Worship: January 31st, 2016

On Sunday, January 31st, Pastor Tony continued his sermon series in Isaiah: The Lord Saves. Through this passage we see the certainty of our final salvation fixes us on God’s glory and helps us to endure the difficulties of life in a fallen world.

Preaching: Rev. Tony Felich (Sermon Audio Page| Other Sermons)

Text: Isaiah 26

[1] In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. [2] Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. [3] You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. [4] Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. [5] For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. [6] The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.” [7] The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous. [8] In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. [9] My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. [10] If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. [11] O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. [12] O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. [13] O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. [14] They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. [15] But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land. [16] O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. [17] Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord; [18] we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. [19] Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. [20] Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by. [21] For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

Worship Hymns:
Hymn of Adoration: # 97 We Praise You, O God, Our Redeemer, Creator
Hymn or Spiritual Songs: # 299 Look, Ye Saints, the Sight Is Glorious
Hymn of Response: # 320 Rejoice, All Ye Believers
Dismissal Hymn: # 243 Praise the Savior Now and Ever (4)

Additional Reading: The Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A’s 17-21

Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

Full Liturgy for January 31st, 2016 (PDF)

Sermons from the Exposition of Isaiah
(click on the link for the sermon page with audio) 

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