C
Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 9 June, 2019
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering …” (Col. 3:12)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM – Rev. J. Smidstra
Glorifying the God Who Is Able
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3
Text: Ephesians 3:20-21
I. His Unbounded Ability
II. His Assuring Testimony
III. Our Eternal Doxology
Psalms: 96:1-7; 42:1-5; 46:1-5, 10-11; 90:1-2, 15-17
Evening Service – 6:00 PM – Rev. J. Smidstra
Preparatory
Hiding God’s Word in Our Hearts
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:1-16
Text: Psalm 119:11
I. The Meaning
II. The Manner
III. The Purpose
Psalms: 100:1-5; 51:1-3, 8-10; 119:9-16; 1:1-6
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: cprc.co.uk/live-streaming/
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quotes to Consider
John Calvin on Eph. 3:20-21: “Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, is a remarkable expression, and bids us entertain no fear lest faith of a proper kind should go to excess. Whatever expectations we form of Divine blessings, the infinite goodness of God will exceed all our wishes and all our thoughts.”
John Calvin on Psalm 119:11: “Here we are informed that we are well fortified against the stratagems of Satan when God’s law is deeply seated in our hearts. For unless it have a fast and firm hold there, we will readily fall into sin. Among scholars, those whose knowledge is confined to books, if they have not the book always before them, readily discover their ignorance; in like manner, if we do not imbibe the doctrine of God, and are well acquainted with it, Satan will easily surprise and entangle us in his meshes. Our true safeguard, then, lies not in a slender knowledge of His law, or a careless perusal of it, but in hiding it deeply in our hearts.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Rev. Justin & Kelly Smidstra from First Holland PRC to our worship services today. Rev. & Mary Stewart are in the Limerick Reformed Fellowship.
This evening is a preparatory service with the view to partaking of the Lord’s Supper next Lord’s Day morning.
The June Covenant Reformed News is on the back table today. A new British Reformed Journal, a special issue on the Canons of Dordt, is also available for subscribers (£10 for 4 issues).
Tuesday Bible Study meets at 11 AM to consider the consecration of Israel’s priesthood.
The CPRC Annual General Meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday at 7:30 PM. Audio-visual (Stephen Murray), financial (Julian Kennedy) and new website (Rev. Stewart) reports will be given. Do come!
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Griess is entitled “Religion Defended (1)” (Isa. 48:11).
CPRC Preaching Schedule:
16 June – Rev. Stewart
23 June – DVDs (Rev. Stewart in Loveland PRC)
30 June – Rev. Steven Key (Rev. Stewart in Loveland PRC)
7 July – Rev. Steven Key (Rev. Stewart in Hull PRC and Edgerton PRC)
14 July – Rev. McGeown (Rev. Stewart in Southwest PRC and Hudsonville PRC)
The next Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, 22 July at 7:30 PM.
Offerings: General Fund: £1,599.75. Building Fund: £190.40.
Translation Additions: 1 Spanish.
Spiritual Complacency
Cornelius Hanko (Standard Bearer, vol. 69, issue 7)
Spiritual complacency is an ailment that creeps upon us unawares. It takes hold of us exactly when we least expect it.
If anyone were to ask us, “How do you feel?” we likely would respond, “Fine, I’m in the peak of health.” But if we were to follow up the question with a bit of self examination, we would realize that we had given our spiritual health little thought. Recent soul searching we have not done. Like Israel of old we are content to say, “The people of the Lord are we.” We read our Bible every day, we pray, we live respectable lives from day to day, we are members of the church and attend its services faithfully.
The symptoms of this common ailment are exactly that: lack of concern, lack of zeal, a lingering apathy.
We actually notice no real change in our daily walk of life, although it is true that our prayers have become a mere formality, a cold repetition. We make a practice of confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness, but we do not stop to consider what sins we are confessing. Our church attendance is hardly more than mere custom. The singing has no strong appeal, so that we sing the words without giving much thought to the content. During the congregational prayer our minds wander. The sermons do not hit home. Were anyone to ask us, we would have to admit that the church service meant little or nothing to us. The celebration of baptism, or even the Lord’s Supper, with its preparatory week, is celebrated out of mere custom. But this is also true of our private and family devotions. To be honest, a good book or a TV programme interests us much more than all our devotional life. The spiritual and eternal is replaced in our thoughts and desires with mundane and the carnal things.
Sad to say, this ailment is like a contagious disease that spreads very rapidly. It affects not only ourselves but also our family, our friends and, ultimately, our church. Its victims are legion. Since we are not interested in spiritual matters, our family loses interest, our friends are hesitant to speak about them with us. We become spiritually lax, our family becomes indolent. In time even our congregation sinks into cold passivity.
The cause. This may be a bit difficult to diagnose.
It may be a reaction to a spiritual involvement. Strange as it may seem, after Israel’s years of wandering in the wilderness and after the conquest of Canaan, when everyone was settled in his inheritance, a spiritual lethargy came upon them, so that they failed to remind their children and their children’s children of what the Lord had done for them. The same may happen to us.
It is possible that we have been too busy, have become too involved in our business, our farm or any other occupation. Our material interests became our first consideration. Our priorities, then, are all wrong …
It may even be the busyness in the family or some outside interest, such as sports.
Like a cancerous growth, the disease may be rather far advanced before it is detected. It may even prove to be fatal for the individual, for the family or for a congregation.
We think of the church of Laodicea, of which Jesus speaks in Revelation 3:15-17: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot … Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” The cure, Jesus adds in verses 18-19: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
Can it be that in some sense this applies to me? May I unawares have become spiritually listless, complacent? Have my prayers become hindered by it?
The Word of God admonishes us in II Corinthians 13:5 thus: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” We should do so with this prayer in our hearts: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23-24).
The question is not whether we have faith but whether we are “in the faith.” We do not ask ourselves, “Do I believe?” but rather, “Do I walk as children of light should walk in all good works?”
At this point it may be necessary to ask ourselves, “What are good works?” To that question our Heidelberg Catechism gives the answer (Lord’s Day 33): “Only those which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to the law of God, and to his glory; and not such as are founded on our imagination, or the institutions of men.” That is strong language.
When I read Scripture or hear it read, when I make my prayers, when I worship on Sunday with the congregation, I must do so in faith. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). In fact, my entire life must be faith in action.
All that is not done in faith is sin. God’s wrath fumes against mere form worship, as we read in Isaiah 66:3 … Am I guilty at present of mere form worship?
Besides that, my entire life must be “according to the law of God.” I can sit in church and hear the ten commandments read without pangs of conscience. True, at some time or another one particular commandment may accuse and condemn me. But even that is often not the case. Yet the Lord teaches that if I transgress one command, I transgress all, for the basic principle of the law is that I love Him with my whole being, so that all that is not done in love to God is sin.
Am I motivated by the love of God in all that I say and do?
One more thing. All that we do must be done to the glory of God. “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do it all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). Is that the chief characteristic of my life? Was I seeking the glory of God when I read my Bible this morning? When I prayed? When I sat in church last Sunday?
My Lord teaches me that my first and foremost desire must be, “Hallowed be thy name.” How miserably I fail in that!
When we become aware of our spiritual lethargy our only escape is through prayer in Christ Jesus. “Buy of me,” He says.
We need the gold of Christ’s righteousness, the white garments of sanctification, washed in the blood of Calvary; we need the eye-salve of the Holy Spirit that we may see and enjoy anew the riches of God’s grace, His infinite mercy and His unchanging faithfulness.
Even then we must not be content until our complacency is changed into spiritual contentment. We must experience anew the joy of salvation. Even as Scripture admonishes us: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice … And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ” (Phil. 4:4, 7).
