Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
Behold, bless the Lord,
All you servants of the Lord,
Who by night stand in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord. (Psalm 134:1–2)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
Glorious God, it is the flower of our being to worship You.
This is the crown and glory of life, to adore and worship the Life-giver from whom all good things come. Worship has often been to us as a bath in heavenly pleasure, and we have come out of it refreshed and comforted, blessed, and filled with heavenly delight.
Oh for the Holy Spirit’s power to help us in worship now! Breathe upon us, Oh Divine Spirit, and let that breath cause us to forget the world, but bring us into the fullest life in the contemplation of God and heaven.
Blessed God, Father, Son, and Spirit, our whole spirit would reverence You, yet would we have such knowledge of Your goodness that we might not be overawed with Your greatness; such a sense of Your nearness in the person of Jesus Christ, the Man, the Branch, that we might not be driven away with terror, but may be drawn near with filial love and holy boldness.
Lord, there was once a great gulf between us, but You have bridged that gulf, for now the Lord Jesus Christ is brother to our souls, yet is He Son of the Highest; truly man, yet truly God, He is the Interpreter, one of a thousand, the Daysman, who this day lays His hand upon us both. Oh how we joy in Christ, and You do joy in Him too. We long to glorify Him, and You do delight to glorify Your Son. We would set Him on high, and You have set Him “far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named.”
Now this day we pray You, “behold our Shield and look upon the face of Your Anointed;” and while we shelter behind Him as a shield, let Him stand for us, and let the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ be seen, that You may be precious to us unworthy ones.
O Lord, we worship with all our heart and adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and Oh most blessed Lamb of God, with all the saints before the throne, we pay You reverence — casting all that we have before You. Crowns we have none, not even of silver and gold, but such as You have graciously given, we would willingly lay at Your feet, content to feel that everything is ours when it is Yours, and the more ours when we have yielded it up to You.
We wish we could live for Jesus wholly, that there were no distractions, no secondary channels into which the stream of life could flow, but that as He is all to us, so all of us might be unto Him alone.
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:8–11)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
And now we present ourselves before the Throne of God, in the name of Jesus Christ our great High Priest. And first, we ask for pardon through the blessed blood.
Some of us You have already pardoned give us a new sense of it. Continue to pardon us; let us feel as if we came every day to the “fountain filled with blood,” and as if the washing were every day new. But, oh, have pity upon some that have never been pardoned. Hear the cry of sinners as they seek Your face, and wherever there is a penitent spirit be pleased speedily to send it relief, and let forgiveness of sin be felt wherever the burden of sin weighs down the spirit.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:22–26)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
“Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.” (Revelation 15:3–4)
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:10–16)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s modified catechism.
49. Which is the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment is, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor they cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
50. What is required in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment required Israel to keep holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, and other times and seasons for worship (Lev 19:30; Deu 5:12).
51. How is the Lord’s Day to be sanctified?
A. The Lord’s Day is to be sanctified observed principally by rejoicing in our rest in Christ (Heb 4:11), and spending time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship (Psa 92:1-2; Isa 58:13-14).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
Give a blessing…we pray You, to us all; may we make a distinct advance in the divine life; may we get to a higher platform; may we leave the mists of doubt and fear below us in the valley, and quit the marshes of the plain, and climb the glittering hill-tops of eternal security in Christ and blessed oneness with Him, by simply believing Him who cannot lie — who has sworn by two immutable things and cannot from His purpose turn, nor from His word draw back. O God, grant this faith to the entire church.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 20: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (Victory in Christ)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
You have promised to hear Your people’s prayer, and this is a prayer that must be according to Your mind; and it is for the honor of Your dear Son; and it is put up in faith, put up in faith in Jesus; therefore You can not run back from it, but You must keep that word to which in humble, but adoring faith, we hold You — “My word shall not return unto me void.”…. The like blessing we ask for all Churches, and for all ministers of the gospel of Jesus. We ask for a revival of true godliness all over the world. We pray You to grant that these disastrous times may drive Your children nearer to You; may deliver many of them from a worldly spirit; and may it come to pass that while they grow poor one way they may grow rich in another, by the sanctification of their losses and affections.
God be gracious to this land. Send us, we pray You, the Holy Spirit more abundantly than ever; and may there be myriads born to Christ in these latter days. So do You with all the nations, till all lands shall bow before You, and all generations shall call You blessed.
We offer special prayers this morning for the rising generation. The Lord bless our Sunday Schools. Teach the teachers, bless and superintend the superintendents, and let the schools be more than ever a place where the lambs are cared for and tended, that they may grow up as sheep of the fold of Jesus.
Many prayers have been offered already today for this end we pray You hear them all, and let the richest blessing of heaven rest on those devoted men and women, who deny themselves many privileges that they may have the greater privilege of feeding the lambs of Christ. The Lord hear us and do for us exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’ (Numbers 6:24–26)
