I am interrupting our sermon series in 1 Peter and in Matthew to take up a topic that Providence has brought before us. Over the next four or five sermons, I'm going to be taking up the question of Holy Days, and it seems seasonable to do so, with it being the season of the Christ Mass, and everywhere we go we find this surrounding us. there's been a lot of questions forthcoming from the congregation concerning this and so we're going to take up a short sermon series on the history of holy days in the Bible and even after the biblical times how they were used and misused and abused in the church now you might ask the question pastor why so many sermons why take four or five? well as I was looking at this topic I thought well a short sermon won't convince those that are unconvinced that these holy days ought to be left off it wouldn't persuade anybody who's unconvinced and of course those that are already convinced it wouldn't add anything to them you'd already be telling them the basic things they already know so it seems seasonable to take the long course and to get a comprehensive view of all that the Bible has to teach us about this subject and it is quite a lot It's hard for me to stress the importance of this biblically and hopefully as we go you will see this developing but the Church of Rome is continuing to exert a massive influence over Protestant Christians an influence that in some ways is surprising and dangerous because it's not always obvious In other words, we are drinking down things all the time from the Church of Rome without being aware of where they come from. We simply embrace them because they are the tradition in this land or the tradition of our families or whatever else. These things we accept uncritically. Just some examples. You will remember just a handful of years ago Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ came out. and it was embraced everywhere by evangelical protestant Christianity and what were the things that you heard at that time this is a great witnessing tool a great way to introduce unbelievers to Jesus Christ and well after all that traditional reading and preaching of the word is sort of dead and boring and outdated it's not for this contemporary age we need a way to engage the masses in Christianity to involve them beyond boring sermons that just sound so much like school lectures interestingly enough this was the same arguments that Rome was using 400 years ago concerning their passion plays and why they didn't teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people They said that they had left off preaching because the Bible is too difficult and it doesn't appeal to the masses. And you say, well, how are we going to evangelize and teach? Well, we're going to have our statues and our paintings and our relics and our passion plays. This is the way that we're going to teach the masses in a way that they can understand, in a way that will engage them. Well, we ask the question, well, what success did Rome meet with? and their great teaching expedition well it just so happened that almost nobody in the world knew anything about the Bible and almost nobody in the world knew the gospel and this was true for a thousand years under Rome's teaching efforts their minds were filled with superstition and a false way of salvation that they had learned from their paintings and their statues and their passion plays Well, the Reformation was otherwise. They said we have a Word-centered means of grace. God has taught us how a man is converted, that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God read and preached to them. That is the means that God has given for the salvation of man's soul. And it's not outmoded or outdated or anything else like that. It's always detestable. The sinful man, the saver of death unto death, but it's always savory to those that are being saved the savor of life unto life as Paul describes it and how effective was the reformation manner of teaching over against the Roman manner the gospel went out into the world again and the glorious gospel of salvation worked its way all over Europe and the darkness of Romanism was beaten back In a manner that Rome said that the people couldn't understand, but they did. In a way they said they couldn't possibly be interested in, but they were. Christ's sheep hear His voice. And they want to hear His voice. But Protestants in our time are beginning to look more and more like Catholics. And it's continuing to increase day by day. Another example, we're going back a little bit. But the principles that govern worship in the church are primarily Romish now. And it's hard to even find a church that is reformed or a Reformation church that believes the Reformation doctrines concerning worship. But what was the Roman doctrine? The Roman doctrine was this, that if God hasn't explicitly forbidden it, we consider it to be allowed. And whatever church authority wants to do as far as worship, if God hasn't forbidden it, that we are going to do. It later became known as the normative principle of worship. If it's not forbidden, then we consider it allowed. We're going to talk about this some more in a few minutes, but the Reformation principle, embraced by the French Huguenots, by the Dutch Reformed by the Reformed in Puritans in England and the Scottish Presbyterians up in Scotland of course embraced by most of those that called themselves Reformed was the Regulative Principle and it was if it has not been commanded by God we consider it forbidden in the Word you see how different? Brahms said if it's not forbidden we consider it to be allowed the reform said if God hasn't commanded it we consider it to be forbidden off limits to us during that reformation era unhappily the Lutherans and the Anglicans sided with Rome in this because they wanted to be able to add ceremonies but they followed Rome inconsistently in this because you remember they wanted to limit the worship in the sacraments to those that Jesus had prescribed directly so they reject the seven sacraments of Rome inconsistently with their own principles saying that those five other ones besides baptism in the Lord's Supper they have no warrant in the word of God but all of Rome's other ceremonies but we're going to participate in those as much as we think it is for edification well once upon a time all of these countries believed the regulative principle of worship English Puritans, Scots, Dutch, French, Switzerland. They believe this principle. And now you can't hardly find a Westminster confessing Presbyterian that believes it. They say that they do, but you can't find a single one that believes it and will apply it. You really have to go quite a distance to even find one. But yet it used to be a very common doctrine among the Reformed. Well, why would we follow Rome and these things with respect to their worship? Calvin said that man's heart is an idle factory. We just pump them out one after another. And these things suit our fancy. Now, you see, this simple kind of worship as God has ordained it, well, it's for God's glory and not necessarily to appeal to the taste of sinful man. As a matter of fact, it doesn't very much. it is only as we're being sanctified that we begin to see Christ's glory in it as he gives us spiritual eyes we begin to see his spiritual glory in these things but Rome always wanted to run after the greater outward glory of the old administration and we'll talk about that some more as we progress as well so did the Lutherans and the Anglicans but it was not so among the Reformed for a time but now almost all of the Reformed have followed Rome she's continuing to exert her influence and we could go on and on I mean most of Protestantism has accepted the semi-Pelagianism of Rome now known as Arminianism but it was in Rome for a thousand years before it was picked up by Jacob Arminius that great project can we mediate between Augustine and Pelagius Pelagius who said a man could work and be pleasing to God and Augustine saying man can't bring anything to the table because he's fallen in a sin and if God is going to save him God must save him because he can't help himself not in any measure for a thousand years the best minds in the history of Christendom tried to find a middle ground between Augustine and Pelagius but it should have been pretty clear there's no middle ground between these things As soon as you make salvation of man in some percentage, it's no longer Augustinian Christianity. It's Pelagianism. But you see, almost all of the Protestant world has followed Rome's gospel. With the work salvation, man has to do something, and they might say we're justified by faith alone, but pray tell, where does that faith come from? Is it the gift of God and a grace given by God as Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter 2? Or did you drum it up yourself? Because there was some island of righteousness or goodness in you to produce that faith. See, almost all of Protestantism has gone after the latter and put themselves in a very dangerous situation indeed, a danger of denying the gospel of free grace. union with Christ by faith alone and a faith that was given by God the gospel well our focus over this sermon series is that Rome has in its ongoing influence managed to convince almost the entire protestant world to embrace her calendar and to follow her system of days that she has instituted and the protestants continue to go along and to obey in these things but it ought not to be with the Christ mass coming up almost the entire protestant world is going to bow its knee and do homage to Rome in some measure but our fathers pointed in a different direction you should have your white bulletin insert there the white page this is the appendix for the directory of worship our fathers pointed us in a very different direction than the direction that Rome is pointed here's the appendix to the directory of worship and it reads in this way there is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel is it? yes, is it in there? oh, everybody's got the separate white sheet, okay yes, good there is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day which is the Christian Sabbath festival days, vulgarly called holy days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued. A very simple, direct and comprehensive statement, not to be continued. This is still the doctrine of this church, although we have become very much alone in this regard, and still the doctrine of her office bearers. This is the doctrine of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. And what we're going to be doing over the next several Lord's Days is looking at this biblically, because you'll notice that our fathers didn't just say this was their opinion, they said these things have no foundation or a founding in the Word of God. And so we're going to be looking at what the Word of God teaches. Now before we get into the biblical material concerning Holy Days, some things are necessary to be presupposed or understood if we're to have any profit in these studies. And the first is the regulative principle of worship itself. There are several different ways of defining this regulative principle. I've already given you what has become the classical definition. If God hasn't commanded it for His worship, then it's considered forbidden on your white sheet there the Westminster divines give their definition which is the same in content but different phrasing they're in 21.1 the second part of it but the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will so I want you to catch that word limited the limited to his own revealed will instituted by himself that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of man or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy scripture now some people listening to that say well this is a very foreign thing and most of you have heard me tell this parable before but I think it's a helpful one We have to ask the question, who is the worship ultimately for? If it's for God, then we're going to do the things that he commands, because it's for his good pleasure. We're bringing him the things that he wants as his servants. But if it's for us, then we're going to design all kinds of things to be attractive to man. And the world's already proven that there are a lot of things attractive to sinful man. that don't have anything to do with what we're doing here. I mean, we can fill this place if we bring a rock band in here, I'm sure. The world's proven that it can be done. But God hasn't commanded it. And this is for His good pleasure. So imagine a wealthy businessman has just concluded a big business deal, and he goes to his favorite steakhouse for dinner. And he looks over the menu with the waiter waiting upon him, and he says, look at that Victoria Filet. That would be just the thing to hit the spot. And so the waiter goes away. And he comes back a little while later with chicken. And the businessman says, well, what is this? I ordered the Victoria Filet. I wanted the Victoria Filet. And the waiter says, but I like the chicken. That is very much the attitude of contemporary evangelicalism to the worship of God. It's what we want as the waiters and not what the patron wants. But if we're doing this for His glory and for His good pleasure, we're going to bring Him the things that He's ordered, that He says that He delights in. So we have in front of us the classical definition and the Westminster definition. But I think my favorite of all is Moses' definition. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Remember the context for Deuteronomy. Israel is on the other side of Jordan, on the eastern side of Jordan, with Moses. And Deuteronomy is Moses' last sermons before he sends Israel over Jordan into the Promised Land. And you remember that Moses is going to die before they do so. Joshua is going to take them over. So Moses is getting ready to send Israel into the midst of pagans. where they are going to see all kinds of pagan worship practices that will be beguiling. It will have a certain show of wisdom. It will have a certain outward glory to it, a certain attractiveness to you. And he's warning them, when you go into Palestine and you see the worship of the pagans, do not imagine that you are going to worship in their manner the Lord your God. You're not going to worship the way that they worship. Now, see, the problem here is not a first commandment problem. He's not telling them at this point that you're not going to go over there and worship Baal. That's a first commandment problem. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. What he's telling them is you are not going to worship Jehovah by means of idolatrous practices. So in other words, you can't just design your own worship or pick up some worship from the pagans and think it's going to be acceptable in the sight of Jehovah. It doesn't work that way. So he goes through and what he does is he tells them some practices that they're going to see and what does he tell them? You're going to see their altars. Pull them down. You're going to see them worshiping the Ashtaroth in the groves. Burn them. and you're gonna worship the way that I've commanded you and he even goes through some of the ordinances as they were given Exodus through Deuteronomy up to this point and then he concludes the entire discussion with this verse 32 which I think is perhaps the most useful and helpful definition of the regulative principle with things however I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it very useful so you're going to do what I command you to do in worship don't take anything away from it so in other words if I command you to do a burnt offering, do a burnt offering but you're not free to add to it either you're not going to pick up worship practices from the pagans and think that this is going to be acceptable to me now time after time I have found this objection forthcoming whenever I take some contemporary Christian to Deuteronomy 12 and it's always this Well, one, that's Old Testament stuff, and two, well, that's just one verse. I mean, if this was really important to God, don't you think He would have emphasized it more than just that one verse? Now, remember what I just said. Basically, what He's just said in Deuteronomy chapter 12 is everything that God has been teaching them about worship from Exodus 20 to Deuteronomy chapter 12. It's a summary. Whatsoever I've commanded you to do, all that stuff, Do it! Don't subtract from it and don't add to it. It's not one verse. It's the entire Pentateuch. And that's just the start. Because what are the prophets going to do but call people back to that worship as it was given to them by the head of Moses. I remember nothing was more striking to me in this regard when I was working through old Master Willett's commentary on Exodus. Willett's Hexapala books are really extraordinary. In every chapter of the Bible he divides his commentary up into six parts. And the last part is always practical application. Now that we've done all the exegesis and all of the theology, how should we then live? He always concludes with, what do we do in practice? And almost every single chapter from Exodus chapter 20 to the end of the book He concludes in this way, and here we are taught to limit ourselves to God's worship in the way that he's commanded it. Why would he say that? Because with meticulous detail, Moses goes up on the mountain, God tells them how to build the tabernacle to the smallest detail, and then Moses spends almost another 15 chapters saying, they did it exactly like that. Exactly like that. We could have done that in two verses and just said, and they did all that the Lord wanted them to do but that's not the way Moses wants to teach it Moses takes almost another 15 chapters and they did it exactly like that and exactly the way that God had commanded them and he goes on with that and on with that and Will is making the same application over and over I was just reading this in Zechariah sometimes you need to hear things more than once and he goes over it and over it and over it worship the way that I commanded you Well, as I mentioned, most will admit this for the Old Testament. They say, well, that's the Old Testament when God was so very strict with his people. I'm not fitting for this current age. It's enough right now if you grant it for the Old Testament. And we'll work our way to the New Testament as we go. But before we go on, since we recently had this in the sermons, I wanted to draw the relationship between the regulative principle worship and your Christian liberty or freedom. Turn in your Bibles to Micah chapter 6. The basic point is this, that God has set you free from the doctrines and commandments of men, so that you can worship God according to His commandment. In other words, if any human being commands you to do anything in God's worship that's contrary to His word, or even beside of it, not only can you disobey but you must disobey and this is why we come to Micah chapter 6 verse 16 you remember the general context of Micah the southern kingdom is getting ready to be taken away into its Babylonian captivity Micah is a rough contemporary with Isaiah but he's warning them about their upcoming deportation even long before it happens and one of his complaints against this people is that they had followed the idolatrous habits of the northern kings the northern kings had entered into idolatry and now you're following along even though you have God's temple Micah chapter 6 verse 16 for the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their councils, that I should make the desolation, and the inhabitants thereof, and hissing. Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people." So you see here that they are actually condemned for obeying The civil authority are following this model that was presented to them by the northern kings. They were not to walk after their manners or after their counsels. It was wrong for them to do so. It was wrong for them to obey in these things. as God's people, God had set them free from this idolatrous form of worship the doctrines and commandments of men to worship God as he had commanded now this is very striking and very helpful for us, the men that are mentioned now Ahab, he's got first commandment problems he's worshipping Baal, a different God altogether but not Omri Omri worships Jehovah after the manner of Jeroboam the first king of Israel, who was a worshipper of Jehovah except by means of the calves that he had erected in Dan and Bethel. But Jeroboam believes himself to be worshipping Jehovah, the God of the Bible. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 16. We have this description of Omri. 1 Kings 16.26 For he walked in all the way, now this is Omri mind you, all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanity. So Omri walked after the manner of Jeroboam. So turn back to chapter 12 and let's look at the manner of Jeroboam that was so displeasing to God. now you remember Jeroboam's great concern the kingdom is now just been divided Jeroboam is the first king in the northern kingdom Rehoboam the son of Solomon is king in the south Jeroboam is very concerned that his people northern kingdom Israelites are going to be going back down to Judah for worship which is what they should have been doing but listen to what Jeroboam says chapter 12 verse 26 and Jeroboam said in his heart Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. Then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. See, it's a political motivation, largely. He doesn't want them to go and lend their strength to Rehoboam. Verse 28, Wherefore the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, Now just a note for those of you that are traveling, you have to keep this verse in mind when some people say to you, it's too much for you to go up to the Lord's house and travel the way that you do. That's what Jeroboam argued in his wickedness. It's too much for you to go up. And don't let even your own minds argue against you in this way that it's too much for you to go up to the Lord's house in Jerusalem. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy God, so Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Now you see here is a reference to, now it's gods here in the plural, and it seems intended as a plural. Elohim can actually be singular or plural, but it takes a plural verb when it's brought thee up. But you see there is some relationship and some conception of Jehovah. These are the gods that brought you out of Egypt. which was Jehovah's action. As you look at the commentators they say certainly after Solomon's reign it would have been too much at this point to just suggest completely new gods. There is a perversion of their view of Jehovah here. But still, Jehovah, the God that brought them up out of the land of Egypt, the God that had saved and redeemed them. He's saying it's too much for you to go up to worship Jehovah in Jerusalem. Behold your gods, the calves that I've made for you. You can worship Jehovah here at home by means of these calves. And he set the one in Bethel and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. So that was the sin of Omri that he had followed Jeroboam and this was the sin of the southern kingdom people during Micah's time because they had followed in that counsel. You do not have to obey and you must not obey when other forms of worship are commanded to you. That's what Micah said, you should not have obeyed. You ought not to have obeyed, it was sinful for you to obey. and to follow you obey and follow the Lord your God because this worship is for him it's not even to please kings and to make them happy it's not for them look at your white sheet there Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 20 section 2 human beings cannot impose forms of worship upon you and you are under no obligation to obey but rather must disobey God alone is Lord of the conscience, and he hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word, or beside it in matters of faith or worship. Nothing even beside the word of God, much less contrary to it, in a matter of worship. Nothing beside of it. Christ has set you free from that bondage to human beings and their commandments in this regard. Well, we must understand this regulative principle and your Christian freedom before we ever get involved in talking about the regulative principle and holy days. Already I hope that you see something of what they call a prima facie case beginning to form up. It just simply means a plausible case, a case that's plausible upon its first face, your first looking at it. Can I as a churchman, as a pastor or minister, hallow a day? Or set it apart for God? Or if that's not to your liking, if we get a bunch of us together, can we hallow or set apart a day to God? Or has he reserved that right for himself? What we're going to see as we go through the scripture is that God does the hallowing of days and He is the only one. We'll see this right from the very beginning. And He never shows any pleasure in the hallowing that is done by a man or any group of men in the setting apart of a day for Him to be worshipped. This is what we would call a regulated circumstance. So now we're leaving Regulative Principle 101. And we're going on now to Regulative Principle 202. It's a more advanced application of it. Look there at your white sheet, Westminster Confession of Faith 16, and listen to what the divines have to say. Basically, they've been pointing out that the scriptures are fully sufficient to teach you whatever you need to know in order to please God, including how to worship Him. but they're going to go on and say this in the second half of section 6 nevertheless we acknowledge that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and the government of the church common to human actions and societies which should be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word which are always to be observed so now we've introduced a new category so that you might more fully understand We've got two categories here, we've got what we might call forms of worship, and then we've got the circumstances that attend them. One of those, the circumstances have largely been left in the hands of the church to determine, the forms have in no way been left in the hands of the church to determine. So you say, well what do you mean by that? God has commanded the forms or the substance of His worship and what it is to look like. Namely, He has commanded that there be reading and preaching and conscionable hearing of His word in worship. He has commanded prayer to be done. He has commanded the singing of the Psalms and the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are the things that He has commanded to be done. But as far as circumstances, He has not commanded everything. Now, circumstances speaks to, say, time and place. So, once upon a time, the place of doing some acts of worship was a regulated circumstance. If you were going to sacrifice, you had to go up to Jerusalem. But during this age of the gospel, place can be determined by the wisdom of the church. In other words, considering this gathering that we have of people that come from places, what is the place most convenient and suitable for us to meet? and that's adequate for our needs. That's a circumstance that the church can take up. So we can't say, we're not going to sing Psalms, we're going to introduce something else. We can't do that, but we can appoint the place and the time. You see, the Westminster divines give us a little bit of the definition of what they mean by circumstances. They are basically those things that are common and necessary to the meeting of any human society. A time, a place, a certain way of comporting the body, whether it be sitting or standing. These are circumstances that are largely within the control of the church. But the forms are not. I as a minister am responsible for the mode of worship, which allows me some flexibility. I must preach the word, but sometimes a regular course of preaching and sometimes providence dictates to me what passage, what particular passage, I can't preach all of the Bible today but section that's determined the mode of worship and that's also something that's been left in the hands of the church but largely dictated sometimes by God's providence and his dealings with his people in the church so circumstances are not generally regulated under the new administration but many of them were in ancient times You're going to worship during these three feast times. All of your men are going to come up. So God sets a time. You're going to come up. And He sets a place if you're going to sacrifice. Now, you can hear the preaching of the word in your local synagogue. Leviticus chapter 3 your local assembly or the assembly within your gates but if you're going to have a sacrifice you're coming up to Jerusalem for that so there's a much greater regulation of time and place under the old administration but there's still some regulation under the new circumstances God's Sabbath day so we might as a church session talk about should we meet at 10 30 or 11 o'clock we might do that But what we can't do is decide that we're not going to do it on the Lord's day, the Sabbath day. So even there, there's been some regulation of the circumstances. Our culture has largely determined what sort of dress is appropriate. But notice what the divine say. But even with respect to something like dress, whether we wear business suits in America or whether we wear some sort of robe like the Eastern people, there's some regulation on the circumstance the general rules of the word in Christian prudence in other words modesty and here in our midst what do we see? God has regulated the circumstance with respect to the covering of the head and the women regulated circumstances so here's what Gillespie did if I can recapture George Gillespie's theology that great Scottish divine he said when we're talking about circumstances first we're talking about things that are necessary for the meeting of any human society. In other words, if God has commanded us to have the preaching of the word in the assembly, then we have to be able to assemble, which means a time and a place, which God has given us some flexibility concerning. Those things that are necessary for the meeting of any human society, or those things that are necessary for the performance of his particular ordinances. So we've been given latitude there, provided they are not regulated circumstances. But when God has given commandment, in other words, you're going to worship on the Sabbath day, then you're going to worship on the Sabbath day, whether it be 10.30 or 11 o'clock or 5 a.m. or 5 p.m., it's going to be on the Sabbath day. He's regulated it to that extent. This is going to be very important because days when we worship, and what I'm going to be contending, The hallowing of a day for that is a regulated circumstance. And so it falls within the sphere of the regulative principle. We do what God commands. We cannot subtract. In other words, say we're not going to keep that Sabbath day anymore. That's become old fashioned. And we can't add either. Make up holy days for ourselves. You will notice that your local session here has always been very reluctant about any sort of required mid-week meeting. Why? Because six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work. The seventh day, God has taught us what is a fitting proportion for worship and we've got to be careful to observe the Lord's rule. He's given us guidelines and taught us something about what the pattern of man's life ought to be. We'll be looking at that some more in just a few moments. But one more thing. I don't think that this discussion would be complete on presuppositions if we didn't deal with the sufficiency of scripture. Do you really think that you need to figure out what days to keep in order to be pleasing to God? God has told you what is pleasing to Him. You don't have to grope around in the dark and enter into every kind of perplexity of trying to figure out whether or not this thing or that thing is pleasing to God. As the Lord said through the prophet Micah, the Lord hath told you what is pleasing unto him. So you don't have to be groping. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 this is Paul's doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture and it's an amazing one and what he says concerning its implications you remember he's just exhorted young Timothy to continue in his study of the scripture which he had been trained in from his youth in verse 16 of chapter 3 All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. In other words, the Bible tells you everything that you need to believe, and everything that you need to do in order to be pleasing to God. He tells you what days to keep holy in order to be pleasing to Him. You don't have to grope around and try to figure it out in your own wisdom. He tells you. And the Bible is a fully sufficient guide. I can tell you something right from the first face of it. Prima facie case. That this system of holy days and this Roman calendar is certainly an alien way. because as our father said there's no whisper of it in the word of God an alien way but if we believe that God has given us everything that we need to do and to believe in order to please Him why are we groping after this whole different system of days God's told us what pleases Him and with that in view we come to our Bibles finally and we say well what is pleasing to Him? well it's not been the same in all ages exactly And so it becomes complex in some ways. Let's deal with the first period in the history of the world from creation to the time of Moses. And we ask the question, were there any holy days to be kept in the world from the creation of the world to the time of Moses? And the answer is, of course, yes. The weekly Sabbath was given with the creation. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. So we've just had the six days of creation. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. So what do we learn right here from this first institution? First question we should ask is who sanctified, hallowed or made holy this day? Is this something that God remanded over to Adam to be done? Adam was already created and made on the sixth day. So Adam's in the world and he's been given dominion over all of this created stuff under the Lord. But is it left up to Adam to prescribe the time? No, God Himself is said to hallow the seventh day. But what does it mean when it says that He sanctified it? Basically, it means He set it apart from a common use, Adam's everyday work of exercising dominion, to a holy, uncommon use, the worship of God and the acknowledgement that even though Adam has been given dominion, he is an underking. that Jehovah remains the king of all of the things that have been made right from the beginning a divine pattern is set up to regulate the life of man because you know that creating in six days was not for the benefit of God it was for the benefit of man and to set man's pattern the man that was created in the image of God you see, God could have created it in an instant He could have created it in an eon He sets this pattern to teach man how he should live. You remember Jesus said that man wasn't made for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was made for the man to teach him how he was to live. And so what does it teach us about the pattern of man's life as given by God? That six days he's going to labor and do all of this work as we have it in the fourth commandment. but the seventh day is going to be holy unto the gods set apart for his worship and you're not to do anything else on that day in reading Jonathan Edwards on this point in his brilliant sermons on the Sabbath day he said man as he was created would have known that well it's fitting to worship God and so some amount of time ought to be set apart for that but it would exceed the wisdom of man to know what was the proper proportion Well, a man might look at his duties and say, well, I have to exercise dominion. Every day is too much. God has told me to exercise dominion. I've got to keep that commandment. And that means I've got to be digging around in the ground and I've got to get this garden going and I've got a lot of things that I've got to do. God's commanded me to do them and He's pleased with me doing it. But then he might look at it and say, but once a month is too little. It doesn't seem fitting. He needed the divine instruction to tell him what was the proper proportion of his everyday labor over against that time that was set apart for the worship of God. And God did this at the first founding of man to teach him this great lesson. Let me ask you something because this is very important for what we're getting ready to do. Does any man have the authority to alter the creation pattern? Those things that God fixed from the beginning have always been understood as abiding. Like the marriage institution. You remember when the Jews had perverted marriage and divorce, what did Jesus say? It was not that way from the beginning. The institution as it was given at that point is still in force. And so it is with this cycle that God has given. I mean, doesn't it half make you afraid? I don't think I could ever stand before you and say, God set up six days of work and one day of worship, but we're going to make another one of those six days a day of worship. I would be afraid. But that's what we do in the pattern of setting up additional holy days. We say, we're going to set apart more days. God has said, six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work, but I'm saying no. I'm saying that that's pretty good sometimes, If you look at the Roman calendar, about three times every month we're going to have some other days that we're going to observe. And we're not going to limit ourselves to what God has commanded here. The only one that would have the authority to alter in the slightest this would be God himself for his own purposes and good pleasure. No man would have the authority to do this. This was given to bind man to a pattern. not for him to transgress it and to ignore it this will be very important this pattern that has been taught to us in the proportion that we have been taught but in order to review these things and slightly expand get your sheet in front of you again Westminster Confession of Faith 21.7 well you see the Westminster divines taught many of these same truths as it is the law of nature that in general a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God so you're saying Adam would have known we've got to set apart some time but how much time? and so it goes so in his word by a positive moral and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy unto him which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week. Man didn't know. He knew I had to worship God, but what's that fitting proportion of time that ought to be set apart for it? By a positive commandment God told him, and as it's described here, it's moral. The proportion that it taught here is a moral principle, like, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt worship in this proportion of time as the divine wisdom has given it to you. It's a moral issue. And they go on. Well, then we say, well, how are we to look at this day? God sanctified it, hallowed it, set it apart. So what is our response to that? Section 8 in the Confession. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men, after due preparing of their heart, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand. Notice the acknowledgement of the six days. You're going to conclude your work, six days you've been given, and you're going to conclude your work in the six days. Do not only observe in holy rest all the day from their works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. So basically they said, well what are we supposed to be doing? What does it mean that it's sanctified? It's set apart for his worship. And then also two things are mentioned here. Jesus also taught us that works of necessity are fitting to be done. Those bits of necessity that cannot be handled on the other six days, like if you should happen upon your ox fallen in a ditch, as the Lord Jesus teaches it, or mercy. You remember when the Pharisees argued with the Lord Jesus over healing on the Sabbath day. And he said, what a perverse understanding of this day, that there wouldn't be works of mercy on this day set apart for the works of the Lord. because the Lord himself is merciful what a fitting representation of his character so this is the setting apart of the day and how we are to live in response to it and we come to an additional question how long was this day the only holy day in the church? how long was it like this? well before we do that you have to understand that there was already a church in the world the church didn't start at Pentecost the church didn't even start with Moses the church started with Adam from all the appearances right from the very first thing after they fell it appears that the church began to form up in the world now we can make a distinction here between the invisible and the visible church and we see both of them apparently forming up right from the beginning well how do we define the invisible church? The invisible church is the sum total of the elect. All of those that have, are, or will place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the invisible church. All true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in all ages. Well, we ask the question, does it look like there were true believers right from the beginning? Well, when was the gospel first preached? Who preached it? Jehovah Himself preached the Gospel to Adam and Eve after their fall. Indeed, it seemed very dark and difficult to penetrate, but the Gospel was preached, the very same Gospel that is preached to you now. Genesis 3, verse 15. This is both the cursing of the woman and her promise. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So here we have the promise of a son given to them, that was going to crush the head of the serpent, and then Jesus Christ apparently is preached to them by the sacrifice. Jehovah slaughters an animal and provides coverings or skins. Jesus Christ preached to them in type. symbol in sacrament, right from the beginning. And it does appear, as we flip forward to Genesis chapter 4, that they believed. Adam and Eve believed the gospel. You say, well, why would you think that? Well, first we look at Genesis chapter 4 and the birth of Cain. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now this is fascinating. At the very least it's teaching this. That Eve seems to be saying the Lord has promised us a man and now the Lord has given us a man. It appears to be that at least. It's also interesting when you compare it over against Abel's name. It's hard to say exactly why Abel was named what he was named. Here we're told why Cain gets his name. Possession, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Able means something like vapor or vanity. Some have thought perhaps that might be an indication, a prophetic indication from Adam and Eve that he's not going to live very long. Or it could be we've already got the man from the Lord that's going to deliver us from the works of the devil. This one doesn't have a job. He's empty. What was the purpose of the second one? Not understanding. Now, part of what occasions this has to do with a Hebrew difficulty here that I'm going to try to sketch out for you. There's a whole book written called The Desire of Mother Eve, written by a minister, Christopher Helvicus, a Protestant divine. About this verse, a whole book about this very verse and what did Eve understand about the Gospel. And it was his contention that Eve understood quite a lot that she seems to have an understanding of the incarnation. Incarnation? That much? That the man that's coming is going to be Jehovah himself? Quite possibly. The Hebrew is fascinating. And this is not the only time where we see it. let me try to spell this grammar out for you in a simple way that you can understand she says I have gotten a man now in grammar that man is called a direct object and it's in the normal direct object position in Hebrew in other words I've gotten a man but then you actually get the direct object marker and then Jehovah which seems to indicate that these are placed in apposition so you might translate it like this I have gotten a man That is, Jehovah. I've gotten a man, in other words, Jehovah. Very striking. Now Calvin said it was weak. But Heraclius does a pretty good job, because he shows passage after passage where we've placed our faith in the Savior. Direct object marker, Jehovah. where those two things have the same referent pointing to the same thing and so Helvicius said that apparently from that first preaching of the gospel Eve not only believes that they are going to get the son that much is certain from this text it seems to even have some idea of the character of that son that he is a man, Ish, et Jehovah, a man who is the Lord very striking True believers in the earth right from the beginning, an invisible church forming up, but also the visible church. How do we define the visible church? You remember that the Lord Jesus taught us that the wheat and the tares will be mixed together. Not everybody in the visible church is necessarily a believer. And that's the way that it's always going to be. Jesus said you shouldn't necessarily take any steps to rectify that, but let them both grow up together until the end. Be careful that you don't harm the wheat in trying to weed out the tares unduly. So we define the visible church in a different way. It is all of those that profess the true religion together with their children. Well, do we have the profession of the true religion from Adam and Eve together with their children? Well, we most certainly do. What do we find in Cain and Abel right from the beginning? They teach those boys the ordinance of sacrifice. Right from the very beginning. And we find with their replacement son, as Abel was slain, God gives them another. He gives them Seth. And as we see there at the very last verse of chapter 4, we're given a little note about Seth's line as it's beginning to develop. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son. and he called his name Enos then men began to call upon the name of the Lord well here you have true believers apparently in Adam and Eve professing the true religion and their children now Cain is departing and leaving the visible church and this is part of his judgment for murdering his brother as you are driven out from the visible church and from the face of all mankind to be a wanderer. But Seth is given as a replacement and we find in his son that as the family line begins to branch out here that these families which are now somewhat independent and separated are now beginning to come back together to call upon the name of the Lord. So you have really the first thing here that would look like a visible church to us beyond just a nuclear family these nuclear families are beginning to get together and call upon the name of the Lord now there's also an interesting ambiguity here in the Hebrew because the verb can be taken either actively or passively so either men began to call upon the name of the Lord in worship or they began to be called by the name of the Lord either of which would signify the same thing we have a visible church in the earth I wonder if contextually the latter isn't stronger explaining who the sons of God are at the beginning of chapter 6. Men began to be called by the name of the Lord that is the sons of God and the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of men, Cain's line. Because of course that's all of what chapter 4 and chapter 5 are about. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman take off in different directions. Seth's line and the godly, Cain's line and the evil. We see the great problem that occurred when those two lines re-merged in marriage. A lesson that Israel would have been well familiar with. How many times from Moses down through the prophets did they need to hear, stop intermarrying with the pagan. This is an ancient lesson. Stop it. It's never done you any good. And not even from this ancient time. The true religion was so put out of the world through this intermarriage that only one family was left. the godly were destroyed by their intermixing with the daughters of men not the other way around so we've got to be very careful and circumspect during all of these ages up to the time of Moses one holy day kept in the church the weekly sabbath we'll look at it in this evening sermon but we'll see that Israel before Sinai is continuing to practice the sabbath day and that they know it even though Genesis doesn't talk about it after chapter 2 but get something of the scope here we can miss it because Genesis can seem so small in the whole Bible from the time of the creation to the time of Moses was more than 2,500 years of 4,004 BC to roughly 1,500 2,500 years which is about 42% of the total history of the world to date only one holy day kept in the world and that was the weekly Sabbath we see that all these additional things are obviously not necessary for true religion because for 42% of the history of the world there wasn't any other holy day known in the world but the weekly Sabbath and this was recognized even among pagans as I was working with with Matthew Poole he shows that this was not something that was limited to Israel well of course not Of course not. Because this was a creation ordinance. Noah and his boys knew this. And they would have taught it to all of their children. So even these that remember almost nothing about true religion, you get these ancient Greek poets. Hesiod. Here we're talking maybe 7th or 8th century BC. The Sabbath day is holy. Homer. The seventh day came as a holy day. The seventh day was that in which all things were perfected, or completed. Linus, who is so ancient that his life is all mixed up in mythology and it's hard to tell very much about him at all, said this, on the morning of the seventh day all things were made perfect. The seventh day among the holy, even the seventh is the time of birth. The seventh day among the excellent, even the seventh day is kept, observed by them. It's interesting that all peoples had some notion of this and of course they did because of the fact that it came out of the creation by way of Noah and his boys. Now remember the sufficiency of scripture and apply it to them now. What other days would they have had to observe in order to be pleasing to the Lord? They wouldn't have had to observe any other day. And there's no mention of any other days as being necessary for them. But it does leave us with a question that we'll begin to address tonight. But would God have still been pleased if they had attempted to add some? I think if you've been understanding the regulative principle, you're going to have some idea of where the Bible is going to take us in this direction. But what we're going to do is we're going to see that the Bible is going to be pointing in the direction that God is not pleased with human additions. in this regard that when he added some he did it for a particular purpose look at this this evening to preach Jesus Christ to come but once the body has arrived the shadow passes away so next time this evening we will take up the mosaic administration and consider more what would God's disposition be when people did try to add holy days to the day that he had instituted Let us pray. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.