Untitled Sermon

- CALL TO WORSHIP -

Let us rise and worship the Triune God.

ADORATION

Minister: Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Congregation: And also to you.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 92:1–2 “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,” Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!

PRAYER

Our Heavenly Father, you have given us many instruments to praise you with. Our eyes, ears, voices, hands and feet. When we worship you, they all are united to sound harmoniously before you. O Lord, our God, you have made us supremely delighted in the work of your salvation. Our joyous victory comes from your hand. Your works, O Lord are very great and full of mysteries. While fools despise your ways and the wicked rise up against you in defiance, they will be destroyed forever and ever and we will marvel at your wisdom even more. All things belong to you by right. You exercise rule and mastery over them by your full and life-giving presence. Those that oppose your Christ shall perish and be scattered.

Almighty God, we worship you now through Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with You, and the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end, and Amen.

HYMN

Jesus Shall Reign (137)

- CONFESSION -

Please sit.

EXHORTATION (Samuel Davidson)

“[Y]ou shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” (Lev 18:21)

Children in the womb are made in the image of God, meaning that they bear the name of God. The Israelites profaned God's name when they burnt alive their children as a sacrifice to Molech, that god of the Ammonites. This wickedness was also rampant in the Roman empire when Christendom was rising therein. The early church fought this evil, rescuing thousands of women who were subject to forced abortions and set them on the path to godly womanhood in biblical marriages. Everywhere the church has gone for the past two thousand years, we have fought this evil and overcome. William Carey would stand in the streets of Bengal and plead in tears with Hindus not to throw their children as a sacrifice into the holy river Hoogli. But for the past two hundred years, the church lies in ruins having forgotten her God assigned task and has learned to turn a blind eye to the murder of the unborn and even of infants. Hundreds of millions of Christians around the world do not care that children are being slaughtered in worship to those same evil spirits that ruled the earth in antiquity. And a millions more think that this is a question to be decided upon by the votes of men rather than the word of God. Are you praying fervently that God should rid the world of this evil?

Moreover, you who oppose this bloodbath in principle must heed the words of Christ. "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5:22) How many of you have been angry at your children without cause? You older siblings, have you hated the little ones, disliked them, neglected them, scorned them, ignored them? In the words of Christ, your sin is the root that gave rise to the fruit of abortion. You are profaning the name of your God. These little ones are God's gift to you. Have you caused them to stumble in their faith? Have you provoked them to anger? God abominates this evil. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17). This reminds us of our need to confess our sins so let us prepare to do so as we sing..

PSALM

O God of Earth and Altar (364)

CONFESSION OF SIN

So, as you are able please kneel in confession before God

1 John 3:19–20 “And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” Heavenly Father, we deserve millstones around our necks to be drowned in the depths of the sea. There is more blood on our hands than we realize and were you to show us glimpses of the evils we have done, we would melt with guilt and shame. We have murdered our brothers and sisters and when called to give an account we have smugly retorted back at you saying, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Lord, we thank you that in your manifold wisdom you sent Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, under the threat of infant slaughter and died the death that we deserve on our behalf. Forgive us for His sake, in whom alone we have any hope of real, tangible forgiveness, deliverance, redemption and reform.

You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we confess our individual sins to you now, Selah.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Please rise for the assurance of pardon!

Romans 5:8–9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” We were unable to dig ourselves out of the graves that we have lived in for centuries, yet, in due time, God in Christ came to die for our sins and rise again for our righteousness. He has laid claim on our families so that our children too are counted as part of the blessing of faith. God is in the process of saving us and our children to a thousand generations. So, confident in his promises to save to the uttermost, I declare to you that..

Minister: Your sins are forgiven through Christ. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONFESSION OF FAITH

Having confessed our sins, let us now confess our common faith in the words of the apostles’ creed, saying, Minister: Christians, what do you believe? Congregation: We believe in God the Father Almighty,Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, Hisonly begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceivedby the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary.He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,died, and was buried. He descended into Hades.On the third day He rose again from the dead,ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right handof God the Father Almighty; from thence He willcome to judge the living and the dead. We believein the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, thecommunion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, theresurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q120. Minister: Why did Christ command us to address God thus: Our Father?

Congregation: To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer that childlike reverence for and trust in God, which are to be the ground of our prayer, namely, that God has become our Father through Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in faith than our parents refuse us earthly things.

Q121. Minister: Why is it added: Who art in heaven?

Congregation: That we might have no earthly thought of the heavenly majesty of God, and from His almighty power expect all things necessary for body and soul.

HYMN

God is Our Refuge and Our Strength (91a)

- CONSECRATION -

SCRIPTURE READING

(Mike Casbon)

Isaiah 6:8–13 NKJV

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

Matthew 13:1–17 NKJV

On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Reader: The Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

Baptisms and Memberships

HYMN

Please sit. God is Our Refuge and Our Strength (91b)

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

(Nathan Tallent)

Opening: Psalm 45:6-7

Thanksgiving: Colossians 3:14-15

Petitions: Psalm 122:6-7 HYMN Please stand. Praise the Savior, Now and Ever (439)

SERMON

PRAYER

Ending with The Lord’s Prayer…

OFFERTORY

Please stand. Doxology (734)

- COMMUNION -

Please sit.

MEDITATION

God’s judgment and mercy are cut from the same fabric. You live in a time of judgment where the Lord is in the process of shaking things up, so that only that which is unshakable can remain. But remember that God’s promise to save still stands, “For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:32) In this Lord’s Day service, but particularly in the meal set before you, you are built together as a holy temple and raised to Moint Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the throne of grace, where mercy reigns, where the Lamb who was slain sits exalted and worshipped by myriads of angels and saints. In that heavenly mount, by the once for all broken body and blood of the son of God, whom we murdered, stand for you immovable promises of deliverance and salvation. Know that everything around you, this building, this town, the companies you own or work for, will pass away but this table, this table set before you will continue to be laid till the end of time. Believe in the power of the blood that flowed from the cross and come to the rock of ages. Come, and welcome to Jesus Christ. Let us pray, Our Lord Christ, You are worthy to take the scroll of God’s judgment, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth. Amen.

THE BREAD

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it:

Fairest Lord Jesus (348, vs. 1-2) And when Jesus had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

THE WINE

Fairest Lord Jesus (348, vs. 3-4)

After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

- COMMISSION -

Please stand.

CLOSING DOXOLOGY

The congregation may raise hands.

Gloria Patri (735)

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. Amen.