Wornhlp by John Murray

When we are thinking of worship we must distinguish between the generic and the specific. The generic is the devo­tion we owe to God in the whole of life. God is sovereign, he is Lord, hav­ing sovereignty over us and propriety in us, and therefore in all that we do we owe subjection to him, devotion to his revealed will, obedience to his com­mandmants. There is no area of life where the injunction does not apply: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God' (I Cor. 10:31). In view of the lordship of Christ as Mediator all of life comes under his dominion. Whatsoever. ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ' (Col. 3:23,24).

The specific is the exercise of wor­ship in the specialized sense--prayer, thanksgiving, reading the Word, preach­ing, singing God's praises, administer­ing the sacraments. Some of these may be exercised in private,· all of them in the public worship of God, which is God's instituted communal worship in the assembly of the saints. There are exercises of worship that should be at­tached to other functions or may be pro­perly attached to other functions. Food is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, and in partaking of food we ought to ask God's blessing. But a meal is not a part of the instituted worship in

John Murray was pru· fcssor ur Syslcmatlc Theology at Wcslmin· slcr Theological Semi­nary In Philadelphia for over three decades, un!ll his retirement In 19~6. He authored many fine books and arti­cles. lie died In 1975.

The Counsel of Chalccdon, April, 1989

the assemblies of the saints. Compare also marriage, the burial of the dead, the convening of political assemblies etc.

I. Assembly. Perhaps the most ex­plicit passage in the New Testament is Hebrews 10:24, 25: 'Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; not forsaking the assem­bling of ourselves together, as the cus" toni of some is, but exhorting one

. another; and so much . the more as ye see the day approaching'. There is clear reference to this assembling in such passages as I Cor. 11:17, 18; 14:26; James 2:2. Indeed the word for 'church' in the New Testament means 'as" sembly'. It is not so much the called­out ones as the called-together ones, go­ing back to the Old Testament assem­bly before the glory of God's self-mani­festation at Sinai. This notion of assem­bly is closely related to the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ. The assembly for worship is one of the prin­cipal ways of giving expression to the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and to the communion of the saints with one another in the oneness of Christ's body.

2. The Object of Worship. God alone is to be worshipped. It is with this word that our Lord resisted one of Sa­tan's temptations: 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.' When we come together it is to worship God. Everything else really rests upon this. Whatever we may do, in worship, if it is not directed to the worship of God, no matter how decorous and embellished our exercises may be, then it is not worship. If we go to the house of God simply because it is custom or to fill up a quota of

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exercises, then we are not worshipping God. There are numberless. ways in which in the exercises of instituted wor­ship we may desecrate worship. All ex­ercises must be directed by, and contri­bute to, the worship of God.

The only God is the triune God, New Testament believers did not worship another God than the God of the Old Testament But New Testament be­lievers worshipped the true God in the full light of the revelation God gave of himself in the incarnation of the Son and the coming of the Spirit at Pente­cost. This is the astounding feature of the worship of the saints that, without any consciousness of breach or disconti~ nuity, the one God of worship was now conceived of as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 'Giving diligence to keep th.e unity of the Spirit in the bond· of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all' (Eph. 4:3-6; cf. I Cor. 8:6). This comes to particular forms in the worship of Christ. In the Old Testament a character­istic way of expressing the worship of the true God was to call upon the name· of the Lord. The mark of New Testa-· ment believers is that they call upon the name of the Lord Jesus (cf. I Cor.

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1:2). Note the salutations and benedic­tions of Scripture and iesus' institution of baptism.

3. The Attitude of Worship: Rever­ence and Simplicity. You have no doubt heard that adoration is an element of worship. It is not so much an ele­ment as the attitude that Jriust permeate all the elements or exercises of wor­ship. Adoration springs from the appre­hension of God's majesty, and where this is, there must be reverence, that is, godly fear. Here again much of our worship falls under the charge of irrever­ence and therefore under condemnation. There is a place in life for jollity and jollification. But how alien to the wor­ship of God would this be in the sanc­tuary, God is 'the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortal• ity, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor can· see.' (I Tim. 6:1$, 16.) The King e~rnal, immortal, invisible, the only God (I Tim. 1:17)!

With respect to simplicity, there is a marked contrast to be observed between the wm;ship of the Old Testament and that of the New. The centre of the wor­ship of ~e Old Testament was the taber­nacle and later the temple. The worship was characterized by elaborate ritual as­sociated particularly with the various of-

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ferings. There is ritual in the New Testament-­

baptism and the Lord's Supper. But even these have a simplicity that marks the contrast It is one of the marks of decadence that the liturgical movement is so· prevalent in Protestant Churches. As we study the New Testament we observe that prayer, singing God's praises, preaching the Word, reading the Word, the administration of the sacra­ments, are the elements.

4. The Mode of Worship. How are we to worship God? 'Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?' (Micah 6:6). This is the question ofthe regulative prin­ciple of worship. How can I know that what I bring is acceptable to him? Wor­ship consists of the offering of 'spir­itual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ'. This will surely not be questioned So the matter of supreme concern is: What is acceptable? What is dictated and directed by the Holy Spirit?

The question is really that of 'Spir­itual worship', worship authorized. by the Holy Spirit, constrained by the Holy Spirit, offered in the Holy Spirit And so we must ask: Where does the Holy Spirit give us direction respecting that which he approves and leads us to render?

The answer is: only in the Scripture as the Word which he has inspired. This simply means that for all the modes and elements of worship there must be authoriza~on from the Word of God.

The Reformed principle is that the acceptable way of worshipping God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his revealed will that he may not be worshipped in any other way than that prescribed in the Holy Scripture, that what is not commanded is forbidden. This is in contrast with the view that what is not forbidden is permitted.

There are some texts in the New Testament that bear directly on this. question: Mark 7:7,8; John 4:24; Col. 2:20-23; I Peter 2:5.

[This article is reprinted, by pennission, from Collected Writings of Jofln Murray, Volume 1: The Claims of Truth, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 1976, pp. 165-168.] D

T~e Counsel of Chalccclon, April, 1989