Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 1 December, 2024
“My covenant was with him of life and peace” (Mal. 2:5)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Son Working as the Father [youtube]
Scripture Reading: John 5:1-23
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 13
I. The Initial Claims
II. The Subsequent Elaboration
III. The Implied Calling
Psalms: 6:1-10; 110:1-7; 119:65-72; 2:6-12
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Church Divisions and Christian Ministers (3)
What Is the Significance of Ministers? [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Acts 18:1-18a, 24-19:1
Text: I Corinthians 3:5-7
I. The Wrong Views
II. The Apostolic Explanation
III. The Proper Focus
Psalms: 93:1-5; 111:1-5; 68:6-11; 48:1-2, 10-14
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
Charles Hodge on I Corinthians 3:7: “This is the conclusion. Ministers are nothing. They are the instruments in the hands of God. He only is to be looked up to as the source of truth, of strength, or of success. To Him is to be referred all the good [that] ministers may be the instruments of effecting. If this be so, if ministers are thus inefficient, why should any one say, I am of Paul? as though Paul would save him; or, as though a mere instrument could forgive sin or impart grace.”
John Gill on I Corinthians 3:7: “So then, neither is he that planteth anything, … Not that he is the happy instrument of beginning the good work: neither he that watereth; who is the means of carrying of it on: not that they are simply and absolutely nothing, without any restriction and limitation; they are men, they are Christians, they are ministers, and useful ones, by whom others believe; they are labourers together with God, ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God, and so to be accounted of; but they are nothing in themselves, nor in their own account, or with respect to God: they are nothing of themselves as ministers; they have nothing but what they have received; all their gifts are from God, nor can they exercise them aright without the grace of God, not being able to think a good thought as of themselves; nor are they anything in making their planting and watering effectual; and so no glory belongs to them; nothing is to be ascribed to them, they have no part or lot in these things: but God that giveth the increase; He gives them their abilities, assists them in the exercise of their gifts, makes their ministrations useful, and He has, as He ought to have, all the glory.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
A new Covenant Reformed News is available on the back table.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Hannah, Penelope & Xander (Seniors OT)
5:45 PM: Grace, Jonas, Liam & Sammy (Beginners OT – Book 2)
6:30 PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Jorja & Sophie (Juniors OT)
7:15 PM: Jason, Kyan, Maisie & Sebastian (Heidelberg Catechism – Book 1)
The Council meets tomorrow evening at 8 PM.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will look at Christ’s revelation to Paul on the Damascus Road in connection with the law and Israel.
The Belgic Confession classes will meet on Wednesday at 7:30 PM. The class will deal with Antichrist’s nature and parentage, etc.
Ladies Bible study meets this Friday at 9:30 AM at church. We will be discussing Psalm 34 using the book A 30-Day Walk with God in the Psalms.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled, “Then Shall a Lame Man Leap as a Hart” (Isa. 35:3-6).
The congregational dinner is planned for Friday, 3 January, at the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena. Sign-up sheets are on the back table.
Offerings: £1,312.55. Donation: £200 (New Jersey).
Translation Additions: 1 Polish and 1 Russian.
PRC News: Grandville PRC is extending a call to Rev. DeBoer. Hope PRC (Redlands) has a new trio of Revs. Smidstra, Maatman and Langerak. Hudsonville PRC will call from a trio of Revs. Barnhill, D. Holstege and Lee. Southwest PRC’s new trio is Revs. Engelsma, Langerak and Maatman. Zion PRC called Rev. Guichelaar.
The Longsuffering of God
Rev. Dale Kuiper
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).
The saints of Peter’s day had a problem, a very serious, spiritual problem that was brought about by the many false teachers of that day. As you know, the second general epistle of Peter is a warning against the false teachers and scoffers who love the reward of Balaam and who would make merchandise of the church. These false teachers attacked the people of God at a most vital point: her hope! How can the children of God walk as pilgrims and strangers on the earth, if they do not have a living hope for the return of Jesus Christ, and the renewal of all things to sustain, guide and inspire them?
Well, these false teachers set out to destroy that hope. “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” They mean to say, there is nothing in the past except unbroken, unchanging history, and the future is no different. The future will go on endlessly and Christ will never return. Perhaps the child of God begins to waver at this point, perhaps he thinks that the scoffers are raising a legitimate point. Why does not Christ put an end to things and take us into heavenly glory? The apostle has two answers for us if we have such doubts. First, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (v. 8). God does not operate by a clock or according to our schedule; He is the eternal One! Secondly, the apostle gives answer by instructing us in the longsuffering of God, which is salvation!
Central to the issue faced in II Peter 3 is the promise of God. There is basically one promise of God, and that promise of God is always in Christ. In eternity, at creation, at the time of the fall, throughout Old Testament history and finally at the fulness of time, God was busy with His gracious promise to send His Son in our flesh as the great Servant in whom He would unite all things in heaven and on earth. There is one aspect of God’s promise to send Christ to make an end of the ages, to judge all men and angels, to destroy the present creation, to make the new heavens and earth, and to take His church into the glory He has prepared for them. That return, that parousia, is the object of every Christian’s hope. And that return, according to numerous Scriptures, is very close (cf. Rom. 13:12; Phil. 4:5; I Pet. 4:7; Rev. 22:12).
Often times it seems to us as if the Lord is slack concerning that promise. For almost two thousand years, Scripture has been telling us that the end of all things is at hand, that it is the last hour. Why does God delay? Where is the fulfilment of the promise of His coming? Today, too, when we see the terrible filth, profanity and ungodliness of this age, we wonder why God does not come immediately to make an end of it all? Is He, after all, slack concerning His promise?
No. Let no child of God ever think or say that! God is not slack, tardy, unfaithful; God does not unnecessarily delay. Rather, God is “longsuffering to usward.” How important is that word “usward;” a distinction is made there by the Holy Spirit through the apostle. The first distinction we must understand is one between God’s longsuffering and God’s forbearance. God’s forbearance is a certain attitude He has toward the world of wickedness. Divine forbearance is the expression of restrained wrath on the part of God toward them whom He is of a mind to destroy. God restrains His wrath, for good reason too, until the time comes when that wrath is unleashed and the wicked are destroyed.
Our text speaks of the Lord’s longsuffering to usward! The Lord’s longsuffering is the expression of restrained love, grace and mercy! The idea is that if God would follow the desire of His heart immediately, He would bring an end to sin, suffering and all this world, and deliver His people without delay. The people of God suffer in this world, this vale of tears. The Lord sees them in that suffering. He is moved by their tears … But He does not immediately deliver them. Not yet.
This longsuffering of God has several implications. First, it extends only to His people, those whom He has chosen in eternity, ransomed at the cross and who now long for Christ’s appearing. With the wicked, He is angry every day and merely forbears with them until the day of His wrath. Second, God always remembers His covenant and His covenant people! Earthly parents may forsake their little babies but God will never forsake His church to the wicked scoffers. His children are dear to Him, they are engraven upon the palms of His hand, and there is nothing He will not do to bring them to Himself in glory. Third, this all means that if God does not immediately send Jesus to deliver us out of all our troubles and bring us into the heavenly kingdom, it cannot be counted slackness or unfaithfulness or a lack of loving attention. Some of the reasons which Scripture gives in this connection are: the world’s measure of iniquity must be filled before God justly destroys it (Matt. 23:32); the Antichrist must develop and appear with all his deceiving works and power (II Thess. 2); the signs of the coming of Christ must all be fulfilled (Matt. 24).
But the apostle gives us only one reason in this text. He tells us that God does not come yet because “God does not will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” What a wonderful reason! How beautiful is the longsuffering of God! Let us beware that we do not take a careless, general, Arminian view of the matter. The popular interpretation of our passage has the words “not any” and “all” to refer to every human being without exception. Then the text reads, “God does not will that any man should perish, but God wills that every man in the entire world should come to repentance and be saved! That is supposed to be the will of God and that is supposed to be the reason why God is longsuffering!
Such an interpretation is the old free-will, Arminian heresy that was cast out of the Reformed churches in the seventeenth century, and is at the bottom of the denial of the sovereignty of God, reprobation, limited or particular atonement and all that is precious to a Bible-believing child of God.
We refute this idea of the longsuffering of God to each and every man in three ways. First, this idea runs counter to the general teaching of Holy Scripture, that God does not will the salvation of each and every individual. God’s will is not a weak wish, but God’s will is powerful and determinative; it is always done! His clearly revealed will is that He has determined to save unto Himself a people in Jesus Christ; these are the elect, the sheep, those given to Christ for redemption. All the rest, perish in the way of their unbelief and sins. Second, the gospel preaching, which is necessary in order that a man come to repentance and be saved, does not even come to every individual in this world. It did not, does not and probably will not. Third, if in His longsuffering God waits until every individual everywhere comes to repentance, we may be assured that the Lord Jesus will never come! That will never happen, so He will never come.
If the passage is to have any meaning and give any consolation it must be interpreted within the framework of its context this way: “The Lord is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.” Usward, any, all, refer to the same group of individuals; not to everyone everywhere (e.g., the false teachers and scoffers who harass and mock the church). But it refers to the church whom Peter addresses in his epistle and to Peter himself. The Lord doesn’t want any of them to perish but He wills that every elect, redeemed child of God comes to repentance. Isn’t that beautiful?
The Lord has not come yet and the Lord does not come now, because there is a church of the future which must still be born. We call that part of the one church of all ages the church latent in distinction from the church triumphant (in heaven) and church militant (on earth). Because that church has not yet been born or come to repentance, the Lord waits! His longsuffering is salvation (II Pet. 3:15)! The number of the elect is a definite number, the members of the body of Christ each function in a definite place, the temple of the Lord is built up of living stones and not one stone can be missed without marring the beauty and function of the whole. Everyone who has been predestinated must be called, justified and glorified!
Therefore, Christ cannot and will not come until the last members of His body have been born and saved. Then and only then will He present to God a church without spot or blemish or a missing member.
What a tremendous comfort is this truth for the church as she is surrounded by her enemies, and made the object of scoffing and ridicule. The apostle roots his teaching in the will of God and the will of God is rooted in His eternal, unchangeable Being. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning.” None of His children shall fail to be born, nor shall they perish in a state of unregeneracy or unbelief. They shall all come to repentance. Thus the church of Jesus Christ is busy preaching repentance …
No, the Lord has not forgotten us. He remembers us, He hears our sighs, He catches our tears in the bottle of His remembrance. But He will not come prematurely, lest any of His dearly bought sheep should perish. Not one of them shall go lost and in that way the church is built up an holy temple unto the Lord. For that church the Lord Jesus comes quickly! As a living member of His church, do you believe that? Let our response be, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
