AI-GENERATED SUMMARY

Pastor Tuuri addresses the covenant pledge to “regularly attend this church’s worship services,” arguing that Old Covenant worship serves as a binding model for the New Covenant3,4. He asserts that the New Covenant does not abolish the need for assembly but intensifies it, moving from the shadow of the temple/synagogue to the “super synagogue” of the local church where believers enter the Holy of Holies5,2. Tuuri warns that forsaking this assembly is not merely a lack of commitment but a willful sin that invites “fiery indignation,” comparable to refusing a King’s invitation to a marriage feast6,7. He concludes that the worship service is a time of “holy convocation” and joy, where the church is equipped to go out and reconstruct the world8,9.

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Doctrine of Reformation Covenant Church in which the person that signs the covenant statement agrees or pledges to attend the worship services of Reformation Covenant Church regularly. I suppose it’s certainly been true since I’ve been a Christian that commitment is always followed by testing. And this last week I had an offer to speak to a workshop of the Oregon School Board Association. Now, the Oregon School Board Association is the only active opposition we had to our home school bill last year.

And yet, they wanted me to come and address a workshop on homeschooling for all the school board administrators. They’re going to have a couple people from the ESD and one person representing the homeschoolers and the parents’ perspective, so they can understand that a little bit better. And yet, the particular meeting was going to be held in November, I believe November 9th, which is a Sunday morning from 11:00 to 12:30.

So I did find a substitute, a person who goes to a church that only meets in the evening and he’s going to be at that meeting representing homeschoolers. I think he’ll do a good job. But it is interesting how that happened in the context of preparing to speak this morning about the necessity of assembling together on the Lord’s day for worship. Now, just a few caveats before we get into the text here.

There’s obvious Sabbath implications for what we’re going to talk about this morning, but we’re not really going to talk about the Sabbath this morning. The final statement of Reformation Covenant Church and that covenant statement refers to a pledge by the believer to do the Lord’s pleasure on the Sabbath day. And when we get to that portion of the covenant statement, we’ll spend probably an extended time considering the Sabbath and its implications for the new covenant body of believers. We’re not really going to deal with that much this morning. I don’t think we particularly have to.

We will by implication. Some of the things we’re going to say may have reference to Old Testament Sabbaths, but we’ll have a lot more detail on that later. Additionally, at that time, we’ll probably spend a lot more time also considering what it actually is we do in worship—what it actually is that we do when we assemble together on Sunday, on the Lord’s day.

We will speak a little bit about that today. But today is basically an overview of the passage in which most churches would go to demonstrate the necessity of coming to church on Sundays. The verse they’ll almost always quote, of course, is Hebrews 10:25. And so I thought it’d be appropriate to take that section of Scripture out of Hebrews 10 to deal with, so we can understand a little bit better what’s being said in terms of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

This doesn’t really refer to our corporate worship together, does it not? So it’s going to be an overview, and in that overview, we’ll also touch by means of an overview on what we do on Sundays. I think one of the things that perhaps is a little bit unusual about our church is the two halves to the worship service. And in the context of today’s talk, we’ll address why we have two halves, why we think it’s appropriate and indeed commanded by God.

I think it’s also important as we go through these verses to look for some positive injunctions. Certainly Hebrews 10:25 says, “Don’t forsake.” But we’ll see as we go through this text, there’s a positive injunction to get together as well.

Really, Hebrews—the entire book, and this section particularly by way of application—deals with relationship from old covenant to new covenant and draws a continuity between those two things, and yet stresses an element of discontinuity as well. So that’s what we’ll be talking about this morning: the context of Hebrews 10:25 with all these other aspects to it.

We have three basic points again this morning. The first point we’ll address is that old covenant worship is a model for new covenant worship. And we’ll spend most of the time this morning on that specific point. Secondly, because of that, we’ll see that old covenant attitudes relating to worship and assembling together is also a model for new covenant attitudes toward that day.

And third, we’ll see that there is a model also in the old covenant blessings and cursings related to the obedience of the believer to the injunction of God to gather together. There’s a relationship between that as a model for the new covenant blessings and cursings as well. In all those areas also we’ll talk about an intensification of the relationship being the primary element of discontinuity between the covenants. There’s continuity in basic form. There’s discontinuity in terms of an intensification in the new covenant.

Okay. So we’ll go to our first point. Old covenant worship is a model for new covenant worship. And this I think is the heart of this text. In fact, one may actually say that this is really the heart of the entire book of Hebrews. Hebrews, after all, this is the first section, the primary section of exhortation, encouragement and application for what he’s done for the rest of the book of Hebrews.

And these sections, the verses we’re going to look at this morning that we read just now, really speak to the application that he’s getting to with the rest of the book. So this is the heart of Hebrews as it were. And you have to understand that the context of these sections is the entire book of Hebrews.

Now before we, I should also say by way of introduction that—and this again is by way of kind of an overview or a caveat as it were—we’re going to talk this morning specifically about assembling together once a week, both in the old covenant and the new covenant. But it’s important to recognize that assembling together does not preclude other things going on during the week that serve as a model for the rest of the week. So certainly many of the things we’re going to talk about this morning have application to the individual believer in his own home and throughout the rest of the week.

But the primary application, I think, because of the context of what Hebrews is being written to—we’re going to talk about assembling together, but don’t think that I’m saying exclusively in terms of getting together for worship on Sunday. That should be the pattern for what we do throughout the rest of the week. Sunday’s the pattern for the rest of the week for us. Okay.

First point I want to make under the fact that old covenant worship is a model for new covenant worship is that because of the second commandment, we have principles from God relating to worship. There is a right way to worship and there’s a wrong way to worship. And the second commandment reads: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and of the third and fourth generations of them that hate me.

What he’s saying is that obviously there’s a prohibition against idolatry here and against images of God, but he doesn’t relate it strictly to images of God. He says, “You shall not make any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath.” Now we know that when God gave commandments for the building of the temple, there were representations of things on the earth beneath and certainly of the heaven above. The temple itself was built according to the pattern of the temple that exists in heaven. That’s what God showed Moses was the pattern of the one in heaven and that became the actual physical temple on earth.

So God isn’t prohibiting all making of anything in terms of worship that image is something that he has given. What he’s saying is that only what he has prescribed for worship can be used by us. Now in the Presbyterian church and reformed churches in general, this is referred to as the regulative principle of worship. That there are set patterns that God has given us for worship and we cannot move outside of those patterns.

If anybody has been involved in starting a church or being a part of a church and the ministry service of that church and the order of worship and this kind of thing, you’ll know that one of the most intriguing of things is continually tweaked—the order of service, the worship service. Man continually wants to come up with new and better ways to worship God and to try to do this and do that and the other thing. There’s some appropriateness to that, but there’s also some problems with that. God says, “I have a method whereby I want you to worship me.” And within the context of that, you have freedom to do these things. But outside of the context of that, you have no freedom. You cannot come up with new and novel ways to worship me other than the things that I’ve laid out in my scriptures for you to do.

Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way—the Larger Catechism rather. What are the duties required in the second commandment? The duties required in the second commandment are the receiving, observing and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word: particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ, the reading, preaching and hearing of the word, the administration and receiving of the sacraments, church governments and discipline, the ministry and maintenance thereof, religious fasting, swearing by the name of God, bowing unto him, and also the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship, and according to each one’s place in calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry.

What is forbidden in the second commandment? The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and any wise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself. And goes on to list several of the things that can be several of the manifestations of that.

The point is the second commandment gives us clear direction from God that there is a proper way to worship and that there’s an improper way to worship. So it’s important to recognize that first, because since the old covenant worship was a model for new covenant worship, we want to understand that in the context of the fact that there is a proper and an improper way to worship God. The fact that the altar used in the old covenant, for instance, was to be a natural altar, not cut with human hands, is indicative of the same principle. God was teaching us that the way to approach him is totally of his own doing and we can’t be creative as it were about the way to approach God.

Having said that, let’s look then at what some of the verses talked about this morning, how they instruct us as to the old covenant worship and its relationship to new covenant worship. Old covenant worship had two systems or institutions by which worship to God was performed. These two systems were the sacrificial system and the system of instruction: the temple on the one hand and the synagogue on the other hand.

I remember one of the most impressive things that happened—one year I went to Mama School of the Bible—was how one of the teachers there (and I don’t remember which one) said that this dichotomy, as it were, this tension between sacrifice and instruction, or the temple and the synagogue, has found its way down to various churches today. Some churches are more liturgical in the center. In the actual architecture of the church, at the center of the sanctuary will be the communion table, and that church is stressing (this instructor told me) temple as opposed to synagogue.

Other churches would have at the center of the church the pulpit. Those churches are modeling themselves more after the synagogue model where instruction is primary and communion and sacraments and liturgy is secondary. And the professors seemed to be indicating this was the only—this was just the way it was. You always to have this tension between temple and synagogue.

Now, the fact that there is a sacrificial system in the Old Testament is rather obvious and I won’t go into any details of that. It’s very clear. However, the fact that there is a synagogue system in the Old Testament is not as clear—not in our day and age. I wanted to just bring a couple of verses to bear there. In Leviticus 23:2-3, we read the following: Speak unto the children of Israel, say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy convocation. You shall do no work therein. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

Now, you listen carefully to what I read there. God is saying, I’m going to give you instructions for holy convocations. Holy convocations are gatherings of believers together set apart to God and his purposes. And the very first thing he says before he goes into all the rest of the feasts of which they’re required to go before God three times a year—the first thing he says is every Sabbath day is to be a holy convocation or gathering. So we know that the Sabbath was not simply a day of rest, a physical rest and cessation from all work and activity. It was rest in the finished work or in the coming work of Jesus Christ. It was rest in God and his proper worship.

And so we know that synagogues were established to accomplish this, so that there could be convocation throughout the land wherever people were, where they could have a holy convocation every Sabbath day before God. Now this is borne out in Acts 15:21. In the New Testament, the council of Jerusalem, in trying to settle a problem that had come up, said: Write them that they have to abstain from the pollution of idols, from fornication, from things strangled and from blood. They said this is all we had to tell them about and why? For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every seventh day.

The Council of Jerusalem said that from the time of Moses, the law has been constructed and taught in all the cities being read in the synagogue. And so we have a commandment of God for a holy convocation in the Old Testament. We have New Testament evidence that the synagogue system was in place from the time of Moses on, and then instruction took place in the midst of them. It’s important to recognize there though that the holy convocation means that it was more than just instruction. After all, these are worship services that God is instituting for his people. So, the synagogue system was instituted in that same way.

Our Lord himself did this. In the Gospels, we are told in Luke 4:16 that Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. Now, why was our Lord going to a synagogue on the Sabbath day?

Well, now he certainly knew that the Sabbath was a day of holy convocation or worship before God. And he certainly understood the implications of the second commandment that said that you can only worship me in the matters in which I told said I can be worshiped. And it says here that his custom was to go to the synagogue on every Sabbath day. He did it because that’s what he was supposed to do. The word custom there doesn’t mean it was just sort of something that he got into the habit of doing. The same word is used, for instance, in Luke 2:42. When Jesus was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. Well, it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t some sort of historical custom that the Jews went up to the feast. It was a law of God. The word custom, the word manner—these things indicate frequently in the scriptures things that are actually commanded of people to do.

Another example of this is Acts 15:15. Certain men which came down from Judea and taught the brethren and said: Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses. Same word being used there as this custom word—circumcised after the manner of Moses. Well, it wasn’t the habit of Moses. It wasn’t what Moses fell into a habit of doing. It was the commandment of Moses. So, because Jesus went up to the synagogue every Sabbath as was his custom, indicates also that the synagogue system has been in place since the time of Leviticus and its institution in the Levitical system and continued in place until the time of our Lord, and he followed those commandments to get together at the synagogue for a holy convocation.

Now in the New Testament these two systems—temple on the one hand and synagogue on the other—are merged into one system. It’s not true, and I was taught a multitude of times, in tension throughout church history—throughout church history. Many churches have understood in the past (don’t many do not today) the necessity of bringing both those elements together into the New Testament Lord’s day worship, and this is what I think Hebrews teaches us in this passage.

The positive injunction of Hebrews 10:19-27 is to draw near in verse 22. And I believe this is the central passage of application here that the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was instructing them to do. Verse 22: Let us draw near. He precedes that with references to the temple system of the old covenant worship, and he follows the admonition to draw near—which is the central point of application here—with references to the synagogue, and we’ll look at those now.

Now the context of all this, the book of Hebrews is that there were people who were starting to forsake the assembly. They stopped getting together with the church, with the new covenant church on the Lord’s day. That specifically, they were, and as a result of that, they were beginning to apostasize from the faith and fall back to old covenant patterns of worship. And the whole point of the book of Hebrews is we have a better covenant now with a better system of worship in which both those elements of the temple and the synagogue system are brought into one, completed in Jesus Christ and given to us as a pattern for the church today.

And therefore don’t bug out, don’t leave, don’t stop coming—keep coming to assembly of yourselves together. Okay, that’s the context of this. Now let’s look at some of the specifics.

Let us draw near with a true heart in verse 22 is preceded first of all by references to the temple in verse 19: Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The holiest there refers to the holy places in Hebrews 9:24, which we’re told that Jesus went into the holy places, into the temple of God, as it were the true temple of God. So there’s a reference there to part of the temple system. We have clear verses to teach this as well. As I said in Hebrews 9:24, it says that Christ entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, okay?

And the holy places made with hands—there’s a reference to the temple, the temple system, the sacrificial system. Hebrews 9:3 talks about the second veil, beyond which the tabernacle is called the holiest of all. The tabernacle is the holiest of all. There these holy places are part of the temple system, and it should be rather obvious. This is carried over into the New Testament usage of or the new covenant usage of the word sanctuary for describing our building. A church building is talked about as a church sanctuary. A sanctuary is a holy place. Holy means to be consecrated or set apart for God’s purposes. And a sanctuary is sanctified or set apart.

For instance, in Hebrews 8:2 and Hebrews 9:2, the word sanctuary there is used. It’s the same word that means holiest, holy place or holiest, as we have here in verse 19. So the fact that the injunction to draw near is preceded with a reference to Jesus going into the holiest is a reference to the temple system.

Verse 20 says that we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. And again, this is a reference to temple system, temple worship. He said under the old covenant and the temple system there was blood—as a, you couldn’t approach into the holy of holies without blood, sacrificial blood. And so we have, as we enter into the holies of holies, the blood of Jesus pleading for us as it were as we go into the presence of God.

Verse 20: By a new and living way which he had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And so we have a reference here again to a particular part of the architecture of the temple system and the old covenant system of worship: the veil, the doors as it were. That’s what the veil was—a covering or a door. And we’re told now that the veil is now Jesus Christ in his flesh.

And finally, in verse 21, we have a high priest over the house of God. High priest—obvious reference to the old covenant worship system. And the house of God also, although it may not be immediately obvious, is also a reference to old covenant worship systems. In Matthew 12:4, Jesus is talking about David and how David entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread. So, the house of God there has reference to Old Testament tabernacle and temple again.

So all these references building up to verse 22, to the admonition to draw near, are references that specifically speak to the old covenant sacrificial system centered in the temple and the tabernacle. So what are we doing when we draw near? We’re drawing near into the true tabernacle, into the temple worship as it were of God himself.

Now this shouldn’t be really all that surprising to us. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Ephesians 2:20-22, and 1 Peter 2:5, there are descriptions of the church as being the temple of God. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, that’s an interesting passage because if you look—if you do a study of those words used there—one reference to us being the temple of God as individual, the other reference is corporately: you are all together the temple of God is what it says. So it’s implying again, as we come together in convocation before God, we are the temple now.

So then we got together this Sunday morning, we were called by God to worship. We were called together as a temple of God. Now, this isn’t just flowery speech or illusion here that God is making. He’s saying that what we do today on Sunday should reflect that temple service of the old covenant worship. It was a model for us. It was a shadow of the great things to come in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has entered that temple once for all, and we should now reflect that in the way we worship him according to his pattern.

Secondly, the injunction to draw near is followed by references to synagogue. Verses 23 and 24 again indicate some of the temple system and the being sprinkled from an evil conscience, et cetera. And then verse 25 says: Let us draw near, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

The word assembling there is episunago, okay? And what it means is to synagogue together. Don’t forsake the synagoguing of yourselves together. That’s the word episunago. The basis for the word synagogue. In James 2:2, the same word is used: assembly. James 2:2: Where if there come into your assembly, a man with a gold ring. And the word there again means synagogue. If there comes somebody into your synagogue during your Sunday service, what he’s saying—when they come into your assembly, they’re coming into the synagogue.

And so the new testament mode of worship by gathering together on the Lord’s day is a synagoguing, okay? This is some very interesting applications that David Chilton brings out, by the way, in terms of the teaching of the rapture—supposed teaching of the rapture in the gospels. Let’s see if I can find these verses. Yes. Matthew 24:31: He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Repeated in Mark 13:27: They shall send his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. And what it’s talking about here is following the judgment of God, which judgment, I think, is accurately portrayed as the judgment of God in AD 70 upon apostate Judaism. He says, Following that judgment, God will send forth his angels to gather together his elect.

Now, I think that David Chilton is correct in saying he’s not referring here to the rapture. Angels is the word for messenger, and it can mean—the context describes whether it’s talking about a heavenly messenger or an earthly messenger or what kind of messenger it is. So, what God is saying, I think here, is that God will send forth his messengers preaching his gospel and synagogue together his elect from the four parts of the four ends of the earth. The entire earth will be synagogued together by God in the new covenant worshipping community.

And that’s what you see? That’s what’s happened actually as we synagogue together this morning, for instance. Jesus in Matthew 23:37-38 says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to synagogue you together. Jesus wanted to gather together Jerusalem and synagogue before him, the true Lord of Lords. And yet they rejected him. And so now he has a new synagoguing people, the new covenant church.

So we see that the admonition to draw near to God in verse 22 is preceded by temple imagery. And it’s followed by assembling or synagoguing. And so you have references of both sets of the Old Testament covenant worship service—the temple system on the one hand, the synagogue system on the other hand—being brought together into the new covenant worship service of the church.

It is important though to recognize that the book of Hebrews is obviously drawing continuity between these old covenant and new covenant people in their worship service. But beyond that, the writer of the epistle of Hebrews is saying the new covenant is better. It’s a better temple. It’s a better synagogue. Again, this is one of the central themes of the book of Hebrews.

How is it better? Well, he’s just explained to us here. He’s talked about the blood, and how in the old covenant worship system, there was the blood of goats and calves. New covenant worship system, the blood of Jesus Christ is what makes final atonement for sin once for all. The new covenant is better. The old covenant had a holy place, an earthly temple made with hands. Hebrews 9:11 says that what we have is a greater and more perfect tabernacle, of which the old tabernacle was just a model, or a form, or shadow.

In the old covenant the blood had to be applied many times, continual offering of blood, and yet Jesus Christ’s blood suffers, or covers rather, sin once for all. In the old covenant the veil, or the entrance into the synagogue was a cloth veil—the door was made of cloth, earthly materials—and what Hebrews 10:20 tells us is that the new door to the worship service of God is the flesh of Jesus Christ, is Jesus Christ himself. He is the door. He’s the veil. And that’s what it tells us.

By the way, you have references there in verses 19 and 20 to communion. You have the boldness to enter in by the blood of Jesus, through the veil which is his flesh—wine and bread. The representational nature of our entrance into new covenant worship is better than the old covenant.

The old covenant, the high priest would enter into the holiest of holies. Now on his breastplate would be 12 stones or jewels, representing the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. Yet, we now today have a greater high priest, Jesus Christ himself. And we are urged by God on the basis of that greater high priest for us as individuals to draw nigh into the presence of God in holy worship on Sunday and coming before him—not represented by a high priest, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, through our great high priest.

And as a result of that, we can draw near to God individually now and corporately together on Sundays. As a result of that, then what we do in Sunday service should imitate that improvement from the old covenant to the new covenant. We find that God does just that. The new covenant sacraments are bloodless sacraments. They’re better sacraments because Jesus Christ has shed blood once for all.

We are told—another we could go on and on about this, but just example also in verse 22: Let us draw near having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. What does that refer to? Some people say baptism. I don’t think so. He’s already given instructions about baptism. These are people who aren’t baptized every week as they draw near to God. We have our bodies washed in pure water in the same way that the Old Testament priests had to be washed for consecration before they entered into the service of God and then had to be sprinkled with blood every time they were going to go in and perform before God.

We come forth then, not representationally through priests. We come forth, all of us priests, all of us sprinkled with the blood in consecration weekly, and all of us washed with pure water—Jesus Christ and purified for Sabbath worship.

So, not only is the old covenant model of new covenant worship referring to both the coming together of the temple system and the synagogue system, but the new covenant example or pattern of worship is now better than the old covenant temple system. And it’s also better than the old covenant synagogue system.

I said that the word for assembling together in Hebrews 10:25 is episunago. I said that’s synagogue, that’s true. But it has the prefix epi attached to the front of it. Now that prefix means over or in—you, in this sort of usage. And throughout the new testament the prefix means an intensification of what it’s referring to. And so by episunago, David Chilton correctly points out, means a super synagogue. We don’t come together simply as a new testament model of the old covenant synagogue. We come together as a super synagogue before God.

After all, we now have the Holy Spirit as our teacher given to us to indwell believers on the basis of Christ’s finished work once for all completed at the cross and brought into his presence. We have the Holy Spirit who teaches us his word during synagoguing together on Sundays. We are clothed with Jesus Christ. In the old covenant synagogue, when you came into the synagogue, he put a garment upon you, a coat that symbolized the necessity to come before God in righteousness. We don’t issue coats at the front door here, because when we walk into synagogue with God this morning, we walk in clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We make reference to many of these things during our communion service.

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COMMUNION HOMILY

No communion homily recorded.

Q&A SESSION

# Reformation Covenant Church Q&A Session
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri

—

**PASTOR TUURI:**

The synagogue—because what we come forward to hear is completed scripture. They, after all, synagogued together and heard just from a portion of God’s holy word. We synagogue together every Sunday having a completed scripture that God has given to us. And so our synagogue is better than the Old Testament synagogue. So it’s important to recognize that the Old Covenant is a model for the New Covenant worship service and also that the New Covenant worship service is better than the old covenant.

In this regard, it’s also important to notice that both sides are models for the rest of the world. We mentioned that a little bit earlier, but the temple was a model of the entire earth. The law of God was supposed to go forth from the temple. The rivers of clean water, as it were, were to flow out of the temple and fill the entire earth. Now, in Acts 7:49, we have a quotation there from the Psalms where God is saying, “Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will ye build me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?”

Now, he certainly wanted a house built. He certainly wanted the temple or tabernacle constructed. But what he’s saying is recognize that I don’t need that. The entire earth is my temple. The entire earth is my tabernacle. The entire earth is my throne. Don’t think that I’m localized here to a specific little building. That building is supposed to be the embassy from which the understanding of God’s having the whole earth as tabernacle fills the earth.

Psalms 11:4: “The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.” So both old and new covenant worship systems are to be models of the entire world. They’re not to be seen as ingrown or inclusive, but they’re supposed to be seen as a base from which the realization of God’s rule over his people and over all the world goes forth into the whole world.

We talked in the past about the necessity of understanding that the specific elements of worship that God gives us are not indicative that the rest of that time is somehow free from God’s control. What am I trying to say? The tithe we stressed is offering God the firstfruits in recognition that all of our money belongs to him and his purposes. The tithe doesn’t mean that he is 10% and we get 90%.

The tithe means that he is 100%. And by our recognizing that he requires 10% to be given in a formalized worship setting, we acknowledge his control over all the rest. The Levites were given to the nation of Israel to replace the firstborn and so symbolized the firstborn. All offspring coming forth from Israel was signified by the Levites. So although you had a set group of people perhaps around the tenth or twelfth or fifteenth of the congregation of Israel were Levites, yet they symbolize the entire whole of the pie, as it were.

And so it is with Sabbath worship service or Lord’s day worship service. Sabbath worship service or Lord’s day worship service symbolizes the rest of the week. We don’t mean by this that one day out of seven belongs to God and six belongs to us. We say that one day out of seven serves as the model for what we should do with the rest of the day as well. It’s an acknowledgement and a consecration of everything we have to the purposes of God.

Old and new covenant worship services alike were models for the entire world and the necessity to apply those things taught in our worship service throughout the rest of the week as well. What are some of the implications of this first point for us here at Reformation Covenant Church? Well, this is the reason why this combining together of the sacrificial system, the temple system and the instructional system, the synagogue into one service of the new covenant—Hebrews 10, I think, clearly teaches this—is why we have two halves to our worship service here at Reformation Covenant Church.

The first half is more based toward instruction. The second half is more based toward liturgy or to the use of the sacraments. It is wrong, therefore, if you believe that, if you understand what we’re saying by that. And by all, I also want to point out that it doesn’t mean that there’s a strict division between the two. There’s obviously liturgy that goes on during the first half of the worship service. There’s obviously instruction of the word that goes on in the second half of the worship service during communion. But the prior orientation of each half—one is instructional and the other is liturgical or sacramental. One is more geared toward the synagogue, if you will, and the other is more geared toward the temple.

And so they’re two halves of the same worship service. And it’s a teaching device to all of us here to recognize that both halves of that worship service in the Old Testament was commanded by God. And that’s the formative way to approach God in worship. That’s how he commands us to do. Do anything other than that is wrong on the basis of the second commandment. We have to do what God tells us to do in terms of worship, and that’s why we do it that way in this church.

Now that means that both halves of that service are to use the fancy word equally ultimate, okay? God doesn’t say in the old covenant system as the model for us that instruction is more important than liturgy or sacrament. He doesn’t say that sacrament is more important than instruction. He says both these things I’ve commanded you to do—there’s two aspects of the same thing. After all, when you get right down to it, a holy convocation to God means we’re meeting together with God in a special way that day. And both those elements, the temple system, the synagogue system, the sacraments, and the preached word—both of those elements are representational of Jesus Christ, aren’t they?

To put one as primary over the other is to fail to recognize that Jesus Christ has decided to communicate himself in both manners—through instruction and specific instruction and exhortation of the scriptures and through sacrificial or sacramental elements. Both those ways are manifestations of Jesus Christ. And that’s what we come here together for: a clear understanding of the covenant keeper that we have with God and approach to God on the basis of Jesus Christ.

And so it’s wrong to stress one of these aspects over the other aspect. And I know that’s real different in today’s day and age. I don’t want to get into why that is or necessarily, but it is different. I know it’s hard to grasp that and I wanted to at least address that somewhat today by way of application. And we’re going to talk about that more when we talk about the Sabbath several months down the line.

But it’s important to recognize that what we’re trying to do here is we’re trying to develop a system of worship that accurately mirrors what God has commanded us to do, the model he’s given us in the old covenant, and then the implication of that in the new covenant worship service today. We’re convinced that if we do that, number one, we’re obeying God and we’ll be blessed by him. And number two, he does these things for a reason, and we’re going to more accurately understand how he goes about making his kingdom real in the world today.

It’s not simply through instruction. It’s through instruction and obedience. And liturgy, after all, has an element of active obedience that is a more clear example of active obedience immediately than the instruction of the word carries with it. Instruction of the word implies we have responsibility to go out and obey. But when we are obedient to the proper administration of the sacraments, the proper administration of baptism, the proper administration of communion every Sunday at communion time, we’re saying we’re in active obedience to God.

And that is just as important as understanding what we’re doing. Additional application of what we’ve said so far this morning is the liturgical sequence of the old covenant worship service should also serve as a model for the liturgical sequence of the new covenant church. If you look at the various sequence that God had his people go through in the sacrificial system, that also should serve as a model for us today as we synagogue together with God, combining the temple and the synagogue together. And so, for instance, the first offering was a sin offering and that sin offering involves confession of sin. And when we come into God’s presence on Sundays and we come together to worship him and to sing praises to him, we come together with a call to worship by him given first through a reading of the Sabbath and the implications of the Sabbath. And then we come together, we stand for prayer before God and confession of sin.

It’s very important to understand that that is dictated by the order in which God has given us the model of the old covenant worship service. Following that, you had grain and whole burnt offerings, and these relate to dedication of the individual and his works and also dedication of the whole person in terms of the whole burnt offering. And so we have at the conclusion of the preaching of the scriptures we have, as it were, grain and whole burnt offerings. We have a dedication of the people by coming forward and giving forth their tithes and offerings and by implication—we said last week—giving forth of themselves and all that they are and dedication to God.

And I think it’s a great thing that in this church we have decided to do that by each of us getting up and individually walking forward. Now you don’t have to do it that way and I think that, you know, other churches—what they do is they’ll let deacons pass the plate for the offering and the people bring forward, then representationally, the entire people of God as they’re assembled that morning in terms of consecration. But I think that as long as we’re small and manageable, it’s a great thing for each of us to come forward, walk forward every Sunday to bring an offering to God and thereby acknowledge the necessity of consecration in all that we sing and do to him.

And finally, the final offering in the liturgical sequence of the old covenant was the peace offering, which meant it was a meal with God, eating with God, as it were. And so we have our communion service at the close of the second half of the service is oriented toward communion, which culminates in the meal with God, the peace offering that we bring forward to God and we have fellowship with God now and have a meal with him. Jesus said that he would come in and he would eat with us if we would open the door and acknowledge him. And we believe that’s what he does every week here.

So these are just some overviews. We’ll talk about more specifics later on when we study the Sabbath, but these are some overviews of why we do what we do here and why we believe it’s completely in obedience to Hebrews 10, which tells us that we should image the old covenant worship services in the new covenant church.

Second point: On the basis of all that, the implication is that the old covenant believer and his attitude should be a model for our attitude as we come forward into congregation every Sunday, okay? If that’s true that the old covenant worship service is a model for us—and I think that Hebrews 10:25 clearly says it is both in temple and in synagogue—then that means that if we look at the attitude of the believers in the old covenant, the faithful remnant of Israel in the old covenant, we should see that also as a model for our attitude as we approach God on Sundays.

Now obviously, certainly one attitude we should have is one of obedience and we see that in the Old Testament where they obediently went forward to worship God into the holy convocation. But in the old covenant we had more than obedience. Psalm 122: “David says I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, oh Jerusalem.” In the old covenant worship service, the believer was seen to be glad to come into the presence of God. It was not simply an obligation. It was not simply done out of obedience. He was actually glad and rejoicing to come into the presence of God.

In Psalm 42:1-4: “As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, oh God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night. While they continually say to me, ‘Where is thy God?’ When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy day.”

And what he’s saying is: I remember, I can’t do it now. And so he’s like the heart that thirsts after water and pants after water. So he’s like a man now who thirsts after meeting with God in holy convocation. And he remembers that at one time he went up with the crowd gladly and rejoicing to go up into the house of God. That should be our attitude weekly now.

They only were commanded to go up to the actual house of God three times. Although they had holy convocation every Sabbath, there were three times specifically they went up to Jerusalem. And we should now have that privilege of coming forward every Sunday to be called forth by God. And we should come forth gladly and rejoicing, coming as the people of God to worship him.

Psalm 100, which we read during communion: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye land. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.”

Look at the attitude of the person here who’s going to worship with God. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing—singing because of the joy that we have in our hearts that the Holy Spirit has given us to meet with God. Know that God is God. Therefore, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts of praise. Gladness, singing, thanksgiving, and praise—these should be characteristic of our attitude as we meet together for Sunday service.

We shouldn’t come forth grudgingly. And to the extent that we understand the service and bow the knee, as it were, to obeying God, we will come to see more and more. What we do here on Sundays is a delight to us as we continue to delight ourselves in God. We will delight in meeting with him and with his people for convocation as well.

Now you might say another example of this. Last week we talked about the reformation times in the Old Testament. We talked about Hezekiah, talked about Nehemiah, Josiah. Each of those—I didn’t pull out the verses for this morning—but in each of those occurrences, if you read those stories, one of the important elements of reconstruction and reform was reconstructing and reforming their time system and getting the festival system back on track. And in each one of those circumstances, they had a great Passover. And the people came up to the Passover and rejoiced before God. And in every one of those three occurrences, you have specific verses saying that people rejoiced, they were glad, they were singing, they were tremendously encouraged to come back into the presence of God for Passover and to reestablish their time systems based upon his calling for holy convocations with him, meeting with God himself.

So that also should be our attitude as we’re in a period of reconstruction and reform in our land. Nehemiah, at the end of the book of Nehemiah, he says three different times, “Remember me, oh Lord, for the work I’ve done.” And you look at that when you go home today—Nehemiah 13. And those three things that he’s saying—he’s saying that in the context of is one of those things he’s talking about is prohibiting intermarriage with unbelievers, with people outside the covenant community. We talked on that a couple of weeks ago.

The second thing he’s talking about is the reestablishment of the tithe and the correct use of our money for God’s purposes. We talked about that last week. And the third thing is the reestablishment of the Sabbath day worship that was called by God, calling the people into convocation. Those are the three elements to Nehemiah’s reconstruction and reform, all of which indicate the covenantal nature of our reconstruction and reform.

So when we come together for correct Sabbath day worship, we should come together joyfully the way that they did at the time of Nehemiah, recognizing the Sabbath day convocation, convocation in the New Testament on the Lord’s day. We don’t want to get into issues of Sabbath necessarily today. We’ll talk about those later. But convocation in the Lord’s day that Hebrews 10:25 says we must do—that is a basis. One of the central elements of reconstruction and reformation in the land was true in Nehemiah’s time. It’s true in our time. And in fact, it’s truer in our time than it was in Nehemiah’s time. Our attitude should be better than the model we have in the old covenant. And that also is clearly taught in the book of Hebrews.

In Hebrews 11:39-40, we read the following, talking about the great men of the old covenant: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”

What’s he saying? He’s saying that they looked forward to the age of Jesus Christ. They looked forward to the coming of the great Messiah and the great covenant keeper that would put all these things into effect, and they rejoiced looking forward to him. How much greater privilege are we then as we look back on the finished work of Jesus Christ, into the new temple that’s a better temple, into the new synagogue that’s a better synagogue? Our attitude should be even greater and more joyous and more rejoicing than the verses we just read out of the old covenant. If they’re not, then we don’t understand what God is telling us about Sunday worship, or we’re not acting in obedience—probably as elements of both—and certainly there’s room for growth and grace for all of us in that regard.

But that should be a model for us. That should be an encouragement toward us as we come together for Sabbath service. We stand on the other side, as it were, of the coming of Jesus Christ. We stand not on a Sabbath day and yet in the grave as they did from the verse you read this morning. We stand on a Lord’s day in which we’ve seen his resurrection. And so we should be even greater in terms of our rejoicing before God.

I remember when I was at Multnomah, another thing that really struck me was David Needham and his sincerity with which he approached the teaching of many of his tasks. And he talked about how salvation they gave an illustration of salvation as being an invitation from the king, as it were, to have communion with him. And he talked about how if you get an invitation from the President of the United States—let’s say a courier brings you a letter tomorrow, a handwritten invitation to come to have dinner with the President.

Now, maybe some of you are Democrats and would like that. But assume that it’s a President you like—or even some of us Republicans might not be happy with. But anyway, assume we have a good President and he calls you to have dinner with him. I’m sure that any of us would—with the President—actually be more than happy. We’d be thrilled and honored to be invited to have dinner with him. And we wouldn’t ask, as David Needham said, what’s on the menu?

Yeah. We wouldn’t say, well, what’s the food going to be like? And judge our response on the basis of that. The same thing’s true of getting together for Sabbath worship or Lord’s day convocation. God invites us to have dinner with Jesus Christ at communion. He invites us to have Jesus Christ preached to us in the scriptures and he invites us to come forward to worship him. And our attitude first and foremost should be one of great thankfulness and honor to be able to come together to meet with him.

And we shouldn’t be asking what’s on the menu. What kind of songs are we going to sing today?

Now finally, then we must, as we frequently do, acknowledge that this is a covenant reality and that there are covenant blessings and cursings attached to this. And the old covenant here as well in the book of Hebrews points out that the old covenant is a model for the blessings and cursings that come to a people on the basis of their obedience or disobedience to having holy convocation with God.

But here also, we’ll see an intensification. We talked about some of the blessings of reconstruction, reform, the times of Nehemiah and Josiah and Hezekiah. One of the blessings we read about this morning in the Psalms and the responsibility of the Psalms—peace being within Israel. I suppose that it’s unfortunately true that with the anti-war movement, anti-nuclear movement, the peace movement, that a lot of us can sometimes appear as though we’re not in favor of peace.

Well, such is certainly not the case. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and that’s the peace that will one day extend over the entire world. And that peace is a result of covenant keeping with God. And so the peace that we have within us that was referenced this morning in the responsive reading should be one of the great blessings we see coming forth from our convocation with God on Sundays.

There’s a strengthening for ministry that occurs. There’s an encouragement of believers that occurs. And obviously Hebrews talks about that we’re to encourage each other. And by implication that means if you’re not here you’re discouraging somebody. You’re not encouraging somebody in faithfulness. You’re encouraging them to slothfulness instead.

Now it’s interesting. We’ve talked a lot—and many people talk about—the fact that communion service is the New Testament equivalent of Passover. And we’ve talked about how it’s the New Testament equivalent of all the Old Testament food and drink. But certainly Passover is the primary model in terms of the Old Covenant worship system for communion. But you know, if you’re going to draw that analogy, you better carry it through. You better look at the penalties attached for lack of Passover observance in the Old Covenant.

In Numbers 9, God is speaking to Moses, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord, the 14th day, the second month. And even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any bone of it, according to all the ordinances of the Passover, they shall keep it. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season.”

What he’s saying here is that the penalty for not keeping the Passover with God, for not coming up to the Passover if you were clean and if you weren’t providentially hindered—the way the first couple of verses talk about—was to be cut off from the people of God.

Now, I’m not drawing a strict analogy between that and the New Testament penalties for lack of Sabbathkeeping or of Lord’s Day worship keeping (if you want to avoid the term “Sabbath” for now). But I am saying that if we’re going to draw analogies between Passover and communion, we had better think about the consequences of not keeping Passover and better reflect on the consequences of that in terms of our keeping of the communion service.

And it’s interesting, too—as we said—we had reference to that: there is provision here for those people that can’t keep Passover at the selected time that God had told them to. And I think that, by the way, is the basis for modern day provision that should be made by the church for those who can’t keep Sunday, Sunday worship, alternate Sabbath. But in any event, in terms of blessings and cursings, you got to look at some of the cursings of God for lack of keeping the worship forms that he established in the old covenant.

And they were heavy penalties. And the same thing is pointed out in the passage we’re looking at this morning in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10:25 is the context of verses 26 and 27, which say that if we sin willfully after that we’ve received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

What he’s saying here: if we sin willfully, and the context is that he is telling the Hebrews to not forsake their synagoguing together. Don’t stop coming to church is what he’s telling. If you do, if you sin willfully, what does he say? Well, the consequences of that are a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

Now I think this points out two things. One: the general apostasy is frequently traced to a forsaking of the assembly, okay? If people stop coming to church, it usually leads toward an apostasy from the faith altogether. And two: that it is an important thing to come to church. It’s a heavy penalty that God places upon us in the book of Hebrews.

What we see is an intensification in the new covenant blessings and cursings in relationship to the old covenant models. Just as we saw it in terms of the temple and the synagogue, just as we saw it in terms of the attitudes that we have as we come forward to worship, so we see it in the results of whether or not we obey or disobey—an intensification of blessings and cursings.

And that is also clearly pointed out in the book of Hebrews. We’ve talked before about this. We didn’t read the passage, but this passage goes on to talk about the fact that he that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. How much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace?

He’s saying that if those who disobeyed Moses’ law—and the context is in terms of convocation before him for special days of worship. If they disobeyed Moses’ law and died with two or three witnesses—of how much sorer punishment are we today? We stand in a position of greater blessing because we stand on this side of the cross of Jesus Christ and the coming of the covenant keeper. But that means that our responsibility is greater and the judgment of God upon us for failure to act in obedience to the responsibility—failure to come and communicate with him lawfully, joyously before him.

And as a result, the failure to recognize the necessity of doing that throughout the week—those things will get even sorer punishment than the old covenant violation of old covenant worship forms. The blessings and cursings, Hebrews tells us quite clearly, are intensified. After all, we’re told that we don’t come unto the mountain that was a fearful mountain, but we come unto Zion itself. He tells us that in Hebrews 12.

He goes on to talk about the sound of a trumpet. They couldn’t endure the sight that was commanded, that not even a beast could touch the mountain, lest it be stoned or thrust through with a dart. So terrible is the sight that Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake.” But ye are coming to Zion and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

He’s saying that—if he goes on to tell you—what he’s saying: see that you refuse not him that speaketh, for they escape not who refused him that spake on earth. Much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. And saying the same thing: the blessings and cursings are intensified in the new covenant. And therefore, the responsibilities are also intensified to convocate together.

We’re invited today and we will be invited next Sunday to have convocation with God.

Now finally, in Matthew 22, we hear of a parable there about a man who’s calling people to a marriage feast. And after all, that’s what we’re talking about in terms of new covenant convocation—the marriage feast of the Lamb. And so this parable is more than applicable to what we’re going to talk about here. In Matthew 22:4-7, again, he sent forth another servant, saying, “All them which are bidden, behold, I prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage.” But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants, and intreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

We’re invited by God to a marriage feast every Sunday. We’re invited to come and meet with him and meet with Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to have convocation with him and with fellow members of his kingdom. And if we treat that invitation lightly, if we instead let our worldly employments—farming in the one case, merchandise in the other—keep us from assembling together, coming to the marriage feast of the king, he’ll treat us very badly.

He’ll treat us with what we are due for that kind of insolence paid to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has, after all, prepared a great feast for us here. We, as I said before, walk into this synagogue clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We hear from the scriptures that the power of the Holy Spirit is teaching us these things. And he has made entrance through Christ’s very body, the veil, into the temple for us when we get together on Sunday worship.

And he’s made that entrance through Christ’s body and through his blood and through the great sacrifice of his only Son to provide that entrance for us into worship with him on Sunday. And if we don’t do that, if we tell him it’s no big deal if I come to church or not, that’s what we’re doing: we’re saying just as these people were, we don’t particularly care about it. And he will treat us the same way he treated them—he will treat us with cursings and with damnation.

But if we understand the nature of that call and understand that we are invited to a feast in a time of great rejoicing before him—and not a dour contemplation of the things of his requirements upon us, but a joyful remembering of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the ramifications for all our week—then we come forward to blessing and God will bless us as we go forth into the world, taking the model that we learned about during Sunday’s service in terms of confession of sin, the call by God, the election of his, the provision for his sanctification in him, peace with him.

We take that model into the rest of the world and with tremendous blessings as God blesses us as we flow forth from here and in flowing forth teach also all the world around us in our communities and our homes. We will experience tremendous blessings from him and not the cursings that are due upon those who despise his invitations.

That should be our model as we come together every Sunday. We should understand that we have a better temple, a better synagogue, better blessings and therefore greater responsibilities to come into convocation with him, and as a result greater blessings and curses as well.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for yourself. We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for his blood and the forgiveness of sins offered through that blood. Almighty God, help us not to treat that blood as a light thing, to despise it by not coming together to worship you. Help us to realize that you shed that blood that we might come forward.

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*[Transcript ends]*

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