Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 2 February, 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
The Kingdom of God Versus the Kingdoms of Man (2)
Four Wise Teenagers in Babylon [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Daniel 1:3-21
Text: Daniel 1:8-21
I. The Request Made to Ashpenaz
II. The Test Proposed to Melzar
III. The Examination Made by Nebuchadnezzar
Psalms: 116:1-8; 120:1-7; 106:41-48; 25:8-14
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
What It Means to Pray the Fourth Petition [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 50
I. For Different Parties
II. With Blessed Results
Psalms: 127:1-5; 121:1-8; 65:8-13; 145:12-19
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
Matthew Henry on Daniel 1: “Note, that Daniel was still firm to his religion. They had changed his name, but they could not change his nature. Whatever they pleased to call him, he still retained the spirit of an Israelite indeed. He would apply his mind as closely as any of them to his books, and took pains to make himself master of the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans, but he was resolved that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat … It is very much the praise of all, and especially of young people, to be dead to the delights of sense, not to covet them, not to relish them, but to look upon them with indifference. Those that would excel in wisdom and piety must learn betimes to keep under the body and bring it into subjection … How much better is it with those that retain their integrity in the depths of affliction than with those that retain their iniquity in the heights of prosperity! Observe, the great thing that Daniel avoided was defiling himself with the pollutions of sin; that is the thing we should be more afraid of than of any outward trouble.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
A new Covenant Reformed News is on the back table with articles on regeneration and the idea of the organic in Scripture. BRF Conference Booking Forms are also available.
Monday catechism classes:
5:30 PM – Angelica, Bradley, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Seniors NT)
6:15 PM – Corey & Katelyn (Juniors OT)
7:00 PM – Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Essentials)
7:45 PM – membership class
Tuesday Bible Study meets at 11 AM to discuss the bond of faith.
Belgic Confession class meets on Wednesday at 7:45 PM to consider Anabaptist political theory (Article 36).
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled, “Praying to Our Heavenly Father” (Luke 11:2).
The Council’s next meeting is Monday, 10 February, at 7:45 PM.
Have you signed up on the sheet on the back table for our annual congregational dinner? It is to be held at The Thatch in Broughshane on Friday, 21 February.
S. Wales Lecture: Rev. McGeown will give a lecture on “The Canon of Sacred Scripture” at Margam Community Centre on Thursday, 27 February, at 7:15 PM.
Offerings: General Fund: £907.60. Donations: £300 (N. Ireland), £1,100 (Australia), $150 (Missouri, USA), £40 (Scotland).
PRC News: Rev. Eriks (Hudsonville, MI) plans to answer the call to Cornerstone PRC today. Rev. Barnhill (Peace, IL) received the call to Kalamazoo PRC.
Bread for His Service
by Rev. John Heys
(an excerpt from an article in the Standard Bearer, volume 40, issue 13)
… we are rapidly becoming a generation that lives out of cans and packages. We know our stores and supermarkets where these foodstuffs may be purchased. Our children see them as the source of all our food, and the farmer and farm behind that store are not known to them. Paul tells Timothy, however, that “the husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.” It is rare today that we get vine-ripened and tree-ripened fruit. It must be picked before it is ripe and has its best taste, for it must be shipped and be displayed on the counter or shelf. Otherwise, it must be salted or heated and preservatives must be added. And we miss so much of that which our grandparents were wont to enjoy. All this is supposed to be in the name of progress. But all this surely does make us a step or more removed from the soil from whence our foodstuffs come.
This means that we are also a step or two removed from the consciousness of our needs and their supply by an almighty and sovereign God. Rain for us is nothing more than a nuisance. Sunshine is that which will give us a nice coat of tan. The two essentials which we get entirely free of charge are for us nothing more than either a nuisance or that which we can press into the service of our flesh. That rising of the sun each morning is such a common occurrence that we fail to see the wonder of it. We take it for granted and would consider it a wonder only if it did not come up tomorrow morning. The scientist will explain to you exactly what causes the rain, what conditions must be present before it can rain, and how much rain we can expect out of a certain cloud formation and approaching storm. It is all quite a natural thing and the God, whose wonder it is, is left entirely out of the picture.
The farmer who knows the value of rain and sunshine, who scans the sky the first thing in the morning and takes note of it in the evening before the sun has gone so far behind the horizon that no rays of light reach us any more, is not necessarily more spiritual and more apt to believe in God. He has a better opportunity to observe the works of God. But that in itself will never make him a better Christian or a more faithful steward of God’s goods and priest over His creation. But a life close to the earth, a life where we live more fully in the consciousness of our utter dependency upon God, has its advantages and blessings for the believer. There can be no doubt about it that our complex, highly specialized life with all the inventions and “labour saving devices” have all served to foster that carnal position in which God is not in all our thoughts. He is in so little of our thought. Between Him and us we have allowed so much to be brought. We see little or no connection between His rain and sunshine, and the can of food we have opened or the frozen vegetables we have heated for our meal.
So far have we separated ourselves from Him in our way of life that we almost question the need of praying, “Give us this day our daily bread” … Besides, we have our lockers and freezers full. The table is heavily laden with food and man has learned to farm scientifically, so that there is an abundance of food, more than we can use and that must be destroyed because there is no market, and it spoils before it can be consumed. To pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” seems to be outdated or at best it seems to be a prayer that we can pray only in times of famine and depression.
How difficult for us to live in His fear!
It would seem as though the only time we can live in His fear is when we are in need and in trouble. For the rest we can forget God and have little consciousness of need of Him. He gave promise that seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease till Christ returns. A promise like that we can easily believe as long as there is seedtime and harvest …
Let us not try to live by bread alone. It simply cannot be done. One can exist by bread alone as the ox and the mule can live by earthly food alone. But no man has yet lived by bread alone. Show me a man whose life has been to this day sustained by bread alone. All have died; and it is appointed unto all men once to die,—even though some may attain to a far riper age than others. Adam and Eve found out that living by bread kills. They were to live by the words that proceeded forth from the mouth of God. Had they listened to that word and heeded it, they would not have died. Now they were driven from the tree of life and physical death began its destructive process in their flesh. They could eat and eat and eat some more of the same foods they formerly used, but that very eating now destroyed their bodies and in process of time wore them out. Now, as the world says, “You just cannot win.” We must eat to live, and yet the food we eat wears out the body and brings us ultimately to death.
For man is a spiritual being as well as a physical being. He needs spiritual food as well as physical. And he MUST live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. When he eats physical bread in defiance of that word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, he will not only enter into physical death but into the eternal death of hell. All the earthly bread he may eat cannot keep him from that awful end. But living by the words that proceed from the mouth of God he may enter into physical death and live forever in the glory of God’s kingdom.
And so as the season is again at hand when our seed is entrusted to the soil, and we wait for God’s cheering rain and warming sunshine, let us not neglect the spiritual bread of life. We live in His fear only when we seek bread in order to be able to serve Him. Paul declares that “every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” Let us then receive all in thanksgiving. The creature is good. It is our use of it that is so very often sinful. We seek it to consume it in our lusts. It never reaches any higher than our carnal, selfish ambitions, even though it is God’s creature.
Of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things. How necessary then that in our lives all things are consciously and willingly of Him, through Him and unto Him. In His fear, we will live in the consciousness of our utter dependency upon Him, we will be thankful for every creature which He gives us and then reveal this by using all of His creation in His service. In His fear is in His service. In His fear means that we know that He is God and that we manifest this in obedience before Him.
