This is the second part of our history on Holy Days. A brief review of what we did this morning. You'll remember we are taking up this short series primarily because of the influence that Rome is continuing to exercise over Protestant churches. And it is not a good or a godly influence, but a wayward one. And what else should we expect from the man of sin. In last sermon we looked at the regulative principle of worship in several ways that it has been expressed, all the same meaning and content, but different forms of words which can be helpful. Classically it was expressed in this way, that if it's not commanded by God for his worship then we consider it forbidden. The Westminster Divine said it in this way, that God's worship is limited to his own revealed will and we're not free to add anything to that and you remember Moses definition in some ways the most flexible and useful of all we are to observe the Lord's commandments concerning worship we are not free to subtract from any commandment but neither are we free to add anything this is very important to understand particularly as we come to The case of holy days. What is it that I'm trying to do with you? My argument is that God has reserved for Himself the right for hallowing days, and that He has not given it to any man. And what we find as we go through the Scriptures is that when men have pretended to hallow days unto Him, He has not been pleased in it, but has everywhere expressed His displeasure. You'll remember this morning we made a distinction between forms and circumstance. The substance of the worship is regulated by God. So he has commanded the reading, preaching and conscionable hearing of the word. He's commanded the sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper, the singing of the Psalms and prayer. These are the substance of worship, the forms of worship. We cannot add to them nor subtract from them. But many of the circumstances of worship have been left in our hands, though not all. Some are in our hands, like the time and the place of meeting, how we are going to comport our bodies during that time, are we going to stand or sit, kneel? Those sorts of things have been left in the hands of the church to be governed by the general rules of the word and Christian prudence, as the Westminster divines have said. But as we saw this morning, not all circumstances are left up to the liberty of the church. But rather God has regulated some circumstances. And as George Gillespie said, when God has regulated a circumstance, we are not free to deregulate it. So we can decide whether or not we're going to meet at 10.30 or 11 on the Lord's Day, but we are going to meet on the Lord's Day. The Sabbath is a regulated circumstance. In our culture we might be deciding whether or not we ought to wear suits or robes. But your clothing is going to be modest, general rules of the word, and even the head covering of women is a regulated circumstance. And we're not free to deregulate these things when God has given commandment concerning them. So my argument is that the Holy Day is a regulated circumstance. From the beginning of God's revelation to the very end of it, The only days that have been acceptable to him as holy are the ones that he himself has hallowed. And every time a man makes an attempt to hallow a day, he shows his displeasure with it in one way or another. I'd remind you also that this follows quite naturally from our doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Of course, our God is going to teach us everything that we need to know in order to please Him. He's going to tell us what days to set aside. And we don't have to grope about trying to discover what God is revealing. As Moses said, these things are not so high in the heavens nor so deep in the ocean that you can't attain unto them. But the Word is nigh you. It's been given to you. the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever the word of God is fully sufficient to teach you what days to keep in order to be pleasing to God and you don't need to add anything to that word we got something of a start in the revelation by considering that vast period of time from the creation of the world to the time of Moses and the exodus. And for all of that period of time there was only one holy day kept in the church. And that was the weekly Sabbath. By whom was the weekly Sabbath instituted? By God Himself. You remember on the seventh day it said that He sanctified it or set it apart for His own worship. Setting a pattern for man and for man's life. That man would work six days and that he would, in other words, do all of his dominion duties those six days, but on the seventh day he would draw apart from all of those things and worship God, his King and Creator. This is a moral principle or pattern that God has set up for man. It is a moral principle that man must worship God and that in a fitting proportion of time. Man's wisdom might not have been able to search out what was that fitting proportion of time, but thanks be to God he hasn't left us to grope after it. But he told us from the beginning what that fitting proportion of time was. He is indeed a great and merciful God in that way. There was only one holy day observed in the church for 2,500 years. two millennia and a half 42 percent of the history of the world no other holy day besides the weekly Sabbath and none other necessary in order to please God but this left us with a question well would it be pleasing to God if anyone should should add and we're going to get a bit of a start we're not going to be able to conclude that question tonight But we'll keep working our way forward through God's revelation until we get a conclusion, a satisfactory conclusion. But we do get a start, and a most powerful and useful one, as we turn our attention to the Mosaic administration, that great time of revolution, as it were, in the life of the church. Now, by that I don't mean an overthrow, but that God turned things pretty significantly. What's he doing? Now there had been a visible church in the world from the time of Adam and Eve as we saw this morning, but never set in order the way they were set in order under the time of Moses. And of course this makes great sense because now they're no longer a small family. You remember they went down into Egypt just as 70 persons. Not much order necessary there. They've got the familial bonds. Jacob was still alive for a lot of that time. but then they multiplied in Egypt they became a great multitude and when God brought them out of Egypt a mighty and thronging multitude no longer a family but a nation he sets them in order so the visible church is going to begin to undergo preparations for the arrival of Eve's seed you remember from the beginning the seed was promised to Eve that she would have a son that would crush the head of the serpent and deal with their nakedness and their sinfulness the covering of the beasts that were provided for Adam and Eve there's only 1500 years left 2500 years not much advancement in the gospel besides that except by Abraham some things were added what did God tell Abraham? yes the promised seed is going to come from you, not just any son of Adam, but from your boys, the promise is going to come. And that this king is going to be a blessing to all of the earth. And indeed, Paul proclaims the fulfillment of that, that our Jesus is indeed that Jewish king that has become a blessing to all nations in their salvation. As we see in Galatians chapter 3, so there's only 1500 years left to advance the preaching of the Lord Jesus and what we find as the Old Testament progresses is that Jesus Christ is going to become more and more clear as they go forward even to the point as you near the end of the Old Testament that one that looks like a son of man is sitting upon the divine throne Ezekiel and Daniel Something that must have seemed almost heretical. Ezekiel says, I saw the divine throne and one that looked like the Son of Man sat upon there. How shocking that must have been to those that were hearing Ezekiel preach this message. One that looked like a man sitting there upon the divine throne. Jesus Christ is becoming more and more clear. And that is going to become a lot clearer with the arrival of Moses and all that God had revealed to him. But all of this is about Jesus Christ. You have your white sheets there. Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 8, verse 6. Here you see part of the theological genius of the divines in that they are able to draw all of the Bible together in much the way that the Lord Jesus taught them to do so. He told His disciples after His ascension, He taught them how to understand the Scriptures, all of it, the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, all of the Old Testament. He said, all of this spoke of Me. It taught you that Messiah must be crucified for the sins of His people, that He must die, that He must be raised again, and that this Gospel must be preached to the nation. and the divines got this point confession of faith chapter 8 section 6 although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after his incarnation yet the virtue, efficacy and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect in all ages successively from the beginning of the world in and by those promises, types and sacrifices when he was revealed and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's head and the lamb slain from the beginning of the world being yesterday and today the same and forever. Moses comes preaching what or rather whom? He comes preaching Jesus. He does that in words, but he also does that by giving them sacraments that were pointing forward to Christ to come. And of course, all of these things were given by the inspiration of the Spirit. This is what Jesus taught. Jesus said, if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. In other words, if you read the Pentateuch, and you didn't understand that it was about Jesus Christ, you didn't understand the Pentateuch. That's what it's about. It's about Jesus. And all of those types, all of those ceremonies, all of those sacrifices, all that blood that was shed was all to point forward to the coming of Christ. A little bit more germane to what we've been discussing, ceremonial Sabbaths were added to the one moral weekly Sabbath. To what end? The preaching of Jesus Christ. Now remember what we said this morning. God had set up for man a moral pattern. You are to worship God and do your dominion duties. And here's your proportion. Six days you'll labor and do all your work. And one day you're going to worship the Lord your God. And as I mentioned this morning, does any man have the authority to change that? Or to create any exceptions to that? I would be afraid. to alter the import of the fourth commandment written by the hand of God in stone I would be afraid no man can do such a thing but God himself can have exceptions for his own purposes and here we see that he gives them ceremonial Sabbaths so that they might learn something more about the coming of Jesus Christ the long-promised seed of the woman And so as we get to the Exodus event, we find, as Moses and Aaron begin their discussions with Pharaoh, that what the Lord wants them to do is come out of Egypt for a feast unto the Lord, a ceremonial Sabbath. So we pick up the narrative there, turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 5. The first ceremonial Sabbath is added, and it is the greatest of all of the ceremonial Sabbaths. It is the Passover. And of course, as we've been looking at the Gospel of John during communion season, one of the great thrusts of the Gospel of John is that Jesus Christ is the Passover Lamb that was to take away the sins of the world, even as he was preached by John the Baptist. Exodus chapter 5 verse 1, here the feast, the festival is the reason given for leaving Egypt. And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. Right away we should ask the question, who is appointing the feast? Jehovah Himself has appointed this feast. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray, thee three days journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. So apparently, not only has God instituted this, but he's requiring it of the people. Moses understands this. You might be opposing this with civil power, but this must happen, or else God himself is going to fall upon us with the pestilence. And we should fear God rather than men. So God has appointed a feast and even some of the circumstances. You're going to go out three days journey into the desert, and there you're going to do it. So he's given them something, as it were, a time frame and a place where this is going to happen. And he's also given them the ordinances for it, rather the sacrifice to the Lord. Now, of course, at that time, this is forbidden by the civil power. I mean, by civil power, they are going to be absolutely unable to leave Egypt at that time. but God is mighty and one way or another this feast is going to happen and Israel is inclined to obey and because Egypt will not let them go peaceably to worship the Lord their God according to his command and keep the feast that he has commanded the holy day they end up celebrating it in the midst of the Egyptians to the great misery of the Egyptians even the slaughtering of all of their firstborn So we pick up the narrative there in Exodus chapter 12. Israel is going to celebrate its first Passover in the midst of the Egyptians on their way out. And of course, this is such a lively picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember what they did? They would slay the lamb, that pure and spotless lamb, and they would sprinkle its blood upon the doorposts. and the destroying angel representing the wrath of God would pass by that home that indeed these were covered by the blood of Christ taking away the guilt of their sins and the wrath of God was turned away from them when he came in his anger in some ways it's altogether fitting to say that this is the day of the Lord for the Egyptians and it was a terrible one But even in the midst of this terrible judgment, God preserves his people in Christ and teaches them much about Christ to come through the shedding of the blood of the lamb that turned away his wrath. but also it's a wonderful picture of Romans chapter 6 because the angel of the covenant takes his place before the people and leads them out, out of the kingdom of sin and death. Egypt at that time, there's never been a more lively picture of hell than Egypt. Think about all the stinking, rotting animals and the death of all of these people and a satanic figure, this pharaoh, wanting to hold the people captive but unable to do so. because the Lord is mighty and the angel of the Lord is more than capable of bringing his people out it is Romans chapter 6 we have been delivered out of the kingdom of sin and death to serve in the kingdom of righteousness even in the kingdom of God's dear son a lively type of Christ in that Passover and something that was remembered for all of those ages up until that time that the Lord Jesus Christ came and fulfilled that image 1500 years almost. Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 here is its institution. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Again who's appointing this? The Lord is appointing it. He even appoints its duration. Just a brief word about this language of forever in Hebrew. In Hebrew it's Olam, which is quite flexible. Basically it means something like the full amount of time. So for example, you have to look at the relative scalar proportion that's in view. A Hebrew slave could commit himself to the service of his master Olam, forever. Now that doesn't mean necessarily eternally, that means for the duration of his life. The scale or proportion is very important in view. And of course this forever has to do with until its fulfillment comes in Jesus Christ. It is in some ways a great ending of things with the arrival of Jesus Christ. It is the end of the Mosaic administration and a great turning in the history of the church. verse 15 well he appoints more seven days shall you eat unleavened bread even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day that soul shall be cut off from Israel so it's not just the Passover itself but seven days of unleavened bread they called it the feast of unleavened bread instituted here by God himself And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in the selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month of Eden, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month of Eden. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses. For whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened in all your habitations, shall ye eat unleavened bread. This also is a wonderful picture of the Christian life. After that time of their justification, the Lamb slain on their behalf to take away the guilt of their sins, after the memorial of that, you have this week, which speaks of a fullness of time, prosecuting the business of their sanctification. You remember this is the use that the Apostle Paul makes of this figure of Levin. the leaven of sin, but they are to put that away from them during that period of time to speak of their sanctification and to talk of their sanctification in type. But again, who has instituted this holy day? And in quite a bit of detail, it is Jehovah Himself, and He expects it to be kept as He has prescribed it. Verse 24, And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever, And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he has promised, that ye shall keep this service. So just in case you had any questions, and when you come into the promised land, and we're going to see as we progress through the Pentateuch, that there's a little bit difference. They're not in Egypt anymore, there's going to be some differences in the way that it's kept, but who's going to tell them what those differences are? Jehovah himself. I know you can't keep it like you did in Egypt, you're in the promised land now so let me tell you how you are going to keep it a fully sufficient word he's not left us to grope after those things that please him grope after that worship that might find acceptance in his sight he's told us what pleases him this is the first ceremonial Sabbath that was added so as we're looking at this development on the one hand we ask the question and I promised I would deal with this this morning The weekly Sabbath is still being observed before Sinai, before we get to Exodus chapter 20. So look at Exodus chapter 16. We'll begin reading in verse 22. Interestingly enough, this text is not so much a teaching about the Sabbath as it was instruction on manna gathering. The manna comes down from heaven and they are taught how to do it. But of course, if you're keeping the Sabbath, this is going to raise questions. Well, the manna only comes in the morning and only enough, we're only together enough for that day. So what about the Sabbath day? Now we've learned on the other six days that if we try to gather two days worth, it rots by the next morning. We're not supposed to do that. But what if we gather two days worth before the Sabbath? Are we supposed to be hungry on the Sabbath? Is it going to spoil overnight? You see they're keeping the Sabbath and so they need some instruction. Verse 22, And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake to-day, and sieve that ye will sieve, and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither were there any worms therein. And Moses said, eat that today for today is a sabbath unto the Lord today ye shall not find it in the field six days ye shall gather it but on the seventh day which is the sabbath in it there shall be none a most remarkable thing no man even came on the sabbath day six days it was there no man even showed up and it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather and they found none And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. Therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. Wonderful thing here. That the Lord, even when they're not going to be working, but they're going to come aside from their normal work, even the provision of food the Lord provides them twice as much this is a theme that we see time and time again you remember every seventh year they had the resting of the land and God said I'll provide you enough even though you're not going to be harvesting planting and harvesting the way you normally do I'll provide enough in the previous six years that you won't want in the seventh year if you'll just obey me and isn't it a wonderful thing on God's Sabbath day that today we did not work But we had plenty of food to eat. God takes care of us when we observe His law. So as you see, when we make our way to Exodus chapter 20 in Sinai, in the giving of the commandment concerning the Sabbath day, that it is nothing new in the earth, but it had already been around for 2,500 years and was already known by Israel and observed. And God said, how long are you not going to keep my laws? Well, this hasn't been mentioned since Genesis chapter 2. What do you mean? They have been keeping it all of this time, for all of these ages. So we come to chapter 20, to the reaffirmation, as it were, of the creation ordinance of the Sabbath day. Chapter 20, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So who hallowed the Sabbath day? Jehovah Himself did. I say, Pastor, you're repeating yourself. The Word of God repeats itself concerning this. I'm trying to get the point across here. Again, observe. This is grounded in the creation, not new with them. And it sets up a moral pattern. Six days of work and one day of worship. And here it's written, if we could further observe, in the midst of moral laws. This is one of the things with anti-sabbatarians. It's always amazing me. They look at the Ten Commandments and they say, well, nine of them are moral. But the fourth one, not one at the beginning or at the end, but the fourth one in the middle, well, that one's ceremonial and doesn't continue. It's almost as if they missed Biblical Interpretation 101. Context, context, context. Here we are in the midst of nine commandments that are moral and abiding. And as if to impress upon us that they are moral and abiding, this Sabbath day has already been in the earth for 2,500 years, founded at the creation, continued all the way till this time, and God himself wrote it with his finger, not on parchment, which would decay, but he engraved it in stone, and then he laid it up in the Ark of the Covenant, the safest place in the world. I mean, it doesn't get any more abiding than that. Written in stone, not parchment, laid up in the Ark, the safest place in the world for it. so we continue to ask ourselves the question okay God has clearly instituted these sabbaths we have one moral weekly sabbath and we've had a ceremonial sabbath added but could the people add a feast day turn in your bibles to exodus chapter 32 this is a very famous story you remember that Moses is up on the mountain receiving instruction from God concerning how Israel is to govern itself in its worship. And then the people presume to add their own feast day or holy day. And we see the great displeasure of the Lord concerning it. Exodus chapter 32 beginning in verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play some things to understand here this is not primarily a first commandment issue not the worship of another God they think that they're worshiping Jehovah how do we know this for sure? look at what Aaron says tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah the proper name of God. They think that they are worshipping Jehovah. Interestingly enough, these are the very words that are adopted later by Jeroboam when he takes his calves and plants them in Bethel and Dan. But this is not a first commandment problem. They're not worshipping another god. They don't think that they're worshipping Apis of Egypt or Baal or anything else. They think that they're worshipping Jehovah, the god that brought them out of Egypt, even though their understanding is certainly corrupted in the doing of this. If you think that you can represent the god of heaven in a visible image, you don't understand him very well. And it's just going to lead to additional confusion. but it's a second commandment issue throughout Israel wants to take its own way in its worship and they're going to try to do that now of course in this text the calf itself is the grossest violation because it's as the divine say it's always a greater aggravation of a fault when it's against the express letter of the law in other words there are some things that are against it by extension like feast days But some things immediately against it, like don't make any graven image, and they made a graven image. And that's certainly the greatest fault here. As the text proceeds, that's what we see the Lord primarily complaining about. Verse 7. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. So here certainly the calf itself is an express violation, or an explicit violation of the second commandment. But interestingly enough, Sacrifice had been in the world since the beginning of the world, but are these sacrifices pleasing to the Lord? In some ways they seem to have made it worse, as if their sacrificing before this calf was an aggravation. So it's not as if the Lord is like, well, I was partially pleased with what they did and partially not pleased. I'm glad that they did the sacrifices the way that I commanded, but I'm upset about the calf. He rejects the thing wholesale and is aggravated by the fact that they would mix his ordinances with this disobedience. Such a thing does not please the Lord. And so I ask the additional question, was their holy day or their feast day pleasing to the Lord? Well, look at the things that are attending the feast day. They get up in the morning, they're anxious for it. They offer sacrifices, burnt offerings and peace offerings. The burnt offerings were wholly consumed upon the altar, primarily for the glory of God. We give it all to Him. But peace offerings were offered to the Lord. And very much like the name suggests, the Lord would remand a portion back to the worshipper to fellowship with him. In other words, the sacrifice for sin has been offered, your guilt is taken away from you, and so now I enter into fellowship with you. And so the Lord would take a portion of what belonged to him, of the beast, and remand it back to the worshippers so that the worship could, as it were, dine with him and fellowship with him in these. This is probably what it means when it says that they were eating. They were taking a portion of the peace offerings. And there appears to have been some sort of revelry, some singing and some dancing associated. This is a feast day, a holy day for them, instituted the day before by Aaron. Not God, Aaron. And is God pleased with all of this? You might think on the face of it, well, what is God so upset about? And this is the way that evangelicalism is arguing in this day and age. They intended it as a feast to Jehovah, and God had given them a holy day before, so they had some pattern for setting up holy days. What's the big deal if they set up another one? A very big deal. We pick up at verse 15, and we find that this is not pleasing to God at all. But we see it primarily through the disposition of Moses. This is after Moses' intercession on behalf of the people. You remember, God is so displeased with what has happened, He said, I'm going to wipe all of them out except for you, Moses. And then I'm going to raise up the children of Israel unto you. But I'm not going to continue with this people. and Moses intercedes for them, and God spares them. Now Moses, as we pick up, is on his way back down the hillside. And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, and he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot. And he cast the tables out of his hand and break them beneath the mount. Here we have Moses representing something of the disposition to the Lord concerning these things. And here we have to pick up something of a subtlety in our reading and in our understanding of literature. Remember, Moses can tell you anything in the world that he wants to tell you. But he wants to tell you about this little conversation that passes between Joshua and Moses. Joshua had been stationed there near Moses, waiting to receive him after his converse with God. And now they're going down together. They hear the sound of the revelry down in the camp. Now Joshua hasn't been with the Lord. He doesn't know what's going on. He thinks it's war. We've got to hasten down. And Moses says, it's not war. the sound of singing that we hear. Now this is where I say we have to be subtle in our interpretation. Is Moses saying that this is a neutral thing? Or is it presented in the text as an aggravation? That Moses' stomach is turning and churning over the fact that they're down there feasting, that they're down there in the midst of their celebratory holy day. Now I think it puts it out of doubt that although no doubt Moses was upset on the mountain when he comes face to face with it and he sees the calf and the dancing and now his wrath is really inflamed. So it's one thing to know it. It's one thing to know that there's a sin and that we should be angry at it. But to come face to face with it is very provoking as we see it is here with Moses. This is negative and aggravating. The feast instituted by Moses did not please God. And I would contend it arises out of the same idolatrous mindset. We will approach God as we see fit. Many different instances here. We'll make a calf, and we'll offer sacrifices to it, and we'll set up our own feast day. We will approach God the way we want to approach God. And God wasn't pleased with any of it. Look at your white page there, Larger Catechism 109. It's all right. 109. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counselling, commanding. Good man. Mind reader. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counselling, commanding, using and any wise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself. See here, no devising, no counseling, no using, not even any wise approving of any other worship. This is our responsibility under the second commandment. That's the great principle that lies behind it. God's going to be worshipped the way that he has commanded. Why are you fully convinced at this point that we're not to add days? We still have a lot of history to cover where we can make the case firmer. But already we see that there are feasts that God has approved of, those that he himself has appointed. And now we've had one feast that he didn't approve of, appointed by Aaron, by some man. And so we, right from the beginning, doesn't it strike the Christian sensibility that this is a frightful thing to do? when we look at what God has done in ages past. We've just been singing through 78. Consider what God has done in ages past. Isn't it a frightening thing to imitate Aaron at this point? Even if you're not fully convinced, don't you see the keys beginning to form up? Now again, this doesn't conclude the matter, and I don't imagine that it does. We have more to cover. But we must consider these lessons well. And there's one lesson about this in particular that is certain from this text. Such idolatrous days are not to be kept in remembrance. You say, well, how do you get that? Verse 20 of this text. Look at Moses' reaction. Moses' reaction isn't, well, you went a little astray here. So, we're going to melt the calf back down. That's got to go. But the holy day, well, you know, year by year we're going to remember that. So we'll just add that into our cycle here. Look at the disposition. Try to become a sensitive reader of the scripture. When you look at Moses disposition to the calf, you should get something of a sense of his disposition towards the dancing, the feast, festival day that had so incited his anger. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. Do you think that he's going to approve of remembering this wonderful feast and festival day that they did? He consigns the calf and no doubt the day to oblivion. This is not a happy day to be remembered. Westminster Larger Catechism 108. These are duties of the second commandment. If you look halfway down, it's our duty to disapprove, detest, and oppose all false worship, and according to each man's place and calling, remove it, and all monuments of idolatry." Did you catch that? All monuments of idolatry. Moses removes the monuments, those standing testimonies to the idolatry of that day. He does not perpetuate them or continue them. And this has profound consequences for the Christ mass. Now we might not be completely settled on the point, and we're going to get to that in coming weeks concerning whether or not a man can add additional days. Although I hope you're seeing the case beginning to form up. But here we can take for certain that the monuments of idolatry are to be torn down and taken away. And think about what Rome has done in the Christ Mass. They started with the most ungodly and unbiblical principle. We're evangelizing the pagans. We want to introduce them to Jesus. But they have this feast of Saturnalia on the 25th of December. Idol worship. And rather than destroying the monument of idolatry, what do they do instead? They don't grind it to powder and cast it in the water the way that Moses does. They say, well, we're going to adopt it. We're going to keep the 25th of December as well, but we're going to make it the Christ Mass, a high holy day in the Church of Rome. Now this has gone from bad to worse. It was bad that it was initially pagan. You remember we looked at Deuteronomy 12. What was Israel to do when they came face to face with pagan monuments? Pull down their altars. Destroy their tables of stone. burn their groves where they worshiped Ashtaroth these things are not to be had in remembrance destroy them so that the names of these pagan gods will not even be remembered but forgotten forever so here we had the Feast of Saturnalia can you imagine in ancient Israel well we're going to go in and we're going to keep this one feast and we're going to slap Jehovah's name on it and certainly God will be pleased with us unthinkable but here this is what Rome's done we've slapped Christ's name on this idolatrous feast festival holy day we've made it a Christian holy day for what? for the mass to worship our bread idol now this was a big part in the English Reformation how far we've come you remember those English Puritans when they're reforming the mass how they face death because they said we will not go to the table and bow our knees because the Lord our God told us you will not bow down yourself to them nor worship them this comes out of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation this wafer and this wine have become the body and blood of Jesus idols and an idolatrous doctrine that I would hope that every protestant would want to see extirpated and rooted out of the earth because I'm not sure that there's ever been a grosser idolatry in the history of man than what Rome has perpetrated and I would hope that rather than everyone acknowledging the Christ mass and following Rome along in their calendar that it would be in our hearts to tear down the idol shrine and to long after the day when nobody even remembers it anymore That much is clear from this text. It's the same heart in us that was in Moses. Tear it down, grind it up and throw it into the water so that it's not remembered anymore. And if it ever does come up, it will be with the stamping of feet saying, let its name be blotted out and no longer remembered in the earth. Now, we're going to go forward in some of this, but I'll tell you the truth, Christian people. Rome remains your greatest enemy. We were warned of this throughout the... in the Old Testament, as we'll see, but even in the New. This is our greatest enemy. And we're still following Rome along like puppies. But it's an idol. They bow the knee because they believe that that bread is their God. That's what the Christ Mass is about. And it's become a monument to that idolatry. Whatever we might want to say, the name still says it. It's a monument of idolatry, and it ought to be taken out of the earth, rather than observed and remembered. As I mentioned, we still have more work to do in the Mosaic administration, and we'll do that next week, Lord's willing. And we still have the question sitting on the table, can we add a holy day? I mean, that's not been grown out of this Gross kind of idolatry, can we add one? We'll keep looking at that. But I hope you see things shaping up. And I think the argument will become more powerful as we go. Why is it that people can't see the evil in this? Kind of goes back to what we did earlier today. Evangelical Christianity didn't want to worship God the way that he had commanded. Very much like Rome. They wanted to try some other ways of instruction. We want to have lots of praise courses and really loud music and maybe a 15 minute sermon and a 5 minute prayer. But lots of music and lots of lights and lots of show to attract lots of people. And what is the result then of this alternative form of instruction? You go to an evangelical church and you meet somebody and you can't hardly fill a symbol with what they know of the Bible. I mean, that's the simple fact of the matter. They might know three praise choruses, but they couldn't tell you what's in the Bible. And so these kinds of arguments are lost. You say, well, this is a long course of argument. Well, some things can't be had in an easier way. Some things can only be had by reading the Bible. and understanding it and zealously pursuing its truth. I know that these are difficult things. But sometimes some things can't be had in any other way. And we are called disciples after all. Learners at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said all of this book is about Him. And so ultimately this is not a cold academic study. This is about learning who Jesus Christ is. and about what he desires so that we can express our love to him and those actions that please him that's what this is about but I tell you that counterfeit way of Rome is no way to please the Lord Jesus Christ and eventually he will come with the might of his own outstretched arm and take this idolatry out of the earth but in the meantime let us observe that exhortation that came out of heaven John's Apocalypse chapter 18, come out from the midst of her and be separate. A reference to Isaiah's prophecy, touch not her unclean things. 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 by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A 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.