The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Joe Moorcraft with the following message entitled, Does God Regulate Worship More Tightly Than the Rest of Life? Good to see everybody today. I could have slept a little longer. Good to see some of you all from Georgia. I'd like to see anybody else from South here?

Hey, you know, I love people in the South because of my lectures, because you all don't speak with an accent. Like me. We're going to talk about a couple subjects today that are very, very important about the whole subject of worship. And You may not have thought of them before but I hope you have One is to answer more about the issue We brought up last night because it is pretty widespread and that is to answer the question is worship all of life and the second question is worship more strictly regulated by God than the rest of life? And the answer after a while is going to be no and yes and Remember that my concern this weekend is especially with Congress Congregational worship now One of the reasons for this conference is the pervasive breakdown of the worship of God in American churches in the 20th century and the 21st century.

There's a lot that goes under the name of worship but there is very little true worship in spirit and in truth going on in the United States and what's the problems with worship? What is this breakdown? I think there's two things first is idolatry You know if your God is not does not look like so to speak The way God has described himself in the Bible you worship an idol If somebody were to come up to you and say do you know Joe Moorcraft and you were to say oh sure it's good friend of mine and they were to say to you what does he look like and You say short and skinny Well, then it's obvious that you don't know me and So a lot of people who are Christians and go to the name Christians are worshiping God. They don't know anything about They have their own perspective on God that they did not get out of the scriptures. They absorb from their culture and So that's the first reason for the breakdown of worship in America.

That is idolatry among people who call themselves evangelical Bible believing Christians For instance when you tell some of these people the truth about who God is. Oh, they get mad at you and They say I've had them say to me many times. Well, my God's not like that and I'd say well, that's probably the truth Particularly when you start talking about predestination and then there's a second reason for the breakdown of worship and that is the Pervasiveness of Superstition Now make sure you know what superstition is and you'll understand that if you think superstition is just carrying a a rabbit's foot around Or wearing your favorite hat if you're going to catch a fish There's a lot more to it than that. I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 1. And I'm going to read a strong passage of Isaiah exhorting and admonishing the people of Israel because of their worship.

And the worship services of Israel at this point in time were much like the worship services in the United States They were filled with two superstitions See if you can find them starting with verse 10 of Isaiah 1 Hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom now. He's talking to Israel but they've fallen so far that he's addressing them as if they were of Sodom. "'You rulers of Sodom, give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me?' says the Lord. "'I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fad of fed cattle and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls lambs or goats when you come to appear before me who requires of you this trampling of my courts.

Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity in the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feast.

They have become a burden to me I'm weary of bearing them So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you Yes, even though you multiply prayers. I will not listen your hands are covered with blood God says there's two things about your worship Israel that makes me sick. I hate it You might be going through many of the right actions. You might worship regularly I hate your worship services is what God says because of two superstitions The first superstition is believing that you can worship God without heart and still be blessed by him That's the that's a superstition to believe that you can go through all the right motions and your heart be far from the Lord and your heart not be in the worship service and Your heart not be committed to God and to think that you're going to get some blessing or some benefit from God by going through the right motions in worship when your heart's not in it is pure superstition. In fact that has worked itself into an actual doctrine in Roman Catholicism called ex operato operatum which means just taking communion just taking doing the various things in worship by themselves wherever your heart is is of benefit to you but it's not just Roman Catholics that have that particular Superstition it's also Protestants and then there is a second superstition we normally don't think about which many of the people and most of the men in this conference are going to be speaking out of it says in verse 12 when you come to appear before me who requires of you this trampling of my courts In other words, what's your authority for doing these things you're doing it's not for me.

I didn't require you to worship me the way you're worshiping me so the second superstition that is prevalent in evangelical and some reform churches Is to think that you can do in worship something that's meaningful to you but which God has not commanded in the Bible and God will bless you for it To think that in the worship of God you can do something, something that you picked up out of your tradition, something your particular church does, there's no command to do it anywhere in the Bible, but it does make you feel close to God. To do those things that God has not commanded in his worship and to expect a blessing from them is pure superstition. So I rejoice in the emphasis that these men are going to be making this week and be sure to listen to them very carefully and take notes and buy the CDs and take them back to your Churches and make all your friends listen to them Now let's let's talk about these two questions The first question is is worship all of life Now that is a common perception and it sounds very very spiritual But it's not spiritual at all People say things like this, let me let me give you the argument They say that because worship is all of life and not just something you do on Sundays or something you do with your family or something you do in private because worship includes everything in all of life and since life has many facets not strictly regulated by the Bible like mowing the lawn brushing your teeth tying your shoes Therefore worship being life wide is not regulated by the Bible either.

While it's true that we are to do all to the glory of God, that in everything we do we are to live to the Lord, and that we are to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God the idea that all of life is worship and therefore no distinction exists between public worship and activities like mowing the lawn is absurd for several reasons. So worship pertains to all of life. Life flows out of worship but All of life is not worship. Now when you make that particular statement you have to rob worship of any real substantial meaning. You're not singing all the time, you're not praying all the time, you're not taking communion all the time Because worship is not confined to a particular service or a group of rituals It is in some sense all of life That everything you do is worship No, it's not Worship is far more substantial and special than that.

Let me give you some arguments now that hopefully will refute this idea that worship is all of life. First of all, There are several passages from both the Old and New Testaments that teach and assume that public worship is special and set apart from everyday life. I'm not going to read all these. I'll give you some texts. We've already looked at them.

Last night Scott and I gave you several Psalm 22 22 Psalm 27 4 Psalm 84 1 & 2 Acts 15 21 Hebrews 10 24 and 25 that all of those verses and many others tell us that public worship is a special act set apart from everyday life and not just simply all of life. Second, Christ the King and Head of the church has appointed church officers, elders, with special church officers, elders, with special church functions that require a special public church use. That is God has, Christ has called elders to lead in worship services. Together the people of God together for prayer, for singing God praises, for taking up collections for the poor, for administering the Lord's Supper, for reading and preaching the Word of God. We have these throughout the Scriptures, the fact that God has raised up church officers to carry out certain public functions with reference to times of worship in the life of the people of God.

A good text is Ephesians chapter 4 verses 8, 11, and 12. Third, when the Apostle Paul discusses the conduct of believers during public worship, he sets forth regulations that presuppose a sharp distinction between public worship and all the rest of life. For example, women may speak at a barbecue and may teach their children during home school yet women are strictly forbidden to speak or teach during the public worship service you see that in 1st Corinthians 14 34 and 1st Timothy 2 12 through 14 regarding the Lord's Supper Paul tells believers that they must conduct themselves in a proper manner when coming to the Lord's table in 1st Corinthians 11 17 through 24. But these regulations regarding the sacrament obviously do not apply to a local picnic or volleyball game. But they do apply to specific moments in your life but not to all of life fourth the term for Church Ekklesia in the New Testament often denotes a society of professing Christians who constitute a local church that meets together for public worship in a particular location now I got a whole list of verses there acts 511 acts 1126 1st Corinthians 1118 Romans 1623 Galatians 1 2 and so on That the word Church in the New Testament though.

It has some very closely interrelated meanings the word Church can mean a society an assembly of believers Gathered together to do Something they're not doing anywhere else in life and that is public congregational worship The New Testament Church met together for public worship on the Lord's Day acts 2 1 Acts 27 First Corinthians and on and on Lord's Day worship was commanded by God in Hebrews 10 24 through 25 Lord's Day congregational worship is a period of time set apart from everyday life. Public worship consists of certain elements that are authorized by scripture, such as reading the scriptures, prayer, preaching from the Bible, the administration of the sacraments, and the singing of psalms and hymns. It clearly would be inappropriate to treat public worship conducted by the church in the same manner as areas of life that are indifferent. And fifth, the Bible teaches that there is a special presence of God in congregational worship. Now we believe in the omnipresence of God.

We believe that God is everywhere. He fills up the universe with himself and the universe is not big enough to contain him. But there is a special sense in which God is present and active with his people during public worship services that is not true when they're at volleyball games and barbecues and the like. Listen to this great quote, this is a very good quote by a man named Clarkson. The Lord has engaged to be with every particular Christian but when the particulars are joined in public worship there are all the engagements united together.

The Lord engages Himself to let forth, as it were, a stream of His encouraging, quickening presence to every particular person that fears Him. But when many of these particular persons join together to worship God then these streams are united and meet in one so that the presence of God which enjoyed in private is but a stream in public becomes a river a river that makes glad the city of God to argue that all of life is worship and thus public worship is not strictly regulated by God's Word is akin to comparing the Lord's Supper to that which is common or profane now you've got to understand the motivation behind this idea one of the motivations behind the idea that all life is worship that means there are no regulations for congregational worship that you can just worship God in any way you want. Well, I want to read another paragraph and spend a little time on this paragraph that I read last night from the Westminster Confession of Faith and I'm sure there is a similar paragraph in the London Baptist Confession. But listen to this. God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth.

That is there's no building, there's no place that's more sacred than other places on earth like there was in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament Jerusalem was the holiest place on earth but all that's changed with Christ and now all the earth is holy and so you don't Get more blessings by worshiping God in one area than another God is to be worshipped everywhere as long as he's worshiped in spirit and in truth I'm sure you're going to have classes on that very subject from John 4 In spirit and in truth means that all worship if it's going to be pleasing to God must be in a way that's consistent with God's character who is spirit and it's got to be based upon God's Word which is truth in spirit and in truth And then after saying that God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth it gives a three from three kinds of worship that people participate in as in private families daily and in secret each one by himself so more solemnly in the public assemblies which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God by his word or providence calls there unto." So here you have a clear Rejection of the idea that all of life is worship in the Old Westminster Confession of Faith, which was basically the unifying biblical doctrinal statement of most Protestants in England and Scotland in the mid 1600s the says that worship takes place three times in your families every day when you by yourself get your Bible and pray and meditate upon the Word of God and most especially when you gather together in the solemn assemblies of the church for public worship Those are the three times that published a worship takes place Now make sure you're involved in yourself remember in worship.

This is the most important thing you do This is the heart and soul and core of worship without regular worship by yourself and with your family and particularly with God's people your life will not hold together. And your future will not hold together. There will be no bond. Without that regular worship of God by yourself studying the scriptures yourself not just devotionally but to learn who God is and what God demands of you in your life. Meditate upon it.

Pray about it. And read God-owned books about the Bible that God has used in the church Throughout the centuries to bless and encourage his people that's absolutely essential to the Christian life Absolutely essential. I've had people say to me. Well Joe. I'm just not a reader And I say to them well become a reader Do you remember Paul I mean here you have the Holy Spirit inspired apostle Paul who wrote several epistles of the New Testament and at the end of the one of the epistles He realized he forgot his books and he says when you come and see me bring the bark by Parchments with me with you bring me my books now Paul doesn't normally talk about the Bible as his parchments So I personally think he's not talking about the Bible.

I Think he's talking about other books that he reads about God that are true and that are God owned and the point is if an apostle couldn't be without his books what does that say about you and me? So make sure you're having private worship with the Lord regularly. Make sure you're having family worship like we said last night. A lot of people talk about it but in evangelical Christian homes and even in Reformed homes family worship is very rare. And then of course supremely make sure you're meeting regularly in congregational worship Because private worship and family worship are like streams that flow into the great river of congregational worship Your private worship and your family worship should begin and end with public worship all those things to get you ready for the Congregational worship of God and The Congregational worship of God should stir up your soul to be more faithful at per private and at family worship When I give premarital counseling to young men and women that are about to get married, I always say this one thing.

Among the rest of the advice I give them I say you know here's one of the most important things you can do from day one before you have children and after you have children eat together at dinner as often as possible If you can do it in this hectic world every night do it but eat together as a family every night that you can and You ladies Serve a good nutritional tasty meal throw away your plastic forks and your paper plates and your plastic glasses and put a tablecloth on your table and Serve a good meal that looks good and tastes good and Then you men bring flowers home occasionally and so that there's usually a flower there on the table and then when you and your family come down to heat make sure everybody has his hair comb make sure everybody has his shirt on Make sure everybody has his face washed and you look civilized and Then while you're eating your meal talk about civilized things Talk about God talk about life talk about what everybody's doing Don't just talk about what you've been doing about your business But let everybody talk about what they're doing and try to engage everybody in a talk and don't let anybody sit there and pout and then after everybody's eaten And you've cleaned off the table or most of it you the father sit down and take a Bible and read a text and Explain it to your family That presupposes that you've studied that text.

Don't try to wing it. Don't try to make it up as you go along. Everybody will be able to know that. But after you a text that you've studied, get your family and your wife around and teach them that text. Make the main points.

Now We're not talking about two or three hours I had to get after a daddy recently all of his children were rebelling and he said I don't know why they're rebelling I read the Bible to them every day. I said how long every day he said about three hours every meal I said well no longer there. No wonder they're rebelling That's the only time I ever told him by not read the Bible so much But we're not talking about big long period of time we could be talking about 15 or so minutes and then after you have Made your point ask the children questions about the text From the youngest everybody has to be there nobody gets up walks around nobody goes the bathroom anybody that doesn't know if they don't know answers to your question read the text and explain it again and then maybe sing a hymn teach your children from the earliest days Not just the little religious ditties that everybody learns But teaching the great hymns of the faith from their youngest days three four years old We would teach our children back when they were little great hymns of the faith like hallelujah.

Praise Jehovah. Oh my soul Jehovah. Praise Jesus loves me might be good sometimes but teach them the main hymns of the faith and when you do teach them the main hymns of the faith they'll sing them all the rest of their lives and Sometimes we used to open the windows in our dining room when we have all our children and we'd sing the hymn so that People in in the neighborhood could hear some of the songs. I Mean that is so vitally important and after you go to church on Sunday And You come back for Sunday meal ask everybody what the preacher preached about don't let anybody off the hook One time we asked our son he was five about five years old John why did daddy preach about this morning God was his answer said John you only get to say that once that's the last time you get to say that you say it again you get a spanking You got to be more specific And if somebody wasn't listening you spank him and you don't have spank him a couple times We had a couple family in our church at a great great country accent and and They had a little boy named Riley and Riley was about six years old.

They were sitting around the table and the daddy asked everybody. What'd you like about Pastor more craft sermon? So everybody had something to say and now it's Riley's turn Riley what'd you like about Pastor more craft sermon Riley said five years old. I just love it when he hollers So family worship is so vitally important From day one. I mean you mean What's one of the biggest complaints your wife has about you?

You don't talk enough She doesn't hear your voice enough Will you kill all kinds of birds with one stone when you have a family worship? She hears you talk more You're talking about important things You're doing what the Bible says and that is to work toward the sanctification of your wife and your family. I can't think of anything more important for you to do in your homes than family worship. In fact I want to read to you if you have a Westminster Confession of Faith, and check your London Baptist, it may be in the front of that as well. There was a man named Thomas Manton who was a great old Puritan, and he wrote an introductory preface to the Confession of Faith.

I want to read to you some of the things that he said it's on family worship but for I do let me give you some references for family worship in the Bible let me read some to that you might want to just write these down Jeremiah 10 25 pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not on thy name for they have eaten up Jacob and devoured him and consumed him and have made his habitation desolate." Deuteronomy 6 6 and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shall teach them diligently to thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." I love the next one from Job. Job chapter 1 verse 5. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them, that is his children, and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of all of his children. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

Thus Job did continually. 2 Samuel 6 18, And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Then David returned to bless his household. 1 Peter 3.7 Likewise, you husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge giving honor to them as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of Life that your prayers may not be hindered hindered Now, let me read to you some of Thomas Manton's counsel to parents. This may pinch a little.

It is bad parents that make bad children. The devil has a great spite at the kingdom of Christ and he knows no such compendious way to crush it in the egg as by the perversion of youth and supplanting family duties. He strikes at all those duties which are public in the assemblies of the saints, But these are too well guarded by the solemn injunctions and dying charge of Jesus Christ, as that he should ever hope totally to subvert and undermine them. But at family duties, Satan strikes with the more success, Because the institution is not so solemn and the practice not so seriously and conscientiously regarded as it should be, and the omission is not so liable to notice and public censure. Now the devil knows that this is a blow at the root and a ready way to prevent the succession of churches.

If he can subvert families, other societies and communities will not long flourish and subsist with any power and vigor. For there is the stock from whence they are supplied both for the present and the future. For the present, a family is the seminary of church and state, And if children be not well principled there, everything miscarries. For the future, it is comfortable certainly to see a thriving nursery of young plants and to have hopes that God shall have a people to serve him when we are dead and gone. The people of God comforted themselves in that in Psalm 102 verse 28.

Upon all these considerations, How careful should ministers and parents be to train up young ones while they're yet pliable and like wax Capable of any form and impression in the knowledge and fear of God and betimes to instill the principles of our most holy faith as they are drawn into a short sum in catechisms and so altogether laid in the view of conscience. Surely these seeds of truth planted in the field of memory, if they work nothing else, will at least be a great check and bridle to them and as the casting in of cold water does stay the boiling of the pot somewhat allay the fervors of youthful lusts and passions And to that end I know not what work should be fitter for children's use than that compiled in the Westminster Assembly Shorter Catechism. Now Get that and read the whole thing, but he brought up something I want to bring up to you How many of you have heard of the Westminster shorter catechism When the Westminster assembly in the 1640s wrote this catechism it's a It's a teaching of the Bible in question and answer form. A question is asked and then the specific answer is to be given and you work the child through all the doctrines and the Scriptures by means of memorization.

The Westminster Fathers wrote that in such a way that the shorter catechism would be suitable in a variety of churches Presbyterian Baptist Episcopalian where there would all be all the things would be true and everybody would pretty much agree on almost everything in it and they would use that to train young people and the shorter catechism has been used to train young people for generation after generation. There is a historian, was a historian, the last century or so by the name of Frondi, F-R-O-N-D-E, who wrote a history of Scotland and he described the Scottish peasants of the 17th century as the most remarkable people in Europe. Now if you know anything about Scotland in the 17th century it was very poor the reformers were just beginning a revival of education these were peasants they lived in Crofts you know little clay houses with thatched roofs on the moors, that is fields that would only hold sheep, hence moor croft. And yet this historian could say about them they were their most remarkable thinkers in Europe and he said about them that the children particularly from the earliest days could analyze a perspective or a position intelligently and logically and work out its weaknesses and its strengths and whether it was true or false.

It was remarkable how they thought and then he said this and the reason they could do it these peasants is Because they were born and bred on the shorter catechism They were taught how to think from the earliest days Your children can think far more deeply than people think they can far more early in life than they think they can. We have a lady in our church who taught her son to read when he was three years old and is convinced that every parent can teach his or her child to read when he's three years old. There was a great Scottish preacher by the name of John Brown that taught his three or four year old son not only how to read English but how to read Greek when he was three or four years old to the point that he was charged by his church with sorcery for It had to be something related to the devil for a four-year-old to be able to learn Greek He was found innocent of all charges The point is I think we're waiting too late to teach our children how to think You can teach them to think from the earliest days far more than they are.

Don't just let them play. Don't just let them emote. Teach them to use the mind in a way that's pleasing to God. And one of the best ways you can do that in your family worship is teach them the shorter catechism. It's very accessible.

Well, we have to stop with this. Let's go on to the second question we came here to answer and that is is worship congregational worship more strictly regulated by God than the rest of life? That is, does God make more requirements on us and more prohibitions with reference to the way we worship than He does with life in general. Now that's what some people believe today. And one of the arguments that people give is, well there is no book of Leviticus in the New Testament Which is a stupid argument and To say there is no book of Leviticus in the New Testament What they're saying is the book of Leviticus is full of all these detailed regulations as to how God is to be worshipped in the Old Testament and we don't have any such 20 minutes and we don't have such regulations in the New Testament.

So when somebody says to me there is no book of Leviticus in the New Testament, I say no, but there is a book of Leviticus in the Bible. And whereas ceremonial laws and rituals have changed because they were shadows and Christ is the substance toward which they pointed. Nevertheless the principles of worship in Leviticus and the rest of the Old Testament are the same as in the New Testament. In the worship of God we may only do what God has commanded, period. We may not add anything by man at all.

And so the fact that there is no book of Leviticus in the New Testament is not because you have more freedom in worship to do what you Want in the New Testament that they had in the Old Testament? You don't have any more freedom In the New Testament to do in worship than the people of God the Old Testament had they had to do what was commanded period The fact that there's no Leviticus in the book in the New Testament is not to say you have more freedom to worship God However you want It is to say that New Testament worship has a simplicity to it That was not to be found in the Old Testament Because the Old Testament had all these rights and rituals and sacrifices and ceremonial laws that pointed toward Christ and now that we have the real thing in Christ we don't need all these rituals and rights anymore we have him and so our worship services are simple they still are regulative of the Word of God and they are entirely under his authority. So my answer to the question is does God regulate congregational worship more strictly than he does all of life is no and yes It all depends on the perspective you're coming from.

So Let me explain what I mean turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4 Deuteronomy chapter 4 and Let's start reading with verse 1 Deuteronomy 4 Verse 1. Yeah verse 1 and now Oh Israel listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord the God of your fathers is giving you you shall not add to the word which I am commanding you nor take away from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor for all the men who followed Baal-peor the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you but you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today every one of you see I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding, in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it, as is the Lord our God, whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today? Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life but make them known to your sons and to your grandsons now Israel is on the verge that'll be $10 the she's taking a picture the Israel's on the verge of entering the land of promise land of Canaan they are about to invade it conquer it Occupy it and build a godly civilization on it and God's telling them how to do it He said I'm giving you the blueprints I'm going to give you the blueprints in my word that is going to be so comprehensive and so sufficient that you won't need anything outside that word to Understand how to build a culture in a civilization and families and churches and a nation and all that This word is so complete and I'm going to put this in southern That God says just do what I tell you Don't add to it.

Don't take away from it. Just do what I tell you That my word is sufficient to govern every area of life You don't need to go anywhere else for direction for politics family ethics any of those things Don't add to it Man's opinion man's traditions. Don't take away from it. Don't neglect it. Just obey it.

And you go into this land and you will be able to build a godly civilization down through your generations to the glory of God in fact when the other nations of the world see how successful your culture is in obeying this all-sufficient word the nations of the world even the pagan nations will say what nation on earth has a god so near to it as the covenant people of God and Then he issues a challenge that you ought to issue anybody today He says this law this word is so complete and so comprehensive and sufficient what nation is there on on earth that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law you can still ask people that you don't like biblical law you think biblical laws for another age give me one example anywhere in history of a law code that's more righteous than the law code of the Bible anywhere and that would just nail them I was on a PBS special one time and Yeah, I think it's on YouTube It was in the late 80s. It was done by Bill Moyer and it was on Christian reconstructionist that is people who wanted to reconstruct America by the Word of God and they intended to slam us but they didn't because they were so enamored with rushdoonie that they simply differed without any kind of real attack.

It's on YouTube, it's an hour long, 35 million people saw it, and it's called I thank God in Politics, but it's worth seeing. And one of our basic points was that civil law and jurisprudence to be just and to enhance liberty and justice for all Had to be based exclusively upon the law of God contained in the Bible Well to be fair they had to bring in another Christian who disagreed with us. He was famous. He is famous to this day. And after the class if you ask me his name I'll be glad to tell you his name.

But they said to this man this little reporter She was just you know doing her job, but she asked the right question She said to this man, dr. So-and-so Since you're a Christian If not biblical law as the source of jurisprudence Then what I? Mean that is the right question. That's the question here Deuteronomy 4 You know what this famous evangelical said and I quote The code of Hammurabi Now, you know who Hammurabi was An ancient Babylonian pagan tyrant who wrote his laws upon a big pillar that was buried under the near eastern sand for millennia. And that was the law code that this famous evangelical Christian would rather have for America than the Word of God.

But the point I'm trying to make is one of the great banner cries of the Reformation is sola scriptura, the Bible alone, the source of our knowledge about God and how to live life. The Bible is authoritative on everything about which it speaks and it speaks about everything. That's one of the great emphases of the Protestant Reformation. So in that sense all of life is regulated by the Word of God. If God says something is evil, it's evil.

You may not do it. If God says something must be done, you must do it. The only code that you need that is infallible and sufficient to identify right and wrong good and evil illusion and reality beauty and ugliness in every situation you have in the Word of God. So if you want to live a life for Christ that God blesses, just do what He tells you. Don't add to it.

Don't take away from it. Now don't obey the law of God just to make points with God. I'm not telling you that at all. Jesus made all the points we need. But we obey the law of God because it is the revelation of his character and because it pleases him.

Well now turn over a couple of chapters, a few chapters, to Deuteronomy 12. The book of Deuteronomy shows how the Word of God applies to every area of life. Study the book of Deuteronomy. It's Jesus' favorite book. He quoted more from the book of Deuteronomy than any other book in the Old Testament.

And look at the 12th chapter. The 12th chapter is particularly important to our conference because it's about worship. It's regulating worship in Israel both in the temple and in households and families and It gives a series of detailed Regulations and then there is a concluding summarizing statement verse 32 Whatever I command you you shall be careful to do You shall not add to nor take away from it. Now that's more narrow than Deuteronomy 4 because Deuteronomy 4 is about the sufficiency of the Bible for every area of life. Deuteronomy 1232 focuses the Bible on the subject of worship and says just as the Bible is sufficient to govern every area of life it is sufficient to govern the worship so that when we worship God we don't need anything other than what God has commanded in His Word.

So is corporate worship more strictly regulated than all of life? The first answer, no, because all of life is governed by the all-sufficiency of Scripture. Now, The other answer is yes. Is corporate worship more strictly governed by God than all of life? And there is a sense in which the answer to that is yes after you've already answered no.

So I want you to turn with me to 1 Timothy. Now you're going to hear I trust all these preachers talk about Leviticus 10, Mark 7, Jeremiah 7, Colossians 2, John 4, and all the various other classic passages that help us understand what our regular principle of worship is. That is, in the worship of God we may only do what God has commanded and nothing else Well now let's look at first Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Stop. Oh, that must be terrible.

He says, someday things are going to get so bad that people are going to fall away from the faith and start paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons now that must really be bad to be a doctrine of demon well let's see what these doctrines of demons are next verse by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods like wine, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. Here's the doctrines of demons.

And to put it simply, it's Neoplatonism. People who interject Neoplatonism into the Christian faith. What's Neoplatonism? Sounds like a liver disease. But Neoplatonism is an old pagan Greek philosophy that says that the only thing that's good, that's good and wholesome is what is subjective, contemplative, and heavenly.

Everything that is physical and material and this earth-oriented is base and low and you are to not be sidetracked by it. Now that's worked itself into the Christian faith in what we call Pietism and that is the idea that the goal the only thing that's good in life is your soul And going to heaven and getting ready to go to heaven getting involved in this life to any degree is a distraction from your main goal Profit is a four-letter word You have to make money to pay bills, but you ought not to enjoy making money. You ought not to make too much. Kissing your wife is important to carry out the race but you better not enjoy it. Don't get distracted by the pleasures and drives and passions of this life which God gave human beings separate yourself as much as possible from the physical and the material and concern yourself only with the spiritual and the heavenly I like this guy right here you know but I hate in every talk I give I hate little televisions with numbers on It works into our hymns Sweet hour of prayer.

I love sweet our prayer at least a lot of the Reformed version and not the Neoplatonic version so go home and check this out and see whether you got the Neoplatonic or the Reformed version the last stanza of sweet hour prayer in the in the Neoplatonic version says This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise and seize the everlasting prize. So the picture I have is a copperhead shedding its skin. This robe of flesh, oh this filthy, vile body, I long to be free from the prison house of this body so my soul can soar into the heavens. I had a teenager tell me one time he wouldn't sin so much if he didn't have a body and I had to tell him it's not that's not the reason you sin. God created the human body and pronounced it good right?

So the point is beware of the idea that there's something low or base about material physical things and the only thing we should concern ourselves is with the spiritual and the heavenly so here's the reform view of sweet our prayer in my immortal flesh I'll rise and Seize the everlasting price Now the point is there were people here who were forbidding marriage and eating certain foods because they thought it was more spiritual to be single and more spiritual to eat some foods than others. Let me very quickly conclude with this quote by Bonson. Greg Bonson is one of the smartest men I ever knew. He says this, When asked about the use of dance and drama in worship services, he explained, The Bible teaches us two different regulatory principles for areas of human conduct. On the one hand, if you look at 1 Timothy 4, it's clear that Paul teaches us that everything created by God is good.

Nothing is to be rejected if it is consecrated by the Word of God in prayer. We know that as the general rule of life. Nothing is wrong in itself unless God tells us so. We can use anything in this world for our good, our well-being, our pleasure unless God says otherwise. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that all things are lawful to Him, even though not all things are expedient.

So with respect to life in general, if you will, life outside of worship, the regulative principle is that everything is permissible except what God has forbidden in His Word. On the other hand, when it comes to the corporate worship of God's people, which God Himself has commanded and by which we approach unto Him in His holiness, the Bible teaches very clearly that we have no right to devise ways of worship by our own imagination or according to our own will or desire. God alone can tell us how we're to worship Him, alright? So in this particular area of life, the corporate worship of God's people, the regulative principle is no longer anything is permissible unless forbidden because no man has the right to dream up a way to approach God in worship. The second commandment teaches us that very clearly.

No graven images and no, not just graven images, no image or imagination is to be that by which we draw near to the Lord. So within corporate worship, the regular principle is that nothing is allowed Unless it is commanded by God in the Bible so the question we must ask is as God himself authorized the use of drama and dance as part of the corporate worship of his people. Does God have stricter regulations on corporate worship that he does of all of life? No and yes. And there is a goose egg on that screen.

Thank you. For more messages, articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where you