Praise to God for His Majesty
Call to Worship
9 Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the LORD!
*Trinity Hymnal No. 38
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.Unresting, unhasting and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!
Prayer of Invocation
*Trinity Hymnal No. 735
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, amen.
*Confession of Faith
-
The Westminster Shorter Catechism 4–6, p. 869
-
Q. What is God?
A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. -
Q. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.
-
Q. How many persons are there in the godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Confession Before a Holy God
Reading of the Law
1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed feasts.
12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the LORD.
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Confession of Sin
Assurance of Pardon
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The Means of Grace
Prayer of Intercession
*Scripture Reading and Text
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Sermon
Light, Darkness, and Cleansing
Rev. Kyle Brent
Prayer of Application
*Trinity Hymnal No. 253
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
There is a fountain filled with blood,
drawn from Immanuel's veins;
and sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains:
lose all their guilty stains,
lose all their guilty stains;
and sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains.The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day;
and there have I, as vile as he,
washed all my sins away:
washed all my sins away,
washed all my sins away;
and there have I, as vile as he,
washed all my sins away.E'er since by faith I saw the stream
your flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die:
and shall be till I die,
and shall be till I die;
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing your pow'r to save,
when this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue
lies silent in the grave:
lies silent in the grave,
lies silent in the grave;
when this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue
lies silent in the grave.Dear dying Lamb, your precious blood
shall never lose its pow'r,
till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more:
be saved, to sin no more,
be saved, to sin no more;
till all the ransomed church of God
be saved to sin no more.
Thanksgiving and Blessing
Offering
*Trinity Hymnal No. 88
With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring
With grateful heart my thanks I bring,
before the great thy praise I sing:
I worship in thy holy place
and praise thee for thy truth and grace;
for truth and grace together shine
in thy most holy word divine.I cried to thee and thou didst save,
thy word of grace new courage gave;
the kings of earth shall thank thee, Lord,
for they have heard thy wondrous word;
yea, they shall come with songs of praise,
for great and glorious are thy ways.O Lord, enthroned in glory bright,
thou reignest in the heav'nly height;
the proud in vain thy favor seek,
but thou hast mercy for the meek;
through trouble though my pathway be,
thou wilt revive and strengthen me.Thou wilt stretch forth thy mighty arm
to save me when my foes alarm;
the work thou hast for me begun
shall by thy grace be fully done;
Forever mercy dwells with thee;
O Lord, my Maker, think on me.
*Benediction
*Trinity Hymnal No. 731
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heav'ly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.