Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 12 April, 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: Matthew 1
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 14
I. In the Old Testament Age
II. In the Lord Jesus Christ
III. In the New Testament Age
Psalms: 46:1-7; 19:9-14; 139:7-14; 34:11-18
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-18
Text: Isaiah 40:9
I. Perfections
II. Persons
III. Preaching
Psalms: 98:1-9; 20:1-9; 145:1-8 (AOS); 40:5-9
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
Quotes to Consider
Vern Poythress: “The Gospels give us records of the life of Christ on earth. His life brings to fulfillment the entire spectrum of theophanies and appearances of God in the Old Testament. Temporary appearances give way to the climactic, permanent appearance. God became man in the incarnation. The presence of God that people experience throughout Old Testament times comes to fulfillment in the presence of God in Christ. Christ is ‘Immanuel,’ ‘God with us’ (Matt. 1:23), manifesting God’s presence at the climax of history” (Theophany: A Biblical Theology of God’s Appearing, p. 381).
Herman Hoeksema: “It is true that God is God, and therefore he cannot be comprehended. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite; time cannot compass eternity. But there is a difference between knowledge and comprehension, and comprehension is not necessary for knowledge. Although in the very testimony that God is God the church confesses that God cannot be comprehended, she also proclaims that he is knowable, and that he is known. He is known because he has revealed himself. He has revealed himself not merely as God, but also as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves his church with an eternal and unfathomable love; who reconciles his people to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; who delivers them from the power of sin and death; and who gives them life eternal in the knowledge of himself. We know God in Christ Jesus our Lord, and not merely with our head, intellectually, as theology knows him; we also know him with our heart, spiritually, so that we taste that he is good and the overflowing fountain of all good. We know him and have fellowship with him and we hear him tell us that we are his friends, his sons and daughters. We know him, and in this knowledge we have eternal life. ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3)” (Knowing God and Man, p. 12).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The Council meets tomorrow night at 7 PM.
Tuesday Bible study will meet at 11 AM to study the significance of God’s oneness or simplicity of essence.
The Belgic Confession class meets at 7:30 PM on Wednesday to answer practical questions about our resurrection bodies.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “Putting Things in Order” (Neh. 7).
Offerings: £2,154.85.
Translation Additions: 1 Apostles’ Creed (Sinhala), 5 Nicene Creeds (Amharic, Konkani, Kyrgyz, Malagasy and Sinhala), 3 Chalcedonian Creeds (Esperanto, Malagasy and Turkish), 3 Athanasian Creeds (Arabic, Interlingua and Malagasy), 1 Chinese, 4 Dutch, 2 Hungarian, 1 Polish, 1 Punjabi and 2 Spanish.
Be Still and Know that I Am God
Rev. Arie Den Hartog in the Standard Bearer, vol. 70, issue 7
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps. 46:10).
“Be still and know that I am God!” The mighty Word of God Himself! This is the Word He declares throughout all the earth. This is the Word that from beginning to end is found in the Bible. This is also the Word that He speaks as He executes His sovereign counsel and purpose in time and history. This is the Word that the Almighty speaks in His fearful works of providence. “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth.” This is the Word of God which He speaks as He rules sovereignly among the ungodly nations of the world. This is the Word that God speaks to us in our individual and personal lives.
We are especially reminded of this Word of God in connection with all the recent reports of the natural disasters in the world … Besides these so-called natural calamities there have been in recent times the great political upheavals …
As the end of time approaches, wickedness and lawlessness abound in our society. Already in their youth the children of our world today are so hardened in wickedness that they commit acts of monstrous and gruesome violence and murder. High schools and even grade schools in many of our big cities are facing shocking problems of gang violence, murders of teachers and students, appalling incidents of assault and gang rapes and all kinds of other awful things.
We read of all the misery and wretchedness in personal lives and in the homes of our nation. Divorces tear husbands and wives apart. Broken homes cause untold misery for children and create a cycle of misery from one generation to the next. The people of our nation continue to murder their unborn children by the thousands, a horrible thing sanctioned by the law of our land and more and more condoned by rulers in high places. Newspapers are filled with an ever-growing number of reports of child abuse and horrible domestic violence of all types. Dreadful diseases … bring thousands to their grave. More and more people in our society are so pessimistic about life that they resort to taking their own life by suicide.
It is in the midst of this world that God speaks: “Be still and know that I am God!” That He is God means that He is the sovereign One. He is the only true and living God. He is God and God alone; there is none else, there is no God beside Him. He is the almighty God who created heaven and earth and still upholds them by His Word and power. He is the fearfully righteous and holy God. He is the God who causes His sovereign counsel to stand. Concerning this God we read that there is none like Him: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa. 46:10).
This God sends health and prosperity. He gives life and breath and all things to all. He sends peace in our land. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is the source of all good things, the overflowing fountain of good. He is the glorious and blessed and almighty God of salvation in Jesus Christ His Son. He causes the gospel to be preached in all nations of the earth. He gathers His elect people from every tribe and tongue and people. He preserves His beloved church so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. He keeps every one of His saints so that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, height nor depth, nor any other creature can separate them from His love.
But this God is also the terrible righteous and holy judge of all men. He judges among the nations of the ungodly who refuse to acknowledge Him and who continue to grow in wickedness and rebellion. He judges whole nations in righteousness. He raises up one nation in great power and casts down another proud and glorious nation according to His sovereign purpose. He has determined in His sovereign counsel that the day will come when He will send His Son Jesus Christ to judge all the nations of the earth. He will break them in pieces in His dreadful anger and consume them in His holy wrath. It is especially this truth that the world hates and seeks to deny. The fearful calamities that happen in the world are a foreshadowing of His coming and of His final terrible judgment on this ungodly world. Let there be no mistake about it. “Be still and know that I am God.”
This fearful God also visits with judgment the evil of man’s sin and wickedness in his personal life and in the society in which he lives. God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of those that hate Him unto the third and fourth generation. In His sovereignty God gives reprobate ungodly men over unto their own sin … God is so sovereign over sin that He visits sin with sin. Furthermore, He causes wicked men to reap the bitter and dreadful consequences of their own sin. In this He also says, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Ungodly men will never listen. They will not be still and know that God is God. They will do everything they can to deny Him, they will rebel against Him, they will seek to obliterate even from their minds every remembrance of Him, though this is impossible … There is no absolute difference between right and wrong, good and evil. Morality is nothing more than the prevailing opinion of society; it is relative to the times we live in and is ever changing. Every man really has the freedom to do what is right in his own eyes, as long as he agrees with the prevailing mores of the day and society in which he lives. The misery and wretchedness of our society is merely something inherent in the nature of our world. There is no God of judgment. Some day by political and social progress and scientific advancement man will conquer all the world’s problems, and men will all live together in peace and harmony, brotherhood and equality, in the earth. Man is the lord and master of his own destiny. He will preserve his own life, prosper and be strong in the earth, glorify himself, and even direct the course of history according to his own pleasure.
Again and again God sends His judgments upon all of this ungodly philosophy and says: “Be still and know that I am God.” But wicked men will be finally silenced only in the day of judgment. Then all will be forced to acknowledge that God is God and that He is righteous and holy in all of His judgments. In that day every mouth shall be stopped and the whole world shall be silent before God. The ungodly reprobate will acknowledge in the eternal misery of hell that God is God and that His judgments are right and true altogether.
But what about us who are called the people of God? Do we listen to the voice of God? Are we so caught up in this world that we do little listening. What about some of our young people? Do they imagine that they can enjoy the pleasures of sin, join themselves with the ungodly, and follow their ungodly life-style? Are they blind to the very clear and constant revelations of the righteous judgment of God upon the way of the wicked that abounds in our modern day world? Do they imagine that they can perhaps live and walk as the world but escape the judgment and misery and destruction of the world? The God who says, “Be still and know that I am God,” warns us in His Word to come out from among the ungodly world and be separate, lest we become partakers of the judgment of the world. God is not mocked by wickedness. How long will we be dull of hearing and imagine that a man can prosper in the way of sin? Let us hear the Word of God and be still.
The true people of God will hear, for God’s Word is a mighty and powerful Word to them. That God is God is the gospel of our salvation. We need not be afraid. For God will fully accomplish our salvation through the triumph of His Son Jesus Christ. All of God’s righteous and holy judgments have fallen on Christ Jesus and He has carried them all away. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need not fear the wickedness of the world nor the terrible judgments of God that we see in the world. For God is our God, the God of our salvation. In quiet trust in Him is our strength and comfort. He will realize His counsel and cause all things to glorify His name. From His Word we know that He will be exalted in the earth-through the righteous judgments of the ungodly, and through the salvation of His people. His name shall be glorious forever and ever.
