Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. (Psalm 33:1–4)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
Our Father, we have listened to Your gracious words. Truly Your paths drop fatness. Wherever You are, mercy abounds. Before Your feet rivers of grace spring up. When You come to man it is with the fulness of pardoning love.
You have bidden us come to You and seek You while You may be found. We would come now. May Your holy Spirit help us! May Jesus lead the way and be our Mediator now!
Blessed be Your name; there are many who sought Your face many years ago. We have since then tasted that You are gracious, and we know by a delightful experience that You do indeed give milk and honey to such as trust You. Oh! we wish we had known You earlier.
Lord, You have been full of truth and faithfulness to us throughout every step of our journey, and though You have not withheld the rod of the covenant from us, we are as grateful for that this morning as for the kisses of Your lips. You have dealt well with Your servants according to Your Word. Blessed be Your name for ever and ever.
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:8–10)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
And first we do confess that we are by nature lost and by practice ruined.
We are altogether as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We would lie at those dear pierced feet bleeding at heart because of sin, wounded, mangled, crushed by the fall and by our own transgression.
We confess that if You should number our sins upon us and deal with us accordingly we should be sent to the lowest hell. We have no merit, no claim, no righteousness of our own. Oh! now, dear Savior, we look up to You. Oh! that some might look for the first time, and those of us that have long looked would fix our happy gaze again upon that blessed substitutionary sacrifice wherein is all our hope. Dear Savior, we do take You to be everything to us, our sin-bearer and our sin destroyer. We have not a shadow of a shade of a hope anywhere but in You, Your life, Your death, Your resurrection, Your ascension, Your glory, Your reign, Your second advent; these are the only stars in our sky. We look up to You and are filled with light.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim. 1:17 )
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1–2)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
32. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins (Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7), and accepts us as righteous in his sight (2Cr 5:21) only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us (Rom 5:19), and received by faith alone (Gal 2:16; Phl 3:9)
33. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace (1Jo 3:1), whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God (Jhn 1:12; Rom 8:17).
34. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God’s Spirit (2Th 2:13), whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God (Eph 4:24), and are enabled more and more to die to sin, and live to righteousness (Rom 6:11).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
And now, Lord, our prayer is to You at the mention of Your sacred Book, that You would write it upon the fleshy tablets of our heart more fully. We want to know the truth that the truth may make us free. We want to feel the truth that we may be sanctified by it.
Oh! let it be in us a living seed which shall produce in us a life acceptable before God, a life which, shall be seen in everything that we do unto the living God, for we remember that You are not the God of the dead but of the living.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 13: Psalm 46 (God is Our Refuge and Strength)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
Help us to overcome every tendency to evil which is still within us, and enable us to wear armor… that the arrows of the enemy from without will not penetrate, that we may not be wounded again by sin. Deliver us, we pray You, from doubts within and fears without, from depression of spirit, and from the outward assaults of the world.
Make us and keep us pure within, and then let our life be conducted with such, holy jealousy and watchfulness that there may be nothing about us that shall bring dishonor to Your name. May those who most carefully watch us see nothing but what shall adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
Lord help Your people to be right as parents. May none of us spoil our children; may there be no misconducted families to cry out against us. Help us to be right as employers; may there be no oppression, no hardness and unkindness. Help us to be right as employees; may there be no eye service, no purloining, but may there be everything that adorns the Christian character.
Keep us right as citizens; may we do all we can for our country, and for the times in which we live.
Keep us right, we pray You, as citizens of the higher country; may we be living for it, to enjoy its privileges, and to bring others within its ranks, that multitudes may be made citizens of Christ through our means.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21)
