The Lord’s Day
May 6, 2007
Prelude
Apostolic Greeting
*Call to Worship Psalm 36:5-7
Minister: Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Congregation: Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Minister: Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep.
Congregation: O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
Minister: How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Congregation: And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
*Gloria Patri No. 734
*Prayer of Invocation
*Hymns In the Heavens (inside front cover)
Psalm 8 (previous page)
Public Confession
We confess that You alone are God Most High. We also know that You are a God of abundant compassion. Even now, we appear before You as a result of Your mercy.
We thank You for calling us as Your people in Christ. We thank You for the complete and abiding character of our salvation. With these things in mind, we make a confession of our sins.
We know that nothing is hidden from You—not our thoughts, not our words, not our steps. We know also that we have sinned against You this past week. We have sinned on purpose and we have sinned through ignorance.
Forgive our many transgressions, O Lord. Remember the One who gave Himself for us. Enable us to live for His glory.
Words of Assurance John 3:14-18
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Response O Thou That Hear’st When Sinners Cry (inside back)
Prayer for the Tithe and Offerings
Collection of the Tithe and Offerings
*Doxology No. 731
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
*Declaring Our Faith The Larger Catechism
How does it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God?
The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God.
What do the Scriptures principally teach?
The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
What do the Scriptures make known of God?
The Scriptures make known what God is, the persons in the Godhead, his decrees, and the execution of his decrees.
Pastoral Prayer
*Responsive Reading The Laws of God
Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. (1 Corinthians 8:6)
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Little children, guard yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.’” (Matthew 6:9)
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. (Hebrews 4:9, 10)
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. (Colossians 3:20)
“You shall not murder.”
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:8, 9)
“You shall not commit adultery.”
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)
“You shall not steal.”
Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need. (Ephesians 4:28)
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. (Ephesians 4:25)
“You shall not covet.”
Do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints. (Ephesians 5:3)
*Hymn O Word of God Incarnate No. 140
*Public Reading of the Word Romans 16
*Prayer for the Ministry of the Word
Sermon Matthew 7:13-20
Hymn Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured No. 429
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper+
*Hymn O God beyond All Praising No. 660
*Benediction
*Threefold Amen No. 740
* Congregation will please stand
+ Visitors: please see the note on the back of this bulletin