So we're at the end of Article 6 of Westminster Confession 21. There's still a few copies of How to Live as a Christian on the book wall in the hallway here. I'm assuming that means that there are a couple of households that do not have one yet. If you're a household that had 1 and lost it. I suggest that you look for it this week and leave to any households that. have not yet taken one, the last few copies there. If not, if you can't find it, I'm sure it's fine for you to take another. But that will begin next Lord's Day. Elder Mangum is going to be leading us in the first couple weeks of that. But for today, We're at the end of Article 6. I'll read the whole article. We are especially going to focus on which are not carelessly etc to the end. Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now under the gospel either tied unto or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed or towards which it is directed. 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 than the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God by his word or providence calleth thereunto. Right, so we hope this morning especially to cover in a fair amount of thoroughness called thereunto by his word that there are public assemblies on especially a particular day that the scripture requires. We began a little bit on that last week when we were thinking about the solemnity, the greatness of the public assembly, even over against family worship or any other sort of worship gathering, but the greatness of the Lord's Day and the holy convocation, the consecrated calling together of his church in his son to himself. That is the nature of the Lord's Day. so that it is not your hour of feel-good music and your inspiring and interesting story and joke-filled talk and then race to the restaurant to beat the other Baptists. And I don't know if they do that here. Even in Michigan, we did that growing up. Thank God for his patience and his mercy. But the Lord's Day is a holy calling together. of his people, of his household, in his son to himself. So we considered that last week, but we will consider more today that there is this particular assembly that God calleth us unto, that God calls us unto by his word, And then we'll spend a little bit of time on his calling us unto assembly also by his providence, although I think the proof texts on that that have been supplied are a little bit lighter, but hopefully having time to really emphasize, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected. So first, his word calls us to holy convocation on the Sabbath. One of the things that we have noted many times, because the manner of keeping the day well is largely lost. not only in the church broadly but even in the Reformed churches where a ongoing application of the Fourth Commandment is maintained and yet this turning away from everything that is ourselves to delight in what he has consecrated the day for, even in many of the Reformed churches, either the turning away from everything else is not emphasized, and almost always, at least in my limited experience, and hopefully my anecdotal sample size is just small and impoverished and it's gloriously happy everywhere else, but I I have rarely seen the emphasis of delighting to turn away from all other things because of the delightfulness of consecrating an entire day of worship unto God. I think the book that the session had I think we had several men, not just session members, take us through Ryan's Day of Worship book. Does a fairly good job with that, and so we have been helped, in God's mercy to us, to focus on the delight. Well, so we spend a lot of time in Isaiah 58, because of the necessity of turning away from everything that isn't worship and the necessity of calling the day a delight and then being made to delight by God's use of the day that turns out to be exactly what he called it. You know, go figure. God calls something a delight and you don't think it's delightful, you don't think it will be, but who's gonna be right? The children are already looking at me like, You know, he asks these questions and he thinks they're for the children, but they are even beneath us. When we have one opinion and God has the other opinion, God is going to be the one who is right. And we try it out and it turns out to be... Delightful, like he said. Well, when we do that in Isaiah 58, we are ready with our answer for those who say, but that's Old Testament. And you gotta watch out for anybody who scowls when they say Old Testament or treats the Old Testament like it's full of the acidic, irritable, nasty deity who is ready to smite you at any moment. Old and New Testament are full of the just and holy and glorious God whose glory we have despised and ought to have smitten us at every moment, and yet both Testaments are also full of the marvelously patient, intending to save, forbearing and graciously calling to himself. You just finished Jonah and you see the obstinate prophet to whom so much had been given and yet who still had so much wickedness and there really is no other word for that being opposite to the heart of God in his ministry than wickedness and yet God's patience and persistence with his prophet. So you gotta watch out for the people who scowl when they say Old Testament. But they come, you try to talk to them about Isaiah 58 and proper Lord's Day keeping. They go, that's Old Testament. And what they mean is, you know, thank God Jesus came and we don't have to enjoy the Sabbath the way God commanded us to before. And you can hear if you put it in that way, they don't say enjoy the Sabbath, they don't think it's enjoyable. But if you just kind of, you know, do the theological algebra and substitute enjoy the Sabbath for keep the Sabbath, because those are equivalent, you can hear how ridiculous that is. And so you answer somebody who says that by, Well, it comes in the midst of the Christ part of Isaiah. The part of Isaiah that is so New Testament, so gospel, so entirely about Jesus being the new Israel and God's favor toward his people in the servant who is coming that people, you know, the same sorts of people who say Old Testament of the Scowl are often the sorts of people who say, we think Isaiah was two different books because we don't understand how the judgment of the first 39 chapters combines with the amazing grace of chapters 40 to 66. And you say, well, yes, you know, you never said a truer statement than we don't understand. because you have misunderstood God in both parts of Isaiah. So Isaiah 58 is part of the New Testament, if you will. It is part of the Jesus as servant, Jesus as prophet, priest, and king, Jesus the mediator part of the book of Isaiah. And so we often make that point about Isaiah 58. But Isaiah 58 actually comes in a context where there has been a more specific argument or reasoning by the prophet that Sabbath-keeping is going to be one of the essential, one of the characteristic marks of the New Testament and the New Testament church. So not only is it like, does the fourth commandment still continue? Well, if you say fourth commandment, then it better still continue because you've just admitted when you said fourth commandment that it's not ceremonial law, that there is an application of the fourth commandment in Israel's ceremonial law, but that the fourth commandment is moral law. And so when you come and there's a change of priesthood, and with the change of priesthood, like the Book of Hebrews says, there's a change of law, not an elimination altogether of any ceremonial law, but a change from the ceremonial law that went with Aaron's priesthood to the new, as it were, ceremonial law that goes with Christ's priesthood, except for it's a lot lighter. Christ is the great high priest. Christ is all the sacrifices, and it's already been done the once. Christ is the one in whom you gather to God. Christ is tabernacle and temple, so you don't need the location anymore. So he has this ceremonial law, the gathering together on the Lord's day, the worshiping God through him only by what he leads from heaven. But the Sabbath itself is still moral law that is now, has a particular application for the church. So it's actually two chapters earlier in Isaiah from the chapter that we commonly go to to see, well, what are the actions by which the Lord's Day is kept? And what is the attitude in which the Lord's Day is kept? That's the Isaiah 58 stuff. There's actually two chapters earlier in which Isaiah is making the point that one of the characteristic marks of a New Testament church that is genuinely following Christ, walking with Christ, being assembled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, is going to be Sabbath-keeping. And that's one of the reasons why it's so diabolical, devilish, satanic. and so grievous and it so weakens and harms the churches that there is a strong resistance, a bristling against the setting aside the whole of the day for the worship of God. They have missed that not only was this not something that like was an Old Testament thing that is now set aside in the New Testament, Never mind that they hardly ever kept it well in the Old Testament. God is always, you know, when he makes his cases against them, one of the main things he says is, you trample on my Sabbaths. But not only is it not, you know, this Old Testament thing that's been set aside for the New Testament, it's actually this thing that was expected especially to be kept. in and under the Lord Jesus Christ. So Isaiah 56, thus says, and we're just gonna go through verse eight. Thus says Yahweh, keep justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Okay, context of Isaiah is talking about the coming of the servant, the coming of the Christ, the coming of the one who just a couple chapters earlier, you have that wonderful one of the servant song, you know, by his stripes we are healed, that I know of or I've read of, you know, multiple occurrences in which a Jew who was resisting Christianity was actually brought to faith by God's blessing to them, a Christian, just reading to them from their own Bible, Isaiah 53, just, so remember where we are in the book of Isaiah. This is about Jesus coming. my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." Now listen to the great commission in gathering of the nation's language in the next verse. So you have, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak, saying, All right, I don't know how many of you have a significant amount of Jewish ethnicity. You'd have to do one of those things where you actually pay money to give somebody else your entire genetic code. I'm not saying thus saith the Lord against doing that. It could be very interesting. We trust the Lord with our information. Anybody who thinks they have a measure of privacy in this age is probably deceiving themselves. Anyway, I don't know how many of you have Jewish blood in you, but if you have trusted in the Jewish Savior, and if you have been grafted as wild branches into an olive tree that actually has Jesus not only as a shoot from the stump, but as the root from which the stump grew, that the way Isaiah by this time in the book of Isaiah has talked about Christ, he's not just saying he's coming from Israel, he's also said Israel has come from him. That it's only in the grace of God that is in Jesus Christ that there has ever been an Israel to begin with. But if you have been grafted in as a wild branch, then this is you in Isaiah 56 verse 3. You are the son of the foreigner, the descendant of one of these other nations who has joined himself to Yahweh. So, do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak saying, Yahweh has utterly separated me from his people, nor let the eunuch say, here I am, a dry tree. Eunuch was one who, and this was often done for service to a particular king, they eliminated his ability to have children so that he wouldn't be distracted by getting married or by fatherly duties that he, by the king having done this to him, or he having voluntarily done it. You remember the scripture talks about those who are made eunuchs and those who are naturally eunuchs, unable to have children ordinarily, and those who make themselves eunuchs in the case of service. But this is one who is unable to have his own personal household. Do not let him say, here I am, a dry tree, for thus says Yahweh, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what pleases me. Okay, that's the language that chapter 58 picks up, isn't it? Not doing your word or your works or your pleasure, but calling the Sabbath a delight, choosing what pleases him. Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls, they don't have their own household, a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner. Who's that? It's all of you, the children of another nation, who join themselves to Yahweh to serve Him, to love the name of Yahweh, to be His servants. That's household language now. You're sons of a foreigner, but you've been adopted into a household, adoption not only adoption as children, but bringing a servant into the household. Because of the history of American slavery and the lack of having household servants who are actually beloved members of the household, for whom the care of their earthly needs and especially the care of their souls, that's just unknown to us. So when we hear the word servants here, we need a little bit of kind of historical rehab in order to see how wonderful it is to be brought into the household of God in these multiple images as a beloved child, of course, but it's also a wonderful mercy to become a household servant in the house of God, the High King, and of Christ, the High King. So, also the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Now you remember what Jesus did and they said that he was speaking of the temple of his body when he cleared out the court of the Gentiles and that they had mucked up and he said, don't you know that the scripture says my house will be a house of prayer for all nations? Well, the reason he was talking about the temple of his body, they challenged him and he said, you know, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. And they're like, you know, he's psycho and a blasphemer, but the scripture says he was talking about his own body. It's because this is what we do. Even them I will bring to my holy mountain. Isn't that the language of Hebrews chapter 12, which says, you have come to Zion. You have come to the gathering of all the holy angels, to the souls of the just made perfect. You've come to God as father and Christ as mediator. So this is describing the New Testament worship, the gathering, especially on the Lord's day. and make them joyful in my house of prayer, their ascensions and their sacrifices." Why did we say that? Well, if you were there for the Leviticus series, you know why we said that, because what is translated burnt offerings is just the word for ascension, and we don't actually perform burnt offerings. But we do come through him who was sacrificed once and for all and who is our substitute and in whom we come to God's, we draw near to God and offer the soul as spiritual sacrifice as Peter describes our praying and the other parts of worship. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord Yahweh who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. And that's you. That's the, and those who are far off, as many as he is pleased to call to himself at the, after the sermon in Acts 2, when they say, you know, they're cut to the heart, and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? They say, repent and be baptized, and you will be saved for the promises for you and your children, and all those who are far off that the Lord will call to himself. So if you've been brought into the church, if you are a member of the church, you are called to Zion. You are called to God's holy mountain on the Sabbath. And that is a place where you have six other days to have family day. You know, sometimes thermonuclear reaction, not so much an irritation or indignation, but just how could we possibly not understand this when I hear someone say, well, you know, we're gonna go home this afternoon because we'd really like to spend time with our family. And I think A, you have six days a week that are family days with your family, but B, the Lord's Day is God's family day and your own particular family does not have any greater or higher or more important family time than when you are gathered together as a family as part of the worship of the body. I'm going to meddle a little bit, and the children who like to sit with one another in the public worship and in other settings, that's fine. I'm glad that the rest of the family of God is church family to you, but let me commend to you to have the rest of the family of God be church family to you, and seek out especially to spend time with, to sit with in worship, to stir up to love and good works, edifying one another, those who on the other six days of the week are for the most part the eunuchs. the ones who don't actually have the opportunity for household time, family time, because there is a season of life in which the children are grown and gone, or they've been widowed or made alone in some other way. Or in God's providence to them, perhaps it's someone who would like to be married, but the Lord just has not given that to them yet. And so they're in that odd position of being mid-20s, late-20s, early-30s, and you don't see how they feel like they are a dry stream and by themselves. that is designed by Christ to be a family day for them in his family, especially in the worship of God. So let me commend that to you, but there is no, you know, for your household, for your particular family, for your relationship with your dad or your mom or parents, with your son or your daughter, there is no more intimate and significant fellowship than participating together in the public worship of God. So, I mean, you may have heard the phrase family integrated used. Ironically, it's 80% of the time that I have heard it used, it was used by Baptists. or Baptistics, who they don't have the covenantal assembly understanding and they don't have the covenant household understanding that you ought to have as a Presbyterian. So lay hold of your heritage and be family integrated, but not just with your household, but with God's household. Isaiah 58 56 1 through 8 definitively. demonstrates that God calls an assembly of his people every Sabbath. So when we, every Lord's Day, which is the Christian Sabbath. So when we say, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God by his word or providence calleth there unto, we are recognizing that his word has called us to solemnly public assembly to great and majestic public assembly every Lord's Day. Now, when he says also, but when his providence calleth thereunto, they give us a couple of proof texts that point out from chapters that we've actually already been through in Proverbs. that God's wisdom calls to us in every part of life. And it's, again, when we dealt with the fastings and thanksgivings, is that Article 5? Yes, Article 5, solemn fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions, we considered how we ought to receive what happens not just in our individual lives, but especially what happens in our congregation's life as coming in the providence of God. so that when there are things that expose to us our sin, when there are afflictions that lay us low and humble us, when there are threatenings that we are in danger of being anxious over because of how great the threat is, that it is actually, among other things, a providential call of God for his church to gather for a fasting together and a public worship. But similarly, when there are great joys or great deliverances, when he has granted that repentance and he's brought us into a season of great growth, when family worship and discipleship is recovered in the households and multiple fathers and mothers are comparing notes and saying, It is amazing to us what God has done in our children this recent time. Among other things, it's a providential call of God to have an assembly of thanksgiving when a threat that seems so certain and so huge is eliminated with the stroke of a pen or some other instant providence. It's a providential call. to thanksgiving and that's something that we would want our elders to be sensitive to as we see God bringing us into a season where there's actually that great need for which we would have a special worship service not necessarily on the Lord's day with a fasting or a special worship service not necessarily on the Lord's day. with a Thanksgiving. So when God by his word or providence calleth there unto. Now we got a race. We got a race to Hebrews chapter 10. to talk about the not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken. Hebrews chapter 10, really you need the whole book of Hebrews. We've been through it a couple of times, once in preaching and once in serial readings, and several of you have listened to one or both of those. If not, bear with me, it'll still be helpful, just not as helpful if you don't have the context of Hebrews as a whole. But I'm gonna start in verse 19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest, which is the holy of holies, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. Okay, this is a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to the Lord's Supper and what is shown forth to us. That we remember him who has passed through the heavens, not meaning that we keep him in our memory banks. but that we are intentionally mindful of the Lord Jesus whose death is shown forth to us in the eating and drinking, the bread that is broken being a fellowship with his body, a shared life with his body, the cup that we bless is a fellowship with, a shared life, with his blood and it is by our shared life with his body and blood that you and I enter heaven by faith. Jesus has entered heaven bodily with flesh and blood. but you by faith enter in him and in union with him. So again, therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, using that language that is both temple and household, so that we remember that household language that we were just thinking about from Isaiah 56. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Okay, so this isn't just the Lord's Day, that Sabbath keeping that remains from chapter four of the book of Hebrews, is a holy assembly where we gather to God through Christ, like chapter two of the book of Hebrews. It's not just that you must gather, but it's in what manner must you gather. With what attitude must you gather? And it turns out to be, not surprisingly, the same as Isaiah 56, the same as Isaiah 58, rejoicing and confident and thankful that we come to God through Christ. That's the heart of the regular principle. The heart of the regulative principle is not, oh boy, how messed up are Lutherans, Anglicans, Papists, contemporary worshipists, traditional worshipists, and everyone else. I mean, that's true enough to an extent. But that's not the heart of the regulative principle. The heart of the regular principle is to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with this confidence and joy and delight that we are entering heaven through Jesus and we refuse to do anything that doesn't enter heaven through Jesus. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water again you just you just wonder yeah how people can be immersionists when you've got passages like with you know Peter and Cornelius how can we withhold the water when God has poured out this and the equating of or the analogy between Christ's baptizing with the Spirit and our baptizing with water or in this case hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Do you hear that language children? That the water that was sprinkled or poured on you at your baptism testifies to you of the certainty that your heart is clean if you are in Jesus. That he washes you all the way. that it's not going to be when you get to heaven, like maybe it sometimes is in your house, and this probably afflicts young men more than young ladies, but your mom says, did you get a shower? And you say, yes, I did. And she says, oh, how long was it? you know, 31 seconds. Did you use shampoo? No. Did you use soap? No. Well, what did you do? And he said, well, I turned it on, I got in and I got out. He said, you know, go back. You need to be cleaned again. Know what your baptism tells you? That if you have been bathed by the blood of Christ, you are completely clean. And that as you come, someone trusting in Jesus, to the next room in 20 minutes or so, to the next building in 20 minutes or so, that you come as someone who's absolutely cleansed. You come as someone who has been qualified to enter the holy of holies. and to do so without worrying that you won't be accepted there or that it'll be a place of fury rather than a place of favor. That's using your baptism. That's saying, God who washes me that way with that blood is the one who has commanded that I will be washed this way with this water on earth. and I can see and know of a certainty that we've got the washing with the water on earth, and he's given that to me as a seal, that I can be certain that I have been washed by his blood in that way. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Now, we're out of time, so we can't do a lot of application on these last two things, but there are two dreadful things that happen when we don't make it a priority to assemble, if at all humanly possible, with God's people in Christ for his public worship on the Lord's day. The first is we are not holding fast the confession of our hope. We are taking those things that are testified to us in the Lord's supper and in our baptism and we're saying, I'm glad those things are true, but that entrance into the holy of holies in the public assembly that Christ has won in that way and for which he has cleansed my conscience in that way, not important enough to overcome, insert obstacle here. and there's a horizontal dimension. Notice he doesn't say merely, and let us stir up one another to love and good works, exhorting one another. He says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And so what he's saying, that if we forsake the assembling of ourselves together, we are being inconsiderate of one another. because this assembly is the chief among the means of his grace by which he stirs us up to love and good works. So it's not just when you come to assemble, think about how to stir one another up to love and good works. It's because the assembly is how God stirs us up to love and good works. Consider one another if you are wondering, should I attend? or is this a good enough reason not to attend, says consider one another. that this is how God stirs up your brothers and sisters in this new household, in the house of God, to love and good works. We could do more there, just point out the words carelessly or willfully. Obviously, there's pastoral wisdom being exercised there. There are times when something comes up that inhibits. but it would be careless to not plan and anticipate and have a preparation that tries, if at all possible, to be able to. So that's carelessly. And then willfully, that you don't decide not to attend. Providence hinders you. When you use the word providentially hindered, you should be talking about something like something that God did to afflict you so that you are unable to attend or unable righteously to attend. That's all we have time for. I would have been happy to give some examples there. I think the Lord has helped us and next week we will start the book. Let's pray. How we thank you, our God, that you have not only provided entrance for us in Christ, but then you have called us to that public assembly, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, in and with the corporate worship of your church, to make use of that entrance that you have given us into the Holy of Holies in Christ. Now, Lord, as we come immediately from the theory into the practice, help us by your spirit that we would come with that confidence, that we would come with that assurance, that we would come with that delight to draw near to you as members of your household. We ask these things in your son. Amen.