Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 8 January, 2023
“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and
heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Mosaic Law: Illustration, Expostulation & Allegory (7)
The Children of the Bondwoman [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Galatians 4:8-31
Text: Galatians 4:21-25
I. The Resurfacing Question
II. The Powerful Application
III. The Allegorical Method
Psalms: 65:1-5; 54:1-7; 83:1-8; 143:1-7a
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Satisfaction to God’s Justice [youtube]
Scripture Reading: II Corinthians 5
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 5
I. What It Requires
II. Who Cannot Make It
III. Who Can and Did
Psalms: 25:1-7; 55:1-9; 7:12-17; 40:6-10
For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services, contact Stephen Murray
If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart or the elders
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast: www.cprc.co.uk/live-streaming
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quote to Consider
Herman Hanko on Galatians 4:25: “Hagar is analogous to Mount Sinai, and it is, in turn, analogous to ‘Jerusalem which now is.’ The Jerusalem ‘which now is’ is the old city (not yet destroyed by Titus and the Roman armies), which still has its temple and priests and Levites solemnly going about their business, is still the home of Pharisees and Sadducees, is still intent on all the rituals of the law, still seeks salvation by the works of the law, and still boasts that its citizens are the true seed of Abraham and the special people of God because of their natural descent … Earthly Jerusalem, analogous to Sinai, is in bondage with her children. This is then the analogy: Hagar’s begetting a slave is like Mount Sinai begetting slaves, and Mount Sinai’s begetting slaves is like the Jerusalem and her children present in Paul’s day, which crucified Christ. The Judaizers belong to Hagar, mount Sinai, and the earthly Jerusalem. Let those who desire to be under the law remember that” (Justified Unto Liberty, pp. 328, 329).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Rev. Stewart’s letter to the PRC is on the back table. Free PRTJs are also on the table. Standard Bearers are available for subscribers. New RFPA books on Ecclesiastes are available for book club members.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00PM: Corey, Jason, Katelyn, Maisie & Sebastian (Seniors OT)
5:45PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Hannah, Jorja, Keagan, Lucas, Sammy, Somaya,
Sophie & Yossef (Beginners NT)
6:30PM: Penelope & Xander (Juniors OT)
7:15PM: Angelica, Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Heidelberg, Book 2)
The Council meets tomorrow night, 9 January, at 8 PM.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to continue our discussion on faith and reason, etc.
Belgic Confession Class meets this Wednesday at 7:30 PM. In connection with article 37, we will consider further the signs of our Lord’s return in creation.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Israel Rebels Against David’s House” (I Kings 12:16, 28-30).
Offerings: £1,254.06. Donations: £26.96 (Massachusetts), £30 (Lancashire).
Translation Additions: 2 Spanish.
PRC News: Rev. W. Langerak (Trinity, MI) is considering the call to Hosanna PRC (Edmonton, AB). Rev. Smidstra (Holland, MI) is considering calls to First PRC and Hull PRC. Rev. Spronk (Faith, MI) is considering the call to Hudsonville PRC. Rev. DeBoer declined the call from Doon PRC. Loveland PRC’s new trio consists of Revs. Decker, Maatman and Smidstra.
John Calvin on Galatians 4:22
No man who has a choice given him will be so mad as to despise freedom, and prefer slavery. But here the apostle teaches us, that they who are under the law are slaves. Unhappy men! who willingly choose this condition, when God desires to make them free. He gives a representation of this in the two sons of Abraham, one of whom, the son of a slave, held by his mother’s condition; while the other, the son of a free woman, obtained the inheritance. He afterwards applies the whole history to his purpose, and illustrates it in an elegant manner.
In the first place, as the other party armed themselves with the authority of the law, the apostle quotes the law on the other side. The law was the name usually given to the Five Books of Moses. Again, as the history which he quotes appeared to have no bearing on the question, he gives to it an allegorical interpretation. But as the apostle declares that these things are allegorized (ἀλληγορούμενα) Origen, and many others along with him, have seized the occasion of torturing Scripture, in every possible manner, away from the true sense. They concluded that the literal sense is too mean and poor, and that, under the outer bark of the letter, there lurk deeper mysteries, which cannot be extracted but by beating out allegories. And this they had no difficulty in accomplishing; for speculations which appear to be ingenious have always been preferred, and always will be preferred, by the world to solid doctrine.
With such approbation the licentious system gradually attained such a height, that he who handled Scripture for his own amusement not only was suffered to pass unpunished, but even obtained the highest applause. For many centuries no man was considered to be ingenious, who had not the skill and daring necessary for changing into a variety of curious shapes the sacred word of God. This was undoubtedly a contrivance of Satan to undermine the authority of Scripture, and to take away from the reading of it the true advantage. God visited this profanation by a just judgment, when he suffered the pure meaning of the Scripture to be buried under false interpretations.
Scripture, they say, is fertile, and thus produces a variety of meanings. I acknowledge that Scripture is a most rich and inexhaustible fountain of all wisdom; but I deny that its fertility consists in the various meanings which any man, at his pleasure, may assign. Let us know, then, that the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning; and let us embrace and abide by it resolutely. Let us not only neglect as doubtful, but boldly set aside as deadly corruptions, those pretended expositions, which lead us away from the natural meaning.
But what reply shall we make to Paul’s assertion, that these things are allegorical? Paul certainly does not mean that Moses wrote the history for the purpose of being turned into an allegory, but points out in what way the history may be made to answer the present subject. This is done by observing a figurative representation of the Church there delineated. And a mystical interpretation of this sort (ἀναγωγή) was not inconsistent with the true and literal meaning, when a comparison was drawn between the Church and the family of Abraham. As the house of Abraham was then a true Church, so it is beyond all doubt that the principal and most memorable events which happened in it are so many types to us. As in circumcision, in sacrifices, in the whole Levitical priesthood, there was an allegory, as there is an allegory at the present day in our sacraments, — so was there likewise in the house of Abraham; but this does not involve a departure from the literal meaning. In a word, Paul adduces the history, as containing a figurative representation of the two covenants in the two wives of Abraham, and of the two nations in his two sons. And Chrysostom, indeed, acknowledges that the word allegory points out the present application to be [a catachresis] different from the natural meaning; which is perfectly true.
______________________
John Brown on Galatians 4:21-31: “[The apostle Paul] seems plainly to have meant to bring forward the general truth, ‘That no man who sought for salvation by obedience to the Mosaic law could possibly obtain an interest in the blessings of the Christian salvation.’ Whether he rejected Christianity altogether, or whether he endeavoured to connect an acknowledgment of the Messiahship of Jesus Christ along with obedience to the Mosaic law, as the ground of his hopes of acceptance with God, he equally shut himself out from participating in the blessings of Christ’s salvation, by refusing to receive it in the only form in which it is offered—‘The gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ The leading law of the spiritual church in all ages is, ‘the man who is just by faith shall live’” (An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, p. 245).
Hermann Olshausen: “The sacred writers, in the illumination of the Divine Spirit, understood history, as it were, in its signatura: they looked into the heart of things; and thus beheld already formed, when as yet in the earliest germ, like fruit in the blossom, what was later to be developed. Without this spiritual intuition, a similar mode of proceeding—that of the Rabbins and enthusiasts of all descriptions used at all times,—is only a means plausibly to impart a Biblical sanction to the wildest creations of phrenzy. We therefore, as not being favoured with so intense an operation of the Spirit, cannot proceed independently in the adoption of types, but must adhere to those expressed and sanctioned in the Scriptures” (quoted in John Brown, An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, p. 232, n. 1).
