Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 29 November, 2020
“O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:
fear before him, all the earth” (Ps. 96:9)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
The Blessed Man [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 1
Text: Psalm 1:1-3
I. Practising the Antithesis
II. Delighting in God’s Law
III. Flourishing Like a Tree
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Lamb, Babylon and the Sickles (1)
The Comfort of the 144,000 [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Revelation 13:1-14:5
Text: Revelation 14:1-5
I. The Beautiful Vision
II. The Particular Audition
III. The Distinctive Description
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
Matthew Henry on Psalm 1:1-2: “A godly man, that he may do that which is good and cleave to it, submits to the guidance of the Word of God and makes that familiar to him (Ps. 1:2). This is that which keeps him out of the way of the ungodly and fortifies him against their temptations. ‘By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the path of the deceiver’ (Ps. 17:4). We need not court the fellowship of sinners, either for pleasure or for improvement, while we have fellowship with the Word of God and with God Himself in and by His Word … To meditate in God’s Word is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it, with a close application of mind, a fixedness of thought, till we be suitably affected with those things and experience the savour and power of them in our hearts. This we must do day and night; we must have a constant habitual regard to the Word of God as the rule of our actions and the spring of our comforts, and we must have it in our thoughts, accordingly, upon every occasion that occurs, whether night or day.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
During this 2-week lockdown, the deacons remind everyone that they can save up their monetary gifts in an envelope for when church reopens or give electronically to the CPRC at Allied Irish Bank (sort code 93-86-12; account number 08133481).
Rev. Stewart will be interviewed by video by a brother from Nottingham on the Lordship of Jesus Christ this Tuesday at 7 PM. It will be added to YouTube some time later.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Malachi’s Prophecy Fulfilled” (Luke 1:16-17).
The Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, 14 December at 8 PM.
Offerings: General Fund: £913.52. Donation: £50 (Malaysia).
Translation Additions: 1 Spanish and 2 Hungarian.
PRC News: Wingham PRC called Rev. J. Engelsma to be their next pastor. Cornerstone PRC extended a call to Rev. Spriensma.
At the request of the CERC in Singapore, the Theological School Committee has approved releasing Prof. Dykstra from his seminary duties next semester so that he can supply our sister church with pastoral help in their time of need. The Singapore officials have approved his Employment Pass to labour in the CERC during the pandemic. Plans are for the Dykstras to leave in early December. Once in Singapore, they will be quarantined for two weeks before they can worship with the congregation. The Dykstra’s plans are to return to the States in May. May the Lord use Prof. Dykstra’s labours for the encouraging, strengthening and preservation of our sister church in Singapore.
An Eschatology of Grace
Prof. David J. Engelsma
(an excerpt from the Standard Bearer, Volume 76, Issue 2)
That the Reformation recovered the gospel of grace and, in connection with this, the sole authority of Holy Scripture is well known. But did the Reformation say anything distinctive about the last things? Did it do much with eschatology at all? Does it not betray the Reformation’s lack of interest in the last things that both Luther and Calvin neglected, indeed refused, to write a commentary on the book of Revelation?
To be sure, there was the rejection of purgatory. That was definitely important for eschatology. But other than this, did the Reformation really influence the church’s doctrine of the last things?
To all which, the reply is: “Do you, as a Reformed believer, confidently expect to be with Christ at the moment of your death? Do you look forward, without fear, to the coming of Christ as judge in the final judgment? And is this assurance concerning the future your own in a personal, experiential way—the way of heartfelt, living faith in the promise of God?”
You owe this hope (for this is what the positive answer to the questions is) to the Reformation. The Reformation set the biblical truths of the last things, particularly the second coming of Christ for judgment and the death of the believer, in the joyful light of the gospel of grace. This was a radical reformation of the church’s teaching on the last things.
Day of Wrath, Day of Mourning
The medieval church had plunged eschatology into the gloomy shadows of its gospel of salvation by the will, works, and worth of man. It taught the people to view their death and the coming of Christ for judgment as divine reckoning on the basis of their own works and worthiness.
This was an eschatology of terror.
It terrified the people. The attitude of the people toward the Day of Christ was that of the popular hymn, “Dies irae, dies illa” (“Day of wrath, day of mourning”). The paintings of the middle ages vividly portrayed the terrifying eschatology of a gospel of works. A fearsome Christ descends upon the cowering people.
In no small degree, this explains the popularity of the cult of Mary in the developing Roman church. Representing a god of works and merit, Jesus Christ was frightening to the members of the church. Mary, on the other hand, was seen (and preached up) as a sinner’s only hope—another gross insult to Jesus Christ, who “hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Eph. 5:2).
The attitude of Martin Luther before his conversion toward death and the judgment was typical. The thunderstorm near Stotternheim not only terrified him with the prospect of death but also drew from him the vow to become a monk. His fear of death was rooted in the notion that only his own works and worth could satisfy a wrathful God. In the monastery, he dreaded judgment and judge with the result that he intensified his feverish efforts to earn acquittal.
The whole of eschatology was a doctrine of damnation and dread. The cause was the false gospel of righteousness by man’s own works.
Day of Grace, Day of Laughter
The gospel-truth of justification by faith alone thoroughly revised eschatology. The basis of the final judgment will not be the sinner’s own works and worth on account of his free will, but only the perfect work of Jesus Christ on his behalf. In the final judgment, the life-long obedience and atoning death of Jesus Christ will be imputed to the sinner through the faith that God gives him. Indeed, the decisive verdict has already been uttered: the “not guilty” of the gospel, heard by faith. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, for the believing sinner to fear in the coming of Christ for judgment.
On the contrary, there is everything to anticipate!
The judge comes to vindicate the righteous believer publicly, before the world. The judgment will finally bestow the reward of grace, so eagerly desired throughout the burdened and afflicted pilgrimage of the godly: eternal life and glory of soul and body in a renewed creation. And for the enjoyment of both public vindication in the judgment and everlasting bliss as the outcome of the judgment, the body of the elect believer will be raised from the grave into immortal life.
Who would not long for the Day of Christ as the day of grace, the day of laughter. Luther called the day of Christ’s coming “the most happy Last Day.”
The church of the Reformation could again pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
The good hope of gracious salvation extends to the believing sinner’s death. The gospel of grace dispels the nightmare of purgatory, which Luther, in the Schmalkald Articles, called a “noxious pest” and the “excrement of idolatry.” How can there be any remaining torment of punishment for one in whose stead Christ died with His all-sufficient death as the gift of a gracious God? The Christian can again face death with calm confidence, indeed desire death, as does the apostle in Philippians 1:21-24. Grace compels the king of terrors to become the believer’s helpful servant.
The effect of the gospel upon eschatology is reflected in the change of Luther’s attitude toward death. Whereas under the malign influence of the gospel of works he had been terrified at death, as a believer in a gracious God he welcomed death.
We must accustom and discipline ourselves to despise death in faith and to regard it as a deep, strong, and sweet sleep. We must consider the coffin as nothing more than the bosom of our Lord, or paradise, the grave as nothing more than a downy bed on which to lay ourselves … Death and grave mean nothing more than that God neatly lays you as a child in his cradle or soft little bed where you sweetly sleep until the day of judgment.
Luther prayed, “Help us not to fear but to desire death.” He confessed, “We should be happy to be dead and desire to die.”
Viewing the death of the believer in the light of the grace of salvation in Christ, Calvin rejected the doctrine of soul-sleep. This was the purpose of his first theological work, Psychopannychia, dating from 1534. For Calvin, the teaching that the soul of the believer falls asleep at death is a miserable error because it implies disruption of our communion with Christ. It sins against grace.
But we must not suppose that biblical eschatology in the light of grace only enables us to die in peace and to await the coming of Christ without fear. It also empowers us to live. The gospel of works paralyzes the guilty sinner. Or it drives him to work with the motive and demeanor of a slave. The gospel of grace moves the justified sinner to work, with grateful love, in the hope of Christ’s coming.
In the hope of Christ’s coming!
Not only did the Reformation put all of eschatology under the sign of grace, but it also made eschatology, that is, the second coming of Christ, the goal of the life of the Christian and of the history of the church. Not this life with its trinkets and pleasures, not the dream-world of an earthly millennium, but the resurrection of the body at the coming of Christ must be the one, lively, steady, intense purpose of every Christian and of the church.
John Calvin gave sharpest expression to this practical aspect of biblical eschatology in that section of his Institutes where he treated eschatology: “He alone has fully profited in the gospel who has accustomed himself to continual meditation upon the blessed resurrection” (3.25.1).
This total recasting of eschatology in the light of grace is evident in the Reformation creeds. “What comfort is it to you that ‘Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead?’ asks the Heidelberg Catechism in Q. 52. This question was unthinkable for the apostatizing church prior to the Reformation, as it is for the Roman Catholic Church today. The answer of every Reformed believer is that he positively “look(s) for” the coming Christ as judge, to “translate me with all his chosen ones to himself, into heavenly joys and glory.” The ground of the comfort is indicated: Christ the judge has “before offered himself for my sake, to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me.” In the same spirit, Article 37 of the Belgic Confession declares with a fervor that the medieval church would have thought madness that Reformed Christians “expect that great day with a most ardent desire.”
As for death, the Heidelberg Catechism says that the death of believers “is not a satisfaction for our sin, but only an abolishing of sin and a passage into eternal life” (Q. 42). In Q. 57, the Catechism has every believer confessing that “my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its head” …
(This article can also be found in a similar form in the book, The Sixteenth-Century Reformation of the Church.)
