Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
Ballymena
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 2 January, 2011
“One generation shall praise thy works to another,
and shall declare thy mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Administration of the Lord’s Supper
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 24:13-25:12
Text: Isaiah 25:6-8
I. What?
II. Where?
III. For Whom?
Psalms: 98:1-6; 84:7-12; 25:8-14; 92:10-15
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Applicatory
Scripture Reading: Amos 7:1-8:3
Text: Amos 7:7-9
I. The Plumbline and the Building of the Wall
II. The Plumbline and the Testing of the Wall
III. The Plumbline and the Destruction of the Wall
Psalms: 99:1-7; 85:1-7; 76:1-9; 82:1-8
Contact Stephen Murray for CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services.
CPRC website: www.cprc.co.uk
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ballymena-United-Kingdom/Covenant-Protestant-Reformed-Church-N-Ireland/337347932331
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
After a week of self-examination, confessing members in good standing are called to partake of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Your participation in the Lord’s Supper is in part a witness that you repent of your sins, believe that Jesus Christ is your righteousness and desire to live a new and godly life. As this heavenly food can be taken to one’s judgment (I Cor. 11:28-30) and as the common reception of this food is a confession of doctrinal unity (Acts 2:42), the elders supervise the partaking of the sacrament. Visitors from other denominations must request permission from the Council.
The December CR News is on the back table. New daily Scripture reading programmes, as well as January devotional booklets, are also available. A new book, Peace for the Troubled Heart by Herman Hoeksema, is available for RFPA book club members.
Everyone is welcome to stay after the evening service for tea and a presentation to Tommy Hamill for his work as our church building project manager.
Catechism classes:
Monday, 6:00 PM – Joseph, Jacob, Nathan & Alex
Monday, 6:45 PM – Zoe, Amy & Lea
Tuesday, 12:15 AM – Beginners NT Class
Tuesday Bible study: 11 AM. We’ll continue II Thess. 2:3f. on “the son of perdition.”
Ladies Discussion Group meets this Wednesday, 11 AM at the church. We will discuss “Women in the Church” (the article is on the back table).
Wednesday Belgic Confession class: 7:45 PM. We’ll begin Article 8 on the Trinity.
Thursday’s Membership class is changed to 6:30 PM due to the council meeting.
The Council will hold their monthly meeting this Thursday, 7:30 PM.
The church visitors arrive this Friday. If you would like to have them over for dinner, there is a sign-up sheet on the back table.
Don’t forget to sign-up for the congregational dinner. The dinner will be held at Leighinmohr Hotel in Ballymena on Friday, 14 January, at 7:00 PM.
The Reformed Witness Hour next Lord’s Day (8:30-9:00 AM, on Gospel 846MW) is entitled “Building a Christian Home” (Psalm 127:1) by Rev. R. Kleyn.
Offerings: General Fund – £644.90. Donation: £30 (pamphlets).
Upcoming Lectures: Wednesday, 12 Jan., 7:45 PM – “Sins Against the Holy Spirit” (Rev. Kuiper)
Friday, 21 Jan., 7:15 PM in S. Wales – “Scripture Alone” (Rev. Stewart)
Friday, 4 Feb., 7:30 PM in Lurgan Town Hall – “Predestination” (Rev. Stewart)
Website Additions: 3 German translations were added.
PRC News: Rev. Overway declined the call to Wingham PRC; Wingham’s new trio is Revs. Eriks, Marcus, and VanderWal. Hope PRC called Rev. Spronk.
A Letter to My Son
by Prof. Herman C. Hanko
(an excerpt from the Standard Bearer, vol. 49, issue 7, 1 January, 1973)
Dear Son,
It seems as if the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year have a way of putting me into a reflective frame of mind. I suppose, when I stop to think about it, that this lies in the nature of the event itself: the last day of an old year when one quite naturally looks back on the days so quickly gone by; the beginning of a new year when one cannot help but look ahead.
… Paul tells us that we have the solemn obligation to “redeem the times.” You may find this in more than one place in Scripture. Look them up yourself. One such place is Col. 4:5. Another is Eph. 5:16. But how is this possible for us? It has got to be because Christ Himself has redeemed the times; i.e., He has redeemed time. He entered into our time to live in our world’s history. And His cross and resurrection were a mighty victory by which He redeemed all things, time among them.
I do not intend to “preach” to you in this letter; but surely it is important for you to understand that this has great significance for us. Among many other things, it means that Christ, from His exalted position high above all creatures, rules sovereignly over all time. He controls time, makes it serve His purpose, uses it to gain for Himself and His (and our) God the complete victory He won on the cross. Now the point is then that all time will be used by Him in such a way that His own everlasting kingdom will gain the victory. We need have no doubt or fear about this; we may look confidently ahead on this new year’s day to that victory which will certainly come about.
And, of course, the altogether wonderful thing is that Christ has called us to be a part of that kingdom and He has given to us to participate by grace in His victory. Time is redeemed for us! The urgent calling to redeem the times comes to us breathing victory and hope for the future.
We are to redeem the times, Paul says. And we are to do this because the days are evil. It is especially this that I want to talk about for a few moments with you. It is not a long look back through the year so swiftly gone by that is needed to conclude that Paul’s words are surely true. The newspapers and broadcasts throughout the year kept drumming into our minds how evil these days really are. All of these evils we need not speak of. But there are some of special importance to you because they have a lot to do with our calling to redeem the times in the year ahead.
I sometimes shudder when I think of how incessantly you are bombarded with every form of immorality … There is no longer any conception of obedience to authority. I have talked with you often about this. I need not repeat here what we have frequently discussed. But there is one point that needs to be made—especially for our young people. You and they are in that time of life when you must become independent. You must stand on your own two feet. You must test your own wings and presently fly the nest. You must leave the shelter of the parental roof and build your own home. It seems that time comes altogether too swiftly for us. Yet we have tried to make you independent. But sometimes there is some misunderstanding about the matter. Perhaps we have not made the point clear enough. It is true that your obedience to your parents never ends; but the point that needs so much to be made is that you always, in all your life, owe unquestioning obedience to the Word of God as the rule of your faith and life. It is this which lies at the basis of all the evil in our day. And, I must warn you, the churches are, in many instances, taking the lead in robbing people of the infallible rule of the Scriptures.
The days are evil. Last year was proof of how evil they are.
But Christ rules over all. And, among other things, this surely means that all these evils too are but so many signs of the fact that Christ is returning. Jesus Himself told us that one of the signs of His coming was to be that lawlessness would abound …
While it is true that the world sinks deeper into the darkness of sin, and while it is true that church after church goes the long road of apostasy with increasing swiftness, nevertheless, there are faithful people of God in many places throughout the earth. They are never very many. But Scripture reminds us that the elect are only a very small remnant, a hut in a garden of cucumbers; and—let us never forget it—a besieged city.
But they are there. And more and more they are protesting the ungodly evils in their own denominations and churches. They are seeing how horrible it is when churches, once strong defenders of the truth, compromise that truth at every turn and sell their birthright for a mess of worldly pottage. And, in their concern, they are seeking each other out, looking for those who still love and maintain the truth, and eagerly desiring fellowship with them of like faith.
This makes the times in which we live exciting. God is taking care of His church. And there is, before our eyes, the evidence that there are always 7,000 who do not bow the knee to the Baals of our day.
We have a calling in this respect. And the calling is urgent. We may not shrink back from it. But, surely, that calling, if it means anything at all, means that we must, without compromise and without equivocation, speak loudly of the truth of the Scriptures. Let the sounds of the trumpet on the walls of Zion give a clear note. Let the faith of our fathers be ours in all truth and purity.
And so the time comes when I must bring this letter to its close.
A new year lies before us. We cannot tell what the year will bring—either for ourselves or for the cause of Christ. We cannot tell what personal burdens will have to be borne, what problems will have to be solved, what joys or sorrows await us in this new year. We cannot tell yet precisely and in every detail what our calling will be in the coming year or what is the exact nature of that calling. The Lord always has a way of surprising us, for His ways are not our ways. But though we do not know, Christ is in heaven and the times are inescapably in His hands. And we belong to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
I must leave a personal word with you. Work your very hardest in the place God gives you now. Pray often and make prayer a regular part of your life, for the kingdom needs praying saints above all else. Read the Scriptures. Read your church papers. Read good literature. Read much. How does Paul put it to Timothy? “Give attendance to reading.” Devote yourself with all the strength of your youth and the energies of your present strength to the work of the kingdom. Be ready always to give an answer to those who ask of you a reason for the hope that is in you. Let your light so shine before men that others may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The victory is ours.
May the year ahead be filled for you with the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit.
