Sinclair B. Ferguson

And that's where sometimes Christians tend to go adrift by saying, if God has not given us clear instructions, then we can do whatever we want.

We can do whatever we like.

You remember there was one church in the New Testament that said that to the Apostle Paul.

And Paul said it's not like that.

Even in areas of life and worship where God has not given specific instructions, we're called to apply general biblical principles to every one of these specific occasions.

And in his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells us how to do that.

He raises these two questions.

Is this really going to be edifying for the church?

And the second question, is this really going to be for the glory of God?

And that second question should always be the dominant question we ask, even when Scripture doesn't give us specific directives about our worship.

What is most going to tend to the glory of God?

What is most going to enable us to sing, holy is the Father, holy is the Son, holy is the Spirit, blessed three in one?

When we ask what will tend to the glory of God, we are likely to be able to worship him in spirit and in truth.

Sometimes in life we have experiences so wonderful that our normal experience seems pretty poor by comparison.

But we really only see the normal experience in its true light when we've had the wonderful experience.

And you know, in many ways the same is true of our worship of God.

I think we'd be surprised to discover how content we can be as worshipers with what actually may be profoundly impoverished worship.

But then we experience something different, the presence of God.

We find ourselves bowed down before Him in worship and in silence at the end of the service.

And then we realize we've really been in a service of worship.