AM Worship
Call to Worship: Psalm 100:1-5
Opening Hymn: 288 “We Come, O Christ, to You”
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: Hebrews 10:19-22
Psalm of Preparation: Psalm 91B “Who with God Most High Finds Shelter”
Old Covenant Reading: Deuteronomy 6:10-19
New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon: The Faith and Faithfulness of Jesus Christ
Hymn of Response: Hymn 325 “All Glory, Laud, and Honor”
Confession of Faith: Ten Commandments
Doxology (Hymn 568)
Diaconal Offering
Closing Hymn: Hymn 283 “Fairest Lord Jesus”
PM Worship
Hymns: 170, Psalm 51C, 198
OT: Ezra 9:1-15
NT: Luke 18:9-14
Sermon: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Adult Sunday School: Congregational Meeting – No Sunday School This Week
Suggested Preparations
Monday (9/12) Read and discuss Matthew 4:1-11.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (ESV)
Jeffrey Gibbs writes:
The first temptation consists primarily in Satan’s attempt to get Jesus to use His own power to serve Himself in time of need. The slanderer grants Jesus’ identity as “the Son of God,” but he seeks to lead Jesus into being the wrong kind of Son. He acknowledges that Jesus has the power to turn stones into bread. The later narratives of the miraculous feedings of the five thousand and the four thousand show Jesus doing something very much like what Satan tempts him to do here, except that there Jesus will perform the miracle for the benefit of others. Jesus possesses divine power, but how will He use that power?
The LORD had tried in vain to teach Israel: “He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you the manna … so that he would make you know that man does not live on bread alone, but man lives on every word that comes out from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3). Jesus knows well what Israel had failed to learn; unlike Israel, Jesus lives according to the divine Word. Jesus’ life and relationship to God the Father come from what God provides, and especially from what God speaks: “by every word that comes out through [the] mouth of God.”
Specifically, Jesus knows that God has already spoken and that from his mouth have come the words “This one is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (3:17). Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness is God’s will; it is the Spirit’s leading. Jesus will not use His power to murmur or reject God’s will and purpose, as Israel did in the wilderness. The people in their wilderness wanderings did not realize that “as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you” (Deut 8:5), nor did they respond to His discipline as an obedient son should. Jesus, however, overcomes the slanderer, knowing the Father’s Word that declared him to be God’s Son, and living by every divine word, even and especially in His experience of being tempted in the wilderness. Jesus came in humility to His Baptism, and He willingly suffers the time of hunger and temptation, obeying His Father. He lives perfectly and completely by the Father’s Word and will.
Read or sing Hymn 288 “We Come, O Christ, to You”
Tuesday (9/6) Read and discuss Matthew 3:13-17.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (ESV)
Jeffrey Gibbs writes:
Jesus’ reply to John can be fleshed out as follows: Jesus has come to be baptized by John, to submit to the baptism that sinful Israel is undergoing. John objects, because he knows that Jesus is the One who will be Mighty Savior and Judge of all on the Last Day. But Jesus explains that in the present time (“now”), this shockingly unexpected action is comprehensively fitting (“all righteousness”) as the way for John and Jesus together to perform the saving deeds of God, now that the reign of heaven has broken into history in Jesus. For Jesus to submit to John’s baptism is fitting.
Why? Because it shows perfectly how this Jesus “will save His people from their sins” (1:21). It shows how the reign of heaven will come now, in an unexpected way. With John’s participation, Jesus will perform “all righteousness,” that is, He will enact God’s saving deeds for the people by (literally) standing with sinners, taking the place of sinners, receiving from John the baptism that sinners receive. Ultimately, all of Jesus’ ministry will come to its head as the Scriptures are fulfilled in the arrest that leads to His trial and condemnation and crucifixion. There, the sinless one will offer up His own life as the ransom payment in the place of many. That’s why it is “fitting” for Jesus to come and stand in the Jordan and be baptized, to stand (literally) in the place of the many. Later Jesus will perform the judgement, the separation, the baptism with Holy Spirit and fire of which John spoke (3:11), but not “at this time” (3:15). Jesus’ willing baptism in the Jordan is a sign that points forward. It is a cruciform harbinger, pointing forward to the hidden and unexpected, shockingly weak and vulnerable [at least by outward appearances] in-breaking reign of God, to the paradoxical enthronement of the King of the Jews on the cross.
Read or sing Psalm 91B “Who with God Most High Finds Shelter”
Wednesday (9/7) Read and discuss Deuteronomy 6:10-19.
And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised. (ESV)
Adolph Harstad writes:
Israel can love Yahweh only because He loved Israel first. Yahweh is the special name for the God of free and faithful grace. Evidence of His love is deliverance of His people from Egypt, just as He had promised: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Those words of Deuteronomy 5:6 are Yahweh’s introduction to the Ten Words [also called the Ten Commandments], which motivate Israel to obey the Words. Further evidence of His love is His act of cutting a covenant with Israel after he had redeemed her, a covenant ratified by “the blood of the covenant” (Ex 24:8). Since it is not possible for Israel to repay Yahweh for the covenant that He has already freely given, all she can do is respond by loving Him and by rejecting false gods (Ex 20:3; Deut 5:7). Still more proof of His love appears in the verbal expressions of His love for Israel.
Israel cannot and does not perfectly love. That truth is assumed within the covenant itself by its sacrifices for various sins, including the twice-daily offering and annual Day of Atonement. There is forgiveness from Yahweh for all the shortcomings of His people. Nevertheless, perfect love for Yahweh is the command and what Israel is to strive for in her life of sanctification. As the one who perfectly loved Israel, Yahweh deserves, desires, and commands no less than perfect love. Love for Him is the work of God Himself within hearts, as both the OT and NT attest. He works love in His people through His Gospel, which tells of His own love for them. “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Love is also the will of God, as Deut 6:5 testifies and as the summary of both Tables of the Ten Words attest.
Believers confess the deficiency of even their most sincere love for God and neighbor. For the perfect fulfillment of the Shema, we must look to the perfect love of Jesus and God crediting Jesus’ perfect love to sinners by “the great exchange” (2 Cor 5:18-21).
Sing or Read Hymn 325 “All Glory, Laud, and Honor”
Thursday (9/8) Read and discuss Ezra 9:1-15.
After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God, saying:
“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.
“And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? O LORD, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.” (ESV)
Derek Thomas writes:
Many different responses to Scripture are appropriate: joy, wonder, and seriousness, to name but three. Even laughter is appropriate. … But there are times when we should tremble at God’s Word. Scripture contains law as well as promise, threat as well as divine approval. The first use of the law is the so-called pedagogic use of law, to teach us the greatness of our sin and misery and to drive us to the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. …
That is what happened to the Israelites in Jerusalem under the teaching of Ezra. They were convicted of their sin – their own personal sin and the sin of the community as a whole. They saw themselves as a community who had offended God in their deeds and now wished to find forgiveness. The strength and emotional fervor of their response may surprise us, even offend us, but that says more about us than about them. They were earnest and sincere in their response.
Friday (9/9) Read and discuss Luke 18:9-14.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (ESV)
Richard Phillips writes:
This parable exposes the great problem of human pride. But digging deeper, it uncovers the root from which pride grows, namely, self-righteousness. Here is the dominant theme of this parable, Luke explaining that it was spoken to “some who were confident of their own righteousness.” If pride is the poison that kills the soul, here is the cup from which it is drunk, self-righteousness.
The Pharisee’s pride is revealed in the manner of his prayer, and his self-righteousness comes through in the matter or content of his prayer. He stands before God, recounting his own merits and attainments. First, he gloats about his morality, thanking God that he is better than “other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers” and ultimately the tax collector, the very sight of whom is an offense to his eyes. Noticeably absent is any confession of his own sin or request for forgiveness – which is why he receives none from the Lord.
We should observe the method behind this madness. The Pharisee is self-righteous because his standard of comparison is other people, and especially those who stand out in depravity. He does that at which we all are so adept, finding those whose sins are obvious to us – if not to themselves – and then gloating over our apparent superiority.
But the standard of righteousness to which the Bible directs us is not that of other people but that of God.
Read or sing Hymn 283 “Fairest Lord Jesus”
Saturday (9/10) Read and discuss Matthew 4:1-11.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (ESV)
Jeffrey Gibbs writes:
The last temptation differs from the first two in a remarkable way. In the first, Satan assumed that Jesus has power, and asked how He would use it. In the second, the slanderer acknowledged that God promised to exercise power on behalf of Jesus, but he asked Jesus to doubt that promise or misuse that power. In this final and climatic temptation, Satan presumes that the Son will worship and serve someone, so he seeks to turn Jesus aside from wholehearted worship and service of God His Father. Jesus, however, will not turn aside. His life and ministry will be a perfect act of worship and service to God.
Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.