the New Covenant people. Our God is a consuming fire. Same God. Don't preach God to your people so they live like Marcionites. And they just look at the God of the Old Testament and they say, He's hard. I like the God of the New Testament. He's easy. He's friendly. He's the same God. Preach about God in such a way better than we do that people might catch a new vision and a glimpse of who God really is. Secondly, the word awareness. Notice what happened when the people saw God, when the people heard God, what did they cry? Stop. You go talk to God. We don't want to hear any more. We'll listen to you, not to him. When people catch such a vision of God, there is a deep awareness and sense of their sin and their need for a mediator. And what does God provide? A mediator. And He provides one better than Moses. Christ, beloved, has drawn near the thick darkness of God and has emerged victorious. Give your people a vision of God that creates an awareness in them that they need mediation, that they will cry out to the Savior and love Him all the more. Third, renewal. Realizing that we have broken God's laws, let us renew the covenant that He has made with Christ. Over and over again, you read in the Old Testament, the people of God coming together, once they realize their sin, they do what? They renew the covenant. They renew the covenant every week. Every week we gather in a glorious covenant renewal ceremony and the Word of God is preached to us and the elements are spread before us and we come and we say again, yes, Christ will be for me a sufficient mediator. The righteousness of God is what I need. The righteousness of God is what I long for. But it's too much for me so weakly As pastors and as people in churches, we drag out the drama of the word and the water and the wafer and the wine. And we watch the display of the glory of God and we say yes to that covenant. One last thing, and that's display. In Exodus 19, verses 5 and 6, Moses gives these words to a people who are precious to God, a possession of God, a people who were a kingly nation, a priestly group. And in 1 Peter 2, Peter says that we are a what? A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people of God's own possession. Why? To display His excellency for all to see. Brothers and sisters, when we live like this, When we live like these words command, by the grace that God supplies, we put on display our glorious God before a watching world. And Peter says, one day, one day God may come to visit the Gentiles. And on that day of visitation, they might see His glory. Where do they see His glory? They see it in you. They see it in you. They see it in your church. Or they don't see it. Do you get that? They see it in the living display of the righteous people of God, or they don't see it. The world just gives them morality. Due to the lack of conformity of the lives of our churches to the law of God, we cause the world to think that our great God may not be as great as we want them to think. Why should they take our God and His great laws seriously if we do not do so as the covenant people of God? Brothers and sisters, it is our distinctness from the world, not our likeness to them, that is our power. May God give us grace to live righteously before men. They may not like our worship. They may not like our preaching. They may say it's dull. They may say it's dry. Let us hold, though, a display of the glory of God for a watching world that takes away every excuse so that the slanderous things they may say about us They may be ashamed one day. And may God be gracious to visit them with redemption. Before that final day. Let's pray together. Father, we do ask that you would encourage our hearts with the display of your glory. God, help us as we lead our churches. Help us as we seek to. Manifest the righteous character of our God. for a watching world help us to live God honorably before the Gentiles that they might see God the goodness of our God and that they might glorify God on the day of visitation. Father help us help us to submit our hearts that are wayward to the worship of such a God worshiping him alone worshiping him in the way that he is prescribed worshiping him with our whole hearts setting aside God time for that worship. And God, coming together to join with other confessors of Christ to live righteously before a world. God, may we, as the Apostle Paul told the church in Philippi, may we live as lights shining in a dark world. God, may we live that way to the glory of your name, the joy of our own souls, and the good of all the nations in Jesus' name.