Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was
futile because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines.
They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to
His will.
In Taylors, South Carolina on March 11th 2003, the Rev. Mr. Terry Johnson,
Senior Minister at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia,
opened the spring theology conference for Greenville Presbyterian
Theological Seminary with an address on the Regulative Principle of Worship
(RPW).
A minister in Central Georgia Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church
in
America (PCA), Mr. Johnson began with the subject of the importance of
worship, stating, "You can make a case that there is a true sense
that the
whole Bible is the story of the establishment of the true worship of the
true God." Citing John 4:22, Mr. Johnson proceeded to defend the
biblical
basis for the regulative principle.
Because the whole Old Testament is in a sense the story of the
establishment of the true worship of the true God, Biblically there could
be no more important subject, and certainly that is also true of our
Reformed tradition. Carlos Eire, in his War Against the Idols, reminds
us
that the central focus of the Protestant Reformation was this very issue.
Furthermore, the Puritans and the British monarchs battled over it for
100
years, and today the importance of worship is being underscored again.
He made reference to the cowboy church spoken of by Dr. Joseph Pipa
in his
introductory remarks. As reported in USA Today, March 11, 2003, the Cross
Trails Church, Fairlie, Texas, has the following Ten Commandments: Just
one
God; Honor yer Ma & Pa; No telling tales or gossipin'; Git yourself
to
Sunday meeting; Put nothin' before God; No foolin' around with another
fellow's gal; No killin'; Watch yer mouth; Don't take what ain't yers;
Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff. Baptisms are performed out of
a
horse trough, and "Happy Trails To You" constitutes the sung
benediction.
Mr Johnson rhetorically asked, "What's next? A skateboarders' church?
A
Valley Girls' church? Where is the unity of the saints and the catholicity
of the church if we are constantly dividing into smaller and smaller
divisions? Where does it all end? Roger Williams sitting in a closet with
his wife? Unless I have exactly the culture, the language, the music that
appeals to me, I guess I can't worship with anyone else. And so the course
we're on is a course that will divide and subdivide the church further
and
further. The worship wars are raging, tearing apart churches and
denominations, and giving shape to the life and piety of generations to
come."
Worship, explained Pastor Johnson, is the ultimate expression of our
theology and should be consistent with that which we profess. Worship
services are what they are because of the theology that inspires them.
That's why we have a Roman Mass. That's why we have Charismatic praise
services. That's why the orthodox worship as they do. Worship expresses,
reinforces, and teaches theology, and we can never just graft our theology
onto any form and expect it to survive. There must be forms that are
adequate to express and carry the content of the theology that we hold
to.
This is an especially important concept m light of the fact that we will
reach from 75 to 90 percent of our people in worship services and nowhere
else.
The Regulative Principle, which is the historic way by which Reformed
people have addressed the worship issue, speaks both to truth and spirit.
In John 4, we have the two fundamental sides of the regulative principle
of
worship. Jesus answers the Samaritan woman in verse 21, "Woman, believe
me,
an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall
you
worship the Father."
"I believe that's the single most radical, the single most revolutionary
statement made in the whole Bible, because up to this point it has mattered
whether you were in Samaria or Jerusalem." With this statement, said
Mr.
Johnson, Jesus is sweeping away the worship of God as instituted in the
Old
Testament. The speaker went on to point out differences between Old and
New
Testament worship, with Old Testament worship being typological and
external and concerned with location and ritual in a way that New Testament
worship is not. In this passage particularly, Jesus emphasizes truth over
against Samaritan errors and ignorance. He emphasizes spirit as opposed
to
concern for place and procedure.
Sincerity, then, is an important issue of motive and heart, 'but
earnestness does not substitute for inattention to form, something that
very much matters to God. Worshiping God in truth means worshiping God
according to scripture. The advantage the Jews had over the Samaritans
was
the Bible which instructed them in the acceptable way of approaching God.
Calvin says that lawful worship is only that which God has established
by
himself. The Westminster Confessi6n of Faith says, "The acceptable
way of
worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself and so limited by his
own
revealed will that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations
or
devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation
or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures." That is
the
classic statement of the RPW.
Mr. Johnson went on to discuss the anchoring of the regulative principle
in
the scriptures, citing first the second commandment, saying, "God
has the
right to authorize the way in which he is to be worshiped and he had
determined that he is not going to be worshiped through images."
Other
proof scriptures include the golden calf of Exodus 32 and the strange
fire
offered up by Nabad and Abihu in Leviticus 10. God was, said Johnson,
making a statement to the ages that when you approach Him, you must do
so
in the way He has commanded and that this is what. it means to treat God
as
holy.
The Savannah pastor also referred to the warnings of Deuteronomy 4:2
and
12:32 not to add to or take away from God's commands and to I Samuel 15:22
and the rejection of Saul's unprescribed worship. Saul has good intentions
and is sincere in wanting to guarantee success and please God. God says
it's no good because it wasn't done as commanded. Saul hasn't obeyed,
and
his sacrifice is not as good as obedience.
Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was
futile
because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines.
They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to
His
will.
In addition to the explicit teachings of scripture, whole doctrines
assume
if not teach that these things must be:
1. The doctrine of God in relation to man. God is infinite and we are
finite. How ever are we to know how to approach him? How would we ever
conceive of God aright and conceive of the right worship? There has been
no
tradition, no system of theology that has appreciated more the vastness
of
that gap between God and man. Of course we need to turn to Him to find
out
who he is and what he wants
of us.
2. The doctrine of sin: Is there any theology that has so emphasized
the
devastating effects of the fall on human nature as has Reformed theology?
There is none who seeks God. So not only are we finite, we're corrupt.
And
we're attempting to approach one who is not only infinite but holy. And,
as
Calvin says, our hearts are factories of idols. We are not competent to
devise God-honoring worship. This is the natural implication of the
understanding of the doctrine of the fall and of sin.
3. The doctrine of scripture: No tradition has so elevated the authority
and sufficiency of scripture to the heights that our tradition has.
Scripture alone is finally authoritative for the faith and practice of
God's people; scripture alone can order the worship of the people of God.
It is sufficient to equip us for every good work, and that includes
worship.
4. The doctrine of the church: God has given true declarative and
ministerial power and authority to His church. We declare and administer
God's truth in the church, but we may by no means bind the conscience
by
creating rules and forms of worship not addressed or commanded or implied
by scripture. The Regulative Principle is an expression of the limits
of
church power such that the church in its worship may require of its members
only that which Christ requires and no more.
5. The doctrine of God's sovereignty: God alone can order His worship,
and
God alone does order His worship. So, it was asked rhetorically, "What
HAS
God authorized for our worship?" Quoting from the Westminster Confession
of
Faith, Mr. Johnson's answer was, "Prayer with thanksgiving, the reading
of
the scriptures with Godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable
hearing of the word, the singing of psalms with grace in the heart, the
due
administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments by Christ are all
parts of the ordinary religious worship of God."
We can further define what we mean by the Regulative Principle when
we
speak of forms, circumstances; and elements. Scripture authorizes this
limited number of elements to be used in worship, but then we can also
speak of the forms that those elements take and the circumstances within
which they are expressed. It is important to understand the difference
between elements, forms, and circumstances. Preaching is an element, but
you can't dance it. There must be consistency with the nature of the
element to uphold the integrity of the RPW. For instance, preaching is
a
spoken word, so it would be inconsistent with the nature of the spoken
word
to dance it. We must not compromise the integrity of the element by
choosing the wrong form.
Circumstances of worship are to be ordered by the light of nature and
Christian prudence. An example of a circumstance would be the question
of
illumination at an evening service or the need for amplification of voices
to be heard by all.
WORSHIP MUST BE FILLED WITH SCRIPTURE
The second major point of the address is that worship in truth means
that
our worship must be filled with scripture. It not only provides the
structure of our worship and determines the elements we are to use but
also
provides the content.
Pagan worship is non-cognitive, but we are called to worship God with
our
minds, and that which we are supposed to have fill our minds is scripture.
The language of Christian worship is scripture. We are either reading
it or
expanding upon it through exposition, singing it, or praying it. We do
this
because faith comes by hearing the word of God; it is the Gospel that
is
the power of God unto salvation.
The preacher admonished, "Do You believe that we are born again
by the
Word, that we grow as we feed upon the pure milk of the Word, that the
Word
performs its work in us, that when the Apostle Paul preaches it's in
demonstration of the Spirit and the power? That we are sanctified by the
truth? That God's Word is truth? So, if it's by the word that we're
converted and by the word that we're sanctified, and by the word that
we're
matured, and if it's faith that comes by hearing the word of God, then
our
worship services must be full of scripture."
Most alarming to Pastor Johnson is the rapid decline of the amount of
scriptural content in worship over the last century. It is, he believes,
an
accelerating decline, even in conservative Presbyterian denominations.
The
decline has occurred in the amount of scripture read in typical worship
services as. well as in a failure of preachers to preach the whole counsel
of God, working their way sequentially and expositorally through the books
of the Bible.
"I grew up hearing evangelistic sermons addressed only to the lost.
In
college I started attending Grace Community Church where John McArthur
was
preaching verse by verse through First John in the morning and First
Corinthians in the evening. There was a period of time where I was
particularly consistent where I walked in one person and walked out a
different person every Sunday." The sermons were expositions of scripture-
simple Biblical preaching.
We are, according to Mr. Johnson, also singing less Bible. We ought
to be
singing the Psalms and experientially, theologically rich hymns patterned
after the Psalms. We went from these rich hymns to Gospel songs with even
less Bible, and then on to choruses which have even less Bible. There
is
some Bible, but there is all the difference in the world in singing an
entire Psalm and one verse repeated over and over.
"Be reminded also of the way Protestant ministers used to pray.
Then visit
the typical contemporary service and go ahead and clock how much time
is
being given to prayer. And note what kind of prayers are being offered.
It's an embarrassment .to the tradition when you consider the frivolous,
limp, and weak prayers that are typically being offered in our services
today." The Bible gives us the language of prayer, and many churches
seldom use it.
"People are coming to church and just hearing a bunch of talk and
singing a
bunch of songs," says the preacher. But faith comes by hearing the
word of
God, and if it's not being preached, sung, read, and prayed, and if the
content of our services are decreasingly Biblical, it is an ominous thing
that is happening - a tragedy unfolding before us of monumental
proportions."
