Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 25 October, 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 (1)
Ezekiel’s Guided Tour of the Temple Abominations [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 8
Text: Ezekiel 8
I. Its Striking Characteristics
II. Its Four Stops
III. Its Contemporary Application
Psalms: 48:1-2, 11-14; 81:8-12
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Simul Justus et Peccator [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Romans 3:19-4:8
Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 23
I. The Profound Meaning
II. The Spiritual Significance
Psalms: 32:1-2, 5-6; 130:1-8
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 Ezekiel 8:4: “The more glorious we see God to be the more odious we shall see sin to be, especially idolatry, which turns his truth into a lie, his glory into shame. It was also to aggravate their approaching misery, when this glory of the Lord should remove from them (Eze. 11:23) and leave the house and city desolate.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
The October issue of the Covenant Reformed News are available today. Standard Bearers are also available to subscribers.
Because of the Level 5 lockdown in the Republic of Ireland, Rev. McGeown’s immigration appointment scheduled for 6 November has been cancelled. The US Consulate advised the McGeowns that they would be offering no routine appointments during the lockdown. The next available appointment is 8 March, 2021 and the McGeowns do not qualify for an expedited appointment. Please remember the McGeowns and the remaining saints of the Limerick Reformed Fellowship, as well as the congregation and Council of Providence PRC in Michigan, in your prayers.
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)
Tuesday Bible study at 11 AM will meet at church to continue our consideration of regeneration in connection with assurance.
Plan to attend our Annual General Meeting in the main auditorium this Wednesday at 7:45 PM with financial and audio-visual reports, plus a presentation by Rev. Stewart.
Saturday Night Bible Study meets this week at 8 PM at church and on-line by video to discuss Hebrews 2:1-9.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is entitled, “Hidden Wisdom Revealed” (I Cor. 2:7-8, 10).
The next Council meeting is Monday, 2 November, at 8 PM.
Translation Addition: 1 Spanish (Prof. Hanko’s “The History of Reformed Covenant Theology: Conditional or Unconditional?”).
Offerings: General Fund: £810 (as always, this includes the offerings of those in the CPRC who give electronically). Donation: £300 (England).
PRC News: Rev. J. Engelsma declined the call from Hudsonville PRC. Cornerstone PRC has a new trio of Revs. Smidstra, Spriensma and Spronk.
The Judicial Basis for Our Sanctification
Prof. Herman Hanko
(from Be Ye Holy, pp. 32-35)
The juridical or judicial basis for our sanctification is our justification. We are totally corrupt because we chose sin rather than holiness and Satan rather than God. Our corruption is the punishment for our sin. It is the dark, evil hopelessness of the prison cell of depravity from which there is only one exit, the gate to hell through which we pass when we die.
But justification means that God declares us to be righteous on the grounds of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. According to perfect divine justice, we cannot stay in prison any more when we are justified. As it is an injustice to keep an innocent man in prison, so it is an injustice to keep an innocent sinner in the prison of depravity when Christ has completely paid his debt. Sanctification is possible but also necessary because we are justified.
This is the teaching of Scripture when it develops the idea of righteousness. God is the one righteous God. God’s righteousness means that all He does is in conformity with Himself as His own standard. Justification means that we are declared righteous, that is, we are completely in conformity with God’s own righteousness. That declaration of the judge of all the earth is ours because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. We are righteous, although sinners.
Sanctification is that glorious work of God that goes beyond a declaration that we are righteous. This work makes us righteous for it changes our corrupt and depraved nature to be in complete conformity with God’s own holiness. Thus in sanctification we are made righteous—not only declared righteous as in justification, but actually made righteous in sanctification. Our natures are made righteous in sanctification, so that our nature and all our activities are in conformity with God’s holiness.
This wonder of divine grace is also based on the work of our Saviour. Christ’s work earned for us both the forgiveness of our sins and the great holiness that is ours through the work of sanctification.
We cannot fathom the depths of the suffering of the Son of God. There are mysteries we cannot probe. There are depths of His agony into which we cannot look. Scripture draws a veil over the suffering of our Lord in all its intensity.
Christ suffered the wrath of God, which means that He suffered that terrible agony of being driven away from God—into hell itself. And yet He was always God’s beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. Christ knew the wrath and the favour of God, or God’s love and God’s curse both together and at the same time.
It seems as if, gradually through the course of our Lord’s life here on earth, the consciousness of God’s favour grew weaker while the consciousness of God’s wrath grew stronger. The tension was always there, for on more than one occasion in our Lord’s ministry the voice from heaven comforted Christ in the burden of God’s wrath: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). But gradually the shadow of the cross fell upon Him in darker measure.
During those first moments of the cross, our Lord could still call God His “Father” (Luke 23:34) but eventually the horror of God’s wrath intensified until all He knew was wrath. He dared not call God His Father; it was only “My God, my God” (Matt. 27:46). The consciousness of God’s wrath drove away completely the consciousness that God was His Father who loved Him. The horror of the swirling maelstrom of hell was so great that He momentarily did not understand any more why He needed to suffer such awful agony: “My God, my God, why …?”
To be abandoned by His Father was almost more than He could bear. He Himself had said shortly before He died, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:27-28). Even an earthly child who loves his father cannot bear his father’s wrath but this was infinitely more true of Christ. He was, after all, the only One who could truly sing, “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee” (Ps. 63:3).
This very truth was the key that opened heaven to Luther who sought God’s favour. In awe and astonishment, he cried out, “God abandoned by God!” The mystery of it; the wonder of it; the “impossibility” of it! Yet that was the key that unlocked heaven and showed him the wonder of the cross.
Yet at that very moment when Christ knew only the wrath of His Father, God said of Christ, hanging in shame on a wooden tree, overwhelmed by God’s anger, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” God—and I speak as a man—was never so pleased with His own Son as at that awful moment.
In the awful agony of His suffering, when the Lord knew only the swirling blackness of abandonment and saw not a glimmer of heavenly love, He still obeyed God and kept His law perfectly. He loved the Lord His God with the whole of His being. “My God, my God …”
It was as if the Lord said, “I do not know and I cannot understand this awful darkness. I am destroyed by Thy wrath. I cannot bear to be abandoned by the One whom I love above all others. But whatever the reason, My God, I love Thee still. Do with me as it seems good to Thee. I come to do Thy will, O My God.”
That perfect obedience, when our Lord was engulfed in God’s wrath against sin, earned for us the same holiness that was Christ’s. And so the cross is also the ground and source of our sanctification. His obedience becomes our obedience. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. His holiness becomes our holiness—by faith in Him!
Justification! Sanctification! Two glorious blessings. Yet really one, one work of God in the wonder of our salvation.
