Revelation chapter 5, we'll begin reading in verse 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. When he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast, and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, beyond to him that sitteth upon the throne, and under the Lamb, forever and ever. And the four beasts said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him. that liveth forever and ever. Amen. God add his blessing to that reading from his word for his own namesake. I must confess at the start that biblical worship, even this limited subject of perilous times, for biblical worship is such a vast area of study that there is no way, absolutely no way that I could adequately address this topic in one message. We could have easily dedicated this entire conference to this one subject of perilous times for biblical worship and wouldn't even have begun to scratch the surface of that topic. worship, how much the scriptures have to say about worship. Yet from what we see springing up in the church, taking the name of worship, there is good reason to believe that so little is known about true biblical worship. I don't say that lightly. I certainly don't say it arrogantly as if the Free Presbyterian Church had a corner on the proper worship of God. We don't. We have much to learn and should learn about biblical worship. I am simply making a statement of fact based upon what the Word of God plainly teaches about worship that is acceptable to God. The title of my message, Perilous Times for Biblical Worship, presupposes a couple of things. It presupposes, in the first place, that God cares about how he is worshipped. It is given that he should be worshipped. But the Word of God makes it very clear that He is very particular, very particular about how He is worshiped. For instance, when God refused to accept Cain's offering as he came to worship the Lord, God refused it. He was making it clear that He's very particular about how man attempts to approach Him in worship. In Exodus 32, you find the people in the wilderness demanding of Aaron that he make them gods because Moses was taking so long to come back down out of the mountain. You know the story. He makes this golden calf and he builds an altar before it, which they offer burnt offerings and peace offerings in a feast to the Lord. Jehovah, it says. Of course, you remember God's response to their attempt at worshiping Him, holding a feast to Him in such a fashion. Three thousand people died that day by the sword. God made it clear, did He not, that in the worship of Him, they were not to make any graven image. And He made it clear that He and He alone is to be worshiped. and that he is the one who determines, he is the one who dictates just how he is to be worshipped. And does not the sudden death of Uzzah stress the point? David has the ark of God brought to the city of David on a cart pulled by oxen, and the oxen stumble and Uzzah grabs the ark to steady it. He's afraid it's going to fall off the cart, and God strikes him dead right where he stands. Why? Because God said that the ark, that centerpiece of Old Testament worship, was not to be touched by anyone. And it was only to be carried by the priest on poles that went through the rings in the side of the ark. And it wasn't done that day. God was not happy with Uzzah, who was not a priest. He did that, which God forbade. David did that, which God forbade. Even though it was done in ignorance, David finds out later on, he reads the law of God and finds out, I should not have done this. And he corrects himself. But even though he was ignorant, God met that wrong worship with judgment. He's very particular about his worship. You can come to the New Testament and find Christ denouncing the worship of the Pharisees, however orthodox they thought it was, however scriptural they thought it was. Christ told the woman at the well that the Samaritans who were worshiping in Mount Gerizim were wrong. He said plainly, ye worship ye know not what. You're wrong. You go on and read in the book of Corinthians and you'll find all kinds of awful things were taking place under the guise of worship in that church. So yes, God is concerned about how He is worshipped. The title to my message also presupposes that we are living at a time when the first proposition that we have just considered is either not known, not understood, or it's been deliberately jettisoned. That is why we are living in perilous times for biblical worship. We are living in a day when there is a mushrooming of churches that, by their approach to worship, do not really believe that the Lord is all that concerned about how he is worshipped. As long as he is worshipped sincerely, as long as the worshipper feels he is worshipping God all right, then the thinking is that's all that really matters. But let us not think for a moment that we are somehow immune to the dangers of unbiblical worship or that there is nothing in the way of worship that we could do with reforming our worship. That somehow we've got it down pat. That our way is the right way. It's the only way. God save us from that mentality that says, in essence, We've got it all right. I want to try to get through four simple points tonight. I want to look at the focus of biblical worship. We're going to go on and then look at the framework of it, then the forsaking of biblical worship, and finally the future. First, the focus of biblical worship. We had chapter 4 read this evening. John is taken up into heaven and sees a throne upon which sits God the Father. Around the throne are 24 elders and John says he saw those men fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy oh lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. In that very next chapter John sees in the midst of the throne a lamb as it had been slain. That, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And this lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits, a reference to the Holy Spirit himself. So here we have in this Place of worship. This is the worship of heaven going on. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They're falling down before the triune God, and He is the focus of their worship. Mother, looking at the Old Testament Hebrew or New Testament Greek word, translated worship. They both carry the idea of bowing prostrate at somebody's feet. and order to pay them homage, to pay them reverence. Our English word worship comes from the old English word worthship. Worthship, the word ship meaning ascribing to, assigning. Here in Revelations 4 and 5, we have worship as it's practiced in heaven. This is perfect worship. This is acceptable worship. And the focus of the worship of heaven is upon the triune God, and true worship, wherever it's found, is all about declaring and exalting, ascribing infinite worth to God Almighty. They fall prostrate before His throne. They cast their crowns at His feet and they declare, Thou art worthy. And since God and God alone is the object of worship, it must be all about Him. It's all about ascribing worth to God. Thou art worthy. Thou art deserving of honor, of glory, of blessing, of power. Thou art worthy of it all. The word for glory has the idea of having a right estimation of someone's worth, and that right estimation leads to giving that person praise or honor. That means for us to worship God aright, no matter where it is. We need to have a right estimation, a right opinion, a right evaluation of who God is and what God is. How can we worship the Lord aright? If our views of God, if our understanding of the Almighty is defective, how are we going to worship the Lord in truth? Fundamental, therefore, to biblical worship is an awareness of God. An awareness of God. Sing to Him, we must. Listen to His servants preach His word, we must. read his word, we must pray to him, we must in all of our worship, and I'll say more about that in a moment, but in all of our singing and praying and preaching, our minds, our minds need to be filled and our hearts moved by a sight of the Lord and all of his glory, a sight of the Lord. There was a survey done some time ago that reported why people were leaving church, and they're leaving by the droves. And the two main reasons why people quit going to church are these. It's boring and it's irrelevant. Now, that's one of the main reasons that churches have abandoned the old paths of biblical worship and adopted human inventions and contemporary worship because they don't want the people who come in to be bored by the service, and they certainly want to be able to make everything relevant to their time, relevant to their culture. So in order to do that, you have to jettison old-fashioned traditional biblical worship and become innovative. The thinking is we've got to make church something that's exciting. We've got to get these people coming back again, not just visit us once but keep them coming back and we've got to reach this generation And what worked 50 years ago isn't working today, so we've got to change it. But biblical worship, I'm here to say tonight, that has God as its focus, that makes the Lord both the object and the subject of the worship, is anything but boring and irrelevant. These two chapters, what a picture they They portray of the Lord. It shows in this passage that this God is sovereign. John sees Him on a throne. This is the King in all of His authority and power. The sovereign ruler over all of our lives and every detail of our lives. Everything that happens to us, that's going to happen to us, that has happened to us. No matter what the circumstances are that we face, there is this sovereign God in heaven who is carrying forth His glorious will. And there's no power in heaven, earth or hell that will thwart Him. I don't know about you, brothers and sisters, but that thrills my heart. That brings great comfort to my soul, to know that this Jehovah reigns omnipotent. That no matter who sets themselves against the church, that Lord, no matter how harsh hell might come against us, no matter if all around us falls away, this God reigneth forever and ever. That's not boring to me. I got a little problem with people that get bored about hearing of the sovereignty of God. Something's wrong somewhere. The first thing he sees is God upon his throne. As he looks upon God upon the throne, he sees these four beasts Strange looking creatures, I have to say. But they're flying round about the throne, reminiscent of Isaiah chapter 6, saying one to the other, holy, holy, holy. I have to tell you, we haven't begun to understand the least little bit about the infinite holiness of Jehovah. How separate he is from sin. How much sin is an abomination to him, his infinite hatred for sin. You want to get a glimpse of how holy God is? Take a peek into hell. He will damn men forever, forever and ever with no hope of escape because of their sin, which he detests, which he despises, which he hates. Oh, he's holy. But do you want to see how holy he is? Then you go to the hill crag of Calvary. And there you look upon the Son of God who was guilty of no sin, but for sin imputed to Him, God poured out His infinite wrath upon Him." He's holy. Isn't it strange we're living in a day when people think that holiness is boring and irrelevant? Yet we are. Sadly, many Christians don't want to hear about holiness. They don't want to hear about separation from sin. They don't want their consciences pricked by the law of God because they're too comfortable in the world. They like its pleasures. They like its pursuits. They like its entertainment. No wonder that they're bored and irrelevant. This chapter reveals chapter 4, verses 8, the last part, in verse 9. The Lord God Almighty, which was and is to come, when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, this is the eternal God. Get your mind, try to get your mind around that who never had a beginning, who has always existed and will always exist, who is, by his very existence, necessary, the necessity of the existence of the eternal God. Here's finite man. And this infinite, eternal God has paid attention to him. This eternal God has deigned to send his only begotten son that these rebels and these sinners might be his forever and behold his glory and behold his eternal glory forever and ever. That's not boring. That's not irrelevant. But then you come into chapter five and you find John now seeing a lamb standing in the midst, the father upon the throne, and now the lamb is standing in the midst of the throne. John's eyes are full of tears. He's so sad because no one could open the book until the voice says, weep not. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. He has prevailed to open the book. And then he sees the lamb. The lamb's slain. I tell you, brothers and sisters, there's nothing more thrilling than when this book is opened up and the preacher points the people to Calvary. Oh, I know we can get so used to hearing. And somehow we close out our ears, and I've heard that story before. That's why I say there's got to be an awareness of God every time we come to worship, to pray, Lord, open my eyes that I might see Jesus Christ crucified, that the man in the pulpit might declare Christ crucified, that the Lamb will be given all the glory, That's not boring. That's just the thing we need. I've got to move on. The framework for biblical worship. When I speak of the framework, I'm simply referring to the elements, the fundamental elements of true worship. First is praise. These chapters in this worship service at heaven are full of praise. They're singing, they're speaking, and it's all about glorifying God, ascribing worth to Jehovah. Is it not significant that the longest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms? The Psalm book of the church given to her in order that she might praise God. Their songs don't forget. Yes, prayers. Yes, groaning sometime the psalmist is in trouble and trial, but never forget every one of them is a song that was sung. So it's okay to sing to God in prayer. What we sing and the way we sing must be in harmony with the nature of the one about whom we sing and to whom we sing. It must be in harmony. Our hymns are to focus on God, on his sovereignty, They are to declare the glory of his holiness. They are to be hymns that rejoice in the greatness of his grace, hymns that uplift the lambs slain, hymns that speak of the suffering savior. That's a given, isn't it? That's supposed to be the meat of it all. Substantive singing, not fluff. not shallow, cheap, tawdry choruses that are repeated over and over again that say nothing about this sovereign, this holy God, this suffering land. And all of that will determine just how we praise God, the music we use to glorify Him. One thing is certain, our praise is to be distinguished by holiness since it is being offered to the Holy One. It is to be distinguished by holiness, something separate, distinct from the music of Satan, the music of the world. God is to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him. Fear and reverence to mark our praise. Then there is prayer. Part of this framework of worship, you'll note the mention of prayer in chapter 5 verse These vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and it's not teaching that saints in heaven pray, whether or not that's true, I have no idea, but it's referring to the prayers of people down below being offered up to God and being acceptable to God. My point just now is to note the connection between the chapter on worship and prayer. Public worship, because that's what we're dealing with tonight, I have no time at all to deal with private worship or with family worship. another conference. But public worship is to be marked by public praying. That means that when a church is engaging in true worship, she's going to have public prayer meetings where the Lord's people come together on a designated time and day to seek the Lord's face in prayer, to offer up their praise, to offer up their petitions, to offer up their thanksgiving, to make confession, to pray for revival, to pray for lost souls. But there's gonna be public prayer meetings. I don't have the time tonight, but Acts chapter four is a wonderful chapter to go and read about a public prayer meeting in the church. how they prayed to God, how they approached Him, what they were asking the Lord to do. That's true worship. You don't have public prayer means you don't have true worship, period, period. But it's more than that because there's obviously in public worship the need for pastoral praying. Somehow it's fallen by the wayside, the whole idea of the pastoral prayer. You know, they used to pray for 10 and 15 minutes. The pastor's opening prayer used to be 10 to 15 minutes. Heaven help him today if he preaches 20 minutes. If it's past 12 o'clock, The people get antsy. Time to go home. Can you imagine sitting there praying with the minister as he prays every Lord's Day 10 to 15 minutes in his pastoral prayer? It used to be in the old homiletics books that there was a section devoted to pastoral praying. training the men how to pray publicly. I mean they have been so called of God that means they're gifted to preach and it also means they should be gifted to pray. They are leaders in the church. They should be able to lead the congregation at the throne of grace and that's indeed one of the key ways that the people are going to learn how to approach God and how to pray. That man is up there to usher them into the presence of the Almighty. And they should be feeling like, I am in the presence of God, as that man prays. It's not just something he rushes through, and asks the Lord to bless this, bless that, bless the other, amen? Takes time. I think it was Dabney. who said that pastors need to take time before they go into their pulpit to think about what they're going to pray. Prayers that are full of God, He's the focus. Prayers that are full of Scripture. Pastoral prayers that are full of passion, You know, I could understand why. Well, I'm going to sound judgmental and critical, I know, but here I go. When I listen to some of the men on the radio praying, I could understand why they're bored out of their minds and why they think it's irrelevant. There's no heart in the praying. There's no passion in the praying. There's no boldness in the praying. There's little faith in the praying. If you know it's commanding God to do this, that, and the other thing, you don't get the idea at all that they've approached the throne of the Almighty, this holy God. Prayer that has the elements of praise to open up, that offers thanksgiving to God for all His mercies, prayer that makes confession before God with the congregation about our sins. Because I will tell you, your people will be out there and they're struggling. They've had a rough week. And they failed the Lord. And they're sitting there guilty as guilty can be in church. And they feel like they're big fat hypocrites for even being there. They need to hear the man of God take the time to confess sin, that they might confess the sin, their sin. And then there must be intercession, pleading with God, pleading with God for answers for others. Then there's preaching. Preaching. Preaching lies at the heart of all true biblical worship. Preaching that instructs the mind in order to move the heart, in order to change the life. Preaching that is sanctifying. Preaching that calls the people out to live differently than the world. Preaching that exposes this is the world. This is the path of righteousness. Preaching that has this cleansing effect because the scriptures are opened up and through the scriptures we're made clean. Preaching that feeds the sheep. You love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. You love me, Peter? Feed my lambs. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. Feed them, feed them, feed them. They're all at different levels. Some babes, some young men, some mature. Yep, but you've got to feed all the sheep with that one message every time. Some things that are deep for the more mature. Some things that are like milk for the babes, some in between for those that are going on in their Christian life, but feed them, you must. It's part of worship. Preaching that expounds and applies the law of God. How else are they going to understand what pleases God? Whether it's in worship, whether it's at home in their family, whether it's in their own private life, wherever it might be, at work, how else are they going to understand if there is not an ongoing exposition of the law of God and all of its facets and the application of it to the life? In other words, brothers and sisters, getting right down to the people in the pew where they live. Not simply exegeting the text and saying this verse means that in the Hebrew or the Greek means this or that. But saying all of that, yep, that's fine. But getting to the place where you say, now that's what that means to you. It's what it means in your marriage. It's what it means in your daily walk with the Lord. It's what it means in your struggle with sin. Here's how it all, because it all is very, let me tell you, it is all very relevant. It is relevant. That's true worship. And it's preaching that lifts up the wonders of God's grace, especially the work of God's son, the lamb. Not just saying that Jesus died for sinners. But digging down into the atonement. Digging down into the priestly work of Jesus Christ. I'm talking about expository preaching. You find that in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, you recall the people said, bring us the law, read the law to us, Ezra. And of course, they built a platform, a pulpit. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. They read the word, they exegeted the word, and they caused them to understand the meaning, how it applied to them. I believe that where you find biblical worship, you'll find a hunger, a thirst for that kind of preaching of God's word. They won't be bored. You need not be intimidated by the clock. I think sometimes God's people have gotten a bad rap. They will listen. They will, if Christ, if the scriptures, if the law, if this holy God is the focus. It's that kind of preaching that rings with authority. It's that kind of preaching that teaches the Lord's people the great gospel and the doctrine of God. It's that kind of preaching that draws them away from the world and draws them to Christ. Moving along, we turn to the forsaking, the forsaking of biblical worship. There are so many things, and this is where I really got bogged down in preparing, there are so many things that could be dealt with. But there's only two that are critical. First, you see it, biblical worship being forsaken because of the man-centeredness of modern worship. Man-centeredness. Worship now in so many places, so many churches, whether it's in Canada or America or Ulster, doesn't make any difference really. It's now all about me. It's all about making me feel good. This is the worshiper. He thinks it's all about him. That notion is fed, I have to say, by preachers. But that's really what it's come down to. It's supposed to be all about me. This church, this preaching, this worship, it's all about me. It's all about my needs. And it's all about serving my interests. It's not about God. It's me. After all, you know, people are out there and they're shopping. They're shopping for churches. And they're looking for a church, they say, that will meet their needs. and allow them to worship the way they want to worship. Whether or not men want to hear it, the fact of the matter is that idol worship is alive and well. Contrary to the Second Commandment, there is another God being put before God, and that God is man. The Bible teaches us that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him. But men have Men have turned worship into something where God should be serving and enjoying them instead of the other way around. There was a, I don't know, probably four years ago, a man who came a few times to the service in Columbia. He quit, you know, after a few times and never saw him again. He was run into, I don't mean accident, but bumped into by somebody in the church who still attends. He said, we haven't seen you out. He says, well, you know, when I went to your church, I didn't get a warm and fuzzy. A warm and fuzzy. But I'm telling you, that's what people are looking for. That's what they think real worship is all about, getting a warm and fuzzy feeling. I'm not saying that there is no subjective experience of God in true worship. God is to be experienced in worship. We are not to be spectators. We are to be participants in the worship of the Lord. And true worship will affect our desires. It will affect our emotions. But we're not to base or evaluate our worship of God on how it makes us feel or what emotions it evokes in us. That's not what constitutes true worship. That's putting all the focus on us. It's to be Him. As I'm sure you've heard it said, I don't go to church to see what I can get. But that's the thinking of so many people. What can you give me? Wait a minute. You've got it backwards. You've come to church to give praise to God. You've come to church to humble yourself before Him. You've come to church to plead with God. You've come to church to hear what God wants of you. The truth of the matter is because worship has become so man-centered, it has become nothing more than a form of entertainment. and dare I say, in some places, a form of amusement. The primacy of preaching has long since been abandoned for the primacy of contemporary music. Sacred drama, it's called, and sacred dance. That's because for all the talk about this being a form of worshiping God, it's really all about entertaining man, about putting man in the spotlight. Putting man in the spotlight. Giving glory to man. Applauding man when he or she is done singing. Don't tell me it's about praising God with your applause. I know what's going on. In a document called the Cambridge Declaration, written in 1996 by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, the loss of God's centrality in the life of today's Church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ, and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us. God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship. We are not. Our concern must be for God's kingdom, not our own empire's popularity or success. And can I add to that, that if we will but make God the focus of our worship, those needs of ours will be satisfied. I turn from man-centered worship to music. Next, the forsaking of God-centered, Christ-centered preaching of scripture. I am of the opinion that there is no greater danger being faced by the Church of Jesus Christ than in the area of music. Young people by the thousands are leaving churches where traditional biblical worship is practiced. By the thousands and tens of thousands. And the thing more often than not that is drawing them is the style of music that is being used or not used in worship. Remember, please, that the thinking is that you must reach the people by using elements of their culture. And contemporary Christian music, it is alleged, is the way to reach them. The idea is you must get on their level. You must use their music to bring them into the church, to see them converted, to see them go on with God. Because if you don't, they're gonna go for that rock and roll stuff. At least give them a Christianized, a sanitized version of rock and roll. Church attendance across this nation, continent, according to the polling data, is on a clear and unmistakable decline. And what I will call from here on out, CCM has been brought into so many churches in order to excite the people about being in church and therefore to try to keep them there. as well as bringing in what we would call the outsiders who are more than happy for coming to church where there isn't this old fuddy-duddy outdated music. It's got to be contemporary. It's got to be. You're going to lose that generation if you don't get with it, if you don't change the style of music. It's argued that the Bible says nothing about music styles being good or bad. The fact of the matter is that music is a language. Music communicates. Music has tremendous power to communicate feelings and attitudes. and moods and feelings and moods and attitudes are not amoral. They are good or they are evil. Music communicates. The style of music communicates. Why in the world do you think Satan has chosen the medium of rock and roll and everything else, every other genre of that music that's flowed from rock and roll. Why in the world do you think he's chosen that to communicate his message of rebellion against God, of a proliferation of sin and wickedness of all sorts? Why is that the music? To me, lights ought to go on. I don't say this smugly, but it's a no-brainer. Because that music is communicating a message. That's what he has adapted for, inspired, if I can put it like that, to preach his message. There are certain musical elements that are characteristic of rock music, the backbeat, the heavy bass, the dissonant chords. I'm not a trained musician. For that matter, I'm not the son of a musician. But you don't have to have a college degree in music appreciation to discern the music of the world. I don't care what you say. I was in it for three years of my life and drugs and alcohol. I was up to my eyeballs in the world's music. The Lord brought me back to himself after three years of that. And I was cleaning my life up and cleaning my apartment up. You know how you want to get clean? You want everything clean. I dumped all my old rock and roll records. I have to update you young people. You don't know what records are if you're really young. They're CDs today, but they were records in those days. Dumped them all in the trash. Listen, I wasn't raised a fundamentalist. I wasn't raised a separatist. I had no music classes. I just knew that was the devil's music. It's plain and simple. And I didn't want any part of it, so I went Saturday morning, cleaning my room all up, and I've got this, you know, I'm just new to this, this Christian station on. We're going back now to 1978. This Christian station. There's always preaching, scripture reading, wonderful. And then the music went on, and it stopped me in my tracks. It was the music I had thrown in the trash can. Oh, different words. But it was the same music. And I recognized it immediately. Here I am, fresh out of a godless life. And I had enough of the Spirit's wisdom to know that's out of hell. That's not the Lord's music. So I have a hard time getting it. I really have a hard time understanding why Christians have any inkling, if they want to please this holy God, have any inkling for looking upon CCM without probation. I have a hard time understanding that. Why in the world would I want to make use of the style of music to worship the holy God of heaven that Satan uses to worship him? I'm sorry if I sound too simplistic, but this is just how I see things. Simple. I've got to wonder why our young people are wanting it. What are they listening to? Maybe I should be asking parents, what are you listening to in the home? There is an appeal to it, I'll be the first to confess. If I'm in a store somewhere and they play music back to the mid-70s, that was my drug and running days, It immediately transports me back. And there is an appeal, but it's appealing to my flesh, not to my spirit. And the sad result is that people who go to such churches will never find, they'll never find that church a place of refuge from the world because the world is right there in it. This God is holy. He's righteous. He's loving. He's majestic. He's orderly. He is altogether lovely. And the music that we use must be in harmony with who this God is. Can you imagine the 24 elders with their lead guitar and their bass guitar and their drums as they bow down and worship him and say, worthy is the lamb that was slain, as rock and roll is blaring in the background. Come on, folks. Come on. It's utter rubbish. As foolish As it is, to me, it's the most potential, outside of the failure to preach the scriptures of God, it's the most dangerous thing that we're facing as a denomination. When we, well, What we need to do is to be very, very careful, guarded about opening the door for this kind of music. We open the door for it when the preaching of God's Word loses its place of primacy in worship, when the music service becomes the focal point And there's more time spent on practicing for singing and more time spent on singing than on the actual preaching of the scriptures. That's opening the door for it. We open the door when we allow the styles, the styles of CCM to begin to creep into our churches. I think most of you, I would hope all of you would say, hey, preacher, I have no time for this Christian rock. I mean, I go back to the Beatles. You know, I want to hold your hand. That's so innocuous compared to what's being pumped out today. And I don't even keep up with it. But that was rock and roll. So you can begin to, if you're not careful, you're not guarded, you're not watching, let the little change and shift in music creep in. You know, I don't want you to think that when I talk about contemporary Christian music that we should never sing any newly written song of our generation. I'm not saying that. You know, there's a lot of bad old songs, old hymns, they're bad. theologically incorrect, the music stinks, and there are a number of good new hymns being written. But I am telling you the slide, the shift, is to bring it in to open the door. I mean, let's face it, if you walked in here to this church on Sunday morning, any of our churches, and you found up on the stage a set of drums, bass guitar, lead guitar, all that, electric piano, just blaring, oh! That's not how he does it. Just creeps in. Just creeps in. A little easy listening, a little distant according. Gotcha. It's like the frog in the water, you know. He'd jump right out of the boiling water, but you just put him in a pan of cold water and just turn the heat up and slowly, he dies. Not even aware of it. The mentality is that we need to be relevant to our culture so we can use, it's said, use their language. A brother last night was talking about This boy from Washington State, Mars Hill Church it's called. The cussing preacher he's known as in our country. The cussing preacher. He does it to reach the people who use that language. So we got to use their language, their curse words. Let's dress like them. Let's dress down. Let me take a moment here to talk about modesty, modesty in dress, and the worship of this triune God. I fully expect if I walk into a place where God is not the focal point, where His holiness is not declared, I fully expect all kinds of dress. I'm talking about a modest dress. But I don't expect that among God's people. Ladies, make sure you cover yourself up. It might sound coarse, but it's got to be said, no cleavage. It's a shame. It's immodest. It's sad, it is sad that we've come to a place in the work of God that such a statement has to be made. It's the world, it's the world that has come in like a flood. I'm not one who says you've got to have a tie on, a suit, but modesty before a holy God who sought to cover up the nakedness of Adam and Eve. What business have we of taking away that which he sought to use to cover up? That's the world. So we think we've got to use their music, got to use their language, got to dress like them. And the thing is, what we need is to get out of the culture. Get out of it. You know, to tell our young people, you know, put down those books about present day culture that they want to read. Pick up a book of sermons by the Puritans. How about getting out of this culture? Go read some Spurgeon sermons. Go back, get out of the culture. Because the fact of the matter is this gospel, this book, addresses any culture, any day. And the only context that we need is the context of Scripture. in our worship, in our evangelization. That's it. Now, finally, you've been very patient. I want to thank you. The future, the future of biblical, in light of all these dangers, what's happening all around us, what's the future of biblical worship? Well, one thing I know from Scripture, God will preserve, He will preserve a biblical witness for true worship, no matter how dark, how perilous, how worldly the church becomes, there will always be a remnant who will say this, to take the words of the old hymn, though none will join me, yet still I will follow. God will always have a remnant. The question I have is this, will the free church be a part of that remnant? Will our churches keep God as the primary object and subject of our worship services? Or will we slowly become more and more man-centered and entertainment-oriented, focusing on self? Will our churches maintain the primacy of preaching in their worship Or will that preaching degenerate into little 20-minute sermonettes that are preceded by an hour of music, where people come to church for the music and not for the ministry of the word? I wonder what would happen across this continent if God just shut down, stopped entirely, took away all music. Where would the people go to church? I wonder. If that's why they're going is because of the music program, they can't go there anymore. Would they really be going there because of the ministry, because of the preaching of the Word of God? Will our churches keep believing in the great need for the weekly prayer meetings? Or will they, like so many others, fade away? Fewer and fewer people attending, less and less praying and pleading with God, less and less public prayer. Will our ministers keep leading the people at the throne of grace each Sabbath days with prayers that are full of God and full of scripture and full of passion and full of boldness? Full of reverence. Full of humility. The Lord. The Lord. is still looking for those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Will you be one of them? God read His Word upon our hearts for His namesake. Let's bow in prayer. Let's all pray. Our gracious God We confess to Thee this evening that we know Thee so little. Thou hast given us Thy word and spoken to us of the great things in Thy law. Yet after all these years, the more we have come to know Thee, the more we understand we don't know Thee. Oh, our God, we pray tonight, protect the free Church from the dangers of false worship. Oh, God, protect our ministers. Keep their own prayer lives on fire. that their pulpits might be on fire. Give to us all the spirit of wisdom that we might discern what is of the world and what is of God. Save us from kowtowing to the pressures of men, but to be bold in our stand for the truth. We pray this for Thy Church, not just for us but for Thy Church, for whom Christ shed His blood. Is it not time for Thee to work? Thy law has been made void, and, Lord, the world has come in like a flood. We are losing our young people. Lord, we pray that Thou would have mercy upon Thy people. In wrath remember mercy, we pray. We pray, our God, that Thou would give to us that continual grace to always worship Thee in the beauty of holiness. We ask this all in the Savior's precious name. Amen and amen. you