The Christian Sabbath (SS Open Forum)

Introduction to the Open Forum and Church Policy

0:03 This adult Sunday school class was held on September 28, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, particularly for the benefit of those who are visiting with us, a word of explanation is in order. It is our general practice in this class, as in all of the public meetings for worship and teaching, to be guided in our study of the Word of God in a consecutive manner by those who are proven guides among us.

0:39 And normally, Pastor Bob Martin would be leading you in a study of Hebrews chapter 11 at this point in our working through that wonderful epistle. And when we have occasional interruptions, we sometimes use them to address practical pastoral concerns that may be relevant. A matter of general consensus among the eldership, as appropriate for the adult class. On other occasions, we have what we call an open forum, in which the members of the congregation are free to ask questions

1:16 that may relate to some of the expositions of the regular ministry in this place, or which address some matter of general concern in the way of the Christian life, Christianity, Christian experience, witnessing, personal devotions, those things that constitute the ongoing concerns of God's people. Now, because the scriptures tell us, let all things be done unto edification, and let all things be done decently and in order, because we do almost invariably have not a few visitors with us in all of our services, just this word of explanation is in order. This is not,

2:00 not like the open forum conducted on certain Christian radio stations, where anybody can ask anything and is treated fairly. Frankly, I believe that some of the impudent and almost blasphemous questions and trivial questions that are asked on some of the Christian stations ought to be met with a rebuke, rather than even given the credit of the attempt to give an honest answer. However, we don't in any way regard ourselves, as an open telephone line, for anyone to ask any question, but rather this is an opportunity for the members of this congregation who may have legitimate questions to ask them,

2:44 and then generally we have a guided discussion. I don't take the place of the oracle and the answer man, but rather I try to take the place of a catalyst to guide us all into a further understanding of the word of God, and often some of the most valuable contributions in the way of scriptural support come from the members. And if you're a visitor with us, we do cordially welcome you. And if you ask, why are you not free to ask a question?

3:14 Well, the basic answer to that is, the people who regularly support the ministry here by their presence ought to be given preference in terms of questions related to common concerns, but then secondly, we can assume that their questions, we can assume that their questions, will come out of the context of a doctrinal framework to which they have consciously committed themselves by becoming members. And the most practical questions have doctrinal roots. And there have been times in the past before we adopted this policy, when the whole class has been thrown into embarrassment, when a visitor asked a question that indicated that he or she was coming from a totally different galaxy of reference.

3:58 It put me in the awkward position of wanting to ask a question, wanting to be gracious while entertaining the question, and yet, on the other hand, sensing that the members expected me to expose the fallacy, or sometimes the downright cheekiness of the question, it puts a tension in the class that is not unto edification. So, that's basically our reason. We have no fine print on the matter, because we are under a mandate from Scripture in all our public gatherings to do all things unto edification. In this way, that goal can be best secured.

Opening Prayer and Missions Update

4:32 So, let us pray and ask God to guide us in the questions that will be raised, and in our responses to them, as well as remembering especially the requests that Pastor Dixon has laid before us. Let us again seek the face of God. Our Father, we rejoice before you this morning in the wonderful way we have seen your hand at work in all of the matters pertaining to the ministry in the Philippines, and we do with great anticipation, long to look upon our brother and sister and their little one. We pray that as in a few hours they will begin their journey, that you will watch over them, protect them,

5:17 fulfill your word of promise to preserve the going out and the coming in of your people from this time forth and forevermore, that you would help their little boy to make a quick adjustment to the time change. We pray that your grace will rest upon them in the couple of days that they spend with Steve's folks in the Chicago area, then bring them safely to their appointed destination here on Thursday evening. And then we do pray again for Jonathan and Allison, as when they part with Steve and Carol, the weight of the burden of the ministry

5:58 will no doubt come pressing in upon Jonathan's heart with renewed intensity. And, O Lord, as he cries out, who is sufficient for these things, that his sufficiency is of you, and that you have made him an able minister of the new covenant. And now, our fathers, we have this opportunity to discuss your word together. We pray that the Holy Spirit himself will guide us, that as we look into the Scriptures, we may be given light, and that with that light may be more conformed the image of your...

6:35 Confess, Lord, that we have no desire simply to scratch our understandings. We have no desire for that knowledge which, left devoid of love and faith and obedience, merely puffs up. Grant us the knowledge of that truth. It is unto sanctification.

The Christian Sabbath: David's Question and Confessional Basis

6:58 Hear us, then, and bless our time together. We plead through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The members who have come with an issue that perhaps has been burning in your own mind and heart, and you have been waiting for an answer, and you have been waiting for an opportunity such as this to raise the question, and now is your opportunity.

7:22 And by the way, let me say, you need not just raise a question if you feel the embarrassment. No one's asking one. I always have a back-up shoot of the subject to introduce in case there are no questions. Yes, David?

7:35 ...to repeat your confession.

8:54 And again, for those of you who are visiting with us, we should inform you that we are a confessional church. Our confessional standard is the London Baptist Confession. The London Baptist Confession of 1689 is the second child of the Westminster Confession. And in this section, dealing with the law of God, in brief, the statement of our confession is that in the Garden of Eden, God wrote upon the heart of Adam and Eve a law, a standard of righteousness.

9:24 That law was later codified in the two tables of the law upon Sinai. And the great principles and standards of that law are written upon the heart in the New Covenant. And there is power and ability given for evangelical law-keeping, not as the basis of our salvation, but as the framework by which we express our gratitude to God for His salvation. And that what God has codified in the ten words given on Sinai are not in any way abrogated, but carried through into covenant.

10:06 In the section on the Confession, it is treated as the Sabbath or the Lord's Day. In Genesis, there was the original institution, the creation ordinance, God blessing and sanctifying. Monday and seven set apart

10:51 for specific religious purposes, but you had it surrounded with many things that were the Mosaic Covenant.

11:03 In Scripture, even the day is changed

12:06 for the position that is taught in this church, being a confessional church. Now, David's question is, in all of this, to see someone who put in this New Covenant and blatantly listing an idol, what would we do? To say we had a cousin, and we went into his home,

12:51 and there we saw little jade statutes. Before the meal, before they said grace at the table, they bowed down before that statue. David's assertion is we would do what? What was the term?

13:06 We would attack them. Well, not that he would go after them with a knife. As a theonomist, slaying an idolater. But what I believe David meant, knowing David over many years, what he means is we would aggressively address the issue of their violation of the second commandment.

13:34 Isn't that what you meant to say? That's right. Yes. All right.

13:39 We would aggressively address, verbally, not with hands, with knife, with club. We would say to them, now, cousin John, how in the world is it, professing to believe in the Lord Jesus, and love the law of God, and having the law of God written on the heart, going down to image, inhabiting with a woman other than his wife, and the seventh commandment, opportunity to address the issue. We'd say, cousin John, is it true that you're shacking up with some woman other than your wife? And if he said yes, we'd say,

14:23 how in the world can you claim to be a Christian while openly defying the seventh commandment when the scripture tells us that no adulterer as well as no idolater shall enter the kingdom of heaven? Now, his question is, is that your question? And if, why should we,

Challenges in Addressing Fourth Commandment Violations

15:03 or how should we deal with this issue? Some of the other commandments. Can you think right off the bat what some of the problems are? All right, Ron, explain that.

15:35 There's a partial compliance by those who would not hold to the same view. What do you mean? All right. Someone want to amplify on that?

16:02 I think he's on the track. It's very, very helpful. What makes it so difficult? Yes, Jonathan?

16:08 All right, we're ready to concede that their heart may be right, but their thinking may be wrong. How do you know that? And we're just stating that generically as a possibility? Yes, Felton?

16:21 There is actually the thinking that there are only now nine ethical moral commandments summarizing our moral duty. So there's a defective understanding of what it means to keep one day holy unto the Lord. All right? And we'll go back to, you know, to what you were saying when you said, you know, there's a partial compliance

17:01 by those who would not hold to the same view. What makes it so difficult? Yes, Jonathan? All right, we're ready to concede that their heart may be right, but their thinking may be wrong.

17:24 So there's a defective understanding of what it means to keep one day holy unto the Lord. All right? And we'll go back to,

18:09 I believe it was John Cotton. Yes? Either you're bowed down to the idols of things and you can conceive of God in the wrong way, that's internal idolatry. But if you're guilty of external idolatry, like your cousin, if you see him bowing down, it's pretty clear, isn't it?

18:21 In other words, what the second commandment requires in terms of external behavior, it's relatively easy to see whether a person is cutting a cross by willful, mental, lust, by impureness, living,

18:45 it might surprise some people that the strongest statements I've ever read on this that are found in John Owen, the greatest exercitation on the appointed day of rest,

19:29 in the introduction to Hebrews, it's a 200-plus page treatise on the whole doctrine of sanctity of 3.16 uses language that the Jewish Sabbath is abolished and is buried in Christ's Sabbath. Day of rest surrounded with all. Don't try to resurrect it.

20:08 But what does abide is the appointed day of rest that originally was given in the first creation and in the effecting of the

20:18 to make a judgment

21:14 as to whether or not someone is, quote, breaking the fourth commandment. There's the first problem we face, the difficulty of an accurate assessment. Then, Gary has mentioned the second. ... government,

21:40 our wrong indication is all but the fourth commandment. None whatsoever. God says, accepting the fourth commandment. But in the Decalogue, however, in the outworking of our consciences, because of that, we don't want to take

22:24 a Pharisaic attitude that says, well, because for me, because in John, people to me or matters that I could do with a good conscience, we don't want to assume the position of a Pharisee and immediately judge him as violating that commandment when he may well be keeping it with a good conscience before the Lord according to his present light. Is that making sense? All right. Anyone else have something in this area of what the problem is and why it's peculiarly difficult

23:09 with regard to the fourth commandment? Yes, Pastor Bob. Yes. All right.

23:37 So some people are actually regulating their practice by poor teaching or perhaps even false teaching. Scripture does teach that that's possible among believers. You see, if the Galatians could be so influenced by false teachers as to think that they had to take even Gentiles down to the local rabbi and have him circumcised and keep all of the Mosaic rituals in order to be fully saved, we should not be surprised if people can be influenced to embrace false and erroneous teaching with regard to how God can be honored on his appointed day.

24:13 Now we're getting into the area of reasons why there may be reasons for what we might call poor practice respect to the Lord's day and one is the bad teaching that is disseminated and now a second thing that Mr. White has mentioned is the bad example. The whole idea,

24:58 you see, in our day and it's been I think it was really I can't speak back before then I wasn't around to observe it but my own observation is that during the emergence of the Youth for Christ movement in the United States and in the United States and in the United States and in the United States and in the United States and in the United States and in the United States the Youth for Christ movement in the 40s and 50s when it became very popular the Youth for Christ movement seemed to be at least to my exposure in my generation perhaps one of the if not the major factors in the whole notion that if you can only convince young people that their heroes

25:42 in sports, entertainment, music, etc. that those heroes think Jesus is good enough that they will quote accept Jesus then you can persuade young people that they ought to accept him too and you see behind that is a terrible terrible and horrible combination of theological and practical flaws in thinking but be that as it may there was this tendency then and of course Campus Crusade then came along and just even intensified it greatly and they were always putting forward I can remember when Don Mumaw who was an all-American football player was pushed forward and you had all

26:26 of these so-called converted football players and baseball players pushed forward as a commendation of the gospel and so there has been this not only poor teaching but I'm sorry this bad teaching but the bad example that has been given by heroes and by people who have been set forward as good Christians and often the Lord's Day is really their big day their weekends or their big days of drawing their crowds and therefore there's been a general erosion all right any other causes yes

The New Testament Basis for the Lord's Day

27:05 Cynthia yes well if anyone takes the position that unless a commandment is specifically expressed in the New Testament it's not binding upon us they're in real bad trouble bestiality is nowhere explicitly condemned in the New Testament I don't mean to be coarse but you want to live with that axiom then if it's not explicitly condemned it's permitted

27:50 but furthermore who says it's not mentioned in the New Testament if you've been with us in the exposition of the gospel of Mark if you've read through any of the gospels I think the gospels are New Testament aren't they the one commandment that Jesus was more careful to to strip away the pharisaic misunderstanding and misapplication was the fourth commandment anyone who takes the time to go through list the ten commandments and read through the gospels of the public ministries of the public recorded ministries of Jesus it is clear that he spent more time clearing away misconceptions about the fourth commandment

28:34 than any other commandment and when we come to Mark chapter two it's very clear to me and to the vast host of expositors from the church fathers down to this day that rather than indicate that he came to abrogate the Sabbath Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath indicates this great teaching Mark 2 verse 27 and 8 and he said unto them the Sabbath was made for man not for the Jews not for the Jews not for man up until the time of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit the cross and the open tomb

29:18 the Sabbath was made for man as man and not man for the Sabbath even so or so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath and his Messianic Lordship extends over the Sabbath not to abrogate it but to strip it of all of its prosaic misconceptions then by his death and resurrection to strip it of all of its Jewish elements and then by the outpouring of his Spirit to crown it for it was on the first day of the week that he not only rose from the dead but sent his Spirit and as Lord of the Sabbath to institute

30:03 in the new covenant the Lord's Day Sabbath in which the day of rest now bristles the glory and privileges of new covenant provisions and so that argument that it is not the fourth commandment is not repeated or is silent simply doesn't hold water and I believe there are good and compelling reasons as to why there was in the epistles no specific command to keep the Sabbath and I think the major regions very obvious in this period where Jews were still keeping their seventh day as a Sabbath and keeping the Lord's

Gracious Correction and Wise Reproof

30:48 Day as their distinct Christian day there needed to be a period of transition in which the understanding of the church under apostolic instruction and practice would emerge with its full blown doctrine of the Lord's Day Sabbath alright now then we come back to David's question to set the field what do we do with cousin George if we have reason to believe his practice is the result of bad teaching or bad examples what would you suggest that we do well give us some scriptures if we believe someone to be overtaken

31:33 in a fault what are we to do Galatians 6 1 if a brother be overtaken in a fault ye who are spiritual in your self lest you also be tempted now the first question you must ask whenever there is a situation like this we dealt with this in the academy the other day in the discussion period in another connection ask yourself what relationship has God established between me and the one whom I desire to help by instruction or correction and we must not simply rush in without asking that

32:17 question for example if cousin John has come to your house and is spending a weekend with you now God has established a relationship in which you as the head of your home David have certain rights and responsibilities in ordering the affairs of that home even with respect to visitors who may come among it so if cousin John is accustomed to visiting your house you have every right to say cousin John in our home we believe the Lord is most honored on his day if we leave the television off so we would appreciate it

33:01 if while you are in our territory you respect that standard now that is perfectly right and proper and for you to do anything less than that would be a relinquishment of your husband's place and come three o'clock or four o'clock Sunday afternoon he goes into the living room to turn on his television do you have a right to go in and turn it off yes but the question is maybe he used the word attack deliberately but now the question is

33:46 do you have a right would that be would that be a proprietious gracious thing to do it would be boorish it would it would be a bad advertisement for your cause alright but now what could you do and what ought you prayerfully to do with cousin John if you saw him go in and watch his television program and then he's just breaks himself away

34:20 just in time to brush his teeth and get ready to go off he could say John how in the world do you think you can do what you've done for the last two hours and be ready to go to church that's the aggressive thump on him way the other way is to say John I've got a problem if I were you and had just spent a couple of hours in front of the television you know how I'd find my spirit

35:04 attempting to go to the Lord's day and watch the replays there's a reason I watch the football is I like it when I watch it I watch it because I like it I would have the problem right now instead of thinking of going into the presence of God his special presence in the midst of his people and pouring out my praise I'd really find that my heart was not prepared for worship so how do you handle it now see you're getting at the same thing but in one way you're coming in an attacking way

35:48 it says about a wise reprover upon an obedient ear you want to be a wise reprover and all of us have a natural built-in tendency to self-defense and self-justification if someone attacks us without a gracious approach let's be wise as serpents harmless as doves let's seek to be a wise reprover maybe the time to ask it is not on the way to church but when you come home and you're having a bite to eat afterwards and you're speaking of the blessings of that day and say you know John as I thought back over the day

36:32 if I were you I would feel this how do you handle that this pattern no one ever challenged it you know David you've given me something to think about maybe next Lord's Day I'll see if there's any real difference I'll say no to my ball game that may be the beginning of a whole new opening up of a differing attitude all right someone else want to contribute along this line as to how you might graciously raise the subject and be of help to someone

37:08 yes Pete so you make an entreaty then out of their regard to you surely they must have some love and affection for you or they wouldn't be inviting you to the home and so you take advantage of that framework of love and affection and entreaty

37:53 take the position of entreaty and do it ahead of time so you don't have a scene on the spot all right yes Pastor Nichols uh-huh yeah oh that's right

38:37 so that very practice really is a yeah and then that leaves him free to say but I'd love to have you come and I'm willing to keep the tube turned off you say fine

39:06 let's nail down

Theological Roots of Disregard: Dispensationalism and Lack of Teaching

40:12 the date people say not mentioned in the New Testament as a precept what they mean is there is no explicit directive in the hortatory portions of the epistles in which believers are commanded remember the Lord's day or remember the Christian over here yes Mr. Dixon yes so here you have bad teaching a teaching that not only splits

40:57 up the Bible in the way it comes to us Old Testament New Testament but you have varying degrees of dispensationalism who say that the only things that are really binding upon believers are the directives that come to us in the epistles some even go further and say only those things in the prison the berean searchlight it's put out by a man by the name of Stam S T A M I read one of his articles the other day he's just produced his book for years and you have so-called grace churches all over the country that teach this that Water Baptism is peculiar to the

41:42 commission of preaching the Gospel to Jews but the mystery unfolding of the Gospel the Pauline mystery which is unfolded in the prison epistles speaks of only one baptism, and that is spirit baptism, and they do not even practice water baptism in their churches. They call it a Judaizing of the New Covenant. Now, that is not a caricature. I can produce the literature.

42:08 I have it on file. I plow through it and read it just to make sure that I know whereof I speak on these matters. So you have even varying forms of dispensationalism that would, of course, narrow greatly the portions of the Word of God that they say are directly to us. But it's always interesting.

42:28 They have no problem going back and extracting all that is recorded in the Gospels concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus as being for them. It's always been a bit of a contradiction to me, but anyway. All right? Yes, further comment.

42:42 Yes, Pastor Bob? So we have got to have a well-grounded scriptural doctrine of the ethical, moral obligations of the Holy Spirit. Of the Lord's Day. That the Lord's Day is not a matter of Christian liberty.

43:19 It is a matter of Christian duty.

43:24 ...of the biblical roots of that, which is why I kept referring to our confession, because it's a beautiful, accurate statement of one's life in seven-day cycles with one day of specific worship, of specific rest, of the specific activities and non-activities connected with that day, that are quoted in our confession.

43:58 ...from Genesis 2, 1-3, Exodus 20, Isaiah 58, Mark 2, Colossians 3, 16, and some of these other pivotal passages.

44:12 And the point that Pastor Bob has made is well-made teaching. They have had no teaching of the Scriptures, and they've had no positive biblical instruction with which to hone their consciences in the area of the obligations and privileges. ...privileges of the Lord's Day.

Preparation for Confrontation and Helpful Resources

44:35 Yes. The text for that is in the book of Proverbs.

45:19 Go not forth hastily to strive. 25-8. 25-8. That's why I bring my concordance in these sessions, so that I sometimes I remember the verse, but I can't remember the reference.

45:33 Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame.

45:42 Be well-armed before you go forth to war. And if you can't war, pass on some literature where some good soldiers know how to fight well. And there's an excellent little tract by Professor Murray on the Lord's Day, put out by the Lord's Day Observance Society in England, very simply written on the sanctity of the Lord's Day. Three major heads.

46:06 It's an excellent tract that gives a good, basic, biblical overview of the doctrine. Another good little booklet by Hodge called The Day Changed the Sabbath Something. Oh, rather, I forgot the exact title, but I have it as a giveaway that I've used, and people have found that helpful. All right, now, we'll slip to the back and then come down.

The Power of Non-Participation and Withdrawal

46:28 Yes, Brian, and then Rich.

46:58 Yes.

47:04 Yes, I think here's another point that so often is not mentioned, and it's very interesting. When you read John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, do you remember what was the instrument of his conviction that led to his conversion? How many of you remember what it was? Do you remember reading it, Dave?

47:27 That was one of the things that awakened, but there was a particular sermon he heard that became the final catalyst.

47:39 Yes, and he came under conviction of his Sabbath breaking, and yet people say John Bunyan is the great proponent of the fact that there is no such thing as a Christian Sabbath. No, what he is saying is there is no Jewish Sabbath. But in his own testimony, he said it was his conviction of Sabbath breaking, and in Pilgrim's Progress, he mentioned Sabbath breaking among all the other lists of sins. And again, I have that documented in the flyleaf of my Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the references, and also in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, so that our very non-participation in things that are a blatant disregard can be a barb in the consciences of people

48:24 the same way if people are indulging in gossip and in slander, and we refuse to enter into it. They're indulging in ribald laughter and jokes, and we withdraw ourselves. Ephesians chapter 5 tells us that we're to have no fellowship with the untruthful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. And sometimes gracious, judicious withdrawal is a very powerful reproof to the consciences of others.

48:53 Very good point, Brian. All right, and then Rich?

49:13 Yeah, well, that's a sad point, Rich. That's right. From clapping to the guy going into the end zone to clapping at the performer who's done his thing at the front of the church. And alas, there's very little difference.

Distinguishing Views on the Fourth Commandment

49:26 And that's a sad reality. That's a very perceptive point. Well, Pastor Nichols, we have four minutes left. Can you do in four minutes the thing that you had on your heart?

49:35 Good. All right.

49:39 Yes, you may.

49:59 It's a lot of strength that you said. Now, where's the chalk? Oh, there it is. So sorry.

50:14 More strength.

50:16 Anyway, now, you first asked the question, you used the word people. The fourth commandment.

50:30 And you have to, yet there's a very important distinction that has to be made here.

50:39 And there are two extremes, just like anything else. And inside, there's this, with respect to this question of the fourth commandment. And this was what you would call sort of the biblical view, which is consistent with what he described as the writing of the law on the heart. Now, in this.

51:17 In this place, in speaking about the Lord's Day, they assert that it is a matter of total liberty. In this place, a Pharisee wants to take the total Jewish Sabbath and the seventh day and impose it upon Christians who serve the Lord Jesus. This is lunch of man-made rules. Plus man-made rules.

51:53 And this is legalism. And this is libertarianism, or what's been called in the history of this question, antinomianism. But in here.

52:04 There's a certain area where there is some disagreement among those who agree that the observance of the Lord's Day is a matter of obligation. On this side, you would have what you would call a dispensational view. And on this side, you would have what you could call, for lack of a better word, a reformed view. In the dispensational view, the obligation to keep the Lord's Day is only related.

52:43 It's only related to the practice of the apostles.

52:48 Apostolic example. In the reformed view, it's related to apostolic example, but it's also related to the Decalogue and to the original creation. Now, an example of a person who held this view on this side is John Bunyan.

53:10 That is the view which John Bunyan held. That's the view which is held by Lewis Barry Schaeffer in his Systematic Theology. That's why I associate it today with dispensationalism. Now, even within this camp, there is some disagreement as to what the obligation is.

53:33 And at that point, certain people like John Bunyan would be very strict with respect to what the obligation is. Although, when John Bunyan says what is the basis for the obligation, he says it's not related to the fourth commandment. So, when you say people and the fourth commandment, you need to be thinking in terms of this distinction. Because there are people, Christian people, who believe that the observance of the Lord's Day is a moral obligation which they very strictly keep, who don't believe it's related to the fourth commandment.

54:12 And that's a vital distinction. Now, that distinction must be made. Or you can't properly relate to people with respect to that question. Okay?

54:24 Now, this over here, this was the view of the Socinians during the time of the Reformation. This is the view of certain people today who were calling themselves Reformed Baptists and who would turn the commandments of God into liberty.

54:43 And with that, we have no sympathy at all. And I, for one, fail to see what difference there is between that and idolatry. Any other sin. But we mustn't include...

54:57 The brethren of this view in this camp. That's a serious mistake.

The Lord's Day as Guardian of Institutions and Facing Slander

55:05 Yes, you did.

55:08 And in closing, let me just say that you can expect, for whatever reasons, if you've fallen in here and you have conscience as to the obligations as well as privileges of the Lord's Day and you express them practically, you will be called a legalist by anyone over here. You'll be called a legalist. I had to laugh. When someone recently confessed to horrible slander about Trinity Church and one of the bits of slander that they both heard and passed around was that Trinity Church was so legalistic about the Lord's Day that the elders publicly forbade married couples

55:50 ever to have marital relations on the Lord's Day. No, no, wait, you haven't heard the end. And that we showed up unannounced in the various homes of our members on the Lord's Day afternoon. It's noon to check up.

56:22 It would be humorous, but now in all seriousness, dear people, be prepared for that kind of slander.

56:33 The more I understand and believe what Owen said, that a serious regard of the sanctity of the Lord's Day is the guardian of all of God's sacred institutions. And when serious regard for the Lord's Day goes, it's only a matter of time before all the other institutions lose their effect and their power. upon the people of God. So let's be happy, joyful, serious keepers of the day of the Lord and be prepared to be called this and just let it roll off our backs as we press on in evangelical obedience.

57:14 Well, thank you for raising the question, David. I hope our interaction will prove profitable to all of us. Let's pray.