How God Wants Us to Worship Him: A Defense of the Bible as the Only Standard for Modern Worship

The heart of Reformed and biblical religion is the purity and beauty of the worship of God. Today that purity of worship is being compromised by people who in most other areas share our commitment to the Reformed Faith. This is not a small in-house disagreement — a tempest in a teapot. It is far more critical than that because a breakdown in worship, a compromise of the purity of worship, is like a crack in the foundation of a building. Although at first the building may appear sound enough, the crack, unless it is repaired, will eventually bring about the weakening and collapse of the whole building. The biblical and Reformed doctrine of worship is being threatened today from two directions within our own camp. On one side are those who want more freedom and less form in worship so that, if they had their way, our worship services would look and feel more like a contemporary charismatic service. On the other side are those who are calling for less freedom and more form in worship so that, if they had their way, our worship services would look and feel more like Anglican, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox services. Both sides are making the same error: they are rejecting, even ridiculing and misrepresenting, the God-owned, time-honored, and Bible-based regulative principle of the worship of God. That is, we may do in the worship of God only what He has commanded in the Bible, and if it is not commanded it is forbidden. The liturgists decry us as Nestorians who deny the incarnation in our worship services because we do not have more forms and visible symbols. The other side shows its disdain for the regulative principle and its adherents by referring to us as “chauvinists” and “sourpusses.” (At least this side has a sense of humor.)We are going to look, then, at a subject most professed Christians have never thought of. In fact, most Christians today are not really interested in it. And yet this subject is one of the most important subjects human beings can think about because it is concerned with how we worship God, and worshipping God is the most important thing we ever do. Why? First, it is important because God is worth all our worship. “Worthy are You our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev. 4:11). Second, this subject is important because we were created in God’s image to spend our lives worshipping Him in fellowship with Him, glorifying and enjoying Him forever. Third, this a critically important subject because God saved us who are Christians from our sins and restored us to His favor in order that we might worship Him in Spirit and truth all the days of our lives. In Exodus 5:1, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a Feast to Me in the wilderness.’” In other words, the goal and purpose of Jehovah’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt was that His people might be free to worship Him according to His Word.In this study we will be attempting to answer this pivotal question: How does God want us to worship Him? Not how do we want to worship God; but how does God want to be worshipped? How we want to worship God is an irrelevant question because what we want may not be what God wants. Furthermore, with reference to worship, what matters is what God desires, not what we desire. After all, God is God, and we are not. In worshipping Him — our great King and dear Savior — our concern must always be to please Him, not to please ourselves or to please others.