Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 4 June, 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
Nehemiah, a Man Who Sought the Welfare of Israel (8)
Internal Injustice [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 5
Text: Nehemiah 5
I. The Great Outcry
II. The Problem Solved
III. The Godly Example
Psalms: 15:1-5; 69:21-25; 19:7-13a; 119:1-8
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Blessed Comforter [youtube]
Scripture Reading: John 14:1-26
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 20
I. His Office
II. His Indwelling
Psalms: 42:1-5; 69:26-30; 104:30-35; 143:5-11
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 G. Butler on Nehemiah 5: “Greed is such an ugly thing. It has no character. It is rooted in selfishness. The greedy will trample on anyone (even the nearest of friends and family) and anything (nothing is sacred to the greedy) to get gain. Greed has no noble loyalties. It reduces the goal of life to nothing more than earthly gain—which means that eternal matters are of little value to the greedy. Greed will destroy a person who is overtaken by it, for it causes men to ‘fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition … they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows’ (I Timothy 6:9, 10)” (Nehemiah: The Wall Builder, p. 132).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Bonnie Meelker from Hope PRC in Redlands, California, to our worship services today.
The Council meets tomorrow evening at 7 PM.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will discuss “subsequence” in the Pentecostal/Charismatic doctrine of the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Saturday Bible study will be held this week, 10 June, at 7:30 PM on-line, considering lesson 7 of the I Thessalonians study guide.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled, “Husbands Love With Purpose” (Eph. 5:27).
Rev. James & Margaret Laning will be here 13-26 June. Rev. Laning will be preaching on 18 and 25 June. Rev. & Mary Stewart will be in Singapore and Malaysia, where Rev. Stewart is to preach and speak at the church camp of our sister church, the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church.
Offerings: £1,177.35. Donations: £12,884.59 (USA), £675.58 (Hudsonville PRC), £500 (Kent, England), £200 (W. Yorkshire, England) £100 (Malaysia), £50 (Rep. of Ireland).
Translation Additions: 4 Hungarian, 1 Polish and 1 Russian.
PRC News: Doon PRC: Rev. Mahtani declined their call. Georgetown PRC: Rev. DeBoer declined their call. Hosanna PRC called Rev. Kortus. Hudsonville PRC calls today from a trio of Revs. D. Kleyn (missionary), W. Langerak and J. Mahtani. Loveland PRC called Rev. Kortus. Lynden PRC: Rev. Kortus declined their call. Randolph PRC called Rev. Noorman. Zion PRC called Rev. Spronk.
Transformation Versus Conformation (1)
Rev. Herman Hoeksema in the Standard Bearer, vol. 15, issue 10
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
Transformation—Conformation! Either-Or. Not Both-And. God against Mammon. Or Mammon against God! Rowing up against the current. Or drifting down the stream.
In the world, against the world. Or in the world, of the world, for the world, with the world.
The Word of God the pattern of your life. Or the world shaping your walk and conversation. The renewing of your mind your motive-power. Or the flesh actuating your whole life.
The Antithesis—The Synthesis!
The way of battle or the way of least resistance. Transformation—Conformation!
Which? Be not conformed!
It is, indeed, the easiest way through the present world that you allow yourself to be conformed to it. For, to be conformed implies that there is a ready-made, external pattern, which I simply have to copy, to which I accommodate myself, so that in the outward manifestation of my life, in all my walk and conversation I become like unto that pattern. It requires no originality. It causes no friction. It means no battle, no effort, no suffering.
Conformation is well illustrated in the first period of an immigrant’s abode in the foreign country of his choice. He is different from his surroundings. He is not like his environment. He speaks a different language; he has a different bearing; his habits of life are different; his very appearance marks him as a stranger. But he soon becomes conformed, especially if he is not yet advanced in years. The external life pattern of the country of his choice, is readily adopted. He lives right in the midst of it. He hears the new language, he perceives the new habits, daily he is in contact with the new mode of living. The new pattern moulds his life. Soon he has adapted himself to it. The conformation is completed without much difficulty.
Be not conformed!
To what? To this world! Literally the text reads: be not conformed to this age, considering the world and all that is in the world from the viewpoint of time and development, the world in which you live, the world of your own day, the present world in distinction from the world to come. And that world lives and strives and develops in time from its own principle, the principle of sin and darkness, the principle of enmity against God and hatred of one another. And from that inner principle that world develops its own pattern of life. That law of sin expresses itself in all the manifestations of the world, in speech and song, in conversation and literature, in habits and dress, in all the different spheres and relationships of life, in the relation of man and wife, of parent and child, of employer and employee, in business and industry, in science and art. And this expression of the world from the principle of sin is its form, its fashion, its pattern.
And in that world you live.
Its existence is your existence.
From a purely natural viewpoint you are one with that world.
You cannot and you may not go out of the world. To withdraw yourself from it and recede into some remote corner in order to spend your days in separatistic solitude is as impossible as the attempt is contrary to the will of Him that called you out of darkness into His marvellous life.
Yet, be not conformed!
Let the pattern of the world, its scheme and fashion not be the model after which you shape your own walk and conversation.
Whether it be in your individual life or in your relation to others, in the home or in society, in school or in the shop, let your life not be moulded by the pattern you behold round about you.
Do not let yourself drift down with the current!
Be not conformed! No conformation, but transformation! For, a change is, indeed, necessary!
The apostle does not write: “be not conformed to this world, but rather stay as you are.”
This would be quite impossible. In fact, it would imply a contradiction in terms. To remain as you are would be the same as a conformation of your whole life to the fashion of this world.
For, by nature, apart from the inner principle of the new life in Christ that is in our hearts, we are of the world and like the world. The operations of sin that are in the world are also in our members. And according to the operation of sin in our flesh we are inclined to walk even as the world, in the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And these operations of sin are still powerful. We have a small beginning of the new obedience in our hearts and all the rest is flesh. We are reborn in principle, born of God, so that we cannot sin according to this new principle of life; but there is much flesh and its operations are powerful. Besides, it is the flesh and not the Spirit, that finds every conceivable contact and aid in the world about us.
Hence, the conflict!
If anyone is in Christ Jesus He is a new creature. Yet, the new creature dwells in a carnal existence and nature, in which the former movements of sin are so powerful that the realization and manifestation of the new life is disputed, opposed, often effectually hampered every moment!
Old things have passed away and all things have become new. Yet, the old things that have passed away assert themselves in the flesh frequently to such an extent, that the new things fail to come to expression!
I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But there is another law in my members, warring, always warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin! I would, indeed, practice, constantly to do the good, but often I do it not. I hate to do evil, yet often I do it!
O wretched man that I am! Constantly there is the battle.
And always I must hear and give heed to the Word of God: Be not conformed, but be transformed!
There is a fundamental difference!
Conformation is to copy, transformation is to be original. Conformation is adaptation, transformation to be different. Conformation is the synthesis, transformation is the antithesis. Conformation is the way of no resistance, transformation is opposition. Conformation is peace with the world, transformation means battle.
Be ye transformed!
Even as the world creates for itself its own pattern of life from the principle of sin, so do ye also live from your own distinctive principle of righteousness and the love of God!
You must undergo a change.
But let that change of your walk and conversation not be determined by the fashion of the world. Neither let it consist in a mere, superficial, external reformation.
Be transformed!
