Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 19 June, 2022
“… walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph. 5:2)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM – Confession of Faith
The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm (3)
Zeal for God’s House [youtube]
Scripture Reading: John 2:13-25
Text: Psalm 69:9a
I. David
II. Christ
III. Us
Psalms: 122:1-9; 33:15-22; 65:1-5; 27:1-5
Evening Service – 6:00 PM – Preparatory
The Most Avoided Messianic Psalm (4)
Where Reproaches Fall [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Romans 14:10-15:7
Text: Psalm 69:9b
I. When God Is Reproached
II. When We Are Reproached
Psalms: 142:1-7; 34:1-9; 119:129-136; 69:4-9
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 Calvin on Psalm 69:9a: “David’s enemies, no doubt, professed that nothing was farther from their mind than to touch the sacred name of God; but he reproves their hypocritical pretences, and affirms that he is fighting in God’s quarrel. The manner in which he did this, he shows, was by the zeal for the Church of God with which his soul was inflamed. He not only assigns the cause of the evil treatment which he received — his zeal for the house of God — but also declares that whatever evil treatment he was undeservedly made the object of, yet, as it were, forgetting himself, he burned with a holy zeal to maintain the Church, and at the same time the glory of God, with which it is inseparably connected. To make this the more obvious, let it be observed, that although all boast in words of allowing to God the glory which belongs to him; yet when the law, the rule of virtuous and holy living, presents its claims to them, men only mock him, and not only so, but they furiously rush against him by the opposition which they make to his Word. They do this as if he willed to be honored and served merely with the breath of the lip, and had not rather erected a throne among men, from which to govern them by laws. David, therefore, here places the Church in the room of God; not that it was his intention to transfer to the Church what is proper to God, but to show the vanity of the pretensions which men make of being the people of God, when they shake themselves loose from the control of God’s holy law, of which the Church is the faithful guardian. Besides, David had to deal with a class of men who, although a hypocritical and bastard race, professed to be the people of God; for all who adhered to Saul boasted of having a place in the Church, and stigmatised David as an apostate or a rotten member. With this unworthy treatment David was so far from being discouraged, that he willingly sustained all assaults for the defense of the true Church. He declares that he is unmoved by all the wrongs and revilings which he personally suffered at the hands of his enemies. Laying aside all concern about himself, he is disquieted and distressed only for the oppressed condition of the Church, or rather burns with anguish, and is consumed with the vehemence of his grief.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
This morning we witness the public confessions of faith of Ivan Ortu and Colm Ring. May the Lord bless and strengthen them as they become confessing members of this congregation.
This evening will be a preparatory service with the view to partaking of the Lord’s Supper next week.
On the back table are Beacon Lights for subscribers and Rev. McGeown’s new book, The Savior’s Farewell, for RFPA book club members.
A draft of the new address, telephone and e-mail list is also on the back table. Please check your details and make corrections or additions, or place a tick by your name if all is correct.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to consider the Federal Vision on saving faith.
Everyone is invited to a barbecue at the manse (weather permitting) this Friday (24 June) at 6:30 PM or as soon as you can make it thereafter. In order to know how much food is needed, please let the Stewarts know if you plan to come.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled, “Joseph’s Confession Concerning Providence” (Gen. 50:14-26).
Please reserve next Wednesday (29 June), for our annual general meeting.
BRF Conference: Those who are not attending the conference (9-16 July) are very welcome to visit. The programme or schedule will be available soon. If you wish to join us for lunch or dinner at Castlewellan, the cost is £8/adult per meal. Please contact Mary because the castle would like to know about a week in advance.
Don’t forget to sign up on the tea rota on the back table. The next tea will probably be on Sunday, 17 July, when we will need both groups contributing due to the number of visitors we are expecting.
Offerings: £1,546.67. Donations: £24.54 (Massachusetts, USA), £5 (England).
Translation Addition: 1 Russian.
PRCP News: On 2 July, Revs. Jim Laning, Bill Langerak and Daniel Kleyn will give three speeches, to be followed by a question and answer period, at a conference sponsored by the Protestant Reformed Churches in the Philippines. The conference theme is “Contending for the Faith: Doctrinal Development Since the Schism.”
PRC News: Grace PRC called Rev. Guichelaar. Hudsonville PRC has a new trio of Revs. Decker, J. Laning and Noorman. Rev. Smidstra is considering calls for domestic missionary and from Hosanna PRC (Edmonton, CA). Doon PRC called Rev. J. Holstege. Synod met this past week and concluded its business on Friday afternoon. A summary of the decisions of Synod can be found on-line (www,prca.org).
Zeal for God’s House: The Motivation for Christian Discipline
Prof. Ronald Cammenga (an excerpt from the pamphlet “Zeal for God’s House“)
Introduction
The first official act of Jesus’ public ministry was His cleansing of the temple. Jesus and His disciples went up to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Passover. While in Jerusalem, they found in the temple the buyers and sellers of animals and those who were changing the money. Jesus made a scourge, a whip. With that whip He drove out those who were buying and selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers. The Lord Jesus Christ drove out those who were defiling His Father’s house. The disciples remembered the Word of God that was written, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” (John 2:17).
Still today the Lord Jesus Christ drives out of His Father’s house those who have no business to be in that house, and who are defiling that house of His Father. The Lord Jesus does that today by the faithful church, through the exercise of Christian discipline. When discipline is exercised, those who defile the house of God are driven out. And when that discipline is exercised faithfully, the one who drives them out in the end is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
There is in the churches today a widespread neglect of the exercise of Christian discipline. Men stand by doing nothing while God’s house is being defiled. Christian discipline is a dead letter in the churches. The vast majority of evangelical churches in our land today have no concept of Christian discipline. There is little understanding that it belongs to the calling of the church to exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and in the end to exclude impenitent sinners from the church of Jesus Christ.
The membership rolls of many churches include those who for many years have never set foot in the sanctuary, or who have darkened the doors of the church only very infrequently. They don’t attend the divine worship services. They don’t contribute regularly to the support of the gospel ministry. Yet they’re left on the rolls of the church. No one visits them. They are left undisturbed.
What can be said about this neglect of Christian discipline in the churches today? This is what can be said about it—men are not consumed today by a zeal for the purity of the house of God.
The Motivation for Christian Discipline
The neglect of Christian discipline in the church is undoubtedly due, at least in part, to the fact that men have lost sight of the motivation for Christian discipline. They don’t understand the reason for Christian discipline and have no idea of the purpose that Christian discipline serves. A clear understanding of the motivation for discipline is necessary if discipline is going to be preserved in the church. Even in the true church of Jesus Christ where Christian discipline is faithfully exercised, if there is not a clear understanding of why we discipline, and if there is no motivation for discipline, then in the end Christian discipline is going to go by the board. For the preservation of discipline there must continue to be in the church a good understanding of the motivation for discipline.
That motivation comes down to one thing—love. That is the motivation for discipline—love for the erring brother who is the object of discipline, love for the church as a whole that exercises discipline, and ultimately love for God on behalf of whom, and out of a zeal for whose name, discipline is exercised …
… But the motivation does not end in love for the erring brother, or in love for the church. In the end, the motivation for Christian discipline must be love for God.
This is the way it must be in the Christian home. This is why parents in the church must be faithful to exercise discipline over their children. The motivation must be love for the Lord God. They must be interested in the honour of His name. His glory must mean more to them than anything else.
That is the great evil of parents who do not discipline their children. It is not that, in the end, they do not really love their children. It is not that, in the end, there is no love for the rest for the family and concern for the well-being of the other members of the family. The great evil of the neglect of parental discipline is that parents do not love God as they ought to love him.
This was the word of God to Eli expressing the seriousness of Eli’s neglect to discipline his wicked sons, Hophni and Phinehas. In I Samuel 2:29, God Himself says about Eli that he honoured his sons more than he honoured God. No parent may honour his children more than he honours God. The parent who honours God, God first of all, God’s glory, God’s name, will for God’s sake discipline his children.
That was Jesus’ motivation for cleansing the temple. That what John 2:17 tells us, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” He had a zeal for God’s house, God’s honour and God’s name. He was moved to righteous anger because it was God’s honour that was being trampled upon by the defilement of His house. It was out of zeal for Jehovah God that the Lord Jesus made a whip and drove out those buyers and sellers. That same kind of zeal for the house of God and for the honour of God’s name must motivate the church in the exercise of Christian discipline.
So much did the Lord Jesus Christ love God that He laid down His life in obedience to God. That was the cleansing of God’s temple. That is what the cleansing of God’s temple and the zeal for the holiness of the temple of God required of our Saviour. All of us by nature, because of our unholiness and depravity, defile the temple of God. None of us has a right to a place in that temple. It was out of a zeal for His Father’s house that He went to the cross, to die for His people, to take away their sin and the guilt of their sin, so that they might have a place in the holy house of God.
May the zeal of our Lord be the incentive to the church to preserve the exercise of Christian discipline! May the church be motivated by love for the erring brother, love for the congregation as a whole, and, above all, love for God!
