Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 30 August, 2020
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering …” (Col. 3:12)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Christ’s Command: Do Not Worry (3)
Do Not Be Distracted From the Kingdom [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:19-34
Text: Matthew 6:31-33
I. Distracted By What?
II. Distracted From What?
III. Distracted Why?
Psalms: 96:1-5; 37:8-11
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Jehovah Stirring Up Our Nest [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32:1-43
Text: Deuteronomy 32:11-12
I. Disturbing Reality
II. Gracious Purpose
III. Exclusive Trust
Psalms: 84:1-3; 91:1-4
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
J. C. Ryle: “Anxiety about the things of this world is most unworthy of a Christian. One great feature of heathenism is living for the present. Let the heathen, if he will, be anxious. He knows nothing of a Father in heaven. But let the Christian, who has clearer light and knowledge, give proof of it by his faith and contentment. When bereaved of those whom we love, we are not to ‘sorrow as those who have no hope.’ When tried by cares about this life, we are not to be over-anxious, as if we had no God, and no Christ” (Expository Thoughts on Matthew, p. 60).
Arthur W. Pink: “Solicitude for the future is at bottom worldly-mindedness. The heathen tendency in us all leads to an overestimate of material good, and it is a question of circumstances whether that shall show itself in heaping up earthly treasures, or in anxious care. They are the same plant, only the one is growing in the tropics of sunny prosperity, and the other in the arctic zone of chilly penury. The one is the sin of the worldly-minded rich man, and the other is the sin of the worldly-minded poor man. The character is the same turned inside out! And therefore the words ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon’ stand in this chapter in the centre, between our Lord’s warning against laying up treasures on earth, and His warning against being full of cares for earth. He would show us thereby that these two apparently opposite states of mind in reality spring from one root, and are equally, although differently, ‘serving mammon.’ We do not sufficiently reflect upon that” (Sermon on the Mount, p. 248).
Arthur W. Pink: “The believer need trouble himself no further than soberly to use all lawful means, calmly and confidently counting on God to bless the same: God will provide what is needful for him and therefore he need not vex his mind about it … Here is double armour against the arrows of anxiety: the intimate relation which the great God sustains to His people, and the assurance that His knowledge of them is equal to His love for them. The children of this world are indeed tormented with anxiety as to how tomorrow’s supplies will be obtained, nor is it at all strange that they should be bowed down with such cares, for they have no heavenly Father to whose infinite love and faithfulness they may commit themselves … In these words (v. 33) Christ makes known the great counter-agent unto and remedy for covetousness. As in the previous verses He had been striking at the root from which that sin proceeds, namely distrust of God and excessive care for the things of this life, so here He reveals the effectual specific: that is, making the things of God our paramount concern. It is of no use only to tell men that they ought to trust, that the birds of the air might teach them to trust, that the flowers of the field might preach resignation and confidence to them. It is no use to attempt to scold them into trust, by telling them that distrust is heathenish. You must fill the heart with supreme and transcendent desire after the one supreme object; and then there will be no room and leisure left for the anxious care after the lesser. Have inwrought into your being, Christian man, the opposite of that heathen over-regard for earthly things” (The Sermon on the Mount, p. 249).
John Calvin on Matthew 6:33: “This is a reproof of the gross ignorance, in which all such anxieties originate. For how comes it, that unbelievers never remain in a state of tranquillity, but because they imagine that God is unemployed, or asleep, in heaven, or, at least, that he does not take charge of the affairs of men, or feed, as members of his family, those whom he has admitted to his friendship. By this comparison he intimates, that they have made little proficiency, and have not yet learned the first lessons of godliness, who do not behold, with the eyes of faith, the hand of God filled with a hidden abundance of all good things, so as to expect their food with quietness and composure. Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of those things: that is, ‘All those persons who are so anxious about food, give no more honor, than unbelievers do, to the fatherly goodness and secret providence of God.’”
Matthew Henry on Matthew 6: “Though he knows our wants, he will know them from us; and when we have opened them to him, let us cheerfully refer ourselves to his wisdom, power, and goodness, for our supply. Therefore, we should ease ourselves of the burden of care, by casting it upon God, because it is he that careth for us, and what needs all this ado? If he care, why should we care?”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “There are so many people who can be described as spiritual worldlings. If you talk to them about salvation, they have the correct view; but if you talk to them about life in general, they are worldlings. When it is a matter of the salvation of the soul, they have the correct answer; but if you listen to their ordinary conversation about life in this world, you will discover a heathen philosophy. They are worried about food and drink; they are always talking about wealth and position and their various possessions. These things really control them. They are made happy or unhappy by them; they are put out by them or pleased by them; and they are always thinking and talking about them. That is to be like the heathen, says Christ; for the Christian should not be controlled by these things” (Sermon on the Mount, vol. 2, p. 139).
C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch: “Under the figure of an eagle, which teaches its young to fly, and in doing so protects them from injury with watchful affection, Moses describes the care with which the Lord came to the relief of his people in their helplessness, and assisted them to develop their strength. This figure no doubt refers more especially to the protection and assistance of God experienced by Israel in its journey through the Arabian desert, but it must not be restricted to this. It embraces both the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the outstretched arm of the Lord, as we may see from a comparison with Ex. 19:4, where the Lord is said to have brought his people out of Egypt on eagles’ wings, and also the introduction into Canaan, where the Lord drove the Canaanites out from before them and destroyed them … [The eagle] soars over her young, namely, in order that, when they were attempting to fly, if any were in danger of falling through exhaustion, it might take them at once upon its powerful wings, and preserve them from harm” (The Pentateuch, vol. 3, p. 472).
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: “This beautiful and expressive metaphor is founded on the extraordinary care and attachment which the female eagle cherishes for her young. When her newly fledged progeny are sufficiently advanced to soar in their native element, she, in their first attempts at flying, supports them on the tip of her wing, encouraging, directing, and aiding their feeble efforts to longer and sublimer flights. So did God take the most tender and powerful care of His chosen people; He carried them out of Egypt and led them through all the horrors of the wilderness to the promised inheritance” (Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 164).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Rev. McGeown and Larisa to our worship services. Rev. Stewart is preaching for the Limerick Reformed Fellowship today.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet at church to consider further the assurance of faith.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Spriensma is entitled, “A New Covenant With Israel” (Jer. 31:31).
Last week, Ivan Reid (elder) and Julian Kennedy (deacon) were approved for 3-year terms in their respective offices. Installation will take place next Lord’s day.
Monday catechism classes begin 7 September:
5:45 PM Eleanora, Hannah, Jorja & Somaya (Beginners OT) – Bible study room
6:30 PM Angelica, Bradley, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Seniors OT) – upstairs open area
7:15 PM Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Essentials) – catechism room
The Council meets Monday, 7 September, at 8 PM.
Offerings: General Fund: £601. Offering for the PRC in the Philippines: £1,940.
Translation Additions: 1 Urdu and 1 Spanish (chapter 2 of Saved by Grace).
The Double-Edged Sword
Prof. Brian Huizinga
(an excerpt from “Keeping the Sword Drawn,” available from the CPRC Bookstore)
This sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God is a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12); therefore, it is antithetical and polemical. Being antithetical in nature, the sword clearly draws the battle lines between God and Satan, truth and error, and the church and the world, while always magnifying God, the truth, and the church as good and exposing Satan, error, and the world as evil. Being polemical in nature, the sword wages war with all that is evil and assaults it as something offensive to God and dangerous to the church.
The sword is antithetical and polemical in purpose, and because it is the effectual sword of the Spirit its purpose is always accomplished. This sword saves. It quickens. It blesses. It illuminates. It brings sincere sorrow and repentance. It moves to awe and gratitude. It is a “savour of life unto life.” It opens the door of the kingdom of heaven (2 Cor. 2:16).
At the same time, this sword damns. It kills. It curses. It hardens. It blinds. It makes the hearts of men fat, it makes their ears heavy, it shuts their eyes, “lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (Isa. 6:10). It moves to anger and resentment, sometimes causing people to storm out of the sanctuary or write slanderous letters or online posts about their consistories or denominations. It is a “savour of death unto death.” It shuts the doors of the kingdom of heaven (2 Cor. 2:16). Who is sufficient to wield the double-edged sword?
But the sword will only have an antithetical twofold effect when its content is a double-edged sword. If the word is not antithetical and even polemical in content, it is not a sword. It is something, but not a sword. And if it is not a sword, how can it pierce the heart? The Bible is antithetical in content. Only with a studied, heroic effort can a man open up and allege from the scriptures without being antithetical and polemical. Listen, for example, to the sharp line drawn in John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”; or in Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” As the Bible is, so are the Reformed creeds antithetical and even polemical, refuting false doctrines. The word of God does not come as a powerful double-edged sword when man tries to present it as an expression of the grace and love of God for all who hear it, saying, “God loves you. Christ died for all of you and wants to save all of you. Won’t you accept him?”
The word of God comes in power and pierces as a double-edged sword. The word we bring must be antithetical and polemical so that it not only promises salvation in Christ, but also calls sin, sin, refutes heresy as heresy, and warns of God’s abiding judgment upon impenitent sinners and unbelievers. Those who have love for false doctrine or love for wicked living in their hearts must hear the word as a double-edged sword; they must know that Christ stands in their way with sword drawn. No hypocrite may walk away from church Sunday night happy that in the sermon on chastity God’s blessing was pronounced upon the holy who are striving to walk in chastity while his own enslavement to pornography went untouched. When all the lights in the house go off Sunday night and he jovially reenters the door of hell that is his favorite pornography site, he must not be allowed to enter without seeing the Christ with his sword drawn. Maybe he goes back to his pornography no matter what the sermon said. But let him not go back to his pornography comfortably and without consciously maneuvering himself past the militant Christ because the sermon only exalted chastity while failing to condemn sexual perversity.
And if I should walk in sin and proudly number the good things God has given me in my life, then I must know as David did that the same angel of Jehovah who stood in Balaam’s way stands in my way with sword drawn. And even as the angel put up his sword only after David called upon the Lord with burnt offerings and peace offerings, so I will see the sword of God’s displeasure put up only after I plead his mercies in Christ with a contrite heart (1 Chron. 21).
Throughout history the double-edged sword effectually works for the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose in predestination. For the reprobate, the sword will harden and destroy them; for the elect whom Christ loves, the sword will convict them of their sin, quicken them unto repentance, and lead their thoughts in thankful obedience unto Christ. Through the sword, God will be glorified.
