All Articles For O Come Let Us Worship

Previous article in this series: July 2017, p. 427. Introduction The Lord’s Supper in the dialogue of worship was not always understood the scriptural way we have described it in these articles. In our previous article we examined how Rome views the Lord’s Supper in worship. In this article we want to understand how and why the Reformation was used of God to restore the church to a proper understanding of the Lord’s Supper in worship. Restoration of the gospel When the Reformation returned the church to the truth of the gospel, everything changed also in worship. In God’s sovereign...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2017, p. 277. Introduction Public, corporate worship is a covenantal assembly in which God the Sovereign enters into a holy dialogue with His people at His command and under the government of His will. We have seen that God has commanded that the sacraments be used as a part of this dialogue. God speaks in the sacraments, and we respond. We have seen how our Reformed fathers captured this notion of the holy dialogue of worship in the Reformed Forms for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We have seen that the unique way...

Previous article in this series: February 1, 2017, p. 206. A Different Way of Speaking and Hearing God speaks to His people in the sacraments, and His people respond. The way that God speaks to them in the sacraments must affect the way God’s people respond. The way that God speaks to us in the sacraments is different than the way He normally speaks to us in congregational worship. Normally God speaks to us solely through the written and spoken Word. But in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, He speaks to us also sacramentally, that is, through visible signs. He...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2016, p. 127. Introduction The sacraments are God-ordained elements of worship. The primary purpose of the sacraments as elements of worship is that they be part of the holy dialogue between God and His church. God speaks to His people in the sacraments and they respond to His speech in faith and praise. In this way the covenant of grace is known and experienced in the sacraments. We are now ready to consider, What is He saying to us in the Lord’s Supper? And how do we respond? I Feed You The main...

Previous article in this series: November 1, 2016, p. 67. Introduction The sacraments are God-ordained elements of worship. The primary purpose of the sacraments as elements of worship is to be part of the holy dialogue between God and His church. God is speaking to His church when the sacraments are administered in worship. We are to respond to His speech. What is He saying to us in baptism, first of all (next time the Lord’s Supper)? And how do we respond? You Need a Washing The main thing God tells us in baptism you have already been taught. He...

Previous article in this series: June 2016, p. 405. *A word of explanation. I thought I was finished writing about worship, but realized I had not explained the sacraments in worship, a key aspect of God-ordained worship. I do that in this article and the next five. After that I will be finished writing on this topic for now. Thanks for reading. Introduction If someone would ask you what you do to worship God, what would you say? Surely you would say that you pray to God, privately and in church. You would say that you sing to Him. You...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2015, p. 127. Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him...

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2015, p. 306. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: Psalm 50:5-7 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Psalm 50:16 Introduction In Psalm 50 God comes as Judge to sit at His bench on Mount Zion...

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2015, p. 306. Psalm 50:3-4 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Psalm 50:7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. Psalm 50:14-15 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of...

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. I Timothy 3:15-16 Introduction In the previous article we showed that the practice of reciting the Apostles’ Creed in worship is a biblical practice. We did that by appealing to...