Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 7 June, 2015
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind …” (Rom. 12:2)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Listen and Wake Up! (10)
Depart From Babylon! [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52
Text: Isaiah 52:11-12
I. The Beautiful Old Testament Imagery
II. The Practical New Testament Reality
Psalms: 15:1-5; 106:11-18; 114:1-8; 26:6-12
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Christ’s Virgin Birth: What It Teaches Us [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-21
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 14
I. Its Nature
II. Its Place
Psalms: 98:1-9; 106:19-25; 22:6-12; 89:23-29
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: https://cprc.co.uk/live-streaming/
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quote to Consider
John Calvin: “When mention is made of our union with God, let us remember that holiness must be the bond of our union. But, this does not mean that we come into communion with Him by the merit of holiness. We ought rather first to cleave to Him, in order that, pervaded with His holiness, we may follow whither He calls. Holiness must be the bond of our union because it greatly concerns His glory not to have any fellowship with wickedness and impurity. Wherefore He tells us that this is the goal of our calling, the goal to which we ought ever to have respect, if we would answer the call of God. For to what end were we rescued from the iniquity and pollution of the world into which we were plunged, if we allow ourselves, during our whole lives, to wallow in them? Besides, we are at the same time admonished, that if we would be regarded as the Lord’s people, we must inhabit the holy city Jerusalem, which, as He hath consecrated it to Himself, it would be impious for its inhabitants to profane it by impurity. Hence the expressions, ‘Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness’ (Psalm 15:1-2; 24:3-4); for the sanctuary in which He dwells certainly ought not to be like an unclean stall” (“The Christian Life,” pp. 4-5).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Rev. McGeown’s letter to the PRC is available on the back table, along with a new Covenant Reformed News.
The Tuesday Bible study will meet at 11 AM to study Hosea on children (2).
Rev. Stewart is to give a lecture in Margam, S. Wales, this Thursday at 7:15 PM on “What Is a Protestant?” Please remember this witness in your prayers.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled “God’s Design for Marriage” (Genesis 2:24).
Everyone is invited to a barbecue at the manse next week Friday, 19 June. Please let Rev. or Mary Stewart know if you are able to come.
Upcoming Lecture: Friday, 26 June, “What Is a Protestant?” in Portadown Town Hall at 7:30 PM.
Offerings: General Fund – £1,156.92.
Website Addition: 1 Afrikaans translation of “The Biblical Ground of the Baptism of Infants,” a pamphlet by Herman Hoeksema.
PRC News: The pre-synodical service on Monday, 8 June, at 7:00 PM, in Faith PRC, including Rev. Koole’s sermon, will be streamed live (http://faithprc.org/watchlive.cfm). Seminarian Barnhill’s specimen sermon will be delivered on Tuesday at 10:30 AM. Pending synod’s approval, this sermon, as well as the rest of Mr. Barnhill’s examination and his graduation, will also be streamed live. The schedule for the rest of the examination will be announced on-line at the time of the specimen sermon. Graduation is planned for Thursday, 11 June, at 7:30 PM in Faith PRC, with Prof. Cammenga speaking on “The Minister and His Marriage.”
Following the Footprints of Faithful Fathers
Brian D. Dykstra
In his biography about Robert E. Lee, Lee of Virginia, Douglas Southall Freeman recounts an interesting story. While Lee was a captain in the United States Army, he was given permission to return to Arlington, Virginia, to attend to family matters after the death of his father-in-law. On a snowy evening, Lee decided to take a walk with his son Custis. Suddenly, Lee noticed his youngster was no longer walking at his side. Lee turned and saw that Custis had dropped behind to walk in the tracks his father had left in the snow. Lee later remembered this event and said, “When I saw this, I said to myself, ‘It behooves me to walk very straight when this fellow is already following in my tracks!’”
We certainly have had a snowy enough December this year to leave footprints behind us. However, for our current purposes we are looking to follow footprints of a different sort. The footprints which I have in mind are more than fifty years old. These are the footprints left by those who started our school. Such footprints are found in Article I of Hope School’s Constitution.
What did these Protestant Reformed fathers believe to be of utmost importance when establishing this school? What could they do to insure that their covenant seed would follow in their path? Article I, the “Basis” for this school society, provides us with a clear path these fathers wished for us to follow. It tells us what was of essential importance to these men as they began their hard work at the inception of this school.
Section A of Article I begins, “The Bible is the infallibly inspired, written Word of God … and as such form[s] the basis for administration, instruction and discipline in the school.” As different as such a basis might have sounded some fifty years ago, it seems antiquated today. One can almost hear the world’s laughter. The Bible? That’s quaint, but isn’t that terribly impracticable? How can you people teach science with the Bible as your standard? What are your children going to do when they study science in colleges or universities? Do you think anyone will take them seriously? Also, why hold up the Bible to your girls as the standard of truth when it relegates them to the status of second-class citizens? If you teach your children that the Bible is the only standard of morality, they will be very close minded and intolerant, and there is little room for such thinking in today’s society. You’re just setting your children up for failure by educating them with a basis such as that!
The harsh winds of the world’s ridicule of God’s Word might seem a threat to drift in our fathers’ footprints. We might be tempted to think walking in such footprints is no longer practical or desirable. It is not worth the trouble to try to find them under today’s conditions. As the coldness of the world’s iniquity and its attitude toward the beauty of the kingdom of God grows more severe, we might be tempted to say that it’s just too cold to walk in those footprints. They marked a fine path in their day but times have changed.
Yet, we can still see those footprints, for God has preserved them. Below them, under the snow, are the old paths, “ … where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” We pray that God will give us richly of His grace so we or our children do not answer as did carnal Israel of old, “But they said, We will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:16).
Yes, those footprints mark a ridiculed old path. The world has little use for anything old any more, but let us continue to follow those footprints for they are as old as God’s promises to us. He will not fail to use our school, with His infallible Word as its basis, to point out to His covenant children what lies at the end of the path.
