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There are two scripture readings
tonight. We turn in the first place to 1 Kings chapter 12 and
then we'll turn in the New Testament to Colossians chapter 2. We're
going to be considering tonight the order and discipline that
should produce the right worship in the Church of God. So 1 Kings 12 beginning with
verse 25 and here we have an example of worship instituted
for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in
Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein and went out from thence and
built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart,
now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. If this
people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem,
Then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their
Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill
me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon the
king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto
them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold
thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship
before the one, even unto Dan. And he made a house of high places,
and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not
of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month. On the fifteenth day of the month,
like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the
altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made.
And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had
made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel
the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which
he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the
children of Israel. And he offered upon the altar
and burnt incense. Then let's turn to Colossians
chapter 2. We start reading with verse 8
until the end of the chapter. Beware, lest any man spoil you,
meaning plunder you, through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments or basic principles
of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised
him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore
judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a holy day,
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow
of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels,
intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed
up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head, from which
all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered
and knit together, increases with the increase of God. Wherefore,
if ye be dead with Christ from the basic principles of the world,
why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish
with the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men, which indeed
have a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting
of the body, not in any honor, to the satisfying of the flesh. Based on these passages and others,
we turn to article 32 on page 21, in the back of your psalter,
article 32 of the Belgic Confession. I'm not convinced that the title
put above this article is the best possible title, as I'll
explain in the sermon. Order and discipline are mentioned,
but actually more fundamental to this article is worship, and
the order and discipline of the Church are to preserve the worship
of the Church. In the meantime, we believe,
though it is useful and beneficial that those who are rulers of
the Church institute and establish certain ordinances among themselves
for maintaining the body of the Church, yet they ought studiously
to take care that they do not depart from those things which
Christ, our only Master, has instituted. And therefore we
reject all human inventions and all laws which man would introduce
into the worship of God, thereby to bind and compel the conscience
in any manner whatever. Therefore we admit only of that
which tends to nourish and preserve concord and unity, and to keep
all men in obedience to God. For this purpose, excommunication
or church discipline is requisite, with the several circumstances
belonging to it, according to the Word of God. Let us now confess our faith
with the Church of all times and places, and then respond
to Scripture reading and confession with 368. I believe in God the
Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ,
his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third
day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits
at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he
shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the
Holy Spirit. I believe that there is one holy
Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of
sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. you is to thy rest, O earth, which
shalt be thine abode. Amen. For Zion's good the Lord has
said, I will survive her if need be. you Let us pray. Our tender-hearted Father and
heavenly King of Majesty, before whom angels tremble and saints
bow, there is no greater majesty in
heaven or on earth than that with which our Lord Jesus is
clothed as He is seated on the throne of God. What a blessing
that we do not come to worship an idol, the creation of human
mythology or of human speculation, an imaginary friend, but we come
to God our Maker, our Lawgiver, our Redeemer. our complete Savior. And we pray therefore, O God,
that the glory of the Lord Jesus might shine in His church also
tonight. We sang this beautiful promise
that Messiah's glory shall be revealed and we pray that it
might be our only ambition as a congregation to do everything
according to the command of God that in this way, Messiah's glory
might sparkle in all its magnificence. Fill our hearts, Lord, with great
love toward Thee. Pour Thy own glory into us, that
we might receive from out of Thy fullness. We just read again
those beautiful words of Colossians, which says these remarkable words
about believers. You are complete in Christ. That alone is blessing enough
for a whole worship service, yes, for all of life. Because
it means that not one question, not one struggle, not one sorrow,
not one failure, not one difficulty can overcome us in which Christ will prove to
be insufficient. But in Him there is such a fullness.
that our greatest needs are answered by His beauty and His magnificence. Fill us with the Holy Spirit
that we might have seeing eyes. We remember what the Lord Jesus
said to the Pharisees in John 9, when they refused to see Him
as Messiah, when He opened the eyes of a man born blind. And
He pointed out to them that for judgment He was coming to the
world. that those who think they see might be proved to be blind.
Keep us from the blindness of human conceit, but rather show
us ourselves and show us most of all the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray for His cause in this world. Lord, there are people
all around us who need a Savior, who don't have one and who have
never heard other than in cursing and swearing the precious name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who see no more value in Him than
Pilate did, when he pointed to Him with a sneer while he was
crowned with thorns. People who don't realize their
brokenness. And there are so many other people
in society too, whose lives is a mess. We think of the opioid
crisis and of the great strain that is bringing on our society,
of people we run into. painful to see people destroying
themselves because they're without God and without hope in the world.
For some of us that hits close to home, we have family members
who have been ensnared to the bondage of addictions. We can't
reach them. Sin has such a hold that our
words fall empty. Lord, be pleased by mighty mercy
and powerful grace to restore them. Give us as a congregation
more of a missionary heart, not just to support missionaries
far away, but to be missionaries this week. In how we live and
what we say, may our words and our life drip with the fragrance
of Christ, that He might be known among the nations. We pray the
words of the psalmist, let the nations be glad, O God. Let them
give glory to the Lord our God. We marvel at Thy mighty, powerful
salvation that is mightier than the hardness of the human heart.
Once many of us were dead, blind, hard, careless, but grace transformed
our desires. And we pray, Lord, do the same
to anyone listening who has never known that wonderful transformation.
We pray for our seminary students, in particular Chris and Connie
Mourick, and Ben and Ingrid Van Leer who have gone out from this
congregation and the others as well, Jeff Auten, Mark Wagenar. We pray for Kenny Hutton as he considers
the calls, the four calls he's received. Lord, please guide
him and make it very plain to him and grant that soon he may
be ordained and installed and able to minister to a congregation
of Thy choosing. We pray for Thy blessing on our
homes, that our stubborn wills would not rise in revolt against
the words and directions of our God, but that our homes would
be stamped with obedience to the Word, that they would be
schools in which disciples of Christ live life to the glory
of God, bringing maximum glory to God. Search our hearts, Lord,
all those areas in our life where we are half-hearted, where we
are not as committed as we could be or should be, where we are
indifferent or careless, where there are patterns of sin, Lord,
break those patterns, where there are habits of unbelief and disobedience. Arouse in us gospel repentance
and reformation. As a church, too, we pray, Lord,
those areas where we are blind, those areas where we have grown
sluggish and dull, those areas in our heart and life where we
have become foolish, have mercy on us and break through in our
hearts that we might love the things that are right and good
and pure. We come to humble ourselves again
because of our sins. We confess that so quickly in
the pride of our hearts, we can want others to agree to us, to
honor us, to appreciate us. We can so quickly
become worldly without any thought, doing it just because everyone
else in our culture is doing it. Careless. And be like little children,
not growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
when there is such fullness and treasure in Christ. We pray,
Lord, that we may grow in grace and every fruit of the Spirit
in love for one another, in fellowship with one another, in faithfulness
to one another. May Thy blessings smile upon
us as a congregation. May Thy name be glorified in
our life. Be our hedge of protection. Shield
us from harm and danger, but also from temptation. Shield
us from the desires of our own heart that would rise to wage
war against the beauty of holiness. Deliver us from the lies of the
evil one who would have us believe that holiness is bondage and
dull and boring when nothing could be further from the truth.
Grant us gospel hearts, gospel homes, and gospel lives. For we prayed in the name of
the prince of the kings of the earth, our Lord Jesus. Amen. preaching of God's Word, we sing
Psalter 236. Beloved congregation of the Lord,
during the 1920s, the United States made the manufacture,
transportation, and sale of alcoholic drinks illegal. It was called
prohibition. Some, many actually, unwilling
to obey the law, made their own liquor. It was called bootlegging
and the drinks that they manufactured in the woods or in hidden basements
was called hooch. Prohibition did go one step too
far. God has declared, you can read
that in Psalm 104 and in other places, that alcohol when used
in moderation is his gift. Perhaps some of us breathe a
sigh of relief that we no longer live in such times, and perhaps
others of us who've seen the damage of alcohol abused might
long for days where society says, enough is enough. Article 32, as an echo of the
Scriptures, is concerned to keep us as a congregation from bootlegging
worship. That's not a small or imaginary
danger. All of scripture, from the days
of Cain's rejected sacrifice in Genesis 4, until the false
worship of the beast and the false prophet in the last chapters
of Revelation, show us that the human race loves bootleg religion. The Bible has a name for this,
it's idolatry. Calvin used to speak of the human heart like
this, as a factory of idols. If you've ever been to a factory
where drinks are being bottled or cereals being put in boxes,
you've seen the speed with which the machine just churns out one
after the other after the other. Faster than your hand can move.
The human heart manufactures idolatry with just as much unceasing
vigor. we might want to respond to God's
directions about worship with the same impatient revolt that
the human race expressed in its bootleg hooch. Let's get rid
of that. It's too restrictive. The modern
church is doing that on many fronts. One of the books in my
office I studied in the last couple of years by D.A. Carson
and Tim Keller, men whom I respect in other areas, argues that it's
too extreme, interestingly enough, without ever really engaging
the classic Reformed biblical reasons for this view of worship.
But God, in His Word, repeatedly condemns spiritual bootleg hooch,
no matter how popular or appealing it is seen to be by humanity.
This is not an imaginary danger. Our hearts are factories of idols. that will not change without
constant attention to God's directions. Romans 1 says our problem is
we worship and serve creation rather than the Creator. In everyday
life, how much more when we brew up religion and worship? We love
bootleg hoochah sinners. And that's just as true of us.
This sermon is not going to be about people or two people who
are not here. What a pointless waste that would be. We need
to concentrate on ourselves. We need to seek from Scripture
to make sure that we are, and here's our theme, worshipping
God in obedience to Christ. We see three things, the foundation
of such worship, the guidelines of such worship, and the fruits.
of such worship. So worshiping God in obedience
to Christ, the foundations of such worship, the guidelines
of such worship, and the fruits of such worship. Perhaps someone's
a little bit confused by the theme of worship, given that
the title of Article 32 is Order and Discipline. And of course
those topics do come up in the article, but there's actually
an underlying concern with both of them, and that is to make
sure of this. that we don't depart from what Christ our Master has
instituted to keep us from introducing in human worship, or in the worship
of God, human laws and traditions, and to keep us in obedience to
God. What is church order? It's gathering
biblical principles from the New Testament to make sure our
churches are running the way God desires. and at the heart of church order
is to worship with the office bearers God has instituted in
the way He requires. What's church discipline? Using
scripture to make sure our beliefs and our practice and our worship
is obedient to the scriptures. And all of this is aimed at one
thing. that we worship God rather than
manufacturing an image of God that becomes an idol, that we
aim for the glory of God first and foremost. The main business
of the Church in this world is to worship God. Maybe you remember
some weeks ago, even the word Church has to do with the assembling
or the gathering of the congregation. Both those words refer to the
being together of the Church. We're not, first of all, a fellowship
club. Beautiful, wonderful, and essential
as good fellowship is. And it's important for us to
grow in this area. To speak more openly with one
another and our children of what God is doing for your soul and
what He means to you. Not just to give them doctrinally
correct information, but to speak about your own communion with
God. And yet, it's not the most important
thing a church can do. We're not, first of all, a social
agency to support others in their crises and needs. It's biblical
to do this. We're not, first of all, an evangelism
training institute, although admittedly, this is an area where
we could grow in as a congregation. Is it not worthwhile to ask ourselves,
should there not be many more Members of this congregation
who never grew up in a church. And if that doesn't make up a
growing percentage of our congregation, do we not then have some heart-searching
to do? As to why not? And yet, even that is not the
main purpose or main activity of a church. We're not even here,
first of all, to love each other, beautiful as that is. No, the
main reason for our being here is to glorify God. What does
Christ gather and build up His church for? Why does He rule
His church through pastors, elders, and deacons? Is it so that we'd
feel good about ourselves, enjoy ourselves, enjoy spiritual experiences,
and be satisfied with how we're doing? No, God seeks worshippers,
John 4, 24. Jesus says it to the woman at
the well. God is a spirit and he seeks those who worship him
in spirit, that is with your whole heart, in the power of
the Holy Spirit and in truth, according to and filled with
his word. That's the only thing the Bible
ever says God seeks for from us. Don't think this is just
about those three hours of the week when we're all together
here. What you receive in public worship, is to feed and motivate
and direct you to do the same thing in all of life, to give
God maximum glory in how you live your life. And Article 32
tells us that the mission statement of the church is simple. That's
why we don't need to develop any additional mission statements.
To take studious care that we do not depart from what Christ
commanded. And that where we have We return
to the commands of Christ to keep all men in obedience to
God and to avoid compelling anyone to worship God in any way that's
not commanded in His Word. Now, why did this article make
it into our confession? Well, remember what Rome had
done to the worship of God. Man-made customs. You can still
hear so many of these in a Catholic cathedral. Praying to Mary, the
recent Pope declared that she's the co-mediator with Christ.
Praying to saints who have died. During the Lord's Supper celebration,
which they call the Mass, when the priest elevates the host,
as they call it, or the body of Christ, everyone's supposed
to kneel and worship. Because the priest of bread is
now literally the physical body of Christ, as they say. Not eating
meat on Friday, as if that's a sin. If you're not interested
in repenting and confess the same things every time you're
there. Calling your New Testament leaders priests when the New
Testament does not do so. Telling them they can't get married.
And the list goes on and on. All of these things started with
very good intentions. And slowly human tradition encrusted
onto the simplicity of New Testament worship until scripture itself
was buried beneath the weight of human tradition. And the Pope
even said, you have to obey all these traditions or you're cut
off from Christ. Then there was the book of Middle
Ages, Church Law, they called it Canon Law. It was volumes
big volumes, children, that thick, tall, wide, a whole library,
debated endlessly, Church Father so and so said this, and Church
Father so and so said that, and Scripture quotations were few
and far between. It seems strange to us today,
doesn't it? We live in times that are the very opposite. Today
people say, we don't want any rules and regulation, we just
want freedom, and they'll register complaints, pile ridicule, I
once happened to be in a university building where a synod of another
denomination was gathering and so, taking a break from my studies,
I went and sat in the visitor's gallery and listened for a while
and someone said, well, we're so happy to be rid of church
order, we just want to do the Lord's work. What do you think
church order is about in the first place? We all want liberty
of conscience. We have the freedom of the spirit.
Away with all forms of law and regulation. Church order, that's
just man-made stuff. Usually that's said by people
who've never even read it or bothered to ask why we have it
in the first place. And the Reformers chose to start
at ground zero, in the middle of their mess. Instead of trying
to salvage and polish the mess dumped on them by Rome, they
said, let's go back to the Scriptures. And rather than saying, well,
we're free in the Spirit and we don't need any guidelines
or policy or order in the church, they said, let's go back to the
Scriptures. They model for us the very attitude,
they call us to practice, to studiously take care, let's not
depart from anything Christ commanded us, and let's therefore reject
all man-made inventions and laws in the worship of God. Young people, you're reaching
an age and a stage in life where you're wondering, why do we do
what we do in a Reformed church? Why do we worship this way? Why
don't we worship a different way? Young people, you're right
to be asking those questions. In fact, Article 32 praises you
when you studiously take care to know, notice, the emphasis
studiously take care. Don't just say, well, I'd like
something different, but go to the scriptures. You and people,
you are right to be dissatisfied with the answers you get if they
are based on no more than tradition. Some appeals to tradition, even
in reformed circles, are little better than Roman Catholicism.
That's how our fathers have done it. So what? Seriously. So what? The far more important question
is this. This is what it means to be Reformed.
That we ask ourselves in every generation again, what has Christ
commanded? Has anything he commanded been
eclipsed or been buried in our church culture? We can know what
he wants. Article 7 already had said this,
that God, the way of worship, is in detail spelled out in the
Scriptures. Church history and church tradition
are only useful insofar as we view them through the filter
of Scripture and as they take us back to the Scriptures. That's
what it means to be a Reformed church. And in Reformed theology,
this is known very simply. as the regulative principle of
worship. You give God what He commands
plus nothing else. Anything He doesn't command is
idolatry. Or to say it another way, it's
spiritual bootleg hooch. I'm not going to defend the regulative
principle as biblical in this sermon. I've done so in other
sermons. I've done so often in the classes
I teach in this congregation. And it's not just a principle
you can defend with one or two texts if you kind of half close
your eyes and squint and make a bunch of assumptions. There's
a mountain of biblical evidence for it. But what we need to do
tonight is ask ourselves, why should we be concerned with the
order and discipline of the church as the foundation of preserving
biblical worship? Let's turn to Colossians chapter
2. And let me demonstrate to you that this is clearly a New
Testament preoccupation for pure, biblical worship. Let us begin
chapter 2, verse 8. Notice these startling words. He's spent the first part of
the letter praising and focusing on the glory and the beauty of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says this, Beware,
lest any man spoil, that means plunder you, through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the basic principles
of the world, and not after or according to Christ. This is
not an imaginary danger. Sometimes people respond to the
warnings of the Scriptures in this and say, just relax, we
have the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and it's safe to be
led by the Spirit and we can experiment. with new elements
of worship. And as long as you're passionate
for God, Calvin says it somewhere, he says people labor under the
delusion that as long as what they're doing displays zeal for
God, or to use a modern cliche, as long as you're passionate
for God, then it's gotta be good, right? Not if the traditions
of men, whether ancient or new, are plundering you away from
Christ. And after describing Christ's
glory, the apostle goes on in verse 18, to condemn spiritual
bootleg hooch. Notice what he says, let no man
beguile or deceive you of your reward. By what? Well, our translation is a little
bit challenging here, so let me translate it afresh for you
from the Greek. Let no man deceive you of your
reward by delighting in false humility and worshipping of angels,
going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his
sensuous mind." Paul, that is not very nice. These people are
sincere. Are they? Probably. But that doesn't make you right.
Notice how they'll say it, God gave me a vision. Paul said,
wait a minute. Actually, it's not Paul, it's
God. They're delighting in phony humility. Real humility is a
beautiful thing. But fake humility and piety that's
an act stinks like a fish that's been laying in the sun in 20-degree
weather for three days. The Holy Spirit calls it being
puffed up in your mind without reason. You might be humbled
and say, well, I never thought God would do all this through
all these new ideas I have about changing worship. That's not
real humility. That's fake. Real humility is
to say, I'm going to take studious care that I don't take one step
unless it's clearly commanded by God saying, do it or by the
principles and practice of the scriptures requiring it. And
flowing from such visions, verse 21 and 22, are all kinds of man-made
regulations. Most of all, a list of don'ts
in verse 21. Don't eat this. Don't touch that. Why are these things not helpful?
Because they perish with the using, meaning people who do
them spiritually die through them. Yeah, but they're such
nice people. They have good morals. Shouldn't
we identify with them? Verse 23, these things indeed
have an appearance of wisdom. That's what the word show means.
They look good. But what are they really? will
worship. That means worship that arises
out of our wills rather than God's will. To say it another
way again, this is spiritual man-made hoach. God says it'll
make you drunk with phony humility and wisdom, but it won't glorify
Him. And that's why verse 23 ends
to translate again from the Greek Man-made will-worship is of no
value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Man-made worship
doesn't renew your heart from living in sin to worship God.
It just hides your sin under the veneer of fake piety of whatever
kind it might be. Pharisees too, they usually flourish
best in conservative churches. And you can summarize it all
in a word. Man-made worship and commandments
produce Christless Christianity. It's a shocking term. It's like
saying, let's have a banquet, but there will be no food served.
Let's have a wedding, but there's no bridegroom. Let's have a throne
speech, but there's no king and no throne. Donald Barnhouse,
a Presbyterian pastor some 60 years ago, offered a provocative
example on his radio broadcast. Listen to this. He said, he was
a pastor in Philadelphia. He says, imagine Satan took over
the town of Philadelphia. What would it look like? He asks,
listen to what he says. The bars would close. Pornography
would be outlawed. Clean streets would be filled
with tidy people who smile at each other. There'd be no swearing. All the children would say, yes
sir, no ma'am. And the churches would be full every Sunday. What
do you think of that? Really? But then here's the key
last line. The churches would be filled
where Christ is not preached. If you have all those other things
without Christ being central, then it's Christless Christianity. When you measure everything by
does it make me happy and does it make me feel spiritually fed,
rather than by God's holiness and love and His commands, then
the sense of our being sinners in need of a Savior becomes lost
in the shuffle, or even offensive. Because if we're basically good
people who've lost our way, but with the right instructions and
motivation, can be coached to be better, then you need Christ
as a life coach, not as a Savior. Then you need a pep rally every
Sunday morning in which you leave feeling wonderful and pumped
up and on fire. Oh, we're praising Christ! But if the Word of God is not
a sharp sword that makes room for Him, and the wooing word
that draws you to Christ, you've actually denied Him. Why do we have a church order?
Ah, it's just something people came up with. Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa. Remember, this is a Reformed church. There better
be nothing in our practice that is just something people came
up with. Do you know what the first article written in church
order was? Let me quote it to you. Article 87. No one is to
lord it over others. No pastor over other pastors,
no elder over other elders, and no church over other churches.
Oh. Why? Because Christ alone may
do so. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 40. Let all things be done decently
and in order. Why? Because God is not the author
of confusion, but of order. Corinthians loved their chaotic
worship services. People all wanted to take a turn.
Yeah, I'm a prophet. The Holy Spirit spoke through
me. I'm going to speak. Sit down. And they'd interrupt each other. But I want to sing this today.
They were claiming the Spirit is speaking through me. And Paul
says, that chaos is not the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our church
order is simply a fence to protect you from a pastor who thinks
he's the CEO of the church and who has his own vision and direction. And who says to anyone who disagrees
with him, now you're resisting God. God forbid, no. It's about
keeping your pastor and your elders and all of us in obedience
to Christ and His Word. You know, this is intensely practical.
We all have our preferences and our wish list, do we not? I think
probably every one of us could point out various things and
say, you know, I'd really like it if our church were more this or
more that or less that. Maybe the one says we should
have a Bible translation in contemporary language. And the other says,
well, we really should have individual cups at the Lord's table. Or
the next says, no, it has to be the common cup. Actually,
neither one is clearly spelled out in Scripture. And the one
says, well, we should have a much more relaxed dress code. And
the next says, well, we should have a stricter dress code. One of the saddest splits in
Dutch Reformed Church history was about what ministers should
wear in public. It should make us weep. One group
said he has to wear a triangular black hat and pants going halfway
up his calf. You know what we call them today?
Caprice, women wear them. And one group said, if we go
down that road, then everything's going to change in church life,
and it's the first step to decay. And the other group said, but
nobody dresses like that anymore. Why should we force pastors to?
And so on and on it went. Now, does the church have to
make decisions about a number of these matters just in terms
of pure practicality? Yeah, we do. And Article 32 says,
we may do so. as long as we are studious to
make sure we do not depart from what Christ has commanded. Scripture protects us from endless
debates about these things by saying to us, avoid all human
laws introduced into the worship of God. The Word of God, the
command of Christ, is the only foundation for decisions about
the gathering of the congregation. Do you want to see things change
in worship and the life of our church? If we believe that God
can call us to reformation and repentance, then we should always
be open to this. That's the way we've always done
things, is the worst possible reason to continue to do things.
But then show us as leaders. Show us from Scripture. The only
thing you can say is, I want, I think, and I feel. Or tradition. That should not carry any weight
in a Reformed church. Not even if your pastor or elders
are the ones saying this. A Catholic bishop visited Guido
de Bra in prison and wanted to convert him back to Rome. And
de Bra answered like this, if even a child can show me a better
way to believe, I would gladly do it. But he added, if only
if you can show it from Scripture. Because that, he said, is the
only proof I accept. Isn't that the way it should
be? That combination of humility and saying, only the Word of
God. If you want to see something
change in church life, then you need to be able to demonstrate
an answer to this question from the Scriptures. Where does Christ
command it? How does Christ command it? What
command or principle or pattern in the Scriptures calls us to
do so? So then, how do we know what
Christ wants us to do in worship? And that's our second point,
the guidelines of such worship, and we'll move more quickly now.
We could, of course, go to various Old and New Testament passages
demonstrating this is what Christ wants in worship, and I've done
so often in sermons and classes here, and rather repeat all that
now. I want to do the opposite. I
want to show you from the Scriptures what happens when we produce
human ingenuity and invention in worship. What are the hard
attitudes that can lead us astray? Let's turn to our other Scripture
reading in 1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12. Jeroboam, the
first king of the northern tribes, has a problem. The temple's the
one sacred building on earth. Means there are no New Testament
sacred buildings. It's in Jerusalem. Israelites
are supposed to go there for three feasts a year. And more
often if they can. But what if the people do that
and they say, you know what? The house of David rules in the
city where the temple is. Maybe we should rejoin them."
And Jeroboam is afraid of that, so he makes a solution. Golden
calves, a new priesthood, and new feast days. Of course, we
won't call it a new religion. No, we'll just say, these are
the gods who brought you out of Egypt. Oh, Israel, verse 28,
we're worshiping Jehovah. There's three marks here of going
wrong in worship, and every one of us needs to search our heart
and life in this regard. First of all this, security or
the desire for security is the need for false religion. Look
at verse 25, Jeroboam starts right, he builds two fortified
cities, that's what kings should be doing. But then in verse 26
and 27, the Holy Spirit lets us eavesdrop on a conversation
he's having in his own head. And his own heart suggests idolatry. What's he afraid of? Orthodoxy! His problem is not that orthodoxy
is dull or boring, but that it's unsettling. Orthodoxy in the
Old Testament centers around the house of David, picturing
Christ, and the sacrifices, picturing Christ. See, it's about Christ. And the prophet Ahijah in chapter
11, 32 to 34 had given Jeroboam the northern kingdom by prophecy
and had said, the split is not forever. The time will come when
Israel has to return to the house of David. But this word of promise
is not enough for Jeroboam. He wants something more secure
than the word of God. So he doesn't reject orthodox
worship because it's no longer true, but because it's no longer
useful. He doesn't find it false, he
finds it scary. He's got to hold on to his kingdom
and he's got to make his kingdom secure. Because if you can't
trust God, then you'll use religion instead of worshipping God. Jeroboam
wants to secure his position rather than bring glory to God. How quickly we can be the disciples
of Jeroboam. We need to make our worship more
appealing to the youth. We need to keep our youth. Yes,
we do. But not at the expense of worshiping
God according to His Word. How easy it is in daily life,
in the worship of all of life, as well as of the Lord's day,
to walk by logic rather than by faith, by human calculation
rather than commitment to the Word of God. Maybe if we have
a worship team, we'll keep more young people. Show me from the
Scriptures, from the New Testament, where the Church did this, and
we'll have one next Sunday. But if you can't, then that's the
wrong reasoning. Second, we see in verses 28 through
30, the appeal of the flesh as the
subtlety of false bootleg religion. Jeroboam comes out of his strategy
room. It's too much for you to go all
the way to Jerusalem. You could also translate his words. That's
enough of that. meaning you've chosen a new king,
choose new places of worship. Why did he put the calves at
Dan and Bethel in the north and south ends of his kingdom? For
geography, maybe, probably for tradition. What was Bethel? Abraham
and Jacob worshipped there. Dan in the north had a history
of alternative worship. A grandson of Moses was a presiding
priest. You can read about it in Exodus
18 and 19. You see, Jeroboam is not honest
about his fears. He's a politician, and he deals
with spin rather than fact. Notice the call to worship in
verse 28. Behold your gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt. This is a word-for-word quote of what Aaron said at Mount
Sinai, when Israel pressured him to make the original golden
calves. You see, Jeroboam is just picking up a quote-unquote
different tradition. It was held in the past and sadly
it's been buried from view for a while and Jeroboam is saying,
I'm not a radical innovator. Israel's ignoring the richness
and the diversity of her traditions. I'm quoting now word for word
from some of the worship books I've read in the last few years.
There was a time when Israel was much more inclusive and less
narrow-minded. It's not forsaking God, it's
diversity. It's part of the boundless creativity
of God. You see how false worship thrives?
Tradition? Just another way of doing it.
You see why church leaders should have a theologically allergic
reaction whenever people appeal to tradition rather than scripture. Whether hooch religion stinks
or not depends on how you spin it in the 1930s. There was a horse medicine named
Absorbine, and the sales were plummeting, and so a clever advertiser
was tasked to rebound the company. And he had it tested, and he
found out, hey, we can also use this for what was called back
then ringworm of the foot on people. But who wants to admit
to having ringworm of the foot? So the advertiser said, let's
give that ailment a different name. Let's call it athlete's
foot. Such positive associations, almost
as if getting it makes you an athlete. Sales skyrocketed and
the company was saved. Bootleg hooch in worship always
tries to gain its appeal in this way. They'll use biblical words,
love and redemption and inclusivity, all for positive emotional value,
but without biblical content. Oh, beware the sins of Aaron
and Israel in Dan and in Bethel gave Jeroboam the excuse years
later to lead Israel astray. And God says in chapter 14 of
1 Kings, the number one reason he destroyed the northern kingdom
was this foolish depending on sinful human tradition that they
could have claimed was even recorded in the Scriptures. But they ignored
the condemnation of the Scriptures over these very things. Let us
be jealous to lose God's favor by spinning with sinful convenience
pious sounding labels for sinful compromise. And third, we see
in verses 31 through 33, invention, human invention as the foolishness
of bootleg religion. Jeroboam sets up a whole new
church here And verse 33 tells us exactly where he got it from.
He had devised it in his own heart. That's the secret of idolatry. Religion for Jeroboam was not
a given, not revealed by God, but based on human invention.
The word made is used eight times in these verses in the Hebrew.
The writer's dipped his pen in acid here. It's all man-made. No one should take man-made religion
seriously, no matter how good it feels, no matter how successful
it is, because Jeroboam was successful in the short term. Real worship
must either rest on God's revelation or on the preferences of the
human heart, but it can't be both. Our culture is not in love
with gold bulls. Our culture is in love with its
own religious idols. Probably the chief one is religious
experience. If I feel it, it must be good
and true. If I feel spiritual, if I have a wow experience, well,
surely it's of God. One woman described her religion
like this in an interview, and I quote, her name was Sheila.
She described her Christianity as she called it like this. It's
Sheila-ism, just my own little voice. God is a different word
for that. It's bootleg religion, it's spiritual
hooch, it's idolatry, and it's utterly foolish. Because if worship
is about glorifying God, then our only and our number one concern
must be again and again that we give God in worship no more
and no less than what He asks for. See how man-made religion
arises, seeking your security, in something other than God's
Word, seeking subtle appeals to idolatry in history and tradition,
seeking in your own heart the best way to do things. That's
the call to self-examination and repentance to each of us
tonight. How do you see worship? As designed to make you feel
secure? As designed to excuse obedience
by appealing to tradition? Jesus said it. In vain? Not this is another way of doing
things. Jesus said, in vain do they worship me, teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men. Or do you ask your heart, what
feels the most appealing? Rather than listening to God's
Word. When you add up all these common
spiritual motivations that lead to idolatry and false worship.
Do you see that in that light, the wording of Article 32 becomes
beautiful and safe because it honors Christ most of all. All
of this to say again, quoting the three key sentences from
Article 32, we should studiously take care not to depart from
those things which Christ, our only master, has instituted and
we reject therefore all man-made laws and inventions that would
compel worship. When you do that, it bears spiritual
fruit. Our last point. Doctrine is just people talking,
right? Not biblical doctrine. It's truth that produces fruit.
We'll start with the least important and build up to the most important.
The first is it frees you from human compulsion. Imagine you're
at a Roman Mass before the Reformation. People are forced to kneel when
a piece of bread is raised in the air. Mary is prayed to out
loud by all, and the priest will report you to the Inquisition
if you say no. That view of worship only in
obedience to Christ frees you from such spiritual tyranny. It frees you from me coming up
with my own brand of hooch, because I'm quite capable of it. Human bootleg hooch leads to
tyranny either the tyranny of man-made regulations In addition
to scripture or the tyranny of idolatrous sinners being without
the regulations of scriptures Our church loves to gather on
Christmas and Good Friday and our Presbyterian brethren would
say quoting Jeroboam You can't invent a feast day no more commanded
in the scriptures And it's true. We have no right to bind people's
conscience to them I'm not convinced feast day is the best word for
it anyway, but that's a subject for another time. We must gather
on the Lord's Day. We may gather on other days.
In the Old Testament, too, there were extra days of prayer to
commemorate great acts of God, great deliverances of God. But
let us not compel those who disagree in principle. to do so. The church
may not compel where God's Word does not. I love preaching on Christmas
Day and on Good Friday. I have no desire to stop. But
we have to guard ourselves against compelling anyone to do something
Scripture doesn't require. The church has to decide what
time the services start. Does God tell us a church service
has to start at 10 in the morning? We have to apply biblical principle
to such things. When can the most of us be gathered? But we need to take studious
care, not to bind anyone to something God didn't command, so that we
preserve the Christ-focused liberty of God's people. And second,
the fruit of worshiping God and obedience to Christ is that it
keeps unity. You see, obedience to Christ does keep unity. When
I evaluate, and you evaluate, all your preferences, and I mine,
based on Scripture alone, rather than insisting, my preferences
are reason enough to do something, it keeps us in harmony. We don't
all have to have the same opinion on secondary matters. As long
as our real concern is simply this, and our only standard for
worship is this, are we obeying Christ? We can live with each
other in harmony as we worship God, rather than look down on
each other by not following human tradition or living up to each
other's preferences. And third and most important
of all, the fruit of worshiping God and obedience to Christ is
God gets his glory. Not every sermon is going to
edify you the same way. The one might be more of a teaching
sermon, the next might be very intensely practical about work
or evangelism or other things, and that's okay. You might feel
more blessed under one than the other, and that's okay. But the
most important question is not if you felt blessed. Was there
a disappointed God after the service? Did we give Him the
highest glory possible by obeying His commands and adding nothing
to worship, unless He requires it of us? If the church in North
America gets back to asking this most important question of all
when it comes to worship, it would lead to a new reformation.
One worship scholar named Olds has said it best. In our evangelistic
zeal, and I'm quoting now, we're looking for programs that will
attract people. We think we have to put honey
on the lip of the bitter cup of salvation. It's the story
of the wedding of Cana all over again, but with this difference.
At the crucial moment when the wine failed, we took matters
into our own hands. and use those five stone jars
to mix up a batch of Kool-Aid instead. It seemed like a good
solution for our culture. Unfortunately, the guests soon
discovered the fraud. Alas, what can we do now? How
can we minister to those who thirst for the real thing? There's
only one thing to do, as Mary, the mother of Jesus, understood
so well. You remember how the story goes. She presented the
problem to Jesus. And then Mary turned to the servants
and said to them, you do whatever he tells you. And the servants
did just that. And the water was turned into
wine, wine rich and mellow beyond anything they'd ever tasted before. When you learn that lesson when
it comes to worship, you tremble before God in reverence and in
joy. For God makes himself known most
gloriously where his church worships him as he asks for and trembles
to go a step beyond that. And it becomes about God, God
who saves, God who communes with his people, God who reveals his
glory in soul-satisfying ways and in Christ-exalting ways.
How we as sinners, who are idolaters by reflex, instinct and preference,
need to remember this when it comes to worship. It's about
God and God alone. That's what keeps giving you
reason to worship in the gathering of His church. And then in that
light to worship with everything you do, even whether you eat
or drink, to do it to the glory of God. Amen.
Worshipping God in obedience to Christ
Series The Belgic Confession
| Sermon ID | 310191925310 |
| Duration | 1:07:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 Kings 12 |
| Language | English |
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