Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 7 January, 2024
“My covenant was with him of life and peace” (Mal. 2:5)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM – Prof. Gritters
The Personal Testimony of the Saved Soul [download]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 66
Text: Psalm 66:16
I. Testimony: Of What
II. Testimony: To Whom
III. Testimony: Why
Psalms: 66:1-7; 23:1-6; 4:1-8; 66:8-20
Evening Service – 6:00 PM – Prof. Gritters
Every Believer’s Ability to Admonish [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Romans 15
Text: Romans 15:14
I. The Amazing Truth
II. The Calling to Edify
III. The Needed Confidence
Psalms: 92:1-4, 12-15; 99:1-9; 19:7-14; 40:1-5
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
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Prof. & Lori Gritters and Elder Sid Miedema to our worship services. Prof. will be preaching for us today and next Lord’s day.
The January Covenant Reformed News is on the back table.
The sign-up sheet/schedule for the church visitors is also on the back table. If you would like to have the visitors come to your house for dinner, there are still slots available.
A Bible reading programme for 2024 is still available on the back table on both card stock and standard weight paper.
Thank-you William & Alison for once again organizing a very enjoyable congregational dinner and quiz.
Catechism classes tomorrow:
5:00 PM: Corey, Jason, Katelyn, Maisie & Sebastian (Seniors NT)
5:45 PM: Felicity, Grace, Jonas, Keagan, Liam, Lucas, Sammy & Sophie (Beginners OT – Book 1)
6:30 PM: Eleanora, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope & Xander (Juniors NT)
7:15 PM: Angelica, Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Essentials)
Church visitation will be tomorrow at 8 PM.
Tuesday Bible study will meet at 11 AM with Prof. Gritters leading on the subject of forgiveness.
CPRC Lecture: Prof. Gritters will be giving a lecture this Wednesday on “The Ongoing Battle for the Sabbath” at 7:30 PM. Plan to attend and invite others!
All ladies are invited to join us for Bible study this Friday at church at 9:30 AM to discuss Psalm 27 from the book A 30-day Walk with God in the Psalms.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Ehud: Deliverer of the Covenant” (Judg. 3:12-30).
There will be tea after the evening service next Lord’s day. Tea Rota: Group B, although no sandwiches will be needed since we will be trying something different. Contact Kristin if you have any questions.
Offerings: £1,305.00. Donations: £200 (England), £15 (S. Wales).
Translation Additions: 4 Korean and 2 Spanish.
PRC News: Georgetown PRC will call from a trio of Revs. Brummel, J. Engelsma and Noorman. Hope (Redlands, CA) has a trio of Revs. DeBoer, Decker and Mahtani. Rev. Bleyenberg is considering the call to Lynden PRC. Rev. Bruinsma became emeritus on January 1.
Christian Joy
An excerpt from a pamphlet by Prof. Barry Gritters
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6-7
Many who don’t belong to a church try desperately to convince themselves that they are happy. They fool everyone but themselves. Or they know they are not happy and try to drown their sorrow in drinking, drugs, sports, work or something else to keep their minds off their unhappiness. We believe there is only one kind of true, lasting, joy: “Christian Joy.” We hope this pamphlet will guide them to this joy.
Others ARE church members, but find no reason for joy. Many of these have been robbed of the true gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith. If that is true, there can be some joy—maybe a false, short-term joy—but not true, lasting peace of mind and heart. Or, because of the weakness of their faith, and the temptations that so easily beset, some have a hard time seeing the joy of salvation.
Our prayer is that God will use these excerpts from sermons preached in our church to be a help for you in your life. May you have “Christian Joy.”
The Cross’s Prescription
Have you ever asked yourself what it means truly to be happy? We mean, now, TRULY full of joy! Do you know it? Is it your experience? Do you wake in the morning able to smile?
A Christian can and does. NO ONE but a true Christian can make that claim. A Christian says: “Yes, I know what true happiness is. Even though life is not all roses, I am truly happy.” Why can a Christian say that? And why would anyone be so bold as to say that ONLY a CHRISTIAN can be genuinely happy? There is one fundamental reason—Jesus Christ gives us peace of heart and mind. Let us explain.
The only reason for all the Unhappiness today is that men are not right with God. Men and women have “missed the mark” (that’s the Bible’s description of sin). What is the mark men and women must aim for? To LOVE God with all our time and energy, and love our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-38). That’s the bulls eye. When people fail in that, they owe a GREAT DEBT to God, a debt that we must pay, or be unhappy by God’s judgment. Now, why are so many people miserable today? In simple language, they have failed God. In His anger, God rightfully makes men miserable. SIN stands in the way of happiness. And if that sin is not remedied, they will be miserable in the most utterly serious sense of the word—forever.
Is that our life expectation? It is and must be unless we understand and believe the next paragraph.
Here is the key: A Christian is happy, and can be happy, NOT BECAUSE HE DOES NOT SIN. Don’t misunderstand. Christians still “miss the mark.” They still sin. So true. But Christians can be happy because they believe their debt is paid in full.
How? Through the death of a man—JESUS CHRIST—who is also God Himself. He paid the debt by His perfect love to God and sacrifice on the cross. (He “hit the mark!”) Thus, the ONLY reason for true misery is gone! To be happy (truly happy) you must BELIEVE that this Man died to satisfy for YOUR failures. That’s why the Bible says “Blessed (happy) is the man whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). How is this possible? Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of those who believe in Him. Find joy first at the cross!!!
One Day at a Time
We all see a lot of failure when we look BEHIND us. There are many mistakes; both deliberate and unintentional. We see the misery we have caused others and that we have brought on ourselves.
But we believe that Christ has paid the price for our sins. Christ took the punishment on Himself when He died on the cross. And when we confess our failures to God daily, He daily forgives our sins and gives us true joy—even when we look back and see how badly we have botched our lives (Psalm 31).
But life is not so simple. We also need to look ahead. And sometimes the future is harder to handle than the past. CHRISTIANS CAN ALSO BE HAPPY WHEN THEY LOOK AHEAD.
It happens sometimes that we want to bite off a bigger piece of life than we can chew. We do that in our spiritual life, too. Let me use an illustration. A donkey can carry a large load of straw—more than we can sometimes believe. But if we would pile five times more straw on the donkey, he’d collapse, no matter how sturdy he was.
We do the same when we try to worry about what is going to happen tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, or the next … The Lord did not create us to worry about more than one day at a time. There is enough trouble to care about today, enough burdens to occupy all our strength RIGHT NOW.
Of course, that does NOT mean that we must not PLAN for tomorrow. That would be folly. If we would not plan ahead, we would be very unhappy when “ahead” came and we were unprepared. Rather, a Christian should plan ahead, but then leave it to the Lord to “worry” about tomorrow.
Christ teaches this in Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” In plain language: Don’t let tomorrow get you down! The PAST is taken care of by Christ and His work. And because the FUTURE is also His, you may not take that burden on yourself until it comes to you. Christ directs it for the good of His people.
“One day at a time” is the Lord’s second lesson for Joy.
