Household Worship - Part 14 - Blessings

May be seated. Dearly father uh thank you for this morning. I pray that you would bless our continued study in household worship and uh particularly as we end this i pray that you would encourage everyone here to pursue household worship with all faithfulness in jesus's name.

Amen. Okay. Yeah thank you go for it. Okay so just like last week uh this week we are going to have a lot more quotes uh than we had in previous lessons um a little less in the way of scripture proofs a little more in the way of um just seeing how saints in ages past have thought about these things and various things eloquently uh to yeah to encourage their peers toward uh household worship.

All right. So today we're looking at the blessings of household worship along with that some of the curses for unfaithfulness in it but primarily blessings. And we're breaking this up down into three categories as happy homes happy churches and happy nations.

Okay happy homes happy churches happy nations. All right. So first of all uh curses will be on those families. Do not call in the name of the lord uh. Deuteronomy 28 47 through 48 says. Because you did not serve the lord your god let's serve.

As a another word for worship. Remember because you did not serve the lord your god with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things. Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the lord will send against you.

And hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. So this is talking about the people as a whole. Their failure and worship will lead them to rather uh be slaves of other nations.

Um zechariah 14 17. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to jerusalem and worship the king the lord of hosts there will be no rain on them. Now a lot of times families will get translated into uh in translations as either peoples or tribes or something else because these are likely referring to more than singular households at the same time.

This is the word that's used. It is just the word family that's used in a lot of these passages talking about the families of the earth that need to go to jerusalem otherwise they will not receive blessings from the lord.

Richard baxter says. And if god shall not govern in your families who shall the devil is always the governor where god's government is refused. Uh curse is not experienced in this life will be greater in the next.

So a lot of people would respond at this point and say well it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of curse. And not uh not pursuing household worship that doesn't mean that there isn't. Just may not be in this life.

Ecclesiastes 8 11 says. Because the sentence is sentenced against an evil deed did not is not executed speedily. The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. So in other words uh people are inclined to more evil to build up more judgment against themselves when things when uh when they do not receive judgment.

Psalm 73 19 says how they are destroyed in a moment swept away utterly by terrors. Luke 16 25 says. But abraham said child remember that you in your lifetime received good things lazarus and like man and bad things.

But now he's comforted here and you are in anguish. So there's some uh justice to that that the uh the curse is not experienced in one's lifetime would be felt in greater force in the afterlife uh. Joe 21 30 the evil man is spared the day of calamity that he is rescued.

Uh. Oh yeah this is part of a question that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity that he is rescued in the day of wrath. Like do you think that these things are the case. Um yeah. So if an evil man escapes judgment in this life do you think that means he will also escape judgment and death.

The answer is no. Uh this next uh this little poem here uh has gone through several uh iterations. So this is uh homer's iliad uh remorphed. Um rather than to speak of olympus to speak of the almighty by thomas doolittle.

And then i've also updated it so that it actually rhymes in modern english. That's a common thing with uh with old poems that they they rhyme to them but they don't rhyme to us that a lot of times it's like the best line at the end that you know just totally loses it.

Um yeah i forget uh death be not proud ends like that death thou shalt die. But it but it it had rhymed with like mightily or something something that in our ears doesn't rhyme at all. Or like you know tiger tiger burning bright in the forest of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could fame frame thy fearful symmetry. Symmetry. You know like a lot of these things don't uh. Yeah i like to update old poems. So anyway this one has gone through several iterations.

The wicked men feel not the almighty's blow forthwith his wrath is sure. When it is slow at length his plagues and greater load shall fall on them their wives and their children all all right. So yeah thomas doolittle is citing that as something that is uh a truth recognized even in pagan cultures right.

That that god's uh wrath will come in in greater measure. If it doesn't come on this life all right blessings will be on uh i should say on on those families that call on the name of the lord uh proverbs 333.

The lord's curse is on the house of the wicked but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Okay. So there's blessings on the the household of the righteous. So i'm 115 13 he will bless those who fear the lord both the small and the great all right.

So this next quote is from john newton. People know who john newton is this guy. Yes who knows who's john newton. Yeah yeah. He wrote amazing grace. Right. Happy is the family where the worship of god is constantly and conscientiously maintained.

Such houses are temples in which the lord dwells and castles garrisoned by a divine power. I do not say that by honoring god in your house you will wholly escape this year a share of uh in the trials incident to the present uncertain state of things.

A measure of such trials will be necessary for the exercise and manifestation of your graces to give you a more convincing proof of the truth and sweetness of the promises made to a time of affliction to mortify this the body of sin and to wean you more effectually from the world.

But this i will confidently say that the lord will both honor and comfort those who thus honor him. Seasons will occur in which you shall know and probably your neighbors shall be constrained to take notice that he has not bid you seek him in vain.

If you meet with troubles they shall be accompanied by supports and followed by deliverance. And you shall upon many occasions experience that god is your protector preserving you and yours from the evils by which you will see other suffering around you.

Okay. So he's acknowledging christians aren't going to take trials in this world but they will have particular comforts from the lord that even others will be inclined to notice. And he's he's saying all this in the context of uh families that are faithful in household worship.

Yeah happy is the family where the worship of god is constantly and conscientiously maintained all right now this next quote's from uh richard baxter. Uh by the way this hasn't come up but um richard baxter had a odd view of justification that puts into question his orthodoxy a lot.

So um like a lot of his writings are really good. This is not necessarily an endorsement of all uh that he says. And i know there are some crowds where i would quote richard baxter and they would just go out like i don't need to listen to him because you know they they dislike him so much.

So anyway but he he wrote a lot about christian ethics in a very detailed manner that exceeds a lot of a lot of other writings. To live where god's law is the principal rule and where you may be daily taught the mysteries of his kingdom and have the scriptures opened you and be led out by the hand in the paths of life where the praises of god are daily celebrated and his name is called upon and where all do speak the heavenly language.

What a sweet and happy life it is. This is it not like us to heaven of anything upon earth but to live where there is no communion with god where the marks of death and damnation are written as it were upon the doors in the face of their impious worldly lives and where no man understandeth the holy language and where there is not the least foretaste of the heavenly everlasting joys.

What is this. But to live as the serpent seed to feed on dust and to be excommunicated from the face and favor of god. So he's saying to to live in a family where there's a worship of god. It's very much like heaven.

It's closest thing to heaven on earth. To live in a family where there's uh where there's not the worship of god it's the closest thing to hell on earth. All right. If religious duties are not set up in your families there will be no more sinning there and wickedness abounding in them.

It would be an effectual way and means to make those and your families more obedient and better towards you if you would call on them that serve the lord and you were more in prayer with thomas. Do little.

So there's a lot of yeah religious duties are an excellent way of addressing sin and wickedness in your family. So yeah you'll increase the righteousness of your family. All right. Household worship also beautifies the home.

Proverbs 24 3 through 4 says by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious precious and pleasant riches. Okay. So yeah. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

So even a poor man who is building his house with wisdom will fill his house with good things. This devotional altar will be the best ornament to your houses. No pictures stately rooms or household goods will be such neat and splendid furniture as this worship of god.

The finest hangings and most beautiful paintings are but sordid and disgusting filth to this. It is this that renders a baker's cottage far more honorable than a prince's palace without it. Oliver haywood.

Yeah. So it's a way of beautifying your home. Okay. Household worship is a gift that makes up for what may lack in corporate worship. Act 17 11. Now these jews were more noble than those in thessalonica.

They received the word with all eagerness. Examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so okay. So they're they're in their homes examining these things to see if they're they're. So when these are not what they're being taught in the synagogue.

Oliver haywood says family worship will make up a defect in or want of public ordinances. Providence may cast your lot in a place where the streams of the sanctuary run low or muddy. In this case house wells may do you much service.

So in other words there's supposed to be you know a river of the word of god flowing from uh corporate worship. But if that stream gets clogged up for whatever reason you know the um yeah the pastor's not doing a good job.

Maybe you don't have a pastor for a season etc. Right. What is the uh what is the cure for that. The cure for that is a well at your own home by which you are getting the water of god. Um i do find it interesting how uh more and more i realize that people expect this to be the primary way that they are receiving the word of god.

And while this is has a certain place above others it is not the most regular way that they are supposed to be receiving the word of god. Um you know uh yeah people i remember i remember in college uh one of my christian mentors telling me about the importance of being a self-feeder you know he said that like there will be seasons in your life where you're at churches where you're not being fed very well but you need to be a self-feeder.

Like especially if you're going out into the mission field or anything like that you you need to be a self-feeder. You can't. You can't just wait for others to feed you. This is something that you need to be doing.

Yeah right. Yeah if you see there's a lot of factors that would go into deciding to worship somewhere else. And if you really see this as the only place where you get fed right then it will lead you to more desperate measures when maybe it doesn't call for that.

Right. And i'm saying this i'm not really i'm just talking about like any church you may find yourself out um yeah what you should be asking and i hear a lot of time rhetoric that says if your church does this leave your church something like that you should uh you should be where you can best serve god.

There's really very few things that in and of themselves make a church a false church. Right. All churches are mixed with error and corruption. That's what our confession says. There's no there are few singular corruptions that you could look at and say this definitely makes it a false church.

But you need to calculate everything together. You need to think about your gifts your needs what you have to contribute to the body what this body has and you should be you should be thinking where can i best serve christ.

And the answer may be that i can best serve christ elsewhere. But those those are the questions you should be answering rather than oh is this particular thing so bad that someone should leave if they see it like that's not even thinking about the question rightly because it's not realizing that there's a particular relationship that such that you would answer that question differently than any other person because they have been gifted differently and put in a different station.

Yes. But there's still there's still other things like to consider you know whether or not you are in ministry yourself whether or not you are equipped to fill those needs. Um yeah when you have a family you have to consider those things.

I wouldn't recommend you know a man with a with a family go to a um you know hostile homicidal murderous uh village where to to evangelize. Right. Like that's okay. Maybe that's for someone else at this point.

And these are other mission fields that would be more appropriate for you or something. Uh and the same is true with churches. Right. There's but you've got to you've to consider what your gifting is and everything.

Um but yeah like one okay so just to throw out one thing i often hear this about that is probably true most of the time but i still think warrants questioning whether or not this is the wisest way of speaking is if your church has women pastors as a woman pastor you need to leave.

Okay now think about this. There's first of all the pastor is not the church. Okay so bad pastor does not make a bad church. Secondly the uh you know there could be a large pastoral staff and this is someone who just has the label of pastor right and is not actually doing any of the preaching or something like that.

There's all kinds of there's all kinds of categories that would go in here you know and you could say well am i in a position where i could you know affect the change to change how these titles are used more biblically or you know to make sure that men are the ones teaching like bible says things like that.

Right. Those are all questions that you should be answering now. Yeah most of the time you find yourself in that situation. It's probably not a church where they've got any kind of church government that you could fix things you know it's probably like the corruption is probably set in so deep that it's not really worth the fight.

You live in an area where there are tons of other churches. Right. That's the other thing is a lot of times these questions are assuming that you've got the the plethora of consumeristic options. Right.

When i'm when i'm thinking about this question i'm always thinking would you say this to someone who lived in a village with only one church. You know and.

There's nothing else around right. So there's just a lot of questions to answer. Yes what is it it is.

Different than being a part of a church where you have a particular covenant commitment to care for the body than visiting a place where you don't. So that's one that's one distinction there that would make me less inclined to say yeah just go to your parents church or wherever you're headed right.

Um yeah i mean if you have if you have other options i would go to them. If there are no options i i think that might require a little more thought. I'd have to i'd have to think more about how bad it is.

Yeah yeah how much of a mock. Because you know most churches like worship is really something very that has to be really carefully done they're almost every church probably has something like slightly off about how they do worship including our own right.

And so like you can't just say oh if there's any kind of corruption in the worship i can't be part of it. You really don't have to be asking like to what degree is this making a mockery of god you know as opposed to honoring him all right.

Yes. Well it depends on what we're talking about. Like obviously there are false churches that have transubstantiation right. And i would say no like right there. Um yeah if they're uh you know we try to do things in a particular way where we break the bread like jesus did and i don't think if you're not breaking the bread it's not the lord's supper anymore.

Anything like that. I do think there's something right about trying to follow the scripture as closely as possible. Um you know and have wine right that kind of thing. But yeah these changing details doesn't necessarily make it no longer the lord's supper.

So that's what you have to be asking yourself. Yeah. Or how well do they fence the table. You know if they you know if they're a little looser about it that doesn't necessarily make it not the lord's supper anymore.

Right. That would be one thing. The other thing is what does it mean that they have women pastors. Is it that there's someone who's called the the women's pastor. Right. Like that's pretty common in churches where yeah preaching on sunday right.

That's the first he's preaching every week. Yeah that'd be a bigger deal. Um so yeah i would i just think these things need to be considered holistically and like the one size fits. All answers are kind of they might work for most people in this particular culture.

Right. Given you know the number of options given what that corruption usually means about the rest of the church etc i guess i'm adding a bunch of implications. Yeah right. And so in that yeah i i think i think the conclusion people are coming to is usually right.

But i don't think they're necessarily thinking about the right way. All right. So anyway all that all that to say that yeah household worship is really what what makes your family robust despite you know the the varying health of the church throughout the years household worship produces good offspring for the next season.

Uh proverbs 17 21 he who sires a fool gets himself sorrow and the father of a fool has no joy. Um you know the bible talks about children being a blessing from the lord. But they're really only a blessing when you invest in them.

Well right. If you raise them up to be fools they cease to be blessings. Right. And they're just sorrow for you. Uh psalm 112 1 through 2 praise the lord blessed is the man who fears the lord who greatly delights in his commandments his offspring will be mighty in the land.

The generation of the upright will be blessed. So offspring will be mighty in the land. Okay. Richard baxter. Again a holy and well-governed family does tend to make a holy posterity. And so to propagate the fear of god from generation to generation is more comfortable to have no children than to beget and breed up children for the devil.

This this really is true. Like um a lot of people yeah i mean a lot of people are you know ask themselves questions about well will i be happier with kids or without. And they're they're usually thinking about like how much work they're going to be and things like that.

And they should be thinking about like what the end of having children is. You know having adult children that's really what you should be thinking about not what it's like to have kid children. Um and yeah and if you have adult children that are serving the lord that's an incredible blessing.

If you have adult children that you have raised up for service to the devil uh is not a uh it's it brings a lot of sorrow. And even if it even if by no fault of your own um they are uh they have not been.

They are not among the elect. Right. And god has not saved them. It's still the case that you know well-raised children who know christian principles are going to be a more of a blessing to society and to you than one who does not abide by christian principles.

Okay so this is this kind of is true regardless of of salvation status. In some senses brethren i wish it were more common i wish it were universal with this is a spurgeon with i wish it were universal with all christians to have family prayer.

We sometimes hear of children of children of christian parents who do not grow up in the fear of god. And we are asked how it is that they turn out so badly in many very many cases i fear that there's such a neglect of family worship that is not probable that children are at all impressed by any piety supposed to be possessed by their parents.

Yeah well it is it is like a common question it's like oh but this is such a this is such a christian family such a good righteous family. How did their children end up. And a lot of times the answer is well were they really in the home.

Um you know if there was there might be piety on sunday but is there piety throughout the rest of the week that would at all impress their children with uh with the importance of that all right. James w alexander.

When the father and mother begin to descend into the autumn of life the behold their offspring prepared to walk in their steps. There is a church in the house. When death enters it is to make but a brief separation and into eternity sees the whole family in heaven without exception or omission.

Now obviously as i've already stated you you cannot by your own will determine god's election. At the same time god uses means and so there is a there's a particular hope of children being saved through the blessings of family worship.

Now uh yeah when he says there is a church in the house the i've i've avoided uh using any of these proof texts throughout this whole series. But the traditional interpretation even among baptists for the uh phrase a church in their house when you see that in scripture like in romans and elsewhere is that it is talking about household worship that it's not talking about a a uh a local church congregation that decides to meet in a person's home that it is talking about a sizable household that has regular worship.

Um now i i've not been completely convinced of that. I've been more and more convinced especially as i've seen how universal of an interpretation it was back then uh so i've avoided using any of those as proof texts.

But you ought to know that this was a like a really common interpretation of what those verses meant that they were talking about household worship. When it talks about a church in a church in her home etc.

Yes. Well i mean right. Well well yeah that was lydia's. So in uh acts 18 is that uh lydia is uh or acts eight. Um yeah lydia just has a large household. You know she seems to be a very rich woman. It was a large household so that and yeah she has hospitality.

So that doesn't seem like a local church or anything. Obviously what she has before paul shows up can't be a church because he basically planter and then it's out of there that he plants a church in corinth.

Right. And the church in corinth is not meeting in lydia's home. But yeah later on in romans uh yeah you see like the church in her home when it talks about uh i forget who was talking about phoebe. Maybe all right.

Uh. Okay so that's that's happy homes. Any questions about happy homes. Let's move on to happy churches. Household worships. Household worship blesses the church. Uh this is samuel davies. I've read this quote before but it's a good one so i'm gonna read it again.

Uh if you from henceforth make conscience of this important duty it will be a most happy omen to your families and to this congregation. Uh anybody remember who samuel davies was. Um so he was a um an american uh preacher who oh i'm trying to remember there are some more important details.

But uh he also uh was the pastor for i think it was i think it was patrick henry's mother. And so like it's likely that patrick henry got a lot of his speech abilities from from samuel samuel davies. Uh there's something there's something else important about him.

I think he was the i think he was the president of princeton after jonathan edwards if i remember correctly i think that's it. Yeah all right. If the grateful instance of every of family devotion were ascending to heaven every morning and evening from every family among us we might expect a rich return of divine blessings upon ourselves and ours.

Our houses would become the temples of the deity and our congregation feel his gracious influences. Our children would grow up in the knowledge and fear of god and transplant religion from our families into their own wherever they should be formed.

Our servants and slaves would become the servants of righteousness and heirs with us of the grace of life. The animosities and contests that may now disturb our households and render them like the dens of wild beasts would cease vice would wither and die among us.

And languishing religion would lift up its head and revive. This would certainly be the consequence in several instances if we were but to maintain family religion in a proper manner for god has not commanded us to seek his face in vain.

And if this desirable success should not be granted universally we shall still have the comfort to reflect that we have done our duty. Yeah so just a very um i mean you might call it idealized but he does concede at the end that even if it doesn't pan out that beautifully you would have still done your duty.

But yeah there are a lot blessings to have be had by household worship. Um by the way like more and more as i've you know this is the 14th lesson 14th and final lesson in this i really it is. It is kind of becoming the thing to me that i feel like is the the um panacea for everything.

You know. Not. Not really there are other things in the christian life. But man like this really is at the root of everything. You know it's at the root of yeah individual problems at the root of church problems at the root of nation problems like if you have family worship a lot of these problems resolve themselves.

Yes right. Yeah i think this is from a sermon and i think later on in the sermon he does say that.

That that that this is kind of a necessary feature to be called a christian home. Yeah right. Uh household worship makes one fit for church worship. It is long of them that ministers preach as to idiots or barbarians that cannot understand them and that they must be always feeding their auditors with milk and teaching them the principles and catechizing them in the church which should have been done at home.

Thus pastors are discouraged the church is defiled. Religion disgrace and infidels hardened through the impious disorder and negligence of families. So that's this is a one that resonates with me like as a as a preacher like i know i'm when i'm preaching i'm preaching to all kinds of people people who have you know who might have just come into the church who have zero exposure to christianity.

I also know that i'm preaching to a lot of people who are raised in christian home but still do not know many christian things about the bible or theology. And so i have to i have to explain things that i wouldn't otherwise have to explain.

I was reading uh man there was a joel beakey book about taking your family to church. That was it had one it had two paragraphs that were just really good that i recorded somewhere. Um i won't read because we don't have that much time.

But basically he was saying that it's important to be well-versed in scripture so that pastors can teach at the level they need to teach at like when jesus was teaching he was challenging people with hard things.

He's telling them to cut off their hands and eyes and he's not stopping and saying oh and by that i don't really mean every time you know etc. Right. Or he's saying that to the he's talking about god being like the unjust judge who the persistent widow comes.

He doesn't stop and say now god is actually just you know i don't. He doesn't spend 15 minutes explaining how god is just so he can compare him to the unjust judge. Right. He just makes the analogy to the unjust judge.

Uh you know he's describing how his how he is the bread of life and people are rejecting that. And he's he's not concerned to like explain this to every last person. You know there's some who are getting it there's some who are not.

And a lot of people will hold this against jesus. Right. A lot of people hold this against ministers when they feel like oh that should have been more carefully handled. Right. So that people didn't come away with any kind of misunderstanding about it.

But you look at how jesus did it. Man he like he said hard stuff and didn't apologize right. Didn't couch it in a hundred different qualifications you know. And it's there's two ends of this. Like one is you know preachers need to be able to be bold to do what's needed to be done.

They need to be aware of who they're speaking to. They need to be bold and and congregations need to be ready to deal with hard sayings. And yeah how do you get prepared for that family worship. Household worship makes one fit to represent christ church.

Do you wonder that even in the reformed churches there can be so many unreformed sinners of beastly lives that hate the serious practice of the religion which they themselves profess. It is ill education and ungodly families.

That is the cause of all this. Oh therefore how great and necessary a work is it to cast salt into these corrupted fountains. That one was richard baxter. All right. Any questions about happy churches.

Yes. Yeah. I think that i think that might be overriding the father's authority. Um i mean he could certainly have material that he would want them to go through. But to dictate what family worship itself would be would be a different thing.

Um yeah. Yeah. No obviously like we've seen the directory family worship the pastors ought to have. You know if there's something out of the ordinary you know like the father can't lead family worship the pastors ought to have some say in it so that we can make sure that everyone's upholding their covenant to uphold family worship.

But as far as the material that's something the father needs to have freedom in. Yeah. And actually if you look at the whole puritan controversy was around um was around this kind of thing like the right the church of england makes the book of common prayer.

You know they dictate the churches go through these passages if they do these things. Right. And and the puritan churches that want purity and worship that are non-conforming. Right. They're all saying no we need the freedom to preach what we want to preach and go to whatever passage we need to go to.

And so they break off at the church of england. Right. And there's yeah that's where the puritans came from. So i think the same is true in in families. You know the father needs to be able to say what he needs to say etc.

All right. Uh household worship blesses nations. Jeremiah 1025. Pour out your wrath on the nations that you know not on the people's real word is families. Just like i was mentioning before that call not on your name.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you're not on the families that call not on your name. Besides the public worship of congregations mercifully established in this land in great purity it is expedient and necessary that secret worship of each person alone and private worship of families be pressed and set up that with national reformation the profession of the power and godliness both personal and domestic be advanced.

That was from the directory of family worship in the preface. So in other words the directory of family worship is being put forward as like you would think about it as being primarily for happy homes.

But it's being put forward as something for national reformation like this is necessary for a whole nation to be revived. Um all right. A quote from james w alexander. Like talking about raising up patriots.

No man will be less likely to love his country for having been taught to pray for it every day. Reformation of larger societies begins with the reformation of the smaller societies that compose it now this is that's just kind of like an obvious truth in some ways.

But uh you know that the whole is made up of the parts. Consider that family reformation is a that's thomas doolittle and one more richard baxter quote. And no doubt the beauty of such holy and well-governed families has convinced many and drawn them to a great approbation that means approval of religion and occasioned them at last to imitate them.

Okay all right. Now the last thing i want to go over here is uh thomas manton's epistle to the reader of the westminster standards. So i had quoted last time one paragraph of the preface the one of the final paragraphs of the preface to the baptist confession talking about family worship.

The this epistle which uh was frequently distributed with the westminster standards from thomas manton is all about family worship like the whole thing is about family worship. When you think about the west minister standards you might think oh the confession and stuff this is like for the church.

His whole thing was you know this is this is for your family's good. Um and and not for your just for your family's good but for the ultimate curing of the nation too right. So i find that very interesting that i primarily think the westminster standards is being something for the church.

And he's thinking about it as being on the two polar ends of societies. Right. It's actually for the family for the good of the nation of course the church too but like he's really talking about those polls all right.

So i would like to read the whole thing to you uh christian reader i cannot suppose thee to be such a stranger in england as to be ignorant of the general complaint concerning the decay of the power of godliness and more especially of the great corruption of youth.