1689 London Baptist Confession (part 55)

Our Father in Heaven, what an amazing, amazing week that we would watch the world observe the birth of your son. And yet, we know that so few actually really care about him, about what this season is supposed to symbolize.

Most of all, we just think of the mission that he came on to rescue sinners. Father, as we gather here together, we're just mindful that we are among those sinners that he came to save, and we praise you for that.

And we would ask for your blessing as we look to your word, as we study a topic that is difficult and is fraught with perils, whether we go too far or we don't go far enough. And Father, bless us as we look to the confession, as we look to your word, as we just ponder how we should view the Sabbath, how we should view the Lord's Day, and how we might honor you in all that we do and say each and every day.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, one day we'll have soundproofing in here. OK, so we've been talking about worship and different aspects of it. And we finally, because we are leading up to studying the Sabbath, and finally we are going to look at, briefly, the ordinances.

We've been talking about different things, whether it's music, whether it's prayer, whether it's preaching, all the different things that go into a worship service. And this morning, very briefly, we're going to talk about the ordinances and a couple other things before we get to the Sabbath.

OK, and there are two ordinances, which are baptism and communion. Right on. OK, so here's what the confession says about it. As also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper are all parts of religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear.

And when we think about that, I don't know that we normally might think of baptism and the Lord's Table as necessarily being part of a worship service, but they are. I mean, if there are churches that don't do these things, they would be in error.

They would be not following what the Lord has commanded. And R .C., and I'm not going to go into depth about this, but he went on this kind of detour about who should administer the Lord's Table, who should do the baptisms, even though scripture, I mean, can you think of a scripture that says that the elders must do the Lord's Table?

Is there one that says, you know, the pastor must do the baptisms? No, I'll answer that myself. So that being the case, why do we do it that way? Why do you think we do it that way? Because we do. It's just a tradition.

Now, I've been at places where it seemed like anybody who was there just kind of stood up and administered the communion, and that might include younger people, it might include ladies. Any thoughts about that?

I'll give you this thought if we just look back to what it says, and I think I think this gets back to why we just do what we do in terms of the elders and whatnot. The confession says they're all parts of religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence and godly fear.

And so the I think basically the gist of this is that maybe the more mature saints, the more mature men might do these because that would be the most reverent and godly fear type thing. Not to say that probably some of our ladies are not the most godly in the in the congregation and in some of our homes.

I'm not going to name any names, but the point is that generally speaking, if we have the elders and deacons do most of the stuff, then they also do this. OK, I don't want to take any unless there are questions about the ordinances.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth, Not Tied to a Place

OK, and the confession goes on to say this, neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now under the gospel tied unto or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed or towards which it is directed.

Let me handle the second part first. We don't have to pray facing Jerusalem, Mecca or Washington, D .C. Why is that? Why does anybody pray facing any particular place? OK, because they're commanded or it's traditional.

Why do you suppose, for example, Muslims are prayed are commanded to pray facing Mecca? OK, maybe it was his birthplace. It's regarded as special to their God. It's venerated. It's honored. What place is honored in Christianity that we would face?

And the answer is there is a one, even in Judaism. Now, if they wanted to face the temple and pray, they really can't. They can face the Temple Mount if they wanted to. But there's no temple. We're not, excuse me, constrained by any of that because we've been liberated from the old covenant.

But he says or the confession says in the beginning of that, it says prayer, religious worship is not made any more acceptable by the place in which it is performed. Can you think of a religion that says or that seems to encourage prayers in a particular place and that they're more efficacious, they're more effective, they have more impact if they're said in a particular place?

OK, Catholicism. To me, it's always I mean, there are a number of things that I find very confusing about Catholic prayer and whatnot. For example, you go to the church and you pray. What does that what does that bring to your mind?

What does it symbolize? And here's the thrust of the question. If I go, well, I mean, I could give you a silly example, but I'll give you a better example. If I'm going to have a serious conversation with my wife, you know, we might go to a particular room of the house.

I don't know. You know, in the old days, it used to be the bedroom away from the kids. Nowadays, it might be probably the living room where we live. But the idea being that somehow if you come into a particular place that what your prayers are going to be more obviously heard.

But again, in Catholicism, you're not necessarily praying to God, you are praying to saints and whatnot. So maybe there's some sense in going to one location and hoping that the people you want to talk to are there.

But what about lighting candles? What is that supposed to do? If you said leave carbon on the ceiling, that is incorrect. What's the point of lighting candles? I mean, you would think where they would get it with the times and wave flashlights because it would have the same purpose.

Money, that's a good guess, but it's not right. Why do they light candles? And when I say flashlights, I'm not kidding, because the idea is to bring attention to your prayer requests. OK, I'm lighting this candle so that, you know, somebody will pay attention to it.

You know, I would think a multitude of candles obviously would be better and maybe there is some money in it. Does it cost money to light a candle? So there you go. Yeah, there is that. I don't know if that's much of a fundraiser, but here's the point of confession.

If you come into Bethlehem Bible Church and make your prayer, it's no more effective. It has no more impact. God is no more likely to hear it than if you are praying a Dunkin' Donuts. Why is that? God's not constrained to a certain place and he's not bound to anything like that.

And, you know, the idea that a prayer would be more likely to be heard, you know, in a church or anything else is just folly. He hears the prayers of his people wherever they are uttered. Proverbs 15, 29 says the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

He hears the prayer of the righteous everywhere, not just in church, but wherever they are. Confession goes on to say, but God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth as in private families daily and in secret, each one by himself.

So more solemnly in public assemblies, which are not carelessly nor willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God, by his word or providence, calleth there unto. Well, that's very clear. What does that mean?

It means this, that God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth. And then it gives some specific examples in prayer, in, well, in family gatherings. The idea here being that we ought to have times of family worship and notice it says as in private families daily Christian homes, Christian families ought to have some kind of, I don't know, I wouldn't call it a service necessarily, but there should be a time that is dedicated unto the Lord every day, prayer or for discussion of things of the Lord.

And in secret, each one by himself, referring to our daily study, some people call it quiet time, what have you, time spent with the Lord and more solemnly in public assemblies, in public gatherings. And then listen to this, which are not carelessly nor willfully neglected or forsaken.

We'll get back to that in a second. But first of all, let me just say this. Worship isn't for Sundays only. We should be worshipping Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We had to worship God with our families on a daily basis, worshipping individually on a daily basis.

I think I said it last week. I think, you know, for some folks, I wouldn't I wouldn't do this, but there are some folks where I think we just have this they have a mindset where Christianity is a duty and we ought not to ever think of it that way.

Let's look at Hebrews 24, Hebrews 24, Hebrews 10 verses 24 and 25. If we're supposed to worship Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, what is special about Sunday? What is special about Sunday?

When somebody read Hebrews 10 verses 24 and 25, OK. Not neglecting to meet together in the confession says. That is not to be carelessly nor willfully neglected or forsaken, in other words. You know, somehow make a decision, a willful decision, a choice to just not go to church.

You know, I don't feel like going to church today, so I'm going to attend the Church of the Wrinkled Sheets, you know, something like that. Or just staying up late and just, you know, oh, I overslept too bad.

So sad. I miss church. Why is that? Why should we think of church as more than that? You'll have to pardon me if anybody raises their hand and my eyes are drawn to Anthony accidentally. So, yes, but, you know, especially on on Sunday, we are to meet together, we're to encourage one another, love and good works.

But Sunday is a special day. Sunday is for worship because that's the day that the church gathers together to worship. R .C. says this, he says, Christians have a special obligation to gather on the Lord's Day for corporate worship, to participate in what is called the community of the saints, the body of Christ.

And so I ask this question, what manner of Christian would. You know, think grudgingly, I must go to church today, I have to go to church, I don't want to get up, I'd rather sleep in, but I have to go to church today.

Or would say, you know what, I'm just not that interested in Hebrews chapter seven, Melchizedek, whatever, I'm going to skip church today. I've got better things to do, there are infomercials that I'd rather watch.

Why would why would somebody think that way? OK, because they're not a Christian. That's a possibility, right? They don't go to a church that teaches the word. Or they have, let's say, a deficient view of what Sundays are all about, of what they're well and more than that, maybe they have it just to have a deficient view of what Christ has done for them.

I say this. And, you know, if I step on toes, I guess that's OK, because some toes need to be stepped on. If we wake up in the morning and we think, you know, and as we get older, it's easy to think like this.

My body aches. I don't want to move. This is, you know, yet another day and I'm really it's difficult. Life is hard that if we wake up in the morning and we start off in a bad way and we continue in a bad way, then maybe we don't have the right view of life in general, which is this.

We have been bought with a price. We are really slaves. We're doulas, we're bond servants of the Lord. We are his to do with with whatever he wants. Right. And sometimes I think it's easy for our lives to get to me focused, to get too focused on ourselves.

And going to church isn't about grudgingly, you know, I'm not doing the church a favor by coming to church. What am I doing? I mean, I can remember thinking when I was a kid because we had to fill out attendance slips, you know, when I was going through the Mormon church.

And I would see, you know, these long streaks of attendance and think I was doing pretty good. I'm not doing the church a favor by coming to church. What am I doing? I mean, there are a multitude of things I'm doing.

I'm here to worship the God I say I love. Right. I'm here to hear the word taught. I'm here to be reminded of things that I already know. I'm here to learn new things about the trinity of God. I'm here to serve other believers.

I'm here to bear their burdens. I'm here to exercise my spiritual giftedness. I'm here for a multitude of reasons, but I'm not here because I have a grudging obligation that I don't really want to exercise.

But I do. I mean, listen, here's the difference between going to work. Right. There were a lot of times. How many of you have ever gone to work and said, I really don't want to go to work today? Right.

The rest of you probably have never had a job. It's not always fun to go to work. I can remember even getting to work and thinking, I don't really want to be here today. Not recently. But this is not work.

This is not an obligation. This is a joy. This is a blessing. I mean, there are billions of people on the planet who will never know this. Who will never have this opportunity. Who will never wake up in the morning and say, my sins are forgiven.

I'm going to heaven. And in the midst of all that, I get to go to church and be with other people who have also been bought with a price, who are also going to heaven. And we're going to worship the same God together.

We're going to sing songs together. We're going to hear the word taught together. We're going to rejoice together. We're going to pray together. And then we're going to come together and fellowship and love one another and serve one another.

And this is body life. And this is what we're going to do until the day we die. That's right. It's a good thing. It's a blessing. This is familiar, but let's look at First Corinthians 12. And I don't want to just skip this entirely.

So I'll say it. I mean, I've already mentioned it, but I want to get to the verses to First Corinthians 12. Verse 7. And when you hear First Corinthians 12, what do you think right away? Spiritual gifts.

Very good. First Corinthians chapter 12. Who has that? Verse 7. What is a manifestation of the spirit? A gift. And so it's for the good of all. And so, you know, sometimes I think I've heard people say this.

We've even had people who attended this church who said this and then. Are no longer involved in any kind of church of any sort. I can worship God the same taking a hike in the mountains. Riding my bike along the beach, camping in the Adirondacks, whatever.

I can I can worship the Lord the same anywhere. I don't necessarily need to come to church. Well, what's the problem with that? I mean, there are several problems, but even just if we just focus on this one verse, First Corinthians 12, seven, we understand that the Holy Spirit has gifted each Christian with a manifestation, a spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit.

And then we see the purpose of it is for what the common good, Bob. OK. It's not for you. And if there's nobody there, then you're not exercising your gift in a sense, in. It's essence for those of you who speak English.

In essence, what you're saying is thank you, Holy Spirit, for that gift. But I decline. I'm not going to exercise my spiritual gift. Now, there are some people who say, well, I don't have a spiritual gift to which you would say, what was that?

Well, they may not. Right. How would somebody not have a spiritual gift? They're not saved, right, because he says to each one, well, who's each one? Those are Christians. But the correct answer is Pastor Bob said, if somebody says, well, I don't have a spiritual gift, the answer is, yes, you do.

If you are saved, you have a spiritual gift. And you have. I don't want to say an obligation, let's say a calling, but it's not a calling from Pastor Mike, from Elder Pradeep, from Elder Scott, from Pastor Steve.

It's not a calling from any of us to exercise your spiritual gift. It is a calling from the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity. He says, here's this gift. Use it for the common good. There's really no.

Option there, and we know that when we exercise our spiritual giftedness for the benefit of others, what happens? A multitude of things happen. One is the body starts working the way it's supposed to.

We would see that also described in scripture. But the other thing is we are blessed as we do that. But we gather together to bear one another's burdens, serve one another, defer to one another, to learn how to get along with other sinners who have been rejected.

Redeemed by the blood of Christ. And to help and to serve, this is what we do. OK. The confession of faith says this, as it is the law of nature. Now we're getting into the Sabbath, as it is the law of nature.

Listen to this, that in general, a proportion of time by God's appointment be set up, be set apart for the worship of God. Now, does that make sense that a time be set apart for the worship of God? Yes.

I mean, we would expect that God's people would come together to worship him and that there would be a time set aside for that. Now, the question is, what makes it a law of nature? Why would it be a law of nature?

It's a deep question. I think Bob should write a thesis about that. Well, let's look at Genesis chapter two, verses one and three. And if you think about the creation account, how does in Genesis one, how does every little, I'm going to use the word here, pericope.

I just like using that word. Every little section, you know, day one, day two, day three, how do they all end? OK, it was good. But look, let's look at the end of chapter one here, verse thirty one, and God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was.

Very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day, and then when somebody read verses one to three in Genesis chapter two. Now, is there anything repeated in verses one to three? Are there any themes there that are repeated?

OK, so it talks about the work that he has done, right? Creation is finished, is done, rested. OK, he rested from the work that he had done. Then he rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So that theme of resting is kind of emphasized here. Now, what do we know? What do we know about God's resting on the seventh day? Does that mean that he stopped doing everything? No, because if God stopped doing everything, then the world ceases, you know, everything ceases to exist.

Right. He has to uphold everything by the word of his power. But here's the point. The point is this, that this idea of rest of Sabbath. Is. Indicated here in Genesis chapter two, because God rests. He's done everything and then it says on the seventh day, God rested.

He blessed the seventh day, made it holy because on it and there's there's the point. So God bless in verse three. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So he's blessed it. And so the idea here of the reformers is that this is a law of nature, that it is something that is exhibited by God and is to be implemented by mankind. Let's turn to the Ten Commandments.

The Sabbath in Creation and the Moral Law

Exodus chapter 20 verses eight to 11. And we just read that, right? He blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now, when you read that. You can come away thinking, what about the Sabbath? I mean, what do you just read that?

What do you think right away about the Sabbath day?

Day of rest. OK, holy.

OK, follow a pattern of God's rest. But I mean, I guess I want to take it a step further. If you just think, OK, rest, then what does that suggest to you? A lot of things that you should or should not do.

I mean, immediately I read that or I just go, OK, I need a list. I need some guidelines. Yeah, the rabbis made a really nice list of rules. I mean, they had they had a load of rules. You know, what is it that Jesus was was arguing with?

I guess we could say, you know, the with the Sadducees or the Pharisees. And it was about their rules. You know, they had created this whole system and they still a lot of those rules are in force today.

And, you know, the most annoying one, really, out of all of them is the whole elevator rule. Where it has to stop on every floor, because it like let's say you're staying in a hotel and you have to go up to your room on the Sabbath day and you're on the eighth floor, well, that means it's going to stop even if nobody's getting in and out, it's going to stop on the second, third, fourth, you know, it's going to do the whole and you're not allowed to touch any of the buttons and all that, because it's all automated anyway on the set, because that would be work according to the Jewish leadership.

But Exodus chapter 20. Is for that's part of the Mosaic covenants given to the Jews, and when we read that, we would think, well, OK, maybe it applies to them, does it apply today? And it certainly doesn't apply to all of mankind, does it?

Well, the answer is, yes, the Sabbath applies to all mankind. Why? Because in Genesis chapter two, true or false, the Mosaic covenant was in effect false. Right. Genesis comes before Exodus, therefore, you know, no, it didn't it didn't apply yet.

Moses wrote Genesis, but he didn't write it, you know, with. I don't even know what I want to say, you know, ex post facto understanding of, you know, the Mosaic covenant, it wasn't in effect at creation.

But I want to just digress here for a moment, because this is fun. I mean, it's fun to me. R .C. talks about the blue laws, the blue laws that, you know, I mean, in California, not so much, but in New England.

They certainly were in effect and some of them still are in effect. I think it's funny when I find, you know, restaurants and whatnot that are not open on Sunday. And I always want to ask the owners why, you know, and I guess the answer is to give their workers a day off to give them a Sabbath.

Right. And then we have we have a restaurant by us, I think that's closed on Monday and Tuesday. Hey, different. But these are the idea that the Sabbath is the blue laws. The Sabbath is to be kept by all mankind.

And so the Puritans sought to impose this on everyone. And I've had people say, well, it is a universal command because it's given in Genesis two, although it's not really in the form of a command, if you notice it, which is in Genesis.

Two. Right. It just indicates what God has done. And then people take what they want out of that. Some people say, well, it'd be nice to have a Sabbath rest. And some people look at it and go, well, this is what God did, not because he needed the rest, but to indicate to us that we need rest.

To show us what we should be doing. So this idea that it should be universal. Well, the Puritans had this thing where they wanted to impose righteousness on everyone because then everyone would be more righteous, I guess.

I don't really understand that. Now, the blue laws, they did not force everybody to go to church. But they did limit commerce to what was necessary so that people could have a regular opportunity to rest from their labors.

I like this one. This law, whoever shall profane the Lord's day or any part of it, either by sinful, servile work or by unlawful sports, recreation or otherwise, whether willfully or in careless neglect, shall be punished, shall duly be punished by fine imprisonment or corporally.

According to the nature and the measure of the sin and offense, and I hear that and I just think this is like the Middle Ages or something, you know, they're going to like put you in stockades or give you, you know, lashes or something.

But if the courts, upon examination by clear and satisfying evidence, find that the sin was proudly, presumptuously and with high hand committed against the known command and authority of the blessed God, such a person therein despising and reproaching the Lord shall be put to death that all others may fear and shun such provoking rebellious courses death for violating the Sabbath.

Now, there may have been occasions when the statute was enforced in 1670 in New London. John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, I mentioned this a few weeks ago, were prosecuted for sitting together on the Lord's day under an apple tree in Goodman Chaplin Chapman's orchard.

Another statute read that the Sabbath began at sunset on Saturday, a custom common in New England. New Haven had a statute passed in 1648 forbidding all servile work from sunset to sunset. And then Newtown, our good friends down there in Newtown, violations of the Sabbath and fasting fast days in Newtown legislation regarding violations of the observance of the Sabbath and days of public fasting continued into the 1800s in Newtown.

There were complaints raised about or against residents for card playing, swimming and the dreaded raccoon hunting and also cattle driving on Sunday. In April 1802, the sheriff of Fairfield County was commanded to arrest Eli Hard Daniel Berchand and Jotham Beers Sherman.

To answer a complaint that they broke a fast day by unlawful recreation, contrary to a statute entitled an act to enforce the observance of days of public fasting and Thanksgiving. Since the men broke the fast by playing cards at the home of Mr. Botsford, he was also in violation.

May of 1817, John Beers of Newtown, of course, when you have a last name of Beers, you're going to be a troublemaker. Also made the mistake of flaunting the law regarding observance of the Sabbath, Abel Curtis, a grand juror for Newtown, submitted a complaint that between the morning light and setting sun of the Sabbath, he drove a herd of cattle in and through the town of Newtown called and known by the name of Zohar, three cows or cattle, not from necessity, charity or mercy.

And he was arrested and forced to appear before justice of the peace. And there are several cases like that where people just violated the Sabbath and were arrested and brought before magistrates. Belief that no work should take place on the Sabbath continued into the 20th century.

In July of 1903, it was noted that the observance of the Sabbath was showing decline in New England. And this is a local newspaper in Newtown. Here in Newtown, within sight of the church spires, haymakers were at work in two hay fields.

As late as the mid 1900s, stores were not permitted to be open on Sunday. And that's the way it should be. Well, OK, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, they did have that. Stores would not be open on Sunday. I don't know if it was that the law or where those corporate policies, do you know?

I mean, I could just tell you when I was a kid, because we were so like, you know, death on Sabbath violations. If I walked into a store on Sunday, I just felt like everybody was watching me. I mean, sure, there were cameras and stuff like that.

But who cares about that? You know, it was like I was in a store on the Sabbath. And there were all kinds of, I mean, when you're in a legalistic kind of church environment, you learn a lot of hypocrisy.

One of the things that we would do is we had, way back in the day, they just cut their, by the way, they just cut their meeting times to two hours a day. And I was like, the shock and shame of it, because we used to like suffer all day long, and now they just cut it to two hours.

But we would meet in the morning, early for a priesthood meeting, and then there was a break, and then there was Sunday school, and then in the evening there was another meeting. So after the priesthood meeting, we would go and we would do, you know, priesthood.

I was 12, you know, a deacon in the church. And that's what I like to joke, because, you know, the guys here are like deacons in their 20s and 30s and 40s, and, you know, some in their 50s and 60s. But anyway, and I'm like, Steve, I was 12 and a deacon.

Come on, slackers. But we would go and we would collect fast offerings, because the first Sunday of every month, you were supposed to fast, in other words, not eat. I know it's, not eat breakfast, not eat lunch, and then give that money to the church, and the church would use fast offerings to help the people that were in need.

So, go to priesthood meeting, starving, you know, for a young kid, and that was like... Then we go to somebody's house to collect fast offerings, and the smell of bacon is coming out the window and everything, and we're just going, I'd be at the front door going, you better, you know, give me like a really large fast offering or something.

And by the way, a couple of slices of bacon wouldn't be bad either. You know, and then they wouldn't answer the door, and I'd be like, oh, sinners. Sabbath creation, Sabbath or Sabbath observance can lead to a series of rules, and that's ultimately what we're going to be talking about, is it's not a series of rules.

It's really an attitude, ultimately. Let me just close with this, with this question. Does the Bible tie Sabbath observance to creation? That's the question that we're next going to answer, and the majority throughout church history have held that God sanctified the Sabbath day in creation.

He set it apart as special and holy, and so the question is going to be, what does it mean to hallow the Sabbath day? What does it mean to keep it holy? What does it mean to view it as a day different than the other days?

Are there a series of things that we should and shouldn't do? And, I mean, I've known people, if you know, you'll know, you'll run into people who are strict Sabbatarians, and what are some of the things that they won't do?

Anybody, anybody know anyone who's like a strict Sabbatarian? No, no dancing. Well, there are people who won't dance on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, too. Anything else? Yeah.

They won't eat out. They won't go to restaurants, right? You know, if they're going on a trip, they'll pack food and make a point not to stop at any restaurants. Anything else? They won't shop. They won't watch the Patriots.

What? Man, that is, you know, that's heavy conviction there, right? I mean, I have to say, the whole idea, I mean, I, listen, watching sporting events on Sunday when I was growing up, oh, no, not going to happen now.

For us sinful kids, sometimes that would mean, you know, AM radio in my room with an earpiece. Now that, you know, maybe I could get away with that. But not watching it on a TV. Not even really important games.

Like, you know, Lakers-Celtics. And we're going to get into that. Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? And why? Why not? You know, I mean, what day is the Sabbath? Saturday. So did it change to Sunday? All these things and many more next week.

Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for what it says about your work in saving us, your work in creating us, all the things that you do for us. What a blessing it is to be able to gather together to worship you, to not just be reminded of what you've done, but to thank you and to just praise you and to think of your grandeur and your glory and your grace.

Father, we pray that you would help us to see being with your people as the blessing that it is, never to view it as an obligation or some kind of cumbersome aspect of life, but the joy that it truly is.

Lord, I pray that you would bless the rest of our day here as we're here to worship you, to be among our fellow called out ones. Lord, bless each one here. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.