Call to Worship
Sunday School
Studies in The Sermon on the Mount
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Sunday Service
Pastoral Reading
Psalms 40
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
12 For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!
Opening Song
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (TH #92)
1 A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and pow’r are great;
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
2 Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he,
Lord Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.
3 And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
4 That Word above all earthly pow’rs,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.
Prayer
Focus this week: Abe C
Song
God of Every Grace (CRC #78)
Verse 1
O let not this world of sorrows
Steal my only hope away
For the power of Your gospel
Shines within this jar of clay
In affliction You bring wisdom
That my comforts can displace
How my true and greatest treasure
Is in You, the God of grace
Chorus
Now to the God of every grace
Who counts my tears, who holds my days
I sing through sorrows, sing with faith
O praise the God of every grace
Verse 2
Weary with the weight I carry
Give me wings of faith to rise
For You know each grief that lingers
Through the watches of the night
Surely You have borne our sufferings
At the cross took up our pain
And You lead us on to glory
As we trust You, God of grace
Chorus
Now to the God of every grace
Who counts my tears, who holds my days
I sing through sorrows, sing with faith
O praise the God of every grace
Verse 3
There’s a dawning hope before us
That I know is soon to break
As I wait upon Your mercy
Which will swallow every ache
Cries of joy and songs of victory
When we enter heaven’s gates
All Your children home together
All with You the God of grace
Chorus
Now to the God of every grace
Who counts my tears, who holds my days
I sing through sorrows, sing with faith
O praise the God of every grace
Outro
Now to the God of every grace
Who counts my tears, who holds my days
I sing through sorrows, sing with faith
O praise the God of every grace
O praise the God of every grace
O praise the God of every grace
Song
His Mercy is More (CRC #16)
Verse 1
What love could remember no wrongs we have done
Omniscient all knowing He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many His mercy is more
Chorus
Praise the Lord His mercy is m
Stronger than darkness new every morn
Our sins they are many His mercy is more
Verse 2
What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father so tender is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest the
Our sins they are many His mercy is more
Verse 3
What riches of kindness He lavished on us
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many His mercy is more
Matt Boswell/Matt Papa
@2016 Getty Music Hymns and Songs
CCLI #108183
Scripture Reading
Romans 9
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Preaching the Word
Hungering and Thirsting for God’s Word (Part 2)
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[a] may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Closing Song
Blessed Jesus at Your Word (TH #303)
1 Blessed Jesus, at your word
we are gathered all to hear you;
let our hearts and souls be stirred
now to seek and love and fear you,
by your teachings, sweet and holy,
drawn from earth to love you solely.
2 All our knowledge, sense, and sight
lie in deepest darkness shrouded,
till your Spirit breaks our night
with the beams of truth unclouded.
You alone to God can win us;
you must work all good within us.
3 Glorious Lord, yourself impart,
Light of light, from God proceeding;
open now our ears and heart,
help us by your Spirit’s pleading;
hear the cry your people raises,
hear and bless our prayers and praises.
4 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
praise to you and adoration!
Grant that we your Word may trust
and obtain true consolation,
while we here below must wander,
till we sing your praises yonder.