What is family worship and how should it be done? What can the church today learn from the Puritans on this vitally important topic? In this sermon, Jeff Pollard gives useful information to help understand this subject.

During the Puritan era, there was a reformation of family life according to scripture. This message, the priority of family worship among the Puritans, was delivered by Jeff Pollard at the Puritan Family Reformation Conference in Wake Forest, North Carolina in 2008. The Puritans seem to have understood something that many of us do not. They recognized that decline in the faith of Jesus Christ usually begins in the home. To illustrate this, let us consider the following.

Over 300 years ago, a group of particular Baptists gathered to express their concern over a similar erosion of vibrant living faith in Christ Jesus in their own generation. They stated their conclusion in the introduction to the Second London Baptist Confession of 1677. And verily, there is one spring and cause of the decay of religion in our day, which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of. And that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed. May not the gross ignorance and instability of many with the profaneness of others be justly charged upon their parents and masters, who have not trained them up in the way wherein they ought to walk when they were young, but have neglected those frequent and solemn commands which the Lord hath laid upon them so to catechize and instruct them that their tender years might be seasoned with the knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and also by their own omission of prayer and other duties of religion in their families, together with the ill example of their loose conversation, have inured them first to a neglect and then contempt of all piety and religion.

We know this will not excuse the blindness or wickedness of any, but certainly it will fall heavy upon those that have been thus the occasion thereof. They indeed die in their sins, but will not their blood be required of those under whose care they were, who yet permitted them to go on without warning, yea, led them into the paths of destruction? And will not the diligence of Christians with respect to the discharge of these duties in ages past, rise up in judgment against and condemn many of those who would be esteemed such now. We shall conclude with our earnest prayer that the God of all grace will pour out those measures of his Holy Spirit upon us, that the profession of faith may be accompanied with the sound belief and diligent practice of it by us, that his name may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Several extremely important statements here should provoke our thinking. First, we read the remarkable observation that the cause of spiritual decay and the decline of holy living was not outward wicked living as such. If certain branches of modern Christianity had written this, we might hear the usual gang of problems. Drugs, alcohol, government schools, pornography, Hollywood, television, rock music, sodomites, immorality, feminism, wicked politicians, liberal media, and numerous other open sins. However, the truly shocking thing that these pastors concluded was this.

One of the primary springs or causes for the decay of the faith was the neglect of the worship of God in families, which leads to the open profanation of God. Second, they claim that the guilt for this decay must be laid at the feet of those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed. And that means primarily fathers. Third, we read the extraordinary statement that gross ignorance, instability, and profaneness are to be charged upon parents and teachers who have neglected the frequent and solemn commands which the Lord has laid upon them to catechize and instruct." A couple of words here may sound a little unfamiliar to us. Profaneness is contempt or irreverence for what is sacred.

And when some of us hear the word catechize, the only thing that comes to mind is Roman Catholicism. However, to catechize simply means to teach the principles of the Christian faith by questions and answers. That practice is not tied to a specific denomination. The Puritans of every stripe, regardless of how you define them, the Anglicans, Presbyterian, Independents, Baptists throughout history passed on the faith of Christ to their children through the practice of catechizing. As a matter of fact, one of the most interesting books I discovered in my early days as a Christian was a large book of Baptist catechisms.

Unfortunately, many of us simply are stranger to that practice. Fourth is the notable assertion that those who neglect prayer and other duties of family religion inure their households to neglect and then contempt of the faith. The word inure means to harden somebody to something. In other words, by the regular omission of family worship, not just absence from formal services. And by daily, loose, worldly living, professing Christian parents actually ingrain in their children the neglect of the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and finally contempt for it.

Very often throughout history, notable enemies of the faith have come out of nominal Christian homes. Fifth, and perhaps most shocking of all to our ears, is this conclusion. Those who are blind and wicked are without excuse and will die in their sins. But the responsibility of their eternal destruction lies partially, partially with those who did not warn them, who by their negligence actually led them into the path of destruction. And 1692, Puritan preacher Oliver Haywood wrote the following, For your sakes, dear friends, I presume again to appear upon the public stage, to prompt you to your duty and to promote the work of God in your souls and the worship of God in your families.

And I know not how a minister can employ his time, studies, and pen better next to the conviction and conversion of particular souls than in pressing upon householders a care of the souls under their charge. Now we really have to be honest with ourselves. How many of us think that next to the conversion of souls the most important thing any pastor can be giving himself to is urging family worship? I don't know many pastors that would agree with that. And whether we agree fully with that perspective or not, if nothing else, the quote brings us to a very clear understanding of the sobriety and the solemnity with which they considered this subject.

Haywood goes on to say that the worship of God in families hath a direct tendency to public reformation. Religion begins in individuals and passeth on to relatives. Churches and commonwealths consist of families. Excuse me, I have read that wrong. Pass on to relatives.

Break. Churches and commonwealths consist of families. There is a general complaint of the decay of the power of godliness and inundation of profaneness and not without cause. I know no better remedy than domestic piety." Now his first statement could apply to us today, could it not? There is a general complaint of the decay and of the power of godliness and inundation.

We're being drowned with profaneness. Certainly that's our culture today. But he says, I know no better remedy than domestic piety. Domestic piety here means teaching of the gospel and modeling the gospel, living the gospel in the home. I'm not against our doing what we can, regarding our government, taking part actively in doing whatever we can for public reform that is lawful and within the scope of God's word.

But if we stop and think about it, this is really a fairly shocking remedy. Family worship. The worship of God in our homes. And we find here a direct parallel, as I've said, with this general complaint of the decay of power and godliness. But it is most solemn to think that our, when we look around and see this horrendous fall into neo-paganism in our country and its pursuit of every sensual pleasure.

We want to blame everything except fathers in the home and those who should be bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." That's exactly where Haywood puts the blame. And brethren, I would submit to you that's exactly where the Word of God puts the blame. Haywood said, In vain do you complain of magistrates and ministers, while you that are householders are unfaithful to your trust. You complain that the world is in a bad state. What do you do to mend it?

Do not so much complain of others as of yourselves and complain not so much to man as to God. Plead with him for reformation. No doubt his counsel would be the same to us today. Are we truly convinced that the best way pastors can employ their time is pressing upon householders a care of the souls under their charge? Do we really believe that the path to spiritual and cultural reformation is family worship.

Let's consider the meaning of family worship for just a moment. Many professing Christians today, unfortunately, are strangers to the blessed practice of family worship. Yet it has always been a mark of God's people when his churches were spiritually healthy. Family worship is the praise, prayer, and adoration rendered to God by all the members of one household. Family worship consists in three basic elements.

Prayer, the Word of God, and psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. If under the leadership of the head of the home we offer these up by faith in Christ, we are then practicing family worship. Puritan William Perkins described it with this simplicity. A family, for the good estate of itself, is bound to the performance of two duties, one to God and the other to itself. We won't look at number two this morning.

The duty unto God is the private worship and service of God, which must be established and settled in every family. The household service of God hath two parts. The first is a conference upon the Word of God for the edification of all the members thereof to eternal life." The second is, invocation of the name of God with giving of thanks for his benefits. Both of these are commended in the Scriptures. Other Puritans would add singing to that, but it's really quite simple.

Now those who are interested in family reform must begin at the most fundamental level. Husbands, fathers, sons, wives, mothers, and daughters will never be what they ought to be without regular, sincere, fervent Family worship. The Puritans understood this, and their sermons and books regularly dealt with this theme. Yet we cannot understand this unless we begin with their view of family. The Puritan view of the family sprang from their study of the Word of God, the writings of the Reformers, Medieval theology, and Christian humanism.

Their understanding of the first three chapters of Genesis instilled in them the unshakable conviction that marriage and family were the outworking of God's eternal purpose. Likewise, they believed that the proper ordering of the family glorified God, as we saw yesterday. That was prominent in Augustine's teaching, Luther's teaching, Calvin's teaching, and it was plainly and readily seen in the Puritans' teaching. The notion of order is crucial. Benjamin Wadsworth gives us a good example of this.

He wrote a book entitled, The Well Ordered Family or Relative Duties. His preface lays out the Puritan perspective on order. He writes, Good order in any society renders it beautiful and lovely. The upholding of good order in it tends to promote the benefit and comfort of all the members of it. This is true of families as well as of other societies.

A family wherein the true worship of God, good pious instruction and government are held, is beautiful in the eyes of God Himself." Now listen, This is key. He delights to bless such. Order is beautiful and blessed of God. Hence our title, The Well Ordered Family. It begins with the instruction of the Word of God.

Now they believed with utmost conviction that God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. A society that takes this doctrine to heart will, or a society that takes this doctrine to heart, will find that it shapes everything about the family. It makes the spiritual, not the secular, the primary focus of what the family thinks and does. Now the same applies to God's command, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. Because of this, the Puritans believed that bearing children was a holy, righteous endeavor to glorify God and advance his kingdom.

Properly understood, this perspective gives the highest possible view to marriage and to childbearing. As Puritan William Perkins again says, marriage was made by God himself to be the fountain of all other sorts and kinds of life in the Commonwealth and in the church. This view naturally provoked their desire to bring up children in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and that was through family worship. In light of this the Puritans favorite image for the family was a little church. Perkins also wrote, these families wherein this service of God is performed are as it were little churches, yea, even a kind of paradise upon earth.

Now of course this is not to be thought of as neglecting the local church. This is not to be thought of as being independent, standing against authority. The whole notion is that we are simply a microcosm of the larger, beautiful body of Christ. It should be seen in our homes and then manifested as we gather together in our corporate worship. Now biblical passage such as Ephesians 5 23, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.

And 1 Corinthians 11 3, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is the man were the foundation for the doctrine of male headship. This revelation gave the Puritans eyes to see that husbands and fathers were the key to the spiritual condition of their wives and children. Brethren, just ask yourself the question, does your wife's countenance reflect that you lead your home joyfully in the things of Christ. Are your children gloomy, sullen? They could be gloomy and sullen for perhaps legitimate reasons, but we're talking about the atmosphere you cultivate in the home.

Let me ask you another question. Are your wives sorry that they are women because of your headship? These are important matters. They understood that a husband, that a father, was to guide the home in the beauty and the glory of holiness, purity in the Word of God. Now because of their high views of Scripture and their convictions that the purpose of the family was to glorify Jesus Christ in everything, The Puritans loved children and saw them as gifts from God to train up for Him.

They took this stewardship seriously. Therefore, some of the most solemn warnings and stinging rebukes to issue forth from Puritan pulpits and books were against negligent parents. Richard Mather delivered a graphic illustration of this. He painted the picture of Judgment Day in which children addressed parents who neglected to train them in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us the vision.

All are standing before the judgment throne of God. These children have just been sentenced to hell. And in anguish the children say, All this that We here suffer is through you. You should have taught us the things of God and did not. You should have restrained us from sin and corrected us and you did not.

You were the means of our original corruption and guiltiness, and yet you never showed any competent care that we might be delivered from it. Woe unto us that we had such carnal and careless parents, and woe unto you that had no more compassion and pity to prevent the everlasting misery of your children. Now they understood that God was sovereign, but they also understood responsibility under God's sovereignty. It is God that opens the heart or leaves men in their sins, But there are responsibilities that God has ordained. The underlying doctrine guiding the Puritan view of children was radical depravity and original sin.

The Scriptures make this plain. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. Proverbs 22, 15. And a child left to himself bringeth his mother shame. Proverbs 29, 15.

William Goodge said, There is a necessity that children be taught piety, because they are not born, but made Christians. By nature they are utterly destitute of all piety. For by nature Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, and in that respect, man is born like the wild ass's coat. So as a man, we're better be unborn than not taught piety." Benjamin Wadsworth said, The children's hearts naturally are a mere nest, root, fountain of sin and wickedness, an evil treasure from whence proceed evil things. Indeed, as sharers in the guilt of Adam's first sin, their hearts are unspeakably wicked, estranged from God." That's strange language about those precious little children that we hold.

But it was biblical language. Likewise, Robert Cleaver and John Dodd wrote, the young child which lieth in the cradle is both wayward and full of affections, and though his body be but small, yet he hath a great heart and is altogether inclined to evil. If this sparkle be suffered to increase, it will rage and burn down the whole house. Now for this reason, the Puritans ardently believed that their children desperately needed conversion and consistent training in the Word of God. They knew their children left to themselves, would destroy themselves and those around them.

And they took it seriously. The Scriptures place the responsibility for the spiritual training of their children squarely on the shoulder of fathers. Ephesians 6, 4, Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Puritans understood the father's responsibility of the headship in the home and that it was a divine command. William Perkins again from his Christian economy says, the good man or master of the family is a person in...

By the way, master there means teacher... A good man or the master of the family is a person in whom resteth the private and proper government of the whole household. And he comes not unto it by election, as it falleth out in other states, but by the ordinance of God." Oliver Heywood said, "'As holy Jacob, the famous patriarch, was a prophet to instruct his family in the true religion, and a king to govern them for God, so a priest to set up an altar, offer sacrifices, and perform religious worship for and with his family. Even the poorest man that has a family is to be prophet, priest, and king in his own house. Now that image shows up all the time in Puritan writings.

They saw the Father as the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as our mediator is prophet, priest, and King for the government of the church, for the well-being of the church, and the Father was to be Prophet, Priest, and King in his home, representing the Lord Jesus Christ. The Puritans knew that their children belonged to God, and that's crucial. Gudge said, Children are most properly gods, born to God. He is the most proper parent of them.

In comparison of God, fathers and mothers of the flesh are but nurses. They must therefore nurture them in the admonition of the Lord. Therefore, Puritan pastors constantly listed the reasons that husbands and fathers should pursue, or the reasons why they should pursue this great work. This is just a very small example of the many. Perkins listed the father's responsibilities.

He had about five of them, but this was the first two, or these were the first two. Number one, to bear the chief stroke influence and to be the principal agent, director, and further of the worship of God within the family. That's number one. Number two, to bring his family to the church or congregation on the Sabbath day to look that they religiously there behave themselves and after the public exercises ended and the congregation dismissed, to take account of that which they have heard, that they may profit in knowledge and obedience." In other words, when the sermon was over, On the way home, they would ask their children, what was the pastor's text? What were the main points of the pastor's message?

How does that apply to us as a family? How does that apply to you and this family? Brethren, do we do this? Does your pastor labor all week long fervently in prayer studying the Word of God to bring the light and truth of Jesus Christ to your family? And do you blow it out of their memory banks on the way home with irrelevant things?

Fathers, you should be helping the pastor educate your children for Christ. You can undo everything he's doing. Likewise, Thomas Doolittle gave seven reasons for family prayer. One, you should pray to God daily in your families because we receive everyday family mercies from the hand of God. Two, you should pray to God daily in your families because there are sins committed every day in your families.

Three, You should pray in your families daily because of your family's daily employments and labors. They've got things to do. Pray. Pray that they can do them well. Five, you should pray to God in your families daily because you are all, every day, liable to temptations.

Six, you should pray in your families daily because all in your families are liable to daily hazards, casualties, and afflictions. Seven, You must pray to God in your families daily, or the very heathen will rise up against you Christians and condemn you. The motivation for the Puritans then was clear. The glory of God, innumerable benefits and blessings, the church, the commonwealth, all of these were at stake. So the Puritans strongly rebuked husbands and fathers who did not take their headship seriously.

Oliver Heywood said, oh, sirs, have you not sinned enough of your own, but you must draw upon yourselves the guilt of your whole families? It is you that make bad times and bring down judgments on the nation. Would you rather see the agonies of your children and hear them crying amidst the infernal torments, then speak a word to them for their instruction? Hear them cry under your correction or supplicate God for their salvation? Oh cruel tigers and barbarous monsters!

You may imagine yourselves to be Christians, but I cannot judge that a man worthy to be a fit communicant at the Lord's table that maintains not the worship of God ordinarily in his family. The directory for worship actually prescribed church discipline from a father who did not regularly practice family worship. If pastors in this nation began excommunicating fathers for not doing family worship, What would Sunday morning look like? Now while the Puritans strongly believed in physical provision for their children, and all the books on an ordered family go through the things you should provide for your children. Food, clothing, a roof over their heads.

They valued spiritual and moral training above all. It began there. In 1677, the members of the church in Dorchester, Massachusetts, resolved to covenant together for reformation of their lives. Whole church covenants together. In one portion of the covenant they resolved to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care, to set up and maintain the worship of God in them, and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instruction, and charging our children and our households to keep the ways of the Lord.

That might be an excellent practice for churches today. Covenanting together was common throughout the history of the church, but especially in those days. Cotton Mather reflects the same. Before all and above all, tis the knowledge of the Christian religion that parents are to teach their children, the knowledge of other things, though it be never so desirable an accomplishment for them, our children may arrive to eternal happiness without it." In other words, what they're saying is no matter how wonderful it might be to attain to certain things in this life and they might be lawful in good things in and of themselves, they don't have to have it to attain to eternal life. To attain to eternal life.

He goes on to say, but the knowledge of the godly doctrine in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ is of a million times more necessity for them. Children need the Lord Jesus Christ. Children, every one of you here needs the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm deeply grateful that some of you know Him. Some of you desperately need to flee to Him.

Children need to know that the Son of God became the Son of Man to save sinners from their sins and the condemnation of hell. They need to know that Jesus Christ suffered upon the cross of Calvary and was raised again the third day to secure eternal salvation for all those who repent and believe on Him. Children need to know that salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved them. Children, don't be good little boys and girls to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be good little boys and girls.

They need to know that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. One of the first complaints is, Well, I haven't been to Bible school, I haven't been to seminary, I don't know all that stuff. Brethren, that is exactly why confessions were made, catechisms were made. You read the beginning of Luther's larger catechism or maybe it's his smaller catechism. He says, I've made this little catechism so that fathers may pass the faith on to their children.

Men who have the teaching have given you the tools. Use them. Fathers and mothers must exalt Jesus Christ above all. In this knowledge of Christ, says Isaac Ambrose, There is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world. There is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting.

Only Christ is the sum and center of all divine revealed truths. We can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul's salvation, which doth not in some way or other either meet in Christ or refer to Christ. Only Christ is the whole of man's happiness, the Son to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures. Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the mediator between God and man. As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so his sight transcends all other sights.

It is the epitome of a Christian's happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties, looking unto Jesus. That's what our children need to know. Fathers and mothers, you must not only teach your children the truths of God's Word, you must model it. Children need to see the love of Jesus Christ burning in your heart, not just mouth religion. Children need to see you repent of your daily sins.

Children need to hear you pray for their souls. They need to hear you earnestly pray for their souls. They need to know that that burns in your heart. They need to know that the thought of your eternal destruction would grieve them. They must see you trusting Christ in trials and tragedies.

They must see you walk in holiness. Benjamin Wadsworth said, Be sure to set good example before your children. Other methods of instruction probably will not do much good if you don't teach them by a godly example. Don't think your children will mind the good rules you give them if you act contrary to those rules yourselves. If your counsels are good and your example evil, your children will be more alike to be hurt by the latter than benefited by the former.

Charles Spurgeon, who inherited the Puritan vision of family discipleship and family worship said, we deeply lack a revival of domestic religion. The Christian family was the bulwark of godliness in the days of the Puritans. But in these evil days, hundreds of families of so-called Christians have no family worship, no restraint upon growing sons, and no wholesome instruction or discipline. How can we hope to see the kingdom of our Lord advance when his own disciples do not teach his gospel to their own children. May the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be pleased to raise up a mighty generation of fathers and mothers who will, for the love of Christ, for the love of their children's souls, for the love of the nations of the world, establish daily family worship in their homes, to the glory of Christ Jesus and the expanding of His great kingdom.

This is the Puritan vision of family discipleship. May it be ours as well. Amen. You