holy words of our faith handed down to this age. It is our time. This is our time to be faithful. This is our time to hold fast to the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Let's take God's word. I'm going to deviate again this morning from our series through first timothy to do what for the last i don't know i don't know how many years maybe maybe a dozen maybe uh maybe a decade but for many years now the last sunday of the year we focus our attention upon god's word And the first Sunday of the new year, we focus our attention upon prayer. These two vital facets of the Christian life, so important that we revisit them at least these times each year. And so I'm going to go to Matthew chapter four and verse four, and I'm going to use it as a springboard. So this is a topical message. I normally preach expositionally through books of the Bible or preach expositional sermons from a text of scripture. But today we're going to do a topical sermon and we're going to be looking at the centrality of Holy Scripture in corporate worship. I want to center on corporate worship today because it is a great burden that I have in my heart. I'll tell you more about that as we go. The words are simple and you're probably familiar with them, but in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, as Satan began to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, he did what we all are called to do, and that is in spiritual warfare, We are called to take the word of God and use it as a sword to run Satan through. We are to take the word of God and we are to use it as a mighty sword to pull down the strongholds of man-made philosophies and worldviews and satanic doctrines and doctrines of demons. And so Jesus, as he is tempted, In Matthew chapter four, verse four answers Satan. It is what? It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by how many? Every word that comes from the mouth of God. So Jesus, the King of Kings, Jesus, the Lord of Lords, Jesus the maker and the sustainer of all things who had the power to command Satan to the abyss and he would go instead took the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and used it against Satan in this temptation he cites Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3 Let's pray together. Our gracious and merciful God, condescending God, thank you so much today for your mercy and your grace and your love that you have extended to us sinners ruined, dead in our trespasses and sins. By sending your only begotten son into the world, to die in the place of sinners and for sin so that whoever will believe upon you will have everlasting life, will pass from darkness into the light, will be delivered from the domain, the realm of Satan into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of your dear son. And we are thankful today for the holy scriptures. We are thankful for your Holy Spirit who inspired the words to be written so that we have the very word of God, infallible, inerrant, all sufficient for what we believe and how we practice the Christian life. We thank you that you have faithfully, sovereignly preserved them throughout the centuries for us today. And we're thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of the faithful stream of saints who have been handed down the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Through Christ, to his apostles, solidified for us now in the New Testament scriptures. Help us, oh God, to be faithful. Help us, oh God, to contend for them. Help us, oh God, to proclaim them rightly and to live them out faithfully. Lord, we know that your word is precious truth. And we also know that our hearts and our ears are dull, often and easily distracted. Oh, Lord, would you see fit to help us today? that we would be active listeners, that we would be interactive with the scriptures, that we would be prayerful throughout. Lord, that you would do a work in our hearts, do a work in our minds, do a work in our soul, do a work in our church. Oh God, that you may be glorified, that we may be edified, built up and changed, that others would be saved, Lord, we pray this and we ask it in faith, in Jesus' name and amen, amen. In order for us to talk about the centrality of the word of God in corporate worship, let me back up just a moment and let me talk about what I'm gonna call the heart of worship. Everything that we read about in the scriptures and all that God is doing, I gotta remember to stay here, don't I, Tommy? I see you back. I broke my mic, so I got to stay right here. That's hard to do. Everything that God is doing in redemptive history is to restore the human race to a place of fellowship with God and worship of God that is well received by God. You see, we cannot even worship God, we cannot pray to God, we cannot offer to God sacrifices or praises that are acceptable because we are sinners. And that is the reason that God, in redeeming grace, sent the Messiah. the promised anointed king who would come to the earth and be born of a virgin who would come and grow into a man who would go to the cross of Calvary and die in the place of sinners. Send forth his spirit, send forth his church, send forth his gospel to call everyone everywhere to repent and believe upon Jesus for the salvation of their souls, for the forgiveness of their sins, so that through this one mediator between God and men, we can now be acceptable in his sight. And now we can worship him. And I wanna give you three statements related to corporate worship that gets to the heart of the essence of worship itself. Three things, desire, delight, and dependence. Number one, worship is a matter of desire. When you think about what it is that you magnify as supremely valuable in your life, is it not those things that you desire? Do you not magnify the worth of those things or those relationships with your desire? You see them as of value and you desire them. This is getting to the heart of the heart of worship. We worship what we desire and worship is the passionate pursuit of God who has and is pursuing us for our pleasure and his glory. So our desire of God is a part of our worship of God. We value Him as the supreme treasure of our souls and therefore we desire Him above all things. Secondly, worship is a matter of delight. of God or our deep understanding of God gives rise to spontaneous expressions of delight. When God reveals himself in creation, there is a response in us that goes, Look at that sunset, look at those stars, look at that little baby with those little bitty fingernails and eyelashes and wow, God has done this and this causes us to step back and say wow. When God reveals himself to us, when we get a sight of God and when he deepens our understanding of him through the Holy Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit, that produces worship. God reveals himself and the response enabled by the Holy Spirit, got to get that, is worship. And number three, worship is a matter of dependence. Let me ask you a question. Can you command the Holy Spirit to do as you please? No, no, you cannot. There's many people who claim to do such a thing, but we have no control. We have no demands of God. God's ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts above our thoughts. He is all wise, all knowing. He is all good. And therefore he knows what is best. He knows how to guide you along, how to make you more like Jesus, how to keep you humble. how to exalt himself. He knows how to bring you to worship him. And one of the ways that we do this is through dependence upon him. You could say it's a matter of faith. Without faith, the writer of the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 says, it is impossible for us to please God, to take God at his word, believing what he said. That's a part of worship. Because God is worshiped in spirit and in truth according to his truth that he has revealed that is contained for us in scripture. There is a way in which you and I could think things about God that would not be true of God. And if we are responding to the God that we have created from our own imagination, that is not the worship of God. That is the worship of an idol. And so desire and delight and dependency upon God and faith are all at the very heart of worship. To put it into a sentence, worship is to respond in faith to God's self-revelation to be the source of eternal joy and pleasure. And therefore, we pursue Him with passionate desire as the fountain of our delight Our joy and our pleasure. Independence upon Him as we look to Him in Holy Scripture. Now, let me turn from the three statements on the heart of worship to three statements about the reality of God's self-revelation. Three statements of the reality of God's self-revelation. Number one, God has revealed Himself to us in fixed, unchanging clarity and glory through the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to be careful here because people like me are often accused by others who misunderstand me and you, many of you I believe and trust. They misunderstand us because of our high value of God's word, the book. And they call us, they say that we're actually worshiping the Bible. Not true. We are simply worshiping the Creator God and the redeeming God according to His self-revelation in Jesus Christ that is recorded for us in Holy Scripture. We are simply worshiping Christ according to the rule of Christ contained in the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 to 3 says this. Long ago, in many times, many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. He revealed Himself to the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. God has revealed himself to us in fixed, unchanging clarity and glory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's statement number one. Statement two, the Lord Jesus Christ is now mediated to us through his written word, the Holy Scripture. Jesus is not walking among us in a physical body like He was in the first century with His twelve disciples and the multitude of those other disciples that were gathered around Him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, His presence and His power is mediated to us through the written word, the Holy Scriptures. Let me ask you a question. How do you know anything that you know about Jesus of Nazareth? Answer, there's only one answer. The only way that you know anything objectively and authoritatively is because of God's written word that testifies of the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you step out of that, beloved, if you step away from the book, then everything that you say about Jesus, even if you get it right, is human speculation and human opinion. Third statement. This mediation of Christ through the written word happens by the illuminating work of God, the Holy Spirit. The illuminating work of God, the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit inspired the words to be written, preserved them through the centuries. And now, as we look to the word, as we read the word, as we meditate upon the word, as we study the word, as we hear the word preached and read, we are dependent upon God, the Holy Spirit. No one can come to me unless my father who sent me draws him. And how does the father draw? Through the power. of the Holy Spirit. The words simply read going into your physical ear without the power of the Spirit will do nothing. Why? Because we're dead in trespasses and sins without the regenerating work of the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 2, 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. And he does not understand them. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians. I almost led you wrong there. Let me get over there and we'll make sure that I told you right. 1 Corinthians 2.14, sorry, wow. It'll get there slowly. I've got one of those old computers, you know. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. Well, what comes to us through the Spirit of God is not the Word of God. But the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness, they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." And so this is a holy dependence upon God the Holy Spirit, the illuminating work of God the Holy Spirit producing spiritual worship of God in us, that is producing delight in God and our worship of God in spirit and in truth. 2 Corinthians 3.18 gives this statement very pointedly. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, so here we are beholding the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the what? the Spirit. So it is the Spirit's work to show us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, you can see this is exactly what the apostle goes on to say, verse 4. He's talking in verse 3, he says, Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, listen to this, verse 4 and verse 6 are just saying the same thing two different ways. Verse six, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, Genesis, right? Let there be light, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. And we know Him now, His presence and power is manifested among us, and He walks and works among us in a mediated way, namely through the written word, the Holy Scriptures, and this, not by itself, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, in the Scriptures, we find that there is a high elevation of the Word of God, by God Himself. Psalm 138 verses 1 and 2 testify of this reality. Listen to this, Psalm 138 verses 1 and 2. I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart. Before the gods I sing your praise. I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name. for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. That's pretty high. Above all things, God has exalted his name and his word. And so now we could turn to the centrality of the word of God. in corporate worship. I have, I think, five statements. Number one, local churches are called by God to gather on the Lord's day for congregational worship, discipleship, fellowship in Christ, and public witness. Those are things that we find explicitly in the Bible that should happen when the church gathers. Congregational worship of God, discipleship of the saints, fellowship in Christ, and a witness to the world of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the power of that gospel to transform people's lives. Now these gatherings are essential and critical to biblical Christianity. You hear that? I'll say it again because you might have faded off on me. These gatherings are essential and critical to faithful biblical Christianity. The writer of the book of Hebrews in chapter 10 says it, in a negative way when he says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Now, this is for our optimal good, right? This is the wise God structuring his people's lives so that they get the greatest benefit from him, from Christ, from his holy word. the Lord's Day gathering, the congregational and corporate worship of God is central and critical and essential to biblical Christianity. If you want to walk in faithfulness and find the height of joy and pleasure in God, you cannot neglect the assembling of the saints. You can't do it. To intentionally move away from the gathering of the saints is to move away from the very means of grace that God has given to his people to edify them, to build them up, to change them, to solidify them, to unify them, and to grow them in Christ and to spread the gospel seeds throughout the world. Number two, the word of God, therefore, this is a therefore statement, the word of God, must be pervasive and central at these gatherings for worship, discipleship, fellowship in Christ, and witness in order for us to be faithful to God and in order for us to benefit spiritually from God's Word in this way. The Word of God has to be pervasive in the gathering of God's people. It has to be central in the gathering of God's people. TO PRODUCE WORSHIP, DISCIPLESHIP, FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST, AND THE WITNESS TO THE WORLD IF WE WANT TO FIRST OF ALL BE FAITHFUL TO GOD. THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD DISAGREE WITH THIS, BUT WE ARE NOT CALLED TO SEEK TO WORSHIP GOD AS WE JOLLY WELL PLEASE. GOD HAS GIVEN SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS IN HIS WORD. to tell us what to do and what to believe about Him, about the Church, and about our mission. And so the Word of God must be pervasive and central in order for us to be faithful to God and in order for us to experience spiritual effects. In other words, for us to spiritually benefit from the gathering of the Church, the Word of God must be central. and pervasive in that gathering because God works through the means of his word and not apart from it. So let me digress one more time and give you just a few examples of what the word of God says that the Word of God does by the power of God. I'm gonna go a little bit faster here. I have five of them. The Word of God awakens and sustains faith. Romans chapter 10, verse 17. Faith comes from hearing, hearing through the Word of Christ. Faith is awakened, faith is sustained by the Word of God. Number two, the Word of God is the means through which God gives us the Holy Spirit, and through which the Holy Spirit continues to fill us and transform us. The Word of God is the means. We are born again, not by a corruptible seed, but through the incorruptible seed. What is that seed? The Word of the Living God. It is through the Word of God, in other words, that we are regenerated. It is through the Word of God that the Spirit of God speaks to us and fills us and empowers us for mission. Number three, the Word of God creates and sustains life. Physical, God in the beginning spoke the world into existence. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And what does it say over and over again? God said, God said, God said, the word of God creates life. The word of God sustains life, spiritual and physical. Number four, the word of God enables us to defeat our spiritual enemies. I quoted you from Ephesians 6, verse 17, taking up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And it is with the Word of God that we are able to battle against spiritual darkness. And number five, Christ, mediated through the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the source of full and everlasting joy. Christ himself, notice, Christ is the source of eternal joy and pleasure. He is the source of our life. He's the source of our joy. He's the source of our pleasure and that eternally. But Christ now is mediated through the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Or to say it another way, the Word of God mediates the very presence of God for our fullness of joy in God. I hate to say it, but it is true. There are many people today who believe they are worshiping their God, the true and the living God, and they are not. Jesus himself said that many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, didn't I, didn't I, didn't I? And Jesus says, I will say unto them, Depart from me, I never knew you." And we have to understand in order to protect ourselves, in order to protect our hearers, in order to protect those that we witness to, in order to protect people from worshiping a God that they've created, we have to stay closely tied to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. So what do we do in congregational worship as a means of grace? Congregational worship, beloved, is a place where God has designed, just like he designed that little child that's born from the mother's womb, just as he has designed the world and all of the intricate things that we see that God has created. God has designed the Christian life to flourish through at least a one-in-seven day gathering of God's people. Congregational worship is essential as a means of grace for you as a Christian. Let me say a couple things here. Congregational worship is an essential part of our pursuit of God as our highest desire and greatest delight. So if He is our greatest desire, if He is our supreme treasure and delight, then the gathering of the people of God, as He has instructed us in Holy Scripture on the Lord's Day, is an integral part and an essential part, an indispensable part of that pursuit of God. There is an idea in the world today that you can be a flourishing Christian apart from the church. But my friends, you will not find that in the Bible anywhere. And you will not find that in Christian history. until the modern age. No one would have believed that in centuries past. That to be a Christian, fully flourishing in Christ, is simply you and Jesus. No one would believe that. Because it's not true. It's not true. If you love Jesus, first John, you love his church. That's what he says. You love God, you love his church. Number two, congregational worship is essential to be a faithful follower of Christ. We can't expect to be faithful unless we're providentially hindered. You do know that I mean that, so I'll give you that, unless providentially hindered. If you are an invalid and you can't move from your location in a hospital or a home, then obviously you can't gather with the church. It doesn't mean that your desire would not be to go if you could. You see, the normal way of living in faithfulness to God is through an active participation in the life of a local church. Number three, congregational worship is a precious priority to a faithful follower of Christ. So not only is it a means by which we are faithful to Christ, but knowing what God does when we gather, knowing what he has designed it to do, we count it as precious to be able to do it. It's a precious priority of a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, that we are active participants in the life of the local church on the Lord's day. Number four, congregational worship is a God-chosen means to teach us and equip us to glorify God in all of life. Ephesians chapter 4 is a beautiful picture of the way that the church functions. And Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says that God gives to the church, 11 and 12, he gives to the church these pastor teachers in order to equip the saints to perform the work of the ministry, which is the discipleship of every member of that body of Christ. And so it's a God-chosen means to teach us and equip us to glorify God with our lives and through our lives, in all of life. We live in a highly individualized society, and it's not a good thing. For us, in our culture, we just breathe the air of individualism, and we are missing out on the beauty of community, and teamwork. We are missing out on the sharpening of iron and iron sharpening iron. We're missing out on the God-ordained means when we neglect the relationships, especially that central set of relationships in a local community of faith. We're missing out on the God-designed means of grace to equip us, to teach us, to change us, to shape us, to glorify God. And number five, congregational worship is a massive part. I won't say that it's all of it, but a massive part of the God chosen means to equip us to resist and mortify worldly thinking and living and to transform us through the renewal of our minds and souls to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 12, verses one and two, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewing of your mind through the word of God, the spirit of God, and God has made and designed the Christian life to fully flourish by the church. It's in the community of God's people. that we're gonna grow, that we're gonna flourish, that we're gonna be able to exercise our spiritual gifts and to have others exercise spiritual gifts in our life for our edification and to edify the whole and to build up the whole for God's glory. Well, I wanna close with some statements that some of you have heard me say before, but they are worth repeating today. There are, as our forefathers, our Baptist forefathers and our Puritan forefathers, they talked about the church in terms of its corporate worship in these terms. There are elements and there are circumstances to worship. Elements were those things that you find in scripture that must be done if we are to be faithful. Circumstances have to do with just that. We must gather to be faithful. Amen? Okay. We must gather as a church to be faithful. What time we gather is a circumstance. How long the preacher preaches is a circumstance. It might would help us, no doubt, if we had it written down. But it's not written down. It's a circumstance. But the preaching of the word is an element of corporate worship that must be there. I'm going to show it to you. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, there are essential elements of corporate worship that center on God's holy word, his self-revelation in holy scripture that we need to remember. Number one, and by the way, I'm not the first to say these statements. These are historic statements. These are statements that could be made and have been made by others throughout the centuries. Number one, the gathered church is instructed to read the word of God. In order for the word of God to work as we've learned, it must be pervasive, it must be central in the gathering of the people of God. to lead us to true spiritual worship, to worship in spirit and in truth, to worship empowered by the Spirit is to take the gift of the Holy Spirit now illuminated to our hearts through, first of all, the reading of the scriptures themselves. Now you could turn in the Old Testament to Nehemiah chapter 8, and I'm not going to read this whole thing for the sake of time, but if you wanted to read it, Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 1 to 8 is a is a good text. I'm just gonna read a couple things here from it. In verse one, all the people, this is the old covenant people, gathered together as one man into the square before the water gate. Now they didn't have the teenagers running over here and the adults running over here. They had every one of the people of the covenant people of God gathered in one place as one man. That's what it says. Into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe, that was an appointed person, to take the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So he comes and he comes before the assembly. And listen to what it says in verse two. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, the book of the law, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And the first thing that he does in verse three, is he reads it, he reads it. Verse three, he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday. That's what it says. In the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand, it says that twice. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside of him there stands all of these other men, I won't read their names, and verse 5 says that Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood. So this is an Old Testament example of the gathering of the people of God just one time, one example of the people of God coming together And it's gonna lead to worship. If you go on and read it, after he gets to the explanation of the text, it says that the people began to bow their heads in worship. So first comes the self-revelation of God in scripture, being read and being preached and taught, and then comes worship. Luke chapter four, this is the example of Jesus himself. In Luke chapter four, verses 16 to 22, and Jesus came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up, and as was his custom, he went into the synagogue, this was the place of the worship of God, Yahweh, he comes into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, on the day of the week that was established by God, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, and this is what was written, And this is what he read. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. So we see it in the Old Testament. We see it as the custom of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in the New Testament. First Timothy chapter four, verse 13. You can't get any clearer than this. This is why our forefathers called it an element and not a circumstance, because a text like this, 1 Corinthians 4.13, until I come, this is the apostle writing to Timothy, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture. It's an element of worship. And so if you wonder, if you're here today and you say, why did he get up? And the first thing that they did after the announcements is read the Bible. This is why. Because it's an element of worship that God has established in his word for the people of God to do when they gather. That's why. And by the way, the reading of the scripture is precious for this reason, if not any. It is a safeguard for the truth, even when the teaching of the church is not accurate. I would say amen to that. It is a safeguard to the truth of God, even when the teaching of the church is not accurate. A man could stand up, and I heard it happen. I listened with my own ears many times. I have one in particular, but I'm not going to tell you what it was. But he opened the Bible, and he read the text of Scripture, and then he preached everything but what it said. But at least that precious flock heard the truth when he read the text, when he read the text. Number two, the church is not only called to read the word when gathered, but the church is instructed to sing the word when gathered. Now we know this for the Old Testament because we have 150 collected Psalms, which is just a portion of the Psalms that had been inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. It was a collection of songs that were intended for the people of God to sing in congregational worship of God. In between the Lord's Supper and in the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament, we find that Jesus and his disciples sing a hymn together. So between the Lord's Supper and between his prayer and Gethsemane, he's singing. with His people. And I don't know for sure, but I would dare to say that He's seeking us all from the Word of God. But we are given, again, explicit instructions in Colossians 3, verse 16. Listen to this, Colossians 3, verse 16. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. So the Word about Christ, the Gospel that we get in the Bible. teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and notice how he says it, this is so marvelous to me, he doesn't say preach here, he says, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Let the word of Christ dwell in your hearts richly, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We're called to sing the word of God. In other words, our psalms are to be written and composed of words that are faithful to God's self-revelation in scripture. Amen? So we can sing songs that will call for an emotional response, but if those words are not true to God's Word, then it's not worship. Can I get amen on that? But yet you have many of them today. One of the greatest effects, beloved, of singing the word of God back to each other Sunday after Sunday and as often as we can, these biblical hymns and songs, it is a preservation of biblical truth down through the centuries. I could open the Baptist hymnal and find a song or a song written by Martin Luther. Now that does something to me, it may not do something for you, but it does to me. Because Martin Luther's singing a song way back when, over 500 years ago, that you and I could pick up and sing today. The preservation of biblical truth and the unifying of the saints throughout the centuries through songs. Another benefit of the practice of singing the Word of God together is the long-term fruit of memorization. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. You are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I think about that text when I sing amazing grace. Number three. not only to read and to sing, but to pray the word of God. This is very important. Our forefathers, and I could go back and talk to you about the 17th century Baptist controversy. You know what it was over? Singing in the church. I don't have time to tell you all about that. It was a massive controversy in the 17th century about singing in the church. And you and I go, wow, how could that be? And this is the short answer. because the Puritans, the Baptists grew out of the Puritan movement, the Congregational Independent Dissenters, at least the majority of them did. And they, a Puritan was someone who was looking not just at the Roman church, but looking at the state Protestant church and saying, There's no warrant to have a state church where every citizen of a nation is automatically, as an infant, baptized and registered as a member of the church. And they had created a liturgy called the Book of Common Prayer that these individuals, these Puritans who were wanting to worship God according to the pure instructions of Holy Scripture, And so they questioned everything that they could not find in the Bible. And they had difficulty at that time coming to that realization. Some of them got it very early on, some of them later, some of them never did. That the congregational singing was a part of the element, one of the parts of the elements of Christian congregational worship. And this is one of the things that they missed. They miss text like we just read. But they're also called thoroughly to pray the word, to pray the word. Let me give you some defense for this. First of all, much of the Bible is documented prayers, right? Much of the Bible itself is documented prayers. The Psalms are singing prayers to God. And so we are instructed, secondly, in the Bible to pray certain ways and for certain things. Are we not? So in the Word of God, we are instructed to pray in certain ways and for certain things according to the Scriptures and trusting in the promises of God. When you pray, it's not just, I pray for a million dollars. We are guided in the content of our prayer by the Word of God that instructs us what our goals and aims should be. And if our goal is to desire God and delight in God and depend upon God, then we must go to the Word of God to find instruction in how we pray to God. In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question number 98, The question is this, what is prayer? Listen to their answer. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God in the name of Christ by the help of His Spirit with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercy. But be sure to notice the main thing, prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God. And how do we get God-honoring, Christ-exalting desires? From the Word of God. And so the main meaning of the prayer with confession of sins, with thankful acknowledgment of His mercies, go along with these expressed desires. The essence of our prayer is the expression of our dependency upon God through requests and petitions. I'm dependent upon God. Show me through your prayer line. Question 99, the next question. Listen to this. What rule has God given for our direction in prayer? I told you I wasn't making this up. Answer, the whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer, but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught His disciples, commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Next question, 100. What does the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us? Answer, the preface of the Lord's Prayer, which is our Father which art in heaven, teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence as children to a Father, able and ready to help us, and that we should pray with and for others. That's good. That's just the preface. that Jesus gave us in Matthew chapter six? What's the next question? 101, what do we pray in the first petition? Answer, in the first petition, which is hallowed be thy name, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he makes himself known and that we would dispose all things to his own glory. That's what we learn, they say, from the first petition, hallowed be thy name. And on and on they go, talking and breaking down the Lord's prayer. Well, we know that Jesus taught us in Luke 18, one, a specific parable that we ought always to pray and not to lose heart. First Timothy two, one and two, talking about the structure and the order of a congregation, of a church, of a local church, rightly ordered and established under the rule of Christ, 1 Timothy 2, 1 says, first of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. He goes on to talk about the very character, remember, of the men who are to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting, right? To lead the congregation in public prayer. And so we find texts of scripture like Colossians 1, 9 to 12. And I'm going to read this to you because it's so beautiful. If you want to know how to pray, I commend to you the word of God. Listen to this. See if you can't pray like this. And so from the day we heard. We have not ceased to pray for you. So you've got a prayer list there, and it's got a bunch of Christians on there. It's got churches on there. It's got mission organizations on there. And for the time we know this reality that there are God's people outside of our own congregation, for the time we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. Where are you gonna find that? In all spiritual wisdom and understanding, So as to walk, this is how you live. So as to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, where are you gonna find that? Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, dependency upon God. For all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. Now that's a good prayer. And you can pray that for your brothers and sisters here in this church and outside of this church and around the world. And I hasten on number four, pastors are called to preach and to teach the word of God in corporate worship. Somebody had said one time in an answer to a question, Tommy, you were there and you'll remember this, said that, um, said for her really the church could be 90% singing and 10% preaching. And the only thing that I'm ashamed about in that situation personally myself is that I did not rebuke that statement. We are called to sing the word of God, amen. But we are called, pastors are called to preach the word of God. and to teach the word of God. You got that text from Nehemiah 8, you can go back, look at it when you get home. But let me give you a couple from the New Testament, Acts 13, 14. Talking about the apostles and the missionary team that they had. So they went from Perga and came to Antioch, this is Acts 13, 14, in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, that appointed day for the Jews to gather, they went to the synagogue and sat down. And after the reading from the scriptures and the prophets, the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue or those elders there sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hands said, men of Israel, you who fear God, listen. And he began to preach. Or 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 to 5, and it gets no better and no clearer than this. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Why do you do that? Why would he do that? Why would he keep up these things? God. Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead, by his appearing in his kingdom, he's heaving up these realities before Timothy because it's important what he's getting ready to say. Amen. And what does he say? And by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season when they want you to and when they don't. When they say, hey, it's good, we wanna do that, they listen to two hour, three hour sermons, our Puritan forefathers. And when they don't want you to, when it's out of season, when it's not cool anymore, to stand with an open Bible and proclaim the deep riches of God's Holy Word. He says to do it anyway. Be ready in instant, in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and guess what? And teaching. Patience and teaching. That's what you have to have. To preach the word is to teach the word. For a time is coming, verse three, when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate to themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off in the myths. As for you, always be so reminded, endure suffering to the work of evangelists, fulfill your ministry. Second Timothy chapter two, verses one and two, you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. In other words, the truth that was once for all delivered to the saints, what you have heard from me and trust a faithful man who will be able to teach others also. Go home and read first Corinthians chapter one, verse 17 to chapter two, verse five. and underline everywhere you see the word, preach the cross, preach the gospel, preach Christ crucified. 1 Corinthians 2, 1, listen to this. When he came to the city of Corinth, he said, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming or preaching to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. takes the Holy Spirit to make preaching effectual, not eloquent words. It is the power of God. So the power of God is effectual in His inspired Word preached when the Holy Spirit is working out there in ears and minds and hearts and souls and working in here. to give words that are fitting and appropriate and faithful to be preached. And it all comes from his word. Well, the final one is that the gathered church will actually display the word of God in the Lord's Supper and baptism and in the changed lives of those disciples that make up the church. When the Lord's Supper is before us and we participate, it is a very practical display of the Word of God. Because it is in the Word of God that we find the instructions of the Lord's Supper. Amen? Why do we baptize people? Do we just like water? because it is instructed by the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. As a positive law of the new covenant, we baptize those that believe as a sign and a symbol of their union with Christ and their union with his people and their union with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection for the dead to walk now in newness of life. and in our lives that are transformed as we leave this place. You know, people may not read their Bible, the Bible this week, but they will definitely read your life. Now we have to point them to the very specific and explicit words of Holy Scripture. But a lot of times they'll read you first. And if your life has so been impacted and touched and transformed by the Word of God, heard, mixed with the Spirit of God in illuminating and empowering so that now you have a deeper understanding of God and it produces a deeper and more spiritual worship of God in a response of obedience to God and a conformity to Christ. People will see that and they'll ask you, what's up with you? Why are you like that? Why do you believe that? And then you can say, let me show you in the word of God. Our authority, my friends, is not in our creativity or ingenuity. Our authority is in this book. And when we gather together on Sundays, those are the things that are explicitly in the scriptures for us to do, to be faithful. And listen, here's where the rubber meets the road when you come on Sundays. Do you believe that what we saw in God's word is true? And do you believe that these things, these elements of corporate worship, are the design of God for your spiritual good, the salvation of the lost, and the building up of His church. Let's pray.