Category: The Lord’s Day

Honor Your Father and Your Mother

Honor Your Father and Your Mother

This week at River City Reformed, we turn to what we often refer to as the second table of the law. The first table, or the first four commandments had to do with our relationship to God, and commandments 5-10 have to do with our relationship to our neighbor. Exodus 20:12 says, “‘Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

This commandment, serving as the first of the second table calls us to honor those in authority over us. This has to do directly with our parents, our father and mother, but it also has to do with all manner of authority. This command also has something to say to those in positions of authority. This week, we will discuss the scope of this commandment and how it applies to our lives as Christians. We will also think through the promise attached to the command and the Gospel hope for us in the midst of our failures to keep this commandment. We hope that you can join us for worship at 9 AM at 9820 W Markham St. (the sanctuary of Faith United Methodist Church). For more information, click here, or contact us. You can also watch our service live on YouTube with a link posted to our Facebook page.

Call the Sabbath a Delight

Call the Sabbath a Delight

As we come to the fourth commandment in our study of Exodus 20:1-17, it is perhaps the command that is most often under acknowledged or misunderstood. Some see it as unnecesarily burdensome, and others see it as no longer binding on the people of God. That command is, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

This week at River City Reformed, we will consider the Sabbath and what is truly being said in the fourth commandment. We will see that the Sabbath is still binding, but also that is a great blessing to the people of God. Isaiah 58:13-14 says, “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

It is God who nourishes our souls on the Day of rest and worship which He has given to us. And the Sabbath Day itself points us to the hope of the Gospel–that the crucified Christ has risen on the first Day of the week and that we now joyfully await His return.

We meet together on the first Day of the week in the public worship of God in order to meet with God Himself and with His people. We are to devote the Day to the rest and worship of God, trusting that God Himself is at work in us. Would you join us this Lord’s Day at 9 AM as we consider the fourth commandment together? We meet for worship at 9820 W Markham St. in Little Rock (the sanctuary of Faith United Methodist Church). For more information, click here or contact us. You can also watch the service on YouTube with a link posted to our Facebook page.

The Holy Name

The Holy Name

In Exodus 20:7 we see the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

You will often hear someone speak about their name as if it is tied to who they are. They speak about preserving their good name or not wanting their name tarnished by a misstep on their part or by gossip on someone else’s part. But in an even more significant way, God’s Name is tied to who He is. God reveals His Name to us, and His Name reveals His own attributes.

The Name of God is precious to the believer because it reveals to us His character, His attributes and His works, including the work of redemption He has wrought in Jesus Christ. This Lord’s Day we will consider the meaning of this commandment and the weightiness of God’s Name. We will also consider the great joy we can have in His Name. Join us this Lord’s Day for worship at 9 AM at 9820 W Markham St. (the sanctuary of Faith United Methodist Church) in Little Rock as we consider the third commandment together. You can click here or contact us for more information. You can also watch our service on YouTube with a link posted to our Facebook page.

Not By Sight

Not By Sight

As we have begun studying Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments, we have seen that the moral law is rooted in God’s own character, and He gives His people His commandments after reminding them of His grace and deliverance. In the first commandment, we saw that God alone is worthy of worship and that we are not to worship any other gods. In the Second Commandment, we are shown that God has the right to determine how He is worshipped.

Specifically in this commandment, we are told not to make or worship images of God. Exodus 20:4-6 says, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate men, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

So, we are not to make or worship images of God. Perhaps you are not tempted to make physical images of God, but we likely all have been tempted at some point to craft an image of God in our minds that is more similar to our likeness or our preferences than as He has been revealed in Scripture.

Any attempt to craft an image of God is an attempt to live by sight, rather than by faith. But the hope of the Christian life is that we look forward to the day when we will see God in the face of Jesus Christ. We should not attempt to trade the anticipation of that day for substitutes crafted by men. We ought to look to Christ as He is set forth in the pages of Scripture and live by faith until that glorious day when we see Him face to face. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Join us in worship this Lord’s Day at 9 AM at 9820 W Markham St in Little Rock (the sanctuary of Faith United Methodist Church) as we consider the Second Commandment together. You can click here or contact us for more information. You can also watch our service on YouTube, and you can access it with the link posted to our Facebook page.

No Other Gods

No Other Gods

This week, we begin a study of the Ten Commandments. Lord willing, we will look at one commandment per week for ten weeks. As we consider the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” (Exodus 20:3), we must also consider the preface to the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)

The moral law reveals to us God’s holy character. It drives us to our need for a Savior in Jesus Christ. It restrains sin in the world. And it serves as a guide for Christian living. But God grounds His commandments first of all in who He is and in the deliverance that He has accomplished. He is the true God–He is the LORD. He is the God who is eternal, almighty and self-sufficient. He is not dependent upon any creature. And He is the One who has the right to make laws binding upon all people. But He is also the God who has made and kept covenant with His people and who has redeemed His people. He showed His people grace–in the Exodus account He brought His people out of slavery in Egypt and through many toils and snares. Does this not parallel our own salvation? God has delivered us from sin’s curse and brought us into fellowship with Him, and He continues to guide His people through danger and temptation until they reach their eternal home.

So commandments are given, but they are grounded in the character and grace of God. There is much we need to learn from this preface. One of the best expositions of the Ten Commandments and related truths available is found in Westminster Larger Catechism 91-151. In Larger Catechism 101, we are asked, “What is the preface to the ten commandments?” The answer given is:

“The preface to the ten commandments is contained in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Wherein God manifesteth his sovereignty, as being Jehovah, the eternal, immutable, and almighty God; having his being in and of himself, and giving being to all his words and works: and that he is a God in covenant, as with Israel of old, so with all his people; who, as he brought them out of their bondage in Egypt, so he delivereth us from our spiritual thraldom: and that therefore we are bound to take him for our God alone, and to keep his commandments.”

In other words, because of who God is and all that He has done, “we are bound to take him for our God alone.” It is in understanding this that we may understand the command “You shall have no other gods before me.” It is this preface and this commandment that we will discuss in more detail during worship at 9 AM this Lord’s Day at 9820 W Markham St. in Little Rock (the sanctuary of Faith United Methodist Church). For more information, click here or contact us. You can also watch our service on YouTube, with a link posted to our Facebook account.