In the sermon 'Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day - The 1689 SLBC 22:3-5', Mike Davenport explores the principles of acceptable worship as outlined in the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. The Puritan principle of worship is highlighted, contrasting it with Anglican practices. It is emphasized that acceptable worship must adhere strictly to Scripture, using only the materials provided by God's Word. Paragraphs 3 through 5 of the confession are discussed, focusing on the elements of acceptable worship, which include prayer, the reading of Scriptures, and the administration of sacraments. Davenport underscores the importance of prayer, noting that it should be offered with thanksgiving, in the name of the Son, by the help of the Spirit, and according to the will of the Father. This involves recognizing the mediating role of Jesus Christ and the assisting role of the Holy Spirit. The sermon stresses the importance of praying with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance. Public worship should involve prayers in a known tongue for edification, and should not include prayers for the dead or those who have committed unpardonable sins. The comprehensive view of worship also includes teaching, singing, and observing sacraments like baptism and the Lord's Supper. Occasional elements such as fasting and special thanksgivings are also part of worship but are to be used sparingly. The sermon calls for worship that is true to God's revealed will, engaging both the heart and mind, performed with understanding, reverence, faith, and godly fear.

Well, tonight we come to paragraphs 3 through 5 of – I keep forgetting the chapter number – we're on 22, chapter 22 of religious worship and the Sabbath day. And we come to paragraphs 3 through 5 tonight. Now last week we discussed the Puritan principle of worship as described in the first two paragraphs of this part of the confession, this chapter. Sam Waldron in his commentary on the confession I think offers a very helpful example. He says G.I.

Williamson in his book Westminster Confession for Study Classes helpfully and popularly states the Puritan principle exemplified in the confession. And then he quotes Mr. Williamson, What is commanded is right and what is not commanded is wrong. The difference between Puritans and Anglicans may be helpfully illustrated by means of two builders intent on building the temple of God. Mr.

Anglican must use the materials of the Word of God but has no blueprint and may use other materials. Mr. Puritan must use only materials of the Word of God and has a blueprint. It takes no special genius to discern that the two completed designs, these buildings, will differ drastically or to discern which will be more pleasing to God. And then having listed the passages supporting the regulative principle of worship, Mr.

Waldron goes on to state the following, With this ample Biblical support, why are men so lenient in their worship? It is because the God of modern men is not a God to be feared. Of all that is not appointed by God in His worship, we must hear Jesus saying, take these things hence. The child of God will not respond to the regulative principle as if it were an intolerable straight jacket. He will pray rather, oh Lord, teach me to worship you acceptably Well tonight as I said we'll seek to discuss these next three paragraphs three through five All of which deal with the acceptable elements of worship.

They talked about the acceptable way of worship. Now the writers start to talk about the acceptable elements of worship and they talk about it in terms of the ordinary and the occasional. The ordinary and the occasional and I think it'll be more clear as we, or clearer rather, as we move our way through it. So, paragraph 3, prayer with thanksgiving being one part of natural worship is by God required of all men. But that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son by the help of the Spirit according to His will with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance, and when with others in a known tongue." Prayer is a necessary element of God's public worship.

He requires it of all men. Now does it surprise you that the writers of the Confessions start here with prayer? I confess it kind of puzzled me as I started digging into this. But in God's providence, I ran across an interesting article on a website this week. It's by a man named James Ferris.

I'm not even familiar with him, but in a post on the website Gentle Reformation, which I do peruse occasionally, he asks and then responds to the following questions which we would do well to consider. When you go to corporate worship, do you have the sense that you are talking to God in a more personal and vibrant way than in your individual devotions each day. When you think of corporate worship, do you think of it more as calling on the name of the Lord or going to hear from God? Strikingly the most common nomenclature for worship in Scripture is that of prayer and calling on God. The first corporate worship is mentioned in Genesis 4 26 with Seth and Enosh.

At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. We rightly celebrate the recovery of preaching in the Reformation, he goes on to say, but if we have erred in recent centuries in reformed circles, it is probably in overemphasizing God's house as a place of preaching, which it is, while under emphasizing God's declaration that His house is a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56-7, which is quoted by Christ in Mark 11-17. So do you see this place where we're gathered tonight, Do you see this place as a house of prayer? It's a house of prayer.

That's what God calls it. He calls it a house of prayer. Another question we should ask ourselves is are our prayers filled with thanksgiving? Are they filled with thanksgiving? Many times our prayers are filled with petitions, And we are to bring our petitions to God.

We are to cast our cares upon him We are to ask Believing in him that we might receive Or to praise him or to give him. Thanks Is that not often what the psalmist does throughout the Psalms giving thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever? But we see here what God considers Acceptable prayer We saw last week that God determines what is acceptable worship. So it should not surprise us that they discuss here acceptable prayer. In regards to the method, because they're going to talk about the method and the mode, in regards to the method of acceptable prayer, the writers draw our attention to three things.

It is prayer made in the name of the Son. Acceptable prayer is prayer that is made by the help of the Spirit and acceptable prayer is prayer that is made according to the will of the Father. In other words, acceptable prayer always engages the Trinity. It recognizes The mediatorial role of Jesus Christ, that He's our intercessor, it recognizes that. We don't just storm into the courts of heaven on our own, On our own righteousness, on our own agenda, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

So it recognizes the mediatorial role of Jesus Christ. But secondly, it recognizes the helping role of the Holy Spirit. And you see in Romans 8 that he assures us of God's willingness to accept us as his sons and his daughters. It's the Spirit who gives us an answer within our hearts that cries out to him, Abba, Father. That's the work of the Spirit.

But also the Spirit helps us in the weakness of our prayers when we don't know what to pray for. He makes groanings for us which cannot be uttered. And so we come to God in prayer by the help of the Spirit. But third, acceptable prayer recognizes the will of the Father. It recognizes the will of the Father that we should pray as Christ taught his disciples to pray that his will, our great Father in heaven, that his will would be done here on earth even as it's done so perfectly in full obedience in heaven.

Then in regards to the mode of acceptable prayer, the writers mentioned the following things that must be there. It must be with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance, and when with others in a known tongue. So with understanding, with understanding, we should understand what it is we are praying for and who it is we are praying to. We need to have an understanding of the things we're praying for and we need to have an understanding of whose presence we are entering. A right understanding of that will naturally lead to a reverence and a humility.

If you don't have the right understanding, you most likely aren't going to have reverence and humility. And we should have reverence and humility as we consider who we are and who he is. Acceptable prayer will also be marked by fervency. It is the fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much. Why does it avail much?

It's part of acceptable prayer to God. That it be fervent. It has to come from the heart. If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God and God will give to all liberally and without reproach, without upbraiding. But let him ask in faith, not doubting, let him come with fervency, knowing that God delights to hear and to answer.

Hebrews 11 6 tells us why they put faith, acceptable prayers, faith. Why? Because without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and must believe that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Without faith it's impossible to please him.

So if we come to God with our prayer and our prayer is without faith, it's not acceptable. It's not pleasing. It must be done in faith. Acceptable prayer must be marked with love, with love. God desires, we were talking about the Spirit a few minutes ago, God desires that we come into His presence, that we approach Him with the full realization of our adoption in Jesus Christ.

And he wants us to come as his sons and his daughters and to cry out to him with love from our hearts, Abba, Father. Acceptable prayer is also marked by perseverance. Perseverance. Jesus taught his disciples to pray and to not lose heart. To be is that persistent widow that daily was nagging the judge, rule in my favor, be just in my favor.

And he says men ought always to pray and not to lose heart, to be fervent in prayer but also persevere. Often we're fervent in prayer for a season but when it seems that God doesn't answer how often do we stop? We we stop. We stop. And we don't persevere.

What if Jacob had stopped wrestling with God? What if he had been content to have let God go? He said no Bless me. I will not let you go until you bless me persevere in prayer So these things are to be present in our praying, whether in private or in public worship. Now, we probably aren't going to be hitting on all cylinders all the time.

We're going to be like that man who cried, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. But we need to strive to have all of these growing And the closer we are to our God, the more He is the meditation of our hearts, the more these things will be true of us. Greater faith, greater love, greater perseverance, greater fervence, because it's flowing from an understanding, and we come into his presence with reverence and humility, but we come boldly because of Jesus Christ. But the last item they mention has to do solely with corporate or public worship, the matter of praying with a known tongue.

Obviously, in private, God's not limited by language. No matter who it is that's praying in the world, God understands. But corporate worship involves the whole body and though it is directed to God, our worship should also benefit the body. It's for edification, right? We talked about that this morning with our words.

We use words in prayer and we should be praying things that edify. We should be praying things that give grace, that impart grace to the hearers. And so we must pray in order to be heard and to be understood. Fourth paragraph. Prayer is to be made for things lawful and for all sorts of men living or that shall live hereafter, but not for the dead nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death." Once again in our confession, we see the impact of false teaching that permeated the Church of Rome and even had permeated the Anglican Church, and it did cleave in many ways to those people coming out of that church who sought to worship God in an acceptable manner.

And so they instructed the people in regards to things that were happening in their day. And It is the duty of men who lead the flock to understand their times, like the men of Issachar that we read about in the Bible who understood the times and reacted and acted accordingly. And so these men were doing that as faithful men, most all of them as shepherds in this gathering of many shepherds to work on this document. This could never happen to us, You may say. We can just move on to the next point.

Brothers and sisters, just this week I saw a post about a pastor in the Free Church of Scotland. Now, the Free Church of Scotland is a Westminster standards-based church that has slowly drifted. The banner truth sells a book now by a man who wrote the story of his having to leave and it's called a sad departure. But there are still faithful men today in the Free Church of Scotland even amidst these changes that are happening. Are happening.

But here this man at a funeral prayed this way. Bishop Vincent Logan in his prayer reflected something that was really quite sad. He prayed that this man named Gordon being called from this world would be brought safely home to God's kingdom and that he would be cleansed and given a place at the heavenly banquet. He's actually praying almost as there's a purgatory. May he even now be accepted.

He's praying for the dead. And so these things are not so far outside of the realm of possibility. And so we need to be instructed in these things and understand these things. We are to pray for things in a biblical fashion. We are to pray for those who are still in the land of the living.

And we need to pray for those who will spend an eternity in heaven or in hell. We are to pray for them that shall live hereafter. But we are not to pray for those who have passed into eternity or those who are yet still among the living but have clearly, clearly demonstrated that they have committed the unpardonable sin, which we touched upon briefly this morning in talking about the sin of blasphemy. But you'll remember we talked about praying for them who have not sinned, the sin unto death when we were in 1 John. It's there at the very end of chapter 5.

And so we are to pray in a biblical fashion, things that are lawful for men who are in the land of the living and shall spend an eternity in heaven or hell, but not for the dead and not for those who have sinned the sin unto death. Then paragraph 5, paragraph 5. The reading of the scriptures, preaching and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. As also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to Him with understanding faith, reverence, and godly fear. Moreover, solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions ought to be used in an holy and religious manner.

So here we have the remaining ordinary elements and then an introduction to the occasional elements of public worship. I trust you will see that your elders here at Hope strive to make all of these things part of our ordinary worship. It's our desire to implement the things that we're speaking of tonight in our worship, and we want to do so in lawful ways, ways that God has prescribed as He has made His known will in the Scriptures, as he's made it known. So we have the reading of the scriptures, we have preaching, hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and in spiritual songs We have baptism and we have the Lord's Supper all of these not just ordinary or weekly except for baptism which we have when it is warranted. Would to God we could experience that every week.

That would be a wonderful thing. May God make it to be so. These are things which God has clearly indicated in the Holy Scriptures as being in accord with His own revealed will. Besides the two occasional items that they mentioned, they consider anything else that a church would add to this list as that which is according, as we saw last week, to the imagination and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan. That's the two categories that they would put anything else in that are not listed here.

These and these alone are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God as he has instituted and as he has declared as are according to his will. We must not leave any of these items out and we're not at liberty to add anything to them. Now note the the heart of the writers of the confession. Many in our day consider the Puritans as cold, as strict, as rigid, hard, heartless. Men whose religion was one of the mind and had nothing to do with the heart.

But note the warmth demonstrated in the latter portion of the paragraph, the engaging of the heart and not just merely going through the motions outwardly. These are to be performed in obedience to him with understanding, with faith, reverence, and godly fear. They wanted the heart. They wanted the heart. They wanted the heart.

They wanted the mind. And they wanted the heart. As with the praying, there is not only the method but the mode as well. Our obedience is to be accompanied with these four elements. We would do well to stop and consider our very worship this day, today.

Have we truly worshiped him today with minds enlightened and instructed by his word? Have we truly worshiped him today with faith believing that He really is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Does our seeking Him reveal that we truly believe that? If one were to come in and to read that passage, would they say of us as a people, that people really have faith? They worship God as those who believe that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Would they say that of us? Have we worshiped him with reverence, giving him his due as father, as husband, as master, as Lord, as Savior, Shepherd, Prophet, Priest, and King, have we worshiped Him with that reverence? And have we worshiped him today with godly fear? Have we prostrated ourselves even in our hearts, mostly in our hearts? Have we prostrated ourselves before him today?

Have we acknowledged his majesty? Have we trembled at the mere reading and the preaching of the Word? With this one will I dwell. He who is of a contrite heart and who trembles at my Word. Have we considered the heinous nature of our sin against him?

We heard of the tongue today Have we gone away? Thinking of how bad that those sins are has it changed our impression of them? This dear one's is acceptable worship. God has made known His holy will. The Scriptures principally teach not only what man is to believe concerning God, but also what duty God requires of man.

That duty includes our public worship. The scriptures principally teach our duty in the public worship of our God. Think about it. If man's chief end is to glorify God, wouldn't it seem logical that God would make known the way in which he receives glory. If that's our chief end to glorify Him, why would God leave us in the dark to figure it out?

Why would he leave it up to us? Our chief end is to glorify Him, and He's declared how we can. And then they close this paragraph by listing the occasional elements of acceptable worship. Again, flowing from God's revealed will made known in the Scriptures. Moreover, solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions ought to be used in an unholy and religious manner." These are things being deduced from the multiple examples of Scripture, some of which they list at the bottom.

I don't know if we don't have them listed here, but if you look in your books, you should have some verses listed from which we can deduce that these are acceptable things to our Lord in a context of public worship. They note that these should be considered special occasions. The examples of Scripture do not indicate that these were expected to be incorporated in the ordinary weekly worship. But when such occasions are determined suitable for the congregation, They ought to be used in a holy and religious manner. So there we have paragraphs three through five.

God having declared that there is an acceptable way of worship, declares for us what the acceptable elements of that worship are to be. May God give us grace and faith to lay hold of these things and be content with them and seek to serve our God with all of our hearts, with these very things, with understanding, with reverence, with humility, with fervency, with faith, with love, and with perseverance. God helping us. Amen. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us.

We thank you for not leaving us to ourselves. Oh, make us faithful. Lord, may there be found here when Christ comes, a people still worshipping you in the acceptable way. Lord, show us where we fail. Oh, draw back the scales from our eyes where we have incorporated any any strange fire.

Oh Lord you are holy and we want to treat you with that reverence so give us help show us if we have erred in any way and keep us in that narrow way. Thank you for revealing yourself to us, a people who don't deserve to know you and to be known by you. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for grace. In Jesus name we pray, amen.