Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night, On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound. For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. (Psalm 92:1–4)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
Our Father, which are in heaven, it is an intense joy to us to call You by that endearing name, for it is no mere empty title. We feel the spirit of adoption in us “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” We feel the nature of God in us, which has been given us by the Spirit of God, the quickening, the renewal, the begetting again unto a lively hope.
O Lord, we thank You, that we are Your children by regeneration as well as by adoption, that we have been made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust. And we would revel in the thought that now it is given to us to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe on the name of Jesus, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Help us to enjoy the sweet privileges which come to us through being introduced into Your family.
May we be among the number of those who dwell in Your house and go no more out for ever; who must be still praising You, because they are always within the precincts of their great Father’s house.
Oh, what have You done for us, great God? What a wonderous grace is this; and what have You prepared for us? Who can tell what You have laid up for them that fear You, among the sons of men?
We would now approach You, Lord, with that filial fear which well becomes dear children who are conscious of a thousand transgressions. Yet would we approach You with that filial boldness which is born of a sense of love, and daily grows upon mercies perpetually given. We worship You, O God our Father, with all our heart, and soul and strength. We love You; we trust You; we delight in You; You are all in all to us. You have made with us an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure; and therefore are we bound to You by bonds that never can be broken.
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28–32)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
O Lord, we would bring before You now our sins and our sorrows. Oh, forgive Your servants in everything wherein we have offended. There are some here that must stand before You today as prisoners at the bar. Help them to plead guilty, to confess their sins, and to plead the precious blood, and the glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ, Your Son, that they may be absolved, and hear You say: “Your sins be forgiven thee.” But there are others of us who have heard that word many years ago, and the music of it has never departed out of our minds. We ask that we may hear You say it now in another sense, for we are no longer prisoners at the bar; we are not under the law, but we are under grace. The one washing in the precious blood has made us clean; as before the Judge of all the earth we are whiter than snow. But now, as children, we offend our Father, we grieve the Spirit of God, we vex our Elder Brother, tender as He is, and so we say that we who have been delivered from sin in its condemning power— we say, “Lord forgive Your children’s transgressions, and let us be washed as to our feet in the water which Christ pours forth, wherewith He did wash of old His disciples’ feet, and washes them still.” Then may we this day, all of us, be clean every whit, and so be fit to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and to have fellowship with the Holy Father, and with His Holy Son, and with the Holy Ghost. O Lord, grant us this perfect cleansing. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:4–8)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. “Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name. (1 Chronicles 29:10–13)
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4–6)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
28. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us (Jhn 1:12) by his Holy Spirit. (Tts 3:5-6)
29. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us (Eph 2:8), and by it uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Eph 3:17).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
O blessed Saviour, we would ask for believers to realise our union with Christ Jesus. Oh that our hearts might track You upward to Your throne ascending high. Let us rise with You by a joyous confidence, for we shall be there ere long, and let us now survey Your power, Your state, the glories of Your kingly condition, where You sit at the right-hand of God for ever, having finished the propitiation for the sins of men. We worship You, Immanuel—”God with us.” We now adore You, Jesus, before the Father’s throne. There is no coming to the Father, but by You; but in tracking You we have come to the Father, and to the place where the “many mansions” are.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 11: Psalm 139 (God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
Now, standing thus before the throne of God without fear, we would humbly ask You to bless our country. Oh that You would look upon this nation which has sorely sinned, which has turned away from the path of peace to seek the ways of glory and of blood. O Lord, be pleased to turn its course aright again. We beseech You bring us out of the disasters which we have been made to suffer, and let the nation lie penitent at the feet of God.
Oh that the Christian party in this realm might prevail — that the Church of God might have a little influence over the worldly mass. Oh that the time were come when the salt shall more completely savor all the masses, and the glorious leaven shall work until all the measures of meal are leavened.
We do ask You Lord to give power to truth, to righteousness, to godliness, to peace, and to every other principle which is favored of the Lord of heaven; and let this land be delivered from the curse of the Papacy, from all the incoming both of rationalism and ritualism; and let the truth as it is in Jesus prevail, not only here but everywhere, till the whole “earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.”
Bless other nations also, we pray You, and the church of God in every land. For the saints of every tongue we pray, especially for those of our own… kin, scattered across the ocean hither and thither.
Make the whole of Your people to be full of life and vigor, and may the day come when the missionary spirit shall be more fully caught by the church at home, and they that have gone forth shall bring tens of thousands to be built into the temple of God.
O Lord we wait upon You now, and ask the overshadowing of Your presence!
Jesus of Nazareth, pass by just now! Divine Spirit, rest upon us now! Holy Father, look upon Your children now, and make this place to be glorious at this good hour!
We ask it in the name of the Well Beloved.
Amen.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. (2 Thess. 3:5 )
