Dennis Tuuri

what we’ve been created to do. And in Revelation 15, the praises of God, the saints singing the praises of God is what God is seen as then moving in terms of judgment against the enemies of the church and transforming the world and bringing light out of the darkness of the earth. So, it’s important because it’s what we’re made to do. It’s important because, as we’ve said, it forms a pattern for our lives.

And it’s important because I think we can infer that without the praise of God’s people, then God tends not to deliver us from our enemies. You see, he wants us to be brought to that position of praying. He’s not a machine, but we have a personal relationship. We have a corporate relationship that ties our praises and our prayers to the actions that God performs in the context of the world. Now, the call to worship means that every other discussion we have about anything in our lives has as its basis the person of God who is sovereign and worship is such an important thing for us that we want to be very careful we do it right as much as we can.

This is true not just because of its importance but it’s also true because in our Adamic nature in our fallen nature God is the last person we want to see or be reminded of or come in contact with. Remember the fallen nature is you know your children the picture of it is Adam in the garden. God comes on the Lord’s day, the end of the week, beginning of Adam’s week. He comes, but Adam hides, you see, because in our fallen nature, the holiness of God really is this huge neon bright laser sign of our sinfulness and wickedness.

And we don’t want to see that. We want to maintain the deception that we’re okay. So, if we can, we will in our fallen natures change worship into a fantasy island event for us where we can come and just be lovey-dovey with the God who will not judge our sins, doesn’t call us to confess, and doesn’t set up any patterns for the rest of our lives. And that’s what we will do with worship. We will try to eliminate the presence of God by changing God into somebody that we pull out on Sunday to talk to, changing him into the friend and not the king, etc., etc.

So, it’s important because it’s the centrality of our lives. It’s important that we study it well in scripture. Because our Adamic nature is going to tend to want to sin in this area. Now, because of that, some men have said that we can only do in worship whatever is commanded by God. And what is not commanded by God for worship is forbidden in worship. So, we need an explicit statement of what we’re to do before we can do anything.

And if there’s no explicit statement, use musical instruments in worship, then we can’t do it. Now, this view is what people mean today when they say the RPW or Regulated Principle of Worship. That’s what they mean. It’s not what it always meant, which we’ll talk about in a moment. Now, this view seems tied into it some latent forms, some underlying forms of dispensationalism because what they end up saying is that it can’t count the Old Testament. That was all stuff before Jesus. It’s got to be stated explicitly in the New Testament before we can do it. So you say, well, it says in the Psalms, use musical instruments. That’s Old Testament. See, it’s kind of got this mixed up idea that the New Testament can be understood in isolation from the Old Testament and specifically in terms of worship.

In our Sunday school class today with the young kids—well, I’ll be careful how I describe that group. There are young men and women in that class as well. But with pre-20s people here, you know, if you look at the book of Exodus, we think of it as deliverance. That’s the first half. But the last half, chapters 25 through 40, the bulk of the book is all about how they’re supposed to worship, how they’re going to build the temple, the tabernacle, how they dress the priests, what articles of furniture have to be made. Then it goes through the whole thing again and tells us that they did it. Double witness to the importance of this stuff. God regulating worship. And then they’re still at Sinai by the time Leviticus describes what’s going on. And Leviticus is all about worship. That’s its big phrase. It carries is all about worship.

So we have all these truths that God has given us about how worship was to be done prior to the coming of Christ. And we would reject out of hand that God has to repeat things for us in the New Testament. We would say that our worship must indeed be regulated by the word of God, but that we don’t need an explicit command. We can use a precept or an example of biblical worship to inform us about how to worship. Okay? A command, a teaching or precept, or an example. What do we have in Revelation 15? Just think to yourself now, what is it?

Is it a command, a precept, or an example? Well, it’s an example. We see what goes on in heavenly worship. And so, strict RPW guys would say we can’t use it because it doesn’t say here to use musical instruments. And it doesn’t say that this is what our hymns of praise should be like. But we say no, no, no. This is how God says worship is going on in heaven. We don’t need, you know, a specific statement about what to do this stuff. He gives us the example and we should let that inform our worship.

That’s why to avoid this idea of New Testament only, we look at the whole Bible in terms of how to regulate the worship that God has called us to do. We do believe in regulating worship according to the word, but we don’t say there must be a specific command. We can use examples such as Revelation 15 or Isaiah 6 that we read at the beginning of the service to inform us about what worship looks like according to the scriptures.

Again, here the men that were causing a little bit of commotion this morning. You know, I tried to talk to him about the Old Testament and Deuteronomy 14 and alcoholic beverages. Well, you know, Moses advocated, you know, slavery and, you know, I mean ungodly forms of slavery and he was for a I mean he just really demeaned Moses. Whether he intended to I don’t know. But you see what he’s left with is just this book of the New Testament that tells us all kinds of things that we don’t maybe know how to figure out unless we have that Old Testament background.

And as a result, you end up with a lot of weird screwy positions like anybody that drinks alcohol is going to hell. Now alcohol has to be warned against. Bible warns us and it doesn’t warn us about a lot of things but it warns us about the dangers of drinking wine too much and becoming drunk. On the other hand, it says we’re supposed to have wine at the Lord’s supper. Well, point is that when we come to worship, we use a whole Bible approach.

And what happens is if you’ve just got the New Testament, worship becomes kind of Greek. It becomes intellectual only. There’s no involvement of the congregation. A lot of the reformed guys who advocated this RPW stuff, Dabney and others, Southern Presbyterians, I mean, they thought you know, the congregation really should do virtually nothing in the service. The officiant was supposed to do the whole thing.

And we’ve moved toward much more congregational involvement in worship because that’s what the scriptures seem to picture for us in these examples and precepts. And the command isn’t just to the officiant to sing praises to God. It’s to all of us. But see, you get into this idea if the New Testament, Old Testament are distinct from each other, then you pour these Greek ideas into the New Testament. And so you end up not liking wine or anything the body likes. You don’t like. And so then you go out and you spy out churches with Christian liberty and you attack them because you don’t understand it. You think they’re really being unfaithful. But what they’re trying to do is have a whole Bible approach that says, “Hey, our bodies aren’t bad.” That’s Greek thinking. That’s why we raise our hands when we sing these songs while we come forward for the offering to remind ourselves that our bodies are involved in the worship of God. They are new as well and God wants us to use them for his purposes.

Oh, our worship regulated by God. His sovereignty calls us together. His word is the regulating principle of worship by command, precept, and example. Martin Bucer said it this way. Nothing should be introduced or performed in the churches of Christ for which no probable reason can be given from the word of God. So, we have reasons, but they don’t have to be explicit statements.

Jeff Meyers, I think I put this quote on your outline in an email this last week on the BH list, said that our ideal, our goal is a church reformed according to the word and always ready to be reformed by that same word once again. So, we don’t worship the traditions of the elders. They’re important. We build on what the reformation of the worship of the church was in the time of the reformers, but we also want that word to continue to reform us as God ministers it to us. So that’s an excellent statement of our view of how we approach worship. Reformed by the word and continuing to be reformed by that same word.

You know, another problem the reformers had was that the RPW people are real anti-Roman Catholics. Even John Owen, the Puritans, fell into this problem with it has to be explicitly stated. And Owen, for instance, actually did not think we should use the Lord’s Prayer in our worship because that was under the Jewish dispensation. So you end up with very little you can actually do in worship. And it seems odd because in trying to avoid will worship your decision in terms of how we approach God, you almost end up doing just that very thing when you don’t use all of God’s word to inform you how you worship because you don’t have much left. So you just sort of decide it yourself.

All right. So hopefully that helps us to understand the relationship of the very call to worship itself to how we regulate our worship. Secondly, the first four commandments in worship. This is an example of what I’ve said. We use the first four commandments as precepts or truth by which to regulate our worship. And I mentioned this last week from Calvin. Wanted to mention it again here.

First commandment tells us we’re to, you know, we’re to honor God and no other gods before us. He’s our God. We’re to worship him. Second, by implication, we’re to worship this God who is our only God. Second commandment says that when we worship God, we can’t have idols. We can’t have a picture of Jesus that we bow down to and kiss. Doesn’t say we can’t have pictures of Jesus period. It says we can’t worship these things, images of anything. Can’t have a picture of a mountain that we bow down and worship and kiss. You see? So, it tells us how we’re to worship. First commandment, we have to worship. Second commandment, how we’re to worship, not via icons.

Third commandment tells us to have a full witness. Don’t take God’s name in vain. We come together today and invoke God’s name throughout the service, but don’t do it in an empty fashion. Let your taking of God’s name in worship be informed by that word. And then the fourth commandment tells us when we’re to do this on the Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s day. Hebrews tells us there remains a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath-like keeping for the people of God. That’s what this is.

I believe I mentioned Bert Burkeman. Some of you met Bert Shade when he was out and on the BH list. He calls himself the Rebuke man. He issues rebukes to people. His name is Burke. Rebuke Burke. And he got a query from somebody about, well, what do I do if people just won’t come to church? They’re working or whatever, or maybe they’re sick and stayed home from church. Should I take them communion because it’s such an important thing? And of course, the reformers were all against that. Communion is a corporate activity of the church.

I hope Burke doesn’t mind me reading his response, and I know he’s going over the top here, but I think it’s right on in terms of making a basic point about our worship. He says this, “Tell them to change their lifestyles, dude. To get right with Jesus and be there Sunday morning at daylight, the time of resurrection to be refreshed. What’s more important here? Making money or dining with Christ? I can’t believe you have people like this in your congregation?”

Now, this is the way Burke is, right? He’s humorous. He’s always kind of over the top, but he’s making points. “If they’re sick, stretchers will get them into the sanctuary. I know you have able-bodied men who can carry them. That’s my standing orders to my kids. If I’m sick and dying, carry me in to be at worship. That’s Bert.”

Great guy. And hopefully we’ll see a lot more of him. The church he pastors is, I believe, going to be brought into the CRA, you know, our denomination this September. But the point is that the Lord’s day is the Christian Sabbath. This is the day to be given over to the worship of God. It should have a humongous importance to us. Like he said, what’s more important? Making money or having dinner with Jesus?

Now some occupations you can’t avoid working on. You know there’s works of necessity and then there’s other things that just have to be done seven days a week. But you know if you can avoid working at all that’s what you should do because God commands it. Again, this is an example of the precept of the fourth commandment being used to inform us about what our worship day should look like. And what it tells us is be there.

Now you’re in the hospital after a heart attack like George. Of course you can’t be here. And a lot of times you have a contagious illness probably shouldn’t come. And there’s certainly illness and Burke is just kind of going over the top there. But his point is well taken. If you’re just feeling a little bad, if you understand the significance of coming together today on the Lord’s day and having dinner with Jesus, then you’re going to put things in priority.

And by the way, it is the word’s day. And the word day means 24 hours. So the whole day is to be consecrated and set apart to Christ in particular ways. You don’t work.

Okay. See, New Testament sacrifices. I’m going to talk again about glory a little bit. I think I have some I think it’s important to nail that down. And if that’s all we do today, it’s okay with me. But before I get there, I guess I have to do a little bit of work.

I know for myself and for you maybe and to help us to understand this whole Bible approach to what we do in worship. We have said that there’s a connection between the three phases of worship that we go through. Confession and forgiveness, preaching of the word and then the Lord’s table, Lord’s supper. There’s a relationship to the three main offerings of the Old Testament and we can make other correlations as well and God’s gifts to us.

But you know, we I asked, you know, what do we do here at church? Do we have sacrifices ongoing in the New Testament church? Is New Testament worship sacrificial? Well, it’s a trick question, of course, because the obvious answer is in the sense of cutting up animals and stuff. No. In the sense of Christ being resacrificed, absolutely not. Once for all event 2,000 years ago that affected once for all the atonement that was pictured by all those animals.

But if we leave it at that and break all connection to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, we are going to be almost forced to go into will worship when it comes to worship. What do I mean by that? The scriptures, the New Testament now is filled with sacrificial language. And how are we to understand sacrificial language without its context for what it’s pointing us back to in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament?

You can’t. And what you will do is you’ll probably in our culture at least take a Greek mindset toward the thing and think of sacrifice as the body is totally bad, spirit is good. You’ll end up, you know, like one of these fellas out here today and you’ll have just not a good perspective on what the scriptures tell us in terms of the proper use of our bodies and rejoicing in the presence of God. You’ll misunderstand what sacrifice means.

Now, let me give you a list. I’ve got a list of scriptures here and these came from a book by Jeff Meyers. Oh, I forgot to mention that in my outline. I give you the resources, three little books, small books by James B. Jordan. And there’s a book by Jeff Meyers called The Divine Servant. And that book is available electronically. I’ve gotten permission from him for a small fee to distribute it to people here who are studying worship, etc.

So, that one if you want it electronically, I’ve got it. These are excellent books in terms of a biblically regulated worship system without the RPW errors. So, it’s got to be explicitly stated in the New Testament. And these references here to New Testament sacrifices are from his book. And I am going to in a shotgun fashion mention these references and what they say. So if you don’t catch it, that’s okay.

But you’ll get the drift hopefully and you can in your family worship in your own personal devotional time or whatever. Look up these references and see the importance of sacrifice.

Romans 12:1 and 2 of course we all know that it’s printed orders of worship. When you come forward with your offering and tithe, you present your bodies a living what? Sacrifice, right? Which is your reasonable service of worship. So you are the sacrifice as you present your bodies and as you approach the table of the Lord’s supper for instance or as you come to that portion of the service. So right away Romans 12:1-2 says that all of our lives really are tied to the language of sacrifice and are do represent offerings of ourselves.

Sacrifice also describes the essence of the church’s mission in the world. In 1 Peter 2:5 we’ve talked about this We’re the we’re being built up as a spiritual house as living stones. Saw that movie Galaxy Quest the other day and there was this rock creature and there’s all these rocks laying around and they come together and form this big monster who’s going to kill the William Shatner lookalike. Well, that’s who we are. We’re rocks gathered together, placed together. We’re not ugly stones. We’re brilliant gemstones as Chris W. has preached on.

But why are we being built up. Well, it says you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Well, he says the very purpose for us coming together as a church is to offer up sacrifices. Now, there are spiritual sacrifices. But what does that mean? Well, see, it doesn’t mean the Greek idea of spirit and body distinction. It means we perform in the spirit things that are related to what was going on in those Old Testament sacrifices.

Philippians 2:17 says, “The sacrifice and priestly service that arises from your faith.” Your faith is supposed to give birth to sacrifices and priestly services.

Three, Meyers points out that as living sacrifices, we give off a smell, a sweet smelling aroma. You know, out of the five sacrifices of the Old Testament, three were sweet smelling. Which were they? I’m not going to tell you. You think about it. Do you know them? Should know them? Probably. Guess the ones that make the place ready, the reparation offering, the purification offering, those are not sweet smelling.

But then the ascension and the tribute offering and the peace offering, these offerings, the whole burnt offering, these are sweet smelling before God. Well, in the same way, we’re like those animals that are sweet smelling. 2 Corinthians 2:15 says we’re to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. We’re a sweet smelling offering to guys that are being led to Christ and we’re a sweet smelling people were like those sacrifices.

Again also the monetary gifts of Christians are described as Paul in Philippians 4:18 as a sweet smelling aroma an acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to God. How you going to understand that language if you don’t see the connection between the New Testament and the Old Testament in terms of sacrificial language?

The self-denying generous lives of Christians, Meyers says, are sacrifices. The author of Hebrews reminds the church. But do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. See, our very lives given up our lives for another are sacrifices at the center of how we live our lives toward the world as well, toward each other.

The sanctifying work of the word of God. We’re told in Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” So, the word of God is compared to that priestly knife that you cut the animal up with to lay it on the altar.

The animal is killed, right? Bring that animal forward, throat is cut. He doesn’t have to be burned to be killed. He’s already dead. Atonement, you got to look. The atonement made by blood is affected by the death of the animal, death of Christ ultimately. But then that animal is cut up and consecrated whole burnt on the altar. And then the animal is burned up and ascends into God and God eats the animal. It’s food for God.

Every sacrifice in these well these altar sacrifices of the Old Testament, the word for sacrifice is literally food. Now God doesn’t need food. Food represents communion. Your family has communion together. Not in a formal sense. Informal sense. You eat meals together and you get together for fellowship. You have food. Well, okay. So, that’s the movement. Like those animals, we come forward.

And what does Isaiah do? And what does John do? And what does Ezekiel do? Dead. God raises us up by the power of the spirit. It’s his spirit that allows us to confess our sins, of course, but we die. And then the word of God comes along and starts hacking on us and cuts us up to make us a consecration to God on that as a whole burnt offering to God. So the sermon comes along and now you’re being sliced up not to kill you, to transform you, to rearrange you.

And that same sword that’s a two-edged sword, it also heals you and brings you back together. And all that’s kind of laid at this idea when you come forth your tithes and offerings, you dedicate yourself to the service of God. You see, that animal is being dedicated holy after it’s been killed and resurrected, so to speak, after the blood’s been applied to the altar. The animal pieces are put there. And we are forgiven of our sins.

And then we’re put on the altar of God with the word of God cutting us up. Then that animal is burned and he’s transformed. And we ascend. And what happens in the third phase of our worship is we have union and communion with Christ in heaven. We ascend. We have fellowship with God in that consecrated state. That’s the movement of the sacrificial animal. That’s who we are. We’re the animals. Jesus was the sacrifice, capital S, that went through these stages and affected union and communion for us with God the Father and worship.

That’s what it is. It’s that same movement. And that’s why Hebrews 4 speaks this way about the word of God being a sacrificial sword. Life of love is a sacrificial life we live. in union with Christ sacrificial offering according to Ephesians 5:2. Walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. See, you don’t know the Old Testament.

You don’t know what Jesus has done even, let alone what you’re supposed to be like. When you come forward at the end of this sermon, you come forward chopped up by the word of God and consecrate yourselves to live sacrificially for one another to use your financial resources, other resources for the purpose of the service of the king. But to one another, you have trouble, getting along with brother or sister, husband, wife, friend, enemy.

God says, “Hey, you know, confess your sin. I’m going to chop you up with the word, rearrange you, and then I’m going to create in you. I’m going to give to you that peace with each other, and you’re going to be transformed into this person that enters into this life of sacrifice.”

Okay? Romans 15:16 says, “Be a minister of Jesus Christ to the gentile.” He Paul is striving to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I mean, Paul saw his calling as an apostle, as a priest and minister of the gospel of Christ to be one of taking people and putting them on the altar that they’d be a sweet smelling aroma to God. It’s at the center of who Paul is this idea of sacrifice and the sacrificial system. Not only was the worship of the church informed by that, but Paul said his whole ministry is informed by that model, that pattern making worship service that has as its corollary what we learn from worship about the Old Testament animal sacrificial system.

So Paul says that his very ministry, the service of the apostles and pastors is described as priestly service. The worship of the church is sacrificial. Of course, Hebrews 13:15 says, “Therefore, by him, Jesus, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.” So, when we come together, our praise is said to be a sacrifice of praise and it’s said to be an offering to him. So you see our worship is offering sacrifice of praise to God transformed to the work of the savior. But still the basic elements that God began to prepare us for in the Old Testament worship service are present in helping us understand what Jesus has accomplished and what happens to us.

The corporate prayers of the God’s people are described using sacrificial imagery of smoke ascending in Revelation 8:1-5. We’ve talked about this. Prayers of God’s people ascend smoke on the altar. You see, it describes it that way. The Lord’s supper is a memorial offering. Do this as a memorial to God. And the Old Testament sacrifices, several of them are called memorials to God. See, when we read that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial, then we put in the idea, well, okay, it makes us remember because we’re kind of Greek and we’re thinking in terms of intellectual things. We just need more reminding of things. But the whole memorial thing connects the supper of the savior to the sacrificial of the old system of the Old Testament and reminds us that this memorial is to God the way the animal ascends up to God that the blood was proof to God that the animal’s dead not that he needs proof but it’s the demonstration the shedding of blood is the demonstration the animal has died and we present to God as a memorial the blood of the savior in his body and he says okay I treat you according to the death of the savior Okay.

So in all these things we see that our worship is sacrificial. Our worship is indeed sacrificial. Now because it’s sacrificial, it’s informed by these other offerings. And I went over this and we will close with this point. I’ll do the rest of this sermon in two weeks from today. Next week Mark will be with us. We won’t actually get to Revelation 15. But I’ve already told you what it’s all about anyway. Says we’re to praise God.

That our praise of God is central to our worship and it transforms us and it transforms the world because God does things in relationship to the prayers and praises of his people. It is life-changing and effective. Singing songs is a way in the middle of your week to shake it off and step up. You know, as a culture moves away from Jesus, it moves away from songs. Otto Scott talks about when they used to ride buses back when he was a kid, you know, 50 years ago, people would just start singing songs together on the bus.

Now, they weren’t probably Christian anymore. It was sliding. They were probably just good old Americana songs or the popular songs of the day. But people had a union and communion, an uplifting of their spirit together, complete strangers sitting next to you on the bus, and you’d start singing songs with them. Well, that’s the way it is in the Bible. You know, Paul’s in jail, and what’s he going to do?

We’d be praying fervently, maybe getting exasperated, but we wouldn’t typically think of singing. That’s what Paul does. We could go over it in many places throughout the scriptures. Men sing to God to uplift their souls. We’re to admonish one another. And we’re to do so with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing of songs of praise to God is the way we shake it off and step up in the week. Try it this week when you’re in the midst of a difficulty.

I should have sung a little song out here to these fellas, I suppose, instead of letting myself get worked up. I sinned, you know, I got didn’t respond well. So we’re to shake it off, confess our sins before God and step up. Step up to the praise of him. Songs transform our lives.

But I want to talk about another aspect of the transformation of our lives that and I know I’ve already talked about this last week, but I want to talk about it again, and that’s glory. If you’ve understood what I’ve said about the need for our worship to be regulated by God’s word, informed by his word, and that the New Testament explicitly ties in many, many ways our worship and our lives to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. And if you remember that the Old Testament really those gifts are locked up. The beauty of New Testament worship is that what you couldn’t get to fully in the Old Testament is now accomplished through Jesus.

You couldn’t go in the holy place and you certainly couldn’t go into the Holy of Holies. And that’s where those gifts were. Aaron’s rod that awesome glory and weight, the new man, Aaron, and the manna, life from God, and the Torah, the law of God, wisdom from God above. These gifts were locked up, but now we have them. And in our worship service, God comes to us. We ascend, but he descends. Moses went up to the top of the mountain. God came down. We go up to Mount Zion. God comes down to meet us. Jesus says, “Come up to me. to heaven. Come up here. And yet he also says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Open the door and I’ll come in and I’ll have supper with you.” He comes down by means of the spirit. And he does this so that we might receive gifts.

Our songs that we sang today is about the descent of God. Yes, it’s important to understand our ascent to heaven, but probably even more stressed in the scriptures is God’s descent to us. And yes, he commands our homage to him as we sang earlier. But he comes with gifts in his hand. He came to the churches in Revelation with gifts in his hand, the gifts they needed. And those gifts fall in the category, I believe, of these three elements that are in the Holy of Holies and the three main offerings or sacrifices, food for God of the Old Testament. Those gifts are glory, those gifts are wisdom, and that those gifts are life.

Now, if it’s so important to who we are as people that God affirms to us our complete absence of glory apart from him but then assures us of our glory in Christ then I think it’s very important for the way we treat one another for our well-being emotionally mentally and even physically that we understand this gift a little bit and the need to give it to one another and I’ve got some scriptures for you and I’m going to you don’t have to turn there.

Just listen to the word of God now. And this will conclude with we read in and I’ve got a little thing here. How do you spell love? There’s a song by the Fabulous Thunderbirds, I think. How do you spell love? M O N E Y. We would say we’d come close to that. You know, if you love each other and God says that one of the most important things we need for our well-being is a sense of glory. Then we will spell love.

H O N O R honor or G L O R Y. Glory. Do we give glory to each other? To brother and sister, to parent, to child, to husband, wife, to friends, and even to enemies. Do we give each other the proper glory that God says he has ministered to us and we should reinforce?

If we don’t, we’re not loving each other. Now, I say honor because honor and glory are linked very closely or synonyms virtually in the scriptures. Romans 2:7 says that God gives eternal life to those who by patient endurance and doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality. Do you seek for glory and honor? You should. That’s what it says you’re supposed to be doing. Glory, honor, and immortality.

1 Timothy 1:17 says, “Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, to God, who alone is wise, be honor and glory. Forever and ever. Amen. Now this word honor it is—Timothy—you know Timothy Dolan—has great weight or value. It means can mean pay. Elders are supposed to get good elders are supposed to get double pay. Had to throw that in. No, but that word honor means pay in its most literal sense. And we don’t want to be Greek. We want to think about that as giving people respect that means something to them. honor and it’s and it’s linked here. So to God be all honor and glory.

Glory remember also is the same basic idea. It’s weight. It’s heaviness. It’s like a gold krugerrand, you know, or a gold bar, heavy. And so glory and honor kind of are the same thing in their in their in what the words mean and then they’re linked together in the scriptures.

Hebrews 2:7, you have made him that is man or than Jesus a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. God crowns man with glory and honor. Now, he forsook that, but God restores us this pair of virtues, glory and honor.

Second Peter 1:17, he received from God the Father honor and glory. Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the scriptures link together honor and glory. And God tells us explicitly then, I think, that we’re to glory each other, give each other honor and glory.

And this word honor is explicitly used about husbands. the wives. 1 Peter 3:7, the husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, giving dowy, giving money can mean that. But if not that, in the broadest sense, what it means is that husbands are admonished to minister this gift that God ministers to us, glory or honor, to minister that to our wives.

Now, we need to hear that. Because in our view, in our fallen Adamic view, women are stupid. It’s a terrible thing to say, I suppose, but that’s the Adamic view of things. Men despise women. Men mistreat women. Men make light of women. And you know, if you’re a woman, you can’t understand that. But as a man, I understand it perfectly. Women are different than men. They think differently. They communicate differently. They’re just different.

And you know a man you spend 50 years 30 40 years learning that and you never really learn it fully but you should learn it enough young men in this church to know that no matter if you can’t make the connections your wife makes and usually it’s super logical making several leaps at one time being efficient in use of space. I’ve learned to appreciate that about my wife at least and other women. They’re actually a couple steps ahead of me and I think they’re done because they’ve jumped three steps. and I can only make it to the next one. You see, they’re different.

And what we need to do as men is to give glory, give honor to our wives somehow. Now, you’ve got to think about how to do that. And I, you know, I can’t tell you the way you can give glory and honor to your wife. Women, each of us are individuals and we are communicated to in different ways. But I know the word of God explicitly tells men to give honor. And I believe that means glory. waiting us consideration to our wives and we need to hear it.

Now wives have to do the same thing with husbands. Romans 13:7 says that we’re to give honor to whom honor is due and talking explicitly about the civil magistrate but I think also by way of application the head of the household. 1 Timothy 6:1 let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. We are to honor give glory to our masters at work. Women are to give glory to the masters at home, the husbands. Children are to give glory and honor to their parents. And parents ought to honor their children. Why? Because they’ve been these are the children of the most high God. And we’re to give them that glory and honor.

I had a conversation with a Christian this week and this person said, “I don’t think anybody has glory. I don’t see anybody being ministered glory to in the context in my life. May God grant that we understand worship well enough to to know that we all thirst after glory and ultimately you can only get it from the father in heaven here in worship is the picture of that. But God calls us just as he shed his love abroad in our hearts through Christ our savior.

He calls us to love one another. And he calls us to love and give glory and honor to one another in the church, in the community, in our workplaces. And it must be present in our homes. And may God, as we come forward, consecrating the use of our tongues and our money and everything else we’ve got to his purposes, may he indeed show us ways this week to honor one another.

We know when we dishonor each other, one of us might have something we think we’re pretty good at it, and the other person will tear them down. Not intentionally, but kind of question, can you really do that? Do you really know what you’re talking about there? See, it strips glory and honor away from the person who And the providence of God has been made to do that. We will not get to where we want to be in our families or in this church or in this community without properly ministering this gift that God gives to us, glory and honor to one another.

It seems counterintuitive. We have problems with one another and we want to correct each other all the time and correction is important. But the context in our families and in the church must be glory and honor given to one another. That’s what the worship service reminds us of in the first wave of the three waves of the worship service is that God glorifies and honors us and he calls us to minister that to one another.

Let’s pray. Father, we do pray that as we come forward in obedience to your command today to offer ourselves up anew, we pray, Father, that your word might have done its work, that it did indeed bring conviction for our failure to honor and glorify each other properly. Help us Lord God, to minister that gift that you’ve given to us to one another. We thank you, Lord God, for the worship service of the church informed by your word that is so relevant and so pertinent to our lives.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

—

To the world the Lord is Earth receive a king. Let every heart prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Glory to the earth. The Savior reigns.

When there fields and flows rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. All the sins and sorrows grow. the in the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow. Far as the curse is found. Far as the curse is found. Far as far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace. and makes the nations prove. The glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders of his love.

Let us offer up our praises to this most gracious God. The context of our prayer this morning is Psalm 121. Let’s pray.

We lift our eyes up to you, O Lord, to you who made heaven and earth, the world, and all that dwell therein. From you is all our help in times of trouble and in times of need. We need you to keep us in the covenant of your grace. For our feet would soon be moved from confidence in the finished work of Christ to faithful confidence in the flesh. Oh Lord, be our helper.

We need you to guard the elders of this church from leading the dear sheep into error or heresy or phariseism or any other form of works righteousness. Oh Lord, be our helper. We need you to continually hear us when we cry out to you in prayer. We pray and we thank you that you neither slumber nor sleep for apart from you we can do nothing. Keep us dependent upon you this week. Remind us daily to pray and to never begin a day in the strength of our own hand.

Cause us to cry out to you in the times of trial or confusion this week that you might deliver us. Oh Lord, be our helper. We need you to be our shade at our right hand. Guard us from our enemies from without and from within. Guard us from government that seeks to usurp your place as the sovereign lord of this city, state, and nation. Grant us in the upcoming election men after your own heart and not hirelings who seek power and prestige and financial gain.

Bless the development of the biblical ballot measures guide and the position statements to be inserted in the Oregon Voters’ Guide. Make them to be true to your word and honoring to your name. Oh Lord, be our helper. Guard us from ungodly parochialism and sectarian pride. Forge relationships between us and the other churches in the Oregon City area and with the other reformed works in the greater Portland area and with the other churches in the Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals. Use the upcoming Festus Dei as a beginning opportunity to further Catholicity with these churches and as a chance for those of us at Reformation Covenant Church to be servants of all.

Oh Lord, be our helper. We need you to strengthen our bodies and guard us from fear concerning our own frailties. Bless and continue to heal George S. Continually assure him and Tanya and the children that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from your hand and that George’s days will reach their full measure according to your sovereign determination before the world began. Guard T. in these last days of her pregnancy.

Relieve anxiety and cause her and John S. and the family to rest in your love until the days are accomplished that she should be delivered. Strengthen all who are sick in this flock and raise them up to praise your name. Oh Lord, be our helper. We need you to give aid to our families and to the individual members of this church. This week we bring to you the F. and the Foresters before your throne. We pray that you would continue to bless the ministry of Doorposts.

We thank you for the great success you’ve brought to that business endeavor of the Foresters, both financially and in terms of service to the body of Christ. We pray that you’d make John a strong and courageous and loving leader in his home, godly husband and father. We pray that you would give grace and continued strength to Pam to be a patient and a wise wife and mother. We pray that you would continue to teach the boys to honor their father and their mother, obeying them in all things as obedience to you.

And we pray that you would raise up the girls as diligent helpers and continue to grant them grace to be good servants of their mother and father and to be diligent helpers in the home. We thank you for the F. and we praise you for the success that you’re bringing to their business as well. We pray that you continue to use Takashi and Debbie in their landscaping business to minister the grace and beauty of your creation.