Puritan Experimental Religion

Introduction to Puritan Distinctives

0:04 Now, as we continue this morning in our pre-membership class, this is our eighth study in the subject that is before us. We are considering those matters which distinguish us as a people. We've seen that we are committed to Orthodox Christianity. We are committed to Covenant Theology.

0:32 We are committed to Calvinism. And we stand as well committed as a church to the rich heritage that is given to us by the Puritans. We are, and we say it unashamedly, a Puritan church. Though we might feel in many ways unworthy to be called by the name.

0:58 Nevertheless, that is confessionally what we are. Puritanism is not derived. Puritanism is not derived from 16th or 17th century Holland in the 1600s. But rather, the term arises from England.

1:16 Particularly between 1550 and 1660. And I do not intend to attempt to give you a historical study of the Puritans this morning. Just let me mention that some of their number are such great lights as John Owen from 1616 to 1883. Thomas Goodwin, who lived from 1600 to 1680.

1:39 Thomas Manton from 1620 to 1777. Thomas Brooks, 1608 to 1880. Richard Sibbes, 1577 to 1635. And others such as Thomas Watson, John Bunyan, John Flavel, etc.

1:54 And in their writings, they have left us a rich heritage. A clear exposition of what they stood for. And the substance of their distinctive. Is left for us in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

2:12 The Savoy Declaration and Confession. And our own 1689 Confession of Faith. What I have written on the board is not comprehensive. But it is, I trust, basic and fundamental.

2:31 In terms of the things for which the Puritans lived. And would no doubt. If need be, have died. First, they stood committed to the Biblical doctrine of Christian liberty.

2:49 And this is articulated in our own Confession of Faith. Chapter 21. Secondly, they stood committed to the Biblical doctrine of God honoring God-centered worship. And this is also articulated and contained in our Confession of Faith.

3:10 In Chapter 22. And thirdly, they stood committed to the priority of experimental religion. That is, religion which is focused not so much upon the head as upon the heart and upon the religious experience and the life. And that they stood committed to the priority of experimental religion is clear from the whole emphasis of our Confession of Faith.

3:35 Chapters 10 through 20, and you could even in some ways include Chapter 9. 11 or 12 of the 32 chapters, over a third of the Confession, focuses upon this. It is a tremendous emphasis of Puritanism. The priority of experimental religion.

3:53 Chapters 10 through 20 in our Confession of Faith. Now there were other distinctives of Puritanism. Their commitment to the propriety of civic duty. And the propriety and purity of marriage.

4:08 And the propriety and purity of marriage. But I pass these over. But suffice it to say that the Puritans were not ignorant of conjugal joy. They were not monks.

4:17 And nevertheless, there is not time this morning to open up all of those distinctives. I simply hope that I may be able this morning to open up to you these three pillars of Puritanism. Their commitment to Christian liberty. Their commitment to God honoring worship.

4:38 And their commitment to the priority. To the priority of experimental religion. And though I have to say, I despair of accomplishing what I hope to do this morning. Nevertheless, I shall try.

The Root, Fruit, and Abuse of Christian Liberty

4:55 First of all, their commitment to Christian liberty. Now in the hymn book, thankfully, the Westminster Confession and the London Confession are almost the same at this point. And so would you turn please. In the hymn book, to page 683.

5:24 And you can see I have these things on the board. Three columns. Christian liberty on the left. Chapter 21 of our Confession.

5:32 We'll consider the root of Christian liberty, which is spiritual liberation. The fruit of Christian liberty. Liberty of conscience. And then the abuse of Christian liberty.

5:41 The second column, God honoring worship. Chapter 22. And the third column, experimental religion. Chapters 10 through 20.

5:49 Now first of all then, with reference to Christian liberty. Our Confession of Faith in chapter 21 is much the same as the Westminster Confession of Faith in chapter 20. And the reason that ours is chapter 21 and the Westminster is chapter 20. Is that in our Confession of Faith there is an additional chapter about the gospel and the extent thereof.

6:16 Which is inserted after chapter 19 and becomes chapter 20. And therefore, what was chapter 20 in the Westminster in our Confession becomes chapter 21. Now, the writers begin by expressing that which is the very substance of Christian liberty. I refer to it as its root and foundation.

6:39 Notice what they say. On page 683, paragraph 1 of chapter 20 of the Westminster Confession reads this way. The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel. Consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin.

6:59 The condemning wrath of God. The curse of the moral law. And in their being delivered from this present evil world. Bondage to Satan and dominion of sin.

7:14 From the evil of afflictions. The sting of death. The victory of the grave. And everlasting damnation.

7:24 As also in their free access to God. And their yielding obedience to Him. Not out of slavish fear. But a childlike love and a willing mind.

7:39 All which were common also to believers under the law. So this. Is the very substance, root, foundation of Christian liberty. A substance common to Old Testament and New Testament believers alike.

7:59 And we find in this a liberation from spiritual bondage. It is, as I've called it on the board, spiritual liberation. A legal liberation. A moral liberation.

8:12 A penal liberation. Our record is cleared from the guilt of sin. From the condemning wrath of God. And from the rigor and curse of the law.

8:25 It is a moral liberation. Our hearts are freed from bondage to Satan. From the control and rule of indwelling sin. And from the controlling influence of the world in which we all once lived.

8:41 Doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Being by nature children of wrath even as the rest. Christian liberty is foundationally a spiritual liberation. And it is a penal liberation.

9:00 That is liberation from punishment. From the evil of afflictions. From the fear and sting of death. From the victory of the grave.

9:12 And from everlasting damnation. It is freedom from the guilt of sin. It is freedom from the enslaving power of sin. It is freedom from the penal consequences of sin.

9:26 Christian liberty is thorough spiritual liberation for the people of God. This is its foundation and root. Furthermore, there is a special, under the New Testament, a special or positive addition and blessing of Christian liberty which we enjoy. Notice the writers go on to describe this as well.

9:56 They say, but under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law to which the Jewish church was subjected. And in greater boldness, of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free spirit of God than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of. There is freedom from the ceremonial law. There is a boldness in access to God.

10:37 There is a disposition of love to the Lord. And, there is the greater supply of the Holy Spirit. Now this then is the foundation of Christian liberty. Both that foundation common to the Old and New Testament saint and the special expressions of Christian liberty given to believers in the church under the New Covenant.

Liberty of Conscience and its Scriptural Basis

11:08 That brings us then to the second aspect of Christian liberty to which we stand committed in our Puritan heritage. And that is to what I've called the fruit or the outworking of Christian liberty which is liberty of conscience. Liberty of conscience. And this is found in the confession of faith and paragraph two.

11:37 We read, God alone is Lord of the conscience and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word or beside it if matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines or to obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith

12:18 and an absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. The essence of liberty of conscience is this. God alone is Lord of the conscience. And God's Lordship over the consciences of his people is manifested in this way.

12:48 He has left it free from the doctrines and commands of men which are either contrary to the scripture or in addition to the scripture. So that to obey any such thing out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience. True liberty of conscience. The key text in this regard is Matthew chapter 15.

13:18 Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. The Lord Jesus was being criticized. He was being attacked.

13:44 He was being condemned by religious people because he was not following their man-made rules and traditions. They would have bound him to their will with reference to religious practice. They would have bound his disciples. They would have bound all men to their will with reference to their religious experience.

14:10 And this will was contained in their rabbinical and pharisaical traditions about religious ceremonies. And this is what he said. And there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? What terrible crime were they guilty of?

14:37 Here's their crime. For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. The Pharisees were very upset about this. Your disciples are eating bread and they are not going through the religious ceremony of washing their hands thoroughly perhaps up to their elbows before they are eating.

15:01 Now this is not a pharisaical concern with reference to germs. That's not the point of this at all. The concern of this has nothing to do with health. The concern of it has to do with religious tradition.

15:15 A man-made religious tradition that before you eat you must wash your hands thoroughly. This is bound upon the conscience. If you don't do this, you're guilty. Would the Jesus kowtow to this business?

15:32 No, he said, you're hypocrites. He said, you're so concerned about these external religious ceremonies which you yourself made up, but you seem to be less concerned about the commandments which God made up. See how he puts it? He said, why do you?

15:46 He said, you tell me I'm guilty? Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? And he says, you fellas have got a wrong emphasis upon these religious traditions and ceremonies. You think they're more important, your own rules are more important than the word of God and the commandments which God has given men.

16:11 And you place your own will to require an obliged behavior religiously on the part of the people of God above the will of God. He said, this is unacceptable. He said, this, is hypocritical. And he gave them an example of how they had made up traditions which contradicted the word of God and they were so committed to their traditions that they were prepared to put more weight upon their own religious traditions and requirements than they were up to place upon the word of God and the law of God.

16:51 And he says in verse 6, and you have made void the word of God by your tradition you hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying this people honors me with their lips their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. Then he goes and explains to them why they were totally confused. They were so concerned with the external things with little external rules and regulations that they had forgotten that true religion before God

17:33 doesn't have to do with these little external ceremonies so much as it has to do with the state and condition of a person's heart before God. Don't you understand he said that it's not that which goes into a man that defiles him but it's that which comes out of the man that defiles him. You're so concerned that the man's going to eat something that's defiling him it's not that which he eats what defiles him that which he says which defiles him it's what's in his heart that defiles him it's his hatred and his bitterness and his uncleanness and his fornication and his evil thoughts and his murders and his lasciviousness this is the stuff that comes out of the heart not what goes in the belly but what comes out of the heart

18:17 this is what defiles the man. You lost sight and you're so concerned about every little ceremony that you've made up by your tradition and you're binded upon people's consciences that there's something terribly wrong with them that they don't do everything exactly according to the little ceremonies that you've made up and you've forgotten the weightier matters of the law of God. And this is a key text with reference to liberty of conscience the checklist mentality of morality the whole idea of abstinence from good things which God has created as a sign of holiness tea and coffee and meats and alcoholic beverages

The Abuse of Christian Liberty and Practical Implications

19:01 that this in and of itself abstinence from such things is a sign of holiness or any other thing which God created for us to enjoy. That then is the root and the fruit of Christian liberty but notice the writers are balanced someone says well wait now this could be abused couldn't it? Yes it most certainly could and therefore there's a third paragraph and that has to do with the abuse of Christian liberty and while we stand firmly for the root and the fruit of Christian liberty we also stand firmly against the abuse of Christian liberty. Paragraph 3 They who

19:44 upon pretense of Christian liberty do practice any sin or cherish any lust do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty which is that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Now the truth is that Christian liberty never gives anyone the license to commit any sin not any sin not anything that people would even call a small sin

20:28 Christian liberty is no excuse for any sin by anyone at any time and anyone anyone who uses the doctrine of Christian liberty to justify a lack of love a lack of sensitivity a lack of holiness and purity a lack of any grace that God requires anyone who uses the doctrine of Christian liberty to justify any sin whatsoever is not using that doctrine rightly but is abusing that doctrine for his own sinful and wicked ends.

21:12 The doctrine of Christian liberty was never given or designed as an excuse for any sin rather it was given and designed as a motive to thorough God honoring holiness. Now I have a few things to say then by way of implication. The first is this there is no liberty without gospel liberation there is no liberty without gospel liberation you cannot live a life of liberty

21:55 unless you have been liberated from bondage to sin. Anyone who tries to live a life of liberty while still in bondage to sin will find that he does not have or practice true Christian liberty at all but what he practices is terrible libertarianism licentiousness and wickedness in the name of Christian liberty. The very foundation of Christian liberty is liberation from spiritual bondage it is repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and without these things you cannot have proper God honoring liberty

22:37 of conscience exercised in your life. Secondly, there will be no maintenance of liberty of conscience without effort and watchfulness. without effort and watchfulness. It is often said that the price of liberty is constant vigilance.

22:56 This is not only true in the social and political realm it is also true in the ecclesiastical and spiritual realm. The price of liberty is continued vigilance. Traditions tend to creep in subtly and almost without notice. They become laws binding upon men's consciences though they are men made.

23:22 And we need particular vigilance that what is today given as counsel and advice may not tomorrow become imperative authoritative tradition binding upon the consciences of men. We must be vigilant lest counsel practice becomes imperative imposed. Fundamentalists of our day have their checklist of their own traditions which they bind often upon the consciences of men. No drinking of alcohol.

23:54 No wearing of slacks. No going to movies. No skirts above the ankle. No beards.

23:59 No anything like car playing or anything else. You can't do it. It's against the law of man. They have their checklist.

24:11 We've got to be careful. We also don't turn our own counsels and advice into moral laws to be binding upon people's consciences. No TV. And others, sabbatarian.

24:27 No food. No conjugal relations. No travel. No play of any kind for children.

24:41 Beware. Lest subtly, matters which are really matters of liberty become laws and traditions binding upon the consciences of men. The price of liberty is constant vigilance. Well, I think I had one more thing I want to say by way of application.

25:12 Now, our confession of faith deletes paragraph four of the Westminster which mentions the limit of Christian liberty. And there is another danger. And that is there are divine limits of Christian liberty and it's important that we understand this. Christian liberty never is designed to give us liberty from submission to God-ordained authority.

25:37 Nor is it liberty from obligation to keep the Lord's day. Nor is it liberty from being reproved for our sin. There are some who say that if in preaching we ever preach duty and we ever reprove sin, then we are duty preachers or law preachers and that we are never to do this. But the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, preach the word.

26:07 Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering in season, out of season. Paul didn't have that view of preaching. That preaching that reproves sin and calls men to perform their duty by the power of the Holy Spirit evangelically. This is not law preaching or duty preaching.

26:30 This is not against preaching Christ. And so Christian liberty is not liberty from preaching which reproves our sin. It is not liberty from obligation to keep the Lord's day. And it is not liberty from submission to all divinely ordained authority, whether ecclesiastical authority or domestic authority or civil authority.

God-Honoring Worship: Rule, Elements, and Day

26:56 Christian liberty was never designed to liberate us from our duty with reference to submission to God-ordained authority. So I say that as well by way of the application of Christian liberty. The second point that I wish to come to this morning is found in the hymn book as well. This is on page 683.

27:19 And I must of necessity be yet more brief. In the Westminster it is chapter 21 and yet in our confession of faith it is chapter 22. The Puritans not only stood and we stand with them committed to Christian liberty, but we also stand with them committed to God-honoring, God-centered worship. And our commitment to God-centered worship is set forth in our confession of faith chapter 22, the Westminster chapter 21.

27:57 I cannot this morning read the entire chapter. However, I would like to highlight three things from it. Consider the rule of God-honoring worship which is the regulative principle. The elements of God-honoring worship which we will consider.

28:12 I will spell them out in a moment. And the designated day for God-honoring worship which is the Christian Sabbath. So we have the rule, the elements, and the designated day. First of all, the rule of God-honoring worship.

28:29 It is set forth in paragraph 1 on page 683. The light of nature shows that there is a God. Who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and does good to all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself and so limited by His own revealed will

29:11 that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture. Now this rule of God-honoring worship has been called the regulative principle of worship. Perhaps the primary scriptural foundation for this is found

29:49 in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 12. This is the principle or the rule which is to regulate the worship of God. It is stated negatively in verses 29 to 31 and then positively in verse 32. And this principle that regulates worship is this.

30:24 Negatively, you are not to imitate the worship of the ungodly. You are not to imitate the ways of the world with reference to worship. That is, you are not to look and see, well, how does everybody else worship? And then observing what everybody else does, say, me too, we'll do the same thing.

30:50 You are precisely not to have your ear tuned to the latest fads and interests with reference to religious worship and then go ahead and imitate what the world is now currently doing and where it's heading. See how it's put. When Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them and dwellest in their land, take heed to thyself that thou be not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods,

31:32 saying, how do these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto Jehovah thy God, for every abomination to Jehovah which he hates have they done unto their gods, or even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods. Don't do what the nations do.

32:00 You must not use that as the principle of your worship to regulate it. Well, what then is to regulate? What principle is to regulate the worship of the people of God? Well, here it is positively stated in verse 32.

32:21 What things soever I command you that you shall observe to do. You shall not add thereto nor diminish from it. In other words, God says it's very simple. Simple principle of worship.

32:40 You find out what my word says and that's what you do. You don't add to it. You don't put your own ideas in there. You don't take away from it.

32:49 You don't leave anything out that I said do. You do everything I said, nothing more, nothing less. That's the principle that regulates the worship of the people of God under the new covenant. It's called, therefore, the regulative principle of worship.

33:08 And we stand committed to this in our confession of faith. Well, what then are the elements of God honoring worship under the new covenant? What has God commanded from us that we are expected to do? That we should not add to this, and that we should not take away from it?

33:31 Well, first of all, I would commend to you, and it may well be, and I hope it is, that we have these two sermons by Pastor Martin in the packet for membership. If we don't, we don't. Well, still, this being a pre-membership class, I recommend to you that you go and get those two sermons by Pastor Martin, what we bring to God and what he brings to us on the elements of worship, and how we are to worship God. And I recommend to everyone in this pre-membership class that you go and you get those sermons and listen to them.

34:04 Because they open up, indeed, the elements of worship in the most appropriate way. What we bring to God and what he brings to us. But this is opened up in paragraph 5 on page 683. I won't read it because our time, I fear this would occur, is rapidly departing.

34:24 But we go to the Scriptures and we say with reference to the Scriptures, what do we bring to God? We bring to God our prayers and we bring to God spiritual sacrifices because we come to God, we come as a kingdom of priests. That's who we are. We're a spiritual nation.

34:41 We're a royal priesthood. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. It's not that the pastor is the priest. It's the people who are the priests.

34:50 Every member of the church is a spiritual priest. And together as a church, we offer up as a priesthood spiritual sacrifices according to the New Testament. And what are those sacrifices? First, we offer ourselves a living sacrifice to God, Romans 12.

35:07 Second, we offer our substance, our money and things, 1 Corinthians 16 and Hebrews 13, 16. And thirdly, we offer our praises. We bring him the sacrifice of praise. That is the fruit of lips that makes confession to his name.

35:28 In Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, we sing and praise the Lord. It is a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing in his sight, as is our giving and as is our own devotion personally to the Lord. So we come on the Lord's day offering spiritual sacrifices. The sacrifice of ourselves, we throw ourselves in the offering plate.

35:50 The sacrifice of our substance, we place our goods in the offering plate. The sacrifice of our prayer, we praise. We sing songs, confessing the truth of the word of God together before the Lord. We bring our sacrifices.

36:05 We come with our prayers. But then there is also what God brings to us. And what does he bring to us? He brings to us his holy word.

36:13 In worship, we have the spiritual sacrifices which we bring to God as a kingdom of priests. And we have the word which God brings to us. The word of God is read. And the word of God is expounded, proclaimed, preached, and applied.

36:29 The word, the reading and the preaching of the word of God is what God brings to us in his worship. Therefore, the primacy of preaching in the worship of God is in reality the primacy of God in worship. There are people who say, well, you know, preaching is the least effective form of communication. It's just one-way communication.

36:52 It's one-dimensional. Then you have a teaching, a give-and-take environment where the teacher draws out the students to say things. That's better. That's two-dimensional.

37:02 But the best kind of communication of the word of God is this multi-dimensional business where everybody sits around in a circle and shares. That's the idea. That's very growing in its popularity in our day. What a total misunderstanding of preaching that is.

37:20 Preaching is not one-dimensional communication. It's at least three-dimensional. First of all, there's the preacher. He's communicating.

37:28 Then there's the people. And they're communicating to the preacher, good or ill. And I'm not going to describe the faces, the good faces, the ill faces. Nevertheless, people are communicating when you are preaching to them, I assure you.

37:44 Good or ill, one way or the other. But then there's also the Holy Spirit of God. You can't leave Him out. If you leave Him out, you have totally misconstrued the very nature of preaching.

37:58 So there is the preacher, the people, and the Lord Himself present in the ministry of His word. That's hardly one-dimensional, unaffected communication. I must not allow myself to go further with this. I come to the third point, which is the designated day, the Christian Sabbath.

The Christian Sabbath

38:23 The designated day, the Christian Sabbath day. Now this is the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath. It's articulated in paragraphs 7 and 8. I would encourage you, because I cannot open it in detail in this pre-membership class this morning, I would encourage you, if you want to learn more about the Christian Sabbath and you don't have a theological understanding of it, you couldn't give the basis for it, we do stand confessionally committed to it, I would recommend to you a tape that was done in the Sunday School class, which I did, opening up the Ten Commandments, which was done on the 19th of August, 1990, it was an exposition of the Fourth Commandment.

39:04 And I would commend that tape to you. I cannot go into all the details here this morning, but I'll simply read to you from the Confession of Faith that to which we stand confessionally committed with reference to the Fourth Commandment. Paragraph 7 and 8 is our commitment. As it is a law of nature that in general a due proportion of time be set aside for the worship of God, so in His Word, page 684, by a positive moral and perpetual commandment binding on all men in all ages, He has particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath,

39:49 that is a day of rest and worship, to be kept holy unto Him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, that is Saturday, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed to the first day of the week, Sunday, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, that is the Christian day of rest and worship. Paragraph 8. How then do you keep the Sabbath? The Sabbath is then kept holy to the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs, beforehand do not only observe

40:33 and 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. Such then is our commitment to the Christian Sabbath. But I hasten on, because time is rapidly leaving us, to come to the third point. We've considered Christian liberty and God-honoring worship.

Experimental Religion: Blessings, Graces, and Duties

41:12 We come now to experimental religion, chapters 10 through 20. Now in the handout sheet that I gave you, you will observe how on the first page and on the second page these things are opened up. You see that I have said here that the Puritans stand committed to the priority of experimental religion to a scrupulous piety and devotion. They, as a group, were committed to the priority of spiritual things.

41:55 The spiritual life, the soul, was of primary concern. As I said, over one-third of our confession of faith is dedicated to the exposition of the experiences of the Christian life. There is in their commitment a careful consideration, a diligent inquiry into the blessings of experimental religion. There is also a diligent cultivation of the graces of experimental religion.

42:30 And there is a careful, scrupulous, conscientious compliance with the obligations of experimental religion or the duties of experimental religion, which has to do with the law and the gospel of God. Now evidently I cannot, this morning, open up all of these blessings in any detail. I just want to make you aware of how the confession of faith deals with these things. And we'll go through the confession and I'll show you where these things are.

43:02 Turn back, please, to page 678 in the hymn book. There is first of all a diligent inquiry into the blessings. First, the blessings of conversion, and second, the primary blessing of the Christian life. The blessings of conversion, the God-given blessings of conversion, are dealt with in chapters 10, 11, and 12.

43:26 You perhaps remember in the sermons recently we spoke about the operating room, the courtroom, and the living room. They deal with the blessings of the operating room, regeneration and effectual calling in chapter 10. They deal with the blessing of conversion that takes place in the courtroom, justification in chapter 11. And the blessing of conversion that takes place in the living room, adoption in chapter 12.

43:50 The operating room, effectual calling and regeneration. The courtroom, justification. The living room, adoption. Those are the great divine blessings given in conversion.

44:02 Understanding those things, inquiring into those things, was a priority to the Puritans. They had a great interest in that. That's why they took the time to put a whole chapter in the confession of faith on each one of them. But then they move on to this great blessing of the Christian life.

44:20 They call it sanctification. It is a progressive victory over the sin which remains in us. It is the victory of the spiritual warfare of the Christian life. And they talk about that great blessing in chapter 13.

44:38 So you have this inquiry into the blessings, calling, justification, adoption and sanctification. The blessings of conversion and the Christian life. Then over on page 680, they move from considering the divine blessings to considering the graces which the people of God, the Christian believer exercise in the Christian life. The graces exercise.

45:10 The first, saving faith. The second, chapter 15, repentance unto life. The third, chapter 16, good works. And then the fourth, page 681, perseverance.

45:25 And the fifth, assurance of grace and salvation. Now in reality, these open up and expound the primary graces of the Christian life in the most practical terms. The primary graces, faith, hope, love. Faith and its identical twin, if I can go well, maybe Siamese twin would be better.

45:49 Faith and its fraternal or Siamese twin, repentance, chapters 14 and 15. Love under its practical expression, good works in chapter 16. Assurance or hope in chapter 18. And in chapter 17, perseverance in all of the above.

46:07 Perseverance in faith and repentance. Perseverance in love and good works. Perseverance in hope and assurance. The Christian life is a life of the cultivation of and persevering in these graces of faith and repentance, love and good works, hope and assurance until the end.

46:27 And they were concerned to understand and to cultivate these graces. And thirdly, they were concerned with conscientious compliance with the duties and obligations of the Christian religion and experimental religion. In chapter 19, they speak of the duty of obeying the law of God, evangelically. And though there is no chapter 20 in the Westminster, the Savoy writers, who were also Puritans, under the tutelage of John Owen, added a 20th chapter which our confession of faith does contain.

47:08 And that chapter focuses on the gospel and the free extent thereof. So they were concerned not only with evangelical gospel obedience to the law, but true obedience to the gospel, compliance with the law of God and the gospel of God, the obligations of the Christian experimental religion. They were concerned with a conscientious compliance with these. So here you have the emphasis upon experimental religion.

Call to Embrace Puritan Heritage and Read Puritan Works

47:37 Careful inquiry to the blessings, diligent cultivation of the primary graces, conscientious compliance with the foundational duties to obey the law and to obey the gospel. Well, having said these things, I have to admit I'm a bit surprised I was able to finish. But I do, having looked at these things this morning, I do want to say just a word or two in closing. We have about a minute or so left here.

48:07 That is, brethren, if we would be true to our Puritan heritage, then we must live as they did, committed to the primacy of spiritual things, primacy of the things of God. And you see the thing, dear brethren, in this confession of faith, a diligent inquiry into these things of experimental religion, this was not not the province of some group of monks somewhere in a monastery or some group of theologians

48:51 somewhere in an ivory tower. This was a confession of the people, a confession of the church. These are the things most surely believed among us. And this diligent inquiry and this hunger, this is something, dear people, which ought to be a portion of us all.

49:15 We all ought to be ought to hunger and inquire into these wonderful blessings. We all ought to study and cultivate these primary graces. We all ought to be concerned with conscientious compliance with the obligations of experimental religion. Puritanism is not something to be in books on our shelves.

49:42 It is not something to be in our seminaries or academies. It is something for the people in the pew. And if it is not that, then we really don't have it at all. And that's what I commend to you this morning.

50:01 And then I just want to encourage you as well to read the Puritans. Read the Puritans. Just to help you with that task, I've brought with me a few examples. I commend to you this book by John Flavor, The Mystery of Providence.

50:24 I commend to you this book by Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. I commend to you this book by John Bunyan, Prayer. I commend to you this book by Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I commend to you this book by John Flavor, Volume 1, The Display of Christ in His Primeval and Mediatorial Glory.

50:58 Don't let the title scare you. Get past the title to the table of contents. I've never been so blessed reading a table of contents in my life. Read this.

51:14 John Owen, Works. Read these first. I'll read this first. John Owen, Works, Volume 6, The Treatise on the Mortification of Sin in Believers.

51:29 Prepare yourself by reading these. Read this. Say, this is a pre-membership class. Yes, indeed it is.

51:38 Yes, indeed it is. Exactly. Read this. Read this.

51:46 Teenagers, read this. College students, read this. Everybody. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

52:00 Read this. I commend to you these Puritan works. You will never grow in love for the Puritans so much as by reading the Puritans. You will never grow in respect for the Puritans so much as by reading the Puritans and learning from the Puritans.

52:21 And trying by God's grace to imitate, as they imitated Christ, our Puritan forefathers. Well, our time is gone. Let us pray for God's blessing upon our study this week. Our Father, we thank you for the rich heritage that we have been given from our Puritan forefathers of which we feel ourselves utterly unworthy.

52:50 We pray, our God, that we may take to heart, that we may stand with them and embrace their commitment to the priority of experimental religion and to worship that will honor you and to stand for liberty of conscience against all the man-made rules and traditions by which men would seek to bind the consciences of their fellow mortals. We pray, oh Lord, our God, that this Puritan heritage would be taken to heart by all of us in the pew, the pulpit, that you might be glorified in our congregation, that we might stand with our forefathers

53:33 as they followed Christ and bring to your name the honor and praise and glory. For we ask these things in the name and through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.