Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 17 October, 2021
“… 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 (9)
Abiathar’s Deposition [youtube]
Scripture Reading: I Samuel 2:22-36
Text: I Kings 2:26-27
I. The History of Abiathar
II. The Punishment of Abiathar
III. The Fulfilment of Prophecy
Psalms: 63:1-8; 1:1-6; 118:1-9; 75:3-10
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
The Consciousness of God’s Providence [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Psalm 139
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10
I. The Understanding of God’s Providence
II. The Calling of God’s Providence
Psalms: 104:1-7; 2:1-6; 139:1-10; 103:1-7
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
Philip Ryken: “Abiathar had backed Adonijah in his failed attempt to seize David’s crown. So he too was an opponent of the kingdom of God—an enemy of the Lord’s anointed who deserved to be condemned for the capital crime of treason. Yet Solomon did not put Abiathar to death. Because he was a ‘man of the cloth’ and because he had offered sacred service to King David, even through suffering and exile, Solomon spared his life. The priest was expelled rather than executed. Solomon removed him from office and sent him back to his home outside Jerusalem. Do not doubt that judgment will fall on every enemy of the kingdom of God who does not repent, as judgment fell on Abiathar. The only way to be safe is to submit to the kingship of Jesus Christ” (King Solomon: The Temptations of Money, Sex, and Power, p. 34).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The new CPRC address, telephone and e-mail list is on the back table for everyone, as is an RFPA Update. Standard Bearers and Beacon Lights are available for subscribers.
Monday catechism classes:
5:00 PM: Jason, Maisie & Sebastian (Juniors NT)
5:45 PM: Eleanora, Felicity, Hannah, Jorja, Penelope, Sammy, Somaya, Sophie, Xander & Yossef (Beginners OT, Book 2)
6:30 PM: Angelica, Bradley, Jack, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Heidelberg, Book 1)
7:15 PM: Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Essentials)
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet to discuss fruit in the New Testament epistles.
The Belgic Confession Class meets upstairs this Wednesday at 7:30 PM to consider the millennium in Revelation 20.
Membership Class: Thursday, 11 AM with the Goulds.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Enoch’s Translation” (Heb. 11:5-6).
Plan to attend this year’s Reformation Day Lecture on Friday, 29 October, entitled “Fulgentius of Ruspe, the Sixth-Century N. African Church and God’s Saving Will.”
Offerings: General Fund: £727.60. Donations: $2,000 (N. Carolina, USA).
Translation Additions: 1 Polish, 1 Russian and 1 Spanish.
PRC News: Rev. Lee accepted the call to Kalamazoo PRC. Covenant of Grace PRC (Spokane, WA) will call from a trio of Revs. Noorman (Southwest, MI), Spronk (Faith, MI) and D. Holstege (Missionary, Philippines). Wingham PRC has a new trio of Revs. D. Holstege, D. Kleyn and D. Lee.
Confusion of Grace and Providence
Prof. David J. Engelsma (an excerpt from the Standard Bearer, vol. 78, issue 21)
It is a fundamental doctrinal error of the theory of common grace as taught by Dr. Richard Mouw in He Shines in All That’s Fair (Eerdmans, 2001), his mentor Abraham Kuyper, and his numerous allies in Reformed and Presbyterian churches worldwide, that it confuses grace and providence. The existence of the world is grace; that man did not become a devil at the fall was grace; rain and sunshine are grace; Beethoven’s musical ability was grace; that my decent, unbelieving neighbour does not commit the sins of the Marquis de Sade (so far as we know) is grace; and that Greece in times past and the United States in the present develop a grand civilization is grace.
Confusion of grace and providence is inexcusable for Reformed theologians and churches. The Reformed creeds plainly and sharply distinguish these two powers and works of God. The consequences of this confusion are destructive of the biblical, Reformed faith and life.
Providence, which follows upon the work of creation in the beginning, is divine power that keeps all things in existence and governs them (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10; Westminster Confession 5). Grace, which carries out the work of redemption, is divine power that blesses and saves guilty, depraved sinners (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Days 11-33; Westminster Confession 7-18).
The power of providence is directed by the counsel of providence, which is the wise plan of God decreeing that and how all things will glorify Him in the day of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:9-11; Belgic Confession 13). The power of grace originates in and is controlled by the counsel of predestination, which purposes the salvation of the elect church (Eph. 1:3-12).
The power of providence is all comprehensive, extending as well to devils as to angels and including as well the wicked deeds of the reprobate as the good works of the elect (Westminster Confession 5.4; Acts 4:23-28). The power of grace is particular, extending exclusively to the elect church in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-11:36; Canons of Dordt).
Providence serves grace. God’s upholding and governing of all things accomplish the spiritual and eternal good of elect believers. In His providence, God sends evils upon the believer that work his good (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. & A. 26). According to the original German of Lord’s Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the providence of God makes all things “come to us,” that is, to us who believe in Jesus Christ, from the fatherly hand of God (German: “alles … von seiner vaterlichen hand uns zukomme”). Providence works for the blessedness of the children of God. The Catechism is clear that providence does not intend, or effect, the blessedness of all humans without exception: “All things … come to us from His fatherly hand.”
Providence serves grace but providence is not grace. Providence itself does not deliver from sin. Providence itself does not bless. Providence itself does not accomplish anyone’s true good. Providence itself does not reveal the love of God for anyone, just as it itself does not betoken God’s hatred for anyone. That is, from the fact that one exists, is marvellously gifted and possesses great wealth, one cannot infer that he is the object of God’s favour. Think of the ungodly of Psalm 73. Similarly, from the fact that one is grievously afflicted, one cannot infer that he is the object of divine wrath. Think of Job.
That providence is not grace is plain on the face of it. Mere existence is not grace for a man. Jesus said about the traitor that it “had been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24). Providence gives existence, and many splendid abilities, to the devil. If providence is grace, God is gracious to Satan.
Providence includes the evils in human life and history. If providence is grace, the flood was grace to those who perished in it; the brimstone and fire that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah were grace to those cities; the Nazi regime was grace to the Jews; and the rape and murder of little girls by monstrously wicked men in a decadent society are grace to those girls and their parents.
God’s providence will everlastingly uphold and govern hell and its inhabitants. Who will say that this providence will be grace to the damned?
Providence in itself is not grace even to the believing child of God. Consider the good things that fall to the believer. The well-watered land near Sodom was not blessing for Lot. The great wealth or the striking beauty that comes to a Christian may prove to be spiritually, and even physically, destructive.
Consider the evil things that befall a believer. In itself, the death of a loved one or financial ruin or cancer is no blessing, does not turn from sin and lacks the power to draw the sufferer nearer to his God. By themselves, such evils embitter or depress. Not providence in itself, but the grace of God working with the evils in the believer’s heart and mind makes the evils beneficial.
Consider the sins in the life of the child of God. These too are included in providence. Was David’s adultery with Bathsheba grace and blessing for him? In itself? Was Peter’s denial of Christ grace for the disciple? That God governed these sinful deeds for the spiritual and everlasting good of David and Peter, and indeed of the whole church, is beyond question. But it was the grace of God that humbled, forgave and then renewed David and Peter in connection with their melancholy falls that blessed them, not the sinful deeds themselves—mere providence. Grace is not in things; grace is in the Spirit and gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. Things in themselves are not blessings, any more than they are curses; blessing and curse are the living Word of God in and with and through things. God’s goodness to a person—the divine favour that blesses him—is not identical with, nor determined by, a person’s earthly prosperity; God’s goodness to a person is identical with, and determined by, his eternal election, known by a true faith in Christ, that guides a man or woman to everlasting glory, regardless of his or her physical, earthly, temporal misery and want. “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart,” though the clean of heart is plagued all the day long and chastened every morning (Ps. 73).
