Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Equipping preachers, pastors, & churchmen for Christ's Kingdom

GPTS PrayerPoints 17(1) – June 2020

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Our June 2020 PrayerPoints dispatch is now available in printable-PDF format here.

This document is designed to be a resource to you and your church (for prayer meetings and congregational distribution). Thank you for praying for the Seminary community.

In this edition, we pray for:

  • wisdom, sober-mindedness, and protection as we prepare for the fall semester, particularly in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis.
  • Dr. Pipa as he relinquishes the Presidency to Dr. Master and steps into his role as President Emeritus and full-time Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology.
  • Our spring campaign, which ends with our fiscal year on June 30 (to give online, visit gpts.edu/donate).

Thank you for praying with and for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Please stay connected (via this website and our various social media platforms) for updates. Thank you.

For information about our summer classes, be sure to visit gpts.edu/summer and gpts.edu/preaching.

Spring 2020 Board Resolution Honoring Dr. Pipa

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The Board of Trustees of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary adopted the following resolution honoring Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr. for his many years of leadership and service as President of the Seminary. Please note that though Dr. Pipa is retiring from the President’s Office, he has but only moved across the hall to a new office in which he will continue to serve the Seminary in a full-time capacity as Professor of Systematic & Applied Theology and President Emeritus.

A Resolution of the Board of Trustees of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on the Retirement of its President, Joseph A. Pipa, Jr.

ON THE RETIREMENT OF ITS PRESIDENT, JOSEPH A. PIPA, JR.

BE IT KNOWN TO ALL THAT—

WHEREAS, the Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr.—who was inaugurated as the first President of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on January 1, 1998, and who, during his subsequent tenure displayed singular devotion to the preparation of godly men for gospel ministry—is planning to retire from that post on June 30, 2020, and take up the work of President Emeritus, while continuing to serve as Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology; and

WHEREAS, as President, Dr. Pipa has faithfully and passionately stood for the defense of the system of doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures known as the Reformed Faith, and has pressed on, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to have these life-giving and life-sustaining doctrines of Christ proclaimed courageously to the ends of the earth; and

WHEREAS, as a pastor and preacher, Dr. Pipa has demonstrated and modeled the power of the Word to transform individuals, families, communities, and churches, employing the best use of an extemporaneous style of preaching that was both experimental in content and readily applicable to whatever circumstances his Lord placed him; and

WHEREAS, as a loving man of God, Dr. Pipa has guided many men and women to a saving relationship with our King, Mediator, and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, promoting the diligent use of the ordinary means of grace—the Word, sacraments, and prayer—whereby Christ communicates to His church the benefits of His mediation; and

WHEREAS, as a seminary professor, Dr. Pipa exhibited the best of the old Puritan brotherhood in his collegiality, in his congeniality, and in his mutual support of his co-laborers in Christ, which manifested itself in his humility, his readiness to listen, and his yearning to bring his own life into ever-increasing conformity to Christ; and

WHEREAS, as a mentor to generations of younger men in various stages of preparing for the gospel ministry, Dr. Pipa expressed genuine concern for how those under his care were prospering in Christ, keen to share their burdens and delights in the Lord; and

WHEREAS, as a life-long student of the Word himself, Dr. Pipa has proven to be a diligent and faithful exegete of the Holy Scriptures in both his teaching and in his writings, and has set a godly and faithful example for those who will follow in his footsteps in the years to come; and

WHEREAS, as an untiring emissary and spokesman for the Seminary in congregations, presbyteries, major assemblies, councils, and other organizations, Dr. Pipa has actively promoted the Seminary as a valuable resource for providing God-centered, Christ-exalting, biblically faithful theological education in our day; and

WHEREAS, as an administrator and educator, Dr. Pipa has capably guided and directed this Board, the faculty, the staff, and the scores of students who, in the academy model, have made the Seminary their home for their theological education; and

WHEREAS, as a husband and Christ’s under-shepherd, Dr. Pipa set a godly example before the many young men at the Seminary in loving and caring for his dear wife Sissy—who was one with him in his labors—as Christ loved the church, and in managing his own household well, especially in extending a kind and generous hospitality to scores of seminarians (and their wives) and visitors over the years; and

WHEREAS, as an author and writer, Dr. Pipa has used his manifold gifts to lay out the riches of the Word of God, including the necessity of the Lord’s Day in all of life for all of mankind; and

WHEREAS, as a national leader among confessional Presbyterians, Dr. Pipa has boldly and publicly stood for the system of doctrine that is at the core of the ministry and work of the Seminary; and

WHEREAS, during the twenty-two years of his presidency, Dr. Pipa led the Seminary through the purchase of the Old Taylors High School in 2003 to be the new campus for the Seminary, the raising of the funds to renovate the building, the actual renovations themselves beginning in 2007, and the moving and dedication in 2008—and, by God’s grace, just this past year, the retirement in full of the mortgage on the Seminary’s facility.

NOW, THEREFORE, we the members of the Board of Trustees of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary do hereby resolve to express our thanks and praise to Almighty God for the gift of the Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr., over his more than twenty-two years of extraordinary dedication and service to the Seminary, its Board of Trustees, its faculty, its staff, and the members of its current and former student body—and to our glorious Savior, who has sovereignly employed His willing servant to such singular effect for the good of His kingdom; and further, we do hereby name and designate the Seminary’s facility at 200 E. Main Street, Taylors, South Carolina, to be henceforth known as “Pipa Hall.”

SO RESOLVED by the Board of Trustees this 22nd day of May, 2020, at Pipa Hall, Taylors, South Carolina.

GREENVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

C. FREDERIC MARCINAK, Chairman

MARK T. BUBE, Secretary

2020 Spring Theology Conference Video and Audio Recordings Now Available Online

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All video and audio recordings of the messages delivered at our 2020 Spring Theology Conference (The Church: Mother of God’s Children) are now available on YouTube and SermonAudio.

Tune in to hear and learn from C.N. Willborn (GPTS, Covenant Presbyterian Church), Joseph A. Pipa Jr. (GPTS), Breno E Roberta Macedo (GPTS, Messiah’s Independent Reformed Church), Ian Hamilton (GPTS, Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Banner of Truth, EPCEW), Peter Van Doodewaard (Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church), Guy Prentiss Waters (Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson), A. Craig Troxel (Westminster Seminary California), and L. Anthony Curto (GPTS, OPC Foreign Missions).

GPTS PrayerPoints 16(1) – April 2020

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Our April 2020 PrayerPoints dispatch is now available in printable-PDF format here.

This document is designed to be a resource to you and your church (for prayer meetings and congregational distribution). We hope that it will be an encouragement to your church family as we all make adjustments in light of the current COVID-19 (novel Coronavirus) pandemic.

In this edition, we pray for:

  • contentment and rightly ordered desire for the Triune God and His presence, even as we all long to be reunited in person with each other. May our delight be in the Lord our God.
  • the ongoing (and intensifying) labors of our admissions team. Our admissions counselors are in touch with over 175 prospective students. Ten prospective students and their families attended last month’s GPTS EXPLORE prospective student open-house, and eighteen prospective students have begun the application process for the fall semester (ten have been accepted, to-date). Right now is “prime time” for our admissions department.

Thank you for praying with and for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Please stay connected (via this website and our various social media platforms) for updates and calls for concerted prayer and fasting. Thank you.

The Dove Mourns: Lamenting Our Sin

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The following piece is by Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr., President and Professor of Systematic & Homiletical Theology. For a printer-friendly version, click here.

We all have heard the plaintive cry of a dove. In fact, it is called the mourning dove because of its low, mournful cry. In the Bible, the metaphor of a dove is used in many ways. Most significantly, it represents the Holy Spirit. But in several places in Scripture the dove is a figure of mourning. Hezekiah moaned like a dove when he considered his premature death without having produced an heir to the Davidic throne (Isa. 38:14). Isaiah used the figure of a mourning dove as he grieved over both the sin of the people and approaching judgment (Isa. 59:11). Ezekiel used the dove to describe the remnant entering exile as mourning over their sins (Ezek. 7:16).

Over the last couple of weeks, I have produced brief essays as public reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant difficulties. As I have considered the work of God in the pandemic and our responses, I drew from Amos 3 in relating God to the roaring lion, and I offered some appropriate responses. Next, I cited Psalm 42 and focused on a renewed desire for public worship, describing the Christian as a deer panting. In this article, I want to focus on the dove mourning as a mirror of our sorrow for and confession of sin.

In these days of isolation, uncertainty, and physical deprivation, we are grieving over many things: loneliness, loss of work and income, suffering from the virus, and the death of loved ones. We, however, above all should grieve over our sins. Let the mourning dove call us to grieve for and repent of our sins.

To aid in this exercise, I direct your attention to the Westminster Larger Catechism question and answer 76:

“What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God, whereby, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for and hates his sins, as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.

True repentance grows in the soil of grief and hatred of sin. None of us grieves over sin as he ought or desires. We learn from the Larger Catechism (and the Scripture from which it is composed) that spiritual mourning is the product of God’s grace: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God.” Part of the Spirit’s work in sanctification is to increase our sorrow for sin. He will convict us of sin and create in us a godly sorrow. Aware of our cold hearts, we should plead with God by his Spirit to work this spiritual emotion in us. He will do so, because Christ has purchased the grace of godly sorrow for us.

The more sensitive we are to God’s holiness and our sin, the more we will mourn over sin.  The Savior taught in Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Luke records the Lord’s expansion of His teaching in Luke 6:21, 25, “Blessed are you who weep now: for you shall laugh…. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep”.  This mourning over sin is the beginning of repentance. The proud person glosses over sin; but the humble person mourns his sin.

The Savior uses hyperbole to highlight that the world seeks to alleviate its conscience through amusements and the pursuit of pleasure. He warns that if we seek to gloss over our sin or numb ourselves to its reality, we might laugh now, but we will mourn for eternity.  

On the other hand, if we own our sin and mourn over it, we will know God’s comfort now and for eternity. You will laugh as you revel in the reality of what God has done for us and in us.

The Spirit, however, does not work in a vacuum. Notice in the Catechism “and the word of God.” The Sprit uses Scripture to expose our sin: revealing “the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sin.” God will expose our sins through the Word read and preached. Each day as you read Scripture – and weekly as you sit under preaching – ask the Spirit to search you (Ps. 139:23, 24). Use the law of God to examine yourself. The exposition of the law in the Westminster Larger Catechism 91-153 is very useful for this exercise. My wife and I currently are reading through this exposition together.

However, you must not let your self-examination degenerate into morbid introspection.  Your self-examination should draw you to Christ, “and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent.” God manifests His glory in pardoning sinners (Exodus 34:6, 7).

As you learn on the one hand the heinous nature of your sin, and on the other the wonder of pardon, you will begin to mourn your sin, “he so grieves for and hates his sins.” Such mourning is the beginning of true repentance. Paul names it “godly sorrow” (2 Cor. 7:9-11).

Another instrument to develop true mourning over sin is to reflect on our grievous past sins. The Psalmist models the usefulness of such reflection (Ps. 25:7).  He had been forgiven, but he was mindful of the heinousness of “the sins of [his] youth” in the sight of God.  As we grow in grace, the Spirit will bring to mind not only our current sins, but also those from the past, not that we would stand accused before the divine tribunal of God’s justice, but rather that we might humble ourselves and cast ourselves on Christ.

Repentance that springs from the soil of godly sorrow produces confession of our sins and a wholehearted desire to turn from them in obedience, “he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.”

The Lion has roared. God clearly is manifesting his displeasure with our sins: personally, ecclesiastically, and culturally. Let us mourn our sins and seek His mercy and compassion (Lam. 3:22, 23).

Begin with yourself. As I wrote above, examine your life by the law of God. Ask the Spirit to reveal your sinful acts, as well as your thoughts and attitudes. As the Spirit shines his searchlight into your heart, He will cultivate sorrow that leads to repentance and confession.  

We should also mourn and confess the sins of the church: worldliness, unbelief, pride, violation of the Lord’s Day and God’s worship. Examine Christ’s message to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Rev. 2, 3) to discover some of the perennial sins of the church.

Mourn and confess the sins of the world. God is judging the nations for their idolatry and corruption. But let us come closer to home. Is not God judging the United States? In a previous post I have already mentioned particularly wicked sins prevalent in our land, but it is worth calling to mind once again. Approximately, 140,000 abortions have been performed in this calendar year alone (since January 1, 2020). We have perverted the holy relationship of marriage with sexual promiscuity, adultery, pornography, and sodomy. Amongst our many idols are sports and materialism.

One useful tool in our mourning and confession is fasting. When coupled with prayer, fasting is a divinely appointed means of grace. One of the primary purposes of fasting is to afflict our souls through our bodies so that we mourn over sin.

Fasting is a testimony of our self-abasement before God when we desire to confess guilt before him.  We discover a clear example of this in Joel 2:12-16:

“Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, all with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart but not your garments.  Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil.  Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a libation for the Lord your God?  Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants.”

Calvin commented on this passage,

“He cries out for them to hasten to sackcloth and ashes, to weeping and fasting, that is, to prostrate themselves before the Lord also with outward testimonies.  Indeed, sackcloth and ashes were perhaps more appropriate to those times; but there is no doubt that meeting and weeping and fasting, and like activities, apply equally to our age whenever the condition of our affairs so demands.  For since this is a holy exercise both for the humbling of men and of their confession of humility, why should we use it less than the ancients did in similar need? . . . No, it is an excellent aid for believers today (as it always was) and a profitable admonition to arouse them in order that they may not provoke God more and more by their excessive confidence and negligence . . .” (Calvin’s Institutes IV, Ch. 12, Sec 17). 

We see here that fasting, when united with prayer, is a means of humbling ourselves before God in order to express our true sorrow and repentance.

When we hear the dove’s plaintive cry, let our hearts echo that cry. May God give us grace to mourn, repent, and confess our sins. Remember God pardons all who seek Him in Christ Jesus and confess their sins (Lev. 26:40-45; 1 Jn. 1:9).

This essay is the third in a three-part series. For Part One: The Lion Roars, click here. For Part Two: The Deer Pants, click here.

Other useful articles on COVID-19 from GPTS-affiliated authors:

Pastoral Letter on Worshipping in a Pandemic

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Dr. C.N. Willborn is Senior Pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Oak Ridge, TN, and Adjunct Professor of Church History at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He prepared this letter for the congregation of Covenant Presbyterian Church, and it is published here with his permission. The title which Dr. Willborn gave to this letter is “A Pastoral Letter: to all the saints who are feeling guilty and may be tempted to take unbiblical measures to assuage their spiritual hunger and self-imposed guilt.” For a printer-friendly version, click here.

We live in most unusual days. Presently our civil leaders, to whom we are to submit unless they command us to disobey God, have given us clear directives on how to promote the public health of ourselves and neighbors. Here in Tennessee, Governor Lee issued a statement last week, one which we are still living under as citizens: “Executive Order 17 prohibits social gatherings of 10 or more people…”. I realize some Christians have taken such directives, particularly as it pertains to churches, as “against God.” Let me address that briefly.

The root command to observe and remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy is the fourth commandment, found in Exodus 20:8 and repeated in Deuteronomy 5:12. This, of course, is the codified version of that which came in the creation covenant with Adam before the fall and sin entered into the world. Concerning this command I want to make two important contextual comments and one general. I hope this helps hurting hearts and confused minds.

1. We need to remember that this command was always intended for our good. If the Lord’s day turns into something legalistic, then it is harmful to our souls. This command must always be kept through grace and not works. Sadly, this of all the commands can be the easiest to misuse. We can do all the right things—gather for worship, keep the biblically prescribed elements in our liturgy, say all the right words in Psalms and hymns and prayers, rest and refrain from work appropriate for the six days of labor, read good material—and yet violate the commandment and do harm to our souls (and sometimes to our bodies), because we did it out of legalism rather than out of a grace-infused love for the day and the Lord of the day. If you feel bad when you can’t gather to worship because “I’m supposed to do this” or even “because I know God commanded it,” then you may be violating the day. Rather, we are properly to look forward to it and properly to miss it when sick or providentially hindered, simply because we love the day and all which it involves. The day is for our good and should not be turned into something “we have to do.”

2. We need to remember that the fourth commandment is in the context of ten! If we keep the Sabbath day and do it “no matter how it may affect our neighbor,” then we have violated the command. In other words, if we keep this command at the expense of another command, or even the potential harm of another, then we have broken it! We have disobeyed God! Remember, the entire second table of the law, commandments 5-10, are about loving our neighbor as we love our selves. That is what the OT says (Lev 19:19) and that is what the NT says (Matt 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31, 33; Lk 10:27; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14; James 2:8).  Note particularly Galatians 5:14, which reads: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” We confess that we believe this every month in our worship service on the first Lord’s Day morning. We confess that we believe this every time we read it in our devotions. Do we really believe it?

Concerning the “love of neighbor,” let us be reminded that both the Old Testament and New Testament speak to an aspect of Sabbath keeping that relates to keeping the day in the proper way. Particularly, I am speaking of deeds of necessity and mercy (Isa 58:13, 14; Luke 4:16; 14:5; Matt 12:1-13; Mark 2:23-3:5; Westminster Confession of Faith 21:8).  In our present national situation set before us in God’s most wise providence, it is both necessary and merciful for us to observe the civil magistrates’ call to think more highly of others than self (Phil 2:3). It is necessary to love our neighbors by protecting them, and it is an act of mercy to avoid the contraction and spread of the virus by following the wisdom of our civil leaders.

3. Now let me make a general observation about the importance of keeping the Lord’s Day, while at the very same time obeying those “kings” given us for our good (Rom 13:1-4; 1 Pet 2:13-17). The Westminster Confession of Faith gives us the biblical balance that is needed in times like these when it says that public assemblies of Christ’s church are not “carelessly or willfully to be neglected” (WCF 21.6). For Christ’s church indiscriminately to meet in days of widespread sickness, a sickness that is highly communicable, would be careless. While we desire to meet, we are lamenting the disease and the consequences it has brought upon us, especially a Psalm 42 absence from public worship. With the Psalmist, we long for a return with the throng to His worship. Therefore, we are not carelessly and willfully neglecting the worship, therefore, we are not disobeying God in following the wisdom of the civil leaders and medical community.

Keeping the context of the fourth commandment in mind—it is for our good, not our harm and it must be out of love and concern for our neighbor’s welfare—will help us think through the appropriateness of our Governor’s “love your neighbor” Ordinances and how we approach ALL corporate gatherings, including church services.

With that said, here at Covenant we are continuing to offer a semblance of worship to our God even though we can’t gather corporately as we love to do. With a few elders (not all, for some are quarantined due to possible exposure) and a deacon (for the deacons’ prayer) we are maintaining a service to lead you in your homes. We are unlike the house churches in China and other parts of the world and unlike the house churches in the early days when Christianity fell under the label of religio illicita or a religion lacking formal legal recognition. In those house churches they contained and do contain the gathering of an entire church corpus—elders, deacons, and members with a minister. They were not simply one or two families gathered such as are around our computer or television screens. You are in essence joining those of us who can meet without violating the Civil Magistrate’s Ordinance 17, so that we can love our neighbors, but also provide us all something of a platform to worship our God in our homes, without forgetting the Day and the corporate body of Christ.

Now, let me get to another aspect of this whole unique epoch in which we find ourselves. Just as some Christians may wrongly feel like they are disobeying God (and the fourth commandment specifically) by obeying the Governor and loving their neighbor, so some may feel guilty for not receiving the weekly or monthly (in our case) administration of the Lord’s Supper. Here is what you need to know on that issue so you don’t wrongly fret or do something worse like pour yourself and your family a glass of wine or grape juice and break open a fresh baked loaf of bread and “have the Lord’s Supper” at home. Give attention to what follows to rightly remember how the Lord’s Supper is to be thought of in these unusual days.

First, consider the word from which we gain synagogue. It means “gather together,” and this refers to gathering together in a physical sense. Our Lord used it to speak of physical gatherings (Matt 18:20). It was used for the place where the people of God would gather physically (e.g., Mark 1:21; Acts 9:20). The point is that the synagogue was where New Testament Gospel period (we find it in the Old Testament context also) Christians gathered physically to worship. It was the pre-runner to the concept of church (ekklesia) or a “duly summoned body” or “called assemblage” as in Matt 16:18. That is, we are talking about a summons to gather with others in a specified location and that physically. Remember, we are members of the body when we are scattered about in our homes, but we are the body of Christ, the visible church, when all the members are together in visible form.

This idea of corporate, physical gathering is the foundation then for our Confession of Faith when it states, concerning the two sacraments, “neither of which may be dispensed by any, but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained” (27:4). That means a father or mother cannot dispense the elements. An individual cannot administer to oneself. Then in WCF 29.2 the minister of the gospel is instructed to give the elements “to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation.” Notice “present in the congregation.”  The physical presence of the people is of the essence. This means you have to be physically present where the minister is in order to receive from “a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.” There are many examples of Christians, those well versed in the Bible, who lived in remote places where a minister of the gospel had not yet reached them, living for years without the Lord’s Supper. They waited for the sacrament to be administered biblically before they received it. Why? So that they might receive it in a worthy manner (1 Cor 11:27) and be nourished and not bring judgement on themselves (1 Cor 11:23-34).

In 1 Cor 11:20 we have Paul stressing the togetherness idea again with a third word, synerchomai, which again insists upon the “coming-togetherness” of the church when the sacrament is dispensed. The words and verses mentioned here establish the foundation for our Book of Church Order in relation to the Lord’s Supper. In a part of the “Directory of Public Worship” which is constitutional, that is, binding on the churches of the PCA, we receive clear guidance on where and when the Lord’s Supper can be observed.

The table, on which the elements are placed, being decently covered, and furnished with bread and wine, and the communicants orderly and gravely sitting around it (or in their seats before it), the elders in a convenient place together, the minister should then set the elements apart by prayer and thanksgiving (PCA BCO 58-5).

So, what do we see concerning the Lord’s Supper? It is to be observed when the minister, the elders, and communicants can sit around a table together or in the physical presence of the minister and elders (as in the pews or chairs in the worship hall) and physically partake together.  Paul said we are to “wait for one another” (1 Cor 11:33) before we partake. All of this is in the context of a corporate worship service after the word of God has been faithfully preached.

In conclusion, let us not “legalize” the Sabbath Day. Let us not “beat ourselves up” because we are keeping the Governor’s ordinance and the law of Christ to love our neighbors by promoting and preserving their health. Finally, don’t think that you are missing anything because you can’t partake of the cup and the bread. Everything you need is found in the written, read, and preached word. You get nothing different in the sacraments of baptism and Lord’s Supper than you get in the preached word. The instruction on the Lord’s Supper is “as often as you eat and drink,” and please note that this is as specific on the matter of frequency as the New Testament gets. There is no command to do it weekly or monthly or quarterly or annually. I mention all those options because that is how it is observed in various churches and has been through the centuries since Christ Jesus. Certainly, if it were essential to our weekly or monthly worship then God would have been more specific. He surely is on many other elements of His worship. The element that is necessary to worship is the preaching and hearing of God’s word. Do not ever forget, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of the word by a lawful minister of the gospel (Romans 10:14-17). 

The Lord’s Supper is not essential to worship every Lord’s day. In fact, the Lord’s Supper is not worthwhile at all, but only spiritually damaging, without the word of God preached before it, no matter when (or how often) it is observed. So, what do we really need this coming Lord’s Day? What do we really need for faith and life practices? The word of God. How sufficient is the preached word of God to communicate all the grace we need? It is all sufficient.

During these strange and sad days when we are under the dark cloud of this pandemic, let us not pummel ourselves and riddle ourselves with false guilt and false grace. This pandemic is God’s providence for us. He knows well our limitations and restrictions. He has given all we need for these days, namely His Word. Let our faith be elevated through the preaching of the word. In days of physical limitations there are no limits to the access God’s preached word has into the hearts and minds of hungry, hurting souls.

Other useful articles on COVID-19 from GPTS-affiliated authors:

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