Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 15 February, 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
Scripture Reading: John 15
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 8
I. The Meaning
II. The Implication
III. The Application
Psalms: 122:1-9; 12:1-8; 116:1-8; 25:8-14
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Praiseworthy Woman [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 31
Text: Proverbs 31:30
I. The Vanity of Beauty
II. The Fear of God
Psalms: 96:8-13; 13:1-6; 111:4-10; 128:1-6
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 Hoeksema: “That ever abiding covenant is God’s tabernacle with men. It may be defined as that living and most intimate bond of fellowship between God and His people in Christ that assumes the form of friendship. By friendship we mean a relation of fellowship and intimate communion of love that exists between persons on the basis of the highest possible equality by personal distinction. Friends have no secrets. They know each other. They enter into each other’s life. This is possible only on the basis of equality. On the other hand, true friendship is mutual fellowship. Friends supplement each other. They form a unity, a whole. Hence, the parties between whom a bond of friendship exists must be personally distinct. Were they identical, each would be self-sufficient. Hence, for the establishment of a bond of friendship there must be personal distinction, on the basis of the highest possible affinity and equality. The idea of the covenant of God is briefly expressed in the term ‘friendship.’ In His covenant, God is the Friend-sovereign of man, man is His friend-servant. In His covenant, God reveals Himself to man, and man knows Him; God opens His heart to him, and he tastes that the Lord is good; God takes man into His house, and he dwells with Him, consecrates himself to Him, serves and glorifies Him, and has his delight in the keeping of His precepts. The covenant of God is the very essence of religion!” (“The Covenant: God’s Tabernacle With Men,” pp. 12-13).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
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)
8:00 PM: Abbie, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Essentials)
Tuesday Bible study will meet this week at 11 AM to continue our study of “The Existence of God,” considering more from Romans, etc.
The Belgic Confession class meets at 7:30 PM on Wednesday to continue our discussion of the bodily resurrection.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “The Faithful Witness: Our Witnessing” (Rom. 10:1).
Offerings: £1,996.60. Donations: £500 (New Jersey, USA).
Translation Additions: 8 Urdu.
PRC News: Southwest PRC called Rev. Engelsma (Crete, IL). Grace PRC called Rev. Langerak (Trinity, MI). Rev. De Boer (Edgerton, MN) declined the call to Heritage PRC. Calvary PRC called Rev. Eriks (Unity, MI). Hope PRC (Redlands, CA) called Rev. D. Holstege (Wingham, ON). Grandville PRC called Rev. Spronk (Faith, MI).
Thou Hast Dealt Well, O Lord! (1)
Herman Hoeksema in the Standard Bearer, vol. 13, issue 14
Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge …” (Ps. 119:65-66a).
O Lord, thou hast dealt well!
Now, as the darkness is past and the mists have rolled away, I do see it and thankfully acknowledge: Thou hast dealt well!
Not always could I see. For the way was dark and steep and rough, well-nigh impassable at times; and all things appeared against me! My enemies and Thy enemies encompassed me, spoke proudly against Thy Word and Thy Name, persecuted me and afflicted me sorely. And they appeared to prosper, to have the victory over me and over Thy cause in the world.
And I could not understand the way, Thy way!
Nor, when I could not see, was my heart always right with Thee. Not understanding I did not trust. And not trusting I hesitated to follow in the way of Thy precepts.
I feared and murmured! Now I see and understand, that even affliction has for my profit!
Thou hast dealt well, O Lord! According unto Thy Word!
Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Jehovah, and I should have known, even in the days of my affliction, when the way appeared dark and hopeless.
I should not have feared but trusted!
No bitter complaint and rebellious lamentation and murmuring should have been heard from my lips, but even in the night my song should have been of Thee, and Thy wondrous works I should have declared even over against them that rose up against me and blasphemed the Name of my God! I might have known even in the days of my sufferings that Thou, O Lord, always dealest well with Thy servant. For, thus Thou assurest him in Thy Word!
And now the night is vanished and the morning is come, and I compare my way with Thy Word, there is naught but harmony! According unto Thy Word Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant!
Thy Word!
It is not a particular assurance of promise, which Jehovah had spoken privately to the author of this psalm, but the Word which the Lord speaks throughout the ages to His servants, His people, His church in the midst of the world. Always He spoke this Word, from the beginning of the world even until the present day. He spoke it through his servants that were lifted out of the valley of darkness to the mountain-tops of prophecy, whence they obtained a glimpse of the coming dawn, in order that then they might return and tell the glad news to them that dwelled in the night below. He spoke it through all His mighty acts of redemption, wherewith He saved His servants and delivered them with an arm of strength. He spoke it by means of shadows and ceremonies and types, in temple and tabernacle, in altar and sacrifice, in priest and Nazarite. He spoke it through His Son, the only Begotten in the flesh, His cross and resurrection, His exaltation at the right hand of the Most High, His return in the Spirit. And He spoke it through apostles and prophets …
And still He speaks! For, through the Scriptures it is He that speaks from heaven! His Word unto His servants!
And always that Word is the same: with you, My servants, I deal well! Fear not! Be of good courage! Be well assured that unto you I never do anything but good! Though all things would seem to testify against this, though the way may seem ever so dark, though you should have to pass through the fire and through the floods, though all things would seem to go wrong and tend to your destruction; though your punishment is there every morning and the wicked prosper in the world; though the enemy of My name and My covenant with you rise up against you and rage against you furiously; though you cry to Me day and night and I seem not to hear—yet, this is My Word unto you, My servants: I always deal well with you!
Marvellous Word of Jehovah!
It means that in dealing with His servants, whether directly or indirectly, the Lord always has in mind their true and eternal and heavenly good, their final salvation. No, it does not imply that He will send them continuous prosperity according to the flesh, that He will carefully keep the enemy away from them, that He will make the way smooth and the day bright; often He afflicts His people and causes the enemy apparently to triumph over them. And of affliction and sorrow the entire section in which this acknowledgement of the Lord’s well-dealing appears gives testimony. The poet speaks of the time before he was afflicted and when he went astray; of the proud that have forged a lie against him and whose heart is as fat as grease; and he testifies that it is good for him that he has been afflicted. And as was the way of the poet so it is the experience of the people of God throughout the ages. Not their earthly and temporal prosperity the Lord has in view, when He deals with His servants, but their final salvation, the incorruptible and undefilable inheritance that fadeth not away, their ultimate glory, the heart of which is that they shall dwell with God in His tabernacle, that He shall walk among them and dwell with them and call them His sons and His daughters!
To bestow that eternal good on them is His eternal purpose!
And always, in dealing with His servants, He keeps that purpose in mind!
Thither is His divine eye directed, at that end He aims, in all His temporal dealings with His people! For, in His eternal counsel He so ordered all things in heaven and on earth, that they must be conducive unto that glorious end. And in time He realizes that counsel, so that all things are made subservient unto that end!
He deals well with His servants!
Preeminently and centrally this is true of the Servant of Jehovah! How His way was ordained to be a way of suffering from beginning to end! Earthly prosperity He knew not: the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but He had not where He might lay His head! The world hated Him; despised and rejected was He, of all men the most miserable. Is there a sorrow, which He did not bear; a sickness which He did not suffer; a contempt that was not heaped upon Him? Is there ought of pain and grief, of anguish and fear, of darkness and gloom hidden in the dark recesses of death, which He did not endure? Yea, is there any depth of trouble in hell, where the impress of His feet is not found?
The Servant of Jehovah—the Man of Sorrows! Yet, the Lord was dealing well with His Servant!
The way of His sorrows was the way to His joy; the way of His humiliation was the way of His exaltation; the way of His death was the way of His life; the way through hell was for Him the way to the highest glory in heavenly places!
The joy was set before Him!
And for the joy set before Him He endured the cross and—is seated at the right hand of God!
And thus the Lord deals with all His servants in Him, for His sake!
