Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 11 December, 2022
“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and
heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Infant Baptism
The Child in the Womb [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 139
Text: Psalm 139:13-16
I. The Powerful Description
II. The Moving Confession
III. The Amazing Book
Psalms: 105:4-9; 50:13-18; 22:6-12; 139:13-17
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Knowing Our Sins and Misery [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 17
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 2
I. Knowing Our Sins
II. Knowing Our Misery
III. The Blessedness of This Knowledge
Psalms: 39:5-12; 50:19-23; 41:3-9; 32:1-5
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
E. J. Young on Psalm 139:14: “How awe-inspiring is the birth of a child! In the mother’s womb the strange act of conception has taken place. Life has come into existence. A growth occurs. And this embryo will come forth one day from the body of the mother and a human being will be born. Truly these are fearful things. To think upon them is to begin to realize at least to an extent the greatness of the God who can create and bring life into existence. And we should think upon these things! The very wonder of the circumstances under which life is conceived and the embryo formed should produce fear within our hearts, for we are then in the presence of the Author of Life … Unlike the unbeliever David acknowledged that these were works of God. He did not merely dismiss them offhand with references to nature; David was a true theist. These works which aroused his fear and admiration were the works of God. Well will it be for us, too, if when we contemplate the mystery of birth, we also tremble, for we are in the presence of fearful things which God has wrought” (The Way Everlasting: A Study in Psalm 139, pp. 72, 73-74).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
This morning we witness the baptism of Jude McCaughern. We pray that the Lord will bless Joe & Lisa, and give them strength to fulfil their vows to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00PM: Corey, Jason, Katelyn, Maisie & Sebastian (Seniors OT)
5:45PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Hannah, Jorja, Keagan, Lucas, Sammy, Somaya, Sophie & Yossef (Beginners NT)
6:30PM: Penelope & Xander (Juniors OT)
7:15PM: Angelica, Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Heidelberg, Book 2)
8:00PM: Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Pre-confession)
Membership Class: Billy & Val McCaughern, Monday at 9 PM.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to continue our discussion on faith and reason, looking more closely at the Roman Catholic and Thomist conception.
Belgic Confession Class meets this Wednesday at 7:30 PM. In connection with article 37, we will consider further the characteristics of the signs of our Lord’s return.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “A Prophecy of Praise” (Luke 1:68-69).
The first four catechism classes will have mid-year tests next Monday, 19 December, and then there will be no classes on 26 December and 2 January.
Offerings: £1,765.36.
Translation Additions: 1 Afrikaans, 1 Chinese, 2 Hungarian, 1 Polish, 12 Russian and 1 Spanish.
Excerpts From the Pamphlet “As A Father Pitieth His Children: Reformed Child Rearing”
Prof. David J. Engelsma
How are we to rear our children?
This is a question of great importance to many Christian parents, as is evident from the popularity of the various seminars on the family. It is an urgent question for us Reformed parents, because of the Lord’s covenant with us. God is the God of our children, as well as of ourselves, and saves them by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ. God brings them to spiritual maturity, and prepares them for their places and work in His Kingdom, largely through our rearing. We have taken a vow at their Baptism to carry out the rearing of them in the Word of God, to the utmost of our power. Especially for us, therefore, it is a burning question, “How are we to do this?”
The single most important, most practical, and most fruitful way of rearing our children is that we consciously take God’s Parenthood towards us as our model, and that we deliberately reflect the Fatherhood of God in all our rearing of our children. As you would expect, the answer to our question is found in the Bible. But it is not to be looked for only in the relatively few passages that directly address the subject of child-raising, passages such as Deuteronomy 6; the book of Proverbs; Ephesians 6:4; and the like. The answer to our question is given in the Bible at large—in the entire revelation of God as the Father of His people and of the manner in which He deals with His children. Just as the secret of marriage is the reflecting of the union of Christ and the church, so the secret of Reformed parenthood is the reflecting of the relationship between God and His family.
God is Father of His people; this is the basic relationship in which He stands towards us. Although this is more fully revealed in the New Testament, it was made known already in the Old Testament. When God was about to redeem Israel from Egypt, He told Moses to say to Pharaoh: “Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Ex. 4:22). Psalm 103 makes explicit comparison between our fatherly attitude towards our children and God’s attitude towards His children: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him” (v. 13). The New Testament reveals this fully. Not only in the address of the Lord’s Prayer, but also all the way through the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5-7, Jesus teaches us that God is our Father. Time and again, the New Testament compares the acts of the Heavenly Father and the acts of us earthly fathers. Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer does this regarding the answering of the petitions of children: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). Hebrews 12:1-13 compares God’s Fatherhood and ours as regards the discipline, or chastisement, of children: “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (v. 7).
God’s Fatherhood is the original Parenthood; ours is derived from His. He is the original Father in His own Being in that the First Person of the Blessed Trinity begets the Second, as eternal Son. He is the original Father in His relationship, in Christ, to His people, whom He adopts as children and begets in His own image. Our parenthood, derived from His, is called to reflect His …
Taking God’s Fatherhood as the pattern, we will love our children. This is the heart of Reformed child-rearing—not authority, not discipline, but the love of our children. In love, we bring them forth and receive them from God; in love, we live with them; in love, we teach them; in love, we discipline them.
For this is the essence of Fatherhood in God. In love, God the Father eternally begets the Divine Son and lives with Him the blessed life of the Godhead, in the Spirit. The Son is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). The Father says of Him, “My beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). In love, God chose, adopted, regenerated, cares for, and disciplines His people, even as it was love that chose Israel and made Israel God’s son. When Moses accounts for Israel’s being a special people unto the Lord, the ultimate cause is: “because Jehovah loved you” (Deut. 7:8). In Romans 8, the comfort of the New Testament children of God is that the beginning, the end, and the in-between of the ways of God towards them is love: we are persuaded, that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God …” (v. 39).
Loving our children consists of regarding them, yearning towards them, and setting our affections upon them as delightful and precious; of resolving to do them good, and not evil; of carrying out this resolve in words and deeds of blessing; and of establishing a uniquely close bond of friendship with them.
Our love for them is by no means merely a natural feeling. It is much more than this; it is a spiritual grace, sought and received of the Holy Spirit. As regards our natural feelings, we may be, and often are, tempted not to love our children. We resent them when they come. We feel quite hateful at times, especially when they are bad or demanding. There may even be a strong inclination to dislike one of our children. These things grieve the believer deeply. “What is the matter with me?” he asks himself. “Do I lack the basic requirement of a Christian father, or mother?” It is important, then, to remember that love for our children is not merely a natural feeling, which we either have or do not have, but a spiritual grace to be asked of God in the Name of Jesus, who will give us all that we request in that worthy Name …
Our love for our children must establish friendship between us and them. This is what we must aim at and work for. This is the effect of the godly love of believing parents, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. We are, and must be, our children’s friends. Life in a Reformed home must be friendship.
Within this friendship, all of the rearing must take place—the teaching, the discipline, even the exercise of parental authority. If there is no friendship, the teaching, the discipline, and the exercise of authority lose their Christian character and their power for effective rearing. Only as my child’s friend can I be his teacher, his disciplinarian, and his lord.
This basic truth for child-rearing is learned from God’s Fatherhood towards us. God’s love for us establishes the bond of friendship with us—the covenant. God is our Friend; and He gives us the privilege of being His friends. This is not incidental; but it is the very essence of our life with God. Within the covenant, He teaches, disciplines, and is our Sovereign. His teaching, discipline, and sovereignty are covenantal teaching, discipline, and sovereignty. Take away the Divine friendship; and the teaching, discipline, and sovereignty are radically changed. Indeed, they become fruitless …
This is Reformed, biblical child-rearing: love them; live with them in friendship; and discipline them, taking the Fatherhood of God as pattern.
If God’s Fatherhood of us cost Him His own Son, we cannot expect our child-rearing to be easy, painless, and cheap.
But it is possible. Good rearing and a good family-life are possible, still today. It is required of all parents who name the Name of Christ. The possibility is not ourselves, not at all. The possibility is the blessing of God—sovereign, covenant grace—besought fervently in prayer, for “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. 127:1).
