Today I decided to tack on something that I should have thought of last time, and that is an additional question that really does belong here in our study of the 1689 Confession on chapter 22 concerning religious worship and the Sabbath day. And you'll notice we're on paragraph one, and the second part, paragraph 1B, if you will, of our confession, which deals with, as we learned last week, what has been historically called the Regulative Principle of Worship, RPW, as fondly called, acronymically, the RPW, the Regulative Principle of Worship, which is a hallmark, of course, especially of the Puritan wing of the Reformation, as well as the Separatists, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, and the Baptists, all held to the regulative principle. And it is basically doing with, it has to do with worship and how we're supposed to worship. And we know that we're supposed to worship someone, someone greater than ourselves. We all are born with a sense of deity, as Calvin put it, a sensus deitatis or divinatis. We all know that from our very constitution that we were made by someone, that we're to worship that person, that he is all powerful, eternal, and we're accountable to him, and that he's holy, and that there is a right from wrong. That's all revealed to us by nature. That is, when I say nature, I mean by the way God has constituted us as human beings and has further confirmed what we already know through the things that are made, the other things that are made, creation itself. So we already saw in the first part of this paragraph, chapter 22, paragraph 1, that all of that, of course, is revealed already. How do we know we ought to worship? Well, we know it just by our very constitution. We're religious beings. We're meant to worship something. And in that sense, Bob Dylan, in his Christian days, I don't know if he's a Christian still, once a Christian, always a Christian, of course we know truly, but he was a professing Christian at one time. And he wrote a song that you gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody. Simplistically put, but at the same time, it's true. And at the end of the day, we're going to see that there's going to be sheep and goats, and those who are the sheep are those who are serving the Lord, and those who are the goats are of their father, the devil. At the same time, though all men know that they are to worship the true God, by nature we suppress that truth. We don't like that truth. We want to be our own God. We want to have our own gods, plural, that we can manipulate, we can create. We also come up with our own ways of worshiping God. or at least the god that we think exists, or the gods that we think exist, we end up finding ways to worship. But we're still worshipers, and that's the point. We're still religious beings by nature. We can't escape religion, devotion that is, to something higher or that we perceive as being the ultimate authority in our lives. Well, we covered that in our first lesson. The second lesson, which was last Lord's Day, we looked at the question, in what way are we to worship? And our confession reads this, thusly, but the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, Deuteronomy 12.32, and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures, Exodus 20, 40, 24 through six. And so we talked about that and had two sub-points underneath that particular question, in what way are we to worship? It is not revealed to us by nature or in our own constitution. It is revealed to us in scripture alone. And that's self-evident through the way in which sin has so marred the heart and mind of man that man has sought out many inventions. And we need to go back to the scriptures, the special revelation of God, to find out how God is to be worshiped. And we had two headings. Number one, natural man cannot learn how to worship God from the light of nature, but only from the special revelation of God, that is the holy scriptures. And then the second point was, acceptable worship is instituted, limited, and revealed by God in scripture alone. That was obvious and we used our text, our main text, we'll mention it again today, Deuteronomy 12.32, everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to it or take from it. And that was in the context of giving them a pattern for Old Covenant worship. Now it just occurred to me we should probably open in prayer at this point. Father, we thank you for the subject. We thank you that you have revealed to us not only yourself in our very nature, but you've revealed yourself to us with greater detail and much more glorious and fuller information in your word. And we pray that you would help us to be humble, submit to what you have to say to us with regard to worship. We long to worship you, not just you, in all of the ways in which you have revealed yourself, but also in the way that you are pleased. So we pray that you'd grant unto us a determination to do what you have commanded, and also with discernment to be able to realize that there's a difference between how we might show our devotion to you outside of the formal worship of you and how we're to behave in the house of God. We pray that you'd give us this discernment by your spirit for we ask it in Christ's name, amen. So now I thought a third question is appropriate because there is a whole section which is in our confession, paragraph one, in the last part, that suggests this question, and that is, what does the reformed, or reformed, the regulative principle of worship forbid? What does it forbid? We saw that in some part what it requires. We will see even more what it requires as we go through this chapter because this chapter is all about that. It's all about the regulative principle of worship because it talks about where we should worship or where not. And it talks about who we should, whom we should worship. And it also talks about It also talks about the whole issue of when we should worship God, and that is the Sabbath day issue that, of course, we know is at the very end of this chapter and will require us to think very carefully and also to make a distinction, a distinction which I'll bring out today as well, that there's a difference between how or when rather, we worship God publicly in his house. And when we worship God, and I use worship in a little W sense, how we give devotion to God, how we show devotion to God in a private sense, or even in our families. There is a difference between those two venues of worship, which are clearly made distinct in the word of God. And part of the problem, which I'll address at the very end, is that people today in the normal evangelical churches, and even in some reformed churches, have lost that distinction. They've blurred the lines between what is worship, capital W, in his house, when the gathered people of God worship God, and then the little W worship where you have your own quiet time and prayer and reading of the scripture and your family worship. And if your family has a tradition, I don't suggest that you do this and I don't suggest that any of you do do this, nor do I want to offend anyone who does do this. But if you hold hands and march around the living room singing a hymn and add ceremonies to your family worship and light a candle and Sing kumbaya. It really, it obviously doesn't matter to a huge degree because you're in your own home. And some of you during these holiday times have your own traditions for the various holidays that we celebrate. That's fine. And you can do it to the glory of God. As long as it's reverent, as long as it's from your heart to his glory and it has some helpfulness to your soul, that's fine. But many people have brought those things into the church. That is not fine. You see the difference? Well, the Bible makes that difference very clearly. So I didn't mean to embarrass you. If you're one of those families that march around, we march around on Christmas, but I won't tell you why. It's too embarrassing. That's fine, but I would not think or dare to be Mr. Nadab or Mr. Abihu and introduce that into the worship of God in his house. It's a completely different thing. But that distinction has been blurred. so that everyone in the church, and it has to do with a lot with, and I know this is an extreme introduction, which means I'll have to be rushing through, but today we have a very huge emphasis in the church on what's called egalitarianism. Everyone's equal. Even the pastor is not really, uh, an authoritative figure. He's sort of like someone who merely comes alongside, not someone over anyone. He comes alongside of. And there's a place for that, but clearly the scriptures do not teach that. Obey those that have the rule over you is what the scripture says. There's an authority structure in the church. But there's a lot of home churches and things like that, even bigger churches that have an egalitarian view of the church. Everyone's equal. Everyone has a ministry. Everyone's ministry is the same in importance. But that's simply not the case, brethren. It's not the case. It's not biblical. And so the pastor becomes not just an authority figure, in fact, not at all. He doesn't become one who declares on behalf of Christ the authoritative word of Christ. He becomes a coach from the sidelines, cheering everyone to do their ministries. Everyone has to have a ministry. So when some people come to those kind of churches, they have a button or they have at least told to them, you're the ministry of this. You're the minister of this. You're the minister of that. And everyone wants to discover what their particular gift is. Add to egalitarianism the whole issue of women being pastors and elders and Women are equal to men in dignity and honor, but not in roles. But egalitarianism has taken it to the point where they're equal even in the church in roles. Now, how does that all fit in with the regulative principle? Well, it fits in because now, what you do at home or what you do as your hobby or what your personal interest is in life. Maybe you're a dancer. That's fine. You know, as long as it's modest and the right setting and maybe you're a ballet artist, a ballerina or I don't know what you call a male ballet person. But anyway, maybe you're into that. Fine, but egalitarianism says everything's equal, everything's the same, there are no distinctions anymore in any realm of society, including the church. Therefore, if I am going to be a minister in this church, little m minister, and everyone else has a ministry, what's my ministry? Well, the only thing I can think of is I'm a really good ballerina. So that ministry of ballerina-hood has to find some way to express itself in the church. Do you see how it all ties together, this egalitarianism? And so now we have in churches all kinds of circus acts, and maybe even beautiful ballerina acts, which in their own setting are beautiful. In their own setting would cause us all to clap to the glory of God, in a sense, for giving gifts to this person, for having ballerina gifts, but also because of the beauty of it, we would clap. We would enjoy ourselves to the glory of God if we're Christians, hopefully. But it has no place in the house of God. Or maybe you're a good ventriloquist. You're able to do that little dummy on your lap thing, entertain, make people laugh, teach even Bible lessons, good motives, wonderful motives. Do it at home. Do it with your family. But don't do it in the house of God. That is strange fire. And God has already shown what he thinks of that. And in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 32, which we used last week, and I'll repeat it again, Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, so don't subtract anything. You shall not add to it or take from it. Don't add or subtract from it. And that's in the context of worship. You want to add something to God's worship? You better tremble. You want to subtract something from it? You better tremble. because this is not your house. You have a house. Go at it, but not here. So that's a distinction, and by saying it all up front, I don't have to say it at the end. All right, so now let's answer this question. What does the regulative principle of worship forbid? Well, from Exodus chapter 20, which is really not the only place in the Bible, that talks about this principle of worship, that is, God tells us how to worship him. But it is certainly engraved on stone and should be taken even more seriously, and we find it written on the tablets of stone in the second commandment. Let me read that, Exodus 20, verses four through five. 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. And it goes on to say, you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, and so on. It's a longer commandment, has threats attached to it, and blessings. And so we have for us in the Ten Commandments themselves a statement which in its essence, that's the thing, when we talked about the Ten Commandments a few years ago, we had to get to the essence of what they were saying and not go away being external, shallow, just understanding them in a literal way. They're literal, but they go beyond that. They reach the heart. They are principles that apply to a thousand other things. So the exceeding depth of the law was displayed for us, summarized in the Ten Commandments. So what is forbidden by the RPW as it is written for us here in the Second Commandment? Well, first of all, clearly, representations of deity. You're not to make any representations of deity, physical, In this sense, I'm just dealing with the physical, which is the obvious commandment. Physical representations of deity. Who is the God you worship, by the way? You worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do you not? All persons of the Godhead. One nature, three persons. Images of God the Father, Images of God the Son, images of God the Holy Spirit are foreboding in this commandment. Now how many people have forgotten that? Of course we see today, we have movie characters playing various roles as God. We have, who was it? Drew Carey, or not Drew Carey, Jim Carey, playing God. We had the cigar smoking guy, the old guy, George Burns playing God. And I tell you right now, representations of God and deity, whether it be graven images or whether it be a painting, Or whether it be some weird formation of somebody's salsa thrown up against the wall of a Mexican restaurant that someone imagines to be the picture of Jesus. Or anything like that. A movie character? Yes, I'll play God. This is blasphemy, brethren. It's blasphemy. I would be frightened to death to take a role, to be one who represents the unrepresentable. How could I ever portray Jesus? How could I ever rightly display the grace and the glory that shine through him to the eye of faith? And cartoons that depict God as being an old man with a long beard. And even displaying the spirit as a dove. He's not a dove. He took upon himself the form of a dove, or at least he came down upon Jesus like a dove. It doesn't even say he was a dove. It just, like a dove, he descended upon Jesus. But to try to display God, deity, in an image is forbidden in this commandment. Nothing could be more clear. And then someone might say, well, we don't worship those images. It's just a coloring book for kids. It's just a cartoon. It's just a dove that kind of reminds us of the dove. But it wasn't a dove, by the way. So we think, oh, it's nothing. We don't worship it. But I'll remind you that this commandment forbids even the manufacture of images. Why? Well, if we read the commandment further, we find out that images, lead, at least in the next generation, to worship. We are not supposed to just be concerned about whether we worship images, it's whether we even make them at all, because the tendency, the gravitational pull of our hearts is to go to something that we can relate to with our sensory our sensory abilities. We want sensory kinds of things in our worship. We tend to that. Which, by the way, if you want to be people of faith, who see things through faith, versus those who see things through sight, going toward the opposite end of faith is not the right direction. Spiritual worship requires that we do away with anything that God has, that anything that God has not ordained with regard to worship, and he surely wants us to stay clear of anything visible or tangible with regard to himself. He has revealed himself in scripture. We should be content with a word-based religion, not a visually-based religion. And if you want visual, isn't God merciful? He gave us two ordinances that give us the visual. Don't add to it, don't subtract from it. Well, that's the first point, representations of deity, physical. By the way, I had a conversation with Baruch Meaz one time on this whole thing. He's a Jew and he knows a lot about how Jews think, because you are one. And he said to me that in the Old Testament, there were Theophanies, Christophanies. The appearances, according to a Jew, these were God. You know, the captain of the guard that came to Joshua, the man who appeared with two others to Abraham, and Abraham showed them hospitality. Other Christophanies in the Old Testament. And he told me, he said, never would it have entered into the Jewish mind, ever, The Jewish mind. The Jewish mind. It never would have entered their mind to make an image of those theophanies. Precisely because it would be creating an image of deity. Now why is it so easy for us to create images of Jesus when we don't even know what he looked like? And if we even did know what he looked like, we certainly don't know what he looks like now, and he certainly doesn't look like now what he did then. John fell down at his feet as one dead. How can we represent that? Thirdly, how can we do that when we know that he's God and he's an object of worship? We're going to fall down before his face one day. He's an object of worship. His person is God. Yeah, but he's man too. How can you separate the two in that sense? Are you going to get to heaven one day and see Christ and say, well, I think I'll bow down to your deity, but not your humanity. No, you're going to be bowing down to him, the person. He's deity. He's bigger than a theophany. To make images of Jesus is a violation of the second commandment and a violation of the regulative principle of worship. And no matter what your intentions are and how you thought, well, this might be a teaching aid for people who can't read the 12 stations of the gospel, like some have thought this all began with back in the early days, or coloring books for children, no matter what your motives are, it's really irrelevant. Your motives might have been wonderful, just like Aaron's and the people's when they made a golden calf. It was wonderful. They wanted to worship God, but they need something visible. It helped them. That's what they were used to. But we can't give in to our natural inclinations. Paul never used images. They had the best artists, actors, actresses, re-enactors. He reenacted things all the time. He could have hired a troop of Christian actors to come and do the passion of Christ. But what did he do? He didn't do that. He preached because it was through the foolishness of preaching that God chose to save those who would believe. Not through theater. Not through something that man came up with. physical representations. That's not how God works and it's not what God has ordained. Well, good. Secondly, what does the RPW forbid? It forbids speculation and superstitions about God. Now, the reason why I say this is because we have the tendency to look at the second commandment and draw a line and think to ourselves, well, as long as I don't have images of God, then I'm okay. But that's not the root issue. The root issue is that we're not to even make an image of God, even in our minds, because there's a spiritual element to the law, just like every other law. It's not just don't commit adultery, don't commit adultery in your heart. Where do you think an image comes from? It comes first from the thought, the heart. And so we're not even supposed to make images in our minds of God unless those images in our minds, that is an understanding or concept of who God is, unless that is dictated and governed by the word of God. If God has revealed something about himself to us in his word, it's perfectly fine for us to think of him in that way. But if we structure a God of our own imagination, we, on the one hand, might just simply be deficient in our knowledge of God, and that's a possibility for many Christians. to have just simply been ill-taught or not taught enough, and so they're deficient in their understanding of God. It's not like they're idolaters, but there are many who are not so much deficient in their knowledge of God, but they're defective in their knowledge of God, in which case they're worshiping a god of their own imagination and superstition. We are to worship God according to how he has revealed himself. Let me read to you the quote by Philip Graham Rykin. We also make an idol whenever we turn God into something that we can manipulate. This was the whole point of pagan idolatry. The Egyptians did not think that the gods actually lived in their idols, but they did think that idols gave them the kind of spiritual contact that would enable them to control their gods. So much contemporary spirituality tries to do the same thing. People are always looking for a more user-friendly God, a God who can be adapted to suit their purposes. They say, if I do this, then God will do that. If I touch the minister, then I will be healed. If I fulfill my vow, then God will make me rich. If I say the right prayer every day, I will have the key to unlock God's blessing. If I follow the right parenting method, then my kids will grow up to be godly. But God will not be manipulated. When he commands us not to make idols, he is saying that he will not be captured, contained, assigned, or managed by anyone or anything for any purpose. God wants us to trust him and obey him, not use him. That's just an example, though, of how people make a god of their own imagination. And that's idolatry, as well as a breaking of the regulative principle of worship. That's not how God has revealed himself. And there's a sense in which our whole lives as we come, one-seventh of our entire lives we spend, if we're faithful churchgoers, we spend in church. And what do we do in church? Not to mention all the times we spend in the Word alone. We're learning more and more about our great and glorious God, and we don't need a ballerina to tell us what that God is, and we don't need circus acts, and we reject our own inclinations of our imagination and superstition, we submit ourselves to the Word of God. How has He revealed Himself? It's a lifetime, yea, it will be an eternity of study. but let us be careful not to be defective and go against what God has taught us of himself. Thirdly, what does the RPW forbid? Inventions of men in public worship. Inventions. Our confession doesn't use the word inventions, but it uses the similar principle, imaginations of men, which lead to inventions, of course. We're not at liberty to introduce rites or ceremonies or rituals or other accoutrements to the public worship of God if he has not appointed them. We're simply not allowed to do that. We may have good motives, there may be good reasoning behind it. Let me make a clarification here. When we talk about the elements of worship, and we're going to get to that, paragraphs three through five deal with that in our confession. What are the indispensable, not-to-be-added-unto, not-to-be-subtracted elements of New Testament worship? We'll get to that. But there are many other things that we would call circumstances, things that differ from church to church and that don't impinge upon the regulative principle. Now, there's been disagreements about what is a circumstance and what is not. But as I mentioned last week, the chandeliers in here are not part of the RPW, you know. So if somebody came in here and said, you're using lights, you're using round lights, you're using chandeliers that actually look good, that's a breaking of the RPW. If they did that, we would kindly escort them to the loony bin. I'm sorry if I'm being rude here, but cameras and pianos and carpet and flooring and this shape and size of this pulpit, although I think the location of the pulpit is indicative of things. But nevertheless, there's lots of things here that are not the same in every church, whether you have a steeple or not, how high your ceiling is. Some things make a statement, but you know what? it's the regular the the uh... The irreducible things that God has said you must do in a worship service of mine that were to be focused on, and there are other circumstances. So when we talk about inventions of men, we're not talking about pews rather than chairs and flooring and paint colors. We're not talking about that. Though the word of God may have something to say about it in principle, it's not part of what we're talking about here. What we're talking about are things that actually have to do with the worship itself. For example, it's very common in the Roman Catholic Church, of course, as you know, and the high Anglican churches and some high Lutheran churches as well, to have images of one kind or another, whether they're sculptured images, even images of Jesus and baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph and saints, many of which are bowed down to. And if you do, by the way, if you do a study in the scriptures of what bowing down is, it's an act of worship. That's why when John bowed down to an angel, he was rebuked and he was told to worship God. But many of these images are bowed down to. Some are even kissed. High Anglican churches and Roman Catholic churches, Greek Orthodox churches have images, crucifixes, candles, ceremonies and rituals. All these kinds of things that You know, they even have touch-not-taste-not-handle rules, some churches do, and even evangelical churches have those kinds of rules that make up a part of their actual worship service. And this is what we're talking about. We're talking about adding, and many of those churches that become sacerdotal, for example, that add rituals to the whole observance of the Mass or the Lord's Supper, we don't call it the Mass for a very big reason, but the Eucharist or whatever they call it, those who add to the service with all of these extra ceremonies, what do they have to do to accommodate the world around them? Well, they have to subtract things from their service too because otherwise the service would be too long and people wouldn't get home in time to watch football. So what do they subtract? Oh, they subtract the preaching. They subtract a lot of the singing. and other things. So you see there's an addition and a subtraction going on. Plus there's a misrepresentation of God himself. There's images of God the Son completely misrepresenting his glory. All of this is going on. And it's impugning God of not having the wisdom enough to know what is proper and not proper, what is needful and not needful for God's people in worship. Well, God, I know this is your house. I know it's your worship. But, you know, doing the same things now for 2,000 years, it's just gotten to be a little bit boring. We have good motives, but we really want to make this place a little more exciting. We want to add things that will get us really re-interested in worship again. Which leads us to the fourth thing, contextualization of public worship. What does the RPW forbid? Contextualization. And I don't mean contextualization in every sense, but I do mean certainly in the sense where our philosophy as a church is to do whatever we can to become like the world so that we attract the world. If the world wants something that it's really fond of out there, let's bring it in here into the worship of God because then that will attract them. That will bring them in. And someone might say, well, if society sees that we're different, if that we're sticking to the same things that Christ had ordained, then they'll think that we're irrelevant. They'll think that we're out of touch with society. Exactly. Exactly. What do you mean? Shouldn't we be in touch? Shouldn't we be relevant? Shouldn't we want to be like the world to attract the world so that by all means we might save some? No. Not in church. Maybe out there. Somebody that you know is lost and they are eating this nasty soup that you don't like, you choose to eat it with them, you're being all things to all men that by all means you might win some. But when it comes to God's worship, we do what God says. And we don't try to change our worship to suit the world. And if that makes us irrelevant and out of touch, precisely, that's what God evidently wants us to be. Our job as a church, the church's great commission is not to save the world. Some people think that's a terrible statement. We're not here to save the world. We're here to save the elect out of the world. We go out, we preach, we invite people to church, but when they come to church, they're supposed to see something different. Can you imagine somebody in a lifeboat who's being spared from death because they're not in the icy cold waters? While others are out in the water swimming but they don't know because they haven't been given eyes to see that they're actually in a perilous situation. They're going to die and they don't know it. And they're in the water slowly freezing to death. The people in the boat realize it. And the people are saying to those out in the water, come, come here, let's get you onto the boat. And those people out in the water are saying, you're just, you're out of touch. The real fun is where we're at. You're too different from us. You're in a boat. You need to be more like us. Fill your boat up with this water and then we'll come on board. Then we'll see that you're like us. Okay. So the Christians start filling their boat up with water to attract those who are in the water? It's absurd. When people come into the church, they need to see something different. Not different for different sake, but different because they, when they leave this place, will know God is here. This is something different here. This is something sacred, not secular. This is what's missing in my life. That's what they need to see. Well, one more thing and we won't spend more time on it. What does the RPW forbid? Addition or subtraction to God-ordained worship. We've already sort of covered this. The Pharisees had added to the worship of God. And what did Jesus say to them? He condemned them. He said, in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. In vain do they worship me. They're worshiping me for nothing. I don't accept their worship. I don't acknowledge their worship. It is empty. It is a waste of time. But what about their motives? Motives are irrelevant. In this case, why? Because they are teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. They've made up their own religion. They've added and they've subtracted, and the Pharisees were really good at adding. If that doesn't repeat to you the regulative principle of worship out of the very lips of our Lord Jesus, I don't know what does. What was he basing that principle on? In vain do they worship me. He was basing it on the second commandment and on Deuteronomy 12.32 and other many places like that. They are worshiping me with a worship I do not acknowledge because their teaching for their religious practices and doctrines, the inventions, and the innovations and the doctrines that man has created and not me. So brethren, I hope that you see that this whole issue of the regulative principle is fading fast in the consciousness of the evangelical church, if it hasn't already, And even in some Reformed churches. Are we going to be more and more out of touch? Are we going to become more and more a voice in the wilderness? Yes. And as long as you want me in this pulpit, I will say the same things. And I'll say them over and over again. God giving me grace and strength. And the moment you see me deviate, that's the moment you hand me my pink slip. but it's better to err on the cautious side than to get fancy and free with the worship of God. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would cause this doctrine to give us fear, the reverent kind of fear and all that we should have when we come to your house. At the same time, we ask that you would keep us from pride. We know that there are many Christians in the church universal, scattered abroad throughout the world in churches that do not follow that principle that we've outlined today. We know they're there. We love them and we know we're united to them in Christ. So keep us from pride in thinking that we are the only true people of God. And yet, Lord, we pray for revival, revival amongst all of your people throughout the world, not the least of which is a return to understanding your word and your law and how you would have us to worship you. And we pray that this might even be a primer to us as we gather together to worship in the hour to come. And we ask it in Jesus' name.