← Back to sermon library

Okay, next question is, should 
churches observe Holy Days? So why do Reformed Baptist churches 
not observe Holy Days? Holidays, like Good Friday, Christmas 
Day, Prayer Day, Thanksgiving, and you could put a whole list 
there with a church service on that day. Yeah, well, we do observe 
a holy day. It's every Sunday. We call it 
the Lord's Day or the Christian Sabbath. Our confession has, 
I think, a very fine chapter on that in chapter 22, which 
is of religious worship and the Sabbath day. But recognize that 
chapter 22 follows chapter 21 and chapter 21 deals with Christian 
liberty and liberty of conscience. And so when these men wrote the 
confession, they had different I don't want to say targets, 
different opponents perhaps would be a better word that they had 
to answer and guard against. On the one hand, you have the 
civil state. If the civil state was Roman Catholic or if it was 
Anglican, then there would be certain things thrust on worshipers 
by the state. but also they had religious tyranny 
on the other hand, Roman Catholics, Anglicanism. So, in our confession 
it says, God alone is Lord of the conscience and hath left 
it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are 
in anything contrary to his word or not contained in it. So, the 
argument's pretty simple. God never commanded us to have 
a Good Friday service. He never commanded us to have 
a Christmas service. He never commanded those holy 
days of obligation. He has, however, commanded Lord's 
Day worship with the people of God in the house of God. So, 
it's a liberty of conscience issue and it does do disservice 
to people when we present as law. preferences or things that 
have arrived or sort of evolved in the life of the church. And 
just kind of anecdotally, as people have come into our churches, 
at least recognized in my church, they have an issue with the Lord's 
Day and the Sabbath and the fourth commandment, but they're always 
curious to know why we don't have a good Friday or a Christmas 
Eve because they do have, you know, good intentions. They want 
you know, people typically come during those times of year and 
they want some sort of evangelism, but, you know, it's good to then 
teach them about the importance of the Lord's day and what that 
means and the blessing that that is. And one thing I have often 
joked about with my people is I've said, we will have perhaps 
an evangelistic service when the evening service is just as 
well as attended as the morning service, because I think it was 
Sinclair Ferguson who said that the word of God is measured by 
the evening service and the attendance that is there, not so much by 
whether you come on Christmas or whether you come to Good Friday. 
And I've joked with the people, I've said, I think that will 
be when pigs fly. And I do hope pigs do fly so 
that more people come in the evening and appreciate the full 
Lord's day. And as far as a Good Friday service 
in particular, we are commanded to remember the Lord's death 
at the Lord's Supper, which again, depending on what church you're 
in, it could be weekly, it could be monthly. So, in terms of a 
specific time out of the year that we're called to reflect 
upon the death of our Savior, it's not Good Friday. And then, 
of course, every Sunday would be an Easter Sunday, a Resurrection 
Sunday. I mean, when the people of God, 
you know, walk into the house of God, there is that tacit confession 
that He is risen. He is Lord. We're here to worship 
the living and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that's 
not to say that during those times of year, we don't on the 
Lord's day, focus on some of those subjects. Like typically 
I do a Christmas or Advent series or whatnot, but it's always on 
the Lord's day. And as we gather for worship 
on that day, that's usually when we can meditate on those things 
and consider them. But as Pastor Butler said, we 
meditate on those things every Lord's day and we get to celebrate 
the new creation and being found in Christ on that day. So it 
is... It's important to recognize that and appreciate what the 
Lord's Day is. And I know I've appreciated it more and more. 
And some of those extra holidays became less and less important 
as I've appreciate the Lord's Day. Yeah, we come with a lot 
of traditions and family traditions, church traditions, and we get 
attached to those. Some people say, well, it's not 
commanded to do these days, but it's not commanded not to do 
them. There's nothing wrong with it, and it's always good to go to 
church. But to your point, it's still binding consciences and 
liberty, right? Well, I think that, you know, 
there are those occasional seasons where we can gather that aren't 
specifically Lord's Days. So, in chapter 22, paragraph 
5, it says toward the end, and thanksgivings upon special occasions 
ought to be used in a holy and religious manner. So, it's not, 
the argument isn't, no, we can't gather the church together any 
other time. But when we obligate the worshipper 
to a tradition, we've overstepped our boundaries as ecclesiastical 
officers. So, we enforce what Scripture 
teaches relative to the worship of God. We call that in the Reformed 
tradition, the regulative principle of worship. So, we don't add 
things, we don't take things away, we seek to do what God's 
Word says. And yeah, if we say we're having 
a Christmas service, I mean, you know, people say, well, what's 
wrong with that? Well, for somebody that perhaps 
has come out of Roman Catholicism and, you know, there's a lot 
of bondage there, it is to then bind that person's conscience 
in a way that isn't conducive to the glory of God. Pete Excellent.