Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 10 April, 2022
“… walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph. 5:2)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Solomon: Israel’s Wisest King (28)
Solomon’s Second Revelatory Dream [youtube]
Scripture Reading: I Kings 9:1-9
Text: II Chronicles 7:11-22
I. The Prosperity of King Solomon
II. The Promise to God’s People
III. The Warning to David’s Dynasty
Psalms: 71:1-8; 25:15-22; 86:3-10; 79:1-6
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Christian’s Glorious Identity and Good Works [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Colossians 3
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 32
I. Elect, Redeemed and Regenerated
II. A Good Work and a Good Worker
III. Continually Renewed in God’s Image
Psalms: 138:1-6; 26:1-7; 1:1-6; 119:73-80
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 on Lord’s Day 32: “But true gratitude can consist only in our showing forth the glorious praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. It is God who redeemed and delivered his people from the guilt and out of the mire of sin and corruption. A beggar who receives a beautiful suit of clothes from his benefactor does not reveal his gratitude by rolling in the mud with it, but by showing his new suit and telling everyone who asks him from whom he received it. This is a homely figure, but it serves the purpose. The Christian will not show his thankfulness to God by continuing in sin but by purifying himself, putting off the old man and putting on the new, walking in righteousness, and declaring to all the world that he is able and willing and privileged to do so, because by the grace of the God of his salvation he is redeemed and delivered through the blood of Christ and by his Spirit from all the power and dominion of sin. The purpose of all this is the glory of God, and this purpose the believer desires to attain” (Love the Lord Thy God, p. 51).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The offering bags will be passed around again during the worship services.
A new RFPA Update is on the back table for all. Standard Bearers and Beacon Lights are available for subscribers.
Membership Class: Monday, 11 AM with the Goulds.
Membership Class: Monday, 6:30 PM with the McCaugherns.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to discuss faith’s unique role of receiving Christ and all His benefits.
The Belgic Confession Class will meet on Wednesday at 7:30 PM to consider Ezekiel 40-48 and changes to OT law (especially the ceremonial law).
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled, “Burning Hearts and Opened Eyes” (Luke 24:13-35).
Easter Monday Picnic in the Park: Everyone is invited to bring a pack lunch and meet at Lough Shore Park in Antrim on Monday, 18 April, at noon. Those interested in a walk to Antrim Castle Gardens meet at the park at 10:30 AM.
Everyone is welcome to stay for tea after the evening service on 24 April.
Offerings: General Fund: £2,265. Donations: $2,000 (N. Carolina, USA), £100 (N. Ireland, £200 (England).
Translation Additions: 2 Afrikaans, 1 Russian and 10 Polish (including audio recordings of all the chapters of the BRF book, The Five Points of Calvinism).
PRC News: Rev. Guichelaar declined Peace PRC. Edmonton PRC will call from a new trio of Revs. Regnerus, Smit and Stewart.
The Reformed Worldview
Prof. David J. Engelsma (an excerpt from “The Reformed Worldview on Behalf of a Godly Culture”)
What now is the Reformed worldview?
The Reformed view of all created reality is determined and shaped by the Reformed faith’s knowledge of the Godhead of the triune, one, true, living God, who is revealed in Jesus Christ in the gospel of Holy Scripture. James Orr rightly said “the fundamental postulate [of the Christian worldview] is a personal, holy, self-revealed God.” “There be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (I Cor. 8:5-6).This God is truly God, so that His people must serve Him in all their life. Indeed, all things do serve Him, willingly or unwillingly. The truth of the sovereign God of Scripture establishes the Reformed worldview and distinguishes it from all other worldviews
The Reformed worldview sees the world as created by this God for the purpose of His own glory in His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. As the handiwork of the good God, the creation—the universe—is good. The fall into sin did not make the creation evil. The fall corrupted the human race (Rom. 3:9-13). It brought the curse of decay and death on the earthly creation (Gen. 3:17-18). “But every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused,” the apostle writes in I Timothy 4:4. The basis of the goodness of every creature is its creation by God.
Having created all things, God continues to uphold His creation, care for it, and govern it by His providence. Providence is power; it is not grace. “Providence [is] the almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures.” Providence keeps creation in existence after the fall. Providence maintains man as a human, not allowing him to become a beast or a devil. Providence preserves the ordinances of creation in which humans live their earthly lives: marriage, family, government, and labour. Divine power does all this, not divine grace.
On the basis of the doctrine of creation, which includes providence, the Reformed Christian may freely live in and work with creation, using and enjoying all the various creatures. This is the teaching of the apostle in I Timothy 4:1ff. The heretical doctrine that the Christian life consists of abstinence from marriage and foods is refuted by the truth of God’s creation of all things: “which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (v. 3).
But it may not be overlooked, as many enthusiastic advocates of worldview do overlook, that God made all things and now upholds and governs all things for the sake of His glory in Jesus Christ. “All things were created by him [i.e., Jesus Christ], and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:16-19).
A culture vaguely characterized by “Judeo-Christian principles” does not satisfy a Reformed Christian. It certainly does not please God. God demands, and God realizes, a culture characterized by the Spirit of the risen Christ, a Christian culture, a life in and work with creation that openly honours Jesus Christ as Lord.
In the light of Scripture and on the basis of the Reformed confessions, the Reformed worldview views the human race as fallen from its original righteousness by the disobedience of Adam (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12ff.). Apart from Jesus Christ, all humans are totally depraved, in bondage to sin, spiritually dead, and rebels against God and His Christ (Eph. 2:1-3; Canons of Dordt III/IV:1-5).As divine punishment, death now destroys every man, woman, and child, and the curse lies heavy on a groaning creation (Gen. 3:16-19; Rom. 6:23; 8:19-22).
All possibility of a good, godly culture from fallen, unregenerate humans is cut off. The hope of unbelieving humanity that by dint of its own efforts and with the help of the natural process of evolution the race and its earthly home will become a world of peace and prosperity is illusory. The just God curses the guilty sinner and his culture. This is the message of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.” This is also the message of history.
Knowledge of the fall of the human race into sin and willing servitude of Satan warns Reformed Christians that they must expect opposition and warfare as they devote their lives to the service of the God and Father of Jesus Christ. The ungodly hate them. The culture of the ungodly opposes the culture of the godly. In Jesus Christ, “light is come into the world” in the holy lives of the saints, and the men and women of darkness hate the light (John 3:19-20).
The Reformed worldview understands that, carrying out His original purpose with creation, God redeems an elect church out of the fallen race by the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The work of redemption includes the renewal of the elect by the grace of the Spirit of Christ so that they love, obey, and serve God. This is the beginning of the fulfilment of the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28. This is the possibility of good, God-pleasing culture …
Because God’s purpose with the redemption of the new human race, made up of the elect in all nations, is not only their salvation, but also His glory by their lives, God sends the regenerated saints into all the ordinances and spheres of earthly life, to live, work, and play to the praise of God.
The Christian life is not withdrawal from creation and abstinence from the use and enjoyment of the creatures as much as possible. World-flight is forbidden. World-flight is sin. The will of Christ for those whom the Father has given Him is not that they go out of the world, even if this were possible, but that in the world they be kept from evil (John 17:15). Paul condemns the religious theory and practice of world-flight as the “doctrine of devils” (I Tim. 4:1). In his searing indictment of asceticism and world-flight in I Timothy 4:1ff., the apostle exposes the root of this erroneous notion of the nature of the life of the Christian in the world. World-flight supposes that material reality is inherently evil, thus denying the biblical doctrine of creation. In addition, world-flight misunderstands the will of God for the Christian life: in the world, but not of the world. The purpose of God is that the light of His own truth and holiness shine the more brightly in stark contrast with the darkness of the falsehood and depravity of the wicked world.
The Reformed worldview, convinced of the goodness of creation and obedient to the will of God, calls every Reformed believer and child of believers to a full, active earthly life, in home and family; usually in marriage; in the schools; in labour and business; in the church; and in the state. At the same time, this worldview frees the Reformed Christian to use and enjoy the various creatures, to benefit from the cultural products of the ungodly that are usable, to work with and develop all aspects of creation, and to develop his or her own natural and spiritual abilities—all in the service of the Lord Christ and to the glory of the triune God …
