Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sins of Omission: The Neglect of Worship

Transcript

Sins of Omission: The Neglect of Worship · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, I was thinking
0:03
recently about how we handle medical problems, specifically
0:07
how we get a diagnosis. Oh right, like going to the
0:11
doctor when something is wrong. Yeah, precisely.
0:13
There is this expectation of clinical clarity, like if you
0:18
break your arm, you get an X-ray.
0:20
Right. And the X-ray shows that jagged
0:22
white line right on the bone. Yes.
0:24
And the doctor just points at it and says, well, there it is.
0:26
That is the fracture. It is a binary reality.
0:28
It is broken or it is not broken.
0:30
Right. The line is clean, the evidence
0:32
is undeniable, and the path to fixing it is completely
0:36
straightforward. It is comforting, honestly.
0:39
I mean, human beings like things to be visible.
0:41
We really. Do.
0:42
We like our problem to be categorized in ways we can
0:44
measure with our own eyes. When you can point to the
0:47
fracture, you feel a sense of control over the situation.
0:49
But then you step into the realm of theology and personal
0:53
morality, and suddenly that X-ray machine is just totally
0:57
broken. Yeah, the clarity vanishes
0:59
completely. It does.
1:01
We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is incredibly
1:04
murky. When you and I sit down to
1:07
examine our own hearts, we almost always run through a
1:10
negative checklist. Oh, the negative checklist.
1:13
Yeah, we act like accountants auditing a Ledger of bad deeds.
1:16
We really do. We ask ourselves, did I steal
1:20
today? Did I lie to my boss?
1:22
Right. Did I cheat on my taxes?
1:24
Did I commit a scandalous, highly visible offense that
1:27
would ruin my reputation? And if the answer to all those
1:30
negative questions is no, we tend to declare ourselves
1:33
perfectly healthy. Which is such a massive
1:35
deception. We look at the blank space where
1:38
a crime could have been, and we call that blank space Holiness.
1:41
Yeah. It's a dangerous illusion.
1:42
But today we have a specific mission for you, our listener.
1:46
We are going straight into a forgotten category of moral
1:48
failure. We really are.
1:50
We are taking a deep dive into the source material concerning
1:53
what theologians call the sin of omission, specifically focusing
1:57
on the neglect of worship. Which is a very heavy topic, but
2:00
so necessary. It is.
2:02
I want you to think about your own Sunday morning routine for a
2:05
second. You are exhausted.
2:07
The kids are screaming, the coffee spilled all over the
2:11
counter. And that high definition live
2:13
stream of a church service you can watch from your couch looks
2:16
incredibly appealing. It really does, and it is in
2:19
that exact moment of fatigue where the theology we are
2:23
unpacking today actually matters.
2:25
Yeah, it hits right at home. We have two distinct sources on
2:28
the table guiding this conversation today.
2:30
The 1st is a theological essay titled Sins of Omission, The
2:34
Neglect of Worship. A very convicting read by the
2:36
way. Extremely.
2:38
The second is an expository sermon guide on the book of
2:41
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25, called The Torn Veil
2:45
and the Forsaken Full. And both of these sources target
2:48
a very specific crisis in the modern church.
2:50
They do. Believers today measure their
2:53
sanctity by the vices they avoid, while remaining
2:56
completely blind to the holy duties they neglect.
2:59
We're going to unpack why skipping the Sunday gathering is
3:01
not a scheduling conflict, but a theological crisis.
3:05
So let us get into it. The X-ray analogy provides a
3:08
perfect starting point, I think, because the sin of omission is
3:11
inherently invisible to the naked eye.
3:13
That is what makes it so lethal. It operates entirely under the
3:16
radar. Right.
3:17
So when we look at the biblical definition of sin, we have to
3:20
start with the New Testament book of James.
3:23
James, Chapter 4, verse 17. Yes, it states therefore to him
3:27
that knoweth to do good and do with it, not to him it is sin.
3:31
That text provides piercing clarity.
3:34
I mean, it completely shatters the negative checklist approach
3:37
we were just talking about. It ruins it, and the Westminster
3:40
Confession of Faith, which we adhere to in our Reformed
3:42
framework, addresses this exact dynamic in Chapter 6.
3:46
Right. The confession defines sin as
3:48
any want of conformity unto the law of God, right alongside act
3:52
of transgression. So we have two distinct
3:55
categories operating simultaneously this year.
3:57
Sins of Commission say, well, I will do what God forbids.
4:00
And sins of omission say I will not do what God requires.
4:03
Exactly what fascinating here is how omission exposes the heart's
4:08
true desires far more starkly than Commission.
4:11
Wait. Unpack that a little bit for me.
4:13
How? How does it expose the heart
4:15
more? Well, think about the mechanics
4:17
of human motivation. You know you might avoid a
4:20
massive public scandal simply to protect your reputation.
4:23
Oh sure, you do not want to lose your job or your family standing
4:26
in the community. Right, so outward morality can
4:29
be driven entirely by sheer self-interest and a fear of
4:33
getting caught. That makes sense, it is just
4:35
self preservation. Yes, but only divine grace
4:39
creates A genuine desire for positive obedience.
4:44
I see only a heart that loves God will actively pursue what He
4:48
commands when no human being is watching and no societal reward
4:52
is offered. Because God's law is positive,
4:55
not just prohibitive. Yes.
4:56
The greatest commandments require active love.
4:58
God does not just say, hey, do not hate me.
5:01
Right, he says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
5:03
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
5:06
OK. Let us unpack this with a
5:07
practical analogy. Let us do it.
5:08
Think about the dynamics of a human marriage.
5:10
OK, Imagine a husband who never strikes his wife.
5:14
He never yells at her, never calls her terrible names.
5:17
He never dreams their bank account and he never commits
5:20
adultery, right? If we strictly use the negative
5:23
checklist, he has not committed any sins of Commission against
5:26
the marriage value. He looks flawless on paper.
5:29
On paper, yes. But suppose this same husband
5:33
never speaks to his wife. He never thanks her for anything
5:36
she does. He completely ignores her
5:39
presence in the House. Like when she walks into the
5:41
room, he does not even look up from his phone.
5:43
Yes, precisely. He never takes her out, never
5:47
asks about her day, and never expresses any physical or verbal
5:51
affection. Is that a healthy marriage?
5:53
Absolutely not. No, he is feeling the marriage
5:55
entirely. The absolute silence is the
5:57
killer. The absence of negative actions
6:00
does not equal a healthy relationship.
6:02
It is the exact same dynamic with our creator.
6:04
A thief is exposed because his action leaves a visible victim.
6:08
You know, a broken window and a missing television.
6:11
But a prayerless person sitting quietly in a Pew appears
6:15
completely respectable to humanize.
6:17
The danger of omission is its total invisibility.
6:21
The person who avoids scandalous crimes can build up a massive
6:24
fortress of self righteousness. They really can.
6:27
They can walk around thinking they are a pristine example of
6:30
morality. While completely ignoring the
6:33
fact that their hands are barren, their lips are closed,
6:35
and their heart is entirely cold toward the Triune God.
6:38
And our sources point out that this general concept of omission
6:42
reaches its absolute apex when we talk about the highest duty a
6:45
human being possesses. Which is the worship of God,
6:48
yes. And that relational deadness in
6:51
the marriage analogy is a spectacular mirror for what
6:54
happens in our covenant with God.
6:56
So when you transition from the general concept of a mission to
6:59
the specific duty of worship, you have to establish the
7:02
mechanics of why worship is mandatory in the first place.
7:06
Right. Why is God demand this?
7:08
Worship is an obligation rooted first in creation.
7:11
The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches in its very
7:14
first question that the chief end of man is to glorify God and
7:18
to enjoy him forever. We were manufactured for this
7:20
specific function. We were.
7:23
To exist as a human being and not worship the Creator is to
7:26
live in a state of fundamental rebellion against your own
7:29
design. You are acting like a hammer
7:32
that refuses to strike a nail, or a clock that refuses to keep
7:36
time. But for the Christian, there is
7:39
a second, even heavier obligation, and that is
7:42
redemption. The church is a people purchased
7:45
by blood, Yes. If the creature owes the Creator
7:48
praise just for existing, how much more does the redeemed
7:51
Sinner owe the Savior who absorbed the wrath of God on the
7:54
cross? That is a massive thought, and
7:57
because God is sovereign, He dictates the terms of
8:00
engagement. He dictates how he is to be
8:02
approached. This is the core of what
8:04
Reformed theology calls the regulative principle of worship.
8:07
Which is outlined in Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession.
8:10
The regulative principle means we do not get to invent our own
8:13
worship styles based on consumer preferences or cultural trends.
8:17
No, we do not. The first four commandments
8:19
established that God alone is God, that we must worship him
8:22
only in the ways he appoints. That we must Revere His name,
8:25
and that we must keep the Sabbath day holy.
8:28
You know, the regulative principle is such a helpful
8:30
guardrail. It really is.
8:31
It takes the burden of creativity completely off our
8:34
shoulders. We.
8:35
Do not have to invent a way to reach the divine.
8:39
God has already handed us the specific blueprint for how He
8:42
wants to be approached. But when we look at the source
8:45
material, we see that human beings are incredibly skilled at
8:49
finding loopholes in that blueprint.
8:52
Oh, we are experts at it. The.
8:53
Essay breaks down 4 distinct forms of neglect when it comes
8:58
to this duty of worship let us walk through these.
9:01
Because it is easy to think of neglect just as skipping church
9:05
on Sunday, right? But it bleeds into the rest of
9:07
the week, doesn't it? It definitely does.
9:09
It starts in private. The first form of neglect is
9:11
private worship, where secret devotion is crowded out by the
9:14
busyness of modern life. It is the alarm going off at
9:18
6:00 in the morning and instead of opening the Psalms, you
9:21
immediately open your e-mail inbox.
9:23
Just to see what fires you have to put out at work that is so
9:26
common. The second form is family
9:28
worship, which often results in practical godlessness at home.
9:32
This is the household that identifies as Christian, but the
9:35
parents never pray with the kids outside of a hasty grace before
9:39
dinner. And the scriptures are never
9:41
opened in the living room. The third form is public
9:43
worship, which is the literal forsaking of the Sunday
9:46
assembly. And the fourth is formalism.
9:49
Which is a really tricky 1. Formalism is perhaps the most
9:53
insidious of the four because it wears the mask of obedience.
9:57
Formalism is bodily attendance without any hard engagement.
10:01
You are physically present in the building, you are sitting in
10:05
the Pew, you are holding the hymn book.
10:06
You are looking at the preacher and your vocal cords are making
10:09
the correct sounds. But your mind is entirely
10:12
elsewhere. You are planning your grocery
10:14
list or you are analyzing a frustrating conversation you had
10:18
with a Co worker on Friday. Or you are daydreaming about a
10:21
football game that starts at 1:00.
10:23
The essay makes it explicitly clear that bodily attendance is
10:26
not the same thing as true worship.
10:28
No, sitting in a Pew with a wandering, disconnected mind is
10:33
functionally withholding worship from.
10:35
It is a sin of omission wrapped in a cloak of perfect religious
10:39
attendance. You are giving God the physical
10:42
shell of your body while handing your actual affections over to
10:46
the world. Sincerity of intention or
10:49
physical proximity alone does not validate our approach to
10:52
God. The Scriptures provide
10:54
terrifying historical examples of this reality.
10:56
Like Cain in the book of Genesis, right?
10:59
Cain brought an offering. He showed up to worship.
11:02
He did not stay home. But his worship was rejected by
11:05
God because it lacked faith and obedience to God's revealed
11:08
will. Or look at Nadeb and Abiahu in
11:10
the book of Leviticus. They were ordained priests.
11:13
They brought fire before the Lord.
11:15
But they offered strange fire that God had not commanded, and
11:19
fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them.
11:22
God demands regulated, faithful heart engaged worship.
11:25
He really does. Wait, I have a question about
11:27
this. Looking at the Old Testament
11:29
examples like Nadab and Abihu, the Israelites had a literal
11:33
geographic building they had to visit.
11:35
They had a physical Tabernacle and later a physical temple in
11:38
Jerusalem. Right.
11:39
If the veil is torn and we do not have a temple in Jerusalem
11:42
anymore, why do we still need a specific physical location to
11:46
gather? That is a very common objection.
11:49
I mean, if God is everywhere and if the Holy Spirit dwells inside
11:52
the individual believer, why cannot my physical location just
11:56
be my living room couch or a hiking trail?
11:59
That is the very question modern believers ask to justify their
12:02
absence, and it requires us to understand the Israel Church
12:06
distinction through the lens of covenant theology.
12:09
OK, break that down for us. Well, one of our sources
12:11
operates from a dispensational understanding, which highlights
12:14
this contrast sharply. Israel had a physical National
12:18
Geographic center of worship. They had a literal temple made
12:21
of stone, a physical bronze altar, and a specific tribal
12:25
priesthood tracing back to Aaron, right?
12:27
Every male in Israel was required to travel to that
12:30
specific geographic coordinate in Jerusalem three times a year
12:33
for the major festivals. But the church is different.
12:35
The Church is the international spiritual assembly of those
12:38
united to Christ. We do not have a geographic
12:41
headquarters. We do not have a Christian Mecca
12:44
that you must make a pilgrimage to.
12:46
However, the moral necessity of the Holy Convocation remains
12:51
completely intact. The shift from the Old Covenant
12:54
Sabbath on the 7th day to the New Covenant Lord's Day on the
12:57
first day of the week celebrating the resurrection
12:59
does not erase the command together.
13:01
No, it fulfills it. In the resurrected Christ, we
13:04
are still required to assemble. The location is now local to
13:07
wherever the Saints reside, but the act of physical, physical
13:10
assembly is just as binding as it was for the Israelite walking
13:14
to the Temple. Yeah, I have to admit, when I
13:16
read the next part of the source material detailing the root
13:19
causes of this neglect, I immediately felt defensive.
13:23
It is a very convicting section. The essay diagnosis specific
13:26
root causes for the worshipless heart it lists unbelief,
13:30
ingratitude, idolatry, worldliness, and spiritual sloth
13:34
a. Heavy list.
13:35
It is, and I want to push back on that last label, spiritual
13:37
sloth. I think a lot of people
13:38
listening right now might bristle at that.
13:40
What is your pushback? Well, what about the modern
13:42
defense of sheer busyness and fatigue?
13:45
A person might say. Look, I am working 50 hours a
13:48
week in a high stress corporate job just to pay my mortgage.
13:51
They're tired. Very tired.
13:53
I have toddler twins who do not sleep through the night.
13:56
I have aging parents I am trying to arrange medical care for.
13:58
Real heavy burdens. Right, they might say, I am not
14:02
skipping private prayer or the Sunday gathering because I am an
14:05
idolater who hates God. I am just biologically bone
14:09
tired. Exhausted from the legitimate
14:11
demands of modern survival. Exactly.
14:13
Is it really fair to label a fatigued mother or an overworked
14:17
father as suffering from spiritual sloth?
14:21
Does the theology make any room for basic human exhaustion?
14:24
The exhaustion defense is the absolute most common defense
14:27
raised in our culture today. It sounds incredibly reasonable.
14:30
It does until you examine the actual mechanics of how we spend
14:33
our time. The essay addresses this
14:35
directly by examining the concept of displacement.
14:37
Displacement. OK.
14:38
The problem with the exhaustion defense is that it usually stems
14:41
from the way we prioritize our energy.
14:44
We give our absolute best energy, our first fruits, our
14:47
sharpest mental focus to the secular world.
14:50
We give it to our career, to our hobbies, to maintaining our
14:53
lawns and to digital entertainment.
14:55
Then, when the weekend arrives, we leave God the absolute
14:59
leftovers of our stamina. Ouch.
15:02
If you have enough mental energy to scroll on a smartphone for
15:05
two hours late at night analyzing political arguments,
15:07
or to binge watch 3 episodes of a television show, but you are
15:11
too tired to read 1 chapter of scripture or pray for 5 minutes,
15:14
the issue is not a biological lack of physical energy.
15:17
The issue is moral reluctance. Spot on sloth and spiritual
15:21
duties is a selective exhaustion.
15:24
Selective exhaustion. That is a devastating phrase.
15:27
It is the. Sluggishness of a heart that
15:29
simply does not love God as much as it loves distraction.
15:32
A worshipless heart is a matter of practical atheism, yes.
15:36
You are professing God with your lips, but you are denying Him
15:38
the center of your calendar. When you phrase it like that, it
15:41
strips away the entire facade. You find the energy for the
15:44
things you actually love. And if you dig into the root
15:47
causes, you see how interconnected they are.
15:50
Unbelief means we simply do not grasp the majesty and holiness
15:54
of God. If we really believe the creator
15:56
of galaxies wanted to hear our prayers, we would not hit the
15:59
snooze button. Ingratitude means we take our
16:01
breath, our food, and our salvation for granted.
16:04
Idolatry means we always worship something.
16:07
The human heart is a factory of idols.
16:09
If we omit God from the center, we are inevitably elevating a
16:14
substitute, whether that is career success or family
16:17
comfort. Worldliness means we are
16:19
suffocated by lesser temporary things.
16:22
And the consequences of this displacement are catastrophic
16:25
across every level of human existence on.
16:28
An individual level. The soul begins to wither and
16:31
the conscience hardens. You become comfortable with a
16:33
massive distance between yourself and God.
16:35
You stop feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
16:38
On a family level, a worshipless home catechizes children into
16:41
secularism. If we connect this to the bigger
16:44
picture, the family dynamic is where this neglect is the most
16:47
generational damage. Think about the daily rhythms of
16:50
a home. If parents prioritize a Sunday
16:52
morning travel sports league over the gathered assembly, they
16:56
are teaching their children a very specific theology.
17:00
They're teaching them that God is a hobby you participate in
17:04
only when it is convenient. And that athletic achievements,
17:07
it's much higher on the throne of reality than the Creator.
17:10
On a church level, widespread neglect leads to doctrinal
17:13
instability and shallow fellowship.
17:15
A. Church full of nominal attenders
17:17
cannot withstand cultural hostility.
17:19
And on a societal level, when we stop worshipping the true God,
17:23
we inevitably enthrone substitute gods like autonomy,
17:27
wealth or national identity. Neglect is never neutral.
17:31
You cannot simply vacate the throne of your heart.
17:33
Something else will always rush in to fill the void.
17:35
Always. You were looking at a complete
17:37
architectural collapse of the Christian life when worship is
17:40
omitted. But our sources do not just
17:42
leave us in the despair of this diagnosis.
17:44
Thank goodness we do not just stare the negative X-ray and
17:46
walk away. The Suring Guide transitions
17:48
heavily into a rigorous exposition of the Book of
17:50
Hebrews, specifically chapter 10, verses 19 through 21.
17:55
This is the text that shows us the divine remedy.
17:58
The passage begins with a crucial grammatical pivot,
18:01
therefore. In the original Greek, the word
18:04
is own. It is a small word, but it
18:07
carries a massive theological payload.
18:09
The author of Hebrews has just spent the previous nine chapters
18:12
proving that Jesus Christ is superior to angels, superior to
18:16
Moses, and completely superior to the ironic priesthood of the
18:20
Old Testament. He has meticulously laid out the
18:23
objective theological reality of Christ's high priesthood.
18:26
And that word therefore bridges that massive theological reality
18:30
to the subjective daily duty of the Church.
18:33
Because Christ is the High Priest, therefore we must do
18:36
something. The text says believers have
18:38
confidence to enter the holy places.
18:41
Now for those of us who assume confidence just means having
18:43
high self esteem, what is the actual Greek concept operating
18:47
here? The Greek word translated as
18:49
confidence is parasia. We have to strip away our modern
18:52
psychological definitions of confidence.
18:54
Parasia is not arrogance. It is not a mystical, private
18:57
feeling of emotional warmth. It is a forensic covenantal
19:01
boldness. It was originally a political
19:03
term used in ancient Greek city states to describe the right of
19:07
a free citizen to speak their mind publicly without fear of
19:11
retribution from a tyrant. In the context of Hebrews, it
19:14
means the justified believer has the legal covenantal right to
19:18
stand before the absolute holiness of God without the fear
19:22
of being consumed by divine wrath.
19:24
This boldness is based entirely on justification by faith.
19:28
We have this spectacular access through what the text calls the
19:31
new and living way. The Greek phrase the author uses
19:34
is hodos prosphatos kaitosa. The word prosphotos is
19:38
incredibly vivid, almost shocking.
19:40
It literally means recently slaughtered or freshly killed.
19:43
The way into the presence of the eternal God is paved by a fresh,
19:47
bleeding sacrifice. But the way is also living
19:49
because the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, did not stay dead in the
19:52
tomb. He's the risen king, whoever
19:54
lives to make an intercession for his people.
19:57
Here is where it gets really interesting.
19:58
That phrase, recently slaughtered, completely changes
20:01
the tone. It removes any sense of casual
20:03
consumer driven religion. The author of Hebrews uses the
20:06
visual of the physical temple veil tearing from top to bottom
20:09
at the exact moment of the crucifixion.
20:11
We have to visualize the mechanics of the Old Covenant
20:14
Day of Atonement to grasp the magnitude of this.
20:17
Under the Old Covenant, the immediate presence of God was
20:20
hidden behind a massive, thick curtain in the temple.
20:23
You could smell the incense, you could hear the sounds of the
20:26
sacrifices, but you could not see the presence.
20:29
Only one man, the high priest, could enter.
20:32
And he'd only do it once a year. He had to enter with the blood
20:36
of animal sacrifices. He entered trembling with bells
20:39
on his robe, knowing that if he failed to follow the Levitical
20:42
regulations precisely, the holiness of God would strike him
20:46
dead on the spot. The ordinary Israelite stood
20:49
entirely outside the sanctuary, separated from the holy places
20:52
by that terrifying barrier. But under the New Covenant, the
20:56
veil is the torn flesh of Jesus Christ.
20:59
Because his flesh was torn by the nails and the spear on the
21:02
cross, the barrier is permanently removed.
21:05
Every single justified believer from the newest convert to the
21:09
oldest St. can enter the true heavenly sanctuary with absolute
21:14
Parisia, absolute boldness. We do not need an earthly priest
21:18
to mediate for us. We do not need to stand outside
21:21
trembling. We have the great high priest.
21:23
The contrast between the trembling, ironic priest and the
21:26
bold new covenant believer is the entire foundation of
21:29
Christian worship. And this makes the modern
21:31
neglect of worship so staggering it.
21:34
Really. Does you have the this
21:35
spectacular blood bought access to the creator of the universe?
21:40
The Son of God endured the infinite wrath of the Father,
21:43
had his flesh torn open, and conquered the grave specifically
21:47
so that you could enter the holy places with boldness.
21:49
And what do we do with that access?
21:50
We hit the snooze button on Sunday morning because we stayed
21:53
up too late watching a movie. When you view church attendance
21:56
through the lens of the torn veil, skipping the assembly is
21:59
not just a minor schedule in conflict.
22:01
It is a direct insult to the sacrifice of Christ.
22:04
You are looking at the blood of the Son of God which purchased
22:08
your access and you are saying well, I am not interested today.
22:12
I have a golf game. I have better things to do with
22:15
my time. Having this incredible access
22:17
makes neglecting it an absolute tragedy.
22:20
It is rejecting the highest privilege ever granted to a
22:23
human being. That's a harsh reality to face,
22:26
but it is necessary. We are treating a blood bot
22:28
privilege like a burdensome chore.
22:31
This reality leads directly into the specific commands of how we
22:35
must utilize this access. We do not just stare at the open
22:38
door, we have to walk through it.
22:40
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 22 through 24 outlines 3 these
22:44
specific commands. In the Greek, our sources note
22:47
that these are hordatory subjunctives, right?
22:49
Hold on. For those of us who haven't
22:51
brushed up on our Greek grammar lately, what exactly is a
22:55
hordatory subjunctive? And why does that grammatical
22:57
legal matter for how I live my life on a Tuesday?
23:00
That is a very fair question. A hordatory subjunctive is
23:03
simply a grammatical form used to express an exhortation or an
23:07
urgent mutual command. It is usually translated into
23:09
English with the phrase let us. It is not a polite suggestion,
23:14
and it is not a singular command directed at an isolated
23:17
individual. It is a corporate rallying cry.
23:19
The author is commanding the entire community to take action
23:23
together. The text gives us three specific
23:25
let us commands. First, let us draw near with a
23:29
true heart in full assurance of faith.
23:32
That covers the theological virtue of faith.
23:35
We approach God knowing our hearts are sprinkled clean from
23:37
an evil conscience. Second, let us hold fast the
23:41
confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is
23:45
faithful. That covers the virtue of hope.
23:47
We cling to our public confession of doctrine because
23:50
God keeps his promises. 3rd let us consider how to stir up one
23:54
another to love and good works. That covers the virtue of love.
23:58
We intentionally study our fellow believers, observing
24:01
their lives so we can provoke them to holiness.
24:03
We have faith, hope and love operating together.
24:06
But all three of those positive commands funnel directly into
24:09
the Stern prohibition in verse 25.
24:12
The text commands us not neglecting to meet together, as
24:15
is the habit of some. That prohibition in verse 25 is
24:18
where the rubber meets the road for the modern church.
24:21
The Greek phrase here is moyen catali, pointes tan epicenagon
24:26
halchen. I want to dig into these
24:28
specific words because they dismantle so many modern
24:31
excuses. You really do.
24:33
The word for meeting together or assembly is Epicenagiggin.
24:36
This is a very rare word in the New Testament.
24:39
It is only used twice. Why does the author use this
24:42
specific clunky word instead of the much more common word for
24:45
church ecclesia? The word choice is highly
24:48
intentional. While ecclesia can refer to the
24:51
universal invisible Church of all believers across time and
24:54
space, epidemic Googan denotes the specific physical official
24:58
covenantal assembly of the local body.
25:00
It shares the same root as the word synagogue.
25:03
The author is not talking about a vague mystical connection to
25:06
the universal Church. He is not talking about the fact
25:09
that you share a spiritual bond with a believer in another
25:11
country. He is talking about a physical
25:13
room containing physical people gathering at a specific time.
25:17
And the verb attached to it and catalipontes means to forsake,
25:21
to desert, or to leave in the lurch.
25:23
It is the exact same word used in secular Greek literature when
25:27
someone deserts their military post in the middle of a battle,
25:30
leaving their solo soldiers exposed to the enemy.
25:33
That military desertion concept completely changes the severity
25:37
of skipping church. The text is indicating A
25:40
habitual pattern of truancy. It is a calculated ethos of
25:44
absence. We need to be clear here, it is
25:47
not talking about missing one Sunday because you have
25:50
influenza. Or because you are in the
25:52
hospital recovering from major surgery.
25:54
Or because you are a first responder required to work a
25:57
shift. God is not a tyrant demanding
26:00
the physically impossible. The text is addressing the
26:03
person who treats the gathering as entirely optional.
26:06
It is addressing the person who wakes up on Sunday and decides
26:09
based on their mood whether they will attend.
26:11
And we have to apply this directly against the modern
26:13
trends that are plaguing the church today.
26:15
Specifically calls out digital Gnosticism.
26:18
Which is rampant right now. It is the incredibly pervasive
26:21
idea that you can just watch a live stream of a church service
26:25
while sitting on your couch in your pajamas drinking coffee,
26:29
and that somehow counts as assembling.
26:31
Gnosticism was an ancient heresy that taught that the physical
26:35
body was evil or irrelevant and only the invisible spirit
26:39
mattered. When we think a digital
26:41
broadcast replaces a physical gathering, we are repeating that
26:45
ancient heresy. The physical body matters.
26:48
The local church is not a television show you consume for
26:51
personal inspiration. It is a covenant body you
26:54
participate in. And we also have to refute the
26:57
seeker sensitive pragmatism that treats it's the church as a
26:59
consumer product. You hear this all the time.
27:02
People will say, well I am not getting anything out of the
27:04
music of my church. The pastor's sermons are a
27:06
little dry. So I am just going to go to the
27:08
lake this weekend and worship God in nature.
27:10
You cannot stir up a brother to love and good works from behind
27:13
a computer screen. And you cannot bear the burdens
27:16
of a sister in Christ while you were sitting alone on a boat.
27:19
Think about the analogy of the human body that the Apostle Paul
27:23
uses in First Corinthians. If you take a severed limb, say
27:26
an arm, and you detach it from the torso, that arm cannot
27:30
survive on its own. It does not matter how much the
27:33
arm wants to be healthy, if it is physically disconnected from
27:37
the heart, pumping the blood in the lungs, providing the oxygen,
27:40
it will lose its pulse, wither and die.
27:43
A believer trying to survive apart from the local physical
27:47
assembly is like a severed limb attempting to maintain a pulse
27:51
while lying on the floor. It is biologically and
27:54
spiritually impossible. The severed limb analogy is
27:57
grim, but it accurately portrays the spiritual reality.
28:01
You cannot fulfill the commands of Hebrews 10 in isolation.
28:04
You cannot hold fast your public confession in a vacuum.
28:07
You cannot stir up one another if you are never in the same
28:09
room to observe each other's lives.
28:11
The local Church is the designated location where God
28:14
has promised to dispense His grace through the preached Word
28:17
and the sacraments. When you layout this strict,
28:20
uncompromising standard of the physical gathering, it can feel
28:23
completely overwhelming to the listener.
28:25
It is a heavy burden to process. The law of God acts like a
28:29
glaring spotlight, exposing our massive failure.
28:32
We look at our spotty attendance records, our wandering minds
28:35
during the sermon, our failure to lead our families in worship
28:39
at the dinner table, and we feel the crushing weight of guilt.
28:42
I am feeling it right now, just talking about it.
28:44
It is a natural reaction. If the law exposes our failure
28:48
so ruthlessly, where is the hope?
28:52
How do we fix this without falling into despair?
28:55
This is where a discussion must transition into the classic
28:58
Reformed distinction between law and gospel, specifically
29:01
focusing on the different uses of the moral law.
29:04
OK, let us walk through that. The first use of the law is to
29:07
act as a mirror. It exposes the deep seated
29:10
idolatry of our hearts. It shows us the ugly reality
29:13
that we love our own leisure more than we love the glory of
29:16
our Creator. It brings the whole world guilty
29:18
before God, proving that by our own works, our own efforts, and
29:22
our own attendance records, we can never be justified.
29:25
The mirror shows us the dirt on our faces, but the mirror cannot
29:28
wash us clean. The crushing weight of the law
29:31
is entirely necessary because it drives us out of ourselves and
29:34
into the gospel remedy. And this is where we must unpack
29:37
the theology of Christ's active obedience.
29:39
This is a crucial mechanism in reformed theology.
29:42
Jesus Christ did not just die on the cross to pay the penalty for
29:46
our sins, which is His passive obedience.
29:48
He also lived a perfect life of positive obedience to the law of
29:52
God to impute His righteousness to us.
29:55
Think of it like a financial Ledger.
29:57
We have a massive debt column full of our sins and an asset
30:00
column that that requires perfect righteousness.
30:02
The cross clears the dead column.
30:05
Jesus pays the penalty. But a clear debt just leaves you
30:08
at 0. Christ's active obedience fills
30:11
the asset column. Jesus perfectly obeyed every
30:14
single positive command where we have failed.
30:16
He never prayed mechanically. He never had a wandering mind
30:19
during a synagogue service. He never missed a gathering out
30:22
of spiritual sloth. His heart was perfectly aligned
30:24
with the Father's will every single second of his earthly
30:27
life. And on the cross, he bore the
30:29
guilt of our omitted duties, not just our committed crimes.
30:33
He suffered for our prayerlessness.
30:35
He absorbed the wrath for our distracted worldly minds and the
30:38
Pew. The mechanism of imputation
30:40
means that his perfect record of attendance, his perfect record
30:44
of hard engaged worship, is legally transferred to our
30:48
account by faith. Our acceptance before God rests
30:51
entirely on the perfect record of Jesus Christ, not on our own
30:55
spotty performance. He obeyed in our place, and he
30:58
died in our place. That distinction between passive
31:01
and active obedience changes everything.
31:04
It removes the crushing weight. It means I am not trying to earn
31:08
my way back into God's favor by promising to try harder next
31:11
Sunday. My standing is secured by the
31:13
perfect Sunday attendance of Jesus Christ.
31:16
But that raises a massive question regarding the third use
31:18
of the law. Is an important question, yes.
31:21
What is your objection? Well.
31:23
If Christ obeyed perfectly for us, and if our justification is
31:26
entirely based on His pristine record, why do we need to bother
31:30
going to church at all? The classic argument.
31:33
Doesn't the gospel mean we are free from the law?
31:35
Why cannot I just say, well, Jesus went to the synagogue
31:38
perfectly for me so I can sleep in?
31:40
That objection is the definition of antinomianism, the idea that
31:44
grace eliminates the need for obedience.
31:47
We must guard against both legalism, which tries to earn
31:50
salvation, and antinomianism, which abuses grace We.
31:54
Do not gather to earn our justification.
31:57
Chapter 11 of the Westminster Confession is unequivocally
32:00
clear. That justification is an act of
32:02
God's free grace alone. But the third use of the law
32:05
acts as a guide for the grateful obedience of the justified
32:08
believer. We gather because we are united
32:11
to Christ. The grace that pardons our sins
32:14
also trains us to renounce isolation and ungodliness.
32:17
The Holy Spirit literally changes our internal desires.
32:20
We start wanting to be with the people of God because we have
32:23
been saved by the Son of God. You want to honor the one who
32:26
cleared your legend. Furthermore, there is a massive
32:29
eschatological component to this command in Hebrews that we
32:32
cannot ignore. The text says we must encourage
32:35
one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.
32:38
That concept of the day adds incredible urgency to this
32:41
discussion. What exactly is the day both of
32:44
the sources we are looking at hold to a premillennial and pre
32:47
tribulational expectation of Christ's return?
32:50
This eschatological framework means that redemptive history is
32:53
not a liberal evolutionary cycle of endless human progress.
32:57
The world is not gradually getting better and better until
33:00
it turns into a utopia. History is a ticking clock.
33:03
It is a straight line rushing toward a definitive cataclysmic
33:07
climax. The day is the approaching
33:09
judgement and the physical return of Jesus Christ to earth.
33:12
Far from a secular view where history just loops endlessly,
33:16
the biblical view demands urgency.
33:18
As the cultural darkness deepens, as society becomes
33:21
increasingly hostile to the truth of God and biblical
33:24
morality, the local assembly must huddle closer together.
33:28
We do not retreat from the gathering when times get tough,
33:31
we increase our dedication to it.
33:32
The approaching day requires massive fortitude.
33:35
If you want a historical illustration of what this
33:38
fortitude looks like, you have to look at the Scottish
33:40
Covenanters in the 17th century. Oh wow.
33:43
Their history completely shames our modern excuses.
33:46
During the period known as the killing times, the British Crown
33:49
attempted to force the Scottish church to submit to the King as
33:53
the head of the church, dictating how they could worship
33:56
and who could preach. The Covenanters refused.
33:59
They held strictly to the truth that Jesus Christ alone is the
34:03
head of the Church. Because they refused to conform
34:06
to the state mandated worship, they were ejected from their
34:09
buildings. So they held illegal outdoor
34:12
conventicles. They gathered in the freezing
34:14
rainswept Glens and bogs of the Scottish Highlands.
34:18
The state sent armed dragoons to hunt them down.
34:22
These ordinary farmers, shopkeepers and mothers risked
34:25
their lives simply because they wanted to worship God according
34:28
to the Scriptures. They sat in the mud, singing the
34:31
Psalms of David, knowing that any moment soldiers could ride
34:34
over the hill and execute them on the spot or send them to
34:37
rotting prisons. They knew that assembling meant
34:39
risking everything. When you hold the historical
34:42
reality of the Covenanters up against our modern context, the
34:45
contrast is staggering. We are talking about believers
34:49
who are willing to bleed out in the mud just to hear the Word of
34:52
God preached for an hour. Now bring that reality into the
34:56
21st century. If they were willing to face
34:58
dragoons and execute executioners to gather with the
35:01
Saints, how can we possibly choose a Sunday morning golf
35:05
game over the assembly? How can we justify missing
35:08
church because the weather is slightly rainy or because the
35:11
parking lot is crowded when our spiritual ancestors bled for
35:14
this exact privilege? The testimony of the Covenanters
35:17
strips away all of our comfortable middle class
35:20
excuses. It demands A brutally honest
35:23
evaluation of what we actually value in our daily lives.
35:26
True repentance for the sin of omission requires practical
35:30
reformation. It is not enough to just feel
35:32
bad about missing church after hearing a historical story.
35:35
Guilt without change is useless. We.
35:37
Have to change our actual habits and this reformation starts in
35:40
the home, specifically by restoring the concept of the
35:43
family altar. So what does this all mean?
35:46
Practical reformation is where theology touches the ground.
35:50
The family altar is the daily practice of household worship.
35:53
Fathers bear the primary God ordained responsibility for the
35:58
spiritual leadership of their households.
36:00
They must step up. They must prioritize the Lord's
36:03
Day and daily family worship above youth sports, academic
36:07
pressures, and evening entertainment.
36:09
This means turning off the television, opening the
36:12
scriptures with your children, leading them in prayer, and
36:15
ensuring that the entire rhythm of the family revolves around
36:19
the worship of God. It means teaching your children
36:21
that the corporate gathering on Sunday morning is the most
36:24
fixed, non negotiable event on the weekly calendar.
36:27
Everything else flexes around the gathering.
36:29
The gathering does not flex around the culture.
36:31
And this practical reformation extends from the living room
36:34
directly into the corporate gathering itself through the
36:37
concept of worship integration. We must connect the preached
36:40
audible Word of God to the visible word in the Sacramento,
36:44
specifically the Lord's Supper. I want to break this down for
36:48
the listener sitting at home right now, feeling the weight of
36:50
this duty. What does practical action look
36:53
like? If you are a father, listening
36:55
to this God does not require polished, eloquent, seminary
36:59
level performances in family worship.
37:02
You do not need a theology degree to read a single Psalm to
37:05
your kids at the dinner table. You requires faithful,
37:08
consistent leadership. 5 minutes of earnest stumbling prayer and
37:12
reading one verse of scripture is infinitely better than
37:16
continuous neglect disguised as a lack of ability.
37:20
You are shaping the fundamental spiritual fabric of your
37:23
children's worldview. If you show them by your actions
37:25
that God gets the absolute leftovers of your week, they
37:29
will grow up believing that God is entirely irrelevant to real
37:32
life. And regarding the corporate
37:33
gathering, we have to approach Sunday with a completely
37:35
different mindset. We are not arriving as consumers
37:39
hoping to be entertained by a light show, a rock band and a
37:42
motivational pep talk. We're arriving as a covenant
37:45
community to participate in the means of grace.
37:47
This ties directly back into the regulative principle of worship
37:50
and the cessationist framework that our sources operate from.
37:53
Cessationism teaches that the miraculous Apostolic sign gifts,
37:57
like speaking in tongues or receiving direct new prophetic
38:01
revelations have ceased with the closing of the biblical Canon.
38:05
Because the Canon of Scripture is closed and sufficient, we do
38:08
not seek God through chaotic novelties, sudden subjective
38:12
prophecies, or mystical private experiences in the woods.
38:16
God has appointed the ordinary means of grace, the reading and
38:19
preaching of the Word, the sacraments of baptism in the
38:21
Lord's Supper, and prayer as the specific guaranteed channels
38:26
through which He strengthens His people.
38:27
The Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture is the supreme judge
38:30
of all truth. When we gather, we are doing so
38:33
to hear the objective word declared.
38:35
And partaking of the one bread in the Lord's Supper physically
38:38
requires a physical assembly. You cannot distribute the
38:41
elements of Communion through a television screen.
38:43
You cannot administer baptism over a zoom call.
38:45
The sacrament demands physical presence.
38:48
The incarnation of Jesus Christ proves that physical matter and
38:51
physical presence are vital to God's redemptive plan.
38:54
The Word became flesh, therefore the Church must gather in the
38:58
flesh. Reformation means treating the
39:00
Sunday gathering as a matter of spiritual survival.
39:03
We prepare our hearts on Saturday night.
39:05
We arrive ready to engage our minds.
39:08
We aggressively resist the deadening effect of formalism,
39:11
and we plead with the Spirit to give us reverence and joy in the
39:14
presence of the King. We have covered massive
39:17
theological ground today on Reformed thinking.
39:20
To briefly recap our mission, we have seen that the sin of
39:23
omission, specifically the invisible silent neglect of
39:26
worship, is not just poor time management or a minor character
39:31
flaw. It is a severe theological
39:33
crisis. It is practical atheism that
39:35
exposes our true idols and starves our souls.
39:38
It is a direct insult to the creation mandate and the blood
39:41
of redemption. But this crisis is answered
39:43
solely by the blood of a great high priest, Jesus Christ.
39:46
He lived a perfect life of devotion, completely filling the
39:49
acid column of our righteous requirements.
39:52
He bore the penalty for our worshipless, distracted hearts
39:55
on the cross. He tore the veil of his own
39:57
flesh, permanently removing the barrier of God's wrath, and now
40:00
He invites us to enter the true heavenly sanctuary with absolute
40:04
boldness. We do not gather to earn our
40:07
salvation. We gather because the grace of
40:09
God compels us to hold fast our Confessions session, to renounce
40:13
our spiritual sloth, and to actively stir up our brothers
40:16
and sisters as we watch the final day of judgment
40:19
approaching. Before we close, I want to leave
40:22
you with a thought that builds on everything we have discussed
40:24
regarding the physical assembly. Something to consider as you
40:27
evaluate the stress in your own life.
40:30
Go ahead. What if the modern epidemic of
40:32
Christian anxiety, burnout and severe emotional exhaustion is
40:37
tied directly to this exact omission of corporate worship?
40:40
That is a striking thought. We live in an era where everyone
40:43
feels completely crushed under the weight of their own
40:45
existence. But consider the psychological
40:48
mechanism at play here. When we stop looking upward in a
40:51
gathered covenantal setting, we are inevitably forced to look
40:55
inward. We spend all of our time
40:57
analyzing our own fleeting feelings, our own past traumas,
41:01
and our own glaring inadequacies.
41:03
But the human self was never designed to bear the weight of
41:06
worship. You are not created to be your
41:08
own center of gravity. By neglecting the assembly, by
41:11
isolating ourselves from the ordinary means of grace, we are
41:14
literally starving ourselves of the very mechanisms God
41:17
instituted to carry our burdens. The.
41:19
Church is the specific location where the weary St. finds actual
41:24
rest in the finished objective work of Christ.
41:27
When we abandoned the fold for the sake of supposed
41:30
convenience, we abandoned the sanctuary of rest, leaving
41:33
ourselves entirely exposed to the relentless, exhausting
41:37
demands of a secular world. Returning to the physical
41:40
assembly might just be the very antidote your exhausted soul is
41:43
desperately looking. The cure for looking too
41:46
intensely at yourself is to look at the great High Priest
41:48
alongside the rest of the gathered body.
41:51
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the source
41:53
material. We invite you to seriously
41:55
examine your own calendar, your own daily habits, and the hidden
41:58
affections of your own heart. This week, do not settle for a
42:01
negative checklist of sins you avoided.
42:03
Today, look to the torn veil, embrace the new and living way,
42:07
and take your place in the physical assembly of the Saints.
42:10
Until next time, keep your eyes on the text and your heart
42:13
anchored in the truth. Good night.