We're in a series that is asking where in the church is the gospel. John's passion is that the Gospel be the central teaching in the Church and that all elements of a service point to the Gospel. And today we're looking at worship. John shares that Jesus's perfect work makes it possible for believers to come confidently to the Father so that He hears our prayers and our worship. Let's listen now to this teaching called Remembering Jesus is the primary worship leader.
Where in the church is the gospel? Our launching point for that question has been the letter of Titus, which is what we're studying. Because Paul was deeply concerned in this letter. That Titus, whom he had left in Crete after he had planted these churches with Titus, he had left Titus there. He was deeply concerned that Titus bring these churches into proper order And he said, Titus, the way this will happen is by you making the gospel the central issue of these churches.
And so, this has been our launching point. And what we've looked at, and just to remind you, we've seen that if the gospel was the framework. The central hub is a human. The heart For the whole church in both its confession of faith and in its living a daily life. If that was the central concern for Paul in his life and in his ministry, Shouldn't that be the central concern for our lives?
And our ministry in this church. Of course, the answer is yes. And what we've seen is that too often pastors and churches may fail. To see clearly the many implications and functions in the New Testament. of the gospel.
Because they fail to understand. The gospel. And so we're asking this question: where in the church is the gospel?
Now, I just want to review with you the criterion that we have examined so far that can help folks in knowing what kind of church to look for when evaluating churches and where they should belong as members. Criterion that helps you look and see. How does the church present their Christ-centeredness? Where does the gospel serve as the central role and place in their ministry?
So here's the first question I said that you should ask of a church. Does the church set forth the gospel as the promise of the grace of God? Simply put, the gospel is found in the church when it is clearly distinguished from the law. I'm reading a book right now about Martin Luther's life called Let God Be God. Here's a title for a book that I want to write in the future: Let the Gospel Be the Gospel.
People seem to have a hard time just letting the gospel be the gospel. The gospel is pure gift, it is not the law. The gospel is the promise of the grace of God. It is not the threatening judgment of God. It is not.
Thomas Boston in the 18th century in Scotland was a part of a group of men called the Merrow Men in the Scottish Presbyterian Church. And the Merrow men were called the Merrowmen because they were seeking in the Scottish Presbyterian church at that time. To do what we're doing today. Recall the gospel in his confession and practice to the life of the church and restore it clearly. And what had happened is that some neonomian pastors and theologians, which is take the gospel and turn it into a law.
A new law They had come in And they were not letting the gospel be the gospel. And so there were what Michael Horton says: you take the gospel and the law, you put them together, and you get gospel. You have neither law nor gospel, but a confused mixture, so that you, as a Christian, are always confused. Am I right with God? Am I not right with God?
It cripples the Christian life. Listen to what Thomas Boston said about the state of his church in the 18th century when this false teaching came into the church because they were not just letting the gospel be the gospel. He says, quote, in a sinking state of the church, that's when the church is starting to go over the edge. The law and the gospel are confounded. The law jostles out the gospel.
And the dark shades of morality take place of gospel light. Which plague is the day begun in the church? And well, far advanced. In other words, that plague. The law of justly now in the gospel is taking place in the church, he's meant his church.
and it is well advanced. I would say the same thing is true for the Evangelical Church in the twenty first century. The doctrine of the law and gospel is a chief and most expressive mark of the true church.
So find a church where the law is allowed to be God's law. And find a church where the gospel is allowed to be the gospel. Second Does the church's message center on Christ's work, and in particular, what his death has accomplished? Where the person and work of Christ are clearly and continually, on a weekly basis, set forth, the gospel is found in the church. Listen carefully.
The enemy of our faith does not care how much law is preached in the church. He doesn't care if it's man-made laws, that is, secrets, tips, keys to successful living, however you want to make it. He doesn't care how much man-made law. And he does not care how much of God's law is preached in the church, so long as the gospel of God, the cross of Christ, is not preached clearly and continually and consistently in the church. Ralph Erskine in the 17th century, another Scottish Presbyterian, you can see where I read all the time, listen to what he said about the state of his church.
Century before Thomas Boston wrote. He says, see the reason why the devil opposes the doctrine of grace so much. And does not care though the law is a covenant, that's a covenant of works, do this and live? He doesn't care how much that's preached up. He says, because it is the gospel that is the doctrine that only leads to true.
Godliness, Titus 1.1. The gospel which accords with godliness. Titus one one. He says he doesn't care while the law and legal doctrines are preached because. These doctrines tend to keep men strangers to the life of God.
What does the leadership of this church want for you? We want God's life flowing in you. That's what we want. That's the point. Jesus dying as our Lamb substitute to satisfy the justice of God by his substitutionary death is at the center and heart not only of what we confess to believe as Christians, but in our daily life.
That is the central message.
So, find a church where this message is proclaimed clearly and persistently because there the gospel is found in the church. Third, ask this question: Is the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, central in the church's confession and central in the church's ongoing educational teaching so that believers can have a foundation of assurance to live their daily life? Justification, when rightly understood, it is a synonym for the gospel. Certainly, salvation is not simply restricted to justification. We understand that all the blessings that we enjoy in Christ.
Election, redemption, effectual calling, adoption, sanctification, glorification, all of that is salvation. Nonetheless, Paul's statement in Romans 4:5: God justifies the ungodly. Lies at the heart of the gospel. Paul understood that in the book of Galatians to be of primary concern to the gospel. The gospel of justification, free justification by grace alone, is the source of genuine sanctification.
It is not the enemy of sanctification. It is the constant wellspring of sanctification and good works. John Owen said this about justification's relationship to your daily life and sanctification. The doctrine of justification is directive of Christian practice. In other words, he says.
That God justifies the ungodly is what leads your life on a daily basis to practice the law of God in your life. He says, In no other evangelical truth is the whole of our obedience more concerned. In other words, if you eliminate justification from the foundation of your life, you can forget about obedience coming in your life. Sanctification is dependent on justification. Why?
Because you have to be confident. You have to be assured that God has forgiven your sin. That you are reconciled completely and fully to Him under His good will and favor forever as a loving Father. That Christ Perfect righteousness, that is the record of his whole life and death, has been imputed, reckoned, credited to your account.
So that, God, now you can be confident it is as if you had never had nor committed any sin, and as if you had yourself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for you even though in and of yourself on a daily basis you're sinning. You have to have that confidence. You have to know that you are reconciled to God and under his favor and blessing. Why? Because every single time you sin, you are tempted to think God is not favorable towards me now.
Every time Especially when you have really bad weeks. Really knock down, drag out fights with your wife weeks. You've got to know you're justified. Because were it not for the fact that God justifies the ungodly, we could not stand before a holy God. We would be like Isaiah standing before the holiness of God, who's three times holy, and we would say, like him, woe is me, for I am ruined.
The psalmist says, God, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand? God should mark your iniquities you can't stand. Trying to pursue. A life of sanctification, apart from the firm foundation that you're always justified. It's like trying to run a marathon on a treadmill.
You're going to run really hard, but you're not going to ever cross the finish line because you're not going to go anywhere. It's like having your feet firmly planted in midair. It's just not going to happen. The basis of your freedom from the law's condemnation is what enables you for the first time in your life to truly love God and to truly love your neighbor.
So, when you're looking for a church, ask the question: where in the church is the gospel? The answer is: where a church faithfully confesses and persistently preaches and teaches the good news of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Find a church. Where that message is proclaimed clearly, continually, persistently, because there the gospel is found in the church.
Now, here's the fourth question that we're looking at, the fourth criteria that we're looking at. And I want to come back to it from last week. Ask this question. Is there a self-consciously gospel-centered logic? To the church's corporate worship.
Is there a deliberate Explicit. Robustly Gospel Trajectory to the corporate worship of the church. The gospel, we say, is to be paramount in all things. That includes how the church practices its corporate worship together when it assembles on Sunday. We learned last week that the purpose of Sunday worship is covenant renewal.
In corporate worship, A covenant renewal service, the triune God comes to us on his terms of word and sacrament. And this is what he does. He renews his covenant with us, he renews his promise with us. He gathers us. To serve us.
This is the primary, though not exclusive, emphasis of every corporate worship. This is why we come together on Sunday. The emphasis is on God's activity, His divine service. The emphasis is not primarily on our activity, which is response. How do we know that?
Well, here's the gospel logic. Fill in the blank with me. We love, 1 John chapter 4, we love because. He first loved us. Oh.
We worship because fill in the blank. I'm going to fill it for you this morning. Listen. A covenant renewal service is very simple. It's a big word that most of you have never heard, but the reality is very simple, and here it is.
God remembers his promise, his covenant promise. And we remember back. Sure. Does that make worship easy for you? Takes all the pressure off.
You don't have to come to perform for God. He comes to perform for you. He comes to serve you. The gospel logic is of first importance. First, God remembers us in Christ, and in response, we remember Him.
God's service is always primary and comes first. We learn this clearly from Luke 22. Luke 22 could not be any clearer. What happens in Sunday corporate worship is simply the continuation of Jesus' earthly service. After he's ascended, he continues to serve us.
I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22, 27. That's all it is. It is vital to understand that Jesus is not only Lord, but He's also servant.
So you will hear me praying weekly, week after week. And Jesus, we pray, who is our Lord and servant. Gotta get used to that. There are two parties to a covenant: there's God and there's man. Yet, too often when we come to church, the main direction, the logic, the flow of the church's liturgical practice.
It's from man to God. All the emphasis and worship is on our activity, our effort, our giving, our duties, our praying, or whatever. Too often, corporate worship centers on what we do. And it never even... Implicitly asset.
You're first here to receive what the triune God does to you and for you. The corporate worship of the church is a gift before it is a duty. Please understand that. It is a gift before it is a duty. God's service comes first.
We love because He loved us. Yeah. You cannot reverse that order. To reverse that order is to be nothing more than a Muslim. We're Hindu.
Or a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness trying to climb your way to God to get Him to do something and love you. That's not how it works in the Christian faith. That's not how it works in Christian worship. Worship is principally God's service to us, not our service to God. Worship is not just something that we do for God.
Worship is not something that we merely do to God. Worship is not something merely that we do in God's presence. One lady once told me a couple years ago: worship is what we do to minister to God. As by hit the floor. I'm like, God doesn't need anything from me.
Acts 17: God does not serve by human hands as if he needed anything. Worship is something God does for us. In the person and through the person of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship is what we are graciously given, as well as what we are given to do. And Christ.
Worship is the service of the triune God to the whole congregation, yet, how often? Is the Trinitarian shape and focus of the church's corporate worship explicit and robust so that you know this church believes the Trinity? We have a baptism class, and I took a survey this morning. Just a simple question. Before coming to Paramount, how many of you had ever known about the Trinity and had it robustly and explicitly taught to you from the church and especially incorporated in how the church worships?
Never Except one answer, I grew up in a Roman Catholic church and heard some of it in the liturgy. Listen. We begin every service with a very clear statement of the Trinity. We say, Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is not just a way to sound.
Fancy. It's not me up here just trying to waste my breath. To sound cool. When we begin every service with this clear statement, Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that says something very, very, very profound. It says a great deal.
One of the things it says is that by beginning this way, we're saying something about the one true God we worship. He's a trinity, he's not a monogod like Islam. He is not a Unitarian God who they reject Trinitarianism. This is not Unitarian worship in a Christian church. This is not Muslim worship.
This is not Hindu worship where you have polytheism, hundreds of millions of gods. We have one God who has revealed Himself in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are Trinitarian Christians. This is who we are confessing, believing, and worshiping. And beginning in this way, we're clearly declaring to the whole world, we're not that, this is who we are.
We are baptized, Matthew 28, 19, into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are branded like a cow when you get baptized with God's name over your life forever. And that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We acknowledge by saying, Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that through true worship it is offered to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. You can't just come willy-nilly into the presence of a king, you'll be shot down.
And if you think you can just come willy-nilly into the presence of the living holy triune God however you want, cavalierly, you can't do that. You only draw near to a holy God through his Son, his mediator. That was so crystal clear in the temple and the tabernacle. If you enter the Holy of Holies, you're done. In fact, once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went in and he had bells on the bottom of his vestments.
Why did he have bells? Because if the people heard the bells stop ringing, they had a rope to pull him out. Because he was dead. You do not walk into the presence of a holy king.
However, you think you can. Ye do it the way he said. And so we come to the Father through the Son safely, and the Holy Spirit carries us. With his son back to the father. That's Trinitarian worship.
To be gospel-centered is to be robustly Trinitarian. Graham Goldsworthy says, For the gospel to be the gospel, Jesus had to be both God and true human and God must be both one and three. Translated. No Trinity. No gospel.
1 Timothy 2, verse 5, Paul writes: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ. Christ Jesus. Jesus offers himself as a true man like you and me. Before the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit, and He does it as a representative man, He does it on our behalf. He became a man to live as a man on this earth on our behalf, living the kind of life before the Father in response to the Father the way we should every day of our life, but don't.
Jesus is our mediator. He is our high priest. Perfectly offering himself in our place as a real true man to the Father on our behalf. He's our mediator. Let me give you an example.
In Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7. The author of Hebrews says, In the days of his flesh, that is the incarnation, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries. Cries and tears. To him, God the Father, who was able to save him from death, and here's the key. And he was heard because of his reverence.
As a true man. Worshipping God out of reverence, he was heard. Do you know why your prayers are heard as a Christian? Your prayers are heard because Jesus' prayers were heard first because of his reverence. And now that you're united to Jesus, who's your mediator, he presents your prayers to the Father, even though they're bad.
The same thing happens in your corporate worship, your worship. Is acceptable to the Father because Jesus is worship on your behalf as a perfect man. Worshiped for you during the incarnated state of his life in the days of his flesh. Listen to what Reggie Kidd says about that. He says, The how in corporate worship is not as important as the who.
J.B. Torrance challenged a generation of theology students to repent of Unitarian worship and embrace Trinitarian worship. What does he mean by that?
Well, here, listen. According to Torrance. You know your worship is Unitarian, even if you label it Christian. You know it's Unitarian, even with the Christian label, if your worship is about various techniques of experiencing God on your own. You know, your worship is Trinitarian if your worship is about Jesus, who is your elder brother, your great high priest, who alone draws you into the eternal communion of love that has always characterized God's own life as loving Father, beloved Son, and Holy Spirit, who is love itself.
So we have a wrong conception of God as Trinity. God as Trinity is not a theoretical speculation, he is an eternal being. who exist in great happiness and love. Giving and receiving reciprocal love. And he wants to pour that over into us.
And how does that happen? Through the gospel? By the Holy Spirit. God's love, Paul says, has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. And so at the heart of the church's worship, listen, at the heart is the mediatorial priesthood of Christ, his intercession as the perfect man.
Jesus is the one true worshiper. Look at Hebrews chapter 8, verse 2 if you have your Bible. I want you to see this: Hebrews chapter 8, verse 2. The author in Hebrews 8, verse 2 says that Jesus, who has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father, listen to what he says about him. He says that this ascended Jesus at the right hand of the Father.
Serves as a minister. If you take notes in your Bible, highlight it or underline it. He serves as a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Do you know what the word minister comes from? comes from the Greek word latorgos.
You know what the English word is that we get from that Greek word? It is liturgy. or liturgist. It is the church's worship leader. Literally, the author of Hebrews refers to Jesus as the church's primary liturgist, the church's primary worship leader.
It is common today To hear musicians and vocalists in the church referred to as the church's worship leaders. Or vocalists referred to as the lead worshipers in the church. I think in some instances, this worship leader designation has become too significant. Listen to what Gordon McDonald writes about that. Looking at young people who are going out trying to seek and find a church to be a part of, he says, quote, For many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers.
Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things. Fast. He's exactly right. We have to first and foremost come to grips with the gospel truth that Jesus is the church's principal worship leader. It's what Hebrews 8 calls him.
This is his function. This is how he serves the church. And John seventeen, four, listen. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. It's worship.
That's a perfect life lived before the presence of God by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, as a representative man, is the lead worshipper before the Father by the Holy Spirit. We so often want to defend the deity of Christ that we overlook his humanity in the Gospels. But Jesus primarily conducted his miracle ministry in the Gospels by the power of the Holy Spirit as a perfect man. And by the Holy Spirit, we are graciously granted communion with the Son, who presents us to the Father, our worship leader.
The only reason we can come safely and confidently into the presence of God, whom Hebrews twelve twenty nine says, is a consuming fire. The only reason we can come safely before our God, who is a consuming fire, and not be utterly consumed, is because Jesus is our worship leader going before us to the Father in our name. Leading our worship. He is our mediator. He is our high priest, representing us, remembering us to the Father.
Listen to Hebrews 7, verses 24 through 25. He, Jesus, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, because he continues forever and holds his priesthood forever, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him Why, since he always lives to make intercession for them. You know what Jesus lives for? You know, what do you live for?
Well, I'll tell you what Jesus lives for: to intercede for sinners, to save them. He lives for that. Listen to Exodus 28. This is where Hebrews 7 comes from. In the old covenant, which was the Mosaic covenant, the Levitical high priest wore two pieces of clothing.
He wore an ephod. That's Exodus 28 verses 6 through 12, and he wore a breastplate. It's called a breast piece of judgment. Exodus 28, 15 through 30. Just to describe it, the ephod was a colorful linen torso garment, and it was held together by a woven waistband.
And on each shoulder of the ephod. It had an onyx stone on either side. And God tells Moses that the names of the twelve sons of Israel were to be engraved on the two onyx stones.
So on one onyx stone, there were six names, and on the other onyx stone, there were six names. And they were all according to their birth. And then in chapter 28, verse 12, the Lord says to Moses: Listen carefully: You shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial. Remember that Passover Memorial, God remembering you? Aaron is a high priest going into the presence of God, bearing the names of the sons of Israel.
reminding God Here are your people. And then the Levitical high priest also wore a breastplate. The breast piece of judgment had four rows, and they had three precious stones of jewels on each row, on his chest. And each of the jewels that were on his chest had engraved the name of one of the tribes of Israel.
So each precious jewelry. Had a name of the tribe of Israel on his heart. And listen to Exodus twenty eight, twenty nine. The Lord says to Moses, Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment over his heart. When he enters the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually.
In each case, the ephod in the breastplate indicated in the Old Covenant that the high priest Aaron. is to act as the people's representative In order to bring them safely before the Lord who remembers them. Every day the high priest was to offer sweet-smelling incense, Exodus 30, 7 through 10, before the Lord in the tabernacle in the temple. He did this. He offered this sweet-smelling incense while wearing over his heart the breastplate.
Unto which was fixed those twelve jewel stones engraven with the names of the tribes of Israel. And this high priest would be offering intercession in the presence of the Lord with the people of God symbolically on his heart. You know what the point the author of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 7, as he reflects on Exodus 28? You know what he's saying? Jesus, who has completely fulfilled the shadows of the Holo Covenant priesthood.
Who is now the great high priest? Because he has made the one perfect sacrifice and has been seated at the right hand of the Father. This perfect high priest who is acting on our behalf is our representative, and he brings us safely before the Lord as a memorial. But the difference is that our names are not engraved on clothing and on stones, they are engraven on his hands and in the scars that he bore on the cross. Representing us safely before God.
Isaiah says, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands. Our names are written into Jesus' flesh. The scars that he bears for eternity, his side, his hands, his feet, his brow from the thorns represent us before a holy God who's a consuming fire, and you're safe. You are loved. You are a beloved, adopted son because Jesus is worshiping for you.
He is our worship leader. He is our mediator. He is our high priest. He forever serves as a memorial before the Father on your behalf. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he unites you with faith to this perfect mediator, and you're safe.
He lives to make intercession. What does that mean? He lives to remember you before the Father. If anyone sins, what do we have? An advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
He lives for this. His prayers like incense, his worship, his obedience, his devotion. His whole life is a perfect sacrifice that rises up to God like a sweet-smelling sacrifice in the temple, pleasing to the Father. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He accomplished this. He lives to remember not only us to the Father, but He lives to remember the Father to us.
Listen to Hebrews chapter 2, verse 12. The author quotes Psalm 22:22, and he attributes the service in this passage to Jesus. The service that is attributed in Psalm 22:22 is given to Jesus. I will proclaim your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise.
Jesus Brings the Father to us and proclaims the name of the Father to us, and He sings the praises of His Father to us. We get to hear a glimpse of what it has been like for all eternity for God the Father to love his Son and for the Son to respond and love His Father. And Jesus comes to reveal that in the midst of the congregation every Sunday. He is our worship leader. He goes to the Father in our name, and he comes to us in the Father's name.
Philip said to Jesus, Okay, Jesus, we've seen you. That's great.
Now let's show us the Father. And Jesus, Philip, have you been with me so long? If you've seen me, you've seen the father. What is the Father like? Go home and read the Gospels today, and there you'll see Him through Jesus perfectly revealed.
God the Father so loved the world that he sent his only unique son to make himself known in love to his people. Listen to John seventeen verses twenty five through twenty six. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these you have sent me. I made known to them your name.
And I will continue to make it known because he lives to intercede for sinners. And the reason he continues to make the Father's name known to us is so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. That is one of the most strong. Striking statements I think I've ever come across. The same love that the Father has for the Son, Jesus says, I have revealed, Father, your name to them, so that the love with which you have loved me will be in them.
The Father loving you as much as he's always loved the Son is why Jesus came. This is unbelievable. That's a good worship leader, isn't it? I wish we could hire him next week, but we can't because we have it every week here. If we're faithful, Faithful to the ministry of word and sacrament, this happens every week.
So, Jesus is our high priest, is our mediator, is our worship leader, has everything to do with our corporate worship. Without that, there is no Christian worship. We cannot forget that in a covenant renewal ceremony, that's corporate worship on Sunday morning, the divine service, whatever you want to call it. The principal thing to understand is that we come to church to acknowledge. God in Christ is remembering me.
He is remembering me. He is holding true to his covenant promises. And that is what causes me in turn to respond. With obedience and trust and repentance and faith. We come to acknowledge that Christ our worship leader, Christ our mediator, Christ our high priest, always lives to bring me safely in Him.
To the Father by the Holy Spirit, where I receive nothing but blessing, goodwill, and favor forever and ever and ever. That's why we come to church.
So you can hear that every single week. Jesus lived our life, died our death, underwent our burial, and then rose again to bring us back to Him so He could take us before the Father, just like the stone jewels on the heart of the Levitical high priest did in the old covenant. This is remarkable. And so we come to have this gracious covenant renewal ceremony. We come to receive this and say, look, the logic of the worship is paramount and important.
How we do things, the proper order of things, we gather to receive from God, and then we respond with thankful hearts of gratitude. Gospel first, gratitude second. Divine service first, human service response second. Grace first, works second. Never works than grace.
Never. If it's works, then grace, you're not a Christian. You do not have Christian worship. The emphasis of corporate worship is first on God's gracious acts of service to needy sinners. And I will confess that I am a needy sinner.
I've got to hear it every week. We come to church to acknowledge God is remembering us in Christ by the Spirit. We come to hear the words, as I said last week, of Psalm 115, verse 12, fulfilled and renewed over and over again. The Lord has remembered us, and He will bless us. And when I hear that, And when I begin to believe that and have that driven like a stake deep into me, I will respond like the psalmist in Psalm 119, verses 15 and 16.
I will meditate on your precepts. I will fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. But I will only do that with a pure heart of gratitude.
If I first hear God's service to me, I remembered you, and I will bless you. Because I have blessed you in Christ. And I'll continue to bless you in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Week after week.
So, the fundamental purpose of the corporate Sunday service. It is to receive by faith Christ's gracious service in Christ. And then respond with thanksgiving in union with Christ, praising the living triune God. And that's what corporate worship is. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville.
Hymn We Proclaim is a ministry of John Fawnville of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
