Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 15 May, 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
Solomon: Israel’s Wisest King (35)
Solomon’s Wicked Idolatry [youtube]
Scripture Reading: I Kings 11:1-22
Text: I Kings 11:4-10
I. The Nature of It
II. The Aggravations of It
III. The Explanation for It
Psalms: 84:1-2, 10-12; 30:1-5; 25:1-7; 119:57-64
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Christianity Versus Idolatry [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 4:7-29; Galatians 3:1-5
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 35
I. How God Must Not Be Portrayed
II. How God Must Be Portrayed
Psalms: 100:1-5; 30:6-12; 135:15-21; 115:8-18
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
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Beacon Lights are available on the back table for subscribers.
Joe & Lisa McCaughern and their three baptized children, Jack, Maisie and Xander, have been received as members from First Portglenone PCI.
Remember in prayer: Marina Mawhinney remains in Royal Victoria Hospital after a fall and subsequent hip replacement this past week. Aaysha Gould is to be admitted to the children’s hospital today for neurosurgery tomorrow to replace the battery and other maintenance of the implant which helps control her seizures.
The Council made the following decisions at their monthly meeting:
- There will be no more building fund offering which pre-Covid had been on the first Sunday of every month. We thank you for your generosity over the years.
- £5,000 will be given towards the new building of the Protestant Reformed Church of Vellore, India, which is associated with mission work of the PRC in America.
- Our pastor will resume shaking hands with everyone at the back door after services. If you are uncomfortable with this, that is fine.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to discuss whether faith can be considered a virtue or disposition, etc.
Family visitation (Philippians 4). Please try to make the dates and times work as much as possible. If you do need to reschedule talk to Rev. Stewart or one of the elders.
Tuesday, 17 May
7 PM – Tommy (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
8 PM – Spences (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
9 PM – Wilkinsons (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
Wednesday, 18 May
7 PM – Douglas (Crossett/Reid)
8 PM – Stewarts (Crossett/Reid)
Friday, 20 May
6:30 PM – Charlotte (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
7:30 PM – D. Crossetts (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
Membership Class: Thursday, 11 AM with the Goulds.
The Saturday night Bible study meets to continue discussing Malachi 3:1-6 this week, 21 May, at 8 PM at the Kennedys and on-line.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled, “Loving Discipline” (Gen. 43:15-44:13).
Please reserve Wednesday, 29 June, for our annual general meeting.
Offerings: General Fund: £2,020.11. Donation: £200 (England).
Translation Additions: 2 Polish and 2 Hungarian.
Quotes to Consider
Matthew Henry on I Kings 11:1-8:
“[Solomon] was drawn by [his pagan wives] to the worship of strange gods, as Israel to Baal-peor by the daughters of Moab. This was the bad consequence of his multiplying wives. We have reason to think it impaired his health, and hastened upon him the decays of age; it exhausted his treasure, which, though vast indeed, would be found little enough to maintain the pride and vanity of all these women; perhaps it occasioned him, in his latter end, to neglect his business, by which he lost his supplies from abroad, and was forced, for the keeping up of his grandeur, to burden his subjects with those taxes which they complained of (I King 12:4). But none of these consequences were so bad as this: His wives turned away his heart after other gods (I Kings 11:3-4). (1.) He grew cool and indifferent in his own religion and remiss in the service of the God of Israel: His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God (I Kings 11:4), nor did he follow him fully (I Kings 11:6), like David. We cannot suppose that he quite cast off the worship of God, much less that he restrained or hindered it (the temple-service went on as usual); but he grew less frequent, and less serious, in his ascent to the house of the Lord and his attendance on his altar. He left his first love, lost his zeal for God, and did not persevere to the end as he had begun; therefore it is said he was not perfect, because he was not constant; and he followed not God fully, because he turned from following him, and did not continue to the end. His father David had many faults, but he never neglected the worship of God, nor grew remiss in that, as Solomon did (his wives using all their arts to divert him from it), and there began his apostasy. (2.) He tolerated and maintained his wives in their idolatry and made no scruple of joining with them in it … when he began to grow careless in the worship of God himself, he used no means to convert his other wives to it; in complaisance to them, he built chapels for their gods (I Kings 11:7-8), maintained their priests, and occasionally did himself attend their altars, making a jest of it, asking, “What harm is there in it? Are not all religions alike?” which (says bishop Patrick) has been the disease of some great wits. When he humoured one thus, the rest would take it ill if he did not, in like manner, gratify them, so that he did it for all his wives (I Kings 11:8), and at last came to such a degree of impiety that he set up a high place for Chemosh in the hill that is before Jerusalem, the mount of Olives, as if to confront the temple which he himself had built. These high places continued here, not utterly demolished, till Josiah’s time (II Kings 23:13). This is the account here given of Solomon’s apostasy.
II. Let us now pause awhile, and lament Solomon’s fall; and we may justly stand and wonder at it. How has the gold become dim! How has the most fine gold changed! Be astonished, O heavens! at this, and be horribly afraid, as the prophet exclaims in a like case (Jer. 2:12).
1. How strange, (1.) That Solomon, in his old age, should be ensnared with fleshly lusts, youthful lusts. As we must never presume upon the strength of our resolutions, so neither upon the weakness of our corruptions, so as to be secure and off our guard. (2.) That so wise a man as Solomon was, so famed for a quick understanding and sound judgment, should suffer himself to be made such a fool of by these foolish women. (3.) That one who had so often and so plainly warned others of the danger of the love of women should himself be so wretchedly bewitched with it; it is easier to see a mischief, and to show it to others, than to shun it ourselves. (4.) That so good a man, so zealous for the worship of God, who had been so conversant with divine things, and who prayed that excellent prayer at the dedication of the temple, should do these sinful things. Is this Solomon? Have all his wisdom and devotion come to this at last? Never was gallant ship so wrecked; never was crown so profaned.
2. What shall we say to all this? Why God permitted it it is not for us to enquire; his way is in the sea and his path in the great waters; he knew how to bring glory to himself out of it. God foresaw it when he said concerning him that should build the temple, If he commit iniquity, etc. (II Sam. 7:14). But it concerns us to enquire what good use we may make of it. (1.) Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We see how weak we are of ourselves, without the grace of God; let us therefore live in a constant dependence on that grace. (2.) See the danger of a prosperous condition, and how hard it is to overcome the temptations of it. Solomon, like Jeshurun, waxed fat and then kicked. The food convenient, which Agur prayed for, is safer and better than the food abundant, which Solomon was even surfeited with. (3.) See what need those have to stand upon their guard who have made a great profession of religion, and shown themselves forward and zealous in devotion, because the devil will set upon them most violently, and, if they misbehave, the reproach is the greater. It is the evening that commends the day; let us therefore fear, lest, having run well, we seem to come short.”
Dale Ralph Davis: “[Solomon’s] infidelity is also subtle because it is gradual. Verse 4 [of I Kings 11] has a scary line: ‘When Solomon was old, his wives had turned away his heart after other gods,’ It was not some sudden attack or irresistible assault that explains Solomon’s plunge into pagan ecumenism. No, it took years—the result of the creeping pace of accumulated compromises, the fruit of a conscience de-sensitized by repeated permissiveness” (The Wisdom and the Folly, p. 115).
Philip Ryken: “Learn from Solomon’s mistake! Resist every little sin as if your life depended on it. One of the Puritans once compared little sins to baby snakes wriggling out of the nest: they are tiny but deadly, and if they are not put to death when they hatch, they will grow into huge serpents. So whenever we see even the littlest sin that could turn our lives into a tragedy, we should fight against it with all the power of the Holy Spirit. Read the Bible that the Spirit has given to help us grow in grace, taking careful note of what it says about your predominant temptations. Receive the sacraments that the Spirit uses to strengthen your faith and holiness. Pray for the Spirit to increase your desire for God and decrease your appetite for iniquity. The Scripture says that ‘if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live’ (Rom. 8:13)” (King Solomon: The Temptations of Money, Sex, and Power, p. 182).
