All right, so we're continuing our study of the Book of Church Order, and God willing, this is our final study. We'll take a little break for at least most of the summer until Jefferson Davis Conference is over at least. And maybe we'll start up something around the fall. But for now, let's finish out the Book of Church Order. First is Directory L, the Directory for Family Worship. One thing to mention is that we have our Book of Church Order, which has government, doctrine, and directories. So directories, just to mention, are not on the same level of authority among us. And we'll also talk about the position papers. They're not of authority among us either. They're published for informational purposes and perhaps for historic purposes in some instances, and we'll get into that in a little bit. But with that said, Directory for Family Worship, pages 223 through 226. In the preface of the Directory for Family Worship, it talks about national reformation, the public and private worship of God being part of national reformation, not just public, but also private and private being of two sorts, individuals alone, and then also families. And then I'll just go through the points one by one. They talk about secret worship being done by each individual morning and evening, prayer and meditation, and that pastors and heads of households are to encourage that. The ordinary duties in point two, ordinary duties of prayer, praise, and scripture reading with catechizing during family worship, and then occasional rebukes if necessary by the head of household, admonitions, or things of that nature, those being ordinary parts of family worship. And then one thing that's unique here is point three makes very clear that there's a distinction between the public teaching, that there is a specific office of teacher in the church, and that the usage of family worship is not intended to supersede that. So it's not intended to be extended doctrinal expositions in family worship. It's more intended for basic reading, singing of God's praise, prayer, and then if there are things within the text that are relevant and applicable, to make relevant applications of those texts by the head of household. Also, they point out that members of the household, if they have questions, that would be an appropriate and suitable time. If they have doubts about the passage and they're not sure about something, that's the time to ask and to resolve those doubts. The fourth point is that family worship should be the entire unit, not just parts of the family, but the entire family. And of course, that would include like visiting family, or if people had slaves, or if they had people who worked and lived on their farm, that kind of idea. Those would be people who'd be required to do that as well. Now, there may be men who are lazy. Heads of households are weak, and they need guidance. So pastors are required to equip, according to this directory, And then, if there is no suitable head of household to lead the family in worship, Presbytery can, through the Session, authorize someone who could act in that way. And the Session and Minister are accountable to the Presbytery for that. And then they just point out there might be seasons of specific counsel, but it's not to be like a separate family worship. It's always to be conducted with the whole family. So if a minister comes and does something, it would be in the way of counsel when it's suitable to individuals, but not as an act of partial family worship without the rest of the household. It talks about no idlers or vagrants going around hiring themselves out to lead family worship. That would be to supplant the public ministry, and Paul speaks against that in the New Testament. A point is made concerning family worship number six. Family worship is not to turn into a substitute for public worship. Now they point out that at times when there was no way to get together for public worship, then it's understandable by necessity people would get together as families. But that when there's actual worship and church and elders, that's not something people should be engaged in at those times. But there are occasions, point seven makes, there are occasions when that can happen. Number eight talks about the observance of the Lord's Day. using private family and public ordinances, and then the duty of masters of households to improve on the public worship, doing things with their households to try to reinforce or individuals doing things to reinforce what they've learned publicly in the eighth section. And then in the ninth section, it talks about prayer and gives some good guidance on things to consider praying. A directory is not like a red form of, I have to pray exactly these words. The directory is more just to give you a basic idea of things that you could be or should be praying about in this case. so again we don't consider this like authoritative so that you must do family worship and private worship exactly as the directory says but they're helpful guidelines and there is some scripture behind much of what they say but in any case they encourage learning how to pray yourself as the head of a household but also in private learning how to pray yourself and if you can't conceive of prayer, come up with it extemporaneously, then they encourage the use of forms of prayer. In fact, if you study the history of the Church of England, the medieval system was filled with so much ignorance that when the Reformation came to England, They gave their ministers books to read prayers, because they couldn't think of prayers. They were too stupid, really. They were too uneducated. They were too ignorant. So they would give them these forms of prayers to read, but that's not what scripture requires. Scripture requires that you pray from your heart, that it come from within, and the words express what you're actually thinking and requesting. But if that can't be done, then they encourage forms of prayer, and kind of give some guidance as to things to pray for. Point 10, they talk about prioritizing family and private worship, to do it sincerely and without delay, and that the elders of the church and other people who are influential should encourage others to do likewise. The 11th section talks about the duties of fasting and thanksgiving. Sometimes families can do this as well. It doesn't have to be of public authority, church or state. You can do it for a family if there are specific needs. And then private members, the duties that we owe to one another as private members of the church were to stir one another up to love and good works. There are occasions of instruction, admonition and rebuke. And then it talks about Matthew 18 is occasionally necessary. Then it talks about counseling in section 13, or seeking of counsel. There are godly people, or pastor, or elder, someone that you trust, male or female, that you can go to. And if there's no other person that you can go to, then it talks about going to your pastor or elders specifically. Though in those instances, if it's a woman going to a pastor, you'd want to have a friend to go along with you so you're not there alone and exposed to either the accusation or the temptation to some sexual misconduct. Then it talks about people traveling, that they should not neglect prayer and thanksgiving, singing of God's praise and praying together, that there may be occasions and times to do that. And then finally in the epilogue, or the concluding remarks, they talk about the intention of this directory is to cherish family and personal piety. While not impinging on anybody's calling, while not encouraging people to be idle and disobedient, while not transgressing on the public teaching ministry of the church, yet family worship and private worship are very valuable in encouraging people to grow in their faith. Any questions, Casey, that you had about this first part? No. Okay. All right, section M is the directory for the sum of saving knowledge and the practical use. Now, this is one of those where I want to say we publish this merely for historic purposes to help people understand this is one of the documents that since late 1700s, I think, was published by the Scottish along with the Confession and the Catechisms. important to understand because it's not of authority. And there are points at which it develops doctrines further than the Confession of Faith. There are points at which I would say it disagrees with the Confession of Faith, not in the general outline, but specific points. But it's useful for us to understand what is it that Presbyterians have historically understood about certain things. It's kind of a reference point and a good summary. It is a helpful summary of our confession and catechisms. That said, you have the sum of saving knowledge in four heads, our woeful condition by nature being the first because of Adam's breaking the covenant of works and our guilt in that. The second head being the remedy provided in Jesus Christ for the elect by God's gracious covenant. And then, so the woeful condition, the remedy provided. And then the third is the outward means appointed. These are the means God has appointed to cause the elect to be partakers of this covenant. Now, one of the things I want to point out here is the word covenant keeps on appearing. And if you read our confession of faith, the word covenant does not always appear. And sometimes what is called covenant is called testament in our confession. So I think that the sum of saving knowledge is lopsided in that. And it's a Scottish document, not a Southern Presbyterian document, but it's still valuable. It's a good summary of what the Confession does teach, but I would say the emphasis is a little different. And then the fourth head of the knowledge that they discuss, the blessings effectually conveyed upon the elect. So the blessings effectually conveyed is the fourth point. And then having given, this is James Durham and David Dixon, two Scottish theologians, having given the sum of saving knowledge in four heads, they use the practical use of saving knowledge. And my statement there that it's four heads is incorrect. They actually give six warrants or six passages that they're founding these things on. So how do we practically apply the sum of saving knowledge? First is by convincing man of sin by the law. And we've talked about this in Romans 7, of course, Paul giving his autobiography, his being convicted by the law, and that bringing him to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Second, They give Galatians 3.10 as a means by which someone may come to conviction. As many as are under the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So then they give an exposition of that text, laying out that you have to be perfectly obedient, perpetually obedient, scripturally obedient, and if you're not, you're cursed. So this is how we're convinced by the law of our misery, of our sinfulness. And then the judgment by the law, 2 Thessalonians 1.7, the terror of God's fiery judgment coming against the wicked. There is no way of escape but through faith in Christ. And then the conviction of man concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment by the gospel. And they discuss various texts there. Point five is the convincing of man of righteousness to be had by faith in Jesus Christ alone So there you have Romans 10 3 & 4 The Jews believed that they could be justified by works and faith. So they mixed together faith and works into a system of self-righteousness. But it's only the blood of Christ that cleanses us. There's no other purgatory. There's no other saving work. There's no other mediator, only Christ. and it's Christ's work on our behalf. The law draws us to the end of ourselves, shows us the remedy must be had in another, and the gospel provides that remedy. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's it. That's the good news. And then the sixth point concerns the strengthening of our faith to those who have agreed under the covenant of grace. Again, there's their covenantalism. They talk about agreeing, consenting, all these kinds of words they'll use about offering and all this kind of stuff. That's all Scottish covenantalism. It's not in the confession of faith. It's related to our confession of faith, but it's not the doctrine of our confession of faith to make everything fit into this kind of contractual covenantal language. Although there are specific aspects of the gospel that are covenantal, and there are specific aspects of the law that are covenantal, it's not fair, I don't believe, to make the whole thing up to be such. All right, then they give what they call warrants to believe. Now, this is something that our denomination definitely rejects. We don't accept their warrants. because what they say is irrational and unscriptural, and it impinges on God's simplicity and sovereignty. And what that means is God is a simple being. He doesn't have changes like we have, where he comes from one mind to another. The scripture uses that language to help us see that God changes His operation in Providence, but it doesn't mean that He changes His mind. It will deny that He repents, and then it will assert figuratively that He repented, that He made Saul king. But before that, it's laid out plainly, God is not a man that He should repent. So it's not a literal repentance, it's figuratively so. In any case, the Scots have this tradition where they think that God wants everybody to be saved, that he offers it to everybody universally, and it actually, in my mind, leads to Arminianism ultimately if you're consistent with it because if you think God sincerely wants everybody to be saved Then why did Jesus die for people? God didn't want to be saved like it just doesn't it has to be that if God wants people to be saved He sent his son to die for them so that he died for their sins. That's Arminianism So if you want to be consistent with scripture, I don't think you can believe God wants every single person who's offered the gospel to be saved. But that is the Scottish position. And they look to passages like Isaiah 55. Now I will say in our catechism, it talks about God offering the gospel, but it says he offers it freely to the affectionately called. That's the context. That those who are affectionately called, God freely offers to them salvation through the mediator Christ. He doesn't offer it to everybody in the visible church. He doesn't offer it to everybody who's out of the visible church. He only offers it to the effectually called. That's the teaching of our catechism. But the teaching of the Scots goes beyond that, and this is a historic instance. So they give these warrants to believe, reasons why, special motives to believe. They talk about the straight and awful command of God, that God commands people to be reconciled to himself. the assurance of life given if they obey the command of believing, and a fearful certification of destruction if they do not obey. Again, these are what they understand to be the well-meaning offer, the free offer of the gospel by which they think that God gives warrant to reprobates to believe. Then they talk about the evidences of true faith. Oh, by the way, any of the Scottish churches will tend to hold to this document as like, you should understand the confession through this document. Whereas for us, we say, no, we should understand this document through the scriptures and through our subordinated standards. which is the Confession and the Catechisms, subordinated to the Scriptures themselves, and they don't teach these doctrines, and consequently we reject them, whereas the Scottish, they're very traditional. So they'll have practices and doctrines handed down, and they'll say, yeah, but see, you know, this guy over here said this, and we would say, That's nice, you know, you're free to believe that and disagree with the confession, but this is the thing that binds us all together is we all accept this confessional standard. So they have kind of a traditionalism that gets handed down. And if you interact with folks, you'll find that it's very hard to get them out of that traditional mindset. In any case, evidences of true faith. First they give is the conviction of the law that a person is convinced of their sin and misery by the knowledge of the law that they're under a curse. A second evidence of true faith is the endeavoring to grow and exercise in godliness and righteousness every day. The third they give is the course of new obedience in the right channels, that is through faith in Christ, not seeking to be justified by works, but rather recognizing that I'm only seeking to keep a good conscience, not to earn God's favor by obeying God's commandments. And then they talk about a straight communion with Christ himself. Now, you'll go back and you'll read our Confession of Faith, and we have a specific way of understanding assurance of grace and salvation. I would say this is related to it, but maybe a little modified. But in the whole, yes, should you know you're a sinner by the knowledge of the law? Absolutely. Should you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Yes. Are good works and evidence? Yes, because the Spirit of God not only gives faith to believe unto salvation, the Spirit of God also gives faith to be sanctified and grow in grace. So there's the twofold righteousness, justifying righteousness by which all our sins are forgiven through faith in Christ alone. and sanctifying righteousness by which we grow in grace and knowledge. So is that part of our assurance? Absolutely. Yeah, that's right. But then they have these things about communion with the fountain Christ Jesus. What exactly does that mean? Maybe they're right. Maybe they're not. I don't happen to think that it's helpful because I think we should stick with our confessional standards. All right and then our addendums we have on pages 254 and 255 we get into our official position papers. Now a couple things about our position papers we have a preface talks about how they're not authoritative They're not subordinated standards, but they do help those outside of our denomination or coming into it to understand, here's how we generally understand the confession to teach on this point. And when we put it into a position paper, we're not adding to our doctrinal standards. We're merely identifying this is generally what we understand to be the case. So for example, Some people think that a day doesn't mean a day. And we're pretty clear in our position paper, no, actually we think a day means a day. The confession says it. We're just re-echoing it for the sake of contentious people who make up stuff out of nowhere and say a day doesn't mean a day. That's the only reason we have a position paper on that, for example. other reasons for position papers historically are for example to avoid women getting drafted if we have women in our church we don't want to get drafted by the military so we have a thing against women in the military pretty standard basic teaching of scripture but because people are retarded they don't understand male and female and they think there's like oh well you know there's a spectrum of genders or some ludicrous idea like this so we just put it in writing so that if somebody had to present a conscientious objection to save a woman from being drafted. She could say, my church has this conscientious position about women not being drafted in the military. They could present that, and their session could say, yes, we affirm this. And so it would be a way to preserve the conscientious refusal by a woman to be drafted, for example. So, you know, there are lawful uses of it as well. It's just we're not adding to the confession of faith in this, but we are trying to help minister to people and explain where we're coming from. All right. So the manner of approving these papers. Talks about an introduction of a position paper. And the introduction of the paper has to be approved by the General Assembly by a majority vote. And then the second part covers the appointment of a committee to draft such a position paper. And then the manner in which such a paper is approved. And once it's approved, then it would become part of the book of official position papers. So that's the process there, pretty straightforward. Not as complicated as if we wanted to change something about our confession or book of church order, but still a process in place. And then after that, we have our officer's training course. I talked about this in the scripture reading about deacons and elders in 1 Timothy chapter 3, that we're pretty fastidious about our rules. Who will we let into office? What's the process by which they go? And we'll talk more about that in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy. If we get to it, it might not, because it's toward the end of the chapter. Basically, we have a lot of things we would like our men to know so that they understand the distinctives of our denomination, the specific doctrines we believe, or at least be challenged in their thought by things that we think are useful to broaden their horizons to understand specific things. So the books that we have here, Unit 1 talks about Deacon Study Unit. So if someone is just looking to become a deacon, they must do Unit 1. If a man reads all those things and seems to be gifted toward the eldership, then there would be Unit 2 and also Unit 3. And it discusses here what exactly those books are. And these are, if you're going to become an elder in our denomination, these are the rough equivalent of a Master of Divinity, or I think it's a Masters of... What is it here? MAR equivalent. So they're getting our ruling elders even have the equivalent of a master's degree, which might seem excessive. But again, what we're attempting to do is weed out just having a warm body there. And Timothy is told that if you There are some men whose virtues go before them, because he's talking about not laying hands on anybody suddenly in 1 Timothy 5. He says there's some men that their evil doesn't come until later, it follows after. So if you have a period of probation for a man before he gets into office, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because for a godly man, that's going to encourage his virtue. And for a wicked man, it's going to give time for you to discover his wickedness, so that you don't lay hands on him suddenly. And then you partake in his sin, because he does all this ruin. And you officially sanctioned him by ordaining him. And I've seen this ruin churches where even super perfect churches go in and ordain somebody unlawfully outside of the bounds of their presbytery. And then that guy that they ordained wreaks havoc. And then these people say, oh, it's not our problem. He's not in our denomination. Well, you ordained the guy. So you're a partaker of his sins. So you ought to take responsibility and say, yes, my problem here. I need to come clean up this mess. So we recognize that if we're going to have to clean up somebody's mess, We want to be sure on the front end that they're not going to wimp out on us. That's too hard, I don't want to do all that. No, you take responsibility, you take ownership, you get it done. That's what we expect out of a man. So we do have a serious or rigorous course of study, but it's with good reason. And then finally here we have our Reformed Presbyterian Ministerial College. And these are just various types of degrees or certifications that a man can get who's coming in from another denomination, for example, or being raised up in our denomination, being licensed to preach, things like that. These are things that we think are very important. Your pastor is currently undergoing the Doctor of Reformed Theology. It's related to the Doctor of Divinity. But it's a course of study, probably going to take me a long time because I'm very busy. But be that as it may, that's good, too, because then they're not going to just put me in teaching other ministers or teaching in the seminary without me being very qualified. That's the goal. And so we have here just a layout of some of the courses, things that can be studied. All right, so any questions? Casey, did you have any questions on the sum of saving knowledge or any of the addendums? No. No? OK. Well, thank you all for your attention to this class. It's been a tremendous blessing. And I think we started it in December of last year. So we're about six months in, six, seven months in. Praise the Lord, we are done. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this class that you've blessed us in.