We also learn in First Corinthians 16:1 and 2, that we should lay by in store upon the first day of the week as we have been prospered; and that itself is an item of worship. Giving or sacrificing unto God for the sake of God is an act of worship.
From Acts 2:42, Acts 20:7, and many other Scriptures that could be listed, we learn that teaching and studying the Bible are also commanded of God’s children; and that, likewise, is worship.
In Ephesians 5:19 we read these words, “Speaking unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” And in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” These Scriptures command us to sing praises to God and admonitions unto each other, which is naturally an act of worship.
And then, finally, we are taught to eat the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11:17-34; Luke 22:19-20). Acts 20:7 tells us that this shall be done on the first day of the week. The church at Troas, under apostolic guidance, met upon the first day of the week to eat the Lord’s supper. And, friends, “the sabbath day,” as the expression was used in the Old Testament, meant every sabbath day, and by the same line of reasoning, “the first day of the week” means the first day of every week.
Tomorrow students will be registering out at Peabody and Vanderbilt. Their schedules will state that a certain class meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They will not state that it meets every Monday and every Wednesday and every Friday, but even a college freshman will understand what is meant! When we are told that a class meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we know that it meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every week.
If you were to search the New Testament to find out how often we should eat the Lord’s supper, you would not find the slightest suggestion that it should be eaten once a year. You would find no sort of hint that it should be taken upon the first of every quarter or upon one Sunday out of each month. The only Scripture which throws any light whatsoever upon the question puts it upon a weekly basis.
John 4:24 shows that all these acts of worship must be done in spirit and in truth. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
That’s what the Bible teaches about the worship of the Bible church. The church which does these five things in spirit and in truth is the right church as far as the worship is concerned. A church might be right in worship and wrong in doctrine, or vice versa; but the church which, in spirit and in truth, teaches and practices these five items and only these, is right in its worship; and the church that preaches and practices anything different from this is wrong. The Bible is right. This is what the Bible teaches. The church which does this is consequently right; the one which doesn’t is wrong.
V
Christian Living
A church is responsible for its teaching in respect to how its members should live. It cannot force the members to do according to its teaching and we must distinguish between the conduct of the church as a whole and the behavior of individual members. If the church teaches the truth and attempts to persuade its members to obey it, and properly disciplines them when they disobey, the church as a whole cannot be held accountable for their misbehavior.