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Bulletin & Hymns
Friedens Reformed Church
P.O. Box J, Tripp, South Dakota 57376
Church: 605-935-6758 Pastor Andy: 605-505-1010
Affiliated with: The Evangelical Association of Reformed & Congregational Christian Churches
August 9, 2020
Opening Prayer:
**Opening Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy 262
** Invocation: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
**Call to Worship: Ephesians 5:5-16
M: For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
C: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
M: Therefore do not be partakers with them.
C: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
M: Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
C: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
M: For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
C: But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
M: Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
C: See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Reading of the Law: Exodus 20:1-17
**Prayer of Confession: Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous and sober life. To the Glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
Assurance of Absolution:
Hymn: Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens, Adore Him 9
**Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 48:12-20
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“Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.
“All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
“Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.”
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me.”
Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, Declare, proclaim this, Utter it to the end of the earth; Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
**The Apostles’ Creed
**The Gloria Patri
Reading of Sermon Text: James 4:1-4
Children’s Sermon
Sermon: The Antithesis
Pastoral Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
The Offertory Hymn: A Mighty Fortress 26
**Doxology
**Prayer of Dedication
**Closing Hymn: May the Grace of Christ Our Savior 608
**Benediction
Postlude
Sermon Outline:
I. What it is
II. What it isn’t
III. Demonstrated in Biblical History
“Scripture uses different ways to describe the life of the antithesis. Sometimes Scripture defines this life in terms of warfare. The people of God are an army. We have spiritual armor and spiritual weapons. Jesus Christ is the Captain of our salvation. We are therefore in this world to fight. Most of us, it seems, think that this world is a playground, with sex as one of our toys. But it is a battle, a fierce battle, a battle to the death. It is a battle that from every earthly point of view is hopeless, for the powers of evil are strong. But it is a battle in which the victory is certain. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, for faith puts us in union with Christ and Christ has overcome the world for us. Our strength is in His cross and our victory in His rule at God’s right hand. Let us then fight; fight for our marriages, for our homes, for sanctity in our own lives. Let us not lack courage, for we shall be victorious.
“Sometimes Scripture speaks of the antithesis in terms of a pilgrimage. Peter does this in his first epistle. It is a marvelous epistle and no minister could do better in this evil day than preach a series on this book. There are two ways, two roads on which one may walk. There is a wide, double-laned, divided highway that is smooth and broad, easy to travel, crowded with people who are laughing and joking. They are enamored with pleasure, earthly pleasure, pleasure that satisfies the yearning of sinful hearts. But the way leads to hell. The child of God, because of his sinful nature, is never out of sight of that easy way. On it there is no suffering to speak of, no difficulty on the journey, no loneliness, for many people travel it.
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“But the other way is quite different. It is a dirt, rocky, narrow trail. It is rugged and steep and requires constant exertion. It is a trail on which are a few people, and for the most part, they are weeping. It sometimes leads through dark and swampy ways, but sometimes over cold snowy peaks where icy winds blow. On each side lurk ogres and strange creatures bent on devouring the few travelers that pass. It is a way that Jesus characterizes as one of self-denial and cross-bearing, a way of suffering and pain, a way of persecution and affliction, a way in which the joys are not earthly pleasures but simply obedience—obedience to God.
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“This road goes to heaven. The difficulties of that way are enormous, but the end of it is what John Bunyan called the “Celestial City.” It is the way of the fulfilment of all God’s covenant promises. It is the way to that heavenly city where we shall see Jesus face to face. It is the way to the home of that host of elect who are now in the company of just men made perfect, and to the home of the angels.”
Herman Hanko, Living Antithetically in an Age of Immorality
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Hymns
Holy, Holy, Holy 262
1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
Who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee
Perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.
4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
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Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens, Adore Him
1 Praise the Lord! ye heav'ns, adore him;
Praise him angels, in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him;
Praise him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord! for he has spoken;
Worlds his mighty voice obeyed;
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance he has made.
2 Praise the Lord! for he is glorious;
Never shall his promise fail;
God has made his saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation!
Hosts on high his pow'r proclaim;
Heav'n, and earth, and all creation,
Laud and magnify his name.
3 Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto thee;
Young and old, thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heav'n adore thee,
We would bow before thy throne;
As thine angels serve before thee,
So on earth thy will be done.
A Mighty Fortress 26
1 A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Does seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
2 Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
From age to age the same;
And he must win the battle.
3 And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him.
4 That Word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever!
May the Grace of Christ, Our Savior 608
1 May the grace of Christ our Savior
And the Father's boundless love,
With the Holy Spirit's favor,
Rest upon us from above.
2 Thus may we abide in union
With each other and the Lord,
And possess, in sweet communion,
Joys which earth cannot afford.