26 June 2022
Call to Worship: Psalm 98:1-3
Opening Hymn: 219 “O Worship the King”
Confession of Sin
Most holy and merciful Father; We acknowledge and confess before You; Our sinful nature prone to evil and slothful in good; And all our shortcomings and offenses. You alone know how often we have sinned; In wandering from Your ways; In wasting Your gifts; In forgetting Your love. But You, O Lord, have pity upon us; Who are ashamed and sorry for all wherein we have displeased You. Teach us to hate our errors; Cleanse us from our secret faults; And forgive our sins for the sake of Your dear Son. And O most holy and loving Father; Help us we beseech You; To live in Your light and walk in Your ways; According to the commandments of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Isaiah 55:7-9
Psalm of Preparation: Psalm 51C “God, Be Merciful to Me” Stanzas 1-4
Old Covenant Reading: Proverbs 16:16-19
New Covenant Reading: James 3:13-18
Sermon: Manifesting the Wisdom from Above
Psalm of Response: Psalm 51C “God, Be Merciful to Me” Stanzas 5-8
Confession of Faith: Q/A 1 Heidelberg Catechism (p. 872)
Doxology (Hymn 568)
Closing Hymn: Hymn 466 “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
Evening Service
Hymns: 238, 488, 429
OT: Leviticus 25:35-43
NT: Philemon 8-25
Sermon: Love acting through forgiveness
Suggested Preparation
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Monday (6/20) read and discuss James 3:13-18
James 3:13–18 (ESV)
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Craig Blomberg and Mariam Kamell write:
Centuries ago, the Venerable Bede opined, “Someone who lives in a humble and wise way will give more evidence of his standing before God than any number of words could ever do.” Sadly, far more common are teachers (and other speakers) in Christian circles who are clearly full of themselves, above the critiques of others, and confident that they are always right, even with issues on which godly, Bible-believing Christians have never agreed. Such behavior fits James’s description of the “wisdom” that is earthbound and demonic, not that which is heaven-sent.63 Gerhard Maier summarizes well when he describes the “surprise” this passage contains: “One recognizes Christian wisdom from a person’s mode of life. This means likewise not from his or her intelligence, rhetoric or relevance!” Many congregations need to apply this when they choose their leaders, preferring at times the humble shepherd to the more charismatic orator.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.
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Tuesday (6/21) read and discuss James 3:1-12
James 3:1–12 (ESV)
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
John Calvin commenting on verses 9-10 writes:
Therewith, or, by it, bless we God. It is a clear instance of its deadly poison, that it can thus through a monstrous levity transform itself; for when it pretends to bless God, it immediately curses him in his own image, even by cursing men. For since God ought to be blessed in all his works, he ought to be so especially as to men, in whom his image and glory peculiarly shine forth. It is then a hypocrisy not to be borne, when man employs the same tongue in blessing God and in cursing men. There can be then no calling on God, and his praises must necessarily cease, where evil-speaking prevails; for it is an impious profanation of God’s name, when the tongue is virulent towards our brethren and pretends to praise him. That we may therefore rightly praise God, the vice of evil-speaking as to our neighbour must especially be corrected.
This particular truth ought also to be borne in mind, that severe censors discover their own virulence, when they suddenly vomit forth against their brethren whatever curses they can imagine, after having in sweet strains offered praises to God. Were any one to object and say, that the image of God in human nature has been blotted out by the sin of Adam; we must, indeed, confess that it has been miserably deformed, but in such a way that some of its lineaments still appear. Righteousness and rectitude, and the freedom of choosing what is good, have been lost; but many excellent endowments, by which we excel the brutes, still remain. He, then, who truly worships and honours God, will be afraid to speak slanderously of man.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 48. What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?
A. These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.
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Wednesday (6/22) read and discuss Proverbs 16:16-19
Proverbs 16:16–19 (ESV)
16 How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. 17 The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life. 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Derek Kidner writes:
The special evil of pride is that it opposes the first principle of wisdom (the fear of the Lord) and the two great commandments. The proud man is therefore at odds with himself (8:36), his neighbor (13:10), and the Lord (16:5). Destruction may appropriately come from any quarter.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 49. Which is the second commandment?
A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
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Thursday (6/23) read and discuss Leviticus 25:35-43
Leviticus 25:35–43 (ESV)
35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God.
Rousas John Rushdoony writes:
God declares that we are all His servants, in bond-service all our lives to Him (v. 42), and hence we can never treat another man as our property because we are all together God’s property. As has been noted by one commentator, “You may hold them to service, but only to service, nothing more.”
There was much abuse of this law in Israel. Thus, in 2 Kings 4:1, we see creditors seeking to seize the two sons of a widow, and her appeal to Elisha; this was a pagan pattern, as witness Nehemiah 5:4–5. Israel, Isaiah says, had sold herself into slavery by her sins (Isa. 50:1); the Messiah’s task is the release of captives and of the exploited (Isa. 58:7). For failure to obey the law of release, Judah herself would go into captivity (Jer. 34:8–11). Amos 2:6 and 8:4–6 give us a telling account of Israel’s apostasy in her disregard for these laws.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 50. What is required in the second commandment?
A. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.
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Friday (6/24) read and discuss Philemon 8-25
Philemon 8–25 (ESV)
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. 25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
One commentator writes:
Paul has thanked God for Philemon’s love, and it is to love, not duty (therefore), that he will now appeal. By saying although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, he indicates that he is not denying the fact that as an apostle he has certain rights. He knows, however, that to use them in this case would be inappropriate. Merely obeying an order would not necessarily elicit from Philemon that increase in understanding and love for which Paul has prayed (v. 6). At the same time, he is indeed hinting that there is something which Philemon ‘ought to do’… even while saying, in effect, ‘but I shan’t mention that’….
Instead, Paul knows that there is a more excellent way. I appeal to you on the basis of love. Behind this choice of the right sort of appeal lies an all-important point: living Christianly makes people more human not less. No Christian should grumble at extra demands of love. They are golden opportunities to draw on the reserves of divine love, and in so doing to become more fully oneself in Christ, more completely in the image of God, more authentically human. It is not merely Onesimus for whom Paul is here pastorally concerned.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.
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Saturday (6/25) read and discuss James 3:13-18
James 3:13–18 (ESV)
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
John Calvin writes:
Who is a wise man. As the lust of slandering arises mostly from pride, and as the false conceit of wisdom for the most part generates pride, he therefore speaks here of wisdom. It is usual with hypocrites to exalt and shew off themselves by criminating all others, as the case was formerly with many of the philosophers, who sought glory for themselves by a bitter abuse of all other orders. Such haughtiness as slanderous men swell with and are blinded by, James checked, by denying that the conceit of wisdom, with which men flatter themselves, has in it anything divine; but, on the contrary, he declares that it proceeds from the devil.
Then the meaning is, that supercilious censors, who largely indulge themselves, and at the same time spare none, seem to themselves to be very wise, but are greatly mistaken; for the Lord teaches his people far otherwise, even to be meek, and to be courteous to others. They, then, are alone wise in the sight of God, who connect this meekness with an honest conversation; for they who are severe and inexorable, though they may excel others in many virtues, do not yet follow the right way of wisdom.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
A. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.
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