The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Joe Moorcraft with the following message entitled, The Regulative Principle of Worship, Confessional Formulations. I'm glad you came to get a good seat before the crowd started rushing in. How many of you were here to hear Brother Waldron's address a few minutes ago. Well, my advice is to go somewhere else because he stole all of my thunder. The only difference is he took his from a very young confession of faith called the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689.

I'm taking mine from an older, more mature confession called the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1645. What's amazing is the wording is exactly the same. What also is amazing is he even quoted the quotes from Calvin I was going to quote. I love it when Baptists quote John Calvin. Okay, so what I want to do is not go back over everything Brother Waldron said, but to put some things that he said in bite-size form.

Expand on a few thoughts, reiterate a few thoughts, but put them in the form that you can Use with your friends Now it was important for him to quote John Calvin as he said because there are people out there a lot of people a lot of scholarly people Who say that the view of the regulative principle of worship that you're getting every class this week was a creation of the Puritans in the 17th century. And Was not the view of the leading reformers of the 16th century such as John Calvin well, the real issue is whether or not it's biblical but I Want to remind you of the quote that he gave you by Calvin the lengthy quote that was very very good And I'm going to give you two smaller quotes by John Calvin and see if this is not the same thing as you're hearing in all the classes today. Calvin said this, This is just a little bite-sized thing. So let us hold to this rule that all human inventions which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the Word of God and to undo the worship which he demands and approves are Sacrilegious in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God and trampling his honor underfoot.

Or here's another one sentence quote by Calvin, only when we follow what God has commanded us, do we really and truly worship Him and render obedience to His Word? So I read those and would remind you of the quote that Mr. Waldron made to see that we're not believing any kind of innovative stricter view of the Way, we're to worship God then the reformers and it's important to know what the reformers Believed and stood for not because they were infallible men Not because the they thought up doctrines that had never been taught in the church, but because God used men like Calvin and Knox and the others as His preaching instruments to bring about the greatest Spirit produced revival and Reformation in the history of mankind since the days of the apostles. Now I want to read to you from the Westminster Confession of Faith what it says about the Regulator Principle. I promise you it's the same words, The same words you heard just a while ago from the London Baptist Confession, Second London Baptist.

Much of those two confessions are identical. The London Baptist Confession is just a little wetter than the Westminster Confession. Little wetter? Immersion? Never.

Okay. So, let me read to you four or five paragraphs from the Westminster standards The whole Council of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. 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 worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture. The duties required in the Second Commandment, don't make graven images, are the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God has instituted in His Word, as also the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship. The sins forbidden in the Second Commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and in any way approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself.

All superstitious devices corrupting the worship of God, adding to it or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom devotion, good intent or any other pretense whatsoever. So you see those two great confessions stand arm in arm in explaining the doctrine of the Regulative Principle of Worship that you are getting in virtually every class here. Now let me give you some capsulized little statements of Mr. Waldron's great speech a while ago. What is the regulative principle of worship put down as concisely and precisely as possible?

It is three sentences. Three sentences. One, whatever God has commanded in worship is required. Excuse me. Whatever God has commanded in the Bible for worship is required.

Now all evangelicals I trust believe that. Secondly, whatever God has forbidden for worship is prohibited. That is if God says you can't do something in His worship you can't do it. Don't make any graven images. If God does say do something in worship we are to do it.

So there is the first two sentences that a lot of our brothers in Christ will agree with. Whatever is commanded by God for worship is required. Whatever is forbidden by God for worship is prohibited. Now here comes the third one that separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Whatever is not commanded by God for worship is forbidden.

Now, virtually all Episcopalians, Roman, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most evangelicals, including people who are allegedly reform, many of them, don't believe that last sentence. They say if God has not forbidden something, it's permitted. If God has not forbidden something, it's permitted. God may not have commanded it in the Bible, but if God didn't say you couldn't do it, you can do it. For instance, crossing yourself and genuflecting.

There is no statement in the Bible where God commands you to do that. And there is no statement in the Bible where God forbids you to cross yourself and kneel and genuflect when you come into a worship service. So why don't we do it? God didn't say we couldn't. Doesn't that sound like a little child?

Well, you didn't say I couldn't, Daddy. Well, why can't we do it? Because it's not commanded. The only thing we can do in the worship of God is what God commands in His Word. If God has not commanded us to do something in worship, it is forbidden us.

Now why is that the case? Because as we saw in Deuteronomy 12 32, God says, Whatsoever I command you, observe, don't add to, don't take away from. No matter how a particular practice or rite or religious worshipful ritual makes you feel close to God, you may not do it because you may not add to the Word of God. You may only do what God has commanded in the Bible. That is the bottom line.

And only those who have been distinctively reformed through the years, reformed Baptist and reformed Presbyterians particularly, only those who have been distinctively reformed have stood for the regulative principle of worship. Whatever God has commanded in worship is required. Whatever God has forbidden in worship is prohibited. And whatever God has not commanded us to do in worship is forbidden because you cannot, you may not, add to the Word of God. Now we could go all day long listing things that evangelical and even some Reformed churches do in their worship service that God has not commanded them to do.

God hadn't forbidden them and God hadn't commanded them to do it. So they do it, God didn't say we couldn't. What are some of those things? Salute the Christian flag. People stand up, I've been in worship services where they pledge their allegiance to the Christian flag.

The Christian flag means nothing to me. I don't know who made it. It's not a part of my worship. It's not a part of my life. But in the worship of God you don't salute the Christian flag.

What else? Altar calls. People give altar calls at the end of the service saying 1, 500 stanzas. Nowhere in the Bible is the altar call commanded. Nowhere in the Bible does God say, at the end of the service, I want you to give an altar call and invite people to come forward.

I like what an old Baptist preacher said one time. He said, if Christ was over your head, I'd invite you to raise your hand to receive him. If he's in front of the church, I'd invite you to come forward to receive him. But he's sitting at the right hand of God. And so I encourage you to receive Christ right where you are.

Repent of your sins and receive him as your Lord and Savior. So now, how do we know what God has commanded us to do? So that's the first little capsule. There's the regular principle in three bites. And the key one is whatever God has not commanded for worship is forbidden.

You may not add to the Word of God. Now don't misunderstand that. Some people have caricatured our position into saying that if there's not an explicit, express, overt statement of command in the Bible that says do this, you may not do it. If it doesn't say that expressly you may not do it. Now that is a caricature and it's never been the position of the Reformed faith.

There are three ways by which God commands us to do things in the Bible. Let me give you all three of these and we'll talk about them. Express commands that is direct express statements saying do this. Express commands necessary inferences, necessary inferences and approved examples. Approved examples.

Those are the three ways by which the Bible, God in the Bible, commands us to do things. First express commands, thou shalt do this, or thou shalt do that, of course you must do. But then there are also necessary inferences, that is inescapable deductions. That if this is true, if the Bible teaches this, and that if the Bible teaches that then this must be true. Not only is there nothing wrong with that kind of reasoning and reading the Bible, that's the way we must read the Bible because as one of the greatest Reform scholars of all time who lived in the early part of the 20th century his name is Benjamin Warfield said, write this down this is good to remember, the sense of Scripture is Scripture.

The sense of scripture is scripture or the meaning of scripture is scripture. That is the Word of God is not just the word you read on a page of paper. The Word of God is what those words mean. And some of the most important doctrines we have in the Christian faith are not based on express statements in the Bible but are on inescapable necessary inferences and deductions. For instance, there is no verse in the Bible anywhere that says this there is one God who exists simultaneously in three persons god the father god the son and god the holy spirit the same in essence equal in power and glory there is no such verse does that mean it's not true of course not I mean if you don't profess to believe the Trinity you can't call yourself a Christian.

The only God there is, is the Triune God. So why do we believe that God is a Trinity, one God who exists simultaneously in three persons if there is no express statement in the Bible that says that? Well, the Bible does refer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each one of them is God, equally God. And then there are verses in the Bible where they speak to each other. Where God the Father speaks to God the Son, God the Son speaks to God the Father, God the Son speaks to the Holy Spirit.

So what's the only conclusion you can come to from those two obvious scriptural statements? There is only one God, And that one God exists in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Now is a necessary inference or an inescapable deduction any less true than an express statement in the Bible? Of course not.

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most fundamental truths we know, one of the most certain things we know. There is one God in three persons. We learn that from inescapable deductions and necessary inferences. And Why is that just as true as Nick's step as an express statement quote? I am God beside me.

There is no other Because the sense of Scripture is Scripture Because the Word of God is not simply the words on the page. So that if you read the words there is some kind of magical impact they will have on you. But the meaning of those words is scripture as well. And then there is a third way by which God commands us. First, express statements.

The second is necessary inferences. And the first is approved examples. Now this is one you gotta be careful with. Just because something, oh, necessary inferences, I agree with that. Necessary inferences is also something you must handle with care.

It's not the same thing as speculative opinions. You say, well, I believe this in the Bible and therefore it seems to me that this is going to be true as well. Speculative opinions and necessary inferences are as different as night and day. And when it comes to Approved examples just because something Took place in the Bible doesn't mean it's to be the model or the example for your life Judas went out and hanged himself That's not an approved example So you've got to be careful. You've got to consider the context of various events in the Bible and And compare them with parallel passages and statements elsewhere But there are some times particularly in the life of the Apostles when they do things they don't say things but they do things and you know that you are to follow their example.

For instance who were the apostles? Well they were the mouthpiece of Jesus. Jesus said, if you hear them you hear me. If you reject them, you reject me. And then Paul in the second chapter of Ephesians says that the church is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles with Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone.

So the foundation of the church includes the Apostles not as men but as vehicles of revelation as Mouthpieces as Men whom the Lord Jesus Christ called to found the church in the book of Acts and then we're to build the church upon there the foundation of the prophets and the apostles with Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone and there were some things the Apostles did in the book of Acts, that when you carefully look at them and you consider parallel texts, it's obvious that they're there as an example for us to follow. Like, why do you worship on Sunday instead of Saturday? Why don't you still believe Saturday to be the Saturday the Sabbath? Why do you believe Sunday to be the Christian Sabbath and the Lord's Day? And that is the day of worship.

Because of the example of Christ being raised from the dead leaving the Saturday Sabbath in the grave and because of the example of his Holy Spirit inspired apostles who the very day that Jesus was raised from the dead that evening began to have worship services where they preached the word of God, served communion, took up offering, etc. And you find that throughout the book of Acts. Now there's more reasons than that for believing that Sunday is the Sabbath, not Saturday, but that's one of the principal ways we know that it is the day of worship and that is because of the example of the Apostles. So you may only do in the worship of God what God has commanded in his word and God commands his will to us in three ways through express commands necessary inferences and approved examples now these confes I mean Go get a London Baptist confession if you have to get a Westminster confession and Read it all the time. I Mean I read it all the time.

I mean, I read it all the time. I wrote a 5, 000 page commentary on just one part of the Westminster standards. And every time I read it, not my commentary, but every time I read the standards, I learn more. These men were pastors. They weren't a bunch of ivory tower critics.

They weren't acomedicians that wrote for people in universities. These were men who wrote the confessions as pastors. They wanted people in their flock to understand the truth. The pastoral nature of these confessions is phenomenal. These people backed everything they believed up with the Bible.

Every few words in these confessions there is a scriptural footnote. And I mean they quoted some verses in the Bible that nobody's ever quoted since then. They knew the Bible so thoroughly. I'm looking for something here that I can't find, but it's okay. And so they tried to be as biblical as they could in the way they expressed things.

Now I'm more familiar with the Westminster Confession but this would be true in the London Baptist Confessionists too. Every heresy in the church prior to 1643 or 1689 those confessions refute an answer Not by saying this is a refutation of that, but just by the proper use and precise use of conjunctions, prepositions, the tense of verbs. Studying those books can be one of the most beneficial edifying life soul mind expanding things that you've ever done in your whole life there were 120 men By and large that wrote the Westminster confession of faith and larger and shorter catechisms in the middle 1640s It's a shame that today we have to use documents that are 400 years old to confess our faith But this is not a creed writing age catechisms and confessions grow out of times of revival and reformation. And we haven't had a revival or reformation in this culture for generation after generation. And when we do have a revival and a Reformation, maybe there'll be another confession or catechism, but truth never contradicts itself.

And besides, today you could not find a group of 120 men, in my opinion, the caliber of the men that wrote the Westminster Confession of the London Baptist Confession. You can't find 120 men of that caliber. I mean, that's why we call these men Westminster Fathers, old London Baptist Fathers. Because in many ways they are our fathers and so they did not state things in the extreme they were very careful to work out all the implications and Here's one place In the And brother Waldron referred to this today It says that the parts of the worship of God are to be commanded by God, but there are some circumstances With reference to worship that are left to Christian prudence wisdom according to the general principles of the Word of God. And under that very wise and biblical statement.

It's not compromising the regular principle. It's not showing loopholes. It's not giving caveats. It's saying something that's very true and very worthwhile. But under that one statement people have introduced everything into the worship of God.

I went to a worship service, didn't know what I was getting into. I went into a worship service in a liberal Presbyterian church. And the first thing they did they had a 500 balloon salute to God. And they released 500 helium filled balloons. The woman preacher thought that was great.

She wanted to release 500 doves, but the janitor wouldn't let her do it. Another time I went to a liberal Presbyterian church and I didn't want to go. I was visiting my daddy in Texas, but I wanted to go to church somewhere, a last ditch effort. So I go. I'm mad already going because I know it's going to be liberal.

And then when I come in the door, I'm mad again because the usher's given all the little children under seven years of age bags of toys to play with during church. Now I'm really mad. And then the preacher gets up to preach, and I ask for a bag of toys. So there's all kinds of things. Dance, drama, Everything is being brought into the worship because the confession say That what takes place in worship is commanded by God and must be commanded by God or it may not be done.

But there are some circumstances with reference to worship not commanded nor forbidden by God that left a Christian prudence of the elders wisdom and the general principles of the Word of God. Now if that on the surface sounds to you like a loophole or... Now is this 25 mean 25 minutes have passed or I have 25 minutes left If that sounds like a loophole to you it's not it's very carefully stated In Prepositions are so wonderful In the worship of God we may do only what God has commanded in the Bible. Circa, C-I-R-C-A in Latin, Around or about or with reference to the worship of God, there are some circumstances that are left of the Christian prudence of the elders, wisdom, and the general principles of the Word of God. So the point is the difference between the Latin word I-N and the Latin word C-I-R-C-A, circumference, etc.

In the worship of God, the elders have no discretionary authority. They must do what God has commanded and they may do nothing else. But circa, around or with reference to worship, but not with reference to the parts of worship surrounding the worship service. There are some circumstances that if the Bible dealt with them, the Bible would be two or three million pages long. Now, what is a circumstance?

Bear in mind, it's something that's related to the worship of God, but it's not in the worship of God. Circumstances are those incidental things surrounding a worship service that have no spiritual significance. They do not pertain to the content of worship at all. They are those circumstances that are common to any public group meeting of people. The Bible says in the chapters of 1 Corinthians that everything is to be done biblically, decently, and in order, an orderly fashion.

And it is the elders responsibility to make sure that everything pertaining around with reference to a worship service is done in an orderly safe fashion and they have to make sure those circumstances are what should they be are what they should be as you would for any large gathering of people they have nothing to do with the worship service itself like uh... Are you going to sit down are you going to chairs you understand that matter are you going to about but but the but the elders have the the authority to determine circumstances like that pertaining around with reference to worship but not in worship you don't have air condition and heating or not they're going to be in a building? Is your offering plate going to be made out of wood, burlap, or silver, or copper? What language is the service going to be in? English, Spanish, what?

What time are you going to meet? I mean thousands and thousands of little circumstances like that that have nothing to do with the actual content of worship itself. But decisions have to be made about them as you would in any large group of people. And the elders have the responsibility to make sure that these circumstances are what they should be and do not detract from the worship of God. Now How do you deal with these circumstances?

That is, when elders have all these decisions to make, air condition, not air condition, not carpet, building, no building, English, what time, etc. Here are some of the principles that they are to use to determine how they're going to handle these circumstances. One, rational consideration of the needs and resources of the congregation. Well now let's evaluate the congregation. We don't want anything about where we meet to distract from the worship of God.

So should we have a building? I mean it's it's cold out there in Minnesota. And should we have heat in the winter? Well, we don't want our older people to freeze and get pneumonia. Should we have air condition?

Well, we're in the part of the country where the humidity is pathetic and it's hot in July and August and September and When somebody is uncomfortably Hot that keeps them from thinking and focusing on what's being said from the pulpit So what we just did was rationally considered the various needs and resources of the congregation. Resources? Well, it would be great to be air conditioned, but our people would just have to put up with being hot because hardly any of them have jobs. Rational consideration of the needs and resources of the congregation. The second thing the elders would consider is wisdom in handling practical matters, exercising good judgment and common sense.

Well, we couldn't meet at 3 a.m. On Sunday morning. It's not too wise. Shows no common sense or good judgment. Necessarily.

Third cautious consideration of the probable consequences and effects of the elders decisions and actions. What if we do this with reference to this particular circumstance? What's the consequences or effects that that's going to be? It's going to be beneficial Or is it going to be detrimental to our people? I?

Knew of a small little country church in the mountains of North, Georgia They had a congregational meeting to devote on whether or not to buy a chandelier That's a circumstance where you get a chandelier or candle or whatever had a Congregational meeting and one old man stood up and he said I'm against buying a chandelier for three reasons. One, we ain't got anybody in this church that knows how to spell it. Two, we ain't got anybody in this church that knows how to play one. And three, what this church really needs is more light. So the point is you've got to consider the consequences and the effects of your decision.

Fourth, Consistency with the general principles and implications the Bible However, you handle these little Circumstances that have nothing to do with the content of worship you may not do anything with them that in any way shape or form is inconsistent with the general principles and implications of the Word of God. And then fifth you realize that circumstances cannot be determined by the Bible. You cannot use the Bible to determine what language you're going to have the service in what time you're going to have the service on Sunday or any other day of the week these circumstances are not in worship they are around worship and Therefore cannot be used to sneak any innovations or inventions into the worship of God Let me read to you From this book This is a book that I wrote that's out of print. So I'm not selling it to you. I wish I could, but you hopefully get a used copy.

It's called How God Wants Us to worship Him. A defense of the Bible is the only standard for modern worship. I wrote a long time ago. Let me read this about the circumstances because I want to make them as clear as I can. The Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 14 40 Let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner In other words the church has the authority and the duty to maintain order and proper decorum in her assemblies and to restrain and correct any improprieties, indecency, or disorder.

Whenever the church uses this authority it is not in public worship, it is about or around or pertaining to public worship. That is, it is not a part of worship. It is in connection with worship. This discretionary authority is with reference to circumstances, not ceremonies. In carrying out Paul's exhortation, the church received no authority from the apostle to exercise jurisdiction within the territory belonging to the worship of God, but only authority to exercise jurisdiction in a territory connected indeed with the circumstances of worship, but really belonging to reason and nature.

Although a broad line of demarcation separates the church's authority in worship from its authority about or surrounding worship, this discretionary authority of the church in the circumstances has been abused by the church in the past. From this abuse, the church has usurped the power of discretion in the actual worship of God, leading to innovations in worship and failing to distinguish commanded elements in worship from circumstances relating to worship. Especially today do we find people using the language of the Westminster Confession of Faith to cover a multitude of sins. They blur the great difference between the commanded elements in worship and the circumstances about worship to justify the introduction of all kinds of human innovations in the worship of God They always have something new but not commanded by God as I said a 200 balloon salute to God to begin the worship service. Or the serving of communion by elders wearing white robes.

In what belongs strictly to the institutions and ceremonies of worship, the church has no authority. Except to dispense them as Christ has prescribed in the Bible. In what belongs to the circumstances of worship necessary to its being dispensed with propriety, and so as to avoid confusion, the church has the authority to regulate them as nature and reason and the implications of the Word of God prescribed. So there's some Capsulized summaries of what brother Waldron said a while ago. What's the regulative principle of worship?

According to the reformers and according to the Bible, whatever is commanded by God for worship in the Bible is required. Two, whatever is forbidden by God for worship in the Bible is prohibited. Thirdly, whatever is not commanded by God in the Bible is forbidden. Because we may only do in the worship of God what God commands. After all what is a worship service?

It is the supreme time in your life when you are submitting yourself to His Lordship. You are bowing prostrate that is the basic word for worship. Surrendering yourself to His Lordship. And so here you come to worship and you say to the Lord God Almighty, here is how I think you should be worshiped. See the inconsistency of it all.

Now evangelicals have until recently fought against the view of ethics called situational ethics. Situational ethics says that it all depends upon the situation as to whether or not something is right or wrong. That situational ethicist cannot say that pre-medital sex for instance is always wrong. It all depends on the situation. The situation demands, determines the ethics, situational ethics.

So evangelicals and Reformed people all over the country condemn rightfully so situational ethics. And then they practice situational worship. It all depends on the situation. It all depends on how it makes you feel. It all depends on this or that as to what you should do in a worship service.

And so people say, well I love to do this in a worship service because it makes me feel so close to God. Well that may be the case. You may be doing something in the worship of God that God is Has not commanded you to do and it may make you feel close to God But it does not bring you into closeness to God. You just feel like it does So I pray that you'll go home and you'll look at your worship service and You'll ask your question your elders submissive humbling questions well Why do we do this elder so-and-so? Why do you have fathers come forward to take communion back to their children?

Could you tell me where that's found in the Bible, elders so and so. He'll not find a place. So go back and look at your church and have the honesty and integrity of heart before God. How can we reform this worship so that it's pleasing to God? And that with that began again the Reformation of our country.

Thank you. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God and For more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.