Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 29 March, 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
Administration of the Lord’s Supper
Our Incomparable Helper [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 33:1-17, 24-29
Text: Deuteronomy 33:26
I. In the Old Testament
II. In Christ
III. Each and Every Day
Psalms: 89:1-2, 5-8; 18:28-35; 68:3-4, 18, 33-34; 18:1-2, 10-13
Evening Service – 6:00 PM Applicatory
Jews and Gentiles United in Christ (10)
God’s Temple of Jews and Gentiles [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Acts 19:8-34
Text: Ephesians 2:20-22
I. The Specific Focus of Our Text
II. The Biblical Location of Our Text
III. The History of Redemption and Our Text
Psalms: 65:1-5; 18:36-42; 22:27-31; 114:1-8
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
John Gill: “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun … this is one of the names of the people of Israel … and the Lord was their God in a special sense, having chosen, redeemed them, and made a covenant with them; and there is no God like him for the perfections of his nature, his purity and holiness, his goodness, wisdom, power, faithfulness, &c. and for the wonderful works of nature, providence, and grace, done by him; and for the blessings of goodness, temporal and spiritual, he bestows on men. The tribes being particularly blessed, the whole body of the people are pronounced happy, and whose happiness is enlarged … who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky; which he has the sovereign rule and disposal of, and can and does dispose of all the artillery therein, as illustrious proofs of his glory and excellency, and for the help of his people, and the destruction of their enemies; as when he sent forth hail, thunderings, and lightnings, upon the Egyptians, and frightened them; and cast down hailstones upon the Canaanites, and slew many of them; and when the stars in their course fought against Sisera: see Psalm 68:4, 33-34” (Comm. on Deut. 33:26).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The March Covenant Reformed News is available on the back table.
After a week of self-examination, CPRC confessing members in good standing are called to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Your participation in the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood is in part a witness that you repent of your sins, believe in Jesus Christ as your only righteousness, and desire to live a new and godly life. As this heavenly food can be taken to one’s judgment (I Cor. 11:28-30) and as the common reception of the Lord’s Supper is a confession of doctrinal unity (Acts 2:42), the elders supervise the partaking of the sacrament. Visitors who are members of other denominations must already have presented to the Council an attestation from their church that they are confessing members in good standing and have received permission from the Council to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
We express our sympathy to the McCaughern families in the death of Billy’s mother, Ruth, this past Monday. The funeral was held on Wednesday.
Congratulations to Tim and Huiyi Spence in the birth of a boy, Owen Kai Jie, on Friday. Huiyi and Owen came home from the hospital yesterday, and are doing well.
Monday night catechism classes:
6:30 PM: Felicity & Sophie (Juniors NT) – note the NEW TIME
7:15 PM: Jason, Maisie & Sebastian (Heidelberg Catechism – Book 2)
8:00 PM: Abbie, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Essentials) – TEST on Lessons 21-23
Tuesday Bible study will meet at 11 AM to study the simplicity/unity of God.
The Belgic Confession class meets at 7:30 PM on Wednesday to consider further the nature of our glorious resurrection bodies.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “Building With Sword and Trowel” (Neh. 4).
Offerings: £1,239.77. Donation: £1,000 (England), £200 (New Jersey).
Translation Additions: 8 Albanian and 2 Polish.
Spiritual Complacency
Rev. Cornelius Hanko in the Standard Bearer, vol. 69, issue 7
Spiritual complacency is an ailment that creeps upon us unawares. It takes hold of us exactly when we least expect it.
If anyone were to ask us, “How do you feel?” we likely would respond, “Fine, I’m in the peak of health.” But if we were to follow up the question with a bit of self examination, we would realize that we had given our spiritual health little thought. Recent soul searching we have not done. Like Israel of old we are content to say, “The people of the Lord are we.” We read our Bible every day, we pray, we live respectable lives from day to day, we are members of the church and attend its services faithfully.
The symptoms of this common ailment are exactly that: lack of concern, lack of zeal, a lingering apathy.
We actually notice no real change in our daily walk of life, although it is true that our prayers have become a mere formality, a cold repetition. We make a practice of confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness, but we do not stop to consider what sins we are confessing. Our church attendance is hardly more than mere custom. The singing has no strong appeal, so that we sing the words without giving much thought to the content. During the congregational prayer our minds wander. The sermons do not hit home. Were anyone to ask us, we would have to admit that the church service meant little or nothing to us. The celebration of baptism, or even the Lord’s Supper, with its preparatory week, is celebrated out of mere custom. But this is also true of our private and family devotions. To be honest, a good book or a favourite TV programme interests us much more than all our devotional life.
The spiritual and eternal is replaced in our thoughts and desires with mundane and the carnal things.
Sad to say, this ailment is like a contagious disease that spreads very rapidly. It affects not only ourselves but also our family, our friends, and, ultimately, our church. Its victims are legion. Since we are not interested in spiritual matters, our family loses, interest, our friends are hesitant to speak about them with us. We become spiritually lax, our family becomes indolent. In time even our congregation sinks into cold passivity.
The cause. This may be a bit difficult to diagnose.
It may be a reaction to a spiritual involvement. Strange as it may seem, after Israel’s years of wandering in the wilderness, and after the conquest of Canaan, when everyone was settled in his inheritance, a spiritual lethargy came upon them, so that they failed to remind their children and their children’s children of what the, Lord had done for them. The same may happen to us.
It is possible that we have been too busy, have become too involved in our business, our farm, or any other occupation. Our material interests became our first consideration. Our priorities, then, are all wrong.
A man was once sitting at his desk in his office when he asked himself, What is more important to me, my business or my soul?” He decided to get rid of his business, lest he lose his soul.
It may even be the busyness in the family, or some outside interest, such as sports.
Like a cancerous growth, the disease may be rather far advanced before it is detected. It may even prove to be fatal for the individual, for the family, or for a congregation.
We think of the church of Laodicea, of which Jesus speaks in Revelation 3:15-17: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
The cure. Jesus adds in the following verses, 18 and 19: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
Can it be that in some sense this applies to me? May I unawares have become spiritually listless, complacent? Have my prayers become hindered by it?
The Word of God admonishes us in II Corinthians 13:5 thus: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.”
We should do so with this prayer in our hearts: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24).
The question is not whether we have faith, but whether we are “in the faith.” We do not ask ourselves, “Do I believe?” but rather, “Do I walk as children of light should walk in all good works?”
At this point it may be necessary to ask ourselves, “What are good works?” To that question our Heidelberg Catechism gives the answer (Lord’s Day 33): “Only those which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to the law of God, and to his glory; and not such as are founded on our imagination, or the institutions of men.”
That is strong language.
When I read Scripture or hear it read, when I make my prayers, when I worship on Sunday with the congregation, I must do so in faith. In fact, my entire life must be faith in action. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
All that is not done in faith is sin. God’s wrath fumes against mere form worship, as we read in Isaiah 66:3: “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in abominations.” Am I guilty at present of mere form worship?
Besides that, my entire life must be “according to the law of God.” I can sit in church and hear the ten commandments read without pangs of conscience. True, at some time or another one particular commandment may accuse and condemn me. But even that is often not the case. Yet the Lord teaches that if I transgress one command, I transgress all, for the basic principle of the law is that I love Him with my whole being, so that all that is not done in love to God is sin.
Am I motivated by the love of God in all that I say and do?
One more thing. All that we do must be done to the glory of God. “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do it all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31).
Is that the chief characteristic of my life? Was I seeking the glory of God when I read my Bible this morning? When I prayed? When I sat in church last Sunday?
My Lord teaches me that my first and foremost desire must be, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” How miserably I fail in that!
When we become aware of our spiritual lethargy our only escape is through prayer in Christ Jesus. “Buy of Me,” He says.
We need the gold of Christ’s righteousness, the white garments of sanctification, washed in the blood of Calvary; we need the eye-salve of the Holy Spirit that we may see and enjoy anew the riches of God’s grace, His infinite mercy, and His unchanging faithfulness …
Even then we must not be content until our complacency is changed into spiritual contentment. We must experience anew the joy of salvation. Even as Scripture admonishes us: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice.” “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ” (Phil. 4:4, 7).
This can be and is readily transmitted to others. Our own spiritual joy will reflect itself in the family, and also among our friends. Even our enthusiastic singing in the congregation and our attentive listening to the sermon can be an inspiration to others.
“O sing to the Lord a new song: Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day” (Ps. 96:1-2).
