Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 1 November, 2020
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering …” (Col. 3:12)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Departure of Jehovah’s Glory (2)
Seven Angels and the Slaughter in Jerusalem [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 9
Text: Ezekiel 9
I. The Terrible Slaughter
II. The Prophetic Intercession
III. The Implied Calling
Psalms: 103:17-22; 119:129-136
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Two Impossibilities Regarding the Believer’s Good Works [youtube]
Scripture Reading: John 15:1-17
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 24
I. They Are Part of Our Righteousness Before God
II. We Will Not Perform Them
Psalms: 145:1-8; 37:3-5, 26-32
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
William Greenhill: “In the worst times God hath some who are faithful, and serve him. Violence had filled the land, the idol of jealousy was set at the altar gate, chambers of imagery in the walls of the temple, the ancients of Israel worshipped the forms of creeping things and abominable beasts, the women wept for that shameful idol Tammuz, corruptions abounded in church and state; yet some faithful ones the Lord had, that were undefiled. The church of God did never totally fail, nor ever shall. When all flesh had corrupted its way, the wickedness of man was grown great; when the earth was filled with violence, Gen. vi. 5, 11, 12, yet then, even then was Noah untainted, ‘he was just and perfect in his generations, and walked with God,’ ver. 9. In Ahab’s days, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, and he vexed the righteous with his will-worship and abominable idolatries, and forced them to flee to Jerusalem; and things were so extremely ill, the righteous so wasted that Elijah, a prophet, thought there was none left in Israel but himself; even then the Lord tells him there were seven thousand, which had not bowed their knees to Baal, nor kissed him, 1 Kings xix. 18; they have showed that false god no reverence, contracted no pollution by doing as the rest did. When Ahaz, who is stigmatized for his wickedness, 2 Chron xxviii. 22, when he reigned, cut in pieces the vessels of the temple, and shut up the doors of the temple, yet his own son Hezekiah was godly at that time, and hated the ways of his father. When Christ came, there was a Joseph and Mary, a Zacharias and Elisabeth, a Simeon and Anna, with some few others; and the times were exceeding bad then” (Ezekiel, p. 216).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
We express our sympathy to Susan on the loss of her father-in-law, Herbie Hall, on Tuesday. We pray that the God of all comfort may continue to uphold and strengthen her by His truth.
Catechism classes:
Monday, 5:45 PM: Eleanora, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope & Somaya (Beginners OT)
Monday, 6:30 PM: Angelica, Bradley, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Seniors OT)
Monday, 7:15 PM: Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Essentials)
Tuesday, 12:30 PM: James, Jason & Sebastian (Juniors OT)
The Council meets tomorrow evening at 8 PM.
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet at church to continue our consideration of regeneration in connection with assurance.
Belgic Confession Class meets this Wednesday at 7:45 PM to begin Article 37 on the last times.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “The Spiritual Man Versus the Natural” (I Cor. 2:14).
Offerings: General Fund: £710. Donations: £77,183.86, £600 (Kent, England).
PRC News: Rev. Spronk declined the call to Wingham PRC.
The Vision of Ezekiel
(as a review of last week’s sermon)
Don Doezema
(an excerpt from an article in the Standard Bearer, volume 94, issue 15)
The prostitution to idolatry that Ezekiel had already seen, by vision, in the temple of God in Jerusalem must have seemed incredible to the prophet. But then, astoundingly, the Lord says, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do” (8:13).
This time, the Lord brought Ezekiel to “the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north.” And there he saw women sitting, “weeping for Tammuz” (8:14). Nothing more is said here or elsewhere in Scripture about Tammuz. A reputable, recently published Bible dictionary identifies Tammuz as the Samaritan deity of spring vegetation. The cult of Adonis in Syria and Osiris in Egypt had rites similar to those connected with Tammuz, and some commentators even identify the latter with one or the other of those deities. The rites had their origins in ancient heathen mythology, according to which, in this case, Tammuz was a handsome youth who died, spent some time in the underworld, and then came back to earth—his death and resurrection being associated, respectively, with the long dry season, followed by the reviving of nature with the spring rains. Annual rites (in the then-fourth month of the year) involved the weeping mentioned in 8:14 (mourning the death of Tammuz), followed by a time of rejoicing (at his resurrection).
Even if that were the whole of it, such idolatrous worship, in the very temple of Jehovah God, should already have been considered repulsive. But very likely it involved more. This cult, as practiced in the nations around Judah, involved also licentious rites. That is, not only spiritual, but also corporeal whoredom. Calvin, among other commentators, almost takes for granted that the weeping for Tammuz at the gate of the temple included the latter. Women “offering themselves,” he writes, “to debauchery … Who would think this could occur, that women should be reduced to such a pitch of defilement, when they had been taught in the doctrine of the law from their early childhood.”
“Hast thou seen this, O son of man?” the Lord asks Ezekiel. But “turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these” (8:15).
Ezekiel is then brought in vision “into the inner court of the Lord’s house” (8:16). The prophet takes pains at this point to reveal not only what he saw there, but also exactly where. Not just in “the inner court,” the domain of the priests, but “at the door of the temple of the Lord,” that is, the door of the temple proper, the very sanctuary itself. And then also this: “between the porch and the altar.” Ezekiel knew this place well. He himself was a priest (cf. 1:3). He could not help but view the altar of burnt offering as, second only to the sanctuary itself, the most sacred spot in the whole of the inner court. And, with all of the godly priests of the Lord in his day, he understood that the placement of the altar before the porch, the door, of the entrance to the house was hardly an arbitrary matter.
More can undoubtedly be said about how much the Jews of Ezekiel’s day understood of the typical significance of the temple and the altar and the burnt offerings. Suffice it to say, for now, that they well understood that this house was God’s. They knew their history. They knew that at the dedication of this building “the glory of the Lord filled the house” (II Chron. 7:2), and that when their fathers “saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped” (7:3). They understood that Jehovah God was pleased to dwell with His people, in this house, in the Holy of Holies, behind the veil.
And they understood why access to this place was so restricted—only the priests in the inner court; only priests by appointment in the Holy Place; and only the high priest, once a year, with the blood of atonement, in the Most Holy Place. It was because their God, the only God, was holy. And they were not. The altar of burnt offering, and its location, spoke to them of that. No access of sinners to God, but by way of the altar, the sacrifice, the blood, the blood of atonement. And the people of Israel were not left simply to surmise that that was the case. In Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers there is repeated reference to the need for and the way of atonement for sin. Leviticus 17:11, for example: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Now, what does Ezekiel see transpiring in the inner court of the house of Israel’s God? He sees twenty-five men, likely representatives of the twenty-four courses of priests (cf. I Chron. 24:1-19), with the high priest at their head. The twenty-five men stand between the altar and the door of the temple. They have their “backs toward the temple of the Lord.” They have “their faces toward the east.” And they “worshipped the sun!” (Eze. 8:16).
Ezekiel did well, at that moment, to take note of their very position. Backs—to the temple. Faces—to the sun. That spoke volumes about what they were doing. “For,” as Calvin writes in his commentary on this passage in Ezekiel, “When they turned their back upon the sanctuary, they made a laughing-stock of God. It hence appears, that they were of so daring a front, that they openly boasted in their superstitions, and purposely polluted God’s temple … when they turn their back, this is not only a foul denial, but a contempt of God, as if they had said, that he was unworthy of their respect … Now we know this to be a sign of lawful adoration, when the faithful turned their eyes to the sanctuary and the ark of the covenant, but when they turned their backs upon it, there is no doubt that they professedly wished to boast in a contempt of God and the law.”
But, we might ask, did they, those priests, really do that? Had they ‘given up’ on Jehovah, abandoned His worship, and turned instead to idols? When they turned their backs to the temple, were they really “resolvedly forgetting it and designedly slighting it and putting contempt upon it”? (Matthew Henry).
Truth is, if the twenty-five priests had been able to read John Calvin’s and Matthew Henry’s characterizations of their worship, they would have vigorously denied both of them. “What do you mean,” they would have asked, incredulously, “that we have contempt for the temple, and for God, and for God’s law? Do you not know how we burn incense to the God of heaven in the temple’s Holy Place? Do you not know that we offer all of the required sacrifices at the altar of burnt offering in the temple’s inner court? And all of it exactly how, and where, God’s law requires! Far from holding them in contempt, we honour God, and His law, and His house!”
Ezekiel would not have doubted that for a minute. He had been captive in Babylon for six years already, but he must have remembered Jerusalem and its temple worship well. He did not have to be told that these priests could make room for an “image of jealousy” at the gate of the altar, allow women to weep for Tammuz at the door of the outer court, themselves worship the sun as they stand between the altar and the entrance to the sanctuary—all the while being scrupulous in their careful adherence to every letter of the laws relating to the rituals of the Jewish religion—wilfully oblivious to the incompatibility of the latter with the former. Far better, it would have been, had they left the worship of God out of the mix …
