Absolutely. Wonderfully so. That being the case though, why are we so keen to redeem features of the old man and try to please God with them? Why are we always looking to have the new wine in old skins?
Worship through music
- Thread starter AndrewB93
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Are we keen to do that? I think you are mistaken. Perhaps you think that anything that pertains to our humanity is evil?
I believe that we are. When the Lord talked about the old and the new wine, He was talking about the Jewish system and Christianity, the old and the new. If we borrow the forms of David's day and try to incorporate that into Christianity, that is really trying to have the new wine in old skins.
It isn't that our humanity is evil - as I've said before, nature is right in its place. Nature is God's ordering, it isn't evil. No, if we look at ourselves and try to assess why we can't offer anything of nature to God, we won't get very far. But, if we look at the humanity of the Lord Jesus - well, then we see exactly, precisely what God takes delight in, what is most acceptable to Him as an offering of sweet savour. The hymn writer says "Were the whole realm of nature mine / It would be an offering far too small". Those are the words of someone who has got a large appreciation of the Lord Jesus. All else has disappeared from his view and estimation. That is how we can expand in our capacity for worship, through occupation with Him. Occupation with self will have the opposite effect - whether I'm occupied with how much I can give to God of all my talents, or conversely, if I'm occupied with how insufficient and unable I am to offer anything of myself to God. Both are self-occupation, and there's no profit in that. If I'm occupied with nature, then I'm not occupied with Jesus. There's a time and a place for nature's claims, but that isn't in the assembly, or in worship.
Peter, James and John must've got a touch as to this on the mount of transfiguration. Peter was keen to build three tabernacles, putting Moses and Elias alongside the Lord, and he had to be adjusted. He had to learn, great men though Moses and Elias were, that, in the divine estimation, Christ stands alone. "*This* is my beloved Son: hear him. And suddenly having looked around, they no longer saw any one, but Jesus alone with themselves." (Mark 9:7-8). What a precious word we have here! "They no longer saw any one, but Jesus alone with themselves." To be alone with Jesus in their midst, the One whose "garments became shining, exceeding white as snow, such as fuller on earth could not whiten them." (Mark 9:3). A fuller would use lye to draw out the impurities from cloth to whiten it. There was nothing in the Lord Jesus that needed the fuller's lye. There were no imperfections there. The Holy Spirit could descend on Him as a dove. It's as we get a deeper appreciation of the perfections of the Christ, we lose more and more of our self-regard. We're drawn into a full realisation that everything for God's pleasure is bound up in that One. "Behold", He says, "I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
Do you have some fear of being spiritually unsafe or insecure?
It is self-preoccupation to be continuously checking oneself against some sort of legalistic measure of what pleases the Father and what may not in the literal, physical practice of worship. If one has experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and is enjoying the fullness and freedom that He brings to his life, then one knows he is free to worship God with all exuberance, and that includes the way that David worshiped---with song, dance, leaps, shouts and musical instruments.
Not at all, thanks be to God! There's utmost certainty, safety and peace in dependence on Him for all things. I know that Christ has done it all, He is the Saviour and also the great High Priest of our confession, as Hebrews 4:14 tells us. "Jesus became surety of a better covenant." (Hebrews 7:22). With Jesus as our Surety, what room is there for fear or insecurity? I was given an impression as to the Surety when I came to preach last Lord's day. It really is an all-encompassing theme. There were a lot of small children in the audience, and I could speak to them particularly about Jesus being their Surety, their faithful Friend who sticks closer than a brother. How all-sufficient He is, to meet the need of every one, to comfort, assure and secure, and provide everything the believer needs - complete in Him.
That's good. Then, you won't mind that countless Christians enjoy the freedom God gives in worshiping the Lord with their heads uncovered and with musical instruments and with dancing and shouting to the King!
The only measure of what pleases the Father is found in the Son - we won't get an idea of it apart from being occupied with Him. If we are occupied with Him, we learn that we need nothing else apart from Him, that features of Him, formed in the believer, are what God delights in. If God had been content with types and earthly systems, then He wouldn't've given His Son. If the Jewish system fully satisfied God, then He would've sustained it to this day.
What other believers do or don't do is between them and the Lord, and they act according the measure of light as to the truth which they've been given. As for me, I know that I'm responsible to the Lord to obey His word, and to be intelligent as to His desires. There's a great deal of blessing in that. While the Marthas of Christendom are busying themselves with all kinds of activity, I would prefer Mary's place, the good part, in subjection, and in a place where I can hear the Lord's word.
"And Samuel said, Has Jehovah delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, As in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, Attention than the fat of rams." - 1 Samuel 15:22
Walking in intimacy with Him, we are free from the encumbrances that bind us away from fully worshiping Him with body, soul and spirit. The Lord has set me in a family of God that is free of the kind of encumbrances that you seem to enjoy.
So, to do little in the way of worship except for singing a song a capella is being a "Mary"?
Come now. Not so. Such self-imposed restraint is no less than works in reverse.
Really, it's impossible to be encumbered when one is depending fully on the Holy Spirit - worship in His power can never be anything less than full. If my worship is full and unencumbered, it's not because of any talent or skill of my own, but because of everything the Lord Jesus has done, and what He is now doing, and what the Spirit is doing. There is perfect liberty before God because of what divine Persons have done and are doing.
One is truly encumbered and not realizing his liberty in Christ when in his thinking he must not permit himself to worship God with all he's got---something that God lives in.
Is worship limited then to a mere outward expression? What we express outwardly is for the edification of the assembly. Worship flows from the hearts of the saints, and there's nothing outward that can possibly limit that, nor add to it. When worship is flowing in that way, there's no need for thoughts of restraint - again, that's self-occupation. When I'm lost in worship, nature is silent, self is forgotten, Christ is all-in-all - nature has no claims on me there. It cannot contribute, and it cannot impede - it's entirely out of sight.
What have I got, except Christ? He is my everything. I'm nothing but a poor sinner, saved through grace - the only good thing in me is the work of God. True liberty is found in realising that we're free from nature's claims, free to be to God, in Christ.
Worship is not limited to any form of expression, which is my point.
None of us who are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ are "poor sinners" any longer. We are the righteousness of God in Christ.
I believe it was the Gnostics who were the first to say our humanity is evil.
Grant forgive me for butting in on this. I was not going to get into this topic again but one thing you said caught my attention........
If you are an old sinner then get born again for you can NOT be a born again new creation in Christ and an old sinner saved by grace. That my friend is an old worn out religious line that should not ever be said by a believer...........
Old sinner - then saved by Grace - then made new in Christ and the old is passed away and all things are new............Can an old sinner be found in this new ? ABSOLUTELY NOT
STOP SEEING your self as the devil wants you to and start seeing your self as WHO YOU TRULY ARE..... in CHRIST...obtw you aint poor in Christ either............
God Bless
Jim
Grant could it not be said that true worship that God desires would flow from the heart ?
Anything else added would simply become a tool or form in which one is using in their worship.
I have begun to worship my Heavenly Father form the heart and then later I began to spin a little and sway and move about...... does this make my worship void from these things ? No but then we cant say that these things are the true worship God requires of us either.
My point is simply this.......... I agree with you that it must come from the heart..........
anything else we do is simply an added event........example.......I am sitting at the keyboards and I begin to praise and worship Him.......I am lost in this worship and then feel led to play something on the keyboards. My hands get lost in my worship and the sounds become a sweet sweet sound unto His ear..........
The music was not the main focus or point of worship........My voice from my heart was BUT the music was still a apart of it.......
Grant I am not arguing with you one bit. If anything simply putting all things into a perspective that maybe everyone can accept and agree on............
Hope your days have been filled with Peace and relaxation........
God Bless My Friend
Jim