Our reading is 1 Corinthians 14. I have been asked and compelled to preach on the vocalization of Amen and the public worship of God. Nervous? Me too. But we'll figure it out by the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit. I'll see you in there. Let's pray. Oh Lord God, no one is adequate for these things. The schemes of Satan against us are very complex and dark and we cannot penetrate his wisdom. But Jesus is the perfect wisdom of God for us. and the Holy Spirit gives us sight that we do not otherwise have, and works in us in ways that we cannot work in ourselves or in each other. And so, Lord, we pray most earnestly that you will pour out your Holy Spirit on us in the preaching, reading, and hearing of your word, that we will believe the truth and do the right in Christ by his power and for his glory, that you would grant peace to your church and the advancement of the gospel. Lord, do your work in us by your word and spirit. In Jesus name we pray, amen. First Corinthians 14, hear God's word. This, of course, comes after chapter 13, which is a chapter on love. And so he begins, pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you prophesy, and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may receive edifying. But now brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or prophecy of teaching? And even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are perhaps a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. Therefore, let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also. Otherwise, if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? For you're giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all. However, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind, so that I may instruct others also, rather than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. And the Lord has written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers, I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. So then tongues are for a side not to those who believe, but to unbelievers, but prophecy is for a side not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever, an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. What is the outcome then, brother? When you assemble, each one has a song, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in the tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn one must interpret. But if there's no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. The women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Was it from you that the word of God first went forth, or has it come to you only? If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. I'm gonna ask the elders to pass out the outline. The reason why I withheld it from you is that it's folded over on the bottom. Do not turn that over. I don't want you to look at the conclusions and come to your own convictions before you hear the preaching of the word. Now, if you want to use the blanks, turn the bottom over without looking, and then flip it over. Yeah, see, I don't trust you at all. You want to cut to the chase and get to the end point, and you don't have the patience to go through the pain of the rationale. But you must hear the reasons before you understand the conclusions, because if you look at the conclusions without the reasons, you will misunderstand the conclusions. So, I assure you, I commend you, as your household father. Do you expect your children to obey you? Obey me in this. Don't turn it over until we get there. I think you're all sufficiently familiar with this situation, so I don't need to go into great details, but just to say that the vocalization of Amen in the public worship of God has been a dispute in our congregation chronically and for years. In a previous season, we lost one of our deacons over this issue. And it was very painful for us. I and the other elders have encouraged the various parties to bear with one another in mutual love, but that has failed. That has not resolved the problem. It should have, but it hasn't. And I think it is because God has something better for us. God wanted us to go through this, to learn something, and to grow through it. Each side of this issue has very strong convictions, and each side has an element of truth, but not the whole truth. And so we need to affirm and recognize the truth that each of the contending sides is convicted of. The one side is persuaded that the amen is a necessary response to the ordinances of worship, and that is true. The other side is persuaded that the vocalization of amen is a prohibited disruption of the worship of God, and that is true. Both are true. But how do you fit them together is the issue. As Elder McGrath indicated, the only rule for faith in life is the scriptures. All scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness, so that the man of God, the people of God, may be adequate, equipped for every good work. The only way we can answer this question is by the Holy Spirit speaking the scriptures. not by mutual agreement on a lowest common denominator. What does the Bible say? And that is decisive. This has been the means of resolving every conflict, the conflict over the Judaizers in Acts 15. What does the Bible say? What has God said? And that is what we must do. In the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, In paragraph 10, summarizing the scriptures on this point, the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking the scripture. That is where we'll find the answer. The Holy Spirit speaking in the reading, preaching, hearing of God's word. There are other things that are not so easily or quickly answered. We find a reference to this in a summary in the same chapter of the confession in paragraph six. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless, We acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of God to be necessary, which was indicated in paragraph 10. Necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word. And that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, the government of the church, common to human actions in societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed. We need to understand what the scriptures say. And then having understood that, we need to use our heads and our hearts together to figure out how to work that out. It is a big challenge, but God is with us and will give us his peace. So, amen in the Bible. One of the most clear principles is set out in the passages that we read. In 1 Corinthians 14, 16, if you don't understand what is being prayed, how can you say the amen after the prayer of thanksgiving is given? In order to say amen, you need to understand what's being said. But Paul is asserting and assuming that at the end of prayer, the whole congregation will say Amen. And when he puts the definite article before the Amen, it's not a general reference, it's a reference to a particular Amen. It's the Amen that is said by the congregation at the end of prayer. Not just the one leading, but the whole congregation responding to that and affirming it by saying amen. Now there are some mumblings after prayer and after various parts of the service where people are like, I should really say amen but I'm not sure that I should. It needs to be a strong amen and affirmation after the prayer. The elder says amen and that's your cue to respond with amen. That much is clear. The vocalization of amen is an element and ordinance of worship. We should say it. First Chronicles 16 verse 36. This is David's instituting worship, and Moses and David were the two that God used to establish the ordinances of his worship in the Old Covenant, particularly David with the ordinance of praise. And after the Levites get done singing, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting even to everlasting, then all the people said amen and praised the Lord. That was the routine, the habit of the Old Testament saints of the Jewish synagogue and therefore of the early Christian church and therefore for all those reasons ought to be our practice as well. That all of God's prayers and praises end with the people of God together saying amen. This word is a transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning certainly true. Amen is, the three characters is the way Hebrew works, it's a three character word, and then it plays with in all kinds of ways, but there's three characters. And the ah, ma, na, amen. That's the word for certainly true, a word of affirmation. And it goes from Hebrew, into Greek, into Latin, into English, into Arabic. into every language it maintains the same vocalization with the word Amen. Because it is a word that is not unique to every language, but is unique to the praise of God. And so it transliterates. It isn't translated to God is faithful or may it be. It is translated as the word Amen. In Deuteronomy 27, in the listing of the curses, curses the man who makes an idol and all the people shall answer and say amen. The word of God is spoken and when it is heard in faith, the vocal response is amen. The amen as an element of worship and an ordinance of God is a responsive profession of faith. You hear something in prayer, proclamation, praise. And if you believe that that is true, you respond to it with the Amen. But it requires these things, as faith does. Cognizance. You must understand what is being said, as Paul makes a big point of in 1 Corinthians 14. You must be persuaded that it is true. Because the Amen is a confession, I understand this, and I am persuaded that it is true. You almost also have to have a desire for it, that not only do you understand it, believe it to be true, but you want it to be true, especially when the word is a promise. May it be, I desire this. I'm not just persuaded that it's true, I want it to be true. There is a passion and an emotional investment and engagement in it. And then lastly, in the nature of faith, there is a commitment to it. when you say amen to the commandment of God you are saying I will do that that's what the amen means so you need to be very very careful what you say amen to because you are making promises you are making a confession and it is a very serious matter As you bear your witness and you say, I understand this, I believe it to be true, I desire it, and I commit myself to it. When you say that, you are bearing witness to everybody else around you, that you believe this is true, and you are committed to this Word. As we'll see later, the Amen has an element of a vow or an oath to it. and Deuteronomy and Ecclesiastes, it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay. And it is better not to say amen than to say amen and not know what you're talking about, not believe what is said, not be craving it and not be committed to it. If you listen to a whole prayer and your mind has wandered off and you don't know what was said in the prayer, don't say the amen. It is hypocrisy. If you sing through a psalm and your mind has wandered and you've been working too hard on the music and not hard enough on the words, don't say the amen because you don't know what you're amening to. If you've been making up your shopping list instead of listening to the preaching, don't say the Amen because you don't know what you're talking about. And it is a blasphemy to God rather than a praise. The Amen is holy. It is significant and not to be entered into lightly. So where do we see this operative in the Scriptures? In the great reading, public reading of the word and the explanation of it in Nehemiah 8. People gathered as one man and Ezra the priest brought the law and he read it for their understanding and after they had heard it, Ezra blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered amen, amen while lifting their hands and bowed low and worshiped God with their faces to the ground. That's how significant it is. That's how they responded to the reading and preaching of the word. that when it's all said and done, Ezra praised God and the people gave their loud amen with all their heart because the Holy Spirit had applied the word to their hearts. We see this in prescriptions in Nehemiah 5 earlier, Nehemiah 5.13. Nehemiah says, I also shirk out the front of my garment and say, thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possession who does not fulfill this promise which is usury and plundering people with interest. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied in. All the people said amen. And they were saying, yes, if I extort money from people, may I be shaken out of my life and property like your garment was shaken out. They are affirming against themselves the consequences if they pursue this course of sin. and they praised the Lord than the people did according to this promise. They affirmed the threat and acted accordingly, and that's what the amen involves. When you say amen to the commandment of God, you are bringing the wrath of God on yourself if you disobey, and the blessing of God on yourself as you obey. Promises same thing here. This is a promise with Numbers 5 And also in Deuteronomy 27 This is a long list of curses Cursed is the man who makes an idol a remoting image and all the people answered and said amen and This is a promise that if you make an idol, you will be cursed. And they said amen to that promise. And the amen is, may it be so. This is a true statement and it will come to pass and therefore we will act accordingly in not making idols so that we are not cursed. In second Corinthians chapter one, verse 20. For as many as are the promises of God in him, they are yes, therefore also through him is our amen to the glory of God through us. Jesus is the amen to God's promises. The promise of the forgiveness of sins, Jesus says amen to that by fulfilling it. The promise of the gift of righteousness, Jesus says amen in his perfect life by fulfilling that commandment. Jesus answers the promise of God with amen, and amen is so significant that Jesus can be described as the amen. He is the answer to God's promise, and therefore we are not to take it lightly. Revelation 1 verse 7. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen. That is a promise of God that Jesus will come to save us. And we affirm that we believe it. We wait for him by saying amen to that promise. Likewise, at the end of the book, he who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming quickly, amen, come Lord Jesus. It is a promise that we understand, that we believe, that we desire, and that we are committed to. And because of that, when we hear that great promise, we respond by saying, amen. We see this all over the Bible. and read right past it. In the Lord's Supper, we are also given promises. When we get to the end of the Lord's Supper and we come to the crux of it, that by faith, eating and drinking, God promises us the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of his righteousness What ought to be our response to that? A loud affirmation. Not just, oh yeah, that's right, our sins are forgiven and His righteousness is given, what's for dinner? In prayer. The Lord's prayer, of course, ends with amen. When you pray as a corporate body, pray in this way, and it ends with amen. as not a unique thing, but as a model for prayer and the end of all prayers. Again, in 1 Corinthians 14, how will you say amen at the giving of thanks? At the giving of thanks and prayer. The amen is particularly prominent in praise. it almost always occurs at the doxology where God is praised for his greatness. A lot of other things happen before, but when there is a doxology that soars into the heaven to the praise of God, the people of God automatically respond to that with amen. Now some of you have grown up in old time religion and the old hymns. What do they all end with? Amen. But that is a biblical practice. The ending of praise with amen. We saw it in 1 Corinthians 16, after that long praise, the people of God responded with amen. And very strikingly, each of the four books of the Psalter end with a double amen. The praise of God ends with two amens with the first four books, not with the fifth book. Why is that? I suggest to you, and it's only a suggestion, that Jesus is the amen to the fifth book of the Psalter. You have one, amen, two, amen, three, amen, four, amen, five, just waiting for the shooting drop. And it's Jesus. Jesus is the amen to the fifth book of the Psalter and therefore for the whole Psalter. I suggest also to you that the double amen at the end of each book of the Psalter implies that these amens are distributed to all of the psalms that have gone before. That it closes the book, but implies its use with every psalm. And does the old hymns pick up on that? One great doxology is in 1 Timothy 1.17. Paul's been talking about other things and now he ends this section with, now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. You gotta respond to that. That great praise to God can't just sit there. The people of God are moved to respond, amen, to the great praise of God. In Hebrews 13, in the blessing there, now the God of peace, and et cetera. But it ends with, pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. And this is the great doxology of praise, and therefore it ends with amen. And so the amen is appended to not just any and every statement, But it is ordinarily appended to the end that closes with explicit and extraordinary praise to God. It's interesting in Revelation 7 verse 12 that the statement begins and ends with an amen. A double amen, but this time bracketing it. Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. And lastly, as I've indicated, the blessing, the benediction ends with amen. The Aaronic benediction that's found in number six, the Lord bless you and keep you, there are three elements to that. And in Jewish practice, there was an amen after every one, each of the three. There was, that isn't in the text, but it is a reasonable inference from the rest of the Bible. Paul routinely ends his letters with Amen, and of course we just saw the end of the Bible, the end of Revelation with Amen. The Bible ends with the Amen. The Amen in the Bible is a corporate covenant initiative and response. One speaks in prayer, proclamation, praise, or blessing, and all respond together with the amen. We love because he first loved us. We say amen because he first gave us prayer, praise, and these other things. A few other notes on amen in the Bible. This doubling that we routinely see, we see it in Numbers 5 when the woman is put under an oath who is suspected of adultery and she says, amen, amen. And it is an oath formula binding herself to this curse that is imposed upon her. Each of the four books of the Psalter ends with a double amen. Jesus flips this. He starts many of his statements, particularly in John. In Matthew, he just says, truly, I say to you, and that's amen. And in John, he doubles it, and he says, truly, truly, I say to you. You remember that phrase. And what Jesus is doing is he is saying his own amen to his own statements. The rabbis would never do that. But by saying amen to his own statements, he is saying that he is God. He doesn't call on them to say amen. He does it for them. He does it for them. Truly, truly, I say to you, it is an oath-bound statement with his affirmation on his own words. Also, I mean, corporate affirmation involves mutual commitment, Nehemiah 5 that we looked at before. When we say amen together, affirming what has been proclaimed or prayed or praised or the blessing, we confirm that in our relationship with God, but also in our relationships with one another. Individuals not merely individuals in Nehemiah 5. It wasn't merely individuals who said, I won't extort interest from my brothers anymore. It was the whole people of God that responded. And therefore we hold each other accountable to what we said amen to and we know you said amen to. We are accountable to each other in our amens. Lastly, the amen is not merely self-affirmation. But it is a cue for response. That when there is a man in the scriptures, or where there is a man in the worship, that is the cue for the people of God to respond in that way. So you have in Numbers 5 with the woman, let's just for simplicity's sake go to Numbers 27, or Deuteronomy 27. Curses the man who makes an idol. And all the people shall answer and say amen. Individuals did not say the amen at their own discretion. The people of God together said amen when directed to by those who were leading in worship. The amen is not an individual response to the proclamation or prayer, but the amen is a corporate response to the corporate hearing of the word, the corporate leading in prayer. It seems to me that when Paul in Romans, for example, there are a number of places, he ends with amen in his blessing to the people reading the letter. But in the midst of Romans, he has doxologies at various places and he ends with amen. And from the broad context of the scriptures, it seems to me that when the people in Rome were listening to this letter read, and the reader reads Paul's doxology and the reader says Amen, all of the hearers responded by saying Amen. That's the biblical practice. That's the biblical paradigm. Paul wasn't saying Amen just to affirm his own words. He was calling on the hearers to give their Amen to what he has just said. The amen is a corporate response of affirmation and ownership to words spoken by someone else. And when you say amen, you make their words your own. By saying amen, you say what he said, what he said. That's what I believe. That's what I will do. And so everything in worship, it isn't just one guy yapping, it's everybody involved and engaged, and that is made evident by the saying of the Amen after each element. For your interest, and I hope edification, some things about Amen in church history. In Judaism, I mentioned in the Aaronic Benediction that after each of the three elements, the Jews would say Amen. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, they would do the same thing with the baptismal formula. The priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church would say, I baptize you in the name of the Father. Amen. Of the Son. Amen. And of the Holy Spirit. Amen. That is appropriate if unnecessary. There is a sense of the weightiness of that. And of course you have this coming into the synagogue. It wasn't, the amen wasn't articulated in the temple with the sacrifices, but it was in the synagogue with the preaching and prayers. And thus come by that means comes into Christian worship. And it's also the same practice in Islam. Because Islam is a corruption of Judeo-Christian religion. In the early church, Justin Martyr, roughly 100-165 AD, he indicates that the Amen in worship was common practice. It wasn't a unique thing. It was something that all the churches did. And Jerome, 345-420 AD, this is the man who translated Hebrew Old Testament, Greek New Testament into the Latin. The Vulgate, which at that time everybody could read and was lasted for a long time. Unfortunately, some translations were misunderstood. Penance was corrupted in its idea instead of repentance. But what Jerome said was that at the end of the Lord's Supper, the one administrating the Lord's Supper would conclude the Lord's Supper with Amen. And the people would respond to the promises pictured in the Lord's Supper with their amen. And he said, it sounded like a clap of thunder. And so it should not be a mumble. You should respond to the extent that you understand, that you are convicted that these things are true, that you desire the promises and that you commit yourself to these truths. When you say Amen, it is not for the encouragement of the preacher. Your Amen is to God, not to me. And so after the preacher, when the preacher says Amen, Don't say amen to congratulate the sermon, or don't refrain from saying amen to annoy the preacher. Say amen to God. It is not for the encouragement of the preacher, it is for the worship of God. And the preaching is God's Word. And that's what you respond to. In the medieval church, the amen became a vain repetition. It was very frequent, merely routine, and became meaningless. The medieval church seemed to think that they would be heard for their many amens. And the Reformation objected to that, to the frequency and the meaninglessness of it, but they established the practice of the amen. The principle of Reformation worship is rightly called the regulative principle and is articulated in this way. The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good and does good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted, and served with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or in any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture. Worship is not a matter of what we want. Worship is a matter of what God commands. And God commands the amen. It is an element warranted by the scriptures. There is a clear precept and many approved examples in scripture as we've gone through some of them. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And if the heart is persuaded that these things are true, the mouth must say amen. The second thing is that practice needs to be set in order, and much of how we do the amen is the light of nature and Christian prudence. How we say amen simply needs to be orderly and decent. But exactly how we do that needs to be prayed about and worked out with the elders and the congregation. Direct you back to the summary in the confession, chapter one, verse six, Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward and there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God common to human actions in societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general principles of the Lord which are always to be observed. So that the Amen is an ordinance of worship, that we should respond in this way is all simple and clear and true. But how we do this, how we work it out, is left to our judgment and our common sense. And so the elders with the congregation have some work to do in terms of how to work this out. As a result of this, the amen in the Reformed churches is occasional. It is contextual in the sense that the amen is a corporate response to the corporate word, prayer, praise, blessing. And being contextual and responsive in particular ways, it is thereby, therefore, meaningful and not meaningless. We have an odd situation in the contemporary church. In the conservative churches, like our own, we have the unresponsive sound of silence. It's like the Babylon Bee article that in the Presbyterian church, the lights went out five minutes into the service because they were motion detector lights. And five minutes into a Presbyterian service, nobody's moving. Nobody's making a sound. Because the whole congregation is unresponsive and dead. God speaks to the dry bones. And even the dry bones made noise in response to the word of God. We must be engaged in every element of worship so that we can say the Amen truly at the end of each element. On the other hand, we have progressive churches with the indulgent sound of chaos. Like Corinth, everybody was doing their own thing. Somebody was speaking tongues over here, prophesying over here, there were people talking over each other, and Paul said, Stop! Let one person speak at a time. And so, let the person pray, then say amen. Let the person preach, then say amen. One person speaks at a time, and let the rest respond. But let the rest respond. It was the same problem in Corinth with the Lord's Supper. Everybody was eating at different times and in different amounts, and some people were stuffed and drunk, and other people had nothing to eat or drink. It is the nature of the church, and it is the nature of corporate worship, that we do everything together. In the Lord's Supper, we eat the bread together. We drink the cup together. We pray together. The time and place for individual action is in private worship. But in corporate worship, we do things together, including saying the Amen. All right, we can fold out the application. How many people already did? Nobody's willing to admit it. All right. These are some warranted suggestions for how to set things in order. The first thing is, say the amen. It ought not to be the case that we only have one person in our congregation who says amen. We all need to say it, and we all need to say it together. Now, how loud, how earnest your amen is depends on how you respond to the prayer or the preaching. If you are fully persuaded, you are desirous of what has been said, then you say Amen loudly from the bottom of your diaphragm. Amen! If you're not so sure, Amen. Secondly, say amen when cued by those leading in worship. Everything then in the examples establishes this. It is the one leading in worship who cues you when to say the amen and usually it is by their own saying amen. Amen from the leader and amen from the congregation. That may even be part of the double amens. The one by the leader, the one by the responsive congregation. Thirdly, say the Amen when cued by those leading in worship with prayer, praise, proclamation, sacrament, and the blessing. Those are the elements of worship, and when everything is said and done, then you say the Amen in affirmation and confirmation of these things. Usually, this is at the end of the preaching, or the end of the prayers. But occasionally, it is during these things, but it is cued by the leader and said by everyone. So you take Paul's example. He has the amen at the end of Romans, at the end of his blessing of the people. But in Romans 1, verse 25, he says, for they shame the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. He goes from this into a doxology and says the amen, and that's the cue for the hearers to respond with amen. This is during and not just at the end. Likewise in chapters 9 and 11, which is a particular section on the nature of the Jews, what happens to the Jews under the gospel. And he goes into the great privileges of the Jews in chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, and he ends with, who are the fathers and from whom is the Christ according to flesh, who is over all God, blessed forever, amen. He goes into a doxology and calls for an amen. And so the amens are not responses just anywhere and everywhere, but at particular times when God is explicitly and highly praised. At the end of this section is another example of this. And this is what we say amen to. Romans 11, 33 to 36. And remembering chapter nine, 10, and 11. and the election of God, the response, God seeking the salvation of his people. And it ends this way. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Here we go again. To Him be the glory forever. That's another thing. Some people are saying amen and amen. There's a long history to that, but the conviction is amen. Amen. A long A instead of a short one. That again is just the light of nature in Christian prudence. If we're going to say it together, everybody's saying the same thing. Not having some people saying amen, some people saying amen. So executive decision, amen. And the session can confirm this, of course. So, I'm trying to drive that. There is a time and place for everything. There is a situation where the Amen is called for. So you have the William Tell Overture. And the cannons go off. Now that's when the cannons fire. The cannons don't fire in the middle of the William Tell Overture. They fire at the end, in the climax. If you had the clarinet solo in the middle of a Rachmaninoff symphony and the clarinet or the oboes playing very softly. And then for some reason the guy with the cymbals goes, And everybody's just appalled. And if it happened in Russia, he'd be taken on shot. There's a time to hit the cymbals, but that wasn't it. And the amen is like that. You just don't smash your cymbals at any time at your own discretion. But you hit the cymbals hard when the leader in worship calls for an amen at an appropriate time. And during the preaching, the preacher needs, and this could be some work, the preacher needs to be sensitive. When God has spoken in a strong way, and the preacher has a sense that the people of God want to respond to that, the preacher needs to give them the opportunity to do that. That's what Paul did in the midst of Romans, for example, and he does it in other places as well. All right, I mean, participate actively in each element of worship, preparing to say the amen. When you listen to someone leading in prayer, you should follow along and make the prayer your own. Now, I recommend that you be like Hannah. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out of her mouth. So this is what I do when I'm listening to prayer. I repeat with silence, but the moving of my lips, and I'm not drunk, what the prayer is saying so that I can participate in it. And very often when someone is praying for someone who is sick, Lately I've been praying for myself to be healed. And you pray for other things. And the things that are prayed for will kick off things in your own experience that you pray for. And engage in that way. Participate in these things. Don't let your mind drift. So that at the end of the prayer, having fully participated and engaged in the prayer, you are able to say with all of your heart, Amen. In the preaching, use the outline, use the blanks, take notes, look at the references. Give vigorous nods when you agree with what is being said in the preaching. On the amen, wait for it, the corporate amen. If you're not quite sure that what the preacher is saying is true, don't give a vigorous nod, give an oscillation. I'm not quite sure that that is what he's saying, right? And then, if you vehemently disagree with what the preacher is saying, give the shape, no, that is not true. You don't need to say amen, not. You don't need to say vocally, I don't know about that. Or you also don't need to say, objection. All these things, as a private individual, you can do. And then at the end of the preaching, According as God has convicted your heart, you are ready and hopefully ready to burst with Amen. Likewise in the praises, in the second, in the blessing. Now, in the end of the four books of the Psalter, there's an Amen. The shortest version of this is at the end of Psalm 89, blessed be the Lord forever, amen and amen. And I suggest to you in this session particularly, that after we sing a psalm, that the one leading in worship at that point simply say, blessed be the Lord forever and ever, amen, and the congregation responds with amen. It could be argued you've just sung the amen, and that's adequate. But I'm suggesting that this other would be a legitimate practice as well. So F, work hard to understand what is being said by another, to be persuaded of what is being said by another, to desire what is being said by another, and to make a commitment to believe and do what is said by another. And having done those things, then, and only then, are you able to say the amen in a way that pleases God. Lastly, Pray with thanksgiving for God to shepherd us through this controversy into peace and greater blessing. This has been somewhat of a grief over these many years. But again, I think it is God's providence that he would have us look at this and look at the scriptures and conform our corporate behavior to the biblical example and to work out practical aspects of this corporately. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word to our cognizance, conviction, craving, and commitment. God be blessed forever. Amen.