Being A Biblical Church (Part Four)

Biblical Church 2019 (Biblical Worship)

Text: 1 Corinthians 14:26-40

A few weeks ago, we started a short series on five elements that make up a Biblical Church. We first talked about the need for the Church to be made up of truly converted, Biblical Christians. Then we said that it has to be a Church that is learning the Bible, and then sharing the Bible. And if you’ve been with us since we started this series, and it hasn’t all clicked yet, I’m hoping that today is the day where you see how it all fits together, as a completed picture. Because today we’re talking about Biblical worship.

Now the truth is – that as Southern Baptists, a lot of times, we do things without having any real knowledge or sense or understanding of where those things came from. How they originated. Or even why we do it the way we do it. Have you ever wondered why we have our order of service, the way that we do? Why do we sing the songs that we sing? Why do we not baptize infants? Why do we have VBS, a nursery, and our children’s verses and fighter verses? Why do we so Sunday School the way we do? Why do we do anything the way we do?

Chances are; there are some of you who probably HAVEN’T EVER wondered about those things… you’ve just accepted them as the norm. It’s just the way we do it… right? But what would we do if we found out there was no precedent for some of those things in Scripture? Or what if we learned that there’s other things that we maybe should be doing but aren’t?

Well; we might touch on some of those things indirectly as we look at Biblical Worship, because the Bible doesn’t actually address a lot of that stuff directly. Instead it gives us principles and commands that we are to obey, and then we work that stuff out guided by those principles and commands. Now; we’ll be turning to several texts as well, so that we can get a good glimpse at what the Bible has to say about worship. And we’ll start in 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 (READ).

Church, each and every one of us knows (at least I hope you do) that God created the world, and everything in it, for His glory. And we know that man fell into sin, and with sin came corruption. Corruption of God’s creation. So instead of being without sin, mankind is now corrupted by it… we are born into sin, born spiritually dead, born separated from God. And every part of our being is corrupted by sin and affected by sin… our minds, our wills, our emotions, our desires, our bodies, the world around us. Things break, things wear out and decay, things go wrong, things suffer and die. When sin came into this world, there was also corruption of God’s created order and design. Instead of unity between husband and wife, now we argue, we disagree, we want different things... we struggle to find commonality in our priorities, our goals and our desires. And that goes beyond husband and wife. All individuals face that, and so do groups, and nations and governments. And instead of mankind working together, unified in truth and love, for the purpose of bringing glory to God. Now we want what we want… we want to glorify ourselves, and satisfy ourselves, and do what we please.

And that’s the state of all mankind outside of Christ. And that’s a problem… It’s a problem because the Bible tells us that mankind, outside of Christ, is incapable of doing anything good, he is incapable of believing in God or even coming to Him. I’ve given you a hand out in your bulletin that will help you see what I’m talking about here… So man cannot rightly understand the truth. And man; the human being, apart from Christ, cannot even seek God, nor does he want to. So when a person who is not a true Christian worships, they aren’t worshiping God… even when they think they are. If they are not born again, and truly converted, they may think that what they’re doing is worshiping God, and glorifying to God, and praising God, but really it’s fleshly, sensual, worship of themselves. Do you remember what we said last Sunday? We said that people with itching ears will accumulate teachers to suit their own desires.

If you were to go to one of those Prosperity Teachers churches, you’d find a whole lot of folks who think they are worshiping God… but according to Scripture, they aren’t.

They would think that they’re actually hearing God’s Word being preached, but they aren’t. But they don’t know, because they’re spiritually dead. They’re unable to see, recognize, and understand the truth.