Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 11 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 (9)
Five Messages From Sanballat [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 6
Text: Nehemiah 6:1-9
I. The Four Invitations
II. The Open Letter
III. The Crucial Letters
Psalms: 122:1-9; 69:31-36; 28:1-6; 26:1-8
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Nehemiah, a Man Who Sought the Welfare of Israel (10)
Continual Opposition to Nehemiah [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 6
Text: Nehemiah 6:10-19
I. The False Prophets
II. The Finished Walls
III. The Fifth Column
Psalms: 71:1-8; 70:1-5; 27:1-5; 126:1-6
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: www.cprc.co.uk/live-streaming
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quotes to Consider
John G. Butler on Nehemiah 6: “Pastors need help here regarding all those meetings which they are invited to attend. Many pastors cannot turn down an invitation. But going hither and yon to a host of different meetings makes it impossible for them to study the Word of God as they ought and do other important duties in regards to their own church. To do God’s work, the pastor must tell those who would distract that their meetings are not as important as the pastor’s duty. Many solicitations sound legitimate and important; and if the pastor does not respond positively to them, many will criticize. But the truth of the matter is that all those other meetings do not matter to the pastor’s work. What matters is the pastor sticking with the work God has given him to do” (Nehemiah: The Wall Builder, p. 160).
Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 6:5-9: “It is common for that which is the sense [or opinion] only of the malicious to be falsely represented by them as the sense [or opinion] of the many … we must never omit known duty merely for fear it should be misconstrued; but, while we keep a good conscience, let us trust God with our good name … Christian fortitude will be sharpened by opposition. Every temptation to draw us from duty should quicken us so much the more to duty.”
“A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favour of an enemy group or another nation … ‘fifth columns’ are ‘domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state.’ The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine … Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, espionage, and/or terrorism executed within defence lines by secret sympathizers with an external force. The term ‘fifth column’ originated in Spain (originally quinta columna) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War. It gained popularity in the Loyalist faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad … Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated 30 September, 1936, that was sent to Berlin by the German chargé d’affaires in Alicante … he suggests that … Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid, and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside” (“Fifth Column,” in Wikipedia).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Rev. James & Margaret Laning arrive on Tuesday morning. Rev. Laning will preach on 18 and 25 June. Rev. & Mary Stewart leave for Singapore on Thursday, returning on Monday, 26 June. Rev. Stewart is to preach for our sister church, the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church, and speak at their church camp in Malaysia.
Tuesday Bible study will not meet this week or next week.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Haak is entitled, “The Husband Is the Head of the Wife” (Eph. 5:23).
The next Lord’s Supper will be in the morning of 9 July.
Offerings: £1,931.74.
Translation Additions: 2 Hungarian, 2 Polish and 1 Spanish.
PRC News: Synod begins this week and includes the examination of Seminarian Matthew Koerner. Doon PRC has formed a new trio of Revs. Smit, D. Kleyn and Bleyenberg. Hosanna PRC called Rev. Kortus. Hudsonville PRC called Rev. D. Kleyn. Loveland PRC called Rev. Kortus. Lynden PRC’s new trio is Revs. D. Kleyn, Mahtani and Smit. Randolph PRC called Rev. Noorman. Zion PRC called Rev. Spronk.
Transformation Versus Conformation (2)
Rev. Herman Hoeksema in the Standard Bearer, vol. 15, issue 10
Is it possible? Is not the flesh too powerful to be overcome?
And is not the pattern of the world all about us, imposing itself upon us, so that it would be folly even to imagine that resistance had any hope of success?
One who drifts with the mighty current above the Niagara down towards the falls, may hear the warning shout from some well-meaning friend on the shore urging him not to allow himself to float downstream, but to oppose and overcome the tremendous suction that must inevitably draw him to destruction; but is not the warning foolish because it would require the impossible?
And is not the same impossible task required in this exhortation not to be conformed after the fashion of the world but to be transformed? Are we not in the world? And must we not live with the world? Must we not eat and drink and be clothed? And how shall we live, how shall we be able to maintain our existence in a world in which everything follows the one pattern, is fashioned according to the principle of sin, unless we are willing to adapt ourselves to the universal exemplar and share our lives according to the fashion of the world? How can we be of any account, how is it possible to maintain our position, to keep our place in society, to do business, to hold our job, to be of influence in any sphere of life, if we stubbornly refuse to be conformed after this world and consistently strive after transformation?
Is not the required task superhuman, impossible, absurd?
Would it not require of us to leave the world, to seclude ourselves, to let the boat of our life drift to some quiet quay, where we are outside of the main current of the river?
Where is the source that can supply us with power to struggle upstream?
By the renewal of your mind!
The apostle had written in the first verse of this same chapter that he exhorted, beseeched the church of Christ to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God, and that he addressed this exhortation to them by the mercies of God! Of those mercies of God in Christ he had written in the first part of this epistle. Mercies innumerable! Mercies revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who had come into the flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, who had died for the ungodly in due time, satisfying the righteousness of God for sin; who had been raised for our justification even as He had been delivered for our transgressions; who had been exalted at the right hand of God and there maketh intercession for us with the Father. Mercies of redemption and forgiveness of sin; mercies of a righteousness which is not of works but of faith and of a grace that sets us free from the dominion of sin; mercies of adoption unto children of God and of the hope of the glorious inheritance that shall be revealed in the day of Christ Jesus our Lord!
By these mercies, with a view to them, with them as his firm basis, he had beseeched them to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God. Their bodies! That in which they live their life in this world! Their whole life, in all its manifestations, in every department!
But this implied a struggle! The struggle it required, which he mentions in this second verse, that they be not conformed after this world but be transformed.
And superhuman though the task may appear, and actually be, it is possible of accomplishment by these mercies of God in Christ. For through these mercies, they have received a power that is capable of overcoming the world: the renewal of their mind!
The mind is the highest in man’s nature. It is that marvellous power in him, that light-faculty, by which he knows that with all his life and being and activities in this world he stands before the face of God, who judges him and places him always before the irrevocable demand: love Me with all thy heart! It is the light of the higher understanding by which he is able and also impelled to know and determine his relation and attitude to the living God, to say Yes or No to His law, to love or to hate Him, to serve or to refuse to serve Him, to live in righteousness or unrighteousness.
And that mind is darkened by nature! It is foolish! It is so hopelessly entangled in the snares of sin, that it does not and will not and cannot acknowledge that it is good to love the Lord our God. It is carnal. Its minding is death! It is not subject to the law of God, neither can be! It always says No to God and Yes to the devil. It deceives the will and all our desires, so that the natural man seeks sin as good, follows after unrighteousness, strives after his own eternal destruction. Desperately wicked, hopelessly confused, unspeakably foolish is the carnal mind!
But by the mercies of God our mind is renewed! Through the power of the grace of Christ, we received a new life. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we were begotten again. And the operation of that new life enlightens the mind with a new, spiritual light, by which we discern and love the truth of God, abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good …
That renewed mind must have dominion! Dominion over your “bodies,” over your entire life in the midst of the world.
In that renewal of the mind, you have the power in Christ to overcome the motions of sin! The world and its pattern!
Be transformed from within! That you may prove the will of God! The will of God as it is revealed unto us in the Scriptures.
You may not be conformed after this world; you cannot find the pattern of your life in the fashion of this world. Yet you cannot be without a pattern. The renewal of your mind all by itself cannot determine what the fashion of your walk and conversation in the world shall be. It needs light from without. And that light is supplied by the revelation of the will of God in the Scriptures. Within it is the motive-power of the renewal of your mind that urges, that actuates, that drives, that impels you; without it is the revelation of the will of God that guides you …
That will is good! Good absolutely, because it is the will of God; and salutary for you who keep it. That will is acceptable! It is well-pleasing to God and to keep it has the great reward of causing you to taste that God’s favour is upon you!
That will is perfect! It lacks in nothing. It never fails. It always satisfies the soul of him that keeps it.
And from the inner principle of the renewal of your mind you prove that will, approve it spontaneously, gladly, with great delight!
And you will taste that the Lord is good!
Blessed transformation!
