Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 23 June, 2024
“My covenant was with him of life and peace” (Mal. 2:5)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Three Voices of Comfort [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-17
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1
I. The Voice in the Wilderness
II. The Voice in the Field
III. The Voice on the Mountain
Psalms: 90:1-7; 103:16-22; 4:1-8; 23:1-6
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
God’s Son—So Much Better Than the Angels (11)
Sit on My Right Hand! [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 1
Text: Hebrews 1:13
I. The Glorious Honour of the Son’s Reign
II. The Twofold Duration of the Son’s Reign
III. The Specific Aspect of the Son’s Reign
Psalms: 99:1-7; 104:1-7; 2:6-12; 110:1-6
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
Homer Hoeksema on Isaiah 40:1-2: “The comfort that God gives to his people is indirectly evident in the language of the text. God instructs Isaiah, ‘Comfort ye my people, saith your God.’ Judah is his people, and he is their God. Here is expressed the intention of divine love and mercy: They are still God’s people! The language itself speaks to the heart of Jerusalem. It means that God is our God. It means that the faithful covenant God is the only source and cause of all good and all blessing—indeed, of all salvation. It means that he is also the ground of all our trust, for he alone can and will save us. The Heidelberg Catechism expresses this in its very first question and answer” (Redeemed With Judgment, vol. 2, p. 7).
John Brown on Hebrews 1:13: “… it is evident that the words are intended to convey to our minds the idea of the greatest conceivable dignity of station as conferred on the Messiah. A king seated on his throne issues forth his orders, administers justice, and displays the splendour and majesty of his office. To sit near the king at any time, is the emblem of being on terms of familiarity and friendship with him, for all but his peculiar favourites stand in his presence; but to sit near him when on the throne, is an emblem of rank, and dignity, and power in the kingdom” (An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 66-67).
John Calvin: “These two things, then, ought to be borne in mind,—that the kingdom of Christ shall never in this world be at rest, but that there will be many enemies by whom it will be disturbed; and secondly, that whatever its enemies may do, they shall never prevail, for the session of Christ at God’s right hand will not be for a time, but to the end of the world, and that on this account all who will not submit to his authority shall be laid prostrate and trodden under his feet” (Comm. on Heb. 1:13).
F. F. Bruce: “The most exalted angels are those whose privilege it is to ‘stand in the presence of God’ like Gabriel (Luke 1:19). but none of them has ever been invited to sit before Him, still less to sit in the place of unique honor at His right hand. Their standing posture betokens their promptness to execute His commands, or simply to abide His pleasure” (Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 24-25).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Brian Crossett is scheduled to have surgery this Tuesday to remove his appendix. We commit him to the care of the Great Physician, and pray that the Lord will give him healing and strength.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will critique further the soteriology of the Word of Faith that undergirds their way of obtaining earthly prosperity, as well as treat its view of faith.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Elizabeth’s Inspired Revelation” (Luke 1:39-45).
Offerings: £1,519.50.
Translation Additions: 6 Portuguese and 1 Spanish.
PRC News: Hope PRC of Redlands, CA will call from a trio of Revs. Engelsma, Eriks and Brummel. Lynden PRC has a trio of Revs. Barnhill, Brummel and Lee.
The Love of God
(an article by Rev. Dale Kuiper)
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:8-10).
Without doubt the love of God is the subject preached on … more than any other subject. There are many though who talk about the love of God who are actually strangers to the meaning of divine love. God is love! But love is one aspect of the divine Being, so that once I have stated that God is love, I am compelled to go on and say that God also hates. God loves and He hates, He blesses and He curses, He chastens and He punishes, He saves and He damns. It is when we see and confess that full picture that the love of God becomes very precious to us; for God does not love everyone, but He loves a people chosen in Jesus Christ.
The love of God is amazing! Amazing when you consider Who loves, how He loves, how He reveals that love, and whom He loves! I want to know more about the love of God, don’t you? Let’s get the Biblical terms for love before our minds that we may arrive at a Scriptural definition of the love of God.
There are two Hebrew terms for love: one has the root meaning of fastening, binding, sticking together; the other has the idea of breathing after, longing for, desiring strongly. The Greek term, used by John in the passage quoted above and by Paul as well, agrees closely with the Hebrew. As Paul writes to the Colossians (3:14), love or charity is “the bond of perfectness.” Love can exist and flourish only in the sphere of moral perfection, where there is holiness, justice and truth … For love to flourish, the one who loves and the one who is loved must be ethically perfect. This is the great reason why God hates even as He loves. God takes delight in Himself and in certain men because He is the highest perfection, and because He has provided perfection in certain men. But God takes no delight in darkness; He hates it. God takes no delight in the workers of iniquity; He hates them. Because God is love, love is of God. That is, all true love finds its source in God. Hence, we can define love this way: in God, love is the bond of fellowship that eternally exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, according to which these perfect Persons seek, find and delight in One Another. In respect to love outside the Godhead, love is the spiritual bond of fellowship between ethically perfect persons, who because of that perfection, delight in one another and seek one another.
If one examines the occurrences of the word love in the Bible, he finds that God’s love is characterized by ten outstanding virtues. 1.) The love of God is sovereign or free, for He did not have to love anyone nor was He influenced by anything when He set His love on certain ones. 2.) The love of God is eternal in that there never was a time when He did not love Himself or His people. 3.) The love of God is unconditional for in its beginning and in its continuance the good or evil in man does not influence it. 4.) The love of God is unchangeable for whom He loves always remain the objects of that love. 5.) His love is particular for it burns not for every man, but for a definite few. 6.) His love is strong, enduring the sternest tests, capable of following the wayward and returning them to the way of life. 7.) The love of God is primary or first, it is a causal, working, producing love; all other love is result of it. 8.) His love is always fruitful, for God never yet loved a man and that man failed to love God, his brother, and his neighbour. 9.) The love of God is always a Father’s love, so that those whom He loves experience that they are His sons and His daughters. 10.) The love of God always gives; it belongs to the nature of the loving God always to give.
Someone may ask if it is really necessary for the church to proclaim that God loves and hates … that He saves and that He damns. Our answer is, Yes, it is necessary for three reasons. First, this belongs to the revelation of God in Holy Scripture so that it would be unfaithfulness on our part not to include this. Second, it is only when a person understands that God does not love every individual, that he sees the love of God to be exceeding precious, a pearl of great price, the most astonishing thing in the world! … Third, God would have both His love and hatred carefully proclaimed so that the church is gathered not only, but also so that the unrepentant are left without excuse. No one may arrive at the great judgment saying, I didn’t know, I never heard, that God also hates, punishes and destroys.
God has revealed His great love for us in Jesus Christ. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son.” God loves and sent, God loves and gave (John 3:16). The question is, How can the great love of God reach us, how can we be taken into the family of God in order to experience His love, and how can we return that love to God and live in that love with the brethren? Remember who and what we are! We are sinners from two points of view; we share in the sin and guilt of Adam (Rom. 5:12), and we add to our sin and guilt every day of our lives. In ourselves we are depraved and corrupt, incapable of loving God or anyone. And the love of God is not some wishy-washy sentiment. It is the bond of perfectness! God can only love that which is ethically pure, and love between men can only be established when there is that same perfectness present. How can the love of God reach me, become a bond that unites us, and be returned to Him?
The answer is that when God sent His Son, God made Him a propitiation for our sins. Now the word propitiation, a word related to the mercy seat of the ark in the temple, means that Christ is the covering for our sins. The blood of Christ propitiates, appeases, or satisfies God. When Christ died on the cross, His death paid the debt of our sin, satisfied the outraged justice of God, and reconciled us to God. That means that we are innocent (justified) and holy (sanctified) before God. Or, that means that we have become ethically perfect for Christ’s sake, and thus can enter into the life of love with God! In Christ, God’s love reaches us, transforms us, renews us, and works in us so that we live as sons!
God loved and God gave! Oh, how God gave! Humanly speaking, it cost God a great deal when He manifested His love to us in Christ! The gift of God’s Son to the church collectively and to believers individually can only be termed an unspeakable Gift. No one can adequately describe the value, beauty, power, and the benefits of such a Gift! God sent His only begotten Son from His own bosom into this world of sin, to become poor, to endure the contradiction of sinners, to be despised, betrayed, denied and forsaken. And even though God loved Him eternally, God withheld His love and His friendship at the crucial moment of the cross; God would have nothing to do with His Son in our flesh, in order that He might be the righteousness of God in us! What a love that it would not spare such a Gift!
Having given Christ to His people, it follows with irresistible logic that God also gives us all things! Thus Paul argues in Romans 8: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” There is nothing that God does not give to us; nothing that God does not do for us! All things are ours, we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s! All things must work together for our temporal and eternal good!
There are tremendous fruits in the life of the saints as they experience the love of God in Jesus Christ. Because the apostle John writes “He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love”, we can say that who so loveth God knoweth God! Because God loved us, we love Him; because we love Him, we know Him and have life everlasting! Loving and knowing God, we keep His commandments, for love is the keeping of the law. That which God loves and delights in is to be found in the Ten Commandments. Those that love God love His law, meditate upon it day and night, and use it daily as a guide for thankful, holy living.
Second, the fruit of the love of God for us is that we love one another also. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (v. 11) Because God loved us and placed us in family relationship to Himself, we owe the debt of love to all members of the same family. We must love the whole church of God everywhere in general and the saints that we know in particular. (Please note that the believer’s calling to love also the unbelieving neighbour is outside the scope of this article.) It would be monstrous and unnatural if believers did not love one another, give themselves and their substance to one another, and share in the joys and sorrows of one another. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (v. 20). The point is not, Is the brother a nice person and does he show himself worthy of my love? The only point is, Has God by His love made that individual a member of His covenant family? Then I love him!
Finally, the fruit of God’s love for us is that His perfect love casts out fear (v. 18). Love reaches its perfect goal when the child of God does not have fear but has boldness in the day of judgment! Fear hath torment; the one who has fear in his heart regarding the judgment is a tormented person. He worries about that day. He is afraid to die … But when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, that love carries us powerfully along life’s pathway unto the end. And it casts out fear! What a blessing that we may have boldness, confidence, even longing for the day of Jesus Christ!
All this, because God loved us and sent Christ to be our propitiation. In love He chose us, in love He gave us to Christ, in love He redeemed us unto Himself at the cross, in love He preserves us all our days, and in love He judges us worthy of everlasting life at the end of the ages! Believing all this, I say, “I love Him!” But I also say, “He must have loved me first!”
