Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 22 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 (36)
The Lord Rebukes Solomon [youtube]
Scripture Reading: I Kings 11:9-25
Text: I Kings 11:11-25
I. In His Anger
II. Through Hadad in Edom
III. Through Rezon in Damascus
Psalms: 99:1-7; 31:1-6; 38:1-7; 39:4-11
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Covenant Traitor [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 55
Text: Psalm 55:12-14
I. David’s Friend
II. David’s Fellowship
III. David’s Response
Psalms: 42:1-5; 31:7-12; 41:7-13; 55:7-14
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
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley: “Theologians [have concerned] themselves with the question, whether Solomon was amongst the saved or the lost. Irenaeus, Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, and Jerome, lean to the milder view. The severer is adopted by Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. So frequently was the question discussed, and so equally balanced did it seem, that in the series of frescoes on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, Solomon is represented in the resurrection at the last day as looking ambiguously to the right and to the left, not knowing on which side his lot will be cast” (Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, vol. 2, p. 253).
Philip Ryken: “Why does the Bible take the trouble to tell us this story [in I Kings 11:14-22], which at first may seem somewhat tangential to the story of King Solomon? To be sure, Hadad’s revenge is one of the tragic consequences of Solomon’s sin. From this time forward, the opposition of the Edomites would cause trouble for Israel. The story also shows how futile it was for Israel to make an alliance with Egypt. During the same time period that Pharaoh was selling chariots to Solomon and offering the hand of his daughter in marriage, he was harboring Israel’s enemies. All this is true. But why does the Bible tell this story in so much detail? To answer this question, it is important to notice how similar Hadad’s story sounds to the story of Israel in Egypt. A nation sojourns in Egypt, where it is given bread to eat and a place to live, and where some of its sons become princes. At the end of this sojourn, the leader of that nation asks Pharaoh to let his people go—a request that he refuses at first but eventually grants. Does any of this sound familiar? The story of Hadad follows the main plot line of the exodus, in which Moses and the children of Israel escaped from Egypt and returned to the Promised Land. Except that everything in Hadad’s story is backwards. The nation coming out of Egypt is not Israel but Edom. This turnabout is God’s doing—not for Israel’s benefit but to Israel’s detriment. The Bible plainly states that the Lord raised up Hadad as an adversary against Solomon (v. 14). The broader point is that this is what happens when our hearts turn away from the Lord: his hand goes against us, and we suffer the consequences for our sin” (King Solomon: The Temptations of Money, Sex, and Power, pp. 194-195).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We welcome Lidi Cecilio from Brazil. She will be with us until 27 July and will be staying mostly with the Kuhs.
Remember in prayer: Marina Mawhinney has been moved to the Musgrave Hospital for rehabilitation. Aaysha Gould’s surgery went well and she came home the same day.
We are expecting about 30-40 visitors to the church the weekend after the conference (16-17 July). Some of them are looking for accommodation. If you are willing to host someone at your house, please sign-up on the sheet on the back table. If you have already arranged something with someone, please put that down as well. Thanks!
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to discuss whether faith should be considered as a virtue or disposition, etc.
Membership Class: Thursday, 11 AM with the Goulds.
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, 24 May
7PM – Ivan (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
8PM – Sinead (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
Wednesday 25 May
7PM – Murrays (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
8PM – Ariana & Michelle (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
9PM – Mansonas (Crossett/Rev. Stewart)
Friday, 27 May
6:30 PM – Trevor (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
8 PM – Wattersons (Reid/Rev. Stewart)
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled, “I Am Joseph” (Gen. 44:14-45:15).
South Wales Lecture: Rev. Stewart will speak on “The Irresistible Grace of God” on Thursday, 9 June, at Margam Community Centre.
Please reserve Wednesday, 29 June, for our annual general meeting.
Offerings: General Fund: £1,271.78.
Translation Additions: 3 Odia (Three Forms of Unity), 2 Polish and 1 Dutch.
PRCA News: Grace PRC will call from a new trio of Revs. Decker (Grandville, MI), Guichelaar (Randolph, WI) and W. Langerak (Trinity, MI).
The Reformation Gospel
Prof. David J. Engelsma (an excerpt from “The Church Today and the Reformation Church: A Comparison”)
… The gospel restored by the Reformation is the good news of salvation by grace alone, to the glory of God alone. This gospel, encapsulated in the epistle to the Romans, proclaims that the misery of every man is that he is a sinner, totally depraved and exposed to the wrath of the offended God (Rom. 3:9ff.). Man’s misery is not the various earthly ills that always plague mankind—poverty, oppression, war, sickness, and death, as a natural calamity, but his sin, especially his guilt before the judgment of a just God. His great need is the forgiveness of his sins and a righteousness that will stand up in the judgment of God. This forgiveness and righteousness is in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:3-4). It becomes ours through faith in Jesus. When we believe on Him, God reckons Jesus’ righteousness to our account. Our righteousness before God is nothing that we have done, or what we are, but only what Jesus has done for us and what He is on our behalf. Christ’s people are justified by faith alone (Rom. 3:20ff.). This justifying faith is not the basis of God’s forgiving the sinner; it is not a work of the sinner to earn righteousness; it is not the one condition that man must fulfil, in order to be saved. But it is the means by which God imputes Christ’s righteousness to the guilty sinner and the instrument by which he embraces Christ, his righteousness. In fact, faith itself is God’s gracious gift to the man who has it: “… faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
This passage points out the vital role that the preaching has in God’s great work of justifying His people. It is by means of preaching that the Holy Spirit works in men the faith that knows and trusts in Jesus Christ, the Saviour, including the repentance that renders them needy. Also, it is in the preaching that God presents Jesus Christ to men, as the object of faith (Rom. 1:1ff.). Then, it is through the preaching of the gospel that God utters the divine verdict in the consciousness of the believer, to acquit him: “… I am ready to preach the gospel … for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth … for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:15-17). It was not one of the least charges of the Reformation against the pre-Reformation church, that it did not preach. That church did many things—built cathedrals, went on pilgrimages, plunged into politics, and fascinated the people with pageant and liturgy; but it did not preach.
If the means of the forgiveness that is the heart of the gospel is preaching, the one and only basis of forgiveness is the satisfaction and atonement of Jesus Christ. In His life-long passion, but especially by His death on the cross, Jesus paid in full for the sins of His people, and fulfilled all righteousness. The Reformation proclaimed the cross of Christ as redemption from sin—effectual, substitutionary, bloody, sin-covering redemption (Rom. 3:24ff.). Just as it declared Jesus to be the eternal Son of God (Rom. 1:4), so the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead proved the cross to have been the effectual acquiring of righteousness for those sinners for whom Jesus was delivered: “[He] was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
The source and foundation of this salvation is God’s eternal, gracious election (Rom. 9-11). In Christ, God has chosen unto salvation a people from all the nations—His Church. The grace of this election is peculiarly illustrated by the fact that God did not choose all men, but reprobated some, according to His own good pleasure. Salvation is wholly and exclusively gracious.
The life of the man who believes this gospel will be a life of freedom—freedom to serve God and his neighbour, in thankfulness (Rom. 12-15).
In contrast to the gospel stood the “other gospel” of Rome. That was the teaching that the sinner must save himself by his own works. The gross form of this teaching, against which Luther went to war in 1517, in the 95 Theses, was indulgences: selling the pardon of sins for money. But the root error was Rome’s official doctrine that men could, and must, earn righteousness with God by their own good works. A man’s righteousness with God consisted partly of the work of Christ and partly of his own work. Justification was by faith and works. What made it possible for a sinner to earn, or merit, salvation, according to Rome, was his possession of a “free will.” Though fallen, mankind is not totally depraved; all men retain the ability to choose God and the good, and to cooperate with grace, when grace is offered in the sacraments and in the Word. If a sinner will only exercise his “free will” properly, God will bestow grace upon him. By virtue of his own will and by virtue of grace bestowed, the man performs good works. On the basis of these works, as well as on the basis of Christ’s work, God forgives the sinner’s transgressions and pays him the salvation he has partially earned. “Free will” was fundamental for that “other gospel.” Upon it, all of salvation depended. Even God’s election of men to salvation in eternity (which the pre-Reformation church taught!) was due to God’s foreseeing who among men would believe and who would not believe.
The life of the man who believed this “gospel” was bondage—the bondage of the fear that he had not done enough to placate God, and the bondage of a service of God (often exacting, arduous service) from the motive of a slave.
This doctrine, this “gospel,” the Reformation condemned as “another gospel,” in terms of Galatians 1:6-9: “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” It was not merely a faulty presentation of the gospel; but it was heresy—Christ-denying, God-dishonouring, Church-destroying, comfort-robbing heresy. Galatians 5:2 proves the Reformation to have been right in this indictment: “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing,” that is, “If you add any work of man to Christ as part of your righteousness and as the basis of salvation, you destroy the gospel altogether, and whoever trusts in that work, in addition to Christ, will be eternally damned.”
