Read Together in unison Psalm 100 (NKJV) A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

Bible Study

1. See v. 1-2. What does this psalm call upon us to do? To whom does this call extend? How do we do this?

2. See v. 3. What are we to know? Who is the LORD? What does it mean when our Bibles capitalize the word LORD (YHWH in Hebrew)? Read Deuteronomy 6:4 – How many Gods is the LORD? Read Matthew 28:19 – How many Persons are in the Godhead? Read 1 John 5:7 (KJV or NKJV) – What does this verse say about the Triune (three-one) God? Read Isaiah 48:16-17 – Who is speaking? Who sent Him and speaks by Him?

3. Cf. Isaiah 44:24; Nehemiah 9:6; Genesis 1 & 2, John 1:1-5; Hebrews 1:1-3. What do these verses teach us about who made us and to whom we belong?

4. Read Psalm 139:13-16. How did God create each of us?

5. How else are we like sheep? Read Isaiah 53:6a. What has God done to bring us back into His fold? Read Isaiah 53:6b; John 3:16; 10:11; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:22-25. Read Isaiah 44:22. For whose sake has the LORD blotted out our sins? Cf. 1 John 2:1-2.

6. If the LORD God made us and redeemed us by sending the Son into the world to die in our stead as a sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the entire world, are we our own or do we rightly belong to Him?

7. What does the Apostle Paul say is a fitting response for us when we come to know and trust in God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ? Read Romans 12:1-2. How do we do this?

8. Read v. 4. What are we entreated to do in this verse? What does this mean and how do we do this?

9. Why do we do this? Read v. 5. How is the LORD good to us? Does His mercy ever run out? Why? Read Psalm 108:4; John 1:14; 14:6. What is His truth and how does it endure to all generations? Does it remain true even yet today for us, our children, our grandchildren?

10. What important truths have you learned from this study? Write a brief summary and, going around the table or room, share it with others.

From Wikipedia
“Old 100th” or “Old Hundredth” (also commonly called “Old Hundred”) is a hymn tune in Long Metre from Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (1551) (the second edition of the Genevan Psalter) and is one of the best known melodies in all Christian musical traditions. The tune is usually attributed to the French composer Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510 – c.1560).

Although the tune was first associated with Psalm 134 in the Genevan Psalter, the melody receives its current name from an association with the 100th Psalm, in a translation by William Kethe entitled “All People that on Earth do Dwell.” The melody is commonly sung with diverse other lyrics as well.

All People That on Earth Do Dwell

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell;
Come ye before Him and rejoice.

Know that the Lord is God indeed;
Without our aid He did us make.
We are His folk, He doth us feed,
And for His sheep He doth us take.

Oh, enter then His gates with praise;
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? The Lord our God is good:
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood
And shall from age to age endure.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
The God whom heaven and earth adore,
From us and from the angel host
Be praise and glory evermore.

Hymn # 791
Lutheran Service Book
Tune Author: Louis Bourgeois
Tune: Old Hundredth
First Published: 1561
Text Author: William Kethe (died about 1593)

We give you thanks and praise, O LORD God, for creating us and giving us life, for redeeming us through the holy life and innocent sufferings and death of Your Son Jesus Christ, and for bringing us to faith in our crucified and risen Savior through Your Word and Sacraments. Graciously keep us in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

Prepared by Dr. Martin Luther for those who intend to go to the Sacrament

[The “Christian Questions with Their Answers,” designating Luther as the author, first appeared in an edition of the Small Catechism in 1551, five years after Luther’s death].

After confession and instruction in the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the pastor may ask, or Christians may ask themselves these questions:

1. Do you believe that you are a sinner? Yes, I believe it. I am a sinner.

2. How do you know this? From the Ten Commandments, which I have not kept.

3. Are you sorry for your sins? Yes, I am sorry that I have sinned against God.

4. What have you deserved from God because of your sins? His wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation. See Romans 6:21,23.

5. Do you hope to be saved? Yes, that is my hope.

6. In whom then do you trust? In my dear Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Who is Christ? The Son of God, true God and man.

8. How many Gods are there? Only one, but there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

9. What has Christ done for you that you trust in Him? He died for me and shed His blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

10. Did the Father also die for you? He did not. The Father is God only, as is the Holy Spirit; but the Son is both true God and true man. He died for me and shed his blood for me.

11. How do you know this? From the holy Gospel, from the words instituting the Sacrament, and by His body and blood given me as a pledge in the Sacrament.

12. What are the Words of Institution? Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

13. Do you believe, then, that the true body and blood of Christ are in the Sacrament? Yes, I believe it.

14. What convinces you to believe this? The word of Christ: Take, eat, this is My body; drink of it, all of you, this is My blood.

15. What should we do when we eat His body and drink His blood, and in this way receive His pledge? We should remember and proclaim His death and the shedding of His blood, as He taught us: This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.

16. Why should we remember and proclaim His death? First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that. Second, so we may learn to be horrified by our sins, and to regard them as very serious. Third, so we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone, and through faith in Him be saved.

17. What motivated Christ to die and make full payment for your sins? His great love for His Father and for me and other sinners, as it is written in John 14; Romans 5; Galatians 2 and Ephesians 5.

18. Finally, why do you wish to go to the Sacrament? That I may learn to believe that Christ, out of great love, died for my sin, and also learn from Him to love God and my neighbor.

19. What should admonish and encourage a Christian to receive the Sacrament frequently? First, both the command and the promise of Christ the Lord. Second, his own pressing need, because of which the command, encouragement, and promise are given.

20. But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament? To such a person no better advice can be given than this: first, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. Second, he should look around to see whether he is still in the world, and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15-16 and in 1 John 2 and 5. Third, he will certainly have the devil also around him, who with his lying and murdering day and night will let him have no peace, within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16; 1 Peter 5; Ephesians 6; and 2 Timothy 2.

Note: These questions and answers are no child’s play but are drawn up with great earnestness of purpose by the venerable and devout Dr. Luther for both young and old. Let each one pay attention and consider it a serious matter; for St. Paul writes to the Galatians in chapter six: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.”

“For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Romans 7:15

Some would have us believe that, when we become Christians, all our struggles in life go away. But, actually, the opposite is true. When the Holy Spirit washes away our sins and regenerates us through the preaching of the Gospel and by means of Holy Baptism – bringing us to trust in Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for our salvation – the struggle begins.

When the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ, He also takes up residence in our hearts and continues the sanctifying work which He has begun in us. He regenerates us and creates in us new natures which trust in God and His promises and love God and seek and desire to be pleasing to God and do His will. This new nature trusts in Christ’s death and resurrection for salvation and, as a fruit of that faith, seeks to do all that God commands and teaches in His Word.

The problem is that we still also have our old sinful natures inherited from Adam which do not trust in God and His promises and seek, rather, to gratify our old sinful longings and desires. And so, though we according to the new man – the new natures created in us by the Holy Spirit of God – will and seek to do what God commands, the old sinful nature in each of us would rather do its own thing and wills and does what it pleases to gratify its sin-corrupted self.

The result is that what we will to do we do not practice; and what we hate and do not wish to do, that we do. And how frustrating this is for us as Christians! We trust in Christ alone for pardon and forgiveness and, as a fruit of faith, we seek to be pleasing to Him in all things. Yet, we fail again and again. We don’t do the things we know we should be doing, and we do the things we hate.

With the apostle, we say: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

In fact, that is why we begin our worship services each Sunday acknowledging and confessing our utter sinfulness and our inability to free ourselves from our sinful condition, and it is why we ask God, Sunday after Sunday (actually, each day), to deal with us in mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus and His innocent sufferings and death for us upon the cross.

And the Apostle Paul also tells us the solution to this wretchedness: “I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25); and, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). He explains that when we walk according to the Spirit, we are not condemned because, through faith in Christ, we have the pardon and forgiveness Christ won for us on the cross and we are clothed with His perfect righteous and holy life.

Some might assume that walking by the Spirit is our own endeavor to live a righteous and holy life, but walking by the Spirit is walking in the truth which God’s Spirit reveals to us through God’s Word. Walking by the Spirit is acknowledging and confessing the sins the Spirit reveals to us through the preaching of God’s Law, and it is taking comfort in the Gospel message of mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s holy life for us and His innocent sufferings and death for the sins of the world. Cf. 1 John 1:5 – 2:2.

Tomorrow, as we come to worship and to receive the body and blood of Christ Jesus which was given and shed for us on the cross, we confess our wretchedness – that we have sinned against the Lord God in our thoughts, desires, words and deeds and that we are truly deserving of God’s wrath and punishments, both temporal and eternal.

But we flee to the cross of Jesus for mercy. Through the preaching of the Gospel and through God’s word of absolution, we take comfort in the fact that “Jesus Christ the righteous … is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1,2). We have a certain hope of God’s forgiveness and of a place in God’s everlasting kingdom because Jesus gave His body into death for us and shed His holy and precious blood on the cross to establish a new covenant in which our sins are forgiven and we are accepted as God’s people. We are comforted with pardon and peace as we partake of Christ’s sacrifice in this covenant meal!

And, for Christ’s sake, we have the assurance that when we awake on the last day, it will be without sin to serve our God forever and ever in righteousness and holiness. We confess with David: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken. Luke 18:31-34

If Jesus had not died for our sins and rose again, you and I could not be saved. It is as the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 15:17-19): “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

Though Jesus told His disciples this, they did not understand. In fact, even after Jesus had died on the cross and risen again, they failed to understand; so, “He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…’” (Luke 24:44-47).

And many remain blind to this truth today, as well. They imagine that the cross was unnecessary and think that they can merit their own salvation by following the examples left for us by Jesus. For them, it really doesn’t matter if Jesus died on the cross and rose again bodily on the third day – His death was only an unfortunate end of Jesus’ life. They believe Christ lives on if we carry His love and concern for the poor and downtrodden into our age by following His example of meeting the physical needs of the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the blind.

Though Christ had perfect love for His neighbor and indeed met the physical needs of those who came to Him, that’s not the most important reason for His coming. He came into this world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15); and, to save sinners, it was necessary for Him to be mocked, scourged, beaten, crucified and buried, and then to rise again from the dead on the third day. This is what the prophets had said He would do, and this is what was necessary to redeem us from our sin and the death we so deserve.

And this is what the Scriptures promised. He was the Seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent but was bruised in His heel (Gen. 3:15). He is the promised Son of David who would redeem Israel from all his iniquities (Ps. 130:7-8). He is the Lord God Himself in human flesh and blood that He might take our place under the law and fulfill it perfectly for us and then suffer and die upon the cross to bear our iniquities (Isa. 53; Ps. 22).

“His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14). “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5-6). Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). “When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10-11).

It was necessary for the promised Messiah, the Christ, to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to rise again on the third day; and it is necessary that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,” that we might place our faith in Him and be saved!

We thank You, O Christ, for going to the cross, bearing our sins, and redeeming us to God. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]