Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.06 – February 1996

 

Vain Worship

 

Sermon by Rev. M. Flinn on Lord’s Day 35

Scripture Readings: 1Corinthians 14:26-40, Matthew 15:1-9

 

Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The commandments arise from God’s nature as a God of love?  They should not be seen negatively as the imposition of a set of strictures by a harsh taskmaster – like when the Israelites were forced to produce more bricks in less time by the Egyptians?  The Egyptians were in no sense directing the Israelites out of love?  On the contrary, the people of God were the slaves of the Egyptians and they were forced to put up with all sorts of abuses until the Lord delivered them from that oppression.

But with God, it is different?  Because He is a personal, loving God, and because He seeks a relationship with His people that is likened to a marriage in Scripture, there are certain requirements upon us that follow as night follows day?  One of them is that we are not to cast our affections upon rivals?  God is a jealous husband in the righteous sense of the term, and He will not tolerate any interference by others?  He wants our worship and love exclusively?  In addition, as we come now to the realm of the second commandment, the way we worship Him is just as important as the fact of our worship?  If we love God, then we must respect His desires in the honour and service we give to Him.

Every wife knows that she cannot please her husband by persistently dishing up for him a type of food like liver, for example, that he dislikes, and telling him that he’d better eat if he knows what’s good for him?  That is not the way to express love?  It treats the husband as an object to be manipulated rather than a person to be respected and appreciated?  And so it is in our relationship to God?  We are not to tell Him what is good for Him in the worship and service we bring Him?  When God says He wants sirloin steak, it is not for us to tell Him that liver is better for Him and He must be satisfied with that?  It is for us as the bride, to listen to the wishes of our heavenly husband and self-consciously conform ourselves to those wishes whether we feel like conforming or not.

This was a lesson that had to be learned by God’s people on more than one occasion?  They had to learn it in Moses’ day when they took it into their heads to make a golden calf as a visible representative of God – something that they could look to, especially when Moses, the charismatic and gifted leader, was gone on those long trips up the mountain?  God was angry?  He wanted steak; the people were dishing up liver?  Moses was angry too, and the calf was smashed?  People lost their lives over that?  It was a costly mistake.

Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, discovered this principle a little later – it was the last lesson they ever learned?  They took it into their own heads to offer fire to God that He had not prescribed?  They changed the menu?  God was offended and the sons of the high priest paid the price with their own lives.

Saul discovered it too?  He was given explicit instructions by God, but disobeyed them on the pretext that he wanted to offer sacrifices to the Lord?  Samuel told him straight from the hip: God requires obedience and not a sacrifice; rebellion is as the sin of divination.

The Lord Jesus took this principle right into New Testament times as He sought to show the Scribes and Pharisees that God was still in charge of the menu?  Why is it, they said, that your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they eat bread?  Oh, they were not interested in hygiene.

It is important we understand that?  The washing they referred to was a ritual cleansing, performed before and during every meal, and for which purpose there was special water kept in special jars?  Of course, it was sincere, it was genuine?  The elders had imposed it for a reason; they knew that God was holy and they wanted people to be serious about their faith?  But this practice was nowhere prescribed by God in His law?  The Scribes and the Pharisees were changing the menu and they should have known that this is a sure fire way to make God angry.

Jesus shows them just how inconsistent they are with this: The Law of God is explicit; the fifth commandment requires the honouring of father and mother, even circumscribing the principle in civil law with the death penalty?  But the Scribes and Pharisees have found a way to get around it?  If a wealthy son did not want to help out his destitute parents, all he had to do was announce in very pious fashion that his top of the line export quality furniture and his costly Michael Hill Jeweller ornaments were all devoted to God?  Oh yes, I have dedicated these things to the Lord, so I could hardly take them now and give them to poor old Dad in his poverty.

You see how by clever twisting and turning, the clear commandments of God were being overturned and the precepts, the teachings of men were being given doctrinal status as if God Himself had prescribed these things?  Once again, God had ordered sirloin steak; they had changed the menu and were dishing up liver?  Jesus sums it all up in verses 8 and 9 [read]!  When we refuse to worship God in the way that He prescribes, and we take it into our own heads to dream up ways of acceptable worship, and then tell God that He must be satisfied with what we provide, we violate the second commandment and our worship becomes vain and empty.

So what does it mean for us?  Well, let me give you just two practical applications?  First, we must give careful attention to the practice and study of worship from a biblical perspective?  I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the worship of God is at the very heart of the church?  The Old Testament word for church is qahal, which means, “assembly”.  It speaks of the people gathering together and worshipping God in a public way?  In the New Testament, the word is ekklesia, which literally means, “called out ones”.  Again, what is expressed is that these are people called out from the world, gathering in public to worship God regularly.

Worship is something that touches the heart and the soul of the believer?  People get worked up about it?  Churches split over it?  Think of how much the Reformation affected the worship practices of the Roman church?  The doctrine and practice of the Mass; it is unscriptural, an invention of men?  We need to go back to the biblical practice of the Lord’s Supper?  Seven sacraments?  No there are not seven?  It is the tradition of the church that says there are seven, but we can only find two prescribed by God in Scripture?  Praying to deceased saints and to Mary and asking for their assistance?  Another tradition taught by the Roman church, but nowhere prescribed by God in the Bible?  Another change to the menu?  Jesus teaches us how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer?  Let’s stick to that model for our worship services.

And we could go on?  How we worship God, and the question what is worship that is acceptable to God, the province of the second commandment, is of crucial significance and we cannot give this enough attention.

Let me offer a possible scenario?  I give you a church that has been worshipping a certain way for about three generations or so?  The old hymnal has been reprinted a few times and in the inside covers of some tatty editions there is the statement: presented to so-and-so on completion of Sunday School, these people now being grand-parents, or even great-grand-parents in the congregation?  In the entrance hall in the foyer there are the photos of old ministers, now dead and gone to be with the Lord, and the Confessions and Church Order of the congregation have not displayed any noticeable change all this time.

But now there is a new generation that has come up and they have shopped around a bit and noticed that the worship practices in other Christian churches are quite different from theirs?  And as a matter of fact, they are not nearly as stuffy, and old, and traditional as those of the church in which they were raised?  So they try to get changes back home and, lo and behold, they run up against crusty old elders who shake their heads and say: No, we are not going to change the old ways of doing things?  So what do the young people do?  They leave and go to where the grass is greener.

But then the middle-aged parents, who are worried that their young people are leaving in droves and desperately wanting to keep the family together, force their way into leadership and start instituting one change after another?  Let’s throw out the old worship practices and bring in the new ones before it’s too late and we don’t have a church left any more?  Meanwhile, the older generation feels estranged and shake their heads in confusion?  This is not the church they grew up in?  It’s not for them?  And the younger ones still leave because the church is now showing them that the disgruntled members were right all along and they are now in churches that are doing it far better than we will ever do it.

What is going wrong here?  Worship is at the heart of the church, yes!  What we do in it and how we do it is of major significance, yes!  And we should not just accept a given practice because it is the way we have always done it?  We might just have substituted for divinely revealed doctrine the precepts of men?  But when we change the menu simply because we like the sound of a new dish, the Lord gets mad.

The question that has to occupy us is: What is biblical worship?  What is worship that God has prescribed?  What is acceptable to Him and what is not?  I am not opposed to change and development in this area, brothers and sisters?  I want to make my point of view quite clear here?  But what I am opposed to is change without careful thought and study – change with no conscious effort to conform those changes to the 2nd commandment.  When that happens, it is one of the quickest ways I know to split a church?  Before we throw out a tradition just because it’s a tradition, let’s study why our fathers introduced it, what their biblical reasoning was, and whether in this practice God is being honoured by obedience to the 2nd commandment?  And we may discover that out of deference to and love for God, we should not simply jump on the latest band-wagon, but instead we should consciously conform what we wish to give to God – to the dictates that He has prescribed?  If God wants sirloin steak, let’s give Him that, even if we are vegetarian by personal preference.

The second point I want to make is this: Seek biblical conformity with a humble spirit and a desire for the edification of the church.  I always think of the congregation at Corinth in this connection?  They were big on the Spirit, big on spiritual gifts, especially the spectacular ones, and they always wanted to use their gifts in public worship settings?  What they were not big on was love, and toleration, and sensitivity to others?  And Paul has to challenge them with a number of statements: Let all things be done for edification?  God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.  The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets?  Let all things be done decently and in order.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to worship together?  We will not think alike on all matters pertaining to the faith; we are not carbon copies of one another, neither should we want this?  We are the living church of Jesus Christ, not a Japanese car part assembly line?  In this connection, we will also differ in matters pertaining to worship?  We will have our individual likes and dislikes, our favourite hymns and some that we would rather place on the ash heap.

We will have our preferences in preaching style and content, and frankly, no one man is able to cater for all tastes?  But the bottom line is that we must worship together in harmony, and for that to continue, we need an understanding and sensitivity to others that goes beyond our personal likes and dislikes.

This was the very thing that the congregation at Corinth did not have in spite of it possessing some spectacularly gifted people?  If we have to disagree on some of the details, fine?  Let’s do that?  But let’s not permit our disagreement to get in the way of worshipping together in harmony?  We must put the needs and the edification of the congregation ahead of our own ideas?  And let’s at least agree together that we want to grow in biblical worship – worship that is consistent with the 2nd commandment.

Let us strive to serve up to God the menu that He has ordered.

Amen.