Article: Public Worship to be Preferred before Private by Eric Davis (original source – https://thecripplegate.com/public-worship-to-be-preferred-over-private/) – Eric is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Wyoming. He and his team planted the church in 2008. He has been married for 18 years and has 3 children.

David Clarkson was puritan John Owen’s assistant minister at the end of his life. Clarkson published several works, and went on to pastor in Owen’s place after his death. On one occasion, he preached a roughly 80-minute sermon from Psalm 87:2, “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” The title of the sermon is Public Worship to be Preferred before Private.

The following is a summary of Clarkson’s sermon.

Public worship involves three elements: ordinances, an assembly, and an officer.

1. Ordinances include prayer, praises, the word read, expounded, or preached, and the administration of the sacraments.

2. There must be an assembly; a congregation joined in the use of these ordinances. We cannot put a number on it. However, one or two people, or a family, is to be considered private (not a church), but is not public worship.  

3. There must be an officer. He must be set apart by the Lord, biblically qualified, and affirmed by a church.

Here are 12 reasons why public worship is preferred over private worship; why my quiet time is not a substitute for biblical corporate worship; why a devotional with friends or family is not an acceptable substitute for God’s kind of corporate gathering.

1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private.

God is glorified by us when we acknowledge that he is glorious. And he is most glorified when this acknowledgment is most public. A public acknowledgment of the worth and excellency of someone tends more to his honor than that which is private or secret. David was more honored by the public celebration of his victory than if it were in private (1 Sam. 18:7). Seeking to render God the most glory, the psalmist summons all the earth to praise him (Ps. 96:1-3).

2. There is more of the Lord’s presence in public worship than in private.

We understand that God is omnipresent. He is present with his people in private. However, he is present with his people in the use of public ordinances in a more extraordinary manner; more effectually, constantly, and intimately. After the Lord instructed on public worship, he adds, “In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you” (Exod. 20:24).

The Lord has engaged to be with every particular saint, but when the particulars are joined in public worship, there are all the engagements united together. The Lord engages himself to let forth as it were, a stream of his comfortable, quickening presence to every particular person that fears him, but when many of these particulars join together to worship God, then these several streams are united and meet in one. Thus, the presence of God, which, enjoyed in private, is but a stream, in public becomes a river, a river that makes glad the city of God. The Lord has a dish for every particular soul that truly serves him; but when many particulars meet together, there is a variety, a confluence, a multitude of dishes. The presence of the Lord in public worship makes it a spiritual feast, and so it is expressed (cf. Isa. 25:6).

3. God manifests himself more in public worship than in private.

David saw as much of God in secret as could then be expected, but he expected more in public. Not satisfied with his private enjoyments as much as public, he longed after public ordinances, for this reason, that he might have clearer discoveries of the Lord: “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple” (Ps. 27:4).

Why was this one thing above all desirable? Why, but to behold the beauty of the Lord? As in Psalm 63:1-2, David was in a wilderness; a dry and thirsty land, where was no water, yet he did not so much thirst after outward refreshments as after the public ordinances; and why? “To see Your power and Your glory” (Ps. 63:2).

4. There is more spiritual advantage in the use of public ordinances than in private.

Whatever spiritual benefit is to be found in private duties, that, and much more, may be expected from public worship. There is more spiritual light and life; more strength and growth; more comfort and soul refreshment. When the church inquires of Christ where she might find comfort and soul nourishment, food and rest, he directs her to public ordinances.

Shepherds are pastors or teachers, those to whom the Lord has committed the administration of his public ordinances. To them is the church directed for food and rest, for spiritual comfort and nourishment; and it is commended to her as the known way of the whole flock; that flock whereof Christ is chief shepherd.

Ephesians 4 proves this. Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12). The Lord wishes for our fullest edification: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).  These are the ends for which the Lord Jesus gave his church public officers and ordinances; and they will never fail of these ends if we fail not in the use of them.

Asaph had private helps as well as we, but his temptations were not conquered until he went into the sanctuary (Ps. 73:16-17). Thus there is more spiritual advantage in public worship than in private, and therefore it is to be preferred.

5. Public worship is more edifying than private.

In private you provide for your own good, but in public you do good both to yourselves and others. And that is a received rule, that good is best which is most diffusive, most communicative. “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Ps. 34:3).

Live coals, if separated, and lay them asunder, will quickly die; but while they are together, they serve to continue heat in one another. We may quicken one another, while we join in worshipping God; but deadness, coldness, or lukewarmness may seize upon the people of God, if they forsake the assembling of themselves together. It is more edifying, and therefore to be preferred.

6. Public ordinances are a better security against apostasy than private.

In times of compromise, this is especially pertinent. He that wants the public ordinances, whatever private means he enjoys, is in danger of apostasy (cf. Heb. 10:24-26). David was as much in the private duties of God’s worship as any, while he was in banishment; yet, because he was thereby deprived of the public ordinances, he looked upon himself as in great danger of idolatry: “…for they driven me out today so that I would have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods’” (1 Sam. 26:19).

We have many instances nearer home to confirm this. Is not the rejecting of public ordinances the great step to the woeful apostasies amongst us? Who is there falls off from the truth and holiness of the gospel into licentious opinions and practices, that has not first fallen off from the public ordinances? Who is there in these times that has made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, who has not first cast the public worship of God overboard? The sad issue of forsaking the public assemblies (too visible in the apostasy of divers professors) should teach us this truth, that public ordinances are the great security against apostasy, a greater security than private duties, and therefore to be preferred.

Public worship stabilizes us from being tossed to and fro (Eph. 4:14). No wonder if those that reject the means fall short of the end; no wonder if they be tossed to and fro, till they have nothing left but wind and froth. This was the means which Christ prescribed to the church, that she might not fall away.

7. The Lord does his greatest works through public worship.

The most wonderful things that are now done on earth are wrought in the public ordinances, though the commonness and spiritualness of them makes them seem less wonderful. Here the Lord speaks life unto dry bones, and raises dead souls out of the grave and sepulchre of sin, wherein they have lain putrefying many years. Here the dead hear the voice of the Son of God through his messengers, and those that hear do live. Here he gives sight to those that are born blind; it is the effect of the gospel preached to open the eyes of sinners, and to turn them from darkness to light. Here he cures diseased souls with a word, which are otherwise incurable by the utmost help of men and angels. He sends forth his word, and heals them; it is no more with him but speaking the word, and they are made whole. Here he dispossesses Satan, and casts unclean spirits out of the souls of sinners that have been long possessed by them. Here he overthrows principalities and powers, vanquishes the powers of darkness, and causes Satan to fall from heaven like lightning. Here he turns the whole course of nature in the souls of sinners, makes old things pass away, and all things become new.

The Lord has not confined himself to work these wonderful things only in public; yet the public ministry is the only ordinary means whereby he works them. And since his greatest works are wrought ordinarily by public ordinances, and not in private, therefore we should value and esteem the public ordinances before private duties.

8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven.

In heaven, so far as the Scripture describes it to us, there is nothing done in private; nothing in secret; and all the worship of that glorious company is public. The innumerable company of angels, and the church of the first-born, make up one general assembly in the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22, 28). They make one glorious congregation, and so jointly together sing the praises of him that sits on the throne, and the praises of the Lamb, and continue employed in this public worship to eternity.

9. The examples of the most renowned servants of God have preferred public worship before private.

It was so in the judgment of those who were guided by an infallible Spirit; those who had most converse with God, and knew most of the mind of God; and those who had experience of both, and were in all respects the best, the most competent judges. This was David’s heart (Ps. 84:1-2). Longing, nothing else could satisfy. Fainting, it was his life; he was ready to faint; to die, for want of it. “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Ps 84:10).

David was at this time a king, either actually or at least anointed. Yet, he professes he had rather be a doorkeeper where he might enjoy God in public, than a king where deprived of public worship. He would choose rather to sit at the threshold, as the original is, than to sit on a throne in the tents of wickedness; in those wicked, heathenish places where God was not publicly worshipped.

Hezekiah and Josiah were the two kings of Judah of highest esteem with God, as he has made it known to the world by his testimony of them. Now what was their eminency but their zeal for God? And where did their zeal appear, but for the public worship of God? (2 Chron. 29:2, 8; 34; 35).

The apostles also, and early Christians bear record of this. How careful were they of taking all opportunities that the word might be preached, and the Lord worshipped in public! How many hazards did they run; how many dangers; how many deaths did they expose themselves to by attempting to preach Christ in public! Their safety, their liberty, and their lives were not so dear to them as the public worship; whereas, if they would have been contented to have served the Lord in secret, it is probable they might have enjoyed themselves in peace and safety. The Lord, how much soever above us, did not think himself above ordinances, though he knew them then expiring; nor did he withdraw from public worship, though then corrupted. Nay, he exhorts his disciples to hear them who publicly taught in Moses’s chair, though they had himself, a far better teacher. You find him frequently in the synagogues, in the temple, and always at the Passover. His zeal for public worship was such, as they apply that of the psalmist to him, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”

10. Public worship is the most available for the procuring of the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments.

The greatest mercies are those that are most available and of most benefit to an entire nation or church. Public worship is the most effective in declaring the Lord’s mercies, for example, in diverting corporate calamities. An example of this is Joel 2:15-16.

Jehoshaphat also serves as an example (2 Chron. 20:4, 9, 15, 28). A corporate declaration was made, seeking the Lord’s mercy. And a corporate mercy was granted. The Lord provided an extensive corporate mercy to Nineveh in response to the preaching of Jonah to the nation (Jonah 3:4-5, 10). Peter was spared by the mercies of God through the corporate prayer of the church (Acts 12:5). The church received an animated corporate blessing in response to their corporate prayer (Acts 4:31).

11. The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship, and that must needs be most valuable which has most interest in that which is of infinite value.

The grace of Christ’s finished work on the cross seems to have higher influence on public worship than private. In corporate worship, Christ is uniquely recalled as crucified before our eyes (e.g. in preaching and the Lord’s Supper). As such, we are reminded that we are the purchased of Christ, and thus the gifts of his triumph over sin and Satan. In Ephesians 4, Paul pulls from the idea that triumphant conquerors would distribute gifts among the citizens. Those gifts, in the church, are public officers, and consequently public ordinances to be administered by those officers (vv. 11-12). How valuable are those ordinances, which are the purchase of that precious blood, and which are the gifts Christ reserved for the glory of his triumph!

12. The promises of God are more to public worship than to private.

Scripture gives several examples of how this is true. The Lord promises his presence in the places before claimed (Exod. 20:24). Protection and direction are promised (Isa. 4:5). The Lord was to the assemblies of his people as a pillar of cloud and fire (Exod. 13:21). His presence shall be as much effectually to his people now as those pillars were then. As formerly in the wilderness, the Lord, having filled the inside of the tabernacle with his glory, covered the outside of it with a thick cloud (Exod. 40:34), so will he secure his people and their glorious enjoyments in public worship. His presence within shall be as the appearance of his glory, to refresh them; his presence without shall be as a thick cloud to secure them.

We are promised light, life, and joy in abundance (Ps. 36:8-9); life and blessedness (Prov.. 8:34-35); spiritual communion and nourishment (Rev. 3:20). Grace and glory, yea, all things that are good are promised. There is not a more full and comprehensive promise in the Scripture than in Psalm 84:11: “No good thing will be withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

But what is this to public worship? The whole psalm speaks of public worship; and therefore, we must take this as promised to sincere walking with God in public worship. The word “for” (v. 11) connecting verses 10 and 11 explain why David had such a high esteem of public worship; why he preferred one day in God’s house before a thousand; and therefore this promise must have reference to public worship, else there is no reason to use this as a reason.

For these reasons, public worship is to be preferred before private worship.

The full transcript of Clarkson’s sermon can be viewed here.