Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 13 February, 2022
“… walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph. 5:2)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Solomon: Israel’s Wisest King (22)
Within the Holy of Holies [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Leviticus 16
Text: II Chronicles 3:8-14
I. The Access
II. The Ark
III. The Angels
Psalms: 132:1-9; 18:43-50; 80:1-6; 99:1-7
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Christian Sacraments [youtube]
Scripture Reading: I Corinthians 10:1-22
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 25
I. What They Are
II. What They Do
Psalms: 111:1-6; 19:1-8; 146:1-8; 103:1-7
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
Herman Hoeksema on Lord’s Day 25: “Sacraments do not seal the persons who receive the sacraments [nor is a sacrament] an objective bequest or offer of salvation to everyone who receives the sign of the sacrament. They do seal the righteousness that is out of faith. That is why the Reformed symbols emphasize the element of faith. God seals and assures with an oath that he reckons faith unto righteousness. Through the sacraments he assures believers in Jesus Christ that he will surely grant to them all the grace of his covenant and the salvation he promised them. The sacraments are particular, not general. Just as the promises of the gospel are particular and are only for believers, the elect, so also the seals of the sacraments are particular: the sacraments set the inviolable seals of God on the unbreakable connection between faith and righteousness without the works of the law” (Baptized Into Christ, pp. 83-84).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The February issue of the Covenant Reformed News is available on the back table.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Jason, Maisie & Sebastian (Juniors NT)
5:45 PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope, Sammy, Somaya, Sophie, Xander & Yossef (Beginners OT, Book 2)
6:30 PM: Angelica, Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Heidelberg, Book 1)
7:15 PM: Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Essentials)
Membership Class: Monday, 8:15 PM with the McCaugherns.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to discuss degrees of faith.
The Belgic Confession Class will meet on Wednesday at 7:30 PM to continue our discussion of the nearness of Christ’s return.
Saturday night Bible study meets this week at 8 PM at church and on-line to finish Malachi 1.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “By Faith Rahab Received the Spies” (Heb. 11:31).
Offerings: General Fund: £1,813.50. Donations: £50 (Lincolnshire), £100 (Co. Down).
Translation Additions: 5 Afrikaans and 1 Russian.
PRC News: Rev. Barnhill (Peace, IN) accepted the call to Heritage PRC (Sioux Falls, SD). Edmonton PRC will call from a trio of Revs. Guichelaar (Randolph, WI), Regnerus (Lynden, WA) and Brummel (Calvary, IA). Grace PRC will call from a trio of Revs. J. Laning (Hull, IA), Marcus and Spronk (Faith, MI).
Songs of Zion: What Shall the Church Sing?
Prof. Herman Hanko (an excerpt from “Songs of Zion: What Shall the Church Sing?”)
The Argument From History
… Anyone who is at all acquainted with the history of the church, especially since the time of the Reformation, will know that exclusive Psalmody in the worship services acts as a deterrent to the introduction of heresy into the pulpit.
It is equally true that the singing of songs other than the Psalms opens the door, not only to liturgical innovation, but also to unbiblical preaching.
It is not difficult to understand the reason for this. Preaching and singing both belong to worship. Worship, when it is truly worship in the presence of God, requires harmony and agreement between preaching and singing. It is preposterous to imagine that a congregation can listen in a satisfied way to heresy in preaching while singing the songs of Scripture. And it is equally preposterous to think that the church which has abandoned the Psalms will long be satisfied with sound, orthodox preaching …
It is undoubtedly for this reason that already in the 16th century it was said of the Arminians that they sang their way into the church, for Arminian error flew into the church on the wings of songs other than the Psalms. And this has been the pattern since those days.
Someone phrased it correctly when he said: “Let me make the ballads of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
The close relation between the preaching and the singing in the church is underscored by the fact that when reformation came to the church, such reformation always included a return to the singing of Psalms. Apostasy which brought with it the desperate need of reformation was apostasy in doctrine, in church government, and in liturgy. Reformation was a return to the “old paths” (Jer. 6:16) in doctrine, church polity, and liturgy, and thus in singing by Jehovah’s congregation. Psalm-singing is a part of these “old paths.”
Direct Biblical Proof
Such proof from history, however, is not sufficient to make Psalm-singing in the worship services an element incorporated into the regulative principle of worship. For that we need to go to Scripture itself.
The strong line of biblical proof which we need can be found in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Before the argument from the Old Testament is laid down I must once more make an assumption clear on which the scriptural argument is based. The assumption is that the church of the old dispensation and the church of the new dispensation are one church of Christ; and that, therefore, an injunction for worship given in the old dispensation is binding on the church of the new dispensation as well.
It has been argued, even by those who will agree that the church is one in all ages, that nevertheless a command concerning worship given to the church which lived in the times of types and shadows is not valid for the church today simply because the worship of God was bound to the temple and the rituals and ceremonies of Old Testament times, while the church today is free through the Spirit of Christ.
There is a certain superficial validity to the argument, but it is not difficult to see that, carried out consistently, the argument would make irrelevant to the church today the entire moral law embodied in the ten commandments.
The point here (a point which I do not intend to argue in detail) is that, while the form of the administration of God’s covenant with His people (in the context of which worship took place) was changed with the fulfilment of the types and shadows, the substance remains intact and binding on the church today as well as on the saints of the older times.
This is especially true of the command to sing the Psalms, for the Psalms themselves belong to that which is the possession of the church of all ages. The Psalms are part of Scripture, and Scripture, also the Old Testament, is still today our rule of faith and life.
The argument, briefly stated, is as follows:
In II Samuel 23:1-2 David claims that he is God’s instrument in preparing music for the church:
Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
One or two points are to be noticed here. David claims for himself divine inspiration to such an extent that God’s Word was in his tongue by the Spirit; and that the words he consequently spoke, he spoke as the psalmist of Israel. That is, he spoke for purposes of giving the church her songs.
That this was recognized in Israel, and that the Psalms were sung by God’s command, is evident from the great reformation which took place during the time of Hezekiah, king of Judah. As a part of that reformation, Hezekiah restored to the church the pure worship of God. II Chronicles 29:25 reads:
And he (Hezekiah) set Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets.
Again, one ought to notice in this passage that David, along with Gad and Nathan, and so by divine revelation, determined every detail of the worship of God that was to take place in the temple. When Hezekiah brought reformation to the church, he restored the divinely ordained pattern of worship given to the church through David, Gad, and Nathan. It was by divine ordinance that this worship was ordered.
Although verse 25 does not mention the singing, verses 27 and 28 do:
And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel. And all the congregation worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
But the text is even more specific. We are told in verse 30:
Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.
Nothing is clearer than this. Scripture enjoins Psalm singing in the worship of the church.
