Call to Worship
Receive God’s gracious call to worship.
I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:1–3)
Adoration
Offer this praise to God:
O Lord, the God of Your people, those whom You have chosen, and called, and redeemed, and saved, must and will bless Your holy Name. Surely, if we were to refuse Your praises, our silence would be sinful in the highest degree. We would praise You, O blessed God, not only with our hearts but with our voices. Blessed be the day in which You did bring us to accept You as our portion, and our heritage, for now we find in You a possession ample and wide. There is no limit to Your goodness, Your riches are unsearchable. You have all good things within the compass of Yourself, and You have given Yourself to us according to Your word, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” We bless the Lord that our heritage is never exhausted. The world has its winter, but You have none. Even the world’s sun hath its wintry times, and we see but little above the horizon, but You are ever a summer’s sun into Your people, without variableness or shadow cast by turning.
We bless You that we can never lose our portion. Time cannot impair it: death cannot take it from us, or take us away from it. Rather, we expect death, which would destroy all mortal things, to bring us nearer to the God we love, and in our disembodied state we shall behold You more clearly than we do now. In the latter day when our Kinsman shall stand a second time upon the earth, this is our joy—that though the worm devour this body, yet in our flesh shall we see God, whom our eyes shall see for themselves and not another. O God, we know not how to express our delight in You. You are the happy God, and You are the happy-making God. You have often come to us and lifted us up out of danger, and set us on our high places. You have tuned our harps. When every string was broken You have come and repaired it, and taught us how to sing a new song unto the Lord God of our life. Oh, that we had nothing else to do but to praise You! And truly, we have nothing else to do; but we are so slow to know this. We get full of cares and troubles and doubts and fears and sins. Lord, cleanse and purge Your servants; and give us to feel that all that remains for us:
“Is but to love and sing
And wait until the angels come
To bear us to their King.”
Oh for a well-tuned harp! Oh for a life that shall be one of minstrels—a life that shall be a psalm full of Hallelujahs.
The Law
Hear God’s perfect requirements.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)
Confession of Sin
Confess and repent of sins before God.
Gracious God, we have all sinned peculiarly in our own position. And Your servants who are members of the Church of Christ would acknowledge that they have not lived for God as they should. How little have we done for Him who died to save our guilty souls. Our love is cold. Your mercies flow to us like rivers, but returns are but scanty drops. Lord, forgive us all. We come to You conscious that we are guilty, and most of all ashamed of ourselves that we are not more ashamed, and blushing that we do not blush, mourning that we do not mourn. God be merciful unto us sinners. With the publicans we take our place. Our cry is the cry of the returning prodigal. O Father, we are not worthy to be called Your sons, but our faith beholds the promise, the sweet and assuring promise made to sinners, and we know that God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imparting to us our trespasses.
O Lord Jesus, our souls fly to You. You are the only refuge of our heart. Our confidence is fixed upon Your blood and righteousness, and we believe that these will never fail us. We are persuaded that if we build upon this Rock of ages, the floods may come, and the winds may beat upon that house, but it shall not fall because it is built upon the rock. Renew the faith of Your people. Let its former simplicity come back. May we each of us come to Jesus as we did at first, weary, and overworn, and sad, and sinful, and find in Him all that our largest want can possibly demand. Oh for grace today to take a bleeding Saviour at His word, and to believe Him to be the propitiation for our sins.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the promise of grace:
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:46–48)
Praise
Offer this praise to God:
Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! (Psalm 150:1–2)
Creed
Testify what you believe of Christian truth:
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He spoke through the prophets.
We believe in one holy universal and apostolic church.
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.
(Nicene Creed)
Catechism
Learn from Spurgeon’s catechism.
77. Are the infants of such as are professing to be baptised?
A. The infants of such as are professing believers are not to be baptised, because there is neither command nor example in the Holy Scriptures for their baptism (Exd 23:13; Pro 30:6).
78. How is baptism rightly administered?
A. Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, or dipping the whole body of the person in water (Mat 3:16; Jhn 3:23), in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according to Christ’s institution, and the practice of the apostles (Mat 28:19-20), and not by sprinkling or pouring of water, or dipping some part of the body, after the tradition of men (Jhn 4:1-2; Act 8:38-39).
79. What is the duty of such as are rightly baptized?
A. It is the duty of such as are rightly baptized, to give up themselves to some particular and orderly Church of Jesus Christ (Act 2:47; 9:26; 1Pe 2:5), that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Luk 1:6).
Prayer for Illumination
Ask for spiritual understanding before reading God’s Word:
O God, our hearts are up unto You. We want to feel that You are here. We cannot expect this if we ask so great a blessing in our own name, but we ask it through the merits of Jesus Christ. Divine Saviour, You have said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”You have been pleased to give us Your Holy Spirit to be the Comforter that shall abide with us for ever; may He abide with us now.
Scripture Reading
Read Scripture with dependence and a desire to obey.
Day 30: Isaiah 12:1-6 (Joyful Trust in God’s Salvation)
Prayer of Intercession
Make your requests with thanksgiving, and pray this prayer.
God bless the Church at large, and send times of great revival. Oh that there may be more fruit in every church, all Your servants seeking to be fruitful. Let the members of this church each one seek to bring others to Christ. May there not be one barren one among us. Lord save us all. Save the gray heads among us. Save the little children that have come, perhaps for the first time, into the pew today. Save all of us; and in the day when the muster roll is read, may each one of us answer to his name and say, “Here am I.”
Oh send forth Your light and Your truth to every troubled country. Let the Gospel come; for where it goes liberty follows, and there shall be no liberty except Christ make men free. Let all nations know their Saviour. Bless all missionary operations. Let Your power go forth, Lord, with all that preach Christ, wherever He is proclaimed.
Now before the throne of Your magnificence we bow ourselves with deep humiliation. What are we, and what is our father’s house that we should take Your name upon our lips? Yet You, Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth, are our covenant God. You have sworn by Yourself that You will bear us as on eagles’ wings. We cast ourselves before You. Lead us into perfect holiness. Lead us into glory; and there when we shall see You, we will eternally adore You, even as we adore You now, saying, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” Amen.
Benediction
Close with the blessing of God.
We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. (Psalm 20:5)
