Pages Menu
TwitterRss
Categories Menu

Posted by on Jun 4, 2010 in Worship | 1 comment

Gospel Worship: Sermon V

Many people commonly perceive the Puritans as hypocrites (thanks no doubt in part to the otherwise incredible writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne and others).  And certainly there have been professing Christians (including Puritans) throughout history who have been hypocrites.  However, perhaps one of the most insightful parts of Gospel Worship is Burroughs’ on-the-money critique of what we do when we come to worship with hypocritical hearts.  Consider the following quotations:

Whoever is conscious of any secret wickedness and yet shall think to cover it by the performance of duties and shall reason in this manner, ‘Who will think me to be guilty of such a vile thing when I pray as I do and am so careful to hear the Word? I hope I shall cover some wickedness this way?’

Who hasn’t thought in this way at some point?  It is so easy to try to sound very spiritual, to look very spiritual, to do all of the right things, particularly in worship, and yet do all of this so no one will realize how messed up we really are.   Once again, Burroughs cuts to the heart of human pride.

The second base end is to subject the duties of God’s worship to the praise of men, as to perform duties of God’s worship for the esteem of men and because we shall be well thought of.  Take heed of this, you young ones, and others who would be esteemed well of by those that you live with.  It is a desirable thing to have a good esteem from those that are godly, but take heed that you do not subject the duties of God’s worship to this.

Burroughs is arguing that worship is for God’s glory, plain and simple.  It’s not to make myself look better, and it is certainly not supposed to be a performance that elicits praise from those around us.  It is so easy for us to be captivated by ourselves and what others think of us that Burroughs once again provides a helpful reminder to make worship about God’s glory, not ours.

Read More

Posted by on Jun 3, 2010 in Worship |

Gospel Worship: Sermon IV

In his fourth sermon, Jeremiah Burroughs continues to discuss how we ought to draw near to God in worship.  He particularly addresses what we ought to do when we do not feel like worshiping.  I’ll put down some quotes below that illustrate his approach to answering this question, but before I do, let me just mention one reason why reading Puritans like Burroughs is so helpful: we can realize that the Puritans of the 17th century were dealing with the same issues that we are. Burroughs recognized how easy it is for the heart to be led away from God, to be led away from worship.  He dealt with it in his congregation.  And if we are all honest, we know that we deal with that same struggle.  So reading Burroughs, far from being a dry, historically and intellectually removed exercise, is like reading someone who is preaching directly to your own heart.  So with that in mind, consider what he has to say.

When the Heart Doesn’t Feel Like Worshiping

Though it is not done as I desire it should be done, yet the doing of it as well as I can at this time will help me to do it better at another time, that is certain.  As one sin prepares the heart for another sin, so one duty prepares the heart for another. (95)

In other words, though we may not always feel like worshiping, committing ourselves to the means of grace (particularly worship) will enable us to continue to do so.  Just as we sometimes allow a “little” sin into our lives, and then that sin leads on to further sins, so it is with worship: if we continue to worship, striving to prepare our hearts by meditating on God and his word, then we will begin to see that our hearts are changed so that we want to continue in worshiping God.

Summary of How We Ought to Sanctify and Glorify God’s Name

So that here’s the way of sanctifying God’s name, by applying Jesus Christ who was offered to God without spot that our consciences might be purged from dead works, that we might be purged from that natural filthiness and uncleanness in which we all were. For the whole world lies in filth as a carrion lies in his slime.  Now if we would worship God so as to sanctify Him we must apply Christ to our souls and get our consciences purged from dead works, and have the Spirit of Christ in us to quicken up our hearts in the ways of holiness.  To have the image of Jesus Christ in us, whereby we may be holy according to our proportion even as He Himself is holy, this is the sanctifying of the heart. (107-108)

In other words, the only right way to come to God in worship in the 21st century is the same as it was in the 17th century: by laying hold of the gospel, that we are great sinners, and Christ is a great Savior.

Read More

Posted by on May 25, 2010 in Worship |

Gospel Worship: Sermon III

While I have questions about some of what Burroughs says in Gospel Worship, I can’t help but admit that he (like many of the Puritans)  insightfully reveals the status of the human heart.  He constantly reminds us of many important issues related to worship:

The Importance of Corporate Worship

My brethren, I beseech you, learn this lesson this morning.  Learn to account the duties of God’s worship as great matters.  They are the greatest things that concern you here in this world, for they are the homage that you tender up to the high God, as you heard, and those things wherein God communicates Himself in choice mercies. (70)

How to Prepare for Worship

Meditation is a good preparation to holy duties.  And these are the general heads of our meditation for our preparation to duty: what God He is with whom we have to deal.  Meditate on God’s attributes, and then meditate on the weight of our duties, the nature of them, the rule of them, and the end of them.  Get you hearts possessed with meditations of this nature, and in this, as a special thing, dos your preparation to holy duties consist.  And that’s the first thing…The second thing consists in this, the taking off of the heart from every sinful way (the endeavor at least)…A third thing is this.  The preparation of the heart is the disentangling of the heart from the world and from all occasions and businesses in the world. (77-78)

What underlies Burroughs’ thoughts here is something that deserves further consideration: Is there something fundamentally different about the time of corporate worship than there is in “all-of-life-worship”?  Burroughs obviously says yes.  Even Jesus said that when two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among them.  And the whole NT is unanimous that the gathering of the saints is very important.  Does this warrant a common/sacred divide?  Burroughs is spurring me on to think through that further, but regardless of one’s position on that, surely we can still agree on his approach to preparing for worship: focus on God, repent of sin, and take your focus off of all the other things that you normally have to deal with.

What Happens When We Prepare for Worship

Now be careful for awhile to prepare for every duty of God’s worship to which He calls you, and, I say, within a little time you may bring your heart into such a temper that you may be ready at all times to perform holy duties, because you shall be able to come to that temper and frame to which the Apostle exhorts us, “Pray continually.” (86)

What Burroughs is really getting at here is something that I addressed in my most recent seminary paper: the importance of forming habits in the body of Christ.  In order for us to “spontaneously” serve God (see my discussion of Van Til’s Christian Theistic Ethics in the paper for the use of this term), we need to form godly habits that will shape our character.  As we repeatedly perform the “practices of the church” (listening to the word, prayer, the sacraments), God will use those means of grace to cause of to be the kind of people who follow him continually.

Read More

Posted by on Apr 13, 2010 in Worship | 4 comments

Gospel Worship: Sermon II

I’ve truly been challenged and encouraged as I’ve continued to make my way through the sermons on Leviticus 10 presented in Gospel Worship. Burroughs seeks to be so rigorous both in his exposition of the text and in his application of it to our hearts and lives that I can’t help but find it compelling. Some of the issues he raises–particularly those related to the regulative principle–have caused deep reflection.  But what is most amazing about Gospel Worship is his deep commitment to call us to “more and more die to sin, and live unto righteousness” (Westminster Shorter Catechism,  Question 35).

Sermon II

Again observe That it is the part of true friendship to help friends in their distress and seek to comfort them from the Word…For there is no particular affliction but there is some Word of God that is suitable to that particular affliction, and those who are well exercised in the Word of God can apply some word to every affliction.  And indeed, this is an excellent friend, and such a friend is worth his weight in gold who can come to another friend in any affliction and evermore has something of the Word of God to apply to that affliction. (38-39)

Burroughs draws this point ought of Moses’ actions in the story of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, Moses’ brother.  Moses said to Aaron, “This is that which the Lord said, ‘I will be sanctified.’”  Burroughs’ point is a helpful reminder of two things: (1) God’s word is sufficient for man’s life.  (2) Friends have the responsibility to not just say what others want to hear, but to say what God wants them to hear.

Yea, but though we are always nigh to God in regard of that essential presence of His, yet there is a more peculiar and special drawing night to God in the duties of His worship, and that the Scripture seems to hold forth unto you. (41)

Here Burroughs is making the distinction between “all-of-life worship” and the corporate worship of God’s people.  This is vital to what Burroughs (and the Puritan and Reformed tradition) argues for regarding the regulative principle of worship (that whatever is not commanded by God for worship is forbidden).

First, when we come to worship God, we come to tender up that homage and service unto Him that is due from us as creatures unto the Creator.  That’s the very end of worship.  If you would know what it is to worship God, it is this. (42)

Burroughs roots his exposition clearly in the Creator-creature distinction.  This is not to make the distinction more important that Christ’s mediatorial role, or any other doctrine.  However, it is fundamental to our attitude as we come to worship God.

When we have to deal with creatures, like meat and drink and our outward businesses, we have to deal with God in them, but when we come to worship God, we come to present ourselves before Him in those things that He uses to let Himself out in a more special and glorious manner to the souls of His people. (44)

Again, Burroughs affirms a distinction between how we live a God-honoring life and how we give God-honoring corporate worship.  He grounds this distinction in the fact that God has given us very specific ways of approaching him in worship–ways that he has not commanded for the rest of life.  Once again, this distinction is vital to the regulative principle of worship.

Why is that sometimes worship can be a painful experience?  Burroughs suggests an answer:

A man or woman that has an enlightened conscience and is under the guilt of sin finds that coming to God in holy duties is a very grievous burden to them.  Why? Here’s the reason, because to worship God is to draw nigh to God, and the guilt that is upon them has made the presence of God to be terrible to them, and therefore they would rather go into their company and be merry, eat, drink, sport, or anything rather than come into God’s presence. (49)

He hits my conscience right in the middle.  And perhaps his insight reaches to all of us.  Worship is so focused on God that when we come to worship cognizant of deep sin in our lives, the effect is that we would rather do anything else than worship.  And the answer of course, is not to skip worship.  The answer is to flee to the cross, and to continue to come to God in worship:

Whatsoever plea there may be by any temptation to neglect God’s worship, certainly there is danger in it, and, therefore, never listen to any such temptation that shall draw your hearts from the duties of God’s worship. (52)

Drawing near to God in worship is important, so important that we should not listen to any attempts to draw us away from it.  And what result should worshiping God regularly have on our lives?  I will let Burroughs’ words stand alone at the end:

And by drawing nigh to God often, you will come to increase your graces abundantly.  How ill your graces act?  The presence of God will draw forth the acts of grace as the presence of the fire draws forth out heat.  So the presence of God will draw forth our graces.

And by this means we come to live most holy lives. (55)

Read More
%d bloggers like this: