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“We must not, however, fall into the snare of libertinism because we want to avoid the charybdis of pharisaism. The opponents of Sabbath observance and of its complementary restrictions like to peddle the charge of pharisaism when efforts are made to preserve the Sabbath from desecration and to maintain its sanctity. We should not be disturbed by this type of vilification. Why should insistence upon Sabbath observance be pharisaical or legalistic? The question is: is it a divine ordinance? If it is, then adherence to it is not legalistic any more than adherence to the other commandments of God. Are we to be charged with legalism if we are meticulously honest? If we are jealous not to deprive our neighbour unjustly of one penny which is his, and are therefore meticulous in the details of money transactions, are we necessarily legalistic? Our Christianity is not worth much if we can knowingly and deliberately deprive our neighbour of one penny that belongs to him and not to us. Are we to be charged with legalism if we are scrupulously chaste and condemn the very suggestions of gesture of lewdness? How distorted our conception of the Christian ethic and of the demands of holiness has become if we associate concern for the details of integrity with pharisaism and legalism! … Why then should insistence upon Sabbath observance be legalism and pharisaism? This charge can appear plausible only because our consciences have become insensitive to the demands of the sanctity which the ordinance entails. The charge really springs from failure to understand what is the liberty of the Christian man. The law of God is the royal law of liberty and liberty consists in being captive to the Word and law of God. All other liberty is not liberty but the thralldom of servitude to sin.”
Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. We are altogether unworthy to appear before thee, thou Holy One of Israel. In thy sight, O Lord, we are all as an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Enable us to draw nigh at this time unto thee, in the all-prevailing name of our only Mediator, Jesus Christ the righteous. For his sake, pardon our iniquity, which is very great. Receive us graciously, love us freely. Put thy Holy Spirit within us, that we may never walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. It is of thy mercy that we have not followed a multitude to do evil, and this day we would bless thy name for the institution of the Christian Sabbath. May we be enabled to commemorate with humility and thankfulness, the finished works of creation and redemption. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. May we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, and who ever liveth to make intercession for us. Be pleased, O Lord, to send forth thy light and thy truth: let them lead us, let them bring us unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. May our delight be in the law of the Lord: and in thy law may we be disposed to meditate all the day. Sanctify us through thy truth; thy word is truth. Make us fruitful in every good word and work. Make us as trees planted by the rivers of water, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
Bless to us, O Lord, for these and all other holy purposes, the reading of thy word and the public duties of thy sanctuary. Go with us to the house of prayer, and grant thy heavenly blessing to pastors and people, that whatsoever shall be spoken or heard, may be as it becometh the oracles of God. Suffer not the good seed to be choked, or to be rendered unfruitful by the cares or the vanities of this present evil world.
Thou hast set thy King upon thy holy hill of Zion. May all nations be blessed in Him, and call Him blessed. May the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Give thy Son the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. May the waste places of Zion be rebuilt, and the glory of the Lord arise upon her as in the days of old. Visit, with thy special consolations, the sons and daughters of affliction. Let them receive, O Lord, this day a portion of the children’s bread. We render our united thanksgivings for the blessings and privileges of the by-gone week, for the rest of the past night, and for the return of thy holy day. Unworthy of the least of all thy mercies, we cast ourselves on the exceeding riches of thy grace, in Jesus Christ our Lord; in whose words we sum up these our petitions, “Our Father which art in heaven,” etc.
Almighty and most merciful Lord God, who hast been the dwelling-place of thy people in all generations, we would cast ourselves, this evening, upon thy wakeful care and grace. Thou causest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice over us. We have, this day, experienced thy gracious protection and loving-kindness. Bless the Lord, O our souls, and forget not all his benefits. We beseech thee, O God, to follow with thy richest blessing all the religious duties in which we and others have been engaged. May thy holy word sink deeply into our hearts. Forbid, O Lord, that it should prove to the condemnation of any of us that light is come into the world, but that we love darkness rather than light, because our deeds are evil. May we receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls. Grant that thy Holy Spirit may impart to us spiritual discernment of the truth as it is in Jesus – enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Him – and working in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure. We beseech thee, good Lord, to forgive the sins and infirmities with which we are all chargeable in the duties of this thy holy Sabbath. In everything we sin and come greatly short of thy glory. Be merciful, O Lord, to our unrighteousnesses: and remember not our transgressions against us. Grant that the whole services of the sanctuary on earth may be blessed for preparing us to join in the purer services of the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Lord, increase our faith, deepen our repentance, enlarge and sustain our charity towards all men. May we die daily unto sin, and live unto righteousness. May we stand in awe and sin not. May we commune with our own heart upon our bed in the night watches, and be still. Whatever be thy will concerning us, with respect to the good things of this life, be pleased to put gladness into our hearts; even the gladness of thy nation, that we may rejoice with thine inheritance. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, and give us peace through the peace-speaking blood of the great atonement, and we will both lay ourselves down in peace and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest us dwell in safety.
O Lord our God, let thy way be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee. Restore thine ancient Israel, with the fulness of the Gentile nations. Grant that pagan idolatry and the power of the man of sin, may be destroyed by the Spirit of the Lord and the word of his testimony. Revive thy work in the midst of the years: in the midst of the years make known: in wrath remember mercy. Bless and prosper thy true church: clothe thy priests with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy. Prosper vital religion in our hearts and families. Bless our Sovereign, and all in lawful authority. May they be ministers of God to us for good, both spiritual and temporal. Take us, and all near and dear to us, under thy divine protection. May we be defended by the Shepherd of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps. Into thy hands we commend ourselves – that, whether we wake or sleep, we may be the Lord’s. Never leave nor forsake us. Be our God and guide, even unto death; and may we dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Now, unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Ver. 5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.
Obs. 2. Idolaters are proud men, and idolatry is a proud sin.
The scope of the prophet here is chiefly to rebuke them for their false worship; though he speaks of other sins, yet that is the main. "The pride of Israel doth testify to his face;" Israel will have their own way of worship and forsake God, O proud hearts that they have! Idolatry is a proud sin. In all disobedience against God there is much pride; pride of the heart is manifested not only in clothes and in fine things, but in disobedience against God, and as in all sin there is pride, so in a more peculiar manner in the sin of idolatry. For,
1. Idolaters regard the true worship of God as a mean thing, as a thing beneath them. Their way of worship is pompous, fine, and splendid; but the true worship of God is poor, low, and mean. All your superstitious and idolatrous people look thus on the simplicity of the ways and worship of God.
2. They presume to put more dignity on a creature than God has, to put more honor on places than God and nature have imposed. God has made them thus and thus, but I will exalt them higher, and put an excellency, a spiritual, yea, a divine excellency upon them; for so idolaters take upon themselves to do, and this is horrible pride.
3. They prescribe the form of God's worship. The worship of God is the dearest thing he has in the world; and for any creature to take upon him to prescribe which way he shall be worshipped, is the most notorious pride in the world.
4. They honour what is a man's own because it is his own, rather than what is God's. Do not you see it plainly in all superstitious, idolatrous people? As in that one thing of days? God has set one day apart for the honouring of himself, and for the celebration of the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and of the whole work of redemption : how is that day slighted and neglected! But what a horrible wickedness is it accounted not to keep that which man sets apart by himself, that day which is of man's appointment! Men will set apart a day for the honour of Christ and insist that Christ is quite forgotten if that day be forgotten, and Christ is much dishonoured if that day be not regarded. I appeal to you, who sets it apart? whose is it? Is it God's, or is it yours? God's? Certainly, if such a thing were so acceptable to God as men conceive it to be, we should have some little hint, somewhat in the book of God regarding it. We have the story of all the acts of the apostles, what they did in several places, and there is not the least mention of of any such thing of their honouring Christ, by setting a day apart for the celebration of his nativity : we have the epistles to several churches upon several occasions, and we find no notice taken of any such thing in any church they established. Surely therefore it is men's own, there is nothing in God's word for it, how highly soever it is honoured. But we have enough in Scripture for God's own day, the Lord's day; it is appointed by God himself to be a day of thanksgiving for the birth, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and for the whole work of our redemption : but man, out of his pride, will have another day, and so set his post by God's post; he thinks it is not honour enough to Christ to put the celebration of his birth, death, resurrection, ascension, all together in one day; no, he thinks it conduces more to the honour of Christ to have several days, one for his birth, another for his resurrection, and another for his ascension; whereas God hath put all into one, and would have his Son honoured by the observation of that one day.
-- Ebenezer Erskine"I am ready to judge, that folks acquaintance with God Himself is known by the regard they show to His holy day."