In this sermon, Jason Dohm discusses establishing biblical church practices by focusing on the inerrancy, sufficiency, and regulative principle of worship. He emphasizes the importance of viewing the Bible as the Word of God and trusting it completely for guidance in all areas of life. He then goes on to explain the difference between the regulative principle, which states that everything done in a corporate worship gathering must be clearly warranted by scripture, and the normative principle, which permits anything not specifically prohibited by scripture. Dohm argues for the regulative principle, citing examples from the early Church and the teachings of Calvin and Knox. He also discusses the 'Desert Island Challenge,' which encourages believers to use the Bible as their sole guide for all aspects of life.

The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the N-C-F-I-C is available at www.ncfic.org. So our topic for this morning is establishing biblical church practices and it fits really nicely on the heels of what Scott just talked about because it kind of fleshes it out. We're going to be looking a lot at the scriptures and what the scriptures say about itself. It wouldn't make much sense for us to have a philosophy of the scriptures that aren't derived from the Scriptures, would it?

So what we should go, what we should do is to go to the Bible and see what it says about itself and then we can direct everything else from the perspective that we have relative to the Scriptures. I often like to start out with this quote. It's a quote from John Robinson who was the pastor of William Bradford. William Bradford was the first governor of the Pilgrim Colony in Salem, Massachusetts and they had a very faithful pastor named John Robinson who never made it to the new colony. He always intended to, but his health never allowed him to come over.

But he pastored this group of party people who came over and founded the Plymouth plantation. So, but John Robinson says this, and it goes to the heart of what we're talking about and that is a recovery of Scripture for everything that we decide to do in life. John Robinson says this, I'm absolutely convinced that the Lord has other truths to impart to us through his holy word. Personally I cannot sufficiently deplore the condition of these quote reformed unquote churches which have acquired a certain degree of religion but which do not wish to go beyond their reformation. The Lutherans can see only what Luther saw.

They would die rather than accept certain aspects of truth revealed to Calvin. As for the Calvinists, they cling to the heritage left to them by that great man of God who nevertheless did not know everything. It is deplorable poverty. For even if these men in their time were lamps which burned and gave light in the darkness, they had not yet entered into all the counsel of God. If they were living in our day, they would be ready to embrace a light which was more intense than the one which at first enlightened them.

So what John Robinson is saying is if Calvin and Luther lived in our time, They wouldn't be content with the things that they talked about and wrote about and preached about at the time. They would be wanting to press on further and be more reformed in other categories of life that they just ran out of time to address. And this is the message for the church, The message from God to the church that the Reformation is always before the church. It's never in the rearview mirror. There's always something else to be reformed.

Will we be talking about family integration in the church in 20 years? I hope not. I hope that God will establish this as a biblical practice in the church and that he'll move on and he'll be reforming us in other areas again. So the topic for this morning is how do we keep church life centered around the practices of the Bible? How do we keep our worship God-centered and biblical?

And my proposition this morning is the answer is through three keys and it has to do with how we view scripture. The first key is embracing the inerrancy of scripture. The second key is embracing the sufficiency of scripture. And the third key is embracing the regulatory principle of worship. And I view these as a funnel where we pour things in at the top where it's really broad and then it comes down to something that's narrower up at the top we have the inerrancy of Scripture evangelicals generally embrace this at least they say they embrace it and then it comes down narrower and we talk about the sufficiency of Scripture which is really a subset of that which goes further than inerrancy does and then it comes down to a very narrow point where we have the regulative principle of worship, which is narrower still.

And they're logical implications of each other, and we'll talk about each in great detail. So the inerrancy of scripture. Psalm 19, seven through 11 is probably a great text, if not the best text on the inerrancy of scripture. This is where the psalmist writes this about the word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold yay than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb moreover by then your servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward.

So as we start this tour of the Bible on the audacious claims that it makes about itself, our first stop is Psalm 19 where the psalmist says that the words of God are perfect, they're sure, they're right, they're pure, they're true, and they're righteous altogether. What a treasure we have when God decided to reveal himself to man in a written way that we could have for ourselves and also pass down to our children as well. In 1978, a group of theologians from all over the world converged on the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago. And their purpose was to combat a slide that they saw happening in the church where the church was no longer convinced of inerrancy and these were These were men like James Montgomery Boyce. These were men like J.I.

Packer and Francis Schaeffer and R.C. Sproul. And many of the great theological thinkers of our time saw this slide of the church letting go of Scripture as an inerrant standard for the church and they came together to reaffirm that the Bible is what it claims to be about itself, that it is true altogether, that it's righteous altogether, that it's pure, that it's sure and they came up with a very long document which we won't touch on but they did boil it down to five summary statements about inerrancy so we'll look at that the first summary statement was that the Bible is God's Word it is what it claims It is what it claims to be which is directly the Word of God, not good ideas from the past that are subject to change in our culture but it is the unchanging Word of God and it's how God has chosen to reveal himself to man. We see this in Luke 24, 27. This is the road to Emmaus.

Jesus is talking about himself and when he talks about himself he uses the scriptures to do it. And it says this, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself over and over and over again in the New Testament what you see is Jesus using the Bible as if he believed it was the word of God himself. Of course John John identifies Jesus as the word so the word Jesus is not disconnected in any way from any word in Scripture. They should all be read. They're all words of Christ because because he is the word of God.

And when he used scripture, it's so clear that when you see Jesus using the Old Testament scriptures that it's so clear you see that he believed they were the word of God. We see the same thing from Paul. He's under house arrest and people are coming to him for teaching and what is he using for teaching? He's using the scriptures because he believed they were the Word of God. So when they had appointed him a day many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening.

If Paul wanted to persuade somebody and he had all day to do it, what he did was he spent his moments in the Scriptures, not with logical arguments but he went to the Bible because Paul believed that the Bible was the Word of God. When you look, when you go through Acts and you see how Peter preached and how Paul preached and how Stephen preached. They can't get three sentences into their sermon before they're quoting the Old Testament. These men held that the Bible was God's word and that this is how God had chosen to reveal himself to man. The second item of their summary statement was that the Bible is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches.

In other words, when the Bible speaks to something, end of discussion. It is God's authority to be brought to bear on any subject to which it addresses. And the scripture does make this claim of itself, Psalm 119, the entirety of your word is truth. This is the doctrine of inerrancy. The entirety of your word is truth and every one of your judgments endures forever.

Not subject to culture, not different this century than it was in the last century, but enduring forever. Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar so the doctrine of the Aaron see in Aaron see of Scripture is let God be true having revealed himself through his word and every man a liar. The third plank of this statement on inerrancy is that the Bible is authenticated by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it's a book unlike any other book in the history of man. The Holy Spirit testifies to the truthfulness of it through an inner witness and he makes us understand what it means. He allows us to be able to understand what God was trying to communicate as he reveals himself to us. And this is so clearly the testimony of scripture, isn't it? Hebrews 4.12, For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

What a remarkable book God has given us. Fourthly, the Bible is without error or fault in all its teachings. In the original autographs, in the original manuscripts, as it was written down inspired by God, written by men, it was completely infallible without fault in its teaching. And we have it intact today. Maybe not perfectly intact, but no major doctrine of the Bible is in question when you look at the different manuscripts.

All the major doctrines are intact. The Bible is without fault in its error or teaching. Now these are two very interesting scriptures that we're getting ready to look at because it tells us how Jesus viewed the Bible and how precise the Word of God is and the same with Paul. The first comes from Matthew 22 31 and 32 and Jesus is making an argument against his enemies here. These are the Sadducees.

They don't believe in the resurrection of the dead and Jesus makes this argument. He says this, but concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. So a couple things we should note here. The first thing is the obvious one which is he quotes the Old Testament and he says this was spoken to you by God.

Period. And the second thing is he makes His argument based on a verb tense. Do you see this? His whole argument is based on the fact that the verb is present tense and not past tense. Now you have to have confidence If you're going to go make an argument in the face of your enemies based on a verb tense, you better know that the foundation of that is solid or you're going to get eaten alive in that debate.

Don't you know that? But Jesus is comfortable making an argument based on a verb tense. The whole argument is based on that and he doesn't elaborate. He doesn't add anything else to it. He lets his whole argument stand on whether the verb is singular or plural.

Paul does something very similar in Galatians. He says, now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made. He does not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ. And Paul is making the argument that Abraham is pointing forward to Christ and not just to all of his offspring and he makes the argument based on whether one word is plural or whether it's singular. This is how Paul viewed and used the scriptures.

And finally point number five, the Bible and therefore the church is significantly harmed if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded. In other words when you start picking and choosing that's the end of it. You've put yourself on a slippery slope from which there's almost no recovery except for that God himself would come and save you. And the church has put itself on this slippery slope. When we begin to pick and choose what we're left with is inspired in spots theology.

You know what I mean by that? It's to say that the Bible is inspired in spots but not in other spots. But luckily I am inspired to spot the spots that are inspired. And what is that? That's us being elevated above scripture.

That is insanity. That Is every man doing what's right in his own eyes? In 1 Thessalonians, Paul commends the Thessalonians for receiving the Word of God as it's intended to be received and he praises them for it. He says, for this reason we also thank God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. And finally Isaiah gives us this counsel and I love this one.

This one might be my favorite one of the whole morning. Write down this reference. This is great. Isaiah 8. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. May God cause us to be a mighty generation who would rise up and say, to the law, to the testimony, and be content that God would be true and every man a liar even if we're the man who's the liar. That we would trust his words and when there is a dispute in our minds or in our circle of friends or in our church that the Bible, the Word of God would be the plumb line for resolving every dispute even if it's a dispute inside ourselves.

That is the inerrancy of Scripture. And if you have time, Google Chicago statement on inerrancy of Scripture. It is a beautiful document that has the underpinnings for these five summary points and I'm so thankful for these prominent theologians who gathered together to stand against the slide away from the inerrancy of scripture of reaffirming that the Word of God really is the Word of God. It really is how he desires to reveal himself to us. So next, the sufficiency of scripture.

Now that we're grounded in the Bible that we have being the word of God and being trustworthy. That naturally leads us to the sufficiency of scripture which says it's all we need. It's all we need for life and godliness. And 2 Timothy says this in beautiful terms, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is inspired by God, inerrancy, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." Paul starts out here exhorting Timothy that all scripture is inspired by God. All of it.

All of the scriptures that we have in our hands today are inspired by God and many translations render this God-breathed. We have a God-breathed book. He breathed his revelation to us and it says that the man of God may be adequate and ASB renders this complete, that all the training that you need can be had through one source and it's the Bible. And then he goes on to make it so clear in saying, equipped for every good work. There are no good works that the Bible cannot equip you for.

Or 2 Timothy 3 is not accurate. There are no good works that the Bible cannot make you thoroughly equipped for, adequate for, complete for. Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days. He's really, really hungry. This is his period of temptation.

The devil challenges him to turn stones into bread so that he can take care of his physical needs and Jesus says this, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In other words, We do need food. It's almost lunch. We're getting hungry, but we need the Word of God much more than we need food. We must hang on His every word.

It's our life. You may have heard of the Desert Island Challenge. The desert island challenge is if you were raised on a desert island, you had no other influences around you, but all you had was just one book and it was the Bible, how would you do things? How would you think about education? How would you think about church life?

How would you think about how men and women should relate together? Well why don't we take that challenge? Why don't we use the Bible as the plumb line and say it's really the only book that we have. It's the only one that we can trust all the way. So let's derive all of our practices from it.

In Deuteronomy 32, Moses says this, Moses finished speaking all the words to all Israel and he said to them, set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life. And by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess." We should be a generation that says, this is our life. Taking all of our thoughts and all of our words and all of our practices as much as we're able. Don't we know we're not going to be able to do it perfectly?

Isn't that intuitive to everyone in the room? It is. But our hearts should be crying out that the words of God would be our life. That they would be the foundation for everything that we do. Psalm 1 beautifully describes what it's like when the words of God are our life.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful." Now this is about where we take our counsel from. Psalm 1 is where we get our counsel from and there's really only two options is what we see in Psalm 1 and we'll see that later in other scriptures as well. But the psalmist starts out by talking about it's a rejection of a certain source of counsel. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.

What a beautiful vision of life as a tree planted by streams of water which has all it needs for every season. It's lacking nothing so that its leaf never withers because it's always sustained. It always has what it needs in every season. Whatever he does shall prosper. That is the sufficiency of scripture that we would trust it with everything.

We would bet the farm on scripture. We would rather have one book on a desert island than a library anywhere else. And now finally the regulative principle of worship. The regulative Principle of Worship is the bottom of our funnel and it says that as the people of God we should constrain ourselves to the things that have a clear warrant in scripture. We should limit ourselves to the things that we see are clearly established.

There are two competing principles and this is an argument among brothers. There are some arguments where it's just pagans trying to encroach on us and push wrong views of sexual lifestyles or wrong views of this or that on us, but this is a different argument. This is an argument within the household of God where brothers who are mighty men of the faith disagree, but they have radically different perspectives on the freedom they have with their practices. So when we're going to talk about these two competing principles, did you know that Luther is on the side that I'm arguing against? Am I sorry that Luther is in church history?

No, I'm thankful we owe a debt of gratitude to Luther, but I think he was wrong about this and I think Calvin was one of many who embraced the other side And Calvin did say we should constrain ourselves, we should limit ourselves. And John Knox, we heard Scott talk about that at length. The first is the Regulative Principle. No matter what side you're on, you know what, you should have to go through a class on the Regulative and Normative Principles because you know what? I had gone through probably 35 years of life or at least 30 years of life before I ever heard this and this really shapes the way you view how we should conduct ourselves in church and people should make a conscious decision on which they embrace.

They shouldn't just fall into it. The first is the Regulator Principle, and concisely stated it's this, Whatever is not warranted by scripture is forbidden. Calvin was a champion of this, so was John Knox, so were many of the other reformers. And it's this merging of the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture with an emphasis on the sufficiency of Scripture definitely to say we're only going to Scripture for our practices and we'll constrain ourselves here. The second is the normative principle and the normative principle concisely defined is this Whatever is not specifically prohibited by scripture is permitted.

Whatever is not specifically prohibited is permitted. And Luther added to that, he said, as long as it is agreeable to the peace and the unity of the church. So there's lots of overlap here where there's agreement between people who hold steadfastly to the regular principle and people who hold steadfastly to the normative principle. But it's not all agreement, there's around the edges there are some profound differences that we'll get to as we talk more about this. Now to define it more in detail, Mark Dever who's the pastor at Capital Baptist Church in Washington DC has written a book called The Deliberate Church and he defines the Regulative Principle this way, briefly the Regulative Principle states that everything we do in a corporate worship gathering must be clearly warranted by scripture.

Clear warrant can either take the form of an explicit biblical command or a good and necessary implication of a biblical text. So let's understand that we're at the bottom of the funnel here and we've got a really narrow scope. The Regulative Principle is the Regulative Principle of Worship and we're talking about what we do in a corporate worship setting and this is really where this principle is being applied. Everything we do in a corporate worship gathering must be clearly warranted by Scripture. And so we're looking for either a command that we should do it or a precept, a principle that you can't get away from in the text or a pattern where you see that they did it in the New Testament and it was good and it was commendable.

And the key phrase here is good and necessary inference of a text and this is where we're talking about applying a principle from the text. So does everybody who embraces the regulative principle share a brain? No. They don't share a brain and there's much debate and disagreement about what a good and necessary inference of a text is. So you won't see complete uniformity of practice within a Regulative Principle tradition.

There will still be differences, but the baseline of the debate will always be scripture. The baseline of the debate will always be scripture. And the people who subscribe to the Regulator Principle are looking at the scriptures to answer this question, what must we do? What must we do? And then we restrict our practices to these things.

We answer the question looking at scripture what what must we do? We must preach, okay. We must baptize, we must sing, we must take communion together, we must have fellowship, And then anything that's not in the circle when we're done answering the question is off limits to us. And said another way, a more positive way, we preserve all of the best of our time and our energy and our money for things that we see clearly established in scripture. And here might be the most key point.

We're talking not just about the ends, you see we all agree on the ends. Evangelism is good. Discipleship is good. Worship is good. But it's not just the ends, it's also and maybe even primarily about means.

Where are we getting our means? Do our practices conform to the means that we see in scripture and not just the ends? There's a couple of confessions that really help us think about this. The men who wrote those confessions, you can tell they just labored over the language because they're so concise and so it helps us to really drill down and define the terms really well. The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, that's the doctoral statement for our church, says it this way, The light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is just and good and who does good to all.

Therefore he is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in and served with all the heart and all the soul and with all the might and at this point the people from the regulatory tradition are nodding and they're smiling and they're happy and the people from the normative tradition they're nodding and they're smiling and they're happy and here's where they diverge. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God has been instituted by himself and therefore our method of worship is limited by his own revealed will. He may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan. He may not be worshiped by way of visible representations or by any other way not prescribed by the holy Scriptures. You see these men were looking for what's prescribed by the Scriptures, not what's prohibited.

What is prescribed, what has a clear warrant in Scriptures? The French Confession of Faith says it this way, we believe that the word of God contained in these books has proceeded from God and receives its authority from Him alone and not from men. And inasmuch as it is the rule of all truth containing all that is necessary for the service of God and for our salvation, it is not lawful for men nor even for angels to add to it or take away from it or to change it. Whence it follows that no authority, whether of antiquity or custom or numbers or human wisdom or judgments or proclamations or edicts or decrees or councils or visions or miracles should be opposed to these holy scriptures, but on the contrary, all things should be examined, regulated and reformed according to them. As we saw John Knox, we heard this in the last hour, all worshiping, honoring, or serving, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without His own express commandment is idolatry.

This is a good statement of the Regulative Principle. So turning again to the Normative Principle which states that whatever is not specifically prohibited by scripture is permitted. And within the normative camp, the phrase that causes a difference in practice on that side of the aisle is not specifically prohibited, not specifically prohibited. There's not unanimity of mind on exactly what would be in and what would be out there. But they're looking at the scriptures to answer the question, what must we not do?

Remember we said on the regulative side, they were trying to answer the question, what must we do? And then when you got those things in the circle, everything outside the circle is out of bounds. But with the normative people they're asking a different question, what must we not do? And so they're putting the things that they see specifically prohibited into that circle and then everything outside the circle is inbounds. Again, there's much overlap between the two, but there's much difference as well.

The intended ends are usually the same evangelism, discipleship, worship, but there is a massive proliferation of the means. The number of means that you see employed to get to evangelism, to get to discipleship, to get to worship grows and grows and grows. Fred Malone who's a pastor in Louisiana says this, obviously the normative principle invites invention, creativity, and new elements of worship which are never commanded or mentioned in scripture. It also permits practices which are prescribed in Old Testament worship to be used in New Testament Christian worship by good and necessary inference, even if these practices are not prescribed for Christian worship. This accounts for the traditional differences in worship between those from normative versus regulative backgrounds.

It also explains the normative additions of pageantry, altars, priesthoods, vestments, prayer books, mariolatry, which is exactly what it sounds like, it's an idolatrous view of Mary, Prayer to Saints and other practices not instituted by scripture for gospel worship. Others today add drama, dance, puppets, clowns, movies, magicians, comedians, weightlifting, high pressured altar calls, entertainment and whatever else their heart desires. When one holds to the normative principle another must ask where will it end? And to that we would have to say, nowhere, there's never an end to it because the whole undergirding of it is that it's appropriate to do anything that's not inside the circle that we've compiled with the things that are specifically prohibited. Everything else is fair game.

And the motive is often a desire to be relevant, to connect with the existing culture so that we can have an impact for Christ. And clearly, I've chosen the quotes on the favor of one side of the debate. I haven't been fair about it at all, nor did I intend to be. I'm making an argument for the regulative principle of worship. And why?

Why would I make such a strong argument? Why would I be so one-sided? And I'd like to offer two scriptures, although I think there are many others that we could put in the pot, but I want to examine two scriptures that I think go to the heart of the matter. The first is Colossians 2 where Paul exhorts the Colossians, beware lest anyone cheat you, literally cheat you, is plunder you or take you captive. Beware lest anyone plunder you or take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.

This I believe is the alternative to the Regulative Principle. And the question that must be asked is, is there a neutral place for ideas? Is there a neutral place for practices where if It doesn't have clear warrant in scripture that we can go draw from a neutral place. And I believe that the council of scripture is, the answer is no, there's not a neutral place. It is either a clear warrant in scripture or it's philosophy and empty deceit.

It's according to the tradition of men. Or it's according to the basic principles of the world. And the end point for that is that we're cheated, is that we're plundered, is that we're taken captive. And I offer 1 Timothy 3, 15 where Paul writes to Timothy, I write, the purpose of my writing, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. The church is not our playground, it's never been our playground.

It's the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and the ground of the truth. And therefore, as a result of that, there is a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God and God has been very prescriptive. We shouldn't think in terms of the things that can't do. We should think in terms of the beauty of the things that God commends to us, that he practices, that he gives to his people that have a clear warrant in his word. God has always been specific in defining how we should conduct ourselves in the church and he hasn't left us to our own devices today.

Yet over and over and over men have thought that they know better and we're going to look at a couple of examples and these examples answer the question, does God care about the means? Is it just the ends? Is it just evangelism, discipleship and worship or does God care about the means as well? And I offer as the first example the book of Exodus. Have you read the book of Exodus?

It is agonizingly detailed about how we should- about how Israel was to worship God. I almost said how we should worship God. Things are different in the New Testament. Although we don't throw out the Old Testament. I probably shouldn't have even said that because it opens up a whole can of worms I have no time to address but maybe we'll address it later.

But Exodus, in Exodus at least we should see the heart of God which is that he cares a lot about the means. He's been very prescriptive about exactly how he desires to be worshiped. Is it within the rights of God to determine how he would be worshipped? A creator God, may he say how he can be worshipped? Of course he can.

Then Scott mentioned this but Leviticus 10 1 through 3 we see Nadab and Abihu and they're offering this incense and they're struck dead and it's so instructive what what the verse says here because it says that they they were judged for offering profane fire, this is directly from the text, which he had not commanded them. Which he had not commanded them. In other words, they weren't judged because they had done something which he had prohibited, they were judged because they had taken it upon themselves to do something which he had not commanded them. This should instruct us. Scott already covered the two examples of Saul in 1 Samuel.

We should turn our attention to 2 Samuel as well where Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark of God and he's killed. His motive was to keep the ark out of the mud. Well first of all why did they think they should be carrying the ark of God in the back of an ox cart. There were very explicit instructions. Some of that detail in Exodus has to do with how you carry the ark and it's not in the back of an ox cart.

So this story had a very bad beginning and it has an even worse ending where Uzzah thinking he's doing the right thing reaches out to steady the ark and keep it out of the mud and God judges him for doing that and he takes his life because a Levite should know you never touch the ark. You never touch the ark. And then finally in Mark 7 Jesus addresses this issue and he rejects the Pharisees worship on behalf of God. They weren't trying to worship him but they were trying to worship God and Jesus rejects it And he says that their worship is in vain because their doctrines were precepts of men. And this was in association with these painstaking things that have been added on and piled up about hand washings.

We have to wash our hands a certain way and it's very important and you need to do it and we're adding these things on to the things that have a clear warrant in scripture and Jesus will have none of it and he says, and in vain they worship me, teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. Here's what Jim Elliott says. Jim Elliott was a missionary for a very short period of time because he was martyred on the beaches of South America. But you probably are more familiar with Elizabeth Elliott, his wife who lived on. It's a very inspiring missionary story, but here's what he said.

The pivot point hangs on whether or not God has revealed a universal pattern for the church in the New Testament. He's exactly right. This is the pivot point. Has God given us a universal pattern? If He has not, then anything will do so long as it works.

But I am convinced that nothing so dear to the heart of Christ as His bride should be left without explicit instructions as to her corporate conduct. I'm further convinced that the 20th century has in no way simulated this pattern in its method of churching a community. It is incumbent upon me if God has a pattern for the church to find and establish that pattern at all costs. Whether you're from a normative background or a regulative background, let's adopt the heart of Jim Elliot that we would say it is incumbent upon us if God has a pattern for the church to find and establish that pattern at all costs. Now we're going to shift gears.

We've talked about how should the church decide what practices to do or not to do in our life together in the church. And now we're going to turn our focus to what are those practices. Let's say I've been tremendously compelling, you all agree with me now and we're all coming from the regulative background and you say yes, we should do the things that have clear scriptural warrant. Well then the next question is what has clear scriptural warrant? And we can't cover the topic comprehensively today but we're going to go to a place where you see the practices of the New Testament church so distilled and set together in a small space like nowhere else in the New Testament that I'm aware of.

It's in Acts 2, so if you'll open your Bibles to Acts 2. And what we're going to see are six core practices for the New Testament and church. I am not making the argument that they're the only practices for the New Testament church because I could name several like Ministry to the Poor, like singing that we don't see in Acts 2, but what we do see is a very tight condensed text on what the early church devoted itself to. Shouldn't that instruct us? Shouldn't when we see what Peter and the other apostles in Jerusalem were devoting themselves, wouldn't that be a great place to go for instruction on what we should give the best of our time and our energy and our money to.

And what we'll see is that there are six practices in Acts 2. We see evangelism, we see baptism, we see the Apostles' doctrine, this body of teaching that the Apostles were dedicated to, fellowship, we see the breaking of bread, and we see prayer. So we're going to look at each one of these in detail. So the background on this text from Acts 2, and I believe we're starting in verse 37, is that Acts begins with the Lord Jesus appearing to the eleven disciples over a period of forty days and teaching them about the kingdom of God. Here's another reason I have so much confidence in the text for Acts 2 is that this happens right after the disciples just had an intense 40-day period where Jesus is teaching them about the kingdom of God.

I want to look at that group and see what they were devoting themselves to, to know what we should be devoting ourselves to today. And Jesus gives them one final admonition to wait for the promised Holy Spirit and then he ascends into heaven. And they return to Jerusalem and in chapter one we see that they're devoting themselves to prayer in the upper room. The men and the women they're together and they're praying earnestly. And the day of Pentecost comes, the Spirit descends, a massive crowd gathers because something very strange has happened with the tongues of fire and people speaking in a way that everyone can hear in their own language and Peter preaches with power and authority and under the blessing of God and 3, 000 people are converted in one day.

So they go from a church of 120 to a church of 3120 in a period of 12 hours or something like that. And this is where our text began. The church has been born and the Holy Spirit is telling us what practices this fledgling but large church is devoting itself to. Acts 2 starting in verse 37. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, repent and let Every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call." And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. In verse 42 it says they continued steadfastly in the New King James here or in the NASB it says, they were continually devoting themselves to a certain set of practices and these are those six practices. It starts with evangelism which we definitely see in verses 37 through 40.

And this doesn't happen in a vacuum, there's what has come before us in Acts and the last words that Jesus says before he ascends is this in Acts 1-8, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So it shouldn't surprise us that we see the church here at the starting line And they are being his witnesses just as Jesus had said he would before his ascension. And they're preaching the gospel with boldness and people are receiving the word. They're being pierced to the heart, the text says. It's beautiful.

And they're pierced to the heart. They ask Peter, what shall we do? And he says, repent and let every one of you be baptized and this is how people are added to the church. We see evangelism and by the way we saw it at the beginning of the text with three thousand being saved and then we see it here at the end of the text and the Lord added daily to the, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. So really this whole, this whole passage is bookended by evangelism.

We see salvation people being added to the church at the very beginning and at the very end of the text. And we know that the church was devoted to that. And by the way, before we leave evangelism we should say that this was not just an apostolic phenomenon was it? Because if we turn to Acts 8, Stephen has been stoned and there's the dispersion and then in Acts 8, 4 we see this verse. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

This was not the apostles. This was the average Joes, the B students like me and you. There might be some A students in the room but I'm not one of them, but they went out, they were dispersed but they took the gospel with them and they were bold with it and so this evangelism that we see in Acts is not an apostolic phenomenon at all, It's the Word of God being poured out from his people and bold preaching from the likes of Stephen who wasn't an apostle We don't we don't even know that he was an elder. Probably he was a deacon We learned from Acts 6 and he's as bold and preaches as beautifully as any any apostle that you ever saw in the book of Acts. So the church understands their mission and the Holy Spirit has given them power for the mission and they're out, they're doing it.

And this is just like the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22. The original invitees are not interested, They have excuses why they can't come to the wedding feast and so others are being sent out into the highways and the byways to find the poor and the downtrodden and to bring them in to partake of the wedding feast. And this is what's happening before our eyes in Acts 2. And so those who receive the word gladly, they're baptized. And this is how people are added to the church.

Let's catch up. Baptism. Matthew Henry says this, those who are joined to Christ are added to the disciples of Christ and join with them. When we take God for our God, we must take his people to be our people. And this is one facet of baptism that people, they believe, they repent, and then they're added to the church in a very visible way.

They take God's people to be their own people. And it's beautiful. The third practice that we see is that there's a devotion to the apostles doctrine or to the things that the apostles are teaching. And Jesus has prepped these men in great detail that they're going to be, that they're going to receive doctrine that will be for the church for all time. He addressed it in John 14 and then in 15 and then in 16 and he's talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to teach these men so that they'll have a body of doctrine for the church.

Let's look at John 14. These things I have spoken to you, says Jesus, while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." And when we think of people being devoted to the apostles doctrine, these are words that should ring in our ears, the promise that Jesus made to these men that He would send His Holy Spirit to teach them all these things from Christ. John 15, but when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning." You see what Jesus is doing. He's talking forward to this time that has arrived in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit has been poured out and Jesus is saying through the Holy Spirit I'm going to teach to you and then you'll be a witness.

And this is why we see the church devoted to the Apostles Doctrine. John 16, Jesus takes up the subject again, However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and will declare it to you.

All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. To which John Gill says this, And which is the same with the doctrine of Christ, of which he is the author, preacher, and subject. The substance of which is peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him. This is the apostles received from Christ and constantly taught in their ministry for which reason it is called theirs. This is why we call it the apostles doctrine because the Holy Spirit took of Christ and he gave it to the apostles And it was that they would be a witness to us and they would pass down the words that they were being given to us so that we could have confidence that we know that these things are from God.

And how do we do this? How would we devote ourselves in the modern day to the apostles doctrine, to their teaching? Well one is through the expository preaching this is Paul's admonition in the starkest terms his admonition to Timothy I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead." We prick up our ears when we hear a charge like this when it's about His kingdom is appearing and He will judge the living and the dead. This would make us attentive. Preach the word, Paul says, be ready in season and out of season.

Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears. They will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. This early church was devoting themselves to the apostles doctrine and we can do the same and it's by doing what Paul was exhorting Timothy to do.

It's to preach the word. It's to take the doctrine that was given to us and transmit it faithfully in the meeting of the church. It's also through the public reading of scripture. What a neglected treasure the public reading of scripture has become. How often do we hear extended passages of scripture read in the meeting of the church.

Well however often it is, I'm confident it should be more often. We should trust the raw words of scripture themselves with no adornment and we should put it there because that is what pierces the heart. In 1st Timothy, Paul is again exhorting Timothy and he says, till I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. And when we hear reading there, the NASB renders that give attention to the public reading of Scripture. Paul wanted Timothy to just read the words of Scripture to the people of God.

The Bible is what the church needs. We could clear out a lot of the other baloney and make more room for the Word of God and the people of God would be more blessed. They would be more blessed. The fourth practice we see is fellowship. Though they were saved from a perverse generation, Peter says in this text, they did not become hermits at all.

Matthew Henry says this, they not only had a mutual affection to each other, but a great deal of mutual conversation with each other. They were much together. When they withdrew from the untoward generation, they did not turn hermits, but were very intimate with one another and took all occasions to meet." And what was the nature of this fellowship? We don't even have to get out of this text to know what the nature of their fellowship was. We see it right here in the text.

Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart." How do I join that church? That sounds fantastic. The authenticness, authenticity of it and this thought of being together in one one accord and there's gladness and there's simplicity of heart. This is a beautiful picture of life in the church.

They're together, they're selling their possessions and sharing with anyone who has need. They're continuing with one mind, they're taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. And the nature of this fellowship is the language of family that we find permeating the whole New Testament. What is the church? It's a family.

We're given family that's not family by blood or at least not by near blood, but it is a bond in the Holy Spirit and it's the right description for the church. We're not an organization that has a mission statement and that's all we're focused around. We're family. We're really, really brothers and sisters in Christ so that our fellowship goes beyond the mission. The mission is important, we should give attention to the mission, but it's not all there is.

There is also the sense of community and family which the New Testament so powerfully describes and it's the one and others. There are at least 44 of them in the New Testament. There are some repeats, but I'm just going to flash them up in PowerPoint. Obviously we're not going to talk about all 44. We won't talk about a tenth of the 44, but this is what the New Testament, this is how the New Testament describes our life together and the quality of our fellowship.

Be at peace with one another. Wash one another's feet. Love one another. We'll skip down to eight. Stop passing judgment on one another.

Nine, accept one another. Then just as Christ accepted you. Fifteen, carry each other's burdens. Eighteen, be patient, bearing with one another in love. 25, bear with each other again.

26, forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. 27, teach one another. 28, admonish one another. 29, make your love increase and overflow for each other. 35, don't grumble against each other.

36, confess your sins to each other. 37, pray for each other. 44, love one another. There's this massive repository in the New Testament about what our life should be together and you get the sense from reading Acts 22 that the early church had a grasp on it and that these things were in operation in a beautiful way in their fellowship. May it be so among us as well.

Their fifth practice was the breaking of bread. There's a strong consensus among commentators that the breaking of bread that's referred to here is the Lord's Supper, is that it's the taking of communion together and Matthew Henry and John Gill and John Calvin and Nelson and MacArthur all take this approach and it has to do with the word usage that you see here So I'll leave it to our Greek scholars but that list is a pretty good list of people who are convinced that it is that. And where you would see the same word usage distinctly and directly meaning communion would be 1 Corinthians 10. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Again in 1 Corinthians 11, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. And then finally Acts 20 we see this. Now on The first day of the week is definitely the day that the early church was gathering together to meet and you see them being devoted here to the apostles teaching and the breaking of bread is here. I think it's reasonable to assume that the breaking of bread is communion here but I'm not dogmatic about this. I think there's a reasonable interpretation that would dispute that as well.

I'm convinced in my own mind but again I'm not dogmatic about it. But Assuming that the breaking of bread is communion here, then what we see was that the practice of the early church was to meet together every week and to take communion together every week. And so why would we do that so often? Most of us, in the church I grew up in it was quarterly and then I went to a church for a while where it was monthly and now it's our practice to do it weekly and man our joy has increased since we've started taking it weekly. Why so often?

Well let's look at what communion represents. We remember the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, that his body was broken, that his blood was shed, and that it was given for us so that our sins would be forgiven. How many Pastors struggle with where can I put in my sermon, in this church service, just a clear presentation of the Gospel? Where can I fit it in? Well pastors who establish communion as a practice in their church every week don't struggle with that because it's the perfect time to talk about the Gospel.

It's a pictorial of the Gospel. You can't take communion without remembering that Jesus' body was broken for our sins, that His blood was poured out so that there would be a new covenant of grace towards His people. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It's also a wonderful time to preach the gospel to your children. During communion, if I have a two year old or a four year old or a seven year old near my knee, I am pulling them onto my knee to whisper about the cup and to whisper about the bread.

And it's just a beautiful time in the family to do that. So I would commend that practice. I do think that This is very likely what the breaking of bread in Acts 2 is referring to and that it was a practice that the early church was devoted to. And then finally prayer. The early church was devoting itself to prayer.

And this is not isolated. We see this again and again in Acts. We've already seen it in Acts 1. The ascensions just happened and the eleven go to Jerusalem and their instructions from Jesus are to stay put until the Holy Spirit is given. And this is what they're doing with their time.

And when they had entered they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. They have dead time but it really isn't dead time. They're making use of it and they're devoting themselves to prayer.

They're continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication. We see it again after Acts 2 and Acts 12. Peter's just been freed from prison. The church was very worried about Peter because there has already been a martyr at this point and this is what's recorded in Acts 12. And when Peter had come to himself he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.

So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. This was a praying church. These were praying people. And in Acts 2 we see that they were devoting themselves to prayer but it's not just in Acts 2 it's throughout Acts it's before Acts 2 and after Acts 2 there were people who were devoting themselves to prayer and so in our church on Wednesday night is our night to pray and we just meet at somebody's house and the somebody is usually different week to week. But we'll have easily one half to two thirds of our people to show up at the most no frill prayer night you've ever seen in your life.

If you want a cookie, you came to the wrong place. If you want a glass of water, you came to the wrong place. We come and we pray and that's pretty much about it. It's a very unadorned time. But people are coming with an expectation that there will be earnest prayer and that, you know, that it's a time for business, that we really will devote ourselves to it.

And you know, in every church that I've ever been in, if you had a prayer meeting, I mean half the church, two-thirds of the church to show up at something like that, you must be kidding. If you can get three or four people to huddle in the corner on prayer night, it is a, and it's because of the busyness of life that we have. And so why are our prayer nights different? Well I don't know all the reasons but I know one of the reasons is there's nothing else to do. We've not created competition, massive competition for prayer night in our church at all.

We've cleared out and really the only night of the week where we ask families to come together for any purpose at all is to pray. The reason for that is very specifically we want fathers to teach the Bible to their children every night in their home And this is the one night of the week, so it's not worship team practice one night and small group practice, or small group the next night, and deacons meeting the next night, and so that the most active people in the churches can very easily be out of their homes three, four, five nights a week and it does not allow for the heads of the households to fulfill their duty in their own homes. And so what it creates is an environment where The most committed members of the church are the ones who are most compromising their responsibility to disciple their own children. Now are there some that have that schedule and also do an adequate job of discipling their own children? Possibly, but I've never seen it.

It's conceptually possible, I will concede, but I've never seen it. And so, This is not just for prayer night, this is for all our practices and this is kind of the point of the whole talk that there has become a, when you add practices, when you layer on practices, there's a dilution of the practices that we should be devoting ourselves to. Acts 2 is making an argument for a set of practices that are warranted in scripture and that we devote ourselves to. Do you know what it means to devote yourself to something? What it means to focus?

Well, I work in a very large corporation, and we like to focus on 25 different strategic initiatives. And that's not what that word means. You can't focus on 25 strategic initiatives. If you really desire to be devoted and focused to something, you've got to wipe away the competition and say we're really, really going to focus. And in a way that's accurate to the definition of the word, we're going to pull the competitors to the side so that we really give the best of our time and our energy.

This is the heart of the Regulator of Principle of Worship that we would say these things have clear warrant in scripture and we will constrain ourselves but we are not thinking of it as constraining ourselves. We are thinking of it as preserving ourselves for the things that we see in a beautiful way in scripture. We should preserve ourselves for these things. It is betting our life on what we see in the Scriptures and giving ourselves wholeheartedly, really devoting ourselves to them. And so in closing I pose a question.

Are the practices of Scripture really enough to get the church where it needs to be? Are these just small set of practices really enough for a modern world with all the technology we have and the busyness in our lives? And Can we really be successful by constraining the overwhelming bulk of our energies to just these simple unadorned practices and the answer is it depends. You expected me to say yes, but the answer is it depends. It depends if we're willing to let God define success for us.

What does success mean? Is faithfulness and obedience to the word of God the target for us? Are we looking for something else in the church? Are we wanting something else in church life other than that or more than that? Do we have the stomach to trust God's revealed word for the ends and the means?

We know discipleship is good. We know evangelism is good. We know worship is good. Now the question is how do we get there and what do we choose for our source for these practices? We trust the Word of God or do we think we need something a little slicker to win and then disciple our target demographic?

What deplorable poverty, As John Robinson says, what deplorable poverty that we would even have words like target demographic in our vocabulary. Ultimately this is about our view of God. Is God really the head of the church in a way that he's still around, he's still walking among the lampstands, he's still directing his church. Or is he waiting for us to come up with the next creative idea that will bring in more disciples and then more effectively disciple them. Insanity.

What have we done? What are we doing? Let's bet the farm on scriptures. It really is all we need for life and godliness. As Hope Baptist arrived, heaven forbid that I would communicate that Hope Baptist has arrived.

We're finding ways where we need to be reformed every month, every year and as best as we can but our desire is just to bring a heart to the table that says God conform us, conform us. Address our blind spots. We know we have blind spots. Think we don't know that? But we should have hearts that desire to be instructed by scripture and only by scripture so that our practices we can put our feet on solidly.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father what a treasure your word is. We know we're more faithful to it today than we were in years past and we hope that we're not as faithful to it today as we'll be in years future. We know that you have us on a course and we don't despise the course that you've had us on at all. We're thankful for your faithfulness and your mercy and your patience towards your people.

We know we've needed it. We know we still need it. So it's not a desire to come in pride at all, but a desire to, with as much honesty as we can muster within ourselves, want to be conformed to the patterns of scripture. God, we know we see through a glass darkly and so we pray for insight from the Holy Spirit that you would cleanse us. Cleanse us.

Always be reforming us God. We know there's greater joy the more conformed to your word that we are and so we we want the joy. We do want the reward from it God that we would have a pure understanding of you, a greater love for you and for our brothers and sisters and for the lost. That all these things would work together for your glory, that your name would be known as great. Your name would be known as great among us.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. We invite you to visit our website at www.ncfic.org where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The N.C.F.I.C.

Exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life.