Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 9 June, 2024
“My covenant was with him of life and peace” (Mal. 2:5)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
God’s Son—So Much Better Than the Angels (10)
Christ, the Creator and Changer of the Universe [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 102
Text: Hebrews 1:10-12
I. In Psalm 102
II. In Hebrews 1
Psalms: 100:1-5; 97:1-8; 22:27-31; 102:25-28
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Prayer for Forgiveness [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 32
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 51
I. The Necessity of It
II. The Making of It
III. The Blessedness of It
Psalms: 66:1-7; 102:20-24; 6:1-10; 130:1-8
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
Quotes to Consider
John Owen on Hebrews 1:10-12: “In the prophetical part [of Psalm 102] there are three things signal:—(1) The redemption of the people, with the re-edification of the temple, as a type of that spiritual temple and worship which were afterwards to be erected: as verse 13, ‘Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come:’ and verse 16, ‘When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.’ (2) The calling of the Gentiles to the church and worship of God: Verse 15, ‘The heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.’ Verses 21, 22, ‘To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.’ (3) Hereby the creation of a new people, a new world, is brought in Verse 18, ‘This shall be written for the generation to come’ (the world to come): ‘and the people that shall be created’ (the new creation of Jews and Gentiles) ‘shall praise the Lord.’ These are the heads of the prophetical part of the psalm, and they all respect things everywhere peculiarly assigned unto the Son, who was to be incarnate, or the days of the Messiah, which is all one.”
Herman Hoeksema on the fifth petition: “The prayer for forgiveness is based on faith in the atonement of Christ. This must be maintained against those who claim that this petition for the forgiveness of sins is antiquated and obsolete … It is impossible to understand how there can be true Christians, or those who profess to be such, who claim that there is no place for the prayer for the forgiveness of sins in the life of the child of God and that to pray for that is a manifestation of ignorance or an expression of unbelief. Even apart from the doctrinal error implied in such a conception, it is difficult to understand how a true child of God who knows himself is able not only to make such statements, but also to live without the prayer for forgiveness. Every day and every moment the believer must feel the need of this prayer in his heart, and as he grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, this need will become deeper, and this prayer will grow more intense. Even in those times when his spiritual life is at low tide and when he does not feel much need of prayer, it would seem that the burden of this petition still lies heavily upon his heart. The doctrinal error in this conception is evident. It confuses atonement with the forgiveness of sins. It does not distinguish between the objective blotting out of all our transgressions on the cross of Jesus Christ and the application of his atoning blood in the forgiveness of sins to the heart of the believer. The fifth petition does not pray for atonement, satisfaction, or the blotting out of sins, but for the forgiveness of all our transgressions. The atonement is finished forever. It is an accomplished fact…Christ’s atonement on the cross is then realized in the hearts of those who pray for the forgiveness of sins through the faith God has given to them. All prayer is an expression of faith, not of doubt or of unbelief, and this is also true of the prayer for the forgiveness of sins. It is an expression of the faith that there is forgiveness and that there is forgiveness for the one who prays. The fifth petition prays for the application of Christ’s atonement in the forgiveness of sins to the heart of the believer who lives in the world and is conscious of violating all of God’s commandments, even though he has a beginning of the new obedience in his heart.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Family visitation on Monday, 10 June:
7 PM Grahams(Reid/Rev. Stewart)
8 PM M. Kuhs (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
9 PM Sven(Reid/Rev. Stewart)
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will critique further the soteriology of the Word of Faith that undergirds their way of obtaining earthly prosperity.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Hannah’s Prayer for a Son” (I Sam. 1:9-18).
BRF Conference: Have you booked and paid for the BRF Conference yet? Full payment should be given to Kristin by 20 June.
Offerings: £1,904.15. Donations: £200 (England) £70 (Rep. of Ireland).
Translation Additions: 1 French, 3 Portuguese and 4 Spanish.
PRC News: Rev. Maatman declined the call from Hudsonville PRC. Rev. De Boer declined calls from Redlands and Georgetown PRC. Loveland PRC has called Rev. Decker to be their next pastor. Rev. Mahtani’s installation in Pittsburgh PRC is scheduled for 7 July.
The Holiness of God
(an article by Rev. Dale Kuiper)
“But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (I Pet. 1:15-16).
In the past several articles, we have heard the Scriptures speak to us on those attributes of God which are revealed by that powerful and beautiful name of God, Jehovah … In this knowledge of God we rejoice; we will boast in nothing else than the knowledge we have of Him through Jesus Christ!
There is another group of divine attributes sometimes called God’s ethical perfections, sometimes called His communicable attributes. In distinction from those listed above, these are the virtues which God shares with His redeemed people and works in them through the Spirit of Christ. We have in mind God’s holiness, grace, mercy, love, righteousness, wisdom and long-suffering. Scripture not only sets forth these wonderful virtues of God, but also clearly indicates that holiness is the chief or outstanding ethical virtue that is in God. He is the Holy One of Israel! He is called holy, or referred to as holy, more than any other virtue.
That holiness is the greatest of God’s virtues is revealed in the opening verse of Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah records a vision in which he sees the Lord upon a throne in His temple, surrounded by seraphim which cry out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory.” These angels, which cover their faces with two of their wings before the great glory of God, can only repeat themselves when they would express His great glory. It is almost unutterable! That astonishing glory of God, a glory that fills the whole earth, is His holiness! … In churches today, it is not being preached according to Scripture, and it is not being preached enough, that our God is a holy God!
That which is holy is the opposite of that which is common or profane. We find in Scripture many things which were called holy because they were separated from common usage and dedicated to God with a special purpose. We read of the Holy City, Jerusalem; there was the Holy Temple, with its Holy Place and Most Holy Place. So too there were holy priests, holy Sabbaths, holy water, a holy covenant, holy angels and the holy law. And even the words saints, sanctify and purify come from the root word which means holy.
The word holy has the literal meaning of “to cut, to separate,” and thus it contains the idea of apartness or separation. Thus, two important truths are included in the idea of holiness; that which is holy is separate from all that is common, ordinary, sinful and corrupt; and that which is holy is set apart and dedicated to that which is good, namely God. When God says, “I am holy,” both these aspects stand out very clearly, for God is absolutely separate from all sin, darkness and the lie. His eyes are too pure to behold evil, and He cannot even tempt a man with evil. In God there is a total abhorrence and detestation of all sin. At the same time, He is dedicated unto Himself as the highest possible good! The thrice holy God, in all His thoughts, speech, actions, covenant activity is perfectly self-centred. God always seeks Himself and works towards the glorification of Himself. And when we consider God’s dealings with the children of men, then also He is spotlessly holy so that He can only resist the proud and destroy the wicked. Over against all that is evil our God is a consuming fire; His jealousy burns against that which is not as holy as He!
It hardly needs saying that the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God in our flesh, is also holy. When Gabriel announced His birth to the virgin Mary he said, “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” a reference to the human nature of Christ. He shall be a holy man! Later in His ministry Jesus was confronted by a man with an unclean spirit (demon) which cried out, “I know thee who thou art: the holy one of God.” The devil knew that Jesus … was perfectly consecrated to the cause of God and therefore must destroy all that is opposed to God and His kingdom. Oh, the holiness that was always manifest in Jesus! He hated sin in all its forms and He burned with zeal for His Father’s house. How that zeal consumed Him! Hear Him cry out, “My Father worketh hereto, and I work.” That work of Christ was not Christ-centred but always God-centred; Jesus was perfectly holy!
Let us see a moment that holiness for man means that precise same thing as it does for God. As God is separate from sin and dedicated to Himself, so man must live separately from all sin and dedicate himself to God alone. The moment man becomes in any way self-centred, he sins; he begins to serve himself or some idol, for he cannot serve God and mammon. Man is not the highest good, God is. Man is not the purpose of creation, God is. Man is not even the end or goal of salvation, but the glory of God is. That needs emphasis today. In the churches today there is a rampant religious humanism that makes salvation centre about man and his happiness. Religion is there for whatever a man can get out of it. I will go to church, I will offer my gifts, for what I can get out of it for myself! What a corruption of the purpose of the holy God! We must view our church membership, our salvation, our going to heaven, our living now as God’s holy people, all in the context of the glory of God!
Thus we must see next that God is holy in salvation. He maintains His holiness when He saves unto Himself a church. The love of God does not operate at the expense of holiness, but it reached us in the way of His holiness. The first chapter of I Peter abounds in references to our salvation. Peter goes on to say that we have not been redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, for the most precious things of this world would not do us a bit of good! We have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, Who is the Lamb without spot or blemish. In order to be our head and representative before God, Christ had to be spotlessly holy that His holiness might be ours. The holy God cannot dwell with sinners, and cannot live in the same covenant household with sinners. To take His people unto Himself in the friendship of the covenant, God makes them righteous first of all, and then He makes them holy as He is holy. In other words, God makes His people saints!!
The purpose of Christ in taking our place in judgment is that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people zealous of good works. Just as with the sin offering, the blood of which was carried into the Holy of Holies, and the body of which was burned without the camp, so Jesus died outside Jerusalem, presenting His blood to God in the heavens as the perfect blood of atonement. In this way, He “presents to God a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Behind that justifying and sanctifying work of Christ is the holiness of God who can have no fellowship with darkness, but who surrounds Himself with a holy people in Jesus Christ.
This mighty God of salvation calls His people, “with a holy calling.” And He says to them, “Be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” The word conversation has the meaning of all of life’s relationships, departments and aspects. We are to be separate from sin and dedicated to God in all that we do! There may be no question about it whatsoever that we are indeed saints! Not simply that we are church-goers, but holy children of God in word and in truth! The apostle says in verse 14 that we are to do this as obedient children; children must always be characterized by obedience. And since we are adopted into the family of God, our obedience must be unto Him. We are called to love Him and seek Him. We are called to love what God loves, and hate what God hates. And the apostle warns us that we are not to conform ourselves to former lusts, to the motions of our sinful natures, to carnal, unlawful desires. God has called us out of that and away from that so that we are not to walk in those lusts or in that ignorance any longer.
Sadly it is very easy to be conformed to such things again, for those lusts are in our flesh and sin is appealing to our flesh. The things of which we read in the newspapers, the things that are promoted in the movies and the television programmes, the things that we know are corrupt and displeasing, that appeal to the old man of sin in us. That means we are called to fight valiantly against all sin. The saint wants to be holy, because God is holy and because God calls us to be holy; but he who would be holy must fight! And there is nothing in all this world to support you or sustain you in that fight. The only thing that will support you is that which God has placed in your heart, and which God nourishes with His Word and Spirit. We are sanctified by obeying the truth through the Spirit (v. 22).
Actually the Greek does not say “Be holy,” but it states, “Become holy.” This makes it clear that sanctification is a process that continues throughout the Christian’s life. In Christ we are holy in principle so that before God we are clothed in white robes of dazzling splendour. But as long as we live on this earth, we still continue to sin and we stain our garments with the filth of sin. Therefore God comes to us through the gospel trying us as by fire, chastening us, that impurities may be burned away and rebelliousness may be driven out. The all-wise, holy Father knows how to warn, admonish, exhort and threaten us …
Thus we finish our earthly pilgrimage as strangers on the earth with our faces toward heavenly Jerusalem, touching not the unclean thing. One day soon Jesus will appear … we know that when Jesus appears, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!” That is our hope. “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (I John 3:3)!
