Let's all be made of hearts and of prayer, and let's take the Lord together with faithfulness, and let's hold His blessings to be evident in our midst and in the sons and daughters of God. Let us all pray. Eternal God and loving Father, we thank thee once again for the opportunity to stir our hearts in thy presence, to draw us safe from the busy schedule and chores of life, and to be at the home of the Holy Lord in this meeting house. We thank thee for the grounds of our status and assurance before thy throne, We thank Thee for the blessed cross walk of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, with the same tenacity, we have loved us and washed us from our sins. And we thank Thee for that love. And Lord, even whilst we were yet sinners, He loved us. And we thank you that God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And we thank you that on that center cross of Calvary he took our sins and our sins and he gave them his very own. And he bore our burden and he suffered and he bled and died alone. And we want to offer today the very praise of our hearts and the very worship of our names. For all that the Lord Jesus Christ does mean to us, for all that He has done for us, and for all that is yet to be, we praise Thee that the best is yet to be for the people of God. And we thank Thee one day, Lord, to join that innumerable covenant of redeeming the righteous one of God. And Lord, we want to sing the praises of Him who has loved us for all eternity. We're going to seek Thee out by heart. We're going to love Thee with unsettling heart. And Lord, for all the ages of eternity to come, we're going to serve Thee. And we thank Thee that this little meeting tonight is just but a foretaste of glory to come. And we pray that Thou wilt encourage all of our hearts tonight. Lord, we confess before Thee we do yet battle weary. Our Lord, we confess before Thee the cruelty of this human flesh upon us. But we pray tonight that we would send the refreshing dew of God's holy spirit upon our souls this evening in honour, that we might know where is the presence of the King, that we might know his spirit replying the words of our hearts and heads. If that word comes with a measure of rebuke tonight, we thank thee that it is still the word of the Lord. If it comes forward with a measure of encouragement, we thank Thee that Thou hast not forgotten about us. And Lord, if it gives fresh direction along the journey, I pray that Thou wilt be pleased to help us to walk in the nature. And we pray again for this meeting house in Kingston. We thank Thee for years gone by in which the Word of God has echoed forth in us. And I pray, O God, that Thou wouldst revive it once again. I pray for the calling of the power of God the Holy Ghost upon this congregation, upon this community, in which is witnesses for Christ. And I pray that many will be drawn from the world's side and brought to the Lord's side. We thank thee for Israel of old, how they encamped every man around his standard. And I pray that you'll raise up a people to stand around the standard and the banner of the cross of Jesus Christ. in this part of my family. We thank You for all who have been with us in nights gone by. We thank You for those who have made such an effort to be present. And I pray, Lord, that Thou will bless us again tonight and speak to us and minister Thy word softly to us tonight. and come and draw one's day, and that even as we leave this building tonight, may we be able to say in sincerity and in truth that it was good for us to have been here, for here we met a precious Lord. So abide with us now and lead us forward, and all we will send to you will be clean and precious in Jesus' precious name. Amen. First of all, we would like to thank Mathew's Gospel. Mathew's Gospel, which I respect. I want to thank you once again, each one of you for coming along. Some of you have a nice name, some of you are very special. I want to thank you for coming. I hope you have been helped in the worship and what the Word of God teaches us on very precious worship. We want to look tonight at the essential elements that constitute public worship. It's a good day, not a bad day, but it is a good day. Controversy today as to what should be in the public worship of God. But if you can follow along on the night that is going by, you'll realize there ought to be no controversy as to what there ought to be in the public worship of God. The poem of R. A. is because we have departed from the murders. The Great Evangelical Church has departed from the murders. And if we had kept to the moral principles and foundations, we would not be discussing or studying even what the potential elements are, because they are rudimentary, and they are fundamental, and never led to revenge, I guess, by the role of the Church, to use for identification and instruction on the glory of Almighty God. So tomorrow evening we'll look at the negative thing. I've tried to keep positive this week, but tomorrow evening we'll look at the negative thing, and we're going to be getting an overview of what has come to be known as modern contemporary worship. What's to be in the Church? What needs to be in the Church that exercises are implemented? These are all found in a so that we have to make our choices up. And then by then, when we've all come to a conclusion, I've sent a supplement in here with you. And so we'll just be here a while to come, and we'll hear what's in the Lord's Day, and we'll be looking on the Lord's Day at Trent's first and last sermon. The first sermon will be preached on the last sermon of the week, in the morning of the service, and then we'll be looking on the afternoon service of the Great Commission of the Lord and Saviour's Church. And that's the task I want to leave you with, of this part of the encampment here in the Lord's Church. I hope to be looking at the prayer line next week as well. I did come with the purpose and intention of getting to know you. I've talked to many of you in joint fellowship and interaction. We'll have time just to go out and visit some homes before I leave. So that's critical to you before I leave. You can indicate that to me the next day or tomorrow night, and we can make due preparations. And it would have been my great honor to spend an hour with you some afternoon to share with you your experience at the place of thought. to share a little bit of my own experience, to hear what your vision is for the work of God in Kingston and this part of Australia, and your vision for the nation of the United Kingdom. I brought with me some DVDs for the day. of a religious conference that was held in my own congregation in Honolulu, just at the end of March. And it was an all-day conference, and all of the big starships in the vicinity were invited along too. And I think there is still a tremendous instruction there for all of the testers. And there are bureaus and the trusts that they invest with them. If it's not enough in the rain, we can share it in the wind, just pass the rain. So you connect those to make a deep debt to them, and the trusts will be a help and an encouragement to you. Mighty child testers are very well-read, and will connect on first name. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. And in there we know that God will add His own blessing to this serenade of His own holy and precious Word. Everything being equal, we have followed this weekly worship work. Each evening in the week of the Swallowing Dead and God's Eternity, we have seen how the worship responded to the call of God. And oh how we praise the Lord's name that there is grace in our hearts tonight that has enabled us to respond to the call of God and to the call of worship. There is also discernment in our hearts tonight to know that the worship of the Lord is regulated not regulated by the ideologies of men, but regulated by the pure and perfect Word of God. And there are, of course, principles that will govern what we do in the worship of God and how we do what we do in the worship of God. So now we're ready to commence the worship service. It took a long time to get the service, but we're ready to commence an actual worship service. And as we commence the natural worship service and we look at the Word of God, we can ask the question, well, what then are the essential elements in the public worship of God? I'm going to start simply with going to outline them for you and possibly comment here and there on them, and I trust they'll have spiritual application to your hearts and to your lives. The first element in public worship that we'll spend a moment looking at is the fact that public prayer has an essential part to play in the public worship of God. Now, in doing so, I want to emphasize that there are two types of services in the New Testament church that emphasize public prayer, and both are very important. We have, for example, the church prayer movement, and that is public prayer. In Acts chapter 1, As they turn over their witness, Acts chapter 1 verse 13 and 14, we have there that very famous prayer message in Jerusalem of the Holy Temple Church. And we read there, when they were come in, verse 13, they went up into an upper room whereas both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Samson the leper and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the woman and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. I want you to notice that this was a meeting for prayer. These all continued with one accord in prayer and in supplication. This is a very important type of prayer that is exercised in the worship of God, but it's a very specific type of prayer because it is a corporate or collective prayer meeting of the New Testament Church. Of course, there are other examples, and they are found right throughout the Acts of the Apostles, and also within the Epistles. The New Testament Church met the thread. They really believe that God heard their prayers. I love that illustration that's given in Acts chapter 12. And remember there how James had been taken and put to death. Peter was then kept in prison, ready to be put to death the next day. And what could the church do? Could they hire a fancy lawyer? Who could talk Peter out of prison? Who could persuade the judges to let him go? Who could let the offer of bread at their own house? No, they couldn't do anything. They meant for prayer. Prayers want to be made of the church for him. They meant for prayer. These people, they have no ear of anybody else but they have the ear of God. And brothers and sisters, it would seem to me like that in this day and age that we live in. All over the world there are many doors closed to the people of God. And we lament that we don't have the ear of politicians in the corridors of power anymore. We don't have the ear of the media. They're not interested in what the church has to say. But when we have the ear of God, And there's no higher authority, there's no higher court to which you and I can speak or go to without the ear of God. And the Church can come collectively together unto pray. Sisters and brethren, let's gather for prayer. And I believe they both pray. In some congregations back home in the UK, and in the British Isles, of course, the women come down to the men and pray. Well, if that would be good for all together, and to listen to each other pray, I want to encourage all to pray. In our own Free Christaterian Church, we have an open format for prayer. And so as the Spirit of God would give guidance and utterance, we leave it up, an open format for as many to take part in a public place of prayer, as famous men and guides of God stood to do. That's something special, and I think we should protect that and watch over it. And that is where you're placed off to be, in the public prayer and in the spiritual way. And the strength of this witness here in Kingston will be found in the firmament. Don't miss it for earlier in your journeys. The public worship of God ought to put very special emphasis on the case of prayer. So there's the church firm, they think, not the special format where the believers collectively, corporately gather for prayer, but then also there's the formal worship service. This is a different setup. But in the form of worship, sir, I'm primarily concerned with what I have mistaken upon is the Sabbath day ordinances. What happens on the Lord's Day? And this is a different stepping, where only one leads in prayer, only one. An appointed leader, usually the minister who will lead the service that day and preach the word. That individual is the one who has been set aside to lead in prayer and to lead the congregation into the sanctuary. So not everybody prays. I remember being in a church in Kenya, in Nairobi. It was my first time in Nairobi in 1997, and I was invited along to a meeting. And I was told it was a Presbyterian meeting. So I thought Presbyterian, Presbyterian, leg will go with leg. But I found out when I was in the compound that Pentecostal Presbyterian. I said to the man who was with me, you cannot mix So when I was cornered, nothing was able to go into the meeting. The man who was leading the meeting, that was the obsidian prayer. I thought that was quite what they thought. Everyone would be seven, ten on the side of the obsidian prayer. But when I started to pray, about two hundred people started to pray. I cried with them then. I could not hear what I was saying, and they couldn't hear what they were saying, and if anybody had been standing outside that building that day, they would have thought we were all mad and insane about it. Now, I'm sure the Lord heard everybody individually and what they were saying, but it didn't give eminence to the worship of God. And I don't believe that's how the worship of God ought to be conducted. There is one who meets in prayer, and as that individual meets in prayer, all of the congregations are praying with that individual. So when the minister meets in prayer on the Lord's Day, Actually, what the problem is, it's not that he shut God for that time and what he has prayed. No, you are saying amen to his petition. Your heart has been drawn out after God even as he prays. And there have been times, even in those opening devotions and prayer, in which it has been said that heaven is open. And God has blessed the hearts of his people. Formal worship. I think we have an example of that in Acts chapter 4 and verse 24 of this type of praying. One man leading the praying. And when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. Now they're all saying Amen, but there's one man leading. And then you can read that great prayer that was after the first persecution of the church. One layman, but the sense of his express, touched the hearts of all in the meeting. I think it is an affront to the worship of God when someone is laying in prayer, and those in the meeting are defiantly, they will not close their eyes or bow their heads in prayer. It could well be someone comes in to a church meeting for the first time, they don't know that they are supposed to bow their head and close their eyes in prayer. And that can be forgiven and overlooked, but there are some who commit undeadness. Undeadness of services to the Lord. But there's defiance, there's rebellion in the heart. Sometimes in the children's meetings, Back home, it always pays to pray with your eyes open. You can tell the boys and girls to keep their eyes closed, but it always pays for you to keep your eyes open to see what is going on. And sometimes, some boy or girl will put their eye out like this and they'll look at you, and you'll know right away, he's watching you. But God's watching all of us. God is watching. In our Reformed circles, we often talk about the opening pastoral prayer on Sunday morning. Sometimes this opening pastoral prayer becomes a sermon in itself, which is not a good thing. But the minister is leading his people into the presence of God, and that opening prayer is an act of worship. It will include adoration, a devout magnifying of the perfections of God. If some benediction is taken that they believe, they have to pray over all of the perfections of God and leave nothing for discernment. But nonetheless, isn't a woman in prayer gorgeous magnified? Not only is God magnified, but our sins are confessed. Generally, our sins are confessed. We're asking God to forgive us. Dare we come into the presence of God at the start of the Lord's day and think that we don't need forgiveness? Every day we need forgiveness. Of course, that's when prayer should include fast gathering. That also should include petitions for the blessings of which we stand in need. If you want to have a model in which to pray, that's why we started with the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 9 to 13 or Scripture reading to me. I believe the Lord's Prayer is not just a model to follow. But I believe it's a prayer we can collectively use in the worship of God. And I believe it's quite permissible to do so. And I think it's clear from the sister passage in Luke's Gospel that this is what the Lord intended. He said, when ye pray, say. It wasn't just something that we were to follow our traditions upon, but when ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven. So I believe it is scriptural for a congregation to use these words collectively as a means of congregational worship. And I think there's great blessing even in using it in such a manner. And often times we will do that around the Lord's table and we will have all assembled there to say this prayer that the Lord taught us to say. It's when you pray, say Our Father in that. And if that's what's beyond what your conscience will teach you, well, that's a prayer itself, it's a model to shape our way of life. and as you go through the prayers and the various petitions you will be taught of the word how to pray. The Bible teaches us concerning the scope of public prayer which is broad and varied, but it also teaches us concerning the limitations of public prayer. We're taught that it's wrong to pray for certain things. I know you're saying, has he not contradicted himself? No. It is wrong to pray for certain things. For example, it is wrong to pray for the souls of the dead. At some funeral services, even across some churches, my soul has been hurt, it says, after I've heard ministers pray for those who have passed apart. We are not to pray for the souls of those that are departed. If they are believers, if they have died in Christ and have passed through the veil into the presence of the King, what can we ask for them that they do not already have? They have everything. They're complete in heaven. There's nothing that we can ask for those who have died in Christ and passed into the presence of the King. They have everything. They don't need anything more. They have everything. Remember, when he dealt with his child's name, he said, I shall go to heaven, but he shall not return to me. He knew he was passing off, but the child had never come back to him. As for all believers, there is a great gulf fixed between them and us, which not even the prayers of the saints of God can bridge. We're forbidden to pray for the dead. The little word forbidden to pray for the dead, it's quite an order to pray for those who are yet to come. Lord Jesus taught us this in his great high priestly prayer in John 17 verse 20 and 21. And we should be praying for those that are to come. And who would believe on his name through their word. We should be praying. Have a vision for the future generation. Have a vision for the work of God. Have a vision for the souls that the Lord will call from this area of Kingston and here, throughout the area of Tasmania. Have a vision, brethren and sisters, and start praying that God will be pleased to bless those that will believe on His name through their word and through their testimony. What an essential, important part is prayer in public worship. This has been ordained of God, set aside by God, and we ought never to minimize it. Secondly, we'll look at another aspect of public worship, and that is the public reading of God's Word. Would you turn over with me please the First Seminary? Chapter 4 and verse 13. Verse 74 and verse 13. Now Paul is giving counsel to his young pastor Timothy. He's encouraging him to fulfil his ministry. And he says, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Till I come, give attention to reading." Of course one could say that's private reading, but I believe it is a reference to that public practice of reading the Scriptures in the worship of God. Paul commanded Timothy to give special attention to the public reading of the Word of God. And of course this was a practice that was well known in the early Christian church. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ as a young man in Luke's Gospel chapter 4 and verse 16. The Bible tells us there, as was his custom, or as was his habit, he went into the synagogue at the start of the day and he showed up to raise it. Part of the synagogue worship was their reading, of course, of the Old Testament scriptures. They stood up to read. This was a practice, of course, a carry-over from the Old Testament. We think of that lovely example in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 8. We read there of Ezra and the Levite and that great worship service they had at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem. We read that they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave it a sense and caused them to understand the reason. So they read distinctly. It didn't fumble or mumble over, but those who were there heard the words of God clearly articulated and distinctly read. That's a very important part of public worship. I'm not saying we never make mistakes in our reading. You just have to put your eyes from one word to another word for a split second and you can make a mistake. But by and large, if you're reading the Word of God in public, you should have practiced it beforehand. You should have read through it beforehand. And you should try to get it as correct as humanly possible today, because it's God's Word. Now pronunciation may differ, we may articulate words in different ways, but do your best with what God's given to you. It was a practice in the New Testament church that was not open to choice. Have you ever been in a service and they said in the service, well for the sake of time we're not going to read the Bible tonight? What an admission! What an admission of with no time to read the Word of God. With no time to hear directly from the Book of God. In the New Testament, we read in Colossians 4.16, Paul said, when this epistle written to the Colossians is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church. cause that it also be read in the church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the epistles from Laodicea. So these New Testament epistles or letters that were sent from one church to the other, remember they didn't have printed Bibles as we have today. So they gathered to hear the works of the apostles and when the letter was sent to the assembly it had to be read publicly. Not so many years ago, brothers and sisters, in our own homes, where I, our forefathers, didn't have a Bible in their own homes, and so they went to the parish church, perhaps every day or maybe once a week, just to hear the public reading from the Scriptures of truth. Because of the event, And again reading to the Thessalonians, he finishes by saying in 1 Thessalonians 5 27, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Read it. Read it. Of course it must be measured. You don't have to read Psalm 119 in the service just to prove a point. It must be measured and proportioned. But read the Word of God in the Scriptures. It is a direct act of worship when we read the Word of God in our assemblies. It's strange to see how people react when the word of God is being read. There are some Christians and they never even bring a Bible to the worship of God. They never bring a Bible. There's no sportsman who will go to play, what we'll say, cricket without taking all the gear with him. Would you go to a play on the football field if they'd taken the ball with you? Bring your bagel. Bring your bagel with you to the house of God, and rejoice that you have a bagel, because there's thousands of little ones who don't have one, and yet love to have it. The larger Catechism, question 157, asks, how does the Word of God have to be read? the Holy Scriptures are to be read with untied, unbreathable, obscene, falsehands. This isn't the story. This is gross. With a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God and that He only can enable us to understand them. With a desire to know, believe and obey the will of God revealed in them. With diligence and attention to the modern scope of them. With meditation, application, self-denial and prayer. Of course, in the worship of God, there is an argument, I believe, to be made that there should be more than one reading of the Scriptures. And so, in many circles, they have consecutive readings. So together with the reading for the actual sermon or message of the day, at some other point in the worship, they'll have a consecutive reading from the Book of God. And that's how we, who start off our own Sunday morning worship, have a consecutive reading from some appointed book that we've been reading through. All this up to give time and place to the Word of God, for what a blessing it is to hear the voice of the Lord each week. The minister said, this is the Word of God. Every year they amazingly tune in to what he has to say. The third essential that I want to emphasize in the worship of God is that of corporate priests. Corporate priests. Of course they live in a niche of individualism. And in many churches today, we'll look at it tomorrow night, they have the priest leader at the front. Or, I have been at once before this tour, three priest leaders at the front. And of course they have to tell the songs, because nobody else knows the songs, and nobody else knows the tunes of the songs. So they're out at the front, laying down the tenor, and everybody else gets sets and lessons, and that's all. Or perhaps there's a group at the front. Or perhaps there's a soloist at the front. And the place for corporate praise has been reduced to a minimal place in the worship of God. You know what a joy it is to hear the people of God sing the praise of God, in His house and in His sanctuary. God's people have always expressed their love and their devotion in songs of praise. When God brought his ancient church up out of Egypt by blood and by a mighty hand of deliverance and miraculously defeated their enemies, what did they do? They immediately sang his praise. And you can read there in Exodus chapter 15 and verse 1, how they praise God for deliverance, for redemption. We read there, Then signed Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, saying, You can read down the chapter and read the song that they sang. They were redeemed. They were delivered from bondage. And the first thing they did was to sing the praise of God. What a wonderful thing it is when people sing the praise of the Almighty. The instruction of the New Testament is equally clear. I think the key, well some of the key verses in the New Testament is for example found in Ephesians 5 verse 19 Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord What a wonderful composition of Christian worship that is. Again, the corresponding passage with that is Colossians 3 and 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. That's what we're doing in sinning. We're teaching each other as we sin. We're admonishing each other as we sing, the Psalms, the hymns and the spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones, of course, the well-known minister for many years in London, and he was led to the church, such a rich legacy through his commentaries. In his commentary on the Book of Ephesians, he has to say this upon this verse. It is generally agreed by most of the commentators, the well-known commentators, especially such as Tauras Oughton, Edith, indeed by practically all the great commentators during the last two hundred years, that there is a difference between sound, sound and spiritual songs. There are views that the Apostle mentions in three terms quite deliberately in order to give a general description of the scope and omphata of the way in which people filled with the Spirit would give expression to their joy and happiness. Then the new Psalms. How we thank God for the Psalter. And for those beautiful songs of praise that have been left to us from those ancient people. We have all that in the Book of Psalms. All good, I'll go a step further than that, all good heavenly knowledge is based on the practices of the Psalms. And so we love to sing the Psalms in the house of God. We have Psalms, we have heavens. Primarily, this is a song of praise to God. There are those who believe such passages as 1 Timothy 3.16. They were like doxologies that were sung in the Christian church. Remember that great verse, 1 Timothy 3.16? Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. What a confession of the personal work of the Incarnate Son of God that is. Our hymns should teach us about Christ. They should teach us about His person, His work, His glory, His mission on earth. But then we have spiritual souls. Well, how do we define them? It's the work of the composition of a spiritual person of a spiritual mother. Many believe that such spiritual songs are given expression in such passages as Luke's Gospel 1.46-55, which has come to be known as the Magnificat. Further on down in the same chapter, in verse 68-79, when Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, opened his mouth, he filled his heart with praise. on to God. These were spiritual songs. We read of that song that they sang up in heaven in the book of Revelation chapter 5 and verse 9. As they sung a new song, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou dost slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. How we thank God for the praise that we are able to send, and the extent we sow to the Lord's people. John the Blessed, and Charles Leslie, led a rich life, I would say, of hens, and they, this was in 1917, I think, one of the highest hens I've ever sown. The Methodists were noticed for their joyful singing. And he says this, above all, sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Yield as pleasing to Him, more than yourself or any other person. Attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sounds. Now wait a minute, I'd like to accompany music. Accompany singing with music. Oftentimes, congregations are carried away with the sound rather than taken up with the words. Every time, brothers and sisters, it's the words that we all tend to say. So shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of you and reward when you come up in the clouds of heaven. Praise is a very vital part of Christian worship. In Psalm 100 verse 2 we read that we're to come before his presence with singing. We're to enter into his courts with thanksgiving. Don't let anybody stop you singing in the house of God. Live out. Maybe you think you're out of tune. Maybe you are. But if you're singing from your heart you're in tune with God. Maybe you feel intimidated, maybe in a small congregation that your voice is heard, maybe in the one room you're in, don't be intimidated. join together with others in making a joyful noise unto the Lord. We ought not to thrive and sing above our peers or ourselves, but we ought to sing with Him the glory of Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own precious blood. Let us not fail in this fatal manner. You know, I look out sometimes at people in the worship, and they have a hymnbook, And they stand with their heads up, and there's nothing coming at them. And they look at their heads up, but there's nothing coming at them. Have they a problem with their voice? No, because they're very confident afterwards. Can we not sin? Oh yes, they can sin. But they don't get God's due place in His assembly and amongst His people. Lift your heart, your voice unto the praise of Almighty God. And it doesn't matter where you are, whether you're singing the Psalms, or the hymns, or the spiritual songs, let there be songs for the glory of God and the honour of His Son and the glory of His Name. There's a fourth essential in the worship of God, and that pertains to our giving. Some people say, is giving really a part of worship? Yes, it absolutely is. Very clear instructions are given concerning this. aspect. We read that verse last evening in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 1. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galicia, even so do ye, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by heaven's door a sword of prosperity. Lay in store. Set it aside. The standard for our giving as Christians, and of course we're going way off here in the tangents and other aspects entirely, but it's still the old-fashioned tithing and the offering. We believe in tithing. We believe in giving one-tenth of our income to the work of the Lord. That belongs to the Lord as of, right? What we give then is our offering. How do we give is equally important. We're to do it heartily. God loves us. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 9, a cheerful gathering. If you get to the tragedy of God, you're getting to the tragedy of Moses last night. God loves us. A cheerful gathering. We're to do it regularly. I do not like yearly bills. I get yearly bills. They scare the life out of me. But I don't like yearly bills. So therefore I try to budget it over the year. Now, I'm happy to give spend but it doesn't seem to be as much when you budget it over the year. And that's why we are to give regularly. Regularly, to work with God, to the service of God and to the cause of Christ. And we are to give also with an eye to extending the kingdom of God. Not just in our own local area. You know some people, and if they wanted to raise money for their own local church, they would sacrifice anything. But I ask them to give it to missionaries. They say, oh we don't need it here. And I'm speaking to you today with another half-owner as chairman of the mission, with all the various faiths that I think of now, in Africa, in Poland, in Europe, all the various places where our works are represented. The work of the Golden Age was supported by people of God. The mission stated of not to go abed on the home church sepah was planted. A fifth element which is vital to the biblical worship of God is the preaching and the hearing of God's word. Let's look at a few verses. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Verse 13 to 16. Till I come, give attention to me, and to that your patience is up to you. Neglect not that gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presser. meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that by prophesying they appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine, continue in them, or in doing this thou shalt save thyself, and they'll not hear thee." Now, of course, Paul is referring here to some of these ordinations. And then I know that Mahānta Sukṣāṣṭakī provided that sense of belief for the monastery of Gosvāmī and Gosvāmī's precious work. That was a path for which he would have to prepare himself and to get himself totally on, in, at the material level. And Paul said to Timothy, meditate upon thyself, give thyself wholly to them. I believe the ministry of the Word of God demands all of the effort of the service of God. Wholly. It demands not wholly and it does not end at all. Now I don't mean by that that there are faithful men of God who are preaching the word of God, and they have to support themselves. I'm not speaking about that aspect, but I'm speaking about someone with divided loyalties. You can't have divided loyalties in a... The nuns serve the church, it's better to preach the word than in the church. I was greatly struck by a couple of verses today, and the Lord really spoke to my own heart through it. In Acts chapter 6, verse 4, remember how the apostles were burdened down at the church of Jerusalem because of all of the healthcare, the visits, and the material work, the practical work, and all of that's very, very important. But we read the apostles, they said, no we're going to appoint deacons to look after this one. And we read here, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. in the ministry of the Word. What is the pastor? The minister? So many have been given to the ministry of the Word through prayer. But at the moment of desolation, And on the Lord's day, that individual gives back his soul as God has sent him directly, and instructs and teaches and encourages the people of God. And Timothy wrote, and Paul wrote to Timothy and said, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine and continue in them. He finished his letters to Timothy, you would see him again at the site of eternity. And he gave him that solemn charge, often used at ordination and installation services in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 2. What a charge that is. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearance, and at his kingdom preach the word. In season, I shall season, reprove, rebuke, besort, with all law, suffering, and doctrine. That's the ministry of the word, brethren and sisters. That's what ought to be exercised in the church. This is the whole focus of Reformed worship. This is the whole focus. The pulpit is not put up into some corner, and a platform put in the middle of it. The pulpit is just where it ought to be, in the very middle of the building. And that is the very centre of the worship of God. The worship of God centres upon the preaching of the Word of God. And as the others depart from that here in Kingston, shut the door. It's no longer any point of keeping the building open. If there's to be a stage, go to a theatre, or a leisure centre, or a club. But let the pulpit take the centre, please. We're adults to have in the house of God and in the worship of God. The Church is for it to preach out of the Word of the Living God. And of course, from that preaching, there will be times when it will be instated. times when the tide comes in and we bless them, but there's also times out of season, when it's hard and difficult and apparently nothing has happened, we lose time as well, but preach the word and then in all ordintality the times will become when they'll not endure sound doctrine. I think what they're saying there are many times in the history of the church they're But this is just another time. But after their own loss shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned all to devils. So I should say, in many pulpits today, we have nothing better than devils, and the truth is no longer proclaimed. Preach the Word. Preaching is designed to bring our lives into line with God's requirement. It's designed to create holiness of heart. It's designed to encourage the further study of the Word of God. Now there are many different types of preaching. There's expository preaching, verse by verse, teaching out of the Word of God. There's textual preaching, just taking a text and preaching upon it. There is biographical preaching, taking a character, studying through that individual, applying the lessons. There is doctrinal teaching, taking a doctrine, analysing it, assessing it, teaching the people of what concerns them. There is devotional teaching, There is evangelistic preaching, there is pastoral preaching, dealing with the issues that hurt and harden the people of God. Oh how varied, how varied are the many parts that come into this ministry of preaching the Word of God. Our forefathers took the preaching very seriously. And again I'm quoting from our larger catechism. The larger catechism, question 159. How is the word of God to be preached by those that are called their own faith? They that are called to labour in the ministry of the word are to preach sound doctrine diligently. in Satan and out of Satan plainly, not in the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers, zealously with fervent love to God and the souls of the people, and sincerely aiming at God's glory and their conversion and edification and salvation. You would doubt that this is quite another old answer. How is the Word to be preached? It is to be preached diligently. It is to be preached plainly. It is to be preached faithfully. It is to be preached zealously. It is to be preached sincerely. What an awesome responsibility rests upon those who preach the Word of God. But I want to turn the question tonight as we conclude. What an awesome responsibility also rests upon those who hear the Word of God. What's required of the listeners? Again, let's use a larger catechism to help us. What is there required of those that hear the word preached? It is required of those that hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation and prayer. Examine what they hear by the Scriptures. I also ask you to receive what I said because I said. But examine what you hear by the Scriptures. Is it according to the truth? Receive the truth with faith, love, meekness and readiness of mind as the word of God. Meditate and confer with it, hide it in their hearts and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives. That's your responsibility. And before the bar, God one day will answer for how we've fulfilled our responsibilities. I've been describing today just the essential parts of a Christian worship service. Time does not permit to investigate the ordinances of the church. There are two ordinances in the Christian church, baptism and the Lord's Supper. I think it's suffice to say that both of these sacraments, they're not divorced from the preached word, nor from their public administration. Do you notice where the word came out of this? It's all we're making public. It's all in the word. That's why we don't, I know it's not new, but that's why we don't provide any private communion to people in their homes. Because it's part of the public worship of God under the word of God. And with us to be going to home, in reality, we should be calling together how it was calculated in the home, in order that perhaps some person should enter incapacitated, make balance from the service in the home, rather than some sort of pragmatic transaction between him or her on the minister's concern. What a wonderful privilege. But we're called to take part in such a worship service. It's a privilege. Every part redeemed, set apart by God. Every part of us calling to Him for honor of the Lord God. Brethren and sisters, let us cling to that high honor that grows close to such worship services. We're going to conclude our service tonight. on whom we lay our hearts together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that we've been called to such worship services, where prayer is worshiped in need, where the praise of God is rendered in Jesus, where the Word of God is publicly read, and most of all, where the Book of God is publicly preached. O God, I pray that thou wouldst preserve such services here in this great land of Australia, in this part of Tasmania, in this congregation here in Kingston. I pray that, O God, that thou wouldst be pleased to provide such worship services right across the nation. that congregations once again will discover the simplicity and the beauty just of New Testament Christian worship, and that they may fall in love with the Word of God, and with its public proclamation, and with the power that is inherent in it. O God, we ask that they come and revive our understanding of the worship of the Lord. But this congregation here, we thank thee for them and we thank thee for their loyalty to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray as you would seek to maintain the worship of God in this building in the old-fashioned manner, that thou wilt bless them, and that the hands of God will abide upon them, and that thou wilt revive even the cause and send thy Spirit in an abundant manner into their midst. Remember us tomorrow evening as we're assembled again, and then do remember us on the Lord's Day, and grant with praise that a tide of blessing will come in, and that God, in his greatest mercy, will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on this land, and upon his people in it, and all who know and love and serve him in such a manner that they're not eaten for room enough to stay. Dismiss us now in thy fear and with thy favour, and take us back to our homes in safety, watching over us, until we meet again, or Jesus comes or calls, in whose dear name I pray.