The Duty of Attending Worship

A Sermon by Thomas Boston

Acts 10:33. Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

Attending public worship is one of the special means whereby Christ communicates the benefits of redemption to us. So I have chosen this text in order to enforce further upon you the duty of diligent attendance on them. The Lord Jesus, the only King and Head of His Church, has appointed ministers to be His ambassadors to declare His mind to His people. Though He could teach His people without them, yet the ministry is His ordinance and, by the foolishness of preaching, He saves them that believe. Here we have:

1. A call to Peter. The person calling is Cornelius, a soldier. He was a Gentile, yet a proselyte: a good man, but one who as yet did not know the doctrine of Christ crucified. The person called was Peter; God honoured him to break the ice for the calling of the Gentiles, and to take down the first stone in the partition wall between Jews and Gentiles. The call itself is in these words, “I sent”. He had sent three men to invite Peter to his house. The reason of the call is thus expressed: “Therefore” – because he had the command of God to that effect. He needed urgency in the call; it was done immediately after the mind of God was revealed to him.

2. Peter’s compliance with the call: “Thou hast well done that thou art come”. It is acceptable to God and to us. Peter had no great inclination to this work; he had his scruples about the lawfulness of it, but God condescends to solve his doubts and to clear his way. It was very offensive to the Christian Jews, which made it necessary for him to explain what he did (Acts 11). After all, it was well done for him to come, because he came in obedience to the call of God.

3. An address made to Peter when he had come, by Cornelius, who had called, in the name of himself and those who were with him.

Note (1.) The congregation, though small, were well convened. For what the congregation was, see verse 24: “his kinsmen and near friends”. These, with his family and those who came with Peter, made up the assembly. The good man made it his business to get not only his own family, but his friends, to attend the worship. (2.) An acknowledgment of God’s presence in a special manner in religious assemblies: “We [are] all here present before God”. (3.) The great end of their meeting was their soul’s edification: to hear – that is, to hear and obey. And here is what the minister is to preach and the people

¹A sermon taken with editing from Boston’s Works, vol 2.

to receive; it is what God has commanded. The minister has a commission from God, and he must preach, not what men would have him to preach, but what God commands; and the people are to receive nothing that is beyond his commission. The extent of both is all things the minister is to preach, and the people are to receive – all things commanded by God.

Observations: (1.) When God reveals His mind in any particular matter, to one or more people, it is their duty to comply with it without delay. There ought to be no disputing after the revelation of the Lord’s mind (Gal 1:15-17). The contrary was the fault of Baalim, and of the Jews in Egypt (Jer 44).

(2.) It is a blessed thing for a people to call that minister whom God Himself directs and inclines them to. It is like Cornelius, who did not so much as know Peter by name (Acts 10:5,7), but he goes to God, and God directs him.

(3.) It is commendable in a minister of Christ to comply with the call of God and His people, though it should offend some and not be very agreeable to his own inclinations. Ministers are to go, not where they wish, and others would wish them, but where God directs. Levi was commended for his obedience: “Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed Thy word, and kept Thy covenant” (Deut 33:9).

The doctrine arising from the text is: It is the duty of a people to attend on public worship, to be all present there before God, where pure worship is set up among them, to hear all things God has commanded the minister whom He has sent to them.

In speaking from this doctrine, I shall (1.) Give reasons why people should attend public worship, when God has set that up among them. (2.) Show in what respects people are before the Lord in public worship. (3.) Consider the disposition of soul wherewith people should come to public worship. (4.) Make some practical application.

1. Reasons why people should attend public worship, when God has set it up among them.

(1.) Because God has commanded it (Heb 10:25). The Lord calls His people to be present there, wherever it is. Thus there was the tabernacle of the congregation in the wilderness, where the people resorted for public worship; and afterwards the temple. And normally the synagogues under the Old Testament were the places of public worship, the ruin of which the Church complains of (Ps 74:8). It was the practice of Christ Himself to attend these places, as we find in Luke 4:16. He sends ministers to preach and therefore commands people to hear.

(2.) Because the public assemblies are for the honour of Christ in the world. They are the places where His honour dwells, where His people meet

together to profess their subjection to His laws, to receive His orders, to seek His help to pay Him the tribute of praise, the calves of their lips. And as all are obliged to do these things, all are obliged to be present and listen and cast their mite into this treasury. And therefore the people of God look on Christ’s standard in the world as fallen, when these assemblies are gone, as Elijah did (1 Ki 19:10).

(3.) Because these assemblies are the ordinary place where Christ makes His conquest of souls (Rom 10:14). The gospel is Christ’s net wherein souls are caught. It is always good to be in Christ’s way. Who knows when that good word may come that may take hold of a man’s heart and make him Christ’s prisoner, bound with the cords of love? A great number were caught at the first sermon preached after Christ’s ascension, and they cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). So Lydia’s heart was opened when she was hearing the Apostle Paul (Acts 16:14). The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Blessed are they that get the deepest wounds in this field. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:4,5).

(4.) Because they are Christ’s places for meeting with His people, the galleries wherein our Lord walks (Ex 20:24); the mountains of myrrh, where He will be till the day breaks. Those that desire communion with God should seek Him there and wait on Him where He has promised to be found. What a disadvantage Thomas had by His absence from a meeting between Christ and the rest of the disciples!

(5.) Because Christ delights to meet His people there; for public worship is heaven on earth. Christ delights to be there with His people. “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob” (Ps 87:2). “With desire”, said the Lord, “I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15). And they delight to be there with Him and for Him. How passionately does David desire public worship! “How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God” (Ps 84:1,2). “I had rather”, says he, “be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness”. And again, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Ps 27:4). What good news was it to him to hear of an opportunity of waiting on God there! “I was glad”, says he, “when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps 122:1).

(6.) Because the needs of all who desire heaven require it. Had public worship not been necessary, God would never have appointed it. Surely it is most necessary for those who least see their need of it. Those are the blind souls that need to come to the market of free grace for the eyesalve that opens the eyes of those that do not see. Do not Christ’s soldiers need public worship to clear their rusty armour? Do not dead souls need public worship to quicken them? And sleepy souls, to awaken them? It is a pool where those on the way to Zion have much need to stop and quench their thirst, in their weary journey.

Surely due consideration of these things may engage us all to make conscience of being present at public worship, as God gives opportunity.

2. How are people before the Lord at public worship? The Lord is present everywhere; we can be nowhere but He is there (Ps 139:7). But we are before Him in a special manner at public worship. He holds the stars in His right hand and walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. The Lord has a special concern there; the main part of His activity on earth lies there; and must He not be about His Father’s business? This consideration should engage us to be at public worship. Satan will always be there; where Christ has a church, the devil will try to have one too. The fowls will be where there is seed being sown. Now Christ is in the assemblies of His people:

(1.) Representatively. He has His agents there, His ministers, who are the Lord’s proxies to court a wife for their Master’s Son (2 Cor 11:2), His ambassadors to negotiate a peace between God and sinners (2 Cor 5:20, Mat 10:40). Christ’s ministers are like John the Baptist; He was no more than “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”. The Speaker is in heaven. Hence the Lord is said to speak in or by the prophets. It is the Lord’s goodness that the treasure is lodged in earthen, not in heavenly, vessels – lest their splendour should darken His glory in men’s eyes and so dazzle their eyes. And for those who are now glorified, God “holdeth back the face of His throne, and spreadeth His cloud upon it” (Job 26:9).

(2.) Effectively. His power is there; His works are there. “For that Thy name is near”, says the Psalmist, “Thy wondrous works declare” (Ps 75:1). The Word of the Lord is a powerful word. The ministers of Christ do not drive an empty chariot. Christ is addressed: “In Thy majesty ride prosperously” (Ps 45:4). Christ is there giving life to some, strength to others, and death’s wounds to others (Mic 2:7, Ps 45:7, Hos 6:5). The Lord’s Word does not return empty; it always does something. Preaching will always either harden or soften you; it will drive you a step nearer heaven or hell.

We are always before Him in His ordinances:

(1.) As our witness. They need to act warily that have many eyes on them.

While we are at public worship, men’s eyes and the devils’ eyes are on us; but what should affect us most is that God’s eye is on us in a special manner, noticing how we behave, with what tenderness we handle holy things. And though our outward behaviour is never so promising, God is witness to our heart-wanderings (Ezek 33:31).

(2.) As our Judge. God has a tribunal as well as a throne in public worship, to reward or punish those who worship Him – according to their works. This has made the blood of some to be mingled with their sacrifices, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10:3). God is jealous of His honour. A curious look into the ark cost the Bethshemites dear, and a wrong touch of it cost Uzzah his life. And we should make the same use of what David said, “Sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel, unto the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought Him not after the due order” (1 Chr 15:12,13). It is true that the gospel dispensation is more spiritual; therefore spiritual plagues are more usual now, but public worship cures the worst of plagues.

(3.) As our Lawgiver (Is 33:22). We are His creatures, and therefore His will must be our law. We are His on many accounts; we know not our duty. He has set up the ministry in His Church to declare to people what is their duty (Mal 2:7). But many, by despising the messengers of the Lord and their message, say, “Who is lord over us?” (Ps 12:4). But God will be lord over such people in spite of their hearts: “I will be thy King” (Hos 13:10). But the heralds must proclaim the subjects’ duty, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

(4.) As the Lord and Master of the family, who has provided liberally for all of His house. Ministers are the stewards of the house, but He is the Master; He has made the provision in the gospel (Is 25:6). He sends out His servants, saying, “Come, eat of My bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled (Prov 9:5). Look then how obedient children will stand and wait for the supply of their needs from an affectionate parent; so ought God’s children to wait in public worship for the supply of their spiritual needs from their heavenly Father.

(5.) It should strike us with reverence that “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him” (Ps 89:7). “O come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Ps 95:6).

3. How people should come to public worship – with a spirit ready to hear all things commanded to ministers of God. It implies the following:

(1.) Ministers are only to preach the mind and will of God. Lawyers must

not speak without the authority of the law, and ministers must not speak without a “Thus saith the Lord”; otherwise they go beyond their commission. The Scriptures contain what we are to believe and practise. To coin new articles of faith is the work of Antichrist, not of the ministers of Christ. To impose and teach significant rites and ceremonies in the worship of God, is a piece of Romanist dregs in the Church of England, concerning which our Lord says, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mat 15:9).

(2.) It is the duty of ministers to labour to know the mind of God on the particular messages they are to bring to their people. They are not to preach on whatever truths they can spend a half-hour on. A word in season is very precious (Prov 15:23). And ministers need the tongue of the learned.

(3.) Whatever message the Lord gives them, they are to deliver it all impartially. It was Paul’s comfort that he had done so (Acts 20:20). “I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you”, he tells the elders of Ephesus.

(4.) People ought to receive these messages from ministers as from the Lord and comply with them. The hearing pointed at in the text is not bare hearing, but hearing with obedience.

Now such hearing of the Word has these properties:

(1.) Reverently. God speaks through ministers; seeing God speaks, we must hear reverentially (Ps 89:7).

(2.) Diligently and attentively. “Hearken diligently unto Me” (Is 55:2), says the Lord. God sends no message to us unless it is very important for us to hear it; He does not take up our time with trifles; and when God speaks, we should be attentive.

(3.) Understandingly, so that we may know the mind of God in what is preached (Mat 13:11). We must endeavour to see heavenly things in their divine lustre, and to understand the things as well as the words. We should look into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein, being not forgetful hearers, but doers of the word. Were this the way of hearing, ministers would get more soul-difficulties to resolve than they do.

(4.) Believingly (Jn 9:27). He that hears as out of the mouth of God must believe what is said. If the Word is not believed, it is all one as if it were not heard (Heb 4:2). The soul rightly disposed to hear, is ready to yield itself captive to divine revelation, and to receive the kingdom of God as a little child, with application. The Lord’s word is compared to rain (Amos 7:16); and the soul should be as the dry and gaping ground, ready to drink it in (Ps 143:6); though most are like the rock, upon which the rain makes no impression. Ministers make the plaster, but faith of application makes it stick.

(5.) Ready to practise what we hear. Even if the ear hears, it is not accep-

table to God if the feet are not set on God’s way (Jas 1:22). The hearing that fills the head with knowledge, but not the heart with holiness, will serve only to let people see the way to hell more clearly.

4. Application [1.] Reproof.

(1.) It reproveth those who will not come to hear what God commands us. A very small matter will prevail with many to sit at home and loiter away the Lord’s day. While ministers are at pains to seek something that might edify their people’s souls, they will not take pains to hear. What contempt is poured on the gospel today by the pride of some and the laziness of others!

Whatever temptations anyone may have, I advise them, when they meet anything that may seem to hinder them from public worship, to weigh the matter before the Lord and see if it will bear weight there. If it does, they may look to God to make up their loss; if not, they cannot. For it is a most deceitful principle of some that they can spend the Sabbath Day as well at home as in church. It reflects on the wisdom of God in appointing public worship, and is most unlike the practice of the saints, to whom it was a great burden to be deprived of public worship. As for those who separate from our communion, I wish they would consider that Christ keeps communion with us, as many of the children of God can testify; and then say, “We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you” (Zec 8:23).

(2.) It reproveth those who come to public worship but do not hear the Word as becomes those who are to hear what God commands. Such are:

[1] Irreverent hearers. Many behave as makes it appear there is no fear of God before their eyes. Some are sleeping, others gazing hither and thither, altogether careless and inattentive, to whom the Word is as the seed picked up at once by the fowls. Their bodies are present, but their hearts are not; they have eyes but see not; they have ears but hear not.

[2] Hearers who act as judges of the Word, and not as they that are to be judged by it. Such people will be ready to commend the preacher, not to loathe themselves; or else to reproach the preacher and try to expose him: like the riddle that lets through the good grain, and keeps the chaff; or like flies that fasten on festering sores.

[3] Ignorant hearers, who hear the Word, but neither know nor endeavour to know God’s mind in it. A good voice and good words please them. They are not concerned to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

[4] Unbelieving hearers (Is 53:1). Unbelief is a defence against the power of the Word (Mat 13:58); an unbelieving heart is a proud heart, ready to oppose the Word, like Ahab. And if the Word hit them, their passion rises, and they say that the minister meant them and wanted to expose them, and so they are filled with prejudice.

[5] Such as make no application of the Word to themselves, but are ready to give it away to others. It is the weakness of godly souls, sometimes to give ear to nothing but what may tend to their discouragement; and it is the breaking of the necks of others to turn away threats from themselves.

(3.) It reproves those who do not set themselves to hear what God commands ministers to preach but will command ministers to preach otherwise. Thus bands have been laid on the gospel in our land in the recent persecuting times (most of the period from 1660 to 1688), when the exercise of the ministry was allowed by the magistrate with limitations, which could neither be imposed nor accepted without sin. As little power have the people to limit what we should preach, or give orders concerning it; but every faithful minister will say as Micaiah: “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak” (1 Ki 22:14).

Application [2.] Exhortation. Attend public worship and come with a purpose to hear reverently, diligently, attentively, understandingly, believably what God commands us and so practise it. We desire you to take nothing as a matter of faith on our authority, but to do as the Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). I offer the following motives to press this exhortation:

(1.) Consider how the Word came to the world. It was by the Mediator, (Jn 1:18). When Adam fell, death stared him in the face, and he ran away from God, till the word of reconciliation came forth (Gen 3:15); which disappointed the expectation of devils, surprised angels, and revived the self-murdering creature.

(2.) Consider it is the Word of life (Deut 32:46,47). Nothing so nearly concerns us as this. If you do not prize the Word, and obey what God commands us, there can be no comfort on a deathbed. The Word will make us table complaints against you before the Lord; and we will have a sad meeting at the great day. But if you will hear, you will be our joy and crown; your souls shall be saved in the day of the Lord, and we will bless the day that ever we met. Come to public worship with a keen appetite after the bread of life and pray for us that the Lord may deal kindly with us and furnish us with proper nourishment for your souls.

You may well call your state in question if you say you have grace enough or are good enough, or if you slacken your endeavours to get more grace upon a conceit that you need no more. It is as natural for a living saint to call for grace as for a living child to cry for food. Insatiable desire after grace is a clear test of the reality of grace.

Nothing so fills the soul as grace, and nothing makes the soul so hungry for more grace as a principle of grace.

Oliver Heywood

David Brainerd¹

4. From Kaunaumeek to the Forks of Delaware

Thomas Watson