The sermon discusses the Baptist Confession, emphasizing its role in guiding church doctrine and individual faith. It highlights the Confession's comprehensive nature, comparing it to a rich picnic basket filled with diverse doctrinal statements. The sermon stresses the importance of adopting a historic confession to avoid doctrinal fads and maintain consistency. It explains the Confession's utility in teaching families and individuals how to live according to Christian principles, addressing areas like eschatology, the law, and the Sabbath. The Confession is presented as a tool to combat doctrinal confusion and to ensure that teachings align with historical Christianity. The speakers also underscore that while the Confession is not above the Bible, it systematically presents biblical teachings. The importance of the Sabbath is particularly emphasized, advocating for it as a day of delight and spiritual focus. Overall, the sermon encourages embracing the Confession as a means of deepening one's faith and ensuring doctrinal soundness within the church.

So you have the Baptist Confession here before you. It features an introduction, a generous layout, lots of verses that I've collected, and various phrases in the margins, if you'll just see how it's laid out, that I felt were particularly pithy or helpful. Were particularly pithy or helpful. And it also includes the Baptist Catechism, which we're going through, you know, now on Sunday mornings doing two questions per Sunday. But this confession is a deep mind and it's filled with treasures of doctrine and it reveals God to us.

It reveals what it means to think like a Christian. It's a wonderful resource for families. There's really no greater blessing to the human soul or to a family or to a church than when minds are actually filled up with the knowledge of God, with the way that God actually has explained everything. And the confessions seek to do that. My view for many years is that if you're going to have a church, you should adopt a historic confession.

Don't make up your doctrine on your own you know in the 20th and in the 20th century in the first part of the 21st century churches And men thought they could just sort of make up their own cool doctrine I've seen a lot of these cool doctrinal statements that they just kind of made up because of their passion. And I'm just gonna say that's interesting, but the scriptures have spoken and you know these are tried and true historic confessions and so I'm high on using them. Here's one thing to really recognize about the confession. Let's see, let's get a copy of this confession. Hey guys, we're just explaining the Baptist confession.

You have a copy of it right there that I put together several years ago. The confession's not changed, but it has some extra features. Now why is this important? There are a number of reasons. First of all, this is not just simply head knowledge, but it's knowledge to live by.

It's not, the confession really is a full-bodied manual on how to think about God and how to think about yourself and how to think about your problems and how to think about everything really and you know matters of the law, eschatology are all addressed in this confession. It was interesting, how many of you who are here during Revelation, I would continue to refer to our confession. What is our church's official stance on eschatology? Well, this confession is actually very simple. Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the living and the dead.

That's our position on eschatology. People are, you know, in transition. People are continuing to think things through all their life long. That's okay. People can come to this church, they can be pre-millennial, post-millennial, you know, whatever.

And I have a particular view, but frankly we are all in progress. And it really helps to have sound doctrine, to lead us along the way. But here's what I'm trying to say. A confession like this is meant to teach you how to live in your body, which includes your mind and all of your relationships in the church and the civil realm and everywhere else. In fact, by the way, you know, for years I've gone back to Malawi in Blantyre and done conferences on the Baptist Confession.

The churches that I know about in Malawi right now, they use this for their devotions. They just use it to worship God and their families. They call it a family worship guide. Now it's not a requirement to embrace every element of this confession as a member. We have we have people who become members who are still thinking things through that's fine on on some of the on controversial matters matters that they're unclear on and there are people who say this is that this confession is too detailed for church membership but it's not a it's not a requirement for church membership at our church so I just think it's very very important to understand that.

Our friend Sam Waldman was getting lots of criticism for advancing the Baptist confession and there was a theologian by the name of Sean Wright who was telling him in the world and blogging about it that the problem with the Baptist confession is that it's too complete and so Waldron gives this illustration. Wright invites you to go with him to the church picnic and share with him his little basket of truth. The food in it is good and nutritious, but limited in its variety, flavor, and quantity. I also invite you to go with me to the church picnic. I have in the back of my SUV a large cooler full of wonderful ice-cold drinks and a gigantic picnic basket filled with luscious foods.

I will not even make you eat every one of my treats, even though I think they're all delicious. It seems to me the reader's choice is clear. A very brief doctrinal statement can be accurate and helpful. This is a full-bodied doctrinal statement that is full. It's like a big old picnic basket, and it has a lot in it.

So we highly recommend it. It's very interesting. In this, the authors of this confession, who were coming off of the Westminster standards the Westminster confession writers they They wrote an introduction to this confession. What's really interesting about their introduction is that the authors appeal to households to use this to teach their children. If you notice in here the letter to the reader, you'll notice an appeal to begin at home.

And the authors actually blame the degradations in society on the fact that families are not teaching their children sound doctrine. And they come with a pretty strong diatribe against families that don't. They say this, remember that so much decay of religion can be traced to a father's neglect of family worship and instruction. And then they actually, in the introduction, they condemn heads of families who don't train, who don't instruct, who don't catechize their children, and they warn that their children's blood will be on their hands. And they really appeal to the confession as a tool of doctrinal instruction.

And it's very important because we live in a time of doctrinal confusion. Even basic knowledge of God that's displayed in this confession is unknown to lots of people who actually have heard preaching their whole life because they've heard one topical sermon after another and haven't really got a sense of the whole council of God and they don't they haven't been in churches where there is an exalted view of expository preaching where you go word by word line by line to explain what's there It's a lot easier to jump over difficult text. It's a lot easier if you know people in your church who aren't going to be pleased with that particular statement in scripture. It's really easy to just jump over it and you can build a really big church doing that actually. But we live in a time of doctrinal confusion and as a result people are fuzzy on the gospel.

Many of them are just brain dead on the proper use of the law which this confession speaks about and are very unclear about their thinking about God. You know, Robert has been giving messages on the Trinity, very helpful, you know, and the confession addresses these matters. How do you talk about the Trinity? Is it like water, ice, and steam? No, it's not, actually.

And the confession makes that very, very clear. This is basic theology. It's not advanced. You're not getting an advanced degree when you understand the confession. Let's see, where can we put you?

Oh, there's some chairs over here. Great. Good to see you. So I do believe confessions are really important, but they're not equivalent to the Bible. They don't take the place of the Bible.

They systematize the overall teaching of the Bible in an orderly fashion and put it in categories. In many ways, it's like a systematic theology. And they answer questions that need to be answered. And it's also, I found it actually to be a protection on a number of fronts. On the one hand, it's a protection from fads and movements that roll through the church.

You have from time to time really remarkable communicators that introduce fads into the church. And I think it's important that we stay with the historic church. The other thing is that there are people who will slander your church and they'll say that you believe things that you don't believe and there have been I think probably you know 10 or 15 years ago you know you know, I was being attacked for all kinds of things. What do you really believe about the church? Well, It's right here.

It isn't what you say. This is what I believe about the church This is what I believe about the Trinity. This is what I believe about God This is what I believe about the Sabbath You maybe you disagree. This is what I believe about Sabbath. Here it is.

It's historic Christianity. It's not a fanciful cultic invention that I invented. We didn't invent this. And so it's helpful both to protect the church from movements and it's also helpful to protect the church from slander because you can say this is what we believe now your elders are obligated by the Constitution to up to preach in a way that's consistent with this confession. If we teach things that are inconsistent with the confession, it's a quick way out the door of this church, because we've actually taken an oath before God to uphold the tenets of this confession.

But everybody in the church doesn't have to do that. But if you look back, you'll see some of the greatest saints and theologians in history have embraced this confession, both on the Presbyterian side and on the Baptist side. This is the confession of Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist confession. This is the confession of John Bunyan. This is the confession of John Gill and and and many many others.

This is the confession of Adoniram Judson. So we're not standing alone in this cool movement of let's embrace the confession. And we think it's very important. Sound doctrine can be useless. That's sort of the danger.

You can have a lot of talking heads, but they don't live the doctrine. Our prayer is that we would somehow, in God's mercy, be a church that applies the doctrine. We all know we do poorly at it, but to be a church that doesn't apply the doctrine is actually to be a disobedient church. So the doctrine is not useless. Spurgeon said that it provides assistance in controversy and it confirms the faith.

He says it is a means of edification in righteousness. And listen to what Spurgeon says, here the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity in small compass and by means of the scriptural proofs that will be so they will be ready to give reason for the hope that is in them. He says, don't be ashamed of your faith. Remember, it is the ancient gospel of martyrs, confessors, reformers and saints. Above all, it is the truth of God against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

Let your lives adorn your faith. I mean, that's really what I was trying to say today. Let your speech adorn the doctrine. Let your life adorn the doctrine. Let your example be recommended by your creed.

Above all, live in Christ Jesus and walk in him giving credence to no teaching but that which is manifestly approved by him and owned by the Holy Spirit cleave fast to the word of God which is here mapped out to you. So that's sort of a framing of why we've embraced this confession. And the instruction that people receive, we hope will be very consistent with the confession not inventions of our own of the historic doctrine that rises out of the faithful faithful brethren in the church so Trent anything else you want to say about this? Just two things. Sometimes when speaking with people about a confession, they're a little bit confused of why we hold to a confession so tightly.

And you mentioned it, but it's not that we hold a confession above the Word of God, but that the confession actually teaches us or declares, if you will, it's what we confess to believe about the Word of God. And that's why it's so important. We don't hold this confession above God's word, but it actually, it helps to explain to others what we actually believe. Because almost every cult in the world would say they believe the Bible, or they believe in God. But what do you believe about God?

What do you believe about the Bible? And that's what this does. It explains what we believe about God and about the scriptures and about a whole host of things. And then you mentioned the protections. And just another way of saying that is part of the protection in in our church is that this confession actually protects you even from future elders.

If Scott and I were to die in a car wreck and you had another elder come in, you're not going to get an elder that can come in and just take you off on some rabbit trail, they will be bound in this church by this confession of faith. So you know that the doctrine of the church is not going to change with whoever may be an elder in this church, but you're actually going to be in the same church that you were in before. Obviously different personalities, but the doctrine will be the same or else they can't be another in the church. So the protection there is so that like what you said, it's not a fad. It's not from, you know, the speakers that may be coming in doing their thing, but it will, it will be really guarding for you as a protection for the flock of God.

So it's really important in that way and should be looked at in that way. It's a really good thing. Amen, Amen. Okay, we wanna talk about two of the most controversial chapters in the confession. Well, if you're not a Presbyterian, we're not gonna touch those, but go to chapter 19.

Chapter 19. The law of God, What is the proper use of the law of God? There's so much confusion about how to handle the law of God and frankly it's not the easiest subject in the Bible and It's the source of lots of controversy in the church and how do you how do you apply? The law of God in this confession There is What we believe is the truth about the law of God is that there are three categories of the law. There's the moral law of God, there is the ceremonial law of God which governs the worship of God in Israel, and there is the judicial law of God which governs the state of Israel.

What do we do with the laws of God? Well as it turns out there are over a thousand commands in the New Testament. Let's dispense with the idea that we escape the commands of God because we don't. And in the Old Testament, you know, there are some say, you know, 600 and what, 614 laws or something like that. Is it 614?

613, yeah, right in there. And, But how do you interpret the law of God and This was very helpful to me this chapter Years ago, and I preached through the book of Deuteronomy It was one of the most transforming things I'd ever done. Because it occurred to me that so many of our civil laws come right out of Deuteronomy. We've been applying the law of God in this nation. And So, but how do you apply the law of God?

Oh, I have this quote by Thomas Watson. I'll just read it. A Christian, it's in chapter 19 here. A Christian takes a sweet complacent delight in the law. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, Romans 722.

Oh how I love thy law. Psalm 197. Though a Christian cannot keep God's law, yet he loves his law. Though he cannot serve God perfectly, yet he serves him willingly. It is his cordial desire to walk in all of God's commandments.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Though his strength fails, yet his pulse beats, he really endeavors to obey God's law perfectly, and wherein he comes short, he runs to Christ's blood to supply his defects. I love that statement. But let's walk through this. The first article speaks of God giving a law written in the heart in the garden.

That's the first statement. A precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let's go to the second article. The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written in two tablets, the four first containing our duty toward God and the other six our duty toward man so what he's what what this states is that the law that God wrote in man's heart was consistent with the law that was given at Sinai. And then the third, besides this law, commonly called moral, now we're talking about the moral law of God.

Remember I said there are three categories of the law, the moral law, the ceremonial law, and the civil law. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give the people of Israel ceremonial laws. Now when you're reading the Old Testament, particularly in the law in the first five books of Moses, you need to ask yourself, is this a moral law, is it ceremonial law, or is it judicial law? And who is given the authority to exercise it? Those questions are really important when you're reading the law of God.

But listen to this. Ceremonial laws, God was pleased to give the people of Israel ceremonial laws containing several typical, in other words, their types, their shadows, their pictures, several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation. That means they were appointed for Israel until the coming of Christ. Okay are By Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only lawgiver who was furnished with power from the Father for that end abrogated and taken away. Here's the short of it.

God gave us the ceremonial law to give us pictures of Jesus Christ. This is imagery, these are metaphors of Christ. Everything in the temple, all the clothing of the priests, everything. These were types of Christ and actually types of new New Testament Christianity We no longer have the sacrificial system. God did away with it.

Here's an important word You young ones need to learn this word, are you ready? Abrogated, the ceremonial law was abrogated, okay? And that means that it was taken, it was taken out of force and it is replaced by Jesus Christ, okay So you have the sir. You have the moral law Which applies to everyone at all times you have the ceremonial law that is that are pictures of Christ so it's so rich about the Old Testament you can read you can read it but you are in the you are in the Old Testament your your faith in Jesus Christ is in pictures and then the next article to them also he gave sundry judicial laws. This should be very interesting to people who are involved in this discussion about Christian nationalism.

This is a really important thing here in Article 4. Sundry judicial laws, in other words, lots of judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general equity only being of moral use What does that mean? That means that the laws in the first five books of Moses were given For the state of Israel and and that's why you know so many of them have to do with things that don't even go on today. You have to live in an agricultural society with various, with a different political structure and but these laws were given and they expired together with the state of that people in other words we're not obligated to enact every law of the Old Testament We're not obligated to enact the judicial laws of the Old Testament. But it's not so simple because each of these laws have moral significance.

In other words, they are laws of God. In other words, they are good laws. Anybody who says that there's a bad law in the Old Testament needs to just think that through for a minute because these laws came from God. David said he delighted in the law of God. But here's a reality.

If you read the Old Testament and you say, that law doesn't sound fair or that doesn't sound just, It actually reveals that you're not just. You don't know the justice of God. Our sense of justice and morality has been so twisted by the fall, by the culture that we grew up in. So to say that a law is unjust is to say that God is unjust. But really to say that a law is unjust is really to admit that I am not just.

I don't know God well enough. And so when I read something that's offensive to me, it's because I am offensive to God in the way that I think about justice. Now, on the other hand, It's hard to understand the depth of every law. And so I think there has to be some humility in understanding the laws, but the laws were for their general equity, okay? General equity only being of moral use.

So in other words every law of God tells something about God about the character of God because the law of God is an extension of the character of God. So there is a moral significance to all the judicial laws of Israel and they should teach us something about God's morality and God's justice. This is the general equity of the law. It's a really important question to try to answer. What's the significance of the judicial law?

Well, it's general equity. In other words, it's underlying principles that declare the nature of the character of God are of moral use and they should shape our way of thinking about everything about property rights about sexuality about murder and all kinds of infractions for I'll just give you an example in the law there are various punishments for theft, but all the punishments aren't equal. And for example, If you steal something, if you steal something and you are caught, the penalty is greater than if you steal something and you confess it. If you steal something and you consume it, or you destroy it, or you lose it, the penalty is higher than If you're able to make restitution, so there are various levels of restitution now. Are we obligated to follow this exact formula of restitution?

I'll say two things, it's not a bad idea, okay? But on the other hand, you get the idea that the punishment fits the crime. Every crime is not of the same significance. Maybe you've heard people say all sins are of equal significance. That's just not what the Bible teaches.

They're equally sinful but they don't require an equal punishment. You know that. You're raising children. There are certain infractions that your children perform that require a much stiffer or lesser judgment. So this is the section on the law.

Verse, the next article. The moral law, so now we've moved from judicial law to moral law. The moral law does forever bind all as well-justified persons as others to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God, the creator who gave it. So it goes on, and there's very helpful language on what it means not to be under the law. We're going to encounter this verse in Romans.

And what's very clear from scripture, when the Bible says you're not under the law, it means you're not under the condemnation of the law. It's not that you've escaped obedience to the law, but you've escaped the condemnation of the law, which is to be justified by faith, not by the law. And of course, Paul is gonna elaborate, we're gonna get hopefully an advanced degree on the law as we go through the book of Romans because he speaks to it all the time. So that is the section on the law of God. I didn't read, I didn't read, oh here we go.

Let's just read the seventh article. This is so neat. Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it." I love that language. In other words, the great God's grace and the law are partners. They sweetly comply with one another.

The Spirit of Christ, subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done. So this chapter is really important, and it's so contrary to the way that so many around us think about the law of God. But in our church, we want, if you become a member of this church, we want you to love the law of God. We want you to desire to be obedient to God. But there's one more thing that you need to understand.

Your elders are under obligation to fulfill the Great Commission. And the Great Commission orders us that we would teach them to obey all the things that I have commanded. The Great Commission isn't just going around and sharing the gospel. We're fulfilling the Great Commission every Sunday morning when we're teaching the people to obey. And we're not afraid to try to help one another obey the scriptures.

It's a good thing to obey the Lord. It's not legalism to obey a law of God. It's not legalism to preach a law of God. It's actually faithfulness to the charge to fulfill the Great Commission so that you would teach all things that I have commanded. So that's what we're trying to do as elders.

When we gather, we're not afraid to teach commandments of God, but we're so thankful for the grace of God that helps us obey and grants us mercy when we don't. Trent, anything else on this chapter? Just back to the general equity being, only being of moral use. When we're reading through the Old Testament and reading the laws, I think it's very important that we understand that we shouldn't read over them, even those seemingly obscure civil laws that we're reading. All of those civil laws actually have a base in the Ten Commandments.

They didn't just pop out of nowhere. They actually flow from the heart of God. They flow from the law of God. And it's really fascinating as you're reading those things to try, you remember the little game when you're a kid and how this relates and you're drawing these comparison lines and this one goes up. And you can actually do that with the Ten Commandments and all of these little civil laws and you can find where they flow out of.

They're not just hanging out there by themselves. There's really great instruction to study those civil laws and how they relate to the moral law and then it teaches you why they're there. And you made a really important statement just if we're ever looking at law family, man that's just rough, that's tough, that's a That seems too harsh. We're wrong. God's not wrong.

We're wrong. God is always right. Settle that in your heart. May God be true and every man a liar. God is always right.

And so you can look at that law that way and it's just really instructive and helpful for us. And it actually helps us as we're considering the laws that we have in our own day. Is this a just law? And most of the time they're not. There's a lot of flaws in our walls.

We live in a time where people worship their emotions and they worship their emotional response to a law. Okay that's so dangerous and by the way when I preach next I'm gonna bring this up because we're gonna be back in Romans and And it's so critical that we understand that we're not led around in this world by our feelings, but we're led around by God. He rescues us from our feelings. So, oh how I love thy law, we want you to do the same thing. You know, if you stay here, we're gonna try to convince you how good God's law is every Sunday.

That's what I wanna do. So, I don't know Josh, if you have any, the deacons, by the way, if you're an officer in this church, you have to subscribe to the 1689. So. There you go. Are you afraid to use words today or something like that?

Oh my. Okay, let's go to the next most controversial chapter in here of religious worship and the Sabbath day. And again, I want to read this great quote by J.C. Ryle. That's chapter 22, by the way.

Chapter 22, got that? I'll give you a second to get there. You'll see J.C. Ryle's citation. But the Sabbath is God's merciful appointment for the common benefit of all mankind.

It was made for man. Mark 2, 27. It was given for the good of all classes, for the laity, quite as much as for the clergy. It is not a yoke, but a blessing. It is not a burden but a mercy.

It is not a hard worrisome requirement But a mighty public benefit. It is not an ordinance in which man is bid to use in faith it I'm sorry. I'll read that again it is not an ordinance which man is bid to use in faith without knowing why he uses it it is one which carries with it its own reward It is good for man's body and mind. It is good for nations. Above all, it is good for souls.

Now if you believe what's in this confession in modern evangelicalism, you're going to be called a legalist. Bring it on. Because the truth is, if you read what the Bible says about the Lord's Day it was it was ordained before the law was given it was ordained at creation and and and it was practiced up until the giving of the law on Sinai and then you see it all the way through And then and then and then you see its pictures all through scripture And it's actually finally fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in heaven So where you have an everlasting Sabbath and it is glorious. It's the day of delight forever. God meant the Sabbath to be a day of delight.

The proofs for the Sabbath are here. You know, I wrote a book, you've seen it probably, The Family at Church. I think I have two short chapters that really condense the doctrine of the Sabbath and why we should celebrate it today. Why we should set aside a day to focus on God. Why it's so helpful to us to set aside normal things and have a holy day.

A day that's like no other day. The Lord's day should be like no other day and happier than any other day and more satisfying filling your mind with the best things that you Fill your mind you can fill your mind with and and that's a God You know 15 years ago When I was preaching through Deuteronomy we hit Deuteronomy chapter 5 in which the law is repeated and the law of the Sabbath and I preached it and Boy people were so disturbed all over the church. And so we got together as elders and said, what are we going to do? And I said, hey, you know, all of us, we're kind of unclear on this. We got to get clear on how on how we think this should be practiced.

Well, we had a confession, all right? So we, of course, you know, consulted the confession, but, and started going through scripture. But here's, here's what we said. We're going to preach through several texts, just expositionally on the Sabbath. So we went to Hebrews 4, we went to Isaiah 58, we went to several places, and we just preached expositionally.

And part of it really, frankly, the elders needed to get clearer, okay, on it, together and have a common understanding. And so we did that and we, but we wanted to sort of saturate the church with just what the Bible said about it. We began with creation and walked all the way through. And it was very interesting. Like I said, the first Sunday, actually, there were a lot of people who were mad.

Are you telling me, what are you trying to tell me? Are you trying to, you know, the next week, it was huh Isn't that something? The third week People are saying I didn't understand this before. This is really remarkable. In the last week, people were coming up to me and saying, I have never had so much joy in my life at church on the Lord's Day and for the whole day because we were telling people no it's not half day where you can just go do whatever you want you know in the afternoon it's an entire day it's a whole day to focus to refocus your whole soul on God, to suspend from work, to get totally locked into making it a day of delight.

And that's why we spend so much time on Sunday singing and praying and and reading the word and preaching and then fellowshipping in this banquet this unbelievable wow wasn't the food great today and last week and the week before and the week before we're celebrating okay that's what we're doing we're feasting By the way, the Jews had allocated 22% of the days of the year to feasting and celebrating. Do we have to do that today? We have to have 22% Well, maybe we should have more than we do. We want to do more. We want to do more celebrating We want to do more feasting.

Hey, we want to we what we spend the church's money to feed people all the time. It's glorious. It's such a joy. You know what, we have like we're gonna have this family camp up here pretty soon in April or no it's in May and it's gonna be so glorious. The church is gonna spend a bunch of money to buy food and just make it a really neat day.

We do that all the time. It's really neat. So the doctrine of the Sabbath is clearly painted out here. OK. Any questions or thoughts?

Trent, you want to pile on on any of this? Nope, I'm right on the- Okay, so there you have it. So hey, this is sort of an introduction to the confession, why we do it, why it's not a requirement for membership. We expect everybody here is going to grow And we give space for people to do that, but you got to know your elders ain't gonna compromise But at least we're not gonna try to compromise on the confession And we're gonna try to bring you up in the training and the admonition of the Lord and the love his law and to love the Lord's day like you never did before. Now, I'm gonna make a comment.

The churches that I know that disregard the Lord's day, their children are more immature, Okay, and they're less serious about God. Just might maybe you think that's wrong. It's been my observation I've been around for quite a few years and I've seen a lot of churches and I've been in a lot of churches There's a distinctive difference in the in the culture of the youth and in the culture of the church when people actually say I'm going to have a holy day that's not like any other day and I want to make it a day of delight like no other delight in my week so We're gonna encourage you to do that if you stay at this church and we don't think is legalism We think it's we think it's hope we think it's beauty We think it's encouragement and when we gather you together we we want to be agents of hope the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and encourage you to set aside a whole day. So okay, that's all we wanted to do today is talk about the confession. Trent, would you lead us in prayer?

Our father, we do thank you for this Lord's day that you have given us. Lord, it is a day of delight and Lord, I pray that you would tune our hearts to this day. Lord, forgive us when we don't see it in the right way. And Lord, I just pray that you would instruct us in that and continue to conform us to your will. Help us not to be conformed to this world.

Lord, may we be transformed by the renewing of our mind. For we thank you that you have given wisdom to men to be able to just to pull from your word these glorious truths that we hold so dear and what I pray that you would continue to instruct us in your word Lord that you would continue to grow us in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus that we would find your word to be very sweet to our taste for that. It would just nurture our bodies and our souls. Lord, we thank you that you are moving in the midst of your people, these people who are gathered here today that they would be interested in joining such a church that loves your world that we hold it high for that. Your word is our soul authority for life and practice.

And Lord, I just pray that you would just bless these people here. Bless our church, Lord. Give us a church full of people who love Jesus and who love to worship you. And more, we just thank you again for all of your bountiful blessings that you have poured out on us even this day and yet to come in this day, and we will rejoice in you, the God of our salvation. And we ask these things in Christ.