The Regulative Principle

Speaker: Chuck Hartman Category: Sunday Teaching Date: September 17, 2023
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0:02 particular blend that was not allowed to be used for any other purpose but the Tabernacle they were not allowed to mix this particular blend and use it in their potpourri burner in their tent it was not of for
0:15 individual consumption or use in the New Testament we're not told exactly how much we should give in fact in that narrative Peter makes it very clear that they were not obligated
0:26 to give any of it they were only obligated to be truthful they could have kept it for themselves they could have not sold it they could have given half and said they were
0:37 giving half but what they did was they gave half and said they were giving all of it that was their sin you cannot turn that into a giving sermon or a tithing sermon there's no way you
0:48 can turn it into a Christian socialism sermon or communism you can't do that because Peter's very clear and frankly it bothers many reformed
0:59 theologians on the issue of tithing that there really there is nothing in the New Testament about it so once again in order to learn how to worship as Believers and dwelt by the Holy Spirit
1:10 were being taken back to the levitical code when they were told what to do but then again Paul tells us that that
1:20 was a different dispensation that was the dispensation of the steward or the the guardian the guardian that that we were under until Grace freed us
1:33 so if you look at the Old Testament that the answer to the question do we have freedom do we have Liberty the answer would be no but we're not under the old Covenant
2:15 we're not told in the Old Testament I guess the point I'm trying to say here is let me let me rephrase it under the old Covenant there there is
2:25 far more far more positive prescription of liturgy there are the three annual feasts there there are the different other festivals
2:36 they're they're very very well brought out you also have a song book The Psalms sing unto the Lord a new song would seem
2:46 to indicate some Freedom okay I'll grant that but that that still doesn't over uh shadow the the primary distinction here and that is that under the New Covenant we don't
2:58 have any of those prescriptions we haven't we have no guidelines we have no instructions we have nothing really more than very basic
3:09 um components of the Assembly of worship but as to you know I will grant that that as far as we know the the sons of asaph were not given a specific hymn
3:21 book from Moses at least we weren't given that it hasn't been preserved
3:34 well yes the new song cannot be another gospel and certainly that would have been the same under the old Covenant in terms of uh you you wouldn't bring a song A Hymn to malach that that would not be an acceptable new song
3:49 showing fourth fourth something and also Psalm 96 Isaiah 66-65 they're prophetic as well um you know so that gets into an
4:00 exegesis of the Psalms there there is a prophetic voice of the New Covenant in the old the old so it nonetheless they did not have this just uh laissez-faire God just wants you
4:13 to come you know have a good time and be happy uh worship worship me with whatever you can bring and I'll accept it no that even even what they wore
4:23 was prescribed was prescribed they they took off their clothes and put on garments that were specifically for entering the holy place or the holy of
4:41 said this but even Moses promised to the the time when the heart would be circumcised but the law did not deliver it on right similarly
5:01 they they were very much looking at looking ahead yeah so that that would get into and that's that would be an interesting study the the prophetic aspect of worship under the old Covenant uh but I think we all agree that that
5:11 there was much less license and Liberty in terms of the Liturgy under the old Covenant when we move the question is does that change okay Jesus himself said I will set you
5:23 free whom the son sets free shall be free indeed Paul spends a great deal of time saying we are not under law but under grace under grace so then of course within Christianity
5:34 you have this divide even between Luther and Calvin in terms of the Liturgy of the church what is permissible does God simply look at the sincerity of
5:44 our hearts and whatever we bring with a sincere heart is accepted but are are our hearts truly sincere
5:56 are we so sanctified that we are immune from appeasing
6:06 men and and organizing our worship in order not only to appease those who assemble but maybe even to attract more to assemble are we are we free from the spirit of
6:19 marketing not even in Paul's day there were those who who marketed the gospel okay that that religion is a means of great gain that's something that man has
6:30 known from time immemorial that we can make money off of religion so there's there's an element at which under the New Covenant we are not under the strictures of the
6:43 levitical code
6:58 under the New Covenant then we have Jesus telling us explicitly recorded in John 4 John 4 what true worship looks like that in fact the father is seeking those
7:11 worshipers who will worship in spirit and Truth
7:25 now you know that the the Greek manuscripts do not capitalize so some of your English versions might have Spirit Capital most of them probably haven't capitalized many of
7:36 them will not have it capitalized there's nothing there's no hagias there the holy spirit so there's no uh internal evidence as to whether it's the Holy Spirit or your spirit I get through
7:46 that by just capitalizing both the German Way any noun just capitalize it and then you don't have to you don't have to get into it but I do believe that what we're talking about here are
7:56 rubrics or governing principles spirit and Truth and Truth I don't think it's correct to limit the spirit to just my spirit or
8:08 just the Holy Spirit it's my spirit through the Holy Spirit they're both involved I don't think it's correct to leave the truth as a lowercase t as if it's one
8:19 truth among many it's the truth as it is in Jesus Christ so I was being facetious about doing it the German way but I think we're talking not necessarily about the Holy Spirit
8:29 versus my spirit but we're talking about an attitude an atmosphere of worship that is uh characterized both spiritually and truthfully in the in the
8:43 highest sense of both words nonetheless it it's awfully short on details it's somewhat like the uh the the phrase in Genesis that that we're created in
8:54 the image of God Scholars theologians have argued for for thousands of years what that what does that mean that that mankind is created in the image of God we can do the same and it's been done
9:06 for two thousand years what does Jesus mean when he says in spirit and Truth and I don't think we're going to exhaust the meaning in this Sunday school series but it does it does provide us
9:19 and and it's actually what's interesting is it's in the midst of a controversy under the old Covenant the Samaritans and the Jews
9:31 the Jews worship in Jerusalem the Samaritans on Mount gerizim which was the Mount of blessing which actually predates the temple in Jerusalem by hundreds of
9:43 years so the Samaritans are saying you know we're going back to Moses and to the Mount of blessing Mount gerizim and you guys are just you know you're you're newbies you're only in the time of David
9:55 David when he brings the temple into Jerusalem and Jesus says neither nor so it's within the context of a New
10:05 Covenant a time is coming and now is so so it is a significant first of all because of its um plain speaking in terms of this is
10:17 what the father is seeking as worshipers but it's also significance because it's clearly transitional clearly transitional it's it's self-consciously transitional
10:27 going from so um when we when we look at this we are uh challenged
10:39 by the open-endedness of the worship in spirit and truth then we add to that and we can't get into all
10:49 of the arguments we add to that that under the New Covenant every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells within them we're told that the holy spirit intercedes for
11:00 us with with groans too deep for words we're told that we have the Holy Spirit and have no need of any to teach us it's almost so much as to say we have no need to assemble
11:12 we're all individual temples and so what's the point why have we met to worship
11:33 yes yeah and and in First Corinthians uh when he talks about the temple in in chapter six when he's talking about sexual immorality he's talking about the individual believer but in chapter three
11:45 when he's talking about the builders he's talking about the assembly the church okay church okay um but that yeah that's exactly right I
11:55 mean there there are definite arguments in scripture as to why we we don't simply worship alone in our closet but that we do continue to assemble the
12:07 question is why okay what what is the what is the point of our assembly now there is and always has been the argument
12:28 now when you when you read especially Roman Catholic teaching on the sanctity of tradition of tradition you will not read that we we have always done this because we have always liked doing it
12:39 doing it and we've always done this because it's it it attracts more people to do it no it's it's an argument that runs like this we have always done it
12:51 therefore it must be by the Holy Spirit guiding us guiding us because the Holy Spirit guides the church so it's an argument in retrospect if
13:02 something has been done it is therefore justified by the fact that it wouldn't have been done unless the Holy Spirit led the church to do so so it has a very very high view of the
13:15 church and again that word church is very nebulous it's not any individual Pope or College of of Cardinals or Bishops it's just this church this thing
13:25 that has gone through the ages doing certain things venerating Mary lifting up prayers for the dead baptizing infants but tradition then
13:36 becomes Justified and even Sanctified in retrospect by this concept that the church is Guided by the Holy Spirit okay
13:47 so the tradition is that what
14:18 keep in mind that Roman Catholics especially Roman Catholic Scholars but Roman Catholic Scholars know their to think that they have simply been building a human organization that they
14:30 call the Roman Catholic Church that is very naive and very foolish they they do know the scriptures they know of the indwelling and of The Guiding of the Holy Spirit
14:40 they simply have a much higher Trust in the institution of the church than Protestants do
15:01 Catholic would a better word or a different word that would be spiritual that they look at the church as oh yes and yes uh my nebulous I I that's
15:12 probably a poor word choice but definitely they they see this church as a spiritual entity
15:33 spirituals not really our thing we're back we're a little scared to get into the spiritual because that can lead to something we think is wrong right it's not an individual quote it's not the College of cardinals it is the
15:45 spirit it's the church right and that Spiritual Church of Christ is the ongoing existence of the Incarnation of the son of God
15:57 the Roman Catholic view of the church is incarnational and that is that Christ it continues his physical presence in the world
16:08 through the church this is one of the reasons one of the reasons why Christ is still on the crucifix in the Roman Catholic tradition their Traditions are my point being that
16:20 their Traditions are backed up by proof texts many many proof
16:35 that that act of sacrifice is ongoing because Christ's Incarnation is ongoing we see Christ and we've been raised to see Christ's Incarnation as why we have
16:45 Christmas right it's a historical event a point in time in the Roman Catholic tradition it's not a point in time it's an era that is
16:56 still ongoing still ongoing so Christ incarnates the church but everything that Christ did is ongoing so the mass is a continuing bloodless
17:07 sacrifice of Jesus Christ he is continuing to die for his people for his church with every offering of the mass
17:17 so it's a it's a dynamic and an ongoing process whereas we see the once for alls right and I think the ones for alls are right I I don't get me wrong I'm not defending
17:29 Catholicism I'm simply saying that their view their liturgy their practice is not just some Act of of um baseless Imagination
17:40 it's an interpretation that we reject we protest against that which is why we are Protestants okay so um Christ is he remains on the cross
17:52 because his sacrifice is ongoing it is not to them once for all but then that brings in the Traditions which they then justify by saying we too have the Holy
18:06 Spirit and we do all these things and there's the unity and the consistency of the Roman Catholic liturgy which they point to as evidence that the Holy Spirit must be guiding them
18:17 because y'all do it every which way you know and they can point to the to denominations and disagreements of the Protestants and say well how can the Holy Spirit be guiding you
18:29 when you you can't agree on anything but we've been doing the same thing for two thousand years clearly the holy but they haven't been doing the same thing for two thousand years yeah but they they look like they have
18:40 uh so uh so with within the new and under the New Covenant and also it is a fallacy for us to think to think that the Roman Catholic Church was
18:50 always apostate always apostate that it was never believing that just because somebody is now called a pope he must have been the Antichrist that there was never there were never any Godly men
19:00 who occupied the the Sea of Rome
19:10 do they have of the Holy Spirit if Christ is still
19:21 because well no it's it's it no actually it's fundamental to their form of worship just as just as God was working through the levitical priesthood
19:31 levitical priesthood in the Tabernacle the connection between that Jehovah and the priesthood was the spirit of God the Shekinah
19:41 the Shekinah so under the analogy is under the New Testament yes Christ is risen physically risen and seated at the right hand of the Father which means he physically is
19:52 not here not here yet his work continues through the priests of the church the connection being the Holy Spirit
20:02 so the holy spirit is not taught often as an individual possession or indwelling but rather as an indwelling of the church so why what what need if they have the
20:13 Holy Spirit Well without the Holy Spirit Christ would only be in heaven he needs to be here on Earth and he's here because he said I will not leave you or forsake you I will be with
20:24 you the father and I will come and dwell in your midst in John 14 15 16.
20:39 it's yeah it's definitely a misunderstanding that Protestants have concerning the church we're the other end of the spectrum Roman Roman Roman Catholicism is the spirit's all about the church
20:50 Protestant is the spirit it's all about me the truth is somewhere in between Paul's truth is somewhere in between so yeah the Roman Catholics
21:02 um really don't have much to say except within their pietist movements which they have and Roman Catholicism is very susceptible to charismatic movements in fact the charismatic movement in the
21:13 1970s was strongest in the Roman Catholic Church Catholic Church okay so individual Roman Catholics and they're allowed to as long as they don't touch upon Roman Catholic Doctrine or practice they're allowed to speak in
21:25 tongues they're they're allowed to do whatever the Holy Spirit needs them to do in their homes but they don't do it in the church service because that the Holy Spirit governs the church
21:36 Protestants have put the Holy Spirit almost entirely within each individual believer's heart and have lost sight of that Holy dwelling that's being put
21:48 together with us as living stones why are we living stones we're living stones because the spirit of Life lives in US but we're being assembled as a habitation of God
22:00 so we yeah we have lost sight we have individualized Christianity so much that the concept of worship has become really very susceptible to marketing
22:11 it's what you like the music style of music you like is what matters we talked last week about how we we associate the word worship with music
22:24 okay well that's not what we're talking about this session we will talk about music but that is only one element one component of biblical worship so I do think we're looking at extremes
22:36 we look at the Roman Catholics as as focusing entirely on the institution of the church which has become in a sense
22:46 disembodied certainly it is made up of people but during the Middle Ages up into the early modern period modern period pretty much everyone who was born in Europe was born into that church so
22:56 there was no discussions about real Christians and false Christians if you were in the church you were under the sacraments of the church and and you were a Christian
23:08 and if you were not a very nice person or perhaps even an evil person well that just simply meant that your years in purgatory were extended until the fires of righteousness purged you of that
23:19 wickedness but you were still a Christian we went the other way and now Christianity is so individualized that most western evangelicals do not really have a
23:30 Biblical concept of the church they can't answer the why to this hymn why have we met to worship
23:41 okay so you when you you drive State Park Road you go by the Unitarian Church and I think uh you know question that comes to my mind every time on a Sunday morning if we take that route
23:53 is why is why it's just something about a bed on a Sunday morning feels so good why why would you go to a Unitarian
24:04 Church to worship to worship me I mean essentially this is their him Josh's mistake is they are him brethren we have me to worship okay like what's the point of that so we
24:17 we have that same question but at least I think we do have the answers in scripture so again looking back to the um
24:30 the New Testament
24:43 parallel to Leviticus 10 is Acts 5.
24:57 probably didn't spell that right but doesn't matter ananias and Sapphira this is generally seen as a parallel because of the events because of what happens ananias comes in and presents
25:11 the proceeds of the sale of their land to the apostles to Peter and says here here it is we sold our land and here is the full amount Peter under the wisdom of the Holy Spirit knows that that is
25:23 false and that is not the full amount ananias drops dead drops dead virus comes in later and he asks her is this the full amount of the sale of your property and she says yes it is and we
25:34 we give it to the glory of the Lord and she drops dead so you've got two people coming in offering Strange Fire the difference is they are offering a
25:45 financial gift to the church whereas at nadab and abihu were offering incense in their sensors an aroma burning to the Lord so but it's still an
25:57 offering and as the offerings go they would both I would think because under the name of Free Will offerings they were not the obligatory sin
26:08 offering burn offering they were free will offerings will offerings so I think what what we're dealing with here is God what we're told in Jeremiah for example God knows the heart
26:20 and the Heart of these people nadab and abihu in Leviticus 10 and ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 the hearts were
26:39 they were not obeying the Lord they were rather directing attention to themselves and to their piety and I think I mean I'm reading into it it doesn't actually say that except what
26:51 the Lord does say in the case of nadab and habibu by those who approach me I will be holy and I think that statement Peter might
27:01 have said the same thing he said why has Satan tempted you to lie to the Holy Spirit they were lying to Peter and the apostles and the rest of the
27:12 congregation but fundamentally as in Psalm 51 fundamentally it was against God and God Alone that they were sinning they were lying to the holy spirit in
27:23 the same way nadab and abihu who were sons of Aaron which meant they were the sons of the high priest if anybody had the right or the Liberty to bring an offering
27:34 before Jehovah it would have been the family of Aaron I mean these these weren't some uh some from the tribe of Dan or Simeon who were going way beyond their bounds these were
27:45 not only just Levites these were aeronites and yet we have to uh to infer by What God Says that they were not treating God as holy
27:58 so that that um that phrase then I think applies to both that we can tie these two together
28:30 really as a fundamental rubric that governs the worship of God whatever the Covenant may be
28:43 offers yes I think so
28:55 if you do not do well sin is crouching at the door and his desire isn't for you and you must rule over it yeah and Cain was jealous of his brother because of his own sinful heart
29:06 so it does come back to the Govern this is the governing principle of all true worship and that is he will be holy
29:18 okay now what that means once again that's that word holy what does that mean well I think certainly it means pure it means awesome it means you know
29:28 unapproachable light where no Shadow dwells there are a lot of biblical uh parallels to that that concept of the Holiness of God there is a similar
29:39 phrase in Acts 5 after all of this happens in verse 11 verse 11 it says it says and great fear
29:59 foreign goes on to say not only great fear Came Upon them but also upon all who heard of it so there's a sense in which this this coming before a holy God is
30:12 automatically and inherently missional it is Evangelistic it is Witness those who heard no doubt the children of
30:26 Israel who saw the fire of the Lord come out and consume nadab and abihu great fear I mean we know that by extension that when the fire came down upon Mount Sinai the Israelites said to
30:38 Moses you go up we'll stay here and God said would that spirit beyond my people always and even though we don't necessarily
30:49 read the great fear although I haven't memorized the passage but you can imagine that the the children of Israel seeing nadab and abihu consumed by the fire of Jehovah
31:00 would have been an incredible object lesson not sufficient because they continued to sin and rebel just as in the church the example of ananias and Sapphira was
31:11 sadly not sufficient but it is very much sufficient to indicate the nature of the god whom we say we worship Aaron
31:26 Leviticus Leviticus okay right before all the people so there's that you know there's an argument about whether the essence of a church
31:37 Gathering is Evangelistic or is it is it discipleship or is it strictly what we call worship meaning song okay that's kind of the modern rubrics under which
31:48 we consider worship true biblical worship is inherently Evangelistic even not necessarily self-consciously so but actively so
32:00 so and we'll get into what is the what is the role of evangelism within a church I mentioned last week the idea of a gospel shaped worship
32:11 shaped worship that I heard only recently and and concluded that what that particular family was looking for was an Evangelistic based Sunday service
32:22 Sunday Services based on the Great Commission and here here am I Lord send me okay that that's the purpose that's why we meet to worship
32:32 um I would say no that is not why we meet to worship that is a a product an outgrowth of our meeting to worship but it is not the purpose for which we meet
32:43 but also it is not the purpose for which we meet to have Sunday school or to sing hymns or even to have communion as many Protestant like Anglican church and of
32:56 obviously Roman Catholic the the centerpiece of their assembly is the Eucharist they meet they meet to have communion
33:06 okay the same thing is true with the Church of Christ they meet to have communion the sermon is a is a auxiliary performance but it's so you look at the
33:18 various things we do and there's probably a denomination somewhere within the history of the church if not currently that takes that particular component and moves it to the center
33:28 and I imagine we do the same thing in fact we've been called a teaching Church because we we move preaching and teaching to the center okay um but I don't think that's the right
33:40 thing to do I don't think that that should displace communion it shouldn't displace the singing it shouldn't displace prayer okay um so in order to understand how these
33:51 various components various components ought to be oriented I think we start with the basics and that is we are approaching a holy God so if we're approaching a holy God
34:05 are we allowed by God by that God to do it any way we want as long as our hearts are sincere
34:22 because if we understand scripture we'll understand that our hearts are never fully sincere fully sincere that even if the answer is yes it negates Itself by the awareness that our hearts are desperately wicked who can
34:32 know them know them even as Believers we know that we only see as an Amir dimly and that the the flesh battles against the spirit so that we might not do what we wish
34:43 we wish so that again this is part of the reformed tradition I think that leads toward the regular principle and that is a basic distrust of the human heart
34:56 the problem with arminianism the problem with Lutheranism with Lutheranism um is and really not the problem with Orthodox Catholicism Orthodox Catholicism is that the Lutheran
35:06 and the Armenian Traditions do not fully appreciate they they struggle with the total depravity part
35:17 depravity part or they think that as in the Roman Catholic tradition that um baptism washes away that sin that we're no longer under that Paradigm of sin and yet we know in Paul's teaching
35:29 that number one sin still dwells in our members and number two the context of most of his letters his letters is sin within the congregations
35:40 so when we come to worship God can we assume that because we have the Holy Spirit within us we can now do as we
36:03 yeah they were doing their own thing to a large extent so were the Colossians worship is our offering to God it's a sponse to knowing god so if so if we are doing something that just
36:15 it is not accurate to God why would God accept it I mean we joke about people giving people gifts and we say it's the thought that counts but actually a gift sometimes we think what
36:27 was the thought behind this right yeah what were you what were you thinking of but actually
36:37 format that captures the fact that that person understands us right a gift
37:01 similarly though a gift given by compulsion like when kids give you a gift oh Uncle here's your gift my parents got this for you like well thanks that means a lot the church has said you will come and
37:13 you'll do this and the people come and they do to do it again the same idea I think I think it doesn't work
37:37 yes I think all of that is very true that if you gather together simply because of Hebrews 10 do not neglect the assembling so you drag yourself out of bed slap a smile on your face and glad hand the people at the church
37:50 no you go to to borrow the the Lord's story of the the two the Pharisee and the Publican you go down to your her your house unjustified
38:00 yeah you haven't gained anything by that dutiful performance because it was not by any means a free will offering and so that that aspect of it we don't do this
38:12 because we're told to so many Christians say well you know why do you baptize because we're told to God has not left us with such
38:26 pedantic do it because I told you I mean even even points out through his word that that we ought to be mature not children who have to be told what to do so I think there's an undeniable and
38:36 we'll get into this in more detail as we go but there's an undeniable element under the New Covenant as reaching maturity and when you reach maturity first of all you shouldn't be need to be
38:48 told what to do first of all but if you've been well taught you will then do what you have been taught so when we look at the Old Testament we
38:59 do not go back to the Old Testament to be told what to do but we do go back to the Old Testament to be told what pleases God so when you become mature it is not
39:10 considered to be proper that you just go out and do your own thing and ignore all of the teaching and the guidance that you've been given as you were growing up right that's a that's a completely failed life
39:20 or a completely failed instruction God has not failed in his construction instruction so if we do as many Protestant churches have done and that is just ignore the Old Testament because we're under the New Testament then we're
39:32 just rebellious children we're simply forgetting all of the guidance that the father has given us that now that we're mature no we do not have to appear three times in the city
39:44 of Jerusalem no we do not have to bring forth Bullocks and and doves and whatnot we do not have to do those things but have we learned the lesson those things teach about the one to whom we
39:57 are approaching are approaching are we acting as responsible adult children or are we rebelling against our training now we're not Jews
40:08 or at least most of us I don't know if any of you have done all you know if you're all done they 23 and me and but I'm not a Jew I know that genetically and yet I am grafted in to the same
40:21 olive tree olive tree I'm a wild Branch but I now receive my nourishment from that same singular trunk that is from Abraham
40:32 which means the heritage of Israel is mine just like my grandfather emigrated in 1921 but the heritage of the United
40:43 States is mine okay so I know something about that Heritage do I know anything about my Heritage in the Lord
40:53 so many of us know far more about our own Heritage than we know about the Heritage that God has given us by grafting us into his people so that teaches us so we individualism
41:05 we'll pick this up next week but individualism is really the Zeitgeist of the western world today it's all about me but so is worship worship is my personal relationship with
41:18 God through Jesus Christ and so I can worship it at home I can worship in nature or I could go to church and the aspects of church have become
41:29 um very very much atomized it's it's a voluntary Association to most people most people it is not a priority and it's also many times not
41:41 a desire a desire there's so many things that can convince us that we don't need to go to church because we know that that our Salvation is not based on us going to church every
41:52 Sunday or every time the doors open and I wouldn't want it to be that would be to err in the other direction but it's still a matter of the heart where where is the desire so the next
42:03 step up within reform I'm going to close this pretty quickly The Next Step Up from the me so we realize Ah that's that's not right okay we're
42:14 reading our Bible and we realize you know it's not all about me so we've done something else and this is especially powerful right now in conservative American Christianity
42:25 and that is oh we're gonna we're gonna say no it's not me it's my family and we start talking about family worship and the father is the priest the
42:35 husband as the priest that is all bunk that is not biblical at all the church is not the family the family is not the church getting up on Sunday morning and going to your living room is not assembling
42:49 together okay that is I can't get into the full details right now but this this is an error and it really is nothing more than a slightly expanded form of meism
42:59 it's my family but Paul does not do that I mean there is a family to be spoken of but it's not my wife and children and
43:10 grandchildren I'm not building my own church through reproduction God is building his church through
43:33 understanding a Biblical understanding of what the church is to understand why we bother to meet and what we do in worship so let's close in prayer and we'll pick this up again
43:45 Lord willing next week father we do ask that you would teach us by Your Word we know that it is the only light to our path and lamp to our feet we know that without it we must grope in darkness and
43:57 stumble and fall and we know that we have done that done that as a church as the church we have neglected your word and sought
44:08 out our own understanding we've leaned upon our own understanding and in doing so we have aired and we have done great wrong at times
44:19 and what we have brought before you and called worship has often been strange fire and we as we have come before you to
44:31 worship have also lied to the Holy Spirit no less than ananias and Sapphira did we thank you that by your grace you did not consume us
44:41 but we do pray that you would teach us how to Worship in spirit and Truth For Your Glory but also and we know for our good
44:52 for we ask this in Jesus name