Preparing For The Lord's Day

preparing

Preparing for the Lord's Day

 

Thy Kingdom Come

Sin and righteousness can be complicated matters. We tend to see the sins of others very clearly and demand their repentance. Nevertheless, we fail to see the severity of our own sin and demand grace when we give in or slip up. On the other hand, in matters of righteousness, we are very quick to see the mixed motives of others and assume our own righteousness is pure and deserving of praise. 

It reminds me of an article that was written about gasoline gauges. I know that you have noticed that your gasoline gauge stays on full for a long period of time before it starts to drop. Once it does begin to drop the rate at which it goes down increase until it gets to empty at which point you have another few gallons to burn. It turns out that engineers developed the fuel gauge to read in this manner. People like to feel as though their car has a full tank of gas, so it stays on full for an extended period. People also like to have a grace period before they must refuel and so the gauge reads “empty” long before the tank is actually empty. You would think that the job of an engineer would be to aim for precision and accuracy. Turns out we would rather be told what we want to hear, rather than what is true. 

In our passage for this Sunday, the Lord Jesus explains that the Pharisees have been looking at their own sin and righteousness from a falsely engineered perspective. They have assumed that outward proclamations of obedience were all that was required in God’s Kingdom. Nevertheless, Jesus reveals that it is not righteousness that we must bring but repentance. For everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Both outwardly sinful and outwardly righteous people need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone. Our sin gauge is broken. On one hand, we can believe that we are too sinful to ever come into the Kingdom on the other hand we can believe that we are righteous enough to enter the Kingdom on our own. But what we will see is that to enter the Kingdom of God we must repent of both our sin and our presumed righteousness and trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. To come prepared for the sermon take time this week to read and to meditate upon Matthew 21:28-32, Psalm 51:17, Isaiah 57:17, Matthew 3:8, John 4:34, Acts 26:20, and this article on Life as Repentance.

As we gather to worship our loving Father this Lord’s Day, we will join our hearts in song, singing the Hymn of Praise “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” the Acclamation of Praise “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,” and the Hymn of Response “All Praise to God, Who Reigns Above.” Let us come to worship this Sunday prepared to hear God’s Word, to receive it in faith, to love and treasure it in our hearts, and to practice it in our lives that we may continue to glorify and enjoy Him! 

Sermon Information 

Text: Matthew 21:28-32 

Title: A Kingdom of Repentance 

Outline: 

  1. Every Christian Must Repent of Their Sin.
  2. Every Christian Must Repent of Their Righteousness.
  3. Every Christian Must Trust in Christ's Righteousness.

Sunday's bulletin