Well, every now and then it is good for a minister to preach a little more openly or transparently. On Friday, I was in the ER thinking I was having a heart attack and I had things strapped and taped all over to me. I think I got stabbed three different times with needles and I had ports and things like this going on. Thankfully, it turned out to not be. heart attack. So I'm very thankful for that. But as I you know as one sits there you reflect on life a little bit while you're sitting there kind of wondering what's happening. And I just wanted to say I don't say it enough to you but just as a minister how much I love each of you and how much joy you bring to me. I know Peter as an elder here would say the same. You know, as a pastor of sheep, it's not always a pleasant job. You think sometimes sheep poop on you or they bite you. Sometimes you're tempted to strike the sheep. And that's certainly true of the pastorate as well. But just as I love my children who threw up on me when they were young. I want you to know how much, as a minister, I love each of you. Not just you who are members, there are a few of you that are not members that I'd like to see members, and I'd like to see the Lord bring more people, but I love each of you and I'm very thankful for you, so I want you to know that. Sometimes, as a minister, you have to speak hard words or challenging words, But I hope that whenever you hear my speak, and you can pray that it would be that way for me, that it would come from a heart of love. And as my call to shepherd you as Christ has commanded me to, that I do it with love and joy. So I'm thankful for each of you here. The second is that no matter where you are in your life or how old you are, as a Christian, there's always more things to learn. At the heart of discipleship is the call to learn. When Jesus sent his disciples out, he said, go and teach them all that I have taught and commanded you. And so that's true, not just of you sitting in the congregation, but for the minister too. We always have more things to learn. And as we've been going through this study on the Lord's day, I have been learning a lot and I hope that you have too. And we're going to continue doing some of that learning this morning. And I would encourage you to listen with open ears. When I was in seminary in a missionary classes, before I ever thought I would be a missionary, I had no plans to leave the United States or to be a missionary whatsoever. And that's a story for another time. But my professor told us, he said, don't be the missionary that has been in the field for 20 years with one year of experience. That is, you did the same thing for 20 years and you never learned or you never grew. And so you just kept going on repeat. And we can do that. I mean, you can be a Christian who's stuck at 12 years old or five years old. But we're called to mature in Christ, both as a minister and as congregation members. And I want to encourage us to have a teachable heart as we as we learn these things, and I'm doing my best to do that as well from the pulpit. It goes both ways. This morning as we continue our series on the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath, reclaiming the Lord's Day, we are going to consider biblical principles for the evening service or for evening worship. In week one of this series, we looked at the Old Testament background for the Sabbath. In the second week, we looked at the New Testament principles that show us how the Sabbath shifted from Saturday to Sunday and how it became the Lord's Day as Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And this week, we are going to look at a topic that I would say has fallen on hard times in the evangelical world. And that's the topic of the evening service. Are there any biblical principles for it? What does scripture, what does church history have to commend the evening service? These are the things we're going to look at today. It's interesting that recently I've seen a number of articles on the evening service, and it seems to be a topic that's circulating the internet, at least in some reform circles presently. One great article I read recently was called Morning and Evening in the PCA by Justin Andrusk and Matthew Lee. So some colleagues, I don't know them personally, but colleagues in the PCA. And they showed in their article about how the evening service has fallen on hard times in the PCA, where only 12% of our 1,700 churches have an evening service. whatsoever. They compare that to other reformed churches that are doing a much better job, percentage-wise, having an evening service. But another author recently pointed out that even where churches offer an evening service, it is poorly attended often. So we're going to look at this because some kind of shift has happened. Because in the first four centuries after the Reformation, most churches met for morning and evening worship, and not just in the Reformed or Presbyterian churches, but more broadly as well, whether you go to Anglican or other denominations too. So what has happened? Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence, two Reformed Baptists, pointed out that the problem often is that there appears to be no explicit biblical reference or requirement Like a verse you can point to, to go, boom, you shall have an evening service and it shall be at 5 p.m. every Sunday. Wouldn't it be nice if we had, as a minister, it'd be nice, like, okay, how does a wedding ceremony, how do you put a worship service together? God does not give us those things point blank, but he gives us principles. He gives us principles for how we do church, how we do family life, how we live in this world. He gives us wisdom to consider what scripture teaches. And so I'm not gonna come down this morning with a heart and fast, thus says the Lord, but I would like to commend to you some biblical principles in the Old and New Testament, as well as some examples from church history that commend the goodness of coming together at least twice on a Lord's Day, morning and evening, to worship him. As you know, we've started an evening service, And I want to commend the wisdom of it to you from scripture, as well as what we can learn from a few places in church history, other Christians who have considered the scriptures and set practices as such. This morning, I'm going to just by way of a preface, I'm going to do more reading of sources than preaching this morning. That's partly due to the fact that I was on the table in the ER on Friday. But also, I think it's helpful to learn from other voices. So I'm going to do more reading. Rather, don't, what was it, the old reading rainbow show when I was growing up was like, don't take my word for it. It was read it in a book. So I'm going to read primary sources. And you can consider for yourselves what to make of it. So this morning, the pathway is simply going to be a compendium of scripture with a few examples from church history. First, we'll look at the Old Testament, then the New Testament, and then consider a few examples from church history. So let's dive in. I'll do my best to give you scripture references along the way, and I'm happy to share my notes with you if you want to study more deeply. So let's look at principles. Number one, principles for evening worship in the Old Testament. principles for evening worship in the Old Testament. It's interesting that morning and evening bookends the Bible. Morning and evening bookends the Bible. Genesis 1-4, and there is evening and there is morning the first day. At the very opening of scripture, we learn that the day contains an evening It contains a morning. It's a period of time. Whatever we make of the original six days, it's given to us as a 24-hour period, a day. It's a day. Moreover, the Sabbath rest that we've talked about these last few weeks comes in the fourth commandment. For in six days the Lord made heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it. holy. On the other end of scripture, in the book of Revelation, we see the same morning and evening theme. For example, Revelation 4.8, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within. And day and night, they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Day and night in the heavenly places, the worship of God never ceases. Revelation 7.15, likewise, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. So morning and evening bookend scripture. We learn in the law that Israelite morning and evening worship was part of the cultic practices of the Israelites as well according to God's command, and that worship on the Sabbath was intensified, and it took place morning and evening. So, for example, Exodus 29, 39. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. So there were morning and evening sacrifices where animals were being slaughtered in the worship of God according to God's command. Leviticus 620, we read, this is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall offer to the Lord on the day when he is anointed. A tenth of an ephah, a fine flower, as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening. So in their daily offerings, half would go in the morning and half in the evening. Likewise, Numbers 28, The Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel and say to them, the people of Israel, my offering, my food for my offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me as it is appointed at its appointed time. And you shall say to them, this is the food offering that you shall offer to the Lord, two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day as a regular offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. Also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a quarter of a hen of beaten oil. It is a regular burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. Its drink offering shall be a quarter of a hen for each lamb. In the holy place, you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. The other lamb you shall offer at twilight. Like the grain offering of the morning and like its drink offering, you shall offer it as a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish and two tenths of an ephah fine flour for a grain offering mixed with oil and its drink offering. This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. So here we see in the Old Testament worship, every day a sacrifice was made in the morning and in the evening. But in the Sabbath day, it was intensified. There were more sacrifices morning and evening in addition to the regular offerings. So we see God's heightened testament of the holiness of the Sabbath day here, morning and evening. As we saw in week one, the Israelites were kicked out of the land. One of the primary reasons was because of their failure to keep the Sabbath. But when they returned to the land after the exile, did they forsake this morning evening worship? We find that they did not. We read in Ezra 3.3, they set the altar in its place for fear was on them because of the peoples of the land and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord. burnt offerings, morning and evening. Coming back to this principle of the Sabbath day being a 24 hour period, we are reminded, as we saw in week one from Leviticus 23.3, that the rest assigned to the Israelites was a rest for worship, a rest to remember God's works. And as we read in Leviticus 23, three, six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. That is a set apart convocation for worship. So when we compare these two things of the one day and seven set apart as a sanctified, remember that word holy means set apart, a set apart day, period of time as a holy gathering, What we've seen here today is that that gathering included morning sacrifices as well as evening sacrifices. And that was God's intention for the Sabbath day. This principle of morning and evening carries forward in the Psalms as well. So for example, Psalm 1. Begins with this theme, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. And here we have this everyday kind of principle. The blessed person is the one who meditates on God's law day and night, on scripture day and night. That's a general principle. But again, in the Psalms, we see this heightened focus that comes on the Sabbath day. So for example, as Peter read for us earlier from Psalm 92, the title of that psalm, which he did not read as a psalm, a song for the Sabbath. A song for the Sabbath. And the psalmist says, it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night. So here in the Psalms, this song for the Sabbath shows that it is good to praise God both in the morning and in the evening, that accompanying These sacrifices in the temple was also praise and worship. And it is a good thing, a good thing for the Sabbath. We saw in our Psalm of Ascent series that we did a few years ago, that in this pilgrimage of God's people from living amongst pagans to being in the temple of God from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, Psalm 134 ends with this blessing to God's people who are serving him in the temple day and night. And here, specifically, we see the night. Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. So here we've seen, both in the law as well as in the Psalms, this principle of morning and evening worship with a heightened focus on the Sabbath day. And God's word calls it good. God's word calls it good. And as the Psalm of Ascent wraps up in Psalm 134, we even have this heightened view that the end goal destination is to worship the Lord, to stand at the watch by night, And God's blessing from Zion comes upon his people there. So that's what we've seen in the Old Testament. Let's turn then to the New Testament. Some principles for evening worship in the New Testament. Principles for evening worship in the New Testament. And again, we're gonna move from general to specific as we look at this. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. So for example, we see Jesus healing on the evening of the Sabbath in Mark 1.32, where Mark says, That Jesus did a healing work amongst his people in the evening of the Sabbath. Again, a general principle, a general thing to consider. It's interesting also in John 6, Jesus did some of his kind of most profound teaching moments for his disciples at night. The one that stands at the forefront for me is John 6, 19, where Jesus walks on water and scares the tar out of them when they thought he was a ghost. And Jesus used this as a teaching opportunity for his sheep. John 6, 16 to 21, when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across to the sea of Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is I. Do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. We also see the morning and evening theme in Jesus's post-resurrection appearances. For example, in John 20. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And then a little later on, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb after she had found out that it was empty. And she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lain. One at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing. On that same day, in the evening, we read in John 20, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples, sorry, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. And then we're told that eight days later, which in the Jewish counting of the days would be the following Sabbath day. Sorry, the following first day of the week. Please excuse me. That the Lord appeared in the same manner as before. So we see Jesus giving preference to morning and evening, particularly in the post-resurrection appearances. How about Paul? The other scripture reading we had today, from Acts 20. In Acts 20.31, Paul is exhorting the Ephesian elders who came to meet him on the island of Miletus. Paul knows he's going to his death. And in the midst of his last words to him in his farewell address in Acts 20.31, this is after what Peter read this morning, Paul tells them, therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. Paul is, of course, speaking hyperbolically to a degree. He's not saying 24-7 he was talking to someone. But what he was saying is day and night, he was doing life with these people. Paul was in Ephesus for three years helping to plant this church. And day and night, he was meeting with people and encouraging them and admonishing them, even with tears. What we see so far, just to kind of step aside from the sources we've been reading, is that the Sabbath day was not the Sabbath hour. It was a Sabbath day. And we see in Jesus's ministry with the disciples, it wasn't like the discipleship hour. He was with them all the time, morning, and evening, and he chose morning and evening to appear to them. And we see the same with the disciples, that they were with their people morning and evening, and not just one hour on a Sunday. It's the Lord's day, not the Lord's hour. The Lord's day, not the Lord's hour. You could also say likewise, this maybe might hit you a little funny. It's the Lord's supper, not the Lord's breakfast. It's interesting, and we've done this too. We celebrate the Lord's Supper at brunch, right? Breakfast or brunch time. But Jesus, you know, in the most memorable act that we still celebrate as a sacrament today, happened in the evening. And there's something special about evening because the concerns of the day are over. This is my own personal reflection and conjecture here, but experience of life too. There's something about the evening where you're more open to hear and think than in the morning when you're busy filled with all your thoughts and worries and concerns. And Jesus did some of his most memorable things in the evening when we're at rest and things are quiet or it's dark outside. It's the Lord's Supper, not the Lord's Brunch. Related to this is something called the agape feast. The Greek word agape means love. And we see evidence of this in the New Testament as well as in church history, which I'll get to shortly. But the agape feast was a fellowship meal that the church had together that also likely included the Lord's Supper as part of that feast together. and early Christians assembled weekly to have a communal meal in the evening together. But I'll come back to that in a moment. We see evidence of this agape feast even in Acts 20, which was the scripture that Peter read this morning, Acts 20, where on the first day of the week, Luke records, when we were gathered together to break bread. So part of their gathering was not simply gathering to sing and to hear the word preached or read, but it was also to break bread together. And when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. And he went on so long that poor Eutychus falls out the window and dies. And in another teaching moment, by God's grace, he is brought back to life. Now, I don't think this means that the New Testament Christians met till midnight every time. It was surely a special thing to have the Apostle Paul with them. But he went a little long, as preachers sometimes do. But we see here, evidence of the agape feast as they came to break bread as well as to hear teaching. So we've seen principles for evening worship in the Old Testament and principles for evening worship, or I should say morning and evening, in the New Testament. But how about in church history? We'll close with some few examples from church history as a third point, three evening Principles for Evening Worship in Church History. There's a great book that I commend to any of you called Documents of the Christian Church, and it's a compendium, it's published by Oxford, that it was written in the, or compiled in the 40s, 1940s, that includes some of the most important documents from the history of the church. What I find particularly interesting is the early documents of what was it like in the early church just after the time of the apostles. And we have this interesting insight into the life of early church Christians through a Roman governor called Pliny the Younger, who wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan around 112. So this is very early, around 112 AD. How do I deal and punish with these Christians? That's his question. And I'm going to read it in the entirety because it's good for us to hear what our early forebears went through for the gospel. But it also sheds light onto our subject this morning. So this is a pagan governor. What I'm about to read is a pagan governor writing to the pagan emperor of Rome. So Pliny says, it is my rule, sire, to refer to you in matters where I am uncertain. For who can better direct my hesitation or instruct my ignorance? There's some behind kissing here, I think, as we read this. I was never present at any trial of Christians. Therefore, I do not know what are the customary penalties or investigations and what limits are observed. I have hesitated a great deal on the question whether there should be any distinction of ages, whether the weak should have the same treatment as the more robust, whether those who recant should be pardoned, or whether a man who has ever been a Christian should gain nothing by ceasing to be such, whether the name itself, even if innocent of crime, should be punished, or only the crimes attaching to that name. Meanwhile, this is the course that I have adopted in the case of those brought before me as Christians. I ask them if they are Christians. If they admit it, I repeat the question a second and a third time, threatening capital punishment. That is the death sentence. If they persist, I sentence them to death. For I do not doubt that whatever kind of crime it may be to which they have confessed, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy should certainly be punished. There were others who displayed a like madness in whom I reserved to be sent to Rome, since they were Roman citizens. Therefore, the usual result followed. The very fact of my dealing with the question led to a wider spread of the charge, and a great variety of cases were brought before me. An anonymous pamphlet was issued containing many names, all who denied that they were or had been Christians. I considered that to be discharged, because they called upon the gods at my dictation and did reverence with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be wrought forward for this purpose, together with the statutes of the deities, and especially because they curse Christ, a thing which it is said genuine Christians cannot be induced to do. Others named by the informer first said that they were Christians and then denied it, declaring that they had been, but were so no longer. Some having recanted three years or more before, and one or two as long ago as 20 years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods and cursed Christ. But they declared that the sum of their guilt or error had amounted only to this. and this gets into the focus of our study, that on an appointed day, they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak, and to recite a hymn antiphonally to Christ. By the way, when we say acapella, that means after the church. That's what the Latin means. So they're singing, just from their voices, a hymn to Christ, as to a God, and to bind themselves by an oath, not for the commission of any crime, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and breach of faith, and not to deny a deposit when it was claimed. After the conclusion of this ceremony, it was their custom to depart and meet again to take food. But it was ordinary and harmless food, and they had ceased this practice after my edict in which, in accordance with your orders, I had forbidden secret societies. I thought it the more necessary, therefore, to find out what truth there was in this by applying torture to two maidservants who were called deaconesses. But I found nothing but a depraved and extravagant superstition, and I therefore postponed my examination and had recourse to you for consultation. The matter seemed to me to justify my consulting you, especially on account of the number of those imperiled. For many persons of all ages and classes and of both sexes are being put in peril by accusation. And this will go on. The contagion of the superstition has spread not only in the cities, but in the villages and rural districts as well. Yet it seems capable of being checked and set right. There is no shadow of doubt that the temples, which have been almost deserted, are beginning to be frequented once more. that the sacred rights which have been long neglected are being renewed and that sacrificial victims are for sale everywhere. Whereas till recently a buyer was rarely to be found. From this it is easy to imagine what a host of men could be set right were they given a chance at recantation. There's so much more than we have time to get into from this very interesting text from a pagan to a pagan. But I just want you to consider that what people were tortured for was things like abstaining from theft, robbery, adultery, preach of faith. The Roman Empire was so depraved that those things were seen as evil. It's shocking. And that what these people were tortured and killed for included getting up early to worship the Lord with its people, departing and coming back later for a meal. And that was so important to them that true Christians were killed for it. While the false Christians recanted and worshipped the deity and worshipped Caesar. Tertullian writes on the agape feast around 197 AD, when he's defending, in his apology, the accusations of pagans against what Christians are doing. In the midst of that defense, he talks about the agape feast, which he calls our repast, R-E-P-A-S-T. And he says, our repast, by its very name, indicates its purpose. It is called by a name which, to the Greeks, means love. Whatever it costs, it is gained to incur expense in the name of piety. Since by this refreshment, we comfort the needy, not as among you, not as among you parasites contend for the glory of reducing their liberty to slavery for the price of filling their belly amid insults. But as before God, greater consideration is given to those of lower station. If the motive of our repass is honorable, then on the basis of that motive, appraise the entire procedure of our discipline. What concerns the duty of religion tolerates no vulgarity, no immorality. No one sits down to table without, and now he's talking about what they do at the agape feast. No one sits down to table without first partaking of a prayer to God. as much as those who are hungry take, they drink as much as temperate people need, they satisfy themselves as men who remember that they must worship God even throughout the night." I find that really interesting. For Tertullian and the early church Christians, this was an obvious thing to them. They satisfy themselves as men who remember that they must worship God even throughout the night. They converse as men who know that the Lord is listening. After this, the hands are washed and lamps are lit, and each one, according to his ability to do so, reads the holy scriptures or is invited into the center to sing a hymn to God. This is the test of how much he has drunk. There it means. Similarly, so I guess we can have wine at the evening meal. Similarly, prayer puts an end to the meal. From here they depart, not to unite in bands for murder, or to run around in gangs, or for stealthy attacks of lewdness, but to observe the same regard for modesty and chastity as people do who have partaken not only of a repast, but of a rule of life." That's Tertullian writing in 197. Just a few more. examples that I think are instructive for us. Just like today, one of the big griefs as a minister in the States especially is people who, you would see people literally leave early. I wasn't the preacher then, I was an associate pastor, because they got to get home to watch the Kansas City Chiefs game. You see people where their love, their passion, where even people leave the church over arguments is about sports. And their High Holy Day is watching sports once they get church over with. But this is not a new problem. It's interesting. During the Reformation, and during something called the Synod of Dort, which was the Dutch reform coming together to deal with the Armenian controversy, that was minimizing scripture and minimizing the Lord's Day, they gathered together, and this week I found, through the help of Gideon, a very interesting letter written about what they discussed at the Synod. And a lot of it reads like today. And so this guy is writing to, his name is Mr. Hales, and he's writing to a guy named Sir Dudley Carlton, Lord Ambassador, about what happened. That's a great name, isn't it? He says, upon Tuesday of this present, he's referring to the synod, the deputies met in the morning where in the third place was proposed the defect of the afternoon sermons and catechizing. especially in the country villages, and the synod was moved to deliver itself concerning remedies of this defect. What had been heretofore decreed in some of their synods concerning this matter was publicly read. The impediments were, first, the negligence of the pastors, so the pastors were giving up on it. Secondly, combinations, that is double benefices, when men having two cures could not sufficiently intend both, meaning there was not financial support enough for a minister to be over each church. So ministers had to go to a bunch of different places so they couldn't do an evening or afternoon service. Thirdly, the difficulty of reclaiming the country people on the Sundays either from the sports or from their work. Same thing. The synod beginning to consider of means to cut off these abuses Festus Hominis, that's a great name. This is a guy amongst, and ironically, his name means the festival of man. So it's ironically that he's defending the Lord's Day when his name is the festival of man, which is what most people treat the Lord's Day as these days. That's an interesting irony of history. Festus Hominis, amongst the other things, complained that through the negligence of the remonstrance, that is, these Armenians stirring up trouble, it came that catechizing was so much decayed, which words of his, it is thought, will be an occasion of some challer, though for the present they passed uncontrolled. Many delivered their opinions how the aforementioned hindrances of afternoon sermons and catechizing might be removed. First, by imploring the help of the states general. that it would please them by their authority to prohibit that ordinary profanation of the Sabbath by working or playing. Secondly, by requiring the like help of the particular magistrate in every town and village. Thirdly, by taking away those combinations. By the way, could you imagine the poli-tea coming and arresting people who are running on the Sabbath and dragging him to church? That's another age, isn't it? It's another age. Fourthly, by providing a sufficient schoolmasters in every village who should not only teach grammar, but instruct use in the principles of religion. Fifthly, that the pastors should not omit afternoon sermons by reason of the negligence of their auditors. In other words, meaning they shouldn't give up preaching just because the people aren't showing up. But should perform them, though they brought to the church none but their own family. So even if you're the minister, the only guy here, you ought to do it. That the pastors and deacons and seniors should deal with their friends and acquaintance and bring them to church with them. Sixthly, that if any pastor neglected to perform this duty, he should be subject to ecclesiastical censure. Seventhly, that the deputies of other nations should be requested to make overture of the customs in this behalf. Lastly, that diligent inquiry should be made throughout all the classes, whether catechizing and afternoon sermons were observed. It was decreed that in every parish, there should be two sermons every Sunday, of which that in the afternoon was to be catechol, that is going through the catechisms of the church. That the ministers should give good example by bringing their own family to church, that the help of the magistrate should be implored, That combination should be taken away. When all was done, then was the required which should have been done afore. The deputies of other nations were desired to deliver their customs in their behalf. So one of the things we see in the early Reformation period is that actually the churches in different nations were talking together. So England and Germany and Switzerland and France and the Netherlands, they were talking together about how they were doing things in light of the rediscovery of scripture. They're coming back to scripture and considering scripture, not the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church, and considering what it means, and they're talking to one another. Because at the end of the day, the Norwegian church shouldn't have different doctrine than the German church or the Dutch church. We should strive all together to conform. So they sent out emissaries to see what they're doing. This is really interesting and back to our subject. Where first my Lord Bishop showed us that in England, the magistrate imposed a pecuniary fine upon such as did absent themselves from divine duties. There was no separation of church and state at this time. Which pecuniary fine generally prevailed more with our people than any pious admonitions could. Again, meaning people are so hard-hearted that the only way they'll listen is if they get fined, if it hurts their wallet, rather than any kind of pious exhortation from scripture. Those of the Paul's graves country show that each Sunday they had two sermons and such as were absent were first admonished by the clergy. And if this suffice not, they required the help of the civil magistrate. Those of Geneva told us that in the churches in their cities, they had every Sunday four sermons. etc. This is what he says, four servants, etc. Those of Brehm, that they had three sermons, of which one was catechetical, and to avoid profanation of the Sabbath. It was not lawful to celebrate any marriage feast or such like upon the Sunday till six o'clock in the evening. So what we see here is that in the century following the Reformation, that God's people were actually gathering for worship on the Lord's Day, not just once, but twice, to hear multiple servants that in order to not profane the day and to follow what they felt the Bible taught, because they were reading Scripture just like we read Scripture today, they were convicted as they went to Scripture that the Lord's Day ought to be, the whole day ought to be set apart with multiple teaching and worship opportunities. We don't have time to talk about between the early church and the Reformation, the monasteries and the prayer hours that went on morning, noon, and night, and even into the late watches of the night. But I do want to bring us to our own documents. Again, when we talk about the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechism, we do not look to these things as infallible teachings. but they serve as teachers to point us to scripture and to say, what do you think? Consider the scriptures for yourselves. So they're a teaching guide for us. They're a historic teaching guide for us that's been vetted and even revised throughout the course of the Presbyterian church. But when we get to our own confessional statements, we read, for example, in the Confession of Faith, chapter 21.8, where in light of the scriptures, and you can study the proof text they include for yourself, they say, this Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, which men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. Likewise, we read in the Shorter Catechism, question 60, how is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as it is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. In the original directory for the public worship of God, on the sanctification of the Lord's Day, We read, the Lord's Day ought to be so remembered beforehand as that all worldly business of our ordinary callings may be so ordered and so timely and seasonably laid aside, as they may not be impediments to the due sanctifying of the day when it comes. The whole day is to be celebrated as holy to the Lord, both in public and private, as being the Christian Sabbath, to which end it is requisite that there be a holy cessation or resting all that day from all unnecessary labors, and an abstaining not only from all sports and pastimes, but also from all worldly words and thoughts. That the diet on that day be so ordered as that neither servants be unnecessarily detained from the public worship of God, nor any other person hindered from sanctifying that day. That there be private preparations of every person and family by prayer for themselves, and for God's assistance of the minister, and for a blessing upon the ministry, and by such other holy exercises as may farther dispose them to a more comfortable communion with God and his public ordinances, that all the people meet so timely for public worship that the whole congregation may be present at the beginning and with one heart solemnly joined together in all parts of the public worship and not departing till after the blessing. That what time is vacant, between or after the solemn meetings of the congregation and public, be spent in reading, meditation, repetition of sermons, especially by calling their families to an account of what they have heard, in catechizing of them, holy conferences, prayer for a blessing upon the public ordinances, singing of psalms, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the Sabbath a delight." So what have we seen this morning? We've seen principles for evening worship in the Old Testament and the Sabbath. We've seen principles for morning and evening worship in the New Testament. And we've seen how many in church history and churches as a whole viewed the evening worship as a given, as something you wouldn't compromise. Early Christians were tortured and killed for it. When unbelieving men took over the church, when it had power, and when that was overthrown by a German monk and by a scholar who published the New Testament in Greek, and they were able to go back to the Bible for themselves, the men and women of the Reformation saw evening worship as a given. Most of church history, in fact, has had evening worship, and it's not until the last 50 to 100 years that it has been grossly neglected. Now, what do we make of this? There's not one Bible verse that says, thus shall you do this. But when you think about it, there's not a Bible verse for a lot of things we believe the Bible teaches. When I say Bible verse, like one verse. Take the Trinity, for example. We understand that God is three in one, one God and three persons, from a reflection on all of scripture and what scripture teaches about God and about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So when we do theology and we move from theology to practice, we have to consider the principles. And it's wise for us to, not that the church history is infallible and there's not in any way, but it is wise of us to consider how other Christians in times outside of our own understood what the Bible teaches. Because we all read with glasses. We all read with the conveniences of our day. And the sad fact is that what happens more often than not is that if something is said or taught that you don't like, you call it legalism. Rather than taking the time to at least consider what scripture says and what those who have gone before us have thought that scripture says. So we're going to do one final sermon on the Lord's Day, Lord willing, next week to wrap up this whole series. But what we've seen so far is that in the Old Testament in week one, the Sabbath was such a holy day that God even commanded those that break it to be killed. We saw in the New Testament last week that the principles for the Lord's Day In light of what Jesus did after his resurrection constituted this revolution where the Sabbath day shifts from Saturday to Sunday and is called the Lord's day, but the principles of holy worship continued in the New Testament. And what we've seen this morning is, as we said, it's the Lord's day, not the Lord's hour, that Christians for centuries, even on pain of death, met throughout the entire day to worship the Lord publicly with God's people. And that was an obvious given. And I'm afraid that in our culture today, we are drinking the Kool-Aid of secular culture that's slowly poisoning the church and poisoning Christians from the good and holy proper rest that God has desired for his people to have on the Lord's day. So I am, as your pastor, I'm not commanding you to do anything today other than I'm commending you to consider the sources read. And I read them in part because I wanted you to hear from other people than just taking my word for it. And if you'd like to consider these things more, I'm happy. to hand you my notes and you can go and study for yourselves. That's what I try to do each week and what I hope that you do as well as you hear these things. So with that said, let's pray.