Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah (Psalm 47:1–4)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
O Lord God, the great I AM, We confess and cheerfully acknowledge that all come of You. You have made us and not we ourselves, and the breath in our nostrils is kept there by your continued power.
We owe our sustenance, our happiness, our advancement, our ripening, our very existence entirely, unto You.
We would bless You for all the mercies with which You surround us, for all things which our eyes see that are pleasant, which our ears hear that are agreeable, and for everything that makes existence to be life.
Especially do we own this dependence when we come to deal with spiritual things. O God, we are less than nothing in the spiritual world. We do feel this growingly, and yet even to feel this is beyond our power.
Your grace must give us even to know our need of grace. We are not willing to confess our own sinfulness until You show it to us. Though it stares us in the face our pride denies it, and our own inability is unperceived by us. We steal Your power and call it our own till You do compel us to say that we have no strength in ourselves.
Now, Lord, would we acknowledge that all good must come of You, through Jesus Christ by Your Spirit, if ever we are to receive it.
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him…Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly (Matthew 6:1–8, 16-18).
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
We come for mercy, great God; it must always be our first request, for we have sinned, sinned against a just and holy law of which our conscience approves. We are evil, but Your law is holy and just and good.
We have offended knowingly; we have offended again and again; after being chastened we have still offended, and even those of us who are forgiven, who through Your rich love have been once for all washed from every stain, yet have we sinned grievously; and we confess it with much shame and bitter self-reproach that we should sin against such tender love, and against the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is in His people; and who checks them and quickens their consciences; so that they sin against light and knowledge when they sin.
Wash us yet again. And when we ask for this washing it is not because, we doubt the efficacy of former cleansing. Then we were washed in blood. Now, O Savior, repeat upon us what You did to the twelve when You took a towel and basin and washed their feet. And when that was done You told them that he who had been washed had no need save but to wash his feet. After that was done he was clean every whit. Oh! let Your children be in that condition…— clean every whit — and may they know it; and thus being clean may they have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Christ; and may they now come and stand where the cherubim once were, where the glory still shines forth.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us (Romans 8:1, 31-34).
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 7:12).
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son”? (Hebrews 1:1–5)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
35. What are the benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification (Rom 5:1-2, 5), are assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17), increase of grace, perseverance in it to the end (Pro 4:18; 1 Jo 5:13; 1 Pe 1:5).
36. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness (Heb 12:23) and do immediately pass into glory, (Phi 1:23; 2 Cor 5:8; Luk 23:43), and their bodies, being still united to Christ (1Th 4:14), do rest in their graves (Isa 57:2) till the resurrection (Job 19:26).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
The Lord be pleased to reveal Himself to His servants. Oh for the uplifting of the veil, for the drawing near of the people that are made glad by the blood, for the speaking of God unto the soul, and the speaking of our soul unto God. Oh for converse with the Eternal, for such fellowship as they may have who are raised up together with Christ, and made to sit in the heavenlies with Him. Oh Saviour, grant us a glimpse of Your great love. One flash of Your eye is brighter than the noonday. One word from Your lips will be sweeter to us and more full of music, than the harps of angels.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 14: Matthew 6:25-34 (Do Not Worry)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
Rouse the Church, we pray You, to a tenderness of heart towards those among whom we dwell.
Let all the churches feel that they are ordained to bless their neighbors. Oh! that the Christian Church in our country might begin to take upon itself its true burden. Let the Church with its mass of poverty and sin round about it, care for the people and love the people; and may all Christians bestir themselves that something may be done for the good of men, and for the glory of God. Lord, do use us for Your glory. Shine upon us, O Emmanuel, that we may reflect Your brightness; dwell in us, O Jesus, that out of us may come the power of Your life….
Oh! send us times of revival, seasons of great refreshing; and then times of aggression, when the army of the Lord of Hosts shall push its way into the very centre of the adversary, and overthrow the foe in the name of the King of kings. …Comfort us with Your presence; elevate us into Your presence. Make us like Yourself; bring us near Yourself, and in all things glorify Yourself in us, whether we live or die.
Bless the poor, remember the needy among Your own people; help and succour them. Bless the sick, and be very near the dying. The Lord comfort them. Bless our country…send peace to disquieted districts; give wisdom to our politicians in the making and in the seeing to the keeping of the law.
And may Your kingdom come not here only, but in every land and nation. Lands across the flood remember with the plenitude of Your grace. Let the whole earth be filled with Your glory.
We ask it for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. (Philemon 25)
