Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
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Covenant Protestant Reformed Church

 

Ballymena

Rev. Angus Stewart

Lord’s Day, 4 December, 2011

 

"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord

shall flourish in the courts of our God" (Ps. 92:13)

 

Morning Service - 11:00 AM

The Things Prepared for Those Who Love God  [download]  [youtube]

Scripture Reading: I Corinthians 2

Text: Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 22

I. Wonderful Things

II. Inscrutable Things

III. Revealed Things

Psalms: 146:1-8; 116:1-8; 147:1-5, 19-20; 73:23-28

 

Evening Service - 6:00 PM

God’s Glorious Perfections (6)

The Eternity of God   [download]  [youtube]

Scripture Reading: Psalm 90

Text: Psalm 90:2

I. The Meaning

II. The Significance

III. The Lessons

Psalms: 93:1-5; 116:9-19; 39:1-6; 90:1-7

 

For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services, contact Stephen Murray

If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart

CPRC website: www.cprc.co.uk

CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni

CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ballymena-United-Kingdom/Covenant-Protestant-Reformed-Church-N-Ireland/337347932331

 

Quotes to Consider:

Herman Bavinck: "Time is a concomitant of created existence. It is not self-originated. Eternal time, a time without beginning, is not conceivable. God, the eternal One, is the only absolute cause of time. In and by itself time cannot exist or endure: it is a continuous becoming and must rest in immutable being. It is God who by his eternal power sustains time, both in its entirety and in each separate moment of it" (Reformed Dogmatics, II:164).

Stephen Charnock: "As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian religion. Could our sins be perfectly expiated had he not an eternal divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eternal God? Temporary sufferings had been of little validity, without an infiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight to his passion" (The Existence and Attributes of God, I:294).

Announcements (subject to God’s will)

Back table: A new Standard Bearer is available.

Sunday Catechism: 10 AM - O.T. Juniors

Monday Catechism: 6 PM - O.T. Beginners (Alex & Nathan) 6:45 PM - O.T. Juniors (Jacob & Joseph) 7:30 PM - Heidelberg (Timothy, Zoe, Amy & Lea)

Our Tuesday morning Bible study meets at 11 AM. We will study Revelation 13:16-18 on the mark of the beast.

Belgic Confession Class meets Wednesday at 7:45 PM. Continuing Article 12, we will consider the fall of the devil and the demons.

Men’s Bible Study meets this Saturday, 10 December, at 8 PM at the Kennedys, studying Daniel 9.

The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846MW at 8:30 AM) will be "The Mirage Shall Become a Pool" (Isaiah 35).

Next Sunday evening, we will have a preparatory service with a view to partaking of the Lord’s Supper the following Lord’s Day morning (18 December).

Ballymena Lecture: Friday, 30 December, 7:30 PM on "Scripture Alone!"

Reserve Friday, 27 January, for our annual congregational dinner. The church visitors, Rev. B. Langerak and Elder Sid Miedema, are scheduled to arrive on Friday, 20 January. They will be with us until 28 January when they will go to Limerick. They will return home again on Tuesday, 31 January.

Offerings: General Fund: £868.42. Donations: £34 (CR News), £20 (DVDs), £88 (CDs).

PRC News: Edgerton PRC has called Rev. Eriks (Hudsonville, MI).


Our Lord’s Coronation

by Rev. Cornelius Hanko from the Standard Bearer, vol 58, issue 12

 

"The Lord [Jehovah] said to my Lord [Adonai, the mighty Conqueror], sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Psalm 110:1).

This prophecy was realized on Christ’s coronation day. When our Lord arose from the dead and ascended to heaven He was accompanied by ten millions of angels, who accompanied Him to the throne of our eternal God, where He received the crown, with power and authority to rule over all the works of God’s hands (Daniel 7:13-14).

What a glorious moment that was for our Lord! It was the moment He had looked forward to with eager anticipation during all His life and ministry here on earth. Even when He repeatedly referred to Himself as the Son of man He had in mind this glorious exaltation. For the Scripture had foretold that through the deepest humiliation this Son of Adam would be exalted to heavenly glory far above the angels. He must often have sung in His soul, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour ... O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth" (Psalm 8:4-5, 9). Often Jesus spoke of His kingdom, reminding His disciples that His kingdom is not of this earth, but is heavenly, spiritual and eternal. He assured them in His preaching that the Son of man would soon enter into His kingdom. When He stood before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin He boldly testified under oath that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and added, "Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64). Also after His resurrection Christ showed His disciples that He had to suffer all these things, even to the death of the cross, in order to enter into His glory (Luke 24:26).

This was another step in Christ’s exaltation and the beginning of His work as the Great Servant of God in heaven, our great Prophet, our exalted Highpriest, and our eternal King. Literally all power was entrusted to Christ, over the angels and saints in heaven, over the devil and demons of hell, over the nations of the earth, over sun, moon, and stars, and over every creature that is upon the earth and in the sea. This is a derived power. God still occupies the throne as sovereign Potentate of potentates, Lord over all, but He exercises His power and carries out His eternal counsel through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is at the same time a universal, totalitarian control over all things in heaven, on earth, and in hell. Our Catechism stresses the fact that Christ exercises this power as Head of His church, of which we are members. He builds His church, brings His saints to glory through the judgments that are brought upon the wicked, and establishes His kingdom in the new creation, that God may be all in all!

The more we think about this the more staggering it becomes! What a glorious day that was when the angels were sent out to accompany our Lord in His triumphal entry in His kingdom! The breach that had been made in the angel world when the devil and his demons rebelled and were cast out was now finally healed, as our Lord assumes His place of authority over the angels who eagerly obey His bidding. They are far more involved in the work of our salvation than we realize. What a blessed day that was for the saints when they saw their Redeemer and Saviour face to face in His glory. How wonderful for them that now they can see God fully revealed to them in all His perfections in Jesus Christ, so that they can live and reign with Christ to the glory of the Father! How blessed for us to know that our dear departed ones now wear a crown with Christ in His kingdom!

But what a terrible day that was for the devils and demons, along with all the wicked in hell! For one of the first duties that Christ carried out in His new position of authority was to proclaim His victory to the inhabitants of hell, whereby their condemnation is sealed forever (I Peter 3:19-20). Once for all, the Accuser of the brethren, who still entered heaven in the old dispensation, is banished from that heavenly realm (Revelation 12:8). Satan and his host have received their death sentence, so that they know that they have but a little while before they will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Matthew 8:29). Also the wicked of all the ages must realize now the utter hopelessness of their situation. What a cry of anguish arises from the lips of the wicked as they gnash their teeth and chew their tongues in a much deeper torment of despair!

What a difference the exaltation of Christ has made upon the nations of the earth! On the day of Christ’s coronation the millennium of Revelation 20 was introduced. Scripture informs us that for the past "one thousand years," taken symbolically as a full period of time determined by the Almighty, the devil had been bound in regard to the nations of the earth. This does not mean that he had been unable to tempt individuals or to attack God’s church with heresies and other seductions. But it does mean that he was not able to establish a world empire through these nations. This new dispensation in this sense is different from the old, when nations like Assyria, Babylon, the Medo-Persian kingdom, the Macedonian empire, and the Roman empire could temporarily rule the known world. Since Christ’s ascension all the attempts that have been made to establish a world empire, even as recently as Napoleon and Hitler, have utterly failed. In the meantime, Christ has carried out the counsel of God as contained in the book with its seven seals (Revelation 5:6-7). Only the exalted Christ, as the Lamb for sinners slain, was found worthy to break the seals of that book and carry out all that is written in it. As a result, the white horse has gone forth spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth and to the islands of the sea, conquering over and subduing the hearts of God’s elect unto submission to the gospel of peace. In its trail followed the red horse, arousing nations to war against each other as they gave vent to their hatred against God and His Anointed, as well as against one another in selfish greed. Also the black horse was sent forth to bring about economic disorders which resulted in the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming the more oppressed by the rich. Along with these was sent out also the pale green horse bringing sicknesses, plagues, diseases, and death upon the earth (Revelation 6). In the normal course of events one fourth of the population of the earth was affected by these judgments of God. At other times a far larger number suffered, as one third of the earth’s population experienced God’s visitations. And all of these judgments reach their culmination when antichrist stands at the height of his power and the vials of God’s wrath are poured out upon the worshippers of the beast (Revelation 16). Only at the end of these "thousand years," when the gospel will have spread to the ends of the earth and the entire church of Christ is gathered from every nation and tribe and tongue, will Satan once more be unleashed to arouse the nations of the earth to the final battle of Armageddon. In the meantime the wickedness of man will be fully manifested, so that there is no semblance any more of religion or of repentance, but only a bitter cursing of God for all His sovereignty over the earth. That day cannot come until the very last saint has been prepared for his or her place in Father’s mansions, even until the Bride has been fully adorned through the sufferings of this present time to meet the Bridegroom. Only then will our Lord appear with the clouds in all the glory that He now possesses, as that majesty is described in Revelation 1, to judge the earth in righteousness and to take His Bride unto Himself in His heavenly perfection at the wedding feast of the Lamb ...