And turn in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 9. Leviticus, chapter 9, verses 7 through 22. Leviticus, chapter 9, verses 7 through 22. And this is a text where Aaron and his sons as brand new priests and the elders receive instructions for the first worship service in the Old Testament. Leviticus chapter 9, verses 7 through 22, and this is God's holy, inerrant, infallible and authoritative word. And Moses said to Aaron, Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people and make atonement for them as the Lord commanded. Aaron therefore went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. Then the sons of Aaron brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood, put it on the horns of the altar, and poured the blood at the base of the altar. But the fat, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe from the liver of the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses. The flesh and the hide he burned with fire outside the camp, and he killed the burned offering, and Aaron's sons presented to him the blood which he sprinkled all around on the altar. Then they presented the burned offering to him with its pieces and head, and he burned them on the altar. and he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. Then he brought the people's offering and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and killed it and offered it for sin like the first one. And he brought the burnt offering and offered it according to the prescribed manner. Then he brought the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar besides the burnt sacrifice of the morning. He also killed the bull and the ram as sacrifices of peace offerings, which were for the people. And Aaron's sons presented to him the blood which he sprinkled all around the altar. And the fat from the bull and the ram the fatty tail, what covers the entrails and the kidneys, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver. And they put the fat on the breasts. Then he burned the fat on the altar. But the breasts and the right thigh are unwaved as a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded. Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings. Congregation, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have begun to take a closer look at the subject of biblical corporate worship. And we have learned, first of all, that most people do not know or do not understand what worship is or why we do the things that we do and we want to remedy this lack of understanding for the simple reason because we saw that worship is the most important thing that we will ever do in this life and in the life to come. And therefore, we must know what it is and we must get it right and worship God only according to his own instructions, according to his own precepts. And this principle is called the regulative principle of worship, and it entails three basic rules, and I'm repeating now the three basic rules. Now, just for your better understanding, worship has a lot of repetition. My preaching will have a lot of repetition, because repetition, as we know from experience, is the mother of all learning. Well, there's another way, through pain. I don't want to do that to you and I cannot do that to you because the power of the church is only spiritual. So repetition has a meaning. We repeat things. We read the law of God week after week, not because we haven't heard it before, but because it has to get ingrained into our souls. It has to be burned into our hearts and into our children's hearts so that their consciences are being sharpened. for the life that lies before them, and if they at some point in God's providence, for whatever reason, might hit a bump in the road, so to speak, or become wayward for a time, it is the law, not only the law, but also the gospel, it is the hymns, it is the psalms that the Holy Spirit will use to speak to them. If they should ever hit rock bottom to be brought back, we need repetition. It is very important for us to have it. Now, those three principles when it comes to formal corporate worship are first of all, whatever is prescribed about worship is required. That's pretty straightforward. Whatever is prescribed in worship is required. Now, the second one is a little bit harder to understand. Whatever is not prescribed is forbidden. And here, worship differs from life because whatever is not prescribed for our lives is not forbidden, but is allowed. So whatever is not prescribed for worship is not to be added, is forbidden. And the third one, of course, is very straightforward. Whatever is expressly forbidden for worship is forbidden. So the second one is the one that differs from the rest of our lives. Because in the rest of our lives we can say whatever is not forbidden is allowed. But that doesn't hold true for worship. God has not expressly forbidden, as I mentioned the last time, expression dance in worship. Not that I long for it, but because it's not prescribed, it's automatically forbidden. But if somebody feels the need at home to learn expression dance or whatever, I don't even know exactly what that is, and I keep using it. But it's not forbidden in your private life, outside of the formal worship of God. But, you know, these things are not new if we think about it. For example, the Heidelberg Catechism in question answer 96 refers to the second commandment, which is the big worship commandment, by asking, what is God's will for us in the second commandment? And the answer is that we in no way make any image of God, nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded in His work. That is spot on. That's the regulative principle of worship. Just as a comparison again, the Shorter Westminster Catechism in Question 51. Just so you see again how close the two are and how they agree on doctrine. What is forbidden in the Second Commandment? The Second Commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images or any other way not appointed in His Word. Same teaching. exactly the same teaching, namely the regulative principle of worship. Then we considered the purpose of worship And we concluded that the purpose of worship mainly and foremostly is covenant renewal. That every time we come together as God's people to worship Him, we do not cut a new covenant, but we renew our existing covenant relationship with Him in the covenant of works. We come together on the Lord's day and we worship and we renew our covenant. We express to God, yes, we want to remain Your people. We want to renew our covenant. We want to repent of our sins of the past week. And God speaks to us. He assures us, yes, you are in the covenant of grace. Yes, you are forgiven in Jesus Christ. At the end, He blesses us, sends us forth as participants in His covenant, as His people, go and serve Me. So worship is covenant renewal. And the covenant we're talking about, of course, is the covenant of grace. We learned that the covenant is a bond sovereignly administered in blood. And it's the only way that God has chosen to relate to mankind within the framework, within the paradigm of the covenant. And we looked at the basic order of God's instituting and renewing covenants with man as to recognize a pattern, an order for our own covenant renewal service. We looked at the Abrahamic covenant. We looked at the Mosaic covenant. And then finally, we looked at the new covenant. And we extracted five reoccurring principles, five reoccurring major elements in God's covenant institution and renewal. The first one was God initiates, initiation. God initiates the covenant. Secondly, separation and renewal. Thirdly, instruction. Fourthly, a sign and a seal. And fifthly, God pointing us to the future. If we didn't get them all now, they will come again, because repetition is the mother of most learning. And this morning, we will learn how these five elements of covenant order translate into our New Testament worship service. And to do this, we turn and we have turned to Leviticus chapter 9 in the Old Testament to learn how the five-point covenant order translates into the New Testament, into the New Testament So, we will learn how an Old Testament worship service looks like and how it translates into the new Testament worship service. And we will consider a three-step approach. Again, I have three points for you this morning. I'm rather happy about that. First one, we will look at the Old Testament worship offerings. There are three major offerings mentioned in our text. We have to understand those before we look into an Old Testament worship service, which is our second point. First, the Old Testament offerings, then the Old Testament worship service, and then thirdly, the New Testament worship order. So first, we look at the offerings in the Old Testament. That's how we build an Old Testament worship service. And then we translate it into the New Covenant worship order. So, first of all, the offerings in the Old Testament. Now, the first question I think I have to answer is, why in the world are we turning to the Old Testament with all its ceremonies and sacrifices in order to learn how we, in the New Testament administration, ought to worship? And I say it's fair enough of a question, especially in our day and age, where the relationship between the Old and the New Testament seems to be so unclear, even among Reformed people. In order to answer this question, I want to add a second question. And this should help clarify the matter. And it is this. Why do we have so little information about worship in the New Testament? So, two questions. Why do we turn to the Old Testament? And why do we have so little information in the New Testament? We have some in the New Testament, but not really a lot, if we're honest. But the answer to both questions is the same. We are looking primarily into the Old Testament to learn about worship and have very little information in the New Testament because just as God never changes, the heart of His worship doesn't change either. We have come to this false understanding that the Old Testament is somewhat not relevant. At the same time, we say this is one book. So we have to understand that God never changes. And therefore, the heart of our worship doesn't change either. Now, some of the forms have changed with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but neither the elements, nor the story of worship, nor the heart of the elements has ever changed. At this point, it has to be said in the clearest of terms that we are not, not dispensationalists. And people often don't understand, why is he going on about dispensationalism so much? Because it is the majority opinion in this country. And it's even more dangerous because it has become the majority opinion among Reformed too, without them knowing it. Dispensationalism is a very young doctrine. It's not older than 200 years. But it has taken this country in storm. And it is a dangerous doctrine because it separates the Old Testament from the New Testament. And it is especially slippery, especially dangerous, because while doing that, while basically cutting off two-thirds of the Bible and saying, well, it's there, but it's not really relevant, all the while it keeps telling us how important Scripture is. Arthur W. Pink called it Satan's master strike, because it presents itself very conservative. All of fundamentalism, Southern fundamentalism, is dispensational. They are believing in a false doctrine. They are believing in a heresy. I'm not exaggerating it. See, this is the thing that keeps bringing me in trouble. I speak about real problems. I speak about real heresies. And I speak about them so much softer than our forefathers. And yet people say, why are you doing this? We do not come to church to hear about false doctrines. We do not come to church to hear where we are wrong. We come to church because we want to be uplifted. Well, if that is the reason why that is the only reason you come to church, you got it all wrong, my friend. You have to come to church to renew your covenant with God. And the renewing of your covenant with God does not work without correction. It does not work without repentance. It does not work apart from the whole counsel of God. So what I'm trying to say, what I'm trying to communicate here to you is a very simple thing. The Bible is one book. not to be cut off from two-thirds of its content. Because if we think about it, you mentioned the Old Testament. It happened to me thousands of times. You talk about an issue, be that baptism, be that worship, be that anything, and you quote, or tithing, and you quote the Old Testament. People look at you. I'm waiting for it. And then I ask, okay, what's that look? Well, Pastor, that's Old Testament. Come again? Well, that's Old Testament. Yes, it is. Of course, I know where they're getting it. And then they start stumbling, and then they realize themselves they have no leg to stand on. Is the Old Testament not the Bible? Is not all Scripture breathed out by God? Is it not all for our correction? Is it not all for our repentance, for our living in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work? Does it say only the New Testament? In fact, this text in 2 Timothy chapter 3 refers primarily and literally to the Old Testament because Paul didn't have a finished New Testament. And yet it was also prophetic because it was the Holy Spirit speaking, referring to the whole of Scripture. As Jesus, of course, confirms too, and the Gospels. So we're dealing with one book. And without the Old Testament, it is impossible for us to find proper doctrine. The Old Testament is as much a source for doctrine for us today as is the New Testament. And this is exactly what the great Saint Augustine said about the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He says the new is in the old concealed. The New Testament is in the Old Concealed. It's already there. But the Old is in the New Revealed. These two belong together. In other words, the New Testament always assumes knowledge of the Old Testament and vice versa. Now, we're going to look at this now through Leviticus chapter 9. When it comes to worship, you will see how wonderfully it gives us information for new covenant worship. The book of Leviticus is a book about worship. It's filled with instructions about the priesthood, about cleanness, about holiness, about feasts, about offerings. Now, in chapter 9, Our chapter, where we are this morning, we see a complete Old Testament worship service. And looking at the main sacrifices and their place in that worship service will help us understand New Testament worship or our liturgy. In verses 1 through 6, which we haven't read, Moses gives instructions to Aaron and his sons and to the elders concerning this worship service. And from verse 7, From verse 7 on, he tells Aaron to step forward and to do according to these instructions. We're at the part where he steps forward and does. And we see that there were three primary offerings, which constitute the pillars of the worship service. I will now explain to you these three main offerings, because the offerings, as you very well know, no offering, Apart from the offering, the sacrifice, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ has ever done anything in matters of atonement. They are pictures, they are gospel sermons. So we do not look at the offerings per se as our last word, but we look at what they picture, what they are for. That's how we read the Old Testament ceremonies. First of all, there was the sin offering. Secondly, there was the burnt offering. Now these two, the sin offering and the burnt offering, have to be offered twice. once for the priests themselves and then for the people. And if you hear Hebrews in the back of your minds, you're right to do so because Hebrews talks about us having a better high priest now who doesn't have to sacrifice for others before he sacrifices for the people, but one who gave himself only for the people. He didn't need a sacrifice because he was without sin. So these first two offerings, sin offering and burnt offering, had to be done twice. First for the priests themselves and then for the people. And then there's a third one, the fellowship or peace offering for all to be offered only once. Now these three offerings were similar in several respects. There are similarities among them. They were all animal sacrifices. in which the priest put his hands on the animal, killing it and pouring or sprinkling out the blood and then burning all or a part of it. Those are the similarities. But what we are interested in more now is the differences between these three offerings. Let us first look at the sin offering. That was the first one. It was focused on the pouring and sprinkling of blood. That was the first offering. It was all about the pouring and the sprinkling of blood. It is described, if you want to go there, you don't have to. Leviticus chapter 4, verse 6 and 7, where it says, the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now, The emphasis here is clearly on the killing and pouring and sprinkling of the blood, which is a picture of the confession of sin and the assurance of pardon as we approach the presence of the living and true, the holy, holy, holy God. And we can only approach him, even approach him, even address him through the sacrificial blood of a substitute. The blood, beloved, provides access to God. There is in no way any approach to God without blood atonement. Now, after the sin offering, we have the burnt offering, or a more literal translation would be the ascension offering. This offering focuses on the washing, the skinning, and rearranging of the sacrificial animal. It is the only sacrifice in which the whole animal is being burned on the altar. The emphasis here is not on the killing of the animal, but the emphasis is on the cutting up and arranging. It's also not on the sprinkling or the dripping of blood. The emphasis here is on the cutting up and arranging of the animal so that it is acceptable to God. It is cut up with a very, very sharp knife. Now, what is a knife or a sword, a sharp sword, typologically? What is it a symbol for children? I think you can already think of it. What is it a symbol of? It is the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, for example, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now, what about that? This is exactly an example how you can only understand the New Testament in light of the Old and the other way around. Because this is what we just read. This is what the preaching of the Word does. It cuts us up, so to speak, and rearranges us. It corrects us before God, refers right back to the burned offering, where the emphasis is on cutting and rearranging. Now, knowing this now, you can surely have more understanding of texts like Romans chapter 12, verse 1, where it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This is what it talks about. You have to understand where chapter 12 is in the book of Romans. It comes after 11 chapters of deepest explanation of the gospel, the deepest and most a lively explanation of the gospel of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the sin offering. And because of that, it says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, It therefore refers back to these 11 chapters, to the grace of God in Jesus Christ, to the grace of God in giving us a sin offering, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must become living sacrifices. We must be caught up and rearranged in light of the grace that we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ and live for the glory of God, not in order to recommend ourselves before God, as it were, but because we have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Now, alongside this burnt offering, there were tribute offerings given. which were put on top of the burned offerings when it was burned and Psalms were sung. This was a picture for the giving of tithes and offerings. And then finally, we have the fellowship or the peace offering. You can call it both. fellowship or peace offering. The emphasis here is on food as a meal. So it's not about like the sin offering about the killing and the sprinkling. It's not like the burnt offering about the washing and skinning and arranging. But now it's about food as a meal. Now, the fat of the offering is burned for God, according to Leviticus chapter 3, verse 16. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma. And all the fat is the Lord's. And the other parts, of course, were enjoyed by the worshipers. And I hope the symbolism here is clear. This was a covenantal fellowship meal with God. This was covenantally joining, having fellowship over a meal. Throughout redemptive history, a meal between God and man has strong redemptive and reconciliatory meaning. It is the mutual affirmation or reaffirmation of a restored covenantal relationship. You have to understand that redemptive history itself finds its culmination, its conclusion, in the marriage meal, in the marriage supper of the Lamb of God with His people. In order to make it perfectly clear how this fellowship offering translates to the New Testament, listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, when he describes the Lord's Supper with these words, the bread that we break. Is it not the communion or fellowship, Greek word koinonia, of the body of Christ? He's referring back to the fellowship meal, calling the bread now the follower, the New Testament vis-a-vis of the fellowship meal. Now, these were the Old Testament covenant renewal sacrifices. Now, to a second point, how does the Old Testament complete worship service look like? Now, this is how it actually looked like. We can extrapolate this from Scripture. First of all, Aaron and the priests call the people to worship. This way, again, God initiates the covenant renewal, the covenant renewal worship. Secondly, The people together confess their sins and the sin offering was brought before God. And this way God separates, God consecrates his people from the world. Thirdly, the burnt or ascension offering was sacrificed. The animal was cut up, washed and arranged. Also the Book of the Covenant. as Exodus chapters 20 through 23 were called, was read here. Here God instructs his people and tells them how to live. And then the fellowship offering was sacrificed. This fellowship was a significant reassurance for the believers as it was a sign and a seal of their redemption. God only eats with those with whom he has peace. Therefore, we are called to examine ourselves every time we take the Lord's Supper, every time we take communion. And fifthly, at the end, Aaron blessed the people pointing them into the future with the following words, words that you might recognize from every Sunday morning worship service. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. These words We're blessing into the future of God's people within the now-renewed covenant. So once again, we have identified the five reoccurring elements in God's covenant institution and renewal. God initiates, He separates and He renews, then He instructs, then He grants a sign and a seal, and then He points into the future. Again, the five elements. And now we have the tools that we need to come into the New Testament worship order after the incarnation and ascension, the enthronement of our King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We have already done the hard work of identifying the elements throughout the Old Testament. Now we have to translate them into the New Testament. We also see from Scripture how music was placed in these worship services. and how the five elements were emphasized. Now, here's the basic bare-bones New Testament covenant renewal liturgy. Also, look how these elements are a dialogue. The worship is a dialogue. between God and His people. First, God initiates. God initiates the covenant renewal worship ceremony by calling us to worship. That's why I don't do a welcome. Welcome to Westminster Church. We're so happy. Nobody cares what I think. This is not about me. I'm not a confrancier. I know I'm a church planter and we want this church to grow, but I'm not a confrancier. I'm not an animateur. I speak for the living God. And so the worship service shall actually begin with God calling us to worship. That's why we put the announcements before that and everything else before that. And then we say in the old Scottish tradition, We make a cut between the profane or between the ordinary and now stepping into the presence of God with the words, let us worship God. That should make it clear for everyone that the unimportant stuff is over. Here comes God. And then comes the call to worship. He initiates the covenant renewal ceremony. And therefore, we only read texts that actually call the people to worship. I've heard all kinds of texts. John 3.16 has a call to worship. How in the world is that a call to worship? We need to use texts where the Living God actually calls us to worship. And most of them are, of course, in the Psalms. So he initiates, he calls us out of the world and into his presence, worshipping him. And the dialogue begins. God speaks first. Through whom does he speak? He speaks through a very broken vessel. He speaks through the minister. And in this dialogue, the minister speaks both. sometimes for the congregation, sometimes for God, sometimes the congregation themselves speak in unison. We will do that too, and we do that when we profess our faith. The pastor is an intermediary, a very unworthy intermediary, but yet he is. And because worship is a dialogue between God and His people, there is really no place for any sort of performance. I remember at one church where I served, there was an elder who insisted on his birthday that his family stands up front and sings for him. I said, no! Not in a worship service. They will not do that in a worship service. And I explained to him, worship is a communication between God and His people. And he said, yeah, but still. Still what? It is a communication between God and His people. How do you interpret when a bunch of your family members suddenly interfere, disturb the worship service, the dialogue between God and His people and sing for you because it is your birthday, my Lord? I did not prevail. And my conscience was severely violated by this act of rebellion against God. This is the things that you have to deal with these days. I will not have a choir sing in a worship service unless the choir leads us in singing and we sing along. But how do you interpret? How do you interpret suddenly a choir speaking to the people of God? Is the choir now ministers? Are they now intermediaries? Do they speak for God or do they speak for the congregation? It's completely out of place. And then I always hear, especially in this town, but the old people like it. I don't care what the old people like. I only care what God likes. I love old people. But here it is about God. It's not about the minister. It is not about the congregation. It's not about the children. It's about God. And this is one of the reasons why we had to start the new church in this town. Not to say that, oh, look at us. how good we are and how we have it all figured out, but not to have people's consciences violated by rebellious worship before the living and true God. Now, that's the initiation. God initiates. Then separation and renewal. How does that work? After the reading of the law, we confess our sins. I pray, but I pray for you. I speak for you to God. You see, I'm the intermediary. Sometimes I speak for God to you from His Word, and sometimes in prayer I speak to God from you. That's the equivalent of the sin offering, which emphasizes the confession of sin, the assurance of pardon, through the sacrifice, the once and for all atonement. through the blood of a substitute. And now we are cleansed. Now we are ready for God to speak to us. And then comes the third point, instruction, the equivalent of the burned or ascension offering, where we are being cut up and rearranged, so to speak. The Word of God cuts us up. It cuts like a two-edged sword. It cuts through the bone and the marrow. It cuts through the body and the soul. It rearranges us. It sets us right. It corrects us. And then comes the congregational prayer, which is mainly intercessory, where the pastor or an elder, could also be an elder, stands in the middle and brings the thanks and the prayer requests. and the praises of the congregation to God. And then we received the tithes, like the tribute offering, while the burnt offering was given. And the sermon comes. The sermon, the cutting up of our souls, the rearranging, the setting us right. And don't believe that ministers are not affected by their own sermons. It is amazing. It is amazing how the Holy Spirit, I almost said has a sense of humor, but it is so solemn, so serious that it has nothing to do with humor. That so often we are convicted by our own pathetic sermons. Cut to the flesh, cut to the chase. This is how the Holy Spirit cuts us up, rearranges us for the week to come. And then comes the sign and seal. the equivalent of the fellowship offering. This is where we put the sacraments, baptisms, the Lord's Supper, membership vows, professions of faith. And I have to say something that might be new to some of you, but I say it anyway, and I hope by now you see it from the Scriptures. The fellowship offering The element of the sign and seal, which is the fourth element, is always present in every covenant renewal. And therefore, it is my strong conviction that the Lord's Supper should be administered at every worship service every week. That is something that has been... And don't come with Calvin. Calvin was even of the opinion that it should be administered every day because they worshiped every day in Geneva. Calvin only had it once a month because the city council prohibited it more often. They didn't want it more often because in Geneva it was so divisive because so many vile unbelievers forced themselves into the worship service. It has become a truism that we have it once a month because Calvin has it once a month. And by the way, who's Calvin? Calvin is not the Word of God. We are grateful for Calvin, but I'm as grateful for Bollinger. I'm as grateful for Viret. I'm as grateful for all the other reformers. Calvin is not the authority for us. It's the Word of God and the fellowship offering. You cannot just leave out one element of the worship service. It's just impossible. The reason why we do not have the Lord's Supper yet is because, first of all, we need to preach through it. You need to understand what you're doing. And secondly, we need a significant amount of members before we start it. Otherwise, we have 10 members and a bunch of guests, and that's really not the core of what the Lord's Supper is. It's the communion of a covenant people, in exception guests can participate, which they can if they examine themselves, but it's mainly for the local congregation. And before we have a local congregation that's somewhat of a co-group, I think it is not wise to begin with the Lord's Supper. And I do think that that is also in the spirit of the Scriptures. So this is the worship service. And fifthly, you're being pointed into the future. You're being blessed with the same words, at least in the morning, by which in the Old Testament, the people of God were blessed. We have more blessings now in the Scriptures that we use. In the evenings, I usually use 2 Corinthians 13, 14, which is another blessing that we can use. The benediction, the blessing, is an arrangement for the future of the covenant. This is God's final blessing, sending us into the world to serve Him. This is the worship service. We will probably next week talk about some things that are disputed. And we will look into those. But after we know how the worship service looks, we have to keep one thing in mind. What I've presented to you now is the outward worship service. You can outwardly perfectly participate in this. I don't think you may. I don't say you may. You can outwardly participate perfectly in this and still being an unbeliever. You must keep in mind that the center of this triune worship service, the center of it is Jesus Christ. You must understand what this very Jesus Christ told the woman, the Samaritan woman at the well. That it's not about the outward elements only, but it's firstly, as Christianity always is, always is, firstly, a matter of the heart. You can be outwardly the best, most compliant person to the principles of Christianity. You can be a defender of the three forms of unity and all the Westminster standards and still be on your way to hell if your heart is not converted, if it's not bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ. And therefore, I say, worship is for the people of God who have their eyes fixed upon Jesus. who is the author and finisher of our faith. And him we must worship, not outwardly only, but in spirit and in truth. May God help us to get there and to become more mature in our worship by knowing the Lord, the fellowship of his sufferings, the power of the resurrection, that we may have our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. the author and finisher of our faith. May God help us. Amen and amen. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are renewing the covenant with us every Lord's Day. We thank you, O living God, that we can learn from your word. We don't have to go by speculation. O Lord, thank you for all understanding that you give us, but let us also remain humble in these things. And let us be brave that when we do not know, we say we do not know. And that we go by the best of our understanding, prayerfully and humbly. For the glory of your name and for the well-being of your people. Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, may your name be praised in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And all of God's people say, Amen.