The Two Edged Sword

- CALL TO WORSHIP -

Let us rise and worship the Triune God.

ADORATION

Minister: The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfll the desire of those who are in awe of Him. Congregation: He will hear their cry and save them. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

1 Chronicles 16:25–27 “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and gladness are in His place.” Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!

PRAYER

Let us pray! Heavenly Father, all glory and strength belong to you. Lord, you dwell in unapproachable light, above the highest heaven. Holy angels cover their faces and their feet before you. The heavens and the earth rejoice in You, and the sea in all its fullness. The trees also rejoice at your coming, for you come to judge the earth. Yet, we sinners, hide and tremble for fear of you. Please gather us up, cleanse our hearts, speak to us words of grace and truth and fill our hearts with joy. Bring us into a greater experience of your majesty. Show us the strength and gladness that are in Your place. Equip us, your saints, for the work of your ministry, as we eagerly work and wait for the coming of your kingdom.

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

How Lovely, Lord of Hosts, to Me....................155

- CONFESSION -

Please sit.

EXHORTATION (Samuel Davidson)

Our great sin consists in forgetting our God, who saved us from sin and death. But this kind of forgetting consists of more than just a lapse in memory. It indicates rather a breach of covenant or a failure to uphold one's duties. Our fathers were instructed by Moses to remember God's works and His words. To not remember God meant that you were going back on everything that you had, everything you were. After all, the Israelites were not a people strong and mighty. They were slaves in Egypt. How come they were enjoying the fruit of the land flowing with milk and honey? God saved them. Remember that you too “were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12-13). If you do not understand how you got the wealth you now possess in Christ, you will not understand what you are to do with it. So, here’s a twofold exhortation.

Firstly, do not forget the kindnesses He has showed you individually. Do not forget the way in which God first brought home to you the truth that Jesus hanging on the tree, was bleeding for you. Do not forget that Jesus has paid for every last bit of your sins: the ones you formerly lived in, the ones you committed this morning and any that you may commit in the future. Do not forget the discipline and chastisement that He brought on you by which you were taught to love Him. When by prayer and in His mercy He extended your life beyond what you expected. When He delivered you from some great and sore temptation.

Secondly, in each of your families, God moved at a particular time and saved you from your sins, bringing out you and yours into the kingdom of God. In your own histories, Do not forget Patrick, Boniface, Luther, Whitefield, Judson, Livingstone. Do not forget how by the imperishable blood of the Lamb, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers (1 Peter 1:18). Remember that you are a repentant pagan. God’s abundant grace and not good manners has kept your family in the faith. God’s abundant grace and not the might of your hand has built the nation you live in. And as you do the work of rebuilding Christendom, be encouraged in these remembrances, giving thanks to God for all these things.

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins so let us prepare to do so as we sing..

PSALM

I in the Lord Do Put My Trust...........................21

CONFESSION OF SIN

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

Hebrews 10:26–27 “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” O Holy Father, we have neglected the great salvation that you have given us in Christ Jesus. We have not grown in holiness, being so nearsighted that we are blind, having forgotten that we have been cleansed from our former sins. Lord, remind us always of who you are and what you have done for us in Christ. Forgive us of our forgetfulness and neglect.

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! Hebrews 10:37–39 ““For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Christian, you may strive to remember the benefits of our Lord your Maker for He does not forget you. He remembers His covenant forever. Christ always intercedes for you before the Father in heaven. You may rejoice greatly for..

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: Christian, what do you believe? Congregation: I believe in God the Father Almighty,Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by 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 hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Responsive Reading: Psalm 11

Minister: In the Lord I put my trust: How do you say to my soul, Congregation: Flee as a bird to your mountain? Minister: If the foundations be destroyed, Congregation: What can the righteous do? Minister: The Lord is in his holy temple, Congregation: Te Lord’s throne is in heaven: Minister: His eyes behold, Congregation: His eyelids try, the children of men. Minister: Te Lord tries the righteous: Congregation: But the wicked and he who loves violence his soul hates. Minister: For the righteous Lord loves righteousness; Congregation: His countenance beholds the upright. Amen.

HYMN

Praise to the Lord! I Will Extol Him ....................208

- CONSECRATION -

SCRIPTURE READING

(Max Ryan) Habakkuk 2:1-8, Romans 1:16-25 Reader: The Word of the Lord. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

Habakkuk 2:1–8 NKJV

I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples. “Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’? Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it.

Romans 1:16–25 NKJV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Baptisms and Memberships

Gwynyth Maribeaux Friedel

Lindel Hadassah Friedel

Congregational charge: Little children, for you Jesus Christ came to this earth, struggled and suffered; for your sake He crossed Gethsemane and went through the darkness of Calvary; for your sake He cried: ‘It is finished’; for your sake He died and for your sake He overcame death; indeed for your sake, little children, and you still know nothing of it. And thus the word of the apostle is confirmed: “We love God, for He loved us first.” Amen.

MEMBERSHIPS-2ND

Timothy Bridgford Landon MillerChloe Steele

HYMN

Please sit. Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (412)

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

(Max Ryan) Opening: Hebrews 11:1 Thanksgiving: Hebrews 10:23 Petitions: Hebrews 11:11

HYMN

Please stand. Psalm 19...........................................................36

SERMON

Te Two-Edged Sword................Jared Longshore

PRAYER

Ending with The Lord’s Prayer…

OFFERTORY

Please stand. Holy, Holy, Holy.................................................317

- COMMUNION -

Please sit.

MEDITATION

We now come to the part of the service where God seals the effectual Word He has spoken to us by giving us covenant signs as visible guarantees of God’s abiding love towards us. It is common for God to seal a promise with a sign for remembrance. Christ Jesus said “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” But what does “in remembrance of me” mean?

The chief signification here is not that we remember Christ's death and its implications for us (however good and true) but that God remembers Christ's death and its implications for us. In the Old Testament, whenever God gives a sign for remembrance, it is a reminder to God to uphold His covenant toward us. Consider for example, the bow in the clouds that God gave to Noah which is a memorial before God. God says that whenever it shall appear in the clouds, "I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh" (Gen 9:16) Likewise, in the Passover meal, which was a type of the Lord's Supper, the blood of a covenant on the doorpost was to serve a reminder to the angel of death to pass over the homes of the God's people on account of the blood. So also, this meal set before you is a proclamation of the Lord's death, not primarily before the world or even before you, it is first and foremost a proclamation before God the Father on account of the priestly mediating work of the Lord Jesus Christ on your behalf. So, as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you can be sure that God is continuing to remember you accounted in Christ, reckoned perfectly righteous before Him, accepted and forgiven, a pleasing aroma before the Lord. This meal is therefore a reminder to you of the veritable promises of God by which He saves you from your sin. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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:

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness.......................504 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

Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus!...........................485

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

Praise Jehovah, All Ye Nations.............................223 The congregation may raise hands.

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

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