Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 4 January, 2026
“Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone,
a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:16)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Justice of God Questioned [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32:1-25
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 4
I. God’s Just Requirement
II. God’s Just Judgment
III. God’s Just Mercy
Psalms: 90:1-2, 10-12; 8:1-9; 99:1-7; 85:3-11
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Jews and Gentiles United in Christ (1)
The Pre-Christian Gentiles [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2
Text: Ephesians 2:11-12
I. What They Were Called
II. What They Were Without
III. How We Should Respond
Psalms: 136:1-12; 9:1-9; 135:14-21; 147:12-20
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
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): “Many labouring to make Plato [or any other pagan] a Christian, do prove themselves to be heathens.
John Philips (1585-1663): “Gross, therefore, and absurd is that libertine opinion that any may be saved in any religion, leading an outward civil life; the Turk in his Mahometism, the Jew in his Judaism, the heathen in his Paganism. They may as well say that in the deluge a man might have been preserved out of the ark, on some tree or house top; or that a limb separated from the body, or a branch cut off from the vine may live” (The Way to Heaven, p. 46).
William Cunningham (1805-1861): “The history of theology affords abundant evidence of the tendency of the doctrine of universal atonement to distort and pervert men’s views of the scheme of divine truth … The idea very naturally occurs to men, that, if Christ died for all the human race, then some provision must have been made for bringing within all men’s reach, and making accessible to them, the privileges or opportunities which have been thus procured for them. And as a large portion of the human race are, undoubtedly, left in entire ignorance of Christ, and of all that He has done for them, some universalists have been led, not very unnaturally, to maintain the position—that men may be, and that many have been, saved through Christ, or on the ground of His atonement, who never heard of him, to whom the gospel was never made known, though Scripture surely teaches—at least in regard to adults—that their salvation is dependent upon their actually attaining to a knowledge of what Christ has done for men, and upon their being enabled to make a right use and application of the knowledge with which they are furnished” (Historical Theology, vol. 2, pp. 367-368).
Scottish Confession (1560): “… we utterly abhor the blasphemy of those that affirm that men which live according to equity and justice shall be saved, what religion soever they have professed” (Article 16).
Canons of Dordt III/IV:4: “There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God, and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.”
Canons of Dordt III/IV:R:5: “… the Synod rejects the errors of those … Who teach that the corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace (by which they understand the light of nature), or the gifts still left him after the fall, that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, namely, the evangelical or saving grace and salvation itself. And that in this way God on His part shows Himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since He applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to conversion. For the experience of all ages and the Scriptures do both testify that this is untrue. He showeth his Word unto Jacob, his statues and his ordinances unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his ordinances they have not known them (Ps. 147:19, 20). Who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own way (Acts 14:16). And: And they (Paul and his companions) having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and when they were come over against Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered them not (Acts 16:6, 7).
Westminster Confession 10:4: “… men, not professing the Christian religion, [cannot] be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the laws of that religion they do profess. And to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
On the back table are flyers for Rev. Engelsma’s lecture on “Biblical Masculinity.” Please take copies, and pass them on the friends and family.
Isobel Mills is in Antrim Hospital recovering from an operation this past Friday. Please remember her and Mervyn in your prayers.
Monday night catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Felicity & Sophie (Juniors NT)
5:45 PM: Grace, Jonas, Liam & Sammy (Beginners NT)
6:30 PM: Eleanora, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope & Xander (Seniors NT)
7:15 PM: Jason, Maisie & Sebastian (Heidelberg Catechism – Book 2)
The Council meets tomorrow evening at 8 PM.
Tuesday Bible study will meet this week at 11 AM to consider the most distinctive feature of Paul’s stay in Iconium (Acts 14:1-7).
The Belgic Confession class meets at 7:30 PM on Wednesday for more on “The One Biblical Consummation Versus Dispensationalism.”
Ladies’ Bible Study plans to meet this week Friday at 10 AM to cover lesson 5 in our study on Titus.
Rev. Engelsma and Elder Sid Miedema, our church visitors, arrive this Saturday. See the back of the bulletin for their schedule.
Men’s Bible study is this Saturday (10 January) at 7:30 PM on-line, treating Psalm 121, using A 30 Day Walk With God Through the Psalms.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “I Will Give You Rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Rev. Engelsma and Elder Miedema will conduct church visitation with the CPRC Council on Monday, 12 January, at 8 PM.
Rev. J. Engelsma will give a lecture on “Biblical Masculinity” on Wednesday, 14 January, at 7:30 PM in the CPRC.
5-a-side football has been arranged for Thursday, 15 January from 9-10 PM at the Sports Hut for men and boys high-school age and older.
The congregational dinner is set for Friday, 16 January, at 7 PM at Dunsilly Hotel in Antrim. Sign-up sheets are on the back table.
Offerings: £1,528.39. Donation: £250 (England).
Translation Additions: 1 French, 2 Hungarian, 2 Indonesian, 4 Spanish and 3 Urdu.
Thank you for your cards, gifts and especially prayers over this past year. As we begin a new year, be assured of our love for you and our prayers that together we may “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever” (II Pet. 3:18). Rev. & Mary Stewart
