Congregational Worship

Now the writer to the Hebrews is really drawing on things that were written before time and showing how that they were written for our learning as regards the person of Christ. So with that principle in mind, let's come to 1 Chronicles chapter 16 and even though this is a historic event, there are principles that are laid out here that are for our learning. So just to pick up on the context, verse 1, So they brought the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it.

Now if you read in the previous chapter, there was a lot of music and rejoicing that was going on. They were playing a brass band and so on, these brass cymbals and that's the occasion. So verse 7, So they brought verse 7, Then on that day David delivered first, this psalm actually several, to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.

And so the first psalm that is given is Psalm Psalm 105, the first 15 verses. Verse 8 now. Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people, sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works.

And so that Psalm 105 is quoted all the way down to verse 22. Let's read now verse 23. This is taking us to Psalm 96, and the whole of that psalm is now found here.

Verse 23, sing unto the Lord. All the earth, show forth from day to day His salvation. Declare His glory among the heathen, His marvelous works among all nations.

Verse 29, give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Now come down to verse 34. He is no longer quoting from Psalm 96, but now it is Psalm 106. And it's the closing verses of Psalm 106 and the closing verses of Book 4 of the Psalms.

And those who have looked at that will understand Book 4 is dealing with the praying man. Begins with Psalm 90, the prayer of Moses, the man of God. Now let's see how that book ends and how David's praise on this occasion comes to an end.

Verse 34, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endureth forever. And say ye, save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name and glory in Thy praise.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said amen. And praise the Lord, all the people.

Marvelous. That's our reading. We trust for the Lord's blessing upon it.

I want to speak to you this morning about congregational worship. Congregational worship. Oh, you say that sounds very churchy.

All right, let's change the wording then. Collective worship, how's that? Collective worship. Worshiping God collectively.

Now there are three things here that I want to, three expressions really, that I want to pick up on from our reading. And consider them in a New Testament context, as well as reference to the Old Testament. The first expression is found in verse 35.

Gather us together. Very simple. Collective worship, this is needed.

Gather us together. Then in verse 23, there are other verses, but you'll notice verse 23 specifically says, sing to impress the brethren. Sing on to the Lord.

Sing on to the Lord. And then at the end there in verse 36, again we emphasize that all the people said amen. Praise the Lord.

So those are the expressions I want to highlight as involved in collective worship. The Holy Spirit will gather us together as believers to publicly own allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. We will gather under his name, that means under his authority and in his interests.

So we do not gather primarily in our own interests. That might be a surprise for some. You know, what do I get out of it? We gather in his interests, to his name.

To practice then what is found in the Scriptures, how to scripturally gather, how to function scripturally as an assembly before God. That will involve a number of things. It will mean there will be the upholding of the truth of the headship of Christ.

The brethren will take their hats off. They'll not have long hair. The sisters will have long hair and have a head covering.

I'm not dwelling with that, but that will be on display. 1 Corinthians 11. Then there will be the practice of the breaking of bread or the Lord's Supper.

And that's a delightful way in which we come together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. This do in remembrance of me. And brethren, exercise before God at home.

We come together and we rise to give thanks to God for his son. No gift required to do it. Just a heart that's touched in his presence.

That's all. And whatever words come out that expresses your heart's thanksgiving to God, that's acceptable by Jesus Christ in his presence. That brings delight to the heart of God.

And then there's the prayer meeting. Now, that's a very important meeting collectively when we come together because that gives opportunity for the assembly of believers. They're all present.

And all together, they are expressing by their very presence there that they are dependent upon God. And of course, there's heart expression as well that's involved in expressing that. And that brings delight to the heart of God when his people are cast upon him.

And they demonstrate that, gathering every one of them together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, then there's also the Bible reading, the public reading of the word of God, and ministry meetings such as this. When congregationally we come together and we profess that this word, this book is our guide, is our instructor.

And we are willing to take from its instruction that which will regulate our hearts, regulate our lives, and guide us in our lives for God. And we profess that when we come to a ministry meeting, when we come to a Bible reading, and we're interested in what God has presented to us in his word. Taking from the text its meaning and applying it to our hearts, that brings delight to God.

That his people are willing to listen to what he has said and present it to us in his word. Now, that's what we profess. Let me just challenge my own heart and challenge yours too.

Are we really guided? Are we really instructed by the word of God? Are we willing, each one of us, to a man, to a woman? Are we willing to be guided by it? Are we willing to be instructed from it? Well, that's why we've come to Stout, isn't it? With open hearts and open ears to hear what God the Lord will say and teach us from his word. So let's come to it. So we gather.

That's one of the things. Now, you'll notice that there's many references in that section that we read to singing, congregational singing. Specifically, singing praise unto the Lord.

Now, that's a common theme throughout the Bible. And I take it that when the scriptures mention that, that's for our instruction. And you and I are to take that on board.

And you and I are to sing unto the Lord. Now, that's a common theme, particularly in the Psalms. Of course, that's the scriptural hymnal as such, inspired hymnal that's found in our Bible.

So take, for example, Psalm 98, verse one. Listen. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things.

So we ask ourselves the question, has the Lord done marvelous things? Is there cause for singing? Is there cause for rejoicing? Has the Lord done marvelous things? When we sing unto the Lord, we are giving expression of our gratitude, of our thanksgiving, of our appreciation, our rejoicing. But he has done marvelous things. We've been hearing of some of those things already from the book of Hebrews.

So forgive me for being so simple, but we are not singing for others. We're singing unto the Lord. And what I'm gonna mention just now from verse four of that Psalm 98, will instruct us, I hope, as to the manner of our singing.

For the Lord has done marvelous things. So verse four says this. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

I can make a noise, all right. But it's to be a joyful noise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth, make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise.

So the Lord is interested in the way in which we sing. Brother, he is. Sister, he's interested in how you sing.

So let me ask our hearts again. Is the noise that we make, is it discernibly joyful? Now singing's good at a conference because they're a brethren with good voices and they raise the notes and so on. But how about on a regular assembly meeting night? Is our singing joyful? Here's another one.

Make a loud noise. Is our singing loud to the best of our ability, with enthusiasm, with meaning, with heartfelt gratitude? Is our gratitude big enough to make a loud noise unto the Lord when we sing? Come on. The psalmist goes on to say in Psalm 104, I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live, I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

While I have my being. And you know, when we come into the New Testament, that congregational praise, it continues because you'll remember that in the upper room, after the Lord had instituted the supper, they sung a hymn and they went out. Likely the Hallel, Psalm 118.

But there was that collective singing, the Lord Himself with His own singing praise to God in anticipation of the fact that the sacrifice would be bound to the horns of the altar. Well, there it is. Now, I know that what we've looked at just now kind of comes as a little bit of a rebuke because really we get kind of, at least I'll speak for myself, sometimes we get lazy and we just sit back and let others do the singing.

And with that in mind, I know as well, my own heart will do everything it can to wiggle out of the requirement of God's word. So there's a little wiggle room here because we could argue, all that you've said so far is Jewish ground. You've been taking that from the Old Testament.

It's Jewish ground and practice even in the upper room. All right. Well, let's come to Romans chapter 15 in our thinking, verse nine.

Paul says, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy as it is written. And he quotes from Psalm 18. For this cause, I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name.

And again, he said, rejoice ye Gentiles with his people. That's alluding again to Psalm 98 and verse four, where he speaks about all the earth, make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Now, verse 11, and again, praise the Lord.

And the word praise has the thought of praise with singing. All ye Gentiles and laud Him, all ye people. Now that word laud is not a common word that we would use from day to day, but it's similar to applaud.

You get the idea, applaud. Now it's not applauding the Lord with our hands, but in song. Is that the reaction of my heart now? When we sing a hymn of praise to God? Glory to thee, thou son of God, most high, all praise to thee.

Is my heart, as it were, applauding reverently in His presence, extolling Him in song. So I conclude that this little section that scripture is instructing us and it is teaching us that we should sing. We should sing joyfully.

We should sing loudly. Now, not extreme, not screeching, but as loud as our voice will allow us to enthusiastically give praise to God. He's interested in how we sing.

Now, I want to come to another one here because at the close of that reading, verse 36, all the people said, amen, and praised the Lord. Now that word amen is a transliteration directly from the Hebrew, amen, transliterated into the Greek for the New Testament, transliterated into English as amen, or if you prefer, amen. Now, the meaning simply carries the thought of confirming, to confirm, to support, to be faithful, to be constant, to be reliable, and sometimes it can mean verily or truly, but the word is more often used as a declaration of may it be so, and in English, that's the basic meaning of it.

In English, I agree. And may it be so. So it is a verbal, spoken response, again, that emanates from the heart that has been affected in the presence of God, and I have to say I feel at times it is somewhat lacking amongst us.

So are we open for instruction from the word of God? Let's come to it. There are many occasions when the people of God say amen in the historic accounts of the scriptures. My mind would go immediately to Nehemiah chapter eight.

You remember on that occasion, it's about building the walls in Jerusalem, but Ezra the scribe, he read in the law of Moses to the congregation, and were told who was in that congregation before the men and the women, and those that could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive, unto the book of the law, and all the people, that would be men, women, and those with understanding, all the people answered amen, amen. In case you missed it the first time. And they worshiped the Lord.

So that's showing us that the appropriate time to say amen is this. I understand what has been said, I'm attentive, I'm tuned in, I'm in full agreement with what has been said, and I am expressing worship to God by responding amen. So the biblical response from a congregation that is in the presence of God, they said amen, amen.

The whole congregation. They say you couldn't apply that today, you mean the women too? Well, they were doing it here. You know, Ezra had just read in the law of Moses, and the very first mention of amen in our Bible actually is found in Numbers chapter five, dealing with a jealous husband, remember? He suspects his wife has been unfaithful and so on.

But in the course of those proceedings, the woman was to say amen, amen. That's the first mention. When you come again to the law of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy, literally a reiteration of the law, the second law, if you will, same law but being reiterated.

And it is 12 times over in that book, you read this. And all the people shall answer and say amen. 12 times over.

Think God is emphasizing something there, don't you? Well, here in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, David is bringing the ark of God up to Jerusalem. So in that sense, God is being given his rightful place amongst his people. And the people are praising God as happens when God has given his rightful place.

And they are saying, oh God of our salvation, gather us together. And that's what God has done in calling us out by the gospel unto the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has gathered us together unto him.

That we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said amen.

They did, every one of them. Amazing, isn't it? And praise the Lord. So again, we're learning, this is a congregational expression of praise.

It was an integral part of their worship. Let me repeat that. It was an integral part of their worship.

Because again, I know my own heart, something of it. And I like that wiggle room. And here's a little bit of wiggle.

Well, if you say amen to one brother's prayer and withhold amen from another brother's prayer, you're showing favoritism. So I'm going to take the moral high ground and not say amen at all. Well, I think we're missing the point.

We're missing the point. We're treating amen like it's applause to the brother who has just prayed. Did you see that it is actually an integral part of worshiping God? The verbal response of amen.

So we're missing the point. If we think it's some kind of applause to a worthy brother, it is giving praise to God scripturally with the use of this word. Heartfelt amen.

Well again, wiggle room comes into play. It's all in the Old Testament. It's all in the Old Testament, this amen.

What about the New Testament? Are we not in a different era? Are the women not to keep silence in the assembly? Yes, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. There's order in the assembly. Paul will teach the silence of women very clearly in the collective gatherings.

And it's in the context and in the connotation of usurping authority over the male. What's vested in the male in God's order of things seen in the assembly. However, the sisters sing congregationally, always have in the Bible, always will, even moving into the future.

And I take it then, when I come to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 now, you read about a man who is occupying the room of the unlearned. Now he is distinct from an unbeliever. An unbeliever wouldn't have the appreciation to say amen, couldn't by definition.

But one who is unlearned comes into the company. And the issue in hand in chapter 14 is speaking in tongues. That was a gift given in the early church that has long since passed.

But that person occupying the room of the unlearned was expected to say amen at thy giving of thanks. But he's not in the assembly. But he is in the congregation.

See the point? So that teaches us that it was a congregational function in a New Testament assembly to say, to chorus together, amen, the congregation. So that it's not one brother standing out among the rest, or one sister standing out among the rest, when the whole company would chorus as we do when we're singing, if they all said amen. Oh boy, and we're hearing some radical things today, aren't we? He's in agreement, and he's worshiping God.

Yes, I know we're shy. I know, I've been in assemblies a long time. And we're so resistant to change, and yet we profess to be guided by the word of God.

There it is. Now, when you come to the church of Laodicea, Revelation chapter three, the last of the seven churches, and we take the prophetic view of the panorama of the church age, Laodicea puts us, I take it right now, right here, right now. You'll remember that the Lord Jesus presents himself to each of the assemblies there in Revelation in a particular way that would meet the need in that assembly.

So now, to the church of the Laodiceans, listen to this. Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write these things, saith the amen. The faithful and true witness.

Seems to me like the Laodiceans in their complacency had gotten away from the practice of amen. And the Lord Jesus personifies himself as the amen to meet the need of that company. You know, in the future, I gotta sit down.

But if we were to come to millennial days, Isaiah 65, that's the end of Isaiah, dealing with Israel restored and the blessings that will come in the millennium, verse 16, listen to this. That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, it says in the King James. Look up that word truth.

It's the word amen. So in that day when God has made right the wrongs of earth, people will bless in the name of the God of amen. He has accomplished his purpose.

He has brought it about just the way he said he would. And God himself is the God of amen. So we are in fellowship with him.

We are in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. When an appreciation of divine truth and our hearts moved in his presence in agreement, in acquiescence and in appreciation with understanding because we've been attentive, we say amen. And we are in fellowship with God.

So I'll ask our hearts again the question, are we really guided by the word of God? Are we instructed from it? Are we willing to abide by it? Are we willing to practice it? In our hearts, in our lives, in the assemblies, as we gather together, as we sing praise, and as we echo amen, thank you.