The Evening Worship Service
Lawrence Eyres
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 6, no. 4 (October 1997)
“[God] hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him: which, ... from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as a Christian Sabbath” (Westminster Confession of Faith XXI, vii).
“The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy” (Shorter Catechism 60, emphasis added).
“The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families and their superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but see to it that it is to be observed by all under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own” (Larger Catechism 118, emphasis added).
These quotations are an integral part of the Secondary Standards of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church; and as such, all her ministers, elders and deacons have solemnly affirmed on oath that they “sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in Holy Scripture” (Form of Government XXI, 13-c [2]). Admittedly, there is and has been, since the founding of the OPC, wide variation in the degree of rigor with which the ordained servants of our church have lived up to the strictures of these quotations from our Secondary Standards. For example, J. Gresham Machen and John Murray differed in their conscience-directed practices in this regard. But lately I’ve become concerned because many churches under identical confessional standards have abandoned the evening worship service altogether. (I am not aware of any OPC churches having done so.) Some have substituted small group meetings for corporate evening worship. I personally have some problems with this, but if all members of the congregation are free to be involved, this substitution may fulfil the requirement of our standards. But in any case, it is my conviction that the abandonment of regular, corporate congregational worship on the evening of the Lord’s Day is a recipe for disaster.
One family, which had belonged to the church I served, was transferred to a city where there was no Orthodox Presbyterian Church. So they joined a church of a sister presbyterian denomination. The husband and father even served as an elder for some years in that congregation. But then the session decided to abandon the evening worship service because it was so poorly attended that they judged it impractical to continue. This family greatly missed the evening service. And, after a time, they sought out other churches with evening services to visit. But their children resisted—they had already become used to the new “freedom.” Presumably this family attended evening services anyway, but the effect of their own church’s decision had already made these children feel that it was a wearisome duty instead of a blessed privilege to attend God’s house at the end of a Lord’s Day. True, it is still possible to worship as families in our homes on Sunday evening, and we should if an assembly of the larger Christian family is unavailable. But this is far from the biblical ideal (Hebrews 10:25). An obvious advantage of evening congregational worship is found in the fact that it is much easier to keep the whole day sacred if it is begun and ended with corporate worship. I’ve often used this (now old fashioned) illustration: A clothesline must have two posts. Otherwise, the clean clothes will fall to the ground and be soiled. Even when there are two posts, if one of them is weak it is apt to give way under pressure of the weight and fall with disasterous results. Not being dispensationalists, we Reformed Christians must take seriously the teaching which is found in Isaiah 58:13 and 14. We are not to “do [our] own ways, nor find [our] own pleasure, nor speak [our] own words” on the Lord’s day. Rather we are to “call the Sabbath a delight, [and call] the holy day of the Lord honorable.” True, this goes against our modern “need” to fill empty time with easy entertainment and fun things—all available at the push of the “power” button on the remote. But God’s Word is not idle advice, and obedience to it carries the sure promise of blessing: “Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth [i.e. to rise above the nagging troubles of our workaday world], and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father [enjoy the blessings of the covenant]. The mouth of the Lord has spoken! “
But, for those ordained office bearers in churches under the Westminster Standards, the importance of retaining the evening worship service—even though it is an uphill battle in this pleasure-mad age—is that we have “adopted” the Puritan doctrine of the Christian Sabbath. And it is not an incidental figment of the culture out of which it emerged. “There is a sabbatismos [keeping of the sabbath rest] for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). It is a creation ordinance (Genesis 2:2,3 and Exodus 20:11). It is also an integral part of our redemption (Deuteronomy 5:l5. See also the typology of the sabbatical system—of the sabbatical year, and the fiftieth year of “Jubilee” in Leviticus 25). And Hebrews 4 shows us how this comes to its glorious climax in the work of Christ: “For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God” (vss, 8 and 9). Quite obviously, that which remains is our Eternal Sabbath. But that is not only “then,” when the church enters her consummate state, but it is NOW as well, for verse ll adds, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience”! Certainly, none of the perfected saints will be able to fall into disobedience when the day of final consummation arrives! So it is clear that the sabbath principle is in effect all the way from the first creation until the completion of the new creation!
Finally, the abandonment of Sunday evening worship sends the wrong message both to the world and to the people of God: “From dawn till noon on the Lord’s day, attend to the things of God. Thereafter, do as you would do on any other day of the week.” There are those who sincerely agree with that advice, though I am persuaded it is sadly mistaken and misguided. But we are committed to keeping the whole day as “set apart” even from things that are legitimate on the other six days. Sure, it’s an uphill battle in these permissive times. Yes, many of our people are careless—almost to the point of causing despair on the part of their ordained rulers. But I believe that if—to begin with—there are only a few of the faithful who seem to want that blessing, we must be there to join with them in seeking the face of our God so that He may revive us in the midst of these years of spiritual drought, and “in wrath, remember mercy.”
Rev. Lawrence Eyres, who is now retired for the third or fourth time, has spent his entire ministerial career in the service of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We are thankful to the Lord that he is still active in his Master’s work.