17 July 2022
Call to Worship: Psalm 96:1-3
Opening Hymn: 229 “Holy God, We Praise Your Name”
Confession of Sin
Most merciful God, Who are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and hast promised forgiveness to all those who confess and forsake their sins; We come before You with a humble sense of our own unworthiness, acknowledging our manifold transgressions of Your righteous laws. But, O gracious Father, Who desires not the death of a sinner, look upon us, we beseech You, in mercy, and forgive us all our transgressions. Make us deeply sensible of the great evil of them; And work in us a hearty contrition; That we may obtain forgiveness at Your hands, Who are ever ready to receive humble and penitent sinners; for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, our only Savior and Redeemer. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Romans 3:21-26
Psalm of Preparation: Psalm 127A “Unless the LORD the House Shall Build”
Old Covenant Reading: Deuteronomy 24:19-22
New Covenant Reading: James 5:1-6
Sermon: True Wealth vs. Self-Indulgence
Hymn of Response: 446 “Be Thou My Vision”
Confession of Faith: Ten Commandments
Doxology (Hymn 568)
Diaconal Offering
Closing Psalm: 8A “O LORD, Our Lord, in All the Earth”
Evening Service
Hymns: 341, 342, 338
OT: Isaiah 53:4-9
NT: Philemon 17-25
Sermon: Paying the debt of reconciliation
Suggested Preparation
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Monday (7/11) read and discuss James 5:1-6
James 5:1–6 (ESV)
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
John Calvin writes:
Go to now. They are mistaken, as I think, who consider that James here exhorts the rich to repentance. It seems to me to be a simple denunciation of God’s judgment, by which he meant to terrify them without giving them any hope of pardon; for all that he says tends only to despair. He, therefore, does not address them in order to invite them to repentance; but, on the contrary, he has a regard to the faithful, that they, hearing of the miserable end of the rich, might not envy their fortune, and also that knowing that God would be the avenger of the wrongs they suffered, they might with a calm and resigned mind bear them.
But he does not speak of the rich indiscriminately, but of those who, being immersed in pleasures and inflated with pride, thought of nothing but of the world, and who, like inexhaustible gulfs, devoured everything; for they, by their tyranny, oppressed others, as it appears from the whole passage.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 65. What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?
A. The fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor and duty which belongeth to every one in their several places and relations.
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Tuesday (7/12) read and discuss James 4:11-17
James 4:11–17 (ESV)
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
John Calvin commenting on verse 11 writes:
Thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. This sentence ought to be thus explained: “When thou claimest for thyself a power to censure above the law of God, thou exemptest thyself from the duty of obeying the law.” He then who rashly judges his brother, shakes off the yoke of God, for he submits not to the common rule of life. It is then an argument from what is contrary; because the keeping of the law is wholly different from this arrogance, when men ascribe to their conceit the power and authority of the law. It hence follows, that we then only keep the law, when we wholly depend on its teaching alone, and do not otherwise distinguish between good and evil; for all the deeds and words of men ought to be regulated by it.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 66. What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
A. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God’s glory and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.
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Wednesday (7/13) read and discuss Deuteronomy 24:19-22
Deuteronomy 24:19–22 (ESV)
19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
Rousas John Rushdoony writes:
God makes it clear (vv. 21–22) that charity and justice to the helpless is very important to Him. In vv. 17–18 justice to the aliens, to orphans, and to widows is required; in vv. 19–22, the requirement is charity. God’s law links the two together. A mistake made by many commentators is to assume that this law was addressed to “wealthy landowners.” Nothing in the text limits this law to the prosperous farmer; it is addressed to all. Verses 20 and 21 say that the things specified “shall be for” or belong to the deserving poor. Because gleaning is very hard work, harder than harvesting because it is much work for limited returns, the undeserving poor over the centuries have preferred begging to gleaning. Gleaning enabled the gleaners to retain their self-respect: it was not a matter of shame to be a gleaner but a manifestation of character.
Two reasons are stated to motivate obedience to this law. First (v. 19), God will bless the faithful in all the work of their hands, in every area of their life and activity. Second, the fact that they were once in bondage should make them ready to help the helpless. In Clifford’s words, they will be blessed “in remembering that the land is not theirs by right but by grace. Its yield is a gift and gifts are best shared.”
MEMORY WORK
Q. 67. Which is the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
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Thursday (7/14) read and discuss Isaiah 53:4-9
Isaiah 53:4–9 (ESV)
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Alec Motyer writes:
Just as ‘covenant of peace’ (54:10) means ‘covenant which pledges and secures peace’ so (lit.) ‘punishment of our peace’ means punishment which secures peace with God for us. This peace was lost (48:18) by disobedience, and, since it cannot be enjoyed by the wicked (48:22), the Servant stepped forward (49:1) to bring us back to God (49:6). This is what he achieved by his substitutionary, penal sufferings.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 68. What is required in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.
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Friday (7/15) read and discuss Philemon 17-25
Philemon 17–25 (ESV)
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:
Here, at the climax of the letter, we witness nothing less than the radical application of the doctrine of justification to everyday living. No Christian has a right to refuse a welcome to one whom God has welcomed. Faith in Christ, the basis of justification, is the basis also of koinonia. Justification by faith must result in fellowship by faith. This latter means the settled determination to share fully in mutual fellowship with all those who share the faith, however awkward or angular or muddled or misguided, or simply different, they may be, or appear to be.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 69. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.
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Saturday (7/16) read and discuss James 5:1-6
James 5:1–6 (ESV)
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
John Calvin writes:
A witness against you. He confirms the explanation I have already given. For God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but, on the contrary, he has designed them as aids and helps to human life. Therefore, even spending without benefit is a witness of inhumanity. The rusting of gold and silver will be, as it were, the occasion of inflaming the wrath of God, so that it will, like fire, consume them.
Ye have heaped treasure together. These words may also admit of two explanations:—that the rich, as they would always live, are never satisfied, but weary themselves in heaping together what may be sufficient to the end of the world,—or, that they heap together the wrath and curse of God for the last day; and this second view I embrace.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 70. Which is the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.