Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 5 February, 2023
“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 – Rev. M. DeVries
The Mind of Christ in Us [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:1-18
Text: Philippians 2:5
I. The Meaning
II. The Possibility
III. The Significance
Psalms: 48:1-6; 8:1-7; 138:1-6; 147:1-8
Evening Service – 6:00 PM – Rev. M. DeVries
Coming to the Throne of Grace [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 4
Text: Hebrews 4:15-16
I. The Meaning
II. The Purpose
III. The Encouragement
Psalms: 118:1-9; 73:23-28; 40:5-9; 141:1-5
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
John Calvin on Hebrews 4:16: “For we must hold this principle—that Christ is not really known as a Mediator except all doubt as to our access to God is removed; otherwise the conclusion here drawn would not stand, ‘We have a high priest who is willing to help us; therefore we may come bold and without any hesitation to the throne of grace.’ And were we indeed fully persuaded that Christ is of his own accord stretching forth his hand to us, who of us would not come in perfect confidence? It is then true what I said, that its power is taken away from Christ’s priesthood whenever men have doubts, and are anxiously seeking for mediators, as though that one were not sufficient, in whose patronage all they who really trust, as the Apostle here directs them, have the assurance that their prayers are heard. The ground of this assurance is, that the throne of God is not arrayed in naked majesty to confound us, but is adorned with a new name, even that of grace, which ought ever to be remembered whenever we shun the presence of God. For the glory of God, when we contemplate it alone, can produce no other effect than to fill us with despair; so awful is his throne. The Apostle, then, that he might remedy our diffidence, and free our minds from all fear and trembling, adorns it with ‘grace,’ and gives it a name which can allure us by its sweetness, as though he had said, ‘Since God has affirmed to his throne as it were the banner of ‘grace’ and of his paternal love towards us, there are no reasons why his majesty should drive us away.’”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Rev. DeVries will be preaching for us today. There will be tea after the evening service as we say farewell to the church visitors and their wives, for they depart tomorrow morning. Tea Rota: Group B.
Standard Bearers are on the back table for subscribers.
The Beacon Lights is a young people’s magazine produced by the PRC. Those who are interested in subscribing should speak with Susan.
Our thanks to William & Alison Graham for once again organizing an enjoyable congregational dinner and quiz.
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)
The Council will hold its monthly meeting at 8 PM tomorrow evening.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to continue our discussion on faith and reason, including the question, Is the biblical faith “reasonable”?
Belgic Confession Class meets this Wednesday at 7:30 PM. In connection with article 37, we will consider more on the signs of Christ’s return.
Saturday Bible study will be held this week, 11 February, at 9:30 AM on-line, considering lesson 2 of the I Thessalonians study guide.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Prof. Griess is entitled, “Religion Defended (2)” (Isa. 48:11).
Offerings: £1,270.96.
Translation Additions: 2 Polish and 2 Spanish.
PRC News: Hull PRC called Rev. Regnerus. Doon PRC called Rev. Spronk.
The Intolerant Truth
Rev. Cornelius Hanko (an excerpt from the Standard Bearer, vol. 16, issue 21)
The accountant pores over his figures, burning the midnight oil in order to find his mistake, so that receipts and expenses will check. He proceeds from the very necessary assumption that figures cannot lie. Mathematics is intolerant. Two is intolerant. Two and two are always four …
The carpenter builds a house on the basis that the computations on his blueprint are all correct. He is very well aware that he is dealing with facts, and that facts cannot lie … The completed house depends on the accuracy of the carpenter in dealing with facts. But the very fact that he sets out to build his house is evident that he trusts his competence.
The tourist on the highway consistently follows the highway signs in the determination to reach his destination. The signs may lead him from his westward course southward for a time, but he blindly follows in the confidence that this one way has but one goal, so that he can safely follow this way until his destination is reached. As long as the traveller is on the right road he can never go too far, for the right way is never wrong.
But the theologian … Sometimes his problem does not check and without further ado he calls it a mystery. Sometimes he completely ignores the truth, inserts his own fancies into the Word of God and yet expects to find harmony and unity in his finished structure. Sometimes he speaks of going too far on the right road and calls it overemphasis or one-sidedness.
God Is Truth
He is light and there is no darkness in Him whatever. He is the true God; beside Him there is no other. All other gods are vain and empty, the work of men’s hands, but He is the True and Living One from eternity to eternity. Therefore Jesus can say, “This is eternal life that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Although we cannot comprehend the unfathomable depths of God, we can know Him, for He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and enlightens our understanding to know Him. But we must know Him as He is. Not to know Him as He is detracts from His glory. To form our own conception of Him contrary to His divine revelation is to raise up an image before His very face. It is not for us to determine who and what He is, but He must reveal Himself to us. And He must be served as He is, for He is the only true God and jealous of His honour.
From God’s veracity must follow that God’s ways and promises and judgments and Word are Truth. God knows all things perfectly. He knows them exactly as they are because He is far above all things. He is God. He has willed all things just as they are; has produced them in His divine thoughts; has called them into being by the Word of His power. His own laws govern all His handiwork. All creation finds its harmony and unity in Him, even as “of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom is the glory forever.”
To formulate our own conception of things outside of God is to think the lie. Our sin-darkened understanding can never think anything but enmity against God. It has no place for Him. It knows no place for Him in creation, nor in the world-history, nor in our own lives. Just think of evolution, humanism, modernism. It refuses Him a place, conceives of all things according to the fancies and the dictates of a deceitful heart. The very thoughts of our mind are foolishness and sin against God. Therefore greater evil is hardly conceivable than that we insert our theories into God’s Word and make Scripture say what we want it to say. Only when we by grace have learned to submit ourselves to be taught of God can our thoughts be in harmony with His eternal thoughts and be acceptable before Him. Only then can we find peace in the perfect harmony and unity of all things in God. There lies the basic solution to all problems.
How necessary that we at all times submit our perverse will and darkened understanding to the light of God’s revelation. Only He can cause us to know His eternal thoughts, His unsearchable wisdom and His mighty works. Then we hear the heavens declare His glory, the day utter speech, and we see the night shew forth wisdom. In His light we see the light. Before that revelation we must bow in humble submission as before the only source of truth and knowledge. As willing pupils we must set ourselves to be taught of God, accepting the truth of His Word and rejecting all that is repugnant thereto. Truth is intolerant. It leaves no place for the lie.
Toleration Condemned
In the light of these facts it must be evident that truth and untruth stand antithetically over against each other, even as light and darkness, faith and unbelief, Christ and Belial, God and Baal.
There are, then, no conflicting statements or contradictions in the Word of God. Truth cannot be in conflict with itself, nor can it raise contradictions, but is always harmoniously one in God. God cannot both will and not will to save all mankind; reveal Himself as both loving and equally hating the wicked. To maintain that Scripture teaches besides God’s sovereign, elective Grace a general, well-meant offer of salvation is to introduce the lie next to the truth of the Word of God. Furthermore, any apparent inconsistencies which we might meet in the Scriptures must always be ascribed to the darkness of our puny understanding. Nor can we rest content by covering them up as “mysteries.” It only remains for us to prayerfully labour with the Word of God, continually comparing Scripture with Scripture, until we have found the harmony and unity pervading the whole Word.
Neither can there be any possible danger of overemphasizing the truth to a point of “one-sidedness.” … Moreover, it cannot be said that strict maintenance of the doctrine of Atonement or of the Virgin Birth over against Modernism can ever lead to an absurd one-sidedness or overemphasis, which means that likewise the doctrine of God’s sovereign Election cannot be overemphasized or lead to a one-sided world and life-view. If so, it would necessarily have to be granted that the very doctrine of election is false. And certainly those who depart from the truth of the Word of God to one-sidedly emphasize the theory of a general, well-meant offer of salvation must experience the result that they have not merely slighted but have definitely departed from the way of God’s Election and Sovereign Grace …
Conclusion: More Zeal for the Truth
There can be but one conclusion, an intolerant truth demands that we love it and cherish it at the sacrifice of all else.
The evil of our day is the great lack of love for the Truth. Swept along by the rush and turmoil of the helter-skelter existence of our day very few people put forth any real effort to know and understand the Truth. With the result that there is very little respect or love for it. And some would even defend this. More and more the idea is making inroads into the Church that it finally does not make so much difference whether you have any knowledge of the Truth, or what you believe, as long as you know that there is a God and have Jesus Christ as your Saviour. The question which our fathers deemed so essential that they placed it both in the Baptism Form and in the questions for Public Confession of Faith seems almost out of place today: “Do you acknowledge the doctrine contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the Articles of the Christian faith and taught here in this Christian Church to be the true and complete doctrine of salvation, resolving by the grace of God to adhere to it and to reject all heresies repugnant thereto?’’ How little thought is given to this question when we are personally called upon to answer it in the presence of many witnesses. How else do you explain the readiness to compromise with the world and with unbelief, the unwillingness to sacrifice for the Truth, the ease with which some can forsake the Truth for every kind of ulterior motive?
Also in that sense it must be said, “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water,” Jer. 2:13. He who forsakes the Truth must die of spiritual thirst next to his own hewn out cistern of the lie.
More zeal to cherish the Truth entrusted to us! More diligence in searching the Scriptures, “studying to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” 2 Tim. 2:15. For only in the measure that we know and understand the Truth and are faithful to it can we experience its blessedness.
