In his sermon, Mike Davenport delves into the transformation of religious worship under the new gospel dispensation as outlined in the 1689 SLBC 22:6. He emphasizes the pivotal moment in John chapter 4, where Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well, indicating a shift from traditional, location-based worship to a more personal and spiritual form. Jesus teaches that worship must now be in 'spirit and truth,' transcending geographical confines and ceremonial practices. The sermon highlights the transition from old covenant rituals to a new covenant reality where worship is a matter of the heart and truth, accessible to all nations. Davenport further explores the concept of worship 'everywhere'—in private, in families, and in public assemblies—emphasizing the importance of sincerity and truth in worship. He underscores the ongoing relevance of the gospel era, where Christ, as the Messiah, directs worship according to new principles, reflecting God's universal dominion and fulfillment of scriptural promises. The sermon concludes with a call to understand the law of nature regarding appointed times for worship and the importance of adhering to God's revealed will.

Well, let's look to him again in prayer and ask for his help for understanding. Oh gracious God, we thank you for your goodness to us. And Lord, just as we have been reminded of your promise to water the earth, Lord, we ask that you would send forth your word now and that it would accomplish the purpose for which you send it. We thank you that it will not return to you without accomplishing that purpose and Lord we pray that you would come, draw near to us and teach us, give us ears to hear and hearts to receive and then give us the obedience that we have to walk in your ways. Thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well tonight we continue in chapter 22 of our confession dealing with religious worship and the Sabbath day. Stop to think about it tonight. We're going to be looking at some things which to us aren't new, But we're going to be looking at a passage in John and put yourself in the place of the hearers of that day, not just the Samaritan woman but the disciples. For 4, 000 years, worship had been going on as usual, except for times of intervention when they had been taken away into captivity.

But worship had been the same. But the Lord of Sabbath comes and He declares a change and He can do that. He's Lord of the Sabbath. So we come tonight to paragraph 6. We'll deal with paragraph 6 for the most of our time.

We'll jump in a little bit to paragraph 7 but won't Probably cover it fully because of time and Lord willing will wrap this chapter up next week Looking at the rest of chapter or paragraph 7 that is and then paragraph 8 So paragraph 6 Neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is now under the gospel tied unto or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed or towards which it is directed. But God is to be worshiped everywhere, in spirit and in truth, as in private families daily and in secret, each one by himself. So more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly nor willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God, by His word or providence, calleth thereunto." Well, one of the most important phrases in this paragraph is that little phrase, now under the gospel. That changes so much. Now under the gospel.

Look with me at John chapter 4, if you have your Bibles with you. John chapter 4. John chapter 4 is a very familiar passage to many as Jesus takes his disciples on a route that goes through Samaria. And it's interesting that we're told he needed to go, he needed to go through Samaria. That's because there was an encounter that he must have.

And we read of this encounter with this woman who comes to the well simply to get water, something she had done every day for many, many, many years. But this day was to be different. We'll pick up the reading in verse 19, John 419. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.

Well Christ here was doing at least three things according to the commentators Jameson, Faust, and Brown. First, the point raised will very soon cease to be of any moment. So he's raising this point, hey, we say here on this mountain, God is to be worshiped, The Jews say over here in Jerusalem, well this point that's been raised will very soon cease to be of any moment, will cease to be of any consequence, for a total change of dispensation is about to come over the church. The second thing Christ was doing is saying the Samaritans are wrong, not only as to the place but the whole grounds and the whole nature of their worship while in all these respects the truth lies with the Jews. So the Samaritans were worshipping wrong not only the place but the nature and the grounds of their worship.

You don't even know what you worship. You don't know. But third, as God is a spirit, He both invites and demands a spiritual worship, and already all is in preparation for a spiritual economy, more in harmony with the true nature of acceptable service than the ceremonial worship by consecrated persons, place, and times, which God for a time has seen meet to keep up till fullness of the time should come." All of these years of worship, all of this ceremonial law was pointing to one thing. It was pointing to Jesus Christ. And the time has come.

Christ is here. And he's saying, I've come to declare the Father. He's the Spirit. And he's seeking worshipers to worship in spirit and in truth. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this woman says, hold on.

This is established worship we're talking about. Both yours and ours established worship for years. There is only one who could change the way of worship because we read, what does she say? The woman said to him, I know, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ when he comes He will tell us all things To what is she most likely referring I mean Where did she get this idea? Well, I think it may have been in the words that Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 18, 15 through 18.

There Moses is telling the people what God has told him and he says the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst from your brethren him you shall hear According to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire any more lest I die. And The Lord said to me, what they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him." So this woman is saying, hey the Messiah is coming and Moses says when he comes he will tell us all things Because God will put the words that he is to speak right in his mouth and he will be a prophet like Moses. So What was Christ's response to this statement by the woman? When he comes, he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. I am he? You're saying that when the Messiah comes he will tell us all things. Are you ready to listen? I am he.

And just as the initial way of worship was spoken through Moses the prophet, a greater than Moses is here, but a prophet like Moses that will tell the people how God is to be worshiped. In other words, Jesus was claiming to be that prophet that God was raising up, that everyone was to hear. The words of the father were in his mouth. What he has just spoken to her about true worship was from the father. So the hour is coming and now is.

The hour is coming and now is it's it's right at the doorstep. It's right here. It's not something that it's coming sometime No, it's coming and now is right here at the threshold because I am here to speak the words of my Father Jesus is saying. This points to the change that was being initiated by the good news of the arrival of the Messiah. And so that is why the writers refer to the present timeframe as the gospel.

This is the time of the gospel that we live in ever since this timeframe, even this conversation, this is the time of the gospel that we live in. Why? Why is it hinge on the gospel? Because the gospel is wound up in who God is, in who Jesus is, and his revealing of his Father. So what change has the coming of the Messiah brought in regards to worship?

What change? What words from the Father has he left us? Well, they go on to tell us that neither prayer nor any other part of religious worship is tied unto or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed or towards which it is directed, but God is to be worshiped everywhere in spirit and in truth. Now Christ has just declared that salvation is of the Jews. Like the Apostle Paul said, the Jews and the Jews only of all the nations had been given the oracles of God.

They had been given the commands of God. They had been given the right way to worship. It was in the law. No other nation had been given these directives of worship, but the Old Covenant pointed to the coming day where all the nations would be part of the worship of Jehovah. Consider a few passages among many That could be quoted.

What about the promise God made to Abraham? He said, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 22, 18. Psalm 22, 27 through 28. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He rules over the nations. Again from Psalms, Psalm 86, 8 through 9. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, Nor are there any works like your works. All nations which you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name." So we've seen something as early as Genesis in the Pentateuch. We've seen from the poetical books, even the prophets, Isaiah 2, 2 through 3.

Now, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow to it Many people shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths. Daniel 7 verse 14, Daniel gives us the vision of the future ascension of Jesus Christ after his sacrificial work as he comes to the Father to receive that inheritance promised to him in Psalm 2, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. And so Daniel gives us that picture of the Lord of glory coming in the clouds and approaching the ancient of days. And he says then to him, to Christ was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed Zephaniah 2 11 The Lord will be awesome to them for he will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth. People shall worship him, each one from his place, indeed all the shores of the nations." And Haggai 2, 6, and 7, for thus says the Lord of hosts, once more, it is a little while, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill this temple with glory says the Lord of hosts." So all throughout the scriptures this day, this day was coming when those who sat in darkness would see a great light. And then God's house would be called a house of prayer for all the nations. And the Gentiles would be gathered in, they would be grafted in, though cut off from the wild olive trees, they would be grafted in to that which God had established. And so the writers of our confession seek to establish two things, the very things that flow out of Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman.

First of all, God is to be worshiped everywhere. He's to be worshiped everywhere. Malachi 1-11 says, for from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Those words of Malachi at the very end of the Old Testament would have been shaking to the Jews in every place in every place And so you have this woman here on this mountain, this is the mountain we're to worship. You Jews, you say over Jerusalem, this is the place to worship.

And Malachi is saying, you don't understand God's plan in every place in every place Incense shall be offered to my name So that's one thing that they're they're drawing attention to God is to be worshiped everywhere But second of all he is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth, for God is seeking such worshipers to worship him. That small conjunction is very important, and, and, in spirit and in truth. How prone man is to pick one or to pick the other Plenty are there who seek to worship God in spirit. That's with heart and soul. It's with joy.

It's with earnestness. It's with sincerity. But they do so without truth. And there are churches filled with truth regarding the worship God desires, but it's without spirit. It's dead.

It's without joy. It's without enthusiasm. It's without sincerity. They just go through the motions, but their hearts are far from God. How dreadful that worship, which is devoid of both spirit and truth But God is seeking worshipers to worship in spirit and in truth God God is seeking Do you get that?

God is Seeking God is seeking for one type of worshiper one type this is the only type he's looking for. A worshiper who will worship in spirit and in truth, both must be present. No doubt you've heard of seeker sensitive churches. It was coined some time ago. I think it's lost some of its steam.

But it's really built on the idea of, you know, we want to be sensitive. All these people, they envision these people seeking God and they're looking for specific things when they show up at a church. And so we should be sensitive to what they're seeking for so we can meet that. So we can meet that. Hope should be a seeker sensitive church but not in terms of what man wants but what God wants.

God's the one doing the seeking. He's the one whom we need to be sensitive about what it is that he wants. As God walks among us, what does he find? What does he find? Are you worshiping him in spirit and in truth?

Well next the writers open up the idea of everywhere. They open it up. What are they talking about by the word everywhere? Now when we hear that word, what do our minds run to? Our minds run to a geographical sense, right?

We think of everywhere. I mean after all the gospel is going to the gentiles and so hey, we're thinking of worship in the Americas, in Europe, and in Asia, in the islands, in Africa, And all of that is true. It's true. The gospel is being opened up to the Gentiles. But the New Testament teaches us that the universal church of Christ is made up of local churches that are scattered across the world.

So it is geographical in that sense, but it's also made up of local churches. So the everywhere is not to be considered just as a geographical everywhere, but a spiritual everywhere. You see, the temple and the tabernacle were the places of worship in the old covenant. If you were to worship God, you came to the tabernacle, you came to the temple. That was the established place.

But what about the new covenant? What about the new covenant? We read in Ephesians 2, 19 through 24, that the church, the church has become the special dwelling place of God, for the church is his temple. Those who are added to his church are like living stones added to this temple, to the church that God is building. When Jesus taught his disciples about dealing with sin in the local church, he declared that wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, he would be there in the midst of them.

There, not, not, not, well, you have to bring it to Jerusalem, but where they are in that local body, Christ is in the midst of them, and He's giving them aid to carry out His desires. Carry out his desires. That term, where in Matthew 18 20, where two or three are gathered, that indicates a change from the Old Covenant, the temple no longer being confined to physical Jerusalem. But the writers of our confession do not want us to overlook the everywhere as it applies to each of us as individuals, For Paul teaches that our bodies are also temples, the dwelling place of the third person of the Godhead, our very bodies. Those two biblical doctrines concerning the new covenant temple of God led the writers to list three particular places where religious worship is to take place.

The worship of God is to occur in private families. The worship of God is to occur in secret, each one by himself. And the worship of God is to occur in the public assemblies. So the everywhere, not thinking just geographical, the everywhere includes our homes, our closets, and our families or our church rather, our homes, our closets, and our church. Now the words they attach to two of these places particularly, note these words, in our homes daily and in the church solemnly.

Are these true of us? Are these true of us? Are we worshiping him daily in our homes? Is it part of our home life? Worshipping the God of heaven and earth?

Are we worshiping him in our church with a true and genuine solemnity. Our public meetings are to be marked with a gravity or a weightiness with reverence. And what's the reason for the solemnity? What's the reason for the reverence? Well, this gravity and reverence is driven by what we studied back in paragraph 1, the fact that the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will.

That's why there must be a reverence, a gravity, when we come before God. Because of the solemnity that the public worship is due, the regulative principle of worship leaves its fingerprints indelibly upon that worship, the public worship, unlike any other. And they note that by tying that word solemnly to the public gathering of the people of God. The special nature, the special nature of this public worship is also emphasized by a focus on the scriptural command that states that these public gatherings are not carelessly nor willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God by his word or providence calleth there unto." And if you look in your books, if you've got one that has the footnotes with the verses, you'll notice Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 listed among the footnotes. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but on the contrary, exhorting one another because we're present in the assembly.

And so much the more as you see the day approaching. So note the words that they use here in regards to our participation in the public gatherings of worship. Do not neglect and do not forsake. Don't neglect, don't forsake. We can be guilty of turning completely away from the public gathering or We can be guilty of simply not giving it the due attention it deserves and the demands and And not taking it seriously They also draw attention to the fact that this neglect or forsaking can be done carelessly or it can be done willfully.

And so you can see that there is a wide path between careless neglect, willful neglect, careless forsaking, willful Willful neglect, careless forsaking, willful forsaking. Do you give the public worship of God your due attention, your due respect, your due participation? I couldn't help but think of the three things that were established today in Nehemiah chapter 7. Gatekeepers, singers, and Levites. Think about the appointment of those in the Church of Jesus Christ, the gatekeepers.

We're all to be about the business of watching and praying. We're each of us, our brother's keepers. We're connected to a living body. My hand better care about my eye to protect it, to get something out of it if it's necessary. My feet better have an interest in my stomach So that I make my way to the dinner table to make sure my stomach gets some food.

You see there's a care There's a keeping there's a guarding of the gates and the protection of the church. There's the singers. What are we told to do in the New Testament? We're to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We're all singers.

Every one of us. God's established us as singers in the New Covenant Church. That's why we just spent the time singing. And Levites, you're a chosen generation, you're a royal priesthood. We are the priests of the New Covenant.

So this public worship of God then deserves our due attention, our due respect, and our due participation. Now why do they state these two driving factors at the end of the paragraph? They say, by His Word or by His providence, don't neglect or forsake the public assemblies that have come about by his word or by his providence. Well I believe they were referring back to the distinctions that they made in the earlier paragraphs between the ordinary and the occasional. You have the ordinary aspects of worship, the prayer, the singing, the reading of the Word.

You have those that are ordinary, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and then those that are occasional. So the ordinary has to do with what we do on the day that God has specifically set aside by His Word. So by His Word He has set aside a day. But the occasional have to do with what we do on those occasions when a call comes out from the church for fasting or thanksgiving. Occasions that arise not out of a specific biblical command, but out of a felt need to corporately respond to God's providential dealings with us as a church body.

Sometimes God's providence drives us to a point that we need to gather together as a public assembly. It doesn't have to be the specific day set about by His Word. It could be another day or it could be part of this day. But these occasional things of humiliating ourselves, it says, and by prayer, fasting, thanksgiving, we can come together as the people of God. So in the couple of minutes that remain, I'm just going to read the seventh paragraph.

And we'll just touch upon it a little bit and then we'll come back to it next week. As it is the law of nature that in general a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for the worship of God so by His Word and a positive moral and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's Day and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished. And so I just want to touch upon this one thing. Once again we have nature set before us in regards to the worship of God. Having stated in this chapter that the light of nature teaches us that God is to be worshiped.

You go back to that earlier paragraph, the light of nature teaches us that God is to be worshiped. They now state that the law of nature teaches us that in general a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for the worship of God. Lest you think that they are now stretching the application a little too far, I mean okay the light of nature teaches us that we should worship Him, but there's the law of nature that teaches us that there has to be a proportion of time spent in the worship of God. I mean, Is that stretching it a little bit too far? Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1.

God's eternal power and Godhead are revealed in nature. And what has been natural man's sinful response to that natural revelation. All you have to do is look at what man's response is, and you'll see what that revelation was all about. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed and is to be blessed forever amen And so the very response of man to what nature reveals is to go worship the creature It Draws out worse it demands that there be a proportion of time for worship The only thing is is man doesn't give it to God.

The law of nature declares that there is a supreme one to be worshipped and served and man has responded to that revealing of nature by removing the Creator from that rightful place and placing the creature most often themselves in the place of the Creator. Man by nature recognizes that it is right, that it is fitting that worship take place. They know it. As the Creator, the one who has declared and demonstrated His eternal power and Godhead through that creation, God alone has the right and prerogative to appoint, as they tell us, to appoint that proportion of time for his worship, just as the Creator, he has the divine right to declare how he desires for us to worship during that time. And so we'll leave it at that.

We'll come back and look more beyond what God has for us, not just in terms of the light of nature, but also what He's given us in His Word. He's declared not only in His Word how He wants to be worshiped, He's declared in His Word when He wants to be worshiped. And we need to be aware of that. Well, let's close in prayer and then We'll open it up for any comments or questions. Father, thank you for your goodness to us.

Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ who was that prophet who came and revealed to us the glories of who you are in such brighter ways. Lord, we thank you for the blessing of progressive revelation that Lord, we live in a day where the prophets of old, they sought to understand more the things that they wrote, things that we can now look back on and can understand. Thank you for revealing these things to us and not leaving us in the dark to grope for you, to try to understand how it is that you desire to be worshiped. Thank you. May we be faithful.

Oh Lord, make us faithful. We pray in your son's name, amen.