This is our fourth sermon on the history of Holy Days. Originally, I thought it was going to take four sermons, but maybe three or four more. Well, we should be complete about these things. As I said on the first day, for those that are already convinced, a short series isn't going to do anything to teach them anything additional, and for those that are not convinced, a short series is not going to persuade anybody. And so we go on trying to get a full picture. Just a very quick recap. Keep in mind the regulative principle of worship. That God has limited worship to his own revealed will. That he gives commandments concerning the substance of worship and we are not to add to that or take away from it. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 32. Concerning the circumstances, we have been given a great deal of flexibility and latitude. But God has reserved some circumstantial considerations for Himself. He has regulated some circumstances. Most of us acknowledge that He's regulated the Sabbath day. We might very well talk about as a church whether or not we ought to Meet at 10.30 and 6 on the Lord's Day or at 10 and 11. We might talk about those things, but we are going to meet for worship on the Sabbath day because God has regulated that circumstance and has not left it up to us. And it's my contention that the hallowing of days is a regulated circumstance, something that God has reserved for Himself. When He gave commandment concerning the Sabbath day and that pattern of life, it is moral. And God alone has the authority to alter it in any way or to give exceptions to it. We're not free to change His word or His law. We cannot change the fourth commandment and start hallowing days for ourselves. For 42% of the history of the world, 2500 years, there was no other holy day in the church besides the Sabbath day. But with the coming of Moses, And those 1500 years before the time of Christ, Moses was given, by inspiration of the Spirit, ceremonial Sabbaths to preach Jesus Christ, who was shortly to arrive, so that the people of God would not only be able to put their faith in him then, but be prepared for him at the time of his arrival. We had been asking the question, Would God be pleased with the addition of any holy days? Does man have the authority to add a holy day? And will God take pleasure in it? And we have looked at two bits of evidence thus far. Remember Aaron's appointed feast day for the calf? God shows his displeasure in that through Moses. Moses comes down from the mountain and takes displeasure in the revelry of this feast day. He grinds their calf to powder, throws it in the water, and makes them drink it to blot its name out, showing that the monuments to idolatry, even if they be days, are not to be kept. And we saw this with Jeroboam's substitute day, or substitute week, where he started a feast in the 8th month on the 15th day, a substitute to draw people away from the feast of booths in Jerusalem. And this is condemned by God, this feast that was of his own inventing and that had arisen out of his own mind, that was right in his own eyes, and God judges him immediately. You remember the image of his hand withering and the altar collapsing and the ashes of those sacrifices being poured out and desecrated. But this raises the question, interestingly enough, with all that just happened, Jeroboam does not repent. And so imagine that you are a northern kingdom Israelite, in the midst of all of this idolatry, And you can only have the true worship of God, the worship that He has commanded in Jerusalem. What is the faithful Israelite to do? And this is where we pick up this morning. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 11. Basically we are to do two things, very simple. The faithful Israelite was to depart from false worship and the false holy days and to adhere or cling to the true. And we're going to see this by the example of faithful Israelites that are commended in the book of Chronicles. First, departing from the false. Second, Chronicles chapter 11. This is the parallel passage to what we had in First Kings chapter 12, but a different perspective. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel, so these are the priests and the Levites in the northern kingdom, resorted to him out of all their coasts, that is, to Rehoboam. In other words, all of these northern kingdom priests and Levites, because they've been deposed by Jeroboam and he starts ordaining every sort of worthless man, they come down to Rehoboam and lend their strength to him. Verse 14. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem. This is a more striking thing than what we might first see. The Levites left their possession, they left their temporal inheritance so that they could have the worship of God as he commanded it. This is a very striking thing. We're going to find that the other Israelites, other faithful northern kingdom Israelites do likewise. It's a striking thing. Who gave them that inheritance? Moses! And Joshua won it for them and planted them in that land. What a striking thing for them to leave that behind, their temporal inheritance, move to a land where they had no inheritance, because Judah and Benjamin are already occupied. and dwell there in uncertain circumstances, financial and temporal, so that they can have the worship of God as he had commanded it. For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord. And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. Now remember, that was a whole complex of religious invention as we saw it in 1 Kings 12. That was not only the calf, but it was also the altar and the sacrifices and the holy day that they had set up, as well as the false priesthood here. This whole system of idolatry. Verse 16. And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong three years. For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon. well for three years Rehoboam goes in great faithfulness and what an encouragement this is to the godly there their numbers in Jerusalem have been greatly diminished no northern kingdom Israelites but then all of a sudden they see these faithful men coming down and making the trip down to Jerusalem to worship and how it strengthened Rehoboam during this period of godliness and encouraged all of the godly as we'll see later with Hezekiah and his reformation just a note while we're here I was originally a licentiate in another reformed denomination and this text became very important to me and the consequences of it there's a certain school of thought that says well we stay in those denominations that are less pure Because we're going to try to work it out and try to reform them, as it were. And we think that to be our great faithfulness. But then I looked at that, and then I looked at this small group of sheep in this place, going along in their faithfulness, and I thought to myself, what an encouragement it would be to the heart of the godly, to those that are doing what is right, to have sufficient ministers in their midst for the up-building of the kingdom. Why would I lend my strength to those that are in decline? and leave the godly discouraged and alone when I can go as these priests and Levites and Northern Kingdom Israelites went to encourage them and to build them up in the faith. That's just a note. So we're to depart from the false and adhere to the true. Turn forward to chapter 30 of the same. Here we have Hezekiah's Passover. You remember after Ahaz, his father, which was a terrible time in Israelite religion, idolatry brought even into the temple itself, a shocking kind of idolatry. And then God suddenly turns things for them with Hezekiah, his son, in a most unexpected way. There's a great reformation of religion under Hezekiah, and it's said that the Lord did it suddenly. in a way that nobody expected or could have anticipated. But suddenly, a nation in the midst of gross idolatry is reformed. And so, Hezekiah makes a movement to reinstitute the feast days that God had commanded, because they had not been practiced in some time according to God's commandment. Chapter 30, verse 1. And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord God of Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. This is a pretty bold thing to do. Hezekiah writes to those northern kingdom Jews who are under a different kingdom and he said, I don't care what your king is telling you, you're still under obligation to be down here for your worship. We're getting ready to have the Passover, and so come on down. It's time for you to come down for it. Verse 2. For the king had taken counsel and his princes and all the congregation in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. So here he is exhorting the northern kingdom to return to its worship. I can imagine an objection at this time. Well, they changed the time of the Passover. They were going to celebrate it in the second month, not the first month. And so if they can change the time of God's holy day or his appointing, perhaps we can. Well, not so fast. This is actually not a new thing that was done. But this was an old rule established by Moses. You want to keep your finger there in chapter 30, but flip back to Numbers chapter 11. A little bit of background in what's going on here in 2nd Chronicles. The timing of the Reformation there was such that the cleansing of the temple and its purification and dedication was not completed until the 16th of Nisan. In other words, already in the midst of the feast of unleavened bread. They had already missed the Passover for the first month. The temple wasn't clean yet and not suitable for the celebration of the festival. Well, something like this had happened in the past. And this is where you pick up Numbers chapter 9 beginning in verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season. And the thirteenth day of this month, and even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season, according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof shall ye keep it. So God is being very explicit. At its appointed season. You remember? The first month, the fourteenth day. At its appointed season. And according to all the rites and ceremonies that I gave you. The regulative principle of worship in action, as it were. And even applied to the days. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. But then we have a problem. And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. And this man said unto them, We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Wherefore are we kept back that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel? So here they've been kept back because of ceremonial uncleanness. They've missed the appointed time, as they themselves say. Now notice what Moses does. And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you. Moses, even though he is a great civil magistrate and a great prophet of God, you remember it was said that there wasn't a like unto Moses. He is a great prophet of God, but he is not willing to change one thing that God had appointed. He said, you stand still and I will go see what the Lord commands concerning you. And of course, whatever the Lord is going to tell them to do, that is what they're going to do. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord, the fourteenth day of the second month, and even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. So Moses does not alter it one whit after his own whim or fancy. but the alteration is made by the Lord Himself. And basically what He's taught as a standing rule is that there is ceremonial uncleanness, which there was in the time of Hezekiah, let it be kept on the second month, on the 14th day. So Hezekiah is just applying the ancient rule that God had given them, should there be uncleanness in the first month. So this is no exception but approving of the rule and notice the great humility of Moses that he dare not change anything apart from the Lord's express command to do so. But what was Israel's response as the Passover is being reinstituted in the midst of them and they're being called down come down from the northern reaches and worship in the midst of Jerusalem as you've been commanded. Verse 10. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun. But they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the priests by the word of the Lord. So here you see that although some laughed and mocked, a great many from these northern tribes went down. They returned to the Lord and to his worship to encourage the godly. So what is the faithful Israel like to do finding himself in Jeroboam's kingdom? Depart from those holy days of human inventing and return to those days that God himself had required. Now we've got there a couple of principles that We won't be able to work out into their full application until a future sermon, because we have to ask the question, what is it that God has commanded for this time? We depart from those things of human invention, like what Jeroboam had, and cling to those days that God has commanded. Of course, in this time, the Sabbath day, and only the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. We move on from this, we move on from what we might call Holy Days 101 to Holy Days maybe 506. Some advanced applications. Because a certain concern is raised. What is the relationship between Holy Days and what are called extraordinary times of fasting and thanksgiving? Which we've recently had some preaching about in this church and some occasion to practice. Some of you, that might sound very foreign, but I'll unfold this for you. Look at verse 22 of chapter 30. A certain concern is raised by this text that we ought to address. And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And they did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers. And the whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days, and they kept other seven days with gladness. Well, if you've been following me, you understand what the question and what the problem is here. They kept the seven days of the Passover as God had commanded, and then the assembly takes counsel and adds another seven days. And the question is, is this lawful or is this right? Or someone might say, if they added holy days at this point, do we have biblical authorization to add holy days? You probably already know what my answer is, and the answer is no. That we have a difference of kind here. The first seven days were the keeping of the appointed time, the feast of the Lord. The second seven days were a time of extraordinary thanksgiving, and they are different, biblically. As I was working on this problem, I spent a good amount of time with Matthew Poole on this subject, and listen to what Matthew Poole has to say about it, because he was also cognizant of the question that can be raised. Concerning the keeping of the other seven days, he says, it is not in the same manner as they had done the former, with offering new paschal lambs and eating only unleavened bread, and listen to what he says, of which there is not the least intimation in the text. In other words, he said, the text doesn't say that. But only, this is what they did, but only in the solemn worship of God, by sacrifices and prayers and praises and public instruction of that great congregation and the good knowledge of the Lord, which was so dear to Hezekiah, and at this time most seasonable and necessary for the people, after so long and dismal a night of ignorance, superstition and idolatry, as both Israel and Judah had been involved in. What is Poole getting at here? Poole is drawing upon some theology that can be a little bit alien to us. These are the forgotten elements of worship, those extraordinary elements of worship. Westminster Confession of Faith 21.5, after it goes through the ordinary elements, when you look at the Confession, Chapter 21, Sections 3 and 4 are devoted to prayer, praying to God as an act of worship. And then you get into section 5 and it runs pretty rapidly through some things. The reading, preaching and conscionable hearing of the word of God. The administration of baptism in the Lord's Supper and the singing of the Psalms. These are the ordinary parts of worship. The ordinary substance. But then they say there are some extraordinary elements of worship that are done upon occasions. Religious oaths and vows. solemn fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions which are, and there are several times and seasons to be used in a holy and religious manner. So let me try to sketch out the difference here. What is the difference between a holy day and a day of extraordinary thanksgiving? What's the difference between these? Well, remember, as we've been saying throughout, a holy day is a day that has been appointed by God Himself through His Word. In other words, through His Word, He says, you are going to keep this day holy, the Sabbath day. You're going to keep this day holy, the Passover. You're going to keep these days holy, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He hallows days unto Himself. These are holy days. As we look at 2 Chronicles, chapter 30, verse 22, It says, they did eat throughout the feast, that is, the moed, the appointed time, seven days. So they ate for seven days during the appointed time that God had set apart according to His Word. And remember what I said this morning, that moed comes from yaad, which means to appoint, or to set that time apart, set apart by God. Extraordinary days of thanksgiving are also appointed by God, but by means of His providence. Poole is asserting here that the second seven days was a time that God had set apart for them to worship by His providence. And what Poole says here, and I think is a most biblical judgment, he says it's unthinkable to believe that they repeated the Passover at this point. And he says there's not a whisper of it in the text. Actually he says they kept other seven days. Other seven days. But what Poole is pointing out is that God called them to a time of extraordinary thanksgiving. The temple has been cleansed of its idolatry. The northern kingdom has come down to worship, but they understand very little about the true religion of God. And with this great reformation underway, what Poole is pointing out is that God was, by his providence, calling them to an extraordinary time of giving thanks and instructing people in the word of God. But this is something that God does by means of providence. It's very much like fasting. And if you can see it concerning fasting, it's easy to say it concerning days of thanksgiving. You remember, not too long ago, we looked at the book of Joel. And in that first chapter, it's most remarkable. God has sore afflicted these people through a locust plague and they don't get it. and Joel complains against them, you ought to have already been up at the temple infesting in lamentation because God has called you to it by his providence how is it, this is striking, awake ye drunkards and weep and howl all ye drinkers of wine because of the new wine for it is cut off from your mouth Now, these might be drunkards indeed, but not drunk on this occasion, because there's no grapes for wine to drink anything. But they still act dull and sluggish, unresponsive to God's providence. And Joel says, you ought not to have needed a prophet to tell you to go up and humble yourself before your God and repent and fast. You shouldn't have needed a prophet. But you're dull. You're stupid. And God now is sending me to tell you, you need to get about this business. You get into chapter 2 and he says, you need to get about this business because the killing blow is on the horizon. God is not playing any games with you. You need to get about this task. Another example of this is in the book of Esther. You remember when Haman threatens all of the people of the Jews with genocide, which would be nothing less than the cutting off of true religion in the earth. They go immediately into fasting, having been called to it by God's providence. So God's still doing it, but He's doing it by means of His providence. And we're supposed to be able to discern the times of it. Which, interestingly, in 2 Chronicles 30, that's what the people do. They take counsel and they discern that God is calling us to an extraordinary time of thanksgiving. To continue in this glad worship so recently restored to us and instructing these northern kingdom Israelites that have been in superstition and idolatry and strengthening ourselves and encouraging ourselves in the Lord. Extraordinary time of thanksgiving. But here's the difference. It's not remembered annually. They do it this one time. Because God called them to it in their providence at that time, and then they didn't do it again. Just the one time. Very much recently we had a congregational fast concerning the marriage amendment, and we fasted and God gave us the victory. But how foolish would it have been for us to have instituted at that time a yearly fast for the matter, especially after God gave us victory. Wouldn't it be strange to be fasting next year for the marriage amendment after God gave us victory? It would be strange. So God calls on special occasions by His providence to extraordinary times of fasting and thanksgiving. If you have an opportunity, if you look at the appendix in the directory of worship, this is what they say. They say these festival days or holy days are not to be continued, having no warrant in the word of God, but extraordinary times of fasting and thanksgiving or to be done as God calls according to His providence. So this is something of an advanced application and being able to distinguish between two separate and different things. But it does raise another interesting question. Can you ever make an annual fasting or thanksgiving? Would it ever be wise or right to do so? As I worked on this problem, I think that old Puritan divine Archibald Hall is right. He said it is possible, when there is a great calamity, whose implications continue year after year, or some great blessing whose implications continue year after year, that you might have an annual fasting on one hand or thanksgiving on the other hand, depending upon the providence. But he points out that it cannot be fixed perpetually. But only so long as that calamity or blessing continues. Turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 7. I don't want to do too much with the particulars of this. I've been studying through Zechariah myself with that good old Scottish divine George Hutcheson. I wrote this maybe in the 1650s or so. And in Zechariah, a group of people come to the prophets and to the priests with a question, a case of conscience, because Israel during their 70 years of captivity had taken up some fast days that they were keeping annually. Now, there's a couple of different days that are mentioned, the particulars are not that important, except that they have to do with the time of besieging and fall, so they kept fast days on those particularly grievous days of remembrance. But now they've got a problem, because they say, we've been doing this for a very, very long time, but now you've gone back to the lands. Do we continue in our annual fasts or don't we? And how do we know? And so we take up Zechariah chapter 7, beginning in verse 2. When they had sent unto the house of God Cherazer and Regem-Melech and their men to pray before the Lord, and to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? So, you see the problem. Is it appropriate for us to continue while you're there rebuilding the temple? The exile is over. Not all of the exiles have gone back. These men haven't gone back. But the captivity is over. They can return. They are at liberty. At that point, Jehovah complains against their fast for many reasons. Very much like what we just had in the Sermon on the Mount from the Lord Jesus Christ. He complains about it being an external shell. Did he say during all these times, did you indeed fast to the Lord, your God? Or for some other reason? And he says, I think it's for some other reason. How do you know that? Because you haven't been obedient to my word. If you had been fasting unto me, you would have been obedient. But you haven't been obedient. But at the end of this text, as we get into chapter 8, Jehovah tells them that their fast, which they've been keeping annually, is going to be turned into thanksgiving, and that they're not to continue in their fast. Chapter 8, verse 19. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts, therefore love the truth and peace. So you see their time of grieving is going to be turned and it would be It would be a strange dullness to God's providence to continue weeping then, after He has turned that time into thanksgiving. So when you look at what George Hutchison does with it, he says, was this ever a good idea for them to make it annual? He said, maybe, because there was an end point fixed on the captivity. It would be something that would go for 70 years, and then it would be over. So he says, maybe. But it has an end. The Lord's going to put an end to it in His providence. And it shouldn't be continued past that point. So here we see that the doctrine's starting to shape up. Can these things be done annually? Well, if the blessing unto thanksgiving, or the cursing unto fasting, if those things continue, then perhaps. But if God's providence and disposition to His people should change, then those things ought to be left off. And our Puritan forebears everywhere warn us These things have a great tendency to turn into holy days, so beware. I have a little bit more to say about that in just a moment. There's another example of this, except here for feasting in the book of Esther. The feast of Purim was kept from that time, late 5th century BC or so, to the time of the Lord Jesus. you'll remember as I mentioned earlier the people had been threatened with genocide and so they fasted before the Lord under this terrible threat but then when the Lord gives them the victory over their enemies they go into a time of extraordinary thanksgiving the first Feast of Purim which was to be kept annually and this is where Archibald Hall says this is probably where we should get the principle the benefits continued until the time of Christ In other words, God had preserved true religion by preserving his people. And the benefits of that rolled on and on from generation to generation. Look at the book of Esther chapter 9. We'll pick up with verse 27. the Jews ordained and took upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time every year, and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, And that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. So again, an unspeakable blessing has just occurred. The Jews have been preserved and true religion has been preserved in the midst of them. And so that was celebrated as long as the benefits of that continued. But now, and from the beginning of the new administration, Christian people have left off and have not celebrated the Feast of Purim. Well, why? Well, it would be strange because the benefits have been left off. True religion is no longer preserved in the midst of the Jews, but as Paul teaches in Romans 11, they have, as a people, been primarily cut off. And wouldn't it be strange to go on celebrating true religion, preserved in the midst of the Jews, when it's not preserved in the midst of the Jews? we're still awaiting that time in the future the rather true religion has been preserved primarily in the Gentiles so the benefits of that preservation during that time have left off and changed their character in God's providence there's one other in the Word of God you don't need to turn here but in John chapter 10 it says that Jesus was at Jerusalem during the Feast of Dedication which is basically Hanukkah That time when Judas Maccabeus drove the... a little bit about what was happening during that period. You remember Alexander in the 4th century BC conquers everything all the way up to India. But after his death it split up into four kingdoms. And immediately to the north of Palestine you had the Seleucid Kingdom and they were particularly vexing to Israel. constantly invading and Antiochus Epiphanes had actually invaded the temple and desecrated it shedding pigs blood there and soiling it and keeping the people off from religion well a small band of men led by this is where the book of the Maccabees comes from Judas Maccabeus drove them out and rededicated and cleansed the temple this is the Feast of Dedication which was still being remembered during the time of Christ Now, some Reformed divines have looked at this and said, well, the fact that Jesus is there is not necessarily an approbation of the Feast. And, logically speaking, that's true. But it would be weird to mention it without any hint of disapproval. He simply mentions it, that Jesus is in the midst of them during the Feast of Dedication, and he uses that opportunity to teach the people, but without any disapprobation of what's happening there. And so again we find a similar kind of thing in other reformed divines where they're saying this is very much like the Feast of Pouring. God had given them their temple again through that great deliverance. The people were still enjoying the benefits of that down to that present time, the Feast of Dedication. So they were remembering that great deliverance of God year by year. But it can't be fixed forever. Why? 70 AD the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the temple and took it away. Why would you go on celebrating the dedication of the temple when the temple's destroyed and gone and something better has replaced it? Even a living temple. That's you, little flock. A living temple whose, if you think of it like a tent as Isaiah does, whose borders are continuing to spread and spread until it fills all of the earth. A very large Jerusalem, as it were. So such a thing might be kept as long as the benefits or the calamities continued. But when Providence calls us off from it, we ought to be called off from it. Well, what do we do as far as application? Well, as we go, and there'll be more about this next week, we'll look at more applications. But I had two thoughts, just as such a thinking. We're going to wrap some of these things up with greater detail later. But one of these things is proportion, and this is where the Puritans were very concerned. They said, in all of the word of God, during all of those centuries of the old administration, you're talking about four millennia, there were two great occurrences that were thought worthy of a memorial Thanksgiving year by year. Two! In four thousand years, after all that God did, two singled out for remembrance. And so these Reformed divines point out what a great disproportion there is between that and what you see in the Roman calendar. Where almost every week has a holy day in it. Or they might protest, well it's just a day of Thanksgiving. For millennia, there were only two that were great enough to constitute days of extraordinary Thanksgiving. So how is it that all of these have been added? These are some things to consider. Next time, well, we'll be getting at least towards the New Testament, because there are some things to consider there. The removal of the Mosaic ceremonies, their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, Paul's disposition to the keeping of days. We'll take all of that up next time. Let us pray together. 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. It 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 Calvin, 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.